Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/789

* WRITING. 673 WRYMOUTH. •various ways in which characters might be used. The signs arc all pictures, more (jr less con- ventionalizeil, hut tliesc only occasionally in- dicate the actual object rejircsented. Sometimes they are symbolic, as when an arm holding a whip denotes the abstract idea of "power.' Tlien, again, they are real phonograms, where two or more pictures together denote' anolher object whose Egyptian name is a combination of the names of the pictures, as in the modern pictorial rebus. From this u.se it is l)ut a step to the selection of a limited number of these signs to denote uniforndy syllables, or again of a still more limited number to be used as single letters. All of these steps tlie Eg^'ptians had taken at a very early date, but without giving up the earlier stages, so that they never gained the advantages to be derived from the use of a few alphabetic signs, though it must be admitted that they re- tained a system well adapted for the decorative effects which Egyjitian inscriptions frequently seem designed to produce. In the cuneiform in- scriptions (q.v. ) of Mesopotamia and later of Persia, the peculiar wedge-sliaped stroke which gives its name to the system has naturally ob- literated all but very faint traces of earlier pictographs, but we find the idcof/ram in common use, often with a determinative prefixed, as when three horizontal strokes precede the names of countries. Simplification is also attempted by the use of syllabaries, and among the Medes we find a definite syllabic system, while the Persians adopted a cuneiform alphabet of tliirty- si.x characters. In the Eastern Mediterranean, and perhaps further west, other systems were also in use, most of which still defy interpreta- tion. The Hittite monuments bear inscriptions in strange pictorial characters. In Cyprus there was in use by the Greeks a peculiar sylla- bary, first read by the aid of bilingual inscrip- tions. Crete was the home during the third and second millenniums B.C. of two systems, one ap- parently hieroglyphic or pictorial, though the pictures finally became decidedly conventional in some cases, the other, described as linear or geometric, apparently syllabic, as the number of signs is more limited. ]Iany of these signs bear a close resemblance to the Cypriote sylla- bary, and others suggest the early Greek and Ph(T?nician alphabets. These facts, coupled with the discovery in Egv'pt, Palestine, Caria and even Iberia of similar characters, have led to the theory of a great Mediterranean syllabary of many signs, from which by selection the Phcenicians derived their alpliabet, which in turn became the parent of the Greek and other European writing. This theory, however, must be regarded as an un- proved hypothesis, as indeed other theories are likely to be until the key to the Cretan tablets or Hittite hieroglyphs is discovered. The s)ib- jeets touched upon in this article, and the later history of writing are treated more fullv in Alphabet; Cuneiform Inscbiptioxs ; Hiebo- GLYPIIICS; IXSCRIPTIONS; PALEOGRAPHY; and the articles on the separate letters. WRITING MACHINES. See Typewriters. WROBLEWSKI, vniblev'ski. Zygmunt Tlobenty (184.5-88). A Polish physicist. He ■was born at Grodno, Rjissia, and when a stu- dent at Kiev was banished to Siberi.a for taking part in the Polish insurrection of 1863. Par- doned in 1869 he resumed his studies, and after working at the universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, and Munich, he took his doctor's degree at the last named place in 1874 and became an assist- ant in the ])hysical lal)oratory. He then served as assistant or lecturer at .Slrassburg. Paris, London, Oxford, and Camljridge, and in 1882 he was appointed professor of ])liysics at the Univer- sity of Cracow. Wroblewski is best known for his work on the liquefaction of ga.ses which he carried on after 1883. (See Li(ii'EFACTio. of Gases.) His first work of importance was Vebcr die Diffusion der Case durch absorbirende Kubstunzcn (1874). While working in Paris in the laboratory of Sainte-Claire-Deville, he in- vestigated the properties of liipiids and gases under heavy pressures and discovered the hydrate of carbonic oxide, itli Olszewski he was able to liquefy oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon mo- noxide and to solidify alcohol and bisulphide of carbon. WRONSKI, vrAn'sk.', .Joseph Mabie (1778- IS.").'?). A Polish philosopher and mathematician, wliose real name was Hoene. born in Posen. He studied mathematics and philosophy in Germany and France, and at first was an enthusiastic fol- lower of Kant, but later advocated a system of his own, Messianism, which seeks to prove that the world is governed by reason. He also ap- plied his philosophy to mathematics (analysis, theory of numbers, and theory of probabilities), and contributed to celestial mechanics and vari- ous branches of physics. He wrote Philosophie critique decouverte par Kant et fondce difinitive- ment sur le principe absolu du savoir (1803); Introduction a la philosophie des mathcmatiques (ISU) ; Prospectus du itessidnisme (1831) ; Re- futation de la thcorie dcs fonctions analytiques de La(]rancie (1812) ; Critique de la thforie des fonc- tions generates de il. Laplace (1819); Messia- visnie, nnion finale de la philosophie et de la re- liffion (1831-39) ; and l<iouveau Sj/sicme des ma- chines a vapeur (1835). Consult: Bobynin, ffoene- ^Yronski, in Russian (Moscow, 1894). WRYBILL. A New Zealand plover [Ana- rhynchus frontalis), allied to the killdeers. which is unique in having the end of its bill bent to the right. It seeks its food on the seashore, feed- ing upon small crustaceans and insects which THE WRYBILL. Head from above, showing normal bend in the beak. hide under stones; and gets it by running around these stones, always from left to right, and reach- ing far under them with its bent bill. Consult Duller, Birds of Kew Zealand (London, 1888). WRYMOUTH. Any one of the large blennies of the family Cryptacanthodidae. They are slen- der, lath-like fishes, from two or three feet long, with large oblique mouths, very heavy lower jaws, and the dorsal fins of strong spines hidden in skin. The Eastern species (Crpptacanthodes maculatus) is brownish, with dark spots; but an albino form is so frequently .seen as to be well known under the name 'ghostfish.' A closely re-