Q

Q. The letter Is found only in the earliest of
the Greek Inscriptions. In the Latin alphabet
it came to be employed only before v. in
Fnglish qi>— qu— is employed for kw under
French influence from tlu 13 th century
('quell'); in some words qit is pronounced k
(liquor'). The fornit of the letter has not
varied very greatly. Q is the early Greek
form. The Hebrew name (jriph, in Greek koppa,
appears to be a variation of kaph, Greek kappa
(— £). The letter itself may be regarded as
having been created by differentiation from
the early Semitic kaph.

Quadragesima, an early name for the
forty days' fast of Lent, and especially applied
to the first Sunday in Lent — that is, the Sun-
day after Ash Wednesday.

Quadrant, a navigating instrument used for
measuring angles. The quadrant contains an
arc of 45°, but owing to its double reflection it
measures 90°, reading from right to left.

Quadratic Equation, in algebra, is an
equation which involves the square of the
variable and generally, but not necessarily, the
first power. The general type is

where a, b, c are given constants, and x is the
variable whose value is to be expressed in
terms of <j, b, c. The solution is

,

giving two values, which are real if /;2— - ^ac is
positive, imaginary if this quantity is negative,
and coincident if it vanishes.

Quadrature. The finding of a square equal
in a rea to the area bounded by any given line or
set of lines straight or curved. The simplest
of all curves is the circle, and consequently one
of the most famous of old problems \\as to
'square* or find the quadrature of the circle*

Quadrilateral, in geometry, any four-sided
figure of which the square, parallelogram,
rhombus, and trapezium are particular cases*

Quadrilateral, The* the district between
the rivers Mincio and Adige, in Northern
Italy, defended by the four fortresses of
Peschicnt, Mantua, Verona, and Legnago. It
figured prominently in the wars with Austria in
the middle of the xgth century. Durinir the

World War there was a Polish quadrilateral
comprising the fortresses of Warsaw, It/aii-
gorod, Novogeorgievsk, and Brest-Litovsk.

Quadrille,, a figure dance executed by an un-
equal number of couples drawn up in. a square.
It usually consists of live distinct partjs or
sets. The name is also given to a card game
played by four persons with forty cards, the
eights, nines, and tens of the ordinary pack
being discarded.

Quadroon™ See Mulatto.

Quadrumana, an order of four-handed
mammals in Cuvier's system, which included
lemurs, monkeys, and apes, as distinct from
man, who was placed in a special order as
Bimana, or two-handed.

Quadruple Alliance* a league composed of
England, France, Holland and Austria, formed
in 1718 to counteract the schemes of Spain and
enforce the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht
(1713), A second alliance was formed in 1815
between Russia, Austria, Prussia, and Great
Britain to support the Bourbons in France, to
the perpetual exclusion of Napoleon, and was
again brought into power in 1840 to help the
Sultan against Mehemet Ali, who had 'con-
quered Syria as well as Egypt.

Quaestor, a magistrate in ancient Rome.

Quagga, or Couagga (Equus^quagga), a
horse-like animal of Africa, In color it forms a
link between the zebras and the asses, but
differs from the asses in having short ears, and
in the arrangement of the hairs on the tail,
which recalls that of the horse. The general
body color is reddish brown,

Qua! D*Orsay, a part of the left bank of the
Seine, Paris, on which is situated tbe Chamber
of Deputies. Hence it has come to denote the
French government in the same way that
Downing Street denotes the English.

Quail, the name of a large variety of small
game-birds, represented all over the warmer
parts of the world, and closely related to the
partridges. All the American species .fall into a
group separate from those of the Old World
whose name they have borrowed, distinguished
as QdontopftorincB) and characterized by having

the beak notch fid or fwn.tnntln t*e\ An +k* rwai«u.