Iris
. See Flag
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Single-source entries: I (30)
These 13 listings are so strange that each appears in only one of the 7 encyclopedias we compared. They include such classics as Iris, Iris, Iris.
Iris
iris, in Greek mythology, the goddess of the rainbow. She was the daughter of Thaumas and Electra, and a sister of the Harpies. She lived among the gods on Olympus, but was sent often to bear the messages of the gods to mankind. As Mercury was the special messenger of Zeus, so Iris was of Hera. The ancients believed that it was Iris who caused the clouds to become filled with water to be discharged in rain upon the thirsty earth. Iris is represented in art as a golden winged virgin clad in variegated hues and riding on a rainbow or with a rainbow above her head.
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Iris
One of the Oceanides, messenger of the gods, and more particularly of Juno . Her office was to cut the thread which seemed to detain the soul of those who were expiring. She is the same as the rainbow.
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Iris
in classical mythology, the messenger of the gods who carries messages from Ida to Olympus, or from the gods to men. In the "Iliad" the rainbow also was called Iris. in astronomy, an asteroid of the group between Mars and Jupiter, discovered by Hind in 1847. In botany, th flower-de-luce, the typical genus of the order Iridaceæ. The species numerous, and are erally remarkable for their large, yellow, England, with the S. W. counties of white, or blue flowers, and sword-like leaves. They abound in Europe, but are rare in America. The rhizomes of several species are more or less purgative and emetic. Those of I. florentina, palland germanica a violet odor, and are used in perfumery for imparting an agreeable odor to the breath, and by making issue the French especially for peas. These rhizomes, dried and scraped, constitute the orris root of the shops. The roasted seeds of I. pseudacora, the yellow flag, have been recommended as a substitute for coffee, but they do not appear to have any of the valuable properties of that beverage. The genus is so named on account of the variety of colors exhibited by it. In anatomy, the anterior part of the choroid coat of the eye, with superadded muscular fibers. In jewelry, the name given by French jewelers to limpid and transparent stones, but chiefly to rock crystal when reflecting prismatic colors like opal, by means of natural internal flaws.
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Iriscope
an instrument invented by Dr. Reade for exhibiting the prismatic colors. It consists of a plate of polished black glass, having its surface smeared by a solution of soap, and dried by wash leather. If the breath be directed through a tube upon the glass, the vapor will be deposited in colored rays.
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Irish Church
or CHURCH OF IRELAND, a popular name sometimes given, prior to 1871, to what was not an independent denomination, but was an integral part of the United Church of England and Ireland. It constituted the Established Church of the two countries. When on Jan. 1, 1871, the Act of Parliament disestablishing and disendowing the portion of the United Church which was in Ireland, took effect, those affected by the measure, rejecting the name proposed by the government for the new organization, adopted that of the Irish Church or the Church of Ireland. It comprehends within its pale about ½ of the Irish people.
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Irish Famine
a calamitous scarcity of food that overtook Ireland in 1846. The population of Ireland at the beginning of the year was about 8,000,000. The rural population was dependent largely upon the potato crop for food. Sodden weather brought a blight upon the potato fields in the autumn of 1845 and again in 1846. An appeal for help in food for starving Ireland went out and all Christendom responded. Ship after ship was dispatched from the American shores. Parliament voted sum after sum, but such were the delays of transportation and of distribution in those days that 2,000,000 men, women, and children died before food could reach them. Many thousands, especially the young and vigorous, tramped to seaports and got away. A million immigrants left Ireland for New York during the next four years--the beginning of the great Irish immigration to America. See Famine
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Irish Presbyterian Church
a Presbyterian Church, formerly called the Synod of Ulster, as having its strength mainly within that province of Ireland.
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Irish Sea
a body of water lying between the N. of Ireland and the N. of on the N. It is connected with the Atlantic on the N. W. by the North Channel and on the S. by St. George's Channel. Between the coasts of Louth (Ireland) and Lancaster the Irish Sea has a width of 150 miles; its greatest length N. and S. is about the same. Within its boundaries lie the Isle of Man and Anglesey, with Holyhead Island.
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Iritis
or IRIDITIS (i-rītis, i-rid-i'tis), an inflammation of the iris, (STAI-DLI-I accompanied by vascularity, change in color and appearance, ce, irregularity and immobility of the pupil, with a visible and varying amount of lymph deposited in, on, and round the iris.
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Irkut
a river of Siberia, in the district of Irkutsk, rising in the mountains of Sayansk, near the frontiers miles of China, and after a course of 220 flowing into the Angara at the town of Irkutsk.
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Iron Age
in classical mythology, the last of the four great ages of the world described by Hesiod, Ovid, etc. It was supposed to be characterized by abounding oppression, vice, and misery. In scientific archæology, an age, the third in succession, in which weapons and many other implements began to be made of iron, stone having been used for these purposes in the first, and bronze in the second. As the advancement of each tribe or people is not necessarily at the same rate as that of their neighbors, the Iron Age probably did not begin everywhere simultaneously. In Denmark, and perhaps some of the adjacent regions, it may have commenced about the Christian era.
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Iron Age, The
The, in Greek mythology, one of the periods of time into which the history of the world was divided. The Iron Age followed the Brazen Age and was the last of the four, or, according to some accounts, the five great ages. In the Iron Age the whole world was given over to crime and misery. Jupiter decided to destroy mankind and start over again with a new and different race. He thought first of burning the world, but, fearing to set heaven also on fire, he decided to send a flood to drown the human family. This he proceeded to do, but Deucalion, a just man, and his good wife, Pyrrha, escaped the waters, and through them the earth was peopled. In archaeology the term iron age is used to designate the period in which iron began to be used for the making of implements and weapons. See Deucalion ; Archaeology ; Hesiod
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