Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/109

Rh A C E A C H 93 AcErnALi, or Acephalous Persons, fabulous monsters, described by some ancient naturalists and geographers as having no heads. ACER. See MAPLE. ACERBI, GIUSEPPE (JOSEPH), an Italian traveller, born at Castel-Goffredo, near Mantua, on the 3d May 1773, studied at Mantua, and devoted himself specially to natural science. In 1798 he undertook a journey through Den mark, Sweden, Finland, and Lapland; and in the follow ing year he reached the North Cape, which no Italian had previously visited. He was accompanied in the latter part of the journey by the Swedish colonel Skioldebrand, an excellent landscape-painter. On his return Acerbi stayed for some time in England, and published his Travels through Sweden, &c. (London, 1802), which was translated into German (Weimar, 1803), and, under the author s per sonal superintendence, into French (Paris, 1804). The French translation received numerous corrections, but even in this amended form the work contains many mistakes. Acerbi rendered a great service to Italian literature by starting the Biblioteca Italiana (1816), in which he opposed the pretensions of the Academy della Crusca. Being appointed Austrian consul-general to Egypt in 1826, he entrusted the management of the Biblioteca to Gironi, contributing to it afterwards a series of valuable articles on Egypt. While in the East he obtained for the museums of Vienna, Padua, Milan, and Pavia many objects of interest. He returned from Egypt in 1836, and took up his residence in his native place, where he occupied himself with his favourite study till his death in August 1846. ACERNUS, the Latinised name by which SEBASTIAN FABIAN KLONOWICZ, a celebrated Polish poet, is generally known, was born at Sulmierzyce in 1551, and died at Lublin in 1608. He was for some time burgomaster and president of the Jews civil tribunal in the latter town, where he had taken up his residence after studying at Cracow. Though himself of an amiable disposition, his domestic life was very unhappy, the extravagance and misconduct of his wife driving him at last to the public hospital of Lublin, where he ended his days. He wrote both Latin and Polish poems, and the genius they dis played won for him the name of the Sarmatian Ovid. The titles of fourteen of his works are known; but a number of these were totally destroyed by the Jesuits and a section of the Polish nobility, and copies of the others are for the same reason exceedingly rare. The Victoria Deorum ubi continetur Veri Ilerois Educatio, a poem in forty- four cantos, cost the poet ten years labour. ACERRA, in Antiquity, a little box or pot, wherein were put the incense and perfumes to be burned on the altars of the gods, and before the dead. It appears to have been the same with what was otherwise called thuribulum and pyxis. The censers of the Jews were acerrce ; and the Romanists still retain the use of acerrce, under the name of incense pots. The name acerra was also applied to an altar erected among the Romans, near the bed of a person recently de ceased, on which his friends offered incense daily till his burial. The real intention probably was to fumigate the apartment. The Chinese have still a somewhat similar custom. ACERRA, a town of Italy, in the province of Terra di Lavoro, situated on the river Agno, 7 miles N.E. of Naples, with which it is connected by rail. It is the an cient Acerrae, the inhabitants of which were admitted to the privileges of Roman citizenship so early as 332 B.C., and which was plundered and burnt by Hannibal during the second Punic war. A few inscriptions are the only traces time has left of the ancient city. The town stands in a fertile district, but is rendered very unhealthy by the malaria rising from the artificial water-courses of the sur rounding Campagna. It is the seat of a bishop, and has a cathedral and seminary. Flax is grown in the neighbour hood. Population, 11,717. ACETIC ACID, one of the most important organic acids. It occurs naturally in the juice of many plants, and in cer tain animal secretions ; but is generally obtained, on the large scale, from the oxidation of spoiled wines, or from the destructive distillation of wood. In the former process it is obtained in the form of a dilute aqueous solution, in which also the colouring matters of the wine, salts, &c., are dis solved ; and this impure acetic acid is what we ordinarily term vinegar. The strongest vinegar sold in commerce contains 5 per cent, of real acetic acid. It is used as a mordant in calico-printing, as a local irritant in medicine, as a condiment, and in the preparation of various acetates, varnishes, &c. Pure acetic acid is got from the distillation of wood, by neutralising with lime, separating the tarry matters from the solution of acetate of lime, evaporating off the water, and treating the dry residue with sulphuric acid. On applying heat, pure acetic acid distills over as a clear liqiiid, which, after a short time, if the weather is cold, becomes a crystalline mass known by the name of Glacial Acetic Acid. For synthesis, properties, &c., see CHEMISTRY. ACHAIA. in Ancient Geography, a name differently applied at different periods. In the earliest times the name was boi ne by a small district in the south of Thessaly, and was the first residence of the Achseans. At a later period Achaia Propria was a narrow tract of country in the north of the Peloponnesus, running 65 miles along the Gulf of Corinth, and bounded by the Ionian Sea on the W., by Elis and Arcadia on the S., and by Sicyonia on the E. On the south it is separated from Arcadia by lofty moun tains, but the plains between the mountains and the sea are very fertile. Its chief town was Patne. The name of Achaia was afterwards employed to denote collectively the states that joined the Achsean League. When Greece was subdued by the Romans, Achaia was the name given to the most southerly of the provinces into which they divided the country, and included the Peloponnesus, the greater part of Greece Proper, and the islands. Achceans and the Achaean League. The early inhabitants of Achaia were called Achceans. The name was given also in those times to some of the tribes occupying the eastern portions of the Peloponnesus, particularly Argos and Sparta. Afterwards the inhabitants of Achaia Propria appropriated the name. This republic was not considerable, in early times, as regards either the number of its troops, its wealth, or the extent of its territory, but was famed for its heroic virtues. The Crotonians and Sybarites, to re-establish order in their towns, adopted the laws and customs of the Achosans. After the famous battle of Leuctra, a dif ference arose betwixt the Lacedaemonians and Thebant, who held the virtue of this people in such veneration, that they terminated the dispute by their decision. The govern ment of the Achaeans was democratical. They preserved their liberty till the time of Philip and Alexander ; but in the reign of these princes, and afterwards, they were either subjected to the Macedonians, who had made themselves masters of Greece, or oppressed by domestic tyrants. The Achaean commonwealth consisted of twelve inconsiderable towns in Peloponnesus. About 280 years before Christ the republic of the Achaeans recovered its old institutions and unanimity. This was the renewal of the ancient confede ration, which subsequently became so famous under the name of the ACHAEAN LEAGUE having for its object, not as formerly a common worship, but a substantial political union. Though dating from the year B.C. 280, its import-