Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/136

 AMM

AKilCTUS (Cyel.)— This garment is otherwife called analo- lagium ; fometimcs ambolagiwn, anagolagium, and bumcrale. In antient Englifh -writers it is called Amitie. The Amis is properly a linen garment, of a fquare figure, worn on the head, when the alb is ufed. The Amis is the firft of the fix garments which are common to bifhops and priefts. The others are, alba, unguium, fiola, manipulus, and planeta.

The Amis is alfo worn by deacons, fab-deacons* and ace* Iuthi, when they officiate at the altar. Trev.-Dict; Univ. T. i. p. 347. feq.

Antiently all ecclefiaftics wore the AmiSus over -the head* as< is ftill done by religious j afterward it was worn over the pla- neta. Magri, Vocab. Ecclef. p. 14. The AmiSus went over the fhoulders, and was buckled* or

clafped before the breaft Divers myftical applications are

formed of this habit in ecclefiaftical writers* Via. DuGange, Gloff. Lat. T. 1. p. 168. feq. .,

The priefts and deacons, in fome diocefes, wear AmiSs on their heads, from All-faints to Eafter ; though, by the canons, they be exprcfly forbid to wear the Amis, without fome con- siderable occafion.

M. Thiers aflerts, that the ufe of AmiSs was not introduced into the Latin church before the twelfth century a. Dom. de Vert b maintains the contrary, chiefly from a figure of St. Firmin, firft bifhop of Amiens, fuppofed to have fufFered martyrdom towards the beginning of the feventh century, whereon he is reprefented in his pontifical habit, with the AmiS on his head c. — [ a V. liners, Hift. des Perruq. c. 8. b Explic. des Cerem. de la Meffa, T. 2. p. 242. c Aubert, ap. Richel. Di&. T. 1. p. 79.]

Amictus, in Roman antiquity, denotes any upper garment worn over the tunica. Ferrar. de Re Veft.

AMICULUM, in antiquity, denoted an upper garment worn

by the women The Amiculum is faid to have differed from

the palla ; but wherein the precife difference lay does not ap- pear. An Amiculum was alfo in ufe among the men. This feerns to have been the fame with the chlamys, or paludamen- tum. Pit'tfc. Lex. Ant. in voc.

AMILICTI, in the Chaldaic theology, denote a kind of in- tellectual powers, or perfons in the divine hierarchy. Vid. Stanl. Hift. Philof. c. 6.

The AmiliSi are reprefented as three in number, and confti- tute one of the triads, in the third order of the hierarchy.

AMINEUM acetum, a name by which fome of the medical writers have called white-wine vinegar, to diftinguifh it from other kinds.

AMIRANTEj a great officer in Spain, anfwering to the lord high admiral in England.

AMM A, (Cycl.) in middle age writers, denotes a fpiritual mo- ther.

In this fenfe, the word was chiefly underftood of an abbefs, or fuperior of a nunnery. Magri, Vocab. Ecclef. p. 14. See Abbess, Cycl.

AMMAN, in the German and Belgic policy, denotes a judge who has the cognizance of civil caufes. The word is alfo written Amant. Thus it occurs in writers on the French officers, where it ftands for a notary, or pa- rochial officer, who draws acts or inftruments. Du Conge, Gloff. Lat. T. 1. p. 171.

AMMANIA, in the Linnaean fyftem of botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The calyx is an oblong, erect, quadrangular perianthium, with eight lines and folds on it, and divided into fegments at the end, and remaining when the flower is fallen. The flower is compofed of four petals growing within the cup, and of an oval figure. The ftamina are four fiender filaments of the length of the cup. The antherse are double ; the germen of the piftillum is large and oval ; the ftyle is fimple, and very fhort ; and the ftigma has a rim, or ridge round it. The fruit is a roundifh capfule, confifting of four cells covered with the calyx. The feeds are numerous and fmall. Vid. Linnesus's Gener. Plant.

AMMI, (Cycl.) bijhops-weed, in botany, the name of a genus of umbelliferous plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the rofaceous kind, being compofed of feveral leaves arranged in a circular form ; thefe are all of a heart-like fhape, and irregular in fize. Thefe leaves ftand upon the cup, which afterwards becomes a fruit, compofed of two fmall feeds, which are gibbofe and ftriatcd on one fide, and flat and fmooth on the other. To this it may be added, that the leaves are long and narrow, ftanding over-againft one another on the middle rib, which is terminated by a fingle leaf. The fpecies of Ammi, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe.

x. The great, broader leaved Ammi. 2. The great Ammi, with leaves cut in at the edges, and a little curled. And, 3. The Perennial Ammi, called by fome authors eryngium, and by others critbmum. Tournef. Inft. p. 304.

AMMINEA uva, in botany, a name given, by the old writers, to the grapes of a wild vine, common in the hedges of Italy, and fome other places. They ufed to make wine of thefe grapes, which they mixed with other richer wines, and had in common ufe. \

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AMM

Some write the word taminea, inftcad of aminea ; and it has been fuppofed, from this, that the berries of the tannins, or black bryony, were thus called. But thefe could never be fit to make any fort of wine of, and therefore the conjefture appears to be erroneous.

AMMITES, in mineralogy, a kind of figured ftone, of a loofe open contexture* formed of a number of fmall globular ftones. Mercat, Metalloth. Arm. 9. c. 58. lb. Arm. 10. p. 378.

Ammitts is the fame with what is otherwife called Ammonites. The word is derived from the Greek, «f*j*oc, fand ; in re- gard the Ammites appears to the eye as a compofition of large fand.

The- Amrniies is found in divers countries of Germany, &c. of different colours, as well as different degrees of hardnefs. It bears a near refemblance to the encodes.

AMMOCiETUS, in ichthyology, a name given, by Gefner and fome others; to the ammodytes, or fand-eel i called alfo tobianus, by Schoneveldt and others. See Ammodytes.

AMMOCHOSIA, 'Aw>xu<?ia, in the antient pbyfic, a kind of remedy, or operation for drying the body, by lying along on warm fand, and having the body covered with the fame. Some prefer fait for this purpofe to fand. Vid. Gorr. Def. Med. p. 29.

AMMOCHRYSOS, a name given by authors, to a ftone very- common in Germany, and feeming to be compofed of a golden fand. It is of a yellow gold-like colour, and its particles are all very gloffy, being all fragments of a coloured talc. It is ufually fo foft, as to be eafily rubbed to a powder in the hand ; fometimes it requires grinding to powder in a mortar, or otherwife. It is ufed only as fand to ftrew over writing. Boet. de Boot, de Gemmis, p. 462.

The Germans call it katzcngold ; and there is another kind of it lefs common, but much more beautiful, confifting of the fame fort of gloffy fpangles, but thofe not of a gold colour, but of a bright red, like vermillion.

AMMOCHYSUS, in natural hiftory, a kind of gem, fuppofed to be the fame with the mnturine. Kirch. Mund. Subterr. 1. 8. fee. 1. c. 8:

AMMODYTES, in zoology, the name of a fpecies of ferpenr, called alfo ferpens cornutus by fome, from certain protube- rances on the head. It is about the fize of the viper, and is of a yellowifh or fand colour. Its head is Shaped like that of the viper, but its jaws are wider ; and, in the upper part of its head, it has a fort of wart-like excrefcence, which is fuppofed to refemble a horn ; and thence its name of ferpens cornutus, as it has its other of Ammodytes, or fand-fnake, from its fand-hke colour, or from its quality of fometimes running under the fands. It is found in Lybia, and in fome parts of Italy. Ray's Synopf. Anim. p. 287.

Ammodytes, in ichthyology, the name of a genus of fifties, the characters of which, according to Artedi, are thefe. The branchioftege membrane contains on each fide feven bones, but thefe are, in great part, hid by the laminae of the bran- chia. The head is comprefled, the body oblong and fiender, nearly cylindrical, but a little comprefled, and it has no belly fins. The fifh is of the malacopterygious, or foft-finned kind ; and the characters of the fpecies, enumerated by Artedi, are thefe. The lower jaw is the longeft ; the lateral lines are double, or two on each fide. The pectoral fins have each twelve rays ; the the back fin has fifty-four ; that of the anus twenty-eight. The tail is bifid, and has fifteen long rays ; the mouth is tooth- lefs ; the anus is nearer to the tail than the head. We call the fifh, the fand-eel; Schonfield, the tobianus. Artedi, Gen. Pifc. p. 17.

According to Ray, it is feldom of more than a foot long, and blueifh on the back, and white on the fides and belly. It has a ftrait line drawn along the middle of each fide, and three foffulas, or lines, along the middle of the belly. It has no fcales, but the fides are marked with a number of oblique lines. Its nofe is fharp, and the lower jaw falls out beyond the upper ; the opening of the mouth is extremely large, but it has no teeth. Its flefh is well tafted, and is much fought after by the other fifh of prey. The males of this fpecies are fhorter and thicker than the females. The fifh is commonly found at about half a foot deep under the fand, when the tide has run out, and are caught there with iron hooks, with which the fifhermen pull them out. Ray's Ichthyograph. p. 113.

The name is formed of the Greek, «w«>? s fand, and &V, a diver, expreffing the quality of this creature, to dive into, or bury itfelf under the fand. AMMONIACUM gummi.—lt is much to be queftioned, whe- ther we have, at prefent, the gum Ammoniacum defcribed by the antients ; and indeed their defcriptions of that drug feera to evince, that we have not. See Ammoniac, Cycl. Our Ammoniacum has not the characters which they attribute to theirs. Diofcorides tells us, that one fort of the gum Am- inoniaaim of his time was called thraufma, and thraufton 9 beeaufe of its being fo brittle, that it crumbled to pieces be- tween the fingers This is a character expreflive enough of fome of the dry refins ; but could never be properly given to a gum which is one of the moft tenacious that we have. The fame author tells us, that it was like the lumps of the

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