Not only do albinoes thus carry the determinants for pattern, but it has been known for some time that they also carry gametically, but never visible somatically, the determinants for either the ferment or the chromogen for one or more colours. L. Cuenot was the first to show this for albino mice. He was able by appropriate experiments to demonstrate that when an albino is derived (extracted) from a coloured ancestry, and is then crossed with a coloured individual, both the colour of the pigmented parent and of the pigmented ancestry of the albino may appear among the individuals of the offspring.

Immediately subsequent to Cuenot, G. M. Allen in Ameriia demonstrated the same Jact upon the same species of rodents. C. C. Hurst, more recently, has shown that albino rabbits. whether pure bred for eight generations at least, or extracted from pigmented parents, may carry the determinants for black or for black and grey. In this latter case the determinants for black are carried by separate gametes from those carrying grey, and the two kinds of sex-cells exist in approximately equal numbers. This is likewise true of albino mice when they carry the determinants for more than one colour.

Since Hurst's work, L. Doncaster and G. P. Mudge have both shown that albino rats also carry in a latent condition the determinants for black or grey. The experiments of the latter author show that, if a gametically pure black rat be crossed with an albino derived from a piebald black and white ancestry, all the offspring in successive litters will be black; but if the same black parent be crossed with albinoes extracted from parents of which One or both are grey, then both grey and black members will appear in the successive litters.

The proportions in which the various coloured individuals appear are approximately those demanded by the Mendelian principle of gametic purity and segregation. Cuenot and Hurst have also shown that when albinoes of one colour extraction are crossed with albinoes of another colour extraction the segregation of the colour determinants in the gametogenesis of the albinoes takes place in precisely the same way that it does in the gametogenesis of a pigmented individual; that is, in Mendelian fashion. Or, to express it otherwise, an albino extracted from yellow parents, bred with an albino extracted from black parents, will give an albino offspring whose gametes in equal numbers are bearers of the black and yellow determinants. And when one of these albinoes is bred with a pure coloured individual, a mixed offspring will appear in the first generation. Some of the individuals will be one or other of the two colours, the determinants of which were borne by the albino, and others the colour of the pigmented parent. But in such albino crosses the colour characters are latent because albinoes do not carry the whole of the complements for colour production. They carry only some determinant or determinants which are capable of developing colour when they interact with some other determinant or determinants carried alone by pigmented individuals. Whether albinoes carry the tyrosinase or other ferment, or whether they carry the chromogen or chromogens, is not yet settled. Miss Durham's work suggests that they carry the latter. But that they never bear both is proved by the fact that, when albinoes are crossed with each other, none but albinoes ever result in the offspring. One apparent exception to this rule only is known, and this almost certainly was due to error.

It is not only among albino animals that colour factors are carried in a latent condition, but also in white flowers. W.. Bateson has shown this to be the case for the sweet-pea (Lathyrus odoratus), var. Emily Henderson, and for certain white and cream stocks (Matthiola.) When white Emily Henderson (the race having round pollen grains) is crossed with a blue-flowered pea, purple offspring result. Similarly, when white Emily Henderson (long pollen grains) is crossed with white Emily Henderson (round pollen grains), the offspring wholly consists of the reversionary purple type, and sometimes wholly of a red bicolor form known as "Painted Lady.'' These two types never appear in the same family. With the stocks, when a white-flowered and hairless form is crossed with a cream-flowered and hairless one, all the offspring are purple and hairy. Bateson considers that the purple colour is due to the simultaneous existence in the plant of two colour factors which may be designated by C and R. If either one of these two is absent the plant is colourless. Cream-coloured flowers are regarded as white because cream is due to yellow plastids and not to sap colour. Thus the cream plant may carry C and the white one R. When they are crossed the two factors for colour production are brought together. Obviously, we may regard C as a tyrosinase and R as a chromogen, or vice versa; and in the case of the white sweetpea crossed with a blue-flowered one, and producing purple offspring, we may imagine that the white flower brought in an additional tyrosinase or a chromogen not present in the blue flower, which, when combined or mixed with the chromogen or tyrosinase for blue, gave purple. A similar explanation may apply to C. Correns's experiment, in which he crossed white Mirabilis jalapa with a yellow form, and always obtained red-flowered offspring.

In heredity, complete albinism among animals is always recessive; and partial albinism (piebald) is always recessive to complete pigmentation (self-coloured). When an albino mouse, rat, guinea-pig or rabbit is crossed with either a pure self or pure pied-coloured form, the offspring are similar to, though not always exactly like, the coloured parent; provided, of course, that the albino is pure and is not carrying some colour or pattern determinant which is dominant to that of the coloured parent used. No albinoes, in such a case, will appear among the first generation, but if the individuals of this (F.1) generation are crossed inter se or back crossed with the albino parenr, then albino individuals reappear among the offspring. In the former case they would form one-quarter of the individuals of this second (F.2) generation, and in the latter, one-half.

The recessive nature of albinism and its distribution in Mendelian fashion is almost certainly as true for man as for lower forms. This has been shown by W. C. Farabee for negroes in Coanoma county, Mississippi. The facts are as follows. An albino negro married a normal negress. They had three children, all males. All three sons married, and two of them had only normal children, judged of course by somatic characters. But the third son married twice, and by the first wife had five normal and one albino children, and by the second, six normal and three albino children. If we assume that the two negresses which the third son married were themselves carrying albinism recessive —an exceedingly probable condition considering that albino negroes are not uncommon—-the result is accurately in accordance, as W. E. Castle has shown, with Mendelian expectation. For there is expected in the offspring of this third son coloured individuals and albinoes in the proportion of 3:1. There is actually 11:4, which is the nearest possible approximation with the number 15.

The operation of Mendelian processes in human heredity is further shown by the close relationship that exists between the appearance of albinoes and cousin marriages. An albino is a homozygote; that is, all its gametes are carrying the character of albinism and none of them bear the alternative character —the allelomorph—-of pigmentation. By pigmentation is here meant all those factors which go to its production. Now such a gametic (egg or sperm) constitution can only result when two individuals, all or some of whose gametes are pure with regard to the character albinism, meet in fertilization. Hence it is readily seen that it is among cousin marriages that the greater probabilities exist that two individuals bearing identical characters will meet, than in the population at large. This can be illustrated in the following scheme. Let A stand for a pure albino and (A)N for a normal person, who nevertheless carries the character albinism (A) recessive. Then, in the scheme below, if Ab and (A)Nb are two brothers who both marry normal wives N, their children N(A) in the first case will be all normal in appearance but will be carrying albinism recessive; and in the second case some will be pure normal individuals N, and some will be like the children of the first brother, i.e. N(A). Now, if one of these latter children of the second brother marries a cousin—-a child of the first brother,—-their offspring, if large enough, will consist of some pure normals N, impure normals N(A), and of albinoes A.

Ab X N (A)Nb X N

N(A) N(A)+N N+2N(A)+A No other rational explanation of the close relationship between albinism and cousin marriages is at present forthcoming. And, when the whole facts are borne in mind, there can be no reasonable doubt that the Mendelian principles offer an intelligible solution of the problem.

A popular conception exists that albinoes are less constitutionally strong than the pigmented individuals of the same species. In support of this belief there is more or less scientifically ascertained evidence. Conversely, there is, however, conclusive evidence that in some instances and in respect of certain qeialities the opposite belief is true.

To deal with the former belief first, we have the remarkable case cited by Charles Darwin on the authority of Professor I. J. Wyman. In Virginia the paint-root plant (Lachnanthes tinctoria) occurs abundantly, and Professor Wyman noticed that all the pigs in this district were black. Upon inquiry of the farmers he found that all the white pigs born in a litter were destroyed, because they could not be reared to maturity. The root of this plant, when eaten by white pigs, caused their bones to turn to a pink colour and their hoofs to fall off, but the black pigs could eat the same plant with impunity. Partial albinism in this case was undoubtedly correlated with some inherent constitutional defect, in virtue of which the individuals characterized by it were injuriously affected by the juices of a plant quite innocuous to their pigmented brethren. Heusinger has shown that white sheep and pigs are injured by the ingestion of certain plants, while the pigmented individuals may eat them without harm. In Devonshire and in parts of Kent the farmers entertain a marked prejudice against white pigs, because "the sun blisters their skin.'' More remarkable is the case of certain cattle, whose skin is piebald, marked by a general ground colour over which are scattered patches of unpigmented coat. In these animals, in certain inflammatory skin eruptions, caused by the ingestion of harmful plants, the albinotic areas are alone affected. And with certain cutaneous diseases accompanied by constitutional disturbances which afflict cattle, the affection in the skin appears on the patches bearing white hairs, the other parts remaining apparently healthy. Such cases suggest that we should be more correct in regarding, not albinism as correlated with constitutional defects, but rather pigmentation as correlated with powers of immunity or increased resistance against certain injurious processes. In the West Indies "the only horned cattle fit for work are those which have a good deal of black in them; the white are terribly tormented by the insects and they are weak and sluggish in proportion to the black.''

Coming to man, it is known that some albino negroes are peculiarly sensitive to the bites of insects; and with Europeans it is a generally observed fact that the fairer individuals are more seriously affected by the bites of fleas and bugs than are darker ones. Dr Twining, in the British Association Reports for 1845, p. 79, cites some instances described by Humboldt, who says that the copper-coloured natives of the high plain of Bogoto, and at a lower level on the Magdalena river, were generally free from goitre. Professor Poffig, also cited by Dr Twining, states that on the east side of the Andes in Chile, in some of the races which live there, he did not see a single case of goitre, and yet in the white inhabitants, who live exactly as the natives, it prevails in a great degree:

Turning now to instances of the opposite kind, it is known that silkworms which spin colourless cocoons are more resistant to the attacks of a certain deadly fungus than are those which spin the yellow ones. In some parts of North America it is found that the white peaches are much less liable to the attack of a disease known as the "yellows'' than are the yellow-fleshed ones. In the region of the Mississippi, Farabee has observed that the albino negroes are taller and broader than the black-skinned individuals. We may assume that increased stature and breadth imply some sort of inherent physical superiority, and if such an assumption is valid we have in man evidence that albinism is correlated not with constitutional defectiveness but with greater perfectness.

But the question as to whether albinoes are more or less constitutionally vigorous than pigmented individuals of the same species may be tested by exact measurement. In 1893 W. D. Halliburton and T. G. Brodie, in ascertaining the physiological pijoperties of nucleo-proteids, found that when they were intravascularly injected into pigmented rabbits, coagulation of the blood resulted, but of the eight albinoes which they used, none clotted. At a subsequent period (1897) Halliburton and J. W. Pickering showed that the three synthesized colloids of Grimaux in the same way produced coagulation in pigmented animals, but failed to do so in albinoes. Pickering, still later, showed, in the case of four Norway hares, two of which were injected while in their pigmented or summer coat, and two while in their albino or winter coat, that coagulation occurred in the former cases but not in the latter.

Quite recently, however, the author of this article has made a more detailed examination of the question, operating upon several hundreds of rabbits. And he found that all albinoes do not fail to clot when intravascularly injected with nucleoproteids. Only about 9% of them thus failed absolutely to manifest any trace of coagulation. But about 7% showed an exceedingly limited coagulation, in which the clot was colourless and flocculent, and confined to the heart. The rest gave a typical and more or less wide-spread coagulation. Moreover, it was found that all the failures of coagulation occurred when the nucleo-proteid used was obtained from pigmented animals. When it was derived from albinoes no failures occurred. All pigmented animals clotted when the nucleo-proteid was derived from either source. The Himalayan rabbits reacted like complete albinoes, and 12% of them failed to clot when injected with nucleo-proteid extracted from pigmented animals.

The interesting fact was thus ascertained that all albinoes are not alike. To students of heredity this is precisely what would have been expected. For, as the facts above described show, albinoes, though apparently identical externally, are yet the carriers of different hereditary characters. Among albino rats, for instance, the author of this article has reason to believe, upon theoretical grounds resting on an experimental basis, that probably no less than thirteen types exist. With rabbits and mice there must be a still larger number.

In the intravascular coagulation experiments above described, all the rabbits were carefully weighed, and the amount of nucleoproteid injected until coagulation occurred was measured. This would give for albinoes and pigmented individuals the amount per kilogramme of body-weight required to kill in each case, and would afford a measurement of the relative resistance of the two races. It was found that the resistance of albinoes towards the coagulative effects of injected nucleo-proteids was to that of pigmented individuals as 1.5 to 1.0. In this case, the greater constitutional vigour of the albino is thus accurately demonstrated. But it does not necessarily follow that with other materials and with other constitutional qualities the state of things would not be reversed.

One other feature remains to be mentioned. Albinism appears, in the processes of heredity, to be sometimes indissolubly correlated with certain peculiar traits. It is well known that the long-haired albino rabbit, called Angora, when at rest, has the habit of swaying its head sideways in a peculiar fashion. C. C. Hurst has shown that the long-haired and albino characters are always accompanied in heredity with the swaying habit. The Angora character never occurs without it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.—-G. M. Allen, "Heredity of Coat Colour in Mice,'' Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci. vol. xl. No. 2; W. Bateson, Mendel's Principles of Heredity, a Defence (Cambridge, 1902); W. Bateson and E. R. Saunders, "Experimental Studies in the Physiology of Heredity,'' Reports to the Evolution Committee of the Royal Society, Report I. (London, 1901); W. Bateson, E. R. Saunders, R. C. Punnett and C. C. Hurst, Reports to the Evolution Committee of the Royal Society, Report II. (London, 1905); W. Bateson, E. R. Saunders and R. C. Punnett, "Further Experiments on Inheritance in Sweet-Peas and Stocks,'' Proc. Roy. Soc. B. vol. lxxvii.; W. E. Castle, "Note on Mr Farabee's Observations,'' Science, N.S. vol. xvii. (New York); "Mendel's Law of Heredity'', Science, N.S. vol. xviii. (New York); W. E. Castle and G. M. Allen, "Mendel's Law and the Heredity of Albinism,'' Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci. vol. xxxviii.; L. Cuenot, "L'heredite de la pigmentation chez les souris,'' Arch. d. Zool. Exper. et Gen. Notes et Revue, ser. 3, tom. 10, and ser. 4, tom. 1 and 2; Charles Darwin, Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, vols. i. and ii., 2nd ed. (London, 1899); L. Doncaster, "Inheritance of Coat Colour in Rats,'' Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. vol. xiii. (Camb., 1906); V. von Ducceschi, Rendiconti della R. Accad. dei Lincei, vol. ii.; Archivio di Fisiologia, vol. i.; Florence M. Durham, "Tyrosinases in the Skins of Pigmented Vertebrates,'' Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. lxxiv.; W. C. Farabee, "Notes on Negro Albinism,'' Science, N.S. vol. xvii. (New York); Furth v. Schneider, Beitr. z. Chem. Phys. u. Path. Bd. 1; W. Haacke, "Ueber Wesen, Ursachen und Vererbung von Albinismus und Scheckung, &c.,', Biol. Centralbl. Bd. 15; Halliburton and Brodie, Journ. Phys. Camb. and Lond. vols. xiv., xvi., xvii., xviii.; Halliburton and Pickering, Journ. Phys. vol. xviii.; C. C. Hurst, "Experimental Studies on Heredity in Rabbits,'' Journ. Lin. Soc. Sool. vol. xxix.; Geo. P. Mudge, "Intravascular Coagulation and Albinism, Preliminary Note,'' Proc. Phys. Soc., 1905; Packard, Memoirs of National Academy of Sciences (1888); Pickering, Journ. Phys. vols. xviii. and xx.; E. B. Poulton, Colour of Animals (Lond., 1890); Twining, Brit. Assoc. Reports, 1845; H. M. Vernon, Variation in Animals and Plants (London, 1903) F. H. Welch, "Winter Coat in Lepus americanus,'' Proc. Zool. Soc., 1869. (G. P. M.)

ALBINONI, TOMASSO (c. 1674—c. 1745), Italian musician, was born at Venice. He was a prolific composer of operas attracting contemporary attention for their originality, but is more remarkable as a composer of instrumental music, which greatly attracted the attention of Bach, who wrote at least two fugues on Albinoni's themes and constantly used his basses for harmony exercises for his pupils. ALBINOVANUS PEDO, Roman poet, flourished during the Augustan age. He wrote a Theseis, referred to in a letter from his intimate friend Ovid (Ex Ponto, iv. 10), epigrams which are commended by Martial (ii. 77, v. 5) and an epic poem on the exploits of Germanicus. He had the reputation of being an excellent raconteur, and Quintilian (x. i. 90) awards him qualified praise as a writer of epics. All that remains of his works is a beautiful fragment, preserved in the Suasoriae (i. 15) of the rhetorician Seneca, from a description of the Voyage of Germanicus (A.D. 16) through the river Ems to the Northern Ocean, when he was overtaken by the storm described by Tacitus (Ann. ii. 23). The cavalry commander spoken of by the historian is probably identical with the poet. Three elegies were formerly attributed to Pedo by Scaliger; two on the death of Maecenas (In Obitum Maecenatis and De Verbis Maecenatis moribundi), and one addressed to Livia to console her for the death of her son Drusus (Consolatio ad Liviam de Morte Drusi or Epicedion Drusi, usually printed with Ovid's works); but it is now generally agreed that they are not by Pedo. The Consolatio has been put down as late as the 15th century as the work of an Italian imitator, there being no MSS. and no trace of the poem before the publication of the editio princeps of Ovid in 1471. There is an English verse translation of the elegies by Plumptre (1907).

See Bahrens, Poetae Latini Minores (1879) and Fragmenta Poetarum Latinorum (1886); Haupt, Opuscula, i. (1875); Haube, Beitrag zur Kenntnis des Albinovanus Pedo (1880).

ALBINUS (originally WEISS), RERNHARD SIEGFRIED (1697-1770), German anatomist, was born on the 24th of February 1697, at Frankfort-on-Oder, where his father, Bernhard Albinus (1653-1721), was professor of the practice of medicine. In 1702 the latter was transferred to the chair of medicine at Leiden, and it was there that Bernhard Siegfried began his studies, having for his teachers such men as H. Boerhaave and Nikolaus Bidloo. Having finished his studies at Leiden, he went to Paris, where, under the instruction of Sebastien Vaillant (1669-1722), J. B. Winslow (1669-1760) and others, he devoted himself especially to anatomy and botany. After a year's absence he was, on the recommendation of Boerhaave, recalled in 1719 to Leiden to be a lecturer on anatomy and surgery. Two years later he succeeded his father in the professorship of these subjects, and speedily became one of the most famous teachers of anatomy in Europe, his class-room being resorted to not only by students but by many practising physicians. In 1745 Albinus was appointed professor of the practice of medicine, being succeeded in the anatomical chair by his brother Frederick Bernhard (1715-1778), who, as well as another brother, Christian Bernhard (1700-1752), attained considerable distinction. Bernhard Siegfried, who was twice rector of his university, died on the 9th of September 1770 at Leiden.

ALBION (in Ptolemy 'Alouion; Lat. Albion, Pliny 4.16[30],102), the most ancient name of the British Islands, though generally restricted to England. The name is perhaps of Celtic origin, but the Romans took it as connected with albus, white, in reference to the chalk-cliffs of Dover, and A. Holder (Alt-Keltischer Sprachschatz, 1896) unhesitatingly translates it Weissland, "whiteland.'' The early writer (6th cent. B.C.) whose periplus is translated by Avienus (end of 4th cent. A.D.) does not use the name Britannia; he speaks of nesos 'Iernon kai 'Albionon ("island of the Ierni and the Albiones''). So Pytheas of Massilia (4th cent. B.C.) speaks of ''Albion and 'Ierne. From the fact that there was a tribe called the Albiones on the north coast ot Spain in Asturia, some scholars have placed Albion in that neighbourhood (see G. F. Unger, Rhein. Mus. xxxviii., 1883, pp. 156-196). The name Albion was taken by medieval writers from Pliny and Ptolemy.

ALBION, a city of Calhoun county, Michigan, U.S.A., on the Kalamazoo river, 21 m. W. of Jackson. Pop. (1890) 3763; (1900) 4519, of whom 622 were foreign-born; (1904) 4943; (1910) 5833. Albion is served by the Michigan Central and the Jackson division of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railways, and by an inter-urban electric line. The city has a public park and a public library. The W. part of the city has most of the factories; the principal manufactures are flour, agricultural implements, windmills, gasolene engines, harness and proprietary medicines. On a commanding site in the E. part of the city is Albion College (Methodist Episcopal; co-educational), embracing a College of Liberal Arts, a preparatory department, a conservatory of music, a school of art, a school of oratory, a normal course, and a commercial department. The college was incorporated in 1835 as Spring Arbor Seminary, and in 1839 by an amended charter was located at Albion, where it was first opened in 1843 under the name of the Wesleyan Seminary of Albion; in 1849 it became the Wesleyan Seminary and Female Collegiate Institute, with power to grant degrees to women only; but in 1861 the present name was adopted and the college was permitted to grant degrees to men and women. In 1906 it had a library of 16,500 volumes, a faculty of 19, and an enrolment of 483 (211 being women). The municipality owns and operates the water-works, the water-supply being obtained from artesian wells. Albion was settled in 1831, was incorporated as a village in 1866 and was chartered as a city in 1885.

ALBION, a village and the county-seat of Orleans county, New York, U.S.A., about 30 m. W.N.W. of Rochester. Pop. (1890) 4586; (1900) 4477, (984 being foreign-born and 43 negroes); (1905, state census) 5174; (1910) 5016. The village is served by the New York Central & Hudson River railway, by the Buffalo, Lockport & Rochester electric railway, and by the Erie Canal. In Albion are the Western House of Refuge for Women (a state institution established in 1890), a public park, the Swan Library, and the county buildings, including the court house, the jail and the surrogate's office; and about 2 m. to the S.E. is the beautiful Mount Albion Cemetery. Albion is the centre of the Medina sandstone industry, and lies in the midst of a good farming region, of which it is the principal shipping point, especially for apples, cabbages and beans. The village manufactures agricultural implements, vinegar, evaporated fruit, and canned fruit and vegetables, and has two large cold-storage houses. Albion was settled in 1812, was incorporated in 1823 and became the county-seat in 1825.

ALBITE, a mineral of the felspar group, belonging to the division of the plagioclases (q.v..) It is a sodium and aluminium silicate, NaAlSi3O8, and crystallizes in the anorthic system. Like all the felspars it possesses two cleavages, one perfect and the other less so, which are here inclined at an angle of 86 deg. 24'. On the more perfect cleavage, which is parallel to the basal plane (P), is a system of fine striations, parallel to the second cleavage (M), due to twinning according to the,"albite law'' (figs. 1 and 2). The hardness is 6, and the specific gravity 2.63. The colour is usually pure white, hence the name (from the Lat. albus) for the species.

Albite forms an essential constituent of many acidic igneous and FIG. 1. FIG. 2. crystalline rocks; Twinned crystals of Albite. in granites, diorites, andesites, &c., it occurs as a primary mineral, whilst in crystalline schists, phyllites and crystalline limestones it is of secondary (metamorphic) origin. The beautifully developed crystals so abundant in crystal-lined crevices of Alpine granites and gneisses have been deposited, with other minerals, from solution; the crystals lining veins in the slates of Tintagel in Cornwall have the same origin.

Several varieties of albite are distinguished, of which the following may be here specially mentioned. Pericline (from the Gr. periklines, "sloping'') is the name given to large opaque white crystals from the chlorite-schists of the Alps; they are tabular parallel to the direction of perfect cleavage and are twinned according to the "pericline law.'' Peristerite (from the Gr. peristera, a dove) is characterized by a beautiful bluish sheen, somewhat resembling that seen on the neck of a pigeon; it is found mainly in Ontario. Aventurine and moonstone varieties occur, though these special appearances are more usually displayed by the oligoclase and orthoclase felspars respectively. (L. J. S.)

'ALBO, JOSEPH, a Spanish Jewish theologian of the 15th century. He was author of a very popular book on the philosophy of Judaism, entitled 'Iqqarim or Fundamentals. Maimonides in the 12th century had formulated the principles of Judaism in thirteen articles; Albo reduced them to three: (i) The Existence of God, (ii) Revelation and (iii) Divine Retribution. Albo set the example of minimizing Messianism in the formulation of Jewish beliefs. Though he fully maintained the Mosaic authorship of the Law and the binding force of tradition, he discriminated between the essential and the non-essential in the practices and beliefs of Judaism. An English translation of the 'Iqqarim appeared in the Hebrew Review, vols. i.-iii.

ALBOIN (d. 572 or 573), king of the Lombards, and conqueror of Italy, succeeded his father Audoin about 565. The Lombards were at that time dwelling in Noricum and Pannonia (archduchy of Austria, Styria and Hungary, west of the Danube). In alliance with the Avars, and Asiatic people who had invaded central Europe, Alboin defeated the Gepidae, a powerful nation on his eastern frontier, slew their king Cunimund, whose skull he fashioned into a drinking-cup, and whose daughter Rosamund he carried off and made his wife. Three years later (in 568), on the alleged invitation of Narses (q.v.), who was irritated by the treatment he had received from the emperor Justin II., Alboin invaded Italy, probably marching over the pass of the Predil. He overran Venetia and the wide district which we now call Lombardy, meeting with but feeble resistance till he came to the city of Ticinum (Pavia), which for three years (569-572) kept the Lombards at bay. While this siege was in progress Alboin was also engaged in other parts of Italy, and at its close he was probably master of Lombardy, Piedmont and Tuscany, as well as of the regions which afterwards went by the name of the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento. In 572 or 573, however, he was assassinated by his chamberlain Peredeo at the instigation of Queen Rosamund, whom Alboin had grievously insulted by forcing her to drink wine out of her father's skull. After his death and the short reign of his successor Cleph the Lombards remained for more than ten years in a state of anarchy.

The authorities for the history of Alboin are Procopius, Paulus Diaconus and Agnellus (in his history of the church of Ravenna).

ALBONI, MARIETTA (1823-1894), Italian opera-singer, was born at Cesena, Romagna, and was trained in music at Bologna, where she became a pupil of Rossini. She had a magnificent contralto voice, and in 1843 made her first appearance at La Scala, Milan, being recognized at once as a public favourite. In England her reputation was established by her appearance at Covent Garden in 1847, and she had brilliant success all over Europe in the leading operatic roles; in 1853 she repeated these triumphs in the United States. Indeed, with the exception of Malibran, she had no compeer among the contraltos of the century, the old Italian school of singing finding in her a really great representative. She married first Count A. Pepoh, who died in 1866, and secondly (1877) a French officer, M. Zieger; she lived in Paris after her first marriage, and died at Ville d'Avray in 1894.

ALBORNOZ, GIL ALVAREZ DE, Spanish cardinal, was born at Cuenca early in the 14th Century. He was the son of Gil Alvarez de Albornoz and of Dona Teresa de Luna, sister of Kimeno de Luna, archbishop of Toledo. He was educated at Saragosa, while his uncle was bishop of that see, and studied law at Toulouse. The powerful influence of his family opened him a public career early in life. He was made archdeacon of Calatrava, and became a member of the king's council while young. In 1337 he was chosen archbishop of Toledo in succession to his uncle by the favour of the king, Alphonso XI. At the battle of Tarifa he fought against a great invasion from Africa in 1340, and at the taking of Algeciras in 1344 he led the armed levy of his archbishopric. In 1343 he had been sent to Pope Clement VI. at Avignon to negotiate a grant of a tax on the revenues of the Church for the Crusade. His military and diplomatic ability became known to the pope, who made him a cardinal in 1350. Albornoz left Spain on the death of the king Alphonso XI. in that year, and never returned. It has been said, but not on contemporary evidence, that he fled from fear of Peter the Cruel. In 1353 Innocent VI. sent him as a legate into Italy, with a view to the restoration of the papal authority in the states of the Church. He was recalled in 1357, but was sent again to Italy after a brief interval, and in 1362 had paved the way for the return of Urban V. to Rome. As legate, Albornoz showed himself to be an astute manager of men and effective fighter. He began by making use of Rienzi, whose release from prison at Avignon he secured. After the murder of the tribune in 1354 Albornoz pursued his task of restoring the pope's authority by intrigue and force with remarkable success. As a mark of gratitude the pope appointed him legate at Bologna in 1367, but he died at Viterbo the same year. According to his own desire his remains were carried to Toledo, where Henry of Castile caused them to be entombed with almost royal honours. A work by Albornoz on the constitution of the Church of Rome, first printed at Jesi in 1473, is now very rare. The college of St Clement at Bologna was founded by Albornox for the benefit of Spanish students.

See "De Vita et Rebus Gestis Aegidii Albornotii,'' in Sepulveda's Opera Omnia, vol. iv. (1780); Cardenal Albornoz der zweite Begrunder des Kirchenstaates, by Dr H. J. Wurm (1892).

ALBRECHTSBERGER, JOHANN GEORG (1736-1809), Austrian musician, was born at Kloster-Neuburg, near Vienna, on the 3rd of February 1736. He studied musical composition under the court organist, Mann, and became one of the most learned and skilful contrapuntists of his age. After being employed as organist at Raab and Maria-Taferl, he was appointed in 1772 organist to the court of Vienna, and in 1792 Kapellmeister of St Stephen's cathedral. His fame as a theorist attracted to him in the Austrian capital a large number of pupils, some of whom afterwards became eminent musicians. Among these were Beethoven, Hummel, Moscheles and Josef Weigl (1766-1846). Albrechtsberger died in Vienna on the 7th of March 1809. His published compositions consist of preludes, fugues and sonatas for the piano and organ, string quartets, &c.; but the greater proportion of his works, vocal and instrumental, exists only in manuscript. They are in the library of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Probably the most valuable service he rendered to music was in his theoretical Works. In 1790 he published at Leipzig a treatise on composition, of which a third edition appeared in 1821. A collection of his writings on harmony, in three volumes, was published under the care of his pupil Ignaz von Seyfried (1776-1841) in 1826. There is an English version of this published by Novello in 1855. Beethoven knew his own needs when he put himself under Albrechtsberger on finding that Haydn was not thoroughly disposed for the trouble of training him; and though Albrechtsberger could see nothing in him, and warned his other pupils against "that young man who would never turn out anything in good style,'' he justified Beethoven's confidence.

ALBRET. The lordship (seigneurie) of Albret (Labrit, Lebret), situated in the Landes, gave its name to one of the most powerful feudal families of France in the middle ages. Its members distinguished themselves in the local wars of that apoch; and during the 14th century they espoused the English cause for some time, afterwards transferring their support to the side of France. Arnaud Amanieu, lord of Albret, helped to take Guienne from the English. His son Charles became constable of France, and was killed at the battle of Agincourt in 1415. Alain the Great, lord of Albret (d. 1522), wished to marry Anne of Brittany, and to that end fought against Charles VIII.; but his hopes being defeated by the betrothal of Anne to Maximilian of Austria, he surrendered Nantes to the French in 1486. At that time the house of Albret had attained considerable territorial importance, due in great part to the liberal grants which it had obtained from successive kings of France. John of Albret, son of Alain, became king of Navarre by his marriage with Catherine of Foix. Their son Henry, king of Navarre, was created duke of Albret and peer of France in 1550. By his wife Margaret, sister of the French king, Francis I., he had a daughter, Jeanne d'Albret, queen of Navarre, who married Anthony de Bourbon, duke of Vendome, and became the mother of Henry IV., king of France. The dukedom of Albret, united to the crown of France by the accession of this prince, was granted to the family of La Tour d'Auvergne in 1651, in exchange for Sedan and Raucourt.

To a younger branch of this house belonged Jean d'Albret, seigneur of Orval, count of Dreux and of Rethel, governor of Champagne (d. 1524), who was employed by Francis I. in many diplomatic negotiations, more particularly in his intrigues to get himself elected emperor in 1519. (M. P.*)

ALBRIGHT, JACOB (1759-1808), American clergyman, was born near Pottstown, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of May 1759. He was of "Pennsylvania-German'' parentage, his name being originally Albrecht, and was educated in the Lutheran faith. At an early age he became a tile-burner. In 1790 he was converted to Methodism, and in 1796 determined to devote himself to preaching that faith among the Pennsylvania Germans. His efforts met with great success, and in 1800 he founded what was virtually a new and independent church organization on the Methodist system, of which he became the presiding elder, and eventually (1807) bishop. This church is officially the Evangelical Association, but its adherents have been variously known as "New Methodists.'' "Albrights,'' and "Albright Brethren.'' Albright died on the 18th of May 1808, at Muhlbach, Pennsylvania.

ALBUERA, or ALBUHERA, LA, a small village of Spain, in the province of Badajoz, 13 m. S.E. of the town of that name. Pop. (1900) 820. Albuera is celebrated on account of the victory gained there on the 16th of May 1811 by the British, Portuguese and Spaniards, under Marshal Beresford, over the French army commanded by Marshal Soult. (See PENINSULAR WAR.)

ALBUFERA DE VALENCIA, a lagoon, 7 m. S. of Valencia in Spain, about 12 m. in length and 4 in breadth, 12 ft. being its greatest depth. It communicates with the sea by a narrow outlet, which can be opened or closed at pleasure. The lake is crown property, and is of great value from the fish and wild-fowl with which it abounds. Rice is grown in large quantities by the inhabitants of the adjoining villages. In 1812 Marshal Suchet was created duke of Albufera by Napoleon for his conquest of Valencia, and invested with the domain; but the battle of Vittoria in 1813 deprived him of his possession, though he still retained the title. Subsequently the revenues of Albufera were conferred upon the duke of Wellington in token of the gratitude of the Spanish nation. (See PENINSULAR WAR.)

ALBULAE AQUAE, a group of springs, 4 m. W. of Tibur, the water of which is bluish, strongly impregnated with sulphur and carbonate of lime, and rises at a temperature of about 75 deg. F. Remains of a Roman thermal establishment exist near the principal spring, the so-called Lago della Regina (which is continually diminishing in size owing to the deposit left by the water), and dedicatory inscriptions in honour of the waters have been found. The baths are still frequented by the Romans, though the modern establishment is about 1 m. S. on the high road.

See T. Ashby in Papers of the British School at Rome, iii. 117.

ALBULA PASS, now the principal route from the N. to the Upper Engadine in the Swiss Canton of the Grisons. It was already frequented in the 13th century, while a carriage road (highest point, 7595 ft.) was constructed across it in 1865, but for a long time it was not as much used as the easier and more direct Julier Pass (7504 ft.), until the opening of the railway in 1903, which has vastly increased its practical importance. Starting from Coire the Rhine valley is followed to Reichenau (6 1/4 m.), and then that of the Hinter Rhine to Thusis (10 1/2 m.). The line then runs through the grand Schyn gorge (cut by the Albula torrent) to Tiefenkastell (7 1/2 m.), where it leaves the Julier road on the right (S.) and continues to follow the course of the Albula past Filisur and Bergun (12 1/2 m.) to the mouth (5879 ft.) of the great tunnel (3 3/4 m. in length; highest point, 5987 ft.) which has been pierced below the pass. The descent lies through the Bevers glen to Bevers (2 1/2 m.), where the Upper Engadine is reached, about 5 m. below St. Moritz, which is 56 m. from Coire by this route. (W. A. B. C.)

ALBUM (Lat. albus, white), in ancient Rome, a board chalked or painted white, on which decrees, edicts and other public notices were inscribed in black. The Annales Maximi of the Pontifex Maximus, the annual edicts of the praetor, the lists of Roman and municipal senators (decuriones) and jurors (album indicum) were exhibited in this manner. In medieval and modern times album denotes a book of blank pages in which verses, autographs, sketches, photographs and the like are collected. It is also applied to the official list of matriculated students in a university, and to the roll in which a bishop inscribes the names of his clergy. In law, the word is the equivalent of mailles blanches, for rent paid in silver ("white'') money.

ALBUMAZAR, more properly ABU-MAASCHAR (805-885), Arab astronomer, was born at Balkh, flourished at Bagdad, and died at Wasid in Central Asia. His principal works are: De Magnis Conjunctionibus (Augsburg, 1489); Introductorium in Astronomiam (Venice, 1506); and Flores Astrologici (Augsburg, 1488). He maintained in the first that the world, created when the seven planets were in conjunction in the first degree of Aries, will come to an end at a like conjunction in the last degree of Pisces.

See Biog. Universelle (Jourdain); Lalande, Bibliographie Astronomique; Poggendorff, Biog. literarisches Handworterbuch; Houzeau, Bibl. Astronomique.

ALBUMIN, or ALBUMEN (Lat. albus, white), an organic substance typical of a group of bodies (albumins or albuminates) of very complicated chemical composition. They are sometimes called the histogenetic bodies or proteids, because they are essential to the building up of the animal organism. The vegetable kingdom is the original source of albuminous substances, the albumins being found in greatest quantity in the seed. They also occur in the fluids of the living organism. The chemistry of the albumins is one of the most complicated and difficult in the whole domain of organic chemistry. It has attracted the attention of many workers, and has formed the subject of a huge literature. In this field Bechamp, Cohnheim, Albrecht Kossel, and, especially, Emil Fischer and his pupils have been extremely active. The general trend of these researches lies in the study of the decomposition or "breaking down'' products of the albumin molecules; once these are accurately determined, the synthesis of an albumin is but a matter of time. Already we have proceeded far in our knowledge of the decomposition products, and certain simple proteids have been synthesized.

General characters.

The albumins contain in all cases the elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen; their composition, however, varies within certain limits: C = 50-55%, H = 6.9-7.3%, N. = 15-19%, S = 0.3-2.4%, O = 19-24%, crystallized albumin is C = 51.48%, H = 6.76%, N = 8.14%, S = 0.96%, O = 22.66%, which points to the formula C720H1134N218S5O248, corresponding to the molecular weight 16,954. A high molecular weight characterizes these substances, but so far no definite value has been determined by either physical or chemical means; A. P. Sabanezhev obtained the value 15,000 by Raoult's method for purified egg albumin. All albumins are laevo-rotatory; and on incineration a small amount of inorganic ash is invariably left. They are usually insoluble in water, alcohol and ether; and their presence as solutes in vegetable and animal fluids is not yet perfectly understood, but it is probably to be connected with the presence of salts or other substances. A remarkable change occurs when many albumins are boiled with water, or treated with certain acids, their solubility and general characters being entirely altered, and the fluid becoming coagulated. This change is seen in the transformation of the "white'' of an egg on boiling. Albumins are generally detected by taking advantage of this property, or of certain colour changes. The reagents in common use are: Millon's reagent, a solution of mercuric nitrate containing nitrous acid, this gives a violet-red coloration; nitric acid, which gives a yellow colour, turning to gold when treated with ammonia (xanthoproteic reaction); fuming sulphuric acid, which gives violet solutions; and caustic potash and copper sulphate, which, on warming, gives a red to violet coloration (biuret reaction).

Decomposition products.

Boiling with dilute mineral acids, or baryta water, decomposes albumins into carbon dioxide, ammonia and fatty amino- and other acids. These decomposition products include: glycocoll or aminoacetic acid, NH2CH2COOH, alanine or aminopropionic acid, CH3.CH(NH2).COOH, a-aminobutyric acid, a-aminovalerianic acid, leucin or isobutyl-a-aminoacetic acid, (CH3)2CH.CH2.CH(NH2).COOH, isoleucin, probably b-aminocaproic acid, serin or a-amino- b-hydroxypropionic acid, HO.CH2.CH(NH2).COOH, aspartic acid or aminosuccinic acid, HOOC.CH2.CH(NH2).COOH, glutaminic acid or a-amino- n-glutaric acid, HOOC.(CH2)2.CH(NH2).COOH, diaminoacetic acid, a-b-diaminopropionic acid, lysin. or a-e-diamino-n-caproic acid, NH2(CH2)4.CH(NH2).COOH, arginin or guanidine-a-amino- n-valerianic acid, (NH)(NH2)C.NH.(CH2)3.CH(NH2).COOH, ornithin or ad-diamino valerianic acid, NH2.(CH2)3.CH(NH2).COOH, histidin or a-amino- b-imidazol- propionic acid HOOC.CH(NH2).CH2.C:CH.N:CH.NH, proline or a-pyrrolidin carboxylic acid, HOOC.CH.NH.CH2.CH2.CH2, hydroxyproline, phenyl alanine or phenyl-a-aminopropionic acid, C6H5.CH2.CH(NH2).COOH, tyrosine or p-hydroxyphenyl- a- aminopropionic acid, phenyl ethylamine, p-hydroxyphenyl ethylamine, tryptophane or indol aminopropionic acid, A. cystin (protein-cystin) or a-amino-b-thioglyceric acid "disulphide,'' (S.CH2.CH(NH2).COOH)2, B. cystin (stone-cystin), or a-thio-b-aminoglyceric acid "disulphide,'' (NH2.CH2.CH:S.COOH)2. This list is not exhaustive; other products are given in Gustav Mann, Chemistry of the Proteids (1906), to which reference should be made for a complete account of this class of compounds.

Classification of albumins.

The complexity of composition militates in a great measure against a rational classification of albumins by purely chemical considerations. Such classifications have been attempted by A. Kossel and by W. Kuhne and E. P. Pick; but in the present state of our knowledge, however, the older classification of E. Dreschel and F. Hoppe- Seyler, based primarily on solubilities and distribution, may be conveniently retained. This classification is with certain modifications as follows:-

I. Albumins proper: characterized by having colloidal solutions. (1) Albumins: serum-albumin, egg-albumin, albumin. (2) Globulins: serum-globulin, egg-globulin, lacto- globulin, cell-globulins. (3) Plant-globulins and plant-vitellines. (4) Fibrinogen. (5) Myosin. (6) Phosphorus containing albumins (nucleo-albumins), caseins, vitellines, nucleo-albumins of the cell- protoplasm, mucoid nucleo-albumins. (7) Histones. (8) Protamines. II. Transformation products of the albumins proper. (1) Acid-albumins, alkali albuminates. (2) Albumoses, peptones and peptides. (3) Halogen-albumins, oxyprotein, oxyprotsulphonic acid, &c. III. Proteids. (1) Nucleo-proteids. (2) Haemoglobin and allied substances. (3) Glyco-proteids, mucins, mucoids, helico-proteid. IV. Albuminoids. (1) Collagen. (2) Keratin. (3) Elastin. (4) Fibroin. (5) Spongin, &c. (6) Amyloid. (7) Albumoid. (8) Colouring matters derived from albumin.

Albumins proper.—Albumins (as classified above) are soluble in water, dilute acids and alkalies, and in saturated neutral salt solutions; they are coagulated by heat. "Serum- albumin,'' or "blood-albumin,'' possibly C450H720N116S6O140, occurs in blood-serum, lymph, chyle, milk, &c.; its coagulation temperature is about 67 deg. . It differs from egg-albumin in its specific rotation (-57 deg. to -64 deg. ), and in being slowly coagulated by alcohol and ether. Egg-albumin is the chief constituent of the white of egg; this fluid also contains a globulin and a mucoid. It coagulates at about 56 deg. , and its specific rotation is -30.70 deg. . "Lact-albumin'' occurs in all kinds of milk. The globulins are insoluble in water and in dilute acids, but soluble in alkalies and in neutral salt solutions; these solutions are coagulated on boiling. "Serum-globulin,'' also termed globulin or fibrino-plastic globulin, paraglobulin and paraglobin, occurs in blood serum; "cell-globulins'' occur in many organs—liver, kidneys, pancreas and the thyroid gland, also in muscle-plasma; "crystalline,'' a globulin occurring in two forms a and b, is found in the lens of the eye; "egg-globulin'' and "lacto- globulin'' occur respectively in the white of egg and in milk. Plant albumins or phyto-albumins have been chiefly investigated in the case of those occurring in seeds; most are globulins, insoluble in pure water, but soluble in salt solutions; "edestin,'' a globulin of this class, is very widely distributed. Other varieties or classes of these compounds are: plant caseins, phyto-vitellines, legumins and conglutins. Fibrinogen occurs in the blood plasma, and is changed by a ferment into fibrin, to which the clotting of blood is due. Fibrinogen is insoluble in water, but soluble in salt solutions; it has three different coagulation temperatures, 56 deg. , 67 deg. , 75 deg. . Fibrin, produced from fibrinogen by a ferment, is a jelly-like substance, coagulable by heat, alcohol, &c. The muscle-albumins include "myosin'' or paramyosinogen, a globulin, which by coagulation induces rigor mortis, and the closely related "myosinogen'' or myogen; myoglobulin and myoalbumin are also found in muscles. The nucleo-albumins or phospho-globulins are insoluble in water and acids, but soluble in alkalies, and have an acid reaction. "Caseinogen'' (after W. D. Halliburton) is the chief albumin of milk; its composition varies with the animal. It is insoluble in water, while its salts are readily soluble. "Eucasein'' is the ammonium salt; "nutrose'' and "plasmon'' are sodium salts. By the rennet ferment caseinogen is converted into casein, a substance resembling caseinogen in being soluble in water, but differing in having an insoluble calcium salt. The formation of casein involves the curdling of milk. Other phosphoglobulins are vitelline, found in the yolk of hens' eggs, and ichthulin, found in the eggs of fish. Histones are a class of albumins soluble in water and acids, but essentially basic in character; hence they are precipitated by alkalies. It is remarkable that many histones are soluble in an excess of alkali. They do not exist in a free state, but in combination with a "prosthetic group'' (after A. Kossel) they give rise to important cell constituents—haemoglobin, nucleo-proteids, &c. "Thymus histone'' occurs in the thymus gland; globin occurs in combination as haemoglobin; other histones have been extracted from the red blood corpuscles of the goose and the testes of fishes and other animals. The protamines are a well-characterized class of albumins found in the ripe spermatozoa of fishes.

Albumoses and Peptones.—The primary products of the dissociation of albumins are the albumoses, characterized by not being coagulable by heat, more soluble than the albumins, having a far less complex composition, and capable of being "salted out'' by certain salts, and the peptones, similar to albumoses but not capable of being "salted out''; moreover, peptones are less complex than albumoses. By further decomposition peptones yield peptides, a certain number of which have been synthesized by Emil Fischer and his collaborators. Albumoses and peptones are white powders, readily soluble in water, with the exception of the hetero-albumoses—a subdivision of primary albumoses. They give the biuret and xanthoproteic reactions, and form salts with both acids and bases. Albumoses and peptones are obtained by peptic digestion, the latter being termed peptic- peptones; tryptic digestion also produces peptones. Acids and moist heat induce similar changes.

Proteids.—These substances are combinations of one or more albumins with a radical of an essentially different nature, termed by Kossel a "prosthetic group.'' It is convenient to classify proteids by those groups. "Nucleo-proteids,'' constituents of the cell-nucleus, are combinations of albumins and nucleic acid; they always contain iron. They are loose, white, non-hygroscopic powders, soluble in water and salt solutions, and have an acid reaction; they give the colour reactions of albumins. Nucleic acid is at present of unknown constitution; decomposition products are: phosphoric acid, uracil or 2.6-dioxy-pyrimidin,1 cytosin or 2-oxy-6-amino-pyrimidin, thymin (nucleosin) or 2.6-dioxy-5-methyl pyrimidin hypoxanthin1 or 6-oxypurin, xanthin or 2.6-dioxypurin, adenine or 6 amino-purin, guanine or 2-amino-6-oxypurin, pentoses (l-xylose), laevulinic acid, ammonia, etc. The nucleic acids vary with the source of the proteids, there being considerable differences in chemical composition. In general they are white, loose powders, slightly soluble in cold water, more soluble in hot water; they are precipitated by mineral acids, but dissolve in an excess. They are dextrorotatory, and the specific rotation is numerically greater than that of albumin; hence the proteids are, in general, dextrorotatory.

An important nucleo-proteid is haemoglobulin or haemoglobin, the colouring matter of the red blood corpuscles of vertebrates; a related substance, haemocyanin, in which the iron of haemoglobin is replaced by copper, occurs in the blood of cephalopods and crayfish. Haemoglobin is composed of a basic albumin and an acid substance haematin; it combines readily with oxygen, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide to form loose compounds (see NUTRITION.) It coagulates at 64 deg. . By a dilute acid haemoglobin is decomposed into globin, and "haematin,'' a ferri-pyrrol derivative of the probable formula C34H34N4FeO5; under certain conditions the iron-free "haematoporphyrin'' is obtained. This last substance may be reduced to mesoporphyrin, C34H38O4N4, which by further reduction gives haemo-pyrrol, C8H13N, possibly methyl-propyl-pyrrol or butyl-pyrrol. Other derivatives are haemin, haemochromogen and the haematinic acids.

"Glyco-proteids'' differ from nucleo-proteids in containing a carbohydrate radical, which is liberated only by boiling with mineral acids or alkalies. The mucins and mucoids belong to this group; they are acid and contain no phosphorus; they give the albumin colour reactions but are not coagulated by heat. Mucins occur in most of the slimy fluids of the body; they vary in composition with their source. Mucoids resemble mucins in their composition and reactions, but differ, in general, in their physical properties. They occur in tendons, bones and cartilage. The "phospho-glyco-proteids'' resemble the mucins and mucoids in containing a carbohydrate residue, but differ in containing phosphorus. Ichthulin (see above) maybe placed in this group; "helico-proteid,'' found in the serous gland of Helix pomatia, the vineyard snail, also belongs here.

Albuminoids is the anatomical name given to albuminous substances forming the connective tissues. Chemically they resemble the albumins, being split up by acids or ferments into albumoses, peptones and amino-acids, forming salts, and giving the same colour reactions. They are quite insoluble in water and in salt solutions, and difficultly soluble in dilute acids and alkalies. Typical albuminoids are gelatin, keratin, elastin, fibroin, spongin and conchiolin.

"Collagen'' (Gr. kolla, glue, and root gen- of gennaein, to produce, gignesthai, to become), the ground-substance of bones and tissues, is decomposed by boiling water or on warming with acids into substances named gelatin, glutin or glue. Gelatin forms a white amorphous powder; the commercial product, however, generally forms glassy plates. The decomposition products are generally the same as with the general albumin; it gives the biuret reaction; forms salts with acids and alkalies, but is essentially acid in nature. Immersed in cold water gelatin does not dissolve but swells up; it dissolves readily in hot water, forming, according to the quantity present, a thick jelly which solidifies to a hard mass on cooling (the "glue'' of the wood- worker), or a thin jelly (used in cookery). Gelatin occurs also in the cornea and the sclerotic coat of the eye; and in fish scales, the latter containing 80% of collagen, and 20% of ichthylepidin, a substance differing from gelatin in giving a well-marked Millon's reaction. Keratin (Gr. keras, a horn), the chief constituent of horny material, occurs in hair, nails, hoofs and feathers. It is quite insoluble in water, dilute acids and alkalies. Related to this substance are "neuro-keratin,'' found in the medullary sheath of nerves, and "gorgonin,'' the matrix of the axial skeleton of the coral Gorgonia Cavolinii. Elastin occurs either as thick strands or as membranes; it constitutes the "elastic tissue'' of the anatomist. Its insolubility is much the same as keratin. "Fibroin'' and silk-glue or sericin occur in natural silk fibres. Fibroin is insoluble in water, acids and alkanes; silk-glue resembles gelatin in its solubility, but it is less readily gelatinized. "Spongin,'' the matrix of bath-sponge, is insoluble in water and dilute acids, but soluble in concentrated mineral acids. "Conchiolin,'' the matrix of shells of the mollusca, is only slightly soluble in acids. "Cornein'' forms the framework of corals. "Amyloid'' occurs as a pathological product, and also in the healthy aorta and in old cartilage. It is an albumin, and not a carbohydrate as was formerly held; and gives most of the colour reactions of albumins. It forms shiny, homogeneous masses, quite insoluble in cold water and in salt solutions, but soluble in alkalies. The albumoids include, according to Cohnheim, substances which possess certain properties in common, but differ from the preceding groups. In general they resemble coagulated albumin, and also the gelatin-yielding tissues, but they themselves do not yield gelatin.

Colouring matters derived from albumins include the "melanins'' (Gr. melas, black), substances which differ very considerably in composition, the sulphur and iron content being by no means constant; they do not give the reactions of albumins. The black colouring matter of hair, the skin of negroes, and of the ink bag of Sepia have been examined. Melanins obtained from tumours form black, shiny masses; they are insoluble in water, neutral salt solutions, dilute acids and in the common organic solvents.

1 6 /N = C 1 The pyrimidin ring is numbered 2C C5 For the purin ring, see PURIN. N - C// 3 4

ALBUMINURIA (Physiological or Functional), a term indicating the presence of albumin in the urine. This may depend on a number of morbid conditions, of which kidney troubles, acute illnesses and venous congestion are some of the commoner. But after exclusion of all known pathological causes, there still remains a large class of cases among subjects who appear to be in perfect health. This form has been called functional or physiological albuminuria, intermittent albuminuria, &c. Its recognition is of extreme importance, as it must be distinguished from the albuminuria due to Bright's disease and other troubles. The following are the main forms that have been described:—(1) Dietetic Albuminuria. This form affects some people after partaking of a meal consisting largely of albuminous foods, such as eggs. In others any extra indulgence in the pleasures of the table may give rise to it. (2) Cyclic Albuminuria. This name was first used by the physiologist Pavy, but other observers have called the same condition "postural albuminuria.'' It occurs in people enjoying perfect health, and is characterized by the presence of albumin in the urine at certain times of the day. It has been shown to depend entirely on the assumption of the erect position, and it disappears as a result of the recumbent position at night. (3) Albuminuria from exercise. This form affects some people after any unusual muscular exertion. (4) Prolonged mental strain or worry may give rise to a transient form of albuminuria. (5) Adolescent albuminuria is met with in some subjects, especially boys. The question of the real significance of "physiological'' albuminuria is one about which there is much difference of opinion. But its importance and recognition—especially in questions of life insurance—admits of no question.

ALBUQUERQUE, ALPHONSO D, (in Old Port. AFFONSO D'ALBOQUERQUE) (1453-1515), surnamed THE GREAT, and THE PORTUGUESE MARS, was born in 1453 at Alexandria, near Lisbon. Through his father, Gonzalvo, who held an important position at court, he was connected by illegitimate descent with the royal family of Portugal. He was educated at the court of Alphonso V., and after the death of that monarch seems to have served for some time in Africa. On his return he was appointed estribeiro-mor (chief equerry) to John II. In 1503 he set out on his first expedition to the East, which was to be the scene of his future triumphs. In company with his kinsman Francisco he sailed round the Cape of Good Hope to India, and succeeded in establishing the king of Cochin securely on his throne, obtaining in return for this service permission to build a Portuguese fort at Cochin, and thus laying the foundation of his country's empire in the East. He returned home in July 1504, and was well received by King Emmanuel, who entrusted him with the command of a squadron of five vessels in the fleet of sixteen which sailed for India in 1506 under Tristan da Cunha. After a series of successful attacks on the Arab cities on the east coast of Africa, Albuquerque separated from Da Cunha, and sailed with his squadron against the island of Ormuz, in the Persian Gulf, which was then one of the chief centres of commerce in the East. He arrived on the 25th of September 1507, and soon obtained possession of the island, though he was unable long to maintain his position. With his squadron increased by three vessels, he reached the Malabar coast at the close of the year 1508, and immediately made known the commission he had received from the king empowering him to supersede the governor Francisco de Almeida. The latter, however, refused to recognize Albuquerque's credentials and cast him into prison, from which he was only released, after three months' confinement, on the arrival of the grand-marshal of Portugal with a large fleet. Almeida having returned home, Albuquerque speedily showed the energy and determination of his character. An unsuccessful attack upon Calicut in January 1510, in which the commander- in-chief received a severe wound, was immediately followed by the investment and capture of Goa. Albuquerque, finding himself unable to hold the town on his first occupation, abandoned it in August, to return with the reinforcements in November, when he obtained undisputed possession. He next directed his forces against Malacca, which he subdued after a severe struggle. He remained in the town nearly a year in order to strengthen the position of the Portuguese power. In 1512 he sailed for the coast of Malabar. On the voyage a violent storm arose, Albuquerque's vessel, the "Flor de la Mar,'' which carried the treasure he had amassed in his conquests, was wrecked, and he himself barely escaped with his life. In September of the same year he arrived at Goa, where he quickly suppressed a serious revolt headed by Idalcan, and took such measures for the security and peace of the town that it became the most flourishing of the Portuguese settlements in India. Albuquerque had been for some time under orders from the home government to undertake an expedition to the Red Sea, in order to secure that channel of communication exclusively to Portugal. He accordingly laid siege to Aden in 1513, but was repulsed; and a voyage into the Red Sea, the first ever made by a European fleet, led to no substantial results. In order to destroy the power of Egypt, he is said to have entertained the idea of diverting the course of the Nile and so rendering the whole country barren. His last warlike undertaking was a second attack upon Ormuz in 1515. The island yielded to him without resistance, and it remained in the possession of the Portuguese until 1622. Albuquerque's great career had a painful and ignominious close. He had several enemies at the Portuguese court who lost no opportunity of stirring up the jealousy of the king against him, and his own injudicious and arbitrary conduct on several occasions served their end only too well. On his return from Ormuz, at the entrance of the harbour of Goa, he met a vessel from Europe bearing despatches announcing that he was superseded by his personal enemy Soarez. The blow was too much for him and he died at sea on the 16th of December 1515. Before his death he wrote a letter to the king in dignified and affecting terms, vindicating his conduct and claiming for his son the honours and rewards that were justly due to himself. His body was buried at Goa in the Church of our Lady, and it is perhaps the most convincing proof possible of the justice of his administration that, many years after, Mussulmans and Hindus used to go to his tomb to invoke protection against the injustice of his successors. The king of Portugal was convinced too late of his fidelity, and endeavoured to atone for the ingratitude with which he had treated him by heaping honours upon his natural son Alfonso. The latter published a selection from his father's papers under the title Commentarios do Grande Affonso d'Alboquerque .

See the Cartas de Albuquerque, published by the Lisbon Academy (vol. i., 1884); also Morse Stephens' Life of Albuquerque; an article in the Bolitim of the Lisbon Geographical Society (January to June 1902) on "O antigo Imperialismo portuguez, &c.,'' has especial reference to Albuquerque.

ALBUQUERQUE, a city and the county-seat of Bernalillo county, New Mexico, U.S.A., situated in the central part of the state, about 325 m. S. by W. of Denver, on the E. bank of the Rio Grande, at an altitude of 4950 ft. Pop. (1890) 3785; (1900) 6238 (956 foreign-born and 226 negroes); (1910 census) 11,020. In 1900 Albuquerque was the largest city in New Mexico. It is the connecting point of two main lines of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway system. A short distance E. of the city is the university of New Mexico, under state control, founded in 1889 and opened in 1892; in 1908 it had a college of letters and science, a school of engineering, a school of education, a preparatory school and a commercial school. Albuquerque is also the seat of the Harwood Industrial School (Methodist) for Mexican girls, of the Menaul Mission School (Presbyterian) for Mexican boys, and of a government Indian training school (1881) for boys and girls. The city has a public library. The excellent climate has given Albuquerque and the surrounding country a reputation as a health resort. The city is an important railway centre, has extensive railway repair shops and stock-yards, and exports large quantities of live-stock, hides and wool. The largest industrial establishment is the American Lumber Company's plant, including a saw-mill, a sash, door and blind factory and a box factory. The timber used, chiefly white pine, is obtained from the Zuni mountains. The city has also flour and woollen mills, breweries and ice factories. The old Spanish town of Albuquerque (pop. in 1900 about 1200) lies about 1 m. W. of the present city; it was founded in 1706, and was named in honour of the duke of Albuquerque, viceroy of New Spain from 1702 to 1710. During the Civil War it was occupied, late in February 1862, by Confederate troops under General Henry Hopkins Sibley (1816-1886), who soon afterwards advanced with his main body into northern New Mexico. In his retreat back into Texas he made a stand on the 8th of April 1862 at Albuquerque, where during the whole day there was a fight at long range and with few casualties against a detachment of Union soldiers commanded by Colonel Edward R. S. Canby (1819-1873). The modern city dates its origin from the completion of the first railway to Albuquerque in 1880.

ALBURNUM (sapwood), the outermost and youngest part of the wood of a tree, through which the sap rises. It is distinguished from the harder inner and older wood, the duramen or heart-wood.

ALBURY, a town in Goulburn county, New South Wales, Australia, 386 m. by rail W.S.W. of Sydney. Pop. (1901) 5821. It stands near the border of Victoria, on the right bank of the Murray river, here crossed by two bridges, one built of wood carrying a road, the other of iron bearing the railway. The Murray is navigable for small steamers from this town to its mouth, a distance of 1800 miles. Albury is the centre of a sheep- rearing and agricultural district; grapes, cereals and tobacco are largely grown, and the wine produced here is held in high repute throughout Australia. The tree under which the first explorers encamped here in November 1824 is still standing in an enclosed space. Albury became a municipality in 1859.

ALCAEUS (ALKAIOS), Greek lyric poet, an older contemporary of Sappho, was a native of Mytilene in Lesbos and flourished about 600 B.C. His life was greatly mixed up with the political disputes and internal feuds of his native city. He belonged to one of the noble families, and sided with his class against the "tyrants'' who at that time set themselves up in Mytilene. He was in consequence obliged to leave his native country, and spent a considerable time in exile. He is said to have become reconciled to Pittacus, the ruler set up by the popular party, and to have returned to Lesbos. The date of his death is unknown. The subjects of his poems, which were composed in the Aeolic dialect, were of various kinds: some were hymns to the gods; others were of a martial or political character; others breathed an ardent love of liberty and hatred of tyrants; lastly, some were love-songs. Alcaeus was allotted the second place among the nine lyric poets in the Alexandrian canon. The considerable number of fragments extant, and the well-known imitations of Horace, who regarded Alcaeus as his great model, enable us to form a fair idea of the character of his poems. A new fragment has recently been discovered, together with some fragments of Sappho (Classical Review, May 1902).

See Bergk, Poetae Lyrici Graeci (1882); also The Songs of Alcaeus, by J. Easby-Smith (Washington, 1901); Plehn, Lesbiacorum Liber (1826); Flach, Geschichte der griechischen Lyrik (1883-1884); Farnell, Greek Lyric Poets (1891).

ALCAICS, in ancient poetry, a name given to several kinds of verse, from Alcaeus, their reputed inventor. The first kind consists of five feet, viz. a spondee or iambic, an iambic, a long syllable and two dactyles; the second of two dactyles and two trochees. Besides these, which are called dactylic Alcaics, there is another, simply styled Alcaic, consisting of an epitrite, two choriambi and a bacchius; thus—

Cur timet fla vum Tiberim tangere, cur olivum?

The Alcaic ode is composed of several strophes, each consisting of four verses, the first two of which are always eleven-syllable alcaics of the first kind; the third verse is an iambic dimeter hypercatalectic consisting of nine syllables; and the fourth verse is a ten-syllable alcaic of the second kind. The following strophe is of this species, which Horace calls Alcaei minaces camenae—

Non possidentem multa vocaveris Recte beatum; rectius occupat Nomen beati, qui deorum Muneribus sapienter uti. There is also a decasyllabic variety of the Alcaic metre.

The Alcaic measure was one of the most splendid inventions of Greek metrical art. In its best examples it gives an impression of wonderful vigour and spontaneity. Tennyson has attempted to reproduce it in English in his

O mighty-mouthed inventor of harmonies, O skilled to sing of time or eternity, God-gifted organ-voice of England, Milton, a name to resound for ages. German is, however, the only modern literature in which alcaics have been written with much success. They were introduced by Klopstock, and used by Holderlin, by Voss in his translations of Horace, by A. Kopisch and other modern German poets.

ALCALA (Moorish al Kala, the "Fortress'' or "Castle''), the name of thirteen Spanish towns, all founded or named by the Moors. Alcala de Henares (pop. (1900) 11,206) is separately described on account of its historical importance. Alcala la Real (15,973), a picturesque town with a fine abbey, is situated in mountainous country in the extreme south-west of Jaen. Its distinctive name la Real, "the Royal,'' was conferred in memory of its capture by Alphonso XI. of Leon in 1340. In 1810 the French under Count Sebastiani here defeated the Spaniards. Alcala de los Gazules (8877), on the river Barbate, in the province of Cadiz, has a thriving trade in cork and agricultural produce. Alcala de Guadaira (8198), on the river Guadaira, near Seville, is popularly called Alcala de los Panadores, or "Alcala of the Bakers,'' because it supplies Seville with large quantities of bread. Alcala de Chisbert (6293) is situated on the coast of Castellon de la Plana; Alcala del Rio (3006), on the Guadalquivir, 6 m. N. of Seville; Alcala del Jucar (2968), on the Jucar, in Albacete; Alcala de la Selva (1490), on the southern slopes of the Sierra del Gudar, in Teruel; Alcala de la Vega (712), on the river Cabriel, in Cuenca; Alcala de Gurrea (632), on the river Seton, in Huesca; Alcala del Obispo (432), in the same province; Alcala de Ebro (388) and Alcala de Moncayo (367), both in Saragossa.

ALCALA DE HENARES, a town of Spain, in the province of Madrid, 17 m. E.N.E. of Madrid, on the river Henares, and the Madrid-Saragossa railway. Pop. (1900) 11,206. Alcala de Henares contains a military academy and various public institutions, but its commercial importance is slight and its main interest is historical. The town has been identified with the Roman Complutum, which was destroyed about the year 1000, and was rebuilt by the Moors in 1083. In later times it was renowned for its richly endowed university, founded by Cardinal Jimenes de Cisneros in 1510, which at the height of its prosperity numbered 12,000 students, and was second only to that of Salamanca. Here the famous edition of the Bible known as the Complutensian Polyglot was prepared from 1514 to 1517. The college of San Ildefonso, completed in 1583, was the chief university building. Its modernized Gothic church, the Colegiata, contains the 16th century marble monument of Jimenes (d. 1517) and a fine reredos. The greatest of Spanish writers, Cervantes, was born at Alcala de Henares, and baptized in the otherwise insignificant church of S. Maria on the 9th of October 1547. A tablet, set up in 1840, marks the house in which he is said to have been born. Other illustrious natives of the town were the emperor Ferdinand I. (1503-1564) and the Spanish dramatist and historian Antonio de Solis (1610-1686). After the removal of the university to Madrid in 1836 the town rapidly declined, and the government turned most of the principal buildings erected by Cardinal Jimenes in the 16th century into a depot for the archives of various state departments. Here are kept very complete and curious documents of the Inquisition, showing all its workings from the 15th to the 19th century. One of the principal libraries is the former palace of the archbishops of Toledo.

For a fuller description of Alcala see the Guia del viajero en Alcala de Henares, by L. A. de la Torre (Alcala, 1882). The following works are mainly of historical interest:—M. de Ayala and F. Sastre, Alcala de Henares (Madrid, 1890); J. C. Garcia, Ensayo de una Tipografia Complutense (Madrid, 1889); M. Portilla y Esquivel, Historia de la ciudad de Compluto (Alcala, 1725-1728); and the "Annales Complutenses'' and "Chronicon Complutense'' in Espana Sagrada, by H. Florez and others (Madrid, 1754-1879).

ALCALDE (from the Arab. al-quadi, the "Cadi'' or "judge,'), the title in Spanish for officials of somewhat varied functions, in which, however, there is always a judicial element. Alcalde de corte was a judge of the palace court, having jurisdiction in and about the residence of the king. But the mayor of a town or village who discharged the functions of a justice of the peace was also an alcalde. It is in this sense that the title is now exclusively used. He is subject to yearly election and the post has often been an undesirable one in Spain. The title of alcalde must be carefully distinguished from alcaide, which is derived from the Arabic al-quaid, a general, and means the governor of a fortress.

ALCAMENES, a Greek sculptor of Lemnos and Athens. He was a younger contemporary of Pheidias and noted for the delicacy and finish of his works, among which a Hephaestus and an Aphrodite "of the Gardens'' were conspicuous. Pausanias says (v. 10. 8) that he was the author of one of the pediments of the temple of Zeus at Olympia (see GREEK ART), but this seems a chronological and stylistic impossibility. At Pergamum there was discovered in 1903 a copy of the head of the Hermes "Propylaeus'' of Alcamenes (Athenische Mittheilungen, 1904, p. 180). As, however, the deity is represented in an archaistic and conventional character, this copy cannot be relied on as giving us much information as to the usual style of Alcamenes, who was almost certainly a progressive and original artist. It is safer to judge him by the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon, in which he must almost certainly have taken a share under the direction of Pheidias.

ALCAMO, a town of Sicily, in the province of Trapani, 24 m. W.S.W. of Palermo direct (51 1/2 m. by rail). Pop. (1881) 37,497; (1901) 51,809. It was founded in A.D. 828 by the Saracenic chief Al-Kamuk, who erected the castle (which still stands, though considerably altered), but was christianized by the emperor Frederick II. in 1233, who removed the site lower down. It possesses some medieval buildings of interest. The surrounding district is very fertile and the trade in agricultural products is considerable.

ALCANTARA, a small seaport of Brazil, in the state of Maranhao, on the W. shore of the bay of Sao Marcos, 16 m. from the city of Maranhao by water. It has a fairly good harbour, and excellent cotton and rice are grown in the vicinity and shipped thence.

ALCANTARA, a town of western Spain, in the province of Caceres, situated on a rocky height on the left bank of the river Tagus, 7 m. from the Portuguese frontier. Pop. (1900) 3248. Alcantara (in Arab. "the bridge'') owes its name to the magnificent Roman bridge which spans the Tagus on the north-west. This was originally built about A.D. 105, in honour of the Roman emperor Trajan and at the cost of eleven Lusitanian communities. It is entirely constructed of granite blocks, without cement, and consists of six arches of various sizes, with a total length of 616 feet and a height of about 190 ft. in the middle piers, which are surmounted by a fortified gateway. One of the arches was broken down in 1213 and rebuilt in 1553; another was blown up by the British troops in 1809, and, though temporarily reconstructed, was again destroyed in 1836, to prevent the passage of the Carlist forces. But in 1860 the whole was restored. A small Roman temple, dedicated to Trajan and other deified emperors, stood on the left bank, adjoining the bridge. It is doubtful, however, if Alcantara marks the site of any Roman town, though archaeologists have sometimes identified it either with Norba Caesarea or with Interamnium. It first became famous about 1215 as the stronghold of the knightly Order of Alcantara. Many of the grand masters of this order lie buried in the 13th-century Gothic church. The town possesses another interesting church built in 1506.

See Antiguedades y santos de la muy noble villa de Alcantara, by J. Arias de Quintanaduenas (Madrid, 1661); and Retrato politico de Alcantara, by L. Santibanez (Madrid, 1779).

ALCAVALA (Spanish, from Arab. al-quabalah, "tax,'' quabula, "to receive''; cf. Fr. gabelle), a duty formerly charged in Spain and its colonies on all transfers of property, whether public or private. Originally imposed in 1341 by Alphonso XI. to secure freedom from the Moors, it was an ad valorem tax of 10, increased afterwards to 14%, on the selling price of all commodities, whether raw or manufactured, chargeable as often as they were sold or exchanged. It subjected every farmer, manufacturer, merchant and shopkeeper to the continual visits and examination of the tax-gatherers, whose number was necessarily very great. This monstrous impost was permitted to ruin the industry and commerce of the greater part of the kingdom up to the time of the invasion of Napoleon. Catalonia and Aragon purchased from Philip V. an exemption from the alcavala, and, though still burdened with other heavy taxes, were in consequence in a comparatively flourishing state.

ALCAZAR DE SAN JUAN, or ALCAZAR, a town of Spain, in the province of Ciudad Real, in the plain of La Mancha, at the junction of the Madrid-Manzanares and Madrid-Albacete railways. Pop. (1900) 11,499. Owing to its position on two important railways, Alcazar has a flourishing transit-trade in the wines of Estremadura and Andalusia; the soda and alkali of La Mancha are used in the manufacture of soap; and gunpowder, chocolate and inlaid daggers are also made here. Alcazar is sometimes identified with the Roman Alce. captured by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus in 180 B.C. It derives its existing name from its medieval Moorish castle (al-kasr), which was afterwards garrisoned by the knights of St John. The townsfolk contend that the great Cervantes was a native of Alcazar; and, although this claim must be disallowed, much of the action of his masterpiece, Don Quixote, takes place in the neighbourhood. El Toboso, for instance, a village 12 m. E.N.E. [pop. ( 1900) 1895], was the home of the Lady Dulcinea del Toboso; Argamasilla de Alba (3505), 22 m. S.E., is declared by tradition to be the birthplace of Don Quixote himself. Local antiquaries even identify the knight with Don Rodrigo de Pacheco, whose portrait adorns the parish church; and the same authorities hold that part of the romance was written while Cervantes was a prisoner in their town. An edition of Don Quixote was published at Argamasilla in 1864.

ALCESTER, FREDERICK BEAUCHAMP PAGET SEYMOUR, BARON (1821-1895), British admiral, son of Colonel Sir Horace Beauchamp Seymour and cousin of Francis George Hugh Seymour, 5th marquess of Hertford, was born on the 12th of April 1821. Entering the navy in 1834, he served in the Mediterranean and the Pacific, was for three years flag-lieutenant to his uncle Sir George Seymour, and was promoted to be commander in 1847. He served in Burma as a volunteer in 1852, was made a captain in 1854, took the "Meteor'' ironclad battery out to the Black Sea and home again in 1856, was captain of the "Pelorus'' on the Australian station from 1857 to 1863, and commanded the naval brigade in New Zealand during the Maori War, 1860-61, for which he was made a C.B. He became a rear-admiral in 1870; in 1871-1872 he commanded the flying squadron, was a lord of the admiralty in 1872-1874, and commanded the Channel fleet, 1874-1876. On the 31st of December 1876 he was made a vice-admiral, a K.C.B. on the 2nd of June 1877. In 1880-1883 he was commander-in-chief of the fleet in the Mediterranean, and in 1880 had also the chief command of the European squadron sent to the coast of Albania as a demonstration to compel the Porte to cede Dulcigno to Montenegro. On the 24th of May 1881 he was made a G.C.B., and on the 6th of May 1882 was promoted to the rank of admiral. In July 1882 he commanded at the bombardment of Alexandria and in the subsequent operations on the coast of Egypt, for which service he was raised to the peerage as Baron Alcester of Alcester in the county of Warwick, received a parliamentary grant of L. 25,000, the freedom of the city of London and a sword of honour. On his return from the Mediterranean he was for a couple of years again at the admiralty, and in 1886 he was placed on the retired list. For the next nine years he lived chiefly in London, but latterly his health was much broken, and he died on the 30th of March 1895. He was unmarried and the peerage became extinct.

ALCESTER [pronounced Auster, a market-town in the Stratford-on-Avon parliamentary division of Warwickshire, England, 16 m. W.S.W. from Warwick by the Great Western railway, served also by the Birmingham-Evesham branch of the Midland railway. Pop. (1901) 2303. It is pleasantly situated among low wooded hills at the junction of the small stream Alne with the Arrow, a northern tributary of the Avon. The church of St Nicholas, with the exception of the Decorated tower, is a reconstruction of 1734; among several monuments is a fine example of Chantrey's work, to the 2nd marquess of Hertford (d. 1822). There are a picturesque town hall (1641), raised on stone columns, and a free grammar school. The manufacture of needles is less important than formerly, having been absorbed into the centre of the industry at Redditch in the neighbouring county of Worcestershire. There are implement works and cycle works, and brewing is prosecuted.

The name (Alnecestre, Alyncester) signifies "the camp on the Alne.'' A small Romano-British town or village was situated here, on the road which runs from Derby and Wall, near Lichfield, to join the Fosse Way near Cirencester. Its name is not known. A relief figure in stone, some pavements, potsherds, coins and burials have been found, but nothing to indicate an important station. No written document relating to Alcester exists before the reign of Henry I. No mention occurs in Domesday, but it is given in a list of serjeanties of the reign of Henry III. as having been a royal borough in the time of Henry I., and in 1177 it rendered four marks' aid with the other boroughs of the county. However, there is no evidence of the grant of a royal charter, and the title of borough soon lapsed. In the reign of Henry III. a moiety of the manor was purchased by Sir Walter Beauchamp, who granted a charter to the inhabitants of ihe town establishing a Tuesday market for corn, cattle, and all kinds of merchandise, and also obtained grants of fairs at the feasts of St Giles (afterwards transferred to the feast of St Faith) and St Barnabas. In 1444 Sir John Beauchamp purchased the remaining moiety of the manor, and was granted an additional fair at the feast of St Dunstan. From this date the Beauchamps were lords of the whole manor until it passed by female descent to the Grevilles in the reign of Henry VIII. in 1140 a Benedictine monastery was founded here by Falph Boteler of Oversley, and received the name of the Church of Our Lady of the Isle, owing to its insulation by a moat meeting the river Arrow. The monastery was suppressed among the smaller houses in 1536. Traces of the moat and the foundations are still to be seen in Priory Close. The ancient fairs survived to the end of the 19th century. in 1830 the needle-manufacture employed nearly a thousand hands.

ALCESTIS (ALKESTIS), in Greek legend the daughter of Pelias and Anaxibia, and wife of Admetus, king of Pherae in Thessaly. She consented to die in place of her husband, and was afterwards rescued by Heracles. This beautiful story of conjugal devotion forms the subject of the Alcestis of Euripides, which furnished the basis of Robert Browning's Balaustion's Adventure. Sophocles also wrote an Alcestis, of which only fragments remain.

See Dissel, Der Mythos von Admetus und Alkestis, 1882.

ALCHEMY. In the narrow sense of the word, alchemy is the pretended art of making gold and silver, or transmuting the base metals into the noble ones. The idea of such transmutation probably arose among the Alexandrian Greeks in the early centuries of the Christian era; thence it passed to the Arabs, by whom it was transmitted to western Europe, and its realization was a leading aim of chemical workers down to the time of Paracelsus and even later. But "alchemy'' was something more than a particularly vain and deluded manifestation of the thirst for gold, as it is sometimes represented; in its wider and truer significance it stands for the chemistry of the middle ages. The idea of transmutation, in the country of its origin, had a philosophical basis, and was linked up with the Greek theories of matter there current; thus, by supplying a central philosophical principle, it to some extent unified and focussed chemical effort, which previously, so far as it existed at all, had been expended on acquiring empirical acquaintance with a mass of disconnected technical processes. Alchemy in this sense is merely an early phase of the development of systematic chemistry; in Liebig's words, it was "never at any time anything different from chemistry.''

Regarding the derivation of the word, there are two main views which agree in holding that it has an Arabic descent, the prefix al being the Arabic article. But according to one, the second part of the word comes from the Greek chumeia, pouring, infusion, used in connexion with the study of the juices of plants, and thence extended to chemical manipulations in general; this derivation accounts for the old-fashioned spellings "chymist'' and "chymistry.'' The other view traces it to khem or khame, hieroglyph khmi, which denotes black earth as opposed to barren sand, and occurs in Plutarch as chumeia; on this derivation alchemy is explained as meaning the "Egyptian art.'' The first occurrence of the word is said to be in a treatise of Julius Firmicus, an astrological writer of the 4th century, but the prefix al there must be the addition of a later copyist. Among the Alexandrian writers alchemy was designated as e tes chrusou te kai argurou poieseos techne theia kai iera or e episteme iera. In English, Piers Plowman (1362) contains the phrase "experimentis of alconomye,'' with variants "alkenemye'' and "alknamye.'' The prefix al begins to be dropped about the middle of the 16th century.

Origins of Alchemy.—Numerous legends cluster round the origin of alchemy. According to one story, it was founded by the Egyptian god Hermes (Thoth), the reputed inventor of the arts and sciences, to whom, under the appellation Hermes Trismegistus, Tertullian refers as the master of those who occupy themselves with nature; after him later alchemists called their work the "hermetic art,'' and the seal of Hermes, which they placed upon their vessels, is the origin of the common phrase "hermetically sealed.'' Another legend, given by Zosimus of Panopolis, an alchemistical writer said to date from the 3rd century, asserts that the fallen angels taught the arts to the women they married (cf. Genesis vi. 2), their instruction being recorded in a book called Chema. A similar story appears in the Book of Enoch, and Tertullian has much to say about the wicked angels who revealed to men the knowledge of gold and silver, of lustrous stones, and of the power of herbs, and who introduced the arts of astrology and magic upon the earth. Again, the Arabic Kitab-al-Fihrist, written by al-Nadim towards the end of the 10th century, says that the "people who practise alchemy, that is, who fabricate gold and silver from strange metals, state that the first to speak of the science of the work was Hermes the Wise, who was originally of Babylon, but who established himself in Egypt after the dispersion of the peoples from Babel.'' Another legend, also to be found in Arabic sources, asserts that alchemy was revealed by God to Moses and Aaron. But there is some evidence that, in accordance with the strong and constant tradition among the alchemists, the idea of transmutation did originate in Egypt with the Greeks of Alexandria. In the Leiden museum there are a number of papyri which were found in a tomb at Thebes, written probably in the 3rd century A.D., though their matter is older. Some are in Greek and demotic, and one, of peculiar interest from the chemical point of view, gives a number of receipts, in Greek, for the manipulation of base metals to form alloys which simulate gold and are intended to be used in the manufacture of imitation jewellery. Possibly this is one of the books about gold and silver of which Diocletian decreed the destruction about A.D. 290—an act which Gibbon styles the first authentic event in the history of alchemy (Decline and Fall, chap. xiii.). The author of these receipts is not under any delusion that he is transmuting metals; the MS. is merely a workshop manual in which are described processes in daily use for preparing metals for false jewellery, but it argues considerable knowledge of methods of making alloys and colouring metals. It has been suggested by M. P. E. Berthelot that the workers in these processes, which were a monopoly of the priestly caste and were kept strictly secret, though fully aware that their products were not truly gold, were in time led by their success in deceiving the public to deceive themselves also, and to come to believe that they actually had the power of making gold from substances which were not gold. Philosophical sanction and explanation of this belief was then found by bringing it into relation with the theory of the prima materia, which was identical in all bodies but received its actual form by the adjunction of qualities expressed by the Aristotelian elements—earth, air, fire and water. Some support for this view is gained from study of the alchemistical writings of the period. Thus, in the treatise known as Physica et Mystica and falsely ascribed to Democritus (such false attributions are a constant feature of the literature of alchemy), various receipts are given for colouring and gilding metals, but the conception of transmutation does not occur. This treatise was probably composed at a date not very different from that of the Leiden papyrus. Later, however, as in the Commentary on this work written by Synesius to Dioscorus, priest of Serapis at Alexandria, which probably dates from the end of the 4th century, a changed attitude becomes apparent; the more practical parts of the receipts are obscured or omitted, and the processes for preparing alloys and colouring metals, described in the older treatise, are by a mystical interpretation represented as resulting in real transmutation.