Aldabra was visited by Portuguese navigators in 1511. The islands were already known to the Arabs, from whom they get their name. They became in the middle of the 18th century dependencies of the French establishments at Bourbon (Reunion), whence expeditions were made for the capture of the giant tortoises. In 1810 with Mauritius, Bourbon, the Seychelles and other islands, Aldabra passed into the possession of Great Britain. The inhabitants are emigrants from the Seychelles. Goats are bred and coco-nuts cultivated, but fishing is the chief industry. With other outlying islands Aldabra is held under lease from the Seychelles government, the lessees having exclusive trading privileges.

See R. Dupont, Report on a Visit of Investigation to . . . the Aldabra Group of the Seychelles Islands (Seychelles, 1907); Dr Abbott in Proceedings, United States National Museum (Washington, 1894); A. Voeltzkow in Abh. der Senckenbergischen Naturferschenden Ges. vol. xxvi. part iv. (1901); J. S. Gardiner, "The Indian Ocean,'' Geo. Journ. Oct. 1906.

ALDBOROUGH, a village in the Ripon parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 16 m. W.N.W. of York, and 1 m. E. of the market town of Boroughbridge, which has a station on a branch of the North-Eastern railway. Aldborough formerly returned two members to parliament, but was disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832. The place is remarkable from its numerous ancient remains. It was the Isurium Brigantum of the Romans, originally perhaps a capital of the Brigantes tribe, and afterwards a Romano-British town of considerable size. Inscriptions, beautiful mosaics and other traces of comfortable houses have been found, with many potsherds, coins and bronze, iron and other objects; and a large part of the town walls, several mosaics and parts of buildings, can be seen. A fine collection is kept in the Museum Isurianum in the grounds of the manor-house.

ALDEBURGH [ALDBOROUGH], a market town and municipal borough in the Eye parliamentary division of Suffolk, England, the terminus of a branch of the Great Eastern railway, 99 1/2 m. N.E. by E. from London. Area, 1629 acres. Pop. (1901) 2405. The surrounding district is open and somewhat bleak, but a fine stretch of sand fringes the shallow inlet of the North Sea known as Aldeburgh Bay. To the W. the river Alde broadens as if into an estuary, but its outflow is here prevented by the sand, and it runs south for nearly 10 m. parallel with the shore. The sandbanks have arrested the encroachments of the sea, which submerged a former site of Aldeburgh. The church of St Peter and St Paul is Perpendicular, largely restored, and contains a monument to the poet George Crabbe, born here on the 24th of December 1754. A small picturesque Moot Hall of the 16th century is used for corporation meetings. Slaughden Quay on the Alde admits small vessels, and fishing is carried on. Aldeburgh is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors.

Aldeburgh (Aldburc) takes its name from the river Alde on which it stands. It is not mentioned in pre-Conquest records, but at the Domesday survey most of the land was held by Robert Malet, a Norman. In 1155 the manor was granted to the abbey of St John of Colchester, later to Cardinal Wolsey, and on his disgrace, to Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, to whom Elizabeth in 1567 granted a market on Saturday. In the 16th century Aldeburgh was a place of considerable commercial importance, due, no doubt, to its position on the sea-coast. Aldeburgh claims to be a borough by prescription: the earliest charter is that granted by Henry VIII. in 1529. Edward VI. in 1548 raised it to the rank of a free borough, granting a charter of incorporation and a market on Wednesday. Later charters were granted by Philip and Mary in 1553, by Elizabeth in 1558 and 1567, by James I. (who granted two annual fairs) in 1606, and by Charles I. in 1631 and 1637. The corporation included 2 bailiffs, 10 capital and 24 inferior burgesses, until the Municipal Corporations Act 1883. The fairs and markets became so unimportant that they were discontinued about the middle of the 19th century. The town returned two members to Elizabeth's parliament of 1572, and continued to be so represented till the Reform Bill of 1832 disfranchised it. Frequent disastrous incursions of the sea in the 18th century reduced Aldeburgh to a mere fishing village. In recent years it has grown as a seaside resort, with excellent golf-links.

See John Kirby, The Suffolk Traveller (2nd ed., 1764); N. F. Hele, Notes about Aldeburgh (1870); Victoria County History—Suffolk.

ALDEGREVER, or ALDEGRAF, HEINRICH (1502-1558), German painter and engraver, was born at Paderborn, from which he removed in early life to Soest, where he died. From the close resemblance of his style to that of Albrecht Durer he has sometimes been called the Albert of Westphalia. His numerous engravings, chiefly from his own designs, are delicate and minute, though somewhat hard in style, and entitle him to a place in the front rank of the so-called "Little Masters.'' There is a good collection in the British Museum. Specimens of his painting are exceedingly rare. Five pictures are in continental galleries, but the genuineness of the works in the Vienna and Munich collections attributed to him is at least doubtful, the only unchallenged example being a portrait of Engelbert Therlaen (1551) in the Berlin Museum.

ALDEHYDES, a class of chemical compounds of the general formula R.CHO (R = an alkyl or an aryl group). The name is derived from alcohol dehydrogenatum in allusion to the fact that they may be prepared by the oxidation of alcohols. The lower members of the series are neutral liquids possessing a characteristic smell; they are soluble in water and are readily volatile (formaldehyde, however, is a gas at ordinary temperatures). As the carbon content of the molecule increases, they become less soluble in water, and their smell becomes less marked with the increase in boiling point, the highest members of the series being odourless solids, which can only be distilled without decomposition in vacuo.

The aldehydes may be prepared by the careful oxidation of primary alcohols with a mixture of potassium dichromate and sulphuric acid,—3R.CH2OH + K2 Cr2O7 + 4H2SO4 = K2SO4 + Cr2(SO4)3 + 7H2O + 3R.CHO; by distilling the calcium salts of the fatty acids with calcium formate; and by hydrolysis of the acetals. L. Bouveault (Bull. soc. chim., 1904 [3], 31, p. 1306) prepares aldehydes by the gradual addition of disubstituted formamides (dissolved in anhydrous ether) to magnesium alkyl haloids, the best yields being obtained by the use of diethyl formamide. Secondary reactions take place at the same time, yielding more particularly hydrocarbons of the paraffin series. G. Darzens (Comptes Rendus, 1904, 139, p. 1214) prepares esters of disubstituted glycidic acids, by condensing the corresponding ketone with monochloracetic ester, in the presence of sodium ethylate. These esters on hydrolysis yield the free acids, which readily decompose, with loss of carbon dioxide and formation of an aldehyde,

/R /CRR1 /CRR1 OC< + Cl.CH2.COOC2H5 > O O< R1 CH.COOC2H5 CH.COOH > CO2 + CHRR1.CHO.

In the German Patent 157573 (1904) it is shown that by the action of at least two molecular proportions of an alkyl formate on two molecular proportions of a magnesium alkyl or aryl haloid, a complex addition compound is formed, which readily decomposes into a basic magnesium salt and an aldehyde,

C6H5MgBr + HCOOR —> RO.CH.C6H5.OMgBr —> MgBr.OR + C6H5CHO.

The aldehydes are characterized by their great chemical reactivity. They act as reducing agents, silver nitrate in the presence of ammonia being rapidly reduced to the condition of metallic silver. They are easily oxidized to the corresponding fatty acid, in many cases simply by exposure to air. Nascent hydrogen reduces them to primary alcohols, and phosphorus pentachloride replaces the carbonyl oxygen by chlorine. They form many addition compounds, combining with ammonia to form aldehyde ammonias of the type R.CH(OH).NH2. These are colourless crystalline compounds, which are most readily prepared by passing ammonia gas into an ethereal solution of the aldehyde. With sodium bisulphite they form the so-called bisulphite compounds R.CH(OH).SO3Na, which are readily resolved into their components by distillation with dilute acids, and are frequently used for the preparation of the pure aldehyde.

With hydrocyanic acid aldehydes form the cyanhydrins R.CH(OH).CN. They react with hydroxylamine and phenylhydrazine, with the formation of aldoximes and hydrazones. (For the isomerism of the aldoximes see OXIMES.) The hydrazones are crystalline substances which are of value in the characterization of the aldehydes. Both oximes and hydrazones, on boiling with dilute acid, regenerate the parent aldehyde. The hydrazones are best prepared by mixing the aldehyde with phenylhydrazine in dilute acetic acid solution, in the absence of any free mineral acid. Semioxamazid, NH2.CO.CO.NH.NH2, has also been employed for the identification of aldehydes (W. Kerp and K. Unger, Berichte, 1897, 30. p. 585). Aldehydes are converted into resins by the action of caustic alkalies. On heating with alcohols to 100 deg. C. they form acetals, and they also form condensation products with para-amido-di-methyl-aniline (A. Calm, Berichte, 1884, 17, p. 2939). They react with the zinc alkyls to form addition products, which are decomposed by water with formation of secondary alcohols (K. Thurnlach, Annalen, 1882, 213, p. 369) thus:— Zn(C2H5)2 H2O /C2H5 /C2H5 CH3.CHO —> CH3.CH CH3.CH< + ZnO + C2H6. OZnC2H5 OH The reaction is a general one for all aldehydes with zinc methyl and zinc ethyl, but not with the higher zinc alkyls. V. Grignard (Comptes Rendus, 1900 et seq.) showed that aldehydes combine with magnesium alkyl iodides (in absolute ether solution) to form addition products, which are decomposed by water with the formation of secondary alcohols, thus from acetaldehyde and magnesium methyl iodide, isopropyl alcohol is obtained.

H2O /CH3 CH3.CHO + CH3MgI —> CH3.CH (CH3)2CH.OH + MgI.OH. OMgI The lower members of the aliphatic series are characterized by their power of polymerization (see FORMALIN, and the account of Acetaldehyde below), and also by the so-called "aldol'' condensation, acetaldehyde in this way forming aldol, CH3.CHOH.CH2.CHO. These aldols generally lose the elements of water readily and pass into unsaturated compounds; aldol itself on distillation at ordinary atmospheric pressure gives crotonaldehyde, CH3.CH:CH.CHO.

Aldehydes are characterized by the reddish-violet colour which they give with a solution of fuchsine that has been decolorized by sulphurous acid (H. Schiff, Ann., 1866, 140, p. 131). With diazobenzene sulphonic acid in the presence of alkali and a trace of sodium amalgam, a reddish-violet coloration is formed on standing (E. Fischer, Ber., 1883, 16, p. 657). A. Angeli (Gazz. chim. Ital., 1896, 22, ii. 17) has shown that aldehydes in the presence of nitrohydroxylaminic acid form hydroxamic acid. The aldehydes condense readily with acetoacetic ester in the presence of ammonia, to pyridines (see PYRIDINE), whilst O. Doebner and W. v. Miller (Ber., 1892, 25, p. 2864; 1896, 29, p. 59) have shown that in the presence of aniline and sulphuric acid they give substituted quinolines. (See also C. Beyer, Ber., 1887, 20, p. 1908). The chief aldehydes are shown in the following table:—

______________ Name. Formula Boiling Melting Point. Point. - - Formaldehyde H.CHO -21 deg. Acetaldehyde CH3.CHO 20.8 deg. Propyl aldehyde CH3.CH2.CHO 49 deg. n-Butyl '' CH3.(CH2)2.CHO 75 deg. iso- '' '' (CH3)2.CH.CHO 61 deg. n-Valeryl '' CH3.(CH2)3.CHO 103 deg. iso- '' '' (C4H9.CHO 92 deg. Oenanthyl '' CH3.(CH2)5.CHO 155 deg. Capric '' CH3.(CH2)8.CHO 121 deg. Lauric '' CH3.(CH2)10.CHO 44.5 deg. Myristic '' CH3.(CH2)12.CHO 52.5 deg. Palmitic '' CH3.(CH2)14.CHO 58.5 deg. Stearic '' CH3.(CH2)16.CHO 63.5 deg. - - Acrolein ally aldehyde CH2 : CH.CHO 52 deg. Crotonic '' CH3.CH : CH.CHO 104 deg. Tiglic '' (guaiacol) CH3.CH : C.CH3.CHO 116 deg. - - Proargylic A. CH : C.CHO 59 deg. - - Benzaldehyde C6H5.CHO 179 deg. {o 200 deg. Toluicaldehyde{m C6H4.CH3.CHO 199 deg. {p 204 deg. Cumic '' C6H4.C3H7.CHO 235 deg. Cinnamic '' C6H5.CH : CH.CHO 247 deg. ____ _______ __ __

For formaldehyde see FORMALIN. Acetaldehyde, CH3.CHO, was first noticed by C. Scheele in 1774 and isolated and investigated by J. v. Liebig (Annalen, 1835, 14, p. 133). It is prepared by oxidizing ethyl alcohol with dilute sulphuric acid and potassium bichromate, and is a colourless liquid of boiling point 20.8 deg. C., possessing a peculiar characteristic smell. Its specific gravity is 0.8009 (0 deg. C.). It is miscible in all proportions with alcohol, ether and water. It is readily polymerized, small quantities of hydrochloric acid, zinc chloride, carbonyl chloride, &c. converting it, at ordinary temperatures, into paraldehyde, (C2H4O)3, a liquid boiling at 124 deg. C. and of specific gravity 0.998 (15 deg. C.). Paraldehyde is moderately soluble in water, and when distilled with sulphuric acid is reconverted into the ordinary form. Metaldehyde, (C2H4O)3, is produced in a similar way to paraldehyde, but at lower temperatures (e.g. in presence of a freezing mixture). It is a crystalline solid, which sublimes at 112 deg. -115 deg. C. It is insoluble in water, and is only slightly soluble in alcohol and ether. When heated in a sealed tube at 120 deg. C. it is completely converted into the ordinary form. Paraldehyde is oxidized by dilute nitric acid, with formation of much glyoxal, (CHO)2. (For trichloracetaldehyde see CHLORAL.)

By the action of acetaldehyde on alcohol at 100 deg. C., acetal, CH3.CH(OC2H5)2, is produced. It may also be prepared by oxidizing ethyl alcohol with manganese dioxide and sulphuric acid (A. Wurtz). It is a colourless liquid of specific gravity 0.8314 (20 deg. /4 deg. ) (J. W. Bruhl) and boiling point 104 deg. C. Dilute acids readily transform it into alcohol and aldehyde, and chromic acid oxidizes it to acetic acid. Chlor- and brom-acetals have been described.

Thioaldehydes are also known, and are obtained by leading sulphuretted hydrogen into an aqueous solution of acetaldehyde. By this means a mixture is obtained which by distillation or the action of hydrochloric acid yields trithioaldehyde, (C2H4S)3. For the constitution of these substances see E. Baumann and E. Fromm (Berichte, 1891, 24, p. 1426). Aldehyde ammonia, CH3.CH(OH).NH2, is formed when dry ammonia gas is passed into an ethereal solution of acetaldehyde. It crystallizes in glistening rhombohedra, melting at 70 deg. -80 deg. C., and boiling at 100 deg. C. It is completely resolved into its components when warmed with dilute acids.

The higher aldehydes of the series resemble acetaldehyde in their general behaviour. Unsaturated aldehydes are also known, corresponding to the olefine alcohols; they show the characteristic properties of the saturated aldehydes and can form additive compounds in virtue of their unsaturated nature. The simplest member of the series is acrolein, C3H4O or CH2 : CH.CHO, which can be prepared by the oxidation of allyl alcohol, or by the abstraction of the elements of water from glycerin by heating it with anhydrous potassium bisulphate. It is also produced by the action of sodium on a mixture of epichlorhydrin and methyl iodide, C3H5OCl + CH3I + 2Na = C3H4O + NaI + NaCl + CH4. It is a colourless liquid, with a very pungent smell, and attacks the mucous membrane very rapidly. It boils at 52.4 deg. C. and is soluble in water. It oxidizes readily: exposure to air giving acrylic acid, nitric acid giving oxalic acid, bichromate of potash and sulphuric acid giving carbon dioxide and formic acid. It combines with bromine to form a dibromide, from which E. Fischer, by the action of baryta water, obtained the synthetic sugars a- and b-acrose (Berichte, 1889, 22, p. 360). Metacrolein, (C3H4O)3, is a polymer of acrolein. By passing acrolein vapour into ammonia, acrolein ammonia, C6H9NO, is obtained. It is a reddish amorphous mass, insoluble in alcohol, and when distilled yields picoline (methyl pyridine) (A. Baeyer, Ann., 1870, 155, p. 283). Citronellal, rhodinal and geranial are also unsaturated aldehydes (see TERPENES.)

The aromatic aldehydes resemble the aliphatic aldehydes in most respects, but in certain reactions they exhibit an entirely different behaviour. They do not polymerize, and in the presence of caustic alkalies do not resinify, but oxidize to alcohols and acids (see BENZALDEHYDE for Cannizzaro's reaction). When heated with alcoholic potassium cyanide they are converted into benzoins (q.v..) Vanillin does not give the Cannizzaro reaction, but with alcoholic potash forms vanillic acid, HOOC(1).C6H3.OCH3 (3).OH(4), and vanilloin. With ammonia, benzaldehyde does not form an aldehyde ammonia, but condenses to hydrobenzamide, ( C6H5CH)3N2, with elimination of water. Cumic aldehyde (cuminol), (CH3)2CH(1)C6H4.CHO(4), is found in Roman caraway oil and in oil of the water hemlock. It is a liquid, boiling at 235 deg. C., and has a specific gravity of 0.973. On distillation with zinc dust it forms cymene (1.4 methyl isopropyl benzene).

Salicylic aldehyde (ortho-hydroxybenzaldehyde), HO(1). C6H4.CHO(2), an aromatic oxyaldehyde, is a colourless liquid of boiling point 196 deg. C. and specific gravity 1.172 (15 deg. ). It is found in the volatile oils of Spiraea, and can be obtained by the oxidation of the glucoside salicin, (C13H18O7), which is found in willow bark. It is usually prepared by the so-called "Reimer'' reaction (Ber., 1876, 9, p. 1268), in which chloroform acts on phenol in the presence of a caustic alkali,

C5H5OH + CHCl3 + 4KHO = 3KCl + 3H2O + KO.C6H4.CHO, some para-oxybenaldehyde being formed at the same time. It is volatile (para-oxybenzaldehyde is not) and gives a violet coloration with ferric chloride. For dioxybenzaldehydes and their derivatives see PIPERONAL and VANILLIN.

Cinnamic aldehyde (b-phenyl acrolein), C6H5.CH : CH.CHO, an unsaturated aromatic aldehyde, is the chief constituent of cinnamon oil. It is prepared by oxidizing cinnamyl alcohol, or by the action of sodium ethylate on a mixture of benzaldehyde and acetaldehyde. It is a colourless aromatic-smelling oily liquid, which boils at 247 deg. C. and readily oxidizes on exposure.

By condensation of aldehydes with pyruvic acid and naphthylamines, the a-alkyl-naphthoquinoline-g-carboxylic acids are produced; the same reaction takes place with the aromatic amines generally (O. Doebner, Ann. 1804, 281, p. 1),

COOH / COOH / / + + R.CHO = + 2H2O + 2H. / NH2 CO.CH3 / N/ R

ALDEN, JOHN (1599?-1687), one of the "Pilgrims'' who in 1620 emigrated to America on the "Mayflower'' and founded the Plymouth Colony. According to William Bradford's History of the Plimoth Plantation, he was hired as a cooper at Southampton, "where the ship victuled,'' just before the voyage, "and being a hopfull yong man, was much desired.'' He was one of the first settlers of Duxbury, Massachusetts, where he lived during the greater part of his life, and from 1633 until 1675 he was an "Assistant'' to the governor of the colony, frequently serving as acting governor. At the time of his death, at Duxbury, on the 12th of September 1687, he was the last male survivor of the signers of the "Mayflower Compact'' of 1620, and with the exception of Mary Allerton was the last survivor of the "Mayflower'' company. He is remembered chiefly because of a popular legend, put into verse as The Courtship of Miles Standish by Henry W. Longfellow, concerning his courtship of Priscilla Mullins, whom he married in 1623, after having wooed her first on behalf of his friend, Miles Standish.

ALDER, a genus of plants (Alnus) belonging to the order Betulaceae, the best-known of which is the common alder (A. glutinosa.) The genus comprises a few species of shrubs or trees, seldom reaching a large size, distributed through the North Temperate zone, and in the New World passing along the Andes southwards to Chile. The British species A. glutinosa is confined to the Old World. This tree thrives best in moist soils, has a shrubby appearance, and grows under favourable circumstances to a height of 40 or 50 ft. It is characterized by its short-stalked roundish leaves, becoming wedge-shaped at the base and with a slightly toothed margin. When young they are somewhat glutinous, whence the specific name, becoming later a dark olive green. As with other plants growing near water it keeps its leaves longer than do trees in drier situations, and the glossy green foliage lasting after other trees have put on the red or brown of autumn renders it valuable for landscape effect. The stout cylindrical male catkins are pendulous, reddish in colour and 2 to 4 in. long; the female are smaller, less than an inch in length and reddish-brown in colour, suggesting young fir-cones. When the small winged fruits have been scattered the ripe, woody, blackish cones remain, often lasting through the winter. The alder is readily propagated by seeds, but throws up root-suckers abundantly. It is important as coppice-wood on marshy ground. The wood is soft, white when first cut and turning to pale red; the knots are beautifully mottled. Under water the wood is very durable, and it is therefore used for piles. The supports of the Rialto at Venice, and many buildings at Amsterdam, are of alder-wood. Furniture is sometimes made from the wood, and it supplies excellent charcoal for gunpowder. The bark is astringent; it is used for tanning and dyeing.

ALDER-FLY, the name given to neuropterous insects of the family Sialidae, related to the ant-lions, with long filamentous antennae and four large wings, of which the anterior pair is rather longer than the posterior. The females lay a vast number of eggs upon grass stems near water. The larvae are aquatic, active, armed with strong sharp mandibles, and breathe by means of seven pairs of abdominal branchial filaments. When full sized they leave the water and spend a quiescent pupal stage on the land before metamorphosis into the sexually mature insect. Sialis lutaria is a well-known British example. In America there are two genera, Corydalis and Chauliodes, which are remarkable for their relatively gigantic size and for the immense length and sabre-like shape of the mandibles.

ALDERMAN (from A.-S. ealdorman, compounded of the comparative degree of the adjective eald, old, and man), a term implying the possession of an office of rank or dignity, and, in modern times, applied to an office-bearer in the municipal corporations and county councils of England and Wales,and in the municipal corporations of Ireland and the United States. Among the Anglo-Saxons, earls, governors of provinces and other persons of distinction received this title. Thus we read of the aldermannus totius Angliae, who seems to have corresponded to the officer afterwards styled capitalis justiciarius Angliae, or chief-justice of England; the aldermannus regis, probably an occasional magistrate, answering to the modern justice of assize, or perhaps an officer whose duty it was to prosecute for the crown; and aldermannus comitatus, a magistrate with a middle rank between what was afterwards called the earl and the sheriff, who sat at the trial of causes with the bishop and declared the common law, while the bishop proceeded according to ecclesiastical law. Besides these, we meet with the titles of aldermannus civitatis, burgi, castelli, hundredi sive wapentachii, &c. In England, before the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act, their functions varied according to the charters of the different boroughs. By the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and other acts, consolidated by the Municipal Corporations Act 1882, the aldermen are elected by the councillors for six years, one-half going out every three years. The number of councillors in each borough varies according to its magnitude. One-fourth of the municipal council consists of aldermen and three-fourths of councillors. In the counties, too, the number of aldermen is one-third of the number of councillors, except in London, where it is one-sixth. In the municipal corporations of Scotland there is no such title as alderman, the office-bearers of corresponding rank there being termed bailies. The corporation of the city of London was not included in the Borough Reform Act, and the antiquated system remains there in full force. The court of aldermen consists of twenty-six, twenty-five of whom are elected for life by the freemen of the respective wards, who return two persons, one of whom the court of aldermen elect to supply the vacancy. The city is divided into twenty-six wards; twenty-four of these send up one alderman each, the other two combine to choose a twenty-fifth. The twenty-sixth alderman serves for the independent borough of Southwark (q.v.) and is appointed by the other aldermen, who generally select the senior from among themselves when a vacancy occurs. The lord mayor is elected from such of the aldermen as have served the office of sheriff; of these the Common Hall, which consists of the freemen of the different wards, select two, and the aldermen elect one of these to the mayoralty. The court of aldermen has the power of appointment to certain offices, exercises judicial functions in regard to licensing and in disputes connected with the ward election, has some power of disposal over the city cash and possesses magisterial control over the city, each alderman being a judge and magistrate for the whole city, and by virtue of his office exercising the functions of a justice of the peace. The aldermen are members of the court of common council, the legislative body of the corporation, which consists in all of 232 members, the remainder being elected annually by the freemen. In the United States aldermen form as a rule a legislative rather than a judicial body, although in some cities they hold courts and possess very considerable magisterial powers.

ALDERNEY (Fr. Aurigny), one of the Channel Islands, the northernmost of the principal members of the group, belonging to England. It lies in 49 deg. 43' N. and 2 deg. 12' W., 9 m. W. of Cape La Hague on the coast of Normandy. The harbour, on the north coast in the bay of Braye, is 25 m. from St Peter Port, Guernsey, by way of which outer communications are principally carried on, and 55 m. S. by E. of Portland Bill, the nearest point of England. The length of the island from N. E. to S. W. is 3 1/2 m., its average breadth 1 m., its area 1962 acres, and its population (1901) 2062.

The strait between the island and Cape La Hague, called the Race of Alderney (French Raz Blanchard), confined by numerous rocks and reefs off either coast, is rendered very dangerous in stormy weather by conflicting currents. Through this difficult channel the scattered remnant of the French fleet under Tourville escaped after the defeat of La Hogue in 1692. To the west is the narrower and also dangerous channel of the Swinge (Sinige), between Alderney and the uninhabited islets of Burhou, Ortach and others. West of these again are the Casquets, a group of rocks to which attaches a long record of shipwreck. Rocks and reefs fringe all the coasts of Alderney. The island itself is a level open tableland, which on the south-west and south falls abruptly to the sea in a majestic series of cliffs. The greatest elevation of the land is about 300 ft. Towards the north-west, north and east the less rocky coast is indented by several bays, with open sandy shores, of which those of Crabby, Brave, Corblets and Longy are the most noteworthy. South-west of Longy Bay, where the coast rises boldly, there is a remarkable projecting block of sandstone, called La Roche Pendante (Hanging Rock) overhanging the cliff. Sandstone (mainly along the north-east coast), granite and porphyry are the chief geological formations. There are a few streams, but water is obtained mainly from wells. Trees are scarce. The town of St Anne stands almost in the centre of the island overlooking and extending towards the harbour. Here are the courthouse, a gateway commemorating Albert, prince-consort, the clock tower, which belonged to the ancient parish church, and the modern church (1850), in Early English style, an excellent example of the work of Sir Gilbert Scott. The church is a memorial to the family of Le Mesurier, in which the hereditary governorship of the island was vested until the abolition of the office in 1825. There is a chain of forts round the north coast from Clanque Fort on the west to Fort Essex on the east; the largest is Fort Albert, above Brave Bay. In 1847 work was begun on a great breakwater west of the harbour, the intention being to provide a harbour of refuge, but although a sum exceeding one and a half million sterling was spent the scheme was unsuccessful. The soil of Alderney is light, fertile and well cultivated; grain and vegetables are grown and early potatoes are exported. A large part of the island is under grass, affording pasture for cattle. The well-known term "Alderney cattle,'' however, has lost in great measure its former signification of a distinctive breed. Alderney is included in the bailiwick of Guernsey. It has a court consisting of a judge and six jurats, attorney-general, prevot, greffiero and sergent; but as a judicial court it is subordinate to that of Guernsey, and its administrative powers are limited to such matters as the upkeep of roads.

For its relations to the constitution of the bailiwick, and for the history of the island, see CHANNEL ISLANDS.

ALDERSHOT, an urban district in the Basingstoke parliamentary division of Hampshire, England, 34 m. S.W. by W. of London, on the London & South-Western and the South- Eastern & Chatham railways. It was a mere village till 1855, when Aldershot camp was established. Pop. (1891) 25,595; (1901) 30,974. Its germ is to be found in the temporary camp on Chobham Ridges, formed in 1853 by Lord Hardinge, the commander-in-chief, the success of which convinced him of the necessity of giving troops practical instruction in the field and affording the generals opportunities of manoeuvring large bodies of the three arms. He therefore advised the purchase of a tract of waste land whereon a permanent camp might be established. His choice fell on Aldershot, a spot also recommended by strategic reasons, being situated on the flank of any army advancing upon London from the south. Nothing came of Lord Hardinge's proposal till the experience of the Crimean campaign fully endorsed his opinion. The lands at Aldershot, an extensive open heath country, sparsely dotted by fir-woods and intersected by the Basingstoke canal, were then acquired by the crown. Wooden huts were erected in 1855, and permanent buildings to replace them were begun in 1881. Under the Barracks Act 1890, and the Military Works Act of 1897 and 1899, large sums were provided for completing the work. The former division of North and South camps and permanent barracks no longer obtains. North camp is now named Marlborough Lines, with a field artillery barrack and five infantry barracks called after Marlborough's victories. South camp is now named Stanhope Lines, after Mr Stanhope, who was secretary of state for war when the Barracks Act 1890 was passed and the reconstruction commenced in earnest. They contain barracks for the Royal Engineers and Army Service Corps, the general parade, which stretches east and west, and five infantry barracks called after battles (other than those of Wellington), of the wars with France, 1793-1815. There are also barracks for the Royal Army Medical Corps. The old permanent barracks (which were built for the most part about 1857) have been renamed Wellington Lines, with cavalry and artillery barracks; and three infantry barracks called after Wellington's victories in the Peninsula. For the sick there are the Connaught Hospital in the Marlborough Lines, the Cambridge Hospital in Stanhope Lines, and the Union Hospital in Wellington Lines, besides the Louise Margaret Hospital for women and children and the isolated infection hospital.

The drainage of the station is all modern, and the sewage is disposed of on a sewage farm under the direction of the war department. The water supply is partly from the Aldershot Water Company, and partly from springs and reservoirs collecting water from a reserved area of war department property.

Most of the barracks can accommodate not only the units they are constructed for, but also detachments going through courses of instruction. The total of men, women and children for whom quarters are provided is at times as high as 24,000.

Besides the regimental buildings there are a large number of buildings for garrison purposes, such as quarters and offices for general, staff and departmental officers, with the warrant and non-commissioned officers employed under them; the supply depot with abattoir and bakery; the ordnance stores; barrack stores for furniture and bedding, shops and stores for R. E. services; the balloon establishment; the detention barracks; fire brigade stations; five churches; recreation grounds for officers and men; schools; and especially the military technical schools of army cooking, gymnastics, signalling, ballooning and of mounted infantry, Army Service Corps, Royal Army Medical Corps and veterinary duties. The work of these schools is, however, only a small part of the military training afforded at Aldershot; of greater importance is the field and musketry training, for the carrying out of which a considerable extent of land is essential. The land required for these purposes extends at present over an area about 9 1/4 m. in extreme length by 7 3/4 m. in extreme width. In addition to this there is the land at Sandhurst and the Staff College (Camberley) about 6 1/2 m. distant, and at Woolmer Forest, 12 m. distant. The musketry practice of the troops at Aldershot is carried out at the Ash ranges, 2 m. east of the barracks, while the Pirbright ranges, alongside those of the National Rifle Association at Bisley, are utilized by the Household Cavalry and Guards, who are encamped there in succession. Suitable grounds in the vicinity of the barracks, of which Caesar's Camp, the Long Valley and Laffan's Plain are best known, are utilized for company, battalion and brigade training of infantry, while the mounted branches work over a wider area, and the engineers carry out their practices where most convenient. For the field-days of the combined arms, the whole of the war department property is available. Aldershot is the headquarters of the "Aldershot Army Corps,'' which is the largest organized force maintained in the United Kingdom.

Besides the troops in barracks, during the drill season there is often a considerable force in camp, both regular troops from other stations and militia and volunteer units, so that, including the regular garrison, sometimes as many as 40,000 troops have been concentrated at the station for training and manoeuvres.

ALDHELM (c. 640-709), bishop of Sherborne, English scholar, was born before the middle of the 7th century. He is said to have been the son of Kenten, who was of the royal house of Wessex, but who was certainly not, as Aldhelm's early biographer Faritius asserts, the brother of King Ine. He received his first education in the school of an Irish scholar and monk, Maildulf, Maeldubh or Meldun (d. c. 675), who had settled in the British stronghold of Bladon or Bladow on the site of the town called Mailduberi, Maldubesburg, Meldunesburg, &c., and finally Malmesbury,1 after him. In 668 Pope Vitalian sent Theodore of Tarsus to be archbishop of Canterbury, and about the same time came the African scholar Hadrian, who became abbot of St Augustine's at Canterbury. Aldhelm was one of his disciples, for he addresses him as the "venerable preceptor of my rude childhood.'' He must, nevertheless, have been thirty years of age when he began to study with Hadrian. His studies included Roman law, astronomy, astrology, the art of reckoning and the difficulties of the calendar. He learned, according to the doubtful statements of the early lives, both Greek and Hebrew. He certainly introduces many Latinized Greek words into his works. Ill-health compelled him to leave Canterbury, and he returned to Malmesbury, where he was a monk under Maildulf for fourteen years, dating probably from 661, and including the period of his studies with Hadrian. When Maildulf died, Aldhelm was appointed in 675, according to a charter of doubtful authenticity cited by William of Malmesbury, by Leutherius, bishop of Dorchester from 671 to 676, to succeed to the direction of the monastery, of which he became the first abbot. He introduced the Benedictine rule, and secured the right of the election of the abbot to the monks themselves. The community at Malmesbury increased, and Aldhelm was able to found two other monasteries to be centres of learning at Frome and at Bradford on Avon. The little church of St Lawrence at Bradford dates back to his time and may safely be regarded as his. At Malmesbury he built a new church to replace Maildulf's modest building, and obtained considerable grants of land for the monastery. His fame as a scholar rapidly spread into other countries. Artwil, the son of an Irish king, submitted his writings for Aldhelm's approval, and Cellanus, an Irish monk from Peronne, was one of his correspondents. Aldhelm was the first Englishman, so far as we know, to write in Latin verse, and his letter to Acircius (Aldfrith or Eadfrith, king of Northumbria) is a treatise on Latin prosody for the use of his countrymen. In this work he included his most famous productions, 101 riddles in Latin hexameters. Each of them is a complete picture, and one of them runs to 83 lines. That his merits as a scholar were early recognized in his own country is shown by the encomium of Bede (Eccl. Hist. v. 18), who speaks of him as a wonder of erudition. His fame reached Italy, and at the request of Pope Sergius I. (687-701) he paid a visit to Rome, of which, however, there is no notice in his extant writings. On his return, bringing with him privileges for his monastery and a magnificent altar, he received a popular ovation. He was deputed by a synod of the church in Wessex to remonstrate with the Britons of Domnonia (Devon and Cornwall) on their differences from the Roman practice in the shape of the tonsure and the date of Easter. This he did in a long and rather acrimonious letter to their king Geraint (Geruntius), and their ultimate agreement with Rome is referred by William of Malmesbury to his efforts. In 705, or perhaps earlier, Haeddi, bishop of Winchester, died, and the diocese was divided into two parts. Sherborne was the new see, of which Aldhelm reluctantly became the first bishop. He wished to resign the abbey of Malmesbury which he had governed for thirty years, but yielding to the remonstrances of the monks he continued to direct it until his death. He was now an old man, but he showed great activity in his new functions. The cathedral church which he built at Sherborne, though replaced later by a Norman church, is described by William of Malmesbury. He was on his rounds in his diocese when he died in the church of Doulting on the 25th of May 709. The body was taken to Malmesbury, and crosses were set up by the pious care of his friend, Bishop Ecgwine of Worcester, at the various halting- places. He was buried in the church of St Michael. His biographers relate miracles due to his sanctity worked during his lifetime and at his shrine.

Aldhelm wrote poetry in Anglo-Saxon also, and set his own compositions to music, but none of his songs, which were still popular in the time of Alfred, have come down to us. Finding his people slow to come to church, he is said to have stood at the end of a bridge singing songs in the vernacular, thus collecting a crowd to listen to exhortations on sacred subjects. Aldhelm wrote in elaborate and grandiloquent Latin, which soon came to be regarded as barbarous. Much admired as he was by his contemporaries, his fame as a scholar therefore soon declined, but his reputation as a pioneer in Latin scholarship in England and as a teacher remains.

Aldhelm's works were collected in J. A. Giles's Patres eccl. Angl. (Oxford, 1844), and reprinted by J. P. Migne in his Patrologiae Cursus, vol. 89 (1850). The letter to Geraint, king of Domnonia, was supposed to have been destroyed by the Britons (W. of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum, p. 361), but was discovered with others of Aldhelm's in the correspondence of St Boniface, archbishop of Mainz. A long letter to Eahfrid, a scholar just returned from Ireland (first printed in Usserii Veterum Epistt. Hiber. Sylloge, 1632), is of interest as casting light on the relations between English and Irish scholars. Next to the riddles, Aldhelm's best-known work is De Laude Virginitatis sive de Virginitate Sanctorum, a Latin treatise addressed about 705 to the nuns of Barking,2 in which he commemorates a great number of saints. This was afterwards turned by Aldhelm into Latin verse (printed by Delrio, Mainz, 1601). The chief source of his Epistola ad Acircium sive liber de septenario, et de metris, aenigmatibus ac pedum regulis (ed. A. Mai, Class. Auct. vol. v.) is Priscian. For the riddles included in it, his model was the collection known as Symposii aenigmata. The acrostic introduction gives the sentence, "Aldhelmus cecinit millenis versibus odas,'' whether read from the initial or final letters of the lines. His Latin poems include one on the dedication of a basilica built by Bugge (or Eadburga), a royal lady of the house of Wessex.

AUTHORITIES.—Faritius (d. 1117), an Italian monk of Malmesbury, afterwards abbot of Abingdon, wrote a Vita S. Aldhelmi (MS. Cotton, Faustina, B. 4), printed by Giles and Migne, also in Original Lives of Anglo-Saxons (Caxton Soc., 1834); but the best authority is William of Malmesbury, who in the fifth book, devoted to St Aldhelm, of the Gesta Pontificum proposes to fill up the outline of Faritius, using the church records, the traditions of Aldhelm's miracles preserved by the monks of Malmesbury, and the lost "Handboc'' or commonplace book of King Alfred. His narrative is divided into four parts: the birth and attainments of Aldhelm, the religious houses he had established and endowed, the miracles recorded of him, and the history of the abbey down to the writer's own time (see De Gestis Pontificum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton, 1870, for the Rolls Series. pp. 330-443). The life by John Capgrave in his Legenda Nova (1516) is chiefly an abridgment of Malmesbury's narrative. Consult also L. Bonhoff, Aldhelm von Malmesbury (Dresden, 1894); T. D. Hardy. Descriptive Catalogue (1862), vol. i. pp. 389-396; T. Wright, Biog. Brit. Lit. (A.-S. Period, 1842); G. F. Browne, bishop of Bristol, St Aldhelm; his Life and Times (1903); and W. B. Wildman, Life of S. Ealdhelm, frst Bishop of Sherborne (1905), containing many interesting local details. For some poems attributed to Aldhelm, and printed in Dummler's edition of the letters of St Boniface and Lul in Monumenta Germaniae Historica (epistt. tom. iii.), see H. Bradley in Eng. Hist. Review, xv. p. 291 (1900), where they are attributed to Aldhelm's disciple AEthilwald. The very varied sources and the chronology of Aldhelm's work are discussed in "Zu Aldhelm und Baeda,'' by Max Manitius, in Sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen Akad. der Wissenschaften (Vienna, 1886).

An excellent account of his ecclesiastical importance is given by W. Bright in Chapters on Early English Church History (Oxford, 1878). For his position as a writer of Latin verse consult A. Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte d. Literatur des Mittelalters im Abendlande, vol. i. new edition (1889); M. Manitius, Geschichte der christlich- lateinischen Poesie &c. (Stuttgart, 1891), pp. 487-496; also H. Hahn, Bonifaz und Lul ihre angelsachsischen Korrespondenten, chap. i. (Leipzig, 1883). The two last-named works contain many further bibliographical references.

1 For the disputed etymology of Malmesbury, which some connect with Aldhelm's name, see Bishop Browne, St Aldhelin: his Life and Times, p. 73.

2 Cuthburga, sister of King Ine of Wessex, and therefore related to Andhelm, left her husband Aldfrith, king of Northumbria, to enter the nunnery at Barking. She afterwards founded the nunnery of Wimborne, of which she became abbess.

ALDINE PRESS, the printing office started by Aldus Manutius at the end of the 15th century in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics of that time. (See MANUTIUS.) The Aldine Press is famous in the history of typography (q.v.), among other things, for the introduction of italics.

ALDINI, GIOVANNI (1762—1834), Italian physicist, born at Bologna on the 10th of April 1762, was a brother of the statesman Count Antonio Aldini (1756-1826) and nephew of L. Galvani, whose treatise on muscular electricity he edited with notes in 1791. He became professor of physics at Bologna in 1798, in succession to his teacher Sebastiano Canterzani (1734-1819). His scientific work was chiefly concerned with galvanism and its medical applications, with the construction and illumination of lighthouses, and with experiments for preserving human life and material objects from destruction by fire. He wrote in French and English in addition to his native Italian. In recognition of his merits, the emperor of Austria made him a knight of the Iron Crown and a councillor of state at Milan, where he died on the 17th of January 1834. He left by will a considerable sum to found a school of natural science for artisans at Bologna.

ALDRED, or EALDRED (d. 1069), English ecclesiastic, became abbot of Tavistock about 1027, in 1044 was made bishop of Worcester, and in 1060 archbishop of York. He had considerable influence over King Edward the Confessor, and as his interests were secular rather than religious he took a prominent part in affairs of state, and in 1046 led an unsuccessful expedition against the Welsh. In 1050 he was largely instrumental in restoring Sweyn, the son of Earl Godwin, to his earldom, and about the same time went to Rome "on the king's errand.'' In 1054 he was sent to the emperor Henry III. to obtain that monarch's influence in securing the return to England of Edward, son of Edmund Ironside, who was in Hungary with King Andrew I. In this mission he was successful and obtained some insight into the working of the German church during a stay of a year with Hermann II., archbishop of Cologne. After his return to England he took charge of the sees of Hereford and Ramsbury, although not appointed to these bishoprics; and in 1058 made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, being the first English bishop to take this journey. Having previously given up Hereford and Ramsbury, Aldred was elected archbishop of York in 1060, and in 1061 he proceeded to Rome to receive the pallium. On his arrival there, however, various charges were brought against him by a synod, and Pope Nicholas II. not only refused his request but degraded him from the episcopate. The sentence was, however, subsequently reversed, and Aldred received the pallium and was restored to his former station. It is stated by Florence of Worcester that Aldred crowned King Harold II. in 1066, although the Norman authorities mention Stigand as the officiating prelate. After the battle of Hastings Aldred joined the party who sought to bestow the throne upon Edgar the AEtheling, but when these efforts appeared hopeless he was among those who submitted to William the Conqueror at Berkhampstead. Selected to crown the new king he performed the ceremony on Christmas Day 1066, and in 1068 performed the same office at the coronation of Matilda, the Conqueror's wife. But though often at court, he seems to have been no sympathiser with Norman oppression, and is even said to have bearded the king himself. He died at York on the 11th of September 1069 and was buried in his own cathedral. Aldred did much for the restoration of discipline in the monasteries and churches under his authority, and was liberal in his gifts for ecclesiastical purposes. He built the monastic church of St Peter at Gloucester, and rebuilt a large part of that of St John at Beverley. At his instigation, Folcard, a monk of Canterbury, wrote the Life of St John of Beverley.

See The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, edited by C. Plummer (Oxford, 1892-1899); Florence of Worcester, Chronicon ex Chronicis, edited by B. Thorpe (London, 1848-1849); William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, edited by N. E. S. A. Hamilton (London, 1870); W. H. Dixon, Fasti Eboracenses, vol. i., edited by J. Raine (London, 1863); T. Stubbs, Chronica Pontificum Ecclesiae Eboracensis, edited by J. Raine (London, 1879-1894); E. A. Freeman, History of the Norman Conquest, vols. ii., iii., iv. (Oxford, 1867-1879).

ALDRICH, HENRY (1647-1710), English theologian and philosopher, was born in 1647 at Westminster, and was educated at the collegiate school there, under Dr Busby. In 1662 he entered Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1689 was made dean in succession to the Roman Catholic, John Massey, who had fled to the continent. In 1692 he was vice-chancellor of the University. In 1702 he was appointed rector of Wem in Shropshire, but continued to reside at Oxford, where he died on the 14th of December 1710. He was buried in the cathedral without any memorial at his own desire. Aldrich was a man of unusually varied gifts. A classical scholar of fair merits, he is best known as the author of a little book on logic (Compendium Artis Logicae), a work of little value in itself, but used at Oxford (in Mansel's revised edition) till long past the middle of the 19th century. Aldrich also composed a number of anthems and church services of high merit, and adapted much of the music of Palestrina and Carissimi to English words with great skill and judgment. To him we owe the well-known catch, "Hark, the bonny Christ Church bells.'' Evidence of his skill as an architect may be seen in the church and campanile of All Saints, Oxford, and in three sides of the so-called Peckwater Quadrangle of Christ Church, which were erected after his designs. He bore a great reputation for conviviality, and wrote a humorous Latin version of the popular ballad—

A soldier and a sailor, A tinker and a tailor, &c. Another specimen of his wit is furnished by the following epigram of the five reasons for drinking:—

Si bene quid memini, causae sunt quinque bibendi; Hospitis adventus, praesens sitis atque futura, Aut vini bonitas, aut quaelibet altera causa. The translation runs:—

If on my theme I rightly think, There are five reasons why men drink:— Good wine; a friend; because I'm dry; Or lest I should be by and by; Or—any other reason why. ALDRICH, NELSON WILMARTH (1841- ), American politician, was born at Foster, Rhode Island, on the 6th of November 1841. His first political service was as a member (1869-1875) and president (1871-1872) of the Providence common council. He was a member of the lower house of the Rhode Island legislature in 1875 and 1876, and speaker in the latter year. By this time he had become a power in Republican state politics, and in 1878 and 1880 was elected to Congress. Early in his second term he was chosen United States senator, and was re-elected in 1886, 1892, 1898 and 1905. In the Senate he was looked upon as the special representative of the high protective industries and moneyed interests, and he took a prominent part in all legislation dealing with the tariff, banking and the merchant marine.

ALDRICH, THOMAS BAILEY (1836-1907), American author, was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the 11th of November 1836. When he was but a child his father moved to New Orleans, but after ten years the boy was sent back to Portsmouth—the "Rivermouth'' of several of his stories—to prepare for college. This period of his life is partly described in his Story of a Bad Boy (1870), of which "Tom Bailey'' is the juvenile hero.1 His father's death in 1852 compelled Aldrich to abandon the idea of college and enter a business office in New York. Here he soon became a constant contributor to the newspapers and magazines, and the intimate friend of the young poets, artists and wits of the metropolitan Bohemia of the early'sixties, among whom were E. C. Stedman, R. H. Stoddard, Bayard Taylor and Walt Whitman. From 1856 to 1859 he was on the staff of the Home Journal, then edited by N. P. Willis, while during the Civil War he was himself editor of the New York Illustrated News. In 1865 he moved to Boston and was editor for ten years for Ticknor and Fields—then at the height of their prestige—of the eclectic weekly Every Saturday, discontinued in 1875. From 1881 to 1890 he was editor of the Atlantic Monthly. Meanwhile Aldrich had written much, both in prose and verse. His genius was many-sided, and it is surprising that so busy an editor and so prolific a writer should have attained the perfection of form for which he was remarkable. His successive volumes of verse, chiefly The Ballad of Babie Bell (1856), Pampinea, and Other Poems (1861), Cloth of Gold (1874), Flower and Thorn (1876), Friar Jerome's Beautiful Book (1881), Mercedes and Later Lyrics (1883), Wyndham Towers (1889), and the collected editions of 1865, 1882, 1897 and 1900, showed him to be a poet of lyrical skill, dainty touch and felicitous conceit, the influence of Herrick being constantly apparent. He repeatedly essayed the long narrative or dramatic poem, but seldom with success, save in such earlier work as Garnaut Hall. But no American poet has shown more skill in describing some single picture, mood, conceit or episode. His best things are such lyrics as "Hesperides,'' "When the Sultan goes to Ispahan,'' "Before the Rain,'' "Nameless Pain,'' "The Tragedy,'' "Seadrift,'' "Tiger Lilies,'' "The One White Rose,'' "Palabras Carinosas,'' "Destiny,'' or the eight-line poem "Identity,'' which did more to spread Aldrich's reputation than any of his writing after Babie Bell. Beginning with the collection of stories entitled Marjorie Daw and Other People (1873), Aldrich applied to his later prose work that minute care in composition which had previously characterized his verse—taking a near, new or salient situation, and setting it before the reader in a pretty combination of kindly realism and reticent humour. In the novels, Prudence Palfrey (1874), The (Queen of Sheba (1877), and The Stillwater Tragedy (1880), there is more rapid action; but the Portsmouth pictures in the first are elaborated with the affectionate touch shown in the shorter humourous tale, A Rivermouth Romance (1877). In An Old Town by the Sea (1893) the author's birthplace was once more commemorated, while travel and description are the theme of From Ponkapog to Pesth (1883). Aldrich died at Boston on the 19th of March 1907.

His Life was written by Ferris Greenslet (1908).

1 This book has been translated into French as Education et recreation, and into German as a specimen of American humour.

ALDRINGER (ALTRINGER, ALDRINGEN), JOHANN, COUNT VON (1588-1634), Austrian soldier, was born at Diedenhofen (Thionville) in Lorraine. After travelling as page to a nobleman in France, Italy and the Netherlands, he went to the university of Paris. In 1606 he entered the service of Spain, in which he remained until 1618, when he joined the imperial army. Here he distinguished himself in the field and in the cabinet. Made a colonel in 1622, two years later he was employed on the council of war and on diplomatic missions. At the bridge of Dessau in 1626 he performed very distinguished service against Ernst von Mansfeld. He and his constant comrade Matthias Gallas (q.v.) were ennobled on the same day, and in the course of the Italian campaign of 1630 the two officers married the two daughters of Count d'Arco. Aldringer served as Count Rambold Collalto's major-general in this campaign and was present at the taking of Mantua. The plunder of the duke of Mantua's treasures made Gallas and Aldringer wealthy men. Back in Germany in 1631, he served after Breitenfeld as Tilly's artillery commander, and, elevated to the dignity of count of the Empire, he was present at the battle of the Lech, where he was wounded. When Tilly died of his wounds Aldringer succeeded to the command. Made field-marshal after the assault of the Alte Veste near Nuremberg, at which he had been second in command under Wallenstein, duke of Friedland (with whom he was a great favourite), he was next placed at the head of the corps formed by Maximilian I. of Bavaria to support Wallenstein. In this post his tact and diplomatic ability were put to a severe test in the preservation of harmony between the two dukes. Finally Count Aldringer was won over by the court party which sought to displace the too successful duke of Friedland. After Wallenstein's death Aldringer commanded against the Swedes on the Danube, and at the defence of Landshut he fell (July 22, 1634). His great possessions descended to his sister, and thence to the family of Clary and Aldringen.

See Brohm, Johann von Aldringen (Halle, 1882), and Hermann Hallwich, Johann von Aldringen (Leipzig, 1885); also Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, s.v. Gallas, correcting earlier biography of Aldringer in the same work.

ALDROVANDI, ULISSI (1522-1605), Italian naturalist, was, born of noble parentage at Bologna on the 11th of September 1522. He was apprenticed to a merchant in Brescia, but a commercial career being distasteful to him, he turned his attention to law and medicine, studying first in his native town and afterwards at Padua. In 1550 he was accused of heresy, but succeeded in clearing himself before the Inquisition. In 1553 he took his doctor's degree in medicine at Bologna, and in the following year was appointed professor of philosophy and also lecturer on botany at the university. In 1560 he was transferred to the chair of natural history. At his instance the senate of Bologna established in 1568 a botanical garden, of which he was appointed the first director. About the same time he became inspector of drugs, and in that capacity published in 1574 a work entitled Antidotarii Bononiensis Epitome, which formed the model for many subsequent pharmacopoeias. He was also instrumental in founding the public museum of Bologna, which contains, especially in the natural history department, a large number of specimens collected by him. The results of his various researches were embodied in a magnum opus, which was designed to include everything that was known about natural history. The first three volumes, comprising his ornithology, were published in 1599, and a fourth, treating of insects, appeared in 1602. After his death a number of other volumes were compiled from his manuscript materials, under the editorship of several of his pupils, to whom the task was entrusted by the senate of Bologna. The work was enriched by a large number of illustrations prepared at great expense, the author having, it is said, employed several celebrated artists for thirty years. Among these were Lorenzo Benini of Florence and Christopher Coriolanus of Nuremberg. It has been said, indeed, that the cost of the undertaking was so great as to exhaust its author's means, and that he died penniless and blind in the public hospital of Bologna. This, however, is probably incorrect, at least as regards the allegation of poverty. Published records of the senate of Bologna show that it liberally supported Aldrovandi in his undertaking, doubling his salary soon after his appointment as professor, and bestowing on him from time to time sums amounting in all to 40,000 crowns. If, therefore, he died in the public hospital, he probably went there for the better treatment of his disease. His death occurred on the 10th of May 1605. Aldrovandi was chiefly remarkable for laborious and patient research. He seems to have been totally destitute of the critical faculty, and hardly any attempt is made in his great work to classify facts or to distinguish between the true and the fabulous, the important and the trivial. Much is thus included that is of no scientific value, but it also contains much information of very great interest to the naturalist.

ALE, an old word for a fermented liquor obtained chiefly from malt. In England "ale'' is nowadays practically synonymous with "beer.'' Before the introduction of hops into England from Flanders in the 16th century ale was the name exclusively applied to malt liquor, the term beer being gradually introduced to describe liquor brewed with an infusion of hops. This distinction does not apply at the present time, except in so far as the term ale is not applied to black beers (stout and porter) nor to lager beer. In the United States, however, it is customary to confine the designation beer to the article obtained by the bottom fermentation process. In former times the Welsh and Scots had two distinct kinds of ale, called common and spiced ales, the relative values of which were appraised by law in the following terms: "If a farmer have no mead, he shall pay two casks of spiced ale, or four casks of common ale, for one cask of mead.'' There are numerous varieties of English ales, such as mild ale, which is a full, sweetish beer, of a dark colour and with relatively little hop; pale ale, which is relatively dry, of light colour and of a more pronounced hop flavour than the mild ale; and bitter and stock ales, the latter term being generally reserved for superior beers, such as are used for bottling. The terms pale, bitter, stock, light, &c., are to be regarded as trade distinctions and not as exact definitions of quality or type. (See BEER and BREWING.)

Parish Ales.—In old England an "ale'' was synonymous with a parish festival or merry-making at which ale was the chief drink. The word was generally used in composition. Thus there were leet-ales (that held on leet or manorial court day); lamb-ales (that held at lamb-shearing); Whitsun-ales, clerk-ales, church-ales and so on. The word bridal is really bride-ale, the wedding feast. Bid-ales, once very common throughout England, were "benefit'' feasts to which a general invitation was given, and all the neighbours attending were expected to make some contribution to help the object of the "benefit.'' (See "Bidding-Weddings'' under BRIDE.) These parish festivals were of much ecclesiastical and social importance in medieval England. The chief purpose of church-ales and clerk-ales, at least, was to facilitate the collection of parish-dues, or to make an actual profit for the church from the sale of the liquor by the church wardens. These profits kept the parish church in repair, or were distributed as alms to the poor. At Sygate, Norfolk, on the gallery of the church is inscribed—

God speed the plough And give us good ale enow . . . Be merry and glade, With good ale was this work made. On the beam of a screen in the church of Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex, is the following inscription in raised Gothic letters, on a scroll held by two angels—"This cost is the bachelers made by ales thesn be ther med.'' The date is about 1480. The feast was usually held in a barn near the church or in the churchyard. In Tudor times church-ales were held on Sundays. Gradually the parish-ales were limited to the Whitsun season, and these still have local survivals. The colleges of the universities used formerly to brew their own ales and hold festivals known as college-ales. Some of these ales are still brewed and famous, like "chancellor'' at Queen's College, and "archdeacon'' at Morton College, Oxford, and "audit ale'' at Trinity, Cambridge.

See Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain (Wm. Carew Hazlitt's edition, 1905).

ALEANDRO, GIROLAMO (HIERONYMUS ALEANDER) (1480- 1542), Italian cardinal, was born at Motta, near Venice, on the 13th of February 1480. He studied at Venice, where he became acquainted with Erasmus and Aldus Manutius, and at an early age was reputed one of the most learned men of the time. In 1508 he went to Paris on the invitation of Louis XII. as professor of belles lettres, and held for a time the position of rector in the university. Entering the service of Eberhard, prince-bishop of Liege, he was sent by that prelate on a mission to Rome, where Pope Leo X. retained him, giving him (1519) the office of librarian of the Vatican. In the following year he went to Germany to be present as papal nuncio at the coronation of Charles V., and was also present at the diet of Worms, where he headed the opposition to Luther, advocating the most extreme measures to repress the doctrines of the reformer. His conduct evoked the fiercest denunciations of Luther, but it also displeased more moderate men and especially Erasmus. The edict against the reformer, which was finally adopted by the emperor and the diet, was drawn up and proposed by Aleandro. After the close of the diet the papal nuncio went to the Netherlands; where he kindled the flames of persecution, two monks of Antwerp, the first martyrs of the Reformation, being burnt in Brussels at his instigation. In 1523 Clement VII., having appointed him archbishop of Brindisi and Oria, sent him as nuncio to the court of Francis I. He was taken prisoner along with that monarch at the battle of Pavia (1525), and was released only on payment of a heavy ransom. He was subsequently employed on various papal missions, especially to Germany, but was unsuccessful in preventing the German princes from making a truce with the reformers, or in checking to any extent the progress of the new doctrines. He was created cardinal in 1536 by Paul III. (at the same time as Reginald Pole) and died at Rome on the 1st of February 1542.

Aleandro compiled a Lexicon Graeco-Latinum (Paris, 1512), and wrote Latin verse of considerable merit inserted in M. Tuscanus's Carmina Illustrium Poetarum Italiorum. The Vatican library contains a volume of manuscript letters and other documents written by him in connexion with his various missions against Luther. They were utilized by Pallavicino in his Istoria del Concilio Tridentino (i. 23-28), who gives a very partial account of the Worms conference.

Aleandro, who is sometimes called "the elder,'' must be distinguished from his grand-nephew, also called Girolamo Aleandro (1374-1629). The younger Aleandro was a very distinguished scholar, and wrote Psalmi poenitentiales versibus elegiacis expressi (Treves, 1593), Gaii, veteris juris consulti Institutionum fragmenta, cum commentario (Venice, 1600), Explicatio veteris tabulae marmorcae solis effigie symbolisque exculptae (Rome, 1616).

ALEARDI, ALEARDO, COUNT (1812-1878), Italian poet, was born at Verona on the 4th of November 1812, and thus soon after his birth became an Austrian subject. Inspired from his cradle with a hatred of the foreigner, he found himself disqualified for the position in the public service to which his rank would have entitled him, and unable to publish his patriotic verses. Arnaldo da Rocca, a narrative poem, nevertheless appeared in 1842, and the revolutionary year 1848 made an opening for his Lettere a Maria. He took an active part in the popular uprising, and was for some time imprisoned. In 1856 he produced the finest of his pieces, an ode to the maritime cities of Italy, and in 1858 a poem on his own misfortunes. After the expulsion of the Austrians from Lombardy he returned to Verona, published his poems in a collected edition (1862), became professor at the Academy of Fine Art, member of the Italian parliament and eventually senator. He died on the 17th of July 1878. Aleardi's warmth of patriotic feeling hardly finds adequate expression in his poetry; it is his merit to excel in description, but his fault to substitute description for action.

ALE-CONNER, an officer appointed yearly at the court-leet of ancient English manors for the assize of ale and ale-measures. The gustatores cervisiae—called in different localities by the different names "ale-tasters,'' "ale-founders,'' and "ale- conners''—were sworn to examine beer and ale, to take care that they were good and wholesome and were sold at proper prices. In London four ale-conners, whose duty it is to examine the measures used by beer and liquor sellers to guard against fraud, are still chosen annually by the liverymen in common hall assembled on Midsummer Day. Since ale and beer have become excisable commodities the custom of appointing ale-tasters has in most places fallen into disuse. (See also ADULTERATION.)

ALECSANDRI, or ALEXANDRI, VASILE (1821-1890), Rumanian lyric poet, was born at Bacau in Moldavia on the 21st of July 1821. His father was the Spatar Alecsandri, of Jewish and Italian origin, who had settled in Moldavia in the 18th century. Vasile was educated first in Jassy and afterwards (1834-1839) in Paris. In 1839 he started on a long journey through the Carpathian Mountains, and was the first to collect Rumanian popular songs, no doubt influenced by Western examples. He first published his collection in 1844. His Doine si Lacrimioare, lyrical poems, appeared at Paris in 1852, and in 1852-1853 he produced at Jassy a fuller collection of popular ballads and songs. He then adapted some French plays for the newly founded Rumanian theatre, and wrote some original pieces. His connexion with the revolutionary movement of 1848 compelled him to seek shelter in the west of Europe, and he visited England. where a beautifully illuminated edition of his poems was printed in the original Rumanian language. In 1867 he published some fugitive pieces, written in a lighter vein, and entitled Pastele; these were followed in 1871 by the Legende of similar character. More serious are his dramatic writings which began with Despot Voda and culminated in Ovid. In later life Alecsandri took an active part in politics; he became minister for foreign affairs from 1859 to 1860, and in 1885 was appointed Rumanian minister in Paris. He died on the 26th of August 1890 at his country seat, Mircesti. His best title to fame consists in the fact that he gave the first impetus to the collection of Rumanian popular songs and first drew attention to their inimitable charm.

See L. Sainsanu, Autorii Romani moderni (1891), pp. 90 and 318. A complete edition of Alecsandri's writings in nine volumes was published at Bucharest in 1875 seq. (M. G.)

ALEMAN, LOUIS (c. 1390-1450), French cardinal, was born of a noble family at the castle of Arbent near Bugey about the year 1390. He was successively bishop of Maguelonne (1418), archbishop of Arles (1423) and cardinal priest of St Cecilia (1426). He was a prominent member of the council of Basel, and, together with Cardinal Julian, led the party which maintained the supremacy of general councils over the pope's authority. In 1440 Aleman obtained the support of the emperor Sigismund and of the duke of Milan to his views, and proclaiming the deposition of Pope Eugenius IV., placed the tiara upon the head of Amadeus VIII., duke of Savoy (henceforward known as antipope Felix V.). Eugenius retorted by.excommunicating the antipope and depriving Aleman of all his ecclesiastical dignities. In order to make an end of the schism, Felix V. finally abdicated on Aleman's advice, and Nicholas V., who had succeeded in 1447, restored the cardinal to all his honours and employed him as legate to Germany in 1449. On his return he retired to his diocese of Arles, where he devoted himself zealously to the instruction of his people. He died on the 16th of September 1450, and was beatified by Pope Clement VII. in 1527.

See U. Chevalier, Repert. des sources hist. (Paris, 1905), p. 130.

ALEMAN, MATEO (1547-1609?), Spanish novelist and man of letters, was born at Seville in 1547. He graduated at Seville University in 1564, studied later at Salamanca and Alcala, and from 1571 to 1588 held a post in the treasury; in 1594 he was arrested on suspicion of malversation, but was speedily released. In 1599 he published the first part of Guzman de Alfarache, a celebrated picaresque novel which passed through not less than sixteen editions in five years; a spurious sequel was issued in 1602, but the authentic continuation did not appear till 1604. In 1608 Aleman emigrated to America, and is said to have carried on business as a printer in Mexico; his Ortografia castellana (1609), published in that city, contains ingenious and practical proposals for the reform of Spanish spelling. Nothing is recorded of Aleman after 1609, but it is sometimes asserted that he was still living in 1617. He married, unhappily, Catalina de Espinosa in 1571, and was constantly in money difficulties, being imprisoned for debt at Seville at the end of 1602. He is the author of a life (1604) of St Antony of Padua, and versions of two odes of Horace bear witness to his taste and metrical accomplishment. His chief title to remembrance, however, is Guzman de Alfarache, which was translated into French in 1600, into English in 1623 and into Latin in 1623.

See J. Hazanas y la Rua, Discursos leidos en la Real Academia Sevillana de Buenas letras el 25 de mar zo de 1892 (Sevilla, 1892); J. Gestoso y Perez, Nuevos datos para'ilustrar las biografias del Maestro Juan de Malara y de Mateo Aleman (Sevilla, 1896). (J. F.-K.)

ALEMBERT, DEAN LE ROND D' (1717-1783), French mathematician and philosopher, was born at Paris in November 1717. He was a foundling, having been exposed near the church of St Jean le Rond, Paris, where he was discovered on the 17th of November. It afterwards became known that he was the illegitimate son of the chevalier Destouches and Madame de Tencin. The infant was entrusted to the wife of a glazier named Rousseau who lived close by. He was called Jean le Rond from the church near which he was found; the surname Alembert was added by himself at a later period. His father, without disclosing himself, having settled an annuity on him, he was sent at four years of age to a boarding-school. In 1730 he entered the Mazarin College under the Jansenists, who soon perceived his exceptional talent, and, prompted perhaps by a commentary on the Epistle to the Romans which he produced in the first year of his philosophical course, sought to direct it to theology. His knowledge of the higher mathematics was acquired by his own unaided efforts after he had left the college. This fact naturally led to his crediting himself with many discoveries which he afterwards found had been already established, often by more direct and elegant processes than his own.

On leaving college he returned to the house of his foster-mother, where he continued to live for thirty years. Having studied law, he was admitted as an advocate in 1738, but did not enter upon practice. He next devoted himself to medicine, but his natural inclination proved too strong for him, and within a year he resolved to give his whole time to mathematics. In 1741 he received his first public distinction in being admitted a member of the Academy of Sciences, to which he had previously presented several papers, including a Memoire sur le calcul integral (1739). In his Memoire sur le refraction des corps solides (1741) he was the first to give a theoretical explanation of the phenomenon which is witnessed when a body passes from one fluid to another more dense in a direction not perpendicular to the surface which separates the two fluids. In 1743 he published his Traite de dynamique, a work famous as developing the mechanical principle, known as "Alembert's Principle,'' first enunciated in 1742 (see MECHANICS.) In 1744 Alembert applied this principle to the theory of the equilibrium and the motion of fluids (Traite de l'equilibre et du mouvement des fluides), and all the problems before solved by geometricians became in some measure its corollaries. This discovery was followed by that of the calculus of partial differences, the first trials of which were published in his Reflexion sur la cause generale des vents (1747). This work was crowned by the Academy of Berlin, and was dedicated to Frederick the Great, who made several unsuccessful attempts to induce him to settle in Berlin. In 1763 he visited Berlin, and on that occasion finally refused the office of president of the Academy of Berlin, which had been already offered to him more than once. In 1747 he applied his new calculus to the problem of vibrating chords, the solution of which, as well as the theory of the oscillation of the air and the propagation of sound, had been given but incompletely by the geometricians who preceded him. In 1749 he furnished a method of applying his principles to the motion of any body of a given figure; and in 1754 he solved the problem of the precession of the equinoxes, determined its quantity and explained the phenomenon of the nutation of the earth's axis. In 1752 he published an Essai d'une nouvelle theorie sur la resistance des fluides, which contains a large number of original ideas and new observations. In 1746 and 1748 he published in the Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin "Recherches sur le calcul integral,'' a branch of mathematical science which is greatly indebted to him. In his Recherches sur differents points importants du systeme du monde (1754-1756) he perfected the solution of the problem of the perturbations of the planets, which he had presented to the academy some years before.

Alembert's association with Diderot in the preparation of the Dictionnaire Encyclopedique led him to take a someuhat wider range than that to which he had previously confined himself. He wrote for that work the Discours preliminaire on the rise, progress and affinities of the various sciences, which he read to the French Academy on the day of his admission as a member, the 18th of December 1754. He also wrote several literary articles for the first two volumes of the Encyclopaedia, and to the remaining volumes he contributed mathematical articles chiefly. One of the few exceptions was the article on "Geneva,'' which involved him in a somewhat keen controversy in regard to Calvinism and the suppression of theatrical performances within the town. During the time he was engaged on the Encyclopaedia he wrote a number of literary and philosophical works which extended his reputation and also exposed him to criticism and controversy, as in the case of his Melanges de Philosophie, d'Histoire, et de Litterature. His Essai sur la societe des gens de lettres avec les grands was a worthy vindication of the independence of literary men, and a thorough exposure of the evils of the system of patronage. He broke new ground and showed great skill as a translator in his Traduction de quelques morceaux choisis de Tacite. One of his most important works was the Elements de Philosophie published in 1759, in which he discussed the principles and methods of the different sciences. He maintained that the laws of motion were necessary, not contingent. A treatise, Sur la destruction des Jesuites (1765), involved him in a fresh controversy, his own share in which was rendered very easy by the violence and extravagance of his adversaries. The list of his more noteworthy literary works is completed by the mention of the Histoire des membres de l'Academie francaise, containing biographical notices of all the members of the Academy who died between 1700 and 1772, the year in which he himself became secretary. Alembert was much interested in music both as a science and as an art, and wrote Elements de musique theorique et pratique (1779), which was based upon the system of J. P. Rameau with important modifications and differences.

Alembert's fame spread rapidly throughout Europe and procured for him more than one opportunity of quitting the comparative retirement in which he lived in Paris for more lucrative and prominent positions. The offer of Frederick the Great has already been mentioned. In 1762 he was invited by Catherine of Russia to become tutor to her son at a yearly salary of 100,000 francs. On his refusal the offer was repeated with the additional inducement of accommodation for as many of his friends as he chose to bring with him to the Russian capital. Alembert persisted in his refusal, and the letter of Catherine was ordered to be engrossed in the minutes of the French Academy. In 1755, on the recommendation of Pope Benedict XIV., he was admitted a member of the Institute of Bologna. A legacy of L. 200 from David Hume showed the esteem in which he was held by that philosopher.

Alembert continued to the end to lead the quiet and frugal life dictated by his limited means as well as his simple tastes. His later years were saddened by circumstances connected with a romantic attachment he had formed for Mademoiselle de Lespinasse, whose acquaintance he made at the house of Madame du Deffand, a noted resort of literary men and savants. She nursed him assiduously during an illness he had in 1765, and from that period till her death in 1776 they lived in the same house without any scandal. On her part there seems to have been from first to last nothing more than warm friendship, but his feelings towards her were of a stronger kind and her death deeply affected him. He never recovered his elasticity of spirits, though he continued to occupy himself with his favourite pursuits, and to frequent the society of his brother philosophers. After the death of Voltaire (1778), whose friend and correspondent he had been for more than thirty years, he was regarded as the leader of the philosophical party in the Academy. He died at Paris on the 29th of October 1783.

The chief features of Alembert's character were benevolence, simplicity and independence. Though his income was never large, and during the greater part of his life was very meagre, he contrived to find means to support his foster-mother in her old age, to educate the children of his first teacher, and to help various deserving students during their college career. His cheerful conversation, his smart and lively sallies, a singular mixture of malice of speech with goodness of heart, and of delicacy of wit with simplicity of manners, rendered him a pleasing and interesting companion; and if his manner was sometimes plain almost to the extent of rudeness, it probably set all the better an example of a much-needed reform to the class to which he belonged. The controversy as to the nature of his religious opinions, arising as it did chiefly out of his connexion with the Encyclopaedia, has no longer any living interest now that the Encyclopaedists generally have ceased to be regarded with unqualified suspicion by those who count themselves orthodox. It is to be observed, moreover, that as Alembert confined himself chiefly to mathematical articles, his work laid him less open to charges of heresy and infidelity than that of some of his associates. The fullest revelation of his religious convictions is given in his correspondence with Voltaire, which was published along with that with Frederick the Great in Bossange's edition of his works.

The scientific works of Alembert have never been published in a collected form. The most important of them have been mentioned above, with the exception of the Opuscules mathematiques (1761-1780), 8 vols. 4to. His literary and philosophical works were collected and edited by Bastien (Paris, 1805, 18 vols. 8vo). A better edition by Bossange was published at Paris in 1821 (5 vols. 8vo). The best account of the life and writings of Alembert is contained in Condorcet's Eloge, presented to the Academy and published in 1784.

ALEMBIC (Arab. al, definite article, anbiq, a still; cognate to the Gr. ambix, a cup), an apparatus for distillation, used chiefly by the alchemists, and now superseded by the retort and the worm-still. It varied considerably in form and construction, but consisted essentially of three parts—a vessel containing the material to be distilled and called, from its gourd-like shape, the cucurbit or mattrass; a vessel to receive and condense the vapour, called the head or capital; and a receiver for the spirit, connected by a pipe with the capital. The entire apparatus was sometimes constructed of glass, but it was more usual to make the cucurbit of copper or earthenware, and the capital alone of glass.

ALEMTEJO (i.e. "Beyond the Tagus''), an ancient province of central and southern Portugal; bounded on the N. by Beira, E. by Spanish Estremadura and Andalusia, S. by Algarve and W. by the Atlantic Ocean and Portuguese Estremadura. Pop. (1900) 416,105; area 9219 sq. m. Alemtejo is traversed by several mountain ranges, whose height does not generally rise much above 2000 ft. The low and sandy coast has a length of less than 25 m. and includes no harbour, except at the unimportant town of Villa Nova de Milfontes (pop. 1900, 825), which overlooks the Mira estuary. The principal rivers are the Tagus, which divides Alemtejo from Beira; its tributary the Zatas, or Sorraia, fed by a whole system of lesser affluents; the Guadiana, which, crossing the Spanish frontier, flows southwards through the province; the Sado, which rises in the Serra de Monchique, and flows to the north; and the Mira, which waters the valley between the Caldeirao and Monchique ranges. There are several extensive plains, notably those of Alemtejo, lying south-west of the Serra de Portalegre; of Beja, between the Sado and Guadiana; and of Ourique, farther south between the same rivers. Some portions of these plains are fruitful, others marshy, while large tracts are mere desolate wastes.

The climate in the lower parts of the country is exceedingly hot and is rendered unhealthy in summer by the stagnant marshes. Towards the Spanish frontier the soil is fertile, and in the south the country is covered by extensive forests of oak, pine, chestnut, cork and ilex, especially on the sides of the Mezquita and Caldeirao ranges. In the more fertile parts, grapes, figs, citrons, pomegranates and other fruits are produced. Wheat, maize and rice are grown, and some attention is given to the rearing of mules, asses, goats, cattle and sheep; while the Alter breed of horses, named after the villages of Alter do Chao and Alter Pedroso (3971), near Portalegre, is often accounted the best in the kingdom. Agriculture, however, is in a backward state, the sparse population being mostly concentrated in the towns, leaving extensive districts uncultivated and almost uninhabited. Droves of swine are fed on the waste lands, growing to a great size and affording excellent hams. The mineral wealth of Alemtejo is little exploited, although there are copper and iron mines and marble quarries. Medicinal springs exist at Aljustrel (3790), Castello de Vide (5192), Mertola (3873), Portalegre, Vimieiro (1838) and elsewhere. Chief among the local industries are the preparation of exceptionally fine olive oil, and the manufacture of cloth, pottery and leather. Alemtejo is traversed by three very important main lines of railway, the Madrid-Caceres-Lisbon, Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon and Lisbon-Faro; while the two last are connected by a branch line from Casa Branca to Evora and Elvas. For administrative purposes the province is divided into the districts of Portalegre in the north, Evora in the central region and Beja in the south; but the titles of these new districts have not superseded the ancient name of Alemtejo in ordinary usage. The chief towns Beja (8885), Elvas (13,981), Estremoz (7920), Evora (16,020) and Portalegre (11,820) are described in separate articles.

ALENCON, COUNTS AND DUKES OF. The first line of the counts of Alencon was founded by Yves, lord of Bellesme, who in the middle of the 10th century possessed and fortified the town of Alencon. His successors, involved in all the wars of the kings of England in Normandy, were alternately deprived and repossessed of their domains, according to the fluctuations of fortune between the rival parties. Mabille, countess of Alencon and heiress of this family (d. 1082 ), married Roger of Montgomery, and from them descended a second house of Alencon which became extinct in the person of Robert IV.; the county of Alencon was then joined to the royal domain. It was successively granted as an appanage to Peter, son of St Louis (1268), and to Charles, count of Valois, brother of Philip the Fair (1293). The third house of Alencon sprang from Charles, second son of the count of Valois, who was killed at the battle of Crecy in 1346. The countship of Alencon was raised to a peerage in 1367 and into a dukedom in 1414. John, 1st duke of Alencon, was killed at Agincourt on the 25th of October 1415, after having with his own hand slain the duke of York. His son, also named John, was dispossessed of his duchy by the king of England, but reconquered it in 1449. In 1524 the dukedom of Alencon reverted to the crown, in consequence of the death of the duke Charles IV. without issue of his marriage with Margaret, sister of Francis I. It was given as a jointure to Catherine de'Medici in 1559, and as an appanage to her son Francis in 1566. It was pawned by Henry IV. to the duke of Wurttemberg, and subsequently it passed to Gaston, duke of Orleans, by grant of Louis XIII.; to Elizabeth of Orleans, duchess of Guise; to Charles, duke of Berry, grandson of Louis XIV. (1710); and to Monsieur (Louis XVIII.), brother of Louis XVI.

The title of duc d'Alencon was given to Ferdinand of Orleans, son of the duc de Nemours, and grandson of Louis-Philippe. (M. P.*)

ALENCON, a town of north-western France, capital of the department of Orne, 36 m. N. of Le Mans on a branch line of the Western railway. Pop (1906) 14,378. Alencon, a clean, regularly built town with broad handsome streets, is situated in a wide and fertile plain, on the Sarthe at its confluence with the Briante. The only remains of the ancient castle of Alencon are two towers of the 15th century, which serve as a prison, and a third of the 14th century known as the Tour Couronnee, to which they are united. Notre-Dame, the chief church, dates from the 15th century. It is remarkable for a porch ornamented in the richest Gothic style, and for its stained windows of the 16th century. Alencon has a large circular corn-market and a cloth- market. The manufacture of the point d'Alencon lace has greatly diminished. The weaving and bleaching of cloth, which is of less importance than formerly, the manufacture of vehicles, and tanning are carried on; there is a large trade in the horses of the district, and granite is worked in the neighbourhood. Alencon is the seat of a prefect and a court of assizes. It has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a lycee, training-colleges and a chamber of arts and manufactures.

ALENIO, GIULIO (1582-1649), Italian Jesuit missionary, was born at Brescia. He entered the Society of Jesus and was sent to the East. He landed at Macao in 1610, and while waiting a favourable opportunity to penetrate into China busied himself for three years in teaching mathematics. His thirty years' residence in China was marked by unceasing zeal and considerable success. He adopted the dress and manners of the country, was the first Christian missionary in Kiang-si, and built several churches in Fo-Kien. He wrote in Chinese a Life of Christ (Pekin, 1635-1637, 8 vols.; often reprinted, e.g. in 1887 in 3 vols., and used even by Protestant missionaries) and a cosmography (Iche fang wai ki Hang-chow, 1623, 6 vols.), which was translated into Manchu under the title The True Origin of 10,000 Things, a copy of which was sent from Pekin to Paris in 1789. Alenio died at Fu-chow in 1649.

For bibliography see de Backer and Sommervogel, Bibl. de la Cie. de Jesus, i. 158-160.

ALEPPO (native Haleb.) (1) A vilayet of Asiatic Turkey, comprising N. Syria and N.W. Mesopotamia, with an extension N. of Taurus to the neighbourhood of Gorun. It comprises three sanjaks, Aleppo, Marash and Urfa. About half is mountain, but there are fertile plains of great extent N. of Antakia, S. of Marash and around the city of Aleppo (see below). The only seaport of importance is Alexandretta (q.v..) The exports are, on the average, over one million sterling, and imports about double in value. The settled population is barely a million; but there is a considerable unsettled element in the S.E. which cannot well be estimated. The Christians, mainly Jacobite Syrian, but including also Armenians of several denominations (e.g. those of Marash and Zeitun), Maronites and Greeks, form about one-fifth. There are some 20,000 Jews, resident chiefly in the provincial capital; and of the Moslem majority the bulk is Arab, Turkoman and Ansarieh. In the N.W. and N. is a considerable Kurdish population.

(2) The provincial capital (anc. Khalep; Gr. Chaljbon- Beroea), situated on a plateau in the valley of the Kuwaik (anc. Chalus) about 10 m. above its dissipation in the great salt-marsh of Matkh. Pop. about 130,000, three-quarters Moslem. Aleppo is about midway between the sea and the Euphrates, a little nearer the latter.

The modern city stands on both banks of the Kuwaik, and the older portions are contained within a Saracenic wall, 3 1/2 m. in circuit with seven gates. The European residents and Christians live outside in the Kitab and new Azizieh quarters, and the Jews in that of Bahsita. A modern citadel occupies the N.W., the medieval castle on its mound (partly artificial and not a strong position, according to Istakhri) being almost deserted but still forbidden to visitors. There are two mosques of special interest—the Umawi (or Zakaria) on the site of a church ascribed to the empress Helena and containing a tomb reputed to be that of the Baptist's father, and the Kakun. Many minor ones serve the needs of a population traditionally fanatical. Gardens extend for miles along the river, and the bazaars and khans are unusually large. The climate is cold, dry and healthy, despite the prevalence of the famous "Aleppo button,'' a swelling which appears either on the face or on the hands, and breaks into an ulcer which lasts a year and leaves a permanent scar. It has been ascribed to a fly, to the water and to other causes; but it is not peculiar to Aleppo, being rife also at Aintab, Bagdad, &c.