Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/131

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Though it generally lives in tile water, it fometimes, however crawls out in good weather, and drying its wings by expand- ing them in the fun, takes flight, and becomes an inhabitant of the air not to be known for the fame creature, unlefs to thofe who had accurately obferved it before J when tired of flying, or in danger of an enemy, it immediately plunges into the water. If taken into the hand, it flings, and gives an intolerable pain, but this goes off in a very few mi- nutes. This is the fpecies mod frequently met with, but it is not the only notmetta we have, three or four other kinds, different in fize, and colour, being found not un- frequcntly in large waters.

KOVACULA pt/cts, the rafor-fifi), in zoology, the name of a fea-fifh caught in the Mediterranean, and fome other feas, and much efteemed at the tables of the great. It is of a very fmgufir fhape, ha.ing a large and flatted head with no fnout, or nole; but its mouth, which is ve- ry fmall, is no more than a fimple gap, or flit, in the lower part of the head ; there are four long teeth in the fore-part of it, and all the reft is furnifhed with very fmall, but very fharp ones The eyes are finall, and fituated in the upper part of the head. It has two large fins at the gills, and two fmall ones on the belly. Its back is fur- nifhed with one long fin, not very high, but reaching from the beginning of the back to the tail The anus is placed nearer the head than the tail ; and, from this to the tail, there is another long fin : its tail is large and broad. It is altogether of a flatted form, and is covered with large fcales of very beautiful colours; the head and gills have fe- veral ftrcaks of a fine blue; the belly-fins, and the tail, are of a cancellated work of green and yellow ; the back fin is red fpotted with black ; and the body of the fifli of a fine yellowifh red.

It is a fmall fifh, feldom exceeding three or four inches in length, and, in its flat fhape, fomewhat refembies the faber. It keeps about the fhores, particularly fuch as are ftony, and fcems never to go into deep water ; and is caught on the fhores of Majorca Minorca, the ifiand of Malta, and eifewherc, and lives on fmall fifjht. Salvian. deAquat.

NOVACULARUM lapis, in natural hiftory, the name given by De I.aet to a ftone which he defcribes from Ximenes, who has it under the American name izt.i. It is the ftone out of which the natives of America made their weapons of war, and tools for other ufes of life, be- fore they knew the ufe of iron.

There are three fpecies of this ftone, the one blue, the other white, and the other black ; they are all capable of a very high polifh, and, when fet in gold, or filver, are very highly efteemed by the natives : they reflect the im- ages of things, in the manner of all other highly polifhed bodies, and the two firft are confiderably tranfparent. There are feveral quarries of thefe ftones in the neighbour- hood of Mexico, whence the Indians ufed to get them ; they naturally fplit, in the getting out, into angular, and edged figures, and thefe they afterwards fafhioned to the purpofes they wanted them for, and polifhed with the pow- der of a harder ftone.

They ftill make knives of them, in a very expeditious, and very remarkable manner. They hold the mafs of ftone be- tween their feet, and, with an inftrument prepared on pur- pofe, they cut off" pieces of four or five inches long, and about one inch broad, riling to a prominence on each fide in the middle, and growing very thin toward the edges : it is wonderful to fee with what expedition they finifh this odd workmanfhip. The knives, when made, are (harper than any other inftrument in the world; but they are very ten- der, eafily broken, and more eafily battered, and notched at the edges. They make alio longer weapons of the fame Ihape out of this ftone, which they fix into wooden handles, with a fort of gum, and thefe fcrve them as fwords. They are very terrible weapons for one blow, but they feldom hold together fo as to bear a fecond. They make alfc the heads of their arrows of them, and when thefe were firft found by our travellers they were not fuppofed to be of human work- manfhip, but to have fallen from heaven in thunder, and were called by many authors cerauma. Ximenes Hift. Ind. Occid.

I 10. C. 13, SeeCERAUNIA.

NOVENSILES, among the Romans, heroes newly received in- to the number of the gods, or the gods of the provinces and kingdoms which the Romans had conquered, and to which they facrificed under the name ofdii nownfiles. Danet. Di£t. in voc.

NOUER /' egwlktte, in the manege. See Yerk.

NOURISHMENT (Cycl.) - Nourishment of plants. The antients in general gave to the earth the power of producing plants and animals, and whatever elfe lives upon, or exifts in it ; and for this reafon they gave it the general title of pa- rent earth, and mother of all things. They fuppofed that in- to this common parent all returned again at laft ; and that after a time of diffblution in its bowels, they returned back again into the formation of more bodies of the fame kind. Even thofe among them who aflerted the doctrine of the four elements, yet allowed that the earth was the matter which •onfhuued thofe bodies, and that the other three, that is, Suppl. Vol. II. n

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fire, air, and water, ferved only to convey, and diftribure this* as there was occafion ; and Thales is only mifunderftood, when he is fuppofed to think differently from this general fy- ftem of the antients.

But though the antients all gave earth the power of produc- ing animals, and other bodies, the moderns have gone into an opinion that water is the origin of all. Lord aeon was one of the firft who argued on this principle: he fays, that for the mmrijhmmt of plants water is almnft all in all ; and that the e.-rth only ferves to keep the ftalk upright, and to defend the root from over-heat, and over-cold, jince the time of this great author many have be;n yet more exprefs in this opinion, and have afferted that water is the only principle of all natural things, fuppofing that by fome fecret procefs of na- ture water is tranfmuted into ftones, plants, and other thino-s Phil. Tranf N°2;3. p. 193. °'

Helmont attempted to prove this doftrine by many experi- ments ; and Mr. Boyle who followed him through the whole courfe of his experiments, feems to afient to his opinion, that water is tranfmuted by nature into wood and ftone, though* in his ufual way, he delivers his thoughts with oreat mo- defty, and candour. The two principal experiments they build their opinions upon, are, that of mint, and fome other plants growing in water ; and that of a tree being planted in a fmall quantity of earth, which being baked to a drynefs, and weighed before the tree was fet in it, and a^ain baked and weighed afterwards, will be found to have loft nothing of its own weight, though the tree has encreafed to a very great degree, only from the water with which they have wetted this earth from time to time.

It might he objected to the laft experiment, that it is not eafy to bake earth to the fame degrees of drynefs twice over fo as to have anv hopes of being e act. in the weio-bt ; but allowing ever fo great an exactnefs in that, the experiment brings no proof with it, unlefs they can prove that the water which was ufed in the wetting it was pure and homogeneous, and not charged with any tereftrial matter ; for, if It were, the plant may, after all, owe its encreafe entirely to that earth alone, and the water may only ferve, according to the doctrine of the antients, to convey and diftribute this »rand nourijhing element, in a neceffary and proper manner. It is true that water often appears fo clear and pellucid, that one would fcarce fuppofe any portion of fo opake a matter as earth could be contained in it ; but we find by chemical ex- periments, that fo opake a body as filver may be diflblved in aqua fortis, fo as to give it no colour, nor render it in the leaft degree lefs pellucid than before Our water, however, is not fo pure in any cafe, as is vulgarly imagined. The naked eye will often difcover particles of earthy matter, though very fmall, floating in the very cleared we have: and experi- ment (hews, that, when evapor ted, all water leaves behind it a large quantity of opake, earthy matter, which we could not fee in it by the naked eye.

This remainder of evaporated water, generally confifts of particles of two kinds : the one part are found to be earthy, and fuch as are fit for the nourjhmtnt of plants, and thefe feem fo different among themfelves, on a nice examination, that they feem fitted either for the mur foment of different plants, or for that of the different parts of the fame plant ; the other particles are of afparry and cryftalline nature, and feem calculated for the producUon of ftones, &c. In fome fprings, we alfo meet with many other principles fufpended, fuch as alum, vitriol, nitre, ochre, and other things, and often many of them in the fame fpting ; the water, as it pafles through the ftrata of ftone, earth, &c. often wafhing off, and carrying a- way, in a ftate of folution with it, the particles of thofe bo- dies in confiderably large quantities. Thefe are carried fuf- pended in the water to the mouths of the fprings, but they are not fo well fufpended afterwards. Phil. Tranf. N° 2;3 p. [96. Vegetable earth, or that kind of mould which is neceffary for the niurijhnient of plants, is more light than fpar and other minerals, and is both more readily dnTolved, and more eafily fufpended in water than thefe. Hence the waters of all ri- vers contain a great quantity of this, though very little of the other particles, they being always found moft plentifully in water near its fource, and lefs and lefs fo the farther it has run in the open air. River water contains alfo more of this terreftrial matter than rain water, as is proved by eafy experi- ments, though that contains fome : and it is evident front the whole, that earth is contained in all water, and, there- fore, that all water whatever is capable of conveying it into the bodies of plants, and diftributing it through their feveral parts, for their murijbtmnt and encreafe. If the cleareft water be put into a clean vial, and flopped fo as to keep out duft, the earth in it will foon be difcovered : the motion of the water, while in its natural ftate, keeps this earth in fmall particles, and, therefore, they are lefs difcern- ible ; but, on being fet to reft in this manner, thefe par- ticles get together, and form larger combinations, which become more vifible, and finally fo many of them will join together, that they will become apparent, in form of fmall clouds of opake matter floating in the water; and thefe wdl become larger and larger, as 4ey have yet more and more freih matter added to them.

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