Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/20

 MAN

of the weight of the Manna, which is fomewhat Angular, fince in the pureft honey, treated "1:1 the fame manner, it al- ways weighs one fourth of the original whole quantity. It is plain from hence, that Manna is a much purer fubftance than honey : It is atfo remarkable, that in farther treatment of this coal, there is a fmall quantity of iron always difcovered in it. Manna, honey, and all the other fweet fubftances, we fee, alfo lofe all their fwcetnefs, as foon as ever their acid is feparated from their oil. Hill. Acad. Par. 1708. p. 56. Manna is far from being peculiar to the afh tree of Calabria, on which it is ufually found. It is no ether than the matter of the fcnfible tranfpirat'ion of trees and plants in general, and is found on many different kinds in different quantities. The lime and fycamore ufually have a great deal of it on their leaves in the heats of fummcr, and if fteeped in water, ren- der it fweet and purgative. The fweet matter found in the bottom of the trefoil, or jafmine flowers, is .alfo Manna lB a certain ftate. The bees are well acquainted with the fame- nefs of this extravafated juice in different plants, and collect it for their honey, as well from the leaves of the lime and fy- camore, and many other trees, as from the flowers of plants. The elaboration it fuffers under their management afterward is all that makes the difference between that and what men collect in Calabria ; and honey is Manna in a certain ftate. Ac Brlancon in France they collect Manna from all forts of trees that grow there ; and the inhabitants obferve, that fuch fummers as produce them the greateft quantities of Mamia, are very fatal to their trees. Their walnut-trees produce annually a confiderable quantity; but if there happen a year in which they produce more than ordinary, they ufually find many of them perifh in the following winter. It (eems very plain from the whole, that Manna is onlv the extravafated juice of the tree, which cannot furvive fo great a lofs of it ; And what not a little confirms this is, that the very hot fummers arc always thofe which are the molt abundantly productive of Manna. The antients were fenfible of this fpontaneous production of Manna, of feveral fpecies of trees, fo very different from one another, and from thence fell into the error of fuppofing it fomething wholly foreign to the tree ; an error very natural to thofe who did not know that the nu- tritive juices of very many trees arc nearly, if not wholly, the fame. It was from this opinion of its origin, that they called it aerial honey.

My Boyle tells us, that in Apulia and Calabria, between the months of March and November, they obtain, by incifion, from the common afh-tree, a fweet juice fo like Manna, in that feafon adhering to the leaves of the fame kind of trees, that they call it Manna del Corpo, trunk- Mama ; and ufe it fuccefsfully. Works abr. vol. 1. p. 51.

M A n n a Alhagma, a word ufed by fome authors to exprefs that kind of Manna called by others Manna majlichina, from its drops refembling maftic in fmall tears. It is called alhavina from the plant which produces it, it being collected from the alhagi maurorum, in the lame manner as the common Manna from the Calabrian afh. See the article Manna Perjicum, infra.

Manna Libanoiis, in the materia medica, a name given by the old Greek writers to the fmall flakes and fragments of the frankinfenfe which flew off the larger pieces in the gathering and putting them up. See the article Leptos Libanotis.

Manna Majlichina, in the materia medica, a name given by fome authors to a kind of Manna which they defcribe as re- fembling maftic in its colour, and the fize of the lumps it is collected in. This is what we ufually know at this time un- der the name of Manna Perficum, or Perfian Manna, which is at this time in ufe in medicine in the Eaft, as a common purge. Sec the next Section.

Manna Perjicum, Perfian Manna. It does not appear in the writings of the anticnt Greek phyficians, that they were ac- quainted with any fpecies of Manna, though that medicine be now fo common in the mops. They had the word indeed, but they applied it to a very different fenfe ; what they called Mama being what fome authors, ftill call the Manna of frankincenfe, that is, fuch pieces of the common olibanum as broke off in the carriage from the larger pieces. Pbjlof. Tranf. N°. 472. p. 86.

The Arabians- are by fome fuppofed to have firft brought what we call Manna into ufe in medicine ; but if they were not the abfolute inventors of this ufe of it, it is certain they were the firft who made it general and common as a pur^e. Their country afforded feveral diftinct fpecies of Manna, all which feem to have been fo common among them, that they thought defcriptions of them needlefs ; and for that rea- fon have not left us fuffictent accounts of them, from which to determine what were their characters and differences. They diftinguifhed three kinds of this purging medicine, un- der three abfolutcly different names, which were Manna, icreniabin, wdjfraeqfij but it is not eafily proved whether thefe arc all now known, or by what appellations they arc at this time diitinguUhed.

Rawwolf, in his itinerary publifhed by Mr. Ray, and Tour- nefort in his voyage to the Levant, have given the cleareff intimations, in regard to this fubject, of any of the known writers ; and if to thefe we add Clufius, we have among the three all that is to be expected of any certainty upon theVub-

M A N

ject j yet the defcriptions of thefe, though eye-witnefles of aft. they write, have not prevented fo eminent and late a writer as Geoffroy from falling into an error concerning the Manns, of the Arabians. It is very evident, however, that we have ftill one fpecies of the Manna Arabum, that is, the tetenia- bin, produced in fome parts of the world, there having been fpecimens of it fent over into England from Peterfburgh, near which place it is collected from a plant, known among bota- nical writers under the name of alhagi maurorum. This is ufually called Manna Perjicum ; it appears at firft fight a mixed mafs of a dirty reddifh brown colour, but, upon a nearer view, it is feen to confift of feveral forts of particles. Firft, a great number of globular cryftalline and almoft tranf- parent bodies of different fizes, and of a yellowifh white co- lour. The largeft of thefe do not much exceed a large co- riander-feed in fize, and they have fomewhat of the appear- ance of fmall lumps of maftic, but are of a fomewhat red* oilh caft. Secondly, there are among thefe a large quan- tity of fmall prickles, and other little woody bodies, which feem to have been the pedicles of leaves. Thirdly, there are a few fmall leaves, which are of a firm texture, and termi- nate in narrow points. Fourthly, there are a large number of fmall long reddifh- col our' d pods, of a fweetifh gelatinous tafte, containing from one to fix or feven hard irregular and kidney-fhap'd feeds, which to the tafte are very acerb. And fifthly, there is ufually fome fand and earth among it. Four ounces of this Manna difTolved in water ufually leaves about one ounce of thefe fubftances in the filtre. The globules firft defcribed are fomewhat hard, they break between the teeth like fugar-candy, and are of a pleafant fweet tafte, but have much lefs of the Manna flavour than the Calabrian, but enough of it to difcover to what family the fubftance belongs. The feeds, fticks, leaves, and pods, feem to be all of them parts of the plant which produces the Manna ; and the feeds havings been fown with us, have raifed plants of the alhagi. About the year 1537, when Rawwolf wrote his itinerary, it appears that large quantities of this kind of Manna were brought from Perfia to Aleppo, where it was then known by the name oUrunfchibil, or trunfchibin % a corruption doubtlefs of the word terenjabin, or, as it ought to be written, according to Denfingius, terengjabin. Rawwolf alfo exprefsly informs us, that this fpecies of Manna was gathered from a plant called alhagi. This plant is mi- nutely defcribed by Tournefort, who confirms the account of the Manna being gathered from it, which Rawwolf had given fo long before.

Tournefort fays, that it is chiefly gathered about Tauris a city of Perfia, under the name oUrunjibin, or terenjabin, mentioned by Avifcnna and Serapion ; he adds, that thofe authors thought it fell upon certain prickly fhrubs, whereas it is really the nutritious juice of the plant; and that, during the great heats irj that part of the world, there are perceived fmall round drops, as it were, of honey {landing upon the leaves of this plant; and that thefe harden into globules about the fize of corian- der-feeds, and are then gathered by the inhabitants, together with leaves, ftalks, dirt, and the like foreign matter, which, greatly take off from their virtue. Mr. Tournefort obferves, that this Manna is greatly inferior to the Calabrian in virtue ; and that twenty or thirty drams of it are given for a dofe. Philof. Tranf. N". 472. p. go.

Clufius tells us, that the terenjabin of the Arabians is gathered from a prickly fhrub, fuch as the alhagi is defcribed to be ; and Avifenna declares, that it was found upon a thorny plant ; though his tranflators have been milled from the near refem- blance of two Arabic words, to make it ftones, not a plant, that it was gathered from.

It appears very plainly from the whole, that this fubftance now known in Ruflia, and fome other parts of the world, under the name of Manna Perfuum, is truly the tere?ijabin of the Arabians and of Clufius, Rawwolf, and Tournefort ; only that the word is differently fpelt by the latter authors, and it is probably alfo that Manna called by Bauhine, and fome other writers, Manna Majlichina Orientalis, from the round glo- bules it is compofed of, refembling the drops of maftic. Sec the article Terenjabin.

Manna Thuris, the Manna of Frankincenfe, a term ufed by the antient phyficians to exprefs fuch fmalf pieces of frankin- cenfe, or olibanum, as broke off from the larger in the car- riage. _ See the articles Manna Perftcum, fupra, and Lep- tos Libanotis,

MANNIFERA Arbor, in the materia medica, the name by which the round-leav'd afh, on which the manna is found 3 is often called. Dale, Pharm. p. 332.

MANNING, in the navy. To man a fhip or fleet, is to pro- vide them with a fufti'cient number of men for an expedi- tion.

In manning the navy, it is ufual to promife, by proclama- tion, a bounty to all feamen and able-bodied land-men, who come into the fervice by a certain time, which is com- monly two months pay, and but feldom any more. This does indeed prevail on a good many, yet great numbers con- ceal themfelves till the fleet is at fea, and others lurk about till the time limited for fuch bounty is expired, which does not a little prevent the Beet's being in a readinefs for an early expedition.

And