A M A 
A M £ 
€5 
nt one?. Thus, to strike amain is to lower, 
or let fall the top-sails . 1 
AMALGAM, a mass, of mercury united 
and incorporated with some other metal. 
Amalgams grow soft with heat and hard 
with cold; and the metals amalgamated with 
mercury, assume a consistence harder or 
softer, 111 proportion to the quantity of mer- 
curv employed in the amalgam. 
Amalgams are used either to render a me- 
tal tit to be extended on some works, as in 
gilding; or else to reduce the metal into a 
very subtile powder. 
T hus gilders, to lay gold on any other 
metal, dissolve it in hot mercury; which 
done, they apply the solution on the body to 
be gilt, then setting it over the coals, the 
mercury evaporates, and leaves the gold ad- 
hering to the body like a crust. 
The amalgams of gold, silver, tin, lead, 
zinc, bismuth, and copper, are all white ; and 
wnen the proportion of the quantity of the 
other liiqtal to that of mercury is considerable, 
they form a kind of paste. 
AMALGAMATION, in chemistry, the 
operation of making an amalgam, or of mix- 
ing quicksilver with some metal, is performed 
by fusing, or at least igniting the metal, and 
in tliis state adding a proportion of mercury 
to it; upon which they mutually attract and 
incorporate with each other. 
Of all metals, gold unites with mercury 
. with the greatest facility ; next to that, silver ; 
then lead, tin, and every metal, except iron 
and copper, the last of which incorporates 
with quicksilver with great difficulty, and 
, the'former scarcely at all. 
The amalgam of gold is thus made : take a 
dram of gold, beat it into very thin plates, 
and upon these, heated in a crucible red-hot, 
pour an ounce of quicksilver; stir the matter 
with an iron rod, and when it begins to fume, 
east it into an earthen pan tilled with water, 
and it will coagulate and become tractable. 
Gold will retain about thrice its weight of 
mercury. 
To make an amalgam of lead : melt clean 
lead in an iron ladle, add to it an equal 
weight of melted mercury, stir them to- 
gether with an iron rod, then let them cool, 
and you will have an uniform mass of a silver 
colour, somewhat hard, but growing softer 
and softer by trituration. Put this mass into 
a glass mortar, grind it, and mix with it anv 
.quantity of mercury at pleasure, and it will 
unite with it, as salt with water. 
The amalgam of tin is made exactly in the 
same manner, and this also may be "diluted 
by the addition of mercury. 
To have an amalgam’of copper, take a solu- 
tion of pure copper, made in aquafortis, so 
strong that the aquafortis could dissolve no 
more of the metal; dilute the solution w T ith 
twelve times its quantity of water ; heat the 
liquor, and put into it polished plates of iron, 
and the copper will be precipitated in a 
powder to the bottom, while the iron will be 
dissolved : proceed thus till all the copper is 
fallen, pour off the liquor, wash the powder 
with hot water, till it becomes perfectly in- 
sipid ; then dry the powder, and grind it in 
a glass mortar with an equal weight of hot 
quicksilver, and they will unite into an amal- 
gam, which will also receive a further ad- 
dition of mercury. An amalgam of copper 
in any other way is very difficult to make. 
Pure silver precipitated from aquafortis, 
VoL. I. 
A M A 
may in the same manner be made into an 
amalgam. 
From these operations we may perceive 
that the making of amalgams is "the found- 
ation of the art of gilding, both in gold and 
silver, and that, metals by that art may be 
mixed, confounded, and secretly concealed 
among one another. 
Amalgams are also used in electricity ; the 
rubber being always prepared by laving on 
it a small quantity of amalgam, which is in 
general made of zinc, triturated with tallow, 
bee Electricity. An amalgam of tin and 
mercury is used for looking-glasses. In this 
case, the glass-plate is laid on an even board, 
on which is spread very evenly some tin-foil, 
and on the tin-foil is spread quicksilver: the 
glass is then laid on the quicksilver, and a 
number of leaden weights, covered with 
baize or flannel, are laid upon the glass ; in 
this state it remains several days, till the tin 
and quicksilver, in the state of amalgam, 
adhere firmly to the glass, by means of which 
it acquires the power of reflection. 
AMAN, a sort of blue cotton cloth, which 
cornea from the Levant by the way of 
Aleppo. 
AMARANTA, or Amarante, an order 
of knighthood, instituted in 1653, bv Chris- 
tina queen of Sweden, in memory of a mas- 
querade, in which she had assumed that 
name, which signifies unfading, or immor- 
tal. 
AMARANTHUS, in botany, the name 
of a genus of plants, sometimes called prince’s 
feather, the flower of w hich is rosaceous, and 
its fruit an oval or roundish capsule, con- 
taining only one large seed of a roundish 
compressed shape. The characters are: the 
male calyx is a five or three leaved perian- 
th urn, erect, coloured, and persistent : there 
is no corolla : the stamina consist of five or 
three erect capillary filaments, the length of 
the calyx ; the anthera are oblong and ver- 
satile: the female calyx the same as the 
male, and no corolla : the pistillum has an 
ovate germen; the styli are three, short and 
subulated ; the stigmata simple and persist- 
ent : the pericarpium is an ovate capsule, 
three-beaked, unilocular, and cut round : the 
seed is one, globular, compressed, and large. 
Of this there are 29 species-; the most re- 
markable, of which are : 
Amaranthus bicolor, melancholicus, ortwo- 
coloured amaranthus. This greatly resembles 
the tricolor in its manner of growth ; but 
the leaves have only tw r o colours, which are 
an obscure purple, and a bright crimson. 
These are so splendid, as to set off each ci- 
ther, and when the plants are vigorous, make 
a fine appearance. Amaranthus maximus, or 
tree-like amaranthus, grows with a strong 
stem to the height of seven or eight feet. 
Amaranthus oleraceus, with obtuse indented 
leaves. This lias no beauty ; but it is used 
by the Indians as a substitute for cabbage. 
Amaranthus tricolor, or three-coloured ama- 
ranthus. This has been long cultivated in 
gardens on account of the beauty of its va- 
riegated leaves, which are green, yellow,, and 
red, very elegantly mixed. The amaranths 
are all annual. 
AMARYLLIS, a genus of the hexandria 
monogynia class and order, of the natural 
order of lilia, which ffi its fiow'er it 
resembles. The essential character is co- 
rolla hexapelaloid, irregular ; filaments in- 
serted into the throat of the tube, bending 
down, unequal in proportion or direction. 
There are 29 species, all of them highly 
ornamental, but only one, the A. lutea, per- 
fectly hardy in this country. The A. regina, 
the vittata, the jac-obea, belladonna, and 
Guernsey lily, are well known in the stoves 
and green-houses of the curious in plants. 
To describe them is impossible, but no 
llowers are more beautiful. 
AMASOMIA, a genus of the didynamia 
angiqspermia class and order. The corolla 
is or.e-petalied : and the essential character is 
corolla tubulous ; limb small, quinquefid : 
the seed is a nut, ovate and one-celled. 
We know of but one species, the erecka, a 
native of Surinam. The stem is herbaceous, 
and grows tb the height of three feet. 
AMAUROSIS, among physicians, a dis- 
temper of the. eye otherwise called guita 
screna. 
AMAUSA, a name given by chemists t» 
the pastes used in countefeiting gems. 
AMAZONS, an antient nation of women, 
inhabiting that part of Lesser Asia, now called 
Amasia. 
The Amazons are said to have killed all 
their male children, and to have cut off the 
right breasts of their females, to lit them for 
martial exercises. The existence, however, 
of such a nation is controverted by the most 
judicious authors, particularly Mr. Bryant, 
and defended by others, particularly Mr. 
Petit, a French physician, w ho has published 
a dissertation on the subject, wherein are se- 
veral curious inquiries concerning their arms, 
dress, &e. 
We also read of Scythian Amazons, of 
German Amazons, of Lybian Amazons, and 
Amazons of America, living on the banks of 
the great river which bears their name, who 
are represented as governed by a queen, no 
men being permitted to live among tfieni ; 
only, at a certain season, those of the neigh- 
bouring nations are suffered to visit them. 
The Amazons of Lybia are famous for their 
wars with another female nation, called Gor- 
gons. The whole of these stories appear to us 
little better than fabulous. 
AMAZON E, a very line antique statue, 
in Parian marble, in the gallery of antiques at 
Paris. There is also a beautiful statue of the 
queen of the Amazons at Wilton, represented 
in 'a warlike attitude, which w'as executed by 
Cleomenes. 
AMBE, among surgeons, an instrument 
for reducing dislocated bones, consisting of a 
horizontal lever, moved by a hinge, upon a 
vertical standard or foot. 
Am be, among anatomists, a term used for 
the superficial jutting out of a bone. 
AMBER is a bituminous concrete, of a 
yellow or brown colour, and more or less 
transparent. In its colour, however, there is 
considerable ya.icty ; some pieces being clear 
and transparent, some opaque and whitish, 
some dark coloured ; the most valued speci- 
mens are of a pale yellow colour. On being 
slightly rubbed, it acquires electric powers. 
Only a small portion of it is dissolved by spirit 
of wine. It affords the most remarkable 
phenomena when exposed to heat. Being 
rubbed, the odour of it that exhales resembles 
the aromatic resinous substances, and is in- 
creased. In a greater heat it acquires a 
brown colour, emits some steams, and under- 
goes a state oi fusion. It then becomes. quite 
