and Portugal: they appear in the end of April or beginning of May. A. maculatum, or common wake-robin, grows naturally in woods and on shady banks in most parts of Britain: the flowers appear in April, and their structure has given rise to many disputes among the botanists. The receptacle is long, in the shape of a club, with the seed-buds surrounding its base. The chives are fixed to the receptacle amongst the seed-buds fixed to the fruit-stalk, and placed between two rows of tendrils, the use of which is not known. A. trilobatum, or arum of Ceylon, is a native of that island and some other parts of India. All the species of this plant are hardy, except the trilobatum and the arborescens. The former must be kept constantly in a stove, and the latter in a moderate hot-bed. The arborescens is propagated by cutting off the stalks into lengths of three or four joints, which must be left to dry six weeks or two months; for if the wounded part is not perfectly healed over before the cuttings are planted, they will rot and decay. They are then to be planted in small pots filled with light sandy earth, and plunged in a moderate hot-bed of tan, observing to let them have little water till they have taken good root. The roots of the maculatum and dracunculus are used in medicine, and differ in nothing but that the latter is somewhat stronger than the former. All the parts of the arum, particularly the root, have an extremely pungent acrimonious taste; but if dried and kept some time, it loses much of its acrimony, and becomes at length an almost insipid, farinaceous substance. This root is a powerful stimulant and attenuant. It is reckoned a medicine of great efficacy in some cachectic and chlorotic cases, in weakness of the stomach occasioned by a load of viscid phlegm. Great benefit has been obtained from it in rheumatic pains, in which it may be given from ten grains to a scruple of the fresh root twice, or thrice a-day, made into a bolus or emulsion with unctuous and mucilaginous substances, which cover its pungency, and prevent its making any painful impression on the tongue. It generally excites a slight tingling sensation through the whole habit, and when the patient is kept warm in bed, produces a copious sweat. The arum was formerly an ingredient in an officinal preparation, the compound powder; but in that form its virtues are very precarious. Some recommend a tincture of it drawn with wine; but neither wine, water nor spirits, extract its virtues. ARUNCI, in entomology, a species of Cicada of a ferruginous color and brown eyes.

ARUNCO, in zoology, a species of rana, or toad, larger than the common frog, but of the same color. It is found in Chili. All the feet are palmated.

ARUNCUS, GREATER MEADOW-SWEET, in botany, a genus of plants, called by Tournefort and others barra capra, and by Linnæus spiræa. This plant has been supposed to be of the same genus with the filipendula, but, by the examination of the flowers, they appear to be extremely different.

ARUNDA, a town of Hispania Batica, on the Annas, or Guadiana, now said to be Ronda in Granada, on the confines of Andalusia. Long. 5° 40′ W., lat. 36° 26′ N.

ARUNDEL, an ancient borough and market town of Sussex, seated on the north-west side of the Arun, over which there is a bridge. It had a harbour in which a ship of 100 tons burden might ride; but the sea had ruined it so far, that in 1733 an act passed for repairing it, and for erecting new piers, locks, &c. The river is now navigable for vessels of 200 tons and upwards, and the navigation is carried on to the Thames by means of a canal. It abounds in mullet of a very fine quality. A considerable trade in bark is carried on here. Arundel is a borough by prescription, and has sent two members to parliament from the time of Edward I. It is mentioned in the will of Alfred, who left the castle to his brother's son. It was formerly a place of great strength, and was besieged by Henry I. in person, by whom it was taken after a gallant resistance from Bellesone de Montgomery earl of Arundel. The castle, which belonged to the family of Howard, was until lately in a mouldering condition; but completely repaired by the late Duke of Norfolk, at a great expense. A weekly market is held here on Thursday. Population 2700. Arundel is the premier earldom in England, belonging to the illustrious family of Norfolk; and is the only title in England that goes along with the lands. It is fifty-seven miles south-west by south of London, and ten east of Chichester.

ARUNDEL OIL, in the materia medica. At Bombay, Gambroon, and Surat in the East Indies, there grows a tree which bears a nut enclosed in a rough husk, resembling the horse chestnut; and the kernel of the nut yields an oil by expression, which is of a purgative nature A tea-spoonful of it is reckoned a dose. The tree is called, the Arundel tree at Bombay and its oil the Arundel oil. Dr. Monro thinks it probable that this is the oil of the purging nuts mentioned in Dale's pharmacologia, and the palma Christi Indica of Tournefort.

ARUNDEL (Thomas), archbishop of Canterbury in the reigns of Richard II. Henry IV. and Henry V., the second son of Robert, and brother of Richard earl of Arundel, who was beheaded. In 1375, at twenty-two years of age, from being archdeacon of Taunton he was raised to the bishopric of Ely. He was a great benefactor to the church and palace of this see. In 1386 he was appointed lord chancellor of England, and in 1388 translated to the archiepiscopal see of York; and in 1396 to that of Canterbury, when he resigned the chancellorship. This was the first instance of the translation of an archbishop of York to the see of Canterbury. Scarcely was he fixed in this see, when he had a contest with the university of Oxford about the right of visitation. The affair was referred to king Richard, who deterinined it in favor of the archbishop. At his visitation in London he revived an old constitution, by which the inhabitants of the respective parishes were obliged to pay to their rector one half-penny in the pound out of the rent of their houses. In 1398 the house of commons impeached him, together with his brother the Earl of Arundel, and the Duke of Gloucester, of high treason. The archbishop was sentenced to be banished, and within forty days to depart the kingdom on pain of death. He

retired first to France; and then to the court of Rome, where Pope Boniface IX. gave him a kind reception. About this time the duke of Lancaster, afterwards Henry IV. was in France, having also been banished by king Richard. The nobility and others, tired with the oppressions of Richard, solicited the duke to take the crown; sending over their request in a letter to archbishop Arundel, desiring him to be their advocate on this occasion with the duke. The archbishop accordingly accompanied the messengers to the duke at Paris, and of course the inviting offer, after some objections easily obviated, the duke accepted. Arundel returned with him to England, and was restored to his see. In the first year of this prince's reign, the archbishop summoned a synod which sat at St. Paul's. The next year we find him again in dispute with the commons, who moved that the revenues of the church might be applied to the service of the public: but Arundel opposed the motion with such vigor that it was negatived. In 1408 Arundel began to exert himself against the Lollards, or Wicliffites, particularly against the celebrated Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham. He also procured a synodical constitution, which forbade the translation of the Scriptures into the vulgar tongue. He died at Canterbury in 1413, of an inflammation in his throat, with which he was first seized, it is said, whilst pronouncing sentence upon Lord Cobham. The Lollards asserted this to be a judgment from God; and Bishop Goodwin speaks in the same manner. "He who had withheld,' says he, from the people the word of God, the food of the soul, by the just judgment of God had his throat so closed, that he could not speak a single word, nor swallow meat or drink, and was so starved to death.' He was buried in the cathedral church of Canterbury, under a monument erected by himself. To this church he was a considerable benefactor: he built the lantern, tower, and a great part of the nave; gave a ring of five bells, called from him Arundel's ring, several rich vestments, a mitre enchased with jewels, a silver gilt crosier, and two gold chalices.

ARUNDEL (Lady Blanch), daughter of the earl of Worcester, and wife of Lord Arundel, celebrated for her brave defence of Wardour castle against the parliamentary army, which consisted of 1300 men; and although the little garrison mustered only forty-five, yet she maintained the place for six days, and then capitulated. She died in 1649, aged sixty-six.

The ARUNDELIAN MARBLES, are ancient stones or marbles, first named after Thomas earl of Arundel, who procured them from the east, or from Henry his grandson, who presented them to the university of Oxford. They arrived in England in 1627, and then consisted of thirtyseven statues, 128 busts, and 250 inscriptions, together with a large number of altars, sarcophagi, fragments of sculpture, and an invaluable assemblage of gems; the inscriptions being principally sepulchral, and of a private nature. But one, called the Parian chronicle, from its being written at Paros, is said to have contained a chronological detail of the principal events of Greece, during a period of 1318 years, beginning with

Cecrops, before Christ 1582 years, and ending with the archonship of Diognetus, before Christ 264. It is this portion of these marbles which more particularly attracted the attention of the learned. The chronicle of the last ninety years is lost; so that the part now remaining ends at the archonship of Diotimus, 354 years before the birth of Christ; and in this fragment the inscription is at present much corroded and effaced. The whole of these relics of antiquity, real or pretended, were purchased in Asia Minor, or in the islands of the Archipelago, by Mr. William Petty, who in the year 1624 was sent by the earl of Arundel for the purpose of making such collections for him in the east; and when brought to England were placed in gardens belonging to Arundel house. Soon after their arrival they excited general curiosity, and were inspected by Sir Robert Cotton, and other eminent men, who prevailed upon the learned Selden to employ himself in explaining the inscriptions. The following year Selden accordingly published a small volume in quarto, including about thirtynine of them. But in the turbulent reign of Charles I. and the subsequent usurpation, Arundel-house was often deserted by the illustrious owners; and in their absence, many of these marbles were defaced and mutilated, and others either stolen or used for the ordinary purposes of architecture. The Parian chronicle in particular, was unfortunately broken. The upper part containing thirty-one epochas, is said to have been worked up in repairing a chimney in Arundel-house. Selden's work becoming very scarce, bishop Fell engaged Mr. Prideaux to publish a new edition of the inscriptions, which was printed at Oxford in 1676. In 1732, Mr. Maittaire obliged the public with a more comprehensive view of the marbles than either of his predecessors. Lastly, Dr. Chandler published a new and splendid description of them in 1763, in which he corrected many mistakes of the former editors; and in some of the inscriptions, particularly that of the Parian chronicle, supplied the lucunæ by many ingenious conjectures. We cannot here enter into the dispute respecting the authenticity of these curious stones. Sir Isaac Newton and other able chronologists and historians have paid little regard to their claims; and in 1788, a Mr. Robertson, in an essay, entitled the Parian Chronicle, boldly, and with much plausibility, asserts them to be a fabrication of comparatively modern date. This treatise was reviewed by the late professor Porson, in the Monthly Review, June 1789; that distinguished Greek scholar fully and very ably vindicating the authenticity of the Parian marbles. See also his Tracts, edited by Mr. Kidd. p. 57. The reader will thus be sufficiently acquainted with both sides of this subject

ARUNDINACEA, in conchology, a species of sabella found in some rivers of Europe. It is subconic, and composed of fragments of the bark of reeds placed on each other.

ARUNDINACEUS, in ornithology, a species of turdus or thrush, that inhabits the reedy marshes of Europe, and is the la rousserolle of Buffon and Brisson; the junco of Ray and Willoughby; and the reed thrush of Dr. Latham. It

is rather larger than the common lark; of a ferruginous brown color; quill-feathers brown, reddish at the end. It is found in Russia and Poland.

ARUNDINETI, in entomology, a species of tipula; color whitish, with villose antennæ, and black eyes. It is found in Europe, in reedy marshes.

ARUNDO, in botany, the reed: a genus of the digynia order, triandria class of plants; ranking in the natural method under the fourth order, gramina. The calyx consists of two valves, and the floscules are thick and downy. The following are the principal species, viz. 1. A. arborea, has a tree-like stalk, with narrow leaves, and in all other respects resembles the bambos. 2. A. bambos, or the bamboo, is a native of the East Indies and some parts of America; where it frequently attains the height of sixty feet. See BAMBOO. 3. A. debax, or manured reed, a native of warm countries, but will bear the cold of our moderate winters in the open air. It dies to the surface in autumn, but appears again in the spring ten or twelve feet high in one summer. The stalks of this species are brought from Spain and Portugal; and used by weavers, as also for making fishing-rods. 4. A. orientalis is what the Turks use for writing pens: it grows in a valley near mount Athos, as also on the banks of the river Jordan. None of these plants are found in Britain. 5. A. phragmitis, or the common marshreed, grows by the sides of our rivers, and in standing waters. 6. A. versicolor, the Indian variegated reed, supposed to be a variety of the debax, differing from it only in having variegated leaves.

ARUNS TARQUINIUS, the son of Tarquin II. the last king of Rome, who meeting Brutus in the first battle, after the banishment of the royal family, they mutually killed each other.

ARURA, in the middle-age writers, a field ploughed and sowed. Some writers also use the word to signify the work of a day at plough.

ARUSINI CAMPI, or ARUSIAN FIELDS, plains in Lucania, famous for the last battle between the Romans and Pyrrhus. That prince being at Tarentum, and hearing that the two new consuls Curius Dentatus and Cornelius Lentulus had divided their forces, the one including Lucania and the other Samnium; he divided a chosen detachment of his army into two bodies, marching with his Epirots against Dentatus, in hopes of surprising him in his camp near Beneventum. But the consul having notice of his approach, marched out of his entrenchments with a strong detachment of legionaries to meet him, repulsed his van guard, put many of the Epirots to the sword, and took some of their elephants. Curius, encouraged by this success, marched into the Arusian fields, and drew up his army in a plain, which was wide enough for his troops, but too narrow for the Epirot phalanx to act. But the king's eagerness to try his strength and skill with

them to such a degree, that they wheeled about, broke into the phalanx, and put that body into the utmost disorder. The Romans taking advantage of this confusion, charged with such fury that the enemy were entirely broken and defeated. Pyrrhus retired to Tarentum, attended only by a small body of horse, leaving the Romans in full possession of his camp; which they so much admired, that they ever after imitated it as a model. ARUS'PEX, Lat. arusper, or harusper, from ara, an altar, and spicere, to see, to regard.

ARUS'PICE,

ARUS PICY.

Adorn'd with bridal pomp, she sits in state; The public notaries and arusper wait.

Dryden's Juvenal's Satires, 10. They [the Romans] had colleges for augurs and aruspices, who used to make their predictions, sometimes by fire, sometimes by flying of fowls, &c.

Howell's Letters, iii. p. 23.

A flam more senseless than the roguery
Of old aruspicy and augury.

Butler's Hudibras, ii. 3. ARUSPICES, or HARUSPICES, in Roman antiquity, an order of priests who pretended to foretel future events by inspecting the entrails of victims killed in sacrifice; they were also consulted on occasion of portents and prodigies. The aruspices were always chosen from the best families; and as their employment was of the same nature as that of the augurs, they were as much honored. Their college, as well as those of the other religious orders, had its particular registers and records. Cato, who was an augur, used to say, he wondered how one aruspex could look at another without laughing in his face. The aruspici libri, were a kind of sacred writings wherein the laws and discipline of the aruspices were described.

ARVUM, in ancient agriculture, properly denoted ground ploughed but not sowed. The word is sometimes extended to all arable, or corn land, in contradistinction from pasture.

ARX, in the ancient military art, a town, fort, or castle, for defence of a place. The arx, in ancient Rome, was a distinct edifice from the capitol, though some have confounded the two. The arx, properly speaking, being a place on the highest part of the Capitoline Mount, fortified with towers and pinnated walls, in which was also the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. This was also the name of a consecrated place on the Palatine Mount, where the augurs publicly performed their office. Off this arx the feciales, or heralds, gathered the grass used in the ceremony of leagues and treaties.

ARYTENOIDES, in anatomy, two cartilages which, with others, constitute the head of the

larynx. It is also applied to some muscles of the larynx.

ÁRYTENOIDEUS, in anatomy, one of the muscles serving to close the larynx.

ARYTHMUS, in medicine, the want of a just modulation in the pulse. It is opposed to eurythmus, a pulse mod alated agreeably to nature. ARZBERG, a market town in the circle of the Maine, district of Wunsiedel, Bavaria. The neighbouring hills yield iron, lime, and alum. The lime burned here is transported as manure to the Upper Palatinate and Bohemia. Seven miles east of Wunsiedel.

ARZILLA, an ancient maritime town of Africa, in the kingdom of Fez, S. S. W. of Tangiers. It was formerly a Roman colony; afterwards fell under the government of the Goths, and was next taken by the Mahommedans. Alphonso of Portugal, surnamed the African, took it by assault in 1472, and brought away the presumptive heir of the crown. After that prince came to the throne, he besieged it, in 1508, with 100,000 men. The Portuguese at length forsook it of their own accord. Long. 5° 40′ W., lat. 35° 40' N.

AS. Usually called a conjunction, but according to some the Saxon article, the, this or that, which they say may always be substituted for it.

Besides that law which concerneth men as men; and that which belongs unto men as they are men, linked with others in some society: there is a third, which touches all several bodies politick, so far forth, as one of them hath publick concerns with another. Hooker's Eccles. Polity. PRINCE HEN. Dar'st thou be as good as thy word now?

FALST. Why, Hal, thou knowest, as thou art but a man, I dare; but as thou art a prince, I fear thee, as I fear the roaring of the lion's whelp.

Shakspeare. Henry IV. When thou dost hear I am as I have been ; Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast. Id. The cunningest mariners were so conquered by the storm, as they thought it best, with stricken sails, to yield to be governed by it. Sidney. He had such a dexterous proclivity, as his teachers

Wotton.

were fain to restrain his forwardness. The relations are so uncertain, as they require a great deal of examination. Bacon.

God shall by grace prevent sin so soon, as to keep the soul in the virginity of its first innocence. South, Madam, were I as you, I'd take her counsel; I'd speak my own distress.

A. Philip's Distrest Mother. The objections that are raised against it as a tragedy, are as follow.

Gay's Preface to What d'ye Call it. A simple idea is one uniform idea; as sweet, bitter. Watts.

As, among the ancient Romans, a weight, consisting of twelve ounces; being the same with libra, or the Roman pound. The word is derived from the Greek aug, which in the Doric dialect is used for us, one, q. d. an entire thing; though others will have it named as, quasi æs, because made of brass.

As, was also the name of a Roman coin, of different weight and different matter in different ages of the commonwealth. Under Numa Pompilius, according to Eusebius, the Roman money

was either of wood, leather, or shells. In the time of Tullus Hostilius, it was of brass; and called as, libra, libella, or pondo, because actually weighing a pound or twelve ounces. About 420 years after, the first Punic war having exhausted the treasury, they reduced the as to two ounces. In the second Punic war, Hannibal pressing very hard upon them, they reduced the as to half its weight, viz. to one ounce. And lastly, by the Papirian law, they took away half an ounce more, and consequently reduced the as to the diminutive weight of half an ounce; and it is generally thought that it continued the same during the commonwealth, and even till the reign of Vespasian. The as, therefore, was of four different weights in the commonwealth. Its original stamp was that of a sheep, ox, or sow; but from the time of the emperors, it had on one side a Janus with two faces, and on the reverse the rostrum or prow of a ship.

As, being used to denote any integer or whole, signified in old English law the whole inheritance; whence hæres ex asse, the heir to the whole estate.

ASA; D, Heb. i. e. a healer of sickness; king of Judah, succeeded his father Abijam, A. M. 2988. He abolished idolatry, restored the worship of the true God, and, with the assistance of Benhadad king of Syria, took several towns from the king of Israel. He died A. A. C. 917, and was succeeded by Jehoshaphat.

ASA, among naturalists, a word taken by modern authors from the lasar of the ancients, is applied to a gum very different from that anciently known by the name. The asa of the ancients was an odoriferous and fragrant gum; that of after ages had so little title to this epithet, that they distinguished it by an additional one, expressing its being of an offensive smell, as ASAFOETIDA, which see. The Arabian writers describe two kinds of asa, the one of an offensive, the other of an aromatic smell.

given to two very different substances, called ASA, or Assa, in the materia medica, a name

asa dulcis and asa fœtida.

ASAFOETIDA, in chemistry, the common name of the FERULA asafoetida of Linnæus, which see.

ASAHEL; 87, Heb. i. e. God has wrought; one of the sons of Zeruiah, David's sister, and the younger brother of Joab. He was one of David's thirty heroes, and remarkable for his swiftness. At the battle of Gibeon he

pursued Abner with so much obstinacy, that he was obliged to kill him in self-defence, though it would appear with reluctance; 2 Sam. ii. 19-23.

ASAPI; D, Heb. i. e. gathering; the son of Berachiah, a Gershomite, and a famous musician and psalmist under David, king of Israel. Twelve of the Psalms bear his name; but it is doubted whether he was the author of them all, as some relate to later times.

ASAPH, Sr. a city of Flintshire, in North Wales, situated in a pleasant valley at the confluence of the Elwy and Clwyd, twenty miles west of Chester, and 205 north-west of London.

As a bishopric, St. Asaph is of great antiquity, being founded about A. D. 560, by Kentigern, bishop of Glasgow. He began the church on the banks of the river Elwy, whence it is called by the Welsh, Land Elwy, and in Latin, Elwensis. Kentigern returning into Scotland left St. Asaph his successor. The country was frequently in after times the seat of war between the English and the Welsh; and the records of the see are therefore very defective. This diocese does not contain any one whole county, but consists of part of Denbigh, Flint, Montgomery, and Merioneth shires, and a small part of Shropshire; wherein are 121 parishes, and 131 churches and chapels, most of which are in the immediate patronage of the bishop. It has but one archdeaconry, viz. that of St. Asaph, which is united to the bishopric, for the better maintenance thereof. The town, although situated in a rich valley, is a poor ill-built place; and the cathedral a plain building, 170 feet long, 108 broad, and ‍90 high; near it are the vestiges of a large Roman camp. Here is a bridge over the two rivers. Market on Saturday. The deanery of St. Asaph is valued at £45 11s. 5d. and is united to the vicarage of Henllan in the deanery of Ross.

ASAPH, ST. a native of North Wales, was descended of an ancient family, and flourished under Carentius king of the Britons, about A. D. 590. Being a monk in the convent of Llan Elwy, and the successor of its founder Kentigern, that establishment received his name ever after. He wrote the Ordinances of his church, and the Life of St. Kentigern. Bayle says he was the first who received unction from the pope.

ASAPHEIS, aσapes; from a negative, and oaons, clear; persons who do not utter their words in a clear manner. The defect is occasioned, says Galen, either by some hurt which the organs of speech have contracted from a disorder of the nerves, or else by delirium.'

ASAPPES, or AZAPES, an order of soldiers in the Turkish army, whom they expose to the first shock of the enemy. The word is derived from the Turkish saph, which signifies rank, from whence they have formed asphaph, to range in battle. They travel on foot, and have no pay but the plunder they can get from the enemy.

ASAR, a gold coin current at Ormus in the Persian Gulf, worth 6s. 8d.

ASAROTA, aoapwra; from a and raw, I sweep; a kind of painted pavement in use before the invention of Mosaic work. The most celebrated was that at Pergamos, painted by Sesus, and exhibiting the appearance of crumbs, as if the floor had not been swept after dinner; whence, according to Pliny, the denomination. Perrault supposes it to have been a black kind of pavement of a spongy matter.

ASARUM, ASARA BACCA, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, and dodecandria class of plants. The calyx is trifid or quadrifid, and rests on the germen; there is no corolla; the capsule is leathery and crowned. There are three species, viz. 1. A. Canadense, a native of Canada. 2. A. Europæum, growing naturally in some parts of England; and 3. A. Virgini

cum, a native of America. Ine dried roots of this plant have been generally brought from the Levant; those of our own growth being supposed weaker. Both the roots and leaves have a nauseous, bitter, acrimonious, hot taste; their smell is strong, and not very disagreeable. The principal use of this plant among us is as a sternutatory; and the root of asarum is perhaps the strongest of all the vegetable errhines, white hellebore itself not excepted. The leaves are the principal ingredient in the pulvis sternutatorius, or pulvis asari compositus, of the shops.

ASASI, in botany, a name given by the people of Guinea to a tree, the leaves of which being boiled in water, and held to the mouth, cure the tooth-ache. In its form and manner of growing it resembles the laurel; the leaves are very hard and stiff, and grow alternately on the stalks; they have short pedicles, and the branches are blackish and rugged, but variegated with small reddish spangles, or scaly protuberances.

ASBAMEA, in ancient geography, a fountain of Cappadocia, near Tyana, sacred to Jupiter and to an oath. Though this fountain bubbled up as in a state of boiling, yet its water was cold; and never ran over, but fell back again.

ASBECK, a town of the bishopric of Munster, Westphalia, annexed to the possessions of the house of Salm in 1803. Here is a convent for noblemen's daughters. It is four miles south-east of Ahaus.

ASBEN, a considerable kingdom in the interior of Africa, between Fezzan and Cashna. The sultan is said by Hornemann to rank next to that of Bornou among the sovereigns of interior Africa. Zanfara and Guber are tributaries to him; he resides at Agades, and himself, with the greater part of his subjects, are Tuaricks of the tribe Kolluvi.

ASBESTOS, or ASBESTUS, in chemistry, from a privative, and oßevvvμt, I extinguish; a mineral consisting principally of silex and magnesia, with a small proportion of alumina, lime, and iron. It is a greenish brittle substance, unctuous to the touch, and somewhat elastic. Its fibres exposed to the violent heat of the blowpipe, exhibit slight indications of fusion; though the parts, instead of running together, moulder away, and part fall down, while the rest seem to disappear before the current of the air. Igni tion impairs the flexibility of asbestos in a slight degree. According to Herodotus, the Egyptians made a cloth of this substance, which they used for the purpose of wrapping up the bodies of the dead. Pliny says, he had seen napkins made of it, which, being taken foul from the table after a feast, were thrown into the fire, and by that means were better scoured than if they had been washed in water, &c. But he mentions its principal use being for the making of shrouds for royal funerals, so that the ashes might be preserved distinct from those of the wood, &c. whereof the funeral pile was composed. He calls the asbestos, inventu rarum, textu difficillimum. Bapt. Porta assures us, that in his time the spinning of asbestos was a thing known to every body at Venice; and Sig. Castagnatta, a superintendant of mines in Italy, is said