Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/134

 A M E

Some fugged that the Ambtilaja were of the rriale kind, only drefled in the habit of women. Vid. Struv. Synt. Antiq. Rom. c. 12. p. 639.

Antiquaries have been greatly divided about the Ambubaja ; fome will have them to have come to Rome out of Syria ; others fuppofe them to have been Roman women, though called by a name of Syriac origin.

I orrentius, 1 urnebus, and Pulmannus, derive the name from ambu, or am, an old Latin prepofition, denoting circum, about, and Bajx, a delicious place near Naples ; and main- tain, that the Ambubaja: were a kind of curtezans, who fre- quented the baths of that city. Cruquius is of a different opinion, taking the word Ambubajx to have been ufed for Jmbubeja, and primarily to denote a feller of Ambubcja, an herb mentioned by antient naturalifts. Thefe fellers of Ambu- bcja being a kind of empirics, their name became afterwards apphed to all charlctans. Trev. Dift. Univ. T. 1. p. 332. ™™ "as a difcourfe exprefs on the Ambubajx. AMBLBEIA, in botany, a name given, by fome authors, to

wild fuccory. Gcr. Emac. Ind. 2. AMBURBIUM (Cycl.)— This is otherwife called AmburUa, and lujhalio Amburbialh, — Apuleius calls it lujlrale piamen- ium ; others, facrijiciujn luftrah, by way of expiation, as a prefcrvative from unhappy omens and dangers impending. Servius exprcfly diftinguiihes between the Amburbia and Am- barvalia.—Dicitur hoc facrificium Ambarvale quad arva am- biat yiclima, ftcut Amburbalc, vcl Amburbium, quod urbem circuit & ambit viclima. The one was performed in the city, the other in the country. Sirv. ad Virg. Eel. 3. v. 77. bcaltg. Not. in Feft. p. 17. in voc. Amtcrmim. Struv. Synt. Antiq. Rom. c. g.

AMBURY, or Anbury, a name given, by our farriers, to a kind of foft and fpungy fwelling growing on the bodies of horfes, fomewhat fore to the touch, and full of blood. The method of curing it is, to tye a horfe-hair very hard round it, at the root ; in about a week after this, it will fall off, and the part is then to have fome powder of verdigreafe ftrewed upon it, to prevent the return of the complaint, and finally to be healed up with the common green ointment. This is the common method, when the Ambury is high and prominent ; but fometimes it is flat and low, with a broad bafe : in this cafe, it is impoffible to take it off by ligature, and there is a neceflity of having recourfe to a feverer opera- tion. It muff, in this circumftance, be taken away either by the knife or fire : if the former way be agreed on, the me- thod is this ; the fkin is to be drawn back tight, and then the whole fwelling cut offclofe to the common level of the reft of the flefh : if in the other way, an iron is to be heated red hot and applied to it, continuing it on till the whole is burnt down to the even flefh. In both cafes, care muft be taken not to fpare in the cutting or burning, fo as to leave any root behind, for then the complaint will be renewed. When it is taken off, the common ointment of hogs-lard and turpentine will compleat a cure. There are fome circumftances, however, in which the knife and cautery may be both improper, as, if it grows in a finewy part, or the like ; in this cafe, the proper method is, to eat out the core with oil of vitriol, or white fublimate, and then flop the hole with flax dipped in honey and lime unflaked. Some, for the firft day or two, dip it only in the white of an egg, and after that, in the mixture of quicklime and honey; and this feems the better way. Vid. Markham's Farrier.

Many of our farriers boaft of a fecret, which infallibly cures all kinds of protuberances of this kind, the preparation of which is this. Take three ounces of green vitriol, and one ounce of white arfenic, beat them to a coarfe powder, and put them into a crucible ; place the crucible in the midft of a charcoal fire, ftirring the fubftance, but carefully avoiding the poifonous fleams ; when the whole grows reddifh, take the crucible out of the fire, and when cool, break it and take out the matter at the bottom ; beat this to powder in a mor- tar, and add to four ounces of this powder five ounces of album rbojts ; make the whole into an ointment, and let it be applied cold to warts, rubbing them with it every day • they will, by this means, fall off gently and eafily, without leaving any fwcllings. It is beft to keep the horfe quiet, and without working, during the cure. What fores remain on

, the parts where the fwellings fall off from, may be cured

■ ?",, r „S >mmon ^plication, called the countefs's ointment Callyjcl s Lomplcat Horfeman.

AMEA in •botany, a name given, by the natives of Guinea, to a plant, which they ufe in bleedings at the nofe, drying

_ and powdering the leaves, and fnuffing up the powder. It feems to be of the family of the plant called pajamirioba, by Sir Hans S oane, in his Jamaica Catalogue, 'its leaves are

vfS,? d '^ d of a beautiful S reen > even when dried. Vid. Frill. Iranf. N°. 232.

AMEDEI, Amedians, a congregation of religious in Italy, in itltuted in 1400. '

Their name is formed of the Latin, amam Deum, q. d. lover of God, or rather of amatus Dca, beloved of God. lheAmedawoK a grey habit, and wooden fhoes, had no breeches, and girt themfelves with a cord. They had twenty- fight convents; and were united by pope Pius V. partly

A M E

with die Ciilercian order, and partly with that of the Socco- lanti, or wooden-fhoe-wearers. D'Emilian^ Hift. of Monatt. Ord. p. 217. feq.

AMEIVA, in zoology, the name of aBrafilian fpecies of lizard, refembling the taraguira in figure, but having a bifid tail. This is Margrave's account of it ; but Mr. Ray very judi- cioufiy queftions the fact, not believing that there is in nature any fuch fpecies. Probably indeed it is only an accidental va- riety of the taraguira, or fome other common lizard, perhaps from a wound, or other accident ; perhaps from the egg, as we have lately feen from Barbadoes, a fnake with two heads, taken out of an egg of fome common kind ; for afluredly there never was any fuch fpecies as a two headed ferpent. Ray, Syn. Quad. p. 266.

AMEL (Cycl.) is fometimes ufed for enamel : we frequently meet with it ufed in this fenfc by Mr. Boyle. See his Works abridg. Vol. 1. p. 130. and in other places.

AMELLUS, in botany, a name ufed, by fome authors, to ex- prefs the caltha palujiris, or marfh marygold ; and by Virgil, for the after atticus. Get: Emac. Ind. 1. Many of the critics on Virgil have fuppofed, that the poet meant no other than the common herb baum by this name. He fays, the flowers are gold colour, and the leaves purple. This they explain, by obferving, that the ftamina, or threads of the flower, are yellow, and the flower-cup purple ; and that he meant this, and not the leaves of the plant, in his defcription. There is indeed this to countenance the opinion, that the Latin authors have often calh-d the ftamina of a plant the flower, and not the petals. This Vopifcus, in Aurelian, carries fo far as to the rofe, calling it a yellow flower in a purple cafe. It is evident from this, that the Greeks, as well as Romans, underftood the yellow threads, which are very numerous, in the center of the rofe, to be the flower, and the purple petals,' which we call the flower, they called the huik.

Others are of opinion, and that with more fhew of reafon, that the Amellus of Virgil is the plant we call ajler atticus. The author defcribes it as growing in meadows, which is the place of growth of that plant, though not of the baum ; and as to the defcripticn, if the ftamina, or threads, are called by this author, as by others of the antients, the flower, thefe are more numerous and more yellow in this plant, than in the baum, and the leaves of the flower in this are of a beautiful blucifh purple, and do not drive us to the cup, as in the making the baum to be the Amellus.

AMENDMENT, [Cycl.) in a general fenfe, a change made in a thing for the better.

Amendment amounts to much the fame with melioration, re", formation, correction, &c.

Amendment is more particularly ufed for a manure laid on the ground, to fatten or enrich it. See Manuring, Cycl. and Suppl.

Amendment, in a literary fenfe, is u fed to denote the corrections and other alterations made in the pofterior editions of books; In this fenfe, Amendments are alfo denominated emendations. Many authors feem to confider Amendments as the fame thing with additions, but they are very different. We often meet with large additions,, without any Amendments. Amendments properly refpect thejuflnefs and exa£tnefs of a book, additions its extent and compafs. We hear of Amendments of bills in parliament", even Amendments of Amendments b, Amend- ments of returns of reprefentatives, &c. — fa Vid. Hakew Mann. Paffing Bills, fee. 5. b Id. ib. fee. 6.] In cafes of wrong returns, fo reported by the committee of privileges and elections, and voted by the houfe of commons, it is ufually ordered, that tl%£eturii5 be amended by the return- ing officer, according to the directions of the houfe, without iffuing a new writ. Mem. of Proceed, in Parliam. c. 16. Amendments ought always to be in that houfe from whence the thing to.be amended originally proceeded, though the directions for the Amendments came from the other houfe Hakew. Mann, of Paff. Bills, p. 167.

AMENTACEOUS, in botany, a term applied to the flowers of certain trees and plants, which are compofed of a vaft number of apices, or antherse, hanging down in form of a rope ; fuch as the hazel, and the like.

AMENTUM, among alchemifts, denotes alumen fa 'fum. See the article Alum. ... ', \.

Amentum, in antiquity, a 'leathern thong fattened ,VDout the middle of a dart, or javelin, whereby, after carting tt at the enemy, it might be drawn back again to the owner. The Amentum ferved alfo to increafe the force of the flxoke ■ for which reafon, fome of their great men refufed to ufe it, as confiding wholly in the namral frrength of their own arms. P'ttifc. Lex. Antiq. in voc.

AMERADE, a kind of officers among the Saracens, anfwering to the governors of provinces among the Europeans. Trev. Diet. Univ. in voc. The name is originally the fame with that of emir.

AMERICIMA, in zoology, the name of a Brafilian fpecies of lizard, very fmall, being not above three fingers breadth long, and of the thicknefs of a fwan's quill. Its body appears fquare ; its whole back is covered with deep grey fcales, and its head, legs and fides, with brown ones, and its tail

with