f it, specially the rocky eminence dominating Athens.

ACROTE`RIA, pedestals placed at the middle and the extremities of a
pediment to support a statue or other ornament, or the statue or ornament
itself.

ACTA DIURNA, a kind of gazette recording in a summary way daily
events, established at Rome in 131 B.C., and rendered official by Caesar
in 50 B.C.

ACTA SANCTORUM, the lives of the saints in 62 vols. folio, begun in
the 17th century by the Jesuits, and carried on by the Bollandists.

ACTAEON, a hunter changed into a stag for surprising Diana when
bathing, and afterwards devoured by his own dogs.

ACTINIC RAYS, "non-luminous rays of higher frequency than the
luminous rays."

ACTINISM, the chemical action of sunlight.

ACTINOMYCOSIS, a disease of a fungous nature on the mouth and lower
jaw of cows.

ACTIUM, a town and promontory at the entrance of the Ambracian Gulf
(Arta), in Greece, where Augustus gained his naval victory over Antony
and Cleopatra, Sept. 2, 31 B.C.

ACTON, an adventurer of English birth, who became prime minister of
Naples, but was driven from the helm of affairs on account of his
inveterate antipathy to the French (1737-1808).

ACTON, LORD, a descendant of the former, who became a leader of the
Liberal Catholics in England, M.P. for Carlow, and made a peer in 1869;
a man of wide learning, and the projector of a universal history by
experts in different departments of the field; _b_. 1834.

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, a narrative account in the New Testament of
the founding of the Christian Church chiefly through the ministry of
Peter and Paul, written by Luke, commencing with the year 33, and
concluding with the imprisonment of Paul in Rome in 62.

ACUN`HA, TRISTRAM D', a Portuguese navigator, companion of
Albuquerque; NUNA D', his son, viceroy of the Indies from 1528 to
1539; RODRIQUE D', archbishop of Lisbon, who in 1640 freed Portugal
from the Spanish domination, and established the house of Braganza on the
throne.

ACUPRESSURE, checking hemorrhage in arteries during an operation by
compressing their orifices with a needle.

ACUPUNCTURE, the operation of pricking an affected part with a
needle, and leaving it for a short time in it, sometimes for as long as
an hour.

ADAIR, SIR ROBERT, a distinguished English diplomatist, and
frequently employed on the most important diplomatic missions
(1763-1855).

ADAL, a flat barren region between Abyssinia and