friend Gaius. On the same day 100,000 sesterces, that could not be invested, were put into the money-box.-On the same day a fire broke out in the gardens of Pompey, which arose in the steward's house," &c. The Acta differed from the Annals (which were discontinued in B.C. 133) in this respect, among others, that only the greater and more important matters were given in the latter, while in the former things of less note also were recorded. The origin of the Acta is attributed to Julius Cæsar, who first ordered the keeping and publishing of the acts of the people by public officers. Some trace them back as far as Servius Tullius, who it was believed ordered that the next of kin, on occasion of a birth, should register the event in the temple of Venus, and on occasion of a death, should register it in the temple of Libitina. The Acta were drawn up from day to day, and exposed in a public place to be read or copied by all who chose to do so. After remaining there for a reasonable time they were taken down and preserved with other public documents.

ACTA SENATUS, among the Romans, were minutes of the discussions and decisions of the senate. These were also called Commentarii Senatus, and, by a Greek name, ὑπομνήματα. Before the consulship of Julius Cæsar, minutes of the proceedings of the senate were written and occasionally published, but unofficially. Cæsar first ordered the minutes to be recorded and published authoritatively. The keeping of them was continued by Augustus, but the publication was forbidden. Some prominent senator was usually chosen to draw up these Acta. ACTÆON, in Fabulous History, son of Aristæus and Autonoë, a famous hunter. He was torn to pieces by his own dogs. Various accounts are given of this occurrence; but the best known story is that told by Ovid, who represents him as accidentally seeing Diana as she was bathing, when she changed him into a stag, and he was pursued and killed by his dogs.

ACTIAN GAMES, in Roman Antiquity, solemn games instituted by Augustus, in memory of his victory over Antony at Actium. See ACTIUM.

ACTINIA, a genus of cœlenterate animals, of which the sea-anemone is the type. See ACTINOzoa.

ACTINISM (from åkтís, a ray), that property of the solar rays whereby they produce chemical effects, as in photography. The actinic force is greatest in the blue and violet rays of the spectrum.

ACTINOMETER (measurer of solar rays), a thermometer with a large bulb, filled with a dark-blue fluid, and enclosed in a box, the sides of which are blackened, and the whole covered with a thick plate of glass. It was the invention of the late Sir John Herschel, and was first described in the Edinburgh Journal of Science for 1825. It is used for measuring the heating power of the sun's rays, the amount of which is ascertained by exposing the bulb for equal intervals of time in sunshine and shade alternately.

ACTINOZOA, a group of animals, of which the most familiar examples are the sea-anemones and "coral insects" of the older writers. The term was first employed by de Blainville, to denote a division of the Animal Kingdom having somewhat different limits from that to which its application is restricted in the present article; in which it is applied to one of the two great divisions of the CŒLENTERATA, the other being the Hydrozoa.

The Actinozoa agree with the Hydrozoa in the primitive and fundamental constitution of the body of two membranes, an ectoderm and an endoderm,-between which a middle layer or mesoderm may subsequently arise,-in the absence of a completely differentiated alimentary canal, and in possessing thread cells, or nematocysts; but they present a somewhat greater complexity of structure.

This is manifest, in the first place, in their visceral tube, or "stomach," as it is often called, which is continued from the margins of the mouth, for a certain distance, into the interior cavity of the body, but which is always open at its fundus into that cavity. And, secondly, in the position of the reproductive elements, which, in the Hydrozoa, are always developed in parts of the body wall which are in immediate relation with the external surface, and generally form outward projections; while, in the Actinozoa, they are as constantly situated in the lateral walls of the chambers into which the body cavity is divided. In consequence of this arrangement, the ova, or sexually generated embryos, of the Actinozoa are detached into the interior of the body, and usually escape from it by the oral aperture; while those of the Hydrozoa are at once set free on the exterior surface of that part of the body in which they are formed.

The Actinozoa comprise two groups, which are very different in general appearance and habit, though really similar in fundamental structure. These are

1. The Coralligena or sea-anemones, coral animals, and sea-pens; and 2. The Ctenophora.

(1.) The Coralligena.-A common sea-anemone presents a subcylindrical body, terminated at each end by a disk. The one of these discoidal ends serves to attach the ordinarily sedentary animal; the other exhibits in the centre a mouth, which is usually elongated in one direction, and, at each end, presents folds extending down into the gastric cavity. This circumstance greatly diminishes the otherwise generally radial symmetry of the disk, and of the series of flexible conical tentacles which start from it; and, taken together with some other circumstances, raises a doubt whether even these animals are not rather bilaterally, than radially, symmetrical. Each tentacle is hollow, and its base communicates with one of the chambers into which the cavity of the body is divided, by thin membranous lamellæ, the so-called mesenteries, which radiate from the oral disk and the lateral walls of the body to the parietes of the visceral tube. The inferior edges of the mesenteries are free, and arcuated in such a manner as to leave a central common chamber, into the circumference of which all the intermesenteric spaces open, while above, it communicates with the visceral tube. The tentacles may be perforated at their extremities, and, in some cases, the body wall itself exhibits apertures leading into the intermesenteric spaces. The free edges of the mesenteries present thickenings, like the hem of a piece of linen, each of which is much longer than the distance between the gastric and the parietal attachment of the mesentery, and hence is much folded on itself. It is full of thread cells. The mesoderm, or middle layer of the body, which lies between the ectoderm and the endoderm, consists of a fibrillated connective tissue, containing fusiform or stellate nucleated cells, and possesses longitudinal and circular muscular fibres. These are prolonged into the mesenteries, and attain a great development in the disk of attachment, which serves as a sort of foot like that of a limpet.

The question whether the Coralligena possess a nervous system and organs of sense, hardly admits of a definite answer at present. It is only in the Actinide that the existence of such organs has been asserted; and the nervous circlet of Actinia, described by Spix, has been seen by no later investigator, and may be safely assumed to be nonexistent. But Professor P. M. Duncan, F.R.S., in a paper "On the Nervous System of Actinia," recently communicated to the Royal Society, has affirmed the existence of a nervous apparatus, consisting of fusiform ganglionic cells, united by nerve fibres, which resemble the sympathetic nerve fibrils of the Vertebrata, and form a plexus, which appears to extend throughout the pedal disk, and very probably into other parts of the body. In some of I. - 17

the Actinide (e.g., Actinia mesembryanthemum), brightly coloured bead-like bodies are situated on the oral disk outside the tentacles. The structure of these "chromatophores," or "bourses calicinales," has been carefully investigated by Schneider and Röttekem, and by Professor Duncan. They are diverticula of the body wall, the surface of which is composed of close-set "bacilli," beneath which lies a layer of strongly-refracting spherules, followed by another layer of no less strongly refracting cones. Subjacent to these Professor Duncan finds ganglion cells and nerve plexuses. It would seem, therefore, that these bodies are rudimentary eyes.

At the breeding season the ova or spermatozoa are evolved in the thickness of the mesenteries, and are discharged into the intermesenteric spaces, the ova undergoing their development within the body of the parent. The yelk, usually, if not always, enclosed in a vitelline membrane, undergoes complete division, and the outer wall of the ciliated blastodermic mass which results becomes invaginated, the embryo being thereby converted into a double walled sac-the external aperture of which is the future mouth, while the contained cavity represents the body cavity. In this stage the larval Actinia represents the Gastrula condition of sponges and Hydrozoa. The edges of the oral aperture grow inwards, giving rise to a circular fold, which is the rudiment of the visceral tube. This is at first connected with the body wall by only two mesenteries, which are seated at opposite ends of one of the transverse diameters of the body. As the mesenteries increase in number, the tentacles grow out as diverticula of the intermesenteric spaces. In all the Coralligena, the development of which has been observed, the embryo is converted into a simple actinozoon in a similar manner; but from this point they diverge in two directions. In one great group, the mesenteries, and the tentacles which arise from the intermesenteric chambers, increase in number to six; and then, in the great majority of cases, the intermesenteric spaces undergo subdivision by the development of new mesenteries, according to curious and somewhat complicated numerical laws, until their number is increased to some multiple of five or six. In these Hexacoralla (as they have been termed by Hacckel) the tentacles also usually remain rounded and conical. In the other group, the Octocoralla, the mesenteries and the tentacles increase to eight, but do not surpass that number; and the tentacles become flattened and serrated at the edges, or take on a more or less pennatifid character.

There are no Octocoralla which retain the simple individuality of the young actinozoon throughout life; but all increase by gemmation, and give rise to compound organisms, which may be arborescent, and fixed by the root end of the common stem, as in the Alcyonidæ and Gorgonidæ; or may possess a central stem which is not fixed, and gives off lateral branches which undergo comparatively little subdivision, as in the Pennatulida.

The body cavities of the zooids of these compound Octocoralla are in free communication with a set of canals which ramify through the cœnosarc, or common fabric of the stem and branches by which they are borne, and which play the part of a vascular system.

Except in the case of Tubipora, the zooids and the superficial cœnosare give rise to no continuous skeleton; but the deep or inner substance of the cœnosarc may be converted into a solid rod-like or branching stem.

In the Hexacoralia, on the other hand, one large group, that of the Actinide, consists entirely of simple organisms,-organisms that is, in which the primitive actinozoon attains its adult condition without budding or fission; or if it bud or divide, the products of the operation separate from one another. No true skeleton is formed,

all are to some extent locomotive, and some (Minyas) float freely by the help of their contractile pedal region. The most remarkable form of this group is the genus Cereanthus, which has two circlets, each composed of numerous tentacles, one immediately around the oral aperture, the other at the margin of the disk. The foot is elongated, subconical, and generally presents a pore at its apex. Of the diametral folds of the oral aperture, one pair is much longer than the other, and is produced as far as the pedal pore. The larva is curiously like a young hydrozoon with free tentacles, and at first possesses four mesenteries, whence it may be doubted whether Cereanthus does not rather belong to the Octocoralla.

The Zoanthidæ differ from the Actinide in little more than their multiplication by buds, which remain adherent, either by a common connecting mass or cœnosare or by stolons; and in the possession of a rudimentary, spicular skeleton.

On the other hand, the proper stone-corals (as contradistinguished from the red coral) are essentially Actinia, which become converted into compound organisms by gemmation or fission, and develope a continuous skeleton.

The skeletal parts of the Actinozoa, to which reference has been made, consist either of a substance of a horny character; or of an organic basis impregnated with earthy salts (chiefly of lime and magnesia), but which can be isolated by the action of dilute acids; or finally, of calcareous salts in an almost crystalline state, forming rods or corpuscles, which, when treated with acids, leave only an inappreciable and structureless film of organic matter. The hard parts of all the Aporosa, Perforata, and Tabulata of Milne Edwards are in the last-mentioned condition; while, in the Octocoralla (except Tubipora) the Antipathida, and Zoanthidæ, the skeleton is either horny, or consists, at any rate, to begin with, of definitely formed spicula, which contain an organic basis, and frequently present a laminated structure. In the organ coral (Tubipora), however, the skeleton has the character of that of the ordinary stonecorals, except that it is perforated by numerous minute canals.

The skeleton appears, in all cases, to be deposited within the mesoderm, and in the intercellular substance of that layer of the body. Even the definitely shaped spicula of the Octocoralla are not the result of the metamorphosis of cells. In the simple aporose corals the calcification of the base and side walls of the body gives rise to the cup or theca; from this the calcification radiates inwards, in correspondence with the mesenterics, and gives rise to as many vertical septa, the spaces between which are termed loculi; while, in the centre, either by union of the septa or independently, a pillar, the columella, grows up. From the sides of adjacent septa scattered processes of calcified substance, or synapticulæ, may grow out toward one another, as in the Fungida; or the interruption of the cavities of the loculi may be more complete by the formation of shelves stretching from septum to septum, but lying at different heights in adjacent loculi. These are interseptal dissepiments. Finally, in the Tabulata, horizontal plates, which stretch completely across the cavity of the theca, are formed one above the other and constitute tabular dissepiments.

In the Aporosa the theca and septa are almost invariably imperforate; but in the Perforata they present apertures, and in some madrepores the whole skeleton is reduced to a mere network of dense calcareous substance. When the Hexacoralla multiply by gemmation or fission, and thus give rise to compound massive or aborescent aggregations, each newly-formed coral polype developes a skeleton

* See Kölliker's Icones Histologica, 1866.

of its own, which is either confluent with that of the others, or is united with them by calcification of the connecting substance of the common body. This intermediate skeletal layer is then termed coenenchyma.

The Octocoralla (excepting Tubipora) give rise to no thecae and their dependencies, the skeleton of each polype, and of the superficial portion of the polyparium, being always composed of loose and independent spicula. But in many, as the Gorgonidæ, Pennatulidæ (and in the Antipathide among the Hexacoralla), the central part of the common stem of the compound organism becomes hardened, either by conversion into a mere horny axis (which may be more or less impregnated with calcareous salts) without spicula; or the cornification may be accompanied by a massive development of spicula, either continuously or at intervals; or the main feature of the skeleton may, from the first, be the development of spieula, which become soldered together by a subcrystalline intermediate deposit, as in the red coral of commerce (Corallium rubrum).

It has seemed advisable to say thus much concerning the hard parts of the Actinozoa in this place, but the details of the structure and development of the skeleton of the Coralligena will be discussed under CORALS and CORAL REEFS.

The Tabulata, or Millepores, and the Rugosa, an extinct and almost exclusively Palæozoic group of stone-coral forming animals, are usually referred to the Coralligena. Judging by the figures given by Agassiz1 of living Millepores, the polypes which cover its surface are undoubtedly much more similar to coryinform Hydrozoa than they are to any Actinozoon. But it is to be observed, firstly, that we have no sufficient knowledge of the intimate structure of the polypes thus figured; and, secondly, that the figures show not the least indication of the external reproductive organs which are so conspicuous in the Hydrozoa, and which surely must have been present in some one or other of the Millepores examined, were they really Hydrozoa. As regards the Rugosa, the presence of septa is a strong argument against their belonging to any group but the Actinozoa, though it is not to be forgotten that a tendency to the development of septiform prominence is visible in the walls of the gastric passages of certain calcareous sponges.

Phenomena analogous to the "alternation of generations," which is so common among the Hydrozoa, are unknown among the great majority of the Actinozoa. But Semper2 has recently described a process of sexual multiplication in two species of Fungice, which he ranks under this head. The Fungia bud out from a branched stem, and then become detached and free, as is the habit of the genus. To make the parallel with the production of a Medusa from a Scyphistoma complete, however, the stem should be nourished by an asexual polype of a different character from the forms of Fungia which are produced by gemmation. And this does not appear to be the case.

Dimorphism has been observed by Kölliker to occur extensively among the Pennatulide. Each polypary presents at least two different sets of zooids, some being fully developed, and provided with sexual organs, while the others have neither tentacles nor generative organs, and exhibit some other peculiarities. These abortive zooids are either scattered irregularly among the others (e.g., Sarcophyton, Veretillum), or may occupy a definite position (e.g., Virgularia).

(2.) The Ctenophora.-These are all freely swimming,

1 Contributions to the Natural History of the United States. iii. Plate XV.

Vol.

2 Ueber Generations-Wechsel bei Steinkorallen. Leipzig, 1872. 3 Abhandlungen der Senkenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesell schaft, bd. vii. viii.

actively locomotive, marine animals, which do not multiply by gemmation, nor form compound organisms such as the polyparies of the Coralligena. Like the latter they are composed of a cellular ectoderm and endoderm, between which a mesoderm, containing stellate connective tissue corpuscles and muscular fibres, is interposed. But, in most parts of the organism, the mesoderm acquires a great thickness and a gelatinous consistency; so that the body of one of these animals differs in this respect from that of an Actinia in the same way as the body of a Cyanoa differs from that of a Hydra. The bilateral symmetry, which is obscure in most of the Coralligena, becomes obvious in the Ctenophora, in which the parts are disposed symmetrically on each side of a vertical plane passing through the longitudinal axis of the body. The oral aperture is situated at one end of this axis (or its oral pole), while at the opposite extremity (or aboral pole) there is very generally situated a sac containing solid mineral particles— the lithocyst.

The oral aperture leads into a visceral tube, which undoubtedly performs the functions of a stomach. Nevertheless, as in the Coralligena, it is open at its aboral end, and its cavity is thus placed in direct communication with a chamber, whence canals are given off which penetrate the gelatinous mesoderm. Of these canals, one continues the direction of the axis of the body, and usually ends by two apertures at the aboral pole. The others take a direction. in a plane more or less at right angles with the axis; and after branching out, terminate in longitudinal canals, which lie beneath the series of locomotive paddles, or come into relation with the tentacles when such organs are developed. In addition to these, two canals frequently extend along the sides of the stomach towards the oral pole. The paddle-like locomotive plates are disposed in eight longitudinal series (ctenophores) on the outer surface of the body. They are thick at the base; thin and, as it were, frayed out into separate filaments, at their free edges; and each plate is set transversely to the long axis of the series of which it forms a part. The ovaria and testes are developed in the side walls of the longitudinal canals. It is clear, therefore, that these canals answer to the intermesenteric spaces of an Actinia; that the common cavity into which they and the stomach open answers to the common cavity of the body of the Actinia; that the apertures at the aboral pole answer to the terminal aperture of Cereanthus; and that the wide interspaces between the longitudinal canals represent the mesoderm of the Actinian mesenteries immensely thickened.

In their development the Ctenophora resemble the Coralligena in all essential respects, though they differ from them in some details. Thus the process of yelk division goes on at a different rate in the two moieties of the egg, so that the vitellus becomes divided into one set of small and another set of large cells, whereof the latter become overlaid by the former, and give rise to a largecelled hypoblast, enclosed within a small-celled epiblast. But in the manner in which the body cavity is formed, and the visceral tube (which becomes the stomach) is developed, the Ctenophora resemble the Actinic. The paddles make their appearance at four points of the circumference of the body, in the form of elevations beset with short cilia; but each of these divides into two, and thus the eight definitive series are constituted.

There is a general agreement among anatomists respecting the structure of the Ctenophora thus far; but the question whether they possess a nervous system and sensory organs or not, is, as in the case of the Coralligena, one upon which there exists great diversity of opinion. Grant originally described a nervous ganglionated ring, whence longitudinal cords proceed in Cydippe (Pleurobrachia);

tentacles. The aboral region, bearing the lateral ctenophores, growя more rapidly than the oral, so as ultimately to project in two principal lobes, by which the similar outgrowth of the median aboral regions with its ctenophores is arrested, the auricles being the dwarfed representatives of these regions. These auricles in Eucharis are longer, so that the ctenophores are all of equal length. The tentacles of this genus are placed at the oral pole; the oral lobes are equivalent to the median ctenophores of Cydippe. Eurhamphaa has the oral lobes small, the body elongated, terminated by two conical projections, on which the median ctenophores are prolonged.

as an otolithic sac, undoubtedly exists in the position indicated in all, or most, of the Ctenophora, the question has been raised whether it is an auditory or a visual organ.

These problems have been recently reinvestigated with great care, and by the aid of the refined methods of modern histology, by Dr Eimer,1 who describes a nervous system, consisting of extremely delicate varicose ultimate nerve fibrils, which traverse the mesoderm in all directions, and are connected here and there with ganglionic corpuscles. These nerves are only discernible with high magnifying powers, as they are for the most part isolated, and are collected into bundles only beneath the longitudinal canals. The mass which lies beneath the lithocyst is composed of cells, but these have none of the special characters of nerve cells. Eimer states that he has traced the filaments, which he considers to be nerves, into direct continuity with muscular fibres; and, around the mouth, into subepidermal bodies, which he regards as rudimentary forms of tactile corpuscles. The lithocyst is recognised as an auditory organ, and, in addition, eye-spots are described.

With a fundamental similarity of organisation, the form of the body varies extraordinarily in the Ctenophora. One of the genera which is commonest on our coasts-Cydippe (Pleeobrachia)-is spheroidal; others (Beroë) are more ovate; others are provided with large lobular processes (Eucharis), while an extreme modification, in which the body is ribbon shaped, is seen in Cestum.

The Ctenophora are divisible into two very unequal groups: 1. Eurystomata, in which the large oral aperture occupies the truncated extremity of the oval body.

1. Beroida.

II. Stenostomata, in which the oral aperture and the gastric sac are small relatively to the size of the body.

2. Saccato.

3. Lobata.

4. Tæniatæ.

1. Beroïda.

The body is ovate, truncated at the oral pole, the aboral being more or less acuminate and mobile. The digestive cavity occupies a large portion of the body. The oral margin is simple in Beroe and Idyia; but in Rangia the interradial spaces are notched, and in each a short process projects. The radial canals are connected by a circumoral canal. No tentacles are present. The ctenophores of Pandora do not extend over more than half the body, as in the embryos of Cydippe. The development of the Beroïda is unaccompanied by metamorphosis.

2. Saccato.

The circumoral canal is absent. The oral aperture is laterally compressed, its long axis being at right angles to the plane of the tentacles, which are present in all the genera, and which are either simple (Cydippe), or furnished with lamellar and filamentous appendages (Hormiphora). The ctenophores are equal in length, or the lateral ones are fully developed, while the intermediate are shorter. 3. Lobato.

The oral and aboral pole, or the oral only, bear lobate appendages. Bolina has a pair of oral lappets, into which the radial canals are prolonged. The ctenophores corresponding to these lobes are the longest, while the middle ones are much shorter, and are prolonged on to an auricle or finger-like lobe. The tentacles are represented by a tuft of short processes on either side of the mouth. The young Boliná has the form of Cydippe, and like it bears a pair of long-fringed

1 Zoologische Studien auf Capri. 1873. Haeckel, "Generelle Morphologie," ii. lxi.

4. Taniatæ.

The body of Cestum is laterally compressed and elongated in a direction which corresponds to one of the transverse diameters of

or even four feet long. The tentacles are near the oral pole; the canals are ten in number; the medio-lateral canals terminate in trunks which follow the oral margin of the ribbon, and thus

correspond to the circular canal of Beroë.

Many Actinozoa (Pennatulidæ, Ctenophora) are phosphorescent; but the conditions which determine the evolution of light have not been determined.

All Actinozoa are marine animals, and the distribution of many of the families (Actinidæ, Turbinolidæ, Pennatulida, Beroïda) is extremely wide, and bears no ascertainable relation to climate. (T. H. H.)

ACTION, in Law, is the process by which redress is sought in a court of justice for the violation of a legal right. The word is used by jurists in three different senses. Sometimes it is spoken of as a right—the right, namely, of instituting the legal process; sometimes, and more properly, it means the legal process itself; and sometimes the particular form which it assumes. The most universally recognised division of actions is the division established by the Roman lawyers into actions in rem and in personam. An action in rem asserts a right to a particular thing as against all the world; an action in personam asserts a right only as against a particular person. For the sake of convenience, the law relating to actions ought to form a separate section by itself in a properly constructed code. In Roman law the action passed through three historical stages

In the first period, which was brought to an end by the Lex Æbutia, about 573 A.U.c., the system of legis actiones prevailed. These were five in number,-the actio sacramenti, per judicis postulationem, per condictionem, per manus injectionem, per pignoris captionem. The first was the primitive and characteristic action of the Roman law, and the others were little more than modes of applying it to cases not contemplated in the original form, or of carrying the result of it into execution when the action had been decided.

ACTION, in English Law, means the form of civil process hitherto observed in the Courts of Common Law. The procedure in the Court of Chancery is totally distinct, but some account of the former may be desirable in order to explain the new form of action introduced for all the civil courts by the Judicature Act of 1873:

Actions at law are divided by Blackstone into three classes, according to the relief which they are respectively intended to obtain. Real actions are those "whereby the plaintiff claims title to have any lands or tenements, rents, commons, or other hereditaments." In personal actions the claim is "for debt or personal duty, or damages in lieu thereof," or for "satisfaction in damages for some injury done to person or property." Mixed actions were supposed to partake of the nature of both of these; that is to say, there was a demand both for real property and for personal damages, as in the case of an action for waste. The distinction has long ceased to be of any value. Blackstone speaks of real actions as being in his time pretty generally laid aside, and successive enactments have obliterated the distinctions altogether. The statute 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 27, abolished all the real and mixed actions, except three real actions, and ejectment, which was a mixed action. The Common Law Precedure Act of 1860 has assimilated the procedure in the former to an ordinary action, and the Common Law Procedure Act of 1852 now regulates the proceedings in ejectment. In these and other respects the three Common Law Procedure Acts of 1852, 1854, and 1860, very greatly simplified the proceedings in an action at law. The first of these rendered it unnecessary any longer to select a form of action in prosecuting a claim, and abolished many of the technicalities which had accompanied the older forms. The divi.

sions now observed may be regarded as indicating, not so much forms of action in the old sense, as the character of the injury sustained and the relief sought.

ACTION (under the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873). By this Act, which establishes one supreme court in place of the Superior Courts of Common Law and the High Court of Chancery, action is the name given to the proceeding in the High Court of Justice, which takes the place of the old actions at common law, suits instituted by bill or information in the Court of Chancery, causes in rem in the Court of Admiralty, or by citation in the Court of Probate. For these various modes of obtaining redress the Act substitutes one uniform proceeding, which retains most of the essential features of the common law action. The form of action established by the Act is in some measure a compromise between the old action at law and Chancery suit. It may be described as putting an end to the unintelligible and even misleading formula of the one and reducing the prolixity and redundance of the other. (E. R.)

ACTIUM, in Ancient Geography, a promontory in the north of Acarnania, at the mouth of the Sinus Ambracius, opposite the town of Nicopolis, built by Augustus on the north side of the strait. Eastwards from the promontory the strait widens out and forms a safe harbour. On the promontory was an ancient temple of Apollo (who is hence called by Virgil Actius), which was enlarged by Augustus. Actium became famous on account of Augustus's victory over Antony and Cleopatra (B.c. 31), and for the quinquennial games he instituted there, called Actia or Ludi Actiaci. Actiaca Era was a computation of time from the battle of Actium. There was on the promontory a small town, or rather village, also called Actium.

ACTON, a large village in Middlesex, about eight miles west of St Paul's. It was once much frequented because of its saline springs, but these have long lost their repute. Acton being near the metropolis and easily accessible by the Great Western Railway, and the price of building land being low, numerous villas have been erected in the neighbourhood. The population of the parish increased from 3151 in 1861 to 8306 in 1871.

ACTON, SIR JOHN FRANCIS EDWARD, son of Edward Acton, who practised as a physician at Besançon, was born there in 1736, and succeeded to the title and estates in 1791, on the death of his cousin in the third degree, Sir Richard Acton. He served in the navy of France, and afterwards in that of Tuscany, and commanded a frigate in the joint expedition of Spain and Tuscany against Algiers in 1774. His gallantry in rescuing three or four thousand Spanish soldiers from slavery led to his advancement. Entering the Neapolitan service, he gained the favour of Queen Mary Caroline, became commander-in-chief of the land and sea forces, then minister of finance, and ultimately prime minister. His policy was devised in concert with the English ambassador Hamilton, and, of course, was hostile to France and to the French party in Italy. He has been held responsible for the arbitrary and despotic measures which, in 1798-99, filled the prisons of Naples with political prisoners, and even brought some of them to the scaffold. In 1803 Acton was for a short time deprived of the reins of government at the demand of France; but he was speedily restored to his former position, which he held till, in Feb. 1806, on the entry of the French into Naples, he had to flee with the royal family into Sicily. He died at Palermo on the 12th Aug. 1811, leaving by his wife (eldest daughter of his brother, General Joseph Edward Acton, whom he had married by papal dispensation) three children, of whom the second, Charles Januarius Edward, was made Cardinal Santa Maria della Pace in 1842. may be well to state that Sir John has very frequently

It

been confounded with his above-mentioned brother, born in 1737, who was also employed in the Neapolitan service. ACTUARY, in ancient Rome, was the name given to the clerks who recorded the Acta Publica of the Senate, and also to the officers who kept the military accounts and enforced the due fulfilment of contracts for military supplies. In its English usage the word has undergone a gradual limitation of meaning. At first it seems to have denoted any clerk or registrar; then more particularly the secretary and adviser of any joint-stock company, but especially of an insurance company; and it is now applied specifically to one who makes those calculations as to the probabilities of human life, on which the practice of life assurance and the valuation of reversionary interests, deferred annuities, &c., are based. The first mention of the word in law is in the Friendly Societies Act of 1819, where it is used in the vague sense, "actuaries, or persons skilled in calculation." The word has been used with precision since the establishment of the "Institute of Actuaries of Great Britain and Ireland" in 1848. The "Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland" was formed at Edinburgh in 1856, and incorporated by royal charter in 1868. The registrar in the Lower House of Convocation is also called the actuary.

ACUÑA, CHRISTOVAL D', a Spanish Jesuit, born at Burgos in 1597. He was admitted into the society in 1612, and, after some years spent in study, was sent as a missionary to Chili and Peru, where he became rector of the College of Cuença. In 1639 he was appointed by the Jesuits to accompany Pedro Texeira in his second exploration of the Amazon, in order to take scientific observations, and draw up a report that might be sent to Spain. The journey lasted for ten months; and, on their arrival at Peru, no ship being ready to convey the explorer to Spain, Acuña employed himself in the preparation of a narrative of his journey. This was published at Madrid in 1641, under the title Nuevo Descubrimiento del Gran Rio de las Amazonas, &c. The King of Spain received Acuña coldly, and, it is said, even tried to suppress his book, fearing that the Portuguese, who had revolted from Spain, would avail themselves of the information which it contained. A translation into French was published by Gomberville in 1682; and a translation from the French into English appeared in 1698. After occupying the positions of procu rator of the Jesuits at Rome, and calificador (censor) of the Inquisition at Madrid, Acuña returned to South America, where he died, probably soon after the year 1675.

ACUPRESSURE, in Surgery (acus, a needle, premo, I press), a method of restraining hæmorrhage, introduced in 1869 by the late Sir J. Y. Simpson. The closure of the vessel near the bleeding point is attained by the direct pressure of a metallic needle, either alone or assisted by a loop of wire. The advantages claimed by the originator of this method over the old silk ligature were, that the needles can be removed within forty-eight hours after introduction, allowing the wound to heal rapidly; and that, being metallic and non-porous, they do not cause irritation and suppuration like the silk ligature. The catgut ligature, which is rapidly absorbed, is gradually superseding both the silk ligature and the acupressure needle. A volume entitled Acupressure, by Sir J. Y. Simpson, was published in 1864.

ACUPUNCTURE, the name of a surgical operation among the Chinese and Japanese, which is performed by pricking the part affected with a silver needle. They employ this operation in headaches, lethargies, convulsions, colics, &c.; and it has more lately been introduced into British practice for the cure of some forms of neuralgia.

ADAFUDIA, a large town of Western Africa, in the country of the Felattahs, in 13° 6' N. lat., 1° 3' E. long., about 400 miles S. E. of Timbuctoo. It is surrounded by a mud wall. The neighbouring country is rich and