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ANNO DOMINI 184 ANODYNE tian College and Barber Memorial Semi- nary and the Noble Female Institute; is a popular summer and winter resort; and has National banks and daily and weekly periodicals. Pop. (1910) 12,794; ,fl920) 17,734. ANNO DOMINI, A. D., the year of Our Lord, of grace, of the incarnation, of the circumcision, and of the Saviour's crucifixion. The Christian era began Jan. 1, in the middle of the fourth year of the 194th Olympiad, the 753d year of the building of Rome, and in 4714 of the Julian period. This era was invented by a monk, Dionysius Exiguus, about 532. It was introduced into Italy in the 6th century, and ordered to be used by bishops by the Council of Chelsea in 816, but was not generally employed for several centuries. Charles III. of Germany was the first who added "in the year of our Lord" to his reign, in 879. ANNONAY (an-o-na), a town in southern France, department of Ardeche, 37 miles S. S. W. of Lyons, in a pictur- esque situation. It is the most impor- tant town of Ardeche, manufacturing paper and glove leather to a large ex- tent, also cloth, felt, silk stuffs,^ gloves, hosiery, etc. There is an obelisk in mem- cry of Joseph Montgolfier of balloon fame, a native of the town. Pop. about 17,500. ANNUAL, in botany, a plant that springs from seed, grows up, produces seed, and then dies, all within a single year or season. ANNUITY, a fixed sum of money paid yearly. In the United States the granting of annuities is conducted by pri- vate companies or corporations. Under the Roman law annuities were sometimes granted by will, the obliga- tion of paying them being imposed upon the heir. Borrowers in the Middle Ages v/ere frequently obliged to grant annui- ties in lieu of interest, the exaction of which by creditors was forbidden as usury; and the practice received the papal sanction in the 15th century. ^ ANNULOIDA, in Huxley's classifica- tion, one of the eight primary groups into which he divides the animal king- dom. He places it between the annulosa £nd the infusoria. He includes under it (1) the trematoda, or flukes; (2) the tRniada, or tape-worms and bladder- worms; (3) the turbellaria; (4) the acanthocephala; (5) the nematoidea, or thread-worms; and (6) the rotifera, or wheel animalcules. ANNULOSA, a sub-kingdom of the animal kingdom, corresponding to Cu- vier's articulata. Annulosa, signifying ringed, is decidedly better, for the ani- mals ranked under this sub-kingdom have their skeleton, which is external, com- posed of a series of rings. They are di- vided into chaetognatha, annelida, Crus- tacea, arachnida, myriapoda, and insecta. The last four are further grouped to- gether under the designation arthro- poda. ANNUNCIATION, the declaration of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary in- forming her that she was to become the mother of our Lord, Annunciation or Lady Day is celebrated on the 25th of March. The Italian order of Knights of the Annunciation, now the highest Ital- ian order, was instituted by Amadeus VI., Duke of Savoy, in 1360. The king is always Grand Master. The decoration of the Order consists of a golden shield suspended to a chain or collar of roses and knots, the letters F. E. R. T. being inscribed on the roses, and standing for fortitudo ejus Rhodum tenuit (its brav- ery held Rhodes). There are two orders of nuns of the Annunciation, French and Italian. ANNUNZIO, aABRIELE D'. See D'Annunzio, (Jabriele. ANOA, a sub-genus of ruminating animals. The typical species is the A. depressicornis, a quadruped resembling a small buffalo, found gregarious in the mountains of the island of Celebes. ANOBIUM, a genus of beetles belong- ing to the family Ptinidje. It contains the well known death watch insects, A. striatum, A. tesselatum, etc. ANODE, the name given by Faraday to what is called by Daniell the zincode, and by various other writers the positive pole of an electric battery; or, more precisely, the "way" or path by which the electric current passes out and enters the electrolyte on its way to the other pole. It is a platinum plate occupying the same place in the decomposing cell that a zinc plate does in an ordinary cell of a battery. The other plate corre- sponding to the second platinum one in an ordinary cell is called by Faraday the cathode or kathode, by Daniell the platinode, and by many other writers the negative pole. At the positive pole appears one element of the decomposed body, called anione, and at the negative the other element, termed katione. ANODYNE, a medicine which allevi- ates pain, though, if given in too large doses, it induces stupor. Opium is so-