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 AMBROSIASTER. A commentary on St Paul’s epistles, “brief in words but weighty in matter,” and valuable for the criticism of the Latin text of the New Testament, was long attributed to St Ambrose. Erasmus in 1527 threw doubt on the accuracy of this ascription, and the author is usually spoken of as Ambrosiaster or pseudo-Ambrose. Owing to the fact that Augustine cites part of the commentary on Romans as by “Sanctus Hilarius” it has been ascribed by various critics at different times to almost every known Hilary. Dom G. Morin (Rev. d'hist. et de litt. religieuses, tom. iv. 97 f.) broke new ground by suggesting in 1899 that the writer was Isaac, a converted Jew, writer of a tract on the Trinity and Incarnation, who was exiled to Spain in 378–380 and then relapsed to Judaism, but he afterwards abandoned this theory of the authorship in favour of Decimus Hilarianus Hilarius, proconsul of Africa in 377. With this attribution Professor Alex. Souter, in his Study of Ambrosiaster (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1905), agrees. There is scarcely anything to be said for the possibility of Ambrose having written the book before he became a bishop, and added to it in later years, incorporating remarks of Hilary of Poitiers on Romans. The best presentation of the case for Ambrose is by P. A. Ballerini in his complete edition of that father’s works.

In the book cited above Professor Souter also discusses the authorship of the Quaestiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti, which the MSS. ascribe to Augustine. He concludes, on very thorough philological and other grounds, that this is with one possible slight exception the work of the same “Ambrosiaster.” The same conclusion had been arrived at previously by Dom Morin. AMBROSINI, BARTOLOMEO (1588–1657), Italian naturalist, was born and died at Bologna. He was a pupil of Aldrovandi, several of whose works he published, and whom he succeeded eventually as director of the university botanical garden. He studied at the university, and became successively professor of philosophy, of botany and of medicine; and during the plague of 1630 in Bologna he worked assiduously for the relief of the sufferers. He was the author of several medical works of some importance in their day.

His brother, (1605–1672), was a distinguished botanist, who succeeded Bartolomeo as professor of botany and director of the university garden in 1657. He published a catalogue of its plants and also a botanical dictionary. AMBROSIUS AURELIANUS, leader of the Britons against the Saxons in the 5th century, was, according to the legends preserved in Gildas and the Historia Brittonum, of Roman extraction. There are signs of the existence of two parties in the national opposition to the invaders, but as Pascent, son of Vortigern, is said by Nennius to have held his dominions in the west by leave of Ambrosius, the Roman element seems to have triumphed. Some measure of success appears to have attended the efforts of Ambrosius, and it has been suggested that Amesbury in Wiltshire is connected with Emrys, the Celtic form of his name.

AMBULANCE (from the Fr. ambulance, formerly hôpital ambulant, derived from the Lat. ambulare, to move about), a term generally applied in England and America to the wagon or other vehicle in which the wounded in battle, or those who have sustained injuries in civil life, are conveyed to hospital. More strictly, in military parlance, the term imports a hospital establishment moving with an army in the field, to provide for the collection, treatment and care of the wounded on the battlefield, and of the sick, until they can be removed to hospitals of a more stationary character. In 1905–1906 the term “field ambulance” was adopted in the British service to denote this organization, the former division of the ambulance service into “bearer companies” and “field hospitals” being done away with. The description of the British service given below applies generally to the system in vogue in the army after the experience gained in the South African War of 1899–1902; but in recent years the medical arrangements in connexion with the British army hospitals have been altered in various details, and the changes in progress showed no sign of absolute finality. Some of these, however, were rather of nomenclature than of substance, and hardly affect the principles as described below.

The ambulance organization which, variously modified in details, now prevails in all civilized armies, only dates from the last decade of the 18th century. Before that time wounded soldiers were either carried to the rear by comrades or left unattended to and exposed until the fighting was over. Surgical assistance did not reach the battlefield till the day after the engagement, or even later; and for many of the wounded it was then too late. In 1792 Baron Dominique Jean Larrey (1766–1842) of the French army introduced his system of ambulances volantes, or flying field hospitals, capable of moving with speed from place to place, like the “flying artillery” of that time. They were adapted both for giving the necessary primary surgical treatment and for removing the wounded quickly from the sphere of fighting. Napoleon warmly supported Larrey in his efforts in this direction, and the system was soon brought to a high state of efficiency in the Grande Armée. About the same time another distinguished surgeon in the French army, Baron Pierre François Percy (1754–1825), organized a corps of brancardiers, or stretcher-bearers. These were soldiers trained and equipped for the duty of collecting the wounded while a battle was in progress, and carrying them to a place of safety, where their wounds and injuries could be attended to. An important step towards the amelioration of the condition of the wounded of armies in the field was the European Convention signed at Geneva in 1864, by the terms of which, subject to certain regulations, not only the wounded themselves but also the official staff of ambulances and their equipment were rendered neutral, the former therefore, not being liable to be retained as prisoners of war, nor the latter to be taken as prize of war. This convention has greatly favoured the development of ambulance establishments, but as all combatants have not the same knowledge of the conditions of this convention, or do not interpret them in the same way, charges of treachery and abuse of the Red Cross flag are but too common in modern warfare.

The American Civil War marked the beginning of the modern ambulance system. The main feature, however, of the hospital organization throughout that war was the railway hospital service, which provided for the rapid conveyance of the sick and wounded to the rear of the contending armies. Hospital carriages, equipped with medical stores and appliances, for the transport of cases from the front to the base, were rapidly introduced into other armies, and played a great part in the ambulance service of the Franco-German War.

The German hospital service as existing at the time of the Franco-German War of 1870–71 was modified and extended by the Kriegs Sanitäts Ordnung of 1878 and the Kriegs Etappen Ordnung of 1887, which completed the organization by the addition in time of war of numerous subordinate offices and departments. The main divisions of the ambulance organization of the German army in the field fall into: (1) sanitary detachments, (2) field hospitals, (3) flying hospitals, (4) hospital reserve depots, (5) “committees for the transport of the sick,” and (6) railway hospital trains. The whole administration of the ambulance service of the grand army in the field is in the hands of the chief of the ambulance sanitary staff, who is attached to headquarters. Next in command come surgeons-general of armies in the field, surgeons-general of army corps, and under them again surgeons-in-chief of divisions and regiments. Civil consulting surgeons of eminence, and professors from the universities, are also attached to the various armies and divisions to co-operate with and act as advisers to the surgeons of the standing military surgical staff. The hospital transport service on the lines of communication is highly organized and the hospital railway carriages are elaborately equipped. The French ambulance system, finally settled by the règlement of 1884, is organized on almost identical lines with the German; one of the principal peculiarities of the former being the ambulances volantes already referred to. The peace