EROS His active service included several cam- paigns in the Civil War, where he served as assistant chief engineer with the Army of Tennessee. He was instructor in practical military engineering at West Point from 1871 to 1878, and from that year until 1886 he was engineer in charge of Western river improvements. For 3 years following he had charge of the harbor improvements on the Texas coast, where he began the great work which resulted in the deepening of the channel at the entrance to Galveston harbor. He served on various boards from 1880 to 1906. From 1893 to 1898 he was superintendent of the United States Military Academy. He was a member of the Isthmian Canal Commis- sion from 1899 to 1901, and again in 1905 and 1906. From 1903 to 1906 he was president of the Mississippi River Commission. He retired from active service in 1906. He wrote "Manual of Practical Military Engineering" and other works on engineering subjects. EBOS, the Greek equivalent of the Latin Cupid, the god of love. ERSKINE, JOHN, an American edu- . cator, born in New York City in 1879. . He graduated from Columbia University in 1900 and was in turn instructor of English, assistant professor, and asso- ciate professor of English at Amherst, serving until 1909, when he became adjunct professor of English at Colum- bia University. He was appointed full professor in 1916. He wrote several volumes of poems and was a frequent contributor to magazines on literary subjects. He was coeditor of the Cam- bridge History of American Literature, 1917-1919. In 1918-1919 he was chair- man of the Army Education Commission of the American Expeditionary Forces, and was educational director of the American Expeditionary Forces Univer- sity at Beaune, France, in 1919. ERSKINE, THOMAS, a Scotch baron; born in Edinburgh, Jan. 21, 1750; be- came a noted forensic orator and jurist, attaining most of his renown as a pleader in support of the accusations of corruption made against Lord Sand- wich; later he added to his success by his defense of Stockdale, Hardy, Thomas Paine, Home Tooke, and others. He was a member of the House of Commons in 1790-1806. About the latter date he was created Baron Erskine of Restor- mel, on becoming lord-chancellor. He died near Edinburgh, Nov. 17, 1823. ERVINE, ST. JOHN GREER, an Irish dramatist and novelist. He was born at Belfast in 1883 and first came into notice in connection with the Abbey 43 ERZERUM Theater, Dublin, which in 1913 produced his one-act play, "The Magnanimous Lover," written by him in 1907. In 1910 he wrote a four-act play, "Mixed Mar- riage," produced by the Abbey Theater in 1911. Other of his plays are "John Ferguson," played with gi-eat success in New York in 1919, and "Jane Clegg," played in New York in 1920. His novels include: "Mrs. Martin's Man," "Alice and a Family," "Changing Winds," and "The Foolish Lovers." He was trooper in the Household Battalion in the World War; after serving as 2d lieu- tenant, Dublin Fusiliers, was wounded, May, 1918, and invalided home. He wrote a political study, "Sir Edward Carson and the Ulster Movement," and he lectured in the United States in 1920. ERYSIPELAS, a peculiar inflamma- tion of the skin, spreading with great rapidity; the parts affected are of a deep red color, with a diffused swelling of the underlying cutaneous tissue and cellular membrane, and an indisposition to take on healthy action. Erysipelas is divided into: (1) Simple, where the skin only is affected; (2) Phlegmonous, where the cutaneous and areolar tissues are both attacked at the same time, going on to vesication, then yellowness, and death of the skin; death of the areolar tissue may follow, constituting malignant or gangrenous erysipelas; (3) (Edematous, or sub-cutaneous, of a yellowish, dark brown, or red color, occurring about the eyelids, scrotum, or legs, usually in broken-down dropsical constitutions. The first is superficial and sthenic, the other forms more deep-seated and asthenic. Some physicians speak highly of poul- tices of Phytolacca leaves, while others recommend topical applications of some form of iron in tincture. The constitu- tional treatment is mainly restorative. ERYX, an ancient city and a mountain in the W. of Sicily, about 2 miles from the sea-coast. The mountain, now Monte San Giuliano, rises direct from the plain to a height of 2,184 feet. On the summit anciently stood a celebrated temple of Venus. All traces of the ancient town of Eryx have now disap- peared, and its site is occupied by the modern town of San Giuliano. ERZERUM (erz-rom'), an important town in the Armenian Republic, in lat. 39° 55' N. and Ion. 41° 20' E., not far from the Kara-Su, or W. source of the Euphrates. It is situated on a high but tolerably well cultivated plain, 6,200 feet above the level of the sea, sur- rounded by mountains. The climate is cold in winter, but hot and dry in sum- mer. In November, 1901, an earthquake
