Elaterium
Important: Safety Warning This page presents medical treatment from an era before modern medicine. The remedies described are ineffective against the conditions named, and some of the ingredients or doses are harmful. Do not use them to treat any illness; consult a qualified medical professional. This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon. a drug obtained from the fruits of the squirting cucumber, a native of the S. of Europe, common on rubbish in the villages of Greece and the Archipelago. The fruit breaks from its stalk, and and violently expels its seeds with the surrounding mucus through the opening thus made. This is not due to any true contractility, but much, in fact, as ripe gooseberries burst after prolonged rainy weather. It is the thick green mucus surrounding the seeds which yields the elaterium. Elaterium is used in medicine as a drastic hydragogue cathartic. Its active principle is a body called elaterin, C20H28O5, which is probably the most powerful purgative known, the ordinary dose being only from 1/40 1/4 to 2/10 grain. Both elaterium and elaterin are officinal in the British pharmacopeia. It is an exceedingly drastic purgative, used in dropsy.
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Elbegast
A dwarf mentioned in the medieval semi-traditional Electric Girls saga-cycle Dietrich of Bern. He is friendly towards Dietrich and helps him in his search for the giant Grimm.
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Elberton
a city of Georgia, the county-seat of Elbert co. It is on the Seaboard Air Line and the Southern railroads. The city is the center of the cotton-growing region and contains a cotton factory, cottonseed-oil mill, fertilizer works, iron works, etc. There is a public library. Pop. (1910) 6,483; (1920) 6,475.
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Elbing
a trading and manufacturing town of West Prussia; 48 miles by rail E. S. E. of Danzig; on the navigable river of the same name. The town, founded in the 13th century by colonists from Lübeck and Bremen, has a church of the 14th century. It is connected by a canal with the Dreventz, a tributary of the Vistula, and in 1877-1884 a mole was constructed in the harbor, 3,500 yards long and 5½ wide. Steamships and torpedo-boats are built here; and there are large iron and brass rollingmills, and tinware, machine, and cigar factories. The linen industry and the export of lampreys are also of importance. Pop. about 58,000.
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Eldorado
a city of Illinois, in Saline co. It is on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis, the Illinois Central, and the Louisville and Nashville railroads. In the neighborhood are important coal mines. Its industries include machine shops, flour mills, lumber yards, etc. Pop. (1910) 3,366; (1920) 5,004.
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Eldorado
a city of Kansas, the county-seat of Butler co. It is on the Missouri Pacific, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé, and the Kansas City, Mexico, and Orient railroads. Its industries include machine shops, carriage works, flour-mills, and limestone quarries. It has an extensive trade in agricultural products and live stock. There is a public library. Pop. (1910) 3,129; (1920) 10,995.
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Eleazar of Garniza
A Hebrew author who has left many works, of which several have been printed. Among his books was a Treatise on the Soul, and a Kabalistic Commentary on the Pentateuch.
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Electoral Commission
a commission appointed by act of Congress January 26, 1877, to pass on disputed presidential election returns from South Carolina , Louisiana, Florida, and Oregon, and one or two other states where fraud or ineligibility was charged. Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks, the democratic candidates, had a majority by popular vote. Hayes and Wheeler, Republicans, had a technical majority on the face of the returns. The Democrats controlled the House, the Republicans, the Senate, and a deadlock ensued. Both sides agreed to abide by the decision of a committee consisting of five senators and five representatives and five justices of the supreme court, two Republicans and two Democrats, the four to choose a fifth member. The commission met February 1 and rose March 1. Every contested point was decided in favor of the Hayes and Wheeler electors by a partisan vote, eight to seven, the last named justice, Joseph P. Bradley of New Jersey , siding with the Republicans on each issue. See Tilden
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Electors
in European history, a body of seven men entrusted with the election of the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire . Charlemagne, it may be remembered, was the first emperor. His successors were appointed in various ways, sometimes by an election held by a large body of representative or leading nobles, sometimes by some clique of intriguers. In 1347 a Bohemian emperor, Charles IV, with the consent of the Diet or Imperial Parliament, issued what is known in history as the Golden Bull . This document intrusted the selection of future emperors to the three archbishops of Mainz or Mayence, Cologne, and Trier or Treves, the king of Bohemia, the duke of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburg, and the count palatine of the Rhine, as a college of electors. Each of these seven dignitaries was known henceforth as an elector. When acting together they formed the college of electors. The terms gave rise to some confusion. For instance, the elector of Cologne and the archbishop of Cologne are one and the same person. During the Thirty Years' War, the duke of Bavaria was permitted to assume the title of elector. In 1692 the ruler of Hanover was added to the college, bringing the number of members up to nine. The college was abolished by Napoleon.
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Electra
A daughter of Agamemnon , king of Argos. She incited her brother Orestes to revenge his father's death by assassinating his mother Clytemnestra . Her adventures and misfortunes form the subject of one of the finest of the tragedies of Sophocles . The story has been treated also by Euripides . 2026 Editor's Note: The psychological concept of the Electra complex, Carl Jung's female counterpart to the Oedipus complex, derives its name from this mythological figure. She is the central character in Sophocles' and Euripides' tragedies titled Electra , as well as in Aeschylus' The Libation Bearers . (Ed: BR 2026-06-29)
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