Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/291

 ALOOY ALDEHYDE 267 formed without the expectation of any com- pensation for his services, is believed to be almost unparalleled. So unintermitting and engrossing were his various avocations, that he hardly ever found time to read a book through ; and the books which he wrote probably exceed in number those which he read entirely. Dr. Alcott's views of reform did not lead him to the adoption of any violent and destructive measures. The great object of his labors was to prevent poverty, vice, and crime, by means of correct physical and moral training, and the judicious application of intelligence to the improvement of society. ALCOY, a town of Spain, in Valencia, in the province and 23 m. N". of Alicante ; pop. about 25,000. It is well built, in a picturesque site between two streams, and has extensive manufactures of paper, cloth, linen, and excel- lent sugar-plums. The best paper for ciga- rettes is made here. ALCUIN (Lat. Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus), an English scholar and churchman, born probably in York about 735, died May 19, 804. He was master of the school and keeper of the cathe- dral library at York, until at the invitation of Charlemagne he went to France in 780 and opened a school, probably at Aix-la-Chapelle, where his lessons were attended by the empe- ror and his court. This establishment is sup- posed to have been the germ of the university of Paris, and had an important influence upon the revival of learning in France. In 796 he received the abbey of St. Martin of Tours, and soon afterward opened a school there, which became widely celebrated. He was the confi- dant and adviser of the emperor, and one of the most learned men of the age, but so mod- est that he refused to accept any higher order in the church than that of deacon. The best edition of his writings, including theological treatises, epistles to Charlemagne, and miscel- laneous letters, was published by Froben (2 vols. folio, Ratisbon, 1777). ALCYONE, the brightest of the star group of the Pleiades, and the supposed centre of the arc in which our sun and planets appear to be moving through the interstellar space. ALDAN. ! A name applied by some geog- raphers to the whole range of mountains in eastern Siberia, from the Altai chain to Beh- ring strait. Others limit its application to a branch of this mountain system, extending from the Yablonnoy range in a northwesterly direc- tion about 900 miles. Mt. Kapitan, the high- est summit of this branch, has an elevation of 4,263 feet above the sea level. IL A river, which rises in the Aldan mountains, and after a N". and W. course of about 900 miles falls in- to the Lena, 100 miles N". of Yakutsk. ALDBOROCGH, a market town and parish of Yorkshire, England, on the Ure, 16 m. W. N. W. of York. The town is a place of great an- tiquity, supposed to have been the capital of the Brigantes, known to the Romans as Isu- rium. Several remains of antiquity have been discovered. Three remarkable obelisks of rough stone are in the neighborhood, the high- est of which is 30 feet high. ALDEBARAN, the chief star in the constellation of Taurus, forming the eye, and one of the group of five called the Hyades. Huggins has lately proved by means of the spectroscope that this star has nearly the same chemical compo- sition as our sun, from which other stars differ considerably. ALDEGONDE, Sainte,' Philip Tan llarniv. baron of, a Dutch statesman and scholar, born in Brussels in 1538, died in Leyden, Dec. 15, 1598. At Geneva, where he was educated, he imbib- ed from Calvin a strong attachment to the re- formed creed, and after his return home he was one of the signers, if not the originator, of the pact of the nobles protesting against the establishment of the inquisition in the Nether- lands in 1566. He was the especial friend of William of Orange, who confided to him several delicate missions, and sent him in 1572 to the first assembly of the Dutch states general at Dort. He was also military commandant of several towns, and in 1573-'4 was for some 'time a prisoner in the hands of the Spaniards. He was afterward sent by the states general as envoy successively to Paris, to London, and to the diet of Worms (1577). In 1584, being burgomaster of Antwerp, he defended the city against the duke of Parma, but was at last obliged to surrender, after which he spent sev- eral years in retirement. In 1590 he was am- bassador to France. He left several contro- versial treatises and an excellent metrical ver- sion of the Psalms, and at the time of his death was translating the Bible into Flemish. . ALDEGREVER, or Aldegraf, Heinrich, a German painter and engraver, born at Paderborn inWest- phalia in 1502, died about 1560. He was a pu- pil and imitator of Albert Diirer. His prints, which are very numerous, are sharp and an- gular in outline, and generally small. ALDEHYDE, a liquid obtained from alcohol. Liebig was the first to study the products form- ed by abstracting hydrogen from alcohol, and to give the name of alcohol dehydrogenated to the first of the series. If vinic alcohol be burn- ed at a low temperature and with a limited supply of air, the vapors emitted have a pe- culiar irritating effect on the eyes and nose, due to the production of a remarkable body named aldehyde. Similar compounds are furnished by the imperfect combustion of the other alco- hols, so that there are as many aldehydes as there are alcohols. There are numerous ways of pre- paring ordinary aldehyde, among which may be mentioned the oxidation of alcohol by platinum black, chromic acid, nitric acid, chlorine wa- ter, and a mixture of sulphuric acid and black oxide of manganese. The method usu- ally employed is to distil 2 parts of 80 pef cent, alcohol, 3 parts oil of vitriol, and 2 parts of water into a well cooled receiver. After about 3 parts have passed over, the distillate is mixed with an equal weight of chloride of