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figure of the fifti would be beautifully prefervcd between two plates or flakes of a fiflile ftone.

The fcales of moft of the fifties, prefervcd in this IJlcb ftone, are fquare or rhomboidal, and do not terminate round as thofe of moft of the other fifties do, fome of thefe have their natural appearance and complexion, being of a whitifh or pearly hue, and very bright and fhining ; others are copper- colour'd, fome yellow, and fome green ; but whether thefe have been the natural colours of the fcales, while on the body of the fifh; or whether they have acquired them while lying in the earth among the various furts of mineral matter with which they are lodged, feems not eafy to determine ; tho' the latter fecms the more probable conjecture. The fcales are nfually very fair and well preferved, as are alfo the heads and fins, with the tail and coverings of the gills, which are all more durable and hard than the reft of the fifh. IVoodw. Cat. Fof. vol. 2. p. 23.

It is very remarkable, that as in thefe dates of IJleb preferving fifties, the external parts only are preferved, the bones and flefh being wafted ; fo, on the other hand, in thofe fof- file fifties brought from Syria, the fkins and fcales are want- ing, and the fkeletons are principally the part preferved. In fome of thefe the bones are not clean, fmall parcels of the flefh being found petrified among them ; but this flefh is ftripped of the (kin. The ftone in which thefe Syrian fifties are preferved is alfo very different from the Ijleb flate, being whitifh or grcyifh, and very hard. The ftones of this kind found on mount Libanus, where they are very common, have very fine delineations of the ftar-fifti compleat. Id. Ibid.

ISNARDIA, in the Linnaan fyftem of botany, the name of a genus of plants, the diftinguifhing characters of which are thefe: The cup is a perianthium, formed like a bell, (lightly divided at the extremity into four pointed fegments. It has no petals. The ftamina are four filaments, growing out of the middle of the cup. The antherse are fimple, The ger- men of the piftillum is inclofed in thefubftance of the cup. The ftyle is fimple, and longer than the ftamina ; and the ftigma is thick and large. The fruit is made out of the bafis ©f the cup, which is fquare, and has four cells. The feeds are few in number, and of an oblong figure. Linnat Gen, Plant, p. 51.

ISOP5EPHUS, W^r^o?-, in antiquity, an appellation given to judges, who had equal jurifdiction and authority ; it was like- wife applied to a cafe where the votes were equal on both fides. Another fenfe is given to it, viz. when the letters of different words made up the fame fum, they were faid to be lao^ipoc gypxlct ; for the Greeks had no other cyphers to number with but the letters of their alphabet ; fo that a, fig- nifted one, two, y three, &e. But befide words, the an- tients had likewife whole verfes of this kind ; and'tis pretended that there are fevcral fuch verfes in Homer. Hift. Acad. In- fcript. vol. 3. p. 311. fcq.

ISOPYRUM, in botany, the name of a genus of plants de- formed by Linnaeus, the characters of which are thefe : There is no cup ; the flower contifts of five petals, equal in fize, of an oval figure, ftanding open, and very foon falling after they are opened. The nedvtaria are five ; they are all of the fame fize, and are tubular and very fhort ; their margin is oblique and undivided, and they ftand within the bafe of the flower. The ftamina are numerous capillary filaments, fhorter than the flower. The antheras are fimple. The s;er- mina of the piftil are two ; they are of an oval figure. The ftyles are fimple, and of the length of the germina ; and the itigmata are obtufe, and of the length of the ftamina. The fruit is compofed of two lunulated pods, each containing a fingle cell, in which are feveral feeds. It is evident, by thefe characters, that this genus differs from the aquilegia, helle- bore, and thalictrum, with one or other of which authors have been ufed to confound it. Linn at Gen. Plant, p. 245.

ISORA, In botany, the name given by Plumier to a genus of plants, called by Linnaeus, helicteres. Plumier 37. See the article Helicteres.

ISPIDA, the King-Fijber, in ornithology, a very beautiful bird frequenting waters, and feeding on fifh. It builds in deep holes in the banks of rivers, and lays five, or according to fome, nine eggs. It much approaches to the picus or woodpecker, in many things, but wants its great character, which is the having two toes behind. The legs of this bird are very fhort, and are black before, and red behind. Its colours, particularly its green and blue, which are its gene- ral ones, are extremely bright and beautiful. Ray's Orni- thology, p. IOI.

This name is given by Linnzeus to the bird called the me- rops, or bee-eater. This makes, with that author, a diftinct genus of birds of the order of the pica. The diftingui filing character of which is, that the middle toe has three joints joined to the outer toe, and but a fingle one joined to the inner one. Linnai Syft, Nat. p. 45.

ISSONG, in botany, a name given by the people of Guinea to afpeciesof plant, which they infufe in water, and afterwards boil, and then wafh the head with it, as a cure for all kinds of the head-ach. It is a plant defcribed by the botanical writers under the name of Pifum veficarium fruclu nigra, alba macula mtato, the bladder pea, with a black fruit Suppl. Vol, I,

marked with a white (pot j and called by the people of Mala- bar, where it alfo grows very plentifully, ulinga. It is alfo found in Barbadoes and Jamaica, and is there called parjley. Philof. Tranf. N°. 232.

ISSUES (Cycl.) — The moft ready method of making IJfues, is by incifion, and that in the following manner ; Firft mark the proper place with ink ; then elevating the integuments between the thumb and fore-finger, make an incifion thro* them, either with the fcalpel or lancet, big enough to admit a pea, which being inferted, and covered with a plafter and comprefs, nothing more is wanting but the roller to compleat the operation. Then the wound is to be cleanfed every morning and evening, and drefled with a frefh pea, and it will, by degrees, in a day or two, degenerate into a little ulcer, difcharging daily a quantity of purulent matter, which fhould be carefully wiped off at every drefling. The method by cauterizing is practifed by fome, and is done in this manner : The iron, to be made red hot, is fmall and rounded, and is included in a cafe, that the fight of it may not terrify the patient. This cafe is prefled upon the part, and then the ted hot iron within is thruft down to the fkin, and made to burn ; the burn is to be drefled with bafilicon till the efchar falls off, and then the little ulcer that is formed is to be filled with a pea, and then drefled as before. Tho' this method of making Iffues is the more fevere and painful, it muft be alfo the molt efficacious, as the pain and cauteriza- tion muft necefiarily caufe an afflux of humours to the part, and make a confiderablc revulfion, though there are very few patients that will bear it. Heijler's, Surgery, p. 314. The laft method of making Iffues is by cauftic medicines. This is to be done in this manner : Firft a piece of plafter is to have a hole cut in its middle, and to be fo placed on the part, that the whole may be placed upon the part marked with ink for the IjJ'ue. A piece of the common cauftic is then to be applied to the hole in the plafter, and retained clofe down upon the fkin, with fome fcraped lint, a fmall comprefs, and a large plafter : And laftly, with a larger comprefs and bandage. After fix or eight hours the cauftic is to be taken off, and the efcar drefled as that made by burn- ing. See the article Burn.

Which ever way an IJfue be made, it fhould he drefled at leaft twice every day, if it runs well, and at each drefling a frefh pea muft be put in, and covered with a clean plafter, and retained by a proper bandage and comprefs. Some ufe, inftead of rollers or fillets for Iffues, a leather fwath faftened with clafps, and others ufe peas of filver or wood inftead of common ones to drefs them with, but the difference is not material. When the iflue has done its bufinefs, and is to. be dried up, little more is required to this than the taking away the pea, without which it heals up of itfelf in a little time.

ISTHMUS, (Cycl.) in anatomy, is apaffage in that part of the medulla oblongata of the brain, which lies between the cere- brum and cerebellum, and which reaches from the place cal- led anus to the fourth ventricle. The upper part, or covei of this conduit, or paflage, which is betwixt the teftes and the foremoft vermicular procefs of the cerebellum, and to which two it is tied at its two ends, and to the proceffes which come from the cerebellum to the teftes at its fides, is called valenta major ; it is of a medullary fubftance, and its ufe is to keep the lympha from falling out above the nerves in the bafis of the fkull. Harris.

ITAIARA, in zoology, a name by which fome have called a Brafilian fifh, of the turdus kind, of great beauty, and a very delicate tafte, more ufually known bp the name juruncapeba. Ray's Ichthogr. p. 325. See the article Juruncapeea.

ITALIAN {Cycl.) — Italian Marble, a name ufed by our artificers for two or three of the variegated marbles, of great beauty, commonly wrought into chimney-pieces and other ornamental things. Hill, Hift. of Fof. p. 473. The name is a very indeterminate one, many of the plain, as well as the variegated marbles, being from Italy, and indeed many of the variegated ones which have other peculiar names, tho' known to be brought from Italy, being never called by it ; fo that if any meaning is to be fixed to the word at all, it muft be faid to mean fuch of the variegated foreign marbles as are not diftinguifhed by any other peculiar title. The ar- tificers chiefly comprehend, however, under this name, five fpecies : 1. The common purple and white variegated one. This is a very beautiful mafs, and in general moderately fine, but of very different degrees of purity and hardnefs in its dif- ferent parts. It is, in general, white, vein'd, fpotted, and variegated with purple; but, in fome blocks, the purple makes the ground, and the white the variegation, and in moft it is variegated befide with fpots of pale red and brown, fometimes of yellow, and fometimes of a greenifh brown. This is the moft common marble of Italy. 2. A brown and white friable one. This emulates the figure of the for- mer in the difpofitions of its veins, but is only of a white ground, vein'd with a dufky brown, and is the fofteft of all the marbles. The white part of it appears compofed of gra- nules, loofely hung together, and, on a near view, much refembles loaf fugar of the fineft kind, and if fcraped with a knife, readily falls away in large granules like fand. This is alfo common in Italy. 3. A hard variegated blue and 14 L white