ancient English manors for the assize of ale and ale-measures.
The gustatores cervisiae--called in different localities
by the different names ``ale-tasters,'' ``ale-founders,'' and
``ale- conners''--were sworn to examine beer and ale, to take
care that they were good and wholesome and were sold at proper
prices. In London four ale-conners, whose duty it is to examine
the measures used by beer and liquor sellers to guard against
fraud, are still chosen annually by the liverymen in common
hall assembled on Midsummer Day. Since ale and beer have become
excisable commodities the custom of appointing ale-tasters has
in most places fallen into disuse. (See also ADULTERATION.)
ALECSANDRI, or ALEXANDRI, VASILE (1821-1890), Rumanian
lyric poet, was born at Bacau in Moldavia on the 21st of July
1821. His father was the Spatar Alecsandri, of Jewish and
Italian origin, who had settled in Moldavia in the 18th
century. Vasile was educated first in Jassy and afterwards
(1834-1839) in Paris. In 1839 he started on a long journey
through the Carpathian Mountains, and was the first to
collect Rumanian popular songs, no doubt influenced by Western
examples. He first published his collection in 1844. His
Doine si Lacrimioare, lyrical poems, appeared at Paris in
1852, and in 1852-1853 he produced at Jassy a fuller collection
of popular ballads and songs. He then adapted some French plays
for the newly founded Rumanian theatre, and wrote some original
pieces. His connexion with the revolutionary movement of
1848 compelled him to seek shelter in the west of Europe,
and he visited England. where a beautifully illuminated
edition of his poems was printed in the original Rumanian
language. In 1867 he published some fugitive pieces, written
in a lighter vein, and entitled Pastele; these were followed
in 1871 by the Legende of similar character. More serious
are his dramatic writings which began with Despot Voda and
culminated in Ovid. In later life Alecsandri took an active
part in politics; he became minister for foreign affairs from
1859 to 1860, and in 1885 was appointed Rumanian minister in
Paris. He died on the 26th of August 1890 at his country seat,
Mircesti. His best title to fame consists in the fact that
he gave the first impetus to the collection of Rumanian popular
songs and first drew attention to their inimitable charm.
See L. Sainsanu, Autorii Romani moderni (1891), pp.
90 and 318. A complete edition of Alecsandri's writings in
nine volumes was published at Bucharest in 1875 seq. (M. G.)
ALEMAN, LOUIS (c. 1390-1450), French cardinal, was born
of a noble family at the castle of Arbent near Bugey about the
year 1390. He was successively bishop of Maguelonne (1418),
archbishop of Arles (1423) and cardinal priest of St Cecilia
(1426). He was a prominent member of the council of Basel,
and, together with Cardinal Julian, led the party which
maintained the supremacy of general councils over the pope's
authority. In 1440 Aleman obtained the support of the emperor
Sigismund and of the duke of Milan to his views, and proclaiming
the deposition of Pope Eugenius IV., placed the tiara upon
the head of Amadeus VIII., duke of Savoy (henceforward known
as antipope Felix V.). Eugenius retorted by.excommunicating
the antipope and depriving Aleman of all his ecclesiastical
dignities. In order to make an end of the schism, Felix V.
finally abdicated on Aleman's advice, and Nicholas V., who had
succeeded in 1447, restored the cardinal to all his honours
and employed him as legate to Germany in 1449. On his return
he retired to his diocese of Arles, where he devoted himself
zealously to the instruction of his people. He died on the 16th
of September 1450, and was beatified by Pope Clement VII. in 1527.
See U. Chevalier, Repert. des sources hist. (Paris, 1905), p. 130.
ALEMAN, MATEO (1547-1609?), Spanish novelist and man of
letters, was born at Seville in 1547. He graduated at Seville
University in 1564, studied later at Salamanca and Alcala,
and from 1571 to 1588 held a post in the treasury; in 1594 he
was arrested on suspicion of malversation, but was speedily
released. In 1599 he published the first part of Guzman de
Alfarache, a celebrated picaresque novel which passed through
not less than sixteen editions in five years; a spurious sequel
was issued in 1602, but the authentic continuation did not
appear till 1604. In 1608 Aleman emigrated to America, and
is said to have carried on business as a printer in Mexico;
his Ortografia castellana (1609), published in that city,
contains ingenious and practical proposals for the reform
of Spanish spelling. Nothing is recorded of Aleman after
1609, but it is sometimes asserted that he was still living in
1617. He married, unhappily, Catalina de Espinosa in 1571,
and was constantly in money difficulties, being imprisoned
for debt at Seville at the end of 1602. He is the author
of a life (1604) of St Antony of Padua, and versions of
two odes of Horace bear witness to his taste and metrical
accomplishment. His chief title to remembrance, however,
is Guzman de Alfarache, which was translated into French
in 1600, into English in 1623 and into Latin in 1623.
See J. Hazanas y la Rua, Discursos leidos en la Real
Academia Sevillana de Buenas letras el 25 de mar zo
de 1892 (Sevilla, 1892); J. Gestoso y Perez, Nuevos
datos para`ilustrar las biografias del Maestro Juan de
Malara y de Mateo Aleman (Sevilla, 1896). (J. F.-K.)
ALEMBERT, DEAN LE ROND D' (1717-1783), French mathematician
and philosopher, was born at Paris in November 1717. He was a
foundling, having been exposed near the church of St Jean le
Rond, Paris, where he was discovered on the 17th of November.
It afterwards became known that he was the illegitimate son of
the chevalier Destouches and Madame de Tencin. The infant was
entrusted to the wife of a glazier named Rousseau who lived close
by. He was called Jean le Rond from the church near which he
was found; the surname Alembert was added by himself at a later
period. His father, without disclosing himself, having settled
an annuity on him, he was sent at four years of age to a
boarding-school. In 1730 he entered the Mazarin College
under the Jansenists, who soon perceived his exceptional
talent, and, prompted perhaps by a commentary on the Epistle
to the Romans which he produced in the first year of his
philosophical course, sought to direct it to theology. His
knowledge of the higher mathematics was acquired by his own
unaided efforts after he had left the college. This fact
naturally led to his crediting himself with many discoveries
which he afterwards found had been already established,
often by more direct and elegant processes than his own.
On leaving college he returned to the house of his foster-mother,
where he continued to live for thirty years. Having studied law,
he was admitted as an advocate in 1738, but did not enter upon
practice. He next devoted himself to medicine, but his natural
inclination proved too strong for him, and within a year he
resolved to give his whole time to mathematics. In 1741 he
received his first public distinction in being admitted a
member of the Academy of Sciences, to which he had previously
presented several papers, including a Memoire sur le calcul
integral (1739). In his Memoire sur le refraction des
corps solides (1741) he was the first to give a theoretical
explanation of the phenomenon which is witnessed when a body
passes from one fluid to another more dense in a direction
not perpendicular to the surface which separates the two
fluids. In 1743 he published his Traite de dynamique,
a work famous as developing the mechanical principle, known
as ``Alembert's Principle,'' first enunciated in 1742 (see
MECHANICS.) In 1744 Alembert applied this principle to the
theory of the equilibrium and the motion of fluids (Traite
de l'equilibre et du mouvement des fluides), and all the
problems before solved by geometricians became in some measure
its corollaries. This discovery was followed by that of the
calculus of partial differences, the first trials of which
were published in his Reflexion sur la cause generale
des vents (1747). This work was crowned by the Academy of
Berlin, and was dedicated to Frederick the Great, who made
several unsuccessful attempts to induce him to settle in
Berlin. In 1763 he visited Berlin, and on that occasion
finally refused the office of president of the Academy of
Berlin, which had been already offered to him more than
once. In 1747 he applied his new calculus to the problem
of vibrating chords, the solution of which, as well as the
theory of the oscillation of the air and the propagation of
sound, had been given but incompletely by the geometricians
who preceded him. In 1749 he furnished a method of applying
his principles to the motion of any body of a given figure;
and in 1754 he solved the problem of the precession of the
equinoxes, determined its quantity and explained the phenomenon
of the nutation of the earth's axis. In 1752 he published
an Essai d'une nouvelle theorie sur la resistance des
fluides, which contains a large number of original ideas
and new observations. In 1746 and 1748 he published in the
Memoirs of the Academy of Berlin ``Recherches sur le calcul
integral,'' a branch of mathematical science which is greatly
indebted to him. In his Recherches sur differents points
importants du systeme du monde (1754-1756) he perfected the
solution of the problem of the perturbations of the planets,
which he had presented to the academy some years before.
Alembert's association with Diderot in the preparation
of the Dictionnaire Encyclopedique led him to take a
someuhat wider range than that to which he had previously
confined himself. He wrote for that work the Discours
preliminaire on the rise, progress and affinities of the
various sciences, which he read to the French Academy on
the day of his admission as a member, the 18th of December
1754. He also wrote several literary articles for the first
two volumes of the Encyclopaedia, and to the remaining volumes
he contributed mathematical articles chiefly. One of the
few exceptions was the article on ``Geneva,'' which involved
him in a somewhat keen controversy in regard to Calvinism
and the suppression of theatrical performances within the
town. During the time he was engaged on the Encyclopaedia
he wrote a number of literary and philosophical works which
extended his reputation and also exposed him to criticism and
controversy, as in the case of his Melanges de Philosophie,
d'Histoire, et de Litterature. His Essai sur la societe
des gens de lettres avec les grands was a worthy vindication
of the independence of literary men, and a thorough exposure
of the evils of the system of patronage. He broke new ground
and showed great skill as a translator in his Traduction
de quelques morceaux choisis de Tacite. One of his most
important works was the Elements de Philosophie published in
1759, in which he discussed the principles and methods of the
different sciences. He maintained that the laws of motion were
necessary, not contingent. A treatise, Sur la destruction
des Jesuites (1765), involved him in a fresh controversy,
his own share in which was rendered very easy by the violence
and extravagance of his adversaries. The list of his more
noteworthy literary works is completed by the mention of the
Histoire des membres de l'Academie francaise, containing
biographical notices of all the members of the Academy who
died between 1700 and 1772, the year in which he himself became
