Anarajapoo´ra, or Anuradhapura, a ruined city, the ancient capital of Ceylon, built about 540 B.C., and said to have covered an area of 300 sq. miles, doubtless a great exaggeration. There are still several dagobas in tolerable preservation, but the great object of interest is the sacred Bo-tree planted over 2000 years, and probably the oldest historical tree in the world, but shattered by a storm in 1887.
An´archists, a revolutionary sect or body setting forth as the social ideal the extreme form of individual freedom, holding that all government is injurious and immoral, and that the destruction of every social form now existing must be the first step to the creation of a new social system. According to Herbert Spencer, anarchism is the doctrine of laisser faire. Anarchists usually look upon Diderot as one of their pioneers, and quote his lines: "La nature n'a fait ni serviteurs ni maîtres. Je ne veux ni donner ni reçevoir de lois." Historically, however, it is Proudhon who may be considered as the father of anarchism. The recognition of the anarchists as an independent sect may be dated from the secession of Bakunin and his followers from the Social Democrats at the congress of the Hague in 1872, since which they have maintained an active propaganda. Their principal journals have been La Révolte (Paris), the Freiheit (New York), Liberty (Boston), and the Anarchist (London). Among modern philosophers of anarchism are Elisée Reclus and Prince Kropotkin.
Anarthrop´oda, one of the two great divisions (the Arthropoda being the other) of the Annulosa, or ringed animals, in which there are no articulated appendages. It includes the leeches, earth-worms, tube-worms, &c.
A´nas, a genus of web-footed birds, containing the true ducks.
Anasarca. See Dropsy.
Anasta´sius I, Emperor of the East, succeeded Zeno, A.D. 491, at the age of sixty. He was a member of the imperial life-guard, and owed his elevation to Ariadne, widow of Zeno, whom he married forty days after the death of her husband. He distinguished himself by suppressing the combats between men and wild beasts in the arena, abolishing the sale of offices, building the fortifications of Constantinople, &c. His support of the heretical Eutychians led to a dangerous rebellion. He died A.D. 518.
Anastat´ica, a genus of cruciferous plants, including the Rose of Jericho (A. hierochuntica). See Rose of Jericho.
Anastatic Printing, a process by which the perfect facsimile of a page of type or an engraving, old or new, can be reproduced and printed in the manner of a lithograph. The print or page to be transferred is dipped in diluted nitric acid, and, while moist with dilute acid, it is laid face downwards on a polished zinc plate and passed through a roller-press. The zinc is immediately corroded by the acid contained in the paper, excepting on those parts occupied by the ink of the type or engraving. The ink, while rejecting the acid, is loosened by it, and deposits a thin film on the zinc, thus protecting it from the action of the acid. The result is that those parts are left slightly raised in relief and greasy. The plate is then treated as in ordinary lithographic printing (q.v.).—Bibliography: F. H. Collins, Authors' and Printers' Dictionary; C. T. Jacobi, Printing; J. Southward, Modern Printing.
Anastomo´sis, in animals and plants, the inosculation of vessels, or the opening of one vessel into another, as an artery into another artery, or a vein into a vein. By means of anastomosis, if the course of a fluid is arrested in one vessel it can proceed along others. It is by anastomosis that circulation is re-established in amputated limbs, and in aneurism when the vessel is tied.
Anath´ema, originally a gift hung up in a temple (Gr., anatithēmi, to lay up), and dedicated to some god, a votive offering; but it gradually came to be used for expulsion, curse. The Roman Catholic Church pronounces the sentence of anathema against heretics, schismatics, and all who wilfully pursue a course of conduct condemned by the Church. The subject of the anathema is declared an outcast from the Church, all the faithful are forbidden to associate with him, and the utter destruction of his body and soul is foretold.