17* 



ASCON1C8, Q. PEDIANUS. 



particulars ; dUapproved of the frequent UM of emetics and purge*, 

 but he pretty freely adopted the practice of bleeding. He ascribed 

 great value to bathing and friction, and he rendered himself very 

 popular with the Roman* by his free use of wine in many complaint*. 

 Laughter, music, and singing he also considered a* frequently efficacious 

 in the cure of disease*. The few fragment* of hi* writings which have 

 come down to us hare been collected and published by Qumpert in the 

 work cited below. 



ACKAHHIAAHC. 



The bust of Asclepiade* is only presumed to be hia on the ground 

 of the name occurring upon it, and from the improbability of it* 

 belonging to any other leu eminent person of the same name. 



(Sprrngel, FernicA enter fragmatuchcn OeteMickte der Anneii-unde, 

 2nd ed., Halle, 1800, voL ii. 6 27; and Ajclepiadis Bithyni, Fragmnta, 

 by Qumpert, \\Vimar, 1794 ; Chr. F. Harler*, Medieorum reter*m, 

 Ateltpiadtt, Ac., Bonn, 1828 ; Bostock, Hulory of Medicine.) 



ASCO'NIUS, Q. PEDIA'NUS, one of the earliest commentators on 

 Cicero, i* believed to have been bom at Padua about the commence- 

 ment of the Christian era. From a pauage in one of his commen- 

 taries ('Ad Orat pro Scaur.,' p. 170, ed. Lug. Bat), he appear* to hare 

 been employed on hi* work about A.D. 41, in the reign of Claudius. 

 Philargyriua, q^^ by St n - lvw (Virg., Eel.,' iii. 106), state* that he 

 wa* in hi* youth the friend of Virgil ; but he must hare been a mere 

 boy when the poet died, AH. 19. He became blind in hi* seventy-third 

 year, and survived the calamity twelve yean. (Euseb., < Chron. ad 

 Olymp.,' ccxiiL 8.) 



Aseonius wa* chiefly employed in the critical examination and 

 illustration of the Roman writer*. He was the author of a work 

 which ha* been lost, directed against the calumniator* of Virgil, and 

 also of a life of Sallust (' Acron. ad Hor. Sat,' 1, 2) ; but there seems 

 no reason to suppose that be was the author of the work ' OrigoOentis 

 Roman*.' usually a*cribed to Aurelius Victor. The most important of 

 hi* labour* wa* hi* Commentary on the Oration* of Cicero, which he 

 wrote for the instruction of hi* ion* ('Ad Orat pro Mil,' 6). Of this 

 work only fragment* have been preserved, which, though in *ome of 

 them much disfigured by the glosses of some ignorant grammarian, 

 are still full of valuable information. We are indebted for the 

 greater part of what we poasea* of A*conius to Poggio, the Floren- 

 tine, who, during the Council of Con*Unce, in 1416, happened to 

 discover an old manuscript of it at the monastery of St Gall, 

 in Switzerland. It contained fragment* of a commentary on nine 

 oration* : Divin. ; In Verrem, 8 ; Pro Corn. ; In Tog. Cand. ; Contra 

 Pis. ; Pro Scaur. ; and Pro Ma The general character of the com- 

 mentary is, that it refer* chiefly to historical, legal, and constitutional 

 fact*, and ban preserved some curious information on various points, 

 with which we should not otherwise have been acquainted. We may 

 more particularly notice the speeche* of Cassar against Dolabella; of 

 Brutus for it ilo; of Luoceiu* against Catiline ; and of Cominiu* againit 

 Cornelius. The historians on whom be seem* chiefly to depend for hi* 

 information an l.ivv, Sallust, and Fenestella. The commentary on 

 UM orations against Verres is of so entirely different a character, both 

 in style and matter, from that on the other-, that it seems most 

 probable, a* Madvig conjecture., that it i* the work of some Utor 

 writer, who perhaps availed himself partly of the labour* of Asooniu-. 

 The Grit edition of Aseonius wa* published, Yen., 1477; with the 

 Scholia of Maniitius,' Ven. 1547 ; by Haacke, Lugd. Bat, 16(4. 



(Fabric., BM. Zo/., 11, t ; Madvig. ' De Q. Aaoonfi Pediani etaliorum 

 vUr. interp,' in Cierr. Oral. CommaHanu Diipttl. critir, Hsviii*, 

 1828; Babr, Oackickte der Jlomitctten Literals, Cnrlsruhe, 1832; 

 Niebuhr. Prafat. ad Front., p. xxxiv., not 4. ed. Berl.) 



A8ELLI (or, according to the custom formerly prevalent of Latin- 

 ising the name, ASKLLIUS), CASPAR, a physician who wa* born 

 about 1580, at Ticius, or Cremona, and died in 1626. He became 

 profennr of anatomy at Ps.vift, but spent much of his time at Milan, 

 where be effected the discovery which ha* preserved his nain-. In 1622, 

 whilst directing a living dog, be for the Grt time observed the lacteal*, 



A8OILL, JOHN. an 



or the let of vessels which absorb or suck up the nutritious portion of 

 the food of animals, that is, the chyle, from the upper part of the intes- 

 tinal tube, in order to convey it to the heart and lungs, so that it may 

 become incorporated in the circulating fluid or blood ; distinguished 

 them from the other vessels, and demonstrated them in his lectures ; and 

 from the white colour of the fluid they contained, named them lacleaU. 

 These observations were incidentally made by him in the course of dis- 

 sections for other purposes; and he does not appear to have traced the 

 lacteala accurately, but he recognised the importance of his discovery, 

 and gave himself up during much of the remainder of hi* life to the 

 elucidation of the real purpose of these vessels. The great value of 



venis, quarto vasorura meaeraioorum genere, novo invento, Diasertatio,' 

 with figure* of the vessels in three different colours, 4 to, Milan, 1627, 

 and ha* been several times reprinted. Aselli's death took place in 

 1626. He left a manuscript treatise on poisons, but it does not appear 

 to have been published. 



ASQILL, JOHN, a political and miscellaneous writer, wa* born 

 about the middle of the 17th century. He was brought up to the 

 law, and became a member of the society of Lincoln's Inn, where be 

 recommended himself by hi* talent* to the notice of Mr. Kyre, an 

 eminent lawyer, and afterwards one of the judges of the Court of 

 King's Bench, who assisted him in his studies. Asgill attained some 

 eminence in his profession early in the reign of William III., when he 

 began to display his humour and talents as a writer of pamphlet*. 

 Among the earliest works published by him were a pamphlet entitled 

 'Several Assertions proved, in order to create another Species of 

 Money than Gold or Silver,' published iu 1696, which proposes to 

 employ securities on lands an a new circulating medium ; and ' An 

 Easay on a Registry for Titles of Lands,' which is said to have 

 appeared first in 1688. 



An Act of Parliament being passed in the year 1699 for the re- 

 sumption of forfeited estate* in Ireland, commissioners were appointed 

 to settle claims, and as Asgill hod become embarrassed in his circum- 

 stances, and had also become involved in difficulties a* the executor of 

 hi* eccentric friend Dr. Bsrebone, the builder of the new square in 

 Lincoln's Inn, he determined to go to Ireland, where his merit and 

 the favour of the commissioners procured him very extensive and 

 lucrative practice, the whole country being engaged in law-suits, in 

 the most important of which he was retained. He had married the 

 daughter of Nicholas Browne, the attainted Viscount Kenmare, and 

 he purchased of the crown, but avowedly as trustee for Lord Keu- 

 mare's infant son, his large estates in Ireland, and thereby acquired 

 so much influence, that be obtained a seat in the Irish parliament for 

 the borough of Enniscorthy. Prior to this time, however, he had 

 published ' An Argument proving that, according to the Covenant of 

 Eternal Life revealed in the Scriptures, Man may be translated from 

 hence into that Eternal Life without passing through Death, although 

 the humane Nature of Christ himself could not thus be translated 

 till he had passed through Death,' 8vo, 1700; a pamphlet which, 

 from its singular stylo, and the wildness of the author's ideas, occa- 

 sioned an extraordinary sensation. Notwithstanding his repeated and 

 solemn assurances of his belief in and respect for the Scriptures, the 

 prevalent opinion occasioned by the appearance of this book was that 

 he was an atheist, and it was alluded to by Dr. Sachevercll as one of 

 the blasphemous writings which induced him to consider the church 

 in danger. The clamour raised against the work was so groat, that 

 before Asgill could reach Dublin from Munster, to take bis seat, the 

 Irish House of Commons had ordered it to be burnt as a blasphemous 

 libel, and, after he had sat four days, they expelled him on account of 

 it. This expulsion took place on the llth of October, 1703, yet a 

 month later we find him petitioning the house to allow him to be 

 heard in support of hi* title to the Castle Rosse estate, which had been 

 impugned on behalf of Lord Kenmare'* infant son. Asgill on this 

 occasion successfully maintained his title, but some years later the 

 claims of the Kenmare family were admitted. On his return to 

 England, in 1705, Asgill was elected member of parliament for the 

 borough of Bramber in Sussex, at which place be had obtained con- 

 siderable interest as executor to Dr. Barebone. He sat in parliament 

 until, in 1707, when, during an interval of privilege, he was arrested 

 for debt, and committed* to the Fleet, but was released by order of 

 the House of Commons (December 16). Previous to this (November 25), 

 1m obnoxious treatise had been brought before the House, ami a com- 

 mittee bad been appointed to report upon it ; and in consequence of 

 tin ir report, notwithstanding a spirited defence made by Asgill on 

 resuming hi* place in the House, it was condemned to be burnt by 

 the common hangman, a* profane and blasphemous, and he was ex- 

 pelled from the House, on the 18th of December, 1707. After this 

 event Asgill's affairs grew desperate, and he was compelled to rrmov.- 

 to the Mint, after which he became a prisoner successively in the King's 

 Bench and the Fleet, within the rule* of one or other of which prison* 

 be resided until his death, in November 1738, at the ago of more 

 than eighty, according to the memoir quoted in the ' liiographia 

 Hritennicn,' which agrees also with the date of birtli given above 

 (which may however have been deduced from it), or about 100, accord- 

 ing to a manuscript note iu Sir W. Musgrave's ' Biographical Adversa- 



