Carl Franz, a Prussian chemist, born at Berlin, in 1754, who is chiefly known now by his process for extracting sugar from beet-root, in which Margraff had before detected its existence. In 1800 the French Institute voted him thanks for his paper, but considered his process of little value; until it was taken up by Napoleon in 1812, and tried at Rambouillet; since which it has been extensively carried on in France; but it is doubtful if it can ever compete with the produce of the sugar-cane, in a free market, though the sugar manufactured from it is very white, and belongs to the same kind of sugar as that from the sugar-cane. His other works are physico-chemical experiments on the adhesion of different bodies. Achard died in 1821.

ACHARNÆ, the principal demus of Attica, sixty stadia north of Athens, inhabited by the tribe Cnemisi. The Acharnians carried on an extensive traffic in charcoal, which they prepared from the wood of Mount Parnes, not far distant. The district was fertile, and the population warlike. One of the plays of Aristophanes is entitled "The Acharnians."—See Learke's Attica, p. 35.