Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/479

 AMUSSAT AMYLENE 447 is signalized in Turkish history by the arrogance with which the Turks treated the representa- tives of the European powers. The ambassa- dors were compelled to observances of etiquette degrading to their sovereigns, and the agents of the embassies were subjected to personal in- dignity, the dragoman of France having been compelled to embrace Islamism. In the reign of Amurath III. the plague ravaged Turkey and Italy. The war with Austria was con- tinued, and a war which had commenced with Persia was terminated in 1590 by a treaty which secured to the Porte the possession of Luristan, Georgia, Shirvan, Tabriz, and part of Azerbaijan. A depreciation of the coinage resulted in a revolt of the janizaries, who de- manded the heads of two officers of state, whom they charged with having been the au- thors of the depreciation. This revolt extended itself throughout the Turkish empire, and laid the foundation for the disorder aud insubordi- nation which rendered the janizaries so cele- brated. The war with Austria continued with varying success until the end of his reign. IV. Born in 1611, succeeded his uncle Mustapha, Sept. 1, 1623, at the age of 12, died Feb. 8, 1640. At the commencement of his reign the empire was in a state of the most deplorable disorder. The provinces were rent by insur- rections and revolts ; the capital convulsed by the constant mutinies of the janizaries, who were not to be pacified, save by an increase of pay or by the abandonment of some unfortu- nate vizier to their brutality ; war was desolat- ing the frontiers of the empire. Assuming the sceptre at so early an age, Amurath had little power to amend the state of his kingdom, but with experience came a vigor which was des- tined to make the hardiest tremble. In 1638 he commenced the siege of Bagdad, which had long resisted the efforts of the ablest Turkish generals. On Dec. 24 the assault was made, and the city of the caliphs passed from the Per- sians to the Turks. The garrison of the citadel capitulated, but not evacuating the city at the hour promised, 30,000 Persians were massacred. Although in the early part of his reign Amurath had promulgated strict laws against the use of wine, he afterward abandoned himself to the most outrageous drunkenness ; and his fits of delirious rage while intoxicated were so terri- ble that his people, his soldiers, and ministers all dreaded to enter his presence. A9IUSSAT, Jean Znlema, a French surgeon, born at St. Maixent, department of Deux-Sevres, Nov. 21, 1796, died May 14, 1856. He com- menced his career as a sub-assistant surgeon in the French army, and afterward became assis- tant surgeon at the hospital of La Salpetriere, under Esquirol, and prosector at the faculty of medicine of Paris. He invented and improved as many as 30 different surgical instruments, and was the first to show the importance of twisting a bleeding artery to arrest the hem- orrhage, and also to point out the danger of phlebitis from the admission of air into the veins during an operation. His most important works are : Becherches sur le systdme nerveux (1825) ; Tables synoptiques de la lithotripsie et de la cystotomie Jiypogastrique (1832) ; Recherches sur V introduction de Pair dans les veines (1832). AMYGDALOID, a rock containing almond- shaped cavities. The term is for the most part limited to rocks of the trap variety. The ve- sicular cavities in these, as in the lavas, are the result of the escape of gases, as the rocks cooled down from a melted state. Subsequent- ly to their formation the cavities have generally become filled with some mineral, as calcareous spar, quartz, agate, chlorite, or a zeolite. AMYL (Gr. d//v/W, starch), C 6 Hn, the radical of amylic alcohol or 'potato spirit, a colorless liquid, with a somewhat aromatic odor, pre- pared by Frankland in 1849 by heating the iodide of amyl with an amalgam of zinc in sealed tubes for some hours at a temperature of from 320 to 356 F. It also occurs as an incidental product in the distillation of coal. As it doubles its molecular constitution when- ever attempts are made to isolate it, the liquid described by Frankland is now commonly called diamyl, and the formula written (C Hii)a. Amyl, or rather diamyl, has the spe- cific gravity of 0-77 at 60 F., boils at 311 F. ; becomes thick at 22 F., but does not freeze; takes fire when heated and burns with a smoky flame; mixes in all proportions with alcohol, but not with water ; is not acted upon by fum- ing sulphuric acid, but slowly attacked by nitric and nitro-sulphuric acid, and decom- posed after long digestion with pentachloride of phosphorus. Amyl by itself has no use in the arts, but is interesting to the scientific chemist on account of the great number of substitution products that have been derived from it. Nitrite of amyl is an inflammable liquid, lighter than water, and having an odor like very ripe pears. It produces hi man, when inhaled in the dose of three or four drops, a sudden and violent acceleration of the pulse, with a peculiar flushing of the face. In animals it is capable of producing death. It may be regarded as a powerful general seda- tive, the peculiar action on man being due to a rapid relaxation of the muscular walls of the arterioles, giving rise to a suddenly diminished pressure of the blood in the arteries and heart. Its therapeutixj applications are not yet exten- sive, but it has been used with good effect in angina pectoris, and some other diseases of a supposed spasmodic character. AMYLENE, a transparent, colorless, thin liquid, with the odor of decaying cabbage, boiling at 102 F., vapor density 2-43, sp. gr. 0-65. It is produced by the dehydration of amylic alcohol by sulphuric acid or phosphoric acid. It was discovered in 1844 by M. Balard, by heating a solution of chloride of zinc with amylic alcohol or fusel oil, and in a compound of 5 atoms of carbon with 10 of hydrogen. In its prepara- tion a concentrated aqueous solution of chlo- ride of zinc is heated to 266 F. with an equal