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 AMERSHAM—AMPHIBIA

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Amersham, or Agmondesham, a market-town then dominant in Geneva, and he was in consequence and railway station in the Wycombe parliamentary entirely ignored by the aristocratic party, which comdivision of Buckinghamshire, England, 26 miles W.N.W. of prised nearly all the culture and refinement of the city. London. Area of parish, 6119 acres. Population (1881), This painful isolation nevertheless inspired the one book 2500; (1901), 3209. Rural district area, 39,800 acres; by which Amiel lives, the Journal Intime, which, published after his death, obtained a European reputation population (1891), 12,501 ; (1901), 13,541. and was translated into English by Mrs Humphry Ward. Amesbury, a town of Essex county, Massachusetts, Did not “second-rate” seem to imply a slur, this book U.S.A., situated in north-eastern Massachusetts on the might be well described by the title of one of Tennyson s north bank of the Merrimac river, six miles from its early poems, 11 The Confessions of a Second-rate Sensitb e mouth. Its area is fourteen square miles and its surface Mind ill at ease with itself.” Although, however, secondis hilly. The principal village, bearing the same name rate as regarded productive power, Amiel’s mind was of as the town, -and noted as being the home of Whittier, no inferior quality, and his journal, as a candid record of lies at the mouth of the Powow river, and is on the the yearnings and meditations of a thoughtful, affectionate, Boston and Maine railway. The population of the town and wounded spirit, gained a sympathy vliich the author (1880) was 3355 ; (1890), 9798 ; (1900), 9473. had failed to obtain in his life. He also wrote studies on Erasmus, Madame de Stael, and other literary personages, Amhara.. See Abyssinia. on Amherst, a district and town within the Tenas- and several volumes of poems. Amiel died in Geneva (R- G-) serim division of Lower Burma, lying between the the 27th of December 1881. Indian Ocean and the hills which separate Burma from Amiens, the ancient capital of Picardy, and chief Siam. The area of the district is 7062 square miles, with, town of the department of Somme, France, situated on the in 1891, a population of 233,539. The number of villages river Somme, 81 miles from Paris by the Paris-Calais lailin the district was 660, and the revenue paid in 1898-99 was way. It has also railway communication with Arras, Lille Rs.8,76,819. In 1891 the population comprised 191,241 and Belgium, Tergnier and Rheims, Rouen and Normandy, Buddhists and Jains, 19,415 Hindus, 15,611 Mahommedans, Doullens, Beauvais and Crepy - en - Valois. The chief 2897 aborigines, mostly Karens, and 4374 Christians. industries of the town are manufactures of cotton-velvet Of the total area of 4,519,680 acres, there were 312,908 (value of annual production, £400,000) and Utrecht -velvet acres under cultivation in 1898-99, 14,594 acres were fallow, (20,000 pieces, value £200,000 to £240,000 a year), 77,912 acres were cultivable, and 3,670,276 acres were not cotton-spinning, wool-spinning (50,000 spindles), hempcapable of cultivation. The chief town is Moulmein, and flax-spinning (24,000 spindles), weaving, manufactures with a population of 55,785. Amherst town, about of hosiery, carpets, machinery, chemicals, sugar, and 30 miles to the south, has not grown to any appreci- nouveautes, brewing, tanning, printing, and founding. Iho able extent and remains a mere bathing-place for Moul- population of the town in 1886 was 68,177 ; m 1896, mein. The rainfall for the district in 1898-99 was 74,808 (commune, 88,731); in 1901, 90,758. 199-58 inches. This is below the average. Ammunition. See Propellants, and OrdAmherst, the county town of Cumberland county nance. and port of entry in Nova Scotia, at the head of ChigAmoy, a town and treaty-port on the small island oi necto Bay and on the Intercolonial Railway, 138 miles from Halifax. It contains county and railway buildings, six Hiamen, province of Fuhkien, China. It has dry docks churches, an iron foundry and several factories, and shops and an excellent anchorage. The trade in 1870 was: for the manufacture of railway carriages. In 1900 the imports, £1,915,427 ; and exports, £1,440,000. In 1899 exports were $338,525, and the imports $219,422. The the figures were: imports, £2,180,000; and exports, population in 1891 was 3781, and was estimated m 1J00 £363,000. The falling off of exports is due to the decreased demand for China tea, for which Amoy was one at 5600. of the chief centres. The native population is now Amherst, a town of Hampshire county, in central estimated at 300,000, and the foreign residents number Massachusetts, U.S.A., with an area of 26 square miles. about 280. A large part of the trade is that carried on It is situated on the east side of Connecticut V alley, im- with the neighbouring island of Formosa, now Japanese. mediately north of Holyoke Range. The village of the The province of Fuhkien is claimed by the Japanese as same name is entered by two railways, the Boston and their particular sphere of influence. Maine and the Central Vermont. Amherst College had m Amphibia.—The arguments adduced by Huxley, 1899 a faculty of 32 professors and instructors, and was in his article on this subject in the ninth edition of the attended by 380 students. Its property was valued at $2,400,000, and its income was $100,000. The state Encyclopaedia Britannica, for applying this name to those lung-breathing, pentadactyle vertebrates which had been Agricultural College had in 1899 a teaching staff of professors and 140 students. The population m l 880 was first severed from the Linnsean Amphibia by Brongniart, under the name of Batrachia, have not met with universal 4298, in 1890 it was 4512, and in 1900 it was 5028. acceptance. Although much used in text-books and Amiel, Henri Frederic (1821 1881), Swiss anatomical works in Great Britain and in German}, the philosopher and critic, was born at Geneva, 27th September former name has been discarded in favour of the latter by 1821. He was descended from a Huguenot family which the principal authors on systematic herpetology, such as had been driven to Switzerland by the revocation of the Peters, Gunther, and Cope, and their lead is followed in the Edict of Nantes. He lost both his parents at an early age ; present article. Bearing in mind that Linnseus, in his use when he grew up he devoted himself principally to travel, of the name Amphibia, was not alluding to the branchiate mingling with the most intellectual circles throughout and pulmonate periods through which most frogs and Europe, and in particular studying German philosophy a newts pass in the course of their existence, but only Berlin. In 1849 he was appointed professor of aesthetics wished to convey the fact that many of the constituents ot at the academy of Geneva, and in 1854 became professor the group resort to both land and water (e.</., crocodiles), of moral philosophy. Notwithstanding his high quali- it seems hard to admit that the term maybe thus diverted fications, these appointments turned out unfortunately for from its original signification, especially when such a him. They had been conferred by the democratic party,