Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/36

 MAX

Hift.Brafil. SeethearticleCuRicACA, where Matmtui is corruptly printed Matriclici. MATURAQUE, in natural hiftory, the name of an American fifh, of the harengiform kind, and having only one fhort fin on the back. It fcldom grows to more than four inches long, and is fomewhat ftattilh, but not very broad. Its head is very broad, and covered with a fhelly cruft. Its lower jaw is fomething longer than the upper, and has feveral very fharp teeth, ufually fix in number. The upper jaw has a larger number, but they are fmall. Its gills are large, and its tail is made of a fomewhat fquare fin, a little rounded at the ex- tremity. Its fcales are large, and very regularly arranged. Its head, back, and the upper part of its fides, are black, and its belly of a hoary white, and its fins are all black. It is caught in lakes, not in rivers, and is a well tailed fifh. Willughby, Hilt. Pifc. p. 235. MAUDIHOCA, the Caffada, or the poifonous root of which bread is made in many parts of the Weft Indies. See the ar- ticle Manihot. MAVIS, in zoology, the common name of the fong-thrufh, or throftle, called by authors the tardus vifeivmis minor, to tliftinguifh it from the larger fpecies, called in Englifh the miffel bird; and ufually known among us alfo by the fimple name thrujh. It is called vifeivmis by authors, from its re- femblance in colour to the other vifiivorus, not from its feed- ing on the mifletoe-berries, as that does. It is much fmaller than the mifiel bird, and of a middle fize between the fieldfare and redwing. Its back is of a greyifh brown, fomewhat like the colour of the Spanifh olives ; its belly white, and its breaft yellowiih, and fpotted with brown and blackifh fpots, and it is fpotted round about the eyes ; its under fmall feathers of the wings are of a yellowifh or red- difh brown, and thofe under the tail whitifh. Its legs are "brown. It feeds on worms, fnails, and fmall infeefs, and remains with us the whole year. It builds with mofs and Hubble, and lines the neft with mud. On this it lays five or fix eggs, which are of a bluifh green, variegated with a few black fpots. It fits on hedges and bufhes, and fings very agreeably. Ray's Ornithology, p. 138. MAUMY Soil, in agriculture, an earth confifting of a white marly clay, chalk, and fand, which caufes it to work very ftlort, as the farmers call it, when any thing dry. This fort of land is ufually fowed with wheat, mifcellan, or barley, and requires the fame tillage that the clay land does, and muff be kept dry and warm.

Its moft proper manure is the rotteneft dung. As they fre- quently fow beans next after wheat in clayey grounds, fo in thefe they choofe to fow peas, chufing a fair and fettled fea- fon for their feed-time ; for if there happen a fmart fhower foon after their fowing, the earth will bind fo firmly together after it, that moft of the feed will be loft. Plot's Oxford- shire, p. 246. MAUND, in our old writers, a kind of great bafket or ham- per, containing eight bales, or two fats : It is commonly a quantity of eight bales of unbound books, each bale having one thoufand pounds weight. Book of Rates, p. 3. Blount. MAUROUSE, the name of a creature of the deer kind, men- tioned by Jofielyn. It feems to be the fame with the Duma Virginiana of Mr. Ray, one of which creatures was, in his time, kept alive in St. James's park. See the article Dam A. This is not certain, however; for Joffelyn's defcription is very imperfect ; he only fays it is like the moofe-deer, but is fmall, and has fmall horns. MAUZ, a name ufed by fome authors for the mufei, or plan- tain-tree. Alpin. Egypt, p. 78. MAXILLA (Cycl.) — Maxillje ghtartus, in anatomy, a name given by Vefalius, and fome others, to one of the mufcles of the lower jaw, commonly known by the name of the digajlricus, and called by Albinus, biventer maxilla infe- rioris. Maxillam Atollens Tertius, in anatomy, a name given by Riolanus, and fome others, to a mufcle of the face, more generally known by the name of maffeter. MAXILLARY (6>/.)-_Maxillary Bones, Maxillaria ofa. The maxillary bones, or great bones of the upper jaw are two in number, fituated one on each fide, in the anterior and middle part of the face; their conformation is very irregular, and they are of very confiderable extent. ' Anatomifts gene- rally divide them into the external and internal fides. By the external fide they mean all that appears in an entire fkull, without taking in the arch of the palate, and by the internal fide, that which makes part of the arch of the palate, and all that is turned to the /upturn narium. The reparation of this bone, by a fmall tranfvcrfe future behind Ax: foramen incife- rtum, is feldom found but in young fubjedts, before the ofli- fication is compleated. The maxillary bone is almoft all com- paft, and without diploe, except in the alveolary arch, and at the point of the orbitary apophyfis.

The Off, Maxillaria are connefted with the as frontis, os etbumdes, os fpbemides, oja unguis, offa malarum, offa nafl, effa palati, vomer, concha: narium inferiores, and with one another They affift in forming the organ of maftication, the arch of the palate, the cheeks, the orbits, the nofe, CSV. fiixjlm's Anatomy, p. 33, feq.

M E A

Maxillary Mufdes^ in fifh, two large mufcles placed under

the lower jaw, and ferving to move it ; thefe, with the two

hypophthalmic mufcles, which are placed under the eves, are

the four cephalic mufcles of times, according to authors.

MAXIMIS et Minimis. For the method of Maximh £s"

Minimis, fee the article Maximum, Cycl. and Suppl. MAXIMUM (Cycl.)— The fluxion of the bafe of a curve, or of its abfeiffa being given, when the fluxion of the ordinate vanifhes, the tangent becomes parallel to the bafe, and the ordinate, moft commonly, is a Maximum or Minimum, ac- cording to the rule given by authors on this fubject, and men- tioned in the Cyclopedia,' under this head. But it is to be obferved, that if the fecond fluxion of the ordinate vanifh at the fame time, and the third fluxion be real, this rule does not hold ; for the ordinate is, in that cafe, neither a Maxi- mum nor a Minimum. Ifthefirft, fecond, and third fluxions vanifh, and the fourth fluxion be real, the ordinate is a Max- imum or Minimum. The general rule given by Mr. Mac- laurin, is, that when the Aril fluxion of the ordinate, with its fluxions of any fubfequent fucceflive orders, vanifh, and the number of all thefe fluxions that vanifh is odd, then the ordinate is a Maximum or Minimum, according as the fluxion of the next order to thefe is negative or pofitive. But if the number of all the fluxions of the ordinate, of the firft and fubfequent fucceflive orders that vanifh, be an even number, the ordinate is then neither a Maximum nor a Minimum. See Treat, of Fluxions, B. i. e.g. and B. 2. c. 5, art. 859. feq. The greatefl and leaft ordinates are likewiTe difcovered in fome cafes, by fuppofmgj/ to be infinite in refpecl of .v. But there are feveral exceptions to this rule. See Madaurin, loc. cit. art. 262, 865.

A late author has formed fome objections to the univerfality of Mr. Maclaurin's rule. See the Harmony of Antient and Modern Geometry, by Mr. Paman, Lond. 1745. 4 . ia the Preface. MAXY, in mineralogy, a name given by fome to mundic, a fulphureous mineral, common in the tin mines of Cornwall, and elfewhere. Boerbaave, Chem. p 99. n. MAY Dew, See the article Ros Maya/is. MAYA, in natural hiftory, a name given by the people of the Philippine iflands to a fmall fpecies of fparrow, much lefs than ours, and very common among them. It feeds on rice, and is very deffrucrive of it. MAZA, a name given by the antients to a fort of food, ia common ufe among the poorer fort of people. It was made 'of the meal of parched barley, fprinkled with fome liquid, and was eaten with honey or with defrutum. Hippocrates every where fpeaks of this as ofa coat'fe kind of bread, and advifes the changing the common finer bread, in the fpring feafon, for this coarfer kind, as a thing very con- ducive to health. He feems ever)' where to confider bread as the drier, and Maza as the moifter diet. Maza, M«^«, among the Athenians, a fort of cake, which was the common fare of fueh as were entertained at the pub- lic expence in the common ball, or prytamum. Potter, Archa^ol. Grasc, 1. 1. c. 25. T. 1. p. 136. Thefe cakes were made of flour boiled with water and oil. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. in voc. MAZONOMU8, among the antients, a very large dim, com- monly of wood, in which the Maza was ferved. Pitijc.hex. Ant. in voc. See the article Maza. MAZORA.H, among the Jews, denotes the feience of reading

the fcripturcs. See the article Cabbala. MAZUR, a fpecies of birds, which the Arabian failors efteem very lucky, becaufe it lays its eggs clofe by the fea fhore be- fore a tract of good weather ; fo that when thefe are ob- ferved, they promife thcmfelves a fafe voyage. They alfo pretend that this bird gives notice to failors," when the fhip approaches any danger, by flying and fluttering up and down. Hofm. Lex. in voc. MEADOW Land. Too much water, and too little, are equally prejudicial to Meadow grounds. The beft lands for Meadow pafture are either low lands, or hanging grounds, where there is a rich foil and a moift bottom j elpecially where any little brook, or running fpring, may be browrht over it ; and where there is fome defcent in the Adeatkw, that the water may not lodge on it. Thefe Meadows are much better for the farmer than thofe near large rivers, where great crops are often loft. Moriim. Hufb. MEADOw-^/m, Cokbicum. See the article Saffron. MEAL. The Meal or flour of England is the nneft and whi- teft in the world. The French is ufually browner, and the German browner than that. Our flour keeps well with us, but in carrying abroad it often contracts damp, and becomes bad. AH flour is fubjecl: to breed worms j thefe are white in the white flower, and brown in that which is brown ; they are therefore not always diftinguiihable to the eye ; but when the flour feels damp, and fmclls rank and mufty, it may be conjectured that they are there in great abundance, The colour, and the weight, are the two things which de- note the value of Meal or flour ; the whiter and the heavier it is, other things being alike, the better it always is. Pliny mentions thefe two characters as the marks of "srcod flour, and tells us, that Italy, in his time, produced the nneft in 4 the