Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/556

AMMONIAC. . A gum-resin, used medicinally in certain plasters. It is obtained from the Dorema ammoniacum, an umbelliferous plant found in Persia and Turkestan. The gum is made by drying the milky juice of the plant. It occurs in commerce either in tears, or in masses formed of them, but mixed with impurities. It is whitish, becoming yellow by exposure to the atmosphere, is softened by the heat of the hand, and has a peculiar heavy smell and a bitter taste.

AM'MONI'ACAL COP'PER CAR'BONATE. See.

AM'MONITE (Derived from ammonia). A trade name of a product rich in nitrogen (thirteen to fourteen per cent.), obtained largely from rendering establishments where different portions of dead animals are subjected to treatment — usually drying and extracting the fat by means of steam. The product is also obtained in considerable quantities from beef-extract factories. It is a high-grade, nitrogenous fertilizer, practically identical with the "dried meat or meal," "animal matter," or "azotin," found on the market as a fertilizer. See article.

AMMONITES. A people allied to the Mo- abites. and also (though in a minor degree) to the Hebrews, whose settlements were on the edge of the Syrian Desert. According to Genesis (xix : 38) they were descendants of Ben-Ammi, the son of Lot," and while this account is fanciful, there is no reason to doubt the relationship implied between Ammonites and Moabites. The Ammonites inhabited the country east of the .Jordan, between the rivers Arnon and Jabbok, i.e., the desert country east of Gad. Their chief city was Rabbath Amnion (Deuteronomy iii : 11: Ezekiel xxi : 20), known as Philadelphia in the Greek occupation. The relations between the Ammonites and the Hebrews were almost contin- uously hostile. Jephthah defeated them with great" slaughter (Judges xi : 4-33: xii : 28 may be a later interpolation) : they were also over- come by Saul (I. Samuel xi : Ml), and by David (II. Samuel xii : 26-31). After the king- dom was divided, the Ammonites attacked Gil- ead, perhaps together with the Assyrians (II. Kings XV : 29: I. Chronicles v : 26), for which they are denounced by the prophets Amos i:i3), Zephaniah (xxviii, xxix), Jeremiah (xlix : 1-7), and Ezekiel (xxi : 28-32). In the davs of Jehoshaphat, the Ammonites made an abortive attempt to attack Judah (II. Chronicles XX : 1-30). and later they were defeated by King Jotham (II. Chronicles' xxvii:.5). .fter the captivity they recommenced their feuds with the Jew"s (Ne'hemiah iv : 1-15), but in the days of .ludas Maccabseus the Ammonites, together with their Syrian allies, were thoroughly routed by the Jews (I. Maccabeus v : 6). Justin Martyr affirms that in his day (about 150 A.n.) the -Ammonites were still numerous. The chief deity worshipped by the Ammonites was Milcom, which signifies "king" (I. Kings xi : 3. 7-33), who bore the same relation to his subjects as Chemosh did to the Moabites and Yahweh to the Hebrews. He was the natural protector to whom the people looked for succor in distress. Of the rites of the Ammonites we know nothing beyond the prejudiced references in the writings of the Hebrew prophets, but the supposition seems reasonable that the worship was similar to that of the Moabites as well as to that of the Hebrews in the early stages of their history. The Am- monitisli language, likewise, was practically iden- tical with Moabitish and ancient Hebrew, the differences between them being merely of a dia- lectical order. See the commentaries on Genesis xix : 38. Dillmann, Delitzsch, Gunkel, and Hol- zinger.

AMMONITES, am'o-ni'tez. A generic name given by Lamarck and L. von Buch to a group of tetrabranchiate cephalopod shells found in the Mesozoic rocks of Europe. A still earlier name applied to them by the alchemists and others of the Middle Ages was Cornu Ammonis, from a fancied resemblance to the horns of Zeus Amnion. The term Ammonites lias, as a generic name, fallen into disuse, for more recent re- searches have shown that Von Bueh's name in- cluded a large array of species that present characters not only of a generic but also of family rank. The name is, however, still ussd in a loose way to distinguisli those Mesozoic cephalopods, with complicated suture lines, from the Palfeozoie Goniatites with more simple su- tures. Von Bueh's three genera, Ammonites, Ceratites, and Goniatites, with their numerous species, have been broken up into a host of new generic terms, about fifty in number, and these latter have been grouped into about ninety fam- ilies, all of which are included in the order Am- monoidea. For the structure of the shell, the dis- tribution of the species, and the geological his- tory of the group, see Cephalopoda.

AMMO'NIUM (From ammonia), NH,. A chemical radicle composed of one atom of nitro- gen and four atoms of hydrogen. This radicle or atomic group, acts like the monovalent ele- ments, sodium and potassium, and is contained in ammoniacal salts. An amalgam, too, has been obtained in which it exists in direct com- bination with mercury. Ammonium amalgam is a pasty, lustrous, met<al-like substance formed by passing an electric current through ammoni- um chloride in contact with mercury. It is an unstable body, which readily decomposes, giving off ammonia and hydrogen.

AMMO'NIUM. See.

AMMO'NIUS (Gk. 'A/i/iuvmc, Ammonios). An Alexandrian philosopher of the third century A.D., surnamed Saccas (sack-carrier), because, as it is said, he had been a porter in his youth. He was of Christian parentage, but according to his most eminent pupil, Plotinus, his studies led him to abandon Christianity for the old Greek religion; this is denied, however, by Eusebius and St. Jerome. Longinus says that as a philosopher he surpassed all his contemporaries; his teaching was directed chiefly toward harmonizing the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle, and through his disciples he became the founder of the Neo-Platonic school of philosophy. Among his pupils were Origen, the Neo-Platonist, Origen the Christian, Longinus, Herennius, Theodosius, Antoninus, and Plotinus. Ammonius left no writings, but his esoteric teachings were spread by Origen and Herennius, and especially by Plotinus.

Ammonius was the name of several other learned men in the later periods of Greek history: Ammonius, a Peripatetic philosopher of the first century, the teacher of Plutarch; Ammonius, a Christian philosopher at Alexandria in the third century, who wrote a work on the