MODERN MEDICAL PRACTICE INCLINES TO THE USE OF ASTRINGENTS FOR INTERNAL APPLICATIONS, AND STYPTICS FOR EXTERNAL. AST] THE FIRST RECORDED OBSERVATORY WAS ON THE TEMPLE OF BELUS. A New Bictionary of the Belles Lettres. rice-Vetch, the seed of which resembles in shape the ankle-bone. Also a genus of plants, of the diadelphia-decandria class. ASTRICTION, the operation of astringent medicines. ASTRIN'GENTS, medicines of the corroborative class, which, acting as a stimulus, crisp and corrugate the fibres into a more compact tone; corroborate the solids, which are weakened, and consolidate such as are corroded and wounded. Such are the mineral acids and solutions of iron, zinc, &c. Peruvian bark is also highly astringent. ASTROLABE, in geometry, an instrument for the accurate measurement of angles. It generally consists of a horizontal circular plate of metal, having the degrees, minutes, and seconds marked on its outer edge. The astrolabe was formerly used by navigators to discover the situation of a vessel at sea without the aid of the compass; but it is now superseded by Hadley's quadrant. ASTROITES, or STAR STONE, a stone so called on account of its resemblance to a star. It has often been questioned among naturalists, whether they are parts of a petrified marine animal, or, as is more probable, a species of corals buried in the earth. The corals forming these stars are sometimes round, at other times angular; and their columns are sometimes separated, and sometimes the striæ run into each other. ASTROLOGY, is an art which may truly be said to be among the oldest superstitions in the world, and which consisted in judging or predicting human events from the situation and different aspects of the heavenly bodies. We read of it in the Mosaic history; and we know that those who professed the astrological art gave so much trouble at Rome, that they were at length banished by Tiberius. During the middle ages astrology and astronomy were cultivated in connexion by the Arabs, and their works on the subject are still extant. Nay, even so late as the 17th century astrology had its defenders among the learned men of Europe; but the Copernican system shook the foundations of the ancient science; and there are none but artful plunderers and ignorant dupes who, at the present day, give it the slightest counte nance. ASTRONOMY is that science which treats of the heavenly bodies, explaining the motions, times, and causes of the motions, distances, magnitudes, gravities, light, &c. of the sun, moon, and stars; the nature and causes of the eclipses of the sun and moon, the conjunction and opposition of the planets, and any other of their mutual aspects, with the time when any of them did or will happen. As the heavens may be considered either as they appear to the naked eye, or as they are discovered by the understanding, astronomy may be divided into spherical and theoretical. Spherical astronomy is the consideration of the universe as it offers itself to our sight; under which head come all the appearances of the heavens, such as we perceive them, without any inquiry into [AST the reason, the theory, or the truth of these appearances. Theoretical astronomy is the consideration of the true structure of the universe, accounting for the various phenomena of the heavenly bodies. This sublime science is founded in observation, but it receives its last perfection from calculation. Outrunning the cautious advances of observation, it descends from causes to phenomena, and on geometrical principles explains all the motions, magnitudes, and periods of revolution, of the heavenly bodies. This part has been called descriptive astronomy; and that which explains the causes of their motions, and demonstrates the laws by which those causes operate, physical astronomy. It is not within the scope of this work, however, to enter into the details of this science; but we shall briefly notice the most striking portions of its history. The generality of writers agree in assigning the origin of astronomy to the Chaldeans soon after the deluge, when, for the purpose of making their astrological predictions, to which they were much addicted, as also for that of advancing the science of astronomy, they devoted themselves to the study of the heavenly bodies. They discovered their motions and peculiar characters; and, from their supposed influences on human affairs, pretended to predict what was to come. The planets they called their interpreters, ascribing to Saturn the highest rank; the next in eminence was So, the sun; then Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter. By the motions and aspects of all these they foretold storms of wind and of rain, or excessive droughts, as also the appearance of comets, eclipses of the sun and moon, and other phenomena. The Egyptians also cultivated the science of astronomy about the same time, and there are some who ascribe to them the honour of being its real authors. The most ancient astronomical observations known to us are Chinese. (One, mentioned by Montucla, viz. a conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and the Moon, occurs almost 2500 years before the Christian era!) That the Indian Brahmins also made considerable advances in the science of astronomy, among the earliest people of antiquity, appears no less certain. But in the obscurity of ancient history it is no easy task to determine to what nation the merit is actually due. Descending, however, to classic times, we find, that astronomy made great progress in Greece, and that Thales calculated a solar eclipse about 600 years B.C. Pythagoras also seems to have been possessed of astronomical knowledge. After him, the Athenian Meton (B.c. 433) introduced the famous lunar cycle of 19 years, at the end of which time the new moon appears on the same day of the year as at the beginning of it, since 19 solar years constitute very nearly 235 lunations, a discovery which was then regarded as so important, that the calculation was engraved in letters of gold, whence the number which marks the year of the cycle is still called golden. Eratosthenes, a Cyrenian, who was born 271 B.C. measured the circumference of the JOB, HESIOD, AND HOMER MENTION SEVERAL OF THE CONSTELLATIONS. THE ROYAL LIBRARY AT PARIS CONTAINS A CHINESE CHART OF THE HEAVENS, MADE ABOUT 600 B. C. IN WHICH ARE 1460 STARS. 55 THE CHALDEANS HAD MADE ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS 1900 YEARS BEFORE THE TAKING OF BABYLON BY ALEXANDER, OR 2230 B. C. 56 AST] THE SUN IS INVARIABLY IN THE EXACT CENTRE OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. The Scientific and Literary Treasury; earth; and, being invited to the court of Ptolemy Evergetes at Alexandria, he was made keeper of the royal library, and set up there the armillary spheres which Hipparchus and Ptolemy afterwards used so effectually. He also determined the distance between the tropics to be 11-83 of the whole meridian circle, which makes the obliquity of the ecliptic in his time to be 23 degrees, 51 minutes and one-third. Archimedes is said to have constructed a planetarium to represent the phenomena and motions of the heavenly bodies; and many others added to the stock of astronomical knowledge; but none so much as Hipparchus, who flourished about 140 years B.C. and surpassed all that had gone before him in the extent of his researches. He showed that the orbits of the planets were eccentric, and that the moon moved slower in her apogee than in her perigee. He constructed tables of the motions of the sun and moon; collected accounts of eclipses that had been computed by the Chaldeans and Egyptians; and calculated such as would happen for six hundred years to come; besides correcting the errors of Eratosthenes in his measurement of the earth's circumference, and computing the sun's distance more accurately. He is, however, most distinguished by his catalogue of the fixed stars to the number of a thousand and twenty-two, with their latitudes and longitudes, and apparent magnitudes. These and most other of his observations are preserved by his illustrious successor Ptolemy. From the time of Hipparchus, a chasm exists in the history of astronomy, till the commencement of the 2d century after Christ, when Ptolemy compiled a complete system of astronomy, in 13 books, which is known under the name of Almagest, given it by the Arabians, who translated it into their language in 827, and which, as the Ptolemæan system, notwithstanding its many errors, has maintained its value down to the latest times. The Arabians continued for many ages to direct their attention to astronomical science; and though they confounded it with the dreams of astrologers, they, nevertheless, deserve the regard of all who came after them, by their valuable observations. Among the Christian nations, at this period, a profound ignorance generally prevailed; but in the 13th century, astronomy, as well as other arts and sciences, began to revive in Europe, particularly under the auspices of the emperor Frederic II.; who, besides restoring some decayed universities, founded a new one, and in 1230 caused the works of Aristotle, and the Almagest of Ptolemy, to be translated into Latin. King Alphonso of Castile, about the same time, invited to his court several astronomers, and commissioned them to prepare a set of new astronomical tables, which, under the name of Alphonsine Tables, have acquired much celebrity; but, in the 17th century, differed a whole degree from the true situation of the celestial bodies. We now approach the era of reviving science. Many astronomers of inferior note paved the way, by various [AST insulated observations, for the great restorer of astronomy, Copernicus, who, at the beginning of the 16th century, gave the science an entirely different aspect, exploded the Ptolemæan hypothesis, and, in its stead, substituted the Copernican system of the world, which, with a few modifications, is still prevalent, and universally acknowledged to be correct. He it was that gave the sun its place in the centre of the planetary system, and who first conceived the bold idea that the earth is a planet, like Mercury, Venus, and the rest, and moves, in common with them, in a circle round the sun. His system did not, however, immediately meet with a general reception; and among other opponents was Tycho Brahe, a Dane; who asserted that the earth is immovable, in the centre of the universe, and that the whole heavens turned round it in 24 hours, an opinion which he supported, principally, by the literal sense of various passages in the Bible, where a total absence of motion is ascribed to the earth. His pupil and assistant Kepler, however, found that all the planets revolved in elliptical orbits, in one of the foci of which the sun was placed; and he moreover demonstrated that, in each elliptical revolution of the planets round the sun, an imaginary straight line, drawn from the latter to the former, always describes equal areas; and lastly, that, in the revolutions of the planets and satellites, the squares of the times of revolution are as the cubes of the mean distances from the larger body. These great discoveries paved the way for views still more comprehensive. Kepler had been indulged with a faint glimpse of the mutual tendency of all bodies to one another; and Dr. Hook went so far as to show that the motions of the planets were produced by the attractive agency of the sun, combined with the force which had originally projected them: but it was reserved for Newton to establish the law of universal gravitation in its entire generality, and to apply it with demonstrative evidence to all the movements within the solar system. His doctrine was, that all material bodies attract each other with a force directly proportional to the number of their particles, and inversely proportional to the squares of their distances. Descartes had sought the cause of the motion of the planets around the sun, and of the satellites around the planets, in the rotatory motion of a subtile matter. But Newton and Kepler have rescued the laws of the material universe from the thraldom of a false philosophy, and left to later times merely the developement of the truths which they established. By the application of their principles, as well as by new discoveries, several succeeding astronomers have gained a high reputation; namely, Halley, by his theory of comets; Bouguer and Maupertuis, by their exertions to determine the form of the earth; Mayer, by his lunar tables; Bradley, by the discovery of the aberration of light; also Euler, d'Alembert,Lalande, Lagrange, Laplace, Sir W. Herschel, Olbers, Piozzi, Encke, &c.; besides many who are now liv HERSCHEL MEASURED A SPOT IN THE SUN 50,000 MILES IN DIAMETER. IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM IS THE ORIGINAL WORK OF COPERNICUS, ENTITLED "NICOLAI COPERNICI TORIENSIS DE REVOLUTIONIBUS ORBIUM." "VENI, VIDI, VICI" IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE ASYNDETON; IT IS OPPOSED TO POLYSYNDETON, WHICH IS A MULTIPLICATION OF CONNECTIVES. ATC] ATHEISM LEAVES US NOTHING TO EXCITE AWE OR AWAKEN TENDERNESS. A New Bictionary of the Belles Lettres. ing, among whom Sir John Herschel, Sir James South, Leverrier, Mr. Airy, and Mr. Adams, deserve especial mention. This science unites the strictness of mathematical reasoning with an exalted feeling for the sublime and beautiful, and fills the mind both with confidence in itself, from its ability to calculate with certainty the career of distant worlds, and with becoming humility in reflecting how small a part of the universe is our earth, and how brief its known duration, compared with the immense periods which enter into the calculations of astronomy. ASTROSCOPE, an astronomical instrument, composed of two cones, on whose surface the constellations are delineated, by means of which the situation of the stars may easily be known. ASTROSCOPIA, in astronomy, the art of examining the stars by telescopes. ASTRUM, in astronomy, a constellation or assemblage of stars. In alchemy, ASTRUM denotes the power imparted by chemical mixture. ASYLUM, in antiquity, a place of refuge for offenders, where they were screened from the hands of justice. The asyla of altars and temples were very ancient. The Jews had their asyla; the most remarkable of which were, the temple, the altar of burnt offerings, and the six cities of refuge. A similar custom prevailed both among the Greeks and Romans, where temples, altars, and statues, were places of refuge for criminals of every description. They had an idea, that a criminal who fled to the temple or altar, submitted his crime to the punish ment of the gods, and that it would be impiety in man to take vengeance out of their hands. In former times the like immunities were granted by the pope to churches, convents, &c.; and so well did the ecclesiastics improve their privileges, that convents in a little time became a kind of for. tresses, where the most notorious offenders were in safety; nor could they be removed without a legal assurance of life, and an entire remission of the crime. A'SYMPTOTE, in mathematics, a line which approaches nearer to another continually, and never meets it. It is properly applied to straight lines approaching a curve. ASYN'DETON, in rhetoric or composition, the omission of conjunctions, or other connecting particles of speech, in order to render the sentence more lively and impressive. ATABAL, a kind of tabor used among the Moors. ATARAX'IA, or ATARAXY, a term used to denote that calmness of mind which secures us from all emotions arising from vanity or self-conceit. In this consisted the summum bonum, or sovereign good, of the Stoics. ATAXY, in a general sense, the want of order: with physicians it signifies the irregularity of crises and paroxysms of fevers. ATCHIE'VEMENT, or ACHIEVEMENT, in heraldry, means the arms of any [ATH family, with all the ornaments appendant A'THEIST, one who denies the existence of God or Providence. Some distinguish speculative atheists, or those who are so from principle and theory, from practical athiests, whose wicked lives incline them to believe, or rather to wish, that there were no God. Perhaps it is not to be wondered at, that among the smatterers in that philosophy which describes matter as acting upon matter by necessary laws, and thus producing necessary effects, some should be tempted to reject the existence of a primitive and preserving cause: especially, as in the pursuit of that philosophy the mind is accustomed to find every thing explained upon mechanical and comprehensible prin. ciples, while a distinct conception of a God exceeds the intellectual capacity of man. Lord Bacon observes, that though a smattering of philosophy may lead a man into atheism, a deep draught will certainly bring him back again to the belief of a God and Providence. We may have analyzed the component parts of matter, and reduced those parts into atoms; but, after all, what have we found that will supply the place of a Creator? It were more rational to believe that the majestic oak produces, of its own power and intelligence, its foliage and its fruit, than that atoms, of their power and intelligence, produced the majestic oak. Matter, then, must have had a Creator; and it is of little consequence to the fact, whether it acts upon instinctive endowments, or is senseless, and obeys controlling laws: in either case, a superior power and intelligence are indispensable. This power and intelligence must have existed from all eternity; since, if it ever began to be, it must have had a cause capable of producing it; and thus, to whatever distance we push the perspective, a deity closes up the scene: it must exist eternally, unless that which produced all matter, can itself be annihilated, and the source of life expire. ATH'ELING, the title given to the king's eldest son among the Saxons, as the Prince of Wales is in our time. ATHENE UM, in antiquity, a public school wherein the professors of the liberal arts held their assemblies, the rhetoricians declaimed, and the poets rehearsed their performances. These places, of which there were a great number at Athens, were built in the manner of amphitheatres, encompassed with seats called cunei. The three HOPE DIES IN THE BREAST OF AN ATHEIST, AND HE LIVES A MONSTER. BY "ASTRO-THEOLOGY" IS MEANT, THAT SYSTEM OF THEOLOGY WHICH IS FOUNDED ON THE OBSERVATION OF THE CELESTIAL BODIES. 57 "ATHWART HAUSE," IS THE SITUATION OF A SHIP WHEN SHE LIES ACROSS THE STEM OF ANOTHER, WHETHER NEAR OR AT A DISTANCE. 58 THE COLD AND HEAT OF CLIMATES MUCH DEPEND ON THE VICINITY OF SEAS. ATM] The Scientific and Literary Treasury; most celebrated Athenæa were those at Athens, at Rome, and at Lyons, the second of which was built by the emperor Adrian. ATHENIPPUM, in medicine, an affusion for the eyes. ATHER, the prickly part or beard of barley. ATHE'RA, in medicine, a kind of pap for children; also a kind of liniment. ATHER'OMA, in surgery, a soft uninflamed tumour, generally contained within a cyst or bag, and often found under the arm-pits, the finger-joints, &c. ATHLETE, in antiquity, men of remarkable strength and agility, disciplined to perform in the public games. This was a general term, under which were comprehended wrestlers, boxers, runners, leapers, throwers of the disk, and those who practised in other exercises exhibited in the Olympic, Pythian, and other solemn sports, wherein there were prizes allotted for the conquerors. ATHLOTHETÆ, in antiquity, the judges who presided at the athletic games. ATHWART', a sea term, signifying across the line of a ship's course. ATHYM'IA, in medicine, dejection of spirits attendant upon some diseases. ATIBAR, in commerce, gold dust on the coast of Africa. ATLANTES, in architecture, images of men, as pillars, supporting the buildings like the Caryatides. ATLANTIDES, in astronomy, another name for the Pleiades. ATLAS, in geography, a collection of maps; more properly, a book containing maps of the whole world; so called from Atlas, who was fabled to have borne the world on his shoulders. It is also the name of a chain of high mountains in Africa, extending from the coast of the Atlantic to the border of Egypt.-ATLAS, a rich kind of satin, manufactured in the East-Indies, plain, striped, or flowered, and inter-worked with gold. They are manufactured with an excellence beyond the reach of European art, and were formerly in great repute, though but little used now. ATMOSPHERE, is that invisible elastic fluid, or vast collection of air, which surrounds the earth to an unknown height, and encloses it on all sides; a fluid essential to the existence of all animal and vegetable life, and even to the constitution of all kinds of matter whatever. This aerial fluid, or atmosphere, is not only admirably fitted for the respiration and nourishment of animals, for the growth of vegetables, the production and propagation of sounds, &c. but greatly contributes also to make our habitable earth that beautiful scene of variety which it now is. The numberless small particles of various kinds, which float in the air, receive the light from the sun, and like so many small specula or looking-glasses, reflect and scatter it through the air, and this occasions that light which we see in the daytime, by which our eyes are affected so strongly, as to render the fainter light of the stars insensible. By this means the [ATM stars are illuminated all round us by the sun, not only whilst he is above our horizon, but also for some time before his rising, and after his setting, so long as any of his rays can either directly, or by refraction, reach any part of the atmosphere within our visible horizon; for the air, as well as all other mediums which transmit light, refracts or bends the rays of it, if they come into it from a different medium. -Height, Weight, and Pressure of the Atmosphere. Though it is impossible to assign the real height of the atmosphere, it nevertheless appears certain from experiments, that 45 or 50 miles is the utmost height where the density is sufficient to refract a ray of light; and, therefore, that may be accounted the altitude of the atmosphere, to the least sensible degree of density. If the air were of an equal density throughout, the height of the atmosphere might be determined: for it appears from experiments, that a column of air 72 feet high is equal in weight to one inch of water of the same base; so that the density of air is to that of water as 1 to 864. It has also been found by experiment, that the weight of a column of air, reaching to the height of the atmosphere, will be equal to the weight of a column of water of the same base, and 32 feet, or 384 inches high. Hence 864 x 384 gives 331776 inches, or somewhat more than five miles for the height of the atmosphere, were the density of the air every where the same as at the earth. But since its density decreases with the pressure, it will be more rarefied and expanded the higher we go; by which means the height of the atmosphere becomes indefinite, and terminates in pure æther. The pressure of the atmosphere on the whole surface of the earth is said to be equivalent to that of a globe of lead of sixty miles in diameter. Admitting therefore the surface of a man's body to be about 15 square feet, and the pressure about 15lb. on a square inch, it is computed that a man must sustain 32,400lb., or nearly 14 tons and a half weight; but the difference in the weight sustained in different states of the atmosphere may be as much as a ton and a half. Taking this calculation as a philosophical fact, and that every animal supports so many fifteen pounds as the surface of the body contains square inches, it may naturally be asked, why men and beasts are not crushed to pieces by such a prodigious weight of air? To this we reply that the repeated experiments which have been made, by means of the air-pump, fully demonstrate that it is owing to the equilibrium of the internal air, or the air included in all bodies, which, though it be small, can, by its reaction, counterpoise and resist the pressure of the external air, how great soever it be. But there are many other atmospheric phenomena, equally extraordinary, and still more difficult to explain, than those which have been here noticed. Among the principal ones are heat and electricity. The first raises and suspends the evaporated waters invisibly in the air, until some more IN OUR HEMISPHERE, NORTH-EAST SITUATIONS ARE ALWAYS THE COLDEST, IN SUMMER, THE ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY IS AT ITS HEIGHT AT MID-DAY; IN WINTER, IT REACHES IT ABOUT EIGHT O'CLOCK AT NIGHT. HOAR FROST AND SNOW PRESENT TO THE EYE, WHEN SEEN THROUGH A MICROSCOPE, AN ENDLESS VARIETY OF CRYSTALS ATM] MELTED SNOW PRODUCES ABOUT ONE-EIGHTH OF ITS BULK IN WATER. A New Dictionary of the Belles Lettres. powerful attraction dissolves the union, and the moisture again revisits the earth in the various forms of clouds, mist, rain, dew, snow, hail, sleet, or hoar-frost; while to electricity may be principally attributed the lightning, the aurora-borealis, and other igneous meteors. The constituent parts of the earth's atmosphere are nitrogen and oxygen, which are found every where, and at all times, nearly in the proportion of 79 to 21. Besides these, there is a small portion of carbonic acid, a variable portion of aqueous vapour, and a very small quantity of hydrogen. It also contains, in the form of vapour, a multitude of adventitious substances, in those injurious mixtures known under the name of miasmata, the nature of which can hardly be investigated. By means, however, of the currents of air, which we term winds, the whole of the ingredients of the atmosphere are continually amalgamated together; for we find that though the atmosphere may diminish in lightness as we ascend, there is precisely the same general character pervading it throughout. By gradual, but almost insensible expansions, the equipoised currents of the atmosphere are disturbed, the stormy winds arise, and the waves of the sea are lifted up; and that stagnation of air and water is prevented which would be fatal to animal existence. We will conclude this article by quoting a few of Professor Leslie's plain and simple facts on this interesting subject. 1. The mean height of the barometer (that is, the mean weight or pressure of the atmosphere) at the level of the sea, is the same at every part of the globe. 2. The mean temperature of the earth's surface increases gradually from the poles to the equator. 3. The mean temperature of the atmosphere decreases from below upwards in a regular gradation. 4. The heating and cooling of the atmosphere, by the changes of day and night, take place equally throughout its mass. 5. A wind generally sets from the sea to the land during the day, and from the land to the sea during the night, especially in hot climates. 6. As we advance towards the polar regions, we find the irregularities of the wind increased; and storms and calms repeatedly alternate, without warning or progression. 7. More than two currents may often be traced in the atmosphere at one time, by the motion of clouds, &c. 8. The force of the winds does not always decrease as the elevation increases, but, on the contrary, is often found to augment rapidly. 9. Northerly winds almost invariably raise the barometer, while southerly winds as constantly depress it. The same authority also states, that the British islands are situate in such a manner as to be subject to all the circumstances which can possibly be supposed to render a climate írregular and variable. Placed nearly in the centre of the temperate zone, where the range of temperature is very great, their atmosphere is subject, on the one side, to the impressions of the largest continent in [ATR the world; and, on the other, to the vast Atlantic Ocean. Upon their coasts the great stream of aqueous vapour perpetually arising from the western waters, first receives the influence of the land, whence emanate those condensations and expansions which deflect and reverse the grand system of equipoised currents. They are also within the frigorific effects of the immense barriers and fields of ice, which, when the shifting position of the sun advances the tropical climate towards the northern pole, counteract its energy, and present a condensing surface of enormous extent to the increasing elasticity of the aqueous atmosphere. ATMOSPHERIC TIDES, are certain periodical changes in the atmosphere, similar to those of the ocean, and produced from nearly the same causes; of this description are the equinoctial winds. ATOM, in philosophy, a particle of matter, so minute as to admit of no division. Atoms are the minima naturæ, and are conceived as the first principal or component parts of all physical magnitude. From the earliest times of antiquity, down to the present day, two opinions directly opposed to each other, have divided the world on this subject; the one, that matter is composed of an assemblage of minute particles, or atoms, incapable of farther division; the other, that there is no limit to its divisibility, the smallest conceivable portion still consisting of an infinity of parts. The first of these theories, which is commonly distinguished by the name of the ATOMIC PHILOSOPHY, was originated in Greece by Leucippus; it was supported by Democritus, and subsequently improved by Epicurus and his disciples. The Epicureans professed to account for the origin and formation of all things by supposing that these atoms were endued with gravity and motion, and thus came together into the different organized bodies we now see. ATOMIC THEORY, a phrase expressive of a species of philosophy recently introduced into chemistry, and grounded on the axiom that "chemical union consists in the combination of the atoms of bodies with each other;" so that when two bodies chemically unite and form a third body, the two substances united are dispersed every where through the new compound. ATONY, a defect of tone or tension, or a relaxation of the solids of the body. ATRA BILIS, a disposition to a dark biliary secretion, usually visible throughout the whole frame. ATRACTYLIS, a plant called distaffthistle, the leaves of which are aperitive and sudorific. ATRIEN'SES, in Roman antiquity, servants entrusted with the care of the most valuable description of property.. ATRIP', in nautical language, is applied either to the anchor or sails. The anchor is atrip when it is just drawn out of the ground in a perpendicular direction. The top-sails are atrip when they are just started from the cap. A CONSTANT DRAUGHT OF AIR IS NECESSARY TO SUPPORT A FIRE. 59 THE BRILLIANT TINTS SEEN AT THE RISING AND SETTING OF THE SUN, ARE CAUSED BY THE REFRANGIBILITY OF THE INTERCEPTING VAPOURS. |