Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/95

Rh A C A A C G 79 amateurs, in conjunction with the most eminent masters of the time, with the view of promoting the study and practice of vocal arid instrumental harmony. This institution, which had the advantage of a library, consisting of the most celebrated compositions, both foreign and domestic, in manuscript and in print, and which was aided by the per formances of the gentlemen of the chapel royal, and the choir of St Paul s, with the boys belonging to each, con tinued to flourish for many years. In 1731 a charge of plagiarism brought against Bononcini, a member of the academy, for claiming a madrigal of Lotti of Venice as his own, threatened the existence of the institution. Dr Greene, who had introduced the madrigal into the aca demy, took part with Bononcini, and withdrew from the society, taking with him the boys of St Paul s. In 1734 Mr Gates, another member of the society, and master of the children of the royal chapel, also retired in disgust; so that the institution was thus deprived of the assistance which the boys afforded it in singing the soprano parts. From this time the academy became a seminary for the instruction of youth in the principles of music and the laws of harmony. Dr Pepusch, who was one of its foun ders, was active in accomplishing this measure; and by the expedient of educating boys for their purpose, and admitting auditor members, the subsistence of the aca demy was continued. The Royal Academy of Music was formed by the principal nobility and gentry of the kingdom, for the performance of operas, composed by Handel, and conducted by him at the theatre in the Hay- market. The subscription amounted to 50,000, and the king, besides subscribing 1000, allowed the society to assume the title of Royal Academy. It consisted of a governor, deputy-governor, and twenty directors. A con test between Handel and Senesino, one of the performers, in which the directors took the part of the latter, occa sioned the dissolution of the academy, after it had subsisted with reputation for more than nine years. The present Royal Academy of Music dates from 1822, and was incor porated in 1830 under the patronage of the queen. It instructs pupils of both sexes in music, charging 33 guineas per annum; but many receive instruction free. It also gives public concerts. In this institution the leading instrumentalists and vocalists of England have received their education. (See Musical Directory published by Budall, Carte, and Co.) ACADEMY is a term also applied to those royal collegiate seminaries in which young men are educated for the navy and army. In our country there are three colleges of this description the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. (F. S.) ACADIE, or ACADIA, the name borne by Nova Scotia while it remained a French settlement. ACALEPH^ (from aKaX^r], a nettle), a name given to the animals commonly known as jelly-fish, sea-blubber, Medusae, sea-nettles, &c. ACANTIIOCEPHALA (from faavOa, a thorn, and K.e$&amp;gt;aXrj, the head), a group of parasitic worms, having the heads armed with spines or hooks. ACANTHOPTERYGII (from &amp;lt;W0a, a thorn, and TTTepv, a wing), an order of fishes, having bony skeletons with prickly spinous processes in the dorsal fins. ACANTHUS, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Acanthacece. The species are natives of the southern parts of Europe. The most common species is the Acan thus mollis or Brankursine. It has large, deeply-cut, hairy, shining leaves, which are supposed to have suggested the decoration of the Corinthian column. Another species, Acanthus spinosus, is so called from its spiny leaves. ACAPULCO, a town and port in Mexico, on a bay of the Pacific Ocean, about 190 miles S.S.W. of Mexico, in N. lat. 16 50, W. long. 99 46 . The harbour, which is the best on the Pacific coast, is almost completely land locked. It is easy of access, and the anchorage is so secure that heavily-laden ships can lie close to the rocks which surround it. The town lies N.W. of the harbour, and is defended by the castle of San Diego, which stands on an eminence. During a part of the dry season the air is infected with the putrid effluvia of a morass eastward of the town. This, together with the heat of the climate, aggravated by the reflection of the sun s rays from the granite rocks that environ the town, renders it very un healthy, especially to Europeans, though a passage cut through the rocks, to let in the sea breeze, has tended to improve its salubrity. Acapulco was in former times the great depot of the trade of Spain with the East Indies. A galleon sailed from this port to Manilla in the Philippine Islands, and another returned once a year laden with the treasures and luxuries of the East. On the arrival of this galleon a great fair was held, to which merchants resorted from all parts of Mexico. The trade between Acapulco and Manilla was annihilated when Mexico became inde pendent; and, from this cause, and also on account of the frequent earthquakes by which the town has been visited, it had sunk to comparative insignificance, when the dis covery of gold in California gave its trade a fresh impetus. It is now the most important seaport in Mexico, and is regularly touched at by the Pacific mail steamers. Besides having a large transit trade, it exports wool, skins, cocoa, cochineal, and indigo; and the imports include cottons, silks, and hardware. Population about 5000. ACARNANIA, a province of ancient Greece, now called Carnia, It was bounded on the N. by the Ambracian gulf, on the N.E. by Amphilochia, on the W. and S.W. by the Ionian Sea, and on the E. by ^Etolia. It was a hilly country, with numerous lakes and tracts of rich pasture, and its hills are to the present day crowned with thick wood. It was celebrated for its excellent breed of horses. The Acarnanians, according to Mr Grote, though admitted as Greeks to the Pan-Hellenic games, were more akin in character and manners to their barbarian neighbours of Epirus. Up to the time of the Peloponnesian war, they are mentioned only as a race of rude shepherds, divided into numerous petty tribes, and engaged in continual strife and rapine. They were, however, favourably distinguished from their ^Etolian neighbours by the fidelity and stead fastness of their character. They were good soldiers, and excelled as slingers. At the date above mentioned they begin, as the allies of the Athenians, to make a more pro minent figure in the history of Greece. The chief town was Stratos, and subsequently Leucas. ACARUS (from aKa.pi, a mite), a genus of Arachnides, represented by the cheese mite and other forms. ACCELERATION is a term employed to denote gene rally the rate at which the velocity of a body, whose motion is not uniform, either increases or decreases. As the velocity is continually changing, and cannot therefore be estimated, as in uniform motion, by the space actually passed over in a certain time, its value at any instant haa to be measured by the space the body would describe in the unit of time, supposing that at and from the instant in