Affidavit
a voluntary affirmation or solemn declaration, sworn to before a person at liberty to administer an oath. The affidavit must give the name and address of the person stating the facts within his own cognizance, and the exact sources from which other facts are drawn.
AFFINITY. (1) Neighborhood; (2) relationship by marriage; (3) union, connection.
In ordinary language and law, literally, the relationship contracted by marriage between a husband and his wife's kindred, or between a wife and her husband's kindred. It is opposed to consanguinity, or natural relationship by blood. It is of three kinds: (1) Direct, viz., that subsisting between a husband and his wife's blood relations, and vice versa; (2) secondary, or that which subsists between a husband and his wife's relations by marriage; and (3) collateral, or that which subsists between a husband and the relations of his wife's relations.
In biology, a resemblance, or resemblances, on essential points of structure, between species, genera, orders, classes, etc., really akin to each other, and which should be placed side by side in any natural system of classification. Affinity differs from analogy, the latter term being applied to resemblances between animals or plants not really akin, but which ought to be more or less widely separated in classifications. Thus the falcons, the hawks, the eagles, etc., are related to each other by genuine affinity; but the similarity on certain points, such as the possession of retractile claws, between the raptorial birds and the feline race of mammals, is one only of analogy.
In chemistry, chemical affinity, or chemical attraction, is the force by which union takes place between two or more elements to form a chemical compound.
AFFIRMATION According to another definition, it is a a governor, under whom the nobles and force exerted between two or more bodies at an infinitely minute distance apart, by which they give rise to a new substance, having different properties to those of its component parts. Elements have the greatest affinity for other elements which differ most in their chemical properties. Thus, H has great affinity for Cl and O, but the affinity between O and Cl is much weaker. Acids unite readily with alkalies; most metals, with sulphur. A strong acid generally expels a weaker one. But when two salts are fused, if a more volatile compound is formed, it is driven off. The relative affinities between different substances varies with their temperature, insolubility, and power of vaporization. Alternation of temperature alters the affinity; thus, mercury heated to its boiling-point absorbs oxygen, which it liberates at a higher temperature.
Affinity of solution is such an affinity as exists between a soluble salt and the fluid in which it is dissolved. Till the liquid is saturated with the salt, the two can combine in an indefinite ratio, instead of being limited to the fixed proportions in which alone chemical affinity operates.