ASF 



fneaiing tlielr faces with an ointment of tar and greafe, and 

 which they drive from the houfes by fmoke. Service is 

 performed in a wooden cliurch, built by queen ChrilHna in 

 1648, once on every other Sunday ; and the Lapps meet 

 oYice a fortnip-ht, on Friday evening, and continue till Sun- 

 day evening in their huts eicfted near the church, and the 

 pcnfants in the houfes built by them for the fame purpoic. 

 At the fair which is held every year at Xenac near Afcle 

 church, the Lapps fell the (!c(h and flcins of rein -deer, furs, 

 whitings, fowls, &c. ; and the I-apUuid pcafants cany but- 

 ter, checfe, dried fifh, fowls and fome fort of furs, to the 

 fame market. 



ASELLIUS, Caspar, of Cremona, in Biography, 

 born toward the end of the fixtccnth century, taught ana- 

 tomy at Paris with great reputation. In 1622, while pro- 

 fecuting his ftudies, he difcovered " cafu magis quam conci- 

 lio," Dousrias fays, thelatttals running acrofsthe mefentevy, 

 in a dog that had been opened alive foon after eating a 

 plentiful nitaj. He defcribes thcfe veflels as paffing from 

 the inteftines to the liver, not knowing their real courie, and 

 millaking the lymphatics of that vifcus for them. He faw 

 their valves, preventing tl'.e regurgitation of the chyle. 

 The lafteals, he candidly obferves, had been mentioned by 

 fome of the earlieft medical writers, but not defcribed, or 

 their funftions ftated, and as none of tiie modern reftorers 

 of anatomy noticed them, the difcovery is properly attribu- 

 ted to him. Cafpar Hoffman ridiculed the invention of 

 them; and our great countryman, Harvey, fuppofed them to 

 be only deftined to convey the lymph. 



AiVUius millook a colle6lion of glands in the mefentery 

 for the pancreas, and defcribed the pancreas as a new difco- 

 Yered gland, which, with his error in defcribing the courle of 

 the lacleals, threw much obfcurity on his difcovery. He 

 died fometime in the year 1626, and was buried at St. Peter's 

 at Milan, aged, as appears by the infcription on his tomb, 

 only forty-five years. The year following, his friends, Alex- 

 ander Padinus and Senator Septalius, publifhed, from a ma- 

 Bufcript that had been prepared by the author, " De lafti- 

 bus feu lafteis venis, quarto vaforum mclaraicorum genere, 

 novo invento, differtatio, cum figuris elegantlffimis Mediolani, 

 1627, 4to." It was re-publifhcd at Bade 1628, at Leydcn- 

 1648, and afterwards among the works of Spigelius and 

 Mangeti, in folio. Haller Bib. Anat. Eloy Did. Hift. 



ASENA, in jlnclmt Geography, a town of Spain, in the 

 territoiy of the Carpetani. 



ASENI, a people of India, whofc capital was Bucephala. 

 Pliny. 



ASER, in Geography, a town of Alia, in the Arabian 

 Irac, fituated on the Tigris, eigbt miles weft-north-weft of 

 Ba flora. 



ASES, in Ancient Geography, a Scythian people, who 

 inhabited the vicinity of the Cimmerian Bofphorus. 



ASFACA, in Geography, a town of Perfia, in the pro- 

 vince of Mecran, 52 leagues north-weft of Mecran. 



ASFELD LA ViLLE, a town of France, in the de- 

 partment of the Ardennes, and chief place of a canton 

 in the diftrift of Rcthel, thirteen miles north of Rheims. 



ASFUN, or Asfoun, a town of Egypt, four miles 

 north of Erment. This is the fite of one of the cities called 



APHRODITOPOLI S. 



AKFUR, m Ichthyology, a fpeciesof Ch aetodon, found 

 on the coafts of Arabia. It is black, with a yellow tranf- 

 verfe hinar-vvcdged band. Forflt. Fn. Arab. The fame 

 author defcribes a variety of this fifti, of a blueifh colour, 

 with oblique bands, blotches, and fine lines of violet. 

 Length five inches; body oval, covered with rhombic fcales, 

 difpofid in a quincunx order, and finely dentated ; a ftrong 



ASH 



fpine on the gill-covcr half an inch in length ; lateral line 

 curved ; dorfal and anal fin falcated ; tail rounded, fulvous, 

 and edged with black. 



ASGILIA, in Ancient Geography, an ifland fituated in 

 the Perfian gulf, on the coall of Arabia Felix. Pliny. 



ASGILL, John, in Biography, an Englifh barrifter of 

 fingular character, was born about the middle of the 17th 

 century, and educated at Lincoln's Inn, under Mr. Eyre, 

 a veiy eminent lawyer. His political talents and fingular 

 vein of humour vctvt manifeftcd in two pamphlets, which 

 were printed in 1698, and wliich attrafttd public notice : 

 the firft was intitled , " Several Affcrtions proved in order to 

 create another Species of Money than Gold and Silver ;" 

 and the fecond, " An Ellay on a Regillry for Titles of 

 Lands." Thefe were followed, in 1 700, by another whimfi- 

 cal and enthufiaftical treaUfe, intitled " An Argument, 

 proving, that, according to the covenant of eternal Hfc, re- 

 vealed in the fcriptures, man may be tranflated from hence, 

 witliout paffing through death, although the human nature 

 of Chrift himfelf co-jld not be thus tranflated, till he had pall- 

 ed through death." This publication excited a general 

 clamour againil the author as an infidel and a blafphemer. 

 Before this time he had removed into Ireland, and purfued 

 the pradlice of the law with fo much fuccefs, that he was 

 enabled to purchafe an eftate, and to obtain a feat in the 

 Irith parliament; but this publication occafionedhis expulfion 

 from the houfe, as a perfon whofe blafphcmous writings 

 rendered him unworthy of reprefenting a Chriftian people. 

 On his retum to England, he obtained a return to the Bri- 

 tifti parliament, in 1705, for the borough of Biamber in 

 Sufftx, and held his feat for two year?. But his want of 

 occonomy involved him in debts which he was unable to dif- 

 charge, and during the interval of privilege, he was arrefted 

 and committed to the Fleet prifon. On the opening of the 

 next feffion of parliament, in 1707, he was demanded by the 

 ferjeant at arms, releafed from cuftody, and refumed his 

 feat. However, his embarafled circumftances, and the 

 confideration of his being a privileged debtor, created a 

 prejudice againft him in the houfe, and a committee was ap- 

 pointed to examine his ofFenfive publication; in order to juf- 

 tify the propofed meafure of his expulfion. This committee 

 reported that his book contained feveral blafphemous ex- 

 preffions, and that it fecmed to be intended for expofing the 

 fcriptures; and though Afgill made a fpirited defence, and 

 folemnly protcfted, that he publifhed his treatife under a 

 firm belief of the ti-uth of the fcriptures as well as of his own 

 argument, he was expelled. In confequence of this mea- 

 fure, as his debts increafed, he was thrown by his creditors 

 into the King's bench prifon, where he remained thirty- 

 years ; furnilliing himfelf with amufement and occafional 

 fupplies, by writing pamphlets, chiefly pohtical, againft the 

 pr. tender, and by praAifing in the way of his profeffion. 

 Notwithftanding his misfortunes, and the confcioufnefs of 

 his own indifcretion, he retained great vivacity of fpirits, and 

 peculiar powers of entertaining converCation, till his death, 

 which iiappened within the rules of the King's bench, in 

 1738, at the age as fome fay of 80, or according to others 

 100 ycais. Afgill feems to have been a vifionary and en- 

 thufiaft, rather than an infidel or blafphemer ; and his eccen- 

 tricities rendered him more the objeil of contempt or pity, 

 than perfecution and punifliment. Biog. Brit. 



ASH, Common, Flowering, and Manna, in Botany, See 

 Fraxinus. ' 



Ash, Mountain. SecSoRBUs. 



Ash, Foifon. See Rhus. 



AsH-Bai/s, are formed of the afhes produced by a flow 

 incineration of the greea plants of fern, which contain a 



I 2 confiderabl; 



