144 



AMPHITRITE -AMRETSIR. 



tin' middle was the arena, a large place covered 

 with sand, on which the frills \\erc exhibited. 

 Hound aUnil were the vaults or caves, in which the 

 niiiiuals were kept ; above these was the gallery, 

 t'nuii which asceiuleil Miccc-si\i- rows of seats, each 

 of greater height and circumference than the pre- 

 ceding. The fourteen first were for the senators 

 ami judges, the others for the common people. In 

 the year 709 from the building of the city, Julius 

 Csar erected the first large amphitheatre at Rome, 

 for his gladiatorial exhibitions. It. was of wood, 

 and was pulled down after it had Ix-en used. Sui- 

 tilius Taurus twenty years later, built the first 

 alone one. Tlie Coliseum (q. v ), at Rome, is the 

 1 truest of all the ancient amphitheatres. In Verona 

 there is one, the interior of which still shows the 

 whole ancient architecture, and is carefully pre- 

 served ; it is called there arena. Of all the Roman 

 antiquities "one lias withstood the effects of time so 

 well as tliis remarkable building. The form is 

 oval, and the architecture is in the taste of the 

 Coliseum at Koine. There is another at Pola. 



AMI-IIITRITK; daughter of Oceanns and Tethys, 

 or of Nereus and Doris. Neptune wished to make 

 her his wife, and, as she hid herself from him, he 

 sent, a dolphin to find her, which brought her to 

 him, and received as a reward a place among the 

 stars. As a goddess and queen of the sea, she is 

 represented as drawn in a chariot of shells by 

 Tritons, or riding on a dolphin, with the trident of 

 Neptune in her hand. 



AMPHITRYON ; king of Thebes, son of Alcaeus, 

 and husband of Alcmena. Plautus, after him 

 Molicrc, and, still later, Falk and Kleist, have 

 made the trick played upon him by Jupiter (see 

 slkmena) the subject of amusing comedies, in which 

 the return of the true A., and his meeting with the 

 false one, occasion several humorous scenes at the 

 palace and in the city. The French give this name 

 to a courteous host. 



AMPLIFICATION, in rhetoric ; the part of a speech 

 wherein circumstances are enumerated and dwelt 

 upon to excite the minds of the auditors. Some 

 writers on rhetoric understand by amplification only 

 the explanation of a subject by examples. The 

 Greek and Roman rhetorical writers meant by it a 

 mode of adding to or detracting from the dignity of 

 a subject by an accumulation of words or ideas. 

 Longinus defines amplification the collection of all 

 the circumstances connected with a subject, in order 

 to give force to that which is already proved. The 

 amplification generally embraces both these objects. 

 Cicero and other ancient orators make the ampli- 

 Jicatio and enumeratio (recapitulation) essential to a 

 speech. In this case, amplification, also called 

 exaggeratio, embraces only the concluding strokes 

 by which the orator sought to heighten the effect of 

 what he had said. Every one, who makes use of 

 this rhetorical figure, ought to remember the simple 

 and just remark of Boileau : 



Tout ce qu'on dit de trop est fade et rebutant. 



AMPLITUDE, in astronomy ; the distance of any 

 celestial body, or other object (when referred by a 

 secondary circle to the hprizonjj.from the east or 

 west points ; the complement to the amplitude, or 

 the distance from the north or south point, is called 

 the azimuth. Amplitude denotes, also, with refer- 

 ence to the direction of the magnetic needle, or 

 compass, the arc of the horizon contained between 

 the sun or a star, at its rising or setting, and the 

 magnetical east or west points of the horizon ; or it 

 is the difference of the rising or setting of the sun or 

 star from the east or west points of the compass. 



In gunnery, amplilwfr is sometimes used for the 

 range of a shell, or other proji ctile, from its depar- 

 ture out of the mouth of the piece to the place where 

 it falls. Tims the French engineers speak of the 

 amplitude de puraboli; &C. 



A.Mri'i.i.A, in antiquity ; a vessel bellying out like 

 a jug, that contained unctions tortile bath; also a 

 vessel tor drinking at table. In ecclesiastical rites, 

 the ampulla was employed for several purposes, such 

 as holding the oil for chrismatiou, consecration, ^c., 

 also for anointing mpnarchs at their coronation. In 

 England anil France, a VWMl of this kind is still in 

 use for the last mentioned purpose. The French 

 ampulla wasat Rheims, the archbishop of which per- 

 forms the coronation of the French kings. A dove, 

 it was said, brought this ampulla from heaven for tin- 

 baptismal unction of the crafty Clovis I., in !!)(>. In 

 the revolution, this ampulla was lost ; and it is said 

 tliat a soldier oiled his boots with the miraculous li- 

 quid. On the late coronation of Charles X., the 

 public papers stated that a phial containing some ot 

 this unction had survived the catastrophe. The am- 

 pulla of the English kings, now in use, is an eagle 

 weighing about ten ounces, of the purest cliascd 

 gold. Having passed through various hands to the 

 Slack Prince j it was by him deposited in the tower. 

 Henry IV. is the first king who was anointed from 

 iU See Anointing. 



AMPUTATION, in surgery ; that operation by which 

 a member is separated from the body according ui 

 the rules of the science. Though the medical art 

 endeavours to prevent the necessity of amputation, 

 yet many cases arise in which it is absolutely neces- 

 sary, in order to save the life of the patient. It may 

 be considered as one of the greatest victories which 

 science and skill have gained over barbarism. There 

 is no decisive proof tliat Hippocrates ever performed 

 this operation. A. C. Celsus, who lived under Ti- 

 berius, lias left a short description, in his book De 

 Re Medico, of the mode of amputating gangrenous 

 limbs. Paulus iEgineta, about eight centuries after- 

 wards, suggests little improvement. The Arabians 

 seem to have made little progress in the art of sup- 

 pressing the bleeding after the amputation, which 

 was still the most important desideratum. The 

 greatest improvements were introduced by Pari, a 

 French surgeon, in the 16th century, since whose 

 time amputation has been performed with much skill 

 among all civilized nations, and, in the latest times, 

 with a boldness at which former ages would have 

 shuddered, and with great precision and success. 

 The late wars in Europe have advanced this branch 

 of the surgical art, perhaps, more than any former 

 period, by the number and variety of the cases re - 

 quiring amputation, which they have presented. 

 Increasing knowledge of anatomy lias continually 

 increased the boldness of the operator. 



AMRETSIR, i. e. the pool of immortality ; formerly 

 called Chak, a town of Hindostan, in the provinc..- 

 of Lahore, the principal place of the religious wor- 

 ship of the Seiks. It is, on account of its favourable 

 situation, between Cabul and Delhi, Cashmere and 

 the Deccan, a place of great trade ; but its chief 

 importance is derived from the sacred pond, con- 

 structed by Ram Dass (one of the earlier pontiffs of 

 the Seik faith), in which the Seiks and other Hindoo 

 tribes immerse themselves, that they may be purified 

 from all sin. This holy basin is 135 paces square, 

 built of brick, having in its centre a temple dedi- 

 cated to the Hindoo saint Gooroo Govind Singh. 

 Under a silken canopy, in this temple, is deposited 

 the saint's book of religion and laws, called Granfh. 

 The voluntary contributions of pilgrims and devo- 

 tees support this place, to which 600 priests are at- 

 tached. 



