ATREBATES ATTACHMENT. 



325 



side of the island, calleil JVymoa. It is supposed to 

 contain 12,000 inhabitants. The natives make canoes 

 of fine workmanship. Some of them, from the fre- 

 quent visits of British and American navigators, are 

 able to converse in English. Several Europeans re- 

 side here. Lon. 200' 2CX E. ; lat 21" 57' N. See 

 Sandwich Islands. 



ATREBATES ; the ancient inhabitants of Gallia 

 Belgica, who possessed that part of Gaul afterwards 

 called Artois. A colony of them settled in Britain. 

 Caesar mentions them as one of the nations con- 

 federated ngainst him, and as having engaged to fur- 

 nish 15,000 troops to the allied army. The Atre- 

 bates, or Atrebatii, in Britain, resided next to the 

 Bibroci, in a part of Berkshire and Oxfordshire. 

 They were one of the tribes which submitted to 

 Caesar. 



ATREUS, in fabulous history, son of Pelops and 

 Hippodamia. He and his brother Thyestes mur- 

 dered their half-brother Chrysippus, from jealousy 

 of the affection entertained for him by their fa- 

 ther. Thereupon, they fled to Eurystheus, with 

 whose daughter, ^rope, A. united himself, and, 

 after the death of his father-in-law, became king 

 of Mycene. Thyestes, yielding to an unlawful pas- 

 sion for the wife of his brother, dishonoured his 

 bed, and had two sons by her. A., after the dis- 

 covery of this injury, banished Thyestes, with his 

 sons. Thirsting for revenge, Thyestes conveyed 

 away secretly a son of his brother, and instigated him 

 to murder his own father. This design was dis- 

 covered, and the youth, whom A. thought to be the 

 son of his brother, was put to death. Too late did 

 the unhappy father perceive his mistake. A horrible 

 revenge was necessary to give him consolation. He 

 pretended to be reconciled to Thyestes, and invited 

 him, with his two sons, to a feast, and, after he had 

 caused the latter to be secretly slain, he placed a 

 dish made of their flesh before Thyestes, and, when 

 he had finished eating, brought the bones of his sons, 

 and showed him, with a scornful smile, the dreadful 

 revenge which he had taken. At this spectacle, the 

 poets say, the sun turned back in his course, in order 

 not to throw light upon such a horrible deed. 



ATRIDKS. See Agamemnon. 



ATRIP (trepor, Fr. ; trippen, Dutch) is applied in- 

 differently to the anchor or to the sails. The anchor 

 is atrip (derangee), when it is drawn out of the ground 

 in a perpendicular direction, either by the cable or 

 buoy-rope. The top-sails are said to \ye atrip, when 

 they are hoisted up to the mast-head, or to their 

 utmost extent. 



ATROPHY is a deficient nourishment of the body. 

 There are many diseases in which the body becomes 

 daily more lean and emaciated, appears deprived of 

 its common nourishment, and, for that reason, of its 

 common strength. It is only, therefore, in those 

 cases in which the emaciation constantly increases, 

 tliiit, it constitutes a peculiar disease ; for when it is 

 merely a symptom of other common diseases, it ceases 

 with the disease, as being merely a consequence of 

 great evacuations, or of the diminished usefulness or 

 imperfect digestion of the nourishment received. But, 

 when emaciation or atrophy constitutes a disease by 

 itself, it depends upon causes peculiar to this state 

 of the system. These causes are, permanent, op- 

 pressive, and exhausting passions, organic disease, a 

 want of proper food or of pure air, exhausting dis- 

 eases, as nervous or malignant fevers, suppurations in 

 important organs, as the lungs, the liver, &c. Copious 

 evacuations of blood, saliva, semen, &c., are also apt 

 to produce this disease, and, on this account, lying-in 

 women, and nurses who are of slender constitution, 

 and those who are too much addicted to venery, are 

 otu-n the subjects of this complaint. This state of the 



system is also sometimes produced by poisons, e. g M 

 arsenic, mercury, lead, in miners, painters, gilders, 

 &c. A species of atrophy takes place in old people, 

 in whom an entire loss of strength and flesh brings on 

 a termination of life without the occurrence of any 

 positive disorder. 1 1 is known as the marasmus senitis, 

 or atrophy of old people. Atrophy is of frequent 

 occurrence in infancy, as a consequence of improper, 

 unwholesome food, exposure to cold, damp, or impure 

 air, &c., producing a superabundance of mucus in the 

 bowels, worms, obstructions of the mesenteric glands, 

 followed by extreme emaciation, which state of things 

 is often fatal, although the efforts of the physician 

 are sometimes successful, when all the causes of the 

 disease have been previously removed. A loca' 

 state of the same kind is sometimes produced in sin 

 gie limbs, by palsies, or the pressure of tumours upon 

 the nerves of the limb, &c., and is generally curable, 

 by removing the cause. 



ATROPOS; one of the Fates, (q. v.) 



ATTACCA, Italian (attach), signifies, in music, that 

 a passage is to follow another immediately ; e. g., 

 attacca allegro. 



ATTACHMENT, in English law, implies the taking or 

 apprehending of a person by virtue of a writ or pre- 

 cept It is distinguished from an arrest by proceed- 

 ing out of a higher court by precept or writ ; whereas 

 the latter proceeds out of an inferior court by precept 

 only. An arrest lies only against the body of a man ; 

 whereas an attachment lies often against the goods 

 only, and sometimes against the body and goods. 

 Jn some countries, a creditor may previously attach 

 another person's property, real or personal, to satis- 

 fy the judgment lie may recover : in other states, 

 no such previous attachment can ordinarily be 

 made, and is permitted only in case of absconding 

 debtors, or other particularly excepted cases. And 

 the more general and prevailing rule throughout the 

 world is, that the property of a person can ne seized 

 only in pursuance of a judicial order or decree, made 

 upon testimony being produced, and the party heard ; 

 and between a creditor and debtor, the more general 

 and almost universal rule is, that the creditor cannot 

 seize the goods or property of his alleged debtor 

 until the debt is established by the proceedings of a 

 judicial tribunal. In regard to the person, attach- 

 ments or arrests are made for a variety of causes, 

 and among others, for debt. But, in respect to an 

 arrest of the person, as well as that of property, the 

 laws of most countries do not permit the person ot 

 any citizen to be seized and imprisoned without a 

 decree or judgment of a court directly authorizing 

 the arrest. But in some of the states of the Ame- 

 rican Union, a creditor to the amount of five dol 

 lars, or some other amount, greater or smaller, may ar- 

 rest his debtor, at the commencement of the process 

 against him, in order that the creditor may have his 

 body to levy execution upon, when the debt shall be 

 established by a judicial decree or judgment. But 

 attachment of the person for this cause is not per- 

 mitted by the laws of most countries, except in cases 

 of the apprehended absconding of the debtor ; this 

 being an exception to the rule most generally adopt- 

 ed, which is, that the creditor first establishes his 

 debt, and gets judgment and execution upon it, be- 

 fore he can use it as an instrument for violating the 

 personal liberty of his debtor. In cases of alleged 

 crime, the person of the accused party is seized, and 

 he is imprisoned, or compelled to give bail by the 

 laws of all countries; but he is most generally first 

 taken before a magistrate, and permitted to show 

 cause against being imprisoned, or required to give 

 bail. Another cause of attachment is, the defend- 

 ant's not appearing at court, after being sum moiled 

 by subpoena ten order of court prescribing a penalty 



