_Remarks._ The finer sorts of amber fetch very high prices. A piece 1 _lb._ in weight is said to be worth from 10 to 15. 5000 dollars a few years since were offered in Prussia for a piece weighing 13 _lbs._, and which, it was stated by the Armenian merchants, would fetch from 30,000 to 40,000 dollars in Constantinople. It is more valued in the East than in England; and chiefly on account of the Turks and other Orientals believing it to be incapable of transmitting infection. In the royal cabinet, Berlin, there is a piece weighing 18 _lbs._, supposed to be the largest ever found. The coarser kinds alone are employed in medicine, chemistry, &c.
=Amber, Ac'id of=* (as'-). Succinic acid.
=Amber, Bal'sam of.= _Syn._ BAL'SAMUM SUC'CINI, L. The thick matter left in the retort after the rectification of oil of amber; and which it resembles in its properties.
=Amber, Facti"tious= (-tish'-). _Syn._ SUC'CINUM FACTI"TIUM, L. Mellite, copal, and anime, have each been substituted for amber, especially for small fragments of it. Recently an imitation has been produced by acting on gutta percha with sulphur, at a high temperature, which, either alone or in combination with copal, is said to have been extensively passed off for genuine amber.
=Amber, Liq'uid=. See LIQUID-AMBAR.
=Amber, Oil of.= See OILS.
=Amber, Re'sin of.= See PYReTINE.
=Amber, Salt of.= Succinic Acid.
=Amber, Sol'uble.= _Prep._ Fragments of amber are cautiously heated in an iron pot, and as soon as it becomes semi-liquid, an equal weight of pale boiled linseed-oil, previously made hot, is very gradually stirred in, and the whole thoroughly blended. Used as a cement for glass and earthenware, and thinned with oil of turpentine to make varnishes. It will keep any length of time if preserved from the air.
=AMBER-CAM'PHOR.= See PYReTINE (Crystalline).
=AM'BER DRINK=. Amber-coloured malt liquor.
=AM'BER-SEED.= Musk-seed (which _see_).
=AM'BER-TREE.= The popular name of a species of anthospermum, an evergreen shrub, of which the leaves, when bruised, emit an agreeable odour.
=AM'BERGRIS= (-gris; grese). _Syn._ GREY AMBER*; AMBRAGRI"SEA (grizh'-e-a), L.; AMBREGRIS, Fr.; AMBRA, AMBAR, Ger. An odorous, solid substance, found floating on the sea in tropical climates, and in the caecum of the cachalot or spermaceti whale (physeter macrocephalus). It has been supposed by some to be a morbid secretion of the liver or intestines, analogous to biliary calculi; but according to Mr Beale, it consists of the mere indurated faeces of the animal, perhaps (as suggested by Brande and Pereira) somewhat altered by disease. "Some of the semifluid faeces, dried with the proper precautions, had all the properties of ambergris."
(Beale.) It is occasionally found in masses weighing from 60 to 225 _lbs._
_Prop., &c._ Solid, opaque, ash-coloured, streaked or variegated, fatty, inflammable; remarkably light; highly odorous,[40] particularly when warmed, cut, or handled--the odour being peculiar and not easily described or imitated, of a very diffusive and penetrating character, and perceptible in minute quantities; rugged on the surface; does not effervesce with acids; melts at 140 to 150 Fahr. into a yellowish resin-like mass; at 212 flies off as a white vapour; very soluble in alcohol, ether, and the volatile and fixed oils. It appears to be a non-saponifiable fat, analogous to cholesterine. Sp. gr. 0780 to 0926.[41]
[Footnote 40: It has a "pleasant musk-like odour, which is supposed to be derived from the squid ('sepia moschata') on which the animal feeds," the "horny beaks" of which "are often found imbedded in the masses."
(Pereira.) It has a smell resembling that of dried cow-dung." (Redwood, 'Gray's Supplement,' 1857, p. 606.)]
[Footnote 41: Sp. gr 780 to 896--Brande; 908 to 920--Pereira.]
_Pur._ From the high price of genuine ambergris it is very frequently, if not nearly always, adulterated. When quite pure and of the best quality, it is--1. Nearly wholly soluble in hot alcohol and ether, and yields about 85% of ambreine:--2. It almost wholly volatilises at a moderate heat, and when burnt leaves no notable quantity of ashes; a little of it exposed in a silver spoon melts without bubble or scum; and on the heated point of a knife it is rapidly and entirely dissipated:--3. It is easily punctured with a heated needle, and on withdrawing it, not only should the odour be immediately evolved, but the needle should come out clean, without anything adhering to it (Normandy):--4. The Chinese are said to try its genuineness by scraping it fine upon the top of boiling tea. "It should dissolve (melt) and diffuse itself generally." Black or white is bad. The smooth and uniform is generally factitious.[42]
[Footnote 42: Ure's 'Dict. of A., M. & M.,' 5th Ed., i, 128.]
_Uses, &c._ It is highly prized for its odour, which is found greatly to improve and exalt that of other substances; hence its extensive use in perfumery. In _medicine_ it was formerly given as an aphrodisiac, in doses of 3 to 10 gr. "A grain or two, when rubbed down with sugar, and added to a hogshead of claret, is very perceptible in the wine, and gives it a flavour, by some considered as an improvement." (Brande.)
=Ambergris Facti"tious.= An article of this kind, met with in the shops, is thus made:--Orris-powder, spermaceti, and gum-benzoin, of each, 1 _lb._; asphaltum, 3 or 4 _oz._; ambergris, 6 _oz._; grain-musk, 3 _dr._; oil of cloves, 1 _dr._; oil of rhodium, 1/2 _dr._; liquor of ammonia, 1 _fl. oz._; beaten to a smooth hard mass with mucilage, and made into lumps whilst soft. This fraud is readily detected.
=AM'BREINE= (-bre-in). _Syn._ AMBREI'NA, L.; AMBREINE, Fr.; AMBARSTOFF, Ger. The fatty, odorous principle of ambergris.
_Prep._ Digest ambergris in hot alcohol (sp. gr. 0827) until the latter will dissolve no more, then filter. The AMBREINE will be deposited as the solution cools, in an irregular crystalline mass, which may be purified by recrystallisation in alcohol.
_Prop., &c._ Melts at about 90; volatilises at 212 to 220 Fahr.; nitric acid converts it into AMBREIC ACID. It closely resembles cholesterine.--_Prod._ 85%.
=AMBRETTE'= (-bret'). [Fr.] Musk-seed.
=AMBROSIA, RING'S VEGETABLE= (Tubbs, Peterborg, U.S.). A liquid with a sediment, containing 1 per cent. of lead. (Chandler.)
=AMEISEN BALSAM.= Von Dr Livingstone (Ahnelt, Charlottenburg). Balsam of ants. Castor oil, 72 grms.; balsam of Peru, 2 grms.; bergamot, 5 drops.
(Hager.)
=AMERICAN PILLS= (A. H. Boldt, Lexington). For full-blooded, corpulent persons, and for those of sedentary habits, for irregular menstruation, and against contagious diseases. Made of scammony, rhubarb, and soap.
(Schadler.)
=AMERICAN MEDICINES, Dr SAMPSON'S= (New York). Two kinds of pills of coca:--No. 1. 85 pills composed of coca extract and coca powder, and each pill containing about 0006 grm. of a morphia salt. No. 2. 50 pills, also of coca, and each containing 005 grm. of powdered iron. Both kinds are rolled in lycopodium. (Hager.)
=AMERICAN PILLS FOR ASTHMA.= Gilded pills made of gum ammoniacum.
=AMERICAN SCHAMPOO-FLUID FOR PROMOTING THE GROWTH OF THE HAIR.= Spirit of wine and rum, with some carbonate of ammonia and potash.
=AMERICAN DROPS FOR TOOTHACHE= (Majewsky, Warsaw) have been found of various composition. Some which profess to have taken a prize at the Vienna Exhibition were composed of French brandy, containing common salt, and coloured with cochineal. The first was a spirituous solution of an ethereal oil with some oil of cloves, coloured rather reddish; No. 2 was a similar solution with some oil of peppermint and tincture of rhatany; and No. 3 was merely a diluted solution of No. 2. (Hager.)
=AMERICAN UNIVERSAL BLOOD-PURIFYING HERB TEA= (Dr Kuhr), for women's diseases, hysteria, nervous debility, epilepsy, stomachic complaints, asthma, haemorrhoids, gout, rheumatism, worms, and much besides. White horehound, marsh mallow, liquorice wood, and sassafras, of each, 10 parts; anise, coriander and fennel, of each, 5 parts; red poppy petals, 4 parts; lavender flowers, 2 parts; senna, peppermint, millefoil flowers, and valerian root, of each, 1 part. (Kuhr and Selle.)
=AM'ETHYST= (-thist). _Syn._ PURPLE ROCK-CRYSTAL; AMeTHYSTE, Fr.; AMETHYS'TUS, L. A beautiful sub-species of quartz or rock crystal, of a violet-blue colour of varying intensity, in great request for cutting into seals, brooches, and other like articles of ornament. It was known and prized in the earliest ages of antiquity. Among the ancients, cups and vases were made out of this mineral; and it was an opinion of the Greeks and Persians, that an amethyst bound on the navel would counteract the effects of wine, and that wine drank out of an amethystine vessel would not intoxicate. See GEMS.
=Amethyst.= In _chromation_, _dyeing_, &c., a rich variety of deep violet colour. Hence, AMETHYST'INE (in), &c.
=Amethyst, Orient'al.= A rich violet-blue variety of transparent, crystallised corundum.
=AM'IANTH= (-e-anth). _Syn._ AMIANTH'US, AMIAN'TUS, L.; AMIANTE, Fr. The whiter and more delicate varieties of asbestos, particularly those which possess a satiny lustre.
=AM'IDIN= (-e-din). [Eng., Fr.] _Syn._ AM'YDINE; AMIDI'NA, L. A substance noticed by Saussure in starch-paste, when long kept. According to Caventou, it is formed at once by the action of boiling water on starch.
It forms the interior substance of the starch-grains, and its properties are intermediate between those of starch and gum. It is, indeed, the soluble part of starch, of which a perfect solution can only be obtained by prolonged ebullition in a large quantity of water.
=AMID'OGEN.= NH_{2}. Literally, the generator of amides; in _chemistry_, the name given by Kane to an hypothetical body, composed of two atoms of hydrogen and one of nitrogen. It forms AMIDES by combining with other bodies.
=Amidogen Ba'ses.= In _chemistry_, 'amines' in which only one equiv. of hydrogen is replaced by an organic radical; and hence called PRIMARY MON'AMINES.
=AMMONIA.= NH_{3}. _Syn._ AMMONIA GAS, AMMONIACAL GAS, ANHYDROUS AMMONIA, TERHYDRIDE OF NITROGEN; AMMONIAQUE, Fr.; AMMONIAK, Ger. At the present day the ammonia of commerce is chiefly prepared from the ammoniacal liquor of the gas-works and the manufactories of ivory black, animal charcoal, &c.
Lant or stale urine is also an important source of ammonia. In these places a large quantity of crude ammoniacal liquor is produced; to which either sulphuric or hydrochloric acid is added, by which it is converted into a salt, which may be obtained nearly pure by evaporation, and one or more crystallisations, and, in the case of the hydrochlorate and carbonate, subsequent sublimation. Other sources and processes have been sought out and occasionally adopted for the preparation of the principal salts of ammonia (its sulphate, carbonate, and hydrochlorate); some of which have been patented, but few of them have got into general use, or have been carried out on the large scale. For many years the manufacture of ammonia and its compounds has incessantly engaged the attention of European chemists.
Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to directly convert the nitrogen of the atmosphere into ammonia. Of these we may mention one which consisted in passing a mixture of nitrogen, carbonic oxide and steam over red-hot hydrate of lime, whereby ammonia and carbonic acid are formed. A plan for the indirect application of atmospheric nitrogen in the preparation of ammonia was suggested by Margueritte, in which it was proposed that cyanide of barium should be prepared, and its nitrogen converted into ammonia by the aid of a current of superheated steam at 600 C. According to the description of this process in a patent, not, however, in practice, native carbonate of baryta is calcined with about 30% of coal-tar, for the purpose of rendering the mass porous as well as more readily converted into caustic baryta at a lower temperature. The carbonaceous mass is, after cooling, placed in a retort, and kept at a temperature of 300 C., while air and aqueous vapour are forced in, the result being the formation of ammonia in considerable quantity, and carbonate of baryta, which is again used.
Ammonia is evolved from ball soda while cooling; during the formation of cyanogen and cyanide of potassium in blast furnaces; and the formation of sal-ammoniac in the process of iron smelting.
Ammonia, in a state of combination, is found, in variable quantities, among the saline product of volcanoes, in sea and rain water, in bituminous coal, in urine, in guano, and in the atmosphere, especially that of large towns. The minute stellated crystals sometimes found on dirty windows in London, and other populous cities, consist of sulphate of ammonia. It is also found in clayey and peaty soils, and in minute quantity in good air and water. (Brande; Fownes; Letheby.) In the free state it exists in the juices of some plants, and in the living blood of animals, and it is freely developed during the decomposition of azotised vegetable substances, and during the putrefaction of animal matter.
[Illustration]
_Prep._ A mixture of fresh hydrate of lime with an equal weight of sal ammoniac (both dry and in fine powder) is introduced into a glass flask or retort, the beak of which communicates with one end of a U-shaped tube filled with small fragments of recently burnt quick-lime, and from which extends another glass tube, about 18 inches long, having its further end bent up ready to be placed under a gas-jar, on the shelf of a mercurial pneumatic trough. (See _engr._) The joints being all made air-tight by collars of india rubber, heat is applied by means of a spirit-lamp, and as soon as the air contained in the apparatus is expelled, the gas is collected for use. It cannot be dried by means of chloride of calcium.
Powdered quick-lime may be substituted for the hydrate in the above process; in which case the evolved gas is anhydrous, but a much greater heat is then required for its liberation.
_Comp._ Ammonia is a compound of 3 volumes of hydrogen, and 1 vol. of nitrogen, condensed into two volumes; and by weight of 8235 parts of nitrogen, 1765 parts of hydrogen, or, in other words, of one atomic weight of nitrogen and three of hydrogen, having the formula NH_{3}.