ALLOPHANE, one of the few minerals known only in the amorphous

state. It is a glassy substance, usually occurring as

thin encrustations with a mammillary surface; occasionally,

however, it is earthy and pulverulent. The colour varies

considerably. from colourless to yellow, brown, blue or

green. Specimens of a brilliant sky-blue colour, such as

those found formerly in Wheal Haniblyn, near Bridestowe in

Devonshire, and in Sardinia, are specially attractive in

appearance; the colour is here due to the presence of the

copper mineral chrysocolla. The hardness is 3, and the

specific gravity 1.9. Chemically, it is a hydrous aluminium

silicate, Al2SiO5.5H2O. Allophane is always of secondary

origin, resulting from the decomposition of various aluminous

silicates, such as felspar. It is often found copper and

iron. It was first observed in 1809 in marl at Grafenthal,

near Saalfield in Thuringia; and has been found in lines

fissures and funnel-shaped cavities. The name allophane was

given by F. Stromeyer in 1816, from the Gr. allos, another,

and faino, to appear, in allusion to the fact that the

mineral crumbles and changes in appearance when heated

before the blowpipe. Other names for the species are

riemannite and elhuyarite, whilst closely allied minerals are

carolathine, samoite and schrotterite (opal-allophane).

ALLORI, ALESSANDRO (1535--1607), Italian painter of the

Florentine school, was brought up and trained in art by his uncle,

Angelo Bronzino (q.v.) whose name he sometimes assumed in his

pictures. Visiting Rome in his nineteenth year, he carefully

studied the works of Michelangelo; but the influence of that

great master can only be traced in the anatomical correctness

of his drawing of nude figures. He was successful as a portrait

painter. His son CRISTOFANO ALLORI (1577-1621), born at

Florence, received his first lessons in painting from his father,

but becoming dissatisfied with the hard anatomical drawing and

cold colouring of the latter, he entered the studio of Gregorio

Pagani (1558-1605) who was one of the leaders of that later

Florentine school which endeavoured to unite the rich colouring

of the Venetians with the correct drawing of Michelangelo's

disciples. Allori became one of the foremost of this school.

His pictures are distinguished by their close adherence to

nature and the delicacy and technical perfection of their

execution. His technical skill is proved by the fact that

several copies he made after Correggio have been taken to be

duplicates by Correggio himself. His extreme fastidiousness

limited his power of production, though the number of his works

is not so small as is sometimes asserted. Several specimens

are to be seen at Florence and elsewhere. The finest of

all his works is his ``Judith and Holofernes,'' in the Pitti

Palace. The model for the Judith was his mistress, the beautiful

Mazzafirra, who is also represented in his Magdalene; and the

head of Holofernes is generally supposed to represent himself.

ALLOTMENT from O. Fr. a and loter, to divide by

lot), the act of allotting; a share or portion assigned.

In England, the term denotes a portion of land assigned

on partition or under an inclosure award (see COMMONS);

also a division of land into small portions for cultivation

by a labourer or artisan at a small rent (see ALLOTMENTS

AND SMALL HOLDINOS). In company law, ``allotment'' is

the appropriation to an applicant by a resolution of the

directors of a certain number of shares in response to an

application. The document sent to such an applicant, which

announces the number of shares assigned and concludes the

contract, is called a letter of allotment or allotment

certificate. A letter of allotment in England requires a

sixpenny stamp if the value of the shares amounts to L. 5 or

over, and a penny stamp if less than L. 5. (See COMPANY.)

Allotment note is a writing by a seaman authorising his

employers to make an allotment of part of his wages, while he

is on a voyage, in favour either of a ``near'' relative (wife,

father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, child, grandchild,

brother or sister of the seaman), or of a savings bank. Every

allotment note must be in a form sanctioned by the Board of Trade.

ALLOTMENTS AND SMALL HOLDINGS. As the meaning of these

terms in agricultural tenure varies in different localities,

it may be as well to say at once that for the present purpose

they are definable as pieces of land detached from cottages,

and hired or owned by labouring men to supplement their main

income. We do not include any farm, however small, from

which the occupier derives his entire support by dairying,

market-gardening, or other form of la petite culture. So,

also, no account is taken of the tiny garden plot, used for

growing vegetables for the table and simple flowers, which

is properly an appurtenance of the cottage. Clearing away

what is extraneous, the essential point round which much

controversy has raged is the labourer's share in the land.

The claim advanced depends upon tradition. In agriculture,

the oldest of all industries, a cash payment is not even now

regarded as discharging the obligations between master and

servant. Mr Wilson Fox, in reporting to the Board of Trade on

the earnings of agricultural labourers in Great Britain, gives,

as a typical survival of an old custom, the case of a shepherd

whose total income was calculated at L. 60 a year, but who got

only L. 16 in money, the rest being made up by rights of grazing

live-stock, growing crops on his master's land, and kindred

privileges. That is exactly in the spirit that used to pervade

agriculture, and doubtless had its origin in the manorial

system. If we turn back to the 13th century, from Walter of

Henley's Husbandry it will be seen that practically there

were only two classes engaged in agriculture, and corresponding

with them were two kinds of land. There were, on the one

hand, the employer, the lord, and his demesne land; on the

other, the villeins and the land held in villenage. Putting

aside for the moment any discussion of the exact degree of

servitude, it will be seen that the essence of the bargain was

that the villein should be permitted to cultivate a virgate of

land for his own use in return for service rendered on the home

farm. This is not altered by the fact that the conditions

approached those of slavery, that the villeins were adscripti

glebae, that in some cases their wives and sons were bequeathed

by deed to the service of religious houses, and that in many

other respects their freedom was limited. Out of this, in

the course of centuries, was developed the system prevailing

to-day. Lammas lands are indeed a survival from it. There

are in the valley of the Lea, and close to London, to take one

example, lands allotted annually in little strips till the

crops are carried, when, the day being fixed by a reeve, the

land becomes a common pasture till the spring closing takes

place once more. Perhaps the feature of this old system

that bears most directly on the question of allotments was

the treatment of the waste of the manor. The lord, like his

tenants, was limited by custom as regards the number of

beasts he could graze on it. After the havoc of the Black

Death in 1349, many changes were necessitated by the scarcity

and dearness of labour. It became less unusual for land

to be let and for money payment to be accepted instead of

services. There was a great demand for wool, and to conduct

sheep-farming on a large scale necessitated a re-arrangement

of the manor and the enclosure of many common fields under

the statute of Merton and the statute of Westminster the

Second. Nevertheless, up to the 18th century, a vast proportion

of agricultural land was technically waste, on which rights

of common were exercised by yeomen, some of whom had acquired

holdings by the ordinary methods of purchase or inheritance,

while others had merely squatted and built a house on the

waste. It is to this period that belongs a certain injustice

to which the peasantry were subject. No reasonable doubt

can be entertained of the necessity of enclosure. Husbandry,

after long stagnation, was making great advance; and among

others, Arthur Young raised his voice against the clumsy

inconvenient common fields that were the first to be enclosed.

Between 1709 and 1797 no fewer than 3110 acts, affecting, as

far as can be calculated, about 3,000,000 acres, were put into

operation. They seem mostly to have been directed to the common

fields. In the first half of the 19th century the movement

went on apace. In a single year, 1801, no fewer than 119

acts were passed; and between 1801 and 1842 close on 2000

acts were passed---many of them expressly directed to the

enclosure of wastes and commons. The same thing continued till

1860. It touched the peasant directly and indirectly. The

enclosure of the common fields proved most hurtful to the

small farmer; the enclosure of the waste injured the labourer

by depriving him, without adequate compensation, of such

useful privileges as the right to graze a cow, a pig, geese

or other small animals. It also discouraged him by tending

to the extinction of small tenancies and freeholds that were

no longer workable at a profit when common rights ceased

to go with them. The industrious labourer could previously

nourish a hope of bettering his condition by obtaining a small

holding. Yet though the labourer suffered, impartial study

does not show any intentional injustice. He held a very

weak position when those interested in a common affixed to

the church door a notice that they intended to petition.

As Mr Cowper (afterwards Lord Mount Temple) said in the

House of Commons on the 13th of March 1844, ``the course

adopted had been to compensate the owner of the cottage to

whom the common right belonged, forgetting the claims of

the occupier by whom they were enjoyed''; and in the same

debate Sir Robert Peel pointed out that not only the rights

of the tenant, but those of his successors ought to have been

studied. The course adopted divorced the labourer from the soil.

Parliament, as a matter of fact, had from a very early

period recognized the wisdom of contenting the peasant.

In the 14th century the labourer lived in rude abundance.

Next century a rural exodus began, owing to the practice of

enclosing the holdings and turning them into sheep walks.

In 1487 an act was passed enjoining landlords to ``keep up

houses of husbandry,'' and attach convenient land to them.

Within the next hundred years a number of similar attempts

were made to control what we may call the sheep fever of the

time. Then we arrive at the reign of Elizabeth and the famous

Small Holdings Act passed in 1597--an anticipation of the

three-acres-and-a-cow policy advocated towards the end of

the 19th century. It required that no person shall ``build,

convert or ordain any cottage for habitation or dwelling

for persons engaged in husbandry'' unless the owner ``do

assign and lay to the same cottage or building four acres of

ground at the least.'' It also provided against any ``inmate

or under-sitter'' being admitted to what was sacred to one

family. This measure was not conceived in the spirit of

modern political economy, but it had the effect of staying

the rural exodus. It was repealed in 1775 on the ground

that it restricted the building of cottages. By that time

the modern feeling in favour of allotments had begun to

ripen, and it was contended that some compensation should be

made to the labourers for depriving them of the advantages

of the waste. Up to then the English labouring rustic had

been very well off. Food was abundant and cheap, so were

clothes and boots; he could graze his cow or pig on the

common, and also obtain fuel from it. Now he fell on evil

days. Prices rose, wages fell, privileges were lost, and in

many cases he had to sell the patch of land whose possession

made all the difference between hardship and comfort. All

this was seen plainly enough both by statesmen and private

philanthropists. One of the first experiments was described

by Sir John Sinclair in a note to the report of a select

committee of the House of Commons on waste lands in 1795.

About 1772 the lord of the manor of some commonable lands

near Tewkesbury had with great success set out 25 acres in

allotments for the use of some of the poor. Sir John was very

much struck with the result, and so heartily applauded the idea

that the committee recommended that any general enclosure bill

should have a clause in it providing for ``the accommodation

of land.'' Sir Thomas Bernard and W. Wilberforce took an

active part in advocating the principle of allotments, on the

ground, to summarize their argument in language employed

later by a witness before the House of Commons, that ``it

keeps the cottagers buoyant and makes them industrious.'' In

1806, at the suggestion of the rector, a clause assigning an

allotment of half an acre to every cottage was inserted in an

enclosure bill Wiltshire. This was done, ``and the example

was followed by nearly every adjoining parish in that part of

Wiltshire. Passing over several praiseworthy establishments

of allotments by private persons, we come to 1819, when

parliament passed an act akin in spirit to several that came

into existence during the later portion of the Victorian

era. It empowered the churchwardens and overseers of any

parish, with the consent of the vestry, to purchase or hire

land not exceeding 25 acres, and to let it in portions to

``any poor and industrious inhabitant of the parish.'' This

was amended in 1831 by an act extending the quantity of land

enable the same authorities to enclose from any waste or

common, land not exceeding 50 acres to be devoted to the same

purpose. This was followed next year by an act relating to

fuel, and in 1834 the Poor Law Commissioners reported favourably

on the principle of granting allotments. In 1843 an important

inquiry into the subject was made by a committee of the House of

Commons, which produced a number of valuable suggestions. One

consequence was the bill of 1845, brought into parliament by Mr

Cowper. It passed the House of Commons; and there Mr Bright

made a remark that probably summarized a general opinion, since

it never came to a third reading in the House of Lords. He

said that ``the voluntary system of arrangement would do all the

good that was expected to accrue from the allotment system.''

At this point in the history of the movement it may be as

well to cause and ask what was the net result of so much

legislation and benevolent action. Messrs Tremenheere and

Tufnall, who prefixed an admirable epitome of what had been

done to the report of the commission ``appointed to inquire

into the employment of women, young persons and children in

agriculture'' (1867), expressed considerable disappointment.

Between 1710 and 1867, 7,660,413 statute acres were added to

the cultivated area of England and Wales, or about one-third of

the area in cultivation at the latter date; and of this total,

484,893 acres were enclosed between 1845 and 1867. Of the

latter, only 2119 acres were assigned as public allotments for

gardens to the labouring poor. It was found to be the case,

as it is now, that land was taken up more readily when offered

privately and voluntarily than when it came through offcial

sources. Meanwhile competent and thoughtful men saw well that

the sullen discontent of the peasantry continued, in Lord Bacon's

phrase, to threaten ``the might and manhood of the kingdom.''

It had existed since the beginning of the Napoleonic wars,

and had become more articulate with the spread of education.

We shall see a consciousness of its presence rehected in the

minds of statesmen and politicians as we briefly examine the

later phase of the movement. This found expression in the

clauses against enclosure introduced by Lord Beaconsheld in

1876, and gave force to the three-acres-and-a-cow agitation,

of which the more prominent leaders were Joseph Arch and Jesse

Collings. In 1882 the Allotments Extension Act was passed,

the object of which was to let the parishioners have charity

land in allotments, provided it or the revenue from it was

not used for apprenticeshio, ecclesiastical or educational

purposes. A committee of the House of Commons, appointed

in 1885 to inquire into the housing of the working classes,

reported strongly in favour of allotments, and this was followed

in 1887 by the Allotments Act---the first measure in which the

principle of compulsory acquisition was admitted in regard to

other than charity lands. Its administration was first given

to the sanitary authority, but passed to the district councils

when these bodies were established in 1894. the local body

is empowered to hire or purchase suitable land, and if they

do not find any in the market they are to petition the county

council, which after due inquiry may issue a provisional

order compeihng owners to sell land, and the Local Government

Board may introduce a bill into parliament to confirm the

order. It was found that the sanitary authority did not

carry out the scheme, and in 1890 another act was passed

for the purpose of allowing applicants for allotments, when

the sanitary authority failed to provide land, to appeal to

the county council. Judging from the evidence laid before

the commission on agricultural depression (1894), the act of

1887 was not a conspicuous success. Most of the witnesses

reported in such terms as these---``the Allotments Act has

been quite inoperative in Cornwall''; ``the act has been a

dead letter in the district (Wigtownshire)''; ``the Allotments

Act has not been in operation in Flintshire''; ``nothing has

been done in the district of Pembrokeshire under the act.''

No evidence whatever was adduced to show that in a single

district a different state of things had to be recorded.

From a return presented by the Local Government Board to

parliament in 1896 we learn that eighty-three rural sanitary

authorities had acquired land for allotment prior to the 28th

of December 1894, the date at which these authorities ceased

to exist under the provisions of the Local Government Act

1894. Land was acquired by compulsory purchase in only one

parish; by purchase or agreement in eighteen parishes; by hire

by agreement in 132 parishes. The total acreage dealt with

was 1836 acres 1 rood 34 poles, and the total number of tenants

4711. The number of county councils that up to the same

date had acquired land was twelve, and they had done so by

compulsory purchase in one parish, by purchase or agreement

in five parishes, by hire by agreement in twenty-four

parishes. The total area dealt with was only 413 acres 1 rood 5

poles, and the total number of tenants 825.The complete totals

affected at the date of the return (August 21, 1895) by the

acts, therefore, were 2249 acres 2 roods 29 poles, and 5536

tenants. A considerable extension has taken place since.

The Small Holdings Act introduced by Mr Henry Chaplin, and

passed by parliament in 1892 was an attempt to appease the rural

discontent that had been seething for some time past and was

silently but most eloquently expressed in a steady migration

from the villages. The object of this measure was to help the

deserving labouring man to acquire a small holding, that is to

say, a portion of land not less than one acre or more than

fifty acres in extent and of an annual value not exceeding

L. 50. It is not necessary here to describe the legal steps

by which this was to be accomplished. The essence of the

bargain was that a fifth of the purchase money should be paid

down, and the remainder in half-yearly instalments spread

over a period not exceeding fifty years. But if the local

authority thought fit a portion of the purchase money, not

exceeding one-fourth. might remain unpaid, and be secured by

a perpetual rent charge upon the holding. It cannot be said

that this act has attained the object for which it was drawn

up. From a return made to the House of Commons in 1895 it

was shown that eight county councils had acquired land under

the Small Holdings Act, which amounted in the aggregate to 483

acres. A further return was made in 1903, which showed that

the total quantity of land acquired from the commencement

of the act up to the end of 1902 was only 652 acres.

It is, however, an English characteristic to prefer private

to public arrangements, and probably a very great majority

of the allotments and small holdings cultivated in 1907 were

due to individual initiative. There are no means of arriving

at the exact figures, but data exist whereby it is at least

possible to form some rough idea of them. It is not the custom

to give in the annual agricultural returns any statement of

the manner in which land is held, and the information is to

be found in the returns presented to parliament from time to

time. From the following table, which includes both the

holdings owned and tenanted, it will be seen that between

1895 and 1904 the tendency was for the holdings to decrease

in number; while the holdings of from 50 to 300 acres slightly

increased, those from 5 to 50 acres were almost stationary,

and there was a decrease in those between 1 and 5 acres.

1895. 1904.

Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.

1 to 5 acres 117,968 22.68 110,974 21.69

5 to 50 '' 235,481 45.28 232,470 45.44

50 to 300 '' 147,870 28.43 150,050 29.33

Above 300 '' 18,787 3.61 18,084 3.54

These figures become doubly instructive when considered in

connexion with the decline of the strictly rural population.

It will, therefore, be useful to place beside them a summary

published in a report on the decline of rural population in Great

Britain issued by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries in 1906.

Class. 1881. 1891. 1901. Increase (+) or Decrease (-)

1881-1891. 1891-1901.

No. No. No. No. No.

Farmers and

Graziers 279,126 277,943 277,694 -1,183 -249

Farm Bailiffs

and Foremen 22,895 21,453 27,317 -1,442 +5,864

Shepherds 33,125 31,686 35,022 -1,439 +3,336

Agricultural

Labourers 983,919 866,543 689,292 -117,376 -177,251

These figures must of course be approximate. The effect of

recent development in methods of travelling and the growing custom

for townsmen either to live wholly in the country or to take

week-end cottages, has made it impossible to draw a strict line

of demarcation between rural and urban populations. Still they

are near enough for practical purposes, and they amply justify

the efforts of those who are trying to stay the rural exodus.

While legislation had not, up to 1908, achieved any noteworthy

result in the creation of small holdings, and still left doubts

as to the practicability of re-creating the English yeoman by

act of parliament, many successful efforts have been made by

individuals. One of the most interesting is that of the earl of

Carrington at Sleaford in Lincolnshire. In this case the most

noteworthy feature is that between the landlord and the tenants

there is a body called the South Lincolnshire Small Holdings

Association, which took 650 acres from Lord Carrington on a

twenty years' lease. These acres used to be let to four or five

tenants. They were in 1905 divided among one hundred and

seventy tenants. The Small Holders' Association guaranteed

the rent, which works out at about 33s. per acre, to Lord

Carrington. They let the men on yearly tenancy have it at about

40s. an acre, the difference being used to meet the expenses

of dividing the lands into small holdings, maintaining drains,

fences and roads connected with them, and other unavoidable

outlays. In this way the landlord is assured of his rent,

and the association has lost nothing, as the men were very

punctual in their payments. But very great care was bestowed

in choosing the men for the holdings. They were in a sense

picked men, but men must be picked to work the business

satisfactorily. Lincolnshire is pre-eminently a county of

small holdings, and the labouring residents in it have been

accustomed to the management of them from their infancy

onwards. Here as elsewhere the provision of suitable houses

formed a difficulty, some of the tenants having to walk several

miles to their holdings. Lord Carrington availed himself as

much as possible of the buildings that existed, dividing the

old farm houses so as to make them suitable for the small

tenants. At Cowbit farm, many of the ordinary labourers'

cottages, which were put up at a cost of about L. 300 a pair,

have by the addition of little dairies and other alterations

been made suitable for the tenants. From facts collected

on the spot we have come to the conclusion that on the small

holdings a good tenant makes an average profit of about L. 4 an

acre, but on an allotment cultivated by means of the spade

it would probably be at the rate of over L. 6 an acre. Lord

Carrington was also successful in establishing small holdings

on the Humberston estate in North Lincolnshire and on his

Buckinghamshire estate, near Aylesbury. At Newport Pagnell

the attempt failed because the demand was artificial, the

ground arable, and the men not capable of dealing with it.

Other examples of the establishment of small holdings can

only receive brief reference. The Norfolk Small Holdings

Association acquired three farms at Whissonsett, Watton and

Swaffham, which are broken up into small lots and let mostly

to the village tradespeople. Sir Pearce Edgecumbe established

small holdings at Rew, some of which have been purchased by the

occupiers, and Mr A. B. Markham created similar ownerships at

Twyford (Leicestershire) . At Cudworth in Surrey a group was

formed, but the owners were actuated more by the desire to lead

a simple life than to prove the remunerative value of small

holdings. Mr W. J. Harris created small holdings in Devon,

each of which is let on a life tenancy. There the rural exodus

has been more than arrested. Mr James Tomkinson established

in Cheshire a number of graduated holdings, so contrived as

to offer the successful holders a chance of stepping upwards.

The earl of Harrowby made an interesting experiment on his

Sandon estate in Staffordshire in the midst of a pretty, broken

and undulating country. The estate consists of about 6000

acres, one-third of which is laid out in small holdings.

These fall naturally into three divisions. First, there are

those which belong to men who have regular employment, and

would therefore find it impossible to cultivate any great

quantity of land. Many of that class are anxious to have

a holding of some sort, as it lends a certain elasticity

to their incomes and provides them with a never-failing

interest. One who may be taken as typical hired six acres

with a good cottage and a large garden, paying a rent of L. 20 a

year. When this holding was created it had already a suitable

cottage, but L. 100 was needed to provide outbuildings, and

Lord Harrowby's custom is to charge 5% on outlay of this

kind. This L. 5, however, is included in the total rent of

L. 20 paid for cottage, land and garden. The man was not only

content, but wished to get some more land. The next class

consists of those who have not enough land to live on but

eke out their livelihood by casual labour. Usually a man

of this sort requires from 35 to 50 acres of land mostly

pasture. He can attend to it and yet give a certain number

of days to estate work. The third class is that of the small

farmer who gains his entire livelihood from the land. The

obstacle to breaking up large farms into small lies of course

in the expense of providing the necessary equipment. It has

been found here that a cottage suitable for a small farmer

costs about L. 400 to build in a substantial manner, and the

outbuildings about L. 200. This makes an addition therefore of

about L. 30 to the rent of the land. The ardour with which these

tenancies were sought when vacant formed the best testimony

to the soundness of the principle applied by Lord Harrowby.

A nest of small holdings was created at Winterslow, near

Salisbury, by Major R. M. Poore. The holders completed the

purchase by 1906, and the work may be pronounced a complete

success. Major Poore originally conceived the idea when land

was cheap in 1892, owing to the depression in agriculture.

He purchased an estate that came into the market at the

time. The price came to an average of L. 10 an acre, and

the men themselves made the average for selling it out again

L. 15 on a principle of instalments. His object was not to

make any profit from the transaction, and he formed what is

termed a Landholders' Court, formed of the men themselves,

every ten choosing one to represent them. This court was

found to act well. It collected the instalments, which are

paid in advance; and of course the members of it, down to

the minutest detail, knew not only the circumstances but the

character of every applicant for land. The result speaks for

itself. The owners are, in the true sense of the word,

peasants. They do not depend on the land for a living, but

work in various callings---many being woodmen---for wages

that average about 15s. a week. The holdings vary in size

from less than an acre to ten acres, and are technically

held on a lease of 1999 years, practically freehold, though

by the adoption of a leasehold form a saving was effected

in the cost of transfer. On the holdings most of the men

have erected houses, using for the purpose chalk dug up

from their gardens, it lying only a few inches below the

surface. It is not rock, but soft chalk, so that they

are practically mud walls; but being as a rule at least 18

inches thick, the houses are very cool in summer and warm in

winter. Major Poore calculated that in seven years these

poor people--there are not thirty of them altogether--managed

to produce for their houses and land a gross sum of not

less than L. 5000. This he attributed to the loyal manner

in which even distant members of the family have helped.

The class of holding which owes its existence to the act of

1802 may be illustrated by the history of the Worcestershire

small holdings. The inception of the scheme was due to the

decline of the nail-making business, which caused a number

of the inhabitants to be without occupation. Two candidates

for election to the county council looking out for a popular

cry found it in the demand for land. They promised to do

their best in this direction, and thanks to the energetic

action of Mr Willis Bund, the chairman, the act was put in

force. Woodrow Farm, adjoining the village of Catshill in

the neighbourhood of Birmingham, was purchased on terms that

enabled the land to be sold to the peasant cultivator at L. 40 an

acre. They were paying this back at the rate of 4% on the

purchase money, a rate that included both interest and sinking

fund, so that at the end of forty years they would own the

small estates free from encumbrance. The huge population of

Birmingham is close to the properties. The men turned their

attention mostly to strawberries, to which many acres were

devoted. Costermongers would come out from Birmingham and buy

fruit on the spot, selling part of it to the villas on the way

back, and part in the Birmingham market. The experience gained

in working the act enabled the committee on small holdings to

make a number of practical suggestions for future legislation.

It remains to note the passing in 1907 of a new English

Small Holdings and Allotments Act, experience of which is

too recent for its provisions to be more than indicated

here. The act transferred to the Board of Agriculture the

duties generally of the Local Government Board, and transferred

to parish councils or parish meetings the powers and duties

of rural district councils; it required county councils to

ascertain the demand for land without previous representation to

them, and gave power for its compulsary acquisition; and the

maximum holding of an allotment was raised from one acre to

five. Both compulsary purchase and compulsary hiring (for not

less than 14 nor more than 35 years) were authorized, value

and compensation begin decided by a single arbitrator. A

coercive authority was applied to the county councils in the

form of commissioners appointed by the Board of Agriculture,

who were to hold inquiries independently and to take action

themselves in the case of a defaulting county council. They

were to ascertain the local demand for small holdings, and to

report to the Board, who might then require a county council

to prepare a scheme, whihc, when approved, it was to carry out,

the commissioners begin empowered to do so in the alternative.

Foreign Countries.--It remains to give a brief outline of what

small holdings are like outside Great Britain. From the results

of the Belgian Agricultural Inquiry in 1895 the following table

has been compiled, assuming that one hectare = 2 1/2 acres:--

Occupied by Owner. Occupied by Tenant. Total.

Size of Holding Whole. More than Half. More than half. Whole.

No. No. No. No. No.

1 1/4 acres and under 109,169 8,759 34,779 305,413 458,120

1 1/4 acres and under

5 acres 27,395 19,544 58,829 70,465 176,233

5 acres and under

10 acres 12,089 13,873 30,340 25,006 81,308

10 acres and under

50 acres 16,690 18,909 33,443 28,387 97,429

50 or 100 acres 2,021 1,497 3,315 4,517 11,350

Over 100 acres 903 470 1,417 2,395 5,185

Total 168,267 63,052 162,123 436,183 829,625

It will bbe seen from this table that Belgium is pre-eminently

a country of small holdings, more than half of the total

number being under 50 acres in extent. Of course it is largely

a country of market gardens; but as the holdings are most

numerous in Brabant, East and West Flanders and Hainault,

the provinces showing the largest number of milch cows, it

would seem that dairying and la petite culture go together

There is a slight tendency for the holdings to decrease in

number. In Germany the number of small holdings is proportionately

much larger than in Great Britain. The returns collected

in 1895 showed that there were 3,235,169, or 58.22% of the

total number of holdings under 5 acres in area; and of these

no fewer than 11% are held by servants as part of their

wages. The table below compiled for the Journal at

the Board of Agriculture enables us to compare the other

holdings with those of Great Britain. Great Britain, it

will be seen, has over 40% of large farms of between 50 and

500 acres as compared with Germany's 12.6, while the latter

has 86.8 of small holdings, compared with England's 58.6.

France also has a far larger proportion of small holdings

than Great Britain; its cultivated area of 85,759,000 acres

being divided into 5,618,000 separate holdings, of which the

size averages a little over 15 acres as against 63 in Great

Britain. Of the whole number, 4,190,795 are farmed by the

owners, 934,338 are in meteyage, and 1,078,184 by tenants.

The leading feature is the peasant proprietary. Half of the

arable, more than half of the pasture, six-sevenths of the

vineyards and two-thirds of the garden lands are farmed by their

owners. Comparison with Great Britain is difficult; but it would

appear that, whereas only 11% of British 520,000 agricultural

holdings are farmed by the owners, the proportion in France is

75%. A further point to be noted is that the average agricultural

tenancy in France is just one-fourth of what it is in Great

Britain, and the average owner-farmed estate only one-sixth.

Germany. Great Britain.

Size of Holdings Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent.

5 to 50 acres 2,014,940 86.8 235,481 58.6

50 to 500 '' 292,982 12.6 161,438 40.1

Over 500 '' 13,809 0.6 5,219 1.3

Total 2,321,731 100 402,138 100

In France the tendency is for the very small holdings to increase

in number owing to subdivision, with the consequent decrease

of the size of the average holding. Between the years 1882

and 1892 there was a decrease of 138,237 in the total number of

proprietors, the larger properties moving towards consolidation

and those of the peasant proprietors towards subdivision.

Those interested in the formation of small holdings in Great

Britain will find much to interest them in the history of Danish

legislations. British policy for many generations was to

preserve demesne land, and there are many devices for insuring

that a spendthrift life-owner shall not be able to scatter

the family inheritance; but as long ago as 1769 the Danish

legislators set an exactly opposite example. They enacted that

peasant land should not be incorporated or worked with estate

land; it must always remain in the ownership and occupation of

peasants. In this spirit all subsequent legislation was

conceived, and the allotment law that came into force in October

1899 bears some resemblance to the English Small Holdings Act of

1892. It provides that labourers able to satisfy certain

conditions as to character may obtain from the state a loan equal

to nine-tenths of the purchase money of the land they wish to

acquire. This land should be frm 5 to 7 acres in extent

and of medium quality, but the limits are from 2 3/4 to 10 3/4

acres in the case of better or poorer land. The total value

should not exceed 4000 kr. (L. 222). The interest payable on

the loan received from the state is 3%. The load itself is

repayable after the first five years by annual instalments

of 4% until half is paid off; the remainder by instalments of

3 1/2%, including interest. Provision is, however, made for

cases where the borrower desired to pay off the loan in larger

sums. Regulations are laid down regarding the transfer of

such properties and also their testamentary disposition.

The Treasury was empowered to devote a sum of 2,000,000 kr.

Number and Size of Holdings in Denmark in 1901.

Groups Percentage Percentage Average size

Tondeland. Acres. Number. of Number. Acreage of Area. in Acres.

Under 1 Under 1.36 68,380 27.3 23,455 .3 .34

1-3 1.36-4 18,777 7.5 58,553 .7 3.12

3-27 4-36.7 93,060 37.2 1,408,549 15.8 15.14

27-108 36.7-147 60,872 24.4 4,459,077 50.1 73.25

108-216 147-294 6,502 2.6 1,272,398 14.3 195.69

Over 216 Over 294 2,392 1.0 1,674,730 18.8 700.14

Total 249,983 100.0 8,896,762 100.0 35.59

(L. 111,000) this purpose for five years;

after that the land is . subject to revision.

Even before this law was passed Denmark was a country of small

holdings, the peasant farms amounting to 66% of the whole,

and the number is bound to increase, since the incorporation

of farms is illegal, while there is no obstacle to their

division. Between 1835 and 1885, the number of small holdings

of less than one tondekarthorn increased from 24,800 to

92,856. What gives point to these remarks is, that Denmark seems

in the way to arrest its rural exodus, and was one of the first

countries to escape from the agricultural depression due to the

extraordinary fall in grain prices. The distribution of land

in Denmark may be gathered from a glance at the preceding table

for the compilation of which we are indebted to Major Craigie.

AUTHORITIES.---Walter of Henley's Husbandry; The English

Village Community, by Frederick Seebohm; Annals of

Agriculture by Arthur Young; The Agricultural Labourer,

by T. E. Kebbel; Report on the Employment of Messrs

Tremenheere and Tufnall); A Study of Small Holdings,

by W. E. Bear; The Law and the Labourer, by C. W. Stubbs;

``Agricultural Holdings in England and Abroad,'' by Major

Craigie (Statistical Society's Journal, vol. i.); The

Return to the Land, by Senator Jules Meline; Land

Reform, by the Right Hon. Jesse Collings, M.P.; Report

on the Decline in the Agricultural Population of Great

Britain, issued by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries;

Report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the Board

of Agriculture and Fisheries to enquire into and report upon

the subject of Small Holdings in Great Britain. (P. A. G.)

ALLOTROPY (Gr. allos, other, and tropos, manner), a name

applied by J. J. Berzelius to the property possessed by certain

substances of existing in different modifications. Custom has

to some extent restricted its use to inorganic chemistry; the

corresponding property of organic compounds being generally termed

isomerism (q.v..) Conspicuous examples are afforded by oxygen,

carbon, boron, silicon, phosphorus, mercuric oxide and iodide.

ALLOWANCE (from ``allow,'' derived through O. Fr. alouer

from the two Lat. origins adlaudare, to praise, and allocare,

to assign a place; so that the English word combined the

general idea of ``assigning with approval''), the action of

allowing, or the thing allowed; particularly, a certain limited

apportionment of money or food and diet (see DIETARY.)

In commercial usage ``allowance'' signifies the deduction made

from the gross weight of goods to make up for the weight of

the box or package, waste, breakages, &c. Allowance, which is

customary in most industries, varies according to the trade,

district or country; e.g. in the coal trade it is customary

for the merchant to receive from the pit 21 cwts. of coal for

every ton purchased by him, the difference of 1 cwt. being the

allowance for the purpose of making good the waste caused through

transhipment, screening and cartage (see TARE AND TRET.)

ALLOXAN, or MESOXALYL UREA, C4H2N2O4

/NH-CO\

CO CO

\NH-CO/

an oxidation product of uric acid, being obtained from it

by the action of cold nitric acid, C5H4N4O3 + H2O +

O = C4H2N3O4 + CO(NH2)2. It crystallizes from water

in colourless rhombic prisms, containing four molecules

of water of crystallization, and possesses a very acid

reaction. It serves as the starting-point for the preparation

of many related substances. Zinc and hydrochloric acid in

the cold convert it into alloxantin (q.v.), hydroxylamine

gives nitroso-barbituric acid, C4H2N2O3: NOH, baryta

water gives alloxanic acid, C4H4N2O5, hot dilute nitric

acid oxidizes it to parabanic acid (q.v.), hot potassium

hydroxide solution hydrolyses it to urea and mesoxalic

acid (q.v.) and zinc and hot hydrochloric acid convert

it into dialuric acid, C4H4N2O4. M. Nencki has shown

that alloxan combines with thiourea in alcoholic solution,

in the presence of sulphur dioxide to form pseudothiouric

acid, C5H6N4SO3. Methyl and dimethylalloxans are also

known, the former being obtained on oxidation of methyl uric

acid, and the latter on oxidation of caffeine (q.v..)

ALLOXANTIN, C8H4N4O7.3H2O, a product obtained by the combination

of alloxan and dialuric acid, probably possessing the constitution

NH--CO CO--NH

| | | |

CO C(OH)--O--CH CO

| | | |

NH--CO CO--NH

one of the three molecules Of water bema possibly constitutional.

It forms small hard prisms which become red on exposure to air

containing ammonia, owing to the formation of murexide (ammonium

purpurate), C8H4(NH4)N5O6. It may also be obtained by the

action of sulphuretted hydrogen on alloxan. The tetramethyl

derivative, amalic acid, C8(CH3)4N4O7, has been prepared

by oxidizing caffeine (q.v.) with chlorine water, and forms

colourless crystals which are only slightly soluble in hot

water. The formation of murexide is used as a test for the

presence of uric acid, which on evaporation with dilute nitric

acid gives alloxantin, and by the addition of ammonia to the

residue the purple red colour of murexide becomes apparent.

ALLOYS (through the Fr. aloyer, from Lat. alligare, to

combine), a term generally applied to the intimate mixtures

obtained by melting together two or more metals, and allowing

the mass to solidify. It may conveniently be extended to similar

mixtures of sulphur and selenium or tellurium, of bismuth and

sulphur, of copper and cuprous oxide, and of iron and carbon,

in fact to all cases in which substances can be made to mix in

varying proportions without very marked indication of chemical

action. The term ``alloy'' does not necessarily imply

obedience to the laws of definite and multiple proportion or

even uniformity throughout the material; but some alloys are

homogeneous and some are chemical compounds. In what follows

we shall confine our attention principally to metallic alloys.

If we melt copper and add to it about 30% of zinc, or 20% of

tin, we obtain uniform liquids which when solidified are the

well-known substances brass and bell-metal. These substances

are for all practical purposes new metals. The difference in

the appearance of brass and copper is familiar to everyone;

brass is also much harder than copper and much more suitable

for being turned in a lathe. Similarly, bell-metal is

harder, more sonorous and more brittle than either of its

components. It is almost impossible by mechanical means

to detect the separate ingredients in such an alloy; we may

cut or file or polish it without discovering any lack of

homogeneousness. But it is not permissible to call brass a

chemical compound, for we can largely alter its percentage

composition without the substance losing the properties

characteristic of brass; the properties change more or less

continuously, the colour, for example, becoming redder with

decrease in the percentage of zinc, and a paler yellow when

there is more zinc. The possibility of continuously varying

the percentage composition suggests analogy between an alloy

and a solution, and A. Matthiessen (Phil. Trans., 1860)

applied the term ``solidified solutions'' to alloys. Regarded

as descriptive of the genesis of an alloy from a uniform liquid

containing two or more metals, the term is not incorrect, and

it may have acted as a signpost towards profitable methods of

research. But modern work has shown that, although alloys

sometimes contain solid solutions, the solid alloy as a

whole is often far more like a conglomerate rock than a uniform

solution. In fact the uniformity of brass and bell-metal is

only superficial; if we adopt the methods described in the

article METALLOGRAPHY, and if, after polishing a plane face

on a bit of gun-metal, we etch away the surface layer and

examine the new surface with a lens or a microscope, we find

a complex pattern of at least two materials. Fig. 1 (Plate)

is from a photograph of a bronze containing 23.3% by weight of

tin. The acid used to etch the surface has darkened the

parts richest in copper, while those richest in tin remained

white. The two ingredients revealed by this process are not

pure copper and pure tin, but each material contains both

metals. In this case the white tin-rich portions are themselves

a complex that can be resolved into two substances by a higher

magnification. The majority of alloys, when examined thus,

prove to be complexes of two or more materials, and the patterns

showing the distribution of these materials throughout the

alloy are of a most varied character. It is certain that the

structure existing in the alloy is closely connected with the

mechanical properties, such as hardness, toughness, rigidity,

and so on, that make particular alloys valuable in the arts,

and many efforts have been made to trace this connexion. These

efforts have, in some cases, been very successful; for example,

in the case of steel, which is an alloy of iron and carbon, a

microscopical examination gives valuable information concerning

the suitability' of a sample of steel for special purposes.

Mixture by fusion is the general method of producing an

alloy, but it is not the only method possible. It would

seem, indeed, that any process by which the particles of

two metals are intimately mingled and brought into close

contact, so that diffusion of one metal into the other can

take place, is likely to result in the formation, of an

alloy. For example, if vapours of the volatile metals

cadmium, zinc and magnesium are allowed to act on platinum or

palladium, alloys are produced. The methods of manufacture

of steel by cementation, case-hardening and the Harvey

process are important operations which appear to depend on

the diffusion of the carburetting material into the solid

metal. When a solution of silver nitrate is poured on to

metallic mercury, the mercury replaces the silver in the

solution, forming nitrate of mercury, and the silver is

precipitated; it does not, however, appear as pure metallic

silver, but in the form of crystalline needles of an alloy

of silver and mercury. F. B. Mylius and O. Fromm have shown

that alloys may be precipitated from dilute solutions by zinc

cadmium, tin, lead and copper. Thus a strip of zinc plunged

into a solution of silver sulphate, containing not more than

0.03 gramme of silver in the litre, becomes covered with a

flocculent precipitate which is a true alloy of silver and

zinc, and in the same way, when copper is precipitated

from its sulphate by zinc, the alloy formed is brass. They

have also formed in this way certain alloys or definite

composition, such as AuCd3, Cu2Cd, and. more interesting

still, Cu2Sn. A very similar fact, that brass may be formed

by electrodeposition from a solution containing zinc and

copper, has long been known. W. V. Spring has shown that by

compressing a finely divided mixture of 15 parts of bismuth,

8 parts of lead, 4 parts of tin and 3 parts of cadmium, an

alloy is produced which melts at 100 deg. C., that is. much

below the melting-point of any of the four metals. But these

methods or forming alloys, although they suggest questions

of great interest, cannot receive further discussion bore.

Our knowledge of the nature of solid alloys has been much

enlarged by a careful study of the process of solidification.

Let us suppose that a molten mixture of two substances A and

B, which at a sufficiently high temperature form a uniform

liquid, and which do not combine to form definite compounds,

is slowly cooled until it becomes wholly solid. The phenomena

which succeed each other are then very similar, whether A

and B are two metals, such as lead and tin or silver and

copper, or are a pair of fused salts, or are water and common

salt. All these mixtures when solidified may fairly be termed

alloys.1 If a mixture of A and B be melted and then allowed

to cool, a thermometer immersed in the mixture will indicate

a gradually falling temperature. But when solidification

commences. the thermometer will cease to fall, it may even

rise slightly, and the temperature will remain almost constant

for a short time. This halt in the cooling, due to the heat

evolved in the solidification of the first crystals that form

in the liquid is called the freezing-point of the mixture;

the freezing-point can generally be observed with considerable

accuracy. In the case of a pure substance, and of a certain

small class of mixtures, there is no further fall in temperature

until the substance has become completely solid, but, in

the case of most mixtures, after the freezing-point has been

reached the temperature soon begins to fall again, and as the

amount of solid increases the temperature becomes lower and

lower. There may be other halts in the cooling, both before

and after complete solidification, due to evolution of

heat in the mixture. These halts in temperature that occur

during the cooling of a mixture should be carefully noted,

as they give valuable information concerning the physical and

chemical changes that are taking place. If we determine the

freezing-points of a number of mixtures varying in composition

from pure A to pure B, we can plot the freezing-point

curve. In such a curve the percentage composition can be

plotted horizontally and the temperature of the freezing-point

vertically, as in fig. 5. In such a diagram, a point P defines

a particular mixture, both as to percentage, composition and

temperature; a vertical line through P corresponds to the

mixture at all possible temperatures, the point Q being its

freezing-point. In the case of two substances which neither

form compounds nor dissolve each other in the solid state,

the complete freezing-point curve takes the form shown in

fig. 5. It consists of two branches AC and BC, which meet

in a lowest point C. It will be seen that as we increase

the percentage of B from nothing up to that of the mixture

C, the freezing-point becomes lower and lower, but that if

we further increase the percentage of B in the mixture, the

freezing-point rises. This agrees with the well-known fact

that the presence of an impurity in a substance depresses its

melting-point. The mixture C has a lower freezing or melting

point than that of any other mixture; it is called the eutectic

mixture. All the mixtures whose composition lies between

that of A and C deposit crystals of pure A when they begin to

solidify, while mixtures between C and B in composition deposit

crystals of pure B. Let us consider a little more closely the

solidification of the mixture represented by the vertical line

PCRS. As it cools from P to Q the mixture remains wholly

liquid, but when the temperature Q is reached there is a

halt in the cooling, due to the formation of crystals of A.

The cooling soon recommences and these crystals continue to

form, but at lower and lower temperatures because the still

liquid part is becoming richer in B. This process goes on

until the state of the remaining liquid is represented by

the point C. Now crystals of B begin to form, simultaneously

with the A crystals, and the composition of the remaining

liquid does not alter as the solidification progresses.

Consequently the temoerature does not change and there is

another well-marked halt in the cooling, and this halt lasts

until the mixture has become wholly solid. The corresponding

changes in the case of the mixture TUVW are easily understood

--the first halt at U, due to the crystallization of pure

B, will probably occur at a different temperature, but the

second halt, due to the simultaneous crystallization of A and

B, will always occur at the same temperature whatever the

composition of the mixture. It is evident that every mixture

except the eutectic mixture C will have two halts in its

cooling, and that its solidification will take place in two

stages. Moreover, the three solids S, D and W will differ

in minute structure and therefore, probably, in mechanical

properties. All mixtures whose temperature lies above the

line ACB are wholly liquid, hence this line is often called

the ``liquidus''; all mixtures at temperatures below that

of the horizontal line through C are wholly solid, hence

this line is sometimes called the ``solidus,'' but in more

complex cases the solidus is often curved. At temperatures

between the solidus and the liquidus a mixture is partly solid

and partly liquid. This general case has been discussed at

length because a careful study of it will much facilitate the

comprehension or the similar but more complicated cases that

occur in the examination of alloys. A great many mixtures

of metals have been examined in the above-mentioned way.

Fig. 6 gives the freezing-point diagram for alloys of lead and

tin. We see in it exactly the features described above.

The two sloping lines cutting at the eutectic point are the

freezing-point curves of alloys that, when they begin to

solidify, deposit crystals of lead and tin respectively. The

horizontal line through the eutectic point gives the second

halt in cooling, due to the simultaneous formation of lead

crystals and tin crystals. In the case of this pair of metals,

or indeed of any metallic alloy, we cannot see the crystals

forming, nor can we easily filter them off and examine them

apart from the liquid, although this has been done in a few

cases. But if we polish the solid alloys, etch them if

necessary, and examine them microscopically, we shall find

that alloys on the load side of the diagram consist of

comparatively large crystals of lead embedded in a minute

complex, which is due to the simultaneous crystallization

of the two metals during the solidification at the eutectic

temperature. If we examine alloys on the tin side we shall

find large crystals of tin embedded in the same complex. The

eutectic alloy itself, fig. 2 (Plate), shows the minute complex

of the tin-lead eutectic, photographed by J. A. Ewing and W.

Rosenhain, and fig. 3 (Plate), photographed by F. Osmond, shows

the structure of a silver-copper alloy containing considerably

more silver than the eutectic. Here, the large dark masses

are the silver or silver-rich substance that crystallized

above the eutectic temperature, and the more minute black

and white complex represents the eutectic. It is not safe

to assume that the two ingredients we see are pure silver

and pure copper; on the contrary, there is reason to think

that the crystals of silver contain some copper uniformly

diffused through them, and vice versa. It is, however, not

possible to detect the copper in the silver by means of the

microscope. This uniform distribution of a solid substance

throughout the mass of another, so as to form a homogeneous

material, is called ``solid solution,'' and we may say that

solid silver can dissolve copper. Solid solutions are probably

very common in alloys, so that when an alloy of two metals

shows two constituents under the microscope it is never safe

to infer, without further evidence, that these are the two

pure metals. Sometimes the whole alloy is a uniform solid

solution. This is the case with the copper-tin alloys

containing less than 9% by weight of tin; a microscopic

examination reveals only one material, a copper-like substance,

the tin having disappeared, being in solution in the copper.

Much information as to the nature of an alloy can be obtained

by placing several small ingots of the same alloy in a furnace

which is above the melting-point of the alloy, and allowing

the temperature to fall slowly and uniformly. We then extract

one ingot after another at successively lower temperatures

and chill each ingot by dropping it into water or by some

other method of very rapid cooling. The chilling stereotypes

the structure existing in the ingot at the moment it was

withdrawn from the furnace, and we can afterwards study this

structure by means of the microscope. We thus learn that

the bronzes referred to above, although chemically uniform

when solid, are not so when they begin to solidify, but that

the liquid deposits crystals richer in copper than itself,

and therefore that the residual liquid becomes richer in

tin. Consequently, as the final solid is uniform, the

crystals formed at first must change in composition at a later

stage. We learn also that solid solutions which exist at

high temperatures often break up into two materials as they

cool; for example, the bronze of fig. 1, which in that figure

shows two materials so plainly, if chilled at a somewhat

higher temperature but when it was already solid, is found

to consist of only one material; it is then a uniform solid

solution. The difference between softness and hardness in

ordinary steel is due to the permanence of a solid solution of

carbon in iron if the steel has been chilled or very rapidly

cooled, while if the steel is slowly cooled this solid solution

breaks up into a minute complex of two substances which is called

pearlite. The pearlite when highly magnified somewhat resembles

the lead-tin eutectic of fig. 2 (Plate). In the case of steel

(see IRON AND STEEL) the solid solution is very hard, while

the pearlite complex is much softer. In the case of some

bronzes, for example that with about 25% of tin, the solid

solution is soft, and the complex into which it breaks up by

slow cooling is much harder, so that the same process of heating

and chilling which hardens steel will soften this bronze.

If we melt an alloy and chill it before it has wholly

solidified, we often get evidence of the crystalline character

of the solid matter which first forms. Fig. 4 (Plate) is

the pattern found in a bronze containing 27.7% of tin when so

treated. The dark, regularly oriented crystal skeletons were

already solid at the moment of chilling; they are rich in

copper. The lighter part surrounding them was liquid before

the chill; it is rich in tin. This alloy, if allowed to

solidify completely before chilling, turns into a uniform solid

solution, and at still lower temperatures the solid solution

breaks up into a pearlite complex. The analogy between the

breaking up of a solid solution on cooling and the formation

of a eutectic is obvious. Iron and phosphorus unite to form

a solid solution which breaks up on cooling into a pearlite.

Other cases could be quoted, but enough has been said to

show the importance of solid solutions and their influence

on the mechanical properties of alloys. These uniform solid

solutions must not be mistaken for chemical compounds; they

can, within limits, vary in composition like an ordinary liquid

solution. But the occasional or indeed frequent existence of

chemical compounds in alloys has now been placed beyond doubt.

We can sometimes obtain definite compounds in a pure state

by the action of appropriate solvents which dissolve the

rest of the alloy and do not attack the crystals of the

compound. Thus, a number of copper-tin alloys when digested

with hydrochloric acid leave the same crystalline residue,

which on analysis proves to be the compound Cu3Sn. The bodies

SbNa3, BiNa3, SnNa4, compounds of iron and molybdenum

and many other substances, have also been isolated in this

way. The freezing-point curve sometimes indicates the existence

of chemical compounds. The simple type of curve, such as

that of lead and tin, fig. 6, consisting of two downward

sloping branches meeting in the eutectic point, and that of

thallium and tin, the upper curve of fig. 7, certainly give

no indication of chemical combination. But the curves are

not always so simple as the above. The lower curve of fig.

7 gives the freezing-point curve of mercury and thallium;

here A and E are the melting-points of pure mercury and pure

thallium, and the branches AB and ED do not cut each other,

but cut an intermediate rounded branch BCD. There are thus

two eutectic alloys B and D, and the alloys with compositions

between B and D have higher melting-points. The summit C of

the branch BCD occurs at a percentage exactly corresponding

to the formula Hg2Tl. It is probable that all the alloys

of compositions between B and D, when they begin to solidify,

deposit crystals of the compound; the lower eutectic B

probably corresponds to a solid complex of mercury and the

compound. The point B is at -60 deg. C., the lowest temperature

at which any metallic substance is known to exist in the liquid

state. The higher eutectic D may correspond to a complex of

solid thallium and the compound; but the possible existence of

solid solutions makes further investigation necessary here.

The curves of fig. 7 were determined by N. S. Kurnakow and N. A.

Puschin. Sometimes a freezing-point curve contains more than

one intermediate summit, so that more than one compound is

indicated. For example, in the curve for gold-aluminium,

ignoring minor singularities, we find two intermediate summits,

one at the percentage Au2Al, and another at the percentage

AuAl2. Microscopic examination fully confirms the existence

of these compounds. The substance AuAl2 is the most remarkable

compound of two metals that has so far been discovered;

although it contains so much aluminium its melting-point is

as high as that of gold. It also possesses a splendid purple

colour, more remarkable than that of any other metal or

alloy. Many other inter-metallic compounds have been indicated

by summits in freezing-point curves. For example, the system

sodium-mercury has a remarkable summit at the composition

NaHg2. This compound melts at 350 deg. C., a temperature far

above the melting-point of either sodium or mercury. In the

system potassium-mercury, the compound KHg2 is similarly

indicated. In the curve for sodium-cadmium, the compound

NaCd2 is plainly shown. These three examples are taken

from the work of N. S. Kurnakow. Various compounds of the

alkali metals with bismuth, antimony, tin and lead have been

prepared in a pure state. Such are the compounds SbNa3,

BiNa3, PbNa2, SuNa4. Of these, the first three are well

indicated on the freezing-point curves. The intermediate

summits occurring in the freezing-point curves of alloys are

usually rounded; this feature is believed to be due to the

partial decomposition of the compound which takes place when it

melts. The formulae of the group of substances last mentioned

are in harmony with the ordinary views of chemists as to

valency, but the formulae NaHg2, NaCd2, NaTl2, AuAl2 are

more surprising. They indicate The great gaps in our present

knowledge of the subject of valency. We must not take it for

granted, when the freezing-point curve gives no indication of

the compound, that the compound does not exist in the solid

alloy. For example, the compound Cu3Sn is not indicated

in the freezing-point curve, and indeed a liquid alloy of

this percentage does not begin to solidify by the formation

of crystals of Cu3Sn; the liquid solidifies completely to a

uniform solid solution, and only at a lower temperature does

this change into crystals of the compound, the transformation

being accomoanied by a considerable evolution of heat. Until

recently the vast subject of inter-metallic compounds has

been an unopened book to chemists. But the subject is now

being vigorously studied, and, apart from its importance as

a branch of descriptive chemistry, it is throwing light, and

promises to throw more, on obscure parts of chemical theory.

The graphical representation of the properties of alloys

can be extended so as to record all the changes, thermal and

chemical, which the alloy undergoes after, as well as before,

solidification, For an example of such a diagram, see the

Bakerian Lecture, 1903, Phil. Trans., A. 346. The Phase

Rule of Willard Gibbs, especially as developed by Bakhuis

Roozeboom, is a most useful guide in such investigations.

So far we have been considering alloys containing two metals;

the phenomena they present are by no means simple. But when

three or more metals are present, as is often the case in useful

alloys, the phenomena are much more complicated. With three

component metals the complete diagram giving the variations in

any property must be in three dimensions, although by the use of

contour lines the essential facts can be represented in a plane

diagram. The following method, depending on the constancy

of the sum of the three perpendiculars from any point on to

the sides of an equilateral triangle, can be adopted:--Let

ABC (fig. 8) be an equilateral triangle, the angular points

corresponding to the three pure metals A, B, C. Then the

composition of any alloy can be represented by a point P,

so chosen that the perpendicular Pa on to the side BC gives

the percentage of A in the alloy, and the perpendiculars Pb

and Pc give the percentages of B and C respectively. Points

on the side AB will correspond to binary alloys containing

only A and B, and so on. If now we wish to represent the

variations in some property, such as fusibility, we determine

the freezing-points of a number of alloys distributed fairly

uniformly over the area of the triangle, and, at each point

corresponding to an alloy, we erect an ordinate at right

angles to the plane of the paper and proportional in length

to the freezing temperature of that alloy. We can then

draw a continuous surface through the summits of all these

ordinates, and so obtain a freezing-point surface, or liquidus;

points above this surface will correspond to wholly liquid

alloys. The ternary alloys containing bismuth, tin and

lead have been studied in this way by F. Charpy and by E. S.

Shepherd. We have here a comparatively simple case, as

the metals do not form compounds. The solid alloy consists

of crystals of pure tin in juxtaposition with crystals of

almost pure lead and bismuth. these two metals dissolving

each other in solid solution to the extent of a few per cent

only. If now we cut the freezing-point surface by planes

parallel to the base ABC we get curves giving us all the alloys

whose freezing-point is the same; theee isothermals can be

projected on to the plane of the triangle and are seen as dotted

lines in fig. 9. The freezing surface, in this case, consists

of three sheets each starting from an angular point of the

surface, that is, from the freezing-point of a pure metal.

The sheets meet in pairs along three lines which themselves

meet in a point. In fig. 9, due to F. Charpy, these lines

are projected on to the plane of the triangle as Ee, E'e and

E''e. The area of the triangle is thus divided into three

regions. The region PbEeE' contains all the alloys that

commence their solidification by the crystallization of lead;

similarly, the other two regions correspond to the initial

crystallization of bismuth and tin respectively; these areas

are the projections of the three sheets of the freezing-point

surface. The points E, E', E'' are the eutectics of binary

alloys. Alloys represented by points on Ee, when they begin to

solidify, deposit crystals of lead and bismuth simultaneously;

Ee is a eutectic line, as also are E'e and E''e. The alloy

of the point e is the ternary eutectic; it deposits the

three metals simultaneously during the whole period of its

solidfication and solidifies at a constant temperature. As

the lines of the surface which correspond to Ee, &c., slope

downwards to their common intersection it follows that the

alloy e has the lowest freezing-point of any mixture of the

three metals; this freezing-point is 96 deg. C., and the alloy e

contains about 32% of lead, 15.5% of tin and 52.5% of bismuth.

It is evident that any other property can be represented by

similar diagrams. For example, we can construct the curve of

conductivity of alloys of two metals or the surface of conductivity

of ternary alloys, and so on for any measurable property.

The electrical conductivity of a metal is often very much

decreased by alloying with it even small quantities of another

metal. This is so when gold and silver are alloyed with

each other, and is true in the case of alloys of copper.

When a pure metal is cooled to a very low temperature its

electrical conductivity is greatly increased, but this is not

the case with an alloy. Lord Rayleigh has pointed out that

the difference may arise from the heterogeneity of alloys.

When a current is passed through a solid alloy, a series

of Peltier effects, proportional to the current, are set up

between the particles of the different metals, and these create

an opposing electromotive force which is indistinguishable

experimentally from a resistance. If the alloy were a true

chemical compound the counteracting electromotive force should

not occur; experiments in this direction are much needed.

Sir William Chandler Roberts-Austen has shown that in the case

of molten alloys the conduction of electricity is apparently

metallic, no transfer of matter attending the passage of the

current. A group of bodies may, however, be yet discovered

between alloys and electrolytes in which evidence may be found

of some gradual change from wholly metallic to electrolytic

conduction. A. P. Laurie has determined the electromotive

force of a series of copper-zinc, copper-tin and gold-tin

alloys, and as the result of his experiments he points to the

existence of definite compounds. Explosive alloys have been

formed by H. St Claire Deville and H. J. Debray in the case of

rhodium, iridium and ruthenium, which evolve heat when they

are dissolved in zinc. When the solution of the rhodium-zinc

alloy is treated with hydrochloric acid, a residue is left

which undergoes a change with explosive violence if it be heated

in vacuo to 400 deg. . The alloy is then insoluble in ``aqua

regia.'' The metals have therefore passed into an insoluble

form by a comparatively slight elevation of temperature.

Surfusion

Metals do not appear to have been studied from the point

of view of surfusion until 1880, when A. D. van Pieinsdijk

showed that gold and silver would both pass below their

actual freezing-points without becoming solid. Roberts-Austen

pointed out that surfusion might be easily measured in

metals and in alloys by the sensitive method of recording

pyrometry perfected by him. He also showed that the crossing

of curves of solubility, which had already been observed by

H. le Chatelier and by A. C. A. Dahms in the case of salts,

could be measured in the lead-tin alloys. The investigation

of the mutual relations of partially miscible liquids, due

to P. Alexejew, D. P. Konovalow, snd to P. E. Duclaux, was

extended to alloys by Alder Wright. The addition of a third

metal will sometimes render the mixture of two other metals

homogeneous. C. T. Heyccck and F. H. Neville proved that

when one metal is alloyed with a small quantity of some other

metal, the solidification obeys the law of F. M. Raoult. Their

experiments, although not conclusive, appear to indicate that

the molecule of a metal when in dilute solution often consists

of one atom. There are, however, numerous exceptions to this

rule. In the cases of aluminium dissolved in tin and of

mercury or bismuth in lead, it is at least probable that the

molecules in solution are Al2, Hg2 and Bi2 respectively,

while tin in lead appears to form a molecule of the type Sn4.

Industrial applications

Since 1875 increased attention has been devoted to the

applications of the rarer metals. Thus nickel, which was

formerly used in the manufacture of ``German silver'' as

a substitute for silver, is now widely employed in naval

construction and in the manufacture of steel armour-plate and

projectiles. Alloyed with copper, it is used for the envelopes of

bullets. A nickel steel containing 36% of nickel has the

property of retaining an almost constant volume when heated

or cooled through a considerable range of temperature; it is

therefore useful for the construction of pendulums and for

measures of length. Another steel containing 45% of nickel

has, like platinum, the same coefficient of expansion as

glass. It can therefore be employed, instead of that costly

metal, in the construction of incandescent lamps where a

wire has to be fused into the glass to establish electric

connexion between the inside and the outside of the bulb.

Manganese not only forms with iron several alloys of great

interest, but alloyed with copper it is used for electrical

purposes, as an alloy can thus be obtained with an electrical

resistance that does not alter with change of temperature;

this alloy, called manganin, is used in the construction of

resistance-boxes. Chromium also, in comparatively small

quantities, is taking its place as a constituent of steel

axles and tires, and in the manufacture of tool-steel.

Steels containing as much as 12% of tungsten are now used

as a material for tools intended for turning and planing

iron and steel. The peculiarity of these steels is that no

quenching or tempering is required. They are normally hard

and remain so, even at a faint red heat; much deeper cuts

can therefore be taken at a high speed without blunting the

tool. Vanadium, molybdenum and titanium may be expected

soon to play an important part in the constitution of

steel. Titanium is alloyed in small quantities with aluminium

for use in naval architecture. Aluminium, when alloyed

with a few per cent of magnesium, gains greatly in rigidity

while remaining very light; this alloy, under the name of

magnalium, is coming into use for small articles in which

lightness and rigidity have to be combined. One of the most

interesting amongst recent alloys is Conrad Heusler's alloy

of copper, aluminium and manganese, which possesses magnetic

properties far in excess of those of the constituent metals.

The importance is now widely recognized of considering

the mechanical properties of alloys in connexion with the

freezing-point curves to which reference has already been

made. but the subject is a very complicated one, and all

that need be said here, is that when considered in relation

to their melting-points the pure metals are consistently

weaker than alloys. The presence in an alloy of a eutectic

which solidifies at a much lower temperature than the main

mass, implies a great reduction in tenacity, especially if

it is to be used above the ordinary temperature as in the

case of pipes conveying super-heated steam. It has also

been stated that alloys of metals with similar melting-points

have higher tenacity when the atomic volumes of the

constituent metals differ than when they are nearly the same.

RERERENCES.---Alloys have formed a subject of reoorts to

several scientific societies. Sir W. C. Roberts-Austen's

six Reports (1891 to 1904) to the Alloys Research Committee

of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London, the

last report being concluded by William Gowland; the Cantor

Lectures on Alloys delivered at the Society of Arts

and the Contribution a l'etude des alliages (1901),

published by the Societe d'encouracement pour l'industrie

nationale under the direction of the Commission des alliages

(1896-1900), should be consulted. The theoretical aspect is

discussed in Leon Guillet's Etude theorique des alliages

metalliques (1904). W. T. Brannt's The Metallic Alloys

(1896); Roberis-Austen's Introduction to the Study of

Metallurgy (1902); and R. G. Thurston's Materials of

Engineering, should be consulted for the more practical

details. in The Iron and Steel Metallurgist, formerly

The Metallographist (Boston, Mass.), and Metallurgie

(Halle). Important memoirs by Ewing and Rosenhain, and by C. T.

Hevcock and F. H. Neville in the Philosophical Transactions,

by N. S. Kunrnakow in the Zeitschrift fur anorganische

Chemie, and by E. S. Shepherd in the Journal of Physical

Chemistry, may also be consulted. (W. C. R.-A.; F. lj. NE.)

1 The instructive case of the solidification of a solution

of common salt in water is discussed in the article FUSION.

ALLPORT, SIR JAMES JOSEPH (1811-1892), English railway

manager, born on the 27th of February 1811, was a son of William

Allport, of Birmingham, and was associated with railways from

an early period of his life. In 1843 he became general manager

of the Birmingham and Derby railway, and in the following year,

succeeded to the same position on the Newcastle and Darlington

line. Six years later he assumed the charge of the Manchester,

Sheffield and Lincolnshire (now the Great Central) railway, and

finally, in 1853, was appointed to the general managership

of the Midland railway--an office which he held continuously,

with the exception of a few years between 1857 and 1860, when

he was managing director to Palmer's Shipbuilding Company

at Jarrow, until his retirement in 1880, when he became a

director. During these twenty-seven years the Midland grew

to be one of the most important railway systems in England,

partly by the absorption of smaller lines and partly by the

construction of two main extensions--on the south to London and

on the north to Carlisle --whereby it obtained an independent

through-route between the metropolis and the north. In the

railvay world Sir James Allport was known as a keen tactician

and a vigorous fighter, and he should be remembered as the

pioneer of cheap and comfortable railway travelling. He was

the first to appreciate the importance of the third-class

passenger as a source of revenue, and accordingly, in 1872,

he inaugurated the policy--subsequently adopted more or less

completely by all the railways of Great Britain of carrying

third-class passengers in well-fitted carriages at the uniform

rate of one penny a mile on all trains. The diminution in the

receipts from second-class passengers, which was one of the

results, was regarded by some authorities as a sign of the

unwisdom of his action, but to him it appeared a sufficient

reason for the abolition of second-class carriages, which

therefore disappeared from the Midland system in 1875, the

first-class fares being at the same time substantially reduced.

He was also the first to introduce the Pullman car on British

railways. Allport received the honour of knighthood in

1884. He died in London on the 25th of April 1892.

ALLPORT, SAMUEL (1816-1897), English petrologist, brother

of the above, was born in Birmingham on the 23rd of January

1816, and educated in that city. Although occupied in

business during the greater portion of his life, his leisure

was given to geological studies, and when residing for a

short period in Bahia, S. America, he made observations

on the geology, published by the Geological Society in

1860. His chief work was in microscopic petrology, to the

studyol which he was attracted by the investigations of Dr

H. C. Sorby; and he became one of the pioneers of this branch

of geology, preparing his own rock-sections with remarkable

skill. The basalts of S. Staffordshire, the diorites of

Warwickshire, the phonolite of the Wolf Rock (to which he

first directed attention), the pitchstones of Arran and the

altered igneous rocks near the Land's End were investigated

and described by him during the years 1869--1879 in the

Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society and in the

Geological Magazine. In 1880 he was appointed librarian

in Mason College, a post which he relinquished on account of

ill-health in 1887. In that year the Lyell medal was awarded

to him by the Geological Society. A few years later he

retired to Cheltenham, where he died on the 7th of July 1897.

ALL-ROUND ATHLETICS. Specialization in athletic sports,

although always existent, is to a great extent a modern

product. In ancient times athletes were encouraged to excel in

several branches of sport, often quite opposite in character.

Thus the athlete held in highest honour at the Olympic Games

(see GAMES, CLASSICAL) was the winner of the pentathlon,

which consisted of running, jumping, throwing the javelin

and the discus, and wrestling. All-round championships have

existed for many years both in Scotland and Ireland, and in

America there are both national and sectional championships.

The American national championship was instituted in 1888,

the winner being the athlete who succeeds in obtaining the

highest marks in the following eleven events; 100 yards run;

putting 16 lb. shot; running high jump; half-mile walk; throwing

16 lb. hammer; 120 yards hurdle race; pole vault; throwing

56 lb. weight; one mile run; running broad jump; quarter-mile

run. In each event 1000 points are allowed for equalling the

``record,'' and an increasing number of points is taken off for

performances below ``record,'' down to a certain ``standard,',

below which the competitor scores nothing. For example, in

the 100 yards run the time of 9 4/5 seconds represents 1000

points; that of 10 seconds scores 958, or 42 points less; 10 1/5

seconds scores 916, &c.; and below 14 1/5 seconds the competitor

scores nothing. Should the record be broken 42 points are

added for each 1/5 second. (See also ATHLETIC SPORTS.)

ALL SAINTS, FESTIVAL OF (Festum omnium sanctorum), also

formerly known as ALL HALLOWS, or HALLOWMAS, a feast of

the Catholic Church celebrated on the 1st of November in honour

of all the saints, known or unknown. In the Roman Catholic

Church it is a festival of the first rank, with a vigil and an

octave. Common commemorations, by several churches, of

the deaths of martyrs began to be celebrated in the 4th

century. The first trace of a general celebration is in

Antioch on the Sunday after Pentecost, and this custom is

also referred to in the 74th homily of St Chrysostom (407).

The origin of the festival of All Saints as celebrated in

the West is, however, somewhat doubtful. In 609 or 610 Pope

Boniface IV. consecrated the Pantheon at Rome to the Blessed

Virgin and all the martyrs, and the feast of the dedicatio

Sanctae Mariae ad Martyres has been celebrated at Rome ever

since on the 13th of May. The idea, based on the medieval

liturgiologists, that this festival was the origin of that

of All Saints has now been abandoned. The latter is possibly

traceable to the foundation by Gregory III. (731-741) of an

oratory in St Peter's for the relics ``of the holy apostles

and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just

made perfect who are at rest throughout the world.'' So

far as the Western Church generally is concerned, though

the festival was already widely celebrated in the days of

Charlemagne, it was only made of obligation throughout the

Frankish empire in 835 by a decree of Louis the Pious issued

``at the instance of Pope Gregory IV. and with the assent of

all the bishops,'' which fixed its celebration on the 1st of

November. The festival was retained at the Reformation in

the calendar of the Church of England, and also in that of

many of the Lutheran churches. In the latter, in spite of

attempts at revival, it has fallen into complete disuse.

ALL SOULS, DAY (Commemoratio omnium fidelimm defunctorum), the

day set apart in the Roman Catholic Church for the commemoration

of the faithful departed. The celebration is based on the

doctrine that the souls of the faithful which at death have

not been cleansed from venial sins, or have not atoned for past

transgressions, cannot attain the Beatific Vision, and that they

may be helped to do so by prayer and by the sacrifice of the

mass. The feast falls on the 2nd of November; or on the 3rd

if the 2nd is a Sunday or a festival of the first class.

The practice of setting apart a special day for intercession

for certain of the faithful departed is of great antiquity;

but the establishment of a feast of general intercession

was in the lirst instance due to Odilo, abbot of Cluny (d.

1048). The legend connected with its foundation is given

by Peter Damiani in his Life of St Odilo. According to

this, a pilgrim returning from the Holy Land was cast by a

storm on a desolate island where dwelt a hermit. From him

he learned that amid the rocks was a chasm communicating with

purgatory, from which rose perpetually the groans of tortured

souls, the hermit asserting that he had also heard the demons

complaining of the efficacy of the prayers of the faithful, and

especially of the monks of Cluny, in rescuing their victims.

On returning home the pilgrim hastened to inform the abbot of

Cluny, who forthwith set apart the 2nd of November as a day of

intercession on the part of his community for all the souls in

purgatory. The decree ordaining the celebration is printed

in the Bollandist Acta Sanctorum ( Saec. VI, pt. i. p.

585). From Cluny the custom spread to the other houses of

the Cluniac order, was soon adopted in several dioceses in

France, and spread thence throughout the Western Church. At

the Reformation the celebration of All Souls' Day was abolished

in the Church of England, though it has been renewed in certain

churches in connexion with the ``Catholic revival.'' Among

continental Protestants its tradition lias been more tenaciously

maintained. Even Luther's influence was not sufficient to

abolish its celebration in Saxony during his lifetime; and,

though its ecclesiastical sanction lapsed before long even in

the Lutheran Church, its memory survives strongly in popular

custom. Just as it is the custom of French people, of

all ranks and creeds, to decorate the graves of their dead

on the jour des morts, so in Germany the people stream

to the grave-yards once a year with offerings of flowers.

Certain popular beliefs connected with All Souls' Day are

of pagan origin and immemorial antiquity. Thus the dead

are believed by the peasantry of many Catholic countries

to return to their former homes on All Souls' Night and

partake of the food of the living. In Tirol cakes are

left for them on the table and the room kept warm for their

comfort. In Brittany the people flock into the cemeteries at

nightfall to kneel bare-headed at the graves of their loved

ones, and to toll the hollow of the tombstone with holy

water or to pour libations of milk upon it, and at bedtime

the supper is left on the table for the soul's refreshment.

ALLSTON, WASHINGTON (1770-1843), American historical painter

and poet, was born on the 5th of November 1779 at Waccamaw,

South Carolina, where his father was a planter. He graduated

at Harvard in 1800, and for a short time pursued his artistic

studies at Charleston with Edward Greene Maibone (1777-1807)

the miniature painter, and Charles Fraser (1782-1860).

With the former, in 1801, he went to London, and entered

the Royal Academy as a student of Benjamin West. with whom

he formed a lifelong friendship. In 1804 he went to Paris,

and, after a few months' residence there, to Rome, where he

spent the greater part of the next four years. During this

period he became intimate with Coleridge and Thorwaldsen.

From 1809 to 1811 he resided in his native country, and from

1811 to 1817 he painted in England. After visiting Paris a

second time, he returned to the United States, and practised

his profession at Boston (1818--1850), and afterwards at

Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he died on the 9th of July

1843. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in

1819. In colour and the management of light and shade Allston

closely imitated the Venetian school, and he has hence been

styled the ``American Titian.'' Many of his pictures have

Biblical subjects, and Allston himself had a profoundly

religious nature. His first considerable painting, ``The

Dead Man Revived,'' executed shortly after his second visit to

England, and now at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in

Philadelphia, gained a prize of 200 guineas. In England

he also painted his ``St Peter Liberated by the Angel,''

``Uriel in the Sun'' (at Stafford House), ``Jacob's Dream''

(at Petworth) and ``Elijah in the Wilderness.'' To the period

of his residence in America belong ``The Prophet Jeremiah''

(at Yale), ``Saul and the Witch of Endor,'' ``Miriam,''

``Beatrice,'' ``Rosalie,'' ``Spalatro's Vision of the Bloody

Hand,'' and the vast but unfinished ``Belshazzar's Feast''

(in the Boston Athenaeum), at which he was working at the

time of his death. As a writer, Allston shows great facility

of expression and imaginative power. His friend Coleridge

(a portrait of whom by Allston is in the National Gallery)

said of him that he was surpassed by no man of his age in

artistic and poetic genius. His literary works are--The

Sylphs of the Seasons and other Poems (1813). where he

displays true sympathy with nature and deep knowledge of

the human heart; Monaldi (1841), a tragical romance, the

scene of which is laid in Italy; and Lectures on Art,

edited by his brother-in-law, R. H. Dana the novelist (1850).

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

ALLUVION (Lat. alluvio, washing against), a word taken

from Roman law, in which it was one of the examples of

accessio, that is, acquisition of property without any

act being done by the acquirer. It signifies the gradual

accretion of land or formation of an island by imperceptible

degrees. If the accretion or formation be by a torrent or flood,

the property in the severed portion or new island continues

with the original owner until the trees, if any, swept away

with it take root in the ground. Alluvion never attached at

all in the case of agri limitati, that is, lands belonging

to the state and leased or sold in plots. Dig. xli. 1, 7,

is the main authority. English law is in general agreement

(except as to agri limitati) with Roman, as appears from

the judgment in Foster v. Wright, 1878, 4 C.P.D. 438. The

Scottish law, as laid down by the House of Lords in Earl of

Zetland v. Glover Incorporation, 1872, L.R. 2 H.L., Sc.,

70, is in accordance with the English. (See WATER RIGHTS.)

ALLUVIUM, soil or land deposited by running water. All

streams, from the tiniest rill to the greatest river, are

continually engaged in transporting downstream solid particles of

rock, the product of weathering agencies in the area which they

drain. Since the capacity of a stream to carry matter in

suspension is proportional to its velocity, it follows that

any circumstance tending to retard the rate of flow will induce

deposition. Thus a fall in the gradient at any point in the

course of a stream; any snag, projection or dam, impeding the

current; the reduced velocity caused by the overflowing of

streams in flood and the dissipation of their energy where

they enter a lake or the sea, are all contributing causes to

alluviation, or the deposition of streamborne sediment. It

is evident from the foregoing remarks, that while even the

smallest stream may make deposits of alluvial character it

is in the flood-plains and deltas of large rivers that the

great alluvial deposits are to be found. The finer material

constituting alluvium, often described as ``silt,'' is sand and

mud. Although it may be exceedingly fine-grained, there is

usually very little clay in alluvium. The larger materials

include gravel of all degrees of coarseness; carbonaceous

matter is often an important element. The amount of solid

matter borne by large streams is enormous; many rivers derive

their names from the colour thereby imparted to the water,

e.g. Hwang Ho = Yellow river, Missouri = Big Muddy, the Red

river, &c. It has been estimated that the Mississippi annually

carries 406 1/4 million tons of sediment to the sea; the Hwang Ho

796 million tons; the Po 62 million tons. Many shallow lakes

have been completely filled with alluvium and their sites are

now occupied by fertile plains; this process may be seen in

operation almost anywhere; a good illustration is the delta of

the Rhone in Lake Geneva. Alluvial deposits may be of great

size. The flood-plain of the Mississippi has an area of 50,000

sq. m.; the great delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra has

an area of about 60,000 sq. m.; that of the Hwang Ho reaches

out 300 m. into the sea and has a coastal border of about 400

m. Old alluvial deposits are left high above the existing

level of many rivers, in the form of ``terraces'' of gravel and

loam, the streams to which these owe their existence having

modified their courses and cut deeper channels; such are the

alluvial gravels and brick-earths upon which much of ``greater

London'' is built. In some regions alluvial deposits are the

resting places of gemstones and gold, platinum, &c.; it is

from these deposits that the largest nuggets of gold have been

obtained. Alluvial soils are almost invariably of great

fertility; it is due to the alluvial mud annually deposited by

the Nile that the dwellers in Egypt have been able to grow their

crops for over 4000 years without artificial fertilization.

ALLYL ALCOHOL, C3H5OH or CH2:CH.CH2OH, a compound which

occurs in very small quantities in wood spirit. It may be

prepared from allyl iodide by the action of moist silver oxide

by the reduction of acrolein; or by heating glycerin with oxalic

acid and a little ammonium chloride to 260 deg. C. In this last

reaction glycerol monoformin is produced as an intermediate

product, but is decomposed as the temperature rises:--

C3H5(OH)3+H2C2O4 = C3H5(OH)2.O.CHO+CO2+H2O

glycerol monoformin

C3H5(OH)2.O.CHO = C3H5OH+CO2+H2O

It is a colourless mobile liquid of pungent smell, boiling

at 97 deg. C. Being an unsaturated compound it combines

readily with the halogens. Oxidation by strong oxidizing

agents converts it successively into its aldehyde,

acrolein, and into acrylic acid. By gentle oxidation with

potassium permanganate it may be converted into glycerin.

ALMA, a river of Russia, in the S.W. of the Crimea, entering

the Black Sea 17 m. N. of Sevastopol. It gives its name

to a famous victory gained over the Russians, on the 20th

of September 1854, by the allied armies in the Crimean War

(q.v..) The south bank of the river is bordered by a long

ridge, which becomes steeper as it approaches the sea, and

upon this the Russians, under Prince Menshikov, were drawn

up, to bar the Sevastopol road to the allies, who under

General Lord Raglan and Marshal St Arnaud approached from

the north over an open plain. The Russian commander massed

his troops in heavy columns after the fashion of 1813, and

drew in his left wing so that it should as far as possible

be out of range of the allied men-of-war, which were sailing

down the coast in line with their land forces. The allied

generals decided that the French (right wing) and the Turks

should attack Menshikov's left, while the British, further

inland, were to assault the front of the Russian position.

The forces engaged are stated by Hamley (War in the Crimea)

as, French and Turks, 35,000 infantry, with 68 guns; British,

23,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry and 60 guns; Russians, 33,000

infantry, 3800 cavalry and 120 guns; by the Austrian writer

Berndt (Zahl im Kriege) the allied forces are reckoned

at 57,000 men with 108 guns, and the Russians at 33,600 men

with 96 guns The French advance met at first with little

opposition, and several divisions scaled the cliffs of the

lower Alma without difficulty. Menshikov relied apparently

on being able to detach his reserves to cope with them, but

the assailants moved with a rapidity which he had not counted

upon, and the Russians only came into action piecemeal in this

quarter. Opposite the British, who as usual deployed at a

distance and then advanced in long continuous lines, the Russians

were posted on the crest of a long glacis-like slope, which

offered but little dead ground to an assailant. The village

of Burliuk, and the vineyards which bordered the river, were

quickly cleared by the British skirmishers, and the line of

battle behind them crossed, though with some difficulty. On

emerging from the cover afforded by the river-bed the British

divisions, now crowded together, but still preserving their

general line, came under a terrible fire from heavy guns and

musketry. The enemy's artillery was three hundred yards

away, yet the British pressed on in spite of their losses,

and as some of the Light Division troops reached the ``Great

Battery'' the Russians hurried their guns away to safety. In

the meantime. on both sides of this battery, the assailants

had come to close quarters with the Russian columns, which

were aided by their field guns. A brave counter-attack was

made by the Russian Vladimir regiment, 3000 strong, against

the troops which had stormed the great battery, and for want

of support the British were driven out again. But they soon

rallied, and now the second line had crossed and formed for

attack. The Guards brigade attacked the Vladimir regiment, and

on the left the Highland brigade and the cavalry moved forward

also. Some of the field artillery, which had now crossed the

Alma, fired steadily into the closed masses of the Russian

reserve, and the Vladimir regiment lost half of its numbers

under the volleys of the Guards. The French were now severely

pressing the Russian left, and one-third of Menshikov's forces

was drawn into the fight in that quarter. The success of the

frontal assault had dispirited the remainder of the defenders,

and Menshikov drew off his forces southwards. He had lost

5700 men (Berodt and Hamley). The British had about 2000

killed and wounded; the French stated their losses at 1340 men.

ALMACANTAR (from the Arabic for a sun-dial), an astronomical

term for a small circle of the sphere parallel to the horizon;

when two stars are in the same almacantar they have the same

altitude. The term was also given (1880) to an instrument invented

by S. C. Chandler to determine the latitude or correct the timepiece,

of great value because of its freedom from instrumental errors.

ALMACK'S, formerly the name of a famous London club and

assembly rooms. The founder, known as William Almack, is

usually said to have been one Macall, or McCaul, of which

name Almack is an anagram. In 1764 he founded a gentlemen's

club in Pall Mall, where the present Marlborough Club

stands. It was famous for its high play. In 1778 it

was taken over by one Brooks, and established as Brooks's

Club in St James's Street, where it still exists. In 1765

Almack built a suite of assembly rooms in King's Street, St

James's. Here for a ten-guinea subscription a series of

weekly balls was given for twelve weeks. They were managed by

a committee of ladies of rank, and admission was exceedingly

difficult. At Almack's death in 1781 they were left to his

niece Mrs Willis. As ``Willis's Rooms'' they lasted till

1890, when they became a restaurant, but as ``Almack's''

they ceased in 1863. Several clubs, including a mixed club

for ladies and gentlemen, held meetings at Almack's during

the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. A new London

social club (1904) has also adopted the name of Almack's.

ALMADEN, or ALMADEN DEL AZOGUE, a town of Spain, in the

province of Ciudad Real; situated in mountainous country 55

m. W.S.W. of the city of Ciudad Real. Pop. (1900) 7375.

Almaden, the Sisapon of the Romans, is celebrated for its

mercury mines, which were extensively wrought by the Romans

and Moors, and are still productive, the ore increasing in

richness with the depth of the descent. The mines ranked with

those of Adria, in South Austria, as the most valuable in the

world, until the great development of the mercury deposits

at New Almaden, in California, U.S.A., between 1853 and

1857. They were long worked by convict labour, owing to their

unhealthy atmosphere; and exemption from military service is

granted to miners who have worked at Almaden for two years.

The annual yield is about 1,400,000 lb. Lead and sulphur are

obtained in the neighbourhood. The nearest railway station is

that of Chillon, 3 m. S. on the Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon line.

ALMAGRO, DIEGO DE (1475--1538), Spanish commander,

the companion and rival of Pizarro (q.v.), was born at

Aldea del Rey in 1475. According to another account he

was a foundling in the village from which he derived his

name. In 1525 he joined Pizarro and Hernando de Luque at

Panama in a scheme for the conquest of Peru (see PERU:

History.) He was executed by order of Pizarro in 1538 in

consequence of a dispute as to their respective territories.

ALMANAC, a book or table containing a calendar of the days,

weeks and months of the year, a register of ecclesiastical

festivals and saints' days, and a record of various

astronomical phenomena &c. The derivation of the word is

doubtful. The word almanac was used by Roger Bacon (Opus

Majus, 1267) for tables of the apparent motions of the

heavenly bodies. The Italian form is almanacco, French

almanach, and the Spanish is almanaque; all of which,

according to the New English Dictionary, are probably

connected with the Arabic al-manakh, a combination of the

definite article al, and maliakh, a word of uncertain

origin. An Arabic-Castilian vocabulary (1505) gives

manakh, a calendar, and manah, a sun-dial; manakh

has also been connected with the Latin manacus, a sun-dial.

The attention given to astronomy by Eastern nations probably

led to the early construction of such tables as are comprised

in our almanacs; of these we know little or nothing. The

fasti (q.v.) of the Romans are far better known and were

similar to modern almanacs. Almanacs of a rude kind, known

as clogg almanacs, consisting of square blocks of hard

wood, about 8 in. in length, with notches along the four

angles corresponding to the days of the year, were in use

in some parts of England as late as the end of the 17th

century. Dr Robert Plot (1640-1696), keeper of the Ashmolean

Museum and professor of chemistry at Oxford, describes

one of these in his Natural History of Staffordshire

(Oxford, 1686); and another is represented in Gough's

edition of Camden's Britannia (1806, vol. ii. p. 499).

The earliest almanac regarding which J. J. L. de Lalande

(Bibliographic astronomique, Paris, 1803) could obtain

any definite information belongs to the 12th century.

Manuscript almanacs of considerable antiquity are preserved

in the British Museum and in the libraries of Oxford and

Cambridge. Of these the most remarkable are a calendar

ascribed to Roger Bacon (1292), and those of Peter de Dacia

(about 1300), Walter de Elvendene (1327) and John Somers

(1380). It is to be remembered that early calendars (such as

the Kalendarium Lincolniense of Bishop Robert Grosseteste)

frequently bear the names, not of their compilers, but of

the writers of the treatises on ecclesiastical computation on

which the calendars are based. The earliest English calendar

in the British Museum is one for the year 1431. The first

printed almanac known was compiled by Purbach, and appeared

between the years 1450 and 1461; the first of importance is

that of Regiomontanus, which appears to have been printed

at Nuremberg in 1472. In this work the almanacs for the

different months embrace three Metonic cycles, or the 57 years

from 1475 to 1531 inclusive. The earliest almanac printed

in England was The Kalendar of Shepardes, a translation

from the French, printed by Richard Pynson about 1407.

Early almanacs had commonly the name of ``prognostications''

in addition, and what they professed to show may be gathered

from titles like the following, which is quoted by J.

O. Halliwell: ``Pronostycacyon of Mayster John Thybault,

medycyner and astronomer of the Emperyall Majestic, of the

year of our Lorde God MCCCCCXXXIJ., comprehending the iiij.

partes of this yere, and of the influence of the mone, of

peas and warre, and of the sykenesses of this yere, with the

constellacions of them that be under the vij. pianettes, and

the revolucions of kynges and princes, and of the eclipses

and comets.'' Among almanacs of this class published in

England, and principally by the Stationers' Company, are

Leonard Digges's Prognostication Everlasting of Right Good

Effect, for 1553, 1555, &c.; William Lilly's Merlinius

Anglicus Junior for 1644, &c., and other almanacs and ``

prognostications''; John Booker's Bloody Almanac and

Bloody Irish Almanac for 1643, 1647, &c.--the last attributed

erroneously to Richard Napier; John Partridge's Mercurius

Coelestis for 1681, Merlinus Redivivus, &c. The name of

Partridge has been immortalized in Pope's Rape of the Lock;

and his almanacs were very cleverly burlesqued by Swift, who

predicted Partridge's own death, in genuine prognosticator's

style. The most famous of all the Stationers' Company's

predicting almanacs was the Vox Stellarum of Francis Moore

(1657--1715?), the first number of which was completed in July

1700, and contained predictions for 1701. Its publication

has been continued under the title of Old Moore's Almanac.

Of a different but not a better sort was Poor Robin, dating

from 1663, and published by the company down to 1828, which

abounded in coarse, sometimes extremely coarse, humour.

The exclusive right to sell ``almanacs and prognostications''

in England, enjoyed in the time of Elizabeth by two members

of the Company of Stationers, was extended by James I. to the

two universities and the Stationers' Company jointly; but the

universities commuted their privilege for an annuity from the

company. This monopoly was challenged by Thomas Carnan, a

bookseller, who published an almanac for three successive

years, after having been thrice imprisoned on that account

by the company. The case came, in 1775, before the court

of common pleas, and was decided in Carnan's favour, the

question argued being, ``Whether almanacs were such public

ordinances, such matters of state, as belonged to the king

by his prerogative, so as to enable him to communicate an

exclusive right of printing them to a grantee of the crown?''

In 1779 Lord North attempted to reverse this decision by a

parliamentary enactment, but the bill was thrown out. In

consequence of this the universities lost their title to their

annuity, and in lieu of it they received a parliamentary

grant. The company, however, virtually retained its

monopoly for many years, by buying up as much as possible

all the almanacs issued by other publishers, but in more

recent times this power has altogether ceased, although a

considerable proportion of the almanacs published in England

still issue from the hall of the Stationers' Company. A

description of ``Almanac Day'' at Stationers' Hall will be

found in Knight's Cyclopaedia of London (1851), p. 588.

On the 1st of January 1828 the Society for the Diffusion of

Useful Knowledge issued the British Almanac for that year--a

publication greatly superior in every way to the almanacs of the

time. The success of the British Almanac, with its valuable

supplement, the Companion to the Almanac, led to a great

improvement in this class of publications. The Stationers'

Company issued the Englishman's Almanac, a work of a similar

kind. The entire repeal in 1834, by the 3rd and 4th Will.

IV. c. 57, of the heavy stamp duty, first imposed in 1710,

on all almanacs of fifteenpence per copy, gave an additional

stimulus to the publication of almanacs of a better class,

and from that time the number has greatly increased. Since

1870, the British Almanac and Companion have been the

principal almanacs published by the Stationers' Company.

Whitaker's Almanac, commenced in 1868 by Joseph Whitaker

(1820-1895), is perhaps the best known of modern almanacs.

In Scotland, almanacs containing much astrological matter

appcared to have been published at about the beginning of

the 16th century; and about a century later those published

at Aberdeen enjoyed considerable reputation. In 1683, the

Edinburgh's True Alnnanack, or a New Prognostication,

appeared; a publication which improved with years and was

issued after 1837 as Oliver and Boyd's New Ediniburgh

Almanac, a standard book of reference for Scottish affairs.

Thom's Irish Almanac (since 1843) deals mainly with Ireland.

The earliest almanac published in the United States is probably

to be ascribed to Bradford's press in Philadelphia, for the

year 1587. Poor Richard's Almanac, commenced in 1732 by

Benjamin Franklin under the pseudonym of ``Richard Saunders,''

and continued by him for twenty-five years, gained a high

reputation for its wise and witty sayings; it may have been

suggested by a somewhat similar publication by Thomas, of

Dedham, Massachusetts. The American Almanac and Repository

of Useful Knowledge was published at Boston from 1828 to

1861; a continuation, The National Almanac, was published

only twice, for 1863 and 1864. The Old Farmer's Almanac

enjoys considerable popularity and has been published for

many years. At the present time nearly every religious

denomination, trade and newspaper have almanacs or year-books.

In France prophetic almanacs circulated very freely among

the poorer and rural classes, although an ordonnance of

Charles IX. required the seal of a diocesan bishop on all

almanacs. In 1579 Henry III. prohibited the publication

of predictions relating to political events, a prohibition

renewed by Louis XIII. Of such almanacs, the most famous

was the Almanach Liegeois first published in 1625 at

Liege by Matthieu Laensbergh, a person of very problematic

existence. Publications of this class subsequently

increased in number to such an extent that, in 1852, their

circulation was forcibly checked by the government. The most

important French almanac is the Almanach Royal, afterwards

Imperial, and now National, first published in 1679.

A number of publications, issued in Germany, from the middle

of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century, under such

titles as Musenalmanach, modelled on the Almanach des

Muses, a contemporary almanac published at Paris, contain

some of the best works of some of the most celebrated German

poets. The Almaniach de Gotha, which has existed since

1763, published since 1871 both in French and German, gives

a particular account of all the royal and princely families

of Europe, and ample details concerning the administration

and the statistics of the different states of the world.

For the Nautical Almanac and similar publications, see EPHEMERIS.

ALMANDINE, or ALMANDITE, a name applied to certain kinds of

precious garnet, being apparently a corruption of alabandicus,

which is the name applied by Pliny to a stone found or worked

at Alabanda, a town in Carla in Asia Minor. Almandine is an

iron alumina garnet, of deep red colour inclining to purple.

It is frequently cut with a convex face, or en cabochon, and

is then known as carbuncle. Viewed through the spectroscope

in a strong light, it generally shows three characteristic

absorption bands, as first pointed out by Prof. A. H. Church.

Almandine occurs rather abundantly in the gem-gravels of

Ceylon, whence it has sometimes been called Ceylon-ruby. When

the colour inclines to a violet tint, the stone is often called

Syrian garnet, a name said to be taken from Syriam, an ancient

town of Pegu. Large deposits of fine almandine-garnets were

found, some years ago, in the Northern Territory of South

Australia, and were at first taken for rubies, whence they were

known in trade for some time afterwards as Australian rubies.

Almandine is widely distributed. Fine rhombic dodecahedra occur

in the schistose rocks of the Zillerthal, in Tyrol, and are

sometimes cut and polished. An almandine in which the ferrous

oxide is replaced partly by magnesia is found at Luisenfeld

in German East Africa. In the United States there are many

localities which yield almandine. Dr G. F. Kunz has figured

a crystal of coarse almandine weighing 91 lb. from New York

city. Fine crystals of almandine embedded in mica-schist occur

near Fort Wrangell in Alaska. The coarse varieties of almandine

are often crushed for use as an abrasive agent. (See GARNET.)

ALMANSA, or ALMANZA, a town of eastern Spain, in the province

of Albacete; 35 m. E.S.E. of Albacete, on the Madrid-Alicante

railway. Pop. (1900) 11,180. Almansa is built at the foot of

a white limestone crag, which is surmounted by a Moorish castle,

and rises abruptly in the midst of a fertile and irrigated

plain. About 1 m. S. stands an obelisk commemorating the

battle fought here on the 25th of April 1707, in which the

French under the duke of Berwick, a natural son of James

II. of Great Britain, routed the allied British, Portuguese

and Spanish troops. (See SPANISH SUCCESSION, WAR OF THE.)

ALMA-TADEMA, SIR LAURENCE (LAURENS) (1836- ). British

artist, was born on the 8th of .fanuary 1836, at Dronrijp, a

Frisian village near Leeuwarden, the son of Pieter Tadema, a

notary, who died when he was four years old. Alma was the

name of his godfather. His mother (d. 1863) was his father's

second wife, and was left with a large family. It was designed

that the boy should follow his father's profession; but he

had so great a leaning towards art that he was eventually

sent to Antwerp, where in 1852 he entered the academy under

Gustav Wappers. Thence he passed to the atelier of Henri

(afterwards Baron) Leys. In 1859 he assisted Leys in the

latter's frescoes in the hall of the hotel de ville at

Antwerp. In the exhibition of Alma-Tadema's collected works

at the Grosvenor Gallery in London in the winter of 1882-1883

were two pictures which may be said to mark the beginning

and end of his first period. These were a portrait of

himself, dated 1852, and ``A Bargain,'' painted in 1860. His

first great success was a picture of ``The Education of the

Children of Clovis'' (1861), which was exhibited at Antwerp.

In the following year he received his first gold medal at

Amsterdam. The ``Education of the Children of Clovis''

(three young children of Clovis and Clotilde practising

the art of hurling the axe in the presence of their widowed

mother, who is training them to avenge the murder of their

own parent) was one of a series of Merovingian pictures, of

which the finest was the ``Fredegonda'' of 1878 (exhibited in

1880), where the dejected wife or mistress is watching from

behind her curtain window the marriage of Chilperic I. with

Galeswintha. It is perhaps in this series that we find the

painter moved by the deeoest feeling and the strongest spirit of

romance. One of the most passionate of all is ``Fredegonda

at the Death-bed of Praetextatus,'' in which the bishop,

stabbed by order of the queen, is cursing her from his dying

bed. Another distinct series is designed to reproduce the life

of ancient Egypt. One of the first of this series, ``Egyptians

3000 Years Ago,'' was painted in 1863. A profound depth of

pathos is sounded in ``The Death of the Firstborn,'' painted in

1873. Among Alma-Tadema's other notable Egyptian pictures

are ``An Egyptian at his Doorway'' (1865), `The Mummy''

(1867), `The Chamberlain of Sesostris'' (1869), ``A Widow''

(1873), and ``Joseph, Overseer of Pharaoh's Granaries''

(1874). On these scenes from Frankish and Egyptian life

Alma-Tadema spent great energy and research; but his strongest

art-impulse was towards the presentation of the life of

ancient Greece and Rome, especially the latter. Amongst the

best known of his earlier pictures of scenes from classical

times are ``Tarquinius Superbus'' (1867), ``Phidias and the

Elgin Marbles'' (1868), and ``The Pyrrhic Dance'' and ``The

Wine Shop'' (1869). ``The Pyrrhic Dance,'' though one of the

simplest of his compositions, stands out distinctly from them

all by reason of its striking movement. ``Phidias and the

Elgin Marbles'' is the first of those glimpses of the art-iife

of classical times, of which ``Hadrian in England,'' ``The

Sculpture Gallery,'' and ``The Picture Gallery'' are later

examples. ``The Wine Shop'' is one of his many pictures of

historical genre, but marked with a more robust humour than

usual. In 1863 Alma-Tadema married a French lady, and lived

at Brussels till 1869, when she died, leaving him a widower

with two daughters, Laurence and Anna, both of whom afterwards

made reputations --the former in literature, the latter in

art. In 1869 he sent from Brussels to the Royal Academy two

pictures, ``Un Amateur romain'' and ``Une Danse pyrrhique,''

which were followed by three pictures, including ``Un Jongleur,''

in 1870, when he came to London. By this time, besides his

Dutch and Belgian distinctions, he had been awarded medals

at the Paris Salon of 1864 and the Exposition Universelle of

1867. In 1871 he married Miss Laura Epos, an English lady

of a talented family, who, under her married name, also won

a high reputation as an artist. After his arrival in England

Alma-Tadema's career was one of continued success. Amongst

the most important of his pictures during this period were

``The Vintage Festival'' (1870), ``The Picture Gallery'' and

``The Sculpture Gallery'' (1875), ``An Audience at Agrippa's''

(1876), ``The Seasons'' (1877), ``Sappho'' (1881), ``The

Way to the Temple'' (1883), his diploma work, ``Hadrian in

Britain'' (1884), ``The Apodyterium (1886), ``The Woman of

Amphissa'' (1887), ``The Roses of Heliogabalus'' (1888), ``An

Earthly Paradise'' (1891), and ``Spring'' (1895). Most of

his other pictures have been small canvasses of exquisite

finish, like the ``Gold-fish'' of 1900. These, as well as

all his works, are remarkable for the way in which flowers,

textures and hard reflecting substances, like metals, pottery,

and especially marble, are painted. His work shows much

of the fine execution and brilliant colour of the old Dutch

masters. By the human interest with which he imbues all his

scenes from ancient life he brings them within the scope of

modern feeling, and charms us with gentle sentiment and playful

humour. He also painted some fine portraits. Alma-Tadema

became a naturalized British subject in 1873, and was knighted

on the occasion of Queen Victoria's eighty-first birthday,

1899. He was made an associate of the Royal Academy in

1876, and a Royal Academician in 1879. In 1907 he was

included in the Order of Merit. He became a knight of the

order Pour le Merite of Germany (Arts and Science Division);

of Leopold, Belgium; of the Dutch Lion; of St Michael of

Bavaria; of the Golden Lion of Nassau; and of the Crown

of Prussia; an officer of the Legion of Honour, France; a

member of the Royal Academies of Munich, Berlin, Madrid and

Vienna. He received a gold medal at Berlin in 1872 and a

grand medal at Berlin in 1874; a first class medal at the

Paris International Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900. He also

became a member of the Royal Society of Water-colours.

See also Geore Ebers, ``Lorenz Alma-Tadema,''

Westermann's Monatshafte, November and December 1885,

since republished in volume form; Helen Zimmern, ``L.

Alma-Tadema, his Life and Work,'' Art Annual, 1886; C.

Monkhouse, British Contemporary Artists (London, 1899).

ALME or ALMAI (from alim, wise, learned), the name of a

class of singing girls in Egypt who are present at festivals and

entertainments, and act as hired mourners at funerals. They

are to be distinguished from the ghawazee, or dancing girls,

who perform in the public streets and are of a lower order.