AVEBURY, a village of England, in the county of Wilts, 6 miles W. of Marlborough. It occupies the site of one of the most remarkable megalithic structures in England. This consisted of a large outer circle formed of 100 stones of from 15 to 17 feet in height, and about 40 feet in circumference, enclosing an area of about 1000 feet in diameter. This circle was surrounded by a broad ditch and lofty rampart. Within its area were two smaller circles, 350 and 325 feet in diameter respectively, each consisting of a double concentric row of stones,—a stone pillar or maenhir, 20 feet high, occupying the centre of the one, and a cromlech or dolmen that of the other. A long avenue of approach, now known as the Kennet Avenue, consisting of a double row of stones, branched off from this structure towards the S.E. for a distance of 1430 yards. Few traces of this immense erection now remain—the stones having been broken down and used in the construction of the houses of the village, and for other purposes. In the vicinity are two other monuments of great importance, which may be regarded as belonging to the same group, namely, the double oval of megaliths on Hakpen Hill—Haca’s pen—and the artificial mound known as Silbury Hill. The Hakpen oval was, according to Stuke-ley, 138 feet by 155, and had an avenue 45 feet wide stretching in the direction of Silbury Hill. This hill is due south from Avebury, and the distance from the centre of the circle to the centre of the mound is very nearly one Roman mile. Much discussion has taken place about the age and object of these constructions, the most popular theory hitherto being that which ascribed them to the Druids, and thus got rid of historic difficulties by escaping into the region of the prehistoric. Recently, Mr Fergusson has ...

AVEIRO, a town of Portugal, province of Beira, the seat of a bishopric and college. It has sardine, oyster, and herring fisheries, as well as a thriving trade in oil, salt, wine, and oranges. The haven is wide and deep. Population, 6456. Long. 8° 34' W., lat. 40° 40' N.

AVELLA, a town of Italy, in the province of Principato Ulteriore, in a fine situation, and commanding most extensive prospects. It is distant about 20 miles from Naples, and contains 3714 inhabitants. Near it are the remains of the ancient Abella.

AVELLINO, a fortified city of Italy, in the province of Principato Ulteriore, at the foot of Mount Vergine, and 28 miles E. of Naples. It is the see of a bishop, and has a cathedral, several parish churches, a royal college, Ac., with manufactories of cloth, paper, maccaroni, and sausages, and extensive dye-works. It has a considerable trade in corn, chestnuts, and hazel-nuts. The city has at various times suffered severely from earthquakes. Population, 20,492.

AVEMPACE. Abu Bekr Mohammed Ibn Jaπya, sur-named lbn Eadja or Ibn Sayeg (i.e., son of the goldsmith), whose name has been corrupted by the Latins into Avem-pace, Avenpace, or Aben Pace, was the earliest and one of the most distinguished of the Arab philosophers in Spain. Almost nothing is known of the events in his life; he was born, probably at Saragossa, towards the close of the 11th century, and died at Fez in 1138 at a not very advanced age. Like most of the Arab philosophers, h√ was a physician by profession, and he is also said to have been a man of wide general culture. He was a skilled musician, mathematician, astronomer, and poet, and though he is now known only through his metaphysical speculations, these do not seem to have been his favourite studies. His writings, if we accept the report of Oceibia, were varied and numerous. Several treatises on logical subjects are mentioned by Casiri as still among the MSS. at the Escurial, and some smaller pieces are also found in other libraries. The most important of his works is that noticed by Averroes, who promised a complete discussion of it, but unfortunately neither the treatise nor the exposition has come down to us. Our knowledge of it is almost entirely drawn from the notices given by Moses of Narbonne, a Jewish writer of the 14th century, in his commentary on the somewhat similar work of Ibn Tofail. The title of the work may be translated as the Régime or Conduct of the Solitary, understanding by that the organised system of rules, by obedience to which the individual may rise from the mere life of the senses to the perception of pure intelligible principles, and may participate in the divine thought which sustains the world. These rules for the individual are but the image or reflex of the political ...

a city of Egypt, afterward called Heliopolis, and On, Ezek. xxx, 17. Herodotus informs us that in this city there was an annual assembly in honour of the sun, and a temple dedicated to him. It appears, however, highly probable, by the behaviour of Pharaoh to Joseph and Jacob, and especially by Joseph’s care to preserve the land to the priests, Gen. xlvii, 22, 26, that the true religion prevailed in Egypt in his time; and it is incredible that Joseph should have married the daughter of the priest of On, had that name among the Egyptians denoted only the material light; which, however, no doubt they, like all the rest of the world, idolized in after times, and to which we find a temple dedicated among the Canaanites, under this name, Joshua vii, 2.

AVENBRUGGER, or Auenbrugger, Leopold, a physician of Vienna, the discoverer of the important mode of investigating diseases of the chest and abdomen by auscultation. His method was to apply the ear to the chest, and to note the sounds it afforded on percussion by the hand, or what is called immediate auscultation. His Latin treatise, Inventum novum ex Percussione Thoracis Humani Interni Pectoris Morbos detegendi, published in 1761, excited little attention, until it was translated and illustrated by Corvisart, in 1808, when it soon led the way to Laennec’s great improvement of aiding the ear by the stethoscope, or mediate auscultation. The great value of the method introduced by Avenbrugger, in the diagnosis of internal diseases, is now universally acknowledged. He was born at Grätz in 1722, and died in 1809.