It should be remarked, however, that many assayers, of good authority, use proportions of lead to alloy considerably different from the above table; and that the whole numbers here given may be considered as rather high in proportion to the quantity of lead.

The proportions of lead for gold assaying are nearly the same as for silver.

Assays of alloys with platina are conducted nearly in the same manner as for the mixtures of silver and gold. Silver is seldom alloyed with it; but gold is more frequently; and is known by the much greater heat it requires in the fusion; by the edges of the button appearing thicker and rounder than in common assays of gold; by its colour being duller and tending to yellow; and its being entirely crystallised on it surface.

The action of nitrous acid on the alloys of platina is very remarkable. By itself, platina is as insoluble in this acid as gold, and a mixture of these two metals equally resists its action; but when silver enters into the mixture in the proportion of 2, or three times the weight of the gold and platina, and when the platina is not above a tenth of the gold, the platina is totally soluble in nitrous acid, together with the silver, and the gold alone remains untouched.

When the gold mixed with platina is to be freed from it in the above manner, it must be laminated very thin; a weak acid

is first added and boiled for some time. If the platina is above two per cent. of the gold, the acid assumes a straw colour, which deepens in proportion to the platina, and at the same time the cornets assume a brownish green. A stronger acid is then added, and boiled three times successively, to detach the last portions of platina which are separated with difficulty. By laminating very fine, using the acid liberally, and long boiling, all the platina may be separated in one operation, when it does not exceed a tenth of the gold: and above that proportion the colour of the gold is so much debased, and the appearances on the cupel so striking, that fraud can hardly escape an experienced eye. Parting might be used even when the platina was more than a tenth of the gold, but then more silver must be added, which would render the cornet so very thin after the action of the acid that it could hardly be annealed without breaking.

When alloys of silver alone with platina are treated with nitrous acid, the silver dissolves as usual, but the liquor soon becomes muddy with a very fine bulky black precipitate, which continues increasing till all the silver is dissolved, and which is found to be entirely platina when collected. A part of the platina, however, remains in the solution, for on adding muriatic acid to the liquor separated from the black precipitate, white luna cornea falls down, after winch carbonate of potash will throw down a green

coagulum, which is oxide of platina. The above effects of nitrous acid will therefore detect an alloy of silver and platina. ASSETS, are goods or property in the hands of a person with which he is enabled to discharge an obligation imposed upon him by another; they may be either real or personal. Where a person holds lands in fee-simple, and dies seized thereof, those lands, when they come to the heir, are called assets. So far as obligations are left on the part of the deceased to be fulfilled, they are called assets real. When such assets fall into the management of executors, they are called assets intermaines. When the property left consists of goods, money, or personal property, they are called assets personal.

ASSIENTO, a Spanish word, signifying a farm, in commerce, is used for a bargain between the king of Spain and other powers, for importing negroes into the Spanish dominions, in America, and particularly in Buenos Ayres. The first assiento 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 negroes 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 commodity. Assignees may be by deed or by law; by deed, where the lessee of a farm assigns the 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 testator, and an administrator to an intestate. But when there is 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 committed, where and how the judgment is unjust, and where the waste is committed.

ASSIGNMENT, is a transfer, or making over to another, of the right one bas 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 assignment he parts with the whole property, and the assignee

stands to all intents and purposes in the place of the assignor. 2 Black. 326.

ASSIGNMENT, in a military sense, signifies a public document, hy which colonels of regiments become entitled to certain allowances for the clothing of their several corps.

ASSIMILATION, in animal economy, is that process by which the different ingredients of the blood are made parts of the various organs of the body. Over the nature of assimilation, says Dr. Thomson, 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 existence of the process beyond the reach of doubt. The healing of every fractured bone, and of every wound of the body, is a proof of its exist. ence, 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 act upon, even when the performance of it is contrary to the interest 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 converted into chyme, yet the milk was more nearly assimilated to the animal before the action of the stomach, than after it. The same thing occurs when we eat animal food. If a substance be introduced into an organ employed in assimilation, that has already undergone the change which that organ is fitted to produce, it is not acted upon by that organ, but passes on unaltered to the next assimilating organ. Thus it is the of fice 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 absorbed 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 introduced into the arteries without undergoing that change; but blood may be introduced from another animal without any injury, and consequently without undergoing any change. Though the different assimilating organs have the power of changing certain substances into others, and of throwing out the useless in-gredients, yet this power is not absolute, 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 stomach 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 with the substance to which it is united in the stomach, even after the substance has been completely assimilated, and made a part of the body of the animal. Thus there is an affinity between the colouring matter of madder and phosphate of lime; and when madder is taken into the stomach, it combines with the phosphate of lime of the food, .passes with it through the lacteals and blood vessels, and is deposited with it in the bones. In the same way musk, indigo, &c. when taken into the stomach make their way into many of the secretions. These facts prove that assimilation is a chemical process; that all the changes are produced according to the laws of chemistry; and Dr. Thomson adds, that we can derange the regularity of the process by introducing substances whose mutual affinities are too strong for the organs to overcome. See PHYSIOLOGY.

ASSISE, in old law-books, is defined to be an assembly of knights and other substantial men, with the justice, in a certain place, and at a certain time; but the word, in its present acceptation, is used for the court, place, or time, when and where the writs and processes, whether civil or criminal, are decided by judges and jury. In this signification, assise is either general, when judges make their respective circuits, with commission to take all assise; or special, where a commission is granted to particular persons for taking an assise upon one or two disseisins only. By magna charta, justices shall be sent through every county, once a year, who, with the knights of the several shires, shall take assise of novel disseisin; and as to the general assise, all the counties of England are divided into six circuits, and two judges are assigned by the king's commission to every circuit, who now hold the assises twice a year, in every county, except Middlesex, where the courts of record sit, and the counties palatine.

These judges have five several commissions. 1. Of oyer and terminer, by which they are empowered to try treasons, felonies, &c. 2. Of gaol-delivery, which empowers them to try every prisoner in gaol, for whatever offence he be committed. 3. Of assise, which gives them power to do right upon writs brought by persons wrongfully thrust out of their lands and possessions. 4. Of nisi-prius, by which civil causes come to issue in the courts above, are tried in the vacation by a jury of twelve men, in the county where the cause of action arises. 5. A commission of the peace in every county of the circuit; and all justices of peace of the county, and sheriffs, are to attend upon the judges, otherwise they shall be fined.

ASSOCIATION of ideas is where two or more ideas constantly and immediately fol low one another, so that the one shall almost infallibly produce the other, whether there be any natural relation between them or not.

When our ideas have a natural correspondence and connection one with another, it is the office and excellency of our reason to trace these, and hold them together, in that union and correspondence, which is founded in their peculiar beings. But when there is no affinity between them, nor any cause to be assigned for their accompanying each other, but what is owing to mere accident or custom; this unnatural association becomes a great imperfection, and is, generally speaking, a main cause of error, or wrong deductions in reasoning.

To this wrong association of ideas, made in our minds by custom, Mr. Locke attributes most of the sympathies and antipathies observable in men, which work as strongly, and produce as regular effects, as if they were natural, though they at first had no other original than the accidental connection of two ideas, which either by the strength of the first impression, or future indulgence, are so united, that they ever after keep company together in that man's mind, as if they were but one idea.

The ideas of goblins and spirits have really no more to do with darkness than light; yet let but these be inculcated often in the mind of a child, and there raised together, possibly he shall never be able to separate them again as long as he lives, but darkness shall ever afterwards bring with it these frightful ideas.

So if a man receive an injury from another, and think on the man and that action

over and over, by ruminating on them strongly, he so cements these two ideas to gether, that he makes them almost one; he never thinks on the man, but the place and displeasure he suffered come into his mind with it, so that he scarce distinguishes them, but has as much aversion for the one as the other. Thus hatreds are often begotten from slight and almost innocent occasions, and quarrels are propagated and continued in the world.

Nor is its influence on the intellectual habits less powerful, though less observed. Let the ideas of being and matter be strongly joined, either by education or much thought, whilst these are still combined in the mind, what notions, what reasonings, will there be about separate spirits? Let custom, from the very childhood, have joined figure and shape to the idea of God; and what absurdities will that mind be liable to about the deity? Some such wrongs and unnatural associations of ideas will be found to establish the irreconcileable opposition between different sects of philosophy and religion; for we cannot suppose that every one of their followers will impose wilfully on himself, and knowingly refuse truth offered by plain reason. Some independent ideas, of no alliance to one another, are, by custom, education, and the constant din of their party, so coupled in their minds, that they always appear there together, and they can no more separate them in their thoughts, than if they were but one idea; and they operate as if they were so.

ASSONIA, in botany, a genus of the Monadelphia Dodecandria plants, and of the natural order of Columniferæ Malvaceæ of Jussieu. The essential character is, calyx double, outer one-leafed or three-leaved, inner one-leafed; corol five-petalled, without any tube, affixed to the pitcher of stamens; filament connected in form of a pitcher, with petal-shaped straps between them; style one or five; capsule five-celled; seeds not winged. There are eleven species.

ASSUMPSIT, a voluntary or verbal promise, whereby a person assumes, or takes upon him to perform or pay any thing to another. When any person becomes legally indebted to another for goods sold, the law implies a promise that he will pay his debt; and if he do not pay it, the writ indebitatus assumpsit lies against him; and will lie for goods sold and delivered to a stranger, or third person, at the request of the defendant; but the price agreed on

must be proved, otherwise that action does not lie.

ASSURANCE, or INSURANCE, an engagement by which a person is indemnified from the loss he would sustain by the happening of a particular event; as by the capture or wreck of a ship at sea, or the destruction of goods by fire. Projects have at different times been formed for assuring against frauds and robbery, against losses by servants, the death of cattle, and almost every event by which unforeseen loss may arise; but such schemes have always failed, and the business of assurance is now generally confined to the risks of the sea, assurance against fire, and the assurance of lives.

This mode of securing merchants against the dangers of navigation is said to have originated in the time of the Emperor Claudius, but during the subsequent decline of commerce it probably fell into disuse. The sea laws of Oleron, as far back as the year 1194, treat of it, and it was soon after practised in Great Britain. The statute of 43 of Queen Elizabeth, cap. 12, states, that it has been time out of mind a usage among merchants, both of this country and of foreign nations, to make assurances on their goods, merchandize, and ships, going to foreign parts; for the better regulation of which, with respect to disputes which arose on policies of assurance, commissioners were appointed, who were to meet weekly at the Office of Insurance on the west side of the Royal Exchange, to determine all causes concerning policies of assurance in a summary way, but reserving a right of appeal to the Court of Chancery, This shows that such assurances were in common practice, and had become of considerable importance.

Assurance against the dangers of the sea appears to have been in use in England somewhat earlier than in many commercial cities on the continent, as the policies of assurance of Antwerp, and also of other places in the Low Countries, contained a clause that they should be construed in all things according to the custom of Lombard Street in London. In the year 1627, Charles I. granted a monopoly for 31 years of the right of making all assurances on ships or goods in the City of London.

In 1712, several attempts were made to establish offices for assurance on marriages, births, &c. which all failed. In 1719 the Royal Exchange Assurance and London Assurance companies were formed, and in the following year obtained charters of in

corporation, by which they were distinguished from a variety of schemes for every species of assurance then projected, most of which were of very short duration. The two companies just mentioned are the only corporate bodies authorized to make sea assurances, the principal part of this business, in London, being transacted by four or five hundred individual assurers or underwriters, who assemble daily for this purpose at Lloyd's coffee-house, formerly in Lombard Street, but now kept over the Royal Exchange. The premiums which they require are regulated by the length or danger of the voyage, the condition of the vessel, the time of the year, and the country being at peace or war; of course they vary considerably at different periods. Thus, in time of peace, an assurance may be made from London to the East Indies, on the Company's regular ships, at 6 or 7 guineas per cent. out and home, which in time of war is advanced to 12 guineas per cent.

At Hamburgh there are about thirty companies for making sea assurances, two or three in Bremen, some in Lubeck and Trieste, and one even in Berlin and Breslaw; there is also a chartered marine assurance company at Stockholm, and one at Copenhagen; their capitals, however, are not very considerable, and they never venture large sums on one risk. There are private underwriters at Stockholm, Gottenburg, and Copenhagen, who assure moderate risks. At New York, Philadelphia, and many other principal towns in the American states, assurance companies have been established; and in the East Indies there are no less than five assurance offices at Calcutta, four or five at Madras, and one at Bombay; but their business is not very extensive, being principally confined to the assurance of the coasting trade in India, and the trade from India to China.

Assurance against loss or damage from fire is a practice, the utility of which has become so generally evident, that it has of late years increased considerably. Dr. A. Smith, in 1775, supposed, that taking the whole kingdom at an average, 19 houses in 20, or perhaps 99 in 100, were not insured from fire. But the case is now very different, as there is scarcely any considerable town in England which has not in it either an office of its own, or agents from the London offices for effecting assurances.

All kinds of property liable to be destroyed by fire, as houses and buildings of every description, household furniture,

apparel, merchandize, utensils and stock in trade, farming stock, and ships in harbour or while building, may be assured at a fixed. rate per cent.; but all kind of writings, accounts, notes, money, and gunpowder, are generally excepted.

The offices distinguish the different risks of assurance against fire in the following

manner:

Common assurances are assurances on all manner of buildings, having the walls of brick or stone, and covered with slate, tile, or metal, wherein no hazardous trades are carried on, nor any hazardous goods deposited; and on goods and merchandizes, not hazardous, in such buildings. The premium on such assurances is 2s. per cent. per annum.

Hazardous assurances are assurances on timber or plaster buildings, covered with slate, tile, or metal, wherein no hazardous trades are carried on, nor any hazardous goods deposited; and on goods or merchandizes, not hazardous, in such timber or plas> ter buildings; and also on hazardous trades, such as cabinet and coach makers, carpen⚫ ters, coopers, bread and biscuit bakers, ship and tallow chandlers, soap-makers, innholders, sail-makers, maltsters, and stablekeepers, carried on in brick or stone buildings, covered with slate, tile, or metal and on hazardous goods, such as hemp, flax, rosin, pitch, tar, and turpentine, deposited in such buildings; the stock in trade of apothecaries, also on ships, and all manner of water-craft, in harbour, in dock, or while building, and on thatched buildings, which have not a chimney, and which do not adjoin to any building having a chim

ney.

The charge for this class of assurance is Ss. per cent. per annum.

Doubly-hazardous assurances are assurances on any of the aforesaid hazardous trades carried on, or hazardous goods de posited, in timber or plaster buildings, covered with slate, tile, or metal; on glass, china, and earthen ware; also on thatched buildings or goods therein, (except as in the preceding class) and on saltpetre, with the buildings containing the same. Such assurances are usually charged 5s. per cent. per annum,

Assurances on jewels, plate, medals, watches, prints not in trade, pictures, drawings, and statuary work; also assurances to cotton-spinners and all other manufacturers of raw cotton: to distillers, flambeaux and varnish makers; to oil, spermacæti, wax, or sugar refiners; to boat-builders, cork. cutters, japanners, colourmen, rope-makers