articles added. The present volume contains between seven and eight hundred handsome engravings; a great number of new cuts having been inserted, while most of the original ones have been retained. A series of questions adapted to the work, have been appended. It is believed that this edition is well adapted to the use of the young, and to those whose avocations prevent them from making profound researches, or whose means are restricted.

It is often said that superficial acquirements mark the present age; that abundance of abstracts and compendious methods of obtaining knowledge, in some degree exclude the necessity of diligence and patient thought, and that innumerable facilities and mechanical helps encourage indolence rather than incite to application. To this it may be replied, that those who without these helps would know nothing beyond the narrow range of their own observation, may now, for a small expense of time and money, obtain a considerable fund of information from this book, and from many others of a similar character and design. The minds of children, and persons of neglected education, can here be furnished with particular facts in Physics, in Chymistry, in Natural History, and in Intellectual Philosophy, that may open the senses to new perceptions, may stimulate curiosity, may turn the mind inward to the cultivation of its own ability, and may suggest the wisdom of God's laws, and the bounty of his providence. Such being the use of which this work is susceptible, and its execution being as faithful and perfect as its limits permit, it will be found serviceable as a school book—its simplicity of definition and variety of matter strongly recommending it to those engaged in Education.

AUTHOR OF AMERICAN POPULAR LESSONS.

ABEYANCE. The expectancy of an estate, honour, or title.

A, the first letter of the alphabet in most lan-earth in 8' 7" of time, the interval in which guages. It stands for the indefinite article, as, light passes from the sun to the earth. a man; for the sixth note in the gamut; for ABETTOR. One who instigates another to the first of the dominical letters in the calendar; commit a crime. as a numeral for one, among the Greeks, and 500 among the Romans, or with a stroke over it, A, 5000; for an abbreviation, as A. M. Anno Mundi, A. B. Baccalaureus Artium, Bachelor of Arts, A. C. Ante Christum, A. D. Anno Domini; in antiquity, A. Augustus, A. A. Augusti, A. A. A. Aurum, Argentum, Es; among chymists, Amalgam.

AAM. A liquid measure, used by the Dutch, containing 280 pints English measure.

ABAFT. A sea term, the hinder part of a ship.

ABAGI. A silver coin in Persia, value about thirty-six sols, French money.

ABATIS, or ABBATIS. In fortification, an entrenchment made of felled trees, the trunks being planted in the ground, and the branches interwoven.

ABBEY. A monastery or convent, governed by a superior under the title of Abbot when ocupied by males, and Abbess when appropriated to females. At the reformation there were 490 of these establishments dissolved.

ABBREVIATION. The contracting of a word or sentence, by omitting some of the letters.

ABDOMINALES. The fourth order of fishes, which have the ventral fin placed behind the pectoral fin; as salmon, trout, herrings, gold fish, carp, sprats, &c.

ABDUCTION. The unlawful carrying

away a person.

ABERRATION (in Astronomy.) An apparent motion of the celestial bodies, produced by the progressive motion of light, and the earth's annual motion in its orbit. Thus, in the sun, the aberration in longitude is 20" constantly, that being the space moved by the A

ÁBLUTION. A religious ceremony of washing the body, still used by the Turks and Mahomedans; also, the washing away the su perfluous salts out of any body, in chymistry.

ABOLLA. A kind of military garment worn by the Greek and Roman soldiers.

ABOMASUS (in Comparative Anatomy.) The fourth stomach of ruminating animals. ABORIGINES. The earliest inhabitants of a country.

ABRAUM. A kind of red clay used by cabinet-makers to deepen the colour of new mahogany.

ABRIDGING (in Algebra.) The reducing a compound equation to a more simple form. ABRIDGMENT. The bringing the contents of a book within a short compass; in Law, the shortening a count or declaration.

ABSCESS. An inflammatory tumour containing purulent matter.

ABSCISSE. The part of any diameter or axis of a curve line, cut off by a perpendicular line, called the ordinate.

ABSOLUTION. The forgiveness of sins, which the Romish Church claims to itself the power of granting; in Civil Law, a sentence whereby the party accused is declared innocent of the crime laid to his charge.

ABSORBENTS. Medicines that have the power of drying up redundant humours; also what causes acids to effervesce, as quick lime, soda, &c.

ABSORBENT VESSELS. Vessels which carry any fluid into the blood, as the inhalent arteries.

ABSORPTION (in Chymistry.) The con

version of a gaseous fluid into a liquid or solid, on being united with some other solid.

ACANTHUS (in Botany.) Bearsbreech, or Brank Ursine, a plant, the leaves of which ABSORPTION (of the earth.) A phrase resemble those of the thistle; in Architecture, applied to the swallowing up of mountains and an ornament representing the leaves of the anportions of land. The earth beneath the sur- cient acanthus, and used in the capitals of the face, has, doubtless, many large caverns, which Corinthian and Composite orders. giving way, from time to time, the upper parts! ACCELERATION (in Mechanics.) The are absorbed. Ancient history records several increase of velocity in a moving body. Accecases; and modern history, some in China, jlerated motion is that in which the velocity is France, and Switzerland. continually increasing, from the continued acABSTERGENTS. Medicines for cleansing tion of the motive power. Uniformly accelethe body from impurities. rated motion, is that in which the velocity increases equally in equal times. The increasing velocity with which a body falls to ABSTRACTION (in Logit.) The intel- the earth, is an instance of accelerated motion, lectual act of separating accidents or qualities which is caused by the constant action of from the subjects in which they reside, as gravity. The spaces described by a falling whiteness from snow or a wall, &c.; animal body in a series of equal moments, or intervals from man or the brutes; in Chymistry, the of time, will be as the odd numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, process of drawing off by distillation any part 9, &c. which are the differences of the squares of a compound, and returning it again any or whole spaces; that is, a body which falls number of times to be redistilled. through 16 1-12 feet in the first second, will fall through 3 X 16 1-12 in the second, 5 X 16 1-12 in the third, and so on.

ABSTINENCE. An abstaining from meat diet, as practised in the Romish Church.

ABUTMENTS. The extremities of any body adjoining another, as the extremities of a bridge resting on the banks or sides of a river. ABYSS. Any deep place that is bottomless, or supposed to be so, as the deepest or unfathomable parts of the sea.

ABYSSYNIAN CATTLE. These cattle are remarkable for the size of their horns, as represented in the engraving; some of which are four feet long, seven inches in diameter near the head, and hold ten quarts.

ACACIA. A beautiful shrub, a species of which bears rose-coloured flowers.

ACADEMICS. A sect of ancient philosophers; the term is sometimes applied to the followers of Socrates and Plato.

ACADEMY. A school or college for the improvement of arts and science, so called from the grove of Academus in Athens, where Plato kept his school of philosophy. The first modern school of this name is said to have been established by Charlemagne at the instance of Alcuin, an English monk. This was followed by the Academia Secretorum Naturæ, established at Naples by Baptista Porta in 1560, and the Academia Lyncei at Rome, &c.

ACCENT. The raising or lowering of the voice in pronouncing certain words or syllables; also the marks on the words or syllables, as the acute accent marked thus ("), the grave accent thus (), the circumflex thus (").

ACCEPTANCE. The signing or subscribing a bill of exchange with the word 'accepted,' and one's name, by which the acceptor obliges himself to pay the contents of the bill.

ACCESSARY, or ACCESSORY (in Law.) One guilty of an offence, not principally, but by participation.

ACCIDENCE. The rules of the inflexions of nouns and conjugations of verbs arranged in grammatical order.

ACCIDENT. That which belongs accidentally, not essentially, to a thing, as sweetness, softness, &c.; in Grammar, the termination of words.

ACCIPITRES. The first order of birds, including four genera of birds of prey, who have hooked bills, strong legs, and sharp claws. These are vultures, falcons, owls, and butcher birds.

ACCLAMATION. A shouting in concert, which was practised among the Romans as a token of applause, particularly in the theatres. This consisted in the chanting or repetition of certain words in a modulated tone, so as to make a kind of harmony.

ACCOMPANIMENT. An instrumental part added to any piece of music.

ACCOUNT, or ACCOMPT. The reckoning or bill of a tradesman; the statement of a merchant's dealings and affairs drawn out in regular order in his books, and called collectively Merchant's Accounts; also the books in which these accounts are kept.

ACCOUNTANT. A person employed to compute, adjust, and range in due order, accounts in commerce.

ACHROMATIC. Colourless; a term applied to telescopes which were first contrived by Dr. Bevis, to remedy the aberrations of colour. bleeding, in use among the Chinese and Japa ACIDIFIABLE. An epithet signifying nese, by making punctures or pricks with a capable of being converted into an acid by an gold or silver needle in any part of the body. acidifying principle; an acidifiable base or ra- It is chiefly employed in headaches, convuldical is any substance that is capable of uniting sions, lethargies, &c. with such a quantity of oxygen as to become possessed of acid properties.

2. They change vegetable blues to a red co-pent of Britain, and of a brown colour, the Zour.

ACROSTIC. A short poem whose succes-spermaceti, which is formed from an animal sive lines commence with the successive letters in its progress towards decomposition. in a word or words.

sists the general with his counsel and personal

service.

ADJUTANT. A large bird which lives on

carrion.

AD LIBITUM. At pleasure.

ADMEASUREMENT (in Law.) A writ against those who usurp more than their own share, as the Admeasurement of Pasture, or the Admeasurement of Dower.

ADMINISTRATOR (in Law.) The person to whom the estate and effects of an intestate are committed, for which he is to be accountable when required.

ENEID. The title of Virgil's epic poem, in which he celebrates the adventures of Æneas, as founder of Rome.

EOLIAN HARP. An arrangement of strings placed in a window and played upon by the wind.

EOLIC DIALECT. One of the five dialects of the Greek tongue.

EOLIPILE. A hollow metal ball with a slender pipe, used to show the convertibility of water into steam.

ADMIRAL. An officer of the first rank and command in a fleet. In England, the Lord High Admiral has the government of the king's ÆRA, or ERA. Any date, period, or event, navy. The admiral of the fleet is the highest from which a calculation of years is made to officer in the command of a fleet. There are commence. The principal æras are the vulbesides two gradations of admirals, namely, the vice admiral and the rear admiral, each of which is distinguished into three classes by the colour of their flags, as white, blue, and red. In the United States, the commander of a fleet is called commodore.

ADONAI. The name of Jehovah among the Jews.

ADONIS. A beautiful youth, the favourite of Venus, who was killed by a wild boar.

gar, or Christian era, dated from the birth of our Saviour; the æra of the creation, dated by Usher and most chronologists 4004 years before the vulgar æra; the æra of the Olympiads, dated about 776 years before the vulgar æra; the æra of the building of Rome, according to Varro, is 753 years before Christ; the era of Nabonassar, so dated from Nabonassar the first king of Babylon, 747 years before Christ; the era of the Hegira, or the Mahometan æra, dated from the hegira or flight of Mahomet from Mecca, dated about 622 years after Christ,

ADOPTION. A practice among the Greeks and Romans, of making a person one's heir, and investing him with all the rights and prior the vulgar æra. vileges of a son.

AD VALOREM. According to the value. ADVANCED GUARD, or VAN-GUARD (in the Military Art.) The first line or division of an army ranged or marching in order of battle.

ADVENT. The coming of our Saviour; also, a festival of the Episcopal church, commemorative of the Advent, which falls about a month before Christmas.

ADVERB. A part of speech in grammar, added to a verb to complete its signification, as largely, neatly, &c.

ADVERSARIA. A term among literary men for a common place book, wherein they enter whatever occurs to them in reading or conversation that is worthy of notice.

AEROLITES. Air stones, or meteoric stones falling from the atmosphere. These are semimetallic substances, the descent of which, though mentioned several times in history, has not been authenticated until these few years. The fact is, however, by recent and frequent observations, now put beyond all doubt. Two showers of stones are recorded by Livy and Julius Obsequens to have happened at Rome in the reign of Tullus Hostilius, and during the consulate of C. Martius and M. Torquatus; a shower of iron, in Lucania, mentioned by Pliny, and a shower of mercury by Dion. Among the moderns, Carden speaks of about 12,000 stones, one of 120 lbs. another of 60 lbs. that fell at Padua in Italy, in 1510; Gassendi of a stone of 59 lbs. on Mount Vaiser in Provence; Muschenbrock of two large stones in Ireland; St. Amand de Baudin and others of a great shower of stones in the environs of Agen, in 1790; the earl of Bristol of twelve stones at of Sienna in Tuscany, in 1794; Captain Topham of a stone of 56 lbs. at Wold Cottage in Yorkshire, in 1795; Dr. Southey of a stone of 10 lbs. in Portugal, in 1796; Philosophical Magazine, of a mass of iron 70 cubic feet, in America, in 1800; and M. Fourcroy of several stones from 10 lbs. to 17 lbs. that fell near L'Aigle in Normandy, besides other instances ADVOCATE. One who pleads for a fee equally well attested. The larger sort of these in a court of law, and in England called a bar-stones have been seen as luminous bodies to rister or counsellor. move with great velocity, descending in an EDILE. A Roman magistrate who had oblique direction, and frequently with a loud the charge of all public buildings, particularly hissing noise, resembling that of a mortar shell

ADVERTISEMENT. Any printed publication of circumstances, either of public or private interest, particularly that inserted in the

newspapers.

ADULT (in Civil Law.) Any person lawful age. ADULTERATION. The debasing of the coin by the mixture of impure metals; also, the debasing and corrupting any article of trade by putting improper ingredients in it, as is done very frequently by bakers, brewers, and other traders.