120 



ALLODIUM ALLSPICE. 



iiu|H>rts being grain, limestone, ironstone, and wood 

 ;;inl iron from tin' Haltie. Several large distilleries, 

 breweries, glass and brick works, Bfd arc in the 

 iiciyhUiiirhiMNl of A. Tlu- population of tin- parish 

 ;;. (leiicral Sir Ralph Ahercromhy, ami 

 David Allan, the painter, were natives of Alloa. 



Ai.i t'l'ifM ; land held by a innn in liis own right, 

 \\ iihout any feudal obligation. It is opposed to fee, 

 or fetuium. All landed properly mast be either 

 feudal or allodial. In England, according- to the 

 theory of the Mrilish constitution, all land is held in 

 fee. The word utluitial is, therefore, never applied 

 to landed proper! \ I here. Such OS is really allodial 

 bears the name of fee-timple. The same word is 

 used in the I'niied States of America, though land 

 is not held t here, in fact , by any feudal tenure. In 

 aneient France, the feudal character of landed pro- 

 perty was taken for granted, (nulle terre sans seig- 

 neur,) until the contrary was proved. In Germany, 

 the contrary rule prevails. As the vassal is under 

 many restrictions in respect to the disposal of the 

 feud, and as the principles of inheritance with re- 

 spect to the A. are, in some particulars, different 

 from those which govern the feud, the distinction is 

 of ini[H)rUince. It a feud falls back to the lord, of 

 course the A. is separated from it ; the same takes 

 place when the heir of the A. and that of the feud 

 arc different persons. In Germany, the word 

 allodificiren signifies to make an estate allodial, 

 which is favoured by many governments. In such 

 nllutlijication, a part of the value must be paid as a 

 compensation to the former lord, or a fixed annual 

 tax (canon) is imposed on the estate. The great, 

 and generally successful efforts, which the Prussian 

 government has made for about seventeen years, to 

 absolve the estates of the peasants from all feudal 

 obligations, on the payment of a certain part of 

 their value to the lord, must lie considered as one of 

 the consequences of the enlightened spirit of the 

 age, even in countries not favoured with a repre- 

 sentative government The immense change which 

 took place in France, during the revolution, by the 

 extinction of all feudal tenures, and the endeavours 

 to bring about the same change wherever govern- 

 ments in the French spirit were established, e. g. in 

 the kingdom of Westplialia, are well known. The 

 etymology of the word A. is uncertain ; most pro- 

 bably it is of German origin. 



ALLOWAY, an ancient parish in the district of 

 Kyle, situated on the river Doon, between Maybole 

 and Ayr. It is now united to the parish of Ayr, and 

 its church has fallen into ruins ; nor would it have 

 been considered of sufficient importance to be noticed 

 here, had the place not given birth to Robert Burns, 

 who has rendered it for ever sacred ground, and 

 lighted up " Alloway's auld haunted kirk" with an 

 unfading lustre. 



ALLOY ; a composition, the result of a mutual 

 combination of two or more metals. To alloy 

 grin-rally means to mix a metal of less with one of 

 more value. Various processes are adopted in the 

 formation of alloys, depending upon the nature of 

 the metals. Many are prepared by simply fusing 

 the two metals in a covered crucible. It has been 

 a question whether alloys are to be considered as 

 compounds, or as mere mixtures. Mr Dalton con- 

 siders alloys to be chemical compounds, one striking 

 instance of which is in the alloy of tin and copper, 

 called speculum metal ; the smallest deviations from 

 the true proportions will spoil the alloy as a reflector. 

 In some cases, the metals are found to unite in 

 definite proportions only ; and it is probable that all 

 the alloys contain a definite compound of the two 

 metals. 'The principal characters of the alloys are 

 the following: 1. We observe a change in the 



ductility, malleability, hardness, and colour. Mal- 

 leability and ductility are usually impaired, and 

 often in a remarkable decree; thus gold and had, 

 and gold and tin, form a brittle alloy. The alloy of 

 copper and gold is harder than cither of ils compo- 

 nent parts ; and a minute quantity of arsenic added 

 U) copper renders it white. '1. The specific gravitj 

 of an alloy is rarely the mean of ils component parts; 

 in some cases an increase, in other-, a diminution of 

 density having taken place. \\. The fusibility of an 

 alloy is generally greater than that of its compo- 

 nents. Tims platinum, which is infusible in our 

 common furnaces, forms, when combined with 

 arsenic, a very fusible alloy ; and an alloy of certain 

 proportions of lead, tin, and bismuth is fusible at 

 SJliJ , a temperature several degrees below the 

 melting point of its most fusible constituent. 4. 

 Alloys are generally more oxydizable than their 

 constituents taken singly ; a property which is, 

 perhaps, partly referable to the formation of an 

 electrical combination. From early times, the (wiser 

 metals have been used to alloy gold and silver 

 coins, to prevent loss by wear. In England, the 

 legal proportion of base metal for gold coin is HIM- 

 part in twelve, and for silver coin three parts ,n 

 ibrty. In France, the legal proportions of the dif- 

 ferent coins are as follows : silver coin, nine parts 

 silver, one copper; copper money, four parts cop- 

 per, one silver ; gold coin, nine parts gold, one 

 copper. For silver plate, the French proportions 

 are nine and a half parts silver, one-half copper ; for 

 trinkets, eight parts silver, two copper. For gold 

 plate they nave three different standards ; ninety- 

 two parts gold, eight copper; also, eighty-four 

 gold, sixteen copper, and seventy-five gold, twenty- 

 five copper. Gold and silver are alloyed partly that 

 they may wear better, partly to diminish the price 

 of articles made of them. 



ALLSPICE, or PIMENTA, is the dried berry of a 

 West Indian species of myrtle (myrtiis pimento), 

 which grows to the height of twenty feet and up- 

 wards, and has somewhat oval leaves about four 

 inches long, of a deep shining, green colour, and 

 numerous branches of white flowers, each with four 

 small petals. In the whole vegetable creation there 

 is scarcely any tree more beautiful or more fragrant 

 than a young pimenta-tree about the month of 

 July. Branched on all sides, richly clad with deep- 

 green leaves, which are relieved by an exuberance 

 of white and riclily aromatic flowers, it attracts the 

 notice of all who approach it. Pimenta-trecs grow 

 spontaneously, and in great abundance, in many 

 parts of Jamaica ; but they cannot be propagated 

 without great difficulty. The usual methoa if 

 making a new pimenta walk, or plantation, is. to 

 appropriate for this purpose a piece of woody ground 

 in the neighbourhood of an already existing walk, or 

 in a part of the country where the scattered trees- 

 are found in a native state. The other trees are 

 cut down ; and, in a year or two, young pimenta 

 plants are found to spring up in all parts, supposed 

 to have been produced from berries dropped then- 

 by birds, which eagerly devour them. About the 

 month of September, and not long after the blos- 

 soms have fallen, the berries are in a fit state to b; 

 gathered. At this time, though not quite ripe, they 

 are full grown, and about the size of pepper-corns. 

 They are gathered by the liand ; and one labourer on 

 a tree will strip them off so quickly, as to employ 

 three below in picking them up ; and an industrious 

 picker will fill a bag of seventy pounds' weight in a 

 day. The berries are then spread on a terrace, in 

 the sun, to be dried, but this is an operation which 

 requires great care, from the necessity of keeping 

 them entirely free from moisture. By the drying 



