A C C 



When tliefe mufcles aft, they generally contrary in a -fudden 

 and convulfive maimer, and hy this meiuis expel in jels tlie 

 lad portions of urine, or any other fluid whieh may be con- 

 tained in the urethra. 



ACCENDENTES, or accensors, in Ecclcfiqflircil 

 lurilers, a lower order of iniiiillers in the church of" Rome, 

 ivhofc office is to hght, fnuft, and trim the candles or tapers. 

 Spelman. 



The accendenles are much the fame with tliofo otlierwife 

 called acoly'.hi and arofernri't. 



ACCENDONES, orAccEDO»Es, m Roman Antiquity, 

 a kind of GLADIATORS, whole office was to excite and ani- 

 mate the comb.\tants, during the engagement. 



ACCENSI, in Ant'iqu'tty, an inferior order of officei-s, 

 appointed to attend the Roman magi Urates, fomewhat in 

 the manner of urtiers, ferj;ants, or tlp-flaves, among us. 

 They were thus called from acari, to fend for : one part of 

 th-'ir office being to call afTemblies of the people, fummon 

 parties to appear before the judges, &c. 



AcCENSi alio denote a k:-id of fupernumerary foldiers in 

 the Roman armies ; whofe office was to attend the motions 

 of their principals, and fupply the places of thofe who were 

 killed or difabled by their wounds. 



Tiiey were thus denominated quia accetfebantur, or ad 

 tfnfum adjickbar.lur : Vegetius calls them fupernumtrar'n 

 legUinum : Cato calls them frentarii, becnufe they furnilhed 

 thofi^ engaged in battle with weapons, drink, &c. Thoflgh 

 Nonnius fuggefts another reafon of that appellation, viz. 

 becaufe they fought with ftones, (lings, and weapons, qiix 

 f^riunfur, fuch as are thrown, not carried in the hand. They 

 were fometimes alfo called v^l'iles, and •veltil':, becaufe they 

 fought clothed, but not m armour ; fometimes adfriptitii 

 zni adfcriptivi ; fometimes rorarii. The accenji, Livy ob- 

 fervcs, were placed in the rear of the army, becaufe no 

 great matter was expefted from them : they were taken 

 out of the fifth clafs of citizens. Feilus in voc. Ferentarii. 

 Salmaf. de Re Milit. Rom. c. ly. 



Ace EN SI was alfo an appellation given to a kind of ad- 

 jutants, appointed by the tribune to aflift each centurion and 

 decurion. In which fenfe, accenfus is fynonymous with 

 optio. — In an ancient infcription, given by a Torre, we meet 

 with ACCENSus EQ^MTUM ROMANORUM ; an office no- 

 where elfe heard of ; that author fufpefts it for a corrup- 

 tion, and inftead thereof reads a censibus. A.&.. Erud. 

 Leipf. 1701. p. 2^9. 



ACCENSION, AccENsio, in Phvfa, the acl of kind- 

 ling, or fetting a body on lire. 



The word is formed of the Latin <7i.\v7.'.'/crc, to k'mdle ; a 

 compound of ad, to ; and candere, to glow. Though fome 

 grammarians fufpeA the primitivf ligniiieation of accendcrs, 

 to have been, to render fimoiis. 



Accenfion, on other occafions, is called i>jplammation, 



IGNTnO><, CONFLAGRATIOM, &C. 



Accenfion ilands oppofed to extin-ctiom. 



Chemills furnilh uj with various inilimces of the accnficn 

 o£ cold liquors by bare mixtion : as of the acid (pints of 

 ■minerals, aijd the cfftutial oils of plants. 



ACCENT, iu its primitive fenfe, an aff^dion of the 

 voice, which gives each fyllable in a word its due pitch, in 

 refpecl of height or lownels. 



The word is originally Latin, accentus,7i compound of ad, 

 to, and cano, to /ing. In this fenfe, accent is lynonymous 

 with the Greek roro;, the Latin tenor, or lonor, and the 

 Hebrew DyQ g''f"'t 'l/i'- 



The accent, proper! v, only refpefts high and low, or 

 acute and grave. — Though the modern grammarians ufe 



Vol, I. 



A C C 



it alfo in refpecl to loud and foft, long and iTiorl ; but thii 

 confounds accent with (juantily. 



rile difference between the two may be conceived from 

 that which we obferve between the beat of a drum, and the 

 found of a trumpet ; the former exprcfTcs every thine; be- 

 longing to loud and foft, and long and (hort j but fo long 

 as there is a monotony in the found, there '\i nothing like 

 accent. 



The ingenious Mr. Harris (Philological InquirieR, p. 64.) 

 compares quantity to mufieal tones differing in long and 

 Ihort, as upon whatever line they lland a fcmihicve differ* 

 from a minim ; and accent to mufical tones dilftring in high 

 and low, as D upon the third line differs from G upon iTie 

 firll, whether its length be the fame, or it be longer or 

 flio- ' :r. 



Accent is alfoufcd in Grammar for a charaftcr placed 

 over a fyllable, to mark the accent, i. e. to (liow that it 

 is to be pronounced in a liigher or a lower tone, and to re- 

 gulatc the infle'lions of the voice in reading or in fpcaking. 

 It is diitinguilhed from emplnfis, as tlie fonner regards the 

 tone of the voice, the latter the llrength of it. tor other 

 dilUnefioiis between accent and emphafis, fee Emphasis. 



It has been long difputed among the leanad, whether 

 accents were originally mufical characters, or marks of 

 PROSODY : it is not cafy to detennine a qucftion con- 

 cerning which the arguments on both fides are fo numerous. 

 But as mulic, fays Dr. I5urney, ( Hiil. of Mufic, vol. i. p. 13. ) 

 had characters different from accents fo eariv as the time of 

 Terpandcr, to whom the invention is afcribed by the Ox- 

 ford marbles, which place this event about 670 years before 

 Chritt ; and as accents for profody are likewife proved to 

 be of higli antiquity, there feems to have been no necetnty 

 for the antients to ufe the one for the other. Mr. Welt 

 (Piiid;ir, vol. ii. p. 194, limo.) maintains, that accents 

 were originally mulical notes, fet over words, to dircft the 

 feveral tones and inflexions of the voice rcquifite to give 

 the whole fentence its proper harmony and cadence. Th<r 

 names cf the Greek accents, he fays, exprefs their mufieal 

 origin, and correfpond exactly to thofe teniis made ufe of 

 in our modern mufic ; viz. (harp, flat, and a grave, called 

 the turn, and conGfting, like the circumllex, of a fliarp and 

 a flat note. The Abbe du Bos (Reflex. Crit.i. iii. p. 85.) 

 afl^rts, that as poets originally fet their own vei-fes, they 

 placed for this purpofe a figure, or accent, over each fyl- 

 lable. The learned author of " The Origin and Pvogref^ 

 of Language," has alfo taken pains to prove that the 

 Gre.'k accents were muiieal notes, invented and accommi - 

 dated to ralfe, deprefs, and fuipend the voice, according to 

 a fcale of mufical proportions. 



We reckon three gnunmatieal accents in ordinary ufe 

 all borrowed from the Greeks, viz. the acute, frjtr, and 

 ciratmflex, .,•>,,, 



'i iie acute accent fhows when the tone of the Voice is to 

 be raifed and ihar])encd. In modern writings it i> a fma'l 

 lino, or virgula, placed over tlie vowel, a little Hoping or 

 inclined in its defcent froni right to left, as ('). It ii not 

 ordinarily uled cither in Englilh or Latin : tiie French in- 

 deed retain it ; but it is only to marktheclofeormifculine .'•. 

 "Wii gnmc accent is uled when the note or tone of the voice 

 is to be deprcffed and flattened ; and is figured thus ('). 



The circumfles accent is compoted of both the acut^.' anj 

 grave ; it points out a kind of undulation of the voice, 

 whicii is firfl raifed and fliarpened, and then deprclfed and 

 flattened ; or it is an acute tone dying away into a gi-ave, 

 3!id conlequcntly lengthening the fyllable. It is exprclled 

 thus (~) or (*). Upon a nearer conlidwation of the fub- 



