At´rophy, a wasting of the flesh due to some interference with the nutritive processes. It may arise from a variety of causes, such as permanent, oppressive, and exhausting passions, organic disease, a want of proper food or of pure air, suppurations in important organs, copious evacuations of blood, saliva, semen, &c., and it is also sometimes produced by poisons, for example arsenic, mercury, lead, in miners, painters, gilders, &c. In old age the whole frame except the heart undergoes atrophic change, and it is of frequent occurrence in infancy as a consequence of improper, unwholesome food, exposure to cold, damp, or impure air, &c. Single organs or parts of the body may be affected irrespective of the general state of nutrition; thus local atrophy may be superinduced by palsies, the pressure of tumours upon the nerves of the limbs, or by artificial pressure, as in the feet of Chinese ladies.
At´ropin, or At´ropine, a crystalline alkaloid obtained from the deadly nightshade (Atrŏpa Belladonna). It is very poisonous, and produces persistent dilation of the pupil.
At´ropos, the eldest of the three Fates (the others being Clotho and Lachĕsis), who cuts the thread of life with her shears.
Attaché (at´a-shā), a junior member of the diplomatic services attached to an embassy or legation.
Attach´ment, in English law, a taking of the person, goods, or estate by virtue of a writ or precept. It is distinguished from an arrest by proceeding out of a higher court by precept or writ, whereas the latter proceeds out of an inferior court by precept only. An arrest lies only against the body of a man, whereas an attachment lies often against the goods only, and sometimes against the body and goods. It differs from a distress in that an attachment does not extend to lands, while a distress cannot touch the body.—Foreign attachment answers to what in Scotland is termed arrestment, by means of which a creditor may obtain the security of the goods or other personal property of his debtor in the hands of a third person for the purpose of enforcing the appearance of the debtor to answer to an action, and afterwards, upon his continued default, of obtaining the property absolutely in satisfaction of the demand.
Attack´, the opening act of hostility by a force seeking to dislodge an enemy from its position. It is considered more advantageous to offer than to await attack, even in a defensive war. The historic forms of attack are: (1) the parallel; (2) the form in which both wings attack and the centre is kept back; (3) the form in which the centre is pushed forward and the wings kept back; (4) the famous oblique mode, dating at least from Epaminondas, and employed by Frederick the Great, where one wing advances to engage, whilst the other is kept back, and occupies the attention of the enemy by pretending an attack. Napoleon preferred to mass heavy columns against an enemy's centre. The forms of attack have changed with the weapons used. In the days of the pike heavy masses were the rule, but the use of the musket led to an extended battle-front to give effect to the fire. The advance in long and slender lines which grew out of this has been not less famous in the annals of British attack than the square formation in those of defence. In the European War (1914-18) the Germans often attacked in mass-formation; but British attacks were usually carried out by successive waves; one wave secured its objective
and consolidated it while another wave passed through to attack a more advanced objective. Artillery preparation became of increasingly great importance; it broke down the enemy's wire, counteracted his artillery-fire, and made his infantry keep under cover. In trench-to-trench attacks machine-guns and trench-mortars were of great value, and many casualties were avoided by the skilful use of tanks in the attack. But it is still a fundamental principle of tactics that the infantry is the chief factor in the attack, and that no attack can be considered overwhelmingly successful without the use of the bayonet.
Attain´der, the legal consequences of a sentence of death or outlawry pronounced against a person for treason or felony, the person being said to be attainted. It resulted in forfeiture of estate and 'corruption of blood', rendering the party incapable of inheriting property or transmitting it to heirs; but these results now no longer follow. Formerly persons were often subjected to attainder by a special Bill or Act passed in Parliament called Bills of Attainder, the last being passed in 1798, in the case of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, one of the Irish rebel leaders.
Attaint´, a writ at common law against a jury for a false verdict, finally abolished in England in 1825.
Attale´a, a genus of American palms, comprising the piassava palm, which produces coquilla-nuts.