example is the addition of soda (alkali) to; sour milk (acid), which neutralizes the acid, or destroys the sour taste. An alkali also unites with oil or fat to make soap.
Al' kaloids, a class of substances that occur in plants, some of which are very poisonous, and many are very valuable medicines. All of them are bases, that is, they unite with acids to form salts, and in many cases the salts are used medicinally. All alkaloids contain carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen and usually oxygen also. Some of the most important alkaloids are theine of coffee and tea, nicotine of tobacco, morphine from opium, quinine from Peruvian bark, as well as strychnine, atropine, cocaine etc.
Allahabad (d-ld-hd-bdd' ), capital of the northwestern provinces of India. The name of the place means "City of God." It is built at the junction of the Ganges and Jumna Rivers. Its fort is strong and commands both rivers. Within the fort are the remains of a splendid palace of the Emperor Akbar. Many Hindus make pilgrimages to Allahabad because of its sacred rivers. It also forms the junction of the great railway system that unites Bengal with Central India and Bombay. Population about 172,000.
Allan, Hon. George W., born in Toronto in 1822. Educated at Upper Canada College. Called to the bar in 1846. Was Chancellor of Trinity College. Toronto; a fellow of the Royal Geological Society (England); was mayor of Toronto in 1855; a legislative councillor from 1858 to 1867; called to the Senate of Canada in 1867; speaker of the Senate from 1888 to 1891. He died in 1901.
Allan, Sir Hugh, born in Ayrshire, Scotland, 1810. His father was a ship master; entered a counting house at the age of 13, went to Canada in 1826. In 1851, the firm of which he was a member began to build iron screw-steamships, and their first boat, "The Canadian," made its first trip in 1853. In 1854 the mail service was begun. It has continued ever since. The history of the Allan firm is that of Canadian maritime commerce. Their fleet has long been one of the first in point of general merit in the world. Their steamers have been used as transport ships by the British Government. A director of several important industrial concerns; received knighthood in recognition of his great services to foreign and domestic commerce; died December 8, 1892.
Alleghany (al'e-ga'ni) or Appalachian Mountains, te great range of mountains which extend from Canada to the northern part of Alabama. The greatest width of the main range is in Pennsylvania and Maryland, about 100 miles in extent, and its length is 1,300 miles. While varying little in height, the ridges follow a remarkably straight course, sometimes keeping an almost straight line for 50, or 60 miles. Included in this range are the Green Mountains of Vermont, the Highlands of the Hudson, the Catskills, the Blue Ridge and west of it the Alleghanies proper. Nowhere do these mountains reach the snow line. Mitchell's Peak, in North Carolina, 6,688 feet, is the highest point, while Mt. Washington, in New Hampshire, 6,293 feet high, is the most famous peak. The Alleghanies are one of the great sources of supply for the whole country of iron and coal.
Allegheny, a city located in western Pennsylvania, at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, recently united with Pittsburg. Population is now reckoned with Pittsburg. Allegheny was incorporated as a borough in 1828, and as a city in 1840. It is connected with Pittsburg by ten bridges. Three theological seminaries are located here—Presbyterian,United Presbyterian and Reformed Presbyterian. The Western University of Pennsylvania, with its astronomical observatory, the finest in the state, is also here. The Carnegie Free Library, with its 50,000 volumes, erected at a cost of $300,000, occupies a beautiful and central location in the city. The Western Penitentiary, one of the largest and most modern penal institutions in the world, is within the city limits. The largest natural-gas tank in the United States is in Allegheny. Allegheny has a flourishing and efficient public-school system, embracing 372 teachers and ten kindergarten schools, with 20 additional teachers; also one high school, costing $150,000 and another in progress of construction at a cost of $350,000, besides four well-equipped manual-training schools. Total enrollment in the public schools, including the high school and kindergartens, for 1900 was 20,106. The industries of Allegheny are many and varied, steel and iron predominating. Leather is manufactured in great quantities. Many other pursuits contribute to the general wealth and thrift of the city, which is noted for its numerous churches and orderly people.
Allegheny River rises in Potter County, Pa., and flows northwest into New Yort, then south-southwest, and, after a course of 400 miles,unites at Pittsburg with the Monongahela to form the Ohio. It is navigable for small boats for a short distance.
Allen, Charles Grant, a Canadian naturalist and story-teller, of Scotch parentage, who won fame in England as an exponent of evolution, a popular writer on scientific subjects and a psychological novelist. He was, perhaps, most at home in the popular essay, in the field of aesthetics and semi-science. He has written delightfully on flowers, birds and insects as well as in the realm of fiction. His best known works are, in novels, The Tents of Shem and The Woman Who Did, and in popular science, The Evolutionist at Large, Vignettes from Nature and Science in Arcady.
