23 
A G U 
AIL 
A I R 
lo be valid ought to be on a stamp, or at least 
duly stamped at the stamp-office within the 
time limited by lav/, viz. twenty-one days 
after the date of the -agreement. 
AGRICULTURE. See Gardening and 
Husbandry. 
AGRIMONIA, a genus of the dodeeandria 
d igynia class and order of plants, with rosaceous 
flowers, the cup of which at length becomes an 
oblong echinated fruit, containing one or two 
oblong seeds. The essential character is, 
calyx rive-cleft, fenced with one another; pe- 
tals rive ; seeds two, at the bottom of the 
calyx. 
There are five species ; two, the A. rupato- 
ria, or common A., and the A. odorata, na- 
tives of Great Britain. The leaves of the 
common agrimony make a very pleasant tea, 
said to be good in the jaundice, in cachectic 
cases, and in obstructions of the liver and 
spleen. The country people also formerly 
used it, by way of cataplasm, in contusions 
and fresh wounds. 
AGR1PPA, a denomination given by an- 
tient as well as modern physicians, to children 
born with the feet foremost. See Mid- 
wifery. 
AGROSTEMA, a genus of decandrious 
plants, according to Linnxus but compre- 
hended among the lychnises by Tournefort. 
The class and order is decandria pentagynia. 
The corolla is wheel-shaped; and the essen- 
tial character is, calyx one-leaved, coriaceous ; 
petals live, clawed ; border obtuse, undivided; 
capsule one-celled. 
There are four species, all well known as 
highly ornamental to our fields and gardens.. 
The A. githagO) or corn cockle, though a 
troublesome weed to the farmer, is beautiful 
to. the eye. It is an annual plant, and flowers 
in June and July- The agrostema coronaria, 
or rose-campion, has long been an inhabitant 
of our gardens, and the double variety is par- 
ticularly handsome. It is biennial, and some- 
times perennial, though apt, in the gardener's 
phrase, to fog off after it has flowered. '1 he 
A. flos Jovis is more rare, but is an elegant 
perennial. The A- cceli rosa is an annual, 
very delicate and beautiful. 
AGIlOSTIS, a genus of triandrious plants, 
called in English bent grass. It is of the 
class and order triandria digynia. The essen- 
tial character is, calyx bivalve, one-flowered, 
a little less than the corolla ; stigmas longitu- 
dinally shaped. 
There are not less than 35 species of this 
grass; most of them are foreign, and some 
only annual. About eight species are enu- 
merated as natives of Britain. 
AGROSTOGRAPHIA signifies the his- 
t » y or description of grasses. Such is that 
of Scheuehzer, containing an accurate descrip- 
tion of several hundred species of grass. 
A-G ROUND, expresses the situation of a 
ship, the bottom of which rests on the 
ground. 
AG RYPNTA, denotes much the same with 
watchfulness, or an inaptitude to sleep ; which 
is a very troublesome symptom of feverish, 
and other disorders, 
Agr.ypn.ia, in the Greek church, the vigil 
of any of the greater festivals. 
AGU E, a general' name for all intermittent 
fevers, which, according to the different times 
of the return of the feverish paroxysm,. or fit, 
are denominated quotidian, . tertian, or quartan 
agues. See Medicine. 
AGURAII, in Jewish antiquity, the name 
of a silver coin, otherwise called gerah and 
keshitah. 
AGUSADURA, Agusage, in our old 
customs, a certain fee paid by vassals to their 
lord, for the sharpening of their plough- 
tackle. 
AGYNEIA, a genus of the monoecia mona- 
delphia class and order. The essential cha- 
racter is, calyx six-leaved ; corolla none. In 
the male flowers the anthers are three, grow- 
ing to the rudiments of the style. In the fe- 
male the germ is perforated at top, without 
style or stigma. 
The genus comprehends two shrubs, natives 
of China, but of little note. 
AGYNIANI, a sect of heretics who con- 
demned all carnal commerce with women. 
A-HEAD, refers to any object that lies im- 
mediately before a-ship, or tow ards that point 
of the compass to which her prow is directed, 
used in opposition to a-stern. 
A-HULL, denotes the situation of a ship, 
when all her sails are furled, bn account of the 
violence of a storm, and when, having lashed 
her helm to the lee side, she lies nearly with 
her side to the wind and sea, her head being 
somewhat inclined to the direction of the 
wind. 
AID, in law, denotes a petition made in 
court to call in help from another person, who 
lias interest in land, or other thing contested. 
This is called aid prior, which not only 
strengthens the party that prays for the aid, 
but gives the other person an opportunity of 
avoiding the prejudice that might otherwise 
accrue to his own right. Thus, a tenant for 
life may pray aid of the person in reversion; 
and a city or borough that holds a fee-farm of 
the king, if any tiring is demanded of them, 
may pray for aid of the king. 
Aid, auxilium, in antient customs, a sub- 
sidy paid by vassals to their lord on certain 
occasions. 
Such were the aid of relief, paid upon the 
death of the lord mesne, to his heir; the aid 
cheval, or capital aid, due to- the chief lord on 
several occasions ; as to make his eldest son a 
knight, to make up a portion for marrying his 
daughter, and so in other cases. 
AIGIIENDALE, the name of a liquid 
measure used in Lancashire, containing seven 
quarts. 
AIGUILLE, an instrument used by engi- 
neers to pierce a rock for the lodgment of 
powder ; as in a mine, or to mine a rock, so 
as to excavate and make roads. 
AIGUISCE'; Ajguisse', or Eguisce', in 
heraldry, denotes a cross with its four ends 
sharpened, but so as to terminate in obtuse 
angles. It differs from, the cross fitchec, in- 
asmuch as the latter goes, tapering by degrees 
to a point, and the former only at- the ends. 
Al LAN THUS denotes, in Amboina, the 
tree of heaven, so called on account of its lofty 
growth; a genus of tree, the class and order of 
which are not ascertained: some accounting 
it polygamia monoecia, and some dioeceia de- 
candria. It has male, female, and hermaphro- 
dite flowers. It is a native of China, but 
grows very fast in our climate, and- is recom- 
mended for ornamental- plantations. If the 
bark is wounded, a resinous juice flows out, 
which hardens in a few days. The wood is 
hard, heavy, glossy, resembling satin. We 
know of only one species. 
AILE, or Aiel, in law, a. writ which lies 
where a person’s grand-father, or great-grand- 
father, being seized of lands, & c. in fee-simple 
the day that he died, the stranger abates 
or enters the same day, and dispossesses the 
heir of his inheritance." 
AIM FRONTLET, a piece of wood, hol- 
lowed out to fit the muzzle of a gun, to make, 
it of an equal height with the breech, formerly 
made use of by the gunners to level and direct 
their pieces. 
AIR. The most important discoveries of 
modern philosophy are those which relate to 
the composition of fluids, and of the elastic or 
aerial fluids in particular. The restricted form 
of a dictionary, which is confined to the al- 
phabetical arrangement, renders the develope- 
ment of science, so as to meet and satisfy the 
ideas of the young student, in some measure 
difficult. We shall depart from it in tlris in- 
stance, in order to render clear, if possible, the 
present most important article, which may 
serve in some measure as a key to the most 
valuable discoveries of modern science. 
The air, even of the atmosphere, was for- 
merly accounted an elementary principle. It 
never entered into the minds of philosophers 
that it was of a compound nature. It is indeed ' 
somewhat extraordinary that they never were 
led to investigate the causes of fluidity itself, 
or to enquire what were the circumstances 
which constituted a fluid substance. 
Previous tp the grand discovery of Dr. 
Black, Boerhaave, Hales, and some other phi- 
losophers, had suspected that the presence of 
heat, or the elementary matter of fire, was 
the efficient cause of fluidity. The melting of 
tallow, wax, and metals, by the application of 
heat, and the condensation of water into ice, 
by the withdrawing of it, had led them insen- 
sibly to tlris conclusion ; which was confirmed 
on finding that mercury, which has so strong 
an attraction or affinity for the matter of herit- 
or fire, that it remains fluid in the usual tem- 
perature of our atmosphere, became a solid 
metallic mass, ductile, and possessing all the 
qualities of a metal, in a certain degree of 
cold, beyond what is common in these cli- 
mates. 
The indefatigable Dr. Black, on investigat- 
ing fully the nature of heat, or elementary 
fire, found that the first effect of its admission, 
in a larger quantity than usual to solid bodies- 
was to expand them ; that the next effect was 
to reduce them to a fluid state ; and that the 
last effect w as to present them in the state of 
an elastic or aerial fluid. Thus, water, in what 
may be called its natural state, is ice ; by the 
application of a. higher degree of heat (above. 
32 degrees, of our thermometer) it becomes 
fluid ; and by increasing the heat to above 2 12. 
degrees, it is converted into vapour, which is 
an elastic, or compressible fluid. Hence it- 
was concluded, that heat, elementary fire, or, 
as it is called in modern chemistry,- caloric, is, 
the only permanent fluid in nature, and the 
cause of ail fluidity in all other substances 
whatever. It was found also, that certain, 
substances had a stronger attraction for caloric 
than others ; hence it was accounted for why 
certain matters continued in a fluid state, and 
some even in that of plastic fluids, in the- 
ordinary state of our atmosphere.. See Ca- 
loric and Fluidity. 
Some of these aeriform fluids are found to. 
retain their elasticity only in a very high tern-- 
perature.. Such is the vapour from common, 
water.; such as forms smoke,. clouds, &cq. and; 
