tected only by the effects of total blindness. 
Amaurosis is usually produced by determination 
of blood to the head, and therefore sometimes 
follows the disease called staggers. The pressure 
of blood on the base of the brain first injures the 
optic nerve, and then destroys its function. Any 
attempt to cure or alleviate amaurosis in the ox 
or the sheep would be absurd; and the instant it 
is ascertained to exist, the animal must be de- 
stroyed. Successful treatments of it in the case 
of the horse are on record, but very rarely occur. 
The seat of the disease is beyond our reach ; and 
any effect produced on it must be achieved 
through the medium of the constitution. The 
most feasible remedies are bleeding, purging, and 
the administering of strychnine,—the last, noon 
and night, in doses first of half a grain, and after- 
wards cautiously and watchfully increased to two 
grains. But the proprietor of the animal ought 
to consider whether the exceedingly slender hope 
of success be worth the trouble and expense of 
attempting a cure. A blind horse is worth some- 
thing, and might be damaged, as well as need- 
lessly pained, by any such amount of operating 
on his constitution as might have even the slight- 
est probability of restoring his optic nerve. 
AMBER. A remarkable substance found in 
Prussia, which has for more than three thousand 
years excited the curiosity of naturalists and the 
avidity of traders. It is uncertain even at pre- 
sent whether it belongs to the animal or to the 
vegetable kingdom ; almost all writers agree that 
it forms no part of the mineral. It is a sort of 
solid bitumen, very light, of a vitreous conchoidal 
fracture, and generally of a milky white, or yel- 
low colour ; although it is sometimes found brown 
or black, and sometimes quite opaque. It is com- 
bustible, evaporates, and, when heated or rubbed, 
diffuses an agreeable odour. Swuccin is that sort 
which is most crystallized and transparent ; and 
what the Prussians term amber has a less vitreous 
fracture and a more earthy appearance. From 
electron, the Greek word for amber, is derived 
the term electricity ; so that an insignificant fos- 
sil has, from its power of attracting light bodies, 
given its name to the cause of the most imposing 
and terrible phenomena in nature,— 
‘¢ The lightning’s lurid glare, and thunder’s awful 
crash.” 
Heinitz supposes that its formation must be 
attributed to forests submerged by the ocean, 
and afterwards covered with sand; the resinous 
particles, being distilled into amber, and the rest 
of the wood forming a residuum, or caput mor- 
tuum. And what strengthens this supposition is, 
that wood is generally found near it, which ren- 
ders its vegetable origin probable. The supposi- 
tion of its mineral origin is disproved by distilla- 
tion, and by the foreign bodies found in its sub- 
stance. M. Schweigger, an eminent entomolo- 
gist, has carefully examined the insects contained 
in the amber; and he has found that many of 
AMBER. 
149 
them would belong to genera of insects now ex- 
isting, but that none of them were specifically the 
same. Professor Germar of Halle has been occu- 
pied in a similar investigation, and he also thinks 
that none of them are identical with analogous 
species now living. M. Girtanner affirms, that 
amber is formed bya large ant, the Pormica rufa 
of Linneus. He conceives it to be a vegetable 
oil, rendered concrete by the acid of those ani- 
mals, which inhabit old forests of fir-trees where 
the fossil amber is found. The amber, when first 
dug, is ductile like wax, and becomes hard on ex- 
posure to air. Certain it is, that no insect is so 
commonly found in amber as the ant. Wallerius 
asserts, that the black and dark-coloured amber 
is often found in the bowels of cetaceous fishes. 
Others imagine that it is produced by a fish or 
an aquatic animal. It is certain, however, that 
amber must have passed from the fluid to the 
solid state; for foreign substances, such as leaves, 
insects, small fish, frogs, water, pieces of wood 
and straw, are often contained in it; and it is 
most esteemed when it contains any of these sub- 
stances. The Phoenicians were the first who 
navigated the North seas in search of this sub- 
stance. By the ancients it was considered as 
valuable as gold and precious stones. Its value, 
at present, is much diminished, though it is still 
required in some manufactories; for, at Stolpe 
in Pomerania, and Kcenigsberg in Prussia, work- 
men are employed in making from it small jewels, 
scented powder, spiritous acid, and a fine oil that 
is used as a varnish. Amber is exported to Den- 
mark and Italy, but Turkey is the chief market 
for the commodity ; and a certain portion of it is 
carried every year to the Holy Kaaba at Mecca. 
This substance has long been regarded with su- 
perstitious veneration by several of the northern 
nations of Europe, as well as in Asia Minor; but 
what gave rise to this we have not been able to 
trace. Among the peasantry of Scotland amber- 
beads have long been held as a complete antidote 
to the effects of witchcraft ; and, in consequence, 
one or more beads of it were very commonly car- 
ried in the pocket. But, that it might have com- 
plete efficacy, it was considered necessary that it 
should be accompanied by the following couplet, 
written on paper, wrapped round the bead, and 
secured by a red silk thread :— 
“ Lammar (amber) beads and red thread 
Keep the witches at their speed.” 
A twig of the mountain-ash, or rowan-tree, 
was supposed to have precisely the same effect. 
Among the higher classes in Scotland, in former 
times, amber-beads were much worn, and were 
always strung with red silk thread. 
The quantity of amber annually found in Prussia 
amounts to more than 200 tons; and the revenue 
derived from it by the crown is £3,000 or £4,000. 
It is obtained on the Prussian coast, between 
Pillau and Palmnicken, on a tract of land about 
eighteen miles in length; and sometimes upon 
IE WO Sa TRICE OK SO EIN WO Pa IV DMM a ne WINE, EL fw ke 
