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compactly-fibrous masses, harder and heavier than the other varieties (common asbestus). Its most common colors are gray, yellow, green and blue, intermingled with white. It is found in all countries more or less abundantly, and exists, forming veins, in serpentine, mica slate, and primitive lime-stone rocks. Amianthus, the most delicate variety, comes most plentifully from Savoy and Corsica. Its fibrous texture, and the little alteration it undergoes in strong heats, caused it to be used by the eastern nations as an article for the fabrication of cloth, which, when soiled, was purified by throwing it into the fire, from whence it always came out clear and perfectly white; hence it obtained the name of auíavros, or undefiled. By the Romans, this cloth was purchased at an exorbitant price, for the purpose of wrapping up the bodies of the dead, previously to their being laid upon the funeral pile. The preparation of this cloth is effected by soaking the amianthus in warm water, rubbing it with the fingers, soaking the filaments in oil, when they are mingled with a little cotton, and spun upon the ordinary spindle. When woven into cloth, the fabric is heated red-hot, and the oil and cotton consumed, leaving only a tissue of pure amianthus. Paper may also be formed from this substance, in the way in which common paper is made, except that more size is requisite. A book has even been printed on such paper. (See Bibliomania.) Lamp-wicks have also been constructed from amianthus, but they require to be cleaned occasionally from the lamp-black, which accumulates upon them, and prevents the due supply of oil. In Corsica, it is advantageously used in the manufacture of pottery, being reduced to fine filaments, and kneaded up with the clay; the effect of which is to render the vessels less liable to break, from sudden alternations of heat and cold, than common pottery.

ASCANIUS, son of Eneas and Creusa, accompanied his father in his flight from the burning Troy, and went with him to Italy. He was afterwards called Iulus. He behaved with great valor in the war between his father and the Latins. He succeeded Æneas in the government of Latium, and built Alba, to which he transferred the seat of his empire from Lavinium. The descendants of A. reigned in Alba for above 420 years, making 14 kings, till the age of Numitor. A. reigned 38 years, and was succeeded by Sylvius Posthumus, son of Æneas by Lavinia. Iulus, the son of A., disputed

the crown with Sylvius; but the Latins gave it to the latter, as he was descended from the family of Latinus, and Iulus was invested with the office of high priest, which remained a long while in his family. ASCENDANTS, in law, are opposed to descendants in succession; i. e., when a father succeeds his son, or an uncle his nephew, &c., the inheritance is said to ascend, or to go to ascendants. (See Descent.}

ASCENDING, in astronomy, is said of such stars as are rising above the horizon in any parallel of the equator; and thus, likewise, ascending latitude-the latitude of a planet when going towards the north pole. Ascending node is that point of a planet's orbit, wherein it passes the ecliptic to proceed northward. This is otherwise called the northern node.

ASCENSION; an uninhabited island, consisting of naked rocks; a shattered volcano, of about 60 miles in circumference, in the Atlantic ocean; lon. 14° 28′ W.; lat. 7° 56′ S. It has an excellent harbor, frequented by the East Indiamen and whalefishers. Fish, sea-fowl and turtles abound, but there is an entire want of water. The vegetation, scarcely sufficient to support some goats, is confined to an eminence in the south-east. In a crevice of the rock there is the sea post-office, as it is called-a place where bottles, closely sealed, are left with letters for passing vessels. This island formerly belonged to the Portuguese, who discovered it in 1501; but, in 1816, some English families from St. Helena settled here, on account of the inconvenience which they experienced from the residence of Napoleon. Ascension was then taken possession of, by the British government, as a military station, and 60 transport ships provided the garrison of. 200 men with supplies from the cape of Good Hope. A road was laid out, and a fort was built. In 1821, the government resolved to continue the occupation of this post.

ASCENSION, in astronomy. We understand by the right ascension of a star, that degree of the equator, reckoned from the beginning of Aries, which comes to the meridian with the star. By the right ascension and declination, the situation of stars in the heavens is determined, as that of places on the earth by longitude and latitude. By oblique ascension, we understand that degree of the equator, counted as before, which rises with the star, in an oblique sphere.

ASCENSION DAY; the day on which the ascension of the Savior is commemorated, often called Holy Thursday. It is a mova

ble feast, always falling on the Thursday but one before Whitsuntide. (For the Ascension of the Virgin, a feast of the Roman Catholic church, see Assumption.) Much has been written on the ascension of Christ, in Germany, by Protestant Biblical critics, of whom we will only mention Semmler and Paulus.-The idea of ascension is common to the mythology of almost every nation.

ASCETICS; a name given, in ancient times, to those Christians who devoted themselves to severe exercises of piety, and strove to distinguish themselves from the world by abstinence from sensual enjoyments, and by voluntary penances. Hence those writings which teach the spiritual exercises of piety, are termed ascetic writings. Even before Christ, and in the times of the first Christian church, there were similar ascetics among the Jews (see Essenes), also among the philosophers of Greece, and in particular among the Platonics. The expression ascetic is borrowed from the Greek word doxnois (exercise), used by the ancient Greeks to signify the spare diet of the athlete, who, to prepare themselves for their combats, abstained from many indulgences. (For the character of the Christian ascetics, and the religious views by which they were guided, see Gnostics, Saints, Monks.)

ASCHAFFENBURG (the ancient Asciburgum, laid out by the Romans); a town in the Bavarian district of the Lower Maine, with 750 houses and 6200 inhabitants, on the Maine and Aschaff. It formerly belonged, with its territory, to the electorate of Mentz. The scenery is so beautiful, and the castle so fine, that Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, when he took possession of it, in his expedition to the Rhine, wished to transfer it, with its view, to lake Maler, in Sweden. After the dissolution of the electorate of Mentz, in 1811, A. became the summer residence of the prince primate, afterwards grand duke of Frankfort. ASCHAM, Roger, was born, in 1515, of a respectable family in Yorkshire. He was entered at Cambridge, 1530, and was chosen fellow in 1534, and tutor in 1537. In this period of religious and literary revolution, A. joined himself with those who were extending the bounds of knowledge. He became a Protestant, and applied himself to the study of Greek, which began, about that time, to be taught in England. There was yet no established lecturer of Greek: the university, therefore, appointed him to read in the open schools. He was not less eminent as a 35

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writer of Latin than as a teacher of Greek. He wrote all the public letters of the university, was afterwards Latin secretary to king Edward, and also to Mary. Cardinal Pole, who was particularly eminent for his skill in Latin, employed him to translate, for the pope, his speech in the English parliament. In 1544, he wrote his "Toxophilus, or Schole of Shooting," in praise of his favorite amusement and exercise-archery. This book he presented to the king, who rewarded him with a pension of 10 pounds. In 1548, the princess Elizabeth invited him to direct her studies; but, after instructing her 2 years, he left her without her consent, and, soon after, went to Germany as secretary to sir R. Morisine. In this journey, he wrote his Report of the Affairs in Germany. Upon the death of Edward, he was recalled, but preserved the office of Latin secretary to Mary, although a Protestant, through the interest of Gardiner. Upon the accession of his pupil, he was continued in his former employment, and was daily admitted to the presence of the queen, to assist her studies, or partake of her diversions, but received no very substantial marks of her bounty. In 1563, he was invited by sir E. Sackville to write the Schoolmaster, a treatise on education, which, though completed, he did not publish. To this work, conceived with vigor and executed with accuracy, he principally owes his modern reputation. His style was, in his own age, mellifluous and eloquent, and is now valuable as a specimen of genuine English. He was never robust, and his death, which happened 1568, was occasioned by his too close application to the composition of a poem, which he intended to present to the queen on the anniversary of her accession.

ASCLEPIADEAN VERSE consists of 2 or 3 choriambuses, and is accordingly distinguished into greater and less. It always begins with a spondee, and ends with an iambus:

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ASCLEPIADES, the descendants of the god of medicine, Esculapius, by his sons Podalirius and Machaon, spread, together with the worship of the god, through Greece and Asia Minor. They formed an order of priests, which preserved the results of the medical experience acquired in the temples as a hereditary secret, and were thus, at the same time, physicians, prophets and priests. They lived in the temple of the god, and, by exciting the imaginations of the sick, prepared them to receive healing dreams and divine apparitions; observed carefully the course of the disease; applied, as it is believed, besides the conjurations and charms usual in antiquity, real magnetic remedies, and noted down the results of their practice. They were, accordingly, not only the first physicians known to us, but, in fact, the founders of scientific medicine, which proceeded from their society. The constitution of this medical family order was, without doubt, derived from Egypt, whence also the coluber Esculapii, Linn., which was used as a healing and prophetic serpent, was brought by the Phoenicians to Epidaurus, the chief seat of the god. Round this serpent-god an order of priests was gathered, and thence spread his worship. (In later times, 292 B. C., such a healing serpent was sent to the island of the Tiber, near Rome.) No one could be initiated into the secrets of their knowledge without a solemn oath. At first, this order of priests was confined to the family of the Asclepiades, who kept their family register with great care. Aristides celebrated them by his eulogiums at Smyrna. Hippocrates of Cos, the founder of scientific physic, derived his origin from it, and the oath administered to the disciples of the order (jusjurandum Hippocratis) is preserved in his writings. An Asclepiades from Prusa, in Bithynia, 20 years B. C., is mentioned as the first practical physician at Rome, and as the founder of the methodical school. In the course of time, strangers, also, as Galen reports, were initiated into these mysteries and this order. -We find the name of A. also in the literature of the Greeks. (See Dissertations on the Fragments of Asclepiades of Tragilus in the Actis Philologorum Monacensium, edited by Thiersch, 1st vol., 4th No., p. 490.)

ASELLI, or ASELLIUS, Caspar; an Italian anatomist of the 17th century. He was born at Cremona, studied medicine, and became professor of anatomy in the university of Pavia, where he highly dis

tinguished himself by discovering the lacteals, a system of vessels, the office of which is to absorb the chyle formed in the intestines, and thus contribute to the support of animal life. A. first observed these vessels in dissecting a living dog. His investigations were published after his death at Milan, 1627.

ASEN. (See Mythology, northern.)

ASHMOLE, Robert, a celebrated English antiquary and virtuoso, born at Lichfield, in 1617, was sent to London at the age of 16, where he studied law and other branches of knowledge, and practised as a chancery solicitor. On the breaking out of the civil wars, he retired to Oxford, and entered himself of Brazen-Nose college, where he engaged in the study of natural philosophy, mathematics and astronomy. On the ruin of the king's affairs, he returned to London, and formed a close intimacy with the celebrated astrologers Moore, Lilly and Booker, but shared only in their absurdity, not in their roguery. He subsequently married lady Mainwaring, a rich widow. On this accession of fortune, he gave up his profession, and his house in London became a resort of all the proficients and professors in the occult sciences. A., about this time, published, under another name, a treatise on alchemy, by the celebrated doctor Dee; and undertook to prepare for the press a complete collection of the manuscript writings of English chemists, under the title of Theatrum Chymicum Britannicum. Having for some time attached himself to the study of antiquity and the perusal of records, he began to collect materials for his celebrated History of the Order of the Garter. His love for botany having induced him to lodge with the celebrated gardener of Lambeth, John Tradescant, he obtained the curious collection of rarities got together by that person and his father. On the restoration, A. was gratified with the post of Windsor herald, and received other appointments, both honorable and lucrative; was admitted a fellow of the royal society, and favored with the diploma of a doctor of physic from the university of Oxford. In 1672, he presented to the king his work on the Order of the Garter, and, in 1675, resigned his office of Windsor herald. An accidental fire in the Temple destroyed a library which he had been upwards of 30 years collecting, with a cabinet of 9000 coins, and other valuable antiquities. In 1683, he presented to the university of Oxford his Tradescantian collection of rarities, to which he afterwards added his

books and MSS., thereby commencing the museum Ashmoleanum at Oxford. He died in May, 1692, aged 76. He left a number of MSS., several of which have been printed, and a diary of his life.

ASHANTEE; a warlike nation of Negroes, on and near the Gold Coast of Guinea, in the vicinity of the British settlement, Cape Coast castle, at Sierra Leone, with which we have become acquainted by Bowdich's Mission to Ashantee (London, 1819), and Jos. Dupuis' Journal of a Residence in Ashantee (London, 1824), as well as by their bloody war with the English, in 1824, in which the governor of the above-mentioned British colony, general McCarthy, lost his life. The kingdom of the Ashantees was founded, about 100 years ago, by a successful conqueror, with a kind of feudal constitution. It extends from 6° to 9° N. lat., and from 0° to 4° W. lon. to the river Volta. The residence of the king is Coomassie. The law permits him to have 3333 wives, a mystical number, on which the welfare of the nation rests. His servants, above 100 in number, are slaughtered on his tomb, that he may arrive in the infernal regions with a suite becoming his rank. Several Negro states, under their own princes, are dependent on him. Ashantee itself (14,000 square miles, with 1,000,000 inhabitants) forms a part of Wangara, which contains two other states, Dahomy and the powerful Benin, whose king can lead 200,000 men to war. The fertile Benin is more advanced in civilization than Ashantee. The latter, however, display much taste and elegance in their architecture; they also dye with skill, and manufacture cloths of exquisite fineness and brilliancy of color.

ASHES; the fixed residuum, of a whitish or whitish-gray color, which remains after the entire combustion of organic bodies, and is no longer able to support combustion. The constituent parts of ashes are different, according to the different bodies from which they originate. The ashes of vegetables consist chiefly of earthy and saline ingredients, the latter of which may be separated by washing, and are called vegetable alkali. (See Alkali.) The more compact is the texture of the wood, the more alkali it affords. Some herbs, however, yield more than trees, and the branching fern the most. The more the plants have been dried, the less they produce. The vegetable alkali is always combined with carbonic acid. The greater, therefore, the heat by which the ashes are produced, and the more

continued and powerful the calcination of the alkali, the more caustic will it be. It can only be entirely purified from foreign substances by crystallization. (See Potash.) Of quite a different quality are animal ashes, particularly those obtained from bone. After calcination, it retains its original texture, and contains, besides lime, a peculiar acid, called phosphoric acid. The use of vegetable ashes is very extensive, as is well known; soap-makers, bleachers and other tradesmen use them in an immense quantity. They are, also, an excellent manure.

ASH-TREE. The common ash (fraxinus excelsior) is a well-known tree. It is a native of Europe and the north of Asia, and grows in a light, springy (but not marshy) soil, especially if marly or calcarious. When planted in bogs, it contributes much to drain them. It will grow in almost any situation, even in hard clay and dry gravel; though poor, dry, sandy ground is fatal to it. Its smooth, stately stem rises to a great height, with spreading, or, rather, drooping branches, with winged leaves, the leaflets in four or five pairs, with an odd one serrated, and without foot-stalks, and the flowers without petals.-Of late years, this valuable tree has been much planted in several parts of England. The timber, which has the rare advantage of being nearly as good when young as when old, is white, and so hard and tough, as generally to be esteemed next in value to oak. It is much used by coach-makers, wheelwrights and cart-wrights; and is made into ploughs, axle-trees, felloes of wheels, harrows, ladders and other implements of husbandry. It is likewise used by shipbuilders for various purposes, and by coopers for the hoops of tubs and barrels. Where, by frequent cutting, the wood has become knotty, irregular and veined, it is in much request for cabinet-work, by mechanics in Europe. As fuel, this tree burns better, whilst wet and green, than any other wood.

ASH-WEDNESDAY; the first day of Lent, a fast 40 days long, which the Catholic church orders to be kept before the feast of Easter. It derives its name from the ancient and still existing custom of putting ashes upon the head, as a symbol of humble repentance for sin. It was formerly, and, to a certain extent, is still the custom in Catholic countries, to confess on Ash-Wednesday, to chastise one's self during Lent, and to partake of the Lord's supper at Easter. In Rome, the spectacle is highly impressive, when all the people,

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after giving themselves up to every species of gayety during the carnival, till 12 o'clock on Tuesday, go, on Ash-Wednesday morning, into church, where the officiating priest puts ashes on their heads, with the words, "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." To throw ashes on the head, as an expression of humiliation and repentance, was an old custom of the Jews.

ASIA; the cradle of the human race, of nations, religions and states, of languages, arts and sciences; rich in natural gifts and historical remembrances; the theatre of human activity in ancient times, and still exhibiting, in many places, the characteristic traits which distinguished it many centuries since. It forms the eastern and northern part of the old world, and is separated from Australia by the Indian and the Pacific oceans, including the gulfs of Bengal, Siam and Tonquin; from America, on the N. E., by Cook's or Behring's straits, and on the E. by the great Eastern or Pacific ocean, including the gulf of Corea, the seas of Japan, Tongou (Yellow sea) and Okotsk; from Africa by the Arabian sea (with which is connected the Persian gulf) and by the Arabian gulf, or Red sea, with the straits of Babelmandel; from Europe by the sea of Azoph, with the straits of Caffa, by the Black sea with the Bosphorus, by the sea of Marmora and the Dardanelles, and by the Grecian archipelago. On the other hand, it is united with Africa by the desert isthmus of Suez, and with Europe by the waters of the Wolga (which rises near the Baltic, and falls, with the Ural, into the Caspian sea); also by the rocky girdle, as the Tartars call it, of the Ural and the Werchoturian mountains, which rise 77° N. lat. in Nova Zembla, separate the plain of the Wolga from the higher table-lands of Siberia, and are connected with Upper Asia by a branch of the Little Altai, abounding in ores. The area of Asia is calculated at 16,175,000 square miles. It extends from 26° to 190° E. lon., and from 20 to 78° N. lat. Its greatest breadth, from N. to S. is 4140 miles, and its greatest length about 8000. It is four times larger than Europe. It is divided into, 1, Southern Asia, comprehending Natolia, Armenia, Curdistan, Syria, Arabia, Persia, Hindostan, Farther India, Siam, Malacca, Annam, Tonquin, Cochin China, Laos, Cambodia, China, Japan; 2, Middle or Upper Asia, containing Caucasus, Tartary, Bucharia, Mongolia, Tungousia; 3, Northern or Russian Asia, from 44° N. lat., containing Kasan, Astrachan, Oren

burg, Kuban, Kabarda, Georgia, Imireta, Siberia, with the Alpine regions of Dauria and Kamschatka. The centre of this continent, probably the oldest ridge of land on the earth, is called Upper Asia. Here the Bogdo (the majestic summit of the Altai) forms the central point of all the mountains of Asia. Upper Asia comprises, perhaps, the most elevated plain on the surface of the earth-the desert of Kobi, or Shamo, on the northern frontiers of China, 400 leagues long, and 100 leagues broad; barren, dry and waste; visited alternately by scorching winds and chilling storms, even in summer, and affording, besides its deserts, only rivers and lakes; as the Caspian, the lakes Aral and Baikal, and several situated among the mountains. From the northern and southern declivities of this region, the first tribes of men set out in all directions, following the course of the rivers in four chief lines of descent (north, east, south and west). At least, the radical words in the Indian, Median, Persian, Sclavonian, Greek and Teutonic original languages, between which there are striking affinities, all point to the west of Upper Asia or Iran. Those heights in the Himalaya chain (q. v.), under the 35th degree of N. lat., which are said to attain an elevation of 27,677 English feet, could not be reached by the currents, which, coming from the south, where they were broken by cape Comorin and cape Romania, flowed round the Chinese sea to the north, where the East cape on the east, Tchukotskoi-Noss on the north-east, and the Icy cape in the Arctic ocean, became the extreme points of the continent. The islands in the east (Japan, the Kurile and Aleutian isles, those of Formosa, Hainan and Leeoo-Keeoo) and in the south-west (Socotra, Ormus, &c.), in particular the groups of islands on both sides of the equator (see Indies, East), and the peninsulas Kamschatka and Corea, India on this side and beyond the Ganges, and Arabia, bear visible marks of the destruction of the primitive continent by fire and water; hence the numerous extinguished or still active volcanoes, in the interior, on the coasts, and particularly on the islands. The interior opens an immense field of scientific research for a traveller like Humboldt. The sources of all the large rivers of Asia, which must be sought for in the mountains of Upper Asia, have not been accurately examined since the time of Marco Polo. As little known are the southern declivities of the Mussart, Mustag (or Imaus), and of the Indian Alps, which