ABU
Some alfo ufe the word as fynonymous with diftination, or even cohobation. Teichmey, Inftit. Chem. P- I. c. 4. p- 23.
ABSTRACTITIOUS, or Abstractive, is applied by fome modern chemifts, to a fpirit drawn from vegetables without fermentation.
In which fenfe Abflratlitiom fpirits are fynonymous with na- tural fpirits, and ftand oppofed to fermentative or artificial ones, ghiinc. Lex. Med. p. 4.
Such fpirits are chiefly procured from plants which abound in volatile fait. The Abjlrattitious fpirit of fcurvy-grafs is pre- ferred to that procured by fermentation. Vid. Ludovic. Pharmac. diffi 1. p. 457- &M Lzx > Med * P- 4- £.«*■ Lex. Med. p. 4. . .
ABSURDITY, (Cycl.)—Thz great caufe of Jbfurdtty, is in fpeech. As reafon confifts in the due ufe of names and words, Abfurdlty confifts in the abufe of them. The higheft of all our faculties, and our failings, take their rife from the fame thing, language; and are as it were coupled together, to temper each other, and reduce human nature to a kind of mediocrity.
Hobbes afligns Abfurdlty as a privilege peculiar to man, and which no other creature is capable of: he adds, that of all men, thofe called philofophcrs, are moft expofed to it, Whence the faying of Cicero : there is nothing fo abfurd but has been faid by a philofopher, nihil tarn abfurde did pote/r, quod non dkatur a phllofopho. The reafon feems to be, that of all men they reafon, and difcourfe moft. Yet a nearer and more appofite caufe may be affigned ; viz. their neglect at letting out, to define the terms they make ufe of, /". e. to affign the precife idea each is made to reprefent : which is much like a man's undertaking to number, without knowing the value of the numeral figures ; reafoning, according to the author firft cited, being no other than computing. Divers Abfutdities alio arife from the wrong connecting names into proportions ; as firft, when the names of bodies are applied to accidents ; or the names of accidents to bodies : as in that proportion, faith is infufed, or infpired ; fince nothing is either fufible, or infpirable, but body : and the fame Abfur- furd'tty the Cartefians fall into, when they make extenfion to conftitute body, &c. Secondly, when the names of accidents inherent in external bodies are attributed to accidents of our own bodies ; as when it is faid that colour is in the object., found in the air, &c. Thirdly, when the names o( bodies are attri- buted to words, or conceptions ; as is done by thofe who af- fect that there are univerfal things, that animal is a genus, &c. Fourthly, when the names of accidents are given to words, and propofitions ; as when it is faid that the definition is the nature of the thing, or a perfon's command, is his will, Fifthly, when in lieu of proper words, metaphors and tropes are made ufe of; as, the way leads to fuch a place, the pro- verb fays this or that : which though allowable on ordinary occafions, yet is of mifchievous confequence in reafoning and iearching after truth. Laftly, when names are taken at ran- dom, and ufed without meaning, as tranfubftannation, con- fubftantiation, entelechia, &c.
He that can avoid thefe rocks will not eafily fall into an Ab- furdity, except in a very long chain of reafoning, when he may be apt to forget fome propofition before laid down. Hobb. Leviath. P. 1. c. 5. p. 22. feq.
ABSYNTH1UM, in botany. See Wormwood.
ABSYNTHUS, in natural hiftory, the name of a ftone, de- fcribed by fome old authors as being of a black colour, varie- gated with fpots and veins of red. They fay that when once heated it retains the warmth for feven days. The account feems fuperftitious and imaginary, and the defcriptions they \ give fo fhort, that it is not eafy to guefs what ftone, if any in
nature, was meant to be pointed out by them. Probably the word is only a corruption of the afiidtos, or afyclos, of Pliny. See Asiictos.
ABUNA, among the Chriftian Arabs, is the title or appellation of a religious.
The word, which is Arabic, is fometimes alfo written Abouna^ fometimes Abana n , and by fome Abbuna b , or Abunna c ; and literally denotes father. — [ a Trev. Did. Univ. T. 1. p. 52. b Fabric. Lux Evang. c. 45. p. 710. c Paglt. Chriftianogr. p. 40.]
Abuna is more particularly ufed for the archbiftiop, or metro- politan of the Abymnian church.
Some fay he is alfo called maco, or macus a ; others, catfao- licus : fome reprefent him as patriarch, but improperly, his office being rather that of bifhop. The Abitna is nominated, and confecrated by the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria, re- nding at Cairo b . The Abyfiinians fome years ago attempted to make off the primacy of the Copts, and refufed to receive any more of their metropolitans or Abunas \ inftead of whom they took patriarchs from the Portugucfe, and were recon- ciled to the pope : but this lafted not long. The A bunas trace their fucceflion from St. Frumentius, the firft Abuna or Abyfiinian bifhop c . — [» Mlcr&l Hift. Eccl. 1. 3. S. 2. §. 7. p. 641. b Fabric. Lux Evang. c. 45. p. 710. c Ludolph. Hift. jEthiop. 1. 3. c. 7. Mem. for Ingcn. N\ 5. p. 38. j
ABUTILON, m botany, the name of a genus of plants, allied to the mallow kind. The characters are thefe. The flower wholly refembles that of the mallow ; but the fruit
A B Y
refembles a fort of head compofed of feveral capfules, fo dif- pofed round an axis that every ftria of that receives one of thefe. Thefe capfules are bivalve, and ufually contain kidney- fhaped feeds.
The fpecies of Abutilm, enumerated by Tourncfort, are thefe. 1. The common kind. 2. The Indian Abutilm of Authors. 3. The vine-leaved Indian Abutilm, with a quin- que-capfular fruit. 4. The rough hairy ftalkcd Abutilm, with pointed leaves and fmall ftellated fruit. 5. The African Abutilm, with rugged leaves and downy feed-veflels. 6. The CT reat American Abutilm, with purple ftalks and purple ribt in the leaves. 7. The great leaved American Abutilm, with hairy (talks. 8. The flsrubby American Abutibn, with long leaves, yellow flowers, and a fmall prickly fruit. 9. The fhrubby American Abutilm, with rounder leaves, yellow flowers, and a larger prickly fruit. And, 10. The marfh American Abutilm, with fmall whitifli flowers collected into a long pyramidal fpike. Tourn. Inft. p. 99. ABUNDANT, (6V/.)— Abundant notion, in logic, is that which includes more marks and characteriftics than are ne- cefl'ary to diftinguilh it from others.
Thus, we may be faid to give an Abundant notion of a recti- linear triangle, when we defcribe it as a fpace terminated by three right'lincs, and containing three angles. Inalmuch as the number of its angles is determined by that of its (ides ; fo that the bare mention of its three fides, was fufficient to have defined it. Wolf. Phil. Ration. §. 93, p. 161. ABYSS, (Cycl.) — The exigence of an Abyfs, or receptacle of fubterraneous waters, is controverted by Camerarius a , and defended by Dr. Woodward, chiefly by two arguments ; the firft drawn' from the vaft quantity of water, which covered the earth in the time of the deluge ; the fecond, from the confide- ration of earthquakes, which he endeavours to fliew are oc- cafioned by the violence of the waters in this Abyfs b . A great part of the tcrreitria! globe has been frequently fhaken at the fame moment ; which argues, that the waters, which were the occafion hereof, were co-extended with that part of the globe. There are even inftances of univerfal earthquakes ; which fhew that the whole Abyfs muft have been agitated : for fo general an effect muft have been produced by as general a caufe j and that caufe can be nothing but the fubterraneous Abyfs ', — [. Camerar. Diflert. Taurin Aft. Erud. Supp. T. 6. p. 24. " V. IVoodward, Natur. Hift. Tellur. Illuftr. Jour, des Scav. T. 58. p. 393. Mem. of Liter. T. 8. p. 101. feq. c Mem. of Liter. T. 8. p. 104.] This Abyfs is no ufelefs thing ; when once eftablilhed, it ferves to folve feveral difficult phienomina ; as the origin of fprings and rivers ; the level maintained in the furface of different feas, and their not ovetflowing their banks. To the effluvia emitted from this Abyfs fome even attribute all the di- verfities of weather, and changes in our atmofphere ; and what is more, the origin of every thing in the earth, or on its furface. Dr. Woodward has an epiitle exprefs on the ceconomy of the great Abyfs hid in the bowels of the earth, and tile perpetual communication between it and the atmo- fphere d .
Ray and other authors, antient as well as modern, fuppofe a communication between the Cafpian fea and the ocean, by means of a fubterranean Abyfs : and to this they attribute it, that the Cafpian does not overflow, notwithftanding the great number of large rivers it receives c ; of which Kempfer reckons above fifty, in the compafs of fixty miles f . But may not the daily evaporation fuffice to keep a level here ? — [■> Holloivay, Int.' to Woodward's Natur. Hift. of Earth. Act. Erud. J 727. p. 313. ' Ray, Phyf. Theol. Difc. 2. c. 2- p. 76. ' Kempf. Amcen. Exot. F. 2. R. I. §. I. p. 256.] Abyss is alfo ufed to to denote the cavernous belly of a hollow mountain.
In which fenfe M. Tournefort defcribes the Abyfs of mount Arrarat, a horrible fpectacle. Tmirnef. Voy. Levant, let. 19. T. 2. p. 150. Abyss is alfo ufed to denote hell a .
In which fenfe the word is fynonymous with what is other- wife called Barathrum, Erebus b , and Tartarus ; in the Eng- lifh bible, the bottomlefs fit. The unclean fpirits expelled by Chrift, begged, ne imperaret, ut in Abyjfum irmt, according to the Vulgate ; eis ufcccw, according to the Greek c — [ a Suic. Thef. T. I. p. 12. Calm. Dia. Bibl. T. r. p. 29. Map: Notiz. de Vocab. Ecclef. p. 2. b Saur. Diff. O. Teft. T. 1. p. 58. c Luke, c. viii. v. 31. Revel, c. ix. v. 1.] Abyss is more particularly ufed, in antiquity, to denote the temple of Proferpine.
It was thus called on account of the immenfe fund of gold and riches depofited there; fome fay hid under ground. Suid. Lex. T. I. p. 16. Abyss is alfo ufed, in heraldry, to denote the centre of an ef- cutcheon.
In which fenfe, a thing is faid to be bore in Abyfs, en Abyftne, when placed in the middle of the fhield, clear from any other bearing : he bears azure, a flower de lys, in Abyfs. Colom- biei'i, Scienc. Heroique. Trev. Diet. Univ. T. I. p. 56. Abyss is alfo ufed, by fome alchymifts, for the immediate re- receptacle of feminal matter " ;' by others for the firft matter
itfell » ["* Libav. in Exam. Pbilofoph. Vivent. T.4. p. 139.
Cajl.
