ACHIMENES (perhaps from the Gr. ȧxaιuevis, an Indian plant used in magic), a genus of plants, natural order Gesneraceae (to which belong also Gloxinia and Streptocarpus), natives of tropical America, and well known in cultivation as stove or warm greenhouse plants. They are herbaceous perennials, generally with hairy serrated leaves and handsome flowers. The corolla is tubular with a spreading limb, and varies widely in colour, being white, yellow, orange, crimson, scarlet, blue or purple. A large number of hybrids exist in cultivation. The plants are grown in the stove till the flowering period, when they may be removed to the greenhouse. They are propagated by cuttings, or from the leaves, which are cut off and pricked in welldrained pots of sandy soil, or by the scales from the underground tubes, which are rubbed off and sown like seeds, or by the seeds, which are very small. Achilles is a typical Greek hero; handsome, brave, celebrated | who achieved some notoriety as a versifier of the school of the for his fleetness of foot, prone to excess of wrath and grief, at Secentisti. the same time he is compassionate, hospitable, full of affection for his mother and respect for the gods. In works of art he is represented, like Ares, as a young man of splendid physical proportions, with bristling hair like a horse's mane and a slender neck. Although the figure of the hero frequently occurs in groups-such as the work of Scopas showing his removal to the island of Leuke by Poseidon and Thetis, escorted by Nereïds and Tritons, and the combat over his dead body in the Aeginetan sculptures-no isolated statue or bust can with certainty be identified with him; the statue in the Louvre (from the Villa Borghese), which was thought to have the best claim, is generally taken for Ares or possibly Alexander. There are many vase and wall paintings and bas-reliefs illustrative of incidents in his life. Various etymologies of the name have been suggested: 'without a lip" (å, xeîλos), Achilles being regarded as a river-god, a stream which overflows its banks, or, referring to the story that, when Thetis laid him in the fire, one of his lips, which he had licked, was consumed (Tzetzes on Lycophron, 178); " restrainer of the people" (éxé-λaos); healer of sorrow "" (ἀχε-λώιος); "the obscure (connected with ἀχλύς, mist "); snakeborn (exis), the snake being one of the chief forms taken by Thetis. The most generally received view makes him a god of light, especially of the sun or of the lightning. 66 66 See E. H. Meyer, Indogermanische Mythen, ii., Achilleïs, 1887; F. G. Welcker, Der epische Cyclus, 1865-1882; articles in PaulyWissowa, Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire des Antiquités and Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie; see also T. W. Allen in Classical Review, May 1906; A. E. Crawley, J. G. Frazer, A. Lang, Ibid., June, July 1893, on Achilles in Scyros. In the article GREEK ART, fig. 12 represents the conflict over the dead body of Achilles. ACHILLES TATIUS, of Alexandria, Greek rhetorician, author of the erotic romance, the Adventures of Leucippe and Cleitophon, flourished about A.D. 450, perhaps later. Suidas, who alone calls him Statius, says that he became a Christian and eventually a bishop-like Heliodorus, whom he imitated-but there is no evidence of this. Photius, while severely criticizing his lapses into indecency, highly praises the conciseness and clearness of his style, which, however, is artificial and laboured. Many of the incidents of the romance are highly improbable, and the characters, except the heroine, fail to enlist sympathy. The descriptive passages and digressions, although tedious and introduced without adequate reasons, are the best part of the work. The large number of existing MSS. attests its popularity. (Ediiio princeps, 1601; first important critical edition by Jacobs, 1821; later editions by Hirschig, 1856; Hercher, 1858. There are translations in many languages; in English by Anthony H[odges], 1638, and R. Smith, 1855. See also ROMANCE.) ACHIN (Dutch Atjeh), a Dutch government forming the northern extremity of the island of Sumatra, having an estimated area of 20,544 sq. m. The government is divided into three assistant-residencies—the east coast, the west coast and Great Achin. The physical geography (see SUMATRA) is imperfectly understood. Ranges of mountains, roughly parallel to the long axis of the island, and characteristic of the whole of it, appear to occupy the interior, and reach an extreme height of about 12,000 ft. in the south-west of the government. The coasts are low and the rivers insignificant, rising in the coast ranges and flowing through the coast states (the chief of which are Pedir, Gighen and Samalanga on the N.; Edi, Perlak and Langsar on the E.; Kluwah, Rigas and Melabuh on the W.). The chief ports are Olehleh, the port of Kotaraja or Achin (formerly Kraton, now the seat of the Dutch government), Segli on the N., Edi on the E., and Analabu or Melabuh on the W. Kotaraja lies near the northern extremity of the island, and consists of detached houses of timber and thatch, clustered in enclosed groups called kampongs, and buried in a forest of fruit-trees. It is situated nearly 3 m. from the sea, in the valley of the Achin river, which in its upper part, near Selimun, is 3 m. broad, the river having a breadth of 99 ft. and a depth of 1 ft.; but in its lower course, north of its junction with the Krung Daru, the valley broadens to 12 m. marshy soil is covered by rice-fields, and on higher ground by kampongs full of trees. The river at its mouth is 327 ft. broad and 20-33 ft. deep, but before it lies a sandbank covered at low water by a depth of only 4 ft. The Dutch garrison in Kotaraja occupies the old Achinese citadel. The town is connected by rail with Olehleh, and the line also extends up the valley. The construction of another railway has been undertaken along the east coast. The following industries are of some importance pottery, fishing and coasting trade. The annual value of the exports (chiefly pepper) is about £58,000; of the imports, from £165,000 to £250,000. The population of Achin in 1898 was estimated at 535,432, of whom 328 were Europeans, 3933 Chinese, 30 Arabs, and 372 other foreign Asiatics. The Suidas also ascribes to this author an Etymology, a Miscel-gold-working, weapon-making, silk-weaving, the making of laneous History of Famous Men, and a treatise On the Sphere. Part of the last is extant under the title of An Introduction to the Phaenomena of Aratus. But if the writer is the prudentissimus Achilles referred to by Firmicus Maternus (about 336) in his Matheseos libri, iv. 10, 17 (ed. Kroll), he must have lived long before the author of Leucippe. The fragment was first published in 1567, then in the Uranologion of Petavius, with a Latin translation, 1630. Nothing definite is known as to the authorship of the other works, which are lost. ACHILLINI, ALESSANDRO (1463-1512), Italian philosopher, born on the 29th of October 1463 at Bologna, was celebrated as a lecturer both in medicine and in philosophy at Bologna and Padua, and was styled the second Aristotle. His philosophical works were printed in one volume folio, at Venice, in 1508, and reprinted with considerable additions in 1545, 1551 and 1568. He was also distinguished as an anatomist (see ANATOMY), among his writings being Corporis humani Anatomia (Venice, 1516-1524), and Anatomicae Annotationes (Bologna, 1520). He died at Bologna on the 2nd of August 1512. His brother, GIOVANNI FILOTEO ACHILLINI (1466-1533), was the author of Il Viridario and other writings, verse and prose, and his grand-nephew, CLAUDIO ACHILLINI (1574-1640), was a lawyer The Achinese, a people of Malayan stock but darker, somewhat taller and not so pleasant-featured as the true Malays, regard themselves as distinct from the other Sumatrans. Their nobles claim Arab descent. They were at one time Hinduized, as is evident from their traditions, the many Sanskrit words in their language, and their general appearance, which suggests Hindu as well as Arab blood. They are Mahommedans, and although Arab influence has declined, their nobles still wear the Moslem flowing robe and turban (though the women go unveiled), and they use Arabic script. The chief characteristic is their love of fighting; every man is a soldier and every village has its army. They are industrious and skilful agriculturists, metal-workers and weavers. They build excellent ships. Their chief amusements are gambling and opium-smoking. Their social organization is communal. They live in kampongs, which combine to form mukims, districts or hundreds (to use the nearest English term), which again combine to form sagis, of which there are three. Achin literature, unlike the language, is entirely Malay; it includes poetry, a good deal of theology and several chronicles. Northern Sumatra was visited by several European travellers in the middle ages, such as Marco Polo, Friar Odorico and Nicolo Conti. Some of these as well as Asiatic writers mention Lambri, a state which must have nearly occupied the position of Achin. But the first voyager to visit Achin, by that name, was Alvaro Tellez, a captain of Tristan d'Acunha's fleet, in 1506. It was then a mere dependency of the adjoining state of Pedir; and the latter, with Pasei, formed the only states on the coast whose chiefs claimed the title of sultan. Yet before twenty years had passed Achin had not only gained independence, but had swallowed up all other states of northern Sumatra. It attained its climax of power in the time of Sultan Iskandar Muda (1607-1636), under whom the subject coast extended from Aru opposite Malacca round by the north to Benkulen on the west coast, a sea-board of not less than 1100 miles; and besides this, the king's supremacy was owned by the large island of Nias, and by the continental Malay states of Johor, Pahang, Kedah and Perak. The chief attraction of Achin to traders in the 17th century must have been gold. No place in the East, unless Japan, was so abundantly supplied with gold. The great repute of Achin as a place of trade is shown by the fact that to this port the first Dutch (1599) and first English (1602) commercial ventures to the Indies were directed. Sir James Lancaster, the English commodore, carried letters from Queen Elizabeth to the king of Achin, and was well received by the prince then reigning, Alauddin Shah. Another exchange of letters took place between King James I. and Iskandar Muda in 1613. But native caprice and jealousy of the growing force of the European nations in these seas, and the rivalries between those nations themselves, were destructive of sound trade; and the English factory, though several times set up, was never long maintained. The French made one great effort (1621) to establish relations with Achin, but nothing came of it. Still the foreign trade of Achin, though subject to interruptions, was important. William Dampier (c. 1688) and others speak of the number of foreign merchants settled there-English, Dutch, Danes, Portuguese, Chinese, &c. Dampier says the anchorage was rarely without ten or fifteen sail of different nations, bringing vast quantities of rice, as well as silks, chintzes, muslins and opium. Besides the Chinese merchants settled at Achin, others used to come annually with the junks, ten or twelve in number, which arrived in June. A regular fair was then established, which lasted two months, and was known as the China camp, a great resort of foreigners. Hostilities with the Portuguese began from the time of the first independent king of Achin; and they had little remission 'till the power of Portugal fell with the loss of Malacca (1641). Not less than ten times before that event were armaments despatched from Achin to reduce Malacca, and more than once its garrison was hard pressed. One of these armadas, equipped by Iskandar Muda in 1615, gives an idea of the king's resources. It consisted of 500 sail, of which 250 were galleys, and among these a hundred were greater than any then used in Europe. Sixty thousand men were embarked. On the death of Iskandar's successor in 1641, the widow was placed on the throne; and as a female reign favoured the oligarchical tendencies of the Malay chiefs, three more queens were allowed to reign successively. In 1699 the Arab or fanatical party suppressed female government, and put a chief of Arab blood on the throne. The remaining history of Achin was one of rapid decay. After the restoration of Java to the Netherlands in 1816, a good deal of weight was attached by the neighbouring British colonies to the maintenance of influence in Achin; and in 1819 a treaty of friendship was concluded with the Calcutta government which excluded other European nationalities from fixed residence in Achin. When the British government, in 1824, made a treaty with the Netherlands, surrendering the remaining British settlements in Sumatra in exchange for certain posses sions on the continent of Asia, no reference was made in the articles to the Indian treaty of 1819; but an understanding was exchanged that it should be modified, while no proceedings hostile to Achin should be attempted by the Dutch. This reservation was formally abandoned by the British government in a convention signed at the Hague on the 2nd of November 1871; and in March 1873 the government of Batavia declared war upon Achin. Doubtless there was provocation, for the sultan of Achin had not kept to the understanding that he was to guarantee immunity from piracy to foreign traders; but the necessity for war was greatly doubted, even in Holland. A Dutch force landed at Achin in April 1873, and attacked the palace. It was defeated with considerable loss, including that of the general (Köhler). The approach of the south-west monsoon precluded the immediate renewal of the attempt; but hostilities were resumed, and Achin fell in January 1874. The natives, however, maintained themselves in the interior, inaccessible to the Dutch troops, and carried on a guerilla warfare. General van der Heyden appeared to have subdued them in 1878-81, but they broke out again in 1896 under the traitor Taku Umar, who had been in alliance with the Dutch. He died shortly afterwards, but the trouble was not ended. General van Hentsz carried on a successful campaign in 1898 seq., but in 1901, the principal Achinese chiefs on the north coast having surrendered, the pretender-sultan fled to the Gajoes, a neighbouring inland people. Several expeditions involving heavy fighting were necessary against these in 1901-4, and a certain amount of success was achieved, but the pretender escaped, revolt still smouldered and hostilities were continued. See P. J. Veth, Atchin en zijne betrekkingen tot Nederland (Leyden, 1873); J. A. Kruijt, Atjeh en de Atjehers (Leyden, 1877); Van Langen, Atjeh's Wesskust, Tijdschrift Aardrijko, Genotktsch. Kielstra, Beschrijving van den Atjeh-oorlog (The Hague, 1885) (Amsterdam, 1888), p. 226; Renaud, Jaarboek van het Mynwezen (1882); J. Jacobs, Het famille-en Kampongleven op Groot Atjeh (Leyden, 1894); C. Snouck Hurgronje, De Atjehers (Batavia, 1894). ACHOLI, a negro people of the upper Nile valley, dwelling on the east bank of the Bahr-el-Jebel, about a hundred miles north of Albert Nyanza. They are akin to the Shilluks of the White Nile. They frequently decorate the temples or cheeks with wavy or zigzag scars, and also the thighs with scrolls; some pierce the ears. Their dwelling-places are circular huts with a high peak, furnished with a mud sleeping-platform, jars of grain and a sunk fireplace. The interior walls are daubed with mud and decorated with geometrical or conventional designs in red, white or grey. The Acholi are good hunters, using nets and spears, and keep goats, sheep and cattle. In war they use spears and long, narrow shields of giraffe or ox hide. Their dialect is closely allied to those of the Alur, Lango and Ja-Luo tribes, all four being practically pure Nilotic. Their religion is a vague fetishism. By early explorers the Acholi were called Shuli, a name now obsolete. ACHROMATISM (Gr. a-, privative, xp@ua, colour), in optics, the property of transmitting white light, without decomposing it into the colours of the spectrum; "achromatic lenses lenses which possess this property. (See LENS, ABERRATION and PHOTOGRAPHY.) are ACID (from the Lat. root ac-, sharp; acere, to be sour), the name loosely applied to any sour substance; in chemistry it has a more precise meaning, denoting a substance containing hydrogen which may be replaced by metals with the formation of salts. An acid may therefore be regarded as a salt of hydrogen. Of the general characters of acids we may here notice that they dissolve alkaline substances, certain metals, &c., neutralize alkalies and redden many blue and violet vegetable colouring matters. The ancients probably possessed little knowledge indeed of acids. Vinegar (or impure acetic acid), which is produced when wine is allowed to stand, was known to both the Greeks and Romans, who considered it to be typical of acid substances; this is philologically illustrated by the words ocús, acidus, sour, and oços, acetus, vinegar. Other acids became known during the alchemistic period; and the first attempt at a generalized tained no oxygen but yet formed salts exactly similar in properties to those containing oxygen, could not be so regarded. This and other reasons led to his rejection of the dualistic hypothesis and the adoption, on the ground of probability, and much more from convenience, of the tenet that "acids are particular compounds of hydrogen, in which the latter can be replaced by metals "; while, on the constitution of salts, he held that "neutral salts are those compounds of the same class in which the hydrogen is replaced by its equivalent in metal. The substances which we at present term anhydrous acids (acid oxides) only become, for the most part, capable of forming salts with metallic oxides after the addition of water, or they are compounds which decompose these oxides at somewhat high temperatures." conception of these substances was made by Paracelsus, | this view lacked generality since the halogen acids, which conwho supposed them to contain a principle which conferred the properties of sourness and solubility. Somewhat similar views were promoted by Becher, who named the principle acidum primogenium, and held that it was composed of the Para[celsian elements "earth" and "water." At about the same time Boyle investigated several acids; he established their general reddening of litmus, their solvent power of metals and basic substances, and the production of neutral bodies, or salts, with alkalies. Theoretical conceptions were revived by Stahl, who held that acids were the fundamentals of all salts, and the ́erroneous idea that sulphuric acid was the principle of all acids. The phlogistic theory of the processes of calcination and combustion necessitated the view that many acids, such as those produced by combustion, e.g. sulphurous, phosphoric, carbonic, &c., should be regarded as elementary substances. This principle more or less prevailed until it was overthrown by Lavoisier's doctrine that oxygen was the acid-producing element; Lavoisier being led to this conclusion by the almost general observation that acids were produced when non-metallic elements were burnt. The existence of acids not containing oxygen was, in itself, sufficient to overthrow this idea, but, although Berthollet had shown, in 1789, that sulphuretted hydrogen (or hydrosulphuric acid) contained no oxygen, Lavoisier's theory held its own until the researches of Davy, Gay-Lussac and Thénard on hydrochloric acid and chlorine, and of Gay-Lussac on hydrocyanic acid, established beyond all cavil that oxygen was not essential to acidic properties. + In the Lavoisierian nomenclature acids were regarded as binary oxygenated compounds, the associated water being relegated to the position of a mere solvent. Somewhat similar views were held by Berzelius, when developing his dualistic conception of the composition of substances. In later years Berzelius renounced the oxygen acid" theory, but not before Davy, and, almost simultaneously, Dulong, had submitted that hydrogen and not oxygen was the acidifying principle. Opposition to the "hydrogen-acid" theory centred mainly about the hypothetical radicals which it postulated; moreover, the electrochemical theory of Berzelius exerted a stultifying influence on the correct views of Davy and Dulong. In Berzelius' system potassium sulphate is to be regarded as K2O.SO; electrolysis should simply effect the disruption of the positive and negative components, potash passing with the current, and sulphuric acid against the current. Experiment showed, however, that instead of only potash appearing at the negative electrode, hydrogen is also liberated; this is inexplicable by Berzelius's theory, but readily explained by the "hydrogen-acid" theory, By this theory potassium is liberated at the negative electrode and combines immediately with water to form potash and hydrogen. Further and stronger support was given when J. Liebig promoted his doctrine of polybasic acids. Dalton's idea that elements preferentially combined in equiatomic proportions had as an immediate inference that metallic oxides contained one atom of the metal to one atom of oxygen, and a simple expansion of this conception was that one atom of oxide combined with one atom of acid to form one atom of a neutral salt. This view, which was specially supported by Gay-Lussac and Leopold Gmelin and accepted by Berzelius, necessitated that all acids were monobasic. The untenability of this theory was proved by Thomas Graham's investigation of the phosphoric acids; for he then showed that the ortho- (ordinary), pyro- and metaphosphoric acids contained respectively 3, 2 and 1 molecules of basic water" (which were replaceable by metallic oxides) and one molecule of phosphoric oxide, P2 Os. Graham's work was developed by Liebig, who called into service many organic acids-citric, tartaric, cyanuric, comenic and meconic-and showed that these resembled phosphoric acid; and he established as the criterion of polybasicity the existence of compound salts with different metallic oxides. In formulating these facts Liebig at first retained the dualistic conception of the structure of acids; but he shortly afterwards perceived that The hydrogen theory and the doctrine of polybasicity as enunciated by Liebig is the fundamental characteristic of the modern theory. A polybasic acid contains more than one atom of hydrogen which is replaceable by metals; moreover, in such an acid the replacement may be entire with the formation of normal salts, partial with the formation of acid salts, or by two or more different metals with the formation of compound salts (see SALTS). These facts may be illustrated with the aid of orthophosphoric acid, which is tribasic:— Acid. acid. Normal salt. Compound salts. Mg(NH4)PO4; Magnesium ammonium phosphate; Acid salts. Na2HPO4; NaH2PO4. Acid sodium phosphates. Na (NH)HPO4. i Reference should be made to the articles CHEMICAL ACTION, THERMOCHEMISTRY and SOLUTIONS, for the theory of the strength or avidity of acids. Organic Acids.-Organic acids are characterized by the presence of the monovalent group-CO-OH, termed the carboxyl group, in which the hydrogen atom is replaceable by metals with the formation of salts, and by alkyl radicals with the formation of esters. The basicity of an organic acid, as above defined, is determined by the number of carboxyl groups present. Oxy-acids are carboxylic acids which also contain a hydroxyl group; similarly we may have aldehyde-acids, ketone-acids, &c. Since the more important acids are treated under their own headings, or under substances closely allied to them, we shall here confine ourselves to general relations. Classification. It is convenient to distinguish between aliphatic and aromatic acids; the first named being derived from open-chain hydrocarbons, the second from ringed hydrocarbon nuclei. Aliphatic monobasic acids are further divided according to the nature of the parent hydrocarbon. Methane and its homologues give origin to the "paraffin" or fatty series" of the general formula CnH2n+1COOH, ethylene gives origin to the acrylic acid series, CnH2n-1COOH, and so on. Dibasic acids of the paraffin series of hydrocarbons have the general formula CnH2(COOH)2"; malonic and succinic acids are important members. The isomerism which occurs as soon as the molecule contains a few carbon atoms renders any classification based on empirical molecular formulae somewhat ineffective; on the other hand, a scheme based on molecular structure would involve more detail than it is here possible to give. For further information, the reader is referred to any standard work on organic chemistry. A list of the acids present in fats and oils is given in the article OILS. Syntheses of Organic Acids.-The simplest syntheses are undoubtedly those in which a carboxyl group is obtained directly from the oxides of carbon, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. The simplest of all include: (4) the synthesis of sodium oxalate by passing carbon dioxide over metallic sodium heated to 350° – 360°; (2) the synthesis of potassium formate from moist carbon dioxide and potassium, potassium carbonate, being obtained simultaneously; (3) the synthesis of potassium acetate and propionate from carbon dioxide and sodium methide and sodium ethide; (4) the synthesis of aromatic acids by the interaction of carbon dioxide, sodium and a bromine substitution derivative; and (5) the synthesis of aromatic oxy-acids by the interaction of carbon dioxide and sodium phenolates (see SALICYLIC ACID). Carbon monoxide takes part in the syntheses of sodium formate from sodium hydrate, or soda lime (at 200°-220°), and of sodium acetate and propionate from sodium methylate and sodium ethylate at 160°-200°. Other reactions which introduce carboxyl groups into aromatic groups are: the action of carbonyl chloride on aromatic hydrocarbons in the presence of aluminium chloride, acid-chlorides being formed which are readily decomposed by water to give the acid; the action of urea chloride CI.CO.NH2, cyanuric acid (CONH)3, nascent cyanic acid, or carbanile on hydrocarbons in the presence of aluminium chloride, acid-amides being obtained which are readily decomposed to give the acid. An important nucleus-synthetic reaction is the saponification of nitriles, which may be obtained by the interaction of potassium cyanide with a halogen substitution derivative or a sulphonic acid. Acids frequently result as oxidation products, being almost invariably formed in all cases of energetic oxidation. There are certain reactions, however, in which oxidation can be successfully applied to the synthesis of acids. Thus primary alcohols and aldehydes, both of the aliphatic and aromatic series, readily yield on oxidation acids containing the same number of carbon atoms. These reactions may be shown thus: R.CH2OH → R.CHO → R.CO.OH. In the case of aromatic aldehydes, acids are also obtained by means of "Cannizzaro's reaction (see BENZALDEHYDE). An important oxidation synthesis of aromatic acids is from hydrocarbons with aliphatic side chains; thus toluene, or methylbenzene, yields benzoic acid, the xylenes, or dimethyl-benzene, yield methyl-benzoic acids and phthalic acids. Ketones, secondary alcohols and tertiary alcohols yield a mixture of acids on oxidation. We may also notice the disruption of unsaturated acids at the double linkage into a mixture of two acids, when fused with potash. In the preceding instances the carboxyl group has been synthesized or introduced into a molecule; we have now to consider syntheses from substances already containing carboxyl groups. Of foremost importance are the reactions termed the malonic acid and the aceto-acetic ester syntheses; these are discussed under their own headings. The electrosyntheses call for mention here. It is apparent that metallic salts of organic acids would, in aqueous solution, be ionized, the positive ion being the metal, and the negative ion the acid residue. Esters, however, are not ionized. It is therefore apparent that a mixed salt and ester, for example KO2C-CH2-CH2-CO2C2H5, would give only two ions, viz. potassium and the rest of the molecule. If a solution of potassium acetate be electrolysed the products are ethane, carbon dioxide, potash and hydrogen; in a similar manner, normal potassium succinate gives ethylene, carbon dioxide, potash and hydrogen; these reactions may be represented:CH, CO2K CH, CO2 K CH2.CO2K CH2 CO2 K + CH,.CO.KCH, CO2+K CH, COK CH2+CO2+K By electrolysing a solution of potassium ethyl succinate, KO2C·(CH2)2CO2C2H., the KOC groups are split off and the two residues (CH2)2CO2C2H5 combine to form the ester (CH2)4(CO2C2H5)2. In the same way, by electrolysing a mixture of a metallic salt and an ester, other nuclei may be condensed; thus potassium acetate and potassium ethyl succinate yield CH-CH-CH2- CO2C2H5. Reactions. Organic acids yield metallic salts with bases, and ethereal salts or esters (q.v.), R.CO·OR', with alcohols. Phosphorus chlorides give acid chlorides, R-CO.Cl, the hydroxyl group being replaced by chlorine, and acid anhydrides, (R.CO)2O, a molecule of water being split off between two carboxyl groups. The ammonium salts when heated lose one molecule of water and are converted into acid-amides, R-CO-NH2, which by further dehydration yield nitriles, R-CN. The calcium salts distilled with calcium formate yield aldehydes (q.v.); distilled with soda-lime, ketones (q.v.) result. ACIDALIUS, VALENS (1567–1595), German scholar and critic, was born at Wittstock in Brandenburg. After studying at Rostock, Greifswald and Helmstedt, and residing about three years in Italy, he settled at Breslau, where he is said to have embraced the Roman Catholic religion. Early in 1595 he accepted an invitation to Neisse, about fifty miles from Breslau, where he died of brain fever on the 25th of May, at the age of twenty-eight. His excessive application to study, and the attacks made upon him in connexion with a pamphlet of which he was reputed the author, doubtless hastened his premature end. Acidalius wrote notes on Velleius Paterculus (1590), Curtius (1594), the panegyrists, Tacitus and Plautus, published after his death. See Leuschner, Commentatio de A. V. Vita, Moribus, et Scriptis "Der Neisser Rektor," in Bericht der Philomathie (1757); F. Adam, in Neisse (1872). ACID-AMIDES, chemical compounds which may be considered as derived from ammonia by replacement of its hydrogen with acidyl residues, the substances produced being known as primary, secondary or tertiary amides, according to the number of hydrogen atoms replaced. Of these compounds, the primary amides of the type R-CO NH, are the most important. They may be prepared by the dry distillation of the ammonium salts of the acids (A. W. Hofmann, Ber., 1882, 15, p. 977), by the partial hydrolysis of the nitriles, by the action of ammonia or ammonium carbonate on acid chlorides or anhydrides, or by heating the esters (q.v.) with ammonia. They are solid crystalline compounds (formamide excepted) which are at first soluble in water, the solubility, however, decreasing as the carbon content of the molecule increases. They are easily hydrolysed, breaking up into their components when boiled with acids or alkalies. They form compounds with hydrochloric acid when this gas is passed into their ethereal solution; these compounds, however, are very unstable, being readily decomposed by water. On the other hand, they show faintly acid properties since the hydrogen of the amido group can be replaced by metals to give such compounds as mercury acetamide (CH,CONH)2Hg. Nitrous acid decomposes them, with elimination of nitrogen and the formation of the corresponding acid, RCO NĚ2+OÑOH = R-COOH+N2+H2O. When distilled with phosphoric anhydride they yield nitriles. By the action of bromine and alcoholic potash on the amides, they are converted into amines containing one carbon atom less than the original amide, a reaction which possesses great theoretical importance (A. W. Hofmann), .. R.CONH2→→→R.CONHBr → R·NH2+K2CO2+KBr+H2O. Formamide, H.CONH2, is a liquid readily soluble in water, boiling at about 195° C. with partial decomposition. Acetamide, CH3-CONH2, is a white deliquescent crystalline solid, which melts at 82-83° C. and boils at 222° C. It is usually prepared by distilling ammonium acetate. It is readily soluble in water and alcohol, but insoluble in ether. Benzamide, CH, CONH2, crystallizes in leaflets which melt at 130° C. It is prepared by the action of ammonium carbonate on benzoyl chloride. It yields a silver salt which with ethyl iodide forms benzimidoethyl ether, CH2C: (NH) OC2Hs, a behaviour which points to the silver salt as being derived from the tautomeric imidobenzoic acid, C6H5C: (NH)-OH (J. Tafel, Ber., 1890, 23, p. 104). On the preparation of the substituted amides from the corresponding sodamides see A. W. Titherley (Journ. Chem. Soc., 1901, 59, p. 391). The secondary and tertiary amides of the types (RCO)2NH and (RCO),N may be prepared by heating the primary amides or the nitriles with acids or acid anhydrides to 200° C. Thiamides of the type R-CSNH, are known, and result by the addition of sulphuretted hydrogen to the nitriles, or by the action of phosphorus pentasulphide on the acid-amides. They readily decompose on heating, and are easily hydrolysed by alkalies; they possess a somewhat more acid character than the acid-amides. ACINACES (from the Greek), an ancient Persian sword, short and straight, and worn, contrary to the Roman fashion, on the right side, or sometimes in front of the body, as shown in the bas-reliefs found at Persepolis. Among the Persian nobility it was frequently made of gold, being worn as a badge of distinction. The acinaces was an object of religious worship with the Scythians and others (Herod. iv. 62). ACINETA (so named by C. G. Ehrenberg), a genus of suctorial Infusoria characterized by the possession of a stalk and cupshaped sheath or theca for the body, and endogenous budding. O. Bütschli has separated off the genus Metacineta (for A. mystacina), which reproduces by direct bud-fission. ACINUS (Lat. for a berry), a term in botany applied to such fruits as the blackberry or raspberry, composed of small seedlike berries, and also to those berries themselves, or to grapestones. By analogy, acinus is applied in anatomy to similar granules or glands, or lobules of a gland. ACIREALE, a town and episcopal see of the province of Catania, Sicily; from the town of the same name it is distant 9 m. N. by E. Pop. (1901) 35,418. It has some importance as a thermal station, and the springs were used by the Romans. It takes its name from the river Acis, into which, according to the legend, Acis, the lover of Galatea, was changed after he had been slain by Polyphemus. The rocks which Polyphemus hurled at Ulysses are identified with the seven Scogli de' Ciclopi, or Faraglioni, a little to the south of Acireale. ACIS, in Greek mythology, the son of Pan (Faunus) and the nymph Symaethis, a beautiful shepherd of Sicily, was the lover of the Nereïd Galatea. His rival the Cyclops Polyphemus surprised them together, and crushed him to pieces with a rock. His blood, gushing forth from beneath, was metamorphosed by Galatea into the river bearing his name (now Fiume di Jaci), which was celebrated for the coldness of its waters (Ovid, Met. xiii. 750; Silius Italicus, Punica, xiv. 221). ACKERMAN, FRANCIS (c. 1335-1387), Flemish soldier and diplomatist, was born at Ghent, and about 1380 became prominent during the struggle between the burghers of that town and Louis II. (de Mâle), count of Flanders. He was partly responsible for inducing Philip van Artevelde to become first captain of the city of Ghent in 1382, and at the head of some troops scoured the surrounding country for provisions and thus saved Ghent from being starved into submission. By his diplomatic abilities he secured the assistance of the citizens of Brussels, Louvain and Liège, and, having been made admiral of the Flemish fleet, visited England and obtained a promise of help from King Richard II. After Artevelde's death in November 1382, he acted as leader of the Flemings, gained several victories and increased his fame by skilfully conducting a retreat from Damme to Ghent in August 1385. He took part in the conclusion of the treaty of peace between Ghent and Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, the successor of Count Louis, in December 1385. Trusting in Philip, and ignoring the warnings of his friends, Ackerman remained in Flanders, and was murdered at Ghent on the 22nd of July 1387, leaving a memory of chivalry and generosity. See Jean Froissart, Chroniques, edited by S. Luce and G. Raynaud (Paris, 1869-1897); Johannes Brandon, Chronodromon, edited by K. de Lettenhove in the Chroniques relatives à l'histoire de la Belgique sous la domination des ducs de Bourgogne (Brussels, 1870). ACKERMANN, JOHANN CHRISTIAN GOTTLIEB (1756-1801), German physician, was born at Zeulenroda, in Upper Saxony, on the 17th of February 1756, and died at Altdorf on the 9th of March 1801. At the age of fifteen he became a student of medicine at Jena under E. G. Baldinger, whom he followed to Göttingen in 1773, and afterwards he studied for two years at Halle. A few years' practice at Stendal (1778-1799), where there were numerous factories, enabled him to add many valuable original observations to his translation (1780-1783) of Bernardino Ramazzini's (1633-1714) treatise on diseases of artificers. In 1786 he became professor of medicine at the university of Altdorf, in Franconia, occupying first the chair of chemistry, and then, from 1794 till his death in 1801, that of pathology and therapeutics. He wrote Institutiones Historiae Medicinae (Nuremberg, 1792) | and Institutiones Therapiae Generalis (Nuremberg and Altdorf, 1784-1795), besides various handbooks and translations. ACKERMANN, LOUISE VICTOrine choquet (1813-1890), French poet, was born in Paris on the 30th of November 1813. Educated by her father in the philosophy of the Encyclopaedists, Victorine Choquet went to Berlin in 1838 to study German, and there married in 1843 Paul Ackermann, an Alsatian philologist. After little more than two years of happy married life her husband died, and Madame Ackermann went to live at Nice with a favourite sister. In 1855 she published Contes en vers, and in 1862 Contes et poésies. Very different from these simple and charming contes is the work on which Madame Ackermann's real reputation rests. She published in 1874 Poésies, premières poésies, poésies philosophiques, a volume of sombre and powerful verse, expressing her revolt against human suffering. The volume was enthusiastically reviewed in the Revue des deux mondes for May 1871 by E. Caro, who, though he deprecated the impiété désespérée of the verses, did full justice to their vigour and the excellence of their form. Soon after the publication of this volume Madame Ackermann removed to Paris, where she gathered round her a circle of friends, but published nothing further except a prose volume, the Pensées d'un solitaire (1883), to which she prefixed a short autobiography. She died at Nice on the 2nd of August 1890. See also Anatole France, La vie littéraire, 4th series (1892); the comte d'Haussonville, Mme. Ackermann (1882); M. Citoleux, La poésie philosophique au XIXe siècle (vol. i., Mme. Ackermann d'après de nombreux documents inédits, Paris, 1906). ACKERMANN, RUDOLPH (1764-1834), Anglo-German inventor and publisher, was born on the 20th of April 1764 at builder in different German cities, Paris and London for ten years Schneeberg, in Saxony. He had been a saddler and coachbefore, in 1795, he established a print-shop and drawing-school in the Strand. Ackermann set up a lithographic press, and applied it in 1817 to the illustration of his Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashions, &c. (monthly until 1828 when forty volumes had appeared). Rowlandson and other distinguished artists were regular contributors. He also introduced the fashion of Forget-me-not; and he published many illustrated volumes of the once popular English Annuals, beginning in 1825 with topography and travel, The Microcosm of London (3 vols., 1808– 1811), Westminster Abbey (2 vols., 1812), The Rhine (1820), The World in Miniature (43 vols., 1821-1826), &c. Ackermann was an enterprising man ; he patented (1801) a method for rendering paper and cloth waterproof, erected a factory at Chelsea for the purpose and was one of the first to illuminate his own premises with gas. Indeed the introduction of lighting by gas owed much to him. After the battle of Leipzig Ackermann collected nearly a quarter of a million sterling for the German sufferers. He died at Finchley, near London, on the 30th of March 1834. ACKNOWLEDGMENT (from the old acknow, a compound of on- and know, to know by the senses, which passed through the forms oknow, aknow and acknow; acknowledge is formed on analogy of "knowledge "), an admission that something has been given or done, a term used in law in various connexions. The acknowledgment of a debt, if in writing signed by the debtor or his agent, is sufficient to take it out of the Statutes of Limitations. The signature to a will by a testator, if not made in the presence of two witnesses, may be afterwards acknowledged in their presence. The acknowledgment by a woman married before 1882 of deeds for the conveyance of real property not her separate property, requires to be made by her before a judge of the High Court or of a county court or before a perpetual or special commissioner. Before such an acknowledgment can be received, the judge or commissioner is required to examine her apart from her husband, touching her knowledge of the deed, and to ascertain whether she freely and voluntarily consents to it. An acknowledgment to the right of the production of deeds of conveyance is an obligation on the vendor, when he retains any portion of the property to which the deeds relate, and is entitled to retain the deeds, to produce them from time to time at the request of the person to whom the acknowledgment is given, |