ALT 
fame wood with the altar, to which the facrifices were 
tied. Within the hollow was a grate of brafs, on which 
the fire was made; through it fell the allies, and were re¬ 
ceived in a pan below. At the four corners of the grate 
were four rings and four chains, which kept it up at the 
horns. This altar was placed in the open air, that the 
fmoke of the burnt-offerings might not f ully the infide of 
the tabernacle. The altar, or table, for the Ihew-bread, 
waslikewife of fliittim-wood, covered with plates of gold, 
having a little border round it, adorned with fculpture. 
It was two cubits long, one wide, and one and a half in 
height. Upon this table, which flood in the holy of holies, 
were put, every Sabbatli day, twelve loaves, witlt fait and 
incetife. The Jewifli altars, after their return from the 
captivity, and the building of the fecond temple, were in 
feme refpedts different from thole deferibed above. That 
of burnt-offering was a large pile, built of unhewn done, 
thirty-two cubits fquare at the bottom, and twenty-four 
fquare at the top. The afeent was by a gentle rifing, 
thirty-two cubits in length, and fixteen in breadth. 
In the primitive Chriftian church, the altars were only 
of wood; as being frequently to be removed from place 
to place. But the council of Paris, in 509, decreed that 
no altar fhould be built but of done. At fil'd there was 
but one altar in each church ; but the number foon in- 
creafed; and, from the writings of Gregory the Great, 
who lived in the fixth century, we learn, that there were 
jfbmetimes in the fame church twelve or thirteen. In the 
cathedral of Magdeburg, there are forty-nine altars. 
The altar is fometimes fudained on a (ingle column, as 
in the fubterraneous chapels of St. Cecilia, at Rome, &c. 
and fometimes by four columns, as tire altar of St. Sebaf- 
tian of Crypta Arenaria; but the cudomary form is, to 
be of a maffive done-work, fudaining the altar-table. 
Thefe altars bear a refemblance to tombs : to this purpofe, 
we read in church-hidory, that the primitive Chridians 
chiefly held their meeting at the tombs of the martyrs, 
and celebrated the myderies of religion upon them ; for 
which reafon, it is a banding rule to this day in the church 
of Rome, never to build an altar, without inclodng the 
relics of fome faint in it. 
Altar-cloth, f. The cloth thrown over the altar in 
churches. 
Altar-thane, or Alta rist,/. in old law books, an 
appellation given to the pried or parfon of a parifli, to 
whom the altarage belonged. 
AL'TARAGE,yi [altaragium, Lat.] In law, compre¬ 
hends not only the offerings made upon the altar, but alfo 
-all the profit which accrues to the pried by reafon of the 
altar, obventio altar is. Out of thefe, the religious adigned 
a portion to the vicar; and fometimes the whole altarage 
was given to him by the endowment. In fome places, the 
word altarage hath been adjudged to extend to fmall tithes 
of divers kinds; but this can only be, where there is a 
fpecial cudom to fupport it. Eunb. 79. 
ALTA'YEFF, a town of Hejaz, a didrift of Arabia 
Felix. It is dtuated about 60 miles ead of Mecca, behind 
mount Gazwan, where the cold is more intenfe than in 
any other part of the didrift, but the air is very whole- 
fomc. Its territory abounds in fountains, and produces 
-excellent raifins. The town is lurrounded with a wall, 
but is not very large. 
ALT'DORF, a large handfome town in Swiderland, 
and the chief of the canton of Uri. It is dtuated below 
the lake of the four cantons, in a plain, at the foot of a 
mountain, whofe paffhges are difficult, and ferve indead 
of fortifications. It has four churches and two convents; 
■£t. Martin’s church and that of the Holy Crofs are the 
fined. The town-houfe and the arfenal are alfo worth 
feeing- Lat. 46.50. N. Ion. 8.30. E. 
ALTE'A, a fea-port town of Valencia, in Spain. It 
is feated on the Mediterranean, forty-two miles fouth-ead 
ef Valencia, and 212 fouth-by-ead of Madrid. Lat. 38. 
34.N. Ion.o.15.E. 
ALTE'NA, a fea-port of Germany, in the duchy of 
ALT 575 
Holbein in Lower Saxony. It is a modern town, built by 
the king of Denmark, and was burnt by the Swedes in 
1712; but has bnce been beautifully re-built. It is com~ 
modioufly dtuated on the Elbe, in the neighbourhood of 
Hamburgh; and being a free port, and the daple of the 
Daniffi Ead-India company, it enjoys a very lucrative 
trade, and an extenfive commerce. Lat. 53. 51. N. Ion. 
10. o. E. 
AL'TENBERG, an ancient town of Germany,, dtuated 
on the river Pleifs, with a good cable placed on a rock, in' 
Mifnia, in the circle of Upper Saxony. It was formerly 
an Imperial city, but at prefent belongs to the houfe of 
Saxony. Here is a college which has always been in a 
fioundiing condition. In 1705, there was a nunnery found¬ 
ed for women of a high rank, who are Protedants. Lat. 
50. 59. N. Ion. 15.8. E. 
AL'TENBURG, a fmall fortified town of Hungary, in 
the territory of Mofon, near the Danube, about fifty-five 
miles from Vienna. Lat. 48. 15. N. Ion. 35. 30. E. 
Altenburg, oi'Owar, a fmall but drong town of 
Hungary, feated in a marffi, near the Danube, and fur- 
rounded with deep ditches. It is fifteen miles fouth of 
Prefburgh, forty fouth-ead of Vienna, and (ixty-five fouth- 
wed of Buda. Lat. 44.0. N. Ion.17.56. E. 
To AL'TER, v. a. [alterer, Fr. from alter, another, Lat.} 
To change; to make otherwife than it is. To alter, feems 
more properly to imply a change made only in fome part 
of a thing ; as, To alter a writing, may be, to blot or in¬ 
terpolate it; to change it, may be, to fubditute another in 
its place. With from and to ; as, Her face is altered from 
pale to red.—Afts appropriated to the worflvip of God, by 
his own appointment, mud continue fo, till himfelf hath 
otherwife declared: for who dares alter what God hath 
appointed? Stillingjlect. —To take off from a perfualion, 
practice, or left.—For the way of writing plays in verfe, 
1 find it troublefome and (low; but I am no way altered 
from my opinion of it, at lead with any realons which 
have oppofed it. Dryden. 
To Alter, v. n. To become otherwife than it was; as, 
The weather alters from bright to cloudy. 
AL'TER ABLE, adj. [alterable , Fr.] That which may¬ 
be altered or changed by fomething elfe; didimd from 
changeable, or that which changes, or may change itfelf. 
•—Our condition in this world is mutable and uncertain, 
alterable by a t’noufand accidents, which we can neither 
forefee nor prevent. Rogers. 
AL'TERABLENESS, f. The quality of being altera¬ 
ble, or admitting change from external caufes. 
AL'TERABLY, adv. In fiich a manner as may be al¬ 
tered. 
AL'TERAGE,yi [from a/o.'} The breeding,-nouriffi- 
ing, or fobering, of a child.—In Ireland they put their 
children to foderers: the rich fell, the meaner fort buy¬ 
ing, the alterage of their children; and tire reafon is, be- 
caufe, in tire opinion of the people, fobering lias always 
been a bronger alliance than blood. Sir John Davies. 
AL'TER ANT, adj. [alterant, Fr.] That which has the 
power of producing changes in any thing. 
ALTERA'TION,y'. £ from alter ; alteration, Fr.] The 
aiSlof altering or changing.— Alteration, though it be from 
worfe to better, hath in it inconveniences, and thofe weighty. 
Hooker. —The change made .- 
So he, with difficulty and labour hard. 
Mov’d on: 
But he once pad, foon after, when man fell. 
Strange alteration! Sin, and Death, amain 
Following his track, (Inch was the will of heav’n!) 
Pav’d after him a bread and beaten way. Milton. 
AL'TERATIVES, f. Medicines that are fuppofed to 
make a change in the blood, particularly from a morbid 
to a. found date, without any manifed operation or evacu¬ 
ation ; and the term is alfo employed for medicines fuited 
to clear the blood from certain impurities fuppofed to re-, 
main in it. Whatever other geneial operations may be 
proper 
