AESCULAPIUS 



73 



AFGHANISTAN 



in assigning this almost unusual death to a 

 man who had made his heroes die in the 

 fashions of gods. Tragedy owed much to 

 Aeschylus, for it was he who first suggested 

 appropriate costumes and scenery and intro- 

 duced more than one actor. A.MCC. 



AESCULAPIUS , <skula' plus, in Greek and 

 Roman mythology, the god of the art of heal- 

 ing, son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis. 

 When a youth he was placed in care of the 

 iur Chiron, who taught him what he knew 

 of medicine. Aesculapius, according to the 

 legend, became so versed in his art that he 

 could restore the dead to life. This angered 

 Pluto, the insatiable lord of the underworld, 

 and at his request Jupiter slew the god of 

 medicine with a thunderbolt. Aesculapius is 

 represented in art as bearing a knotted staff; 

 around this was entwined a serpent, which the 

 ancients regarded as the symbol of health. 



AESOP'S, e' sops, FABLES, a collection 

 of fables which have been for over two thousand 

 years popular with children and adults alike, 

 the world over. They are for the most part 

 beast fables, wherein the animals are given 

 the qualities and the powers of human beings. 

 Children love them chiefly for the story, 

 though the clearly suggested moral by no 

 means detracts from their charm; while older 

 people delight in them because they set forth 

 in few words and in pleasingly dramatic force 

 truths and bits of wisdom. So widespread are 

 that acquaintance with them may safely 

 be taken for granted in almost any company, 

 and allusions to "sour grapes," to "belling the 

 cat" or to "the lion and the mouse" are con- 

 stantly heard. 



Aesop, the supposed author of these immor- 

 tal fables, is a legendary character. Many tales 

 are told of Aesop, a Greek slave, who was 

 far more wise than his masters, and who 

 became a friend of Solon and of Croesus, and 

 ay be that certain of the popular beast 

 fables did originate with him. But these fables 

 not written down until long after Aesop 

 is supposed to have lived, and it seems more 

 hk. 1% tlmt they simply grew up, like folk 

 tales, and had no single author. 



Consult the art .. B and STORY-TBLLINO 



Pies of the fable* of Aesop. 



AFFIDA'VIT, a sworn statement containing 



to be laid before a judge. It is 



s employed when it is not possible 



r personally to testify; 



II the testimony in a 



case is m the form of affidavits, these being 



preferred rather than that the court's time 

 shall be consumed by the hearing of oral testi- 

 mony. The person making an affidavit signs 

 his name at the bottom of it, and swears that 

 the statements contained in it are true. Penal- 

 ties for false swearing are severe. See OATH. 



AFFIN'ITY, in chemistry, the force or ten- 

 dency through which two or more substances 

 unite to form a compound in which the proper- 

 ties of each individual substance are lost; the 

 two light colorless gases, oxygen and hydrogen, 

 for example, unite to form water, and the 

 metal, sodium, and the yellowish-green gas, 

 chlorine, unite to form common salt. It fol- 

 lows that affinity is also the force which holds 

 the elements together if they are in combina- 

 tion. This force, whatever it is, is called affin- 

 ity because it is evident that some hidden 

 relationship between substances makes them 

 combine. One ingenious chemist suggested 

 that the particles into which matter is ulti- 

 mately divided all had minute hooks with 

 which they grasped each other. Gravity and 

 electricity have also been suggested, but none 

 of these theories has been proved. 



In some elements, such as oxygen and 

 cnlorine, this force is strong, and these may 

 be combined with many other elements ; others, 

 like nitrogen, seem to have an affinity for only 

 a few elements. Among the metals, sodium, 

 potassium, calcium and aluminum have strong 

 affinity for such non-metals as oxygen and 

 chlorine; while gold and platinum have so 

 small a tendency to combine with other ele- 

 ments that the alchemists called them "noble" 

 and even "royal" metals. For the same reason 

 the gases helium, argon and neon, which appear 

 to be without affinity for any of the other ele- 

 ments, are called "noble" gases. j f&. 



AFGHANISTAN, aj gan' istan, a small coun- 

 try in South Central Asia, one of those defense^ 

 less nations of 

 yellow and black 

 men which have 

 bowed 

 superior 

 power of 

 in this instance 

 Great Britain It- 

 importance to 

 i lies not at 

 present in its 



. for what- Istan'ln fhe'contlnent'oTAsla 

 of riches it " 



holds is yet almost unknown, but in its poi- 

 tion between Russian Turkestan and British 



to 



white 



The location of Afghnn- 



4 A ,., 



