atrocity, atrocyte

[In Fr. atrocité; Ital. atrocita; Lat. at roc it as = fiercene .] Exce ive cruelty or other flagrant wickedne ; atrociousne . in this case there was no peculiar atrocity , no deep-seated malice, no suspicion of foul play."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng . , ch. xXV. It is often used in the plural for exce ively cruel deeds. the disgrace and scandal brought upon Liberty by the atrocities committed in that holy name."- De Quincey: Works (ed. 1863), vol. ii., p. 185. The expre ion "Bulgarian atrocities" has become historic. It is used to signify the cruel deeds perpetrated by the Turks in 1876 whilst repre ing an abortive rising of the Christians in parts of Bulgaria. The defiance by the Porte of the moral sentiment of Europe, when the punishment of those who were the active agents in perpetrating these crimes was called for by this and other countries, led to the Ru o-Turkish war of 1877-8, which resulted, among other effects, in the emancipation of a large part of Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke. "On September 21 [1876], Lord Derby expre ed the indignation of the country in a fervid despatch, and called on the Porte to punish the chief authors of the atrocities."- Annual Register , 1876, p. 273.