eaving the Society numbering
13,000 members in 550 houses and 15 provinces. The subsequent influence
exercised by the Jesuits, in their golden age, was largely due to the
far-seeing policy of Aquaviva, who is undoubtedly the greatest general
that has governed the Society. (E. Tn.)

AQUEDUCT (Lat. _aqua_, water, and _ducere_, to lead; Gr. [Greek:
hydragogeion], [Greek: hydragogion], [Greek: hyponomos]), a term
properly including artificial works of every kind by means of which
water is conveyed from one place to another, but generally used in a
more limited sense. It is, in fact, rarely employed except in cases
where the work is of considerable magnitude and importance, and where
the water flows naturally by gravitation. The most important purpose for
which aqueducts are constructed is that of conveying pure water, from
sources more or less distant, to large masses of population. Aqueducts
are either below ground, on the surface, or raised on walls either solid
or pierced with arches; to the last the term is often confined in
popular language. The choice of method naturally depends on the contour
of the country.

Phoenician.

I. _Ancient Aqueducts._--In Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria--flat countries
traversed by big rivers and subject to floods--water was supplied by
means of open canals with large basins. In Persia devices of all kinds
were adopted according to the nature of the country. In relation to the
achievements of Greece and Rome, the Phoenicians are the most important
among pre-classical engineers. In Cyprus water was supplied to temples
by rock-cut subterranean conduits carried across intervening valleys in
siphons. Such conduits have been found near Citium, Amathus, &c.
(Cesnola, _Cyprus_, pp. 187, 341). In Syria the most striking of
Phoenician waterworks is the well of Ras-el-Ain near Tyre, which
consisted of four strong octagonal towers through which rises to a
height of 18 to 20 ft. the water from four deep artesian wells. The
water thus accumulated was carried off in conduits to reservoirs near
the shore, and thence in vessels or skins to the island. The aqueduct
across to the island is, of course, of Roman work.

Jerusalem.

It is not possible in all cases to find a satisfactory date for the
numerous conduits which have supplied Jerusalem; some probably go back
to the times of the kings of Judah. The principal reservoir consists of
the three Pools of Solomon which supplied the old a