Antiquary, The

The, a novel by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1816. It was intended, the author tells us, to illustrate the manners of Scotland during the last ten years of the eighteenth century. Jonathan Oldbuck, the Antiquary, is the hero of the story. Lovel, Isabel Wardour, the Earl of Glenallan, and Eveline Neville are other prominent characters. See Scott; Waverley

Antiseptic (anti-poisonous), a term applied to any process or substance that arrests decay. Inasmuch as decay, rot, putrefaction, fermenting, souring, "spoiling," and maturation are the results usually of low forms of bacterial or fungous life, any process or substance that destroys or checks the growth of mold, yeast, rust, smut, mildew, or bacteria is antiseptic. In a large sense the processes of heating, boiling, burning, smoking, pickling, canning, preserving, freezing, and disinfecting are antiseptic. Of substances, sugar, most oils, alcohol, vinegar, formalin, salt, alum, niter, creosote, tar, paint, in short, all preservatives, are antiseptic. In a narrower sense the term is one used in surgery to denote means employed to prevent bacteria from lodging and growing in wounds or incisions made by the knife. In addition to the sterilization of instruments, of bandages, lint, and other appliances, carbolic acid and other dressings are used to prevent the lodgment and growth of bacterial germs. See Bacteria; Surgery