formed under the Duke of Wellington, and in 1843 in the Peel ministry. In 1853, Earl Aberdeen was selected to head a new ministry, which for some time was extremely popular. He endeavored to prevent the country from entering upon the conflict with Russia, but all his efforts were unvailing. Failing to receive sufficient support to carry out his measures, he resigned in 1855. Died Dec. 14, 1860.
ABERDEEN, UNIVERSITY OF, an institution for higher education at Aberdeen, Scotland. It includes two colleges, King's and Marischal. The university is coeducational and has about 1,300 students. The chancellor in 1920 was the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, and the vice-chancellor and principal, Sir George Adam Smith.
ABERNETHY, a town in Perthshire, Scotland, near the junction of the Earn and the Tay. Here the first Culdee monastery was built, and here, it is said, the Pictish kings had their capital. A curious round tower, 73 feet high, still exists, resembling the famous round towers of Ireland.
ABERNETHY, JAMES, a Scotch civil engineer, born in Aberdeen in 1815. As a boy he assisted on the extension of the London docks, and afterward designed and built the lock and dock at Aberdeen, the docks at Swansea, Newport, Cardiff, and Hull, and the Cavour canal in Italy. He died in 1896.
ABERNETHY, JOHN, an eminent English surgeon, founder of the School of St. Bartholomew's; born in London, Apr. 3, 1764. He was educated at Wolverhampton grammar school, and in 1779 was apprenticed to the assistant surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1787 he was himself elected assistant surgeon to St. Bartholomew's, and soon after began to lecture. At first, he manifested extraordinary diffidence, but his power soon developed itself, and his lectures at last attracted crowds. His practice increased with his celebrity, which the eccentricity and rudeness of his manners contributed to heighten. He died at Enfield, April 28, 1881.
ABERRATION, a wandering from.
In optics, a spherical aberration is that wandering of the rays of light from the normal path which takes place when they are made to pass through curved lenses, or are reflected from curved mirrors, constituting portions of a sphere, instead of parts of a parabola. Chromatic aberrations is the fringing of images with the prismatic colors which takes place when light passes through curved lenses.
In astronomy, the aberration of light is that alteration in the apparent position of a star which is produced by the motion of the earth in its orbit during the time that the light is coming from the star to the eye. The effect of this aberration is to make each star appear annually to describe a minute circle of about 40' diameter parallel to the earth's diameter.
In medicine, the passage of blood, or any other fluid of the body, from morbid causes, into vessels not designed to receive it. Mental aberration is that wandering from soundness of judgment which is so conspicuous in the insane.
ABESTA, or AVESTA, the name of one of the sacred books of the Persian magi, which they ascribe to their great founder Zoroaster. The "Abesta" is a commentary on two others of their religious books, called "Zend" and "Pazend"; the three together including the whole system of the Ignicolæ, or worshippers of fire.
ABHEDANANDA, SWAMI, a British-Indian lecturer and author, born in Calcutta in 1860. He was educated at Calcutta University, In 1897 he came to the United States, where he organized the Vendanta Society of New York and acted as its head. He also established several schools for the study of religion and lectured on Hindu philosophy before many educational institutions, societies, etc. He was the author of "Reincarnation" (1899); "Philosophy of Work" (1902); "India and Her People" (1906); "Great Saviors of the World" (1911); etc.
ABIJAH, the second King of Judah, son of Rehoboam, and Solomon's grandson; reigned three years, beginning 956 B. C. He attempted to reunite the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The attempt failed, though he defeated Jeroboam and a superior force, and wrested from the King of Israel several cities.
ABILA, or ABYLA, a mountain of Africa, opposite that which is called Calpe, on the coast of Spain, only 18 miles distant. These two mountains are named the Pillars of Hercules, and were supposed formerly to have been united, till the hero separated them, and thereby effected a communication between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
ABILENE, a city of Texas, the county-seat of Taylor co., 160 miles S. W. of Forth Worth. It is on the Texas and Pacific, the Wichita Valley, and the Abilene Southern railroads. The town is an important industrial community. There are flour and planing mills, cotton
