ASSAULT AND BATTERY 



42S 



ASSESSOR 



will establish some reform, religious or polit- 

 ical. In ancient times the assassination of 

 rulers and other high public officials was often 

 applauded. The assassination of Julius Caesar 

 and a number of Roman emperors is a good 

 illustration. Now, however, the brutal killing 

 of a public personage is looked upon as the 

 highest possible crime, punishable by death. 



Since 1900 the following European rulers 

 have been assassinated: 



Humbert of Italy, July 29, 1900. 



Alexander of Servia and Draga, his queen, 

 June 11, 1903. 



King Carlos I and son, of Portugal, Febru- 

 ary 1. 1908. 



Three presidents of the United States have 

 been assassinated: 



Abraham Lincoln, April 14, 1865. 



James A. Garfield, July 2, 1881. 



William McKinley, September 6, 1901. 



The assassination of the Archduke Francis 

 Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, June 28, 

 1914, was assigned as one of the causes of the 

 War of the Nations, which began one month 

 later. 



ASSAULT, as salt', AND BATTERY, in 

 law, an attempt, real or apparent, to do bodily 

 harm to another, the circumstances indicating 

 intent and present ability to do actual vio- 

 lence. When the attacking party reaches and 

 touches the person of the victim, battery is 

 added to assault; for, to touch in anger, or 

 to use violence against another in any way 

 constitutes battery. The two offenses are sep- 

 arate and distinct, but they usually occur 

 together and are punished as one. There are, 

 however, some instances of assault without 

 any battery. Assault and battery is a crime 

 punishable by fine or imprisonment, and it is 

 also a civil offense. The person injured can 

 sue for and recover damages from the offender. 

 In applying physical punishment to those 

 under their care, parents and teachers must 

 use only the force necessary in each case, any 

 excess being considered assault and battery. 



ASSAYING, as say 'ing, or determining the 

 amount of the different metals which are con- 

 tained in a sample of ore, of bullion or of 

 alloy, is carried on in many different ways, 

 according to the kind of mineral to be meas- 

 ured. In general the processes are known as 

 wet or as dry. 



The Dry Process. In this method heat is 

 usually employed to separate the metals con- 

 tained in the sample. If, for instance, the 

 assayer wishes to find the amount of gold and 

 silver in samples of ore, he mixes the latter 



with lead and melts them in a muffle, which 

 is a clay oven about the size of a drain tile, 

 with an arched roof and air-openings at the 

 side. All the impurities flow off, leaving the 

 gold and silver surrounded by molten lead and 

 oxide of lead. The next step in the process 

 is called cupellation. The mass of gold, silver 

 and lead is placed in a cupel, a small, exceed- 

 ingly porous cup made of a paste of bone-ash 

 and water. When the cupel is placed* in the 

 muffle the lead is oxidized by the air which 

 passes over it, and all the oxide disappears in 

 vapor or is absorbed by the porous walls of 

 the cupel. Only gold and silver now remains, 

 and these two are separated by the applica- 

 tion of nitric acid, which dissolves the silver. 

 The difference between the weight of the gold 

 and silver together and of the remaining gold 

 gives the weight of the silver. 



The Wet Process. In this form of assaying, 

 the metals are dissolved out of the ore or 

 alloy which contains them by applying cer- 

 tain chemicals, then weighed, or measured 

 according to the effect they have chemically. 

 Thus, if the silver washed out by the nitric 

 acid in the last step of the dry process de- 

 scribed above is combined with a solution of 

 salt and the resulting white powder, chloride 

 of silver, is weighed, the amount of silver is 

 known from the established chemical formu- 

 las. In assaying silver bullion at mints and 

 essay offices the exact amount of salt solu- 

 tion necessary to separate the silver is meas- 

 ured as it is poured out, and from this the 

 amount of silver is known. 



Assay Office, a government bureau under 

 the direction of the Treasury Department, 

 which purchases, refines and sells gold and 

 silver bullion, but does not strike coins. There 

 are assay offices in the United States at New 

 York, Carson City, Nev., Denver, Colo., Boise, 

 Ida., Helena, Mont., Charlotte, N. C., Saint 

 Louis, Mo., Deadwood, S. D., Seattle, Wash., 

 New Orleans, La., and Salt Lake City, Utah. 

 In Canada assaying is under the supervision 

 of the Royal Mint. F.ST.A. 



ASSEM'BLY, one of the names often 

 applied to a state legislature, or to the state 

 house of representatives as contrasted with the 

 senate. See LEGISLATURE. 



ASSESSOR, ases'er, an officer whose duty 

 it is to make a list of all the property in the 

 territory over which his authority extends, for 

 purposes of taxation. The list must contain 

 the name of the owner and the kind and value 

 of his property. If the owner has both real 



