island; area, 702,654 acres, of which about a third are arable. The eastern
and northern districts are comparatively mountainous, with tracts of heath
and bog, but no part rises to a great height. The principal rivers are the
Lagan and the Bann, which separate Antrim from Down and Londonderry
respectively. The general soil of the plains and valleys is strong loam.
Flax, oats, and potatoes are the principal agricultural produce. Cattle,
sheep, swine, and goats are extensively reared. There are salt-mines and
beds of iron-ore, which is worked and exported. A range of basaltic strata
stretches along the northern coast, of which the celebrated Giant's
Causeway is the most remarkable portion, the vast aggregates of natural
rock pillars there being very striking. The interior also contains some
scenes of picturesque beauty, particularly the fertile valley of the Lagan,
between Belfast and Lisburn. Much of the scenery of the county, however, is
dreary and monotonous. Lough Neagh, the largest lake of the United Kingdom,
is principally in Antrim. Its waters are carried to the sea by the Bann,
which is of no use for navigation, being obstructed by weirs and rocks. The
spinning of linen and cotton yarn, and the weaving of linen and cotton, are
the staple manufactures, but the cotton manufacture is small compared with
that of linen. The principal towns are Belfast, Lisburn, Ballymena, Larne,
and Carrickfergus. In 1898 Belfast, the former capital, was constituted
into a county borough. About fifty per cent of the inhabitants are
Presbyterians, being the descendants of Scottish immigrants of the
seventeenth century. The county sends four members to Parliament; Belfast
returns nine. Pop. (excluding Belfast) 193,864 (1911).--The town of Antrim,
at the north end of Lough Neagh, is a small place with a pop. of 1826.
ANT-THRUSH, a name given to certain passerine or perching birds having
resemblances to the thrushes and supposed to feed largely on ants. They all
have longish legs, short wings, and a short tail. The true ant-thrushes of
the Old World belong to the genus Pitta. They chiefly inhabit southern and
south-eastern Asia and the Eastern Archipelago, but are also found in
Africa and Australia, and are birds of brilliant plumage, exhibiting black,
white, scarlet, blue, and green in vivid contrast, there being generally no
blending of colours by means of intermediate hues. These birds are not now
regarded as allied to the thrushes, nor are they allied to the ant-birds,
or ant-thrushes of the New World, which live among close foliage and
bushes. Some of these are called ant-shrikes and ant-wrens. They belong to
several genera.
ANT'WERP (Du. and Ger. _Antwerpen_, Fr. _Anvers_), the chief port of
Belgium, and one of the first on the Continent, the capital of a province
of the same name, on the Scheldt, about 50 miles from the open sea. It lies
in a fertile plain at an abrupt turn of the river, which is here from 160
to 280 yards wide, and has a depth varying from 25 to 50 feet. It is
strongly fortified, being completely surrounded on the land side by a
semicircular inner line of fortifications, the defences being completed by
an outer line of forts and outworks. Fine quays have been constructed along
the river banks. The general appearance of the city is exceedingly
picturesque, an effect produced by the numerous churches, convents, and
magnificent public buildings, the stately antique houses that line its
older thoroughfares, and the profusion of beautiful trees with which it is
adorned. The older streets are tortuous and irregular, but those in the
newer quarters are wide and regular. Some of the squares are very handsome.
The cathedral, with a spire 400 feet high, one of the largest and most
beautiful specimens of Gothic architecture in Belgium, contains Rubens'
celebrated masterpieces, _The Descent from the Cross_, _The Elevation of
the Cross_, and _The Assumption_. The other churches of note are St.
James's, St. Andrew's, and St. Paul's, all enriched with paintings by
Rubens, Vandyck, and other masters. Among the other buildings of note are
the exchange, the town hall, the palace, the theatre, academy of the fine
arts, picture and sculpture galleries, &c. The harbour accommodation is
extensive and excellent, large new docks and quays having been recently
built, and other works being under construction or contemplated. The
shipping trade is now very large, Antwerp being a great centre of the
world's commerce, and the goods being largely in transit. The entries of
vessels in a year aggregate over 13,000,000 tons. Much of the trade is with
Britain. There are numerous but not very important industries. Antwerp is
mentioned as early as the eighth century, and in the eleventh and twelfth
it had attained a high degree of prosperity. In the sixteenth century it is
said to have had a pop. of 200,000, and it had then an extensive foreign
trade. The wars between the Netherlands and Spain greatly injured its
commerce, which was almost ruined by the closing of the navigation of the
Scheldt in accordance with the peace of Westphalia (1648). It was only in
the nineteenth century that its prosperity revived. In the European War
(1914-8), the Germans, under General von Beseler, entered Antwerp on 7th
Oct., 1914, and remained there until Nov., 1918. Pop. (1919), 322,857.--The
province consists of a fertile plain 1093 sq. miles in area, and has a pop.
of over 1,000,000.
[Illustration: Anubis]
ANU'BIS (_Anepo_ on the monuments), one of the deities of the ancient
Egyptians, the son of Osiris by Isis. The Egyptian sculptures represent him
with the head, or under the form, of a jackal, with long pointed ears. His
office was to conduct the souls of the dead from this world to the next,
and in the lower world he weighed the actions of the deceased previous to
their admission to the presence of Osiris.
ANUPSHAHR (_a_-noep'shaer), a town of Hindustan, United Provinces, on the
Ganges, 75 miles S.E. of Delhi, a resort of Hindu pilgrims who bathe in the
Ganges. Pop. 15,000.
ANU'RA, or ANOU'RA (Gr. _an_, negative, _oura_, a tail), an ord. of
Batrachians which lose the tail when they reach maturity, such as the frogs
and toads.
ANURADHAPURA. See _Anarajapura_.
A'NUS, the opening at the lower or posterior extremity of the alimentary
canal through which the excrement or waste products of digestion are
expelled.
AN'VIL, an instrument on which pieces of metal are laid for the purpose of
being hammered. The common smith's anvil is generally made of seven pieces,
namely, the core or body; the four corners for the purpose of enlarging its
base; the projecting end, which contains a square hole for the reception of
a set or chisel to cut off pieces of iron; and the beak or conical end,
used for turning pieces of iron into a circular form, &c. These pieces are
each separately welded to the core and hammered so as to form a regular
surface with the whole. When the anvil has received its due form, it is
faced with steel, and is then tempered in cold water. The smith's anvil is
generally placed loose upon a wooden block. The anvil for heavy operations,
such as the forging of ordnance and shafting, consists of a huge iron block
deeply embedded, and resting on piles of masonry.
ANVILLE, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d' (jae[n.] b[.a]p-t[=e]st
b[=o]r-g[=e]-nyoe[n.] dae[n.]-v[=e]l), a celebrated French geographer, born
1697, died 1782; published a great number of maps and writings illustrative
of ancient and modern geography.
ANYNAKS, a negro tribe inhabiting the banks of the Upper Sobat (a tributary
of the White Nile), between the Egyptian Sudan and Abyssinia. They rebelled
against British authority in 1912.
ANZACS, a composite word used as the name of the British colonial troops in
the Gallipoli undertaking. The men being from Australia and New Zealand,
their organization was officially known as the Australian-New Zealand Army
Corps. The full title, however, was much too cumbersome, and a clerk in one
of the head-quarters offices at Zeitoun, where the troops were in training,
hit upon the word _Anzacs_, formed from the initial letters of the long
title. The Anzacs landed near Gaba Tepe, Gallipoli, on the morning of 25th
April, 1915, and had their first encounter with the Germans on the Western
Front on 6th May, 1916. In 1916 the word Anzac was officially adopted by
the War Office.
ANZIN ([.a][n.]-za[n.]), a town of France, department of Nord, about 1 mile
north-west of Valenciennes, in the centre of an extensive coal-field, with
blast-furnaces, forges, rolling-mills, foundries, &c. Pop. 14,325.
AONIA, in ancient geography a name for part of Boeotia in Greece,
containing Mount Helicon and the fountain Aganippe, both haunts of the
muses.
A'ORIST, the name given to one of the tenses of the verb in some languages
(as the Greek), which expresses indefinite past time.
AOR'TA, in anatomy, the great artery or trunk of the arterial system,
proceeding from the left ventricle of the heart, and giving origin to all
the arteries except the pulmonary. It first rises towards the top of the
breast-bone, when it is called the _ascending aorta_; then makes a great
curve, called the transverse or _great arch of the aorta_, whence it
branches off to the head and upper extremities; thence proceeding towards
the lower extremities, under the name of the _descending aorta_, it
branches off to the trunk; and finally divides into the two iliacs, which
supply the pelvis and lower extremities.
AOSTA ([.a]-os't[.a]; ancient AUGUSTA PRAETORIA), a town of north Italy, 50
miles N.N.W. of Turin, on the Dora-Baltea, with an ancient triumphal arch,
remains of an amphitheatre, &c. Pop. 7000.
AOUDAD (a-oe'dad), the _Ammotr[)a]gus tragel[)a]phus_, a quadruped allied
to the sheep, most closely to the mouflon, from which, however, it may be
easily distinguished by the heavy mane, commencing at the throat and
falling as far as the knees. It is a native of North Africa, inhabiting the
loftiest and most inaccessible rocks.
APACHES ([.a]-pae'chez), a warlike race of North-American Indians,
numbering between 5000 and 6000, and inhabiting Arizona, New Mexico, and
Oklahoma. The final surrender of the tribe took place in 1886, but a few in
Mexico still maintain their independence and hostility to the whites. The
name _Apache_ was assumed by Parisian hooligans, notorious for their
criminal outrages.
AP'ANAGE, an allowance which the younger princes of a reigning house in
some European countries receive from the revenues of the country, generally
together with a grant of public domains, that they may be enabled to live
in a manner becoming their rank.
AP'ATITE, a translucent but seldom transparent mineral, which crystallizes
in a regular six-sided prism, usually terminated by a truncated six-sided
pyramid. It passes through various shades of colour, from white to yellow,
green, blue, and occasionally red, scratches fluor-spar but is scratched by
felspar, and has a specific gravity of about 3.5. It is a compound of
calcium phosphate with calcium fluoride or chloride. It occurs principally
in igneous rocks, particularly diorites. The very coarse-grained granites
of Ontario contain apatite crystals of corresponding size, which have been
picked out as a source of artificial phosphate manures. Apatite supplies to
soils almost all the phosphorus available for plants in a state of nature.
APE, a common name of a number of quadrumanous animals inhabiting the Old
World (Asia and the Asiatic Islands, and Africa), and including a variety
of species. The word _ape_ was formerly applied indiscriminately to all
quadrumanous mammals; but it is now limited to the anthropoid or man-like
monkeys. The family includes the chimpanzee, gorilla, orang-outang, &c.,
and has been divided into three genera, Troglod[)y]tes, Simia, and
Hylob[)a]tes. See _Chimpanzee_, _Gibbon_, _Gorilla_, _Monkey_, _Orang_, &c.
APELDOORN (ae'pel-d[=o]rn), a town of Holland, province of Guelderland, 17
miles north of Arnhem, with manufactures of paper. The royal palace Loo is
here. Pop. 44,474.
APELLES (a-pel'[=e]z), the most famous of the painters of ancient Greece
and of antiquity, was born in the fourth century B.C., probably at
Colophon. Ephorus of Ephesus was his first teacher, but attracted by the
renown of the Sicyonian school he went and studied at Sicyon. In the time
of Philip he went to Macedonia, and there a close friendship between him
and Alexander the Great was established. The most admired of his pictures
was that of Venus rising from the sea and wringing the water from her
dripping locks. His portrait of Alexander with a thunderbolt in his hand
was no less celebrated. He died about the end of the century. Among the
anecdotes told of Apelles is the one which gave rise to the Latin proverb,
'Ne sutor ultra crepidam'--'Let not the shoemaker go beyond the shoe'.
Having heard a cobbler point out an error in the drawing of a shoe in one
of his pictures he corrected it, whereupon the cobbler took upon him to
criticize the leg, and received from the artist the famous reply.
AP'ENNINES (Lat. _Mons Apenninus_), a prolongation of the Alps, forming the
'backbone of Italy'. Beginning at Savona, on the Gulf of Genoa, the
Apennines traverse the whole of the peninsula and also cross over into
Sicily, the Strait of Messina being regarded merely as a gap in the chain.
The average height of the mountains composing the range is about 4000 feet,
and nowhere do they reach the limits of perpetual snow, though some summits
exceed 9000 feet in height. Monte Corno, called also Gran Sasso d'Italia
(Great Rock of Italy), which rises among the mountains of the Abruzzi, is
the loftiest of the chain, rising to the height of 9541 feet, Monte Majella
(9151) being next. Monte Gargano, which juts out into the Adriatic from the
_ankle_ of Italy, is a mountainous mass upwards of 5000 feet high,
completely separated from the main chain. On the Adriatic side the
mountains descend more abruptly to the sea than on the western or
Mediterranean side, and the streams are comparatively short and rapid. On
the western side are the valleys of the Arno, Tiber, Garigliano, and
Volturno, the largest rivers that rise in the Apennines, and the only ones
of importance in the peninsular portion of Italy. They consist almost
entirely of limestone rocks, and are exceedingly rich in the finest
marbles. On the south slopes volcanic masses are not uncommon. Mount
Vesuvius, the only active volcano on the continent of Europe, is an
instance. The lower slopes are well clothed with vegetation, the summits
are sterile and bare.
APENRADE (ae'pen-rae-de), a seaport in Schleswig-Holstein, on a fiord of
the Little Belt, beautifully situated, and carrying on a considerable
fishing industry. Pop. 7800.
APE'RIENT, a medicine which, in moderate doses, gently but completely opens
the bowels: examples, castor-oil, Epsom salts, senna, &c.
APET'ALOUS, a botanical term applied to flowers or flowering-plants which
are destitute of petals or corolla.
APHANIP'TERA, an order of wingless insects, composed of the different
species of fleas. See _Flea_.
APHA'SIA (Gr. _a_, not, and _phasis_, speaking), in pathology, a symptom of
certain morbid conditions of the nervous system, in which the patient loses
the power of expressing ideas by means of words, or loses the appropriate
use of words, the vocal organs the while remaining intact and the
intelligence sound. There is sometimes an entire loss of words as connected
with ideas, and sometimes only the loss of a few. In one form of the
disease, called _aphemia_, the patient can think and write, but cannot
speak; in another, called _agraphia_, he can think and speak, but cannot
express his ideas in writing. In a great majority of cases, where
post-mortem examinations have been made, morbid changes have been found in
the left frontal convolution of the brain.
APHE'LION (Gr. _apo_, from, and _h[=e]lios_, the sun), that point of the
orbit of the earth or any other planet which is remotest from the sun.
APHE'MIA. See _Aphasia_.
APHIDES (af'i-d[=e]z). See _Aphis_.
[Illustration: Aphides
Cabbage-leaf Plant-louse (_Aphis brassicae_)--1, 2. Male, natural size and
magnified. 3, 4, Female, natural size and magnified.]
APHIS, a genus of insects (called plant-lice) of the ord. Hemiptera, the
type of the family Aph[)i]d[=e]s. The species are very numerous and
destructive. The _A. rosae_ lives on the rose; the _A. fabae_ on the bean;
the _A. hum[)u]li_ is injurious to the hop, the _A. granaria_ to cereals,
and _A. lanig[)e]ra_ or woolly aphis equally so to apple trees. The aphides
are furnished with an inflected beak, and feelers longer than the thorax.
In the same species some individuals have four erect wings and others are
entirely without wings. The feet are of the ambulatory kind, and the
abdomen usually ends in two horn-like tubes, from which is ejected the
substance called honey-dew, a favourite food of ants. (See _Ant_.) The
aphides illustrate parthenogenesis; hermaphrodite forms produced from eggs
produce viviparous wingless forms, which again produce others like
themselves, and thus multiply during summer, one individual giving rise to
millions. Winged sexual forms appear late in autumn, the females of which,
being impregnated by the males, produce eggs.
APHO'NIA (Gr. _a_, not, and _ph[=o]n[=e]_, voice), in pathology, the
greater or less impairment, or the complete loss of the power of emitting
vocal sound. The slighter and less permanent forms often arise from extreme
nervousness, fright, and hysteria. Slight forms of structural aphonia are
of a catarrhal nature, resulting from more or less congestion and
tumefaction of the mucous and submucous tissues of the larynx and adjoining
parts. Severer cases are frequently occasioned by serous infiltration into
the submucous tissue, with or without inflammation of the mucous membrane
of the larynx and of its vicinity. The voice may also be affected in
different degrees by inflammatory affections of the fauces and tonsils; by
tumours in these situations; by morbid growths pressing on or implicating
the larynx or trachea; by aneurisms; and most frequently by chronic
laryngitis and its consequences, especially thickening, ulceration, &c.
APH'ORISM, a brief, sententious saying, in which a comprehensive meaning is
involved, as 'Familiarity breeds contempt'; 'Necessity has no law'.
APHRODITE (af-ro-di't[=e]), the goddess of love among the Greeks;
counterpart of the Roman Venus. A festival called Aphrodisia was celebrated
in her honour in various parts of Greece, but especially in Cyprus. See
_Venus_.
APHTHAE (af'th[=e]), a disease occurring especially in infants, but
occasionally seen in old persons, and consisting of small white ulcers upon
the tongue, gums, inside of the lips, and palate, resembling particles of
curdled milk: commonly called _thrush_ or _milk-thrush_.
A'PIA, the chief place and trading centre of the Samoa Islands, on the
north side of the Island of Upolu. It has a wireless station.
A'PIARY (Lat. _apis_, a bee), a place for keeping bees. The apiary should
be well sheltered from strong winds, moisture, and the extremes of heat and
cold. The hives should face the south or south-east, and should be placed
on shelves 2 feet above the ground, and about the same distance from each
other. There is no place for handling bees like the open air in suitable
weather, and for this reason bee-houses, or bee-sheds, formerly in use, are
not much in vogue now. As to the form of the hives and the materials of
which they should be constructed there are great differences of opinion.
The old dome-shaped straw _skep_ is still in general use among the
cottagers of Great Britain. Its cheapness and simplicity of construction
are in its favour, while it is excellent for warmth and ventilation; but it
has the disadvantage that its interior is closed to inspection, and the
honey can only be got out by stupefying the bees with the smoke of the
common puff-ball or chloroform, or by fumigating with sulphur, which
entails the destruction of the swarm. Wooden hives of square box-like form
are now gaining general favour among bee-keepers. They usually consist of a
large breeding chamber below and two sliding removable boxes called
'supers' above for the abstraction of honey without disturbing the contents
of the main chamber. It is of great importance that the apiary should be
situated in the neighbourhood of good feeding grounds, such as gardens,
clover-fields, or heath-covered hills. When their stores of honey are
removed, the bees must be fed during the winter and part of spring with
syrup or with a solution consisting of 2 lb. loaf-sugar to a pint of water.
In the early spring slow and continuous feeding (a few ounces of syrup each
day) will stimulate the queen to deposit her eggs, by which means the
colony is rapidly strengthened and throws off early swarms. New swarms may
make their appearance as early as May and as late as August, but swarming
usually takes place in the intervening months. See _Bee-keeping_, _Hives_.
APIC'IUS, Marcus Gabius, a Roman epicure in the time of Augustus and
Tiberius, who, having exhausted his vast fortune on the gratification of
his palate, and having _only_ about L80,000 left, poisoned himself that he
might escape the misery of plain diet. The book of cookery published under
the title of _Apicius_ was written by one Caelius, and belongs to a much
later date.
A'PION, a Greek grammarian, born in Egypt, lived in the reigns of Tiberius,
Caligula, and Claudius, A.D. 15-54, and went to Rome to teach grammar and
rhetoric. Among his works, one or two fragments only of which remain, was
one directed against the Jews, which was replied to by Josephus.
A'PIOS, a genus of leguminous climbing plants, producing edible tubers on
underground shoots. An American species (_A. tuber[=o]sa_) has been used as
a substitute for the potato, but its tubers, though numerous, are small.
[Illustration: Apis]
A'PIS, a bull to which divine honours were paid by the ancient Egyptians,
who regarded him as a symbol of Osiris. At Memphis he had a splendid
residence, containing extensive walks and courts for his entertainment, and
he was waited upon by a large train of priests, who looked upon his every
movement as oracular. He was not suffered to live beyond twenty-five years,
being secretly killed by the priests and thrown into a sacred well. Another
bull, characterized by certain marks, as a black colour, a triangle of
white on the forehead, a white crescent-shaped spot on the right side, &c.,
was selected in his place. His birthday was annually celebrated, and his
death was a season of public mourning. See _Animal Worship_.
A'PIS, a genus of insects. See _Bee_.
A'PIUM, a genus of umbelliferous plants, including celery.
APLACEN'TAL. See _Placenta_, _Marsupialia_, and _Echidna_.
APLANAT'IC. See _Optics_, _Photography_.
APLYSIA. See _Sea-hare_.