ALBURNUM 



165 



ALCHEMY 



their primitive, picturesque existence. The 

 first village, an old Spanish town founded in 

 1706 and named in honor of the Duke of Al- 

 buquefcjue, viceroy of New Mexico from 1702 

 to 1710, is a neat Mexican village near the 

 northeastern boundary of the newer city. The 

 older place is characterized by prim adobe 

 -es and contains a very old Roman Catholic 

 church, San Felipe de Neri, established in 1658. 



The newer town of Albuquerque was founded 

 in 1880 and became a city in 1892. It has 

 wide streets and many attractive private resi- 

 dences. Among the notable public buildings 

 are the Carnegie Library, the Federal build- 

 ing and a fine high school. Albuquerque is 

 th- seat of the University of New Mexico, 

 which occupies buildings of characteristic Indian 

 .irdiitecture on a fine campus south and east 

 of the city. There is also a large government 

 school for Indians and eight denominational 

 and mission schools. In the handsome Santa 

 Fe depot is the Harvey Indian Museum, which 

 has a very complete collection of baskets and 

 blankets. In the southeastern part of the city 

 are a number of sanitariums for the treatment 

 of tuberculosis, where several thousand pa- 

 tients are cared for annually. 



The city has an important trade in live 

 k, hides and wool, and has extensive lumber 

 and mining interests. One large lumber com- 

 pany, which uses principally the white pine 

 from the Zuni Mountains, operates a saw mill, 

 sash, door and blind factory and a box factory. 

 The mining of lead, zinc, gold and copper ore 

 and coal, truck farming and fruit growing are 

 important industries. The city has a large 

 Indian trading company, foundries and ma- 

 c-lime shops, tie-preserving plant, woolen mill 

 and flour mills. The growth of Albuquerque 

 is largely due to the constant enlargement of 

 the Santa Fe railroad shops, located there. 



ALBUR'NUM, another name for sapwood, 



tin- .-(in \vhit<: substance which is found in trees 



between the inner bark and the wood. In 



course of time the alburnum itself hardens into 



wood, adding rings or layers and increasing the 



i inference of the tree. The age of trees 



may be judged by the number of such rings 



shown when the tree is fell" I. th.- time for 



formation of the rings varying according 



to the fast or slow growing nature of the tree. 



In most cases, however, a ring of hardened 



a 11 mm u m is added every year. In some of 



California's giant sequoias (which see), over 



2,000 rings have been counted, proving thnr 



at a time prior to the birth of Christ. 



ALCESTIS, dices' tis, in Greek mythology, 

 the wife of Admetus, king of Thessaly, and 

 one of the most attractive characters which 

 have been handed down by legend. An oracle 

 had declared that her husband, whom she loved 

 devotedly, was to die unless someone could be 

 found who would meet Death in his place. His 

 aged father and mother were asked to sacrifice 

 themselves for him, but they refused, and 

 Alcestis finally took upon herself the task of 

 saving him. He plead with her not to insist 

 upon her unselfish act, but she was firm, and 

 as Admetus recovered Alcestis died. Hercules, 

 however, having pity upon Admetus, met 

 Death at the tomb, vanquished him and 

 brought Alcestis back to life. The Alcestis of 

 Euripides is one of the greatest ancient dramas 

 which have been preserved. Browning's 

 Balaustioris Adventure is a free translation 

 of it. 



ALCHEMY, al'kemy, a so-called science of 

 the ancients, which arose with the beginning 

 of speculation as to the constitution of mat- 

 ter and the visible universe. Its roots go back 

 to the ideas underlying primitive magic and 

 the earliest philosophies. Its search was for 

 the elements and elemental forces from which 

 the earth, and all upon it, was formed; it in- 

 vestigated the processes of change to which 

 matter could be subjected, by fire, by solution, 

 by evaporation, by condensation. Such in- 

 quiry led to the discovery of what are now 

 familiar chemical and physical reactions. 



Following the clue of human affairs, alchemy 

 assigned value and dignity and virtues and a 

 scale of relation to the several elements; it 

 developed a system of affinities and corre- 

 spondences between the metals, the stars, the 

 functions of the body and the forces that sus- 

 tain life. Each part of the body was related 

 to some one element (metal) and some one 

 planet. The ingredients of medicines, the time 

 of taking them, were alchcmistically related 

 to the part affected. The application to medi- 

 cine led to the study of the curative virtues 

 of things. 



At the height of its career, alchemy was 

 almost encyclopedic in scope. The Arabs spoke 

 of it as the key that unlocked the mysteries 

 of creation; a more elaborate notion appears 

 in 'the philosopher's stone," the discovery of 

 \\lm-li would enable one to penetrate the re- 

 actions of matter, or in such fulfillment of 

 wishes as th<- -vlmr of In".-." the "fountain of 

 youth" or the panacea for all ills. Alchemy 

 aimed to be science and art in one. 



