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 death, the chief works he published in addition to his History being the Principles of Population (1840), in answer to Malthus; a Life of Marlborough (1847, 2nd edition greatly enlarged, 1852); and the Lives of Lord Castlereagh and Sir C. Stewart (1861.) This latter, based on MS. material preserved at Wynyard Park, is still of value, not only as the only available biography, but more especially because Alison’s Tory sympathies enabled him to give a juster appreciation of the character and work of Castlereagh than the Liberal writers by whom for many years he was misjudged and condemned (see ). Three volumes of Alison’s political, historical and miscellaneous essays were reprinted in 1850. He died at Possil House, Glasgow, on the 23rd of May 1867. His autobiography, Some Account of my Life and Writings, edited by his daughter-in-law, Lady Alison, was published in 1883 at Edinburgh. Sir Archibald Alison married in 1825 Elizabeth Glencairn, daughter of Colonel Tytler, by whom he had three children, Archibald, Frederick and Eliza Frances Catherine. Both sons became distinguished officers.

Bart. (1826–1907), the elder of the sons, entered the 72nd Highlanders in 1846. He served at the siege of Sevastopol; and during the Indian Mutiny he was military secretary to Sir Colin Campbell and was severely wounded at the relief of Lucknow, losing an arm. From 1862 to 1873 he was assistant adjutant-general at headquarters, Portsmouth and Aldershot. He was second in command of the Ashanti expedition 1873–1874, and was made a K.C.B. For three years Alison was deputy adjutant-general in Ireland, and then, for a few months, commandant of the Staff College. He was promoted to be major-general in 1877, and was head of the intelligence branch of the war office (1878–1882). He commanded the troops at Alexandria in 1882 until the arrival of Sir Garnet Wolseley, led the Highland brigade at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir, and remained in command of the army of occupation until 1883. He commanded at Aldershot 1883–1888, was for some months adjutant-general to the forces during Lord Wolseley’s absence in Egypt, was made G.C.B. in 1887, was promoted general, and became a military member of the Council of India in 1889. He retired in 1893 and died in 1907.  ALIWAL, a village of British India, in the Ludhiana district of the Punjab, situated on the left bank of the Sutlej, and famous as the scene of one of the great battles of the 1st Sikh War. Late in January 1846 it was held by Ranjur Singh, who had crossed the river in force and threatened Ludhiana. On the 28th Sir Harry Smith, with a view to clearing the left or British bank, attacked him, and after a desperate struggle thrice pierced the Sikh troops with his cavalry, and pushed them into the river, where large numbers perished, leaving 67 guns to the victors. The consequence of the victory was the submission of the whole territory east of the Sutlej to the British.  ALIWAL NORTH, a town of South Africa, on the south bank of the Orange River, 4300 ft. above the sea, and 282 m. by rail N.W. by N. of the port of East London. Pop. (1904) 5566, of whom 1758 were whites. The town, a trading and agricultural centre for the N.E. part of the Cape and the neighbouring regions of Basutoland and Orange Free State, presents a pleasing appearance. It contains many fine stone buildings. The streets are lined with trees, and water from the neighbouring sulphur springs flows along them in open channels. The river, here the boundary between the Cape province and Orange Free State, is crossed by a stone bridge 860 ft. long. The sulphur springs, 1 m. from the town, which yield over 500,000 gallons daily, are resorted to for the cure of rheumatism and skin diseases. By reason of its dry and bracing climate, Aliwal North is also a favourite residence of sufferers from chest complaints. In the neighbourhood are stone quarries. Aliwal North is the capital of a division of the province of the same name, with an area of 1330 sq. m. and a pop. (1904) of 14,857, of whom 40% are whites.

Aliwal North was so called to distinguish it from Aliwal South, now Mossel Bay, the seaport of the pastoral Grasveld district, on the west side of Mossel Bay. Both places were named in honour of Sir Harry Smith, governor of Cape Colony 1847–1852, (see above) being the village in the Punjab where in 1846 he gained a great victory over the Sikhs. Crossing the Orange River at this spot in September 1848, Sir Harry noted that it was “a beautiful site for a town,” and in the May following the town was founded. In the early months of the Boer War of 1899–1902 Aliwal North was held by the Boers. It was reoccupied by the British in March 1900.  ALIZARIN, or ,

a vegetable dyestuff formerly prepared from madder root (Rubia tinctorum) which contains a glucoside ruberythric acid (C26H28O14). This glucoside is readily hydrolysed by acids or ferments, breaking up into alizarin and glucose:

Alizarin was known to the ancients, and until 1868 was obtained entirely from madder root. The first step in the synthetical production of alizarin was the discovery in 1868 of C. Graebe and C. Liebermann that on heating with zinc dust, alizarin was converted into anthracene. In order to synthesize alizarin, they converted anthracene into anthraquinone and then brominated the quinone. The dibrominated product so obtained was then fused with caustic potash, the melt dissolved in water, and on the addition of hydrochloric acid to the solution, alizarin was precipitated. This process, owing to its expensive nature, was not in use very long, being superseded by another, discovered simultaneously by the above-named chemists and by Sir W. H. Perkin; the method being to sulphonate anthraquinone, and then to convert the sulphonic acid into its sodium salt and fuse this with caustic soda.

In practice, the crude anthracene is purified by solution in the higher pyridine bases, after which treatment it is frequently sublimed. It is then oxidized to anthraquinone by means of sodium dichromate and sulphuric acid in leaden vats, steam heated so that the mixture can be brought to the boil. When oxidation is complete the crude anthraquinone is separated in filter presses and heated with an excess of commercial oil of vitriol to 120° C., the various impurities present in the crude material being sulphonated and rendered soluble in water, whilst the anthraquinone is unaffected; it is then washed, to remove impurities, and dried. The anthraquinone so obtained is then heated for some hours at about 150-160° C. with fuming sulphuric acid (containing about 40-50 % SO3), and by this treatment is converted into anthraquinone--monosulphonic acid. The solution is poured into water and sodium carbonate is added to neutralize the excess of acid, when the sodium salt of the monosulphonic acid (known as silver salt) separates out. This is filtered, washed, and then fused with caustic soda, when the sulpho-group is replaced by a hydroxyl group, and a second hydroxyl group is simultaneously formed; in order to render the formation of this second group easier, a little potassium chlorate or sodium nitrate is added to the reaction mixture. The melt is dissolved in water and the dyestuff is liberated from the sodium salt by hydrochloric or sulphuric acid, or is converted into the calcium salt by digestion with hot milk of lime, then filtered and the calcium salt decomposed by acid. The precipitated alizarin is then well washed and made into a paste with water, in which form it is put on to the market.

K. Lagodzinski (Berichte, 1895, 28, p. 1427) has synthesized alizarin by condensing hemipinic acid [(CH3O)2C6H2(COOH)2] with benzene in the presence of aluminium chloride. The product on acidification gives a compound C15H12O5·H2O which is probably an oxy-methoxy-benzoyl benzoic acid. This is dissolved in cold concentrated sulphuric acid, in which it forms a yellowish red solution, but on heating to 100° C. the colour changes to red and violet, and on pouring out upon ice, the monomethyl ether of alizarin is precipitated. This compound is hydrolysed by hydriodic acid and alizarin is obtained. It