164 AST 
per cent, per annum on all sums assured 
against fire. 
ASSUROR, a merchant or other person 
who" signs a policy of assurance, and there- 
by insures a ship, house, or the like. 
I he assuror is not liable for what damages 
may arise from the negligence or other faults 
ot the masters or mariners, or even from any 
defect in the things assured. 
ASSURITAN1, a branch of the Donatists, 
who held, that the Son was inferior to the Fa- 
ther, and the Holy Ghost to the Son: they 
rebaptized those who embraced their sect ; 
and asserted that good men only were within 
the pale of the church. 
AS TATI, a sect ot Christians, who being 
the followers of one Sergius, revived the er- 
roneous doctrines of the Manichees. They 
were remarkable tor the inconstancy of their 
principles. 
AS I ER, in botany, star-wort, a genus of 
the polygamia superflua order and syngenesia 
class ot plants, and in the natural method 
ranking under the 49th order, eompositi ra- 
cliati. 'I he receptacle is naked, the pappus 
is simple, the rays of the corolla are more 
than ten, and the calyx is imbricated. There 
are 60 species. All of them may be raised 
from seed; but the greatest part of them 
being perennial plants, and increasing at the 
roots, are generally propagated by parting their 
roots early in the spring, and they will grow in 
almost any soil or situation ; and the larger 
sorts increase so fast, that, if not prevented, 
they will in a little time run over a large 
space of ground. They grow best in the 
shade. The lower kinds do not run so much 
at the root, but should be taken up and trans- 
planted every other year, which will make 
them produce much fairer flowers. Some 
few sorts, which are natives of warm climates, 
will require artificial heat to raise them, if 
not to preserve them. 
ASTERIA, in natural history, a beautiful 
pellucid gem, of variable colours as viewed 
in different lights : called also oculus cati, or 
cat’s eye. 
The variable colours, which are a pale 
brown and white, seem to be lodged deep in 
the stone, and shift about as that is moved. It 
is nearly allied to the opals; from which, 
however, it is distinguished by its colour and 
superior hardness. 
Asteria is also the name of an extra- 
neous fossil, called in English the star-stone. 
ASTERIAS, star fish, or sea star, in 
zoology, a genus of the order of vermes 
mollusca. It has a depressed body, covered 
with a coriaceous coat ; is composed of five 
or more segments, running out from a cen- 
tral part, and furnished with numerous ten- 
tacula ; and has the mouth in the centre. 
The conformation of the mouth is this : the 
under part of each lobe runs towards a point 
with the rest at the centre of the body ; and 
these several productions of the rays make a 
sort of lips, the ends of each of which are 
armed with a number of sharp teeth, which 
serve to take and convey the food into the 
body. From this mouth there goes a sepa- 
rate canal to all or many of the rays, which 
runs through their whole length, and be- 
comes gradually narrower as it approaches 
the extremity. The tentacula resemble the 
horns of snails, but serve the animal to walk 
with. They are capable of being contracted 
or shortened ; and it is only at the creature’s 
AST 
moving that they are seen of their full 
length : at other, times no part of them is 
seen but the extremity of each, which is 
iormed like a sort ot button, being some- 
what larger than the rest of the horn. Aristo- 
tle and Pliny called this genus as-*;, and 
Stella marina, from their resemblance to the 
pictured form of the stars of heaven ; and 
they asserted that they were so exceedingly 
hot, as instantly to consume whatsoever they 
touched ! r I he fossil world has been greatly 
enriched by the fragments and remains of 
the several pieces of star-fish which have 
been converted into stones. There are many 
species of this genus: some of 12, 13, and 
even 14 rays. Most of them are found in our 
seas. See Plate Nat. Hist. fig. 41. 
1. Asterias caput Medusa, or arbores- 
cent sea-star, has five rays issuing from an 
angular body : the rays dividing into innu- 
merable branches, growing slender as they 
recede from the base. These the animal, in 
swimming, spreads like a net to their full 
length; and when he perceives any prey 
within them, draws them in again, thus catch- 
in g_ it with all the dexterity of a fisherman. 
It is an inhabitant of every sea ; and is 
called by some the Magellanic star-fish and 
basket-fish. When it extends its rays fully, 
it forms a circle of near three feet in diame- 
ter. The fragments of these rays furnish the 
fossil entrochi. If we drown this, animal in 
brandy or spirit of wine, and keep the rays 
flat and expanded in the execution, it is easy 
to extract by means of a pair of forceps the 
stomach of the animal whole and entire 
through the mouth. 
2. Asterias clathatra, or cancellated 
sea-star, with five short thick rays, hirsute 
beneath, cancellated above, is found on our 
coasts, but is rare. 
3. Asterias deeacnemos has ten very 
slender rays, with numbers of long beards 
on the sides; the body is small, and sur- 
rounded beneath with ten filiform rays. 
4. Asterias glacialis , with five rays, de- 
pressed, broad at the base, yellow, and hav- 
ing a round striated operculum on the back, 
is the most common: it feeds on oysters, 
and is very destructive to the beds. See 
Plate Nat. Hist. fig. 42. 
5. Asterias hispida, with five rays, 
broad, angulated at top, and rough with 
short bristles, is of a brown colour, and is 
found about Anglesea. 
6. Asterias oculata, with five smooth 
rays, dotted or punctured, is of a fine purple 
colour, and is also found about Anglesea. 
7. Asterias placenta, with five very 
broad and membraneous rays, extremely 
thin and Hat, is found about Weymouth. 
8. Asterias spherulata, with a pentagonal 
indented body; a small globular bead be- 
tween the base of each ray ; the rays slen- 
der, jointed, taper, and hirsute on their 
sides : is found off Anglesea. 
ASTERGIDES, in astronomy, a name 
given by Dr. Iierschel to the new planets, or 
three small planetary bodies, discovered by 
the foreign astronomers Piazzi, Gibers, and 
Harding, which are defined as “celestial bo- 
dies either of little or considerable excentri- 
city round the sun, the plane of which may 
be inclined to the ecliptic in any angle what- 
ever. The motion may be direct or retro- 
grade; and they may or may not have con- 
siderable atmospheres, very small comas, 
A S T 
disks, or nuclei.” From the observations 
already made on these bodies, they appear 
to partake of the several properties by which 
the planets in general are known and de- 
scribed ; and therefore, with justice, some 
astronomers have objected to this new defi- 
nition of Dr. Herschei. 
ASTEROPODIUM, a kind of extraneous 
fossil, of the same substance with the asteria-, 
or star-stones, to which they serve as a base. 
ASTHENIA, in medicine, a term em- 
ployed to denote bodily debility. See Me- 
dicine. 
ASTHMA, in medicine, a painful, diffi- 
cult, and laborious respiration, occasioned 
by intolerable straitness of the lungs, which, 
as it disturbs the free circulation of the blood 
through the lungs, endangers a suffocation. 
This disorder is attended with violent mo- 
tions of the diaphragm, abdominal and inter- 
costal muscles, to the very scapula and pin- 
na of the nostrils. It is usually divided mto 
pneumonic and convulsive ; and is also either 
continual, or intermitting and periodical, 
and returns commonly when a sober regi- 
men is not observed. 
This disorder proves most violent while 
the patient is in bed, and in a prone posture^ 
as in that case the contents of the lower 
belly bearing against the diaphragm, lessen, 
the capacity of the breast, and leave the- 
lungs less room to play. See Medicine. 
ASTRAGAL, in architecture, a little 
round moulding, in form of a ring, serving 
as an ornament at the tops and bottoms of 
columns. See Architecture. 
Astragal, in gunnery, a round mould- 
ing encompassing a cannon, about half % 
foot from its mouth. 
ASTRAGALUS, in bjotany, milk vetch, 
or liquorice vetch, a genus of the decandria. 
order and diadelphia class of plants ; and 
in the natural method ranking under the 32d 
order, papilionacea: ; the pod is gibbous and 
bilocular. Of this genus there are 63 species^. 
Astragalus communis. The common 
species grows wild upon dry uncultivated 
places, and is recommended by Mr. Ander- 
son to be cultivated as proper food for cattle.. 
The astragalus tragacantha is a thorny bush, 
growing in Crete, Asia, and Greece, which 
yields the gum. tragacanth.. This is of so 
strong a body, that a drachm of it will give 
a pint of water the consistence of a syrup* 
which a whole ounce of gum arabic is 
scarcely sufficient to do. Hence its use for 
forming troches, and for similar purposes, ia 
preference to the other gums. 
Astragalus, in anatomy,, called also the 
talus, is the superior and first bone of the. 
foot. See Anatomy. 
AST RANTIA,, masterwort, a genus of. 
the digynia order and pentandria class of 
plants ; and in the natural method ranking 
under the 45 tb order, umbellatae. The in- 
volucrum is lanceolated, open, equal, and 
coloured. The species are five, but possess 
no remarkable properties. 
AST RARIU S hares, in law, is where an 
ancestor, by conveyance, has settled his 
heir-apparent and family in a house in his 
life-time. 
AST ILEA, in astronomy, the same asVirgo. 
AS1 RINGENTS, astringentia, in phar- 
macy, medicines of the corroborative class. 
See Pharmacy. 
Astringents are thought by some to act 
