athanor

[In Ger. a the nor; from Arab. at-tannûr; Heb. תַּנוּר ) tannûr ) = a furnace.[ A digesting furnace formerly in use among chemists. It was designed to maintain an unvarying amount of heat, which could be increased or diminished at pleasure by opening or shutting apertures with sliders over them called registers. ( Quincy, & c.) Ath-ar-ist, s. [CATHARIST.] ( Scotch .) A-thar-va-nạ, s. [Sanscrit.] The fourth of the Indian Vedas. Its language is more modern than that of the other three. The Sanhitá, or collection of prayers and invocations, is comprised in twenty books. The number of verses is stated as 6,015; the sections more than 100; and the hymns upwards of 760. The theological treatises, regarded as fifty-two in number, called Up an is hads , are appended to the Atharvan Veda.