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ALCIDES- ALCOHOL. 



f.ir the Athenians considered his exile (lie cause of 

 nil their misfortunes. Hiu this triumph was of sliort 

 duration. He was sent vviih 1(X) ships to Asia; 

 but, not being supplied with money to pay his sol- 

 iliers, lie saw himself under the Heredity of seeking 

 help in ('aria, and committed the command to 

 AnLiochus, who was. drawn into a snare by Lysander, 

 and lost his life, anil a j>art of his ships. The ene- 

 mies of A. improved this opportunity to accuse him, 

 and procure his removal from office. A. went to 

 I'act.-e in Thrace, collected troops, and waged war 

 against the Thracians. He obtained considerable 

 booty, and secured the quiet of the neighbouring 

 Grew cities. The Athenian fleet was, at that 

 time, lying at .(Egos Potamos. He pointed out to 

 the generals the danger which threatened them, 

 advised them to go to Sestos, and offered his assis- 

 tance to force the Lacedaemonian general, Lysan- 

 der, either to fight, or to make peace. But they 

 did not listen to him, and soon after were totally 

 defeated. A., fearing the power of the Lacedae- 

 monians, betook himself to Bithynia, and was about 

 to go to Artaxerxes to procure his assistance for 

 his country. In the meantime, the thirty tyrants, 

 whom Lysander, after the capture of Athens, liad 

 set up there, requested the latter to cause A. to be 

 assassinated. But Lysander declined, until he re- 

 ceived an order to the same effect from his own 

 government. He then charged Pharnabazus with 

 the execution of it. A. was at that time with 

 Timandra, his mistress, in a castle in Phrygia. The 

 assistants of Pliarnabazus set fire to his house, and 

 killed him with their arrows, when he had already 

 escaped the conflagration. Timandra buried the 

 body with due honour. Thus A. ended his life, 

 404 B.C., about forty-five years old. He was en- 

 dowed by nature with distinguished qualities, a rare 

 talent to captivate and rule men, and uncommon 

 eloquence, although he could not pronounce r, and 

 stuttered ; but he had no fixed principles, and was 

 governed only by external circumstances. He was 

 without that elevation of soul, which steadily pur- 

 sues the path of virtue ; on the other hand, he pos- 

 sessed that coldness which arises from consciousness 

 ot superiority, and which shrinks from no difficuky, 

 because always confident of success. Plutarch and 

 Cornelius Nepos, among the ancients, have written 

 his life. 



ALCIDES ; a surname of Hercules, usually derived 

 from the name of his grandfather, Alcaeus, the father 

 of Amphitryon. 



ALCJXOUS ; said to have been a king of the 

 Pha?acians, in the island now called Corfu. His 

 gardens have immortalized his memory. The pas- 

 sages in which Homer describes his hospitality to- 

 ward Ulysses, and the ardent desire of the hitter to 

 reach his home, are most beautiful. He was a 

 grandson of Neptune. 



ALCIPHRON ; the most distinguished of the Gre- 

 cian epistolary writers. Nothing is known of his 

 iife, and even his age is uncertain. It is probable 

 that he belongs to the second century after Christ. 

 We have 116 fictitious letters by him ; the object ol 

 which seems to be, to represent the manners 

 thoughts, and feelings of certain strongly-markec 

 classes in the free communication of epistolary in- 

 tercourse. These letters are distinguished by purity 

 clearness, and simplicity of language and style 

 Principal editions, Geneva, 1606; Leipsic, 1715, 

 and one in 1798, at the same place, by T. A. Wag- 

 ner. 



ALCM.EON ; the son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle 

 (q. v.) of Argos ; chosen chief of the seven Epigoni 

 in which capacity he took and destroyed Thebes 

 Hu father, going to war, charged A. to put to deatl 



'.riph\le. who had lietrayetl him. He did so, and 

 pursued by the furies. An oracle inforii.ed 

 lim, that, to escape their vengeance, he must re- 

 ide in a land which was not in existence when he 

 vas cursed l>y his mother. Heat last found rest, 

 bra short time, on an island in the ri\er Aclielous. 

 vlicre he married < allirrhoe. the daughter of the 

 got! of the rhcr, at'ler repudiating his' former wife, 

 \rsinoe. Hut he did not long enjoy peace. At the 

 request of his wife, lie attempted to recover the 

 atal necklace of Hcrmionc from his former fat her- 

 n-law, the priest Phle-eus, v, l.n caused him to lie 

 nurdered by his sons. 



ALCSIAN ; a Grecian poet, son of a Spartan slave, 

 X)rn at Sardis, in Lydia, altout oTO years H. C. 

 le seems to have lived, for the most part, in Sparta, 

 vhere he obtained the rights of citizenship. He 

 sang hymns, paeans, and other lyricid poems, in the 

 Doric dialect, ami gave their polished form to these 

 ligher kinds of poetry. His remaining works were 

 collected by F. Th. Welcker (Giessen, 1815, 4 to). 



ALCMEXA ; the daughter of ElectryOD, and wife 

 of Amphityron. Jupiter loved her, and deceived 

 ler by assuming the form of her huslmnd. From 

 this connexion, which continued for tliree nights, 

 iprang Hercules. 



ALCOCH, John, bishop of Ely, and founder of 

 Jesus College, Cambridge, and of the Grammar 

 School at Kingston-upon-Hull, was a prelate of tin- 

 15th century, distinguished as a patron of learning. 

 [Je died in 1500. Among his works are " GfllL 

 Hantus ad Confratres suos Curatus in Synodo apud 

 Barnwell," 1480, 4to. " Mons Perfectionis," Loud., 

 1501,4to. Abbatia Spiritus," &c. 



ALCOHOL ; the purely spirituous part of all liquors 

 tliat have undergone the vinous fermentation, and 

 derived from none but such as are susceptible of it. 

 As a chemical agent, it is of the highest importance, 

 involving in its various combinations all the grand 

 principles of chemistry. It has been found that 

 spirit of wine, of sp. gr. -867, when enclosed in a 

 bladder, and exposed tor some time in the air, is 

 converted into alcohol of sp. gr. -817, the water 

 only escaping through the coats of the bladder. 

 Alcohol, obtained by slow and careful distillation, is 

 a limpid, colourless liquid, of an agreeable smell, 

 and a strong, pungent flavour. Its specific gravity 

 varies with its purity, the purest obtained by recti- 

 fication over chloride of calcium being -791 ; as it 

 usually occurs, it is -820 at 60. If rendered as pure 

 as possible by simple distillation, it can scarcely 

 be obtained of a lower specific gravity than -8^5 at 

 60. Mr Hutton is said to have succeeded in freez- 

 ing alcohol, but the fact is regarded as doubtful, as 

 the means by which he effected its congelation were 

 never disclosed. Mr Walker exposed it to a tem- 

 perature of 91", but no congelation took place ; it 

 has, therefore, been much used in the construction 

 of thermometers. Even when diluted with an 

 equal weight of water, it requires a cold of 6 below 

 to congeal it. When of a specific gravity of -82.J, 

 it boils at the temperature of 176, the barometrieal 

 pressure being 30 inches. In the vacuum of an air- 

 pump it boils at common temperatures. The spe- 

 cific gravity of the vapour of alcohol, compared with 



atmospheric air, is 4-613 Alcohol may be mixed in 



all proportions with water, and the specific gravity 

 of the mixture is greater than the mean of the two 

 liquids, in consequence of a diminution of bulk tl.at 

 occurs on mixture. The strength of such spirituous 

 liquors as consist of little else than water and alco- 

 hol, is of course ascertained by their specific gravity ; 

 and, for the purpose of levying duties upon them, 

 this is ascertained by the hydrometer. But the 

 only correct mode of ascertaining the specific gravity 



