In order to avoid the trouble of reducing the temperature of the sample of spirits to 60°, tables of a more elaborate nature have been constructed, showing the percentage of alcohol from the density taken at any temperature within the ordinary range of our climate; but these tables are too voluminous for insertion here.

In this country it is usual to express the strength of spirits in degrees under or over proof; the strength of proof spirit being fixed by Act of Parliament at such a specific gravity that at 51° F. thirteen volumes are equal in weight to twelve volumes of water. Proof spirit has therefore, according to this standard, a density of 9186 at 60°, and contains very nearly half its weight of absolute alcohol (49.5 per cent.). Sykes' hydrometer is the instrument in general use by the Excise for estimating the strength of spirits according to this standard, and its scale is so arranged as to show the volume of water which must be added to or abstracted from 100 volumes of the spirit in order to bring it to the proof standard. Thus if the hydrometer indicates 18 over proof, it shows that 18 volumes of water must be added to 100 volumes of the spirit to reduce it to proof strength; whilst 24 under proof signifies that 24 volumes of water must be abstracted from 100 volumes of spirit to render it proof; or in levying the duty upon such spirit, 100 gallons must be reckoned only as 76 gallons, the duty being assessed upon the proof gallon.

An ingenious method of estimating the alcohol in fermented liquors, without the trouble of previous distillation, has been devised by M. Tabarié (Ann. de Chim. et de Phys.' xlv. 222). It consists in boiling a known volume of the liquor, the density of which has been estimated, until the whole of the alcohol has been expelled; then replacing the liquid evaporated by an equal volume of distilled water, and again taking the specific gravity, which will now be found to be higher. A table prepared for the purpose shows the percentage of alcohol from this difference in density. Another and more accurate method of effecting the same object consists in ascertaining the boiling point of the liquor. Water boils at 212° and alcohol at 173°, when the barometer stands at 30 inches; consequently a mixture of the two will boil at some temperature between these points, dependent upon

the relative quantities of alcohol and water present. Tables of the boiling points of spirits of different but known strengths having been constructed, a reference to these shows at a glance the percentage of alcohol in any sample the boiling point of which has been ascertained. It is found that this method yields results sufficiently accurate with most of the fermented liquors and sweetened spirits in ordinary use, as the sugar and salts present affect the boiling point to a scarcely sensible degree.

The following table embodies the results of alcoholometrical experiments by Brande, Christison, and others, on the percentage of alcohol in the chief descriptions of wine, beer, and spirits :—

Water.

CnH (n+1) being the general formula of a series of uniatomic positive radicals, n here representing an even number of atoms, as 2, 4, 6, &c. [CHEMICAL FORMULA]. The above is the general formula of the most important and best-investigated series of alcohols, of which the common The following are the

or vinic alcohol (CHO) is a member.

Η

chief alcohols belonging to this series:

In contact with acids under favourable circumstances they yield a series of bodies possessing generally a fragrant odour, and termed ethers or ethereal salts. [ETHEREAL SALTS.] Heated with the sulphuric or phosphoric acid several of the alcohols lose water and are converted into ethers. The alcohols are produced by various chemical processes; thus, the methylic, ethylic, and propylic alcohols are derived from the destructive distillation of wood, and of coal; several, as the ethylic, propylic, butylic, amylic, and caproylic are obtained by the fermentation of saccharine liquids; the ethylic and propylic may also be produced by acting with water upon a solution of their olifenes (C, H, and C. H) in concentrated sulphuric acid, whilst the cetylic, cerylic, and melissic are derived from animal secretions.

Another series of alcohols have the general formula CnH(n−1)

it is represented by the allylic alcohol recently discovered by Hofmann and Cahours, which contains the radical allyl (CH), and has the formula CHO. Allylic alcohol is obtained by treating the oxalate

of allyl with ammonia; oxamide is at the same time produced, according to the following reaction:

C,O,(C,H,O),+2NH,=2(C.H.0, HỌ)+N,H,C,O

acid, to which bodies it stands in the same relation as vinic alcohol to acetic aldehyde and acetic acid. Allylic alcohol yields an ether the oxide of allyl (CO2, and a series of ethereal compounds; in fact,

in its chemical relations, it bears the closest analogy to vinic alcohol. A third series of alcohols containing the radicals of the formula (Cn H(n —7)), is represented by phenylic alcohol, or carbolic acid as it is frequently termed, which has the formula CO. [PHENYL

SERIES.]

H

A fourth series, discovered by M. Canizzaro, have the same general formula as the last, but are only isomeric, and not identical or homologous with the third series. The only alcohols at present known belonging to this series are the following:

Benzoic alcohol C14HO2. Cuminic alcohol CO2.

H

All the alcohols belonging to the four series above described contain uniatomic radicals, that is, radicals representing or replacing one atom of hydrogen in a double atom of water; recent researches however have demonstrated the existence of other classes of alcohols, containing biatomic and teratomic radicals, replacing respectively two and three atoms of hydrogen in as many double atoms of water. Glycol (C, H, 0,) is an example of a biatomic, and glycerin (C, H, O,) one of a teratomic alcohol. The following formulæ exhibit the relations of these three families of alcohols to each other and to water:—

8

Water Types.

ALCORAN, or ALKORAN. [KORAN.] ALCOVE. This term is found in most of the modern European languages, and is similarly applied throughout to a recess in a room intended for a bed, or in which a bed may be placed. It is not however necessarily restricted to this meaning; and in England, where such recesses are not so common in bed-chambers as they are in some other countries, and particularly in Spain and France, alcove is applied to a similar recess in a room of any kind, and yet more commonly to an ornamental covered garden-seat.

The term is originally from the Arabic language, in which it means, simply, the cave or recess; and it passed into the other European languages through the Spanish, which acquired it during the occupation of a part of Spain by the Arabs.

ALDEBARAN, the Arabic name of a large and bright star of the first magnitude, called in modern catalogues a Tauri, situated in the eye of the constellation Taurus, whence it is called also by the Arabs Ain al Thaur, the bull's-eye. It is the bright star in the group of five, known by the name of the HYADES, on which account it is called by Ptolemy, d λаμπρds τŵv Tádwv. Its light is rather reddish, and of late years it has become remarkable as having been frequently occulted by the moon, and having exhibited the curious phenomenon of projection on the moon's disc. [OCCULTATION.] It is easily found in the heavens by the following directions: If a line be drawn through the three conspicuous stars forming the belt of Orion, towards the head, it passes just below Aldebaran and the Hyades; if towards the feet, it passes through Sirius, which is about the same distance from the belt as Aldebaran. This is shown in the following diagram :

ALDEHYDIC ACID, Acetous Acid (HO, C,H,O). An acid compound, supposed to be formed when aldehyde is heated in contact with solutions of the salts of silver. Its existence as a distinct acid is how

ever very questionable.

ALDERMAN. This word is from the Anglo-Saxon caldorman or eoldorman. The term caldorman is composed of ealdor, originally the comparative degree of the adjective cald (old'), and man; but the Word caldor was also used as a substantive, and as such was nearly synonymous with the old English term elder, so often met with in our version of the Bible. In a philological sense, the terms caldor and ealdorman were equivalent; but in political acceptation they differ, the former being more general, and, when used to express a specific degree, commonly denoting one lower than ealdorman. In both terms the notion of some high office, as well as that of rank or dignity, seems to be inherent; but ealdorman, at the same time, expressed a definite degree of hereditary rank or nobility which ealdor does not so necessarily imply. Princes, earls, governors of provinces, and other persons of distinction, were generally termed Aldermen by the Anglo-Saxons. This word was also applied to certain officers in particular; thus, there was an Alderman of all England (Aldermannus totius Anglia), the nature of whose office Spelman says "he cannot divine, unless it corresponded to the office of Chief Justiciary" in later times. There was also a King's Alderman (Aldermannus Regis), supposed to have been an occasional judge, with a commission to administer justice in particular districts; it is possible however that his duties may have resembled those exercised by the king's sergeant in the time of Bracton, when there are traces of the existence of an officer so called, appointed for each county, and whose duty it was to prosecute pleas of the crown. Besides these, there were aldermen of cities, boroughs, and castles, and aldermen of hundreds, upon whose particular functions it would now be useless to speculate.

In modern times, aldermen are individuals invested with certain privileges and duties in municipal corporations, either as civil magistrates themselves, or as associates to the chief civil magistrate of such corporations.

In the municipal boroughs of England and Wales, remodelled by 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 76, the resident burgesses elect councillors. The councillors hold office for three years, and one-third of their number go out annually. The aldermen are elected by the council from its own number for six years, and one-half go out every three years. One-fourth of the municipal council consists of aldermen and threefourths of councillors. (Blackst. Comm., Mr. Kerr's ed. vol. i. pp. 523, 525.)

In the corporation of London, which is not affected by the 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 76, the Court of Aldermen consists of 26 aldermen, including the lord mayor: 25 are elected for life by such freemen as are householders of the 25 wards; the 26th alderman, who belongs to the dependency of Southwark or Bridge-Without, is not elected at all, but when the office is vacant the other aldermen have in seniority the option of taking it. The alderman who does take it holds it for life, and thereby creates a vacancy as to the ward for which he formerly sat. The Court of Aldermen' possess the privilege of rejecting, without reason assigned, any person chosen for alderman by the electors, and, after three such rejections, of appointing to the vacancy. The lord mayor is appointed from such of the aldermen as have served the office of sheriff. The aldermen are the magistrates for the city of London, and judges ex officio of the Central Criminal Court. They possess various kinds of authority, both of a judicial and legislative nature, in the affairs of the corporation.

ALE. The difference between ale and beer is not very distinctly marked. In London, ale is generally a more costly beverage than beer; whereas in country districts the name of beer is often reserved for the better and stronger kinds of malt liquor. In mild or new ale, there is generally a larger amount of saccharine matter and mucilage than in beer, porter, or stout; but in old ale the fermentation has been carried to a greater extent, and the sweetness nearly or wholly disappears. The differences observable in ale depend upon the proportion between the malt and hops, the degree to which the malting has been carried, the quality of the water employed, the heat of the water in mashing, the temperature at which the fermentation is conducted, and the extent to which that process is carried. Nearly every county has its own peculiar ale, known from others by qualities depending on one or more of the above circumstances; but the mode of preparing the malt seems to have a greater influence than anything else on the quality obtained.

Mr. Cooley, in his 'Cyclopædia of Practical Receipts,' describes the operations for producing those kinds of ale known by the names of Nottingham, Welsh, Windsor, and Yorkshire ales; with the proportions Barnstaple, Bavarian, Burton, Dorchester, Edinburgh, Essex, London, of ingredients employed, and the kinds of malt and hops selected. Circumstances have recently attracted attention to the quality of Burton ale; and the brewers of that town, in answer to the statements and queries on the subject, have unanimously asserted that no substances whatever are used in the production of that celebrated beverage except malt, hops, and water; the goodness of the materials and the skilful conduct of the processes being the only secrets' in the matter. Towards the close of 1858 there was commenced, at Burton-on-Trent, the construction of one of the largest breweries in England, solely for the

brewing of Pale Ale,' by Messrs. Allsop; and the establishment belonging to the same firm, near the Minories, illustrates the admirable way in which railways are now rendered available for the warehousing of manufactured produce.

As the mode of producing ale differs little from that adopted for beer, it will suffice to refer to BREWING.

ALE-CONNER. An ale-conner is an ale-kenner, one who kens or knows what good ale is. The office of ale-taster or ale-conner is one of great antiquity. Those who held it were called 'gustatores cervisiæ.' Ale-conners or ale-tasters were regularly chosen every year in the courtleet of each manor, and were sworn to examine and assay the beer and ale, and to take care that they were good and wholesome, and sold at proper prices according to the assize; and also to present all default of brewers to the next court-leet. Similar officers were also appointed in boroughs and towns corporate; and in many places, in compliance with charters or ancient custom, ale-tasters are, at the present day, annually chosen and sworn, though the duties of the office are fallen into disuse. In the manor of Tottenham, and in many others, it was the duty of the ale-conner to prevent unwholesome or adulterated provisions being offered for sale, and to see that false balances were not used. In 4 Jac. I. c. 5, which was intended for the prevention of drunkenness, the officers more especially charged with presenting offences against the Act were constables, churchwardens, head-boroughs, tithing-men, ale-conners, and sidesmen. In most places an inspector of weights and measures now performs the duties formerly exercised by the ale-conner.

The duty of the ale-conners appointed by the corporation of the city of London, is to ascertain that the beer sold in the city is wholesome, and that the measures in which it is given are fair. For this purpose they may enter into the houses of all victuallers and sellers of beer within the city. The investigation is made four times in the year; and on each occasion it occupies about fourteen days. The days are not publicly known beforehand. Southwark is not visited. The investigation into the wholesomeness of the article has fallen into disuse. Fairness in the measures is insured by requiring all pots to be stamped with the city arms, and the ale-conners report to the aldermen such houses as do not comply with the rule, and such as have pots with forged stamps. In the municipal boroughs of England and Wales, to which the inquiries of the Commissioners of Corporation Inquiry extended in 1837 (234 in number), there were in 25 boroughs officers called 'ale-tasters;' in 6 they were termed 'ale-founders;' and in 4, 'ale-conners.'

The ancient regulations which the ale-conners were appointed to carry into effect appear to have been dictated by a regard to public health; but in modern times, when ale and beer had become exciseable commodities, the restrictions and provisions introduced from time to time had for their object principally the security of the revenue and the convenient collection of duties.

ALEHOUSES. The adoption of efficient measures, for the regulation of houses appropriated to the sale of intoxicating liquors among the lower orders of the people, has been found to be absolutely necessary to the well-being of society. Upon practical subjects the experience of the past is always the best guide to an opinion for the future; and it may, therefore, be useful to trace, in a summary manner, the history of the laws in this country passed for the regulation of alehouses. By the common law it is as lawful to open a house for the sale of beer and ale as to keep a shop for the purpose of selling any other commodity; subject only to a criminal prosecution for a nuisance if his house be kept in a disorderly manner, by permitting excessive drinking, or encouraging bad company to resort thither, to the disturbance of the neighbourhood. As civilisation and population increased, this restriction was found insufficient; and so early as the 11 Henry VII. (1496) an Act was passed against 'vacabounds and beggers,' which empowered two justices of the peace "to reject and put awey comen ale-selling in tounes and places where they shall convenyent [convene], and to take suretie of the keepers of alehouses of their gode behavying, by the discrecion of the seid justices, and in the same to be avyed and aggreed at the tyme of their sessions." This seems to have been disregarded in practice and by 5 & 6 Edward VI. c. 25, reciting that intolerable troubles to the commonwealth daily increased through such abuses and disorders as were had and used in common alehouses, power was given to magistrates to forbid the selling of beer and ale at such alehouses and it was enacted that "none should be suffered to keep alehouses unless publicly allowed at the sessions, or by two justices; and the justices were directed to take security from all keepers of alehouses, against the using of unlawful games, and for the maintenance of good order therein." Authority is then given to the quarter sessions to inquire whether any acts have been done by alehouse keepers which may subject them to a forfeiture of their recognisances. It is also provided that "if any person not allowed by the justices, should keep a common alehouse, he might be committed to gaol for three days, and, before his deliverance, must enter into a recognisance not to repeat his offence; a certificate of the recognisance and the offence is to be given to the next sessions, when the offender is to be fined 20s." This statute formed the commencement of the licensing system, and was the first act of the legislature which placed alehouses under the control of the local magistrates.

In 1604 a statute was passed (2 Jac. I. c. 9) expressly, as its

preamble states, for the purpose of restraining the "inordinate haunting and tippling in inns, alehouses, and other victualling houses." From this statute it is clear that in the time of James I., it was common for country labourers both to eat their meals and to lodge in alehouses.

The operation of the last-mentioned statute was limited to the end of the next session of parliament, in the course of which a statute (4 Jac. I. c. 4) was passed, imposing a penalty upon persons selling beer or ale to unlicensed alehouse-keepers; and by another statute (4 Jac. I. c. 5) of the same parliament, it was enacted that " every person convicted, upon the view of a magistrate, of remaining drinking or tippling in an alehouse, should pay a penalty of 38. 4d. for each offence, and in default of payment be placed in the stocks for four hours." The latter statute further directs that "all offences relating to alehouses shall be diligently presented and inquired of before justices of assize, and justices of the peace, and corporate magistrates; and that all constables, ale-conners (ALE-CONNER], and other officers, in their official oaths shall be charged to present such offences within their respective jurisdictions."

The next legislative notice of alehouses is in the 7 Jac. I. c. 10, which, after reciting that "notwithstanding former laws, the vice of excessive drinking and drunkenness did more and more abound," enacts as an additional punishment upon alehouse-keepers offending against former statutes, that, "for the space of three years, they should be utterly disabled from keeping an alehouse."

The 21 Jac. I. c. 7, declares that the above-mentioned statutes, having been found by experience to be good and necessary laws, shall, with some additions to the penalties, and other trifling alterations, be put in due execution, and continue for ever.

A short statute was passed soon after the accession of Charles I. (1 Car. I. c. 4), which supplied an accidental omission in the statutes of James; and a second (3 Car. I. c. 3) facilitates the recovery of the 208. penalty imposed by the statute of Edward VI., and provides an additional punishment, by imprisonment, for a second and third offence. At this point all legislative interference for the regulation and restriction of alehouses was suspended for more than a century. The circumstances which led to the passing of the above-mentioned statutes in the early part of the reign of James I., and the precise nature of the evils alluded to in such strong language in the preambles, are not described by any contemporaneous writers. It appears, however, from the Journals, that these statutes gave rise to much discussion in both houses of parliament, and were not passed without considerable opposition. These laws never appear to have produced the full advantage which was expected. During the reign of Charles I. the complaints against alehouses were loud and frequent. In the year 1635 we find the Lord Keeper Coventry, in his charge to the judges in the Star Chamber previously to the circuits, inveighing in strong terms against them. (Howell's State Trials,' vol. iii. p. 835.) He says, "I account alehouses and tippling-houses the greatest pests in the kingdom. I give it you in charge to take a course that none be permitted unless they be licensed; and, for the licensed alehouses, let them be but a few, and in fit places; if they be in private corners and ill places, they become the dens of thieves-they are the public stages of drunkenness and disorder; in market-towns, or in great places or roads, where travellers come, they are necessary." He goes on to recommend it to the judges to "let care be taken in the choice of alehouse-keepers, that it be not appointed to be the livelihood of a great family; one or two is enough to draw drink and serve the people in an alehouse; but if six, eight, ten, or twelve must be maintained by alehouse-keeping, it cannot choose but be an exceeding disorder, and the family, by this means, is unfit for any other good work or employment. In many places they swarm by default of the justices of the peace, that set up too many; but if the justices will not obey your charge herein, certify their default and names, and I assure you they shall be discharged. I once did discharge two justices for setting up one alehouse, and shall be glad to do the like again upon the same occasion."

During the Commonwealth, the complaints against alehouses still continued, and were of precisely the same nature as those which are recited in the statutes of James I. At the London sessions, in August, 1654, the court made an order for the regulation of licences, in which it is stated that the "number of alehouses in the city were great and unnecessary, whereby lewd and idle people were harboured, felonies were plotted and contrived, and disorders and disturbances of the public peace promoted. Among several rules directed by the court on this occasion for the removal of the evil, it was ordered that no new licences shall be granted for two years."

66

During the reign of Charles II. the subject of alehouses was not brought in any shape under the consideration of the legislature; and no notice is taken by writers of that period of any peculiar inconveniences sustained from them, though in 1682 it was ordered by the court, at the London sessions, that no licence should in future be granted to alehouse-keepers who frequented conventicles. Locke, in his Second Letter on Toleration,' published in 1690, alludes to their having been driven to take the sacrament for the sake of their places, or to obtain licences to sell ale.'

The next Act of Parliament on the subject passed in the year 1729, when the statute 2 Geo. II. c. 28, § 11, after reciting that "inconveniences had arisen in consequence of licences being granted to ale

house keepers by justices living at a distance, and therefore not truly informed of the occasion or want of alehouses in the neighbourhood, or the character of those who apply for licences," enacts that "no licence shall in future be granted but at a general meeting of the magistrates acting in the division in which the applicant dwells." At this period the sale of spirituous liquors had become common; and in the statute which we have just mentioned a clause is contained, placing the keepers of liquor or brandy-shops under the same regulations as to licences as alehousekeepers. The eagerness with which spirits were consumed at this period by the lower orders of the people in England, and especially in London and other large towns, appears to have resembled rather the brutal intemperance of a tribe of savages than the habits of a civilised nation. Various evasions of the provisions of the licensing Acts were readily suggested to meet this inordinate demand; and in 1733 it became necessary to enforce, by penalty, the discontinuance of the practice of "hawking spirits about the streets in wheelbarrows, and of exposing them for sale on bulks, sheds, or stalls." (See 6 Geo. II. c. 11.) From this time alehouses became the shops for spirits, as well as for ale and beer; in consequence of which their due regulation became a subject of much greater difficulty than formerly; and this difficulty was increased by the growing importance of a large consumption of these articles to the revenue. Besides this, all regulations for the prevention of evils in the management of alehouses were now embarrassed by the arrangements which had become necessary for the facility and certainty of collecting the Excise duties.

In 1753 a statute was passed (26 Geo. II. c. 31), by the provisions of which, with some trifling modifications by later statutes, the licensing of alehouses continued to be regulated for the remainder of the last century. This statute, after reciting that "the laws concerning alehouses, and the licensing thereof, were insufficient for correcting and suppressing the abuses and disorders frequently committed therein," contains, among others, the following enactments:-1. That upon granting a licence to any person to keep an alehouse, such person should enter into a recognisance in the sum of 107. with sufficient sureties, for the maintenance of good order therein. 2. That no licence should be granted to any person not licensed the preceding year, unless he produced a certificate of good character from the clergyman and the majority of the parish officers, or from three or four respectable and substantial inhabitants, of the place in which such alehouse is to be. 3. That no licence should be granted but at a meeting of magistrates, to be held on the 1st of September in every year, or within twenty days afterwards, and should be made for one year only. 4. Authority is given to any magistrate to require an alehouse-keeper, charged upon the information of any person with a breach of his recognisance, to appear at the next quarter-sessions, where the fact may be tried by a jury, and in case it is found that the condition of the recognisance has been broken, the recognisance is to be estreated into the Exchequer, and the party is utterly disabled from selling ale or other liquors for three years.

By a statute passed in 1808 (48 Geo. III. c. 143), a difference was introduced into the mode of licensing, not with a view to the internal regulation of alehouses, but for purposes connected with the collection of the revenue. The licence, which was formerly obtained from the magistrates, was, by that Act, to be granted by the commissioners, collectors, or supervisors of Excise, under certain specific directions, and upon the production by the applicant of a previous licence or allowance, granted by the magistrates, according to the provisions of the former statutes respecting licensing.

The next Act of Parliament upon this subject was passed in 1822 (3 Geo. IV. c. 77), but as that statute continued in operation for only a few years, it is unnecessary to specify its provisions further than to notice that the preamble states the insufficiency of the laws previously in force respecting alehouses, and that one of its provisions is considerably to increase the amount of recognisances required both from the alehouse-keeper and his sureties.

In 1828 a general Act to regulate the granting of alehouse licences was passed (9 Geo. IV. c. 61), which repealed all former statutes on this subject, and enacts a variety of provisions, of which the following are the most important:-1. Licences are to be granted annually, at a special session of magistrates, appointed and summoned in a manner particularly directed, and to be called the General Annual Licensing Meeting, to be holden in Middlesex and Surrey, within the first ten days of March, and in every other place between the 20th of August and the 14th of September. Any person who is refused a licence may appeal to the quarter-sessions; and no justice is to act in an appeal who was concerned in the refusal of the licence. 2. Every person intending to apply for a licence must affix a notice of his intention, with the name, abode, and calling of the applicant, on the door of the house, and on the door of the church or chapel of the place in which it is situated, on three several Sundays, and must serve a copy of it upon one of the overseers, and one of the peace officers. 3. If a riot or tumult happens, or is expected to happen, two justices may direct any licensed alehouse-keeper to close his house; and if this order be disobeyed, the keeper of the alehouse is to be deemed not to have main tained good order therein. 4. The licence is subjected to an express tipulation that the keeper of the house shall not adulterate his liquors; that he shall not use false measures; that he shall not permit drunkenness, gaming, or disorderly conduct in his house; that he shall not

suffer persons of notoriously bad character to assemble therein; and that (except for the reception of travellers) he shall not open his house during divine service on Sundays and holydays. 5. Heavy penalties for repeated offences against the tenor of the licence are imposed; and magistrates at sessions are empowered to punish an alehouse-keeper, convicted by a jury of a third offence against the tenor of his licence, by a fine of 100l., or to adjudge his licence to be forfeited.

66

The Act of Parliament, 11 Geo. IV. and 1 Wm. IV. c. 64, is entitled an Act to permit the general sale of beer and cider by retail in England." The following are its most material provisions:-1. Any householder, desirous of selling malt liquor, by retail, in any house, may obtain an excise licence for that purpose, to be granted by the Commissioners of Excise in London, and by collectors and supervisors of excise in the country, upon payment of two guineas. 2. A list of such licences shall be kept at the Excise Office, and be at all times open to the inspection of the magistrates. 3. The applicant for a licence must enter into a bond with a surety for the payment of any penalties imposed for offences against the Act. 4. Any person licensed under the Act, who shall deal in wine or spirits, shall be liable to a penalty of 20l. 5. In cases of riot, persons so licensed shall close their houses upon the direction of a magistrate. 6. Such persons suffering drunkenness or disorderly conduct in their houses shall be subject to penalties which are to be increased on a repetition of the offence, and the magistrates before whom they are convicted may disqualify them from selling beer for two years. 7. Such houses are not to be opened before four in the morning nor after ten in the evening, nor during divine service on Sundays and holydays.

The effect of this statute was to withdraw the authority of granting licences to houses opened for the sale of ale, beer, and cider, from the local magistrates, in whose hands it had been exclusively vested for nearly 300 years, and to supersede their direct and immediate superintendence of such houses. The consequence of the facility of obtaining licences upon a small pecuniary payment, and without the troublesome and expensive process directed by former statutes, was a rapid multiplication of alehouses throughout the country, together with very general complaints, especially in the southern and western districts, and amongst the rural population, of a considerable increase of idleness and crime, and of increased and increasing demoralisation among the labouring classes of the people.

A discussion of the justice of these complaints would be foreign to the purpose of this article. It cannot however be too strongly impressed upon the minds of all, that it is a fatal error to consider this question strictly with a view to finance and revenue; these objects, momentous as they undoubtedly are, ought not to supersede those of much more weighty importance, as permanently affecting the moral and intellectual character, as well as the health, comfort, and independence of the lower orders. As a matter of finance, the encouragement of the use of intoxicating liquors is considered, by very competent judges, as of doubtful policy. "For government to offer encouragement to alehouses," says Sir Frederick Morton Eden, in his valuable History of the Poor,' "any further than they are wanted for the many useful purposes which they serve among the labouring classes, is to act the part of a felo de se. Nor ought the public ever to be lulled into an acquiescence by the flattering bait of immediate gain, which ere long they would be obliged to pay back to paupers, in relief, with a heavy interest."

By 4 & 5 Wm. IV. c. 85, the preamble of which recites that much evil has arisen from the management of houses, in which beer and cider are sold by retail under 1 Wm. IV. c. 64, it is enacted that each beer-seller is to obtain his annual excise licence only on condition of placing in the hands of the excise a certificate of good character, signed by six rated inhabitants of his parish, none of whom must be brewers or maltsters. Such a certificate is not to be required in towns containing a population of 5000 and upwards; but the house to be licensed is to be one rated at 10l. a year. This Act makes a difference between persons who sell a liquor to be drunk on the premises and those who sell it only to be drunk elsewhere.

By a Treasury order, beer sold at or under 14d. a quart may be retailed without a licence: the officers of Excise are empowered to enter such houses and to examine all beer therein.

By the 3 & 4 Vict. c. 61, which amends both of the above Acts, a licence can only be granted to the real occupier of the house in which the beer or cider is to be retailed; and the rated value of such house is raised to 15l. in towns with a population of 10,000 and upwards; in towns of betwixt 10,000 and 2500, to 11.; and in towns of smaller size the annual value is to be not less than 81. Every person who applies for a licence must produce a certificate from the overseer of his being the real occupier of the house, and of the amount at which it is rated. A refusal to grant this certificate renders the overseer liable to a penalty of 201.; and any person forging a certificate, or making use of a certificate knowing it to be false, is to forfeit 501.

The hours for opening and closing beershops are now regulated by the above Act. In London and Westminster, and within the boundaries of the metropolitan boroughs, they are not to be opened earlier than 5 o'clock in the morning, and the hour of closing is 12 o'clock; but 11 o'clock in any place within the bills of mortality, or any city, town, or place not containing above 2500 inhabitants; and in all smaller places, 5 o'clock is the hour for opening, and 10 o'clock for closing.

Licensed victuallers, and keepers of beershops who sell ale to be drunk on the premises, are liable to have soldiers billeted upon them. Under the Metropolitan Police Act' (2 & 3 Vict. c. 37), which under certain conditions may be extended to within 15 miles of Charing Cross, all public houses are to be shut on Sundays until 1 o'clock in the afternoon, except for refreshment of travellers. Publicans supplying liquors to persons under sixteen years of age incur penalties.

The sale of beer and other liquors throughout Great Britain on Sunday, Christmas-day, and Good Friday, or other day appointed for a public fast or thanksgiving, is regulated by the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 49, and the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 118. No person may open his house for the sale of liquors before half-past 12 o'clock, or the termination of morning service, or between 3 and 5 in the afternoon, or after 11 o'clock or before 4 o'clock in the following morning, under the penalty of 51. Constables may enter the house at any time, and offenders may be summarily convicted.

ALEMBIC, a chemical vessel used in distillation. Various forms of it have been devised; the simplest consists of a body, cucurbit, or matrass, which serves as a boiler; a head or capital, with a pipe and a receiver.

Sometimes all these parts are made of glass, and the head and receiver are usually so; when the body is of this material, it is fitted to the head by grinding; but the apparatus, in this case, is extremely expensive, and very liable to accident. When the body is made of metal, the glass head is secured to it by almond or linseed meal lute. The fluid to be distilled having been put into the body, the head being fitted to it, and the receiver adapted to its pipe, heat is applied to the body either by a lamp or a sand-bath; the vapour which rises is condensed in the head, and, falling into a depressed channel, runs through the pipe into the receiver, loosely fitted to it with a cork. If the receiver be kept partly immersed in cold water, the condensation will be more readily and economically effected. Sometimes the head is perforated, and furnished with a stopper; by removing this, a supply of the fluid to be distilled may be poured into the body, without disturbing the luting by which the body and head are kept in close contact. An alembic of this kind is not very useful for the general purposes of distillation; it can scarcely be applied to the preparation of acids; and for distilling spirit or water, a retort or a still is much to be preferred. An alembic of this form, the body of which is made of silver, and the head and receiver of glass, is sometimes employed for distilling the spirit from the alcoholic solutions of potash and soda, in the process of purifying these alkalies.

The most ancient alembics were made of metal, and generally of tinned copper; the annexed figures represent that proposed by Baumé in his 'Elements of Pharmacy, with very slight alteration. It is comFig. 1.

posed of several parts: a, Fig. 1, represents the cucurbit, body, or boiler, which is made of tinned copper; b is a short pipe by which the boiler is replenished with the fluid to be distilled, during the operation, and without disturbing or unluting the apparatus. When in operation, the pipe b is stopped with a cork.

Fig. 2 is a section of the head or capital, which fits into a, and is secured by lute; it is divided into two parts, which do not communicate with

ARTS AND SCI. DIV, VOL. I.

each other; e contains cold water, which, by cooling the vapour that rises from the boiler a into d, causes it to condense into a fluid, which runs down into a small gutter, and is by it conveyed through the pipe e into a receiver; f is a cock by which the water is let out from c when it becomes hot by condensing the vapour.

Fig. 3 represents a worm or serpentine, g, into which is conveyed the vapour that may escape condensation in d; it is surrounded by cold water in the vessel h, which, as it becomes hot, is let out near the top of the vessel,and a fresh supply of cold water introduced near the bottom; the condensed vapour is received at the end of the worm in the receiver k. The cock i serves to remove the whole of the water from the vessel g.

Fig. 4 represents a water-bath, also made of tinned copper; it fits into the body a, and is heated by the medium of the boiling-water contained in the space between it and a, instead of the fire directly applied. When the water-bath is used, the head, Fig. 2, is fitted into it in the manner already described with respect to the body a, Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 shows the whole apparatus placed in the furnace, with the worm attached to the pipe of the head.

The alembic, in the form now described, is but little used; the addition of the worm surrounded with cold water has rendered it unnecessary to employ any refrigeratory round the head; and the apparatus thus simplified is the common still, which will be described under the article DISTILLATION.

ALEUROMETER. One of the novelties of 1849 was a contrivance called an Aleurometer, invented by M. Boland, a Paris baker, for ascertaining the panifiable or bread-making qualities of wheaten flour. This determination depends upon the expansion of the gluten contained in a given quantity of flour when freed from its starch. A ball of gluten being placed in a cylinder to which a piston is fitted, the apparatus is exposed to a temperature of 150°; and as the gluten dilates, its degree of dilatation is marked by the piston-rod. The greater the dilatation, the better is the flour fitted for making bread.

ALEXANDRA, one of the group of small planets revolving between Mars and Jupiter. [ASTEROIDS.]

ALEXANDRIAN CODEX, a manuscript of the Old and New Testament, in Greek, now preserved in the British Museum. It was sent by Cyrillus Lucaris, patriarch, first of Alexandria, then of Constantinople, to Charles I.; was placed in the royal library in 1628; and continued there until that collection was removed to the British Museum in 1753. The history of the manuscript, before its transfer to Charles I., is involved in much uncertainty; and the real age and value of it have been much controverted. These points have been minutely discussed by Dr. Woide, formerly librarian of the British Museum, who published a fac-simile of the New Testament, in his preface. He is a staunch advocate of the excellence of the manuscript. A second edition of the preface (Notitia Codicis Alexandrini') was published by Spohn, who controverted many of Woide's opinions, showed that the manuscript was by no means free from blunders of transcription, and reduced both its age and authority to a much lower standard.

The manuscript is contained in four volumes, of the shape and size of large quarto, of which the New Testament fills the last. It is written on vellum, in double columns, in uncial or capital letters, without spaces between the words, accents, or marks of aspiration. The letters are round and well formed. Some words are abbreviated, but they are not very numerous. There is a variety both in the colour of the ink and the form of the letters. The manuscript is on the whole in good condition, but sometimes the ink has eaten through the parchment; the shape of the letters however can generally be traced; sometimes the ink itself has scaled off.

The New Testament has been more fully described and more carefully collated than the Old; from which however Grabe published his splendid edition of the Old Testament, Oxford, 1717-20. They are uniform in appearance and execution, but the Old Testament seems to be in rather better condition. It contains, besides all the canonical and most of the apocryphal books found in our editions, the third and fourth books of the Maccabees, the Epistle of Athanasius to Marcellinus, prefixed to the Psalms, and fourteen hymns, the eleventh in honour of the Virgin. Ecclesiasticus, the Song of the Three Children, Susannah, and Bel and the Dragon, do not appear to have formed part of the collection. The New Testament contains the genuine epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, and part of the other which has been attributed to him. This is the only known manuscript in which the genuine epistle exists. A fac-simile of the Old Testament has been published by the Rev. H. Baber, of the British Museum.

ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY, a collection of books, formed by Ptolemæus, the first king of Egypt, and probably the largest which was made before the invention of printing. It is said to have been founded about B.C. 284, in consequence of the suggestions of Demetrius Phaléreus, who had seen the public libraries at Athens. Demetrius was appointed superintendent of the new establishment, and busied himself diligently in collecting the literature of all nations, Jewish, Chaldee, Persian, Ethiopian, Egyptian, &c., as well as Greek and Latin. Eusebius says, that at the death of Ptolemæus Philadelphus there were 100,000 volumes in the library. It was situated in the quarter of Alexandria called Brucheion. Philadelphus purchased the library of Aristotle, and it was increased by his successors. Almost all the Ptolemies were patrons of learning; and at last the Alexandrian