I'VORY, the tusks and teeth of the elephant, and of the walrus or sea-horse; a hard, solid substance, of a tine white creamy color, and greatly esteemed for the fineness of its grain, and the high polish ft is capable of receiving. That of India loses its color and becomes yel low; but that of Achem and Ceylon is free from this imperfection. Ivory is extensively used by cutlers in the manu facture of handles for knives and forks ; by miniature painters for their tablets; by turners, in making numberless useful and ornamental objects, as well as for chessmen, billiard balls, toys. mte.; also by musical and philosophical instrument makers; comb-makers; and by dentists for making artificial teeth; for which last-mentioned purpose the ivory of the walrus is preferred. The western and eastern coasts of Africa, the Cape of Good Rope, Ceylon, India, and the coun tries to the eastward of the straits of Malacca, ire the great marts whence supplies
ous statues of ivory, particularly in the temples of Jupiter and of Juno at Olym pius. In these statues there was very frequently a mixture of gold. The most celebrated arc stated to have been the Olympian Jupiter and the Minerva of Phiditts : the former was covered with a golden drapery, and seated on a throne formed of gold, of ivory and cedar-wood, and enriched with precious stones. In his hand the god held a figure of Victory, alike of ivory and gold. The Minerva was erected in the Parthenon at Athens during the first year of the eighty-seventh Olympiad, the year which commenced the Peloponnesian war. Pausanias, like wise, makes mention of an ivory statue of Juno, on her throne, of remarkable magniticenee, by Polyeletes, together with an infinity of others.
ITV, in mythological painting and sculpture, a. plant, the leaves of which were made very plentiful use of by an cient artists on vases, pedestals, altars, fte. It was also, in the shape of a crown, the constant attribute of Bacchus, proba bly because, being evergreen, it implied, in an allegorical and at the same time elegant manner, the eternal youth of that deity.
J, this letter, although very ancient, has been added to the English alphabet only in modern days. Its term was origi nally identical with that of I, and it is only within the last century that any dis tinction was made between them. The separation of these two letters in English dictionaries is of still more recent date. It seems to have had the sound of y in many words, as it still has in the German. The English sound of this letter may he expressed by dzh, or ed:h, a compound sound coinciding exactly with that of g, in genius; the French], with the articu lation d preceding it. It is the tenth letter of the English alphabet, and the seventh consonant.