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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 pricst 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 distinguish ed 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 2° 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

extend over 630,000 square miles, and contain the kingdoms of Thibet, Bootan, Nepaul, Assam, &c., with the snowy summits of the Hindoo Koosh (Paropamisus), Belurtag, Kentaisse and the Himalaya. It is the same with the northern elevation of the Altai, which, in the northeast, joins the mountains Changai (the holy land of Genghis Khan and of the Mantchoo tribes, extending to Corea and Japan). From the southern Alpine girdle descend the holy rivers of the Hindoos-the Bramapootra, the Ganges and Indus; in the east, the less known rivers of Irawaddy, Meinam, Lukian and Mecon (or Cambodia), and, in the west, the Euphrates and the Tigris (q. v.), which all take their course towards the south, and run into the great gulfs of the Indian ocean. From the northern ridge, the Oby, Yenisey, Lena and many others flow into the Arctic ocean; on the eastern coast, the great rivers Amour, Hoang-ho and Yang-tse-Kiang descend into the bays of the Pacific ocean; farther west, the Gihon, or Amu (the ancient Oxus), and the Sir-Daria, or Jihon (Jaxartes of the ancients), flow into lake Aral. Almost as little known are the western ranges of mountains, the Taurus in Natolia, and in Armenia the Ararat, near which the Euphrates and Tigris become much increased, and where, in ancient times, the Roman victories found a limit. We have lately become better acquainted with the mountain passes, through which the first inhabitants of Europe may have wandered from Asia, the valleys of the Caucasus, from the bosom of which the Cuban flows into the Black sea, and the Aras (Araxes), with the Kur, into the Caspian. -Nature has spread over Asia all the treasures of the earth, most abundantly in India; her bounties are distributed, by imperceptible gradations, through all its three zones. In the torrid zone, whose genial warmth converts the juices of plants to spices, balsam, sugar and coffee, with which Asia has enriched the West Indies, the palms (sago, cocoa, date and umbrella-palms) reach a height of 200 feet, and the white elephant attains a size surpassing that of all other quadrupeds. From hence the silk-worm was brought to Europe. This region conceals in its bosom the most beautiful diamonds, the finest gold, the best tin, &c., whilst the waves flow over the purest pearls and corals. The temperate zone has given to Europe the melon, the vine, the orange and many of its most agreeable garden-fruits, as well as the most productive farinaceous

grasses, and the most charming flowers; and unites, in its productions, symmetry with richness, particularly in the western regions. Here the oldest traditions place Paradise; here lie the enchanting Cashmere and the Garden of Damascus ; here blossoms the rose of Jericho (anastatica), near the cedars of Lebanon. The eastern countries, in the same latitude, possess the tea-shrub and the genuine rhubarb. The camel, the Angora goat, the Thibetan sheep, the pheasant and the horse are natives of this zone. In the north blossoms the Alpine flora of Dauria, and from the icy soil grows the dwarf-like Siberian cedar, till, at 70°, vegetation mostly ceases. Here lives the smallest of quadrupeds-the shrew-mouse of the Yenisey. Sables, ermines, foxes, otters, &c. afford the finest fur. The mineral kingdom furnishes rich ores, rare precious stones, and remarkable fossil remains, e. g., those of the mammoth, in high northern latitudes. (See Organic Remains.)—The inhabitants (amounting to 300,000,000; according to some, to 580,000,000) are divided into three great branches:-The Tartar-Caucasian, in Western Asia, exhibits the finest features of our race in the Circassian form: the Mongolian race is spread through Eastern Asia; the Malay in Southern Asia and the islands. The north is inhabited by the Samoiedes, Tchooktches and others. 24 tribes, of different language and origin, may be distinguished, some of which are the relics of scattered tribes of Nomades: Kamtschadales, Ostiacs, Samoiedes, Koriacks, Kurilians, Aleutians, Coreans, Mongols and Kalmucks, Mantchoos (Tungoos, Daurians and Mantchoos Proper), Finns, Circassians, Georgians, Greeks, Syrians and Armenians, Tartars and Turks, Persians and Afghans, Thibetans, Hindoos, Siamese, Malays, Annamites (in Cochin China and Tonquin), Birmese, Chinese and Japanese, besides the indigenous inhabitants of the East Indian islands, Jews and Europeans. The principal languages are the Arabian, Persian, Armenian, Turkish, Tartar, Hindoo, Malayan, Mongol, Mantchoo and Chinese. Of the extinct civilized nation of the Igoors (Oigoors) in Upper Asia, the written characters have been preserved in Thibet. The Sanscrit of the Bramins is yet spoken in the higher mountains of India, and the ancient Pehlevi in the mountains of the Persian borders. The still more ancient Zend is entirely extinct; and the civilization of the old Iberians and Colchians,

on the Kur and Phasis (Georgia and Imireta), has left no vestiges. All the forms of society are displayed in the existing Asiatic nations, from the savage state of the wandering hordes to the most effeminate luxury; but liberty, founded on law and the moral and intellectual education of man, is wanting. Priests and conquerors have long decided the political character of the East, amidst frequent revolutions and changes of dynasties, ever maintaining the principles of blind obedience. Asia has been subject, at different times, to the Assyrians, Medes, Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, Syrians, Parthians, Arabians, Mongols, Tartars, Seljooks, Turks, Afghans, &c. Ancient forins are preserved most rigidly, and the intellect is least progressive in China and Japan. Slavery still prevails in this continent. Woman yet remains degraded to a slave of man. The prevailing government is despotism, the offspring of Asia. Hence those artificial forms of a rigid etiquette, which are kept up in all the public relations, and that apathy of the people, in regard to fate, connected with cruelty, and produced partly by opium, partly by superstition, which is almost an universal characteristic of the Asiatics, notwithstanding the violence of their passions. There are, however, some tribes with a republican form of government; and relics of the patriarchal authority of the heads of families still are found. Near the colonies of the Europeans in Southern and Northern Asia, the civilization of the Christian world has been introduced. Christianity, though degenerated in many of the more ancient sects (see Maronites, Monophysites and Sects), has gained many adherents, throughout all Asia, by means of translations of the Bible, distributed by England and Russia. In Bengal and St. Petersburg, the translation of the Bible into the languages of Southern Asia has been prosecuted with a benevolent zeal. In Petersburg, similar efforts have been made for the benefit of the Mongolian Tartars. Even in China, Christians are found again, but none in Japan since 1637. The astronomy and astrology, poetry, morals, theology, laws, and the rude empirical medicine of the Asiatics, are mostly confined to the priests, and united with deeply-rooted superstition, which leads even to child-murder and self-sacrifice in the flames. The Mohammedan religion, the central point for instruction in which is at Samarcand, prevails in Western Asia. (See Wahaby.) Over all Central and the eastern part of Northern

Asia, prevails the religion of the Lama. The religion of Brama, the head-quarters of which is Benares, is confined chiefly to Hindostan, and Shamanism to the tribes in Northern Asia and to the Russian archipelago. The ancient doetrine of Zoroaster is confined to single families in India and Persia; whilst the Mosaic has numerous adherents through all Asia, except the Russian part. Physical and mechanical cultivation is carried to a higher degree of perfection than intellectual and moral; e. g., by the Indian jugglers and Chinese mechanics. Remarkable skill has been acquired by certain classes of Hindoos in the weaving of silk and cotton. The shawls of Cashmere, the leather of Persia and Syria (morocco, cordovan, shagreen), the porcelain of China and Japan, the steel of Turkish Asia, the lackered wares of China and Japan, &c. are well known. The internal commerce is still carried on by caravans, as in the most ancient times, before Abraham and Moses, when merchandise was transported from India, through Bactria, to Colchis, as at present to Makarieu, Moscow and Constantinople. The foreign commerce of China and the East Indies is wholly in the hands of the Europeans-English, Dutch and Russians-and of the North Americans. The religious, civil and social condition of the Asiatics proves, that, where the free developement of the higher powers of man is subject to the restraints of castes, and to the tyranny of priests and despots, and where the adherence to established forms has become a matter of faith, law and habit,-the character of society must degenerate, and the energies of man become palsied. Hence the Asiatic, notwithstanding the richness of his imagination, never attained the conception of ideal beauty, like the free Greek; and, for the same reason, the European, whose mental improvement and social activity have been unimpeded, has shaken off the control which the East formerly exercised over the West, and has obtained dominion over the coasts and territories of his old lord and master. Greece led the way, and, after having transformed the obscure symbols of the East to shapes of ideal beauty, shook off the spiritual fetters of priests and oracles, and, at the same time, the temporal yoke which the Persian Darius had prepared for Athens and Sparta. After a struggle of 50 years, the triumphs of Cimon (in 449 B. C.) first enabled Europe to prescribe laws to the East. Grecian civilization then