ALLOPATHY 



207 



ALLSPICE 



son, Swinburne and Kipling are among the 

 modern poets who have used alliteration most 

 aptly, Swinburne especially depending on it for 

 many of his beautiful effects. 



ALLOPATHY, al lop' athi, a word originat- 

 ing with Dr. Samuel Hahnemann and applied 

 by him to the old or "regular" school of medi- 

 cine, to distinguish it from his system of 

 homeopathy, introduced about 1800. Allo- 

 pathy is derived from two Greek words meaning 

 other and disease. See HOMEOPATHY. 



ALLOTROPY, a lot' rohpi, in chemistry, is 

 xistence of an element in several forms, 

 \\hidi are physically different, as in hardness, 

 smell, transparency, but are chemically the 

 same. The word is of Greek origin, and is de- 

 rived from allos, meaning other, and tropos, 

 meaning turn, or way. The best example, prob- 

 ably, is carbon, which exists in three pure 

 forms, as charcoal, graphite and diamond. 

 Coal is not pure carbon, ranging from 

 about fifty to eighty-five per cent. Another 

 good example is oxygen, which is ordinarily 

 odorless; but if a silent electrical discharge 

 takes place the oxygen turns to ozone, which 

 has, among other characteristics, a disagree- 

 able odor. A third element which shows 

 marked changes is phosphorus. In its ordinary, 

 pure form, phosphorus is a pale yellow, crystal- 

 line solid, much like wax in its consistency. 

 It burns readily, sometimes spontaneously, has 

 a strong odor, and is very poisonous. When 

 heated for a short time at a temperature of 

 450 F. it turns into an odorless, brownish-red 

 powder which is not poisonous. It exists in 

 several other allotropic varieties, which are 

 discussed in the article PHOSPHORUS. 



ALLOY, allot'. If the wedding rings and 

 brooches which are sold in the stores as "solid 

 gold" were really made of the pure metal they 

 would not wear well and would not long retain 

 their shape, for pure gold is too soft to be 

 serviceable for most purposes. Few metals, 

 indeed, are fit to be used in a pure state, and 

 most of the innumerable metallic objects which 

 are in constant use are composed of mix- 

 tures of various metals. These compounds are 

 called alloys. Such compounds are formed by 

 :iu r together two or more metals, the 

 object being to obtain certain qualities not to 

 be found in any of the metals singly. 



Various changes are produced in the proper- 



<>f metals by combining them with others. 



In K-nrr:il. the resulting mixture, or alloy, is 



made harder, and becomes less capable of being 



hammered into sheets or drawn out into wires. 



The weight of an alloy, strange as that may 

 seem, is sometimes less than the average 

 weights of the metals of which it is composed. 

 Then too, an alloy is always more fusible than 

 the metal most difficult to melt that enters into 

 its makeup, and generally even more so than 

 the most easily melted one. 



It is hard to overestimate the importance of 

 alloys. Steel, bronze, brass, German silver, 

 pewter and solders are all alloys and of each 

 of these there are numerous varieties, formed 

 by different combinations of the metals, each 

 specially adapted to some certain purposes. 

 The gold of which coins are made is 900 parts 

 out of 1,000 pure gold, while the other 100 

 parts are an alloy of silver and copper in the 

 proportion of 1 to 3. Silver for coins is 900 

 parts pure, the alloy in this case being copper. 

 When gold is used in jewelery it is measured 

 in carats (which see), 24 carat being pure gold. 

 Thus 20-carat gold is an alloy of twenty parts 

 gold to four parts of some other metal or 

 metals, usually silver and copper. Although 

 articles made of 10-carat gold will hold their 

 color and not discolor, comparatively little 

 jewelry is now made of less than 14-carat gold. 



ALL-SAINTS' DAY, a Christian festival 

 first celebrated by Pope Boniface IV in 835, 

 when the Roman Pantheon was dedicated as a 

 Christian temple. It is observed on Novem- 

 ber 1 and is designed to commemorate all the 

 saints, thus honoring those not more signally 

 remembered by days named solely for them. 



ALL-SOULS' DAY, a Roman Catholic festi- 

 val set apart for the relief of the souls in 

 purgatory by means of prayers and the celebra- 

 tion of the mass. It was founded in the 

 eleventh century and is observed on Novem- 

 ber 2. In certain Catholic countries, lighted* 

 candles are placed on the graves of the faithful 

 and kept burning throughout the day. 



ALLSPICE, awl' spice, a useful spice which 

 receives its name from the fact that its flavor 

 suggests those of cinnamon, nutmegs and 

 cloves, mixed together. Allspice is the dried 

 berry of a tree of the West Indies, belonging 

 to the myrtle group, and known as the 

 pimento. The fruit is also called Jamaica, /> />- 

 l r because the tree flourishes abundantly on 

 tin island of Jamaica. Allspice is employed 

 I u -fly as a spice for seasoning food. The oil 

 <>f the berries is sometimes used in medicine 

 and in perfuming soaps. The toilet article, bay 

 rum, obtains its characteristic odor from the 

 oil of the berries of an allied species, known as 

 the bay berry tree. 



