The amice, whatever its origin or symbolism, became specifically a vestment associated with the sacrifice of the Mass, and as such it was rejected with the other "Mass vestments" in England at the Reformation. Its use has, however, been revived in many Anglican churches, the favourite form being the medieval apparelled amice. (See VESTMENTS.) A vestment akin to the amice is also worn in the Armenian and some other oriental churches, but it is unknown to the Orthodox Eastern Church.

Akin to the amice is a vestment peculiar to the popes, the fanone (Med. Lat. fano, "cloth," Goth. fana, "cloth," Mod. Ger. Fahne, "a flag"), also called the orale (from ora, an edge, border). This is at present a circular broad collar of two thicknesses of silk, ornamented with gold stripes and a gold- embroidered cross (see fig. 3). It is put on after the alb, &c., and under the tunicle, dalmatic and chasuble, but then drawn up so as to fall over the latter like a collar. The fanone was originally a cloth like the amice and was wrapped round neck and shoulders; until the 15th century, moreover, it was not worn with the amice. Since then, however, both vestments have been worn, one under, the other over, the alb. It is worn by the popes only on certain special days or occasions, and forms part of the vestments in which they are buried.

See Joseph Braun, S. J., Die liturgische Gewandung, pp. 21-56 (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1907), and bibliography to the article VESTMENTS.

AMICI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1786-1863), Italian astronomer and microscopist, was born on the 25th of March 1786 at Modena. After studying at Bologna, he became professor of mathematics at Modena, and in 1831 was appointed inspector-general of studies in the duchy. A few years later he was chosen director of the observatory at Florence, where he also lectured at the museum of natural history. He died at Florence on the 10th of April 1863. His name is best known for the improvements he effected in the mirrors of reflecting telescopes and especially in the construction of the microscope. He was also a diligent and skilful observer, and busied himself not only with astronomical subjects, such as the double stars, the satellites of Jupiter and the measurement of the polar and equatorial diameters of the sun, but also with biological studies of the circulation of the sap in plants, the fructification of plants, infusoria, &c.

AMICIS, EDMONDO DE (1846-1908), Italian writer, was born at Oneglia, in Liguria, on the 21st of October 1846. After some schooling at Cuneo and Turin, he was sent to the Military School at Modena, from which he was appointed to a lieutenancy in the 3rd regiment of the line in 1865. He fought at the battle of Custozza in 1866. In 1867 he became director of the Italia Militare, Florence. In the following year he published his first book, La Vita Militare, which consisted of sketches of military life, and attained wide popularity. After the overthrow of the pope's temporal power in 1870, De Amicis retired from the army and devoted himself to literature, making his headquarters at Turin. Always a traveller by inclination, he found opportunity for this in his new leisure, and some of his most popular books have been the product of his wanderings. Several of these have been translated into English and the other principal languages of Europe. The most important of these are his descriptions of Spain (1873), Holland (1874), Constantinople (1877) and Morocco (1879). These gained him a well- deserved reputation as a brilliant depicter of scenery and the external aspects of life; solid information is not within their sphere; and much of their success is owing to the opportunities they afford for spirited illustration. Subsequently De Amicis greatly extended his fame as a writer of fiction, especially by Il Romanzo d' un Maestro, and the widely read Il Cuore (translated into English as An Italian Schoolboy's Journal); later volumes from his pen being La Carozza di tutti (centring round an electric tram), Memorie, Speranze e glorie, Ricordi d' infanzia e di scuola, L' Idioma gentile, and a volume of short stories, Nel Regno dell' Amore. He died suddenly of heart disease at Bordighera on the 12th of March 1908.

AMICUS CURIAE (Lat. for "a friend of the court"), a term used primarily in law, signifying a person (usually a member of the bar) who, having special knowledge but not being engaged in the suit, intervenes during its hearing to give information for the assistance of the court, either upon some fact relevant to the issue or upon a point of law, such as the hearing of a local custom, the precedent of some decided case, &c.

AMIDINES, in organic chemistry, the name given to compounds of general formula R.C:(NH).NH2, which may be considered as derived from the acid-amides by replacement of oxygen by the divalent imino (=NH) group. They may be prepared by the action of ammonia or amines on imide chorides, or on thiamides (O. Wallach, A. Bernthsen); by the action of ammonium chloride or hydrochlorides of amines on nitriles; by condensing amines and amides in presence of phosphorus trichloride; by the action of hydrochloric acid on acid-amides (O. Wallach, Ber., 1882, 15, p. 208); and by the action of ammonia or amines on imino-ethers (A. Pinner, Ber., 1883, 16, p. 1647; 1884, 17, p. 179). They are monacid bases, which are not very stable; they readily take up the elements of water (when boiled with acids or alkalies), yielding amides and ammonia. On dry distillation they yield nitriles and ammonia. When warmed with sulphuretted hydrogen they yield thiamides, R.C:(NH).NHR+H2S = R.C(NH2)(SH)NHR = R.CSNH2 + NH2.R or RCS.NHR + NH3. With b-ketonic esters, HO(CH3)C:CH.CO2R, they yield oxypyrimidines (A. Pinner, Ber., 1890, 23, p. 3820).

Formamidine, HC:(NH)NH2, is only known in the form of its salts, the hydrochloride being obtained by the action of ammonia on the hydrochloride of formimido-ethyl ether (A. Pinner, Ber., 1883, 16, p. 357). Acetamidine, CH3C:(NH).NH2, is alkaline in reaction, and readily splits up into acetic acid and ammonia when warmed with acids. Its hydrochloride melts at 163 deg. C., and crystallizes from alcohol in colourless deliquescent prisms. Acetic anhydride converts the base into an acetamino-dimethyl pyrimidine, acetic acid and acetamide being also formed.

Benzamidine, C6H5.C:(NH)NH2, forms colourless crystals which melt at 75-80 deg. C. When warmed it breaks down into ammonia and cyanphenine (s-triphenyl triazine). It condenses with acetic anhydride to form a methyldiphenyl triazine, acetamide being also formed; with acetyl-acetone to form dimethylphenyl pyrimidine (A. Pinner, Ber., 1893, 26, p. 2125); and with trimethylene bromide to form a phenyl tetrahydropyrimidine (Pinner). H. v. Pechmann (Ber., 1895, 28, p. 2362) has shown that amidines of the type R.C: (NY).NHZ sometimes react as if they possessed the constitution R.C: (NZ).NHY; but this only appears to occur when Y and Z are groups which function in the same way. If Y and Z are groups which behave very differently, then there is apparently no tautomerism and a definite formula can be given to the compound.

The formulae of the ringed compounds mentioned above are here shown:

N—C—(CH3) // R.C CH / N==C—(OH) Oxypyrimidine. N—C—(CH3) // CH3.C CH / N==C—(NHCOCH3) Acetaminodimethyl pyrimidine. C6H5 / N—C // C6H5.C N / N==C CH3 Methyl diphenyl triazine. N—CH2 // C6H5.C CH2 / NH—CH2 Phenyl tetrahydropyrimidine.

AMIEL, HENRI FREDERIC (1821-1881), Swiss philosopher and critic, was born at Geneva on the 27th of September 1821. He was descended from a Huguenot family driven to Switzerland by the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Losing his parents at an early age, he travelled widely, became intimate with the intellectual leaders of Europe and made a special study of German philosophy in Berlin. In 1849 he was appointed professor of aesthetics at the academy of Geneva, and in 1854 became professor of moral philosophy. These appointments, conferred by the democratic party, deprived him of the support of the aristocratic party; which comprised nearly all the culture of the city. This isolation inspired the one book by which Amiel lives, the Journal Intime, which, published after his death, obtained a European reputation. It was translated into English by Mrs Humphry Ward. Although second-rate as regards productive power, Amiel's mind was of no inferior quality, and his journal gained a sympathy which the author had failed to obtain in his life. In addition to the Journal, he produced several volumes of poetry and wrote studies on Erasmus, Madame de Stael and other writers. He died in Geneva on the 11th of March 1881. His chief poetical works are Grains de mil, Il penseroso, Part du reve, Les Etrangeres, Charles le Temeraire, Romancero historique, Jour a jour.

See Life of Amiel by Mdlle Berthe Vadier (Paris, 1885); Paul Bourget, Nouveaux essais (Paris, 1885); E. Scherer, introd. to the Journal and in Etudes sur la litt. contemp. (vol. viii.).

AMIENS, a city of northern France, capital of the department of Somme, on the left bank of the Somme, 81 m. N. of Paris on the Northern railway to Calais. Pop. (1906) 78,407. Amiens was once a place of great strength, and still possesses a citadel of the end of the 16th century, but the ramparts which surrounded it have been replaced by boulevards, bordered by handsome residences. Suburbs, themselves bounded by another line of boulevards, have arisen beyond these limits, and the city also extends to the right bank of the Somme. The busy quarter of Amiens lies between the river and the railway, which for some distance follows the inner line of boulevards. The older and more picturesque quarter is situated directly on the Somme; its narrow and irregular streets are intersected by the eleven arms of the river and it is skirted on the north by the canal derived therefrom. Besides its boulevards Amiens has the ample park or Promenade de la Hotoie to the west and several fine squares, notably the Place Longueville and the Place St Denis, in which stands the statue of the famous 17th-century scholar Charles Ducange. The cathedral (see ARCHITECTURE: Romanesque and Gothic Architecture in France; and CATHEDRAL), which is perhaps the finest church of Gothic architecture in France, far exceeds the other buildings of the town in importance. Erected on the plans of Robert de Luzarches, chiefly between 1220 and 1288, it consists of a nave, nearly 140 ft. in height, with aisles and lateral chapels, a transept with aisles, and a choir (with deambulatory) ending in an apse surrounded by chapels. The total length is 469 ft., the breadth 216 ft. The facade, which is flanked by two square towers without spires, has three portals decorated with a profusion of statuary, the central portal having a remarkable statue of Christ of the 13th century; they are surmounted by two galleries, the upper one containing twenty-two statues of the kings of Judah in its arcades, and by a fine rose-window. A slender spire rises above the crossing. The southern portal is remarkable for a figure of the Virgin and other statuary. In the interior, which contains beautifully carved stalls, a choir-screen in the flamboyant style and many other works of art, the most striking features are the height of the nave and the boldness of the columns supporting the vaulting. The chief of the other churches of Amiens is St Germain (15th century), which has some good stained glass. The hotel de ville, begun in 1550, a belfry of the 14th and 18th centuries and several old mansions are of interest. Amiens has a rich library and admirable collections of paintings, sculptures and antiquities in the museum of Picardy. Its learned associations include the Societe des Antiquaires de Picardie, by whom the museum was built in 1854-1864. The city is the seat of a bishop, a prefect, a court of appeal and a court of assizes, and headquarters of the II. Army Corps. There are also tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France. The educational institutions include lycees for boys and girls, training-colleges for teachers, a preparatory school of medicine, a school of music and a school of iron-working and wood-working. The textile industries for which Amiens has been celebrated since the middle ages include manufactures of velvet, cotton-, wool-, silk-, hemp- and flax-spinning, and the weaving of hosiery and a variety of mixed fabrics. Manufactures of machinery, chemicals, blacking, polish and sugar, and printing, dyeing and iron-founding are also carried on. Market gardens, known as hortillonnages, intersected by small canals derived from the Somme and Avre, cover a considerable area to the north-east of Amiens; and the city has trade in vegetables, as well as in grain, sugar, wool, oil-seeds and the duck-pasties and macaroons for which it is renowned.

Amiens occupies the site of the ancient Samarobriva, capital of the Ambiani, from whom it probably derives its name. At the beginning of the 4th century Christianity was preached there by St Firmin, its first bishop. During the middle ages its territory formed the countship of Amienois. The authority of the counts was, however, balanced by that of the bishops, and early in the 12th century the citizens, profiting by this rivalry, gained a charter of enfranchisement. The fief became for the first time a dependency of the French crown in 1185, when Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders, ceded it to Philip Augustus. It more than once passed out of the power of the French kings, notably in 1435, when, by the treaty of Arras, it came into the possession of the dukes of Burgundy, to whom it belonged till 1477. Surprised by the Spaniards in 1597, the city was recaptured from them after a long siege by Henry IV. Till 1790 it was the capital of the gouvernement of Picardy (q.v.). The famous treaty between Great Britain, France, Spain and Holland which took its name from Amiens was signed in the hotel de ville on the 25th of March 1802. During the war between France and Germany, Amiens, after an important action, fell into the hands of the Prussians on the 28th of November 1870. (See FRANCO-GERMAN WAR.)

See A. de Calonne, Histoire de la ville d'Amiens (1900); John Ruskin, The Bible of Amiens (1881); La Picardie historique et monumentale, tome i., published by the Societe des Antiquaires de Picardie (1893).

AMINES, in chemistry, derivatives of ammonia in which one or more of the hydrogen atoms are replaced by alkyl or aryl groups. The replacement of one hydrogen atom by one alkyl or aryl group gives rise to primary amines; of two hydrogen atoms by two groups, to secondary amines; of three hydrogen atoms by three groups, to tertiary amines. The tertiary amines possess the power of combining with one molecular proportion of an alkyl iodide to form quaternary ammonium salts. The structural relations of these compounds may be shown thus:

NH3; NH2R; NHR2; NR3; Ammonia; primary amine; secondary amine; tertiary amine; NR4I. quaternary ammonium iodide. Aliphatic amines.—These compounds possess properties very similar to those of ammonia, the lowest members of the series being combustible gases readily soluble in water. The next higher members of the series are liquids of low boiling point also readily soluble in water, the solubility and volatility, however, decreasing with the increasing carbon content of the molecule, until the highest members of the series are odourless solids of high boiling point and are insoluble in water. They are all strong bases, readily forming salts with the mineral acids and double salts with the chlorides of gold, platinum and mercury. They are ionized in aqueous solution to a much greater extent than ammonia, the quaternary ammonium bases being the most ionized, and the secondary bases being more strongly ionized than the primary or tertiary bases. For data concerning the conductivity of the organic bases see G. Bredig (Zeit. fur phys. Chem., 1894, 13, p. 289).

Many methods have been devised for the preparation of the amines, the first amine having been isolated in 1849 by A. Wurtz on boiling methyl isocyanate with caustic potash, CON.CH3 + 2KHO = CH3NH2 + K2CO3. The primary amines may also be prepared by heating the alkyl iodides with ammonia (A. W. Hofmann); by the reduction of nitriles with alcohol and sodium (A. Ladenburg, Ber., 1886, 19, p. 783); by heating the esters of nitric acid with alcoholic ammonia at 100 deg. C. (O. Wallach, Ber., 1881, 14, p. 421); by the action of reducing agents on nitroparaffins; by the action of zinc and hydrochloric acid on aldehyde ammonias (German Patent 73,812); by the reduction of the phenylhydrazones and oximes of aldehydes and ketones with sodium amalgam in the presence of alcohol and sodium acetate (J. Tafel, Ber., 1886, 19, p. 1925; 1889, 22, p. 1854; H. Goldschmidt, Ber., 1886, 19, p. 3232); by the action of dilute hydrochloric acid on the isonitriles, R.NC + 2H2O = R.NH2 + H2CO2; by heating the mustard oils with a mineral acid, by the hydrolysis of the alkyl phthalimides (S. Gabriel, Ber., 1887, 20, p. 2224; 1891, 24, p. 3104),

CO CO / RI / 2H2O C6H4 NK —-> C6H4 NR ————> / / CO CO COOH / C6H4 + NH2R; COOH

by distilling the amino-acids with baryta; by the action of bromine and caustic potash on the acid-amides (A. W. Hofmann, Ber., 1885, 18, p. 2734; 1886, 19, p. 1822);

CH3CONH2 —> CH3CONHBr —> CH3CONKBr —> CH3NCO —> CH3NH2;

and by the hydrolysis of substituted urethanes (Th. Curtius, Ber., 1894, 27, p. 779; 1896, 29, p. 1166),

N2H4.H20 HONO R.COOH —> R.COOR1 —————————> R.CONH.NH2 ——-> acid ester hydrazide C2H5OH HCI R.CON3 ——————-> R.NH.CO2C2H5 ——> R.NH2 azide urethane

The secondary amines are prepared, together with the primary and tertiary, by the action of ammonia on the alkyl iodides (see below), or by the hydrolysis of para-nitroso derivatives of tertiary aromatic amines, such as para-nitrosodimethylaniline, thus: NO.C6H4.N(CH3)2 + H2O = NO.C6H4.OH + NH(CH3)2. By the action of ammonia on the alkyl iodides a complex mixture of primary, secondary and tertiary amines, along with a quaternary ammonium salt, is obtained, the separation of which is difficult. The method worked out by A. W. Hofmann is as follows:—the mixture is distilled with caustic potash, when the primary, secondary and tertiary amines distil over, and the quaternary ammonium salt remains behind unaffected. The aqueous solution of the amines is now shaken up with diethyl oxalate, when the primary amine forms a crystalline dialkyl oxamide and the secondary amine an insoluble liquid, which is an ethyl dialkyl oxamate, the tertiary amine not reacting: (CO2C2H5)2 + 2NH2R = (CO.NHR)2 + 2C2H5OH; (CO2C2H5)2 + NHR2 = C2H5O2C.CONR2 + C2H5OH. The tertiary amine is then distilled off, the residual products separated by filtration and finally hydrolysed by a caustic alkali.

The primary, secondary and tertiary amines may be readily distinguished by their behaviour with various reagents. Primary amines when heated with alcoholic potash and chloroform yield isonitriles, which are readily detected by their offensive smell. The secondary and tertiary amines do not give this reaction. With nitrous acid, the primary amines yield alcohols, the secondary amines yield nitrosamines and the tertiary amines do not react: R.NH2 + ONOH = R.OH + N2 + H2O; R2NH + ONOH = R2N.NO + H2O. With benzene sulphochloride in the presence of alkali, the primary amines yield compounds of the type C6H5SO2NHR, soluble in alkalies, whilst the secondary amines yield compounds of the type C6H5SO2NR2, insoluble in alkalies (O. Hinsberg, Ber., 1890, 23, p. 2963). Primary amines heated with carbon bisulphide in alcoholic solution are converted into mustard oils, when the dithiocarbamate first produced is heated with a solution of mercuric chloride.

Methylamine, CH3NH2, occurs in Mercurialis perennis, in bone-oil, and herring brine. It is also a decomposition product of many alkaloids. At ordinary temperatures it is a gas, but may be condensed to a liquid which boils at -6 deg. C. It has a strong ammoniacal smell, burns readily and is exceedingly soluble in water. Its critical temperature is 155 deg. C. and critical pressure 72 atmos. (C. Vincent, J. Chappuis, Jahresb., 1886, p. 202). Dimethylamine, (CH3)2NH, is found in Peruvian guano. It is a heavy vapour which condenses at 7 deg. C. to a liquid, having a pronounced fish-like smell. Trimethylamine, (CH3)3N, is very similar to dimethylamine, and condenses to a liquid which boils at 3.2-3.8 deg. C. It is usually obtained from "vinasses," the residue obtained from the distillation of beet sugar alcohol, and is used in the manufacture of potassium bicarbonate by the Solvay process, since its hydrochloride is much more soluble than potassium carbonate. Tetramethylammonium iodide, N(CH3)4I, is the chief product obtained by the action of methyl iodide on ammonia (Hofmann). It crystallizes in quadratic prisms and has a bitter taste. By warming its aqueous solution with an excess of silver oxide it is converted into tetramethylammonium hydroxide, N(CH3)4OH, which crystallizes in hygroscopic needles, and has a very alkaline reaction. It forms many crystalline salts and absorbs carbon dioxide. It precipitates many metallic hydroxides. On dry distillation it is resolved into trimethylamine and methyl alcohol. If the nitrogen atom in the quaternary ammonium salts be in combination with four different groups, then the molecule is asymmetrical, and the salt can be resolved into optically active enantiamorphous isomerides. W. J. Pope (Jour. Chem. Soc., 1901, 79, p. 828) has resolved benzyl-allyl-phenyl-methylamine iodide by boiling with silver d-camphorsulphonate in a nearly anhydrous mixture of acetone and ethyl acetate. The silver iodide is separated and the solvent distilled off. The residue crystallizes slowly, and the crystalline product is almost wholly d-benzyl-ally-phenyl- ammonium-d-sulphonate, the corresponding l-compound remaining as a syrupy residue. The corresponding iodides are obtained by the addition of potassium iodide to solutions of the sulphonates, and are optically active antipodes.

Diamines.—The diamines contain two amino groups and bear the same relation to the glycols that the primary monamines bear to the primary alcohols. They are of importance, since the higher homologues are identical in many cases with the ptomaines produced by the putrefactive action of some bacteria on albumen and other related substances. Ethylene diamine, C2H4(NH2)2, may be prepared by heating ethylene dibromide with alcoholic ammonia to 100 deg. C. (F. S. Cloez, Jahresb., 1853, p. 468); or by the action of tin and hydrochloric acid on cyanogen (T. Fairley, Ann. Suppl., 3, 1864, p. 372). It is an alkaline liquid, which when anhydrous boils at 116.5 deg. C. Nitrous acid converts it into ethylene oxide. It combines directly with many metallic salts. (See S. F. Jorgensen, Jour. pr. Chem., 1889 (2), 39, p. 8.) Trimethylene diamine, NH2.(CH2)3.NH2, is prepared by the action of ammonia on trimethylene bromide (E. Fischer, Ber., 1884, 17, p. 1799). It is a liquid which boils at 135-136 deg. C., and is readily soluble in alcohol, ether, chloroform and benzene. Tetramethylene diamine (putrescine), NH2.(CH2)4.NH2, is prepared by reducing ethylene dicyanide (succinonitrile) with sodium in absolute alcoholic solution (A. Ladenburg, Ber., 1886, 19, p. 780). It melts at 27 deg. C., and is easily soluble in water. Pentamethylene diamine (cadaverine), NH2.(CH2)5.NH2,is prepared by reducing trimethylene cyanide in ether solution by zinc and hydrochloric acid (A. Ladenburg, Ber., 1883, 16, p. 1151). J. v. Braun (Ber., 1904, 37, p. 3583) has prepared pentamethylene derivatives from piperidine by the action of phosphorus pentachloride. On heating piperidine with phosphorus pentachloride to 200 deg. C. in a sealed tube pentamethylene dichloride is obtained, and this on treatment with potassium phthalimide gives a condensation product of composition, C6H4[CO]2N(CH2)5N[CO]2C6H4, which is finally hydrolysed by hydrochloric acid. Cadaverine is a syrup at ordinary temperatures, and boils at 178-179 deg. C. It is readily soluble in water and alcohol, but only slightly soluble in ether.

Aromatic Amines.—The aromatic amines in some respects resemble the aliphatic amines, since they form salts with acids, and double salts with platinum chloride, and they also distil without decomposition. On the other hand, they are much weaker bases than the aliphatic amines, their salts undergoing hydrolytic dissociation in aqueous solution. The primary aromatic amines may be prepared by the reduction of the nitro-hydrocarbons, the reducing agents used being either alcoholic-ammonium sulphide (N. Zinin), zinc and hydrochloric acid (A. W. Hofmann), an alcoholic solution of stannous chloride (containing hydrochloric acid) (R. Anschutz, Ber., 1886, 19, p. 2161), tin and hydrochloric acid, or, on the manufacturing scale, iron and hydrochloric acid. They may also be obtained by the reduction of nitroso compounds and of hydrazo compounds and of hydrazones (J. Tafel, Ber., 1886, 19, p. 1924), by distilling the amido-acids with lime, by heating phenols with zinc chloride ammonia (V. Merz, Ber., 1880, 13, p. 1298), and by heating the secondary and tertiary bases with concentrated hydrochloric acid to about 180 deg. C.

At a temperature of about 300-400 deg. C. the alkyl chloride formed in this reaction attacks the benzene nucleus and replaces hydrogen by an alkyl group or groups, forming primary amines homologous with the original amine; thus methylaniline hydrochloride is converted into para- and ortho-toluidine hydrochloride, and trimethyl phenyl ammonium iodide is converted into mesidine hydriodide. It is to be noted that only traces of the aromatic amines are produced by heating the halogen substituted benzenes with ammonia, unless the amino group be situated in the side chain, as in the case of benzylamine.

The primary amines are colourless liquids or crystalline solids, which are insoluble in water, but readily soluble in the common organic solvents. When heated with alkyl or aryl iodides, they are converted into secondary and tertiary amines. Concentrated nitric acid attacks them violently, producing various oxidation products, but if the amino group be "protected" by being previously acetylated, then nitro derivatives are obtained. When heated with concentrated sulphuric acid for some time, they are sulphonated. They form condensation products with aldehydes, benzaldehyde and aniline forming benzylidene aniline, C6H5N: CHC6H5, and when heated with acids they form anilides. They give the isonitrile reaction (see above) when warmed with chloroform and a caustic alkali, and form alkyl thioureas when heated with an alcoholic solution of carbon bisulphide. When warmed with a solution of nitrous acid, they are converted into phenols; if, however, nitrous acid be added to an ice-cold solution of a primary amine in excess of mineral acid, a diazonium salt is formed (see AZO COMPOUNDS and DIAZO COMPOUNDS), or in absence of excess of acid, a diazoamine is produced.

The secondary amines may be of two types—namely, the purely aromatic amines, and the mixed secondary amines, which contain an aromatic residue and an alkyl group. The purely aromatic amines result upon heating the primary amines with their hydrochlorides, and, in some cases, by heating a phenol with a primary amine and anhydrous zinc chloride. The mixed secondary amines are prepared by the action of alkyl iodides on the primary amines, or by heating salts of the primary amine with alcohols under pressure. The mixed secondary amines have basic properties, but the purely aromatic secondary amines are only very feeble bases. Both classes readily exchange the imide hydrogen for acid radicals, and give nitrosamines with nitrous acid. The secondary amines do not give the isonitrile reaction.

The tertiary amines may also be of two types, the purely aromatic and the mixed type. The mixed tertiary amines are produced by the action of alkyl halides on the primary amines. The simplest aromatic tertiary amine, triphenylamine, is prepared by the action of brombenzene on sodium diphenylamine (C. Heydrich, Ber., 1885, 18, p. 2156). The simplest aromatic monamine is aniline (q.v.), and the simplest mixed amines are mono- and di-methyl aniline. These substances are treated in the article ANILINE.

The aromatic amine resembling the aliphatic amines is benzylamine, C6H5.CH2.NH2, which may be prepared by reducing benzonitrile in alcoholic solution by means of zinc and acetic acid (O. Mendius, Ann. 1862, 121, p. 144), or by metallic sodium (E. Bamberger, Ber., 1887, 20, p. 1709). It can also be obtained by the action of ammonia on benzyl chloride (S. Cannizzaro, Ann., 1865, 134, p. 128), but di- and tri-benzylamines are simultaneously formed. It is a liquid, which boils at 183 deg. C., and is miscible in all proportions with water, alcohol and ether. It is basic in character, and has a strongly alkaline reaction. Diphenylamine, (C6H5)2NH, is the simplest representative of the true aromatic secondary amines. It is prepared by heating aniline and aniline hydrochloride for some hours to 210-240 deg. C, (Ch. Girard and G. de Laire, Zeit. fur Chem., 1866, p. 438). It crystallizes in white plates, which melt at 45 deg. C. and boil at 302 deg. C. It is almost insoluble in water, but readily volatilizes in steam. When heated with monobasic saturated acids and zinc chloride it yields acridines.

Aromatic Diamines.—The diamines are prepared by reducing the nitranilines or the dinitrohydrocarbons. They crystallize in plates, and for the most part distil without decomposition. Orthophenylene diamine, C6H4(NH2)2, crystallizes from water in plates, which melt at 102-103 deg. C. and boil at 256-258 deg. C. When heated with 10% hydrochloric acid to 180 deg. C. it yields pyrocatechin (Jacob Meyer, Ber., 1897, 30, p. 2569). The orthodiamines are characterized by the large number of condensation products they form. (See IMIDAZOLES, QUINOXALINES, &c.). Metaphenylene diamine crystallizes in rhombic plates which melt at 63 deg. C. and boil at 287 deg. C. It is easily soluble in water and alcohol. When heated with 10% hydrochloric acid to 180 deg. C. it yields resorcin (J. Meyer). Paraphenylene diamine may be prepared as above, and also by the reduction of amidoazobenzene. It crystallizes in tables which melt at 140 deg. C. and boil at 267 deg. C. When heated with 10% hydrochloric acid to 180 deg. C. it yields hydroquinone (J. Meyer). Manganese dioxide and dilute sulphuric acid oxidize it to quinone. The three classes of diamines may be distinguished by their behaviour towards nitrous acid. The ortho-compounds condense to azimido benzenes, the metacompounds yield azo-dyestuffs, and the para- compounds yield bis-diazo compounds of the type XN2.C6H4.N2X.

AMIOT, JEAN JOSEPH MARIE (1718-1793), French Jesuit missionary, was born at Toulon in February 1718. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1737 and was sent in 1750 as a missionary to China. He soon won the confidence of the emperor Kien-lung and spent the remainder of his life at Pekin, where he died on the 9th of October 1793. Amiot was eminently fitted to make good use of the advantages which his situation afforded, and his works did more than had ever been done before to make known to the Western world the thought and life of the Far East. His Dictionnaire tatare-mantchou-francais (Paris, 1789) was a work of great value, the language having been previously quite unknown in Europe. His other writings are to be found chiefly in the Memoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences et les arts de Chinois (15 vols., Paris, 1776-1791). The Vie de Confucius, the twelfth volume of that collection, is complete and accurate.

For full bibliography see De Backer and C. Sommervogel, Bibliotheque de la Cie. de Jesus, i. 294-303; for his works on Chinese music see F. J. Fetis, Biog. univers. des musiciens (Brussels, 1837-1844).

AMIR, or AMEER (an Arabic word meaning "commander," from the root amr, "commanding"), a title common in the Mahommedan East. The form emir is also commonly employed in English. The word originally signified a military commander, but very early came to be extended to anyone bearing rule, Mahomet himself being styled by the pagan Arabs amir of Mecca. Thus the term gradually came to be applied to any high office-bearer, or to any lord or chief. The caliph has the style of Amir ul Omara, "lord of lords." The title Amir ul Muminim, or "commander of the faithful," now borne by the sultan of Turkey, was first assumed by Abu Bekr, and was taken by most of the various dynasties which claimed the caliphate, including the Fatimites, the Spanish Omayyads and the Almohades. The Almoravides and the Merinides assumed the style of Amir ul Muslimin, "commander of the Mussulmans."

The use of the word is, in fact, closely akin to that of the English "lord," sometimes connoting office, as in Amir ul-ahghal (minister of finance) under the Almohades (cf. "lord of the treasury"), sometimes mere dignity, as in the case of the title of honour borne by all descendants of the Prophet, or of the title Mir assumed by men of great rank in the Far East. Sometimes it implies a temporary office of dignity and command—e.g. the Amir ul-haj, "commander of the pilgrimage" (to Mecca). Sometimes again it connotes the meaning of "sovereign lord," in which sense it was early assumed by the princes of Sind and by the rulers of Afghanistan and Bokhara, the title implying a lesser dignity than that of sultan. Thus too it is very generally applied in the East to the chiefs of independent or semi-independent tribes. In the Lebanon both the Christian clans and the Druses are ruled by hereditary amirs. Finally the word (confused not unnaturally with the particle usually attached to it) was borrowed by the West, and is the origin of the English "admiral."

AMIS ET AMILES, the title of an old French romance based on a widespread legend of friendship and sacrifice. In its earlier and simpler form it is the story of two friends, one of whom, Amis, was smitten with leprosy because he had committed perjury to save his friend. A vision informed him that he could only be cured by bathing in the blood of Amiles's children. When Amiles learnt this he killed the children, who were, however, miraculously restored to life after the cure of Amis. The tale was probably of Oriental origin, and introduced to the West by way of Byzantium. It found its way into French literature through the medium of Latin, as the names Amicus and Amellus indicate, and was eventually attached to the Carolingian cycle in the 12th-century chanson de geste of Amis et Amiles. This poem is written in decasyllabic assonanced verse, each stanza being terminated by a short line. It belongs to the heroic period of French epic, containing some passages of great beauty, notably the episode of the slaying of the children, and maintains a high level of poetry throughout. Amis has married Lubras and become count of Blaives (Blaye), while Amiles has become seneschal at the court of Charlemagne, and is seduced by the emperor's daughter, Bellisant. The lovers are betrayed, and Amiles is unable to find the necessary supporters to enable him to clear himself by the ordeal of single combat, and fears, moreover, to fight in a false cause. He is granted a reprieve, and goes in search of Amis, who engages to personate him in the combat. He thus saves his friend, but in so doing perjures himself. Then follows the leprosy of Amis, and, after a lapse of years, his discovery of Amiles and cure. There are obvious reminiscences in this story of Damon and Pythias, and of the classical instances of sacrifice at the divine command. The legend of Amis and Amiles occurs in many forms with slight variations, the names and positions of the friends being sometimes reversed. The crown of martyrdom was not lacking, for Amis and Amiles were slain by Ogier the Dane at Novara on their way home from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Jourdain de Blaives, a chanson de geste which partly reproduces the story of Apollonius of Tyre, was attached to the geste of Amis by making Jourdain his grandson.

The versions of Amis and Amiles include—(a) numerous Latin recensions in prose and verse, notably that given by Vincent de Beauvais in his Speculum historiale (lib. xxiii. cap. 162-166 and 169); (b) an Anglo-Norman version in short rhymed couplets, which is not attached to the Charlemagne legend and agrees fairly closely with the English Amis and Amiloun (Midland dialect, 13th century); these with the old Norse version are printed by E. Kolbing, Altengl. Bibl. vol. ii. (1889), and the English romance also in H. Weber, Metrical Romances, vol. ii. (1810); (c) the 12th- century French chanson de geste analysed by P. Paris in Hist. litt. de la France (vol. xxii.), and edited by K. Hofmann (Erlangen, 1882) with the addition of Jourdain de Blaives; (d) the Latin Vita Sanct. Amici et Amelii (pr. by Kolbing, op. cit.) and its Old-French translation, Li amitiez de Ami et Amile, ed. L. Moland and C. d'Hericault in Nouvelles ... du xiiie siecle (Paris, 1856); (e) a 14th-century drama, Un Miracle de Notre Dame d'Amis et Amile, ed. L. J. N. Monmerque and F. Michelin Theatre fr. au moyen age (1839); (f) old Norse, Icelandic, Danish versions, &c. (see K. Hofmann, op. cit.); (g) an imitation which under the name of Oliver and Artus was current in many languages and was the subject of Hans Sachs's comedy, Die treuen Gesellen (1556); (h) Engelhart und Engeltrut, by the minnesinger Conrad von Wurzburg (ed. M. Haupt, Leipzig, 1844, 2nd ed., 1900); (i) the late prose romances, with many changes and additions, Milles et Amys, printed by A. Verard (Paris, c. 1503), &c., for which see G. Brunet, Manuel du libraire, s.v. "Milles." A different version of the legend is inserted at considerable length in L'Ystoire des sept sages (ed. G. Paris, Soc. des anc. textes fr., 1876), in which the friends are called Alexandre and Louis, and Bellisant Florentine. For a further bibliography see L. Gautier, Bibl. des chansons de geste (Paris, 1897). William Morris's version of the French romance was printed at the Kelmscott Press in 1894. See also the essay by W. Pater in The Renaissance, 1893.

AMITERNUM, an ancient town of the Sabines, situated about 5 m. N. of Aquila, in the broad valley of the Aternus, from which, according to Varro, it took its name. It was stormed by the Romans in 293 B.C., and though it suffered from the wars of the Republican period, it seems to have risen to renewed prosperity under the empire. This it owed largely to its position. It lay at the point of junction of four roads—the via Caecilia, the Via Claudia Nova and two branches of the Via Salaria, which joined it at the 64th and 89th miles respectively. The fertility of its territory was also praised by ancient authors. There are considerable remains of an aqueduct, an amphitheatre and a theatre (the latter excavated in 1880—see Notizie degli scavi, 1880, 290, 350, 379), all of which belong to the imperial period, while in the hill on which the village of S. Vittorino is built are some Christian catacombs. Amiternum was the birthplace of the historian Sallust. In a gorge 1 1/2 m. east are massive remains of cyclopean walls (i.e. in rough blocks), probably intended to regulate the flow of the stream (N. Persichetti in Romische Mitteilungen, 1902, 134 seq..)

AMLWCH (llwch = "lake"), a market town of Anglesey, North Wales, situated on slightly rising ground on the N. coast of the island, 15 m. N.W. of Beaumaris and 262 m. from London, by the London & North-Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 2994. Originally it owed its whole importance to the copper mines of the Parys (probably, Parry's) mountain, as, before ore was discovered in March 1768, it was a small hamlet of fishermen. The mines once produced 3000 tons of metal annually, copper smelting being largely carried on, but have now almost ceased working. Though apparently not mentioned by Ptolemy, they were perhaps Roman. Robert Parys, chamberlain of North Wales under Henry IV., is often given as their godfather. The poor harbour called the "port," protected by a breakwater, has been cut out of the rock (shingle). Amlwch is the terminus of the branch railway from Gaerwen to Amlwch, formerly the Anglesey Central Railway Company. Porthllechog, or Bull Bay (so called from the Bull Rock), at a mile's distance, is a small but favourite watering-place. Beyond, on the coast, some 3 m. distant, are the remains of a British fort and of the Llanllaianau monastery, opposite the Middle Mouse islet and close to Llanbadrig old church and Cemmaes. Industries include slate quarrying, shipbuilding, iron and brass foundries, alum, vitriol, manure, guano and tobacco works. At Llanllaianau was found, in 1841, a stone coffin, holding a well- preserved skeleton of 7 1/2 ft. in length. The coffin was apparently of Aberdovey (Aberdyfi) limestone, much corroded. At Llangefni, not far from Amlwch, in 1829, and at Llangristiolus, 3 m. distant from Llangefni, about 1770, were found human bones of a high antiquity, between Glan Hwfa and Fron, and at Capel, respectively. The town has an old Anglican church (St Eleth's).

AMMAN, JOHANN CONRAD (1669-c. 1730), Swiss physician, was born at Schaffhausen in 1669. After graduating at Basel in 1687 he began to practise at Amsterdam, where he gained a great reputation. He was one of the earliest writers on the instruction of the deaf and dumb, and first called attention to his method in his Surdus loquens (Amsterdam, 1692), which was often reprinted, and was reproduced by John Wallis in the Philosophical Transactions (1698). His process consisted principally in exciting the attention of his pupils to the motions of his lips and larynx while he spoke, and then inducing them to imitate these movements, till he brought them to repeat distinctly letters, syllables and words. The edition of Caelius Aurelianus, which was undertaken by the Wetsteins in 1709, was superintended by Amman. He died about 1730 at Warmoud, near Leiden.

AMMAN, JOST (1539-1591), Swiss artist, celebrated chiefly for his engravings on wood, was born at Zurich. Of his personal history little is known beyond the fact that he removed in 1560 to Nuremberg, where he continued to reside until his death in March 1591. His productiveness was very remarkable, as may be gathered from the statement of one of his pupils, that the drawings he made during a period of four years would have filled a hay wagon. A large number of his original drawings are contained in the Berlin collection of engravings. The genuineness of not a few of the specimens to be seen elsewhere is at least questionable. A series of copperplate engravings by Amman of the kings of France, with short biographies, appeared at Frankfort in 1576. He also executed many of the woodcut illustrations for the Bible published at Frankfort by Sigismund Feierabend. Another serial work, the Panoplia Omnium Liberalium Mechanicarum et Sedentariarum Artium Genera Continens, containing 115 plates, is of great value. Amman's drawing is correct and spirited, and his delineation of the details of costume, &c., is minute and accurate. He executed too much, however, to permit of his reaching the highest style of art. Paintings in oil and on glass are attributed to him, but no specimen of these is known to exist.

AMMAN, PAUL (1634-1691), German physician and botanist, was born at Breslau in 1634. In 1662 he received the degree of doctor of physic from the university of Leipzig, and in 1664 was admitted a member of the society Naturae Curiosorum, under the name of Dryander. Shortly afterwards he was chosen extraordinary professor of medicine in the above-mentioned university; and in 1674 he was promoted to the botanical chair, which he again in 1682 exchanged for the physiological. He died at Leipzig in 1691. He seems to have been a man of critical mind and extensive learning. His principal works were: Medicina Critica (1670); Paraenesis ad Docentes occupata circa Institutionum Medicarum Emendationem (1673); Irenicum Numae Pompilii cum Hippocrate (1689); Supellex Botanica (1675); and Character Naturalis Plantarum (1676).

AMMANATI, BARTOLOMEO (1511-1592), Florentine architect and sculptor. He studied under Bandinelli and Jacopo Sansovino, and closely imitated the style of Michelangelo. He was more distinguished in architecture than in sculpture. He designed many buildings in Rome, Lucca and Florence, an addition to the Pitti Palace in the last- named city being one of his most celebrated works. He was also employed in 1569 to build the beautiful bridge over the Arno, known as Ponte della Trinita—one of his celebrated works. The three arches are elliptic, and though very light and elegant, have resisted the fury of the river, which has swept away several other bridges at different times. Another of his most important works was the fountain for the Piazza della Signoria. In 1550 Ammanati married Laura Battiferri, an elegant poet and an accomplished woman.

AMMIANUS, MARCELLINUS, the last Roman historian of importance, was born about A.D. 325-330 at Antioch; the date of his death is unknown, but he must have lived till 391, as he mentions Aurelius Victor as the city prefect for that year. He was a Greek, and his enrolment among the protectores domestici (household guards) shows that he was of noble birth. He entered the army at an early age, when Constantius II. was emperor of the East, and was sent to serve under Ursicinus, governor of Nisibis and magister militiae. He returned to Italy with Ursicinus, when he was recalled by Constantius, and accompanied him on the expedition against Silvanus the Frank, who had been forced by the unjust accusations of his enemies into proclaiming himself emperor in Gaul. With Ursicinus he went twice to the East, and barely escaped with his life from Amida or Amid (mod. Diarbekr), when it was taken by the Persian king Shapur (Sapor) II. When Ursicinus lost his office and the favour of Constantius, Ammianus seems to have shared his downfall; but under Julian, Constantius's successor, he regained his position. He accompanied this emperor, for whom he expresses enthusiastic admiration, in his campaigns against the Alamanni and the Persians; after his death he took part in the retreat of Jovian as far as Antioch, where he was residing when the conspiracy of Theodorus (371) was discovered and cruelly put down. Eventually he settled in Rome, where, at an advanced age, he wrote (in Latin) a history of the Roman empire from the accession of Nerva to the death of Valens (96-378), thus forming a continuation of the work of Tacitus. This history (Rerum Gestarum Libri XXXI.) was originally in thirty-one books; of these the first thirteen are lost, the eighteen which remain cover the period from 353 to 378. As a whole it is extremely valuable, being a clear, comprehensive and impartial account of events by a contemporary of soldierly honesty, independent judgment and wide reading. "Ammianus is an accurate and faithful guide, who composed the history of his own times without indulging the prejudices and passions which usually affect the mind of a contemporary" (Gibbon). Although Ammianus was no doubt a heathen, his attitude towards Christianity is that of a man of the world, free from prejudices in favour of any form of belief. If anything he himself inclined to neo-Platonism. His style is generally harsh, often pompous and extremely obscure, occasionally even journalistic in tone, but the author's foreign origin and his military life and training partially explain this. Further, the work being intended for public recitation, some rhetorical embellishment was necessary, even at the cost of simplicity. It is a striking fact that Ammianus, though a professional soldier, gives excellent pictures of social and economic problems, and in his attitude to the non-Roman peoples of the empire he is far more broad-minded than writers like Livy and Tacitus; his digressions on the various countries he had visited are peculiarly interesting. In his description of the empire—the exhaustion produced by excessive taxation, the financial ruin of the middle classes, the progressive decline in the morale of the army—we find the explanation of its fall before the Goths twenty years after his death.

The work was discovered by Poggio, who copied the original MS. Editio princeps (bks. 14-26) by Sabinus, 1474; completed by Accursius, 1533; with variorum notes, by Wagner-Erfurdt, 1808; latest edition of text, Gardthausen, 1874-1875. English translations by P. Holland, 1609; Yonge (Bohn's Classical Library), 1862; also Max Budinger, Ammianus Marcellinus und die Eigenart seines Geschichtswerkes (1895); F. Liesenberg, Die Sprache des Ammianus Marcellinus (1888-1890); T. R. Glover, Life and Letters in the Fourth Century (1901); Abbe Gimazane, Ammianus Marcellinus, sa vie et son oeuvre (Toulouse, 1889), a work containing a number of very doubtful theories. For a criticism of his views on Roman society see S. Dill, Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire (London, 1898).

AMMIRATO, SCIPIONE (1531-1601), Italian historian, born at Lecce, in the kingdom of Naples. His father, intending him for the profession of law, sent him to study at Naples, but his own decided preference for literature prevented him from fulfilling his father's wishes. Entering the church, he resided for a time at Venice, and afterwards engaged in the service of Pope Pius IV. In 1569 he went to Florence, where he was fortunate in securing the patronage and support of Duke Cosimo I., who gave him a residence at the Medici Palace and the Villa Zopaja on the understanding that he should write his Istorie Fiorentine (1600), the work by which he is best known. In 1595 he was made a canon of the cathedral of Florence. He died in 1601. Among the other works of Ammirato, some of which were first published after his death, may be mentioned discourses on Tacitus and genealogies of the families of Naples and Florence.

AMMON, the Graecized name of an Egyptian deity, in the native language Amun, connected by the priests with a root meaning "conceal." He was, to begin with, the local deity of Thebes, when it was an unimportant town on the east bank of the river, about the region now occupied by the temple of Karnak. The XIth dynasty sprang from a family in the Hermonthite nome or perhaps at Thebes itself, and adorned the temple of Karnak with statues. Amenemhe, the name of the founder of the XIIth dynasty, was compounded with that of Amun and was borne by three of his successors. Several Theban kings of the later part of the Middle Kingdom adopted the same name; and when the Theban family of the XVIIth dynasty drove out the Hyksos, Ammon, as the god of the royal city, was again prominent. It was not, however, until the rulers of the XVIIIth dynasty carried their victorious arms beyond the Egyptian frontiers in every direction that Ammon began to assume the proportions of a universal god for the Egyptians, eclipsing all their other deities and asserting his power over the gods of all foreign lands. To Ammon the Pharaohs attributed all their successful enterprises, and on his temples they lavished their wealth and captured spoil.

Ammon is figured of human form, wearing on his head a plain deep circlet from which rise two straight parallel plumes, perhaps representing the tail feathers of a hawk. Two main types are seen: in the one he is seated on a throne, in the other he is standing, ithyphallic, holding a scourge, precisely like Min, the god of Coptos and Chemmis (Akhmim). The latter may be his original form, as a god of fertility, before whom the king ceremoniously breaks up the ground for sowing or cuts the ripe corn. His consort was sometimes called Amaune (feminine of Amun), but more usually Mut, "mother": she was human-headed, wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, and their son was Khons (Chon or Chons), a lunar god, represented as a youth wearing the crescent and disk of the moon. A great temple was built to Mut at Karnak not later than the XVIIIth dynasty, and another to Khons not later than the XXth dynasty.

The name of Re, the sun-god, was generally joined to Ammon, especially in his title as "king of the gods": the rule of heaven belonged to the sun-god in the Egyptian cosmos, and this identification with Re was only logical for a supreme deity. Ammon was entitled "lord of the thrones of the two lands," or, more proudly still, "king of the gods." Such indeed was his unquestioned position when suddenly he was overthrown and his worship proscribed. Not even a henotheist fervently worshipping one of many gods, Amenophis (Amenhotp) IV. of the XVIIIth dynasty became the monotheist Akhenaton; discarding all the gods of Egypt, and especially persecuting Ammon the arch-god, he devoted himself to the purer and more sublime worship of Aton, the sun. But he failed to win the permanent adhesion of the people to his reform, or to conciliate or entirely crush the enormously powerful priesthood of Ammon. A few years after the reformer's death, the old cults were re-established and the monuments of Aton studiously defaced. Hymns were then addressed to Amen-re, which are almost monotheistic in expression. The cult of the supreme god spread throughout Egypt and was carried by the Egyptian conquerors into other lands, Syria, Ethiopia and Libya, and was accepted by the natives both in Ethiopia and in the Libyan cases, where civilization was low and Egyptian influence permanent. After the XXth dynasty the centre of power was removed from Thebes, and the authority of Ammon began to wane. In the XXIst dynasty the secondary line of priest kings of Thebes upheld his dignity to the best of their power, and the XXIInd dynasty favoured Thebes: but as the sovereignty weakened the division between Upper and Lower Egypt asserted itself, and thereafter Thebes would have rapidly decayed had it not been for the piety of the kings of Ethiopia towards Ammon, whose worship had long prevailed in their country. Thebes was at first their Egyptian capital, and they honoured Ammon greatly, although their wealth and culture were not sufficient to effect much. Ammon (Zeus) continued to be the great god of Thebes in its decay, and notwithstanding that a nome-capital in the north of the Delta and many lesser temples, from El Hibeh in Middle Egypt to Canopus on the sea, acknowledged Ammon as their supreme divinity, he probably in some degree represented the national aspirations of Upper Egypt as opposed to Middle and Lower Egypt: he also remained the national god of Ethiopia, where his name was pronounced Amane. The priests of Amane at Meroe and Napata, in fact, regulated through his oracle the whole government of the country, choosing the king, directing his military expeditions (and even compelling him to commit suicide, according to Diodorus) until in the 3rd century B.C. Arkamane (Ergamenes) broke through the bondage and slew the priests. Ammon had yet another outburst of glory. There was an oracle of Ammon established for some centuries in Libya, in the distant oasis of Siwa. Such was its reputation among the Greeks that Alexander journeyed thither, after the battle of Issus, and during his occupation of Egypt, in order to be acknowledged the son of the god. The Egyptian Pharaohs of the XVIIIth dynasty had likewise been proclaimed mystically sons of this god, who, it was asserted, had impregnated the queen-mother; and on occasion wore the ram's horns of Ammon, even as Alexander is represented with them on coins.

The Egyptian goose (chenalopex) is figured in the XVIIIth dynasty as sacred to Ammon; but his most frequent and celebrated incarnation was the woolly sheep with curved ("Ammon") horns (as opposed to the oldest native breed with long horizontal twisted horns and hairy coat, sacred to Khnum or Chnumis). It is found as representing Ammon from the time of Amenophis III. onwards.

As king of the gods Ammon was identified by the Greeks with Zeus and his consort Mut with Hera. Khnum was likewise identified with Zeus probably through his similarity to Ammon; his proper animal having early become extinct, Ammon horns in course of time were attributed to this god also.

See Erman, Handbook of Egyptian Religion (London, 1907); Ed. Meyer, art. "Ammon" in Roscher's Lexikon der griechischen und romischen Mythologie; Pietschmann, arts. "Ammon," "Ammoneion" in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie; and works on Egyptian religion quoted under EGYPT, section Religion. (F. LL. G.)

AMMON, CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH VON (1766-1850), German theological writer and preacher, was born at Baireuth. He studied at Erlangen, held various professorships in the philosophical and theological faculties of Erlangen and Gottingen, succeeded Franz Reinhard (1753-1812) in 1813 as court preacher and member of the consistorial court at Dresden, retired from these offices in 1849, and died on the 21st of May 1850. Seeking to establish for himself a middle position between rationalism and supernaturalism, he declared for a "rational supernaturalism," and contended that there must be a gradual development of Christian doctrine corresponding to the advance of knowledge and science. But at the same time he sought, like other representatives of this school of thought, such as K. G. Bretschneider and Julius Wegscheider, to keep in close touch with the historical theology of the Protestant churches. He was a man of great versatility and extensive learning, a philologist and philosopher as well as a theologian, and a very voluminous author. His principal theological work was the Fortbildung des Christenthums zur Weltreligion, in 4 volumes (Leipzig, 1833-1840). Entwurf einer reinbiblischen Theologie appeared in 1792 (2nd ed., 1801), Summa Theologiae Christianae in 1803 (other editions, 1808, 1816, 1830); Das Leben Jesu in 1842, and Die wahre und falsche Orthodoxie in 1849. Von Ammon's style in preaching was terse and lively, and some of his discourses are regarded as models of pulpit treatment of political questions.

See Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie; Otto Pfleiderer, The Development of Theology in Germany since Kant, pp. 89 ff.

AMMONIA (NH3). Salts of ammonia have been known from very early times; thus the term Hammoniacus sal appears in the writings of Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxxi. 39), although it is not known whether the term is identical with the more modern sal-ammoniac (q.v.). In the form of sal-ammoniac, ammonia was known, however, to the alchemists as early as the 13th century, being mentioned by Albertus Magnus, whilst in the 15th century Basil Valentine showed that ammonia could be obtained by the action of alkalies on sal-ammoniac. At a later period when sal-ammoniac was obtained by distilling the hoofs and horns of oxen, and neutralizing the resulting carbonate with hydrochloric acid, the name spirits of hartshorn was applied to ammonia. Gaseous ammonia was first isolated by J. Priestley in 1774 and was termed by him "alkaline air." In 1777 K. W. Scheele showed that it contained nitrogen, and C. L. Berthollet, in about 1785, ascertained its composition.

Ammonia is found in small quantities as the carbonate in the atmosphere, being produced from the putrefaction of nitrogenous animal and vegetable matter; ammonium salts are also found in small quantities in rain-water, whilst ammonium chloride (sal-ammoniac) and ammonium sulphate are found in volcanic districts; and crystals of ammonium bicarbonate have been found in Patagonian guano. Ammonium salts too are found distributed through all fertile soil, in sea- water, and in most plant and animal liquids, and also in urine.

Ammonia can be synthesized by submitting a mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen to the action of the silent electric discharge, the combination, however, being very imperfect. It is obtained by the dry distillation of nitrogenous vegetable and animal products; by the reduction of nitrous acid and nitrites with nascent hydrogen; and also by the decomposition of ammonium salts by alkaline hydroxides or by slaked lime, the salt most generally used being the chloride (sal- ammoniac, q.v.) thus 2NH4Cl + Ca(OH)2 = CaCl2 + 2H2O + 2NH3. It also results on decomposing magnesium nitride (Mg3N2) with water, Mg3N2 + 6H2O = 3Mg(OH)2 + 2NH3. Large quantities of ammonia and ammonium salts are now obtained from the ammoniacal liquor of gas-works.

Ammonia is a colourless gas possessing a characteristic pungent smell and a strongly alkaline reaction; it is lighter than air, its specific gravity being 0.589 (air=1). It is easily liquefied and the liquid boils at -33.7 deg. C., and solidifies at -75 deg. C. to a mass of white crystals. It is extremely soluble in water, one volume of water at 0 deg. C. and normal pressure absorbs 1148 volumes of ammonia (Roscoe and W. Dittmar). All the ammonia contained in an aqueous solution of the gas may be expelled by boiling. It does not support combustion; and it does not burn readily unless mixed with oxygen, when it burns with a pale yellowish-green flame. Ammonia gas has the power of combining with many substances, particularly with metallic halides; thus with calcium chloride it forms the compound CaCl2.8NH3, and consequently calcium chloride cannot be used for drying the gas. With silver chloride it forms two compounds (F. Isambert, Comptes rendus, 1868, lxvi. p. 1259)—one, AgCl.3NH3 at temperatures below 15 deg. C.; the other, 2AgCl.3NH3 at temperatures above 20 deg. C. On heating these substances, ammonia is liberated and the metallic chloride remains. It was by the use of silver chloride ammonia compounds that in 1823 M. Faraday was first able to liquefy ammonia. It can be shown by Isambert's results that the compound AgCl.3NH3 cannot be formed above 20 deg. C., by the action of ammonia on silver chloride at atmospheric pressure; whilst 2AgCl.3NH3, under similar conditions, cannot be formed above about 68 deg. C. Liquid ammonia is used for the artificial preparation of ice. It readily dissolves sodium and potassium, giving in each case a dark blue solution. At a red heat ammonia is easily decomposed into its constituent elements, a similar decomposition being brought about by the passage of electric sparks through the gas. Chlorine takes fire when passed into ammonia, nitrogen and hydrochloric acid being formed, and unless the ammonia be present in excess, the highly explosive nitrogen chloride NCl3 is also produced. With iodine it reacts to form nitrogen iodide. This compound was discovered in 1812 by Bernard Courtois, and was originally supposed to contain nitrogen and iodine only, but in 1840 R. F. Marchand showed that it contained hydrogen, whilst R. Bunsen showed that no oxygen was present. As regards its constitution, it has been given at different times the formulae NI3, NHI2, NH2I, N2H3I3, &c., these varying results being due to the impurities in the substance, owing to the different investigators working under unsuitable conditions, and also to the decomposing action of light. F. D. Chattaway determined its composition as N2H3I3, by the addition of excess of standard sodium sulphite solution, in the dark, and subsequent titration of the excess of the sulphite with standard iodine. The constitution has been definitely determined by O. Silberrad (Jour. of Chem. Soc., 1905, lxxxvii. p. 55) by the interaction of nitrogen iodide with zinc ethyl, the products of the reaction being triethylamine and ammonia; the ammonia liberated was absorbed in hydrochloric acid, and 95% of the theoretical amount of the ammonium chloride was obtained. On these grounds O. Silberrad assigns the formula NH3.NI3 to the compound, and explains the decomposition as taking place, 2NH3.NI3 + 6Zn(C2H5)2 = 6ZnC2H5.I + 2NH3 + 2N(C2H5)3. The hydrogen in ammonia is capable of replacement by metals, thus magnesium burns in the gas with the formation of magnesium nitride Mg3N2, and when the gas is passed over heated sodium or potassium, sodamide, NaNH2, and potassamide, KNH2, are formed.

One of the most characteristic properties of ammonia is its power of combining directly with acids to form salts; thus with hydrochloric acid it forms ammonium chloride (sal-ammoniac); with nitric acid, ammonium nitrate, &c. It is to be noted that H. B. Baker (Journal of Chem. Soc., 1894, lxv. p. 612) has shown that perfectly dry ammonia will not combine with perfectly dry hydrochloric acid, moisture being necessary to bring about the reaction. The aqueous solution of ammonia is very basic in its reactions, and since it is a weak electrolyte, one must assume the solution to contain a certain amount of ammonium hydroxide NH4OH, although it is probably chiefly composed of a solution of ammonia in water. (On the constitution of aqueous ammonia solutions see also Carl Frenzel, Zeit fur angew. Chemie, xxxii. 3, p. 319.) Ammonia finds a wide application in organic chemistry as a synthetic reagent; it reacts with alkyl iodides to form amines (q.v.), with esters to form acid amides (q.v.), with halogen fatty acids to form amino-acids; while it also combines with isocyanic esters to form alkyl ureas and with the mustard oils to form alkyl thioureas. Aldehydes also combine directly with ammonia.

Liquid ammonia possesses strong ionizing powers, and solutions of salts in liquid ammonia have been much studied. For details see E. C. Franklin and C. A. Kraus, Amer. Chem. Jour., 1899, xxi. p. 8; 1900, xxiv. p. 83; 1902, xxviii. p. 277; also Carl Frenzel, Zeits fur Elektrochemie, 1900, vi. p. 477.

The salts produced by the action of ammonia on acids are known as the ammonium salts and all contain the compound radical ammonium (NH4). Numerous attempts have been made to isolate this radical, but so far none have been successful. By the addition of sodium amalgam to a concentrated solution of ammonium chloride, the so-called ammonium amalgam is obtained as a spongy mass which floats on the surface of the liquid; it decomposes readily at ordinary temperatures into ammonia and hydrogen; it does not reduce silver and gold salts, a behaviour which distinguishes it from the amalgams of the alkali metals, and for this reason it is regarded by some chemists as being merely mercury inflated by gaseous ammonia and hydrogen. M. le Blanc has shown, however, that the effect of ammonium amalgam on the magnitude of polarization of a battery is comparable with that of the amalgams of the alkali metals.

Many of the ammonium salts are made from the ammoniacal liquor of gas- works, by heating it with milk of lime and then absorbing the gas so liberated in a suitable acid. (See GAS: Manufacture.)

Ammonium bromide, NH4Br, can be prepared by the direct action of bromine on ammonia. It crystallizes in colourless prisms, possessing a saline taste; it sublimes on heating and is easily soluble in water. On exposure to air it gradually assumes a yellow colour and becomes acid in its reaction.

Ammonium chloride, NH4Cl. (See SAL-AMMONIAC.)

Ammonium fluoride, NH4F, may be obtained by neutralizing ammonia with hydrofluoric acid. It crystallizes in small prisms, having a sharp saline taste, and is exceedingly soluble in water. It decomposes silicates on being heated with them.

Ammonium iodide, NH4I, can be prepared by the action of hydriodic acid on ammonia. It is easily soluble in water, from which it crystallizes in cubes, and also in alcohol. It gradually turns yellow on standing in moist air, owing to decomposition with liberation of iodine.

Ammonium chlorate, NH4ClO3, is obtained by neutralizing chloric acid with either ammonia or ammonium carbonate, or by precipitating barium, strontium or calcium chlorates with ammonium carbonate. It crystallizes in small needles, which are readily soluble in water, and on heating, decompose at about 102 deg. C., with liberation of nitrogen, chlorine and oxygen. It is soluble in dilute aqueous alcohol, but insoluble in strong alcohol.

Ammonium carbonates. The commercial salt is known as sal-volatile or salt of hartshorn and was formerly obtained by the dry distillation of nitrogenous organic matter such as hair, horn, decomposed urine, &c., but is now obtained by heating a mixture of sal-ammoniac, or ammonium sulphate and chalk, to redness in iron retorts, the vapours being condensed in leaden receivers. The crude product is refined by sublimation, when it is obtained as a white fibrous mass, which consists of a mixture of hydrogen ammonium carbonate, NH4.HCO3, and ammonium carbamate, NH2COONH4, in molecular proportions; on account of its possessing this constitution it is sometimes called ammonium sesquicarbonate. It possesses a strong ammoniacal smell, and on digestion with alcohol the carbamate is dissolved and a residue of ammonium bicarbonate is left; a similar decomposition taking place when the sesquicarbonate is exposed to air. Ammonia gas passed into a strong aqueous solution of the sesquicarbonate converts it into normal ammonium carbonate, (NH4)2CO3, which can be obtained in the crystalline condition from a solution prepared at about 30 deg. C. This compound on exposure to air gives off ammonia and passes back to ammonium bicarbonate.

Ammonium bicarbonate, NH4.HCO3, is formed as shown above and also by passing carbon dioxide through a solution of the normal compound, when it is deposited as a white powder, which has no smell and is only slightly soluble in water. The aqueous solution of this salt liberates carbon dioxide on exposure to air or on heating, and becomes alkaline in reaction. The aqueous solutions of all the carbonates when boiled undergo decomposition with liberation of ammonia and of carbon dioxide.

Ammonium nitrate, NH4NO3, is prepared by neutralizing nitric acid with ammonia, or ammonium carbonate, or by double decomposition between potassium nitrate and ammonium sulphate. It can be obtained in three different crystalline forms, the transition points of which are 35 deg. C., 83 deg. C. and 125 deg. C. It is easily soluble in water, a considerable lowering of temperature taking place during the operation; on this account it is sometimes used in the preparation of freezing mixtures. On gentle heating, it is decomposed into water and nitrous oxide. P. E. M. Berthelot in 1883 showed that if ammonium nitrate be rapidly heated the following reaction takes place with explosive violence:—2NH4NO3 = 4H2O + 2N2 + O2.

Ammonium nitrite, NH4NO2, is formed by oxidizing ammonia with ozone or hydrogen peroxide; by precipitating barium or lead nitrites with ammonium sulphate, or silver nitrite with ammonium chloride. The precipitate is filtered off and the solution concentrated. It forms colourless crystals which are soluble in water and decompose on heating, with the formation of nitrogen.

Ammonium phosphates. The normal phosphate, (NH4)3PO4,is obtained as a crystalline powder, on mixing concentrated solutions of ammonia and phosphoric acid, or on the addition of excess of ammonia to the acid phosphate (NH4)2HPO4. It is soluble in water, and the aqueous solution on boiling loses ammonia and the acid phosphate NH4H2PO4 is formed. Diammonium hydrogen phosphate, (NH4)2HPO4, is formed by evaporating a solution of phosphoric acid with excess of ammonia. It crystallizes in large transparent prisms, which melt on heating and decompose, leaving a residue of metaphosphoric acid, (HPO3). Ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, NH4.H2PO4, is formed when a solution of phosphoric acid is added to ammonia until the solution is distinctly acid. It crystallizes in quadratic prisms.

Ammonium sodium hydrogen phosphate, NH4.NaHPO4.4H2O. (See MICROCOSMIC SALT.)

Ammonium sulphate (NH4)2SO4 is prepared commercially from the ammoniacal liquor of gas-works (see GAS: Manufacture) and is purified by recrystallization. It forms large rhombic prisms, has a somewhat saline taste and is easily soluble in water. The aqueous solution on boiling loses some ammonia and forms an acid sulphate. It is used largely as an artificial manure, and also for the preparation of other ammonium salts.

Ammonium persulphate (NH4)2S2O8 has been prepared by H. Marshall (Jour. of Chem. Soc., 1891, lix. p. 777) by the method used for the preparation of the corresponding potassium salt (see SULPHUR). Pure specimens are difficult to obtain. It is very soluble in cold water, a large fall of temperature accompanying solution.

Ammonium sulphide, (NH4)2S, is obtained, in the form of micaceous crystals, by passing sulphuretted hydrogen mixed with a slight excess of ammonia through a well-cooled vessel; the hydrosulphide NH4.HS is formed at the same time. It dissolves readily in water, but is probably partially dissociated in solution. The hydrosulphide NH4.HS can be obtained as a white solid, by mixing well-cooled ammonia with a slight excess of sulphuretted hydrogen. According to W. P. Bloxam (Jour. of Chem. Soc., 1895, lxvii. p. 283), if sulphuretted hydrogen is passed into strong aqueous ammonia at ordinary temperature, the compound (NH4)2S.2NH4HS is obtained, which, on cooling to 0 deg. C. and passing more sulphuretted hydrogen, forms the compound (NH4)2S.12NH4HS. An ice-cold solution of this substance kept at 0 deg. C. and having sulphuretted hydrogen continually passed through it gives the hydrosulphide. Several complex polysulphides of ammonium have been isolated, for details of which see Bloxam's paper quoted above. Compounds are known which may be looked upon as derived from ammonia by the replacement of its hydrogen by the sulpho-group (HSO3); thus potassium ammon-trisulphonate, N(SO3K)3.2H2O, is obtained as a crystalline precipitate on the addition of excess of potassium sulphite to a solution of potassium nitrite, KNO2 + 3K2SO3 + 2H2O = N(SO3K)3 + 4KHO. It can be recrystallized by solution in alkalies. On boiling with water, it is converted, first into the disulphonate NH(SO3K)2 thus, N(SO3K)3 + H2O = NH(SO3K)2 + KHSO4, and ultimately into the monosulphonate NH2.SO3K. The disulphonate is more readily obtained by moistening the nitrilosulphonate with dilute sulphuric acid and letting it stand for twenty-four hours, after which it is recrystallized from dilute ammonia. It forms monosymmetric crystals which by boiling with water yield amidosulphonic acid. (See also E. Divers, Jour. of Chem. Soc., 1892, lxi. p. 943.) Amidosulphonic acid crystallizes in prisms, slightly soluble in water, and is a stable compound.

Ammonia and ammonium salts can be readily detected, in very minute traces, by the addition of Nessler's solution, which gives a distinct yellow coloration in the presence of the least trace of ammonia or ammonium salts. Larger quantities can be detected by warming the salts with a caustic alkali or with quicklime, when the characteristic smell of ammonia will be at once apparent. The amount of ammonia in ammonium salts can be estimated quantitatively by distillation of the salts with sodium or potassium hydroxide, the ammonia evolved being absorbed in a known volume of standard sulphuric acid and the excess of acid then determined volumetrically; or the ammonia may be absorbed in hydrochloric acid and the ammonium chloride so formed precipitated as ammonium chlorplatinate, (NH4)2PtCl6.

AMMONIACUM, or GUM AMMONIAC, a gum-resin exuded from the stem of a perennial herb (Dorema ammoniacum), natural order Umbelliferae. The plant grows to the height of 8 or 9 ft., and its whole stem is pervaded with a milky juice, which oozes out on an incision being made at any part. This juice quickly hardens into round tears, forming the "tear ammoniacum" of commerce. "Lump ammoniacum," the other form in which the substance is met with, consists of aggregations of tears, frequently incorporating fragments of the plant itself, as well as other foreign bodies. Ammoniacum has a faintly fetid, unpleasant odour, which becomes more distinct on heating; externally it possesses a reddish-yellow appearance, and when the tears or lumps are freshly fractured they exhibit a waxy lustre. It is chiefly collected in central Persia, and comes to the European market by way of Bombay. Ammoniacum is closely related to asafetida and galbanum (from which, however, it differs in yielding no umbelliferone) both in regard to the plant which yields it and its therapeutical effects. Internally it is used in conjunction with squills in bronchial affections; and in asthma and chronic colds it is found useful, but it has no advantages over a number of other substances of more constant and active properties (Sir Thomas Fraser). Only the "tear ammoniacum" is official.

African ammoniacum is the product of a plant said to be Ferula tingitana, which grows in North Africa; it is a dark coloured gum-resin, possessed of a very weak odour and a persistent acrid taste.

AMMONITES, or the "children of Ammon," a people of east Palestine who, like the Moabites, traced their origin to Lot, the nephew of the patriarch Abraham, and must have been regarded, therefore, as closely related to the Israelites and Edomites. Both the Ammonites and Moabites are sometimes spoken of under the common name of the children of Lot (Deut. ii. 19; Ps. lxxxiii. 8); and the whole history shows that they preserved throughout the course of their national existence a sense of the closest brotherhood. According to the traditions, the original territory of the two tribes was the country lying immediately on the east of the Dead Sea, and of the lower half of the Jordan, having the Jabbok for its northern boundary; and of this tract the Ammonites laid claim to the northern portion between the Arnon and the Jabbok, out of which they had expelled the Zamzummim (Judg. xi. 13; Deut. ii. 20 sqq.; cf. Gen. xiv. 5), though apparently it had been held, in part at least, conjointly with the Moabites, or perhaps under their supremacy (Num. xxi. 26, xxii. 1; Josh. xiii. 32). From this their original territory they had been in their turn expelled by Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was said to have been found by the Israelites, after their deliverance from Egypt, in possession of both Gilead and Bashan, that is, of the whole country on the left bank of the Jordan, lying to the north of the Arnon (Num. xxi. 13). By this invasion, as the Moabites were driven to the south of the Arnon, which formed their northern boundary from that time, so the Ammonites were driven out of Gilead across the upper waters of the Jabbok where it flows from south to north, which henceforth continued to be their western boundary (Num. xxi. 24; Deut. ii. 37, iii. 16). The other limits of the Ammonitis, or country of the Ammonites ('Lmmanitis chora, 2 Mac. iv. 26), there are no means of exactly defining. On the south it probably adjoined the land of Moab; on the north it may have met that of the king of Geshur (Josh. xii. 5); and on the east it probably melted away into the desert peopled by Amalekites and other nomadic races.

The chief city of the country, called Rabbah, or Rabbath of the children of Ammon, i.e. the metropolis of the Ammonites (Deut. iii. 11), and Rabbathammana by the later Greeks (Polyb, v. 7. 4), whose name was changed into Philadelphia by Ptolemy Philadelphus, a large and strong city with an acropolis, was situated on both sides of a branch of the Jabbok, bearing at the present day the name of Nahr 'Amman, the river of Ammon, whence the designation "city of waters" (2 Sam. xii. 27); see Survey of E. Pal (Pal. Explor. Fund), pp. 19 sqq. The ruins called Amman by the natives are extensive and imposing. The country to the south and east of Amman is distinguished by its fertility; and ruined towns are scattered thickly over it, attesting that it was once occupied by a population which, however fierce, was settled and industrious, a fact indicated also by the tribute of corn paid annually to Jotham (2 Chron. xxvii. 5).

The traditional history of Ammon as related in the Old Testament is not free from obscurity, due to the uncertain date of the various references and to the doubt whether the individual details belong to the particular period to which each is ascribed. (See further MOAB.) From the Assyrian inscriptions we learn that the Ammonite king Ba'sa (Baasha) (son) of Ruhubi, with 1000 men joined Ahab and the Syrian allies against Shalmaneser II. at the battle of Karkar in 854. In 734 their king Sanip(b)u was a vassal of Tiglathpileser IV., and his successor, P(b)udu-ilu, held the same position under Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. Somewhat later, their king Amminadab was among the tributaries who suffered in the course of the great Arabian campaign of Assurbanipal. With the neighbouring tribes, the Ammonites helped the Babylonian monarch Nebuchadrezzar against Jehoiakim (2 Kings xxiv. 2); and if they joined Zedekiah's conspiracy (Jer. xxvii. 3), and were threatened by the Babylonian army (Ezek. xxi. 20 sqq.), they do not appear to have suffered punishment at that period, perhaps on account of a timely submission. When, after the destruction of Jerusalem, the fugitive Jews were again gathered together, it was at the instigation of Baalis, king of Ammon, that Gedaliah, the ruler whom Nebuchadrezzar had appointed over them, was murdered, and new calamities were incurred (Jer. xl. 14); and when Nehemiah prepared to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem an Ammonite was foremost in opposition (Neh. ii. 10, 19, iv. 1-3).1 True to their antecedents, the Ammonites, with some of the neighbouring tribes, did their utmost to resist and check the revival of the Jewish power under Judas Maccabaeus (1 Macc. v. 6; cf. Jos. Ant. Jud. xii. 8. 1.). The last notice of them is in Justin Martyr (Dial. cum Tryph. sec. 119), where it is affirmed that they were still a numerous people. The few Ammonite names that have been preserved (Nahash, Hanun, and those mentioned above, Zelek in 2 Sam. xxiii. 37 is textually uncertain) testify, in harmony with other considerations, that their language was Semitic, closely allied to Hebrew and to the language of the Moabites. Their national deity was Moloch or Milcon. (See MOLOCH.) (S. A. C.)

1 The allusions in Jer. xlix. 1-6; Zeph. ii. 8-11; Ezek. xxi. 28- 32; Judg. xi. 12-28, have been taken to refer to an Ammonite occupation of Israelite territory after the deportation of the east Jordanic Israelites in 734, but more probably belong to a later event. The name Chephar-Ammoni (in Benjamin; Josh. xviii. 24) seems to imply that the "village" became a settlement of "Ammonites." Some light is thrown upon the obscure history of the post-exile period by the references to the mixed marriages which aroused the reforming zeal of Ezra and culminated in the exclusion of Ammon and Moab from the religious community—on the ground of incidents which were ascribed to the time of the "exodus" (Deut. xxiii. 3 sqq.; Ezr. ix. 1 sqq.; Neh. xiii. 1 sqq.).

AMMONIUS GRAMMATICUS, the supposed author of a treatise entitled Peri omoion kai dialoron lfxeon (On the Differences of Synonymous Expressions), of whom nothing is known. He was formerly identified with an Egyptian priest who, after the destruction of the pagan temple at Alexandria (389), fled to Constantinople, where he became the tutor of the ecclesiastical historian Socrates. But it seems more probable that the real author was Herennius Philo of Byblus, who was born during the reign of Nero and lived till the reign of Hadrian, and that the treatise in its present form is a revision prepared by a later Byzantine editor, whose name may have been Ammonius.

Text by Valckenaer, 1739, Schafer, 1822; Kopp, De Ammonii . . . Distinctionibus Synonymicis, 1883.

AMMONIUS HERMIAE (5th century A.D.), Greek philosopher, the son of Hermias or Hermeias, a fellow-pupil of Proclus. He taught at Alexandria, and had among his scholars Asclepius, John Philoponus, Damascius and Simplicius. His commentaries on Plato and Ptolemy are lost. Those on Aristotle are all that remain of his reputedly numerous writings. Of the commentaries we have—(1) one on the Isagoge of Porphyry (Venice, 1500 fol.); (2) one on the Categories (Venice, 1503 fol.), the authenticity of which is doubted by Brandis; (3) one on the De Interpretatione (Venice, 1503 fol.). They are printed in Brandis's scholia to Aristotle, forming the fourth volume of the Berlin Aristotle; they are also edited (1891-1899) in A. Busse's Commentaria in Aristot. Graeca. The special section on fate was published separately by J. C. Orelli, Alex. Aphrod., Ammonii, et aliorum de Fato quae supersunt (Zurich, 1824). A life of Aristotle, ascribed to Ammonius, but with more accuracy to John Philoponus, is often prefixed to editions of Aristotle. It has been printed separately, with Latin translation and scholia, at Leiden, 1621, at Helmstadt, 1666, and at Paris, 1850. Other commentaries on the Topics and the first six books of the Metaphysics still exist in manuscript. Of the value of the logical writings of Ammonius there are various opinions. K. Prantl speaks of them with great, but hardly merited, contempt.

For a list of his works see J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca, v. 704-707: C. A. Brandis, Uber d. Reihenf. d. Bucher d. Aristot. Org., 283 f.; K. Prantl, Gesch. d. Logik, i. 642.

AMMONIUS SACCAS (3rd century A.D.), Greek philosopher of Alexandria, often called the founder of the neo-Platonic school. Of humble origin, he appears to have earned a livelihood as a porter; hence his nickname of "Sack-bearer" (Sakkas, for sakkoforos.) The details of his life are unknown, insomuch that he has frequently been confused with a Christian philosopher of the same name. Eusebius (Church History, vi. 19), who is followed by Jerome, asserts that he was born a Christian, remained faithful to Christianity throughout his life, and even produced two works called The Harmony of Moses and Jesus and The Diatessaron, or Harmony of the Four Gospels, which is said by some to exist in a Latin version by Victor, bishop of Capua. Porphyry, quoted by Eusebius, ib. vi. 19. 6, however, says that he apostatized in later life and left no writings behind him. There seems no reason, therefore, to doubt that Eusebius is here referring to the Christian philosopher. After long study and meditation, Ammonius opened a school of philosophy in Alexandria. His principal pupils were Herennius, the two Origens, Cassius Longinus and Plotinus. As he designedly wrote nothing, and, with the aid of his pupils, kept his views secret, after the manner of the Pythagoreans, his philosophy must be inferred mainly from the writings of Plotinus. As Zeller points out, however, there is reason to think that his doctrines were rather those of the earlier Platonists than those of Plotinus. Hierocles, writing in the 5th century A.D., states that his fundamental doctrine was an eclecticism, derived from a critical study of Plato and Aristotle. His admirers credited him with having reconciled the quarrels of the two great schools. His death is variously given between A.D. 240 and 245. See NEO-PLATONISM, ORIGEN.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.—C. Rosler, De commentitiis philosophiae Ammoniaceae fraudibus et noxis (Tubingen, 1786); L. J. Dehaut, Essai historique sur la vie et la doctrine d' Ammonius Saccas (Brussels, 1856); E. Zeller, "Ammonius Saccas und Plotinus," Arch. f. Gesch. d. Philos. vii., 1894, pp. 295-312; E. Vacherot, Hist. crit. de l'ecole d'Alexandrie (Paris, 1846); T. Whittaker, The Neo-platonists (Camb., 1901); Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., trans. A. C. M'Giffert (Oxford and New York, 1890), notes on passages quoted above.

AMMUNITION, a military term (derived, through the French, from Lat. munire, to provide), for consumable stores used in attack or defence, such as rifle cartridges, cartridges, projectiles, igniting tubes and primers for ordnance, &c.

The components of ammunition intended for rifles and ordnance may be divided into (a) explosives and propellants (see EXPLOSIVES and GUNPOWDER), (b) projectiles of all kinds, and (c) cartridges. The military classification of explosives differs somewhat from that of the Explosives Act 1875, but, broadly speaking, they are divided into two groups. The first of these comprises explosives in bulk, made-up cartridges for cannon, and filled quick- firing cartridges; Group II. contains small-arm cartridges, fuzes, primers, tubes, filled shells (fuzed or unfuzed), &c. Each group is subdivided, and arrangements are made for storing certain divisions of Group I. in a magazine in separate compartments. All the divisions of Group II. are, and the remaining divisions of Group I. (comprising wet gun-cotton, picric acid and Q.F. cartridges) may be, stored in ammunition stores.

These general conditions apply to the storage of ammunition in fortresses. Here the positions for the magazine and ammunition stores are so chosen as to afford the best means of protection from an enemy's fire. Huge earth parapets cover these buildings, which are further strengthened, where possible, by traverses protecting the entrances. For the purpose of filling, emptying and examining cannon cartridges and shell, a laboratory is generally provided at some distance from the magazine. The various stores for explosives are classified into those under magazine conditions (viz. magazines, laboratories and cartridge stores) and those with which these restrictions need not be observed (viz. ammunition and shell stores). The interior walls of a magazine are lined and the floors laid so that there may be no exposed iron or steel. At the entrance there is a lobby or barrier, inside which persons about to enter the magazine change their clothes for a special suit, and their boots for a pair made without nails. In an ammunition or shell store these precautions need not be taken except where the shell store and the adjacent cartridge store have a common entrance; persons entering may do so in their ordinary clothes. A large work may have a main magazine and several subsidiary magazines, from which the stock of cartridges is renewed in the cartridge stores attached to each group of guns or in the expense cartridge stores and cartridge recesses. The same applies to main ammunition stores which supply the shell stores, expense stores and recesses.