AGRIPPA AGUESSEAU. 



69 



AGRIPPA, Henry Cornelius, born in i486, at Co- 

 logne, was a man of talents, learning, and eccentri- 

 city. In his youth, he was secretary to the emperor 

 Maximilian, subsequently served seven years in Italy, 

 and was knighted. He says that he was acquainted 

 with eight languages. On quitting the army, he 

 devoted himseli to science, and made pretensions to 

 an acquaintance with magic. In certain lectures, he 

 advanced opinions which involved him in contests 

 with the monks for the remainder of his life. In 

 1530, he wrote a treatise " On the Vanity of the 

 Sciences," which was a caustic satire upon the in- 

 efficiency of the common modes of instruction, and 

 upon the monks, theologians, and members of the 

 universities. At a subsequent period, he produced 

 - another treatise at Antwerp, " On the Occult Philo- 

 sopher." This was a sketch of mystical theology, 

 explaining, on the principles of the emanative sys- 

 tem, the harmony of the elementary, celestial, and 

 intellectual worlds. His pretensions to skill in oc- 

 cult science, particularly alchymy, led to his receiving 

 numerous invitations from royal personages and 

 others of high rank, and his inability to answer their 

 absurd expectations produced their subsequent 

 neglect of him. After an active, varied, and event- 

 ful life, he died at Grenoble, in 1539. 



AGRIPPA, Marcus Vipsanius ; a Roman, the son- 

 in-law of Augustus, with whom he was twice con- 

 sul. Although not of high birth, his talents soon 

 raised him to honour. He distinguished himself as 

 a general, and commanded the fleet of Augustus in 

 the battle of Actium. As the minister and friend of 

 the emperor, he rendered many services to him and 

 the Roman state. He was impartial and upright, 

 and a friend of the arts. To him Rome is indebted 

 for three of her principal aqueducts, and several 

 other works of public use and ornament. (See Au- 

 gustiis.) 



AGBIPPINA. 1. The wife of the emperor Tibe- 

 rius, who very reluctantly divorced her, when obliged 

 to marry Julia, the daughter of Augustus, after the 

 death of her first husband, Agrippa. A. was subse- 

 quently married to Asinius Gallus, whom Tiberius, 

 still retaining his love for his former wife, condemned 

 to perpetual imprisonment, in the spirit of a jealous 

 rival. 2. The daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrip- 

 pa, by Julia, daughter of Augustus; wife or C. 

 Germanicus ; an heroic woman, adorned with great 

 virtues. She accompanied her husband in all his 

 campaigns, and accused Tiberius, before the senate, 

 of compassing his death. The tyrant, who hated 

 her for her virtues and popularity, banished her to 

 the island of Pandataria, where she starved herself 

 to death. The cabinet of antiquities at Dresden 

 possesses four famous busts of this A. 3. A daughter 

 of the last mentioned A., and sister of Caligula,Dorn 

 at Cologne, which she enlarged, and called Colonia 

 Agrippinee. She had the misfortune to become the 

 mother of Nero, by Domitius Ahenobarbus. Her 

 third husband was the emperor Claudius, brother of 

 her father, who married her after he had divorced 

 Messalina. She was distinguished for ability and 

 political experience, but her ambition was boundless, 

 and her disposition cunning and dissolute. She was 

 murdered by Nero, her son, to whom she was 

 troublesome after he liad become emperor. It is 

 said, that she begged the assassins to stab her first 

 in the womb, that had brought forth sucli a monster. 



AGDE, in medicine ; a disorder belonging to the 

 class of intermittent fevers (febres intermittentes). It 

 may be followed by serious consequences, but, gen- 

 erally, it is more troublesome than dangerous, and is 

 sometimes even considered salutary. According to 

 the length of the apyrexia, or intermission between 

 one febrile paroxysm and another, agues are deno- 



minated quotidians, tertians, quartans ; which latter 

 are much the most obstinate, being generally attend- 

 ed with a greater degree of visceral obstruction than 

 those, the attacks of which return at shorter intervals. 

 The quartan ague is apt to terminate in dropsy. An 

 ague paroxysm has been divided into the cold, the 

 hot, and the sweating stages. The feeling of ex- 

 treme cold, in the first stage, cannot be prevented by 

 fire or the heat of summer. Generally, after the 

 sweating stage, in which there is a profuse exhala- 

 tion from the pores of the skin, with a flow of urine, 

 depositing a copious sediment, of a lateritious or 

 brickdust 1 appearance, the patient falls into a refresh- 

 ing sleep, from which he awakes without any re- 

 mains of indisposition, except a slight degree of lan- 

 guor and debility. Agues occur chiefly in situations 

 where there are shallow, stagnant waters. Hence 

 their frequency in Holland, in the East and West 

 Indies, in the flat, marshy parts of England, and the 

 thinly settled parts of the United States, where they 

 diminish with the clearing of the woods and the drain- 

 ing of the lands. The neighbourhood of rivers or 

 marshes, therefore, is carefully to be avoided by per- 

 sons afflicted with agues. They are cured by medi- 

 cines, which, at the same time that they exert a tonic 

 influence, produce and keep up an impression upon 

 the system greater than that communicated by the 

 causes of the disease ; such as Peruvian bark, vari- 

 ous bitter and astringent drugs, certain metallic 

 salts, &c. 



AGUE-CAKE ; a name sometimes given to a hard 

 tumour on the left side of the belly, lower than the 

 false ribs, said to be the effect of intermittent fever. 



AGUESSEAU, Henry Francis d', a man distinguish 

 ed in the annals of French eloquence and jurispru 

 dence, was born at Limoges in 1668, and early 

 evinced distinguished talents. His father, intendaut 

 of Languedoc, was his first instructor. The inter- 

 course of d'A. with Racine and Boileau formed his 

 taste for poetry. He was, in 1691, avocat general 

 at Paris, and at the age of thirty-two years procureur 

 general of the parliament. In this office, he effect- 

 ed many improvements in the laws and the adminis- 

 tration of justice, and took particular care of the go- 

 vernment of hospitals. During a famine in the winter 

 of 1709, he employed all his power to relieve the 

 suffering. As a steady defender of the privileges of 

 the nation and the Gallican church, he procured the 

 rejection of the decrees of Louis XIV., and the 

 chancellor Voisin, in favour of the papal bull Uni- 

 genitus. Under the government of the duke of Or- 

 leans, he was made chancellor in 1717, but fell, in 

 1718, into disgrace, on account of his opposition to 

 Law's destructive system of finance, and retired to 

 his country seat at Fresnes. He thei? passed, ac- 

 cording to his own words, the happiest days of his 

 life, employed in reading the Bible, projecting a 

 code, and instructing his children. Mathematics, 

 agriculture, and the arts and sciences occupied his 

 leisure hours. In 1720, loud clamours against Law 

 were raised throughout France, and it was thought 

 that a man like d'A., who possessed the love of the 

 nation, was necessary to allay the general discontent. 

 He was, therefore, replaced in his former dignity. 

 This period of his life did not add to his renown ; for 

 he accepted his office from Law, and gave his con- 

 sent to certain weak and injurious plans, which the 

 parliament rejected ; he finally suffered the same par- 

 liament to be exiled to Pontoise. In 1722, he was 

 banished a second time, for opposing the cardinal 

 Dubois, but was recalled in 1727 by the cardinal 

 Fleury, and in 1737 restored to his former office. He 

 formed the design of introducing uniformity into the 

 execution of the ancient laws, and of adding what 

 was wanting. But this work surpassed the abuity of 



