26 



ACTINISM 



nearly all tho species being remarkable for their poisonous properties. A. Napellut 

 is the Monkshood or Wolf s-bano, commonly cultivated in gardens as a showy flower, 

 but tho leaves and root are highly poisonous, and death has resulted from eating the 

 root by mistake for horse-radish. The Bikh, Bish, or Nabeo poison, used by the hill- 

 tribes of Northern India for poisoning arrows, is obtained from A.ferox, which is said 

 to be a more powerful poison than either of the other species ; the quantity of the 

 poisonous alkaloid Aconitine depending on the temperature in which tho plant has 

 grown. The root of the Aconite or Monkshood having been very frequently mistaken 

 for the horse-radish root, and several deaths having been produced by eating it, a few 

 of the distinctions between them aro given. The aconite root, as shown in fig. 13, 

 is conical and tapering rapidly to a point. The horse-radish is slightly conical at the 

 crown, then of almost the same thickness for several inches. Aconite is coloured 

 more or less brown, the horse-radish is externally white. Tho odour of the aconite is 



13 



merely earthy, that of horse-radish pungent and irritating. Aconite root is the most 

 virulent in the winter months and early spring, when the leaves are absent. 



ACORNS. The fruit of the oak ( Quercus). These possess some of the properties 

 of the bark, but in a very diluted degree. Acorns are now rarely used. Pigs are 

 sometimes fed upon them. The acorn-cups of Quercus Mgilops are used in tanning 

 and dyeing, and are imported under the name of Valonia. See VALONIA. 



ACORUS CAXiAMUS. The common sweet flag. This plant is a native of 

 England, growing abundantly in the rivers of Norfolk, from which county the 

 London market is chiefly supplied. The radix calami aromatica of the shops occurs 

 in flattened pieces about one inch wide and four or five inches long. It is employed 

 medicinally as an aromatic, a.nd it is said to be used by some distillers to flavour gin. 

 The essential oil (oleum acori calami) of the sweet flag is used by snuff-makers for 

 scenting snuff, and it sometimes enters as one of tho aromatic ingredients of aromatic 

 vinegar. Tho Acorus belongs to the Aracece or arum-order. See AEACEJE. 



ACROSPIRE. (Plumule, Fr. ; Blattkeim, Ger.). The sprout at the end of seeds 

 when they begin to germinate. Maltsters use the name to express the growing of the 

 barley. ' The first leaves that appear when corn sprouts.' Lindley. 



ACRYJLAIHCINZ:, or AI.LVI.I1IWCINE. C 6 H 7 N (C 3 H 7 Iff). An alkaloid 

 obtained by Hofmann and Cahours, by boiling cyanate of allyle with a strong solution 

 of potash. It boils at about 365. C. G. W. 



ACTINISM. (From a.Krlv, a ray ; signifying merely the power of a ray, without 

 defining what character of ray is intended.) 



As early as 1812, M. Berard (in a communication to the Academy of Sciences, on 

 some observations made by him of tho phenomena of solar action) drew attention to the 



