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mathematical fciences, as are ncceflary to qualify them for Engineers. Academy is alfo ufed among us for a kind of collegiate fchool, or feminary ; where youth are inftrudted in the liberal arts and fciences in a private way.

Milton gives a project of an Academy of this kind, formed in imitation of the antient gymnafiums of the Greeks and Ro- mans ; by way of oppofition to the modern fchools and univer- sities. Milton. Tract, of Educat. Bibl. Angl. T. 4. p. 639. The non-conformift minifters in England are many of them bred up in private Academies ; where they are taught acade- mical learning without going to any univerfity. The advo- cates for the hierarchy, and the univerfities, are frequently complaining againft the Academics of diflenters ; we have even books exprefs againft them. V. New Aflbciation. P. 2. p. 14. AC^ENA, A*«w«, in antiquity, a Grecian decemped, or ten-foot rod, uCiil in meafuring of their lands a. Some late Greek authors write the word ccaua, and fome Latin ones afceua. It is compounded, as fome fuggeft, from the privative «, and xaiw, occido, I kill ; as ferving to prevent quarrels and bloodfhed. But Salmafius b gives a more probable origin: the Acecna according to him was ori- ginally a long rod with an iron goad at the end, wherewith the oxen were pricked forward at plow ; and hence the name was given to the meafuring rod. — [ a Beverin. Syntagm. de Ponderib. & Menfur. p. 177. Hoji. de Veter. Menfur. &c. 1. 3. c, 7. §. 2. Opp. T. 2. p. 248. b V. Salmaf.Exerc. in Solin. p. 684- FoJJlus Etym. p. 6. in voc. Acnua. Actsna is the fame with what Plato and others call &*:««■«; ; jts invention is attributed to the ThefTalians. Its length was equal to 10 Grecian feet, or 40 palms, 160 digits, 6 f cubits, 1 I orgyia, or to twelve antient Roman feet. Some make it the 60th part of a {radium. V. RiccioL Geograph. 1. 2. c 4. Beverin. ubi fupra. See alfo Bernard, de Menfur. & Ponder. 1- 3. §. 20. p. 224. & Sa/maf. lib. cit. p. 6S3. feq. ACAIAIBA, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called the tree, which produces the cafhew nuts ; the Acajou of other writers. Pifo. ACAJOU, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower confifts of one leaf, and is of the funnel faftiioned kind, and divided into many fegments at the edges. From the cup of this there arifes a, piftil, which is furrounded with a multitude of ftamina, and is fixed in the manner of a nail, to the hinder part of the flower ; this finally becomes a foft turbinated fruit, to which there is affixed a capfule of the fhape of a kidney containing a feed, or kernel of the fame figure. Tourn. Inft. p. 658. There is only one known fpecics of this genus, which is the tree which produces the cafhew nut, or Weft-Indian anacardium. ACALYPHA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, called by Boerhaave, and others, Ricinocarpos. The characters are thefe, the male and female flowers are diftmct, but they are produced on the fame plants, the male ones ufually {landing immediately over the female ones. Linnm, Gen. Plant. 456. In the males, the perianthium confifts of four roundiih con- cave leaves, equal one to another in fize ; there are no petals ; the ftamina are a number of ftiort filaments from eight to fix- teen, which ftand very thick together, and are terminated by roundiih antherae. The female flowers are fewer in number. They are placed in one large divided involucrum ; each of them has a three leaved perianthium ; the leaves being fmall, oval and concave, and meeting almofl: together. There are no petals ; the germen of the the piftil is roundiih, and there are three long ftyles which are often branched, and are crowned with Ample ftigmata. The fruit is a roundiih capfule, with three furrows on itsoutfide, and containing three cells, the valves opening in two parts. The feeds are fingle, roundiih and very large. Boerhaave Ind. Plant, p. 92. ACANACEOUS, in botany, a word applied to fuch plants as are prickly, and bear their flowers and feeds in a fort of heads, as thiftles and the like. ACANOPHORA, in botany, a name given by fome, to the common knapweed, or jacca, a common wild plant. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2. ACANTHA, in a general fenfe, a fpine or prickle, chiefly of plants of the thorny kind.

The word is Greek, «x«v§«, formed from ohmj, mucro, point, and ai&oc, flower. Ac ant ha, in a more particular fenfe, denotes a fpine, or quill of certain fifties, as the echinus marinus, or fea hedge-hog. Hence the thorn-back, a fpecies of the galeus, is peculiarly called Acanthias, from the two prickles on its back. Rondclet de Pifcib. 1. 13. c. 2. Caft. Lex. Med. p, 5. ACANTHABOLUS, AmdojSt**, a furgeon's inftrument, wherewith to extract, foreign bodies, which by the fharpnefs of their points have penetrated and entered the parts of" the body. The word is lbmetimes alfo written, corruptly, Acan- tabolus. It is compounded of the Greek ukmSo., fpina, and to) jacio, I caft away. JEginet. 1. 6. c. 32. ap. Caji. Lex. Med. p. 5,

The Acanthahlus is the fame with what is otherwife called volfella 3 — Its ufe is "for extracting darts, filh-bones, or the like, {ticking in the cefophagus ; alfo the fragments of

bones, hair, &c. remaining in wounds Its figure refem-

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blcs that of a pair of pincers : fometimes it is alfo made crooked, for more commodious application to the fauces b .— [ a Celf. 1. 7. c. 30. b V. Scultet. Armam. Chirurg. tab. 2. fig. 1. Item, tab. 10. fig. 1. Caft. \oc. cit] Acanthabolus is alfo fometimes ufed for an inftrument, wherewith people pull out the hairs from their eye-brows, &c. Blanc. Lex. Med. p. 5. ACANTHE, in the materia medica of the antients, a name given to the plant we now call the artichoak. The name of this comes fo near that of the bears-breech, or Acanthus, that the commentators on the antients have generally confounded them, and nor, obferved that they meant two very diftinct plants. The editions of Diofcorides in general alfo confound the very text, hyprmtingAcanihcfor Acanthus; and thus theygive the flexile branches of the bears-breech to the rigid artichoak, and the round and efculcnt head of the artichoak, to the bears- breech. Acanthe Arabica, in botany, a name given by fome of the Greek writers to a plant called alfo Leucacanthe, and by the Arabian phyficians Bunkon. It was a prickly plant, whole roots were fomewbat like thofe of the Cyperus, and compofed offeveral knobs or joints, and of a bitter tafte. It was brought for medicinal ufe from the Eaft Indies and fome parts of Arabia, and was the root of the amgaila of Avifenna and others. It was not ufed till it had lain fo long, as to be in fome degree corrupted, and to fall fpontancoufly afunder. They recom- mended fuch as the beft, which was yellow, light, and of a ftrong fmcll ; and condemned that which was white and heavy, as not fit for uie. The Arabians alfo ufed the word bunkon, or bunk-myrrh, for the myrtidanum of Theophraftus and Diofcorides ; but this was not the common fenfe of the word. The root bunk, or amgaila, was ufed in all the warm carmina- tive compel! tions of the antients, and in their fcents. Wearenot at this time well informed what it is ; but it is to be obferved, that as it fignifies the fame with the Acanthe Arabica, in many parts of the works of Diofcorides, &c. it is a plant, not a fhrub ; and therefore, this term, tho' fometimes ufed to exprefs the Acacia tree, yet was alfo ufed to cxprefs a prickly plant or thiftle, with odoriferous roots. ACANTHIAS, in zoology, a name given by fome authors to the fifh, the (kin of which is ufed by our artificers in poliftiing, and called by them limply fifh-'fkin. See the article Ga- leus. ACANTHICE, Maftich, in antient naturalifts, a kind of gum, yielded bv the herb helxine*. Gaza exolains it by Spinalis MaJicba b .—[* Plin. Hift. Nat. 1. 21. c. 16. b Hard, Not. ad Joe] ACANTHINE, Acanihinus^ denotes a thing relating to, or refembling the herb acanthus. Martin, Lex. Philol. T. I. p. 5. See the article Acanthus.

In this fenfe, we read of Aeanthina veftimenta, Acarithine gar- ments, of which we have two different explications. Some underftand by it a kind of embroidery, wrought in imitation of the Egyptian acanthus or thorn, whofe fmall fprigs are much interlaced 3. Others will have it a peculiar kind of filken {hift, made of the lanugo or down of a plant of the thiftle kind, growing in Sicily and the Eaft b. — [ a V.' Ijiet. Grig. II 17. e.g. " Plin. Nat. Hift. 1. 24, c. 12. Hardouin. ad loc. Diofc. 1. 3. c. 18. Salmaf. Exerc. in Solin. p. 299. feq. FoJ~. Etym, Lat. p. 3.] Acanthinum Lignwn, is ufed by fome writers for brafil. Thus we read of a tincture of lignum Acanthinum. V. Alorley, Collect. Chym. Leyd. c. 5. p. 3. ACANTHION, among naturalifts, a plant of the thorn, or rather of the thiftle kind ; whofe down being cleanfed from the prickles* was manufactured into a kind of ftuff", not un- like filk. V. Plin. Hift'. Nat. 1. 24. c. 12. & Hardou. Not. ad loc. Diofcor. 3. 3. c. \%. ACANTHOPTERYGIIj AcwMfvyuij in natural hiftory, a term ufed to exprefs one of the general clafles or families of fifties; the character of which is, that the rays of the fins are bony, and fome of them prickly at the extremities. Artedi$ Gen. Pifo

The word is derived from the Greek «««$«, a thorn or prickle, and wJepffV * a fin. The fifties of this order have bony fins, with fome of their rays pointed or fhaip. Le'nnai Syftema na- turae, p. 53. ACANTHUS, in botany* the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower confifts of one leaf, and is divided in its anterior part into three fegments its hinder part terminating in a fort of ring -, and a great num- ber of ftamina fupplying the place of the upper lip, and carry-' ing a tuft of apices like brooms. The piftil arifes from the cup, and is fixed in the manner of a nail into the hinder part of the flower ; this finally becomes a fruit refembling an acorn in fhape, and isenclofed by the cup, and divided by an intermediate mem- brane into two cells, which ufually contain a number of gib- bofe feeds. See Tab. 1. of Botany, Clafs 3. The fpecies of Acanthus, enumerated by Mr. 'Tourmfori, are thefe. 1. The fmooth Acanthus, or Acanthus of Virgih 2- The prickly Acanthus. 3. The Acanthus, which has only a few fhort prickles. Tour?:e. Inft. p. 176. The feveral fpecies of Acanthus, may be known, when not in flower, by the beautiful fhape of their leaves, which are .( F fa