ALL SOULS, DAY (Commemoratio omnium fidelimm defunctorum), the day set apart in the Roman Catholic Church for the commemoration of the faithful departed. The celebration is based on the doctrine that the souls of the faithful which at death have not been cleansed from venial sins, or have not atoned for past transgressions, cannot attain the Beatific Vision, and that they may be helped to do so by prayer and by the sacrifice of the mass. The feast falls on the 2nd of November; or on the 3rd if the 2nd is a Sunday or a festival of the first class. The practice of setting apart a special day for intercession for certain of the faithful departed is of great antiquity; but the establishment of a feast of general intercession was in the lirst instance due to Odilo, abbot of Cluny (d. 1048). The legend connected with its foundation is given by Peter Damiani in his Life of St Odilo. According to this, a pilgrim returning from the Holy Land was cast by a storm on a desolate island where dwelt a hermit. From him he learned that amid the rocks was a chasm communicating with purgatory, from which rose perpetually the groans of tortured souls, the hermit asserting that he had also heard the demons complaining of the efficacy of the prayers of the faithful, and especially of the monks of Cluny, in rescuing their victims. On returning home the pilgrim hastened to inform the abbot of Cluny, who forthwith set apart the 2nd of November as a day of intercession on the part of his community for all the souls in purgatory. The decree ordaining the celebration is printed in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum ( Saec. VI, pt. i. p. 585). From Cluny the custom spread to the other houses of the Cluniac order, was soon adopted in several dioceses in France, and spread thence throughout the Western Church. At the Reformation the celebration of All Souls' Day was abolished in the Church of England, though it has been renewed in certain churches in connexion with the "Catholic revival.'' Among continental Protestants its tradition lias been more tenaciously maintained. Even Luther's influence was not sufficient to abolish its celebration in Saxony during his lifetime; and, though its ecclesiastical sanction lapsed before long even in the Lutheran Church, its memory survives strongly in popular custom. Just as it is the custom of French people, of all ranks and creeds, to decorate the graves of their dead on the jour des morts, so in Germany the people stream to the grave-yards once a year with offerings of flowers.

Certain popular beliefs connected with All Souls' Day are of pagan origin and immemorial antiquity. Thus the dead are believed by the peasantry of many Catholic countries to return to their former homes on All Souls' Night and partake of the food of the living. In Tirol cakes are left for them on the table and the room kept warm for their comfort. In Brittany the people flock into the cemeteries at nightfall to kneel bare-headed at the graves of their loved ones, and to toll the hollow of the tombstone with holy water or to pour libations of milk upon it, and at bedtime the supper is left on the table for the soul's refreshment.

ALLSTON, WASHINGTON (1770-1843), American historical painter and poet, was born on the 5th of November 1779 at Waccamaw, South Carolina, where his father was a planter. He graduated at Harvard in 1800, and for a short time pursued his artistic studies at Charleston with Edward Greene Maibone (1777-1807) the miniature painter, and Charles Fraser (1782-1860). With the former, in 1801, he went to London, and entered the Royal Academy as a student of Benjamin West. with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. In 1804 he went to Paris, and, after a few months' residence there, to Rome, where he spent the greater part of the next four years. During this period he became intimate with Coleridge and Thorwaldsen. From 1809 to 1811 he resided in his native country, and from 1811 to 1817 he painted in England. After visiting Paris a second time, he returned to the United States, and practised his profession at Boston (1818—1850), and afterwards at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he died on the 9th of July 1843. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1819. In colour and the management of light and shade Allston closely imitated the Venetian school, and he has hence been styled the "American Titian.'' Many of his pictures have Biblical subjects, and Allston himself had a profoundly religious nature. His first considerable painting, "The Dead Man Revived,'' executed shortly after his second visit to England, and now at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, gained a prize of 200 guineas. In England he also painted his "St Peter Liberated by the Angel,'' "Uriel in the Sun'' (at Stafford House), "Jacob's Dream'' (at Petworth) and "Elijah in the Wilderness.'' To the period of his residence in America belong "The Prophet Jeremiah'' (at Yale), "Saul and the Witch of Endor,'' "Miriam,'' "Beatrice,'' "Rosalie,'' "Spalatro's Vision of the Bloody Hand,'' and the vast but unfinished "Belshazzar's Feast'' (in the Boston Athenaeum), at which he was working at the time of his death. As a writer, Allston shows great facility of expression and imaginative power. His friend Coleridge (a portrait of whom by Allston is in the National Gallery) said of him that he was surpassed by no man of his age in artistic and poetic genius. His literary works are—The Sylphs of the Seasons and other Poems (1813). where he displays true sympathy with nature and deep knowledge of the human heart; Monaldi (1841), a tragical romance, the scene of which is laid in Italy; and Lectures on Art, edited by his brother-in-law, R. H. Dana the novelist (1850).

See J. B. Flagg's Life and Letters of Washington Allston (New York, 1892).

ALLUVION (Lat. alluvio, washing against), a word taken from Roman law, in which it was one of the examples of accessio, that is, acquisition of property without any act being done by the acquirer. It signifies the gradual accretion of land or formation of an island by imperceptible degrees. If the accretion or formation be by a torrent or flood, the property in the severed portion or new island continues with the original owner until the trees, if any, swept away with it take root in the ground. Alluvion never attached at all in the case of agri limitati, that is, lands belonging to the state and leased or sold in plots. Dig. xli. 1, 7, is the main authority. English law is in general agreement (except as to agri limitati) with Roman, as appears from the judgment in Foster v. Wright, 1878, 4 C.P.D. 438. The Scottish law, as laid down by the House of Lords in Earl of Zetland v. Glover Incorporation, 1872, L.R. 2 H.L., Sc., 70, is in accordance with the English. (See WATER RIGHTS.)

ALLUVIUM, soil or land deposited by running water. All streams, from the tiniest rill to the greatest river, are continually engaged in transporting downstream solid particles of rock, the product of weathering agencies in the area which they drain. Since the capacity of a stream to carry matter in suspension is proportional to its velocity, it follows that any circumstance tending to retard the rate of flow will induce deposition. Thus a fall in the gradient at any point in the course of a stream; any snag, projection or dam, impeding the current; the reduced velocity caused by the overflowing of streams in flood and the dissipation of their energy where they enter a lake or the sea, are all contributing causes to alluviation, or the deposition of streamborne sediment. It is evident from the foregoing remarks, that while even the smallest stream may make deposits of alluvial character it is in the flood-plains and deltas of large rivers that the great alluvial deposits are to be found. The finer material constituting alluvium, often described as "silt,'' is sand and mud. Although it may be exceedingly fine-grained, there is usually very little clay in alluvium. The larger materials include gravel of all degrees of coarseness; carbonaceous matter is often an important element. The amount of solid matter borne by large streams is enormous; many rivers derive their names from the colour thereby imparted to the water, e.g. Hwang Ho = Yellow river, Missouri = Big Muddy, the Red river, &c. It has been estimated that the Mississippi annually carries 406 1/4 million tons of sediment to the sea; the Hwang Ho 796 million tons; the Po 62 million tons. Many shallow lakes have been completely filled with alluvium and their sites are now occupied by fertile plains; this process may be seen in operation almost anywhere; a good illustration is the delta of the Rhone in Lake Geneva. Alluvial deposits may be of great size. The flood-plain of the Mississippi has an area of 50,000 sq. m.; the great delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra has an area of about 60,000 sq. m.; that of the Hwang Ho reaches out 300 m. into the sea and has a coastal border of about 400 m. Old alluvial deposits are left high above the existing level of many rivers, in the form of "terraces'' of gravel and loam, the streams to which these owe their existence having modified their courses and cut deeper channels; such are the alluvial gravels and brick-earths upon which much of "greater London'' is built. In some regions alluvial deposits are the resting places of gemstones and gold, platinum, &c.; it is from these deposits that the largest nuggets of gold have been obtained. Alluvial soils are almost invariably of great fertility; it is due to the alluvial mud annually deposited by the Nile that the dwellers in Egypt have been able to grow their crops for over 4000 years without artificial fertilization.

ALLYL ALCOHOL, C3H5OH or CH2:CH.CH2OH, a compound which occurs in very small quantities in wood spirit. It may be prepared from allyl iodide by the action of moist silver oxide by the reduction of acrolein; or by heating glycerin with oxalic acid and a little ammonium chloride to 260 deg. C. In this last reaction glycerol monoformin is produced as an intermediate product, but is decomposed as the temperature rises:— C3H5(OH)3+H2C2O4 = C3H5(OH)2.O.CHO+CO2+H2O glycerol monoformin C3H5(OH)2.O.CHO = C3H5OH+CO2+H2O It is a colourless mobile liquid of pungent smell, boiling at 97 deg. C. Being an unsaturated compound it combines readily with the halogens. Oxidation by strong oxidizing agents converts it successively into its aldehyde, acrolein, and into acrylic acid. By gentle oxidation with potassium permanganate it may be converted into glycerin.

ALMA, a river of Russia, in the S.W. of the Crimea, entering the Black Sea 17 m. N. of Sevastopol. It gives its name to a famous victory gained over the Russians, on the 20th of September 1854, by the allied armies in the Crimean War (q.v..) The south bank of the river is bordered by a long ridge, which becomes steeper as it approaches the sea, and upon this the Russians, under Prince Menshikov, were drawn up, to bar the Sevastopol road to the allies, who under General Lord Raglan and Marshal St Arnaud approached from the north over an open plain. The Russian commander massed his troops in heavy columns after the fashion of 1813, and drew in his left wing so that it should as far as possible be out of range of the allied men-of-war, which were sailing down the coast in line with their land forces. The allied generals decided that the French (right wing) and the Turks should attack Menshikov's left, while the British, further inland, were to assault the front of the Russian position. The forces engaged are stated by Hamley (War in the Crimea) as, French and Turks, 35,000 infantry, with 68 guns; British, 23,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry and 60 guns; Russians, 33,000 infantry, 3800 cavalry and 120 guns; by the Austrian writer Berndt (Zahl im Kriege) the allied forces are reckoned at 57,000 men with 108 guns, and the Russians at 33,600 men with 96 guns The French advance met at first with little opposition, and several divisions scaled the cliffs of the lower Alma without difficulty. Menshikov relied apparently on being able to detach his reserves to cope with them, but the assailants moved with a rapidity which he had not counted upon, and the Russians only came into action piecemeal in this quarter. Opposite the British, who as usual deployed at a distance and then advanced in long continuous lines, the Russians were posted on the crest of a long glacis-like slope, which offered but little dead ground to an assailant. The village of Burliuk, and the vineyards which bordered the river, were quickly cleared by the British skirmishers, and the line of battle behind them crossed, though with some difficulty. On emerging from the cover afforded by the river-bed the British divisions, now crowded together, but still preserving their general line, came under a terrible fire from heavy guns and musketry. The enemy's artillery was three hundred yards away, yet the British pressed on in spite of their losses, and as some of the Light Division troops reached the "Great Battery'' the Russians hurried their guns away to safety. In the meantime. on both sides of this battery, the assailants had come to close quarters with the Russian columns, which were aided by their field guns. A brave counter-attack was made by the Russian Vladimir regiment, 3000 strong, against the troops which had stormed the great battery, and for want of support the British were driven out again. But they soon rallied, and now the second line had crossed and formed for attack. The Guards brigade attacked the Vladimir regiment, and on the left the Highland brigade and the cavalry moved forward also. Some of the field artillery, which had now crossed the Alma, fired steadily into the closed masses of the Russian reserve, and the Vladimir regiment lost half of its numbers under the volleys of the Guards. The French were now severely pressing the Russian left, and one-third of Menshikov's forces was drawn into the fight in that quarter. The success of the frontal assault had dispirited the remainder of the defenders, and Menshikov drew off his forces southwards. He had lost 5700 men (Berodt and Hamley). The British had about 2000 killed and wounded; the French stated their losses at 1340 men.

ALMACANTAR (from the Arabic for a sun-dial), an astronomical term for a small circle of the sphere parallel to the horizon; when two stars are in the same almacantar they have the same altitude. The term was also given (1880) to an instrument invented by S. C. Chandler to determine the latitude or correct the timepiece, of great value because of its freedom from instrumental errors.

ALMACK'S, formerly the name of a famous London club and assembly rooms. The founder, known as William Almack, is usually said to have been one Macall, or McCaul, of which name Almack is an anagram. In 1764 he founded a gentlemen's club in Pall Mall, where the present Marlborough Club stands. It was famous for its high play. In 1778 it was taken over by one Brooks, and established as Brooks's Club in St James's Street, where it still exists. In 1765 Almack built a suite of assembly rooms in King's Street, St James's. Here for a ten-guinea subscription a series of weekly balls was given for twelve weeks. They were managed by a committee of ladies of rank, and admission was exceedingly difficult. At Almack's death in 1781 they were left to his niece Mrs Willis. As "Willis's Rooms'' they lasted till 1890, when they became a restaurant, but as "Almack's'' they ceased in 1863. Several clubs, including a mixed club for ladies and gentlemen, held meetings at Almack's during the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. A new London social club (1904) has also adopted the name of Almack's.

ALMADEN, or ALMADEN DEL AZOGUE, a town of Spain, in the province of Ciudad Real; situated in mountainous country 55 m. W.S.W. of the city of Ciudad Real. Pop. (1900) 7375. Almaden, the Sisapon of the Romans, is celebrated for its mercury mines, which were extensively wrought by the Romans and Moors, and are still productive, the ore increasing in richness with the depth of the descent. The mines ranked with those of Adria, in South Austria, as the most valuable in the world, until the great development of the mercury deposits at New Almaden, in California, U.S.A., between 1853 and 1857. They were long worked by convict labour, owing to their unhealthy atmosphere; and exemption from military service is granted to miners who have worked at Almaden for two years. The annual yield is about 1,400,000 lb. Lead and sulphur are obtained in the neighbourhood. The nearest railway station is that of Chillon, 3 m. S. on the Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon line.

ALMAGRO, DIEGO DE (1475—1538), Spanish commander, the companion and rival of Pizarro (q.v.), was born at Aldea del Rey in 1475. According to another account he was a foundling in the village from which he derived his name. In 1525 he joined Pizarro and Hernando de Luque at Panama in a scheme for the conquest of Peru (see PERU: History.) He was executed by order of Pizarro in 1538 in consequence of a dispute as to their respective territories.

ALMANAC, a book or table containing a calendar of the days, weeks and months of the year, a register of ecclesiastical festivals and saints' days, and a record of various astronomical phenomena &c. The derivation of the word is doubtful. The word almanac was used by Roger Bacon (Opus Majus, 1267) for tables of the apparent motions of the heavenly bodies. The Italian form is almanacco, French almanach, and the Spanish is almanaque; all of which, according to the New English Dictionary, are probably connected with the Arabic al-manakh, a combination of the definite article al, and maliakh, a word of uncertain origin. An Arabic-Castilian vocabulary (1505) gives manakh, a calendar, and manah, a sun-dial; manakh has also been connected with the Latin manacus, a sun-dial.

The attention given to astronomy by Eastern nations probably led to the early construction of such tables as are comprised in our almanacs; of these we know little or nothing. The fasti (q.v.) of the Romans are far better known and were similar to modern almanacs. Almanacs of a rude kind, known as clogg almanacs, consisting of square blocks of hard wood, about 8 in. in length, with notches along the four angles corresponding to the days of the year, were in use in some parts of England as late as the end of the 17th century. Dr Robert Plot (1640-1696), keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and professor of chemistry at Oxford, describes one of these in his Natural History of Staffordshire (Oxford, 1686); and another is represented in Gough's edition of Camden's Britannia (1806, vol. ii. p. 499).

The earliest almanac regarding which J. J. L. de Lalande (Bibliographic astronomique, Paris, 1803) could obtain any definite information belongs to the 12th century. Manuscript almanacs of considerable antiquity are preserved in the British Museum and in the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge. Of these the most remarkable are a calendar ascribed to Roger Bacon (1292), and those of Peter de Dacia (about 1300), Walter de Elvendene (1327) and John Somers (1380). It is to be remembered that early calendars (such as the Kalendarium Lincolniense of Bishop Robert Grosseteste) frequently bear the names, not of their compilers, but of the writers of the treatises on ecclesiastical computation on which the calendars are based. The earliest English calendar in the British Museum is one for the year 1431. The first printed almanac known was compiled by Purbach, and appeared between the years 1450 and 1461; the first of importance is that of Regiomontanus, which appears to have been printed at Nuremberg in 1472. In this work the almanacs for the different months embrace three Metonic cycles, or the 57 years from 1475 to 1531 inclusive. The earliest almanac printed in England was The Kalendar of Shepardes, a translation from the French, printed by Richard Pynson about 1407.

Early almanacs had commonly the name of "prognostications'' in addition, and what they professed to show may be gathered from titles like the following, which is quoted by J. O. Halliwell: "Pronostycacyon of Mayster John Thybault, medycyner and astronomer of the Emperyall Majestic, of the year of our Lorde God MCCCCCXXXIJ., comprehending the iiij. partes of this yere, and of the influence of the mone, of peas and warre, and of the sykenesses of this yere, with the constellacions of them that be under the vij. pianettes, and the revolucions of kynges and princes, and of the eclipses and comets.'' Among almanacs of this class published in England, and principally by the Stationers' Company, are Leonard Digges's Prognostication Everlasting of Right Good Effect, for 1553, 1555, &c.; William Lilly's Merlinius Anglicus Junior for 1644, &c., and other almanacs and " prognostications''; John Booker's Bloody Almanac and Bloody Irish Almanac for 1643, 1647, &c.—the last attributed erroneously to Richard Napier; John Partridge's Mercurius Coelestis for 1681, Merlinus Redivivus, &c. The name of Partridge has been immortalized in Pope's Rape of the Lock; and his almanacs were very cleverly burlesqued by Swift, who predicted Partridge's own death, in genuine prognosticator's style. The most famous of all the Stationers' Company's predicting almanacs was the Vox Stellarum of Francis Moore (1657—1715?), the first number of which was completed in July 1700, and contained predictions for 1701. Its publication has been continued under the title of Old Moore's Almanac. Of a different but not a better sort was Poor Robin, dating from 1663, and published by the company down to 1828, which abounded in coarse, sometimes extremely coarse, humour.

The exclusive right to sell "almanacs and prognostications'' in England, enjoyed in the time of Elizabeth by two members of the Company of Stationers, was extended by James I. to the two universities and the Stationers' Company jointly; but the universities commuted their privilege for an annuity from the company. This monopoly was challenged by Thomas Carnan, a bookseller, who published an almanac for three successive years, after having been thrice imprisoned on that account by the company. The case came, in 1775, before the court of common pleas, and was decided in Carnan's favour, the question argued being, "Whether almanacs were such public ordinances, such matters of state, as belonged to the king by his prerogative, so as to enable him to communicate an exclusive right of printing them to a grantee of the crown?'' In 1779 Lord North attempted to reverse this decision by a parliamentary enactment, but the bill was thrown out. In consequence of this the universities lost their title to their annuity, and in lieu of it they received a parliamentary grant. The company, however, virtually retained its monopoly for many years, by buying up as much as possible all the almanacs issued by other publishers, but in more recent times this power has altogether ceased, although a considerable proportion of the almanacs published in England still issue from the hall of the Stationers' Company. A description of "Almanac Day'' at Stationers' Hall will be found in Knight's Cyclopaedia of London (1851), p. 588.

On the 1st of January 1828 the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge issued the British Almanac for that year—a publication greatly superior in every way to the almanacs of the time. The success of the British Almanac, with its valuable supplement, the Companion to the Almanac, led to a great improvement in this class of publications. The Stationers' Company issued the Englishman's Almanac, a work of a similar kind. The entire repeal in 1834, by the 3rd and 4th Will. IV. c. 57, of the heavy stamp duty, first imposed in 1710, on all almanacs of fifteenpence per copy, gave an additional stimulus to the publication of almanacs of a better class, and from that time the number has greatly increased. Since 1870, the British Almanac and Companion have been the principal almanacs published by the Stationers' Company. Whitaker's Almanac, commenced in 1868 by Joseph Whitaker (1820-1895), is perhaps the best known of modern almanacs.

In Scotland, almanacs containing much astrological matter appcared to have been published at about the beginning of the 16th century; and about a century later those published at Aberdeen enjoyed considerable reputation. In 1683, the Edinburgh's True Alnnanack, or a New Prognostication, appeared; a publication which improved with years and was issued after 1837 as Oliver and Boyd's New Ediniburgh Almanac, a standard book of reference for Scottish affairs. Thom's Irish Almanac (since 1843) deals mainly with Ireland.

The earliest almanac published in the United States is probably to be ascribed to Bradford's press in Philadelphia, for the year 1587. Poor Richard's Almanac, commenced in 1732 by Benjamin Franklin under the pseudonym of "Richard Saunders,'' and continued by him for twenty-five years, gained a high reputation for its wise and witty sayings; it may have been suggested by a somewhat similar publication by Thomas, of Dedham, Massachusetts. The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge was published at Boston from 1828 to 1861; a continuation, The National Almanac, was published only twice, for 1863 and 1864. The Old Farmer's Almanac enjoys considerable popularity and has been published for many years. At the present time nearly every religious denomination, trade and newspaper have almanacs or year-books.

In France prophetic almanacs circulated very freely among the poorer and rural classes, although an ordonnance of Charles IX. required the seal of a diocesan bishop on all almanacs. In 1579 Henry III. prohibited the publication of predictions relating to political events, a prohibition renewed by Louis XIII. Of such almanacs, the most famous was the Almanach Liegeois first published in 1625 at Liege by Matthieu Laensbergh, a person of very problematic existence. Publications of this class subsequently increased in number to such an extent that, in 1852, their circulation was forcibly checked by the government. The most important French almanac is the Almanach Royal, afterwards Imperial, and now National, first published in 1679.

A number of publications, issued in Germany, from the middle of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century, under such titles as Musenalmanach, modelled on the Almanach des Muses, a contemporary almanac published at Paris, contain some of the best works of some of the most celebrated German poets. The Almaniach de Gotha, which has existed since 1763, published since 1871 both in French and German, gives a particular account of all the royal and princely families of Europe, and ample details concerning the administration and the statistics of the different states of the world.

For the Nautical Almanac and similar publications, see EPHEMERIS.

ALMANDINE, or ALMANDITE, a name applied to certain kinds of precious garnet, being apparently a corruption of alabandicus, which is the name applied by Pliny to a stone found or worked at Alabanda, a town in Carla in Asia Minor. Almandine is an iron alumina garnet, of deep red colour inclining to purple. It is frequently cut with a convex face, or en cabochon, and is then known as carbuncle. Viewed through the spectroscope in a strong light, it generally shows three characteristic absorption bands, as first pointed out by Prof. A. H. Church.

Almandine occurs rather abundantly in the gem-gravels of Ceylon, whence it has sometimes been called Ceylon-ruby. When the colour inclines to a violet tint, the stone is often called Syrian garnet, a name said to be taken from Syriam, an ancient town of Pegu. Large deposits of fine almandine-garnets were found, some years ago, in the Northern Territory of South Australia, and were at first taken for rubies, whence they were known in trade for some time afterwards as Australian rubies.

Almandine is widely distributed. Fine rhombic dodecahedra occur in the schistose rocks of the Zillerthal, in Tyrol, and are sometimes cut and polished. An almandine in which the ferrous oxide is replaced partly by magnesia is found at Luisenfeld in German East Africa. In the United States there are many localities which yield almandine. Dr G. F. Kunz has figured a crystal of coarse almandine weighing 91 lb. from New York city. Fine crystals of almandine embedded in mica-schist occur near Fort Wrangell in Alaska. The coarse varieties of almandine are often crushed for use as an abrasive agent. (See GARNET.)

ALMANSA, or ALMANZA, a town of eastern Spain, in the province of Albacete; 35 m. E.S.E. of Albacete, on the Madrid-Alicante railway. Pop. (1900) 11,180. Almansa is built at the foot of a white limestone crag, which is surmounted by a Moorish castle, and rises abruptly in the midst of a fertile and irrigated plain. About 1 m. S. stands an obelisk commemorating the battle fought here on the 25th of April 1707, in which the French under the duke of Berwick, a natural son of James II. of Great Britain, routed the allied British, Portuguese and Spanish troops. (See SPANISH SUCCESSION, WAR OF THE.)

ALMA-TADEMA, SIR LAURENCE (LAURENS) (1836- ). British artist, was born on the 8th of .fanuary 1836, at Dronrijp, a Frisian village near Leeuwarden, the son of Pieter Tadema, a notary, who died when he was four years old. Alma was the name of his godfather. His mother (d. 1863) was his father's second wife, and was left with a large family. It was designed that the boy should follow his father's profession; but he had so great a leaning towards art that he was eventually sent to Antwerp, where in 1852 he entered the academy under Gustav Wappers. Thence he passed to the atelier of Henri (afterwards Baron) Leys. In 1859 he assisted Leys in the latter's frescoes in the hall of the hotel de ville at Antwerp. In the exhibition of Alma-Tadema's collected works at the Grosvenor Gallery in London in the winter of 1882-1883 were two pictures which may be said to mark the beginning and end of his first period. These were a portrait of himself, dated 1852, and "A Bargain,'' painted in 1860. His first great success was a picture of "The Education of the Children of Clovis'' (1861), which was exhibited at Antwerp. In the following year he received his first gold medal at Amsterdam. The "Education of the Children of Clovis'' (three young children of Clovis and Clotilde practising the art of hurling the axe in the presence of their widowed mother, who is training them to avenge the murder of their own parent) was one of a series of Merovingian pictures, of which the finest was the "Fredegonda'' of 1878 (exhibited in 1880), where the dejected wife or mistress is watching from behind her curtain window the marriage of Chilperic I. with Galeswintha. It is perhaps in this series that we find the painter moved by the deeoest feeling and the strongest spirit of romance. One of the most passionate of all is "Fredegonda at the Death-bed of Praetextatus,'' in which the bishop, stabbed by order of the queen, is cursing her from his dying bed. Another distinct series is designed to reproduce the life of ancient Egypt. One of the first of this series, "Egyptians 3000 Years Ago,'' was painted in 1863. A profound depth of pathos is sounded in "The Death of the Firstborn,'' painted in 1873. Among Alma-Tadema's other notable Egyptian pictures are "An Egyptian at his Doorway'' (1865), 'The Mummy'' (1867), 'The Chamberlain of Sesostris'' (1869), "A Widow'' (1873), and "Joseph, Overseer of Pharaoh's Granaries'' (1874). On these scenes from Frankish and Egyptian life Alma-Tadema spent great energy and research; but his strongest art-impulse was towards the presentation of the life of ancient Greece and Rome, especially the latter. Amongst the best known of his earlier pictures of scenes from classical times are "Tarquinius Superbus'' (1867), "Phidias and the Elgin Marbles'' (1868), and "The Pyrrhic Dance'' and "The Wine Shop'' (1869). "The Pyrrhic Dance,'' though one of the simplest of his compositions, stands out distinctly from them all by reason of its striking movement. "Phidias and the Elgin Marbles'' is the first of those glimpses of the art-iife of classical times, of which "Hadrian in England,'' "The Sculpture Gallery,'' and "The Picture Gallery'' are later examples. "The Wine Shop'' is one of his many pictures of historical genre, but marked with a more robust humour than usual. In 1863 Alma-Tadema married a French lady, and lived at Brussels till 1869, when she died, leaving him a widower with two daughters, Laurence and Anna, both of whom afterwards made reputations —the former in literature, the latter in art. In 1869 he sent from Brussels to the Royal Academy two pictures, "Un Amateur romain'' and "Une Danse pyrrhique,'' which were followed by three pictures, including "Un Jongleur,'' in 1870, when he came to London. By this time, besides his Dutch and Belgian distinctions, he had been awarded medals at the Paris Salon of 1864 and the Exposition Universelle of 1867. In 1871 he married Miss Laura Epos, an English lady of a talented family, who, under her married name, also won a high reputation as an artist. After his arrival in England Alma-Tadema's career was one of continued success. Amongst the most important of his pictures during this period were "The Vintage Festival'' (1870), "The Picture Gallery'' and "The Sculpture Gallery'' (1875), "An Audience at Agrippa's'' (1876), "The Seasons'' (1877), "Sappho'' (1881), "The Way to the Temple'' (1883), his diploma work, "Hadrian in Britain'' (1884), "The Apodyterium (1886), "The Woman of Amphissa'' (1887), "The Roses of Heliogabalus'' (1888), "An Earthly Paradise'' (1891), and "Spring'' (1895). Most of his other pictures have been small canvasses of exquisite finish, like the "Gold-fish'' of 1900. These, as well as all his works, are remarkable for the way in which flowers, textures and hard reflecting substances, like metals, pottery, and especially marble, are painted. His work shows much of the fine execution and brilliant colour of the old Dutch masters. By the human interest with which he imbues all his scenes from ancient life he brings them within the scope of modern feeling, and charms us with gentle sentiment and playful humour. He also painted some fine portraits. Alma-Tadema became a naturalized British subject in 1873, and was knighted on the occasion of Queen Victoria's eighty-first birthday, 1899. He was made an associate of the Royal Academy in 1876, and a Royal Academician in 1879. In 1907 he was included in the Order of Merit. He became a knight of the order Pour le Merite of Germany (Arts and Science Division); of Leopold, Belgium; of the Dutch Lion; of St Michael of Bavaria; of the Golden Lion of Nassau; and of the Crown of Prussia; an officer of the Legion of Honour, France; a member of the Royal Academies of Munich, Berlin, Madrid and Vienna. He received a gold medal at Berlin in 1872 and a grand medal at Berlin in 1874; a first class medal at the Paris International Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900. He also became a member of the Royal Society of Water-colours.

See also Geore Ebers, "Lorenz Alma-Tadema,'' Westermann's Monatshafte, November and December 1885, since republished in volume form; Helen Zimmern, "L. Alma-Tadema, his Life and Work,'' Art Annual, 1886; C. Monkhouse, British Contemporary Artists (London, 1899).

ALME or ALMAI (from alim, wise, learned), the name of a class of singing girls in Egypt who are present at festivals and entertainments, and act as hired mourners at funerals. They are to be distinguished from the ghawazee, or dancing girls, who perform in the public streets and are of a lower order.

ALMEIDA, DOM FRANCISCO DE (c. 1450-1510), the first viceroy of Portuguese India, was born at Lisbon about the middle of the 15th century. He was the seventh son of the second count of Abrantes, and thus belonged to one of the most distinguished families in Portugal. In his youth he took part under Ferdinand of Aragon in the wars against the Moors (1485-1492). In March 1505, having received from Emmanuel I. the appointment of viceroy of the newly conquered territory in India, he set sail from Lisbon in command of a large and powerful fleet, and arrived in July at Quiloa (Kilwa), which yielded to him almost without a struggle. A much more vigorous resistance was offered by the Moors of Mombasa, but the town was taken and destroyed, and its large treasures went to strengthen the resources of Almeida. At other places on his way, such as the island of Angediva, near Goa, and Cannanore, he built forts, and adopted measures to secure the Portuguese supremacy. On his arrival in India he took up his residence at Cochin, where a Portuguese fort had been built by Alphonso d'Albuquerque in 1503. The most important events of Almeida's brief but vigorous administration were the conclusion of a commercial treaty with Malacca, and the discoveries made by his son Lorenzo, who acted as his lieutenant. Lorenzo was probably the first Portuguese who visited Ceylon, where he established a settlement, and Fernando Soares, a captain commanding a squadron of his fleet, appears to have been the first European to sight Madagascar. In 1508 he was killed at Dabui in a naval engagement with the Egyptians, who at this time endeavoured to dispute Portuguese supremacy in the Indian Ocean. His father was preparing to avenge his death when Albuquerque (q.v.) arrived in Cochin, and presented a commission empowering him to supersede Almeida in the government. It was probably Almeida's unwillingness to be thwarted in his scheme of vengeance that chiefly induced him to refuse to recognize Albuquerque's commission, and to cast him into prison. The punishment he inflicted on the Arabs and their Egyptian allies was speedy and terrible. Sailing along the coast he pillaged and burned various ports, including Goa and Dabul, and finally, encountering the enemy's combined fleet off Diu in February 1509, he completely destroyed it. Returning immediately to Cochin, he held out for a few months against the claims of Albuquerque, but in November 1509 he was compelled to yie!d. On the 1st of December he set sail for Europe with an escort of three vessels. On the voyage the fleet called at Table Bay, then known as Saldanha Bay, to procure water, and here Almeida was killed (on the 1st of March 1510) in an attack upon the Hottentot natives, during vhich he showed great personal courage. In this fight, vhich took place on the site of Cape Town. 65 Portuguese perished, including 12 captains. Almeida's body was recovered on the following day and buried on the spot where he fell.

ALMEIDA, a town of north-eastern Portugal, in the district of Guarda and formerly included in the province of Beira; situated in hilly country between the river Coa, a tributary of the Douro, and the river Turones, a branch of the Agueda. Pop. (1900) 2330. Almeida was long one of the principal frontier fortresses of Portugal. It was captured by the Spaniards in 1762. During the Peninsular War (q.v.), the country between the Coa and the Spanish fortress of Ciudad Rodrigo, 25 m. E.S.E., was the scene of hard fighting. Almeida was taken by the French in 1810 and its recapture, by the allied British and Portuguese forces under Lord Wellington, was only effected after a relieving force under Marshal Massena had been defeated at Fuentes d'Onor (or Fuentes de Onoro), 13 m. S.S.E. The battle was fought on the 5th of May 1811 and the fortress fell five days later.

ALMELO, a town in the province of Overysel, Holland, 12 m. by rail N.W. of Hengelo, at the junction of the Overysel and Aluielo canals. Pop. (1900) 9957. It is a place of considerable antiquity, having been the seat of an independent lordship before the 14th century. But it first rose into importance in the second half of the 19th century owing to its share in the extraordinary industrial development of the Twente district, and now possesses numerous cotton and damask factories. Among the public buildings are a town hall, court house, corn exchange, and churches of various denominations, as well as a synagogue.

The lordship of Almelo belonged to the lords of Heeckeren, who acquired the barony of Rechteren by marriage in 1350 and the countship of Limpourg in 1711. The elder branch of the mediatized house of Rechteren-Limpourg is still established at Almelo; the younger, German branch, at Markt Einersheim in Bavaria.

ALMENDRALEJO, a town of western Spain, in the province of Badajoz; situated 27 m. E.S.E. of Badajoz, on the Merida-Seville railway. Pop. (1900) 12,587. Almendralejo is a thriving town, with broad streets and good modern houses; including the palace of the marquesses of Monsalfid, which contains a museum of Roman antiquities discovered in the neighbourhood. Local prosperity was greatly enhanced during the period 1875-1905 by the improvement of communications, which enabled the grain, fruit and wine of the Guadiana valley, on the north, and of the upland known as the Tierra de Barros, on the south, to be readily exported by the Merida-Seville railway. Brandy is produced in large quantities.

ALMERIA, a maritime province of southern Spain, formed in 1833, and comprehending the eastern territories of the ancient kingdom of Granada. Pop. (1900) 359,013; area, 3360 sq. m. Almeria is bounded on the N. by Granada and Murcia, E. and S. by Murcia and the Mediterranean Sea, and W. by Granada. It is traversed by mountain ridges, with peaks of 6000 to 8000 ft. in altitude; and it is seamed with valleys or great fertility. The chief sierras, or ranges, are those of Maria, in the north; Estancias and Oria, north of the Almanzora river; Filabres, in the middle of the province; Cabrera and Gata, along the south-east coast; Alhamilla, east of the city of Almeria; Gador in the south-west; and, in the west, some outlying ridges of the Sierra Nevada. Three small rivers, the Adra, or Rio Grande de Adra, in the west, the Almeria in the centre, and the Almanzora in the north and east, flow down from the mountains to the sea. On the south coast is the Gulf of Almeria, 25 m. wide at its entrance, and terminating, on the cast, in the Cabo de Gata, the southernmost point of eastern Spain. The climate is mild, except among the higher mountains. The valleys near the sea are well adapted for agriculture; oranges, lemons, almonds and other fruit trees thrive; silk is produced in the west; and the vine is extensively cultivated, less for the production of wine than to meet the foreign demand for white Almeria grapes. Although the cost of transport is very heavy, the exportation of grapes is a flourishing industry, and more than 2,000,000 barrels are annually sent abroad. The cattle of the central districts are celebrated for size and qualityt Almeria is rich in minerals, especially iron and lead; silver, copper, mercury, zinc and sulphur are also obtained. At the beginning of the 20th century the mines at work numbered more than two hundred, and proved very attractive to foreign as well as native capitalists. Garnets are found in the Sierra de Gata and in the Sierra Nevada fine marble is quarried. The development of mining was facilitated by the extension of the railway system between 1895 and 1905. The main line from Madrid toalmeria convoys much ore from Granada and Jaen to the sea; while the railway from Baza to Lorca skirts the Almanzora valley and transports the mineral products of eastern Almeria by a branch line from Huercal-Overa to the Murcian port of Aguilas. Light railways and aerial cables among the mountains supplement these lines. The chief imports compase coal, timber, especially oak staves, and various manufactured goods. The exports are minerals, esparto, oil, grain, grapes and farm produce generally. The principal seaports are Almeria, the capital, pop.(1900) 47,326, Adra (11,188), and Garrucha (4661), which, with Berja (13,224), Cuevas de Vera (20,562), Huercal-Overa (15,763) and Nijar (12,497), are described in separate articles. Other towns, important as mining or agricultural centres, are Albox (10,049), Dalias (7136), Lubrin (6593), Sorbas (7306), Tabernas (7629), Velez Blanco (6825), Velez Rubio (10,109) and Vera (8446). Education is backward and the standard of comfort low. A constant annual loss of 2000 or 3000 emigrants to Algeria and elsewhere prevents any rapid increase of population, despite the high birth-rate and low mortality.

ALMERIA, the capital of the province of Almeria, and one of the principal seaports on the Mediterranean coast of southern Spain; in 36 deg. 5' N. and 2 deg. 32' W., on the river Almeria, at its outflow into the Gulf of Almeria, and at the terminus of a railway from Madrid. Pop. (1900) 47,326. The city occupies part of a rich alluvial valley enclosed by hills. It is an episcopal see, and possesses a Gothic cathedral, dating from 1524, and constructed with massive embattled walls and belfry so as to resemble a fortress. A dismantled castle, the Castillo de San Cristobal, overlooks the city, which contains four Moorish towers rising conspicuously above its modern streets. Two long piers shelter the harbour, and vessels drawing 25 ft. can lie against the quays. About 1400 ships, of nearly 1,000,000 tons, enter the port every year, bringing fuel and timber, and taking cargoes of iron, lead, esparto and fruit. White grapes are exported in very large quantities.

Under its ancient name of Urci, Almeria was one of the chief Spanish harbours after the final conquest of Spain by the Romans in 19 B.C. It reached the summit of its prosperity in the middle ages, as the foremost seaport of the Moorish kingdom of Granada. At this time its population numbered 150,000; its cruisers preyed upon the fleets of the neighbouring Christian states; and its merchant ships traded with countries as distant as Egypt and Syria. Almeria was captured in 1147 by King Alphonso VII. of Castile and his Genoese troops. but speedily retaken and held by the Moors until 1489, when it was finally secured by the Spaniards.

See D. F. Margall, Almeria, (Barcelona, 1886).

ALMERY, AUMEBY, AUMBRIE, or AMBRY (from the medieval form almarium, cf. Lat. armarium, a place for keeping tools; cf. O. Fr. aumoire and mod. armoire), in architecture, a recess in the wall of a church, sometimes square-headed, and sometimes arched over, and closed with a door like a cupboard—used to contain the chalices, basins, cruets, &c., for the use of the priest; many of them have stone shelves. They are sometimes near the piscina, but more often on the opposite side. The word also seems in medieval times to be used commonly for any closed cuoboard and even bookcase.

ALMODOVAR DEL CAMPO, or ALMODOVAR, a town of Spain, in the province of Ciudad Real, 18 m. S.S.W. of Ciudad Real, on the northern side of the Sierra de Alcudia. Pop. (1900l 12,525. Almodovar was a Moorish fortress in the middle ages. but contains little of antiquarian interest. It owes its modern prosperity to the nearness of the valuable Puertollano coal-field, 3 m. S. by a branch of the Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon railway. Its manufactures are lace and linen and it has a brisk trade in live-stock, oil and wine. South of the Sierra lies the Alcudia valley, owned by the crown, and used as pasture for immense flocks of sheep.

ALMOGAVARES (from the Arab. Al-Mugavari, a scout), the name of a class of Spanish soldiers, well known during the Christian reconquest of Spain, and much employed as mercenaries in Italy and the Levant, during the 13th and 14th centuries. The Almogavares (the plural of Almogavar) came originally from the Pyrenees, and were in later times recruited mainly in Navarre, Aragon and Catalonia. They were frontiersmen and foot-soldiers who wore no armour, dressed in skins, were shod with brogues (abarcas), and carried the same arms as the Roman legionaries—-two heavy javelins (Spanish azagaya, the Roman pilum), a short stabbing sword and a shield. They served the king, the nobles, the church or the towns for pay, and were professional soldiers. When Peter III. of Aragon made war on Charles of Anjou after the Sicilian Vespers—-30th of March 1282-for the possession of Naples and Sicily, the Almogavares formed the most effective element of his army. Their discipline and ferocity, the force with which they hurled their javelins, and their activity, made them very formidable to the heavy cavalry of the Angevin armies. When the peace of Calatabellota in 1302 ended the war in southern Italy, the Almogavares followed Roger di Flor (Roger Blum) the unfrocked Templar, who entered the service of the emperor of the East, Andronicus, as condottieri to fight against the Turks. Their campaign in Asia Minor, 1303 and 1304, was a series of romantic victories, but their greed and violence made them intolerable to the Christian population. When Roger di Flor was assassinated by his Greek employerin 1305, they turned on the emperor, held Galhpoh and ravaged the neighbourhood of Constantinople. In 1310 they marched against the duke of Athens, of the French house of Brienne. Walter of Brienne was defeated and slain by them with all his knights at the battle of Cephissus, or Orchomenus, in Boeotia in March. They then divided the wives and possessions of the Frenchmen by lot and summoned a prince of the house of Aragon to rule over them. The foundation of the Aragonese duchy of Lthens was the culmination of the achievements of the Almogavares. In the 16th century the name died out. It was, however, revived for a short time as a party nickname in the civil wars of the reign of Ferdinand VII.

AUTHORITIES.—-The Almogavares are admirably described by one who fought with them, Ramon de Muntaner, whose Chronicle has been translated into French by J. A. Buchon, Chronioues etrangeres (Paris, 1860). The original test was reprinted and edited by K. Lanz at Stuttgart, 1844. See also the Expedition des "Almugavares'' ou routiers catalans en orient, de l'an 1302 a l'an 1311 by G. Schlumberger (Paris, 1902). (D. H.)

ALMOHADES (properly Muwahhadis, i.e. "Unitarians,'' the name being corrupted through the Spanish), a Mahommedan religious power which founded the fifth Moorish dynasty in the 12th century, and conquered all northern Africa as far as Egypt, together with Moslem Spain. It originated with Mahommed ibn Tumart, a member of the Masmuda, a Berber tribe of the Atlas. Ibn Tumart was the son of a lamplighter in a mosque and had been noted for his piety from his youth; he was small, ugly, and misshapen and lived the life of a devotee-beggar. As a youth he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, whence he was expelled on account of his severe strictures on the laxity of others, and thence wandered to Bagdad, where he attached himself to the school of the orthodox doctor al Ashari. But he made a system of his own by combining the teaching of his master with parts of the doctrines of others, and with mysticism imbibed from the great teacher Ghazali. His main principle was a rigid unitarianism which denied the independent existence of the attributes of God, as being incompatible with his unity, and therefore a polytheistic idea. Mahommed in fact represented a revolt against the anthropomorphism of commonplace Mahommedan orthodoxy, but he was a rigid predestinarian and a strict observer of the law. After his return to Morocco at the age of twenty-eight, he began preaching and agitating, heading riotous attacks on wine-shops and on other manifestations of laxity. He even went so far as to assault the sister of the Murabti (Almoravide) amir'Ali III., in the streets of Fez, because she was going about unveiled after the manner of Berber women. 'Ali, who was very deferential to any exhibition of piety, allowed him to escape unpunished.

Ibn Tumart, who had been driven from several other towns for exhibitions of reforming zeal, now took refuge among his own people, the Masmuda, in the Atlas. It is highly probable that his influence would not have outlived him, if he had not found a lieutenant in 'Abd-el-Mumin el Kumi, another Berber, from Algeria, who was undoubtedly a soldier and statesman of a high order. When Ibn Tumart died in 1128 at the monastery or ribat which he had founded in the Atlas at Tinmal, after suffering a severe defeat by the Murabtis, 'Abd-el-Mumin kept his death secret for two years, till his own influence was established. He then came forward as the lieutenant of the Mahdi Ibn Tumart. Between 1130 and his death in 1163, 'Abd-el-Mumin not only rooted out the Murabtis, but extended his power over all northern Africa as far as Egypt, becoming amir of Morocco in 1149. Mahommedan Spain followed the fate of Africa, and in 1170 the Muwahhadis transferred their capital to Seville, a step followed by the founding of the great mosque, now superseded by the cathedral, the tower of which they erected in 1184 to mark the accession of Ya'kub el Mansur. From the time of Yusef II., however, they governed their co-religionists in Spain and Central North Africa through lieutenants, their dominions outside Morocco being treated as provinces. When their amirs crossed the Straits it was to lead a jehad against the Christians and to return fo their capital, Marrakesh.

The Muwahhadi princes had a longer and a more distinguished career than the Murabtis or "Almoravides'' (q.v..) Yusef II. or "Abu Ya'kub'' (1163-1184), and Ya'kub I. or "El Mansur'' (1184-1199), the successors of Abd-el-Mumin, were both able men. They were fanatical, and their tyranny drove numbers of their Jewish and Christian subjects to take refuge in the growing Christian states of Portugal, Castile and Aragon. But in the end they became less fanatical than the Murabtis, and Ya'kub el Mansur was a highly accomplished man, who wrote a good Arabic style and who protected the philosopher Averroes. His title of El Mansur, "The Victorious,'' was earned by the defeat he inflicted on Alphonso VIII. of Castile at Alarcos in 1195. But the Christian states in Spain were becoming too well organized to be overrun by the Mahommedans, and the Muwahhadis made no permanent advance against them. In 1212 Mahommed III., "En-Nasir'' (1199-1214), the successor of El Mansur, was utterly defeated by the allied five Christian princes of Spain, Navarre and Portugal, at Las Navas de Tolosa in the Sierra Morena. All the Moorish dominions in Spain were lost in the next few years, partly by the Christian conquest of Andalusia, and partly by the revolt of the Mahommedans of Granada, who put themselves under the protection of the Christian kings and became their vassals.

The fanaticism of the Muwahhadis did not prevent them from encouraging the establishment of Christians even in Fez, and after the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa they occasionally entered into alliances with the kings of Castile. In Africa they were successful in expelling the garrisons placed in some of the coast towns by the Norman kings of Sicily. The history of their decline differs from that of the Murabtis, whom they had displaced. They were not assailed by a great religious movement, but destroyed piecemeal by the revolt of tribes and districts. Their most effective enemies were the Beni Marin ("Merinides'') who founded the next Moroccan dynasty, the sixth. The last representative of the line, Idris IV., "El Wathik''' was reduced to the possession of Marrakesh, where he was murdered by a slave in 1269.

The amirs of the Muwahhadi Dynasty were as follows:— 'Abd-el-Mumin (1145); Yusef II., "Abu Ya'kub'' (1163); Ya'kub I., "Abu Yusef el Mansur'' (1184); Mahommed III., "En-Nasir'' (1190); Yusef III., "Abu Ya'kub el Mustansir'' (1214); 'Abd-el-Wahid, "El Makhluwi'' (1223); 'Abd-Allah II., "Abu Mahommed'' (1224); Yahya V., "El Mu'tasim'' (1226); Idris III., "El Mamun'' (1229); Rashid I., "'Abd-el-Wahid II.'' (1232); 'Ali IV., "Es-Sa'id el Mu tadid'' (1242); Omar I., "El Mortada'' (1248); Idris IV., "El Wathik'' (1266-1269). (B. M.*; D. H.)

ALMON, JOHN (1737-1805), English political pamphleteer and publisher, was born at Liverpool on the 17th of December 1737. In early life he was apprenticed to a printer in his native town, and he also spent two years at sea. He came to London in 1758 and at once began a career which, if not important in itself, had a very important influence on the political history of the country. The Whig opposition, hampered and harassed by the Government to an extent that threatened the total suppression of independent opinion, were in great need of a channel of communication with the public, and they found what they wauted in Almon. He had become personally known to the leaders through various publications of his own which had a great though transient popularity; the more important of these being The Conduct of a late Noble Commander [Lord George Sackville Examined (1759); a Review of his late Majesty's Reign (1760); a Review of Mr Pitt's Administration (1761); and a number of letters on political subjects. The review of Pitt's administration passed through four editions, and secured for its author the friendship of Earl Temple, to whom it was dedicated. Brought thus into the counsels of the Whig party, he was persuaded in 1763 to open a bookseller's shop in Piccadilly, chiefly for the publication and sale of political pamphlets. This involved considerable personal risk, and though he generally received with every pamphlet a sum sufficient to secure him against all contingencies, he deserves the credit of having done much to secure the freedom of the press. The government strengthened his influence by their repressive measures. In 1765 the attorney-general moved to have him tried for the publication of the pamphlet entitled Juries and Libels, but the prosecution failed; and in 1770, for merely selling a copy of the London Museum containing Junius's celebrated "Letter to the King,'' he was sentenced by Lord Mansfield to pay a fine of ten marks and give security for his good behaviour. It was this trial that called forth the letter to Lord Mansfield, one of the bitterest of the Junius series. Almon himself published an account of the trial, and of course did not let slip the opportunity of reprinting the matter that had been the ground of indictment; but no further proceedings were taken against him. In 1774 Almon commenced the publication of his Parliamentary Register, a monthly report of the debates in parliament, and he also issued an abstract of the debates from 1742, when Richard Chandler's Reports ceased, to 1774. About the same time, having earned a competency, he retired to Boxmoor in Hertfordshire, though he still continued to write on political subjects. He became proprietor in 1784 of the General Advertiser, in the management of which he lost his fortune and was declared insolvent. To these calamities was added an imprisonment for libel. The claims of his creditors compelled him to leave the country, but after some years in France he was enabled to return to Boxmoor, where he continued a career of undiminished literary activity, publishing among other works an edition of Junius. His last work was an edition of Wilkes's correspondence, with a memoir (1805). He died on the 12th of December 1805. Almon's works, most of which appeared anonymously, have no great literary merit, but they are of very considerable value to the student of the political history of the period.

ALMOND (from the O. Fr. almaiide or alemande, late Lat. amandola, derived through a form amingdola from the Gr. amugdale, an almond; the al- for a- is probably due to a confusion with the Arabic article al, the word having first dropped the a- as in the Italian form mandola; the English pronunciation a-mond and the modern French amande show the true form of the word). The almond is the fruit of Amyydalus conimunis, a plant belonging to the tribe Pruneae of the natural order Rosaceae. The genus Amygdalus is very closely allied to Prunius (Plum, Cherry), in which it is sometimes merged; the distinction lies in the fruit, the soft pulp attached to the stone in the plum being replaced by a leathery separable coat in the almond. The tree appears to be a native of western Asia, Barbary and Morocco; but it has been extensively distributed over the warmtemperate region of the Old World. It ripens its fruit in the south of England. It is a tree of moderate size; the leaves are lanceolate, and serrated at the edges; and it flowers early in spring. The fruit is a drupe, having a downy outer coat, called the epicarp, which encloses the reticulated hard stony shell or endocarp. The seed is the kernel which is contained within these coverings. The shell-almonds of trade consist of the endocarps enclosing the seeds. The tree grows in Syria and Palestine; and is referred to in the Bible under the name of Shaked, meaning "hasten.'' The word Luz, which occurs in Genesis xxx. 37, and which has been translated hazel, is supposed to be another name for the almond. In Palestine the tree flowers in January, and this hastening of the period of flowering seems to be alluded to in Jeremiah i. 11, 12, where the Lord asks the prophet, "What seest thou?'' and he replies, "The rod of an almond-tree''; and the Lord says, "Thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it.'' In Ecclesiastes xii. 5 it is saib the "almond-tree shall flourish.'' This has often been supposed to refer to the resemblance of the hoary locks of age to the flowers of the almond; but this exposition is not borne out by the facts of the case, inasmuch as the flowers of the almond are not white but pink. The passage is more probably intended to allude to the hastening or rapid approach of old age. The application of Shaked or hasten to the almond is similar to the use of the name "May'' for the hawthorn, which usually flowers in that month in Britain. The rod of Aaron, mentioned in Numbers xvii., was taken from an almond-tree; and the Jews still carry rods of almond-blossom to the synagogues on great festival days. The fruit of the almond supplied a model for certain kinds of ornamental carved work (Exodus xxv. 33, 34; xxxvii. 19, 20).

There are two forms of the plant, the one (with pink flowers) producing sweet, the other (with white flowers) bitter almonds. The kernel of the former contains a fixed oil and emulsin. It is used internally in medicine, and must not be adulterated with the bitter almond. The Pulvis Amygdalae Compositus of the British Pharmacopoeia consists of sweet almonds, sugar and gum acacia. It may be given in any dose. The Mistura Amygdalae contains one part of the above to eight of water; the dose is 1/2 to 1 oz.

The bitter almond is rather broader and shorter than the sweet almond and has a bitter taste. It contains about 50%, of the fixed oil which also occurs in sweet almonds. It also contains a ferment emulsin which, in the presence of water, acts on a soluble glucoside, amygdalin, yielding glucose, prussic acid and the essential oil of bitter almonds or benzaldehyde (q.v.), which is not used in medicine. Bitter almonds may yield from 6 to 8% of prussic acid.

Oleum Amygdalae, the fixed oil, is prepared from either variety of almond. If intended for internal use, it must, however, be prepared only from sweet almonds. It is a glyceryl oleate, with slight odour and a nutty taste. It is almost insoluble in alcohol but readily soluble in chloroform or ether. It may be used as a pleasant substitute for olive oil. The pharmacopoeial preparations of the sweet almond are used only as vehicles for other drugs. The sweet almond itself, however, has a special dietetic value. It contains practically no starch and may therefore be made into flour for cakes and biscuits for patients suffering from diabetes mellitus or any other form of glycosuria. It is a nutritious and very pleasant food.

There are numerous commercial varieties of sweet almond, of which the most esteemed is the Jordan almond, imported from Malaga. Valentia almonds are also valued. Fresh sweet almonds are nutritive and demulcent, but as the outer brown skin sometimes causes irritation of the alimentary canal, they are blanched by removal of this skin when used at dessert.

ALMONER (from Lat. eleemosynarius, through med. Lat. almosynarius, alnionarius, and Fr. almosnisr, almosnier, &c., mod. Fr. aumonier), in the primitive sense, an officer in religious houses to whom belonged the management and distribution of the alms of the house. By the ancient canons all monasteries were to spend at least a tenth part of their income in alms to the poor, and all bishops were required to keep almoners. Almoners, as distinct from chaplains, appear early as attached to the court of the kings of France; but the title of grand almoner of France first appears in the reign of Charles VIII. He was an important court official whose duties comprised the superintendence of the Chapel Royal and all the religious ceremonies of the court. He was a director of the great hospital for the blind (Quinize-Vingts), and nominated the regius professors and readers in the College de France. The office was revived by Napoleon I., was abolished in 1830, and again created by Napoleon III.; it existed till 1870. In England, the royal almonry still forms a part of the sovereign's household, the officers being the hereditary grand almoner (the marquess of Exeter), the lord high almoner, the sub-almoner, and the secretary to the lord high almoner. The office of hereditary grand almoner is now merely titular. The lord high almoner is an ecclesiastical officer, usually a bishop, who had the rights to the forfeiture of all deodands (q.v.) and the goods of a felo de se, for distribution among the poor. He had also, by virtue of an ancient custom, the power of giving the first dish from the king's table to whatever poor person he pleased, or, instead of it, alms in money, which custom is kept up by the lord high almoner distributing as many silver pennies as the sovereign has years of age to poor men and women on Maundy Thursday (q.v..)

ALMONRY (Lat. eleemosynarium, Fr. aumonorie, Ger. Almosenhaus), the name for the place or chamber where alms were distributed to the poor in churches or other ecclesiastical buildings. At Bishopstone church, Wiltshire, it is a sort of covered porch attached to the south transept, but not communicating with the interior of the church. At Worcester Cathedral the alms are said to have been distributed on stone tables, on each side, within the great porch. In large monastic establishments, as at Westminster, it seems to have been a separate building of some importance, either joining the gatehouse or near it, that the establishment might be disturbed as little as possible.

ALMORA, a town and district of British India, the chief town and administrative headquarters of the Kumaon division of the United Provinces, situated on a mountain-ridge of the Himalayas 5494 ft. above the sea. Pop. (1901) 8506. The town has a college called after Sir Henry Ramsay; a government high school; a Christian girls' school; and a large cantonment. The town was captured by the Gurkhas in 1790, who constructed a fort on the eastern extremity of the ridge. Another citadel, Fort Moira, is situated on the other extremity of the ridge. Almora is also celebrated as the scene of the British victory which terminated the war with Nepal in April 1815, and which resulted in the evacuation of Kumaon by the Gurkhas and the annexation of the province by the British.

The DISTRICT OF ALMORA was constituted in 1891, together with Naini Tal, by a redistribution of the two former districts of Kumaon and the Tarai. It lies among the mountains of Kumaon, between the upper waters of the Ganges and the Gogra, here called the Rali. Area, 5419 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 465,893, showing an increase of 13% during the decade. Tea is grown in the district, which includes the military sanatorium of Ranikliet. The nearest railway via Naini Tal is the extension of the Oudh and Rohilkhand line from near Bareilly to Kathgodam.

ALMORAVIDES (properly Murabtis, the name being corrupted through the Spanish), a Berber horde from the Sahara which, in the 11th century, founded the fourth dynasty in Morocco. By this dynasty the Moorish empire was extended over Tlemcen and a great part of Soam and Portugal. The name is derived from the Arab. Murabit, a religious ascetic (see MARABOUT.) The most powerful of the invading tribes was the Lamtuna ("veiled men'') from the upper Niger, whose best-known representatives now are the Tuareg. They had been converted to Mahommedanism in the early times of the Arab conquest, but their knowledge of Islam did not go much beyond the formula of the creed—-"there is no god but God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God,''—and they were ignorant of the law. About the year 1040 or a little earlier, one of their chiefs, Yahya ibn Ibrahim, made the pilgrimage to Mecca. On his way home he attended the teachers of the mosque at Kairawan, in Tunisia, who soon learnt from him that his people knew little of the religion they were supposed to profess, and that though his will was good, his own ignorance was great. By the good offices of the theologians of Kairawan, one of whom was from Fez, Yahya was provided with a missionary,'Abd-Allah ibn Yazin, a zealous partisan of the Malokis, one of the four orthodox sects of Islam. His preaching was for long rejected by the Lamtunas, so on the advice of his patron Yahya, who accompanied him, he retired to an island in the Niger, where he founded a ribat or Moslem monastery, from which as a centre his influence spread. There was no element of heresy in his creed, which was mainly distinguished by a rigid formalism and strict obedience to the letter of the Koran and the orthodox tradition or Sunna. 'Abd-Allah imposed a penitential scourging on all converts as a purification, and enforced a regular system of discipline for every breach of the law, even on the chiefs. Under such directions the Murabtis were brought to excellent order. Their first military leader, Yahya ibn Omar, gave them a good military organization. Their main force was infantry, armed with javelins in the front ranks and pikes behind, formed into a phalanx and supported by camelmen and horsemen on the flanks. From the year 1053 the Murabtis began to impose their orthodox and puritanical religion on the Berber tribes of the desert, and on the pagan negroes. Yahya was killed in battle in 1056, but 'Abd-Allah, whose influence as a religious teacher was paramount, named his brother Abu Bakr as chief. Under him the Murabtis soon began to spread their power beyond the desert, and subjected the tribes of the Atlas. They then came in contact with the Berghwata, a Berber people of central Morocco, who followed a heresy founded by Salah ibn Tarif 300 years previously. The Berghwata made a fierce resistance, and it was in battle with them that 'Abd-Allah ibn Yazin won the crown of martyrdom. They were, however, completely conquered by Abu Bakr, who espoused the defeated chief's widow, Zainab.

In 1061 Abu Bakr made a division of the power he had established, handing over the more settled parts to his cousin Yusef ibn Tashfin, as viceroy, resigning to him also his favourite wife Zainab, who had the reputation of a sorceress. For himself he reserved the task of suppressing the revolts which had broken out in the desert, but when he returned to resume control he found his cousin too powerful to be superseded, so he had to go back to the Sahara, where in 1087 he too attained martyrdom, having been wounded with a poisoned arrow in battle with the pagan negroes.

Ibn Tashfin, who was largely guided by Zainab, had in the meantime brought what is now known as Morocco to complete subjection, and in 1062 had founded the city of Marrakesh ("Morocco City''). He is distinguished as Yusef I. In 1080 he conquered the kingdom of Tlemcen and founded the present city of that name, his rule extending as far east as Oran. In 1086 he was invited by the Mahommedan princes in Spain to defend them against Alphonso VI., king of Castile and Leon. In that year Yusef passed the straits to Algeciras, and on the 23rd of October inflicted a severe defeat on the Christians at Sacrahas, or in Arabic, Zallaka, near Badajoz. He was debarred from following up his victory by trouble in Africa which he had to settle in person. When he returned to Spain in 1090 it was avowedly for the purpose of deposing the Mahommedan princes and annexing their states. He had in his favour the mass of the inhabitants, who were worn out by the oppressive taxation imposed by their spendthrift rulers. Their religious teachers detested the native Mahommedan princes for their religious indifference, and gave Yusef a fetwa—-or legal opinion—-to the effect that he had good moral and religious right to dethrone the heterodox rulers who did not scruple to seek help from the Christians whose bad habits they had adopted. By 1094 he had removed them all, and though he regained little from the Christians except Valencia, he reunited the Mahommedan power and gave a check to the reconquest of the country by the Christians. After friendly correspondence with the caliph at Bagdad, whom he acknowledged as Amir el Aluminin, "Prince of the Faithful,'' Yusef in 1097 assumed the title of "Prince of the Resigned''—- Amir el Muslimin. He died in 1106, when he was reputed to have reached the age of 100.

The Murabti power was at its height at Yusef's death, and the Moorish empire then included all North-West Africa as far as Algiers, and all Spain south of the Tagus, with the east coast as far as th mouth of the Ebro, and the Balearic Islands. Three years afterwards, under Yusef's son and successor, 'Ali III. of Morocco, Madrid, Lisbon and Oporto were added, and Spain was again invaded in 1119 and 1121, but the tide had turned, the French having assisted the Aragonese to recover Saragossa. In 1138 'Ali III. was defeated by Alphonso VII. of Castile and Leon, and in 1139 by Alphonso I. of Portugal, who thereby won his crown, and Lisbon was recovered by the Portuguese in 1147. 'Ali III. was a pious nonentity, who fasted and prayed while his empire fell to pieces under the combined action of his Christian foes in Spain and the agitation of the Muwahhadis or "Almohades'' (q.v.) in Morocco. After 'Ali's death in 1142, his son Tashfin lost ground rapidly before the Muwahhadis, and in 1145 he was killed by a fall from a precipice while endeavouring to escape after a defeat near Oran. His two successors Ibrahim and Ishak are mere names. The conquest of the city of Marrakesh by the Muwahhadis in 1147 marked the fall of the dynasty, though fragments of the Murabtis continued to struggle in the Balearic Islands, and finally in Tunisia.

The amirs of the Murabti dynasty were as follows:—-Yusef I., bin Tashfin (1061); 'Ali III. (1106); Tashfin I. (1143); Ibrahim II. (1145); Ishak (1146).

See Budgett Meakin, The Moorish Empire (London, 1899); the anonymous Raodel el Kartas (Fez. 1326), translated by Baymier as Roudh el-Kartas; (Paris, 1860); Ibn Khaldun, Kitab el 'Aibr...fi Aiyam el Maghrib, &c. (cir. 1405), partly translated by de Slane as Histoire des Berbers, vol. ii. (Algiers, 1852-1856); Makkari, History of the Mahommedan Dynasties in Spain, translated by Gayangos (London, 1840); Histoire des Mussulmans d'Espagne, by R. Dozy, vol. iv. (Leiden, 1861). (B. M.*; D. H.)

ALMQVIST, KARL JONAS LUDWIG (1793-1866), Swedish writer, was born at Stockholm in 1793. He became a student at Upsala, where his father was professor of theology, in 1808, and took his degree in 1815. He began life under highly favourable auspices; but becoming tired of a university career, in 1823 he threw up the position he held in the capital to lead a colony of friends to the wilds of Wermland. This ideal Scandinavian life soon proved a failure; Almqvist found the pen easier to wield than the plough, and in 1828 he returned to Stockholm as a teacher in the new Elementary School there, of which he became rector in 1829. Now began his literary life; and after bringing out several educational works, he made himself suddenly famous by the publication of his great series of novels, called The Book of the Thorn-Rose (1832-1835). The career so begun developed with extraordinary rapidity; few writers have equalled Almqvist in productiveness and versatility; lyrical, epic and dramatic poems; romances; lectures; philosophical, aesthetical, moral, political and educational treatises; works of religious edification, studies in lexicography and history, in mathematics and philology, form the most prominent of his countless contributions to modern Swedish literature. So excellent was his style, that in this respect he has been considered the first of Swedish writers. His life was as varied as his work. Unsettled, unstable in all his doings, he passed from one lucrative post to another, at last subsisting entirely on the proceeds of literary and journalistic labour. More and more vehemently he espoused the cause of socialism in his brilliant novels and pamphlets; friends were beginning to leave him, foes beginning to triumph, when suddenly all minor criticism was silenced by the astounding news that Almqvist, convicted of forgery and charged with murder, had fled from Sweden. This occurred in 1851. For many years no more was heard of him; but it is now known that he went over to America and settled in St Louis. During a journey through Texas he was robbed of all his manuscripts, among which are believed to have been several unprinted novels. He is said to have appealed in person to President Lincoln, but the robbers could not be traced. The American adventures of Almquist remain exceedingly obscure, and some of the most remarkable have been proved to be fabulous. In 1865 he returned to Europe, and his strange and sinister existence came to a close at Bremen on the 26th of September 1866. It is by his romances, undoubtedly the best in Swedish, that his literary fame will mainly be supported; but his singular history will always point him out as a remarkable figure even when his works are no longer read. He was another Eugene Arara, but of greater genius, and so far more successful that he escaped the judicial penalty of his crimes. (E. G.)

ALMS, the giving of relief, and the relief given, whether in goods or money, to the poor, particularly applied to the charity bestowed under a sense of religious obligation (see CHARITY AND CHARITIES.) The word in O. Eng. was aelmysse, and is derived through the Teutonic adaptation (cf. the modern Ger. almosen ) of the Latinized form of the Gr. lleemosbne, compassion or mercy, from ileos, pity. The English word "eleemosynary,'' that which is given in the way of alms, charitable, gratuitous, derives direct from the Greek. "Alms'' is often, like "riches,'' wrongly taken as a plural word.

ALMSHOUSE, a house built and endowed by private charity for the residence of poor and usually aged people. The greater portion were built after the Reformation. Two interesting examples are the Hospital of St Cross, near Winchester, founded in 1136, and Coningsby Hospital at Hereford, founded in 1614.

ALMUCE, or AMICE (O. Fr. aumuce, O. Eng. aumuce, amys, amess, &c., from late Lat. almucia, almucium, armucia. &c.), a hooded cape of fur, or fur-lined, worn as a choir vestment by certain dignitaries of the Western Church. The origin of the word almucium is a philological mystery. The al- is probably the Arabic article, since the word originated in the south (Sicilian almuziu, Prov. almussa, Span. almucio, &c.), but the derivation of the second part of the word from a supposed old Teutonic term for cap—-Ger. Mutze, Dutch Mutsche, Scot. mutch (New Eng. Dict. s. "Amice''; Diez, Worterbuch der rom. Sprachen) —is the exact reverse of the truth. The almuce was originally a head-covering only, worn by the clergy, but adopted also by the laity, and the German word Mutze, "cap,'' is later than the introduction of the almuce in church, and is derived from it (M. H. G., 13th century, almutz; 14th century, armuz, aremuz, &c.; 15th century, mutz, mutze, &c.). The word mulzen, to dock, cut off, which first appears in the 14th century, does not help much, though the name of another vestment akin to the almuce—-the mozzetta—-has been by some traced to it through the Ital. mozzare and mozzo (but see below).

In numerous documents from the 12th to the 15th century the almucium is mentioned, occasionally as identical with the hood, but more often as a sort of cap distinct from it, e.g. in the decrees of the council of Sens (1485)—-non caputia, sed almucia vel bireta tenentes in capito. By the 14th century two types of almucium were distinguished: (1) a cap coming down just over the ears; (2) a hood-like cap falling over the back and shoulders. This latter was reserved for the more important canons, and was worn over surplice or rochet in choir. The introduction. of the biretta (q.v.) in the 15th century tended to replace the use of the almuce as a head-covering, and the hood now became smaller, while the cape was enlarged till in some cases it fell below the elbows. Another form of almuce at this period covered the back. but was cut away at the shoulders so as to leave the arms free, while in front it was elongated into two stole-like ends. Almuces were occasionally made of silk or wool, but from the 13th century onward usually of fur, the hem being sometimes fringed with tails. Hence they were known in England as "grey amices'' (from the ordinary colour of the fur), to distinguish them from the liturgical amice (q.v..) By the 16th century the almuce had become definitely established as the distinctive choir vestment Of canons; but it had ceased to have any practical use, and was often only carried over the left arm as a symbol of office. The almuce has now been almost entirely superseded by the mozzetta, but it is still worn at some cathedrals in France, e.g. Amiens and Chartres, at three churches in Rome, and in certain cathedrals elsewhere in Italy. The "grey amice'' of the canons of St Paul's at London was put down in 1549, the academic hood being substituted. It was again put down in 1559, and was finally forbidden to the clergy of the English Church by the unratified canons of 1571 (Report of the sub-committee of Convocation, 1908).

See du Cauge, Glossarium, s. "Almucia''; Joseph Braun, Die liturgische Gewandung, p. 359, &c. (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1907); also the bibliography to the article VESTMENTS.

ALNACE, or AULNAGE (from Fr. aune, ell), the official supervision of the shape and quality of manufactured woollen cloth. It was first ordered in the reign of Richard I. that "woollen cloths, wherever they are made, shall be of the same width, to wit, of two ells within the lists, and of the same goodness in the middle and sides.'' This ordinance is usually known as the Assize of Measures or the Assize of Cloth. Article 35 of Magna Carta re-enacted the Assize of Cloth, and in the reign of Edward I. an oflicial called an "alnager'' was appointed to enforce it. His duty was to measure each piece of cloth, and to affix a stamp to show that it was of the necessary size and quality. As, however, the diversity of the wool and the importation of cloths of various sizes from abroad made it impossible to maintain any specific standard of width, the rules as to size were repealed in 1353. The increased growth of the woollen trade, and the introduction of new and lighter drapery in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, compelled a revision of the old standards. A statute was passed in 1665 creating the office of alnager of the new drapery, and defining the sizes to which cloth should be woven. The object of the statute was to prevent people being deceived by buying spurious woollen cloth, and to provide against fraud and imposition. Owing to the introduction of the alternative standard, a distinction arose between "broadcloth'' (cloth of two yards) and "streit'' or "strait'' (narrowcloth of one yard). The meaning now attached to broadcloth, however, is merely that of material of superior quality. Alnage duties and the office of alnager were abolished in 1699.

See W. J. Ashley, Economic History; and W. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce.

ALNWICK, a market-town and the county-town of Northumberland, England, in the Berwick-upon-Tweed parliamentary division, 309 m. N. by W. from London, on a branch of the North Eastern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 6716. It is beautifully situated on the small river Aln, in a hilly district. Its history has left many marks. Dominating the town from an eminence above the south bank of the river stands the castle, held by the Percys since 1309, and long before this an important border stronghold. A gateway of c. 1350, a fine Norman arch of the middle of the 12th century, and the ancient well in the keep, are among noteworthy ancient portions; but the castle was extensively renovated and altered in the second half of the 18th century, while in 1854, when the lofty Prudhoe tower was built, a scheme of decoration in Italian style was adopted in the interior; so that the castle, though magnificent, has largely lost its historic character. It contains numerous fine examples of the works of Italian and other artists, and collections of British and Roman and Egyptian antiquities. In the beautiful park are a monument commemorating the capture of William the Lion of Scotland when besieging the town in 1174, two memorial towers, and a British stone chamber. Remains of the wall which formerly surrounded Alnwick are visible, and one of the four gates, the Bondgate, stands, dating from the early part of the 15th century. The church of St Michael has Norman remains, but is principally perpendicular; it contains several ancient monuments and incised slabs. The modern church of St Paul has a fine east window of German stained glass. Within the confines of the park are ruins of two abbeys. Alnwick Abbey was a Premonstratensian foundation of 1147; only a gateway tower stands, but the ground-plan was excavated in 1884 and is ourlined on the surface. At 3 m. from the town are more extensive remains of Hulne Abbey (1240), an early Carmelite monastery. The long narrow church remains unroofed; there are also a gateway tower, and portions of the chapter-house and cloisters. The Norman chapel of the hospital of St Leonard, which, as well as Alnwick Abbey, was founded by Eustace Fitz John, completes the series of antiquities in Alnwick. In this interesting locality, however, there must be mentioned the mansion of Howick, built in the 18th century, in a fine situation near the coast to the N.E. Not far from this, overlooking the sea from a rocky cliff pierced by deep gullies, are the ruins of Dunstanborough Castle; it dates from the 14th century, though the site was probably occupied as a stronghold from earlier times.

The chief industries are brewing, tobacco, snuff and fishing-tackle making, and corn milling. Alnwick is under an urban district council, but is a borough by prescription, and its freemen form a body corporate without authority over the affairs of the town. It is, however, required to pay, under an act of 1882, a sum not less than L. 500 out of the corporate property towards the upkeep of corporation schools. An ancient peculiar ceremony was attached until modern times to the making of freemen; those elected were required to ride in procession to a large pool called Freemen's Well and there rush through the water. According to tradition the observance of this custom was enjoined by King John to punish the inhabitants, the king having lost his way and fallen into a bog owing to the neglected condition of the roads in the neighbourhood.

According to the Chronicle of Alnwick Abbey, the barony of Alnwick belonged before the Conquest to Gilbert Tyson, whose son and heir William was killed at Hastings, and whose estates with his daughter were granted by the king to Ivo de Vescy, although this theory does not seem probable since Gilbert Tyson was certainly not a Saxon. In 1297 William de Vescy, a descendant of Ivo, dying without issue, left the barony to the bishop of Durham, who in 1309 sold it to Sir Henry Percy, in whose family it still continues. The town evidently grew up round the castle, which is said to have been built by Eustace Fitzjohn about 1140. Tradition states that it received its borough charter from King John. However, Alnwick is first definitely mentioned as a borough in a charter given by William de Vescy in the reign of Henry II., by which the burgesses were to have common of pasture on Haydon Moor and to hold of him "as freely and quietly as the burgosses of Newcastle hold of the king.'' This charter was confirmed by his grandson, William de wescy, in an undated charter, and again by William, son of the latter William, in 1290. According to an inquiry of 1291 a market and fair were held in Alnwick from time immemorial. In 1297 Edward I., in addition, granted the bishop of Durham a market on Saturday, and a fair on the 17th of March and six following days. By charters of Henry VI. the burgesses received licence to enclose their town with a wall, to have a free port at Alnmouth, a market on Wednesday as well as Saturday, and two new fairs on the feasts of SS Philip and James and St Lucy, and eight days following each. Tanning and weaving were formerly the principal industries carried on in Alnwick, and in 1646 there were twenty-two tanneries there. Alnwick has never been represented in parliament.

See George Tate, The History of the Borough, Castle, and Barony of Alnwick, 2 vols. (Alnwick, 1866-1869); Victoria County History, Northumberland.

ALOE, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Liliaceae, with about 90 species growing in the dry parts of Africa, especially Cape Colony, and in the mountains of tropical Africa. Members of the closely allied genera Gasteria and Haworthia, with a similar mode of growth, are also cultivated and popularly known as aloes. The plants are apparently stemless, bearing a rosette of large, thick, fleshy leaves, or have a shorter or longer (sometimes branched) stem, along which, or towards the end of which and its branches, the generally fleshy leaves are borne. They are much cultivated as ornamental plants, especially in public buildings and gardens, for their stiff, rugged habit. The leaves are generally lance-shaped with a sharp apex and a spiny margin; but vary in colour from grey to bright green, and are sometimes striped or mottled. The rather small tubular yellow or red flowers are borne on simple or branched leafless stems and are generally densely clustered. The juice of the leaves of certain species yields aloes (see below). In some cases, as in Aloe venenosa, the juice is poisonous. The plant called American aloe, Agave americana (c.v.), belongs to a different order, viz. Amaryllidaceae.

Aloes is a medicinal substance used as a purgative and produced from various species of aloe, such as A. vera, vulgaris, socotrina, chinensis, and Perryi. Several kinds of aloes are distinguished in commerce—Barbadoes, Socotrine, hepatic, Indian, and Cape aloes. The first two are those commonly used for medicinal purposes. Aloes is the expressed juice of the leaves of the plant. When the leaves are cut the juice flows out, and is collected and evaporated. After the juice has been obtained, the leaves are sometimes boiled, so as to yield an inferior kind of aloes.

From these plants active principles termed aloins are extracted by water. According to W. A. Shenstone, two classes are to be recognized: (1) Nataloins, which yield picric and oxalic acids with nitric acid, and do not give a red coloration with nitric acid; and (2) Barbaloins, which yield aloetic acid, C7H2N3Q5, chrysammic acid, C7H2N2O6, picric and oxalic acids with nitric acid, being reddened by this reagent. This second group may be divided into a-Barbaloins, obtained from Barbadoes aloes, and reddened in the cold, and b-Barbaloins, obtained from Socotrine and Zanzibar aloes, reddened by ordinary nitric acid only when warmed, or by fuming acid in the cold. Nataloin, 2C17H13O7.H2O, forms bright yellow scales, melting at 212 deg. -222 deg. ; barbaloin, C17H18O7, forms yellow prismatic crystals. Aloes also contain a trace of volatile oil, to which its odour is due.

The dose is 2 to 5 grains, that of aloin being 1/2 to 2 grains. Aloes can be absorbed from a broken surface and will then cause purging. When given internally it increases the actual amount as well as the rate of flow of the bile. It hardly affects the small intestine, but markedly stimulates the muscular coat of the large intestine, causing purging in about fifteen hours. There is hardly any increase in the intestinal secretion, the drug being emphatically not a hydragogue cathartic. There is no doubt that its habitual use may be a factor in the formation of haemorrhoids; as in the case of all drugs that act powerfully on the lower part of the intestine, without simultaneously lowering the venous pressure by causing increase of secretion from the bowel. Aloes also tends to increase the menstrual flow and therefore belongs to the group of emmenagogues. Aloin is preferable to aloes for therapeutic purposes, as it causes less, if any, pain. It is a valuable drug in many forms of constipation, as its continual use does not, as a rule, lead to the necessity of enlarging the dose. Its combined action on the bowel and the uterus is of especial value in chlorosis, of which amenorrhoea is an almost constant symptom. The drug is obviously contraindicated in pregnancy and when haemorrhoids are already present. Many well-known patent medicines consist essentially of aloes.