generation. Born at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 11th Nov., 1836; died at
Boston in March, 1907. He edited _Every Saturday_ in Boston from 1865 to
1874, and the _Atlantic Monthly_ from 1881 to 1890. He was a poet of some
skill, the chief characteristic of his lyrics being refinement and finish.
Some of his short stories have been rarely surpassed by other American
writers. Among his volumes of verse are: _The Ballad of Babie Bell_ (1856);
_Cloth of Gold_ (1874); _Lyrics and Sonnets_ (1880); _Friar Jerome's
Beautiful Book_ (1881); _Unguarded Gates and other Poems_ (1895), &c. His
prose works include: _Story of a Bad Boy_ (1870); _Marjorie Daw and other
People_ (1873); _The Stillwater Tragedy_ (1880); _Two Bites of a Cherry_
(1893).
ALDROVAN'DI, Ulysses, a distinguished Italian naturalist; born 1522, died
1607. He was professor at Bologna, and established botanical gardens and a
museum of natural history there; wrote a work on natural history in 14
vols. His _Antidotarii Bononiensis epitome_ (1574) has served as a model
for all Pharmacopoeias published in later years.
ALE and BEER, well-known and extensively-used fermented liquors, the
principle of which is extracted from several sorts of grain but most
commonly from barley, after it has undergone the process termed malting.
Beer is a more general term than ale, being often used for any kind of
fermented malt liquor, including porter, though it is also used in a more
special signification. See _Brewing_.
ALEARDI ([.a]-l[=a]-[.a]r'd[=e]), ALEARDO, a distinguished Italian lyrical
and political poet and patriot, born 1812, died 1878; he was a member of
the Italian board of higher education and a senator. His best work is his
poem _Il Monte Circello_ (1844).
ALE-CONNER, formerly an officer in England appointed to assay ale and beer,
and to take care that they were good and wholesome, and sold at a proper
price. The duty of the ale-conners of London was to inspect the measures
used in public-houses, to prevent frauds in selling liquors. Four of these
were chosen annually by the liverymen, in common hall, on Mid-summer's Day.
ALE-COST. See _Costmary_.
ALEC'TO, in Greek mythology, one of the Furies (q.v.).
ALEMAN ([.a]-le-m[.a]n'), Mateo, a Spanish novelist, born about the middle
of the sixteenth century, died in 1610. His fame rests on his _Life and
Adventures of the Rogue Guzman de Alfarache_ (translated into French in
1600 and into English in 1623), one of the best of the _picaresque_ or
rogue novels, which give such a lively picture of the shady classes of
society in Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The hero
becomes in succession stable-boy, beggar, porter, thief, man of fashion,
soldier, valet, merchant, student, robber, galley-slave, and lastly his own
biographer.
ALEMAN'NI, or ALAMANNI, a confederacy of several German tribes which, at
the commencement of the third century after Christ, lived near the Roman
territory, and came then and subsequently into conflict with the imperial
troops. Caracalla first fought with them in 213, but did not conquer them;
Severus was likewise unsuccessful. About 250 they began to cross the Rhine
westwards, and in 255 they overran Gaul along with the Franks. In 259 a
body of them was defeated in Italy at Milan, and in the following year they
were driven out of Gaul by Postumus. But the Alemanni did not desist from
their incursions, notwithstanding the numerous defeats they suffered at the
hands of the Roman troops. In the fourth century they crossed the Rhine and
ravaged Gaul, but were severely defeated by the Emperor Julian and driven
back. Subsequently they occupied a considerable territory on both sides of
the Rhine; but at last Clovis broke their power in 496 and deprived them of
a large portion of their possessions. Part of their territory was formed
into a duchy called Alemannia or Swabia, this name being derived from Suevi
or Swabians, the name which they gave themselves. It is from the Alemanni
that the French have derived their names for Germans and Germany in
general, namely, _Allemands_ and _Allemagne_, though strictly speaking only
the modern Swabians and northern Swiss are the proper descendants of that
ancient race.
ALEMBERT ([.a]-l[.a][n.]-b[=a]r), Jean le Rond d', a French mathematician
and philosopher, born in Paris, 16th Nov., 1717, and died there 29th Oct.,
1783. He was the illegitimate son of Madame de Tencin and Chevalier
Destouches, and was exposed at the Church of St. Jean le Rond (hence his
name) soon after birth. He was brought up by the wife of a poor glazier,
and with her he lived for more than forty years. His parents never publicly
acknowledged him, but his father settled upon him an income of 1200 livres.
He showed much quickness in learning, entered the College Mazarin at the
age of twelve, and studied mathematics with enthusiasm and success, but
received little encouragement from his teachers. Having left college he
studied law and became an advocate, but did not practise, and long
continued to occupy himself with mathematics, in which he made immense
advances by his own efforts, often arriving at results that other
mathematicians had previously arrived at unknown to him. A pamphlet on the
motion of solid bodies in a fluid, and another on the integral calculus,
which he laid before the Academy of Sciences in 1739 and 1740, showed him
in so favourable a light that the Academy received him in 1741 into the
number of its members. He soon after published his famous work on dynamics,
_Traite de Dynamique_ (1743) and another work dealing with fluids, _Traite
des Fluides_. His _Reflexion sur la cause generale des vents_ was also a
work that added to D'Alembert's reputation. He also took a part in the
investigations which completed the discoveries of Newton respecting the
motion of the heavenly bodies, and published at intervals various important
astronomical dissertations--on the perturbations of the planets, for
instance, and on the precession of the equinoxes--as well as on other
subjects. He also took part, with Diderot and others, in the celebrated
_Encyclopedie_ in 33 vols., for which he wrote the _Discours Preliminaire_,
as well as many philosophical and almost all the mathematical articles.
Literature, history, and philosophy also received attention from him, and
his _Elements de Philosophie_ (1759), in which he agrees with the theories
of Condillac and Locke, was a work of much value. His great philosophical
aim seems to have been the idea of secularizing morality upon a rational
basis. Among his miscellaneous works are _Melanges de Philosophie,
d'Histoire, et de Litterature_; _Traduction de quelques Morceaux choisis de
Tacite_; _Sur la Destruction des Jesuites_; _Histoire des Membres de
l'Academie Francaise_; _Elements de Musique theorique et pratique_. He
received an invitation from the Russian empress Catherine II to go to St.
Petersburg (now Petrograd) as tutor to her son, a very large sum being
offered; and Frederick the Great invited him to settle in Berlin, but in
vain. From Frederick, however, he accepted a pension, and he also paid a
visit to Berlin. There was an intimate friendship between him and Voltaire.
He never married, but he was on terms of the closest friendship with Madame
L'Espinasse, and they occupied the same house for a number of years. He was
held in high esteem by David Hume, who left him a legacy of L200.
ALEM'BIC, a simple apparatus sometimes used by chemists for distillation,
and consisting of three main parts, body, head, and receiver. The
_cucurbit_, or body, contains the substance to be distilled, and is usually
somewhat like a bottle, bulging below and narrowing towards the top; the
_head_, of a globular form, with a flat under-ring, fits on to the neck of
the cucurbit, condenses the vapour from the heated liquid, and receives the
distilled liquid on the ring enclosing the neck of the lower vessel, and
thus causes it to find egress by a discharging-pipe into the third section,
called the _receiver_. See _Distillation_.
ALEMTEJO ([.a]-l[=a][n.]-t[=a]'zh[=o]; 'beyond the Tagus'), the largest
province of Portugal, and the most southern except Algarve; area, 9219 sq.
miles; pop. 478,584. The capital is Evora. It has about 30 miles of coast,
but no good harbour and no navigable river. Large areas are devoted to
pasturage, and the cultivated portions are comparatively limited, though in
the east there are fertile valleys where grain, fruits, &c., are
cultivated. There are valuable cork forests in this portion also. Excellent
horses are reared. Copper and iron mines are worked; but on the whole this
province is in a backward condition, and is the most thinly inhabited in
the country.
ALENCON ([.a]-l[.a][n.]-s[=o][n.]), a town of France, capital of department
Orne, and formerly of the Duchy of Alencon, on the right bank of the
Sarthe, 105 miles west by south of Paris; well built; has a fine Gothic
church (fifteenth century) and interesting remains of the old castle of the
ducs d'Alencon. Alencon was long famed for its point-lace, called 'point
d'Alencon', an industry established at the instigation of Colbert in 1673
but now much fallen off; it has cotton and flax spinning and weaving, &c.
Fine rock-crystal, yielding the so-called 'diamants d'Alencon', is found in
the neighbouring granite quarries. Alencon is mentioned as a city for the
first time in 717. Pop. 16,590.--_Alencon_, originally a county, later a
dukedom, became united with the crown in 1221, and was given by Louis XI as
an appanage to his fifth son, with whom the branch of the Alencon-Valois
commenced. The first duke of the name lost his life at the battle of
Agincourt in 1415; another, called Charles IV, married the celebrated
Margaret of Valois, sister of Francis I. He commanded the left wing of the
French army at the battle of Pavia, where, instead of supporting the king
at a critical moment, he fled at the head of his troops, the consequence of
which was the loss of the battle and the capture of the king.
ALEP'PO, a city in North Syria, on the River Koik, in a fine plain 60 miles
south-east of Alexandretta, which is its port, and 129 miles N.N.E. of
Damascus. It has a circumference of about 7 miles, and consists of the old
town and numerous suburbs. Its appearance at a distance is striking, and
the houses are well built of stone. On a hill stands the citadel, and at
its foot the governor's palace. Previous to 1822 Aleppo contained about 100
mosques, but in that year an earthquake laid the greater part of them in
ruins, and destroyed nearly the whole city. The aqueduct built by the
Romans is the oldest monument of the town. Among the chief attractions of
Aleppo are its gardens, in which the pistachio-nut is extensively
cultivated. The branch railway to Hamah from the Beyrout-Damascus line has
been continued to Aleppo. Formerly the city was a great centre of trade and
manufactures, but the earthquake and other causes have combined greatly to
lessen its prosperity. It has still a trade, however, in the products of
the country, such as wool, cotton, silk, wax, skins, soap, tobacco, &c.,
and imports a certain quantity of European manufactures.--Aleppo was a
place of considerable importance in very remote times. By the Greeks and
Romans it was called _Beroea_. It was conquered by the Arabs in 638, and
its original name _Chalybon_ was then turned into _Haleb_, whence the
Italian form _Aleppo_. The town was occupied by British troops on 27th
Oct., 1918. Its population, 200,000 at the beginning of last century, is
now estimated at over 250,000. The language generally spoken is Arabic. The
vilayet of Aleppo has a pop. of 1,500,000.
ALESH'KI, a town of Southern Russia, government Taurida. Pop. 8915.
ALE'SIA, a town and fortress of ancient Gaul, at which in 52 B.C. Julius
Caesar inflicted a crushing defeat on the Gauls under Vercingetorix. It is
now represented by the village of Alise, department Cote d'Or, near which
Napoleon III erected a colossal statue of Vercingetorix in 1865.
ALESSAN'DRIA, a town and fortress in North Italy, capital of the province
of the same name, in a marshy country, near the junction of the Bormida and
the Tanaro. It was built in 1168 by the Cremonese and Milanese, and was
named in honour of Pope Alexander III, who made it a bishop's see. It has a
cathedral, important manufactures of linen, woollen, and silk goods, and an
active trade. It ranks as one of the first fortresses of Europe, the
fortifications including a surrounding wall and bastions, and a strong
citadel on the opposite side of the Tanaro, connected by a bridge with the
town. Pop. (with suburbs) 78,159.
ALES'SI, Galeazzo, a distinguished Italian architect, born at Perugia,
1512, died there in 1572. Many palaces, villas, and churches were erected
after his designs, and at the request of Philip II of Spain he drew a plan
for the Escurial.
ALETSCH'-GLACIER, the greatest glacier in Switzerland, canton Valais, a
prolongation of the immense mass of glaciers connected with the Jungfrau,
the Aletschhorn (14,000 feet), and other peaks; about 15 miles long.
ALEURITES, a tree belonging to the nat. ord. Euphorbiaceae, is found in
tropical and subtropical parts of the world. _Aleurites triloba_, the
'candleberry tree', is cultivated in the Moluccan Islands for its fruit.
The oil extracted from its seeds is valuable both for food and light.
ALEUROM'ETER, an instrument for indicating the bread-making qualities of
wheaten flour. The indications depend upon the expansion of the gluten
contained in a given quantity of flour when freed of its starch by
pulverization and repeated washings with water.
ALEU'TIAN ISLANDS, a chain of about eighty small islands belonging to the
United States, separating the Sea of Kamchatka from the northern part of
the Pacific Ocean, and extending nearly 1000 miles from east to west
between lon. 172deg E. and 163deg W.; total area, 6391 sq. miles; pop.
1220. They are of volcanic formation, and in a number of them there are
volcanoes still in activity. Their general appearance is dismal and barren,
yet grassy valleys capable of supporting cattle throughout the year are met
with, and potatoes, turnips, and other vegetables are successfully
cultivated. They afford also an abundance of valuable fur and of fish. The
natives belong to the same stock with those of Kamchatka.
ALE'WIFE (corruption of the Indian name), the _Al[=o]sa tyrannus_, a fish
of the same genus as the shad, growing to the length of 12 inches, and
caught in great quantities in the mouths of the rivers of New England, New
Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, being salted and exported.
[Illustration: Coin of Alexander the Great]
ALEXANDER, surnamed THE GREAT, was the son of Philip of Macedon and his
queen Olympias, and was born at Pella, 356 B.C. In youth he had Aristotle
as instructor, and he early displayed uncommon abilities. The victory of
Chaeronea in 338, which brought Greece entirely under Macedonia, was mainly
decided by his efforts. Philip having been assassinated, 336 B.C.,
Alexander, not yet twenty years of age, ascended the throne. His father had
been preparing an expedition against the Persians, and Alexander determined
to carry it out; but before doing so he had to chastise the barbarian
tribes on the frontiers of Macedon as well as quell a rising in Greece, in
which he took and destroyed Thebes, put 6000 of the inhabitants to the
sword, and carried 30,000 into captivity. Leaving Antipater to govern in
his stead in Europe, and being confirmed as commander-in-chief of the Greek
forces in the general assembly of the Greeks, he crossed over the
Hellespont into Asia, in the spring of 334, with 30,000 foot and 5000
horse. His first encounter with the Persian forces (assisted by Greek
mercenaries) was at the small river Gran[=i]cus, where he gained a complete
victory. Most of the cities of Asia Minor now opened their gates to the
victor, and Alexander restored democracy in all the Greek cities. In
passing through Gordium he cut the Gordian knot, on which it was believed
the fate of Asia depended, and then conquered Lycia, Ionia, Caria,
Pamphylia, and Cappadocia. A sickness, caused by bathing in the Cydnus (333
B.C.), checked his progress; but scarcely was he restored to health when he
continued his advance, and this same year defeated the Persian emperor
Darius and his army of 500,000 or 600,000 men (including 50,000 Greek
mercenaries) near Issus (inner angle of the Gulf of Alexandretta). Darius
fled towards the interior of his dominions, leaving his family and
treasures to fall into the hands of the conqueror. Alexander did not pursue
Darius, but proceeded southwards, and secured all the towns along the
Mediterranean Sea, though he only got possession of Tyre (taken 332 B.C.)
after besieging it for seven months. Palestine and Egypt now fell before
him, and in the latter he founded Alexandria, which became one of the first
cities of ancient times. Hence he went through the desert of Libya, to
consult the oracle of Zeus Ammon, and it was said that the god recognized
him as his son. On his return Alexander marched against Darius, who had
collected an immense army in Assyria, and rejected the proposals of his
rival for peace. A battle was fought at Gaugamela, about 50 miles from
Arbela, 331 B.C., and notwithstanding the immense numerical superiority of
his enemy, Alexander (who had but 40,000 men and 7000 horse) gained a
complete victory. Babylon and Susa opened their gates to the conqueror, who
marched towards Persepolis, the capital of Persia, and entered it in
triumph. He now seems for a time to have lost his self-command. He gave
himself up to arrogance and dissipation, and is said in a fit of
intoxication to have set fire to the palace of Persepolis, one of the
wonders of the world. Rousing himself up, however, he set out in pursuit of
Darius, who, having lost his throne, was kept prisoner by Bessus, satrap of
Bactriana. Bessus, on seeing himself closely pursued, caused Darius to be
assassinated (330 B.C.). Continuing his progress he subdued Bessus, and
advanced to the Jaxartes, the extreme eastern limit of the empire, but did
not fully subdue the whole of this region till 328, some fortresses holding
out with great tenacity. In one of these he took prisoner the beautiful
Roxana, daughter of Oxyartes, a nobleman of Sogdiana, and having fallen in
love with her he married her. Meantime disaffection had once or twice
manifested itself among his Macedonian followers and had been cruelly
punished; and he had also, to his lasting remorse, killed his faithful
friend Cleitus in a fit of drunken rage. Alexander now formed the idea of
conquering India, then scarcely known even by name. He passed the Indus
(326 B.C.), marched towards the Hydaspes (Jhelum), at the passage of which
he conquered a king named Porus in a fierce battle, and advanced
victoriously through the north-west of India, and intended to proceed as
far as the Ganges, when the murmurs of his army compelled him to return. On
the Hydaspes he built a fleet, in which he sent a part of his army down the
river, while the rest proceeded along the banks. By the Hydaspes he reached
the Acesines (Chenab), and thus the Indus, down which he sailed to the sea.
Nearchus, his admiral, sailed hence to the Persian Gulf, while Alexander
directed his march by land to Babylon, losing a great part of his troops in
the desert through which he had to pass. In Susa he married Statira, the
eldest daughter of Darius, and rewarded those of his Macedonians who had
married Persian women, because it was his intention to unite the two
nations as closely as possible. At Opis, on the Tigris, a mutiny arose
among his Macedonians (in 324), who thought he showed too much favour to
the Asiatics; by firmness and policy he succeeded in quelling this rising,
and sent home 10,000 veterans with rich rewards. Soon after, his favourite,
Hephaestion, died at Ecbatana, and Alexander's grief was unbounded. The
favourite was royally buried at Babylon, and here Alexander was engaged in
extensive plans for the future, when he became suddenly sick, after a
banquet, and died in a few days (323 B.C.), in his thirty-third year, after
a reign of twelve years and eight months. His body was after a time
conveyed to Egypt with great splendour by his general Ptolemy. He left
behind him an immense empire, which was divided among his chief generals,
and became the scene of continual wars. The reign of Alexander constitutes
an important period in the history of humanity. His career was not merely a
series of empty conquests, but was attended with the most important
results. The language, and much of the civilization of Greece, followed in
his track; large additions were made to the sciences of geography, natural
history, &c.; a road was opened to India; and the products of the farthest
east were introduced into Europe. Greek kingdoms, under his generals and
their successors, continued to exist in Asia for centuries.--BIBLIOGRAPHY:
B. I. Wheeler, _Alexander the Great_ (Heroes of the Nations Series:
Putnam); Grote, _History of Greece_; Holm, _History of Greece_; Dodge,
_Alexander_ (Great Captains Series).
ALEXANDER, the name of eight popes, the earliest of whom, ALEXANDER I, is
said to have reigned from 108 to 119. ALEXANDER III, elected 1159, died
1181, exercised his authority with great vigour against Henry II when the
latter was accused of the assassination of Thomas Becket. The most famous
(or infamous) is ALEXANDER VI (Borgia), who was born at Valencia, in Spain,
in 1431, and died in 1503. When he was only twenty-five years of age his
uncle, Pope Calixtus III, made him a cardinal, and shortly afterwards
appointed him to the dignified and lucrative office of vice-chancellor. By
bribery he prepared his way to the papal throne, which he attained in 1492,
after the death of Innocent VIII. Both the authority and revenues of the
popes being at this time much impaired, he set himself to reduce the power
of the Italian princes, and seize upon their possessions for the benefit of
his own family. To effect this end he is said not to have scrupled to use
the vilest means, including poison and assassination. His policy, foreign
as well as domestic, was faithless and base, and his private life was
stained by immorality. He understood how to extract immense sums of money
from all Christian countries under various pretexts. He sold indulgences,
and set aside, in favour of himself, the wills of several cardinals. His
excesses roused against him the powerful eloquence of Savonarola, who, by
pen and pulpit, urged his deposition, but had to meet his death at the
stake in 1498. Not long after his election Alexander had the honour of
deciding the dispute between the kings of Portugal and Castile concerning
their respective claims to the foreign countries recently discovered. It
must, however, be admitted that Pope Alexander, whilst striking the wealthy
and powerful, interested himself in the welfare of the people, and that he
was a patron of arts and letters. His son, Cesare Borgia, and his daughter,
Lucrezia, are equally notorious with himself.