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THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA
A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INFORMATION
ELEVENTH EDITION
VOLUME II SLICE VIII
Atherstone to Austria
Articles in This Slice
ATHERSTONE, WILLIAM GUYBON AUDEBERT, JEAN BAPTISTE ATHERSTONE AUDEFROI LE BATARD ATHERTON AUDIENCE ATHETOSIS AUDIFFRET-PASQUIER, EDMÉ ARMAND GASTON ATHIAS, JOSEPH AUDIT and AUDITOR ATHLETE AUDLEY, SIR JAMES ATHLETIC SPORTS AUDLEY, THOMAS AUDLEY ATHLONE AUDOUIN, JEAN VICTOR ATHOL AUDRAN ATHOLL, EARLS AND DUKES OF AUDRAN, EDMOND ATHOLL AUDREHEM, ARNOUL D’ ATHOS AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES ATHY AUE ATINA AUERBACH, BERTHOLD ATITLÁN AUERSPERG, ANTON ALEXANDER ATKINSON, EDWARD AUFIDENA ATKINSON, SIR HARRY ALBERT AUGEAS ATLANTA AUGERATHERSTONE, WILLIAM GUYBON (1813-1898), British geologist, one of the pioneers in South African geology, was born in 1813, in the district of Uitenhage, Cape Colony. Having qualified as M.D. he settled in early life as a medical practitioner at Grahamstown, subsequently becoming F.R.C.S. In 1839 his interest was aroused in geology, and from that date he “devoted the leisure of a long and successful medical practice” to the pursuit of geological science. In 1857 he published an account of the rocks and fossils of Uitenhage (the latter described more fully by R. Tate, Quart. Journal Geol. Soc., 1867). He also obtained many fossil reptilia from the Karroo beds, and presented specimens to the British Museum. These were described by Sir Richard Owen. Atherstone’s identification in 1867 as a diamond of a crystal found at De Kalk near the junction of the Riet and Vaal rivers, led indirectly to the establishment of the great diamond industry of South Africa. He encouraged the workings at Jagersfontein, and he also called attention to the diamantiferous neck at Kimberley. He was one of the founders of the Geological Society of South Africa at Johannesburg in 1895; and for some years previously he was a member of the Cape parliament. He died at Grahamstown, on the 26th of June 1898.
See the obituary by T. Rupert Jones, Natural Science, vol. xiv. (January 1899).
ATHERSTONE, a market-town in the Nuneaton parliamentary division of Warwickshire, England, 102½ m. N.W. from London by the London & North-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 5248. It lies in the upper valley of the Anker, under well-wooded hills to the west, and is on the Roman Watling Street, and the Coventry canal. The once monastic church of St Mary is rebuilt, excepting the central tower and part of the chancel. The chief
Atherstone (Aderestone, Edridestone, Edrichestone), though not mentioned in any pre-Conquest record, is of unquestionably ancient origin. A Saxon barrow was opened near the town in 1824. It is traversed by Watling Street, and portions of the ancient Roman road have been discovered in modern times. Atherstone is mentioned in Domesday among the possessions of Countess Godiva, the widow of Leofric. In the reign of Henry III. it passed to the monks of Bec in Normandy, who in 1246 obtained the grant of an annual fair at the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, and the next year of a market every Tuesday. This market became so much frequented that in 1319 a toll was levied upon all goods coming into the town, in order to defray the cost of the repair to the roads necessitated by the constant traffic, and in 1332 a similar toll was levied on all goods passing over the bridge called Feldenbrigge near Atherstone. The September fair and Tuesday markets are still continued. In the reign of Edward III. a house of Austin Friars was founded at Atherstone by Ralph Lord Basset of Drayton, which, however, never rose to much importance, and at its dissolution in 1536 was valued at 30 shillings and 3 pence only.
ATHERTON, or Chowbent, an urban district in the Leigh parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 13 m. W.N.W. of Manchester on the London & North-Western and Lancashire & Yorkshire railways. Pop. (1901) 16,211. The cotton factories are the principal source of industry; there are also iron-works and collieries. The manor was held by the local family of Atherton from John’s reign to 1738, when it passed by marriage to Robert Gwillym, who assumed that name. In 1797 his eldest daughter and co-heiress married Thomas Powys, afterwards the second Lord Lilford. Up to 1891 the lord of the manor held a court-leet and court-baron annually in November, but in that year Lord Lilford sold to the local board the market tolls, stallages and pickages, and since this sale the courts have lapsed. The earliest manufactures were iron and cotton. Silk-weaving, formerly an extensive industry, has now almost entirely decayed. The first chapel or church was built in 1645. James Wood, who became Nonconformist minister in the chapel at Atherton in 1691, earned fame and the familiar title of “General” by raising a force from his congregation, uncouthly armed, to fight against the troops of the Pretender (1715).
ATHETOSIS (Gr. ἄθετος, “without place”), the medical term applied to certain slow, purposeless, deliberate movements of the hands and feet. The fingers are separately flexed and extended, abducted and adducted in an entirely irregular way. The hands as a whole are also moved, and the arms, toes and feet may be affected. The condition is usually due to some lesion of the brain which has caused hemiplegia, and is especially common in childhood. It is occasionally congenital (so called), and is then due to some injury of the brain during birth. It is more usually associated with hemiplegia, in which condition there is first of all complete voluntary immobility of the parts affected: but later, as there is a return of a certain amount of power over the limbs affected, the slow rhythmic movements of athetosis are first noticed. This never develops, however, where there is no recovery of voluntary power. Its distribution is thus nearly always hemiplegic, and it is often associated with more or less mental impairment. The movements may or may not continue during sleep. They cannot be arrested for more than a moment by will power, and are aggravated by voluntary movements. The prognosis is unsatisfactory, as the condition usually continues unchanged for years, though improvement occasionally occurs in slight cases, or even complete recovery.
ATHIAS, JOSEPH (d. 1700), Jewish rabbi and printer, was born in Spain and settled in Amsterdam. His editions of the Hebrew Bible (1661, 1667) are noted for beauty of execution and the general correctness of the text. He also printed a Judaeo-German edition of the Bible in 1679, a year after the appearance of the edition by Uri Phoebus.
ATHLETE (Gr. ἀθλητής; Lat. athleta), in Greek and Roman antiquities, one who contended for a prize (ἀθλον) in the games; now a general term for any one excelling in physical strength. Originally denoting one who took part in musical, equestrian, gymnastic, or any other competitions, the name became restricted to the competitors in gymnastic contests, and, later, to the class of professional athletes. Whereas in earlier times competitors, who were often persons of good birth and position, entered the lists for glory, without any idea of material gain, the professional class, which arose as early as the 5th century B.C., was chiefly recruited from the lower orders, with whom the better classes were unwilling to associate, and took up athletics entirely as a means of livelihood. Ancient philosophers, moralists and physicians were almost unanimous in condemning the profession of athletics as injurious not only to the mind but also to the body. The attack made upon it by Euripides in the fragment of the Autolycus is well known. The training for the contests was very rigorous. The matter of diet was of great importance; this was prescribed by the aleiptes, whose duty it also was to anoint the athlete’s body. At one time the principal food consisted of fresh cheese, dried figs and wheaten bread. Afterwards meat was introduced, generally beef, or pork; but the bread and meat were taken separately, the former at breakfast, the latter at dinner. Except in wine, the quantity was unlimited, and the capacity of some of the heavy-weights must have been, if such stories as those about Milo are true, enormous. In addition to the ordinary gymnastic exercises of the palaestra, the athletes were instructed in carrying heavy loads, lifting weights, bending iron rods, striking at a suspended leather sack filled with sand or flour, taming bulls, &c. Boxers had to practise delving the ground, to strengthen their upper limbs. The competitions open to athletes were running, leaping, throwing the discus, wrestling, boxing and the pancratium, or combination of boxing and wrestling. Victory in this last was the highest achievement of an athlete, and was reserved only for men of extraordinary strength. The competitors were naked, having their bodies salved with oil. Boxers wore the caestus, a strap of leather round the wrists and forearms, with a piece of metal in the fist, which was sometimes employed with great barbarity. An athlete could begin his career as a boy in the contests set apart for boys. He could appear again as a youth against his equals, and though always unsuccessful, could go on competing till the age of thirty-five, when he was debarred, it being assumed that after this period of life he could not improve. The most celebrated of the Greek athletes whose names have been handed down are Milo of Crotona, Hipposthenes, Polydamas, Promachus and Glaucus. Cyrene, famous in the time of Pindar for its athletes, appears to have still maintained its reputation to at least the time of Alexander the Great; for in the British Museum are to be seen six prize vases carried off from the games at Athens by natives of that district. These vases,
Amongst the Romans athletic contests had no doubt taken place from the earliest times, but according to Livy (xxxix. 22) professional Greek athletes were first introduced at Rome by M. Fulvius Nobilior in 186 B.C. After the institution of the Actian games by Augustus, their popularity increased, until they finally supplanted the gladiators. In the time of the empire, gilds or unions of athletes were formed, each with a temple, treasury and exercise-ground of its own. The profession, although it ranked above that of a gladiator or an actor, was looked upon as derogatory to the dignity of a Roman, and it is a rare thing to find a Roman name amongst the athletes on inscriptions. The system was entirely, and the athletes themselves nearly always, Greek. (See also Games, Classical.)