Algoritmi or Al-Khowarizmi, from whose works European scholars received
much of their early information concerning Hindu numerals. The word is now
used to designate any particular arrangement of numerical work.
ALGRAPHY. See _Lithography_.
ALGUACIL, or ALGUAZIL ([.a]l-gw[.a]-th[=e]l'), in Spain, an officer whose
business it is to execute the decrees of a judge; a sort of constable. In
ancient times the Alguacil was the great provost of the palace.
ALGUM. See _Almug_.
ALHA'GI. See _Camel's-thorn_.
ALHAMA ([.a]-l[:a]'m[.a]; that is, 'the bath'), a town of Southern Spain,
province of Granada, on the Marchan, 25 miles south-west of Granada,
celebrated for its warm medicinal (sulphur) baths and drinking waters. It
formed a Moorish fortress, the recovery of which in 1482 by the Spaniards
led to the entire conquest of Granada. It was occupied by the French from
Feb., 1810-Aug., 1812, and thrown into ruins by an earthquake in Dec.,
1884. Pop. 8000.--There is also an _Alhama_ in the province of Murcia, with
a warm mineral spring. Pop. 6000.
[Illustration: Alhambra--The Court of the Lions]
ALHAM'BRA (Ar. _al_ and _hamrah_, 'the' and 'red'), a famous group of
buildings in Spain, forming the citadel of Granada when that city was one
of the principal seats of the empire of the Moors in Spain, situated on a
height, surrounded by a wall flanked by many towers, and having a circuit
of 2-1/4 miles. Within the circuit of the walls are two churches, a number
of mean houses, and some straggling gardens, besides the palace of Charles
V and the celebrated Moorish palace which is often distinctively spoken of
as the Alhambra. This building, to which the celebrity of the site is
entirely due, was the royal palace of the Kings of Granada. The greater
part of the present building belongs to the first half of the fourteenth
century. In the course of centuries, both through neglect and acts of
vandalism, the beauty of the Alhambra has suffered considerably. The work
of restoration was, however, undertaken in 1824 by the architect Jose
Contreras, and continued by his son Rafael from 1847-90. It consists mainly
of buildings surrounding two oblong courts, the one, called the Court of
the Fishpond (or of the Myrtles), 138 by 74 feet, lying north and south;
the other, called the Court of the Lions, from a fountain ornamented with
twelve lions in marble, 115 by 66 feet, lying east and west, described as
being, with the apartments that surround it, "the gem of Arabian art in
Spain, its most beautiful and most perfect example". Its design is
elaborate, exhibiting a profusion of exquisite detail gorgeous in
colouring, but the smallness of its size deprives it of the element of
majesty. The peristyle or portico on each side is supported by 128 pillars
of white marble, 11 feet high, sometimes placed singly and sometimes in
groups. Two pavilions project into the court at each end, the domed roof of
one having been restored. Some of the finest chambers of the Alhambra open
into this court, and near the entrance a museum of Moorish remains has been
formed. On the opposite side of the Court of the Lions is the Hall of the
Abencerrages. The prevalence of stucco or plaster ornamentation is one of
the features of the Alhambra, which becomes especially remarkable in the
beautiful honeycomb 'stalactite vaulting'. Arabesques and geometrical
designs with interwoven inscriptions are present in the richest profusion.
Cf. Owen Jones's work, _The Alhambra_ (2 vols., London, 1842-5.
ALHAURIN ([.a]l-ou-r[=e]n'), a town of Southern Spain, province of Malaga,
with sulphureous baths. Pop. 7000.
ALI ([.a]'l[=e]), cousin and son-in-law of Mahomet, the first of his
converts, and the bravest and most faithful of his adherents, born A.D.
602. He married Fatima, the daughter of the prophet, but after the death of
Mahomet (632) his claims to the caliphate were set aside in favour
successively of Abu-Bekr, Omar, and Othman. On the assassination of Othman,
in A.D. 656, he became caliph, and after a series of struggles with his
opponents, including Ayesha, widow of Mahomet, finally lost his life by
assassination at Kufa in 661. A Mahommedan schism arose after his death,
and has produced two sects. One sect, called the Shiites, put Ali on a
level with Mahomet, and do not acknowledge the three caliphs who preceded
Ali. They are regarded as heretics by the other sect, called Sunnites. The
Turks hold his memory in abhorrence, whilst the Persians call him the Lion
of God, and venerate him as second only to the prophet. The _Maxims_ and
_Hymns_ of Ali are yet extant. See _Caliph_.
ALI, Pasha of Yan[)i]na, generally called _Ali Pasha_, a bold and able, but
ferocious and unscrupulous Albanian, born in 1741, son of an Albanian
chief, who was deprived of his territories by rapacious neighbours. Ali by
his enterprise and success, and by his entire want of scruple, got
possession of more than his father had lost, and made himself master of a
large part of Albania, including Yan[)i]na, which the Porte sanctioned his
holding, with the title of pasha. Among the travellers who visited his
Court at Yan[)i]na was Byron, who has left a record of his impressions in
_Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_. Ali Pasha was an apostle of European culture
in the East, and the first to feel the necessity for energetic reforms in
the old Moslem institutions. He displayed excellent qualities, putting an
end to brigandage and anarchy, making roads, and encouraging commerce. He
still farther extended his sway by subduing the brave Suliotes of Epirus,
whom he conquered in 1803, after a three years' war. Aiming at independent
sovereignty, he intrigued alternately with England, France, and Russia, and
became almost independent of the Porte, which at length determined, in
1820, to pronounce his deposition. Ali resisted several pashas who were
sent to carry out this decision, only surrendering at last in 1822, on
receiving assurances that his life and property would be granted him. Faith
was not kept with him, however; he was killed, and his head was cut off and
conveyed to Constantinople, while his treasures were seized by the Porte.
AL'IAS (Lat., 'at another time'), a word often used in judicial proceedings
in connection with the different names that persons have assumed, most
likely for prudential reasons, at different times, and in order to conceal
identity, as Joseph Smith _alias_ Thomas Jones.
ALIBERT ([.a]-l[=e]-b[=a]r), Jean Louis, Baron, a distinguished French
physician, born 1766, died 1837. He was a professor in Paris, and chief
physician at the Hospital St. Louis. He wrote many valuable works on
medical subjects, such as _Description des maladies de la peau_.
ALI BEY, a ruler of Egypt, born in the Caucasus in 1728, was taken to Cairo
and sold as a slave, but having entered the force of the Mamelukes, and
attained the first dignity among them, he succeeded in making himself
virtual governor of Egypt. He then refused the customary tribute to the
Porte, and coined money in his own name. In 1769 he took advantage of a
war, in which the Porte was then engaged with Russia, to endeavour to add
Syria and Palestine to his Egyptian dominion, and in this he had almost
succeeded, when the defection of his own adopted son Mohammed Bey drove him
from Egypt. Joining his ally Sheikh Daher in Syria, he still pursued his
plans of conquest with remarkable success, till in 1773 he was induced to
make the attempt to recover Egypt with insufficient means. In a battle near
Cairo his army was completely defeated and he himself taken prisoner, dying
a few days afterwards either of his wounds or by poison.
AL'IBI (Lat., 'elsewhere'), a defence in criminal procedure, by which the
accused endeavours to prove that when the alleged crime was committed he
was present in a different place.
ALICANTE ([.a]-l[=e]-k[.a]n't[=a]), a fortified town and Mediterranean
seaport in Spain, capital of the province of the same name, picturesquely
situated partly on the slope of a hill, partly on the plain at the foot,
about 80 miles south by west of Valencia. The lower town has wide and
well-built streets; the upper town is old and irregularly built. The
principal manufactures are cotton, linen, and cigars; the chief export is
wine, which largely goes to England. Alicante is an ancient town. In 718 it
was taken by the Moors, from whom it was wrested about 1240. In modern
times it has been several times besieged and bombarded, as by the French in
1709, and in 1812, and by the federalists of Cartagena in 1873. Pop.
58,088.--The province is very fruitful and well cultivated, producing wine,
silk, fruits, &c. The wine is of a dark colour (hence called _vino tinto_,
deep-coloured wine), and is heavy and sweet. Area, 2185 sq. miles. Pop.
502,607.
ALICATA, or LICATA ([.a]-l[=e]-k[:a]'t[.a], l[=e]-k[:a]'t[.a]), the most
important commercial town on the S. coast of Sicily, at the mouth of the
Salso, 24 miles E.S.E. of Girgenti, with a considerable trade in sulphur,
grain, wine, oil, nuts, almonds, and soda. It occupies the site of the town
which the Tyrant Phintias of Acragas erected and named after himself, when
Gela was destroyed in 280. Pop. 22,931.
ALICE MAUD MARY, Princess, second daughter of Queen Victoria, Duchess of
Saxony, and Grand-duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt, born 1843, died 1878. In 1862
she married Frederick William Louis of Hesse, nephew of the grand-duke,
whom he succeeded in 1877. She showed exemplary devotion to her father
Prince Albert during his fatal illness and to the Prince of Wales during
his attack of fever in 1871. During the Franco-Prussian war she organized
hospitals for the relief of the sick and wounded. She died from diphtheria
caught while nursing her husband and children. A selection of her letters
to her mother was published in 1883 by Dr. Carl Sell.
A'LIEN, in relation to any country, a person born out of the jurisdiction
of the country, and not having acquired the full rights of a citizen of it.
The position of aliens depends upon the laws of the respective countries,
but generally speaking aliens owe a local allegiance, and are bound equally
with natives to obey all general rules for the preservation of order which
do not relate specially to citizens. Aliens have been often treated with
great harshness by the laws of some States. Thus in France there long
existed what was known as the _droit d'aubaine_, a law which claimed for
the benefit of the State the effects of deceased foreigners leaving no
heirs who were natives. Aliens have been repeatedly the objects of
legislation in Britain, and the tendency at the present day is to
communicate some of the rights of citizenship to aliens, and to widen the
definition of subjects. According to the Act of 1870 that now regulates the
matter, real and personal property of every description may be acquired,
held, and disposed of by an alien, in the same manner in all respects as by
a natural-born British subject. No other right or privilege (such as the
right to hold any office or any municipal, parliamentary, or other
franchise) is by this Act conferred on an alien except such as are
expressly given in respect of property. Previously aliens could hold only
personal property; they were incompetent to hold landed property, except
under certain conditions of residence or business occupancy for a term of
years not exceeding twenty-one. The children of aliens born in Britain are
natural-born subjects. Formerly the only mode of naturalization was by Act
of Parliament; but now an alien who has resided in the United Kingdom for
not less than one year immediately preceding his application, and has
previously resided in any part of His Majesty's dominions for four years
during the last eight years before the application, or who has been in the
service of the Crown for not less than five years, and intends to reside in
the kingdom, or to serve the British Crown, may apply to the Secretary of
State for a certificate of naturalization, and on giving evidence of
particulars may obtain it, being thereby entitled to almost all the
political and other rights of a natural-born British subject. At present
the law is laid down in the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act,
1914 and 1918. It used to be a principle in English law, that a
natural-born subject could not divest himself of his allegiance by becoming
naturalized in a foreign State (_nemo potest exuere patriam_); but it is
now laid down that a British subject who has voluntarily become naturalized
in a foreign State thereby ceases to be a British subject. Any British
subject who has become an alien may apply for a certificate of readmission
to British nationality on the same terms as those provided for aliens in
general. In the United States the position of aliens as regards acquisition
and holding of real property differs somewhat in the different States,
though in recent times the disabilities of aliens have been removed in most
of them. Personal property they can take, hold, and dispose of like native
citizens. Individual States have no jurisdiction on the subject of
naturalization, though they may pass laws admitting aliens to any privilege
short of citizenship. A naturalized citizen is not eligible for election as
president or vice-president of the United States, and cannot serve as
senator until after nine years' citizenship, nor as a member of the House
of Representatives until after seven years' citizenship. Five years'
residence in the United States and one year's permanent residence in the
particular State are necessary for the attainment of citizenship.
ALIEN IMMIGRATION. In various countries certain classes of aliens have long
been prohibited from gaining admission. In the United States, for instance,
admission is refused to such persons as idiots, epileptics, persons
suffering from loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases, paupers,
criminals (except political criminals), illiterate persons, &c. Chinese
labourers as a whole are excluded, and even any persons coming to America
under a definite agreement to engage in any kind of labour or service.
Similar laws are in force in Australia, where there is a test that a person
proposing to settle in the country must be able to write fifty words of a
European language. Towards the end of last century the great influx of
foreigners into Britain, and into London in particular, drew public
attention to the matter. A select committee appointed in 1888 reported in
favour of the exclusion of destitute aliens, in 1894 a bill was introduced
into the House of Lords, while in 1898 a bill to regulate the immigration
of aliens was passed in the Lords, but made no further progress. In 1902 a
royal commission was appointed, and drew up a report, published in 1903,
containing valuable information and various recommendations. Among these
were the establishment of an immigration department, and the granting of
powers to deport criminals, prostitutes, and other undesirable aliens, and
to prevent the landing of persons mentally unfit or suffering from
infectious or loathsome diseases. In 1904 an Aliens Immigration Bill was
introduced and read a second time in the House of Commons. It was based on
the recommendations of the commission, and in its favour it was argued that
a large amount of British labour had been displaced by aliens, in London
especially, that the prevalence of crime among aliens was out of proportion
to their numbers, that many of them were paupers, criminals convicted in
their own country, or other undesirables. In 1905 another bill on the
subject was introduced by the Government, which succeeded in passing it, so
that the matter can now be dealt with, and undesirable aliens kept out.
Since the European War (1914-8) and the new passport regulations it is easy
to ascertain the number of aliens that enter the country and settle. At the
census of 1901 the whole alien population was set down at 286,925, as
against 219,523 in 1891, but there has been a very large influx from 1901
to 1914, by far the largest number consisting of Russian and Polish Jews.
The restrictions imposed upon aliens during the European War are still in
force, so far as they prohibit landing by any alien, except at specified
ports by leave of an immigration officer, and, in case of former enemy
aliens, by special permission of the Home Secretary. Cf. J. M. Landa, _The
Alien Problem_.
ALIGANJ (_a_-l[=e]-g_a_nj'), a town of Bengal, 54 miles from Dinapur, noted
for its pottery. It has a trade in grain, indigo-seed, and cotton, and
contains two mosques, and a large mud fort. Pop. 7436.
ALIGARH (_a_-l[=e]-g_a_r'), a fort and town in India, in the United
Provinces, on the East Indian railway, 84 miles south-east of Delhi. The
town, properly called Koel or Coel, is distant about 2 miles from the fort,
and is connected with it by a beautiful avenue. It is handsome and well
situated, and has a trade in cotton, &c. The fort, which had been skilfully
strengthened by French engineers in the service of the Mahrattas, was taken
by storm after a desperate resistance in 1803 by the British forces under
Lord Lake, when the whole district was added to the British possessions.
Pop. 64,825. The district has an area of 1946 sq. miles. Pop. 1,165,680.
ALIGN'MENT (a-l[=i]n'ment), a military term, signifying the act of
adjusting to a straight line or in regular straight lines, or the state of
being so adjusted.
AL'IMENT, food, a term which includes everything, solid or liquid, serving
as nutriment for the bodily system. Aliments are of the most diverse
character, but all of them must contain nutritious matter of some kind,
which, being extracted by the act of digestion, enters the blood, and
effects by assimilation the repair of the body. Alimentary matter,
therefore, must be similar to animal substance, or transmutable into such.
All alimentary substances must, therefore, be composed in a greater or less
degree of soluble parts, which easily lose their peculiar qualities in the
process of digestion, and correspond to the elements of the body. The food
of animals consists for the most part of substances containing little
oxygen and exhibiting a high degree of chemical combination, in which
respects they differ from most substances that serve as sustenance for
plants, which are generally highly oxidized and exhibit little chemical
combination. According to the nature of their constituents most of the
aliments of animals are divided into nitrogenous (consisting of carbon,
hydrogen, and oxygen along with nitrogen, and also of sulphur and
phosphorus) and non-nitrogenous (consisting of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen
without nitrogen). Water and salts are usually considered as forming a
third group, and, in the widest sense of the word aliment, oxygen alone,
which enters the blood in the lungs, forms the fourth. The articles used as
food by man do not consist entirely of nutritious substances, but with few
exceptions are compounds of various nutritious with indigestible and
accordingly innutritious substances. The only nitrogenous aliments are
albuminous substances, and these are contained largely in animal food
(flesh, eggs, milk, cheese). The principal non-nitrogenous substance
obtained as food from animals is fat. Sugar is so obtained in smaller
quantities (in milk). While some vegetable substances also contain much
albumen, very many of them are rich in starch. Among vegetable substances
the richest in albumen are the legumes (peas, beans, and lentils), and
following them come the cereals (wheat, oats, &c.). Sugar, water, and salts
may pass without any change into the circulatory system; but albuminous
substances cannot do so without being first rendered soluble and capable of
absorption (in the stomach and intestines); starch must be converted into
sugar and fat emulsified (chiefly by the action of the pancreatic juice).
One of the objects of cooking is to make our food more susceptible of the
operation of the digestive fluids.
The relative importance of the various nutritious substances that are taken
into the system and enter the blood depends upon their chemical
constitution. The albuminous substances are the most indispensable,
inasmuch as they form the material by which the constant waste of the body
is repaired, whence they are called by Liebig the substance-formers. But a
part of the operation of albuminous nutriments may be performed equally
well, and at less cost, by non-nitrogenous substances, that part being the
maintenance of the temperature of the body. As is well known, the
temperature of warm-blooded animals is considerably higher than the
ordinary temperature of the surrounding air, in man about 98deg F., and the
uniformity of this temperature is maintained by the heat which is set free
by the chemical processes (of oxidation) which go on within the body. Now
these processes take place as well with non-nitrogenous as with nitrogenous
substances. The former are even preferable to the latter for the keeping up
of these processes; by oxidation they yield larger quantities of heat with
less labour to the body, and they are hence called the heat-givers. The
best heat-giver is fat. Albuminous matters are not only the tissue-formers
of the body; they also supply the vehicle for the oxygen, inasmuch as it is
of such matters that the blood corpuscles are formed. The more red blood
corpuscles an animal possesses, the more oxygen can it take into its
system, and the more easily and rapidly can it carry on the process of
oxidation and develop heat. Now only a part of the heat so developed passes
away into the environment of the animal; another part is transformed within
the body (in the muscles) into mechanical work. Hence it follows that the
non-nitrogenous articles of food produce not merely heat but also work, but
only with the assistance of albuminous matters, which, on the one hand,
compose the working machine, and, on the other hand, convey the oxygen
necessary for oxidation.
The wholesome or unwholesome character of any aliment depends, in a great
measure, on the state of the digestive organs in any given case, as also on
the method in which it is cooked. Very often a simple aliment is made
indigestible by artificial cookery. In any given case the digestive power
of the individual is to be considered in order to determine whether a
particular aliment is wholesome or not. In general, therefore, we can only
say that that aliment is healthy which is easily soluble, and is suited to
the power of digestion of the individual. Man is fitted to derive
nourishment both from animal and vegetable aliment, but can live
exclusively on either. The nations of the North incline generally more to
animal aliments; those of the South, and the Orientals, more to vegetable.
The inhabitants of the most northerly regions live almost entirely upon
animal food, and very largely on fat on account of its heat-giving
property. See _Dietetics_, _Digestion_, _Adulteration_, &c.
ALIMENTARY CANAL, a common name given to the oesophagus, stomach, and
intestines of animals. See _Oesophagus_, _Intestine_, _Stomach_.
ALI-MIRZA, Shah of Persia, son of Muzaffar-ed-Din, born in 1872. He
succeeded his father on 8th Jan., 1907. Although his European education had
given him sympathies for Western civilization, he showed himself despotic,
and became very unpopular. He was deposed by the National Assembly or
Mejliss in July, 1909, and his son proclaimed Shah in his place.
AL'IMONY (Lat. _alere_, to nourish), in law, the allowance to which a woman
is entitled while a matrimonial suit is pending between her and her
husband, or after a legal separation from her husband, not occasioned by
adultery or elopement on her part. It is either temporary or permanent, the
former being the provision made by the husband pending the suit, the latter
after the decree.