Emancipation

1661

Embargo

liest of them, Louis Elsevier, was born in i
Louvain about 1540, and began publishing on ,
his o\vn account at Leyden in 1502. He died i
in 1617. Of his sons, the eldest and the young-
est, Matthias and Bonaventura, took over the !
Leyden business; Louis n. worked at The |
Hague, and Jodocus, at Utrecht. Isaac, a son j
of Matthias, started a printing-house at Ley-1
den in 1616, and in 1625 sold this to his
brother Abraham and uncle Bonaventura, with
whom the reputation of the family begins.

After the deaths of Bonaventura and Abra-
ham in 1652, the business was continued by
their sons Daniel and John. In 1655 Daniel
Elsevier removed to Amsterdam, the Leyden j
business being carried on till 1661 by John, j
then by his widow Eva, and then by their son j
Abraham n., who died hi 1712. The Amster- J
dam business, to which Daniel transferred!
himself, had been founded in 1637 by Louis n., j
son of Jodocus Elsevier. It was carried on by
Louis and Daniel till 1664. In 1681 the busi-
ness was sold by Daniel's widow, and passed
out of the family.

Emancipation Proclamation, a procla-
mation issued Jan. i, 1863, by President Lin-
coln, declaring free all slaves in the States
then 'in rebellion against the United States.'
The proclamation did not apply to those parts
of the Confederate States (55 counties of Vir-
ginia, including 48 which later became West
Virginia, and 13 parishes of Louisiana) then
under actual Federal jurisdiction, and as the
other parts were as yet unconquered and as
the President therefore had no actual power,
as commander-in-chief, over them, some con-
stitutional lawyers have contended that no
slaves were really emancipated. At all events,
the slaves in the Border States and in the
excepted districts were not freed until the
adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment. In
fact, however, freedom followed the conquer-
ing Federal armies between 1863 and 1865.
See UNITED STATES, History.

Emanuel I. (1469-1521), became king of
Portugal in 1495. Through his exertions Por-
tugal became the first naval power of Europe,
and the center of the commerce of the world.
At home he improved the laws, reformed the
administration of justice, and encouraged edu-
cation and the arts.

Emba, a river in the province of Uralsk,
Asiatic Russia, rises on the western slopes of
the Mugoyar Hills, and flows s.w. 380 m, to
the Caspian Sea.

Embalming. The art of preserving dead
bodies from decay was widely practised among
tlie ancients, and was carried to its greatest

perfection in Egypt. The body so preserved
was there called a mummy. This art seems to
have derived its origin from the idea that the
preservation of the body was necessary for the
return of the soul to the human form after it
had completed its cycle of existence. The art
appears as old as 4000 B.C. at least, for the
bodies of Cheops, Mycerinus, and others of
the age of the fourth dynasty, were embalmed,
There were three methods of embalming, the
method chosen by the relatives of the deceasea
depending upon his rank and means. The first
process described cost one talent of silver, the
second twenty minse, and the third, which was
very simple, cost very little.
So effectual were some of these processes
that after 2,000 or 3,000 years the soles of the
feet are still elastic and soft to the touch. The
sacred animals were also mummified. It has
been computed that since the practice began
in 4000 B.C., down to 700 A.D., when it prac-
tically ceased, probably as many as 730,000,000
bodies were embalmed in Egypt. The elabo-
rated art of embalming was probably nevei
lost in Europe. The development of modern
methods may be said to date, however, from
the beginning of the iSth century.
In the United States, embalming may be
said to have come into use through the suc-
cessful work of Dr. Thomas Holmes, of Brook-
lyn, N. Y., who embalmed many bodies of
dead soldiers upon the battlefields of the Civil
War, and sent them home to friends. It is
now customary to embalm every dead body.
Consult Pettigrew's History of Mummies; W.
Budge's The Mummy; Eckles' Practical Em-
balmer; Nunnamaker and Dhonau's Hygiene
and Sanitary Science (1913).
Embankments, in engineering, are masses
or structures of earth, rock, cement, etc.
erected as defences against rivers, lakes, and
the sea, for the formation of dams and reser-
voirs, or to carry railways, roads, and canals
over depressions or at an elevation. Embank-
ments are also used in irrigation. The vast
embankments constructed to restrain the floods
of the Mississippi River are known as levees.
See EARTHWORK; EXCAVATION AND EXCAVA-
TORS; DYKE; DAMS; RESERVOIRS; RETAINING
WALLS.
Embargo signifies a decree of a government
intended to place temporary restrictions on
foreign trade. It may apply only to specific
ports, or to all the ports within the jurisdiction
of the government; may affect only certain
classes of goods, or all goods; may interdict
only trade with, one or more countries, or with
all countries; and may prohibit vessels and