Volume 2, Slice 2 Part 7 (1/2)
ANOMALY (from Gr. [Greek: anomalia], unevenness, derived from [Greek: an-], privative, and [Greek: homalos], even), a deviation from the common rule. In astronomy the word denotes the angular distance of a body from the pericentre of the orbit in which it is moving. Let AB be the major axis of the orbit, B the pericentre, F the focus or centre of motion, P the position of the body. The anomaly is then the angle BFP which the radius vector makes with the major axis. This is the actual or _true anomaly_. _Mean anomaly_ is the anomaly which the body would have if it moved from the pericentre around F with a uniform angular motion such that its revolution would be completed in its actual time (see ORBIT). _Eccentric anomaly_ is defined thus:--Draw the circ.u.mscribing circle of the elliptic orbit around the centre C of the orbit. Drop the perpendicular RPQ through P, the position of the planet, upon the major axis. Join CR; the angle CRQ is then the eccentric anomaly.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
In the ancient astronomy the anomaly was taken as the angular distance of the planet from the point of the farthest recession from the earth.
_Kepler's Problem_, namely, that of finding the co-ordinates of a planet at a given time, which is equivalent--given the mean anomaly--to that of determining the true anomaly, was solved approximately by Kepler, and more completely by Wallis, Newton and others.
The anomalistic revolution of a planet or other heavenly body is the revolution between two consecutive pa.s.sages through the pericentre.
Starting from the pericentre, it is completed on the return to the pericentre. If the pericentre is fixed, this is an actual revolution; but if it moves the anomalistic revolution is greater or less than a complete circ.u.mference.
An _Anomalistic year_ is the time (365 days, 6 hours, 13 minutes, 48 seconds) in which the earth (and similarly for any other planet) pa.s.ses from perihelion to perihelion, or from any given value of the anomaly to the same again. Owing to the precession of the equinoxes it is longer than a tropical or sidereal year by 25 minutes and 2.3 seconds. An _Anomalistic month_ is the time in which the moon pa.s.ses from perigee to perigee, &c.
For the mathematics of Kepler's problem see E.W. Brown, _Lunar Theory_ (Cambridge 1896), or the work of Watson or of Bauschinger on Theoretical Astronomy.
ANORTHITE, an important mineral of the felspar group, being one of the end members of the plagioclase (q.v.) series. It is a calcium and aluminium silicate, CaAl2Si2O3, and crystallizes in the anorthic system.
Like all the felspars, it possesses two cleavages, one perfect and the other less so, here inclined to one another at an angle of 85 50'. The colour is white, greyish or reddish, and the crystals are transparent to translucent. The hardness is 6-6, and the specific gravity 2.75.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Anorthite]
Anorthite is an essential const.i.tuent of many basic igneous rocks, such as gabbro and basalt, also of some meteoric stones. The best developed crystals are those which accompany mica, augite, sanidine, &c., in the ejected blocks of metamorphosed limestone from Monte Somma, the ancient portion of Mount Vesuvius; these are perfectly colourless and transparent, and are bounded by numerous brilliant faces. Distinctly developed crystals are also met with in the basalts of j.a.pan, but are usually rare at other localities.
The name anorthite was given to the Vesuvian mineral by G. Rose in 1823, on account of its anorthic crystallization. The species had, however, been earlier described by the comte de Bournon under the name indianite, this name being applied to a greyish or reddish granular mineral forming the matrix of corundum from the Carnatic in India. Several unimportant varieties have been distinguished. (L. J. S.)
ANQUETIL, LOUIS PIERRE (1723-1808), French historian, was born in Paris, on the 21st of February 1723. He entered the congregation of Sainte-Genevieve, where he took holy orders and became professor of theology and literature. Later, he became director of the seminary at Reims, where he wrote his _Histoire civile et politique de Reims_ (3 vols., 1756-1757), perhaps his best work. He was then director of the college of Senlis, where he composed his _Esprit de la Ligue ou histoire politique des troubles de la Fronde pendant le XVI^e et le XVII^e siecles_ (1767). During the Reign of Terror he was imprisoned at St Lazare; there he began his _Precis de l'histoire universelle_, afterwards published in nine volumes. On the establishment of the national inst.i.tute he was elected a member of the second group (moral and political sciences), and was soon afterwards employed in the office of the ministry of foreign affairs, profiting by his experience to write his _Motifs des guerres et des traites de paix sous Louis XIV., Louis XV, et Louis XVI._ He is said to have been asked by Napoleon to write his _Histoire de France_ (14 vols., 1805), a mediocre compilation at second or third hand, with the a.s.sistance of de Mezeray and of Paul Francois Velly (1709-1759). This work, nevertheless, pa.s.sed through numerous editions, and by it his name is remembered. He died on the 6th of September 1808.
ANQUETIL, DUPERRON, ABRAHAM HYACINTHE (1731-1805), French orientalist, brother of Louis Pierre Anquetil, the historian, was born in Paris on the 7th of December 1731. He was educated for the priesthood in Paris and Utrecht, but his taste for Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, and other languages of the East developed into a pa.s.sion, and he discontinued his theological course to devote himself entirely to them. His diligent attendance at the Royal Library attracted the attention of the keeper of the ma.n.u.scripts, the Abbe Sallier, whose influence procured for him a small salary as student of the oriental languages. He had lighted on some fragments of the _Vendidad Sade_, and formed the project of a voyage to India to discover the works of Zoroaster. With this end in view he enlisted as a private soldier, on the 2nd of November 1754, in the Indian expedition which was about to start from the port of L'Orient. His friends procured his discharge, and he was granted a free pa.s.sage, a seat at the captain's table, and a salary, the amount of which was to be fixed by the governor of the French settlement in India.
After a pa.s.sage of six months, Anquetil landed, on the 10th of August 1755, at Pondicherry. Here he remained a short time to master modern Persian, and then hastened to Chandernagore to acquire Sanskrit. Just then war was declared between France and England; Chandernagore was taken, and Anquetil returned to Pondicherry by land. He found one of his brothers at Pondicherry, and embarked with him for Surat; but, with a view of exploring the country, he landed at Mahe and proceeded on foot.
At Surat he succeeded, by perseverance and address in his intercourse with the native priests, in acquiring a sufficient knowledge of the Zend and Pahlavi languages to translate the liturgy called the _Vendidad Sade_ and some other works. Thence he proposed going to Benares, to study the language, antiquities, and sacred laws of the Hindus; but the capture of Pondicherry obliged him to quit India. Returning to Europe in an English vessel, he spent some time in London and Oxford, and then set out for France. He arrived in Paris on the 14th of March 1762 in possession of one hundred and eighty oriental ma.n.u.scripts, besides other curiosities. The Abbe Barthelemy procured for him a pension, with the appointment of interpreter of oriental languages at the Royal Library.
In 1763 he was elected an a.s.sociate of the Academy of Inscriptions, and began to arrange for the publication of the materials he had collected during his eastern travels. In 1771 he published his _Zend-Avesta_ (3 vols.), containing collections from the sacred writings of the fire-wors.h.i.+ppers, a life of Zoroaster, and fragments of works ascribed to him. In 1778 he published at Amsterdam his _Legislation orientate_, in which he endeavoured to prove that the nature of oriental despotism had been greatly misrepresented. His _Recherches historiques et geographiques sur l'Inde_ appeared in 1786, and formed part of Thieffenthaler's _Geography of India_. The Revolution seems to have greatly affected him. During that period he abandoned society, and lived in voluntary poverty on a few pence a day. In 1798 he published _L'Inde en rapport avec l'Europe_ (Hamburg, 2 vols.), which contained much invective against the English, and numerous misrepresentations. In 1802-1804 he published a Latin translation (2 vols.) from the Persian of the _Oupnek'hat_ or _Upanishada_. It is a curious mixture of Latin, Greek, Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit. He died in Paris on the 17th of January 1805.
See _Biographie universelle_; Sir William Jones, _Works_ (vol. x., 1807); and the _Miscellanies_ of the Philobiblon Society (vol. iii., 1856-1857). For a list of his scattered writings see Querard, _La France litteraire_.
ANSA (from Lat. _ansa_, a handle), in astronomy, one of the apparent ends of the rings of Saturn as seen in perspective from the earth: so-called because, in the earlier telescopes, they looked like handles projecting from the planet. In anatomy the word is applied to nervous structures which resemble loops. In archaeology it is used for the engraved and ornamented handle of a vase, which has often survived when the vase itself, being less durable, has disappeared.
ANSBACH, or ANs.p.a.cH, originally _Onolzbach_, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, on the Rezat, 27 m. by rail S.W. of Nuremberg, and 90 m. N. of Munich. Pop. (1900) 17,555. It contains a palace, once the residence of the margraves of Ans.p.a.ch, with fine gardens, several churches, the finest of which are those dedicated to St John, containing the vault of the former margraves, and St Gumbert; a gymnasium; a picture gallery; a munic.i.p.al museum and a special technical school.
Ansbach possesses monuments to the poets August, Count von Platen-Hallermund, and Johann Peter Uz, who were born here, and to Kaspar Hauser, who died here. The chief manufactures are machinery, toys, woollen, cotton, and half-silk stuffs, embroideries, earthenware, tobacco, cutlery and playing cards. There is considerable trade in grain, wool and flax. In 1791 the last margrave of Ans.p.a.ch sold his princ.i.p.ality to Frederick William II., king of Prussia; it was transferred by Napoleon to Bavaria in 1806, an act which was confirmed by the congress of Vienna in 1815.
ANSDELL, RICHARD (1815-1885), English painter, was born in Liverpool, and first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840. He was a painter of genre, chiefly animal and sporting pictures, and he became very popular, being elected A.R.A. in 1861 and R.A. in 1870. His ”Stag at Bay” (1846), ”The Combat” (1847), and ”Battle of the Standard” (1848), represent his best work, in which he showed himself a notable follower of Landseer.