Astriction

Act of binding close together; contraction. (Med.) Action of an astringent substance on the animal economy. (Scottish Law .) A servitude, by which grain growing on certain lands must be carried to a particular mill to be ground. Astride', adv. [ a and stride.] With the legs apart or acro a thing. "I saw a place, where the Rhone is so straitened between two rocks, that a man may stand astride upon both at once." - Boyle. Astringe', v. a. [Fr. astreindre; Lat. astringo. See ASTRICT.] To bind fast; to constrict; to contract. Astrin'gency, n. Power of contracting; state of be ing astringent. "Acid, acrid, austere, and bitter substances, by their estringency, stimulate the fibres." - Arbuthnot. ( Bot .) A very extensive and important genus of herbaceous plants, sub-order Pap i lion ace a. Most of the species are popularly called Milk-vetches; and several have a close resemblance to the well-known forage plant sainfoin. An interesting species, known under the name of Swedish coffee , the A. boëtic us , is cultivated to a considerable extent in Germany, and has been recommended for field cultivation as a substitute for coffee. It is a hardy trailing annual, usually grows to the height of about a foot, and produces cream-colored flowers in June and July. The mode of culture is precisely the same as for the pea, only the pods are gathered as they ripen. Two-thirds are mixed with one-third of coffee beans, and the two ingredients are roasted together, preserved in well-corked bottles, or thoroughly closed vases, and taken out as they are wanted to be ground. The A. boëtic us is probably the best substitute for coffee which has yet been tried, and is well worth experimental cultivation in either the garden or the field. The A. tragacanth a, popularly called goat's thorn, yields the gum tragacanth of the drug-shops, and forms the type of one of several divisions of the A. genus. This species is an under-shrub, ranks as a medicinal plant throughout the East, and is called by the Persians kûm , and by the Arabs kétād and ku ad . The A. Canadiensis , found Astringently, adv . In an astringent manner. Astringent, a . Binding; contracting; strengthening. -n. ( Med .) The name given to substances which contract and strengthen the animal fibres. They are administered principally in cases of dysentery, diarrhea, and fluxes. Their general effects are manifested by greater firmne of the muscular fibres, greater rigidity of the blood-ve els and diminution of their calibre, and contraction of the exhaling secreting orifices, whereby they check hemorrhage, and diminish exhalation and secretion. In the mouth they produce a styptic or astringent taste. In moderate doses, they are capable of producing the same constitutional effects as tonics. A. may be divided into two sections, the vegetable and mineral. The vegetable A. owe their peculiar properties to the presence of tannin or tannil, which is found in all of them. They differ only in the proportion of the latter principle, and in the other ingredients with which it is a ociated. The mineral A. have nothing in common but their property of astringency. To the former belong oak-bark, galls, kino, catechu, logwood, rhatany, geranium, tormentil, bistort, pomegranate-rind; to the latter, alum, the preparations of lead, zinc, and iron, and sulphuric from Canada to Florida, has a stem, bushy, 3 feet high, acid. As'trite, n. ( Min .) See ASTERITE.