ALS 



55 



ALT 



different language*; li;e Hebrew con- 

 tains 22 letters; as al<> the Chaldee, Sa- 

 maritan, Syriac, Persian, ^nd ./Ethi- 

 opic. The Irish, which is the same as the 

 Felasgian or Scythian, has only 17; the 

 Greek alphabet, which was brought by 

 Cadmus into Greece from Phoenicia, and 

 was also Pelasgian in its origin, consisted 

 of 16, to which 8 were afterwards added. 

 The ancient Arabic alphabet consisted of 

 24 letters, but 4 were added, making 28. 

 The Sanscrit (Devanagaree) alphabet con- 

 tains 100 letters. The Coptic consists of 

 32, the Turkish of 33, the Georgian of 36, 

 the Russian of 39, the Spanish of 27. the 

 Italian of 20, the Latin of 22, the French 

 of 22 (strictly 28), and the English of 26. 

 The Chinese have no proper alphabet. 



ALPHo'jisiN,a surgical instrument for 

 extracting balls from gun-shot wounds ; 

 so called from its inventor, Alphonso Fer- 

 rius, a Neapolitan physician. 



ALPHO'NSINE TABLES, the name given to 

 a set of astronomical tables compiled by 

 older of Alphonsus, king of Arragon, in 

 tb*' first year of his reign (A.D. 1252). 



AI/PHUS, from ot.\$os, white. The spe- 

 cies of leprosy called vitiligo, in which 

 the skin is rough, with white spots. 



ALPIA, AL'PIST. The seed of the fox- 

 tail grass ; used for feeding birds. 



ALPIN'IA, a genus of exotic perennials, 

 of 15 species, of the class monandria, and 

 order monogynia. Name, from alpintts, 

 elevated, in reference to their favourite 

 situations. 



Alpine plants are such low plants as 



grow naturally in mountainous situa- 

 tions, where they are covered with 



snow during some part of the year. 



Ar.pijTiA.cEJE, one of the names of the 

 natural order of plants called Zingibe- 

 raceae. 



AL'OCIER, a Portuguese measure of ca- 

 pacity, equal to about two gallons ; called 

 also a cantor. It contains half an almude. 



AI.QUIFOU, ) names of a lead ore found 



ALQCIFORE, j in Cornwall, and used by 

 potters to give a green varnish to their 

 wares ; hence called potters 1 ore. 



ALRU'N*:, small images carved out of the 

 roots of trees, and held in great venera- 

 tion formerly among the northern nations. 

 They had the same rank as the penates of 

 the ancient Italians. 



At, SEONO, a direction in written music 

 to return to a former part, where the cha- 

 racter .g- appears. 



ALSINACEJB, an order of weedy plants, 

 of which the genus Alsini is the type. 



ALSINI, the generic name of the chick- 

 weed, according to Linnaeus ; but the A. 

 media, or common duckweed, is now re- 

 ferred to the genus Stellaria. The name 

 is from AMf, a shady place, and />.v, 

 to love. 



AI.STO'NIA, the generic name of two spe- 

 cies of Indian shrubs, class pentandria, 

 order monoyynia ; the one resembles the 

 tea-plant, the other is poisonous. Named 

 in honour of Professor Alston, who first 

 established the genus. 



ALSTROEME'RIA, a enus of American 

 perennials, of the class heiandria, and 

 order monogynia. There are thirteen 

 species. 



ALT, \ from Lat. nltus, high. A term 



ALTO, ) applied in music to that part of 

 the great scale of sounds which lies be- 

 tween F above the treble cleff and G in 

 altissimo. 



A'LTAR, Lat. alta, ara. See ARA. 1. An 

 elevated place upon which sacrifices were 

 formerly offered to some deity. Altars 

 were originally of turf, latterly of marble, 

 wood, or horn, and those of the Jews of 

 shittim-wood, and covered with gold or 

 brass. Some altars were round, others 

 square, others triangular; but all faced 

 the east, and there is no doubt but that 

 they are as ancient as the practice of 



sacrificing. 2. In modern churches, the 



communion-table, or table for the distri- 

 bution of the eucharist, &c. 



A'LTARAQE the profits arising to priests 

 on account of the altar ; also altars, erected 

 before the reformation, in virtue of dona- 

 tions, within parochial churches, for the 

 purpose of performing mass, &c. for de- 

 ceased friends. 



A'LTARIST, \In old law-books, the 



A'LTAR-THANE, > priest or parson to 

 whom the altarage of a church belonged ; 

 also a chaplain. 



ALTERATIVE, Lat. aUeratus, causing 

 alteration. Substantively, a medicine 

 which establishes the healthy functions 

 of the body, without sensible evacuation 

 by perspiration, purging, or vomiting. 



ALTERS, Lat. alternus, of alter, other. 

 Alternate : reciprocal. In crystallography, 

 exhibiting on an upper and a lower part 

 faces which alternate among themselves, 

 but which, when the two parts are com- 

 pared, correspond with each other. 



ALTERS-BASE, in trigonometry, is a term 

 used in contradistinction to the true-base ; 

 e. g. in oblique triangles, the true-base is 

 either the sum of the sides, and then the 

 difference is the altern-base ; or the true- 

 base is the difference of the sides, and 

 then the sum of the sides is the altern-base. 



ALTERNATE, Lat. alternates, being by 

 turns : one following the other in succes- 

 sion of time or place. 1. In botany, ap- 

 plied to branches and leaves, when they 

 stand singly on each side, in such a 

 manner that between every two on any 

 side, there is but one on the opposite side. 



2. In heraldry, applied to denote the 



situation of the quarters. Thus the first 

 and fourth quarters, and the second and 

 third, are usually of the same nature, and 



