A M A 



alumina has been subjected have 

 clearly shewn that it is a metallic 

 oxide. 



ALTJ'MOCALCITE. An earthy mineral 

 consisting of silica 86, alumina 3, 

 lime 7, and water 4. Spec, gravity 

 2 1 74. It is of a milk-white color, 

 inclining to blue. Practure con- 

 ch oidal. It adheres to the lip 

 when moistened. It is met with 

 in the clefts of iron-stone veins. 



ALVE'OLAR. (alveolus, Lat.) Con- 

 taining sockets, pits, hollows, or 

 cavities. 



ALVE'OLATE. Pitted or honey-combed. 



ALVEOLI'NA. A genus of microscopic 

 foraminiferous shells. 



ALVE'OLITES. (The name given by 

 Lamarck to a genus of corals. One 

 species, found in the Upper Ludlow 

 Rock and Aymestry Limestone, has 

 been named A fibrosa, by Mr. 

 Lonsdale.) A lapidaceous polypifer, 

 either incrusting or in a free mass, 

 composed of many concentric tables, 

 involving each other. The tables 

 are formed of tubulous, alveolar, 

 prismatic, short, contiguous, and 

 parallel cellules, connected ex- 

 ternally in a net- work. Lamarck. 



ALVE'OLUS. (alveolus, Lat. alveole, Pr. 

 alveolo, It.) A socket for a tooth ; 

 a small cavity or cell ; the cell of 

 the honey- comb. 



AMA'LGAM. (from a^a, together, and 

 ryo/iew, to marry.) A compound of 

 any metal with mercury. When 

 two or more metals, neither being 

 mercury, are mixed together, the 

 compound is termed an alloy, but 

 when mercury enters into the com- 

 position it is called an amalgam, 

 and its derivation has been supposed 

 to be from yttaXa^/ta, or pakaaaw, to 

 soften, which derivation appears to 

 be more correct than that of John- 

 son, and lexicographers generally. 



AMALGAMATE, (amalgamer, Pr. amal- 

 gamare, It.) 



1. To mix mercury with any other 

 metal. 



16] 



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2. To mix any two substances 

 capable of uniting into one body. 

 AMALGAMA'TION. (amalgamation, Fr. 

 amalgamazione, It.) 



1 . The act of mixing mercury with 

 other metals. 



2. The act of blending different 

 bodies. 



AMA'LTHTJS. A species of ammonite, 

 established by Montford. 



A'MAZON-STONE. A variety of prismatic 

 felspar, of a blue or green colour. 



A'MBER. (amlar, Arab.) A fossil 

 resin. For a great length of time, 

 various were the opinions as to the 

 nature and composition of amber, 

 but it is now well ascertained to be 

 a fossilized vegetable resin. It is 

 found in similar localities with coal 

 and jet. It is brittle, easily cut 

 with a knife, of various shades of 

 yellow, sometimes nearly white, 

 and semi-transparent : insects are 

 frequently found enclosed in it, and 

 Jussieu states that these are not 

 European. M. de Prance mentions 

 a piece of amber, about the thick- 

 ness of one's thumb, in which 

 twenty-eight insects were distinctly 

 to be seen, such as ants, tipula?, 

 small coleoptera, and a curculio. 

 Its constituent parts are carbon 

 70-68, hydrogen 11-62, oxygen 

 7.77. Amber is found in nodular 

 masses, which are sometimes eight- 

 een inches in circumference ; that 

 which is found on the eastern 

 shores of England, and on the 

 coasts of Prussia and Sicily, is 

 derived from beds of lignite in 

 tertiary strata. Fragments of fossil 

 gum were found near London, in 

 digging the tunnel through the 

 London clay at Highgate. In the 

 royal cabinet of Berlin there is a 

 lump of amber, discovered in Lith- 

 uania, weighing eighteen pounds. 

 Amber is one of the most electric 

 substances known; when submitted 

 to distillation, it yields an acid 

 sublimate, which has received the 

 name of succinic acid. Ten pounds 



