Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/706

Rh 068 A M B A M E means of assisting the surgeon in his duties. Moreover, wherever the soldier can go, there the first two forms of the surgical equipment the medical field companion and the field panniers can also be taken. The articles for vise in the field hospitals, being carried in wheeled vehicles, can only move where the other transport of the army can be taken. Medical Field Companions. These are small cases car ried by men of the Army Hospital Corps selected to accom pany surgeons. They consist of two pouches and a wallet, worn nearly in the same way as the pouches and belt-bag in which ammunition is carried by combatant troops. The two pouches, carried on the waist-belt, contain small sup plies of essential medicines and styptics; the surgical wallet, also earned on the waist-belt, and supported by valise straps, contains materials for surgical dressings and other articles. As these attendants are not armed with rifles, they can carry their valises and the medical field companions at the same time without inconvenience. With each medical field companion is carried, by a shoulder-strap, a water-bottle and a drinking-cup. Field Panniers. These are tough wicker baskets covered with hide, each being 2 feet 2 inches in length, by 1 foot 2 inches in breadth, and 1 foot 4i inches in depth. They are supplied in pairs, and are arranged for being attached to a pack-saddle and carried on a Mt-pony or mule. They are capable of being opened while on the animal in such a way that all the contents can be readily got at. The field panniers contain instruments for important surgical opera tions, chloroform, surgical materials (such as splints, ban dages, plaisters, &c.), a lamp, supplies of wax candles, restoratives, and medical comforts in concentrated forms, and other articles necessary for urgent cases at the dressing stations and field hospitals. Each pannier has a double lid, and the four lids of the two panniers, when they are laid on the ground, can be connected so as to form a substi tute for an operating table. Field. Hospital Canteens. These are also supplied in pairs, and are distinguished as A and B canteens. They are wooden boxes nearly similar in size to the field panniers, so that, although usually carried in the equipment vehicles, they can, in case of need, be carried on the backs of but- animals. Their contents consist of camp-kettles and other utensils for cooking purposes; tin plates, drinking-cups, and other such requisites ; sets cf measures and weights ; a lantern of coloured glass for indicating the field hospital at night; together with various articles required for the service of patients in a tent or other field hospital. Medical Comfort Boxes. These also are supplied in pairs, and resemble the canteens in shape and dimensions. The contents of the two are different, and they are there fore marked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively. Each box is partitioned and fitted with cases or bottles with labels in dicating their contents. These principally consist of essence of beef, groceries, arrowroot, preserved vegetables, brandy, wine, and sundry accessory articles. The wounded are supplied with the same rations as the healthy troops, and they are turned to the best account available for their nutriment, supplemented by such medical comforts as are named above. Ambulance Equipment Waggons. In these vehicles are carried the tents for forming the field hospital in case of no building being available, with a supply of blankets, water proof covers, and other articles of bedding for the patients. The canteens and medical comfort boxes are also carried in these vehicles. Certain implements, as reaping-hooks, spades, pickaxes, saws, which are constantly required when men are thrown so much on their own resources as they must be in campaigning, are also carried in the equipment waggons. Ambulance Equipment for ill&quot;. Transport of Wounded Troops. The ambidance conveyances authorised for use in the British army are of four kinds. They are the fol lowing: 1. Conveyances carried by the hands of bearers, called stretchers; 2. Conveyances wheeled by men, ivheeled stretchers; 3. Conveyances borne by mules, mule litters and mule cacolets; and 4. Wheeled conveyances drawn by horses, ambidance ivaggons. The forms of all these conveyances have been lately revised by a committee which was appointed in 1868 by Sir J. Pakington, then Secretary of State for War, to inquire into the geneial question of ambulance and hospital conveyances for the army, and the new pattern vehicles have now been authorised for use. (T. L.) _ AMELOT DE LA HOUSSAYE, ABRAHAM NICOLAS, historian and publicist, was born at Orleans in February 1634, and died at Paris 8th December 170G. Little is known of his personal history beyond the fact that he was secretary to an embassy from the French court to the republic of Venice. At a later period he was imprisoned in the Bastile by order of Louis XIV. In 1G7G he pub lished at Amsterdam his Histoire duGouvernement deVenise, in three volumes. Under the assumed name of De la Mothe Josseval, he published in 1683 a translation of Fra Paolo Sarpi s History of the Council of Trent. This work, and especially certain notes added by the translator, gave great offence to the advocates of the unlimited authority of the pope, and three separate memorials were presented to have it repressed. Amelot also published translations of Machiavel s Prince, and of the Annals of Tacitus, besides several other works. AMELOTTE, DENIS, a French ecclesiastic and author, was born at Saintes in Saintonge in 1606, and died October 7, 1678. Soon after receiving priest s orders he became a member of the congregation of the oratory of St Philip Neri. In 1643 he published a Life of Charles de Goudren, second superior of the congregation, which by some of its remarks on the famous abbot of St Cyran, gave great offence to the Port Eoyalists. Another Avork, containing a vehement attack on the doctrines of the Jansenists, still further embittered the feelings of the party towards him, and elicited from Nicole a se verely satirical reply entitled Idee Generate de I Esprit et du &amp;lt; Livre du P. Amelotte. Amclotte in revenge availed himself of his influence with the chancellor to prevent the publication of the newly - completed Port Royalist translation of the New Testament, which had therefore to be issued at Mons in Flanders. He thus secured a free field for a transla tion of his own with annotations, which appeared in 4 vols. octavo in 1666-8. The dedication to the archbishop of Paris contained an other abusive denunciation of the D etula alia (the commor. birch), Jansenists. AMENTIFEPwE, or AMEN- TACE.E. Under this name are included apetalous unisexual plants bearing their flowers in catkins (amenta). This group of plants includes trees and shrubs chiefly of temperate climates. It is divided into the following orders : Salicacea?, willows and poplars ; Corylacea^ or Cupulifvra;, hazel, oak, beech, chest nut, hornbeam, &c. ; Betulacece, birch, alder; Casuarinaceoe, Casuarina (beef wood); Altingiacece or Balsamifluce, liquid- ambar ; P/atanacece, the plane ; Juglandaceoe, walnut ; Garryacece Garrya ; Myricacecc, bog myrtle. an amcntiferous tree, the male flowers, a, nre produced in scaly catkins, nnd so are the female flowers, I.