684 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



age, for the promotion of scientific farming. In 

 I'st'iJ. the United States Congress passed a so- 

 called land grant act. l>y which land scrip, repre- 

 senting 30,000 acres for every Senator and Rep- 

 resentative, was issued to the States and Terri- 

 tories, the object being to provide a special fund 

 for the creation of State and Territorial agri- 

 cultural colleges. The land granted to the 

 States by the act of 1862 amounted to somewhat 

 more than 10,000,000 acres, which l>y HUH) had 

 produced a permanent fund of SI 0.202. 944. with 

 lands still unsold of the estimated value of 

 si. <>(>_>. x,">(), the entire proceeds being in round 

 numbers somewhat 'over 81 1.250,000. To this 

 have been added other land-grant funds amount- 

 ing to SI. 1 \ l..~>77: other permanent funds, $14,- 

 442,194: farms and grounds, So, 543, 108; build- 

 ings, $10.274.000: apparatus, $1,955,859; ma- 

 chinery, $1,373,696; libraries, SI.S51.942; and 

 miscellaneous equipment, S 1, 997, 690, making a 

 grand total of permanent plant of the value of 

 $58,944,137. On this basis sixty-five of these 

 institutions have been established. 



Three of the land-grant colleges in Southern 

 States (Mississippi, North Carolina, and South 

 Carolina) have recently established courses of 

 study in textile industry, with special reference 

 to the manufacture of cotton goods. These in- 

 stitutions have provided buildings of regular 

 cotton-mill design, equipped with machinery and 

 apparatus for textile work. 



The Act of 1862 was supplemented by a 

 second (August 30, 1890), so that under both 

 acts, each State and Territory having an 

 agricultural college receives an appropriation 

 annually from the United States treasury for its 

 support. The past few years have witnessed 

 the establishment of short courses of study in 

 agriculture, dairying, mechanic arts, household 

 economy, etc., for persons who cannot take a 

 regular course. 



Albumen or Albumin (L., from albibs, 

 white). A substance, or rather group of sub- 

 stances, so named from the Latin for the white 

 of an egg, which is one of its most abundant 

 known forms. It may be taken as the type of 

 the protein compounds or the nitrogenous class 

 of food stuffs. One variety enters largely into 

 the composition of the animal fluids and solids, 

 is coagulable by heat at and above 160, and is 

 composed of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and 

 oxygen, with a little sulphur. It abounds in 

 the serum of the blood, the vitreous and crystal- 

 line humors of the eye, the fluid of dropsy, the 

 substance called coagulable lymph, in nutritive 

 matters, the juice of flesh, etc. The blood con- 

 tains about seven per cent, of albumen. Another 

 variety called vegetable albumen exists in most 

 vegetable juices and many seeds, and has nearly 

 the same composition and properties as egg al- 

 bumen. When albumen coagulates in any 

 fluid it readily encloses any substances that may 

 be suspended in the fluid. Hence it is used to 

 clarify ^yrupy liquors. In cookery white of 

 eggs is employed for clarifying, but in large 

 operations like sugar-refining the serum of blood 

 is used. From its being coagulable by various 

 salts, and especially by corrosive sublimate, 

 with which it forms an insoluble compound, 

 white of egg is a convenient antidote in cases 



of poisoning by that substance. With lime it 

 forms a cement to mend broken ware. 



In botany the name albumen is given to the 

 farinaceous matter which surrounds the embryo, 

 the term in this case having no reference 'to 

 chemical composition. It constitutes' the meat 

 of the cocoanut, the flour or meal of cereals, 

 the roasted part of coffee, etc. 



Alchemy (from the Arabic article al and 

 kimia, secret, hidden), a false science, founded 

 on no true scientific principles, which existed in 

 some form or other from the earliest ages, but 

 which, in Europe at least, was made the subject 

 of considerable study and research during the 

 period extending from the Twelfth to the Seven- 

 teenth Century. Although it was unproductive. 

 in itself, we are yet indebted to it, if not as the 

 parent of modern chemistry, at any rale as tin- 

 science out of which chemistry has been largely 



j developed. The enthusiasts who devoted them- 

 selves to this subject were styled Alchemists, 

 and the task which they set themselves to per- 

 form was threefold, viz: (1) to discover the 

 philosopher's stone, a mineral that would, by 

 mere contact, transmute the baser metals into 

 gold; (2) to prepare the elixir of life, a substance 



j which w r ould prolong life indefinitely; and (3) 

 to discover the alcahest, or universal solvent. 

 These three substances, and more especially 

 the first, they firmly believed to be obtainable, 



.and to need only a fortunate combination of 

 materials for the production of each of them; 

 and, accordingly, fortunes were expended, and 

 lives wasted, in these futile endeavors. The 



' history of Alchemy is somewhat obscure and 

 unconnected, owing to the secrecy with which 

 its operations were carried on ; but among the 

 most prominent characters connected with it 

 may be mentioned the celebrated English monk, 

 Roger Bacon, to whom the invention of gun- 

 powder is popularly attributed, and who wrote 

 a work entitled " The Mirror of Alchymy." 



Alcohol. By this name, when standing 

 alone, is usually understood a highly rectifie i 

 spirit, the product of vinous fermentation. It 

 is extremely light and inflammable, is colorless 

 and transparent, appearing to the eye as pure 

 water, and boils at 173.1. To the palate it is 

 exceedingly hot and burning, but without any 



j particular taste. In the diluted state, Alcohol 

 is sometimes called Spirits of Wine. It is diffi- 

 cult to render anhydrous; distillation alone 

 will not produce an alcohol containing less than 

 nine per cent, of water, and this remaining quan- 

 tity must be removed by adding something 

 which unites with the water chemically, such as 



! quick lime. It has never been frozen. 



Alexandrian Library, the largest col- 

 lection of books of the ancient world, founded 

 by Ptolemy Soter in the city of Alexandria 

 towards the beginning of the Third Century H. C. 

 At one time it is said to have contained 700. 000 

 manuscripts, embracing the collected literature 

 of Home, Greece, India, and Egypt. It was 

 partly destroyed by fire by a mob of fanatic 



; Christians in A. D. 391, and was finally dispersed 

 or destroyed during the siege of Alexandria by 



I the Arabs under Amru (A. D. 638). 



Alimentary Canal. Another name for 

 the digestive tract of an animal. It includes the 



