184 A T T 
that .vigour nnd briskness that the other is ; 
the design of them being to favour the true 
attack, by amusing the enemy, obliging the 
garrison to a greater duty in dividing their 
forces, that the true attack may be more 
successful. 
Attack in flank, is to attack both sides 
of the bastion. 
ATTAINDER, in law, is when a man 
has committed felony or treason, and sen- 
tence is passed upon him for the same. r I he 
children of a person attainted of treason, are, 
thereby, rendered incapable of being heirs 
to him, or to any other ancestor ; and if he 
was noble before, his posterity are degraded, 
and made base : nor can this corruption ot 
blood be salved, but by an act of parliament, 
unless the sentence is reversed by a writ ot 
error. 
Attainder, bill of, a bill brought into 
parliament for attainting, condemning, and 
executing, a person for high-treason. A most 
unconstitutional proceeding, 
ATTAINT, in law, attincta, a writ which 
lies against a jury that have given a false 
verdict in any court- of record, in a real or 
personal action, where the debt or damages 
amount to above 40 shillings. 
If the verdict is found false, the judgment 
by common law was, that the jurors’ meadows 
should be ploughed up, their houses broken 
down, their woods grubbed up, all their lands 
and tenements forfeited, &c. but by statute 
the severity of the common law is mitigated, 
where a petty jury is attainted, and there is a 
pecuniary penalty appointed. 
Rut if the verdict be affirmed, such plain- 
tiff shall be imprisoned and lined. 
ATTELABUS, a genus of coleopterous 
insects (or beetle-kind), distinguished by 
having the head inclined, and pointed be- 
hind ; antennas moniliform, and thickest near 
the end. The larva of tire attalabi attack 
the leaves, dowers, the fruits, and even 
the stalks and roots of different plants: but 
most of the species, of which there are 34, 
penetrate into the plant, and subsist entirely 
on the spongy parts within. Preparatory to 
the pupa state, some species spin a silky 
web, and others form a little ball of a very 
solid kind, in which they remain during a se- 
cond state. The perfect insects inhabit- the 
same plants as the larva, but are deemed 
less injurious to them. For the character, 
see Plate. The most remarkable species 
are : 
1. Attelabus apiarius, is bluish, with red 
elytra, and three black belts. It is a native 
of Germany. 
2. Attelabus avellana, is black; with the 
breast, feet, and elvtra, red. 
3. Attelabus betula has springy legs, and 
the whole body is of a dark red. It frequents 
the leaves of the birch. 
4. Attelabus buprestoides, is of a dark co- 
lour, with a globular breast, and nervous ely- 
tra. It is a native of Europe. _ 
5. Attelabus ceramboides is of a blackish red 
colour, and the elytra is furrowed. It fre- 
quents the spongy boletus, a species of mush- 
room. 
d. Attelabus coryli, is black, with red ely- 
tra, or crustaceans v ings. 
7. Attelabus curculionoides, is black, with 
red elytra and breast. These two last spe- 
c i e s and the Avellana frequent the leaves of 
the hazel and lilbert nut-trees. 
A TT • - 
8. Attelabus formicarius, is black, with a 
red elytra, and a double white belt towards 
the base. It is a native of Europe, 
9. Attelabus melanurus, is black, with tes- 
taceous elytra, black at the apex. It is u 
native of Sweden. 
10. Attelabus mollis is hairy and yellowish, 
with pale elytra* and three belts. It is a na- 
tive of Europe. 
1 1 . Attelabus Pennsylvanicus is black, with 
red elytra, a black belt round the middle, 
and another towards the apex of the ely tra. 
It is a native of Philadelphia. 
12. Attelabus sipylus, is green, with a hairy 
breast, and a double yellow belt upon the 
elytra. 
13. Attelabus Surinamensis, has a double 
indentation (or two teeth) in the top of the 
elytra. It is a native of Surinam. 
ATTENTION, in regard of hearing, is 
the stretching the membrana tympani, to 
make it more susceptible of sounds, or ad- 
j usting the tension of that membrane to the 
proper key or tone of the sound. 
According to lord Bacon, “ sounds are 
meliorated by the intension of the sense, 
where the common senseis collected most to 
the particular sense of hearing, and the sight 
suspended. Therefore sounds are sweeter 
and more powerful in the night than in the 
day, and I suppose they are sweeter to blind 
men than to others ; and it is manifest, that 
between sleeping and waking, when all the 
senses are blind and suspended, music is far 
sweeter than when one is fully waken.” 
ATTENDANTS, in pharmacy, medi- 
cines which resolve the viscosity of the hu- 
mours in the human body ; promoting their 
circulation, as well as the discharge of all nox- 
ious and excrementitious matter. 
When these medicines act upon fluids 
lodged in the capillary vessels, they get the 
appellation of aperitives, or aperients ; as 
they do that of expectorants, when they 
promote a discharge of the viscid humours 
in the lungs. 
ATTIC, in architecture, a sort of building 
wherein the roof or covering is not to be 
seen ; thus named, because the buildings at 
Athens were generally of this form. 
Attic order, a small order raised upon 
a large one, by way of crowning, or to finish 
the building : or it is, according to some, a 
kind of rich pedestal, sometimes used for the 
conveniency of having a wardrobe, or the 
like ; and instead of columns, lias only pi- 
lasters of a particular form, and sometimes 
no pilasters at all. 
The name attic is also given to a whole 
story into which this order enters ; this little 
• order being always found over another great- 
er one. 
Attic base, a peculiar kind of base used 
by the antient architects in the Ionic order ; 
and by Palladio, and some others, in the 
Doric, This is the most beautiful of all 
bases. See Architecture. 
ATTIRE, in hunting, signifies the head 
and horns of a deer. 
ATTITUDE, in painting, &c. the pos- 
ture or disposition of a figure, expressive of 
a designed action or end. 
ATTOLENS, inanatomy, an appellation 
given to several muscles, otherwise called 
levators and elevators. See Anatomy. 
ATTORN ATO faciendo, &c. a writ 
ATT 
commanding a sheriff or steward to admit an- 
attorney to appear for a person who owes suit 
to the county court, court baron, &c, 
ATTORNEY, at law, one who is retained 
to prosecute, or defend, a law-suit. 
Attorney s, being properly those who sue 
out writs or process, or commence, carry on, 
and defend actions, in any of the courts of 
common law, are distinguished from solicit- 
ors, as the latter do the same business in the 
courts of equity ; and none are admitted, 
either as an attorney or solicitor, unless they 
have served a clerkship of five years, been 
enrolled, and taken the oath in that case 
provided ; and the judges of their respective 
courts are required to examine their several 
capacities. 
By 34 Geo. III. c, 14. a stamp duty of 
100/. is charged upon all articles of clerkship 
to an attorney or solicitor. Also, every at- 
torney, solicitor, notary, proctor, or agent, 
within the bills ofmortality, shall annually take 
out a certificate, charged with a stamp duty of 
5l. and of 31. in any part of the kingdom. 
Attorneys may be punished for ill practices; 
and if an attorney, or his clerks, of which ho 
must have but two at one time articled, do 
any thing against the express rules of the 
court, he or they may be committed. 
Neither a plaintiff nor, defendant may 
change his attorney without rule of court, 
whilst the suit is depending : and attorneys 
are not generally obliged to deliver up Uio 
writings in their hands, till their fees are 
satisfied : likewise, an action docs not lie 
against an attorney, for what he advises in 
the way of his profession ; yet if an attorney 
plead any plea, or appear, without warrant 
from his client, action of the case lies against 
him. 
Attorneys have the privilege to sue and b<j 
sued in tfie courts of Westminster, where 
they practise ; and they shall .not be chosen 
into offices against tlieir will, except the 
militia. 
Attorney, of the duchy of Lancaster is 
the second officer in that court. 
Attorney-general, is a great officer 
under the king, created by letters patent, 
whose office it is to exhibit informations, and 
prosecute for the crown in criminal causes ; 
and to file bills in the exchequer, for any 
thing concerning the king in inheritance or 
profits. To him come warrants for making 
of grants, pardons, &c. his salary from the 
crown is 1000/. per annum. 
ATTOURNMENT, or Attornment, 
in law, a transfer from one lord to another, 
of the homage and service a tenant makes ; 
or that acknowledgment of duty' to a new 
lord. 
ATTRACTION, a general term to denote 
the principle by which all bodies mutually 
tend towards each other, without regarding 
the cause that produces the effect. 
It lias been found by experience, that all 
matter, of whatever kind, is subject to cer- 
tain general laws, and the principal of these 
are attraction and repulsion. Five different 
kinds of attraction have been enumerated by 
modern philosophers. 1. The uttructiork of 
cohesion; 2. Of combination, or, as it is cal- 
led by chemists, elective! attraction ; 3. Gra- 
vity; 4. The magnetic attraction; and, 5. 
The attraction of electricity. Whether the 
same principle acts in ail these cases, or whe- 
ther each of these effects depends upon a dis- 
