ANO 



common with most of their congeners, by 

 their frequent simulation of death, and 

 their reassumption of activity as soon as 

 the threatened danger is over. Several 

 species inhabit the interior of houses, 

 where they attack the timbers .furniture, 

 books, &c., and pierce little round holes, 

 resembling those made by a very small 

 gimlet. When much pierced the article is 

 popularly said to be uorm-eaten. The 

 sexes frequently summon each other by 

 reiterated and rapid strokes of their man- 

 dibles against the wood they inhabit, and 

 mutually answer the signal. These sig- 

 nals constitute that noise resembling the 

 accelerated tick of a watch, so often su- 

 perstitiously listened to as " the death- 

 watch." 



AH'ODE, from i, up, and otiof, a way. 

 The way which the sun rises ; the surface 

 at which electricity passes into a body, 

 supposing the current to move in the op- 

 posite direction of the sun : opposed to 

 cathode. 



AN'ODOX, \ the fresh-tcrtter mttscJe. A 



ANODON'TA, >.genusofmolluscabelong- 



AJJODON'TEA, ; ing to Cuvier's second 

 family of testaceous acephala, mytilacea, 

 or muscles. Character, doubly-winged, 

 no lamellar or other teeth, whence the 

 name, a, without, and s'SoWa, teeth, 

 ioovf a tooth. - 2. The name has also 

 been applied to a genus of serpents which 

 have the teeth very minute : the A. typits, 

 a South African species, answers to the 

 coluber scaber of Linnaeus. 



ANO'LI, the vernacular name in the An- 

 tilles of a species of li/.ard, to which the 

 generic name anolis (q.v.) is applied. 



ANO'LIS, the name of an inguanoid 

 genus of lizards, all the species of which 

 are natives of the warmer parts of Ame- 

 rica, and are remarkable for agility, 

 beauty, and brilliancy of their colours, 

 and their power of inflating the skin of 

 the throat. The typical species is the anoli 

 of the Antilles. 



ANOM'ALIPED, any fowl whose middle 

 toe is united to the exterior by three pha- 

 langes, and to the interior by one only ; 

 from et'tittftethos, anomalous, and irons, 

 foot. 



ANOMAUS'TIC, \ from ett&uaXia, ine- 



ANOMALIS'TICAI,, ) quality, irregular. In 

 astronomy, the anomalistic year is the time 

 in which the earth passes through her 

 orbit, otherwise called the periodical year. 

 It is longer than the tropical year by 25 

 minutes, on account of the precession of 

 the equinoxes. See APSIDES. 



ANOM'ALY, *<u/u..).iat, irregularity, de- 

 viation from law. In astronomy, an irre- 

 sralarity in the motion of the planets, 

 whereby they deviate from their peri- 

 helion, which is owing to their unequal 

 Telocity. There are three anomalies ; the 



77 ANT 



true, the mean, and the eccentric. - 2. 

 In grammar, an exception to a genera. 

 rule. - 3. In music, a false scale or in- 

 terval. 



ANOMCEANS, ] the name by which the 

 ANO'MEANS, j pure Arians were called 

 in the fourth century, in contradistinction 

 to the Semi-Arians : from ettoucic;, dif- 

 ferent, because they maintained that the 

 Son was in no respects like the Father. 

 ANOMORHOMBO'ID, } from etvoftoiof , ir- 

 ANOMORHOMBOIDA, > regular, and e ou,- 



A.NOMORHOMBOID.A, J 



dal. A genus of pellucid, crystalline spars 

 of no determinate external figure, but 

 always fracturing into regularly rhom- 

 boidal masses. There are five known 

 species, all white, and possessing in some 

 degree the double refraction of Iceland 

 spar. 



ANOXA'CEJB, an extensive natural order 

 of evergreen, exogenous plants, trees, and 

 shrubs, whose fruit is sometimes edible ; 

 as the annona, the type of the order. 



ANOPLO'THERE, ) from io^\of, un- 



ANOPLOTHE'RIUM, j armed, and Dr^t'ov, 

 a wild beast. The name given by Cuvier 

 to a genus of fossil quadrupeds, which pre- 

 sents many affinities with the various- 

 tribes of the pachydermata, and approxi- 

 mates in some respects to the order of the 

 ruminantia. The bones of this extinct 

 genus have hitherto been only found in 

 the gypsum quarries near Paris. Five 

 species are ascertained ; the largest ap 

 pears to have been of the sixe of a dwarf 

 ass, with a thick tail, equal in length to 

 its body, probably to assist the animal in 

 swimming. 



ANOR'MAI-, commonly written abnormal, 

 irregular; from ab and itorma, law. Op- 

 posed to normal. 



ANOR'THITE, a variety of felspar, distin 

 guished by the absence of right angles in 

 its fracture : whence its name. 



ANOS'TOMA, from etvu, upwards, and 

 ff-r9,a,amouth. A genus of air-breathing 

 gastropods, named from the peculiarity 

 of the adult shell, that the last whorl 

 turns upwards towards the spire of the 

 shell. 



ANOC'RA, \ from , without, and ovgcc, 



ANOU'RANS, J tail. The name of a tribe 

 of Batrachian reptiles which lose the tail 

 on arriving at maturity. The toad and 

 frog are well-known examples. 



AN'S.E, plural of ansa, a handle. In 

 astronomy, the parts of Saturn's ring pro- 

 jecting beyond the disc of the planet, like 

 handles to the body of the planet. 



AS'SERES, the third order of ares, in the 

 system of Linnieus : the anser, or goose, it 

 the type. See NATATORBS. 



AST, contracted from Sax. SCmet, an 

 emmet A tribe of insects, celebrated 



