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ANATTO (possibly a native American na...

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 943 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ANATTO (possibly a native See also:American name, with many variants such as annatto, arnotto) , a colouring See also:matter produced from the seeds of Bixa orellana (natural See also:order Flacourtiaceae), a small See also:tree which grows in Central and Sauth See also:America. The seeds are surrounded with a thin coating of a waxy pulp, which is separated from them by washing in See also:water, passing the liquid through a See also:sieve and allowing the suspended pulp to See also:deposit. The water is then drained away and the See also:paste dried, till it is a thick, stiff, unctuous See also:mass. In this See also:state it has a dark See also:orange-red See also:colour and is known as " See also:roll " or " See also:flag " arnotto, according to the See also:form in which it is put up, but when further dried it is called\ " cake " arnotto. Arnotto is much used by See also:South American See also:Indians for See also:painting their bodies; among civilized communities its See also:principal use is for colouring See also:butter, See also:cheese and varnishes. It yields a fugitive See also:bright orange colour, and is to some extent used alone, or in See also:conjunction with other dyes, in the See also:dyeing of silks and in See also:calico See also:printing. It contains a yellow colouring matter, bixin, C16H2602. See also:ANA%AGORAS, See also:Greek philosopher, was See also:born probably about the See also:year 500 B.C. (See also:Apollodorus ap. Diog. Laert. ii. 7.) At his native See also:town of See also:Clazomenae in See also:Asia See also:Minor, he had, it appears, some amount of See also:property and prospects of See also:political See also:influence, both of which he surrendered, from a fear that they would hinder his See also:search after knowledge.

Nothing is known of his teachers; there is no See also:

reason for the theory that he studied under Hermotimus of Clazomenae, the See also:ancient See also:miracle-worker. In See also:early manhood (c. 464-462 B.c.) he went to See also:Athens, which was rapidly becoming the headquarters of Greek culture. There he is said to have remained for See also:thirty years. See also:Pericles learned to love and admire him and the poet See also:Euripides derived from him an See also:enthusiasm for See also:science and humanity. Some authorities assert that even See also:Socrates was among his disciples. His influence was due partly to his astronomical and mathematical See also:eminence, but still more to the ascetic dignity of his nature and his superiority to See also:ordinary weaknesses—traits which See also:legend has embalmed. It was he who brought See also:philosophy and the spirit of scientific inquiry from See also:Ionia to Athens. His observations of the See also:celestial bodies led him to form new theories of the universal order, and brought him into collision with the popular faith. He attempted, not without success, to give a scientific See also:account of eclipses, meteors, rainbows and the See also:sun, which he described as a mass of blazing See also:metal, larger than the See also:Peloponnesus; the heavenly bodies were masses of See also:stone torn from the See also:earth and ignited by rapid rotation. The ignorant polytheism of the See also:time could not tolerate such explanation, and the enemies of Pericles used the superstitions of their countrymen as a means of attacking him in the See also:person of his friend. Anaxagoras was arrested on a See also:charge of contravening the established dogmas of See also:religion (some say the charge was one of Medism), and it required all the eloquence of Pericles to secure his acquittal.

Even so he was forced to retire from Athens to See also:

Lampsacus (434-433 B.C.), where he died about 428 B.C., honoured and respected by the whole See also:city. It is difficult to See also:present the cosmical theory of Anaxagoras in an intelligible See also:scheme. All things have existed in a sort of way from the beginning. But originally they existed in infinitesimally small fragments of themselves, endless in number and inextricably combined throughout the universe. All things existed in this mass, but in a confused and indistinguishable form. There were the seeds (oirEppara) or miniatures of See also:corn and flesh and See also:gold in the See also:primitive mixture; but these parts, of like nature with their wholes (the opolopepij of See also:Aristotle), had to be eliminated from the complex mass before they could receive a definite name and See also:character. The existing See also:species of things having thus been transferred, with all their specialities, to the prehistoric See also:stage, they were multiplied endlessly in number, by reducing their See also:size through continued subdivision; at the same time each one thing is so indissolubly connected with everyother that the keenest See also:analysis can never completely sever them. The See also:work of arrangement, the segregation of like from unlike and the summation of the ol.coto,uep11 into totals of the same name, was the work of Mind or Reason; iravra xpijpara iv opoii • stra vows EABlav See also:aura &EK6apnve. This See also:peculiar thing, called Mind (vows), was no less illimitable than the chaotic mass, but, unlike the Intelligence of Heraclitus (q.v.), it stood pure and See also:independent (pouvos E¢' lwurou), a thing of finer texture, alike in all its manifestations and every-where the same. This subtle See also:agent, possessed of all knowledge and See also:power, is especially seen ruling in all the forms of See also:life. Its first See also:appearance, and the only manifestation of it which Anaxagoras describes, is See also:Motion. It originated a rotatory See also:movement in the mass (a movement far exceeding the most rapid in the See also:world as we know it), which, arising in one corner or point, gradually extended till it gave distinctness and reality to the aggregates of like parts.

But even after it has done its best, the See also:

original intermixture of things is not wholly overcome. No one thing in the world is ever abruptly separated, as by the See also:blow of an See also:axe, from the See also:rest of things. The name given to it signifies merely that in that congeries of fragments the particular " See also:seed " is preponderant. Every a of this present universe is only a by a See also:majority, and is also in lesser number b, c, d. It is noteworthy that Aristotle accuses Anaxagoras of failing to differentiate between vows and ¢uxii, while Socrates (See also:Plato, See also:Phaedo, 98 B) See also:objects that his vows is merely a See also:deus ex machina to which he refuses to attribute See also:design and knowledge. Anaxagoras proceeded to give some account of the stages in the See also:process from original See also:chaos to present arrangements. The See also:division into See also:cold mist and warm See also:ether first See also:broke the spell of confusion. With increasing cold, the former gave rise to water, earth and stones. The seeds of life which continued floating in the See also:air were carried down with the rains and produced vegetation. Animals, including See also:man, sprang from the warm and moist See also:clay. If these things be so, then the See also:evidence of the senses must be held in slight esteem. We seem to see things coming into being and passing from it; but reflection tells us that decease and growth only mean a new See also:aggregation (air-yowls) and disruption (&aeptvts).

Thus Anaxagoras distrusted the senses, and gave the preference to the conclusions of reflection. Thus he maintained that there must be blackness as well as whiteness in See also:

snow; how otherwise could it be turned into dark water? Anaxagoras marks a turning-point in the See also:history of philosophy. With him See also:speculation passed from the colonies of See also:Greece to See also:settle at Athens. By the theory of See also:minute constituents of things, and his emphasis on See also:mechanical processes in the formation of order, he paved the way for the atomic theory. By his enunciation of the order that comes from reason, on the other See also:hand, he suggested, though he seems not to have stated explicitly, the theory that nature is the work of design. The conception of reason in the world passed from him to Aristotle, to whom it seemed the See also:dawn of sober thought after a See also:night of disordered dreams. From Aristotle it descended to his commentators, and under the influence of See also:Averroes became the See also:engrossing topic of speculation. AurHoRITIEs.—The fragments of Anaxagoras have been collected by E. Schaubach (See also:Leipzig, 1827), and W. Schorn (See also:Bonn, 1829) ; see also F. W.

A. Mullach, Fragmenta Philos. Graec. i. 243-252 ; A. See also:

Fair-See also:banks, The First Philosophers of Greece (1898). For See also:criticism see T. See also:Gomperz, Greek Thinkers (Eng. trans., L. See also:Magnus, 1901), bk. ii. See also:chap. 4; E. Bersot, De controversis quibusdam Anaxagorae doctrinis (See also:Paris, 1844) ; E. See also:Zeller, See also:Die Philosophic der Griechen (Eng. trans., S. F.

Alleyne, 2 vols., See also:

London, 1881) ; J. M. See also:Robertson, See also:Short History of Freethought (London, 1906); W. Windelband, History of Philosophy (Eng. trans., J. H. Tufts, 1893) ; J. I. Beare, Greek Theories of Elementary See also:Cognition (1906) ; L. Parmentier, Euripide et Anaxagore (1892) ; F. See also:Lortzing, " Bericht uber die griechischen Philosophen vor Sokrates " (for the years 1876–1897) in See also:Bursian's Jahresbericht uber die Fortschritte der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, cxvi. (1904), with references to important articles in See also:periodicals. (W.

W.; J. M.

End of Article: ANATTO (possibly a native American name, with many variants such as annatto, arnotto)

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