•102 
ACT 
liar to itfelf; thus the office performed by the mufcles, 
veffels, glands, and vifcera, are called their refpeddive ac¬ 
tions. 
Action, in commerce, is a term u fed abroad fora cer¬ 
tain partor fliare of a public company’s capital dock. Thus, 
if a company has 400,000 livres capital dock, this may be 
divided into 400 attions, each confiding of 1000 livres. 
Hence a man is faid to have two, four, &c. actions, accord¬ 
ing as he has the property of two, four, &c. 1000 livres 
capital dock. The transferring of actions abroad is per¬ 
formed much in the fame manner as docks are with us. 
Action, in law, is a demand made before a judge for 
obtaining what we are legally intitled to demand, and is 
more commonly known by the name of law-fuit or pro- 
cefs. Actions are of three kinds ; real, per/onal, and mix¬ 
ed: —ACtion real is that w hich concerns real property on¬ 
ly ; w hereby the plaintiff or demandant claims title to have 
any lands or tenements, rents, commons, or other heredi¬ 
taments, in fee fimple, fee tail, or for term of life. 3 
Blackfl. 117. 
Action perfonal is fuch as one man brings againd ano¬ 
ther, on any contract for money or goods, or on account 
of any offence or trefpafs. Id. 
Action mixed is an aCtion that lieth as well for the thing 
demanded, as againd the perfon that hath it; on which 
the thing is recovered, and likewife damages for the wrong 
fudained. Id. 
ACTIONABLE, adj. That which admits an aCtion in 
law to be brought againd it; punifhable. 
ACTIONARY, or AcriONiST,yi a proprietor ofdock 
in a trading corripany. 
ACTIONS, f. among merchants, fometimes fignify 
moveable effects; and we fay the merchant’s creditors have 
feized on all his actions, when we mean that they have 
taken poffedion of all his active debts. 
ACTION-TAKING, adj. Accudomed to refent by 
means of law ; litigious.—A knave, a rafeal, a filthy wor- 
lted-ltocking knave; a lily-liver’d adion-taking knave. 
Shakefpeare. 
ACTUATION,_/i [from adito, Lat.] Addion quick 
and frequent. 
To ACTIVATE, v. a. To make addive. This word 
is perhaps ufed only by the author alleged.—As fnow and 
ice, efpecially being holpen, and their cold adivated, by 
nitre or fait, will.turn water into ice, and that in a few 
hours; fo it may be it will turn wood or did' clay into 
done, in longer time. Bacon. 
ACTIVE, adj. [ adivus , Lat. ] That which has the pow¬ 
er or quality of adding. That which adds, oppofed lopaj- 
Jive, or that which differs. Bufy, engaged in addion; op¬ 
pofed to idle or fedentary, or any date of which the duties 
are performed only by the mental powers. Praddical; not 
jnerely theoretical. Nimble; agile; quick: 
Some bend the dubborn bow for viddory; 
And fome with darts their adive linews try. Dryden. 
Active, in grammar, is applied to fuch words asex- 
prefs aCtion; and is therefore oppoffte to paflive. The 
aCtive performs the aCtion, as the paffive receives it. Thus 
we fay a verb adive, a conjugation adive, &c. or an adive 
participle. 
Active Verbs, are fuch as do not only fignify doing, 
or aCting, but have alfo nouns following them, to be the 
fubjeCt of the addion or impreffion: Thus, To love, to teach, 
are verbs adive-, becaufewecan fay, To love a thing, to teach 
a man. Neuter verbs alfo denote aft aCtion, but are dif- 
tinguidied from aCtive verbs, in that they cannot have a 
jnoun following them: fuch are, Tojleep, to go, &c. Some 
grammarians,, however, make three kinds of aCtive verbs: 
the tranjitive, where the aCtion paffes into a fubjeCt diffe¬ 
rent from the agent; rejleded, where the aCtion returns 
upon the agent; and reciprocal, where the aCtion turns 
mutually upon the two agents who produced it. 
Active Power, in metaphyfics, the power of execu¬ 
ting any work or labour; in contradidinCtion to fpecuiative 
ACT 
powers, or the powers of feeing, hearing, remembering, 
judging, reafoning, &c. 
Active Principles, in chemidry, fuch as are fup- 
pofed to add without any aflidance from others ; as mercu¬ 
ry, fulphur, &c. 
ACTIVELY, adv. In an aCtive manner; baldly ; nim¬ 
bly. In an aCtive lignification; as, the word is ufed ac¬ 
tively. 
ACTIVENESS, J. The quality of being active; quick- 
nefs ; nimblenefs. This is a word more rarely ufed than 
adivity —What drange agility and adivenejs do our com¬ 
mon tumblers and dancers on the rope attain to, by conti¬ 
nual exercife. Wilkins. 
ACTIVITY, f. The quality of being aCtive, applied 
either to tilings or perfons.—Salt put to ice, as in the pro¬ 
ducing of the artificial ice, increafeth the adivity of cold. 
Bacon. 
ACTIUM, anciently a town fituated on the coad of 
Acarnia, in itfelf inconfiderable, but famous for a tem¬ 
ple of Apollo, a fafe harbour, and an adjoining promon¬ 
tory of the name, in the mouth of the Sinus Ambracius, 
over againd Nicopolis, on the other fide of the bay : it af¬ 
terwards became more famous on account of Augudus’s 
victory over Anthony and Cleopatra; and for quinquen¬ 
nial games indituted there, called ACtia or Ludi ACtiaci. 
The promontory is now called Capo di Figalo. 
ACTIUS, in mythology, a furname of Apollo, from 
ACtium, where he was wordlipped. 
ACTON, a tow n near London, where is a w r ell that af¬ 
fords a purging water, which is noted for the pungency 
of its fait. This water is whitilh, to the fade it is fvveet- 
ifh, with a mixture of the fame bitter which is in the Ep- 
fom water. The fait of this water is not quite fo foft as 
that of Epfom; and is more calcareous than it, being 
more of the nature of fait of lime : for a quantity of the 
Acton water being boiled high, on being mixed with a 
dilution of fublimate in pure water, threw down a yellow 
fediment. The fait of the ACton water is more nitrous 
than that of Epfom; it drikes a deep red, or purple, with 
the tinCture of logwood in brandy, as is ufual with ni¬ 
trous falts; it does not precipitate diver out of the fpirit 
of nitre, as common fait does. 
From a gallon of this water Dr. Rutty got 340 grains, 
or five drachms two fcruples, of fediment, by evapora¬ 
tion ; of this five drachms and twenty-one grains were vi- 
triolated magnefia, or vitriolated abforbent earth, called 
formerly nitrum calcarium ; which took forty-eight times 
its own weight of water to diffolve it; and nineteen grains 
of earth, which did not calcine to lime, but diffolved in 
the vitriolic acid. This is edeemed one of the ffronged 
purging waters near London. It is drank from one to 
three pints in a morning. 
ACTON BURNEL, f. a datute fo called, made 13 
Edw. I. ordaining th z Jlatute-merchant: it was fo termed 
from a place named Addon Burnel, where it was made; 
being a cadle fometime belonging to the family of Bur¬ 
nel, and afterwards of Lovel, in Shropfiiire. 
ACTOR, f. [ ador , Lat.] He that adds, or performs 
any thing. He that perforates a charadder; in the drama, 
a dage-player, or perfon who reprefents fome character 
upon the theatre. The drama confided originally of no¬ 
thing more than a fimple chorus, who fang hymns in ho¬ 
nour of Bacchus; fo that the primitive addors were only 
fingers and mulicians. dEfchylus, finding a fingle perfon 
tirefome, attempted to introduce a fecond, and changed 
the ancient recitals into dialogues. Sophocles added a 
third, in order to reprefent the Various incidents in a more 
natural manner: and here the Greeks dopped, at lead we 
do not find in any of their tragedies above three perfons 
in the fame feene. This, however, did not prevent their 
increafing the number of addors in comedy. Before the 
opening of a play, they named their aiders in full theatre, 
together with the parts they were to perform. The anci¬ 
ent addors were mafked, and obliged to raife their voice 
extremely, in order to make themfelves heard by the in¬ 
numerable 
