Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/77

 A G R

A G U

fincc no concrete urinous fait is got from it, but the acid fait, wherewith it abounds, joined with earth, forms a concrete refembling tartar, or fait of coral combined with a large proportion of Sulphur.

Agrimony has a faline tafte, fubaftringent and acid; its juice turns the tincture of Heliotropium to a faint red, fo that its aftringent and aperitive virtues feem both owing to the fame auftere fait. For tho* thefe effects feem contrary to one another, yet they often flow from one and the fame princi- ple, the fbrengthening of the weak and lax fibres of the Solid parts. Experience fhews, fays GeofFroy, that Agri- mony has the virtues fuppofed to arife from its compofition ; for it is aftringent, detergent, refolvent, vulnerary, and ape- rient.

The country people ufe the common or officinal Agrimony bruifed, or its juice, in contufions, and frefli wounds. Et- muller fays, it removes Swellings and inflammations of the fcrotum. Yet it is rarely found in mop compofitions, though frequently prefcribed by the furgeons, in difcutient and vul- nerary fomentations.

The fweet faulting Agrimony, Agrimoma odorata, is by fome preferred, for medicinal purpofes, to the former, as being more grateful to infufe for pectoral decoctions. Vid. Lemer. Tr. des Drog. p. 19. Quinc. Difpenf. P. 2. fee. 4. p. 113. Ray, Synopf. Stirp. Britan. p. 99. Junck. Confpec. Therap. p. 333. Burggr. Lex. Med. T. 1. p. 360. feq.

AGRIOCINARA, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for the coudy artichoak, the root of which is ufed inftead of the cojios 71'igra. Dale, Pharm. p. 104.

AGRIOMELENZANION, in the botanical writings of the antients, a word that has perplexed many of the later writers. Fuchfius frankly confeffes, that he does not know what to make of it ; and others, though not fo honeft, are found, on examination, full as ignorant. The Arabian writers Avi- fenna and Serapion-ufed the word bedengian for the fruit of the fomum amoris, a kind of efculent nightfhade, or folanum, called by the old Greek writers, as Theophraftus, &c. jlrychnos, and only diftinguifhed from the other Jlrychni, or nightfhades, by its being defcribed as wholefome, not poi- sonous. From this Arabic word bedengian, the Italians formed their word melanzana, and the late Greek writers their ?ne- lenzanion, which they ufed as the name of the fame fruit. This, when the plant was cultivated in gardens, was pro- bably larger and fairer, than when it grew wild ; but, in this latter ftate, was not lefs ufed, but was diftinguifhed by the term Agriomelanxanian. If the Greeks, who ufe this word, or the melanzanion, would have appropriated them to the pomum amoris, and diftinguifhed thefe from the other nightfhades, they would have done a fervice to the world.

AGRIOPHAGI, in antiquity, a name given to thofe who fed on wild beafts.

The word is Greek, compounded of ay^o?, wild, favage, and tyxyuy I eat.

The name is given, by antient writers, to certain people, real or fabulous, faid to have fed altogether on lions and panthers. Pliny a and Solinus b fpeak of Agriopkagi in Ethiopia, and Pto- lemy c of others in India, on this fide the Ganges. — [ B Plin. Hift. Nat. T. 1. 1. 6. c. 30. p. 347. b Satin, Polyhift. c. 33. See alfo Salmaf. Exerc. ad Eund. p. 303, 385. c Ptekm. ap. Tjev. Diet. Univ. T. 1. p. 211.]

AGRIPPA [Cycl.) — The etymon of this word, viz. quaft agre parti, given by Pliny % and generally followed by other au- thors, is difputed by Salmafius b, who gives a very different origin ; whence arifes a different Signification. He derives it from the Greek «y£«H>, venari, and wrsro?, equus, q, d. a iiunter of horfes ; which etymon, in effect, teems the beft Supported, inafmuch as the word is ranged, by the gram- marian Sofipater, among Greek words, and found accord- ingly in fome antient Greek poets and fcholiafts. — [a Plin. Hift. Nat. T. 1. 1. 7. c. 8. p. 377. feq. Hardouin, in Not. ad loc. Gell. 1. 16. c. 16. b Salmaf. Exerc. ad Solin. p. 23. Bibl. Univ. T. 5. p. 14. VoJ. Etym. p. 15.] Agrippa, notwithstanding, is eftablifhed in the antient fenfe, and retained by modern authors and midwives. Pliny Super- ftitioufly Speaks of this kind of birth, as reputed an omen of unhappinefs, which fcarce ever failed of being accomplished, except in the inftance of M. Agrippa, in whofe life, how- ever, he finds calamities enough to verify, rather than falfify the omen.

Daventer has a chapter exprefs of Agrippa* '$, or infants com- ing with their feet foremoft, which, according to him, is one of the molt convenient and fafe ways for a mature birth. Dave rtt. Midwif. improv. c. 45. p. 227. feq. See alfo Burggrav. Lex. Med. T. 1. p. 364. Dionis, La Matte, &c.

' Agrippa gives the denomination to an ungent, defcribed in the Antidotarium Nicolai, and in fevcral other difpenfatorics, fuppofed, by fome, to have been invented by Agrippa king of Judaea, but as others fufpect, by Julius Agrippa, a Roman phyfician. Fabric. Bibl. Graec. T. 13. p. 43.

AGRIPPINIANS, in church-hiftory, the followers of Agrip- pinus bifhop of Carthage, in the third century, who firft in- troduced and defended the practice of rebaptization. Arnd. Lex. Ajit. Ecclef. p. 465. Suppl. Vol. I.

AGRIUM, in the materia medica of the antients, a name given to an impurer Sort of natrum. The purer fort of this fait they called halmyrhaga, and the coarfer and dirtier Agrium. The former of thefe they had from Media, the latter front Thrace. Hill's Hift. of FofT. p. 390. AGROM, a diieafe frequent in Bengal, and other parts of the Indies, wherein the tongue chaps and cleaves in Several places, being extremely rough withal, and Sometimes co- vered with white fpots. The Indians are very fearful of this difeafe, which they attribute to extreme heat of the fto- mach.

Their remedy is, to chew the black fceded bafilica, drink fome chalybeatcd liquor, or the juice of large mint. Lett. Edif. T. 15. p. 416.

AGROSTEMA, in botany, the name given by Linnaeus to a genus of plants, ufually confounded by other authors among the fpecies of lychnis. See Lychnis.

The characters of the genus are thefe. The perianthium confifts of one leaf, which forms an oblong tube, of a coria- ceous texture, and ribbed with ten ftrise. The limb of this, which is of the fame length with the flower, is divided into five fegments, which are flender and permanent. The flower confifts of five petals, the ungues of which are as long as the tube of the cup ; the limb is obtufe and expanded. The ltamina are ten fubulated filaments affixed to the ungues of the flower. The antherre are fimplc. The germen of the pl- ftil is oval. The ftyles are capillary, and are five in number : they are erect, and of the length of the ftamina. The ftig- mata are Simple. The fruit is an oblong capfule covered by the cup, and contains only onp -cell, in which are a number of fpotted kidney-fhaped feeds, in a looSe and free receptacle. Linncci, Gen. Plant, p. 200. Tournef. lnft. p. 175.

AGROSTIS, in the Linnsan Syftem of botany, the name of a diftinct genus of plants, of the grafs kind ; the diftinguifh- ing characteriftics of which are thefe. The calyx is a pointed bivalve glume, containing only one flower. The flower is made of two pointed valves, Shorter than the calyx, and has one of the valves larger than the other, and terminated by a beard, or awn. The ltamina are three capillary fila- ments longer than the flower ; the anthera? are Split at their ends. The germen of the piftillum is roundifh ; the ftyles are two, reflex and hairy ; and the ftigmata are of a like ftructure. The flower clofcly Shuts in the feed, and does not open to let it fall out. The feed is Single, roundifh, and pointed at each end. Linn&i, Gen. Plant, p. ig. Agrojlis is commonly ufed for the fpecies of grafs called quick-grafs, or couch-grafs. It is a tall grafs, Sometimes above three cubits high ; the leaves, which are for the rrioft part rough, proceed from a long fheath, four or five on a ftalk, that is, one from each joint. The ftalk bears an ear on its top, in the fame Situation as that of wheat, but thinner, and more inconfiderable, on all accounts, reddifh, with a very fhort beard. The Seed is of an oblong figure, and of a dark colour. The roots, with refpedt to grafs, are Somewhat big, creep far and wide, are hard, fharp, and pungent at their extremities, and of a fweet tafte. Ray, Synopf. This plant is faid to diffolve ftones, especially bilious ones, and hence to cure oxen and fheep that feed uoon it.

AGROSTOGRAPHIA, in phyfiology, the 'hiftory, or de- scription of gramens, or plants of the graffy kind. The word is compounded of the Greek, aycuvv;, gramen, grafs, and y$a.<pr,, defcription.

Agrostographia is alfo the title of a learned and laborious work of John Scheuchzer 3, containing an exact defcription of about four hundred Species of grafs ; particularly dogs-tooth, cyperus, cyperoides, rufhes, &c. all difpofed in a new method ; yet the hiftory is far from being compleat. As numerous as are the fpecies of this one genus here rehearfed, there are great numbers wanting of thofe indicated by Bauhin, Ray, Bar- relier, Plukenet, &c. not to mention others in both the In- dies. In effect, this is rather the Agrojlographia of Switzer- land, as the author elfewhere calls it, than of the world. The publication of it was preceded by a prodromus b, and an idea of an Agrojlographia c. — [ a V. Jour, des Scav. T. 70. p. 416 — 420. b V. An extract of it in Jour, des Scav. T. 43. p. 393. c V. An account of it in Jour, des Scav, T. 70. p. 176. feq. See alfo Nouv. Rep. Lett, T. 47.

AGRYPNIA, (Cycl.) in the Greek church, Is ufed for the vigil of any of the greater feaft days, obferved by the monks and clergy. Du Cange, Gloff. Grsec. T. 1. p. 20. feq.

AGUAGUIN, in botany, the name of a Shrub among the Africans, who efteem it greatly as a balfamic, and vulnerary. The leaves of this fhrub referable thofe of our common lilac ; they grow alternately, and ftand upon foot {talks of half an inch long ; and when held up tu the light, they fhew a very fine texture of the fmaller veins. Philof. Tranfact. N°. 232.

AGUAPECACA, in zoology, the name of a Brafilian bird, of the moor-hen kind. It is of the fize of a pigeon, very long legged, and has a beak like that of the gallinaceous kind- Its back, and the upper part of its wings, are brown, and in each wing they have a fharp horn, or prickle, Serving for their defence. Margrave, Hift. Brafil.

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