200 



A1RDRIE ALDKIIYI*. 



-kins of wild animals, \yhile their country is per- 

 toctly fitted for the cultivation of sugar, cotton, 

 tobacco, cocoa, pepper, and all the other staples of 

 tropical countries. Were the people savages, or 

 tribes addicted to war, or were they even the sub- 

 jects of any wide-spread despotism, which, in its 

 caprice, might declare against all intercourse with 

 foreigners, in such cases all these advantages would 

 he thrown away. Hut they are a quiet, inoffensive, 

 and even industrious race, resembling, in many 

 respects, the inhabitants of the plains and river 

 oiintries ot India. The commerce of England 

 may, therefore, derive the very highest advantages 

 tioiii the communications now opened with them. 



The following estimate of the population of the 

 different parts of Africa, is given in the Weimar 

 Almanac for 1837. Considerable latitude must, of 

 course, be allowed in calculations regarding a quar- 

 ter of the world so little known. 



Foreign Potte$sioiu. 



Total Population of Africa 95,284,911 



AIRDR1E; a market-town in the parish of New 

 Monkland, Lanarkshire, eleven miles east from 

 Glasgow, on the highway to Edinburgh. It is said 

 to owe its origin to a mineral well near the place, 

 which formerly was much frequented, but is now 

 neglected. The water is strongly impregnated with 

 iron and sulphur. Airdrie has risen within these 

 not many years from a small village to a thriving 

 town. It is one of the new parliamentary 

 boroughs, having all the privileges of a roya 

 borough, and along with Lanark, Hamilton, Fal- 

 kirk, and Linlithgow, sending a member to parlia- 

 ment. The vicinity abounds in iron-stone and coal 

 which circumstance is the great cause of its pros- 

 perity. The iron-works of Carron, Clyde, Calder 

 Gartsherrie, and Chapel-hall are partly suppliec 

 with iron-stone from this quarter, and vast quanti 

 ties of coal are carried to Glasgow by the Monk 

 land canal and the Garnkirk railway. Coal is also 

 carried by the Ballochnie and Kirkintilloch railway 

 to Kirkintilloch, and thence by the Forth am 

 Clyde canal to Edinburgh. Besides the working 

 of coal and iron, weaving for the manufacturers o 

 Glasgow forms a principal occupation of the in 

 habitants. A neat town-house, containing prison 

 police-office, &c., has been lately built in Airdrie 

 A large cotton-mill, also, has been recently erected ii 

 the neighbourhood. The parish-church is situate) 

 on an eminence about a mile and a half from th 

 town, but the town itself contains two or thre 

 rhapels and meeting-houses. In Airdrie there is 

 circulating library, and also a public reading-room 

 Population in 1*31,6594; in 1841,12,413. 



ALABASTER (n). Under this name are seme- 

 mes confounded two minerals, wholly distinct 

 rom each other, gypseous alabaster, or compact 

 ypsuin, and calcareous alabaster. Gypseous alahns- 

 r is found of a white, or yellowish, or greenish 

 olour, semi-transparent, and capable of receiving a 

 olish. Statuaries distinguish this as alabaster, 

 sometimes its colours are disposed in bands, 

 ml sometimes they are disposed in clouds : the 

 ormer is always preferred. Gypseous alabaster 

 i about twice as heavy as water, its specific 

 ravity being 1-9. In transparency it is superior to 

 Arhite wax, allowing the light to pass through it, 

 nit not the forms of objects. By a slight calcination 

 r baking, it, is converted into plaster of Paris. It 

 s very easily worked, but not susceptible of a very 

 lelicate polish, and is formed by the unison into 

 rases, columns, tables, and other ornamental furni- 

 ure. In a church at Florence, thin slabs of it are 

 used in the windows, instead of glass. Among the 

 wicients, the most esteemed variety came from 

 armania and Upper Egypt. The alabaster used 

 >y modern Florentine statuaries comes from Vol- 

 erra, and other parts of Tuscany. It is seldom 

 >rocured in large masses, the largest statues not ex- 

 :eeding two feet in height. It is easier to cut than 

 Carrara marble, but it is not so durable when ex- 

 )osed to the weather ; the sulphate of lime, which 

 enters into its composition, being more easily dis- 

 solved by the rain than carbonate of lime, which 

 constitutes Carrara marble. At Leghorn there is 

 a large establishment, where statues and architec- 

 tural ornaments of this alabaster are sold ; and from 

 this mart the greater proportion of these produc- 

 tions we see in England are procured. When a 

 candle or lamp is put into a vase of this alabaster, 

 it diffuses a mild and very pleasing light ; and it is 

 conjectured that the ancients lighted their temples 

 in this manner, in order that the softness and weak- 

 ness of the light might harmonize with the general 

 character of the building. 



The Derbyshire alabaster, of which there are 

 splendid inlaid columns in the hall at Keddle-stone, 



of the same kind with the Tuscan, but not so 

 pure. 



Calcareous alabaster, or calcsinter, is a species of 

 stalactite, composed mostly of carbonate of lime, 

 and is found of a variety of colours, pure white, 

 yellowish, greenish, reddish, bluish gray. It is not 

 quite so hard as Carrara marble, yet it receives a 

 good polish. It is considerably heavier than gyp- 

 seous alabaster, its specific gravity being from 2'4 

 to 2-8 times greater than water. Its transparency 

 is about equal to that of white wax, and it burns 

 to lime. Calcareous alabaster is distinguished into 

 the common and oriental, the last division contain- 

 ing the hardest, finest, and best coloured pieces. 



ALBANS, ST. See Saint Albans, in text. 



ALDEHYD, a new substance discovered by 

 Liebig, as a product of the oxidation of alcohol 

 and ether. It is a colourless, limpid and very 

 volatile liquid, of a peculiar suffocating odour. It 

 is prepared in largest quantity by distilling alcohol, 

 manganese, and sulphuric acid. It is uniformly 

 produced where alcohol becomes oxidised, and is 

 largely contained in the nitric ether of the apothe- 

 cary. It derives its chief interest from the fact of 

 its becoming entirely converted into acetic acid or 

 vinegar when exposed to air or oxygen. This pro- 

 cess goes on most rapidly when the aldehyd is put 

 on platinum sponge. It is probable that aldehyd 

 is the intermediate product in the process in the arts 



