in a general sense, implies something that happens by accident, or that is not essential to its subject.

in philosophy, is applied to that effect which flows from some cause intervening by accident, without being subject, or at least without any appearance of being subject, to general laws or regular returns. In this sense, accident is opposed to constant and principal. Thus the sun's place is, with respect to the earth, the constant and principal cause of the heat in summer, and the cold in winter; whereas winds, snows, and rains, are the accidental causes which often alter and modify the action of the principal cause.

ACCIDENTAL Point, in perspective, is that point in the horizontal line where the projections of two lines parallel to each other meet the perspective plane.

ACCIPENSER, in ichthyology, a genus of fishes belonging to the Amphibia Nantes of Linnæus. The accipenser has a single linear nostril: the mouth is in the under part of the head, and contains no teeth; the cirri are below the snout, and before the mouth. There are three species of this genus, viz.

1. The hulo has 4 cirri; the body is naked, i.e., has fins. Plate I. is so tough and strong, that it is employed for ropes in carts and other wheel-carriages; and the ichthyocolla *, or ringlets of the hlops, famous as an agglutinant, and used also for the fixing of wines, is made from its found or scales. The ancients were acquainted with the fish that afforded this drug. Pliny † mentions it under the name of ichthyocolla; and says, that the the glue that was produced from it had the same title; and afterwards adds, that it was made out of the belly of the fish. The huso is the largest of the genus, and grows to 24 feet in length. It inhabits the Danube and the rivers of Russia.

2. The sturio, or sturgeon, with 4 cirri and 11 squamous protuberances on the back. That this is the "Onos" of Dorian, as quoted by Athenaeus, is very probable, as well from the account he gives of its form as of its nature. He says its mouth is always open, with which it agrees with the sturgeon; and that it conceals itself in the hot months: this shows it to be a fish of a cold nature; which is confirmed by the history of the European fish of this species given by Mr Forster, in his Essay on the Volga; who relates, that they are scarce ever found in that river in spring or summer, but in vast quantities in autumn and winter, when they crowd from the sea under the ice, and are then taken in great numbers. Whether the acipenser is the sturgeon of the moderns, may be doubted; otherwise Ovid would never have spoken of it as a foreign fish:

Tupas peregrinis, acipenser, utibus uulis. And thou, a fish in foreign seas renowned— it being well known that it is not uncommon in the Mediterranean, and even in the mouth of the Tiber, at certain seasons. But this passage leaves us as much in the dark as to the particular species intended by the word acipenser, as the description Pliny has given us: for that philosopher relates, that its scales are placed in a contrary direction to those of other fish, being turned towards the mouth; which disagrees with the character of all that are known at present. Whatever fish it might be, it was certainly the same with the elops, or helops, as appears from Pliny, who makes it synonymous with the acipenser; and from another line of the poet beforementioned:

Et pretiosus Helops, acris incognitus uolis. The precious Helops, stranger to our seas.

The sturgeon annually ascends our rivers, but in no great numbers, and is taken by accident in the salmonets. It seems a spiritless fish, making no manner of resistance when entangled, but is drawn out of the water like a lifeless lump. It is a fish that is seldom taken far out at sea, but frequents such parts as are not remote from the estuaries of great rivers. It is admired for the delicacy and firmness of its flesh, which is white as veal, and extremely good when roasted. It is generally pickled. The most we receive comes either from the Baltic rivers, or North America: those cured at Pillau have been, till of late, in the greatest repute; but through the encouragement given by the society instituted for promoting trade and manufactures, the sturgeon from our colonies begins to rival those of the Baltic. Great numbers are taken during summer in the lakes Frischhafft, and Curich-haff near Pillau, in large nets made of small cord. The adjacent shores are formed into districts, and farmed out to companies of fishermen, some of which are rented for six thousand guilders, or near three hundred pounds, per annum. They are found in vast abundance in the American rivers in May, June, and July; at which time they leap some yards out of the water, and, falling on their sides, make a noise to be heard in still weather at some miles distance. Caviare is made of the roes of this, and also of all the other sorts of sturgeons, dried, salted, and packed up close. Ichthyocolla, or ifing-glas, is also made of the found of our fish, as well as that of the others; but in very small quantity. The sturgeon grows to a great size, to the length of 18 feet, and to the weight of 500 pounds, but it is seldom taken in our rivers of that bulk. The largest we have known caught in those of Great Britain, weighed 460 pounds; which was taken about three years ago in the Ese, where they are more frequently found than in our southern waters. In the manner of breeding, this fish is an exception among the cartilaginous kind; being, like the bony fish, oviparous, spawning in water.

3. The rutenus has 4 cirri, and 15 squamous protuberances. It is a native of Russia.

ACCIPITER, the name of Linnaeus's first order of Birds. See Zoology, n° 8, a.

Among the Romans, the term accipiter signified a hawk; and which, from its being very carnivorous, they considered as a bird of bad omen:

Omnium occipitum, qua semper visis in armis. Pliny, however, tells us, that in some cases, particularly in marriage, it was esteemed a bird of good omen, because it never eats the hearts of other birds; intimating thereby, that no differences in a married state ought to reach the heart. The accipiter was worshipped as a divinity by the inhabitants of Tentyra, an island in the Nile, being considered by them as the image of the sun; and hence we find that luminary represented, in hieroglyphics, under the figure of a hawk.

ACCUSMUS, denotes a feigned refusal of something which a person earnestly desires. The word is Latin; or rather Greek, ἀκαρπός; supposed to be formed from ἀκος, the name of a foolish old woman noted in antiquity for an affectation of this kind.

Accimus is sometimes considered as a virtue; sometimes as a vice, which Augustus and Tiberius practised with great success. Cromwell's refusal of the crown of England, may be brought as an instance of an Accimus.

Accimus is more particularly used, in rhetoric, as a species of irony.