A L K 



ALTSO, Almt, ill /InnenI Geography, a froall river of 

 Gennany, raentioiKfi by l>ioM C;i(iUis. This was alfo tlie 

 name of a caftle built by Diiifus in Germany for the con- 

 finement of the Sicambri. 



ALISONTIA, Ai-SET?,, a river of Germany, which 

 pafTin.g by Luxembourg-, difeharges iif.If into the Molelle. 



ALISTA, a town phiceJ by Ptolemy, in the fouthem 

 part of the ifland of Corfica. 



ALISTRES, a fort of Epirus, rebuilt by Jiiftinian. 



ALISUS, a town placed by Ptolemy in the norllicrn part 

 of Germany. 



ALITAMBI, a people of Africa, placed by Ptolemy 

 between Libya and mount Thala. 



ALITES, formed from ahi, a tv'mx, in Anttqu'ily, a name 

 given to thole birds which aftorded auguries by their wings 

 and flight. In this Icnfe alites Hand oppofed to oscines, 

 or birds, which gave auguries by their mouths, by tinging, 

 or croaking, &c. To the clafs of alites belong the buz- 

 zard, ofprey, &c. To that of oscines, the crane, raven, 

 owl, &e. 



ALITROPES, in Ancient G<vgr,iphy, a town placed by 

 Scylax in a part of Greece, nfligned by him to the Acheans, 

 which was the dillricl of Phthiotis, ufually domprifed in 

 Thelfaly. 



ALJUBARROTA, in Geography. See Alcibar- 



ROTA. 



ALJUCEN, a fmall river of Spain, which runs into the 

 Guadiana, not far from Montachet in Leon. 



ALJUSTREL, a town of Portugal, in Alentejo, i6 

 miles W. S. \A'. of Beja, containing one parilli, and about 

 1500 inhabitants. 



ALIXEN, a town of France, in the department of the 

 Ardeche, two leagues E. N. E. of Valence. 



ALKADARII, formed from the Arabic, alLailar, 

 ■which fignifies daree, a feft among the Mahometans, who 

 deny any eternal, fixed, divine decrees ; and are affertors of 

 free 'will. The Alhadarn are a branch of Moatazalites. 

 They (land oppofite to the Algiabarii. 



ALKjENDA, in Botany, fee Myrtus. 



ALKAHEST, or Alcahest, in Chemijlry. This 

 ■word, fo famous in the lail ages of alchemy, occurs, for 

 the firft time in the treatife of Paracelfus, De Vh'ihus 

 Mcmbrorum, where it is mentioned as a fovcreign remedy 

 againft dropfy and all difeafes of the liver. Notwithftanding 

 that its particular ufe is here expi-eislv ftated, without any 

 lunt of its other qualities, or tlie method of preparation; 

 ■notwithllanding alio that the term is not to be met with in 

 Tiny other of his writings, yet Van Helmont, giving his mailer 

 ■credit for the knowledge of more myfterics than ever lie him- 

 felf has pretended to ; has raifed the alkahell from a mere me- 

 dicine in the diiorders of a particular organ to the lofty cha- 

 niifter of an univeri'al folvent, and the moil a£live of all the 

 alchemical menllrua. 4 



The origin of the word is varioufly derived horn faltz-gr'i/}, 

 fpirit ot fait ; a!-ge}Jl, all fpirit, /'. e. a perfedtly pure ipirit ; 

 or alk-eft, i. e. alkali eit, according to a cuftom common with 

 Paracellus and other •alchcmiils, of concealing the name 

 of a fubilance by abbreviation or tranfpofition, of which a 

 fimilar example occurs in the fame author of tlie word aroph, 

 for aroma-philofophorum. 



The properties of the alkahcft, according to Van Hel- 

 mont, are the following. It is a fluid of perfeft fimplicity 

 and purity, is never found native, but alwavs prepared by art; 

 K capal)le of difliiilving all fubftances into a liquor, which 

 , rifts wholly in dilUllation, leaving no ficces behind ; at the 

 fame time that the alkahell itfclf fpontaneoufly feparates 

 from the body on which it has produced fuch a remarkable 

 diange. The fubllances thus aftcd upon retain, however, 



Vol. L 



A L K 



their cfTcntial properties, but by further digcftion with thr 

 alkahell, are all rtfolved to the fame indolent,' fcentlefs, inhpid 

 elementary water. A menftruumof fuch fiirprifing powerswa* 

 immediatelv fuppofed to be of the utmoft confeq\icnce in the 

 higiicr alchemical procefles ; and tlie folenin afleveration of 

 Hehnont, that he was really in polTeflion of fuch an agent, 

 gained eafy credit even among many from wJiom a fober fcepti- 

 cifm of fuch myrterious and unheard of qualities might have 

 been expefted. As Helmont nevcrdivulged the fecret metlnvl 

 of preparing the alkahell, moll of the fucceeding alcht mills of 

 any eminence had each their particular theory on the fub- 

 jccl ; Becker imagined it to be contained in fea lalt ; and 

 Glauber, in his very ingenious tradl, " De Mercurio Philo- 

 fophorum," endeavours to prove it to be nitre ; and indeed 

 by taking the liberty, as this author does, of applying the 

 nitre in folution or fufion, or feparated into its acid and al- 

 kaline elements, there are few fubflances that are not capable 

 of being thus brought into a fluid Hate. 



In modern chemlllry nothing is acknowledged as true till 

 it has Hood the tcft of repeated and accurate experiment ; 

 and we now hear no more of the alkahell than of the elixir 

 of metals, and the univerfal medicine. Boerhaave'a Chemif- 

 try. Glauberi Opera, vol. i. 



Alkahest is alio ufed in amorc cxtenfive fenfe, fo as to 

 comprehend all fixed falts volatilized, and reduced into a 

 qiilntefcence. 



ALKAHESTIC is ufed by fome to denote the quality 

 of bodies which are powerfully lolvent. 



In which fenfe, alkahcftic amounts to much the fame witU 

 the menllrnous ; except that the fomier imports a greater 

 degree of the folutive power than the latter. See Men« 



STRUUM. 



AI^KAISAR, in Geography, a fortrefs of Afia, in the 

 Arabian Irak, 106 miles well of Bagdad. 



ALKALESCEN'l', denotes a fubftance flightly aU 

 kaline, or in which an alkali is beginning to be formed 

 and to predominate. As the volatile alkali, or ammo- 

 nia, is the only one which is ufually obferved to be pro- 

 duced by fpontaneous change, the term alkalefcent gene- 

 rally refers to the generation of this alkali, in certain vege- 

 table and animal fubftances by the procefs of putrtfa3ion or 

 any fimilar ciccompofition. Some ipccics of vegetables, efpe- 

 cially the tetradynamious plants, have received the name 

 of alkalefcent, becaufe, when placed in circumilanccs favour, 

 able to fermentation, they have a peculiar tendency to fomi 

 ammonia, which maybe feparated in a very fenfible quantity, 

 by the pracefs of diftillation. 



ALKALI is the generic term for an order of falts of 

 the highcll importance, and the moH familiar ufc in che« 

 miftrv. 



Aikali is a word of Arabian origin, and it was employed 

 by the Arabian ciiemifts and phyficians, to cxprefs the fait 

 which was procured from the afhes left'after the combuition 

 of feveral vegetables, particukrly the fait kali of the defart, 

 and feveral plants growing on the lea Ihore. The fame fait 

 is alfo found native in immcnfe quantities, mixed with fea 

 fait, in the waters and on the fliores ot leveral lakes of Low- 

 er Egypt, and has been known, from time immemorial, by 

 the name of nalror., or tlie nilre of tiie ancients. The Greeks 

 and Romans were equally familiar with the al.kallne fait con- 

 tained in vegetable alhes, which was termed hxiviary allies 

 (Hxiviiis citus, Plin.), whence the name of alkaline ley, lixiz<ium, 

 or Hxiviary fall, which is Hill retained. The ufe of the 

 word alkali was at firll confined lo the fait which was yielded 

 by the /fv«/ or inconibullilile allies of vegetables ; but the 

 •volatile fait, which rifes in dillillation of vegetable, and cfpe. 

 cially of animal matter, having been found to poffcfs fimilar 

 chemical properties v.ith the fixed lixiviary fait, in the mod ef- 

 4 T fcnlial 



