He was also the first to introduce the Pullman car on British railways. Allport received the honour of knighthood in 1884. He died in London on the 25th of April 1892.
ALLPORT, SAMUEL (1816–1897), English petrologist, brother of the above, was born in Birmingham on the 23rd of January 1816, and educated in that city. Although occupied in business during the greater portion of his life, his leisure was given to geological studies, and when residing for a short period in Bahia, S. America, he made observations on the geology, published by the Geological Society in 1860. His chief work was in microscopic petrology, to the study of which he was attracted by the investigations of Dr H. C. Sorby; and he became one of the pioneers of this branch of geology, preparing his own rock-sections with remarkable skill. The basalts of S. Staffordshire, the diorites of Warwickshire, the phonolite of the Wolf Rock (to which he first directed attention), the pitchstones of Arran and the altered igneous rocks near the Land’s End were investigated and described by him during the years 1869–1879 in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society and in the Geological Magazine. In 1880 he was appointed librarian in Mason College, a post which he relinquished on account of ill-health in 1887. In that year the Lyell medal was awarded to him by the Geological Society. A few years later he retired to Cheltenham, where he died on the 7th of July 1897.
ALL-ROUND ATHLETICS. Specialization in athletic sports,
although always existent, is to a great extent a modern product.
In ancient times athletes were encouraged to excel in several
branches of sport, often quite opposite in character. Thus the
athlete held in highest honour at the Olympic Games (see
Games, Classical) was the winner of the pentathlon, which
consisted of running, jumping, throwing the javelin and the
discus, and wrestling. All-round championships have existed for
many years both in Scotland and Ireland, and in America there
are both national and sectional championships. The American
national championship was instituted in 1884, the winner being
the athlete who succeeds in obtaining the highest marks in the
following eleven events; 100 yards run; putting 16 ℔ shot;
running high jump; half-mile walk; throwing 16 ℔ hammer;
120 yards hurdle race; pole vault; throwing 56 ℔ weight;
one mile run; running broad jump; quarter-mile run. In each
event 1000 points are allowed for equalling the “record,” and
an increasing number of points is taken off for performances
below “record,” down to a certain “standard,” below which
the competitor scores nothing. For example, in the 100 yards run the time of 945 seconds represents 1000 points; that of 10 seconds scores 958, or 42 points less; 1015 seconds scores 916, &c.; and below 1415 seconds the competitor scores nothing. Should the record be broken 42 points are added for each 15 second. (See also Athletic Sports.)
ALL SAINTS, FESTIVAL OF (Festum omnium sanctorum), also formerly known as All Hallows, or Hallowmas, a feast of the Catholic Church celebrated on the 1st of November in honour of all the saints, known or unknown. In the Roman Catholic Church it is a festival of the first rank, with a vigil and an octave. Common commemorations, by several churches, of the deaths of martyrs began to be celebrated in the 4th century. The first trace of a general celebration is in Antioch on the Sunday after Pentecost, and this custom is also referred to in the 74th homily of St Chrysostom (407). The origin of the festival of All Saints as celebrated in the West is, however, somewhat doubtful. In 609 or 610 Pope Boniface IV. consecrated the Pantheon at Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, and the feast of the dedicatio Sanctae Mariae ad Martyres has been celebrated at Rome ever since on the 13th of May. The idea, based on the medieval liturgiologists, that this festival was the origin of that of All Saints has now been abandoned. The latter is possibly traceable to the foundation by Gregory III. (731–741) of an oratory in St Peter’s for the relics “of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world.” So far as the Western Church generally is concerned, though the festival was already widely celebrated in the days of Charlemagne, it
was only made of obligation throughout the Frankish empire in 835 by a decree of Louis the Pious issued “at the instance of Pope Gregory IV. and with the assent of all the bishops,” which fixed its celebration on the 1st of November. The festival was retained at the Reformation in the calendar of the Church of England, and also in that of many of the Lutheran churches. In the latter, in spite of attempts at revival, it has fallen into complete disuse.
ALL SOULS’ DAY (Commemoratio omnium fidelium defunctorum),
the day set apart in the Roman Catholic Church for the
commemoration of the faithful departed. The celebration is
based on the doctrine that the souls of the faithful which at death
have not been cleansed from venial sins, or have not atoned for
past transgressions, cannot attain the Beatific Vision, and that
they may be helped to do so by prayer and by the sacrifice of
the mass. The feast falls on the 2nd of November; or on the
3rd if the 2nd is a Sunday or a festival of the first class. The
practice of setting apart a special day for intercession for certain
of the faithful departed is of great antiquity; but the establishment
of a feast of general intercession was in the first instance
due to Odilo, abbot of Cluny (d. 1048). The legend connected
with its foundation is given by Peter Damiani in his Life of St Odilo.
According to this, a pilgrim returning from the Holy
Land was cast by a storm on a desolate island where dwelt a
hermit. From him he learned that amid the rocks was a chasm
communicating with purgatory, from which rose perpetually
the groans of tortured souls, the hermit asserting that he had
also heard the demons complaining of the efficacy of the prayers
of the faithful, and especially of the monks of Cluny, in rescuing
their victims. On returning home the pilgrim hastened to inform
the abbot of Cluny, who forthwith set apart the 2nd of November
as a day of intercession on the part of his community for all
the souls in purgatory. The decree ordaining the celebration is
printed in the Bollandist Ada Sanctorum (Saec. VI., pt. i. p. 585).
From Cluny the custom spread to the other houses of the Cluniac
order, was soon adopted in several dioceses in France, and spread
thence throughout the Western Church. At the Reformation
the celebration of All Souls’ Day was abolished in the Church of
England, though it has been renewed in certain churches in
connexion with the “Catholic revival.” Among continental
Protestants its tradition has been more tenaciously maintained.
Even Luther’s influence was not sufficient to abolish its celebration
in Saxony during his lifetime; and, though its ecclesiastical
sanction lapsed before long even in the Lutheran Church, its
memory survives strongly in popular custom. Just as it is the
custom of French people, of all ranks and creeds, to decorate the
graves of their dead on the jour des morts, so in Germany the people
stream to the grave-yards once a year with offerings of flowers.
Certain popular beliefs connected with All Souls’ Day are of pagan origin and immemorial antiquity. Thus the dead are believed by the peasantry of many Catholic countries to return to their former homes on All Souls’ night and partake of the food of the living. In Tirol cakes are left for them on the table and the room kept warm for their comfort. In Brittany the people flock into the cemeteries at nightfall to kneel bare-headed at the graves of their loved ones, and to fill the hollow of the tombstone with holy water or to pour libations of milk upon it, and at bedtime the supper is left on the table for the soul’s refreshment.
ALLSTON, WASHINGTON (1779–1843), American historical painter and poet, was born on the 5th of November 1779 at Waccamaw, South Carolina, where his father was a planter. He graduated at Harvard in 1800, and for a short time pursued his artistic studies at Charleston with Edward Greene Malbone (1777–1807) the miniature painter, and Charles Fraser (1782–1860). With the former, in 1801, he went to London, and entered the Royal Academy as a student of Benjamin West, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. In 1804 he went to Paris, and, after a few months’ residence there, to Rome, where he spent the greater part of the next four years. During this period he became intimate with Coleridge and Thorwaldsen. From 1809 to 1811 he resided in his native country, and from 1811 to 1817 he painted in England. After visiting Paris a
