Amphibians

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

in popular language, animals living both on land and in the water. This usage of the word covers animals that breathe atmospheric air, but disport themselves in water with ease and enjoyment. When in the water they require to come to the surface to breathe. The term includes the hippopotamus, the water rat, the beaver, the otter, the mink, the seal, the walrus, the alligator, the crocodile, the turtle, the frog, the newt, the water snake, the duckbill--it is hard to say where the list leaves off. As used by zoologists, amphibians are the frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, sirens, axolotle, etc. The young of these animals are provided with gills, tadpole fashion, and breathe in the water. The adults breathe atmospheric air. Though at home in water or on land, they drown if forced to remain submerged. The lowest amphibians are footless, worm-like, creatures, chiefly tropical, which scientists have not had opportunity to study with care. See articles on the various animals named. Amphictyonic (am-fic'ti-on'ic Council, the court of a league of twelve Grecian states to protect the temple of Apollo at Delphi. The purpose was religious, not political. The delegates of the league, two for each city, met in solemn conclave to determine matters of worship and incidentally to adjust quarrels between cities. We learn from Aeschines that the delegates had equal voice, and that the members of the league bound themselves by oath that "they would destroy no city of the Amphictyons, nor cut off their streams in war or peace; and if any should do so, they would march against him and destroy his cities; and should any pillage the property of the god, or be privy to, or plan against, what was in his temple at Delphi, they would take vengeance on him." The deputies met twice a year, alternately at Delphi and at Thermopylae. Membership in the league was a high honor. One of Philip's first steps toward supremacy in Greece was to force the admission of Macedon to a seat in the Amphictyonic Council. After that it no longer commanded respect, becoming extinct in the second century. The word means "of those dwelling about." Greece had many "amphictyonics," of which the Delphic was only the most famous. See Greece ; Areopagus ; Philip An Amphictyonic body was an assembly of the tribes who dwelt around any famous temple, gathered together to manage the affairs of that temple. . . . It is easy to understand how the religious functions of such a body might incidentally assume a political character....Once or twice then in the course of Grecian history, we do find the Amphictyonic body acting with real dignity in the name of united Greece....The Amphictyonic Council was not exactly a diplomatic congress, but it was much more like a diplomatic congress than it was like the governing assembly of any commonwealth, kingdom or federation.--E. A. Freeman.