AMNESTY 



:uore tlum a quarter of a million 

 H'is<i:in positions in twenty- 

 four h L.R.G. 



The guns which demand the ammunition de- 

 scribed above, from the rapid-firing machine 

 guns to the terribly-destructive howitzers, are 

 described under the title ARTILLERY. 



AMNESTY, am' ncsti, a term taken from 

 the Greek word for forget fulness, used in Eng- 

 lish with much the same meaning, though in 

 a very special sense which implies both for- 

 giving and forgetting. When a number of peo- 

 ple have taken part in wrong-doing against a 

 government, and the government feels that 

 they have been punished enough or should be 

 spared punishment altogether, it proclaims an 

 amnesty, or act of forgetfulness, which makes 

 the wrong-doing as if it had never been. Some- 

 times there are conditions attached which must 

 be observed, but more often the pardon is 

 free. Thus in 1863 President Lincoln issued a 

 proclamation of amnesty, offering forgiveness 

 to those who had been engaged in the War of 

 Secession if they would swear to support the 

 United States government; but in 1868 Presi- 

 dent Johnson issued another proclamation, 

 which pardoned all without making them take 

 such an oath. 



AMOEBA, a me' ba, the name of an animal 

 that belongs to the lowest division of the ani- 

 mal kingdom, the Protozoa (which see). It is 

 composed of only one cell and on this account 

 it has been an interesting subject of study for 

 men of science. It affords a splendid way of 

 studying the structure of the cell and some of 

 the processes that go on in a living cell. For 

 the same kind of cell structure is found also 

 in higher animals. See CELL. 



The amoeba is very small, being only about 

 one hundredth part of an inch in diameter, and 

 can be seen only by the aid of a microscope. 



AMOEBAE 



It lies in shallow waters, either fresh or salt. 

 It appears as a shapeless, naked mass of proto- 

 plasm (which see), between whose particles 

 are tiny spaces filled with water. In the center 



AMPERE 



of it is a small brown mass which is a little 

 denser and darker than the rest and which 

 is the nucleus of the cell. 



When observed under the microscope an 

 amoeba is seen to be constantly moving. The 

 movement is accomplished in a peculiar way. 

 It sends out in various parts of the body little 

 finger-like projections called pscudopodia 

 (which means false feet). It then pushes for- 

 ward these projections in some parts of the 

 body and retracts those in the opposite parts. 

 Cells which have the peculiarity of moving in 

 the same way are called amoeboid. Such cells 

 are the white corpuscles in the blood of hi i man 

 beings. 



When an amoeba has reached a certain size 

 it divides into two. This division starts first 

 in the nucleus and then in the other mass of 

 protoplasm, until it forms two amoebae. 



AMOY, amoi' , one of the five Chinese ports 

 thrown open to foreign commerce by a treaty 

 between England and China in 1842. It is 

 situated on the island of the same name, to the 

 west of Formosa, at the mouth of the Kelung 

 River. It has an excellent harbor and was for- 

 merly the center of the tea trade of China. The 

 tea that was sunk in Boston harbor in 1773 

 came from Amoy, and all the tea grown in the 

 island of Formosa was sent there for reship- 

 ment until the harbor of Kelung assumed im- 

 portance. Considerable commerce is still car- 

 ried on, however, the principal imports being 

 opium, cotton, indigo and grain; the chief ex- 

 ports, tea, camphor, sugar, paper and earthen- 

 ware. The business section is well built with 

 good docks, warehouses and office buildings, but 

 the native quarter is squalid and unhealthful. 

 Flourishing mission stations have long been 

 maintained in Amoy, where the animosity 

 against the " foreign devils," as all Europeans 

 are called, is not so strong as in the interior of 

 the country. 



In the seventeenth century the Portuguese 

 traded considerably with Amoy, but they were 

 driven out on account of cruelty and debauch- 

 ery. The British captured the town in 1841 and 

 compelled the Chinese to grant trading facili- 

 ties. Population in 1911, about 114,000, of 

 whom only 300 were Europeans. 



AMPERE, ampchr' , the unit of strength or 

 intensity of an electric current. An electric 

 current is frequently compared to a current of 

 water, but there is one important difference. 

 Water can be measured in gallons, and the 

 strength of its current can be actually seen as 

 the water flows. Electricity, however, is in- 



