ALU 
gence of the manufacturer may lead him to employ fuch 
procefles as are belt fuited to their contents. 
Alum is ufed in large quantities in many manufactories. 
It is extenfively ufefu! in the art of dyeing. When added 
to tallow, it renders it harder. Printers’ cufhions, and the 
blocks ufed in the calico manufactory, are rubbed with 
burnt alum to remove any greafinefs which might prevent 
the ink or colour from (ticking. Wood fufficiently foaked 
in alum does not ealily take fire; and the fame is true of 
paper impregnated with it, which is fitter to keep gun¬ 
powder, as it alfo excludes moifture. Paper impregnated 
with alum is ufeful in whitening filver, and lilvering brafs 
without heat. Alum mixed in milk helps the feparation 
of its butter. If added in a very fmall quantity to turbid 
water, in a few minutes it renders it perfectly limpid, 
without any bad tafte or quality; whilft the vitriolic acid 
does not precipitate fo foon, nor fo well, the opalce earthy 
mixture that renders it turbid, and gives to it a very fen- 
iible acidity. It is ufed in making the pyrophorus, in 
tanning, and many other manufactories; particularly in 
the art 7 of dyeing, in which it is of the greatefi and molt 
important ufe, by cleanfing and opening the pores on the 
furface of the fubftance to be dyed, rendering it fit for 
receiving the colouring particles (by which the alum is 
generally decompofed), and at the fame time making the 
colour fixed. Alum confiitutes the bafis of crayons, which 
generally confift of the earth of alum finely powdered, 
and tinged for the purpofe. 
Alum is prepared in England, and many other parts of 
the world, and was formerly diftinguifhed by various 
names. The rock alum is fuppofed to derive its name 
from an ancient city in Syria, called Roccho, at prefent 
Edelfa, where one of the earliefi manufactories was car¬ 
ried on. The Roman alum has been confidered as the belt 
fort. It has a rofy-coloured tinge, which arifes from 
about of its weight of a rofe-coloured earth, the nature 
of which was not afeertained by Bergman, though he 
found that the goodnefs of the alum does not depend upon 
it. This alum is not preferred to other good alum by our 
manufacturers. Plume alum is a name given to two very 
different fubftances. The one appears to be true alum 
produced by the deficcation of aluminous''waters, which 
tranfude through grottos and caverns, and leave this fait 
behind in feathery cryftals; but this is feldom met with. 
The other fubftance to which this name has been given, is 
the fibrous afbeftos, which contains no alum; but from 
half to three-fourths of its weight of filiceous earth, from 
one-eighth to one-third of mild magnefia, and the reft 
calcareous earth, with a minute proportion of clay, and 
lometimes iron. 
Medicinally, alum is ufed as a powerful aftringent; as 
fuch it is prescribed to preferve the gums, alio toreftrain 
uterine haemorrhages, and check the fluor albus; but, 
though in thefe fort of fluxes it is highly commended, it 
is rarely and with great caution to be admitted in dyfen- 
teries, particularly in the beginning. Though celebrated 
as an aftringent in fome cafes, it is no lefs extolled in the 
cholic and other painful diforders of the bowels, attended 
with obftinate conftipation. See Percival’s E flays Med. and 
Exp. vol. ii. The dofes in thefe cafes are from five to 
twenty grains, and may be repeated every four, eight, or 
twelve, hours; and, when duly perfifted in, proves gently 
laxative, mitigates the pain, abates flatulence, mends the 
appetite, and ftrengthens the organs of digeftion. Alum 
is powerfully tonic, and it is reafonably fuppofed to con¬ 
tribute to the relief of pain in the inteftines, by blunting 
the morbid fenfibility of their nerves. As the mineral 
acids do, it coagulates the blood and juices. In robuft 
habits, after due bleeding and purging, it cures agues: 
either of the following ufual forms may be given in a 
morning falling, until the defired relief is obtained. Dr. 
Cullen thinks it ought to be employed with other aftrin- 
gents in diarrhoeas. In adtive haemorrhages it is not ufe¬ 
ful, though a powerful medicine in thofe which are paflive. 
it Ihould be given in fmall dofes, and gradually increaled. 
Vol. I., No. 24. 
A L W 381 
It has been recommended in the diabetes, but tried with¬ 
out fuccefs ; though joined with nutmeg it lias been more 
fuccefsful in intermittents, given in a large dofe an hour, 
or a little longer, before the approach of the paroxyfm. 
I11 gargles, in relaxations of the uvula, and other fwelling 
ol the mucous membrane of the fauces, diverted of acute 
inflammation, it has been ufed, and advantageoully; alfo 
in every ftate of the cynanche tonfillaris. It is alfo pre¬ 
ferable to white vitriol, or acetated cerufs, in the opthal- 
mia membranarum, from two to five grains dillolved in an 
ounce of water. Cullen’s Mat. Med. 
R Nuc. mofeh. major, alum. rup. ana gr. 45. f. pulv,. 
in tres partes divid. cujus cap. i. omn. mane jejuno. Vel, 
R Cort. Peruv. fubtil. pulv. 5 *• feri alum. 3 vi. 111. 
liatift. inane jejun. fumend. 
The Roman alum is counterfeited with common alum 
coloured; but break it, and the counterfeit will be found 
pale within, while the true is of a deeper red. 
Alum-mines are faid to have been firft found in Italy, 
in the year 1460; and in 1506 king Henry VII. made a 
monopolifing grant of this commodity to Auguftine Chigi, 
a merchant of Sienna. In the year 1608, the manufac¬ 
ture of alum was firft invented, and fuccenively pradtifed 
in England, meeting with great encouragement in York- 
fhire, where it was firft made, from Lord Sheffield, and 
other gentlemen of that county. King James I. by advice 
of his miniftry, affumed the monopoly of it to himfelf, 
and therefore prohibited the importation of foreign alum; 
and in 1625 the importation of it was further prohibited 
by the proclamation of Charles I. 
Alum-works, places where alum is prepared, and 
manufactured in quantities for fale. They differ from 
alum-mines, as in the former an artificial alum, and in the 
latter natural alum, is produced. 
ALU'MINOUS, adj. Relating to alum, or confiding of 
alum.—The tumour may have other mixture with it, to 
make it of a vitriolic or aluminous nature. WiJ'e-man. 
Aluminous Waters, are thofe that are impregnated 
with the particles of that fait; and they make a fpecies of 
thefe called mineral or medicinal waters. What gives effi¬ 
cacy to thefe waters, is faid to be an acid aluminous mine¬ 
ral fait, preying on and dilfolving a flight mixture of iron, 
and being mixed with other materials ; hence become they 
deobftruent, and fo beneficial to hypochondriac and ca- 
chedtic patients; and not aftringent, or incralfating, as the 
idea of their being folely impregnated with alum would 
induce us to conclude. 
ALUN'TIUM, or Alontium, anciently a town in the 
north of Sicily, fituated on a fteep eminence, at the mouth 
of the Chydas; faid to be as old as the war of Troy. 
Now in ruins; from which arofe the hamlet of St. Phi- 
ladelfo, in the Val di Demona. The inhabitants were 
called Haluntini. 
ALU'TA MONT ANA, f. This is one of the names 
of the coriaceous afbeftos, or mountain cork. It is ealily 
diftinguifhed by its elafticity and lightnefs, for it floats a 
long time on water. Its colour is either white, yellow, 
brown, green, or black; and its texture refembles thofe 
fubftances from which it has received its names: 100 parts 
of it contain from 56 to 62 of lilex; from 22 to 26 of mild 
magnefia; from 10 to 12 of mild calcareous earth ; from 
2 to 2.8 of argil; and about 3 of iron. 
ALUTA'TION,/ Tanning of leather. 
AL'VUS,/ in anatomy, a term ufed for the belly in 
general, but more frequently applied to the bowels. 
ALWA'DII, a fedt of Mahometans who believp all great 
crimes to be unpardonable. The Alwadii (land in oppo- 
fition to the Morgii. They attribute lefs efficacy to the 
true belief in the lalvation of men than the reft of the 
Mufiulmans. 
ALWAYS, adv. [It is fometimes written alway, com¬ 
pounded of all and way ; ealkweega, Sax. tvttavia, Ital.J 
Perpetually; throughout all time : oppofed to fometime, or 
to never. —That, which fometime is expedient, doth not 
always fo continue. Hooker. 
5 E 
Man 
