Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/783

Rh A M M A M M 739 the discovery of tlie ore in 1768 it was a small hamlet of some six houses. At one time the mines produced 3000 tons of metal annually, but in recent years the quantity has greatly diminished. The harbour has been cut out of rock at considerable expense, and is protected by a break water. A branch of the Chester and Holyhead Eailway terminates in the town. Amlwch, which is associated with Beaumaris, Holyhead, and Llangefni, in returning one member to parliament, had a population of 2968 in 1871. AMMAN&quot;, JOHANN CONRAD, a physician, and one of the earliest writers on the instruction of the deaf and dumb, was born at Schaffhausen, in Switzerland, in 1669. In 1687 he graduated at Basle, and commenced the practice of his profession at Amsterdam, to which he had to flee on account of his religious views. He first called the atten tion of the public to his method of training the deaf a-nd dumb in a paper which was inserted in the Philosophical Transactions, and which appeared in a separate form in the year 1692. under the title Surdus Loyuens. It was again issued, with much additional matter, in 1702 and 1728, under the title Dissertatio de Loquela. In this work, which Haller terms &quot;vere aureum,&quot; he develops, with great ability, the mechanism of vocal utterance, and describes the process which he employed in teaching its use. This consisted principally in exciting the attention of his pupils to the motions of his lips and larynx while he spoke, and then inducing them by gentle means to imitate these movements, till he brought them to repeat distinctly letters, syllables, and words. As his method was excellent, we may readily give him credit for the all but universal success to which he laid claim. The edition of Cajlius Aurelianus, which was undertaken by the Wet- steins in 1709, and still ranks as one of the best editions of that author, was superintended by Amman. He died about 1730. AMMAN, JOST, an artist celebrated chiefly for his en gravings on wood, was born at Zurich in June 1539. Of his personal history little is known beyond the fact that he removed in 1560 to Nuremberg, where he continued to reside until his death in March 1591. His productiveness was very remarkable, as may be gathered from the state ment of one of his pupils, that the drawings he made during a period of four years would have filled a hay- waggon. A large number of his original drawings are contained in the Berlin collection of engravings. The genuineness of not a few of the specimens to be seen else where is at least questionable. A series of copperplate engravings by Amman of the kings of France, with short biographies, appeared at Frankfort in 1576. He also executed many of the woodcut illustrations for the Bible published at Frankfort by Feierabend. Another serial work, the Panoplia Omnium Liberalium Hechanicarum et Sedentariarum Artium Genera Continens, containing 115 plates, is of great value. Amman s drawing is correct and spirited, and his delineation of the details of costume, &c., is minute and accurate. He executed too much, however, to permit of his reaching the highest style of art. Paint ings in oil and on glass are attributed to him, but no specimen of these is known to exist. AMMAN, PAUL, a physician and botanist, was born at Brcslau on the 30th August 1634. In 1662 he received the degree of doctor of physic from the university of Leipsic, and in 1664 was admitted a member of the society Naturae Curiosorum, under the name of Dryander. Shortly afterwards he was chosen extraordinary professor of medicine in the above-mentioned university; and in 1674 he was promoted to the botanical chair, which he again in 1682 exchanged for the physiological. He died on the 4th February 1691. Paul Amman seems to have been a man of acute mind and extensive learning; but a restless and irritable disposition led him to engage too much in controversy, and to indulge in raillery in his writings to a degree which the nature of the subjects hardly warranted. Amman s principal works were Mcdidna Critica, scu Ccnluria, Casicum in Facilitate Lipsiensi rcsolutorum variis Discursibus auda; Parcenesis ad Docentes occupata circa Institutionum Mcdicarum Emendationem ; Irenicum Numce Pompilii cum Hippocrate; Supclleoo Botanica, et Manududlo ad Matcriam Mcdicam; and Character Naturalis Plantarum. , ^ . AMMANATI, BAKTOLOHEO, a celebrated Florentine architect and sculptor, was born in 1511, and died in 1592. He studied under Bandinelli and Sansovius, and closely imitated the style of Michael Angelo. He was more distinguished in architecture than in sculpture. Hs designed many buildings in Rome, Laicca, and Florence, an addition to the Pitti palace in the last-named city being one of his most celebrated works. He also planned the beautiful bridge over the Arno, known as Ponte delta Trinita one of his celebrated works. The three arches are elliptic, and though very light and elegant, have resisted the fury of the river, which has swept away several other bridges at different times. Ammanati s wife, daughter of Giov. Antonio Battiferri, an elegant and accomplished woman, published a volume of poems of considerable merit. AMMIANUS, MARCELLINTJS, a Roman historian of the 4th century, was born in the city of Antioch, in Syria. In his youth he was enrolled among the protectores domestici, or household guards, which proves him to have been of noble birth. In the year 350 he entered the service of Constantius, the emperor of the East, and, under the command of Ursicinus, a general of the horse, he served during several expeditions. According to his own modest account, it appears that he acquired considerable military fame, and that he deserved well of his sovereign. He attended the Emperor Julian in his expedition into Persia, but it is not known that he obtained any higher military promotion than that which has already been mentioned. He was either in the city or in the vicinity of Antioch when the conspiracy of Theodorus was discovered, in the reign of Valens, and was an eye-witness of the severe tortures to which many persons were subjected by the emperor on that account. But his lasting reputation was not to be acquired from military service. He left the army and retired to Rome, where he employed himself in writing a history of the Roman empire, comprising a period of 282 years. Though a Greek by birth, he wrote in the Latin language; but, according to the remark of Vossius, his Latin shows that he was a Greek, and also a soldier. Ilia history extended from the accession of Nerva to the death of Valens ; and the work was originally divided into thirty- one books. Of these the first thirteen have perished, and the eighteen which remain commence with the seventeenth year of the reign of Constantius, and terminate at the year 378. But there are several facts mentioned in the history which prove that the author was alive in the year 380. Of this number are the accession of Theodosius to the Eastern empire, the character of Gratian, and the consulate of Neothorius. The style is harsh and redundant, as was to be expected from the author s education and military life ; but the work is valuable as a source of information for the period of which it treats. Gibbon appears to give a correct estimate when he says that Ammianus is &quot;an accurate and faithful guide, who composed the history of his own times without indulging the prejudices and pas sions which usually affect the mind of a contemporary.&quot; From the lespcctful manner in which he speaks of pagan deities, and of the advantage of heathen auguries in fore telling future events, it is evident that Aminianus was a