yielding to the smallest touch, and emitting vapour. On the departure ot the heat, it loses these properties, and again becomes a mere incoherent powder. So great is the transparency of this stone, that it has sometimes been employed for windows, and at Florence a church still receives its light through the medium of alabaster. It is found in the greatest abundance near Coblentz, in Germany; near Cluni, in France; near Rome, in Italy; and in some places of Lorrain.
Alabaster, or marble, may be cleaned by the following process: beat pumice stones to an impalpable powder, and mix it up with verjuice: let it stand for two hours, then clip into it a sponge, and rub the marble or alabaster, wash it with a linen cloth and fresh water, and dry it with clean linen rags.
ALARUM, a term employed to signify any instrument, or contrivance, for the purpose of awakening persons from sleep, at a certain hour, or of alarming them when exposed to danger. In the former sense, it is generally a part of clock-work, and deserves here no farther notice; but, in the latter, we strongly recommend the utility of alarums to every family, whether living in towns, or in solitary situations in the country.
Many ingenious suggestions have been devised, for affording security to the industrious, against the audacious attempts of house-breakers: the most common of these are, hanging bells to the windows, or larger bells and rattles kept in readiness for giving early notice to the watchman absent from his duty, or to the peaceful neighbour whose aid is required.
In the year 1771, Mr. Henry invented a curious alarum, which was highly approved of by Sir John Fielding. All burglaries being perpetrated at night, this piece of mechanism deserves peculiar encouragement. On being fixed up by a bell-hanger, with wires fastened to the windows and doors, it will, upon the least attempt to break into the house, go off with a noise sufficient to awaken the family. As every clock-maker is acquainted with the construction of this alarum, we think it unnecessary to give a particular description.
ALBUMEN, properly signifies the white of an egg, but has lately been used in chemistry, to denote likewise one of those elementary constituents of vegetable bodies, which, in its colour and properties, bears an exact resemblance to the animal substance known under this denomination.
The white of eggs, if taken warm from the hen, especially in luke-warm milk, is uncommonly nourishing to the weak and infirm; but, when boiled hard, its nutritive quality is in a great measure destroyed, and it then becomes very difficult of digestion.
If the white of a fresh egg be applied to burns, immediately after the accident, it generally prevents them from rising in blisters: it also tends to abate recent inflammation of the eyes, when spread upon soft linen, and placed over the parts affected. Used as a lotion on the face, it preserves it from sun-burning or freckles, in the heat of summer. On the contrary, a very small portion of the white of an egg, if swallowed in a putrid state, is attended with dreadful effects; such as nausea, horror, fainting, vomiting, diarrhœa, and gripes, accom-
panied
