Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/954

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felf tells us, that the only difference between the Juniper and cedar, was in the leaves, for that the leaves of the cedar were hard, fharp, and prickly, and thofe of the Jwuper fofter j and that the Juniper tree grew much higher than the cedar. It is plain from this, that the Greeks had no idea of the cedar of Lebanon under this name, but that their cedars were only Junipers of peculiar fpecies, and of the nature of our Virginian and Bermudas cedars. The Greeks in gene- ral, after the time of this author, called both thefe trees by the name of cedar, only fometimes they distinguished them by calling the low kind oxycedrw, the priQkly cedar, becaufe of its prickly leaves. JUNKES, on board a Ship, is ufed to fignify old hawfers. JUNO, in aftronomy, a name given by fome to the fecond fatellite of Jupiter. Lowtborp's Abrid. Phil. Tranf. vol. I. p. 408. IVORY (Cyi.) — A green dye may be given to Ivory by fteep- ing it in aqua fortis tinged with copper or verdigreafe. And by converting the aqua fortis into aqua regia, by dif- folving a fourth part of its weight of fal ammoniac in it, Ivory may be ftained of a fine purple colour. Boyle's Works abr. vol. 1. p. 133.

Ivory has the fame medicinal virtues with hartShorn ; its fhav- ings too, like thofe of hartfhorn, boil into a jelly with wa- ter, which has the fame reftorative quality. See the article Hartshorn, Cyd. and Sitppl. Fojfile Ivory. The abundance of elephants teeth found bu- ried in different parts of the world, and many of thofe parts fuch as no elephant is ever known to have lived in, have given great amazement to naturalifts. The long tufks, which are what we call Ivory, are the only teeth the vulgar are acquainted with in this creature, yet even thefe, in their fofiile State, have often been miftaken for horns, or other animal parts. The grinders of this ani- mal are fo enormoufly large, and of fo Angular a Shape, that it requires fome knowledge in natural hiStory to difcover them at fight, and many have miftaken them when imper- fect., for parts of a petrified Shell-fifh of the nautilus kind, their root being hollowed all along, and armed with an in- dented ridge on each fide, in the manner of the back parts of fome fhells of that and of the cornu ammonis kind. We are not to wonder that the teeth of elephants are found more frequently than any other bones of the animal, fince their ufe in the creature required that they mould be harder than any other bone, and that hardnefs has preferved them in places where the other bones have perifhed. The differ- ent ftate in Which thefe teeth are found, is wholly owing to the different juices abounding in the earth in the place where they were depolited, fome of thofe juices being of power to preferve, others to deftroy them ; fome eating them infenfibly away, fome as it were calcining them by flow de- grees, and others rendering them greatly more hard and du- rable than before. Mem. Acad. Par. 1727. Count Marfigli, and fome other writers, have thought it an eafy folution of the queftion of the teeth and bones of ele- phants being found in countries where elephants are not na- turally found, that we owe them to the Romans, who bring- ing them over for their ufe in war, buried them wherever they happened to die. But Sir Hans Sloane expreffes himfelf very juftly againft this opinion : He obferves, that of the remains of elephants found in Europe, nothing is fo common as the Ivory tufks. Now, as he well obferves, the Romans held Ivory in the higheft efteem, and it fold among them at a great price ; wherefore had they been the buryers of thefe elephants, they would certainly have taken away the Ivory tufks firft. It is certain, therefore, that accidents, and not defign, have buried thefe bones, and that accident can have been ho other than fome prodigious inundation. Woodward is defirous of making the univerfal deluge to have done all this, but that feems not necefiary to be fuppofed in every cafe. Sir Hans Sloane gives an enumeration of the moft curious of thefe pieces of foffile Ivory, Svhich his own cabinet con- tained, and of fome others of the moft remarkable, menti- oned by authors ; from which we may form a very diftinct idea both of the nature of the bodies themfelves, and of the places where they are ufually met with. See Philof. Tranf. N° 403. p. 45 8.

One of thefe is compofed of coats or layers, like the an- nual circles or rings in the trunks of trees. The large piece, which was the bafe of the tooth, is compofed in this fpecimen of nine fuch coats, fome of which have about a tenth of an inch in thicknefs, which, allowing for the co- nic cavity within, which is fomewhat more than the thick- nefs of either of the fides, gives the whole tooth at the bafe three inches in diameter. Toward the fmaller end of the tooth, thefe nine coats were found to grow together, and form only two or three, which are confiderably thick. In the bafe of the tooth, each of the nine coats may, with care, be fcparated into a great number of others which are - not thicker than common parchment. The manner of thefe teeth falling to pieces, is alfo a proof of their being of this coated Structure, for they always fall into hollow fragments which are parts of thefe coats. This Structure is alfo fome- times diftinguifhed in the recent teeth of the elephant, which

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when difeafed will fometimes exfoliate, or throw off pieces in form of coats of the fhape of a part of the tooth, but as thin as paper, and eafily breaking on the lighteft touch. The power of fubterranean calcinations to render things' of this kind brittle, is alfo remarked by the fame author from Moretbn's hiftory of North am ptonfh ire, in the inftance of a foflile tufk of an elephant which was in the whole at leaft fix foot long, and had preferved its natural whiter.efs, though rendered fo brittle as to fall into Several pieces in the dic- ing. This was dug up near Little Bowden in Northampton- shire ; and the ftrata of the place where it lay, were as fol- lows : 1. Vegetable mould fourteen inches. 2. Loam afoot and half. 3. Large pebbles, with a final] mixture of earth among them, two foot and a half. 4. Blue clay ; in the upper part of this laft ftratum, the tooth was found. More- ton's Hift. of Northamptonshire.

Sir Hans mentions another elephant's tufk very intire and found, found in Siberia. It is Of a brown colour, and is hollow at the bottom, as all elephant's teeth are : This is five foot feven inches long, fix inches in diameter at the bafe, and its weight forty-two pounds. The like are common in Siberia and many parts of Ruffia, and are fo little injured, that they are ufed as Ivory, and are fuppofed to be the teeth of a vaft animal called the mammoud}, which they think lives under ground. Ludolfus, however, fays, that the more fenfible people among the Ruffians allow thefe to be the teeth of elephants, and fay that they were brought to their coun- try, and buried there by the univerfal deluge. One of thefe , teeth is in the collection of curiofities of Petersburg, and weighs one hundred and eighty-three pounds. They are found very plentifully in the high banks of rivers, which break and fall down m large pieces after frofts. The inha- bitants, who have an opinion of their belonging to a fubter- ranean animal, pretend that the creature dies as foon as ever it fees the light, which they hy fometimes happens to it when it comes abruptly to a precipice, fuch as the deep bank of a river, which they fay is the rcafon why they are fo frequently found in thofe places. They pretend that they have fometimes found the intire fceletons with the flefh yet remaining on the bones, and a thoufand other fabulous ac- counts of this imaginary animal, are given in the hiftories of that country. Cornelius Le Brun, in his travels through Ruffia to the Eaft-Indies, mentions vaft numbers of ele- phant's teeth found lying on the furface of the earth near Veronitz, which puzzle people to imagine how they came there : The Czar's opinion, he fays, was, that Alexander the Great, when he paffed the Tanais or Don, advanced as far as Koftinka, a Small town eight werfts from thence ; and that, probably, many of his elephants dying there, thefe teeth are the remains of them. Phil. Tranf. N° 403. p. 468. JUPATUMA, in zoology, a name by which fome call a very remarkable American animal, known among us by the name of the opojfum. Marggrave, Hift. Brafil. See Opossum. JUPUJUBA, the Brafilian name of a bird of the woodpecker kind, more commonly known by the name japu. See the article Japu. JUQUER. This plant is found in Brafil, and is of a poifonous nature j but if we may credit Pifo, its root is its antidote. Boyle's Works abridg. vol. 1. p. 14. JURIS UTRUM, in law, a writ which lies for the parfbn of a church, whofe predeceffor hath alienated the lands and tenements thereof. Terms of Law. Blount, Caw el. JURUCUA, in zoology, the Brafilian name of a fpecies of tortoife. This has feet almoft in the Shape of wings, the fore ones about fix inches long, the hinder ones confiderably Shorter ; its tail is Short, and of a conic figure ; its eyes large and black; its mouth has no teeth, but refembles the beak of a bird. It frequently grows to four foot long, and about three in width ; its ribs are faftened to the Shell, and are eight on each fide ; the middle ones of thefe are the longeft, the fore and hinder ones being the Shorter. The flefh and eggs of this fpecies are very delicately tafted ; they lay their eggs in holes on the fea Shore, covering them over with Sand, and leaving them for the fun to hatch them. There are ufually a great many very odd figures, like geometrical fines, running in various directions on the Shell ; the whole ground of the Shell is ufually black and very gloSTy, adorned with yellow variegations ; but this is no certain character of the fpecies, the varieties in the colouring of thefe fhells being very great. Rays Syn. Quad. p. 256. JURUNCAPEBA, in zoology, the name of a fea fifh of the turdus or wraffe kind, caught about the Shores of the Brafils, and called alfo Itaiara. It is ufually about Hve or fix inches long, and about a third part of its length in breadth ; its mouth is extremely large and wide, and of a fomewhat tri- angular figure; its eyes are large, and their pupil white, their iris red. It has a long back fin, the anterior rays of- which are prickly, the others not (o ; its fcales are fo evenly arranged that it feems fmooth, and its colour all over is a very beautiful red ; its belly having many white Spots, and its fides a great number of them of different Sizes, black, brown, and red ; its fins are all red, and fpotted with black. It is caught among the rocks, and is a very delicate fiih for the table. Marggrave'% Hift. Brafil.

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