A B L 



«mintn« comprehended between the Black Sea and the 

 Cafpiaji. Their principal and moil ancient cllabhihments 

 are on the fouthcm declivity of the mountains that lie be- 

 tween the river Cuban and the Black Sea. Tliey are 

 tributary to the Turks, and are divided into two govern- 

 ments, the eaftern and wellem ; each of whicli is fubjeifl to 

 a bilhaw. The capit:d ia Anaeopia, formerly Nicopfis. 

 They fpcak a language peculiar to themfelves, but bearing 

 a remote affinity to that of tlie Circaffuins. Some have fup- 

 pofcd that it is a dialctl of the Celtic. They have little re- 

 ligion, though the)' prcferve fome traces of chriftianity. See 

 Abassa aiid AiiAsciA. 



ABLACTATION, the weaning of a child from the breaft. 

 The proper time for weaning a child muft be determined by 

 t3>e (late of health of the child, and of the parent, but par- 

 ticularly of the latter. The lielplefTnefs of infants, and the 

 late period at which they get their teeth, fecm to indicate 

 that mture intended they ihould derive the greater part of 

 their food, for the firft two years, from the breaft. This, 

 doubtlcfs, was univcrfally the cafe in the early periods of the 

 vorld ; as before the culinary- art had obtained fome degree 

 of pcrfeclion, it mullh.ivc b-'cn difficult to have found a fuf- 

 ficient quantity of fuch kinds of food as the children could 

 properly mallicate or digeft, without the affillance of the 

 treall. And even now we know this to be the pradlice in 

 rude and uncirihzed countries. The negroes, Mr. Park fays 

 in his Travels in the interior Parts of Africa, fuckle their 

 children three years. A fimilar practice prevails among 

 the poorer part of the inhabitants of this, and, perhaps, of 

 every other country in Europe. Thefe people alfo, pre- 

 vious to weaning their children, and for fome time after, 

 chew for them, fuch parts of their food as they are incapable 

 of mailicating. In families better circumftanced, and who 

 are capable of providing for their children proper nourifh- 

 ment, they are ufually weaned when they have attained 

 eight or nine months, although they have then rarely more 

 than the eight firft teeth, the incifores, or fore teeth. Tliey 

 are therefore neceffarily fed for fome months after with 

 bread or bifcuit foftened with milk, or with broth made of 

 beef, mutton, or veal. Pieces of cruft of bread, or of flefh, 

 ore alfo given them to chew, which is fuppofed not only to 

 accelerate the cutting the remainder of their teeth, but by 

 exciting a flow of faliva, to afhft in digefting the new kind 

 of food they are now gradually to be accullomed to take. 

 See Weanixg. 



Ablactation', in the jinc'ienl Agriculture, is a method 

 of engrafting ; wherein the cyon of one tree, being united 

 for fome time to the ftock of another, is afterwards cut off, 

 and, as it were, weaned from its mother-tree. 



Among the modsm writers ablaaation is more ufually called 

 INARCHING, or GRAFTING h approach. 



ACLANCOURT. See'PERROT. 



ABLANIA, m Botany. See Trichocarpus. 



ABLAQUEATION, a name ufed by the ancient 

 writers oi yl^ricullure for an operation in gardening,' whereby 

 the c?.rth is dug from about a vine, or other fruit-tree, and 

 Its roots are laid bare, to expofe them more to the fun, rain, 

 and air, in order to promote its fecundity.— The proper fea- 

 f on for ablaqueation is autumn, for the benefit of the winter 

 rain, and fnow waier. Bradley fixes it in January. But 

 experience having ftiewn the praftice to be dangerous, it is 

 now gener:\lly laid afide. 



ABLATION, formed from aufcro, to take away, in 

 Surgery the removal of whatever might be injurious or ufe- 

 leis to the animal body. 



ABLATIVE, in Grammar, the fixth cafe of Latin 

 nouns. The word is formed from aujero, to tale away. 



A B L 



Prifci.-vn alfo calls it the comparative cafe; as it ferved among 

 the Latins, for comparing, as well as taking away. 



The ABLATIVE is oppoiite to the Dative ; the firft ex- 

 prcfTing the adlion of taking away, and the latter that of 

 giving. 



The ablative hardly anfwers to the juft idea of a cafe ; at 

 leaft it is more vague than any other. It will be fliewn in 

 its place that the Enghfli, and other modern tongues, have 

 properly no fuch thing as cases ; unlefs we except the no- 

 minative and genitive or pofleffive, which are the only cafes 

 that admit of different terminations. But even in the ancient 

 languages, from which the notion of cafes is borrowed, it is 

 fuggelled, that the ablative is only a fort of fupcrnumerary, 

 or Hipplement to the reft. The five proper cafes not being 

 found fufficient to cxprefs all the relations of things to each 

 otlier, recourfe was had to an expedient : viz. the putting 

 a prepofition before fome of the other cafes; and this made 

 the ablative. 



It may be added, that in the plural number the ablative 

 is ftill more obfcure, as being only the dative repeated. In 

 EngliiTi, French, &c. there is no precife mark whereby to 

 diftinguilh the ablative from other cafes ; and we only ufe 

 the term in analogy to the Later. Thus, in the two phrafes, 

 the magnitude of the city, and he finke much of the city; we 

 fay, that of the city in the firft is genitive, and in the latter 

 ablative : becaufe it would be fo, if the two phrafes were ex- 

 pretfed in Latin. 



The queftion concerning the Greek ablative has been the 

 fubjeft of a famous literary war between two great gram- 

 marians Frifchlin and Cnifius ; the former of whom main- 

 tained, and the latter oppofed the reality of it. 



The difpute is not yet decided. Sanclius, and the 

 Port-royalifts, maintained the afSi-mative ; Perizonius the 

 negative. The chief reafon alleged by Sanftius is, that 

 the Roman writers often joined Greek words with the Latin 

 prepofitions, which govern ablative cafes, as well as with 

 nouns of the faine cafe. To which Perizonius anfvs'ers, that 

 the Latins anciently had no ablative themfelves ; but inftead 

 thereof, made ufe, like the Greeks, of the dative cafe ; till 

 at length they formed an ablative, governed by prepofitions, 

 which were not put before the dative : that, at firft, the two 

 cafes had always the fame termination, as they ilill have in 

 many inftances : but that this was afterwards changed in 

 certain words. It is no wonder then, that the Latins fome- 

 times join prepofitions which govern an ablative cafe, or 

 nouns in the ablative cafe, with Greek datives, fince they 

 were originally the fame ; and that the Greek dative has the 

 fame effect as the Latin ablative. See Cases. 



Ablative Absolute, in Grammar, is aword or phrafe 

 detached and independent of the reft of the difcourfe ; nei- 

 ther governing, nor being governed of any other thing. 

 This is frequent among the Latins ; in imitation of whom 

 the modern languages have likewife adopted it. 



ABLAY, in Geography, a country in Great Tartary, 

 the inliabitants of wliich, called Buchars or Bachares, are 

 fubjecl to Ruffia, for the fake of obtaining its proteftion, 

 but their chief is a Calmuck. It lies' eaft of the river Irtis, 

 and extends 500 leagues along the fouthern frontiers of Sibe- 

 ria. E. long, from 72° to 83°. N. lat. from 51° to 54°. 



ABLE, or Abel, Thomas, in Biography, chaplain to 

 queen Catharine, confort of king Henry VIII., who diftin- 

 guifhed himfelf by his zeal in oppofing the proceedings of the 

 king, and particularly the divorce of his royal miftrefs. For 

 this purpofe he wrote a treatife, intitled, TraSatus de non dif- 

 fohendo Henrici Jif Catherime Matrimonlo, or, according to 

 Tanner, Invida Veritas; though fome fuppofe thefe are the 

 tides of different works. He took his degree of A. B. at 

 I Oxford 



