2. (Arith.) A rule relating to the solution of questions
concerning the compounding or mixing of different
ingredients, or ingredients of different qualities or
values.
Note: The rule is named from the method of connecting
together the terms by certain ligature-like signs.
Alligation is of two kinds, medial and alternate;
medial teaching the method of finding the price or
quality of a mixture of several simple ingredients
whose prices and qualities are known; alternate,
teaching the amount of each of several simple
ingredients whose prices or qualities are known, which
will be required to make a mixture of given price or
quality.