Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/803

ARRIA ARROWROOT 767 ARRIA, a Roman woman who immortalized herself by suicide, A. D. 42. Her husband, Csecina Foetus, was condemned, as a traitor to the emperor Claudius, to put an end to his own life. As Csecina hesitated to do it, his wife took up the dagger and stuck it to the hilt in her own bosom. Handing it back to her hus- band she said, Pate, non dolet (" Paetus, it does not hurt"), and expired. Paetus at once fol- lowed her example. ARKIAX (FLAVIUS ABBIANTJS), a Greek phi- losopher and historian, born in Nicomedia, Bithynia, about A. D. 100. He served under Hadrian and the Antonines, obtained the Ro- man citizenship, was prefect of Cappadocia, fought successfully there against the Alans, and after holding the consulship retired to Nicome- dia about 150, and devoted himself to letters. Being a pupil and friend of the Stoic Epictetus, he published the philosophical lectures and an abstract (Enchiridion) of the practical philoso- phy of his master, and wrote dialogues, of which only fragments have reached us. He also published works upon history, geography, tactics, and hunting. The best of them is his excellent history of the campaigns of Alexan- der the Great. The Athenians made him a cit- izen of Athens under the name of his model in composition, Xenophon, his book being like- wise called Anabasis. With this work his Indica is closely connected, in which he de- scribes the Hindoos, their institutions and cus- toms, as they were found by Alexander. He also wrote a history of Bithynia, an account of the circumnavigation of the Black sea ("The Periplus of the Euxine Sea"), "The Order of Battle against the Alans," and other mailer works. ARRIVABENE, Giovanni, count, an Italian po- litical economist, born in Mantua in 1789. In 1821 he was imprisoned seven months in Ven- ice for refusing to denounce Silvio Pellico, of which 40 years later he published an account (Ifune epoque de ma vie, Brussels, 1861). Sen- tenced to death by contumacy in 1824, he spent some time in France and England, and has been since 1827 a resident and since 1840 a naturalized citizen of Belgium. He trans- lated into Italian (Lugano, 1836) Mill's "Ele- ments," and into French Senior's "Fundamen- tal Principles of Political Economy;" and has written on benevolent societies and the amelio- ration of the working classes, besides Situation economique de la Belgique (Brussels, 1843). ARROO, Arm, or Aroe, a group of about 80 islands in the Malay archipelago, north of Aus- tralia, between lat. 5 and 7 S., and Ion. 134 and 135 E. At the end of them is a consider- able reef of coral, where pearls and tripang abound. The products are pearls, mother-of- pearl, tortoise-shell, birds of paradise, and tri- pang. Dobbo, a town in the island of Wam- ma, is the entrepot of the islands, and im- ports calicoes, iron, hardware, and gunpowder, shipped from Singapore. The population num- bers about 14,000, a few of whom are Chris- tians. There are two or three native teachers from Amboyna. ARROWROOT, a name loosely applied to the starch extracted from a number of roots and grains, as the maranta, manihot, tacca, arum, potato, &c. It was originally limited to the starch of the maranta arundinacea, a plant which grows in the East and West Indies, and which was considered a specific for the wounds caused by poisoned arrows. It is a simple food, in high repute for invalids. Not containing ni- trogen, it is well adapted for producing fat and promoting the warmth of the body. According to Liebig, 4 Ibs. of it contain as much carbon for supplying animal heat by its combustion as 15 Ibs. of animal flesh. In its preparation the tubers are mashed, and the pulp is soaked in water. This dissolves out the starch, which is separated from the fibre by straining. After settling, the clear water is drawn off, and the starch washed with fresh water and again al- lowed to settle. It is finally dried in the sun. Maranta arundinacea. The most common adulterations are with the cheap potato starch, sago, and manioc or tapi- oca, all which can be detected by the micro- scope. The granules of the potato are of very irregular, ovoid, and truncated forms, and of various sizes, from 3-^-5- to ^Vff of an inch in diameter, while the particles of the arrowroot are very regular ovoid forms, and of nearly equal sizes. Dilute nitric acid is also a good test. When triturated with it in a mortar, ar- rowroot changes into an opaque paste, which is some time in becoming viscid; but potato and flour starch thus treated form immediately a transparent, thick paste. From the inferior starches alcohol extracts an unwholesome oil of disagreeable odor, but none from arrowroot. The composition of the fresh root was ascer- tained by Benzon to be in 100 parts as follows: volatile oil, 0-07 ; starch, 26 ; vegetable albu- men, 1'58; a gummy extract, 0'6; chloride of