of the horns of goats believed to have been slain by Diana; while at Miletus was an altar composed of the blood of victims sacrificed (Paus. v. 13. 6). The altar at Phorae in Achaea was of unhewn stones (Paus. vii. 22.3). The altar used at the festival in honour of Daedalus on Mt. Cithaeron was of wood, and was consumed along with the sacrifice (Paus. ix. 3. 4). Others of bronze are mentioned. But these were exceptional, the usual material of an altar was marble, and its form, both among the Greeks and Romans, was either square or round; polygonal altars, of which examples still exist, being exceptions. When sculptured decorations were added they frequently took the form of imitations of the actual festoons with which it was usual to ornament altars, or of symbols, such as crania and horns of oxen, referring to the victims sacrificed. As a rule, the altars which existed apart from temples bore the name of the person by whom they were dedicated and the names of the deities in whose service they were, or, if not the name, some obvious representation of the deity. Such, for example, is the purpose of the figures of the Muses on an altar dedicated to them, now to be seen in the British Museum. An altar was retained for the service of one particular god, except where through local tradition two or more deities had become intimately associated, as in the case of the altar at Olympia to Artemis and Alpheus jointly, or that of Poseidon and Erechtheus in the Erechtheum at Athens. The most remarkable instance of multiple dedication was, however, at Oropus, where the altar was divided into five parts, one dedicated to Heracles, Zeus and Paean Apollo, a second to heroes and their wives, a third to Hestia, Hermes, Amphiaraus and the children of Amphilochus, a fourth to Aphrodite Panacea, Jason, Health, and Healing Athene, and the fifth to the Nymphs, Pan, and the rivers Archelous and Cephissus (Paus. i. 34. 2), Such deities were styled ouμßwμot, each having a separate part of the altar (Paus. i. 34. 2). Other terms are ȧyúvol, or dμoßimo. Deities of an inferior order, who were conceived as working together-e.g. the wind gods-had an altar in common. In the same way, the "unknown gods" were regarded as a unit, and had in Athens and at Olympia one altar for all (Paus. i. 1. 4; v. 14. 5; cf. Acts of Apostles, xvii. 18). An altar to all the gods is mentioned by Aeschylus (Suppl. 222). Among the exceptional classes of altars are also to be mentioned those on which fire could not be kindled (Bwuoi ἄπυροι), and those which were kept free from blood (βωμοί ȧvaiμakтoi), of which in both respects the altar of Zeus Hypatos at Athens was an example. The èoria was a round altar; the oxápa, one employed apparently for sacrifice to inferior deities or heroes (but éσxápa Þoißov, Aesch. Pers. 205). In Rome an altar erected in front of a statue of a god was always required to be lower than the statue itself (Vitruvius iv. 9). Altars were always places of refuge, and even criminals and slaves were there safe, violence offered to them being insults to the gods whose suppliants the refugees were for the time being. They were also taken hold of by the Greeks when making their most solemn oaths. Ancient America.-As a single specimen of an altar, wholly unrelated to any of the foregoing, we may cite the ancient Mexican example described by W. Bullock (Six Months in Mexico, London, 1824, p. 335). This was cylindrical, 25 ft. in circumference, with sculpture representing the conquests of the national warriors in fifteen different groups round the side.1 Portable altars and tables of offerings were used in pre-Christian as well as in Christian ritual. One such was discovered in the Gezer excavations, dating about 200 B.C. It was a slab of polished limestone about 6 in. square with five cups in its upper surface. Another from the same place was a small cubical block of limestone bearing a dedication to Heracles. They have also been found in Assyria. Pocket altars are still used in some forms of worship in India. See the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1852, p. 71. 1 Bullock also says (p. 354) that the altar in the church of the Indian village of S. Miguel de los Ranchos which he visited was of the same nature as those in use before the introduction of Christianity." ALTARS IN THE CHKISTIAN CHURCH I. The Early Church. The altar is spoken of by the early Greek and Latin ecclesiastical writers under a variety of names:Tρáπeša, the principal name in the Greek fathers and the liturgies; OvalaσThρlov (rarer; used in the Septuagint for Hebrew altars); iλaσrýpɩov; ßwuós (usually avoided, as it is a word with heathen associations); mensa Domini; ara (avoided like Bwuós, and for the same reason); and, most regularly, altare. | After the 4th century other names or expressions come into use, such as mensa tremenda, sedes corporis et sanguinis Christi. The earliest Christians had no altars, and were taunted by the pagans for this. It is admitted by Origen in his reply to Celsus (p. 389), who has charged the Christians with being a secret society "because they forbid to build temples, to raise altars.' "The altars," says Origen, are the heart of every Christian." The same appears from a passage in Lactantius, De Origine Erroris, ii. 2. We gather from these passages that down to about A.D. 250, or perhaps a little later, the communion was administered on a movable wooden table. In the Catacombs, the arcosolia or bench-like tombs are said (though the statement is doubtful) to have been used to serve this purpose. The earliest church altars were certainly made of wood; and it would appear from a passage in William of Malmesbury (De Gest. Pontif. Angl. iii. 14) that English altars were of wood down to the middle of the 11th century, at least in the diocese of Worcester. The cessation of persecution, and consequent gradual elaboration of church furniture and ritual, led to the employment of more costly materials for the altar as for the other fittings of ecclesiastical buildings. Already in the 4th century we find reference to stone altars in the writings of Gregory of Nyssa. In 517 the council of Epaone in Burgundy forbade any but stone pillars to be consecrated with chrism; but of course the decrees of this provincial council would not necessarily be received throughout the church. Pope Felix I. (A.D. 269–274) decreed that mass should be celebrated above the tombs of martyrs -an observance probably suggested by the passage in Revelation vi. 9, "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God.". This practice developed into the medieval rule that no altar can be consecrated unless it contain a relic or relics. The form of the altar was originally table-shaped, consisting of a plane surface supported by columns. There were usually four, but examples with one, two and five columns are also recorded. But the development of the relic-custom led to the adoption of another form, the square box shape of an altartomb." Transitional examples, combining the box with the earlier table shape, are found dating about 450. Mention is made occasionally of silver and gold altars in the 5th to the 8th centuries. This means no doubt that gold and silver were copiously used in its decoration. Such an altar still remains in Sant' Ambrogio at Milan, dating from the 9th century (see fig. 1). II. The Medieval Church.—It will be convenient now to pass to the fully-developed altar of the Western Church with its accessories, though the rudiments of most of the additional details are traceable in the earlier period. In the Roman Catholic Church, which preserves in this respect the tradition that had become established during the middle ages, the component parts of a fixed altar in the liturgical sense are the table (mensa), or super-altar, consisting of a stone slab; the support (stipes), consisting either of a solid mass or of four or more columns; the sepulchrum, or altar-cavity, a small chamber for the reception of the relics of martyrs. The support, in the technical sense, must be of stone solidly joined to the table; but, if this support consist of columns, the intervals may be filled with other materials, e.g. brick or cement. The altarslab or table" alone is consecrated, and in sign of this are cut in its upper surface five Greek crosses, one in the centre and one in each corner. These crosses must have been anointed by the bishop with chrism in the ritual of consecration before the altar can be used. Crosses appear on the portable altar buried with St Cuthbert (A.D. 687), but the history of the origin and develop- | included "A coffer wyth ij liddes to serue for an Awter and ned ment of this practice is not fully worked out. be" (Archaeologia, xxvi. 403). According to the Caeromoniale (i. 12. 13) a canopy (baldachinum) should be suspended over the altar; this should be square, and of sufficient size to cover the altar and the predella on which the officiating priest stands. This baldachin, called liturgically the ciborium, is sometimes hung from the roof by chains in such a way that it can be lowered or raised; sometimes it is fixed to the wall or reredos; sometimes it is a solid structure of wood covered with metal or of marble supported on four columns. The latter form is, however, usual only in large churches, more especially of the basilica type, e.g. St Peter's at Rome or the Roman Catholic cathedral at Westminster. The origin of the ciborium is not certain, but it is represented in a mosaic at Thessalonica of a date not later than A.D. 500. Even at the present day, in spite of a decree of the Congregation of Rites (27th of May 1697) ordering it to be placed over all altars, it is even at Rome itself-usually only found over the high altar and the altar of the Blessed Sacrament. Multiplication of altars is another medieval characteristic. This also is probably a result of the edict of Pope Felix already mentioned. In a vault where more than one martyr was buried an altar might be erected for each. It is in the 6th century that we begin to find traces of the multiplication of altars. In the church of St Gall, Switzerland, in the 9th century there were seventeen. In the modern Latin Church almost every large church contains several altars-dedicated to certain saints, in private side chapels, established for masses for the repose of the founder's soul, &c. Archbishop Wulfred in 816 ordered that beside every altar there should be an inscription recording its dedication. This regulation fell into abeyance after the 12th century, and such inscriptions are very rare. One remains mutilated at Deerhurst (Archaeologia, vol. 1. p. 69). Where there is in a cathedral or church more than one altar, the principal one is called a high altar." Where there is a second high altar, it is generally at the end of the choir or chancel. In monastic churches (e.g. formerly at St Albans) it sometimes stands at the end of the nave close to the choir screen. Beside the altar was a drain (piscina) for pouring away the water in which the communion vessels were rinsed. This seems originally to have been under the altar, as it is still in the Eastern Church. That the primitive communion table was covered with a communion-cloth is highly probable, and is mentioned by Optatus (c. A.D. 370), bishop of Milevis. This had developed by the 14th or 15th century into a cerecloth, or waxed cloth, on the table itself; and three linen coverings one above the other, two of about the size of the table and one rather wider than the❘ altar, and long enough to hang down at each end. Five crosses are worked upon it, four in the corners and one in the middle, and there is an embroidered edging.1 In front was often a hanging panel of embroidered cloth (the frontal; but frontals of wood, ornamented with carving or enamel, &c., are also to be found). These embroidered frontals are changeable, so that the principal colour in the pattern can accord with the liturgical colour of the day. Speaking broadly, red is the colour for feasts of martyrs, white for virgins, violet for penitential seasons, &c.; no less than sixty-three different uses differing in details have been enumerated. A similar panel of needlework (the dossal) is suspended behind the altar. Portable altars have been used on occasion since the time of Bede. They are small slabs of hard stone, just large enough for the chalice and paten. They are consecrated and marked with the five incised crosses in the same way as the fixed altar, but they may be placed upon a support of any suitable material, whether wood or stone. They are used on a journey in a heretical or heathen country, or in private chapels. In the inventory of the field apparel of Henry, earl of Northumberland, A.D. 1513, is In the Eastern Church four small pieces of cloth marked with the names of the Evangelists are placed on the four corners of the altar, and covered with three cloths, the uppermost (the corporal) being of smaller size. On the altar are placed a cross and candlesticks-six in number, and seven when a bishop celebrates in his cathedral; and over it is suspended or fixed a tabernacle or receptacle for the reservation of the Sacrament. III. Post-Reformation Altars.-At the Reformation the altars in churches were looked upon as symbols of the unreformed doctrine, especially where the struggle lay between the Catholics and the Calvinists, who on this point were much more radical revolutionaries than the Lutherans. In England the name "altar" was retained in the Communion Office in English, printed in 1549, and in the complete English Prayer-book of the following year, known to students as the First Book of Edward VI. But orders were given soon after that the altars should be destroyed, and replaced by movable wooden tables; while from the revised Prayer-book of 1552 the word "altar" was carefully expunged, God's board or "the table" being substituted. The short reign of Mary produced a temporary reaction, but the | work of reformation was resumed on the accession of Elizabeth. The name "altar" has been all along retained in the Coronation Office of the kings of England, where it occurs frequently. It was also recognized in the canons of 1640, but with the reservation that "it was an altar in the sense in which the primitive church called it an altar and in no other." In the same canons the rule for the position of the communion tables, which has been since regularly followed throughout the Church of England, was formulated. In the primitive church the altars seem to have been so placed that, like those of the Hebrews, they could be surrounded on all sides by the worshippers. The chair of the bishop or celebrant was on their east side, and the assistant clergy were ranged on each side of him. But in the middle ages the altars were placed against the east wall of the churches, or else against a reredos erected at the east side of the altar, so as to prevent all access to the table from that side; the celebrant was thus brought round to the west side and caused to stand between the people and the altar. On the north and south sides there were often curtains. When tables were substituted for altars in the English churches, these were not merely movable, but at the administration of the Lord's Supper were actually moved into the body of the church, and placed table-wise—that is, with the long sides turned to the north and south, and the narrow ends to the east and west,-the officiating clergyman standing at the north side. In the time of Archbishop Laud, however, the present practice of the Church of England was introduced. The communion table, though still of wood and movable, is, as a matter of fact, never moved; it is placed altar-wise- that is, with its longer axis running north and south, and close against the east wall. Often there is a reredos behind it; it is also fenced in by rails to preserve it from profanation of various kinds. In 1841 the ancient church of the Holy Sepulchre at Cambridge was robbed of most of its interest by a calamitous " restoration carried out under the superintendence and partly at the charge of the Camden Society. On this occasion a stone altar, consisting of a flat slab resting upon three other upright slabs, was presented to the parish, and was set up in the church at the east wall of the chancel. This was brought to the notice of the Court of Arches in 1845, and Sir H. Jenner Fust (Faulkner v. Lichfield and Stearn) ordered it to be removed, on the ground that a stone structure so weighty that it could not be carried about, and seeming to be a mass of solid masonry, was not a communion-table in the sense recognized by the Church of England. Religion of Assyria and Babylonia; Perrot and Chipiez, Art in BIBLIOGRAPHY.-For altars in the ancient East see M. Jastrow, Chaldea (i. 143, 255); Sir J. Gardiner Wilkinson, A Second Series of the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, ii. 387; Benzinger's and Nowack's works on Hebräische Archäologie. For classical altars. Pausanias. See also Schömann, Griechische Alterthümer, vol. i.; much information can be obtained from the notes in J. G. Frazer's the volume on Gottesdienstliche Alterthümer in Hermann's worship see Petersen, Hausgottesdienst der Griechen (Cassel, 1851). Lehrbuch der griechischen Antiquitäten. On domestic altars and Except in one place where the term used is "God's board." 2 a token of their esteem. In 1815 Alten commanded Wellington's 3rd division and was severely wounded at Waterloo. His conduct won for him the rank of Count von Alten. When the King's German Legion ceased to exist, Alten was given the command of where he became subsequently minister of war and foreign the Hanoverians in France, and in 1818 he returned to Hanover, affairs, and rose to be field-marshal, being retained on the British Army list at the same time as Major-General Sir Charles Alten, G. C. B. He died in 1840. A memorial to Alten has been erected at Hanover. See Gentleman's Magazine, 1840; N. L. Beamish, Hist. of the King's German Legion, 2 vols. (1832-1837). ALTENA, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, on the river Lenne, 38 m. S.S.E. from Dortmund. Pop. (1900) 12,769. It consists of a single street, winding up a deep valley for about 3 m. There are three churches, a museum, high grade and popular schools. Its hardware industries are important, and embrace iron rolling, the manufacture of fine wire, needles, springs and silver ornaments. On the neighbouring Schlossberg is the ancestral castle of the counts of La Marck, ancestors, on the female side, of the Prussian royal house. On plural dedications consult Maurer, De aribus graecorum pluribus | Toulouse. His officers presented him with a sword of honour as deis in commune positis (Darmstadt, 1885). For Christian altars, reference is best made to the articles on the subject in the dictionaries of Christian and liturgical antiquities of Migne, Martigny, Smith and Cheetham, and Pugin, where practically all the available information is collected. See also Ciampinus, Vetera Monumenta (Rome, 1747), where numerous illustrations of altars are to be found; Martene, De antiquis Ecclesiae ritibus, iii. vi. (Rouen, 1700); Voigt, Thysiasteriologia sive de altaribus veterum Christianorum (Hamburg, 1709); and the liturgical works of Bona. Many articles on various sections of the subject have appeared in the journals of archaeological societies; we may mention Nesbitt on the churches of Rome earlier than 1150 (Archaeologia, xl. p. 210), Didron, "L'Autel chrétien " (Annales archéologiques, iv. p. 238), and a paper by Texier on enamelled altars in the same volume. (R. A. S. M.) ALTDORF, the capital of the Swiss canton of Uri. It is built at a height of 1516 ft. above sea-level, a little above the right bank of the Reuss, not far above the point where this river is joined on the right by the Schächen torrent. In 1900 the population was 3117, all Romanists and German-speaking. Altdorf is 34 m. from Lucerne by the St Gotthard railway and 22 m. from Goeschenen. Its port on the Lake of Lucerne, Flüelen, is 2 m. distant. There is a stately parish church, while above the little town is the oldest Capuchin convent in Switzerland (1581). Altdorf is best known as the place where, according to the legend, William Tell shot the apple from his son's head. This act by tradition happened on the market-place, where in 1895, at the foot of an old tower (with rude frescoes commemorating the feat), there was set up a fine bronze statue (by Richard Kissling of Zürich) of Tell and his son. In 1899 a theatre was opened close to the town for the sole purpose of performing Schiller's play of Wilhelm Tell. The same year a new carriage-road was opened from Altdorf through the Schächen valley and over the Klausen Pass (6404 ft.) to the village of Linththal (30 m.) and so to Glarus. One and a half mile from Altdorf by the Klausen road is the village of Bürglen, where by tradition Tell was born; while he is also said to have lost his life, while saving that of a child, in the Schächen torrent that flows past the village. On the left bank of the Reuss, immediately opposite Altdorf, is Attinghausen, where the ruined castle (which belonged to one of the real founders of the Swiss Confederation) now houses the cantonal museum of antiquities. (W. A. B. C.) ALTDORFER, ALBRECHT (? 1480-1538), German painter and engraver, was born at Regensburg (Ratisbon), where in 1505 he was enrolled a burgher, and described as " twenty-five years old." Soon afterwards he is known to have been prosperous, and as city architect he erected fortifications and a public slaughterhouse. Altdorfer has been called the " Giorgione of the North." His paintings are remarkable for minute and careful finish, and for close study of nature. The most important of them are to be found in the Pinakothek at Munich. A representation of the battle of Arbela (1529), included in that collection, is usually considered his chief work. His engravings on wood and copper are very numerous, and rank next to those of Albrecht Dürer. The most important collection is at the Berlin museum. Albrecht's brother, Erhard Altdorfer, was also a painter and engraver, and a pupil of Lucas Cranach. ALTEN, SIR CHARLES [Karl] (1764-1840), Hanoverian and British soldier, son of Baron Alten, a member of an old Hanoverian family, entered the service of the elector as a page at the age of twelve. In 1781 he received a commission in the Hanoverian guards, and as a captain took part in the campaigns of 17931795 in the Low Countries, distinguishing himself particularly on the Lys in command of light infantry. In 1803 the Hanoverian army was disbanded, and Alten took service with the King's German Legion in British pay. In command of the light infantry of this famous corps he took part with Lord Cathcart in the Hanoverian expedition of 1805 and in the siege of Copenhagen in 1807, and was with Moore in Sweden and Spain, as well as in the disastrous Walcheren expedition. He was soon employed once more in the Peninsula, and at Albuera commanded a brigade. In April 1813 Wellington placed him at the head of the famous "Light Division" (43rd, 52nd, 95th, and Caçadores), in which post he worthily continued the records of Moore and Robert Craufurd at Nivelle, Nive, Orthez and ALTENBURG, a town of Germany, capital of the duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, situated near the river Pleisse, 23 m. S. of Leipzig, and at the junction of the Saxon state railways LeipzigHof and Altenburg-Zeitz. Pop. (1905) 38,811. The town from its hilly position is irregularly built, but many of its streets are wide, and contain a number of large and beautiful buildings. Its ancient castle is picturesquely situated on a lofty porphyry rock, and is memorable as the place from which, in 1455, Kunz von Kaufungen carried off the young princes Albert and Ernest, the founders of the present royal and ducal families of Saxony. Its beautiful picture gallery, containing portraits of several of the famous princes of the house of Wettin, was almost totally destroyed by fire in January 1905. Altenburg is the seat of the higher courts of the Saxon duchies, and possesses a cathedral and several churches, schools, a library, a gallery of pictures and a school of art, an infirmary and various learned societies. There is also a museum, with natural history, archaeological, and art collections, and among other buildings may be mentioned St Bartholomew's church (1089), the town hall (1562-1564), a lunatic asylum, teachers' seminary and an agricultural academy. There is considerable traffic in grain and cattle brought from the surrounding districts; and twice a year there are large horse fairs. Cigars, woollen goods, gloves, hats and porcelain are among the chief manufactures. There are lignite mines in the vicinity. ALTENSTEIN, a castle upon a rocky mountain in SaxeMeiningen, on the south-western slope of the Thüringerwald, not far from Eisenach. It is the summer residence of the dukes of Meiningen, and is surrounded by a noble park, which contains, among other objects of interest, a remarkable underground cavern, 500 ft. long, through which flows a large and rapid stream. Boniface, the apostle of the Germans, lived and preached at Altenstein in 724; and near by is the place where, in 1521, Luther was seized, by the order of the elector Frederick the Wise, to be carried off to the Wartburg. An old beech called "Luther's tree," which tradition connected with the reformer, was blown down in 1841, and a small monument now stands in its place. ALTERNATION (from Lat. alternare, to do by turns), strictly, the process of "alternating," i.e. of two things following one another regularly by turns, as night alternates with day. A somewhat different sense is attached to some usages of the derivatives. Thus, in American political representative bodies and in the case of company directors, a substitute is sometimes called an "alternate." An "alternative" is that which is offered as a choice of two things, the acceptance of the one implying the rejection of the other. It is incorrect to speak of more than two alternatives, though Mr Gladstone wrote in 1857 of a fourth (Oxf. Essays, 26). When there is only one course open there is said to be no alternative. ALTHAEA, in classical legend, daughter of Thestius, king of Aetolia, wife of Oeneus, king of Calydon, and mother of Meleager (q.v.). ALTING, JOHANN HEINRICH (1583-1644), German divine, was born at Emden, where his father, Menso Alting (1541-1612), was minister. Johann studied with great success at the universities of Gröningen and Herborn. In 1608 he was appointed tutor of Frederick, afterwards elector-palatine, at Heidelberg, and in 1612 accompanied him to England. Returning in 1613 to Heidelberg, after the marriage of the elector with Princess Elizabeth of England, he was appointed professor of dogmatics, and in 1616 director of the theological department in the Collegium Sapientiae. In 1618, along with Abraham Scultetus, he represented the university in the synod of Dort. When Count | Tilly took the city of Heidelberg (1622) and handed it over to plunder, Alting found great difficulty in escaping the fury of the soldiers. He first retired to Schorndorf; but, offended by the "semi-Pelagianism " of the Lutherans with whom he was brought in contact, he removed to Holland, where the unfortunate elector and "Winter King" Frederick, in exile after his brief reign in Bohemia, made him tutor to his eldest son. In 1627 Alting was appointed to the chair of theology at Gröningen, where he continued to lecture, with increasing reputation, until his death in 1644. Though an orthodox Calvinist, Alting laid little stress on the sterner side of his creed and, when at Dort he opposed the Remonstrants, he did so mainly on the ground that they were "innovators." Among his works are:-Notae in Decadem Problematum Jacobi Behm (Heidelberg, 1618); Scripta Theologica Heidelbergensia (Amst., 1662); Exegesis Augustanae Confessionis (Amst., 1647). ALTINUM (mod. Altino), an ancient town of Venetia, 12 m. S.E. of Tarvisium (Treviso), on the edge of the lagoons. It was probably only a small fishing village until it became the point of junction of the Via Postumia and the Via Popillia (see AQUILEIA). At the end of the republic it was a municipium. Augustus and his successors brought it into further importance as a point on the route between Italy and the north-eastern portions of the empire. After the foundation of the naval station at Ravenna, it became the practice to take ship from there to Altinum, instead of following the Via Popillia round the coast, and thence to continue the journey by land. A new road, the Via Claudia Augusta, was constructed by the emperor Claudius from Altinum to the Danube, a distance of 350 m., apparently by way of the Lake of Constance. The place thus became of considerable strategic and commercial importance, and the comparatively mild climate (considering its northerly situation) led to the erection of villas which Martial (Epigr. iv. 25) compares with those of Baiae. It was destroyed by Attila in A.D. 452, and its inhabitants took refuge in the islands of the lagoons, forming settlements from which Venice eventually sprang. ALTITUDE (Lat. altitudo, from altus, high), height or eminence, and particularly the height above the ground or above sea-level. In geometry, the altitude of a triangle is the length of the perpendicular from the vertex to the base. In astronomy, the altitude of a heavenly body is the apparent angular elevation of the body above the plane of the horizon (see ASTRONOMY: Spherical). Apparent altitude is the value which is directly observed; true altitude is deduced by correcting for astronomical refraction and dip of the horizon; geocentric altitude by correcting for parallax. ALTMÜHL, a river of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria. It is an important left bank tributary of the Danube, rising in the Franconian plateau (Fränkische Terrasse), and after a tortuous course of 116 m., at times flowing through meadows and again in weird romantic gorges, joins the Danube at Kelheim. From its mouth it is navigable up to Dietfurt (18 m.), whence the Ludwigscanal (100 m. long) proceeds to Bamberg on the Regnitz, thus establishing communication between the Danube and the Rhine. ALTO (Ital. for "high"), a musical term applied to the highest adult male voice or counter-tenor, and to the lower boy's or woman's (contralto) voice. ALTON, a market-town in the Fareham parliamentary division of Hampshire, England, 46 m. S.W. of London by the London & South-Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 5479. It has a pleasant undulating site near the headwaters of the river Wey. Of the church of St Lawrence part, including the tower, is Norman; the building was the scene of a fierce conflict between the royalist and parliamentary troops in 1643. There is a museum of natural history; the collection is reminiscent of the famous naturalist Gilbert White, of Selborne in this vicinity. Large markets and fairs are held for corn, hops, cattle and sheep; and the town contains some highly reputed ale breweries, besides paper mills and iron foundries. ALTON, a city of Madison county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the W. part of the state, on the Mississippi river, about 10 m. above the mouth of the Missouri, and about 25 m. N. of St Louis, Missouri. Pop. (1890) 10,294; (1900) 14,210, of whom 1638 were foreign-born; (1910) 17,528. Alton is served by the Chicago & Alton, the Chicago, Peoria & St Louis, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, and the Illinois Terminal railways. The river is here spanned by a bridge. The residential portion of the city lies on the river bluffs, some of which rise to a height of 250 ft. above the water level, and the business streets are on the bottom lands of the river. Alton has a public library and a public park. Upper Alton (pop. 2918 in 1910), about 1 m. N.E. of Alton, is the seat of the Western Military Academy (founded in 1879 as Wyman Institute; chartered in 1892), and of Shurtleff College (Baptist, founded in 1827 at Rock Spring, removed to Upper Alton in 1831, and chartered in 1833), which has a college of liberal arts, a divinity school, an academy and a school of music; and the village of Godfrey, 5 m. N. of Alton, is the seat of the Monticello Ladies' Seminary, founded by Benjamin Godfrey, opened in 1838, and chartered in 1841. Among the manufactures of Alton are iron and glass ware, miners' tools, shovels, coal-mine cars, flour, and agricultural implements; and there are a large oil refinery and a large lead smelter. The value of the city's factory products increased from $4,250,389 in 1900 to $8,696,814 in 1905, or 104.6 %. The first settlement on the site of Alton was made in 1807, when a trading post was established by the French. The town was laid out in 1817, was first incorporated in 1821, and in 1827 was made the seat of a state penitentiary, which was later removed to Joliet, the last prisoners being transferred in 1860. Alton was first chartered as a city in 1837. In 1836 the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy (1802-1837), a native of Albion, Maine, removed the Observer, a religious (Presbyterian) periodical of which he was the editor, from St Louis to Alton. He had attracted considerable attention in St Louis by his criticisms of slavery, but though he believed in emancipation, he was not a radical abolitionist. After coming to Alton his anti-slavery views soon became more radical, and in a few months he was an avowed abolitionist. His views were shared by his brother, Owen Lovejoy (1811-1864), a Congregational minister, who also at that time lived in Alton, and who from 1857 until his death was an able anti-slavery member of Congress. Most of the people of southern Illinois were in sympathy with slavery, and consequently the Lovejoys became very unpopular. The press of the Observer was three time destroyed, and on the 7th of November 1837 E. P. Lovejoy was killed while attempting to defend against a mob a fourth press which he had recently obtained and which was stored in a warehouse in Alton, His death caused intense excitement throughout the country, and he was everywhere regarded by abolitionists as a martyr to their cause. In 1897 a monument, a granite column surmounted by a bronze statue of Victory, was erected in his honour by the citizens of Alton and by the state. See Henry Tanner, The Martyrdom of Lovejoy (Chicago, 1881), and "The Alton Tragedy " in S. J. May's Some Recollections of Our Anti-Slavery Conflict (Boston, 1869). ALTONA, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, on the right bank of the Elbe immediately west of Hamburg. Though administratively distinct, the two cities so closely adjoin as virtually to form one whole. Lying higher than Hamburg, Altona enjoys a purer and healthier | railway. Altoona is served by the Pennsylvania railway, and atmosphere. It has spacious squares and streets, among the is one of the leading railway cities in the United States. Its latter the Palmaille, a stately avenue ending on a terrace about freight yard is 7 m. long, and has 221 m. of tracks. Large 100 ft. above the Elbe, whence a fine view is obtained of the numbers of eastbound coal trains from the mountains and river and the lowlands beyond. Of the six Evangelical churches, westbound "empties" returning to the mines stop here; and the Hauptkirche (parish church), with a lofty steeple, is note- the cars of these trains are classified here and new trains made worthy. The main thoroughfares are embellished by several up. Locomotives and cars are sent to Altoona to be repaired striking monuments, notably the memorials of the wars of from all over the Pennsylvania railway system E. of Pittsburg, 1864 and 1870, bronze statues of the emperor William I. and and cars and locomotives are built here; and in the south Bismarck and the column of Victory (Siegessäule). The museum Altoona foundries car wheels and general castings for locomotives (1901) is an imposing building in the German Renaissance style and cars are made. The several departments of railway work and contains, in addition to a valuable library, ethnographical are used to give training in a sort of railway university. Graduand natural history collections. Its site is that formerly occupied | ates of technical schools are received as special apprentices and by the terminus of the Schleswig-Holstein railways, but a hand- are directed in a course of four years through the erecting shops, some central station lying somewhat farther to the N., connected vice shop, blacksmith shop, boiler shop, roundhouse, test departwith Hamburg by an elevated railway, now accommodates all ment, machine shop, air-brake shop, iron foundry, car shop, the traffic and provides through communication with the main work of firing on the road, office work in the motive power Prussian railway systems. There are also fine municipal and accounting department, and drawing room; the most competent judicial buildings, a theatre (under the same management as may be admitted through the grades of inspector, in the office of the Stadttheater in Hamburg), a gymnasium, technical schools, the master mechanic or of the road foreman of engines, assistant a school of navigation and a hospital. In respect of its local master mechanic, assistant engineer of motive power, master industries Altona has manufactures of tobacco and cigars, of mechanic and superintendent of motive power. The Pennsylmachinery, woollens, cottons and chemicals. There are also vania railway, co-operating with the public school authorities, extensive breweries, tanneries and soap and oil works. Altona | established at Altoona, in 1907, a railway high school, the first carries on an extensive maritime trade with Great Britain, institution of the kind in the country. It has a well-equipped France and America, but it has by no means succeeded in drawing room, carpenter shop, forging room, foundry, science depriving Hamburg of its commercial superiority-indeed, so laboratories and machinery department, in which expert independent is it upon its rival that most of its business is trans- struction is given. In 1905 the city's factory products were acted on the Hamburg exchange, while the magnificent ware- valued at $14,349,963, and in this year the railway shops gave houses on the Altona river bank are to a large extent occupied employment to 83.7 % of all wage-earners employed in manuby the goods of Hamburg merchants. Since 1888, when Altona facturing establishments. The manufacture of silk is the only joined the imperial Zollverein, approximately half a million other important industry in the city. The site of the city sterling has been spent upon harbour improvement works. (formerly farming land) was purchased in 1849 by the PennsylThe exports and imports resemble those of Hamburg. In the vania Railroad Company and was laid out as a town. It was ten years 1871-1880, the port was entered on an average annually incorporated as a borough in 1854 and was chartered as a city by 737 vessels of 67,735 tons, in 1881-1890 by 608 vessels of in 1868. 154,713 tons, and in 1891-1898 by 839 vessels of 253,384 tons. t In 1890 the populous suburbs of Ottensen to the W., where the poet Gottlieb Klopstock lies buried, Bahrenfeld, Othmarschen and Övelgönne were incorporated. Without these suburbs the growth of the town may be seen from the following figures:(1864, when it ceased to be Danish) 53,039; (1880) 91,049; (1885) 104,717; (1890) together with the four suburbs, 143,249; (1895) 148,944; (1900) 161,508; (1905) 168,301. Altona is the headquarters of the IX. German army corps. The name Altona is said to be derived from allzu-nah (" all too near"), the Hamburgers' designation for an inn which in the middle of the 16th century lay too close to their territory. For a long time this was the only house in the locality. When in 1640 Altona passed to Denmark it was a small fishing village. Its rise to its present position is mainly due to the fostering care of the Danish kings who conferred certain customs privileges and exemptions upon it with a view to making it a formidable rival to Hamburg. In 1713 it was burnt by the Swedes, but rapidly recovered from this disaster, and despite the trials of the Napoleonic wars, gradually increased in prosperity. In 1853, owing to the withdrawal by Denmark of its customs privileges, its trade waned. In 1864 Altona was occupied in the name of the German Confederation, passed to Prussia after the war of 1866, and 1888 together with Hamburg joined the Zollverein, while retaining certain free trade rights over the Freihafengebiet which it shares with Hamburg and Wandsbek. See Wichmann, Geschichte Altonas (2 vols., Alt., 1896); Ehrenberg & Stahl, Altonas topographische Entwickelung (Alt., 1894). ALTOONA, a city of Blair county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., about 117 m. E. by N. of Pittsburg. Pop. (1890) 30,337; (1900) 38,973, of whom 3301 were foreign-born, 1518 being German; (1910) 52,127. It lies in the upper end of Logan Valley at the base of the Alleghany mountains, about 1180 ft. above sea-level, and commands views of some of the most picturesque mountain scenery in the state. A short distance to the W. is the famous Horseshoe Bend of the Pennsylvania ALTO-RELIEVO (Ital. for "high relief "), the term applied to sculpture that projects from the plane to which it is attached to the extent of more than one-half the outline of the principal figures, which may be nearly or in parts entirely detached from the background. It is thus distinguished from basso-relieva (q.v.), in which there is a greater or less approximation in effect to the pictorial method, the figures being made to appear as projecting more than half their outline without actually doing At the same time it is not only the actual degree of relief which is implied by these two terms, but a resultant difference also of design and treatment necessitated by the contingent differences of light and shadow. (See RELIEF and SCULPTURE.) So. ALTÖTTING, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, on the Mörren, not far from its junction with the Inn, and on the Mühldorf-Burghausen railway. Pep. (1900) 4344. It has long been a place of pilgrimage to which Roman Catholics, especially from Austria, Bavaria and Swabia resort in large numbers, on account of a celebrated image of the Virgin Mary in the Holy Chapel, which also contains the hearts of some Bavarian princes in silver caskets. In the church of St Peter and St Paul is the tomb of Tilly. ALTRANSTÄDT, a village of Germany, in Prussian Saxony near Merseburg (q.v.), with (1900) 813 inhabitants. Altranstädt is famous in history for two treaties concluded here: (1) the peace which Augustus II., king of Poland and elector of Saxony, was forced to ratify, on the 24th of September 1706, with Charles XII. of Sweden, whereby the former renounced the throne of Poland in favour of Stanislaus Leszczynski-a treaty which Augustus declared null and void after Charles XII.'s defeat at Poltava (8th of July 1709); (2) the treaty of the 31st of August 1707, by which the emperor Joseph I. guaranteed to Charles XII. religious tolerance and liberty of conscience for the Silesian protestants. |