ADU 



AER 



adhere, and form a sy near pons or com- 

 pound fruit. 



ADHIL. A star of the sixth magni- 

 tU'.le, on the garment of Andromeda. 



A'DIPOCERE {adeps, fat, cera, wax). 

 The fatty and spermaceti-like substance 

 into which muscle is converted by long 

 immersion in water or spirit, or by burial 

 in moist earth. 



ADIPOCERE MINERAL. A fatty 

 matter, resembling adipocere, found in 

 the argillaceous iron ore of Merthyr. 



A'DIT {aditus, an approach). A sub- 

 terraneous passage, in mining operations, 

 beginning at the bottom of a valley, and 

 continued up to the vein, for the purpose 

 of carrying out the minerals and of draw- 

 ing off the water. 



A'DJACENT ANGLES. The two 

 angles formed at the point where one 

 straight line falls upon another, the 

 former line constituting one of the sides 

 of each angle, and the latter line consti- 

 tuting the other side of each. See Angle. 



A'DJECTIVE {adjicio, to add to). In 

 grammar, a word which, being added to a 

 noun, qualifies or limits its application. 

 Adjectives are termed attributive, when 

 they denote a quality ; numeral, when 

 they refer to number. The possessive 

 pronouns might be termed pronominal 

 adjectives ; the demonstrative and distri- 

 butive pronouns may also be referred to 

 the adjective, as they both precede and 

 designate nouns, but never supply their 

 place. 



A'DJECTIVE COLOURS. Colours 

 which require the intervention of some 

 base or mordaunt, in order to enable them 

 to adhere to the cloth, in the manufac- 

 ture of dye-stuffs. 



ADNA'TE [adnatus, grown to) Grown 

 to any thing, as the anther to the face of 

 the filament in polygonum. See Innate. 



ADOLE'SCENCE {adolesco, to grow). 

 The period of life in which the body has 

 acquired its utmost development ; com- 

 mencing at puberty, and terminating, in 

 the male, about the twenty-fifih, and in 

 the female, in the twenty-first year. 



ADO'PTER, or ADAPTER. A vessel 

 with two necks plao^d between a retort 

 and a receiver, and serving to measure 

 the length of the neck of the former. 



ADULA'RIA. A sub-species of pris- 

 matic felspar, the finest specimens of 

 which are procured at Adula, on the 

 summit of St. Gothard. By lapidaries it 

 is termed moonstone, from the play of 

 light exhibited by the arrangement of its 

 crystalline structure. A variety from 



Siberia is called sunstone by jewellers, 

 and to this variety the avanturine felspar 

 of Archangel appears to belong. 



ADVENTITIOUS (advenio, to come 

 to). Accidental; casual ; abnormal; that 

 which comes from some unusual source. 

 In botany, it denotes any thing developed 

 out of the ordinary course, as aerial 

 roots, extra-axillary buds, &c. 



A'DVERB {ad, to, verbum, a word). 

 In grammar, a word which qualifies a 

 verb, adjective, participle, or even an- 

 other adverb, and generally indicates 

 ti7ne, place, quantity, or manner. The 

 adverb is closely related to the adjective, 

 and seems to have been originally con- 

 trived to express compendiously in one 

 word what must otherwise have required 

 two or more. 



^O'LIAN HARP {jEolus, the god of 

 the winds). A musical instrument con- 

 sisting of a simple box of wood, with 

 four or five strings, two or three feet 

 long, fastened at each end. These are 

 tuned in unison, so that, when made to 

 vibrate with force, they produce the same 

 tones. But, when suspended in a gentle 

 breeze, each string, according to the 

 manner of force in which it receives the 

 blast, either sounds as a whole, or is di- 

 vided into several parts. 



M'Ohl PILE {JEuli pila, ball of /Eolus). 

 A steam globe, or hollow sphere of copper 

 or brass, with a small orifice for the in- 

 sertion of a tube, for illustrating both the 

 meohanical and thermal properties of 

 steam. 



^PI'NUS'S THEORY. A theory by 

 which the phenomena of magnetism are 

 referred to the agency of a peculiar 

 fluid, having properties very similar to 

 those of the electric fluid in the hypo- 

 thesis of Franklin, but which act only 

 upon ferruginous bodies and nickel. The 

 particles of this fluid repel one another 

 with a force which decreases as the dis- 

 tance increases, and they are attracted by 

 the particles of iron with a force varying 

 according to the same law. This theory 

 further requires the supposition that the 

 particles of iron repel one another accord- 

 ing to the same law. 



iEQUILA'TERAL {aqua latera ha- 

 bens). Having equal sides, as applied 

 to triangles which have all their sides 

 equal. 



AERA'TION {aer, air). The impregna- 

 tion of a liquid with carbonic acid gas ; 

 or simply the saturation of a liquid with 

 air. 



AERIAL ACID {aer, air). A name 

 B5 



