A C C 



A C I 



vided into two families, the diurnal and 

 the nocturnal. 



ACCI'PITRINE. Belonging to the order 

 Accipitres ; rapacious. 



ACCLI'MATED. {acclimate, Fr.) Accus- 

 tomed to a climate not natural to it. 



ACCLIMA'TION. Naturalization to foreign 

 climate. 



ACCLIMATIZE, (acclimater, Fr.) To ac- 

 custom to foreign climate ; to accustom 

 to the temperature of a new climate. A 

 term applied both to persons and things ; 

 to animals and plants. 



ACCRE'TION. (accretio, Lat.) Increase, or 

 growth, by the accession of new parts. 

 Bacon says, plants do nourish ; inanimate 

 bodies do not ; they have an accretion, 

 but no alimentation. 



ACCRE'TIVE. Increasing, or growing, by 

 the accession of new parts. 



ACE'PHALA. (a, priv. and Kt^aX?}, the 

 head, Gr.) 



1. A class of animals not having any head, 

 but merely a mouth, concealed between 

 the folds of their mantle ; the mouth is 

 always edentated: the oyster furnishes an 

 example. All the acephala are aquatic. 



2. In entomology, an order of insects. 

 ACE'PHALOUS. (acephale, Fr. afce0aXoCj 



Gr.) Headless ; this term was given by 

 Cuvier to animals not having any head. 



ACE'RB. (acerbus, Lat. acerbe, Fr. acerbo, 

 It.) Acid with an addition of roughness : 

 the taste of an unripe sloe is a familiar 

 and good illustration. 



ACE'RBITY. (acerbitas, Lat. acerbite, Fr.) 

 Sourness combined with roughness of 

 taste. 



ACERO'SE. ) (acerosus, Lat.) 



A'CEROUS. 5 1. Chaffy; branny. 



2. In botany, leaves linear, needle-shaped, 

 every where of an equal breadth, mostly 

 acute, and rigid. 



ACE'SCENT. (ascescens, Lat. acescent, Fr.) 

 That has a tendency to become sour spon- 

 taneously, or by spontaneous decomposi- 

 tion. 



ACETA'BDLUM. (Lat.) 



1. A cavity in a bone formed for receiving 

 the head of another bone, and thus named 

 from its cup-like shape ; it is more parti- 

 cularly used for expressing the cavity in 

 the os innominatum, which receives the 

 head of the femur, or thigh-bone. 



2. In botany it is used for the cotyledon. 

 ACE'TARY. (from acetum, Lat.) An acid 



pulpy substance found in some fruits, es- 

 pecially the pear, surrounding the core ; 

 it is enclosed in a congeries of small cal- 

 culous bodies towards the base of the 

 fruit. 



A'CETATE. Any salt formed by the union 

 of acetic acid with a salifiable base, as 

 acetate of iron, acetate of potash, &c. 

 The acetates are all soluble in water ; 



many of them are deliquescent, and crys- 

 tallizable with difficulty: they are de- 

 composed by the sulphuric acid. 



A'CETITE. The old name for what is now 

 called acetate. 



ACHA'TES. (ax' r ?> Gr.) The agate. 



ACEUS. Terminations in aceus and iciug, 

 express a resemblance to a material ; those 

 in eus indicate the material itself; as 

 membranaceous, resembling skin ; mem- 

 braneous, skin itself. 



ACHA'NIA. (from a^avriQ, Gr. ab a, priv. 

 et xatvw.) In botany, plants whose co- 

 rolla does not open. Order Polyandria, 

 class Monodelphia ; natural order Colum- 

 niferae. 



ACHE'NIUM. (from a^drri, Gr.) A sort 

 of fruit. 



A'CHIRITE. Emerald malachite. 



ACI'CULA. (Lat.) A prickle or fine spine. 



ACI'CULAR. In the shape of a needle : 

 rocks of granite having sharp, needle-like, 

 summits, are thus named. 



ACI'CULARLY. Needle-like. 



ACID, (acidum, Lat. acide, Fr.) The word 

 acid, originally synonymous with sour, 

 and applied only to bodies distinguished 

 by that taste, has been gradually extended 

 in its signification, and now comprehends 

 all substances possessed of the following 

 properties : 



1 . When applied to the tongue, they ex- 

 cite that sensation which is called sour- 

 ness. 



2. They change the blue colours of vege- 

 tables to a red. 



3. They unite with water in almost any 

 proportion, with a condensation of volume, 

 and evolution of heat. 



4. They combine with all the alkalies, 

 producing effervescence during the com- 

 bination, and with most of the metallic 

 oxides and earths, and form with them those 

 compounds which are called salts. 



The acids terminating in ous produce 

 compounds to which the termination ite 

 is given, as, e. g. the combination of sul- 

 phurous acid and potassa is a sulphite of 

 potassa ; the acids ending in ic form 

 compounds to which the termination ate 

 is applied ; the combination of sulphuric 

 acid and potassa is a sulphate of potassa. 



ACIDI'FEROUS. Containing acid. 



ACI'DIFIABLE. Any substance capable of 

 being converted into an acid, by the union 

 of an acidifying principle, without decom- 

 position. 



ACI'DULOUS. (acidulus, Lat.) Slightly 

 acid ; sub-acid ; sourish. 



ACINA'CIFORM. (from acinaces and forma, 

 Lat.) Cimeter shaped; a term applied 

 to leaves, one edge of which is straight 

 and thick, the other curved and thin. 



A'CINI. Granulations ; compound berries. 

 The plural of acinus. 



