Cathares ou Albigeois (Paris, 1849), which is still the
most important work on the subject. The following will be
found useful: D. Vaissete, Histoire de Languedoc, vols. iii.
iv. vii. viii. (new edition); Ch. Molinier, L'Inquisition
dans le Midi de la France (Paris, 1880), and the other
works by the same author; L. Tanon, Histoire des tribunaux
de l'Inquisition en France (Paris, 1893). Les Albigeois,
leurs origines (Paris, 1878), by Douais, should be read with
caution. Of the sources, which are very numerous, may be
mentioned: the Liber Sententiarum of the Inquisition of
Carcassonne, published by Ph. van Limborch at the end of his
Historia Inquisitionis (Amsterdam, 1692): other registers of
the inquisition analysed at length by Ch. Molinier, op cit.,
some published in vol. ii. of the Documents pour l'histoire
de l'Inquisition (Paris, 1900), by C. Douais; numerous texts
concerning the last days of Albigensianism, collected by M.
Vidal, ``Les derniers ministres albigeois,' in Rev. de quest.
histor. (1906). See also the Rituel cathare, ed. by Cunitz
(Jena, 1852); the Nouveau Testament en provencal, ed. by
Cledat (Paris, 1887); and the very curious Debat d'Yzarn
et de Sicart de Figueiras, ed. by P. Meyer (1880). On
the ethics of the Catharists, see Jean Guiraud, Questions
d'histoire et d'archeologie chretienne (Paris, 1906); and
P. Alphandery, Les idees morales chez les heterodoxes
latins au debut du XIIIe siecle (Paris, 1903). (P. A.)
1 These they often confounded and a heretic is described aa
saying: ``Clergy and French, they are one and the same thing.''
ALBINO, a biological term (Lat. albus, white), in the usual
acceptation, for a pigmentless individual of a normally pigmented
race. Among some flowering plants, however, the character
has become one of specific rank, .and among animals we have
in the polar bear and the Greenland hare instances where
partial albinism--for in them the eyes are black and other
parts may be pigmented--has also become a specific character.
A true or complete albino is altogether devoid of pigment.
One result of this among the Vertebrata is that the eyeball
is pink in colour, since the cornea, iris and retina being
transparent, the red blood contained in the capillaries is
unmasked by the absence of pigmentary material. In man, and
doubtless also in lower forms, the absence of this pigment
produces the well marked albinotic facies. This is a condition
in which the eyelids are brought into a nearly closed position
accompanied by blinking movements and a general wrinkling of
the skin around the immediate neighbourhood of the eyes. It
is the result of the too great intensity of the light incident
upon the retina, and which in normal eyeballs is adequately
diminished by the absorptive power of the pigmentary material.
In a complete albino not only is all pigment absent in the
skin, but also that which is normally present in deeper
organs, such as the sympathetic nervous system and in the
substanlia nigra of the brain. There is some reason to
believe that a peculiar condition found in the majority of
human albinoes, and knovn as nystagmus, is correlated with
the absence of pigment in the central nervous system. This
condition is one marked by unsteadiness---a sort of flickering
rolling--of the eyeballs, and it becomes more marked as they
endeavour to adjust their accommodation to near objects. It
is thought to depend upon some connexion, not yet anatomically
demonstrated, between the third cranial nerve and its nucleus
in the floor of the iter and the substantia nigra.
In addition to complete albinism, there exist, however, various
albinotic conditions in which more or less pigment may be
present. Familiar instances of this partial albinism is
seen in the domestic breed of Himalayan rabbits. In these
animals the eyeball and the fur of the body are unpigmented,
but the tips of the ear pinnae and extremities of the fore
and hind limbs, together with the tail, are marked by more
or less well defined colour. One remarkable feature of these
animals is that for a few months after birth they are complete
albinoes. Occasionally, however, some are born with a grey
colour and a few may be quite black, but ultimately they
attain their characteristic coat. There is some reason to
believe, as we shall see later, that in spite of the presence
of a little pigment and of occasional wholly pigmented young
ones, Himalayans must be regarded as true albinoes. Other
individual rabbits, but belonging to no particular breed,
are similarly marked, but in addition the eyeballs arc
black. Some domesticated mice are entirely white with the
exception that they have black eyeballs; and individuals
of this type are known in which there is a reduction of
pigment in the eyeballs, and since the colour of the blood
is then partially visible these appear of a reddish-black
colour. Such cases are interesting as representing the last
step in the graded series through which the condition of
complete pigmentation passes into that of complete albinism.
There is evidence, as shown by G. M. Allen, that partial
albinism is a condition in which pigment is reduced around
definite body centres, so that unpigmented areas occur
between the pigment patches or at their borders. In the
mouse, ten such centres may be distinguished, arranged
symmetrically five on either side of the median plane---a
cheek patch, neck patch, shoulder patch, side patch and rump
patch. Various degrees in the reduction of the pigment
patches up to that of complete elimination may be traced.
Some animals are wholly pigmented during the summer and
autumn, but through the winter and spring they are in the
condition of extreme partial albinism and become almost complete
albinoes. Such instances are found in the Scotch blue hare
(Lepus timidus), in the Norway hare, in the North American
hare (H. americanius), in the arctic fox (Canis lagopus),
in the stoat and ermine, and among birds, in the ptarmigan,
and some other species of Lagopus. How the change from the
autumnal to the winter condition takes place appears not to
be definitely settled in all cases, and accurate observations
are much to be desired. In the case of the Norway hare,
it has been stated that a general moult, including all the
hairs and under fur, takes place and new white hairs are
substituted. The process of moulting is said to begin in
the middle of autumn and is completed before the end of
December, by which time the fur is in its winter condition,
and is closer, fuller and longer than in summer (Naturalists'
Library, vol. vii.). On the other hand, it has been stated
that during the whole of the transformation in the fur no
hairs fall from the animal, and it is attributed to an actual
change in the colour of the hair (Edinburgh Philosophical
Journal, vol. xi. p. 191). In the case of the American
hare, however, some very careful observations have been
made by F. H. Welch. In this animal the long hairs (which
form the pile) become white at their extremities, and in
some of them this whiteness extends through their whole
length. At the same time, new hairs begin to develop and
to grow rapidly, and soon outstrip the hairs of the autumn
pile. From their first appearance these new hairs are white
and stiff, and they are confined to the sides and back of the
body. It is not clear from Welch's account what is the cause
of the whiteness of the tips of the hairs of the autumn coat,
but his figures suggest that it is due to the development
of gas in the interspaces between the keratin bridges and
trabeculae of the hairs. There is nothing to show whether
the pigment persists or is absorbed. Probably it persists.
In this event, the whiteness of the tips will be due to the
scattering or irregular reflexion of the incident rays of
light from the surface of the numerous gas bubbles. In the
case of the ptarmigan the evidence is clear that the existing
autumnal feathers do change, more or less completely, to
white. But the evidence is not conclusive as to whether any part
of the winter condition is additionally produced by moulting.
The condition of albinism thus assumed as a seasonal variation
is never complete, for the eyes at least retain their pigmented
state. The reason of this is readily understood when it is
borne in mind how disadvantageous to the function of sight is
the unpigmented condition of an albino's eyeball; a disadvantage
which would be probably much accentuated, in the cases now under
consideration, by the bright glare from the surface of the
snow, which forms the natural environment of these animals
at the particular period of the year when the winter change
occurs. In some cases, as in all the varying hares, in addition
to the eyes retaining their normal pigmentation, areas similar
in extent and situation to those on the Himalayan rabbits also
retain their pigmentation; and in the ptarmigan there is a
black band on each side of the head stretching forwards and
backwards from the eyeball, and the outer tail feathers are black.
Albinism is restricted to no particular class of the animal
kingdom; for partial albinism at least is known to occur in
Coelentera, worms, Crustacea, Myriapoda, Coleoptera,Arachnida and
fishes. The individuals in which this diminished pigmentation
is found are for the most part those living in caves, and
it is probable that their condition is not truly albinotic,
but only temporary and due to the absence of the stimulus of
light. This may be also true of some of those instances
that have occurred among frogs, in Proteus, and with an
axolotl once possessed by the present writer. This latter
animal was quite white, with the exception of the black
eyeballs. At the end of four weeks after it was first
purchased the dorsal or upper surface of its external gills
developed a small amount of dark pigment. Within the next
few weeks this increased in quantity and the dorsal surface
of the head and of the front end of the trunk began to be
pigmented. The animal died at the end of the eighth week, but
it is possible that had it lived it would have become wholly
pigmented. But, apart from these instances, albinism is known,
according to W. E. Castle, who cites it on the authority of Hugh
M. Smith, to occur among a breed of albino trout, which breed
true and are reared in the State fish-hatcheries of America.
With birds and mammals, however, there is no doubt that complete
albino individuals do occur; and among species which, like the
jackdaw, certain deer and rabbits, are normally deeply pigmented.
Albinism occurs in all races of mankind, among mountainous
as well as lowland dwellers. And, with man, as with other
animals, it may be complete or partial. Instances of the
latter condition are very common among the negroes of the United
States and of South America, and in them assumes a piebald
character, irregular white patches being scattered over the
general black surface of the body. Occasionally the piebald
patches tend to be symmetrically arranged, and sometimes the
eyeballs are pigmentless (pink) and sometimes pigmented (black).
According to A. R. Gunn, of Edinburgh Dniversity, who has
recently been investigating the subject of albinism in
man, there is reason to believe that a condition of piebald
albinism occurs also in Europeans (Scotsmen). He has examined
subjects in which the whole of the hair of the body is
white, but the eyeballs are pigmented, often deeply; and,
conversely, he has seen cases in which the eyes are pink
but the hair is pigmented. The hair and the eyes may be
regarded as skin patches, in which sometimes the one and
sometimes the other is pigmentless. He believes that, were
it not for the generally very pale colour of white-skinned
races, this piebald condition would be as manifest in
them as in negroes, over the whole surface of the body.
In complete human albinoes, albinism is correlated, in addition
to nystagmus, with a peculiar roughness of the skin, making it
harsh to the touch. The skin is also milky-white in appearance.
According to C. J. Sehgmann, there exists among the Papuans
an albinotic race whose skin varies in colour from a
pink-white to that of cafe au lait; the eyes are generally
greenish, hazel or brown, and the hair is tow-coloured. The
skin where unexposed is pinker than that of a normal North
European. Like complete albinoes, this race suffers from
photophobia, and is characterized by the albinotic facies.
Before we can inquire into the cause and meaning of albinism it
will be necessary first to consider the nature Of pigmentation.
It has recently been ascertained that the coloration of
certain sponges is due to the interaction of an oxydizing
ferment, tyrosinase, upon certain colourless chromogenic
substances. In 1901, Otto v. Furth and Hugo Schneider showed
that a tyrosinase could be obtained from the blood of certain
insects, and, acting upon a chromogen present in the blood,
converted it into a pigmentary substance of melanin-like
nature. Hans Przibram also extracted a tyrosinase from the
ink-sac of Sepia, and, causing it to act upon a watery
solution of tyrosin, obtained a black pigment. From the blood of
Bombyx mori, fe. von Ducceshi has also obtained a tyrosinase.
Subsequently (1903) L. Cuenot, in order to explain certain
features in the hereditary transmission of coat colour in
mice, postulated the hypothesis that the grey colour of
the wild mouse (which is known to be a compound of black,
chocolate and yellow pigments) may be due either to the
interaction of a single ferment and three chromogens, or vice
versa, to one chromogenic substance and three ferments.
Since then (1904) Miss Florence Durham has shown that if
the skins of young or embryonic mammals (rats, rabbits and
guinea-pigs) be ground up and extracted in water, and the
expressed juice be then incubated with solid tyrosin for
twenty-four hours, with the addition of a very small amount
of ferrous sulphate to act as an activator, a pigmentary
substance is thrown down. The colour of this substance
is that of the pigment in the skin or hairs of the animal
used. Miss Durham interprets her results as indicating that the
skin of these pigmented animals normally secretes one or more
tyrosinases. The same result was obtained from the skins of
some unhatched chickens. The skins of albinoes gave no results.
Not only have such resuits been obtained with sponges,
Insects, cephalopods, birds and mammals, but Em. Bourquelot
and G. Bertrand have shown that certain fungi, the tissues
of which, when exposed to the air by injury, become
immediately coloured, do so owing to the action of tyrosinase
upon one or more chromogenous substances present in the
plant. We may conceive, then, that a pigmented animal
owes its colour to the power that certain tissues of its
body possess to secrete both tyrosinases and chromogenic
substances. And the period at which this process is most
active is at birth, or preceding it or immediately succeeding
it. In spite of the inquiry being only in its initial stages,
there is already good evidence to believe that Cuenot's
theory is correct, and that an albino is an individual whose
skin lacks the power to secrete either the ferment or the
chromogen. It forms one but not both of these substances.
A moment's consideration, however, will show that, while
an albino may be an individual in which one or more of
the complementary bodies of pigmentation are absent, a
pigmented animal is something more than an individual which
carries all the factors necessary for the development of
colour. For it must be borne in mind that animals are not only
coloured but the colour is arranged in a more or less definite
pattern. The wild mouse, rat and rabbit are self-coloured,
but the domesticated forms include various piebald patterns,
such as spotted forms among mice, and the familiar black and
white hooded and dorsal-striped pattern of some tame rats.
Colour, therefore, must be correlated with some determinant
(determining factor) for pattern, and it cannot, therefore,
exist alone in an animal's coat. And we must conceive that
each kind of pattern---the self, the spotted, the striped,
the hooded and all others---has its own special determinant.
Given the presence of all the necessary determinants for
the development of pigment in a mammal's coat, some or all
of the hairs may bear this pigment according to the pattern
determinants, or absence of pattern determinants, which the
cells of the hair papillae carry. And this brings us to
the question as to whether in a piebald animal the pigmented
hairs are in any way different from the pigmentless or white
hairs. No adequate investigation of this subject has yet
been made, but some observations made by the author of this
article, on the piebald black and white rat, show that
differences connected with the microscopic structure exist.
There is thus evidence that colour is correlated with other
factors which determine pattern. And this leads to the
inquiry as to whether albinoes ever exhibit evidence that they
carry the pattern determinants in the absence of those for
pigmentation. For it is to be expected a priori that, since
albinoes were derived from pigmented progenitors and may at
any time appear, side by side with pigmented brothers, in
a litter from pigmented parents, they would be carrying the
pattern determinants of some one or other of their pigmented
ancestors. Now we know, from the numerous experiments in
heredity which have resulted since the rediscovery of Mendel's
principles, that an individual may carry a character in one of two
conditions. It may be carried as a somatic character, when it
will be visible in the body tissues, or it may be carried as a
gametic character, and its presence can only then be detected
in subsequent generations, by adequately devised breeding tests.
With regard to pattern, the evidence is now clear that
albinoes may carry the determinants in both these ways.
So far as they are carried gametically, i.e. by the
sex-cells, it has been shown by Cuenot and G. M. Allen for
mice, by C. C. Hurst for rabbits, and by L. Doncaster and
G. P. Mudge for rats, that in a cross between a coloured
individual of known gametic purity and an albino, the
individuals of the progeny in either the first or second, or
both generations, may differ, and that the difference in some
cases wholly depends upon the aihino used. It has been shown
that the individuals in such an offspring may bear patterns
which never occurred in the ancestry of the coloured parent,
but did in that of the albino; and, moreover, if the same
coloured parent be mated with another individual, either
albino or coloured, that their offspring may never contain
members bearing such patterns. The particular pattern
will only appear when the coloured parent is mated with
the particular albino. And yet the albino itself shows no
somatic pattern or pigment. So clear is the evidence on
this point that any one adequately acquainted at first hand
with the phenomena, by employing an albino of known gametic
structure and mating it with a coloured individual, also
of known gametic constitution, could predict the result.
With respect to albinoes carrying pattern as a visible somatiu
character, i.e. in the body cells, no definite evidence
has as yet been published. But W. Haacke has described a
single albino rat, in which he states that the hairs of the
shoulder and mid-dorsal regions were of a different texture
from those of the rest of the body. And it is possible
that this albino, had it developed colour, would have been
of the piebald pattern. But the author of this article has
quite recently reared some albinoes in which the familiar
shoulder hood and dorsah stripe of the piebald rat is
perfectly obvious, in spite of the absence of the slightest
pigmentation. The hairs which occupy the region which in
the pigmented individual is black, are longer, thinner and
more widely separated than those in the regions which are
white. As a result of this, the pink skin is quite visible
where these hairs occur, but elsewhere it is invisible. Thus
these albinocs exhibit a pattern of pink skin similar in form
with the black pattern of the piebald rat. Moreover, some
of the albinoes possess these particular ``pattern'' hairs
all over the body and obviously such individuals are carrying
the self pattern. There are other details into which we
cannot here enter, but which support the interpretation put
upon these facts, i.e: that these particular albinoes are
carrying in the soma the pattern determinants simultaneously
with the absence of some of the factors for pigmentation.
Not only do albinoes thus carry the determinants for pattern,
but it has been known for some time that they also carry
gametically, but never visible somatically, the determinants
for either the ferment or the chromogen for one or more
colours. L. Cuenot was the first to show this for albino
mice. He was able by appropriate experiments to demonstrate
that when an albino is derived (extracted) from a coloured
ancestry, and is then crossed with a coloured individual, both
the colour of the pigmented parent and of the pigmented ancestry
of the albino may appear among the individuals of the offspring.
Immediately subsequent to Cuenot, G. M. Allen in Ameriia
demonstrated the same Jact upon the same species of rodents.
C. C. Hurst, more recently, has shown that albino rabbits.
whether pure bred for eight generations at least, or extracted
from pigmented parents, may carry the determinants for black
or for black and grey. In this latter case the determinants
for black are carried by separate gametes from those carrying
grey, and the two kinds of sex-cells exist in approximately
equal numbers. This is likewise true of albino mice when
they carry the determinants for more than one colour.
Since Hurst's work, L. Doncaster and G. P. Mudge have both
shown that albino rats also carry in a latent condition
the determinants for black or grey. The experiments of the
latter author show that, if a gametically pure black rat be
crossed with an albino derived from a piebald black and white
ancestry, all the offspring in successive litters will be
black; but if the same black parent be crossed with albinoes
extracted from parents of which One or both are grey, then both
grey and black members will appear in the successive litters.
The proportions in which the various coloured individuals
appear are approximately those demanded by the Mendelian
principle of gametic purity and segregation. Cuenot and Hurst
have also shown that when albinoes of one colour extraction
are crossed with albinoes of another colour extraction the
segregation of the colour determinants in the gametogenesis
of the albinoes takes place in precisely the same way that it
does in the gametogenesis of a pigmented individual; that is,
in Mendelian fashion. Or, to express it otherwise, an albino
extracted from yellow parents, bred with an albino extracted
from black parents, will give an albino offspring whose
gametes in equal numbers are bearers of the black and yellow
determinants. And when one of these albinoes is bred with
a pure coloured individual, a mixed offspring will appear in
the first generation. Some of the individuals will be one
or other of the two colours, the determinants of which were
borne by the albino, and others the colour of the pigmented
parent. But in such albino crosses the colour characters
are latent because albinoes do not carry the whole of the
complements for colour production. They carry only some
determinant or determinants which are capable of developing
colour when they interact with some other determinant or
determinants carried alone by pigmented individuals. Whether
albinoes carry the tyrosinase or other ferment, or whether
they carry the chromogen or chromogens, is not yet settled.
Miss Durham's work suggests that they carry the latter. But
that they never bear both is proved by the fact that, when
albinoes are crossed with each other, none but albinoes ever
result in the offspring. One apparent exception to this rule
only is known, and this almost certainly was due to error.
It is not only among albino animals that colour factors
are carried in a latent condition, but also in white
flowers. W.. Bateson has shown this to be the case for the
sweet-pea (Lathyrus odoratus), var. Emily Henderson,
and for certain white and cream stocks (Matthiola.) When
white Emily Henderson (the race having round pollen grains)
is crossed with a blue-flowered pea, purple offspring
result. Similarly, when white Emily Henderson (long pollen
grains) is crossed with white Emily Henderson (round pollen
grains), the offspring wholly consists of the reversionary
purple type, and sometimes wholly of a red bicolor form known
as ``Painted Lady.'' These two types never appear in the same
family. With the stocks, when a white-flowered and hairless
form is crossed with a cream-flowered and hairless one, all
the offspring are purple and hairy. Bateson considers that
the purple colour is due to the simultaneous existence in
the plant of two colour factors which may be designated by
C and R. If either one of these two is absent the plant is
colourless. Cream-coloured flowers are regarded as white
because cream is due to yellow plastids and not to sap
colour. Thus the cream plant may carry C and the white
one R. When they are crossed the two factors for colour
production are brought together. Obviously, we may regard C
as a tyrosinase and R as a chromogen, or vice versa; and in
the case of the white sweetpea crossed with a blue-flowered
one, and producing purple offspring, we may imagine that
the white flower brought in an additional tyrosinase or a
chromogen not present in the blue flower, which, when combined
or mixed with the chromogen or tyrosinase for blue, gave
purple. A similar explanation may apply to C. Correns's
experiment, in which he crossed white Mirabilis jalapa with
a yellow form, and always obtained red-flowered offspring.
In heredity, complete albinism among animals is always
recessive; and partial albinism (piebald) is always recessive
to complete pigmentation (self-coloured). When an albino
mouse, rat, guinea-pig or rabbit is crossed with either
a pure self or pure pied-coloured form, the offspring are
similar to, though not always exactly like, the coloured
parent; provided, of course, that the albino is pure and
is not carrying some colour or pattern determinant which is
dominant to that of the coloured parent used. No albinoes,
in such a case, will appear among the first generation,
but if the individuals of this (F.1) generation are crossed
inter se or back crossed with the albino parenr, then
albino individuals reappear among the offspring. In the
former case they would form one-quarter of the individuals
of this second (F.2) generation, and in the latter, one-half.
The recessive nature of albinism and its distribution in
Mendelian fashion is almost certainly as true for man as
for lower forms. This has been shown by W. C. Farabee for
negroes in Coanoma county, Mississippi. The facts are as
follows. An albino negro married a normal negress. They had
three children, all males. All three sons married, and two
of them had only normal children, judged of course by somatic
characters. But the third son married twice, and by the
first wife had five normal and one albino children, and by
the second, six normal and three albino children. If we
assume that the two negresses which the third son married
were themselves carrying albinism recessive --an exceedingly
probable condition considering that albino negroes are not
uncommon---the result is accurately in accordance, as W. E.
Castle has shown, with Mendelian expectation. For there is
expected in the offspring of this third son coloured individuals
and albinoes in the proportion of 3:1. There is actually 11:4,
which is the nearest possible approximation with the number 15.
The operation of Mendelian processes in human heredity
is further shown by the close relationship that exists
between the appearance of albinoes and cousin marriages.
An albino is a homozygote; that is, all its gametes are
carrying the character of albinism and none of them bear the
alternative character --the allelomorph---of pigmentation. By
pigmentation is here meant all those factors which go to its
production. Now such a gametic (egg or sperm) constitution
can only result when two individuals, all or some of whose
gametes are pure with regard to the character albinism, meet in
fertilization. Hence it is readily seen that it is among
cousin marriages that the greater probabilities exist that
two individuals bearing identical characters will meet, than
in the population at large. This can be illustrated in the
following scheme. Let A stand for a pure albino and (A)N
for a normal person, who nevertheless carries the character
albinism (A) recessive. Then, in the scheme below, if Ab
and (A)Nb are two brothers who both marry normal wives
N, their children N(A) in the first case will be all normal
in appearance but will be carrying albinism recessive; and
in the second case some will be pure normal individuals
N, and some will be like the children of the first brother,
i.e. N(A). Now, if one of these latter children of the
second brother marries a cousin---a child of the first
brother,---their offspring, if large enough, will consist of
some pure normals N, impure normals N(A), and of albinoes A.
Ab X N (A)Nb X N
| |
N(A) N(A)+N
|
N+2N(A)+A
No other rational explanation of the close relationship
between albinism and cousin marriages is at present
forthcoming. And, when the whole facts are borne in
mind, there can be no reasonable doubt that the Mendelian
principles offer an intelligible solution of the problem.
A popular conception exists that albinoes are less
constitutionally strong than the pigmented individuals of
the same species. In support of this belief there is more or
less scientifically ascertained evidence. Conversely, there
is, however, conclusive evidence that in some instances and
in respect of certain qeialities the opposite belief is true.
To deal with the former belief first, we have the remarkable
case cited by Charles Darwin on the authority of Professor I. J.
Wyman. In Virginia the paint-root plant (Lachnanthes
tinctoria) occurs abundantly, and Professor Wyman noticed
that all the pigs in this district were black. Upon inquiry
of the farmers he found that all the white pigs born in a
litter were destroyed, because they could not be reared to
maturity. The root of this plant, when eaten by white pigs,
caused their bones to turn to a pink colour and their hoofs
to fall off, but the black pigs could eat the same plant with
impunity. Partial albinism in this case was undoubtedly
correlated with some inherent constitutional defect, in
virtue of which the individuals characterized by it were
injuriously affected by the juices of a plant quite innocuous
to their pigmented brethren. Heusinger has shown that
white sheep and pigs are injured by the ingestion of certain
plants, while the pigmented individuals may eat them without
harm. In Devonshire and in parts of Kent the farmers entertain
a marked prejudice against white pigs, because ``the sun
blisters their skin.'' More remarkable is the case of certain
cattle, whose skin is piebald, marked by a general ground
colour over which are scattered patches of unpigmented coat.
In these animals, in certain inflammatory skin eruptions,
caused by the ingestion of harmful plants, the albinotic
areas are alone affected. And with certain cutaneous diseases
accompanied by constitutional disturbances which afflict
cattle, the affection in the skin appears on the patches
bearing white hairs, the other parts remaining apparently
healthy. Such cases suggest that we should be more correct
in regarding, not albinism as correlated with constitutional
defects, but rather pigmentation as correlated with powers
of immunity or increased resistance against certain injurious
processes. In the West Indies ``the only horned cattle
fit for work are those which have a good deal of black in
them; the white are terribly tormented by the insects and
they are weak and sluggish in proportion to the black.''
Coming to man, it is known that some albino negroes are peculiarly
sensitive to the bites of insects; and with Europeans it is a
generally observed fact that the fairer individuals are more
seriously affected by the bites of fleas and bugs than are darker
ones. Dr Twining, in the British Association Reports for
1845, p. 79, cites some instances described by Humboldt, who
says that the copper-coloured natives of the high plain of
Bogoto, and at a lower level on the Magdalena river, were
generally free from goitre. Professor Poffig, also cited
by Dr Twining, states that on the east side of the Andes in
Chile, in some of the races which live there, he did not see
a single case of goitre, and yet in the white inhabitants, who
live exactly as the natives, it prevails in a great degree:
Turning now to instances of the opposite kind, it is known
that silkworms which spin colourless cocoons are more resistant
to the attacks of a certain deadly fungus than are those
which spin the yellow ones. In some parts of North America
it is found that the white peaches are much less liable to
the attack of a disease known as the ``yellows'' than are
the yellow-fleshed ones. In the region of the Mississippi,
Farabee has observed that the albino negroes are taller and
broader than the black-skinned individuals. We may assume
that increased stature and breadth imply some sort of inherent
physical superiority, and if such an assumption is valid we
have in man evidence that albinism is correlated not with
constitutional defectiveness but with greater perfectness.
But the question as to whether albinoes are more or less
constitutionally vigorous than pigmented individuals of the
same species may be tested by exact measurement. In 1893 W. D.
Halliburton and T. G. Brodie, in ascertaining the physiological
pijoperties of nucleo-proteids, found that when they were
intravascularly injected into pigmented rabbits, coagulation
of the blood resulted, but of the eight albinoes which they
used, none clotted. At a subsequent period (1897) Halliburton
and J. W. Pickering showed that the three synthesized colloids
of Grimaux in the same way produced coagulation in pigmented
animals, but failed to do so in albinoes. Pickering, still
later, showed, in the case of four Norway hares, two of
which were injected while in their pigmented or summer
coat, and two while in their albino or winter coat, that
coagulation occurred in the former cases but not in the latter.
Quite recently, however, the author of this article has made
a more detailed examination of the question, operating upon
several hundreds of rabbits. And he found that all albinoes
do not fail to clot when intravascularly injected with
nucleoproteids. Only about 9% of them thus failed absolutely
to manifest any trace of coagulation. But about 7% showed
an exceedingly limited coagulation, in which the clot was
colourless and flocculent, and confined to the heart. The
rest gave a typical and more or less wide-spread coagulation.
Moreover, it was found that all the failures of coagulation
occurred when the nucleo-proteid used was obtained from pigmented
animals. When it was derived from albinoes no failures
occurred. All pigmented animals clotted when the nucleo-proteid
was derived from either source. The Himalayan rabbits reacted
like complete albinoes, and 12% of them failed to clot when
injected with nucleo-proteid extracted from pigmented animals.
The interesting fact was thus ascertained that all albinoes are not
alike. To students of heredity this is precisely what would
have been expected. For, as the facts above described show,
albinoes, though apparently identical externally, are yet the
carriers of different hereditary characters. Among albino
rats, for instance, the author of this article has reason to
believe, upon theoretical grounds resting on an experimental
basis, that probably no less than thirteen types exist.
With rabbits and mice there must be a still larger number.
In the intravascular coagulation experiments above described,
all the rabbits were carefully weighed, and the amount of
nucleoproteid injected until coagulation occurred was measured.
This would give for albinoes and pigmented individuals the
amount per kilogramme of body-weight required to kill in each
case, and would afford a measurement of the relative resistance
of the two races. It was found that the resistance of albinoes
towards the coagulative effects of injected nucleo-proteids
was to that of pigmented individuals as 1.5 to 1.0. In this
case, the greater constitutional vigour of the albino is
thus accurately demonstrated. But it does not necessarily
follow that with other materials and with other constitutional
qualities the state of things would not be reversed.
One other feature remains to be mentioned. Albinism appears,
in the processes of heredity, to be sometimes indissolubly
correlated with certain peculiar traits. It is well known
that the long-haired albino rabbit, called Angora, when at
rest, has the habit of swaying its head sideways in a peculiar
fashion. C. C. Hurst has shown that the long-haired and
albino characters are always accompanied in heredity with the
swaying habit. The Angora character never occurs without it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.---G. M. Allen, ``Heredity of Coat Colour in
Mice,'' Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci. vol. xl. No.
2; W. Bateson, Mendel's Principles of Heredity, a Defence
(Cambridge, 1902); W. Bateson and E. R. Saunders, ``Experimental
Studies in the Physiology of Heredity,'' Reports to the
Evolution Committee of the Royal Society, Report I. (London,
1901); W. Bateson, E. R. Saunders, R. C. Punnett and C. C.
Hurst, Reports to the Evolution Committee of the Royal
Society, Report II. (London, 1905); W. Bateson, E. R. Saunders
and R. C. Punnett, ``Further Experiments on Inheritance in
Sweet-Peas and Stocks,'' Proc. Roy. Soc. B. vol. lxxvii.;
W. E. Castle, ``Note on Mr Farabee's Observations,'' Science,
N.S. vol. xvii. (New York); ``Mendel's Law of Heredity'',
Science, N.S. vol. xviii. (New York); W. E. Castle and G. M.
Allen, ``Mendel's Law and the Heredity of Albinism,'' Proc.
Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci. vol. xxxviii.; L. Cuenot,
``L'heredite de la pigmentation chez les souris,'' Arch.
d. Zool. Exper. et Gen. Notes et Revue, ser. 3, tom.
10, and ser. 4, tom. 1 and 2; Charles Darwin, Variation
of Animals and Plants under Domestication, vols. i. and
ii., 2nd ed. (London, 1899); L. Doncaster, ``Inheritance
of Coat Colour in Rats,'' Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. vol.
xiii. (Camb., 1906); V. von Ducceschi, Rendiconti della
R. Accad. dei Lincei, vol. ii.; Archivio di Fisiologia,
vol. i.; Florence M. Durham, ``Tyrosinases in the Skins of
Pigmented Vertebrates,'' Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. lxxiv.;
W. C. Farabee, ``Notes on Negro Albinism,'' Science, N.S.
vol. xvii. (New York); Furth v. Schneider, Beitr. z.
Chem. Phys. u. Path. Bd. 1; W. Haacke, ``Ueber Wesen,
Ursachen und Vererbung von Albinismus und Scheckung, &c.,',
Biol. Centralbl. Bd. 15; Halliburton and Brodie, Journ.
Phys. Camb. and Lond. vols. xiv., xvi., xvii., xviii.;
Halliburton and Pickering, Journ. Phys. vol. xviii.; C. C.
Hurst, ``Experimental Studies on Heredity in Rabbits,'' Journ.
Lin. Soc. Sool. vol. xxix.; Geo. P. Mudge, ``Intravascular
Coagulation and Albinism, Preliminary Note,'' Proc. Phys.
Soc., 1905; Packard, Memoirs of National Academy of Sciences
(1888); Pickering, Journ. Phys. vols. xviii. and xx.; E. B.
Poulton, Colour of Animals (Lond., 1890); Twining, Brit.
Assoc. Reports, 1845; H. M. Vernon, Variation in Animals
and Plants (London, 1903) F. H. Welch, ``Winter Coat in
Lepus americanus,'' Proc. Zool. Soc., 1869. (G. P. M.)
ALBINONI, TOMASSO (c. 1674--c. 1745), Italian musician,
was born at Venice. He was a prolific composer of operas
attracting contemporary attention for their originality,
but is more remarkable as a composer of instrumental music,
which greatly attracted the attention of Bach, who wrote
at least two fugues on Albinoni's themes and constantly
used his basses for harmony exercises for his pupils.
ALBINOVANUS PEDO, Roman poet, flourished during the Augustan
age. He wrote a Theseis, referred to in a letter from his
intimate friend Ovid (Ex Ponto, iv. 10), epigrams which
are commended by Martial (ii. 77, v. 5) and an epic poem on
the exploits of Germanicus. He had the reputation of being
an excellent raconteur, and Quintilian (x. i. 90) awards him
qualified praise as a writer of epics. All that remains of
his works is a beautiful fragment, preserved in the Suasoriae
(i. 15) of the rhetorician Seneca, from a description of the
Voyage of Germanicus (A.D. 16) through the river Ems to the
Northern Ocean, when he was overtaken by the storm described
by Tacitus (Ann. ii. 23). The cavalry commander spoken of
by the historian is probably identical with the poet. Three
elegies were formerly attributed to Pedo by Scaliger; two
on the death of Maecenas (In Obitum Maecenatis and De
Verbis Maecenatis moribundi), and one addressed to Livia to
console her for the death of her son Drusus (Consolatio ad
Liviam de Morte Drusi or Epicedion Drusi, usually printed
with Ovid's works); but it is now generally agreed that they
are not by Pedo. The Consolatio has been put down as late
as the 15th century as the work of an Italian imitator, there
being no MSS. and no trace of the poem before the publication
of the editio princeps of Ovid in 1471. There is an
English verse translation of the elegies by Plumptre (1907).
See Bahrens, Poetae Latini Minores (1879) and Fragmenta
Poetarum Latinorum (1886); Haupt, Opuscula, i. (1875);
Haube, Beitrag zur Kenntnis des Albinovanus Pedo (1880).
ALBINUS (originally WEISS), RERNHARD SIEGFRIED
(1697-1770), German anatomist, was born on the 24th of February
1697, at Frankfort-on-Oder, where his father, Bernhard Albinus
(1653-1721), was professor of the practice of medicine. In 1702
the latter was transferred to the chair of medicine at Leiden,
and it was there that Bernhard Siegfried began his studies,
having for his teachers such men as H. Boerhaave and Nikolaus
Bidloo. Having finished his studies at Leiden, he went to
Paris, where, under the instruction of Sebastien Vaillant
(1669-1722), J. B. Winslow (1669-1760) and others, he devoted
himself especially to anatomy and botany. After a year's
absence he was, on the recommendation of Boerhaave, recalled
in 1719 to Leiden to be a lecturer on anatomy and surgery.
Two years later he succeeded his father in the professorship
of these subjects, and speedily became one of the most famous
teachers of anatomy in Europe, his class-room being resorted
to not only by students but by many practising physicians.
In 1745 Albinus was appointed professor of the practice of
medicine, being succeeded in the anatomical chair by his
brother Frederick Bernhard (1715-1778), who, as well as another
brother, Christian Bernhard (1700-1752), attained considerable
distinction. Bernhard Siegfried, who was twice rector of his
university, died on the 9th of September 1770 at Leiden.
ALBION (in Ptolemy 'Alouion; Lat. Albion, Pliny
4.16[30],102), the most ancient name of the British Islands,
though generally restricted to England. The name is perhaps
of Celtic origin, but the Romans took it as connected
with albus, white, in reference to the chalk-cliffs of
Dover, and A. Holder (Alt-Keltischer Sprachschatz, 1896)
unhesitatingly translates it Weissland, ``whiteland.''
The early writer (6th cent. B.C.) whose periplus is
translated by Avienus (end of 4th cent. A.D.) does not
use the name Britannia; he speaks of nesos 'Iernon kai
'Albionon (``island of the Ierni and the Albiones''). So
Pytheas of Massilia (4th cent. B.C.) speaks of ''Albion
and 'Ierne. From the fact that there was a tribe called
the Albiones on the north coast ot Spain in Asturia, some
scholars have placed Albion in that neighbourhood (see G. F.
Unger, Rhein. Mus. xxxviii., 1883, pp. 156-196). The name
Albion was taken by medieval writers from Pliny and Ptolemy.
ALBION, a city of Calhoun county, Michigan, U.S.A., on the
Kalamazoo river, 21 m. W. of Jackson. Pop. (1890) 3763;
(1900) 4519, of whom 622 were foreign-born; (1904) 4943; (1910)
5833. Albion is served by the Michigan Central and the
Jackson division of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern
railways, and by an inter-urban electric line. The city has
a public park and a public library. The W. part of the city
has most of the factories; the principal manufactures are
flour, agricultural implements, windmills, gasolene engines,
harness and proprietary medicines. On a commanding site in
the E. part of the city is Albion College (Methodist Episcopal;
co-educational), embracing a College of Liberal Arts, a
preparatory department, a conservatory of music, a school of
art, a school of oratory, a normal course, and a commercial
department. The college was incorporated in 1835 as Spring
Arbor Seminary, and in 1839 by an amended charter was located
at Albion, where it was first opened in 1843 under the
name of the Wesleyan Seminary of Albion; in 1849 it became
the Wesleyan Seminary and Female Collegiate Institute,
with power to grant degrees to women only; but in 1861 the
present name was adopted and the college was permitted to
grant degrees to men and women. In 1906 it had a library
of 16,500 volumes, a faculty of 19, and an enrolment of 483
(211 being women). The municipality owns and operates the
water-works, the water-supply being obtained from artesian
wells. Albion was settled in 1831, was incorporated as
a village in 1866 and was chartered as a city in 1885.
ALBION, a village and the county-seat of Orleans county, New
York, U.S.A., about 30 m. W.N.W. of Rochester. Pop. (1890)
4586; (1900) 4477, (984 being foreign-born and 43 negroes);
(1905, state census) 5174; (1910) 5016. The village is
served by the New York Central & Hudson River railway, by the
Buffalo, Lockport & Rochester electric railway, and by the Erie
Canal. In Albion are the Western House of Refuge for Women
(a state institution established in 1890), a public park, the
Swan Library, and the county buildings, including the court
house, the jail and the surrogate's office; and about 2 m.
to the S.E. is the beautiful Mount Albion Cemetery. Albion
is the centre of the Medina sandstone industry, and lies
in the midst of a good farming region, of which it is the
principal shipping point, especially for apples, cabbages and
beans. The village manufactures agricultural implements,
vinegar, evaporated fruit, and canned fruit and vegetables, and
has two large cold-storage houses. Albion was settled in 1812,
was incorporated in 1823 and became the county-seat in 1825.
ALBITE, a mineral of the felspar group, belonging to the
division of the plagioclases (q.v..) It is a sodium and
aluminium silicate, NaAlSi3O8, and crystallizes in the anorthic
system. Like all the felspars it possesses two cleavages,
one perfect and the other less so, which are here inclined at
an angle of 86 deg. 24'. On the more perfect cleavage, which is
parallel to the basal plane (P), is a system of fine striations,
parallel to the second cleavage (M), due to twinning according
to the,``albite law'' (figs. 1 and 2). The hardness is 6,
and the specific gravity 2.63. The colour is usually pure
white, hence the name (from the Lat. albus) for the species.
Albite forms an essential constituent of many acidic igneous and
FIG. 1. FIG. 2.
crystalline rocks; Twinned crystals of Albite. in granites,
diorites, andesites, &c., it occurs as a primary mineral,
whilst in crystalline schists, phyllites and crystalline
limestones it is of secondary (metamorphic) origin. The
beautifully developed crystals so abundant in crystal-lined
crevices of Alpine granites and gneisses have been deposited,
with other minerals, from solution; the crystals lining veins
in the slates of Tintagel in Cornwall have the same origin.
Several varieties of albite are distinguished, of which
the following may be here specially mentioned. Pericline
(from the Gr. periklines, ``sloping'') is the name given
to large opaque white crystals from the chlorite-schists
of the Alps; they are tabular parallel to the direction of
perfect cleavage and are twinned according to the ``pericline
law.'' Peristerite (from the Gr. peristera, a dove) is
characterized by a beautiful bluish sheen, somewhat resembling
that seen on the neck of a pigeon; it is found mainly in
Ontario. Aventurine and moonstone varieties occur, though
these special appearances are more usually displayed by the
oligoclase and orthoclase felspars respectively. (L. J. S.)
'ALBO, JOSEPH, a Spanish Jewish theologian of the 15th
century. He was author of a very popular book on the philosophy
of Judaism, entitled `Iqqarim or Fundamentals. Maimonides
in the 12th century had formulated the principles of Judaism in
thirteen articles; Albo reduced them to three: (i) The Existence
of God, (ii) Revelation and (iii) Divine Retribution. Albo
set the example of minimizing Messianism in the formulation
of Jewish beliefs. Though he fully maintained the Mosaic
authorship of the Law and the binding force of tradition, he
discriminated between the essential and the non-essential in
the practices and beliefs of Judaism. An English translation
of the `Iqqarim appeared in the Hebrew Review, vols. i.-iii.
ALBOIN (d. 572 or 573), king of the Lombards, and conqueror
of Italy, succeeded his father Audoin about 565. The
Lombards were at that time dwelling in Noricum and Pannonia
(archduchy of Austria, Styria and Hungary, west of the
Danube). In alliance with the Avars, and Asiatic people
who had invaded central Europe, Alboin defeated the Gepidae,
a powerful nation on his eastern frontier, slew their king
Cunimund, whose skull he fashioned into a drinking-cup, and
whose daughter Rosamund he carried off and made his wife.
Three years later (in 568), on the alleged invitation of Narses
(q.v.), who was irritated by the treatment he had received
from the emperor Justin II., Alboin invaded Italy, probably
marching over the pass of the Predil. He overran Venetia and
the wide district which we now call Lombardy, meeting with
but feeble resistance till he came to the city of Ticinum
(Pavia), which for three years (569-572) kept the Lombards at
bay. While this siege was in progress Alboin was also engaged
in other parts of Italy, and at its close he was probably
master of Lombardy, Piedmont and Tuscany, as well as of the
regions which afterwards went by the name of the duchies
of Spoleto and Benevento. In 572 or 573, however, he was
assassinated by his chamberlain Peredeo at the instigation
of Queen Rosamund, whom Alboin had grievously insulted by
forcing her to drink wine out of her father's skull. After
his death and the short reign of his successor Cleph the
Lombards remained for more than ten years in a state of anarchy.
The authorities for the history of Alboin are Procopius, Paulus
Diaconus and Agnellus (in his history of the church of Ravenna).
ALBONI, MARIETTA (1823-1894), Italian opera-singer, was
born at Cesena, Romagna, and was trained in music at Bologna,
where she became a pupil of Rossini. She had a magnificent
contralto voice, and in 1843 made her first appearance
at La Scala, Milan, being recognized at once as a public
favourite. In England her reputation was established by her
appearance at Covent Garden in 1847, and she had brilliant
success all over Europe in the leading operatic roles;
in 1853 she repeated these triumphs in the United States.
Indeed, with the exception of Malibran, she had no compeer
among the contraltos of the century, the old Italian school
of singing finding in her a really great representative. She
married first Count A. Pepoh, who died in 1866, and secondly
(1877) a French officer, M. Zieger; she lived in Paris
after her first marriage, and died at Ville d'Avray in 1894.
ALBORNOZ, GIL ALVAREZ DE, Spanish cardinal, was born at
Cuenca early in the 14th Century. He was the son of Gil Alvarez
de Albornoz and of Dona Teresa de Luna, sister of Kimeno de
Luna, archbishop of Toledo. He was educated at Saragosa,
while his uncle was bishop of that see, and studied law at
Toulouse. The powerful influence of his family opened him
a public career early in life. He was made archdeacon of
Calatrava, and became a member of the king's council while
young. In 1337 he was chosen archbishop of Toledo in
succession to his uncle by the favour of the king, Alphonso
XI. At the battle of Tarifa he fought against a great invasion
from Africa in 1340, and at the taking of Algeciras in 1344
he led the armed levy of his archbishopric. In 1343 he
had been sent to Pope Clement VI. at Avignon to negotiate
a grant of a tax on the revenues of the Church for the
Crusade. His military and diplomatic ability became known
to the pope, who made him a cardinal in 1350. Albornoz left
Spain on the death of the king Alphonso XI. in that year, and
never returned. It has been said, but not on contemporary
evidence, that he fled from fear of Peter the Cruel. In 1353
Innocent VI. sent him as a legate into Italy, with a view to
the restoration of the papal authority in the states of the
Church. He was recalled in 1357, but was sent again to
Italy after a brief interval, and in 1362 had paved the way
for the return of Urban V. to Rome. As legate, Albornoz
showed himself to be an astute manager of men and effective
fighter. He began by making use of Rienzi, whose release
from prison at Avignon he secured. After the murder of
the tribune in 1354 Albornoz pursued his task of restoring
the pope's authority by intrigue and force with remarkable
success. As a mark of gratitude the pope appointed him
legate at Bologna in 1367, but he died at Viterbo the same
year. According to his own desire his remains were carried
to Toledo, where Henry of Castile caused them to be entombed
with almost royal honours. A work by Albornoz on the
constitution of the Church of Rome, first printed at Jesi in
1473, is now very rare. The college of St Clement at Bologna
was founded by Albornox for the benefit of Spanish students.
See ``De Vita et Rebus Gestis Aegidii Albornotii,'' in Sepulveda's
Opera Omnia, vol. iv. (1780); Cardenal Albornoz der zweite
Begrunder des Kirchenstaates, by Dr H. J. Wurm (1892).
ALBRECHTSBERGER, JOHANN GEORG (1736-1809), Austrian
musician, was born at Kloster-Neuburg, near Vienna, on the 3rd
of February 1736. He studied musical composition under the
court organist, Mann, and became one of the most learned and
skilful contrapuntists of his age. After being employed as
organist at Raab and Maria-Taferl, he was appointed in 1772
organist to the court of Vienna, and in 1792 Kapellmeister
of St Stephen's cathedral. His fame as a theorist attracted
to him in the Austrian capital a large number of pupils,
some of whom afterwards became eminent musicians. Among
these were Beethoven, Hummel, Moscheles and Josef Weigl
(1766-1846). Albrechtsberger died in Vienna on the 7th of March
1809. His published compositions consist of preludes, fugues
and sonatas for the piano and organ, string quartets, &c.; but
the greater proportion of his works, vocal and instrumental,
exists only in manuscript. They are in the library of the
Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Probably the most
valuable service he rendered to music was in his theoretical
Works. In 1790 he published at Leipzig a treatise on composition,
of which a third edition appeared in 1821. A collection
of his writings on harmony, in three volumes, was published
under the care of his pupil Ignaz von Seyfried (1776-1841) in
1826. There is an English version of this published by
Novello in 1855. Beethoven knew his own needs when he put
himself under Albrechtsberger on finding that Haydn was not
thoroughly disposed for the trouble of training him; and
though Albrechtsberger could see nothing in him, and warned his
other pupils against ``that young man who would never turn out
anything in good style,'' he justified Beethoven's confidence.
ALBRET. The lordship (seigneurie) of Albret (Labrit,
Lebret), situated in the Landes, gave its name to one of
the most powerful feudal families of France in the middle
ages. Its members distinguished themselves in the local wars
of that apoch; and during the 14th century they espoused the
English cause for some time, afterwards transferring their
support to the side of France. Arnaud Amanieu, lord of
Albret, helped to take Guienne from the English. His son
Charles became constable of France, and was killed at the
battle of Agincourt in 1415. Alain the Great, lord of Albret
(d. 1522), wished to marry Anne of Brittany, and to that end
fought against Charles VIII.; but his hopes being defeated by
the betrothal of Anne to Maximilian of Austria, he surrendered
Nantes to the French in 1486. At that time the house of
Albret had attained considerable territorial importance, due
in great part to the liberal grants which it had obtained
from successive kings of France. John of Albret, son of
Alain, became king of Navarre by his marriage with Catherine of
Foix. Their son Henry, king of Navarre, was created duke
of Albret and peer of France in 1550. By his wife Margaret,
sister of the French king, Francis I., he had a daughter, Jeanne
d'Albret, queen of Navarre, who married Anthony de Bourbon,
duke of Vendome, and became the mother of Henry IV., king of
France. The dukedom of Albret, united to the crown of France
by the accession of this prince, was granted to the family of
La Tour d'Auvergne in 1651, in exchange for Sedan and Raucourt.
To a younger branch of this house belonged Jean d'Albret,
seigneur of Orval, count of Dreux and of Rethel, governor
of Champagne (d. 1524), who was employed by Francis I.
in many diplomatic negotiations, more particularly in his
intrigues to get himself elected emperor in 1519. (M. P.*)
ALBRIGHT, JACOB (1759-1808), American clergyman, was
born near Pottstown, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of May
1759. He was of ``Pennsylvania-German'' parentage, his name
being originally Albrecht, and was educated in the Lutheran
faith. At an early age he became a tile-burner. In 1790
he was converted to Methodism, and in 1796 determined to
devote himself to preaching that faith among the Pennsylvania
Germans. His efforts met with great success, and in 1800
he founded what was virtually a new and independent church
organization on the Methodist system, of which he became
the presiding elder, and eventually (1807) bishop. This
church is officially the Evangelical Association, but its
adherents have been variously known as ``New Methodists.''
``Albrights,'' and ``Albright Brethren.'' Albright died
on the 18th of May 1808, at Muhlbach, Pennsylvania.
ALBUERA, or ALBUHERA, LA, a small village of Spain,
in the province of Badajoz, 13 m. S.E. of the town of that
name. Pop. (1900) 820. Albuera is celebrated on account of the
victory gained there on the 16th of May 1811 by the British,
Portuguese and Spaniards, under Marshal Beresford, over the
French army commanded by Marshal Soult. (See PENINSULAR WAR.)
ALBUFERA DE VALENCIA, a lagoon, 7 m. S. of Valencia in
Spain, about 12 m. in length and 4 in breadth, 12 ft. being
its greatest depth. It communicates with the sea by a narrow
outlet, which can be opened or closed at pleasure. The lake
is crown property, and is of great value from the fish and
wild-fowl with which it abounds. Rice is grown in large
quantities by the inhabitants of the adjoining villages. In
1812 Marshal Suchet was created duke of Albufera by Napoleon
for his conquest of Valencia, and invested with the domain; but
the battle of Vittoria in 1813 deprived him of his possession,
though he still retained the title. Subsequently the revenues
of Albufera were conferred upon the duke of Wellington in token
of the gratitude of the Spanish nation. (See PENINSULAR WAR.)
ALBULAE AQUAE, a group of springs, 4 m. W. of Tibur, the
water of which is bluish, strongly impregnated with sulphur and
carbonate of lime, and rises at a temperature of about 75 deg. F.
Remains of a Roman thermal establishment exist near the principal
spring, the so-called Lago della Regina (which is continually
diminishing in size owing to the deposit left by the water),
and dedicatory inscriptions in honour of the waters have been
found. The baths are still frequented by the Romans, though
the modern establishment is about 1 m. S. on the high road.
See T. Ashby in Papers of the British School at Rome, iii. 117.
ALBULA PASS, now the principal route from the N. to the Upper
Engadine in the Swiss Canton of the Grisons. It was already
frequented in the 13th century, while a carriage road (highest
point, 7595 ft.) was constructed across it in 1865, but for a
long time it was not as much used as the easier and more direct
Julier Pass (7504 ft.), until the opening of the railway in
1903, which has vastly increased its practical importance.
Starting from Coire the Rhine valley is followed to Reichenau
(6 1/4 m.), and then that of the Hinter Rhine to Thusis (10 1/2
m.). The line then runs through the grand Schyn gorge (cut by
the Albula torrent) to Tiefenkastell (7 1/2 m.), where it leaves
the Julier road on the right (S.) and continues to follow the
course of the Albula past Filisur and Bergun (12 1/2 m.) to
the mouth (5879 ft.) of the great tunnel (3 3/4 m. in length;
highest point, 5987 ft.) which has been pierced below the
pass. The descent lies through the Bevers glen to Bevers (2 1/2
m.), where the Upper Engadine is reached, about 5 m. below St.
Moritz, which is 56 m. from Coire by this route. (W. A. B. C.)
ALBUM (Lat. albus, white), in ancient Rome, a board
chalked or painted white, on which decrees, edicts and other
public notices were inscribed in black. The Annales Maximi
of the Pontifex Maximus, the annual edicts of the praetor,
the lists of Roman and municipal senators (decuriones) and
jurors (album indicum) were exhibited in this manner. In
medieval and modern times album denotes a book of blank
pages in which verses, autographs, sketches, photographs
and the like are collected. It is also applied to the
official list of matriculated students in a university, and
to the roll in which a bishop inscribes the names of his
clergy. In law, the word is the equivalent of mailles
blanches, for rent paid in silver (``white'') money.
ALBUMAZAR, more properly ABU-MAASCHAR (805-885), Arab
astronomer, was born at Balkh, flourished at Bagdad,
and died at Wasid in Central Asia. His principal works
are: De Magnis Conjunctionibus (Augsburg, 1489);
Introductorium in Astronomiam (Venice, 1506); and
Flores Astrologici (Augsburg, 1488). He maintained in the
first that the world, created when the seven planets were
in conjunction in the first degree of Aries, will come to
an end at a like conjunction in the last degree of Pisces.
See Biog. Universelle (Jourdain); Lalande, Bibliographie
Astronomique; Poggendorff, Biog. literarisches
Handworterbuch; Houzeau, Bibl. Astronomique.
ALBUMIN, or ALBUMEN (Lat. albus, white), an organic
substance typical of a group of bodies (albumins or
albuminates) of very complicated chemical composition. They
are sometimes called the histogenetic bodies or proteids,
because they are essential to the building up of the animal
organism. The vegetable kingdom is the original source of
albuminous substances, the albumins being found in greatest
quantity in the seed. They also occur in the fluids of the
living organism. The chemistry of the albumins is one of
the most complicated and difficult in the whole domain of
organic chemistry. It has attracted the attention of many
workers, and has formed the subject of a huge literature.
In this field Bechamp, Cohnheim, Albrecht Kossel, and,
especially, Emil Fischer and his pupils have been extremely
active. The general trend of these researches lies in the
study of the decomposition or ``breaking down'' products of
the albumin molecules; once these are accurately determined,
the synthesis of an albumin is but a matter of time. Already
we have proceeded far in our knowledge of the decomposition
products, and certain simple proteids have been synthesized.
General characters.
The albumins contain in all cases the elements carbon, hydrogen,
nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen; their composition, however,
varies within certain limits: C = 50-55%, H = 6.9-7.3%, N. =
15-19%, S = 0.3-2.4%, O = 19-24%, crystallized albumin is C =
51.48%, H = 6.76%, N = 8.14%, S = 0.96%, O = 22.66%, which
points to the formula C720H1134N218S5O248,
corresponding to the molecular weight 16,954. A high molecular
weight characterizes these substances, but so far no definite
value has been determined by either physical or chemical means;
A. P. Sabanezhev obtained the value 15,000 by Raoult's method
for purified egg albumin. All albumins are laevo-rotatory; and
on incineration a small amount of inorganic ash is invariably
left. They are usually insoluble in water, alcohol and ether;
and their presence as solutes in vegetable and animal fluids
is not yet perfectly understood, but it is probably to be
connected with the presence of salts or other substances. A
remarkable change occurs when many albumins are boiled with
water, or treated with certain acids, their solubility and
general characters being entirely altered, and the fluid becoming
coagulated. This change is seen in the transformation of the
``white'' of an egg on boiling. Albumins are generally detected
by taking advantage of this property, or of certain colour
changes. The reagents in common use are: Millon's reagent,
a solution of mercuric nitrate containing nitrous acid, this
gives a violet-red coloration; nitric acid, which gives a
yellow colour, turning to gold when treated with ammonia
(xanthoproteic reaction); fuming sulphuric acid, which gives
violet solutions; and caustic potash and copper sulphate, which,
on warming, gives a red to violet coloration (biuret reaction).
Decomposition products.
Boiling with dilute mineral acids, or baryta water, decomposes
albumins into carbon dioxide, ammonia and fatty amino- and other
acids. These decomposition products include: glycocoll or
aminoacetic acid, NH2CH2COOH, alanine or aminopropionic
acid, CH3.CH(NH2).COOH, a-aminobutyric acid,
a-aminovalerianic acid, leucin or isobutyl-a-aminoacetic
acid, (CH3)2CH.CH2.CH(NH2).COOH, isoleucin, probably
b-aminocaproic acid, serin or a-amino- b-hydroxypropionic
acid, HO.CH2.CH(NH2).COOH, aspartic acid or aminosuccinic
acid, HOOC.CH2.CH(NH2).COOH, glutaminic acid or a-amino-
n-glutaric acid, HOOC.(CH2)2.CH(NH2).COOH, diaminoacetic acid,
a-b-diaminopropionic acid, lysin. or a-e-diamino-n-caproic
acid, NH2(CH2)4.CH(NH2).COOH, arginin or guanidine-a-amino-
n-valerianic acid, (NH)(NH2)C.NH.(CH2)3.CH(NH2).COOH,
ornithin or ad-diamino valerianic acid,
NH2.(CH2)3.CH(NH2).COOH, histidin or a-amino- b-imidazol-
_________________
| |
propionic acid HOOC.CH(NH2).CH2.C:CH.N:CH.NH, proline
_________________________________
| |
or a-pyrrolidin carboxylic acid, HOOC.CH.NH.CH2.CH2.CH2,
hydroxyproline, phenyl alanine or phenyl-a-aminopropionic
acid, C6H5.CH2.CH(NH2).COOH, tyrosine or p-hydroxyphenyl-
a- aminopropionic acid, phenyl ethylamine, p-hydroxyphenyl
ethylamine, tryptophane or indol aminopropionic acid,
A. cystin (protein-cystin) or a-amino-b-thioglyceric
acid ``disulphide,'' (S.CH2.CH(NH2).COOH)2, B.
cystin (stone-cystin), or a-thio-b-aminoglyceric acid
``disulphide,'' (NH2.CH2.CH:S.COOH)2. This list is
not exhaustive; other products are given in Gustav Mann,
Chemistry of the Proteids (1906), to which reference should
be made for a complete account of this class of compounds.
Classification of albumins.
The complexity of composition militates in a great measure
against a rational classification of albumins by purely chemical
considerations. Such classifications have been attempted by
A. Kossel and by W. Kuhne and E. P. Pick; but in the present
state of our knowledge, however, the older classification
of E. Dreschel and F. Hoppe- Seyler, based primarily on
solubilities and distribution, may be conveniently retained.
This classification is with certain modifications as follows:-
I. Albumins proper: characterized by having colloidal solutions.
(1) Albumins: serum-albumin, egg-albumin, albumin.
(2) Globulins: serum-globulin, egg-globulin, lacto-
globulin, cell-globulins.
(3) Plant-globulins and plant-vitellines.
(4) Fibrinogen.
(5) Myosin.
(6) Phosphorus containing albumins (nucleo-albumins),
caseins, vitellines, nucleo-albumins of the cell-
protoplasm, mucoid nucleo-albumins.
(7) Histones.
(8) Protamines.
II. Transformation products of the albumins proper.
(1) Acid-albumins, alkali albuminates.
(2) Albumoses, peptones and peptides.
(3) Halogen-albumins, oxyprotein, oxyprotsulphonic
acid, &c.
III. Proteids.
(1) Nucleo-proteids.
(2) Haemoglobin and allied substances.
(3) Glyco-proteids, mucins, mucoids, helico-proteid.
IV. Albuminoids.
(1) Collagen.
(2) Keratin.
(3) Elastin.
(4) Fibroin.
(5) Spongin, &c.
(6) Amyloid.
(7) Albumoid.
(8) Colouring matters derived from albumin.
Albumins proper.--Albumins (as classified above) are
soluble in water, dilute acids and alkalies, and in
saturated neutral salt solutions; they are coagulated by
heat. ``Serum- albumin,'' or ``blood-albumin,'' possibly
C450H720N116S6O140, occurs in blood-serum,
lymph, chyle, milk, &c.; its coagulation temperature is about
67 deg. . It differs from egg-albumin in its specific rotation
(-57 deg. to -64 deg. ), and in being slowly coagulated by alcohol and
ether. Egg-albumin is the chief constituent of the white
of egg; this fluid also contains a globulin and a mucoid.
It coagulates at about 56 deg. , and its specific rotation is
-30.70 deg. . ``Lact-albumin'' occurs in all kinds of milk.
The globulins are insoluble in water and in dilute acids,
but soluble in alkalies and in neutral salt solutions; these
solutions are coagulated on boiling. ``Serum-globulin,'' also
termed globulin or fibrino-plastic globulin, paraglobulin and
paraglobin, occurs in blood serum; ``cell-globulins'' occur
in many organs--liver, kidneys, pancreas and the thyroid
gland, also in muscle-plasma; ``crystalline,'' a globulin
occurring in two forms a and b, is found in the lens
of the eye; ``egg-globulin'' and ``lacto- globulin'' occur
respectively in the white of egg and in milk. Plant albumins
or phyto-albumins have been chiefly investigated in the case
of those occurring in seeds; most are globulins, insoluble
in pure water, but soluble in salt solutions; ``edestin,''
a globulin of this class, is very widely distributed. Other
varieties or classes of these compounds are: plant caseins,
phyto-vitellines, legumins and conglutins. Fibrinogen
occurs in the blood plasma, and is changed by a ferment into
fibrin, to which the clotting of blood is due. Fibrinogen
is insoluble in water, but soluble in salt solutions; it
has three different coagulation temperatures, 56 deg. , 67 deg. ,
75 deg. . Fibrin, produced from fibrinogen by a ferment, is
a jelly-like substance, coagulable by heat, alcohol, &c.
The muscle-albumins include ``myosin'' or paramyosinogen, a
globulin, which by coagulation induces rigor mortis, and
the closely related ``myosinogen'' or myogen; myoglobulin and
myoalbumin are also found in muscles. The nucleo-albumins
or phospho-globulins are insoluble in water and acids, but
soluble in alkalies, and have an acid reaction. ``Caseinogen''
(after W. D. Halliburton) is the chief albumin of milk;
its composition varies with the animal. It is insoluble in
water, while its salts are readily soluble. ``Eucasein'' is
the ammonium salt; ``nutrose'' and ``plasmon'' are sodium
salts. By the rennet ferment caseinogen is converted into
casein, a substance resembling caseinogen in being soluble
in water, but differing in having an insoluble calcium
salt. The formation of casein involves the curdling of
milk. Other phosphoglobulins are vitelline, found in the
yolk of hens' eggs, and ichthulin, found in the eggs of
fish. Histones are a class of albumins soluble in water
and acids, but essentially basic in character; hence they
are precipitated by alkalies. It is remarkable that many
histones are soluble in an excess of alkali. They do not
exist in a free state, but in combination with a ``prosthetic
group'' (after A. Kossel) they give rise to important cell
constituents--haemoglobin, nucleo-proteids, &c. ``Thymus histone''
occurs in the thymus gland; globin occurs in combination as
haemoglobin; other histones have been extracted from the red
blood corpuscles of the goose and the testes of fishes and
other animals. The protamines are a well-characterized
class of albumins found in the ripe spermatozoa of fishes.
Albumoses and Peptones.--The primary products of the dissociation
of albumins are the albumoses, characterized by not being
coagulable by heat, more soluble than the albumins, having a
far less complex composition, and capable of being ``salted
out'' by certain salts, and the peptones, similar to albumoses
but not capable of being ``salted out''; moreover, peptones
are less complex than albumoses. By further decomposition
peptones yield peptides, a certain number of which have been
synthesized by Emil Fischer and his collaborators. Albumoses
and peptones are white powders, readily soluble in water, with
the exception of the hetero-albumoses--a subdivision of primary
albumoses. They give the biuret and xanthoproteic reactions,
and form salts with both acids and bases. Albumoses and
peptones are obtained by peptic digestion, the latter being
termed peptic- peptones; tryptic digestion also produces
peptones. Acids and moist heat induce similar changes.
Proteids.--These substances are combinations of one or more
albumins with a radical of an essentially different nature,
termed by Kossel a ``prosthetic group.'' It is convenient
to classify proteids by those groups. ``Nucleo-proteids,''
constituents of the cell-nucleus, are combinations of albumins
and nucleic acid; they always contain iron. They are loose,
white, non-hygroscopic powders, soluble in water and salt
solutions, and have an acid reaction; they give the colour
reactions of albumins. Nucleic acid is at present of unknown
constitution; decomposition products are: phosphoric acid, uracil
or 2.6-dioxy-pyrimidin,1 cytosin or 2-oxy-6-amino-pyrimidin,
thymin (nucleosin) or 2.6-dioxy-5-methyl pyrimidin hypoxanthin1
or 6-oxypurin, xanthin or 2.6-dioxypurin, adenine or 6
amino-purin, guanine or 2-amino-6-oxypurin, pentoses
(l-xylose), laevulinic acid, ammonia, etc. The nucleic acids
vary with the source of the proteids, there being considerable
differences in chemical composition. In general they are
white, loose powders, slightly soluble in cold water, more
soluble in hot water; they are precipitated by mineral acids,
but dissolve in an excess. They are dextrorotatory, and
the specific rotation is numerically greater than that of
albumin; hence the proteids are, in general, dextrorotatory.
An important nucleo-proteid is haemoglobulin or haemoglobin,
the colouring matter of the red blood corpuscles of vertebrates;
a related substance, haemocyanin, in which the iron of
haemoglobin is replaced by copper, occurs in the blood of
cephalopods and crayfish. Haemoglobin is composed of a
basic albumin and an acid substance haematin; it combines
readily with oxygen, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide to
form loose compounds (see NUTRITION.) It coagulates at
64 deg. . By a dilute acid haemoglobin is decomposed into
globin, and ``haematin,'' a ferri-pyrrol derivative of the
probable formula C34H34N4FeO5; under certain conditions
the iron-free ``haematoporphyrin'' is obtained. This last
substance may be reduced to mesoporphyrin, C34H38O4N4,
which by further reduction gives haemo-pyrrol, C8H13N,
possibly methyl-propyl-pyrrol or butyl-pyrrol. Other
derivatives are haemin, haemochromogen and the haematinic acids.
``Glyco-proteids'' differ from nucleo-proteids in containing
a carbohydrate radical, which is liberated only by boiling
with mineral acids or alkalies. The mucins and mucoids belong
to this group; they are acid and contain no phosphorus; they
give the albumin colour reactions but are not coagulated by
heat. Mucins occur in most of the slimy fluids of the body; they
vary in composition with their source. Mucoids resemble mucins
in their composition and reactions, but differ, in general, in
their physical properties. They occur in tendons, bones and
cartilage. The ``phospho-glyco-proteids'' resemble the mucins
and mucoids in containing a carbohydrate residue, but differ
in containing phosphorus. Ichthulin (see above) maybe placed
in this group; ``helico-proteid,'' found in the serous gland
of Helix pomatia, the vineyard snail, also belongs here.
Albuminoids is the anatomical name given to albuminous
substances forming the connective tissues. Chemically they
resemble the albumins, being split up by acids or ferments
into albumoses, peptones and amino-acids, forming salts, and
giving the same colour reactions. They are quite insoluble
in water and in salt solutions, and difficultly soluble
in dilute acids and alkalies. Typical albuminoids are
gelatin, keratin, elastin, fibroin, spongin and conchiolin.
``Collagen'' (Gr. kolla, glue, and root gen- of gennaein,
to produce, gignesthai, to become), the ground-substance
of bones and tissues, is decomposed by boiling water or on
warming with acids into substances named gelatin, glutin or
glue. Gelatin forms a white amorphous powder; the commercial
product, however, generally forms glassy plates. The
decomposition products are generally the same as with the
general albumin; it gives the biuret reaction; forms salts
with acids and alkalies, but is essentially acid in nature.
Immersed in cold water gelatin does not dissolve but swells
up; it dissolves readily in hot water, forming, according to
the quantity present, a thick jelly which solidifies to a hard
mass on cooling (the ``glue'' of the wood- worker), or a thin
jelly (used in cookery). Gelatin occurs also in the cornea
and the sclerotic coat of the eye; and in fish scales, the
latter containing 80% of collagen, and 20% of ichthylepidin,
a substance differing from gelatin in giving a well-marked
Millon's reaction. Keratin (Gr. keras, a horn), the chief
constituent of horny material, occurs in hair, nails, hoofs and
feathers. It is quite insoluble in water, dilute acids and
alkalies. Related to this substance are ``neuro-keratin,''
found in the medullary sheath of nerves, and ``gorgonin,''
the matrix of the axial skeleton of the coral Gorgonia
Cavolinii. Elastin occurs either as thick strands or as
membranes; it constitutes the ``elastic tissue'' of the
anatomist. Its insolubility is much the same as keratin.
``Fibroin'' and silk-glue or sericin occur in natural silk
fibres. Fibroin is insoluble in water, acids and alkanes;
silk-glue resembles gelatin in its solubility, but it is less
readily gelatinized. ``Spongin,'' the matrix of bath-sponge, is
insoluble in water and dilute acids, but soluble in concentrated
mineral acids. ``Conchiolin,'' the matrix of shells of the
mollusca, is only slightly soluble in acids. ``Cornein'' forms
the framework of corals. ``Amyloid'' occurs as a pathological
product, and also in the healthy aorta and in old cartilage.
It is an albumin, and not a carbohydrate as was formerly held;
and gives most of the colour reactions of albumins. It forms
shiny, homogeneous masses, quite insoluble in cold water and
in salt solutions, but soluble in alkalies. The albumoids
include, according to Cohnheim, substances which possess
certain properties in common, but differ from the preceding
groups. In general they resemble coagulated albumin, and also the
gelatin-yielding tissues, but they themselves do not yield gelatin.
Colouring matters derived from albumins include the
``melanins'' (Gr. melas, black), substances which differ
very considerably in composition, the sulphur and iron
content being by no means constant; they do not give the
reactions of albumins. The black colouring matter of hair,
the skin of negroes, and of the ink bag of Sepia have been
examined. Melanins obtained from tumours form black,
shiny masses; they are insoluble in water, neutral salt
solutions, dilute acids and in the common organic solvents.
1 6
/N = C\
1 The pyrimidin ring is numbered 2C C5 For the purin
ring, see PURIN. \\N - C//
3 4
ALBUMINURIA (Physiological or Functional), a term indicating
the presence of albumin in the urine. This may depend on
a number of morbid conditions, of which kidney troubles,
acute illnesses and venous congestion are some of the
commoner. But after exclusion of all known pathological
causes, there still remains a large class of cases among
subjects who appear to be in perfect health. This form
has been called functional or physiological albuminuria,
intermittent albuminuria, &c. Its recognition is of extreme
importance, as it must be distinguished from the albuminuria
due to Bright's disease and other troubles. The following
are the main forms that have been described:--(1) Dietetic
Albuminuria. This form affects some people after partaking
of a meal consisting largely of albuminous foods, such as
eggs. In others any extra indulgence in the pleasures of the
table may give rise to it. (2) Cyclic Albuminuria. This name
was first used by the physiologist Pavy, but other observers
have called the same condition ``postural albuminuria.'' It
occurs in people enjoying perfect health, and is characterized
by the presence of albumin in the urine at certain times of the
day. It has been shown to depend entirely on the assumption
of the erect position, and it disappears as a result of
the recumbent position at night. (3) Albuminuria from
exercise. This form affects some people after any unusual
muscular exertion. (4) Prolonged mental strain or worry may
give rise to a transient form of albuminuria. (5) Adolescent
albuminuria is met with in some subjects, especially boys.
The question of the real significance of ``physiological''
albuminuria is one about which there is much difference of
opinion. But its importance and recognition--especially
in questions of life insurance--admits of no question.
ALBUQUERQUE, ALPHONSO D, (in Old Port. AFFONSO
D'ALBOQUERQUE) (1453-1515), surnamed THE GREAT, and
THE PORTUGUESE MARS, was born in 1453 at Alexandria, near
Lisbon. Through his father, Gonzalvo, who held an important
position at court, he was connected by illegitimate descent
with the royal family of Portugal. He was educated at the
court of Alphonso V., and after the death of that monarch
seems to have served for some time in Africa. On his return
he was appointed estribeiro-mor (chief equerry) to John
II. In 1503 he set out on his first expedition to the East,
which was to be the scene of his future triumphs. In company
with his kinsman Francisco he sailed round the Cape of Good
Hope to India, and succeeded in establishing the king of
Cochin securely on his throne, obtaining in return for this
service permission to build a Portuguese fort at Cochin, and
thus laying the foundation of his country's empire in the
East. He returned home in July 1504, and was well received
by King Emmanuel, who entrusted him with the command of a
squadron of five vessels in the fleet of sixteen which sailed
for India in 1506 under Tristan da Cunha. After a series of
successful attacks on the Arab cities on the east coast of
Africa, Albuquerque separated from Da Cunha, and sailed with
his squadron against the island of Ormuz, in the Persian Gulf,
which was then one of the chief centres of commerce in the
East. He arrived on the 25th of September 1507, and soon
obtained possession of the island, though he was unable long
to maintain his position. With his squadron increased by
three vessels, he reached the Malabar coast at the close
of the year 1508, and immediately made known the commission
he had received from the king empowering him to supersede
the governor Francisco de Almeida. The latter, however,
refused to recognize Albuquerque's credentials and cast him
into prison, from which he was only released, after three
months' confinement, on the arrival of the grand-marshal of
Portugal with a large fleet. Almeida having returned home,
Albuquerque speedily showed the energy and determination of his
character. An unsuccessful attack upon Calicut in January
1510, in which the commander- in-chief received a severe
wound, was immediately followed by the investment and capture
of Goa. Albuquerque, finding himself unable to hold the town
on his first occupation, abandoned it in August, to return with
the reinforcements in November, when he obtained undisputed
possession. He next directed his forces against Malacca,
which he subdued after a severe struggle. He remained in
the town nearly a year in order to strengthen the position
of the Portuguese power. In 1512 he sailed for the coast of
Malabar. On the voyage a violent storm arose, Albuquerque's
vessel, the ``Flor de la Mar,'' which carried the treasure
he had amassed in his conquests, was wrecked, and he himself
barely escaped with his life. In September of the same year
he arrived at Goa, where he quickly suppressed a serious revolt
headed by Idalcan, and took such measures for the security
and peace of the town that it became the most flourishing of
the Portuguese settlements in India. Albuquerque had been for
some time under orders from the home government to undertake
an expedition to the Red Sea, in order to secure that channel
of communication exclusively to Portugal. He accordingly
laid siege to Aden in 1513, but was repulsed; and a voyage
into the Red Sea, the first ever made by a European fleet, led
to no substantial results. In order to destroy the power of
Egypt, he is said to have entertained the idea of diverting
the course of the Nile and so rendering the whole country
barren. His last warlike undertaking was a second attack upon
Ormuz in 1515. The island yielded to him without resistance,
and it remained in the possession of the Portuguese until
1622. Albuquerque's great career had a painful and ignominious
close. He had several enemies at the Portuguese court who
lost no opportunity of stirring up the jealousy of the king
against him, and his own injudicious and arbitrary conduct
on several occasions served their end only too well. On his
return from Ormuz, at the entrance of the harbour of Goa, he
met a vessel from Europe bearing despatches announcing that
he was superseded by his personal enemy Soarez. The blow was
too much for him and he died at sea on the 16th of December
1515. Before his death he wrote a letter to the king in
dignified and affecting terms, vindicating his conduct and
claiming for his son the honours and rewards that were justly
due to himself. His body was buried at Goa in the Church
of our Lady, and it is perhaps the most convincing proof
possible of the justice of his administration that, many years
after, Mussulmans and Hindus used to go to his tomb to invoke
protection against the injustice of his successors. The
king of Portugal was convinced too late of his fidelity, and
endeavoured to atone for the ingratitude with which he had
treated him by heaping honours upon his natural son Alfonso.
The latter published a selection from his father's papers under
the title Commentarios do Grande Affonso d'Alboquerque .
See the Cartas de Albuquerque, published by the Lisbon Academy
(vol. i., 1884); also Morse Stephens' Life of Albuquerque;
an article in the Bolitim of the Lisbon Geographical
Society (January to June 1902) on ``O antigo Imperialismo
portuguez, &c.,'' has especial reference to Albuquerque.
ALBUQUERQUE, a city and the county-seat of Bernalillo
county, New Mexico, U.S.A., situated in the central part of the
state, about 325 m. S. by W. of Denver, on the E. bank of
the Rio Grande, at an altitude of 4950 ft. Pop. (1890) 3785;
(1900) 6238 (956 foreign-born and 226 negroes); (1910 census)
11,020. In 1900 Albuquerque was the largest city in New
Mexico. It is the connecting point of two main lines of the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway system. A short distance
E. of the city is the university of New Mexico, under state
control, founded in 1889 and opened in 1892; in 1908 it had
a college of letters and science, a school of engineering,
a school of education, a preparatory school and a commercial
school. Albuquerque is also the seat of the Harwood Industrial
School (Methodist) for Mexican girls, of the Menaul Mission
School (Presbyterian) for Mexican boys, and of a government
Indian training school (1881) for boys and girls. The
city has a public library. The excellent climate has given
Albuquerque and the surrounding country a reputation as a
health resort. The city is an important railway centre, has
extensive railway repair shops and stock-yards, and exports
large quantities of live-stock, hides and wool. The largest
industrial establishment is the American Lumber Company's
plant, including a saw-mill, a sash, door and blind factory
and a box factory. The timber used, chiefly white pine, is
obtained from the Zuni mountains. The city has also flour and
woollen mills, breweries and ice factories. The old Spanish
town of Albuquerque (pop. in 1900 about 1200) lies about 1
m. W. of the present city; it was founded in 1706, and was
named in honour of the duke of Albuquerque, viceroy of New
Spain from 1702 to 1710. During the Civil War it was occupied,
late in February 1862, by Confederate troops under General
Henry Hopkins Sibley (1816-1886), who soon afterwards advanced
with his main body into northern New Mexico. In his retreat
back into Texas he made a stand on the 8th of April 1862 at
Albuquerque, where during the whole day there was a fight
at long range and with few casualties against a detachment
of Union soldiers commanded by Colonel Edward R. S. Canby
(1819-1873). The modern city dates its origin from the
completion of the first railway to Albuquerque in 1880.
ALBURNUM (sapwood), the outermost and youngest part of the
wood of a tree, through which the sap rises. It is distinguished
from the harder inner and older wood, the duramen or heart-wood.
ALBURY, a town in Goulburn county, New South Wales, Australia,
386 m. by rail W.S.W. of Sydney. Pop. (1901) 5821. It stands
near the border of Victoria, on the right bank of the Murray
river, here crossed by two bridges, one built of wood carrying
a road, the other of iron bearing the railway. The Murray
is navigable for small steamers from this town to its mouth,
a distance of 1800 miles. Albury is the centre of a sheep-
rearing and agricultural district; grapes, cereals and tobacco
are largely grown, and the wine produced here is held in high
repute throughout Australia. The tree under which the first
explorers encamped here in November 1824 is still standing
in an enclosed space. Albury became a municipality in 1859.
ALCAEUS (ALKAIOS), Greek lyric poet, an older contemporary
of Sappho, was a native of Mytilene in Lesbos and flourished
about 600 B.C. His life was greatly mixed up with
the political disputes and internal feuds of his native
city. He belonged to one of the noble families, and sided
with his class against the ``tyrants'' who at that time set
themselves up in Mytilene. He was in consequence obliged to
leave his native country, and spent a considerable time in
exile. He is said to have become reconciled to Pittacus, the
ruler set up by the popular party, and to have returned to
Lesbos. The date of his death is unknown. The subjects of
his poems, which were composed in the Aeolic dialect, were
of various kinds: some were hymns to the gods; others were of
a martial or political character; others breathed an ardent
love of liberty and hatred of tyrants; lastly, some were
love-songs. Alcaeus was allotted the second place among the
nine lyric poets in the Alexandrian canon. The considerable
number of fragments extant, and the well-known imitations
of Horace, who regarded Alcaeus as his great model, enable
us to form a fair idea of the character of his poems. A
new fragment has recently been discovered, together with
some fragments of Sappho (Classical Review, May 1902).
See Bergk, Poetae Lyrici Graeci (1882); also The Songs
of Alcaeus, by J. Easby-Smith (Washington, 1901); Plehn,
Lesbiacorum Liber (1826); Flach, Geschichte der griechischen
Lyrik (1883-1884); Farnell, Greek Lyric Poets (1891).
ALCAICS, in ancient poetry, a name given to several kinds
of verse, from Alcaeus, their reputed inventor. The first
kind consists of five feet, viz. a spondee or iambic, an
iambic, a long syllable and two dactyles; the second of two
dactyles and two trochees. Besides these, which are called
dactylic Alcaics, there is another, simply styled Alcaic,
consisting of an epitrite, two choriambi and a bacchius; thus--
Cur timet fla|vum Tiberim | tangere, cur | olivum?
The Alcaic ode is composed of several strophes, each
consisting of four verses, the first two of which are always
eleven-syllable alcaics of the first kind; the third verse
is an iambic dimeter hypercatalectic consisting of nine
syllables; and the fourth verse is a ten-syllable alcaic
of the second kind. The following strophe is of this
species, which Horace calls Alcaei minaces camenae--
Non possidentem multa vocaveris
Recte beatum; rectius occupat
Nomen beati, qui deorum
Muneribus sapienter uti.
There is also a decasyllabic variety of the Alcaic metre.
The Alcaic measure was one of the most splendid inventions
of Greek metrical art. In its best examples it gives
an impression of wonderful vigour and spontaneity.
Tennyson has attempted to reproduce it in English in his
O mighty-mouthed inventor of harmonies,
O skilled to sing of time or eternity,
God-gifted organ-voice of England,
Milton, a name to resound for ages.
German is, however, the only modern literature in which alcaics
have been written with much success. They were introduced by
Klopstock, and used by Holderlin, by Voss in his translations
of Horace, by A. Kopisch and other modern German poets.
ALCALA (Moorish al Kala, the ``Fortress'' or ``Castle''),
the name of thirteen Spanish towns, all founded or named by the
Moors. Alcala de Henares (pop. (1900) 11,206) is separately
described on account of its historical importance. Alcala
la Real (15,973), a picturesque town with a fine abbey, is
situated in mountainous country in the extreme south-west of
Jaen. Its distinctive name la Real, ``the Royal,'' was
conferred in memory of its capture by Alphonso XI. of Leon in
1340. In 1810 the French under Count Sebastiani here defeated
the Spaniards. Alcala de los Gazules (8877), on the river
Barbate, in the province of Cadiz, has a thriving trade in
cork and agricultural produce. Alcala de Guadaira (8198),
on the river Guadaira, near Seville, is popularly called
Alcala de los Panadores, or ``Alcala of the Bakers,''
because it supplies Seville with large quantities of
bread. Alcala de Chisbert (6293) is situated on the coast
of Castellon de la Plana; Alcala del Rio (3006), on the
Guadalquivir, 6 m. N. of Seville; Alcala del Jucar (2968),
on the Jucar, in Albacete; Alcala de la Selva (1490), on
the southern slopes of the Sierra del Gudar, in Teruel;
Alcala de la Vega (712), on the river Cabriel, in Cuenca;
Alcala de Gurrea (632), on the river Seton, in Huesca;
Alcala del Obispo (432), in the same province; Alcala de
Ebro (388) and Alcala de Moncayo (367), both in Saragossa.
ALCALA DE HENARES, a town of Spain, in the province of
Madrid, 17 m. E.N.E. of Madrid, on the river Henares, and
the Madrid-Saragossa railway. Pop. (1900) 11,206. Alcala
de Henares contains a military academy and various public
institutions, but its commercial importance is slight and its
main interest is historical. The town has been identified
with the Roman Complutum, which was destroyed about the year
1000, and was rebuilt by the Moors in 1083. In later times
it was renowned for its richly endowed university, founded by
Cardinal Jimenes de Cisneros in 1510, which at the height of
its prosperity numbered 12,000 students, and was second only
to that of Salamanca. Here the famous edition of the Bible
known as the Complutensian Polyglot was prepared from 1514 to
1517. The college of San Ildefonso, completed in 1583, was
the chief university building. Its modernized Gothic church,
the Colegiata, contains the 16th century marble monument of
Jimenes (d. 1517) and a fine reredos. The greatest of Spanish
writers, Cervantes, was born at Alcala de Henares, and baptized
in the otherwise insignificant church of S. Maria on the 9th
of October 1547. A tablet, set up in 1840, marks the house
in which he is said to have been born. Other illustrious
natives of the town were the emperor Ferdinand I. (1503-1564)
and the Spanish dramatist and historian Antonio de Solis
(1610-1686). After the removal of the university to Madrid
in 1836 the town rapidly declined, and the government turned
most of the principal buildings erected by Cardinal Jimenes
in the 16th century into a depot for the archives of various
state departments. Here are kept very complete and curious
documents of the Inquisition, showing all its workings
from the 15th to the 19th century. One of the principal
libraries is the former palace of the archbishops of Toledo.
For a fuller description of Alcala see the Guia del viajero
en Alcala de Henares, by L. A. de la Torre (Alcala,
1882). The following works are mainly of historical
interest:--M. de Ayala and F. Sastre, Alcala de Henares
(Madrid, 1890); J. C. Garcia, Ensayo de una Tipografia
Complutense (Madrid, 1889); M. Portilla y Esquivel, Historia
de la ciudad de Compluto (Alcala, 1725-1728); and the
``Annales Complutenses'' and ``Chronicon Complutense'' in
Espana Sagrada, by H. Florez and others (Madrid, 1754-1879).
ALCALDE (from the Arab. al-quadi, the ``Cadi'' or
``judge,'), the title in Spanish for officials of somewhat
varied functions, in which, however, there is always a judicial
element. Alcalde de corte was a judge of the palace
court, having jurisdiction in and about the residence of the
king. But the mayor of a town or village who discharged the
functions of a justice of the peace was also an alcalde. It
is in this sense that the title is now exclusively used. He
is subject to yearly election and the post has often been an
undesirable one in Spain. The title of alcalde must be carefully
distinguished from alcaide, which is derived from the Arabic
al-quaid, a general, and means the governor of a fortress.
ALCAMENES, a Greek sculptor of Lemnos and Athens. He was
a younger contemporary of Pheidias and noted for the delicacy
and finish of his works, among which a Hephaestus and an
Aphrodite ``of the Gardens'' were conspicuous. Pausanias
says (v. 10. 8) that he was the author of one of the pediments
of the temple of Zeus at Olympia (see GREEK ART), but this
seems a chronological and stylistic impossibility. At Pergamum
there was discovered in 1903 a copy of the head of the Hermes
``Propylaeus'' of Alcamenes (Athenische Mittheilungen,
1904, p. 180). As, however, the deity is represented in
an archaistic and conventional character, this copy cannot
be relied on as giving us much information as to the usual
style of Alcamenes, who was almost certainly a progressive
and original artist. It is safer to judge him by the
sculptural decoration of the Parthenon, in which he must almost
certainly have taken a share under the direction of Pheidias.
ALCAMO, a town of Sicily, in the province of Trapani, 24
m. W.S.W. of Palermo direct (51 1/2 m. by rail). Pop. (1881)
37,497; (1901) 51,809. It was founded in A.D. 828 by the
Saracenic chief Al-Kamuk, who erected the castle (which still
stands, though considerably altered), but was christianized
by the emperor Frederick II. in 1233, who removed the
site lower down. It possesses some medieval buildings of
interest. The surrounding district is very fertile
and the trade in agricultural products is considerable.
ALCANTARA, a small seaport of Brazil, in the state of Maranhao,
on the W. shore of the bay of Sao Marcos, 16 m. from the city of
Maranhao by water. It has a fairly good harbour, and excellent
cotton and rice are grown in the vicinity and shipped thence.
ALCANTARA, a town of western Spain, in the province of
Caceres, situated on a rocky height on the left bank of the
river Tagus, 7 m. from the Portuguese frontier. Pop. (1900)
3248. Alcantara (in Arab. ``the bridge'') owes its name
to the magnificent Roman bridge which spans the Tagus on the
north-west. This was originally built about A.D. 105,
in honour of the Roman emperor Trajan and at the cost of
eleven Lusitanian communities. It is entirely constructed
of granite blocks, without cement, and consists of six
arches of various sizes, with a total length of 616 feet
and a height of about 190 ft. in the middle piers, which are
surmounted by a fortified gateway. One of the arches was
broken down in 1213 and rebuilt in 1553; another was blown
up by the British troops in 1809, and, though temporarily
reconstructed, was again destroyed in 1836, to prevent the
passage of the Carlist forces. But in 1860 the whole was
restored. A small Roman temple, dedicated to Trajan and
other deified emperors, stood on the left bank, adjoining the
bridge. It is doubtful, however, if Alcantara marks the
site of any Roman town, though archaeologists have sometimes
identified it either with Norba Caesarea or with Interamnium.
It first became famous about 1215 as the stronghold of the
knightly Order of Alcantara. Many of the grand masters of
this order lie buried in the 13th-century Gothic church.
The town possesses another interesting church built in 1506.
See Antiguedades y santos de la muy noble villa de Alcantara,
by J. Arias de Quintanaduenas (Madrid, 1661); and Retrato
politico de Alcantara, by L. Santibanez (Madrid, 1779).
ALCAVALA (Spanish, from Arab. al-quabalah, ``tax,''
quabula, ``to receive''; cf. Fr. gabelle), a duty
formerly charged in Spain and its colonies on all transfers
of property, whether public or private. Originally imposed
in 1341 by Alphonso XI. to secure freedom from the Moors,
it was an ad valorem tax of 10, increased afterwards to
14%, on the selling price of all commodities, whether raw
or manufactured, chargeable as often as they were sold or
exchanged. It subjected every farmer, manufacturer, merchant
and shopkeeper to the continual visits and examination
of the tax-gatherers, whose number was necessarily very
great. This monstrous impost was permitted to ruin the
industry and commerce of the greater part of the kingdom
up to the time of the invasion of Napoleon. Catalonia
and Aragon purchased from Philip V. an exemption from the
alcavala, and, though still burdened with other heavy taxes,
were in consequence in a comparatively flourishing state.
ALCAZAR DE SAN JUAN, or ALCAZAR, a town of Spain, in
the province of Ciudad Real, in the plain of La Mancha, at
the junction of the Madrid-Manzanares and Madrid-Albacete
railways. Pop. (1900) 11,499. Owing to its position on two
important railways, Alcazar has a flourishing transit-trade
in the wines of Estremadura and Andalusia; the soda and
alkali of La Mancha are used in the manufacture of soap; and
gunpowder, chocolate and inlaid daggers are also made here.
Alcazar is sometimes identified with the Roman Alce. captured
by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus in 180 B.C. It derives its
existing name from its medieval Moorish castle (al-kasr),
which was afterwards garrisoned by the knights of St John.
The townsfolk contend that the great Cervantes was a native
of Alcazar; and, although this claim must be disallowed, much
of the action of his masterpiece, Don Quixote, takes place
in the neighbourhood. El Toboso, for instance, a village 12
m. E.N.E. [pop. ( 1900) 1895], was the home of the Lady
Dulcinea del Toboso; Argamasilla de Alba (3505), 22 m. S.E.,
is declared by tradition to be the birthplace of Don Quixote
himself. Local antiquaries even identify the knight with Don
Rodrigo de Pacheco, whose portrait adorns the parish church;
and the same authorities hold that part of the romance was
written while Cervantes was a prisoner in their town. An
edition of Don Quixote was published at Argamasilla in 1864.
ALCESTER, FREDERICK BEAUCHAMP PAGET SEYMOUR, BARON
(1821-1895), British admiral, son of Colonel Sir Horace
Beauchamp Seymour and cousin of Francis George Hugh Seymour,
5th marquess of Hertford, was born on the 12th of April
1821. Entering the navy in 1834, he served in the Mediterranean
and the Pacific, was for three years flag-lieutenant to his
uncle Sir George Seymour, and was promoted to be commander in
1847. He served in Burma as a volunteer in 1852, was made
a captain in 1854, took the ``Meteor'' ironclad battery out
to the Black Sea and home again in 1856, was captain of the
``Pelorus'' on the Australian station from 1857 to 1863,
and commanded the naval brigade in New Zealand during the
Maori War, 1860-61, for which he was made a C.B. He became
a rear-admiral in 1870; in 1871-1872 he commanded the flying
squadron, was a lord of the admiralty in 1872-1874, and
commanded the Channel fleet, 1874-1876. On the 31st of December
1876 he was made a vice-admiral, a K.C.B. on the 2nd of June
1877. In 1880-1883 he was commander-in-chief of the fleet
in the Mediterranean, and in 1880 had also the chief command
of the European squadron sent to the coast of Albania as
a demonstration to compel the Porte to cede Dulcigno to
Montenegro. On the 24th of May 1881 he was made a G.C.B.,
and on the 6th of May 1882 was promoted to the rank of
admiral. In July 1882 he commanded at the bombardment of
Alexandria and in the subsequent operations on the coast of
Egypt, for which service he was raised to the peerage as
Baron Alcester of Alcester in the county of Warwick, received
a parliamentary grant of L. 25,000, the freedom of the city
of London and a sword of honour. On his return from the
Mediterranean he was for a couple of years again at the
admiralty, and in 1886 he was placed on the retired list. For
the next nine years he lived chiefly in London, but latterly
his health was much broken, and he died on the 30th of March
1895. He was unmarried and the peerage became extinct.
ALCESTER [pronounced Auster, a market-town in the
Stratford-on-Avon parliamentary division of Warwickshire,
England, 16 m. W.S.W. from Warwick by the Great Western
railway, served also by the Birmingham-Evesham branch of
the Midland railway. Pop. (1901) 2303. It is pleasantly
situated among low wooded hills at the junction of the small
stream Alne with the Arrow, a northern tributary of the
Avon. The church of St Nicholas, with the exception of the
Decorated tower, is a reconstruction of 1734; among several
monuments is a fine example of Chantrey's work, to the 2nd
marquess of Hertford (d. 1822). There are a picturesque
town hall (1641), raised on stone columns, and a free grammar
school. The manufacture of needles is less important than
formerly, having been absorbed into the centre of the industry
at Redditch in the neighbouring county of Worcestershire. There
are implement works and cycle works, and brewing is prosecuted.
The name (Alnecestre, Alyncester) signifies ``the camp on the
Alne.'' A small Romano-British town or village was situated
here, on the road which runs from Derby and Wall, near Lichfield,
to join the Fosse Way near Cirencester. Its name is not
known. A relief figure in stone, some pavements, potsherds,
coins and burials have been found, but nothing to indicate an
important station. No written document relating to Alcester
exists before the reign of Henry I. No mention occurs in
Domesday, but it is given in a list of serjeanties of the
reign of Henry III. as having been a royal borough in the time
of Henry I., and in 1177 it rendered four marks' aid with the
other boroughs of the county. However, there is no evidence
of the grant of a royal charter, and the title of borough soon
lapsed. In the reign of Henry III. a moiety of the manor
was purchased by Sir Walter Beauchamp, who granted a charter
to the inhabitants of ihe town establishing a Tuesday market
for corn, cattle, and all kinds of merchandise, and also
obtained grants of fairs at the feasts of St Giles (afterwards
transferred to the feast of St Faith) and St Barnabas. In
1444 Sir John Beauchamp purchased the remaining moiety of the
manor, and was granted an additional fair at the feast of St
Dunstan. From this date the Beauchamps were lords of the
whole manor until it passed by female descent to the Grevilles
in the reign of Henry VIII. in 1140 a Benedictine monastery
was founded here by Falph Boteler of Oversley, and received
the name of the Church of Our Lady of the Isle, owing to its
insulation by a moat meeting the river Arrow. The monastery
was suppressed among the smaller houses in 1536. Traces of
the moat and the foundations are still to be seen in Priory
Close. The ancient fairs survived to the end of the 19th century.
in 1830 the needle-manufacture employed nearly a thousand hands.
ALCESTIS (ALKESTIS), in Greek legend the daughter of
Pelias and Anaxibia, and wife of Admetus, king of Pherae in
Thessaly. She consented to die in place of her husband,
and was afterwards rescued by Heracles. This beautiful
story of conjugal devotion forms the subject of the
Alcestis of Euripides, which furnished the basis of
Robert Browning's Balaustion's Adventure. Sophocles
also wrote an Alcestis, of which only fragments remain.
See Dissel, Der Mythos von Admetus und Alkestis, 1882.
ALCHEMY. In the narrow sense of the word, alchemy is the
pretended art of making gold and silver, or transmuting the
base metals into the noble ones. The idea of such transmutation
probably arose among the Alexandrian Greeks in the early
centuries of the Christian era; thence it passed to the
Arabs, by whom it was transmitted to western Europe, and its
realization was a leading aim of chemical workers down to the
time of Paracelsus and even later. But ``alchemy'' was something
more than a particularly vain and deluded manifestation of
the thirst for gold, as it is sometimes represented; in its
wider and truer significance it stands for the chemistry of
the middle ages. The idea of transmutation, in the country
of its origin, had a philosophical basis, and was linked
up with the Greek theories of matter there current; thus,
by supplying a central philosophical principle, it to some
extent unified and focussed chemical effort, which previously,
so far as it existed at all, had been expended on acquiring
empirical acquaintance with a mass of disconnected technical
processes. Alchemy in this sense is merely an early phase of
the development of systematic chemistry; in Liebig's words, it
was ``never at any time anything different from chemistry.''
Regarding the derivation of the word, there are two main views
which agree in holding that it has an Arabic descent, the
prefix al being the Arabic article. But according to one,
the second part of the word comes from the Greek chumeia,
pouring, infusion, used in connexion with the study of the
juices of plants, and thence extended to chemical manipulations
in general; this derivation accounts for the old-fashioned
spellings ``chymist'' and ``chymistry.'' The other view
traces it to khem or khame, hieroglyph khmi, which
denotes black earth as opposed to barren sand, and occurs in
Plutarch as chumeia; on this derivation alchemy is explained
as meaning the ``Egyptian art.'' The first occurrence of
the word is said to be in a treatise of Julius Firmicus, an
astrological writer of the 4th century, but the prefix al
there must be the addition of a later copyist. Among the
Alexandrian writers alchemy was designated as e tes chrusou
te kai argurou poieseos techne theia kai iera or
e episteme iera. In English, Piers Plowman (1362)
contains the phrase ``experimentis of alconomye,'' with
variants ``alkenemye'' and ``alknamye.'' The prefix al
begins to be dropped about the middle of the 16th century.
Origins of Alchemy.--Numerous legends cluster round the
origin of alchemy. According to one story, it was founded
by the Egyptian god Hermes (Thoth), the reputed inventor of
the arts and sciences, to whom, under the appellation Hermes
Trismegistus, Tertullian refers as the master of those who
occupy themselves with nature; after him later alchemists
called their work the ``hermetic art,'' and the seal of
Hermes, which they placed upon their vessels, is the origin
of the common phrase ``hermetically sealed.'' Another legend,
given by Zosimus of Panopolis, an alchemistical writer said
to date from the 3rd century, asserts that the fallen angels
taught the arts to the women they married (cf. Genesis vi.
2), their instruction being recorded in a book called
Chema. A similar story appears in the Book of Enoch,
and Tertullian has much to say about the wicked angels who
revealed to men the knowledge of gold and silver, of lustrous
stones, and of the power of herbs, and who introduced the
arts of astrology and magic upon the earth. Again, the
Arabic Kitab-al-Fihrist, written by al-Nadim towards the
end of the 10th century, says that the ``people who practise
alchemy, that is, who fabricate gold and silver from strange
metals, state that the first to speak of the science of the
work was Hermes the Wise, who was originally of Babylon, but
who established himself in Egypt after the dispersion of the
peoples from Babel.'' Another legend, also to be found in Arabic
sources, asserts that alchemy was revealed by God to Moses and
Aaron. But there is some evidence that, in accordance with
the strong and constant tradition among the alchemists, the
idea of transmutation did originate in Egypt with the Greeks of
Alexandria. In the Leiden museum there are a number of papyri
which were found in a tomb at Thebes, written probably in the
3rd century A.D., though their matter is older. Some are
in Greek and demotic, and one, of peculiar interest from the
chemical point of view, gives a number of receipts, in Greek,
for the manipulation of base metals to form alloys which simulate
gold and are intended to be used in the manufacture of imitation
jewellery. Possibly this is one of the books about gold
and silver of which Diocletian decreed the destruction about
A.D. 290--an act which Gibbon styles the first authentic
event in the history of alchemy (Decline and Fall, chap.
xiii.). The author of these receipts is not under any
delusion that he is transmuting metals; the MS. is merely
a workshop manual in which are described processes in daily
use for preparing metals for false jewellery, but it argues
considerable knowledge of methods of making alloys and colouring
metals. It has been suggested by M. P. E. Berthelot that
the workers in these processes, which were a monopoly of the
priestly caste and were kept strictly secret, though fully
aware that their products were not truly gold, were in time
led by their success in deceiving the public to deceive
themselves also, and to come to believe that they actually
had the power of making gold from substances which were not
gold. Philosophical sanction and explanation of this belief
was then found by bringing it into relation with the theory
of the prima materia, which was identical in all bodies
but received its actual form by the adjunction of qualities
expressed by the Aristotelian elements--earth, air, fire and
water. Some support for this view is gained from study
of the alchemistical writings of the period. Thus, in the
treatise known as Physica et Mystica and falsely ascribed
to Democritus (such false attributions are a constant feature
of the literature of alchemy), various receipts are given
for colouring and gilding metals, but the conception of
transmutation does not occur. This treatise was probably
composed at a date not very different from that of the Leiden
papyrus. Later, however, as in the Commentary on this
work written by Synesius to Dioscorus, priest of Serapis at
Alexandria, which probably dates from the end of the 4th
century, a changed attitude becomes apparent; the more
practical parts of the receipts are obscured or omitted,
and the processes for preparing alloys and colouring
metals, described in the older treatise, are by a mystical
interpretation represented as resulting in real transmutation.
But while there are thus some grounds for supposing that the
idea of transmutation grew out of the practical receipts of
Alexandrian Egypt, the alchemy which embraced it as a leading
principle was also strongly affected by Eastern influences
such as magic and astrology. The earliest Greek alchemistical
writings abound with references to Oriental authorities and
traditions. Thus the pseudo-Democritus, who was reputed the
author of the Physica et Mystica, which itself concludes
each of its receipts with a magical formula, was believed
to have travelled in Chaldaea, and to have had as his master
Ostanes1 the Mede, a name mentioned several times in the
Leiden papyrus, and often by early Christian writers such as
Tertullian, St Cyprian and St Augustine. The practices of
the Persian adepts also are appealed to in the writings of the
pseudo-Democritus, Zosimus and Synesius. The philosopher's
egg, as a symbol of creation, is both Egyptian and
Babylonian. In the Greek alchemists it appears as the symbol
at once of the art and of the universe, enclosing within
itself the four elements; and there is sometimes a play of
words between to on and to won. The conception of
man, the microcosm, containing in himself all the parts
of the universe or macrocosm, is also Babylonian, as again
probably is the famous identification of the metals with the
planets. Even in the Leiden papyrus the astronomical symbols
for the sun and moon are used to denote gold and silver, and
in the Meteorologica of Olympiodorus lead is attributed to
Saturn, iron to Mars, copper to Venus, tin to Hermes (Mercury)
and electrum to Jupiter. Similar systems of symbols, but
elaborated to include compounds, appear in Greek MSS. of
the 10th century, preserved in the library of St Mark's at
Venice. Subsequently electrum (an alloy of gold and silver)
disappeared as a specific metal, and tin was ascribed to Jupiter
instead, the sign of mercury becoming common to the metal and the
planet. Thus we read in Chaucer (Chanouns Yemannes Tale):--