Writing

(rit'ing.) [Same der iv.] The act or art of forming letters and characters on paper, wood, stone, ., for the purpose of recording the ideas which the character sand words expre , or of communicating them to others by visible signs. Without its aid the experience of each generation would have been almost entirely lost to succeeding ages, and only a faint glimmer of truth could have been discerned through the mists of tradition. The most ancient remains of writing, which have been transmitted to us, are upon hard substances, such as stones and metals, which were used for edicts and matters of public notoriety. Thus we read that the decalogue was written on two tables of stone; but this practice was not peculiar to the Jews, for it was used by most of the Eastern nations as well as by the Greeks and Romans. The laws penal, civil, and ceremonial, among theGreeks,were graven on tables ofbru , called kurbeis. The Chinese, before the invention of paper, wrote or engraved with an iron tool, or style, upon thin boards or on bamboo. Pliny says, that table-books of wood were in use before the time of Homer; afterwards these were usually waxed over, and written upon with astyle; the writing was then easily effaced, and by smoothing the wax, new matter might be substituted in the place of what was written before. The bark of trees was also used for writing by the ancients, and is so still in several parts of Asia. The same may be said of the leaves of trees. But the Greeks and Romans continued the use of waxed table-books long after the use of papyrus, leaves, and skins became common, because they were so convenient for correcting ex temporary compositions. See PAPER, PAPYRUS, ., (ri'něk.) (Zool.) The Yunx torquilla, a small European bird, belonging to the Picidæ or Woodpecker family. (wood'wahn,) a town of Hindostan, p.Gujerat, Brit. pres. of Bombay, in N. Lat. 22° 39', E. Lon. 71° 38′. Pop. 33,000., (wurt'em-bairg.) a kingdom of S.Germany, extending bet. N. Lat. 47° 30′-49° 35′, and E. Lon. 8° 15′-10° 30′, and b. W. and N. by Baden, E. by Bavaria, and S. by the Lake of Con stance. Area, 7,675 Eng. sq. m. The chief mountain system of W. is that of the Schwarzwald, or Black Forest, attaining a mean elevation of 3,500ft. above the sea, and its ramifications alternate with richly wooded valleys and fertile plains. Forest, grain, and pasture lands are about equally diffused over the kingdom, and with vine-covered hills, constitute a picturesque coup d'œil of natural scenery. The pp. rivers are the Danube and Neckar, with their affluents. W. po e es considerable manu fs. of textile fabrics, carpets, porcelain, leather, tobacco, iron and steel wares, and cabinet-work. Beer, brandy, and oil are also extensively manufactured. W. is divided into 4circles: those of the Neckar, the Schwarzwald, Juxt, and the Danube. Its principal cities and towns are Stuttgart (the cap.), Ulm, Heilbronn, and E lingen. Evangelical Luther an ism is the religious persuasion of the greater part of the in hab.; education is compulsory, and its higher branches are taught at the university of Tübingen. The govt, is hereditarily monarchical in form; and its military strength, constituting the 13th Corps of the German army, numbers on a peace-footing 14,150 men, with a war establishment of 34,953. The railroads of W. are under govt. control, and have ato tal of378 m. of track. In the 4th cent. the Alemanni made themselves masters of this country, and held it till 406, when it came under the Frankish rule of Clovis I. It became a duchy of the empire in 14943; was raised to the dignity of an electorate in 1801, and in 1803 it became a monarchy. In 1866, by a secret treaty entered into with Pru ia, W. placed herself under the control of the latter power in matters of war and federal policy, and consequently contributed her quota of troops to the German hosts which encountered France in the campaign of 1870-1. Pop. 1,778,386. [s. 969]