ANO 



ANS 



passed in 1793, authorising the Royal Ex- 

 change Assurance Company to grant and 

 purchase annuities on lives, either imme- 

 diate or in reversion ; the rates according 

 to which transactions of this kind are re- 

 gulated necessarily vary, in proportion to 

 the current rate of interest at which mo- 

 ney can be improved : a short specimen 

 therefore of the present (1808) rates, at 

 which the Royal Exchange Assurance 

 grant life annuities, will be sufficient. 



Several other societies, as the Globe 

 Insurance, the Albion, the Rock, and the 

 Eagle Insurance Companies, have lately 

 granted life annuities, but it is presumed 

 they vary their grants according to cir- 

 cumstances, as they none issue a printed 

 table of their rates. 



ANOMALIES, in music, are those false 

 scales or intervals, which exist necessari- 

 ly in all keyed instruments, from their in- 

 capacity of a true and perfect tempera- 

 ment. 



ANOMALISTIC AL year, in astronomy, 

 the time that the earth takes to pass 

 through her orbit : it is also called a peri- 

 odical year. The space of time belonging 

 to this year is greater than the tropical 

 year, on account of the precession of the 

 equinoxes. 



ANOMALOUS verbs, ingrammer, such 

 as are not conjugated conformably to the 

 paradigm of their conjugation : they are 

 found in all languages; in Latin, the verb 

 lego is the paradigm of the third conjuga- 

 tion, and runs thus, lego, legis, legit ; by the 

 same rule it should be,fero,feris,ferit, but 

 we say, fer o,fers, fert ;fero then is an ano- 

 malous verb. In English, the irregularity 

 relates often to the pveter tense and pas- 

 sive participle ; for example, give, were 

 it formed according to rule, would make 

 gived in the preter tense and passive par- 

 ticiple ; whereas, in the former, it makes 

 gave, and in the tetter given. 



ANOMALY, in grammer, that quality 

 in words which renders them anomalous . 

 See the preceding article. 



ANOMALY, in astronomy, an irregularity 

 in the motion of the planets, whereby 

 they deviate from the aphelion or apogee .- 



which inequality is either mean, eccen- 

 tric, or coequate and true. 



ANOMIA, in natural history, a genus 

 of worms, of the order Testacea. Animal 

 an emarginate ciliate strap-shaped body, 

 with bristles affixed to the upper valve ; 

 two arms, linear, longer than the body, 

 connivent, projecting alternate on the 

 valve, and ciliate each side, the fringe af- 

 fixed to each valve ; shell bivalve, ine- 

 quivalve ; one of the valves flattish, the 

 other gibbous at the base, with a produc- 

 ed beak, generally curved over the hinge ; 

 one of the valves often perforated near the 

 base ; hinge with a linear prominent cica- 

 trix and a lateral tooth placed within, but 

 in the flat valve on the very margin ; two 

 bony rays for the base of the animal. 

 There are nearly fifty species enumerated 

 by Gmelin, found in different parts of the 

 world. A. ephippium has a shell, round- 

 ish, pellucid, with wrinkled plaits ; the flat 

 valve perforated. It inhabits European 

 and American seas, and is frequently 

 found sticking to the common oyster. 

 About two inches long, 2 broad ; the 

 outside rugged and filmy, the inside 

 smooth and pearly : varies in colour, but 

 generally with a silvery hue. 



ANONA, in botany, a genus of plants 

 belonging to the Polyandria Polygynia 

 class of Linnxus. The perianthium is 

 composed of three cordated, hollowed, 

 and acuminated leaves : the corolla con- 

 sists of six cordated, sessile petals, three 

 alternately interior and smaller ; the sta- 

 mina are scarce visible, but the anthersc 

 are numerous ; the fruit is a large berry, 

 of an oval figure, covered with a squa- 

 mose punctuated bark ; the seeds are nu- 

 merous, hard, of an oblong figure, and 

 are placed circularly. 



ANSERES , in natural history, the third 

 order of birds, according to the Linnxan 

 system : they are distinguished by a 

 smooth bill, covered with a soft skin, and 

 broader at the point ; feet formed for 

 swimming ; toes palmate, connected by a 

 membrane ; shanks short, and compress- 

 ed ; body fat and downy ; flesh mostly 

 tough; their food is fish, frogs, aquatic 

 plants, worms, &c. They make their 

 nests generally on the ground; the mo- 

 ther takes but little care in providing for 

 the young. They are frequently poly- 

 gamous. They are divided into those 

 genera having bills with, and those with- 

 out, teeth : of the former are the 



Anas, 

 Mergus, 



Phaeton, and 

 Plotus 



