power. Of the remainder of his life it would be well if nothing could be said. Occasionally speaking in parliament, and hoping that he might return to office should the prince become regent, he gradually degenerated into a state of useless idleness. Never conspicuous for prudence, he aggravated his increasing poverty by an unfortunate second marriage.
His first wife had died in 1805, and he married at Gretna Green a Miss Mary Buck. The date of this marriage is not definitely known. Once only—in his conduct in the case of Queen Caroline—does he recall his former self. He died at Almondell, Linlithgowshire, on the 17th of November 1823, of pneumonia, caught on the voyage to Scotland.
Erskine’s great forensic reputation was, to a certain extent, a concomitant of the numerous political trials of the day, but it was also due to his impassioned eloquence and undaunted courage, which so often carried audience and jury and even the court along with him. As a judge he did not succeed; and it has been questioned whether under any circumstances he could have succeeded. For the office of chancellor he was plainly unfit. As a lawyer he was well read, but by no means profound. His strength lay in the keenness of his reasoning faculty, in his dexterity and the ability with which he disentangled complicated masses of evidence, and above all in his unrivalled power of fixing and commanding the attention of juries. To no department of knowledge but law had he applied himself systematically, with the single exception of English literature, of which he acquired a thorough mastery in early life, at intervals of leisure in college, on board ship, or in the army. Vanity is said to have been his ruling personal characteristic; but those who knew him, while they admit the fault, say that in him it never took an offensive form, even in old age, while the singular grace and attractiveness of his manner endeared him to all with whom he came in contact.
By his first wife he had four sons and four daughters. His eldest son, David Montagu (1776–1855), was a well-known diplomatist; his second son, Henry David (1786–1859), was dean of Ripon; and his third son, Thomas (1788–1864), became a judge of the court of common pleas. By his second wife he had one son, born in 1821.
In 1772 Erskine published Observations on the Prevailing Abuses in the British Army, a pamphlet which had a large circulation, and in later life, Armata, an imitation of Gulliver’s Travels. His most noted speeches have repeatedly appeared in a collected form. See Campbell’s Lives of the Chancellors; Moore’s Diaries; Fergusson’s Henry Erskine (1882); Dumerit’s Henry Erskine, a Study (Paris, 1883); Lord Brougham’s Memoir, prefixed to Erskine’s Speeches (1847); Romilly’s Memoirs; the Croker Papers; Lord Holland’s Memoirs.
ERUBESCITE, a native copper-iron sulphide, Cu5FeS4, of
importance as an ore of copper. It crystallizes in the cubic
system, the usual form being that of interpenetrating cubes
twinned on an octahedral plane. The faces are usually curved
and rough, and the crystals confusedly aggregated together.
Compact and granular masses are of more frequent occurrence.
The colour on a freshly fractured surface is bronzy or coppery,
but in moist air this rapidly tarnishes with iridescent blue and
red colours; hence the names purple copper ore, variegated
copper ore (Ger. Buntkupfererz), horse-flesh ore, and erubescite
(from the Lat. erubescere, “to grow red”). The lustre is metallic,
and the streak greyish-black; hardness 3; sp. gr. 5.0. Bornite
(after Baron Ignaz von Born, b. 1742, d. 1791) is a name in
common use for this mineral, and it predates erubescite, the name
given by J. D. Dana in 1850, but afterwards rejected by him;
French authors use the name phillipsite, after the English
mineralogist, R. Phillips, who analysed the mineral; both these
earlier names had, however, been previously used for other
minerals.
Owing to the frequent presence of mechanically admixed chalcopyrite and chalcocite, the published analyses of erubescite show wide variations, the copper, for example, varying from 50 to 70%. Even the best Cornish crystals enclose a nucleus of chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), and an analysis of these made in 1839 led to the long-accepted formula Cu3FeS3. Recently, B. J. Harrington has analysed carefully selected material and obtained the formula Cu5FeS4.
Erubescite occurs in copper-bearing veins, and has been mined as an ore of copper at Redruth in Cornwall, Montecatini in the province of Pisa, Tuscany, Bristol in Connecticut, Acton in Canada, and other localities in North America. The best crystallized specimens are from the Carn Brea mine and other copper mines in the neighbourhood of Redruth, and from Bristol in Connecticut. Recently a few large isolated crystals with the form of icositetrahedra have been found with calcite and albite in a gold-vein on Frossnitz-Alpe in the Gross-Venediger, Tirol. (L. J. S.)
ERYSIPELAS (a Greek word, probably derived from ἐρυθρός,
red, and πέλλα, skin)—synonyms, the Rose, St Anthony’s Fire—an
acute contagious disease, characterized by a special inflammation
of the skin, caused by a streptococcus. Erysipelas is
endemic in most countries, and epidemic at certain seasons,
particularly the spring of the year. The poison is not very
virulent, but it certainly can be conveyed by bedding and the
clothes of a third person. Two varieties are occasionally
described, a traumatic and an idiopathic, but the disease seems
to depend in all cases upon the existence of a wound or abrasion.
In the so-called idiopathic variety, of which facial erysipelas
is the best known, the point of entry is probably an abrasion by
the lachrymal duct.
When the erysipelas is of moderate character there is simply a redness of the integument, which feels somewhat hard and thickened, and upon which there often appear small vesications. This redness, though at first circumscribed, tends to spread and affect the neighbouring sound skin, until an entire limb or a large area of the body may become involved in the inflammatory process. There is usually considerable pain, with heat and tingling in the affected part. As the disease advances the portions of skin first attacked become less inflamed, and exhibit a yellowish appearance, which is followed by slight desquamation of the cuticle. The inflammation in general gradually disappears. Sometimes, however, it breaks out again, and passes over the area originally affected the second time. But besides the skin, the subjacent tissues may become involved in the inflammation, and give rise to the formation of pus. This is termed phlegmonous erysipelas, and is much more apt to occur in connexion with the traumatic variety of the disease. Occasionally the affected parts become gangrenous. Certain complications are apt to arise in erysipelas affecting the surface of the body, particularly inflammation of serous membranes, such as the pericardium or pleura.
Erysipelas of the face usually begins with symptoms of general illness, the patient feeling languid, drowsy and sick, while frequently there is a distinct rigor followed with fever. Sore throat is sometimes felt, but in general the first indication of the local affection is a red and painful spot at the side of the nose or on one of the cheeks or ears. Occasionally it would appear that the inflammation begins in the throat, and reaches the face through the nasal fossae. The redness gradually spreads over the whole surface of the face, and is accompanied with swelling, which in the lax tissues of the cheeks and eyelids is so great that the features soon become obliterated and the countenance wears a hideous expression. Advancing over the scalp, the disease may invade the neck and pass on to the trunk, but in general the inflammation remains confined to the face and head. While the disease progresses, besides the pain, tenderness and heat of the affected parts, the constitutional symptoms are very severe. The temperature rises often to 105° or higher, remains high for four or five days, and then falls by crisis. Delirium is a frequent accompaniment. The attack in general lasts for a week or ten days, during which the inflammation subsides in the parts of the skin first attacked, while it spreads onwards in other directions, and after it has passed away there is, as already observed, some slight desquamation of the cuticle.
Although in general the termination is favourable, serious and occasionally fatal results follow from inflammation of the membranes of the brain, and in some rare instances sudden death
