Italy, and famous for its one hundred towers, of wliioh thirty still remain. It was burned by the Emperor Frederick I. in 1155, and after a series of vicissitudes came into the possession of the Visconti of Milan, by whom it was ceded to the French, who held it till the middle of the Sixteenth Century, when it passed into the possession of the Dukes of Savoy. The poet Alfieri was bora here in 174!). Population, in ISSl (commune), 32,23.3; in 1901, ,38.045.
ASTIE, as'tya'. Jean Frederic (1822-94). A Protestant theologian. He was born at Nerae, France, and studied at Geneva, Halle, and Berlin. He was a clergyman in New York from 1S48 to 1853, when he removed to Paris. In 1S55 he settled at Lausanne, Switzerland, where, in the following vear, he was appointed professor of philosophy and theolog>'. The influence of Kant, Schleie'rmacher and Vinet is revealed in his numerous -writins is on theology. In 1868 he became the editor of the Remie de thiolopie
ct de philosoplUe, which he conducted for many
years.
ASTIG’MATISM (Ok. , rt priv. + rtrlyfja,
s/ii/niii, jirick of a pointed instrument; spot,
mark). A defect in vision caused by the refrac-
tion of light by the eye differently in ditVerent
planes. To an"eye thiis affected, a pinhole in a
paper may appear round, but when the paper is
moved a little, the circular hole will seem to be
an ellipse. Irregular astigmatism is that form
in Avhich there is a dilTerence of refraction in
various parts of the s.ime meridian, as after
injuries of the cornea or congenital defects in
the lens. Regular astigmatism is that variety
in which the" degree of refraction of the tvo
principal meridians dilTers. Astigmatism is
usually due to difTerences in the curvature of
the cornea : less frequently, of the lens. It is
either simple, in which one meridian is normal
and the other hyperopic ; compound, in which both
meridians are unequally hyperopic or myopic;
or mixed, in which one is hyperopic and the other
mvopic. Astigmatism causes diminuticmof vision
aiid asthenopia (q.v. ), with its usual symptoms.
It is corrected by glasses ground as cylinders,
gphero-cylinders, or a combination of a spherical
and a cylindrical lens; or by crossed cylinders,
which are a combination of two cylindrical
lenses, with their axes at right-angles to each
other years.
ASTLE, ils'l, Thomas (1735-1803). An English antiquary and paleographer. He wrote Tlw Oriyin and Progress of British (1784. reprinted 1S70), an important contribution to English writings on the subject of paleography.
ASTLEY, ast'II. Pitilti (1742-1814). A noted
English equestrian performer and manager. He was born at Xewcastle-under-Lyme, and began work as a eabinetniaker, but enlisted as a cavalryman in the Seven Years' War, and after returning with an honorable discharge, gave exhibitions of horsemanship in Lambeth and elsewhere. At Lambeth he built, in 1770. a wooden circus, which grew, in course of pros-
perity and rebuilding after successive tires, into
Astley's Royal Amphitheatre. This was the sccni f a variety of exhibitions under his direction; but the special attraction was the equestrian performances, in which he himself excelled. He opened a similar establishment in Paris, which was seized for a barracks atthe time of the Revolution, but he afterwards recovered possession of his property. He died in Paris, and was buried in P6re-la-Chaise.
ASTOL'PO. An English noble in Charle-
magne's train — a boastful but generous character.
In Ariosto's Orlando Furlofso he cures Orlando's
madness, by bringing back from the moon the
great Paladin's wits in a vial. He is renowned
for his fairy gifts of a magic-horn, throigh
whose notes all livmg things are panie-atricken,
and a book which tells everything.
ASTOL'PHUS. See Aistulf.
AS'TON, William George (1841—). An
Irish philologist and diplomat, born near Londonderry
in 1841. He was educated (1859-63) at
Queen's College, Belfast; one of his professors
was Dr. James McCosh. He was appointed in
1864 student interpreter to the British Legation
in Japan. He mastered the theory of the
Japanese verb, and in Tokio began, with E. M.
Satow, those profound researches into the
Japanese language which laid the foundations of
critical study in the Mikado's Empire. He held
various offices in Japan until 1883; was made
consul-general in Korea in 1884, and secretary
of legation in Tokio in 1886. He retired on a
pension in 1889. His publications include
grammars of the Japanese language (1868 and 1872);
a translation of the Nihongi, or Annals of Ancient
Japan (1896), which show acute scholarship;
A History of Japanese Literature (1899); and
a great number of papers for learned societies
on Korean and Japanese subjects, many of them
in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of
Japan. His later work deals with rudimentary
ethnic religions.
ASTON HALL. Supposedly the original of
Irving's Bracebridge Hall. At any rate, before
it was recently sold for a museum, it was in the
possession of a Birmingham gentleman by the
name of Charles Holt Bracebridge. It is an old
hall in the Elizabethan style.
ASTON MAN'OR. A manufacturing town
in Warwickshire, England, suburban to Birmingham
(q.v.). Population, in 1891, 68,600; in 1901,
77,300.
John Jacob Astor (1763-1848). A German-born
American merchant. He was born in Waldorf,
a village near Heidelberg, Germany, the son of
a butcher. He followed his elder brother, first
to London and then to New York, whither he
went in 1783. He soon invested his small capital
in furs, and by economy and industry he so
increased his means that after six years he had
acquired a fortune of $200,000. He traded
directly with the Indians, peddling gewgaws among
them, and buying their furs at a ridiculously low
rate. At first he prepared the furs with his own
hands and took them to the London market. He
also became the New York agent of his brother's
house, which dealt in musical instruments.
Although the increasing influence of the English
fur companies in North America was unfavorable
to his plans, he ventured to fit out two
expeditions to the Oregon Territory—one by land
and one by sea—the purpose of which was to
open up regular commercial intercourse with
the natives. After many mishaps, his object
was achieved in 1811, and the fur-trading
station of Astoria (q.v.) was established; but the
War of 1812 stopped its prosperity for a time.
