Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/67

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EMPEROR-FISH. 51 EMPIRIC. trated on the Plate of Coral-Fishes, frequent the coral reefs of Florida, Bermuda, and the west lmlk's, and occasionally stray northward. See COBAX-FISHES. EMPE'TRTJM. Sec CbowBEBBY. EMPHASIS. See Accent. EM'PHYSE'MA (Neo-Lat., from Gk. e/upt- cnpa, inflation, from iv, en, in -f- tpvpav, phi/van, to blow). An unnatural distention of a part with air. It is rarely that emphysema is pro- duced otherwise than mechanically; but collec- tions of fluid in a state of decomposition some- times give out gases, which penetrate and dis- tend the textures with which they are in contact. EMPHYTEUSIS (Lat., from Gk. efuftirevau, an implanting, from ififvreieiv, emphyteuein, to implant, from liMpvroc, emphytos, implanted, from l/iijiitir, emphyein, to implant, from iv, en, in + Q&iv, pln/iiii, to plant). At Roman law, a perpetual, alienable, and heritable right of pos- Bessing and enjoying agricultural property in con- sideration of the payment of an annual ground- rent. This institution, as it is found in the laws of Justinian, had two roots. (1) In Italy, during the period of the Roman Republic, assignments of lands belonging to the Roman people or to a municipality were made to private persons, nomi- nally at the pleasure of the Roman people or of the municipality, but praetieally on an indefinite, alienable, and heritable tenure; and for the use of these lands a fixed payment 'vectigal) was made. Lands so held were termed agri vecti- gales. (2) In the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire tracts of unimproved land were granted, on a perpetual tenure, for improvement or 'plantation' [emphyteusis), in consideration of a fixed annual ground-rent (canon), which was regularly based on the value of the unimproved property ; and such grants were not infrequently made by private proprietors. When the Empire became Christian, such grants were made also by churches and monasteries. Neither of these institutions, ius in agro vecti- gali or emphyteusis, could be brought under the Roman law of lease (locatio conduct in) , because the Roman lessee had no protection against third persons except through his lessor, and no protec- tion against his lessor except, in case of breach of contract, by action for damages; while the holder of an emphyteusis was protected against his landlord, and the holders of ius in agro vecti- gali or of emphyteusis enjoyed the same rights of action against third persons as if they were owners. Both therefore had, what the Roman lessee had not, a right in the land itself. These two institutions were fused by Justinian into one. As against the landlord the emphyteutist had the right of possession and enjoyment, under the following limitations: He must keep the land in cultivation ; he must pay the taxes on the land ; he must pay the annual ground-rent to his landlord; and, if he proposed to sell his right, he must inform the landlord of his intention and of the price ottered. The landlord had then the right either to buy the emphyteusis himself, at the same price, or to exact two per cent, of the price. The landlord had the right of reentry upon the land when it was sensibly deteriorated by neglect or misuse; when taxes or ground-rent had not been paid for three years; when notice of inten- tion to sell was not given : or when the price offered was not truthfully stated. Teutonic law developed a similar institution, known as heri- table leasehold ( erbpachi i . Mediaeval jurists were inclined to construe both emphyteusis and erbpachi as a divided owner- ship, attributing titular ownership to the land- lord and beneficial ownership to the occupant. i See Dominium.) The revolutionists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries disliked these perpetual leaseholds as savoring of feudalism; and in many States the ground rent - were either abolished or provision was made for their re- demption. In some European States, however, the institution survives, sometimes under the name of erbpaoht, sometimes under that of emphyteusis, with more or less blending of Unman and mediaeval rules. For the Spanish law, see Censo. For the perpetual leasehold of urban property, see Superficies. Consult the authorities re- ferred to under Civil Law. EMPIRE (OF., Fr. empire, from Lat. im- perium, power, from inept rare, to command). The territory and people whose sovereign beaj the title. of emperor or empress; a title which, since the time of Julius Ca;sar, implies the pos- session of monarchical power in its highest form. The Roman Empire, from a.d. 395, was divided into two parts, one of which was ruled from Lome, the other from Constantinople. The Em- pire of the West succumbed to the onslaught of the Germanic nations in 476, while the Eastern or Byzantine Empire survived until 1453. Charles the Great, King of the Franks, was crowned Emperor at Rome by Pope Leo III., in 800, thus nominally reviving the Empire of the West, and the title of Emperor of the Roman- continued to be borne by his successors for nearly a century. About fifty years after the extinction of the Carolingian dynasty in Germany, the Ger- man King, Otto the Great, after conquering the Lombard crown, had himself crowned Emperor by the Pope at Rome in 962, from which yeat dates the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, frequently spoken of simply as the 'Em- pire.' From Otto's time there was an unbroken succession of elected German kings, who assumed the rank and right of emperors and were ac- knowledged as such by the Church. After the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, the Empire was reduced to a mere federation of principalities, which came to an end in 1806, to be revived in 1815 as the Germanic Confederation. In 1871 the German States, with the exclusion of Aus- tria, were consituted an empire, the dignity of German Emperor being made, hereditary in the royal dynasty of Prussia. In addition to the three empires of Christendom — Germany. Aus- tria-Hungary, and Russia — the Turkish. Chinese, and Japanese realms are spoken of as empires, while the King of England bears the title of Emperor of India. Previous to 1889 Brazil was an empire. See Emperor; Holt Roman Em- pire; Germany. EMPIRE STATE. New York. See States. Popular Names of. EMPIRIC (Lat. empirievs. Gk. i^i~eipiK6c, empeirikos, empire, from c/nreipoc, empeiros, skilled in, from iv, en, in + ireTpa, peira, trial). The name applied to a sect of ancient physicians in the time of Celsus and Galen, who give us some insight into their modes of thought and practice. They laid great stress on the unpreju-