Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/641

 EDU

EEL

3ECURIE, in the manege, the covert-place for die lodging or houfing of horfes. The word is French. We ufe Stable in common difcourfe.

ECUYER, in the French manege, is ufed for the riding- matter. Sometimes it denotes certain officers in the king of France's houfhold, who help the king in mounting his horfe and alighting, and follow him on horfeback, and carry his fword. Thefe are called Ecuyers de §>uartier. . Gentlemen-ufhers to the queen of France, and the mafters of the horfe to princes, and perfons of quality, are alfo called Ecuyers. Bcfides thefe, there are others called Ecuyers Ca- valcadours. See Cavalcadour. Guillet.

ECZEMA, a name given, by the antient phyficians, to any fiery puftule on the fkin.

EDESSENUM, the name of a famous collyrium, reckoned among the number of the monohemera, or fuch as cur'd cer- tain diforders of the eyes, in one day. It is fuppofed to have had its name Edejfenkm from the city of Edeffi, where it was

, firft invented, and in great ufe. Its compohtion was this : Take Gum arable, tragacanth, farcocolla, acacia, and ftarch, of each two drams, opium four drams, cerus eight drams, cad- mia fixteen drams ; thefe were all to be reduced to a fine pow- der, and afterwards mixed with a fufficient quantity of water,

. to be ufed to wafh the eyes,

EDGE in with a Jhip, in the fea language, is faid of a chace, that is making up to him.

EDGINGS, in gardening, the feries of fmall, but durable, plants, fet round the edges or borders of flower-beds, &c.

. The belt and tnoft durable of all plants for this ufe, is box, which, if well planted, and rightly manag'd, will continue in ftrength and beauty for many years. The feafons for plant- ing this are the autumn, and very early in the fpring. And the belt, fpecies for this purpofe, is the dwarf Dutch box The edgings of box are now only planted on the fides of bor- ders next walls, and not as was fome time fince the fafhion, all round borders or fruit-beds, in the middle of gardens, un- lefs they have a gravel walk between them, in which cafe it ferves to keep the earth of the borders from wafhing down on

■ the walks in hard rains, and fouling the gravel.

In the Iaft age, it was alfo a very common practice to plant borders, or edgings, of aromatic herbs, as thyme, favory, hyffop, lavender, and the like : But thefe are all apt to grow woody, and to be in part, or wholly, deftroyed in hard win-

alfo ufed by fome for this purpofe ; but they require yearly
 * ters. Daifies, thrift, or fea julyfiower, and chamomile, are

. tranf plan ting, and a great deal of trouble, clfe they grow out of form ; and thefe are alfo fubje£t to perifli in very hard fea- fons. Miller's Gardener's DicE

EDULCORATION, (Cycl.) in metallurgy, is the feparating,

. by a folution in water, the falts that have been left adhering to a body after any operation. This is properly a kind of moift folution, the (aline parts adhering to bodies, not foluble in water, being by that menftruum taken up, and eaten off from the body, and the folution afterwards feparated from the remaining folid, either by fubfidence or filtration. It is proper, in this operation, to enlarge the furface of the body to be edulcorated, by pounding it in a mortar, that the


 * folution may have the fpecdier fuccefs ; and for this purpofe,

it fliould alfo be kept continually ftirring with a flick, while the water is on it, that all the parts of the body to be edulcorated,

, which otherwife would fome of them fink to the bottom, and remain applied againft the bottom of the veffel it is per- .perform'd in, may be made equally at one time or other con-

. tiguous to the particles of the edulcorating fluid, by which all folutions are indeed greatly facilitated. Boiling water is alfo, in fome cafes, requifite, for the heat of that, by the inward motion, and rarefaction it occafions, promotes, in an extraor- dinary manner, feline folutions. A pexfec-fc ablution from the fait, however, is not always ob-

■ tained by this method; for as every part of the menftruum , contains in it a proportionable quantity of the matter diflblv'd,

and there remains always fome part of the menftruum thus impregnated in the body to be edulcorated, it is evident that there alfo remains in it the proportionable quantity of fait for that menftruum. Let us take, for inftance, the alkaline fait . in wood-afhes, pour hot water on fuch afhes, and let them boil together for fome time, then by decantation, or otherwife, feparate the lye or water impregnated with the fait of the afhes, from the afhes themfelves ; there will remain, after all you can do to pour it off, at leaft one fourth part of the lye among the afhes, and of courfe a proportionable part of the dilfolved fait. Pour more water on this, and decant it off again, a quantity of fait, tho' much lefs than the former, will again remain ; and fo on, if the operation be repeated ever fo often, only the fait will be in lefs and lefs quantity every time. Very frequent repetitions of this operation are therefore always neceffary, and even where the operator has tir'd himfelf with them, a nice experimenter will always find fome fmall portion of the fait remaining.

To this remaining of the faline particles, in fome degree, after ever {o often repeated warnings, is owing the great lofs arti- ficers ufually find in reducing the calxes of gold and filver, made with acids. For the fmall remainder of the acids which yet S.uppl. Vol. I.

adhere, being agitated by an impetuous, And eipecially if by an open fire, cany off in their evaporation a great many par- ticles of the metals with them, not even excepting aqua fort is itfclf, which neverthelefs is faid to be, nay, and really is, of a fixing nature, but that only in a certain degree. Cramer, Artof AiT. 196. EEL, Anguilld} {Cycl) — There is fcarce any animal, the ge- neration of which has fd much perplexed and puzzled the thoughts of the learned and curious as this. Ariftotle firft gave birth to an opinion, that Eels were of no fex, nor did propagate their fpecies like other animals, but were equivocally gen- der'd of the mud ; And as wild and abfurd a fyftem as this is, there have not been wanting many, even in thefe later and more enlightened times, who have given into it. Eels are found in pools and ditches newly dug, and where no parent animals of the fame kind could come to give them origin. This has given occafion to people's falling into the opinion, that they were equivocally engender'd there : And MyJlius, who has written of the generations of animals ; and A4orh.ofii.is of the tranfmutation of metals, have given a pro- cefs for the flocking any new pond with Eels, as they fay it was at that time pradtifed by the Dutch. The method was this : '

In the months of May and June, fome graffy turfs are to be cut up early in a morning, at which time they fuppofe there falls a dew, which afterwards becomes enlivened into Eels'. Thefe turfs are to be laid in a double row, with their graffy fides together, and are to be placed on the warmefl fide of the pond, or ditch. The heat of the fun, they fay, will there finifh the formation of the Eels, and they will 'crawl down into the water, where they will live and grow. This procefs feems much of the fame kind with that for the making live crayfifh, by bruifmg and burning the full grown ones, and then fleeping them in water. This is gravely delivered by no lefs a man than Sir Kenelm Digby, but has few believers at this time. Phil. Tranf. N°. 238. p. 93.

The prefent age has been fo well inftru&cd in the fyftem of animal generation, by the works of Swammerdam, Lewen- hoeck, Malpighi, Redi, Ray, and a great number of other writers, of the fame valuable ftamp, that there is left no room to doubt but all animals are produced by the copulation of parents like themfelves ; and the oddity of Eels being found in new ponds, is eafily accounted for, when we know that Dr. Plot, and many others, have given accounts of whole droves of them leaving one ditch or pond, and croffing the meadows together, to go to another. We know that the Eel, of all fifties, lives the longeft out of water, and it is not difficult to conceive, that it may, without any inconve- nience, fpendfo much time out of that element, as is neceffary for the paffing from one water to another ; and when a par- cel of thefe fifhes have found a new pond, it is no wonder that they continue in it, fince they feed on worms and other infects of the earth ; and there is probability that thefe may be found in peculiarly great abundance in a place where the earth has been newly difturbed, and where they have not been prey'd upon.

Pliny tells us, that an Eel will live fix days out of water with- out hurt ; but this is not neceffary for the poffibility of their making the fhort journey here mentioned. Gefner tells a ftory from Albertus, of a parcel of Eels which, in a very cold winter, in the year 11 25, not only left their natural ele- ment, but were found bedded together, in vaft numbers, un- der a dry hay-flack.'

Eels, by their fhape and motion, which both refemble thofs of ferpents, are much better qualify'd for living or travelling out of water than any other animal of the fifh kind ; but they do not feem the only ones ; for we have, at this time, what are called foflile fifh, which are dug up out of the lands, near rivers ; and as long fince as in the times of Theophraftus, they were thought to be fo numerous, that he has written a whole treatife concerning them, which he has entitled De Pifcibus in Sicca viventibus, of thofe fifhes which live out of water : And Aurelius Severinus has republifhed this, with additions, in the Latin language, at Naples, in 1655. Ariftotle tells us, that the Cerian and Paphlagonian fifhes wander about upon the dry fands, and return into the water occafionally : And George Pi6torius relates the fame of fifh of the river Cherati in Judea. Rondeletius affents to the poffibility of this in particular fifhes, and adds, that Eels have all the re- quifites for it ; their flit for the gills being very narrow, and calculated to prevent any too fudden or forcible appulfe of the external air, which is what kills other fifhes on their ly- ing out of water. Phil. Tranf. N°. 238. p. 97. Tho' the learned world at this time generally allows, that Eels are produced like other animals, by parents of their own kind, yet there remain many doubts, about the manner in which this is performed, fome allowing the Eels to be like the generality of other animals of different fexes, in the dif- ferent individuals; and others affirming that they are all her- maphrodites, each having the parts of generation of both fexes. Rondeletius affirms they are of different fexes : And Mr. Allen, who has given a very curious paper concerning them, in our philofophical tranfactions, is of the fame opinion ; 30 C and