Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/10

 MAG

both of the fame genus of the fparus, and are very nearly al- lied to one another ; the principal difference confining in the tail and belly fins of the (maris being red. See the articles Mjena and Sparus.

MAESTOSO, orMAESTUOSO, in the Italian mufic, fignifics to play with grandeur, and confequently flow, but yet with Strength and firmnefs.

MAFORT1UM, among the Romans, a veil, or head-drefs, worn by the married women. Pitifc. in voc.

MAGAS, in the antient mufic, is ufcd to denote the bridge or any instrument.

MAGAURI, in zoology, the name of a Brafilian bird, a fpe- cies'offtork. It is of the fize of the common white ftork. Its neck is a foot long, and its beak (trait and pointed, and nine fingers breadth in length i its legs long and naked. _ Its tail is Short. Its head, neck, and body, are covered with mow- white feathers. On the throat thefe are very long, very white and valuable. Its wing and tail have their long feathers black. Its legs are red ; and its flelh eatable. Marggravc's Hid. Brafil.

MAGBOTE, or Mjegbote, in our old writers, a compen- sation for the flaying or murder of one's kinfman, in antient times, when corporal punifhments for murder, &c, were fometimes commuted into pecuniary fines, if the friends and relations of the party killed were fo fatisfied. Leg. Canuti, cap. 2. Blount, Terms of Law.

The word comes from the Saxon Mag, i. e. Cogmtus, and Bote, Compenfaiio.

MAGDALEO, a word ufedhy difpenfatory writers, to exprefs any tiling made up into a cylindric form. The common rolls ofplafters which the apothecaries make up, to be ready for Spreading upon occafion, are thus called, as alfo the rolls of fulphur, or common brimftone.

MAGDALI/E, or Mac dal ides, the fame as Magdaleones,

f rolls of Sulphur, platters, &c. Via*, fupra.

MAGELLANIC Clouds, whitilh appearances like clouds, Seen in the heavens towards the South pole, and having the fame apparent motion as the Stars.

They are three in number, two of them near each other. The largeft lies far from the fouth pole ; but the other two are nut many degrees more remote from it than the neareSt con- spicuous Star, that is, about eleven degrees. Mr. Boyle conjectures, that if thefe clouds were feen thro' a good telefcope, they would appear to be multitudes of Small Stars, like the milky way. Boyle's Works abr. vol. i. p. 295.

Magellanic Gosfe, Anfer Magellanic us, in zoology. See the article Goose.

MAGGOT, the common name of the fly-worm, bred in flelb, from the egg of the great blue flefli-fly Notwithstanding the diftafte for this animal, its figure, and Structure of parts is greatly worth attending to, and may ferve as a general hiftory . of the clafs of worms produced from the eggs of flies. This animal is white and flefhy ; its body is compofed of a number of rings, like the bodies of caterpillars, and other the like infects, and is capable, at the pleafure of the animal, of afluming different figures, being, at times, more or lefs ex- tended in length, and confequently more or lefs thick. Notwithstanding that this creature has no legs, it is able to move itfelf very fwiftly, and, in its firft attempt to move its body, is extended to its greateSt length, and aflumes fome- thing of the figure of a pointed cone. The pointed part of this cune is the head of the animal, and is not feparated from the next ring by any deeper furrow than the reft of the rings are from one another. In fame States of the animal, one may lee two Short horns thruSt out from the head ; but what are more constantly obfervable are two brown fcaly hooks ; thefe are, however, fometimes hid, and have each of them a Sheath, or cafe, into which the animal can retract: them at pleafure. Thefe hooks are bent into an arch, the concavity of which is toward the plane on which the creature is placed, and they are thickest at their infertion in the head, and thence diminish gradually, till they terminate in a fine Sharp point. Thefe two hooks are placed in a parallel direction, and can never come together, and therefore cannot ferve in the place of teeth to grind the food between, but merely to pull and fever it to pieces, that it may be of a proper Size for the

" mouth of the creature. The creature has befide thefe two hooks a kind of dart, which

" is of about a third part of their length, and is placed at an equal distance between them. This alfo is brown like them, and Scaly ; it is quite Strait, and terminates in a fine point. The hooks have, as it were, two fcaly thorns at their points, and this dart feems intended, by reiterated Strokes, to divide and break the pieces of flefh thefe have feparated from the icft into Smaller parts.

Immediately below the apertures for the egrefs of the hooks, is placed the mouth of the animal ; the creature does not Shew this little opening unlefs prefieJ, but if the preSliire be pro- perly managed, it will Sufficiently open it, and there may be

■ discovered within it a fmall protuberance, which may very naturally be fuppofed either the tongue, or the fucker of the animal.

MAG

The hooks in thefe creatures not only fupply the place of teeth, but alfo of legs, Since it is by fastening thefe hooks into the fubftance it is placed on, and then drawing up its body to it, that it pulls itlelf along.

The back of this creature lowers itfelf by degrees as it ap- proaches the- extremity of the belly, and near the place where the back begins to lower itfelf, are placed the creature's two principal organs of refpiration. One may perceive there two fmall roundish brown Spots ; thefe are very eaiily distinguisha- ble by the naked eye, becaufe the reft of the body of the crea- ture is white ; but if we take in the affiflance ot glades, each of thefe fpots appears to be a brown circular eminence rai fed a little above the reft of the body. On each of thefe fpots one may alfo discover three oblong oval cavities, fome thing of the Shape of button-holes ; thefe are fituated in a parallel di- rection to one another, and their length nearly in a perpen- dicular direction to that of the body of the animal. Thefe apertures are So many Stigmata or air-holes, openings deStined to admit the air neceflary to the life of the animal. The creature has fix of thefe Stigmata, three in each fide of its body.

The great tran'fparence of the body of this infect, gives us an opportunity alfo to diltinguifh that it has on each Side a large white veffel running the whole length of the body. It is cafy to follow the courfe of thefe veflels through their whole length, but they are moft diftinct of all toward its hinder part, and they are always feen to terminate each in the brown (pot be- fore defcribed ; this leaves us no room to doubt but that they are the two principal trachea;.

Thefe posterior trachea; have been well known to the later naturalists ; but there are two others befidcs thefe which they feem not to have distinguished. Thefe are fituated in the ante- rior part of the animal, and are eafily discovered by following the courfe of the tracheae on each Side ; for though thefe all the way diminish in their diameters as they approach the head of the animal, yet it may be eafily enough Seen where they terminate, which is (taking the head for one ring) in the junc- tion of the Second and third ring. In this place the naked eye eafily difcovers a fmall fpot at the extremity of each, which viewed with a good microfcope appears to be a plain Stigma, of the figure of a funnel with half of it cut off, and very ele- gantly indented, and as it were fringed at the edges. Thefe Stigmata in the anterior part of the body, are as con- stant in this creature as the poiterior ones, but it feems to have none of thofe which the caterpillar clafs are furnifhed with along their fides ; though it feems from the Structure of the fly it afterwards transforms itfelf into, that it ought to have them, fince that has Stigmata in their places. The ramifications of the two great tracheae are very beauti- fully feen in this creature, efpecially on its belly ; and it is remarkable, that no veflel analogous to the great artery in the caterpillar clafs can be difcovered in thefe ; though, if there were any fuch, their great tranfparence muft needs make them very eafily distinguishable ; nor could its dilatations and contractions, if To considerable as in that clafs of animals, be lefs fo. See Eruca.

Malpighi imagined that artery, in the caterpillar clafs, a feries of hearts ; in its place, however, there may be feen in thefe animals a true heart. It is eaSy to obferve in thefe creatures, about the fourth ring of their body, a fmall flefhy part, which lias alternate contractions and dilatations, and is not only difcoverable in the body by means of the creature's tran- fparence; but on making a proper fection of them in the fe- cond, third, and fourth rings, will be thrown out of the body of the creature, and will afterwards continue its beats for fome minutes. Reaumur's Hiit. Infect, vol. 4. p. 166, feq. i MAGIC (Cycl.) — The moft ignorant and barbarous people have been generally moSt fufpected of Magic. Among ourfelves, the moft miferably ignorant perfons have been accufed of it ; and among foreign nations the Laplanders and Iflanders have been fuppofed moSt converfant of all others in it. Thefe peo- ple themfelves place an abfolute confidence in the effects of certain idle words and actions, and the reft of the world is deceived in the fame manner. The famous magical drum of the Laplanders is Still in conStant ufe in that nation, and Schef- fer, in his hiftory of Lapland, has given us an account of its Structure.

This inftrument is made of beech, pine, or fir, fplit in the middle, and hollowed on the flat fide where the drum is to be made. The hollow is of an oval figure, and is covered with a Skin clean d re fled, and painted with figures of various kinds, fuch as Stars, funs, and moons, animals, and plants, and even countries, lakes, and rivers ; and of later days, fince the preaching Christianity among them, the acts and Suffer- ings of our Saviour and his apoftles, are often added to the reSt. All thefe fignres are feparated by lines into three re- gions or clutters.

There is befide thefe parts of the drum an index and a ham- mer. The index is a bundle of brafs or iron rings, the big- geft of which has a hole in its middle, and the fmaller ones are hung to it. The hammer or drum-Stick is made of the horn of a rein deer, and with this they beat the drum fo as to make thefe rings move, they being laid on the top for that purpofe. In the motion of thefe rings about the pictures fi- gured