A C R 
An acquittance in full of all accounts /hall be extended 
only to accounts. Wood, b. ii. c. 3. 
An acquittance in full of all demands will difcharge all 
debts except fuch as are upon fpecialty under feal: for 
thefe can only be deftroyed by fome other fpecialty of equal 
force, as a general releafe. Cro. Ja. 650. 
If a rent is behind for a number of years, and the land¬ 
lord makes an acquittance of the lalt that is due, all the 
reft are prefumed to be paid, and the law will admit no 
proof againft this prefumption. 1 Injl. 373. 
ACRA, a town of Africa, on the coaft of Guinea, 
where the Englifti, Dutch, and Danes, have ftrong forts, 
and each fort its particular village. Lat.5.0. lon.o. 2.W. 
Acra was all'o one of the hills of Jerufalem, on which 
flood the lower town, which was Old Jerufalem ; to which 
was afterwards added Zion, or the city of David. Pro¬ 
bably called Acra, from the fortrefs which Antiochus 
built there in order to annoy the temple, and which Simon 
Maccabaeus took and razed to the ground. 
Acra Japygia, anciently called Salentiaby Ptolemy; 
now Capo di San Maria di Leuca : a promontory in the king¬ 
dom of Naples, to the fouth-eaft of Otranto, where for¬ 
merly was a town, now lying in ruins, on the Ionian fea, 
over againft the Montes Acroceraunii of Epirus. 
ACRzE, anciently a tow'n of Sicily, whofe inhabitants 
were called Acrenfes. It flood to the fouth of Syracufe, 
at the diftance of twenty-four miles, near the place now 
called the monaftery of Santa Maria d’Arcia. 
ACRAGAS, or Agragas, fo called by the Greeks, 
and fometimes by the Romans, but more generally Agri- 
gentum by the latter, was a town of Sicily. It was a place 
of great ftrength, ftanding on the top of a very fteep rock, 
and waftied on the fouth fide by the river Acragas, now 
called Fiumc di Gergenti, and on the fouth-weft by the Hyp- 
fa, with a citadel to the fouth-eaft, externally lurrounded 
by a deep gulf, which made it inacceflible but on the fide 
next the town. It was famous for the tyrant Phalaris and 
his brazen bull. They were a people luxurious in their 
tables, and magnificent in their dwellings; of whom Em¬ 
pedocles, in Diogenes Laertius, fays, that they lived to¬ 
day as if they were to die to-morrow, and built as if they 
were to live for ever. The country round the city was 
laid out in vine and olive yards, in the produce of which 
they carried on a great and profitable commerce with Car¬ 
thage. Lat. 37. 20. Ion. 13. 30. E. 
ACR.ASIA,/. Intemperance, [from priv. and 
xcqavviM, to mix. ] The ancients mixed one pint of wine 
with fouror five of Water. Afclepiadesorderedhalf wine and 
half water; hence wine unmixed was called acrafia, which 
we conftrue intemperance; for the Latin word tempero is 
of the fame import as to mix. Hence the word 
was applied to excefs, as in eating, drinking, venery, &c. 
By Hippocrates, and fome others, it fignifies imbecility. 
By phyficians, it means the predominancy of one quality 
above another, either with regard to artificial mixtures, 
or the humours of the body. 
ACRATH, anciently a place in Mauritania Tingitana, 
now fuppofed to be Velez de Gomara: a fortified town in 
the kingdom of Fez, with a citadel and commodious har¬ 
bour on the Mediterranean, fcarcely a mile diftant from 
Penon de Velez, a Spanifh fort. Lat. 34. 45. lon.5.0. W. 
ACRATISMA, f. a breakfast. The derivation of 
this word is the fame as that of acrafia, becaufe the wine 
ufed on this occafion was not mixed with water. A break - 
faft among the old Greeks confifting of a morfel of bread 
fteeped in wine. 
Children and weakly people ftiould not omit this meal. 
Our breakfafts fhould conlift of the harder kinds of ali¬ 
ment, to promote a plentiful difcharge of faliva. 
ACRE, or Acra, a fea-port town in Syria. It was 
formerly called Ptolemais, and is a bifhop’s fee. It was 
very famous in the time of the crufadoes, and underwent 
feveral fieges both by the Chriftians and Saracens. It is 
lituated at the north angle of a bay, which extends in a 
femicircle of three leagues, as far as the point of Carmel. 
Vol. I. No. 7. 
A C R 
During the crufades, the pofteftion of this town was 
long difputed by the Chriftians and-Saracens. In 1192 it 
was taken from the latter by Richard I. of England, and 
Philip of France; and they gave it to the knights of St. 
John of Jerufalem, who kept polfeflion of it 100 years, 
when it was retaken by the Saracens, and aimed entirely 
deftroyed. This event is rendered memorab'e by an adt 
of Angular refolution with which it was accompanied. A 
number of beautiful young nuns, terrified at the profpedt 
of being expofed to the brutal luft of the infidels, deter¬ 
mined to avoid the violation of their chaftity by render¬ 
ing themfelves objects of averlion. With this view they 
cut off their nofes and mangled their faces. The Sara- 
rens, inflamed with refentment at a lpedtacle which pre¬ 
vented the gratification of their appetites, immediately 
put them all to the fword. After the expulfion of the 
crufaders, it remained almoft deferted ; but in our tim’e 
has again revived by the induftry of Daher; and the 
works eredted by Djezzar, within the laft fifteen years, have 
rendered it one of the principal towns upon the coaft. 
The mofque of this pacha is boafted as a mafter-piece of 
eaftern tafte. The bazar, or covered market, is not infe¬ 
rior even to thofe of Aleppo ; and its public fountain fur- 
paffes in elegance thofe of Damafcus, though the water is 
of a very indifferent quality. The pacha has derived the 
more honour from thefe works, as he was himfelf both 
the engineer and architect: he formed the plans, drew the 
defigns, and fuperintended the execution. 
Corn and cotton form the bafis of the commerce of 
Acre, which is becoming more flourifhing everyday. Of 
late, the pacha, by an abufe common throughout all the 
Turkifh empire, has monopolized all the trade in his own 
hands; no cotton can be fold but to him, and from him 
every purchafe mult be made. In vain have the Euro¬ 
pean merchants claimed the privileges granted them by 
the fultan : Djezzar replied, that he was the fultan in his 
country, and continued his monopoly. Thefe merchants 
in general are French, and have fix houfes.at Acre, w ith 
a conful: an imperial agent too is lately fettled there ; alfo 
a relident for Ruflia. 
That part of the bay of Acre in which fliips anchor 
with the greateft fecurity lies to the north of mount Car¬ 
mel, below the village of Haifa (commonly called Caifla). 
The bottom is good holding ground, and does not chafe 
the cables; but the harbour is open to the north-weft wind, 
which blows violently along all this coaft. Mount Car¬ 
mel, which commands it to the fouth, is a flattened cone, 
and very rocky ; it is about 2000 feet high. We ftill find 
among the bramble wild vines and olive trees, W'hich 
prove that induftry has formerly been employed even in 
this ungrateful foil. On the fumriiit is a chapel dedicated 
to the prophet Elias, which affords an extenfive profpedt 
over fea and land. It is 20 miles S. of Tyre, and 37 N. 
of Jerufalem. Lat. 32. 40. Ion. 39. 25. E. 
AcRE,yi in the Mogul’s dominions, the fame with lack, 
and fignifies the fum of 100,000 rupees; the rupee is of 
the value of the French crown of three livres, or thirty 
fols of Holland; and 100 lacks of rupees make a cou- 
ron in Indoftan, or 10,000,000 rupees: the pound fterling 
is about eight rupees; according to which proportion, a 
lack of rupees amounts to 12,500k fterling. 
Acre,/ [acre, Sax.] the univerfal meafure of land in 
Britain. The word did not originally fignify a determined 
quantity of land, but any open ground, efpecially a wide 
champaign; and in this antique fenfe it feems to be pre- 
ferved in the names of places, as Caftle-acre, Weft-acre, 
See. An acre in England contains four fquare roods, a 
rood 40 perches or poles of 16A feet each by fratute. S et 
this meafure does not prevail in all parts of England, as 
the length of the pole varies in different counties, and is 
called cuftoroary meafure, the difference running from the 
j6£ feet to 28. The acre is alfo divided into 10 fquare 
chains, of 22 yards each, that is, 4840 fquare yards. 
The French acre, arpent, contains i-‘- Englifh acre, or 
54,450 fquare Englifh feet, whereof the Englifh acrecon- 
B b tains 
