of chest complaint, more particularly bronchitis, and hence the term Bronchitic Asthma. The relation between the two ailments in such cases is rendered sufficiently obvious by the fact that the one does not occur without the other ; ani* it 13 evident that the irritation of the bronchial mucous memor-ane gives rise by reflex nervous action to narrowing of the tubes. When the bronchitis is cured the asthma disappears. Asthmatic-like paroxysms are also of occa sional occurrence in some forms of heart disease, and the term Cardiac Asthma is used to describe such cases. They can, however, scarcely be regarded as crises of asthma, but rather as attacks of difficult breathing referable to some impediment to the pulmonary circulation, the result of the
heart disease.The treatment of asthma consists in the employment of remedies to allay the paroxysms, and in the adoption of measures likely to prevent their recurrence. During the attack the patient should be placed in as favourable cir cumstances for breathing as practicable. He usually selects the position easiest for himself. Abundance of air should be admitted to the apartment, and he should be interfered with as little as possible. The remedial agents employed with the view of relieving the paroxysms are very numerous, and only a few of the more important of them can be alluded to. Opiates administered internally or hypoder- mically are of known efficacy, as is also the inhalation of anaesthetic vapours. Much value is attached by many to the smoking of stramonium, and even tobacco smoking appears in some instances to give relief. The fumes of nitre-paper (blotting-paper prepared by being dipped in a saturated solution of nitre and dried) burnt in the apart ment often succeed in mitigating the paroxysm. The use of the tincture of Lobelia inflata is recommended by many high authorities, as are also the employment of emetics, the latter moro especially where the attack can be traced to errors in diet. None of these remedies, however, ought to be tried without medical advice. Coffee is a popular and useful remedy, but to do good the infusion must be very strong, and taken upon an empty stomach. To prevent the recurrence of the paroxysms special care must be taken by the sufferer to avoid those influences, whether connected with locality or mode of life, which his ex perience may have proved to have been the occasion of former attacks. Where the paroxysms are of periodic occurrence the use of quinine or arsenic has been tried with good results.
ASTI, a large and well-built town of Italy, in the province of Alessandria (Piedmont), situated on the left bank of the Tanaro. It is the see of a bishop, the chief town of a circondario, and a station on the Turin and Alessandria railway. Its Gothic cathedral dates from 1348, besides which there are a large number of churches, a college, an old castle, and a theatre. In the Middle Ages Asti was a great commercial city, and one of the most powerful repxiblics of Northern Italy. It was long famous for its hundred towers, of which a mimber are still standing. As a free city it opposed Frederick I., but it was taken by him and burnt in 1155. In 134:8 it fell into the possession of the Visconti, and thus passed first to France, and then, after the peace of Cambray in 1529, to Charles V., who bestowed it on his aunt, Beatrice of Savoy. In the war of the Spanish Succession it frequently changed hands, and in 1745 was taken by storm by the French. It was the birth-place of Alfieri, whose statue, by Vini, adorns the piazza. The inhabitants carry on a considerable trad - in corn, wine, and silk, and are also engaged in the manu facture of woollen goods, leather, paper, and hats. Population, about 31,000.
ASTOR, John Jacob, an enterprising American merchant, founder of the Astor Library at New York, was born at the village of Walldorf near Heidelberg, on the 17th July 1763. His father was a peasant, and his early years were spent in the common labours of the farm. At sixteen he joined an elder brother, a musical instrument maker, in London, and at twenty sailed for the United States. On the voyage he became acquainted with a fur-trader, by whose advice he devoted himself to the same business. By his energy, industry, and sound judgment he gradually enlarged his schemes, did business in all the fur markets of the world, and amassed an enormous fortune,—the largest up to that time made by any American. He devoted many years to carrying out a project for organising the fur trade from the Lakes to the Pacific Ocean, and thence by way of the Sandwich Islands to China and India. In 1811 he founded at the mouth of the Columbia River a settlement, named after him Astoria, which was intended to serve as the central depot; but in the following year the settlement was taken and occupied by the English. The incidents of this undertaking are the theme of Washington Irving's Astoria. A series of disasters frustrated the gigantic scheme. Astor made vast additions to his wealth by investments in land in New York city. He made many charitable bequests by his will, and among them a gift of $50,000 to the poor of his native village in Germany. But the deed by which he will be chiefly remembered was the foundation and endowment by his will of the Astor Library at New York, for which he bequeathed the sum of $400,000. The building, erected in Lafayette Place (1850-53), is in the Byzantine style of architecture. Washington Irving was appointed first president, and the formation and arrangement of the library was entrusted to Mr J. G. Cogswell. The building has since been enlarged at the cost of the eldest son of the founder. Mr Astor spent the last twenty five years of his life in retirement, and died at New York, March 29, 1848.
ASTORGA (the ancient Asturica Augusta, a city of Spain, in the province of Leon, in a plain near the Tuento. It confers the title of marquis on the Osorio family, the ruins of whose palace, destroyed in 1810 by the French, are still an object of interest. It is surrounded with ancient Roman fortifications, which now afford a pleasant promenade; and there is in the vicinity a ruined castle. It was formerly called the " city of priests," from the great numbers of that profession resident within its walls ; and it is still the see of a bishop under the church of Compostella, and has a Gothic cathedral of the 15th century.
composer, was born at Palermo about 1680. His father, a baron of Sicily, took an active part in the attempt to throw off the Spanish yoke, but was betrayed by his own soldiers and publicly executed. His wife and son were compelled to be spectators of his fate ; and such was the effect upon them, that Emmanuele fell into a state of gloomy despon dency, which threatened to deprive him of reason, while hia mother died on the spot. By the kindness of the Princes* Ursini, the unfortunate young man was placed in a convent at Astorga, in Leon, from which town he afterwards took his name. Here he recovered his health, and his admirable musical talents were cultivated under the best masters. In 1703 he entered the service of the duke of Parma, and while at his court produced many compositions. The duke, suspecting that an attachment existed between his daughter and Astorga, dismissed the musician, but gave him a letter of recommendation to Leopold of Austria. The emperor received him kindly, and at his court Astorga produced his pastoral opera of Daphne. In 1705, on the death of his patron, he visited Florence, and then London, where ho remained for two years, and wrote his Stalat Mater, con sidered the best of all his works. He seems to have resided for some years in Spain, and to have died in Bohemia, at II. 03
