ALD 



ALE 



the Alcoran, that a catalogue of their 

 bare titles would make a volume ; we 

 have a very elegant translation of it into 

 English, by Mr. Sale ; who has added a 

 preliminary discourse, with other occa- 

 sional notes, which the curious may con- 

 sult on this head. 



Among Mahometans this book is held 

 in the greatest reverence and esteem. 

 The Mussulmen dare not touch it without 

 being first washed, or legally purified ; 

 to prevent which, an inscription is put on 

 the cover or label : " Let none touch it 

 but they who are clean." It is read with 

 great care and respect. They swear by 

 it, take omens from it on all weighty oc- 

 casi^ns, carry it with them to war, write 

 sentences of it on their banners, adorn it 

 with gold and precious stones, and do not 

 suffer it to be in the possession of any who 

 hold a different religion. 



ALCYON, in natural history, a name 

 given to the kings-fisher. See AICEDO. 



ALCYONIUM, in natural history, a ge- 

 nus of Zoophytes, the characters of which 

 are, that the animal grows in the form of a 

 plant ; the stem or root is fixed, fleshy, 

 gelatinous, spongy, or coriaceous, with a 

 cellular epidermis, penetrated with stel- 

 lated pores, and shooting out tentaculated 

 oviparous hydrx. There are 28 species. 

 From some experiments made by Mr. 

 Hatchett, and related by him in the Phil. 

 Trans, on several of the species of alcy- 

 onium, he was led to conclude, that they 

 were all composed of a soft, flexible, 

 membranaceous substance, slightly har- 

 dened by carbonate, mixed with a small 

 portion of phosphate of lime. 



ALDFBARAN, in astronomy, a star of 

 the first magnitude, called in English the 

 Bull's eye, as making the eye of the con- 

 stellation Taurus. 



ALDER-^ree, the English name of a ge- 

 nus of trees, called by botanists alnus. 

 See ALNUS. 



ALDERMAN, in the British policy, a 

 magistrate subordinate to the mayor of a 

 city or town corporate. 



The number of these magistrates is 

 not limited, but is more or less, according 

 to the magnitude of the place. In Lon- 

 don there are twenty- six; each having 

 one of the wards of the city committed to 

 his care. Their office is for life ; so that 

 when one of them dies, or resigns, award- 

 mote is called, who return two persons, 

 one of whom the lord mayor and alder- 

 men choose, to supply the vacancy. 



ALDROVANDA. in botany, ager.nsof 

 the PenUimlriu Pentaginia class and or- 

 der, of which there is only one species, 



viz. the A. vesiculosa, found in marsh- 

 es in Italy and India, with bladhers like 

 utricuhiria, but in bunches. 



ALE-co7w?er, an ofticer in London, who 

 inspects the measures of public houses. 

 They are four in number, and chosen by 

 the common-hall of the city. 



ALE-Aowses, no licence to be granted to 

 any person, unless he produce a certifi- 

 cate of bis good character, under the 

 hands of the clergyman, churchwardens, 

 &c. Penalties for" selling without a li- 

 cence, unless at fairs, 40s. for the first 

 offence, 51. for the second ; no person can 

 sell wine to be drank at his own house, 

 who has not an ale licence. 



ALV-silver, a tax paid yearly to the lord 

 mayor of London, by all who sell ale 

 within the city. 



ALECTRA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Didynamia Angjospermia class and order, 

 of which th e ^e i s a single species only. 

 riz. A. cape ns is, a native of the Cape of 

 Good Hope ; found in grassy places near 

 rivers ; flowering in November and De- 

 cember. 



ALEMBERT (JOHN LE ROJTD D') an 

 eminent French mathematician and phi- 

 losopher, and one of the brightest orna- 

 ments of the 18th century. He was per- 

 petual secretary to the French Academy 

 of Sciences, and a member of most of 

 the philosophical academies and societies 

 of Europe 



D'AJembert was born at Paris, the 16th 

 of November, 1717, and derived the 

 name of John !e Rond, from that of the 

 church, near which, after his birth, he 

 was exposed as a foundling. But his fa- 

 ther, Destouches Canon, informed of this 

 circumstance, listening to the voice of 

 nature and duty, took measures for the 

 proper education of his child, and for his 

 future subsistence in a stale of ease and 

 independence. His mother, it is said, 

 was a lady of rank, the celebrated Ma- 

 demoiselle Tencin, sister to cardinal Ten- 

 cin, archbishop of Lyons. 



He received his first education among 

 the J;tnsenists, in the College of the Four 

 Nations, where he gave early signs of ge- 

 nius and capacity. In the first year of his 

 philosophical studies, he composed a 

 Commentary on the Epistle of St. Panl to 

 the Romans. The Jansenists considered 

 this production as an omen, that portend- 

 ed to the party of Port-Royal u restora- 

 tion to some part of their former splen- 

 dour, and hoped to find one day, in 

 D'Alembert. a second Pascal. To reader 

 the resemblance more complete, they en- 

 gaged their pupil in the study of the ma- 



