Page:EB1911 - Volume 01.djvu/759

 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 wanted 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. almande or alemande, late Lat. amandola, derived through a form amingdola from the Gr. , 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 ā-mond and the modern French amande show the true form of the word). The almond is the fruit of Amygdalus communis, a plant belonging to the tribe Pruneae of the natural order Rosaceae. The genus Amygdalus is very closely allied to Prunus (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 warm-temperate 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 said 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 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 (q.v.), which is not used in medicine. Bitter almonds may yield from 6 to 8% of prussic acid.

Oleum Amygdalae, the fixed oil, is prepared from either variety of almond. If intended for internal use, it must, however, be prepared only from sweet almonds. It is a glyceryl oleate, with slight odour and a nutty taste. It is almost insoluble in alcohol but readily soluble in chloroform or ether. It may be used as a pleasant substitute for olive oil. The pharmacopoeial preparations of the sweet almond are used only as vehicles for other drugs. The sweet almond itself, however, has a special dietetic value. It contains practically no starch and may therefore be made into flour for cakes and biscuits for patients suffering from diabetes mellitus or any other form of glycosuria. It is a nutritious and very pleasant food.

There are numerous commercial varieties of sweet almond, of which the most esteemed is the Jordan almond, imported from Malaga. Valentia almonds are also valued. Fresh sweet almonds are nutritive and demulcent, but as the outer brown skin sometimes causes irritation of the alimentary canal, they are blanched by removal of this skin when used at dessert.

ALMONER (from Lat. eleemosynarius, through med. Lat. almosynarius, almonarius, and Fr. almosnier, aumosnier, &c., mod. Fr. aumônier), in the primitive sense, an officer in religious houses to whom belonged the management and distribution of the alms of the house. By the ancient canons all monasteries were to spend at least a tenth part of their income in alms to the poor, and all bishops were required to keep almoners. Almoners, as distinct from chaplains, appear early as attached to the court of the kings of France; but the title of grand almoner of France first appears in the reign of Charles VIII.