Achates – Adams
Achates
a friend of AEneas, whose fidelity was so exemplary that fidus Achates (the faithful Achates) became a proverb.
Acheron
the river of sorrow, which flowed round the infernal realms of Hades, according to the mythology of the ancients.
Acland
SIR HENRY WENT- WORTH DYKE, an English sanitarian, born in 1815. He was an expert on cholera and the various forms of plague .
From 1857 to 1894 he was Professor of Medicine at Oxford, besides serving on various sanitary bodies. He was author of "Memoirs of the Cholera," etc. He died Oct. 16, 1900.
Aconite
a plant of the genus acoxitum, the aconitum napellus, familiarly known as the monk's-hood, or wolf's- Jane. Its active principle, the aconitine, is a virulent poison. It is a native of ACRE Europe, and is cultivated as a garden plant for the sake of its handsome purple flowers.
Acorn
the well known fruit of the oak. In the early ages, acorns constituted a principal part of the food of man. (Ovid's "Metamorphosis," i, 106; Vergil's "Georgics," i, 8.) At present they are used for the feeding of pigs, etc.
Acrocorinthus
a steep and lofty mountain, shaped as a truncated cone, overhanging the city of Corinth, 1,885 feet in height, on which was built a citadel. cone,
Actinometer
an instrument for measuring the chemical effects of radiation from any source, especially the sun.
Actinotherapy
the method of treating diseases by chemical or actinic rays. See PHOTOTHERAPY.
Actinozoa
a class of animals included in the radiata of the system of Cuvier, but combined with hydrozoa to form the class coelenterata in the systems of Frey, Leuckart, and Huxley. It contains the sea-anemones and coral polyps.
Actium
a town and promontory of Epirus, famous for the naval victory which Augustus obtained over Antony and Cleopatra, the 2d of September, B. C. 31, in honor of which the conqueror built there the town of Nicopolis, and restored the Actian games instituted in honor of Apollo.
Actuary
in civil law, a registrar or clerk of a court; also an officer of a mercantile or insurance company, skilled in financial calculations, specially on such subjects as the expectancy of life. He is generally manager of the company, under the nominal or real superintendence of a board of directors.
Adams
CHARLES FOLLEN, an American dialect poet; born at Dorchester, Mass., April 21, 1842; author of "Leedle Yawcob Strauss, and Other Poems" (1878); "Dialect Ballads" (1887), etc.