| feet. 
292 PAT RORTAS 
the disease have been previously removed. A 
local state of the same kind is sometimes pro- 
duced in single limbs, by palsies, or the pressure 
of tumours upon the nerves of the limb, &c., and 
is generally curable by removing the cause. 
ATROPIA. ‘The peculiar chemical principle 
| or alkaloid of the plants of the genus atropa. It 
may be viewed as simply a most virulent concen- 
| tration of the poisonous and—when used with 
due care and science—the medicinal properties 
_ of belladonna. 
ATTALIA. A genus of magnificent, deciduous 
trees, of the palm tribe. They are natives of 
Brazil, and grow to the height of from 10 to 70 
Seven species were introduced to Great 
Britain between 1820 and 1826, and are propa- 
gated from seeds in rich mould; but they can 
be raised and kept only in the stove. 
ATTENUANTS. Medicines used to thin or 
lessen the viscidity of animal fluids. 
ATTORNEY. One who is appointed by an- 
_ other to transact any business for him in his ab- 
|| 
| 23 Geo. II. ¢. 26, &e. 
_ fidelity to his client, the attorney owes him dili- 
_ gence and secrecy ; and, in certain cases, action 
— = 
sence. An attorney is either public,—as those 
in the courts of record,—and is constituted by 
warrant from his client; or private,—to perform 
any particular act or piece of business,—who is 
usually appointed by letter-of-attorney. 
ATTORNEY-AT-LAW. A person who man- 
ages the law-business of another, by whom he 
is retained ; the term being analogous to the 
procurator, or proctor, of the civilians and 
canonists. 
Anciently—according to the old Gothic consti- 
| tution—every suitor was obliged to appear and 
| prosecute or defend his suit in person, unless by 
| special license from the king; and this still con- 
| tinues to be the rule in criminal cases. 
| sundry old statutes, from that of Westm. 2, c. 
| 10, permission was granted for attorneys to pro- 
| secute or defend any civil suit in the absence of 
| the parties. 
But by 
An idiot, however, cannot, at this 
day, prosecute or defend by attorney, but must 
appear in person. 
Attorneys are admitted to the execution of 
their office by the superior courts of Westminster 
hall. They are considered as officers of the re- 
spective courts in which they are admitted; on 
which account they enjoy many privileges; and 
are, on the other hand, peculiarly subject to the 
censure and animadversion of the judges. In 
order to enable one to practise as an attorney in. 
any of these courts, he must be admitted and 
sworn an attorney of that particular court; and 
an attorney in the King’s bench cannot practise 
in the Common Pleas, nor vice versa. To practise 
in the Court of Chancery, it is also necessary to 
be admitted a solicitor therein. 
There are divers statutes which regulate the 
admission, &c., of attorneys; as, 3 Jac. I. c. 7; 12 
Geo. I. c. 29; 2 Geo. IT. c. 23; 22 Geo. II. c. 46; 
Besides the obligation of 
AUCUBA JAPONICA. 
lies at the suit of the client, against his attorney, 
for neglect of duty. 
In Scotland there is no class of law-practi- 
tioners who take the name of attorneys. The 
office there is not public, as in England, but pri- 
vate ; and it is constituted by letters-of-attorney. 
The person who receives infeftment for another 
is also called the attorney. 
ATTRACTION. The tendency, as well of the 
parts of matter in general, as of various parti- 
cular bodies, to approach each other, to unite, 
and to remain united ; sometimes, also, the power 
inherent in matter, exerting itself at the moment | 
of approach. Experience teaches that this pro- 
perty is common to all matter: even liquids 
cohere in their parts, and oppose any endeavour 
to separate them. The minute particles unite 
into drops; drops, if they are brought in contact, 
into large masses. Fluids attach themselves to 
solid bodies, particularly to such as have very 
smooth surfaces, as to glass: they rise up of them- 
selves in fine tubes, &c. Every body tends to the 
earth, and, if raised from its surface, falls back to 
it again. The plumb-line, which is usually verti- 
cal, takes an oblique direction in the vicinity of 
high mountains; the sea tends to the moon; the 
moon itself is constantly drawn towards the earth; 
the earth and the other planets, towards the sun. 
The heavenly bodies are continually subject to 
the simple law of mutual attraction. The Grecian 
naturalists speak of attraction; Copernicus and | 
Tycho likewise admit it; Kepler’s bold and com- 
prehensive mind first hazarded the assertion that 
it must be universal and mutual in all bodies; 
Des Cartes sought to banish it entirely from na- 
tural philosophy, as one of those occult powers 
which he did not acknowledge; but Newton 
adopted it, and determined its laws, after many 
years of accurate observation. Fruitless attempts 
have been made to explain it. 
of attraction is exhibited, either in bodies that 
are at perceptible distances from each other, and 
is then called gravitation; or in bodies at insen- 
sible distances, taking place between their sur- 
faces, when it is adhesion; or uniting their com- 
ponent parts, when it is cohesvon. 
traction, but the most important are those of 
chemical affinities and magnetic and electric at- 
tractions. 
ATTRACTION (CHEMICAL). See Arrrnity. 
AUBRIETIA. A genus of ornamental, ever- 
green, herbaceous, hardy, trailing plants, of the 
cruciferous family. The species are three in 
number, about three inches in height, producing 
purple flowers from March till June; and are 
very common in all sorts of gardens.. They were 
but recently erected into a genus, and formerly 
belonged to the genera alyssum, arabis, and 
draba. 
AUCHENIA. See Aupaca. 
AUCUBA JAPONICA. A beautiful evergreen 
shrub, apparently of the buckthorn tribe. It 
The phenomenon | 
We cannot | 
enumerate all the particular subdivisions of at- | 
