Acland

the United States, however, usually make the due acknowledgment of a deed necessary to entitle it to the priority which a record confers. Acknowledgments are usually made before a notary public or commissioner of deeds, though judges, court clerks, mayors of cities and in some States justices of the peace and aldermen, are empowered by law to take and subscribe the declaration. The term acknowledgment is also technically applied to the admission of indebtedness which keeps an obligation alive and enforcible notwithstanding the bar of the statute of limitations. Generally in order to have this

46

with him until he had recovered. See Stone's Sketch of Lady Harriet Acland, in Ballads and Poems Relating to the Burgoyne Revolution (1893), and Burgoyne's State of the Expedition from Canada (1780).

Acland, SIR HENRY WENTWORTH DYKE (1815-1900), English physician, was born at Exeter and educated at Oxford, where he was Radcliffe librarian for more than forty years; and regius professor of medicine (1857-94). The formation of the Oxford University Museum was largely due to his labors. He came to the U. S. with the Prince of Wales in 1860. Among his works are Ox

Acne. (1.) A. rosacea, or gutta rosea, a congestion of the bloodvessels of the face, resulting in red patches and the formation of pimples. The most severe form occurs on the nose, after long over-indulgence in alcohol, and leads to hypertrophy of the skin. It is treated surgically. A milder chronic flush, often seen in women, is alleviated by general attention to health, and the local application of sulphur ointment. (2.) A. vulgaris, the pimples ofteh occurring between puberty and adolescence, is due to poor circulation

effect the admission must be in writing.

Acland, CHRISTIAN HENRIETTA CAROLINA (1750-1815), in American history commonly called Lady Harriet Acland, and famous for her devotion to her husband, Major John Dyke Acland, an English officer, during the Revolutionary War. She accompanied him during the Burgoyne campaign, nursed him when he was seriously ill in Canada, and after he was wounded at Hubbardtown (1777). Again, after the second battle of Saratoga, where he was seriously wounded and taken prisoner, she fearlessly sought him out within the American lines-where she was ceived with all courtesy by the American officers-and remained

re

jord Museum, with letters from Ruskin (1859; repub. 1893); Memoir on the Cholera in 1854; Village Health (1884).

Acland, JCH DYKE (d. 1778), soldier and politician, cldest son of Sir Thomas Acland; M.P. for the Cornish borough of Callington (1774); was a strong adherent of Lord North's policy; accompanied Burgoyne's expedition to America (1775). He died from the results of exposure incident to a duel he fought on the question of the valor of American soldiers. His portrait was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. See ACLAND, Christian Henrietta Caroline.

Aclinic Line, or MAGNETIC EQUATOR, an irregular and varying line passing through those points on the globe at which there

and nutrition. Tonics, careful dieting, and the local use of sulphur ointment are the best remedies.

Acemetæ, or ACEMITES ('the Sleepless Ones'), communities of monks who in the 5th and 6th centuries, in Constantinople and elsewhere, carried on devotions 'without ceasing' day or night. Excommunicated in 534.

Acollas, EMILE (1826-91), French professor of law and politician, born at La Châtre. He advocated extreme revolutionary ideas. He was appointed president of the legal faculty by the Paris Commune of 1871, and in 1880 became inspector-general of penitentiaries. Chief works: Manuel de Droit Civil (1869-74); Les Droits du Peuple, Cours de Droit

Acolytes

Politique (1873); Philosophie de la Science Politique (1877).

Acolytes, youths in holy orders who assisted in the ritual of the early church; now, candidates for the priesthood in the fourth stage of initiation.

Acoma, an Indian tribe inhabiting pueblos on the spurs of Mount Taylor, in Valencia co., New Mexico. Their chief village reservation is some fifteen miles distant from Cubero Station, on the Atlantic & Pacific R. R., about sixty miles s.w. of Albuquerque. See Bandelier, Archæological Institute Papers (1890).

Aconcagua. (1.) The most mountainous prov. of Central Chile, between the Pacific and the crest of the Andes, watered by river of same name; bounded on the N. by Coquimbo, and on the s. by Valparaiso and Santiago. Area, 6,332 sq. m. Pop. (1895) 113,165. Cap. San Felipe. (2.) Volcano, the highest summit of the Andes and of the New World, in prov. Mendoza, Argentina. Lat. 32° 38' s.; Long. 70° w. Alt. 23,080 ft. The first ascent was made in 1897, by Zurbriggen. See Fitzgerald's Highest Andes (1899).

Aconite (Aconitum), MONKSHOOD, WOLFSBANE, or BLUE ROCKET, a genus of the order Ranunculaceae, common in temperate regions. A. nipellus, often cultivated in gardens, is a perennial plant from two to six feet high, and has dark-green, deeplycleft leaves, and a long branched head of deep-blue flowers; the sepals are petaloid, and resemble a hood, whence the popular name. All parts of the plant are very poisonous. The root has often been mistaken for horse-radish; but whil the latter is cylindrical, and is often branched, the aconite root is tapering, pointed, and unbranched. The species native to the western United States, as A. Columbianum, are dangerous to grazing life stock. Aconite applied to the skin and mucous membranes produces first tingling then numbness. In medicinal doses it acts as an antipyretic, lessening the force, frequency, and volume of the pulse, and causing perspiration. It is also used externally and internally for neuralgia, lumbago, and rheumatic pains. The symptoms of poisoning are first tingling of the tongue and general numbness of the mouth, then cold sweats and giddiness, followed perhaps by insensibility, with failing circulation and respiration. Treatment is first emptying the stomach with either a stomach-tube or an emetic. Stimulants should be given freely afterwards, and the sufferer put into a bed, with hot bottles to the extremities if they are cold. Artificial respiration

47

with friction must be used if necessary, and the medical man will use hypodermic injections of strychnine or digitalis.-WINTER ACONITE (Eranthis hyemalis), a small herbaceous plant of the or

Aconite, with Flower and Fruit.

der Ranunculacea, with buttercup-like flowers, grows freely in gardens, thrives well under the shade of trees, and flowers with the snowdrop.

Acorn. See OAK.

Acorn-shells, sessile barnacles of the family Balanidæ, found in vast numbers attached to rocks and other fixed objects between tide-marks. Owing to their white

A

Acorn-shell and Section.

shell, composed of a series of limy plates, and their sedentary habit, they were long supposed to be molluscs; but the life-history proves definitely their relation to the lower Crustacea. Save for the six pairs of two-branched feet, the adult displays few crustacean characters, and the life-history affords a remarkable example of degeneration. The food consists of minute particles, filtered from the water by means of the legs. See BARNACLE.

Acorus. A genus of the arum tribe, of wide geographic distribution in the north temperate zone.

Acoustics

A. Calamus is common in the swamps of eastern America, resembling bulrushes, and having tall linear leaves, sharp-edged and sharp-pointed, and about an inch wide. The flowers are arranged like a spike on a naked spadix, the spathe being elongated above it, and apparently only the continuation of the flower-stem. It is known as the sweet flag, and spreads by long, horizontal, and branched rootstocks which are fleshy and warmly aromatic. They were formerly candied, for a sweetmeat, and furnish a stimulative, carminative drug, called calamus.

Acosta, GABRIEL D' (c. 15941640), also known as URIEL D'ACOSTA, a Portuguese of noble birth; born at Oporto; brought up a Roman Catholic; adopted Judaism, but was afterwards ex communicated for opposing the teaching of the rabbis. For the publication of his Examen dos Tradicoens Phariseas (1624) he suffered fine and imprisonment. See his autobiography, Exemplar Humanæ Vitæ (1847). Gutzkow made him the hero of a tragedy, Uriel Acosta.

Acosta, JOAQUIM (d. 1852) South American explorer and geographer, born at Guadas, Colombia. He penetrated the northern districts of S. America (1834-45), giving special attention to the history of the early Spanish settlements, as in the book Compendio Historico del Descubrimiento y Colonizacion de la Nueva Granada (1848), and Semenario de la Nueva Granada (1849).

Acosta, JOSE D' (1539-1600), Spanish Jesuit and historian; born at Medina del Campo. He was a missionary in Peru for several years. His famous Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias, written originally in Latin, was first published in Spanish in Seville (1590). It was published in London in English, translated by Edward Grimstone (The Naturale and Morale Historie of the East and West Indies) in 1603, and a French version by Robert Regnault appeared in Paris in

1606.

Acoustics, strictly speaking, is the science of sound in relation to hearing. (For a discussion of the physical characteristics of the aerial vibrations which produce the sensation of noise see SOUND, and for the more purcly physiological side of the question see EAR.) The conditions under which an aerial disturbance is audible as sound cannot be described with accuracy. If we confine our attention to musical sounds, or sounds of definite pitch, we know that the number of vibrations per second must lie between two limits; but the limits differ for different ears. Roughly speaking, the lower limit may be

Acoustics

set at from 20 to 30 vibrations per second, and the upper limit at about 70,000. Cases have been observed in which the ear was not sensitive to a certain range of high-pitched notes, but could hear notes both of lower and of higher pitch. When the sound has no definite pitch, the condition of audibility seems to be a certain abruptness of change of pressure, such as we have in a tap or a blow. The change may be very slight, but it must be sufficiently abrupt. In judging of the direction from which a sound comes, we require the ears to be at different distances from the source of sound; or, to express it more accurately, the ears must be affected simultaneously by the same disturbance in different phase. For example, if a sound be proauced at a point in the plane which passes medially through the head and bisects at right angles the line joining the ears, it is impossible for the hearer to say where the sound comes from.

An important practical branch of acoustics is the construction of musical instruments, the aim being to produce tones pleasing to the ear. It is here that the far-reaching principle of resonance finds its earliest and most familiar illustrations. By suitably-constructed cavities or tubes, within which the air vibrates naturally in definite periods, sounds having these periods are powerfully reinforced.

In this

way we produce the various qualities of tone associated with trumpets, organ pipes, flutes, and wind instruments generally. It is well to distinguish between true resonance, in which the body, sympathetically vibrating to the original sound, absorbs energy and gives it forth again, and ordinary reflection or echoing, in which the sound is simply thrown back from a surface, such as the walls of a hall, a rock, or a forest. The apphication of acoustic principles in the construction of a large hall is still little understood. Experience has led to the construction of rectangular halls, and the reason is obvious. A hall with part of its walls in a circular form must of necessity give rise to focal concentration of rays of sound after reflection; and if the hall is large, a person placed at such a focus will hear the original sound and an echo separated distinctly in time. Lord Rayleigh's Theory of Sound (2 vols., 2nd ed. 1894-6) is the most complete treatise on the subject. Helmholtz's Tonempfindungen, or Sensations of Tone (Eng. trans., 2nd ed. 1885), is one of the classics of scientific literature, and discusses in a masterly manner many of the most profound problems connected with the sense of hearing. See also

48

Sabine's Architectural Acoustics (1900).

Acoyapa, or SAN SEBASTIAN, tn., Nicaragua, dep. Chontales, Central America. Pop. 6,000.

Acqui, tn., Italy, and episc. see, prov. Alessandria, on the Bormida, 21 m. s.w. of Alessandria, with hot sulphur springs (mentioned by Pliny, xxi. 2); temp. 115°-167° F. The Gothic cathedral dates from the 12th century. Pop. (1901) 13,940.

Acquired Characters. HEREDITY and WEISMANN.

See

Acquisition. A term of popular rather than of legal meaning, signifying the acquirement of territory by the state or of real property by an individual. See CONQUEST; OCCUPATION; TITLE.

Acquittal. The judgment of a court of criminal jurisdiction absolving a person accused of crime. The term applies to a favorable decision on a technical defence (as that the act charged does not constitute a crime or that the prosecution is barred by pardon or by the statute of limitations) as well as to a verdict of 'not guilty' after a full trial, but not to a discharge by a committing magistrate nor to the failure of a grand jury to find an indictment. An acquittal upon a verdict after a full trial is both at the common law and under the federal and State constitutions in this country a bar to a second prosecution for the same offence. See JEOPARDY.

Acquittance. A written discharge of a debt or other money obligation. To be effectual an acquittance, if based upon part payment only, must be by release under seal or by accord and satisfaction. Where full payment is made an ordinary receipt or any other written acknowledgment of payment is a sufficient acquit

tance.

Acre, an American and British land measure, equal to 4,840 sq. yds. or to sq. m. Forty rods (Rom. quarentena; Eng. furlong-i.e. furrow-long') by one rod make one rood; the acre was made up of 4 roods lying side by side. An early law (33 Ed. 1.) defined the acre as 40 perches in length and 4 in breadth; by Geo. IV. c. v. s. 74, the imperial acre was established for land measurement throughout the United Kingdom. Being used in colonial days in America, it has persisted and the public and other lands are divided on this basis. A table of land measures of the world will be found under WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

Acre, ST. JEAN D' (Turk. Akka; O.T. Accho, N.T. Ptolemais; the Ace of Strabo), city and seaport, Syria, on promontory at foot of Mt. Carmel. The city is famous for its many sieges:-(1) 1104, taken by first Crusaders, and re

Acromegaly

taken by Saracens (1187); (2) 1191, taken by third Crusaders, under Richard Coeur de Lion and Philip Augustus, and handed over to Knights of St. John (Fr. St. Jean, whence its modern name), and retaken by Saracens (1291); (3) 1517, captured by the Turks; (4) 1799. besieged for sixty-one days by Bonaparte, who failed to take it owing to the heroic defence made by Sir Sidney Smith and Jezzar Pasha; (5) 1832, taken by Ibrahim Pasha, and held by him for eight years; (6) 1840, captured by combined British, Austrian, and Turkish fleets. The older fortifications, much breached, may be traced outside later ones. Pop. 11,000 (8,000 Moslems; 3,000 Christians, Jews, and others).

Acri, tn. and prov., Calabria, S. Italy. The town is on the Mucone, 20 m. N.N.E. of Cosenza. Pop. (1901) 13,132.

Acrisius, king of Argos, and father of Danae, whom he shut up in a tower, because an oracle had foretold that her child would kill him. See DANAE and PERSEUS.

Acrobat, literally one who walks on tiptoe, but commonly applied to a person who practises feats of personal agility, such as tumbling, vaulting, and particularly walking, dancing, etc., on rolling balls, pyramids of chairs, etc., and especially on the slack or tight rope, a feat which was popular among the ancient Greeks and Romans. The Chiarinis and Kolter were famous in this line, and, in the 19th century, Farioso, Madame Saqui, Diavolo, and Blondin. See Morton's ed. of Le Roux and Garnier's Acrobats and Mountebanks (1890).

Acroceraunian or CERAUNIAN MOUNTAINS, Albania, on Adriatic coast, European Turkey, lat. 40° 15' N.; highest peak, Tchika (6,300 ft.); forms Cape Linguetta or Glossa (Acroceraunia), 40 m. E.N.E of Otranto.

Acrolein, or ACRYLIC ALDEHYDE, CH2CH.CHO, is a colorless liquid with a most pungent odor, and violent action on the mucous membrane. It is prepared by distilling glycerin with a dehydrating agent, and its presence is the partial cause of the peculiar odor of burnt fat. On oxidation it yields acrylic acid.

Acroliths, ancient Greek statues of wood, or of ordinary stone, with marble head, arms, and legs. They were frequently covered with thin plates of gold.

Acromegaly, a disease causing general enlargement of the bones, especially those of the head, feet, and hands; usually occurring between the ages of twenty and forty, most frequently in females, and lasting for ten or twenty years before death. The cause is still uncertain, though disease of the

Acromion

pituitary body is generally found associated with it; and no very effective treatment has been discovered. It is often associated with some nerve lesion-e.g. atrophy of the optic nerve-but the intellect is generally unimpaired. It is probable that the giants of the olden time were cases of acromegaly.

Acromion, the distal end (i.e. the end farthest removed from the point of attachment) of the spine of the scapula or shoulderblade. It receives the extreme part of the clavicle or collar-bone, and gives attachment to the deltoid and trapezoid muscles. In man it is an enlarged process, called the acromial process, which forms the summit of the shoulder.

Acrophony, a term applied to a stage in the development of alphabetical writing-viz. to the use of a picture of an object, or of a symbolical picture of an object, to represent the first syllable of the name of that object, and (later) to represent the first sound of that syllable. See Isaac Taylor's The Alphabet.

Acropolis, THE (Gr. akros, 'lofty;' polis, a city'), was the name given by the Greeks to the fortified eminences round which so many of their towns were built. The acropolis served also as a sacred enclosure, in which were placed the principal temples and works of art. Among the most famous are the Acropolis of Mycena, Tiryns, Argos, Corinth, Thebes, Pergamum, and in particular Athens, the last being generally referred to as 'the Acropolis' without qualification. The Acropolis of Athens (called also Cecropia, from its reputed Pelasgian founder, King Cecrops) is a rocky eminence, precipitous on all sides except the west, rising about 150 ft. from the Attic plain, and enclosing on its summit a plateau of an irregular oval shape, measuring from east to west 1,150 ft., and from north to south 500 ft. Prior to the 5th century B.C. an ancient Pelasgian wall surrounded the plateau; but this had fallen into ruin, except on the north side, and was replaced along the south escarpment by the wall of Cimon. Round the base of the hill, especially on the south, were grouped numerous temples and theatres, the chief of these being the Temple of Esculapius, the Theatre of Dionysius and the Odeon of Herod Atticus. The whole area of the summit was occupied by a series of edifices, the most famous and the most important artistically in the world's history. These were the outcome of the creative spirit of Athens when at the height of her fame. Pericles gave the impetus; Phidias, with a band of architects-Mnesicles, Ictinus,

VOL. 1.-4

L'Acropole (1877); Bötticher's Die Akropolis von Athen (1888).

Acrostic, a verse or verses in which the initial letters of the lines, when read in order, spell a name, word, or phrase. The acrostic is of ancient origin, known specimens dating back to the 4th century. Some sacred Greek verses, quoted by Eusebius, bishop of Cæsarea, in the 4th century, are written so that the initial letters spell the phrase 'Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour.' The first letters of the five Greek words of this phrase spell the word ichthus, a fish'; hence the use of the fish as a symbol for the Saviour. The Hebrew form of acrostic, as seen in several of the psalms, is alphabetical. In the 119th Psalm, each of the eight verses of the first division begins with aleph; each of the eight verses of the second division begins with the second letter, beth; and so on, through the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The best known English acrostics are an ingenious collection by Sir John Davies, called Astrea, written to Queen Elizabeth, the initial letters of each forming the words 'Eliza betha Regina." Addison has a paper (Spectator, No. 60) on 'Wit of the Monkish Ages, in Modern Times,' in which he includes the acrostic among 'several kinds of false wit.'

Acroteria, or ACROTERS, small

Acropolis.

and Terence had five acts. Shakespeare never departed from that number; but modern plays have three, four, or five. The conclusion of an act is marked by the fall of the curtain, and by a pause of a few minutes called the entr'acte.

Act of Congress. See CONGRESS.

Act of God. In English and American law an accident is said to be due to the act of God when, without human intervention, it arises from natural causes of such a kind or degree that no experience or care which can reasonably be expected could have foreseen or guarded against them, such as storms, tempests and lightning, an extraordinarily high tide, or severe frost, or an exceptional fall of snow or rain. In the absence of a special contract, no person is held liable for damage caused by the act of God. See Nugent v. Smith, L.R. 1 C.P.D. 423; Broom's Legal Maxims; Pollock, On Con tracts.

Act of Parliament. See PARLIAMENT.

Act of Settlement, THE (known also as the SUCCESSION ACT). The act of the British parliament, passed in 1701, settling the crown in the present royal family. Though this was its principal object it was converted by a hostile parliament into an expression of hostility to the domestic and foreign policy of the

Act of Settlement

reigning sovereign, William III. The act was entitled, an 'Act for the further Limitation of the Crown, and better Securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject.' The succession to the crown was an urgent question, owing to William and Mary having had no issue, and owing to the death (July, 1700) of the Duke of Gloucester, the Princess (later Queen) Anne's sole surviving child. It cut away the hereditary claim of the elder branch of the house of Stuart and vested the succession in the house of Hanover, by providing that, on the death of Anne, and in the absence of issue, the crown

50

Councillor or a member of either house, or hold commission or office from the crown, or receive a grant of lands from the crown (a clause due to resentment of William III.'s Dutch favoritism); that no holder of office or pension under the crown should sit in the House of Commons (a clause designed to prevent the house from being packed with royal nominees and supporters); that judges should hold their commissions during good conduct - should have fixed salaries, and should be removed only on petition of both houses; that no pardon under the Great Seal-i.e. from the crown

should go to the Electress Sophia of Hanover, granddaughter of James I., and her descendants, being Protestants.' The act further provided (1) that the sov ereign must be in communion with the Church of England; that no war should be waged without consent of Parliament for the foreign dominions of the sovereign, if a foreigner; that the sovereign should not go abroad without consent of Parliament; that the full Privy Council (not a mere committee or clique) should be recognized, con sulted, and have weight, and members agreeing to the decisions should sign such resolutions (an artificial attempt, to secure responsibility of ministers); that no foreigner should become a Privy

and executive-should be pleaded as a bar to an impeachment by the Commons. Eighteenth century politicians, especially Whig, saw in the Act of Settlement part of the Bible of the Constitution.' Most of its restrictive provisions have, however, been repealed by later enactments. See CABINET, CROWN.

Act of Toleration. A title given specially to Act 1 Wm. and M., c. i8 (1689), confirmed by 10 An., c. 2, relaxing the stringency of the Act of Uniformity, the Five Mile Act, and the Conventicle Act. It gave religious freedom to all dissenters from the Church of England, except to Roman Catholics and Unitarians. The same freedom was extended to Scotland.

events, both public and private, which was published daily in ancient Rome after 59 B.C. The original acta were deposited in the state archives after a certain time. They contained imperial and magisterial notices and decrees, resolutions and discussions of the senate, possibly the results of chariot-races, advertisements of births, marriages, divorces, and deaths. No genuine acta are extant, though fifteen spurious fragments have been published by Pighius (1615). (2.) Acta senatus, the minutes of the transactions in the senate-the title acta is an abbreviation of commentarii actorum-first published by Julius Cæsar as consul in 59 B.C. They were kept in the imperial archives,