AGO 



AGO 



may be rerroTed to the places where they are to remain. 



The ftulks (liould be cut down in autumn, after tlitv have 

 done flowering. The common monk's-hood will grow un- 

 der the (liade of trees, and increafe by means of its creeping 

 roots. The other forts may be propagated in the fame 

 vmy ; but they will not thrive under the drip of trees, tliough 

 they di light in fliade. 



^in/ifies. Molt of the fpecies of aconite have been 

 deemed poifonous. The autients were fo furprifcd at their 

 pernicious cfTefts, that they were afraid to touch the plants ; 

 and hence fprung many fuperllitious precautious about the 

 manner of gathering them. Thcophriftus relates that there 

 was a mode of preparing the aconite in his d lys, fo that it 

 fhould only dedroy at the end of one or two years. But 

 fome have qutftioned whether the aconite of Theophraftus, 

 Diofcorides, Pliny, and other antient writers be the fame 

 with ours, ov (hould be referred to the genus of Ranunculus. 

 Vid. Reinhold, DiflT. §. !. It is confidently affirmed, that 

 the huntfmen on the Alps, who hunt the wolves and other 

 wild animals, dip their :utows into the juice of thefe plants, 

 which renders the wounds occafioned by them mortal. A 

 decoftion ct the roots has been ufed to kill bugs ; and the 

 powder difguifed in bread or fome other palatable vehicle 

 has been employed to deftroy rats and mice. The A. 

 napellus, or common monk's-hood has been long known as 

 one of the moft virulent of all vegetable poifons. Lin- 

 naeus fays, that it is fatal to fvvine and goats, but does no 

 injury to horfes who eat it dry. He alfo informs us from 

 the Stockholm afts, that an ignorant furgeon died in con- 

 fequence of taking the frcfh leaves, wliich he prefcribed to a 

 patient. The effluvia of the herb in full flower have pro- 

 duced fwooning fits and a temporary lofs of fight." The 

 leaves and flioots of this plant, ufed as falad inftead of ce- 

 lery, have proved fatal in icveral inftances. But the moft 

 powerful part of the plant is the root. Matthiolus relates 

 that it was given by way of experiment to four condemned 

 criminals, two at Rome in 1524, and two at Prague in 

 1 56 1, two of whom foon died, and the other two, with 

 great difficidty, were recovered. The juice applied to the 

 wound of a finger, not only produced pain in the arm and 

 hand, but cardialgia, anxiety, fenfe of fuffocation, fyn- 

 cope, &c. and the wounded part fphacelated before it 

 came to fuppuration. Dodonxus fays, that five perfons at 

 Antwerp died in confequence of eating it by millake. The 

 effefts of this plant are convullions, giddinefs, infanity, 

 violent evacuations, both upwards and downwards, faint- 

 jngs, cold fweat, and even death itfelf. Neverthelefs it has 

 been ufed for medicinal purpefes. The Indians are faid to 

 afe acomts, correifled in cow's urine, with good fucccfs 

 againll fevers. There is one fpecies of it which has been 

 deemed an antidote, tothofe that ?.re poifonous, called antliorn, 

 and thofe that are poifonous are called thora. The talle 

 of the root of the fpecies denominated anthora, is fweet, 

 with a mixture of bitternefs and acrimony, and the fmell is 

 pleafant. It purges violently when frefh, but lofes its qua- 

 lities when dried. This is poifonous as well as the others, 

 though in a flighter dc»:;ree, and is difufed in the prefcnt 

 practice. The firft perfon wha ventured to introduce the 

 common monk's-hood into medicine was Dr. Stoerck ; 

 though it has been fuppoftd by Haller and Bergius from 

 the tafte and figure of the plant which he ufed, that it was 

 ■not the nnpellus but the A. fi7n2;«ffr«?n, which much refembles 

 it. But others have fince maintained, that Stotrck's plant 

 was the A. napdlusi. He found that the extrad't given to 

 the quantity of 10, 20, and even 30 grains, excited a 

 fweat without inconvenience, and by periilling in the ufe of 

 it, great relief v/as obtained in fixed rheuin;itic and arthritic 



pains, fcirrhons glandular tumors, vcntrcal nodes, an. 

 ehylofcs, amaurofis, and other fimilar complaints. Other 

 practitioners, after the publication of Stoerck's Extrafts in 

 1 762, have experienced the fame good cffcrts in fome de- 

 gree, and the Edinburgh college has received the extraft as 

 an officinal. In this, as in all the other medicines of fufpi- 

 cious and dangerous properties, it is mod expedient to be- 

 gin with very fmall dofes, and increafe them as they can be 

 borne'. Stoerck recommends two grains of the txtraft to 

 be rubbed into a powder, with two drams of fugar, and to 

 begin with lograinsof this powder two or three times a diy. 

 The extraft is often given from one grain to ten for a dufc ; 

 and fome have confiderably increafed the quantity. Inilead of 

 the extraft a tinflure has been made of the dried leaves, 

 macerated in fix times their weight of fpirits of wine, and 

 40 drops given for a dofe. Martyn's, Miller's Did. Lewis's 

 Mat. Med. 1784. Woodville's Med. Dot. vol. i. p. 19. 

 Murray's Appar. Med. vol. iii. p. 6. &c. 



ACONTiA, in Anl'ient Geography, a town of Spain, 

 which Strabo (Tom. 2. p. 228.) places near the Durius, and 

 calls a city of the Vaccxi. 



ACONTI AS, a name ufed, by fome authors, for a fort 

 of COMET, or METEOR, wliofe head appears round or ob- 

 long, and its tail very long and llender, rcfembhng a ja- 

 velin. 



It takes its dcnoniiiiatlon from a ferpent thus called, fre- 

 quent in Calabria and Sicily ; where it is alfo named y?;f//c7!« 

 ({10m fiigitta, tin arrow) by reafon of its flying at palVen- 

 gers like an arrow ; in order to which, it winds itfelf up a 

 tree, to fpring thence with the greater rioleiicc. For the 

 like reafon the Greeks call it acoiilias, of uKoy'ho/, a Jurl, or 

 arro'iu. 



It differs from the xiphias, in that it is longer, and 

 more like a dart ; and the other is (horter and broader in the 

 middle. 



AcoNTiAS, in Zoology, the name of the Anguis ya- 

 cu/t/s, a fpecies of ferpent, called alfo Jaculum, or the 

 dart-fnake, from its manner of vibrating its body in the 

 manner of a dart. Bellonius found one of thefe in the 

 ifland of Rhodes, which he defcribcd in this manner : it is 

 about three hands-breadth long, and the thieknefs of one's 

 httle finger ; its colour is a milky grey on the back, variegat- 

 ed with fmall black fpots, like io many eyes ; and on the 

 belly it is perfectly white ; the neck is wholly black, and 

 from that two milk-white ftr;ams run all the way along the 

 back to the tail ; the black fpots alfo are each furrounded 

 with a fmall circle of white. It is found in Egypt and 

 Lybia, and in the iflands of the Mediterranean. It is alfo 

 called cetichreas and cinchriles. Ray. 



ACONTISMA, in Antunt Geography, a city of Mace- 

 donia, between the StiTmon and Neflus. 



ACONTIUM, in Ancient IFrhers, a kind of Grecian 

 dart, or javelin, fomewhat refembling the Reman piLUM. 



ACONTIUS, or AcoN7.io, James, in Biography, a ce- 

 lebrated philofopher, cirilian and divine, born at Trent in 

 the 1 6th century. He embraced the protcllant religion, 

 and was favourably received in England by queen Eliza- 

 beth, who granted him a penfion as an engineer, which he 

 refpeftfully acknowledges in the dedication of his well-known 

 work, " The Stratagems of Satan." This trcatii'e was 

 firft printed at Bafil in 1565 ; and the author died in 

 England. Another edition of it was piibliflud in the fame 

 city by James Graflenis in 1610; at Ainllerdam in 1674, 

 and a French tranflation was publilhcd in 1610, and reprint- 

 ed at Delft in 1624; in the above edition is inferted Acon- 

 liiis's letter to Wolfius, " De ratione edendorum librorum," 

 containing excellent advice to authors. He wrote alfo a 



ireatifc 



