Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/547

AMHERST. 1828, and for his services in conducting the first Burmese war he was created an earl in 1826.

AM'HERSTBURG. A town in Ontario, Canada, on the Detroit River, six miles above Lake Erie. It is one of the oldest settlements in Upper Canada, is a port of entry, was formerly a garrison town, and is connected with Detroit, Mich., by a steamer line. It has a public library, electric lighting, water works, various manufactures, and is the seat of a United States consulate. In the war of 1812 it was dismantled by the British in September, 1813, and destroyed by General Harrison, of the United States Army, a week later. Pop., 1901, 2222.

AM'HERST COL'LEGE. A leading American college, situated at Amherst, Mass.. and founded in 1821 by Congregationalists in the interest of Christian education. Up to the year 1900 the graduates numbered 4100, of whom 1237 entered the clergy, while an equally large number became teachers. The unusual educational influence wielded by Amherst for halt a century was due to a considerable extent to two of its presidents, Edward Hitchcock and Julius H. Seelye. The former was probably the most distinguished American geologist of his time, and the latter united with a broad scholarship in the human- ities great ability as a practical educator. Am- herst has never endeavored to branch out as a university, but has steadily increased in effi- ciency as a non-specialized and non-technical liberal college. In 1900 the faculty numbered 36, and the students 400. The total value of the buildings and grounds is about $1,000,000; the interest of over $240,000 is used to aid needy students; the annual income of the college is about $110,000, and the entire property under the control of the college aggregates $2,500,000. The library contains 75,000 volumes, and is the largest belonging to any purely collegiate insti- tution in the country. Of accessories to the col- lege may be mentioned the Hitchcock ichnolog- ical cabinet, the Adams collection in conchology, the Shepard meteoric collection, and an extensive and valuable geological and mineralogical collec- tion gathered largely by the personal efforts of Professor Benjamin K. Emerson. The Pratt Gymnasium, athletic field, and college hospital are the gifts of the sons of the late Charles Pratt of Brooklyn, N. Y. The presidents have been: Zephaniah Swift Moore, D.D., 1821-23; Heman Humphrey, D.D., 1823-45; Edward Hitchcock, D.D., LL.D., 1845-54: William A. Stearns, D.D., LL.D., 1854-70: .Julius H. Seelye, D.D., LL.D., 1876-90; Merrill Edwards Gates, LL.D. Ph.D., 1890-99 ; George Harris, D.D., LL.D., 1899. Con- sult Tyler, A History of Amherst College (New York. 1896).

AM'ICABLE NUM'BERS (Lat. amicabilis, friendly). Two numbers, each of which is the sum of the factors of the other, are called ami- cable numbers, as 220 and 284, e.g.:

= 1+2+4+71 + 142 284=1+2+4+5+10+11+20+22+44+55+110

The classification and fanciful name are due to the Pythagoreans, who made much of number mysticism.

AMICE, am'is. See Costume, Ecclesiastical.

AMICI, a-me'che, Giovanni Battista (1786- 1864). An Italian astronomer and optician. He was born at Modena, where he was afterward professor of mathematics at the University. In 1831 he was appointed superintendent of educa- tion, and subsequently became director of the observatory and professor of astronomy at Flor- ence. The various pieces of physical and astro- nomical apparatus designed or constructed by him include a reflecting telescope, an achromatic microscope, polarization apparatus, a micrometer for telescopes, and a reflecting prism. He pub- lished papers on observations on double stars, the moons of Jupiter, the sun, and on various botan- ical subjects, such as the circulation of the sap in plants.

AMICIS, ame'ches, Edmondo de (1840 — ). One of the most popular of living Italian authors. He was born at Oneglia, in Liguria. October 21, 1846. In 1861 he graduated from the military academy at Modena, with the rank of sub-lieutenant, and five years afterward participated in the battle of Custozza. For a while he edited a Florentine journal, L'Italia Militare, and subsequently took part in the Roman occupation of 1870: but having achieved some success with a volume of sketches of army life, Bozzetti (1868), he abandoned both the military and the journalistic career, and undertook a series of voyages to England, Holland, Spain, Africa, Turkey, and South America. Almost all these gave him material for brilliant and widely popular volumes of travel, such as La Spagna (1873), Ricordi di Londra (1874), L'Olanda (1874), Marocco

(1875), and Constantinopoli (1877). These vol- umes have been translated into many languages. They show a keen power of observation, a genial humor, and a broad spirit of tolerance, which would justify their popularity even without the warm coloring and glowing vividness of descrip- tion, in which respect his style challenges com- parison with that of Théophile Gautier. Other writings include Ifitratti letterari (1881), a series of personal impressions of well-known writers, including Zola and Dumas fils: a sym- pathetic and semi-humorous volume on friend- ship, Gli Amici (1882), and a number of his- torical novelettes, collected under the title, Alle porte d'Italia (1888). Of recent years De Amicis has become deeply interested in educational and economic questions, and in many ways his great- est literary success is a simple little volume, Il Cuore ("The Heart of a Boy"), intended pri- marily for children, and recording the events of a single school year as told from day to day by one of the pupils. In Italy, it is nearing its two hundredth thousand. Educational prob- lems have also given De Amicis his subject for his more serious attempt at fiction. La mæstrina degli operai (1895), and Il romanzo d'un mæstro (1895). The last-named volume shows a strong socialistic tendency, which he has since openly avowed. "As a fountain of literary in- spiration," he said recently, "socialism seems to me most valuable. Since the last outbreak of patriotism and of patriotic literature in Italy, we have had no sort of vital literature. But socialism will give it to us." His latest volumes are La carozza di tutti (1899), Memorie (1899), Speranza e glorie (1900), Ricordi d'infanzia e di scuola (1901).

AMI'CUS CU'RIÆ (Lat., friend of the court ) One, usually a counselor at law, who volunteers information, or gives it at the request of the court, upon some matter of law in regard to