Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/925

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the belt materials are of the produce of that part of the world, and the iecret of weaving and working them is only among that people. Philof. 'Irani'. N" 172. p. 1050. Thofe who fuppol'e that no fuch cloth was ever made at all, found their opinion, like Dalefchamp, on the fhortnefs of the fibres of the afbeftus ; but tho' what they may have feen, was fhort, there is enough that is mhiciently long, and that very fine alio, and fit tor working, even in Europe. Mr. Montefquieu having collected very lately, and lent into Eng- land, fome alheltus from the rocks near Barege, which any common hand might work into cloth.

The Eait-Indies teems to have been always the principal place of its manufacture. Caslius Rhodoginus fays, it was only made there, and that the bell materials of it were not found elfewhere. And Paulus Venetus fays, that Tartary was the place where it was made for many ages, and in no other place : He mentions alio a fine piece ot It font to pope Alexander, by the then emperor of that country. A- gricola teils us of a mantle of this linnen, at Vcreburg in baxony. And Simon Majolus fays, he faw one at Lovain expofed to the lire : And Mr. Ray law a purie of it at Hei- delberg, which bore being made red hot, without any hurt. By thete accounts it is plain, that in all ages, and in many places, this cloth has been preferved ; and all experiments made on it agree in confirming the truth of the accounts given of its bearing fire unhurt. Paper is more ealily made of it than cloth, and has the fame qualities.

Incombustible Lint, a name given by authors to a peculiar kind of afbeftus or earth flax, which never is formed into compact malfes as the other fpecies are, but is always found in loole filaments, and thofe oi a very flexible nature, and extremely fit to work.

This is a kmd of afbeftus, wholly different from the fpecies known to the antients, and is found, fo far as is yet known, only in the county oi Aberdeen in Scotland, in the neighbour- hood of Acmncore near the Highlands, hi this place there are touiid many very elegant pieces of foflile wood petrified in a beautiful manner. On the fide of a hill near this place in a heathy and fomewhat boggy foil, and about the edges of a fmall brook that runs down there, there is a fpace of about ten or twelve yards fquare, in which pieces of this foflile wooa he very thick. Near this place, if the ground be only duo - into with a knife, there is found a fort ot fibrous matter lying near the furface among the roots of the grafs j the knife will not cut this, and on examining it, it proves to be a fubftance of the afbeftus kind, tho' not in lumps, it is very foit and flexile, and is not injured by the fire. Tho' this matter generally lies in thefe loofe filaments, yet it is fometimes collected into parcels, and feems to form a tolerably compact body. When this, however, is more near- ly examined, it is found not to be a real lump, but a con- geries reiembliug a lurgeon's.pledgit of prelTed lint, and on bein"- put into water it ieparates into its natural loole threads, which no other fpecies of afbeftus will do. All the afbeltus of this kind lies within an inch of the furface, parallel to it, and fo interwoven among the roots of the grals and fmall plants, that it is not eafily feparated from them. The petrified wood found in the fame place very much re- fembles the texture of this afbeftus, and probably, whether this be really not petrified wood., but only an alheltus with the appearance of the veins of trees, or whether foilile wood in fome places gives origin to afbeftus, thefe mafies and the loofe lint are very nearly allied to one another. The itones or pieces of petrified wood are of different kinds ; fome are white of the colour of lint, and of fo fort a fubftance, that a knife eafily cuts through them without being blunted by it ; others are mixt with a kind of greyifh talc, and are very hard.

The loofe lint is always abrupt at both ends, as if cut off with a knife ; and the ground in which it lies is a grey foil, of about two inches deep, covering a ftratum. of vegetable mould of two foot. In fome places in the neighbourhood, there are found large quantities of a glittering talcky fand - f and near this there always is more or lefs of the lint. Some- times alfo in thefe places there are pieces of the petrified wood, which degenerate more than the rclt from the nature of wood, and appear very white, bright, and talcky. It ap- ■pears hence, that talc may have fome fhare in its origin, and this is the more probable, as talc as well as afbeftus is not to be injured by the fire. The antient Romans fpun pieces of their afbeflus's into cloths, and ufed them in the funeral rites of the dead, preferving the afhes fate from thofe of the wood, by firft- wrapping up the body in a winding meet of this cloth. What they had for this purpofe, feem by the ac- counts of Pliny and others to have been all very fhort ; but this here mentioned would be much more eafily wrought, as it is feven or eight inches long in fome pieces. The fabricat- ing a cloth of this fubllance, has not yet been attempted ; but Mr. Wilfon, who firft. difcovered it, had fome of it fpun into

. yarn, which gives proof that the other is practicable. Phil. Tranf. N J 276. p. 1005.

INCREMENT, heremmtum, in rhetoric, a fpecies of climax, which rifes from the loweft to the higheft ; Such is that of Se- nega, turpijjima tamen ejl jaclura 3 qua per negligtntiam venit ; b'uPFi.. Vol.. I.

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et, ft votuer'ts attendere, magna vita pars ehbiim- mule agin* turns, maxima nihil agentibus^ tota aliud agentibus. y iR TW^f'r 1 ' 5 ' p '374- &q- See the article Climax, tyd. INCUBUS, [Cj/cl.) in medicine, the name of a difeafe, which confifrs in a fpafmodic contra£tion of the rnufcles of the breaft ufually happening in the night-time, and attended with a very painful difficulty of refpiration, and great anxiety. Signs of it. The moft obvious fymptom of this difeafe, is a fenfiition like that of fome great weight laid upon the breaft ; this is attended with fo violent a cohibition of refpiration, that the perfon becomes unable to move spy part of his bo- dy, or to utter any diftinel or articulate found. This whole complaint goes off as foon as any one limb is moved, but there is often an univerfal laflitude of the whole body left behind it, which remains for fome fpace of" time. This difeafe generally attacks people in the night-time, in a fort of middle ffate between flecp and waking

Perfons fubjetl to it. Thofe of plethoric habits are moft fub- jec~f to fall into this difeafe, and among them fuch particu- larly as have a great thicknefs of the blood. Perfons who are fubject to hypocondriac complaints, and to diforders of the fpleen, are alfo much affected with it ; and it is ufually brought on by eating large fuppers, and afterwards flcepino- upon the back. a

Caujesofit. Thefe are a ftagnation of the blood in plethoric habits, where it is thick about the vena portK, which nature is endeavouring to throw off by means of thofe fpafmodic motions, which conftitute this difeafe j and very often cru- dities in the prima? viae become additional caufes, and exaf- perate the complaint.

Prognojlks in it. This is ufually efteemed a trifling complaint, and at the utmoft if it does not go off of itfelf,°to be cured by bleeding. Phyfirians efreem it a difeafe of no danger; but it is much to be fufpected, that many of thofe people who are found dead in their beds perifh by it.

Method of Cure. When this diftemper returns fo often as to occafion the patient to call in the afliftance of a phyfician, the method is to give gentle purges three or four times, with the digeftive medicines, fuch as gum ammoniacum or the tartarum vitriolatum on tile intermediate days ; after this, bleeding in the foot is proper ; and when this has been done, powders of nitre and cinnabar ufually compleat the cure: If they fail, the common method in hypocondriac cafes is to be ufed. When there are crudities in the primse viae which exafperate this difeafe, then after the purges, gentle bitters and other medicines which will re/tore the tone of the fto- mach, are to be given. Gentian and orange-peel in infufion, are very good for this purpofe. When it happens almofl wholly from a load on the ltomach, a gentle vomit alone will perforin a cure ; but in this cafe great care is to be ta- ken, that there is not a miftake in the nature of the difeafe, for fome hypocondriac cafes much refemble this j and in all • thefe, vomits are extremely hurtful. To prevent returns, the patients mult accuflom themfelves to lie on one or the other fide, never on the .back. "Junker's Confp. Med, p. 63L

INCUS (Cycl.) — The Incus or anvil contained in the barrel of the ear, refembles in fome mcaiure one of the anterior grind- ers, with its roots at a great diftance from each other ; at leaff it comes nearer to this than to the fhapc of an anvil. AnatomifU divide it into the body, arid the branches : The body is a fomewhat large fubftauce ; -the branches or legs arc two, one long and one fhort. The body is turned for- ward, the fhort leg backward, and the long leg downward. The body of the Incus is broader than it is thick ; it has two eminences, and two cavities between them, much as we fee in the crown of the firft grinders. The fhort leg is thick at its origin, and from thence decreahng gradually it ends in a point. It is fituated horizontally, its point being turned backward, and joined to the edge of the maftoide opening of the tympanum. The long leg viewed through the external auditory paflage appears to be fituated vertically, but if we look upon it either on the fore or back-fide we fee it is inclined, the extremity of it being turned much more inward than the root or origin. The point of the extremity is a little flatted, and bent back like a hook, and fometimes a little hollow'd like a kind of ear-picker. By this the Incus of one ear may be diftinguifhed from that of the other, when out of their places j for turning the fhort leg backward and the long leg downward, if the curvature of this long leg be toward the left hand, the bone belongs to the right car, if to- ward the right it belongs to the left ear. IP'injhzvs Anat. p. 48.

INDECIMABLE, hidecimahilis, in law, is applied to things not tythable, or which by law ought not to pay tythe. 2 Inft. 490. Blount.

INDENTED {Cycl.)— Indented Line, in fortification, aline running out and in, like the teeth of a faw, forming feveral angles, fo that one fide defends another. They are ufed on the banks of rivers, where they enter a town ; likewife the parapet of the covert way is often indented. This is by the French engineers called Kedents. Small places are fometimes fortified with fuch a line. But the fault of fuch fortifications is, that the befiegers from one battery may ruin both the fides of the tenailie or front of a place a and make an af-

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