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•and little, a verse at a time, and in different 
places, during the course of 23 years. “ And 
hence, say they, proceed that disorder and 
confusion visible in the work which, in 
truth, are so great, that all their doctors have 
never -been able to adjust t hem. The alko- 
ran, while Mahomet lived, was only kept 
in loose sheets : his successor Abubeker, first 
collected them into a volume, and committed 
the keeping of it to Haphsa, the widow of 
Mahomet, in order to be consulted as an ori- 
ginal ; and there being much diversity be- 
tween the several copies already dispersed 
throughout the provinces, Othman success- 
or of Abubeker procured a great number 
of copies to be taken from that of Haphsa ; 
at the same time suppressing all the others 
not conformable to the original. 
ALKUSSA, a name given by the Swedes 
to a fish which they also call a lake . It is a 
species of the Silurus. 
ALL in the wind, a phrase which express- 
es the state of the ship’s sails when they are 
parallel to the direction of the wind. 
All hands hoay ! the phrase by which a 
ship’s company are summoned upon deck. 
ALLA MAN DA, a genus of the pentan- 
dria monogynia class and order. The corolla 
is monopetalous and funnel-shaped ; and the 
essential character is : cor. contorted ; caps, 
leus-shap/d, erect, echinate, one-celled, two- 
valved, many-seeded. There is only one spe- 
cies, the A. cathartica. It grows wild in Guiana. 
The leaves are cathartic, whence the-specific 
aiame ; and are used at Surinam in the cholic. 
ALLANTOIS, or Allantoides, in 
comparative anatomy, a vesicle investing the 
foetus of several animals, as cows, sheep, 
goats, &c. and filled with an urinous liquor 
conveyed thither from the urachus. See 
Comparative An atom ax 
ALLAY, the same with alloy. 
ALLEGATA, in Toman antiquitv, a 
kind of subscription used by the emperors, 
importing the writings to be verified. 
ALLEGATION, in law, signifies the pro- 
ducing instruments or deeds, to authorise or 
justify something. 
ALLEGEAS, a stuff manufactured in the 
.East Indies. There are two sorts ; one of 
cotton, and the other of herbs, which is spun 
like flax or hemp. 
ALLEGIANCE, in law, d notes the obe- 
dience which every subject owes to his lawful 
sovereign. 
Allegiance, oath of, in the British po- 
licy, is that taken in acknowledgment of the 
king, as a temporal prince ; as the oath of 
supremacy acknowledges him for the supreme 
head of the church. 
This oath may be tendered to all persons 
above the age of twelve years, whether na- 
tives, denizens, cr aliens, either in the court 
leet of the manor, or in the sheriff's court. It 
is a necessary preliminary to the holding of 
any office of trust under the crown. 
ALLEGORY, in literature, a figure of 
rhetoric ; also a mode of writing, wherein 
something else is signified, than the words in 
their literal meaning express. An allegory 
may. be considered as a series or chain of me- 
taphors, continued through a great part of a 
discourse. For example, when the prophets 
represent the Hebrews under the allegory of 
a vine planted, cultivated, and watered by 
the hand of God, which instead of producing 
good fruit, brings forth verjuice and sour 
grapes. 
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I Allegories have entered into most rcTigi- 
| ons: ttie Hebrew abounds with them, and it 
! is well known that some philosophers of the 
; Gentile world, undertaking to give a rational 
j account of the many horrid absurdit.es which 
I the poets had introduced into their religion, 
1 found it necessary to maintain that these fic- 
| tions contained mysteries, and signified some- 
I thing very different from what they seemed 
I to express. Hence came the word allegory, 
{ or a discourse that in its natural sense, 
I aAAo ayo&svsi, signifies some other thing 
| than what seemsTntended to be meant. See 
Rhetoric. 
ALLEGRO, in music, an Italian word de- 
; noting that the part is to be played in a 
; sprightly, brisk, lively, and gfry manner. 
1 ALLELEN G Y ON, in antiquity, a tax 
paid by the rich for the poor, when absent 
in the army. 
ALL EM AND, a sort of grave solemn mu- 
sic, with, good measure and a slow movement. 
It is also a kind of dance very common in 
Germany and Switzerland. 
ALLERION, or Alerion, in heraldry, 
a sort of eagle without beak or feet, having 
nothing perfect but the wings. 
They differ from martlets in this, that their 
wings are expanded, whereas those of the 
martlet are close; and denote imperialists 
vanquished and disarmed, for which reason 
they are more common in French than in 
German coats of arms. 
ALLEVEURE, the smallest copper coin 
that is. struck in Sweden. It is about SJd. of 
English money. 
ALLEY, in perspective, that which, in 
order to have a greater appearance of length, 
is made wider at the entrance than at the ter- 
mination. 
ALLIANCE, in the civil and canon law, 
the relation contracted between two persons 
or two families by mairiage. 
An alliance is thus contracted between the 
husband and his wife’s relations, between the 
wife and her husband’s relations, but not be- 
tween the relations of the husband and wife. 
Alliance is also used for a treaty entered 
into by sovereign princes and states, for their 
mutual safety and defence. 
1m this sense, alliances may be distinguish- 
ed into such as are offensive, whereby the 
contracting parties oblige themselves jointly 
to attack some other power ; and into de- 
fensive, whereby they bind themselves to 
support and defend each other, in case they 
| are attacked by others. Under this head too 
I may be ranked treaties of subsidy, which are 
1 well known to the English nation. 
ALLIGATI, in antiquity, the basest and 
worst kind of slaves. The Romans had three 
kinds, or orders of slaves ; the first employed 
in the management of their estates ; the se- 
cond in the menial or lower functions of the 
family ; the third called alligati, these were 
kept in chains and dungeofis. 
ALLIGATION, in arithmetic, is the rule 
of mixture, which teaches to compound se- 
veral species of ingredients or commodities to- 
gether, according to any intent or design 
proposed, and is either .medial or alternate. 
See Arithmetic. 
ALLIGATOR, in zoology, the smaller 
kind of crocodiles. See Lacerta. 
ALLIOTIi, a star in the tail of the greater 
bear, much employed for finding the latitude 
at sea. 
The word Is also written alliot or allot, 
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denoting a horse. The Arabs give this name 
to each of the three stars in the tail of the 
Great Bear, on account of their appearing 
like three horses, ranged for the drawing of 
the- waggon, represented by four stars, called 
Charles’s wain. 
ALLITERATION, a figure or decoration 
of language, chiefly used in poetry, and con- 
sisting in the repetition of the same letter or 
letters at certain intervals, whence its name is 
derived ; thus in Lucretius : 
Adverse /labra ./eruntur 
, Alum in e. 
And in Shakspeare, 
//ad my sweet //arry /iad but half their 
numbers, 
1 his day might I, hanging on //otspur’s neck, 
//ave talked. 
ALLION I A, a genus of plants of the 
class and order tetandria monogynia. The 
corolla is one-petalled and funnel-shaped ; 
and the essential character is cal. common, 
oblong, simple, three-flowered ; proper ob- 
solete, superior : corollures iwegiUar : recept. 
naked. There are two species, both natives 
ot South America. 
ALLIUM, Garlick, in botany, a genus 
of plants, ot the hexandria monogynia class 
and order. The corolla is six-petal led, and 
the essential character is cor. six-parted, 
spreading : spathe many-flowered : umbel 
heaped : caps, superior. 
This is a very extensive genus of plants, 
comprehending the A. porrum or leek, the 
A. cepa or onion, with all their varieties 
(among which the A. canadense, or Canada 
tree-onion, which bears excellent eatable 
onions on the top of the stalk, is most 
remarkable) the eschalot or shallot, the 
common garlick, the rocambole (which 
resembles the tree onion in bearing the 
garlick at the top of the stem as well 
as at the root), the Moly’s, and a consider- 
able tribe of flowering ornamental garlicks. 
There are in all 45 species. The A. ursinuqi 
or ransoms, is a most disagreeable weed, on 
which if cows feed, their butter is not eatable. 
'1 he A. .descendens and triquetrum are very or- 
namental ; the’ latter is treated as a greenhouse 
plant. Garlick is used in many preparations 
in medicine and farriery. 
ALLOC ATIONE facienda is a writ 
directed to the lord treasurer, or barons of 
the exchequer, commanding them to allow 
an accountant such sums as he lias lawfully- 
expended in the execution of his office. 
ALLOCATO comitatu, a new writ of 
exigent allowed, before any other county- 
court held, on a former not being complied with. 
ALLODIAL, an epithet given to an inhe- 
ritance held without any* acknowledgment to 
a lord or superior, in opposition to feudal. 
Allodial lands are free lands, for which 
neither fees, rents, nor services, are due. 
ALLODIUM nobile, that which had also 
civil and criminal jurisdiction annexed to it; 
in opposition to allodium villanum, which had 
no such jurisdiction. 
ALLONGE, in fencing, denotes a thrust 
or pass at the adversary. 
ALLOPHYLUS, a genus of the octandrra 
monogynia class and order, and of the natural 
order of guttiferae. The essential charac- 
ter is cal. four-leaved, leaflets orbicutate, two 
smaller ; pet. four less than the calyx ; germ, 
twin; stigma quadrifid. There are 5 spe- 
cies ; all trees but one, which is a shrub. They 
are natives of the East and West Indies. 
