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AMPHITRITE—AMPUTATION.
slain in the arena, the games having lasted for nearly
100 days. The exterior is about 160 feet in height,
and consists of three rows of columns, Doric, Toniec,
and Corinthian, and, above all, a row of Corinthian
pilasters. Between the columns there are arches,
which form open galleries throughout the whole
building ; and between each alternate pilaster of the
upper tier there is a window. There were four tiers
or stories of seats, corresponding to the four external
stories. The first of these is supposed to have con-
tained twenty-four rows of seats; and the second,
sixteen. These were separated by a lofty wall from
the third story, which is supposed to have contained
the populace. The podium was a kind of covered
gallery surrounding the arena, in which the emperor,
the senators, and vestal virgins had their seats. The
building was covered by a temporary awning or
wooden roof, called velarium, the mode of adjusting
and fastening which has given rise to many anti-
quarian conjectures. The open space in the centre
of the A. was called arena, the Latin word for sand,
because it was covered with sand or saw-dust during
the performances. The taste for the excitement of
the A. which existed at Rome, naturally spread to
the provinces, and large amphitheatres were erected
not only in the provincial towns of Italy, as at
Capua, Verona, Pompeii, &c., but at Arles and
Nismes, in France; and even in this country, at
Cirencester, Silchester, and Dorchester.
AMPHITRI'TE, the daughter of the sea-god
Nereus and of Doris—or, according to Apollodorus,
of a daughter of Oceanus—was the wife of Neptune.
When the latter demanded her in marriage, she fled
to Mount Atlas, but was discovered by a dolphin,
which Neptune had sent after her, and borne back
to him. As goddess and queen of the sea, she is
represented with her husband’s trident in her hand,
sitting in a car of shells drawn by Tritons, or on
a dolphin, before which a Cupid swims.
A’'MPHORA, among the Grecks and Romans,
was a large vessel, usually made of clay, shaped
— like our pitchers, with a narrow neck and
two handles (hence the name, from Gr.
amphi, on both sides, and phero, to carry),
and often ending in a sharp point below,
for being inserted in a stand or in the
ground. Several of this sort, ‘and in an
upright position, were found in the cellars
at Pompeii. The A. was chiefly used for
the preservation of various liquids, especi-
ally wine, the age of which was marked on
tickets affixed to the vessel. There is also
Am. ©vidence that amphore were employed as
cinerary urns and as coffins. The A. among
the ancients was likewise a measure for
liquids. In Greece, it contained about 9 English
gallons. The Roman amphora was only two-thirds
of the Greek A. In modern times, Anfora is the
name of a wine-measure in Venice.
AMPLIFICA'TION, i.e., enlargement, a term in
Rhetoric, meaning that an idea, an opinion, or an
inference is presented to the mind, accompanied by
accessory circumstances. Its aim is to produce a
powerful and vivid impression through the instru-
mentality of epithets, particulars, or other methods of
elaboration. Rhetorical A. is generally produced—
1st, by similitude ; 2d, by contrast ; 3d, by illustrat-
ing the universal in the particular; 4th, by piling
up logical arguments. Hxaggeration is an illegiti-
mate kind of A.; being the result of an undue
enlargement of particular facts and circumstances.
A'MPLITUDE, in Astronomy, is the distance of
a heavenly body, at the time of its rising or setting,
from the east or the west point of the horizon. When
the sun is in the equator (i. e., at the time of either
phora.
equinox), he rises exactly east, and sets exactly west,
and therefore has no A. His A. is at its maximum
at midsummer, and again at mid-winter; and that
maximum depends upon the latitude of the place,
being 234° at the equator, and increasing to the
Arxctic Circle, where it becomes 90°. The A. of a
fixed star remains constant all the year round.
AMPULLA was a kind of bottle, used by
the Romans for the preservation of
liquids. It was made either of earthen- =
ware or glass, and sometimes, though
very rarely, of more costly materials.
Great numbers of such vessels have
found their way into collections
of antiquities. They are generally
¢ bellied,’ i.e., approaching to globular, =
narrowing towards the mouth, and
provided with two handles. They
are frequently mentioned in connec-
tion with the baths of ancient times.
The A. olearia was a ‘bottle of oil” Ampulle.
which the Roman took with him
when he went to the bath, and with which he
anointed himself after his ablutions. Sometimes the
oils were perfumed.
The A. Remensis (the holy vessel, Fr. la sainte
ampoule) was the name of that famous vessel in
which was contained the unguent (believed to have
been brought by a dove from heaven) that anointed
Clovis, king of the Franks, at Rheims in 496 A.D.,
and with which every succeeding monarch of France,
down to Louis XVI., was anointed at his corona-
tion. The A. Remensis was shattered, along with a
great many more valuable things, at the revolution
of 1789; but a fragment of it was preserved by
some devout royalist, and handed over at the
Restoration to the Archbishop of Rheims. Curious
to say, a little of the miraculous substance still
remained, which was mixed up with oil, and used
to anoint Charles X. in 1825.
AMPUTA'TION (Lat. amputo, I lop or prune) is
the cutting off of a part which, by its diseased condi-
tion, endangers, or may endanger, the safety of the
whole body. The A. of a limb was in ancient times
attended with great danger of the patient’s dying
during its performance, as surgeons had no efficient
means of (restraining the bleeding. They rarely
ventured to remove a large portion of a limb, and
when they did so, they cut in the gangrened parts,
where they knew the vessels would not bleed ; the
smaller limbs they chopped off with a mallet and
chisel ; and in both cases had hot irons at hand with
which to sear the raw surfaces, boiling oil in which
to dip the stump, and various resins, mosses, and
fungi, supposed to possess the power of arresting
heemorrhage. Some tightly bandaged the limbs
they wished to remove, so that they mortified and
dropped off; and others amputated with red-hot
knives, or knives made of wood or horn dipped
in vitriol. The desired power of controlling the
heemorrhage was obtained by the invention of the
tourniquet (q. v.) in 1674 by a French surgeon
Morell. The ancient surgeons endeavoured to save
a covering of skin for the stump, by having the
skin drawn upwards by an assistant, previously to
using the knife. In 1679, Lowdham of Exeter
suggested cutting semicircular flaps on one or both
sides of a limb, so as to preserve a fleshy cushion
to cover the end of the bone. Both these methods
are now in use, and are known as the ‘circular’
and the ‘flap’ operations: the latter is most fre-
quently used in this country.
A “flap’ amputation is performed thus: The
patient being placed in the most convenient position,
an assistant compresses the main artery of t%%]imb
