Part 172

The needless Alexandrine ends the song, That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. Pope.

{ A*lex`i*phar"mac (&?;), A*lex`i*phar"ma*cal (&?;), } a. & n. [See Alexipharmic.] Alexipharmic. [Obs.]

{ A*lex`i*phar"mic (&?;), A*lex`i*phar"mic*al (&?;), } a. [Gr. &?; keeping off poison; &?; to keep off + &?; drug, poison: cf. F. alexipharmaque.] (Med.) Expelling or counteracting poison; antidotal.

A*lex`i*phar"mic (&?;), n. (Med.) An antidote against poison or infection; a counterpoison.

A*lex`i*py*ret"ic (&?;), a. [Gr. &?; + &?; burning heat, fever, &?; fire.] (Med.) Serving to drive off fever; antifebrile. -- n. A febrifuge.

{ A*lex`i*ter"ic (&?;), A*lex`i*ter"ic*al (&?;), } a. [Gr. &?; fit to keep off or help, fr. &?; one who keeps off, helper; &?; to keep off: cf. F. alexitère.] (Med.) Resisting poison; obviating the effects of venom; alexipharmic.

A*lex`i*ter"ic, n. [Gr. &?; a remedy, an amulet: cf. F. alexitère, LL. alexiterium.] (Med.) A preservative against contagious and infectious diseases, and the effects of poison in general. Brande & C.

||Al"fa (&?;) or Al"fa grass" (&?;), n. A plant (Macrochloa tenacissima) of North Africa; also, its fiber, used in paper making.

Al*fal"fa (&?;), n. [Sp.] (Bot.) The lucern (Medicago sativa); -- so called in California, Texas, etc.

Al"fe*nide (&?;), n. (Metal.) An alloy of nickel and silver electroplated with silver.

||Al*fe"res (&?;), n. [Sp., fr. Ar. al- frs knight.] An ensign; a standard bearer. [Obs.] J. Fletcher.

Al"fet, n. [LL. alfetum, fr. AS. lfæt a pot to boil in; l burning + fæt vat.] A caldron of boiling water into which an accused person plunged his forearm as a test of innocence or guilt.

||Al*fil`a*ri"a (&?;), n. (Bot.) The pin grass (Erodium cicutarium), a weed in California.

||Al`fi*o"ne (&?;), n. (Zoöl.) An edible marine fish of California (Rhacochilus toxotes).

||Al*fres"co (&?;), adv. & a. [It. al fresco in or on the fresh.] In the open-air. Smollett.

||Al"ga (&?;), n.; pl. Algæ (&?;). [L., seaweed.] (Bot.) A kind of seaweed; pl. the class of cellular cryptogamic plants which includes the black, red, and green seaweeds, as kelp, dulse, sea lettuce, also marine and fresh water confervæ, etc.

Al"gal (&?;), a., (Bot.) Pertaining to, or like, algæ.

||Al`ga*ro"ba (&?;), n. [Sp. algarroba, fr. Ar. al-kharr&?;bah. Cf. Carob.] (Bot.) (a) The Carob, a leguminous tree of the Mediterranean region; also, its edible beans or pods, called St. John's bread. (b) The Honey mesquite (Prosopis juliflora), a small tree found from California to Buenos Ayres; also, its sweet, pulpy pods. A valuable gum, resembling gum arabic, is collected from the tree in Texas and Mexico.

{ Al"ga*rot (&?;), Al"ga*roth (&?;), } n. [F. algaroth, fr. the name of the inventor, Algarotti.] (Med.) A term used for the Powder of Algaroth, a white powder which is a compound of trichloride and trioxide of antimony. It was formerly used in medicine as an emetic, purgative, and diaphoretic.

||Al`ga*ro*vil"la (&?;), n. The agglutinated seeds and husks of the legumes of a South American tree (Inga Marthæ). It is valuable for tanning leather, and as a dye.

{ Al"gate (&?;), Al"gates (&?;), } adv. [All + gate way. The s is an adverbial ending. See Gate.] 1. Always; wholly; everywhere. [Obs.]

Ulna now he algates must forego. Spenser.

Still used in the north of England in the sense of "everywhere."

2. By any or means; at all events. [Obs.] Fairfax.

3. Notwithstanding; yet. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Al"ga*zel` (&?;), n. [Ar. al the + ghazl.] (Zoöl.) The true gazelle.

Al"ge*bra (&?;), n. [LL. algebra, fr. Ar. al-jebr reduction of parts to a whole, or fractions to whole numbers, fr. jabara to bind together, consolidate; al-jebr w'almuqbalah reduction and comparison (by equations): cf. F. algèbre, It. & Sp. algebra.] 1. (Math.) That branch of mathematics which treats of the relations and properties of quantity by means of letters and other symbols. It is applicable to those relations that are true of every kind of magnitude.

2. A treatise on this science.