This volume of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, eleventh edition, opens with biographical entries on pioneers in South African geology like William Guybon Atherstone, whose identification of the Riet and Vaal river crystals helped establish the diamond industry in South Africa. The text proceeds through numerous historical market-towns and urban districts in England, such as Atherstone and Atherton, detailing their ancient origins, Domesday entries, early industrial developments in cotton and iron, and notable historical events, including local resistance during the English civil wars and the Jacobite risings.
Medical and scientific articles provide precise terminology and clinical descriptions of conditions such as athetosis, tracing its association with brain lesions and hemiplegia, and detailing its slow rhythmic movements. The section on athletes in classical antiquities explores the transition from amateur honorific competition among the Greek elite to professional athletics recruited from lower orders, complete with strict physical training regimens, strict diets, and brutal forms of competition such as the caestus.
An extensive historical survey of athletic sports traces their evolution from ancient Egyptian, Asiatic, and Celtic traditions through medieval English pastimes—often discouraged by sovereigns anxious to promote archery—to the revival of interest in the nineteenth century at military colleges and universities, culminating in the organization of amateur athletic associations and the modern Olympic games.
Biographies of historical and noble figures occupy a considerable portion of the volume, detailing the complex lineage and political vicissitudes of the earls and dukes of Atholl, their frequent oscillations between allegiance to the crown and support for Jacobite rebellions, and their acquisition through marriage of the sovereignty of the Isle of Man. The geographical entries cover such regions as the monastic republic of Mount Athos, with its medieval customs, unique monastic constitutions, and rich collections of Byzantine art and documents, as well as descriptions of the towns and physical features of Athlone, Athol, Atina, and the vast geographical expanse of Austria.
The volume concludes with exhaustive entries on economic and political figures, such as the American economist Edward Atkinson and the New Zealand statesman Sir Harry Albert Atkinson, alongside descriptions of great metropolitan centers like Atlanta, detailing their commercial growth, industrial development, and the operations of the Atlanta campaign during the American Civil War. The whole provides an extraordinarily comprehensive cross-section of nineteenth-century general knowledge, geography, and historical biography.
