Aclinic Line (Gr. a, without, and to incline), an imaginary line on the earth's surface between the tropics, where the compass needle has no inclination; that is, where the dipping needle is horizontal. This line is also called the magnetic equator, being about 90° distant from the magnetic poles; it is variable and runs quite irregularly. At present it intersects the geographical equator near the W. coast of Africa, and some 160° E. of that point in the Pacific ocean. In the western hemisphere it is S. and in the eastern X. of the equator.

AcŒmetae (Gr. sleepless), an order of Greek monks who chanted the divine service day and night, without ceasing. This they accomplished by dividing themselves into three reliefs, succeeding one another alternately. Their centre was the cloister of Irenaribn, near Constantinople. They flourished in the 5th century; in the succeeding century they were put under the ban of the church, on account of their leanings toward the Nestorian Christians and their doctrines.