ACT 



ADA 



went, by which an action is given tnat did 

 not lie before ; as where a person com- 

 mits perjury to the prejudice of another, 

 the injured party shall have an action up- 

 on the statute. And Ksily, popular ac- 

 tions, so called, because any person may 

 bring them on behalf of himself and the 

 crown, by information, &c. for the breach 

 of some penal statute. 



Civil actions are divided into real, per- 

 sonal, and mixed. 



Real action, is that whereby a man 

 claims a title, lands, tenements, &.C. in fee, 

 or for life, and this action is either posses- 

 sory, or ancestral ; possessory, where the 

 lands are a person's own possession or 

 seisin ; ancestral, when they were of the 

 possession or seisin of his ancestors. 



Personal action, is one brought by one 

 man against another, upon any contract 

 for money or goods, or on account of tres- 

 pass, or other offence committed ; and 

 thereby the debt, goods, chattels, &c. 

 claimed. 



Mixt action, one lying as well for the 

 thing demanded as against the person who 

 has it; and on which the thing is recover- 

 ed, with damages for the wrong sustained; 

 such is an action of waste, sued against a 

 tenant for life, the place wasted being re- 

 coverable, with treble damages for the 

 wrong done. 



ACTS of parliament, statutes, acts, 

 edicts, made by the king, with the advice 

 and consent of the lords spiritual and tem- 

 poral, and commons, in parliament assem- 

 bled. An act of parliament is the highest 

 possible authority, and hath power to bind 

 not only every subject, but the king him- 

 self, if particularly named therein, and 

 cannot be altered or repealed but by the 

 same authority Where the common law 

 and the statute law differ, the common 

 law gives place to the statute, and an old 

 statute gives place to a new one. Penal 

 statutes must be construed strictly; thus 

 a statute of Edw. I having enacted, that 

 those convicted of stealing horses should 

 not have the benefit of clergy, the judges 

 conceived that this did not extend to him 

 that should steal but one horse, and a new 

 act for that purpose was passed in the fol- 

 lowing year. Statutes against frauds are 

 to be liberally and beneficially expounded. 

 One part of a statute must be construed 

 by another, that the whole may, if possi- 

 ble, stand; a saving clause totally repug- 

 nant to the body of the act. If a statute 

 that repeals another is itself repealed af- 

 terwards, the first statute is hereby re- 

 vived. Acts of parliament derogatory 

 from the power of subsequent parliaments 



bind not. Acts of parliament, that are 

 impossible to be performed, are of no va- 

 lidity. 



ACULEATE, or ACULEATED, an ap- 

 pellation given to any thing that has acu- 

 lei, or prickles : thus fishes are divided 

 into those with aculeated and not aculeat- 

 edh'ns. 



The same term is applied, in botany, to 

 the stems and branches of those plants 

 that are furnished with prickles, as the 

 rose, the raspberry, and barberry trees. 

 The prickle differs from the thorn, which 

 is another species of armature, or defence, 

 against animals, in being only a prolonga- 

 tion of the cortex or outer bark of the 

 plant, and not connected with nor protrud- 

 ed from the wood. This is apparent, 

 from the ease with which such prickles 

 are detached from the stem with the bark, 

 while the other and more rigid species of 

 weapon, being an expansion of the ligne- 

 ous body, cannot be detached, without ren- 

 dering and tearing the substance of the 

 wood. Prickles are either straight, as in 

 the solanum indicum ; or bent inwards, as 

 in the mimosa cineraria; or bent outwards; 

 or downy, that is, covered with a sort of 

 wool. See TOMKNTUM. 



ACUMINATE, in natural history, a 

 term applied to fishes whose tails end in a 

 sharp point. 



AD, a Latin preposition, expressing the 

 relation of one thing to another. 



It is frequently prefixed to other words: 

 thus, 



AD hominem, among logicians, an argu- 

 ment drawn from the professed belief or 

 principles of those with whom we argue. 



AD valorem, among the officers of the 

 king's revenue, a term used for such du- 

 ties, or customs, as are paid according to 

 the value of the goods sworn to by the 

 owner. 



ADAGIO, in music, signifies the second 

 degree of music from slow to quick. It 

 is applied to music not only meant to be 

 performed in slow time,but also with grace 

 and embellishment. 



ADAMANTINE spar, in mineralogy, 

 one of the species of the ruby family, 

 found only in China. Colour dark, hair 

 brown. Massive, crystallized in six-sided 

 prisms, and six-sided pyramids, having 

 their apex truncated. Specific gravity 

 3.98. See RUBY. 



ADAMBEA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Polyandria Monogynia class and order, 

 of which there is but a single species, 

 which grows on the coast of Malabar, in 

 sandy and stony places ; rises to about 

 seven feet,and sends forth branches, which 



