In the United States, it is declared by law that the standard for both gold and silver coins shall be such, that of 1,000 parts, by weight, 900 shall be of pure metal and 100 of alloy.
ALL-SAINTS' BAY, in the state of Bahia, coast of Brazil, forms a natural harbor, in which the navies of the whole world might ride at anchor. Its length from N. to S. is 35 miles; its breadth 27. The town of Bahia lies just within it.
ALL-SAINTS' DAY, a festival instituted by Pope Boniface IV., early in the 7th century, on the occasion of his transforming the Roman heathen Pantheon into a Christian temple or church, and consecrating it to the Virgin Mary and all the martyrs. It is kept by the Churches of England, Rome, etc., on the 1st of November and is designed to honor all saints. It was formerly called All-hallows. In many American Churches a custom has grown up of making the Sunday nearest the 1st of November the occasion of a service in memory of those who have died during the year.
ALL SOULS COLLEGE, one of the colleges of the University of Oxford. England, founded by Archbishop Chichele in 1437. The college is especially notable for the number of eminent theologians who have been graduates. Among them are Jeremy Taylor and Reginald Heber. Many eminent lawyers and statesmen have also been members of this college. These include Gladstone, Blackstone, Lord Salisbury, and Earl Curzon. The Codrington Library belonging to the college contains over 70,000 volumes.
ALL-SOULS' DAY, the day on which the Church of Rome commemorates all the faithful deceased. It was first enjoined in the 11th century by Odilon, Abbot of Cluny, on his monastic order, and soon afterward came to be adopted by the Church generally. It is held on the 2d of November.
ALLSPICE, a kind of pepper, consisting of the dried berries of pimenta officinalis (myrtus pimenta of Linnaeus, eugenia pimenta of De Candolle), a tree belonging to the order myrtaceæ (myrtle blooms). It is imported almost entirely from Jamaica, and is hence called Jamaica pepper. It is termed also pimento, from Spanish pimienta=pepper; its berries in shape and flavor resembling peppercorns. The trees are cultivated in Jamaica in plantations called pimento walks. Their unripe fruits, and, to a lesser extent, all parts of them, abound in an essential oil, which has the same composition as oil of cloves; of this the berries yield from 3 to 5 per cent. It is a powerful irritant, and is often used to allay toothache. The allspice imported into this country is derived from pimenta officinalis, and not from pimenta acris.
The word is also the English name of the genus calycanthus, and especially of C. floridus, which has a scent like the pimento tree, grows in Carolina, and is often called the Carolina allspice. Japan allspice is the English name of the genus chimonanthus, which belongs to the calycanthaceæ; wild allspice is benzoin odoriferum, a species of the laurel order.
ALLSTON, WASHINGTON, an eminent American painter, poet, and romancer, born at Waccamaw, S. C, Nov. 5, 1779; graduated at Harvard in 1800; studied at the Royal Academy, London, and in Rome, and returned to Boston in 1809. He is the author of "The Sylph of the Seasons, and Other Poems" (1813); "Monaldi," a romance (1841), and "Lectures on Art and Poems" (1850). He died in Cambridge, Mass., July 9, 1843.
ALLUVIUM, the act or process of washing away soil, gravel, rocks, etc., and depositing the debris in other places; also, the materials thus deposited.
In geology the form of the word is alluvium, or, rarely, alluvion.
Alluvium is especially employed to designate the transported matter laid down by fresh water during the Pleistocene and recent periods. The most typical example of alluvium may be seen in the deltas of the Nile, Ganges, Mississippi, and many other rivers. Some rivers have alluviums of different ages on the slopes down into their valleys. The more modern of these belong to the recent period, as do the organic and other remains which they contain, while the older (as those of the Somme, Thames, Ouse, etc.), which are of the Pleistocene age, inclose more or less rudely chipped flint implements, with the remains of mammals either locally or everywhere extinct.
Volcanic alluvium is sand, ashes, etc., which, after being emitted from a volcano, come under the action of water, and are by it redeposited, as was the case with the materials which entered and filled the interior of houses of Pompeii.
Marine alluvium is alluvium produced by inundations of the sea, such as those which have from time to time overflowed the eastern coast of India.
In English law, the form of the word
