^6 ACC 
Accidknt, in heraldry, an additional point or mark 
in a coat of arms, which may be either omitted or retained 
without altering the effence of the armour ; fuch as abate¬ 
ment, difference, and tinffture. 
ACCIDENTAL, f. [accidental, Fr.] A property non- 
effential.—Conceive, as much as you can, of the eflentials 
of any fubjeft, before you confider its accidentals. Watts. 
Accidental, adj. Having the quality of an accident, 
non-effential; ufed with the particle to, before that in 
which the accident inheres.—This is accidental to a date of 
religion, and therefore ought to be reckoned among the 
ordinary difficulties of it. Tillotfon. —Cafual, fortuitous, 
happening by chance.—Look upon things of the mob ac¬ 
cidental and mutable nature ; accidental in their production, 
and mutable in their continuance ; yet God’s prefcience of 
them is as certain in him, as the memory of them :s, or 
can be, in us. South. — In the following pail'age it feems 
to llgiiify adventitious: 
Av, fuch a miniber as wind to fire, 
That adds an accidental hercenels to 
Its natural fury. Denham. 
Accidental, in philofophy, is applied to that effect 
which hows from fonie caufe intervening by accident, 
w ithout being fubjedt, or at lead without any appearance 
of being fubjedt, to general laws or regular returns. In 
this fenfe, accident is oppofed to coijlant and principal. 
Thus the fun’s place is, with refpedt to the earth, the con- 
Itant and principal caufe of the heat in fummer and the 
cold in winter ; whereas winds, fnows, and rains, are the 
accidental caufes which often alter and modify the action 
of the principal caufe. 
Accidental Colours, are thofe which depend upon 
the affedtions of-the eye, in contradiftindtion to thofe which 
belong to the light itfelf. The impreflions made upon the 
eye by looking ftedfaftly at a particular colour are various, 
according to the fingle colour or combination of colours 
in the object; and they continue for f'ome time after the 
eye is withdrawn, and give a falfe colouring to other ob- 
jedts. See Light and Colours. 
Accidental Point, in perfpedtive, is that point in 
the horizontal line where the projections of two lines pa¬ 
rallel to each other meet the perfpedtive plane. 
ACCIDENTALLY, adv. After an accidental manner ; 
non-effentially. Cafually, fortuitoufly.—Although vir¬ 
tuous men do fomelimes accidentally make their way to pre¬ 
ferment, yet the world is fo corrupted, that no man can 
reafonably hope to be rewarded in it, merely upon account 
of his virtue. Swift. 
ACCIDENTALNESS, f. The quality of being acci¬ 
dental. 
ACCIDF.NTS,yi in law, are properly relievable in a 
court of equity. But there are many accidents which are 
alfo fupplied in a court of law ; as, lofs of deeds, miltakes 
in receipts or accounts, wrong payments, deaths which 
make itimpoflible to perform a condition literally, and a 
multitude of other contingencies. And there are many 
which cannot be relieved even in a court of equity ; as, if 
by accident a recovery is ill differed, a devife ill executed, 
a contingent remainder dedroyed, or a power of leafing 
omitted in a family fettlement. 3 Blackjl. 431. 
Accidents, in afirology, denote the mod extraordi¬ 
nary occurrences in the courfe of a perion’s life, either 
good or bad: fuch as a remarkable inftance of good for¬ 
tune, a fignal deliverance, a great ficknefs, &c. 
ACC 1 PENSER, f. in ichthyology, a genus of fiffies 
belonging to the Amphibia Nantes of Linnams. The ac- 
cipenier has a fingle linear noftril: the mouth is in the 
under part of the head, and contains no teeth ; the cirri 
are below the fnout, and before the mouth. There are 
three fpeciesof this genus, viz. 
1. The ruthenus has 4 cirri and 15 fquamous protube¬ 
rances. It is a native of Ruffia. 
2. The hufo has 4 cirri; the body is naked, i. e. has ho 
prickles or protuberances. The ikin of the hufo is fo 
ACC 
tough and ffrong, that it is employed for ropes in carts 
and other wheel-carriages ; and the ichthyocollo, or 
isinglass of the (hops, famous as an agglutinant, and 
ufed alfo for the fining of wines, is made from its found or 
feales. The hufo is the larged of the genus, and grows 
to twenty-four feet in length. It inhabits the Danube 
and the rivers of Ruilia. 
3. The durio, or durgeon, with 4 cirri, and 11 fqua¬ 
mous protuberances on the back. ThisEIh annually af- 
cends our rivers, but in no great numbers, and is taken 
by accident in the falmon-nets. It feems a fpiritlefs fibi, 
making no manner of refidance when entangled, but is 
drawn out of the water like a lifelefs lump. It is feldom 
taken far out at fea, but frequents fuch parts as are not 
remote from the actuaries of great rivers. It is admired 
for the delicacy and firmnefsof its flefh, which is white as 
veal, and extremely good when roaded. It is generally 
pickled. The mod we receive comes either from the 
Baltic rivers or North America. Great numbers are ta¬ 
ken during the dimmer in the lakes Frifchehaff, and Cu- 
rifehhaff near Pillau, in large nets made of fmall cord. 
The adjacent diores are formed into dibricts, and farmed 
out to companies of fifiiermen, fome of which are rented 
for 6000 guilders, or near 300I. per annum. They are 
found in vad abundance in the American rivers in May, 
June, and July ; at which time they leap fome yards out of 
the water, and, in falling, make a noife to be heard in dill 
weather at fome milesdidant. Caviare is made of the rows 
of this, and alfo of all other forts of burgeons, dried, 
falted, and packed up clofe. Ichthyocollo, or ifinglafs, 
is likewife made of the found of this dlh, as well as that 
of the others; but in very fmall quantity. The durgeon 
grows to a great fize, to the length of eighteen feet, and 
to the weight of 5001b. but it is feldom taken in our ri¬ 
vers of that bulk. In the manner of breeding, this fidi 
is an exception among the cartilaginous kind ; being, like 
the bony fifh, oviparous, fpawning in water. 
ACCIPIENT, f. [accipiens, Lat.] A receiver, perhaps 
fometinies ufed for recipient. 
ACCIPITER, f. the name of Linnaeus’s firb order of 
birds. See Zoology. —Among the Romans, the term 
accipiter fignifted a hawk ; and which, from its being very 
carnivorous, they confidered as a bird of bad omen. 
ACCISMUS,/. denotes a feigned refufal of fomething 
which a perfon earneftly defires. 
Accifmus is fometinies confidered as a virtue; fome- 
times as a vice, which Augudus and Tiberius praftifed 
with great fuccefs. Cromwell’s refufal of the crown of 
England may be brought as an indance of an accifmus. 
The word is more particularly ufed, in rhetoric, asafpe- 
cies of irony. 
To ACCITE, v.a. [accito, Lat.J To call, to fummons ; 
a word not now in life. 
ACCITUM, anciently a town of Hifpania Batica, now 
Finiana, as appears from an ancient infeription; fituate on 
an eminence of the mountain Alpuxaras in Granada. 
ACCIUS (Lucius), a Latin tragic poet, the fon of a 
freedman, and, according to St. Jerom, born in the con- 
fulfhip of Hodilius Mancinus and Attilius Serranus, in 
the year of Rome 583. The titles of feveral of his tra¬ 
gedies are mentioned by various authors. He wrote on 
the mod celebrated dories which had been reprefented on 
the Athenian dage ; as Andromache, Andromeda, Atreus, 
Clytemnedra, Medea, Meleager, PhiloCtetes, the civil 
wars of Thebes, Tereus, the Troades, &c. Hecompofed 
one dramatic piece wholly Roman : it was entitled Brutus, 
and related to the expulfion of the Tarquins. He was fo 
much eheemed by the public, that a comedian was punibi- 
ed for only mentioning his name on the dage. Cicero 
fpeaks with great deridon of one Aceius who had written 
ahidory ; and, as this author had written annals, fome infid 
that he is the perfon cenfured: but as Cicero himfeif, 
Horace, Quintilian, Ovid, and Paterculus, have fpeken of 
this author with fo much applaufe, we cannot think it is 
him whom the Roman orator cenfures with fo much feverity. 
3 Aceius^ 
