An´thony, St. the founder of monastic institutions, born near Heraclea, in Upper Egypt, A.D. 251. Giving up all his property he retired to the desert, where he was followed by a number of disciples, who thus formed the first community of monks. He died at the age of 105.—St. Anthony's Fire, a name given to erysipelas.
An´thracene (C14H10) occurs in coal-tar in small quantity, about 0.25-0.45 per cent. During the distillation of tar a high-boiling fraction, boiling above 270° C., is obtained; this is crude anthracene oil, a greenish oily substance which, on further distillation, yields a crystalline mass, 50 per cent anthracene. This is carefully purified by distillation and chemical treatment to separate the anthracene from the other substances occurring with it, and the product obtained is finally purified by crystallization. When pure it forms colourless crystalline scales melting at 216° C., and having a violet fluorescence. It forms a series of derivatives, the most important being anthraquinone and alizarine and the numerous derivatives of these. Anthracene was originally a useless product in coal-tar distillation, but it became valuable as soon as it was discovered that alizarine—from which many dyes are manufactured directly or indirectly—could be prepared from it.
An´thracite, glance or blind coal, a non-bituminous coal of a shining lustre, approaching to metallic, and which burns without smoke, with a weak or no flame, and with intense heat. It consists of, on an average, 90 per cent carbon, 2 oxygen, 3 hydrogen, and 5 ashes. It has some of the properties of coal or charcoal, and, like that substance, represents an extreme alteration of vegetable substances by loss of gases, either during conditions of decay or after entombment among stratified rocks. It is found in England,
Scotland, and Ireland, and in large quantities in the United States (Pennsylvania), and near Swansea (South Wales). See Coal.
An´thrax, a fatal disease to which animals are subject, always associated with the presence of an extremely minute micro-organism (Bacillus anthrăcis) 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, palæontology, psychology, archæology, 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 (Palæanthropus), 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.