Chapter CXLVI: Act 1875: , but, broadly speaking, they are divided into two (2)

All smokeless powders are somewhat difficult to ignite in a gun, so that in order to prevent hang-fires every cartridge has a primer or igniter, of ordinary fine grain gunpowder, placed so as to intercept the flash from the tube; the outside of the bag containing this igniter is made of shalloon, to allow the flash to penetrate with ease. The charge for heavy guns (above 6 in.) is made up in separate cartridges containing half and quarter charges, both for convenience of handling, and to allow of a reduced charge being used.

The cartridges are made of a bundle of cordite,or other smokeless powder, tightly tied with silk, placed in a silk cloth bag with the primer or igniter stitched on the unclosed end; the exterior is taped with silk cloth tape so as to form a stiff cartridge. For

FIG. 21.--10-inch B.L. Gun Cartridge.

some of the longer guns, the exterior of the cartridre is conveniently made of a coned shape, the coned form being produced by building up layers outside a cylindrical core. In these large cartridges a silk cord becket runs up the centre with a loop at the top for handling (fig. 21).

For howitzers, variable charges are used, and are made up so that the weight can be readily altered. The following typical instance (fig. 22) will serve to show the general method of making

Fig. 22.--6-inch B.L. Howitzer Cartridge.

such charges, whether for B.L. or Q.F. howitzers. Small size cordite is used, and the charge is formed of a mushroom-shaped core, made up in a shalloon bag; on the stalk, so as to be easily removed, three rings of cordite are placed. The bottom of the core contains the primer, and the rings can be attached to the core by two silk braids. The weight of the rings is graduated so that by detaching one or more the varying charges required can be obtained.

For quick-firing guns the charge is contained in a brass case to which is fitted a primer for igniting the charge. This case is inserted into the gun, and when fired slightly expands and tightly fits the chamber of the gun, thus acting as an obturator and preventing any escape of gas from the breech. This class of ammunition is especially useful for the smaller calibres of guns, such as 3-pr., 6-pr. and field guns, but Messrs Krupp also employ metallic cartridge cases for the largest type of gun, probably on account of the known difficulty of ensuring trustworthy obturation by any other means practicable with sliding wedge guns.

The charges for these cases are made up in a very similar manner to those already described for B.L. guns. Where necessary, distance pieces formed of papier-mache tubes and felt wads are used to fill up the space in the case and so prevent any movement of the charge. The mouth of the case is closed either by the base end of the projectile (fig. 23), in which case it is called ``fixed ammunition'' or ``simultaneous loading ammunition.'' or by a metallic cap (fig. 24), when it is called ``separate

FIG. 24.--4.7-inch Q.F. Cartridge greatly reduced scale).

loading ammunition,'' projectile and charge being thus loaded by separate operations. (A. G. H.)

The Bullet.--The original musket bullet was a spherical leaden ball two sizes smaller than the bore, wrapped in a loosely fitting paper patch which formed the cartridge. The loading was, therefore, easy with the old smooth-bore Brown Bess and similar military muskets. The original muzzle-loading rifle, on the other hand, with a closely fitting ball to take the grooves, was loaded with difficulty, particularly when foul, and for this reason was not generally used for military purposes.

In 1826 Delirque, a French infantry officer, invented a breech with abrupt shoulders on which the spherical bullet was rammed down until it expanded and filled the grooves. The objection in this case was that the deformed bullet had an erratic flight. The Brunswick rifle, introduced into the British army in the reign of William IV., fired a spherical bullet weighing 557 grs. with a belt to fit the grooves. The rifle was not easily loaded, and soon fouled. In 1835 W. Greener produced a new expansive bullet, an oval ball, a diameter and a half in length, with a flat end, perforated, in which a cast metallic taper plug was inserted. The explosion of the charge drove the plug home, expanded the bullet, filled the grooves and prevented windage. A trial of the Greener bullet in August 1835, at Tynemouth, by a party of the 60th (now King's Royal) Rifles, proved successful. The range and accuracy of the rifle were retained, while the loading proved as easy as with a smooth-bore musket. The invention was, however, rejected by the military authorities on the ground that the bullet was a compound one. In 1852 the government awarded Minie, a Frenchman, L. 20,000 for a bullet of the same principle, adopted into the British service. Subsequently, in 1857, Greener was also awarded L. 1000 for ``the first public suggestion of the principle of expansion, commonly called the Minie principle, in 1836.'' The Minie bullet contained an iron cup in a cavity in the base of the bullet. The form of the bullet was subsequently changed from conoidal to cylindro-conoidal, with a hemispherical iron cup. This bullet was used in the Enfield rifle introduced into the British army in 1855. It weighed 530 grs., and was made up into cartridges and lubricated as for the Minie rifle. A boxwood plug to the bullet was also used. The bullet used in the breech-loading Martini-Henry rifle, adopted by the British government in 1871 in succession to the Snider-Enfield rifle, weighed 480 grs., and was fired from an Eley-Boxer cartridge- case with a wad of wax lubrication at the base of the bullet.

Between 1854 and 1857 Sir Joseph Whitworth conducted a long series of rifle experiments, and proved, among other points, the advantages of a smaller bore and, in particular, of an elongated bullet. The Whitworth bullet was made to fit the grooves of the rifle mechanically. The Whitworth rifle was never adopted by the government, although it was used extensively for match purposes and target practice between 1857 and 1866, when it was gradually superseded by Metford's System mentioned below.

The next important change in the history of the rifle bullet occurred in 1883, when Major Rubin, director of the Swiss Laboratory at Thun, invented the small-calibre rifle, one of whose essential features was the employment of an elongated compound bullet, with a leaden core in a copper envelope. About 1862 and later, W. E. Metford had carried out an exhaustive series of experiments on bullets and rifling, and had invented the important system of light rifling with increasing spiral, and a hardened bullet. The combined result of the above inventions was that in December 1888 the Lee-Metford small-bore .303 rifle, Mark I., was finally adopted for the British army. The latest development of this rifle is now known as the .303 Lee-Enfleld, which fires a long, thin, nickel-covered, leaden-cored bullet 1.25 in. long, weighing only 215 grs., while the Martini-Henry bullet, 1.27 in. in length and .45 in. in diameter, weighed 480 grs.

The adoption of the smaller elongated bullet, necessitated by the smaller calibre of the rifle, entailed some definite disadvantages. The lighter bullet is more affected by wind. Its greater relative length to diameter necessitates a sharper pitch of rifling in order properly to revolve the bullet (one turn in 10 in. for the .303 rifle as compared with one turn in 22 in. for the Martini-Henry). This, in its turn, necessitates a hard nickel envelope for the leaden bullet in order to prevent its ``stripping,'' or being forced through the barrel without rotation. The general result is that, while the enveloped bullet has a much higher penetrative power than one of lead only, it does not usually inflict so severe a wound, nor has it such a stunning effect as the old lead bullet. It cuts a small clean hole, but does not deform. This fact is of some military importance, as, for example, in warfare with savages, in which the chief danger is usually a rush of large numbers at close quarters. The advantages, however, of the smaller calibre and the lighter bullet and ammunition are considered to outweigh the disadvantages, and they have been universally adopted for all military rifles.

Bullets for target and sporting-rifles have, in the main, followed, or occasionally preceded, the line of progress of military rifle bullets. In 1861 Henry introduced a modification of the grooving of the cylindrical Whitworth bullet, and in 1864 and 1865 the Rigby mechanically fitting bullet was used with success at the National Rifle Association meeting, and in the second stage of the Queen's prize. The bullets of sporting rifles, and particularly those of Express rifles, are often lighter than military bullets, and made with hollow points to ensure the expansion of the projectile on or after impact. The size and shape of the hollow in the point vary according to the purpose required and the nature of the game hunted. If greater penetration is needed, the leaden bullet is hardened with mercury or tin, or the military nickel-coated bullet is used with the small-bore, smokeless- powder rifles. Explosive bullets filled with detonating powder were at one time used in Express and large-bore rifles for large game. The use of these bullets is now practically abandoned owing to their uncertainty of action and the danger involved in handling them. Their use in warfare is prohibited by international law.

The nickel-covered bullet, when used in a modern small-bore rifle for sporting purposes, is made into an expanding bullet, either by leaving the leaden core uncovered at the nose of the bullet, with or without a hollow point, or by cutting transverse or longitudinal nicks of varying depth in the point or circumference of the bullet.

A cone-shaped sharp-pointed bullet, named the Spitzer bullet, has been tried in the United States under the auspices of the Ordnance Department, in a Springfield rifle, which is practically identical with the British service .303 Lee-Enfield. This bullet is lighter than the Lee-Enfield bullet (150 grs. as against 215 grs.), and when fired with a heavier charge of powder (51 grs. as against 31 grs.) gives, it is claimed, better results in muzzle-velocity, trajectory, deflexion from wind and wear and tear of rifling, than the present universally used cylinder-shaped bullet. In 1906 details of its prototype, the German ``S'' bullet (Spitzgeschoss), and of the French ``D'' bullet, were published.

The Cartridge.--The original cartridge for military small arms dates from 1586. It consisted of a charge of powder and a bullet in a paper envelope. This cartridge was used with the muzzle- loading military firearm, the base of the cartridge being ripped or bitten off by the soldier, the powder poured into the barrel, and the bullet then rammed home. Before the invention of the firelock or flint-lock, about 1635, the priming was originally put into the pan of the wheel-lock and snaphance muskets from a flask containing a fine-grained powder called serpentine powder. Later the pan was filled from the cartridge above described before loading. The mechanism of the flint-lock musket, in which the

FIG. 25.

pan was covered by the furrowed steel struck by the flint, rendered this method of priming unnecessary, as, in loading, a portion of the charge of powder passed from the barrel through the vent into the pan, where it was held by the cover and hammer.

The next important advance in the method of ignition was the introduction of the copper percussion cap. This was only generally applied to the British military musket (the Brown Bess) in 1842, a quarter of a century after the invention of percussion powder and after an elaborate government test at Woolwich in 1834. The invention which made the percussion cap possible was patented by the Rev. A. J. Forsyth in 1807, and consisted of priming with a fulminating powder made of chlorate of potash, sulphur and charcoal, which exploded by concussion. This invention was gradually developed, and used, first in a steel cap, and then in a copper cap, by various gunmakers and private individuals before coming into general military use nearly thirty years later. The alteration of the military flint-lock to the percussion musket was easily accomplished by replacing the powder pan by a perforated nipple, and by replacing the cock or hammer which held the flint by a smaller hammer with a hollow to fit on the nipple when released by the trigger. On the nipple was placed the copper cap containing the detonating composition, now made of three parts of chlorate of potash, two of fulminate of mercury and one of powdered glass. The detonating cap thus invented and adopted, brought about the invention of the modern cartridge case, and rendered possible the general adoption of the breech-loading principle for all varieties of rifles, shot guns and pistols. Probably no invention connected with firearms has wrought such changes in the principle of gun construction as those effected by the expansive cartridge case. This invention has completely revolutionized the art of gunmaking, has been successfully applied to all descriptions of firearms, and has produced a new and important industry--that of cartridge manufacture.

Its essential feature is the prevention of all escape of gas at the breech when the weapon is fired, by means of an expansive cartridge case containing its own means of ignition. Previous to this invention shot guns and sporting rifles were loaded by means of powder flasks and shot flasks, bullets, wads and copper caps, all carried separately. The earliest efficient modern cartridge case was the pin-fire, patented, according to some authorities, by Houiller, a Paris gunsmith, in 1847; and, according to others, by Lefaucheux, also a Paris gunsmith, in or about 1850. It consisted of thin weak shell made of brass and paper which expanded by the force of the explosion, fitted perfectly into the barrel, and thus formed an efficient gas check. A small percussion cap was placed in the middle of the base of the cartridge, and was exploded by means of a brass pin projecting from the side and struck by the hammer. This pin also afforded the means of extracting the cartridge case. This cartridge was introduced in England by Lang, of Cockspur Street, London, about 1855.

The central-fire cartridge was introduced into England in 1861 by Daw. It is said to have been the invention of Pottet of Paris, improved upon by Schneider, and gave rise to much litigation in respect of its patent rights. Daw was subsequently defeated in his control of the patents by Eley Bros. In this cartridge the cap in the centre of the cartridge base is detonated by a striker passing through the standing breech to the inner face, the cartridge case being withdrawn, or, in the most modern weapons, ejected by a sliding extractor fitted to the breech end of the barrel, which catches the rim of the base of the cartridge.

This is practically the modern cartridge case now in universal use. In the case of shot guns it has been gradually inproved in small details. The cases are made either of paper of various qualities with brass bases, or entirely of thin brass. The wadding between powder and shot has been thickened and improved in quality; and the end of the cartridge case is now made to fit more perfectly into the breech chamber. These cartridges vary in size from 32 bore up to 4 bore for shoulder guns. They are also made as small as .410 and .360 gauge: their length varies from 1 3/4 in. to 4 in. Cartridges for punt guns are usually 1 1/2 in. in diameter and 9 3/4 in. in length.

In the case of military rifles the breech-loading cartridge case was first adopted in principle by the Prussians about 1841 in the needle-gun (q.v.) breech-loader. In this a conical bullet rested on a thick wad, behind which was the powder, the whole being enclosed in strong lubricated paper. The detonator was in the hinder surface of the wad, and fired by a needle driven forward from the breech, through the base of the cartridge and through the powder, by the action of a spiral spring set free by the pulling of the trigger.

In 1867 the British war office adopted the Eley-Boxer metallic central-fire cartridge case in the Enfield rifles, which were converted to breech-loaders on the Snider principle. This consisted of a block opening on a hinge, thus forming a false breech against which the cartridge rested. The detonating cap was in the base of the cartridge, and was exploded by a striker passing through the breech block. Other European powers adopted breech-loading military rifles from 1866 to 1868, with paper instead of metallic cartridge cases. The original Eley-Boxer cartridge case was made of thin coiled brass. Later the solid-drawn, central-fire cartridge case, made of one entire solid piece of tough hard metal, an alloy of copper, &c., with a solid head of thicker metal, has been generally substituted.

Central-fire cartridges with solid-drawn metallic cases containing their own means of ignition are now universally used in all modern varieties of military and sporting rifles and pistols. There is great variety in the length and diameter of cartridges for the different kinds and calibres of rifles and pistols. Those for military rifies vary from 2.2 in. to 2.25 in. in length, and from .256 to .315 gauge. For sporting rifles from 2 1/4 in. to 3 1/2 in. in length, and through numerous gauges from .256 in. to .600 in. For revolvers, pistols, rook and rabbit rifles, and for Morris tubes, cartrillges vary from .22 in. to .301 in. in gauge. All miniature cartridges with light charges are made for breech adapters to enable .303 military rifles to be used on miniature rifle ranges. All the above cartridges are central-fire. Rim-fire cartridges for rifles, revolvers and pistols vary from .22 in. to .56 in. gauge according to the weapon for which they are required. The cartridge for the British war office miniature rifle is .22 calibre, with 5 grs. of powder and a bullet weighing 40 grs. Most modern military rifles are supplied with clip or charger loading arrangements, whereby the magazine is filled with the required number of cartridges in one motion. A clip is simply a case of cartridges which is dropped into the magazine; a charger is a strip of metal holding the bases of the cartridges, and is placed over the magazine, the cartridges being pressed out into the latter. Both clips and chargers, being consumable stores, may be considered as ammunition. (H. S.-K.)

AMNESTY (from the Gr. amnestia, oblivion), an act of grace by which the supreme power in a state restores those who may have been guilty of any offence against it to the position of innocent persons. It includes more than pardon, inasmuch as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the offence. Amnesties, which may be granted by the crown alone, or by act of parliament, were formerly usual on coronations and similar occasions, but are chiefly exercised towards associations of political criminals, and are sometimes granted absolutely, though more frequently there are certain specified exceptions. Thus, in the case of the earliest recorded amnesty, that of Thrasybulus at Athens, the thirty tyrants and a few others were expressly excluded from its operation; and the amnesty proclaimed on the restoration of Charles II. did not extend to those who had taken part in the execution of his father. Other celebrated amnesties are that proclaimed by Napoleon on the 13th of March 1815, from which thirteen eminent persons, including Talleyrand, were excepted; the Prussian amnesty of the 10th of August 1840; the general amnesty proclaimed by the emperor Francis Joseph of Austria in 1857; the general amnesty granted by President Johnson after the Civil War in 1868; and the French amnesty of 1905. The last act of amnesty passed in Great Britain was that of 1747, which proclaimed a pardon to those who had taken part in the second Jacobite rebellion.

AMOEBA, the Greek equivalent of the name ``Amibe'' given by Bery St Vincent to the Proteus animalcule of earlier naturalists, used as a quasi-popular term for any simple naked protist the sole external organs of which are pseudopodia, i.e. temporary outgrowths of the clearer outer layer of the soft protoplasmic body. It is also used as a generic name, and in its present limitations by E. Penard includes only those the pseudopodia of which are constantly changing, blunt outgrowths. In the former wider sense, amoebae are found in sluggish waters, fresh and salt, all over the world; they readily make their appearance in infusions putrefying after infection from aerially carried germs, and the leucocytes or colourless blood corpuscles of Metazoa are essentially amoebae in their structure and behaviour. The protoplasm of the individual is divided into a centrally placed body, the nucleus, of relatively stable shape, and the cytoplasm, itself divided into an outer, clearer ectoplasm (``ectosarc'') and an inner, more granular endoplasm (``endosarc''), passing into one another. The movements of amoebae are of several kinds. (1) The amoeba may grow out irregularly into blunt lobes, the pseudopodia, some being emitted while others are retracted, and so may advance in any direction by the emission of pseudopodia thitherward, and the enlargement of these by the passage of the organism into them. (2) Again, it may advance by a sort of rolling: the lower surface, or that in contact with the substratum over or under which it is passing, is viscid and adheres to the substratum, the superficial dorsal layer passing forward and bending over to the ventral side; whilst the converse action takes place at the hinder end; (3) or again, the pseudopodia, when long, well marked and relatively permanent, may serve as actual limbs on which the body is supported and on which it moves. In the outgrowth of a pseudopod the process may take place gradually, the ectoplasm growing as it stretches, or it may take place by the limiting layer of the ectosarc bursting, as it were, and a rounded prominence of the endosarc protruding and at once forming a new ``skin', or pellicle. This last mode, termed ``eruptive,'' is common in the case of the enormous, multinucleate amoeba termed Pelomyxa palustris, which attains a diameter when contracted and spherical of as much as a line (over 2 mm.). From the ease with which amoebae are obtained and kept alive under the microscope, as well as from their identity in structure with the primitive elements of Metazoa, they have always been favourite objects of study for protoplasmic physiology under its simplest conditions. Among the investigators of protoplasmic movements we may cite F. Dujardin, O. Butschli, L. Rhumbler and H. S. Jennings. The opening to the exterior of the contractile vesicle has been found here. Pelomyxa has yielded to A. E. Dixon and M. Hartog a peptic ferment, such as has been extracted by C. F. W. Krukenberg from the myxomycete Fuligo (Flowers of Tan), which is the largest known naked mass of protoplasm without cellular differentiation.

Amoeba shows also the multiplication by fission, so characteristic of the cell: for the study of other modes of reproduction, spore formation and syngamic (or so-called fertilization) processes, fresh-water or salt-water amoebae are ill suited, and up to this date we do not know the life cycle of any free-living naked amoeba, though that of some parasitic forms and shell-bearers have been fully made out. Some amoebae are certainly young states of Myxomycetes. Encystment, the excretion of a membrane around the cell to tide over unfavourable circumstances, has been noted in almost all species.

Amoeba coli and A. histolytica are parasites in the gut of man, the former relatively harmless, the latter the cause of severe dysentery and hepatic abscess, common in India.

H. S. Jennings has recently made a full study of the movements of Amoeba, and of its general behaviour, and found therein many indications that these are on the whole such as we should expect of an organism working by ``trial and error'' rather than the uniform modes of non-living beings. Thus the operations of an amoeba ingesting a round, encysted Euglena are summed up thus: ``One seems to see that the amoeba is trying to obtain this cyst for food, that it shows remarkable pertinacity in continuing its attempts to put forth efforts to accomplish this in various ways, and that it shows remarkable pertinacity in continuing its attempts to ingest the food when it meets with difficulties. Indeed the scene could be described in a much more vivid and interesting way by the use of terms still more anthropomorphic in tendency.'' (M. HA.)

AMOL, or AMUL, a town of Persia, in the province of Mazandaran, 23 m. W. of Barfurush, in 36 deg. 28' N. Lat. and 52 deg. 23' E. long. Pop. about 10,000. It is situated on both banks of the Heraz, or Herhaz river, which is crossed here by a very narrow stone bridge of twelve arches and flows into the Caspian Sea 12 m. lower down. Amol is not walled and is now a place of little importance, but in and around it there are ruins and ancient buildings which bear witness to its former greatness. Of these the most conspicuous is the mausoleum of Seyed Kavvam ud-din, king of Mazandaran, who died in 1379, and one old mosque dates from A.D. 793. The town has spacious and well-supplied bazaars and post and telegraph offices.

AMONTONS, GUILLAUME (1663-1705), French experimental philosopher, the son of an advocate who had left his native province of Normandy and established himself at Paris, was born in that city on the 31st of August 1663. He devoted himself particularly to the improvement of instruments employed in physical experiments. In 1687 he presented to the Academy of Sciences an hygrometer of his own invention, and in 1695 he published his only book, Remarques et experiences physiques sur la construction d'une nouvelle clepsydre, sur les barometres, les thermometres et les hygrometres. In 1699 he published some investigations on friction, and in 1702-1703 two noteworthy papers on thermometry. He experimented with an air-thermometer, in which the temperature was defined by measurement of the length of a column of mercury; and he pointed out that the extreme cold of such a thermometer would be that which reduced the ``spring'' of the air to nothing, thus being the first to recognize that the use of air as a thermometric substance led to the inference of the existence of a zero of temperature. In 1704 he noted that barometers are affected by heat as well as by the weight of the atmosphere, and in the following year he described barometers without mercury, for use at sea. Amontons, who through disease was rendered almost completely deaf in early youth, died at Paris on the 11th of October 1705.

'AMORA (Hebrew for ``speaker'' or ``discourser''), a title applied to the rabbis of the 2nd to 5th centuries, i.e. to the compilers of the Talmud. Each tana--or rabbi of the earlier period--had a spokesman, who repeated to large audiences the discourses of the tana. But the 'amora soon ceased to be a mere repeater, and developed into an original expounder of scripture and tradition.

AMORITES, the name given by the Israelites to the earlier inhabitants of Palestine. They are regarded as a powerful people, giants in stature ``like the height of the cedars,'' who had occupied the land east and west of the Jordan. The Biblical usage appears to show that the terms ``Canaanites'' and ``Amorites'' were used synonymously, the former being characteristic of Judaean, the latter of Ephraimite and Deuteronomic writers. A distinction is sometimes maintained, however, when the Amorites are spoken of as the people of the past, whereas the Canaanites are referred to as still surviving. The old name is an ethnic term, evidently to be connected with the terms Amurru and Amar, used by Assyria and Egypt respectively. In the spelling Mar-tu, the name is as old as the first Babylonian dynasty, but from the 15th century B.C. and downwards its syllabic equivalent Amurru is applied primarily to the land extending northwards of Palestine as far as Kadesh on the Orontes. The term ``Canaan,'' on the other hand, is confined more especially to the southern district (from Gebal to the south of Palestine). But it is possible that the terms at an early date were interchangeable, Canaan being geographical and Amorite ethnical. The wider extension of the use of Amurru by the Babylonians and Assyrians is complicated by the fact that it was even applied to a district in the neighbourhood of Babylonia. If the people of the first Babylonian dynasty (about 21st century B.C.) called themselves ``Amorites,'' as Ranke seems to have shown, it is possible that some feeling of common origin was recognized at that early date.

See Ranke, Bab. Exped. Pennsylvania, series D, iii. 33 sqq.; and for general information, W. M. Muller, Asien u. Europa, 217 sqq.; Pinches, Old Testament, Index (s.v..) The people of Amar are represented on the Egyptian monuments with yellow skin, blue eyes, red eyebrows and beard, whence it has been conjectured that they were akin to the Libyans (Sayce, Expositor, July 1888). Senir, the ``Amorite', name of Hermon (Deut. iii. 9). appears to be identical with Saniru in the Lebanon, mentioned by Shalmaneser Il. In the Old Testament the chief references may be classified as follows:--primitive inhabitants generally, Is. xvii. 9 (on text see comm.), Ezek. xvi. 3; a people W. of Jordan, Josh. x. 5; Judg. i. 34-36; Deut. i. 7, 44; Gen. xiv. 7, xlviii. 22: E. of Jordan, Num. xxi. 13, 21 sqq.; Josh. ii. 10, xxiv. 8; Judg. x. 8. See further CANAAN, PALESTINE.

AMORPHISM (from a, privative, and morfe, form), a term used in chemistry and mineralogy to denote the absence of regular or crystalline structure in a body; the adjective ``amorphous,'' formless or of irregular shape, being also used technically in biology, &c.

AMORT, EUSEBIUS (1692--1775), German Catholic theologian, was born at Bibermuhle, near Tolz, in Upper Bavaria, on the 15th of November 1692. He studied at Munich, and at an early age joined the Canons Regular at Polling, where, shortly after his ordination in 1717, he taught theology and philosophy. In 1733 he went to Rome as theologian to Cardinal Niccolo Maria Lercari (d. 1757). He returned to Polling in 1735 and devoted the rest of his life to the revival of learning in Bavaria. He died at Polling on the 5th of February 1775. Amort, who had the reputation of being the most learned man of his age, was a voluminous writer on every conceivable subject, from poetry to astronomy, from dogmatic theology to mysticism. His best known works are: a manual of theology in 4 vols., Theologia electica, moralis et scholastica (Augsburg, 1752; revised by Benedict XIV. for the 1753 edition published at Bologna); a defence of Catholic doctrine, entitled Demonstratio critica religionis Catholicae (Augsburg, 1751); a work on indulgences, which has often been criticized by Protestant writers, De Origine, Progressu, Valore, et Fructu Indulgentiorum (Augsburg, 1735); a treatise on mysticism, De Revelationibus et Visionibus, &c. (2 vols., 1744); and the astronomical work Nova philosophiae planetarum et artis criticae systemata (Nuremberg, 1723). The list of his other works, including his three erudite contributions to the question of authorship of the Imitatio Christi, will be found in C. Toussaint's scholarly article in A. Vacant's Dict. de theologie (1900, cols. 1115-1117).

AMORTIZATION (derived through the French from Lat. ad, and mortem, to death), literally an extinction or doing to death, a word formerly used of alienating lands in mortmain, and now for the paying off of a debt, particularly by means of a regular sinking-fund; thus ``amortization'' and ``amortization fund'' generally refer to the latter method of extinguishing some pecuniary liability.

AMORY, THOMAS (c. 1691-1788), British author, was born about 1601, his father being the secretary for the forfeited estates in Ireland. He was an eccentric character and seems to have lived a very secluded life. He published Memoirs; containing the lives of several Ladies of Great Britain; a History of Antiquities &c. (1755) and Life of John Buncle Esq. (1756 and 1766). Both books are an extraordinary mixture of fiction, autobiography, scenic description and theological discussion. Amory died on the 25th of November 1788.

AMOS, in the Bible, an Israelitish prophet of the 8th century B.C. He was a native of Tekoa, i.e. as most suppose, a place which still bears the same name 6 m. S. of Bethlehem. He was a shepherd, or perhaps a sheep-breeder, but combined this occupation with that of a tender of sycomore figs. It is true, the Tekoa just mentioned lies too high for sycomores; so it has been almost too ingeniously supposed that Amos may have owned a plantation of sycomores in the hill country leading down to Philistia, technically called the Shephelah (R. Y., ``lowland''). Here there were sycomores in abundance (1 Kings x. 27). That this was his usual occupation we learn from a better source than the heading (i. 1), viz. a narrative (vii. 10, 17), evidently of early origin, which interrupts the series of prophetic visions on the fall of the kingdom of Israel. Amos, it appears, though himself a Judahite, had been prophesying in the northern kingdom, when his activity was brought to an abrupt close by the head priest of the royal sanctuary at Bethel, Amaziah, who bade him escape to the land of Judah and get his living there. The reply of Amos is full of instruction. ``No prophet am I; no prophet's son am I; a shepherd am I, and one who tends sycomore-figs. And Yahweh took me from behind the flock; and Yahweh said to me, Go, prophesy against my people Israel.'' The following words show that a prophet in ancient Israel had the utmost freedom of speech. It was far otherwise in the period of the fall of Judah. (See JEREMIAH.)

But what had Amos said that appeared so dangerous to the head priest? Amaziah summarizes it thus, ``Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall go away into captivity from his own land'' (vii. 11; cf. vii. 9b, v. 27, vi. 7). He omits all the reasons for this stern prophecy. The reasons are that the good old Israelitish virtue of brotherliness is dying away, that oppression and injustice are rampant (ii. 6-8, iii. 9, 10, iv. 1, v. 11, 12, viii. 4-6), and that rites are practised in the name of religion which are abhorrent to Yahweh, because they either have no moral meaning at all, and are mere forms (v. 21-23), or else, jndged from Amos's purified point of view, are absolutely immoral (ii. 7; cf. viii. 14). On the details of the captivity Amos preserves a mysterious vagueness. The fact, however, he puts forward with the confidence of one who is intimate with his God (iii. 7), and most probably it was at some great festival that he spoke the words which so perturbed Amaziah. The priest may not indeed himself have believed them, but he probably feared their effect on the moral courage of the people. And it is perhaps not arbitrary to suppose that the splendour of the ritual in Amos's time implies a tremulous anxiety that Israel's seeming prosperity under Jeroboam II. (see JEWS) may not be as secure as could be wished. For Amos cannot have been quite alone either in Israel or in Judah; there must have been a little flock of those who felt with Amos that there was small reason indeed to ``desire the day of Yahweh'' (v. 18; see Harper's note).

But why did Amos so emphatically decline to be called a prophet? A prophet in some true sense he certainly was, a prophet who, within his own range, has not been surpassed. He means this--that he is no mere ecstatic enthusiast or ``dervish,'' whose primary aim is to keep up the warlike spirit of the people, taking for granted that Yahweh is on the people's side, and that he is perfectly free from the taint of selfishness, not having to support himself by his prophesying. He could not indeed tell Amaziah this, but it is nevertheless true that he was the founder, or one of the founders, of a new type of prophet. He was also either the first, or one of the first, to write down, or to get written down, the substance of his spoken prophecies, and perhaps also prophecies which he never delivered at all. This was the consequence of his ill success as a public preacher. The other prophets of the same order may be presumed to have been hardly less unsuccessful. Hence the new phenomenon of written prophecies. The literary skill of Amos leads one to suppose that he had prepared in advance for this, perhaps we may say, not altogether unfortunate necessity.

That there are many hard problems connected with the fascinating book of Amos cannot be denied. The one point on which we have indicated a doubt, viz. as to the situation of Tekoa, ought strictly to be accompanied by others. For instance, how came Amos to transfer himself to northern Israel? How hard it must have been to obtain a footing there while he was a mere student and observer! And how came he by his wide knowledge of people outside the limits of Israel? The most recent and elaborate commentator even calls him an ``ethnologist.'' And lastly, whence came his mastery of the poetical and literary arts? Is he really the Columbus of written prophecy? And behind these questions is the fundamental problem of the text, which has been somewhat too slightly treated. The text of Hosea may be in a much worse condition, but a keen scrutiny discloses many an uncertainty, not to say impossibility, in the traditional form of Amos. That the text has been much adapted and altered is certain; not less obvious are the corruptions due to carelessness and accident.

The main divisions of the book are plain, viz. chaps. i.-ii., chaps. iii.-vi., and chaps. vii.-ix. This arrangement, however, is probably not due to Amos himself, or to his immediate disciples, but to some later redactor. A number of passages seem to have been inserted subsequently to the time of Amos, on which see Ency. Bib., ``Amos,'' and the introduction to Robertson Smith's Prophets of Israel(2), though in some cases the final decision will have to be preceded by a more thorough examination of the traditional text. The most obvious non-Amosian passage in the book is the concluding passage, ix. 8-15, which has evidently supplanted the original close of the section. The meaning of the phrase ``the tabernacle (booth) of David that is fallen'' (ver. 11) is not perfectly clear. Beyond reasonable doubt, however, the writer seeks to take out the sting of the preceding passage in which Israel is devoted to utter destruction. The penitent and God-fearing Jews of the post-exilic age needed some softening appendix, and this the editor provided.

English readers are now well supplied with books on Amos. Driver's Joel and Amos (see JOEL) (1897) and G. A. Smith's Twelve Prophets, vol. i. (1896), supplement and illustrate each other. Harper's Amos anid Hosea (see HOSEA) (1905) gives the cream of all the good things that have been said before, with a generally sound judgment; it is addressed to advanced students, and is perhaps less cautious than the two former. The German commentaries on the Minor Prophets by Nowack (2nd ed., 1905) and (especially) Marti (1904) must not, however, be neglected. Wellhausen's briefer work (3rd ed., 1898) is esriecially suggestive for textual criticism. Cheyne's Critica Biblica (1904), cf. his review of Harper in Hibbert Journal, iii. 824 fl., breaks new ground. (T. K. C.)

AMOS, SHELDON (1835-1886), English jurist, was educated at Clare College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar as a member of the Middle Temple in 1862. In 1869 he was appointed to the chair of jurisprudence in University College, London, and in 1872 became reader under the council of legal education and examiner in constitutional law and history to the university of London. Failing health led to his resignation of those offices, and he took a voyage to the South Seas. He resided for a short time at Sydney, and finally settled in Egypt, where he practised as an advocate. After the bombardment of Alexandria, and the reorganization of the Egyptian judicature, he was appointed judge of the court of appeal, but being without any previous experience of administrative work he found the strain too great for his health. He came to England on leave in the autumn of 1885, and on his return to Egypt he died suddenly at Alexandria on the 3rd of January 1886. His principal publications are: Systematic View of the Science of Jurisprudence (1872); Lectures on International Law (1873); Science of Law (1874); Science of Politics (1883); History and Principles of the Civil Law of Rome as Aid to the Study of Scientific and Comparative Jurisprudence (1883), and numerous pamphlets. His wife, Mrs Sheldon Amos (Sarah Maclardie Bunting), took a prominent part in Liberal Nonconformist politics and in movements connected with the position of women. She died at Cairo on the 21st of January 1908.

AMOY, a city and treaty-port in the province of Fuh-kien, China, situated on the slope of a hill, on the south coast of a small and barren island named Hiamen, in 24 deg. 28' N. and 118 deg. 10' E. It is a large and exceedingly dirty place, about 9 m. in circumference, and is divided into two portions, an inner and an outer town, which are separated from each other by a ridge of hills, on which a citadel of considerable strength has been built. Each of these divisions of the city possesses a large and commodious harbour, that of the inner town, or city proper, being protected by strong fortifications. There are dry-docks and an excellent anchorage. Amoy may be regarded as the port of the inland city of Chang-chow, with which it has river communication, and its trade, both foreign and coastwise, is extensive and valuable. The chief articles imported are sugar, rice, raw cotton and opium, as well as cotton cloths, iron goods and other European manufactures. The chief exports are tea, porcelain and paper. The trade carried on by means of Chinese junks is said to be large, and the native merchants are considered to be among the wealthiest and most enterprising in China. By other vessels the trade in 1870 was:--imports, L. 1,915,427; exports, L. 1,440,000. In 1904 the figures were:--imports, L. 2,081,494; exports, L. 384,494. The falling off of exports is due to the decreased demand for China tea, for which Amoy was one of the chief centres. The native population is now estimated at 300,000, and the foreign residents number about 280. A large part of the trade is that carried on with the neighbouring Japanese island of Formosa. The province of Fuh-kien is claimed by the Japanese as their particular sphere of influence. Amoy was captured by the British in 1841, after a determined resistance, and is one of the five ports that were opened to British commerce by the treaty of 1842; it is now open to the ships of all nations.

AMPELIUS, LUCIUS, possibly a tutor or schoolmaster, and author of an extremely concise summary--a kind of index--of universal history (Liber Memorialis) from the earliest times to the reign of Trajan. Its object and scope are sufficiently indicated in the dedication to a certain Macrinus: ``Since you desire to know everything, I have written this `book of notes,' that you may learn of what the universe and its elements consist, what the world contains, and what the human race has done.'' It seems to have been intended as a text-book to be learnt by heart. The little work, in fifty chapters, gives a sketch of cosmography, geography, mythology (chaps. i.-x.), and history (chap. x.-end). The historical portion, dealing mainly with the republican period, is untrustworthy, and the text in many places corrupt; the earlier chapters are more valuable, and contain some interesting information. In chap. viii. (Miracula Mundi) occurs the only reference in an ancient writer to the famous sculptures of Pergamum, discovered in 1871, excavated in 1878, and now at Berlin: ``At Pergamum there is a great marble altar, 40 ft. high, with colossal sculptures, representing a battle of the giants.'' Nothing is known of the author or of the date at which he lived: the times of Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, the beginning of the 3rd century, and the age of Diocletian and Constantine have all been suggested. The Macrinus to whom the work is dedicated may have been the emperor, who reigned 217-218, but the name is not uncommon, and it seems more likely that he was a young man with a thirst for universal knowledge, which the Liber Memorialis was compiled to satisfy.

There is no English edition or translation. The first edition of Ampelius was published in 1638 by Salmasius (Saumaise) from the Dijon MS., now lost, together with the Epitome of Florus; the latest edition is by Wolfflin (1854), based on Salmasius's copy of the lost codex.

See Glaser, Rheinisches Museum, ii. (1843); Zink, Eos, ii (1866); Wolfflin, De L. Ampelii Libro Memoriali (1854).

AMPELOPSIS (from Gr. ampelos, vine, and opsis, appearance, as it resembles the grape-vine in habit), a genus of the vine order Ampelideae and nearly allied to the grape-vine. The plants are rapidly-growing, hardy, ornamental climbers, which flourish in common garden soil, and are readily propagated by cuttings. They climb by means of tendrils. A. quinquefolia, Virginian creeper, a native of North America, introduced to Europe early in the 17th century, has palmately compound leaves with three to five leaflets. A. tricuspidata, better known as A. Veitchii, a more recent introduction (1868) from Japan, has smaller leaves very variable in shape; it clings readily to stone or brick work by means of suckers at the ends of the branched tendrils.

AMPERE, ANDRE MARIE (1775-1836), French physicist, was born at Polemieux, near Lyons, on the 22nd of January 1775. He took a passionate delight in the pursuit of knowledge from his very infancy, and is reported to have worked out long arithmetical sums by means of pebbles and biscuit crumbs before he knew the figures. His father began to teach him Latin, but ceased on discovering the boy's greater inclination and aptitude for mathematical studies. The young Ampere, however, soon resumed his Latin lessons, to enable him to master the works of Euler and Bernouilli. In later life he was accustomed to say that he knew as much about mathematics when he was eighteen as ever he knew; but his reading embraced nearly the whole round of knowledge--history, travels, poetry, philosophy and the natural sciences. When Lyons was taken by the army of the Convention in 1793, the father of Ampere, who, holding the office of juge de paix, had stood out resolutely against the previous revolutionary excesses, was at once thrown into prison, and soon after perished on the scaffold. This event produced a profound impression on his susceptible mind, and for more than a year he remained sunk in apathy. Then his interest was aroused by some letters on botany which fell into his hands, and from botany he turned to the study of the classic poets, and to the writing of verses himself. In 1796 he met Julie Carron, and an attachment sprang up between them, the progress of which he naively recorded in a journal (Amorum). In 1799 they were married. From about 1796 Ampere gave private lessons at Lyons in mathematics, chemistry and languages; and in 1801 he removed to Bourg, as professor of physics and chemistry, leaving his ailing wife and infant son at Lyons. She died in 1804, and he never recovered from the blow. In the same year he was appointed professor of mathematics at the lycee of Lyons. His small treatise, Considerations sur la theorie mathematique du jeu, which demonstrated that the chances of play are decidedly against the habitual gambler, published in 1802, brought him under the notice of J. B. J. Delambre, whose recommendation obtained for him the Lyons appointment, and afterwards (1804) a subordinate position in the polytechnic school at Paris, where he was elected professor of mathematics in 1809. Here he continued to prosecute his scientific researches and his multifarious studies with unabated diligence. He was admitted a member of the Institute in 1814. It is on the service that he rendered to science in establishing the relations between electricity and magnetism, and in developing the science of electromagnetism, or, as be called it, electrodynamics, that Ampere's fame mainly rests. On the 11th of September 1820 he heard of H. C. Oersted's discovery that a magnetic needle is acted on by a voltaic current. On the 18th of the same month he presented a paper to the Academy, containing a far more complete exposition of that and kindred phenomena. (See ELECTROKINETICS.) The whole field thus opened up he explored with characteristic industry and care, and developed a mathematical theory which not only explained the electromagnetic phenomena already observed but also predicted many new ones. His original memoirs on this subject may be found in the Ann. Chim. Phys. between 1820 and 1828. Late in life he prepared a remarkable Essai sur la philosophie des sciences. In addition, he wrote a number of scientific memoirs and papers, including two on the integration of partial differential equations (Jour. Ecole Polytechn. x., xi.). He died at Marseilles on the 10th of June 1836. The great amiability and childlike simplicity of Ampere's character are well brought out in his Journal et correspondance (Paris, 1872).

AMPERE, JEAN JACQUES (1800-1864), French philologist and man of letters, only son of Andre Marie Ampere, was born at Lyons on the 12th of August 1800. He studied the folk-songs and popular poetry of the Scandinavian countries in an extended tour in northern Europe. Returning to France, he delivered in 1830 a series of lectures on Scandinavian and early German poetry at the Athenaeum in Marseilles. The first of these was printed as De l'Histoire de la poesie (1830), and was practically the first introduction of the French public to the Scandinavian and German epics. In Paris he taught at the Sorbonne, and became professor of the history of French literature at the College de France. A journey in northern Africa (1841) was followed by a tour in Greece and Italy, in company with Prosper Merimee and others. This bore fruit in his Voyage dantesque (printed in his Grece, Rome et Dante, 1848), which did much to popularize the study of Dante in France. In 1848 he became a member of the French Academy, and in 1851 he visited America. From this time he was occupied with his chief work, L'Histoire romaine a Rome (4 vols., 1861-1864), until his death at Pau on the 27th of March 1864.

The Correspondance et souvenirs (2 vols.) of A. M. and J. J. Ampere (1805-1854) was published in 1875. Notices of J. J. Ampere are to be found in Sainte-Beuve's Portraits litteraires, vol. iv., and Nouveaux Lundis, vol. xiii.; and in P. Merimee's Portraits historiques et litteraires (2nd ed., 1875).

AMPEREMETER, or AMMETER, an instrument for the measurement of electric currents in terms of the unit called the ampere. (See ELECTROKINETICS; CONDUCTION, ELECTRIC; and UNITS, PHYSICAL.) Since electric currents may be either continuous, i.e. unidirectional, or alternating, and the latter of high or of low frequency, amperemeters may first be divided into those (1) for continuous or direct currents, (2) for low frequency alternating currents, and (3) for high frequency alternating currents. A continuous electric current of one ampere is defined to be one which deposits electrolytically 0.001118 of a gramme of silver per second from a neutral solution of silver nitrate.1 An alternating current of one ampere is defined to be one which produces the same heat in a second in a wire as the unit continuous current defined as above to be one ampere. These definitions provide a basis on which the calibration of amperemeters can be conducted. Amperemeters may then be classified according to the physical principle on which they are constructed. An electric current in a conductor is recognized by its ability (a) to create heat in a wire through which it passes, (b) to produce a magnetic field round the conductor or wire. The heat makes itself evident by raising the temperature and therefore elongating the wire, whilst the magnetic field creates mechanical forces which act on pieces of iron or other conductors conveying electric currents when placed in proximity to the conductor in question. Hence we may classify ammeters into (1) Thermal; (2) Electromagnetic, and (3) Electrodynamic instruments.