Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/129

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£row ; in this fet as many pots as it will conveniently hold, let thefe be filled with frefh earth, and the intermediate fpaces every way be filled alfo with earth. The plants are now to be raifed with as much earth about their roots as may be, and planted in thefe pots. In about three weeks more, there- plants will be grown to a large fize, and muft have air given them more and more every day in good weather. And in July they are to be fet out in their places, often watering them. Miller's Gardners Dift.

All the fpecies of this plant arc drying and aftringent, but heat not in a violent degree, Schroder recommends the flowers of the common large garden kind dried and powdered, as good in diarrheas, dyfenteries, hemorrhages of all kinds, and incontinency of urine; but they are very little ufed in the prefent practice. AMARANTHOIDES, in botany; the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the flofculous kind, and collefled into a fquammofe head ; two imbricated little leaves grow together to the axis, and re- femble, in fome degree, the claws of a crab ; thefe embrace and inclofe a flofcule, which is jagged at the edge, and in- clofed in its peculiar cup. From this cup arifes the piflil, which is fixed in the manner of a nail to the hinder part of the flower, and covered with a calyptra ; this finally be- comes a roundifh and fomewhat crooked feed. The fpecies of Amaranthoides, enumerated by Mr. Tourne- fort, are thefe.

I. The lychnis leaved Amaranthoides, with large filvery heads. 2. The lychnis leaved Amaranthoides; with fmaller filvery heads. 3. The creeping fea Amaranthoides, with knot-grafs leaves and filvery heads. And, 4. The purple headed, lychnis leaved Amaranthoides. Tourn. Inft. p. 654. The culture and propagation of thefe plants is, in all refpefts, the fame with that of the amaranth ; only that they muft have a greater (hare of heat, and muft be forwarded more in the fpring. See Amae anth.

The flowers of this plant are commonly known by the name of everlajling flowers, and, if kept in a drv place, after having been gathered in their full perfection, and before they begin to decay on the plant, they will retain their full beauty many years. Miller's Gardn. Diet. AMATIDES, in natural hiftory, a name given, by Bartholo- maeus Anglus, and other writers of his time, to a ftone, of which they recorded a wonderful virtue in refilling the fire ; they faid, if a cloath was only rubbed over with it, it would not take fire, but on being thrown among burning coals, would only become the brighter and more beautiful. The whole feems a very grofs error, the word being probably no ether than a corruption of Amianthus, and the properties of that ftone, which are, that if it be divided into threads, and thefe woven into cloth, that cloth will bear burning in the fire, and may be cleaned by that means, inftead of wafhin". The carelefs writers of thofe times feem only to have miftaken this account, and mifreprefented it, in this ftrange manner, in their works ; and the more fo, as the ftone is faid by them to reprefent plumofe alum, which is the charafler of the ami- anthus. AMAUROSIS (Cycl.) This diftemper is fometimes denono- mirutei fit ffufta nigri, the black cataraft. The Amaurofls differs from the amblyopia, this being in an in- ferior degree. Gorr. Med.Defin. invoc. See Amrhopv, Cycl.

The Amaurofls is either tranfient or permanent. Tranflent Amaurosis is that found in apoplexies and lipothv- mias, from immoderate bleeding, and the like, which vanifhts as the fit or paroxyfm goes off. — To this kind alfo belong thofe fometimes produced by the fuppreffion of the hemor- rhoids, menfes, or other habitual evacuations, the healing up of iflues, or the like. Permanent Amaurosis, that whofe caufe is fixed in the re- tina, or in the optic nerves ; chiefly in the want of the clear intercourfe and influx between the brain and thofe parts—To this kind alfo belong thofe occafioned by hydrocephali, by ftones found near the root of the optic nerves, or by ftcatoma's compreffing thofe nerves, or by debilities and extenuations, by contortions, or compreflions of the fame, at their ifiue out of the cranium. Burggrave, Lex. Med. in voc. AMAUSA, a name by which the chemifts have called the paftes made of lead and cryftal with various admixtures, for imi- tating gems.. Merret's Notes on Neri, p. 322. See the article Paste. AMAZON (Cycl.)— We read of Scythian Amazons in He- rodotus ; of Lybian Amazons in Diodorus Siculus ; and of German Amazons in Lucius Florus. Later geographers and travellers alfo fpeak of Mingrelian and Georgian Amazons ; Amazons in America, in Monomotopa, in the Philippine iflands, in Denmark, &c.

The Amazons of South-America, living on the banks of the great river which bears their name, make the greater!: figure in modern ftory. They are reprefented as governed and led to war only by their queen. No men are differed to live among them ; though thofe of fome neighbouring nations are fufferea to vifit them, at a certain feafon, for the lake of procreation. Suppi. Vol. I.

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The females iffuing from this commerce are bred up witfi care, and inftruaed in what relates to war and government ; for the males they are fent away into the country of their fathers. V. Rogers, Voyag. T. 1. p. 100. Martin, Diet. Geogr. T. 1. p. 300.

The Jefuit miffionaries fpeak of a like republic of Amazons^ in one of the new Philippine iflands. They have their huf- bands, who vint them at a certain feafon of the year, and after a few days commerce together, retire into their own Iftond, carrying with them the male infants produced by the former interview, and leaving the females to the mothers care. tf'? a • 6inPref - Mem.deTrer. 1706. p. 462. feq. 1 lie belt troops in the emperor of Monomotopas armies are faid to be women, who inhabit in the neighbourhood of ' -r, K ', y comak at c <«ain periods with men, and dilpofe of their children after the fame manner as the reft. Kecuell de Voyag. de la Compag. des Ind. Orient. T 3. Theyeuot and others relate, that in Mingrelia there' is a people inhabiting mount Caucafus abounding in martial wo- men, who make frequent incurfions into Mufcovy, and oft engage with the Calmuc Tartars. Vid. Chardin, Voyages, 1 . 2. p. 124. Nouv. Rep. Lett. T. 4. p. 835. Adam Brcmenfis, an eccleiiaftic about the year 1070, fpeaks of an Amazon nation on tiic Baltic coaft, of which he relates much the fame that has been faid concerning other Amazons, only with the addition of new wonders ; for he fays, that; according to fome, they become with child by fwallowing a few drops of a certain water; according to others, that they had converfation witll merchants, who Haded thither, or with the pnfoners they made in war, or with monfters, which were frequent among them ; which laft opinion feems to Adam the moft probable; De Situ Dania, c. 28. Martin. Dift. Geogr. T. 1. p, 305.

The Amazons are alfo called; by Plato; SauromtttiileS: He- rodotus mentions, that, in the Scythian language, their de- nomination was Aeorpata, q. d. viricida, man-killer ; formed apparently from the Celtic, aeon man, and fata, to kill. V; Mile. Berol. T. 1. p. g.

The chief grounds on which the exiftence of the Amazons was called in queftion by Strabo, is the difficulty of Concerting a community of women without men to fiibfift. any long timet make war with fuccefs on the neighbouring nations, and even undertake long military expeditions. Palcphatus's difbelief of the Amazons is founded on a confideration of left weight. His argument is, that no fuch republic ever cxifted, becaufe there was nothing like it found in his time ; it being a principle with him, that whatever had been in former times, was ftill; and would be for the future. The fame author ftarts another objeaion, not much more cogent, viz. that the Amazons were only men drefled in women's cloaths. Nouv. Rep. Lett. T. 4. p. 833. P

In defence of the ftory of the Amazom, Petit argues, that the divcrhty of climates produces a great diverfity of humours and inclinations, and that the country of the Amazons had its par- ticular difpofitions, which gave even its female natives a ro- buft temperament and ferocity. To this may be added, the force of education.

In reality, the manner of breeding up women among us feems to be the chief obltacle to their becoming Amazons : were they inured; from their infancy, to laborious exercifes, to handle the (word and piftol, and fight like men, no doubt they would make gallant foldiers.

In effect, Plato enjoins the youth of both fexes, in his com- monwealth; to be trained up to the fame exeicifes. Nouv Rep. Lett. T. 4. p. 836. feq.

Some endeavour to reconcile the two opinions, by holding a republic of mere Amazons a chimera, and afferting, that the republic we are fpeaking of was compofed, like all others, both of men and women ; only that the females had the upper hand, and made the chief figure in war. This feems war- ranted by Pliny and Pomponius Mela, who make mention of a Scythian people, wherein the women had the fupremc command, and call this the kingdom of the Amazons. Bibi. Univ. T. 4. p. 833.

Some think this too much, and fuppofe, that the whole might have been founded in an antient pia&ice In divers na- tions, of wives going to war with their hufbands. The cafe of the antient Cimbfi was no left remarkable. Vid. Tacit. de Morib. Germ. c. 8. Pithm. Coram, ad Lov. BibL Germ. T. 15. p. 120. Pompon. Mela, 1. 3. c. 4. Bibl. Univ. T. 1. p. 273. Steph. Cleric. DifT. Philof. 2. Bibh Univ. T. 4. p. 437. Mem. Acad. Infcript. T.8. p. 149. 'The Amazons of Lybia were a commonwealth of women in- habiting the banks of the Lacus Tritonides, famous for their ftruggles and competition with the Gorgons, and other nations of the fame fex. See Gorgons.

In this fenfe, the Gorgons are contradiftinguifhed from the Amazons, and the great rivals of them, they being properly two different nations of female wariours in Lvbia, both in- habiting near the Lacus Tritonides, and famous for their dif- putes and wars together \ Diodorus Siculus fpeaks of the tombs of the Amazons, fome ruins whereof were ftill in being in his time. Thefe tombs were three monuments created by a I an