Asple´nium, a genus of ferns, of the nat. ord. Polypodiaceæ. Nine species are found in Britain, among them the well-known Wall-rue.
Aspromon´te, a mountain of Italy in the south-west of Calabria, where Garibaldi was wounded and taken prisoner with the greater part of his army, in Aug., 1862.
Aspropot´amo. See Achelous.
Aspull, a town (urban district) of England, Lancashire, 2 or 3 miles north-east of Wigan, with large collieries and other works. Pop. 7851.
Asquith, Herbert Henry, prominent politician of the Liberal party, born in 1852, educated at City of London School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated with high distinction. Called to the Bar in 1876, he became Q.C. in 1890; in 1886 was elected member of Parliament for East Fife, and held his seat for this constituency uninterruptedly until Dec., 1918, when he was defeated. From 1892 to 1895 he was Home Secretary, being also made a Privy Councillor in the former year. Both in regard to the South African War and various other questions, when out of office, he spoke more
in harmony with the views of Lord Rosebery than with those of Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, but under the latter he accepted the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer in the ministry formed in Dec., 1905. On the retirement of Sir Henry in 1908 he succeeded him as Prime Minister. He at once hastened to draw up the Liberal reform programme, the list of measures including the Lloyd George Budget (1909), the Parliament Act (1911), the Insurance Act, and the Irish Home Rule Bill. In May, 1915, a cabinet crisis having resulted from disagreements, Asquith formed a Coalition Government, eight Unionists being admitted. Towards the end of 1916 there was a feeling in the country not only that the Coalition cabinet of twenty-three ministers was unwieldy, but that Mr. Asquith's Government was not sufficiently energetic and showed too much hesitation in dealing with the vital problems of the war. Mr. Asquith therefore resigned on 5th Dec., 1916, and Mr. Lloyd George formed a new ministry. Unseated in the General Election of 1918, Mr. Asquith accepted the invitation to stand for Paisley in 1920. He was returned by a majority of 2834.
As´rael, the Mahommedan angel of death, who takes the soul from the body.
Ass (Equus asĭnus), a species of the horse genus, supposed by Darwin to have sprung from the wild variety (Asinus tœniŏpus) found in Abyssinia; by some writers to be a descendant of the onăger or wild ass, inhabiting the mountainous deserts of Tartary, &c.; and by others to have descended from the kiang or djiggetai (A. hemiŏnus) of South-Western Asia. The ass was used in Egypt long before the horse, and it played an important part in Homeric Greece. According to Aristotle, however, it was unknown in his time in Pontus, Scythia, and in the land of the Celts. The ass seems to have been introduced into England in the days of Ethelred, but did not become common before the end of the seventeenth century. Both in colour and size the ass is exceedingly variable, ranging from dark grey and reddish brown to white, and from the size of a Newfoundland dog in North India to that of a good-sized horse. In the south-western countries of Asia and in Egypt, in some districts of Southern Europe, as in Spain, and in Kentucky and Peru, great attention has been paid to selection and interbreeding, with a result no less remarkable than in the case of the horse. Thus in Syria there appear to be four distinct breeds: a light and graceful animal used by ladies, an Arab breed reserved for the saddle, an ass of heavier build in use for ploughing and draft purposes, and the large Damascus breed. The efforts made to raise the deteriorated British breed have only been partially successful. The male ass is mature at two years of age, the female still earlier. The she-ass carries her young eleven months. The teeth of the young ass follow the same order of appearance and renewal as those of the horse. The life of the ass does not usually exceed thirty years. It is in general much healthier than the horse, and is maintained in this condition by a smaller quantity and coarser quality of food; it is superior to the horse in its ability to carry heavy burdens over the most precipitous roads, and is in no respect its inferior in intelligence, despite the reputation for stupidity which it has borne from very ancient times. The skin is used as parchment to cover drums, &c., and in the East is made into shagreen. The hybrid offspring of the horse and the female ass is the hinny, that of the ass and the mare is the mule; but the latter is by far the larger and more useful animal. Asses' milk, long celebrated for its sanative qualities, more closely resembles that of a woman than any other. It is very similar in taste, and throws up an equally fluid cream, which is not convertible into butter.
Assa. See Piave, Battles of the; European War.
Assab´, a bay of Africa on the south-west coast of the Red Sea, belonging to the Italian territory of Eritrea, which has been acquired since Italy established here a colony and free port in 1881.