ance may be referred to its connection with Aratus of Sicyon, about 30 years later, as it was further augmented by the splendid abilities of Philopoemen. Thus did this people, so celebrated in the heroic age, once more emerge from comparative obscurity, and become the greatest among the states of Greece in the last days of its national independence. The inhabitants of Patræ and of Dyme were the first assertors of ancient liberty. The tyrants were banished, and the towns again made one commonwealth. A public council was then held, in which affairs of importance were discussed and determined; and a register was provided for recording the transactions of the council. This assembly had two presidents, who were nominated alternately by the different towns. But instead of two presidents, they soon elected but one. Many neighbouring towns, which admired the constitution of this republic, founded on equality, liberty, the love of justice, and of the public good, were incorporated with the Achæans, and admitted to the full enjoyment of their laws and privileges. The Achæan League affords the most perfect example in antiquity of the federal form of government; and, allowing for difference of time and place, its resemblance to that of the United States government is very remarkable. (See Arts. AMPHICTYONY and FEDERAL GOVERNMENT; also Freeman's Federal Government, 2 vols. 8vo. 1863, and Comparative Politics, 8vo. 1873; Droysen, Geschichte des Hellenismus, 2 vols.; Helwing, Geschichte des Achaïschen Bundes.)

ACHAN, the son of Carmi, of the tribe of Judah, at the taking of Jericho concealed two hundred shekels of silver, a Babylonish garment, and a wedge of gold, contrary to the express command of God. This sin proved fatal to the Israelites, who were repulsed at the siege of Ai. In this emergency Joshua prostrated himself before the Lord, and begged that he would have mercy upon his people. Achan was discovered by casting lots, and he and his children were stoned to death. This expiation being made, Ai was taken by stratagem. (Josh. vii. viii.) ACHARD, FRANZ CARL, a Prussian chemist, born at Berlin on the 28th April 1753, was the first to turn Marggraff's discovery of the presence of sugar in beet-root to commercial account. He erected a factory on an estate in Silesia, granted to him about 1800 by the king of Prussia, and produced there large quantities of sugar to meet the scarcity occasioned by the closing of the West Indian ports to continental traders. In 1812 a similar establishment was erected by Napoleon at Rambouillet, although the Institute of France in 1800, while honouring Achard for his researches, had declared his process to have little practical value. At the close of the war the manufacture of beet-root sugar was protected by duties on other sugars that were almost prohibitive, so that the real worth of Achard's discoveries could not be tested. Achard was a frequent contributor to the Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin, and published in 1780 Chymisch-Physische Schriften, containing descriptions and results of his very numerous and carefully conducted experiments on the adhesion of bodies. He died in 1821.

ACHARIUS, ERIK, a Swedish physician and botanist, born at Gefle in 1757. The son of a comptroller of customs, he studied first in his native town, and then in 1773 at the University of Upsal, where Linnæus was one of his teachers. In 1782 he took the degree of M.D. at the University of Lund, and practised thereafter in various districts of Sweden. But the direction of his studies had been determined by his contact with Linnæus, and he found his appropriate sphere when he was appointed Professor of Botany at the Wadstena Academy in 1801. Five years before he had been admitted a member of the Academy at Stockholm. He devoted himself to the study of the cryptogamic orders of plants, and especially of the

family of lichens. All his publications were connected with this subject, the Lichenographia Universalis (Göttingen, 1804) being the most important. Acharius died of apoplexy in 1819. His name has been given by botanists to more than one species of plants.

ACHATES, the faithful friend and companion of Æneas, celebrated in Virgil's, Eneid as fidus Achates. ACHEEN. See ACHÍN.

ACHELOUS, the largest river in Greece, rises in Mount Pindus, and dividing Ætolia from Acarnania, falls into the Ionian Sea. In the lower part of its course the river winds in an extraordinary manner through very fertile but marshy plains. Its water descends from the mountains, heavily charged with fine mud, which is deposited along its banks and in the sea at its mouth, where a number of small islands have gradually been formed. It was formerly called Thoas, from its impetuosity in its upper portion, and Homer gave it the name of king of rivers. It has a course of 130 miles. The epithet Acheloius is used for aqueus (Virgil), the ancients calling all water Achelous, according to Ephorus. The river is now called Aspro Potamo.

ACHENWALL, GOTTFRIED, a German writer, celebrated as having formulated and developed the science (Wissenschaft der Staaten), to which he was the first to apply the name scientia statistica, or statistics. Born at Elbing, in East Prussia, in October 1719, he studied at Jena, Halle, and Leipsic, and took a degree at the lastnamed university. He removed to Marburg in 1746, where for two years he read lectures on history, and on the law of nature and of nations. Here, too, he commenced those inquiries in statistics by which his name became known. In 1748, having been invited by Münchhausen, the Hanoverian minister, to occupy a chair at the university, he removed to Göttingen, where he resided till his death in 1772. His chief works were connected with statistics. The Staatsverfassungen der europäischen Reiche appeared first in 1752, and revised editions-corrected from information which he travelled through England, France, and other countries to collect-were published in 1762 and 1768. He was married in 1752 to a lady named Walther, who obtained some celebrity by a volume of poems published in 1750, and by other writings.

ACHERON, in Classical Mythology, the son of Ceres, who, for supplying the Titans with drink when they were in contest with Jupiter, was turned into a river of Hades, over which departed souls were ferried on their way to Elysium. The name eventually was used to designate the whole of the lower world.

ACHILL, or "Eagle" Island, off the west coast of Ireland, forms part of the county of Mayo. It is of triangular shape, and extends 15 miles from east to west, and 12 from north to south, its total area being 51,521 acres. The island is very mountainous; its extreme western point, Achill Head, is a bold and rugged promontory rising to a height of 2222 feet above the sea. Large bogs, incapable of cultivation, alternate with the hills of this desolate isle, of whose extensive surface not more than 500 acres have been reclaimed. The inhabitants earn a scanty subsistence by fishing and tillage; their dwellings are miserable hovels. There is a mission-station on the island, and remains of ancient churches are still extant.

ACHILLES ('Axeus). When first taken up by the legendary history of Greece, the ancestors of Achilles were settled in Phthia and in Ægina. That their original seat, however, was in the neighbourhood of Dodona and the Achelous is made out from a combination of the following facts: That in the Iliad (xvi. 233) Achilles prays to Zeus of Dodona; that this district was the first to bear the name of Hellas; that the followers of Achilles at Troy were the only persons named Hellenes in the time of Homer

(Thucyd. i.3; of. Iliad, ii. 684, where the more usual name of Myrmidones also occurs); that in Ægina Zeus was styled "Hellanios;" and that the name of Selloi, applied to the priesthood at Dodona, is apparently identical with the name Hellenes. Whether from this local connection the derivation of the name of Achilles from the same root as 'Axeloos should be preferred to the other derivations, such as 'Axi-λeús = 'Exéλaos, "ruler," or 'Ax-leus,="the bane of the Ilians," remains undecided. But this is gained, that we see in what manner the legend of Achilles had its root in the earlier Pelasgic religion, his adherence to which in the prayer just cited would otherwise appear very strange on the part of a hero who, through the influence of Homer and his successors, is completely identified with the Olympian system of gods. According to the genealogy, Eacus had two sons, Peleus and Telamon, of whom the former became the father of Achilles-the latter, of Ajax; but of this relationship between Achilles and Ajax there is no sign in the Iliad. Peleus ruled in Phthia; and the gods remarking his piety, rewarded him with, among other presents, a wife in the person of the beautiful nereid Thetis. After her son was born, Thetis appears to have returned to her life in the sea. The boy was placed under his father's friend, the centaur Cheiron. When six years old he slew lions and boars, and could run down a stag. When nine, he was removed from his instructor to the island of Scyrus, where, dressed as a girl, he was to be brought up among the daughters of Lycomedes, his mother preferring for him a long inglorious life to a brief but splendid career. The same desire for his safety is apparent in other legends, which describe her as trying to make him invulnerable when a child by placing him in boiling water or in a fire, and then salving him with ambrosia; or again, in later story, by dipping him in the river Styx, from which he came out, all but the heel which she held, proof against wounds. When the aid of Achilles was found indispensable to the expedition against Troy, Odysseus set out for Scyrus as a pedlar, spread his wares, including a shield and spear, before the king's daughters, among whom was Achilles in disguise. Then he caused an alarm of danger to be sounded, upon which, while the girls fled, Achilles seized the arms, and thus revealed himself. Provided with a contingent of 50 ships, and accompanied by the aged Phoenix and Patroclus, he joined the expedition, which after occupying nine years in raids upon the towns in the neighbourhood of Troy and in Mysia, as detailed in the epic poem entitled the Cypria, culminated in the regular siege of Troy, as described in the Iliad, the grand object of which is the glorification of our hero. Estranged from his comrades, because his captive Briseïs had been taken from him, Achilles remained inexorable in his tent, while defeat attended the Greeks. At length, at their greatest need, he yielded so far as to allow Patroclus to take his chariot and to assume his armour. Patroclus fell, and the news of his death roused Achilles, who, now equipped with new armour fashioned by Hephaestus, drove back the Trojans, slew Hector, and after dragging his body thrice. round the Trojan walls, restored it to Priam. With the funeral rites of Patroclus the Iliad concludes, and the story | is taken up by the Ethiopis, a poem by Arctinus of Miletus, in which is described the combat of Achilles first with the amazon Penthesilea, and next with Memnon. When the latter fell, Achilles drove back the Trojans, and, impelled by fate, himself advanced to the Scaan gate, where an arrow from the bow of Paris struck his vulnerable heel, and he fell, bewailed through the whole camp. (A. S. M.) ACHILLES TATIUS, a Greek writer, born at Alexandria. The precise time when he flourished is uncertain, but it cannot have been earlier than the 5th century, as in his principal work he evidently imitates Heliodorus. Suidas,

who calls him Achilles Statius, says that he was converted from heathenism and became a Christian bishop, but this is doubtful, the more so that Suidas also attributes to him a work on the sphere (πepì σpaípas) which is referred to by Firmicus (330-50), and must, therefore, have been written by another person. The erotic romance of Achilles Tatius, entitled The Loves of Clitophon and Leucippe, is almost certainly the work of a heathen writer. The style of the work is ornate and rhetorical, while the story is often unnatural, and sometimes coarse, and the development of the plot irregular and frequently interrupted. Its popularity at the time it appeared is proved by the many manuscripts of it which still exist, and the value attached to it by modern scholars and critics is seen in the frequency with which it has been reprinted and translated. A Latin translation by Annibal Crucceius was published, first in part at Leyden in 1544, and then complete at Basel in 1554. The Greek text was first printed by Commelin, at Heidelberg, in 1601. Other editions by Salmasius (Leyden, 1640), Mitscherlich (Biponti, 1792), and Jacobs (Leipsic, 1821), have been superseded by the editions of Hirschig (Paris, 1856), and Hercher (Leipsic, 1857). An English translation by A. H. (Anthony Hodges) appeared at Oxford in 1638.

ACHILLINI, ALEXANDER (1463-1512), a native of Bologna, was celebrated as a lecturer both in medicine and in philosophy, and was styled the second Aristotle. He and Mundinus were the first at Bologna to avail themselves of the permission given by Frederick II. to dissect dead bodies. His philosophical works were printed in one volume folio, at Venice, in 1508, and reprinted with considerable additions in 1545, 1551, and 1568. He also wrote several medical works, chiefly on anatomy.

ÁCHÍN (pronounced Atcheen), a town and also a state of Northern Sumatra; the one state of that island which has been powerful at any time since the discovery of the Cape route to the East, and the only one that still remains independent of the Dutch, though that independence is now menaced.

De Barros names Áchín among the twenty-nine states that divided the sea-board of Sumatra when the Portuguese took Malacca. Northern Sumatra had been visited by several European travellers in the Middle Ages, such as Marco Polo, Friar Odorico, and Nicolo Conti. Some of these as well as Asiatic writers mention Lambri, a state which must have nearly occupied the position of Áchín. But the first voyager to visit Achín, by that name, was Alvaro Tellez, a captain of Tristan d'Acunha's fleet, in 1506. It was then a mere dependency of the adjoining state of Pedir; and the latter, with Pasei, formed the only states on the coast whose chiefs claimed the title of Sultan. Yet before twenty years had passed Áchín had not only gained independence, but had swallowed up all other states of Northern Sumatra. It attained its climax of power in the time of Sultan Iskandar Muda (1607-1636), under whom the subject coast extended from Aru opposite Malacca round by the north to Padang on the west coast, a sea-board of not less than 1100 miles; and besides this, the king's supremacy was owned by the large island of Nyás, and by the continental Malay states of Johōr, Páháng, Quedah, and Perák.

The present limits of Áchín supremacy in Sumatra are reckoned to be, on the east coast the River Tamiang, in about 4° 25′ N. lat., which forms the frontier of territories tributary to Siák; and on the west coast a line in about 2° 48' N., the frontier of Trumon, a small modern state lying between Áchín and the Dutch government of Padang. Even within these limits the actual power of Áchín is precarious, and the interior boundary can be laid down only from conjecture. This interior country is totally unex plored. It is believed to be inhabited by tribes kindred

among these a hundred were greater than any then used in Europe. 60,000 men were embarked, with the king and his women.

On the death of Iskandar's successor in 1641, the widow was placed on the throne; and as a female reign favoured the oligarchical tendencies of the Malay chiefs, three more queens were allowed to reign successively. Though this series of female sovereigns lasted only fifty-eight years altogether, so dense is apt to be the ignorance of recent history, that long before the end of that period it had become an accepted belief among foreign residents at Áchín that there never had been any sovereigns in Achín except females; and hence, by an easy inference, that the Queen of Sheba had been Queen of Áchín !

In 1699 the Arab or fanatical party suppressed female government, and put a chief of Arab blood on the throne. The remaining history of Áchín is one of rapid decay. Thirty sovereigns in all have reigned from the beginning of the 16th century to the present day.

After the restoration of Java to the Netherlands in 1816, a good deal of weight was attached by the neighbouring English colonies to the maintenance of our influence in Áchín; and in 1819 a treaty of friendship was concluded with the Calcutta Government, which excluded other European nationalities from fixed residence in Áchín. When the home Government, in 1824, made a treaty with the Netherlands, surrendering our remaining settlements in Sumatra in exchange for certain possessions on the continent of Asia, no reference was made in the articles to the Indian treaty of 1819; but an understanding was exchanged that it should be modified by us, whilst no proceedings hostile to Áchín should be attempted by the Dutch.

of colours and distortion of images that result from the use of lenses in optical instruments. When white light passes through a lens, the different-coloured rays that constitute it are refracted or bent aside at different angles, and so converge at different foci, producing a blurred and coloured image. To remedy this compound lenses have been devised, which present a well-defined image, unsurrounded by coloured bands of light. To instruments fitted with lenses of this kind has been given the name achromatic, from à privative, and xp@ua, colour. The celebrated optician, John Dollond, was the first to surmount this practical difficulty, about the year 1757, by the use of a combination of crown and flint glass. See OPTICS, MICROSCOPE, &c. ACI REALE, a city and seaport of Sicily, in the Italian province of Catania, near the base of Mount Etna. It stands on solidified lava, which has here been deposited by different streams to a depth of 560 feet. The town, which has been almost entirely re-erected since the earthquake of 1693, is built of lava, contains many handsome edifices, and is defended by a fortress. Linen, silks, and cutlery are manufactured, and the trade in cotton, flax, grain, and wines is considerable. The place is celebrated for its cold sulphurous mineral waters. Near Aci Reale is the reputed scene of the mythical adventures of Acis and Galatea; and on this account several small towns in the neighbourhood also bear the name of Aci, such as Aci Castello, Aci Terra, &c. Aci Reale has a population of 24,151.

ACID, a general term in chemistry, applied to a group of compound substances, possessing certain very distinctive characteristics. All acids have one essential property, viz., that of combining chemically with an alkali or base, forming a new compound that has neither acid nor alkaline characters. The new bodies formed in this way are termed salts. Every acid is therefore capable of

neutralised; and this salt-forming power is the best definition of an acid substance.

(De Barros; Faria y Souza; Valentyn, vol. v.; Beaulieu (in Thévenot's Collection); Dampier; Marsden; Crawfurd's Hist. and Decl. of the Ind. Archip.; J. of Ind. Archip.; Dulaurier in J. Asiatique, 3d s. vol. viii.; Anderson's Acheen, 1840; Veth, Atchin, &c. Leyden, 1873, &c.) (H. Y.) ACHMET, or AHMED, the name of three emperors or sultans of Turkey, the first of the name reigning from 1603 to 1617, the second from 1691 to 1695. Achmet III. succeeded his brother Mustapha II., whom the Janissaries deposed in 1703. After the battle of Pultowa in 1709, Charles XII. of Sweden took refuge with him, and incited him to war with Peter the Great, Czar of Russia. Achmet recovered the Morea from the Venetians (1715); but his expedition into Hungary was less fortunate, his army being defeated at Peterwardein by Prince Eugene in 1716, and again near Belgrade the year after. The empire was distracted during his reign by political disturbances, which were occasioned, in part at least, by his misgovernment; and the discontent of his soldiers at last (1730) drove him from the throne. He died in prison in 1736.

ACHRAY, a small picturesque lake in Perthshire, near Loch Katrine, 20 miles W. of Stirling, which has obtained notoriety from Scott's allusion to it in the Lady of the Lake. ACHROMATIC GLASSES are so named from being specially constructed with a view to prevent the confusion

The majority of acids possess the following contingent properties:

1. When applied to the tongue, they excite that sensation which is called sour or acid.

2. They change the blue colours of vegetables to a red. The vegetable blues employed for this purpose are generally tincture of litmus and syrup of violets or of radishes, which have obtained the name of re-agents or tests. If these colours have been previously converted to a green by alkalies, the acids restore them.

Is pure

All these secondary properties are variable; and if we attempted to base a definition on any one of them, many important acids would be excluded. Take the case of a body like silica, so widely diffused in nature. silicious sand or flint an acid or a neutral substance? When it is examined, it is found to be insoluble in water, to be devoid of taste, and to possess no action on vegetable colouring matters; yet this substance is a true acid, because when it is heated along with soda or lime, it forms the new body commonly called glass, which is chemically a salt of silicic acid. Many other acids resemble silica in properties, and would be mistaken for neutral bodies if the salt-forming power was overlooked.

Another method of regarding an acid, which is found of great importance in discussing chemical reactions, is to say an acid is a salt whose base is water. This definition is very apparent if we regard what takes place in separating the acid from a salt. In this decomposition the acid would appear to be left without having any substitute for the removed alkali. This is not however the case, as water is found to enter into union instead of the base. Thus every true acid must contain hydrogen; and if this is displaced

by a metal, salts are formed directly. An acid is therefore a salt, whose metal is hydrogen. The full importance of the definition of an acid will be learned under the heading CHEMISTRY.

ACIDALIUS, VALENS, a very distinguished scholar and critic, born in 1567 at Wittstock, in Brandenburg. After studying at Rostock and Helmstaedt, and residing about three years in Italy, he took up his residence at Breslau, where he professed the Roman Catholic religion. His excessive application to study was supposed to have caused his untimely death, which occurred in 1595, when he had just completed his twenty-eighth year. He wrote notes on Tacitus and Curtius, a commentary on Plautus, and a number of poems, which are inserted in the Delicia of the German poets. Baillet gave him a place among his Enfans Célèbres, and tells that he wrote the commentary on Plautus and several of the Latin poems when he was only seventeen or eighteen years of age.

ACINACES, an ancient Persian sword, short and straight, and worn, contrary to the Roman fashion, on the right side, or sometimes in front of the body, as shown in the bas-reliefs found at Persepolis. Among the Persian nobility they were frequently made of gold, being worn as a badge of distinction. The acinaces was an object of religious worship with the Scythians and others (Herod. iv. 62).

ACIS, in Mythology, the son of Faunus and the nymph Symæthis, was a beautiful shepherd of Sicily, who being beloved by Galatea, Polyphemus the giant was so enraged that he crushed his rival with a rock, and his blood gushing forth from under the rock, was metamorphosed into the river bearing his name (Ovid, Met. xiii, 750; Sil. Ital. xiv. 221). This river, now Fiume di Jaci, or Acque Grandi, rises under a bed of lava on the eastern base of Etna, and passing Aci Reale, after a rapid course of one mile, falls into the sea. The waters of the stream, once celebrated for their purity, are now sulphureous.

ACKERMANN, JOHN CHRISTIAN GOTTLIEB, a learned physician and professor of medicine, born at Zeulenroda, in Upper Saxony, in 1756. At the early age of fifteen he became a student of medicine at Jena, where he soon attracted the favourable notice of Baldinger, who undertook the direction of his studies. When Baldinger was transferred to Göttingen in 1773, Ackermann went with him, and afterwards studied for two years at Halle. A few years' practice at Stendal (1778-99), where there were numerous factories, enabled him to add many valuable original observations to his translation of Ramazzini's Treatise of the Diseases of Artificers (1780-83). In 1786 he became professor of medicine at the university of Altorf, in Franconia, occupying first the chair of chemistry, and then, from 1794 till his death in 1801, that of pathology and therapeutics. Dr Ackermann's knowledge of the history of medicine may be estimated by his valuable contributions to Harless's edition of Fabricius' Bibliotheca Græca. He wrote numerous original works, besides translations.

ACEMETE (akоíunτos, sleepless), an order of monks instituted by Alexander, a Syrian, about the middle of the 5th century. Founding on the precept, Pray without ceasing, they celebrated divine service uninterruptedly night and day, for which purpose they divided themselves into three sections, that relieved each other in turn. The chief seat of the Acometa was the cloister Studium at Constantinople, whence they were sometimes called Studites. Having adopted the monophysite heresy, they were put under the Papal ban about the year 536.

ACOLYTE (from åkóλovos, an attendant), one of a minor order of clergy in the ancient church, ranking next to the sub-deacon. We learn from the canons of the

fourth Council of Carthage that the archdeacon, at their ordination, put into their hands a candlestick with a taper and an empty pitcher, to imply that they were appointed to light the candles of the church and to furnish wine for the eucharist. Their dress was the cassock and surplice. The name and office still exist in the church.

ACONCAGUA, a province of Chile, South America, is about 100 miles long by 40 miles wide, and lies between 31° 30′ and 33° 20′ S. lat., and 70° and 71° 30′ W. long., between the provinces of Valparaiso and Santiago on the N. and Coquimbo on the S. A large part of the province is mountainous, but it contains several rich and fertile valleys, which yield wheat, maize, sugar-cane, fruits, and garden produce in abundance. In the agricultural districts there are raised from 50 to 60 fanegas of wheat for every quadra, equal to about 35 bushels per English acre. The province has also mineral resources, but not to such extent as Coquimbo or Atacama. Its chief town is San Felipe. The mountain Aconcagua, one of the loftiest peaks of the Andes, rises to the height of 23,910 feet above the sea on the frontier between this province and Mendoza, a department of the Argentine Republic. A river of the same name rises on the south side of the mountain, and after a course of 230 miles falls into the Pacific 12 miles N. of Valparaiso. Population (1870), 134,178.

ACONITE, ACONITUM, a genus of plants commonly known as Aconite, Monkshood, Friar's Cap, or Helmet flower, and embracing about 18 species, chiefly natives of the mountainous parts of the northern hemisphere. They are distinguished by having one of the five blue or yellow coloured sepals in the form of a helmet; hence the English name. Two of the petals placed under the hood of the calyx are supported on long stalks, and have a hollow spur at their apex. The genus belongs to the natural order Ranunculaceæ, or the Buttercup family. Aconitum Napellus, common monkshood, is a doubtful native of Britain. It is an energetic irritant and narcotic poison. It causes death by a depressing effect on the nervous system, by producing palsy of the muscles concerned in breathing, and by fainting. A tincture prepared by the action of spirit on the roots is used medicinally to allay pain, especially in cases of tic. Its roots have occasionally been mistaken for horse-radish. The Aconite has a short underground stem, from which dark-coloured tapering roots descend. The crown or upper portion of the root gives rise to new plants. When put to the lip, the juice of the Aconite root produces a feeling of numbness and tingling. The horseradish root, which belongs to the natural order Cruciferæ, is much longer than that of the Aconite, and it is not tapering; its colour is yellowish, and the top of the root has the remains of the leaves on it. It has a pungent taste. Many species of Aconite are cultivated in gardens, some having blue and others yellow flowers. Aconitum Lycoctonum, Wolfsbane, is a yellow-flowered species common on the Alps of Switzerland. One species, Aconitum heterophyllum, found in the East Indies, and called Butees, has tonic properties in its roots. The roots of Aconitum ferox supply the famous Indian (Nipal) poison called Bikh, Bish, or Nabee. This species is considered by Hooker and Thomson as a variety of Aconitum Napellus. Aconitum palmatum yields another of the celebrated Bikh poisons. Aconitum luridum, of the Himalayas, also furnishes a poison.

ACONTIUS, the Latinised form of the name of GIACOMO AcoNCIO, a philosopher, jurisconsult, engineer, and theologian, born at Trent on the 7th September 1492. He embraced the reformed religion; and after having taken refuge for a time in Switzerland and Strasburg, he came to England about 1558. He was very favourably received by