AMETHYST, a precious stone*. AMMO'NIA, (Ch.) a volatile gas, caused by heat and moisture acting on animal matter; its smell is suffocating, and when most concentrated, destroys life+.

AM'MONITE, or snake-stone; a fossil-shell rolled up into a serpentine-shape. [don. AM'NESTY, (L.) a general parAMOR PATRIA, love of country. AMPHIBIOUS, being so formed as to be able to live at pleasure upon land, or in the water.

AM'PHITRITE, (Z.) a small sea insect in the Heathen Mythology it is the goddess of the sea.

AM'ULETS, Stones or trifles worn as supposed preventives of disorders or ill fortune.

ANAC'HRONISM, an error in computing time.

AN'AGRAM, a transposition of the letters of some name, by means of which a new word is formed.

ANALEP'TICS, (Med.) restoratives which serve to repair the strength.

ANAL'OGY, a certain resemblance or agreement between two or more things, which in. other respects are entirely different.

a

ANALYSIS, the act of dividing subject into its component parts, and a contrary process to Synthesis, which consists in uniting the parts into a whole.

ANA'STROPHE, in rhetoric the reversion of words in a sentence. ANATH'EMA,a curse pronounced ANATOMY, the art of dissecting bodies for the purpose of examining their structure, and the nature, uses, and functions of the various parts.

AN'CHORITE, one who, as an assumed service to God, denies himself the comforts of life, and separates himself from the world. ANDAN'TE, (Mu.) is the me

* AMETHYST.—The precious stones are of various colours, and transparent. The Diamond is white; Ruby and Garnet different shades of red. Amethyst is violet; Sapphire and Torquoise, different shades of blue. Emerald, Beryl, and Aqua-marine, are different shades of green. The Topaz is yellow. The stones which are not deemed precious, are the Opal, Cornelian, Onyx, Sardonyx, Agate, and Jasper. These will all take a fine polish; they are of various colours, and are used by jewellers for ornaments.

+AMMONIA. It is artificially produced from most animal matter, except fat, by subjecting it to heat in iron cylinders; and when bones, hoofs, horns, woollen rags, and pounded coal, are thus burnt, a large quantity of carbonate of ammonia is obtained, some of which is in a solid form, but the greater portion in a liquid state, having a pungent, disagreeable smell, From these is formed Spirit of Hartshorn.

ANATOMY.-The names of various parts of the human body are, the skull, which contains the brain; the jaws and teeth, by the motions of which the tones of the voice are regulated, and the important process of chewing the food performed; the gums; the tongue; the palate, or roof of the mouth, which is the organ of taste; the mouth; the gullet, or throat, the passage through which the food is conveyed into the stomach; the windpipe, or passage for the breath to and from the lungs; the chest, or interior of the breast, containing the heart and lungs, and other organs. The stomach resembles a bagpipe in shape; into this the food is received and digested, and from thence it passes into the bowels. The

dium between the extremes of slow and quick time; gentle, distinct, and soothing.

ANEMOM'ETER, an instrument for measuring the force and velocity of wind.

AN'EURISM, (Ph.) a diseased swelling of an artery, attended with an irregular pulsation.

AN'GLE, (Mat.) the space between two lines which meet at a point. When they meet perpendicularly it is a right angle, and is 90 degrees; when less, it is an acute angle; and when larger, an obtuse angle.

AN'GLICISM, a mode of speech peculiar to the English.

ANIMAL'CULE, an animal exceedingly small; sometimes invisible to the naked eye.

AN'IMUS, the spirit of any thing, or the principle of life.

ANNIVERSARY, the annual return of some remarkable day. ANNOTATION, a brief comme.tary. [our Lord. ANNO DOMINI, in the year of AN'NULAR, in the form of, or resembling a ring.

AN'ODYNE, (Med.) that which has the power to mitigate pain and produce sleep.

ANOMALY,deviation from common rule. [fying before. AN'TE, a Latin particle, signiANTECEDENT, a word or argument that goes before.

ANTE MERIDIAN, the time before noon; its abbreviated form is A. M. [ers of insects. ANTEN'NE, the horns or feelANTEPEN ULTIMATE, the last but two of any number of letters, words, or things.

ANTHO'LOGY, (Bo.) a collection

heart is a muscular vessel by the motion of which the blood is circulated through the body. The lungs, sometimes called the lights, receive and discharge the air we breathe. The liver is a firm substance on the right side of the lower part of the belly, and separates the bile from the blood. The glands are small roundish lumps which secrete various fluids from the blood the kidnies belong to this class. The bladder is a bag which ceives a large portion of fluid intended to passed from the body.

:

There are, beside, several substances and organs which extend through the body. Bones are hard substances which form the skeleton, or frame work. The spine, or back-bone, is formed of a number of small bones, called vertebræ, so united to each other as to be perfectly flexible. Ribs are curved bones, joined to the spine behind, and to the breast-bone in front. Cartilage is a smooth, gristly substance, covering the ends of bones at their joints. Ligaments are bands which connect bones. Joints are the parts where the bones are united. Muscles are fibrous portions of flesh, by which the motions of the body are performed. Tendons are the ends of the muscles formed into cords. A sinew is a smaller kind of tendon. Nerves are small cords which proceed from the brain, and extend through every part, causing sensation, or feelings. Arteries are the larger blood vessels, conveying the blood from the heart to the most distant part. Veins are smaller vessels through which the blood is conducted back again. At every pulsation, or beating of the heart, the blood is forced into the arteries, and causes the motion called the pulse. In the same manner the blood flows into the veins and returns to the heart: this motion is called the circulation of the blood. The pores are very small openings in the skin, through which a watery fluid escapes.

cf flowers; in poetry it is a selection of choice poems.

AN'THRACITE, a species of coal which kindles without flame or smoke, and burns with an intense heat. It is of value in the smelting of iron.

ANTHROPOPH'AGI, a word signifying men-eaters.

ANTI, a Greek particle, signifying contrary to.

ANTICLIMAX, in oratory or writing, a descent or fall, from the great to the little.

ANTIDOTE, a remedy AN'TIMONY, a white brittle metal, incapable of being rolled into sheets or drawn into wire; it is used in medicine in different forms.

ANTIPODES, the place diametrically opposite to another*.

ANTITHESIS, a figure in rhetoric by which a contrast is drawn between two things, so as to exhibit the opposite qualities of each+.

ANTISEPTICs, those substances which prevent putrefaction, as salt, nitre, sugar, vinegar, charcoal, and alcohol.

AN'TITYPE, a figure corresponding to some type.

APE'RIENT, (Med.) a mildly laxative drug.

APHE LION, (As.) that point of a planet's orbit, in which it is most distant from the sun. A'PIARY, a place where bees are kept in hives.

A'POGEE, (As.) the greatest distance of the moon from the earth.

APOCRYPHAL, something doubtful, or unknown.

AP'OGRAPH, a copy or transscript of some book or writing. APOLLO, the fabled god of poetry, music, and the fine arts. A'POLOGUE, a fable or story so contrived as to teach some moral truth.

AP'OPLEXY, a disorder of the brain, which suddenly destroys

all sensation.

A POSTERIO'RI, from the effect to the cause.

APOSTLES, the twelve disciples of Christ, who after his cruci-. fixion preached the gospel.

APOSTROPHE, in rhetoric a sudden change by which a speaker turns his discourse from the subject to some person or thing; as, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? I

AP'OTHEGM, (Apothem) a short, sententious, instructive maxim; as, "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom."

ANTIPODES.-If we suppose a hole to be bored from any given place through the centre of the earth to another, that part would be the antipodes to the former place. The antipodes to England is in the Southern Ocean, in latitude 51° S. and longitude 180° W. At this place it is night during our day, and summer during our winter.

ANTITHESIS.-The following is a specimen ; as, "He was great by the energies of nature; you were little by the misapplication of wit. Wit in him was of spontaneous growth; in you it seemed to be the fruit of crude study."

APOSTROPHE.-It is frequently used in poetry, in which only it is admissible, to reduce a line to its proper measure, as in the following example :

Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere,

"Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where.

In Grammar, it denotes a note or character placed over a letter instead of a vowel, to shew that the vowel is not to be pronounced.

APOTHEOSIS, a ceremony, by which emperors, holy men, and others, were consecrated, or deified after death.

AP'PANAGE, land set apart by princes, to support their younger children.

APPEAL, (L.) the removal of a cause from an inferior to a superior court.

A PRIO'RI, from the cause to the effect.

APPROXIMATION, a drawing

near to.

APPROPRIATION, (L.) the disposal of tithes which do not belong to the beneficed clergyman, but are devoted to the support of a college or a bishoprick. If a layman hold them, the holding is an impropriation.

AQUAFOR'TIS, (Ch.) the name given to diluted nitric acid. It corrodes metals.

AR'ABESQUE, any fanciful en richments or sculpture, used upon flat surfaces, consisting of interlacing, foliage,scrolls, or network+.

AR'BITRATOR, (L.) a judge, chosen by the mutual consent of disputants to settle their dispute. ARBORESCENT, having a resemblance to trees.

ARCHITECTURE, the art of designing and erecting buildings. It contains five orders, called the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite.

ARCHITRAVE, that part of a column immediately over the capital.

ARCHETYPE, the first model of any work.

ARGILLA'CEOUS, partaking of the nature of clay.

ARGUMENTUM AD HOM'INUM, an argument to the man.

ARISTOCRACY, a form of go

AQUATIC, that which lives and vernment where the supreme

power is vested jointly in the principal persons of the state. The nobility of any country.

ARITHMETIC, the art of numbering or reckoning.

ARO'MA, that part of odorous

* AQUEDUCT. To bring water from a distance, some of the most stupendous works of antiquity were erected. Had the ancients been aware of the influence of the atmosphere upon all fluids, a great proportion of their labour might have been spared. As the Romans extended their conquests, they built aqueducts near the most important cities; and our cut is a representation of the Pont du Gard, which remains as a monument of the genius and industry of that people. It is situated near Nismes, in the South of France, and is composed of three several bridges, one above the other, of which the arcades successively diminish in space and increase in number. The first bridge or range of arches is composed of arched openings, 500 feet long, and 62 feet high; the second range has eleven arches, of the same height as that beneath, but 798 feet in length; the third range consists of thirty-five arches or arcades, on a scale smaller by five to one; and this was the canal or aqueduct, four feet in height, five feet in breadth, its side-walls or parapets two feet six inches thick, its sides incrusted with a layer of cement three inches thick, and a coat of red paint over, and its bed of mixed pebbles, sand, and lime, eight inches thick, as new as if it were the work of the last age: the whole joined two lofty heights, and carried the waters of the Uzes to ancient Nismes.

bodies which affects the organs of smell.

AROMATIC, yielding a fragrant smell, and imparting a warm taste. ARPEGGIO, distinctness of tone in musical language.

ARRAIGN'MENT, (L.) is the calling of a person to the bar of a court, to answer an indictment.

ARREST, (L.) the seizing a person to place him in custody. AR'ROW ROOT, a plant of highly nutritious qualities, used by the Indians as a remedy for the wounds inflicted by poisoned arrows.

AR'SENAL, a magazine, a place where warlike equipments are stored.

AR'SENIC, (Ch.) a brittle whitish metal, strongly poisonous. It is obtained from several

minerals.

AR'TERIES, that class of vessels which distribute the red or oxygenated blood over the body.

ARTE'SIAN WELLS, borings made through various strata of earth, from which water rises spontaneously.

ASAFOETIDA, a resinous gum, of a very offensive smell, ottained from a plant which is a native of Persia.

ASBES'TOS, a fibrous mineral, very abundant in Corsica*.

The City of Rome was at one time supplied with water from twenty aqueducts, whose sources were from thirty to sixty miles distant. The series of arches in one of these was calculated at 7000, their height being,

in many places, more than a hundred feet.

The ruins of several of these splendid works remain; and modern Rome is supplied by water by three of the ancient aqueducts, which have undergone repairs and restoration. + ARABESQUE.-Thus named, because the Arabians, with whom it originated, rejected the representation of animals.

ASBESTOS.-This fibrousmineral, sometimes called Mountain flar, was formerly manufactured into cloth, for the purpose of wrapping the dead bodies intended to be burned. Such cloth resisted any ordinary fire, and thus the ashes of the corpse were preserved distinct, and could be placed