Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/48

 MEN

MEN

A multitude of circumftances alfo, or, "4s it were, handles or holds to be taken, help the Memory ; as the making many breaks in writing, reading or repeating aloud : But as to this Iaft, fee Qu in Chilian's opinion before mentioned. Thofe things which are expected, and raife the attention, (tick better than fuch as pafs flightly over the mind ; whence if a man reads any writing twenty times over, he will not remember it fo well, as if he read it but ten times; with trying between whiles to repeat it, and confulting the copy where his Memory failed. Bacon's Works abrid. vol. 2. p. 475. See alfo vol. 1. p. 135, 136. vol. 3. p. 176. and the article Mnemonic Tables. Weakness of the Memory, in many cafes, is to be confi- dered as a difeafe, and is looked on in that light by the medical writers, who have prefcribed various remedies for it. The principal caufes of this debility, are a too fre- quent and conftrained ufe, or rather abufe of it, in the getting by rote numbers of words and fyllables, particularly in the learning different languages ; a paralytic affection in the head ; violent external injuries in the fame part ; violent pains in the head, attended with deliriums, or attending a 'phrenitis. And to thefe are to be added drunkennefs, and an abufe of venery.

Pregnofl'tcs, All debilities of Memory are cured with great dif- ficulty by medicines alone ; and indeed this complaint is feldom removed, unlefs the whole frame of mind and courfe of life be altered ; all paffions avoided, and excefs of every kind left oft". But of all other kinds, that debility of Memory which proceeds from a paralytic diforder of the head, parti- cularly when that diforder affects the tongue, is found to be the moll obftinate and difficult of cure. Much fleep, or exceffive waking, are equally hurtful to the Memory, and frequently bring on an almoft total lofs of it.

Method of treatment. All fuch medicines as are of an agreeable tafte or odour, are generally fuppofed to be of fervice in Strengthening the Memory; and lignum aloes, ambergrife, and fome other of the fcented drugs, have been known to do great good. The aromatic, volatile, and fpirituous me- dicines, alfo all help in this cafe, if taken in fmall dofes, and continued for a long time together. The analeptics and nervine medicines are alfo greatly recommended, but they are feldom found of u(c ; for among people afflicted with a debility of Memory, many are thofe of robuft constitutions and Strong appetites, who eat already more than nature re- quires, and have therefore very little ufe for analeptics or nutritive things.

Bleedings in fmall quantities frequently repeated, in cafes where there is no contrary indication, frequently prove of great fervice in this cafe ; but the primes via are firft to be cleanfed before fuch a courfe is entered upon. Many greatly recommend bags of aromatics to the head, to be conftantly worn in caps ; but it is much to be feared thefe can have but very little effect:. JuncL Confp. Med. p. 682.

MEN allegro, m the Italian mufic, is ufed to denote a move- ment not fo brifk and lively as allegro. See the article Allegro.

Men forte, in the Italian mufic, intimates that the part to which it is added ought to be played or fung not fo Strong or fo loud as the reft.

Men prejlo, m the Italian mufic, Signifies lefs quick. See the article Presto.

MENALD deer, a fpecies of the common fallow deer, beau- tifully variegated. See the articles Cervtjs and Deer.

MENENCHYTA, in medicine, certain compohtions of me- dicinal ingredients made for injecting into the womb, in the cure of fcveral difeafes of that pait.

MENINGOPHYLAX, a word ufed by Celfus as the name of a chirurgica! inftrument, contrived for guarding the mem- branes of the brain while the bone of the cranium is rafped or cut, after the operation of the trepan.

MENING, in botany, a name given by the people of Guinea to a plant of the ricinus or palma Chrifti kind, which they ufe in medicine : They dry and powder the leaves, and then give them to be fnuffed up the noftrils to cure all forts of Stuffings or Stoppages in the head. Its leaves refemblc thofe or the finch and ivy, and are hairy ; whence Petiver has named it ricinus Guhuenfis haderts quinquefolicE Virginiana facie foliis hirfuth. It is not known to grow any where in America. Phil. Tranf. N° 232.

MENOGENIEN, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called the pzeonia, or common garden piony. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

MENSARII, among the Romans, officers appointed to ma- nage the public treafury, being Sometimes three, and fome- times five in number. Pitifc. in voc.

MENSORES, among the Romans, harbingers or officers, whofe bufinefs it was to go and fix upon lodgings for the emperor, when he took a journey to any of the provinces. Their office was alfo to mark out encampments, and afli°- n every regiment its poft. Danet. in voc.

Mensores alfofignified land-furveyors, architects, or apprai- sers of houfes and public buildings. Thofe fikewife who dif- tributed the provifions in the army, were called menfores fru- mentarii; and Servants who waited at table had the appella- - tion of Menfrcs. Pitifc. 8

Mensores was likewife the title of officers among the Ro- mans, appointed to receive the provifions brought to the city by fea, and to fee them carefully laid up and preferved in public granaries, of which there were great numbers. Hoffm. Lex. in voc. MENSTRUUM [Cycl.) — As many more things might be done in chemistry than we now find practicable if we had more Menflruums than are at prefent known, it muft be a fubject of infinite ufe in chemistry to difcover new ones. To this purpofe let it be confidered, that in whatever way Salts are united with other falts, new Menflruums are produced by the mixture.

Thus if pure alkali be added to a folution of fea fait, earthv matter is precipitated, and the fait afterwards obtained by criftallization, from the clear liquor, will be a fea fait much purer than before, and capable of acting on bodies in a dif- ferent manner.

The fame fixed alkali being added to the brine of nitre, makes the liquor thick and milky, and precipitates an ear- thy matter ; after which the nitre, obtained by criftalliza- tion, is much purer than before.

When fixed alkali is added to the brine of fill armoniac, it lays hold of the acid of that fait, and fets the volatile alkali of the compofition free, and fuffers it to fly off in the air, leaving only a very pure and fixed fea fait at the bottom of the vend. If a pure volatile alkali be added to the brine of fea fait, it makes the liquor thick, then purifies it, and flies off; and it does the fame when added to a folution of nitre ; and when added to a folution of fal armoniac, it, in like manner, purifies the fait without altering its nature, -and flys off as it was poured on. Vegetable acids produce but little alteration on being mixed with fea fait, nitre, and fal armo- niac. Fermented vegetable acids, even after being purified by diftillation, produce no great alteration when mixed with the fame falts. If calcined vitriol, or alum, be mixed with nitre and distilled, they yield aqua fortis, which contains nothing of the acid of vitriol or alum, but is a mere fpirit of nitre ; and if mixed with fea fait, and treated in the fame manner, the produce is a fpirit of fait ; and if with nitre and fea fait together, they make an aqua regia. So if nitre and calcined vitriol be melted together in an open fire, the acid of the nitre is difcharged, and a kind of tartarum vitriolatum is left behind. Sea fait, treated in the fame manner, leaves a fort of Glauber's fait behind ; and, in general, what way foever it be by which falts are joined with falts, new faline productions, and new Menflruums will arife ; whence the art of chemiftry may be perpetually improved, and new Menflruums will give new pbaenomena on different bodies. New Memflruums of particular virtues, may alfo be made by varioufly combining the known Menflruums together ; and this may be done by an almoft infinite variety of ways ; much may be alfo done by reducing every known Menflruum to its utmoft degree of purity. And, laftly, by reducing fome of them into the minuteft particles, they can be reduced to, whether by art or nature ; for upon thefe three particulars the extraordinary Skill of the chief chemifts feems principally to depend. For inftance, fuppofe an extremely pure, ftron", and Subtle fermented vegetable acid was wanting : Take fine verdegreefe prepared from copper corroded by the fubtile va- pour of a fermenting acid ; add to it twenty times its weioht of the ftrongeft diftilled vinegar that can be made; difeft them together till the verdigreefe is thoroughly diflblved, and the whole become a deep green liquor ; purify this by filtration, and infpiflate it over a gentle fire to a pellicle ; fet it in a quiet place, where it will Shoot into cryftals like eme- ralds, confifting of an acid vinegar and diSTolved copper ; pour off the liquor, collect the cryftals, and evaporate as before ; and by this means collect all the cryftals that can be obtained ; then dry thefe, and diftil them in a retort, and the produce will be a moft pure and Strong vegetable acid, not in the leaft partaking of the nature of copper. But this experiment will not fucceed with lead, tin, or any other of the metals foluble in vinegar ; for the copper attracts the acid free of its water, and again reftores it unaltered ; but the others, though they equally attract and feparate it, yet always yield it altered and impure. Zwelfer imagined this acid to be the alkahefr, or univerfal diffolvent ; but Tache- nius foon proved that it was no other than diftilled vinegar of a much greater purity than ufual.

To Shew that by the compounding one Menflruum with another, new, and often, excellent falts maybe produced, let it be confidered, that the regenerated tartar, properly pre- pared, may be intimately united to pure alcohol, and thus produce a vegetable Menflruum, compofed by the moft clofe union of the moft fubtile vegetable particles, viz. alkali, acid, and fulphur ; whence the effect of fuch a liquor can- not but be extremely great, both as a Menflruum and a medicine. So again, if a pure ftrong alkaline fpirit be unit- ed with pure alcohol, it produces an admirable Menflruum called the offa Helmontii, which intimately diflblves diftilled vegetable oils, and thus makes a Menflruum compounded of the genuine vegetable fulphur, and an alkali, and is per- haps one of the beft medicines, as well as the beft Menflru- ums hitherto known.

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