Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/122

ACONITE. itine, and isaconitine. Some of these are employed in medicine, being administered in small doses for nervous and other disorders. The Wolf's-bane or Monk's-hood (Aconitum napellus) is often cultivated for its racemes of handsome blue flowers. A number of species is said to be employed in India in the manufacture of the bikh poison. Aconitum album, with white flowers, and Aconitum lycoctonum, with yellow flowers, European species, are often met with in flower gardens. Aconitum uncinatum. which has blue flowers, and Aconitum reclinatum, with white flowers, are found in the eastern United States, while Aconitum columbianum is common from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. It is reputed poisonous to stock, especially to sheep. Consult: H. G. L. Reichenbach, Monographia Generis Aconiti (Leipzig, 1820); W. Weil, translated by H. D. Millard, A Monograph upon Aconite (New York, 1860); L. H. Bailey, Cyclopædia of American Horticulture (1900-1901). For illustration, see Plate of Acacia.

ACONTIUS, .T-kon'shl-iis (Gk. Ἀκόντιος, Akontios). The hero of a classic love story contained in a lost poem of Callimaclius, and also given by Ovid (Heroides xx. 21). He is a youth from Ceos, who. being at Delos and in love with Cydippe (q.v.), throws at her feet an apple on which he has written, "I swear by the sanctuary of Artemis to marry Acontius." Inadvertently she reads the words aloud, and in spite of her inclination to have nothing to do with the youth, is held by the goddess to her vow thus made. Consult: Morris, "The Story of Acontius and Cydippe," in The Earthly Paradise, part iii. (London, 1872).

ACORN, .'I'kiirn (properly, fruit of the field, A. S. (æcer, a field). The nut-like fruit of dif- ferent species of oak. It consists of the nut proper and the cupule, or saucer or cup. The acorns from different species differ much in size, form, color, and taste. In some the cup is deep and very rough; in others it is smooth and shal- low. A few kinds of acorns are sweet and not unlike chestnuts in flavor, but most are bitter and more or less astringent in taste, owing to the presence of quercin, or some similar bitter principle, and tannin. On an average, fresh acorns have the following percentage composition: Wa- ter, 37.12; protein, 4.11; fat, 3.05; nitrogen free extract. 45.27; crude fibre, 8.95; and ash, 1.50. The shell makes up 14 per cent, of the total fruit, the flesh, 85 per cent. Acorns are a favorite food of wild hogs, and have been used since earliest times as feeding stuff for domestic animals, especially pigs. It is customary to let the pigs gather this food. Acorns and beechnuts are commonly spoken of as mast. The agreeable flavor of the pork, ham, and bacon of the razor- back hog of the southern United States is attrib- uted in no small degree to its being fed on acorns. On the other hand, an excess of acorns may produce a soft, spongy flesh and an oily lard. This, however, is usually obviated by feeding corn for two or three weeks before slaughtering. Acorns have been successfully fed to milch cows and to poultry. Horses also are said to eat them. In the United States acorns are not much eaten by men. Under the name "Biotes," the fruit of Quercus Emoryii is used as food in the southwest. Sweet acorns are eaten occasionally in different regions, mainly by children. The Indians of the Pacific coast region from northern California to Mexico use acorns in considerable quantities. Dried and pounded, they are made into a sort of mush, and also into bread. The acorn meal is usually leached to free it from tannin and whatever bitter principle is present. When the meal is used for bread a kind of clay is sometimes mixed with it. In several regions of Italy, notably Umbria, Tuscany, Emilia, and the Marches, acorns made into a sort of bread with the addition of two-thirds ground grain are a common article of diet. The bread is black and heavy and not readily digestible. Dried acorns are sometimes used as a substitute for coffee. See.

ACORN-SHELL, a'kiirn-shel. A sessile barnacle of the family Balanidæ. See.

AC'ORUS (Gk. ἄκορος, akoros, sweet-flag). A genus of plants of the natural order Araceæ. (See .) The plants of this genus have a leaf-like scape, which bears upon its side a dense, cylindrical, greenish spike of flowers. Here belongs the Sweet-flag (Acorus calamus), which was brought to Europe from Asia in the fifteenth century, but has become naturalized in England, Germany, etc., growing in marshes and ditches. In North America it is found from Nova Scotia to Florida, and west through Minnesota and Iowa. Its root (rhizome) is perennial, divided into long joints about the thickness of the thumb, has a bitterish, acrid taste, and is very aromatic. It is a powerful medicine of transient tonic effect, occasionally used, especially in cases of weak digestion. In many places on the Continent of Europe it is found in confectionery shops sliced and prepared with sugar. It is also used to correct the empyreumatic odor of spirits and to give them a peculiar flavor. It is called Calamus root. In Great Britain it is chiefly employed by perfumers in the manufacture of hair powder. The other species of Acorus are likewise aromatic, and are applied to the same uses. Acorus gramineus is cultivated in China. Some fossil species of Acorus have been found in rocks of the Tertiary Age in North America and on the island of Spitzbergen, and in later formations in other parts of the world.

ACOSTA, ȧ-kōs'tȧ,, later (1594?-1647) A Portuguese philosopher, descended from a Jewish family. He was born at Oporto. After being educated in the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, when twenty-five years of age he became skeptical, and then adopted the Jewish faith; but as the profession of such was not allowed him in his own country, he fled to Amsterdam, where he was formally received into the Jewish community, and changed his name, which had been Gabriel, to Uriel. But what he conceived to be the Pharisaism and spiritual pride of the Amsterdam Jews disgusted him, and he opposed many of their ideas, and especially denied that the doctrine of immortality had any Mosaic sanction. Hence he became involved in a controversy with his rabbinical teachers. On account of his work, entitled Examen dos tradiçoens Phariseas conferidas con a ley escrita (&ldquo;Examination of Pharisaic Traditions Compared with the Scripture&rdquo;), 1624, he was charged with atheism by the Jews before the city magistracy and fined. He was also excommunicated, and so remained for seven years, when he recanted after ignominious treatment. He died in 1647 by suicide. His autobiography was first published by P. Limborch in Latin, 1687;