the heat of the hand, by which the grains are united into smaller or larger lumps, which, when broken, contain many almond-like pieces. The portions which correspond to this description constitute the best kind of asafoetida, which is called asafoetida in grains.

The inferior sort is dark brown, of a dull, fatty appearance, viscid and greasy, containing portions of the stalks, and other impurities: it is called asafoetida in masses.

Sagapenum, the source of which is unknown, is by many supposed to be a kind of asafoetida.

The smell of asafoetida is penetrating, very disagreeable, and lasts some time. The taste is bitter, unpleasantly aromatic, of an alliaceous or garlic-like character. Its chief component parts are volatile oil, resin, and gum; and it is soluble in vinegar, proof spirit, and yolk of egg. Triturated with water, it forms an emulsion, from which the resin is gradually precipitated. Asafoetida can only be powdered at the temperature of freezing (32° of Fahrenheit); but even after being powdered, though kept in a cool place, it is apt again to run into

masses.

An artificial asafoetida is sometimes formed of resin and garlic juice; but this has only a weak smell, and is more perfectly soluble in alcohol.

Asafoetida acts on the human system as a stimulant, more especially of the nerves of the chest and abdomen. It also influences, like all gum-resins, the vessels distributed on the lower portion of the abdomen, or the pelvis. Though not so heating as its chemical composition might lead us to expect, it not only directs the blood more powerfully to these organs, but ensures its uniform supply. It is also a valuable antispasmodic, in irregular action of the muscles either of the respiratory or digestive organs.

Its power of at once rousing the nervous system and promoting the flow of blood towards the enfeebled stomach and bowels, renders it very serviceable in imperfect digestion, attended with constipation.

From a knowledge of its powers in such cases, the Romans employed it along with their food, as the Persians still do.

In hysteria it is extremely useful, both during an attack of spasm, and during the interval between the paroxysms.

to it.

In colic, and even ileus, its action is often rapid and effectual, especially if thrown into the rectum in this way, cases of the most obstinate constipation, especially in hysterical females, have yielded In asthma, in the later stages of hooping-cough, and in the cough of old age, in cough occurring in weakly subjects, not connected with inflammation or tubercles, above all, in the cough of hysterical females, it is of very great service. In the last-mentioned case, it is improved by combination with myrrh and preparations of iron, as it likewise is when employed to act on the uterine system.

It is also employed externally, as a means of keeping up counterirritation; and a convenient plaster may be formed by adding 1-12th part of camphor to 11-12ths of asafoetida. For internal exhibition, pills, or tincture, or watery solution (which must be used immediately after it is prepared), are the ordinary forms of administration. In cases of organic disease of the heart, especially enlargement, and in fulness or congestion of the brain or spinal chord, or in any organic diseases of these, assafoetida is improper.

ASARONE (C40H28010)?—Asarin, Asarite. A volatile principle, obtained from the Asarum europæum. It has a remarkable tendency to crystallise in beautifully definite forms. It however readily assumes an amorphous condition, from which it is again easily restored to its crystalline state. The facility which this circumstance affords for the study of crystallisation in general, has been taken advantage of by Schmidt, who has published a paper on the microscopic appearances of this substance during its crystallising condition in the Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie,' for February, 1845.

Asarone is soluble in alcohol and ether, fuses at 104° Fahr., and boils at 536°, but is then partially decomposed.

ASA'RUM, a genus of Plants, belonging to the family of the Aristolochiea. It was formerly employed as an emetic, instead of ipecacuanha; but, from the violence of its effects, it is now properly laid aside in medical practice. It is still however used in veterinary medicine to vomit and purge. [ASARUM, in NAT. HIST. DIV.]

ASBOLINE. [SOOT.]

ASCENDANT. [ASTROLOGY.]

ASCENSION, RIGHT and OBLIQUE, and ASCENSIONAL DIFFERENCE, astronomical terms, of which the two latter are nearly out of use, while the term right ascension is preserved, in a somewhat different signification from its original meaning, to denote one of the angles by means of which the position of a star is ascertained.

If we suppose a person at the equator, looking directly towards the east, and raising his arms on each side till they are horizontal, his fingers will then point towards the two poles (which at the equator are in the horizon), and a line drawn through his arms will be a part of the axis on which the heavens appear to turn. Every star will rise vertically; that is, if the diurnal motion were quick enough to justify the phrase, would appear to shoot above the horizon directly upwards. The great circle of the heavens which his eye traces out as he raises his head without turning to right or left, is the equator, and the same point of the equator rises every day with the same star. If there be a

remarkable star in the equator, from the rising of which the spectator chooses to begin his astronomical day, he will know the time of rising of any star as soon as he knows how far the point of the equator which rises with it is from the star at whose rising he begins to count the twenty-four hours.

Suppose, for example, it is 60°; then, since the whole 360° of the equator rise in twenty-four hours, 60 of them will rise in four hours, or the star will rise at four o'clock of his astronomical day.

Let o be the spectator, N and s the north and south poles, E the east point of the horizon, EZ part of the equator, and a the star. Through the north and south poles and the star draw a circle NAS, cutting the equator in T. Then, if q be the star at the rising of which the astronomical day begins, the number of degrees in QT is the right ascension of the star.

Instead of the horizon NES, any other circle may be substituted which passes through N and s; for example, the meridian N zs. For, draw any circle through N and s, then the diurnal motion will bring a and T upon that circle at the same moment, and Q and T will pass that circle one after the other with the same interval as occurred between their times of passing E or their times of rising.

Substituting the meridian (which always passes through the poles) for the horizon, this method of reckoning may be used in any latitude. For the same point of the equator always comes upon every meridian with the same star; but, instead of using a star in the equator as the point from which to reckon, the vernal equinox is preferred, or the point at which the sun's path crosses the equator when he ascends into the northern hemisphere. The distance of the point of the equator just mentioned from the vernal equinox, measured upon the equator according to the order of the signs, in degrees, minutes, and seconds, is the right ascension in space [see ANGLE] of the star. The same turned into time [see ANGLE] is the right ascension in time, and indicates the interval which elapses between the times when the equinox and star severally come on the meridian. The whole time which a star takes to complete its diurnal revolution, or the sidereal day [DAY], it must be recollected, is not the common solar day, but about four minutes shorter.

The old term oblique ascension is an extension of the right ascension, as derived from our first illustration, to the oblique sphere, in which one pole is above the horizon, and the other below.

Let p be the north pole, z the zenith, EQ the equator, q the vernal equinox. Let A be a star at its rising, and T the point of the equator which comes to the meridian with it (and would rise with it to a person at the equator). In the latitude represented in the figure, E is the point of the equator which rises with it, and Q E is what used to be called the oblique ascension; the right ascension is QT, and TE the difference between the oblique and the right ascension, was called the

celebrated from the very first century of the Christian era. It has been held for ages on the Thursday next but one preceding Whitsunday. (See Brady's Clavis Calendaria,' vol. i. p. 357.) It is also called Holy Thursday, a name by which it has been known in this country at least as far back as the time of King Alfred, in whose laws it occurs, On þone halzan þunɲer dæg (or the holy Thursday). It was on this day, or on one of the three days which immediately preceded it, and which were considered as days of preparation for it, that in ancient times the minister of every parish, accompanied by his churchwardens and parishioners, was accustomed to go round the limits of his district, to deprecate the vengeance of God, to beg a blessing on the fruits of the field, and to preserve the rights and boundaries of the parish. The week in which Ascension Day occurs is usually called Rogation Week, from the Rogations or Litanies which were used in the perambulations. The Anglo-Saxons called the days of this week Lanz dagar (walking days), from the perambulations which were made. In London such parochial processions are still observed on Ascension Day itself; and also in some provincial places. In the parish of Lanark, in Scotland, as late as 1845 the 'Statistical Account of Scotland' states that on "Landmark-day, there are processions to inspect the marches of the town-lands. As a method of impressing the boundaries upon the memory, all persons attending for the first time are ducked in the river Mouss." The custom is said to be of Saxon origin. Pennant, in his 'Tour from Chester to London,' p. 30, tells us that on Ascension Day the old inhabitants of Nantwich piously sang a hymn of thanksgiving for the blessing of the Brine. A very ancient pit, called the Old Brine, was also held in great veneration, and, till within these few years, was annually, on that festival, bedecked with boughs, flowers, and garlands, and was encircled by a jovial band of young people, celebrating the day with song and dance.

It was upon Ascension Day, too, that the Doge or chief magistrate of Venice was formerly accustomed, by throwing a gold ring into its bosom, annually to espouse the Adriatic Sea; using the words 'Desponsamus te, Mare, in signum perpetui dominii." We espouse thee, O Sea, in testimony of our perpetual dominion over thee.This practice, which is said to have originated in a grant from Pope Alexander III. to the Venetians, of power over the Adriatic Ocean as a man has power over his wife, ceased only with the government of the Doges.

ASCETICS (doкnταí), a term applied to the pugilists, wrestlers, and other athlete, among the ancient Greeks, who prepared themselves by abstinence for their combats; subsequently, the term was extended to all those who practised the severity of virtue. The exercise of severe virtue among the Pythagorean and Stoic philosophers was called dokŋois, askesis: it consisted in chastity, poverty, watchings, fasts, and retirement. The ascetics seem to have had an eastern origin. The Brachmans, Germani or Sarmani, Samanæi, Hylobii or Allobii, Gymnosophista in Asia, and other sects in East-Africa, were ascetics, who like the present Sanyasseans, Talapoins, and Bonzes, in eastern Asia, exercised their ingenuity in devising new methods of self-torture. For the Jewish ascetics, see the articles NASIREANS, ESSENES. According to Eusebius ('Hist. Eccles.' ii. c. 23), James the Just, the brother of Jesus, was an ascetic at Jerusalem before the destruction of that city. The Christians were in the earlier centuries more distinguished by their purity of morals than by ascetic austerities. In the 2nd century, the Christians began to distinguish between the commands given to all believers and the evangelical advice which they supposed to be applicable to those only who aimed at the higher sanctity of ascetics, founding their belief more particularly on some passages in St. Paul's epistles, in which he speaks of struggling against the flesh. This double doctrine, as Mosheim calls it, induced many persons to endeavour to attain a higher degree of communion with God, by practising watchings, abstinence, labour, and hunger, hoping thus to raise the soul above all external objects and all sensual pleasures. The Christian ascetics were divided into abstinentes, or those who abstained from wine, meat, and agreeable food, and continentes, or those who, abstaining from matrimony also, were considered to attain to a higher degree of sanctity. The early ascetics were most numerous in Egypt and Syria. Many laymen as well as ecclesiastics were ascetics in the first centuries of our era, without retiring on that account from the business and bustle of life. Some of them wore the pallium philosophicum, or the philosophic mantle, and were therefore called Christian philosophers, and formed thus the transition link to the life of hermits.and monks, which was regulated in the 4th century. In modern times asceticism is occasionally used to signify any peculiar austerity of life.

(Mosheim, De Rebus Christ. ante Const. Max. p. 311, &c.; Neander's Kirchen-Geschichte.) ASCLEPIADINE. A non-azotised substance of unknown composition met with in the root of the Asclepias vince toxicum. It is bitter and emetic.

ASCLEPION (CHO). An inodorous, tasteless, white and neutral substance met with in the juice of the Asclepias syriaca. It is insoluble in water and alcohol, but soluble in ether, fuses at 219° Fahr., and at a higher temperature decomposes, emitting an odour like burning caoutchouc.

ASH; ECONOMICAL USES. The uses of the ash in the arts are very numerous. The wood is both elastic and tough; it is used for the felloes and spokes of wheels, the beams of ploughs, the tops of kitchen tables, milk-pails, oars, blocks and pulleys, handles for spades and other instruments, hop-poles, hoops, crates, basket-handles, fencewattles, and numerous other purposes. In the neighbourhood of the Staffordshire potteries the ash is cultivated to a great extent, and cut every five or six years for crate-wood, which is in much demand in the pottery district. The ashes yield good potash; the bark is used for tanning nets and calf-skins; the leaves and shoots are used for food by cattle; dishonest traders use ash-leaves for adulterating tea; the seeds or keys are sometimes pickled as a sort of salad, and they are also used in Siberia to give a flavour to water for drinking. The sap is used for some medicinal purposes. The Flowering Ash yields a juice which solidifies into manna.

ASHES, the remains of anything burned, whether of vegetable or animal origin, and to a certain extent of mineral bodies also. Vegetable ashes. Ashes vary in composition according to the nature of the plant, the soil in which it grows, and the manure used upon it. The substances usually contained in the ashes of land plants are potash, soda, lime, magnesia, silica, the oxides of iron and of manganese, chlorine, carbonic acid, sulphuric acid, and phosphoric acid. Alumina occurs rarely, and sometimes oxide of copper has been met with. Very frequently more than one-half of the ashes of vegetables consists of carbonate of lime. The quantity of ashes varies, not only according to the soil, age, and aspect of the plant, but also in different parts of the same plant, from 2 to 6 per cent. of its weight, after drying in the air. The soluble part of wood ashes consists of the alkaline sulphates, carbonates, and chlorides; while the insoluble matter is chiefly composed of carbonate of lime, and probably of magnesia, phosphate of lime, and phosphate of iron.

The incineration of wood is a most important operation; from its ashes are obtained the immense quantities of impure potash, and the carbonate called pearlash, imported from America and other countries. The sap of plants contains also other vegetable acids, as the oxalic, citric, tartaric, malic, &c.; and the salts which these form with potash are decomposed by heat, and yield the carbonate. The ashes of land plants yield principally the salts of potash, such as barilla-those of marine plants afford a large quantity of soda salts, and especially the carbonate, such as kelp.

Coal ashes are extremely various both in their appearance and composition. Thus, much of the coal of the north of England, under common circumstances, burns to a cinder, which is a mixture of the ashes of the coal with some carbonaceous matter requiring rather a high temperature to burn it, on account of its being enveloped by incombustible matter. The coal of Somersetshire burns to red ashes, evidently coloured by peroxide of iron: those of the Staffordshire coal are nearly white. The quantity of ashes yielded by different kinds of coal varies considerably; according to Kirwan, Wigan coal contains 1.57 per cent, of ashes; Whitehaven coal 17, and Swansea coal 3:33 per cent.; they consist principally of silica and alumina, with small quantities of line, sometimes magnesia, and also peroxide of iron; but they do not contain either the chlorides, phosphates, or alkaline salts found in wood-ashes. Peat ashes differ chemically from both the other kinds.

Animal ashes resulting from the burning of bones and other animal solids, consist principally of phosphate of lime, with traces of salts of lime, magnesia, and soda.

Mineral ashes, such as those of Vesuvius, as examined by Vauquelin, were grayish in colour; they were tasteless, and found to consist of alumina, oxide of iron, muriate of ammonia, sulphate of lime, potash, copper, manganese, lime, and charcoal. Vauquelin also analysed the ashes ejected in the same year from Etna; they were of a gray colour, and in fine powder; they contained sulphur, sulphates of lime, copper, and alumina, and several other mineral ingredients.

The ashes of domestic economy, comprising not only the coal-ash from the grate, but a quantity of dust and miscellaneous fragments, are a valuable commercial article. The ash-heap of a dust contractor has a large money-value, for much of the waste serves as material for manufactures.

ASHLAR, rough stones of various sizes. This term is applied to free-stones when they are first taken out of the quarry.

ASHLER, a facing made of squared stones. In countries where stone is scarce and expensive, ashler principally consists of thin slabs of stone used to face the brick and rubble walls of buildings. These slabs are generally from four to six inches thick. Ashler is of several kinds. Plane ashler is so called when the surface of the stone is made quite smooth. Nearly all the public buildings of London in which stone is used are more or less faced with plane ashler. When the stone shows on its surface a series of narrow parallel flutings, the work is called tooled ashler. This is principally to be met with in the basements of buildings where the stone is set with flutings running perpendicularly. There is also an ornamental kind of ashler, very common in buildings, produced by slightly cutting into the stones, so as to make a depression, along one, two, or more of the sides of the joints. This kind of ashler is called rusticated ashler. The Banqueting Hall at Whitehall, Somerset House, the Bank of England, and St. Paul's Cathedral, may be taken as examples of rusticated ashler in London:

ASH-WEDNESDAY. This, which is the first day of Lent, had formerly two names; one was Caput Jejunii, "the head of the fast," the other was Ash-Wednesday, so called from the ancient ceremony of blessing ashes on that day, with which the priest signed the people on the forehead in the form of a cross, adding this admonition, "Memento, homo, quod cinis es, et in cinerem reverteris:" "Remember, man, that thou art ashes, and shalt return to ashes." "Mannerly to take their ashes devoutly," is among the Roman Catholic customs censured by John Bale in his 'Declaration of Bonner's Articles,' 1554. The ashes used this day in the Church of Rome were said to be made from the palms consecrated on the Palm-Sunday before. In Bishop Bonner's Injunctions,' A.D. 1555, we read that "the hallowed ashes given by the priest to the people on Ash-Wednesday are to put the people in remembrance of penance at the beginning of Lent, that their bodies are but earth, dust, and ashes." The ancient discipline of sackcloth and ashes on Ash-Wednesday is at present supplied, in the English established church, by reading publicly on this day the curses denounced against impenitent sinners, when the people are directed to repeat an "Amen" at the end of each malediction. Compare Wheatley On the Common Prayer,' 8vo, 1722, p. 227; Brand's Popular Antiquities,' vol. i. p. 79. Brady, in his Clavis Calendaria,' says, the primitive Christians did not commence their Lent until the Sunday now called the first in Lent. Pope Felix III., in the year 487, first added the four days preceding the old Lent Sunday, to complete the number of fasting days to forty, of which it actually consists. Pope Gregory the Great introduced the sprinkling of ashes on the first of the four additional days, which gave it the name of Ash-Wednesday; and the council of Beneventum, in the year 1091, strictly enjoined the observance of the ceremony, which was abolished in England at the Reformation, and a commination service, as above alluded to, substituted in its stead.

ASIATIC SOCIETIES. The enthusiastic ardour of Sir William Jones in acquiring a knowledge of the languages and literature of the East led him, in 1784, soon after entering upon his judicial functions at Calcutta, to endeavour to interest others in the same pursuit, and thereby to initiate a society in that city on the plan of the Royal Society of London for the purpose, as he intimates in a letter to the Governor-General of India (Warren Hastings), "of inquiring into the history, civil and natural; the antiquities, arts, sciences, and literature of Asia." The Governor-General readily patronised the undertaking; and the society was speedily inaugurated under the presidentship of Sir William himself, who delivered a learned and very interesting discourse on the occasion. To Sir William Jones, therefore, is due the

example which has been followed in the institution of similar bodies in other parts of the world.

The Calcutta Society has been eminently successful. The first volume of its literary labours and scientific proceedings was printed in 1788, in quarto, under the title of The Asiatic Researches,' which series was continued up to Vol. XX., published in 1836. In 1832, the society resolved to commence the printing of an octavo journal, or rather to take under its immediate superintendence a scientific journal then existing at Calcutta, under the name of Gleanings of Science,' edited by the celebrated James Prinsep. Vol. I. of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal' was issued in 1832; and the work has appeared at regular intervals up to the present time (1859), when it comprises 26 vols., containing, in the aggregate, a vast amount of original information on almost every subject of interest relating to man and nature in Asia. The first 7 vols. are especially rich in the antiquarian, archeological, and numismatical papers of Mr. Prinsep. These papers have been recently collected into 2 vols. 8vo, with notes and elucidations, by E. Thomas, Esq., late of the Bengal C. S., under the title of Essays on Indian Antiquities of the late James Prinsep, F.R.S.'

In addition to its own researches and journal, the Bengal Society has been enabled, through the liberality of the late East India Company, to print, under its auspices, various texts of native works, accompanied generally by English translations, under the title of 'Bibliotheca Indica,' the first volume of which appeared in 1836; and the series now comprises about 25 different works, in 4to and 8vo, principally in Arabic and Sanscrit literature.

It was not till about 1820, that the prototype of the Calcutta Asiatic Society was adopted by the orientalists of Europe. At this period a Société Asiatique was formed at Paris, which, in 1822, commenced the publication of the Journal Asiatique,' under the editorship of those well-known scholars, Chézy, Klaproth, Remusat, St. Martin, De Sacy, and others of minor fame. The journal has continued to be published with undeviating regularity, and at the end of 1858 comprised no fewer than 70 vols. 8vo, divided into five series. The Société Asiatique has also printed at its own expense some 14 oriental works, besides encouraging by its patronage the printing of several others; and these are sold to the public at prices varying from 1 to 200 francs per copy. Nearly simultaneous with the formation of the Paris Society was that of London. In January, 1823, Mr. H. T. Colebrooke, one of the earliest inquirers into the Sanscrit language and literature, convened a meeting of gentlemen at his own house, which resulted in the foundation of the present Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.' The society was well received by the Anglo-Indians of England, and was graciously patronised by William IV., who granted it a royal charter in 1824. The earlier literary labours of the society are recorded in three quarto volumes, dated 1827-35, the contents of which have added greatly to our knowledge of eastern matters. The communications of Mr. Colebrooke and Mr. H. H. Wilson, in these volumes, on the religion, metaphysics, and philosophy of the Hindus, have attracted much attention.

Relinquishing the quarto form of its Transactions, the society commenced the printing of a Journal in octavo, the first of which was issued in 1834. Up to 1858, the Journal had reached its 16th volume. This series contains many learned and valuable papers. Nor must it be forgotten that it was through this society's Journal the antiquarian world was first made acquainted with the remarkable discoveries of Colonel (now Sir Henry) Rawlinson, in the cuneiform writing of ancient Persia, Assyria, and Babylonia. In the year 1838, Colonel Rawlinson sent his first reading of part of the famous Behistun inscription of Darius Hystaspes; and, in 1839, a general précis of the contents of the inscription itself. Several papers on cuneiform literature by Sir Henry have since been printed in the Journal; as also by Dr. Hincks, Mr. Fox Talbot, and Mr. Norris, the present secretary of the institution. Such was the public interest attached to Sir Henry Rawlinson's discoveries, that the House of Commons, in 1856, readily voted a grant of 1000l. to the Society in aid of its expenses in printing these interesting memorials of ancient days.

In 1828, a committee originated among the members of the Royal Asiatic Society, who put forth a prospectus for translating and publishing Eastern authors. Colonel Fitzclarence (afterwards Earl of Munster), and Sir Gore Ouseley, took a very active interest in the proceedings of this committee; and considerable funds were collected by annual subscriptions. Since its formation up to the present time, the Oriental Translation Committee has printed or patronised upwards of seventy translations or editions of Oriental books, many of thern of high interest,-such as Wilson's Vishnu Purana;' De Gayangos's 'Mohammedan Spain;' and the great 'Lexicon' of Haji Khalfa, translated and edited by the learned Arabic scholar, Prof. G. Flügel, of Dresden, in seven thick volumes 4to.

In 1840 another committee emanated from the society, having for its object the publication of oriental texts exclusively. This body have printed the original texts of thirteen authors, in Sanscrit, Arabic, Syriac, and Persian; but from the want of adequate public support, its proceedings are now in abeyance, as are also, we regret to learn, the proceedings of the translation committee.

It deserves mention, too, that in 1836, the society gave birth to a "committee of commerce and agriculture," the idea of which origi

nated with the Right Hon. Holt Mackenzie and Dr. Royle. After printing a volume of its proceedings, it was dissolved in 1841, when Dr. Royle entered upon his office at the India House for investigating the vegetable products of India-an office which appears to have been suggested by the proceedings of the committee now referred to.

The parent society in London has affiliated as branches the following associations :-1. The Literary Society of Bombay; 2. The Literary Society of Madras; 3. The Asiatic Society of Ceylon; 4. The Asiatic Society of Hong Kong; 5. The Literary and Scientific Society of Shanghai; brief notices of which we shall give seriatim.

1. The Bombay Society was instituted in 1804, under the presidentship of Sir James Mackintosh. It has printed 3 vols. of Transactions,' in 4to (1819-23); and 5 vols. of 'Journal,' in 8vo (1844-57).

2. The Madras Society owed its origin to Sir John Newbolt. It printed a thin volume of 'Transactions,' in 4to in 1827; since which it has published 19 vols. of its 'Journal,' in 8vo, dated from 1834 to 1838.

3. The Ceylon Society was instituted in 1845, under the patronage of the Governor-General of the island, Sir Colin Campbell. Between 1846 and 1853, it had printed two volumes of its 'Journal;' but we are not aware whether it has published anything since.

4. The China branch at Hong Kong was founded in 1847; and has printed four parts of Transactions,' between 1847 and 1855.

5. The Shanghai Society dates from 1858 only; and has printed but one portion of its' Journal.' The 'Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft' was instituted in Leipzig, in 1846, under the auspices of Lassen, of Bonn; Rödiger and Pott, of Halle; and Fleischer and Brockhaus, of Leipzig. Its Zeitschrift' commenced in 1847, and may be considered a continuation of Ewald and Lassen's 'Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes,' published at Göttingen and Bonn in 1837-50, in 7 vols. 8vo. Its present editor is Dr. H. Brockhaus; and such has been the industry of its contributors that, up to 1858, it comprised twelve dense volumes, with a copious index to the first ten. In addition to the publication of its own proceedings, the society has patronised other oriental works, such as the Indische Studien.' It has also commenced a series of 'Abhandlungen,' &c., one volume of which has appeared.

At Batavia, in Java, a society having similar objects to those already noticed, was founded about 1780; which has published a 'Verhandlingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap,' &c., which has reached many volumes; and it now prints a Tydschrift,' &c. There was also formed a few years since, at Amsterdam, a Royal Institute of Netherlands India, which publishes Bijdragen,' &c., besides separate works on subjects connected with the Indian Archipelago.

An oriental society originated at Boston in 1842, and during the next year received from the government an Act of incorporation, under the name of The American Oriental Society, for the purpose of the cultivation of learning in the Asiatic, African, and Polynesian languages.' It publishes a 'Journal,' which in 1856 had reached its fifth volume. The library and collections of this society have been recently located in Yale College, New Haven, Conn.

ASPARAGIN (C ̧H ̧N2O ̧ +2 aq.).—Althein, Asparamide. A substance obtained by concentrating the juice of asparagus until, on cooling, it deposits crystals, which, on recrystallisation from water, are pure asparagin. It is met with also in many other plants, as for instance, in the roots of liquorice, marsh-mallow, and comfrey; in the leaves of belladonna; in the young shoots of hops, in dahlia tubers, &c. Asparagin crystallises in octohedrons or rhombic prisms, which are hard and brittle; they are tolerably soluble in hot water, only slightly so in cold, and insoluble in alcohol and ether. Its solution possesses a slightly acid reaction; but the acid qualities of asparagin are not well pronounced, since it is capable of combining both with acids

wither, by its small greenish-white or yellowish regularly-formed flowers, and by its seeds being enclosed in a pulpy fruit. Unlike the principal part of monocotyledonous plants, and especially of those which belong to Asphodelece, the stems of the different species of asparagus branch like those of dicotyledons, and even become hard and woody; some of them twine and scramble over other shrubs, and certain species even hook themselves to their supporters by means of their stiff and spiny branches, which are stunted and destitute of leaves. The species are natives of the temperate and tropical regions of the old world, but they are not found wild in either North or South America. The most remarkable one is the common cultivated aspa ragus which is found in sandy and maritime places in most parts of the middle and south of Europe, the Crimea, and also of Siberia and Japan. It is too well-known a plant to require description, and we shall therefore occupy ourselves exclusively with the method of cultivating it for its succulent and agreeable heads.

An asparagus plant consists of a cluster of fleshy roots connected by the stem, where a quantity of buds are formed, from which branches are yearly emitted. The heads are those branches in a young and tender state; their quality depends wholly upon their size and rapid growth. These are the simplest considerations that are involved in the cultivation of asparagus; the question is how the largest size and the most rapid growth are to be attained.

Seeing what the natural situation of the asparagus plant is when wild, it will be obvious that it should have a light soil which offers little resistance either to the emission of its roots or the protrusion of its stems; the soil should also be capable of both receiving and parting with water readily. Accordingly gardeners take care that all stiff loam, or stones, or solid masses of earth are separated from the soil of their asparagus beds, and that they are completely drained by having trenches 24 feet deep cut between the beds.

To give vigour to the shoots, manure is added in as-great a quantity as the cultivator can afford to apply it; when the seed is sown, or the young plants finally placed in the situation in which they are to produce a crop, an abundant supply of decayed manure, or of bones, or of parings of horses' hoofs, is buried below them; and they are also annually top-dressed with finely pulverised manure, when the beds are arranged in the winter. Attention being paid to these circumstances, asparagus is one of the easiest vegetables of all to cultivate; but no art or skill will produce precisely the soil which is most favourable for its growth. This exists naturally in some places in the fittest of all possible states, and it is there only that it is to be obtained in its greatest perfection; as in the rich alluvial soil of Battersea, Mortlake, and other places round London: in some of these villages it is produced of such extraordinary size that 110 heads in a state fit for the kitchen have been known to weigh more than 32 lbs. There are those who think that this gigantic asparagus is a peculiar variety; but it is ascertained that, on being removed into less favourable soils, it gradually loses its vigour and degenerates into the common kind.

The most convenient breadth for asparagus beds has been found by experience to be 44 feet, and the least depth for the intermediate trenches 2 feet. The beds are either planted with seedlings one year or two years old, buried six inches beneath the surface, and standing about a foot apart, or sown at once and the seedlings afterwards thinned to such a distance; the latter method is the most simple and the most effectual.

In this country it is frequently forced, but seldom with much success; the heads being usually small and stringy, without sufficient succulence. For this purpose an asparagus bed is dug up, and the plants transferred to a place heated with dung, where they come up in a fortnight or three weeks; but as the roots are always much injured by the operation of transplanting, the little success that attends this method is easily accounted for. In many parts of the north of Europe, especially about Riga, a far better mode is adopted. The forcing takes place in the asparagus beds themselves without disturbing the roots; the trenches are filled with hot dung, and the beds are also covered with the same material about six inches deep; if the weather is very severe, the beds are also covered with frames, but this is rarely necessary in England. Treated thus, asparagus is as fine as if it waited till May to make its appearance. But when this method is practised the heads cannot be cut down at the natural time in the same season. In order to recover from the effect of forcing, they must be allowed to grow as freely as possible during all the succeeding summer, so that they may form a new supply of food for the support of the heads the succeeding spring. Where it is wished to have exceedingly large heads of forced asparagus, pieces of bamboo, or any other hollow tubes, should be put over the shoots when they first make their appearance. The latter will thus acquire a length of as much as eighteen inches without losing their tenderness. ASPARAMIDE. [ASPARAGIN.J ASPARTIC ACID. [ASPARAGIN.]

ASPECT, an astronomical term, now entirely disused, applied to the various positions of the planets with respect to one another, as seen from the earth. The terms conjunction and opposition are the only two out of five names of aspects which have been retained; the remainder being called sextile, quartile, and trine. At conjunction two planets have the same longitude; when 60° apart, the aspect is sextile; when 90°, quartile; when 120°, trine; when 180° apart, or opposite,

RB

ASPERTANNIC ACID. An acid said to be found in sweet-scented woodruff (Asperula odorata). Its existence is doubtful.

ASPHALT. A solid bituminous or resinous substance found on the shores of the Dead Sea, in Trinidad, and in other localities. It is doubtless of vegetable origin, and is probably produced by volcanic action upon coal-bearing strata. It is generally black, and more or less lustrous, like pitch, with which, in fact, asphalt possesses much similarity. Oil of turpentine dissolves out of it a black substance, which is insoluble in alcohol and ether, and to which Boussingault has given the name Asphaltin; its composition is expressed by the formula C20H16OS. ASPHALTE. The use of street-pavements formed of asphaltic or bituminous compounds, and especially of that commonly known as the asphalte, or asphaltic mastic of Seyssel, was introduced into this country by Mr. Claridge, under a patent obtained in 1837. The progress which such pavements have made in public favour within the last few years has been less than was at first anticipated. While however comparatively little has been done in the application of asphalte to streetpavements, it has been brought somewhat more extensively into use for foot-pavements in less exposed situations, such as the platforms of railway-stations, for flooring, roofing, and protecting buildings in various ways from injury by damp.

The principal ingredient of the Seyssel asphalte is a dark brown bituminous limestone, found near the Jura Mountains. This stone is broken to powder and mixed with mineral tar and sea-grit; and the whole is exposed for several hours to a strong heat in large cauldrons, until the ingredients, which are continually stirred by machinery, are perfectly united. The mastic is then run into moulds about eighteen inches square and six inches deep, so as to form it into cakes or blocks weighing from 122 lbs. to 130 lbs. each. In this state the asphalte is delivered for use, and portable furnaces and cauldrons are provided for re-melting it upon the spot by fires of wood or coke. In this operation 1 lb. of mineral tar is first put into the cauldron or boiler, to which, as soon as melted, 56 lbs. of mastic, broken into pieces of not more than 1lb each, are added, the whole being stirred together. The cauldron is then covered over, and a brisk fire kept up for a quarter of an hour, after which 56 lbs. more of mastic are added and stirred in. The cauldron is again covered for a few minutes, and further quantities of tar and mastic are added, in the proportion of 1lb. of the former to 112lbs. of the latter, until the cauldron is full, and the whole is completely melted and fit for use. For some purposes the proportion of the ingredients is different from that above-named.

In laying foot and carriage pavements with asphalte, there is a necessity for securing a firm, solid foundation, which, whenever the ground is soft, must be accomplished by ramming, or by removing the soft earth, and substituting a coarse concrete of gravel and pounded lime-stone. The modes of applying asphalte to the pavement of cellars and basements for the purpose of excluding damp, vary according to circumstances. Where water is liable to rise under the floor, a brick invert, laid in asphalte as a cement, should be adopted, as the simple pavement laid on concrete will not prove effectual. Damp may be effectually prevented from rising in walls by forming the whole of one horizontal joint a little above the ground level with mastic in lieu of mortar; and skirtings of asphalte, which are formed by pouring the mastic into iron moulds applied to the wall, and assisting its descent with the spatula, may in some cases be applied with advantage. In covering upright surfaces asphalte is not so applicable as in other cases, since it will not bear exposure to the heat of the sun, and will not adhere well to a damp, dirty, or soft surface.

Roofs, especially if of flat pitch, may be advantageously covered with fine asphalte, laid upon a thin coat of fine concrete, supported by a rough boarding of dry wood.

The thickness of asphalte used for pavements varies from half an inch to about an inch and a quarter, the former being sufficient for common floors and court-yards not intended for carriages, and from three-quarters to an inch being the least allowed for carriage pavements; from half an inch to five-eighths is sufficient for roofs and the covering of arches to prevent the filtration of water, and for the lining of tanks and ponds; and about half that thickness is sufficient for covering the ground-line of brick-work, to prevent the rising of damp. All attempts to employ asphaltic pavements for the foot-ways or carriage-ways of the London streets have failed; the traffic subjects them to a wear and tear greater than they are fitted to bear. Considerable outlay was incurred in the trials made by the various parishes and paving commissioners; so complete has been the failure, however, that at the present time (1859) scarcely an example of asphaltic foot and carriage pavement can be met with in the metropolis.

A useful recent application of asphalte is, as one component of the 'patent asphalted felt,' employed for roofing, sheathing, and other purposes. Its inventors claim for it the properties of impermeability by rain, non-conduction of heat, resistance to vermin, lightness, economy, and durability. Besides roofing and sheathing, it is intended to be applied for lining granaries and stores, clothing or jacketing' steam pipes and boilers, and forming a basis or ground for paper-hangings on damp walls. The felt is formed of any refuse fibrous material saturated with melted asphalte.

The so-called asphalte used in the construction of pavement, is chiefly pitch-the residual product of the distillation of coal-tar. ASPHALTIN. [ASPHALT.]

ASPHYXIA, a Greek word (ào quía) which signifies a cessation of the pulsation, originally expressed any state of disease in which there was a suspension or loss of the heart's action, and a consequent failure of the pulse; but the term is now used to denote a condition of the system in which there is a cessation of muscular movement, an arrest of the circulation, and an accumulation of blood in the veins. The state of asphyxia is that in which the respiratory actions are | either temporarily suspended, or have wholly ceased; a state necessarily inducing such a change in the nature of the blood as is incompatible with the continuance of life. The blood which circulates in the two great systems of blood-vessels, veins and arteries, is essentially different [BLOOD, NAT. HIST. DIV.]; that in the veins is incapable of supporting life; that in the arteries is the proper nutrient and excitent of the system. The object of respiration is to convert venous into arterial blood. Of all the conditions necessary to the action of the vital organs, that of receiving a due supply of arterial blood is the most indispensable. If a ligature be placed around the trachea (windpipe) of an animal, so as completely to prevent the access of air to the lung, and if at the same time the carotid artery be opened, that is, one of the great arteries which springs from the arch of the aorta [HEART, NAT. HIST. DIV.], and which, passing along the neck to the head, is the main channel through which the brain receives its supply of arterial blood, it is found that in a definite time the blood flowing in this artery has ceased to be arterial, and has become venous. Taking the average of a great number of experiments performed on dogs, for the express purpose of ascertaining this fact, it is found that, in about three-quarters of a minute after the complete exclusion of air from the lung, the blood in the carotid artery begins to lose its vermilion colour. After a minute and a quarter, it has become obviously dark; in the space of a minute and a half, no difference whatever can be perceived between the blood that flows from this artery and ordinary venous blood; in this space of time, therefore, the system of an animal from whose lung air is excluded, is brought completely under the influence of venous blood.

While the blood is thus changing from arterial to venous, the function of the brain is greatly affected. Sensibility diminishes as the blood darkens; and when it has become quite dark, the power of sensation is wholly abolished, and the animal lies in a state of profound coma.

The influence of the circulation of venous blood upon the muscular system is no less powerful than that upon the the nervous, for the muscle can no more perform its function without the stimulus of arterial blood than the brain. When, in consequence of the exclusion of air from the lung, venous blood is sent out to the system, the heart is always the first muscle that feels the effect of this abstraction of its accustomed stimulus; because venous instead of arterial blood is instantly brought into direct contact with the surface of its left cavities (HEART, NAT. HIST. DIV.], and because venous instead of arterial blood is sent by its nutrient arteries (the coronary, which are the first branches given off by the aorta) into its very substance; and this blood, as has been already stated, is incapable of affording it the requisite nourishment and excitement. Accordingly the action of the heart is always greatly affected from the very first moment that an animal is brought under this condition. At first, its contractions are somewhat accelerated, probably on account of the violent struggles of the animal, and in consequence of the emotion of fear; but in a few seconds its action begins to be arrested, and it becomes rapidly less and less frequent until it sinks to a point surprisingly low. When in a state of health and unexcited, the pulse of a dog is 130 in a minute; but in two minutes after the exclusion of air from its lung, it sinks to 25, and it often falls still lower. Immediately before death it invariably becomes again accelerated, sometimes rising to its natural standard; but what it then gains in velocity it loses in strength, and in all cases within three minutes after the complete exclusion of air from the lung, the action of the heart has become feeble; this feebleness gradually but rapidly increases, until at the end of the fourth minute it is seldom that the action is at all perceptible by the finger. But though the heart be the first to feel the effect of the abstraction from the system of its usual stimulus, yet the blood which is transmitted to all the other muscles of the body is alike incapable of exciting them to contraction: the muscles of respiration suffer with the rest, so that the respiratory movements, that is, the alternate enlargement and diminution of the cavity of the chest, indispensable to the entrance and exit of fresh currents of air, cease. Not only is the muscular system thus affected, but the capillary system has at last its action suspended, and no more blood passes from the arteries to the veins, and the venous system is greatly congested.