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AMCEBA 152 AMPHIBIA throughout the war. The French out- put of projectiles for the 75 mm. field pieces had increased, by 1917, 40 times, compared with the output at the begin- ning of the war. The production of large-caliber projectiles had increased 90 times. The case of Great Britain was even more remarkable. The out- put in a single day of shells for heavy guns and in a week for field howitzer and 3-inch guns in 1917 equalled the production of these shells during the en- tire first year of the war. At this time there were nearly 5,000 Government- controlled ammunition plants in Great Britain, with over 2,000,000 employees. The largest shells thrown during the World War were those fired from the long range cannon with which the Germans bombarded Paris. This gun had a range of 73 miles. The shell thrown weighed 330 pounds and had a bursting charge of 33 pounds. This was placed in two compartments separated by a metal diaphragm. The walls of the shell were very thick in order to withstand the shock of discharge. The total length was 4 feet, 2 feet 5 inches of which were ballastic cap to offset air resistance and cause the center of pres- sure to fall in advance of the center of gravity. For discussion of the types of am- munition used in various types of ord- nance, see Artillery, Machine Gun, Explosives, Projectiles, etc. AMCEBA, a term applied to a proto- zoon which perpetually changes its form. It is classed under the rhizopoda. It is among the simplest living beings known, and might be described almost as an ani- mated mass of perfectly transparent moving matter. The amoeba diffluens is sometimes called, from its incessant changes of form, the proteus. AMOMUM, a genus of plants belong- ing to the order zingiberacese, or ginger- worts. They are natives of hot coun- tries. The seeds of A. granwm paradisi, A. Tnaxiviutn, and on the frontiers of Bengal of A. aroviaticwtn, are the chief of the aromatic seeds called cardamoms. A pungent flavor is imparted to spirit- uous liquor by the hot acrid seeds of A. angustifolimn, rnaerospermum, maxi- mum, and clusii. It is also the specific name of the sison amowMm., the hedge- bastard stone-parsley. AMOS, one of the so-called minor prophets of the Hebrews, was a herdsman of Tekoa, in the neighborhood of Bethle- hem, and also a dresser of sycamore trees. During the reigns of Uzziah in Judah, and Jeroboam II. in Israel (about 800 B. c), he came forward to denounce the idolatry then prevalent. AMOY, a seaport town and one of the treaty ports of China; on a small island of the same name in the province of Fukien; 325 miles E. by N. E. of Canton, and directly opposite the island of For- mosa. It was one of the earliest seats of European commerce in China, the Por- tuguese having had establishments here in the 16th and the Dutch in the 17th centuries. In 1841 it was taken by the British, and, by the treaty of Nankin, a British consul and British subjects were permitted to reside here. This port is especially important in its relations to the prospective trade of the United States with China, and already its trade with the United States leads that of all other Chinese ports. During the inter- national military operations in China, in 1900, the city was occupied by the Jap- anese. Pop. (1917) of port, 300,000; city, 114,000. AMPERE, the practical imit of electric current strength. It is the measure of the current produced by an electro-mo- tive force of one volt through a resist- ance of one ohm. In electric quantity it is the rate of one coulomb per second. AMPERE, ANDRE MARIE (am-par'), a French mathematician and physicist, was born at Lyons in 1775. In 1805, after four years as a lecturer at Bourg and Lyons, he was called to Paris, where he distinguished himself as an able teacher in the Polytechnic School. In 1814 he became a member of the Acad- emy of Sciences; in 1824 Professor of Experimental Physics in the College de France. He died at Marseilles, June 10, 1836. Scientific progress is largely in- debted to Ampere, especially for his elec- tro-dynamic theory, and his original views of the identity of electricity and magnetism, as given in his " Collec- tion of Electro-Dynamic Observations" (1822), and his "Theory of Electro- Dynamic Phenomena" (1830). AMPHIBIA, in zoology, animals which can live indiscriminately on land or water, or which at one part of their existence live in water and at another on land. It is used by Macleay, Swain- son, Huxley, and other modern zoolo- gists for the fourth great class of ani- mals corresponding to Cuvier's reptilian order batrachia. It is intermediate be- tween reptilia and pisces. They have no amnion. Their visceral arches during a longer or shorter period develop fila- ments exercising a respiratory function, or branchiae. The frog, the toad, and the newt are familiar examples of the am- phibia.