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further prc-cdfa, which are defcribed by F. Labat. V. Labat, Nouv. Relat. du Voy. des 1(1. Antill. Mem. de Trev 1722. P- 637.

According to Savary, to procure the Aihirtte, they (hake out the grains in an earthen veflel, foak and then warn them in feveral repeated warm waters, till they have dif- charged all their Vermillion colour ; after which letting the wa- ter ftand to fettle, the fecula at the bottom is taken and formed into little cakes, and balls ; which when pure, and not adulterated either with red earth, or fine brick-dull, are highly valued. Some alfo ufe fire to boil the Atbiette, and give it a farther confidence. V. Savar. Did. Comm. T. 2. p. 1407. fcq. Voc. Rocou. ACH1ROPGE7 OS, a name given by antient writers to cer- tain miraculous pictures of Chrift: and the virgin, fuppofc-d to have been made without hands. Salmaf. Exerc. ad Solin. p. 816. Du Cang. Glofs. Graec. T. I. p. 161. The word is Greek, Ajpi { .ir.iif1 K, q. d. nan manu faclus ; Latin authors frequently write it Acbcropeta ■', fome Acbero-

paeta, others Acheiropflta, and even Antheropfita b. [» Magri.

Notiz. Vocab. Ecclcf. p. 3. Seimid. Lex. Ecclef. p. 12 1 Bibl. Germ. T. 20. p. 40?] *

The moft celebrated of thefe is the piaure of Chrift, pre- ferved in the church of Saint John Lateran at Rome ; faid to have been begun by Saint Luke, but finifhed by the jrnmftry of angels. Anaftafius the librarian, Onuphrius Panvmius, and others, fpeak of the great honours paid to the Acbdropaetos >. Rome being thrcatned by Aftul- phus, king of the Lombards, under Pope Stephen III. the pope had recourfe to prayers and proceffions, in which the Achciropcetas was carried devoutly, on his own moulders, to the church of the virgin called Prafepe \— [» V. Amfiaf in Vit. Staph. III. aliisll. ap. T. 3. Scriptor. Rer. Ital. p. 166. Bibl. Germ. T. 20. p. 4.0. fcq. » Id. ib.t ACHLIS. SccMachlis.

ACHLYS, in medicine, a darknefs, or dimnefs of fi<*ht, aris- ing from a fmall cicatricula on the pupil, occafioned°by a fu- perficial ulcer on the ctrnea. Blanc. Lex. Med. p 8. Gorr Defin. Med.

The word is Greek, a X r, K, which literally fignifies a kind of cloud, or thicknefs of air. Cajlel. Lex. Acblys, is the fame with what Latin writers call Caliga. Some confider the Acblys, as a fpecies of amblyopia. Others make the Acblys to be the ulcer itfelf, and define it a flight fuperficial ulcer, appearing on the black of the eye of a bluifh colour, not unlike a cloudy air. Zuinr. Inft. Medic, p. 2. §. 230. p. 189.

In a metaphorical fenfe, Acblys alfo denotes a diforder of the womb ; anfwering to what Latin writers call fitffuju uteri Hippac. 1 2. de Morb. Mulier. ACHOR, (Cycl.)— writers of medical obfervations afford di- vers anomalous inftances of Acborcs, viz. Some are found even in aged people, others on the feet ; others refembling the venereal difeafe ; others which difappeared upon cutting the hair, and returned on its growing anew ; others followed by a thicknefs of hearing ; others by pannics ; and others by a gutta ferena. Their drying up has fometimes been followed by a fever, their repulfion inwards by an epilcpfy. V. Albert. Lex. Real. Obferv. T. 1. p. 6. T. 2. p. 10. ACHRAS, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the cha- raflers of which are thefe. The cup is a perianthium com- pofed of five eredt leaves of an oval (nape, but pointed at the ends, and remaining after the flower is fallen. The flower confifts of five petals, which are oblong, cordated and placed ercft; the germen of the piftillum is oval, and the fruit is an oval berry divided into five cells ; the feeds are Angle, very elegant, of an oval comprefl'ed figure, and with a point ftanding out in onepart. Lbmai, Gen. Plant, p. 519. ACHYRONIA, in botany, the name given by Van Royen, and continued by Linnieus, to a genus of plants of the pa- pilionaceous kind ; the charaflers of which are thefe. The flower has a perianthium, divided into five fegments at the edge, the upper one being longer than the reft ; the vex- illum of the flower is compreffed, hairy or rough on the outfide, and obtufe ; the ate are lunated, obtufe, and open, and are (hotter than the vexillum; the carina is bifid, and its length the fame as that of the ate ; the ftamma are nine or ten filaments growing into a fort of vagina ; the an- thers are roundifh, but fomewhat oblon°- ; the mermen of the piftil is oval ; the ftyle is fimple, and afcendent ; the Itigma is acute; the fruit is an oval oblong pod, containing a few kidncy-ftiaped feeds. Linnet. Gen. Plant, p, 34.6. Royen. ACHYROPHORUS, in botany, the name of a genus of plants of

the fame characters with the hypocharis. Sec Hypoch^ris. ACIA, a term in the Roman forgery, about the meaning whereof, phyficians and commentators are much divided. or the fibula, fays, each is beft effeaed bv means of a (oft Ada, not too much twifted, that it may fit the eafier on the >.°?J', E *- /tcta '"dli, mm minis tcrta, que mitius corpori inftdeat. CelJ. de Medic. 1. 5. c. 26. V. Turmb. Adverf. 17, 21. Some will have Ada, here, to be a corruption of Aais, and only to denote a needle .. But in what fenfe can a needle be called Je/tf others underfland by Acia,.the thread in the needle ouppj.. Vol. I,
 * -elfus (peaking of the healing of wounds, either by future,

ltacious and crtifta- See alfo Tab. of Quadrupeds, N°.

ACT

whereby the lips of the wound were "'to fie lowed" But how is this applicable to the fibula > — [» Pantln. In. Not. ad loc. Ce/f p. 435. b Ca/t. Lex. Med. p. 8.] Again, fuppofing the Ada to do the office of thread, the matter of that thread is difputed ; fome will have it a linnen, others a filken, and others a metalline one. V. GalTend. de de Vita Peirefk. I. 5. p. 437.

Baxbemius fets all thefe opinions afide, and will have the Acta to be the Acus of the fibula, or that part which pinched— In which view Ada mollis only imported, that it Was not fet fo as to pinch too much. Btmbarn. ad Plutarch, qiiarft. Rom. Pidje. Lex. Antiq. p. 16.

Chiflet, de Figucro, and Rhodius, have Written treatifes ex- prefsly on the Ada of Celfus ; in the laft of whom, we find colleaed every thing relating to the fubjeft. DM", de Ada ad Corn. Celf. mentem Petav. 4 ">. 1630, republifhed with additions by Tho. Bartholin. Haffn. 1672. V Aft Medic. P. 2. p. 294. ACICULiE, in natural hifbry, fmall fpikes, or prickles in form of needles, with which nature has armed feveral creatures. See Tab. of fifties, N°. 20. and Tab. of teftai ceous animals, N°. 13 15, 25, and 26. ACID, (Cycl.)— Add and alcali have been considered by fome chemifts, as the two athlete of nature, the great inftriiments whereby all things were effeaed ; and the caufe not only of natural, but preternatural things, as difeafes and cures. 1 his hypothefis, we chiefly owe to Tachenius, a German apothecary and chemift, and a follower of Helmont's fyftem i who publifhed two books, to (hew that all natural things are compoled of alkali and Acid. The Acid, which he held was generated in the air, from the fun, and contained in it the hidden feeds, or fouls of all things, affociatcd the alkali to itfelf ; and from hence, as a pafEvetubjea, arofe the effe or forms of things. AH this he pretended to prove by the authority of Hippocrates. He was followed by Swalve, and his doftrinc has been fince defended by others; but combated and refuted by Bohnius, Boyle, Bertrand, Pitcairn, Hoffman, tic. Some have pretended to mend the hypothefis of Acid and alkali, by altering it into Acid and Vifcicl ; which they will have to be the caufes of all difeafes, and fluid alkali the in- ftrument of all cures. This doarine is aflcrted bv Bontckoe and Blanchard, but refuted by Hoffman. V. Aft. Erud. Lipf. An. 16S9.

In reality, tho' the terms Add and alkali be new, the no- tions, at lead fomething very like them, are met with in an- tient writers, who frequently afcribe the origin of many difeafes to unnatural, four, and corrofive juices in the body. Hippocrates (ays further, that man and other animals con- fift of two contrary principles, which yet concur in the effea, viz. fire and water ; and that thefe in conjunaion are fufficient to give being to all things. Which words Tachenius interprets of his Acid and alkali, which he appre- hends fufficient to account for the prediction of all bodies, and all the appearances thereof. Plato is alfo brought to give fome countenance to the opinion ; he defcribes the particles of fire as pyramidal, and proceeding hence to reafon on its effcas, fays, that by the (harpnefs of their angles, the fub- tilty of their fides, the minutenefs of their parts, and the rapidity of their motion, they penetrate and break the con- texture of all bodies ; all which coincides with the modern theory of Acids: add, that as water according to Hippocrates is a paffive principle, which ferves to take off the edge of fire, and make a temperate body in conjunaion with it ; ^0 alkali is lcprefented as a porous matter, fit to receive and (heathe the (harp points of an Acid. Sanguinct. Did; ap. Phil. Tranf. N*. 273.

Helmont afferts, that no Acid can be lodged naturally in any part of the human body, except the ftomach ; that if it extend further, it becomes unnatural, infects the fweet and balfamic juices, and proves the caufe of mod difeafes. In effea, the opinion of Acidity has fo far prevailed, that all difeafes, acute as well as chronical, fevers, cachexies, dropfies, fuppreffion of the menfes, the venereal difeafe, rheumatifms, cholics, pleurifies, apoplexies, epilepfies, and what not, are derived from this univerfal fource. Harris attributes the difeafes of infants, Aignan the gout, Ferrari melancholy, C5V. to an acid caufe. Sanguinet. Lib. cit. Harris, de Morb. Infant. Mem. de Trev. 1713. p. 1245. Aignan. Tr. de la Goute in Jour, des Scav. T. 39. p. 425. Ferrari, Refp. ad Quefit. del Maraffa. p. 329. Giorn. de Letter, d'ltal. T. 14. p. 225, 232.

Pitcairn has a diflertaiou on the hypothefis of Acid and alcali, wherein he maintains, that neither Acids nor alcali either caufe or cure any diforder, at leaft beyond the prima: via. Pitcairn, Difiert. Medic. 8vo. Jour, des Scav. T. 30. p. 331. To correa the redundancy of Acids in the ftomach, all al- calious, or urinary falts, both fixed, as of wormwood, cen- taury, carduus ; and volatile, as fpirit of fal armoniac, fpirit and fait of hartfhorn, fcurvy-erafs, &C. are commended. Under corre&ives alfo come all fixed earthy or metalline con- cretes, which abforbthe Acid, as iron, faccharum faturni, antimony, and all oils and fat things, which obtund and invif- cate the parts of Acids, as fpirit of wine, oil of cloves, &c.

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