Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/226

 AST

loured flowers, and black ftreaks in them. S- The onobry- ehis-likc mountain Aflragalus. 6. The yellow perennial pro- cumbent Ajlragalus, or common wild M™gf>"- 7- ' he yellow perennial Ajlragalus, with double bladder-like pods. 8. The procumbent annual yellow Montpeher Aflragalus. q. The broad-leav'd, annual, procumbent, fea Aflragalus with flowers Handing on pedicles. 10. The narrow-leav d annual Aflragalus, with blue flowers adhering clofe to the ftalks. 1 1 The narrow-lcav'd annual blue-flowered AJtra- galus, with flowers Handing on pedicles 12. The yellow fweet-fcented African Aflragalus. 13. 1 he Canada Ajlraga- lus, with greenifh yellow flowers. 14. The Montpelier Ajlra- galus. 15 The white flowered Montpelier Ajlragalus. 16. The tall alpine fox- tail Ajlragalus. 17. The procumbent Aflragalus, with hairy and clufter'd pods. 18. The dwarf Aflragalus, with pods of the form of the epiglottis. 10. 1 he hoary Ajlragalus, with crooked pods. 20. The Enghih purple mountain Aflragalus. 21. The vetch-leav'd, procum- bent, branched, alpine Aflragalus, with oblong blue flowers, gathered into heads. 22. The alpine bladder-fruited Aflraga- lus, with leaves like thofe of the tragacanth. 23. lie branched tragacanth-lcav'd alpine Aflragalus, with blue glo- merated flowers. 24. The alpine Aflragalus, with narrow vetch-like leaves, and pale yellow flowers. 25. The Pyre- nean Ajlragalus, with round ifli vetch-like leaves, and yellow glomerated" flowers. 26. The Pyrcnean Aflragalus, with Barba Jovis leaves, and pale yellow flowers, collefled into ■ heads. Tourn. Inft. p. 416.

The root of this plant, drank in wine, ftops a loofenefs, and 1 provokes urine. Dried to a powder, it is, with good effefl, fprinkled on old ulcers, and ftops bleeding. V. Lemery, des drog. in voc. Astragalus, (Cycl.) in anatomy.— According to the natural fituation of the foot, and the conneaion of it with the leg, the Aflragalus is the fuperior, or firft bone of the tarfus. This bone may be divided into two portions, one large and pofterior, the other fmall and anterior ; the firft is, as it were, the body of the bone, the latter an apophyfis, tho' commonly ' called, the anterior portion. The body, or pofterior portion, has four fides, one fuperior, two lateral, and one inferior. The upper fide is the largeft, it is covered all over with a car- tilage, and is cylindrically convex from before backward, with a depreflion running through the middle of its breadth, which reprefents half a pulley, and is continuous with the two late- ral cartilaginous Sides, of which the external is broader than the other. The upper fide is articulated with the lower fide of the bafis of the tibia, the internal lateral fide with the inner ankle, and the external lateral fide with the outer ankle ; be- low the internal lateral fide there is a great depreflion without a cartilage, and feveral other inequalities. The lower fide is likewife cartilaginous, and obliquely concave, for its articula- tiolj with the os calcis. At the very loweft and pofterior part of the body of the Ajlragalus, on the edge of the lower fide, is a fmall oblique fmooth notch, or channel, for thepaffage of the tendons.

The apophyfis, or anterior part of the Aflragalus, is diftin- guiflled from- the body by a fmall depreflion on the upper part ; and on the lower part by a long oblique unequal notch, very broad toward the outfide. The anterior fide of this apo- phyfis is all cartilaginous, and obliquely convex, for its articu- lation with the os fcaphoides. The lower fide, which is like- wife cartilaginous, is parted in two, and articulated with the os calcis, being diftinguifhed from the lower fide of the body of the bone, by the long oblique notch already mentioned. Befide thefe two cartilaginous fides, there is a third below the anterior, toward the inner part, which, in the dried lkeleton, touches nothing. Winjlow's Anatomy, p. 97. ASTRANTIA, in botany, the name of a genus of umbelli- ferous plants, the characters of which are thefe : The flower is of the rofaceous kind, confiding of feveral petals, the ends of which are ufually bent backwards, and which are difpofed in a circular form, on a cup which afterwards becomes a fruit, compofed of two feeds, involved in a curled calyptra. The flowers of this genus are collefled into a fort of head, and furrounded with a leafy crown. Some of the flowers in this genus of plants are barren, and the cups of thefe are wider. See Tab. 1. of Botany, Clafs 7.

The fpecies of AJlrantia, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe: 1. The great AJlrantia, with purple crowns to the flow- ers. This is called by fome the fanicle-leav'd black hellebore. 2. The great AJlrantia, with white crowns to the flowers. And 3. The fmaller AJlrantia, called by fome, the little al- pine hellebore. Tourn. Inft. p. 314.

This plant is cultivated in the gardens of botanifts, and flowers in July. Its black and fibrous roots are only ufed in medi- cine, which are faid to purge melancholic humours. Hilda- nus ptefcribes it alfo for the cure of a fchirrous fpleen. V. James, Med. Difl. in voc. ASTRAPiEA, in natural hiftory, a name given by the antients to a ftone, fince called, improperly, Aflrapia, and by fome Aflrapea. The defcription we have of it, is, that it was a blue ftone, or blackifh one, with white variegations, running m the form of waves, and clouds in it. Some fpecimens of the Perfian lapis lazuli are of this kind, but they are rare. |

AST

It is probable that the antients meant thefe, by the name, but as they are not a diftinfi fpecies, they were in the wrong, to confound the fame ftone under two names. ASTRARII, in middle-age writers, the fame with Man- flonarii, thofe who live in the houfe, or family, at the time, for inftance, when a perfon dies. Du Cangt, Uloff. Lat. T. 1. p. 367.

Thefe are alfo denominated Afiro-additti, a. d. tied to the hearth. Vidcndum fl nepss & avunculus Jub eadem potejlate antecejforis flmul fuerunt Aftrarii tempore mortis, eo quod umbo reperiuntur in atrio five in Aftro. Brail. 1. 4. Tr. 3. c. 11. It. 1. 2. c. 36. §■ 6. Astrarius Hares is ufed, in our old writers, where the an- ceftor, by conveyance, hath fet his heir apparent, and his fa- mily, in a houfe, in his life-time. Cuke, 1. Inft. 8 b.^ Spelman carries the import of the word further, as if it de- noted an heir to whom the'inheritance was given by his pre- deceffor in his own life, by a writing in form. Spelm. GlofT. p. 48.

The word is formed from Afire, an antient I rench term for the hearth of a chimney. ASTRICTION, Adflriclio, in medicine, an operation in- tended partly to conftringe the parts and pores of the body, when too loofe, and partly to reftrain the courfe of the hu- mours, when too fluid.

AJlriaion, with regard to the ohjefl, is of two forts ; the firft employed on the too much relaxed folids ; the fecond on the fluids, chiefly in Hemorrhages ; intended to moderate or reftrain the flux of blood thro' the cuftomary pallages, as the nofe, menfes, lochia, and the like : And (bmetimes alfo to ftop extraordinary and unufual Haemorrhages, ariling from violent caufes. Nent. Fund. Med. tab. 4. T. 1. p. 323. ASTRICUS Lapis, in natural hiftory, a kind of figured ftone, broken or cut from the Enaflros, after the fame manner as the Trochita from the Entrochi. Mercat. Metalloth. arm. 9. c. 7. p. 230. ASTRINGENTS {Cycl.)— Aflringent medicines are to be carefully avoided in all kinds of Inflammations, and in all inflammatory cafes, for they difturb nature in the effort file is making to relieve herfelf from a congeftion of blood in the part, and prevent that free paffage which the blood ought to have, and which alone can make a cure, or break through the obftruflion that is the real difeafe.

Aflringent powders, externally applied, in cafes of a proci- dentia ani, in which the common pradtice is to fprinkle them upon that part of the gut which is out, fhould always be ex- treamly finely powdered, for otherwife they adhere, by their large particles, to the inner coat of the gut, and when it is replaced, bring on a tenefmus, the effefl of which is a relapfe into the former complaint ; in this cafe alfo Ajlringents, which are too violent, aft juft contrary to what they ought, and prevent, inftead of promoting, a cure. This is a very common accident, from the making allum, an ingredient in thefe powders, in too large a quantity, tho' a fmall portion of it is very proper. Junck. Confp. Med. Mr. Petit concludes, from a great many experiments he made in covering pieces of flefh with the different forts of Aftringents employed in haemorrhages, that fome afl only as abforbents ; fuch are earthy fubftances, moft of the aflringent plants, fome gums, refins, and animal fubftances. Other Aftringents ab- forb, and, at the fame time, their faline and fulphureous par- ticles, infinuating themfelves into the flefti, preferve it from corruption. Vitriol and alum, which are acknowledged to be among the ftrongeft Ajlringents, appeared, by his expe- riments, to abforb moft humidity. V. Mem. Acad. Scienc. An. 1732. ASTROBOLISM, Arpo0cM«i*-, the fame with Sphacelus ; tho' properly applied to plants which are deftroyed in the dog- days, as if blafted by that ftar. Caflel, Lex. in voc. ASTROCYNOLOGIA, Ar^mt^*, a defcription of the canicular, or dog-days, and their effefls. See Canicular. Maria Florentinius, a noble Genoefe, has written an AJlrocy- nologia. V. Afl. Erud. Lipf. an. 1702. p. 514. ASTROGNOSIA, the art of knowing the fixed ftars, their names, ranks, fituations in the conftellations, and the like. Strauchius, formerly profeffor at Wittenberg, publifhed a work exprefs on the fubjefl, which may be of ufe to learners ; but a knowledge of the ftars is better had from Bayer's Vra- nometria, commonly referred to by aftronomers, when they fpeak of the ftars, as in this work, all the fixed ftars are de- noted by letters, partly of the Greek, and partly of the Latin, alphabets ; and from Hevelius, in his Firmamentum Sobiefca- num ; and Flamftead, in his Hijloria Cceleflis, where the ftars are all laid down in maps exprefs. To the fame end conduce cceleftial globes, planifpheres, Dr. Halley s Zodiacus Stellatus, and the like. Wolf. Lex. Math. p. 193. feq. ASTROITES, (Cycl.) in natural hiftory, the name of a fpecies of foffil coral, compofed of either fingle or complex tubules, lodged in different fpecies of ftone ; thefe are ftriated from the centre to the circumference, and, in fome kinds, the ends of the tubules are prominent, above the furface of the mafs, in others they are level with it, and in others they are funk be- low it.

The corals which are lodged in thefe mattes, are alfo of dif- ferent