century, these are all the leaves or foliaceous organs it ever has. All the vegetative portions of the plant are the short, broad trunk, rapidly tapering to a strong descending root, and the cotyledons, which reach the length of 6 ft. and the width of 2 or 3 ft., and spread out upon the ground in opposite directions; they are green, very thick and leathery, and are often torn into segments or split up into shreds by the winds. The trunk each year increases slightly in diameter both above and below these leaves, so that they appear as if inserted in a deep slit or cavity; from this slit, at the upper side of the leaves, are produced the flower stalks, 6 to 12 in. high, much forked, and bearing at the end of each branch a cone the brilliant scarlet scales of which overlap each other in four rows, each containing a flower; when mature, the cones are about 2 in. long and half as thick. The country where this plant is found is a sandy and stony plateau from 300

Welwitschia mirabilis.

to 400 ft. above the sea, where rain seldom or never falls; in some places the whole surface is completely studded with these tabular masses, varying in size from a few inches to 6 ft. across, which have been likened to gigantic hat blocks; it is computed that the trunks of 18 in. diameter are over 100 years old.

WEN, an encysted tumor, usually growing upon some part of the hairy scalp. It consists of a closed sac, of fibrous texture, more or less closely connected with the neighboring parts, but generally capable of being enucleated entire by careful dissection, and filled with a soft, whitish, opaque, curdy material. The contents of the sac consist of granular fat mixed with fluid oil globules, a great abundance of epithelium scales, and very often crystals of cholesterine. Wens are regarded as usually resulting from the accidental closure and subsequent hypertrophy and distention of one of the sebaceous follicles, the epithelium cells and semi-solid oleaginous or sebaceous materials gradually accumulating. They become inconvenient after a time by the distention of the skin over their more prominent portion, but are usually easily removed by a simple surgical operation.

WENCESLAS, or Wenzel, a Germån emperor, of the house of Luxemburg, born in Nuremberg, Feb. 26, 1361, died near Prague, Aug. 16, 1419. He was the eldest son of Charles IV. and his third wife Anna, and was crowned king of Bohemia in his 3d year, and in his 18th succeeded his father as emperor. In a diet at Eger in 1389 he abandoned the cause of the cities, which he had before favored, and soon after annulled all debts due to Jews on the payment to himself of 15 to 30 per cent. of the amount; the mob of Prague having slaughtered 3,000 Jews, he also confiscated to his own use the property of the victims. He compelled the Bohemian nobles to return without payment the estates of the crown, on the pledge of which they had loaned money. He is also said to have tortured John Nepomucen with his own hand, and to have thrown him bound into the Moldau. (See NEPOMUCEN.) In 1394 Wenceslas was seized and imprisoned at Prague by a conspiracy among the nobles, headed by Jodocus of Moravia, but was set free at the instance of the German princes. In the controversy between the popes and antipopes, he adhered to the cause of the former until he finally united with France to urge the abdication of Boniface IX. and Benedict XIII. in order that a new pope might be chosen in place of the two. Hereupon several powerful German princes formally deposed him at Frankfort in 1400, electing as his successor Rupert of the Palatinate. New troubles in Bohemia resulted in his being seized by his brother Sigismund and imprisoned for 19 months in Vienna. He favored the agitation of Huss and his followers in Bohemia, out of hatred to the Catholic clergy. In 1410 he abdicated his claims to the imperial crown in favor of Sigismund, and, recklessly neglecting the affairs of his Bohemian kingdom, gave himself up to drinking and excesses till he died of apoplexy. His life has been written by Pelzel (2 vols., Prague, 1788-'90).

WENDS, the name of a Slavic tribe, forming a subdivision of the northwestern stem of the Slavs. (See SLAVIO RACE AND LANGUAGES.) Roman writers called all the Slavs with whom they were acquainted Venedi (Wends), and the Germans also gave the name of Wends to all Slavic peoples, but more especially to that division of them which Schafarik has designated as Polabs (embracing Obotrits, Sorabs, and others). These inhabited, from the 4th to the 9th century, the eastern portion of Germany, from the Saale and Elbe as far north as the Eider. Charlemagne drove the Wends back toward the Vistula, and by the close of the 13th century his successors in Germany had almost extirpated them. In the 16th century remnants of this Slavic population were still scattered over the whole region between Berlin and Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and there was a remnant of Wends also in Hanover, where they kept up their language until the middle of the 18th century. They are now found in

WENDS

portions of Brandenburg, Silesia, and the kingdom of Saxony, and principally on the banks of the Spree. Their number has been recently estimated at 136,000, of which Brandenburg and Saxony contain 50,000 each. Most of the Wends are Protestants, though a large proportion of those living in Saxony are Catholics. The name Southern Wends is often applied to the Winds in the Illyrian provinces of Austria. (See WINDS.)- The language of the Wends is similar to the other branches of the northwestern stem of the Slavic languages, the Polish and the Bohemian. It is divided into the dialect of Lower Lusatia, which is but little developed, and that of Upper Lusatia. The latter is subdivided into the evangelical dialect, near Bautzen; the Catholic dialect, near Kamenz and in the northwest; and the northeastern dialect. The differences are mostly confined to shades of pronunciation. The Wends have mostly made use of the German letters. There are eight vowels, a, o, u, e, i, all of which are pronounced as in German and Italian, ó (between o in note and u in full), è (like long English e), and y (approaching the German ü). Of consonants there are 32: j (y consonant), w (v), 6 (v soft), b, b (soft), P, (soft), m, m (soft), n, ń (soft, Fr. gn), 1, 7(as in Polish), r, (soft), 2, (Fr. j), 8, (sh), d, ૪ dz, dé (dsh soft), ds, t, c (tz), é (tch soft), è (tch), ts, h, ch (kh), g (hard), k. There is no article. The substantives are of three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter. Substantives ending in a consonant are mostly masculine, those in a and i feminine, and those in o and e neuter. There are seven declensions, two for the masculine, three for the neuter, and two for the feminine. The language has a dual number. There are seven cases, viz.: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative (to express the relation of in), instrumental (to express the relations of by and with), and vocative. The adjectives end in y, i (masculine), a (feminine), o and e (neuter). The comparative is formed by the termination isi, and in order to form the superlative the syllable naj is placed before the comparative. The personal pronouns are irregular; the others are declined like adjectives. The verb has six tenses, present, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, future, and future perfect; five moods, indicative, subjunctive, optative, imperative, and infinitive, besides a gerund; and three participles, present and perfect active, and perfect passive. The extent of the entire Wendish literature has been estimated at 300 volumes. The oldest monument of the language is a translation of the Epistle of St. James, dating from 1548 (edited by Lotze, Leipsic, 1867). There are grammars of the Wendish language by Ticinus (Prague, 1679), Matthai (1721), Seiler (Bautzen, 1830), and Jordan (Prague, 1841).-See Giesebrecht, Wendische Geschichten (Berlin, 1843) and Das hannoverische Wendland (Lüchow, 1863), and Obermüller, Die Urgeschichte der Wenden (Leipsic, 1874).

WENTLETRAP, the popular name of the gasteropod shells of the genus scalaria (Lam.), from scala, a stair. The shell is long and turreted, with many whorls, close or separated, ornamented with numerous transverse prominent ribs; the mouth is circular and the lip continuous, closed with a horny operculum; the tube of the shell is perfect; the teeth are in numerous longitudinal series. More than 100 species are described, in nearly all the seas of the world, though most beautiful in the tropics, ranging from low-water mark to 80 fathoms; most of them are pure shining white, and they emit a purplish fluid when disturbed. The commonest species on the coast of New England is the S. Grænlandica (Gould), about inch long and a third of an inch in its greatest width; it is livid brown or bluish white, with ten close, moderately convex whorls, and white flattened ribs; it is abundant on the Grand Banks. There are several species on the coast of Europe, and many in the Indian ocean; one of the handsomest is the S. pretiosa (Lam.), of the China seas, 1 to 2 in. long, snow-white or pale flesh-colored, with eight separated whorls.

an

Wentletrap (Scalaria pretiosa).

WENTWORTH, a S. county of Ontario, Canada, bounded N. E. by Lake Ontario; area, 454 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 57,599, of whom 19,154 were of English, 16,737 of Irish, 12,415 of Scotch, and 7,036 of German origin or descent. It is watered by several streams, and traversed by the Great Western and the Hamilton and Lake Erie railways. Capital, Hamilton.

WENTWORTH, Charles Watson. See ROCKING

HAM.

WENTWORTH, Thomas. See STRAFFORD. WENTWORTH. I. William, an early colonist of New Hampshire, born at Alford, Lincolnshire, England, in 1615, died in Dover, N. H., March 16, 1697. He was a follower of the Rev. John Wheelwright, with whom and 33 others he signed, Aug. 4, 1639, "A Combination for a Government at Exeter, N. H." He removed to Wells, Me., with Wheelwright; and when the latter went to England on the accession of Oliver Cromwell to power, Wentworth removed to Dover, where he was a ruling elder and often preached. He left a widow, nine sons, and one daughter, and was the progenitor of all the Wentworths of the United States whose origin is known. II. John, lieutenant governor of New Hampshire, grandson of the preceding, born in Portsmouth, N. H., Jan. 16, 1671, died there, Dec. 12, 1730. He was bred a sea captain. In 1711 he was appointed by Queen Anne a councillor for New Hampshire;

to 1853, in 1857 explored Spain, and in 1862 and 1867 the East. He excels in water-colors. His works include "Venice in her Zenith and Decline," "The Ducal Palace, with a Scene from the Merchant of Venice," "The Triumphal Procession of Doge Cantarini" (5 ft. high), "The Zisa Hall in Palermo," "The Lions' Court of the Alhambra," and "Jerusalem and the Holy Land," the last comprising 30 designs, published with text and colored plates (London, 1866-'7).

WESEL, a town of Rhenish Prussia, on the right bank of the Rhine, near the confluence of the Lippe, in the circle and 32 m. N. by W. of the city of Düsseldorf; pop. in 1871, 18,519, half Protestant and half Catholic. It is fortified, and the bridge of boats across the Rhine is protected by a citadel with five bastions. The fine Berlin gate has statues of Minerva and Hercules. The Gothic St. Willibrod is the most notable of the five churches. The gymnasium is of great antiquity and celebrity. It has sugar refineries and manufactories of stearine, paper, tobacco, and nails, and much shipping and inland trade. Under the original name of Lippemund it was of strategic importance in the wars of Charlemagne against the Saxons. Napoleon in 1805 incorporated it with the grand duchy of Berg, and in 1806 with the French empire; and on Sept. 16, 1809, he had 11 prisoners of war, officers of Schill's partisan corps, shot here. In 1813 it was blockaded by the Prussians, to whom it was in 1814 ceded by the treaty of Paris.

WESER (anc. Visurgis), a river of Germany, formed by the union of the Werra and the Fulda at Münden in the Prussian province of Hanover, and navigable throughout its length. It flows northward about 250 m. in a tortuous course, and falls into the North sea by an estuary 45 m. below Bremen. Its principal affluents are the Aller, from the right, and the Hunte, from the left. The most important towns on its banks are Bremen, the fortress of Minden, Rinteln, and Hameln.

WESLEY, or Westley. I. Samuel, an English clergyman, born in Preston in 1662, '66, or '68, according to different authorities, died April 30, 1735. He was the son of a dissenting minister, but early joined the church of England, was educated at Oxford, took orders, served a curacy in London for a year, and was then for another year chaplain on board a manof-war. He was again a London curate for two years, during which he married and made some reputation as a writer for the press, and afterward obtained a small living in the country. He preached against King James's "Declaration for Liberty of Conscience" (1688), and when the revolution took place is said to have written a book in defence of it. Afterward he was presented to the livings of Epworth and Wroote in Lincolnshire. He wrote a heroic | poem on "The Life of Christ" (fol., 1693); "Elegies on Queen Mary and Archbishop Tillotson" (fol., 1695); "The History of the

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New Testament attempted in Verse" (1701), followed by a similar "History of the Old Testament" (1704); a poem on the battle of Blenheim (1705), for which Marlborough made him chaplain of a regiment; a Latin commentary on the book of Job (edited by his eldest son, 1735); and a "Treatise on the Sacrament." According to his son John, he wrote the defence delivered by Dr. Sacheverell before the house of lords. II. Samuel, eldest (or at least eldest surviving) son of the preceding, born at Epworth in 1690 or 1692, died Nov. 6, 1739. He was educated at Westminster school and at Oxford, and was afterward for nearly 20 years an usher in the former. He took orders, but obtained no preferment. He viewed the "new faith" and peculiar conduct of his brothers John and Charles with strong disapprobation, and wrote a letter of remonstrance to his mother when he heard that she had become "one of Jack's congregation." At the time of his death he had been for seven years head master of Tiverton school. A collection of his poems, containing some remarkable humorous pieces, appeared in 1736. His correspondence with his brother forms the principal part of Dr. Priestley's collection of "Original Letters by the Reverend John Wesley and his Friends" (8vo, Birmingham, 1791). III. John, founder of Methodism, brother of the preceding, born at Epworth, Lincolnshire, June 17, 1703, died in London, March 2, 1791. His mother, Sasannah, combined rare intellectual powers and indomitable will with refinement of manners and devotion to domestic duties. Her home was the family school, where the children were taught in the most thorough and methodical manner. In his 11th year John became a pupil of the Charterhouse, London, and in his 17th was elected to Christ Church college, Oxford. He was ordained deacon in 1725, elected a fellow of Lincoln college in 1726, and appointed Greek lecturer and moderator of the classes, and graduated as master of arts in 1727. The serious impressions produced by the writings of Thomas à Kempis and Jeremy Taylor were further deepened by those of William Law, especially by his "Serious Call." He became his father's curate at Wroote in August, 1727, was ordained priest in 1728, and returned to Oxford in November, 1729. Here he found a few young men, including his brother Charles, Robert Kirkham, and William Morgan, who were earnestly seeking a deeper religious experience. Of these and some 20 others, who were subsequently added, Wesley soon, became the acknowledged leader. They spent much of their leisure time in religious exercises, in visiting almshouses and prisons, and in administering to the relief of the suffering. As tutor in Lincoln college, and as moderator in the daily disputations, Wesley continued at Oxford till 1735, devoting his entire leisure to earnest Biblical study and active Christian labors. At the repeated solicitations of Dr. John Burton and Gen. Oglethorpe, in 1735