ABS 



ACA 



tailed by Koenig, in compliment to Ed- 

 ward Wheler, Esq. of the Supreme Coun- 

 cil in Bengal ; this is a shrub with a brown 

 bark, a native of the East Indies, and is 

 not known in Europe. There is but one 

 of the species known in Europe, which is 

 propagated with us by cuttings. The 

 plant requires a strong heat, and abun- 

 dance of water. The seeds rarely arrive 

 at a state fit for propagation. 



ABRUS, in botany, from a Greek word 

 signifying soft or delicate, so called from 

 the extreme tenderness of the leaves, is 

 a genus of the natural order of Legumino- 

 sx, and the seventeenth class of Diadel- 

 phia Decandria. There is one species, 

 viz. the Abrus precatorius. It grows na- 

 turally in both Indies, Guinea, and Egypt. 

 It is a perennial plant, rising to the height 

 of eight or ten feet. Its leaflets have the 

 taste of liquorice, whence it is called, in 

 the West Indies, Jamaica ivild liquorice, 

 and used for the same purpose. There 

 are two varieties, one with a white, and 

 the other with a yellow seed. The seeds 

 are commonly strung, and worn as orna- 

 ments in the countries where the plant 

 grows wild; and they are frequently 

 "brought to Europe from Guinea, and the 

 "East and West Indies, and wrought into 

 various forms with other hard seeds and 

 shells. They are also used for weighing 

 precious commodities, and strung asbeacls 

 for rosaries, whence the epithet precato- 

 rius. They are frequently thrown, with 

 other West India seeds, on the coast, of 

 Scotland. This plant was cultivated by 

 Bishop Compton. at Fulham, before 1680. 

 Jt is propagated by seeds, sown on a good 

 hot-bed in spring, and previously soaked 

 for twelve or fourteen hours in water. 

 When the plants are two inches, each of 

 them should be transplanted into a sepa- 

 rate pot of light earth, and plunged into 

 hot-beds of tanner's bark, and shaded 

 from the sun. They will flower the se- 

 cond year, and sometimes ripen their 

 seeds in England. 



ABSCESS, in medicine and surgery, 

 an inflammatory tumour, containing pu- 

 rulent ma;ter. See SURGERY. 



ABSCISSE, in conic sections, the part 

 of the diameter of a curve line intercept- 

 ed between the vertex of that diameter 

 am! the point where any ordinatf, or 

 semi-ordinate, to that diameter falls. 

 From this definition it is evident, that 

 there are an .nfinite number of variable 

 abscisses in the same curve, as well as an 

 infinite number of ordinates. 



In the parabola, one ordmate has but 

 one abscisse ; in an ellipsis, it has two ; in 



an hyperbola, consisting of two parts, it 

 has also two ; and in curves of the second 

 and third order, it may have three and 

 four. See CONIC SECTIONS. 



ABSCISSION, in rhetoric, a figure of 

 speech, whereby the speaker stops short 

 in the middle of his discourse : e. g. one 

 of her age and beauty, to be seen alone, 

 at such an hour, with a man of his cha- 

 racter. I need say no more. 



ABSINTHIUM. See ARTEMISIA. 



ABSORBENTS, in the materiamedica, 

 such medicines as have the power of dry- 

 ing up redundant humours, whether ap- 

 plied to ulcers, or taken inwardly. See 

 MATERIA MEDICA and PHARMACY. 



ABSORBENT vessels, in anatomy, are 

 those which take up any fluid from the 

 surface of the body, or of any cavity in it, 

 and carry it into the blood. They are de- 

 nominated according to the liquids which 

 they convey, as Lacteah, or Lymphatics , 

 the former conveying chyle, a milky 

 fluid, from the intestines ; the latter a 

 lymph, a thin pellucid liquor, from the 

 places whence they take their origin. 

 The lymphatics also take up any fluids 

 that are extravasated, and likewise sub- 

 stances rubbed on the skin, as mercury, 

 and convey them into the circulation. 



ABSTRACT idea, among logicians, the 

 idea of some general quality or property, 

 considered simply in itself, without any 

 respect to a particular subject: thus, mag- 

 nitude, equity, &c. are abstract ideas, 

 when we consider them as detached from 

 any particular body or person. Various 

 controversies have been maintained re- 

 specting the existence of abstract ideas; 

 but all these disputes seem to be merely 

 verbal. It is certainly impossible to pos- 

 sess an idea of an animal, which shall have 

 no precise colour, figure, magnitude, or 

 the like ; but it is an useful artifice of the 

 understanding, to leave these out in our 

 general reasonings. Thus it is that the 

 a, b, c, &c. of the algebraists are usefully 

 applied to denote numbers, though un- 

 doubtedly they are only general signs. 



ABUCCO, ABOCCO, or AROCCIII, a 

 weight used in the kingdom of Pegu. 



ABUNDAN T numbers, those whose 

 parts added together make more than the 

 whole number : thus, the aliquot parts of 

 20, viz. 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, make 22. 



ACACIA, in botany, a species of mi- 

 mosa. .See MIMOSA. 



ACACIA, in the materia medica of the 

 ancients, a gum made from the Egyptian 

 acacia-tree, and thought to be the same 

 with our gum arable. 



ACADEMICS, a sect of philosophers', 



