Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/110

 A L M

A L M

This part of Hermeneutics, has been cultivated in the two laft ages above all others. And hence it is that the fcripture is fo much better known among modern divines, than among the fathers themfelves. Not but that the itch of finding Al- luftons has been too much indulged ; infomuch that many tilings have by this means been attributed to the infpired writers, which it is certain they never meant. Dr. Hammond finds the gnoftics intimated throughout all the epiftles of the apoftles : and Kircher who had dealt much in the /Egyptian language, and antiquities, finds /Egyptianifm in every thing. For an inftance to what degree intepreters have multiplied AUufions, ■we will mention thofe ftarted from that faying of St. Paul a , put on the Lord Jejus. Many find this paffage an Allufion to heathen antiquity ; but difagree as to the particular thing al- luded to. Some, e. gr. will have it to be the feafts of the Palii, when they drefled themfelves in armour, and run about the ftreets ; others, the Roman Lupercalia, or Satur- nalia, when fervants drefled in the habits of their matters ; others, a religious cuftom, wherein profane perfons wore the habit of their gods ; others, a method of conferring the fu- preme degree among the Sophifts, by drefiing the candidate in a fort of confecrated garments ; others again will have it allude to a Jcwifh ceremony, viz. the method of inaugurat- ing the high prieft by putting on him the pontifical robes : Others, will have it to be a point of Chriftian antiquity, that is here alluded to, viz. the antient ceremony of baptifm, wherein, after the catechumens arofe out of the water, they were habited in new white garments b. — [ a Rom. c. xiii. v. 14, Rambacb. Inftit. Hermen. Sacr. 1. 3. c. 7. §. 8. p. 591. feq.] ALLUVION {Cycl.) — Great alterations are made in the face and limits of countries, by Alluvions of the fea, rivers, fcfe. c Whole plains are fometimes formed by Alluvions^. It is con- troverted whether Alluvions be to be confidercd as fruits, and as fiich accruing to Ufu-frudluaries c . — [ c Giorn. de Letter, d' ItaL T. 21. p. 295. Jour. desScav. T. 39. p. 561. (1 Mem. Acad. Scienc. 1710. p. 210. c Jour, des Scav. T. 38.

ALMADIt, in fliip building, a fmall vefTcl ufed by the negroes of Africa, about four fathom long; and made ufually of the bark of a tree.

The fame name is alfo given to the vefiels of Calicut in India, which are eighty foot long, and fix or feven broad, and fquare itemed. Did. de Marin, in voc.

Thefe are otherwife denominated Cathuri, They go with great fwiftnefs. Witfen fays, they are twelve or thirteen paces long, fharpat head and ftern, and that they are wrought both by fails and oars. In time of war the king of Calicut fits out two or three hundred of thefe vefiels, Wit/en. Ap. Diet, de Marine, in voc.

ALMAGEST (Cycl.)— This work was publifhed at Bafil in J 53^; Claud. Ptolemm Confruclio magna S. Almagejl um, grace, cum Coirim. Tbeonis Alexandrini.

The Almagejl was tranflated from Greek into Latin in 1558, by G. Trapezuntius % but great complaints have been made of the errors and inaccuracies of this verfion b. Purbachius began to reduce the Almagejl into a more commodious form, and lefs compafs, for the ufe of learners ; but dying before he had half finifhed., the work was left to be compleated by Regio- montanus, who publifhed it in 1550 c. There is alfo a ver- fion and epitome of Ptolemy's Almagejl in Hebrew, made from the Arabic, by R. Jac. ben Abraham ben Samfon, An- doli, i$c. & tho' yet only extant in MS.— [ a Venet. 4 . 1515 1525. Lipen. Eibl. Phil. T. j. p. 31. b Mifc. Lipf. T. 2. p. 596. Fabric, Eibl. Grac. 1. 4. c. 14. Naud. Arcan. Stat. p. 367. c Wolf. Com. de Script. Mathem. in fin. Elem. Ma- thef. T. 2. p. 1051. Ed. 1. * V. Wolf. Bibl. Hebr. T. 3. p. 920. It. T. 1. p. 20.]

Riccioli c has alfo publifhed a body of aftronomy, which he entitles after Ptolemy, the new Almagejl ; being a collec- tion of the principal antient, as well as modern obfervations and difcoveries in that fcience. Riccioli's Almagejl contains a great variety of different fyftems, opinions, &c. likely enough to confound thofe who are not deep enough in the fcience, to be able to make a choice and judgment among them. He was therefore afterwards at the pains to examine and compare the divers obfervations, &c, together, and from the whole to draw out a more uniform and confiftent body, fince publifhed under the title of Ajlronomia reformata f. Some authors fpeak of another Almagejl in Hebrew, by Avu Abad Baal e 1 but we do not find that it has been yet publifhed.— [ c J°- Bapt. PJcaoli, Almagejlum novum five AJlro?io?nia An- ttquo-nova. Bonon. 1651. Fol. Lipen. Bibl. Phil.T. 1. p. 31. f Jour, des Scav. T. 2. p. 19. s Wolf Bibl. Hebr. T. 3. p. 3.] We have^ alfo botanical AbnagcJIs, compofed by Plukenet h , being a kind of pinax, or general index of plants, containing the proper, and deferiptive names of upwards of fix thoufand? To which in a fupplement, fince publifhed by the fame au- thor, have been added above one thoufand others '.— [ h Alma- gejl um botaniaim,five Pbytograpbia Plucnetiana Onomajlicon, &c. Lond. 1696. Fol. an extract of it is given in Phil. Tranf. '. J. 2 S* P- 434- * Almagejli Botanici Mantilla, plantarum mmjfam deteclarum, ultra Milknarium Numerum completlens. l^ond. 1700. Fol. An extract of it may be feen in work of Learn, T. 2. p. 225. j

ALMAGRA, in natural hiftory, a name given in later ages to an earth of the ochre kind, called Sil atticum by the an- tients. It is an ochre of a fine and deep red, with fome admix- ture of purple, very heavy, and of a denfe yet friable ftrudture, and rough dufly furface. It adheres very firmly to the tongue, and melts freely and eafily in the mouth, and is of an auftere and ftrongly aftringent tafte, it ftains the fkin in touching it, and ferments very violently with acid menftruums; by which fingle quality, it is fufficiently diftinguifhed from the Sil Syrhum, to which it has in many refpects a great affinity.

It is found in immenfe quantities, in many parts of Spain; and in Andalufia there are in a manner whole mountains of it. It is ufed in painting, and in medicine, being a very va- luable aftringent.

The generality of authors, have been guilty of a very great error, in confounding the Sil atticum and Ocbra attica of the antients with one another, and imagining them the fame fubftance ; but a careful examination of what is left us, in regard to thefe fubfhnces, very evidently fhews, that the one was red, and the other yellow, and that we have them both yet in great plenty in different parts of the world. Hill's Hift. of Foffils, p. 57.

Alm agra, in the cant of chemifts, denotes red bole, or rud- dle, fometimes a lotion, or wafh.

ALMALECI, in medical hiftory, a celebrated work, contain- ing a fyftem of the antient Arabian phyfic. The word imports as much as the royal work. The author of it was Haly Abbas, a perfon of great repute for learning, in his age ; on which account he had the title of Magus.

It was compofed about the year 980, and dedicated in very hyperbolical language to the Caliph Ada d'Odaula. It was tranflated into Latin by Stephen of Antioch, in 1127. In which drefs it is flill extant.

Others give this work the title of Pantecbni, or Complementum Mediants, and afcribe it to Ifaac Ifiaclita. In reality there are many pafliiges in the work exactly the fame with what are quoted by Rhazcs under the name of Ifaac. And no doubt, Haly might borrow from Ifaac, as well as lie did from Rhazcs. Concerning the hiftory, contents, &c. of the Al- makci, fee Friend's Hift. of Phyf. P. 2. p. 36. feq.

ALMANAC (Cycl.) is ufed, among antiquaries, for a kind of inftrument, ufually of wood, inferibed with various figures, and Runic characters, and reprefentuig the order of the feafts, dominical letters, days of the week, and golden number, with other matters neceffary to be known throughout the year j ufed by the antient northern nations, in their compu- tations of time, both civil and ecclefiaftical. Almanacs of this kind are known by various names, among the different nations wherein they have been ufed, as rim- ftocks, primftaries, runftocks, runftaffs, Scipiones Runici, Baculi Annales, clogs, &c.

They appear to have been ufed only by the Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians. From the fecond of thefe people, their ufe was introduced into England, whence divers remains of them in our counties. Dr. Plot a has given the defcription and figure of one of thefe clogs, found in Staffordfhire, under the title of the perpetual Staffordshire Almanac. Wor- mius dates their origin, from the time of Julius Csefar, which Rudbeck b is not contented with, but aflerts them to be up- wards of three thoufand years old, and even to have been invented by Atlas, the great founder of aftronomy, from whom they are fometimes alfo denominated Atlas's calendars. According to this author, they were firft made in the coun- try of the Cimmerians, fituate on the fartheft extremity of the Bothnic gulph, where the fun in the middle of winter is hid from the inhabitants forty days together. — [* Plot, Nat. Hift. Stafford, c. 10. p. 420. feq. b Atlant. P. 3. c. 1. Phil. Tranf. N°. 301. p. 2005.]

The external figure and matter of thefe calendars appear to have been various. Sometimes they were cut on one or morewooden leaves, bound together after the manner of books; fometimes on the fcabbards of fwords, oreven on daggers; fome- times on tools and implements, as portable ftillyards, hammers, the helves of hatches, flails, &c. Sometimes they were made of brafs or horn; fometimes of the fkins of eels, which be- ing drawn over a ftick properly inferibed, retained the im- preflions of it. But the moft ufual form was that of walk- ing ftaves, or fticks, which they carried about with them to church, market, cjrV.

Some divide thefe Almanacs into public and private, perfect and imperfect ; others into heathen and chriftian. Public Almanacs are thofe of a larger fize, ufually hungup at one end of the mantle-trees of chimnies, for common or family ufe c ; private are thofe of a fmaller kind, to be carried about either in the hand, after the manner of a ftaff, or in the pocket; perfect, thofe which have the dominical letters as well as primes, and feafts inferibed to them ; imperfect, thofe which have only the primes and immoveable feafts. Till about the the fourth century, they all carry the marks of heathenifm ; from that age to the feventh, they are generally divided be- tween heathenifm and chriftianity d .~[ c Plot, lib. cit. c. ix>. §■ 45- d Nouv. Liter. Germ. 1709. p. 296.J

Each