ANKYLO'SIS (Gr. ankulosis, bending or crooking; ankule, stiff-joint) is a term used in !surgery to imply a stiffness in any joint. It is usually the result of disease, which, ihaving destroyed the articular cartilages, leaves two bony surfaces opposed to each other. The reparative powers of nature cause a union to take place by means of granulations between them. This bond of union may become osseous, so as to render the joint per fectly rigid, or it may continue membranous, allowing of a certain amount of motion. Some joints, especially the elbow, are very apt to become ankylosed; and in the knee or hip-joints, this osseous A. is reckoned the most favorable termination to disease, as the limb can then afford a rigid support for the trunk. Joints, stiff through a membranous A., may be forcibly bent, and the bond of union ruptured, so as to restore mobility, or allow of their being placed in a convenient position. A. of the joints between the ribs
and the vertebra is common in advanced age; and there are some cases on record of universal A. of all the joints. A. case occurred in 1716 of a child only twenty-three months old with all its joints thus stiffened; and there are in various museums speci mens of adult bodies in this condition.
ANN, or ANNAT, in Scotch law, signifies the half-year's stipend payable for the vacant half-year after the death of a clergyman, to which his family or nearest of kin have right, under an act of the Scottish parliament passed in the year 1672. It is a right that does not belong to the clergyman himself, but to his next of kin absolutely, and therefore can neither be assigned or disposed of by him nor attached for his debts. Compare