court to engage in endless inquiries as to the true inwardness of a man’s mind, whether his state of ignorance existed at the time of the commission of the offence, whether such a condition of mind was inevitable or brought about merely by indifference on his part. Therefore, in English, as in Roman law, ignorance of the law is no ground for avoiding the consequences of an act. So far as regards criminal offences, the maxim as to ignorantia juris admits of no exception, even in the case of a foreigner temporarily in England, who is likely to be ignorant of English law. In Roman law the harshness of the rule was mitigated in the case of women, soldiers and persons under the age of twenty-five, unless they had good legal advice within reach (Dig. xxii. 6. 9). Ignorance of a matter of fact may in general be alleged in avoidance of the consequences of acts and agreements, but such ignorance cannot be pleaded where it is the duty of a person to know, or where, having the means of knowledge at his disposal, he wilfully or negligently fails to avail himself of it (see Contract).
In logic, ignorance is that state of mind which for want of evidence is equally unable to affirm or deny one thing or another. Doubt, on the other hand, can neither affirm nor deny because the evidence seems equally strong for both. For Ignoratio Elenchi (ignorance of the refutation) see Fallacy.
IGNORANTINES (Frères Ignorantins), a name given to the
Brethren of the Christian Schools (Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes),
a religious fraternity founded at Reims in 1680, and formally
organized in 1683, by the priest Jean Baptiste de la Salle, for
the purpose of affording a free education, especially in religion,
to the children of the poor. In addition to the three simple
vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, the brothers were
required to give their services without any remuneration and
to wear a special habit of coarse black material, consisting of a
cassock, a hooded cloak with hanging sleeves and a broad-brimmed
hat. The name Ignorantine was given from a clause
in the rules of the order forbidding the admission of priests with
a theological education. Other popular names applied to the
order are Frères de Saint-Yon, from the house at Rouen, which
was their headquarters from 1705 till 1770, Frères à quatre bras,
from their hanging sleeves, and Frères Fouetteurs, from their
former use of the whip (fouet) in punishments. The order,
approved by Pope Benedict XIII. in 1724, rapidly spread over
France, and although dissolved by the National Assembly’s
decree in February 1790, was recalled by Napoleon I. in 1804,
and formally recognized by the French government in 1808.
Since then its members have penetrated into nearly every country
of Europe, and into America, Asia and Africa. They number
about 14,000 members and have over 2000 schools, and are
the strongest Roman Catholic male order. Though not officially
connected with the Jesuits, their organization and discipline
are very similar.
See J. B. Blain, La Vie du vénérable J. B. de la Salle (Versailles, 1887).
IGUALADA, a town of north-eastern Spain, in the province
of Barcelona, on the left bank of the river Noya, a right-hand
tributary of the Llobregat, and at the northern terminus of
the Igualada-Martorell-Barcelona railway. Pop. (1900) 10,442.
Igualada is the central market of a rich agricultural and wine-producing
district. It consists of an old town with narrow
and irregular streets and the remains of a fortress and ramparts,
and a new town which possesses regular and spacious streets
and many fine houses. The local industries, chiefly developed
since 1880, include the manufacture of cotton, linen, wool,
ribbons, cloth, chocolate, soap, brandies, leather, cards and
nails. The famous mountain and convent of Montserrat or Monserrat (q.v.) is 12 m. E.
IGUANA, systematically Iguanidae (Spanish quivalent of
Carib iwana), a family of pleurodont lizards, comprising about
50 genera and 300 species. With three exceptions, all the genera
of this extensive family belong to the New World, being specially
characteristic of the Neotropical region, where they occur as
far south as Patagonia, while extending northward into the
warmer parts of the Nearctic regions as far as California and
British Columbia. The exceptional genera are Brachylophus
in the Fiji Islands, Hoplurus and Chalarodon in Madagascar.
The iguanas are characterized by the peculiar form of their
teeth, these being round at the root and blade-like, with serrated
edges towards the tip, resembling in this respect the gigantic
extinct reptile Iguanodon. The typical forms belonging to this
family are distinguished by the large dewlap or pouch situated
beneath the head and neck, and by the crest, composed of
slender elongated scales, which extends in gradually diminishing
height from the nape of the neck to the extremity of the tail.
The latter organ is very long, slender and compressed. The
tongue is generally short and not deeply divided at its extremity,
nor is its base retracted into a sheath; it is always moist and
covered with a glutinous secretion. The prevailing colour of
the iguanas is green; and, as the majority of them are arboreal
in their habits, such colouring is generally regarded as protective.
Those on the other hand which reside on the ground
have much duller, although as a rule equally protective hues.
Some iguanas, however (e.g. Anolis carolinensis), possess, to an
extent only exceeded by the chameleon, the power of changing
their colours, their brilliant green becoming transformed under
the influence of fear or irritation, into more sombre hues and even
into black. They differ greatly in size, from a few inches to
several feet in length.
 |
| Fig. 1.—Iguana. |
One of the largest and most widely distributed is the common iguana (Iguana tuberculata), which occurs in the tropical parts of Central and South America and the West Indies, with the closely allied I. rhinolophus. It attains a length of 6 ft., weighing then perhaps 30 ℔, and is of a greenish colour, occasionally mixed with brown, while the tail is surrounded with alternate rings of those colours. Its food consists of vegetable substances, mostly leaves, which it obtains from the forest trees among whose branches it lives and in the hollows of which it deposits its eggs. These are of an oblong shape about 112 in. in length, and are said by travellers to be very pleasant eating, especially when taken raw, and mixed with farina. They are timid, defenceless animals, depending for safety on the comparative inaccessibility of their arboreal haunts, and their protective colouring, which is rendered even more effective by their remaining still on the approach of danger. But the favourite resorts of the iguana are trees which overhang the
