acquisitions in the whole domain of practical medicine. The numerous diseases affecting the lungs can now be recognised and discriminated from each other with a precision which, but for auscultation and the stethoscope, would have been altogether unattainable, a point which bears most intimately upon the treatment of this great and common class of ailments. The same holds good in the case of the heart, whose varied and often complex forms of disease can, by auscultation, be identified with striking accuracy. But in addition to these its main uses, auscultation is found to render great assistance in the investigation of many obscure internal affections, such as aneurisms and certain diseases of the oesophagus and stomach. To the accoucheur the stethoscope yields valuable aid in the detection of some forms of uterine tumours, and especially in the diagnosis of pregnancy,-the auscultatory evidence afforded at a particular stage by the sounds of the foetal heart being by far the most reliable of the many signs of that condition. (J. O. A.) AUSONIUS, DECIMUS MAGNUS, a Roman poet of the 4th century, was the son of an eminent physician, and born at Burdigala (Bordeaux) about 310 A.D. His education was conducted with unusual care, either because his genius was very promising, or because the scheme of his nativity, which had been cast by his maternal grandfather, was found to promise great fame and advancement. He made extraordinary progress in classical learning; and, after completing his studies at Toulouse, he practised for a time at the bar in his native place. At the age of thirty he became a teacher of grammar, and soon afterwards was promoted to the professorship of rhetoric. In this office he acquired so great a reputation that he was appointed preceptor to Gratian, the Emperor Valentinian's son. The rewards and honours conferred on him for the faithful discharge of his duties, prove the truth of Juvenal's maxim-that when Fortune pleases she can raise a man from the humble rank of rhetorician to the dignity of consul. He was appointed consul by the Emperor Gratian in the year 379, after having filled other important offices; for besides the dignity of quæstor, to which he had been nominated by Valentinian, he was made præfect of Latium, of Libya, and of Gaul, after that prince's death. His speech, returning thanks to Gratian on his promotion to the consulship, is a good specimen of high-flown rhetorical flattery. The time of his death is uncertain, but he was alive in 388, and probably survived till about 394. From references in his works he appears to have been a convert to Christianity. Of his prose writings, there are extant the Actio ad Gratianum, the Perioche (or summaries) in Iliadem et Odysseam, and one or two of the Epistola. The principal pieces in verse are the Epigrammata, some of which are extremely felicitous; the Parentalia and Commemoratio Professorum Burdigalensium, which give interesting details concerning his relations and literary friends; the Epistolæ ; and, finally, the Idyllia, a collection of twenty small poems, the most famous of which are the Cento Nuptialis, an obscene selection of lines from Virgil, and the Mosella, a descriptive poem on the river Moselle, containing some good passages. Ausonius was rather a man of letters than a poet; his wide reading supplied him with materials for verse, but his works exhibit no traces of a true poetic spirit; even his versification, though ingenious, is frequently defective. The best editions of his works are those of Tollius (Amsterdam, 1669), and Souchay (Paris, 1730), and the Bipontine (1785). The Mosella has been edited separately by Böcking (1828, 1842). AUSPICIA. See AUGURS. AUSSIG, AUSSYENAD, or LABEM, a town of Austria, in Bohemia, situated in a mountainous district, at the confluence of the Bila and the Elbe. It carries on a large manufacture of woollen wares, linen, paper, &c. Its chemical works alone give employment to 500 operatives, and about 600 boats are annually built in its yards. Besides a considerable trade in grain, fruit, mineral-waters, and wood, there is a large export of coal from the neighbouring mines. Aussig, once strongly fortified, was destroyed by the Hussites in 1426, burned down in 1583, and captured by the Swedes in 1639. Population, 10,933. AUSTEN, JANE, one of the most distinguished modern British novelists, was born December 16, 1775, at the parsonage of Steventon, in Hampshire, of which place her father was for many years rector. Her life was singularly tranquil and void of incident, so that but few facts are known concerning her from which an idea of her character can be formed. She was tall and attractive in person, and of an extremely kind and gentle disposition. Under her father's care she received a sound education, though she had few of the modern accomplishments. She had a fair acquaintance with English literature, her favourite authors being Richardson, Johnson, Cowper, and Crabbe; she knew French well and Italian slightly, had some taste for music, and was noted for her skill in needlework. Sho was a particular favourite with all her younger relatives, especially on account of her wonderful power of extemporising long and circumstantial narratives. At a very early age she seems to have begun to exercise her faculty for composition, and wrote several short tales and fragments of larger works, some of which have been found among her papers. These first essays are written in a remarkably pure and vigorous style, and are not unworthy of her later reputation. In 1796 her first large work, Pride and Prejudice, was begun and completed in about ten months; Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey were written soon after, during 1797 and 1798. Many years elapsed before these works were published, for the first attempts to introduce them to the public were badly received. Pride and Prejudice was summarily rejected by Mr Cadell; Northanger Abbey was sold for £10 to a Bath publisher, but was never printed, and, many years after, was bought back by the author, From 1801 to 1805 the Austen family resided in Bath, they then removed to Southampton, and finally, in 1809, settled at Chawton. There Miss, Austen, who for some years had written nothing, resumed her pen, and began to prepare for publication her early novels. Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811, Pride and Prejudice in 1813, Mansfield Park in 1814, Emma in 1816. These four were anonymous. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion appeared together under Miss Austen's name in 1818, after her death. Early in 1816 her health had begun to give way; her strength gradually declined, and on the 18th July 1817, she died at Winchester, whither she had removed for change of air and scenery. She was buried in the cathedral of that town. Miss Austen's works at the time of their appearance were on the whole well received, and brought her considerable reputation,-more, indeed, than she had herself anticipated; but their full merits were not then so generally recognised as they have since been. The novels most popular at that time belonged to the class of which Mrs Radcliffe's Udolpho, Godwin's St Leon or Caleb Williams, and Lewis's Monk are the best known representatives. Against this style of fiction Miss Austen from the first set her face; she had a remarkably keen sense of humour, and the ludicrous aspect of these thrilling incidents, mysterious situations, and unnatural characters, presented itself very strongly to her mind. Northanger Abbey, one of her earliest productions, is a clever and well-sustained parody on romances of this type. She did not, however, confine herself to mere negative criticism, but resolved to show that the interest of readers could be roused and sustained by a story absolutely free from the whole machinery of romance and exaggerated sentiment, but presenting an accurately-drawn picture of quiet, natural life. This task she accomplished with complete success; she was the first to introduce the novel of domestic life, and her writings are still the best specimens of that class of fiction. It could hardly be expected that such works would become imme; diately popular; the characters, the motives of action, and the plot itself were too ordinary, one may say too commonplace, to appeal strongly to the sympathies of the general mass of readers. Her colours were not showy enough to strike the vulgar eye. It is probable, indeed, that her admirers will always be few in number; for not only does it require a somewhat cultivated taste to appreciate the rare skill with which the scanty materials of her tales are handled, but the author's experience of life was so limited that her works are entirely wanting in certain elementssuch as depth of feeling and breadth of sympathy-which are indispensable before a work of fiction can exercise any considerable influence on the public mind. The framework in nearly all Miss Austen's novels is the same, taken as they are from ordinary English middle-class life; her characters are in no way distinguished by any remarkable qualities, they are such persons as one would readily expect to meet in every-day life; the plot is exceed ingly simple, and the incidents, never rising above the level of the most common-place occurrences, flow naturally from the characters of the actors. In the hands of most writers such materials would infallibly become monotonous and tiresome; but from any danger of this Miss Austen is completely frced by her wonderful power of exciting interest in the "involvements and feelings of ordinary life," and the skill with which, by a series of imperceptible but effective touches, she discriminates her characters, rounds them off, and makes them stand out from the canvas real and living personages. Her gallery of portraits is certainly small, and the same character appears over and over again, but each figure is so distinctly drawn, and has such marked individuality, that one is never struck with-a sense of repetition. A warm admirer of her works, Archbishop Whately, has compared them to the carefully-executed pictures of the Dutch school; perhaps the analogy of miniature painting, suggested by the author herself, is more happy and expressive. Miss Austen's life has been written by her nephew, Rev. J. Austen-Leigh (1870, 2d ed., 1871), who has also published some extracts from her papers, including a short tale, Lady Susan, written in the form of letters; a fragment of a larger work called The Watsons; the first draft of a chapter in Persuasion; and the beginning of a novel, on which she was engaged at the time of her death. AUSTERLITZ, a small town of Moravia, 12 miles E.S.E. of Brünn, containing a magnificent palace belonging to the prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg, and a beautiful church. It has been rendered memorable by the great victory obtained in its vicinity, on the 2d December 1805, by the French under Napoleon, over the united forces of Austria and Russia under their emperors. Population, 3450. AUSTIN, JOHN, one of the ablest English writers on jurisprudence, was born on the 3d March 1790. At an early age he entered the army, and passed five years in military service. He then retired, applied himself to the study of law, and was called to the bar in 1814. His powers, though admirably adapted for grasping the fundamental principles of law, were not of a nature to render him successful in legal practice. His health, too, was delicate, and in 1825 he resigned active employment at the bar. In the following year, however, he was appointed to the chair of jurisprudence in the newly-founded London university. He immediately crossed over to Germany to prepare himself for his new duties, and at Bonn became acquainted with some of the most eminent German jurists. His lectures were at first attended by a number and a class of students quite beyond his anticipations. Among his hearers were such men as Lord Romilly, Sir G. C. Lewis, and J. S. Mill. From Mill's notes some of the lectures were afterwards published, and he has given an admirable account of Austin in his Dissertations (vol. iii.) But it soon became apparent that there would be no steady demand for training in the science of law, which, though useful, was not of immediate utility in practice. Under these circumstances Austin, who was almost too conscientious in regard to his own work, thought it right to resign the chair in 1832. An attempt to institute lectures at the Inner Temple also failed, and, as his health was delicate, he retired to Boulogne, where he remained for nearly two years. In 1837 he acted as royal commissioner in Malta, and discharged the duties of that office most efficiently. The next ten years were spent in travelling on the Continent, as the state of his health hardly permitted him to reside in England. The Revolution of 1848 drove him from Paris, and on his return to England he settled at Weybridge, in Surrey, where he remained till his death in December 1859. Austin wrote one or two pamphlets, but the chief work he published was his Province of Jurispru dence Determined (1832), a treatise on the relation between ethics and law, which gives a clear analysis of the notion of obligation, and an admirable statement of utilitarianism, the ethical theory adopted by the author. After his death, his widow, Mrs Sarah Austin, published his Lectures on Jurisprudence; or, The Philosophy of Positive Law. These, combined with the Province, have been edited, under the same title, by Mr R. Campbell, and reached in 1875 a fifth edition. AUSTIN, SARAH TAYLOR, translator and miscellaneous writer, was born in 1793. She was one of the Taylor family of Norwich, several of whose members had distinguished themselves in the fields of literature and science. She was the youngest child of her family, received a liberal and solid education at home, chiefly from her mother, and had the advantage, too, of enjoying in her father's house much intellectual society. She grew up a beautiful and cultivated woman, and in 1820 became the wife of John Austin, noticed above. They settled in. London, and among the familiar visitors of their house were Bentham, the Mills (father and son), the Grotes, Romilly, Buller, Sydney Smith, and other eminent men. She accompanied her husband in 1827 to Bonn, where they spent some months, and made acquaintance with Niebuhr, Schlegel, Arndt, and other distinguished Germans. She afterwards lived some years in Germany and France, and was left a widow in December 1859. Mrs Austin is best known as a singularly skilful translator of German and French works. In 1832 appeared her version of the Travels of Prince Puckler Muskau. This was followed by Characteristics of Goethe from the German of Falk, History of the Reformation in Germany and History of the Popes from the German of Ranke, and Dr Carove's Story with out an End. She contributed "Travelling Letters" and critical and obituary notices to the Athenæum, edited the Memoir of Sydney Smith and her daughter Lady Duff Gordon's Letters from Egypt, and for some years of her widowhood was occupied in arranging for publication her husband's Lectures on Jurisprudence. She was also author of Germany from 1760 to 1814, National Education, and Letters on Girls' Schools. Mrs Austin died at Weybridge in Surrey, 8th August 1867. AUSTRALASIA, one of the six great geographical divisions of the globe, is situated, as its name indicates, south of Asia, between the equator and 50° S. lat., and 110° and 180° E long. It comprises the island-continents of New Guinea, Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, and the conterminous archipelagoes of New Britannia, Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, Loyalty Islands, and New Cale donia which will be treated of under special headings, |