Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/473

 AMPHITKITE AMPUTATION 441 During the middle ages, the amphitheatres were used as castles or as quarries, according to the exigencies of the times ; but, in spite of all assaults of man or time, their ruins are among the most stupendous monuments of Ro- man antiquity. AMPHITRITE, a nereid or oceanid, the wife of Neptune and goddess of the sea, mother of Triton, Rhode or Rhodos, and Benthesicyme. Jealous of Scylla, she threw some magic herbs into the well in which her rival was accustomed to bathe, and thus transformed her into a mon- ster with six heads and twelve feet. In an- cient works of art Amphitrite is aiways dis- tinguished from Aphrodite by a net which keeps her hair in order, and by the claws of a crab on her forehead. AMPHITRYON, in Greek legends, a son of Alcfflus and Hipponome. Having accidentally killed his uncle Electryon, he was expelled from Mycenae, and forced to take refuge in Thebes. To win the hand of Alcmena, he un- dertook an -expedition against Pterelaus and the Taphians, whose lands he seized and divided among his friends. He was subsequently mar- ried to Alcmena, and became by her the father of Iphicles. He was killed in a war which he and Hercules were carrying on against Erginus, king of the Minyans. His tomb was standing at Thebes in the time of Pausanias. AMPHORA (Gr. d^opedf, from ap.$l, on both sides, and ipeiv, to carry), a large two-handled Greek and Roman Amphorae. From Specimens in the British Museum. vase, commonly made of earthenware, of va- rious forms, but generally tall and narrow, with a contracted neck, and ending nearly in a point. It was used by the ancients to hold wine, oil, the ashes of the dead, &c. ; and some have been found in excavating that had been used as coffins by dividing them in half lengthwise, putting in the body, and joining the parts. The amphora was also a liquid measure among the Greeks and Romans, equivalent to about nine gallons with the former and six with the latter. AMPULLA, a Roman vessel, like a bottle, used for holding wine, oil, or water. The ampulla Rhemensis (la sainte ampoule) was a glass flask filled with holy oil, which, according to tra- dition, was brought down from heaven by a dove at the time of the coronation of Clovis, at Rheims, in 496. From the 9th century, if not before, down to Louis XVI., all the kings of France were anointed with the oil contained in the sacred ampulla. During the revolution the ampulla was broken and its fragments thrown away. A pious person pre- served one of the pieces, and after the restora- tion of the Bourbons it was delivered to the archbishop of Rheims", with a little of the ori- ginal oil, as was asserted. Charles X. was anointed from it, and the oil then failed. AMPUTATION (Lat. amputare, to cut off), a surgical operation by which a limb or portion of a limb, or a naturally projecting part of the body, is removed. The cutting away of a tu- mor is spoken of as an extirpation or excision. Amputation is required where the part is in- jured or diseased to such an extent as to ren- der it useless and inconvenient, or a source of danger to life if it be retained. For many cen- turies an operation of extreme danger in itself, and performed only in the most urgent cases, surgical advance has rendered it one of little risk, though of late years there has been a ten- dency to curtail its sphere by improvements in other departments of the science. It was at first performed by a division of all the parts at the same level, and only through a joint. About the 1st century the practice of amputating be- tween the joints was introduced, and also the very important principle of dividing the bone at a higher level than the soft parts, that the cut surfaces of these latter may be joined together over the bone and unite in that po- sition. Formerly the great source of danger was the haemorrhage which took place during and after the operation ; to prevent which the parts were divided with red-hot knives, or the cut surfaces treated with heated irons or boil- ing liquids, in order to produce a charring of the tissues and plugging of the mouths of the vessels. A band encircling the limb, to restrain the bleeding during the operation, was used as early as the 1st century, but its permanent ar- rest was for a long time effected only by the means already mentioned. The band, applied ignorantly, failed of its complete purpose, and the inevitable separation of the eschars pro- duced by hot bodies in many cases opened afresh the vessels, and haemorrhage and death were the result. The use of the ligature in amputation, especially as its proper application was developed, rendered the operation com- paratively safe. The honor of its introduction is probably due to Ambroise Par6 in the 16th century. If the ligature was employed in these cases by Celsus, it fell into immediate dis- use; and even the teachings of Par6 and his school were unable for many years to bring it into general favor. The invention