A P O 
A P O 
APIS, or mu sc a, in astronomy, a southern 
constellation, containing four stars. 
APIUM, parsley, in botatny, a genus of 
the digynia order, belonging to the petan- 
dria class of plants ; and in the natural me- 
thod ranking under the 45th order, umbel- 
iaUr. Tiie fruit is of an oval shape, and 
streaked ; the involucruin consists of one 
leaf; and the petals are inflected. There 
| are only two species, the culture of which 
[ are well known, viz. 
1. Apium graveolens, or smallage, or ce- 
lery, a native of England ; and 
2. Apium petroselinum, or common par- 
sley, a native of Sardinia. 
Smallage, when improved by culture, is 
termed celery, and there is scarcely a more 
desirable root, especially as it is a winter 
sallad. It is aperient and tonic. 
With respect to the 2d sort, the roots 
and seeds of the petroselinum are used in 
medicine. The root of parsley is one of the 
five aperient roots; if liberally used, it is apt 
to occasion flatulencies; and thus, by dis- 
tending the viscera, produces a. contrary 
effect to that intended by it : the taste of this 
root is somewhat sweetish, with a light de- 
-gree of warmth and aromatic flavour. The 
seeds are an ingredient in the electuary of 
bay-berries, are moderately aromatic, and 
i were formerly used as carminatives. The 
common parsley is also reckoned an effec- 
tual cure tor the rot in sheep, provided they 
are fed with it twice a week for two or three 
hours each time ; but hai'es and rabbits are 
so fond of this herb, that they will come 
from a great distance to feed upon it ; so 
that whoever has a mind to have plenty of 
hares in their fields, may draw them from all 
parts of the country by the cultivation of 
parsley. 
APLANATIC, a term applied to that 
kind of refraction which entirely corrects the 
aberration of the rays of light, and the colour 
depending on it, in contradistinction to the 
word achromatic, in which there is only a 
partial correction of colour. 
APLUDA, a genus of the monoecia order, 
belonging to the polygamia class of plants ; 
and in the natural method ranking under the 
4th order, gramma. The calyx is a bivalved 
gluma : the floscules of the. female are sessile, 
and the male floscules are furnished with 
pedunculi ; the female has no calyx ; the 
corolla has a double valve ; there is but one 
stylus, and one covered seed. The male 
has three stamina. There are 4 species. 
APOCYNUM, (Ku»(^-, a dog, because the 
ancients believed this plant would kill dogs,) 
Dogssane : A genus of the digynia order, 
belonging to the pentandria class of plants; 
and in the natural method ranking under the 
30th order contortic. The essential charac- 
ters are : the corolla is bell-shaped ; and the 
filaments are five, alternate with the stamina. 
Of this genus botanical writers enumerate 
1 7 species ; of which the following are the 
most remarkable : 
1. Apocynum cordatum and villosum, na- 
tives of New Spain, and both climbers. 
2. Apocynum speciosissimum, a native of 
Jamaica and of Savannah, whence it has the 
name of Savannah flower. It rises three or 
tour feet high : the flowers are produced 
from the sides of the branches, and are very 
large, and of a bright yellow colour. 
Yol. I. 
3. Apocynum ventum ; there are two va- 
rieties of this; one with a purple, and the 
other with a white flower. This species is 
hardy enough to live in England. 
All the species of this plant abound with 
a milky juice, which flows out from any part 
of their stalks and leaves when they are 
broken ; this is generally supposed to be 
hurtful if taken inwardly, but does not blister 
the skin when applied to it as the juice of 
spurge and other acrid plants do. The pods 
of all the sorts are filled with seeds, which 
have each a long plume of a cottony down 
fastened to their crowns. This down is in 
great esteem in France, for stuffing of easy 
chairs, making quilts, &c. for it is exceed- 
ingly light and elastic. 
APOCOPE, among grammarians, a figure 
which cuts off a letter or syllable from the 
end of a word, as ingem for ingenii. 
APOCRISIARIUS, in antiquity, an offi- 
cer who delivered the messages of the em- 
peror. He became afterwards chancellor, 
and kept the seals. It was also a title given 
to a bishop’s resident at court, to the pope’s 
deputy at Constantinople, and to the trea- 
surer of a monastery. 
APOGEE, that point of the orbit of a 
planet, or the sun, which is farthest from the 
earth. 
APOLLINARIAN games, in Roman 
antiquity, an appellation given to certain 
theatrical entertainments, celebrated annually 
in honour of Apollo. 
APPOLL1NARIANS, or Apollinar- 
ists, in church history, a sect of heretics 
who maintained, that Jesus Christ had neither 
a rational human soul, nor a true body. 
APOLLON I A, in antiquity, an annual 
festival celebrated by the iEgialians in ho- 
nour of Apollo. 
APOLLO belvidere, a very celebrated 
antique statue, esteemed by artists the most 
excellent and sublime of all the antient pro- 
ductions. It was found in the 15th century, 
about 12 leagues from Rome,, in the ruins of 
ancient Antium, and purchased by pope 
Julius II. who removed it to the Belvidere 
of the Vatican, whence it takes its name, 
and where it remained 300 years, but it is 
now in the musaeum at Paris. See Sculp- 
ture. 
APOLOGUE, in matters of literature, an 
ingenious method of conveying instruction 
by means of a feigned relation, called a 
moral fable. 
The only difference between a parable 
and an apologue is, that the former being 
drawn from what passes among mankind, re- 
quires probability in the narration : whereas 
the - apologue being taken from the supposed 
actions of brutes, or even of things inanimate, 
is not tied down to the strict rules of proba- 
bility. cEsop’s fables are a model- of this 
kind of writing. 
APONEUROSIS, among physicians, a 
term sometimes used to denote the expan- 
sion of a nerve or tendon in the manner of 
a membrane ; sometimes for the cutting off 
a nerve; and, finally, for the tendon it- 
self. 
APOPHYSIS, in anatomy, an excrescence 
from the body of a bone, of which it is a 
true continuous part, as a branch is of a tree. 
See Anatomy. 
APOPLEXY, a distemper in which the 
R 
A PO rig 
patient is suddenly deprived of the exercise 
ot all the senses, and of voluntary motion ; 
while a strong pulse remains with a deep 
respiration, attended with a stertor, and the 
appearance of a profound sleep. See Me- 
dicine. 
APOSIOPESIS, in rhetoric, the suppress- 
ing or omitting to relate a part of the sub- 
ject : thus the poet omits the circumstance 
of Dido's killing herself. 
Dixerat, atque illam media inter tallia ferra 
Collapsam adspiciunt. 
APOSTATE, among the Romanists, sig- 
nifies a man who, without a iegal dispensa- 
tion, forsakes a religious order of which he 
had made profession. Hence, 
APOSTATA capiendo, in the English 
law, a writ which formerly lay against a per- 
son who, having entered into some order of 
religion, broke out again, and wandered up 
and down the country. 
APOSTILICI, an early sect of Christians, 
who pretended to lead their lives in imita- 
tion ot the apostles. They condemned mar- 
riage. 
APOSTROPHE, in rhetoric, a figure hy 
which the orator addresses a person either 
absent or dead as if he was present ; or ap- 
peals to angels and to men, to rocks, groves, 
&c. Thus Adam in Milton’s Paradise Lost, 
O woods, O fountains, hillocks, dales, 
and bowers, 
With other echo, &c. 
Apostrophe, in grammar, a mark placed 
over a letter to shew that a vowel is cut oil, 
as call’d for called, th’ audience, for the au- 
dience. 
APOTACTITES, in church-history, a 
name given to the apostolici, from the shew 
they made of renouncing the w orld more than 
other men. 
APOTHECARY, one who practises the 
art of pharmacy. In London, the apothe- 
caries are one of the city companies, and by 
an act which was made perpetual in the 
ninth yecr of George I. are exempted from 
serving upon juries, or in ward and parish 
offices. They are obliged to make up their 
medicines according to the formulas pre- 
scribed in the college dispensatory, and are 
liable to have their shops visited by the cen- 
sors of the college, who are impowered to 
destroy such medicines as they think not 
good. 
APOTHEOSIS, in antiquity, a ceremony 
by which the antient Romans complimented 
their emperors and great men after their 
death, w ith a place among the gods. It is 
described as follows. After the body of the 
deceased had been burnt with the usual so- 
lemnities, an image of wax, exactly resemb- 
ling him, rvas placed on an ivory couch, 
where it lay for seven days, attended by the 
senate and ladies of the highest quality in 
mourning ; and then the young senators and 
knights bore the bed of state through the via 
sacra to the old forum, and thence to the 
campus Martins, where it was deposited upon 
an edifice built in form of a pyramid. The 
bed being thus placed, amidst a quantity of 
spices and other combustibles, and " the 
knights having made a procession in solemn 
measure round the pile, the new^emperor, 
with a torch in his hand, set fire to it, whilst 
an eagle, let fly from the top of the build- 
ing, and mounting in the air with a firebrand;, 
