Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 01.djvu/362

ASBXJRY PARK 290 ASCETICS ASBURY PARK, a city and popular summer resort in Monmouth co., N. J.; on the Atlantic Ocean, 6 miles S. of Long Branch, and on several railroads. It adjoins Ocean Grove on the N., being separated from it by Wesley Lake. It was founded in 1869, and given a city charter in 1897. The city contains a large number of hotels and boarding- houses, many attractive summer dwell- ings, electric lights and street railways, National banks, and several periodicals. It has trolley connections with a cluster ©f summer resorts extending down to Atlantic Highlands, and is rapidly becoming nearly as popular a winter as a summer resort. Asbury Park and Ocean Grove were originally laid out by members of the Methodist Episcopal Church for camp meetings and other purposes. Pop. (1910) 10,150; (1920), 12,400. ASCALON (as'kal-on), ASHKELON, or ASKELON, one of the five cities of the Philistines, on the Mediterranean, W. S. W. of Jerusalem, on the main road from Egypt through Gaza to central Palestine. Very often mentioned in Scripture, it rose to considerable impor- tance in past Biblical times. Near the town were the temple and sacred lake of Derceto, the Syrian Venus. A great victory was won here by the crusaders in 1099. The position of Ascalon is naturally very strong. Near the ruins of the city stands now a village of the same name. The eschalot or shallot, a kind of onion {allium escalonicuTn) , was first grown there. ASCANITJS (as-ka'ne-us) , a son of uEneas and Creusa, who accompanied his father in his flight from the burning of Troy, and landed in Italy. He ably supported ^neas in his war with the Latins, and succeeded him in the gov- ernment of Latium. He afterward built Alba Longa, to which he transferred his seat of government from Lavinium, and reigned there 38 years. His descendants ruled over Alba for 420 years. ASCARIS, a genus of intestinal worms, the typical one of the family ascaridse. A. liimbricoides, or round worm, is the commonest intestinal parasite of the human species, generally occupying the small intestines; it is found also in the hog and ox. In the human species it is much more common in children than in adults, and is extremely rare in aged persons. A second species, the ascans or oxyurus vermicularis, is one of the most troublesome parasites of children, and occasionally of adults. It infests the larger intestines. ASCENSION (discovered on Ascension Day), an island of volcanic oi'igin be- longing to Great Britain, near the mid- dle of the South Atlantic Ocean, lying about lat. T 55' S., long. 15° 25' W.; 800 miles N. W. of St. Helena; area, about 36 square miles; pop. 165. It is retained by Great Britain mainly as a station at which ships may touch for stores. It is celebrated for its turtles, which are the finest in the world. Wild goats are plentiful, and oxen, sheep, pheasants, guinea-fowl, and rabbits have been introduced, and thrive well. George- town is the principal settlement. The island is governed by a naval officer. ASCENSION, in astronomy, right as- cension is the distance of a heavenly body from the first point of Aries (the ram), measured upon the equator. The arc of the equinoctial included between a certain point in that circle, called the vernal equinox, and the point in the same circle to which it is referred by the circle of declination passing through it. Or the angle included between two hour-circles, one of which, called the equinoctial colure, passes through the vernal equinox, and the other through the body. It is opposed to oblique as- cension. The terms, right ascension and declination, are now generally used to point out the position in the heavens of any celestial object, in preference to the old method of indicating certain prominent stars by proper names or by Greek letters. By means of the transit instrument, or by an equatorially mount- ed telescope, a star or planet may be readily found, when once its right as- cension and declination are known. Oblique ascension is the arc of the equa- tor intercepted between the first point of Aries and the point of the equator which rises with a star or other heav- enly body, reckoned according to the order of the signs, ASCENSION DAY, the day on which our Saviour's ascension, is commemo- rated — the Thursday but one before Whitsuntide, sometimes called Holy Thursday. ASCETICS, a name given in ancient times to those Christians who devoted themselves to severe exercises of piety and strove to distinguish themselves from the world by abstinence from sen- sual enjo3mients and by voluntary pen- ances. They, therefore, abstained from wine, flesh, matrimony, and worldly business; and, moreover, emaciated their bodies by long vigils, fasting, toil, and hunger. Both men and women em- braced this austere mode of life.