Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/644

 EFT

fprings. 'The like fort of fprings are common in Switzerland, and feme other places. Thefe are known to be owing to Effluvia from beneath, by the water of them being coM ; but there are others which actually boil with an addition of heat, and are hot enough to boil an egg; fuch are the ■ famous boiling fountains of Solfatara near Naples, and fame others ; and in thefe it is evident, that fomething elfe befide cold Effluvia is concerned. Phil. Tranf. N°. 169. p. 923. From obfervation of thefe various fprings, it is eafy to find, that ther-e mtift be a manifold Variety in thofe exhalations which produce the effects in them, fome of them being cold and dry, and merely refembling wind, as is the cafe of that of Peroul. Some being of an inflammable and bituminous nature, and yet actually cold, as ours in Lancafhire, and fome natu- rally hot, and impregnated with various principles, as thofe in the fweating vaults and caverns, and thofe in the mountains of Italy, and in the vulcano's of Bajae, Cuma, and Puzzoli. Others are of a poifonous nature, containing particles of arfe- nic, fulphur, and other minerals, that either kill or fuffocate ; thefe and other fuch Effluvia may eafily be fuppofed to in- fluence the waters, through the beds of which they pafs. It is very probable, that the mineral fubftance, called pyrites, may contribute greatly to the effects of thefe ireams, for it is frequent almoft every where, and when it has lain in fuch places as it can be diffolved in, it readily imparts its principal ingredients, which are fulphur and vitriol, either to air or water, or to whatever elfe pafles through, or comes into con- tact with it. And it is obferved that the pyrites is found in great plenty all about Vefuvius, Solfatara, and other places where vulcano's are frequent. Phil. Tranf. N°. 169. p. 926.

The wonderful extension of Effluvia? and the fmall diminu- tion of the body they iffue from, is one of the ftrangeft pro- blems in phyficks. Mr. Boyle refers the doctrine of Effluvia to feveral heads, as to the ilrange extenfibility of fome bodies, while their parts yet remain tangible; the multitude of via- ble corpufcles that may be afforded by a fmall quantity of matter ; the fmallnefs of the pores at which the Efflu- via of fome bodies will get in ; and finally the great quantity of fpace that may be filled as to fenfe by a fmall quantity of matter, when rarify'd or difperfed. The efficacy of feveral Effluvia? and their acting on one another, is a fecond thing as obfervable in regard to them. This is done by either the great quantity of corpufcles emitted, or their penetrating or pervading nature, or elfe by their celerity, or other modifica- tion of their motion, or by the congruity or incongruity of their bulk and fhape to the pores of the bodies they are to act upon ; or by the motions of one part upon another, which they excite or occafion in the body they work upon, accord- ing to its ftructure ; and finally by the fitnefs and power which they have to make themfelvcs be acted upon by the more catholic agents of the univerfe, which then affift them in their working.

The determinate natures of Effluvia? according to the prin- cipal instances we have of them, are reducible to thefe three heads : 1. That thefe Effluvia being, by condenfation, or otherwife.5 reunited, they appear to be of the fame nature with the body that emitted them. 2. Their determinate na- ture may be fometimes difcovered by the difference that may be obferved m their fenfible qualities, forafmuch as thofe Effluvia which are endowed with them proceed from the fame fort of bodies, and yet thofe afforded by one kind of bodies being in many pales manifeflly different from thofe which fly off from another, this evident difparity in their ex- halation argues, that they retain diftindt natures, according to the nature of each body from which they proceed. 3. We may difcover this different nature of Effluvia from their effects upon other bodies than the organs of our fenfes, con-

■ fidering that the effects which certain bodies produce on others by their effluviums, being conitant and determinate, and always different from thofe which other agents produce by their emiffions on the fame or other fubjects, the difiinct nature of the corpufcles, emitted on this occafion, may he fufficiently judged of, were it only from this. Boyle on Ef- fluvia.

EFFRACTURA, a word ufed by Ambrofe Parcy for a pecu- liar fpecies of fracture of the fkull, in which the bone is at once broken and depreffed, hhfm. Lex. in voc.

EFFRONTES, in church hiilory, a feet of heretics who fcraped their forehead with a knife till it bled, and then pour- ' ed oil into the wound. This ceremony ferved them inftead of bnptifm. See Baptism.

They are likewife faid to have denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit.

EFFUSION (Cycl.) — Effusion of blood? effufio fanguinis? in our old writers, is ufed for the mulct, fine, or penalty, impofed for the fhedding of blood. This the king ufed frequently to grant to lords of manors. Among others it was granted to the abbot of Glaftcnbury.

EI'T, or Eff, in zoology, the name of a creature very com- mon in all parts of England, and called alfo the Newt? and

'- the Swift? and ' by others the common lizard, lacertus vul- garis. The beak of this creature is oval and obtufe, its back of a

EFT

nifty it on colour ; its feet have each five toes, and are armed with very {harp tho' fmall claws. That toe which is in the ' place of the forefinger with us is the longeft of all, and that which anfwers to our thumb is placed lower. Ray's Syn. Quad. p. 264.

We have feveral fpecies of this animal with us. 1 . The com- mon land Eft, with the black fpotted belly. 2. The make- like Eft? which is frequent in our heaths. 3. The fmall brown land Eft. This is very fcarce. 4. The yellow fcaly land Eft? defcribed by Plot in his hiftory of Stafford fh ire. And 5. The brown and black fpotted water Eft. Plot's Staff, p. 252.

The water Eft affords an excellent opportunity of feeing the circulation of the blood by means of the microicope, particu- larly of the folar one. By this apparatus the veffels are feen beautifully delineated on the fkreen ; and the tide of blood > in the large ones, is equal to that of the ftream of water which is fhewn, in hydroftatical experiments* thrown out of a veffel by condenfed air. In either of thefe cafes, you can fee no appearance of feparate drops or globules, but the whole forms one continued body. In the leffer veifels the globules are feen paffing along very fwiftly, yet evidently feparate one from another : They are ufually of an oblong form, and re- ferable what are called ant's eggs, and fometimes they are feen continued into a fort of chains, or like the beads of a neck- lace, each touching the other at the ends. But in this man- ner of obferving the globules, there is never feen any com- minution of them ; and, in the common way, there is never obferved any thing of this change of the fhape of the globules : But every thing, in this manner of viewing them, is magnified to fo great a degree, that it is no wonder the leait depar- ture from the globular figure is eafily feen in the narrow paffages. Thefe globules are feen ffanding almoft ftill for fome time, and afterwards forming themfelvcs into a longer and narrower fhape, till they have got by this ftrait part of the veffel, and there affuming their own form again, and going on with the fame fwiftnefs. But the moft remarkable phe- nomenon of all, is the fhape and odd motion of fome of them near the extremity of the edge of the tail. Thefe exactly refemble the tadpole, both in figure and mo- tion, except that they have not quite fo much of the riggling motion of the tail as thofe animals have, when in the water. The round part, or head of the globule, as it may be called by way of diftinction, has exactly the fame motion, and the whole globule greatly' refembles an animal of that figure roaming about for prey; and frequently turning to the right and left, as the animalcules in pepper water do ; and they fometimes will flop fuddenly in the midft of their courfe. It would be very natural for a hafty obferver to declare thefe to be real animals, living in the veffels of the creature, amono- the blood, as the animalcules do in Uie femen ; but it feems not difficult to account for all the motions we fee in them, on the mere principle of their being globules, without their having any fort of animal life, and the flare of the blood, at that time confidered, together with the ftate of the veffels, the effect will be eafily conceived to proceed from plain and natural caufes. It is to be obferved, that the blood, at the time it found thefe globules, was near ftagnating; and it Will be found by experiment, that a drop of common water, on a fmooth furface, as on a plane of glafs, placed in a flam- ing direction, will move down it flowly, and with a fort of tail, and will not run ftrait down, but with the fame fort of meanders.

It is remarkable, that, in the tail of this animal, there feem a greater number of veffels than are immediately neceffary to the circulation of the blood ; for, when thus examined, there will be often feen two parallel veffels, in one of which only the circulation is perform'd, and this fucceffively in one and the other of the veffels, the tide often leaving the one wholly empty, that had juft before been full and circulating in the other. Phil. Tranf. N°, 460. p. 728. Eft Stones, in the materia medica of the American Indians,, a name given to certain ftones, faid to be found in the ftomach of a certain fpecies of water newt, or Eft, in the manner of the bezoars in other animals. The waters of Brafil, Cuba, and Mexico, abound with this fpecies of Eft ; but it does not feem well atteffed, that this fort of ftone was ever found in any of them by thofe who have differed numbers of them, on pur- pofe to fearch for it. We have in Europe fwallow ftones, and other fuch things, whofe names, and their fabulous hi- ftories, would import their being produced in animals. As many fwallows have been deftroyed in England, in looking for thefe ftones, as newts in Mexico in looking for thofe; and, by the appearance of the American as well as the Euro- pean ftones, they both feem to be dug out of the earth, and to have been once the teeth, or other parts, of nines. Redi Experim.

The virtues of the Eft-Jlone of Mexico are celebrated by Ximenes, and all others who have been upon the fpot. It is faid to be a certain remedy for the gravel, and all other nephritic complaints, and even to break and diffolve the ftone, when already concreted in the bladder. But this ac- account of its virtues feems as improbable as that of its origin. Redi try'd thefe and many other ftones of famous character 1 among