Chapter CXXXIII: Act 1895: , may be given to a married woman on applying to (22)

Although amber is found along the shores of a large part of the Baltic and the North Sea, the great amber-producing country is the promontory of Samland. Pieces of amber torn from the sea-floor are cast up by the waves, and collected at ebb-tide. Sometimes the searchers wade into the sea, furnished with nets at the end of long poles, by means of which they drag in the sea-weed containing entangled masses of amber; or they dredge from boats in shallow water and rake up amber from between the boulders. Divers have been employed to collect amber from the deeper waters. Systematic dredging on a large scale was at one time carried on in the Kurisches Haff by Messrs Stantien and Becker, the great amber merchants of Konigsberg. At the present time extensive mining operations are conducted in quest of amber. The ``pit amber'' was formerly dug in open works, but is now also worked by underground galleries. The nodules from the ``blue earth'' have to be freed from matrix and divested of their opaque crust, which can be done in revolving barrels containing sand and water. The sea-worn amber has lost its crust, but has often acquired a dull rough surface by rolling in sand.

Amber is extensively used for beads and other trivial ornaments, and for cigar-holders and the mouth-pieces of pipes. It is regarded by the Turks as specially valuable, inasmuch as it is said to be incapable of transmitting infection as the pipe passes from mouth to mouth. The variety most valued in the East is the pale straw-coloured, slightly cloudy amber. Some of the best qualities are sent to Vienna for the manufacture of smoking appliances. In working amber, it is turned on the lathe and polished with whitening and water or with rotten stone and oil, the final lustre being given by friction with flannel. During the working much electricity is developed.

By gradually heating amber in an oil-bath it becomes soft and flexible. Two pieces of amber may be united by smearing the surfaces with linseed oil, heating them, and then pressing them together while hot. Cloudy amber may be clarified in an oil-bath, as the oil fills the numerous pores to which the turbidity is due. Small fragments, formerly thrown away or used only for varnish, are now utilized on a large scale in the formation of ``ambroid'' or ``pressed amber.'' The pieces are carefully heated with exclusion of air and then compressed into a uniform mass by intense hydraulic pressure; the softened amber being forced through holes in a metal plate. The product is extensively used for the production of cheap jewellery and articles for smoking. This pressed amber yields brilliant interference colours in polarized light. Amber has often been imitated by other resins

like copal and kauri, as well as by celluloid and even glass. True amber is sometimes coloured artificially.

Amber was much valued as an ornamental material in very early times. It has been found in Mycenaean tombs; it is known from lake-dwellings in Switzerland, and it occurs with neolithic remains in Denmark, whilst in England it is found with interments of the bronze age. A remarkably fine cup turned in amber from a bronze-age barrow at Hove is now in the Brighton Museum. Beads of amber occur with Anglo-Saxon relics in the south of England; and up to a comparatively recent period the material was valued as an amulet. It is still believed to possess certain medicinal virtue.

Rolled pieces of amber, usually small but occasionally of very large size, may be picked up on the east coast of England, having probably been washed up from deposits under the North Sea. Cromer is the best-known locality, but it occurs also on other parts of the Norfolk coast, as well as at Yarmouth, Southwold, Aldeburgh and Felixstowe in Suffolk, and as far south as Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, whilst northwards it is not unknown in Yorkshire. On the other side of the North Sea, amber is found at various localities on the coast of Holland and Denmark. On the shores of the Baltic it occurs not only on the Prussian and Pomeranian coast but in the south of Sweden, in Bornholm and other islands, and in S. Finland. Amber has indeed a very wide distribution, extending over a large part of northern Europe and occurring as far east as the Urals. Some of the amber districts of the Baltic and North Sea were known in prehistoric times, and led to early trade with the south of Europe. Amber was carried to Olbia on the Black Sea, Massilia on the Mediterranean, and Hatria at the head of the Adriatic; and from these centres it was distributed over the Hellenic world.

Whilst succinite is the common variety of European amber, the following varieties also occur: --

Gedanite, or ``brittle amber,'' closely resembling succinite, but much more brittle, not quite so hard, with a lower melting- point and containing no succinic acid. It is often covered with a white powder easily removed by wiping. The name comes from Gedanum, the Latin name of Danzig.

Stantienite, a brittle, deep brownish-black resin, destitute of succinic acid.

Beckerite, a rare amber in earthy-brown nodules, almost opaque, said to be related in properties to gutta-percha.

Glessite, a nearly opaque brown resin, with numerous microscopic cavities and dusty enclosures, named from glesum, an old name for amber.

Krantzite, a soft amber-like resin, found in the lignites of Saxony.

Allingite, a fossil resin allied to succinite, from Switzerland.

Roumanite, or Rumanian amber, a dark reddish resin, occurring with lignite in Tertiary deposits. The nodules are penetrated by cracks, but the material can be worked on the lathe. Sulphur is present to the extent of more than 1%, whence the smell of sulphuretted hydrogen when the resin is heated. According to G. Murgoci the Rumanian amber is true succinite.

Simetite, or Sicilian amber, takes its name from the river Simeto or Giaretta. It occurs in Miocene deposits and is also found washed up by the sea near Catania. This beautiful material presents a great diversity of tints, but a rich hyacinth red is common. It is remarkable for its fluorescence, which in the opinion of some authorities adds to its beauty. Amber is also found in many localities in Emilia, especially near the sulphur-mines of Cesena. It has been conjectured that the ancient Etruscan ornaments in amber were wrought in the Italian material, but it seems that amber from the Baltic reached the Etruscans at Hatria. It has even been supposed that amber passed from Sicily to northern Europe in early times -- a supposition said to receive some support from the fact that much of the amber dug up in Denmark is red; but it must not be forgotten that reddish amber is found also on the Baltic, though not being fashionable it is used rather for varnish-making than for ornaments. Moreover, yellow amber after long burial is apt to acquire a reddish colour. The amber of Sicily seems not to have been recognized in ancient times, for it is not mentioned by local authorities like Diodorus Siculus.

Burmite is the name under which the Burmese amber is now described. Until the British occupation of Burma but little was known as to its occurrence, though it had been worked for centuries and was highly valued by the natives and by the Chinese. It is found in fiat rolled pieces, irregularly distributed through a blue clay probably of Miocene age. It occurs in the Hukawng valley, in the Nangotaimaw hills, where it is irregularly worked in shallow pits. The mines were visited some years ago by Dr Fritz Noetling, and the mineral has been described by Dr Otto Helm. The Burmese amber is yellow or reddish, some being of ruby tint, and like the Sicilian amber it is fluorescent. Burmite and simetite agree also in being destitute of succinic acid. Most of the Burmese amber is worked at Mandalay into rosary-beads and ear-cylinders.

Many other fossil resins more or less allied to amber have been described. Schraufite is a reddish resin from the Carpathian sandstone, and it occurs with jet in the cretaceous rocks of the Lebanon; ambrite is a resin found in many of the coals of New Zealand; retinite occurs in the lignite of Bovey Tracey in Devonshire and elsewhere; whilst copaline has been found in the London clay of Highgate in North London. Chemawinite or cedarite is an amber-like resin from the Saskatchewan river in Canada.

Amber and certain similar substances are found to a limited extent at several localities in the United States, as in the green- sand of New Jersey, but they have little or no economic value. A fluorescent amber is said, however, to occur in some abundance in Southern Mexico. Amber is recorded also from the Dominican Republic.

REPERENCES. -- See, for Baltic amber, P. Dahms, ``Ueber die Vorkommen und die Verwendung des Bernsteins,'' Zeitsch. fur praktische Geologic, 1901, p. 201; H. Conwentz, Monographic der baltischen Bernsteinbaume (Danzig, 1890); R. Klebs, Guide to Exhibit of the German Amber Industry at World's Fair (St Louis, 1904); and abstract by G. F. Kunz in Mineral Resources of the U. S. (1904). U. or Sicilian amber, W. Arnold Bullum, The Tears of the Helialdes, or Amber as a Gem (London, 1896). For Burmese amber, papers by Fritz Noetling and Otto Helm in Records of Geol. Surv. of India, vol. xxvi. (1893), pp. 31, 61. For British amber, Clement Reid in Trans. Norfolk Nat. Soc., vol. iii. (1884) p. 601; vol. iv. (1886) p. 247; and H. Conwentz in Natural Science, vol. ix. (1896) pp. 99, 161. (F. W. R.*)

AMBERG, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, formerly the capital of the Upper Palatinate, situated on both sides of the Vils, 42 m. E. of Nuremberg by rail. Pop. 22,089. It has a town hall with handsome rooms, a library, a gymnasium, a lyceum, elementary schools, an arsenal, and eleven churches, the finest of which is St Martin's, of the 15th century, with many excellent paintings and a tower 300 ft. high. A former Jesuit monastery is now used for a grammar school and seminary. There are also a pilgrimage church on a hill 1621 ft. high, a large convict prison for men, an industrial, commercial and other schools. The principal manufactures are firearms, ironmongery, earthenware, woollen cloth, beer, stoneware, zinc goods, colours and salt; in the neighbourhood are iron and coal mines. The French under Jourdan were defeated by the Austrians under the Archduke Charles near Amberg in 1796.

AMBERGRIS (Ambra grisea, Ambre gris, or grey amber), a solid, fatty, inflammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour, the shades being variegated like marble, possessing a peculiar sweet, earthy odour. It occurs as a biliary concretion in the intestines of the spermaceti whale (Physeter macrocephalus), and is found floating upon the sea, on the sea-coast, or in the sand near the sea-coast. It is met with in the Atlantic Ocean; on the coasts of Brazil and Madagascar; also on the coast of Africa, of the East Indies, China, Japan and the Molucca islands; but most of the ambergris which is brought to England comes from the Bahama Islands, Providence, &c. It is also sometimes found in the abdomen of whales, always in lumps of various shapes and sizes, weighing from 1/2 oz. to 100 or more pounds. Ambergris, when taken from the intestinal canal of

the sperm whale, is of a deep grey colour, soft consistence and a disagreeable smell. On exposure to the air it gradually hardens, becomes pale and develops its peculiar sweet, earthy odour. In that condition its specific gravity ranges from 0.780 to 0.926. It melts at about 62 deg. C. to a fatty, yellow resinous-like liquid; and at 100 deg. C. it is volatilized into a white vapour. It is soluble in ether, and in volatile and fixed oils; it is only feebly acted on by acids. By digesting in hot alcohol, a substance termed ambrein, closely resembling cholesterin, is obtained, which separates in brilliant white crystals as the solution cools. The use of ambergris in Europe is now entirely confined to perfumery, though it formerly occupied no inconsiderable place in medicine. In minute quantities its alcoholic solution is much used for giving a ``floral'' fragrance to bouquets, washes and other preparations of the perfumer. It occupies a very important place in the perfumery of the East, and there it is also used in pharmacy and as a flavouring material in cookery. The high price it commands makes it peculiarly liable to adulteration, but its genuineness is easily tested by its solubility in hot alcohol, its fragrant odour, and its uniform fatty consistence on being penetrated by a hot wire.

AMBERT, a town of central France, capital of an arrondissement of the department of Puy-de-Dome, on the Dore, 52 m. E.S.E. of Clermont-Ferrand by rail. Pop. (1906), town, 3889; commune, 7581. The town has a church of the 15th and 16th centuries and carries on the manufacture of paper, lace, ribbon, rosaries, &c., and trade in cheese. It is the seat of a sub-prefect, and the public institutions include tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a chamber of arts and manufactures, and a communal college.

AMBIENT (from Lat. ambi, on both sides, and ire, to go), surrounding; a word implying a moving rather than a stationary encircling. It is used mostly in the phrase the ``ambient air,'' though Bacon applied it as an adjective to the clergy, suggesting ``ambition.'' In astrology it means the sky.

AMBIGU, a French game of cards, composed of the characteristic elements of whist, bouillotte and piquet. A whist pack with the court cards deleted is used, and from two to six persons may play. Each player is given an equal number of counters, and a limit of betting is agreed upon. Two cards are dealt, one at a time, to each player, after each has placed two counters in a pool. Each player then either keeps his hand, saying ``Enough,'' or takes one or two new cards from the top of the stock, after which the stock is reshuffled and cut, and each player receives two more cards, one at a time. The players then either ``play'' or ``pass.'' If a person ``plays,'' he bets a number of counters and the others may equal this bet or raise it. Should no player meet the first bet, the bettor takes back his bet, leaving the pool intact, and receives two counters from the last player who refuses to play. When two or more bet the same number, they again draw cards and ``pass'' or ``play'' as before. If all ``pass,'' each pays a counter to the pool and a new deal ensues. The player betting more than the others call wins the pool. He then exposes his hand and is paid by each adversary according to its value. The hands rank as follows: -- ``Point,'' the number Of pips on two or more cards of a suit (one counter). ``Prime,'' four cards of different suits (two counters). ``Grand Prime,'' the same with the number of pips over 30 (three counters). ``Sequence,'' a hand containing three cards of the same suit in sequence (three counters). ``Tricon,'' three of a kind (four counters). ``Flush,'' four cards of the same suit (five counters). ``Doublet,'' a hand containing two counting combinations at once, as 2, 3, 4 and 7 of spades, amounting to both a ``sequence'' and a ``flush'' (eight counters). ``Fredon,'' four of a kind (the highest possible hand), ten or eleven counters, according to the number of pips. Ties are decided by the number of pips.

AMBIGUITY (Fr. ambiguite, med. Lat. ambiguitas, from Lat. ambiguus, doubtful; ambi, both ways, agere, to drive), doubtful ness or uncertainty. In law an ambiguity as to the meaning of the words of a written instrument may be of considerable importance. Ambiguity, in law, is of two kinds, patent and latent. (1) Patent ambiguity is that ambiguity which is apparent on the face of an instrument to any one perusing it, even if he be unacquainted with the circumstances of the parties. In the case of a patent ambiguity parol evidence is admissible to explain only what has been written, not what it was intended to write. For example, in Saunderson v. Piper, 1839, 5, B.N.C. 425, where a bill was drawn in figures for L. 245 and in words for two hundred pounds, evidence that ``and forty-five'' had been omitted by mistake was rejected. But where it appears from the general context of the instrument what the parties really meant, the instrument will be construed as if there was no ambiguity, as in Saye and Sate's case, 10 Mod. 46, where the name of the grantor had been omitted in the operative part of a grant, but, as it was clear from another part of the grant who he was, the deed was held to be valid. (2) Latent ambiguity is where the wording of an instrument is on the face of it clear and intelligible, but may, at the same time, apply equally to two different things or subject matters, as where a legacy is given ``to my nephew, John,'' and the testor is shown to have two nephews of that name. A latent ambiguity may be explained by parol evidence, for, as the ambiguity has been brought about by circumstances extraneous to the instrument, the explanation must necessarily be sought for from such circumstances. (See also Evidence.)

AMBIORIX, prince of Eburones, a tribe of Belgian Gaul. Although Caesar (q.v.) had freed him from paying tribute to the Aduztuci, he joined Catuvolcus (winter, 54 B.C.) in rising against the Roman forces under Q. Titurius Sabinus and I. Aurunculeius Cotta, and almost annihilated them. An attack on Quintus Cicero (brother of the orator), then quartered with a legion in the territory of the Nervii, failed owing to the timely appearance of Caesar. Ambiroix is said to have found safety across the Rhine.

Caesar, Bell. Gall. v. 26-51, vi. 29-43, viii. 24; Dio Cassius xl. 7-11; Florus iii. 10.

AMBLESIDE, a market-town in the Appleby parliamentary division of Westmorland, England, a mile from the head of Windermere. Pop. of urban district (1901) 2536. It is most beautifully situated, for though the lake is hardly visible from the town, the bare sharply rising hills surrounding the richly wooded valley of the Rothay afford a series of exquisite views. The hills immediately above this part of the valley are Wansfell on the east, Loughrigg Fell on the west, and Rydal Fell and the ridge below Snarker Pike (2096 ft.) to the north. At the head of Windermere is Waterhead, the landing-stage of Ambleside, which is served by the lake steamers of the Furness Railway Company. The chief roads which centre upon Ambleside are -- one from the town of Windemere, following the eastern shore of the lake; one from Ullswater, by Patterdale and Kirkstone Pass; one from Keswick, by Dunmail Raise and Grasmere, and the two lovely lakes of Grasmere and Rydal Water; and one from the Brathay valley and the Langdales to the west. Ambleside is thus much frequented by tourists. In its vicinity is Rydal Mount, for many years the residence of the poet Wordsworth. The town has some industry in bobbin-making, and there are slate quarries in the neighbourhood.

Close by the lake side the outlines are still visible of a Roman fort, the name of which is not known. It appears to have guarded a route over the hills by Hardknott and Wrynose Pass to Ravenglass on the Coast of Cumberland.

AMBLYGONITE, a mineral usually found as cleavable or columnar, and compact masses; it is translucent and has a vitreous lustre, and the colour varies from white to pale shades of violet, grey, green or yellow. There are good cleavages in two directions. The hardness is 6 and the specific gravity 3.0. The mineral is thus not unlike felspar in general appearance, but

it is readily distinguished from this by its chemical characters, being an aluminium and lithium fluophosphate, Li(AlF)PO4, with part of the lithium replaced by sodium and part of the fluoine by hydroxyl. Crystals, which are rarely distinctly developed, belong to the anorthic system, and frequently show twin lamellae.

The mineral was first discovered in Saxony by A. Breithaupt in 1817, and named by him from the Greek amblus, blunt, and gouia, angle, because of the obtuse angle between the cleavages. Later it was found at Montebras, dep. Creuse, France, and at Hebron in Maine; and on account of slight differences in optical character and chemical composition the names montebrasite and hebronite have been applied to the mineral from these localities. Recently it has been discovered in considerable quantity at Pala in San Diego county, California, and at Caceres in Spain. Amblygonite occurs with lepidolite, tourmaline and other lithia-bearing minerals in pegmatite-veins. It contains about 10% of lithia, and, since 1886, has been utilized as a source of lithium salts, the chief commercial sources being the Montebras deposits, and later the Californian. (L.J.S.)

AMBLYPODA, a suborder of primitive ungulate mammals, taking its name from the short and stumpy feet, which were furnished with five toes each, and supported massive pillar-like limbs. The brain-cavity was extremely small, and insignificant in comparison to the bodily bulk, which was equal to that of the largest rhinoceroses. These animals are, in fact, descendants of the small ancestral ungulates which have retained all the primitive characters of the latter accompanied by a huge increase in bodily size. They are confined to the Eocene period, and occur both in North America and Europe. The cheek teeth are short crowned (brachyodont), with the tubercles more or less completely fused into transverse ridges, or cross-crests (lophodont type); and the total number of teeth is in one case the typical 44, but in another is reduced below this. The vertebrae of the neck unite by nearly flat surfaces, the humerus has lost the foramen, or perforation, at the lower end, and the third trochanter to the femur may also be wanting. In the fore-limb the upper and lower series of carpal bones scarcely alternate, but in the hind- foot the astragalus overlaps the cuboid, while the fibula, which is quite distinct from the tibia (as is the radius from the ulna in the fore-limb), articulates with both astragalus and calcaneum. The most generalized type is Coryphodon, representing the family

Coryphodontidae, from the lower Eocene of Europe and North America, in which there were 44 teeth, and no horn-like excrescences on the long skull, while the femur had a third trochanter. The canines are somewhat elongated, and were followed by a short gap in each jaw, and the cheek-teeth were adapted for succulent food. The length of the body reached about 6 ft. in some cases.

In the middle Eocene formations of North America occurs the more specialized Hintatherium (or Dinoceras), typifying the family Uintatheriidae, which also contains species sometimes separated as Tinoceras. Uintatheres were huge creatures, with long narrow skulls, of which the elongated facial portion caraed three pairs of bony horn-cores, probably covered with short horns in life, the hind-pair being much the largest. The dental formula is i. 0/3, c. 1/1, p. $3\over 3\cdot4$, m. 3/3; the upper canines being long sabre-like weapons, protected by a descending flange on each side of the front of the lower iaw.

In the basal Eocene of North America the Amblypoda were represented by extremely primitive, five-toed, small ungulates such as Periptychus and Pantolambda, each of these typifying a family. The full typical series of 44 teeth was developed in each, but whereas in the Periptychidae the upper molars were bunodont and tritubercular, in the Pantolambdidae they have assumed a selenodont structure. Creodont characters (see CREODONTA) are displayed in the skeleton.

See also H. F. Osborn, ``Evolution of the Amblypoda,'' Bull. Amer. Mus. vol x. p. 169. (R. L.*)

AMBO, or AMBON (Gr. ambon, from anabainein, to walk up, the reading-desk of early Basilican churches, also called purgos. Originally small and movable, it was afterwards made of large proportions and fixed in one place. In the Byzantine and early Romanesque periods it was an essential part of church furniture; but during the middle ages it was gradually superseded in the Western Church by the pulpit and lectern. The gospel and epistle are still read from the ambo in the Ambrosian rite at Milan. The position of the ambo was not absolutely uniform; sometimes in the central point between the sanctuary and the nave, sometimes in the middle of the church, and sometimes at one or both of the sides of the chancel. The normal ambo, when the church contained only one, had three stages or degrees, one above the other, and it was usually mounted by a flight of steps at each end. The uppermost stage was reserved for the deacon who sang the gospel (facing the congregation); for promulgating episcopal edicts; reciting the names inscribed on the diptychs (see DIPTYCH); announcing fasts, vigils and feasts; reading ecclesiastical letters or acts of the martyrs celebrated on that day; announcing new miracles for popular edification, professions by new converts or recantations by heretics; and (for priests and deacons) preaching sermons, -- bishops as a general rule preaching from their own throne. The second stage was for the sub-deacon who read the epistle (facing the altar); and the third for the subordinate clergy who read other parts of scripture. The inconvenience of having a single ambo led to the substitution of two separate ambones, between which these various functions were divided, one on the south side of the chancel being for the reading of the gospel, and one on the north for reading the epistle. In the Russian Orthodox Church the term ``ambo'' is used of the semicircular steps leading to the platform in front of the iconostasis (q.v.), but in Cathedrals the bishop has an ambo in the centre of the church. In the Greek Church the older form remains, usually placed at the side. In the Uniate Greek Catholic Church the ``ambo'' has become a table, on which are placed a crucifix and lights, before the doors of the iconostasis; here baptisms, marriages and confirmations take place.

Ambones were made of wood or else of costly marbles, and were decorated with mosaics, reliefs, gilding, &c.; sometimes also covered with canopies supported on columns. They were often of enormous size; that at St Sophia in Constantinople was large enough for the ceremonial of coronation.

The churches in Rome possess many fine examples of ambones in marble, of which the oldest is probably that in S. Clemente, reconstructed in the beginning of the 12th century. Those of slightly later date are enriched with marble mosaic known as Cosmati work, of which the examples in S. Maria-in-Ara-Coeli, S. Maria-in-Cosmedin and S. Lorenzo are those which are best known. Some early ambones are found in Ravenna, and in the south of Italy are many fine examples; the epistle ambo in the cathedral at Ravello (1130), which is perhaps the earliest, shows a Scandinavian influence in the design of its mosaic inlay, an influence which is found in Sicilian work and may be a Norman importation. The two ambones in the Cathedral of Salerno,

which are different in design, are magnificent in effect and are enriched with sculpture as well as with mosaic. In the gospel ambo in the cathedral of Ravello (1272), and also in that of the convent of the Trinita della Cava near Salerno, the spiral columns inlaid with mosaic stand on the backs of lions. In the epistle ambo at Salerno and the gospel ambones at Cava and San Giovanni del Toro in Ravello, the columns support segmental arches carrying the ambones; the epistle ambo at Ravello and all those in Rome are raised on solid marble bases.

See the litumical and ecclesiastical dictionaries of Martigny, Migne, and Smith and Cheetham, sub voce, where all the scattered references are collected together and summarized. In Ciampinus, Vetera Monumenta (Rome, 1747), plates xii., xiii., are several illustrations of actual examples.

AMBOISE, GEORGES D', (1460-1510), French cardinal and minister of state, belonged to a noble family possessed of considerable influence. His father, Pierre d'Amboise, seigneur de Chaumont, was chamberlain to Charles VII. and Louis XI. and ambassador at Rome. His eldest brother, Charles d'Amboise, was governor of the Isle of France, Champagne and Burgundy, and councillor of Louis XI. Georges d'Amboise was only fourteen when his father procured for him the bishopric of Montauban, and Louis XI. appointed him one of his almoners. On arriving at manhood d'Amboise attached himself to the party of the duke of Orleans, in whose cause he suffered imprisonment, and on whose return to the royal favour he was elevated to the archbishopric of Narbonne, which after some time he changed for that of Rouen (1493). On the appointment of the duke of Orleans as governor of Normandy, d'Amboise became his lieutenant-general. In 1498 the duke of Orleans mounted the throne as Louis XII., and d'Amboise was suddenly raised to the high position of cardinal and prime minister. His administration was, in many respects, well-intentioned and useful. Having the good fortune to serve a king who was both economical and just, he was able to diminish the imposts, to introduce order among the soldiery, and above all, by the ordinances of 1499, to improve the organization of justice. He was also zealous for the reform of the church, and particularly for the reform of the monasteries; and it is greatly to his credit that he did not avail himself of the extremely favourable opportunities he possessed of becoming a pluralist. He regularly spent a large income in charity, and he laboured strenuously to stay the progress of the plague and famine which broke out in 1504. His foreign policy, less happy and less wise, was animated by two aims -- to increase the French power in Italy and to seat himself on the papal throne; and these aims be sought to achieve by diplomacy, not by force. He, however, sympathized with, and took part in, the campaign which was begun in 1499 for the Conquest of Milan. In 1500 he was named lieutenant- general in Italy and charged with the organization of the conquest. On the death of Alexander VI. he aspired to the papacy. He had French troops at the gates of Rome, by means of which he could easily have frightened the conclave and induced them to elect him; but he was persuaded to trust to his influence; the troops were dismissed, and an Italian was appointed as Pius III.; and again, on the death of Pius within the month, another Italian, Julius II., was chosen (1503). D'Amboise received in compensation the title of legate for life in France and in the Comtat Venaissin. He was one of the negotiators of the disastrous treaties of Blois (1504), and in 1508 of the League of Cambrai against Venice. In 1509 he again accompanied Louis XII. into Italy, but on his return he was seized at the city of Lyons with a fatal attack of gout in the stomach. He died there on the 25th of May 1510. His body was removed to Rouen, and a magnificent tomb, on which he is represented kneeling in the attitude of prayer, was erected to his memory in the cathedral of that town. Throughout his life he was an enlightened patron of letters and art, and it was at his orders that the chateau of Gaillon near Rouen was built.

See Lettres du roi Louis XII. et du cardinal d'Amboise (Brussels, 1712); L. Legendre, Vie du cardinal d'Amboise (Rouen, 1726); E. Lavisse, Histoire de France (vol. v. by H. Lemonnier, Paris, 19O3); J. A. Deville, Tombeaux de la cathedrale de Rouen (3rd ed., 1881). For a bibliography of the printed sources see, H. Hauser, Les Sources de l'histoire de France, KM`siecle, vol. i. (1906). (J. I.)

AMBOISE, a town of central France in the department of Indre-et-Loire, on the left bank of the Loire, 12 m. E. of Tours by the Orleans railway. Pop. (1906) 4632. Amboise owes its celebrity to the imposing chateau which overlooks the Loire from the rocky eminence above the town. The Logis du Roi, the most important portion, was the work of Charles VIII.; the other wing was built under Louis XII. and Francis I. The ramparts are strengthened by two massive towers containing an inclined plane on which horses and carriages may ascend. The chapel of St Hubert, said to contain the remains of Leonardo da Vinci, who was summoned to Amboise by Francis I., king of France, and died there in 1519, is in the late Gothic style; a delicately carved relief over the doorway represents the conversion of St Hubert. The hotel de ville is established in a mansion of Renaissance architecture; a town gateway of the 15th century, surmounted by a belfry, is also of architectural interest. Iron-founding, wool-weaving, and the manufacture of boots and farm implements are among the industries.

Amboise at the end of the 11th century was a lordship under the counts of Anjou, one of whom, Hugues I., rebuilt the ancient castle. Its territory was united to the domain of the crown of France by Charles VII. about the middle of the 15th century, and thenceforth the chateau became a favourite residence of the French kings. The discovery in 1560 of the ``conspiracy of Amboise,'' a plot of the Huguenots to remove Francis II. from the influence of the house of Guise, was avenged by the death of 1200 members of that party. In 1563 Amboise gave its name to a royal edict allowing freedom of worship to the Huguenot nobility and gentry. After that period the chateau was frequently used as a state prison, and Abd-el-Kader was a captive there from 1848 to 1852. In 1872 it was restored by the National Assembly to the house of Orleans, to which it had come by inheritance from the duke of Penthievre in the latter half of the 18th century.

AMBOYNA (Dutch Ambon), the name of a residency, its chief town, and the island on which the town is situated, in the Dutch East Indies.

The residency shares with that of Ternate the administration of the Moluccas, the previous government of which was abolished in 1867. It includes a mass of islands in the Banda Sea (2 deg. 30' - 8 deg. 20' S. and 125 deg. 45' - 135 deg. E.), including the island-belt which surrounds the sea on the north, east and south; and is divided for administrative purposes into nine districts (afdeelingen): 1) Amboyna, the island of that name; (2) Saparua, with Oma and Nusa Laut; (3) Kajeli (Eastern Burn); (4) Masareti (Western Burn); (5) Kairatu (Western Ceram); (6) Wahai (the northern part of Mid-Ceram); (7) Amahai (the southern part of Mid-Ceram); (8) the Banda Isles, with East Ceram, Ceram Laut and Gorom; (9) the islands of Aru, Kei, Timor Laut or Tenimber, and the south-western islands. The total area of the residency is about 19,861 sq. m., and its population 296,000, including 2400 Europeans.

Amboyna Island lies off the south-west of Ceram, on the north side of the Banda Sea, being one of a series of volcanic isles in the inner circle round the sea. It is 32 m. in length, with an area of about 386 sq. m., and is of very irregular figure, being almost divided into two. The south-eastern and smaller portion (called Leitimor) is united to the northern (Hitoe) by a neck of land a few yards in breadth. The highest mountains, Wawani (3609 ft.) and Salhutu (4020 ft.), have hot springs and solfataras. They are considered to be volcanoes, and the mountains of the neighbouring Uliasser islands the remains of volcanoes. Granite and serpentine rocks predominate, but the shores of Amboyna Bay are of chalk, and contain stalactite caves. The surface is fertile, the rivers are small and not navigable, and the roads are mere footpaths. Cocoa is one of the products. The climate is comparatively pleasant and healthy; the average temperature is 80 deg. F., rarely sinking below 72 deg. . The rainfall, however, after the eastern monsoons, is very heavy, and the island is liable to

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