j6 A C 1 
two fn<aller petals; anthers; roundifh, ftrial!. Piftillum: 
germ ovate, above the bafe adhering by the membrane of 
the (lamina to a rib internally prominent from the bottom 
of the calyx; ftylefiliform, curved; ftigma acute. Peri- 
carpium; drupe ovate, fibrous, chinked, large. Seed: 
out ovate, with a brittle (hell.— F.JJenlial CharaEler. Calyx, 
five-parted. Corolla five-petalled, unequal. Drupe, full 
of chinks. 
This is a tree, with a trunk fixty feet in height, and 
three or four feet in diameter, covered with a fmoothgrey 
bark. The branches which form the head are numerous, 
thick, and twilled. The leaves are alternate, fmooth, en¬ 
tire, firm, waved about the edge, five inches long and three 
wide, on a very fiiort petiole, at the bafe of which are two 
fmall llipules which fall off. Tire flowers grow in co¬ 
rymbs at the extremities of the twigs. Calyx white. Co¬ 
rolla violet. Fruit the lize of a walnut, covered with a 
thick woody fibrous coriaceous Ik in, of a brown colour, 
cracking irregularly and adhering to the Hone, which is 
thin and ealily breaks. It inclofes a large kernel, of an 
irregular form, dividing into two lobes, and covered with 
a ruffet membrane. The talie of it is agreeable; the Cre¬ 
oles eat it, when it is brought to market in Auguft at Cay¬ 
enne, and reckon it good fruit. They alfo extract an oil 
from it as fweet as that of almonds. They call the tree 
coupi. The timber of this tree is very hard, and heavy, 
of a white colour inclining to yellow. 
AC 1 CANTHERA, A- in botany, the trivial name of a 
fpecies of Rhexia. 
ACICULfiE, the fmall pikes or prickles of the hedge¬ 
hog, echinus marinus, &c. 
ACID, adj. [acidus, Lat. acidc, Fr.] Sour, (harp.—Wild 
trees lad longer than garden trees; and, in the fame kind, 
thofe whofe fruit is acid, more than thofe who fruit is 
fweet. Bacon. 
ACIDALIUS (Valens), was born at Witflock, in Bran- 
denburgh; and, having vifited feveral academies in Ger¬ 
many, Italy, and other countries, where he was greatly 
eileemed, lie afterwards took up his refidence at B reflaw, 
the metropolis of Silefia; and was chofen retlor of a 
fchool at Niclfa. It is related, that, as he was following 
a procellion of the holt, he was feized with a hidden phren- 
zy ; and, being carried home, expired in a very Ihort time. 
But Thuanus tells us, that his exceffive application to llu- 
dy w’as the occafion of his untimely death; and that his 
fitting up at nights in compofing his Conjectures on Plau¬ 
tus, brought upon him a difiemper which carried him off 
in three days, on the 25th of May 1595, being juft turn¬ 
ed of 2%. He wrote a Commentary on Quintus Curtins; 
alfo, Notes on Tacitus, on the Twelve Panegyrics; be- 
hdes Speeches, Letters, and Poems. His poetical pieces 
are inferted in the Deliciae of the German poets, and con- 
fift of epic verfes, odes, and epigrams. A little piece, 
printed in 1595, under the title of Mulieres non ejfe homines, 
“ That women were not of the human fpecies,” was falfe- 
ly afcribed to him. But the fad was, that Acidalius hap¬ 
pening to meet with the manufcript, and thinking it very 
whimfical, tranfcribed it, and gave it to the bookfeller, 
who printed it. The performance was highly exclaimed 
againft, infomuch that the bookfeller being feized, he 
difcovered the perfon who gave him the manufcript, and 
a moft terrible outcry was made againft Acidalius. A fto- 
ry goes, that being one day to dine at a friend’s houfe, 
there happened to be feveral ladies at table; who, fuppo- 
fing him to be the author, w’ere moved with fo much in¬ 
dignation, that they threatened to throw their plates at his 
head. Acidalius, however, ingenioully diverted their 
wrath. In his opinion, he faid, the author was a judici¬ 
ous perfon, the ladies being certainly more of the fpecies 
of angels than of men. 
ACIDAI.US, a fountain in Orchomenus, a city of Bce- 
otia, in which the Graces, whoare facred to Venus, bathed. 
Hence the epithet Addalia, given to Venus. 
ACIDITY, / The quality of being acid; anacidtafte; 
fharpnefs; fournefs.— When the tafte of the HlQUtb is 'bk> 
A C I 
ter, it is a fign of a redundance of a bilious alkali, and 
demands a quite different diet from the cafe of acidity or 
fournefs. Aibuthnot. 
ACIDNESS,/ The quality of being acid ; acidity, 
ACIDOTON,/. in botany, a genus of the monoecia 
polyandriaclafs. The generic charaflers are—Male flow¬ 
ers. Calyx: perianthium five-leaved; leafletsovate-lan- 
ceolate, reflex. Stamina: filaments numerous (35—40h 
placed on a globular receptacle ; the outer ffiortfer, the in¬ 
ner longer, upright; antherse cordate-ovate, upright fmall, 
—Females on the fame or a different tree. Calyx : peri¬ 
anthium fix-leaved; leaflets linear-lanceolate, fpreading. 
Piftillum: germ three-cornered; ftyle fhort, acute, thick, 
trifid at the tip ; ftigmas tomentofe, reflex. Pericarpipm; 
capfule three-grained, hirfute, three-celled. Seeds: fo- 
litary, ovate.— EJj'ential CharaEler. Male. Calyx, five¬ 
leaved; ftamina, fixed to a globular receptacle. Temale. 
Calyx, fix-leaved; ftyle, trifid; capfule, three-grained. 
Its height is eight or ten feet. Trunk round, ftraighf, 
woody, the fize of the little finger, covered with a fmooth, 
brownifh, bark. Leaves towards the top, alternate, nar¬ 
row-lanceolate, three or four inches long, and three quar¬ 
ters of an inch broad in the middle, even about the edges, 
except one fmall jag in fome towards the top, making them 
appear as if eared. Petioles one-eighth of an inch in 
length: colour dark green, with feveral ribs on the under 
fide; and on its furface and edges many long fmall prickles, 
which are faid to fting very much. The fhrub thus de- 
fcribed by Sloane feems to have been young; and he never 
faw either the flower or fruit. Native of Jamaica. 
Acidoton,/ in botany. SeeADELiA. 
ACIDS,A in chemiftry, the name by which one of the 
general claifes of falts are diftinguilhed. The charadte- 
riftic marks of them are, 1. The peculiar tafte which we 
call four; though this does not hold univerfally: for the 
acid of arfenic has not this four tafte; nor are the volatile 
fulphureous acids, or thofe of tungjkn and molybdena, very 
diftinguifhable in this way. ?. With water they combine 
into a fluid, the fpecific gravity of which is-not a medium 
betwixt the water and acid feparately taken. 5. With fpi- 
rit of wine they unite into a very volatile and inflamma¬ 
ble fubftance, called ether. This however mull be un- 
derflood only of the ftrong mineral acids, or of the ace¬ 
tous when concentrated. 4. They change the blue colour 
of vegetables to red, and heighten the colour of thofe that 
are already red. 5. They unite with all kinds of earths 
excepting the filiceous, with fixed and volatile alkalies, and 
with metals, fo as to form compounds which cannot be fe- 
parated without fome difficulty. This is their moft uni- 
verfal and diftinguifhing mark. 6 . When mixed with any 
fermentable liquor, they prevent that procefs, or check it 
if already begun. This alfo muft be underftood only of 
the ftronger acids, 7. They cannot be frozen but in cold 
below the freezing point. This property is alfo confined 
to the ftronger acids. 
The nature of acids has long been a matter of fpecula- 
tion, and of late has engaged the attention of philofophers 
very confidently. Some have fappofed them to be Am¬ 
ple chemical elements, while others imagined them to be 
compofed of water and earth. But the late difcoveries 
concerning air of different kinds have fuggefted a new 
theory, firft publiffied by M. Lavoifier, and ftrenuoufly 
maintained by the French chemifts, viz. That the acid 
principle is contained in the air; which, according as it 
combines itfelf wjth different fubftances, form- acids of 
different denominations. 
This theory he confiders eftabliffied by indifputable ex¬ 
periments; and his conclufions from the wliole are, That 
“ dcphlogijlicated air enters as a conftituent part into the 
compoiition of feveral acids, particularly the phofphoric, 
vitriolic, and nitrops ; that this pure and highly refpirable 
air is the conflitutive principle of acidity common to all 
acids; and that the difference by which they are diftin- 
gyiffied from each other is produced by the union of one 
or more principles belides this air, fo as to conftittue the 
3 particular 
