Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/655

 E M E

E M E

Tho' the flies of the viviparous kind, hitherto mentioned, are all of a larger fort, there are not wanting, even among the moft minute ones, fome of this kind. The common heaps of cowdung afford us myriads of extreamly fmall worms, which, after a proper time, in that form, pafs into the nymph ftate under a fhcll of their own (kin, and thence into flies much fmaller than the head of a pin, yet thefe the micro- fcope {hews to be viviparous. Ibid, p. 428. Nor are we to imagine thefe the fmalleft of this kind. To the great creator of all thefe, large and fmall arc the fame ; and as the microfcope has of late ages difcovered to us millions of ani- mals in liquors where we never ihoukl have imagined we fhould have found them, it is much more than pofTible, that multitudes of thefe, after having pafled that part of their life we are ac- quainted with, under the form of water worms, may after- ward become flies too minute for our obfervation ; flies, to which the fmalleft of thofe we know may be of an enormous magnitude, and that of thefe many may be viviparous. Ibid. p. 430. EMBRYONATUM Sulphur, in the writings of fome chemifts, the name of one of the three general dalles of Sulphur which they conftitute. The firfr. of thefe they call the univerfal Sul- phur, or refin of the earth ; this is never united with any thing : By this they feem to mean what Boerhaave,' and other late chemifts, have called the vague acid. The fecond Is this fame fulphur united to metals and minerals ; and the third is the fame Sulphur, when feparated by art from thefe metals and minerals. This lafl fecms fulphur in its moft ad- vanced ftate, and the fecond kind is what they call the Sulphur Embryonatmn, as it is in the metals, Esfa. in an embryo itate, and ready to he difclofed into its laft form. EM BRY ULCUS, in furgery, the name of an inftrument, in form of a fort of crotchet, or hook, ufed for drawing out the fcetus in difficult labours. EMERALD {Cycl.) — See Smaracdus. Counterfeit Emerald. The manner of making counterfeit Emeralds in pafte is this : Take cryftal prepared two ounces, common minium, or red lead, four ounces; mix thefe well together, then. add of good verdigreafe two pennyweights, and crocus martis made with vinegar, eight grains. Mix all thefe well together, and fet the whole in the hotteft part of a potter's furnace. As long as the fire lafts it mult be put into a ftrong crucible, and covered with a lute. When it is cold take oft the lute, and, if it is baked enough, it will be clear to the bottom ; otherwife relute the pot, and put it into the furnace again. Twenty-four hours commonly is fufficient tor the making this ; fometimes it requires a little more. The pafte, thus made, is harder than ordinary, and is of a fine colour, and capable of a good polifh. iWz's Art of Glafs, p. 128.

If the pafte be defired of a very deep emerald colour, take prepared cryftal one ounce ; red lead, fix ounces and a half; of verdigreafe, three pennyweight and thirteen grains; and of crocus martis, made with vinegar, ten grains. This requires a longer baking than the other, and is lefs hard, though of a deeper colour. Neri, p. 129.

The proportions of thefe Ingredients maybe varied at pleafure, and the colour be made of all degrees of deepnefs ; but the more lead is added, the more baking is required, and, after all, the pafte will be fo much the fofter. Emerald Colour, in the glafs trade, the way of giving this beautiful dye to glafs is this ; In the pots of melted metal, made of palverine, and without manganefe, when the matter is well purified, put a little crocus martis calcined with vine- gar. About three ounces of this crocus is enough for a hun- dred weight of glafs, let it ftand till thoroughly mixed, then put into every hundred weight of metal two pound of calcin'd brafs ; this muft be added at fix different times, letting the metal ftand two hours every time. When this is all in, make a proof of the metal, and if it have any bluimnefs, add more crocus martis, a fmall quantity at a time. When the whole is of a fine leek green, let it ftand twenty-four hours to mix thoroughly, and then work it. Neri's Art of Glafs, p. 51. EMERUS, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the cha- racters of which are thefe : The Mower is of the papilionaceous kind, and the piftil, which anfes from the cup, becomes finally a flendcr pod, ufually containing cylindric feeds. The fpecies of E?nerus, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe: j. The great podded fcorpioidc Emerus. 2. The low dwarf fcorpioide Emerus. 3. The American Emerus, with crooked pods. Town. Inft. p. 650. EMERY, Smir'is, {Cycl.) in natural hiftory, medicine, &c. a kind of iron ore, diftinguifhed from all the others by its pecu- liar hardnefs. It cuts glafs like a diamond ; but makes no effcrvefcence with any of the acid menftrua. Emery is faid to have a corroding and almoft cauftic quality ; but this without any juft foundation. It is recommended by the ant'ients as an aftringent and dentrifice. In this laft inten- tion, however, it muft be ufed with great caution, as its Jiardnefs and fharpnefs are fuch, that it will be apt to wear oft the enamel of the teeth. Hill, Hift. Mat. Med. p. 10. See Smiris. EMETIC {Cycl.) — The antient phyficians were very fond of Emetics, as prefcrvatives againft difeafes, and Hippocrates, in particular, has recommended the giving them twice a month,

during winter and in the fpring. His Emetics were very ekCy, Ample, and gentle ones. One very common prefcription, to this purpofe, was a decoction of hyffop, with an addition of fo much vinegar and fait as would make the patient naufeate it. This was to be taken by ftrong and robuft people, in the morning faffing, and, by the more weakly, after dinner or fupper. Diodorus Siculus has affured us, that the great practice of the antient Egyptian phyficians confifted in glyfters, vomits, and abftinence. Afclepiades, who was a great enemy to purges, yet often ordered his patients gentle vomits after fupper.

The emetic medicines are of two very different kinds, fome being naturally mild and gentle, others harfh and rough ; of the former kind, warm water with butter, or the water of the naturally warm mineral fprings, are often capable of doing very great fervice. The medicine of the general ufe at prc- fent, ipecacuanha, feems of a happy middle nature between thefe, and the more rough ones, of which the vegetable kingdom afford us a great number, as afarabacca, white hel- lebore, gamboge, and all the purges in too large dofes. The mineral world, however, affords much more numerous and more violent ones ; fuch are all the preparations of copper, and of the vitriols, the antimonial vomits, and the mercurial ones.

The antients, in violent difeafes, fuch as madnefs, epilepfies, and fome other diforders, not attended with a fever, gave the white hellebore root as an Emetic, with great fuccefs ; but we now ufe remedies lefs dangerous, as death has been fome- times known to have been the effect of this medicine. Our ipecacuanha is a celebrated remedy for fluxes, nor is the obfer- vation new, that vomits are the grcateft of all remedies in thefe cafes. Celfus, 1. 1. c. 3. affirms, that vomits in general itop fluxes, yet always keep the body open. The country people, with us, frequently ufe afarabacca as a fuccedaneum, for the ipecacuanha. It is rougher, indeed, than that me- dicine, but, if taken in decoction, the boiling carries off its acrid and too pungent quality, and it retains its emetic power in a more gentle degree, and, with it, has a balfamic and corroborating virtue, and has been known to cure inve- terate quartans, and to do great fervice in jaundices and dropfies. Among the antimonial vomits, the beft is the emetic tartar, prepared from the crocus metallorum, not from the glafs of antimony, for that makes it doubly rough and harfh in the working. Three or four grains of this alone, or yet lefs of it, mixed with ipecacuanha, are often given with great fuc- cefs, and when the intention is to purge and vomit at the fame time, then three grains of this emetic tartar, added to a folution of manna, prove an excellent medicine. In afthma- tic and pituitous cafes, the oxymel of fquills is a very effica- cious and perfectly fafe medicine ; but all the preparations of copper, and the rougher antimonial vomits, are to be re- jected as being very dangerous and very uncertain, working either too little, or greatly too much, according to the ftate of the humours in the ftomach. The ftronger Emetics before- mentioned, as fafe ones, are often neceflary in cafes of poi- fons, efpccially of the narcotic kind, and the infectious parti- cles received from the effluvia of perfons in contagious difeafes, which being fwallowed into the ftomach with the fpittle, would otherwife infallibly create the fame difeafe. In diforders arifing fiom a vitiated or thick bile, formed, as it were, into a kind of vifcid coagulum, and flopping up the biliary duas, as is the cafe in jaundices, and fome other complaints, Eme- tics are frequently ufed with great fuccefs, after all the com- mon methods have failed. In anafarcas alfo, and leucophleg- mafies, and cedematous fwellings of the parts, and in a curable afcites, Emetics, exhibited in large dofes, ufually carry off by ftool, though rarely by vomit, the aqueous ferum from the liver, and the duds and glands of the inteftines, rnefentery, and pancreas ; nor are thefe the only cafes in which Emetics* properly adminifter'd, are capable of doing very Angular fer- vice; but there ftill requires great care and caution in the giving them, as it is an infallible rule, that the medicine which can do great good, may alfo do great harm. Hojfm. Medic- Rational Syftcm.

'Tis proper, in order to make E?netics work the more eafily, always to give them in a liquid form, or in a fufficient quantity offomemoiitening, relaxing, and fatty vehicle ; for vomiting not only requires a ftrong contraaion of the pylorus, and bottom of the ftomach, but alfo a relaxation of the fupenor orifice of the asfopbagus. During the operation of Emetics, and after it is over, the patient muft be carefully guarded agamft the cold, and to abftain from all cold liquors, from ail hot or ftimulating medicines, and from all violent emotions of the mind : And about four hours after the operation of avomitis over, it is extreamly proper to drink half a pint of ailes milk, if it can be readily had.

Whenever bleeding and vomiting are both neceflary, bleed- in<r fhould always be done firft. Sydenham, who very ju- dkiouflv gives this caution, had been long ufed to give vomits in febrile diforders ; and in the fmall pox, his ufual Emetic was the vinum benedictum, and, according to his own ac- count of the fuccefs, it does not appear that our fubftituting the ipecacuanha in its place has been of any fervice to the world in thefe cafes. The antients in general have recommended ths giving vomits