748. ANT 
ANTAPHRODI'TIC, aclj. [from .am, againft, and 
Apgo&sr», Venus.] That which is efficacious againft: the 
the venereal difeafe. That which is proper to diminilli 
the femen, and confequently extinguilh or lellen all de- 
iires of venery. 
ANT APGDO'SIS,yi[«i'Ta7rci5o£7t?,of avn, airo, and hncof/.i, 
Gr.] The counterpart or latter claufe of a fimilitude, an- 
fwering to the former. 
ANTAPOPLEC'TIC, againft, andc'.iroirXnfyf^ 
Gr. an apoplexy.] Good againft apoplexy. 
ANTARG'TIC POLE, [ antarEliqite, F. anlarEiicus , L 
of avrapy-rwof, of am,againft, or oppofition to, and apy.riy.oc, 
northern, Gr.] denotes the fouthern pole, or fouthern end 
of the earth’s axis.—The liars near the antarctic pole ne¬ 
ver appear above our horizon in thefe latitudes : 
They that had fail’d from near the antafMic pole, 
Their treafure fafe, and all their veftels whole, 
In fight of their dear country ruin’d be, 
Without the guilt of either rock or lea. Waller. 
ANTARCTIC CIRCLE, is a fmall. circle parallel to 
the equator, at tire difiance of 23 0 28' from the antanSlic 
or fouth pole.—At one time of the year tjie fun never rifes 
above the horizon of any part within this circle; and at 
other times he never fets. • 
ANTA'RES, in aftronomy, the fcorpion’s heart; a fix¬ 
ed flat' of the firft magnitude, in the confiellation Scorpio. 
ANTARTHRI'TIC, adj. [am againft, and tzfipirif, 
Gr. the gout.] Good againft the gout. 
ANTASTHMA'TIC, adj. [from am and ac-S^-a, Gr.] 
Good againft the afthma. 
ANTAV A'RE, a province of the ifland of Madagafcar, 
lying about 21 0 30' S. lat. and bounded by the province 
and cape of Manoufi. The greateft part of it is watered 
by the river Mananzari, whole fource is in the red moun¬ 
tains of Ambohitfmene. 
AN'TE, in heraldry, denotes that the pieces are let in¬ 
to one another in fuch a form as there is exprefied ; for 
inftance, by dove-tails, rounds, fwallow-tails, or the like. 
An'te, a Latin particle fignifying before, which is fre¬ 
quently 11 fed in compofnions; as, antediluvian, before the 
flood; antechamber, a chamber leading into another apart¬ 
ment. 
AN'TEACT,yi [from ante and aEl. Lat.] AformeraT. 
ANTEAMBU.LA'TION,yi [from ante and ambulatio , 
Lat.] A walking before. 
ANTECA'NIS, is ufed by fome aftronomers, to denote 
the confiellation otherwife called canis minor, or the ftar 
procyon. It is fo called, as preceding or being the fore¬ 
runner of the canis major, and riling a little before it. 
To ANTECE'DE, v. n. [from-ante, before, and cede, 
I^at. to go ] To precede ; to go before.—It feems confo- 
nant to realon, that the fabric of the world did not long 
antecede its motion. Hale. 
ANTECE'DENCE,/" Thea£lor ftate ofgoingbefore ; 
precedence.—It is impoftible that mixed bodies can be 
eternal, becaufe there is neceflarily a pre-exiftence of the 
fimple bodies, and an antecedence of their conftitution pre¬ 
ceding the exiftence of mixed bodies. Hale. 
Antece'dence, in aflronomy, is when a planet ap¬ 
pears to move contrary to the ufual courfe or order of the 
figns in the zodiac, as from eaft to weft. 
°ANTECE'DENT, adj. [anteccdens, Lat.] Going be¬ 
fore ; preceding. Antecedent feems tiled only with regard 
to time ; precedents with regard both to time and place. It 
has to before the thing which is fuppofed to follow.—No 
one is fo hardy as to fay, God is in his debt; that he owed 
him a nobler being: for exiftence muff be antecedent to 
merit; Collier. 
Antecedent, f. in mathematics, denotes the firft of 
the two terms of a ratio, or that term which is compared 
with the other. Thus, if the ratio be 2 to 3, or a to b ; 
then 2 or a is the antecedent. 
Antecedent, /; That which goes before. —-A duty of 
ANT 
fo mighty an influence, that it is indeed, the neceffary ante¬ 
cedent, if not alfo the direfit cattle, of a llnner’s return to 
God. South. —In grammar, the noun to which the relative 
is fubjoined ; as, the man who comes hither.—Let him 
learn the right joining of fubftantives with adjectives, the 
noun with the verb, and the relative with the antecedent. 
Afcham. —In logic, the firft propofition of an enthymeme, 
or argument confifting only of two propofitions.—Condi¬ 
tional or hypothetical propofitions are thole whofe parts 
are united by the conditional particle if ; as, if the fun be 
fixed, the earth mull move ; if there be no fire, there will 
be no fmoke. The firft part of thefe propofitions, or that 
wherein the condition is contained, is called the antecedent, 
the other is called the confequcnt. Watts. 
ANTECE'DENTLY, adv. In the ftate of antecedence, 
or going before ; previoufly.—We confider him antecedent¬ 
ly. to his creation, while he yet lay in the barren womb of 
nothing, and only in the number of pofflbilities. South. 
ANTECES'SOR, f. [Latin.] One that goes before, 
or leads another; the principal. It was an appellation 
given to thofe who excelled in any fcience. Juftinian ap¬ 
plied it particularly to profeffors of civil law; and, in the 
univerfities of France, the teachers of law take the title 
antecefores in all their thefes. 
ANTECEDEN'TAL METHOD, is a branch of ge¬ 
neral geometrical proportion, or univerfal comparifon, and 
is derived from an examination of the antecedents of ra¬ 
tios, having given confequents, and a given ftandard of 
comparifon, in the various degrees of augmentation and di¬ 
minution, which they undergo by compofition and decom- 
pofition. This is a method invented by Mr. James Glenie, 
and publillied by him in 1793; a method which he fays 
he always ufed inllead of the fluxional and differential me¬ 
thods, and which is totally unconneded with the ideas of 
motion and time. See the author’s treatife above-men¬ 
tioned, and. alfo his DoCtrine of Univerlal Comparifon, or 
General Proportion, 1789, upon which it is founded. 
ANTECHAM'BER, f. The chamber that leads to 
the chief apartment : 
The emprefs has the antechambers pad. 
And this way moves with a diforder’d halle. Dryden. 
To AN'TEDATE, v. a. [from ante, and do, datum , 
Lat.] To date earlier than the real time, fo as to confer a 
fiffitious antiquity.—By reading, a man does, as it were, 
antedate his life, and makes himfelf contemporary with the 
ages pad. Collier. To take fomething before the proper 
time : 
Our joys below it can improve. 
And antedate the blifs above. Pope. 
ANTEDILU'VIAN, adj. [from ante, before, and de-. 
luvium, Lat. a deluge.] Exifting before the deluge.— 
During the time of the deluge, all the done and marble of 
the antediluvian earth were totally dilfolved. Woodward. — 
Relating to things exifting before the deluge.—The text 
intends only the line of'Seth, conduceable unto the gene¬ 
alogy of our Saviour, and the antediluvian chronology. 
Brown. 
ANTE'CIANS, or Antoeci, f . in geography, the 
inhabitants of the earth which occupy the fame femicir- 
cle of the fame meridian, but equally aidant from the 
equator, the one north, and the other fouth ; as Pelopon- 
nefus and the Cape of Good Hope. Thefe have their 
noon, or midnight, or any other hour, at the lame time; 
but their feafons are contrary, being fpring to the one, 
when it is autumn with the other; and dimmer with the 
one, when it is winter with the other; alfo the length of 
the day to the one, is equal to the length of the night to 
the other. v 
ANTEDILU'VIANS, f. a general name for all man¬ 
kind who lived before the flood, in which are included the 
whole of the human race from Adam to Noah, and his fa¬ 
mily. Mofes not having fet down the particular time of 
any trail faction before the flood, except only the years of 
the fathers’ age wherein the feveraJ defendants of Adam 
in 
