400 A M B 
iohible in fixed alkalies, nor in effential nor exprefled oils, 
without fome decompofition and long digeftion ; but bal- 
fams diffolve it readily; 75 grains of it alkalize 100 of 
nitre ; by diftillation it affords a fraall quantity of water, 
an oil of the nature of petrol, and a peculiar acid. 
Amber having been formerly confidered as a valuable 
fubffance, and the fp.ecimens, which are large, or contain 
entire or perfect infers within them, being (till of conli- 
derable price, the methods of foftening it j’o as to intro¬ 
duce thefc extraneous bodies, or of uniting fmaller pieces 
together, have been kept as profitable fecrets, if it be 
true that they ever were difcovered. It is faid that two 
pieces of this fubffance may be united by wetting them 
with oil of tartar, and applying them together with heat ; 
and Wallerius mentions, that pieces of yellow amber may 
be foftened, formed into one, and even diffolved, by 
means-of oil of turnip-feed, in a gentle heat ; and that, 
according to fome authors, it may be rendered tranfparent 
by boiling in rape-feed oil, linfeed oil, fait water, See. 
Neumann, however, denies that either fait water or lin¬ 
feed oi! produce this eff’eft ; though he ffates, as the com¬ 
mon praftices of workmen, the following methods: the 
one confifts in furrounding the amber with fand in an iron 
pot, and cementing it with a gradual fire for forty hours, 
fome fmall pieces placed near the (ides of the veil'd being 
occafionally taken out for judging of the efFed of the ope¬ 
ration ; the fecond method, which he fays is that molt 
generally praftifed, is by digefting and boiling the amber 
about twenty hours with rape-feed oil, by which it is ren¬ 
dered both clear and hard. 
Amber is principally of two colours, w hite and yellow. 
The white is the molt effeemed for medicinal purpofes, 
as being the molt odoriferous, and containing the greateft 
quantity of volatile fait; though the yellow is mod valued by 
thofe who manufacture beads and other toys with it, by rea- 
fon of its tranfparency. Amber is the balls of all varniffies, 
by folution in the way deferibed under the article Varnish. 
Could amber be diffolved without impairing its tranfpa¬ 
rency, the art of embalming might poffibly be carried to a 
great height by it, if we cottld-preferve the human corpfe 
in a tranfparent cafe of amber, as the bodies of flies, (pi- 
ders, grallioppers, &c. are to a great perfection. Some¬ 
thing of a fubftitute of this kind we have in fine rolin ; 
which being diffolved by heat, and the bodies of fmall 
animals feveral times dipped in it, they are thus coated 
with colophony, that in feme degree refembles amber; 
but this muff be kept from duff. 
Amber in fubffance lias been much recommended as a 
nervous and cordial medicine; and alleged to be very 
efficacious in promoting the menftrual diicharge, and the 
excltiiion of the fcetus and fecundines in labour : but, as 
in its crude (late it is quite infoluble by our juices, it cer¬ 
tainly can have very little effeCt on the animal fyffetn, and 
therefore it is now feldom given in fubffance. The forms 
in whicli amber is prepared are, a tinCture, a fait, and an 
oil, the preparations and ufes of which are deferibed in 
the proper place under the article Pharmacy. 
AM'BERBOI, f . in botany. See Centaurea. 
AM'BER-TREE,yi in botany. See Anthospermum. 
AM'BERG, a city of Germany, the capital of the pa¬ 
latinate of Bavaria, with a good callle, ramparts, baftions, 
and deep ditches. It is feated near the confines of Fran¬ 
conia, on the river Ills, forty miles E. of Nuremburg. It 
drives a great trade in iron and other metals, found in the 
neighbouring mountains. Lat. 49. 30 N. ion. 12. 7. E, 
AM'BERGREASE, Ambergrise, or Grey Am¬ 
ber, f . [amber gris , Fr.] is a folid, opake, affi-coloured, 
fatty, inflammable, fubffance* variegated like marble, re* 
markably light, rugged and uneven in its furface, and 
has a fragrant odour when heated. It is found in the fea, 
Or on the fpa-coaff, or in the fand near the fea-coaff; efpe- 
cially in the Atlantic Ocean, on the fea-coaff of Brazil, 
and that of Madagafcar; or. the coaft of Africa,, of the 
Eaft Indies, China, Japan, and the Molucca iflands; but 
molt of the amtergreafe which is brought to England 
A M B 
comes from the Bahama iflands, from Providence, &c> 
where it is found on the coaft. It is alfo found in the ab¬ 
domen of whales by the whale-filhermen, always in lumps 
of various (hapes and lizes, weighing from half an ounce; 
to an hundred and more pounds. 
There have been many different opinions concerning the 
origin of this fubffance. It has been fuppofed to be a foil!I 
bitumen or nephtha, exfuding out of the bowels of the 
earth in a fluid form, and diftilling into the fea, where it 
hardens and floats on the furface. But the moft Satisfac¬ 
tory account of-the real origin of ambergreafe is given by 
Dr. Swediar, in the Philofophical Tranfaffions for 1783. 
We are told by all writers on ambergreafe, thaffome- 
times claws and beaks of birds, feathers of birds, parts 
of vegetables, (hells, fifli, and bones of fifft, are found ia 
the middle of it, or varioufly mixed with it. Of a very- 
large quantity of pieces, however, which the doctor exa¬ 
mined, he found none that contained any fuch thing ; 
though lie allows that fuch fubffances may fometimes bo* 
found in it; but, in all the pieces of any confiderable lize, 
whether found on the fea or in the whale, he conftantly 
found a confiderable quantity of black fpots, which, after 
the molt careful examination, appeared to be the beaks of 
the fepia cElopodia ; and thefe beaks, he thinks, might be. 
the fubffances which have hitherto been always miftaken 
for claws or beaks of birds, or for (bells. 
According to the belt information Dr. Swediar could 
obtain from feveral of tiie moft intelligent perfons employ¬ 
ed in the fpermaceti-whale-fifhery, and in procuring and 
felling ambergreafe, it appears, that this fubffance is found, 
in the belly of the whale, but in that particular fpecies. 
only which is called the fpermaceti whale , and which, front, 
its defeription and delineation, appears to be the phyfeter- 
macroccphalus Linnaei. The New England fifhermen, accord¬ 
ing to their account, have long known that ambergreafe is 
to be found in the fpermaceti whale; and they are fo con¬ 
vinced of this fact, that whenever they hear of a place; 
where ambergreafe is found, they always conclude that the 
feas in that part are frequented by this fpecies of whale. 
The perfons who are employed in the fpermaceti-whaie- 
fifhery, confine their views for ambergreafe to the phyfeter 
rnacrocephalus. Whenever they hook a fpermaceti w hale, 
they obferve, that it conftantly not only vomits up what¬ 
ever it has in its ftoniach, but alfo generally difeharges its 
faeces at.the fame time; and, if this latter circujmftance 
takes place, they are generally difappointed in finding am- 
bergreafe in its belly. But w henever they difeover a fper¬ 
maceti whale, male or female, which feems torpid and 
fickly, they are always pretty fure to find ambergreafe, as 
the whale in this ftate feldom voids its fieces upon being 
hooked. They likewife generally meet with it in the dead 
fpermaceti whales, which they lbmetimes find floating on 
the fea. It is obferved alfo, that the whale in which they 
find ambergreafe often has a morbid protuberance, or, 
as they exprefs it, a kind of gathering, in the lower part of 
its belly, in which, if cut open, ambergreafe is found. It 
is obferved, that all thofe whales in whofe bowels am¬ 
bergreafe is found, feem not only torpid and ftek, but 
are alio conftantly leaner than others; fo that, if we may 
judge from the conftant union of thefe two circumftances, 
it would feem that a larger colie&ion of ambergreafe in, 
the belly of the whale is a fource of difeafe, and probably, 
fometimes the caufe of its death. As foon as they hook a 
whale of this defeription, torpid, fickly, emaciated, or 
one that does not dung on being hooked, they immediately 
either cut tip the above-mentioned protuberance, if there 
be any, or they rip open its bowels from the orifice of the 
anus, and find the ambergreafe fometimes in one fome¬ 
times in different lumps, of generally from three to twelve 
and more inches in diameter, and from one pound tQ 
twenty or thirty pounds in weight, at the diftance of two, 
but moft frequently of about iix or feven, feet from the 
anus, and never higher up in the inteftinal canal; which, 
according to their defeription, is in all probability the in- 
teftiuum caecum, hitherto miftaken for a peculiar bag 
3, made 
