Assicns
800
ASSIMILATION
may, however, take part in the examination of the
accused or of w-itnesses. Owing to their non-judicial
character, laymen may be employed as Assessors in
spiritual and ecclesiastical matters, though by the
canons of the Church they would be incompetent
as judges, even if a cleric were joined with them in
a judicial capacity. As an Assessor is commonly
looked upon as restraining in some manner the dig-
nity, if not the jurisdiction, of the judge, the Sacred
Congregations have declared that a cathedral chajj-
ter cannot impose an assessor on the Vicar-Capitular
sede vacanle.
Wernz, Jua Deer., II (Rome, 1899); De Angelis, Prcel. Jut. Can., torn. ult. (Paris, 1884); Reiffenstxjel, Jus Can., II, VI (Paris, 1865).
William H. W. Fanning.
Assicus, Saint, Bishop and Patron of Elphin, in Ireland, one of St. Patrick's converts, and his worker in iron. In the "Tripartite Life of St. Patrick" (ed. Whitley Stokes) we read: "Bishop St. Assic was Patrick's coppersmith, and made altars and square bookcases. Besides, he made our saint's patens in honour of Bishop Patrick, and of them I have seen three square patens, that is, a paten in the Church of Patrick in Armagh, and another in the Church of Elphin, and a third in the great-church of Donough- patrick (at Carns near Tulsk)." St. Assicus was a most expert metal worker, and was also reno^vned as a beU-founder. Of his last days the foUomng graphic description is given by Archbishop Healy: "Assicus himself in shame because of a lie told either by him, or, as others say, of him, fled into Donegal, and for seven years abode in the island of Rathlin O'Birne. Then his monks sought him out, and after much labour found him in the mountain glens, and tried to bring him home to his own monastery at Elphin. But he fell sick by the way, and died with them in the wilderness. So they buried the venerable old man in the churchyard of Rath Cunga, now Racoon, in the Barony of Tirhugh, County Donegal. The old churchyard is there still, though now dis- used, on the summit of a round hillock close to the left of the road from Ballyshannon to Donegal, about a mile to the south of the village of Ballintra. We sought in vain for any trace of an inscribed stone in the old churchyard. He fled from men during hfe, and, like Moses, his grave is hidden from them in death." His feast is celebrated 27 April, as is recorded in the " Martyrology of Tallaght" under that date. W. H. Gratt.vn Flood.
Assldeans (Hebr., D'TDn, chasidim, saints; Gr., 'AiriSorot), men endowed with grace (Ps., xxxix, 5; cxlviii, 14). They were the maintainers of the Mosaic Law against the invasion of Greek customs. When the Machabees struggled against Antiochus IV (Epiphanes), the Assideans naturally joined their cause (I Mach., ii, 42, 43). However, not all the adherents of the Machabees were Assideans; accord- ing to I Mach., vii, 13, the Scribes and the Assideans sought to make peace with the Syrians, while the other followers of the Machabees suspected deceit. Tiiat this suspicion was well founded may be inferred from the fact that Alciinus, who had been made High Priest by Demetrius I (I Mach., vii, 9), slew sixtv .\ssideans in one day (I Mach., vii, 16). Ac- cording to II Mach., xiv, 3, the .same Alcimus "wil- fully defiled him.self ", and later on he testified before Demetrius: "They among the .lews tiiat are called Assideans, of whom Judas Machabeus is captain, nourish wars, and raise .seditions, and will not suffer the realm to bo in peace" (11 Mach., xiv, 6). There is an opinion which maintains that the Assideans were identical with the later Piiarisees.
Haoen, Uiicim BMicum (Paris, 1905); Lk.sbtre in Vio., Diet, de la Bible (Pant., 1895); ScililiER, Oeschichle del juditchcn Volket (3d eU., Leipzig, 1898), II, 404.
A. J. Maas.
Assimilation, Physiological. — In this sense the
woril may be defined as that vital function by which
an organism changes nutrient material into living
protoplasm. Most modern scientists admit that
the notion of assimilation is not e.xliausted by the
eventual chemical changes that may take place.
Their definition of assimilation, moreover, is most
frequently the true expression of the reality. To
give but one instance, the physiologist Rosenthal
defines assimilation as the " peculiar property com-
mon to all cells of bringing forth from different
materials substances specifically similar to those
which pre-exist in tho,se cells". But, in further
explaining the concept of assimilation, they fre-
quently mistake its true nature and deny again what
they conceded l)efore. In other words, they often
refuse to acknowledge that food, in being changed
into living substance, participates in properties which
in themselves are of a nature totally different from
the forces of inorganic matter. Our reason for dis-
appro\nng this view rests on the fact that, while
the action of inorganic matter is essentially of a
transient nature, and passes from subject to subject,
the same inanimate matter acquires by the process
of assimilation the faculty "of acting on itself, of
developing and perfecting itself by its own motion, or
of acting immanently ". That is, the action proceeds
from an internal principle and "does not pass into a
foreign subject, but perfects the agent." The
acti\-ities implied in the nutrition of an animal
really proceed from it. It spontaneously moves
about and selects among a thousand solid particles
a definite kind and quantity of food in strict propor-
tion to its own needs, and appropriates it in a suitable
manner. Then, in anticipation of a definite end to
be realized, it elaborates from the food the chemical
constituents to be used for the renewal and increase
of its protoplasm, rejecting the rest in a suitable
manner. Thus the entire action proceeds from the
animal and finally serves, or tentls to serve, no other
purpose than to maintain the integrity of its proto-
plasm and to give it the total perfection of the species.
On the other hand, it is evident that such immanent
actions belong to a sphere totally different from the
transient actions of which alone inorganic matter
is capable. If inorganic matter is to act, it must
be acted upon, and the reaction is mathematically
equal to the action. It is, therefore, merely passive.
But organisms act, even if no action is exerted upon
them from without; and if an action results from
stimulation, the reaction is not equal to the action,
nor is, in fact, the stimulation the adequate cause of
the action. In this acti\-ity, however, we need not
assume a production and accumulation of new mate-
rial energy. The activity of the \ital princijjle in the
processes of assimilation simply consists in (.lirecting
the constant transformation of existing material
energy towards definite ends and according to a
definite plan of organization. In other words, the
algebraic sum of all the energy in the universe is
not altered by the living principle. Nor are the
elements changed in their nature and mutual action.
They require the faculty of an immanent action
merely inasmuch as they are and remain parts of
li\nng cells. Thus, through assimilation they be-
come subject to a liiglier principle which in constant
agreement with their own physical and chemical
laws directs them towards the uniform perfection of
the entire organism.
KosENTHAL, Allgemeine Phyiiolofrie (1901), 392; Pesch, Institttlionea jnychologica:. Pars I, lib. I, 144; Maher, P»y- ckologu (1895), 510.
H. MUCKERMANN.
Assimilation, Psychological. — As applied to a mental process, assimilation derives all its force and meaning from the analogy which many educa- tionists have found to exist between the way in which
