Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/574

AMTTRATH. way for subjugating Greece. He went on suc- cessfully till 1442, when he was defeated by Hunyadi. and was obliged to make peace with the Christians. At that time he lost a son, and abdicated in favor of another son, Mohammed, only fourteen years old. The Hungarians re- newed the war, and, hastening from retirement, he overwhelmed them in the battle of Varna, November 10, 1444, where Ladislas, King of Hungary and Poland, fell. He again retired, and again came forth to quell an insurrection of the Janissaries. He invaded Albania and was defeated by George Castriota (Scgnderbeg) ; but he retired only to gain a great victory over his formidable adversary Hunyadi at Kossovo, in 1448. He was the first Ottoman monarch who caused bridges of great length to be built; and in his reign poetry, jurisprudence, and theology began to flourish. He died of apoplexy at Adrianople.

AMURATH, or MURAD III. (1545-95). A sidtan of the Turks. He succeeded his father, Selim TI., in 1574. He was a feeble, uxorious, superstitious man. His reign was marked by great reverses in Hungary, counterbalanced by territorial gains in Persia and Asia Minor. He made commercial treaties with the Western Pow- ers, and was also the first to feel the tyranny of the Janissaries.

AMURATH, or MURAD IV. (1011-40). A sultan of the Turks. He succeeded his imele, Mustapha, in 1623. He is known as "the Turkish Nero." and like his Roman namesake, he began his reign with great promise; but the mutinous behavior of his soldiers, and the frequent rebel- lions that marked the first years of his rule, made him a tyrant of extraordinary cruelty. His greatest exploit was the retaking of Bagdad from the Persians (16.38), after an assault last- ing thirty days, an occasion on which he slaugh- tered 30.000 of the inhabitants.

AMURATH V. (1840—), Sultan of Turkey. He is the son of Sultan Abd ul Medjid, and was born September 21, 1840. After the accession of his uncle, Abd ul Aziz, in 1861, he was kept in forced retirement, but was placed upon the throne by a revolution May 30, 1876. He showed strong symptoms of insanity, however, and was deposed August 31st of the same year.

AMUSSAT, a'mu'sa', Jean Zul^ma (1796- 1856). A French surgeon. He entered the army, was assistant surgeon under Esquirol in the "Salpetriere Hospital, and prosector at the Paris faculty of medicine. He improved and invented many surgical instruments, and was the first to show the importance of torsion of arteries in hemorrhage. He wrote on the nerv- ous system, lithotomy, etc. An operation for opening the large intestine at a point where it is not covered with peritoneum was perfected and first practiced by Amussat. It is still performed, and it bears Ids name. Among his publications are researches regaiding the nervous system (1825), and a memoir on the torsion of arteries ( 1 829 ), the latter winning a prize from the Institute.

AMY'CL.Æ (Gk. •A^mAni,AniylcUii). (1) An ancient town of l.,aconia, on the eastern bank of the Eurotas, two and a half miles southeast of Sparta, in a richly wooded and fertile region. It was early a famous city, and after the Dorian conquest seems to have maintained its independ- ence as an Achaan town until the development of the Spartan power. In the neighborhood of Amyclse have been found imjiortant remains of Mj'ceniean civilization, including the gold cups of Vaphio. At Amyclae was an ancient temple of Apollo, containing a primitive bronze image of the god {xoanon), standing on an elaborate bronze throne. It was the work of Bathycles. Pausanias has given a description of it, impor- tant in the history of early Ionic art. At Amyclae were celebrated annually the Hyacinthia, in memory of Hyacinthus (q.v. ). (2) Amycl.e, or Amuclae, an ancient city on the coast of Latium, Italy, said to have been built by a colony from the Greek Amyclfe. It had ceased to e.xist before the time of Varro.

AMYG'DALIN (Lat. amygdala, Gk. afivy- ('iu/Ti, 0)1) i/g dale, almond), C2„H.,N0i„ 3H,0. A crystalline substance existing in the kernel of bitter almonds and in various other plants. It is obtained, by extraction with boiling alcohol, from the paste of bitter almonds, which remains after the fixed oil has been separated by pressure. The alcoholic solution usually contains more or less oil, which must be removed by decantation or filtration; it is then evaporated till a syrup is left, from which the ainygdalin may be ob- tained by the addition of ether; amygdalin is insoluble in ether, and is, therefore, precipitated by it from its solutions. Amygdalin has a some- what bitter taste, but is not poisonous. It may be dissolved in water for any length of time with- out undergoing any change ; but if some emulsine (or some dilute mineral acid) be added to the solution, a sort of fermentation is set up, and the amygdalin gi'adually undergoes decomposition into oil of bitter almonds, sugar, and hydro- cyanic or prussic acid. Now, as emulsine, too, is one of the constituents of bitter almonds, when the paste of bitter almonds is brought into contact with water, a poisonous liquid is ob- tained.

AMYCTDALOID (Gk. r)/iv-,6d?.y, ai)ii/gdale. almond -- cMof, eidon, shape). A name given in geology to igneous rocks, generally of a basaltic nature, which contain numerous almond-shaped or spheroidal cavities filled with foreign minerals, such as quartz, calcite, or some one of the zeolites. These cavities are regarded as the result of Ihe escape of gases when the rocks cooled, at which time the crystallization of the minerals also took place, these being for the most part similar in composition to the rock.

AM'YL (Lat. a)n)jlu))), from Gk. o/jv'/mv, amy- lo)), starch + I'X;?, hyle. material), CjHn. A radicle, or group of atoms, found in the mole- cules of many organic compounds, but incapable of existing independently. See Carbon Com- pounds.

AMYL AL'COHOL. A name applied to eight alcohols having the same molecular composition ( CjHiiOH ), but more or less different chemical and physical properties. Seven of these alcohols have actually been prepared ; the possibility of the existence of tlie eighth is indicated by the structural llicnry of compounds. The most important amyl alcohols are the two found in fuse! oil. which is produced as an impurity during alcoholic fermentation. ( See Alcohols.) Of these, one is called iso-butvl-carbinol, ( CH, ) jCH. CH. . CH..OH ; the other. ' secondary butyl-carbinol, CH,. CH^CH ( CH, ). CH,OH. Isobutyl-carbinol boils at 131° C, has a specific