=AMARANTH.= _Syn._ AMARANTH′US, L.; AMARANTE, Fr. The flower love-lies-bleeding (_amaranthus caudatus_——Linn.). In _poetry_, an imaginary flower that never fades. (Milton.) In _chromatics_, a colour inclining to purple. =AMARYTH′RINE.= A bitter principle found, in certain lichens, associated with erythrine (which _see_). =AMASI.= This, the native name given by the natives of Central Africa to sour milk, which they prepare by adding to the new milk, a small quantity of milk previously allowed to become sour. The milk thus acidified is considered by them far more wholesome than new milk. =AMAUROSIS.= _Syn._ GUTTA SERENA, SUFFUSIO NIGRA. A diminution or total loss of sight, arising from paralysis of the retina or optic nerve. =AM′BER.= _Syn._ ELEC′TRON, Gr.; ELEC′TRUM, SUC′CINUM (Ph. D.), L.; AMBRE, SUCCIN, Fr.; BERNSTEIN, Ger.; LYNX-STONE†, LA′PIS LYN′CIS†, L. A well-known yellowish, semi-transparent, fossil resin, of which trinkets and the mouth-pieces of pipes are commonly made. _Nat. hist., &c._ Amber is found in detached pieces on the sea-coast, and is dug up in diluvial soils. That of commerce comes chiefly from the southern coasts of the Baltic, where it is cast ashore between Königsberg and Memel; and from Ducal Prussia, Saxony, Poland, Sicily, and Maryland (U.S.), where it is dug out of beds or mines. It has also been found on the shores of Norfolk, and small pieces are occasionally dug up in the gravel pits round London. It is probably an antediluvian resin; and when found on the coast, is supposed to be disengaged, by the action of the sea, from neighbouring beds of lignite or fossil coal. Much diversity of opinion for a long time prevailed amongst naturalists and chemists as to the origin of amber, some referring it to the vegetable, others to the mineral, and some even to the animal kingdom; its natural history and analysis affording something in favour of each. The vegetable origin of amber has, however, been recently shown by various facts, and is now generally admitted. According to Sir David Brewster, its optical properties are those of an indurated vegetable juice. (‘Ed. Phil. Journ.,’ ii.) Insects and fragments of vegetables are frequently found imbedded in it; and this in a manner which could only have occurred when the resin was a viscid fluid. Microscopical researches have led to the conclusion that it is the production of some species of pine, closely allied to the pinus balsamea. (‘Entom. Trans.,’ i & ii.)