Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/467

 AMPFING AMPHIBIA 435 Memoires de Vinstitut. Ampere was a man of genial humor and great simplicity of char- acter, and singularly ignorant of the world, from which he lived retired. He was engaged on his last great work, "The Classification of the Sciences," at the time of his death. II. Jean Jacques Antoine, son of the preceding, born in Lyons, Aug. 12, 1800, died March 27, 1864. His education was completed under the super- vision of his father at Paris, where he enjoyed the friendship of Mme. Recamier and Chateau- briand. He pursued a course of philosophy with Cousin, and early conceived a passion for English and German literature, romance, and belles-lettres. After some years devoted to travel and literary pursuits, he was in 1833 appointed professor of the history of French literature in the college of France. His work on the early and mediaeval literature of France (4 vols.) was a r6sum6 of his lessons. In 1842 he was elected a member of the academy of inscriptions and belles-lettres, and five years afterward of the French academy. He visited many parts of Europe and the East, studied successfully the hieroglyphics of Egypt, and contributed to the Revue des Deux-Mondes a well written series of articles on a journey in Egypt and Nubia in 1844. He also made an extended tour in the United States, paying much attention to aboriginal remains and an- tiquities, and observing carefully the habits of the people. The result of his travels was pub- lished in the Revue des Deux-Mondes. His works entitled De la GMne et des travaux de Remusat, and La ffrece, Rome et Dante, evince his knowledge of languages and general litera- ture; and he published in 1841 a valuable essay on the formation of the French language. Among his other works is ISHistoire romaine A Rome (4 vols. 8vo, 1856-'64), a novel appli- cation of archaaology to literature and politics. His Correspondance, constituting an autobiog- raphy, was published in Paris in 1872. AMPFING, a village of southern Bavaria, on the Isen, 5 m. W. of Muhldorf, noted as the scene of a terrible conflict in 1322 between the emperor Louis the Bavarian and Frederick of Austria, generally known as the battle of Muhldorf, in which Frederick was entirely defeated and captured. In 1800 the famous retreat of Moreau was begun here. AMPHIARAUS, a mythical hero and seer of Greece, the son of O'icles and Hypermnestra. He was married to Eriphyle, sister of Adrastus, king of Argos, by whom he had numerous sons. Having sworn that he would abide by the decision of his wife on any difference which might arise between himself and Adrastus, Eriphyle- took advantage of this oath to force Amphiaraus to join in the enterprise of the seven against Thebes. Before setting out he made his sons promise to punish her treachery. (See ALCM^ON.) At the siege of Thebes he greatly distinguished himself, but being pur- sued by Periclymenus, he fled toward the river Ismenius, where the earth opened and swal- lowed him. Jupiter made him immortal. An oracle of Amphiaraus, near Thebes, enjoyed great reputation among all the Greeks. AMPHIBIA, animals which frequent both land and water. There is probably no truly amphibious animal, as that would imply the possibility of living and breathing equally well in air and in water. The old naturalists gave the name to beavers, otters, frogs, and other animals from all the orders of vertebrata ; Lin- naeus restricted the term to reptiles with cold blood and simple circulation; Cuvier called amphibia such mammals as can dwell on land or in the water, like the seal, the walrus, and the dugong, occupying a position intermediate between the feline an'd the marsupial animals. There are animals which have both gills and rudimentary lungs, as the proteus, the siren, and the menobranchus, but they are decidedly aquatic, and perish sooner or later in the air. The amphibia constitute an order of reptiles (the batrachia of later herpetologists), and may be characterized as vertebrated animals, with cold blood and naked skin, reproducing by means of eggs, and most of them under- going a metamorphosis or change of condition, having relation to a transition from an aquatic respiration by gills to an atmospheric respira- tion by lungs, and a consequent alteration in general structure and mode of life. These characters have led some writers to consider the amphibia as a distinct class, instead of a mere order of reptilia. No arrangement pro- posed by naturalists presents a perfect division of the different forms ; the following by Mr. Thomas Bell of London, founded on the ab- sence or presence and duration of the gills, seems the most natural: Class AMPHIBIA. Order 1. AMPHIPNEURA. Body elongated, formed for swimming; feet either four, or two anterior only; tail compressed, persistent; respiration aquatic throughout life, by exter- nal persistent gills, coexisting with rudiment- ary lungs; the eyes with lids. Genera, pro- teus, siren, siredon, menobranchus, pseudo- branchus. Order 2. ANOURA. Body short and broad ; feet during the tadpole state want- ing, afterward four, the hinder ones long and formed for leaping ; tail before the metamor- phosis long and compressed, afterward want- ing; ribs wanting; vertebrae few and anchy- losed together ; respiration at first aquatic by gills, afterward atmospheric by lungs ; gills at first external, but withdrawn into the chest before the metamorphosis ; impregnation ef- fected externally during the passage of the " eggs. Genera, rana, hyla, ceratophrys, bufo, rhinella, otilopha, dactylethra, bombinator^ breviceps. Order 3. URODELA. Body long and slender; feet always four; tail long and persistent; ribs very short; respiration at first aquatic by external gills, afterward at- mospheric by cellular lungs; vertebrae nu- merous and movable; impregnation internal. Genera, salamandrina, salamandra, molge. Order 4. ABBANCHIA. Body long and formed