termed an alkalimeter, which consists of a glass tube supported upon a foot, and graduated into 100 equal parts, the space between every two of such divisions being capable of containing 10 grains of distilled water. The upper part of the instrument is shaped as shown in the figure, for the convenient introduction of the test-acid and its subsequent delivery in drops. T 10 20 30 40 50 50 60 The dilute sulphuric acid, or test-acid, is prepared by adding eight volumes of distilled water to one volume of concentrated sulphuric acid. After cooling, this mixture ought to have a specific gravity of 1·1268. In order to ascertain that it is of the exact strength, 100 grains of pure and dry carbonate of potash are to be dissolved in about 4 ounces of boiling water, and the solution tinged blue by the addition of a few drops of infusion of litmus. The alkalimeter must now be filled up to the 65th division with the dilute acid, and afterwards with water to the point of the scale marked 0. The two liquids being then thoroughly mixed by agitation, the contents of the alkalimeter must be gradually added to the hot solution of carbonate of potash until the blue colour changes to red, indicating that the acid is then in slight excess. If the acid be of the proper strength, exactly 100 measures, or the total contents of the alkalimeter, ought exactly to produce this effect, showing that each measure of the acid is equivalent to one grain of carbonate of potash. If less than 100 measures have been required, the acid is too strong; if more than 100 measures, it is too weak. Let us suppose that 90 measures produced the reddening effect: it is evident that in this case the 90 measures are equivalent to 100 grains of carbonate of potash, and consequently the acid is th too strong; each 90 measures of the original test-acid must therefore be diluted with 10 measures of water. If the acid were too weak, a similar but inverse correction must be had recourse to. The test-acid having been thus prepared of the proper strength, it must be preserved in well-stoppered bottles for subsequent use. 70 80 90 To employ it for estimating the amount of carbonate of potash in any sample of pearlash, weigh out 100 grains of the ash, dissolve them in boiling water as above described, filtering if necessary, and tinge blue with infusion of litmus; then fill the alkalimeter to 65 with the testacid, diluting with water to 0°, and add the diluted acid gradually and cautiously until the reddening effect is produced. The number of measures of acid required represents the percentage of carbonate of potash in the sample. To estimate the amount of potash contained in the sample, either as caustic potash or carbonate of potash, fill the alkalimeter to 49 with the test-acid, the 100 measures being again made up with water. The number of divisions of this dilute acid required to neutralise 100 grains of the sample will correspond to the percentage of pure potash in the sample. For the determination of carbonate of soda, the alkalimeter must be filled to 546 with the test-acid, which must then be used as before; whilst for the estimation of caustic soda, the operator will require to fill the instrument to 234. The number of measures required to change the blue of the solution to red, will then in both cases correspond to the percentages of caustic or carbonated alkali required. Care must be taken in all cases to have the alkaline solution nearly at the boiling point when the test-acid is added, and also not to confound the port wine red produced by carbonic acid with the bright red resulting from the slightest excess of sulphuric acid; the latter tint is of course the one which indicates that the neutralisation has been completed. It is obvious that the foregoing method might also be employed for testing the strength of ammonia and its carbonate. Fresenius and Will propose to ascertain the value of samples of the carbonates of the alkalies by ascertaining the weight of carbonic acid expelled on neutralising them with sulphuric acid, but the process is more troublesome than the one just mentioned, and as it has not been adopted in this country, it need not be here described. For a description of it, see Miller's 'Elements of Chemistry,' vol. ii. p. 740. ALKALOIDS. [ORGANIC BASES.] ALKALOIDS, Medical Properties of. These substances, which modern chemistry has made known, are termed organic alkalies, from requiring, in general, a vital power to effect their formation; urea is an exception. They possess alkaline properties in the lowest degree, and are either tasteless or have a bitter acrid taste, existing generally in a solid, mostly crystalline, form; some however are amorphous (Aconitina), occasionally in a liquid state (Conia and Nicotina), the latter very volatile, and readily undergoing decomposition, with an evolution of ammonia, at a moderate temperature. Sometimes one only exists in a plant, sometimes several in the same plant, ex. opium. Generally they are combined with an acid; most frequently it is a peculiar acid. Many of them are with difficulty soluble in water, more so in alcohol; they rarely completely neutralise acids, but the salts which they form are more soluble than the bases; hence various of their salts are used in medicine in preference to the primitive article. Their great characteristic is the extraordinary action most of them have on the human system in a very small dose, and indeed several of them are, in very minute quantity, deadly poisons. Having been first detected in plants long used as medicines (Cinchona), it is chiefly among medicinal plants that they have been sought for and found. By many they are regarded as the active principle of these, and their extraction has had the great advantage of enabling medical men to administer their remedies in a smaller bulk and more convenient form. As the most important of them are treated of under the names of the plants which yield them, it is not necessary to notice any of them further here, except to state that chemists have recently rendered a great service in forming a neutral sulphate of quinine, which is much more soluble than the disulphate, and called Bullock's Neutral Sulphate of Quinine. ALKARSIN. [CACODYL.] ALKERMES is the name of a cordial made in some of the northern countries of Europe. It is made from bay-leaves, mace, nutmegs, cinnamon, cloves, brandy, syrup of kermes, and orange-flower water. The first six ingredients are distilled, and the last two are employed to give flavour. ALLA-BREVE, in music, an Italian term signifying a quick time, in which the notes take only half their usual length. It is very rarely used in modern music. The fine fugue in the Messiah,'' And with his stripes we are healed,' is an example of this measure. ALLAH is the Arabic name of the Supreme Being, which through the Koran has found its way into the language of all nations who have embraced the Mohammedan religion. It is properly a contraction of al-ilâh: al is the Arabic definite article, and ilâh, which corresponds to the Hebrew words Eloah and Elohim, signifies a deity generally: the prefixed article restricts the meaning, and al-ilâh or Allah signifies the True God, as opposed to the deities worshipped by idolaters. The word Allah is frequently met with as a component part of Arabic proper names: for example, 'Abd-allah,' that is, the servant of God.' Allah akbar,''God is great,' is the common battle-cry of the Mohammedans. The phrase Bism Allah' or 'Bism-illah,' in the name of God,' is invariably uttered by devout Mussulmans before the commencement of any undertaking, and before their meals: it is also put at the beginning of their books. ALLANTOIN. [URIC ACID, DERIVATIVES OF.] ALLANTURIC ACID. [URIC ACID, DERIVATIVES OF.] ALLEGATION, ECCLESIASTICAL, was the term applied to the first pleading in testamentary causes in the Courts Christian, whose jurisdiction in these matters is now transferred to the Court of Probate. In criminal proceedings the first plea is called Articles; in ordinary causes the first plea is called the Libel. This first pleading in each instance is analogous to a Declaration at common law or to a Bill in equity. The term Allegation is also applied to every subsequent plea in all causes; the first by a defendant being called a Responsive Allegation, and the plaintiff's answer a Counter Allegation. There are also exceptive allegations, when a witness's credit is impeached, and these, when admitted, are proceeded upon in the same manner as the others. ALLEGIANCE, or LIGEANCE, is the true and faithful obedience of a liegeman or subject to his liege lord or sovereign, "Ligeantia est vinculum fidei: ligeantia est legis essentia." The notion of ligeance, or allegiance, is that of a bond or tie between the person who owes it and the person to whom it is due. (Co. Lit. 129 a.) Allegiance is due from natural-born subjects, and also from those who have been naturalised. An usurper, in the undisturbed possession of the crown, is entitled to allegiance. Treason committed against Henry VI. was punished in the reign of his successor, even after parliament had declared the former an usurper. An oath of allegiance has, from the earliest period, been exacted from natural-born subjects; but its form has undergone variation. Anciently, the party promised "to be true and faithful to the king and his heirs, and truth and faith to bear of life and limb and terrene honour, and not to know or hear of any ill or damage intended him without defending him therefrom." The statutory oath, since the Revolution, has been more simple-as: "I do sincerely promise and swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to her Majesty Queen Victoria." By the statute 21 & 22 Vict. c. 48, these words are preserved in the one oath thereby substituted for the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration, formerly used. The alteration of the form has never, in any degree, varied the nature of the subject's duty, which is owing from him independently of any oath, and although he may never have been called upon to take it. The oath is imposed by way of additional security for the per formance of services inherently due from the subject from his birth, who is, in like manner, entitled to the protection of the sovereign before the latter has formally accepted the duties of sovereignty by taking the coronation oath. The Crown can, by proclamation, summon the liegemen to return to the kingdom. An instance of this occurred in 1807, when it was declared, by proclamation, that the kingdom was menaced and endangered; all seamen and seafaring men who were natural-born subjects were recalled from foreign service, and ordered to return home, on pain of being proceeded against for a contempt. By the ancient law every male subject of the age of twelve years (with certain exceptions) was bound to take the oath of allegiance when summoned to the Courts Leets and Tourns; and various statutes, from the reign of Elizabeth to the present time, expressly require it from public functionaries and other persons before they enter upon their respective duties, or practise in their several professions. By 1 George I. c. 13, two justices of the peace, or other commissioners appointed by the Crown, may tender the oath to any person suspected of disaffection. From a violation of allegiance results the highest offence known to the law-TREASON. (Blackst. Comm., Mr. Kerr's ed. vol. i. p. 367, et seq.; Hale's Pleas of the Crown, vol. i. p. 58, et seq.; and Mr. Justice Foster's Discourse on High Treason.) ALLEGORY, literally, a discourse which has another meaning than what is directly expressed. Thus, the address of Menenius Agrippa to his fellow-citizens of Rome, as recorded by Livy, in which he described a rebellion of the industrious against the wealthier orders of a state, under the figure of a conspiracy of all the other members of the human body against the stomach, was an allegory. An allegory, however, is not intended to deceive or perplex, in which respect it differs from an enigma or riddle. Allegory has been a favourite mode of composition in all countries and ages. Sometimes it has been recommended by seeming to afford the only or the fittest available means of giving a lively or intelligible representation of certain subjects or notions. The poets of different nations, for example, have resorted to this method, in order to convey sufficiently vivid conceptions of the different virtues and vices, and other abstractions which they have wished to set before their readers. They have personified these notions, as it is termed; that is to say, they have figured them in the shape of living beings invested with the forms and qualities naturally adapted to the character of each. Such pictures are allegories, and are to be found abundantly scattered over nearly all poetry. Of all poets who have dealt in allegories of this description, our own Spenser is the most famous and the greatest; no other has either produced so vast a number of these vivified idealities, or put into them such a spirit of life and air of actual existence. A long allegory, it is commonly said, has been usually unsuccessful as such; and, in illustration of this assertion, the instance of the Faerie Queen' has been often quoted, as that of a work which, with all its attractions in parts, is wearisome as a whole. The plan of the general allegory upon which Spenser's poem is framed, is certainly in a remarkable degree complicated, cumbersome, and uninteresting; and, if he had aimed at composing a mere tale of romance, without fettering himself with any scheme of allusion either to the moral virtues or the achievements of Queen Elizabeth, both of which subjects he has endeavoured to illustrate, he would have doubtless done better, as well as saved himself much needless labour. But, on the other hand, nobody complains of fatigue in reading Swift's 'Tale of a Tub,' which is likewise a tolerably long allegory; and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress' has always been a popular work. These, and other examples which might be quoted, seem to prove that, if the allegory be sufficiently simple and natural, it may be protracted to a considerable extent without becoming tiresome. ALLEGRET TO, in music, an Italian diminutive of Allegro, neither so fast nor so brilliant as that term denotes, though rather quick, and moderately gay. ALLEGRO, in Music, signifies gay, sportive, and, by inference, quick in time. An allegro is not understood to be so fast in vocal as in instrumental music. Its quickness is likewise modified by the number and value of the notes in a bar. Thus it is always more rapid, cæteris paribus, in two-crotchet time than in four-crotchet-in three-quaver time than in six-quaver; and as the speed of this movement has many degrees of difference, other words are commonly added, more exactly to explain the composer's intention. This term is also used substantively; thus, we say, an Allegro of Mozart, of Beethoven, &c. It is often combined with other terms, such as 'agitato,' ' brillante,' &c., to denote varieties of quickness and effect. ALLEMANDE, in music, a dance supposed to have derived its name from the country, Germany, in which it originated. It is written in two-crotchet time, and is now understood to be moderately quick; but anciently it was a slow dance. Handel, and other composers of his period, wrote it in four-crotchet time. ALL-HALLOWS, ALL-HALLOWMAS, or simply HALLOWMAS, the old English name for All Saints' Day, or the 1st of November. All-Hallowmas derives its importance from the popular usages, which in our own and various other countries have distinguished sometimes the day itself, but more generally the night preceding, called its Eve or Vigil. There is reason to believe that this was a pagan before it was transformed into a Christian festival; and there can at any rate be no question that the ceremonies to which we refer are of Druidicai origin. Bonfires, bell-ringings, and domestic merry-makings, in which lamb's wool (ale or wine mixed with the pulp of roasted apples) was the principal beverage, marked the eve of Hallowmas. The season called for such demonstrations. The harvest was over; the winter was at hand. But the eve of All-Hallows is especially famous for those observances which have been wont to take place on it, connected with the superstitious wish of prying into futurity. The same ceremonies of this description appear to have been anciently practised in England, Ireland, and Scotland; but they are now almost universally disused. The wellknown poem of Burns, the 'Halloween,' will immortalise the memory of the ancient ceremonies to which it relates. ALLIANCE, THE HOLY. [TREATIES, CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF.] ALLIGATION, derived from the Latin ad and ligare, signifying to bind together, or unite. It is a rule in arithmetic, by which the price of a mixture is found when the price of the ingredients is known. This is an application to commercial arithmetic only, but the following questions, which fall under the rule, will show its scope better than any general definition. How much wine at 608. a dozen must be added to a pipe worth 958. a dozen, in order that the mixture may be worth 70s. a dozen? If a cubic foot of copper weighs 8788 ounces, and of zinc 7200 ounces, in what proportions must copper and zinc be mixed, so that a cubic foot of the mixture may weigh 8000 ounces? For the algebraist we may say, that all questions fall under the rule of alligation which involve the solution of such an equation as, ax + by + cz = n (x + y + z) in which n must be intermediate between a, b, and c; which is indeterminate unless further relations between x, y, and z are given. alligation to an equation of this form; and as the number of cases is Any person moderately skilled in algebra may reduce a question of infinite, and several of those given in the books of arithmetic are practically useless, we shall here confine ourselves to an example of one process for the algebraical student, and two rules of the most simple cases for all other readers. in what proportions must a mixture of m ounces be made, so as to be There are three ingredients, worth a, b, and c shillings per ounce : worth k shillings an ounce; it being understood that the quantities of the two first ingredients must be in the proportion of p to q? Let px be the quantity of the first ingredient; then qx is that of the second; let y be that of the third. Then by the question, px + qx + y = m. (1) But pr ounces, at a shillings an ounce, cost apx shillings; therefore the price of the whole is apx + bqx + cy shillings, which by the question is km shillings: hence, apx + bqx + oy = km. (2) and which two equations, with two unknown quantities, can be solved by the common method. Rule I. Where the quantity of each ingredient, and its price, are given, to find the price per pound, gallon, or whatever it may be, of the mixture; multiply the quantity of each ingredient by its price. and add; then divide the sum of all these products by the sum of all the quantities in the ingredients. Example. What is the worth per ounce of a mixture of 25 ounces of sugar at 10d. with 15 ounces at 11d.? Answer, 1015d. or 101d. very nearly. Rule II. To find in what proportions per cent. two ingredients must be mixed, in order that the price per ounce, &c., of the mixture may be one which has been previously determined upon. To find the proportion of the first ingredient, take the difference of price between the mixture and the second ingredient, multiply by 100, and divide by the difference between the prices of the ingredients. Example. I wish to know in what proportion wines at 458. and 70s. a dozen must be mixed, in order that the mixture may be worth 55s. a dozen ? Price of the mixture second ingredient " 558. 70s. difference 15 multiply 100 difference of price of ingredients 25 ) 1500 (60 150 There must, therefore, be 60 per cent. of the first, and consequently 40 per cent. of the second. Instead of finding the proportions per cent., the proportion in which any other number must be divided, may be found by using that number of dozen, &c., instead of 100, and the three prices may be all multiplied by any number which will clear them of fractions. Example. How must 80 gallons, worth 64d. a gallon, be made of ingredients worth 13d. and 11d. per gallon? narrative poetry. In the first line of every couplet there are two principal words beginning with the same letter, and this letter is the initial letter of the first emphatic word, or that on which a stress is laid in pronunciation, in the second line. The two letters in the first line are, by some authorities, called the sub-letters, the single letter in the second line the chief letter. Occasionally there is only one subletter in the first; and there is never more than one chief letter in the second line. The subject of Anglo-Saxon alliteration is fully treated by Rask, in his Anglo-Saxon Grammar, p. 136, &c.; and by Mr. T. Wright, in his 'Biographia Britannica Literaria,' p. 7, &c.; see also Conybeare's Introductory Essay to Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry.' The following lines from the poem of Béowulf (Kemble's ed., lines 637, &c.) will sufficiently illustrate the Anglo-Saxon form of alliteration : "Stræt wæs stán-fáh stíg wisode gumum æt-gæderc; guð-byrne scán, heard, hond-locen ; hring-íren scir," &c. The Anglo-Norman versifiers introduced rhyme into English poetry; but the popular ear retained its liking for alliteration, and rhyme and alliteration became freely intermingled-the alliteration being most used in addressing a vulgar audience. The most famous poem in the English language, entirely composed in alliterative metre, is that entitled The Vision of Piers Ploughman,' written about the middle of the 14th century, and attributed to William or Robert Longland, a secular priest, and a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. This is a long work, consisting of twenty-one parts or books, and composed throughout in verses, the cadence of which appears to be generally anapastic, but which are evidently designed to derive their chief metrical beauty from a certain artificial disposition, in each, of quently printed. An excellent edition was published in 1856, by Thomas Wright, M.A., who, in his Introduction, says of it, that along with the alliteration it accurately preserves the other characteristic of the metre of the voice in each line. . . . making allowance for the change of the slow and impressive pronunciation of the Anglo-Saxon for the quicker pronunciation of Middle English, which therefore required a greater number of syllables to fill up the same space of time." The opening lines of The Vision of Piers Ploughman' will enable the reader to perceive these peculiarities :-- may be given as an example; and another instance occurs in the the words beginning with the same letter. The poem has been fresame stanza, in the line "O'er hearts divided, and o'er hopes destroyed." Churchill has at once ridiculed and exemplified the figure in his well of Anglo-Saxon verse, namely that of "having two rises and two falls known verse "And apt alliteration's artful aid," where every word begins with the same letter. Modern critics have detected numerous instances of alliteration both in the Latin and Greek poets. (See the dialogue entitled 'Actius,' in the Latin Dialogues' of Joannes Jovianus Pontanus; and Harris's 'Philological Enquiries,' part ii. chap. iv.) Alliteration, however, has been most systematically used as an ornament of diction in the Celtic and Gothic dialects. Gerald Barry, commonly called Giraldus Cambrensis, who lived in the twelfth century, tells us, in his 'Description of Wales,' that in his day, both the English and Welsh were so fond of this figure of speech which he calls Annomination, that they deemed no composition to be elegant, or other than rude and barbarous, in which it was not plentifully employed. The same tendency is also said to have formed a striking peculiarity in the genius of the Irish language. (See Warton's History of English Poetry,' vol. ii. p. 106, note d, ed. of 1840.) Dr. Percy, in an essay published in his 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,' has traced the origin and history of alliterative verse down from the compositions of the old Icelandic poets. Nearly all the varieties of Runic verse, which were very numerous, appear to have depended for their prosodial character entirely upon alliteration. It was necessary that so many words in every line should begin with the same letter; and this was all that was required to make good metre. According to the learned Wormius, there were no fewer than 136 kinds of Icelandic verse formed upon this principle, and without including rhyme, or a correspondence of final syllables. If we may trust the following curious statement, given in a note by Mr. Park to Warton's History of English Poetry' (vol. ii. p. 106, ed. 1840), the harmonies of alliterative verse were sometimes of the most complicated description, and such as were likely, one would suppose, to elude any except the nicest and most practised ears:-"An objection has been taken to the antiquity of the Welsh poetry, from its supposed want of alliteration. But this is not the case: for the alliteration has not been perceived by those ignorant of its construction, which is to make it in the middle of words, and not at the beginning, as in this instance: This information was imparted to Mr. Douce, by the ingenious Edward Williams, the Welsh bard." Of Anglo-Saxon poetry, alliteration is the most distinctive characteristic; though somewhat curiously, Mr. Tyrwhitt, in his essay on the 'Language and Versification of Chaucer,' has gone so far as to say, "For my own part, I confess myself unable to discover any material distinction of the Saxon poetry from prose, except a greater pomp of diction, and a more stately kind of march." In fact, in all AngloSaxon verse the alliteration is very decided, but it is especially so in "In a somer season Whan softe was the sonne, I shoop me into shroudes As I a sheep weere, In habit as an heremite Unholy of werkes, tinued to be written in English, the verse of which was merely Dr. Percy, in the essay above referred to, has shown that poems conalliterative, or in which, at least, alliteration served as the substitute for rhyme, down to the commencement of the 16th century, and in of this description which he cites is entitled 'Scottish Field,' and is a the Scottish dialect even to a later period. One of the compositions narrative of the battle of Flodden, which was fought in 1513. Another is a Scottish poem composed by Dunbar, who lived till about the middle of the 16th century. It is preserved in the Maitland Manuscript, and has since been published by Pinkerton. The practice of preserved in the north. In the Canterbury Tales,' Chaucer makes his alliterative verse, as Percy has remarked, seems to have been longest Parson, when asked for his story, reply, with a sneer at this antiquated habit of the northern versifiers of that day, Trusteth well I am a Southern man; I cannot geste, rom, ram, ruff, by my letter, that even for some time after the introduction of rhyme, it appears to So strongly had alliteration obtained possession of the English ear, have been still considered an important embellishment of verse. Some fragments of our old poetry exhibit both the consonance of final syllables, and a rigid observance of all the regularities of alliteration. Even after the latter came to be neglected as a systematic accessory, it was still lavishly employed as an occasional ornament. Our popular ballad and lyrical poetry is full of such lines as those with which the Scotch song commences : "Merry may the maid be That marries the miller; For foul day and fair day," &c. &c. Down even to the present day, the use of alliteration, to a consider able extent, has continued to characterise English versification in its most polished form, and in the hands of some of our greatest poets Nor has the employment of this artifice of style been confined to compositions in verse. In the early part of the 17th century it was carried to a greater excess by some of our prose writers than it ever had been by our poets; grave discourses being elaborated, in which nearly all the words of each separate sentence commenced with the same letter. The longer this torture of the unfortunate sound could be protracted, the greater was deemed to be the feat of eloquence. Those who recognise rhyme, or what Milton calls "the jingling sound of like endings," as one of the legitimate adjuncts of poetry, can hardly repudiate alliteration, which, after the same fashion, may be termed "the jingle of like beginnings." There can be no doubt that the latter artifice, judiciously employed, may be made to acmmunicate a portion, at least, of the same sort of gratification which is conveyed by the former. The general principle upon which the pleasure we experience in both cases depends, is the similarity in dissimilarity, as it has been called, or variety combined with regularity, which is the occasion of so many of our intellectual, and of some also of our moral pleasures. Of course, the degree in which alliteration is employed, as an ornament of style, ought to be regulated by its importance, as compared with other rhetorical decorations, and by its appropriateness to the subject and the general character of the composition. Being a mere artifice of diction, it can in no case be compared with the higher beauties of thought and expression, and should never be obtruded so as to interfere with them. It sometimes serves, however, to help in what may be called the setting of a brilliant thought; and, if it have the air of coming naturally, will frequently add to the effect of an otherwise happy phrase. Its aptitude to catch the popular ear is proved by its almost universal adoption in proverbs, traditional rhymes, and other brief sayings of wit or wisdom, which their mere natural vitality has kept alive without the aid of letters, and even in a vast number of those idiomatic expressions which form the sinew and chief strength of our language. Mr. Price, the learned editor of the last edition of Warton, announced a volume which was to contain, among other matters, an essay upon alliterative metre, together with the 'Aunter of Sir Gawaine,' a romance in alliterative metre, from a MS. of the 14th century; but the work was never completed in consequence of his premature death. ALLITURIC ACID. [URIC ACID, DERIVATIVES OF.] ALLO'DIUM, or ALO'DIUM, is property held in absolute dominion, without rendering any service, fealty, or other consideration whatsoever to a superior. It is opposed to Feodum or Fief [FEUDAL SYSTEM], which means property the use of which was bestowed by the proprietor upon another, on condition that the person to whom the gift was made should perform certain services to the giver, upon failure of which, or upon the determination of the period to which the gift was confined, the property reverted to the original possessor. Hence arose the mutual relation of lord and vassal. It is the general opinion that the lands which the Germanic tribes, Franks, Burgundians, and Visigoths, seized during the decline of the Roman empire, were distributed among the members of these tribes in some way, and held free from all service or duty. Land so held was called Allod, or Alod, and in the Latinised form, Allodium. The system of fiefs, or the feudal system, as it is called, was posterior to that of this allodial holding of lands; and it was not completely established, at least in France, till towards the end of the 10th century. In England there is no allodial land, for all land is held mediately or immediately of the king. The name for the most absolute dominion over property of this nature is a fee (feodum), or an estate in fee, a word which implies a feudal relation. When a man possessed of an estate in fee dies without heirs, and without having devised his property, the estate escheats, or falls back to the lord of whom it was holden: or, where there is no intermediate lord, to the king as lord paramount. The Latinised forms of this word are various :-alodis, alodus, alodium, alaudum, and others. The French forms are-aleu, aleu franc, or frank aleu, franc-alond, franc-aloy, and franc-aleuf. In many old charters alodum is explained by hereditas, or heritable estate. But it is very difficult to collect any theory from the numerous passages in which the word occurs which shall satisfactorily explain its etymology. (Du Cange, Gloss.' Alodis; Spelman, Glossarium.') There is a very elaborate article on allodial land in the StaatsLexicon' of Rotteck and Welcker, under the head Alodium;' and there are some remarks by Guizot, 'Histoire de la Civilization en France,' vol. iii. ALLOPHANIC ACID (HO, CN,H,O,). This acid is unknown in the hydrated or separate state. It forms crystallisable salts with baryta, potash, and soda. It is produced by the action of hydrated cyanic acid on alcohol. The water of the alcohol unites with the cyanic acid and forms the new compound which combines with the oxide of ethyl and forms an allophanate of the oxide of ethyl. Cyanic Acid. Alcohol. Allophanic Ether. ALLOTROPY. Several elementary substances are known to undergo remarkable changes in their appearance, and in their physical and chemical properties, without entering into combination with any other body, or in any way losing their elementary character. Such elements are said to be allotropic, and their different forms are termed allotropic modifications. Thus the element sulphur is generally met with as a bright yellow brittle solid, and if it be fused by a heat of about 240°, and then allowed to cool, it assumes again its original appearance, but if whilst fused it be heated more strongly, to 500° for instance, and be then suddenly cooled by pouring it into cold water, it forms a soft amber-brown coloured tenaceous mass, which may be drawn out into threads that are elastic like caoutchouc. At ordinary temperatures this elastic sulphur very slowly returns to its ordinary state, but if it be heated to 212° the transformation is instantaneous, and accompanied with the evolution of heat. There are also other allotropic forms of sulphur all exhibiting marked differences in their properties, but all consisting of the same material-elementary sulphur. Phosphorus and many other elements also exhibit the same phenomenon. The cause of these allotropic modifications is at present enveloped in great obscurity, but it is generally supposed that such modifications are due to a difference in the grouping of the ultimate molecules of the allotropic elements. ALLOWANCE, in commerce, a deduction from the gross weight of goods, agreed on between merchants, according to the customs of particular countries and ports, the chief of which is known by the name of TARE. ALLOXAN. [URIC ACID, DERIVATIVES OF.] But there is ALLOY. This word is employed to designate either a natural or artificial compound of two or more metals, except when mercury is one of them, and then the mixture is termed an amalgam. The natural alloys are far less important substances than those which are artificially procured: thus, arsenic occurs combined with the following metals, namely, antimony, bismuth, cobalt, iron, nickel, and silver; there is also found a native alloy of antimony and nickel, and of antimony, cobalt, and nickel; some others might also be mentioned. no instance of a native alloy, strictly speaking, being applied to any useful purpose, whereas the artificial alloys are of the highest importance both for the uses of common life and for manufacturing purposes; since by uniting different metals, compounds are formed which possess a combination of qualities not occurring in any one metal. Platina is always employed in a pure state, and copper, iron, lead, and zinc, are also very commonly so used; but gold, silver, tin, antimony, and bismuth are generally alloyed; the first three, on account of their softness, and the two latter because they are extremely brittle. Gold and silver are hardened by alloying with copper; copper is hardened by zinc, &c. The formation of alloys appears to depend upon the chemical affinity of the metals for each other; and in some instances this affinity seems to be wanting, for no combination occurs: thus, according to Gellert, bismuth and zinc do not combine. Various facts may be assigned for supposing the combination to be the result of chemical union. M. Boussingault (An. de Ch. et de Ph.,' t. 34, p. 408) has described and analysed six different native alloys of gold and silver, and he found in all cases that the metals were combined in definite proportions. The change of properties which metals undergo by combining, furnishes strong evidence of the intervention of chemical affinity and action: thus, with respect to colour, copper, a reddish metal, by union with zinc, a white one, gives the well-known yellow alloy, brass: the fusing point of a mixed metal is never the mean of the temperature at which its constituents melt; and it is generally lower than that of the most fusible metal of the alloy; whilst the power of the latter to conduct heat and electricity, also indicates that chemical combination has occurred. All alloys formed of brittle metals are brittle; those made with ductile metals are in some cases ductile, in others brittle; when the proportions are nearly equal, there are as many alloys which are brittle as ductile; but when one of the metals is in excess, they are most commonly ductile. In combining ductile and brittle metals, the compounds are brittle, if the brittle metal exceed, or nearly equal the proportion of the ductile one; but when the ductile metal greatly exceeds the brittle one, the alloys are usually ductile. The density of By the action of solutions of caustic, baryta, potash, or soda upon alloys sometimes exceeds, and in other cases is less than, that which would result from calculation; the following alloys afford examples of useful character, such as the places of the sun, moon, and planets, the increased and diminished density. Not only are the properties of metals altered by combination, but different proportions of the same metals produce very different alloys. Thus, by combining ninety parts of copper with ten parts of tin, an alloy is obtained of greater density than the mean of the metals, and it is also harder and more fusible than the copper; it is slightly malleable when slowly cooled, but on the contrary when heated to redness, and plunged into cold water, it is very malleable: this compound is known by the name of bronze. If eighty parts of copper be combined with twenty parts of tin, the compound is the extremely sonorous one called bell-metal; an alloy consisting of two-thirds copper and one-third tin, is susceptible of a very fine polish, and is used as speculum metal. It is curious to observe in these alloys, that in bronze, the density and hardness of the denser and harder metal are increased by combining with a lighter and softer one; while, as might be expected, the fusibility of the more refractory metal is increased by uniting with a more fusible In bell-metal, the copper becomes more sonorous by combination with a metal which is less so: these changes are clear indications of chemical action. one. It has been already observed, that the natural alloys, considered as such, are not important bodies; the only one, if indeed that may be so reckoned, is the alloy of iron and nickel, constituting meteoric iron, and of which the knives of the Esquimaux appear to be made. The artificial metallic alloys are of the highest degree of utility: thus, gold is too soft a metal to be used either for the purposes of coin or ornament, it is therefore alloyed with copper; silver, though harder than gold, would also wear too quickly, unless mixed with copper; and copper is improved, both in hardness and colour, by combination with zinc, forming brass. The following, among other useful alloys, will be treated of under their specific names, viz., BELL-METAL, PEWTER, Brass, Bronze, GUN, PRINCE'S, SPECULUM, BRITANNIA, and TYPE METAL, GERMAN SILVER, NICKEL SILVER, TUTENAG, and SOLDERS. Other alloys will be described when the more important metal entering into their composition comes under consideration. ALLYL. [ALCOHOLS; ORGANIC RADICALS.] ALMACANTER, an Arabic term now disused, but which, with many others, was formerly employed in astronomy. The name is given to all the small circles parallel to the horizon; so that two stars which have the same almacanter, have the same altitude. Almacanter would now be called a circle of altitude, in the same way as a small circle parallel to the equator, all whose points have therefore the same declination, is called a circle of declination. ALMAGEST, a name given by the Arabs to the μcyáλn oúvrağıs, or great collection, the celebrated work of Ptolemy, the astronomer of Alexandria. It was translated into Arabic about the year A.D. 827, under the patronage of the Caliph Al Mamun, by the Jew Alhazen ben Joseph, and the Christian Sergius. The word is the Arabic article al prefixed to the Greek word megistus, 'greatest,' a name probably derived from the title of the work itself, or, as we may judge from the superlative adjective, partly from the estimation in which it was held. ALMANAC. The derivation of this word has given some trouble to grammarians. The most rational derivation appears to us to be from the two Arabic words al, the article, and mana or manah, ' to count.' An almanac, in the modern sense of the word, is an annual publication, giving the civil divisions of the year, the moveable and other feasts, and the times of the various astronomical phenomena, including in the latter term not only those which are remarkable, such as the eclipses of the moon or sun, but also those of a more ordinary and position of the principal fixed stars, the times of high and low water, and such information relative to the weather as observation has hitherto furnished. The agricultural, political, and statistical information which is usually contained in popular almanacs, though as valuable a part of the work as any, is comparatively of modern date. It is impossible that any country in which astronomy was at all cultivated could be long without an almanac of some species. Accordingly, we find the first astronomers of every age and country employed either in their construction or improvement. The belief in astrology, which has prevailed throughout the East from time immemorial, rendered almanacs absolutely necessary, as the very foundation of the pretended science consisted in an accurate knowledge of the state of the heavens. With the almanacs-if indeed they had them not before -the above-mentioned absurdities were introduced into the west, and strange to say, it is only within the last twenty years that astrological predictions have not been contained in nine almanacs out of ten. It is not known what were the first almanacs published in Europe. That the Alexandrian Greeks constructed them in or after the time of Ptolemæus, appears from an account of Theon, the celebrated commentator upon the Almagest, in a manuscript found by M. Delambre at Paris, in which the method of arranging them is explained, and the proper materials pointed out. It is impossible to suppose that at any period almanacs were uncommon; but in the dearth of books whose names have come down to us, the earliest of which Lalande, an indefatigable bibliographer, could obtain any notice, are those of Solomon Jarchus, published in and about 1150, and of the celebrated Purbach, published 1450-61. The almanacs of Regiomontanus, said by Bailly, in his History of Astronomy,' to have been the first ever published, but which it might be more correct to say ever printed, appeared between 1475 and 1506, since which time we can trace a continued chain of such productions, of which our limits will not allow us to give even the names of the authors. They may be found in the Bibliographie Astronomique' of Lalande, and in Hutton's 'Mathematical Dictionary,' article 'Ephemeris.' The almanacs of Regiomontanus, which simply contained the eclipses and the places of the planets, were sold, it is said, for ten crowns of gold. An almanac for 1442, in manuscript we presume, is preserved in the 'Bibliothèque du Roi,' at Paris. The almanacs of Engel, of Vienna, were published from 1494 to 1500; and those of Bernard de Granolachs, of Barcelona, from about 1487. There are various manuscript almanacs of the 14th century in the libraries of the British Museum, and of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The first astronomical almanacs published in France were those of Duret de Montbrison, in 1637, which series continued till 1700. But there must have been previous publications of some similar description; for, in 1579, an ordonnance of Henry III. forbade all makers of almanacs to prophesy, directly or indirectly, concerning the affairs either of the state or of individuals. In England the royal authority was less rationally employed. James I. granted a monopoly of the trade in almanacs to the universities and the Stationers' Company. The universities however were only passive, having accepted an annuity from their colleagues, and resigned any active exercise of their privilege. In 1775 a blow was struck which demolished the legal monopoly. One Thomas Carnan, a bookseller, whose name deserves honourable remembrance, had some years before detected or presumed the illegality of the exclusive right, and invaded it accordingly. The cause came before the Court of Common Pleas in the year above mentioned, and was there decided against the Company. Lord North, in 1779, brought a bill into the House of Commons to renew and legalise the privilege, but, after an able argument by Erskine in favour of the public, the House rejected the ministerial project by a majority of forty-five. The defeated monopolists managed to regain the exclusive market, by purchasing the works of their competitors. The astrological and other predictions still continued; but it is some extenuation that the public, long used to predictions of the deaths of princes and falls of rain, refused to receive any almanacs which did not contain their favourite absurdities. It is said (Baily, 'Further Remarks on the Defective State of the Nautical Almanac,' &c., p. 9) that the Stationers' Company once tried the experiment of partially reconciling Francis Moore and common sense, by no greater step than omitting the column of the moon's influence on the parts of the human body, and that most of the copies were returned upon their hands. The 'British Almanac' was published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in 1828. Its success induced the Stationers' Company to believe that the public would no longer refuse a good almanac because it only predicted purely astronomical phenomena, and they accordingly published the Englishman's Almanac.' We may also add that other almanacs have diminished the quantity and tone of their objectionable parts. But astrology still puts forth a timid voice in the name of Francis Moore; and there are professedly astrological almanacs, which have their purchasers, and probably their believers. Of the professedly astronomical almanacs, the most important in England is the 'Nautical Almanac,' published by the Admiralty, for the use both of astronomers and seamen. This work was projected by Dr. Maskelyne, then Astronomer Royal, and first appeared in 1767. The employment of lunar distances in finding the longitude, of the efficacy of which method Maskelyne had satisfied himself in a voyage |