Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/817

 APPENDIX.

ACT

ABATE, in the manege. A horfe is faid to abate, or take down his curvets, when working upon curvets, he puts his hinder legs to the ground both at once, and obferves the fame exactnefs in all the times. See the article Corvet, Cycl. ABBA-comes. See the article Abbot, Cycl. ABDELAVI, a name given by Arabian authors to the Egyp- tian melon. Set the article Melon, Suppl. ABELMOSC, orABELMOscH, (Suppl.) is ufed by fome au- thors for the Egyptian ketmia, with perfumed feeds. See Ketmia, N° 21. Suppl. ABIGEAT. See Abigeatus, Suppl ABLATIVE abfolute. See the article Absolute, Cycl. ABRICOT, in botany. See the article Apricock, Suppl. ABRUS, in botany, a name fometimes given to a fpecies of

Orobus. See the article Orobus, Suppl. ABSINTHIUM, wormwood, in botany, &c. See the article

Wormwood, Suppl. Absinthium is alio a name given to other plants, by different authors ; as to dwarf ptarmica, with leaves divided after the manner of wormwood ; alio to the alpine chamomile, with fouthern wood-leaves. Vid. Tourn. Inft. Bot. p. 494, 496. See alfo the articles P t A R m 1 c a and Cham jemelum, Suppl. ABUTILON, the name of a genus of plants, according to Dillen'ius, but comprehended under the fula of Linnaeus. See the article Sida, Suppl. ACACIA (Suppl.) — Bajlard Acacia, in botany, the name ufed by fome for a genus of plants, called by others robinia. See Robinia, Suppl. ACADEMICIAN, the fame with academic, or academijl. See

Academic, Cycl. and Academy, Cycl. and Suppl. ACANTHIS, in ornithology, a name by which fome call the gold-finch, from its feeding among thirties. See the articles Carduelis, Suppl. and Gold-finch, Append. ACAPTARE. See Acapitare, Cycl.

ACARUS (Suppl.) is alfo ufed by fome naturalifts as the claffical name of the lice of animals, which arc indeed of as many va- rious genera as the animals on which they breed. See the article Louse, Cycl. and Suppl. ACCENTED part of a bar, in mufic. See the articles Ac-

CENT-and Measure, Cycl. ACCOMPTANT. See Accountant, Cycl. ACEPHALIT^. See Acephalus, Cycl. ACH, or Ache. See the article Ache, Cycl. ACHETA, in zoology. See the articles Harvest-fly and

Cigalon, Suppl. ACID (Cycl. and Suppl.) — Whether the air naturally contains any acid, is a queflion among philofophers. See the article Air, Append. ACIDUL^E (Cycl.) — See the article Water, Append. ACINACES, in antiquity, a Perfian weapon of the fword kind. The word is Perfian, tho' etymologilts affect to give it a Greek origin. Some reprefent the acinaces, as a kind of fpear or javelin ; others, with more probability, as a fhort crooked fword, fhaped like the Turkifh fcymitar. The figure was altered by Darius, and accommodated to that of the Grecian fwords. Horace calls it medus acinaccs, in regard the Romans confounded the Medes with the Per- fians. It was alio in ufe among the Scythians, where di- vine honours were paid it. Boxborn. Epift. p* 220. feq. V. Vqff. Etym. Lat. p. 5. Martin Lex. Philof. T. 1. p. 9. Suid. Lex. T. i. p. 84. Hefycb. Aqu'm. Lex. Milit. T, 1. p. 1 j.. Potter, Arch. Gnrc. 1. 3. c. 4. T. 2. p. 39. Her. 1. 1. Od. '17. BerodsiA.^. ACTINIA, in the hiftory of infects, a fmall fea-animal of a cylindric fhape, equally thick in all part's, and about half an inch long; its tail is divided into three parts, or termi- nated, as it were, by three points. It lodges itfelf in little cavities of rocks and of the larger fea-plants of the ftony kind, and only appears on their furface when all is quiet about it. Round the mouth are placed a great number of tentacula, like fo many conic rays, and difpofed in two or three feries fucceffively fhorter than each other : thefe are in a continual vibratory motion, and by that means draw fmall animals into its mouth for food. The whole animal is of a pale flefli colour, except thefe tentacula, winch have a beau- tiful variety of colours, red, yellow, blue, and many others. It is found on the coafts of the American iflands. There are a variety of fpecies, differing from each other in figure, colour, C3Y. but all of them furnifhed with nume- rous tentacula, or rays. Hill's Hift. of Anim. p. 9^. feq. Append.

A I R

ADAM'S apple, Adami pomum, in botany, a name given by fome to the orange. See the article Orange and Adami pomum, Cycl. ADDER (Suppl)— Sea- Adder, the Englifh name of a fpecies of fyngnatbus, with a round body, and no pectoral or tail fins. See Syngnathus, Suppl, //W-Adder, in zoology, a name given to the natrix. Sec

the article Natrix, Suppl. Adder's wort, in botany, a name fometimes given to fnake-

weed, or biftort. See Bistort, Suppl. ADDICO, in the civil law. See Addictio, Cycl. ADMINICULUM, in the French law. See Adminicle,

Cycl. ADMINISTRATRIX. See Administrator, Cycl. AERIZUSA, a name given by the antients to the fky-coloured

jafper. _ See the article Jasper, Cycl. Suppl. and Append. MS zixorium, in antiquity, a fum paid as a penalty for living batchelors to old age. This anfwered to the Athenian Aya.- pix foxy, and the Spartan oi]/iy»y.m } and ksh«>3/«/ajb &kju Feji. and Pit-ifc Lex. Ant.

This tax for not marrying feems to have been firff. impofed in the year of Rome 350, under the cenforfhip of M. Fu- rius Camillus, and M. Poftumus. V. Scalig. and Dacier, not. in Fejl.

The method of levying it was this ; at a cenfus or review of the people, each perfon was afked, Et tu ex animi fenten- Ua uxorem habes liberu/n queerendorum cauja ? He who had no wife, was hereupon fined after a certain rate, called as uxo- rium. Hift. Acad. Infcrip. T. 1. p. 79. feq. AESPING, in zoology, the name of a fpecies of coluber*

See the article Coluber, Append. AFTER-/w/«j, in midwifry. See the article Lying -/s-mw-

men, Suppl. AGAUPE, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for the nympkaa, or common white water lilly, and other fpecies of that plant. Marcgrave^ p. 21. AGRIjE, in zoology, the name of a clafs of quadrupeds, accord- ing to Dr. Hill, the characters of which are, that they have no teeth, and that their tongues are very long and cylindric. There are only two genera belonging to this clafs, which are the myrmecopbaga and ?nanis. See the articles Myrme- cophaga and Lacertu s fquamofus, Suppl. AGRIMONY ( Suppl.) — Hemp- Agrimony, in botany, the Englifh name of the plant known among authors by that of eupatorium. See Eupatorium, Suppl. TVater-lmnp- Agrimony, in botany, a name given to the bi-

dens. See the article Bidens. AGUE (Suppl.)— AGUE-cah, the popular name for a hard tu- mour on the left fide of the belly, lower than the falfe ribs, faid to be the effect of intermitting fevers. Vid. Pr'ingle, Ob- ferv. on Difeaf. of Army, p. 179. AIR (Cycl. and Suppl.) — It has been aqueffion among natural philofophers, whether the air contains an acid or not. Monfteur Helot gives a probability to the affirmative ; and it feems as if this acid wece of a vitriolic nature. See Mem. Acad. Sciene. 1737. p. 378 and 1740. p. 141, 142. Edit. Paris. If fait of tartar, or oil of vitriol, be expofed to the open air, thefe, tho* extremely different fubftances, will each re- ceive and imbibe fo great a quantity of matter from the air as vaftly to increafe its weight, without any other alteration in its nature than the diluting or weakening it. The fait becomes a fluid liquor, called oil of tartar per ricHquimn, and increafes to feveral times its quantity; and a vial .of oil of vitriol, nearly filled and left unflop'd, will foon be found to fill up of itfelf and run over.

In both thefe cafes, the aerial particles afforded to the ex- pofed fubftances, are only water ; but the air evidently abounds alfo with a great variety of other principles, which it may and does occafionally afford to other expofed fubftances, whofe pores are fo formed as to admit them eafily. Thus the mortar expofed in the joinings of old walls, from the particles it attracts out of the air, forms a peculiar fait ; and a deal fhelf, moiftcned with the liquor of fixed nitre, has been known to become froftcd over with perfect and pellucid cryftals of pure nitre, only from the imbibing, or regaining the neceffary acid from the air, in the fame manner as if fpirit of nitre had been poured upon it. A viol half filled with oil of tartar per deliquium, on being expofed to the air, will often form a fet of peculiarly figured cryftals round the veffel, a little above the furface of the water. Colco- thar of vitriol, which is the caput mortuum, or refiduum oft vitriol, after all the acid has been driven from it by fire, A will,