AST 
We deem of death, as doom of ill defert ; 
But, knew we tools what it us brings until, 
Die would we daily, once it to expert ; 
No danger-there the Ihepherd can ajlert. Spenfer. 
ASTESAN', or County of As'ti, a country of Italy, 
bounded on the weft by the principality of Chieri and 
Carmagnola, or the north by the Vercellois, on the eaft by 
the Vercellois and the Alexandrin, and on the fouth by 
the marquifate of Gorzegno, about twenty-five miles long 
and ten broad. It was once a republic, but now belongs 
to the king of Sardinia. 
ASTHE'NIA, f. [from « priv. and ftrength.] 
Debility, weaknefs. 
AST'HM A, f. [from ecu, or ao-O/aau'w, to breathe.] A 
frequent, difficult, and fhort, refpiration, joined with a 
hilling found and a cough, efpecially in the night-time, 
and when the body is in a prone pofture ; becaufe then 
the contents of the lower belly bear fo againft the dia¬ 
phragm, as to leflen the capacity of the bread, whereby 
the 1 ungs have lefs room to move. Quincy .—An ajthma is 
the inflation of the membranes of the lungs, and of the 
membranes covering the mulcles of the thorax. Flayer .— 
For the cure, fee Medicine. 
ASTHM A'TIC, or Asthma'tical, adj. Troubled 
with an afthma.—In ajlhmatical perfons, though the lungs 
be very much fluffed with tough phlegm, yet the patient 
may live fame months, if not fome years. Boyle .—After 
drinking, our horfes are moll ajlhmatic\ and, tor avoiding 
the watering of them, we wet their hay. Floyer. 
AS'TI, a city of Piedmont, fituated near the rivers 
Barbo and Tanaro, and capital of a country called AJleJ'an, 
or County of AJli. The furrounding country is agreeable 
and fertile, interfperfed with fmall hills, embellifhing the 
feats of the nobility and gentry. There are fprings in the 
neighbourhood, from whence they get fait. Afti w as not 
generally known before the year 1103, when Alaric, king 
of the Goths, having been defeated by Stilico, the inhabi¬ 
tants of Afti, or the Romans, wdto held a garrifon in that 
town, conducted thither the infants and wives of that 
prince, with themoft precious of the fpoil taken from him. 
It is the fee of a bifhop, fuffragan of the archbifhop of 
Milan, eredted in the year 265. Befides the cathedral, it 
contained upwards of thirty other churches, parochial and 
conventual. It was taken by the French in 1703, and re¬ 
taken by the duke of Savoy in 1704. Again the French 
took it in 1746, but loft it to the king of Sardinia in 1747. 
It is twenty-four miles eaft of Turin, twenty-one eaft- 
north-eaft of Carmagnola, and twenty weft of Alexandria. 
Lat.44. 50. N. Ion. 25. 48. E. Ferro. 
ASTI'GI, a colony and conventus juridicus of Btetica, 
furnamed Augufa Firma, fituated on the Singulus, which 
falls into the Btetis; called alfo Colonia Afigitana y now 
Fcya, midway between Seville and Corduba. Lat. 37. 20. 
N. Ion. 5. o. W. 
To ASTFPULATE, v. a [ajlipulare ad remfaciendam, 
Lat.] To agree, to covenant. 
ASTIPULA'TION,/. A mutual agreement, affent, 
and confent, between parties. 
ASTO'MI, in anthropology, a people feigned without 
mouths. Pliny fpeaks of a iiation of Aftomi in India, 
■who lived only by the fmell or effluvia of bodies taken in 
by the nofe. 
AS'TOJST (Sir Arthur), an officer of note in king 
Charles the Firft’s army, was fon of Sir Arthur Afton, of 
Fulham, in Middlefex. He was a great traveller, and 
made feveral campaigns in foreign countries. Being re¬ 
turned to England about the beginning of the grand re¬ 
bellion, with as many foldiers of note as he could bring 
with him, he took part w ith the king againft the parlia¬ 
ment. He commanded the dragoons at the battle of Edge- 
hill, and with them did his majefty confiderable fervice. 
The king, having a great opinion of his valour and con¬ 
duct, made him governor of Reading, in Berkihire, and 
commitfary-general of the horfe ; in which poll he three 
AST 303 
times repulfed the earl of Effex, who, at the head of the 
parliament army, laid liege to that place; but Sir Arthur 
being dar.geroufly wounded, the command devolved on 
colonel Richard Fielding, the eldeft colonel in the garri¬ 
fon. Sir Arthur was fulpedted of taking this opportunity 
to get rid of a dangerous command. Some time after he 
was appointed governor of the garrifon of Oxford, in the 
room of Sir William Pennyman, deceafed. In September 
following, he had the misfortune to break his leg by a fall 
from his horfe, and was obliged to have it cut off; where¬ 
upon, on the 25th of December, he was difeharged from 
his command, which was conferred on colonel Gage. Af¬ 
ter the king’s death, Sir Arthur was employed in the fer¬ 
vice of king Charles II. and went with the flower of the 
Engliih veterans into Ireland, where he was appointed go¬ 
vernor of Drogheda. At length Cromwell having taken 
the tow n, about the 10th of Auguft, 1649, and put the in¬ 
habitants to the fword ; Sir Arthur, the governor, was cut 
to pieces, and his brains beaten out with his wooden leg. 
ASTO'NIED, part. adj. A w’ord ufed in the verliorv 
of the Bible for ajlonified. —Many were ajlonied at thee. 
Ifaiah , lii. 14. 
To ASTO'NISH, v.a. \_rfonner , Fr. from attonitus, I.at.] 
To confound with fome hidden pallion, as with fear or 
wonder; to amaze ; to furprife; to ftun : 
It is the part of men to fear and tremble, 
When the mod mighty gods by tokens fend 
Such dreadful heralds to afonijh us. Shakefpcare. 
Afoni/h'd at the voice, he ftood amaz’d, 
And all around with inward horror gaz’d. Addifon. 
ASTO'NISHINGNESS, J. [from aftoni/h.-} Of a na¬ 
ture to excite aftonilhment. 
ASTO'NISHMENT,y. [ efonnement , Fr.] Amazement; 
confufion of mind from fear or wonder.—We found, with 
no lefs wonder to us than afonijkment to themfelves, that 
they were the two valiant and famous brothers. Sidney. 
ASTOR'G A, a city of Spain, in the province of Leon, 
fituated in a plain on the fmall river Tueria; it is neither 
large nor populous, but ftrong both by nature and art, and 
the fee of a bifhop, fuffragan of Compoftelia. The cathe¬ 
dral is fo filled with eccleliaftics as to be called the city of 
priejls. It is twenty-eight miles weft of Leon. Lat. 42. 33. 
N. Ion. 11.30. E. Ferro. 
7 eASTOU'ND, v.a. \_efonncr y Fr.] To aftonifh ; to 
confound with fear or wonder. This word is now fome- 
what obfolete : 
Thefe thoughts may ftartle well, but not aflound 
The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended 
By a ftrong fiding champion, confidence. Milton. 
ASTRACAN', a province of Ruflia, and the mod eaft- 
erly part of Europe; bounded on the north by Bulgaria 
and Bafkiria, on the fouth by the Cafpian Sea, on the w'eft 
by the Volga, which divides it From the Nagayan Tartars 
and Don Coffacks, and on the eaft by the great ridge of 
mountains which part it from Great Tartary. The pro¬ 
vince extends from the 46th to the ;2d degree of latitude. 
The fummer is long, and intenfely hot; the winter conti¬ 
nues about three months fo fevere, that the Volga is foine- 
times frozen hard enough to bear loaded Hedges. The 
foil is rich and fertile; but the Tartars who inhabit it are 
ftrangers to agriculture. On the vveftern and fouthern (ides 
of the Volga are heaths of a prodigious extent, fandy, de¬ 
fert, and uncultivated ; thefe, however, produce vaft quan¬ 
tities of fine tranlparent fait in pits, where the fun bakes 
and incruftates it to the thicknefs of an inch on the furface 
of the water. There are pits in the neighbourhood of 
Aftracan which yield this excellent fait in great abundance. 
The metropolis, or city of Aftracan, is fituated within the 
the boundaries of ATia, on an ifland called Do/goi, about 
fixty Engliih miles above the place where the Volga dif- 
embogues itfelf into the Cafpian Sea. The city derives 
its name from Hadgee Tarken, a Tartar, by whom it was 
founded. It was conquered by Iwan Bafilowitz, recovered 
