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AMOROSO—AMPHIBIA.
hold this bedstead to have been Og’s cradle, and
affirm that his full-grown stature was 120 feet !
Joshua subdued, but did not wholly exterminate, the
Amorites in Canaan. The residue of this people
became tributary under Solomon. (Gen. x. 15—20 ;
xv. 19—21; Numb. xiii. 29 ; xxi. 13; Deut. xx. 16;
xii. 31 ; Joshua, ix.)
AMORO'SO, in Music, affectionately, tenderly.
AMO'RPHA. See INDIGO.
AMORPHOPHALLUS. See ARUM.
AMO'RPHOUS (Gr., @, priv., morphe, form),
shapeless. In chemistry, the term A. is used to
describe the uncrystallised, in opposition to the crys-
tallised, condition of bodies. There are substances
which, in certain conditions, are capable of crystal-
lisation, but in other conditions remain A. Thus,
pure sugar contains carbon, which appears as an A.
substance after the sugar has been burned in a
platina crucible. The same substance, carbon,
appears in its crystallised form in the diamond.
A'MOS, the Hebrew prophet, was a herdsman of
Tekoa, in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, and also
a dresser of sycamore trees. During the reigns
of Uzziah in Judah, and Jeroboam in Israel (about
784 B.c.), he came forward to denounce the idolatry
then prevalent. His prophetical writings, as given
in the Old Testament, contain, in the first six
chapters, denunciations of the Divine displeasure
against several states, particularly that of Israel, on
account of the worship of idols. As Ruckert poeti-
cally expresses it, the thunder-storm rolls over all
the surrounding kingdoms, touches Judah in its
progress, and at length settles upon Israel. The three
remaining chapters contain his symbolical visions of
the approaching overthrow of the kingdom of Israel,
and lastly, a promise of restoration. The style of A.,
remarkable for its clearness and picturesque vigour,
abounds with images taken from rural and pastoral
life. The canonicity of the book of Amos is well
attested both by Jewish and Christian authorities.
Philo, Josephus, and the Talmud include it in the list
of inspired writings. It is, moreover, twice quoted in
the New Testament (Acts vii. 42, and Acts xv. 16).
AMOY’, a seaport town of China, in a small
island of the same name, in the province of Fo-kien,
on the sea-coast, lat. 24° 10" N., long. 118° 10/ L.
It is one of the chief commercial emporiums of the
east, and contains a population estimated at 250,000.
It is divided into an outer and inner town, and has
an outer and inner harbour, the entrance to the
former of which, as well as the inner town itself, is
strongly fortified. In 1841, it was taken by the
British ; by the treaty of Nan-king, a British consul
and British subjects were permitted to reside there.
The trade is now open to all nations. The chief
imports are rice, sugar, camphor, raw cotton, cotton-
twist, and British long cloths ; the exports are tea,
porcelain, paper, grass-cloths, &c. Smuggling is
carried on extensively. Mr Fortune describes A.
as one of the dirtiest towns in the world.
AMPERE, ANDRE MARTE, a distinguished mathe-
matician and naturalist, was born at Lyon, January
20, 1775. The death of his father, who fell under
the guillotine in 1793, made a deep and melancholy
impression on the mind of young A., who sought
for solace in the study of nature and antiquity.
In 1805, after he had been engaged for some time
as private mathematical tutor at Lyon, he was
called to Paris, where he distinguished himself as an
able teacher in the Polytechnic School, and began
his career as an author by his essay on the Mathe-
matical Theory of Chances (Sur la Théorie Mathé-
matique du Jew). In 1814, he was elected as a
member of the Academy of Sciences ; and in 1824,
was appointed as Professor of Experimental Physics
in the Collége de France. He died June 10, 1836.
Scientific progress is largely indebted to A., especi-
ally for his electro-dynamic theory and his original
views of the identity of electricity and magnetism,
as given in his Recueil d’ Observations Eleciro-dynam-
iques (Paris, 1822), and his 7héorie des Phénoménes
LHlectro-dynamiques (Paris, 1830). These researches
prepared the way for the experiments of Dr Faraday.
Several of A.’s writings may be found in the Annales
de Physique et de Chimie.
AMPERE, JEAN JACQUES ANTOINE, son of the
above named, Professor of Modern Literature in the
Collége de France, at Paris, and member of the
French Academy, was born at Lyon, August 12,
1800. He has acquired a brilliant reputation, on
account of the keen and searching character of his
manifold literary efforts. After laying the ground-
work of his comprehensive studies in Paris, he pro-
ceeded to Italy, Germany, and Scandinavia. In
1829, when he returned from his travels, he saw
no prospect of becoming a professor in Paris, and
so consented to give a course of lectures on the history
of literature at Marseille. After the July revolution,
he succeeded Andrieux as professor in the Collége
de France, and also took the place of Villemain in
the Normal School. In both chairs he taught with
great success. He is especially versed in the know-
ledge of German literature; while his valuable
writings upon China, Persia, India, Egypt, and
Nubia, as well as his Levantine voyages, prove that
the far east itself is embraced within the circle of
his studies. A. allowed many of his linguistic and
historico-literary investigations to see the light first
in reviews, especially the Revue des Deux Mondes.
In 1833 he published an essay on the relations of
French literature to that of other countries in the
middle ages; in 1841, an Fssay on the Formation of
the French Language—a most valuable contribution
to philology in general ; and in 1850, a work entitled
G'reece, Rome, and Dante, which shews his acquaint-
ance with classical and south-European literature. |
Many of his papers for periodicals have been collected |
under the title Littéraiure et Voyages (2 vols., Paris,
1834). Deep research and judicious criticism,
expressed in a clear and classical style, distinguish
his various compositions.
AMPHI'BIA, in the Linnaean system of zoology, a
class containing Reptiles and Cartilaginous Fishes.
The term amphibious (Gr., having a double life) had
been previously employed, as it still popularly is, to
denote animals capable of sustaining existence for a
considerable time either on dry land or in water.
Of the animals of the Linnzan class, however, some
only are capable of this, whilst some are strictly
limited to the one element, and some to the other,
and only a very few are truly amphibious, or
adapted by the possession of lungs and gills at the
same time for breathing either in air or in water.
The Linneean classification was soon altered by the
removal of the Cartilaginous Fishes from the class
Amphibia, and the name was retained for a class
consisting of Reptiles alone—the Reptilia of Cuvier.
See REPTILES. Some recent naturalists have divided
this into two classes, Reptilia and Amphibia, the
former having lungs only, the latter having both
lungs and gills ; the former including the Chelonian,
Saurian, and Ophidian Reptiles; the latter only the
Batrachian Reptiles, or the former order Batrachia.
But if it must be admitted that these differ from the
other orders more than they do from each other, yet
the propriety of separating them as a distinct class
is not acknowledged by naturalists in general ; and
only a very few of them possess lungs and gills at
the same period of their existence., See BATRACHIA.
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