ANIME ANNA IVANOWNA. 



179 



evaporates, it becomes languid, the shape alters, am 

 the animal to appearance dies. Its figure is now si 

 diminished and distorted as to have little resemblance 

 to the living animal. It grows dry and hard ; ye 

 the animal may still be revived, on being moistened 

 after days, months, and even years. It has been 

 said, that those which have been dead for years, re- 

 vive as soon as those that have been dry only a few 

 hours. Fortana revived them after being dry for two 

 years, The presence of sand with the water is abso- 

 lutely necessary for their revival. Animalcules are 

 found in the seminal fluid, but in none of the other 

 fluids of the animal body, if recent. 



AXJME; a resin exuding from the trunk of a large 

 American tree, called by Pisojetaiba^ by the Indians, 

 courbaril, a species of hymenaea. The tree is found 

 particularly in New Spain and the Brazils. A su- 

 perior kind is sometimes imported from the East. 



AXISE-.SEEDS are the production of an umbelliferous 

 plant (pimpinetta ane&um), which grows wild in 

 Egypt, Syria, and other eastern countries. They are 

 roundish and striated, flatted on one side, and pointed 

 at one end ; and of a pale colour, inclining to green. 

 Attempts were made, more than 200 years ago, to 

 cultivate anise in England, but the summers are 

 seldom warm enough to bring the plant to perfec- 

 tion. It has, consequently, been found necessary to 

 import the seed from Malta and Spain, where it is 

 cultivated to a considerable extent. Anise-seeds 

 have an aromatic smell, and pleasant, warm taste, ac- 

 companied with some degree of sweetness. They 

 have long been employed in medicine, and have been 

 considered useful in diseases of the lungs and com- 

 plaints of the stomach. They give out all their vir- 

 tue to rectified spirit ; and a spirituous water is kept 

 in the shops as a cordial, which is prepared from a 

 mixture of equal parts of anise-seed and angelica. 



ANJOU ; an ancient province of France, 75 miles 

 in length and 60 in breadth, now forming, with some 

 of the late provinces in its neighbourhood, several 

 departments, viz., that of the two Sevres, of the In- 

 dre and Loire, the Sarthe, the Loire, but chiefly that 

 of Mayenne and Loire, in which also the old capital 

 is situated. The noble river Loire divided the old 

 province. The entire district contains about 256 

 French square miles, and is watered by upwards of 

 4O rivers. A. is very fertile, producing all sorts of 

 grain, fruits, hemp, and flax; it contains excellent 

 ]i;ist ures ami rich vineyards. Much brandy is sent 

 from hence to Nantes and Paris. A. contains, also, 

 coal, lead, and tin. It manufactures much. The 

 chief town is Angers, and the population was esti- 

 mated, prior to the first revolution, at upwards of 

 90,000 families. St Louis bestowed this province on 

 his brother Charles, in 1246 ; but, in 1328, it again 

 fell to the crown with Philip IV. John I., raised it 

 to the rank of a ducal peerage, and gave it to his 

 son, Louis I ; but, in 1488, it revertea once more to 

 the crown. Different princes of the blood bore, sub- 

 sequently, the title of Anjmi, till Louis XV. confer- 

 red it, together with that of Provence, on his grand- 

 son, Louis Stanislaus, count of Provence, afterwards 

 Louis XVni. (See the history of France in the ar- 

 ticle France.) 



ANKER, a liquid measure at Amsterdam, forming 

 about 10 gallons English wine measure. 



ANKERSTRffiM, Jolin J aciili, the murderer of Gusta- 

 vus 111., was, at first, a page in the Swedish court, 

 afterwards an inferior officer in the regiment of body- 

 guards, and later, an ensign in the royal guards. 

 His father was lieutenant-colonel, and knight of the 

 order of the sword. He was of a passionate and 

 gloomy character, and maintained a continual oppo- 

 sition to the measure^ of the king, particularly those 

 for limiting the power of the senate and nobles. The 



loss of a suit aggravated his animosity against the 

 king. In 1783, he received his dismission, married 

 and retired to the country ; but, in 1790, returned to 

 Stockholm. He here united himself with several 

 of the nobility, particularly the counts Horn and 

 Ribbing, barons Bidke and Pechlin, lieutenant- 

 colonel Liljehorn and others, and they decided upon 

 the death of the king. A. entreated that the murder 

 might be left to him ; but Ribbing and Horn putting 

 in their claims, they cast lots, and it fell to A. The 

 king had just assembled a diet in Gefle, 1792, and 

 the conspirators went there. Here, however, they 

 found no opportunity to execute their plan. The 

 measures of the diet exasperated them still more. 

 The king returned to Stockholm, and it was known 

 that he would be present at a masquerade, March 15. 

 Here A. discharged a pistol at him, and wounded 

 him mortally. (See Gustavus III.) He was discov- 

 ered, arrested, and confessed his crime, but refused 

 to betray his accomplices. April 29, 1792, he was 

 condemned to death, scourged during several days, 

 and dragged upon a cart to the scaffold. Through 

 the whole of his sufferings he showed the greatest 

 calmness, boasted of his deed, and ended his life at 

 the age of 31 years. The counts Horn and Ribbing, 

 and colonel Liljehorn, were banished for life. 



ANI.ACE ; a falchion or sword, shaped like a scythe. 



ANNA COMNENA, daughter of Alexius Comnenus I., 

 emperor of the East. After his death she endeavour- 

 ed to secure the succession to her husband, Nicepho- 

 rus Briennius, but was baffled by his want of energy 

 and ambition. She wrote a life of her father, 

 Alexius, which, in the midst of much fulsome pane- 

 gyric, contains some curious facts. An edition of 

 ,his life was printed at the Louvre, 1651, folio. The 

 ,ime of her death is unknown. She forms a charac- 

 ter in one of Sir Walter Scott's latest romances, 

 Count Robert of Paris," and this will preserve her 

 memory from oblivion longer than her own work. 



ANNA IVANOWNA, empress of Russia ; born in 1693, 

 -he daughter of Ivan, the elder brother of Peter the 

 Sreat. She was married to the duke of Courland, 

 fvas left a widow, and, in 1730, ascended the throne 

 of the czars, under singular circumstances. Peter 

 "I., son of the unfortunate Alexis, died in his 16th 

 ear, and the young princess, Ivan and Basil Uol- 

 jorucky, administered the government, under the 

 direction of the old chancellor Ostermann. As the 

 alter flattered himself tliat he should retain his autho- 

 rity under a princess to whom he had given the first 

 nstruction in reading, he used his whole influence to 

 >rocure the crown for the duchess of Courland. He 

 gained over the synod, and the nobles assembled at 

 Moscow, and thus A. was preferred to both the 

 laughters of Peter the Great, and the prince Basil 

 Mgorucky was appointed to inform her of the 

 hoice of the nation. When he entered her apart* 

 neut, he found a poorly-dressed man in the room, to 

 vhom he made a sign to withdraw. The other 

 howed no inclination to obey, and, when Dolgo- 

 ucky took his arm to turn him out of the door, he 

 vas prevented by A. ; it was Eniestus John von 

 iiren, the favourite of his sovereign, whose influence 

 vas soon all-powerful in Russia. A., at first, promised 

 o remove her favourite, and to limit the unrestrained 

 wwers of the czars, but had scarcely ascended the 

 liroiu-, when she refused to do either, and proclaim- 

 ed herself autocrat of all the Russias. Biren now 

 HI no limits to his ambition. The Dolgoruckys 

 vere his first victims. Their friends experienced a 

 imilar fate, notwithstanding A.'s earnest remonstran- 

 es. (See Jiiren.) In 1737, she forced the Cour- 

 anders to choose him duke, and nominated him, at 

 ier death, regent of the empire during the minority 

 f prince Ivan (of Brunswick). She died in 1740. 

 z 2 A 2 



