ALLEYN, Edward; a celebrated actor in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I, better known as the founder of Dulwich college. He was born 1566, in London, in the parish of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate. According to the testimony of Ben Jonson and the other dramatists of the age, he was the first actor of the day, and of course played leading characters in the plays of Shakspeare and Jonson; although, in consequence of the names not being set against the parts in the old editions of those authors, his particular share in them is not ascertained. He was keeper of the royal bear-garden. Having become wealthy, he founded Dulwich college, for the maintenance of one master, one warden, and four unmarried fellows of the name of Allen, three whereof were to be clergymen, and the fourth a skilful organist; also six poor men and as many women; and 12 poor boys, to be educated until of the age of 14 or 16, and then put out to some trade or calling. Aubrey tells a ridiculous story of the origin of this donation, in a fright endured by A., who saw a real devil on the stage, while himself performing a fictitious one in a drama by Shakspeare. After the college was built, he met with some difficulty in obtaining a charter, owing to the opposition of the lord chancellor Bacon. The very rational letter of this great man to the marquis of Buckingham on this subject is extant. A. was the first master of his own college, and, dying in 1626, was buried in the new chapel belonging to it. Within these few years, it has been brought into great additional notice by the admirable collection of pictures of the best masters, bequeathed by sir Francis Bourgeois.

Allgemeine Zeitung, i. e. General Gazette; a German political daily paper, published at Augsburg in Bavaria, for which reason it is sometimes called by foreigners the Augsburg Gazette. The A. Z. is by far the best German newspaper, and particularly rich in information respecting the affairs of the East and of Italy. The summary of new publications which it contains semi-annually after the book-fair in Leipsic is excellent. Baron Cotta, the owner of the A. Z., has regular correspondents in Constantinople, in almost all the capitals of Europe, and in the U. States. He has recently established another daily paper, Das Ausland, at Munich, which contains accounts of foreign countries only. The A. Z. has existed now 40 years or longer. It is, like all the German newspapers, small in com

parison with the English or American, and is afforded at a very low price.-For a general view of the German newspapers, see Newspapers.

ALLIANCE; a league between two or more powers. Alliances are divided into offensive and defensive. The former are for the purpose of attacking a common enemy, and the latter for mutual defence. An alliance often unites both of these conditions. Offensive alliances, of course, are usually directed against some particular enemy; defensive alliances against any one from whom an attack may come. As regards the obligations and rights of the contracting parties, alliances are divided into three chief classes:-1. Those in which the allied parties agree to prosecute the war with their whole force (société de guerre; alliance pour faire la guerre en commun). In this case, all the parties are principals. 2. Auxiliary alliances, if the allies pledge themselves mutually to furnish assistance to a fixed amount, in which case only one of the contracting powers appears as principal. 3. Mere treaties, by which one power promises, in consideration of certain subsidies, to furnish troops, or to place its troops in the pay of another power, without directly taking part in the war; or to make only advances of money. Triple alliance is an alliance between three, quadruple alliance, quintuple alliance, between four and five powers. (See Coalition, Quadruple Alliance, and Holy Alliance.)

ALLIANCE, Holy. (See Holy Alliance.)

ALLIGATION is of two kinds, alternate and medial. Alligation alternate is the method of finding the quantities of ingredients of different values, necessary to form a compound of a given value, and it is the converse of alligation medial, which teaches how to find the mean rate of a mixture, when the particular quantities composing the mixture, and their respective mean rates, are given.

ALLIGATOR; the name of a large reptile, of the saurian or lizard order, derived, according to Cuvier, from a corruption of the Portuguese word lagarto, equivalent to the Latin lacerta. The alligators or caimans form the second subgenus of Cuvier's crocodile family, and belong to the southern parts of the American continent. Two species, very numerous in these regions, are well known; the spectacled caiman, crocodilus sclerops, most common in Guiana and Brazil; and the pike-nosed A. (C. lucius), frequenting the southern rivers and lagoons of the U. States. In the water, the full-grown A.

is a terrible animal, on account of its great size and strength. It grows to the length of 15 or 20 feet, is covered by a dense harness of horny scales, impenetrable to a musket ball, except about the head and shoulders, and has a huge mouth, armed with a fearful row of strong, unequal, conical teeth, some of which shut into cavities of the upper jaw-bone. They swim or dart along through the water with wonderful celerity, impelled by their long, laterally-compressed and powerful tails, which serve as very efficient oars. On land, their motions are proportionally slow and embarrassed, because of the length and unwieldiness of their bodies, the shortness of their limbs, and the sort of small, false ribs which reach from joint to joint of their necks, and render lateral motion very difficult. In addition to the usual number of ribs and false ribs, they are furnished with others, for the protection of the belly, which do not rise up to the spine. The lower jaw extends farther back than the skull, so that the neck must be somewhat bent when it is opened; the appearance thus produced has led to the very universal error of believing that the A. moves its upper jaw, which is incapable of motion, except with the rest of the body. Under the throat of this animal are two openings or pores, the excretory ducts from glands, which pour out a strong, musky fluid, that gives the A. its peculiarly unpleasant smell. -In the spring of the year, when the males are under the excitement of the sexual propensity, they frequently utter a roar which is a very alarming sound, from its harshness and reverberation, resembling distant thunder, especially where numbers are at the same time engaged. At this period, frequent and terrible battles take place between the males, which terminate in the discomfiture and retreat of one of the parties. At this season, also, an old champion is seen to dart forth on the surface of the waters, in a straight line, at first as swiftly as lightning, gradually moving slower as he reaches the centre of a lake; there he stops, inflates himself by inhaling air and water, which makes a loud rattling in his throat for a moment, until he ejects it with vast force from his mouth and nostrils, making a loud noise, and vibrating his tail vigorously in the air. Sometimes, after thus inflating himself, with head and tail raised above the water, he whirls round until the waves are worked to foam, and, at length, retires, leaving to others an opportunity of repeating similar exploits, which

have been compared to an Indian warrior rehearsing his acts of bravery, and exhibiting his strength by gesticulation. The females make their nests in a curious manner, upon the banks of rivers or lagoons, generally in the marshes, along which, at a short distance from the water, the nests are arranged somewhat like an encampment. They are obtuse cones, 4 feet high, and about 4 feet in diameter at the base, built of mud and grass. A floor of such mortar is first spread upon the ground, on which a layer of eggs, having hard shells, and larger than those of a common hen, are spread. Upon these another layer of mortar, 7 or 8 inches in thickness, is deposited, and then another bed of eggs; and this is repeated nearly to the top. From 100 to 200 eggs are found in one nest. It is not ascertained whether each female watches her own nest exclusively, or attends to more than her own brood. It is unquestionable, however, that the females keep near the nests, and take the young under their vigilant care as soon as they are hatched, defending them with great perseverance and courage. The young are seen following the mother through the water like a brood of chickens following a hen. When basking in the sun on shore, the young are heard whining and yelping about the mother, not unlike young puppies. In situations where alligators are not exposed to much disturbance, the nesting-places appear to be very much frequented, as the grass and reeds are beaten down for several acres around. The young, when first hatched, are very feeble and helpless, and are devoured by birds of prey, soft-shelled turtles, &c., as well as by the male alligators, until they grow old enough to defend themselves. As the eggs are also eagerly sought by vultures and other animals, the race would become speedily extinct, but for the great fecundity of the females.-The A. is generally considered as disposed to retire from man, but this is only to be understood of alligators frequenting rivers or waters where they are frequently disturbed, or have learned to dread the injuries which man inflicts. In situations where they are seldom or never interrupted, they have shown a ferocity and perseverance in attacking individuals in boats, of the most alarming character; endeavoring to overturn them, or rearing their heads from the water, and snapping their jaws in a fearful manner. Bartram, who has made more interesting and valuable observations on the A. than any

other naturalist, gives numerous instances of their daring and ferocious disposition, and himself very narrowly escaped with his life on several occasions. At present, alligators, though still numerous in Florida and Louisiana, are no longer regarded as very dangerous. Their numbers annually decrease, as their haunts are intruded upon by man, and at no distant period they must be nearly, if not quite, exterminated.—In the winter, the alligators spend great part of their time in deep holes, which they make in the marshy banks of rivers, &c. They feed upon fish, various reptiles, or carrion flesh which is thrown into the streams, and, though very voracious, are capable of existing a long time without food. The barking of a dog, it is said, will at any time cause them to forsake their holes, and come on shore, as they prey upon any small quadruped or domestic animal, which comes within their reach. They have a very small brain, and live a long time even after it is destroyed. Titian Peale, a naturalist distinguished for practical acquaintance with the works of nature, informed the writer that he destroyed the whole superior part of the head and brain of a large A. by a ball from his gun, in the morning of a long day, and, on passing the same place in the evening, he found the animal had crawled off. Following his trail through the marsh for a considerable distance, he found him still alive, and, though dreadfully mangled about the head, ready to make battle.In the economy of nature, alligators are of very considerable importance. They abound most where fish and other creatures are found in the greatest numbers. Their voracity tends to repress exuberant increase in the beings upon which they feed; while themselves are exposed to very numerous enemies in early life, and gradually pass away, as man usurps the sway over their peculiar dominions. The peculiarities of construction, &c. will be given under the title Crocodile, which see. ALLITERATION; a figure or embellishment of speech, which consists in the repetition of the same consonants, or of syllables of the same sound, in one sentence. Such alliteration sometimes happens without the intention of the writer or speaker, and may be disagreeable to the ear, in the same way as a rhyme occurring involuntarily. Alliteration is pleasing when skilfully managed, so as to produce what the French have called harmonie imitative; but by too frequent use, it becomes trivial and ridiculous. An

excellent instance of imitative harmony and happy alliteration is afforded by the line of Virgil, describing the measured gallop of the horse

Quadrupedante pedum sonitu quatit ungula

campum ;

or another verse of the same poet—

Luctantes ventos tempestatesque sonoras

in which the continual recurrence of the of the winds. Greek literature affords t reminds us of the uninterrupted noise many instances of this imitative harmony. English poetry furnishes many beautiful specimens of alliteration, but instances of an unhappy use of this figure are not wanting even in good writers. Gray has many alliterations, e. g.

or

Weave the warp and weave the woof,

Ruin seize thee, ruthless king! Among the French, a line of Racine— Pour qui sont ces serpens qui sifflent sur vos têtes ?— is thought to represent very happily the hissing of the serpent. In German literature, Bürger, perhaps, has made the most use of alliteration; but he often carries it too far. A sonnet of A. W. Schlegel finishes with the following:

Wo Liebe lebt und labt ist lieb das Leben.

Among modern languages, alliteration is altogether more used in those belonging to the Teutonic stock, than in those of Latin origin.

ALLIX, Jacques Alexandre François ; a French lieutenant-general, and member of the academy of sciences at Göttingen; born at Perci, in Normandy, Sept. 21, 1776. He distinguished himself early in the military career, e. g. in the war of St. Domingo, but, not having shown much zeal on the 18th of Brumaire, he did not rise in the service. In 1808, he entered the army of the king of Westphalia. In 1813, he defended that kingdom with courage. On both the occasions when France was conquered by the allies, he served his country faithfully. The ordonnance of Louis XVIII, July 24, 1815, obliged him to leave the kingdom. In his exile, he wrote his work against Newton's law of gravitation, in which he explains all the motions of the heavenly bodies by the evolution of gases in the different atmospheres. This work has been translated into many languages, but was disapproved by Laplace. In 1819, he returned to France, and entered again the military service.

186

ALLODIUM; land held by a man in his own right, without any feudal obligation. It is opposed to fee, or feudum. All landed property must be either feudal or allodial. In England, according to the theory of the British constitution, all land is held in fee. The word allodial is, therefore, never applied to landed property there. Such as is really allodial bears the name of fee-simple. The same word is used in the U. States of America, though land is not held there, in fact, by any feudal tenure. In ancient France, the feudal character of landed property was taken for granted (nulle terre sans seigneur), until the contrary was proved. In Germany, the contrary rule prevails. As the vassal is under many restrictions in respect to the disposal of the feud, and as the principles of inheritance with respect to the A. are, in some particulars, different from those which govern the feud, the distinction is of importance. If a feud falls back to the lord, of course the A. is separated from it; the same takes place when the heir of the A. and that of the feud are different persons. In Germany, the word allodificiren signifies to make an estate allodial, which is favored by many governments. In such allodification, a part of the value must be paid as a compensation to the former lord, or a fixed annual tax (canon) is imposed on the estate. The great, and generally successful efforts, which the Prussian government has made for about 17 years, to absolve the estates of the peasants from all feudal obligations, on the payment of a certain part of their value to the lord, must be considered as one of the consequences of the enlightened spirit of the age, even in countries not favored with a representative government. The immense change which took place in France, during the revolution, by the extinction of all feudal tenures, and the endeavors to bring about the same change wherever governments in the French spirit were established, e. g. in the kingdom of Westphalia, are well known. The etymology of the word A. is uncertain; most probably it is of German origin.

ALLOY; a composition, the result of a mutual combination of two or more metals. To alloy generally means to mix a metal of less with one of more value. Various processes are adopted in the formation of alloys, depending upon the nature of the metals. Many are prepared by simply fusing the two metals in a covered crucible. It has been a question whether alloys are to be considered as

compounds, or as mere mixtures. Mr Dalton considers alloys to be chemical compounds, one striking instance of which is in the alloy of tin and copper, called speculum metal; the smallest deviations from the true proportions will spoil the alloy as a reflector. In some cases, the metals are found to unite in definite proportions only; and it is probable that all the alloys contain a definite compound of the two metals.-The principal characters of the alloys are the following:-1. We observe a change in the ductility, malleability, hardness and color. Malleability and ductility are usually impaired, and often in a remarkable degree; thus gold and lead, and gold and tin, form a brittle alloy. The alloy of copper and gold is harder than either of its component parts; and a minute quantity of arsenic added to copper renders it white. 2. The specific gravity of an alloy is rarely the mean of its component parts; in some cases an increase, in others a diminution of density having taken place. 3. The fusibility of an alloy is generally greater than that of its components. Thus platinum, which is infusible in our common furnaces, forms, when combined with arsenic, a very fusible alloy; and an alloy of certain proportions of lead, tin and bismuth is fusible at 212°, a temperature several degrees below the melting point of its most fusible constituent. 4. Alloys are generally more oxydizable than their constituents taken singly; a property which is, perhaps, partly referable to the formation of an electrical combination.-From early times, the baser metals have been used to alloy gold and silver coins, to prevent loss by wear. England, the legal proportion of base metal for gold coin is 1 part in 12, and for silver coin 3 parts in 40. In France, the legal proportions of the different coins are as follows: silver coin, 9 parts silver, 1 copper; copper money, 4 parts copper, 1 silver; gold coin, 9 parts gold, 1 copper. For silver plate, the French proportions are 9 parts silver, copper; for trinkets, 8 parts silver, 2 copper. gold plate, they have three different standards; 92 parts gold, 8 copper; also, 84 gold, 16 copper, and 75 gold, 25 copper. Gold and silver are alloyed partly that they may wear better, partly to diminish the price of articles made of them.

In

For

ALLSPICE, or PIMENTO, is the dried berry of a West Indian species of myrtle (myrtus pimenta), which grows to the height of 20 feet and upwards, and has somewhat oval leaves, about 4 inches long,

of a deep shining, green color, and numerous branches of white flowers, each with 4 small petals. In the whole vegetable creation there is scarcely any tree more beautiful or more fragrant than a young pimento-tree about the month of July. Branched on all sides, richly clad with deep-green leaves, which are relieved by an exuberance of white and richly aromatic flowers, it attracts the notice of all who approach it. Pimentotrees grow spontaneously, and in great abundance, in many parts of Jamaica; but they cannot be propagated without great difficulty. The usual method of making a new pimento walk, or plantation, is to appropriate for this purpose a piece of woody ground in the neighborhood of an already existing walk, or in a part of the country where the scattered trees are found in a native state. The other trees are cut down; and, in a year or two, young pimento plants are found to spring up in all parts, supposed to have been produced from berries, dropped there by birds, which eagerly devour them. About the month of September, and not long after the blossoms have fallen, the berries are in a fit state to be gathered. At this time, though not quite ripe, they are full grown, and about the size of pepper-corns. They are gathered by the hand; and one laborer on a tree will strip them off so quickly, as to employ three below in picking them up; and an industrious picker will fill a bag of 70 pounds' weight in a day. The berries are then spread on a terrace, in the sun, to be dried, but this is an operation which requires great care, from the necessity of keeping them entirely free from moisture. By the drying they lose their green color, and become of a reddish-brown; the process is known to be completed by their change of color, and by the rattling of the seeds within the berries. They are then packed into bags or hogsheads for the market. When the berries are quite ripe, they are of a dark-purple color, and filled with a sweet pulp. Pimento is thought to resemble, in flavor, a mixture of cinnamon, nutmegs and cloves, whence it has obtained the name of all-spice. It is much employed in cookery, and is chiefly used in whole grains. It is also employed in medicine, as an agreeable aromatic, and forms the basis of a distilled water, a spirit, and an essential oil. The leaves of the pimento-trees yield, in distillation, an odoriferous oil, which is not unfrequently used, in medical prepa<tions, instead of the oil of cloves.

ALLUM. (See Alum.)

ALLUVION (from the Latin alluvio, or adluvio, rising or swelling of a river, flood, deluge) now signifies a gradual increase of land along the sea-shore or the banks of large rivers, or at their mouths. Great alterations in the limits of countries are produced by A.; e. g. New Orleans and Messalonghi stand on land formed by A. Holland, too, constantly experiences the effects of A. Whole islands are often formed by this cause. In most of the countries on the European continent, the sovereigns have declared themselves owners of all alluvial formations. In Germany, A., which is there called by the much more proper name Anländung, takes place constantly on the coast of the North sea, owing, probably, to the great extent of flats along the shore, on which every tide deposits some mud. This alluvial land is at first without vegetation; then the salicornia maritima appears, which affords a rich salad. Next follows poa maritima, and, on very rich A., aster tripoleum,-a plant from 1 to 6 feet high. In this state, the A. receives the name of Vorland, and geese begin to resort to it. Afterwards it is diked, and used as pasture for sheep, horses and cattle. It is supposed that this kind of land will increase much, in consequence of the many flats along the seashore of Germany.

ALMA. The Latin word almus belongs to those words which cannot be rendered precisely in other languages, and of which every idiom possesses some. It means cherishing, nourishing, fostering, bountiful, dear. This epithet, therefore, was applied to gods, men, qualities and things-Alma Ceres, A. Venus, A. lux, A. parens, &c. In modern times, it is particularly used in Italy, alma città, for Rome, and in England, alma mater, for Oxford, Cambridge, &c., by those who have received their education at these universities. This custom has been transplanted into the U. States. Sometimes A. is used as the Christian name for individuals of the female sex.

ALMAGEST; a celebrated book, composed by Ptolemy; being a collection of the observations and problems of the an cients relating to geometry and astronomy. The original Greek name was ourTais mayúân or μeyiotn, i. e. greatest compilation. The Arabians, at the time when science flourished among them, translated it, about 827, and added their article al to the word megiste; thus the word almagest originated. (See Ptolemy.) In 1230, the emperor Frederic II caused this work