cacy. 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 deliThe 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 agreeinent, 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 hemistry, which is in high estimation in England. He was suspected of having »urloined from the "Royal Institution," he library and reading-room of which were, in part, committed to his care, 3* plates and treatises; and the accusation 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 acCato is said to count it was not considered at all disreputable to be accused. 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. 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. The schines, 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 watchcd 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 "When king Blackstone says, to amount to a virtual abdication of the throne. 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 betray ing 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 Achæan: 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, which was subsequently famous for the Achæan league. This league was at first formed by a few cities, for the maintenance of their security and indeperence; but afterwards included all the cher 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 king of Lydia, deposed and hanged for extor tion. Ovid. 2. The founder of the Achæar state in the Peloponnesus, son of Xuthu 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; but 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. ACHAIA; properly, a narrow district of ACHAIA-ACHERON. 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, ACHELOUS, also ASPROPOTAMUS, a riv- 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 A. travelled at Göttingen, where he remained until his death, May, 1772. 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 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 beantiful. 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 ACHILLES-ACIDS. ed with the carnage, commanded A. to desist. Not being obeyed, he overflowed his banks, and rushed against the hero. Encouraged by Neptune and Minerva, A. opposed Xanthus, who called to his Juno then aid the waters of Simois. sent Vulcan, and the west and south winds, who drove the river-god back to But A pursued the his proper limits. Trojans to their city, which only the interference of Apollo prevent him from taking. Hector alone remained before the Scean gate, and, having fled 3 times round the city, pursued by A., finally of fered himself for combat. A. slew him, and, after dragging his body round the city, resigned it, for a ransom, to Priam. Here the narration of Homer ends. A., as represented by this sublime poet, is of a fiery and impetuous character, and has little of that firmness and rational valor which constitute the true hero. In this respect, the heroes of the German poem "Das Nibelungenlied" are far greater and nobler than those of Homer. The further history of A. is told as follows: Falling in love with Polyxena, he sought her hand, and obtained it; for which he promised to defend Troy. But Paris slew him with an arrow, which pierced his heel, in the temple of Apollo, where he was celebrating his nuptials. Others say it was Apollo who killed him, or directed the arrow of Paris. A bloody contest ensued about his body. The Greeks sacrificed Polyxena on his tomb, in obedience to his request, that he might enjoy her company in the Elysian fields, where he is also said to have married Medea. When Alexander saw his tomb, it is said that he placed a crown upon it, exclaiming, "that A. was happy in having, during his life-time, a friend like Patroclus, and, after his death, a poet like Homer." ACHILLES TATIUS; a Greek novelist, or Erotic writer, so called, born at Alexandria, lived, probably, at the end of the 3d and the beginning of the 4th century, and taught rhetoric in his native city. In his old age, he became a convert to Christianity, and rose to the dignity of a bishop. Besides a treatise on the sphere, which we know only from an abridgment still extant, we possess a romance of his, in 8 books, styled, The Loves of Clitophon and Leucippe, which, as regards the subject and composition, is not without merit, and in some parts shows much ability. The language, though rich in rhetorical ornaments, is not free from sophistical subtilty. The charge of obscenity, which has occasionally been brought against the ACHMET III, a Turkish emperor, sor ACHMIM, Or ECHMIM; a considerable town of Upper Egypt, on the eastern bank of the Nile, called by the ancients Chemnis and Panopolis, by the Copts Smin. Though reduced from its former magnificence, it is still one of the finest towns of Upper Egypt. It has some manufactories. Abulfeda speaks of a superb temple here. The immense stones which composed it, sculptured with innumerable hieroglyphics, are now scattered about, and some are transferred into a mosque. A. contains also a triumphal arch, built by the emperor Nero. This place is famous also for the worship of the serpent Haridi. ACHROMATIC Telescopes. (See Optics.) ACIDS (acida); a class of compound bodies, which have the following characteristic properties: the greater part of them, a sour taste, and most of them are very corrosive; they change the vegetable blues to red, are soluble in water, and have great affinity for the alkaline, earthy, and metallic oxyds, with which they form neutral salts. Some acids have no sour taste, but their affinity for the three classes of bodies above-mentioned is always characteristic. If a few drops of sulphuric acid, nitric acid, or muriatic acid, be added to a solution of blue litmus. |