ASPHODEL ASPLAND 21 stables, and water-tight tanks. A concrete prepared of 95 Ibs. asphaltum, 5 Ibs. bitumen, and 150 Ibs. broken stone, has been employed in France for marine constructions. The use of prepared asphaltum in the United States has been largely increased since the discovery of petroleum and of a deposit of a solid hydro- carbon called Grahamite, and also in conse- quence of the great extension of gas manufac- ture by which the supply of raw material has become practically inexhaustible. ASPHODEL (risphodelug), a genus of orna- mental perennial plants belonging to the nat- ural order liliacea, and to the sub-order attphcdelece. They are all natives of the old world, and are found abundantly in Greece, Sicily, Asia, and Barbary. The genus com- prises 12 species, all of which have a bulbous root, erect undivided stem, long leaves, and showy flowers arranged in clusters, which in most of the species are spikes. The luteiw, or common yellow species, is an old inhabitant of European gardens, into which it was intro- duced from the shores of the Mediterranean. It is branchless, about 2^ feet high, has scat- tered and almost pili- form leaves sheath- ing the stalk, and flowers of a beauti- ful golden yellow. It blossoms during six weeks in mid- summer. The ramo- sui, or white arfd branched asphodel, has a naked stem with ramifications near the summit, each of which is ter- minated by a spike of white star-shaped flowers having their petals streaked with purple. The an- cients had a su- perstition that the manes of the dead were nourished upon its roots, and they there- fore planted it in the neighborhood of sepul- chres, and made it sacred to Proserpine. It till covers the hills and valleys of Apulia, where it furnishes nourishment to the sheep. The albvs, or upright asphodel, differs from the preceding by having a branchless stem, and also by having its flowers a little smaller and nearer together. The other species of asphodel are much less frequently cultivated in gardens. ASPHYXIA (Gr. aa<fiv!;ia, from a privative and e-0iif(f, pulse), literally, a temporary or a final suspension of the motion of the heart, and the pulsation of the arteries. The word is now used exclusively to signify a condition of imperfect or suspended respiration, in which the blood is no longer arterialized by the in- fluence of the air, irrespective of the motion of the heart, which may continue some time Asphodelus ramosus. after respiration ceases. The immediate bane- ful .effects of the suspension of respiration arise from the privation of oxgen, and from the retention of the carbonic acid previously formed, which becomes a blood poison. If the circulation be disproportionately augumented, carbonic acid is formed, and being morbidly retained, convulsion and death ensue. If the respiration is unduly and disproportionately augumented, the subject is cooled, for mere pulmonary respiration is a cooling process, by the difference of temperaature of the inspired and expired air ; and in this case also the sub- ject dies, but now from loss of temperature. This latter is the case in the asphyxiated pa- tient, if the respiratory movements be unduly hastened. On the other hand, if in the as- phyxiated we excite the circulation, without simultaneously and proportionately inducing the respiratory movements, we destroy the patient by carbonic acid, formed in the course of that circulation, and uneliminated by respi- ration. This statement explains the injurious and fatal tendency of the warm bath which was formerly recommended in asphyxia, for it is injurious, and has doubtless of itself proved fatal in cases in which the patient without it would have spontaneously recovered. ASPIJTWALL, or Colon, a city and seaport of the United States of Colombia, the Atlantic terminus of the Panama railway, situated on the island of Manzanilla in Limon or Navy bay, in lat. 9 21' 23" N., Ion. 79 63' 52" W., 47 m. by rail N. N. W. of Panama; pop. in 1872, about 6,500. The island of Manzanilla (area, 650 acres) was in 1852 ceded to the railway company for ever. The harbor of Aspinwall is one of the best on the coast. The town was founded by the railway company in 1850, and was originally intended to serve merely as a port of transit ; but it has become a centre of supply for many neighboring towns. The office and freight depot of the railway company, the former of brick and the latter a massive stone structure 300 by 80 ft., are the only edifices worthy of note. The railway company's wharf, 40 ft. wide, extends out from the shore upon a coral reef nearly 1,000ft. Theformerinsalubrity of the place has been in great part remedied by raising its level and by thorough drainage. The port is now (1872) visited monthly by three steamers from New York, four from English, two from German, and two from French ports. ASPLAND, Hubert, an English dissenting min- ister, born in Cambridgeshire, Jan. 23, 1782, died Dec. 80, 1845. In 1799 he entered the university of Aberdeen, but in the following year he resigned his scholarship on account of the change in his theological opinions, which prevented him from remaining longer a bene- ficiary upon a Calvinistic endowment. For a year or two he tried to occupy himself with trade, but he soon resumed his theological pursuits, and in 1801 was ordained pastor of the General Baptist congregation at Newport, Isle of Wight, with liberty to preach Unitarian
