in Germany and the British Isles, and plentiful in Ohio and other Western States. Millstones and buhrstones, the latter of which are largely imported from France, are used in grinding coarse cereals, cement rock and certain minerals. The increasing use of the roller process in flour-making has decreased the demand for millstones. Oilstones, scythestones, and whetstones are chiefly of American origin, although an appreciable amount is imported from Belgium, Italy, and France. Pumice is a volcanic ash used in scouring powders and soaps. It is found in Utah and Nebraska, and is also brought from the Lipari Islands. Crystalline quartz is used for sandpaper, garnet for woodworking and shoemaking and corundum for metals, the latter being the hardest material known except the diamond. Alundum is a very efficient abrasive for hardened and toughened steels. Carborundum or carbide of silicon is extensively used in difficult tasks. One of the newest abrasives is electrite, which has a composition between alundum and carborundum. The water power of Niagara Falls is used for the treatment and manufacture of abrasives in great plants that have been established near the Falls.
ABRUZZI (äb-röts′ē), PRINCE LUIGI AMADEO OF SAVOY-AOSTA, DUKE OF, Italian explorer; born in Madrid, Jan. 29. 1873; nephew of King Humbert; in May, 1899, he started on an expedition, in the specially prepared steamer "Star of Italy," for Franz Josef Land, intending, when frozen in, to use sledges in a search for the North Pole and the balloon explorer. Dr. Andrée. He returned to Norway in September, 1900, after having reached a point in latitude 86° 33′ N., surpassing Nansen's farthest N. record by 19′. In 1906 he led an expedition into equatorial Africa. A personal feat was the climbing of Mt. Ruwenzori, 16,600 feet high, whose summit, so far as known, had never before been reached. In 1909, he reached the top of Mt. Austen in India, 24,000 feet. During the war with Tripoli, he headed an Italian squadron operating in the Adriatic and Mediterranean. At the outbreak of the World War, ho was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Italian navy, and after the entrance of his own country into the conflict in May. 1915, he acted in co-operation with the allied admirals in controlling the waters of southern Europe.
ABRUZZI AND MOLISE, a political division of Italy, including the provinces of Aquila, Teramo, Chieti. and Campobasso. The Abruzzi is wild and mountainous, the Apennines here reaching their loftiest heights, in Gran Sasso d'ltalia nearly 10,000 feet, in the N., and Majella over 9,000, in the S. Cattle-raising is its chief industry. The Molise, comprising the province of Campobasso, yields considerable grain and fruit. Asphalt deposits occur there. The area is 6,387 square miles. Pop. about 1,550,000.
ABSALOM, the third son of David, king of Israel, remarkable for his beauty. He contrived to win the affections of the people, and then stirred up a formidable rebellion. A battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim, in which the rebels were defeated. In the flight, as Absalom was riding under a tree, he was caught in the branches, in which position Joab, the commander of David's army, thrust him through. The grief of David for his loss was excessive.
ABSCESS, a gathering of pus in any tissue or organ of the body. It is so called because there is an abscessus (=a going away or departure) of portions of the animal tissue from each other to make room for the suppurated matter lodged between them. It results from the softening of the natural tissues, and the exudations thus produced.
ABSOLUTE, opposed to relative; means that the thing is considered in itself and without reference to other things.
1. Absolute or non-connotative, according to Whately, is opposed to attributive or connotative. The former does not take note of an attribute connected with the object, which the latter does.
2. According to J. S. Mill, it is incorrect to regard non-connotative and absolute as synonymous terms. He considers absolute to mean non-relative, and to be opposed to relative.
In metaphysics, absolute means existing independently of any other cause.
A case absolute, in grammar, is one consisting essentially of a substantive and a participle, which form a clause not agreeing with or governed by any word in the remainder of the sentence. In Greek, the absolute case is the genitive; in Latin, the ablative; in English, it is considered to be the nominative.
In law, personal rights are divided into absolute and relative—absolute, which pertain to men as individuals; and relative, which are incident to them as members of society, standing in various relations to each other. The three chief rights of an absolute kind are the right of personal security, the right of personal liberty, and the right of private property.
