ASS 



ASS 



consists of goods, money, or personal 

 property, they are called assets personal. 



ASSIENTO, a Spanish word, signifying 

 a farm, in commerce, is used fora bargain 

 between the king 1 of Spain and other 

 powers, for importing 1 negroes into the 

 Spanish dominions in America, and parti- 

 cularly in Buenos Ay res. The first assi- 

 ento was made by the French Guinea 

 Company : and, by the treaty of Utrecht, 

 transferred to the English, who were to 

 furnish four thousand eight hundred ne- 

 groes annually. 



ASSIGN, in common law, a person to 

 whom a thing is assigned or made over. 



ASSIGNEE, in law, a person appointed 

 by another to do an act, transact some 

 business, or enjoy a particular commodi- 

 ty. Assignees may be by deed, or by 

 law ; by deed, where the lessee of a farm 

 assignsthe same to another; by law, where 

 the law makes an assignee, without any 

 appointment of the person entitled; as an 

 executor is assignee in law to the testa- 

 tor, and an administrator to an intestate. 

 But when there is an assignee by deed, 

 the assignee in law is not allowed. 



ASSIGNING, in a general sense, is the 

 setting over a right to another ; and, in a 

 special sense, is used to set forth and 

 point at, as to assign an error, to assign 

 false judgment, to assign waste ; in which 

 cases, it must be shewn wherein the error 

 is cornmited, where and how the judg- 

 ment is unjust, and where the waste is 

 committed. 



ASSIGNMENT, is a transfer, or mak- 

 ing over to another, of the right one has 

 in any estate ; but it is usually applied to 

 an estate for life or years. And it differs 

 in a lease only in this; that by a lease 

 one grants an interest less than his own, 

 reserving to himself a reversion ; in as- 

 signment he parts with the whole proper- 

 ty, and the assignee stands, to all intents 

 and purposes, in the place of the assignor. 

 2 Black. 326. 



ASSIGNMENT, in a military sense, signi- 

 fies a public document, by which colonels 

 of regiments become entitled to certain 

 allowances for the clothing of their seve- 

 ral corps. 



ASSIMILATION, in animal economy, 

 is that process, by which the different in- 

 gredients of the blood are made parts of 

 the various organs of the body. Over 

 the nature of assimilation, says Dr. Thom- 

 son, the thickest darkness hangs ; there 

 is no key to explain it, nothing to lead 

 us to the knowledge of the instruments 

 employed. Facts, however, put the ex- 

 istence of the process beyond the reach 



of doubt. The healing of every fractured' 

 bone, and of ever}- wound of the body, 

 is a proof of its existence, and an instance 

 of its action. Every organ employed in 

 assimilation has a peculiar office,"and it 

 always performs this office whenever it 

 has materials to aci upon, even when the 

 performance of it is contrary to the in- 

 terest of the animal. Thus the stomach 

 always converts the food into chyme, 

 even when the food is of such a nature 

 that the process of digestion is retarded, 

 rather than promoted, by the change. 

 If warm milk be taken into the stomach, 

 it is decomposed by that organ, and con- 

 verted into chyme, yet the milk was 

 n>.', re nearly assimilated to the animal be- 

 fore the action of the stomach than after 

 it. The same thing occurs when we 

 eat animal food. If a substance be in- 

 troduced into an organ employed in as- 

 similation, that has already undergone 

 the change which that organ is fitted- to 

 produce, it is not acted upon by that or- 

 gan, but passes on unalterated to the next: 

 assimilating organ. Thus it is the office 

 of the intestines to convert chyme into 

 chyle ; and whenever chyme is introduced 

 into the intestines, they perform their 

 office, and produce the usual change ; 

 but if chyle itself be introduced, it is ab- 

 sorbed by the lacteals without alteration. 

 Again, the business of the blood-vessels, 

 as assimilating organs, is to convert chyle 

 into blood ; chyle therefore cannot be in- 

 troduced into the arteries without under- 

 going that change ; but blood may be in- 

 troduced from another animal without 

 any injury, and consequently without un- 

 dergoing any change. Though the dif- 

 ferent assimilating organs have the power 

 of changing certain substances into 

 others, and of throwing oui the useless 

 ingredients, yet this power is not abso- 

 lute, even when the substances on which 

 they act are proper for undergoing the 

 change which the organs produce. The 

 stomach converts food into chyme, and 

 the intestines change chyme into chyle ; 

 and the substances that have not been 

 converted into chyle, are thrown out of 

 the body. If there should be present in 

 the stomach and intestines any substance, 

 which, though incapable of undergoing 

 these changes, at least by the action of 

 the stomacii and intestines, yet has a 

 strong affinity either for the whole chyme 

 and chyle, or for some particular part of 

 it, and no affinity for the substances 

 which are thrown out; that substance 

 passes with the chyle, and in many cases 

 continues to remain chemically combined 



