The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 23

AMERICA, SOUTH, lies in great part within the Tropics, and consists of a high mountain range on the west, and a long plain with minor ranges extending therefrom eastward; the coast is but little indented, but the Amazon and the Plate Rivers make up for the defect of seaboard; abounds in extensive plains, which go under the names of Llanos, Selvas, and Pampas, while the river system is the vastest and most serviceable in the globe; the vegetable and mineral wealth of the continent is great, and it can match the world for the rich plumage of its birds and the number and splendour of its insect tribes.

AMERICA, SPANISH, the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, till lately belonging to Spain, though the designation is often applied to all the countries in N. America where Spanish is the spoken language.

AMERICAN FABIUS, George Was.h.i.+ngton.

AMERICAN INDIANS, a race with a red or copper-coloured skin, coa.r.s.e black straight hair, high cheek-bones, black deep-set eyes, and tall erect figure, limited to America, and seems for most part fast dying out; to be found still as far south as Patagonia, the Patagonians being of the race.

AMERI'GO-VESPUC'CI, a Florentine navigator, who, under the auspices first of Spain, and afterwards of Portugal, four times visited the New World, just discovered by Columbus, which the first cartographers called America, after his name; these visits were made between 1499 and 1505, while Columbus's discovery, as is known, was in 1492 (1451-1512).

AMES, JOSEPH, historian of early British typography, in a work which must have involved him in much labour (1689-1759).

AMHA'RA, the central and largest division of Abyssinia.

AMHERST, LORD, a British officer who distinguished himself both on the Continent and America, and particularly along with General Wolfe in securing for England the superiority in Canada (1717-1797).

AMICE, a flowing cloak formerly worn by pilgrims, also a strip of linen cloth worn over the shoulder of a priest when officiating at ma.s.s.

AM'IEL, a professor of aesthetics, and afterwards of ethics at Geneva, who is known to the outside world solely by the publication of selections from his Journal in 1882-84, which teems with suggestive thoughts bearing on the great vital issues of the day, and which has been translated into English by Mrs. Humphrey Ward.

AMIENS' (88), the old capital of Picardy, on the Somme, with a cathedral begun in 1220, described as the "Parthenon of Gothic architecture," and by Ruskin as "Gothic, clear of Roman tradition and of Arabian taint, Gothic pure, authoritative, unsurpa.s.sable, and unaccusable"; possesses other buildings of interest; was the birthplace of Peter the Hermit, and is celebrated for a treaty of peace between France and England concluded in 1802.

AMIRAN'TES, a group of small coral islands NE. of Madagascar, belonging to Britain; are wooded, are 11 in number, and only a few feet above the sea-level.

AMMANA'TI, BARTOLOMEO, a Florentine architect and sculptor of note, was an admirer of Michael Angelo, and executed several works in Rome, Venice, and Padua (1511-1592).

AMMIA'NUS MARCELLI'NUS, a Greek who served as a soldier in the Roman army, and wrote a history of the Roman Empire, specially valuable as a record of contemporary events; _d_. 390.

AMMIRATO, an Italian historian, author of a history of Florence (1531-1601).

AM'MON, an Egyptian deity, represented with the head of a ram, who had a temple at Thebes and in the Lybian Desert; was much resorted to as an oracle of fate; identified in Greece with Zeus, and in Rome with Jupiter.

AMMONIA, a pungent volatile gas, of nitrogen and hydrogen, obtained from sal-ammonia.

AMMONIO, ANDREA, a Latin poet born in Lucca, held in high esteem by Erasmus; sent to England by the Pope, he became Latin secretary to Henry and a prebendary of Salisbury; _d_. 1517.

AMMONITES, a Semitic race living E. of the Jordan; at continual feud with the Jews, and a continual trouble to them, till subdued by Judas Maccabaeus.

AMMONITES, a genus of fossil sh.e.l.ls curved into a spiral form like the ram-horn on the head of the image of Ammon.

AMMO'NIUS SACCAS, a philosopher of Alexandria, and founder of Neo-Platonism; Longinus, Origen, and Plotinus were among his pupils; _d_.

243, at a great age.

AMNION, name given to the innermost membrane investing the foetus in the womb.

AMOEBA, a minute animalcule of the simplest structure, being a mere ma.s.s of protoplasm; absorbs its food at every point all over its body by means of processes protruded therefrom at will, with the effect that it is constantly changing its shape.

AMOMUM, a genus of plants, such as the cardamom and grains of paradise, remarkable for their pungency and aromatic properties.

AMORITES, a powerful Canaanitish tribe, seemingly of tall stature, NE. of the Jordan; subdued by Joshua at Gibeon.

AMORY, THOMAS, an eccentric writer of Irish descent, author of the "Life of John Buncle, Esq.," and other semi-insane productions; he was a fanatical Unitarian (1691-1789).

AMOS, a poor shepherd of Tekoa, near Bethlehem, in Judah, who in the 8th century B.C. raised his voice in solitary protest against the iniquity of the northern kingdom of Israel, and denounced the judgment of G.o.d as Lord of Hosts upon one and all for their idolatry, which nothing could avert.

AMOY' (96), one of the open ports of China, on a small island in the Strait of f.u.kien; has one of the finest harbours in the world, and a large export and import trade; the chief exports are tea, sugar, paper, gold-leaf, &c.

AMPeRE', ANDRe MARIE, a French mathematician and physicist, born at Lyons; distinguished for his discoveries in electro-dynamics and magnetism, and the influence of these on electro-telegraphy and the general extension of science (1775-1836).

AMPeRE, JEAN JACQUES, son of the preceding; eminent as a litterateur, and a historian and critic of literature; attained to the rank of a member of the French Academy (1800-1864).

AMPHIC'TYONIC COUNCIL, a council consisting of representatives from several confederate States of ancient Greece, twelve in number at length, two from each, that met twice a year, sitting alternately at Thermopylae and Delphi, to settle any differences that might arise between them, the decisions of which were several times enforced by arms, and gave rise to what were called _sacred wars_, of which there were three; it was originally inst.i.tuted for the conservation of religious interests.

AMPHI'ON, a son of Zeus and Antiope, who is said to have invented the lyre, and built the walls of Thebes by the sound of it, a feat often alluded to as an instance of the miraculous power of music.

AMPHISBaeNA, a genus of limbless lizards; a serpent fabled to have two heads and to be able to move backward or forward.