ALBINOVANUS PEDO, Roman poet, flourished during the Augustan age. He wrote a Theseis, referred to in a letter from his intimate friend Ovid (Ex Ponto, iv. 10), epigrams which are commended by Martial (ii. 77, v. 5) and an epic poem on the exploits of Germanicus. He had the reputation of being an excellent raconteur, and Quintilian (x. i. 90) awards him qualified praise as a writer of epics. All that remains of his works is a beautiful fragment, preserved in the Suasoriae (i. 15) of the rhetorician Seneca, from a description of the voyage of Germanicus (A.D. 16) through the river Ems to the Northern Ocean, when he was overtaken by the storm described by Tacitus (Ann. ii. 23). The cavalry commander spoken of by the historian is probably identical with the poet. Three elegies were formerly attributed to Pedo by Scaliger; two on the death of Maecenas (In Obitum Maecenatis and De Verbis Maecenatis moribundi), and one addressed to Livia to console her for the death of her son Drusus (Consolatio ad Liviam de Morte Drusi or Epicēdion Drusi, usually printed with Ovid’s works); but it is now generally agreed that they are not by Pedo. The Consolatio has been put down as late as the 15th century as the work of an Italian imitator, there being no MSS. and no trace of the poem before the publication of the editio princeps of Ovid in 1471. There is an English verse translation of the elegies by Plumptre (1907).
See Bahrens, Poetae Latini Minores (1879) and Fragmenta Poetarum Latinorum (1886); Haupt, Opuscula, i. (1875); Haube, Beitrag zur Kenntnis des Albinovanus Pedo (1880).
ALBINUS (originally Weiss), BERNHARD SIEGFRIED (1697–1770), German anatomist, was born on the 24th of February 1697, at Frankfort-on-Oder, where his father, Bernhard Albinus (1653–1721), was professor of the practice of medicine. In 1702 the latter was transferred to the chair of medicine at Leiden, and it was there that Bernhard Siegfried began his studies, having for his teachers such men as H. Boerhaave and Nikolaus Bidloo. Having finished his studies at Leiden, he went to Paris, where, under the instruction of Sébastien Vaillant (1669–1722), J. B. Winslow (1669–1760) and others, he devoted himself especially to anatomy and botany. After a year’s absence he was, on the recommendation of Boerhaave, recalled in 1719 to Leiden to be a lecturer on anatomy and surgery. Two years later he succeeded his father in the professorship of these subjects, and speedily became one of the most famous teachers of anatomy in Europe, his class-room being resorted to not only by students but by many practising physicians. In 1745 Albinus was appointed professor of the practice of medicine, being succeeded in the anatomical chair by his brother Frederick Bernhard (1715–1778), who, as well as another brother, Christian Bernhard (1700–1752), attained considerable distinction. Bernhard Siegfried, who was twice rector of his university, died on the 9th of September 1770 at Leiden.
ALBION (in Ptolemy Άλουίων; Lat. Albion, Pliny 4.16 [30], 102), the most ancient name of the British Islands, though generally restricted to England. The name is perhaps of Celtic origin, but the Romans took it as connected with albus, white, in reference to the chalk-cliffs of Dover, and A. Holder (Alt-Keltischer Sprachschatz, 1896) unhesitatingly translates it Weissland, “whiteland.” The early writer (6th cent. B.C.) whose periplus is translated by Avienus (end of 4th cent. A.D.) does not use the name Britannia; he speaks of νῆσος Ἰέρνων καὶ Άλβιόνων (“island of the Ierni and the Albiones”). So Pytheas of Massilia (4th cent. B.C.) speaks of Ἄλβιον and Ἰέρνη. From the fact that there was a tribe called the Albiones on the north coast of Spain in Asturia, some scholars have placed Albion in that neighbourhood (see G. F. Unger, Rhein. Mus. xxxviii., 1883, pp. 156-196). The name Albion was taken by medieval writers from Pliny and Ptolemy.
ALBION, a city of Calhoun county, Michigan, U.S.A., on the Kalamazoo river, 21 m. W. of Jackson. Pop. (1890) 3763; (1900) 4519, of whom 622 were foreign-born; (1904) 4943; (1910) 5833. Albion is served by the Michigan Central and the Jackson division of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railways, and by an inter-urban electric line. The city has a public park and a public library. The W. part of the city has most of the factories; the principal manufactures are flour, agricultural implements, windmills, gasolene engines, harness and proprietary medicines. On a commanding site in the E. part of the city is Albion College (Methodist Episcopal; co-educational), embracing a College of Liberal Arts, a preparatory department, a conservatory of music, a school of art, a school of oratory, a normal course, and a commercial department. The college was incorporated in 1835 as Spring Arbor Seminary, and in 1839 by an amended charter was located at Albion, where it was first opened in 1843 under the name of the Wesleyan Seminary of Albion; in 1849 it became the Wesleyan Seminary and Female Collegiate Institute, with power to grant degrees to women only; but in 1861 the present name was adopted and the college was permitted to grant degrees to men and women. In 1906 it had a library of 16,500 volumes, a faculty of 19, and an enrolment of 483 (211 being women). The municipality owns and operates the water-works, the water-supply being obtained from artesian wells. Albion was settled in 1831, was incorporated as a village in 1866 and was chartered as a city in 1885.
ALBION, a village and the county-seat of Orleans county, New York, U.S.A., about 30 m. W.N.W. of Rochester. Pop. (1890) 4586; (1900) 4477, (984 being foreign-born and 43 negroes); (1905, state census) 5174; (1910) 5016. The village is served by the New York Central & Hudson River railway, by the Buffalo, Lockport & Rochester electric railway, and by the Erie Canal. In Albion are the Western House of Refuge for Women (a state institution established in 1890), a public park, the Swan Library, and the county buildings, including the court house, the jail and the surrogate’s office; and about 2 m. to the S.E. is the beautiful Mount Albion Cemetery. Albion is the centre of the Medina sandstone industry, and lies in the midst of a good farming region, of which it is the principal shipping point, especially for apples, cabbages and beans. The village manufactures agricultural implements, vinegar, evaporated fruit, and canned fruit and vegetables, and has two large cold-storage houses. Albion was settled in 1812, was incorporated in 1823 and became the county-seat in 1825.
ALBITE, a mineral of the felspar group, belonging to the
division of the plagioclases (q.v.) It is a sodium and
aluminium silicate, NaAlSi3O8, and crystallizes in the anorthic
system. Like all the felspars it possesses two cleavages,
one perfect and the other less so, which are here inclined at
an angle of 86° 24′. On the more perfect cleavage, which is
parallel to the basal plane (P), is a system of fine striations,
parallel to the second cleavage (M), due to twinning according
to the “albite law” (figs. 1 and 2).
Fig. 1. Fig. 2.
Twinned crystals of Albite.
The hardness is 6, and the specific gravity 2.63. The colour is usually pure white, hence the name (from the Lat. albus) for the species.
Albite forms an essential constituent of many acidic igneous and crystalline rocks; in granites, diorites, andesites, &c., it occurs as a primary mineral, whilst in crystalline schists, phyllites and crystalline limestones it is of secondary (metamorphic) origin. The beautifully developed crystals so abundant in crystal-lined crevices of Alpine granites and gneisses have been deposited, with other minerals, from solution; the crystals lining veins in the slates of Tintagel in Cornwall have the same origin.
Several varieties of albite are distinguished, of which the following may be here specially mentioned. Pericline (from the Gr. περιλινἠς, “sloping”) is the name given to large opaque white crystals from the chlorite-schists of the Alps; they are tabular parallel to the direction of perfect cleavage and are twinned according to the “pericline law.” Peristerite
