t>o l E X A 
EXACTION, in law, a wrong done by 
an officer, or a person in pretended autho- 
rity, in taking a reward or fee that is not al- 
lowed by law. A person guilty of exaction 
may be lined and imprisoned. It is often con- 
founded with extortion. 
EXAGUM, a genus of the monogynia 
order, in the tetrandria class of plants, and 
in the natural method ranking under the 20th 
order, rotaceae. The calyx is tetraphyllous ; 
the corolla quadrifid, with the tube globular ; 
the capsule two-furrowed, bilocular, po- 
lyspermous, and opening at the top. There 
are 10 species, allied to the gentians, chiefly 
annuals, of the East Indies and Cape. 
EXiERESIS, in surgery, the operation of 
extracting or taking away something that is 
hurtful to the human-body. 
EXAGGERATION, in rhetoric, a kind 
of hyperbole, whereby things are augment- 
ed or amplified, by saying more than the 
truth, either as to good or bad. There are 
two kinds of exaggeration; the one of things, 
the other of words. The first is produced, 
1. By a multitude of definitions. 2. By a 
multitude of adjuncts. 3. By a detail of 
-causes and effects. 4. By an enumeration of 
consequences. 5. By comparisons. And 6. 
By the contrast of epithets and rational in- 
ference. 
Exaggeration by words is effected, 1. By 
using metaphors. 2. By hyperboles. 3. By 
synonymous terms. 4. By a collection of 
splendid and magnificent expressions. 5. By 
periphrasis. 6. By repetition. And, lastly, 
by confirmation with an oath: as for exam- 
ple, “ Parietes, medius fidius, gratias tibi 
agere gestiunt.” 
Exaggeration, in painting, a method 
by which the artist, in representing things, 
charges them too much, or makes them too 
strong, either in respect of the design or the 
colouring. It differs from caricaturing, as 
the latter perverts or gives a turn to the fea- 
tures of the face, &c. which they had not; 
whereas exaggeration only heightens or im- 
proves what they had. 
EXAMINATION. Justices before whom 
any person shall be brought for manslaughter 
or for felony, or for suspicion thereof, before 
they commit such prisoner, shall take his ex- 
amination, and information of those who 
bring him, of the fact and circumstances ; 
and as much thereof as shall be material to 
prove the felony, shall be put in writing 
within two days after the examination ; and 
the same shall certify in such manner as they 
should do if such prisoner had been bailed, 
upon such pain as in the act 1 and 2 P. and 
M. c. 13. is limited. 
EXAMINERS, in chancery, two officers 
of that court, who examine, upon oath, wit- 
nesses produced in causes depending there, 
by either the -complainant or defendant, 
where the witnesses live in London or near 
it. Sometimes parlies themselves, by parti- 
cular order, are examined. In the country, 
above twenty miles from London, on the 
parties joining in commission, witnesses are 
examined by commissioners, being usually 
counsellors or attorneys not concerned in the 
cause. 
EXANTHEMA, among physicians, de- 
notes any kind of efflorescence or eruption, 
as the measles, purple spots in the plague or 
malignant fevers, &c. 
E X C 
EXARCH, in antiquity, an officer sent 
by the emperors of the East into Italy, in 
quality of vicar, or rather prefect, to' de- 
fend that part of Italy which was under their 
obedience, and particularly the city of Ra- 
venna, against the Lombards. The exarcli 
resided at Ravenna, which place, with Rome, 
was all that was left to the emperors of their 
Italian dominions. The first exarch was un- 
der Justin the Younger, in the year 567, after 
Belisarius and N arses had driven the barba- 
rians out of Italy. The last was Eutychius, 
defeated by Adolphus, king of the Lombards, 
hr752. But Pepin, king of France, deprived 
him of the exarchate, and nude a gift of it 
to the pope, ordering his chaplain to lay the 
keys of all tire towns on the altar of St. Pe- 
ter and Paul at Rome. 
Exarch also denotes an officer still sub- 
sisting in the Greek church, being a kind of 
visitor, or one deputed by the patriarch into 
provinces, to see whether the bishops do 
their duty, and whether the rest of the cler- 
gy observe the canons of the church. 
There is another officer also of this name 
under the patriarchs of the Greek church, 
who has the care and inspection of the pa- 
triarchal monasteries, or such as depend im- 
mediately on the patriarch. 
EXAUCTORATION, exauctoratio, in 
Roman antiquity, corresponded, in some 
measure, to our keeping soldiers or sailors 
in half-pay ; but differed in this, that the 
exauctorati milites were deprived of their 
pay and arms, without being absolutely dis- 
charged. Sometimes it signifies a full but 
ignominious discharge. 
EXCALC EATION, among the He- 
brews, was a particular law, whereby a wi- 
dow, whom her husband’s brother refused 
to marry, had a right to summon him to a 
court ot justice, and, upon his refusal, might 
excalceate him, that is, pull off one of his 
shoes, and spit in his face ; both of them ac- 
tions of great ignominy. 
EXCELLENCY, a title antiently given 
to kings and emperors, but now to embas- 
sadors and other persons, who are not quali- 
fied for that of “ highness,” and yet are to be 
elevated above the other inferior dignities. 
In England and France the title is now pe- 
culiar to embassadors, but very common in 
Germany and Italy. Those it was first ap- 
propriated to were the princes of the blood of 
the several royal homes ; but they quitted it 
for that of highness, upon several great 
lords assuming excellency. The embassa- 
dors have only borne it since the year 1593, 
when the pope complimented the duke de 
Nevers, embassador from Henry IV. of 
France, with tiie title ot excellency; and 
though it was on account of his birth, and 
not of his character, yet the embassadors of 
all nations have ever since claimed the same 
appellation. 
'i he embassadors of Venice have only had 
the title ot excellency since the year 1636, 
when the emperor and king of Spain con- 
sented to allow it to them. The court of 
Rome never allows that title to any embassa- 
dor who is a churchman, as judging it a se- 
cular title. 
'I he embassadors of France at Rome an- 
tiently gave the title of excellency to all the 
relations ot the pope then reigning, and to 
several other noblemen ; but now they are 
more reserved in that respect, though' they 
E X C 
still treat all the Roman princes' vvhh excel- 
lency : on the other hand, the court of Rome 
bestowed the same title on the chancellor, mi- 
nisters, and secretaries of state, and presi- 
dents of the sovereign courts of France, the 
presidents of the councils in Spain, and the 
chancellor of Poland, if they were not eccle- 
siastics. 
EXCENTRIC, in geometry, a term ap- 
plied to circles and spheres which have not 
the same centre, and consequently are not 
parallel ; in opposition to concentric, where 
they are parallel, having one common cen- 
tre. 
Excentric, or excentric circle, in astro- 
nomy, is the circle described from the centre 
of the orbit of a planet, with half the great- 
est axis as a radius ; or it is the circle that cir- 
cumscribes the elliptic orbit of the planet, 
as the circle AQB. See Plate Miscel. fig. 86. 
Excentric anomaly, or anomaly of the 
centre, is an arc AQ of the excentric circle, 
intercepted between the aphelion A, and the 
right line CHI, drawn through the centre P 
of the planet perpendicular to the line of the 
apses AB. 
Excentric place of a planet, is the 
point of the orbit where the circle of incli- 
nation coming from the place of a planet in 
its orbit, falls thereon with right angles. 
Excentricity, in astronomy, is the dis- 
tance CS between the sun S and the centre C 
of a planet’s orbit; or the distance of the 
centre from the focus of the elliptic orbit, 
called also the simple or single excentricity. 
Fig. 86. 
When the greatest equation of the centre 
is given, the excentricity of the earth’s or- 
bit may be found by the following proportion, 
viz. 
As the diameter of a circle in degrees. 
Is to the diameter in equal parts ; 
So the greatest equat. of the centre in de- 
grees. 
To the excentricity in equal parts. Thus, 
Greatest equat. of the cent. \° 33' 33" 
1° '925 83 33 &c. 
The diameter of a circle being 1, its cir- 
cumference is 3-1415926. 
Then 3-1415926 : 1 ::360°.‘ 1 14°*59 15609 
diameter in degrees. 
And 1 1 4-591 5609: 1 ‘ ^ 1 ‘9258333 JO-0 16806, 
the excentricity. 
Hence, adding this to 1, and subtracting 
it from 1 , 
Give 1 -016806 = AS the aphelion dis- 
tance. 
And 0-983194 = BS the perihelion dis- 
tance. 
See Robertson’s Elements of Navigation, 
book 5, pa. 286. 
Otherwise, thus : Since it is found that 
the sun’s greatest apparent semidiameter, is 
to his least, as 32 / 43" to 31' 38", or as 1963" 
to 1898"; the sun’s greatest distance from 
the earth will be to his least, or AS to SB, as 
1963 to 1898 ; of which, 
The half-dif. is 324 = CS, 
And half-sum 19304; — CB ; wherefore, 
as 19304 : 324 X 1 : -016835 = CS the ex- 
centricity, to the mean distance or semi-axis 
l ; which is nearly the same as before. 
The excentricities of the orbits of the se- 
veral planets, in parts of their own mean 
distances 1000, and also in English miles, are 
