It will appear, that accubation, or lying down at meals, was a gesture used by very many nations. Brown's Vulgar Errours. "Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved;" which gesture will not so well agree unto position of sitting, but is naturall, and cannot be avoided in the laws of accubation. Idem. ACCUBATION, in antiquity, was the table posture of the Greeks and Romans; between sitting and lying down to meat. The Greeks introduced this posture: having in their turn borrowed it from the eastern nations; for we find Homer representing their primitive heroes seated round the wall, with a table before each, on which his food was placed. The Romans, during the frugal ages of the republic, were strangers to it; but as luxury obtained, this posture was adopted, at least by the men; for as to women, it was long reputed an indecency for them to use it; though afterwards, this too was overlooked. But children did not lie down, nor servants, nor soldiers, nor persons of meaner condition. The Roman manner of disposing themselves at table, was this: a low round table was placed in the cœnaculum, or dining-room, and about this, usually three, sometimes only two beds, or couches; according to the number of which, it was called biclinium, or triclinium. These were covered with a sort of bed-cloaths, richer or plainer, according to the quality of the person, and furnished with quilts and pillows, that the guests might lie the more commodiously. There were ordinarily three persons on each bed; to crowd more, was esteemed sordid. In eating they lay down on their left sides, with their heads resting on their elbows. The first lay at the head of the bed, with his feet extended behind the back of the second; the second lay with the back of his head towards the navel of the first, only separated by a pillow, his feet behind the back of the third; and so of the third, or fourth. The middle place was esteemed the most honourable. Before they came to table, they changed their cloaths, putting on what they called canatoria testis, the dining-garment, and pulled off their shoes, to prevent soiling the bed. : Horace thus describes the order of sitting :Summus ego & prope me Viscus Sabinus, & infra, Si memini, Varius: cum Servilio Balatrone Vibidius, quos Mecanas adduxerat umbras. Nomentanus erat super ipsum, Porcius infra. Lib. ii. Sat. 8. in Greece, the nearest to the table; at Rome, the last or uppermost part of the middle bed, or couch, was the place of greatest distinction. Among the Jews, the Pharisees and others, loved the uppermost rooms at feasts. (Matthew xxiii. 6.) Plutarch records a singular instance of this feeling, which illustrates our Saviour's reproof. At a splendid entertainment given by Timon, in which every one was desired to recline in whatever place he pleased, a certain person came in a very elegant dress and attended by a numerous retinue; but no sooner had he approached the door, and taken a view of the guests, who had already arranged themselves in the room, than he suddenly withdrew; and being followed by several of the company, who eagerly inquired the cause of this proceeding, he remarked, "there was no fit place left for him." Lying on one's bosom, a phrase of St. John's Gospel, respecting the posture of that beloved disciple, is also illustrated by the above customs. ACCUM'BER. See ENCUMBER. He sette not his benefice to hire, And lette his shepe acombred in the mire. Chaucer's Prol. to the Personnes Tale. Alas, the clear christall, the bright transplendant glasse, Doth not bewray the colours hid which vnderneath it hase; As doth th' accumbred sprite the thoughtfull throues discouer, couer. ACCUMULATE, ACCUMULATION, Of feares delite of feruent loue that in hartes wo Wyatt. Ad: cumulus, a heap; to heap, or place together, but not to unite; to pile up; to collect; to ACCUMULATIVE, increase. tension and accumulation. The greatness of sins is, in most instances, by ex Taylor's Polemical Discourses. Injuries may fall upon the passive man; yet, without revenge, there would be no broils and quarrels, the great accumulators and multipliers of injuries. Decay of Piety. Great Strafford! worthy of that name, though all Of thee should be forgotten, but thy fall, Crush'd by imaginary treason's weight, Which too much courage did accumulate. Denham, on the Earl of Strafford's Trial and Death. The miser who accumulates his annual income, and lends it out at interest, has really spent it in the gratification of his avarice. Hume's Essays. ACCURACY, Ac'CURATE, Ac'CURATELY, ACCURATENESS. tion, freedom from error, exactness, nicety, correct ness. Those conceive the celestial bodies have morg accurate influences upon these things below, than indeed they have but in gross. Bacon. Guests, from the period of the heroic ages, were arranged at table according to their rank; so that persons of distinction had the uppermost seats, and subsequently a nomenclator was employed at public entertainments, to call every guest by name to his proper place. The heroes seem to have been ranged in long ranks, and the nearly, in a given ratio to the sine of refraction. chief personages at the top of each row on both sides of the table. In Persia, the middle place was accounted the most honourable, and always given to the king; The sine of incidence is either accurately, or very Newton. That all these distances, motions, and quantities of matter, should be so accurately and harmoniously adjusted in this great variety of our system, is above the fortuitous hints of blind material causes; and Hii mygte acors pe fole quene, þat Seynt Edward slou. R. Gloucester, p. 296. -Drede ys at þe laste, Lest Crist in bus constorie of gow a corse menye. Vision of Piers Plouhman, repr. 1813, p. 7. But whan he sawe yt he myght not reconsyle them by fayre meanys, he than vsed copulsares, and denoused them accursed, but if they restored the goodes of the Churche by a serteyn day. Fabyan, p. 275. F. I am accurst to rob in that theefe's company; that rascall hath remoued my horse, and tied him I know not where. Shakspeare, 1 Hen. IV, p. 54, act ii. sc. 2. The chief part of the misery of wicked men, and those accursed spirits, the devils, is this; that they are of a disposition contrary to God. Tillot. ACCURSED, in the Jewish idiom, was synonymous with hanged, or crucified, or dying on a tree. Deut. xxi. 22, 23; which has been thought to explain Rom. ix. 3, where the apostle Paul wishes himself accursed after the manner of Christ, i. e. crucified, if happily he might by such a death save his countrymen. Compare 2 Tim. i. 3. ACCURSIUS, a law-professor in the 12th century, born in Florence. His authority was for some time so great, that he was called the Idol of the Lawyers. He left a valuable digest of the decisions of the Old Jurists, published at Lyons, in 1589, in 6 vols. folio. ACCURSIUS, (Mariangelus,) a famous critic of the 16th century, born at Aquila, in the king dom of Naples. His Diatribes, printed at Rome, in folio, in 1524, on Ovid and Solinus, are a proof of his abilities. In his edition of Ammianus Marcellinus, there are five books more than in any of the preceding ones: and he affirms he had corrected 5000 errors in that his torian. His predominant passion was collecting old manuscripts; yet he made Latin and Italian verses; was complete master of the French, German, and Spanish tongues; and understood optics and music. ACCUSE', v. O cruell day, accuser of the ioy Chaucer, Third booke of Troilus, fol. 174, col. 2. Therfore Pilat wente out without forth to hem, and seide, what accusing bringen ghe aghens this man? Thei answerden and seiden to him, If this were not a inysdoere we hadden not bitaken him to thee. ee. Wiclif. Jon. chap. xviii. To which I answeride, that it is not custom to Romayns to dampne ony man bifore that he that is accused haue his accuseris present, and take place of defending to putte awei the crimes that ben putt aghens him. Wiclif, Dedis, chap. 25. And now they beyng bent of bothe sydes, with burnynge hartes they prepare theyr accusements they runne to y judges. Erasmus, Para, of N. T. by P. Udall, Mat. chap. v. p. 22, col. 2. MOWB. Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal, "Tis not the tryal of a woman's war, Shakspeare's King Richard II. Shakspeare, 2 H. VI. p. 131, act iii. sc. 1. These accusations; and these grievous crimes, Shakspeare: ACCUSATIO, in medicine. See INDICATIO. to plead. In law, the charging any person with ACCUSATION, Lat. from ad, to, and causare, a criminal action, that exposes him to public punishment. Writers on politics treat of the benefits and the inconveniences of accusations. Various arguments are alleged, both for and against, the public accusation of great men. the preservation of the state. This, accordingly, Nothing, according to Machiavel, tends more to was strictly observed by the Romans, in the instance of Camillus, accused of corruption by Manlius Capitolinus, &c. Accusations, however, are not more beneficial than calumnies are pernicious; which is also confirmed by the practice of the Romans. Manlius, not being able to make good his charge against Camillus, was cast into prison.-By the Roman law, there was no public accuser for public crimes; every private person might accuse another of them, and prosecute to punishment, or absolution. Cato, the most innocent person of his age, had been accused forty-two times, and as often absolved. But the accusation of private crimes was never received, but from the mouths of those who were immediately interested in them. None (e. g.) but the husband could accuse his wife of adultery. The ancient Roman lawyers distinguish be tween postulatio, delatio, and accusatio. For, first, leave was desired to bring a charge against one, which was called postulare; then he against whom the charge was laid, was brought before the judge; which was called deferre, or dominis delatio: lastly, the charge was drawn up and presented, which was properly the accusation. The accusation commenced, according to Padianus, when the reus, or party charged, being interrogated, denied he was guilty of the crime, and subscribed his name to the delatio made by his opponent. By the laws of the Inquisition, a person is necessitated to accuse himself of whatever erime may be imputed to him. On the slightest report that a person is a heretic, or even that he is suspected of heresy, an inquisitor will receive the denunciation of a stranger, who generally abjures the office of accuser, because if he should fail in his proof, he is exposed to the law of retaliation. The unhappy culprit is now visited with all the terrors of the institution, to induce him to selfcrimination, which has urged the confession of whatever has been imputed, and even the voluntary invention of crimes that had no existence. In England, by Magna Charta, no man shall be imprisoned, or condemned on any accusation, without trial by his peers, or the law; none shall be vexed with any accusation, but according to the law of the land; and, no man may be molested by petition to the king, &c. unless it be by indictment, or presentment of lawful men, or by process at common law. The office of attorney-general, and ex-officio informations, constitute the only exception to these noble provisions. Promoters of accusations are to find surety to pursue them; and, if they do not make them good, shall pay damages to the party accused, and also a fine to the king. No person is obliged to answer upon oath to a question whereby he may accuse himself of any crime. But the institution of grand juries is perhaps, our best practical barrier against false accusa tions. The queene than askis of gold, for the nanis, Douglas, b. i. And then as he (Henry V.) was ever accustomed to do, he went on foote to the chief churche in the toune, and rendred to God his most heartie thankes for his prosperous successe and fortunate chauce. Hall. After which murder fynyshed, ye sayde syr Rafe, with his adherentys fled unto ye place of ye Erle of Artoys, where the Duke of Burgoyne vsyd accustomably to resorte. Fabyan. I shall always fear that he who accustoms himself to fraud in little things, wants only opportunity in greater. Adventurer, No. 119. How shall we breathe in other air Less pure, accustom'd to immortal fruits. Milton. It has been some advantage, to accustom one's self to books of the same edition. par Watts's Imp. of the Mind. Air and exercise are necessary to all men, but ticularly so to the man whose mind labours, and to him who has been all his life accustomed to much of both, they are necessary in the extreme. Cowper's Letters. ACE', n. as, Gr. as Fr. one, an integer, unity. The side of a die, or a card marked with one point. A small quantity; a particle; an atom. DEM. No die, but an ace for him, for he is but one. LIS. Lesse than an ace, man; for he is dead, he is nothing. Shakspeare, Mid. Night's Dream, p. 161, act v. sc. 1. GET. Then will I, (For wise men must be had to prop the republick) Not bate ye a single ace of a sound senator. Beaumont and Fletcher's Prophetess act i. sc. 3. When lots are shuffled together in a lap, urn, or pitcher; or if a man blindfold casts a die; what reason in the world can he have to presume, that he shall draw a white stone rather than a black, or throw an ace rather than a sise. South. He will not bate an ace of absolute certainty; but, however doubtful or improbable the thing is, coming from him it must go for an indisputable truth. Government of the Tongue. not bribe me to it. I'll not wag an ace farther: the whole world shall Dryden's Spanish Friar, ACELDEMA, Heb. a field of blood, formerly called the Potter's, and some think, the Fuller's field, situated S. of Jerusalem, and N. of the rivulet Siloam: the field purchased by the Jewish rulers, with the 30 pieces of silver, which Judas returned to them, in despair, after betraying our Saviour; and which they allotted as a burial place for strangers. The place, which is still shewn to travellers, is small, and covered with an arched roof. The bodies deposited in it are, it is said, consumed in three or four days, or even less. Drutmar, a monk of Corbie, says, that in his time there was a hospital here for the entertainment of French pilgrims. ACENTETUM, or ACANTETA, in natural history, a name given by the ancients to the purest and finest rock crystal, which was much used and admired in the formation of cups and vases. ACEPHALI, in civil history, certain levellers, in the reign of king Henry I. who were not believed to possess even a tenement to entitle them to have the right of acknowledging a superior lord. In our ancient law books, it is also used for persons who held nothing in fee. ACEPHALI, or ACEPHALITE, in ecclesiastical history, the denomination of various sects: who refused to follow a leader, or head: as, 1. Those who, in the fifth century, refused to follow either St. Cyril, or John of Antioch 2. Certain Christians who abandoned Peter Mongus, upon his submission to the council of Chalcedon; being generally of the opinion of Eutyches, that there was only one nature in Christ. 3. The adherents of Severus of Antioch; and of all in general who refused to admit the council of Chalcedon. 4. Bishops, exempt from the jurisdiction of their patriarch, were also thus named. ACEPHALI, in ancient history, certain nations, or people, represented by ancient naturalists and cosmographers, as formed without heads; their eyes, mouths, &c. being placed in their breast, shoulders, &c. Such were the Blemmyes, a nation of Africa mentioned by Pliny and Solinus. Ctesias and Solinus mention others in India near the Ganges. Mela also speaks of a people, quibus capita et vultus in pectore sunt. And Suidas, Stephanus Byzantinus, Vopiscus, relate the like. Different opinions have been formed as to the origin of these fables. Bartholin, who turns the whole into a metaphor, says, that the name, Acephali, was anciently given to such as had less brain, or conducted themselves less by the rules of prudence, than others. Olearius supposes, that the ancient voyagers, viewing certain barbarous people from the coasts, had been imposed upon by their uncouth dress. Wepfer gives a catalogue of such acephalous births, from Schenckius, Licetus, Panaus, Wolfius, Mauriceau, &c. See also Philos. Transact. lxv. p. 311. ACEPHALOUS WORMS, or what are supposed such, are frequent. The lumbricus latus, cr joint-worm, and the tænia or tape worm, were long taken to be acephalous: the first who sup'posed them to have a head was Tulpius, and after him Fehr: the former even makes them biceps, or two-headed. See TENIA. Crabs and such animals as have their chief senses about the breast or heart, have also been called acephali. Gal. de Usu. part viii. 4. ACEPHALUS, in poetry, a verse which is lame or defective by wanting a beginning. Some also give the name axepalog to all verses which begin with a short, instead of a long syllable. ACER, the MAPLE or SYCAMORE TREE: a genus of the monœcia order, belonging to the polygamia class of plants; and ranking under the 23d natural order, trifilatæ. ACERATOS, aɛɛparog, Gr. from ɑ, negative, and Kepw, or Kepaνvvju, to mix: unmixed, uncorrupted. It is applied sometimes to the humours of the body by Hippocrates. Paulus Egineta mentions a plaster under this name, but probably means accron. See ACERIDES. ACERB Acerbitas, sourness. DeACER BITY, adj. 3 rived from the taste of unripe fruit; sharpness, roughness. It is true that purgatory (at least as is believed) cannot last a hundred thousand years; but yet God may by the acerbitie of the flames in twenty years equal the canonical penances of twenty thousand years. Taylor's Dissuasive from Popery. ACERENZA, a small town of the province of Basilicata, in the kingdom of Naples, formerly the see of an archbishop It is eighty miles E. of the capital. ACERIC ACID, in chemistry, an acid found in the juice of the maple, and decomposed by heat See ACID. ACERIDES, aknpides, from a negative, and kupoc, wax. Plasters made without wax. ACERINA, in ichthyology, a name given by Pliny and others of the old naturalists, to the fish we now call the ceruna, and aurata fluviatilis, and in England the ruff. It is a genuine species of perch, and is distinguished by Artedi from all the other fish of that genus, by having the back fin single, and the head cavernous. See PERCA. ACERNO, a town of Italy, in the citerio principality of Naples, with a bishop's see; situated fourteen miles N. E. of Salerno. ACEROSUS, an epithet of Hippocrates for a coarse kind of bread, made of chaff. ACERRA, or ACERRE, a town in the kingdom of Naples, in the Terra di Levoro, seated on the river Agno, eight miles N. E. of Naples. ACERRA, in antiquity, an altar erected among the Romans, near the bed of a person deceased, on which his friends daily offered incense till his burial. The original intention probably was to overcome any offensive smell that might arise about the corpse. Also a little pot, wherein were put the incense and perfumes to be burnt 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. Thus Horat. lib. 3. Od. viii. v. 2: Quid velint flores et acerra thuris Plena, miraris. The Chinese have still a custom like this: they erect an altar to the deceased in a room hung with mourning; and place an image of the dead person on the altar, to which every one that approaches it bows four times, and offers oblations and perof Acerre, was prohibited among the Romans. fumes. By the laws of the XII. tables, the erection We find mention of acerræ in the ancient church. The Jews had also their acerræ, in our version them under the name of incense pots. rendered censers; and the Romanists still retain ACESCENT, in chemistry, applied to liquids and other substances, which readily run into the acid fermentation, or in which it has already commenced. ACESTA, in ancient geography, a town of Sicily, named after Acestes, and built by Eneas; called also Segesta. Virg. Æn. 746. who assisted Priam in the Trojan war, and afterACESTES, in ancient history, a king of Sicily, wards entertained Eneas. Idem. ACESTIDES, in chemistry, chimneys of furnaces for making brass, narrow at top to receive and collect the fumes of the metal, that cadmia may be produced in greater quantities. ACESTORIS, or ACESTRIDES, from akoç, healing, female physicians; midwives so called among the Greeks. ACETABULUM, in anatomy, 1. Á deep cavity, in certain bones, appointed for the reception of the large head of other bones, in order to them articulation, such as that of the ischium, which receives the head of the thigh-bone. See ENARTHROSIS. The acetabulum is lined, and capped round with a cartilage, whose circular margin is called supercilium. In its bottom lies a large mucilaginous gland. 2. The same with Cotyledon. 3. A glandular substance, found in the placenta of some animals. ACETABULUM, in antiquity, 1. A little vase, or cup, used at table to serve up things proper for sauce, or seasoning; similar to our vinegar cruets. Hence Agricola takes it to have been named from acetum, vinegar. 2. A Roman measure, used both for liquid and dry things, chiefly in medicine. It contained a cyathus and a half, or fifteen drachms, equal to about one-eighth of a pint. ACETABULUM, in botany, navel-wort, a species of the peziza, or cup-peziza, a genus belonging to the cryptogamia fungi of Linnæus. It is named acetabulum, from the resemblance its leaves bear to a cup. See PEZIZA. ACETARIA, from acetum, vinegar, sallad. ACETIC ACID, in chemistry, the acid which in a more diluted state is called vinegar. For its chemical properties, see ACID and CHEMISTRY, and for its mode of manufacture into that article, see VINEGAR. ACETIFICATION is used by some chemists to denote the operation whereby vinegar is made. It is a species of fermentation, arising from exposing vinous liquors in open vessels, in a warm place, which turns them acid. Acetification chiefly differs from the fermentation whereby wine is made in this, that the latter is effected by a gentler heat, sufficient only to raise, and rarify the sulphurous parts; whereas, in acetification, there is what is sufficient to raise and rarefy the saline parts. ACETI SPIRITUS, in chemistry, spirit of vinegar. It is made by drenching copper filings with distilled vinegar and repeatedly evaporating it. ACETOSA, sorrel; by Linnæus joined to the genus of dock, under the title of Rumer. See RUMEX. ACETOSELLA, in botany, wood sorrel, a species of OXALIS, which see. ACETOUS ÆTHER, an æther made by means of vinegar. ACETOUS FERMENTATION, that by which vinegar is produced. See ACETIFICATION. ACETUM, Latin, from acere, to be sharp, in medicine, chemistry, &c. vinegar; the vegetable acid. See VINEGAR. There are several medicines of which it is the basis; as, 1. ACETUM ALKALIZATUM, alkalized vinegar; distilled vinegar, with the addition of some alkaline or volatile salt. 2. ACETUM DISTILLATUM, distilled vinegar, chiefly used in preparations for dissolution and precipitation. 3. ACETUM ESURIENS, appetitive vinegar, the richest acid, according to Boerhaave, that can by any art be prepared from vinegar. It is made hy dissolving verdigrise in distilled vinegar, evaporating the solution, and after recovering the chrystalized verdigrise, distilling the acid spirit by a retort. 6. ACETUM SAMBUCINUM, vinegar of elder. 7. ACETUM SCILLITICUM, vinegar of squills, &c. For these and other medicated vinegars, see VINEGAR. They are much used in Germany as antidotes against pestilential diseases. ACH, or ACHEN, (J. V.) a painter of the sixteenth century, born at Cologne. He imitated Spranger, and travelling to Venice and Rome, painted in the latter city a celebrated Nativity for the church of the Jesuits. Returning home, he was much patronized by the German princes, and died in 1621. ACHA, in geography, the name of three smaller rivers of Bavaria, one flowing into the Danube, near Donawerth, and another into the same river, near Ingolstadt; the third falling into the Inn, near the mouth of the Saltza. ACHABYTUS, in ancient geography, a high mountain in Rhodes, on the top of which stood a temple of Jupiter. ACHAC, in ornithology, a bird of the partridge kind, common in the Philippine islands. ACHEA, in ancient geography, a town of the island of Rhodes, in the district of Jalysus, and the first and most ancient of all; said to be built by the Heliades, or grandsons of Apollo. ACHEA, a hamlet of Asiatic Sarmatia, on the Euxine. The inhabitants were called Achæi, and were a colony of the Orchomenians. ACHEANS, the inhabitants of ACHATA Propria, a Peloponnesian state. This republic was not considerable in early times, for the number of its troops, its wealth, or the extent of its territories; but it was famed for its probity, its justice, and its love of liberty. Its high reputation for these virtues was very ancient. The Crotonians and Sybarites, to re-establish order in their towns, adopted the laws and customs of the Achæans. After the famous battle of Leuctra, a difference arose between the Lacedemonians and Thebans, who held the virtue of this people in such veneration, that they terminated the dispute by their decision. The government of the Achæans was democratical. They preserved their liberty till the time of Philip and Alexander: but in the reigns of those princes, and afterwards, they were either subject to the Macedonians, who had made themselves masters of Greece, or oppressed by cruel tyrants. The Achæan commonwealth consisted of twelve in considerable towns in Peloponnesus. Its first annals are not marked by any great action, for they are not graced with one eminent character. After the death of Alexander, this little republic was a prey to all the evils which flow from political discord. A zeal for the good of the community was now extinguished. Each town was only attentive to its private interest. There was no longer any stability in the state; for it changed its masters with every revolution in Macedonia. Towards the 124th Olympiad, about the time when Ptolemy Soter died, and whem Pyrrhus invaded Italy, the republic of the Achæans recovered its old institutions and unanimity. The inhabitants of Patæ and of Dyma were the first asserters of ancient liberty. The tyrants were banished; and the league comprised at length the whole of Greece, with the single exception of the Lacedemonians. The |