Chalotais et le duc d'Aiguillon (Paris, 1893); Marion, La
Bretagne et le duc d'Aiguillon (Paris, 1898); and Barthelemy
Pocquet, Le Duc d'Aiguillon et La Chalotais (Paris,
1901--1902). The three last have full biblioaraphies. See also
Flammermont, Le Chancelier Maupeou et les parlements (Paris,
1883); Frederic Masson, Le Cardinal de Bernis (Paris, 1884).
AIGUILLON, MARIE MADELEINE DE WIGNEROD DU PONT DE COURLAY,
DUCHESSE D' (1604-1675), daughter of Cardinal Richelieu's
sister. In 1620 she married a nephew of the constable de
Luynes, Antoine de Beauvoir du Roure, sieur de Combalet, who
died in 1622. In 1625, through her influence, she was made
a lady-in-waiting (dame d'atour) to Ihe queen-mother, and
in 1638 was created duchess of Aiguihon. She did not marry
a second time, although Richelieu wished to marry her to
a prince--either to the comte de Soissons or to the king's
brother. After the death of the cardinal (1642) she retained
her honours and titles, but withdrew from the court, and
devoted herself entirely to works of charity. She entered into
relations with Saint Vincent de Paul and helped him to establish
the hospital for foundlings. She also took part in organizing
the General Hospital and several others in the provinces.
She died on the 17th of April 1675. She was the patroness of
Corneille, who in 1636 dedicated to her his tragedy of The Cid.
See E. Flechier, Oraison funebre de Mme. Marie de
Wignerod, duchesse d'Aiguillon; Bonneau-Avenant,
La duchesse d'Aiguillon (1879); M.emoires de
Saint-Simon, ed. by A. de Boislisle (1879 et seq..)
AIGUN, or AIHUN (also Sakhalyan-ula-khoto), a town of
China, province Hei-lung-kiang, in northern Manchuria, situated
on the right bank of the Amur, in a fertile and populous
region, 20 m. below Blagovyeshchensk, where it occupies
nearly 2 m. on the bank of the river. There is a palisaded
fort in the middle of the town, inside of which is the house
of the fu-tu (governor). Its merchants carry on an active
local trade in grain, mustard, oil and tobacco, and some of
its firms supply the Russian administration with grain and
flour. During the ``Boxer'' rising of 1900 it was, for a few
weeks, the centre of military action directed against the
Russians. The population, of some 20,000, includes a few hundred
Mussulmans. The town was founded first on the left bank of
the Amur, below the mouth of the Zeya, but was abandoned, and
the present town was founded in 1684. It was here that Count
Muraviev concluded, in May 1857, the Aihun treaty, according
to which the left bank of the Amur was conceded to Russia.
AIKEN, a city and the county-seat of Aiken county, South
Carolina, U.S.A., 17 m. E.N.E. of Augusta, Georgia. Pop.
(1890) 2362; (1900) 3414 (2131 of negro descent); (1910)
3911. It is served by the Southern railway, and by an electric
line connecting with Augusta. Aiken is a fashionable winter
resort, chiefly frequented by Northerners, and is pleasantly
situated about 500 ft. above sea level in the heart of the
famous sand-hill and pine-forest region of the state. The dry
and unusually equable temperature (mean for winter 50 deg. F.,
for spring 57 deg. F., and for autumn 64 deg. F.) and the balmy air
laden with the fragrance of the pine forests have combined to
make Aiken a health and pleasure resort; its climate is said
to be especially beneficial for those afflicted with pulmonary
diseases. There are fine hotels, club houses and cottages,
and the Palmetto Golf Links near the city are probably the
finest in the southern states; fox-hunting, polo, tennis
and shooting are among the popular sports. There are some
excellent drives in the vicinity. The city is the seat of
the Aiken Institute (for whites) and the Schofield Normal
and Industrial School (for negroes). There are lumber mills,
cotton mills and cotton-gins; and cotton, farm products
and artificial stone are exported. Considerable quantities
of aluminium are obtained from the kaolin deposits in the
vicinity. The city's water supply is obtained from artesian
wells. Aiken was settled in the early part of the 19th century,
but was not incorporated until 1835, when it was named in
honour of William Aiken (1806-1887), governor of the state in
1844--1847, and a representative in Congress in 1851-1857.
AIKIN, ARTHUR (1773-1854), English chemist and mineralogist,
was born on the 19th of May 1773, at Warrington in Lancashire.
He studied chemistry under Priestley and gave attention to
the practical applications of the science. To mineralogy
he was likewise attracted, and he was one of the founders
of the Geological Society of London, 1807, and honorary
secretary, 1812-1817. To the transactions of that society
he contributed papers on the Wrekin and the Shropshire
coalfield, &c. Later he became secretary of the Society of
Arts, and in 1841 treasurer of the Chemical Society. In
early life he had been for a short time a Unitarian minister.
He was highly esteemed as a man of sound judgment and wide
knowledge. He died in London on the 15th of April 1854.
PUBLICATIONS.--Journal of a Tour through North Wales and part
of Shropshire with observations in Mineralogy and other branches
of Natural History (London, 1797); A Manual of Mineralogy
(1814; ed. 2, 1815); A Dictionary of Chemistry and Mineralogy
(with his brother C. R. Aikin), 2 vols. (London, 1807, 1814).
AIKIN, JOHN (1747-1822), English doctor and writer, was
born at Kibworth-Harcourt, and received his elementary
education at the Noncomformist academy at Warrington, where
his father was tutor. He studied medicine in the university
of Edinburgh, and in London under Dr Wilham Hunter. He
practised as a surgeon at Chester and Warrington. Finally,
he went to Leyden, took the degree of M.D. (1780), and in
1784 established himself as a doctor in Yarmouth. In 1792
he removed to London, where he practised as a consulting
physician. But he concerned himself more with the advocacy
of liberty of conscience than with his professional duties,
and he began at an early period to devote himself to literary
pursuits. In conjunction with his sister, Mrs Barbauld
(q.v.), he published a popular series of volumes entitled
Evenings at Home (6 vols., 1792-1795), excellently adapted
for elementary family reading, which were translated into
almost every European language. In 1798 Dr Aikin retired
from professional life and devoted himself with great industry
to various literary undertakings, among which his General
Biography (10 vols., 1799-1815) holds a conspicuous place.
Besides these, he published Biog. Memoirs of Medicine
(1780); Lives of John Selden and Archbishop Usher (1812)
and other works. He edited the Monthly Magazine from 1796
to 1807, and conducted a paper called the Athenaeum from
1807 to 1809, when it was discontinued. Aikin died in 1822.
His daughter, LUCY AIKIN (1781-1864), born at Warrington
on the 6th of November 1781, had some repute as a historical
writer. After producing various books for the young, and a
novel, Lorimer (1814), she published in 1818 her Memoirs of
the Court of Queen Elizabeth, which passed through several
editions. This was followed by Memoirs of the Court of James
I. (1822), Memoirs of the Court of Charles I. (1833) and a
Life of Addison (1843). Miss Aikin died at Hampstead, where
she had lived for forty years, on the 29th of January 1864.
See a Memoir of John Aikin, with selections of his miscellaneous
pieces (1823), by his daughter; and the Memoirs, Miscellanies
and Letters of William Ellery Channing, edited by P. H. Le Breton.
AIKMAN, WILLIAM (1682-1731), British portrait-painter, was
born at Cairney, Forfarshire. He was intended by his father
for the bar, but followed his natural bent by becoming a
pupil under Sir John Medina, the leading painter of the day in
Scotland. In 1707 he went to Italy, resided in Rome for three
years, afterwards travelled to Constantinople and Smyrna, and
in 1712 returned home. In Edinburgh, where he practised as
a portrait-painter for some years, he enjoyed the patronage
of the duke of Argyll; and on his removal to London in 1723
he soon obtained many important commissions. Perhaps his
most successful work was the portrait of the poet Gay. He
also painted portraits of himself, Fletcher of Saltoun,
William Carstares and Thomson the poet. The likenesses were
generally truthful and the style was modelled very closely
upon that of Sir Godfrey Kneller. Aikman held a good position
in literary society and counted among his personal friends
Swift, Pope, Thomson, Allan Ramsay, Somervile and Mallet.
AILANTHUS (more correctly ailantus, from ailanto, an
Amboyna word probably meaning ``Tree of the Gods,'' or ``Tree
of Heaven''), a genus of trees belonging to the natural order
Simarubaceae. The best known species, A. glandulosa, Chinese
sumach or tree of heaven, is a handsome, quick-growing tree
with spreading branches and large compound leaves, resembling
those of the ash, and bearing numerous pairs of long pointed
leaflets. The small greenish flowers are borne on branched
panicles; and the male ones are characterized by having a
disgusting odour. The fruits are free in clusters, and each
is drawn out into a long wing with the seed in the middle.
The wood is fine grained and satiny. The tree, which is a
native of China and Japan, was introduced into England in
1751 and is a favourite in parks and gardens. A silk spinning
moth, the ailanthus moth (Bombyx or Philosamia cynthia),
lives on its leaves, and yields a silk more durable and
cheaper than mulberry silk, but inferior to it in fineness and
gloss. This moth is common near many towns in the eastern United
States; it is about 5 in. across, with angulated wings, and
in colour olive brown, with white markings. Other species of
ailanthus are: A. imberbifiora and A. punctata, important
Australian timber-trees; and A. excelsa, common in India.
AILLY, PIERRE D, (1350-1420), French theologian, was
born at Compiegne in 1350 of a bourgeois family, and
studied in Paris at the celebrated college of Navarre.
He became a licentiate of arts in 1367, procurator of
the French ``nation'' in 1372, bachelor of theology in
1372, and licentiate and doctor in that faculty in 1381.
Since 1378 Western Christendom, in consequence of the election
of the two popes Urban VI. and Clement VII., had been divided
into two obediences. In the spring of 1379 Pierre d'Ailly,
in anticipation even of the decision of the university of
Paris, had carried to the pope of Avignon the ``role'' of
the French nation, but notwithstanding this prompt adhesion
he was firm in his desire to put an end to the schism, and
when, on the 20th of May 1381, the university decreed that
the best means to this end was to try to gather together a
general council, Pierre d'Ailly supported this motion before
the king's council in the presence of the duke of Anjou.
The dissatisfaction displayed shortly after by the government
obliged the university to give up this scheme, and was probably
the cause of Pierre d'Ailly's temporary retirement to Noyon,
where he held a canonry. There he continued the struggle for
his side in a humorous work, in which the partisans of the
council are amusingly taken to task by the demon Leviathan.
After his return to Paris, where from 1384 onwards he
filled the position of master of the college of Navarre, and
took part in a violent campaign against the chancellor of
Notre-Dame, he was twice entrusted with a mission to Clement
VII. in 1388 to defend the doctrines of the university, and
especially those concerning the Immaculate Conception of the
