a small city of La Mancha, in Spain defended by a pretty strong castle, and remarkable for an ancient aqueduct. It stands near the river Guardamena, and the soil about it is very fruitful. They have a breed of little running horses, which are very fleet and strong. It is 25 miles north of the confines of Andalusia, 108 south of Cuenca, and 138 south by east of Madrid. W. Long. 1° 50'. N. Lat. 38° 28'.

ALCASSAR do-Sal, a town of Portugal, in Estremadura, which has a castle said to be impregnable. It is indeed very strong, both by art and nature, being built on the top of a rock which is exceedingly steep on all sides. Here is a salt-work which produces very white salt, from whence the town takes its name. fields produce large quantities of a sort of ruffies, of which they make mats, which are transported out of the kingdom. W. Long. 9. 10. N. Lat. 38. 18.

**Alcassar**, a city of Barbary, situated about two leagues from Larache, in Alga, a province of the kingdom of Fez. It was of great note, and the seat of the governor of this part of the kingdom. It was built by Jacob Almanzor, king of Fez, about the year 1180, and designed for a magazine and place of rendezvous for the great preparations he was making to enter Granada in Spain, and to make good the footing Joseph Almanzor had got some time before. It is said his father first invaded Spain with 300,000 men, most of whom he was obliged to bring back to Africa to quell a rebellion that had broken out in Morocco. This done, he returned to Spain again with an army, as is said, of 200,000 horse and 300,000 foot. The city is now fallen greatly to decay, so that of fifteen mosques there are only two that they make use of. The reason, probably, is the bad situation of the town; for it stands so low, that it is excessively hot in summer, and almost overflowed with water in the winter. They affirm to be owing to a curse of one of their saints. Here are a great number of flocks, who live very familiarly with the people, walking about the town, possessing the tops of the houses and mosques without molestation; for they esteem them sacred birds, and account it sinful to disturb them. At present, the batham of Tetuan appoints a governor to this town, which is the last of his dominions towards Mequinez. Near this city there is a high ridge of mountains, running towards Tetuan, whose inhabitants were never brought entirely under subjection; and whenever it was attempted, they revenged themselves by infesting the roads, and robbing and destroying the travellers. When they were pursued, they retired into their woody mountains, where none could safely follow them. Not far from hence is the river Elmahassen, famous for the battle fought between Don Sebastian king of Portugal and the Moors; in which the Portuguese were defeated and their king slain. W. Long. 12. 35. N. Lat. 35. 15.

**Alcavala**, in the Spanish Finances, was at first a tax of 10 per cent. afterwards of 14 per cent. and is at present of only 6 per cent. upon the sale of every sort of property, whether moveable or immoveable; and it is repeated every time the property is sold. The levying of this tax requires a multitude of revenue-officers sufficient to guard the transportation of goods, not only from one province to another, but from one shop to another. It subjects not only the dealers in some sorts of goods, but those in all sorts, every farmer, every manufacturer, every merchant and shopkeeper, to the continual visits and examination of the tax-gatherers. Through the greater part of a country in which a tax of this kind is established, nothing can be produced for distant sale. The produce of every part of the country must be proportioned to the consumption of the neighbourhood. It is to the Alcavala, accordingly, that Ufartiz attributes the ruin of the manufactures of Spain. He might have imputed it to likewise the declension of agriculture, it being imposed not only upon manufactures, but upon the rude produce of the land.

**Alcazar Leguer**, a town of Africa, in the kingdom of Fez, and in the province of Ifrout. It was taken by Alphonso, king of Portugal, in 1468; but soon after that, it was abandoned to the Moors. It is seated on the coast of the straits of Gibraltar. W. Long. 3. 50. N. Lat. 38. 0.

**Alcazer**, a town of Spain, in New Castle, seated on the river Guardamena, which has a fortress on a high hill for its defence, and lies in a very fruitful country. It is 100 miles north-west of Carthagena. W. Long. 2. 10. N. Lat. 38. 15.

**Alce**, **Alces**, or **Elk**, in Zoology, the trivial name of a species of the cervus, belonging to the order of mammalia pecora. See Cervus.

**Alcea**, the Holly-Hock. See Botany Index.

**Alcedo**, or Kingfisher. See Ornithology Index.

**Alchemilla**, or Ladies-mantle. See Botany Index.

**Alchemist**, a practitioner in alchemy.

**Alchemy**, that branch of chemistry which had for its principal objects the transmutation of metals into gold; the panacea, or universal remedy; an alkali, or universal menstruum; an universal ferment; and many other things equally ridiculous.

Kircher, instructed in all the secrets of chemistry, has fully exposed the artifices and impostures of alchemists. An alchemist puts into a crucible the matter which is to be converted into gold: this he sets on the fire, blows it, stirs it with rods; and, after divers operations, gold is found at the bottom of the crucible, instead of the matter first put in. This there are a thousand ways of effecting, without any transmutation. Sometimes it is done by dextrously dropping in a piece of gold concealed between the fingers, sometimes by casting in a little of the dust of gold or silver disguised under the appearance of some elixir, or other indifferent matter; sometimes a crucible is used which has a double bottom, and gold put between the two; sometimes the rod used to stir the matter is hollow, and filled with the dust of the metal desired; at other times there is metal mixed with the charcoal, the ashes of the furnace, or the like. Mr Harris very properly distinguishes alchemy from chemistry; and defines the former to be *ars sine arte*, cujus principium est mentiri, medium laborare, et finis mendicare; and the Italians have a proverb, *non ti fidare al alchemista povero o medico amato*. The ruin which has attended this delusion has occasioned several states to make severe laws against pretences to alchemy. The Romans formerly banished all such as professed it; and the sacred canons likewise directed the thunder of their censure against them. Diocletian and Caesar directed all books which treated of this subject to be burnt. Rymer furnishes us with a license for practising alchemy, with all kinds of metals and minerals, granted to one Richard Carter in 1476; Rymer, tom. xii. Nevertheless, we have had severe laws against alchemy, and multiplying of metals, as much so as against coinage itself.

**Alchornea**. See Botany Index.

**Alciat** or **Alciate**, Andrew, a great lawyer, who flourished in the 16th century, was born at Milan. He mixed much of polite learning in the explication of the laws, and happily drove out the barbarity of language which till then had reigned in the lectures and writings of lawyers; for which Thuanus highly praises. Alcibiades praises him. He published a great many law-books, and some notes upon Tacitus. His Emblems have been much admired, and translated into French, Italian, and Spanish; and several learned men have written commentaries on them.