violent hurricanes. It is remarkable that the dry season (October to April) is coincident with the period of the west monsoon. Indigenous mammals are poor in species as well as few in number; birds are more abundant, but of no greater variety. The entomology of the island, however, is very rich, particularly in respect of Lepidoptera. Shells are obtained in great numbers and variety. Turtle-shell is also largely exported. The vegetation is also rich, and Amboyna produces most of the common tropical fruits and vegetables, including the sago-palm, bread-fruit, cocoa-nut, sugar-cane, maize, coffee, pepper and cotton. Cloves, however, form its chief product, though the trade in them is less important than formerly, when the Dutch prohibited the rearing of the clove-tree in all the other islands subject to their rule, in order to secure the monopoly to Amboyna. Amboyna wood, of great value for ornamental work, is obtained from the hard knots which occur on certain trees in the forests of Ceram. The population (about 39,000) is divided into two classes— orang burger or citizens, and orang negri or villagers, the former being a class of native origin enjoying certain privileges conferred on their ancestors by the old Dutch East India Company. The natives are of mixed Malay-Papuan blood. They are mostly Christians or Mahommedans. There are also, besides the Dutch, some Arabs, Chinese and a few Portuguese settlers.
Amboyna, the chief town, and seat of the resident and military commander of the Moluccas, is protected by Fort Victoria, and is a clean little town with wide streets, well planted. Agriculture, fisheries and import and export trade furnish the chief means of subsistence. It lies on the north-west of the peninsula of Leitimor, and has a safe and commodious anchorage. Its population is about 8000.
The Portuguese were the first European nation to visit Amboyna (1511). They established a factory there in 1521, but did not obtain peaceable possession of it till 1580, and were dispossessed by the Dutch in 1609. About 1615 the British formed a settlement in the island, at Cambello, which they retained until 1623, when it was destroyed by the Dutch, and frightful tortures inflicted on the unfortunate persons connected with it. In 1654, after many fruitless negotiations, Cromwell compelled the United Provinces to give the sum of L. 300,000, together with a small island, as compensation to the descendants of those who suffered in the ``Amboyna massacre.'' In 1673 the poet Dryden produced his tragedy of Amboyna, or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants. In 1796 the British, under Admiral Rainier, captured Amboyna, but restored it to the Dutch at the peace of Amiens in 1802. It was retaken by the British in 1810, but once more restored to the Dutch in 1814.
AMBRACIA (more correctly AMPRACIA), an ancient Corinthian colony, situated about 7 m. from the Ambracian Gulf, on a bend of the navigable river Aracthus (or Aratthus), in the midst of a fertile wooded plain. It was founded between 650 and 625 B.C. by Gorgus, son of the Corinthian tyrant Cypselus. After the expulsion of Gorgus's son Periander its government developed into a strong democracy. The early policy of Ambracia was determined by its loyalty to Corinth (for which it probably served as an entrepot in the Epirus trade), its consequent aversion to Corcyra, and its frontier disputes with the Amphilochians and Acarnanians. Hence it took a prominent part in the Peloponnesian War until the crushing defeat at Idomene (426) crippled its resources. In the 4th century it continued its traditional policy, but in 338 surrendered to Philip II. of Macedon. After forty-three years of autonomy under Macedonian suzerainty it became the capital of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who adorned it with palace, temples and theatres. In the wars of Philip V. of Macedon and the Epirotes against the Aetolian league (220-205) Ambracia passed from one alliance to the other, but ultimately joined the latter confederacy. During the struggle of the Aetolians against Rome it stood a stubborn siege. After its capture and plunder by M. Fulvius Nobilior in 189, it fell into insignificance. The foundation by Augustus of Nicopolis (q.v.), into which the remaining inhabitants were drafted, left the site desolate. In Byzantine times a new settlement took its place under the name of Arta (q.v.). Some fragmentary walls of large, well-dressed blocks near this latter town indicate the early prosperity of Ambracia.
AUTHORITIES. — Thucydides ii. 68 - iii. 114; Aristotle,Politics, 1303a sqq.; Strabo p. 325; Polybius xxii. 9-13;Livy xxxviii. 3-9; G. Wolfe, Journal of Geographical Society(London), iii. (1833) pp. 77-94; E. Oberhummer, Akarnanien,Ambrakien, &c. im Altertum (Munich, 1887). (M. O. B. C.)
AMBRIZ, a West African seaport belonging to Portugal, at the mouth of the Loje River, in 7 deg. 50' S., 13 deg. E., some 70 m. N. of Loanda. It forms a part of the province of Angola (q.v.). The town is within the free-trade area of the conventional basin of the Congo river. Its chief exports are rubber, gum, coffee and copper. Pop. about 2500. Ambriz was, previously to 1884, the northernmost point of Africa south of the equator acknowledged as Portuguese territory.
AMBROS, AUGUST WILHELM (1816-1876), Austrian composer and historian of music, was born at Mauth near Prague. His father was a cultured man, and his mother was the sister of R. G. Kiesewetter (1773-1850), the musical archaeologist and collector. Ambros was well educated in music and the arts, which were his abiding passion: but he was destined for the law and an official career in the Austrian civil service, and he occupied various important posts under the ministry of justice, music being the employment of his leisure. From 1850 onwards he became well known as a critic and essay-writer, and in 1860 he began working on his magnum opus, his History of Music, which was published at intervals from 1864 in five volumes, the last two (1878, 1882) being edited and completed by Otto Kade and Langhaus. Ambros became professor of the history of music at Prague in 1869. He was an excellent pianist, and the author of numerous compositions somewhat reminiscent of Mendelssohn. He died at Vienna on the 28th of June 1876.
AMBROSE (fl. 1190), Norman poet, and chronicler of the Third Crusade, author of a work called L'Estoire de la guerre sainte, which describes in rhyming French verse the adventures of Richard Coeur de Lion as a crusader. The poem is known to us only through one Vatican MS., and long escaped the notice of historians. The credit for detecting its value belongs to the late Gaston Paris, although his edition (1897) was partially anticipated by the editors of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, who published some selections in the twenty-seventh volume of their Scriptores (1885). Ambrose followed Richard I. as a noncombatant, and not improbably as a court-minstrel. He speaks as an eye-witness of the king's doings at Messina, in Cyprus, at the siege of Acre, and in the abortive campaign which followed the capture of that city. Ambrose is surprisingly accurate in his chronology; though he did not complete his work before 1195, it is evidently founded upon notes which he had taken in the course of his pilgrimage. He shows no greater political insight than we should expect from his position; but relates what he had seen and heard with a naive vivacity which compels attention. He is prejudiced against the Saracens, against the French, and against all the rivals or enemies of his master; but he is never guilty of deliberate misrepresentation. He is rather to be treated as a biographer than as a historian of the Crusade in its broader aspects. None the less he is the chief authority for the events of the years 1190-1192, so far as these are connected with the Holy Land. The Itinerarium Regis Ricardi (formerly attributed to Geoffrey Vinsauf, but in reality the work of Richard, a canon of Holy Trinity, London) is little more than a free paraphrase of Ambrose. The first book of the Itinerarium contains some additional facts; and the whole of the Latin version is adorned with dowers of rhetoric which are foreign to the style of Ambrose. But it is no longer possible to regard the Itinerarium as a first-hand narrative. Stubbs's edition of the Itinerarium (Rolls Series, 1864), in which the contrary hypothesis is maintained, appeared before Gaston Paris published his discovery.
See the edition of L'Estoire de la guerre sainte by Gaston Paris in the Collection des documents inedits sur l'histoire de France (1897); the editor discusses in his introduction the biography of Ambrose, the value of the poem as a historical source, and its relation to the Itinerarium. R. Pauli's remarks (in Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores, xxvii.) also deserve attention. (H. W. C. D.)
AMBROSE, SAINT (c. 340-307), bishop of Milan, one of the most eminent fathers of the church in the 4th century, was a citizen of Rome, born about 337-340 in Treves, where his father was prefect of Gallia Narbonensis. His mother was a woman of intellect and piety. Ambrose was early destined to follow his father's career, and was accordingly educated in Rome. He made such progress in literature, law and rhetoric, that the praetor Anicius Probus first gave him a place in the council and then made him consular prefect of Liguria and Emilia, with headquarters at Milan, where he made an excellent administrator. In 374 Auxentius, bishop of Milan, died, and the orthodox and Arian parties contended for the succession. An address delivered to them at this crisis by Ambrose led to his being acclaimed as the only competent occupant of the see; though hitherto only a catechumen, he was baptized, and a few days saw him duly installed as bishop of Milan. He immediately betook himself to the necessary studies, and acquitted himself in his new office with ability, boldness and integrity. Having apportioned his money among the poor, and settled his lands upon the church, with the exception of making his sister Marcellina tenant during life, and having committed the care of his family to his brother, he entered upon a regular course of theological study, under the care of Simplician, a presbyter of Rome, and devoted himself to the labours of the church, labours which were temporarily interrupted by an invasion of Goths, which compelled Ambrose and other churchmen to retire to Illyricum.
The eloquence of Ambrose soon found ample scope in the dispute between the Arians and the orthodox or Catholic party, whose cause the new bishop espoused. Gratian, the son of the elder Valentinian, took the same side; but the younger Valentinian, who had now become his colleague in the empire, adopted the opinions of the Arians, and all the arguments and eloquence of Ambrose could not reclaim the young prince to the orthodox faith. Theodosius, the emperor of the East, also professed the orthodox belief; but there were many adherents of Arius scattered throughout his dominions. In this distracted state of religious opinion, two leaders of the Arians, Palladius and Secundianus, confident of numbers, prevailed upon Gratian to call a general council from all parts of the empire. This request appeared so equitable that he complied without hesitation; but Ambrose, foreseeing the consequence, prevailed upon the emperor to have the matter determined by a council of the Western bishops. A synod, composed of thirty-two bishops, was accordingly held at Aquileia in the year 381. Ambrose was elected president; and Palladius, being called upon to defend his opinions, declined, insisting that the meeting was a partial one, and that, all the bishops of the empire not being present, the sense of the Christian church concerning the question in dispute could not be obtained. A vote was then taken, when Palladius and his associate Secundianus were deposed from the episcopal office.
Ambrose was equally zealous in combating the attempt made by the upholders of the old state religion to resist the enactments of Christian emperors. The pagan party was led by Quintus Aurelius Symmachus (q.v.), consul in 391, who presented to Valentinian II. a forcible but unsuccessful petition praying for the restoration of the altar of Victory to its ancient station in the hall of the senate, the proper support of seven vestal virgins, and the regular observance of the other pagan ceremonies. To this petition Ambrose replied in a letter to Valentinian, arguing that the devoted worshippers of idols had often been forsaken by their deities; that the native valour of the Roman soldiers had gained their victories, and not the pretended influence of pagan priests; that these idolatrous worshippers requested for themselves what they refused to Christians; that voluntary was more honourable than constrained virginity; that as the Christian ministers declined to receive temporal emoluments, they should also be denied to pagan priests; that it was absurd to suppose that God would inflict a famine upon the empire for neglecting to support a religious system contrary to His will as revealed in the Scriptures; that the whole process of nature encouraged innovations, and that all nations had permitted them even in religion; that heathen sacrifices were offensive to Christians; and that it was the duty of a Christian prince to suppress pagan ceremonies. In the epistles of Symmachus and of Ambrose both the petition and the reply are preserved. They are a strange blend of sophistry, superstition, sound sense and solid argument.
The increasing strength of the Arians proved a formidable task for ambrose. In 384 the young emperor and his mother Justina, along with a considerable number of clergy and laity professing the Arian faith, requested from the bishop the use of two churches, one in the city, the other in the suburbs of Milan. Ambrose refused, and was required to answer for his conduct before the council. He went, attended by a numerous crowd of people, whose impetuous zeal so overawed the ministers of Valentinian that he was permitted to retire without making the surrender of the churches. The day following, when he was performing divine service in the Basilica, the prefect of the city came to persuade him to give up at least the Portian church in the suburbs. As he still continued obstinate, the court proceeded to violent measures: the officers of the household were commanded to prepare the Basilica and the Portian churches to celebrate divine service upon the arrival of the emperor and his mother at the ensuing festival of Easter. Perceiving the growing strength of the prelate's interest, the court deemed it prudent to restrict its demand to the use of one of the churches. But all entreaties proved in vain, and drew forth the following characteristic declaration from the bishop: — ``If you demand my person, I am ready to submit: carry me to prison or to death, I will not resist; but I will never betray the church of Christ. I will not call upon the people to succour me; I will die at the foot of the altar rather than desert it. The tumult of the people I will not encourage: but God alone can appease it.''
Many circumstances in the history of Ambrose are strongly characteristic of the general spirit of the times. The chief causes of his victory over his opponents were his great popularity and the superstitious reverence paid to the episcopal character at that period. But it must also be noted that he used several indirect means to obtain and support his authority with the people. He was liberal to the poor; it was his custom to comment severely in his preaching on the public characters of his times; and he introduced popular reforms in the order and manner of public worship. It is alleged, too, that at a time when the influence of Ambrose required vigorous support, he was admonished in a dream to search for, and found under the pavement of the church, the remains of two martyrs, Gervasius and Protasius. The applause of the vulgar was mingled with the derision of the court party.
Although the court was displeased with the religious principles and conduct of Ambrose, it respected his great political talents; and when necessity required, his aid was solicited and generously granted. When Maximus usurped the supreme power in Gaul, and was meditating a descent upon Italy, Valentinian sent Ambrose to dissuade him from the undertaking, and the embassy was successful. On a second attempt of the same kind Ambrose was again employed; and although he was unsuccessful, it cannot be doubted that, if his advice had been followed, the schemes of the usurper would have proved abortive; but the enemy was permitted to enter Italy; and Milan was taken. Justina and her son fled; but Ambrose remained at his post, and did good service to many of the sufferers by causing the plate of the church to be melted for their relief. Theodosius, the emperor of the East, espoused the cause of Justina, and regained the kingdom. This Theodosius was sternly rebuked by Ambrose for the massacre of 7000 persons at Thessalonica in 390, and was bidden imitate David in his repentance as he had imitated him in guilt.
In 302, after the assassination of Valentinian and the usurpation of Eugenius, Ambrose fled from Milan; but when Theodosius was eventually victorious, he supplicated the emperor for the pardon of those who had supported Eugenius. Soon after acquiring the undisputed possession of the Roman empire, Theodosius died at Milan in 395, and two years later (4th
April 397) Ambrose also passed away. He was succeeded by Simplician.
A man of pure character, vigorous mind, unwearying zeal and uncommon generosity, Ambrose ranks high among the fathers of the ancient church on many counts. His chief faults were ambition and bigotry. Though ranking with Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great, as one of the Latin ``doctors,'' he is most naturally compared with Hilary, whom he surpasses in administrative excellence as much as he falls below him in theological ability. Even here, however, his achievements are of no mean order, especially when we remember his juridical training and his comparatively late handling of Biblical and doctrinal subjects. In matters of exegesis he is, like Hilary, an Alexandrian; his chief productions are homiletic commentaries on the early Old Testament narratives, e.g. the Hexaemeron (Creation) and Abraham, some of the Psalms, and the Gospel according to Luke. In dogmatic he follows Basil of Caesarea and other Greek authors, but nevertheless gives a distinctly Western cast to the speculations of which he treats. This is particularly manifest in the weightier emphasis which he lays upon human sin and divine grace, and in the place which he assigns to faith in the individual Christian life. His chief works in this field are De fide ad Gratianuni Augustunn, De Spiritu Sancto, De incarnationis Dominicae sacramento, De mysteriis. His great spiritual successor, Augustine, whose conversion was helped by Ambrose's sermons, owes more to him than to any writer except Paul. Ambrose's intense episcopal consciousness furthered the growing doctrine of the Church and its sacerdotal ministry, while the prevalent asceticism of the day, continuing the Stoic and Ciceronian training of his youth, enabled him to promulgate a lofty standard of Christian ethics. Thus we have the De officiis ministrorum, De viduis, De virginitate and De paenitentia.
Ambrose has also left several funeral orations and ninety- one letters, but it is as a hymn-writer that he perhaps deserves most honour. Catching the impulse from Hilary and confirmed in it by the success of Arian psalmody, Ambrose composed several hymns, marked by dignified simplicity, which were not only effective in themselves but served as a fruitful model for later times. We cannot certainly assign to him more than four or five (Deus Creator Omnium, Aeterne rerum conditor, Jam surgit hora tertia, and the Christmas hymn Veni redemptor gentium) of those that have come down to us. Each of these hymns has eight four-line stanzas and is written in strict iambic tetrameter.
On the Ambrosian ritual see LITURGY; on the Ambrosian library see LIBRARIES; on the church founded by him at Milan in 387 see MILAN. Editions: The Benedictine (4 vols., Venice, 1748 ff.); Migne, Patrol. Lat. xiv.-xvii.; P. A. Ballerini (6 vols., Milan, 1875 ff.). LITERATURE: Th. Forster, Ambrose, B. of Mailand (Halle, 1884), and art. in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyk., where the literature is cited in full; A. Ebert, Glesch. der christlich-latein. Litt. (2nd ed., 1889); O. Bardenhewer, Patrologic (2nd ed., 1891); A. Harnack, Hist. of Dogma, esp. vol. v.; W. Bright, Age ofthe Fathers. (A. J. G.)
AMBROSE (ANDREY SERTIS-KAMENSKIY) (1708-1771), archbishop of Moscow, was born at Nezhine in the government of Chernigov, and studied in the school of St Alexander Nevskiy, where he afterwards became a tutor. At the age of thirty-one he entered a monastery, where he took the name of Ambrose. Subsequently he was appointed archimandrite of the convent of New Jerusalem at Voznesensk. From this post he was transferred as bishop, first to the diocese of Pereyaslav, and afterwards to that of Krusitsy near Moscow, finally becoming archbishop of Moscow in 1761. He was famous not only for his interest in schemes for the alleviation of poverty in Moscow, but also as the founder of new churches and monasteries. A terrible outbreak of plague occurred in Moscow in 1771, and the populace began to throng round an image of the Virgin to which they attributed supernatural healing power. Ambrose, perceiving that this crowding together merely enabled the contagion to spread, had the image secretly removed. The mob, suspecting that he was responsible for its removal, attacked a monastery to which he had retired, dragged him away from the sanctuary, and, having given him time to receive the sacrament, strangled him. Ambrose's works include a liturgy and translations from the Fathers.
AMBROSE (AMBROISE), AUTPERT (d. 778), French Benedictine monk. He became abbe of St Vincent on the Volturno ``in the time of Desiderius, king of the Lombards.'' He wrote a considerable number of works on the Bible and religious subjects generally. Among these are commentaries on the Apocalypse (see Bibl. Patrum, xiii. 403), on the Psalms, on the Song of Solomon; Lives of SS. Paldo, Tuto and Vaso (according to Mabillon); Assumption of the Virgin; Combat between the Virtues and the Vices.
See Mabillon, Acta sanct. Bolland. III. ii. 259, 266;Georg Lommel, Der ostrsankische Reformator Ambrosius(Giessen, 1847); Bollandist Bibl. hag. lat. (1898), 61.
AMBROSE, ISAAC (1604-1663/4), English Puritan divine, was the son of Richard Ambrose, vicar of Ormskirk, and was probably descended from the Ambroses of Lowick in Furness, a well-known Catholic family. He entered Brazenose College, Oxford, in 1621, in his seventeenth year. Having graduated B.A. in 1624 and been ordained, he received in 1627 the little cure of Castleton in Derbyshire. By the influence of William Russell, earl of Bedford, he was appointed one of the king's itinerant preachers in Lancashire, and after living for a time in Garstang, he was selected by the Lady Margaret Hoghton as vicar of Preston. He associated himself with Presbyterianism, and was on the celebrated committee for the ejection of ``scandalous and ignorant ministers and schoolmasters'' during the Commonwealth. So long as Ambrose continued at Preston he was favoured with the warm friendship of the Hoghton family, their ancestral woods and the tower near Blackburn affording him sequestered places for those devout meditations and ``experiences'' that give such a charm to his diary, portions of which are quoted in his Prima Media and Ultima (1650, 1659). The immense auditory of his sermon (Redeeming the Time) at the funeral of Lady Hoghton was long a living tradition all over the county. On account of the feeling engendered by the civil war Ambrose left his great church of Preston in 1654, and became minister of Garstang, whence, however, in 1662 he was ejected with the two thousand ministers who refused to conform. His after years were passed among old friends and in quiet meditation at Preston. He died of apoplexy about the 20th of January 1663/4. As a religious writer Ambrose has a vividness and freshness of imagination possessed by scarcely any of the Puritan Nonconformists. Many who have no love for Puritan doctrine, nor sympathy with Puritan experience, have appreciated the pathos and beauty of his writings, and his Looking to Jesus long held its own in popular appreciation with the writings of John Bunyan.
AMBROSE THE CAMALDULIAN, the common name of AMBROGIO TRAVERSARI (1386-1439), French ecclesiastic, born near Florence at the village of Portico. At the age of fourteen he entered the Camaldulian Order in the monastery of Sta Maria degli Angeli, and rapidly became a leading theologian and Hellenist. In Greek literature his master was Emmanuel Chrysoloras. He became general of the order in 1431, and was a leading advocate of the papacy. This attitude he showed clearly when he attended the council of Basel as legate of Eugenius IV. So strong was his hostility to some of the delegates that he described Basel as a western Babylon. He likewise supported the pope at Ferrara and Florence, and worked hard in the attempt to reconcile the Eastern and Western Churches. Though this cause was unsuccessful, Ambrose is interesting as typical of the new humanism which was growing up within the church. Voigt says that he was the first monk in Florence in whom the love of letters and art became predominant over his ecclesiastical views. Thus while among his own colleagues he seemed merely a hypocritical and arrogant priest, in his relations with his brother humanists, such as Cosimo de Medici, he appeared as the student of classical antiquities and especially of Greek theological authors. His chief works are: — Hodoeporicon, an account of a journey taken by the pope's command, during which he visited the monasteries of Italy; a translation of
Palladius' Life of Chrysostom; of Nineteen Sermonsof Ephraem Syrus; of the Book of St Basil onVirginity. A number of MSS. remain in the library ofSt Mark at Venice. He died on the 20th of October 1439.
See G. Voigt, Die Wiederbelebung des klass. Altertums (2 vols., 3rd ed., 1893); his Epistolae were published by Cannato (Florence, 1759 with a life by Menus; Bollandist Bibl. hag. lat. (1898), 65; A. Masius, Uber die Stellung des Kamaldulensers Amborgio Traversari zum Papst Eugen IV. und zum Basler Konzil (Dobeln, 1888); Savigny, Geschichte rom. Rechts, Mittel. (1850), vi. 422-424.
AMBROSIA, in ancient mythology, sometimes the food, sometimes the drink of the gods. The word has generally been derived from Gr. a, not, and mbrotos, mortal; hence the food or drink of the immortals. A. W. Verrall, however, denies that there is any clear example in which the word ambrosios necessarily means ``immortal,'' and prefers to explain it as ``fragrant,'' a sense which is always suitable; cf. W. Leaf, Iliad (2nd ed.), on the phrase ambrosios upuos (ii. 18). If so, the word may be derived from the Semitic ambar (ambergris) to which Eastern nations attribute miraculous properties. W. H. Roscher thinks that both nectar and ambrosia were kinds of honey, in which case their power of conferring immortality would be due to the supposed healing and cleansing power of honey (see further NECTAR). Derivatively the word Ambrosia (neut. plur.) was given to certain festivals in honour of Dionysus, probably because of the predominance of feasting in connexion with them.
The name Ambrosia was also applied by Dioscorides and Pliny to certain herbs, and has been retained in modern botany for a genus of plants from which it has been extended to the group of dicotyledons called Ambrosiaceae, including Ambrosia, Xanthium and Iva, all annual herbaceous plants represented in America. Ambrosia maritima and some other species occur also in the Mediterranean region.
There is also an American beetle, the Ambrosia beetle, belonging to the family of Scolytidae, which derives its name from its curious cultivation of a succulent fungus, called ambrosia. Ambrosia beetles bore deep though minute galleries into trees and timber, and the wood-dust provides a bed for the growth of the fungus, on which the insects and larvae feed.
AMBROSIANS, the name given to several religious brotherhoods which at various times since the 14th century have sprung up in and around Milan; they have about as much connexion with St Ambrose as the ``Jeromites'' who were found chiefly in upper Italy and Spain have with their patron saint. Only the oldest of them, the Pratres S. Ambrosii ad Nemus, had anything more than a very local significance. This order is known from a bull of Gregory XI. addressed to the monks of the church of St Ambrose outside Milan. These monks, it would appear, though under the authority of a prior, had no rule. In response to the request of the archbishop, the pope had commanded them to follow the rule of Augustine and to be known by the above name. They were further to recite the Ambrosian office. Subsequently the order had a number of independent establishments in Italy which were united into one congregation by Eugenius IV., their headquarters being at Milan. Their discipline afterwards became so slack that an appeal was made to Cardinal Borromeo asking him to reform their houses. By Sixtus V. the order was amalgamated with the congregation of St Barnabas, but Innocent X. dissolved it in 1650.
The name Ambrosians is also given to a 16th-century Anabaptist sect, which laid claim to immediate communication with God through the Holy Ghost. Basing their theology upon the words of the Gospel of St John i. 9 — ``There was the true light which lighteth every man, coming into the world'' — they denied the necessity of any priests or ministers to interpret the Bible. Their leader Ambrose went so far as to hold further that the revelation which was vouchsafed to him was a higher authority than the Scriptures. The doctrine of the Ambrosians, who belonged probably to that section of the Anabaptists known as Pneumatici, may be compared with the ``Inner Light'' doctrine of the Quakers.
See Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopadie, i. 439.
AMBROSIASTER. A commentary on St Paul's epistles, ``brief in words but weighty in matter,'' and valuable for the criticism of the Latin text of the New Testament, was long attributed to St Ambrose. Erasmus in 1527 threw doubt on the accuracy of this ascription, and the author is usually spoken of as Ambrosiaster or pseudo-Ambrose. Owing to the fact that Augustine cites part of the commentary on Romans as by ``Sanctus Hilarius'' it has been ascribed by various critics at different times to almost every known Hilary. Dom G. Morin (Rev. d'hist. et de litt. religiouses, tom. iv. 97 f.) broke new ground by suggesting in 1899 that the writer was Isaac, a converted Jew, writer of a tract on the Trinity and Incarnation, who was exiled to Spain in 378-380 and then relapsed to Judaism, but he afterwards abandoned this theory of the authorship in favour of Decimus Hilarianus Hilarius, proconsul of Africa in 377. With this attribution Professor Alex. Souter, in his Study of Ambrosiaster (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1905), agrees. There is scarcely anything to be said for the possibility of Ambrose having written the book before he became a bishop, and added to it in later years, incorporating remarks of Hilary of Poitiers on Romans. The best presentation of the case for Ambrose is by P. A. Ballerini in his complete edition of that father's works.
In the book cited above Professor Souter also discusses the authorship of the Quaestiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti, which the MSS. ascribe to Augustine. He concludes, on very thorough philological and other grounds, that this is with one possible slight exception the work of the same ``Ambrosiaster.'' The same conclusion had been arrived at previously by Dom Morin.
AMBROSINI, BARTOLOMEO (1588-1657), Italian naturalist, was born and died at Bologna. He was a pupil of Aldrovandi, several of whose works he published, and whom he succeeded eventually as director of the university botanical garden. He studied at the university, and became successively professor of philosophy, of botany and of medicine; and during the plague of 1630 in Bologna he worked assiduously for the relief of the sufferers. He was the author of several medical works of some importance in their day.
His brother, GIACINTO AMBROSINI (1605-1672), was a distinguished botanist, who succeeded Bartolomeo as professor of botany and director of the university garden in 1657. He published a catalogue of its plants and also a botanical dictionary.
AMBROSIUS AURELIANUS, leader of the Britons against the Saxons in the 5th century, was, according to the legends preserved in Gildas and the Historia Brittonum, of Roman extraction. There are signs of the existence of two parties in the national opposition to the invaders, but as Pascent, son of Vortigern, is said by Nennius to have held his dominions in the west by leave of Ambrosius, the Roman element seems to have triumphed. Some measure of success appears to have attended the efforts of Ambrosius, and it has been suggested that Amesbury in Wiltshire is connected with Emrys, the Celtic form of his name.
See Bede, Eccl. Hist. (Plummer), i. 16; Nennius, Hist.Britt. sec. 31; Gildas, De excidio Brittarum, sec. 25;J. Rhys, Celtic Britain (1884), pp. 104, 105, 107.
AMBULANCE (from the Fr. ambulance, formerly hopital ambulant, derived from the Lat. ambulare, to move about), a term generally applied in England and America to the wagon or other vehicle in which the wounded in battle, or those who have sustained injuries in civil life, are conveyed to hospital. More strictly, in military parlance, the term imports a hospital establishment moving with an army in the field, to provide for the collection, treatment and care of the wounded on the battlefield, and of the sick, until they can be removed to hospitals of a more stationary character. In 1905-1906 the term ``field ambulance'' was adopted in the British service to denote this organization, the former division of the ambulance service into ``bearer companies'' and ``field hospitals'' being done away with. The description of the British service given below applies generally to the system in vogue in the army after the experience gained in the South African War of 1899-1902; but in recent years the medical arrangements in connexion with the British army hospitals have been altered in various details, and the
changes in progress showed no sign of absolute finality. Some of these, however, were rather of nomenclature than of substance, and hardly affect the principles as described below.
History.
The ambulance organization which, variously modified in details, now prevails in all civilized armies, only dates from the last decade of the 18th century. Before that time wounded soldiers were either carried to the rear by comrades or left unattended to and exposed until the fighting was over. Surgical assistance did not reach the battlefield till the day after the engagement, or even later; and for many of the wounded it was then too late. In 1792 Baron Dominique Jean Larrey (1766-1842) of the French army introduced his system of ambulances volantes, or flying field hospitals, capable of moving with speed from place to place, like the ``flying artillery'' of that time. They were adapted both for giving the necessary primary surgical treatment and for removing the wounded quickly from the sphere of fighting. Napoleon warmly supported Larrey in his efforts in this direction, and the system was soon brought to a high state of efficiency in the Grande Armee. About the same time another distinguished surgeon in the French army, Baron Pierre Francois Percy (1754-1825), organized a corps of brancardiers, or stretcher-bearers. These were soldiers trained and equipped for the duty of collecting the wounded while a battle was in progress, and carrying them to a place of safety, where their wounds and injuries could be attended to.
Geneva Convention.
Animportant step towards the amelioration of the condition of the wounded of armies in the field was the European Convention signed at Geneva in 1864, by the terms of which, subject to certain regulations, not only the wounded themselves but also the official staff of ambulances and their equipment were rendered neutral, the former, therefore, not being liable to be retained as prisoners of war, nor the latter to be taken as prize of war. This convention has greatly favoured the development of ambulance establishments, but as all combatants have not the same knowledge of the conditions of this convention, or do not interpret them in the same way, charges of treachery and abuse of the Red Cross flag are but too common in modern warfare.
The American Civil War marked the beginning of the modern ambulance system. The main feature, however, of the hospital organization throughout that war was the railway hospital service, which provided for the rapid conveyance of the sick and wounded to the rear of the contending armies. Hospital carriages, equipped with medical stores and appliances, for the transport of cases from the front to the base, were rapidly introduced into other armies, and played a great part in the ambulance service of the Franco-German War.
German system.
The German hospital service as existing at the time of the Franco-German War of 1870-71 was modified and extended by the Kriegs Sanitats Ordnung of 1878 and the KriegsEtappen Ordnung of 1887, which completed the organization by the addition in time of war of numerous subordinate offices and departments. The main divisions of the ambulance organization of the German army in the field fall into: (1) sanitary detachments, (2) field hospitals, (3) flying hospitals, (4) hospital reserve depots, (5) ``committees for the transport of the sick,'' and (6) railway hospital trains. The whole administration of the ambulance service of the grand army in the field is in the hands of the chief of the ambulance sanitary staff, who is attached to headquarters. Next in command come surgeons- general of armies in the field, surgeons-general of army corps, and under them again surgeons-in-chief of divisions and regiments. Civil consulting surgeons of eminence, and professors from the universities, are also attached to the various armies and divisions to co-operate with and act as advisers to the surgeons of the standing military surgical staff. The hospital transport service on the lines of communication is highly organized and the hospital railway carriages are elaborately equipped.
French system. The French ambulance system, finally settled by the reglement of 1884, is organized on almost identical lines with the German; one of the principal peculiarities of the former being the ambulances volantes already referred to. The peace organization of the German and French systems does not materially differ from that of the British service.
Japanese system.
In the Japanese army a special feature is the sanitary corps, whose duty is the prevention of disease among the troops; it has been brought to a great pitch of perfection, with the result that in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) the immunity of the troops from all forms of preventable disease surpassed all previous experience. Not only was the army accompanied by sanitary experts who advised on all questions of camping grounds, water supply, &c., but before the war began the Intelligence Department collected information as to the diseases of the country likely to be the scene of operations, unhealthy places to be avoided, and precautions to be taken.
British army system.
Coming now to the ambulance system of the British army, in which are comprised the arrangements and organization of the medical department for the care and treatment of the sick and wounded from the time they are injured or taken ill, till they are able to return to duty or are invalided home, we will trace the progress of a wounded man from the field of battle to his home; remembering that, as British troops are usually engaged overseas, hospital ships as well as land transport are necessary.
First field dressing.
When a soldier falls wounded in action he is attended by the regimental surgeon and stretcher-bearers, who apply some extemporized method of stopping bleeding and dress the wounds with the ``first field dressing'' — a packet of antiseptic material which every officer and man on active service carries stitched to some part of his clothing, and which contains everything necessary for dressing an ordinary gunshot wound. Recent wars have demonstrated that in all uncomplicated cases it is better to leave this dressing undisturbed, as the wounds made by modern projectiles heal up at once if left alone, if air and dirt have been thus excluded.
Collecting station.
From the field he is carried on a stretcher by bearers (formerly of the ``Bearer Companies'') of the Royal Army Medical Corps to the collecting station, where he is placed on an ambulance wagon of the first line of assistance and taken to the dressing station. Here his would will be examined if considered necessary, but as on the field the first medical officer who examined him has already attached a ``specification tally'' to the patient, giving particulars of the wound, it will probably not be disturbed unless complicated by bleeding, splintering of bone or some other condition requiring interference. Any operation, however, which is urgently called for will be here performed, nourishment, stimulants and opiates administered if required, and the patient moved to the field hospital in an ambulance wagon of the second line of assistance. From the field hospital he is transferred as soon as possible by the ambulance train to the general hospital at the advanced base of operations, and from there in due time in another train to the base of operations at the coast, from which he is ultimately either returned to duty or sent home in a hospital ship. The organization by which these requirements are fulfilled is the following: —
Regimental arrangements.
Every regiment and fighting unit has posted to it, on proceeding on active service, a medical officer who looks after the health of the men and advises the commanding officer on sanitary matters. When the regiment goes into action he takes command of the regimental stretcher-bearers who, to the number of two per company have been in peace time instructed in first aid and in the carrying the wounded on stretchers. These men leave their arms behind and wear the Red Cross armlets, to indicate their non-combatant functions, but in these days, when a battle is often fought at long ranges, it is not to be wondered at, or attributed to disregard of the red cross flag by the enemy, if medical officers and stretcher-bearers are hit. The bearer company into whose charge the wounded man next passes is composed of men of the Royal Army Medical Corps, with a detachment of the Army Service Corps for transport duties. In future, bearer sections of the Field Ambulances will perform the duties of the bearer company. Its function is to collect and succour the wounded on the battlefield and to hand them over to the field hospitals, with which these bearer companies
are closely associated, though separately organized. In the Indian army the bearer company is provided from the personnel of the field hospital when there is a battle, and reverts to the hospital again after it is over. The war in South Africa of 1899- 1902 clearly demonstrated the superiority of the Indian plan; for after the action the bearer company staff should be available to give the much-needed help in the field hospital, and some amalgamation of the two organizations, or something after the plan of the ambulance volante of the French, is necessary. The bearers afford the wounded any treatment required, supply water and sedatives, and then carry them back on stretchers to the collecting station in the rear, whence they are conveyed to the dressing station in the wagons or other form of transport.
At the dressing station, which ought to be out of range of the firing, and should have a good water supply, the patient is made as comfortable as possible, nourishment and stimulants are administered, and he is then taken to the field hospital. In times of great stress, when it is desirable to remove the wounded quickly from the field, and there are no roads or wheeled transport is not available, large numbers of bearers are employed to carry them on stretchers, &c. These men are engaged locally and are soon given the slight training necessary. This was done in Natal after the battles on the Tugela (1899), in which there were some thousands of wounded to be conveyed; also in Egypt, where the local troops not required for the fighting line were requisitioned; the Japanese in Mongolia employed hundreds of Chinese coolies for this purpose, the general use of sedan-chairs in China having accustomed the poorer class of natives to this kind of labour.
Indian bearers.
In India, the rank and file of the Royal Army Medical Corps not being employed, the bearer work is carried out by natives specially enlisted and organized into a corps. These men are bearers by caste — a reminiscence of the system which prevailed generally a hundred years ago, and is still met with in out-of-the-way places, of conveyance of travellers in dhoolies, which are closed wooden carriages fixed on long poles and carried on men's shoulders. The bearers convey the wounded in dandies, similar to dhoolies, but made mostly of canvas, so that they are much lighter. The courage of these bearers on the battlefield has often been praised. The old bearer caste is, however, rapidly dying out owing to the general discontinuance of the use of dhoolies. Thus the ambulance organization in India is entirely different from that in other parts of the British empire. The rank and file of the Royal Army Medical Corps are not employed there, although the medical officers are. The warrant and non-commissioned ranks are replaced by a most useful body of men of Anglo-Indian or Eurasian (half caste) birth, called the Subordinate Medical Department, the members of which, now called assistant surgeons (formerly apothecaries), receive a three years' training in medical work at the Indian medical schools and are competent to perform the compounding of medicines and to deal with all but the most serious cases of injury and illness. In the hospitals the men of the Royal Army Medical Corps are replaced by the Native Army Hospital Corps, subdivided into ward-servants, cooks, water- carriers, sweepers and washermen. The caste system necessitates this division of labour, and the men are not so efficient or trustworthy as the white soldiers whose places they take. The bearers of the wounded are a separate and distinct class, partly attached to regiments, &c., as part of the regimental transport, and partly organized into bearer companies, attached to field hospitals. The dandies in which they carry the wounded are much more comfortable than stretchers, being fitted with roofs and sides of canvas to keep off sun and rain, thus being collapsible so that the dandy is quite flat when not in use. Still they are heavy, clumsy, and cannot be folded up into a small compass for transport like a stretcher; they also take up a good deal of room in wagons and can scarcely be carried on the backs of animals owing to the length of the pole. Hence riding ponies and mules are much used in Indian warfare, especially in the mountains, for the carriage of less seriously wounded men. In India separate hospitals are necessary for white and native troops, and the latter have accommodation for the large numbers of non-combatant camp-followers, mule-drivers, cooks, officers' servants, &c., &c., which constitute one of the most remarkable features of the Indian army organization.
Field hospitals.
Field hospitals, under the new scheme furnished by tent sections of the Field Ambulances, are each supposed to provide accommodation for 100 patients, who live on their field rations suitably cooked and supplemented by various medical comforts. The patients are not supplied with hospital clothing, nor do they have beds, but he on straw, which is spread on the ground and covered with waterproof sheets and blankets; of these latter a considerable reserve is carried. These hospitals can and must at times accommodate more than the regulation number of patients, but in the South African War their resources were at times considerably overtaxed, with consequent discomfort and hardship to the patients, the medical equipment proving insufficient for unexpectedly heavy calls upon its resources.
Hospitals on the lines of communication.
These hospitals are supposed to move with the army, and therefore it is imperative to pass the wounded quickly back from these to the stationary hospitals on the lines of communication (which vary according to the length of these lines) and thence to the general hospitals at the base. The size of the lines of communication hospitals varies according to circumstances, and they are as a rule ``dieted,'' that is to say proper hospital diets and not field rations are issued to the patients, who also are supplied with beds and proper hospital clothing. In these hospitals also there may be nursing sisters, who of course are unsuited for the rough work and life nearer the front. Sisters are also employed on the hospital trains, which were found most useful and brought to great perfection in the South African War, being fitted with beds, kitchens, dispensaries, &c., so that patients were moved long distances in comfort.
General hospitals.
Arrived at the base of operations the wounded are admitted to the general hospitals, of which the numbers and situation vary with circumstances, but each is supposed to have an officers' ward. In the South African War, owing to the inability of the comparatively small Royal Army Medical Corps to meet all the requirements of the enormous force which was ultimately employed, many of the doctors were drawn from the civil profession, and the rank and file from the St John's Ambulance Association and the Volunteer Medical Staff Corps, while many nursing sisters belonged to the Army Nursing Reserve, ordinarily employed in civil hospitals but liable to be drafted out during war.
Civil general hospitals.
In the South African War the patriotism and liberality of the British public furnished several large general hospitals, perfectly equipped, and officered by some of the most eminent members of the medical profession in the United Kingdom. Among others may be mentioned the Princess Christian, the Imperial Yeomanry (both field and general hospitals), the Langman, the Portland, the Scottish, Irish and Welsh hospitals. These were staffed entirely by civilians, except that an officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps was attached to each as administrator and organizer; and their personnel was made up of physicians, surgeons, nurses, dressers (medical students and in some cases fully qualified surgeons) and servants; the numbers, of course, varying with the size of the hospitals. In addition to the staff of these hospitals several eminent civil surgeons, including Sir William Maccormac and Sir F. Treves, went out to the seat of war as consultants: an innovation in the British service, but in accordance with the system long in vogue in Germany.
To the Army Medical organization is affiliated in war time that of the Red Cross Society and other charitable associations, which during the South African War aided the Army Medical Service greatly by gifts of clothing, money and numerous luxuries for the sick and wounded.
Hospital ships.
Lastly, the wounded man is transferred to a hospital ship, which is fitted up with comfortable swinging cots in airy wards, with refrigerators for preserving provisions and the supply of ice, punkahs for hot weather, &c. Each division of an army corps is supposed to have one such ship, with from 200 to 250 beds and the same staff of doctors, nurses, &c., as a hospital of similar size on shore, when necessary.
Red Cross societies.
Different regulations are made by various powers as to the work of the Red Cross societies under the Geneva flag. Whereas in Germany and France such aid is officially recognized and placed under direct military control, the English Red Cross societies have acted side by side with, but independently of, the military ambulance organization. In the South African War (1899-1902), however, the bonds of union were drawn considerably closer, and cordial co-operation was brought about to prevent overlapping and waste of money. In Germany the volunteer organization is presided over by an imperial commission or inspector-general appointed in peace time, who in time of war is attached to the headquarters staff. His functions are to control the relations of the various Red Cross societies and secure harmonious co-operation. Delegates appointed by him are attached to the various corps and transport commissions. No volunteer assistance can be utilized which is not entirely subordinate to the military control, and has not already in peace time received official recognition and been organized on a skeleton footing. Moreover, only persons of German nationality can be employed under it with the armies in the field. In case of base hospitals situated in Germany itself, the services of foreigners may be employed when specially authorized by the war office. In France, in the main, the same rules obtain in the case of volunteer hospital service.
St. John's Ambulance Association.
Great attention has been paid to civil ambulance organization in England. In 1878 the British ambulance association of St John of Jerusalem was founded. Its object was to render first aid to persons injured in accidents on the road, railway, or in any of the occupations of civil life. As the result of the initiative taken by this society, ambulance corps have been formed in most large towns of the United Kingdom; and police, railway servants and workmen have been instructed how to render first aid pending the arrival of a doctor. This samaritan work has been further developed and extended to most parts of the British empire, notably Canada, Australia and India, and there is no doubt that many lives are saved annually by the knowledge, diffused by this association, as to how to stop bleeding, resuscitate the apparently drowned, &c. Moreover, during the South African War this association provided a most valuable reserve for the Royal Army Medical Corps, and drafted out some hundreds of partially trained men whose assistance was most valuable to the Army Medical Service in dealing with the enormous numbers of sick and wounded who came upon their hands.
Civil ambulance in America.
In America each city has its own system and organization of civil ambulance service. In some, as in Boston, the service is worked by the police; in others, notably New York, by the hospitals, while Chicago has an admirable service under municipal control. In most of the capitals of Europe similar systems prevail.
Ambulance wagons.
British ambulance wagons are built very strongly to stand rough roads, and are of several patterns; those used in the war in South Africa were reported on as heavy, uncomfortable, and so unwieldy as to be incapable very often of keeping up with the troops; but a new and more mobile vehicle, to convey four patients lying down as well as six seated, or fourteen all seated (whereas the old pattern wagons only accommodated two lying-down cases), has been introduced. All patterns of wagons weigh from 17 1/2 to 18 1/3 cwt., while the Boers and the British Colonial auxiliaries used much lighter-carts, which were taken at a gallop over almost any country. The Indian ambulances are small two-wheeled carts, called tongas, drawn by two bullocks or mules; very strongly made, they are capable of holding two men lying down, or four sitting up, besides the native driver.
Various other forms of transport are found, such as mule litters in mountainous districts, where wheeled carriages cannot go, camel litters in the Sudan, dhoolies in India, hammocks on the west coast of Africa, or sedan-chairs in China. In the Russo-Japanese War an ingenious form of mule litter for serious cases was made by fixing the ends of two long springy poles about 15 ft. long into each side of the pack saddles of two mules, one in front of the other, so as to support a bed for the patient between them; the length and resiliency of the poles prevented jolting of the wounded man, and the mules were able to carry him long distances over any kind of ground. The ordinary mule or camel litter provides for a wounded man (lying down) being carried on a sort of stretcher on either side of the animal, or in cacolets in which the less serious cases are slung in seats (one on each side of the animal), sitting up.
Mobilization.
In Great Britain, the material and equipment required are stored in times of peace at the various headquarters stations and carefully examined twice a year; and on orders for mobilization being issued, the doctors and various ranks of attendants, who have previously been told off to each unit, repair to the allotted station, draw the equipment and transport, and embark with the brigade to which they are attached. The tendency of the present day is towards reduction in bulk and concentration of strength of drugs, points which simplify the question of transport of ambulance material. As the fighting man can carry concentrated nourishment enough for thirty-six hours, in the form of an emergency ration, in a tin the size of an ordinary cigar-case, and enough sweetening material in the form of saccharine to last a fortnight in a bottle smaller than an ordinary watch, so the medical department can take their drugs in the form of compressed tabloids, each the correct dose, and each occupying about one-tenth of the space the drug ordinarily would; while the medical officers can carry hypodermic cases, not so large as an ordinary cigarette-case, containing a syringe and hundreds of doses of highly concentrated remedies. Again, the traction engines which now accompany an army can also supply electricity for X-ray work, electric-lighting, ice-making, &c. (J. R. D.)
AMBULATORY (Med. Lat. ambulatorium, a place for walking, from ambulare, to walk), the covered passage round a cloister; a term applied sometimes to the procession way round the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar.
AMBUSH (older form, ``embush,'' O. Fr. embusche, from the Ital. imboscata, in and bosco, a wood), the hiding of troops, primarily in a wood, and so any concealment for the purpose of a sudden attack.
AMEDEO FERDINANDO MARIA DI SAVOIA, duke of Aosta (1845-1890), third son of Victor Emmanuel II., king of Italy, and of Adelaide, archduchess of Austria, was born at Turin on the 30th of May 1845. Entering the army as captain in 1859 he fought through the campaign of 1866 with the rank of major-general, leading his brigade into action at Custozza and being wounded at Monte Torre. In May 1867 he married the princess Maria Carlotta del Pozzo della Cisterna. In 1868 he was created vice-admiral of the Italian navy, but, two years later, left Italy to ascend the Spanish throne, his reluctance to accept the invitation of the Cortes having been overridden by the Italian cabinet. On the 16th of November 1870 he was proclaimed king of Spain by the Cortes; but, before he could arrive at Madrid, Marshal Prim, chief promoter of his candidature, was assassinated. Undeterred by rumours of a plot against his own life, Amedeo entered Madrid alone, riding at some distance from his suite to the church where Marshal Prim's body lay in state. His efforts as constitutional king were paralysed by the rivalry between the various Spanish factions, but with the approval of his father he rejected all idea of a coup d'etat. Though warned of a plot against his life (August 18, 1872) he refused to take precautions, and, while returning from Buen Retiro to Madrid in company with the queen, was repeatedly shot at in Via Avenal. The royal carriage was struck by several revolver and rifle bullets, the horses wounded, but its occupants escaped unhurt. A period of calm followed the outrage. On the 11th of February 1873, however, Amedeo, abandoned by his partisans and attacked more fiercely than ever by his opponents, signed his abdication. Upon returning to Italy he was cordially welcomed and reinstated in his former position. His consort, whose health had been undermined by anxiety in Spain, died on
the 3rd of November 1876. Not until the 11th of September 1888 did Amedeo contract his second marriage, with his niece Princess Letitia Bonaparte. Less than two years later (January 18, 1890) he died at Turin in the arms of his elder brother, King Humbert I., leaving four children — the duke of Aosta, the count of Turin, the duke of the Abruzzi (issue of his first marriage), and the count of Salemi. (H. W. S.)
AMELIE-LES-BAINS, a watering-place of south-western France, in the department of Pyrenees-Orientales, at the junction of the Mondony with the Tech, 28 1/2 m. S.S.W. of Perpignan by rail. Pop. (1906) 1247. It has numerous sulphur springs (68 deg. -145 deg. F.) used as baths by sufferers from rheumatism and maladies of the lungs. The town is situated at a height of 770 ft. and has both a winter and summer season. There are two bathing establishments, one of which preserves remains of Roman baths, and a large military thermal hospital. The town, formerly called Arles-les-Bains, is named after Queen Amelia, wife of Louis Philippe.
AMELOT DE LA HOUSSAYE, ABRAHAM NICOLAS (1634-1706), French historian and publicist, was born at Orleans in February 1634, and died at Paris on the 8th of December 1706. Little is known of his personal history beyond the fact that he was secretary to an embassy from the French court to the republic of Venice. In his Histoire du gouvernement de Venise he undertook to explain, and above all to criticize, the administration of that republic, and to expose the causes of its decadence. The work was printed by the king's printer and dedicated to Louvois, which points to the probability that the government did not disapprove of it. It appeared in March 1676, and provoked a warm protest from the Venetian ambassador, Giustiniani. The author was sent to the Bastille, where he remained, however, only six weeks (Archives de la Bastille, vol. viii. pp. 93 and 94). A second edition with a supplement, published immediately after, drew forth fresh protestations, and the edition was suppressed. This persecution gave the book an extraordinary vogue, and it passed through twenty-two editions in three years, besides being translated into several languages; there is an English translation by Lord Falconbridge, son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell. Amelot next published in 1683 a translation of Fra Paolo Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent. This work, and especially certain notes added by the translator, gave great offence to the advocates of unlimited papal authority, and three separate memorials were presented asking for its repression. Under the pseudonym of La Motte Josseval, Amelot subsequently published a Discours politique sur Tacite, in which he analysed the character of Tiberius.
AMEN, a Hebrew word, of which the root meaning is ``stability,'' generally adopted in Christian worship as a concluding formula for prayers and hymns. Three distinct biblical usages may be noted. (a) Initial Amen, referring back to words of another speaker, e.g. 1 Kings i. 36; Rev. xxii. 20. (b) Detached Amen, the complementary sentence being suppressed, e.g. Neh. v. 13; Rev. v. 14 (cf. 1 Cor. xiv. 16). (c) Final Amen, with no change of speaker, as in the subscription to the first three divisions of the Psalter and in the frequent doxologies of the New Testament Epistles. The uses of amen (``verily'') in the Gospels form a peculiar class; they are initial, but often lack any backward reference. Jesus used the word to affirm his own utterances, not those of another person, and this usage was adopted by the church. The liturgical use of the word in apostolic times is attested by the passage from 1 Cor. cited above, and Justin Martyr (c. A.D. 150) describes the congregation as responding ``amen,'' to the benediction after the celebration of the Eucharist. Its introduction into the baptismal formula (in the Greek Church it is pronounced after the name of each person of the Trinity) is probably later. Among certain Gnostic sects Amen became the name of an angel, and in post-biblical Jewish works exaggerated statements are multiplied as to the right method and the bliss of pronouncing it. It is still used in the service of the synagogue, and the Mahommedans not only add it after reciting the first Sura of the Koran, but also when writing letters, &c., and repeat it three times, often with the word Qimtir, as a kind of talisman.
AMENDMENT (through the O. Pr. amender, to correct, from bat. mendum, a fault), an improvement, correction or alteration (nominally at least) for the better. The word is used either of moral character or, more especially, in connexion with ``amending'' a bill or motion in parliament or resolution at a meeting; and in law it signifies the correction of any defect or error in the record of a civil action or on a criminal indictment. All written constitutions also usually contain a clause providing for the method by which they may be amended. Another noun, in the plural form of ``amends,'' is restricted in its meaning to that of the penalty paid for a fault or wrong committed. In its French form the amende, or amende honorable, once a public confession and apology when the offender passed to the seat of justice barefoot and bareheaded, now signifies in the English phrase a spontaneous and satisfactory rectification of an error.
AMENTIFERAE, or AMENTACEAE, a name which has been used to include in one class several natural orders of plants which bear their flowers in catkins (amenta). They are trees and shrubs chiefly of temperate climates, and include many common British trees. It comprised the following orders: — Salicaceae, willows and poplars; Corylaceae, hazel, hornbeam; Betulaceae, birch, alder; Fagaceae, oak, beech, chestnut; Casuarinaceae, Casuarina (beefwood); Platanaceae, plane; Juglandaceae, walnut; Myricaceae, bog myrtle. This class is not retained in the most modern systems of classification.
AMERCEMENT, or AMERCIAMENT (derived, through the Fr. a merci, from Lat. merces, pay), in English law, an arbitrary pecuniary penalty, inflicted in old days on an offender by the peers or equals of the party amerced. The word has in modern times become practically a poetical synonym for fine or deprivation. But an amercement differed from a fixed fine, prescribed by statute, by reason of its arbitrary nature; it represented a commutation of a sentence of forfeiture of goods, while a fine was originally a composition agreed upon between the judge and the prisoner to avoid imprisonment. The fixing or assessment of an amercement was termed an affeerment. In the lower courts the amercement was offered by a jury of the offender's neighbours (affoerors); in the superior courts by the coroner, except in the case of officers of the court, when the amount was affeered by the judges themselves. All judgments were entered on the court roll as ``in mercy'' (sit in misericordia), and the word misericordia, or some contracted form of it, was written on the margin. Articles twenty to twenty-two of Magna Carta regulated the assessment of amercements.
See Stephen, History of Criminal Law; Pollock and Maitland,History of English Law; W. S. McKechnie, Magna Carta (1905).
AMERIA (mod. Amelia), a city of Umbria, situated about 65 m. N. of Rome on the Via Amerina (which approached it from the S. starting from Falerii and passing through Castellum Amerinum, probably mod. Orte, where it crossed the Tiber). It has a fine position, 1332 ft. above sea-level, and still retains considerable remains of the city wall, built in polygonal masonry of carefully jointed blocks of limestone, some 12 ft. in total thickness, and showing traces of reconstruction at different periods. Various remains of the Roman period exist between the walls, including a large water reservoir divided into ten chambers. The lofty campanile of the cathedral was erected in 1050 with fragments of Roman buildings. Ameria is not mentioned in the history of the Roman conquest of Umbria, but is alluded to as a flourishing place, with a fertile territory extending to the Tiber, by Cicero in his speech in defence of Sextus Roscius Amerinus, and its fruit is often extolled by Roman writers. Augustus divided its lands among his veterans, but did not plant a colony here. The bishopric of Ameria was founded in the middle of the 4th century.
AMERICA. I. Physical Geography. — The accidental use of a single name, America, for the pair of continents that has a greater extension from north to south than any other continuous land area of the globe, has had some recent justification, since the small body of geological opinion has turned in favour of the theory of the tetrahedral deformation of the earth's crust as affording explanation of the grouping of continents and oceans. America,
broadening in the north as if to span the oceans by reaching to its neighbours on the east and west, tapering between vast oceans far to the south where the nearest land is in the little-known Antarctic regions, roughly presents the triangular outline that is to be expected from tetrahedral warping; and although greatly broken in the middle, and standing with the northern and southern parts out of a meridian line, America is nevertheless the best witness among the continents of to-day to the tetrahedral theory. There seems to be, however, not a unity but a duality in its plan of construction, for the two parts, North and South America, resemble each other not only in outline but, roughly speaking, in geological evolution also; and the resemblances thus discovered are the more remarkable when it is considered how extremely small is the probability that among all the possible combinations of ancient mountain systems, modern mountain systems and plains, two continents out of five should present so many points of correspondence. Thus regarded, it becomes reasonable to suppose that North and South America have in a broad way been developed under a succession of somewhat similar strains in the earth's crust, and that they are, in so far, favourable witnesses to the theory that there is something individual in the plan of continental growth. The chief points of correspondence between these two great land masses, besides the southward tapering, are as follows: — (1) The areas of ancient fundamental rocks of the north-east (Laurentian highlands of North America, uplands of Guiana in South America), which have remained without significant deformation, although suffering various oscillations of level, since ancient geological times; (2) the highlands of the south-east (Appalachians and Brazilian highlands) with a north-east south-west crystalline axis near the ocean, followed by a belt of deformed and metamorphosed early Palaeozoic strata, and adjoined farther inland by a dissected plateau of nearly horizontal later Palaeozoic formations — all greatly denuded since the ancient deformation of the mountain axis, and seeming to owe their present altitude to broad uplifts of comparatively modern geological date; (3) the complex of younger mountains along the western side of the continents (Western highlands, or Cordilleras, of North America; Andean Cordilleras of South America) of geologically modern deformation and upheaval, with enclosed basins and abundant volcanic action, but each a system in itself, disconnected and not standing in alignment; (4) confluent lower lands between the highlands, giving river drainage to the north (Mackenzie, Orinoco), east (St Lawrence, Amazon), and south (Mississippi, La Plata). Differences of dimension and detail are numerous, but they do not suffice to mask what seems to be a resemblance in general plan. Indeed, some of the chief contrasts of the two continents arise not so much from geological unlikeness as from their unsymmetrical situation with respect to the equator, whereby the northern one lies mostly in the temperate zone, while the southern one lies mostly in the torrid zone. North America is bathed in frigid waters around its broad northern shores; its mountains bear huge glaciers in the north-west; the outlying area of Greenland in the north-east is shrouded with ice; and in geologically recent times a vast ice-sheet has spread over its north-eastern third; while warm waters bring corals to its southern shores. South America has warm waters and corals on the north-east, and cold waters and glaciers only on its narrowing southern end. If the symmetry that is so noticeable in geological history had extended to climate as well, many geographical features might now present likenesses instead of contrasts.
The relation of the Americas to each other and to the rest of the world, as the home of plants and animals, is greatly affected by the breadth of the adjacent oceans, and also by the geologically recent changes of altitude whereby the breadth of the narrower parts of the lands and the oceans has been significantly altered. Between the parallels of 60 deg. and 70 deg. N. the east and west widening of North America forms more than a third of the almost continuous land ring around a zone of sub-Arctic climate, through the middle of which runs the Arctic circle. As a result there is a remarkable community of resemblance of plant and animal life in the high northern latitudes of North America and Eurasia. In strong contrast with this relation of close fellowship is the exceptional isolation of far southern South America. Excepting the barren lands of the Antarctic regions, with which Patagonia is somewhat associated by a broken string of islands, the nearest continental lands of a more habitable kind are South Africa and New Zealand. In contrast to the sub-Arctic land ring, here is a sub-Antarctic ocean ring, and as a result the land flora and fauna of South America to-day are strongly unlike the life forms of the other south-ending continents.
For further treatment of the physical geography of the American continents. see NORTH AMERICA, SOUTH AMERICA. (W. M. D.) II. General Historical Sketch. — The name America was derived from that of Amerigo Vespucci (q.v.). In Waldseemuller's map of 1507 the name is given to a body of land roughly corresponding to the continent of South America. As discovery revealed the existence of another vast domain to the north, the name spread to the whole of the pair of continents by customary use, in spite of the protests of the Spaniards, by whom it was not officially used of North America till the 18th century.