ALO 
lions a person who was cured of the jaundice 
in four days by taking about half a pint of 
it. The Arabians call it sabbara. The 
negroes, as we are informed by Adanson, in 
his voyage to Senegal, make very good ropes 
of the leaves of the Guinea aloes, which are 
not apt to rot in water. M. Fabroni, as we 
learn from the Annales de Chimie, procured 
from the leaves of the aloe succotrina an- 
gustifolia a violet dye, which resists the 
action of oxygen, acids, and alkalies. This 
juice, he says, produces a superb transparent 
colour, which is highly proper for works in 
miniature, and which, when dissolved in 
water, may serve, either cold or warm, for 
dying silk from the lightest to the darkest 
shade : and he reckons it one of the most 
durable colours known in nature. Aloes 
was used among the ancients, in embalming, 
to preserve bodies from putrefaction.- Of 
this species of aloes, interpreters understand 
that to have been which Nicodemus brought 
to embalm the body of Christ. John xix. 3. 
Aloes, whose resinous part is not soluble in 
water, has been used as a preservative to 
ships’ bottoms against the worms, to which 
those that trade to the East and West 
Indies are particularly subject. One ounce 
of aloes is sufficient for two superficial feet 
of plank; about 12 lb. for a vessel of 50 tons 
burthen, and 300 lb. for a first rate man of 
war. It may be incorporated with six 
pounds of pitch, one of Spanish brown, or 
whiting, and a quart of oil ; or with the same 
proportion of turpentine, Spanish brown, 
and tallow. Such a coat, it lias been said, 
will preserve a ship’s bottom eight months, 
and the expense for a first-rate ship will be 
about 181. The same composition may be 
used in hot countries for preserving rafters, 
&c. from the wood-ant. The efficacy of 
aloes, as a defence against worms, has been 
controverted. 
Aloe, or Aloes, in pharmacy, the in- 
spissated juice of the aloe perfoliata, asiatic 
aloe, prepared in the following manner : 
from the leaves, fresh pulled, is pressed a 
juice, the thinner and purer part of which is 
poured off, and set in the sun to evaporate 
to a hard yellowish substance, which is call- 
ed succotrine aloe, as being chiefly made 
at Succotra. The thicker part, being put 
into another vessel, hardens into a substance 
of a liver-colour, and thence called aloe he- 
patica. The thickest part, or sediment, 
hardens into a coarse substance, called aloe 
tabalim, or the horse-aloe, as being chiefly 
used as a purge for horses. 
Fabroni has discovered that the recent 
ALP 
juice of the leaves of the aloe has the pro- 
perty of absorbing oxygen, of assuming 
a fine reddish purple, and of yielding a 
pigment which he strongly recommends to 
the artist. 
ALOPECURUS, fox-tail-grass, in bo- 
tany, a genus of the Triandria Digynia class 
of plants, and of the natural order of Grasses, 
the calyx of which is a bivalve glume, con- 
taining a single flower : the valves are hol- 
low, of an ovate lanceolated figure, equal 
in size, and compressed ; the corolla is uni- 
valve; the valve is concave, and of the 
length of the cup, and has a very long arista 
inserted into its back near the base. There 
is no pericarpium : the corolla itself re- 
mains, and contains the seed, which is single 
and of a roundish figure. There are 1 2 spe- 
cies. The A. pratensis, meadow foxtail, is 
a native of most parts of Europe, and is 
found with us very common in pastures and 
meadows. It is perennial, and flowers in 
May. This is the best grass to be sown in 
low meadow grounds, or in boggy places 
which have been drained. It is grateful to 
cattle, and possesses the three great requi- 
sities of quantity, quality, and earliness, in 
a degree superior to any other, and is there- 
fore highly deserving of cultivation in lands 
that are proper for it. The seed may be 
easily collected, as it does not quit the r liaffj 
and the spikes are very prolific ; but the 
larvae of a species of muscas, which are 
themselves the prey of the cimex campestris, 
devour the seeds so much, that in many 
spikes scarcely one is found perfect. A. 
agrestis is a very troublesome weed in cul- 
tivated ground, and among wheat it is exe- 
crated by farmers, under the name of black- 
bent ; it is also common by way-sides, as 
well as in corn-fields, and in pastures in the 
Isle of Wight. It has acquired the name 
of mouse-tail grass in English, from the 
great length and slenderness of the spike 
which resembles the tail of a mouse. It is 
annual, and flowers in July, continues flow- 
ering till autumn, and comes into bloom 
very soon after being sown. 
ALPHABET, in matters, of literature 
the natural or accustomed series of the se- 
veral letters of a language. 
As alphabets were not contrived with 
design, or according to the just rules of ana- 
logy and reason, but have been successively 
framed, and altered, as occasion required, 
it is not surprizing that many grievous com- 
plaints have been heard of their deficien- 
cies, and divers attempts made to establish 
new and more adequate ones in their place. 
