Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/126

 ALU

A L Y

To make ^/um-water ; take y&ra eight ounces, fair water ] one quart ; boil them till the Alum is diflblved. Or thus ; [ take fpring or well-water one gallon, roche Alum one pound i beat it to powder, and diRblve it in the water by boiling ; filter it through a brown paper, and keep it for ufe. With this water, if you wet your paper before you lay oil your colours, it will keep them from finking in, and, withal, adds a luftre and beauty to the colours laid on. But this you mull note, that if your paper is not good, you muft work it over four or five times, which may be done with a large pencil brufli. Moreover, Alum generally raifes ftaining colours, and preferves them from fading. Salmon, Polygraph. I. 3. c. 19. p. 202.

Hcffius, and an anonymous writer, have publiihed pieces ex- prefs on Alum f. Many particulars relating thereto are alfo given by the writers on minerals, falls, &c s. — [ f Lipcn. Bibl. Med. p. 12. s -See particularly concerning the origin and compohtion of Alum, Philof. Tranf. iN°. 125. p. 615. Mem. Acad, Scienc. 1724. p. 55S. Mem. de Trev. 1705. p. 1431. Whether it be a fait or ftone, Jour, des Scav. T. 10. p. 123. Its analyfis, Stahl, Phil. Princ. Chem. P. 2. fee. 1. p. 88. Mcrcat. ubi fupra, p. 56. not. Containing both acid and alcali, Mercat. lib. cit. p. 56. not. Its affinity with fulphur, Id. ib. p. 80. not. Its volatiliza- tion, Mem. Acad. Scienc. 1717. p. 326. Efllorefcencc, Philof. Tranf. N°. no. p. 221. The figure of its cryftals, Lift, de Therm, c. 1. §. 2. p. 2. PhiloC Tranf. N°. 173. p. 1075. Mercat. ubi fupra, p. 56. not. It. p. 372. See alfo Tab. of Microfcopial Objects, Clafs 3. Its prepa- ration, Kirch. Mund. Subterr. I. 6. fee. 3. c. 2. p. 313. Mcrcat. ubi fupra, p. 55. Ufe of urine in it, Hought. Coll. N°. 160. T. 1. p. 419. Its medicinal qualities and virtues, Kirch, ubi fupra, c. 3. p. 315. and 324. Junck. Confp. Therap. tab. 16. p. 453. Witt. Scarb. Spaw, p. 186. Zuing. Comp. Medic. T. I. p. 339. feq. It. p. 576. Nouv. Rep. Lett. T. 16. p. 293. Specific virtue againft haemorrhages, Mem. de Trev. an. 1704. p. 562. Its ufe in dying, Act. Erud. Lipf. 1692. p. 184. An ingredient ill phofphorus, Mem. Acad. Scienc. an. 1714. p. 520. It. '7'S- P- 33- J our - des Scav. T. 59. p. 61. Curious ex- periments with it, Kirch, lib. cit. p. 315. j

AhVM-wor6s, places where this fait is prepared, and manufac- tured in quantities for falc.

M. Colwal * has publiihed an account of the, Alum-woAs in in the north of England ; M. Ray b, of thofe at Whitby ; M. Geoffrey c and M. Silverier d, of thofe at Solfatara and Civita Vecchia ; Meicatus • and Kircher ', may alfo be con- futed; Matthiolus, of thofe in Germany s ; Dr. Hoffman', of thofe near Leipfic ; Leopold ', of thofe in Sweden. — 1 [" Philof. Tranf. N". 142. p. 1052— 1056. b Coll. of! Words, p. 139 — 141.. « Hift. Acad. Scienc. an. 1702. p. 26. feq. " Phil. Tranf. N°. 265. 'p. 633. • Metalloth. Arm. 3. c. 2. p. 54. feq. ' Mund. Subterr. 1. 6. fee. 3. c. 2. p. 313. feq. Act. Erudit. Lipf. 1721. p. 252. Chym. 1. 3. obf. 8. p. 302. feq. Burggr. Lex. Med. T. 1. p. 481. feq. ' Leopold. Relat. Hift. Suec. p. 12. Aft. Erud. Lipf. 1721. p. 252. Bibl. Angl. T. 7. p. 423. Con- cerning the redintegration of Alum-vioAs, fee Phil. Tranf. N°. 219. p. 182.]
 * Matthiol. Com. inDiofcor. T. 2. p. 697. h Obferv. Phyf.

Alum-wotks are different from Alum-mines, as in the former an artificial Alum, in the latter a native one is produced. There are ftill mines of natural Alum in the ifland of Chio, though they arc fliut up, and no longer worked as formerly. The poor inhabitants voluntarily relinquifh the benefit of them, which they cannot have, without paying to their Turkilh matters more than it is worth. M. Tournefort made them a vifit. They confift chiefly of vaults and apart- ments incruftated almoft univerfally with Alum, which grows over them in flat pieces, or flakes, near an inch thick. As faft as thefe are torn away, new ones grow in their place. They may be looked upon as exfoliations of the rock, oc- cafioncd by the fpirit of fait penetrating and diffolving the

. fame, laurnef. Voyag. du Levant, Let. 4. p. 63. Con- cerning mines of Alum in Egypt, fee Mem. de Mill" T 2 p. 186.

ALUMINOUS, fomething partaking of the nature and quali- ties of Alum. See Alum.

Grew defcribes fome extraordinary kinds of aluminous earths in the repofitory of the royal fociety. Grew, Muf. Reg. Societ. P. 3. c. 1. p. 342.

Aluminous waters arc thofe impregnated with the particles of that fait.

Aluminous waters make a fpecies of thofe called mineral or medicinal waters.

Such is the Spaw at Scarborough obferved to be by Witty Simpfon, &c. V. Witty, Scarb. Spaw, p. 187. feq. According to the laft author, that which gives the effence to this water is an acid aluminous mineral fait, preyinf on and diffolving a flight mixture of iron \ Dr Highmore ob- jects, that fuppofing Alum the principal, ingredient in thefe waters, the properties of Alum being to dry, to aftringe, and to incranate, how comes it to pafs that they are pretended to be fo highly deoppilative, and fo beneficial to hypochondriac

and cachefticai peffonsy where their aitringency fhould rather

be noxious b I Dr. Witty anfwers; that they do not derive

thefe virtues from the alum, but from the other ingredients

in them c. — It is difpured whether or no the bath at Lucca

be aluminous d. — [» Vid. Phil. Tranf. N°. 42. p. 851

' Phil. Tranf. N*. 56. p. 1128. ' It. N". 160. p. 154.

d Giorn. de Lcter. d'ltal. T. rr. p. 18&.]

We have alfo factitious waters, under the denomination of

aluminous ; fuch is that called m the Ihops aqua aluminofet

magijlerialis.

Its preparation is thus ; take of rock alum; and white fubli-

mate, ana 3 ii, boil them in role and plantain water, ana fc i,

till half is confumed; filter the remainder, and keep it for

ufe.

This is prefcribed againft deformities of the fkin, and often

for the itch ; but it is an uncertain remedy, and not to be ufed

without caution, §>uinc. Drfpcnf. P. 2. §. +56. p. 274.

ALUMTA, in botany; a name given; by fome of the old Latin wiiters to the plant otherwife called lutum and cornibla, and by the Greeks Cymene. It was the fame with our geni- Jlella tinSloria, or dyers-weed, and was ufed by the dyers, and by the ladies to tinge their hair yelloWj the colour that Was efteemed moft beautiful in thofe times.

ALUS, in the materia medica of the antients, a name given to two different plants. Some of the later Roman authors ufe it only as the name of the fymphytum pctrdum, or rock comfry ; but the earlier authors fometimes make it the name of this plant, and fometimes of a very different one, a fpecies of allium, or garlic, which grew wild in the fields and hedges. Pliny exprefly mentions both thefe kinds of Alum, or Aim. Befide thefe, there is another plant, whofe name comes very near thefe, that is, the via of the old writers. This is the helenium of the ancient Greeks, a plant of the verticillate kind, and of an aromatic fmell, wholly different from the helenium of the prefent times, or elecampane. All thefe plants feeiri to have been called Alum, and Ala, -ah halitndo, from then-yielding a ftrong fmell. Pliny, 1. 27. c. 7.

ALUSMA Cara'manica, in botany, a term ufed fometimes to exprefs a plant growing in Caramania, and fometimes a pre- paration of that plant, or pigment made from it. The word frequently occurs in the writings of Avlfenna and Serapion, and is ufually underftood to mean a particular fort of indigo ; but we have no account of the indigo plant ^growing in that part of the world, and this author always calls that plant's//, not ufma. He mentions the leaves of xh&glajlum, or woad, frequently under the name of'K_/5»» ; and -the pigment .prepared from them may therefore be very well expreffed by the name Alufma. The name Caramaftica expreffes'alftra country where we are informed, by other authors, that the glajlum, or woad, grows; and there is ho doubt, but 'that the general interpre- tation of the author is Wrong, and that it is a kind of woad, not of indigo, that he means by this nanie.

ALWAIDII, a fefl of Mahometans, who hold that all. great crimes are unpardonable, and the criminals reprobated to eter- nity.

The Alwaidii ftand in oppofition to the Morgii.—thcy at ■ tribute lefs efficacy to the true belief in' the falvation of men, than the reft of the muffelmen, Aiulpharag, Hift. Dyn. 9. ap. Leehman. Obferv. Budd. Inft. p. 196.

ALYPIAS, in the materia medica, a fpecies of turbith, pre- fcribed, by fome phyficians, for the purging of bile. Fallcf. de Purg. Simpl. c. 25. Cajl. Lex, Med. p. 37. Some write the word alypon, and define it by white turbith ■. Galen ufed alypum, a>.vnw, for a minorative, or medicine that gently purges ". — [» Blancartl, Lex. Med. p. 32. '■ Fal- lop. ubi fupra, c. 1 6. J

ALYPUM, in botany, a name given, by fome authors, -to a fpecies of fpurge, the tithymalus amygdaloiiles angujlifitius, or narrow-leaved almond fpurge of Tournefort. See Ti t'hy-

MALUS.

Alypum is likewife a name given, by fome authors, to a fpecies of dogs-bane, diftinguifhed, by Mr. Tournefort, by the name of apocynum maritimum venetum, falicis folio, flore purpurea, the purple flowered fea apocynum of Venice, with willow^like leaves. See the article Apocynum.

ALYSSOIDES, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, ■ the charaSers of which are thefe. The flower confifts of four leaves, and is of the cruciform kind. The piftil arifes from the cup, and afterwards becomes a fruit, or feed-veffel, of an elliptic figure, very thick and turgid, and dividecTby an intermediate membrane, into two cells, which contain an orbicular, flat, and marginated feed, in confiderable quan- tity. See Tab. 1. of Botany, Clafs 5. The fpecies of AlyJJiides, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe.

1. The fhrubby Alyjfoides, with green leucoium leaves.

2. The hoary Alyjfoides, with finuated leaves. Thefe plants have been, by many, efteemed of the leucoium kind, and called by that name. Tcurn. Inft. ' p. tin. : See-L,Eu- coium.

ALYSSON, madwort, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the charaaers of which 1 are thefe. The flower confifts of four leaves, and is of the cruciform kind. The piftil arifes from the cup, and becomes at length a fmall fijuit, or feed-veffel,