ESCUINTLA

escuintla, the capital of the department of escuintla, guatemala; on the southern slope of the sierra madre, 45 m. s.w. of guatemala city. pop. (1905) about 12,000. escuintla is locally celebrated for its hot mineral springs. it is the commercial centre of a fertile district, which produces coffee, cane-sugar and cocoa; it has also a brisk transit trade in most of the products of guatemala, owing to its position on the interoceanic railway between puerto barrios on the atlantic and san jose (30 m. s.) on the pacific. a branch railway which goes westward to san augustin meets this line at escuintla. escutcheon (o. fr. _escucheon_, _escusson_, modern _ecusson_, through a late lat. form from lat. _scutum_, shield), an heraldic term for a shield with armorial bearings displayed (see heraldry). the word is also applied to the shields used on tombs, in the spandrils of doors or in string-courses, and to the ornamented plates from the centre of which door-rings, knockers, &c., are suspended, or which protect the wood of the key-hole from the wear of the key. in medieval times these were often worked in a very beautiful manner.