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WROTTESLEY WRYNECK 741 Fr. zele. Eng. tby. Arab. (da). z Arab. {JP (za). c. Semivocales. y Eng. year. w Eng. we. 0. LIQUIDS. Ger. and Fr. dia- lects. Sans. "^. Eng. very. Ital. gli. Sans. 35. Eng. low. See Toussaint and Tassin, Nouveau traite de diplomatique (6 vols. 4to, Paris, l750-'65) ; T. Astle, " Origin and Progress of Writing" (Lon- don, 1784; new eds., 1803 and 1876); Jules Oppert, Remarques sur les caracteres distinc- tifs des differentes families linguistiques (8vo, Paris, 1860) ; Leon de Rosny, Les ecritures figuratives des differents peuples anciens et modernes (Paris, 1860) ; H. Wuttke, Geschiehte der Schrift (Berlin, 1872 et seq.) ; Francois Le- normant, Essai sur la propagation de Valpha- bet phenicien dans Vancien monde (new ed., Paris, 1875); and otber authorities quoted in the article MANUSCRIPT. WROTTESLEY, John, baron, an English as- tronomer, born at Wrottesley, Staffordshire, Aug. 5, 1798, died there, Oct. 27, 1867. He graduated at Oxford in 1819, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1823. He built ob- servatories at Blackheath and Wrottesley, and in 1838 presented to the royal astronomical society a catalogue of the right ascensions of 1,318 stars, for which he received the gold medal of the society. He was chosen president of that society in 1841, and of the royal society in 1854. He succeeded his father in the peer- age in 1841. He published " Thoughts on Gov- ernment and Legislation" (London, 1859). WROXETER, a village of Shropshire, Eng- land, on the Severn, 6 m. S. E. of Shrews- bury ; pop. in 1871, 529. It is celebrated as the site of a Roman city, the Uriconium of An- toninus and the Viriconium of Ptolemy. The remains show that the city wall was 3 m. in circumference. In 1752 several Roman inscrip- tions, urns, and silver coins of Vespasian and later emperors were discovered. Since 1859 a systematic excavation has unearthed buildings, pottery, coins, ornaments, and other relics, and skeletons have been found in the hypocausts, showing that when the city was sacked and burned by the Saxons some of the inhabitants took refuge there. (See WRIGHT, THOMAS.) WRYNECK (yunx torquilla, Linn.), a small bird of the woodpecker family, so called from its habit of turning the head in various direc- tions; it has also been named snake bird for the same reason. It is about 7 in. long, of a rusty ash color, irregularly spotted and speckled with brown and black ; the colors are prettily distributed, and the form is elegant. The bill is short, straight, and acute; the tongue ex- tensile, ending in a simple horny tip; wings pointed, the first quill very short, and the third the longest ; tail rounded, and its feathers soft the two anterior toes joined together at their origin, and the two posterior unconnected It is a summer visitor to Great Britain and N Europe, spending the winter in N. Africa and Wryneck (Yunx torquilla}. the warm parts of W. Asia ; it arrives in April and leaves early in September, so nearly at the same time with the cuckoo that it has been called the cuckoo's mate. Though having many of the habits of woodpeckers, it does not asso- ciate with them ; the food consists principally of insects, and sometimes berries ; it generally feeds on the ground ; the eggs are 6 to 10, white, and laid in holes dug in trees. WRYNECK (torticollis), a surgical disease, dependent generally on contraction of the muscles, in which tlie head and neck are turn- ed sideways, forward, or backward, according to the muscles affected. In rare instances it may arise from disease or displacement of the cervical vertebra?, and may then be congeni- tal ; the distortion may be produced by the contraction of cicatrices after burns, and by tumors. The disease is almost always muscu- lar in its seat ; an uncommon form arises from paralysis of the muscles of the opposite side, which may be temporarily corrected without pain to the individual, and should be treated by electricity and the usual remedies employed for paralysis ; it may also be rheumatismal, pain being increased or excited by motion, and that position being assumed in which the greatest ease is obtained. It is generally of short duration, and is to be treated like other muscular rheumatism. It is sometimes inflam- matory or neuralgic ; the former is occasion- ally noticed in weak children, and the latter in adults after tic douloureux ; both are to be treated by rest, leeches, fomentations, and nar- cotic applications. The most usual form is the chronic wryneck caused by contraction of the sterno-mastoid muscles, in which the head is bent to one side (generally the right), and the face to the opposite, the right eyebrow and right corner of the mouth being elevated ; the whole neck is distorted on the first dorsal vertebra in the direction opposite to that of the head and neck, requiring mechanical after the surgical treatment. Formerly this de- formity was treated by tonics, various inter- nal and external remedies (such as stimula- ting ointments and liniments), and mechani- cal contrivances; but, since Guerin (in 1888) first drew special attention to the subject, tenotomy or subcutaneous division of the ten-