ASSIMILATION                                v 123                                           ASSOCIATION

ture is put in a fire-clay dish, called the I scorifier, and heated to redness in a furnace having a compartment or muffle open to the air, called a muffle furnace, until the substances are thoroughly melted. The surface of the molten lead now shows in a circular space in the center of the scorifier, while the earthy materials form a slag which forms a ring around this circle. The heating is continued until a considerable part of the lead has been oxidized to lead oxide. This goes into the slag and increases its amount so that the slag finally covers the diminishing metallic lead. Then the melted mixture is poured into a mould, and, on cooling, a lead button is seen which can be detached from the slag. The lead has taken up the silver as well as any gold that may be present. The next process is called cupellation. The cupel is a small cup made of burnt bone and is porous. The lead button is put in this vessel, after the latter has been heated to redness in a muffle furnace. The lead and other base metals that may be present are burned or oxidized, and the oxides are absorbed by the porous mass of the cupel, or sent off in the shape of vapor. Silver and gold are not oxidized, hence they remain in the metallic state. Just before the assay is finished, rainbow colors come and go over the button, and a brilliant flashing up of color marks the end of the operation. The silver button left in the cupel is finally weighed. This is one of the simplest methods, but not the only method of assaying. A crucible is sometimes used instead of a scorifier.                               H. L. Wells.

As'simila'tion (in plants). A term often applied to the manufacture by green plants of starch, sugar and similar substances (carbohydrates). This process is better called photosynthesis (which see), leaving assimilation to be applied to the transformation of foods (carbohydrates, proteids, fats,, etc.) into the living substance, protoplasm. Of the details of this very little is known.

Assiniboia (as''stn-ï-boi''a), one of the northwest territories of Canada until 1905, when one part of it was merged in the new province of Alberta and the remainder in the new province of Saskatchewan. The city of Regina was formerly in Assiniboia.

Assin'iboine, an important river in northwestern Canada. The city of Brandon (Manitoba), is on its banks. Runs easterly to the Red River. The Souris and QuAppelle Rivers are its tributaries. Runs through a rich agricultural country. Length 450 miles.

Assisi (ā-sē'sē), St. Francis of, a devout Italian monk, born at Assisi in the province of Perugia, in 1182, and the founder of the Franciscan order. To his tomb, in the Church of San Francesco, Assisi, many thousands from all parts, of Europe make

annual pilgrimages. The church is enriched by the possession of many remarkable frescoes and paintings by Cimabue and Giotto, which depict stories from the Old and New Testaments and incidents in the life of St. Francis of Assisi.

Associated Press, an organization oi newspapers and news-agencies for the collecting and disseminating of the news oi the day and current events. The movement had its origin in 1847, when the N. Y, Press Association was founded, with a representative, generally one connected with the local newspaper, in each of the principal cities_ of the Union. Before this era the gathering of news had been a matter of individual enterprise on the part of the leading papers; but as this was a costly affair to be borne by a single one or more independent journals, news-gathering by an associated press agency came into vogue, incited by the development of telegraphs and railways and the extension of the facilities for obtaining news. The scheme was early helped by the operations, in 1848-49, of Baron Reuter, at the head of his Prussian news-agency, who just then succeeded in interesting London journals in his mode of collecting and furnishing the Old World press with the chief news of the European continent. On this side the Associated Press of New York was launched, and it absorbed a rival agency of the era, the Western Associated Press, but the combination was not over-successful, having a rival in 1882 in the United Press and later on one in an Illinois organization styled the New Associated Press. Still later the International League of Press Clubs came into existence, with still other general and local press bureaus, each with a more or less large membership and varied fields of usefulness. The Associated Press, however, has grown to be the largest and most influential organization of its kind, with headquarters in New York as well as at London, England, and with branches on this side at Washington, D. C, Chicago and San Francisco.

Association of Ideas. By the association of ideas is meant such relations among them as will cause one to suggest others. Through the so-called laws of association psychologists have attempted to explain why a certain perception or thought is followed by certain images, sensations or ideas. Association is supposed to explain those trains of thought in which the mind pursues its own course unguided by the senses, except in so far as the original suggestion may have been a perception.

Early psychologists have many inter-esting allusions to the mental phenomena that are classed under the head of association of ideas, but before the time of Locke (1Ŏ32-1704), it was generally assumed