cask.

MEADOW. In its general signification, means pasture or grass lands, annually mown for hay; but it is more particularly applied to lands that are so low, as to be too moist for cattle to graze upon them in winter without spoiling the sward.

of the procedure of nature in the generation and powder in a piece of cloth, and put it into the destruction of bodies. Thus, for instance, water, rarified by heat, becomes vapor; great collections of vapor form clouds; these condensed descend in the form of hail or rain; part of this collected on the earth constitutes rivers; another part mixing with the earth enters into the roots of plants, and supplies matter to, and expands itself into various species of vegetables. In each vegetable it appears in one shape in the root, another in the stalk, another in the flowers, another in the seeds, &c. From hence various bodies proceed; from the oak, houses, ships, &c.; from hemp and flax we have thread; from thence our various kinds of linen; from thence garments; these degenerate into rags, which receive from the mill the various forms of paper; hence our books.

MEADOW LARK. A beautiful bird, with a yellow breast, and the wings and back speckled with gray and white. It is found mostly in low lands, is a good songster, and is about the size of a robin.

MEALS. The quantity of food taken at regular intervals is commonly understood by the term meal. On this subject there are several particulars to be considered: with respect to the kind and quantity of food that ought to be taken, the interval between each meal, and the conduct to be pursued previous to meals, and after them. It may appear ridiculous to make any formal remarks on what may be supposed level to the capacities of all mankind, and directed by the sure instinct of nature; but the luxurious habits, and the artificial modes of civilized life, in those who are any degree above the class that is doomed to toil and poverty, render it a subject of very general interest. The importance of attending to the diet of invalids and convalescents, makes it a matter of primary moment to know the best mode of regulating the time, the quantity, and the quality of the meals. On a subject where there must be such a variety of circumstances in different individuals to be taken into account, it is obvious that no set of rules, applicable to every case, can be laid down. Whatever may be said, is to be considered as the result of observation and experience, which can only furnish general truths and maxims, to be accommodated to particular cases, according to circumstances.

According to Sir Isaac Newton, it seems highly probable, that God in the beginning formed matter into solid, massy, impenetrable, movable particles, or atoms, of such sizes and figures, and with such other properties, and in such proportion to space, as most conduced to the end for which he formed them; and that these primitive particles being solids, are incomparably harder than any porous bodies compounded of them, even so hard as never to wear or break in pieces; no ordinary power being able to divide what God himself made one in the first creation. While these particles continue entire, they may compose bodies of one and the same nature and texture in all ages; but should they wear away, or break in pieces, the nature of things depending on them may be changed. Water and earth, composed of old worn particles and fragments of particles, would not be of the same nature and texture now, with water and earth composed of entire particles in the beginning; and therefore, that nature may be lasting, the changes of corporeal things are to be placed only in the various separations and new associations of motions of these permanent particles, compound bodies being apt to break, not in the midst of solid particles, but where these particles are laid togeth-meals is their regularity, both as to number, and er, and only touch in a few points.

MATURATION. A term in surgery, signifying that process which succeeds inflammation, by which pus is collected in an abscess.

MAUSOLEUM. A stately sepulchre built by Artemisia, queen of Caria, for her husband Mausolus; also any pompous sepulchral monument.

MEAD. An agreeable liquor made of honey and water. There are many receipts for making mead, of which the following is one of the best. Take four gallons of water, and as much honey as will make it bear an egg; add to this the rind of three lemons, boil it, and scum it well as it rises. Then take it off the fire, and add three lemons cut in pieces; pour it into a clean tub or open vessel, and let it work for three days; then scum it well and pour off the clear part into a cask, and let it stand open till it ceases to make a hissing noise; then stop it up close, and in three months' time it will be fine and fit for bottling. If you would give it a finer flavor, take cloves, mace, and nutmeg, of each four drams; beat them small, tie the

One of the most important circumstances about the periods at which they are taken. Habit has such an influence on the appetite of hunger, as well as on many other of our sensations, that it will return at the stated hour of eating; and if it be not appeased, the stomach will cease its cravings, though no aliment has been supplied. But hunger will in many persons recur before the time usually allotted for the regular meal; and it will often be necessary to take some food, to enable the stomach to hold out till its accustomed period. In a healthy person, whose digestion is good, who has taken sufficient exercise, and who in a morning has taken no very substantial or copious repast, the luncheon will probably be a matter of indispensable necessity; but many of those who take luncheon find it to spoil the digestion both of itself and of their dinner; much more will this be felt by the dyspeptic patient, who needs his stomach to be undisturbed during the digestion of his regular meals, and who should not exhaust his powers by calling them too frequently into action. If additional food be taken before the former portions are assimilated, the process will be disturbed; and however plausible may be the maxim, that the stomach will be best managed and the strength

MEDIUM. In Philosophy, that space or region through which a body in motion passes to any point: thus ether is supposed to be the medium through which the heavenly bodies move; air the medium wherein bodies move near our earth; water the medium wherein fishes live and move; and glass is also a medium of light, as it affords it a free passage. That density or consistency in the parts of the medium, whereby the motion of bodies in it is retarded, is called the resistance of the medium; which, together with the force of gravity, is the cause of the cessation of the motion of projectiles.

MEDLAR. The fruit of a tree called, in Botany, the Mespilus Germanica, which in its leaf resembles a laurel. The fruit, which in shape resembles an apple, is not eatable until it is in a state of rotten ripeness.

MEDUSA. In Zoology, a genus of vermes, belonging to the order of mollusca. The body is gelatinous, roundish and depressed; and the mouth is in the centre of the under part of the body. Many species on being handled, affect with a nettle-like burning, and excite a redness. Dioscorides says, that, if rubbed fresh on the diseased part, Elian adds, that they were depilatory; and, if they cured the gout in the feet, and kribed heels. macerated in vinegar, would take away the beard. Their phosphoric quality is well known; nor was that if rubbed with a stick it will appear to burn, it overlooked by the ancients. Pliny observes, and the wood to shine all over.

MECHANICAL POWERS. The mechanical powers are simple instruments or machines in the hands of man, by which he is enabled to raise great weights, and overcome such resistances as his natural strength could never effect without them. They are six in number, the lever, the pulley, the wheel and axle, the inclined plane, the wedge, and the screw, one or more of which enters into the composition of every machine. In order to understand the power of a machine, four things are to be considered; the power that acts, which consists in the effort of men and horses, of weights, springs, running waters, wind, and steam; the resistance which is to be overcome by the power, which is generally a weight to be moved; the centre of motion, or, as it is termed in mechanics, the fulcrum, which is the point about which all the parts of a body move; and lastly, the respective velocities of the power, and of the resistance, which must depend upon their respective distances from the axis of motion. The power and weight MEDUSA AURITA. The aurited medusa, are said to balance each other, or to be in equilibrium, when the effort of the one to produce mo- appears, when floating on the water, to be a mere tion in one direction, is equal to the effort of the lifeless lump of jelly. It is of a whitish color, other to produce it in the opposite direction. The with a cast of bluish-gray, and is of an orbiculated power of a machine is calculated, when it is in a figure, elevated into a convexity in the middle on state of equilibrium, that is, when the power just with a fringe of fine and somewhat rigid filaments the upper side, flat on the under, and furnished balances the resistance opposed, and the momen-round the edge, resembling white hairs: on the tum of each is equal.

MEDALLION, or MEDALION. A medal of an extraordinary size, supposed to be anciently struck by the emperors for their friends, and for foreign princes and ambassadors; but that the smallness of their number might endanger the loss of the devices they bore, the Romans generally took care to stamp the subject of them upon their ordinary coins.

Medallions, in respect of the other coins, were the same as modern medals in respect of modern money they were exempted from all commerce, and had no other value but what was set upon them by the fancy of the owner.

MEDICINE. The very useful science by which the structure of the animal body is studied, and remedies skilfully applied to the cure of various diseases.

under surface there are four cavities near the centre, each of an arcuated figure, and surrounded with an opaque line, formed of about twenty-four parallel points or dots: from the very centre of the under side there arise four crooked appendages, which have each a row of hairy filaments on the exterior edge; and on the upper surface there is an appearance of fine vessels of a pale color. This species is frequently floating on the surface of the sea, or adhering to rocks; and, when the sun shines on them, they have a very beautiful lucid appearance. It is called by some the seanettle, it being one of those animals that, when touched, occasion a very disagreeable tingling in

the hands.

MEDUSA CAPILLATA. The capillated medusa, is a very singular animal: it seems a mere lump of a whitish semi-pellucid jelly; and is as easily broken and destroyed by a touch, as the common jellies brought to our tables: its shape is rounded, rising into a convexity in the middle, where it is therefore thickest, and whence it becomes gradually thinner to the sides: on the under side it is plain, and on this there is visible a rough,

able to discharge, with sufficient rapidity, the waters which it accumulates in a kind of gulf between Bordeaux and its mouth, exhibits this aquatic mountain, stopped by the flow of the tide, rolling backwards, inundating the banks and agitating vessels.

or, as it were, an echinated circle, within which the superior influence of the sea, which repels the there run eight pairs of rays from the centre to-waters into their bed. Thus the Seine, forms at ward the circumference; from the centre there its mouth a bar of water,' and the Garonne, unarise also a number of curled appendages, which are sometimes reddish, but more usually whitish, and a vast number of slender filaments: the edge or the circumference of the body is regularly divided into eight portions, and each of them is emarginated, so that on the whole verge there are sixteen sinuses. This species is met with in vast abundance, floating on the surface of the water, about Sheppey Island in Kent, and elsewhere on that coast: great quantities of them are destroyed by being thrown on shore with the waves, as they have no power of getting off again; and, in the open seas, many fish skin near the surface, and prey on them. This species is called by many authors pulmo marinus, or the sea lungs.

The most sublime phenomenon of this kind is that of the giant of rivers, the Orellana, called the river of the Amazons. Twice a day it pours its imprisoned waves into the ocean. A liquid mount is thus raised to the height of one hundred and eighty feet; it frequently meets the flowing tide of the sea, and the shock of these two bodies of waters is so dreadful that it makes the neighboring shores tremble. Fishermen and navigators fly from it in the utmost terror. After every full moon, when the tides are highest, the river seems to redouble its power and energy; its waves and those of the ocean rush against each other like the dated with their foaming waves: the rocks drawn along like light pebbles, and borne as weapons of war almost upon the surface of the adverse tides, are compulsory participators in the conflict, by dashing against and fracturing each other. Loud noises, like the clamor of warring hosts, reecho from island to island. One would suppose the genius of the river and the god of the ocean were contending in battle for the empire of the waves. The Indians call this phenomenon Porororca.

MEDUSA LUMINOSA. A species discovered by Sir Joseph Banks, to which he has given the name of luminosa, as, when brought aboard by the casting net, it had the appearance of metal violent-onset of two mighty armies. The banks are inunly heated, and emitted a white light. These lum- | inous animals are one of the causes of that appearance of the sea which has been mentioned by many navigators, and for which various reasons have been assigned. They seemed to emit flashes of light exactly resembling those of lightning, only not so considerable; but so frequent, that sometimes eight or ten were visible at the same moment.

MEDUSA UNDULATA. The waved medusa, has the edges waved, with fangs on the projecting parts; four orifices beneath, between which rises a stem divided into eight large ragged tentacula. These animals swim in large companies in search of food, with their tentacula in continual motion, with which they seize their prey, and convey it to their mouths; they vary in size, the largest being generally about eight inches in diameter. They vary likewise in the number of their tentacula; some have only two; others four, six, and some eight, but they rarely exceed that number. So powerful is their embrace, that whatever prey comes within their reach never escapes.

MEERSHAUM. A fine sort of Turkish clay, of which pipes are made in Germany of various forms. It assumes a beautiful brown color after it has been used for smoking for some time.

MEETING OF WATERS. The meeting of certain rivers with the ocean, is thus beautifully described in Malte Brun's Geography.

MELINUM. In Natural History, the name of an earth, famous in the earliest ages of painting, being the only white of the great painters of antiquity; and, according to Pliny's account, one of the colors with which alone they performed all their works.

It is a fine white marly earth, of a very compact texture, yet remarkably light; a sort of texture which must render any earth fit for the painter's use, that is of a proper color. It is frequently found forming a stratum in the earth, lying immediately under the vegetable mould. It is of a very smooth, but not glossy surface; is very soft to the touch, adheres firmly to the tongue, is easily broken between the fingers, and stains the skin in handling. It melts readily in the mouth, and is perfectly fine, leaving not the least grittiness between the teeth. Thrown into water, it makes a great bubbling and loud hissing noise, and moulders away into a fine powder. It does not ferment with acids, and suffers no change in the fire. Rivers running into the sea present a great vari- These are the characters by which the melinum ety of interesting phenomena. Many form bars of the ancients is distinguished from all the other of sand, as the Senegal and the Nile; others, like white earths. It is still found in the same place the Danube, rush with such force into the sea, that from whence the painters of old had it, which is one can, for a certain space, distinguish the waters that from whence it has its name, the island of of the river from those of the sea. The Mississippi Milo, called Melos by the Greeks, and is common ejects its waters with such force, that it retains the in most of the adjacent islands. It has been of form of a strong and rapid river even in the bosom late tried here as a paint, and is found not to make of the Atlantic, traverses the American coast for so bright a white as the other substances now in upwards of two thousand miles, and first mingles use among the painters, but seems not liable, like with the ocean near the western shores of Scot- them, to turn yellow; and, if so, would be worth the land. This prodigy is denominated the Gulf consideration of persons in the color-trade, especialStream. Rivers, however, sometimes experience ly as it may be had in any quantities for carriage.

MELITITES. In Natural History, an indurated clay, of a yellowish color, but in many respects approaching to the nature of the morocthus or French chalk: which, when pulverized, yields with water a milky liquor, of a taste somewhat like honey; whence it takes its name.

MELLITE, or HONEY STONE. A mineral | common there, that it may almost be called the found first in Thuringia, which is of a honey-yel- trade wind of Ireland; from the coast they soon low color, and is usually crystallized in small octa- spread over the inland parts of the country, and edrons. were seen every where in such numbers, as were scarcely to be conceived. They never stirred in the daytime, but were seen covering the leaves and branches of trees and hedges, and in many places hanging down in prodigious clusters on one another's backs, in the manner of bees when they swarm. As soon as the sun set, they used to leave the hedges, &c. and take wing, gathering in bodies, and making a humming confused noise like that of drums at a distance. They sometimes formed bodies together, that darkened the air for three or four miles square. They flew so low sometimes, that it was scarcely possible for a person going along to make his way through them; and by striking against the faces and necks of women and children, they did much mischief, every one leaving a mark behind it; and those of this sex or age, who had been among them, came home all over bruises.

It is a smooth substance, of a compact texture and great weight, of a fine, even, glossy surface, smooth and soft to the touch, does not adhere to the tongue, nor stain the fingers; but drawn along a rough surface, leaves a fine slender white line, and shaved into very thin pieces, has some degree of transparence. It does not ferment with acids, and burns to a pure white.

It is found in mines of metals, and seems to partake pretty much of the nature of lead; having a sweetness somewhat like that of the sal saturni, but much fainter. It only differs from the galactite, in that it is milder to the taste. The ancients used it in inflammations of the eyes, and to dry ulcers.

They also applied it externally in ulcers, and gave it inwardly as a soporific to people who were to suffer pain, supposing it would make them less sensible of it. It is at present very common in Italy, and probably in many other places, but it is not known or regarded.

MELODY. In Music, a succession of sounds ranged in such a manner, according to the laws of rhythmus and modulation, as to strike the ear agreeably. Vocal melody is called singing; and that which is performed upon instruments, inay be termed symphonic melody.

MELOE. A sort of insects, of which the two principal species are the oil beetle, so called because, on being handled, it exudes from its legs, drops of a clear, deep yellow oil or fluid, of a very peculiar and penetrating smell; and the meloe vesicatorius, or Spanish fly, which is used in raising blisters.

MELOLONTHA. The name of a very peculiar sort of beetle, which is found in all parts of England, and in many other countries among trees and hedges. The French call them hanneton, and we cockchafers, dorrs, and by many other names. The name melolontha is as old as Aristotle, and is given this creature from its feeding on the blossoms of the crab or wild apple. We have, of late years, had great damages done by the grubs of these beetles working under ground; but in Ireland they have been used to come in swarms, in certain years, in the beetle state, and have been so terrible to that country that the people have called them locusts.

The first time they are remembered by authors to have appeared in this vast abundance, in that country, was in the year 1688. They then appeared in the southwest part of the county of Galway; they appeared first upon the coast, and were brought by a southwest wind, a wind so

This, however, was little to the mischief they did the fields; for though the middle of the summer was the season in which they came, they had in a few days eaten up all the leaves of the trees so completely, that they all looked as bare as in the depth of winter. The noise they made, while eating in vast numbers together, was like that of sawing timber. The gardens fared no better than the hedges, for they eat up leaves, young stalks, and fruit, and every thing that was green and soft there, and left ouly a parcel of naked sticks behind them. Many of the trees thus stripped, wholly perished.

MELON. A species of cucumber, indigenous in warm climates, where its juicy fruit is highly acceptable. In cold ones, its coolness is somewhat dangerous. The cantalupe melon is in principal estimation. To raise melons with a proper regard to wholesomeness and flavor, that water which is usually given, in order to increase their size, should he kept away.

MEMBRANE. In Anatomy, a broad, nervous, and fibrous substance, which serves as a covering for different parts of the body, particularly the brain and the viscera.

MEMOIRS. In Literature, a species of history, written by persons who had some share in the transactions they relate, answering to what the Romans called commentarii. The journals of the proceedings of a literary society, or a collection of matters transacted therein, are likewise called memoirs.

MEMORANDUM. A short note, for the better remembrance of a thing.

MEMORY. Memory implies two things: first, a capacity of retaining knowledge; and, secondly, a power of recalling that knowledge to our thoughts when we have occasion to apply it to use. When we speak of a retentive memory, we use it in the former sense; when of a ready memory, in the latter. Without memory, there can be neither