790 A P H 
fiance called i honey-Atw, as well as from the two horny ap¬ 
pendices that terminate the abtlomen. It is in purfuit of 
this fluid that the ants are feen to frequent thole plants 
upon, which the plant-lice fettle. From this circumfta'nce, 
the former animals have been fuppofed hoftile to the 
.latter ; while other naturaiilts have deemed it an indica¬ 
tion cf the friendfhip of the t wo genera for each other : 
but it is neither from motives of love nor of hatred that 
the ants repair in fuch numbers to thefe haunts ; they fecit 
onlyto gratify their appetite by devouring this delicious 
excrement. 
The itioft effectual method of preventing the depreda¬ 
tions of plant-lice upon flowers and the leaves of plants, 
is fuggefted by thofe in feds which live by preying upon 
them. The plant-loufe-lion, or aphidivorous fly, either 
by inftinct or forefight, depofits her eggs in the midft of 
thefe animals; and, as foon as the larvae are produced, 
they devour hundreds around them, without the necefiity 
of any other movement than turning to the right fide or 
the left. Tflis formidable infeft is furnilhed with two tu¬ 
bercular horns, with which it pierces the plant-loufe, and 
fui ks its juice. A few of its eggs placed upon the leaves 
frequented by the lice, would foon produce a number 
fufficient to fupprefs or deftroy them. 
APHLAS'TUM, f. in the ancient navigation, a wooden 
ornament, lhaped like a plume of feathers, fattened on the 
goofe’s or fwan’s neck ufed by the ancient Greeks in the 
heads of their lhips. The aphlaftum had much the fame 
office and eft'eft in a drip that the creft had on the helmet. 
It alfo had this farther ule, that, by waving a party-co¬ 
loured riband fattened to it, it fhowed from what quar¬ 
ter the wind blew. 
APIflO'NIA, f. [Gr. from a. priv. and (ptovvs, a voice.] 
One who hath loft his voice, called alfo by fome avaudia. 
For the treatment of this difeafe, fee Pathology. 
APH'ORISM, f. A maxim or principle of a fcience ; 
or a lentence which comprehends a great deal in a few 
words. The word comes from atpo^a, Gr. I feparate; 
q. d. a choice or leleft fentence. The term is chiefly uled 
in medicine and law. We fay the aphorifms of Hippo¬ 
crates, of Sandorius, of Boerhaave, &c. aphorifms of the 
civil law, &c. 
\ APHORIS'TICAL, adj. In the form of an aphorifm j 
ill feparate and unconnected fentences. 
APHORIS'TICALLY, adv. In the form of an apho¬ 
rifm.—Thefe, being carried down, feldom mifs a cure, as 
Hippocrates doth likewife aphoriflically tell us. Harvey. 
APHRAC'TI, J. in the ancient military art, denotes 
open velTtls, without decks or hatches, furnilhed only at 
head and ftern with crofs planks, whereon the men Hood 
to fight. 
APHRADITA'RIUM, f. in phyfic, a dry medicine 
made of equal parts of frankincenfe, pomegranate, meal, 
and feales of brafs. Scott. 
APHRODI'SIA, f. in antiquity, feftivals kept in ho¬ 
nour of Venus, the mod remarkable of. which was that 
celebrated by the Cyprians. At this folemnity feveral 
mylterious rites were pradifed: all who were initiated to 
them offered a piece of money to Venus as an harlot; and 
received as a token of the goddefs’s favour a meafure of 
fait, and a the former, becaufe fait is a concre¬ 
tion of fea-water, to which Venus was thought to owe her 
birth ; the latter, becaufe file was the goddeis of wanton- 
nefs. 
AFKRODISI'ACAL, adj. in medicine, relating to 
the venereal difeafe. 
APHRODI'SIACS, f. Medicines faid to increafe the 
quantity of femen, and create an inclination to venery. 
APHRODISIAS'MUS, [from Atpgoo itu, Venus.] An 
immoderate defire of venery. 
APHRODFSIUS, f. in chronology, denotes the ele¬ 
venth month in the Bithynian year, commencing on the 
2.5th of July in ours. 
APHRODI'TA, f in helmintholpgy, a genus of worms 
of the order of mollufca. The generic characters are— 
A P H 
Body creeping, oblong, covered with feales, and furnilhed 
with numerous briftly fafciculate feet on each fide; mouth 
terminal, cylindrical, retradile; feelers two, fetaceous, 
annulate; eyes four. There are nine fpecies. 
1. Aphrodita aculeata, the aculeated aphrodite, or fea- 
moufe: body oval, brown, beneath flelh-colour; with 
long filky changeable hair on each fide the body, which 
is convex above and covered with Ihort brown fur, the 
fides with long rich green-gold hair mixed with lharp 
fpines; vent covered with two feales ; belly covered with 
a naked pale Ikin; the mouth is placed beneath. Feet 
from thirty to thirty-fix on each lide, each confifting of a 
tuft of five or fix Itrong black fpines. Inhabits the Eu¬ 
ropean Seas, and is often found in the belly of the cod- 
fifh ; it is from four to (even inches long. In the annexed. 
Plate, fig. 1, 2, 3,4., exhibit upper and under views of two 
varieties of this ipecies. 
2. Aphrodita fcabra, the rough aphrodite: body oblong, 
with two rows of alternate feales ; mouth projeding, cy¬ 
lindrical. Much fmaller than the laft, with twenty alter¬ 
nate feales; legs about twenty on each fide. 
3. Aphrodita fquamata, the fquamofe aphrodite. This 
is alfo a fmall fpecies : body oblong, covered with two 
rows of uniformly-coloured feales dotted with black. 
Middle of the back and belly fmooth ; the other part co¬ 
vered with large oppolite rigid ochre-yellow, icaies re fern - 
filing thole of a fifn, twenty-four in number. Inhabits the 
European and Afiatic Seas; about an inch long. This 
ipecies is Ihown on the Plate at fig. 5.—The other fpecies 
are the imbricata, plana, lepidota, eirroia, violacea, and 
tonga. 
_ APHRODI'TE, in mythology, a name of Venus, de¬ 
rived from cctpg®', froth; becaufe, according to the poets, 
Venus is fuppofed to have been produced from the froth 
or foam of the fea. 
APHROGA'LA, J. [Greek ; of froth, and 
milk.] Milk beat into an entire froth ; a fyllabub. 
APH'THAJ,yi [from a-ma, Gr. to inflame.] In medi¬ 
cine, fmall round fuperficial ulcers ariiing in the mouth, 
called the thrujh. 
APHTHO'NIUS, a rhetorician of the third century, who 
wrote a work entitled Proyyrnnafmata. R/ictorica, or Rheto¬ 
rical Exercifes; firft publiihed in Greek by Aldus, at Ve¬ 
nice, in 1508; afterwards with Kermogenes and Longi¬ 
nus, in 8vo. at Geneva, in 1569; and at Upfal, in 167c, 
by Scheffer, with a trahflation and notes. To the fame 
author are aferibed Fables, printed with thofe of AS fop, 
at Frankfort, in 1610. 
APHYLLAN'TES, f. in botany. See Globularia. 
APHYLLAN'THES, f. Gr. a flower 
without leaves.] In botany, a genus of the clafs hexan- 
dria, order monogynia, natural order of tripetaloidere. The 
generic characters are—Calyx : glumes univalve, lance¬ 
olate, feveral imbricate. Corolla : petals fix, ovate, fp read¬ 
ing into the border; claws flender, erect, converging into 
a tube. Stamina: filaments fetaceous, fhorter than the 
corolla, inferted into the throat; antherse oblong. Piftil- 
lum: germ fuperior, three-cornered, turbinate ; ityle fili¬ 
form, the length of the ltamens ; ftigmas three, oblong. 
Pericarpium: capfule turbinate, triangular, triiocular. 
Seeds : ovate .—EJjhitial Ckaradicr. Corolla fix-petalled ; 
filaments inferted into the throat of the corolla. * Capfule 
fuperior. Glume of the calyx univalve, imbricate. 
There is but one ipecies, known by the name of Aphyl- 
lanthes Monfpelieniis,: root creeping; culms naked, Am¬ 
ple, furrounded at the bale with iheaths, like the ruih. 
Glume two-valveci, two-flowered ; the proper glume alfo 
two-vajved. Were it not for the corolla, it would be a 
ruih. It grows wild about Montpellier and Nice, in bar¬ 
ren pafiures and rocky places. 
APHYLLAN'TI AFFFNIS. See Globularia. 
APKYL'LON, f. in botany. See Orobanche. 
APHYTE'IA, f. [«, and tpv t©', Gr. plantleis; having 
neither root, Item, nor leaves.] In botany, a-' genus of the 
dais monadelphia, order triandria. The generic charac¬ 
ters 
