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equally concerned in a felony. The name is generally applied to those who are admitted to give evidence against their fellow-criminals, for the furtherance of jus

tice.

ACCLAMATION (acclamatio); in Roman antiquity, a shouting of certain words by way of praise or dispraise. In ages when people were more accustomed to give full utterance to their feelings, acclamations were very common, wherevera mass of people was influenced by one common feeling. We find, therefore, acclamations in theatres, senates, ecclesiastical meetings, elections, at nuptials, triumphs, &c. The senate of Rome burst into contumelious acclamations after the death of Domitian and Commodus. The theatrical acclamations were connected with music. Nero, who was as fond of music as of blood, ordered 5000 soldiers to chant acclamations when he played in the theatre, and the spectators were obliged to join them. In the corrupt period of the Roman empire, the children and favorites of the emperors were received with loud acclamations, as the French emperor was greeted with Vive l'empereur! and the French king is with Vive le roi! The Turks have a custom somewhat similar, at the sight of their emperor and grand viziers. The form among the Jews was Hosanna! The Greek emperors were received with Ayan tun! (good luck), or other exclamations. Before a regular system of voting is adopted, we find its place supplied, among all nations, by acclamations. So Tacitus informs us that the Germans showed their approbation of a measure by clashing their shields and swords. The bishops, in the early times of Christianity, were long elected by acclamation. In the course of time, acclamations were admitted into the churches, and the people expressed their approbation of a favorite preacher by exclaiming, Orthodox! Third apostle! &c. They seem to have been sometimes used as late as the age of St. Bernard. The first German emperors were elected by acclamation at a meeting of the people in the open air; and the Indians, in North America, show their approbation or disapprobation of proposed public measures by acclamations.

ACCOLADE, a word derived from barbarous Latin, is composed of ad, to, and. collum, neck, meaning, originally, an embrace. It signifies an ancient ceremony used in conferring knighthood. Antiquaries are not agreed wherein the accolade consisted. Some think it signifies

the embrace or kiss, given by the person who conferred the honor of knighthood. It is more probable that it consisted in an imitation of a blow on the neck, or on the cheek, signifying that this should be the last blow which the new-made knight should endure. The ceremony of striking the candidate with the naked sword, which afterwards took the place of the blow with the hand, had the same meaning. The Roman master also gave a blow to his slave, at the time of his emancipation, which, therefore, was called manumission; and in those parts of Germany where the ancient corporations of mechanics still continue, the apprentice receives a blow from the oldest journeyman, when his apprenticeship is at an end. The blow or stroke was in use among all Christian nations of the middle ages in conferring knighthood. (See Chivalry.)

ACCOMMODATION; properly, the adaptation of one thing to another; in philosophy, the application of one thing by analogy to another. It is also used in theology; thus, a prophecy of Scripture is said to be fulfilled improperly, or by way of accommodation when an event happens to any place or people similar to that predicted of another. Some theologians also say that Christ said many things to his disciples by way of accommodation, viz. entering into their views, and telling them only what they were capable of understanding. Others think this theory inconsistent with the purity of Christ. A., in law, is used for an amicable agreement or composition between two contending parties. These accommodations are frequently effected by means of compromise and arbitration.

ACCOMPANIMENT, in music, (French, accompagnement; Italian, accompagnamento,) is that part of music which serves for the support of the principal melody (solo or obligato part). This can be executed either by many instruments, by a few, or even by a single one. We have, therefore, pieces of music with an accompaniment for several, or only for a single instrument. The principles on which the effect of the accompaniment rests are so little settled, that its composition is perhaps more difficult than even that of the melody, or principal part. Frequently, the same musical thought, according to the character of the accompaniment, produces a good or bad effect, without our being able to give a satisfactory reason for the difference. Hitherto, the Italians have been most distinguished for

expressive accompaniments contained in a few notes, but productive of great effect. In this respect, the Italian music generally surpasses the German and French, as it never weakens the effect of the principal part by means of the accompaniment. The French are far behind both the other nations, in respect to this part of composition, as they frequently estimate the effect by the quantity of notes. The accompaniment requires of the performer the most scrupulous study, and of the composer the greatest care and delicacy. The accompaniment of various solo instruments, e. g. the violin, flute, piano, &c. is extremely difficult, and to give it full effect requires great knowledge and skill. The Italian composers accordingly consider a piano accompaniment for a full orchestra, especially in the recitativo, (q. v.) as a great problem, which they have labored zealously to solve. As the object of every musical accompaniment is to give effect to the principal part, the accompanier should always aim to support, and by no means to overpower and oppress it. Of all composers, Mozart, even in respect to the accompaniments, claims the first place for the simplicity and beauty with which he amalgamates the leading and accompanying parts, through his unrivalled knowledge and excellent management of the parts for every individual instrument.

ACCORD. (Mus.) (See Concord.) ACCORD; in common law, an agreement, between two or more persons, to give and accept satisfaction for an offence or trespass committed, which becomes a bar to a suit.

ACCOUCHEMENT (French); the delivery of a woman in child-bed.

ACCUM, Frederic, a German, from the Prussian province of Westphalia, went to London in the year 1803, where he delivered a course of lectures on chemistry and experimental physics, the basis of which was the discoveries of Priestley and other English chemists. He formed a connexion with Rudolf Ackermann, a German artist in London, to promote the general use of gas for lighting cities, and his work "On Gas Lights” was mainly instrumental in producing the extensive use of gas-lights in London, and all the great cities of England. He subsequently published a manual of practical chemistry, which is in high estimation in England. He was suspected of having purloined from the "Royal Institution," the library and reading-room of which were, in part, committed to his care,

plates and treatises; and the accusation of the overseer of this institution bore hard upon him in a court of justice; still nothing could be legally proved against him. For several years, Á. has lived in Berlin, where he has received an appointment.

ACCUMULATION. (See Capital.)

ACCUSATION (from the Latin ad, to, and causari, to plead); an assertion, imputing to some person a crime, or a fault : in law, a formal declaration, charging some person with an act punishable by a judicial sentence. In Rome, where there was no calumniator publicus, no attorneygeneral, every one was permitted to prosecute crimes of a public nature. Therefore accusations very often took place against innocent persons, on which account it was not considered at all disreputable to be accused. Cato is said to have been accused 42 times, and as often absolved. Also in Prussia and Austria there exists, according to the codes of these countries, no public accuser. The courts accuse, try and sentence upon information received from the police, to which private individuals apply. This is called the process by inquisition, in contradistinction to process by accusation or appeal. In the common law of Germany, the process of appeal, in which the person injured appears as the accusing party, is not general, yet not abolished. (See Criminal process.) For accusation in England and France, see Jury. At Athens, if an accuser had not the fifth part of the votes on his side, he was obliged to pay a fine of a thousand drachmas. Eschines, who accused Ctesiphon, was condemned to pay this fine. At Rome, a false accuser was branded with the letter K on his forehead, (used for C, i. e. Calumniator.) The accuser was also watched to prevent his corrupting the judges or the witnesses. The Spanish inquisition forces the suspected person to accuse himself of the crime objected to him. In France, peers are to be accused of crimes only before the chamber of peers, and the chamber of deputies alone has the right to accuse ministers, as such, before the peers. Accusing, in these cases, is called impeaching. In the United States, any officer of government, the president not excepted, is impeachable, and the constitution provides the accuser and the judges. In no monarchy can the king be brought to trial for a crime, though, in some cases, his conduct may be such as to amount to a virtual abdication of the throne. Blackstone says, "When king

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James II invaded the fundamental constitution of the realm, the convention declared an abdication, whereby the throne was rendered vacant, which induced a new settlement of the crown. And so far as this precedent leads, and no farther, we may now be allowed to lay down the law of redress against public oppression." ACELDAMA (Heb., a field of blood); the field purchased by the Jewish rulers with the 30 pieces of silver which Judas returned to them in despair, after betraying Christ. This field they appropriated as a burial-place for strangers. The place is still shown to travellers. It 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 time. ACEPHALI (headless); several sects of schismatics in the Christian church, who rebelled against their Christian head, or refused to acknowledge any; for example, the monophysite monks and priests in Egypt, who did not acknowledge the patriarch, Peter Mongus, because he had not, at the adoption of the Henoticon, in 483, expressly condemned the council of Chalcedon. They were divided into three parties, but were soon lost among the other monophysites. The Flagellants (q. v.) were also Acephali, because, as a sect, they acknowledged no head. This term is also applied to certain nations represented, by ancient naturalists, as formed without heads, their eyes, mouths, &c. being placed in their breasts, shoulders, &c.

ACERBI, Giuseppe, was born at CastelGoffredo, in the territory of Mantua. He, spent a portion of his youth in Mantua, and there acquired a knowledge of English. On the invasion of Lombardy, by the French, in 1798, he accompanied Bellotti from Brescia to Germany; thence he went to Denmark and Sweden, and lastly to Finland, in 1799. In Tornea, he met colonel Skiöldebrand, a good landscape painter, and with him planned a voyage to the North Cape. He was the first Italian that ever penetrated so far. On his return, he visited England, where he published a lively description of these travels, in a work in 3 volumes, in 1802. In his account of Lapland, A. has made good use of the exact information of the Swedish missionary, Canut Leem. The book was translated in Paris, under the eyes of the author, by M. Petit Radel. For 6 years, A. published, in Milan, the journal Biblioteca Italiana, the spirited criticisms of which have given an impulse to the literary character of Italy. He has

actively opposed the pretensions of the Accademia della Crusca, and the arrogant pretensions of the Florentine dialect. For several years past, spirited sketches of the latest Italian literature by A. have appeared, and have received universal approbation. His appointment as consulgeneral of Austria in Egypt, 1826, compelled him to resign the Biblioteca Italiana to other hands.

ACERRA; an altar set up by the Romans, near the bed of a person deceased, on which his friends daily offered incense till his burial.

ACETIC ACID; the acid which, in a more diluted state, is called vinegar.

ACHEANS are properly the inhabitants of the district Achaia, in the Peloponnesus; but this name is very frequently, especially in Homer, given to all the Grecians. Achæus, a son of Xuthus and Creusa, went to Thessaly with a number of followers, but was soon driven out, and compelled to withdraw to the Peloponnesus, where he settled in Sparta and Argos, the inhabitants of which were called Achæans. Of the Grecian nations en gaged in the siege of Troy, the Achæans were the most numerous and powerful After the conquest of this city, being overcome by the Dorians, they retired to Ionia, on the northern coast of the Peloponnesus, gave to the country the name of Achaia, and founded a republic, whick. was subsequently famous for the Achæar league. This league was at first formed by a few cities, for the maintenance of their security and indepenence; but afterwards included ali the other cities of Achaia, together with Athens, Megara &c. Sparta, however, did not join the confederacy. After the destruction of Corinth, B. C. 146, the states composing this league were made a Roman prov ince, under the name of Achaia. (See Greece.)

ACHEUS, in ancient history,-1. A kinş of Lydia, deposed and hanged for extor tion. Ovid. 2. The founder of the Achæa state in the Peloponnesus, son of Xuthus king of Thessaly. 3. A tragic poet of Eretria, who lived some time after Soph ocles. 4. Another poet of Syracuse. 5 A cousin-german to Seleucus Ceraunus and Antiochus the Great, kings of Syria, who enjoyed, for many years, the dominions he had usurped from Antiochus ; at last was betrayed by a Cretan to the last-mentioned king, and, his limbs being cut off, his body was sewed in the skin of an ass and gibbeted.

but

ACHAIA; properly, a narrow district of

Peloponnesus, extending westward along the bay of Corinth. Early writers, particularly the poets, sometimes include all Greece under the name of Achaia. At the time of the Achæan league, the Romans applied the name of Achaia to all the country beyond the isthmus, which had entered into the league; after the dissolution of which, Greece was divided, by a decree of the Roman senate, into two provinces, viz. that of Macedonia, containing also Thessaly, and that of Achaia, including all the other states of Greece. (See Gibbon's Roman Hist. chap. 1, vol. i.) ACHARD, Frederic Charles, born at Berlin, April 28, 1754, an eminent naturalist and chemist, principally known by his invention, in 1800, of a process for manufacturing sugar from beets, which, since that time, has been brought to greater perfection. He was director of the department of physics, in the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin. To enable him to extend his manufacture, the great importance of which was acknowledged by the French Institute (July, 1800), the king of Prussia presented him with an estate at Kunern, in Silesia, where his establishment, at the time of the closing of the ports of Europe, by the decree of Berlin, was attended with such success, that, in the winter of 1811, it daily yielded 300 pounds of sirup. Achard connected with it, in 1812, an institution for the purpose of teaching his mode of manufacture, which attracted the attention of foreigners. He died at Kunern, April 20, 1821. Besides a number of treatises on physics and agriculture, he published several articles on the manufacture of sugar from beets.

ACHATES; the companion of Æneas, and his most faithful friend, celebrated by Virgil.

ACHEEN, ATCHEEN, ACHEM or ACHEN; part of Sumatra, of a triangular form, and containing about 26000 square miles. The lands between its two ranges of mountains are fertile. The Achanese are stouter, taller and darker-colored than the other people of the island, more industrious, have more general knowledge, and deal, as merchants, in a more liberal manner. They are Mahometans; their sailors are expert and bold, and employ a multitude of vessels in trade and fishing. The government is despotic, monarchical, and hereditary; their laws extremely seThe capital of the kingdom is Acheen, lon. 95° 46′ E., lat. 5° 22' N.; pop. about 36000. Its chief trade is now with Hindostan, from whence it receives cot

vere.

ton goods in return for gold dust, jewels, sapan wood, betel-nut, pepper, sulphur, camphor and benzoin. Europeans bring there opium, iron, arms, &c. (See Marsden's History of Sumatra.)

ACHELOUS, also ASPROPOTAMUS, a river running between Ætolia and Ácarnania, has its source on mount Pindus, flows through the first settlements of the Grecians around Dodona, and falls into the Ionian sea. The banks of this river are the only places in Europe, which formerly afforded habitation to lions.-Hesiod calls A. the son of Oceanus and Thetis. Others say differently. He wrestled with Hercules for Dejanira, and, when thrown to the ground, assumed the shape of a terrible serpent, then that of an ox, and, after he had lost a horn, he fled, ashamed, to his waters. From the broken horn, it is said, the nymphs made the horn of plenty. He was the father of the sirens.

ACHENWALL, Godfrey, born at Elbing, in Prussia, Oct. 20, 1719, first gave a distinct character to the science of statistics. He studied in Jena, Halle and Leipsic. In 1746, he settled at Marburg, and lectured on history, the law of nature and of nations, and afterwards, also, on statistics. In 1748, he was appointed professor at Göttingen, where he remained until his death, May, 1772. A. travelled through Switzerland, France, Holland and England, and published several books on the history of the European states, the law of nations, political economy, &c. Most of them have gone through several editions. His principal endeavor, in his lectures and historical works, was to distinguish, in the long series of occurrences which are recorded in the annals of nations, every thing which might have contributed to form their character, and fix their political condition. His chief merit consists in the settled character which he has given to, and the new light which he has thrown on the science, which explains systematically the nature and amount of the active powers of a state, and hence deduces the sources of its physical and moral prosperity. He gave it the name of statistics. His most distinguished pupil, who succeeded him at the university of Göttingen, was Schlözer.

ACHERON; the name given by the ancients to a river of the infernal regions, over which Charon conducted the souls of the dead in a boat, for which he received an obolus, placed under the tongue of the deceased. Only the shades of those who had obtained a burial in this

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world, or had, at least, some earth thrown upon their bodies, were carried over the river; others were obliged to wander on its banks a whole century. In ancient geography, there are 5 different rivers, named Acheron. The one in Epirus (now a province of Janina) flows first through the lake Acherusia, then, for a short distance, through the rocks of the Cassiopeian mountains, and falls, near Prevesa, into the Ionian sea. It is now called Velchi. A branch of the Nile, in the neighborhood of Memphis, is also called Acheron, and a lake, Acherusia. Over this the Egyptians ferried their dead, to bury them on an island in the lake, or on the opposite shore; or, if the judge of the dead condemned them, to throw them into the water: hence the Greek fable. The cave of Cerberus, called Acherusis, is found on the banks of the river Acheron, in Bithynia, near Heraclea. There is also a swamp in Campania, between Cuma and the promontory of Mysenum, called by the ancients Acherusia. At present, there are salt works on this spot.

ACHILLEIS; a poem, by Statius, in honor of Achilles. (See Statius.)

ACHERUSIA, in ancient geography,-1. A lake in Egypt, near Memphis, over which, according to Diodorus, the bodies of the dead were conveyed for judgment. The boat was called baris, the boatman, Charon. Hence came the Grecian fable of Charon and the Styx. 2. A river in Calabria. 3. A lake in Epirus, through which runs the river Acheron. 4. A lake between Cuma and the promontory Misenum. 5. A peninsula of Bithynia, on the Euxine, near Heraclea.

ACHILLES; according to the poets, son of Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, in Thessaly, and of Thetis, daughter of Nereus, grandson of Eacus. His mother dipped him, when an infant, in the waters of the Styx, which made him invulnerable, except in the heel, by which she held him. It had been foretold to Thetis that A. would acquire immortal glory, but, at the same time, meet an early death, if he went to the siege of Troy; while, on the other hand, if he remained at home, he would enjoy a happy old age. To prevent him from taking part in the war against Troy, Thetis disguised him, when 9 years old, in a female dress, and sent him, under the name of Pyrrha, to the court of Lycomedes, king of Scyros, with whose daughters he was educated. The prophet Calchas, however, announced to the Grecians that Troy could not be

taken without the aid of A. He was consequently sought for every where, and finally discovered by the crafty Ulysses, who came to the court of Lycomedes disguised as a merchant, and offered to the daughters of the king various female ornaments, among which arms were interspersed. The princesses seized the ornaments, but A. took the arms. It was now an easy task to persuade the fiery and ambitious hero to join the other princes of Greece in the expedition against Troy. Phoenix and the Centaur Chiron had been his instructors. The latter had taught him medicine, music, and riding; the former, more especially his tutor, followed him to Troy, to render him an eloquent speaker, and a brave warrior. A. appears in the Iliad, of which he is the hero, not only as the bravest, but also as the most beautiful, of the Grecians. He sailed to Troy with 50 ships filled with the Myrmidons, Achaians, and Hellenians, and destroyed 12 cities on the islands and 11 on the main land. Juno and Minerva took him under their special protection. On account of a quarrel with Agamemnon, whom the princes had chosen their leader, he withdrew from the field, and permitted Hector, at the head of the Trojans, to destroy the ranks of the Grecians. He remained implacable against the king, on account of Briseis, daughter of Brises, and wife of Mines, king of Lyrnessus, who had fallen to his share, in the division of the booty, but whom Agamemnon had taken from him, because he was obliged to restore to her father Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, priest of Apollo, who had fallen to his own share, in order to avert from the Grecians the plague sent by Apollo, in answer to the prayers of the old man, his priest. Neither the defeats of the Grecians, nor the offers of Agamemnon, appeased the wrath of the hero. He, however, permitted his friend Patroclus, in his own armor, and at the head of his own warriors, to mingle again in the combat. Patroclus fell by the arm of Hector; and, to revenge his death, A. resolved to return to the field. Thetis herself brought him new and costly arms, made by Vulcan, among which the shield was particularly beautiful. He became reconciled to Agamemnon, received the presents which were offered, and, refreshed by Minerva with nectar and ambrosia, hastened to the bat tle. The Trojans fled, and a part of them rushed into the river Xanthus and perished. The bodies obstructed the course of the stream, and the river-god, disgust