or AIRY, among sportmen. See AIRY.

ÆS UXORIUM, in antiquity, a sum paid by bachelors, as a penalty for living single to old age. This tax for not marrying seems to have been first imposed in the year of Rome 350, under the censorship of M. Furius Camillus and M. Posthumus. At the census, or review of the people, each person was asked, Et tu ex anima sententia uxorum habes liberum quaerendorum caufa? He who had no wife was hereupon fined after a certain rate, called æs uxorium.

Æs per et libram was a formula in the Roman law, whereby purchases and sales are ratified. Originally the phrase seems to have been only used in speaking of things sold by weight, or by the scales; but it afterwards was used on other occasions. Hence even in adoptions, as there was a kind of imaginary purchase; the formula whereof expressed, that the person adopted was bought per æs et libram.

Æs Flavum, yellow copper, among the Romans, an appellation given to the coarser kinds of brass.

Æs Caldarium, a term used by the German miners, for a substance which sometimes occurs to those who work upon cobalt, and is used for the making the fine blue colour called finial.

Æs Ufum, a chemical preparation, made of thin leaves of copper, sulphur, and nitre, placed stratum super stratum in a crucible, and set in a charcoal fire till all the sulphur is consumed; after which, the copper is taken out of the crucible, and reduced to powder. Some quench the leaves of copper in vinegar, and repeat the calcination.—Its principal use is in colouring glafts, to which it gives a beautiful tincture. The surgeons use it as a detergent, and some have given it internally; but it is certainly a very dangerous medicine, and should be avoided.

ÆSCHINES, a Socratic philosopher, the son of Charinus a sausage-maker. He was continually with Socrates; which occasioned this philosopher to say, that the sausage-maker's son was the only person who knew how to pay a due regard to him. It is said that poverty obliged him to go to Sicily to Dionysius the Tyrant; and that he met with great contempt from Plato, but was extremely well received by Arisippus; to whom he showed some of his dialogues, and received from him a handsome reward. He would not venture to profess philosophy at Athens, Plato and Arisippus being in such high esteem; but he set up a school to maintain himself. He afterwards wrote orations for the Forum. Phrynicus, in Photius, ranks him amongst the best orators, and mentions his orations as the standard of the pure Attic style. Hermogenes has also spoken very highly of him.—He also wrote several dialogues, of which there are only three extant: 1. Concerning Virtue, whether it can be taught. 2. Eryxias, or Erafratus; concerning riches, whether they are good. 3. Axiochus; concerning death, whether it is to be feared. Mr Le Clerc has given a Latin translation of them, with notes, and several dissertations intitled Sylvae Philologicæ.

ÆSCHYLUS, the tragic poet, was born at Athens. Authors differ in regard to the time of his birth, some placing it in the 65th, others in the 70th Olympiad; but according to Stanley, who relies on the Arundelian marbles, he was born in the 63rd Olympiad. He was the son of Euphorion, and brother to Cynegirus and Aminias, who distinguished themselves in the battle of Marathon, and the sea-fight of Salamis, at which engagements Æschylus was likewise present. In this last action, according to Diodorus Siculus, Aminias, the younger of the three brothers, commanded a squadron of ships, and behaved with so much conduct and bravery, that he sunk the admiral of the Persian fleet, and signalized himself above all the Athenians. To this brother our poet was, upon a particular occasion, obliged for saving his life: Ælian relates, that Æschylus being charged by the Athenians with certain blasphemous expressions in some of his pieces, was accused of impiety, and condemned to be stoned to death: they were just going to put the sentence in execution, when Aminias, with a happy presence of mind, throwing aside his cloak, showed his arm without a hand, which he had lost at the battle of Salamis in defence of his country. This sight made such an impression on the judges, that, touched with the remembrance of his valour, and with the friendship he showed for his brother, they pardoned Æschylus. Our poet, however, resented the indignity of this prosecution, and resolved to leave a place where his life had been in danger. He became more determined in this resolution when he found his pieces less pleasing to the Athenians than those of Sophocles, tho' a much younger writer. Some affirm, that Æschylus never sat down to compose but when he had drank liberally. He wrote a great number of tragedies, of which there are but seven remaining: and notwithstanding the sharp censures of some critics, he must be allowed to have been the father of the tragic art. In the time of Thespis, there was no public theatre to act upon; the flouters driving about from place to place in a cart. Æschylus furnished his actors with masks, and dressed them suitably to their characters. He likewise introduced the buckskin, to make them appear more like heroes.—The ancients gave Æschylus also the praise of having been the first who removed murders and shocking sights from the eyes of the spectators. He is said likewise to have lessened the number of the chorus. M. Le Fevre has observed, that Æschylus never represented women in love in his tragedies; which, he says, was not suited to his genius; but, in representing a woman transported with fury, he was incomparable. Longius says, that Æschylus has a noble boldness of expression; and that his imagination is lofty and heroic. It must be owned, however, that he affected pompous words, and that his sense is too often obscured by figures: this gave Salmius occasion to say, that he was more difficult to be understood than the scripture itself. But notwithstanding these imperfections, this poet was held in great veneration by the Athenians, who made a public decree that his tragedies should be played after his death. He was killed in the 69th year of his age, by an eagle letting fall a tortoise upon his head as he was walking in the fields. He had the honour of a pompous funeral from the Sicilians, who buried him near the river Gela; and the tragedians of the country performed plays and theatrical exercises at his tomb.—The best edition of his plays is that of London, 1663, fol. with a Latin translation and a learned commentary by Thomas Stanley.

Æschynomene, Bastard sensitive-plant: A genus of the decandria order, belonging to the dadelphia clas of plants; the characters of which are: The calyx is a one-leaved campanulated bilabiate perianthium; the lips equal, but the superior one two-cleft, the inferior tridentate. The corolla is papilionaceous; the banner cordated and subfingent; the alae ovate, obtuse, and shorter than the banner; and the carina lunated, pointed, and the length of the alae. The stamina consist of 10 simple 9-cleft filaments; the antherae small. The pistillum is an oblong villous columnar germen; the stylos subulate and ascending; the stigma simple and somewhat obtuse. The pericarpium is a long compressed, unicellular jointed pod. The seeds are kidney-shaped, and solitary within each joint. Of this genus they are reckoned five species. 1. The alpina (as well as the rest of this genus) is a native of warm countries. It rises to the height of four or five feet, having a single herbaceous stalk, which is rough in some parts. The leaves come out on every side towards the top, forming a sort of head; the flowers come out between the leaves, two or three together upon long footstalks; they are yellow, and shaped like those of peas: after the flower is past, the germen becomes a flat jointed pod, which, when ripe, parts at the joints, and in each division is lodged a single kidney-shaped seed. 2. The Americana, seldom rises more than two feet in height. The flowers come out from the leaves on branching footstalks, five or fix together; there are much less than the former, and of a paler yellow colour. The seed is lodged in pods like the other. 3. The arbores, grows to the height of fix or seven feet, with a single stem; the flowers come out two or three together, of a copper colour, and as large as those of the alpina. 4. The fimbria hath woody stems, and branches garnished with smooth leaves. The flowers are small, of a deep yellow colour, and come out on long spikes hanging downward. The seed is contained in a smooth pod not jointed. 5. The pumila, rises to the height of about three feet; has flowers of a pale yellow colour, which come out sometimes single, at other times two or three upon each footstalk. The seeds are contained in a long falcated pod having 7 or 14 divisions, each of which lodges a single seed. 6. The grandiflora, rises fix or eight feet high, with a woody stem, sending out branches towards the top, garnished with obtuse leaves. The flowers are large, yellow, and succeeded by large pods containing kidney-shaped seeds.

Culture. These plants are propagated by seeds, which should be sown early in the spring, on a hotbed; and when the plants have strength enough to be removed, they should each be put into a separate pot filled with light earth, and plunged into a hot-bed. As they increase in size, they must be removed into larger pots; but if these are too large, the plants will not thrive. They must be brought forward early in the year, otherwise the second kind will not perfect its seed.

Æsculapius, in the Heathen mythology, the god of physic, was the son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis. He was educated by the centaur Chiron, who taught him physic; by which means Æsculapius cured the most desperate diseases. But Jupiter, enraged at his restoring to life Hippolitus, who had been torn in pieces by his own horses, killed him with a thunderbolt. According to Cicero, there were three deities of this name: the first, the son of Apollo, worshipped in Arcadia, who invented the probe, and bandages for wounds; the second, the brother of Mercury, killed by lightning; and the third, the son of Arisippus and Arinoe, who first taught the art of tooth-drawing and purging. At Epidaurus, Æsculapius's statue was of gold and ivory, with a long beard, his head surrounded with rays, holding in one hand a knotty stick, and the other entwined with a serpent; he was seated on a throne of the same materials as his statue, and had a dog lying at his feet. The Romans crowned him with laurel, to represent his descent from Apollo; and the Phaliaans represented him as beardless. The cock, the raven, and the goat, were sacred to this deity. His chief temples were at Pergamus, Smyrna, Trica a city in Ionia, and the isle of Coos; in all which, votive tablets were hung up, showing the diseased cured by his affluence. But his most famous shrine was at Epidaurus; where, every five years, games were instituted to him, nine days after the Isthmian games at Corinth.

Æsculus, the Horse-chestnut: A genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the heptandra clas of plants; and ranking, in the natural method, under the 39th order, Tribilata.—The characters are: The calyx is a small, single-leaved, bellied perianthium, divided into five segments. The corolla (except in the pavia, where it is four-petalled and close) consists of five roundish, flat, expanding petals, unequally coloured, and with narrow claws inserted into the calyx. The stamina have seven subulate declining filaments, the length of the corolla; the antherae ascending. The pistillum is a roundish germen, ending in a subulate stylos; the stigma pointed. The pericarpium is a leathery, roundish, trilocular, three-valved capsule. The seeds are two, and subglobular.—In this genus Van Rozen and Miller observe both male and hermaphrodite flowers. There are two species. 1. The hippocastanum, or common horse-chestnut. It was brought from the northern parts of Asia about the year 1550, and sent to Vienna about 1588. This tree makes a noble appearance all the month of May, the extremities of the branches being terminated by fine spikes of flowers spotted with rose colours, so that the whole tree seems covered with them. It is quick in its growth; so that in a few years it arrives at a size large enough to afford a good shade in summer. summer, as also to produce plenty of flowers. They have, however, this great inconvenience, that their wood is of no use, being unfit even for burning; and their leaves beginning to fall in July, soon deprive the trees of their beauty. There is something very singular in the growth of these trees; which is, that the whole shoot is performed in less than three weeks after the buds are opened.—The nuts are reckoned good food for horses. In Turkey, they are ground, and mixed with the provender of these animals, especially those which are troubled with coughs or broken-winded. Deer are also very fond of the fruit; and at the time of their ripening keep much about the trees, but especially in strong winds, when the nuts are blown down, which they carefully watch, and greedily devour as they fall.

2. The pavia, or scarlet-flowering horse-chestnut, a native of Carolina, the Brazils, and the East. It grows to about fifteen or sixteen feet high; and there is a delicacy in this tree that makes it desirable. The bark of the young shoots is quite smooth, and the growing shoots in summer are of a reddish hue. The leaves are palmated, being pretty much like those of the horse-chestnut, only much smaller, and the indentures at the edges are deeper and more acute. The lobes of which they are composed are pear-shaped; they are five in number, are united at their base, and stand on a long red footstalk. The leaves grow opposite by pairs on the branches, which are spread abroad on every side. The flowers come out from the ends of the branches. The first appearance of the buds is in May; though they will not be in full blow till the middle of June. They are of a bright red colour, and consequently have a pleasing effect among the vast tribe of yellow-flowering sorts which show themselves in bloom at that season. They continue in succession for upwards of six weeks; and sometimes are succeeded by ripe seeds in our gardens.

Propagation and culture. The first species is propagated from the nuts. In autumn, therefore, when they fall, a sufficient quantity should be gathered. These should be sown soon afterwards in drills, about two inches asunder. If the nuts are kept till spring, many of them will be faulty; but where the seminary-ground cannot be got ready before, and they are kept too long, it may be proper to put them in water, to try their goodness. The good nuts will sink, whilst those which are faulty will float; so that by proving them this way you may be sure of good nuts, and have more promising hopes of a crop. In the spring the plants will come up; and when they have stood one year, they may be taken up, their tap-roots shortened, and afterwards planted in the nursery. When they are of sufficient size to be planted out finally, they must be taken out of the nursery with care, the great side-shoots and the bruised parts of the roots should be taken off, and then planted in large holes level with the surface of the ground, at the top of their roots; the fibres being all spread and lapped in the fine mould, and the turf also worked to the bottom. A stake should be placed to keep them safe from the winds; and they must be fenced from the cattle till they are of a sufficient size to defend themselves. The best season for all this work is October. After the trees are planted, neither knife nor hatchet should come near them; but they should be left to Nature to form their beautiful parabolic heads, and assume their utmost beauty.—The horse-chestnut, like most other trees, delights most in good fat land; but it will grow exceedingly well on clayey and marley grounds.

Miller says, "When these trees are transplanted, their roots should be preserved as entire as possible, for they do not succeed well when torn or cut; nor should any of the branches be shortened, for there is scarce any tree that will not bear amputation better than this; so that when any branches are by accident broken, they should be cut off close to the stem, that the wound may heal over."

The second species is propagated, i. By budding it upon the young plants of the horse-chestnut. These stocks should be raised as was directed in that article. They should be planted in the nursery way, one foot asunder, and two feet distant in the rows, which should be kept clean of weeds, and must be dug between every winter till the operation is to be performed. After they have stood in the nursery-ground about two years, and have made at least one good summer's growth, the summer following is the time for the operation. Then, having your cuttings ready soon after midsummer, the evenings and cloudy weather should be made choice of for the work. Whoever has a great number of trees to inoculate, must regard the weather, but keep working on, to get his boughs set before the season ends; and, indeed, a good hand will be always pretty sure of success be the weather what it will. If the stocks were healthy, the summer following they will make pretty good shoots; and in a year or two after that will flower. This is one method of propagating this tree; and those plants that are propagated this way will grow to a larger size than those raised immediately from seeds.—2. This tree also may be propagated by seeds; which will sometimes ripen with us, and may be obtained out of our own gardens. The manner of raising them this way is as follows: Let a warm border be prepared; and if it is not naturally sandy, let drift-land be mixed with the soil; and in this border let the seeds be sown in the month of March, about half an inch deep. After this, constant weeding must be observed; and when the plants are come up, if they could be shaded in the heat of the day, it would be much better. These, with now and then a gentle watering in a dry season, will be all the precautions they will require the first summer. The winter following, if the situation is not extremely well sheltered, protection must be given them from the hard black frosts, which will otherwise often destroy them; so that it will be the safest way to have the bed hooped, to cover them with mats in such weather, if the situation is not well defended: if it is, this trouble may be saved; for, even when young, they are tolerably hardy. In about two or three years they may be removed into the nursery, or planted where they are to remain, and they will flower in three or four years after. The usual nursery-care must be taken of them when planted in that way; and the best time for planting them there, or where they are to remain, is October; though they will grow exceedingly well if removed in any of the winter months; but, if planted late in the spring, they will require more watering, as the ground will not be so regularly settled. ÆSOP, the Phrygian, lived in the time of Solon, about the 50th Olympiad, under the reign of Croesus the last king of Lydia. As to genius and abilities, he was greatly indebted to nature; but in other respects not so fortunate, being born a slave and extremely deformed. St Jerom, speaking of him, says he was unfortunate in his birth, condition in life, and death; hinting thereby at his deformity, fertile state, and tragic end. His great genius, however, enabled him to support his misfortunes; and in order to alleviate the hardships of servitude, he composed those entertaining and instructive fables which have acquired him so much reputation. He is generally supposed to have been the inventor of that kind of writing; but this is contested by several, particularly Quintilian, who seems to think that Hesiod was the first author of fables. Æsop, however, certainly improved this art to a very great degree; and hence it is that he has been accounted the author of this sort of productions:

Æsopus auctor quam mater am reperit, Hanc ego polivi veribus tenaris.

Pind. Prol. ad. lib. i.

If any thoughts in these jambics shine, Th' invention's Æsop's, and the verse is mine."

The first master whom Æsop served, was one Caralus Demarchus, an inhabitant of Athens; and there in all probability he acquired his purity in the Greek tongue. After him he had several masters; and at length came under a philosopher named Idmon or Iadmon, who enfranchised him. After he had recovered his liberty, he soon acquired a great reputation amongst the Greeks; so that, according to Meziriac, the report of his wisdom having reached Croesus, he sent to inquire after him, and engaged him in his service. He travelled through Greece, according to the same author; whether for his own pleasure, or upon the affairs of Croesus, is uncertain; and passing by Athens soon after Pisistratus had usurped the sovereign power, and finding that the Athenians bore the yoke very impatiently, he told them the fable of the frogs who petitioned Jupiter for a king. The images made use of by Æsop are certainly very happy inventions to instruct mankind; they profit all that is necessary to perfect a precept, having a mixture of the useful with the agreeable. "Æsop the fabulist (says Aulus Gellius) was deservedly esteemed wise, since he did not, after the manner of the philosophers, rigidly and imperiously dictate such things as were proper to be advised and persuaded; but, framing entertaining and agreeable apologies, he thereby charms and captivates the human mind."—Æsop was put to death at Delphi. Plutarch tells us, that he came there with a great quantity of gold and silver, being ordered by Croesus to offer a sacrifice to Apollo, and to give a considerable sum to each inhabitant: but a quarrel arising between him and the Delphians, he sent back the money to Croesus; for he thought those for whom the prince designed it, had rendered themselves unworthy of it. The inhabitants of Delphi contrived an accusation of sacrilege against him; and pretending they had convicted him, threw him headlong from a rock. For this cruelty and injustice, we are told they were visited with famine and pestilence; and consulting the oracle, they received for answer, that the god determined this as a punishment for their treatment of Æsop: they endeavoured to make an atonement, by raising a pyramid to his honour.

ÆSOP (Clodius), a celebrated actor, who flourished about the 670th year of Rome. He and Roscius were contemporaries, and the best performers who ever appeared upon the Roman stage, the former excelling in tragedy, the latter in comedy. Cicero put himself under their direction to perfect his action. Æsop lived in a most expensive manner, and at one entertainment is said to have had a dish which cost above eight hundred pounds; this dish, we are told, was filled with singing and speaking birds, some of which cost near 50l. The delight which Æsop took in this sort of birds proceeded, as Mr Bayle observes, from the expense. He did not make a dish of them because they could speak, according to the refinement of Pliny upon this circumstance, this motive being only by accident; but because of their extraordinary price. If there had been any birds that could not speak, and yet more scarce and dear than these, he would have procured such for his table. Æsop's son was no less luxurious than his father, for he dissolved pearls for his guests to swallow. Some speak of this as a common practice of his; but others mention his falling into this excess only on a particular day, when he was treating his friends. Horace* speaks only of one pearl of great value, which he dissolved in vinegar, and drank. Æsop, notwithstanding his expenses, is said to have died worth above 160,000l. When he was upon the stage, he entered into his part to such a degree, as sometimes to be seized with a perfect ecstacy: Plutarch mentions it as reported of him, that whilst he was representing Atreus deliberating how he should revenge himself on Thyestes, he was transported beyond himself in the heat of action, that with his truncheon he smote one of the servants crossing the stage, and laid him dead on the spot.

ÆSTIMATIO CAPITIS, a term met with in old law-books for a fine anciently ordained to be paid for offences committed against persons of quality, according to their several degrees.

ÆSTIVAL, in a general sense, denotes something connected with, or belonging to, summer. Hence æstival sign, æstival solstice, &c.

ÆSTUARIA, in geography, denotes an arm of the sea, which runs a good way within land. Such is the Bristol channel, and many of the friths of Scotland.

ÆSTUARIES, in ancient baths, were secret passages from the hypocaustum into the chambers.

ÆSTUARY, among physicians, a vapour-bath, or any other instrument for conveying heat to the body.

ÆSYMNIUM, in antiquity, a monument erected to the memory of the heroes, by Æsymnus the Megarean. He consulting the oracle in what manner the Megarians might be most happily governed, was answered, if they held consultation with the more numerous: whom he taking for the dead, built the said monument, and a senate-house that took within its compass the monument; imagining, that thus the dead would assist at their consultations. (Pausanias.)

ÆTH, or ATH, a strong little town in the Austrian Netherlands and province of Hainault, situated on the river Dender, about twenty miles S.W. of Brufels.

ÆTHALIA, or ILUA (anc. geog.) now Elba; an island ÆTH

Æthelstan, island on the coast of Etruria, is compassed in hundred miles, abounding in iron, as Mr. W. does. Stephani calls it Ætale. The port of Æthelstan was called Æthel-

ÆTHER, (Diod. Sicul.)

ÆTHELSTAN, see Athelstan.

ÆTHER, is usually understood of a thin, subtle matter, or medium, much finer and rarer than air, which commencing from the limits of our atmosphere, pervades the whole heavenly space.—The word in Greek, αἰθήρ, supposed to be formed from the verb ἀείναι, "to burn, to flame;" some of the ancients, particularly Anaxagoras, supposing it of the nature of fire. See Fire.

The philosophers cannot conceive that the largest part of the creation should be perfectly void; and therefore they fill it with a species of matter under the denomination of æther. But they vary extremely as to the nature and character of this æther. Some conceive it as a body sui generis, appointed only to fill up the vacuities between the heavenly bodies; and therefore confined to the regions above our atmosphere. Others suppose it of so subtile and penetrating a nature, as to pervade the air, and other bodies, and possess the pores and intervals thereof. Others deny the existence of any such specific matter; and think the air itself, by that immense tenacity and expansion it is found capable of, may diffuse itself through the interstellar spaces, and be the only matter found therein.

In effect, æther, being no object of our senses, but the mere work of imagination, brought only upon the stage for the sake of hypotheses, or to solve some phenomenon, real or imaginary; authors take the liberty to modify it how they please. Some suppose it of an elementary nature, like other bodies; and only distinguished by its tenuity, and the other affections consequent thereon: which is the philosophical æther. Others will have it of another species, and not elementary; but rather a sort of fifth element, of a purer, more refined, and spirituous nature, than the substances about our earth; and void of the common affections thereof, as gravity, &c. The heavenly spaces being the supposed region or residence of a more exalted class of beings, the medium must be more exalted in proportion. Such is the ancient and popular idea of æther, or ætherial matter.

The term æther being thus embarrassed with a variety of ideas, and arbitrarily applied to so many different things, the later and severer philosophers choose to set it aside, and in lieu thereof substitute other more determinate ones. Thus, the Cartesians use the term materia subtillis; which is their æther: and Sir Isaac Newton, sometimes a subtile spirit, as in the close of his Principia; and sometimes a subtile or ætherial medium, as in his Optics.

The truth is, there are abundance of considerations, which seem to evince the existence of some matter in the air, much finer than the air itself. There is an unknown something, which remains behind when the air is taken away; as appears from certain effects which we see produced in vacuo. Heat, Sir Isaac Newton observes, is communicated through a vacuum almost as readily as through air; but such communication cannot be without some intermediate body, to act as a medium. And such body may be subtile enough to penetrate the pores of glass; and may be very well con-

No. 6.

cluded to permeate those of all other bodies, and consequently be diffused through all the parts of space which answers to the full character of an æther. See Heat.

The existence of such an ætherial medium being settled, that author proceeds to its properties; inferring it to be not only rarer and more fluid than air, but exceedingly more elastic and active: in virtue of which properties, he shows, that a great part of the phenomena of nature may be produced by it. To the weight, e.g. of this medium, he attributes gravitation, or the weight of all other bodies; and to its elasticity, the elastic force of the air and of nervous fibres, and the emission, refraction, reflection, and other phenomena of light; as also, sensation, muscular motion, &c. In fine, this same matter seems the primum mobile, the first source or spring of physical action in the modern system.

The Cartesian æther is supposed not only to pervade, but adequately to fill, all the vacuities of bodies; and thus to make an absolute plenum in the universe.

But Sir Isaac Newton overturns this opinion, from divers considerations; by showing, that the celestial spaces are void of all sensible resistance: for, hence it follows, that the matter contained therein must be immensely rare, in regard the resistance of bodies is chiefly as their density; so that if the heavens were thus adequately filled with a medium or matter, how subtile soever, they would resist the motion of the planets and comets much more than quicksilver or gold.

The late discoveries in electricity have thrown great light upon this subject, and rendered it extremely probable that the æther so often talked of is no other than the electric fluid, or solar light, which diffuses itself throughout the whole system of nature. See Electricity, Fire, Heat, Light, &c.

ÆTHER, in chemistry, the lightest, most volatile, and most inflammable of all liquids, is produced by distillation of acids with rectified spirit of wine. See Chemistry and Pharmacy (the Indexes).

ÆTHERIAL, Ætherius, something that belongs to, or partakes of, the nature of Æther. Thus we say, the ætherial space, ætherial regions, &c.

Some of the ancients divided the universe, with respect to the matter contained therein, into elementary and ætherial.

Under the ætherial world was included all that space above the uppermost element, viz. fire. This they supposed to be perfectly homogeneous, incorruptible, unchangeable, &c. See Corruption. The Chaldeans placed an ætherial world between the empyreum and the region of the fixed stars. Beside which, they sometimes also speak of a second ætherial world, meaning by it the starry orb; and a third ætherial world, by which is meant the planetary region.

ÆTHIOPIA. See Ethiopia.

ÆTHIOPS, Mineral, Martial, and Antimonial. See Pharmacy (Index).

ÆTHUSA, in botany, a genus of the pentandria digynia clas; and, in the natural method, ranking under the 45th order, Umbellatae. The characters are: The calyx is an universal umbel expanding, the interior rays shorter by degrees; with a partial umbel, small, and expanding. There is no universal involucrum; the partial one is dimidiated, with three or five leaflets, lets, and pendulous; the proper perianthium scarcely discernible. The universal corolla is uniform, with fertile florets; the partial one has five heart-inflected unequal petals. The stamina consist of five simple filaments, with roundish anthers. The pistillum is a germen beneath; with two reflected styli; the stigma obtuse. There is no pericarpium; the fruit is ovate, striated, and tripartite. The seeds are two, roundish and striated. There is but one species, viz., the æthusa synapium, foole-parsley, or lesser hemlock (a native of Britain), which grows in corn-fields and gardens. This plant, from its resemblance to common parsley, hath sometimes been mistaken for it; and when eaten, it occasions sickness. If the curled-leaved parsley only was cultivated in our gardens, no such mistakes would happen in future. Cows, horses, sheep, goats, and swine, eat it. It is noxious to geese.