AMBOYNA — AMBULANCE Amboyna, a Dutch colony and residency in the east of the East Indian archipelago, which ' shares with the residency of Ternate the administration of the Moluccas, the previous Government of which was abolished in 1867. The residency includes a mass of islands in the Banda Sea (2° 30'-8o 20' S. and 125° 45-135° E.) and is now divided for administrative purposes into nine districts (afdeelingen) : 1, Amboyna, the island of that name; 2, Saparua, with Oma and Nusa Laut; 3, Kajeli (Eastern Bum); 4, Masareti (Western Bum); 5, Kairatu (Western Cerain,) ; 6, Wahai (the northern part of MidCeram) ; 7, Amahai (the southern part of Mid-Ceram); 8, The Banda Isles, with East Ceram, Ceram Laut, and Goram; 9, The islands of Am, Ke, Timor Laut or Tinimber, and the south-western islands. Since 1874 several residents (Riedel, van Hoevell, Ac., see below) have contributed to the geography and ethnography of various groups. The population of the residency (area, about 19,840 square miles) was estimated in 1898 at 295,768 (natives 291,763, Europeans 2346, Chinese 913, Arabs 722, other foreigners 24). The products and means of subsistence in the different groups of islands vary, the culture of cloves being mainly confined to Banda and Amboyna; shipbuilding and the timber trade to the Ke islands ; the extraction of cajuput oil to Bum. The shipping, fisheries, and trade are unimportant and generally declining. See van Hoevell, Ambon en de Eliaser (Dordrecht, 1875).— Riedel, De sluik-en krocsharigc rasscn tusschen Seiches en Papua (den Haag, 1886).—Maktin, Peisen in den Molukken (Leiden, 1894). Amboyna (Dutch Ambon), the chief island and town of the above residency. The former, lying between 3° 28-3° 48' S. and 127° 58-128° 26' E., is the last of a series of volcanic isles which form an inner circle in the archipelago round the Banda Sea (Martin). The highest mountains, Wawani (3609 feet) and Salhutu (4020 feet), have hot springs and solfataras. They are considered to be volcanoes, and the mountains of the neighbouring Uliasser islands the remains of volcanoes. Granite and serpentine rocks predominate; but the shores of Amboyna bay are of chalk, and contain stalactite caves (the chief, Batu Lobang). The surface is fertile, the rivers are small and not navigable, and the roads are mere footpaths. Cocoa is one of the products. The population (estimated at 30,000) is divided into two classes—orang borger or citizens, and orang negri or villagers, the former being a class of native origin enjoying certain privileges conferred on their ancestors by the old Dutch East India Company. The chief town and seat of the resident and military commander of the Moluccas is protected by Fort Victoria, a clean little town with wide streets and numerous schools and churches. Agriculture, fisheries, and trade furnish the chief means of subsistence. The combined value of the exports and imports of late years has been about £85,000 (£83,333 literal conversion). The population is about 8000 (788 Europeans, 696 Chinese, 351 Arabs, 6218 natives). Ambriz. See Angola. Ambrosiaster.—A commentary on St Paul’s Epistles, “ brief in words but weighty in matter,” and valuable for the criticism of the Latin text of the New Testament, was formerly but erroneously attributed to St Ambrose; and its author is usually spoken of as Ambrosiaster or pseudo-Ambrose. In modern days it has been ascribed to almost every known Hilary (owing to the fact that St Augustine cites it as by “ Sanctus Hilarius ”), and to many other writers; above all to Hilary the Roman deacon and (by Langen) to the presbyter Faustinus.
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Dom Morin has lately argued, with very great plausibility, that the author was one Isaac the Jew, who became a Christian and joined the party of the anti-pope Ur sinus, and was instigated by them to make criminal charges against Pope Damasus. These were ultimately dismissed, and Isaac was exiled to Spain 378-380. In 380 he relapsed to Judaism; and nothing appears to be known of his later life. Dom Morin first shows that none of the earlier attempts to identify Ambrosiaster can be accepted as satisfactory; that the Quaestiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti formerly ascribed to Augustine are also his (the attempt of C. Marold to disprove this breaking down entirely) ; that he wrote between 374 and 384 a.d., and that he lived and wrote at Rome. Then he compares the Quaestiones and Commentaria with the little tract of Isaac the Jew on the Trinity and Incarnation, and with an incomplete Expositio Fidei printed by Caspari {Kirchenhist. Anecdota, 304 f), which, if not part of the same work, is nearly allied to it ; and the comparison shows how close their literary and theological affinities are. Next, Ambrosiaster’s writings are shown to contain just such characteristics as might be expected from Isaac the Jew: a captious spirit of reform, exact knowledge of Judaism, and a legalist temperament; whilst there is no insuperable objection to such authorship. And lastly, the later history of Isaac would account for the subsequent uncertainty as to the authorship of the writings. See G. Moein. “L’Ambrosiaster et le juifeonverti Isaac” in Revue d'histoire et de litterature religieuses, tom. iv. 97 f. Paris, 1899. —Arnold. Art. “Ambrosiaster” in Herzog-Hauck, Real-Encyklopddie fiir protestantische Theologie, i. 441. Leipzig, 1896.—J. Langen. Geschichte der romischen Kirche, i. 600 f. Bonn, 1881. (W. E. Co.) Ambulance.—Medical organization for military field service comprises all the arrangements for the care and treatment of the sick and wounded from the time they are injured or taken ill till they are able to return to duty or are invalided home. In the British service, not only land transport but hospital ships are required. The working of the system is as follows (the case of a soldier wounded in action in South Africa being taken as an example). When he falls he is attended by the regimental surgeon and stretcher-bearers, who apply some extemporized method of stopping bleeding and dress the wound with the dressing—a packet of antiseptic appliances—which every fighting man carries stitched into the inside of his tunic, and which contains all things necessary for dressing and bandaging an ordinary gunshot wound. From the field he is carried on a stretcher by the men of the bearer company of the Royal Army Medical Corps to the collecting station, where he is placed in an ambulance waggon of the first line of assistance and taken to the dressing station. Here his wound will be examined, any operation urgently required will be performed, and a specification tally stating the nature of the injury and any other important facts connected with the case will be attached to him (if this has not already been done by the regimental surgeon), in order to avoid the disturbance and pain of repeated examinations. After this, and perhaps the administration of nourishments, stimulants, or opiates, the patient is moved to the field hospital in an ambulance waggon of the second line of assistance. From the field hospital he is transferred as soon as possible by the ambulance train to a general hospital at the advanced base of operations, and from there in due time in another train to the base of operations at the coast, from which he is ultimately either returned to duty or sent home in a hospital ship. The organization by which these requirements are fulfilled is the following :—Every regiment and fighting unit has posted to it, on proceeding on active service, a medical officer who looks after the health of the men and advises the commanding officer on sanitary matters. When the regiment goes into action he takes command of the regi-
