Chapter CXVIII: Act 1895: , may be given to a married woman on applying to (7)

ALLYL ALCOHOL, C3H5OH or CH2:CH.CH2OH, a compound which occurs in very small quantities in wood spirit. It may be prepared from allyl iodide by the action of moist silver oxide by the reduction of acrolein; or by heating glycerin with oxalic acid and a little ammonium chloride to 260 deg. C. In this last reaction glycerol monoformin is produced as an intermediate product, but is decomposed as the temperature rises:-- C3H5(OH)3+H2C2O4 = C3H5(OH)2.O.CHO+CO2+H2O glycerol monoformin C3H5(OH)2.O.CHO = C3H5OH+CO2+H2O It is a colourless mobile liquid of pungent smell, boiling at 97 deg. C. Being an unsaturated compound it combines readily with the halogens. Oxidation by strong oxidizing agents converts it successively into its aldehyde, acrolein, and into acrylic acid. By gentle oxidation with potassium permanganate it may be converted into glycerin.

ALMA, a river of Russia, in the S.W. of the Crimea, entering the Black Sea 17 m. N. of Sevastopol. It gives its name to a famous victory gained over the Russians, on the 20th of September 1854, by the allied armies in the Crimean War (q.v..) The south bank of the river is bordered by a long ridge, which becomes steeper as it approaches the sea, and upon this the Russians, under Prince Menshikov, were drawn up, to bar the Sevastopol road to the allies, who under General Lord Raglan and Marshal St Arnaud approached from the north over an open plain. The Russian commander massed his troops in heavy columns after the fashion of 1813, and drew in his left wing so that it should as far as possible be out of range of the allied men-of-war, which were sailing down the coast in line with their land forces. The allied generals decided that the French (right wing) and the Turks should attack Menshikov's left, while the British, further inland, were to assault the front of the Russian position. The forces engaged are stated by Hamley (War in the Crimea) as, French and Turks, 35,000 infantry, with 68 guns; British, 23,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry and 60 guns; Russians, 33,000 infantry, 3800 cavalry and 120 guns; by the Austrian writer Berndt (Zahl im Kriege) the allied forces are reckoned at 57,000 men with 108 guns, and the Russians at 33,600 men with 96 guns The French advance met at first with little opposition, and several divisions scaled the cliffs of the lower Alma without difficulty. Menshikov relied apparently on being able to detach his reserves to cope with them, but the assailants moved with a rapidity which he had not counted upon, and the Russians only came into action piecemeal in this quarter. Opposite the British, who as usual deployed at a distance and then advanced in long continuous lines, the Russians were posted on the crest of a long glacis-like slope, which offered but little dead ground to an assailant. The village of Burliuk, and the vineyards which bordered the river, were quickly cleared by the British skirmishers, and the line of battle behind them crossed, though with some difficulty. On emerging from the cover afforded by the river-bed the British divisions, now crowded together, but still preserving their general line, came under a terrible fire from heavy guns and musketry. The enemy's artillery was three hundred yards away, yet the British pressed on in spite of their losses, and as some of the Light Division troops reached the ``Great Battery'' the Russians hurried their guns away to safety. In the meantime. on both sides of this battery, the assailants had come to close quarters with the Russian columns, which were aided by their field guns. A brave counter-attack was made by the Russian Vladimir regiment, 3000 strong, against the troops which had stormed the great battery, and for want of support the British were driven out again. But they soon rallied, and now the second line had crossed and formed for attack. The Guards brigade attacked the Vladimir regiment, and on the left the Highland brigade and the cavalry moved forward also. Some of the field artillery, which had now crossed the Alma, fired steadily into the closed masses of the Russian reserve, and the Vladimir regiment lost half of its numbers under the volleys of the Guards. The French were now severely pressing the Russian left, and one-third of Menshikov's forces was drawn into the fight in that quarter. The success of the frontal assault had dispirited the remainder of the defenders, and Menshikov drew off his forces southwards. He had lost 5700 men (Berodt and Hamley). The British had about 2000 killed and wounded; the French stated their losses at 1340 men.

ALMACANTAR (from the Arabic for a sun-dial), an astronomical term for a small circle of the sphere parallel to the horizon; when two stars are in the same almacantar they have the same altitude. The term was also given (1880) to an instrument invented by S. C. Chandler to determine the latitude or correct the timepiece, of great value because of its freedom from instrumental errors.

ALMACK'S, formerly the name of a famous London club and assembly rooms. The founder, known as William Almack, is usually said to have been one Macall, or McCaul, of which name Almack is an anagram. In 1764 he founded a gentlemen's club in Pall Mall, where the present Marlborough Club stands. It was famous for its high play. In 1778 it was taken over by one Brooks, and established as Brooks's Club in St James's Street, where it still exists. In 1765 Almack built a suite of assembly rooms in King's Street, St James's. Here for a ten-guinea subscription a series of weekly balls was given for twelve weeks. They were managed by a committee of ladies of rank, and admission was exceedingly difficult. At Almack's death in 1781 they were left to his niece Mrs Willis. As ``Willis's Rooms'' they lasted till 1890, when they became a restaurant, but as ``Almack's'' they ceased in 1863. Several clubs, including a mixed club for ladies and gentlemen, held meetings at Almack's during the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. A new London social club (1904) has also adopted the name of Almack's.

ALMADEN, or ALMADEN DEL AZOGUE, a town of Spain, in the province of Ciudad Real; situated in mountainous country 55 m. W.S.W. of the city of Ciudad Real. Pop. (1900) 7375. Almaden, the Sisapon of the Romans, is celebrated for its mercury mines, which were extensively wrought by the Romans and Moors, and are still productive, the ore increasing in richness with the depth of the descent. The mines ranked with those of Adria, in South Austria, as the most valuable in the world, until the great development of the mercury deposits at New Almaden, in California, U.S.A., between 1853 and 1857. They were long worked by convict labour, owing to their unhealthy atmosphere; and exemption from military service is granted to miners who have worked at Almaden for two years. The annual yield is about 1,400,000 lb. Lead and sulphur are obtained in the neighbourhood. The nearest railway station is that of Chillon, 3 m. S. on the Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon line.

ALMAGRO, DIEGO DE (1475--1538), Spanish commander, the companion and rival of Pizarro (q.v.), was born at Aldea del Rey in 1475. According to another account he was a foundling in the village from which he derived his name. In 1525 he joined Pizarro and Hernando de Luque at Panama in a scheme for the conquest of Peru (see PERU: History.) He was executed by order of Pizarro in 1538 in consequence of a dispute as to their respective territories.

ALMANAC, a book or table containing a calendar of the days, weeks and months of the year, a register of ecclesiastical festivals and saints' days, and a record of various astronomical phenomena &c. The derivation of the word is doubtful. The word almanac was used by Roger Bacon (Opus Majus, 1267) for tables of the apparent motions of the heavenly bodies. The Italian form is almanacco, French almanach, and the Spanish is almanaque; all of which, according to the New English Dictionary, are probably connected with the Arabic al-manakh, a combination of the definite article al, and maliakh, a word of uncertain origin. An Arabic-Castilian vocabulary (1505) gives manakh, a calendar, and manah, a sun-dial; manakh has also been connected with the Latin manacus, a sun-dial.

The attention given to astronomy by Eastern nations probably led to the early construction of such tables as are comprised in our almanacs; of these we know little or nothing. The fasti (q.v.) of the Romans are far better known and were similar to modern almanacs. Almanacs of a rude kind, known as clogg almanacs, consisting of square blocks of hard wood, about 8 in. in length, with notches along the four angles corresponding to the days of the year, were in use in some parts of England as late as the end of the 17th century. Dr Robert Plot (1640-1696), keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and professor of chemistry at Oxford, describes one of these in his Natural History of Staffordshire (Oxford, 1686); and another is represented in Gough's edition of Camden's Britannia (1806, vol. ii. p. 499).

The earliest almanac regarding which J. J. L. de Lalande (Bibliographic astronomique, Paris, 1803) could obtain any definite information belongs to the 12th century. Manuscript almanacs of considerable antiquity are preserved in the British Museum and in the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge. Of these the most remarkable are a calendar ascribed to Roger Bacon (1292), and those of Peter de Dacia (about 1300), Walter de Elvendene (1327) and John Somers (1380). It is to be remembered that early calendars (such as the Kalendarium Lincolniense of Bishop Robert Grosseteste) frequently bear the names, not of their compilers, but of the writers of the treatises on ecclesiastical computation on which the calendars are based. The earliest English calendar in the British Museum is one for the year 1431. The first printed almanac known was compiled by Purbach, and appeared between the years 1450 and 1461; the first of importance is that of Regiomontanus, which appears to have been printed at Nuremberg in 1472. In this work the almanacs for the different months embrace three Metonic cycles, or the 57 years from 1475 to 1531 inclusive. The earliest almanac printed in England was The Kalendar of Shepardes, a translation from the French, printed by Richard Pynson about 1407.

Early almanacs had commonly the name of ``prognostications'' in addition, and what they professed to show may be gathered from titles like the following, which is quoted by J. O. Halliwell: ``Pronostycacyon of Mayster John Thybault, medycyner and astronomer of the Emperyall Majestic, of the year of our Lorde God MCCCCCXXXIJ., comprehending the iiij. partes of this yere, and of the influence of the mone, of peas and warre, and of the sykenesses of this yere, with the constellacions of them that be under the vij. pianettes, and the revolucions of kynges and princes, and of the eclipses and comets.'' Among almanacs of this class published in England, and principally by the Stationers' Company, are Leonard Digges's Prognostication Everlasting of Right Good Effect, for 1553, 1555, &c.; William Lilly's Merlinius Anglicus Junior for 1644, &c., and other almanacs and `` prognostications''; John Booker's Bloody Almanac and Bloody Irish Almanac for 1643, 1647, &c.--the last attributed erroneously to Richard Napier; John Partridge's Mercurius Coelestis for 1681, Merlinus Redivivus, &c. The name of Partridge has been immortalized in Pope's Rape of the Lock; and his almanacs were very cleverly burlesqued by Swift, who predicted Partridge's own death, in genuine prognosticator's style. The most famous of all the Stationers' Company's predicting almanacs was the Vox Stellarum of Francis Moore (1657--1715?), the first number of which was completed in July 1700, and contained predictions for 1701. Its publication has been continued under the title of Old Moore's Almanac. Of a different but not a better sort was Poor Robin, dating from 1663, and published by the company down to 1828, which abounded in coarse, sometimes extremely coarse, humour.

The exclusive right to sell ``almanacs and prognostications'' in England, enjoyed in the time of Elizabeth by two members of the Company of Stationers, was extended by James I. to the two universities and the Stationers' Company jointly; but the universities commuted their privilege for an annuity from the company. This monopoly was challenged by Thomas Carnan, a bookseller, who published an almanac for three successive years, after having been thrice imprisoned on that account by the company. The case came, in 1775, before the court of common pleas, and was decided in Carnan's favour, the question argued being, ``Whether almanacs were such public ordinances, such matters of state, as belonged to the king by his prerogative, so as to enable him to communicate an exclusive right of printing them to a grantee of the crown?'' In 1779 Lord North attempted to reverse this decision by a parliamentary enactment, but the bill was thrown out. In consequence of this the universities lost their title to their annuity, and in lieu of it they received a parliamentary grant. The company, however, virtually retained its monopoly for many years, by buying up as much as possible all the almanacs issued by other publishers, but in more recent times this power has altogether ceased, although a considerable proportion of the almanacs published in England still issue from the hall of the Stationers' Company. A description of ``Almanac Day'' at Stationers' Hall will be found in Knight's Cyclopaedia of London (1851), p. 588.

On the 1st of January 1828 the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge issued the British Almanac for that year--a publication greatly superior in every way to the almanacs of the time. The success of the British Almanac, with its valuable supplement, the Companion to the Almanac, led to a great improvement in this class of publications. The Stationers' Company issued the Englishman's Almanac, a work of a similar kind. The entire repeal in 1834, by the 3rd and 4th Will. IV. c. 57, of the heavy stamp duty, first imposed in 1710, on all almanacs of fifteenpence per copy, gave an additional stimulus to the publication of almanacs of a better class, and from that time the number has greatly increased. Since 1870, the British Almanac and Companion have been the principal almanacs published by the Stationers' Company. Whitaker's Almanac, commenced in 1868 by Joseph Whitaker (1820-1895), is perhaps the best known of modern almanacs.

In Scotland, almanacs containing much astrological matter appcared to have been published at about the beginning of the 16th century; and about a century later those published at Aberdeen enjoyed considerable reputation. In 1683, the Edinburgh's True Alnnanack, or a New Prognostication, appeared; a publication which improved with years and was issued after 1837 as Oliver and Boyd's New Ediniburgh Almanac, a standard book of reference for Scottish affairs. Thom's Irish Almanac (since 1843) deals mainly with Ireland.

The earliest almanac published in the United States is probably to be ascribed to Bradford's press in Philadelphia, for the year 1587. Poor Richard's Almanac, commenced in 1732 by Benjamin Franklin under the pseudonym of ``Richard Saunders,'' and continued by him for twenty-five years, gained a high reputation for its wise and witty sayings; it may have been suggested by a somewhat similar publication by Thomas, of Dedham, Massachusetts. The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge was published at Boston from 1828 to 1861; a continuation, The National Almanac, was published only twice, for 1863 and 1864. The Old Farmer's Almanac enjoys considerable popularity and has been published for many years. At the present time nearly every religious denomination, trade and newspaper have almanacs or year-books.

In France prophetic almanacs circulated very freely among the poorer and rural classes, although an ordonnance of Charles IX. required the seal of a diocesan bishop on all almanacs. In 1579 Henry III. prohibited the publication of predictions relating to political events, a prohibition renewed by Louis XIII. Of such almanacs, the most famous was the Almanach Liegeois first published in 1625 at Liege by Matthieu Laensbergh, a person of very problematic existence. Publications of this class subsequently increased in number to such an extent that, in 1852, their circulation was forcibly checked by the government. The most important French almanac is the Almanach Royal, afterwards Imperial, and now National, first published in 1679.

A number of publications, issued in Germany, from the middle of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century, under such titles as Musenalmanach, modelled on the Almanach des Muses, a contemporary almanac published at Paris, contain some of the best works of some of the most celebrated German poets. The Almaniach de Gotha, which has existed since 1763, published since 1871 both in French and German, gives a particular account of all the royal and princely families of Europe, and ample details concerning the administration and the statistics of the different states of the world.

For the Nautical Almanac and similar publications, see EPHEMERIS.

ALMANDINE, or ALMANDITE, a name applied to certain kinds of precious garnet, being apparently a corruption of alabandicus, which is the name applied by Pliny to a stone found or worked at Alabanda, a town in Carla in Asia Minor. Almandine is an iron alumina garnet, of deep red colour inclining to purple. It is frequently cut with a convex face, or en cabochon, and is then known as carbuncle. Viewed through the spectroscope in a strong light, it generally shows three characteristic absorption bands, as first pointed out by Prof. A. H. Church.

Almandine occurs rather abundantly in the gem-gravels of Ceylon, whence it has sometimes been called Ceylon-ruby. When the colour inclines to a violet tint, the stone is often called Syrian garnet, a name said to be taken from Syriam, an ancient town of Pegu. Large deposits of fine almandine-garnets were found, some years ago, in the Northern Territory of South Australia, and were at first taken for rubies, whence they were known in trade for some time afterwards as Australian rubies.

Almandine is widely distributed. Fine rhombic dodecahedra occur in the schistose rocks of the Zillerthal, in Tyrol, and are sometimes cut and polished. An almandine in which the ferrous oxide is replaced partly by magnesia is found at Luisenfeld in German East Africa. In the United States there are many localities which yield almandine. Dr G. F. Kunz has figured a crystal of coarse almandine weighing 91 lb. from New York city. Fine crystals of almandine embedded in mica-schist occur near Fort Wrangell in Alaska. The coarse varieties of almandine are often crushed for use as an abrasive agent. (See GARNET.)

ALMANSA, or ALMANZA, a town of eastern Spain, in the province of Albacete; 35 m. E.S.E. of Albacete, on the Madrid-Alicante railway. Pop. (1900) 11,180. Almansa is built at the foot of a white limestone crag, which is surmounted by a Moorish castle, and rises abruptly in the midst of a fertile and irrigated plain. About 1 m. S. stands an obelisk commemorating the battle fought here on the 25th of April 1707, in which the French under the duke of Berwick, a natural son of James II. of Great Britain, routed the allied British, Portuguese and Spanish troops. (See SPANISH SUCCESSION, WAR OF THE.)

ALMA-TADEMA, SIR LAURENCE (LAURENS) (1836- ). British artist, was born on the 8th of .fanuary 1836, at Dronrijp, a Frisian village near Leeuwarden, the son of Pieter Tadema, a notary, who died when he was four years old. Alma was the name of his godfather. His mother (d. 1863) was his father's second wife, and was left with a large family. It was designed that the boy should follow his father's profession; but he had so great a leaning towards art that he was eventually sent to Antwerp, where in 1852 he entered the academy under Gustav Wappers. Thence he passed to the atelier of Henri (afterwards Baron) Leys. In 1859 he assisted Leys in the latter's frescoes in the hall of the hotel de ville at Antwerp. In the exhibition of Alma-Tadema's collected works at the Grosvenor Gallery in London in the winter of 1882-1883 were two pictures which may be said to mark the beginning and end of his first period. These were a portrait of himself, dated 1852, and ``A Bargain,'' painted in 1860. His first great success was a picture of ``The Education of the Children of Clovis'' (1861), which was exhibited at Antwerp. In the following year he received his first gold medal at Amsterdam. The ``Education of the Children of Clovis'' (three young children of Clovis and Clotilde practising the art of hurling the axe in the presence of their widowed mother, who is training them to avenge the murder of their own parent) was one of a series of Merovingian pictures, of which the finest was the ``Fredegonda'' of 1878 (exhibited in 1880), where the dejected wife or mistress is watching from behind her curtain window the marriage of Chilperic I. with Galeswintha. It is perhaps in this series that we find the painter moved by the deeoest feeling and the strongest spirit of romance. One of the most passionate of all is ``Fredegonda at the Death-bed of Praetextatus,'' in which the bishop, stabbed by order of the queen, is cursing her from his dying bed. Another distinct series is designed to reproduce the life of ancient Egypt. One of the first of this series, ``Egyptians 3000 Years Ago,'' was painted in 1863. A profound depth of pathos is sounded in ``The Death of the Firstborn,'' painted in 1873. Among Alma-Tadema's other notable Egyptian pictures are ``An Egyptian at his Doorway'' (1865), `The Mummy'' (1867), `The Chamberlain of Sesostris'' (1869), ``A Widow'' (1873), and ``Joseph, Overseer of Pharaoh's Granaries'' (1874). On these scenes from Frankish and Egyptian life Alma-Tadema spent great energy and research; but his strongest art-impulse was towards the presentation of the life of ancient Greece and Rome, especially the latter. Amongst the best known of his earlier pictures of scenes from classical times are ``Tarquinius Superbus'' (1867), ``Phidias and the Elgin Marbles'' (1868), and ``The Pyrrhic Dance'' and ``The Wine Shop'' (1869). ``The Pyrrhic Dance,'' though one of the simplest of his compositions, stands out distinctly from them all by reason of its striking movement. ``Phidias and the Elgin Marbles'' is the first of those glimpses of the art-iife of classical times, of which ``Hadrian in England,'' ``The Sculpture Gallery,'' and ``The Picture Gallery'' are later examples. ``The Wine Shop'' is one of his many pictures of historical genre, but marked with a more robust humour than usual. In 1863 Alma-Tadema married a French lady, and lived at Brussels till 1869, when she died, leaving him a widower with two daughters, Laurence and Anna, both of whom afterwards made reputations --the former in literature, the latter in art. In 1869 he sent from Brussels to the Royal Academy two pictures, ``Un Amateur romain'' and ``Une Danse pyrrhique,'' which were followed by three pictures, including ``Un Jongleur,'' in 1870, when he came to London. By this time, besides his Dutch and Belgian distinctions, he had been awarded medals at the Paris Salon of 1864 and the Exposition Universelle of 1867. In 1871 he married Miss Laura Epos, an English lady of a talented family, who, under her married name, also won a high reputation as an artist. After his arrival in England Alma-Tadema's career was one of continued success. Amongst the most important of his pictures during this period were ``The Vintage Festival'' (1870), ``The Picture Gallery'' and ``The Sculpture Gallery'' (1875), ``An Audience at Agrippa's'' (1876), ``The Seasons'' (1877), ``Sappho'' (1881), ``The Way to the Temple'' (1883), his diploma work, ``Hadrian in Britain'' (1884), ``The Apodyterium (1886), ``The Woman of Amphissa'' (1887), ``The Roses of Heliogabalus'' (1888), ``An Earthly Paradise'' (1891), and ``Spring'' (1895). Most of his other pictures have been small canvasses of exquisite finish, like the ``Gold-fish'' of 1900. These, as well as all his works, are remarkable for the way in which flowers, textures and hard reflecting substances, like metals, pottery, and especially marble, are painted. His work shows much of the fine execution and brilliant colour of the old Dutch masters. By the human interest with which he imbues all his scenes from ancient life he brings them within the scope of modern feeling, and charms us with gentle sentiment and playful humour. He also painted some fine portraits. Alma-Tadema became a naturalized British subject in 1873, and was knighted on the occasion of Queen Victoria's eighty-first birthday, 1899. He was made an associate of the Royal Academy in 1876, and a Royal Academician in 1879. In 1907 he was included in the Order of Merit. He became a knight of the order Pour le Merite of Germany (Arts and Science Division); of Leopold, Belgium; of the Dutch Lion; of St Michael of Bavaria; of the Golden Lion of Nassau; and of the Crown of Prussia; an officer of the Legion of Honour, France; a member of the Royal Academies of Munich, Berlin, Madrid and Vienna. He received a gold medal at Berlin in 1872 and a grand medal at Berlin in 1874; a first class medal at the Paris International Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900. He also became a member of the Royal Society of Water-colours.

See also Geore Ebers, ``Lorenz Alma-Tadema,'' Westermann's Monatshafte, November and December 1885, since republished in volume form; Helen Zimmern, ``L. Alma-Tadema, his Life and Work,'' Art Annual, 1886; C. Monkhouse, British Contemporary Artists (London, 1899).

ALME or ALMAI (from alim, wise, learned), the name of a class of singing girls in Egypt who are present at festivals and entertainments, and act as hired mourners at funerals. They are to be distinguished from the ghawazee, or dancing girls, who perform in the public streets and are of a lower order.

ALMEIDA, DOM FRANCISCO DE (c. 1450-1510), the first viceroy of Portuguese India, was born at Lisbon about the middle of the 15th century. He was the seventh son of the second count of Abrantes, and thus belonged to one of the most distinguished families in Portugal. In his youth he took part under Ferdinand of Aragon in the wars against the Moors (1485-1492). In March 1505, having received from Emmanuel I. the appointment of viceroy of the newly conquered territory in India, he set sail from Lisbon in command of a large and powerful fleet, and arrived in July at Quiloa (Kilwa), which yielded to him almost without a struggle. A much more vigorous resistance was offered by the Moors of Mombasa, but the town was taken and destroyed, and its large treasures went to strengthen the resources of Almeida. At other places on his way, such as the island of Angediva, near Goa, and Cannanore, he built forts, and adopted measures to secure the Portuguese supremacy. On his arrival in India he took up his residence at Cochin, where a Portuguese fort had been built by Alphonso d'Albuquerque in 1503. The most important events of Almeida's brief but vigorous administration were the conclusion of a commercial treaty with Malacca, and the discoveries made by his son Lorenzo, who acted as his lieutenant. Lorenzo was probably the first Portuguese who visited Ceylon, where he established a settlement, and Fernando Soares, a captain commanding a squadron of his fleet, appears to have been the first European to sight Madagascar. In 1508 he was killed at Dabui in a naval engagement with the Egyptians, who at this time endeavoured to dispute Portuguese supremacy in the Indian Ocean. His father was preparing to avenge his death when Albuquerque (q.v.) arrived in Cochin, and presented a commission empowering him to supersede Almeida in the government. It was probably Almeida's unwillingness to be thwarted in his scheme of vengeance that chiefly induced him to refuse to recognize Albuquerque's commission, and to cast him into prison. The punishment he inflicted on the Arabs and their Egyptian allies was speedy and terrible. Sailing along the coast he pillaged and burned various ports, including Goa and Dabul, and finally, encountering the enemy's combined fleet off Diu in February 1509, he completely destroyed it. Returning immediately to Cochin, he held out for a few months against the claims of Albuquerque, but in November 1509 he was compelled to yie!d. On the 1st of December he set sail for Europe with an escort of three vessels. On the voyage the fleet called at Table Bay, then known as Saldanha Bay, to procure water, and here Almeida was killed (on the 1st of March 1510) in an attack upon the Hottentot natives, during vhich he showed great personal courage. In this fight, vhich took place on the site of Cape Town. 65 Portuguese perished, including 12 captains. Almeida's body was recovered on the following day and buried on the spot where he fell.

ALMEIDA, a town of north-eastern Portugal, in the district of Guarda and formerly included in the province of Beira; situated in hilly country between the river Coa, a tributary of the Douro, and the river Turones, a branch of the Agueda. Pop. (1900) 2330. Almeida was long one of the principal frontier fortresses of Portugal. It was captured by the Spaniards in 1762. During the Peninsular War (q.v.), the country between the Coa and the Spanish fortress of Ciudad Rodrigo, 25 m. E.S.E., was the scene of hard fighting. Almeida was taken by the French in 1810 and its recapture, by the allied British and Portuguese forces under Lord Wellington, was only effected after a relieving force under Marshal Massena had been defeated at Fuentes d'Onor (or Fuentes de Onoro), 13 m. S.S.E. The battle was fought on the 5th of May 1811 and the fortress fell five days later.

ALMELO, a town in the province of Overysel, Holland, 12 m. by rail N.W. of Hengelo, at the junction of the Overysel and Aluielo canals. Pop. (1900) 9957. It is a place of considerable antiquity, having been the seat of an independent lordship before the 14th century. But it first rose into importance in the second half of the 19th century owing to its share in the extraordinary industrial development of the Twente district, and now possesses numerous cotton and damask factories. Among the public buildings are a town hall, court house, corn exchange, and churches of various denominations, as well as a synagogue.

The lordship of Almelo belonged to the lords of Heeckeren, who acquired the barony of Rechteren by marriage in 1350 and the countship of Limpourg in 1711. The elder branch of the mediatized house of Rechteren-Limpourg is still established at Almelo; the younger, German branch, at Markt Einersheim in Bavaria.

ALMENDRALEJO, a town of western Spain, in the province of Badajoz; situated 27 m. E.S.E. of Badajoz, on the Merida-Seville railway. Pop. (1900) 12,587. Almendralejo is a thriving town, with broad streets and good modern houses; including the palace of the marquesses of Monsalfid, which contains a museum of Roman antiquities discovered in the neighbourhood. Local prosperity was greatly enhanced during the period 1875-1905 by the improvement of communications, which enabled the grain, fruit and wine of the Guadiana valley, on the north, and of the upland known as the Tierra de Barros, on the south, to be readily exported by the Merida-Seville railway. Brandy is produced in large quantities.

ALMERIA, a maritime province of southern Spain, formed in 1833, and comprehending the eastern territories of the ancient kingdom of Granada. Pop. (1900) 359,013; area, 3360 sq. m. Almeria is bounded on the N. by Granada and Murcia, E. and S. by Murcia and the Mediterranean Sea, and W. by Granada. It is traversed by mountain ridges, with peaks of 6000 to 8000 ft. in altitude; and it is seamed with valleys or great fertility. The chief sierras, or ranges, are those of Maria, in the north; Estancias and Oria, north of the Almanzora river; Filabres, in the middle of the province; Cabrera and Gata, along the south-east coast; Alhamilla, east of the city of Almeria; Gador in the south-west; and, in the west, some outlying ridges of the Sierra Nevada. Three small rivers, the Adra, or Rio Grande de Adra, in the west, the Almeria in the centre, and the Almanzora in the north and east, flow down from the mountains to the sea. On the south coast is the Gulf of Almeria, 25 m. wide at its entrance, and terminating, on the cast, in the Cabo de Gata, the southernmost point of eastern Spain. The climate is mild, except among the higher mountains. The valleys near the sea are well adapted for agriculture; oranges, lemons, almonds and other fruit trees thrive; silk is produced in the west; and the vine is extensively cultivated, less for the production of wine than to meet the foreign demand for white Almeria grapes. Although the cost of transport is very heavy, the exportation of grapes is a flourishing industry, and more than 2,000,000 barrels are annually sent abroad. The cattle of the central districts are celebrated for size and qualityt Almeria is rich in minerals, especially iron and lead; silver, copper, mercury, zinc and sulphur are also obtained. At the beginning of the 20th century the mines at work numbered more than two hundred, and proved very attractive to foreign as well as native capitalists. Garnets are found in the Sierra de Gata and in the Sierra Nevada fine marble is quarried. The development of mining was facilitated by the extension of the railway system between 1895 and 1905. The main line from Madrid toalmeria convoys much ore from Granada and Jaen to the sea; while the railway from Baza to Lorca skirts the Almanzora valley and transports the mineral products of eastern Almeria by a branch line from Huercal-Overa to the Murcian port of Aguilas. Light railways and aerial cables among the mountains supplement these lines. The chief imports compase coal, timber, especially oak staves, and various manufactured goods. The exports are minerals, esparto, oil, grain, grapes and farm produce generally. The principal seaports are Almeria, the capital, pop.(1900) 47,326, Adra (11,188), and Garrucha (4661), which, with Berja (13,224), Cuevas de Vera (20,562), Huercal-Overa (15,763) and Nijar (12,497), are described in separate articles. Other towns, important as mining or agricultural centres, are Albox (10,049), Dalias (7136), Lubrin (6593), Sorbas (7306), Tabernas (7629), Velez Blanco (6825), Velez Rubio (10,109) and Vera (8446). Education is backward and the standard of comfort low. A constant annual loss of 2000 or 3000 emigrants to Algeria and elsewhere prevents any rapid increase of population, despite the high birth-rate and low mortality.

ALMERIA, the capital of the province of Almeria, and one of the principal seaports on the Mediterranean coast of southern Spain; in 36 deg. 5' N. and 2 deg. 32' W., on the river Almeria, at its outflow into the Gulf of Almeria, and at the terminus of a railway from Madrid. Pop. (1900) 47,326. The city occupies part of a rich alluvial valley enclosed by hills. It is an episcopal see, and possesses a Gothic cathedral, dating from 1524, and constructed with massive embattled walls and belfry so as to resemble a fortress. A dismantled castle, the Castillo de San Cristobal, overlooks the city, which contains four Moorish towers rising conspicuously above its modern streets. Two long piers shelter the harbour, and vessels drawing 25 ft. can lie against the quays. About 1400 ships, of nearly 1,000,000 tons, enter the port every year, bringing fuel and timber, and taking cargoes of iron, lead, esparto and fruit. White grapes are exported in very large quantities.

Under its ancient name of Urci, Almeria was one of the chief Spanish harbours after the final conquest of Spain by the Romans in 19 B.C. It reached the summit of its prosperity in the middle ages, as the foremost seaport of the Moorish kingdom of Granada. At this time its population numbered 150,000; its cruisers preyed upon the fleets of the neighbouring Christian states; and its merchant ships traded with countries as distant as Egypt and Syria. Almeria was captured in 1147 by King Alphonso VII. of Castile and his Genoese troops. but speedily retaken and held by the Moors until 1489, when it was finally secured by the Spaniards.

See D. F. Margall, Almeria, (Barcelona, 1886).

ALMERY, AUMEBY, AUMBRIE, or AMBRY (from the medieval form almarium, cf. Lat. armarium, a place for keeping tools; cf. O. Fr. aumoire and mod. armoire), in architecture, a recess in the wall of a church, sometimes square-headed, and sometimes arched over, and closed with a door like a cupboard--used to contain the chalices, basins, cruets, &c., for the use of the priest; many of them have stone shelves. They are sometimes near the piscina, but more often on the opposite side. The word also seems in medieval times to be used commonly for any closed cuoboard and even bookcase.

ALMODOVAR DEL CAMPO, or ALMODOVAR, a town of Spain, in the province of Ciudad Real, 18 m. S.S.W. of Ciudad Real, on the northern side of the Sierra de Alcudia. Pop. (1900l 12,525. Almodovar was a Moorish fortress in the middle ages. but contains little of antiquarian interest. It owes its modern prosperity to the nearness of the valuable Puertollano coal-field, 3 m. S. by a branch of the Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon railway. Its manufactures are lace and linen and it has a brisk trade in live-stock, oil and wine. South of the Sierra lies the Alcudia valley, owned by the crown, and used as pasture for immense flocks of sheep.

ALMOGAVARES (from the Arab. Al-Mugavari, a scout), the name of a class of Spanish soldiers, well known during the Christian reconquest of Spain, and much employed as mercenaries in Italy and the Levant, during the 13th and 14th centuries. The Almogavares (the plural of Almogavar) came originally from the Pyrenees, and were in later times recruited mainly in Navarre, Aragon and Catalonia. They were frontiersmen and foot-soldiers who wore no armour, dressed in skins, were shod with brogues (abarcas), and carried the same arms as the Roman legionaries---two heavy javelins (Spanish azagaya, the Roman pilum), a short stabbing sword and a shield. They served the king, the nobles, the church or the towns for pay, and were professional soldiers. When Peter III. of Aragon made war on Charles of Anjou after the Sicilian Vespers---30th of March 1282-for the possession of Naples and Sicily, the Almogavares formed the most effective element of his army. Their discipline and ferocity, the force with which they hurled their javelins, and their activity, made them very formidable to the heavy cavalry of the Angevin armies. When the peace of Calatabellota in 1302 ended the war in southern Italy, the Almogavares followed Roger di Flor (Roger Blum) the unfrocked Templar, who entered the service of the emperor of the East, Andronicus, as condottieri to fight against the Turks. Their campaign in Asia Minor, 1303 and 1304, was a series of romantic victories, but their greed and violence made them intolerable to the Christian population. When Roger di Flor was assassinated by his Greek employerin 1305, they turned on the emperor, held Galhpoh and ravaged the neighbourhood of Constantinople. In 1310 they marched against the duke of Athens, of the French house of Brienne. Walter of Brienne was defeated and slain by them with all his knights at the battle of Cephissus, or Orchomenus, in Boeotia in March. They then divided the wives and possessions of the Frenchmen by lot and summoned a prince of the house of Aragon to rule over them. The foundation of the Aragonese duchy of Lthens was the culmination of the achievements of the Almogavares. In the 16th century the name died out. It was, however, revived for a short time as a party nickname in the civil wars of the reign of Ferdinand VII.

AUTHORITIES.---The Almogavares are admirably described by one who fought with them, Ramon de Muntaner, whose Chronicle has been translated into French by J. A. Buchon, Chronioues etrangeres (Paris, 1860). The original test was reprinted and edited by K. Lanz at Stuttgart, 1844. See also the Expedition des ``Almugavares'' ou routiers catalans en orient, de l'an 1302 a l'an 1311 by G. Schlumberger (Paris, 1902). (D. H.)

ALMOHADES (properly Muwahhadis, i.e. ``Unitarians,'' the name being corrupted through the Spanish), a Mahommedan religious power which founded the fifth Moorish dynasty in the 12th century, and conquered all northern Africa as far as Egypt, together with Moslem Spain. It originated with Mahommed ibn Tumart, a member of the Masmuda, a Berber tribe of the Atlas. Ibn Tumart was the son of a lamplighter in a mosque and had been noted for his piety from his youth; he was small, ugly, and misshapen and lived the life of a devotee-beggar. As a youth he performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, whence he was expelled on account of his severe strictures on the laxity of others, and thence wandered to Bagdad, where he attached himself to the school of the orthodox doctor al Ashari. But he made a system of his own by combining the teaching of his master with parts of the doctrines of others, and with mysticism imbibed from the great teacher Ghazali. His main principle was a rigid unitarianism which denied the independent existence of the attributes of God, as being incompatible with his unity, and therefore a polytheistic idea. Mahommed in fact represented a revolt against the anthropomorphism of commonplace Mahommedan orthodoxy, but he was a rigid predestinarian and a strict observer of the law. After his return to Morocco at the age of twenty-eight, he began preaching and agitating, heading riotous attacks on wine-shops and on other manifestations of laxity. He even went so far as to assault the sister of the Murabti (Almoravide) amir`Ali III., in the streets of Fez, because she was going about unveiled after the manner of Berber women. `Ali, who was very deferential to any exhibition of piety, allowed him to escape unpunished.

Ibn Tumart, who had been driven from several other towns for exhibitions of reforming zeal, now took refuge among his own people, the Masmuda, in the Atlas. It is highly probable that his influence would not have outlived him, if he had not found a lieutenant in 'Abd-el-Mumin el Kumi, another Berber, from Algeria, who was undoubtedly a soldier and statesman of a high order. When Ibn Tumart died in 1128 at the monastery or ribat which he had founded in the Atlas at Tinmal, after suffering a severe defeat by the Murabtis, 'Abd-el-Mumin kept his death secret for two years, till his own influence was established. He then came forward as the lieutenant of the Mahdi Ibn Tumart. Between 1130 and his death in 1163, 'Abd-el-Mumin not only rooted out the Murabtis, but extended his power over all northern Africa as far as Egypt, becoming amir of Morocco in 1149. Mahommedan Spain followed the fate of Africa, and in 1170 the Muwahhadis transferred their capital to Seville, a step followed by the founding of the great mosque, now superseded by the cathedral, the tower of which they erected in 1184 to mark the accession of Ya`kub el Mansur. From the time of Yusef II., however, they governed their co-religionists in Spain and Central North Africa through lieutenants, their dominions outside Morocco being treated as provinces. When their amirs crossed the Straits it was to lead a jehad against the Christians and to return fo their capital, Marrakesh.

The Muwahhadi princes had a longer and a more distinguished career than the Murabtis or ``Almoravides'' (q.v..) Yusef II. or ``Abu Ya`kub'' (1163-1184), and Ya`kub I. or ``El Mansur'' (1184-1199), the successors of Abd-el-Mumin, were both able men. They were fanatical, and their tyranny drove numbers of their Jewish and Christian subjects to take refuge in the growing Christian states of Portugal, Castile and Aragon. But in the end they became less fanatical than the Murabtis, and Ya`kub el Mansur was a highly accomplished man, who wrote a good Arabic style and who protected the philosopher Averroes. His title of El Mansur, ``The Victorious,'' was earned by the defeat he inflicted on Alphonso VIII. of Castile at Alarcos in 1195. But the Christian states in Spain were becoming too well organized to be overrun by the Mahommedans, and the Muwahhadis made no permanent advance against them. In 1212 Mahommed III., ``En-Nasir'' (1199-1214), the successor of El Mansur, was utterly defeated by the allied five Christian princes of Spain, Navarre and Portugal, at Las Navas de Tolosa in the Sierra Morena. All the Moorish dominions in Spain were lost in the next few years, partly by the Christian conquest of Andalusia, and partly by the revolt of the Mahommedans of Granada, who put themselves under the protection of the Christian kings and became their vassals.

The fanaticism of the Muwahhadis did not prevent them from encouraging the establishment of Christians even in Fez, and after the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa they occasionally entered into alliances with the kings of Castile. In Africa they were successful in expelling the garrisons placed in some of the coast towns by the Norman kings of Sicily. The history of their decline differs from that of the Murabtis, whom they had displaced. They were not assailed by a great religious movement, but destroyed piecemeal by the revolt of tribes and districts. Their most effective enemies were the Beni Marin (``Merinides'') who founded the next Moroccan dynasty, the sixth. The last representative of the line, Idris IV., ``El Wathik''' was reduced to the possession of Marrakesh, where he was murdered by a slave in 1269.

The amirs of the Muwahhadi Dynasty were as follows:-- 'Abd-el-Mumin (1145); Yusef II., ``Abu Ya`kub'' (1163); Ya`kub I., ``Abu Yusef el Mansur'' (1184); Mahommed III., ``En-Nasir'' (1190); Yusef III., ``Abu Ya'kub el Mustansir'' (1214); `Abd-el-Wahid, ``El Makhluwi'' (1223); `Abd-Allah II., ``Abu Mahommed'' (1224); Yahya V., ``El Mu`tasim'' (1226); Idris III., ``El Mamun'' (1229); Rashid I., ```Abd-el-Wahid II.'' (1232); `Ali IV., ``Es-Sa`id el Mu tadid'' (1242); Omar I., ``El Mortada'' (1248); Idris IV., ``El Wathik'' (1266-1269). (B. M.*; D. H.)

ALMON, JOHN (1737-1805), English political pamphleteer and publisher, was born at Liverpool on the 17th of December 1737. In early life he was apprenticed to a printer in his native town, and he also spent two years at sea. He came to London in 1758 and at once began a career which, if not important in itself, had a very important influence on the political history of the country. The Whig opposition, hampered and harassed by the Government to an extent that threatened the total suppression of independent opinion, were in great need of a channel of communication with the public, and they found what they wauted in Almon. He had become personally known to the leaders through various publications of his own which had a great though transient popularity; the more important of these being The Conduct of a late Noble Commander [Lord George Sackville Examined (1759); a Review of his late Majesty's Reign (1760); a Review of Mr Pitt's Administration (1761); and a number of letters on political subjects. The review of Pitt's administration passed through four editions, and secured for its author the friendship of Earl Temple, to whom it was dedicated. Brought thus into the counsels of the Whig party, he was persuaded in 1763 to open a bookseller's shop in Piccadilly, chiefly for the publication and sale of political pamphlets. This involved considerable personal risk, and though he generally received with every pamphlet a sum sufficient to secure him against all contingencies, he deserves the credit of having done much to secure the freedom of the press. The government strengthened his influence by their repressive measures. In 1765 the attorney-general moved to have him tried for the publication of the pamphlet entitled Juries and Libels, but the prosecution failed; and in 1770, for merely selling a copy of the London Museum containing Junius's celebrated ``Letter to the King,'' he was sentenced by Lord Mansfield to pay a fine of ten marks and give security for his good behaviour. It was this trial that called forth the letter to Lord Mansfield, one of the bitterest of the Junius series. Almon himself published an account of the trial, and of course did not let slip the opportunity of reprinting the matter that had been the ground of indictment; but no further proceedings were taken against him. In 1774 Almon commenced the publication of his Parliamentary Register, a monthly report of the debates in parliament, and he also issued an abstract of the debates from 1742, when Richard Chandler's Reports ceased, to 1774. About the same time, having earned a competency, he retired to Boxmoor in Hertfordshire, though he still continued to write on political subjects. He became proprietor in 1784 of the General Advertiser, in the management of which he lost his fortune and was declared insolvent. To these calamities was added an imprisonment for libel. The claims of his creditors compelled him to leave the country, but after some years in France he was enabled to return to Boxmoor, where he continued a career of undiminished literary activity, publishing among other works an edition of Junius. His last work was an edition of Wilkes's correspondence, with a memoir (1805). He died on the 12th of December 1805. Almon's works, most of which appeared anonymously, have no great literary merit, but they are of very considerable value to the student of the political history of the period.

ALMOND (from the O. Fr. almaiide or alemande, late Lat. amandola, derived through a form amingdola from the Gr. amugdale, an almond; the al- for a- is probably due to a confusion with the Arabic article al, the word having first dropped the a- as in the Italian form mandola; the English pronunciation a-mond and the modern French amande show the true form of the word). The almond is the fruit of Amyydalus conimunis, a plant belonging to the tribe Pruneae of the natural order Rosaceae. The genus Amygdalus is very closely allied to Prunius (Plum, Cherry), in which it is sometimes merged; the distinction lies in the fruit, the soft pulp attached to the stone in the plum being replaced by a leathery separable coat in the almond. The tree appears to be a native of western Asia, Barbary and Morocco; but it has been extensively distributed over the warmtemperate region of the Old World. It ripens its fruit in the south of England. It is a tree of moderate size; the leaves are lanceolate, and serrated at the edges; and it flowers early in spring. The fruit is a drupe, having a downy outer coat, called the epicarp, which encloses the reticulated hard stony shell or endocarp. The seed is the kernel which is contained within these coverings. The shell-almonds of trade consist of the endocarps enclosing the seeds. The tree grows in Syria and Palestine; and is referred to in the Bible under the name of Shaked, meaning ``hasten.'' The word Luz, which occurs in Genesis xxx. 37, and which has been translated hazel, is supposed to be another name for the almond. In Palestine the tree flowers in January, and this hastening of the period of flowering seems to be alluded to in Jeremiah i. 11, 12, where the Lord asks the prophet, ``What seest thou?'' and he replies, ``The rod of an almond-tree''; and the Lord says, ``Thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it.'' In Ecclesiastes xii. 5 it is saib the ``almond-tree shall flourish.'' This has often been supposed to refer to the resemblance of the hoary locks of age to the flowers of the almond; but this exposition is not borne out by the facts of the case, inasmuch as the flowers of the almond are not white but pink. The passage is more probably intended to allude to the hastening or rapid approach of old age. The application of Shaked or hasten to the almond is similar to the use of the name ``May'' for the hawthorn, which usually flowers in that month in Britain. The rod of Aaron, mentioned in Numbers xvii., was taken from an almond-tree; and the Jews still carry rods of almond-blossom to the synagogues on great festival days. The fruit of the almond supplied a model for certain kinds of ornamental carved work (Exodus xxv. 33, 34; xxxvii. 19, 20).

There are two forms of the plant, the one (with pink flowers) producing sweet, the other (with white flowers) bitter almonds. The kernel of the former contains a fixed oil and emulsin. It is used internally in medicine, and must not be adulterated with the bitter almond. The Pulvis Amygdalae Compositus of the British Pharmacopoeia consists of sweet almonds, sugar and gum acacia. It may be given in any dose. The Mistura Amygdalae contains one part of the above to eight of water; the dose is 1/2 to 1 oz.

The bitter almond is rather broader and shorter than the sweet almond and has a bitter taste. It contains about 50%, of the fixed oil which also occurs in sweet almonds. It also contains a ferment emulsin which, in the presence of water, acts on a soluble glucoside, amygdalin, yielding glucose, prussic acid and the essential oil of bitter almonds or benzaldehyde (q.v.), which is not used in medicine. Bitter almonds may yield from 6 to 8% of prussic acid.