ACIDULOUS, a term used to denote any g which is slightly acid. ACIDULUM, in chemistry, a term exg a genus of native salts, composed of salts, united with a certain quantity of push, or those in which the alkaline base is arated with acid. There are two speof acidulæ, the tartareous, and the oxalic; the first, which is known by the name cream of tartar, will be described under the article ANDULOUS TARTRITE OF POTASH; and he second, commonly called salt of sorrel, ader ACIDULOUS OXALATE OF POTASH. ACIDUM PINGUE, Causticum, in cleetry, an imaginary agent or principle, posed by Frederic Meyer, an apoth burg, to explain the causticity of other phenomena of chemistry. cration of this principle is ext d, and the properties ascribed to entradictory, it is now exploded. ount of it may be seen in M. aical Dictionary. ACINACES, a kind of scymit. in Persia. ACINA CIFORM LEAF. (1 c.) In botany, fleshy, com courex and sharp, the other str Leer; resembling a sabre, faulchio . As in Mesembryanthemum *0 fs and scyci ACINI. (xiv, from ax, a point.) In boclustering or granulating prominences in beres, as for instance those in the mulberry, blackberry: also the kernels of the grape: dhecce in anatoiny applied to glands, which Sabit a similar configuration. ACINIFORM TÜNIC. (Tunica aciniThe uvea, or posterior lamina of the because in brutes, which the ancients effy dissected, it is of the colour of unripe Pipes. See ACINI. ACINODENDRON. American gooseDerry. See MELASTOMA. ACINOS. THEMUS. ACIPENSER. In ichtyology, the sturgeon. The xty-sixth genus of order VI. or chondropous, in the Linnéan class fishes. The lowing is its character: head obtuse; mouth neath the head, retractile, without teeth. er between the end of the suout and the month, four: aperture of the gills on each le: body elongated, angulate with numerous **s of large bony plates, The acipenser, or rgeon, may be ranked among the larger es: is an inhabitant of the sea, but ascends vers annually; its flesh, throughout all the ecies is delicious: from the roe is made caare; and from the sound and muscular parts nglass. It feeds on worms and other fishes. The female is larger than the male. It comprises five species: 1. a. sturio (common sturgon) (see NATURAL HISTORY, plate i.;) 2. a. schypa; 3. a. ruthenus; 4. a. stellatus; 5.a huso. Wild or stone basil. See ACIS, in fabulous history, the son of Faunus and Simetheis, was a beautiful shepherd of Sicily, who being beloved by Galatea, Polyphemus the giant was so enraged, that he dashed out his brains against a rock; after which Galatea turned him into a river, which was called by his name. Acis (Ovid, Theocritus); a river of Sicily, running from a very cold spring, in the woody and shy foot of mount Etna, eastward into, and not inuch above a mile from, the sea, along green and pleasant banks, with the speed of an arrow, from which some say it ta! sits name. It is now called Aci Iaci, or Chiaci, according to the different Sicilian dialects: Antorine calls it Acius. Also the name of a hamlet at the mouth of the Acis. ACLIDES, in Roman antiquity, a kind of missive weapon, with a thong fixed to it, whereby it might be drawn back again. To ACKNOWLEDGE. v. a. 1. To own the knowledge of; to own any thing or person in a particular character (Davies). 2. To confess, as a fault (Psalms). 3. To own, as a benefit (Milton). ACKNOWLEDGING. a. (from acknowledge). Grateful (Dryden). ACKNOWLEDGMENT. s. 1. Admission of any character in another (Hale). 2. Concession of the truth of any position Hooker). 3. Confession of a fault. 4. Confession of a benefit received (Dryden). 5. Act of attestation to any concession, such as homage (Spenser). 6. Something given or donc in confession of a benefit received (Temple). ACKWORTH, a small village near Pontefract in Yorkshire, celebrated for the benevolent institution established there by the late Dr. Fothergill, at which more than 300 children of Quakers are educated under the same roof. A'CME. s. (“xur, Gr.) The height of any thing; more especially used to denote the height or crisis of a distemper (Quincy). ACNE. (ann, chaff.) A small tubercle covered with a branny scale. ACNESTIS. (exmoris, from a priv. and raw, to scratch.) That part of the spine between the shoulder-blades, and the commencement of the loins. So called from the difficulty of reaching and scratching it. A'CNIDA, ACNIDE. Virginian hemp. A genus of the Linnean class and order diœcia pentandria; the male plant, calyx five-leaved; corolless. The female calyx two-leaved; corolless; styles five, one-seeded, covered with the succulent calyx. A single species alone is known to botanists, winch is a native of the country whence it derives its English name. ACCELIOUS. (acœlius, curios, from a priv. and xana, the belly.) Thin, emaciated, bellyless. ACOEMET, or ACOEMETI, in church history, a set of monks who chanted the divine service night and day in their places of worship. They divided themselves into three bodies, who alternately succeeded one another, so that their churches were never silent. This practice they founded upon the precept, Pray without ceasing. They flourished in the East about the middle of the fifth century. ACOLUTHI, or ACOLUTHISTS, in antiquity, an appellation given to those persons who were steady and immoveable in their resolutions and hence the stoics, because they would forsake their principles, acquired the title of Acoluthi. The word is Greek, and compounded of a priv. and uses, way; as never turning from the original course. ACOLUTHI, antong the ancient Christians, implied a peculiar order of the inferior clergy in the Latin church. At their ordination, a taper was given them, thereby to understand, that they were appointed to light the candles of the church: as also an empty pitcher, to imply that they were to furnish wine for the cucha rist. ACOLYTHIA, denotes the office or order of divine service; or the prayers, ceremonies, hymns, &c. of the Greek church. ACON, an ancient instrument like the discns. ACONDYLOUS, (exovduños, from a priv. and novdures, a joint.) In botany, a term applied to a flower whose stalk is not divided by joints. ACONITE. See ACONITUM. RUS. ACONITI, in antiquity, a term applied to some of the Athlete. Its import is not now well known. ACONITIFOLIUM. (from aconitum, wolf's-bane, and folium, a leaf.) Duck'sfoot. A herb whose leaves resemble wolf'sbane. 2 ACONITUM. (Dioscorides derives this word from exɔvaw, to sharpen, the herb having been used medicinally to quicken the sight. By others it is derived from priv. and xeus, dust; whence axoro, it being found to thrive in barren and rocky places.) Aconite: wolf'sbane. Monk's-hood. A genus of the Linnéan class polyandria, order trigynia. The common monk's-hood, a. napellus, is a native of the mountainous and woody parts of Germany, France, and Switzerland; but is cultivated in our flower-gardens for the beauty of its colour, which is sometimes white, sometimes yellow, and sometimes blue; and like many other plants, is beautifully duplicated in its petals by such horticulture. Every part of it is strongly poisonous. The extract, or inspissated juice, is given in acute rheumatism, scrophula, and siphilis. Its virtues are sudorific and diuretic; generally, however, accompanied with vertigo, or giddiness of the head. It may be begun as a full dose at gr. 2, which should be gradually and cautiously augmented. The common chaPeter of the Linnéan genus aconitum, is calyx less; five-petalled, the uppermost marked; binectaried; peduncled, recurved: silques three or five. There are fifteen krown species. ACONTIAS, a name used by some authors, for a sort of comet, or meteor, whose head appears round, or oblong, and its tail very long, and slender, resembling a javelin. ACO'NTIAS. (uxovrias, a swift meteor, from axovie, to dart.) The poisonous dart-snake, so called from its agility: its flesh was formerly used as a restorative in medicine. ACONTIUS, a youth of Cea, who, when he went to Delos to see the sacrifices of Diana, fell in love with Cydippe, a beautiful virgin, and being unable to obtain her, wrote verses on an apple, which he threw into her bosom. Cydippe read these verses; and being compelled by the oath she had inadvertently made, married Acontius (Ovid). ACOR. (from aceo, to be sharp.) Acidity in the stomach. ACORIA. Canopia, from a neg. and xs;ew, to satisfy.) Bulimia, addephagia. Ravenous, or canine appetite. ACORN. s. The fruit, or nut of trees of the oak kind. ACORN, a little ornamental piece of wood, in the shape of a cone, fixed on the top of the spindle on the mast-head, above the vane, to keep it from coming off the spindle in a whirlwind. ACORN-SHELL. In scolecology. See LE CALAMUS. ACORUS VULGARIS. RUS PALUSTRIS. The same as Aco A'CORUS. Sweet-rush. A genus of the Linnéan class and order hexandria monogynia; thus generically characterised: spadix cylindri cal, covered with florets; corol six-petalled, naked, styleless; capsule three-celled. Two species of this plant have been detected; the a. calamus, vulgarly called sweet-flag, found in the pools of our own and other countries of the same latitude; the roots of which form the calamus aromaticus of the shops. And the a. gramineus, a native of China, and which has been cultivated in the royal garden at Kew. Sce CALAMUS AROMATICUS. ACORYPHOUS. (axofupos, from a neg. and gun, a head.) In botany, applied to vegetables, which like the tendrils of a vine, teriminate in a point, without head or flower. ACO'SMÍA. (from & neg. and κόσμος, Πρακ tiful.) Il health, as productive of loss of beauty. ACOSMOUS. (from acosmia.) Pale; thin; had because the bald are supposed to have ACOUSMATICI, sometimes also called Acustici, in Grecian antiquity, such of the ciples of Pythagoras as had not completed their five years probation. ACOUSTIC, in general, denotes any thing that relates to the ear, or the doctrine of wounds. ACOUSTIC VESSELS, in the ancient theare, were a kind of vessels, made of brass, daped in the bell-fashion; which being of all as within the pitch of the voice, or even of struments, rendered the sounds more audible, that the actors could be heard through all parts of the theatres, which were even 400 feet in diameter. ACOUSTICS, the doctrine, or theory of hering, or of sounds. The word is derived from the Greek axew, audio, to hear. The ancants seem to have considered sounds under no other point of view than that of music; that is to say, as affecting the ear in an agreeable maner. It is even very doubtful whether they were acquainted with any thing more than melody, and whether they had any art similar to that which we call composition. The moderas, by studying the philosophy of sounds, so much neglected by the ancients, have given birth to a new science distinguished by the nume of acoustics, which has for its object the nature of sounds, and treats also of the theory of hearing, and the best means of assisting that sense. This science is divided by some writers into diacoustics, which explains the properties of those sounds that come directly from the sonorous body to the ear; and catacoustics, which treats of reflected sounds: but such distinction does not appear to be of any real utility. Sturmius in his Elements of Universal Mechanics, treats of acoustics. After examining into the nature of sounds, he describes the several parts of the external and internal ear, and their several uses and connexions with each other; and from thence deduces the mechanism of hearing and lastly, he treats of the means of adding an intensity of force to the voice and other sounds; and explains the nature of echoes, otacoustic tubes, and speaking trum pets. On many particulars connected with this science, opinions are still much divided, and there have not been made experiments sufficient to determine what is essential to the nature of a vehicle of sound; how it is transmitted, reflected, or destroyed, in many instances, or whether its velocity be uniform or variable. . . . . . Thus, with respect to the vehicles of sound, as sounds have not been heard when the vibrating body has been struck in vacuo, it is manifest that air is a vehicle: yet we must not assert that it is the only vehicle; for water, metals, and almost all substances of any density or texture, will not only transmit sound, but even convey it more readily and perfectly than air, which is by no means a good vehicle. Fishes have a strong perception of sounds, even at the bottom of deep rivers. From hence, it would seem not to be very material in the propagation of sounds, whether the fluid which conveys them be elastic or otherwise. One thing however is certain, that whether the medium be elastic or not, whatever sound we hear is produced by a stroke, which the sounding body makes against the fluid, whether air or water. The fluid being struck upon, carries the impression forward to the ear, and there produces its sensation. But the manner in which this conveyance is made, is still disputed: whether the sound be diffused into the air, in circle beyond circle, like the waves of water when we disturb the smoothness of its surface by dropping in a stone; or whether it travels along, like rays diffused from a centre, somewhat in the swift manner that electricity runs along a rod of iron; are questions which have greatly divided the learned: it must be observed, though, that some late experiments have tended much to remove the difficulties here alluded to, as will be seen under the proper articles in this work. See CHORD, ECHO, ELASTIC STRING, EAR, SOUND, TRANSMISSION, VELOCITY, VIBRATION, &c. ACOUSTICS, is a name sometimes given to instruments or medicines which assist the hearing. To ACQUAINT. v. a. (accointer, Fr.) I. To make familiar with (Davies). 2. To in form (Shakspeare). ACQUAINTANCE. s. (accointance, Fr.) 1. The state of being acquainted with; familiarity; knowledge (Dryden. Atterbury). 2. Familiar knowledge (South). 3. A slight or initial knowledge, short of friendship (Swift). 4. The person with whom we are acquainted. ACQUAINTED. a. Familiar; well known (Shakspeare). ACQUEST, or ACQUIST, is understood in a legal sense, of goods or effects, not descended or held by inheritance; but acquired either by purchase or donation. ACQUEST is also popularly used for conquest, or a place acquired by the sword. To ACQUIESCE. v. n. (acquiescer, Fr. acquiescere, Lat.) To rest in, or remain satisfied with (South). ACQUIESCENCE. s. (from acquiesce.) 1. A silent appearance of content (Clarendon). 2. Satisfaction; rest; content (Addison). 3. Submission; confidence (South). ACQUIRABLE. a. (from acquire.) That may be acquired; attainable (Bentley). To ACQUIRE. v. a. (acquiro, Lat.) 1. To gain by one's labour or power (Shakspeare). 2. To come to; to attain (Glanville). ACQUIRED. particip. (from acquire.) Gained by one's self (Locke). ACQUIREMENT. s. (from acquire.) That which is acquired; gain; attainment (Addison). ACQUIRER. s. (from acquire.) The person that acquires: a gainer. ACQUISITION. s. (acquisitio, Lat.) 1. The act of acquiring or gaining (South). 2. The thing gained; acquirement (Denham). ACQUISITIVE. a. (acquisitirus, Lat.) That is acquired or gained (Wotton). ACQUIST. s. (See ACQUEST.) Acquirement; attainment: not in use (Milton). To ACQUIT. v. a. (acquitter, Fr.) 1. To set free (Spenser). 2 To clear from a charge of guilt; to absolve (Dryden). 3. To clear from any obligation (Dryden). ACQUITMENT. s. (from acquit.) The state of being acquitted, or act of acquitting (South). ACQUITTAL, a discharge, deliverance, or setting free of a person from the guilt or suspicion of an offence. Acquittal is of two kinds; in law, and in fact. When two are appealed or indicted of felony, one as principal, the other as accessory; the principal being discharged, the accessory is, by consequence, also freed: in which case, as the accessory is acquitted by law, so is the principal in fact. ACQUITTANCE, a discharge in writing for a sum of money that the party has paid. No man is obliged to pay a sum of money, if, when he has provided a proper stamp, the demandant refuses to give an acquittance, which bars all actions. ACRA, or ACRE, on the coast of Phoenicia in Turkey. Its ancient name was Ake, or Accho, as it is called in Scripture. The Arabs call it Akka at this day. The tribe of Asser were never able to drive the ancient inhabitants from this place. This town was taken by the Saracens in 636. In 1104, the Christians became masters of it. In 1187, Saladin, sultan of Egypt, got possession of it; and in 1191, Philip, king of France, and Richard, king of England, retook it; but in 1991, the Saracens assaulted and destroyed the fortifications, which they afterwards repaired. It was taken from them by the Turks in 1517. This place was besieged during the late war by the arty under Bonaparte, but defended by sir Sydney Smith, who here obtained signal honours by his bravery and magnanimity. Lat. 32. 32 N. Long. 35. 20 E. ACRE, in the ancient geography, a town of Sicily, whose inhabitants were called Acren ses. It stood to the south of Syracuse, at the distance of twenty-four miles, near the place now called the monastery of Santa Maria d'Arcia, on an eminence, as appears from Silins Italicus. The Syracusans were the founders of it, according to Thucydides, seventy years after the building of Syracuse, or 665 before Christ. Hence the epiihet Acræus. ACRA (Josephus), one of the hills of Jerusalem, on which stood the lower town, which was the Old Jerusalem; to which was afterwards added Zion, or the city of David. Probably called Acra from the fortress which Antiochus built there, in order to annoy the temple, and which Simon Maccabæus took and razed to the ground. ACRA, ACRAI. The period of menstruation. Also the nymphomania, or furor ute rinus. ACRACY. (acratia, experie, from ɑ neg. and xzaros, strength.) Weakness, impotency debility, from relaxation, or a lost tone of the parts. ACRASY. (acrasia, ançacia, from a neg. and aɛavvuju, to mix.) Intemperance, from the metaphor of wine unmixed, or untempered with water. It applies to excess in eating, drinking, or venery. ACRE is used in the dominions of the Mogul, in regard to his revenues, for the sum of 100,000 roupees; eight roupees being equal to about one pound sterling. ACRE, a quantity of land, containing four square roods, or 160 square poles or perches. The word perhaps is formed from the Saxon acere, or German acker, field, of the Latin ager. Salmasius derives it from acra, used for acana, a land measure among the ancients, containing 10 feet. The length of the pole varies in different countries, and is called customary measure, the difference running from 16 feet (the statute length), to 28. The acre is also divided into 10 square chains, of 22 yards each, that is 4840 square yards. An acre in Scotland contains four square roods; one square rood is 40 square falls; one square fall, 36 square ells; one square ell, nine square feet, and 73 square inches; one square foot, 144 square inches. The Scots acre is also divided into 10 square chains: but the length of the Scots chain is to that of the English chain, as 8928 to 7920. So that the Scots acre is to the English acre, as 100,000 to 78,694. The French acre, arpent, contains 1 English acre, or 55206 square English feet, whereof the English acre contains only 43560. The Strasburg acre is about half an English acre. The Welsh acre contains commonly two English ones. The Irish acre is equal to one acre, two roods, nineteen perches 27, English. Sir William Petty, in his Political Arithmetic, reckons that England contains 39 millions of acres: but Dr. Grew, in Phil. Trans. No. 330, computes that England contains not less than 46 millions of acres; whence he infers that it is above 46 times as large as the pro virce of Holland. Mr Pitts Capper, in his Statistical Account of England and Wales, #ates the cultivated land at about 28 millions of acres, the uncultivated at more than 9 milwas, and the whole at 37,265,655 acres. This result corresponds nearly with Sir Willam Peuy's. ACRE. (x, from axos, extreme.) The tip of the nose; the extremity of any other organ. ACREA. (the plural of Acre.) Extremites; as the nose, arms, legs, &c. ACREDULA. (ab acri cantu.) The night izale. ACRIBEIA, a term purely Greek, Ana, Inerally denoting an exquisite or delicate accuracy; it is sometimes used in our language for want of a word of equal significancy. ACRID. (acridum, from acer, sharp.) Of pungent taste, or penetrative heat; acrimo AURIDOPHAGI, an Ethiopian people, said to have fed on locusts, as the name imports. ACRIFOLIUM. (from acris, sharp, and felam, a leaf.) A plant with prickly leaves. ACRIMONIOUS. a. Abounding with acrimony; sharp; corrosive (Harvey). ACRIMONY. s. (acrimonia, Lat.) 1. Sharpness; corrosiveness (Bacon). 2. SharpEes of temper; severity (South). ACRIMONY. (acrimonia, from acris, acrid.) In medicine, an erosive, irritative, or pungent power in medical substances, or the humours of the body in a state of pravity or disease. ACRIS: (from axis, the top of a mountain.) The sharp extremity of a fractured bone. Also a locust. ACRISEUS, king of Argos, and brother of Protus, whom, after many dissensions he drove from Argos. Acrisius had Danaë by Eurydice daughter of Lacedæmon; and being told by an oracle, that his daughter's son would put him to death, he confined Danaë in a brazen tower, to prevent her becoming a mother. She however became pregnant by Jupiter, changed into a golden shower; and though Acriseus ordered her, and her infant called Perseus, to be exposed on the sea, yet they were saved; and Perseus soon after became so famous for his actions, that Acriseus, anxious to see so renowned a grandson, went to Larisa. Here Perseus, wishing to shew his skill in throwing a quoit, killed an old man who proved to be his grandfather, whom he knew not. In that, therefore, the oracle was falfilled. Acriseus reigned about thirty-one years, ACRISY. (acrisia, asoia, from a neg. and , to judge.) The state of a disease, in which the symptoms are indecisive of the event. ACRITOUS. (acritus, from the same as Acrisy.) Uncertain, indecisive as to the event of a disease. ACRIVIOLA. (from acris, pungent, and riole, the violet.) The nasturtium Indicum, er Indian cress, so named from its pungency. ACROAMATIC, in an especial sense, denotes a thing sublime, profound, or abstruse. In which sense, it stands opposed to exoteric. We say acroamatic philosophy, acroamatie theology, an acroamatic method, acroamatic interpretation, &c. ACROAMATIC is sometimes also used in a more general sense for any thing kept secret, or remote from popular use. ACRO ASIS. (axfacis, from ακροαμαι, to hear.) The sense of hearing. ACROATICS, a name given to Aristotle's lectures in the more difficult and nice parts of philosophy; to which none but his disciples and intimate friends were admitted, whereas the exoteric were public or open to all; but there are other differences. The acroatic were set apart for the higher and more abstruse subjects; the exoteric were employed in rhetorical and civil speculations. Again, the acroatics were more subtle and exact, evidence and demonstration being here aimed at; the exoterics chiefly aimed at the probable and plau sible. The former were the subject of the mornings exercises in the Lyceum, the latter of the evenings: add that the exoterics were published, whereas the' acroatics were kept secret. ACROBATICA, or ACROBATICUM, from axpos, high, and Barew, or Bruvw, I go; an ancient engine, whereby people were raised aloft, that they might see more conveniently about them. ACROBY'STIA. (axovoria, from axpov, the extremity, and ßuw, to cover.) The extremity of the prepuce: the prepuce itself. ACROCHEIR. (axpoxap, from aufɔs, extreme, and yup, the hand.) The wrist. ACROCHERISMUS, among the Greeks, a sort of gymnastic exercise, in which the two combatants contended with their hands and fingers only. ACROCHO'RDON. (axpoxo;dwv, from exfor, the extremity, and zoon, a string.) A wart with a small pedicle, so that it seems to hang by a string. ACROCO'LIA. (from ax; and x.) The extremities of animals; giblets, or petutoes. ACROCO'RDUS. In amphibiology, a genus of serpents, characterised by having its body covered with warty tubercles. Of this genus there is only known one species, the a, Javanicus, or warted snake of Java, defined as follows: brown, beneath paler; the sides obscurely variegated with a whitish hue: head somewhat flattened, hardly wider than the neck; body gradually thicker towards the middle, and suddenly contracting wear the tail, which is short and slightly acuminate. See Nat. Hist. pl. iii. It inhabits Java, chiefly among the pepper plantations; grows sometimes to seven feet long. The warts, or prominences, by means of a magnifying glass, appear to be convex, carinate scales, and the |