Introduction

Search for your terms in the box above to see if your interests have been uploaded. The Nuttall Encyclopaedia on this blog is currently under construction.

About the Encyclopaedia

The Reverend James Wood edited the Nuttall Encyclopaedia in 1907. It contains over 16,000 entries "and original articles on nearly all subjects discussed in larger encyclopaedias, and specially dealing with such as come under the categories of history, biography, geography, literature, philosophy, religion, science, and art". The entries are brief and helpful for a quick look at the topics covered."

The edition of the Nuttall Encyclopaedia posted on this blog is from the public domain.

ACRE, ST. JEAN D'

ACRE, ST. JEAN D' (7), a strong place and seaport in Syria, at the foot of Mount Carmel, taken, at an enormous sacrifice of life, by Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur de Lion in 1191, held out against Bonaparte in 1799; its ancient name Ptolemaïs.

ACRASIA

ACRASIA, an impersonation in Spenser's "Faërie Queen," of intemperance in the guise of a beautiful sorceress.

ACOUSTICS

ACOUSTICS, the science of sound as it affects the ear, specially of the laws to be observed in the construction of halls so that people may distinctly hear in them.

ACORN-SHELLS

ACORN-SHELLS, a crustacean attached to rocks on the sea-shore, described by Huxley as "fixed by its head," and "kicking its food into its mouth with its legs."

ACONITINE

ACONITINE, a most virulent poison from aconite, and owing to thevery small quantity sufficient to cause death, is very difficult of detection when employed in taking away life.

ACONITE

ACONITE, monk's-hood, a poisonous plant of the ranunculus order with a tapering root.

ACONCAGUA (ACONCA`GUA)

ACONCA`GUA, the highest peak of the Andes, about 100 m. NE. of Valparaiso, 22,867 ft. high; recently ascended by a Swiss and a Scotchman, attendants of Fitzgerald's party.

ACOEMETÆ (ACOEMETAE)

ACOEMETÆ, an order of monks in the 5th century who by turns kept up a divine service day and night.

ACNE

ACNE, a skin disease showing hard reddish pimples; ACNE ROSACEA, a congestion of the skin of the nose and parts adjoining.

ACLINIC LINE

ACLINIC LINE, the magnetic equator, along which the needle always remains horizontal.

ACLAND, SIR HENRY

ACLAND, SIR HENRY, regius professor of medicine in Oxford, accompanied the Prince of Wales to America in 1860, the author of several works on medicine and educational subjects, one of Ruskin's old and tried friends (1815).

ACK`ERMANN, R.

ACK`ERMANN, R., an enterprising publisher of illustrated works in the Strand, a native of Saxony (1764-1834).

A`CIS

A`CIS, a Sicilian shepherd enamoured of Galatea, whom the Cyclops Polyphemus, out of jealousy, overwhelmed under a rock, from under which his blood has since flowed as a river.

A`CI-REA`LË

A`CI-REA`LË (38), a seaport town in Sicily, at the foot of Mount Etna, in NE. of Catania, with mineral waters.

ACIERAGE

ACIERAGE, coating a copper-plate with steel by voltaic electricity.

ACHROMATISM

ACHROMATISM, transmission of light, undecomposed and free from colour, by means of a combination of dissimilar lenses of crown and flint glass, or by a single glass carefully prepared.

ACHIT`OPHEL

ACHIT`OPHEL, name given by Dryden to the Earl of Shaftesbury of his time.

ACH`MET I.

ACH`MET I., sultan of Turkey from 1603 to 1617; A. II., from 1691 to 1695; A. III., from 1703 to 1730, who gave asylum to Charles XII. of Sweden after his defeat by the Czar at Pultowa.

ACHMED PASHA

ACHMED PASHA, a French adventurer, served in French army, condemned to death, fled, and served Austria; condemned to death a second time, pardoned, served under the sultan, was banished to the shores of the Black Sea (1675-1747).

ACHILLES TENDON

ACHILLES TENDON, the great tendon of the heel, where Achilles was vulnerable.

ACHILLES OF GERMANY

ACHILLES OF GERMANY, Albert, third elector of Brandenburg, "fiery, tough old gentleman, of formidable talent for fighting in his day; a very blazing, far-seen character," says Carlyle (1414-1486).

ACHIL`LES

ACHIL`LES, the son of Peleus and Thetis, king of the Myrmidons, the most famous of the Greek heroes in the Trojan war, and whose wrath with the consequences of it forms the subject of the Iliad of Homer. He was invulnerable except in the heel, at the point where his mother held him as she dipt his body in the Styx to render him invulnerable.

External links:

Achilles - Wikipedia

ACHILLE`ID

ACHILLE`ID, an unfinished poem of Statius.

ACH`ILL

ACH`ILL, a rocky, boggy island, sparsely inhabited, off W. coast of Ireland, co. Mayo, with a bold headland 2222 ft. high.

ACH`ERY

ACH`ERY, a learned French Benedictine of St. Maur (1609-1685).

ACH`ERON

ACH`ERON, a river in the underworld; the name of several rivers in Greece more or less suggestive of it.

ACHENWALL

ACHENWALL, a German economist, the founder of statistic science (1719-1772).

ACHEN

ACHEN, an eminent German painter (1556-1621).

ACHELO`ÜS

ACHELO`ÜS, a river in Greece, which rises in Mt. Pindus, and falls into the Ionian Sea; also the god of the river, the oldest of the sons of Oceanus, and the father of the Sirens.

ACHA`TES

ACHA`TES, the attendant of Æneas in his wandering after the fall of Troy, remarkable for, and a perennial type of, fidelity.

ACHARD`, LOUIS AMÉDÉE

ACHARD`, LOUIS AMÉDÉE, a prolific French novelist (1814-1876).