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APLACENTAL 206 APOGEE 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 {omithorhynchus) y the porcupine ant- eater, kangaroo, etc. APTjANATIC, in optics, a term specif- ically applied to reflectors, lenses, and combinations of them, capable of trans- mitting light without spherical aberra- tion. An aplanatic lens is a lens con- structed of different media to correct the effects of the unequal refrangibility of the different rays. APO, a volcano in Mindanao, Philip- pine Islands; over 10,000 feet high. APOCALYPSE (a-pok'a-lips), the name frequently given to the last book of the New Testament, in the English version called the Revelation of St. John the Divine. It is generally believed that the Apocalypse was written by the apostle John in his old age (95-97 A. D.) in the Isle of Patmos, whither he had been banished by the Roman Emperor Domitian. APOCALYPTIC WRITINGS, writings such as, like the prophecies of Daniel, their prototype, set forth in a figura- tive 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 so- called, 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 non- canonical Jewish apocalypses; it dates from the later Maccabee period; another is the apocalypse of Ezra. The "Shep- herd of Hermas" is the most important Christian work of this kind. APOCRYPHA (a-pok'rif-a), in the early Christian Church, (1) books pub- lished anonymously; (2) those suitable for private rather than public reading; (3) those written by an apostle or other inspired author, but not regarded as part of Scripture; (4) the works of heretics. In English now, the following 14 books: I, 1 Esdras; II, 2 Esdras; III, Tobit;IV. Judith; V. Additions to Esther; VI, The Wisdom of Solomon; VII, Ec- clesiasticus, called also the Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach; VIII, Baruch; !X, The Song of the Three Holy Children; X, The History of Susanna; XI, Bel and the Dragon; XII, The Prayer of Manas- seh. King of Juda; XIII, 1 Macaabees; and XIV, 2 Maccabees. Most of the above-mentioned books were composed during the two centuries immediately preceding the birth of Christ, though some were penned, or at least interpo- lated, at a later period. They were written not in Hebrew or Aramaean, but in Greek; and the Jews never accorded them a place in the Old Testament canon. They were inserted in the SeptuagTnt, and thence passed to the Latin Vulgate. The Christian fathers are divided in sentiment as to their value and the re- lation they stood to the canonical Old Testament books. The question whether or not they were inspired remained an open one till the Reformation. Wyclif, Luther, and Calvin were against them. The Council of Trent, on April 8, 1546, placed them on an equal level with Scrip- ture, anathematizing all who held the contrary opinion. Portions of them are in the New as well as in the Old Lec- tionary of the English Church. The Westminster Confession of Faith, the formulated creed of the Presbyterian Church, regards them as simply human writings. The several apocryphal books are of unequal merit; I Maccabees is a highly valuable history; while Bel and the Dragon is a rnonstrous fable. They throw much light on the religious opin- ions and the political state of the Jews before the advent of Christ. The Greek Church prohibits their use. APOCYNACE^ (ap-5-sin-as'e-i), an order of plants, the English dog-banes. Of 100 known genera only one, vinca, is found in England; the rest are to be found in warmer countries. APOD A, in zoology (1) Aristotle's third section of zootoka, 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 con- tains but one family, the cseciliadse; (3) according to Prof. Max Miiller, a group of fishes belonging to the sub-order phy- sostomata. It is so called because the ventral fins are wanting. It contains three families, the tnurmnidse, or eels, the gymnotidse, and the symbranchidx. 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. APOGEE, that point in the orbit of the moon or a planet where it is at its