ASTHMA, a chronic shortness of breath, from whatever cause it may arise. It is most common in persons possessing the nervous temperament. After some precursory symptoms, it commences, often at night, with a parox ysm in which there is a great tightness and constriction of the chest. It is pro duced by a morbid contraction of the bronchial muscles. There are two lead ing varieties of the disease, a nervous and a catarrhal, the former of pure sympathetic and symptomatic forms, and the latter latent, humeral and mu cous chronic sub-varieties, besides an acute congestive, and an acute catarrhal, form.
ASTI (as'te) (Asta Pompeia), a city of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Alessandria, on the left bank of the Tanaro, 35 miles E. S. E. of Turin by rail. It has a large Gothic cathedral, which was completed about 1348, and a royal college. There is carried on a considerable trade in silk and woolen fabrics, hats, leather, and agricultural produce. Asti spumante, a sparkling
wine, is highly esteemed. The city is of high antiquity, having been famous for its pottery before its capture by the Gauls in 400 B. c. On the occasion of its being again taken and destroyed in an irruption of the Gauls, it was rebuilt by Pompey, and received the name of Asta Pompeia. In the Middle Ages, Asti was one of the most powerful republics of upper Italy. It was captured and burned by the Emperor Frederick I. in 1155, and, after a series of vicis situdes, came into the possession of the Visconti of Naples; by them it was ceded to the French, in whose hands it remained till the middle of the 16th century, when the Dukes of Savoy acquired it. Alfieri was born here, 1749. Pop. about 45,000.