Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/635

Rh A L A L P 597 north west of the town la Alnwick Castle, which has belonged to the Northumberland family since 1310. In early times this fortress was an important defence against the Scotch, and was besieged by them on several occasions, most memorably in 1093, when Malcolm Canmore and his son Edward were slain under its walls; and in 1174, when William the Lion was defeated and taken prisoner. For a long time it was permitted to fall into decay, but it has recently been restored, and to some extent remodelled, and is now one of the most magnificent specimens of a baronial residence in England. The grounds are extensive, and contain the remains of two abbeys, Alnwick and Hulme. The population of Alnwick in 1871 was 5822. ALOE. Aloes is a medicinal substance used as a purgative, and produced from various species of aloe, such as A. spicata, vulgaris, socotrina, indica, and purpurascens, all belonging to the natural order Liliacese. Several kinds of aloes are distinguished in commerce Barbadoes, soco- trine, hepatic, Indian, and Cape aloes. The first two are those commonly used for medicinal purposes. Aloes is the inspissated juice of the leaves of the plant. When the leaves &quot;are cut the juice flows out, and is collected and evaporated. After the juice has been obtained, the leaves are sometimes boiled, so as to yield an inferior kind of aloes. The active principle is called aloein. Aloes is used in the form of extract, pill, tincture, and wine. It is irritant, and requires to be used with caution. The plant called American aloe belongs to a different order, viz., Amaryllidaceae. The plant is called Agave Americana. The juice of the plant, taken immediately before flowering, is used in America for the manufacture of an intoxicating beverage. In Ecuador the spongy substance of the flower stem is used instead of tinder, and in the schools the green leaves serve as paper. A punish ment among the Aztecs was introducing the spiny points of the leaves into the skin. The plant often delays flower ing for many years, and then pushes up a flowering stalk with great rapidity, sometimes at the rate of 1 foot or even 2 feet in twenty-four hours. The fibrous matter procured from the agave by maceration supplies pita flax. The aloes or lign aloes of the Bible (Numb. xxiv. 6, and Psalm xlv. 8) is quite different from the medicinal aloes. The Hebrew words ahalim and ahaloth, and the Greek word aloe, are rendered aloes in our version of the Scrip tures. The substance is supposed by some to be the fragrant wood of Aquilaria Agallochum, a plant belonging to the natural order Aquilariaceaj. There are, however, considerable doubts as to the correctness of this view, more especially as the tree is a native of Cochin China, Silhet, and Northern India, and is not found in Chaldea or Syria. From the allusion made to the trees of lign aloes by Balaam, it seems probable that they were known as growing in Syria. It is quite possible, however, that the precious fragrant substance called aloes, and mentioned in Scripture along with cinnamon, cassia, myrrh, and spices, may have been brought from India. As a perfume it is noted in Psalm xlv. 8; Prov. vii. 17; Song of Sol. iv. 14. The use of aloes in perfuming the coverings of the dead is referred to in John xix. 39, 40. ALOID^E, or ALOIAD^E, the designation of Otus and Ephialtes, sons of Poseidon by Iphimedea, wife of Aloeus. They are celebrated for their extraordinary stature, being 27 cubits in height and 9 in breadth when only nine years old. The story of their piling Pelion upon Ossa in their war with the Olympian gods is one of the best known of tae early Greek myths. According to Homer s account, they were destroyed by Apollo ere their beards began to grow. (Odyssey, xi. 305; Iliad, v. 385.) ALOMPRA, ALOUNG P HOURA, founder of the reigning dynasty in Burmah, was born in 1711 at Monchaboo, a small village 50 miles north-west of Ava. Of hurnblo origin, he had risen to be chief of his native village when the invasion of Birmah by the king of Pegu in 1752 gave him the opportunity of attaining to the highest distinction. The whole country had tamely submitted to the invader, and the leading chiefs had taken the oaths of allegiance. Alompra, however, with a more independent spirit, not only contrived to regain possession of his village, but was able to defeat a body of Peguan troops that had been sent to punish him. Upon this the Birmese, to the number of a thousand, rallied to his standard, and marched with him upon Ava, which was recovered from the invaders before the close of 1753. For several years he prosecuted the war with uniform success. In 1754 the Peguans, to avenge themselves for a severe defeat at Keoum-nuoum, slew the king of Birmah, who was their prisoner. The son of the latter claimed the throne, and was supported by the tribe of Quois; but Alompra resisted, being determined to- maintain his own supremacy. In 1755 Alompra founded the city of Rangoon. In 1757 he had established his position as one of the most powerful monarchs of the East by the invasion and conquest of Pegu. Ere a year elapsed the Peguans revolted; but Alompra, with his usiial promptitude, at once quelled the insurrection. The Euro peans were suspected of having instigated the rising, and the massacre of the English at Negrais in October 1759 is supposed to have been approved by Alompra after the event, though there is no evidence that he ordered it. Against the Siamese, who were also suspected of having abetted the Peguan rebels, he proceeded more openly and severely. Entering their territory, he was just about to invest the capital when he was seized with an illness which proved fatal on the 15th May 1760. Alompra is certainly one of the most remarkable figures in modern Oriental history. To undoubted military genius he added considerable poli tical sagacity, and he deserves particular credit for his efforts to improve the administration of justice. His cruelty and deceitfulness are faults common to all Eastern despots. ALOST, or AALST, a town of Belgium, on the eastern frontier of the province of East Flanders, about midway between Ghent and Brussels. The Dender, a navigable tributary of the Scheldt, passes through the town, which is a clean, well-built place, siirrounded by a wall with five gates. The church of St Martin, a fine edifice, although unfinished, contains a celebrated picture by Rubens, &quot;St Roche Praying for the Cessation of the Plague.&quot; Among the other public buildings are a town-hall, which was founded about 1200 A.D., a college, and an hospital. The trade is extensive, chiefly in corn, oil, hops, and beer; and there are linen, lace, and cotton manufactories, and iron foundries of considerable importance. Alost was formerly the capital of imperial Flanders. The French under Turenne took it in 1667, but were obliged to abandon it after the battle of Ramillies in 1706. Population, 19,000. ALPACA is a name applied generally to several, allied South American wool-bearing animals, but more properly restricted to one of the species. It is further used to dis tinguish the wool obtained from these animals, and the woven textures manufactured from the wool are also known as alpacas. The alpacas or llamas are natives of the lofty table-lands and mountain-range of the Andes in Peru and Chili, and in that region of the globe they long occupied the position held in the Old World by their congeners of larger size, the camels. To the ancient Peruvians the llamas were the only available beasts of burden and wool-bearing creatures, just as to the present day the camel is to the tribes of the Asiatic deserts. The camel (Camel us) and the llama (Auchenia) form the two existing genera of the family Camelidce; and thus in a zoological sense also the one