z 5 8 ALE 
the foundation for vifceral obftructions. However, they 
are all improper for delicate conftitutions, whofe digeftive 
powers are in a ftate of debility, particularly if they are 
new, or recently brewed. 
If malt-liquor, of any degree of (Irength, is become 
flat and tartifh, as it is ufed, it fhould be drawn out of the 
calk into a jug, in which as many drachms of powdered 
chalk fhould be put as there are pints of liquor; thus a 
new ferment will be raifed, a fprightly take will be re- 
ftored to the liquor, and its acidity will be deftroyed. 
Tart liquors of this kind are apt to produce a dyfury, 
ftranguary, or a gonorrhoea, in which cafes, give the per- 
fon complaining a fmall quantity of brandy. 
Ale being in fome countries cheaper than wines, hath 
occaiioned it to be medicated for the fame purpofes as 
wines fo treated ; and there are two ways of impregnating 
malt-liquors with medicinal fubftances :—firft, by mace¬ 
rating the ingredients in the ale, after it is duly fermented ; 
fecondly, by adding them to the liquor while it is ferment¬ 
ing, that by the power of fermentation the medicinal vir¬ 
tues may more fully be extradfed; nutmeg, for inflance, 
one drachm of it powdered will flavour a large vat of fer¬ 
menting ale, hut, when the fermentation ceafes, it flavours 
but a very fmall quantity. 
The confumption of ale in thefe kingdoms is incredible. 
It was computed thirty years ago at the value of four mil¬ 
lions yearly, including Great Britain and Ireland. The 
duties on ale and beer make a principal branch of the re¬ 
venue. They were firft impofed by the 12th of Car. II. 
and have been continued by feveral fubfequent acts of 
parliament to firft Geo. III. which lays an additional duty 
of 3d. per barrel. In the whole, the brewer of ale and 
beer for fale lhall pay 8s. for every barrel of either, above 
6s; a barrel; and for every barrel of 6s. or under, the fum 
of is. 4d. 
Medicated A j,e, that wherein medicinal herbs have been 
infufed, or added during the fermentation. See Phar¬ 
macy. 
Gill Ale, is that in which the dried leaves of gill or 
ground-ivy have been infufed. It is efteemed abfterfive 
and vulnerary, and confequently good in diforders of. the 
bread and obftrudtions of the vifcera. 
ALEA, /. in Roman antiquity, denotes in general all 
manner of games of chance; but, in a more reftridfted 
lenfe, was ufed for a particular game played with dice and 
tables, not unlike our backgammon. 
ALEANDER (Jerome), cardinal and archbifliop of 
Brindifi, was born in 1480, and diftinguifhed himfelf at 
the beginning of the reformation, by the oppolition he 
made to Luther; for, being fent into Germany as the 
pope’s nuncio in 1519, he acted, as occaiion ferved, both 
in the character of ambaflador and dodtor; and declaim¬ 
ed three hours together againft Luther’s dodfrine before 
the diet of Worms, but could not prevent that celebrated 
reformer from being heard in that diet. He publilhed fe¬ 
veral works, and died at Rome in 1543. 
Aleander (Jerome), a learned man of the feventeenth 
century, born in the principality of Friuli, of the fame 
family with the preceding. When he went to Rome, he 
was employed as fecretary under cardinal Odlavius Ban- 
dini, and dilcharged this office with great honour for al- 
moft twenty years. He afterwards, by the perfuafion of 
Urban VIII. who had a great efteem for him, became fe¬ 
cretary to cardinal Barberini, whom he accompahied to 
Rome when he went there in the charadter of legate a 
latere , and in whofe fervice he died in 1631. He was one 
of the firft members of the academy of Humourifts, wrote 
a learned Treatife in Italian on the Device of the Society, 
and difplayed his genius on many fubjedls. 
ALE-CONNER/i in law, is an officer who is appoint¬ 
ed in the court-leet, fworn to look to the affize and good- 
nefs of ale and beer within the precindts of the leet. There 
arc alfo four ale-conners, chofen by the liverymen of the 
city of London, in common-hall, on Midl'ummer-day, 
ALE 
whofe office it is to infpedt the meafures ufed in public- 
houfes. 
Ale-cost, f. inbotany. See Tanacetum. 
AI.ECTO, one of the Furies, daughter of Acheron 
and Night; or, as others would have it, of Pluto and Pro- 
ferpine. 
ALECTORI A,y! a done faid to be formed in the gall¬ 
bladders of old cocks, to which the ancients aferibed ma¬ 
ny fabulous virtues. This is othervvife called aleBorius la¬ 
pis, fometimes aleElorolithos, in Englilh the cock-Jlone. The 
more modern naturalifts hold the aledtorius lapis to be 
originally fwallowed down, not generated in, the ftomach 
or gizzard of cocks and capons. It is known that many 
of the fowl-kind make a pradfice of fwallowing pebbles,, 
as is fuppofed to be of fervice in the bufinefs of tritura¬ 
tion and digeftion. 
ALECTOROLOPHUS,_/l inbotany. See Bartsia, 
Pedicularis, and Rhinanthus. 
ALECTRA,_/i in botany, a genus of the didynamia an- 
giofpermia clafs. The generic chara6ters are.—Calyx: 
perianthium one-leafed, two lipped; upper lip two-cleft, 
lower three-cleft; clefts ovate, obtufe, fhorter than the 
tube. Corolla: one-petalled, tubular; tube by degrees 
widened a little; border expanding, five-parted; parts 
broad-lanceolate, obtufe. Stamina: filaments four, in- 
ferted into the tube, filiform, bearded, length of the tube; 
two of them are a little ihorter ; antherse twin. Piftil- 
lum: germ ovate; ftyle filiform, length of the filaments; 
ftigma incurved, a little thicker than the ftyle, and of the 
fame length, (Mated on both fides. Pericarpium: cap- 
l’ule ovate, obtufe, twin, fmooth, two-celled, two-valved. 
Seeds: folitary, ovate.— EJJ'cntial CharaBer. Corolla beil- 
fliaped, filament bearded, capfule two-celled. 
The only fpecies of this genus is called aleftra Capenfis, 
or Cape aledtra. The flowers are yellow, ftreaked with 
purple; and it is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, in 
grafl'y places near rivers, flowering in November and De¬ 
cember. 
ALECTRYOMANCY, or Alectoromancy, f 
[aXu-lpi/wv and jxeti Ik, Gr. ] Divination by a cock, of which 
there appears to have been different fpecies. But that molt 
fpoken of by authors was in the following manner:—A 
circle being deferibed on the ground, and divided into 
twenty-four equal portions, in each of thefe fpaces was 
written one of the letters of the alphabet, and on each of 
the letters was laid a grain of wheat; after which, a cock 
being turned loofe in the circle, particular notice was ta¬ 
ken of it he grains picked up by the cock, becaufe the let¬ 
ters under them, being formed into a word, made the an- 
fwer defired. It was thus, according to Zonaras, that Li- 
banius and Jamblicus fought who Ihould fucceed the em¬ 
peror Valens; and, the cock eating the grains anfwering to 
the fpaces ©EOA, feveral whofe names began with thofe 
letters, as Theodotus, Theodiftes, Theodulus, &c. were 
put to death ; which did not hinder, but promote, Theo- 
dofms to the fucceffion. But the ffory, however current, 
is but ill fupporied: it has been called in queftion by fome, 
and refuted by others, from the filence of Marcellinus, 
Socrates, and other hiftorians of that time. 
A-LEE, adv. in the fea-language, a term only ufed 
when the wind, eroding or flanking the line of a (hip’s 
courfe, prefles upon the marts and fails fo as to make her 
incline to one fide, which is called the lee-fide; hence, 
when the helm is moved over to this fide, it is faid to be 
a-lee, or hard a-lee. 
ALEGAMBE (Philip), a celebrated Jefuit, born at 
Bruffels in 1592, diftinguifhed himfelf by publifhing a 
Bibliotheque of the writers of his order, and died at Rome 
in 1652. 
ALEGAR, f. [from ale and eager, four.] Sour ale ; a 
kind of acid made by ale, as vinegar by wine, which has 
loft its fpirit. 
Aleger, adj. [allegre,Fr.a/acris,Lat.'\ Gay; cheer¬ 
ful; fprightly: a word not now ufed.—-Coffee, the root 
and 
