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ALBUHERA-ALBUQUERQUE.

a few days after, fell into the hands of

the allies.

ALBUM; among the Romans, a white board for official publications. These boards received their appellations from the various magistrates; the album pontificum served as a state chronicle.-Album is also used to denote a kind of table or pocket-book, wherein the men of letters, with whom a person has conversed, inscribe their names, with some sentence or motto. The famous Algernon Sydney, being in Denmark, was presented by the university of Copenhagen with their album, whereupon he wrote these words;

Manus hæc inimica tyrannis

Euse petit placidam sub libertate quietem. Albums are at present in fashion among ladies. In Germany, where the fashion is said to have originated, they are now almost out of use, excepting such as are kept on interesting spots, high towers, mountains, fields of battle, &c.Göthe, being once asked by a tedious visitor to write something in his album, wrote G, the initial of his name. The name of this letter, in German, signifies go.

ALBUMEN, in physiology, exists nearly pure in the white of eggs. As thus procured, it is a glareous fluid, with very little taste. When kept for some time exposed to the air, it putrefies, but when spread in thin layers and dried, it does not undergo any change. When heated to about 165° Fahr., it coagulates, and its properties are entirely changed. It is soluble in cold water, and is separated, in its coagulated state, by hot water, if the quantity of fluid be not great; but if the water be about 10 times as much in amount as the albumen, there is no coagulation. Hence we cannot dissolve it in warm water, for, when put into it (as when a little of the white of eggs is thrown into a glass of boiling water), it is instantly coagulated. It is also coagulated by acids. A. exists in different parts of animals, as cartilage, bones, horns, hoofs, flesh, the membranous parts, and in considerable quantity in blood, from which it is usually procured, when required in the arts. From the property which it possesses of being coagulated by heat, it is employed for clarifying fluids, as in the refining of sugar, and in many other processes. When required in a large quantity, bullock's blood is used. When this or the white of eggs is put into a warm fluid, its A. is coagulated, and entangles the impurities, and, as the scum rises, it is removed.

A. acts in the same way, also, in clarifying spirituous fluids. When, for instance, the white of an egg is added to wine, or to any cordial, the alcohol coagulates it, and the coagulum entangles the impurities, and carries them to the bottom. Both gelatin and A. exist in flesh, and, as the former is soluble in warm water, hence the difference in the nutritious quality of butcher's meat, according to the mode of cooking it; when, for instance, meat is boiled, the greater part of the gelatin is extracted, and retained by the soup; when, on the contrary, it is roasted, the gelatinous matter is not removed; so that roasted meat contains both gelatin and A., and should, therefore, be more nutritious than the other. By the analysis of GayLussac and Thenard, 100 parts of A. are formed of 52,883 carbon, 23,872 oxygen, 7,540 hydrogen, 15,705 nitrogen. The negative pole of a voltaic pile in high activity coagulates A. Orfila has found the white of eggs to be the best antidote to the poisonous effects of corrosive sublimate on the human stomach. (See Egg.)

ALBUQUERQUE, Alfonso de, viceroy of India, surnamed the Great, and the Portuguese Mars, was born at Lisbon, 1452, of a family that derived its origin from kings. A heroic and enterprising spirit at that time distinguished his nation. They had become acquainted with, and had subjected to their power, a large part of the western coast of Africa, and began to extend their sway over the seas and nations of India. A. was appointed viceroy of their acquisitions in this quarter, and arrived, Sept. 26, 1503, with a fleet and some troops, on the coast of Malabar; took possession of Goa, which he made the centre of the Portuguese power and commerce in Asia; subdued the whole of Malabar, Ceylon, the Sunda islands, and the peninsula of Malacca. In 1507, he made himself master of the island of Ormus, at the entrance of the Persian gulf. When the king of Persia demanded the tribute which the princes of this island had formerly paid him, A. laid before the ambassadors a bullet and a sword, saying, "This is the coin in which Portugal pays her tribute." He made the Portuguese name highly respected by all the nations and princes of India, and several, as the kings of Siam and Pegu, courted his friendship and protection. All his enterprises were extraordinary. His discipline was strict; he was active, cautious, wise, humane and just; respected and feared by his neighbors, beloved by his inferiors. His virtues made such an impression on

the Indians, that they, for a long time after his death, made pilgrimages to his tomb, and besought him to protect them against the tyranny of his successors. Notwithstanding his great merits, he did not escape the envy of the courtiers, and the suspicions of king Emanuel, who sent Lopez Soarez, the personal enemy of A., to fill his place. The ingratitude of his sovereign severely afflicted him, and he died, a few days after receiving the intelligence, at Goa, in 1515, having recommended his only son to the king's favor, in a letter written a short time before his death. Emanuel honored his memory by a long repentance, and raised his son to the highest dignities of the kingdom.

ALBURNUM; the soft, white substance which, in trees, is found between the liber, or inner bark, and the wood, and, in progress of time acquiring solidity, becomes itself the wood. A new layer of wood, or rather of A., is added annually to the tree in every part, just under the bark.

ALCEUS, one of the greatest Grecian lyric poets, was born at Mitylene, in Lesbos, and flourished there at the close of the 7th and the beginning of the 6th centuries B. C. Somewhat older than Sappho, he paid homage to the charms of his renowned countrywoman, but, as it seems, unsuccessfully. Being of a fiery temperament, he sought at the same time the laurel of war and of the muses. His misfortune in losing his shield, in a war between Mitylene and Athens, has been falsely attributed to cowardice. He engaged in the civil war which convulsed his country at the time of the expulsion of the tyrants, and used both the lyre and the sword in the cause of liberty. In the beginning, he took part with Pittacus; subsequently against him, when he took the reins of government into his own hands, after the overthrow of the petty tyrants, in order to unite and quiet the divided people. A., expelled from Mitylene by the change of circumstances, wandered about for a long time, and at last fell into the hands of Pittacus, in an attempt to force his way into his native city, at the head of a body of exiles. The latter magnanimously restored him to liberty. His songs breathe the same spirit with his life. A strong, manly enthusiasm for freedom and justice pervades even those in which he sings the pleasures of love and wine. But the sublimity of his nature shines brightest when he praises valor, chastises tyrants, describes the blessings of liberty and the misery of exile. His lyric muse was versed in all the forms

and subjects of poetry, and antiquity attributes to him hymns, odes and songs. A few fragments only are left of all of them, and a distant echo of his poetry reaches us in some odes of Horace. He wrote in the Æolic dialect, and was the inventor of the metre that bears his name, one of the most beautiful and melodious of all the lyric metres. Horace has employed it in many of his odes. German poets, too, have imitated it, as Klopstock. Jani has collected the fragments of his works. Some of them are in the Analecta of Brunck, and in the Anthologia of Jacobs. There were two other poets of the same name, but of less reputation.

ALCALA DE HENAREZ; a beautiful and extensive city of Spain, in New Castile, seated upon the river Henarez, 11 miles S. W. of Guadalaxara, and 15 E. N. E. of Madrid. The ancient name was Complutum, when it was a Roman colony, and here was printed the celebrated Biblia Complutensia, or Complutensian Polyglot, at an expense of 250,000 ducats to cardinal Ximenes. It was the first polyglot Bible ever printed. 600 copies were struck off, three on vellum. One of these three was deposited in the royal library at Madrid, a second in the royal library at Turin; a third, supposed to have belonged to the cardinal himself, after passing through various hands, was purchased at the sale of signor Pinelli's library, in 1739, for the late count M'Carthy, of Toulouse, for £483. On the sale of his library, at Paris, 1817, it was sold for over £676 sterling.

ALCALDE (Spanish), or ALCAIDE (Portuguese); the name of a magistrate in the Spanish and Portuguese towns, to whom the administration of justice and the regulation of the police is committed. His office nearly corresponds to that of justice of the peace. The name and the office are of Moorish origin.

ALCALI. (See Alkali.)

ALCAMENES. (See Sculpture.)

ALCANTARA; an ancient town and frontier fortress in the Spanish province Estremadura, with 3000 inhabitants, built by the Moors, on the Tagus, over which is a splendid bridge, erected by the Romans. One of the three ancient Spanish orders of knighthood, which derives its origin from the brethren of St. Julian del Parero (of the pear-tree), in the 12th century, and fought bravely against the Moors, received, in 1207, from the order of Calatrava, the town of Alcantara, of which it took the name, and was united with the Spanish crown, after the grand master, don

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ALCANTARA-ALCHEMY.

Juan de Zuniga, had delivered up the town to Ferdinand the Catholic, in 1494. The knights, since 1540, have been allowed to marry. The order was very rich. The badge is a gold and green cross, fleur de lis; the coat of arms, a pear-tree, with two chevrons.

ALCAVALA is the name of a tax or excise imposed in Spain and the Spanish colonies upon sales of property, whether movable or immovable. The rate of this tax has varied, heretofore, in Spain, from 14 to 6 per cent. It differs from the ordinary excise in this, that an excise is most generally intended to be levied upon consumption, so that each one shall pay in proportion to the goods he may consume; and it is, therefore, founded upon one of the legitimate principles of taxation. But the alcavala, being levied upon all sales, is, in fact, a tax upon internal commerce; it is a forfeit paid by the vender for selling a thing to be used or consumed by another, instead of using or consuming it himself, which he might do free of any such tax. It is, accordingly, one of the most unequal and pernicious taxes that could possibly be levied, since its amount is not governed by the amount of property which the party paying it is worth, nor by the amount that he consumes. It is, to all intents and purposes, an arbitrary tax, and Ultaritz attributes to it the ruin of the Spanish manufactures. The alcavala was introduced under Alphonso XI, and was borrowed from the Arabians. It was imposed at first in 1342, only for a specified period. In 1349, it was made perpetual, and fixed at 10 per cent. ALCEA. (See Hollyhock.) ALCEDO. (See Kingfisher.)

ALCESTE; the daughter of Pelias, and wife of Admetus, king of Thessaly. Her husband was sick, and, according to an oracle, would die, unless some one else made a vow to meet death in his stead. This was secretly done by A. She became sick, and Admetus recovered. After her decease, Hercules visited Admetus, with whom he was connected by the ties of hospitality, and promised his friend to bring back his wife from the infernal regions. He made good his word, compelling Pluto to restore A. to her husband. Euripides has made this story the subject of a tragedy.

ALCHEMY; the art of changing, by means of a secret chemical process, base metals into precious. Probably the ancient nations, in their first attempts to melt metals, observing that the composition of different metals produced masses

At

of a color unlike either,—for instance, that a mixture like gold resulted from the melting together of copper and zinc,—arrived at the conclusion, that one metal could be changed into another. At an early period, the desire of gold and silver grew strong, as luxury increased, and men indulged the hope of obtaining these rarer metals from the more common. the same time, the love of life led to the idea of finding a remedy against all diseases, a means of lessening the infirmities of age, of renewing youth, and repelling death. The hope of realizing these ideas prompted the efforts of several men, who taught their doctrines through mystical images and symbols. To transmute metals, they thought it necessary to find a substance which, containing the original principle of all matter, should possess the power of dissolving all into its elements. This general solvent, or menstruum universale, which, at the same time, was to possess the power of removing all the seeds of disease out of the human body, and renewing life, was called the philosopher's stone, lapis philosophorum, and its pretended possessors adepts. The more obscure the ideas which the alchemists themselves had of the appearances occurring in their experiments, the more they endeavored to express themselves in symbolical language. Afterwards, they retained this phraseology, to conceal their secrets from the uninitiated. In Egypt, in the earliest times, Hermes, the son of Anubis, was ranked among the heroes, and many books of chemical, magical and alchemical learning are said to have been left by him. These, however, are of a later date. (See Hermes Trismegistus.) For this reason, chemistry and alchemy received the name of the Hermetic art. It is certain that the ancient Egyptians possessed particular chemical and metalÎurgical knowledge, although the origin of alchemy cannot, with certainty, be attributed to them. Several Grecians became acquainted with the writings of the Egyptians, and initiated in their chemical knowledge. The fondness for magic, and for alchemy more particularly, spread afterwards among the Romans also. When true science was persecuted under the Roman tyrants, superstition and false philosophy flourished the more. The prodigality of the Romans excited the desire for gold, and led them to pursue the art which promised it instantaneously and abundantly. Caligula made experiments with a view of obtaining gold from orpiment. On the other

hand, Diocletian ordered all books to be burned that taught to manufacture gold and silver by alchemy. At that time, many books on alchemy were written, and falsely inscribed with the names of renowned men of antiquity. Thus a number of writings were ascribed to Democritus, and more to Hermes, which were written by Egyptian monks and hermits, and which, as the Fabula Smaragdina, taught, in allegories, with mystical and symbolical figures, the way to discover the philosopher's stone. At a later period, chemistry and alchemy were cultivated among the Arabians. In the 8th century, the first chemist, commonly called Geber, flourished among them, in whose works rules are given for preparing quicksilver and other metals. In the middle ages, the monks devoted themselves to alchemy, although they were afterwards prohibited from studying it by the popes. But there was one, even among these, John XXII, who was fond of alchemy. Raymond Lully, or Lullius, was one of the most famous alchemists in the 13th and 14th centuries. A story is told of him, that, during his stay in London, he changed for king Edward I a mass of 50,000 pounds of quicksilver into gold, of which the first rose-nobles were coined. The study of alchemy was prohibited at Venice in 1488. Paracelsus, who was highly celebrated about 1525, belongs to the renowned alchemists, as do Roger Bacon, Basilius, Valentinus and many others. When, however, more rational principles of chemistry and philosophy began to be diffused, and to shed light on chemical phenomena, the rage for alchemy gradually decreased, though many persons, including some nobles, still remained devoted to it. Alchemy has, however, afforded some service to chemistry, and even medicine. Chemistry was first carefully studied by the alchemists, to whose labor and patience we are indebted for several useful discoveries; e.g. various preparations of quicksilver, mineral kermes, of porcelain, &c.-Nothing can be asserted with certainty about the transmutation of metals. Modern chemistry, indeed, places metals in the class of elements, and denies the possibility of changing an inferior metal into gold. Most of the accounts of such transmutation rest on fraud or delusion, although some of them are accompanied with circumstances and testimony which render them probable. By means of the galvanic battery, even the alkalies have been discovered to have a metallic base. The

possibility of obtaining metal from other substances which contain the ingredients composing it, and of changing one metal into another, or rather of refining it, must, therefore, be left undecided. Nor are alí alchemists to be considered impostors. Many have labored, under the conviction of the possibility of obtaining their object, with indefatigable patience and purity of heart (which is earnestly recommended by sound alchemists as the principal requisite for the success of their labors). Designing men have often used alchemy as a mask for their covetousness, and as a means of defrauding silly people of their money. Many persons, even in our days, destitute of sound chemical knowledge, have been led by old books on alchemy, which they did not understand, into long, expensive and fruitless labors. Hitherto chemistry has not succeeded in unfolding the principles by which metals are formed, the laws of their production, their growth and refinement, and in aiding or imitating this process of nature; consequently the labor of the alchemists, in search of the philosopher's stone, is but a groping in the dark.

ALCIBIADES. This famous Greek, son of Clinias and Dinomache, was born at Athens, in the 82d Olympiad, about 450 B. C. He lost his father in the battle of Chæronea, and was afterwards educated in the house of Pericles, his grandfather by his mother's side. Pericles was too much engaged in affairs of state to bestow that care upon him, which the impetuosity of his disposition required. In his childhood, A. showed the germ of his future character. One day, when he was playing at dice with some companions in the street, a wagon came up; he requested the driver to stop, and, the latter refusing, A. threw himself before the wheel, exclaiming, "Drive on, if thou darest." He excelled alike in mental and bodily exercises. His beauty and birth, and the high station of Pericles, procured him a multitude of friends and admirers, and his reputation was affected by the dissipation in which he became involved. He was fortunate in acquiring the friendship of Socrates, who endeavored to lead him to virtue, and undoubtedly obtained a great ascendency over him, so that A. often quitted his gay associates for the company of the philosopher. He bore arms, for the first time, in the expedition against Potidea, and was wounded. who fought at his side, defended him, and led him out of danger. In the battle of Delium, he was among the cavalry who

Socrates,

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were victorious, but, the infantry being beaten, he was obliged to flee, as well as the rest. He overtook Socrates, who was retreating on foot, accompanied him, and protected him. As long as the demagogue Cleon lived, A. was principally distinguished for luxury and prodigality, and did not mingle in the affairs of state. On the death of Cleon, 422 B. C., Nicias succeeded in making a peace for 50 years between the Athenians and Lacedæmonians. A., jealous of the influence of Nicias, and offended because the Lacedæmonians, with whom he was connected by the ties of hospitality, had not applied to him, fomented some disagreement between the two nations into an occasion for breaking the peace. The Lacedæmonians sent ambassadors to Athens; A. received them with apparent good will, and advised them to conceal their credentials, lest the Athenians should prescribe conditions to them. They suffered themselves to be duped, and, when called into the assembly, declared that they were without credentials. A. rose immediately, accused them of ill faith, and induced the Athenians to form an alliance with the Argives. A breach with the Lacedæmonians was the consequence. A. commanded several times the Athenian fleets, which devastated the Peloponnesus; but even then he did not refrain from luxury and dissipation, to which he gave himself up entirely after his return. On one occasion, after leaving a nocturnal revel, in the company of some friends, he laid a wager that he would give the rich Hipponicus a box on the ear, and so he did. This act made a great noise in the city, but A. went to the injured party, threw off his garment, and called upon him to revenge himself by whipping him with rods. This open repentance reconciled Hipponicus; he not only pardoned him, but gave him afterwards his daughter, Hipparete, in marriage, with a portion of 10 talents ($10,500). A., however, still continued his levity and prodigality. His extravagance was conspicuous at the Olympic games, where he entered the stadium, not like other rich men, with one chariot, but with 7 at a time, and gained the 3 first prizes. He seems to have been victor, also, in the Pythian and Nemean games. All this together drew upon him the hatred of many of his fellow-citizens, and he would have fallen a sacrifice to the ostracism (q. v.), if he had not, in connexion with Nicias and Phæax, who feared a similar fate, artfully contrived to procure the banishment of his most formidable

enemy. Soon afterwards, the Athenians, at the instance of A., resolved on an expedition against Sicily, and elected him commander-in-chief, together with Nicias and Lamachus. But, during the preparations, it happened, one night, that all the statues of Mercury were broken. The enemies of A. charged him with the act, but postponed a public accusation till he had set sail, when they stirred up the people against him to such a degree, that he was recalled, in order to be tried. A. had been very successful in Sicily, when he received the order to return. He obeyed, and embarked, but, on reaching Thurium, disembarked, and concealed himself. Some one asking him, "How is this, Alcibiades? have you no confidence in your country ?" he answered, “I would not trust my mother, when my life is concerned; for she might, by mistake, take a black stone instead of a white one." He was condemned to death in Athens, and said, when the news reached him, "I shall show the Athenians that I am yet alive." He now went to Argos, thence to Sparta, where he made himself a favorite, by conforming closely to the prevailing strictness of manners. Here he succeeded in inducing the Lacedæmonians to form an alliance with the Persian king, and, after the unfortunate issue of the Athenian expedition against Sicily, he prevailed on them to assist the inhabitants of Chios in throwing off the yoke of Athens. He went himself thither, and, on his arrival in Asia Minor, roused the whole of Ionia to insurrection against the Athenians, and did them considerable injury. But Agis and the principal leaders of the Spartans became jealous of him, on account of his success, and ordered their commanders in Asia to cause him to be assassinated. A. suspected their plan, and went to Tissaphernes, a Persian satrap, who was ordered to act in concert with the Lacedæmonians. Here he changed his manners once more, adopted the luxurious habits of Asia, and understood how to make himself indispensable to the satrap. As he could no longer trust the Lacedæmonians, he undertook to serve his country, and showed Tissaphernes that it was against the interest of the Persian king to weaken the Athenians entirely. On the contrary, Sparta and Athens ought to be preserved for their mutual injury. Tissaphernes followed this advice, and afforded the Athenians some relief. The latter had, at that time, considerable forces at Samos. A. sent word to their commanders, that, if the licen

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