ANT 
Druidism, the writers are more numerous ; 
but Cxsar, Diodorus Siculus, A.lian, Strabo, 
Tacitus and Pliny, are perhaps the most valu- 
| nble of the antients. Cluverius’s Germania 
Antiqua, and the works of Pezron and Pellou- 
tier upon the Celts, are however more recent 
authorities. 
Of the structures which the Britons erected 
the remains are few: Abury and Stonehenge 
may be deemed the principal. On the vast 
! tracts of solitary down with which our island 
abounds, relics of a smaller kind are conti- 
nually discovered. Rowbright in Oxfordshire 
affords the best, perhaps ; and they are very 
: numerous in Anglesey. On these Stukeley 
and Rowland are perhaps the best authorities": 
; for the history of the Britons under the Roman 
government, we refer to Horsley’s Britannia 
Roman a. Antonine’s Itinerary preserves the 
names of the towns and stations on the Ro- 
man military ways, with the number of miles 
between each town. 
On the antiquities of our Saxon ancestors 
there is more to say ; and we can trace 
their history with tolerable certainty. The 
devastations of the Danes, however, prov- 
: ed a great destruction to their monuments ; 
and though the Normans were the de- 
scendants of- the same ancestors, they were 
not less injurious to the institutions of the 
j people who had gone before them. The best 
of their remains of art were evidently fabri- 
cated upon Roman models. Their architec- 
ture exhibited, as its leading feature, a bad 
imitation of the Roman arch ; and their coins 
had Latin inscriptions. The little science 
they possessed during the middle and latter 
i periods of their existence, though originally 
| perhaps obtained from abroad, was cultivated 
with uncommon zeal: and Alcuin, Bede, 
and Alfred, are names in the history of their 
j literature that will never be forgotten. The 
| illuminations of the Saxon manuscripts are 
the best records of their manners in the dif- 
ferent centuries ; and the most curious infor- 
mation relating to them will be found in the 
elaborate works of Mr. Strutt and Mr. Turn- 
er. In this branch of our antiquities the 
field of investigation is still open. They 
have never yet been viewed upon that en- 
larged scale on which they deserve to be 
considered. The best collection of Saxon 
coins is that w hich is now deposited in the 
British Museum. Their remains of art are 
numerous, but for the most part undecided : 
the Normans having imitated their exertions 
with little other difference than an occasional 
enlargement of the scale. Of Saxon manu- 
scripts, the best collection will be found in 
the library of the British Museum, and in the 
Bodleian Library at Oxford. Mr. King has 
treated their military antiquities in his History, 
of Castles, and Dr. Uickes’s Thesaurus 
may be viewed as the grand repository of 
their general literature. 
Of the English nation at nearer periods, 
our documents, as may be naturally ex- 
pected, occur in still greater variety. There 
! fs scarcely a county-history but sets our an- 
tient manners in npw points of view. They 
have been often and systematically treated"; 
and the names of Camden, Henry,. Strutt, 
and Gough, are sufficient to be noticed. 
Thus much may su(Hpe as an outline of 
• the national antiquities of the more consi- 
derable people of the world, though there 
is scarcely a nation under heaven" but lays 
Vor. I. 
ANT. 
A O U 121 
claim to a greater degree of antiquity than 
the rest of its neighbours. The Scythians, 
the Phrygians, the Chaldeans, Egyptians, 
Greeks, and Chinese, pretend each to have 
the honour of being the first inhabitants of the 
earth ; and even so far have folly and etymo- 
logy in these researches borne each other 
company, that Goropius Becanus asserted 
high Dutch to have been the primitive lan- 
guage of the world. 
To go further in this extensive science 
here, or to treat every class of antiquities 
which writers have separately considered, 
would be endless. Reland has expressly- 
treated on sacred antiquities; Fabvicius on 
Hebrew and ecclesiastical antiquities ; Bing- 
ham on Christian antiquities ; bishop Stilling- 
fleet on the antiquities of the British churches ; 
Cave on apostolical antiquities ; Consingicus 
on academical ; Hemeccius on such of the 
Roman as illustrated the civil law- ; Mallet on 
northern, and bishop Kennet on parochial an- 
tiquities. Under the title of antiquities how- 
ever, it may be proper we should notice that 
industry has sometimes been exerted upon 
the pettiest trifles ; and not unfrequently on 
objects the most frivolous and absurd. 
ANTIRRHINUM, snapdragon, or 
calves-snout : a genus of the angiospeh- 
mia order, belonging to the didynamia class 
of plants ; and in the natural method ranking 
under the 40th order, personatx. The essen- 
tial characters are these: the calyx consists 
of live leaves : the basis of the corolla is bent 
backwards, and furnished with pectoria ; the 
capsule is bilocular. There are 52 species 
of the antirrhinum ; the most remarkable are : 
1. Antirrhinum arvense, the com blue 
toad-flax. 
2. Antirrhinum cymbalaria, the ivy-leaved 
toad-grass. 
3. Antirrhinum elatine, the sharp-pointed 
fluellin. 
4. Antirrhinum linaria, the common yellow 
toad-flax. It is said to be cathartic and diu- 
retic, but is not used in the shops. 
5. Antirrhinum majus, the greater snap- 
dragon. 
6. Antirrhinum minus, the least toad-flax. 
7. Antirrhinum monospermum, the sweet- 
smelling toad-flax. . 
8. Antirrhinum orontium, the least snap- 
dragon. 
9. Antirrhinum repens, the creeping toad-flax. 
10. Antirrhinum spurium, the round-leaved 
fluellin. 
The snapdragon is an old inliabitant of our 
gardens, and we have hardly yet a more 
beautiful flower. The scarlet and crimson 
kinds are particularly ornamental, especially 
upon walls, where they will thrive best. 
ANTI-SABBATARIANS, a modern re- 
ligious sect, who oppose the observance of 
the Christian sabbath. 
ANTISCII, in geography, people who 
live on different sides of the equator, whose 
shadows at noon arc projected opposite ways:, 
the people of the north are antiscii to those 
of the south, 
ANTISEPTICS, among physicians, a de- 
nomination given to all substances that resist 
putrefaction. 
Concerning these, which are extremely, 
numerous, we have several c urious observa- 
tions in sir John Pringle’s Diseases of the 
Army. The following tab'e exhibits a com- 
parative view of the antiseptic virtue of salts, 
the common sea-salt being reckoned equal to 
unity. 
Sea-sa!t 
Sat gemma: 
'Tartar vitriolat. 
Spirit, minder. 
'Tartar solub. 
Sal diuret. 
Sal ammoniac. 
Saline mixture 
N itre 
Salt of hartshorn 
Salt of wormwood 
Borax 
Salt of amber 
Alum 
3 
4 
4 
4 
12 
20 
30 
Some resinous, and other substances, were 
found to be twelve times more antiseptic 
than sea-salt ; such are myrrh, asa-foetida, 
snake-root, pepper, ginger, saffron, contray- 
erva-root, &c. 
ANTISPASMODICS, medicines proper 
for the cure of spasms and convulsions. See 
Materia medic a. 
ANTISTASIS, in oratory, a defence of 
an action, from the consideration that if it 
had been omitted worse would have ensued. 
ANTISTROPHE, among lyric poets, that 
part of a song and dance in use among the 
antients, which w r as performed before the 
altar, in returning from w r est to east, in op- 
position to strophe. 
A N TIT AC l' it), in church-history, a branch 
of gnostics, who held that God was good 
and" just, but that a creature had created 
evil ; and, consequently, that it is our duty 
to oppose this author of evil, in order to 
avenge God of his adversary. 
ANTITHESIS, in rhetoric; a contrast, 
drawn between two things, which serve as 
shades to set off the oppasite qualities of each 
other. 
ANTITRAGUS, or Antitragicus mus- 
culus, in anatomy, a muscle of the ear. 
ANTLER, among sportsmen, a start or 
branch of a deer’s attire. 
ANTOECI, in geography, an appellation 
given to those inhabitants of the earth who 
live under the same meridian, but on differ- 
ent sides of the equator, and at equal dis- 
tances from it. The antoeci having the same 
longitude, and equal degreys of latitude, one 
north and the other south : their hours of 
day and night are the same, but they have 
opposite seasons, of course the longest day to 
the one is the shortest to the other. 
ANTONOMASIA, in rhetoric,, a figure 
by which the proper name of one thing is 
applied to several others ; or* on the contrary, 
the name of several things to one. Thus we 
call a cruel person a Nero ; and we say the 
philosopher, to denote Aristotle. 
ANTRUM, among anatomists, a term 
used to denote several cavities of the body; 
as the antrum gena% or that in the cheek- 
bone. See Anatomy. 
AORIST, among grammarians, a tense 
peculiar to the Greek language, compre- 
hending all the tenses ; or rather, expressing 
an action in an indeterminate manner, with- 
out any regard to past, present, or future. 
AORTA, in anatomy, called also arteria 
magna, a large artery arising with a single 
trunk from the left ventricle of the heart 
above its valves,, called semilunares, which 
serves to convey the mass of blood to all 
parts of the body. See Anatomy. 
AOUTA, the name of the paper mulberry- 
tree at Otaheite, from which cloth is manu- 
factured and worn, by the principal inhabit- 
ants. The bark of the trees is stripped off, 
macerated and reduced to a fine pulp : it is 
then drained, and the fibres will adhere to* 
gether in a piece. It is afterwards to be 
