A C U 



dicrs. Tliefc aifled as a kind of brokers with the foldiers ; 

 made barjrains with them for recciviiisr their pa\- before it 

 became due ; for which there were fixed rates. Aquin. Pitifc. 

 and Dii-Cange. 



AcTUARius was iilfo a title of dignity, in the court of 

 Conftaiitinople, pecuhur to phylician'5. Du-Cange. 



From ail appellative, the word has become a proper name 

 of a Celebrated Greek phyfician, on being appointed phy- 

 fician to the court of Conilantinople, whofe name was John, 

 and who was the fon of Zachaiy, a Chriilian writer. He 

 is faid, by fome, to have lived .nboiit the year 1300 ; though 

 others refer liim to the year iioo. He is faid tobetheilrft 

 Greek author, who has treated of mild purgatives, fuch as 

 manna, caflia, fena, and Myrobolan?, which were long 

 before in ufe .imong the Arabians, and to iinve introduced 

 them into the pniClicc of phylic. He is alfo the firft author 

 that mentions dillilled waters. His works, of which Friend 

 gives a favourable opinion, are compiled, principally, from 

 Galen, jEtius, and Paulus ^.gineta. They were originally 

 written in Greek, and have been tranflated into Latin, and 

 publifhed, forac of them accompanied with the Greek text, 

 I'hey are as follow : i. De mtdicamentorum compofitioiie. 

 Paris, 1539, izmo. republiflied at Hall, by Gcfner, 1540; 

 and with the Greek, 1546. 2. Methodi medendi, libri i'ex. 

 Ven. 1554, 4to. Paris, 1516, 8vo. with the reft of his 

 works. 3. De aftionibus ct afTcftibus fpiritus animahs, 

 ejufque nutritione, libri duo, 1547, 8vo. Venet. 4. De 

 Urinis, hbri feptem. Paris, 1548. Fab. Bibl. Grseca, torn. 

 xii. p. 635. 



AcTUARius, or Actuary, alfo means the clerk who re- 

 giilered the ads and conftitutions of the convocation. 



ACTUATE, to bring into aft, or put a thing in aftion. 

 Thus an agent is faid, by the fchoolmen, to aftuate a power, 



when it produces an aft in a fubjea Thus the mind may 



be faid to atluate the body. And thus a medicine, &c. is 

 fuid by fome ancient phyficians, to be aHualcd, when, by 

 means of the vital heat, it is made to produce its effeft. 



ACTUS, in the /tnaent A^ncnlture, the length of one 

 furrow ; or as far as a plough goes before it turns. Plin. 

 lib. xviii. cap. 3. torn. ii. p. 97. Ed. Hard. 



In Englifh it may be rendered by a furlong. — It is alfo 

 ufed by Vitruvius as a determinate meafure, containing 120 

 Roman feet. 



Actus m/H/mr/j-, was T20 feet in length, and four in 

 breadth; being equal to the sextans, or fixth part of the 

 juc.eri;m, or integer. 



Actus major, called alfo a?lus quadrat us, was the fquare 

 of 120 feet, or 14,400, being the /mw, orhalf of the juge- 

 RUM. — This was alio denominated moilhis, and nuna. Varro 

 de Re Ruft. lib. i. cap. 10. 



Actus lutervicaiaUs, a fpace of ground four feet in 

 breadth, left between the lands as a path, er way. 



ACUANITES, Acuanit;f,, \\\ Ecckjwfical H'iJlory,?,x^ 

 thofe called more frequently Manichees. They took the 

 name from Acua, a difciple of Thomas, one of the twelve 

 apoIHes. Bib. Univ. torn. xxv. p. 330. 



ACUBA, in Botany, is a tree of St. Domingo, which 

 rifes to a great height, and yields an excellent fruit. The 

 fruit is a kind of fig, refembling in tafte the mufcada pear, 

 but fo hard that it muft be foftencd in water before it can 

 be ufed. The wood is the hardcft of any in the ifland. 

 M. de Lam.arck (Encyelopedie, vol. vi. 'p. 39.) appre- 

 hends, that it is a fpecies of Chrysophollum, and the 

 fame which is called Au^uba, and according to Plumier deno- 

 minated Acomas. 



AcuB A, iu Ancient Geography, a fountain or kke of Africa, 

 in the Syrtis. 



A C U 



ACUBENE, in Jfror.omy, a name given by fome to 

 a ttar of the fourth m.igiiitude, in the foutiiern claw of Can- 

 cer, marked a by Bayer. 



ACUFIDA, in yliu-iait Geography, a town of Africa, ia 

 Mauritania. 



ACUHYATLI, in Zoology, the name of a large fer- 

 pent, of a poifor.ous quaUty, in America, more ufually 

 known by its name of cucurucu, or curucuca. 



ACUITION, in Grammar, Profody, and Medicine. See 



AcUTlTION". 



ACUL, in Geography, a fmall port on the north coaft of 

 the ifland of St. Domingo. 



ACULEATED, a tei-m applied to a plant or animal 

 that hf'.s ACULEi, or prickles. 



Naturaliib divide fidies into thofe with actdealed, and 

 non-acuhafcd fins. Phil. Tranf. N^ 204. 



AcULEATED /.cey'i SccLeAF. 



ACULEATUS longns, in Ichthyology, a name given by 

 fome to the pugnitius marhnis longns, a fmall prickly 

 Weft-India fifti. Wilhighby. See Stickle-back. 



ACULEI, formed from acus, a needle, among Ro'.amjli^ 

 &c. denote the prickks or fpines of plants of the thorny 

 kind. 



Among Zooliglfs, aculeus is alfo ufed for the iling of a 

 bee, fcorpion, or the like. See Sting. 



The word aculeus is alfo ufed for certain parts of the 

 Echini marlnl. 



AcvLV.1 pinnarum. See Pinn.ie. 



ACULEOSA, aT^7\me oi xhc carduus poljacanthos. See 

 Gortfria. 



ACULER, in the Manege, is ufed for the motion of a. 

 horfe, when in v.'orkiiig upon volts he does not go far 

 enough forward, at every motion, fo that his llioulders cm- 

 brace or take in too little ground, and his croup comes too 

 near the centre of the volt. Horfes are naturally inclined to 

 this fault iii making demi-volts. 



ACUMANTI8 Mons, in Jnelent Geography, a moun- 

 tain of Cyprus, fituate to the fouth of the promontory of 

 Acamas. See Acamantis. 



ACUMEN, o«i/1n?, in the Ancient Mufic, was ufed to- 

 fignify a found produced by the intention, or raifing of the 

 voice. 



Acumen differs from Intention, as the ejfecl from the caiife. 

 Ariftoxen. p. 10, &c. Ed. Meibom. 



ACUMINA, among the Ancients, denoted a kind of mi- 

 litary omen, or aufpice, fuppofed to have been taken from 

 the points of edges or darts, javelins, fwords, or other wea- 

 pons, viz. by examining whether they were bright or folid,, 

 Iharp or blunted. 



ACUMINATED Leaf. See Leaf. 



ACUMINCUM, in Ancient Geography, a town of Lower 

 Pannonia, called by Ammianus Marcellinus Acunincum, 

 and fuppofed to be the fame vvilh Acnniim on the Danube. 



ACUML^LO, in Geography; a fmall place in the pro- 

 vince of Abruzzo, in Italy, 17 miles north-weft of Aquila. 

 N. lat. 42" 36'. E. long. 13" 24'. 



ACUNA, Christopher de, in Blographv, a Spanifli Je- 

 fuit, born at Burgos, in 1597, and admitted into the fociety 

 in 1612, at the age of fifteen years. After having been 

 employed for fome years in endeavouring to make converts 

 in Chili and Peru, in South America, he returned to Spain 

 to give an account of his difcoveries on the riv-er of the Ama- 

 zons, a defcription of which he publilhed at Madrid under 

 this title, viz. Nnevo Dcfcubrlmcnto del Gran Rio de fas 

 Amazonas ; i. e. a new difcovery of the great river of the 

 Amazons. He embarked again for Am.crica, and was at 

 Lima in 167J. Political motives occalloned a fuppreiTion 



of 



