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the Carmelites (White Friars) founded in 1241, was believed to have possessed the privilege of sanctuary. The name Alsatia was derived from the French Alsace, which was associated in the popular mind as the seat of repeated contests, and was first applied to the district defined about 1680. The locality became so notorious that in 1697 any privileges that were supposed to have existed were abolished by law. A recent investigator asserts that no such right of sanctuary was ever possessed by the district.

AL SIRAT, literally, "the way," is an imaginary bridge as narrow as a spider's thread, believed by Mohammedans to extend between earth and paradise. In its passage, those overladen with sin fall into the abyss of Hades below.

ALSOP, RICHARD, American author, born in Middletown, Connecticut, Jan. 23, 1761. Meant for a mercantile career, he studied at Yale College, but desiring to devote himself entirely to literature, he left college before the completion of his course. He organized the "Hartford Wits," an association of active local littérateurs of strong Federal sympathies, who were relentless in their ridicule of all that did not meet their approval. The vehicle for these effusions was the publication called The Echo, which appeared, in series, from 1791 to 1795, republished in collected form in 1807. Alsop had a powerful influence on public opinion and was strongly anti-Democratic. He published, among other works, a Monody on the Death of Washington (1800); The Enchanted Lake of the Fairy Morgana (1808); The Natural and Civil History of Chili, a translation of an interesting work by the Italian, Juan Ignacio Molina. He died in Flushing, Long Island, Aug. 20, 1815.

ALSTER, a river in Holstein. At Hamburg it forms a lake called the Great, or Outer, Alster, which was outside the old fortifications, and within the town the Inner Alster. It flows into the Elbe. See HAMBURG, Vol. XI, p. 404.

ALSTROEMER OR ALSTRÖMER, KLAUDIUS, a Swedish naturalist and pupil-friend of the great Linnæus, who named a botanical genus (ALSTREEMERIA, q.v.) after him. In Spain he studied the native fine-wooled sheep, and published a treatise on the subject in 1770. He died March 5, 1796, aged 60. He was a son of JONAS ALSTROEMER; q.v., Vol. I, | p. 638.

ALSTROEMERIA OR ALSTRÖMER'S LILY, a genus of Amaryllidacea, cultivated for its flowers and curious leaves. The A. Salsilla, a native of Peru, is cultivated in the West Indies for its tubers, which are eaten like those of the potato. A kind of arrowroot is prepared in Chile from the roots of A. pallida and other species. See HORTICULTURE, Vol. XII, D. 250.

ALTAMAHA, a river in Georgia, which, with its two feeders, the Ocmulgee and Oconee and their numerous affluents, drains the middle-central portion of the state as far north as Hall and Gwinnett counties. The junction of the Ocmulgee and Oconee is effected near a small town named Seward, in the southeastern corner of Montgomery County. The junction is in a direct line 85 miles N.E of Darien, the mouth of the river being 12 miles above

that city. The river widens into the sound of the same name, a prominent feature of the Atlantic coast of Georgia. Below Seward the towns of Altamaha and Matlock are on its left bank and Doctor's Town on its right. In its course it flows through a rather poor section of the state as to soil, but it and its main confluents are navigable by vessels of low tonnage. See Georgia, Vol. X, p. 434ALTAMIRANO, IGNACIO MANUEL, a Mexican soldier and poet, born about 1835, in the province of Guerrero, of pure Aztec blood. He studied law and entered politics, allying himself with the extreme radical party. He fought against the French upon their invasion of Mexico and during the rule of the emperor Maximilian, reaching the rank of colonel. Retiring from active military life at the close of the war, he became a member of the constitutional congress of 1861. He was a remarkable linguist, had no equal as an orator in Mexico, and was a graceful writer of prose and verse, his novel Clemencia being well known. He died in Italy in February, 1893.

ALTAMONT, capital of Grundy County, central southern Tennessee. It is in the center of the county, about 13 miles N. of Tracy City, on the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis railroad. Population 1890, 67.

ALTAZIMUTH, an astronomical instrument for determining the apparent places of the heavenly bodies in the celestial sphere. It consists of a horizontal and vertical circle, both graduated, the latter attached to the axis of the telescope. By it the altitude and azimuth (angle) of the heavenly body under observation is ascertained. The principal one in existence is that at Greenwich, designed by Sir George Airy. Small instruments of this kind are used in surveys. See GEODESY, Vol. X, pp. 164

171.

ALTEN, KARL August, COUNT VON, Hanoverian general, born at Burgwedel, in the vicinity of Hanover, Oct. 20, 1764; entered the army in 1781. In 1803 he went to England, where he became commander of the German legion. He was actively engaged in the Peninsular War, and also at QuatreBras and Waterloo. He became minister of war on his return to Hanover. He died April 20, 1840, at Bozen, Austria-Hungary.

ALTENA, a town in the district of Arnsberg, Westphalia, Prussia. It manufactures needles, pins and hardware. Population, 8,787.

ALTENESSEN, a town 2 miles N. of Essen, in Rhenish Prussia, and 21 miles N.E. of Düsseldorf. It is noted for its coal-mines, which supply the extensive iron-foundries at Essen. Population 1890, 12,295.

ALTENGAARD, a hamlet in Finmarken, the northernmost province of Norway, situated on the south side of the Alten Fiord, in 69° 55′ N. lat., 53 miles S. W. of Hammerfest. It is the most northern European point at which grain (barley) is cultivated. The only other vegetable produced is the potato. A meteorological and magnetic station is located there.

ALTENSTEIN, KARL, BARON VON, a Prussian statesman, born at Anspach, Bavaria, Oct. 7, 1770.

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into slavery at Smyrna. He effected an escape, and, concealing some madder seeds about his person (the penalty for the exportation of which was death), he carried them with him to Marseilles. The soil and climate of Vaucluse appeared to him to suit the plant, and he experimented therein with great success, thus adding largely to the wealth of the district. Treated with neglect in after-life, he died in poverty, but was posthumously honored by the erection of a marble slab to his memory in Avignon, while his daughter was the inmate of a charitable institution. He died at Caumont, in 1774.

ALTHING, the ancient parliament or general assembly of Iceland. It was formed soon after the first settlement, when the inhabitants organized themselves into a republic and adopted one constitution for the whole island. The first althing met 930 A.D., and adopted a code of laws arranged by one Ulfljot, who, it is said, spent three years in Norway fitting himself for the task. The althing, in which all authority was vested, both legislative and judicial, met once a year, in the month of June, and was presided over by a "speaker of laws." In 1263, when Iceland was united with Norway, the althing was deprived of its legislative authority, but continued to meet as a judicial body until the year 1800, when it was abolished. It was, however, reorganized in 1843 as a parliament to consider Icelandic local interests, and in 1874 its powers were considerably increased. See ICELAND, Vol. XII, pp. 618, 621.

ALTISCOPE, an instrument having a telescopic tube and mirrors arranged so as to enable the observer to look over a parapet, wall, or other object intercepting the view. It is really a form of fieldtelescope which is designed to be pointed upward vertically and extended until the object-glass is above the object to be overlooked. The tube turns with a right angle at the top and with a reverse right angle at the bottom, and mirrors are inserted at these points to change the direction of vision. The principal use of the instrument is for looking over embankments during military operations, when it would be dangerous for an observer to expose himself.

ALTITUDE, in astronomy, is the height of a heavenly body above the horizon. It is measured by the angle which a line drawn from the eye to the heavenly body makes with the plane of the horizon, or by the arc of a vertical circle intercepted between the body and the horizon. The correct determination of altitudes is of great importance in problems of astronomy and navigation. See NAVIGATION, Vol. XVII, pp. 268–271.

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ployed him, in 1840, to make historical research in the north of Europe. After his return Dr. Altmeyer published The Diplomatic and Commercial Relations of the Netherlands with the North of Europe in the Sixteenth Century. The great work of his life, in which he spent 40 years, was his labor among the archives of Belgium for the purpose of publishing an exhaustive work on The Netherlands in the Sixteenth Century. He had published five volumes when he was compelled by failing health to desist from the work. At his death the government took possession of his manuscripts, for preservation and future publication. Among his most important works are a Course of Philosophy of History (1840); Margaret of Austria: Her Life, Policy and Court (1840); Summary of Modern History (1842); The Sea-Beggars and the Capture of Brille (1863), and Campaigns of Louis XIV in Belgium (1864). He died at Brussels, Sept. 15, 1877.

ALTMÜHL, a river, rising near Hornau, a village in Bavaria, flowing southeastward, and falling into the Danube after a course of 100 miles, at Kelheim, west of Ratisbon. The Altmühl constitutes part of the Ludgwigs canal, from Dietfurt to Bambergon-the-Regnitz (33 miles N.W. of Nuremberg), by means of which it is possible to make a passage by boat from the Black Sea to the German Ocean, and also opens communication between the Danube and the Rhine. This was first accomplished August, 1836.

ALTO, in music, is properly the same as countertenor, the male voice of the highest pitch. The lowest female voice is properly contralto, though in printed music the second part in a quartet is always entitled alto.

ALTO AMAZONAS, a province or state in Northern Brazil, is bounded on the north by Dutch and British Guiana and Venezuela, west by Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, south by Bolivia and the province of Matto Grasse, and east by the province of Para. In its extensive western area it is drained by the chief constituents of the river Amazon; viz., the Madeira, the Purus, the Jurua, the Javari, the Yapura, and the Rio Negro. Above Manaos, or Barrado Rio Negro, at the junction of the Rio Negro, the Amazon is called the Solimões River. The Madeira joins the main river about 150 miles below Manaos, the capital of the state. The eastern portion is also drained by numerous branches of the great river. The area of the state is 732,460 square miles, and population in 1888 was 80,654. Manaos has a population of 6,000. The state provides two deputies to the chamber, and three senators to the

senate.

ALT-OFEN, a part of BUDAPEST; q.v., Vol. IV, p. 423.

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ALTON, county seat of Oregon County, southeastern Missouri, 15 miles N.E. by E. of Koshkonong, on the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis railroad. Population 1895, 325.

ALTON, RICHard, Count oF, an Austrian general, was born in Ireland in 1732. He was a commander in the Netherlands in 1789. Being compelled to evacuate Brussels, he died while retreating to Vienna in 1790.

ALTON BAY, a village of Belknap County, on the bay of the same name, the southeastern arm of Lake Winnipiseogee, New Hampshire, on a branch of the Boston and Maine railroad, 28 miles N.E. of Dover. It is a summer resort. Population 1895, 300.

ALTOONA, a city in Blair County, south-central Pennsylvania. at the base of the Alleghanies. It manufactures locomotives and railroad-cars. It also contains extensive hydraulic-works and an electriccar plant. Population 1890, 30,337- See ALTOONA, Vol. I, p. 643.

ALTO ORINOCO (High or Upper Orinoco), a territory in the southern portion of Venezuela, bounded on the north by Bolivia; on the northeast by the territory of Caura and that of Guiana, on the east by Brazil, on the south by the territory of Alto Amazonas, and on the west by Colombia. On all sides but the west it has natural boundaries, either rivers or mountain ranges. The surface is generally mountainous, with some wide plains and wooded tracts, the whole being drained by the branches of the Orinoco. Though exhibiting a great diversity of climate and productions, the territory is thinly peopled. See VENEZUELA, Vol. XXIV, p.

140.

642.

ALTÖTTING. See ALTEN OETTING, Vol. I, p. ALTRANSTÄDT, a village in Saxony, noted for the treaties signed there. In 1706 Charles XII of Sweden signed a treaty with Augustus II, elector of Saxony, by which the latter lost Poland. In 1707 Charles XII signed a treaty with the emperor Joseph I, by which the Swedes and Silesian Protestants benefited.

ALTRICES is the name given to that class of birds whose young are at birth helpless and generally almost naked. It is not used in recent systems

of classification.

ALTURAS, capital of Modoc County, northeastern California, on the Pit River, which falls into Goose Lake, eight miles north. Amedee, on Honey Lake, the nearest railroad point, is distant S.E. 30 miles, which is the terminus of the Nevada, California and Oregon railroad, and is 80 miles N.W. of Reno, in Nevada. Population 1890, 1,145.

ALTRUISM is the name by which is known that theoretical condition of perfection of human principle, or action toward which the benevolent aim to attain in their relations with their fellows. It means the entire subordination of self to the interests and wellbeing of others, or rather the finding of one's own highest welfare in seeking the welfare

positivist Comte, and adopted in Britain and elsewhere, as useful in defining the highest principle of moral action recognizable by agnostics. See METAPHYSICS, Vol. XVI, p. 101.

ALUCONIDÆ, the family of barn-owls. There are two genera, Aluco and Phodilus.

ALUDEL. See MERCURY, Vol. XVI, p. 32. ALUMGIR. See AURUNGZEBE, Vol. III, p. 99. ALUMINA, the most abundant of the earths, is the oxide of the metal aluminium. It is a common constituent of silicate minerals, associated with other bases. Its best-known native compound is feldspar, one of the constituents of granite, and several other kinds of volcanic rocks.

ALUMINITE. See ALUM, Vol. I, p. 645; MINERALOGY, Vol. XVI, p. 401.

ALUMINIUM OR ALUMINUM, the base of alumina. Its symbol is Al, and atomic weight 27. In nature, aluminium is not found in a separate or metallic state. It was formerly very rare, and cost as much as gold, but as a result of recent discoveries the cost has been greatly reduced. Until very late years it was imported from Greenland, being obtained from the mineral cryolite, a double fluoride of aluminium and sodium. Another source of aluminium is bauxite, originally found largely near Baux, France, and later in other localities in Europe and in the southern part of the United States. In combination with oxygen it forms the common earth alumina (Al2O3), the most abundant of the earths, as diffused over the globe in the shape of clays, loams, and similar substances. It enters largely into the composition of a great number of minerals, principal among which are the feldspars, from whose decomposition are the many forms of clay (kaolin, etc.); also a large number of silicates, as the andalusite, cyanite, fibrolite, topaz, etc. its various compounds it is estimated that it forms fully one twelfth of the crust of the earth, and on account of its abundance, its lightness of weight, resistance to tarnish, ease in working, and its nonpoisonous qualities, every effort is being made to reduce the cost of its production. It has heretofore been used, to a limited extent, by itself, and in alloys in many articles where great strength and extreme lightness were required. As a gauge of its lightness, it may be stated that a cubic foot of silver weighs four times as much, and a cubic foot of iron three times as much, as a cubic foot of aluminium, and, with its extreme ductility, and its tensile strength of 25,000 to 30,000 pounds per square inch, it is destined to occupy a highly important position in the arts.

In

An alloy of nine parts of copper to one of aluminium resembles gold in luster and color, and is much used in the manufacture of cheap jewelry, ornamental work, and for various industrial purposes. Three per cent of silver mixed with aluminium gives the alloy the color and brilliancy of pure silver, and while silver is tarnished by sulphureted hydrogen, the alloy remains unchanged. An alloy made of gold, silver, copper, and for soft solder a little zinc, is used in soldering bronze. It enters largely into the mechanic and ornamental arts. It

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ALUM SCHIST, ALUM SLATE OR ALUM SHALE. See ALUM, Vol. I, p. 645.

ALUNITE OR ALUM-STONE. See ALUM, Vol. I, p. 645; MINERALOGY, Vol. XVI, p. 402. ALUNOGEN OR ALUNOGENE. See ALUM, Vol. I, p. 645; MINERALOGY, Vol. XVI, p. 401. ALURED OR ALFRED OF BEVERLEY, same as AILRED, Vol. I, p. 425.

The raw materials or ores from which aluminium is produced are bauxite and cryolite. The commercial process of obtaining the metal is by electrolytic reduction. A mixture of prepared fluorides is placed in a suitable iron bath lined with carbon. The bath is subjected to heat, and the contained mixture becomes fused. The electrodes of the bath are connected with an electric generator. On the addition of bauxite, and its dissolution within the bath, the alumina is reduced by the action of the anode current. The light metal falls to the bottom, from which it can afterward be tapped. The oxygen is liberated at the positive pole, where, if the cathode is of carbon, it escapes in the form of carbonic acid or oxide. Continual additions of alumina-containing material being made to the bath, the process of reduction can go on indefinitely. See ALUMINIUM, Vol. I, p. 647.

ALUMNUS (literally, "foster-child "), applied to a graduate of a college or university, expresses his relation to the alma mater, or "fostering-mother." Alumnus and alumni refer to male students, and since the free admission of ladies to colleges, the feminine forms of the word have come into use; viz., alumna and alumnæ. These sections form among themselves an increasing number of societies, which meet during the college year, and also in annual reunions. In the United States there are 28 Greekletter college societies, having a membership of 100,000, with perhaps about 650 active chapters, and 350 inactive. The societies own 70 halls in the various college towns. The Kappa Alpha, which was founded at Union College, Schenectady, New York, in 1825, is the oldest fraternity. There are eleven ladies' societies, the oldest being Pi Beta Phi, founded in 1867, at Monmouth, Illinois. There are 16 professional fraternities, founded by professional schools attached to colleges, and these have some 50 active chapters and 350 members.

ALUM ROOT. The name is given to two plants very different from one another, but agreeing in the astringency of their roots, which are medicinally used. One of these plants (Geranium maculatum) contains more tannin than kino does. The other plant to which the name alum root is given is

ALUTA, a river of Austrian Transylvania and Rumania. It rises in the Carpathians, in the northern portion of Transylvania, and flows south and then east, generally parallel with this mountain range, till, reaching the Rotherthurm Pass, it enters Wallachia and Rumania, and flows in a southerly and easterly direction, joining the Danube opposite Nikopoli, after a rapid course of 300 miles.

ALVARADO, a city in Johnson County, northcentral Texas. It is situated at the junction of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fé railroads; on the latter it is 42 miles S.W. of Dallas. It is in the center of a good corn and cotton region and has cotton gins and mills. Population 1890, 1,543.

ALVARADO, a town in the state of Vera Cruz, Mexico, situated at the mouth of the river Alvarado, which enters that portion of the Gulf of Mexico more particularly known as the Gulf of Campeche. It is on the Interoceanic railroad, southeast by east of Vera Cruz. Alvarado is a port, and can admit vessels of about 13 feet draught.

ALVARADO, ALONSO DE, a Spanish general, born in Burgos about 1490, his early history being obscure. He joined the fortunes of Cortez in 1518, participating in the conquest of Mexico. He then went to Peru and assisted in quelling an insurrection in Chachapoyas, a territory on the Upper Marañon. Recalled to relieve Cuzco, which had been seized by Almagro, with only a handful of men, he was easily defeated, but the following year, at the battle of Las Animas, April 26th, he captured his former opponent. He took part in the campaign, in 1542, against the younger Almagro, and returned to Spain, being there made a marshal. Afterward he became governor of Cuzco, also of Charcas, and captain-general of Peru. In attempting to reduce a rebellion in 1553, promoted by Giron, he was, the succeeding year, defeated May 21st, at Chuquingua. This defeat is believed to have hastened his death, which occurred soon after.

ALVARADO, Juan BautistA, governor of California from November, 1836, to December, 1842. He led the revolt against Mexican rule, which resulted in his declaring the freedom and unity of California in 1837. Alvarado was declared governor, and succeeded in winning over the southern portions of the state, which had previously held out against the movement. The Mexican government had to acknowledge his authority, but a few years later Alvarado was deposed, and lost command over his followers. It was during this time, in 1842, that Commodore Jones, of the United States navy, hoisted the American flag for the first time over Monterey.