Ivory

(i'vo-re.) [Fr. ivoire, from L. ebur.] (Com. and Arts.) The tusk of the male elephant, a hard solid substance, of a white creamy color, and greatly esteemed for the finene of its grain, and the high polish it is capable of receiving. That of India becomes yellow; but that of Ceylon is free from this imperfection. The elephant's tusk, or true I., is distinguished from any other tooth-substance by its transverse sections showing lines of different colors running in circular arcs and forming by their decu ation minute lozenge shaped spaces. The term 1., however, is commonly extended to the teeth, horns, or tusks of the walrus, narwhal, hippopotamus, ., which, from their large size and from their density, can be used for the same purposes in the arts as those for which true I. is employed. Independently of its artistic use for delicate carvings, I. is extensively used by cutlers in the manuf. of handles for knives and forks; by miniature-painters for their tablets; by turners, in making numberle useful and ornamental objects, as well as for billiard-balls, . The so-called 1. from the hippopotamus is in especial J. the 10th letter and 7th consonant of the English [s. 496] J J, alphabet, has a soft sound in English, which maybe described as dzh. It is now regarded as a distinct letter instead of being mixed up with i, as was formerly the case; the distinction between the two dating not later than the last century, although the Dutch writers and printers of the 16th and 17th centuries first drew attention to it. In French,j has the power of zh, and in the Spanish represents a guttural, being often substituted for x, which has an identical sound; as, Guadalajara, or Guadalaxara. [s. 497]