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424 AMHERST is a large number of scholarships available to needy students, and no earnest young man is allowed to leave for want of money. This fund now amounts to $100,000. The Rev. Zephaniah Swift Moore was the first president of the col- lege. He died in 1823, and was succeeded by the Rev. Heman Humphrey, who retained the office till 1845, and performed important ser- vices to the institution, having safely carried it through the most perplexing embarrassments. The Rev. Edward Hitchcock followed him, and resigned in 1854, when the present in- cumbent, the Rev. William A. Stearns, D. D., LL. D., was inaugurated. The managers of the institution had to struggle against many discour- agements at the outset, and not a dollar was appropriated in its aid from the state treasury during the first 25 years of its existence. The state appropriations to the present time amount to $52,500, a portion of which was for the en- dowment of the " Massachusetts Professorship of Natural History." The college has received many munificent donations from individuals. Dr. William J. Walker, a resident of Charles- town, Mass., and a graduate of Harvard col- lege, besides giving to the institution during the latter years of his life upward of $90,000 to- ward the erection of a building for scientific purposes, and founding a professorship of math- ematics and astronomy, left a legacy for similar purposes of nearly $150,000. The next largest giver is Samuel A. Hitchcock of Brimfield, who has contributed to the college $175,000. The donations of the Hon. Samuel Williston, an eminent manufacturer in Easthampton, Mass., who has long been one of the most ardent friends of the institution, amount to about $150,- 000. The funds for the college church recently erected were given by W. F. Stearns, son of the president of the college. Amherst college has 12 public buildings besides the president's house, including an edifice for scientific and other purposes recently built at the cost of more than $120,000, and a church for such as do not prefer to worship with other denomina- tions. In the tower is a chime of bells, pre- sented by the late George Howe of Boston, and beneath it a small room for tablets in com- memoration of the young men who fell in the war. A gallery of art has been started. In 1847 a handsome edifice was erected to be em- ployed as a cabinet of natural history and an astronomical observatory, chiefly by the ef- forts of the Hon. J. B. Woods of Enfield. The library, a fine building, was constructed in 1853, of Pelham granite. The college possesses a valuable philosophical and astronomical appa- ratus, an extensive geological and conchological museum, collections of meteorites and geologi- cal specimens, a Nineveh gallery containing about 200 specimens from the ruins of ancient Nineveh and Babylon, a museum of Indian relics, and the Hitchcock ichnological collec- tion. In this unique cabinet, named after the late President Hitchcock, are to be found about 1,400 specimens, containing at least 20,000 AMICE tracks of animals in stone, together with plas- ter and clay casts of tracks of living and fossil animals. There is in the curriculum a regular department of physical training, under the care of a physician. There are 13 professors and 8 lecturers and instructors. The libraries of the college and various literary societies con- tain about 36,000 volumes. The number of under graduates is 244. In 1869 the whole number of graduates was 1,829, of whom 1,449 survived. Of the whole number, 751 became clergymen, 75 missionaries, 129 physicians, 18(i lawyers, and 208 teachers. AMHERST, a town of British Burmah, in lat. 16 6' N., Ion. 97 25' E., on a triangular peninsula N. E. of the gulf of Martaban, 30 m. S. of Maulmain ; pop. increased from 5,000 in 1838 to 20,000 in 1853, but since largely re- duced. It was founded by the English in 1826, and rapidly increased in population and pros- perity, but has been superseded by Maulmain, of which it now constitutes an outer port and a station for pilots. The harbor is spacious and secure, but the bar across its entrance is dan- gerous. The military cantonments are on an elevation 1^ m. outside of the town. It is a resort of invalids from Maulmain, owing to its salubrious climate. AMHERST. I. Jeffery, baron, an English gen- eral, born in Kent, Jan. 29, 1717, died Aug. 3, 1797. He entered the army at the age of 14, was present at Dettingen and Fontenoy on the staff of Gen. Ligonier, and in 1758 was sent to America with the rank of major general. In conjunction with Wolfe and Prideaux, he made the entire conquest of the French strongholds in Canada, for which he received the thanks of the house of commons and the order of the Bath. He was soon afterward appointed com- mander-in-chief of the British forces in Amer- ica. In 1763 he was appointed governor of Virginia, and in 1770 governor of the island of Guernsey. He was commander-in-chief of the army 1772-'82, and again 1793-'5, when he was superseded by the duke of York, and was soon afterward made a field marshal. In 1776 he was elevated to the peerage, with the title of Baron Amherst of Holmesdale ; and in 1787 he received a patent as Baron Amherst of Montreal. II. William Pitt, earl, and Viscount Holmesdale, a British statesman, nephew of the preceding, born Jan. 14, 1773, died March 13, 1857. He was British ambassador in China, and succeeded Hastings as governor general of India (1823-'7). Under his administration the Burman war resulted in an important ac- cession of British territory, and his services were rewarded with an earldom in 1826. AMIANTHUS. See ASBESTOS. AMICE, or A miff (Lat. amictus, girt around), a vestment worn by priests in the Roman Cath- olic church during the celebration of mass. It consists of a square linen cloth tied over the neck and shoulders, and was originally used as a protection for the throat. After the general adoption of the crava* had rendered the anjice