A′kenside, Mark, a poet and physician, born in 1721, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, died in London in 1770. He was the son of a butcher, and was sent to the University of Edinburgh to qualify for the ministry, but chose the study of medicine instead. After three years' residence at Edinburgh he went to Leyden, and in 1744 became Doctor of Physic. In the same year he published the Pleasures of Imagination, which he is said to have written in Edinburgh, and which was translated into French by Baron d'Holbach (1769). In 1746 he wrote his much-praised Hymn to the Naiads. Having settled in London, he became a fellow of the Royal Society, and was admitted into the College of Physicians. In 1759 he was appointed first assistant and afterwards head physician to St. Thomas's Hospital. In his later days he wrote little poetry, but published several medical essays and observations. The place of Akenside as a poet is not very high, though Dr. Johnson praised the blank verse of his poems, and his somewhat cumbrous Pleasures of Imagination was once considered one of the most pleasing didactic poems in our language.
Akermann′, a fortified town and seaport in Bessarabia, near the mouth of the Dniester, with a good port. The vicinity produces quantities of salt, and also fine grapes from which excellent wine is made. A treaty was signed here, 6th Oct., 1826, between Russia and the Porte, by which Moldavia, Walachia, and Serbia were released from all but nominal dependence on Turkey. Pop. 40,000.
Akhalzik, or Achalzik (a˙-ha˙l′tsik), a town of Russia in Asia, in the Trans-Caucasian government of Tiflis, 97 miles west of Tiflis, with a citadel. It was taken by the Russians in 1828. Pop. 15,977.
Ak-Hissar ('white castle'), a town in Asia Minor, 46 miles N.E. of Smyrna, occupying the site of the ancient Thyatira, relics of which city are here abundant. Here the Emperor Valens defeated the usurper Procopius in 366, and Murad defeated the Prince of Aïdin in 1425. Pop. 20,000.
Akhtyrka (a˙h-tir′ka˙), a cathedral town of the Ukraine, government of Kharkov, with a good trade and some manufactures. Pop. 31,918.
Akjermann (a˙k-yer-ma˙n′). Same as Akermann.
Akkad, the northern portion of ancient Babylonia occupied by the earliest Semitic invaders when the southern portion was Sumer (or Sumeria) and occupied by non-Semites. There was also a city of the same name, the Biblical Accad (Gen. x), which was prominent before 2000 B.C. Its ruins were unearthed between 1917 and 1919. See Babylonia.
Akkas, a dwarfish race of Central Africa, dwelling in scattered settlements to the north-west of Lake Albert Nyanza, about lat. 3° N., lon. 29° E. Their height averages about 4½ feet; they are of a brownish or coffee colour; head large, jaws projecting (or prognathous), ears large, hands small. They are timid and suspicious, and live almost entirely by the chase, being exceedingly skilful with the bow and arrow. They were first seen by the traveller G. A. Schweinfurth in 1870.
Akmolinsk′, a Russian province in Central Asia, largely consisting of steppes and wastes; the chief rivers are the Ishim and Sari-Su; and it contains the larger part of Lake Balkash. Capital, Omsk. Area, about 225,070 sq. miles. Pop. 1,523,700.—Akmolinsk is a place of some importance for its caravan trade. Pop. 11,000.
Ako′la, a town of India, in Berar, the residence of the commissioner of Berar, on the River Morna,