a large blood-vessel either of the abdominal cavity, or of the
hiver or of some other organ, the bleeding would be arrested
by ligature or suture, and the extravasated blood sponged
out. Before the days of antiseptic surgery, and of exploratory
abdominal operations, these cases were generally allowed
to drift to almost certain death, unrecognized and almost
untreated: at the present time a large number of them are saved.
Intussusception.---This is a terribly fatal disease of
infants and children, in which a piece of bowel slips into,
and is gripped by, the piece next below it. Formerly it was
generally the custom to endeavour to reduce the invagination
by passing air or water up the rectum under pressure--a
speculative method of treatment which sometimes ended in a
fatal rupture of the distended bowel, and often---one might
almost say generally--failed to do what was expected of
it. The teaching of modern surgery is that a small incision
into the abdomen and a prompt withdrawal of the invaginated
piece of bowel can be trusted to do all that, and more than,
infection can effect, without blindly risking a rupture of the
bowel. It is certain that when the surgeon is unable to
unravel the bowel with his fingers gently applied to the parts
themselves, no speculative distension of the bowel could
have been effective. But the outlook in these distressing
cases, even when the operation is promptly resorted to, is
extremely grave, because of the intensity of the shock which
the intussusception and resulting strangulation entail.
Still, every operation gives them by far the best chance.
Cancer of the Intestine.---With the introduction of aseptic
methods of operating, it has been found that the surgeon can
reach the bowel through the peritoneum easily and safely.
With the peritoneum opened, moreover, he can explore the
diseased bowel and deal with it as circumstances suggest.
If the cancerous mass is fairly movable the affected piece
of bowel is excised and the cut ends are spliced together,
and the continuity of the alimentary canal is permanently
re-established. Thus in the case of cancer of the large
intestine which is not too far advanced, the surgeon expects
to be able not only to relieve the obstruction of the bowel,
but actually to cure the patient of his disease. When the
lowest part of the bowel was found to be occupied by a cancerous
obstruction, the surgeon used formerly to secure an easy escape
for the contents of the bowel by making an opening into the
colon in the left loin. But in recent years this operation of
lumbar colotomy has been almost entirely replaced by opening
the colon in the left groin. This operation of iniguinal
colotomy is usually divided into two stages: a loop of the
large intestine is first drawn out through the abdominal
wound and secured by stitches, and a few days afterwards,
when it is firmly glued in place by adhesive inflammation,
it is cut across, so that subsequently the motions can no
longer find their way into the bowel below the artificial
anus. If at the first stage of the operation symptoms of
obstruction are urgent, one of the ingenious glass tubes
with a rubber conduit, which Mr F. T. Paul has invented,
may be forthwith introduced into the distended bowel, so
that the contents may be allowed to escape without fear of
soiling the peritoneum or even the surface-wound. (E. O.*)
ABDUCTION (Lat. abductio, abducere, to lead away), a
law term denoting the forcible or fraudulent removal of a
person, limited by custom to the case where a woman is the
victim. In the case of men or children, it has been usual
to substitute the term kidnapping (q.v.). The old English
laws against abduction, generally contemplating its object
as the possession of an heiress and her fortune, have been
repealed by the Offences against the Person Act 1861, which
makes it felony for any one from motives of lucre to take
away or detain against her will with intent to marry or
carnally know her, &c., any woman of any age who has any
interest in any real or personal estate, or is an heiress
presumptive, or co-heiress, or presumptive next of kin to
any one having such an interest; or for any one to cause
such a woman to be married or carnally known by any other
person; or for any one with such intent to allure, take
away, or detain any such woman under the age of twenty-one,
out of the possession and against the will of her parents or
guardians. By s. 54, forcible taking away or detention
against her will of any woman of any age with like intent is
felony. The same act makes abduction without eyen any such
intent a misdemeanour, where an unmarried girl under the
age of sixteen is unlawfully taken out of the possession and
against the will of her parents or guardians. In such a case
the girl's consent is immaterial, nor is it a defence that the
person charged reasonably believed that the girl was sixteen or
over. The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 made still more
stringent provisions with reference to abduction by making
the procuration or attempted procuration of any virtuous
female under the age of twenty-one years a misdemeanour, as
well as the abduction of any girl under eighteen years of
age with the intent that she shall be carnally known, or the
detaining of any female against her will on any premises,
with intent to have, or that another person may have, carnal
knowledge of her. In Scotland, where there is no statutory
adjustment, abduction is similarly dealt with by practice.
ABD-UL-AZIZ (1830-1876), sultan of Turkey, son of Sultan
Mahmud II., was born on the 9th of February 1830, and
succeeded his brother Abd-ul-Mejid in 1861. His personal
interference in government affairs was not very marked, and
extended to little more than taking astute advantage of the
constant issue of State loans during his reign to acquire
wealth, which was squandered in building useless palaces
and in other futile ways: he is even said to have profited,
by means of ``bear'' sales, from the default on the Turkish
debt in 1875 and the consequent fall in prices. Another
source of revenue was afforded by Ismail Pasha, the khedive
of Egypt, who paid heavily in bakshish for the firman of
1866, by which the succession to the khedivate was made
hereditary from father to son in direct line and in order
of primogeniture, as well as for the subsequent firmans of
1867, 1869 and 1872 extending the khedive's prerogatives. It
is, however, only fair to add that the sultan was doubtless
influenced by the desire to bring about a similar change
in the succession to the Ottoman throne and to ensure the
succession after him of his eldest son, Yussuf Izz-ed-din.
Abd-ul-Aziz visited Europe in 1867, being the first Ottoman
sultan to do so, and was made a Knight of the Garter by Queen
Victoria. In 1869 he received the visits of the emperor of
Austria, the Empress Eugenie and other foreign princes, on their
way to the opening of the Suez Canal, and King Edward VII.,
while prince of Wales, twice visited Gonstantinople during his
reign. The mis-government and financial straits of the
country brought on the outbreak of Mussulman discontent and
fanaticism which eventually culminated in the murder of two
consuls at Salonica and in the ``Bulgarian atrocities,'' and
cost Abd-ul-Aziz his throne. His deposition on the 30th of
May 1876 was hailed with joy throughout Turkey; a fortnight
later he was found dead in the palace where he was confined,
and trustworthy medical evidence attributed his death to
suicide. Six children survived him: Prince Yussuf Izz-ed-din,
born 1857; Princess Salina, wife of Kurd Ismall Pasha;
Princess Nazime, wife of Khalid Pasha; Prince Abd-ul-Mejid,
born 1869; Prince Self-ed-din, born 1876; Princess Emine,
wife of Mahommed Bey; Prince Shefket, born 1872, died 1899.
ABD-UL-HAMID I.,(1725-1789), sultan of Turkey, son of Ahmed
III., succeeded his brother Mustafa III. in 1773. Long
confinement in the palace aloof from state affairs had left
him pious, God-fearing and pacific in disposition. At his
accession the financial straits of the treasury were such that
the usual donative could not be given to the janissaries. War
was, however, forced on him, and less than a year after his
accession the complete defeat of the Turks at Kozluja led
to the treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji ( 21st July 1774), the most
disastrous, especially in its after effects, that Turkey
has ever been obliged to conclude. (See TURKEY.) Slight
successes in Syria and the Morea against rebellious outbreaks
there could not compensate for the loss of the Crimea, which
Russia soon showed that she meant to absorb entirely. In
1787 war was again declared against Russia, joined in the
following year by Austria, Joseph II. being entirely won over to
Catherine, whom he accompanied in her triumohal progress in the
Crimea. Turkey held her own against the Austrians, but in
1788 Ochakov fell to the Russians. Four months later, on
the 7th of April 1789, the sultan died, aged sixty-four.
ABD-UL-HAMID II. (1842- ), sultan of Turkey, son of Sultan
Abd-ul-Mejid, was born on the 21st of September 1842, and
succeeded to the throne on the deposition of his brother Murad
V., on the 31st of August 1876. He accompanied his uncle
Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz on his visit to England and France in
1867. At his accession spectators were struck by the fearless
manner in which he rode, practically unattended, on his way
to be girt with the sword of Eyub. He was supposed to be of
liberal principles, and the more conservative of his subjects
were for some years after his accession inclined to regard him
with suspicion as a too ardent reformer. But the circumstances
of the country at his accession were ill adapted for liberal
developments. Default in the public funds and an empty
treasury, the insurrection in Bosnia and the Herzegovina, the
war with Servia and Montenegro, the feeling aroused throughout
Europe by the methods adopted in stamping out the Bulgarian
rebellion, all combined to prove to the new sultan that he
could expect little aid from the Powers. But, still clinging
to the groundless belief, for which British statesmen had, of
late at least, afforded Turkey no justification, that Great
Britain at all events would support him, he obstinately refused
to give ear to the pressing requests of the Powers that the
necessary reforms should be instituted. The international
Conference which met at Constantinople towards the end of
1876 was, indeed, startled by the salvo of guns heralding
the promulgation of a constitution, but the demands of the
Conference were rejected, in spite of the solemn warnings
addressed to the sultan by the Powers; Midhat Pasha, the
author of the constitution, was exiled; and soon afterwards
his work was suspended, though figuring to this day on the
Statute-Book. Early in 1877 the disastrous war with Russia
followed. The hard terms, embodied in the treaty of San
Stefano, to which Abd-ul-Hamid was forced to consent, were
to some extent amended at Berlin, thanks in the main to
British diplomacy (see EUROPE, History); but by this
time the sultan had lost all confidence in England, and
thought that he discerned in Germany, whose supremacy was
evidenced in his eyes by her capital being selected as the
meeting-place of the Congress, the future friend of Turkey.
He hastened to employ Germans for the reorganization of his
finances and his army, and set to work in the determination to
maintain his empire in spite of the difficulties surrounding
him, to resist the encroachments of foreigners, and to take
