302 



ASSAM ASSELYN. 



Into butter. Invalids suffering from debility of the 

 dip-stive and assimilative functions make use of asses' 

 milk with great advantage : persons in consumption 

 also derive In-nefit from its use, as it is at once nutri- 

 tive and unproductive of irritation while digesting. 

 The ass, whose milk is taken for invalids, should 

 have foaled but a short time previously, and lie seclud- 

 ed from the male. The quality of her food, and her 

 comfortable stabling, should also be particularly at- 

 tended to. The mules produced between the lie-ass 

 and the mare are generally known ; and they com- 

 bine the i;ood qualities of both animals in a remark- 

 able degree. In some countries, they are e\en 

 more highly prized than horses, on account of their 

 greater hardiness. The mule produced between the 

 horse and the she-ass is a smaller animal than the 

 common mule, and altogether inferior. 



ASSAM, or ASHAM ; a country between Bengal and 

 Thibet, 700 miles in length, by about 70 in breadth. 

 It is intersected by the Bramapootra, and several 

 other rivers ; is very fertile ; and, in the beds of the 

 rivers, a considerable quantity of gold is found. It 

 also yields ivory, lac, pepper, silk, cotton, &c. The 

 inhabitants are genuine Hindoos. No European 

 merchant is permitted to settle in this country without 

 the previous permission of the East India Company 

 a favour which was granted to it by the rajah, 

 after having been reinstated in his government by its 

 assistance, in 1793. 



ASSAS (Nicholas), chevalier d', was born at Vigan. 

 He was commander of a French regiment at 

 Auvergne, and by his patriotic death, made himself 

 worthy of the admiration of posterity. On the night 

 of the 15th of October, 1760, he commanded an out- 

 post at Klosterkamp, in the neighbourhood of Guel- 

 dres, and, at break of day, went out to examine the 

 posts. On this expedition, he fell in with a division 

 of the enemy's troops, who were on the point of 

 assaulting the French army. He was seized, and 

 threatened with immediate death if he uttered a cry 

 to alarm his regiment. The safety of the French 

 forces was at stake. Without a moment's hesitation, 

 he summoned all his strength, and exclaimed, " On- 

 ward, Auvergne ! here is the enemy !" The threat was 

 immediately executed, but the patriot had gained his 

 object ; the attack was unsuccessful. Assas was never 

 married ; but a pension of 1000 livres was decreed 

 to his family forever : the payment was interrupted 

 during the revolution, but has since been renewed. 

 INS. See Js/nnaelites. 



ASSAULT (law) (assultus, from the Fr. assaillir) ; an 

 attempt or offer, with force and violence, to do a 

 corporeal hurt to another ; as by striking at him, 

 with or without a weapon. Assaidt does not always 

 necessarily imply a hitting or blow ; because, in 

 trespass for assault and battery, a man may be found 

 guilty of the assault, and acquitted of the battery. 

 But every l>attery includes an assault. If a person 

 in anger lift up or stretch forth his arm, and offer to 

 strike another, or menace any one with any staff or 

 weapon, it is an assault in law ; and if a man threaten 

 tc beat another person, or lie in wait to do it, if 

 the othir is hindered in his business, and receive loss 

 thereby, an action lies for the injury. Any injury, 

 however small, actually done to the person of a man, 

 in an angry or revengeful, or rude or insolent 

 manner, as by spitting in his face, or any way touch- 

 ing him in anger, or violently jostling him, is a bat- 

 tery in the eye of the law. To lay hands gently upon 

 another, not in anger, is no foundation of an action of 

 trespass and assault : the defendant may justify so 

 doing in defence of his person or goods, or of his 

 wife, father.'mother, or master, or for the mainten- 

 ance of justice. If any officer, having a warrant 

 agaiast one who will not suffer himself to be arrested. 



bent or wound him in the attempt to take him, hf 

 may justify it: so if a parent, in a reasonable manner, 

 chastise his child, or a muster his servant, being 

 actually in his service at that time, or a schoolmaster 

 hi> scholar, or a jailer his prisoner, or even a hus- 

 band his wife (for reasonable and proper cause) ; or 

 if one confine a friend who is mad, and hind and heat 

 him, &c., in such a manner as is proper in his cir- 

 cumstances ; or if a man force a sword from one who 

 offers to kill another, or beat one wlio makes an 

 assault upon his person, or that of his wife, parent, 

 child, or master ; or if a man fight with or beat one. 

 who attempts to kill any stranger, if the beating was 

 actually necessary to obtain the good end proposed ; 

 in all these cases, it seems, the party may justify the 

 assault and battery. 



ASSAULT (military). See Siege. 



ASSAY-BALANCE; a very delicate balance, employ- 

 ed in determining with great precision the weight of 

 minute bodies. It is used for assaying metals. See 

 Balance. 



ASSAYING ; a species of chemical analysis, to as- 

 certain the quantity of gold or silver in a metallic 

 nlloy. In its more extended meaning, it is used for 

 the determination of the quantity of any metal what- 

 soever, in composition with any other metal or 

 mineral. The assaying of gold or silver is divided 

 into two operations ; by one of which they are 

 separated from the imperfect metals, or those easily 

 oxydized ; by the second they are separated from the 

 metals which resist oxydation by simple exposure to 

 the air, and which are, therefore, called the perfect 

 metals. This second process generally consists in 

 separating gold and silver from each other, as the 

 third perfect metal, platina, is but seldom found 

 united to them. The method of separating gold or 

 silver from the other metals is founded on the facility 

 with which the latter imbibe oxygen, and the process 

 is calculated to accelerate this operation ; hence the 

 oxyde of lead, or litharge, is generally considered as 

 the most powerful purifier of the perfect metals, from 

 the ease with which it parts with its oxygen to the 

 imperfect metals united with them ; but, of late, 

 oxyde of manganese has been found superior to it, 

 in several instances, for this purpose. In the chemi- 

 cal analysis of metals, the oxyde of lead is generally 

 preferred for the above purpose ; but, in the assays 

 performed by order of government, metallic lead is 

 always used, probably from the facilities which it is 

 supposed to afford for determining the weight pf dif- 

 ferent ingredients by calculation. The lead in the 

 process first becomes oxydated, then yields some of its 

 oxygen to the other imperfect metals, and af tenvards 

 becomes vitrified, in conjunction with the other oxydes 

 so formed, and carries them off with it, leaving the 

 perfect metals pure. The above operation is called 

 the cupellation, and is performed on a flat, round 

 cake of bone-ashes, compressed within an iron ring, 

 which is named a cupel : this is placed in a vessel 

 called a muffle, which resembles a small oven, fixed 

 in a furnace capable of giving a heat sufficient for 

 the fusion of gold, so that its mouth may come in con- 

 tact with the door, at the side of which it is luted, to 

 separate it from the peal : there are small slits made 

 in the sides of the muffle, to afford a passage for the air. 



ASSELYN, John ; a Dutch painter of the 17th cen- 

 tury. He was a pupil of Isaiah Vandervelde, and 

 afterwards went to Rome. Settling at Amsterdam, 

 in 1645, he obtained great reputation by the produc- 

 tions of his pencil, which consist principally of histo- 

 rical paintings, battle-pieces, and landscapes with 

 ruins, and are distinguished for their adherence to 

 rature and correct style of colouring. A set of his 

 landscapes (twenty-four in number) has beefl engrav- 

 ed by Perelle. He died in 1650, aged about 40. 



