an address in London at the annual banquet | of the Cobden club. In 1874 he was elected foreign associate of the French academy of political sciences, in the place of John Stuart Mill, deceased, and received the degree of D. C. L. from Oxford university. He resides in Norwich, Conn., and was defeated in April, 1876, as a democratic candidate for congress. He has also published pamphlets on economical subjects, and edited 16 volumes of the "Annual of Scientific Discovery" (1849-'64). Mr. Wells was originally a protectionist, but his investigations in Europe in 1867, and study of the United States customs system, led him to become an advocate of free trade.

WELLS, Horace, an American dentist, one of the claimants of the discovery of anaesthesia, born in Hartford, Windsor co., Vt., Jan. 21, 1815, died in New York, Jan. 24, 1848. In 1834-6 he studied and practised dentistry in Boston, and in 1886 opened an office in Hartford, Conn. Early in his practice he had considered the possibility of administering some anæsthetic to prevent pain in dental operations, and in 1840 the use of nitrous oxide gas occurred to him. On Dec. 10, 1844, Mr. G. Q. Colton lectured in Hartford and administered nitrous oxide gas to several persons, one of whom under its influence bruised himself severely by falling over some benches, but was unconscious of pain. Dr. Wells at once declared his belief" that a man, by taking that gas, could have a tooth extracted or a limb amputated, and not feel the pain." The next day he tested the matter in his own person, having a large molar tooth extracted without the slightest pain. He followed this, by the successful administration of the gas in 12 or 15 cases of extraction of teeth during the autumn of 1844, and other dentists of the city successfully administered it in their practice. In December, 1844, he made known his discovery to Drs. Warren and Hayward, the distinguished chemist Dr. C. T. Jackson, Dr. W. T. G. Morton, a dentist and a former pupil of his, and others in Boston. Dr. Warren invited him to address his medical class, but he was too diffident to make a very satisfactory impression. He extracted a tooth for a patient under anæsthetic influence in the presence of the medical class; but the experiment was not sufficiently successful to excite much interest in the subject. In October, 1846, when Dr. Morton applied for a patent (which he obtained in November) for anæsthetic agents, Dr. Wells remonstrated, stated the results of his own experiments, and adduced the testimony of the surgeons and physicians of Hartford to their success. In December of the same year he sailed for France, to lay his discovery before the medical profession, and succeeded in convincing the medical society of Paris that he had made a valuable discovery. In the spring of 1847 he returned to America, and on March 30 published a pamphlet entitled "A History of the Discovery of the Application of Nitrous

|

Oxide Gas, Ether, and other Vapors to Surgical Operations," in which he stated the results of his experiments as above related, and sustained them by several affidavits. The controversy which followed impaired his already enfeebled health; and, with his experiments on himself of the effects of chloroform, produced mental aberration. He had removed to New York, where he was arrested on a charge of throwing vitriol on the clothes of women in the street; and this causing an aggravation of his mental disorder, he committed suicide. In 1853, when an amendment to the congressional appropriation bill was offered providing for a grant of $100,000 to the "discoverer of practical anesthesia," a report giving evidence in. regard to Dr. Wells's claims was presented by Senator Truman Smith, who published it under the title of "An Examination of the Question of Anæsthesia" (Boston, 1859), and also "An Inquiry into the Origin of Modern Anæsthesia" (Hartford, 1867). A memorial statue of Wells has been erected in the public park of Hartford, Conn. (See ANESTHETICS; JACKSON, CHARLES THOMAS; and MORTON, WILLIAM THOMAS GREEN.)

WELLS, Samuel Roberts, an American phrenologist, born in West Hartford, Conn., April 4, 1820, died in New York, April 13, 1875. In 1844 he became a partner in the publishing house of O. S. and L. N. Fowler in New York, under the name of Fowlers and Wells, and in 1863 became sole proprietor. He accompanied L. N. Fowler in extended phrenological lecturing tours through the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. From 1850 to 1862 he edited the "Water Cure Journal," from 1863 till his death the "Phrenological Journal," and from 1865 the "Annual of Phrenology and Physiognomy." His more important publications are: New Physiognomy (New York, 1866), "How to Read Character" (1869), and "Wedlock" (1869).

WELLS, William Charles, a British physician, born in Charleston S. C., in May, 1757, died in London, Aug. 28, 1817. He studied medicine at the university of Edinburgh, served as surgeon to a Scotch regiment in Holland, and in 1785 established himself in London. In 1800 he became physician to St. Thomas's hospital. He is best known by an "Essay on Dew" (1814; new ed., 1866). (See DEW.) His autobiography was published in 1818.

WELLWOOD. See MONCREIFF.

WELWITSCHIA. In 1863, Dr. Welwitsch discovered at Mossamedes, on the W. coast of Africa, a remarkable plant which Dr. J. D. Hooker described as Welwitschia mirabilis. Unlike other plants in appearance, its reproductive organs place it among the Gnetacea, a small family closely related to the conifers. The plant is never over a foot high, while its trunk is sometimes 5 or 6 ft. in diameter; the cotyledons, or seed leaves, which in most plants soon perish, in this continue to grow, and, though the plant may live for more than a

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

T

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 German 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

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), 26 (v soft), b, b (soft), P, P (soft), m, m (soft), n, n (soft, Fr. gn), 1, 7(as in Polish), r, r (soft), 2, 2 (Fr. j), 8, 8 (sh), d, dz, dź (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), Matthäi (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 an 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, 13 to 2 in. long, snow-white or pale flesh-colored, with eight separated whorls.

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;

in 1713 he became a justice of the common pleas, and in 1717 lieutenant governor of the province, which was then dependent on Massachusetts. He left a widow and 14 children. III. Benning, governor of New Hampshire, eldest child of the preceding, born in Portsmouth, July 24, 1696, died there, Oct. 14, 1770. He graduated at Harvard college in 1715, became a merchant at Portsmouth, which town he frequently represented in the provincial assembly, was appointed a king's councillor, Oct. 12, 1734, and when in 1741 New Hampshire was made a distinct province he became its governor (Dec. 13), and so continued until 1767. He was authorized by the crown to grant patents of unoccupied land, and in 1749 began making grants in what is now southern Vermont. These grants were considered by the colonial government of New York as within its domain, and the collision so famous in the history of Vermont respecting the "New Hampshire grants" ensued. (See VERMONT.) Gov. Wentworth exacted heavy fees for his grants of land, and thus accumulated a large property. In each of them he stipulated for the reservation of a lot for an Episcopal church. After | his resignation as governor he gave to Dartmouth college 500 acres of land, on which the college buildings were erected. He had by his first wife three children who lived to maturity, but died before him unmarried. He married, first, Abigail, daughter of John Ruck, of Boston, who died Nov. 8, 1755; and second, March 15, 1760, Martha Hilton, who had been brought up in his family, and was his housekeeper after his wife's death, upon which event Longfellow based his poem "Lady Wentworth." He made her sole heir of his large property. She afterward married Col. Michael Wentworth of the British army, and her only child, Martha, became the wife of Gov. John Wentworth's nephew, John Wentworth, author of "System of Pleading." IV. Sir John, governor of New Hampshire and afterward of Nova Scotia, nephew of the preceding, born in Portsmouth in 1736, died in Halifax, April 8, 1820. He graduated at Harvard college in 1755, was associated with his father Mark Hunking Wentworth as a merchant, and in 1765 was the agent of New Hampshire to present petitions in England. While there he gained the friendship of the marquis of Rockingham, through whose influence he was appointed to succeed Benning Wentworth as governor of New Hampshire, Aug. 11, 1766, and was at the same time appointed surveyor general of the king's woods in North America, with a salary of £700 and perquisites. He landed at Charleston, S. C., in March, 1768, and travelling northward by land registered his commission as surveyor in each of the colonies through which he passed. He entered on his duties as governor in June, 1768, and on Nov. 11, 1769, married his cousin, Frances Wentworth, widow of his and her cousin, the Hon. Theodore Atkinson, jr., and daughter of Sam

uel Wentworth of Boston. He had a house in Portsmouth, and a country seat at Wolfeborough. He gave Dartmouth college its charter, and endowed it with 44,000 acres of land, and also gave a piece of land to each member of the first graduating class. When in 1774 Gen. Gage found it impossible to procure carpenters to construct barracks for the royal troops in Boston, and Wentworth endeavored to procure them for him privately from Wolfeborough, the indignation of the people compelled him to take refuge first in Fort William and Mary, and then on board a British ship. After some vain efforts to stay the storm, he went to England, where he remained until peace was declared. He then removed to Nova Scotia and resumed his functions as surveyor of the king's woods, and on May 14, 1792, was appointed lieutenant governor of that province, which office he resigned in 1808. He was created a baronet in 1795, and was a doctor of laws of Oxford and Dartmouth. The baronetcy became extinct, April 10, 1844, on the death of his only child, Charles May, a graduate of Oxford, long private secretary to the earl of Fitzwilliam, who died unmarried at Kingsand, Devon, leaving the bulk of his property to his maternal cousin, Mrs. Catharine Frances Gore, the novelist. V. John, an American pa triot, great-grandson of Elder William Wentworth, born in Dover, N. H., March 30, 1719, died in Somersworth, May 17, 1781. He was usually called "Col. John" or "Judge John," to distinguish him from others of the name. He was for many years a member of the provincial assemblies, was elected speaker in 1771, in 1773 became chief justice of the court of common pleas, and on Jan. 17, 1776, was chosen one of the superior judges, though he had never studied nor practised law. He was president of the first revolutionary convention held at Exeter, N. H., July 21, 1774. He survived his third wife, and left nine out of fourteen children. VI. John, jr., an American patriot, son of the preceding, born in Somersworth, N. H., July 17, 1745, died in Dover, Jan. 10, 1787. He graduated at Harvard college in 1768, studied law, served for many years in the state legislature, and was a member of the continental congress in 1778-'81. He was also a member of the New Hampshire committee of safety, which administered the government during the recess of the legislature. He left a wife and seven children. VII. John, an English lawyer, nephew of Gov. John Wentworth, born in Portsmouth, N. H., in 1768, died in Paris in 1816. He was taken to England about 1775, and educated as a lawyer. He wrote "System of Pleading" (10 vols., London, 1797), was appointed attorney general of Prince Edward's Island, removed to Portsmouth, N. H., where he married Martha, daughter of Gov. Benning Wentworth's widow by her second husband, Col. Michael Wentworth, and remained till 1816, when he returned to London and soon after died. VIII. John, an