with the presence of an extremely minute micro-organism (_Bacillus
anthr[)a]cis_) in the blood. It attacks cattle more frequently than other
animals; sheep, horses, pigs, dogs, and fowls are liable to anthrax, but
not cats. The mode of infection in animals is chiefly by ingestion. It may
also be contracted through a wound or scratch in the skin, but this mode of
infection is commoner in human beings than in animals. It frequently
assumes an epizootic form, and extends over large districts, affecting all
classes of animals which are exposed to the exciting causes. It is also
called splenic fever, and is communicable to man, appearing as carbuncle,
malignant pustule, or wool-sorter's disease.
ANTHROPOL'ATRY, the worship of man, a word always employed in reproach;
applied by the Apollinarians, who denied Christ's perfect humanity, towards
the orthodox Christians.
ANTHRO'POLITE, a petrifaction of the human body or skeleton, or of parts of
the body, by the encrusting action of calcareous waters, and hence hardly
to be considered fossil or sub-fossil.
ANTHROPOL'OGY, the science of man, including the study of man's place in
nature, that is, of the measurement of his agreement with and divergence
from other animals and the history of the emergence of human
characteristics; of the distinctive features and geographical distribution
of the races of mankind, their customs and beliefs; of the remains of
extinct types of the human family and the evidence relating to their modes
of life. It puts under contribution all sciences which have man for their
object, as anatomy, palaeontology, psychology, archaeology, history, and
comparative religion. All the races of mankind that are now living, much as
they differ in external appearance, such as colour of skin, character of
hair, form of skull, face, and body, and stature, belong to one species,
_Homo Sapiens_; but an earlier species of more brutal type, _H.
neanderthalensis_, now completely extinct, is known from fossil remains
found in Germany, Belgium, France, Gibraltar, and Croatia. Three more
ancient and primitive types, probably representing distinct genera of the
human family, have been discovered respectively at Piltdown, in Sussex
(Eoanthropus), at Mauer, near Heidelberg (Palaeanthropus), and in Java, the
Ape-man (Pithecanthropus). The Piltdown man may represent the very remote,
but direct, ancestor of modern man; but the Heidelberg man and the Ape-man
were probably divergent 'sports' whose descendants never became men of the
modern type.
In structure the gorilla reveals a close kinship with the human family, and
was probably derived from a common ancestry which probably differentiated
into man's forerunner and the gorilla's in Miocene times. Of existing races
the aboriginal Australian is much the most primitive, and represents the
survival of the earliest type of _Homo Sapiens_ soon after this species
became differentiated from men of the Neanderthal species. The negro, whose
home is tropical Africa, is primitive in some respects, but in others is
highly specialized. He is distinguished by his black skin, flat nose,
prominent jaws and thick everted lips, and so-called 'woolly' or
'pepper-corn' hair. In stature he shows a wider range of variation than any
other race, including, as he does, the tallest and the shortest varieties
of mankind. The Bushman is a peculiarly distinct racial type now restricted
to the deserts of South Africa. Though his skin is yellowish rather than
black, he is akin to the negro. The Mongolian race probably assumed its
distinctive features, yellowish skin, coarse black hair, and characteristic
facial and bodily traits, in Eastern Asia; and the aboriginal population of
America was sprung mainly from the less-specialized branch of this race.
The so-called white races include three main stocks, a people of short
stature, olive complexion, and long heads, the Mediterranean race; a taller
people with fair hair and long heads, the Nordic race; and a short,
thick-set, black-haired, broad-headed Alpine race, which made its way from
Asia into Europe many centuries after the other two chief components of
Europe's population. For long ages in every part of the world intermixture
has been taking place in varying degrees between the different races of
mankind, so that to-day probably no pure race exists. See _Ethnography_,
_Ethnology_, _Man_, &c.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. B. Tylor, _Anthropology_; D. G.
Brinton, _Races and Peoples_; W. Z. Ripley, _The Races of Europe_; E.
Carpenter, _Anthropology_; G. Elliott Smith, _The Migrations of Early
Culture_; H. G. F. Spurrell, _Modern Man and his Forerunners_;
_Dictionnaire des Sciences Anthropologiques_; _The Journal of the
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain_.
ANTHROPOM'ETRY, the systematic examination of the height, weight, and other
physical characteristics of the human body. It was shown in the British
Association Report of 1888 that variations in stature, weight, and
complexion, existing in different districts of the British islands, are
chiefly due to difference of racial origin.
The Scotch male adults stand first in height (68.71 inches), the Irish
second (67.90 inches), the English third (67.66 inches), and the Welsh last
(66.66 inches). In weight the Scotch take the first place (165.3 lb.), the
Welsh the second (158.3 lb.), the English the third (155.0 lb.), and the
Irish the last (154.1 lb.). The average height of adult females is 4.71
inches less than the male average, and their average weight 32.2 lb. under
that of the males. The average height of the adult males of the principal
races or nationalities of the world may be given as under; but it is
acknowledged that more numerous measurements might alter some of the
figures considerably: Polynesians 69.33 inches, Patagonians 69 inches,
Negroes of the Congo 69 inches, Scotch 68.71 inches, Iroquois Indians 68.28
inches, Irish 67.90 inches, United States (whites) 67.67 inches, English
67.66 inches, Norwegians 67.66 inches, Zulus 67.19 inches, Welsh 66.66
inches, Danes 66.65 inches, Dutch 66.62 inches, American Negroes 66.62
inches, Hungarians 66.58 inches, Germans 66.54 inches, Swiss 66.43 inches,
Belgians 66.38 inches, French 66.23 inches, Berbers 66.10 inches, Arabs
66.08 inches, Russians 66.04 inches, Italians 66 inches, Spaniards 65.66
inches, Esquimaux 65.10 inches, Papuans 64.78 inches, Hindus 64.76 inches,
Chinese 64.17 inches, Poles 63.87 inches, Finns 63.60 inches, Japanese
63.11 inches, Peruvians 63 inches, Malays 62.34 inches, Lapps 59.2 inches,
Bosjesmans 52.78 inches. General average, 65.25 inches.
ANTHROPOMOR'PHISM, the representation or conception of the Deity under a
human form, or with human attributes and affections. _Anthropomorphism_ is
based upon the natural inaptitude of the human mind for conceiving
spiritual things except through sensuous images, and in its consequent
tendency to accept such expressions as those of Scripture when it speaks of
the eye, the ear, and the hand of God, of his seeing and hearing, of his
remembering and forgetting, of his making man in his own image, &c., in a
too literal sense. In a general sense anthropomorphism is the assumption of
man that his own characteristics are present in beings or things widely
different from himself, more particularly in forces of nature and gods. The
term is, therefore, also applied to that doctrine which attributes to
animals mental faculties of the same nature as those of man, though much
lower in degree: strictly called _biological anthropomorphism_, to
distinguish it from anthropomorphism proper, or _theological
anthropomorphism_. Cf. E. Caird, _Evolution of Religion_; J. R.
Illingworth, _Personality, Human and Divine_.
ANTHROPOPH'AGI, man-eaters, cannibals. Cannibalism was practised in very
ancient times; and though some peoples, as the New Zealanders and Fijians,
have given it up in recent times, it is still practised over a wide area in
Central Africa, where human flesh is a common article of food.
Superstitious ideas are often associated with cannibalism among those who
practise it. The Caribs were cannibals at the time of the Spanish conquest,
and the word 'cannibal' is derived from their name. See _Cannibalism_.
ANTHUS. See _Pipit_.
ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS are guns so mounted that they may be pointed upward to
fire directly against objects in the air. During the European War these
guns, fitted with special appliances and ammunition, were used for defence
against air-raids of the enemy, against Zeppelins and Gothas. The
anti-aircraft guns are of various types, ranging from light machine-guns up
to batteries of 3-inch and 6-inch guns. Some of them have brought down
enemy machines flying at a height of 10,000 or 12,000 feet.
ANTIBES ([.a][n.]-t[=e]b) (ancient ANTIPOLIS), a fortified town and seaport
of France, department Alpes-Maritimes, on the Mediterranean, 11 miles
S.S.W. of Nice; founded about 340 B.C. Pop. 12,198.
ANTI-BURGHER SYNOD, a section of the Scottish Secession Church, which held
its first meeting in Edinburgh in the house of Adam Gib on 10th April,
1747. It was formed in consequence of a breach resulting from a controversy
respecting the religious clause of the oath taken by burgesses in
Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Perth. Those in favour of the oath were designated
Burghers, whilst their opponents, who condemned the oath of the burgesses,
became known as Anti-burghers. The union of the burgher and anti-burgher
sections was brought about in 1820 through the exertions of John Jamieson,
minister at the Anti-burgher Church in Nicholson Street, Edinburgh. See
_United Free Church of Scotland_.
AN'TICHLOR, the name given to any chemical substance, such as hyposulphite
of sodium, employed to remove the small quantity of chlorine which
obstinately adheres to the fibres of the cloth when goods are bleached by
means of chlorine.
AN'TICHRIST, a word occurring in the first and second _Epistles of St.
John_, and nowhere else in Scripture, in passages having an evident
reference to a personage real or symbolical mentioned or alluded to in
various other passages both of the Old and New Testaments. The _idea
itself_, however, of Antichrist can be traced back to the second century
B.C., and appears first of all in the _Book of Daniel_. In every age the
Church has held through all its sects some definite expectation of a
formidable adversary of truth and righteousness prefigured under this name.
Thus Roman Catholics have found Antichrist in heresy, and Protestants in
Romanism. In one point the sects have generally been agreed, namely, in
regarding the various intimations on this subject in the Old and New
Testaments as a homogeneous declaration or warning, inspired by the spirit
of prophecy, of danger to the true religion from some disaffection and
revolt organized in the latter days by Satan. Most modern critics take a
different view of the matter. They do not regard the various Scriptural
writers who have dealt with this subject as having had any common
inspiration or design. They believe that each writer from his own point of
view, guided by mere human sagacity, gives expression in his predictions to
his own individual apprehensions, or narrates as prediction what he already
knows. Originally Antichrist is nothing else than the incarnate devil, and
the idea of the battle of God with a human opponent, endowed with devilish
wickedness, arose under the influence of historical conditions. It is the
near political horizon which suggests the danger, or contemporary history
the substance of the prophecy; thus the Antichrist of Daniel is Antiochus
Epiphanes, that of St. John Nero, that of St. Paul some adversary of
Christianity about to appear in the time of the Emperor
Claudius.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Baring-Gould, _Curious Myths of the Middle
Ages_; W. Bousset, _Antichrist_.
ANTICLI'MAX, a sudden declension of a writer or speaker from lofty to mean
thoughts or language, as in the well-known lines, quoted in Pope's
_Martinus Scriblerus on the Art of Sinking in Poetry_ as from an anonymous
author:
And thou, Dalhousie, the great god of war,
Lieutenant-colonel to the Earl of Mar.
Pope, Addison, and Fielding were masters in this art of sudden descent.
[Illustration: _a_, _a._ Anticlinal line. _b._ Synclinal line]
ANTICLI'NAL LINE OR AXIS, in geology, the ridge of a wave-like curve made
by a series of superimposed strata, the strata dipping from it on either
side as from the ridge of a house: a _synclinal line_ runs along the trough
of such a wave.
ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE, an association formed in England in 1836 to procure
the repeal of the laws regulating or forbidding the importation of corn.
The object of the league was attained in 1846.
ANTICOS'TI, an island of Canada, in the mouth of the St. Lawrence, 125
miles long by 30 miles broad. The interior is mountainous and wooded, but
there is much good land, and it is well adapted for agriculture.
ANTICY'CLONE, a phenomenon presenting some features opposite to those of a
cyclone. It consists of a region of high barometric pressure, the pressure
being greatest in the centre, with light winds flowing outwards from the
centre, and not inwards as in the cyclone, accompanied with great cold in
winter and with great heat in summer.
ANTICYRA (an-tis'i-ra), the name of two towns of Greece, the one in
Thessaly, the other in Phocis, famous for hellebore, which in ancient times
was regarded as a specific against insanity and melancholy. Hence various
jocular allusions in ancient writers (_Naviga Anticyram_, sail to
Anticyra).
AN'TIDOTE, a medicine to counteract the effects of poison.
ANTIETAM (an-t[=e]'tam), a small stream in the United States which falls
into the Potomac about 50 miles N.W. of Washington; scene of an indecisive
battle between the Federal and Confederate armies, 17th Sept., 1862.
ANTI-FEDERALISTS, the political party in the United States which after the
formation of the Federal constitution in 1787 opposed its ratification.
Whilst the Federalists were striving to turn the federation into a united
nation, and stood for a strong Government and centralizing tendencies,
their opponents, the Anti-Federalists, either more democratic, or
pretending that a strong Government meant a 'disguised' monarchic power,
endeavoured to preserve a loose disintegrated federation. The
Anti-Federalist party was gradually transformed into the
Democratic-Republican party, led by Jefferson.
ANTIFRICTION METAL, a name given to various alloys of tin, zinc, copper,
antimony, lead, &c., which oppose little resistance to motion, with great
resistance to the effects of friction, so far as concerns the wearing away
of the surfaces of contact. Babbitt's metal (50 parts tin, 5 antimony, 1
copper) is one of them.
ANTIGONE (an-tig'o-n[=e]), in Greek mythology, the daughter of Oedipus and
Jocasta, celebrated for her devotion to her brother Polynices, for burying
whom against the decree of King Creon she suffered death. She is the
heroine of Sophocles' _Oedipus at Colonus_ and his _Antigone_; also of
Racine's tragedy _Les Freres Ennemis_.
ANTIG'ONISH, a town in the E. of Nova Scotia, in county of the same name;
the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop, with a cathedral, a college, and a
good harbour. Pop. 1787.
ANTIG'ONUS, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, born about 382 B.C.
In the division of the empire, after the death of Alexander, Antigonus
obtained Greater Phrygia, Lycia, and Pamphylia as his dominion. But he soon
managed to extend his power, being assisted by his warlike son, Demetrius
Poliorc[=e]t[=e]s. Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Lysimachus, who had also been
generals of Alexander, alarmed by his ambition, united themselves against
him; and a long series of contests ensued in Syria, Phoenicia, Asia Minor,
and Greece, ending in 301 B.C. with the battle of Ipsus in Phrygia, in
which Antigonus was defeated and slain, his dominions being divided among
the conquerors.
ANTIGONUS GON'ATAS, son of Demetrius Poliorc[=e]t[=e]s, and grandson of the
above, succeeded his father in the kingdom of Macedon and all his other
European dominions, but did not obtain actual possession of them for some
years. He died, after a reign of forty-four years, 239 B.C.
ANTIGUA (an-t[=e]'gwa), one of the British West Indies, the most important
of the Leeward group; 28 miles long, 20 broad; area, 108 sq. miles. Its
shores are high and rocky, and much indented by creeks and inlets
furnishing several good harbours. The surface is diversified by hill and
dale, but nowhere rises to a greater height than 1500 feet. A considerable
portion of it is fertile, and the climate is healthy, but there is a
scarcity of water, there being no streams and few springs, droughts are not
infrequent, and hurricanes are apt to cause serious loss and damage. Chief
products are sugar, cotton, and pineapples. The island has fairly good
shipping connections with the United Kingdom, the United States, and
Canada. Antigua is governed as a crown colony, the Islands of Barbuda and
Redonda being attached to it. The capital, St. John, the residence of the
governor of the Leeward Islands, stands on the shore of a well-sheltered
harbour in the north-west part of the island. Falmouth (English Harbour) in
the south has also an excellent harbour with a dockyard. The island was
discovered by Columbus in 1493; the first settlement was made by the
English in 1632. Since then, except for a short period of occupation by the
French, it has been a British possession. Pop. 32,269 (1911).
ANTI-JAC'OBIN, a famous magazine (1797-1818), the original object of which
was to satirize the Jacobin principles of the Fox section of Whigs;
principal contributors: Gifford, Canning, Frere, and Ellis.
ANTI-LEBANON, the eastern of the two parallel ranges known as the Mountains
of Lebanon in Palestine. See _Lebanon_.
ANTILEGOM'ENA (things spoken against or objected to), a term applied by
early Christian writers to the _Epistle to the Hebrews_, 2 _Peter_,
_James_, _Jude_, 2 and 3 _John_, and the _Apocalypse_, which, though read
in the churches, were not for some time received into the canon of
Scripture.
ANTILLES (an-til'[=e]z), another name for the West Indian Islands
(excluding Bahamas). See _West Indies_.
ANTILOCHUS (an-til'o-kus), in Greek legend, a son of Nestor, distinguished
among the younger heroes who took part in the Trojan War by beauty,
bravery, and swiftness of foot. He was slain by Memnon, but Achilles
avenged his death.
ANTIMACASS'AR, a covering for chairs, sofas, couches, &c., made of open
cotton or worsted work, to preserve them from being soiled, as by the oil
applied to the hair.
ANTIMACHUS (an-tim'a-kus), a Greek poet who lived about 400 B.C., and wrote
an epic called the _Thebais_ on the mythical history of Thebes, and a long
elegy called _Lyd[=e]_, inspired by a mistress or wife of that name. Both
works were full of mythological details. Only fragments of his writings
remain, and from these it can be gathered that his style was rather
laboured and artificial. Yet the Alexandrian grammarians ranked him next to
Homer.
AN'TIMONY (chemical symbol, Sb, from Lat. _stibium_; sp. gr. 6.7, atomic
wt. 120.2), a brittle metal of a bluish-white or silver-white colour and a
crystalline or laminated structure. It melts at 630.6deg C., and burns with
a bluish-white flame. The mineral called stibnite or antimony-glance, is a
tri-sulphide (Sb_2S_3), and is the chief ore from which the metal is
obtained. It is found in many places, including France, Spain, Hungary,
Italy, Canada, Australia, and Borneo. The metal, or, as it was formerly
called, the _regulus of antimony_, does not rust or tarnish when exposed to
the air. When alloyed with other metals it hardens them, and is therefore
used in the manufacture of alloys, such as Britannia-metal, type-metal, and
pewter. In bells it renders the sound more clear; it renders tin more white
and sonorous as well as harder, and gives to printing types more firmness
and smoothness. The salts of antimony are very poisonous. The protoxide is
the active base of tartar emetic and James's powder, and is justly regarded
as a most valuable remedy in many diseases.--_Yellow antimony_ is a
preparation of antimony of a deep yellow colour, used in enamel and
porcelain painting. It is of various tints, and the brilliancy of the
brighter hues is not affected by foul air.
ANTINO'MIANISM ('opposition to the law'), the name given by Luther to the
inference drawn by John Agricola (1492-1566), from the doctrine of
justification by faith, that the moral law is not binding on Christians as
a rule of life. The term antinomian has since been applied to all doctrines
and practices which seem to contemn or discountenance strict moral
obligations. The Lutherans and Calvinists have both been charged with
antinomianism, the former on account of their doctrine of justification by
faith, the latter both on this ground and that of the doctrine of
predestination. The charge is, of course, vigorously repelled by both.
ANTIN'OMY, the opposition of one law or rule to another law or rule; in the
Kantian philosophy, that natural contradiction which results from the law
of reason, when, passing the limits of experience, we seek to conceive the
complex of external phenomena, or nature, as a world or cosmos.
ANTINOUS (an-tin'o-us), a young Bithynian whom the extravagant love of
Hadrian has immortalized. He drowned himself in the Nile in A.D. 122.
Hadrian set no bounds to his grief for his loss. He gave his name to a
newly-discovered star, erected temples in his honour, called a city after
him, and caused him to be adored as a god throughout the empire. Statues,
busts, &c., of him are numerous.
ANTIOCH (an'ti-ok), a town in Syria, famous in ancient times as the capital
of the Greek Kings of Syria, on the left bank of the Orontes, about 21
miles from the sea, in a beautiful and fertile plain. It was founded by
Seleucus Nicator in 300 B.C., and named after his father Antiochus. In
Roman times it was the seat of the Syrian governors, and the centre of a
widely-extended commerce. It was called the 'Queen of the East' and 'The
Beautiful'. Antioch is frequently mentioned in the New Testament, and it
was here that the disciples of our Saviour were first called Christians
(_Acts_, xi, 26). In the first half of the seventh century it was taken by
the Saracens, and in 1098 by the Crusaders. They established the
principality of Antioch, of which the first ruler was Bohemond, and which
lasted till 1268, when it was taken by the Mameluke Sultan of Egypt. In
1516 it passed into the hands of the Turks. The modern Antioch, or
_Antakieh_, has recently grown from a small place to a flourishing town.
Pop. estimated at 30,000.--There was another Antioch, in Pisidia, at which
St. Paul preached on his first missionary journey.
[Illustration: Medal of Antiochus Epiphanes]