Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/698

Rh 660 A M B - A M B It is said to be taken in large quantities from the north of Burmah to the markets of China, where it is highly prized. The appearance of enclosed foreign bodies, such as insects, leaves, twigs, &c., which amber very often presents, and the markings on its surface, very early led to correct inferences as to its origin. Pliny states that &quot; amber is an exudation from trees of the pine family, like gum from the cherry and resin from the ordinary pine ; and in accordance with this opinion is its Latin name succinum, the gum-stone. The opinion expressed by Pliny is that which at the present day may be fairly held as established ; but of course amber differs from other resins owing to changes induced by its fossilised condition. Sir David Brewster has pointed out that in optical properties it agrees with other resinous exudations. The insects found enclosed in amber are for the most part of extinct species, and so also are the remains of plants. A species of conifer has been established provisionally as the amber-yielding tree, Pinites succinifer, but Goppert has shown that many trees may have yielded the exudation, and these not all neces sarily belonging to the pine order. The close relation of amber to ordinary resins is further brought out by its chemical properties and composition. According to Berzelius, it consists mainly of a resin, succinite, insoluble in alcohol, in combination with small proportions of two others, isomeric with the first, but soluble in alcohol and ether. By dry distillation it gives off at a low temperature water, succinic acid, and oil of amber, which last substance was formerly used in medicine in combination with alcohol and ammonia under the name of eau de luce; but now amber and all its products have disappeared from the standard pharmacopoeias. Its com position is, according to Schrotter- Carton 78 94 Hydrogen 10 53 Oxygen 10 53 and miueralogically it belongs to Dana s class of oxygenated hydrocarbons. It burns with a pale yellow flame, with a good deal of black smoke, evolving an agreeable odour, and leaving a shining black carbonaceous residue. It is said that by exposing amber covered with sand in an iron pot to the influence of heat for forty hours, or boiling it for twenty hours in rape oil, it will become transparent, and pieces will cement and mould together. The great size of vessels of amber which have come down from ancient times suggests the probability of some such art being practised in remote periods. It is now applied to few useful purposes among western nations beyond forming the mouthpieces for tobacco-pipes and cigar-holders. Fine pieces are in some demand for public collections and for the purposes of the carver. In the East, besides its being highly prized for ornamental purposes, a feeling of veneration for its mystic properties still en- Lances its value. The Turks esteem it highly as a mouth piece for tobacco pipes, and believe that it resists the transmission of infection. The principal demand for the amber of commerce is among the Armenians, through whom it is conveyed to Egypt, Persia, China, and Japan ; and a great quantity is purchased to be consumed at the shrine of Mahomet by the pilgrims bound to Mecca. The value of amber depends upon its colour, its lustre, and its size. In 1576 a mass weighing 11 S&amp;gt; -was found in Prussia, and deemed worthy of being presented to the emperor; later, a mass of 13 lb was found, for which it is said 5000 dollars were refused. In the royal cabinet at Berlin a piece is shown weighing 18 lb; but such masses are of very great rarity. AMBERG, a -walled town of Bavaria, formerly the capital of the Upper Palatinate, and at present the scat of the appeal court for the district, is situated on both sides of the Yils, 35 miles east of Nuremberg. It is a well- built town, and has a library, a gymnasium, a lyceum, elementary schools, an arsenal, and several churches, the finest of which is St Martin s, with many fine paintings, and a tower 300 feet high. The principal manufactures are fire-arms, ironmongery, earthenware, woollen cloth, beer, and salt; in the neighbourhood are iron and coal mines. The French under Jourdan were defeated by the Austrians near Amberg in 1796. Population in 1871, 11,688. AMBERGRIS (Ambra grisea, Ambre gris, or Grey Amber) is a solid, fatty, inflammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour, the shades being variegated like marble, possessing a peculiar sweet earthy odour. It is now known to be a morbid secretion formed in the intes tines of the spermaceti whale (Physeter macrocephalus), and is found floating upon the sea, on the sea-coast, or in the sand near the sea-coast. It is met with in the Atlantic Ocean, on the coasts of Brazil and Madagascar; also on the coast of Africa, of the East Indies, China, Japan, and the Molucca Islands; but most of the ambergris which is brought to England comes from the Bahama Islands, Providence, &c. It is also sometimes found in the ab domen of whales, always in lumps in various shapes and sizes, weighing from J oz. to 100 or more lb. A piece which the Dutch East India Company bought from the King of Tydore weighed 182 tt. An American fisherman from Antigua found, inside a whale, about 52 leagues south-east from the Windward Islands, a piece of ambergris which weighed about 130 lb, and sold for 500 sterling. Like many other substances regarding the origin of which there existed some obscurity or mystery, ambergris in former times possessed a value, and had properties attributed to it, more on account of the source from which it was drawn than from its inherent qualities. Many ridiculous hypo theses were started to account for its origin, and among others it was conjectured to be the solidified foam of the sea, a fungoid growth in the ocean similar to the fungi which form on trees, the excreta of sea-birds, itc. The true source and character of ambergris was first satisfac torily established by Dr Swediaur in a communication to the Royal Society (Philosophical Transactions, vol. Ixxiii.) It was found by Dr Swediaur that ambergris very fre quently contained the horny mandibles or beaks of the squid (Sepia moschata&quot;), on which sperm whales are known to feed. That observation, in connection with the fact of ambergris being frequently taken from the intestines of the sperm whale, sufficiently proved that it was formed within that creature, and not an extraneous substance swallowed by the whale. It was further observed that the whales in which ambergris was found were either dead or much wasted and evidently in a sickly condition. From this it was inferred that ambergris was in some way connected with a morbid condition of the sperm whale. Ambergris, when taken from the intestinal canal of the sperm whale, is of a deep grey colour, soft consistence, and a disagreeable smell. On exposure to the air it gradually hardens, becomes pale, and develops its peculiar sweet earthy odour. In that condition its specific gravity ranges from 0-780 to 0-92G. It melts at a temperature of about 145 Fahr. into a fatty yellow resinous-like liquid; and at 212 it is volatilised into a white vapour. It is soluble in ether, volatile and fixed oils, but only feebly acted on by acids. By digesting in hot alcohol, a peculiar substance termed ambrein is obtained, which deposits in brilliant white crystals as the solution cools. In chemical constitu tion ambrein very closely resembles cholesterin, a principle found abundantly in biliary calculi. It is therefore more than probable that ambergris, from the position in which it is found and its chemical constitution, is a biliary concre tion analogous to what is formed in other mammals. The