The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 464

ZODIACAL LIGHT, a track of light of triangular figure with its base on the horizon, which in low lat.i.tudes is seen within the sun's equatorial plane before sunrise in the E. or after sunset in the W., and which is presumed to be due to a glow proceeding from some illuminated matter surrounding the sun.

ZOHAR, a Jewish book of cabalistic commentaries on the Old Testament.

ZOILUS, a Greek rhetorician who flourished in the 3rd century B.C.; was distinguished for the bitterness with which he criticised Homer, and whose name has in consequence become a synonym for a malignant critic, hence the saying, "Every great poet has his Zoilus."

ZOLA, eMILE, a noted French novelist of the realistic school, or of what he prefers to call the naturalist school, born in Paris, of Italian descent; began literature as a journalist, specially in the critical department, but soon gave himself up to novel-writing, ultimately on realistic lines, and an undue catering, as some think, to a morbid interest on the seamy side of life, to which he addressed himself with great vigour and not a little graphic power, but in an entire misconception of his proper functions as an artist and a man of letters, though, it may be pleaded, he has done so from a strong conviction on his part that his duty lay the other way, and that it was high time literature should, regardless of merely dilettante aestheticism, address itself to exposing, by depicting it, the extent to which the evil genius is gnawing at and corroding the vitals of society; and it is not for a moment to be supposed he has done so from any pleasure he takes in gloating over the doings of the ghoul, or that he is in sympathy with those who do; of his works suffice it to mention here some recent ones, as the story of "Lourdes," published in 1894, "Rome" in 1896, and "Paris"

in 1897; he has recently distinguished himself by his courage in connection with the Dreyfus affair and his bold condemnation of the sentence under which Dreyfus was condemned; _b_. 1840.

ZOLAISM, name given to an excessive realism in depicting the worst side of human life and society. See ZOLA.

ZOLLVEREIN (Customs Union), a union of the German States under Prussia in 1827, and extended in 1867, to establish among them a uniform system of customs rates.

ZONES, the name given to belts of climate on the surface of the earth marked off by the tropical and polar circles, of which the former are 23 from the equator and the latter 23 from the poles, the zone between the tropical circles, subject to extremes of heat, being called the Torrid Zone, the zones between the polar circles and the poles, subject to extremes of cold, being called respectively the North Frigid Zone and the South Frigid Zone, and the zones north and south of the Torrid, subject to moderate temperature, being called respectively the North Temperate, and the South Temperate Zone.

ZOROASTER, ZARATHUSTHRA, or ZERDUSHT, the founder or reformer of the Pa.r.s.ee religion, of whom, though certainly a historical personage, nothing whatever is for certain known except that his family name was Spitama, that he was born in Bactria, and that he could not have flourished later than 800 B.C.; he appears to have been a pure monotheist, and not to be responsible for the Manichean doctrine of dualism a.s.sociated with his name, as Zoroastrianism, or the inst.i.tution of fire-wors.h.i.+p.

ZOSIMUS, Greek historian; wrote a history of the Roman emperors from the time of Augustus to the year 410, and ascribed the decline of the empire to the decay of paganism (408-450).

ZOUAVES, the name given to a body of light infantry in the French army wearing the Arab dress, a costume copied from that of Kabyles, in North Africa, and adopted since the French conquest of Algiers; some regiments of them consist of French soldiers, some of Algerines, though originally the two were incorporated into one body.

ZOUTSPANSBERG, a ridge of mountains on the NE. of the Transvaal, being a continuation of the Drakensberg.

ZSCHOKKE, JOHANN HEINRICH, a German writer, born in Magdeburg, lived chiefly at Aarau, in Aargau, Switzerland, where he spent forty years of his life, part of them in the service of his adopted country, and where he died; wrote histories, and a series of tales, but is best known by his "Stunden der Andacht" (i. e. hours of devotion), on ethico-rationalistic lines (1771-1845).

ZUG (23), the smallest canton of Switzerland, and sends only one representative to the National Council; is 12 m. long by 9 m. broad; is hilly and pastoral in the SE., and has cultivated fields and orchards in the NW.; all but includes Lake Zug, at the NE. of which is Zug (5), the capital, which carries on sundry industries on a small scale.

ZUIDER ZEE (i. e. south sea), a deep inlet of the North Sea, in the Netherlands, which includes the islands of Texel, Vlieland, Tersch.e.l.ling, and Ameland, and was formed by irruptions of the North Sea into a lake called Flevo, in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, when thousands of people were drowned; is 85 m. long and 45 m. broad, and is embraced in a circuit of 210 m.; it was for some time in contemplation to reclaim this area, and after much weighing of the matter the Dutch Government in 1897 adopted a scheme to give effect to this project; according to the scheme adopted it is reckoned it will take 31 years to complete the reclamation at the rate of several thousand acres every year.

ZULEIKA, the bride of Abydos, celebrated by Byron, a pure-souled woman of great beauty, who, in love with Selim, promises to flee with him and become his bride, but her father shoots him, and she dies of a broken heart.

ZULULAND (181), a territory to the NE. of Natal, from which it is separated by the Tugela, and of which it was independent till 1898, but it is now an integral part; it is a little larger than Belgium, is well watered, is capable of cultivation, and has 140 m. of seaboard; it is understood to possess some mineral wealth, though it has not yet been wrought.

ZULUS, a section of the Bantu family which originally occupied the SE. seaboard of Africa from Delagoa Bay to the Great Fish River; they are a race of superior physique and intellectual endowment, as well as moral temperament, and incline to a quiet pastoral life; they were attacked under Cetywayo by the English in 1879, but after falling upon an English force at Isandula, and cutting it in pieces, were overpowered at Ulundi, and put to rout.

ZUMPT, KARL, philologist, born in Berlin, and professor at the University; edited a number of the Latin cla.s.sics, and is best known by his Latin Grammar (1792-1849).

ZURBARAN, FRANCISCO, Spanish painter, born in Estremadura; did mostly religious subjects; his _chef-d'oeuvre_ an altar-piece in Seville, where he lived and worked (1598-1662).

ZURICH (392), a northern canton in Switzerland, and the second largest; is in the basin of the Rhine, with a well-cultivated fertile soil, and manufactures of cottons and silks, and with a capital (151) of the same name at the foot of the Lake of Zurich; a large manufacturing and trading centre; has a Romanesque cathedral and a university, with silk mills and cotton mills, as well as foundries and machine shops; here Lavater was born and Zwingli was pastor.

ZUTPHEN (17), manufacturing town in the Dutch province of Guelderland, in the neighbourhood of which Sir Philip Sidney fell wounded in a skirmish.

ZWICKAU (50), a town in Saxony, in a division (1,389) of the same name, 82 m. SW. of Dresden; it is in the midst of rich beds of coal, and has a number of manufactures.

ZWINGLI, ULRICH, the Swiss Reformer, born at Wildhaus, in the canton of St. Gall, and founder of the Reformed Church; studied at Bern and Vienna, afterwards theology at Basel, and was appointed pastor at Glarus; he got acquainted with Erasmus at Basel, and gave himself to the study of Greek, and in particular the epistles of St. Paul; attached to the monastery of Einsiedeln he, in 1516, attacked the sale of indulgences, and was in 1518 elected to be preacher in the cathedral of Zurich; his preaching was attended with an awakening, and the bishop of Constance tried to silence him, but he was silenced himself in a public debate with the Reformer, the result of which was the abolition of the Ma.s.s and the dispensation instead of the Lord's Supper; the movement thus begun went on and spread, and Zwingli met in conference with Luther, but they failed to agree on the matter of the Eucharist, and on that point the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches separated; in 1531 the Catholic cantons declared war against the reformers of Zurich and Bern, but the latter were defeated at Cappel, and among the dead on the battlefield was the Reformer; his last words were, "They may kill the body, but not the soul"

(1484-1531). See LUTHERANS.

ZWOLLE (25), a manufacturing town in the Dutch province of Oberyssel, 50 m. NE. of Amsterdam; close to it is Agnetenberg, famous as the seat of the monastery where Thomas a Kempis lived and died.

ZYME, name of a germ presumed to be the cause of zymotic diseases.

ZYMOTIC DISEASES, diseases of a contagious nature, presumed to be due to some virus or organism which acts in the system like a ferment.