IL'S 



ALPUX ARAS -ALTAR. 



ALPIJXARAS, los (:uic!ent tnontcs Sotis) a range 

 of mountains in liranada. nlMiiit fitly-one milt- in 

 len^ili. trinn I'., to \V., and thirty-three in breadth, 

 from N. In S. They am be seen from Gibraltar, 

 iiiul even from the coast of Africa. Hen* the de- 

 ,'thc .Moor-. Mori-coo (no\v Christian-), 

 Ji\e. ami cultivate tlie laiul extremely well. No part 

 of Sjiain is -it well peopled. 



AI.SACK ((lerm., Kimiss ; French, sllsui-i) ; be- 

 fore the French revolution, a province of France, on 

 the Rhine, now constituting the departments of the 

 l..i\\, r and the Upper Rhine (the former of which 

 contains 17(iO square miles, with 370,6(50 inhabit- 

 ant- : the latter, 21-10 square miles, with 504,600 

 inhabitants) ; a fertile country, formerly divided into 

 Lower and I'pper Alsace. In ancient times, it was 

 a (Jeriuan duchy, but, in 1268, the line of its dukes 

 becoming extinct, it was parceled out to several 

 members of the German empire. By the peace of 

 .Minister, in 1648, the part of A. belonging to 

 Au-tria, and to ten free cities of the empire, was 

 rt drd to France. The possessions of the oilier 

 (icrman states in A. still preserved their connexion 

 with the German empire. By the peace of Ryswick, 

 in 1697, the city of Strasburg, and all the territory 

 occupied by the French troops on the left bank of 

 the Rhine, were ceded to r ranee. Several states 

 of the empire liad still important possessions in it, 

 which, at the beginning of the revolution, the first 

 national assembly declared to be a conquest pointed 

 out by nature itself; because, they said, foreign 

 powers could not be allowed to retain possessions 

 within the territory of France without danger ; 

 com]>ensation was promised for the losses sustained 

 by the German owners ; few of them, however, 

 were willing to accept it, and this afiair was one of 

 the chief causes of the war which took place soon 

 after between France and Germany. By the peace 

 of Paris, Nov. 20, 1815, a part of A., viz. Landau, 

 was again separated from France, and reunited with 

 Germany. (See Resume de I'Histoire d' Alsace, 

 par M. V., Paris, 1825 ; and Nouv. Descript. 

 Histor. et Typogr. des deux Depart, du Rhin, par 

 J. F. Aufschlager, 1 number, Strasburg, 1825.) 

 The inhabitants of A. continue to speak German. 

 Strasburg is the chief city. The two departments 

 produce wine, copper, iron, hemp, flax, tobacco, 

 madder, &c. Several of the most distinguished 

 liberals in the French chamber have lately been 

 sent from these departments, and, on the whole, 

 they were much attached to the French emperor. 



AL SEGNO (Italian ; to the mark or sign). This 

 expression is usually accompanied with this character, 

 S. and signifies that the performer is to return to a 

 similar mark in the composition, and end with the 

 first part of the strain. 



AL-SIRAT; the bridge, of breadth Jess than the 

 thread of a famished spider, over which the Mussul- 

 mans must skate into paradise, to which it is the 

 only entrance. But this is not the worst ; the river 

 beneath l>eing hell itself, into which, as may be ex- 

 pected, the unskilful and tender of foot contrive to 

 tumble, with a facilis descensus Averni, not very 

 pleasing in prospect to the next passenger. There 

 is a shorter cut downwards, for the Jews and 

 Christians. Lord Byron. 



ALSOP, Richard, a man of letters, born in Middle- 

 town, Connecticut, published a number of fugitive 

 pieces in verse and prose, which had considerable 

 success, besides several translations from the Italian 

 and French. The principal one is the Natural and 

 Civil History of Chili, from the Italian of the abb. 

 Molina, in 2 vols , 8vo, reprinted in London. In 

 1815, he prepared the Narrative of the Captivity 

 end Adventures of J. R. Jewett among the Savages 



of Nootka Sound, lie died Aug. 20, 1815, in th 

 i>',(\\ year of hi- a-'-. 



AISTON, Charlc-, a Sco!ti-h physician and liola- 

 nist, was born in Lanark-hire in KiSS, commenced 

 hi- -Indies at the imivcr-ity of (ilasgow, and, under 

 the patronage of the thicl.es- of Hamilton, attached 

 liiin-elf to medicine, in the prosecution of which, in 

 his 3:fel year, lie accompanied the first l)r Alonro to 

 Leyilen, where lie continued three years, under the 

 instruction of the celebrated Boerhaave. On hi* 

 return to hi- native country, in conjunct ion with 1'rs 

 Mourn, Rutherford, Sinclair, and Hummer, he 

 projected the n:\i\al of medical lectures in Kdin- 

 htirgh, and laid the foundation of that hi^h charac- 

 ter, which Edinburgh, as a medical school, 1;; 

 long enjoyed. l>r A.'s department w;.- botany and 

 the niateria medica, which he continued to i 

 until his death, in- 1760. His principal liolanical 

 work is entitled " Tirocinium Botanicum Kdinbur- 

 gense," 1753. In one of his papers in the Edinburgh 

 I'hy-ical and Literary Essays, he endeavour. 

 combat the Linnaxm doctrine of the sexual q 

 of plants. His Lectures on the Materia Medica 

 were published in 2 vols. 4to, ten years after his 

 death. 



ALSTONE, or ALDSTONE-MOOR, a parish and 

 market-town in the county of Cumberland and the 

 borders of Northumberland, containing a population 

 of 5700, who are chiefly employed in the lead mines 

 in the vicinity, which have been long celebrated for 

 the abundance of that metal. 



ALSTROEMER, Jonas, the reviver of industry and 

 commerce in Sweden, was born of poor parents, in 

 the province of West Gothland, in 1685. After 

 visiting London, where he paid particular attention 

 to the commercial and manufacturing sources of 

 British prosperity, he obtained a license, in 1723, to 

 establish manufactures in his native town, and it 

 soon became the seat of industry and activity, which 

 afforded an example to the whole kingdom. In 

 order to collect further information, he visited Ger- 

 many, Holland, and Flanders. He also established 

 a sugar-house at Gottenburg, and traded to the 

 Indies and the Levant. He improved rural econo- 

 my, the breed of sheep, &c., cultivated plants proper 

 for dyeing, and extended the culture of the potatoe, 

 then a novelty in Sweden. His country was not 

 backward in acknowledging his services. He re- 

 ceived various honours, among which was a patent 

 of nobility. He died in 1761, leaving a name aud 

 character honourable for patriotism, activity, and 

 talent. 



ALT; a term applied to that part of the great 

 scale of bounds which lies between F above the tre- 

 ble-cliff note, and G in altissimo. 



ALTAI or ALTAIC MOUNTAINS ; a vast chain of 

 mountains in Asia, extending from Ion. 68 to 17" 

 E., terminating at East Cape, and forming, for a 

 great distance, the southern boundary of Siberia. 

 Their length is about 5000 miles. They assume 

 different names, and are supposed to be connected 

 with the Uralian chain. A large part of the A. 

 chain is sometimes called the Koihyvan iiituniluiiix. 

 because situated in the government of that name. 

 The highest summits are computed at 10,730 feet 

 above the sea. 



ALTAR ; an elevated place intended for sacrifice. 

 At first, altars were made of earth or ashes, but 

 afterwards, when men began to build temples, they 

 were made of stone or metal, and much adorned. 

 They stood in the eastern part of the edifice, before 

 the statue of the god, but lower. Very different 

 from these are the altars in Cliristian churches. In 

 these, the altar is not a place of sacrifice, but was, at 

 first, a table at which the love-feast ((igapr) wrs held. 



