approved of by many of the British officers who were compelled
to take part in it. (See SMITH, Sir HENRY GEORGE WAKELYN.)
AMERICUS, a city and the county-seat of Sumter county,
Georgia, U.S.A., about 71 m. S.S.W. of Macon. Pop. (1880)
3635; (1890) 6398; (1900) 7674, of whom 4661 were of negro
descent. It is served by the Central of Georgia and the
Seaboard Air Line railways, and is the seat of the Third
Congressional District Agricultural High School, a branch
of the state university of Georgia. The city is in a rich
sugar-cane and fruit country, is a large cotton and mule and
horse market, and has division shops of the Seaboard Air Line
railway. Among the city's manufactures are cotton-seed oil,
fertilizers, chemicals, iron, carriages and wagons and harness
(especially horse collars). The city owns the waterworks; the
water-supply is obtained from artesian wells. Americus was
settled in 1832, and was first chartered as a city in 1855.
AMERSFOORT, a town in the province of Utrecht, Holland, on
the navigable Eem, and a junction station 14 m. by rail N.E.
by E. of Utrecht. Pop. (1900) 19,089. It is situated in the
midst of picturesque and undulating country, consisting of
wide sandy heaths and woods, and dotted with many fine country
houses. One of the most interesting of its few historic
monuments is the Koppelpoort, an old gateway situated at the end
of a fine avenue of trees bordering the canal. Close by is a
lofty Gothic tower (1500), which belonged to the ancient church
of St Mary, which was wrecked by an explosion of gunpowder in
1787. The large plain church of St George dates from the
first half of the 13th century. There is also a Jansenist
church, to which a seminary is attached. Besides these there
are a town hall, a court of primary jurisdiction, industrial
and other schools. Amersfoort has a large garrison, consisting
chiefly of artillery, and manufactures woollen goods, cotton,
silk, glass and brandy. It has also a considerable trade in
tobacco, grown in the neighbourhood, and in corn and fish.
AMERSHAM, a market town in the Wycombe parliamentary
division of Buckinghamshire, England, 24 m. W.N.W. of
London by the Metropolitan railway. Pop. (1901) 2674. It
is pleasantly situated in the narrow valley of the Misbourne
stream, which is flanked by the well-wooded slopes of the
Chiltern Hills. The church of St Mary is almost entirely
Perpendicular, and has a beautiful south porch, brasses of
the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries and numerous monuments,
several of which, in a chantry, commemorate members of the
family of Drake, lords of the manor. The town hall was
built by Sir William Drake in 1642. At Coleshill, near
Amersham, Edmund Waller the poet was born in 1606; he sat
in parliament for the former borough of Amersham. The town
has flour mills and breweries, and some straw-plaiting and
lace-making are carried on in the vicinity. The district is
one of the most beautiful near London; the village of Chenies,
overlooking the valley of the Chess, is especially picturesque.
Amersham (Elmodesham, Agmondesham, Hagmondesham, Aumundesham,
Homersham) at the time of the Domesday Survey was divided into
no less than six holdings. The manor, or chief of them, was
held by Geoffrey de Mandeville. At the time of Edward the
Confessor it was held by Queen Edith. The manor afterwards
descended to the families of Fitz Piers, Bohun and Stratford,
and was granted by Henry VIII. to Sir John Russell, ancestor
of the earls of Bedford. In 1638 Francis, earl of Bedford,
conveyed it to William Drake, by whose descendants it is still
held. The north chapel in the church of St Michael, Chenies, has
been the burial-place of the Russell family since its erection
in 1556, and contains a number of fine memorials, notably
that of Anne, countess of Bedford (d. 1558), who founded the
chapel. Amersham was formerly a parliamentary borough by
prescription, and returned two members in 1300, 1306, 1307 and
1309. In 1623 this privilege was restored, and was only annulled
by the Reform Bill of 1832. The annual fair, in September, is
held under a charter secured by Geoffrey Fitz Peter, earl of
Essex, in 1200, that on Whit Monday under a charter of 1614,
secured by Edward, earl of Bedford, which transferred the Friday
market, also granted under the earlier charter, to Tuesday.
AMES, FISHER (1758-1808), American statesman, orator
and political writer, son of Nathaniel Ames, a physician,
was born at Dedham, Massachusetts, on the 9th of April
1758. He graduated at Harvard College in 1774, and began
the practice of the law at Dedham in 1781, but eventually
abandoned that profession for the more congenial pursuit of
politics. He was a prominent member of the Massachusetts
convention which (February 1788) ratified for that state the
Federal Constitution, and in the same year, having entered the
lower house in the state legislature, he distinguished himself
greatly by his eloquence and readiness in debate. During
the eight years of Washington's administration (1789-1797)
he was a prominent Federalist member of the national House of
Representatives. On the 28th of April 1796, when the
Republicans, hostile to the Jay Treaty, were on the point
of holding up the appropriation necessary for its execution,
Ames, who had just arisen from a sick-bed, made what has
been considered the greatest speech of his life; before the
delivery of his speech his opponents had claimed a majority
of six, but the appropriation was finally passed, in the
committee of the whole, by the casting vote of the chairman.
When Washington retired from the presidency, Congress voted
him an address and chose Ames to deliver it. In 1797 he
returned to Dedham to resume the practice of the law, which
the state of his health after a few years obliged him to
relinquish. He published numerous essays, chiefly in relation
to the contest between Great Britain and revolutionary France,
as it might affect the liberty and prosperity of America. Ames
was one of the group of New England ultra-Federalists known as
the "Essex Junto," who opposed the French policy of President
John Adams in 1798, and were conspicuous for their British
sympathies. Four years before his death he was chosen president
of Harvard College, an honour which his broken state of health
obliged him to decline. He died on the 4th of July 1808.
His writings and speeches, which abound in sparkling
passages, displaying great fertility of imagination, were
collected and published, with a memoir of the author, in
1809, by the Rev. Dr J. T. Kirkland, in one large octavo
volume. A more complete edition in two volumes was
published by his son, Seth Ames, at Boston, Mass., in 1854.
AMES, JOSEPH (1689-1759), English author, was born at Yarmouth
on the 23rd of January 1689. He wrote an account of printing
in England from 1471 to 1600, Typographical Antiquities
(1749). Ames sent out circular letters with a list of two
hundred and fifteen English printers with whose works he
intended to deal, asking for any available information.
He earned the gratitude of subsequent bibliographers by
disregarding printed lists and consulting the title- pages
of the books themselves. An interleaved copy of the work
with many notes in the author's hand is now in the British
Museum. Editions of his works were published with added
information by William Herbert (3 vols., 1785-1790), and T. F.
Dibdin (4 vols., 1810-1819). Ames's occupation is variously
given. It is uncertain whether he was a ship-chandler, a
patten-maker, a plane-iron maker or an ironmonger; but
he led a prosperous life at Wapping, and amassed valuable
collections of antiquities. He died on the 7th of October
1759. His other works are catalogues of English printers,
of the collection of coins which belonged to the earl of
Pembroke, of some two thousand English portraits, and
Parentalia (1750), a memoir of the Wrens, undertaken in
conjunction with Sir Christopher Wren's grandson, Stephen
Wren. Part of his correspondence in bibliography is
included in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes and Illustrations.
AMES, OAKES (1804-1873), American manufacturer, capitalist
and politician, was born in Easton, Massachusetts, on the 10th
of January 1804. As a manufacturer of shovels, in association
with his father and his brother Oliver (1807-1877), he
amassed a large fortune. In 1860 he became a member of the
executive council of Massachusetts, and from 1863 to 1873 was
a republican member of the national House of Representatives.
As a member of the committee on railroads he became interested
in the project, greatly aided by the government, to build a
trans-continental railway, connecting the eastern states with
California. Others having failed, he was induced in 1865 to
assume the direction of the work, and to him more than to any
other one man the credit for the construction of the Union
Pacific railway was due. The execution was effected largely
through a construction company, the Credit Mobilier Company of
America. In disposing of some of the stock of this company,
Ames in 1867-1871 sold a number of shares to members of Congress
at a price much below what these shares eventually proved to be
worth. This, on becoming known, gave rise in 1872-1873 to
a great congressional scandal. After an investigation by a
committee of the House, which recommended the expulsion of
Ames, a resolution was passed on the 28th of February 1873,
"that the House absolutely condemns the conduct of Oakes
Ames...in seeking to secure congressional attention to the
affairs of a corporation in which he was interested, and
whose interest directly depended upon the legislation of
Congress, by inducing members of Congress to invest in the
stocks of said corporation." Many have since attributed this
resolution to partisanship, and the influence of popular
clamour, and in 1883 the legislature of Massachusetts
passed a resolution vindicating Ames. He died at North
Easton, Mass., on the 8th of May 1873. His son, OLIVER
AMES (1831-1895), was lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts
from 1883 until 1887, and governor from 1887 to 1890.
See CREDIT MOBILIER OF AMERICA and the references
there given. For a defence of Oakes Ames, see Oakes
Ames, A Memorial Volume (Cambridge, Mass., 1884).
AMES, WILLIAM (1576-1633), English Puritan divine, better
known, especially in Europe, as Amesius, was born of
an ancient family at Ipswich, Suffolk, in 1576, and was
educated at the local grammar school and at Christ's College,
Cambridge, where, as throughout his life, he was an omnivorous
student. He was considerably influenced by his tutor, the
celebrated William Perkins, and by his successor, a man of
kindred intellect and fervour, Paul Bayne. He graduated
B.A. and M.A. in due course, and was chosen to a fellowship
in Christ's College. He was universally beloved in the
university. His own college (Christ's) would have chosen
him for the mastership; but a party opposition led to the
election of Valentine Cary, who had already quarrelled with
Ames for disapproving of the surplice and other outward
symbols. One of Ames's sermons became historical in the Puritan
controversies. It was delivered on St Thomas's day (1609)
before the feast of Christ's nativity, and in it he rebuked
sharply "lusory lotts" and the "heathenish debauchery" of the
students during the twelve days ensuing. The scathing vehemence
of his denunciations led to his being summoned before the
vice-chancellor, who suspended him "from the exercise of his
ecclesiastical function and from all degrees taken or to be
taken." After Cary's election he left the university and would
have accepted the great church of Colchester, but the bishop
of London refused to grant institution and induction. Like
persecution awaited him elsewhere, and at last he passed over
to Holland, being aided by certain wealthy English merchants
who wished him to controvert the supporters of the English
church in Leiden. At Rotterdam, clad in the fisherman's habit
donned for the passage, he opposed Grevinchovius (Nicholas
Grevinckhoven, d. 1632), minister of the Arminian or Remonstrant
church, and overwhelmed him with his logical reasoning from
Phil. ii. 13, "It is God that worketh in us both to will
and to do." The fisherman-controversialist made a great
stir, and from that day became known and honoured in the Low
Countries. Subsequently Ames entered into a controversy
in print with Grevinchovius on universal redemption and
election, and cognate problems. He brought together all he
had maintained in his Coronis ad Collationem Hagiensem--his
most masterful book, which figures largely in Dutch church
history. At Leiden, Ames became intimate with the venerable
Mr Goodyear, pastor of the English church there. While thus
resident in comparative privacy he was sent for to the Hague
by Sir Horatio Vere, the English governor of Brill, who
appointed him a minister in the army of the states-general,
and of the English soldiers in their service, a post held by
some of the greatest of England's exiled Puritans. He married
a daughter of Dr Burgess, who was Vere's chaplain, and, on
his father-in-law's return to England, succeeded to his place.
It was at this time he began his memorable controversy with
Episcopius, who, in attacking the Coronis, railed against
the author as having been "a disturber of the public peace
in his native country, so that the English magistrates had
banished him thence; and now, by his late printed Coronis,
he was raising new disturbances in the peaceable Netherlands."
It was a miserable libel and was at once rebutted by
Goodyear. The Coronis had been primarily prepared for
the synod of Dort, which sat from November 1618 until May
1619. At this celebrated synod the position of Ames was a
peculiar one. The High Church party in England had induced
Vere to dismiss him from the chaplaincy; but he was still
held, deservedly, in such reverence, that it was arranged
he should attend the synod, and accordingly he was retained
by the Calvinist party at four florins a day to watch the
proceedings on their behalf and advise them when necessary.
A proposal to make him principal of a theological college
at Leiden was frustrated by Archbishop Abbot; and when
later invited by the state of Friesland to a professoriate
at Franeker, the opposition was renewed, but this time
abortively. He was installed at Franeker on the 7th of May
1622, and delivered a most learned discourse on the occasion
on "Urim and Thummin." He soon brought renown to Franeker
as professor, preacher, pastor and theological writer. He
prepared his Medulla Theologiae, a manual of Calvinistic
doctrine, for his students. His De Conscientia, ejus Jure
et Casibus (1632), an attempt to bring Christian ethics
into clear relation with particular cases of conduct and
of conscience, was a new thing in Protestantism. Having
continued twelve years at Franeker (where he was rector in
1626), his health gave way, and he contemplated removal
to New England. But another door was opened for him. He
yearned for more frequent opportunities of preaching to his
fellow-countrymen, and an invitation to Rotterdam gave him such
opportunity. His friends at Franeker were passionately
opposed to the transference, but ultimately acquiesced.
At Rotterdam he drew all hearts to him by his eloquence and
fervour in the pulpit, and his irrepressible activity as a
pastor. Home-controversy engaged him again, and he prepared
his Fresh Suit against Ceremonies--the book which made Richard
Baxter a Nonconformist. It ably sums up the issues between
the Puritan school and that of Hooker. It was posthumously
published. He did not long survive his removal to Rotterdam.
Having caught a cold from a flood which inundated his house,
he died in November 1633, at the age of fifty-seven, apparently
in needy circumstances. He left, by a second wife, a son and a
daughter. His valuable library found a home in New England.
Few Englishmen have exercised so formative and controlling an
influence on European thought and opinion as Ames. He was a
master in theological controversy, shunning not to cross swords
with the formidable Bellarmine. He was a scholar among scholars,
being furnished with extraordinary resources of learning. His
works, which even the Biographia Britannica (1778) testifies
were famous over Europe, were collected at Amsterdam in 5 vols.
4to. Only a very small proportion was translated into his mother
tongue. His Lectiones in omnes Psalmos Davidis (1635) is
exceedingly suggestive and terse in its style, reminding of
Bengel's Gnomon, as does also his Commentarius utriusque
Epist. S. Petri. His "Replies" to Bishop Morton and Dr
Burgess on "Ceremonies" tell us that even kinship could
not prevent him from "contending earnestly for the faith."
See John Quick's MS. Icones Sacrae Anglicanae, which gives
the fisherman anecdote on the personal authority of one
who was present; Life by Nethenus prefixed to collected
edition of Latin works (5 vols., Amsterdam, 1658); Winwood's
Memorials, vol. iii. pp. 346- 347; Heal's Puritans, i.
532; Fuller's Cambridge (Christ's College); Hanbury's
Hist. Memorials, i. 533; Collections of the Massachusetts
Historical Society, vol. vi., fourth series, 1863, pp. 576-577.
AMES, a city of Story county, Iowa, U.S.A., about 35 m. N.
of Des Moines, at the intersection of two lines of the Chicago
& North- Western railway. Pop. (1890) 1276; (1900) 2422; (1905,
state census) 4223. The city is the seat of the state college
of agriculture and mechanic arts; this institution, opened in
1869, has for its use about 1175 acres of land, on which the
state has erected, at a cost of $1,200,000, thirty-two college
buildings, besides dwelling-houses and buildings for farm
purposes. On the college campus are beautiful groves containing
several hundred varieties of trees, and in a central position
stands a campanile with excellent chimes. The college offers
four-year courses in agronomy, animal husbandry, dairying,
domestic economy, general science, veterinary medicine, and
civil, mechanical, electrical and mining engineering. In
1909-1910 it had an enrollment of 2631 students (including
796 in the winter short course) and a library Of 23,000
volumes. The cost of instruction and experimentation is met
by the income from national grants (under the Morrill Acts of
1862 and 1882) and by state appropriations. Ames has a Carnegie
library, and owns and operates its electric-lighting plant and
waterworks. It was laid out as a town in 1864 and was named
in honour of Oakes Ames, at the time one of the proprietors
of the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River railway (now part of the
Chicago & North- Western); five years later it was incorporated.
AMESBURY, a small town in the Wilton parliamentary division
of Wiltshire, England, 8 m. N. of Salisbury, on the London
& South- Western railway. Pop. (1901) 1143. It stands on
a wooded upland, amid the chalk downs of Salisbury Plain.
The church of St Mary is cruciform, with a low square tower,
and is largely Early English, with some richly decorated
windows in the chancel. A curious two-storeyed building
which adjoins the north transept consists of a chapel with
a piscina below and a priest's chamber above. Amesbury
Abbey, a beautiful house built by Inigo Jones for the dukes of
Queensberry, stands close to the village, in a park watered
by the river Avon, here famous for its trout. Stonehenge
(q.v.), the greatest surviving megalithic work in the
British Isles, is a mile and a half distant; and on a hill
near the village is Vespasian's Camp or the Ramparts, a large
earthwork, which is undoubtedly of British, not Roman, origin.
At Amesbury (Ambresberia, Aumbresbery) a witenagemot was held in
932, while about 980 AElfthryth (Ethelfrida), queen-dowager of
Edgar, erected here a nunnery in expiation of the murder of her
stepson. The house afterwards acquired such ill repute that
in 1177 the nuns were dispersed and the house was attached
to the abbey of Fontevrault, by whom it was re-established.
From this date, by a succession of royal charters and private
gifts, the nunnery amassed vast wealth and privileges, and
became a fashionable retreat for ladies of high rank, among
whose number were Eleanor, widow of Henry III., and Mary,
daughter of Edward I. After the dissolution in 1540 the site
was granted to Edward, earl of Hertford, afterwards duke
of Somerset and protector of the kingdom. It subsequently
passed to the duke of Queensberry. According to the Domesday,
Amesbury was a royal manor and did not pay geld, but was under
the obligation of providing one night's entertainment for the
king. In 1317 the prioress obtained a Saturday market and
a three days' fair at the feast of St Melor (Meliorus). The
market was subsequently changed to Friday, and three additional
fairs were granted. Pipeclay abounds in the neighbourhood,
and in the 17th century Amesbury was famous for the best pipes
in England, many of which are preserved in Salisbury museum.
See Victoria County History--Wiltshire; Sir Richard
Colt Hoare, History of Modern Wiltshire (1822-1844).
AMESBURY, a township of Essex county, in N.E. Massachusetts,
U.S.A., situated on the Merrimac river, about 6 m. above its
mouth. Pop. (1890) 9798; (1900) 9473, of whom 2448 were
foreign-born; (1905, state census), 8840. Amesbury is served
by two divisions of the Boston & Maine railway, and is connected
by electric line with Haverhill and Newburyport, Mass., and with
Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, and Salisbury Beach, Mass., two
summer resorts. The township covers a land area of about 13 sq.
m. The surface is hilly. The Powow river, a small stream,
passes through the centre of the township. There is a public
library. Among Amesbury's manufactures are hats, cotton
goods, carriages, automobile bodies, carriage and automobile
lamps, thermometers, brass castings and motor boats. In 1905
the factory products were valued at $3,614,692. Amesbury was
settled about 1644 as a separate part of Salisbury, and in
1654, by mutual agreement of the old and new "towns," became
practically independent, although not legally a township until
1666 (named Amesbury, from the English town in Wilts, in 1667).
It suffered repeatedly in the course of the colonial Indian
wars. Quakers settled here as early as 1701. Josiah Bartlett
(1729-1795), a signer of the Declaration of Independence,
was born here, and is commemorated by a statue (1888) by Karl
Gerhardt. Shipbuilding was an important industry in the 18th
and especially the first quarter of the 19th century, and
the U.S. frigate "Alliance" was built at Salisburypoint in
1778. A nail factory, one of the earliest in the country,
was built on the Powow in 1796. The manufacture of iron
began about 1710, of hats in 1769, of carriages in 1800 and
of cotton goods in 1812. Paul Moody, who with F. C. Lowell
constructed in 1814 at Waltham the first successful power-loom
in America, was engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods in
Amesbury. The township was the home of John G. Whittier
from 1836 to 1892; here were written most of the poems
of his middle and later life, many of which describe the
surrounding country. In 1876 Merrimac township was created
out of the territory of Amesbury; in 1886 the west part
of the old township of Salisbury was united to Amesbury.
See Joseph Merrill, History of Amesbury (Haverhill, 1880); S. T. Pickard,
Whittier-land, A Handbook of North Essex (Boston, New York, 1904).
AMETHYST, a violet or purple variety of quartz used as an ornamental
stone. The name is generally said to be derived from the Gr.
a, "not," and methbskein, "to intoxicate," expressing the old
belief that the stone protected its owner from strong drink.
It was held that wine drunk out of a cup of amethyst would not
intoxicate. According, however, to the Rev. C. W. King, the word
may probably be a corruption of an Eastern name for the stone.
The colour of amethyst is usually attributed to the presence
of manganese, but as it is capable of being much altered
and even discharged by heat it has been referred by some
authorities to an organic source. Ferric thiocyanate has been
suggested, and sulphur is said to have been detected in the
mineral. On exposure to heat, amethyst generally becomes
yellow, and much of the cairngorm or yellow quartz of jewellery
is said to be merely "burnt amethyst." Veins of amethystine
quartz are apt to lose their colour on the exposed outcrop.
Amethyst is composed of an irregular superposition of alternate
lamellae of right-handed and left-handed quartz. (See QUARTZ.)
It has been shown by Prof. J. W. Judd that this structure may
be due to mechanical stresses. In consequence of this composite
formation, amethyst is apt to break with a rippled fracture, or
to show "thumb markings," and the intersection of two sets of
curved ripples may produce on the fractured surface a pattern
something like that of "engine turning." Some mineralogists,
following Sir D. Brewster, apply the name of amethyst to all
quartz which exhibits this structure, regardless of its colour.
The amethyst was used as a gem-stone by the ancient Egyptians,
and was largely employed in antiquity for intaglios. Beads
of amethyst are found in Anglo-Saxon graves in England.
Amethyst is a very widely distributed mineral, but fine clear
specimens fit for cutting as ornamental stones are confined
to comparatively few localities. Such crystals occur either
in cavities in mineral-veins and in granitic rocks, or as a
lining in agate geodes. A huge geode, or "amethyst- grotto,"
from near Santa Cruz in southern Brazil, was exhibited at the
Dusseldorf Exhibition of 1902. Many of the hollow agates of
Brazil and Uruguay contain a crop of amethyst-crystals in the
interior. Much fine amethyst comes from Russia, especially from
near Mursinka in the Ekaterinburg district, where it occurs in
drusy cavities in granitic rocks. Many localities in India yield
amethyst; and it is found also in Ceylon, chiefly as pebbles.
Purple corundum, or sapphire of amethystine tint, is called
(Oriental amethyst, but this expression is often applied
by jewellers to fine examples of the ordinary amethystine
quartz, even when not derived from Eastern sources.
Amethyst occurs at many localities in the United States, but
rarely fine enough for use in jewellery. Among these may be
mentioned Amethyst Mountain, Texas; Yellowstone National Park;
Delaware Co., Pennsylvania; Haywood Co., North Carolina; Deer
Hill, and Stow, Maine. It is found also in the Lake Superior
district. See G. F. Kunz, Gems &c. of North America (1890),and
Report for 12th Census (vol. "Mines and Quarries"). (F. W. R.*)
AMHARA, the central province of Abyssinia. The chief town,
Gondar (q.v.), by which name the province is also known, was
the residence of the negus negusti, or emperor, of Abyssinia
from the middle ages up to 1854. The speech of the inhabitants,
Amharic, which differs in several features from the dialects
spoken in Tigre and Shoa, is the official language of Abyssinia.
AMHERST, JEFFREY AMHERST, BARON (1717-1797), British
soldier, was the son of Jeffrey Amherst of Riverhead, Kent,
and by the interest of the duke of Dorset obtained an ensigncy
in the Guards in 1731. He served in Germany and the Low
Countries as aide-de-camp to General (Lord) Ligonier, and
was present at Dettingen, Fontenoy and Roucoux. He then
served on Cumberland's staff, and took part with the duke
in the later campaigns of the Austrian Succession war, in
the battle of Val, and the North German campaign of 1757,
including the battle of Hastenbeck. A year previously he had
been promoted to a lieutenant- colonelcy. In 1758 William
Pitt caused Amherst to be made a major- general, and gave
him command of an expedition to attack the French in North
America. For the great plan of conquering Canada, Pitt chose
young and ardent officers, with Amherst, distinguished for
steadiness and self-control, as their commander-in-chief.
The first victory of the expedition, the capture of Louisburg
(July 26, 1758), was soon followed by other successes, and
Amherst was given the chief command of all the forces in
the theatre of war. In the campaign of 1759 Amherst's own
share was the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, while
Fort Niagara fell to another column, and Quebec was taken by
Wolfe. In 1760 a concentric march on Montreal was carried
out with complete success, Amherst was immediately appointed
governor-general of British North America, and in the following
year was made a K.B. His conduct of the operations against
the Indians under Pontiac was, however, far from being as
successful as his generalship against regular troops; and he
returned to England in 1763, being made governor of Virginia
and colonel of the 60th regiment in the same year. In 1768
the king, who had had a quarrel with Amherst, made amends by
giving him another colonelcy; in 1770 he was made governor of
Guernsey; and two years later, though not yet a full general,
he was made lieutenant-general of the ordnance and acting
commander-in- chief of the forces. In this capacity he was
the chief adviser at headquarters during the American War of
Independence. He was created a peer in 1776, was promoted
general in 1778 and became colonel of the 2nd Horse Grenadiers
(2nd Life Guards) two years later. He aided in suppressing
the Gordon riots of 1780. The rest of his active life, with
a short interval in 1782-1783, he spent at the Horse Guards
as commander-in-chief, but he was no longer capable of good
service, and in 1795 he was succeeded by the duke of York.
In 1796 Lord Amherst was made field-marshal; and he died on
the 3rd of August 1797 at "Montreal," his residence in Kent.
AMHERST, WILLIAM PITT AMHERST, EARL (1773-1857),
governor- general of India, was the nephew of Jeffrey,
Baron Amherst, and succeeded to his title in 1797 by the
remainder provided when the patent of nobility was renewed in
1788. In 1816 he was sent as ambassador extraordinary
to the court of China, with a view of establishing more
satisfactory commercial relations between that country and Great
Britain. On arriving in the Peiho he was given to understand
that he could only be admitted to the emperor's presence on
condition of performing the ko-tou (kow-tow), a ceremony
which Western nations consider degrading, and which is,
indeed, a homage exacted by a Chinese sovereign from his
tributaries. To this Lord Amherst, following the advice
of Sir George T. Staunton, who accompanied him as second
commissioner, refused to consent, as Lord Macartney had done
in 1793, unless the admission was made that his sovereign was
entitled to the same show of reverence from a mandarin of his
rank. In consequence of this he was not allowed to enter
Pekin, and the object of his mission was frustrated. His ship,
the "Alceste," after a cruise along the coast of Korea and
to the Loo-Choo Islands, on proceeding homewards was totally
wrecked on a sunken rock in Gaspar Strait. Lord Amherst and
part of his shipwrecked companions escaped in the ship's boats
to Batavia, whence relief was sent to the rest. The ship
in which he returned to England in 1817 having touched at St
Helena, he had several interviews with the emperor Napoleon
(see Ellis's Proceedings of the Late Embassy to China,
1817; M'Leod's Narrative of a Voyage in H.M.S. "Alceste,"
1817). Lord Amherst held the office of governor-general of
India from August 1823 to February 1828. The principal event
of his government was the first Burmese war of 1824, resulting
in the cession of Arakan and Tenasserim to Great Britain. He
was created Earl Amherst of Arakan in 1826. On his return to
England he lived in retirement till his death in March 1857.
See A. Thackeray and R. Evans, Lord
Amherst ("Rulers of India" series), 1894.
AMHERST, a town and district in the Tenasserim division
of Lower Burma. The town is situated about 30 m. S. of
Moulmein. It was founded by the British in 1826 on the
restoration of the town of Martaban to the Burmese, and
named in compliment to the governor- general of India of
that day; but in 1827 the headquarters were transferred to
Moulmein. Amherst has been eclipsed in prosperity by the
latter city, and is now merely a bathing-place for Moulmein.
The district forms a narrow strip of land between the
Indian Ocean and the mountains which separate it from the
independent kingdom of Siam. It has an area of 7062 sq. m.
and had a population in 1901 of 300,173; it consists partly
of fertile valleys formed by spurs of mountain system which
divides it from Siam, and partly of a rich alluvial tract
created by the great rivers which issue from them. The most
important of these are the Salween and the Gyaing, formed by
the junction of the Hlaingbwe and Haungtharaw rivers. The
river highways bring down inexhaustible supplies of rice to
Moulmein, the chief town of the district, as also of the
province of Tenasserim. The district is subject to very heavy
rainfall approaching 150 in. in the year, and has a uniform
temperature of about 80 deg. F. throughout the twelvemonth.
AMHERST, a village of Amherst township, Hampshire county,
Massachusetts, U.S.A., in the central part of the state, about 7
m. N.E. of Northampton. Pop. of the township (1890) 4512;
(1900) 5028; (1905, state census) 5313. It is served by the
Boston & Maine and the Central Vermont railways, and by interurban
electric railways to Northampton, Holyoke, Sunderland and
Pelham. The village is picturesquely situated on a plateau
within a rampart of hills on the E. side of the Connecticut river
valley. About 3 m. to the S. are the Holyoke Mountains (so
called), while on the three remaining sides the land slopes to
meadows, beyond which rise on the W. the Hampshire and Berkshire
Hills, on the E. the Sugar Loaf Mountains and Mt. Toby, and
on the E. the Pelham Hills, including Mt Lincoln (1246 ft.).
Two small rivers (Mill and Fort) flow through the township.
Amherst is a quiet, pleasing, academic village of attractive
homes. It is noteworthy as the seat of Amherst College,
one of the best known of the smaller colleges of the United
States. Amherst Academy (opened about 1814, chartered 1816),
a co-educational school at which Mary Lyon, the founder of
Mt. Holyoke College, was educated, preceded the college (not
co-educational), which was opened in 1821 and was chartered in
1825. It was originally a collegiate charitable institution,
its basis being a fund for the schooling of ministers, and the
charity element has remained very large relatively to other
colleges. The principal college buildings are College
Hall (1828); College Chapel (1828); the Henry T. Morgan
Library; Williston Hall, containing the Mather Art Museum,
the rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association, and
several lecture-rooms; Walker Hall, with college offices and
lecture-rooms; Hitchcock Hall; Barrett Hall (1859), the first
college gymnasium built in the United States, now used as
a lecture hall; the Pratt Gymnasium and Natatorium and the
Pratt Health Cottage, whose donors also gave to the college
the Pratt Field; an astronomical observatory; and the two
dormitories, North College and South College, supplemented by
several fraternity houses. The natural history collections
(including the very large ichnological collection of President
Hitchcock, and Audubon's collection of birds) are of exceptional
richness. At Amherst is also the Massachusetts Agricultural
College (co-educational; 1867) and experiment station (1887).
Among the presidents of Amherst College have been in 1845-
1854 and in 1876-1890 respectively--Edward Hitchcock, the
famous geologist, and the Rev. Julius H. Seelye (1824-1895),
a well-known educationalist. The township seems to have
been first settled in 1731; it was incorporated in 1759 as a
"district" (i.e. having all the rights of a township save
corporate representation in the legislature) and in 1776 as
a "town" (township). It was originally part of Hadley. Its
name was given to it in honour of General Jeffrey Amherst
(1717-1797). During the Shays' Rebellion Amherst was a centre
of disaffection and a rallying-point of the insurgents.
Noah Webster lived in the village from 1812 to 1822, when
working on his Dictionary; and Emily Dickinson and Helen
M. Fiske (later Helen Hunt- Jackson, "H. H.") were born here.
See William Seymour Tyler, A History of Amherst
College (New York, 1896), and Carpenter and Morehouse,
The History of the Town of Amherst (New York, 1896).
AMHERST, the county town of Cumberland county, and
port of entry in Novia Scotia, Canada, at the head of
Chignecto Bay and on the Intercolonial railway, 138 m. from
Halifax. Pop. (1901) 4964. It is situated in a rich
agricultural and mining district, and contains county and
railway buildings and numerous mills and factories. It is
the distributing centre for the surrounding district, and
exports railway carriages, engines, boilers, stoves, &c.
AMHURST, NICHOLAS (1697-1742), English poet and political
writer, was born at Marden, Kent, on the 16th of October
1697. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, and
received an exhibition (1716) to St John's College, Oxford.
In 1719 he was expelled from the university, ostensibly for
his irregularities of conduct, but in reality, according to
his own account, because of his whig principles, which were
sufficiently evident in a congratulatory epistle to Addison,
in Protestant Popery; or the Convocation (1718), an attack
on the opponents of Bishop Hoadly, and in The Protestant
Session ... by a member of the Constitution Club at Oxford
(1719), addressed to James, first Earl Stanhope, and printed
anonymously, but doubtless by Amhurst. He had satirized Oxford
morals in Strephon's Revenge; a Satire on the Oxford Toasts
(1718), and he attacked from time to time the administration
of the university and its principal members. An old Oxford
custom on public occasions permitted some person to deliver from
the rostrum a humorous, satirical speech, full of university
scandal. This orator was known as Terrae filius. In 1721
Amhurst produced a series of bi-weekly satirical papers under
this name, which ran for seven months and incidentally provides
much curious information. These publications were reprinted
in 1726 in two volumes as Terrae Filius; or the secret
history of the University of Oxford; in several essays....
He collected his poems in 1720, and wrote another university
satire, Oculus Britanniae, in 1724. On leaving Oxford for
London he became a prominent pamphleteer on the opposition
side. On the 5th of December 1726 he issued the first number
of the Craftsman, a weekly periodical, which he conducted
under the pseudonym of Caleb D'Anvers. The paper contributed
largely to the final overthrow of Sir Robert Walpole's
government, and reached a circulation of 10,000 copies. For
this success Amhurst's editorship was not perhaps chiefly
responsible. It was the organ of Lord Bolingbroke and William
Pulteney, the latter of whom was a frequent and caustic
contributor. In 1737 an imaginary letter from Colley Cibber
was inserted, in which he was made to suggest that many plays
by Shakespeare and the older dramatists contained passages
which might be regarded as seditious. He therefore desired
to be appointed censor of all plays brought on the stage.
This was regarded as a "suspected" libel, and a warrant was
issued for the arrest of the printer. Amhurst surrendered
himself instead, and suffered a short imprisonment. On the
overthrow of the government in 1742 the opposition leaders
did nothing for the useful editor of the Craftsman, and
this neglect is said to have hastened Amhurst's death,
which took place at Twickenham on the 27th of April 1742.
AMIANTHUS, a corruption of amiantus (Gr. amiautos, undefiled),
a name applied to the finer kinds of asbestos (q.v.), in
consequence, it is said, of the mineral being unaffected by
fire. Some of the finest amianthus, with long silky
flexible fibres, occurs in the district of the Tarentaise
in Savoy. According to Dr J. W. Evans, the ancient
amianthus, derived mostly from Karystos in Euboea and from
Cyprus, was probably a fibrous serpentine, or chrysotile
(now called locally pampakopetrai or cotton-stone).
See Mineralogical Mag. (London) vol.
xiv. no. 65 (1906), art. by J. W. Evans.
AMICABLE NUMBERS, two numbers so related that the sum of
the factors of the one is equal to the other, unity being
considered as a factor. Such a pair are 220 and 284; for
the factors of 220 are 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 20, 22, 44, 55 and
110, of which the sum is 284; and the factors of 284 are 1,
2, 4, 71, and 142, of which the sum is 220. Amicable numbers
were known to the Pythagoreans, who accredited them with
many mystical properties. A general formula by which these
numbers could be derived was invented by the Arabian astronomer
Tobit ben Korra (836-901): if p=3.2m-1, q=3.2m-1-1 and
r=9.22m-1-1, where m is an integer and p,q,r prime
numbers, then 2m pq and 2m r are a pair of amicable
numbers. This formula gives the pairs 220 and 284, 17,296
and 18,416, 9,463,584 and 9,437,056. The pair 6232 and
6368 are amicable, but they cannot be derived from this
formula. Amicable numbers have been studied by Al Madshritti
(d. 1007), Rene Descartes, to whom the formula of Tobit
ben Korra is sometimes ascribed, C. Rudolphus and others.
AMICE (earlier forms: amyt, amys, O. Fr. amit, Lat.
amictus, from amicire, to throw or wrap round, the change
of t to s being probably due to an early confusion with
the aumuce: see ALMUCE), a liturgical vestment of the
Western Church. It is a rectangular piece of cloth which
is wrapped round the neck, shoulders and breast. Sometimes,
more particularly in Germany, it is called the humerale
(from humerus, shoulder). According to modern Roman
use, laid down by the decree of the Congregation of Rites in
1819, the amice must be of linen or of a hempen material,
not wool; and, as directed by the new Roman Missal (1570),
a small cross must be sewn or embroidered in the middle of
it. In putting it on it is first laid on the head, then
allowed to fall on the shoulders, and finally folded round
the chest and tied with the strings attached for that purpose
(see fig. 1). The amice is now worn under the alb, except at
Milan and Lyons, where it is put on over it. The vestment
was at first a perfectly plain white cloth, but in the 12th
century the custom arose of decorating the upper border with
a band of embroidery, the parure (parura) or "apparel."
This was abandoned at Rome about the end of the 15th century
and is not prescribed in the Missal; it survived, however,
in many parts of Europe till much later. This apparel, when
the vestment has been adjusted, forms a sort of stiff collar
which appears above the chasuble or dalmatic (see fig. 2). In
some exceptional cases, as at Milan, it has become detached
from the amice and is fixed like a collar to the chasuble.
The Latin word amictus was applied to any wrap-like
garment, and, according to Father Braun, the liturgical amice
originated in the ordinary neck-cloth worn by all classes of
Romans. It had at the outset no liturgical significance
whatever, and was simply adopted by the clergy for the same
reason that the clergy of the 18th century wore wigs--because
it was part of the full dress of ordinary life. The first
record of its ecclesiastical use is at Rome in the 8th
century, when it was worn only with the dalmatic and was
known as the anabolagium (anagolaium, anagolagium, from
Gr. anabolaion), a name it continued to bear at Rome till
the 13th century. In the 9th century it spread to the other
countries that adopted the Roman use: it is mentioned in an
inventory of vestments given by Abbot Angilbert (d. 814) to
the monastery at Centula (St Riguier) and in the de clericorum
institutione of Hrabanus Maurus (c. 820). The amice was
worn first simply as a shoulder-cloth, but at the end of the
9th century the custom grew up of putting it on over the head
and of wearing it as a hood, either while the other vestments
were being put on or, according to the various uses of local
churches, during part of the Mass, though never during the
canon. This ceased at Rome at the same time as the apparel
disappeared; but two relics of it survive--(1) in the directions
of the Missal for putting on the amice, (2) in the ordination
of subdeacons, when the bishop lays the vestment on the
ordinand's head with the words, "Take the amice, which symbolizes
discipline over the tongue, &c." The priest too in putting
it on prays, "Place on my head the helmet of salvation, &c."
The amice, whatever its origin or symbolism, became specifically
a vestment associated with the sacrifice of the Mass, and as
such it was rejected with the other "Mass vestments" in England
at the Reformation. Its use has, however, been revived in
many Anglican churches, the favourite form being the medieval
apparelled amice. (See VESTMENTS.) A vestment akin to the
amice is also worn in the Armenian and some other oriental
churches, but it is unknown to the Orthodox Eastern Church.
Akin to the amice is a vestment peculiar to the popes, the
fanone (Med. Lat. fano, "cloth," Goth. fana, "cloth,"
Mod. Ger. Fahne, "a flag"), also called the orale (from
ora, an edge, border). This is at present a circular
broad collar of two thicknesses of silk, ornamented with gold
stripes and a gold- embroidered cross (see fig. 3). It is put
on after the alb, &c., and under the tunicle, dalmatic and
chasuble, but then drawn up so as to fall over the latter like a
collar. The fanone was originally a cloth like the amice and
was wrapped round neck and shoulders; until the 15th century,
moreover, it was not worn with the amice. Since then, however,
both vestments have been worn, one under, the other over, the
alb. It is worn by the popes only on certain special days or
occasions, and forms part of the vestments in which they are buried.
See Joseph Braun, S. J., Die liturgische Gewandung, pp. 21-56 (Freiburg
im Breisgau, 1907), and bibliography to the article VESTMENTS.
AMICI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1786-1863), Italian astronomer and
microscopist, was born on the 25th of March 1786 at Modena.
After studying at Bologna, he became professor of mathematics at
Modena, and in 1831 was appointed inspector-general of studies
in the duchy. A few years later he was chosen director of the
observatory at Florence, where he also lectured at the museum
of natural history. He died at Florence on the 10th of April
1863. His name is best known for the improvements he effected
in the mirrors of reflecting telescopes and especially in the
construction of the microscope. He was also a diligent and
skilful observer, and busied himself not only with astronomical
subjects, such as the double stars, the satellites of Jupiter
and the measurement of the polar and equatorial diameters of the
sun, but also with biological studies of the circulation of
the sap in plants, the fructification of plants, infusoria, &c.
AMICIS, EDMONDO DE (1846-1908), Italian writer, was born at
Oneglia, in Liguria, on the 21st of October 1846. After some
schooling at Cuneo and Turin, he was sent to the Military
School at Modena, from which he was appointed to a lieutenancy
in the 3rd regiment of the line in 1865. He fought at the
battle of Custozza in 1866. In 1867 he became director of
the Italia Militare, Florence. In the following year
he published his first book, La Vita Militare, which
consisted of sketches of military life, and attained wide
popularity. After the overthrow of the pope's temporal power
in 1870, De Amicis retired from the army and devoted himself
to literature, making his headquarters at Turin. Always a
traveller by inclination, he found opportunity for this in
his new leisure, and some of his most popular books have been
the product of his wanderings. Several of these have been
translated into English and the other principal languages of
Europe. The most important of these are his descriptions of
Spain (1873), Holland (1874), Constantinople (1877) and Morocco
(1879). These gained him a well- deserved reputation as a
brilliant depicter of scenery and the external aspects of life;
solid information is not within their sphere; and much of their
success is owing to the opportunities they afford for spirited
illustration. Subsequently De Amicis greatly extended his
fame as a writer of fiction, especially by Il Romanzo d' un
Maestro, and the widely read Il Cuore (translated into
English as An Italian Schoolboy's Journal); later volumes
from his pen being La Carozza di tutti (centring round an
electric tram), Memorie, Speranze e glorie, Ricordi d'
infanzia e di scuola, L' Idioma gentile, and a volume
of short stories, Nel Regno dell' Amore. He died suddenly
of heart disease at Bordighera on the 12th of March 1908.
AMICUS CURIAE (Lat. for "a friend of the court"), a term used
primarily in law, signifying a person (usually a member of the
bar) who, having special knowledge but not being engaged in the
suit, intervenes during its hearing to give information for
the assistance of the court, either upon some fact relevant
to the issue or upon a point of law, such as the hearing
of a local custom, the precedent of some decided case, &c.
AMIDINES, in organic chemistry, the name given to compounds
of general formula R.C:(NH).NH2, which may be considered as
derived from the acid-amides by replacement of oxygen by the
divalent imino (=NH) group. They may be prepared by the action
of ammonia or amines on imide chorides, or on thiamides (O.
Wallach, A. Bernthsen); by the action of ammonium chloride
or hydrochlorides of amines on nitriles; by condensing
amines and amides in presence of phosphorus trichloride; by
the action of hydrochloric acid on acid-amides (O. Wallach,
Ber., 1882, 15, p. 208); and by the action of ammonia or
amines on imino-ethers (A. Pinner, Ber., 1883, 16, p. 1647;
1884, 17, p. 179). They are monacid bases, which are not
very stable; they readily take up the elements of water
(when boiled with acids or alkalies), yielding amides and
ammonia. On dry distillation they yield nitriles and ammonia.
When warmed with sulphuretted hydrogen they yield thiamides,
R.C:(NH).NHR+H2S = R.C(NH2)(SH)NHR = R.CSNH2 + NH2.R or
RCS.NHR + NH3. With b-ketonic esters, HO(CH3)C:CH.CO2R,
they yield oxypyrimidines (A. Pinner, Ber., 1890, 23, p. 3820).
Formamidine, HC:(NH)NH2, is only known in the form of
its salts, the hydrochloride being obtained by the action
of ammonia on the hydrochloride of formimido-ethyl ether
(A. Pinner, Ber., 1883, 16, p. 357). Acetamidine,
CH3C:(NH).NH2, is alkaline in reaction, and readily
splits up into acetic acid and ammonia when warmed with
acids. Its hydrochloride melts at 163 deg. C., and crystallizes
from alcohol in colourless deliquescent prisms. Acetic
anhydride converts the base into an acetamino-dimethyl
pyrimidine, acetic acid and acetamide being also formed.
Benzamidine, C6H5.C:(NH)NH2, forms colourless crystals
which melt at 75-80 deg. C. When warmed it breaks down into ammonia
and cyanphenine (s-triphenyl triazine). It condenses with
acetic anhydride to form a methyldiphenyl triazine, acetamide
being also formed; with acetyl-acetone to form dimethylphenyl
pyrimidine (A. Pinner, Ber., 1893, 26, p. 2125); and with
trimethylene bromide to form a phenyl tetrahydropyrimidine
(Pinner). H. v. Pechmann (Ber., 1895, 28, p. 2362) has
shown that amidines of the type R.C: (NY).NHZ sometimes
react as if they possessed the constitution R.C: (NZ).NHY;
but this only appears to occur when Y and Z are groups which
function in the same way. If Y and Z are groups which behave
very differently, then there is apparently no tautomerism
and a definite formula can be given to the compound.
The formulae of the ringed compounds mentioned above are here shown:
N--C--(CH3)
// \\
R.C CH
\ /
N==C--(OH)
Oxypyrimidine.
N--C--(CH3)
// \\
CH3.C CH
\ /
N==C--(NHCOCH3)
Acetaminodimethyl pyrimidine.
C6H5
/
N--C
// \\
C6H5.C N
\ /
N==C
\
CH3
Methyl diphenyl triazine.
N--CH2
// \
C6H5.C CH2
\ /
NH--CH2
Phenyl tetrahydropyrimidine.
AMIEL, HENRI FREDERIC (1821-1881), Swiss philosopher
and critic, was born at Geneva on the 27th of September
1821. He was descended from a Huguenot family driven to
Switzerland by the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Losing
his parents at an early age, he travelled widely, became
intimate with the intellectual leaders of Europe and made
a special study of German philosophy in Berlin. In 1849
he was appointed professor of aesthetics at the academy of
Geneva, and in 1854 became professor of moral philosophy.
These appointments, conferred by the democratic party,
deprived him of the support of the aristocratic party; which
comprised nearly all the culture of the city. This isolation
inspired the one book by which Amiel lives, the Journal
Intime, which, published after his death, obtained a European
reputation. It was translated into English by Mrs Humphry
Ward. Although second-rate as regards productive power,
Amiel's mind was of no inferior quality, and his journal
gained a sympathy which the author had failed to obtain in his
life. In addition to the Journal, he produced several
volumes of poetry and wrote studies on Erasmus, Madame de Stael
and other writers. He died in Geneva on the 11th of March
1881. His chief poetical works are Grains de mil, Il
penseroso, Part du reve, Les Etrangeres, Charles
le Temeraire, Romancero historique, Jour a jour.
See Life of Amiel by Mdlle Berthe Vadier (Paris, 1885); Paul
Bourget, Nouveaux essais (Paris, 1885); E. Scherer, introd. to
the Journal and in Etudes sur la litt. contemp. (vol. viii.).
AMIENS, a city of northern France, capital of the
department of Somme, on the left bank of the Somme, 81
m. N. of Paris on the Northern railway to Calais. Pop. (1906)
78,407. Amiens was once a place of great strength, and still
possesses a citadel of the end of the 16th century, but the
ramparts which surrounded it have been replaced by boulevards,
bordered by handsome residences. Suburbs, themselves bounded
by another line of boulevards, have arisen beyond these
limits, and the city also extends to the right bank of the
Somme. The busy quarter of Amiens lies between the river
and the railway, which for some distance follows the inner
line of boulevards. The older and more picturesque quarter
is situated directly on the Somme; its narrow and irregular
streets are intersected by the eleven arms of the river and
it is skirted on the north by the canal derived therefrom.
Besides its boulevards Amiens has the ample park or Promenade
de la Hotoie to the west and several fine squares, notably
the Place Longueville and the Place St Denis, in which
stands the statue of the famous 17th-century scholar Charles
Ducange. The cathedral (see ARCHITECTURE: Romanesque and
Gothic Architecture in France; and CATHEDRAL), which is
perhaps the finest church of Gothic architecture in France,
far exceeds the other buildings of the town in importance.
Erected on the plans of Robert de Luzarches, chiefly between
1220 and 1288, it consists of a nave, nearly 140 ft. in height,
with aisles and lateral chapels, a transept with aisles, and
a choir (with deambulatory) ending in an apse surrounded by
chapels. The total length is 469 ft., the breadth 216
ft. The facade, which is flanked by two square towers
without spires, has three portals decorated with a profusion
of statuary, the central portal having a remarkable statue
of Christ of the 13th century; they are surmounted by two
galleries, the upper one containing twenty-two statues of the
kings of Judah in its arcades, and by a fine rose-window.
A slender spire rises above the crossing. The southern
portal is remarkable for a figure of the Virgin and other
statuary. In the interior, which contains beautifully carved
stalls, a choir-screen in the flamboyant style and many
other works of art, the most striking features are the height
of the nave and the boldness of the columns supporting the
vaulting. The chief of the other churches of Amiens is
St Germain (15th century), which has some good stained
glass. The hotel de ville, begun in 1550, a belfry of
the 14th and 18th centuries and several old mansions are of
interest. Amiens has a rich library and admirable collections
of paintings, sculptures and antiquities in the museum of
Picardy. Its learned associations include the Societe
des Antiquaires de Picardie, by whom the museum was built in
1854-1864. The city is the seat of a bishop, a prefect,
a court of appeal and a court of assizes, and headquarters
of the II. Army Corps. There are also tribunals of first
instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a
chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France.
The educational institutions include lycees for boys and
girls, training-colleges for teachers, a preparatory school of
medicine, a school of music and a school of iron-working and
wood-working. The textile industries for which Amiens has
been celebrated since the middle ages include manufactures
of velvet, cotton-, wool-, silk-, hemp- and flax-spinning,
and the weaving of hosiery and a variety of mixed fabrics.
Manufactures of machinery, chemicals, blacking, polish and
sugar, and printing, dyeing and iron-founding are also carried
on. Market gardens, known as hortillonnages, intersected
by small canals derived from the Somme and Avre, cover a
considerable area to the north-east of Amiens; and the city has
trade in vegetables, as well as in grain, sugar, wool, oil-seeds
and the duck-pasties and macaroons for which it is renowned.
Amiens occupies the site of the ancient Samarobriva, capital
of the Ambiani, from whom it probably derives its name. At the
beginning of the 4th century Christianity was preached there
by St Firmin, its first bishop. During the middle ages its
territory formed the countship of Amienois. The authority
of the counts was, however, balanced by that of the bishops,
and early in the 12th century the citizens, profiting by this
rivalry, gained a charter of enfranchisement. The fief became
for the first time a dependency of the French crown in 1185,
when Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders, ceded it to Philip
Augustus. It more than once passed out of the power of the
French kings, notably in 1435, when, by the treaty of Arras,
it came into the possession of the dukes of Burgundy, to whom
it belonged till 1477. Surprised by the Spaniards in 1597,
the city was recaptured from them after a long siege by Henry
IV. Till 1790 it was the capital of the gouvernement of
Picardy (q.v.). The famous treaty between Great Britain,
France, Spain and Holland which took its name from Amiens
was signed in the hotel de ville on the 25th of March
1802. During the war between France and Germany, Amiens,
after an important action, fell into the hands of the Prussians
on the 28th of November 1870. (See FRANCO-GERMAN WAR.)
See A. de Calonne, Histoire de la ville d'Amiens
(1900); John Ruskin, The Bible of Amiens (1881); La
Picardie historique et monumentale, tome i., published
by the Societe des Antiquaires de Picardie (1893).
AMINES, in chemistry, derivatives of ammonia in which one
or more of the hydrogen atoms are replaced by alkyl or aryl
groups. The replacement of one hydrogen atom by one alkyl
or aryl group gives rise to primary amines; of two hydrogen
atoms by two groups, to secondary amines; of three hydrogen
atoms by three groups, to tertiary amines. The tertiary amines
possess the power of combining with one molecular proportion
of an alkyl iodide to form quaternary ammonium salts. The
structural relations of these compounds may be shown thus:
NH3; NH2R; NHR2; NR3;
Ammonia; primary amine; secondary amine; tertiary amine;
NR4I.
quaternary ammonium iodide.
Aliphatic amines.--These compounds possess properties very
similar to those of ammonia, the lowest members of the series
being combustible gases readily soluble in water. The next
higher members of the series are liquids of low boiling point
also readily soluble in water, the solubility and volatility,
however, decreasing with the increasing carbon content of
the molecule, until the highest members of the series are
odourless solids of high boiling point and are insoluble in
water. They are all strong bases, readily forming salts with
the mineral acids and double salts with the chlorides of gold,
platinum and mercury. They are ionized in aqueous solution
to a much greater extent than ammonia, the quaternary ammonium
bases being the most ionized, and the secondary bases being
more strongly ionized than the primary or tertiary bases.
For data concerning the conductivity of the organic bases
see G. Bredig (Zeit. fur phys. Chem., 1894, 13, p. 289).
Many methods have been devised for the preparation of the
amines, the first amine having been isolated in 1849 by
A. Wurtz on boiling methyl isocyanate with caustic potash,
CON.CH3 + 2KHO = CH3NH2 + K2CO3. The primary amines may
also be prepared by heating the alkyl iodides with ammonia
(A. W. Hofmann); by the reduction of nitriles with alcohol and
sodium (A. Ladenburg, Ber., 1886, 19, p. 783); by heating
the esters of nitric acid with alcoholic ammonia at 100 deg.
C. (O. Wallach, Ber., 1881, 14, p. 421); by the action of
reducing agents on nitroparaffins; by the action of zinc and
hydrochloric acid on aldehyde ammonias (German Patent 73,812);
by the reduction of the phenylhydrazones and oximes of aldehydes
and ketones with sodium amalgam in the presence of alcohol
and sodium acetate (J. Tafel, Ber., 1886, 19, p. 1925; 1889,
22, p. 1854; H. Goldschmidt, Ber., 1886, 19, p. 3232); by
the action of dilute hydrochloric acid on the isonitriles, R.NC
+ 2H2O = R.NH2 + H2CO2; by heating the mustard oils with
a mineral acid, by the hydrolysis of the alkyl phthalimides
(S. Gabriel, Ber., 1887, 20, p. 2224; 1891, 24, p. 3104),
CO CO
/ \ RI / \ 2H2O
C6H4 NK ---> C6H4 NR -------->
\ / \ /
CO CO
COOH
/
C6H4 + NH2R;
\
COOH
by distilling the amino-acids with baryta; by the action
of bromine and caustic potash on the acid-amides (A. W.
Hofmann, Ber., 1885, 18, p. 2734; 1886, 19, p. 1822);
CH3CONH2 --> CH3CONHBr --> CH3CONKBr -->
CH3NCO --> CH3NH2;
and by the hydrolysis of substituted urethanes (Th.
Curtius, Ber., 1894, 27, p. 779; 1896, 29, p. 1166),
N2H4.H20 HONO
R.COOH --> R.COOR1 ------------------> R.CONH.NH2 ----->
acid ester hydrazide
C2H5OH HCI
R.CON3 -------------> R.NH.CO2C2H5 ----> R.NH2
azide urethane
The secondary amines are prepared, together with the primary and
tertiary, by the action of ammonia on the alkyl iodides (see
below), or by the hydrolysis of para-nitroso derivatives of
tertiary aromatic amines, such as para-nitrosodimethylaniline,
thus: NO.C6H4.N(CH3)2 + H2O = NO.C6H4.OH + NH(CH3)2.
By the action of ammonia on the alkyl iodides a complex
mixture of primary, secondary and tertiary amines, along with a
quaternary ammonium salt, is obtained, the separation of which is
difficult. The method worked out by A. W. Hofmann is as
follows:--the mixture is distilled with caustic potash, when
the primary, secondary and tertiary amines distil over, and
the quaternary ammonium salt remains behind unaffected. The
aqueous solution of the amines is now shaken up with diethyl
oxalate, when the primary amine forms a crystalline dialkyl
oxamide and the secondary amine an insoluble liquid, which
is an ethyl dialkyl oxamate, the tertiary amine not reacting:
(CO2C2H5)2 + 2NH2R = (CO.NHR)2 + 2C2H5OH; (CO2C2H5)2
+ NHR2 = C2H5O2C.CONR2 + C2H5OH. The tertiary amine
is then distilled off, the residual products separated
by filtration and finally hydrolysed by a caustic alkali.
The primary, secondary and tertiary amines may be readily
distinguished by their behaviour with various reagents. Primary
amines when heated with alcoholic potash and chloroform yield
isonitriles, which are readily detected by their offensive
smell. The secondary and tertiary amines do not give this
reaction. With nitrous acid, the primary amines yield alcohols,
the secondary amines yield nitrosamines and the tertiary
amines do not react: R.NH2 + ONOH = R.OH + N2 + H2O; R2NH
+ ONOH = R2N.NO + H2O. With benzene sulphochloride in the
presence of alkali, the primary amines yield compounds of the
type C6H5SO2NHR, soluble in alkalies, whilst the secondary
amines yield compounds of the type C6H5SO2NR2, insoluble
in alkalies (O. Hinsberg, Ber., 1890, 23, p. 2963). Primary
amines heated with carbon bisulphide in alcoholic solution
are converted into mustard oils, when the dithiocarbamate
first produced is heated with a solution of mercuric chloride.
Methylamine, CH3NH2, occurs in Mercurialis perennis, in
bone-oil, and herring brine. It is also a decomposition product
of many alkaloids. At ordinary temperatures it is a gas, but may
be condensed to a liquid which boils at -6 deg. C. It has a strong
ammoniacal smell, burns readily and is exceedingly soluble in
water. Its critical temperature is 155 deg. C. and critical
pressure 72 atmos. (C. Vincent, J. Chappuis, Jahresb., 1886,
p. 202). Dimethylamine, (CH3)2NH, is found in Peruvian
guano. It is a heavy vapour which condenses at 7 deg. C. to a
liquid, having a pronounced fish-like smell. Trimethylamine,
(CH3)3N, is very similar to dimethylamine, and condenses to
a liquid which boils at 3.2-3.8 deg. C. It is usually obtained
from "vinasses," the residue obtained from the distillation of
beet sugar alcohol, and is used in the manufacture of potassium
bicarbonate by the Solvay process, since its hydrochloride is
much more soluble than potassium carbonate. Tetramethylammonium
iodide, N(CH3)4I, is the chief product obtained by the
action of methyl iodide on ammonia (Hofmann). It crystallizes
in quadratic prisms and has a bitter taste. By warming its
aqueous solution with an excess of silver oxide it is converted
into tetramethylammonium hydroxide, N(CH3)4OH, which
crystallizes in hygroscopic needles, and has a very alkaline
reaction. It forms many crystalline salts and absorbs carbon
dioxide. It precipitates many metallic hydroxides. On dry
distillation it is resolved into trimethylamine and methyl
alcohol. If the nitrogen atom in the quaternary ammonium
salts be in combination with four different groups, then
the molecule is asymmetrical, and the salt can be resolved
into optically active enantiamorphous isomerides. W. J.
Pope (Jour. Chem. Soc., 1901, 79, p. 828) has resolved
benzyl-allyl-phenyl-methylamine iodide by boiling with silver
d-camphorsulphonate in a nearly anhydrous mixture of acetone
and ethyl acetate. The silver iodide is separated and the
solvent distilled off. The residue crystallizes slowly, and
the crystalline product is almost wholly d-benzyl-ally-phenyl-
ammonium-d-sulphonate, the corresponding l-compound
remaining as a syrupy residue. The corresponding iodides
are obtained by the addition of potassium iodide to solutions
of the sulphonates, and are optically active antipodes.
Diamines.--The diamines contain two amino groups and bear
the same relation to the glycols that the primary monamines
bear to the primary alcohols. They are of importance, since
the higher homologues are identical in many cases with the
ptomaines produced by the putrefactive action of some bacteria
on albumen and other related substances. Ethylene diamine,
C2H4(NH2)2, may be prepared by heating ethylene dibromide
with alcoholic ammonia to 100 deg. C. (F. S. Cloez, Jahresb.,
1853, p. 468); or by the action of tin and hydrochloric acid
on cyanogen (T. Fairley, Ann. Suppl., 3, 1864, p. 372). It
is an alkaline liquid, which when anhydrous boils at 116.5 deg.
C. Nitrous acid converts it into ethylene oxide. It combines
directly with many metallic salts. (See S. F. Jorgensen, Jour.
pr. Chem., 1889 (2), 39, p. 8.) Trimethylene diamine,
NH2.(CH2)3.NH2, is prepared by the action of ammonia
on trimethylene bromide (E. Fischer, Ber., 1884, 17, p.
1799). It is a liquid which boils at 135-136 deg. C., and is
readily soluble in alcohol, ether, chloroform and benzene.
Tetramethylene diamine (putrescine), NH2.(CH2)4.NH2, is
prepared by reducing ethylene dicyanide (succinonitrile) with
sodium in absolute alcoholic solution (A. Ladenburg, Ber.,
1886, 19, p. 780). It melts at 27 deg. C., and is easily soluble in
water. Pentamethylene diamine (cadaverine), NH2.(CH2)5.NH2,is
prepared by reducing trimethylene cyanide in ether solution by
zinc and hydrochloric acid (A. Ladenburg, Ber., 1883, 16, p.
1151). J. v. Braun (Ber., 1904, 37, p. 3583) has prepared
pentamethylene derivatives from piperidine by the action of
phosphorus pentachloride. On heating piperidine with phosphorus
pentachloride to 200 deg. C. in a sealed tube pentamethylene
dichloride is obtained, and this on treatment with potassium
phthalimide gives a condensation product of composition,
C6H4[CO]2N(CH2)5N[CO]2C6H4, which is finally hydrolysed
by hydrochloric acid. Cadaverine is a syrup at ordinary
temperatures, and boils at 178-179 deg. C. It is readily soluble
in water and alcohol, but only slightly soluble in ether.
Aromatic Amines.--The aromatic amines in some respects
resemble the aliphatic amines, since they form salts with
acids, and double salts with platinum chloride, and they
also distil without decomposition. On the other hand, they
are much weaker bases than the aliphatic amines, their salts
undergoing hydrolytic dissociation in aqueous solution. The
primary aromatic amines may be prepared by the reduction of
the nitro-hydrocarbons, the reducing agents used being either
alcoholic-ammonium sulphide (N. Zinin), zinc and hydrochloric
acid (A. W. Hofmann), an alcoholic solution of stannous
chloride (containing hydrochloric acid) (R. Anschutz, Ber.,
1886, 19, p. 2161), tin and hydrochloric acid, or, on the
manufacturing scale, iron and hydrochloric acid. They may
also be obtained by the reduction of nitroso compounds and of
hydrazo compounds and of hydrazones (J. Tafel, Ber., 1886,
19, p. 1924), by distilling the amido-acids with lime, by
heating phenols with zinc chloride ammonia (V. Merz, Ber.,
1880, 13, p. 1298), and by heating the secondary and tertiary
bases with concentrated hydrochloric acid to about 180 deg. C.
At a temperature of about 300-400 deg. C. the alkyl chloride
formed in this reaction attacks the benzene nucleus and
replaces hydrogen by an alkyl group or groups, forming primary
amines homologous with the original amine; thus methylaniline
hydrochloride is converted into para- and ortho-toluidine
hydrochloride, and trimethyl phenyl ammonium iodide is converted
into mesidine hydriodide. It is to be noted that only traces
of the aromatic amines are produced by heating the halogen
substituted benzenes with ammonia, unless the amino group be
situated in the side chain, as in the case of benzylamine.
The primary amines are colourless liquids or crystalline
solids, which are insoluble in water, but readily soluble
in the common organic solvents. When heated with alkyl or
aryl iodides, they are converted into secondary and tertiary
amines. Concentrated nitric acid attacks them violently,
producing various oxidation products, but if the amino group
be "protected" by being previously acetylated, then nitro
derivatives are obtained. When heated with concentrated
sulphuric acid for some time, they are sulphonated. They
form condensation products with aldehydes, benzaldehyde and
aniline forming benzylidene aniline, C6H5N: CHC6H5, and
when heated with acids they form anilides. They give the
isonitrile reaction (see above) when warmed with chloroform
and a caustic alkali, and form alkyl thioureas when heated with
an alcoholic solution of carbon bisulphide. When warmed with
a solution of nitrous acid, they are converted into phenols;
if, however, nitrous acid be added to an ice-cold solution
of a primary amine in excess of mineral acid, a diazonium
salt is formed (see AZO COMPOUNDS and DIAZO COMPOUNDS),
or in absence of excess of acid, a diazoamine is produced.
The secondary amines may be of two types--namely, the purely
aromatic amines, and the mixed secondary amines, which contain an
aromatic residue and an alkyl group. The purely aromatic amines
result upon heating the primary amines with their hydrochlorides,
and, in some cases, by heating a phenol with a primary amine
and anhydrous zinc chloride. The mixed secondary amines are
prepared by the action of alkyl iodides on the primary amines,
or by heating salts of the primary amine with alcohols under
pressure. The mixed secondary amines have basic properties,
but the purely aromatic secondary amines are only very feeble
bases. Both classes readily exchange the imide hydrogen
for acid radicals, and give nitrosamines with nitrous acid.
The secondary amines do not give the isonitrile reaction.
The tertiary amines may also be of two types, the purely
aromatic and the mixed type. The mixed tertiary amines
are produced by the action of alkyl halides on the
primary amines. The simplest aromatic tertiary amine,
triphenylamine, is prepared by the action of brombenzene
on sodium diphenylamine (C. Heydrich, Ber., 1885, 18, p.
2156). The simplest aromatic monamine is aniline (q.v.),
and the simplest mixed amines are mono- and di-methyl
aniline. These substances are treated in the article ANILINE.
The aromatic amine resembling the aliphatic amines is
benzylamine, C6H5.CH2.NH2, which may be prepared by
reducing benzonitrile in alcoholic solution by means of
zinc and acetic acid (O. Mendius, Ann. 1862, 121, p. 144),
or by metallic sodium (E. Bamberger, Ber., 1887, 20, p.
1709). It can also be obtained by the action of ammonia
on benzyl chloride (S. Cannizzaro, Ann., 1865, 134, p.
128), but di- and tri-benzylamines are simultaneously
formed. It is a liquid, which boils at 183 deg. C., and is
miscible in all proportions with water, alcohol and ether. It
is basic in character, and has a strongly alkaline reaction.
Diphenylamine, (C6H5)2NH, is the simplest representative of
the true aromatic secondary amines. It is prepared by heating
aniline and aniline hydrochloride for some hours to 210-240 deg.
C, (Ch. Girard and G. de Laire, Zeit. fur Chem., 1866, p.
438). It crystallizes in white plates, which melt at 45 deg.
C. and boil at 302 deg. C. It is almost insoluble in water, but
readily volatilizes in steam. When heated with monobasic
saturated acids and zinc chloride it yields acridines.
Aromatic Diamines.--The diamines are prepared by reducing the
nitranilines or the dinitrohydrocarbons. They crystallize in
plates, and for the most part distil without decomposition.
Orthophenylene diamine, C6H4(NH2)2, crystallizes from
water in plates, which melt at 102-103 deg. C. and boil at
256-258 deg. C. When heated with 10% hydrochloric acid to 180 deg.
C. it yields pyrocatechin (Jacob Meyer, Ber., 1897, 30, p.
2569). The orthodiamines are characterized by the large
number of condensation products they form. (See IMIDAZOLES,
QUINOXALINES, &c.). Metaphenylene diamine crystallizes in
rhombic plates which melt at 63 deg. C. and boil at 287 deg. C.
It is easily soluble in water and alcohol. When heated with
10% hydrochloric acid to 180 deg. C. it yields resorcin (J.
Meyer). Paraphenylene diamine may be prepared as above, and
also by the reduction of amidoazobenzene. It crystallizes
in tables which melt at 140 deg. C. and boil at 267 deg. C. When
heated with 10% hydrochloric acid to 180 deg. C. it yields
hydroquinone (J. Meyer). Manganese dioxide and dilute sulphuric
acid oxidize it to quinone. The three classes of diamines
may be distinguished by their behaviour towards nitrous
acid. The ortho-compounds condense to azimido benzenes, the
metacompounds yield azo-dyestuffs, and the para- compounds
yield bis-diazo compounds of the type XN2.C6H4.N2X.
AMIOT, JEAN JOSEPH MARIE (1718-1793), French Jesuit missionary,
was born at Toulon in February 1718. He entered the Society
of Jesus in 1737 and was sent in 1750 as a missionary to
China. He soon won the confidence of the emperor Kien-lung
and spent the remainder of his life at Pekin, where he died
on the 9th of October 1793. Amiot was eminently fitted to
make good use of the advantages which his situation afforded,
and his works did more than had ever been done before to make
known to the Western world the thought and life of the Far
East. His Dictionnaire tatare-mantchou-francais (Paris,
1789) was a work of great value, the language having been
previously quite unknown in Europe. His other writings
are to be found chiefly in the Memoires concernant
l'histoire, les sciences et les arts de Chinois (15 vols.,
Paris, 1776-1791). The Vie de Confucius, the twelfth
volume of that collection, is complete and accurate.
For full bibliography see De Backer and C. Sommervogel,
Bibliotheque de la Cie. de Jesus, i. 294-303;
for his works on Chinese music see F. J. Fetis,
Biog. univers. des musiciens (Brussels, 1837-1844).
AMIR, or AMEER (an Arabic word meaning "commander,"
from the root amr, "commanding"), a title common in the
Mahommedan East. The form emir is also commonly employed in
English. The word originally signified a military commander,
but very early came to be extended to anyone bearing rule,
Mahomet himself being styled by the pagan Arabs amir of
Mecca. Thus the term gradually came to be applied to any high
office-bearer, or to any lord or chief. The caliph has the
style of Amir ul Omara, "lord of lords." The title Amir ul
Muminim, or "commander of the faithful," now borne by the
sultan of Turkey, was first assumed by Abu Bekr, and was
taken by most of the various dynasties which claimed the
caliphate, including the Fatimites, the Spanish Omayyads and the
Almohades. The Almoravides and the Merinides assumed the
style of Amir ul Muslimin, "commander of the Mussulmans."
The use of the word is, in fact, closely akin to that of
the English "lord," sometimes connoting office, as in Amir
ul-ahghal (minister of finance) under the Almohades (cf.
"lord of the treasury"), sometimes mere dignity, as in the
case of the title of honour borne by all descendants of the
Prophet, or of the title Mir assumed by men of great rank
in the Far East. Sometimes it implies a temporary office of
dignity and command--e.g. the Amir ul-haj, "commander of
the pilgrimage" (to Mecca). Sometimes again it connotes the
meaning of "sovereign lord," in which sense it was early assumed
by the princes of Sind and by the rulers of Afghanistan and
Bokhara, the title implying a lesser dignity than that of
sultan. Thus too it is very generally applied in the East
to the chiefs of independent or semi-independent tribes.
In the Lebanon both the Christian clans and the Druses are
ruled by hereditary amirs. Finally the word (confused not
unnaturally with the particle usually attached to it) was
borrowed by the West, and is the origin of the English "admiral."
AMIS ET AMILES, the title of an old French romance based
on a widespread legend of friendship and sacrifice. In its
earlier and simpler form it is the story of two friends,
one of whom, Amis, was smitten with leprosy because he had
committed perjury to save his friend. A vision informed him
that he could only be cured by bathing in the blood of Amiles's
children. When Amiles learnt this he killed the children, who
were, however, miraculously restored to life after the cure of
Amis. The tale was probably of Oriental origin, and introduced
to the West by way of Byzantium. It found its way into
French literature through the medium of Latin, as the names
Amicus and Amellus indicate, and was eventually attached to
the Carolingian cycle in the 12th-century chanson de geste
of Amis et Amiles. This poem is written in decasyllabic
assonanced verse, each stanza being terminated by a short
line. It belongs to the heroic period of French epic, containing
some passages of great beauty, notably the episode of the
slaying of the children, and maintains a high level of poetry
throughout. Amis has married Lubras and become count of
Blaives (Blaye), while Amiles has become seneschal at the
court of Charlemagne, and is seduced by the emperor's daughter,
Bellisant. The lovers are betrayed, and Amiles is unable
to find the necessary supporters to enable him to clear
himself by the ordeal of single combat, and fears, moreover,
to fight in a false cause. He is granted a reprieve, and
goes in search of Amis, who engages to personate him in the
combat. He thus saves his friend, but in so doing perjures
himself. Then follows the leprosy of Amis, and, after a
lapse of years, his discovery of Amiles and cure. There are
obvious reminiscences in this story of Damon and Pythias,
and of the classical instances of sacrifice at the divine
command. The legend of Amis and Amiles occurs in many forms
with slight variations, the names and positions of the friends
being sometimes reversed. The crown of martyrdom was not
lacking, for Amis and Amiles were slain by Ogier the Dane at
Novara on their way home from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Jourdain de Blaives, a chanson de geste which partly
reproduces the story of Apollonius of Tyre, was attached
to the geste of Amis by making Jourdain his grandson.
The versions of Amis and Amiles include--(a) numerous Latin
recensions in prose and verse, notably that given by Vincent
de Beauvais in his Speculum historiale (lib. xxiii. cap.
162-166 and 169); (b) an Anglo-Norman version in short rhymed
couplets, which is not attached to the Charlemagne legend
and agrees fairly closely with the English Amis and Amiloun
(Midland dialect, 13th century); these with the old Norse
version are printed by E. Kolbing, Altengl. Bibl. vol. ii.
(1889), and the English romance also in H. Weber, Metrical
Romances, vol. ii. (1810); (c) the 12th- century French
chanson de geste analysed by P. Paris in Hist. litt. de
la France (vol. xxii.), and edited by K. Hofmann (Erlangen,
1882) with the addition of Jourdain de Blaives; (d) the
Latin Vita Sanct. Amici et Amelii (pr. by Kolbing, op.
cit.) and its Old-French translation, Li amitiez de Ami et
Amile, ed. L. Moland and C. d'Hericault in Nouvelles
... du xiiie siecle (Paris, 1856); (e) a 14th-century
drama, Un Miracle de Notre Dame d'Amis et Amile, ed. L.
J. N. Monmerque and F. Michelin Theatre fr. au moyen
age (1839); (f) old Norse, Icelandic, Danish versions,
&c. (see K. Hofmann, op. cit.); (g) an imitation which
under the name of Oliver and Artus was current in many
languages and was the subject of Hans Sachs's comedy, Die
treuen Gesellen (1556); (h) Engelhart und Engeltrut, by
the minnesinger Conrad von Wurzburg (ed. M. Haupt, Leipzig,
1844, 2nd ed., 1900); (i) the late prose romances, with many
changes and additions, Milles et Amys, printed by A. Verard
(Paris, c. 1503), &c., for which see G. Brunet, Manuel du
libraire, s.v. "Milles." A different version of the legend is
inserted at considerable length in L'Ystoire des sept sages
(ed. G. Paris, Soc. des anc. textes fr., 1876), in which
the friends are called Alexandre and Louis, and Bellisant
Florentine. For a further bibliography see L. Gautier, Bibl.
des chansons de geste (Paris, 1897). William Morris's version
of the French romance was printed at the Kelmscott Press in
1894. See also the essay by W. Pater in The Renaissance, 1893.
AMITERNUM, an ancient town of the Sabines, situated about 5
m. N. of Aquila, in the broad valley of the Aternus, from
which, according to Varro, it took its name. It was stormed by
the Romans in 293 B.C., and though it suffered from the wars
of the Republican period, it seems to have risen to renewed
prosperity under the empire. This it owed largely to its
position. It lay at the point of junction of four roads--the
via Caecilia, the Via Claudia Nova and two branches of the
Via Salaria, which joined it at the 64th and 89th miles
respectively. The fertility of its territory was also
praised by ancient authors. There are considerable remains
of an aqueduct, an amphitheatre and a theatre (the latter
excavated in 1880--see Notizie degli scavi, 1880, 290,
350, 379), all of which belong to the imperial period, while
in the hill on which the village of S. Vittorino is built
are some Christian catacombs. Amiternum was the birthplace
of the historian Sallust. In a gorge 1 1/2 m. east are
massive remains of cyclopean walls (i.e. in rough blocks),
probably intended to regulate the flow of the stream (N.
Persichetti in Romische Mitteilungen, 1902, 134 seq..)
AMLWCH (llwch = "lake"), a market town of Anglesey, North
Wales, situated on slightly rising ground on the N. coast of the
island, 15 m. N.W. of Beaumaris and 262 m. from London, by the
London & North-Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901)
2994. Originally it owed its whole importance to the copper
mines of the Parys (probably, Parry's) mountain, as, before
ore was discovered in March 1768, it was a small hamlet of
fishermen. The mines once produced 3000 tons of metal
annually, copper smelting being largely carried on, but have
now almost ceased working. Though apparently not mentioned by
Ptolemy, they were perhaps Roman. Robert Parys, chamberlain
of North Wales under Henry IV., is often given as their
godfather. The poor harbour called the "port," protected
by a breakwater, has been cut out of the rock (shingle).
Amlwch is the terminus of the branch railway from Gaerwen
to Amlwch, formerly the Anglesey Central Railway Company.
Porthllechog, or Bull Bay (so called from the Bull Rock), at
a mile's distance, is a small but favourite watering-place.
Beyond, on the coast, some 3 m. distant, are the remains of
a British fort and of the Llanllaianau monastery, opposite
the Middle Mouse islet and close to Llanbadrig old church and
Cemmaes. Industries include slate quarrying, shipbuilding,
iron and brass foundries, alum, vitriol, manure, guano and
tobacco works. At Llanllaianau was found, in 1841, a stone
coffin, holding a well- preserved skeleton of 7 1/2 ft. in
length. The coffin was apparently of Aberdovey (Aberdyfi)
limestone, much corroded. At Llangefni, not far from
Amlwch, in 1829, and at Llangristiolus, 3 m. distant from
Llangefni, about 1770, were found human bones of a high
antiquity, between Glan Hwfa and Fron, and at Capel,
respectively. The town has an old Anglican church (St Eleth's).
AMMAN, JOHANN CONRAD (1669-c. 1730), Swiss physician,
was born at Schaffhausen in 1669. After graduating at Basel
in 1687 he began to practise at Amsterdam, where he gained
a great reputation. He was one of the earliest writers
on the instruction of the deaf and dumb, and first called
attention to his method in his Surdus loquens (Amsterdam,
1692), which was often reprinted, and was reproduced by
John Wallis in the Philosophical Transactions (1698). His
process consisted principally in exciting the attention of
his pupils to the motions of his lips and larynx while he
spoke, and then inducing them to imitate these movements,
till he brought them to repeat distinctly letters, syllables
and words. The edition of Caelius Aurelianus, which was
undertaken by the Wetsteins in 1709, was superintended by
Amman. He died about 1730 at Warmoud, near Leiden.
AMMAN, JOST (1539-1591), Swiss artist, celebrated chiefly
for his engravings on wood, was born at Zurich. Of his
personal history little is known beyond the fact that he
removed in 1560 to Nuremberg, where he continued to reside
until his death in March 1591. His productiveness was very
remarkable, as may be gathered from the statement of one of
his pupils, that the drawings he made during a period of four
years would have filled a hay wagon. A large number of his
original drawings are contained in the Berlin collection of
engravings. The genuineness of not a few of the specimens
to be seen elsewhere is at least questionable. A series of
copperplate engravings by Amman of the kings of France, with short
biographies, appeared at Frankfort in 1576. He also executed
many of the woodcut illustrations for the Bible published at
Frankfort by Sigismund Feierabend. Another serial work, the
Panoplia Omnium Liberalium Mechanicarum et Sedentariarum
Artium Genera Continens, containing 115 plates, is of great
value. Amman's drawing is correct and spirited, and his
delineation of the details of costume, &c., is minute and
accurate. He executed too much, however, to permit of his reaching
the highest style of art. Paintings in oil and on glass are
attributed to him, but no specimen of these is known to exist.
AMMAN, PAUL (1634-1691), German physician and botanist, was
born at Breslau in 1634. In 1662 he received the degree of
doctor of physic from the university of Leipzig, and in 1664
was admitted a member of the society Naturae Curiosorum,
under the name of Dryander. Shortly afterwards he was chosen
extraordinary professor of medicine in the above-mentioned
university; and in 1674 he was promoted to the botanical
chair, which he again in 1682 exchanged for the physiological.
He died at Leipzig in 1691. He seems to have been a man of
critical mind and extensive learning. His principal works
were: Medicina Critica (1670); Paraenesis ad Docentes
occupata circa Institutionum Medicarum Emendationem (1673);
Irenicum Numae Pompilii cum Hippocrate (1689); Supellex
Botanica (1675); and Character Naturalis Plantarum (1676).
AMMANATI, BARTOLOMEO (1511-1592), Florentine architect and
sculptor. He studied under Bandinelli and Jacopo Sansovino,
and closely imitated the style of Michelangelo. He was more
distinguished in architecture than in sculpture. He designed many
buildings in Rome, Lucca and Florence, an addition to the Pitti
Palace in the last- named city being one of his most celebrated
works. He was also employed in 1569 to build the beautiful
bridge over the Arno, known as Ponte della Trinita--one of
his celebrated works. The three arches are elliptic, and
though very light and elegant, have resisted the fury of the
river, which has swept away several other bridges at different
times. Another of his most important works was the fountain
for the Piazza della Signoria. In 1550 Ammanati married
Laura Battiferri, an elegant poet and an accomplished woman.
AMMIANUS, MARCELLINUS, the last Roman historian of
importance, was born about A.D. 325-330 at Antioch; the
date of his death is unknown, but he must have lived till
391, as he mentions Aurelius Victor as the city prefect
for that year. He was a Greek, and his enrolment among the
protectores domestici (household guards) shows that he
was of noble birth. He entered the army at an early age,
when Constantius II. was emperor of the East, and was sent
to serve under Ursicinus, governor of Nisibis and magister
militiae. He returned to Italy with Ursicinus, when he
was recalled by Constantius, and accompanied him on the
expedition against Silvanus the Frank, who had been forced
by the unjust accusations of his enemies into proclaiming
himself emperor in Gaul. With Ursicinus he went twice to the
East, and barely escaped with his life from Amida or Amid
(mod. Diarbekr), when it was taken by the Persian king Shapur
(Sapor) II. When Ursicinus lost his office and the favour of
Constantius, Ammianus seems to have shared his downfall;
but under Julian, Constantius's successor, he regained his
position. He accompanied this emperor, for whom he expresses
enthusiastic admiration, in his campaigns against the Alamanni
and the Persians; after his death he took part in the retreat
of Jovian as far as Antioch, where he was residing when the
conspiracy of Theodorus (371) was discovered and cruelly put
down. Eventually he settled in Rome, where, at an advanced
age, he wrote (in Latin) a history of the Roman empire from
the accession of Nerva to the death of Valens (96-378), thus
forming a continuation of the work of Tacitus. This history
(Rerum Gestarum Libri XXXI.) was originally in thirty-one
books; of these the first thirteen are lost, the eighteen
which remain cover the period from 353 to 378. As a whole
it is extremely valuable, being a clear, comprehensive and
impartial account of events by a contemporary of soldierly
honesty, independent judgment and wide reading. "Ammianus is
an accurate and faithful guide, who composed the history of
his own times without indulging the prejudices and passions
which usually affect the mind of a contemporary" (Gibbon).
Although Ammianus was no doubt a heathen, his attitude
towards Christianity is that of a man of the world, free from
prejudices in favour of any form of belief. If anything he
himself inclined to neo-Platonism. His style is generally
harsh, often pompous and extremely obscure, occasionally
even journalistic in tone, but the author's foreign origin
and his military life and training partially explain this.
Further, the work being intended for public recitation, some
rhetorical embellishment was necessary, even at the cost of
simplicity. It is a striking fact that Ammianus, though a
professional soldier, gives excellent pictures of social and
economic problems, and in his attitude to the non-Roman peoples
of the empire he is far more broad-minded than writers like
Livy and Tacitus; his digressions on the various countries he
had visited are peculiarly interesting. In his description
of the empire--the exhaustion produced by excessive taxation,
the financial ruin of the middle classes, the progressive
decline in the morale of the army--we find the explanation
of its fall before the Goths twenty years after his death.
The work was discovered by Poggio, who copied the original
MS. Editio princeps (bks. 14-26) by Sabinus, 1474; completed
by Accursius, 1533; with variorum notes, by Wagner-Erfurdt,
1808; latest edition of text, Gardthausen, 1874-1875. English
translations by P. Holland, 1609; Yonge (Bohn's Classical
Library), 1862; also Max Budinger, Ammianus Marcellinus und
die Eigenart seines Geschichtswerkes (1895); F. Liesenberg,
Die Sprache des Ammianus Marcellinus (1888-1890); T. R.
Glover, Life and Letters in the Fourth Century (1901); Abbe
Gimazane, Ammianus Marcellinus, sa vie et son oeuvre (Toulouse,
1889), a work containing a number of very doubtful theories.
For a criticism of his views on Roman society see S. Dill, Roman
Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire (London, 1898).
AMMIRATO, SCIPIONE (1531-1601), Italian historian, born at
Lecce, in the kingdom of Naples. His father, intending him
for the profession of law, sent him to study at Naples, but
his own decided preference for literature prevented him from
fulfilling his father's wishes. Entering the church, he resided
for a time at Venice, and afterwards engaged in the service
of Pope Pius IV. In 1569 he went to Florence, where he was
fortunate in securing the patronage and support of Duke Cosimo
I., who gave him a residence at the Medici Palace and the Villa
Zopaja on the understanding that he should write his Istorie
Fiorentine (1600), the work by which he is best known. In 1595
he was made a canon of the cathedral of Florence. He died in
1601. Among the other works of Ammirato, some of which were
first published after his death, may be mentioned discourses on
Tacitus and genealogies of the families of Naples and Florence.
AMMON, the Graecized name of an Egyptian deity, in the
native language Amun, connected by the priests with a root
meaning "conceal." He was, to begin with, the local deity of
Thebes, when it was an unimportant town on the east bank of
the river, about the region now occupied by the temple of
Karnak. The XIth dynasty sprang from a family in the
Hermonthite nome or perhaps at Thebes itself, and adorned
the temple of Karnak with statues. Amenemhe, the name of
the founder of the XIIth dynasty, was compounded with that
of Amun and was borne by three of his successors. Several
Theban kings of the later part of the Middle Kingdom adopted
the same name; and when the Theban family of the XVIIth
dynasty drove out the Hyksos, Ammon, as the god of the royal
city, was again prominent. It was not, however, until the
rulers of the XVIIIth dynasty carried their victorious arms
beyond the Egyptian frontiers in every direction that Ammon
began to assume the proportions of a universal god for the
Egyptians, eclipsing all their other deities and asserting
his power over the gods of all foreign lands. To Ammon the
Pharaohs attributed all their successful enterprises, and on
his temples they lavished their wealth and captured spoil.
Ammon is figured of human form, wearing on his head a plain deep
circlet from which rise two straight parallel plumes, perhaps
representing the tail feathers of a hawk. Two main types are
seen: in the one he is seated on a throne, in the other he is
standing, ithyphallic, holding a scourge, precisely like Min,
the god of Coptos and Chemmis (Akhmim). The latter may be
his original form, as a god of fertility, before whom the king
ceremoniously breaks up the ground for sowing or cuts the ripe
corn. His consort was sometimes called Amaune (feminine of
Amun), but more usually Mut, "mother": she was human-headed,
wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, and their
son was Khons (Chon or Chons), a lunar god, represented as
a youth wearing the crescent and disk of the moon. A great
temple was built to Mut at Karnak not later than the XVIIIth
dynasty, and another to Khons not later than the XXth dynasty.
The name of Re, the sun-god, was generally joined to Ammon,
especially in his title as "king of the gods": the rule of
heaven belonged to the sun-god in the Egyptian cosmos, and
this identification with Re was only logical for a supreme
deity. Ammon was entitled "lord of the thrones of the two
lands," or, more proudly still, "king of the gods." Such
indeed was his unquestioned position when suddenly he was
overthrown and his worship proscribed. Not even a henotheist
fervently worshipping one of many gods, Amenophis (Amenhotp)
IV. of the XVIIIth dynasty became the monotheist Akhenaton;
discarding all the gods of Egypt, and especially persecuting
Ammon the arch-god, he devoted himself to the purer and more
sublime worship of Aton, the sun. But he failed to win the
permanent adhesion of the people to his reform, or to conciliate
or entirely crush the enormously powerful priesthood of
Ammon. A few years after the reformer's death, the old cults
were re-established and the monuments of Aton studiously
defaced. Hymns were then addressed to Amen-re, which are
almost monotheistic in expression. The cult of the supreme
god spread throughout Egypt and was carried by the Egyptian
conquerors into other lands, Syria, Ethiopia and Libya, and
was accepted by the natives both in Ethiopia and in the Libyan
cases, where civilization was low and Egyptian influence
permanent. After the XXth dynasty the centre of power was
removed from Thebes, and the authority of Ammon began to
wane. In the XXIst dynasty the secondary line of priest kings
of Thebes upheld his dignity to the best of their power, and
the XXIInd dynasty favoured Thebes: but as the sovereignty
weakened the division between Upper and Lower Egypt asserted
itself, and thereafter Thebes would have rapidly decayed had
it not been for the piety of the kings of Ethiopia towards
Ammon, whose worship had long prevailed in their country.
Thebes was at first their Egyptian capital, and they honoured
Ammon greatly, although their wealth and culture were not
sufficient to effect much. Ammon (Zeus) continued to be the
great god of Thebes in its decay, and notwithstanding that
a nome-capital in the north of the Delta and many lesser
temples, from El Hibeh in Middle Egypt to Canopus on the
sea, acknowledged Ammon as their supreme divinity, he probably
in some degree represented the national aspirations of Upper
Egypt as opposed to Middle and Lower Egypt: he also remained
the national god of Ethiopia, where his name was pronounced
Amane. The priests of Amane at Meroe and Napata, in
fact, regulated through his oracle the whole government
of the country, choosing the king, directing his military
expeditions (and even compelling him to commit suicide,
according to Diodorus) until in the 3rd century B.C.
Arkamane (Ergamenes) broke through the bondage and slew the
priests. Ammon had yet another outburst of glory. There was
an oracle of Ammon established for some centuries in Libya,
in the distant oasis of Siwa. Such was its reputation among
the Greeks that Alexander journeyed thither, after the battle
of Issus, and during his occupation of Egypt, in order to be
acknowledged the son of the god. The Egyptian Pharaohs of
the XVIIIth dynasty had likewise been proclaimed mystically
sons of this god, who, it was asserted, had impregnated
the queen-mother; and on occasion wore the ram's horns of
Ammon, even as Alexander is represented with them on coins.
The Egyptian goose (chenalopex) is figured in the XVIIIth
dynasty as sacred to Ammon; but his most frequent and celebrated
incarnation was the woolly sheep with curved ("Ammon") horns (as
opposed to the oldest native breed with long horizontal twisted
horns and hairy coat, sacred to Khnum or Chnumis). It is found
as representing Ammon from the time of Amenophis III. onwards.
As king of the gods Ammon was identified by the Greeks with
Zeus and his consort Mut with Hera. Khnum was likewise
identified with Zeus probably through his similarity to
Ammon; his proper animal having early become extinct, Ammon
horns in course of time were attributed to this god also.
See Erman, Handbook of Egyptian Religion (London, 1907); Ed.
Meyer, art. "Ammon" in Roscher's Lexikon der griechischen und
romischen Mythologie; Pietschmann, arts. "Ammon," "Ammoneion"
in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie; and works on Egyptian
religion quoted under EGYPT, section Religion. (F. LL. G.)
AMMON, CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH VON (1766-1850), German theological
writer and preacher, was born at Baireuth. He studied at
Erlangen, held various professorships in the philosophical
and theological faculties of Erlangen and Gottingen,
succeeded Franz Reinhard (1753-1812) in 1813 as court preacher
and member of the consistorial court at Dresden, retired
from these offices in 1849, and died on the 21st of May
1850. Seeking to establish for himself a middle position
between rationalism and supernaturalism, he declared for a
"rational supernaturalism," and contended that there must
be a gradual development of Christian doctrine corresponding
to the advance of knowledge and science. But at the same
time he sought, like other representatives of this school of
thought, such as K. G. Bretschneider and Julius Wegscheider,
to keep in close touch with the historical theology of the
Protestant churches. He was a man of great versatility and
extensive learning, a philologist and philosopher as well as
a theologian, and a very voluminous author. His principal
theological work was the Fortbildung des Christenthums zur
Weltreligion, in 4 volumes (Leipzig, 1833-1840). Entwurf
einer reinbiblischen Theologie appeared in 1792 (2nd ed.,
1801), Summa Theologiae Christianae in 1803 (other editions,
1808, 1816, 1830); Das Leben Jesu in 1842, and Die wahre
und falsche Orthodoxie in 1849. Von Ammon's style in
preaching was terse and lively, and some of his discourses are
regarded as models of pulpit treatment of political questions.
See Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie; Otto Pfleiderer, The
Development of Theology in Germany since Kant, pp. 89 ff.
AMMONIA (NH3). Salts of ammonia have been known from very
early times; thus the term Hammoniacus sal appears in the
writings of Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxxi. 39), although it is
not known whether the term is identical with the more modern
sal-ammoniac (q.v.). In the form of sal-ammoniac, ammonia
was known, however, to the alchemists as early as the 13th
century, being mentioned by Albertus Magnus, whilst in the 15th
century Basil Valentine showed that ammonia could be obtained
by the action of alkalies on sal-ammoniac. At a later period
when sal-ammoniac was obtained by distilling the hoofs and
horns of oxen, and neutralizing the resulting carbonate with
hydrochloric acid, the name spirits of hartshorn was applied to
ammonia. Gaseous ammonia was first isolated by J. Priestley
in 1774 and was termed by him "alkaline air." In 1777 K.
W. Scheele showed that it contained nitrogen, and C. L.
Berthollet, in about 1785, ascertained its composition.
Ammonia is found in small quantities as the carbonate in
the atmosphere, being produced from the putrefaction of
nitrogenous animal and vegetable matter; ammonium salts are
also found in small quantities in rain-water, whilst ammonium
chloride (sal-ammoniac) and ammonium sulphate are found in
volcanic districts; and crystals of ammonium bicarbonate
have been found in Patagonian guano. Ammonium salts too are
found distributed through all fertile soil, in sea- water,
and in most plant and animal liquids, and also in urine.
Ammonia can be synthesized by submitting a mixture of
nitrogen and hydrogen to the action of the silent electric
discharge, the combination, however, being very imperfect.
It is obtained by the dry distillation of nitrogenous
vegetable and animal products; by the reduction of nitrous
acid and nitrites with nascent hydrogen; and also by the
decomposition of ammonium salts by alkaline hydroxides or by
slaked lime, the salt most generally used being the chloride
(sal- ammoniac, q.v.) thus 2NH4Cl + Ca(OH)2 = CaCl2
+ 2H2O + 2NH3. It also results on decomposing magnesium
nitride (Mg3N2) with water, Mg3N2 + 6H2O = 3Mg(OH)2 +
2NH3. Large quantities of ammonia and ammonium salts
are now obtained from the ammoniacal liquor of gas-works.
Ammonia is a colourless gas possessing a characteristic pungent
smell and a strongly alkaline reaction; it is lighter than
air, its specific gravity being 0.589 (air=1). It is easily
liquefied and the liquid boils at -33.7 deg. C., and solidifies
at -75 deg. C. to a mass of white crystals. It is extremely
soluble in water, one volume of water at 0 deg. C. and normal
pressure absorbs 1148 volumes of ammonia (Roscoe and W.
Dittmar). All the ammonia contained in an aqueous solution
of the gas may be expelled by boiling. It does not support
combustion; and it does not burn readily unless mixed with
oxygen, when it burns with a pale yellowish-green flame.
Ammonia gas has the power of combining with many substances,
particularly with metallic halides; thus with calcium chloride
it forms the compound CaCl2.8NH3, and consequently calcium
chloride cannot be used for drying the gas. With silver
chloride it forms two compounds (F. Isambert, Comptes rendus,
1868, lxvi. p. 1259)--one, AgCl.3NH3 at temperatures below
15 deg. C.; the other, 2AgCl.3NH3 at temperatures above 20 deg.
C. On heating these substances, ammonia is liberated and
the metallic chloride remains. It was by the use of silver
chloride ammonia compounds that in 1823 M. Faraday was first
able to liquefy ammonia. It can be shown by Isambert's
results that the compound AgCl.3NH3 cannot be formed above
20 deg. C., by the action of ammonia on silver chloride at
atmospheric pressure; whilst 2AgCl.3NH3, under similar
conditions, cannot be formed above about 68 deg. C. Liquid ammonia
is used for the artificial preparation of ice. It readily
dissolves sodium and potassium, giving in each case a dark blue
solution. At a red heat ammonia is easily decomposed into
its constituent elements, a similar decomposition being
brought about by the passage of electric sparks through the
gas. Chlorine takes fire when passed into ammonia, nitrogen
and hydrochloric acid being formed, and unless the ammonia be
present in excess, the highly explosive nitrogen chloride NCl3
is also produced. With iodine it reacts to form nitrogen
iodide. This compound was discovered in 1812 by Bernard
Courtois, and was originally supposed to contain nitrogen
and iodine only, but in 1840 R. F. Marchand showed that it
contained hydrogen, whilst R. Bunsen showed that no oxygen was
present. As regards its constitution, it has been given at
different times the formulae NI3, NHI2, NH2I, N2H3I3,
&c., these varying results being due to the impurities in the
substance, owing to the different investigators working under
unsuitable conditions, and also to the decomposing action of
light. F. D. Chattaway determined its composition as
N2H3I3, by the addition of excess of standard sodium sulphite
solution, in the dark, and subsequent titration of the excess
of the sulphite with standard iodine. The constitution has
been definitely determined by O. Silberrad (Jour. of Chem.
Soc., 1905, lxxxvii. p. 55) by the interaction of nitrogen
iodide with zinc ethyl, the products of the reaction being
triethylamine and ammonia; the ammonia liberated was absorbed
in hydrochloric acid, and 95% of the theoretical amount of the
ammonium chloride was obtained. On these grounds O. Silberrad
assigns the formula NH3.NI3 to the compound, and explains
the decomposition as taking place, 2NH3.NI3 + 6Zn(C2H5)2
= 6ZnC2H5.I + 2NH3 + 2N(C2H5)3. The hydrogen in ammonia
is capable of replacement by metals, thus magnesium burns
in the gas with the formation of magnesium nitride Mg3N2,
and when the gas is passed over heated sodium or potassium,
sodamide, NaNH2, and potassamide, KNH2, are formed.
One of the most characteristic properties of ammonia is its
power of combining directly with acids to form salts; thus with
hydrochloric acid it forms ammonium chloride (sal-ammoniac); with
nitric acid, ammonium nitrate, &c. It is to be noted that H. B.
Baker (Journal of Chem. Soc., 1894, lxv. p. 612) has shown
that perfectly dry ammonia will not combine with perfectly dry
hydrochloric acid, moisture being necessary to bring about the
reaction. The aqueous solution of ammonia is very basic in
its reactions, and since it is a weak electrolyte, one must
assume the solution to contain a certain amount of ammonium
hydroxide NH4OH, although it is probably chiefly composed
of a solution of ammonia in water. (On the constitution of
aqueous ammonia solutions see also Carl Frenzel, Zeit fur
angew. Chemie, xxxii. 3, p. 319.) Ammonia finds a wide
application in organic chemistry as a synthetic reagent; it
reacts with alkyl iodides to form amines (q.v.), with esters
to form acid amides (q.v.), with halogen fatty acids to
form amino-acids; while it also combines with isocyanic esters
to form alkyl ureas and with the mustard oils to form alkyl
thioureas. Aldehydes also combine directly with ammonia.
Liquid ammonia possesses strong ionizing powers, and solutions
of salts in liquid ammonia have been much studied. For details
see E. C. Franklin and C. A. Kraus, Amer. Chem. Jour.,
1899, xxi. p. 8; 1900, xxiv. p. 83; 1902, xxviii. p. 277; also
Carl Frenzel, Zeits fur Elektrochemie, 1900, vi. p. 477.
The salts produced by the action of ammonia on acids are known
as the ammonium salts and all contain the compound radical
ammonium (NH4). Numerous attempts have been made to isolate
this radical, but so far none have been successful. By the
addition of sodium amalgam to a concentrated solution of
ammonium chloride, the so-called ammonium amalgam is obtained
as a spongy mass which floats on the surface of the liquid;
it decomposes readily at ordinary temperatures into ammonia
and hydrogen; it does not reduce silver and gold salts, a
behaviour which distinguishes it from the amalgams of the alkali
metals, and for this reason it is regarded by some chemists
as being merely mercury inflated by gaseous ammonia and
hydrogen. M. le Blanc has shown, however, that the effect of
ammonium amalgam on the magnitude of polarization of a battery
is comparable with that of the amalgams of the alkali metals.
Many of the ammonium salts are made from the ammoniacal liquor of
gas- works, by heating it with milk of lime and then absorbing the
gas so liberated in a suitable acid. (See GAS: Manufacture.)
Ammonium bromide, NH4Br, can be prepared by the direct
action of bromine on ammonia. It crystallizes in colourless
prisms, possessing a saline taste; it sublimes on heating and
is easily soluble in water. On exposure to air it gradually
assumes a yellow colour and becomes acid in its reaction.
Ammonium chloride, NH4Cl. (See SAL-AMMONIAC.)
Ammonium fluoride, NH4F, may be obtained by neutralizing
ammonia with hydrofluoric acid. It crystallizes in small prisms,
having a sharp saline taste, and is exceedingly soluble in
water. It decomposes silicates on being heated with them.
Ammonium iodide, NH4I, can be prepared by the action
of hydriodic acid on ammonia. It is easily soluble in
water, from which it crystallizes in cubes, and also in
alcohol. It gradually turns yellow on standing in moist
air, owing to decomposition with liberation of iodine.
Ammonium chlorate, NH4ClO3, is obtained by neutralizing
chloric acid with either ammonia or ammonium carbonate, or by
precipitating barium, strontium or calcium chlorates with ammonium
carbonate. It crystallizes in small needles, which are readily
soluble in water, and on heating, decompose at about 102 deg. C.,
with liberation of nitrogen, chlorine and oxygen. It is soluble
in dilute aqueous alcohol, but insoluble in strong alcohol.
Ammonium carbonates. The commercial salt is known as
sal-volatile or salt of hartshorn and was formerly obtained
by the dry distillation of nitrogenous organic matter such
as hair, horn, decomposed urine, &c., but is now obtained
by heating a mixture of sal-ammoniac, or ammonium sulphate
and chalk, to redness in iron retorts, the vapours being
condensed in leaden receivers. The crude product is refined
by sublimation, when it is obtained as a white fibrous mass,
which consists of a mixture of hydrogen ammonium carbonate,
NH4.HCO3, and ammonium carbamate, NH2COONH4, in molecular
proportions; on account of its possessing this constitution
it is sometimes called ammonium sesquicarbonate. It possesses
a strong ammoniacal smell, and on digestion with alcohol the
carbamate is dissolved and a residue of ammonium bicarbonate
is left; a similar decomposition taking place when the
sesquicarbonate is exposed to air. Ammonia gas passed into
a strong aqueous solution of the sesquicarbonate converts
it into normal ammonium carbonate, (NH4)2CO3, which can
be obtained in the crystalline condition from a solution
prepared at about 30 deg. C. This compound on exposure to air
gives off ammonia and passes back to ammonium bicarbonate.
Ammonium bicarbonate, NH4.HCO3, is formed as shown above and
also by passing carbon dioxide through a solution of the normal
compound, when it is deposited as a white powder, which has
no smell and is only slightly soluble in water. The aqueous
solution of this salt liberates carbon dioxide on exposure
to air or on heating, and becomes alkaline in reaction. The
aqueous solutions of all the carbonates when boiled undergo
decomposition with liberation of ammonia and of carbon dioxide.
Ammonium nitrate, NH4NO3, is prepared by neutralizing
nitric acid with ammonia, or ammonium carbonate, or by
double decomposition between potassium nitrate and ammonium
sulphate. It can be obtained in three different crystalline
forms, the transition points of which are 35 deg. C., 83 deg. C. and
125 deg. C. It is easily soluble in water, a considerable lowering
of temperature taking place during the operation; on this
account it is sometimes used in the preparation of freezing
mixtures. On gentle heating, it is decomposed into water
and nitrous oxide. P. E. M. Berthelot in 1883 showed that if
ammonium nitrate be rapidly heated the following reaction takes
place with explosive violence:--2NH4NO3 = 4H2O + 2N2 + O2.
Ammonium nitrite, NH4NO2, is formed by oxidizing ammonia with
ozone or hydrogen peroxide; by precipitating barium or lead
nitrites with ammonium sulphate, or silver nitrite with ammonium
chloride. The precipitate is filtered off and the solution
concentrated. It forms colourless crystals which are soluble in
water and decompose on heating, with the formation of nitrogen.
Ammonium phosphates. The normal phosphate, (NH4)3PO4,is
obtained as a crystalline powder, on mixing concentrated solutions
of ammonia and phosphoric acid, or on the addition of excess of
ammonia to the acid phosphate (NH4)2HPO4. It is soluble in
water, and the aqueous solution on boiling loses ammonia and
the acid phosphate NH4H2PO4 is formed. Diammonium hydrogen
phosphate, (NH4)2HPO4, is formed by evaporating a solution
of phosphoric acid with excess of ammonia. It crystallizes in
large transparent prisms, which melt on heating and decompose,
leaving a residue of metaphosphoric acid, (HPO3). Ammonium
dihydrogen phosphate, NH4.H2PO4, is formed when a solution
of phosphoric acid is added to ammonia until the solution
is distinctly acid. It crystallizes in quadratic prisms.
Ammonium sodium hydrogen phosphate,
NH4.NaHPO4.4H2O. (See MICROCOSMIC SALT.)
Ammonium sulphate (NH4)2SO4 is prepared commercially from
the ammoniacal liquor of gas-works (see GAS: Manufacture)
and is purified by recrystallization. It forms large rhombic
prisms, has a somewhat saline taste and is easily soluble in
water. The aqueous solution on boiling loses some ammonia and
forms an acid sulphate. It is used largely as an artificial
manure, and also for the preparation of other ammonium salts.
Ammonium persulphate (NH4)2S2O8 has been prepared by
H. Marshall (Jour. of Chem. Soc., 1891, lix. p. 777) by
the method used for the preparation of the corresponding
potassium salt (see SULPHUR). Pure specimens are
difficult to obtain. It is very soluble in cold water,
a large fall of temperature accompanying solution.