AVI 
book. Then applying to the study of logic, 
philosophy, and mathematics, he quickly 
made a rapid progress. After studying un- 
der a master the first principles of logic, and 
the first five or six propositions of Euclid’s 
elements, he became disgusted with the 
slow manner of the schools, applied himself 
alone, and soon accomplished all the rest by 
the help of the commentators only. 
Possessed with an extreme avidity to be 
acquainted with all the sciences, lie studied 
medicine also. Persuaded that this art con- 
sists as much in practice as in tiieory, he 
sought all opportunities of seeing the sick; 
and afterwards confessed that he had learned 
more from such experience than from all the 
books he had read. Being now in his six- 
teenth year, and already celebrated for 
being the light of his age, he determined to 
resume his studies of philosophy, which medi- 
cine, &c. had made, him for some time neg- 
lect: and he spent a year and a half in this 
painful labour, without ever sleeping all this 
time a whole night together. At the age of 
21, he conceived the bold design of incorpo- 
rating in one work ail the objects of human 
knowledge ; and he carried it into execution 
in an Encyclopedia of 20 volumes, to which 
he gave the title of the “ Utility of Utili- 
ties.” 
Many wonderful stories are related of his 
skill in medicine, and the cures which he 
performed. Several princes had been taken 
dangerously ill, and Avicena was the only 
one that could know their ailments, and cure 
them. His reputation increased daily, and 
all the princes of the East desired to retain 
him in their families, and in fact he passed 
through several of them. But the irregula- 
rities of his conduct sometimes lost him their 
favour, and threw him into great distresses. 
His excesses in pleasures, and his infirmities, 
made a poet say, who wrote his epitaph, that 
the profound study of philosophy had not 
taught him good morals, nor that of medicine 
the art of preserving his own health. 
After his death, however, he enjoyed so 
great.a reputation, that till the 12th century 
he was preferred for the study of philosophy 
and medicine to all his predecessors. Even 
in Europe his works, which were very nu- 
merous, were the only writings in vogue in 
the schools. 
AVICENNIA, in botany, so named in 
honour of a celebrated oriental physician, 
who flourished in the eleventh century at 
Ispahan, a genus of the Didynamia Angios- 
permia class and order. Essential charac- 
ter : calyx five-parted; corolla two-lipped, 
A U L 
tlie upper lip square; capsule coriaceous, 
rhomboid, one-seeded. There are three 
species, natives of the East and West Indies. 
A. tomentosa, a tree, agrees mostly with the 
mangrove, rising about 15 feet ; its trunk is 
not so large, having a smooth, whitish green 
bark, and from the stem are twigs propa- 
gating the tree like that: the branches at 
top are jointed towards their ends where 
the leaves come out Apposite, on very small 
petioles, two inches and a half long, and 
about an inch broad : the flowers are many 
at the top of the branches, white and tetra- 
petalous. It is found on the north and south 
sides of Jamaica, growing inlowmoistground. 
A. nitida grows forty feet high, a native of 
Martinico : the creeping roots throw up 
abundance of suckers. A. resinifera pro- 
duces a green coloured gum, so much es- 
teemed by the natives of New Zealand, and 
which is very hot in the mouth. 
AVIGNON berry, taken from the rham- 
nus infectorius, and used in France by dy- 
ers for making a yellow colour. They are 
gathered unripe, bruised, and boiled in 
water, mixed with the ashes of vine stalks 
to give a body, am! then strained through 
linen. The colour is chiefly used for silk, 
but it will not well bear the heat of the 
sun. The plant grows, as its name imports, 
in the neighbourhood of Avignon. 
AULA regis, was a court, established 
by William .the Conqueror in his own hall. 
It was composed of the king’s great officers 
of state resident in his palace, who usually 
attended on his person, and followed him in 
all his progresses and expeditions; which 
being found inconvenient and burthensome, 
it was enacted by the great charter, c. 11, 
that common pleas shall no longer follow the 
king’s court, but shall be faolden in some 
certain place, which certain place was esta- 
blished in Westminster Hall, where the aula 
regis originally sat when the king resided in 
that city, and there it has ever since conti- 
nued. 3 Black. 37. 
AULIC, an epithet given to certain offi- 
cers of the empire, who compose a court, 
which decides, without appeal, in all pro- 
cesses entered in it. Thus we say, aulic 
council, aulic chamber, aulic counsellor, 
The aulic council is composed of a president, 
who is a Catholic ; of a vice-chancellor, pre- 
sented by the archbishop of Mentz; and of 
eighteen counsellors, nine of whom are Pro- 
testants, and nine Catholics. They are di- 
vided into a bench of lawyers, and always 
foliow the emperor’s court, for which reason 
they are called , justitium imperatoris, the em- 
