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OF

UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE.

A REPRINT

OF THE LAST (1880) EDINBURGH AND LONDON EDITION
OF CHAMBERS'S ENCYCLOPEDIA,

With Copious Additions by American Editors.

FIFTEEN VOLUMES,

VOLUME II.

NEW YORK:
AMERICAN BOOK EXCHANGE,

TRIBUNE BUILDING,

1880.

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LIBRARY OF UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE.

AUDIPHONE, an instrument to assist with a til brecian queremban of

substance resembling ebonite, provided with a handle, and having the semblance of a fan. When used as an A., the sheet is strained into a curve by strings which lead from the outer edge to the base of the handle. The outer edge is then placed against the upper teeth, and the sound-vibrations, gathered at the surface of the A., are communicated to the auditory nerve through the teeth and bones of the head. The A. may be used with artificial teeth, if they are well seated on the upper jaw.

AUDITOR (Lat. audio, I hear), the name given to certain officers appointed to examine accounts in behalf either of the government, of courts at law, of corporations, or of private persons. The term doubtless owes its origin to the old practice of delivering accounts vicá voce.-AUDIT-OFFICE. In 1785, public auditors were appointed, under the title of "Commissioners for Auditing the Public Accounts," by 25 Geo. III. c. 52, by which the patents of lord Sondes and lord Mountstuart, as auditors of the imprests, were vacated, the sum of £7000 per annum being made payable to each of them for life, in lieu of a percentage which had been paid them on the amount of expenditure audited. Many subsequent statutes have been passed for the purpose of extending and defining the duties of these commissioners, and regulating the business of the audit office. The commissioners of audit are empowered to call on all public accountants to account for moneys or stores intrusted to them; and, should they fail to do so, are required to certify their names to the remembrancer of the exchequer, and the attorney-general of England or Ireland, or the lord advocate of Scotland, in order that they may be proceeded against as defaulters. These proceedings, however, may be stayed for a time by the lords of the treasury, by whom the whole arrangements of the audit-office are controlled, on the application of the accused. The accounts of the ordnance, of the army and navy, and the land revenue, are now subjected to examination in the audit-office. By 2 Will. IV., c. 99, the powers and functions of the commissioners of public accounts in Ireland were transferred to the commissioners for Great Britain. The present establishment at the audit-office consists of a chairman, five commissioners, a secretary, and a large number of inspectors and examiners. The patronage is in the lords of the treasury.-AUDITOR OF THE COURT OF SESSION, in Scotland, is an officer whose duties consist in taxing the costs of suits in which expenses are found due, a remit being made to him for that purpose, either by a division of the court or a lord ordinary. The auditor returns a report to the judge or court making the remit, by whom decree is pronounced for the amount of the taxed account. Objections to the auditor's report may be stated to the judge or court. The nomination of the auditor is in the crown, the office being held ad vitam aut culpam. In the inferior courts an officer with corresponding powers is usually appointed by the court in which he officiates. The office of auditor of the court of session corresponds in many respects to that of the taxing-masters in the court of chancery. In Germany the name auditor is applied to junior legal functionaries.

AUDITOR (ante). The federal, state, and city governments elect or appoint auditors to supervise accounts. In the United States treasury department there are six, each having charge of a single branch of service. States and cities usually have one or more. An A. may be appointed by a court to state items and balances of accounts which are in question; he has authority to hear testimony, and in some states his reports are final as to questions of fact. Churches, benevolent, and other societies, usually have A.'s for inspection of financial accounts.

AUDITORY NERVE. By anatomists, the A. N. is associated with the facial, and is the seventh in order of origin from the brain, counting from before backwards. The seventh pair consists of the portio dura or facial, the portio mollis or auditory, and a small intermediate portion. The portio mollis apparently commences by some white streaks in the floor of the fourth ventricle; it then runs forward to the back of the petrous portion of the temporal bone, and enters the internal auditory meatus. The facial then leaves it to pass along the canal called the aqueductus fallopii, and the auditory divides into two portions, which diverge-the smaller one posterior for the semicircular canals and the vestibule, the other for the cochlea. Those entering the semicircular canals

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