Aphasia
in pathology, a symptom of certain morbid conditions of the nervous system, in which the patient loses the power of expressing ideas by means of words, or loses the appropriate use of words, the vocal organs the while remaining intact and the intelligence sound. In one form of the disease, called aphemia, the patient can think think and write, but cannot speak; in another, called agraphia, he can think and speak, but cannot express his ideas in writing. The treatment is that of the underlying disease.
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Aphelion
that part of the orbit of the earth or any other planet in which it is at the point remotest from the sun.
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Aphonia
in pathology, the greater or less impairment, or the complete loss of the power of emitting vocal sound. The slightest and less permanent forms often arise from extreme nervousness, fright, and hysteria. Slight forms of structural aphonia are a catarrhal nature, resulting from more or less congestion and tumefaction of the mucous and sub-mucous tissues of the larynx and adjoining parts.
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Apia
the principal town and commercial emporium of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean; on the N. coast of the island of Upolu, about midway between the E. and W. extremities of the island. In March, 1899, a hurricane swept the harbor; wrecked the United States war vessels "Trenton" (flagship) and "Vandalia," and the German men-of-war, "Eber" "Adler," and "Olga"; and drove the "Nipsic" ashore, United States steamer mer greatly injured. The British ship "Calliope" was the only man-of-war in the harbor that succeeded in escaping to sea. In 1889 the town was the scene of fatal riots growing out of the struggle of Mataafa and Malietoa Tanus for the kingship. In 1900 the town came into German control, but as a result of the World War is now occupied by New Zealand. Pop., 1,500. See SAMOAN ISLANDS.
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Apiary
a place for keeping bees. The apiary should be well sheltered from strong winds, moisture, and the extremes old. hives should face of heat and cold. the S. or S. E., and should be placed on shelves two feet above the ground, and about the same distance from each other. The old dome-shaped straw skep is still in general use among the cottagers of Great Britain. Its cheapness and simplicity of construction are in its favor, while it is excellent for warmth. It has the disadvantage that its interior is closed to inspection, and the honey can only be got out by stupefying the bees with smoke or chloroform, or by fumigating with sulphur, which entails the destruction of the swarm. Wooden hives of square, boxlike form are now gaining general favor among bee keepers. They usually consist of a large breeding chamber below and two sliding removable boxes called supers above for the abstraction of honey without disturbing the contents of the main chamber. When their stores of honey are removed the bees must be fed during the winter and part of spring with syrup or with a solution consisting of two pounds loaf sugar to a pint of water. See BEE.
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Apios
a North American plant of the pea order (Leguminosa), with tuberous, starchy, edible rhizomes. Attempts at cultivation have not been to any practical extent successful.
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Apis (Entomology the typical genus)
in entomology, the typical genus of the family apidæ and the hymenopterous tribe anthophila. The A. mellifica, from Latin melificus, a. ris, honey-making (mel honey, and facio= to make), is the hive bee. In astronomy, a small constellation in the Southern Hemisphere, first named by Halley. It is called also Musca, literally the fly, but in this case rendered "the bee."
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Apium
a genus of umbelliferous plants, including celery.
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Aplacental
a term applied to those mammals in which the young are destitute of a placenta. The aplacental mammals comprise the monotremata and marsupialia, the two lowest orders of mammals, including the duck mole (ornithorhynchus), the porcupine anteater, kangaroo, etc.
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Aplanatic
in optics, a term specifically applied to reflectors, lenses, and combinations of them, capable of transmitting light without spherical aberration. An aplanatic lens is a lens constructed of different media to correct the effects of the unequal refrangibility of the different rays.
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Apo
a volcano in Mindanao, Philippine Islands; over 10,000 feet high.
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Apocalyptic Writings
writings such as, like the prophecies of Daniel, their prototype, set forth in a figurative and pictorial manner the future progress and completion of the world's history, especially in its religious aspect. The two apocalyptic books received into the canon of Scripture are the books of Daniel and the Apocalypse especially socalled, the Revelation of St. John. But Jewish and early Christian literature produced numerous apocalypses from about 170 B. c. to 130 A. D. The Book of Enoch is the best known of the noncanonical Jewish apocalypses; it dates from the later Maccabee period; another is the apocalypse of Ezra. The "Shepherd of Hermas" is the most important Christian work of this kind.
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Apoda
in zoology (1) Aristotle's third section of zoötoka, or air-breathing vivipara. It included the whales, which the Stagirite, with remarkable scientific accuracy, ranked with the warm-blooded quadrupeds; (2) the second order of the class amphibia, or batrachia. The body is like that of an earthworm, and is quite destitute of feet. The order contains but one family, the cæcilindæ; (3) according to Prof. Max Müller, a group of fishes belonging to the sub-order physostomata. It is so called because the ventral fins are wanting. It contains three families, the murænidæ, or eels, the gymnotidæ, and the symbranchidæ.
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Apodal Fishes
the name applied to such malacopterous fishes as want ventral fins. They constitute a small natural family, of which the common eel is an example.
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Apogee
that point in the orbit of the moon or a planet where it is at its greatest distance from the earth; properly this particular part of the moon's orbit.
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Apollinaris Water
a natural aërated water, belonging to the class of acidulated soda waters, and derived from the Apollinarisbrunnen, a spring in the valley of the Ahr, near the Rhine, in Rhenish Prussia.
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Apollodorus
a Greek writer who flourished 140 b. c. Among the numerous works he wrote on various subjects, the only one extant is his "Bibliotheca," which contains a concise account of the mythology of Greece down to the heroic age.
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