ALLOWANCE (from "allow,' derived through 0. Fr. alouer from the two

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• LAT

Lat. origins adlaudare, to praise, and allocare, to assign a

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• PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place; so that the

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• ENGLISH

English word combined the

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• GENERAL
• GENERAL (Lat. generalis, of or relating to a genus, kind or class)

general

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• IDEA (Gr. Ibia, connected with i&eiv, to see; cf. Lat. species from specere, to look at)

idea of "assigning with approval")  , the action of allowing, or the thing allowed; particularly, a certain limited apportionment of money or food and diet (see DIETARY) . In commercial usage "allowance" signifies the deduction made from the gross weight of goods to make up for the weight of the box or package, waste, breakages, &c . Allowance, which is customary in most industries, varies according to the trade, district or country; e.g. in the coal trade it is customary for the merchant to receive from the pit 21 cwts. of coal for every ton purchased by him, the difference of 1 cwt. being the allowance for the purpose of making good the waste caused through transhipment, screening and cartage (see TARE AND TRET.) ALLO%AN, or MESOXALYL UREA, C4H2N204 or CO/NH– C0NCO. an oxidation product of uric acid, being \NH—CO/ obtained from it by the action of cold nitric acid, C5H4N403 + H2O + 0= C4H2N204 + CO(NH2)2 . It crystallizes from water in colourless rhombic prisms, containing four molecules of water of crystallization, and possesses a very acid reaction . It serves as the starting-point for the preparation of many related substances . Zinc and hydrochloric acid in the cold convert it into alloxantin (q.v.), hydroxylamine gives nitroso-barbituric acid, C4H2N203: NOH, baryta water gives alloxanic acid, C4H4N205, hot dilute nitric acid oxidizes it to parabanic acid (q.v.), hot potassium hydroxide solution hydrolyses it to urea and mesoxalic acid (q.v.) and zinc and hot hydrochloric acid convert it into dialuric acid, C4H4N204 . M . Nencki has shown that alloxan combines with thiourea in alcoholic solution, in the presence of sulphur dioxide to form pseudothiouric acid, C5H6N4SO3 . Methyl and dimethylalloxans are also known, the former being obtained on oxidation of methyl uric acid, and the latter on oxidation of caffeine (q.v.) .