ATH'ERO'MA (Gk. ἀθήρωμα, athērōma, a tumor full of gruel-like matter, from ἀθήρη, athērē, groats, meal). A yellow, cheesy material, composed of fat, cholesterin, sebaceous matter, albumen, chalk, and detritus of epithelium, found in cysts (as of the scalp) and in degenerated arterial walls. See Arterio-Sclerosis; Artery.
ATH'ERTON. A manufacturing and mining town in Lancashire, England, 4½ miles southwest of Bolton. The civic spirit is exemplified by the municipalization of water, gas, and electric lighting and traffic plants, and the erection of a dust destructor and public offices. Population, in 1891, 13,700: in 1901, 16,200.
ATHERTON, Charles Gordon (1804-53). An American politician, born in Amherst, N. H. He graduated at Harvard in 1822, and was a member of the State Legislature for five years and Speaker of the Lower House for four. In 1837 he was elected to Congress and served in the House in 1837-43, and in the Senate in 1843-49 and in 1852-53. In December, 1838, he introduced the notorious 'Atherton-gag' resolution, prescribing that 'all petitions relating to slavery, or to its abolition, be laid on the table without debate.' This measure was stubbornly fought by John Quincy Adams, who insisted on the 'right of petition;' but it was passed by a vote of 120 to 73, and remained in effect until 1844. See Gag Rules.
ATHERTON, Gertrude Franklin (1859—). An American author. She was born at San Francisco, Cal., and was educated at secondary schools and privately. She began literary work in 1888, and in 1895 settled in London. Her books of fiction, which have found greater favor in England than in America, have their background chiefly in the Spanish mission days of California, and include, The Doomswoman (1892): A Whirl Asunder (1895); Patience Sparhawk (1897); The Californians (1898); American Wives and English Husbands (1899); Senator North (1900), whose sensational social ethics were vehemently approved and as vehemently condemned; The Aristocrats (published anonymously, 1901); and The Conqueror (1902).
ATHERTON RES'OLU'TIONS. See Gag Rules.
ATH'LETE, The. A statue representing the typical proportions of the Greek athlete, a copy of the Doryphorus (spear-bearer) of Polycletus. It was found in the so-called Curia Isiaca at Pompeii, and is now at Naples in the Museo Nazionale.
ATHLETICS (from Gk. άθλητὴς, athlētēs, contestant). The term has of late been definitely applied to recognized contests of physical skill and endurance, for pastime and for the development of bodily strength. These are commonly divided into two classes — track and field games, and gymnastic performances. The former include the running or walking of various distances, hurdling, high and broad jumping, pole-vaulting, throwing the hammer and weight, and putting the shot. The latter comprise the use of Indian clubs, dumbbells, parallel and horizontal bars, weight-lifting, rope-climbing, tug of war, and various exercises in vaulting over fixed objects.
Athletic games were brought to a high development among the Greeks, and a class of professional athletes grew up, who began their training when scarcely out of boyhood. They were obliged to submit to a rigorous discipline, including careful avoidance of excesses, a special diet, regular exercise, and the cultivation of courage, self-control, and resourcefulness. There were at all times among the Greeks those who practiced athletic exercises from pure love of sport; but when these ancient amateurs competed in the games, they preferred running, jumping, and javelin-throwing, where natural vigor might take the place of long exercise. In later times the athlete was a huge mass of flesh and muscle, as may be seen in the mosaic from the Baths of Caracalla, or even in the fine realistic bronze statue of a pugilist in Rome, or the brutal head of a boxer from Olympia. Under the Roman Empire we find the professional athletes organized into corporations. (See Games, Ancient.)
Of the Britons before the Roman conquest we know that they were bold, active, and capable of bearing great fatigue. The Romans drafted the strongest of them into military service, and by the introduction of luxurious habits debilitated the weaker ones who were left at home. The later infusion of the new blood of the Teutonic tribes corrected this tendency and brought with it a new love of athletic contests. Wherever a Scandinavian leader has left a tradition at all, it is one relating to his feats of strength and agility. Thus Olaf Tryggeson, an early king of Norway, boasted that he could walk round the outside of his boat upon the oars as the men were rowing; that he could hurl two spears at once, one from either hand, and that he excelled all men in archery and swimming. In the later Saxon Period, such exercises as inured the body to hardship and fatigue constituted the chief part of the education of youth. With the introduction of the Norman influence and the tendencies of the age of chivalry, tournaments, jousts, and other contests of personal skill and prowess were the principal diversion of the upper classes. The sons of citizens and yeomen had their sports as well; they fought with clubs and bucklers and ran at the quintain on every village green, and contended wih poles on the ice in winter, "not always without hurt," as Fitzstephen says, "for some break their arms and some their legs, but youth, emulous of glory, seek these exercises." With the decay of chivalry a great change took place toward the end of the Fifteenth Century, and exercises requiring the exertion of muscular strength went out of fashion to such an extent that the Government thought it necessary to interfere. A proclamation of Henry VII., after reciting that "it ever hath bene of old antiquitie used in this realme for all lustye gentlemen to pass the delectable season of summer after divers manner and sundry fashions of disport," establishes a series of exercises with prizes to be contested for in open competition. His successor, Henry VIII., added example to precept in his younger days, and daily amused himself in casting the bar, wrestling, fencing with swords and battle-axes, throwing the hammer, and similar recreations, in which few could excel him. Such pastimes, with broad jumping and running were, according to the authority of Thomas Wilson in The Arte of Rhetorique (1551), "the necessary accomplishment of a man of fashion." James I.
