As´pe, a town of Southern Spain, province of Alicante. Pop. (1921), 3525.
As´pect, in astrology, denotes the situation of the planets with respect to each other. There are five different major aspects: the sextile, when the planets are 60° distant; quartile, when they are 90° distant; trine, when 120° distant; opposition, when 180° distant; and conjunction, when both are in the same longitude. The aspects were classed by astrologers as benign, malignant, or indifferent, according to their fancied influences upon human affairs.
Aspect of Land. See Exposure.
As´pen, or trembling poplar (Pōpŭlus tremŭla), a species of poplar indigenous to Britain and to most mountainous regions throughout Europe and Asia. It is a beautiful tree of rapid growth and extremely hardy, with nearly circular toothed leaves, smooth on both sides, and attached to footstalks so long and slender as to be shaken by the slightest wind; wood light, porous, soft, and of a white colour, useful for various purposes.
Asper, or Aspre, a small Turkish coin, of which there are 120 in the piastre, value 1/54d.
Aspergill´us, the brush used in Roman Catholic churches for sprinkling holy water on the people. It is said to have been originally made of hyssop.
As´pern and Esslingen (or Essling) (es´ling-en), two villages east of Vienna, and on the opposite bank of the Danube; celebrated as the chief contested positions in the bloody but indecisive battle fought between the Archduke Charles and Napoleon I, 21st and 22nd May, 1809, when it was estimated that the Austrians lost a third of their army, and the French no less than half.
Asper´ula, the woodruff genus of plants.
Asphalt, or Asphal´tum, the most common variety of bitumen; also called mineral pitch. Asphalt is a compact, glossy, brittle, black or brown mineral, which breaks with a polished fracture, melts easily with a strong pitchy odour when heated, and when pure burns without leaving any ashes. It is found in the earth in many parts of Asia, Europe, and America, and in a soft or liquid state on the surface of the
Dead Sea, which, from this circumstance, was called Asphaltītes. It is of organic origin, the asphalt of the great Pitch Lake of Trinidad being derived from bituminous shales, containing vegetable remains in the process of transformation. Asphalt is produced artificially in making coal-gas. During the process much tarry matter is evolved and collected in retorts. If this be distilled, naphtha and other volatile matters escape, and asphalt is left behind. It is sometimes called Jew's Pitch.