ALAIS  , a

town of southern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Gard, 25 M . N.N.W. of Nimes on the Paris-Lyon railway, on which it is an important junction . Pop . (Igoe) 18,987 . The town is situated at the foot of the Cevennes, on the left bank of the Gardon, which half surrounds it . The streets are wide and its promenades and fine plane-trees make the town attractive; but the public buldings, the chief of which are the church of St Jean, a heavy building of the 18th century, and the citadel, which serves as barracks and prison, are of small interest . Pasteur prosecuted his investigations into the silk-worm disease at Alais, and the town has dedicated a bust to his memory . There is also a statue of the chemist J . B . Dumas . Alais has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a lycee and a school of mines . The town is one of the most important markets for raw silk and cocoons in the south of France, and the Gardon supplies power to numerous silk-mills .

It is also the centre of a

mineral field, which yields large quantities of coal, iron, zinc and lead; its blast-furnaces, foundries, glass-works and engineering works afford employment to many workmen . In the r6th century Alais was an important Huguenot centre . In 1629 the town was taken by Louis XIII., and by the peace of Alais the Huguenots gave up their right to places de siirete (garrison towns) and other privileges . A bishopric was established there in 1694 but suppressed in 1790 .