quinine, &c.; the strychnos bases: strychnine, brucine; and the veratrum alkaloids: veratrine, cevadine, &c.
- (4) Isoquinoline group. The opium alkaloids: morphine, codeine, thebaine, papaverine, narcotine, narceine, &c.; and the complicated substances hydrastine and berberine.
In addition to the above series there are a considerable number of compounds derived from purin which are by some writers classed with the alkaloids. These are treated in the article Purin. There are also reasons for including such compounds as muscarine, choline, neurine and betaine in this group.
The greater number of these substances are of considerable medicinal value; this aspect is treated generally in the article Pharmacology. Reference should also be made to the articles on the individual alkaloids for further details as to their medicinal and chemical properties.
The chemistry of the alkaloids is treated in detail by Amé Pictet in his La Constitution chimique des alcaloides végétaux (Paris, 1897); enlarged and translated by H. C. Biddle with the title The Vegetable Alkaloids (New York, 1904); and by J. W. Bruhl, E. Hjelt, and O. Aschan: Die Pflanzen-Alkaloide (1900). A pamphlet, Die Alkaloidchemie in den Jahren 1900–1904, by Julius Schmidt, may also be consulted.
ALKAN, CHARLES HENRI VALENTIN MORHANGE (1813–1888), French musical composer, was born and died in Paris. Alkan was his nom de guerre. Admitted to the Conservatoire of Paris in his sixth year, he had a distinguished career there until 1830. He visited London in 1833, after which he settled in Paris as a pianoforte teacher till his death. He is important as the composer of a large number of pianoforte études, embodying the most extravagant technical difficulties. His invention was not modern enough to secure for these works that attention which they deserve as representing a pianoforte technique and sense of effect in some respects more advanced even than that of Liszt, though lacking Liszt’s economy and tact.
ALKANET (dim. from Span. alcaña, Arab. al-henna＝henna, Egyptian privet, or Lawsonia inermis), a plant, Alkanna or Anchusa tinctoria, of the order Boraginaceae, also known as orchanet, dyer’s bugloss, Spanish bugloss or bugloss of Languedoc, which is grown in the south of France and on the shores of the Levant. Its root yields a fine red colouring matter which has been used to tint tinctures, oils, wines, varnishes, &c.
AL KASR AL KEBIR (“the great castle,” in Span. Alcazar Kebir, in Port. Alcaçer Quibir), a town of Morocco, on the river Lekkus, 80 m. N.W. of Fez. Pop. about 10,000. Its mud and pantile dwellings are here and there relieved by a mosque tower, but the aspect of the town is far from inviting. It is frequently flooded in winter and in consequence fever is prevalent. The weekly market, held on Sundays in the centre of the town, gives to the place an appearance of bustle. A vice-governor is appointed for the town by the basha of Laraiche, one for the country round by the sultan of Morocco, a condition which causes much confusion on market-days. Al Kasr al Kebir was built, according to Leo Africanus, by Yakub el Mansur (1186–1199). Not far from the town, by the banks of the river Makhazan, is the site of the battle fought in 1578 between Dom Sebastian, king of Portugal, and the Moors under Abd el Malek, in which the Moors were victorious, though both kings perished, as well as the deposed Mahommed XI., who had called in the Portuguese to his aid against Abd el Malek.
ALKMAAR, a town in the province of North Holland, kingdom of Holland, 2412 m. by rail N.N.W. of Amsterdam, connected by steam-tramway with Haarlem and Amsterdam, and on the North Holland canal. Pop. (1900) 18,373. Alkmaar is a typical North Holland town, with tree-lined canals and brightly coloured 17th-century houses. The old city walls have been replaced by pleasant gardens and walks, and there is a park in which stands a fine monument (1876) by J. T. Stracké (1817–1891), symbolizing Alcmaria victrix, to commemorate the siege by the Spaniards in 1573. The Groote Kerk (1470–1498), dedicated to St Lawrence, is a handsome building and contains the tomb of Floris V., count of Holland (d. 1296), a brass of 1546, and some paintings (1507). In the town hall (1507) are the library and a small museum with two pictures by the 17th-century artist Caesar van Everdingen, who with his more celebrated brother Allart van Everdingen (q.v.) was a native of the town. The weigh-house (1582) is a picturesque building with quaint gable and tower. Just outside the town lies the Alkmaar wood, at the entrance to which stands the military cadet school which serves as a preparatory school for the royal military academy at Breda. Alkmaar derives its chief importance from being the centre of the flourishing butter and cheese trade of this region of Holland. It is also a considerable market for horses, cattle and grain, and there is a little boat-building and salt and sail-cloth manufacture. Tramways connect Alkmaar with Egmond and with the pretty summer resort of Bergen, which lies sheltered by woods and dunes.
The name of Alkmaar, which means “all sea,” first occurs in the 10th century, and recalls its former situation in the midst of marshlands and lakes. It was probably originally a fishing-village, but with the reclamation of the surrounding morasses, e.g. that of the Schermer in 1685, and their conversion into rich meadow land, Alkmaar gradually acquired an important trade. In 1254 it received a charter from William II., count of Holland, similar to that of Haarlem, but in the 15th century duke Philip the Good of Burgundy made the impoverishment of the town, due to ill-government, the excuse for establishing an oligarchical régime, by charters of 1436 and 1437. As the capital of the ancient district of Kennemerland between den Helder and Haarlem, Alkmaar frequently suffered in the early wars between the Hollanders and the Frisians, and in 1517 was captured by the united Gelderlanders and Frisians. In 1573 it successfully sustained a seven-weeks’ siege by 16,000 Spaniards under the duke of Alva. In 1799 Alkmaar gave its name to a convention signed by the duke of York and the French general Brune, in accordance with which the Russo-British army of 23,000 men, which was defeated at Bergen, evacuated Holland. A monument was erected in 1901 to commemorate the Russians who fell.
ALLACCI, LEONE [Leo Allatius] (1586–1669), Greek scholar and theologian, was born in the island of Chios. His early years were passed in Calabria and at Rome, where he finally settled as teacher of Greek at the Greek college, at the same time devoting himself to the study of classics and theology. In 1622, after the capture of Heidelberg by Tilly, the elector Maximilian of Bavaria presented its splendid library composed of 196 cases of MSS. (bibliotheca Palatina) to Pope Gregory XV. Allacci was sent to superintend its removal to Rome, where it was incorporated with the Vatican library. On the death of Gregory, Allacci became librarian to Cardinal Berberini, and subsequently (1661) librarian of the Vatican, which post he held till his death on the 18th (or 19th) of January 1669. It is noteworthy that, although a Greek by birth, he became an ardent Roman Catholic and the bitter enemy of all heretics, including his own countrymen. Allacci was a very industrious and voluminous writer, but his works, although they bear ample testimony to his immense learning, show an absence of the true critical faculty, and are full of intolerance, especially on religious subjects. For a list of these, J. A. Fabricius’s Bibliotheca Graeca (xi. 437) should be consulted, where they are divided into four classes: editions, translations and commentaries on ancient authors; works relating to the dogmas and institutions of the Greek and Roman Churches; historical works; miscellaneous works. The number of his unpublished writings is also very large; the majority of them are included in the MSS. of the Vallicellian library.
The main source of our knowledge of Allatius is the incomplete life by Stephanus Gradi, Leonis Allatii vita, published by Cardinal Mai, in Nova Bibliotheca Patrum. A complete enumeration of his works is contained in E. Legrand, Bibliographie hellénique du XVII ème siècle (Paris, 1895, iii. 435-471). The accounts of C. N. Sathas in Νεοελληνικὴ φιλολογία (Athens, 1868), and of the pseudo-prince Demetrius Rhodokanakis, Leonis Allatii Hellas (Athens, 1872), are inaccurate and untrustworthy. For a special account of his share in the foundation of the Vatican Library, see Curzio Mazzi, Leone Allacci e la Palatina di Heidelberg (Bologna, 1893). The theological aspect of his works is best treated by the Assumptionist Father L. Petit in A. Vacant’s Dictionnaire de théologie (Paris, 1900, cols. 830-833).
ALLAH, the Arabic name used by Moslems of all nationalities for the one true God. It is compounded of al, the definite article, and ilah, meaning a god. The same word is found in Hebrew and Aramaic as well as in ancient Arabic (Sabaean). The meaning of the root from which it is derived is very doubtful; cf. Lane’s
