Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AL-LI-GA'TION, n.

1. The act of tying together; the state being tied. [Little used.]
2. A role of arithmetic for finding the price or value of compounds, consisting of ingredients of different values. Thus if a quantity of sugar, worth eight cents the pound, and another quantity worth ten cents, are mixed, the question to be solved by alligation is, what is the value of the Mixture by the pound. Alligation is of two kinds, medial and alternate; medial, when the rate of a mixture is sought from the rates and quantities of the simples; alternate, when the quantities of the simples are sought from the rates of the simples, and the rate of the mixture.