ASSIMILATION

(Lat. a^similatio.) The act by which organised bodies incorporate foreign molecules and convert them into their own proper substance. AS Sl' ZE. (From the Norman French a ise, se ion.) 1. In a sense now obsolete, an ordinance or constitution of the sovereign: thus, the code of feudal law framed for the kingdom of Jerusalem is termed the A izes de Jerusalem. 2. The ordinances regulating the price of bread and other nece aries, were also called A izes. 3. The peculiar jury by which a writ of right was tried, was termed the Grand A ize. 4. In the only sense in which the word is now an existing law term, the a ize signifies the periodical se ion held by the judges of the superior courts in the counties of England, for the purpose of trying i ues at nisi prius and delivering the gaols. (See Courts, Superior.) [s. 109]