12G AUSONES AUSTERLITZ the sounds produced are also modified in a pecu- liar manner. To assist the ear in distinguishing these sounds, Laennec constructed the stetho- scope (Gr. <T7T70of, chest or breast, and OKOTTCIV, to examine), by the aid of which all the sounds of the heart and lungs may be distinctly heard, and the differences between healthy and dis- eased action readily discerned and classified. The art of auscultation has since then made rapid progress. Auscultation is very useful in obstetrics, as well as in diseases of the heart and lungs. In difficult cases of parturition, it is often necessary to know whether the child is dead or alive in the womb before delivery. After the fifth month of pregnancy the pulsa- tions of the foetal heart may be distinctly heard, and the " placental murmur," caused by the uterine circulation of the blood, may also be distinguished by the ear. Percussion is a branch of auscultation by which artificial sounds are obtained as a means of discerning the state of the parts from which these sounds proceed, particularly in regard to the presence or absence of air or liquids. The art of auscul- tation is of comparatively recent date, but it was long believed to be a useful aid in diag- nosis. In the middle of the 17th century Hooke observed that " there may be a possibil- ity of discovering the internal motions and ac- tions of bodies by the sounds they make. ... I have been able to hear very plainly the beating of a man's heart." In 1761 Leopold Auenbrug- ger, a Gernjan physician residing at Vienna, published a small volume in Latin explaining an artificial method of producing sounds in various regions of the body, by which the phy- sician might judge of the state of the subja- cent parts. This method was percussion. The book remained almost unknown till 1808, when Corvisart translated it into French, and made the method known to all the countries of Europe. The practice of percussion has since become general, and in many cases is found highly useful. The method of studying dis- eases from sounds made by percussion led to the method of observing sounds made nat- urally, by the action of the heart and lungs. Corvisart took up the subject with great zeal, and three of his disciples, Double, Bayle, and Laennec, continued the same course, resulting in the discovery of the stethoscope, and the general use of auscultation. ACSONES, the name of one of the most an- cient tribes of Italy, whose origin is unknown. Tradition made them descendants of Auson, son of Ulysses and Calypso. They are held by Niebuhr to have been a portion of the great Oscan nation. From them the southern part of Italy, later known as Magna Gracia, was called Ausonia. Al'SO.MUS, Decimns Ma?nns, a Latin poet and grammarian, born at Burdigala (Bordeaux) about A. D. 310, died about 39-t. He practised law for a time in his native town, and afterward became a teacher of grammar and rhetoric. In 307 he was selected by the emperor Valentinian to be tutor to his son Gratian, whom he accom- panied into Germany the following year. He rose successively to the honorary titles and dig- nities of count of the empire, qua;stor, gover- nor of Gaul, Libya, and Latium, and lastly, in 379, of consul. His poetry is characterized by extreme licentiousness and pruriency, and is bald of invention and redundant in ornament. There has been much discussion whether Au- sonins was a Christian or a pagan. The best editions of Ansonius are : a very rare one by Tollius (Amsterdam, 1671), with a commen- tary of Scaliger, and selected notes by various critics ; the Delphin edition ; and the Bipont of 1783, which is correct and of authority. AISSIG, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Leitmeritz, at the junction of the Bila with the Elbe, 44 m. (direct) N. N. W. of Prague, with which it is connected by railway ; pop. in 1869, 10,933. It was formerly strongly fortified, but in 1426 it was destroyed by the Hussites, and in 1639 it was seized by the Swedish general Baner. It has a church said to have been built in 826, containing a Madonna by Carlo Dolce, presented to the town by the father of Raphael Mengs, who was born here. The town has an active trade in fruit, mineral waters, timber, and especially in coal. The battlefield of Kulm is in the vicinity. AUSTEN, Jan*, an English novelist, born at Steventon, in Hampshire, Dec. 16, 1775, died in Winchester, July 18, 1817. She was edu- cated by her father, who was rector of Steven- ton. It is not known at what time she com- menced authorship. In her youth she was beautiful and graceful, but a disappointment in love determined her against marriage. " North- anger Abbey" (which was published with " Persuasion " after her death) was the earliest and weakest of her works, all of which, except the posthumous ones, appeared anonymously. " Sense and Sensibility " was published in 1811, and immediately obtained popularity. " Pride and Prejudice," "Mansfield Park, ""and "Em- ma" succeeded at regular intervals the la*t in 1816. Her father was compelled by ill health to pass-his latter years in Bath, and on his death his widow and two daughters return- ed to Hampshire, and removed in May, 1817, to Winchester. Her novels have long been popu- lar as " distinct delineations of English domes- tic life, with a delicate discrimination of female character." Her own opinion was that one of her novels was " a little bit of ivory two inches wide," on which she "worked with a brush so j fine as to produce little effect after much j labor." Her life has been written by J. E. Austen-Leigh (London, 1871). ACSTERLITZ, a town of Moravia, in the circle and 12 m. E. of Brunn on the Littawa river; pop. about 2,400. It owes its celebrity to the battle won here by Napoleon over the united Austrian and Russian armies, Dec. 2, 1805. After the capture of the Austrian general Mack at Ulm, Oct. 17, and the occupation of 1 Vienna by the French, Nov. 13, the Austrian
