ANCHOR. 



ANCHOR. 



justice, whilst it made him liable to punishment for ignorance of his 

 profession ; and while the charters of the medical colleges enforced the 

 duty of teaching anatomy by dissection, the law rendered such a course 

 impracticable. But as the interests of society require anatomy to be 

 taught, the laws were violated, and a new class of offenders and new 

 crimes sprung up as a consequence of legislation being inconsistent 

 with social wants. By making anatomical dissection part of the penalty 

 for crime, the strong prejudices which existed respecting dissection 

 were magnified tenfold. This custom existed in England for about 

 three centuries, having commenced early in the 16th century, when 

 it was ordered that the bodies of four criminals should be assigned 

 annually to the corporation of barber-surgeons. The 2 & 3 Will. IV. 

 c. 75, repealed 4, 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, which empowered the court, when 

 it saw fit, to direct the body of a person convicted of murder to be 

 dissected after execution. Bodies are now obtained for anatomical 

 purposes under the following regulations, enacted in 2 & 3 Will. IV. 

 c. 75, which is entitled ' An Act for regulating Schools of Anatomy." 

 The preamble of this Act recites that the legal supply of human bodies 

 for anatomical examinations was insufficient, and that in order further 

 to supply human bodies for such purposes various crimes were com- 

 mitted, and lately murder, for the sole object of selling the bodies of 

 the persons so murdered. The Act then empowers the principal secre- 

 tary of state, and the chief secretary for Ireland, to grant a licence to 

 practise anatomy to any member or fellow of any college of physicians 

 or surgeons, or to any graduate or licentiate in medicine, or to any 

 person lawfully qualified to practise medicine, or to any professor or 

 teacher of anatomy, medicine, or surgery ; or to any student attending 

 any school of anatomy, on application countersigned by two justices 

 of the place where the applicant resides, certifying that to their know- 

 ledge or belief such person is about to carry on the practice of anatomy. 

 Notice is to be given of the place where it is intended to examine 

 bodies anatomically one week at least before the first receipt or posses- 

 sion of a body. The secretary of state appoints inspectors of places 

 where anatomical examinations are carried on, and they make* a quar- 

 terly return of every deceased person's body removed to each place in 

 their district where anatomy is practised, distinguishing the sex, and the 

 name and age. Executors and others (not being undertakers, Ac.) may 

 jwrmit the body of a deceased person, lawfully in their possession, to 

 undergo anatomical examination, unless, to the knowledge of such 

 executors or others, such person shall have expressed his desire, either 

 in writing or verbally, during the illness whereof he died, that his 

 body might not undergo such examination ; and unless the surviving 

 husband or wife, or any known relative of the deceased person, shall 

 require the body to be interred without. Although a person may 

 have directed his body after death to be examined anatomically, yet if 

 any surviving relative objects, the body is to be interred without 

 undergoing such examination. When a body may be lawfully removed 

 for anatomical examination, such removal is not to take place until 

 forty -eight hours after death, nor until twenty-four hours' notice after 

 death to the anatomical inspector of the district of the intended re- 

 moval, such notice to be accompanied by a certificate of the cause of 

 death, signed by the physician, surgeon, or apothecary who attended 

 during the illness whereof the deceased person died ; or if not so 

 attended, the body is to be viewed by some physician, surgeon, or 

 apothecary after death, and who shall not be concerned in examining 

 the body after removal. Their certificate is to be delivered with the 

 body to the party receiving the same for examination, who within 

 twenty-four hours must transmit the certificate to the inspector of 

 anatomy for the district, accompanied by a return stating at what day 

 and hour, and from whom, the body was received, the date and place 

 of death, the sex, and (as far as known) the name, age, and last abode 

 of such person ; and these particulars, with a copy of the certificate, 

 are also to be entered in a book, which is to be produced whenever the 

 inspector requires. The body on being removed is to be placed in a 

 decent coffin or shell, and be removed therein ; and the party receiving 

 it is to provide for its interment after examination in consecrated 

 ground, or in some public burial-ground of that religious persuasion to 

 which the person whose body was removed belonged ; and a certificate 

 of the interment is to be transmitted to the inspector of anatomy for 

 the district within six weeks after the body was received for examina- 

 tion. Offences against this Act may be punished with imprisonment 

 for not less than three months, or a fine of not more than 501. 



The supply, under this Act, of the bodies of persons who die friend- 

 less in poorhousee and hospitals, and elsewhere, is said to be sufficient 

 for the present wants of the teachers of anatomy ; and the enormities 

 which were formerly practised by ' resurrection-men ' and ' burkers ' 

 have ceased. 



ANCHOR. The anchor, which, under some form or other, must 

 have been as ancient as ships of any magnitude, is mentioned by 

 many Greek and Latin authors ; by whom also its invention was 

 ascribed to various persons. The first anchors were, most probably, 

 what they now are among uncivilised nations, namely, large stones, or 

 crooked pieces of wood loaded with heavy weights. The latter form 

 is mostly used by the Chinese, and indeed upon our own coasts at the 

 present day single heavy stones are used as anchors or " kitticks,/ by 

 fishermen. The first anchors had but one fluke ; another was after- 

 wards added : but the anchor was yet without a stock, as appears 

 indent monuments, and must have been very incomplete. This 



ARTS AND .SCI. DIV. Vol.. I. 



addition may, therefore, be considered as the last step towards the 

 present form. Each ship then had several anchors ; the chief one 

 was called lepa, or sacred, and reserved for the last extremity, 

 precisely as the largest and best is now used in emergencies under the 

 name of " sheet anchor ; " but the veneration paid to it has much 

 declined since the custom of paying 5L to the master on letting it go 

 was discontinued in the navy. For the purposes of the present 

 article, we shall notice first the mechanical action of an anchor; 

 then the mode of its manufacture ; and lastly, the changes recently 

 introduced in its form. 



The technical parts of an anchor, which must be borne in memory, 

 are the following : The shank is the main or central shaft ; the small 

 is the end of the shank near the top ; the throat near the bottom ; the 

 trend two-thirds down the length of the shank ; the rinf/ is at the 

 extreme upper end ; the stock branches out immediately beneath the 

 ring ; the arms branch out at the other end of the shank ; the palm*, 

 or flukes, are Cattish portions at the ends of the arms ; the bill, or peak, 

 is the extreme end of each palm ; and the crate n is the part farthest 

 from the ring. 



It may suffice at present to state that the difference between bower, 

 sJieel, stream, kedye, and spare anchors, is rather one of size than of 

 construction. Referring, therefore, to the annexed cut for an illustra- 

 tion of the several parts of an anchor, we proceed to show its mode of 

 action. 



A, the ring. 

 BED, the thank. 

 n, the small. 



D, the throat. 



E, the trend. 



i p, H d, the arms. 



i , the palm, or fluko. 



li, the bill or peak, or " pea." 



When the anchor is let go from the ship's side, it will, on reaching 

 the bottom of the sea, most commonly fall upon the crown and the end 

 of the stock ; because the stock moves through the water in the direction 

 of its length with less resistance than in that of its breadth. From 

 this position the anchor must be turned or canted over. The longer 

 the stock, within the practical limits of stowage, the more certainly will 

 the anchor turn properly ; and, when hooked in the ground, the more 

 powerfully will it resist any effort to overset it. Also, it is evident 

 that the anchor will turn the more easily as the arm is shorter. In 

 repairing old anchors, it is common to shorten the shank ; in doing 

 this, it is the custom also to shorten the stock in the same proportion. 

 This, which is equivalent, in fact, to lengthening the arms, might, if 

 carried to any extent, prevent the possibility of the anchor turning 

 over, and therefore it appears that when the shank is shortened, the 

 stock should remain unaltered. The amount of force required thus to 

 overturn any given anchor might be found by calculation, or by actual 

 trial ; and it is remarked that the result of the former may be dimi- 

 nished by one-seventh when the anchor is under water. 



The anchor being in the position of fy. 2, its weight, supposed to be 

 collected at the centre of gravity, G (not including the stock), tends to 

 force the fluke r into the ground ; 

 and as this pressure on F will 

 evidently be greater, as the ver- 

 tical line a g passes nearer to F c, 



this pressure is W. (W. = 



the weight, exclusive of the 

 stock). As Boon as the cable 



pulls from A, it causes the fluke 



to catch or hook deeper, that is, 



it forces the fluke down ; and the position of the fluke should be such 



as to form the angle most favourable for this purpose. 



Suppose the arm c F imbedded, or the shank lying along the bottom, 

 and the cable acting in the line c A with a tension t; then the pressure 

 on the fluke taking place perpendicular to its surface, draw F I per- 

 pendicular to the fluke, and draw F P, tangent to the fluke, meeting 



Y 



