town in Wiltshire, in the hundred of the same name, six miles north from Salisbury and seventyseven from London. It is seated on the Avon, and but two miles from the famous Stonehenge. The church is in the centre of the town at the intersection of the two streets of which it is composed. Good pipe-clay is found in the neighbourhood, and the Avon abounds with loach. The charity school is endowed for fifteen boys and as many girls. It is said to have derived its name from king Ambrosius Aurelius, who rebuilt the monastery and abbey which destroyed by the Saxons. This establishment was afterwards changed into a Benedictine convent, to which queen Eleanor retired, and died there. When it was surrendered, in the thirtysecond Henry VIII., it was valued according to Speed at £558 10s. 2d. per annum. Ruins of this place are still seen. Mr. Addison was born at Milston near this place. Inhabitants about 1000. There was a large Roman encampment near Amesbury defended on both sides by the Avon. See STONEHENGE. was AMESBURY, a town of Massachusetts in North America, in Essex county, standing on the northwest bank of the Merrimac. It is about four miles north-west of Newbury Port. Population about 2500. AMESTRATA, or AMESTRATOs, in ancient geography, a town of Sicily, called also Amastris, and Multistratos: now Mistretta, in the Val di Demona, on the river Halesus. It was a very strong fort of the Carthaginians, and besieged in vain by the Romans for seven months; but at length, after another siege, taken and rased. AMESTRIS, in ancient history, wife of Xerxes, king of Persia. She cut off the nose, ears, lips, breast, tongue, and eyebrows, of her husband's mistress. She also buried alive fourteen noble Persian youths, to appease the deities under the earth. Herodot. 1.7, c. 61. 1. 9. c. 111. AMETHYST, ̓Αμέθυσος, non ebrius, a AMETHYSTINE. (μέθυ, from wine; restraining from wine. Applied to the name of a certain jewel according to Pliny, because it resists drunkenness; an opinion which Plutarch rejects. Sym. i. 3. A precious stone of a violet colour, bordering on purple. The oriental amethyst is the hardest, scarcest, and most valuable; it is generally of a dove colour, though some are purple, and others white like the diamond. The German is of a violet colour, and the Spanish are of three sorts; the best are the blackest or deepest violet; others are almost quite white, and some few tinctured with yellow. The amethyst is not extremely hard, but easy to be engraved upon, and is next in value to the emerald. Savary. Chambers. Some stones approached the granate complexion; and several nearly resembled the amethyst. Woodward. PEN. Alack, alack, his lips be wond'rous cold; High on silver wheels Glover's Leonidas, book iv. A kind of amethystine flint, not composed of crys- tals or grains, but one entire massy stone. AMETHYST, among mineralogists, is more particularly described as a transparent gem of a purple or violet colour, composed of a strong blue and a deep red; and, according as either prevails, affording different tinges of purple, approaching to violet, and sometimes fading to a pale rose colour. It is also found colourless, and may at any time be easily made so by putting it into the fire; in which state it so resembles the diamond, that its want of hardness seems the only way of distinguishing it. The notion that it prevented intoxication, however imaginary, prevailed to that degree among the ancients, that it was usual for great drinkers to wear it about their necks. The larger sorts were formed by the lapidary into cups, that were highly prized for the same supposed quality, which is made the subject of a smart epigram in the Anthology The ancient artists also took this gem for the figure of Bacchus, to whom the stone was sacred, and for Bacchanalian subjects. It is found of various sizes, from the bigness of a small vetch to an inch and a half in diameter, and often to much more than that in length. Its shape is extremely various, sometimes roundish, sometimes oblong, and at others flatted, at least on one side; but its most common appearance is in a crystalli-form figure, consisting of a thick column composed of four planes, and terminated by a flat and short pyramid of the same number of sides; or else of a thinner and longer hexangular column; and sometimes of a long pyramid without any column. It appears most beautiful in the last of these states, but is hardest and most valuable in the roundish and pebble-like form. The amethyst is found in the East and West Indies, and in several parts of Europe. Mr. Morin showed Dr. Lister a large piece of French amethyst, which weighed between 200 and 300lbs! Mr. Ray speaks of a mountain of amethysts! The oriental amethysts, at least some of the finer specimens, are so hard and bright as to equal any of the coloured gems in value; but all the European ones, and not a few of those brought from the East and West Indies, are very little harder than common crystal. De Boot (Hist. Gemmarum) mentions an amethyst, rendered colourless, estimated at 200 rixdollars, which being cut to the same pattern, and set in a similar manner as a diamond of the value of 18,000 gold crowns, so nearly equalled it in lustre, that he could not tell the difference between them. Spars and crystals tinged red and yellow, &c. are sold for amethysts. The false ones come from Germany, are tinged by vapours in the mines, and contain some lead. Ford's Broken Heart, act iv. sc. 2. Amethysts may be counterfeited by glass, to which the proper stain is given. There were fine ones made in France about the year 1690, which may even impose on connoisseurs, unless the stone be taken out of the collet. The method of giving this colour to glass is as follows: take ten pounds of clear glass or paste, made without manganese, and fuse it down with one ounce and a half of black manganese, and one drachm of zaffar. The process recommended by Porta is one drachm of manganese to one pound of frit. AMETHYST, in heraldry, signifies the same colour in a nobleman's coat, that purpure does in a gentleman's. AMETHYST, in medicine, a term used by some authors for an antidote against inebriety. AMETHYSTEA, amethyst; in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the diandria class of plants; in the natural method, ranking under the forty-second order, verticillatæ. The characters are: CAL. a single-leaved perianth. bell-shaped, angular, semiquinquefid, and persistent: cor. monopetalous; the border quinquepartite, the lowest division more expanding: STAM. two slender filaments approximated; the antheræ simple and roundish: PIST. a four-cleft germen; style, the size of the stamina: STIGM. two, acute: SEEDS four, gibbous, and shorter than the calyx.- There is only one known species, a native of Siberia, from whence the seeds were sent to the imperial garden at Petersburgh, and thence brought to Britain. It is an annual plant, with an upright stalk, which rises about a foot high. Towards the top it puts forth two or three small lateral branches, garnished with trifid leaves, sawed on their edges, of a very dark green colour. AMETHYSTINA, in entomology, a species of chrysomela; above of a blue violet, and beneath of green and violet colour. Shells with scattered hollow dots. Thorax large, antennæ short and black. Fabricius. AMETHYSTINUS, in conchology, a species of Venus, of an ovate shape and violet colour, with perpendicular striæ. It is about two inches in length and breadth. AMETHYSTINUS, in entomology, an insect of the apis genus: nearly naked black; wings violet: a native of the East Indies. Also a species of carabus that inhabits Cayenne; the wing-cases and abdomen blue; the head and thorax shining bronze. The antennæ hairy, ferruginous at the base; wing-cases streaked. Fabricius. AMETHYSTINUS, in ornithology, a species of trochilus, or humming-bird, of Cayenne; its colours green gold, variegated beneath with gray and brown; throat amethystine blue; tail forked. Gmelin. Size of the red-throated hummingbird. AMETHYSTIZONTES, in mineralogy, the best sort of carbuncle. Plin. 1. 37. c. 9. AMGAILA, or AMGAILAM, in ancient botany, a name given by Avicenna and others to a plant called acantha arabica, and amicantha by the Greeks. It is described as a prickly herb, with roots like those of the cypress, formed of several joints. It is also called sucaha and zucahai. The roots of this plant, called also bunkon, were much used by the Arabian physicians in stomachic and cardiac compositions. They were chosen by their lightness and smell. AMHAK, or AMHARA, a province of Abyssinia, said formerly to extend forty leagues from east to west, and considered as the most important in the empire, both on account of its being the usual residence of the Abyssinian monarchs, and its dialect being the language of the court and of the higher classes. Here was the famed rock Amba-geshen, where the young princes were formerly confined. See AMBA-GESHEN. This name has been latterly given to a more limited province, lying immediately south of Lasta and Begemder, 120 miles in length and about forty in breadth. The district is mountainous; it contains a large portion of nobility, and the men are reckoned both the handsomest and bravest in Abyssinia. They boast that their troops are superior to double the number from any other province. AMHERST (Jeffery), lord, descended from an ancient family at Sevenoaks in Kent, was born in 1717. In 1741 he was aid-du-camp to General Ligonier, at the battles of Dettingen, Fontenoy, and Rocoux. In 1756 he was appointed colonel of the fifteenth regiment of foot; and as major-general in 1758 he went to America and commanded at the siege of Louisbourg. The same year he was appointed commander-inchief of all the forces in America, and governor of Virginia. On the accession of George III. he was made knight of the bath, and in 1763 returned to England. In 1771 he was appointed governor of Guernsey, and the year following lieutenant-general of the ordnance. In 1776 he was created Baron Amherst of Holmsdale, and in 1778 was commander-in-chief of the British army in England. In 1782 he received the gold stick from the king; but on the change of ministers his military appointments were transferred to other hands. He was again appointed to the command of the army of Great Britain in 1793, but in 1795 resigned, to make way for the Duke of York, when his lordship was made field-marshal. He died in 1798, and his remains were interred in Sevenoaks church. The character of lord Amherst will always stand high in the military history of England. Though a strict disciplinarian, he was the soldier's friend, and his private character was very respectable. He was twice married; but leaving no issue, the title devolved to his nephew. AMHERST, one of the Magdalen Isles in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. AMHERST, a county of Virginia, North America, between the Blue Ridge and the tide waters, on the north of James's River and containing 13,700 inhabitants, including 5300 slaves. AMHERST, the shire town of Hilsborough county, New Hampshire, is a town of note, formerly Souhegan West, and originally granted from Massachusetts. It was incorporated in 1762; and in 1790 the Aurean academy was founded here. It stands on a northern branch of the Souhegan, sixty miles west of Portsmouth, and fifty-three north-west of Boston. AMHERST, a township in Cumberland county, Nova Scotia, on Chignecto basin, on the south side of La Planch River. Also a township in Hampshire county, Massachusetts, containing 1233 inhabitants; ninety miles westerly from Boston, and about eight north-easteriy from Northampton. AMHERSTBURG, a town and fort of Upper Canada, on the east side of the river Detroit, at its entrance into lake Erie. Long. 82° 56′ W. lat. 42° 36' Ν. AMHURST (Nicholas), an English poet and political writer, was born at Marden in Kent, and entered of St. John's College, Oxford; whence he was expelled for irregularity. He was the author of Oculus Britanniæ, and a book entitled Terræ Filius, a Satire on the University; also of the Convocation, a poem in five cantos; but is best known by his contributions to the celebrated political paper called the Craftsman. He died neglected in 1742. AMIA, in ichthythology, the name, 1. of a genus of abdominal fishes, of which there is but one known species, the arnia calva of Carolina; 2. of a species called also glaucus, and by others leccia, which resembles a salmon, grows to a very large size, four or five feet long, and is common in the Mediterranean; 3. of a species of the SCOMBER, in the Linnæan system, which see. AMIABLE, AM'IABLY, AM'IABILITY, AMIABLENESS, AM'ICABLE, AM'ICABLY, Amo, to love, amabilis. Amiable is Latin, and lovely Saxon for the same idea. As our Latin words are of later importation they mostly be long to the written or oratoAM'ICABLENESS, ric style, and are applied only in metaphor - Physical good we can call lovely; moral qualities we call amiable. Amicable, Lat. amicus, a friend, sometimes confounded with amiable, friendly, is Saxon, and amicable, Latin for the same idea. For, as sayth Salomon, the amiable-tonge is the tree of lif; that is to say, of lif spirituel. Chaucer. The Personnes Tale. The shepeherdes, by reason of the vnwovnt and sodain miracle, wer all at ons throughly taken with a verai great feare. But the aungell anon taketh awai this feare with speaking amiably unto them. Udall. Luke, cap. ii. Now, for whatsoever we can love any one, for that we can be his friend; and since every excellency is a AMIANTHUS, EARTH-FLAX, or SALAMANDER'S HAIR, in natural history, a fibrous, ftexible, elastic, mineral substance, consisting of short abrupt and interwoven filaments. It is found in Germany, in the strata of iron ore, sometimes forming veins of an inch diameter. Its fibres are so flexible that cloth has been made of them, and the shorter filaments that separate in the washing of the stone, may be made into a paper in the common manner. For the method of its preparation for manufacture into cloth, see ASBESTOS. Amianthus is classed by Kirwan in the muriatic genus of earths, because it contains about a fifth part of magnesia. Its other constituents are flint, mild calcareous earth, barytes, clay, and a very small portion of iron. It is fusible per se in a strong heat, and also with the common fluxes. It differs from asbestos in containing some ponderous earth. There are four species of this genus, two of which are composed of large, and two of small filaments. Dr. Chalmers observes, that it has been a common error to confound the different species of this genus with one another, and all of them with the several species of the asbestos; in consequence of which the art of spinning and working the asbestos into incombustible cloth has been lost,' or at least neglected. It is not soluble by acids, and it is said to resist poison and cure the itch. See ASBESTOS. AMICABLE BENCHES, scamna amicabılia, in Roman antiquity, were, according to Pitiscus, lower and less honourable seats allotted for the judices pedanei, or inferior judges, who, upon being admitted of the emperor's council, were dignified by him with the title amici. AMICABLE NUMBERS, such as are mutually equal to the sum of one another's aliquot parts. the numbers 284 and 220 are amicable numbers: for the aliquot parts 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 20, 22, 44, 55, 110, of 220, are together equal to the degree of amiability, every such worthiness is a just other number 284; and the aliquot parts 1, 2, 4, and proper motive of friendship or loving conversation. Bp. Taylor on Friendship. That which is good in the actions of men, doth not only delight as profitable, but as amiable also. LYNDAR. That friendship, which from wither'd love does shoot, Like the faint herbage on a rock, wants root; 71, 142, of 284, are together equal to 220. From the number 2 itself, the first or least pair of amicable numbers is thus derived :-1, subtracted from three times this sum, gives the number 5; from six times this sum 11; from eighteen times its square 71, multiplying which by 4, the double of the assumed number, we have 284 for one of the amicable numbers, the sum of whose aliquot parts is 220, the other. 18,416 and 17,296; 9,437,056 and 9,363,584 are two other pairs of amicable numbers. Some properties of amicable numbers of the Cartesian form, have been investigated by Mr. Gough, (Leybourne's Month. Repos. No. 7.) az and a y z are amicable numbers of a common measure, a, multiplied by the primes x, y, and 2. Dividing a pair of amicable numbers, according to this author, by their greatest common measure, and increasing the prime divisors of these quotients by unity, the products of the two sets thus augmented, will be equal. Put q = the sum of the divisors of a, then if a be given qis given; but q must be less than a; and if two sets of primes, d, z, and r, y, z, can be found, which will make (1 x d) (1x x) = (1 x r) (1 x y) (1 x z), &c.; and also give the following proportion, as a:q:: (1 x d) (1 x x) :r, y, z,-(1 x dxx) then will adx, aryz, be amicable numbers. In the amicable numbers of Descartes, no two of the primes x, y, and z, can be equal; nor can any of them be = 2; nor can a be a prime: q must be less than a, yet greater than a, and must be a power of 2. If the primes x, y, z, be given, making a × 1 = (y x 1) (z x 1), to find if they can constitute amicable numbers: divide z X 1 by y x 1, and call the quotient p; then if p be not 2, nor a power of 2, the thing is impossible; but if p be the same power as 2, divide y X 1, by p x 1, and put the quotient = f; then if f be neither 2, nor a power of 2, the thing is impossible; but if f = 2n, the common multiplier a=2 f. AMICABLE SOCIETY. See ASSURANCE. AMICE, Amicio, amictus, to clothe. ApAMYTTE'. plied to the first of the six vestments common to the bishop and presbyters, which was fastened round the neck and spread round the shoulders. Men knowing ye worde of God thinke also that this costly gray amices of calaber are very superfluous and Bale's Images of both Churches, p. 14. vayn. [In the ceremonies of the mass.] The amice on the head is the kercheue that Christ was blyndfolded with when the souldiors buffeted him, and mocked him saying; prophecie vnto vs who smote thee? The whole workes of Wm. Tyndall, &c. f. 277, c. ii. How quick ambition hastes to ridicule' Pope's Dunciad. AMICITIA, Lat. friendship, in law, is applied to a tenure of land, styled a tenure in amicitia, when granted freely and of mere good will, to be enjoyed at the discretion of the donor. AMICO (Bernardino), an Italian artist of Gallipoli, in the kingdom of Naples, who becoming prior of a convent at Jerusalem, made drawings of the holy city and its suburbs. On his return to Italy he published a splendid folio, entitled Trattato delle Piante è Imagini de' Sacri edifizi di Terra Santa. Rome, 1620, folio: now a scarce and valuable work. Plates were engraved from his designs by Callot. AMICONI (Giacomo), an historical and portrait painter of Venice, who came to England in 1729, and painted many fine pieces for the principal nobility. He afterwards went to Spain, where he received the appointment of portrait painter to the king, and died there in 1752. Lord Orford condemns his taste. AMICTUS, in Roman antiquity, was any upper garment worn over the tunica. AMICU, a lake of South America, in the province of Cumana, whose waters run southwardly through the Parima river into the Amazons. AMICULATUS, in conchology, a species of chiton, having shells of eight valves, kidneyshaped, and very brittle; the external covering is a scabrous coriaceous membrane; length, six inches. It inhabits the Kurile islands. AMICULUM, in Roman antiquity, a woman's upper garment, which differed from the pala. It was worn both by matrons and courtesans. AMICUS CURIÆ, i. e. the friend of the court, a law term, for a bystander who informs the court of a matter in law that is doubtful or mistaken. AMID, Ang. Sax. On-middan, on-middes. AMIDST. Chaucer amiddes, in medio, in the mid or middle. AMID AMID, a ridge of Abyssinian mountains, supposed to have formed part of the Montes Lunæ of the ancients. It is the centre of a triple ridge, composed of the Aformasha, Amid Amid, and Litchambara mountains, rising in the form of three concentric circles, the Amid Amid being of an elevation of about half a mile. The whole are covered with beautiful pasturage, and the inhabitants are said by Bruce to have preferred to cultivate the tops, as rendering them more secure from their hostile neighbours. Villages are scattered over them, according to this writer, built of a white kind of grass, which makes them very conspicuous at a distance. AMIDA, an idol of the Japanese, who has many temples erected to him, of which the principal is at Jedo. The Japanese have such a confidence in this deity that they hope to attain eternal AMIDANO (Pomponio), a painter of Parma, in 1600, who is supposed to have studied under Parmegiano. He painted historical subjects in a fine style, and the heads of his figures exhibit considerable taste and grandeur. AMID-SHIPS, a sea term denoting the middle of the ship, either as to length or breadth. AMIENNOIS, a ci-devant county of France, containing great part of the country anciently inhabited by the Ambriani. See next article. AMIENS, a populous town of France, in the department of Somme, situated on the road from Calais to Paris, ten leagues south-east of Abbeville, and 139 south west of Aras. It stands on the river Somme, and is said to have received its Latin name Ambianum, from being everywhere encompassed with water. Amiens is a place of great antiquity; being mentioned by Cæsar as a town that had made a vigorous resistance against the Romans, and where he convened a general assembly of the Gauls, after having made himself master of it. The emperors Antoninus and Marcus Aurelianus enlarged it; and Constantine, Constans, Julian, and several others, resided here. It was prior to the revolution the see of a bishop, and the chief town of the Amiennois, as well as of the whole of Picardy. It is now the capital of the department of the Somme, which is navigable to the town, and contains a population of about 40,000 inhabitants. It is a pleasant well-built place, having several regular squares, a strong citadel, a cathedral, and other public buildings. A considerable trade in serge and other woollen stuffs, manufactured in the neighbourhood, is carried on by the inhabitants. Here also are inanufacturers of ribbons, linen, green soap, &c.; so that, in a commercial point of view, Amiens has long held a distinguished rank in the trading towns of Europe; nor is it destitute of interest in the annals of history. It was taken by the Spaniards in 1597 by the following stratagem: Soldiers, disguised like peasants, conducted a cart laden with nuts, and let a bag of them fall just as the gate was opened. While the guard was busy in gathering up the nuts, the Spaniards entered and became masters of the town. It was taken by Henry IV. who built a citadel in it. The definitive treaty of peace between the different European powers, in 1802, was negociated here. The Amiennois is a fertile district, once a generalité, and comprising the greater part of Picardy Proper, the Boulonnois, and Calaisis. It was originally a county under the bishop of Amiens, by grant from the king; it then passed through private hands into the family of the count of Flanders, who undertook a war for its defence against the French crown. Charles VII. granted it to Philip of Burgundy, but Louis XI. again annexed it to France, and since 1585, when Charles V. formally renounced all title to this district, it has remained in the possession of that power. M. Neckar calculated its area at 458 square leagues; its revenue at 15,200,000 livres, and population at 533,000. AMIENS, or AMIENT, a Roman gold coin, worth seventeen shillings and one penny farthing. AMILCAR, or HAMILCAR, the name of several Carthaginian captains. The most celebrated of them is Amilcar Barcas, the father of Hannibal, who during five years infested the coast of Italy; when the Romans sending out their whole naval strength, defeated him near Trapani, 242 years before Christ; and this put an end to the first Punic war. Amilcar began the second, and landed in Spain, where he subdued the most warlike nations; but as he was preparing for an expedition against Italy, he was killed in battle, U. C. 526, A.A. C. 228. He left three sons, whom he had educated, as he said, like three lions, to tear Rome in pieces; and made Hannibal, his eldest son, swear an eternal enmity against the Romans. AMILJA, one of the Aleutian islands, about forty-four miles in length from east to west. It is narrow, naked, and mountainous, particularly in the centre; and is thinly inhabited. AMILICTI, in the Chaldaic theology, a kind of intellectual powers, or persons in the divine hierarchy. They are represented as three in number; and constitute one of the triads, in the third order of the hierarchy. AMINADAB, or AMMINADAB, the son of Aram, great grandson of Judah, and the father of Naashon, one of the progenitors of the royal house of David. He was also the father of Elishema, the wife of Aaron, and thus the progenitor in the maternal line of the high priests, as well as of the kings of Judea, in the paternal. AMINEUM ACETUM, a name used by some medical writers for white wine vinegar, to distinguish it from other kinds. AMINEUM VINUM, Aminean wine, highly esteemed by the ancients for imbecilities in the stomach. Macrobius thinks it the same with the Falernian wine; but Virgil (Georg. 1. 2, v. 96.) distinguishes them. AMINIAS, the brother of Æschylus the poet, and the saviour of his life when condemned for blasphemy. See ÆSCHYLUS. AMIOT (Father), a Chinese missionary from |