Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/52

 M E R

M E R

formed into cinnabar by the fulphur of the antimony, Mif- cel. vereUtil. p. 58,

MERCY, in law, is ufed for the arbitrament of the king or judge, in punifhing offences, not directly cenfured by law. Blount^ Cowet.

MERDESENGI, in the materia medica of the Arabians, a name given by Scrapio to litharge. Avifenna calls this fub- Ifance mardac, and it has been erroneoufly fuppofed from this, that maniac and Merdefengi were not the fame fubftance ; but this is a falfe conjecture. See the article Mardac

MERDIVOR.< i E, the Dung Eaters, in natural hiftory, the name given by authors to icveral flics which feed on excre- ments of different animals. Of thele there are three kinds very common among us, the coprophagos, which is of a dim colour, with a reddifh head, and a white ftreak along the middle of it. The red dung-fly, which has fdvery wings, a red body, and black moulders. And 3. The green one, which is of a very glittering hue, and has fdvery wings.

MERGANSER, in zoology, the name of a large water fowl, called in EngliiTi, the Goofander, and by fome authors, the Hark, See Mergus.

Its common weight is four pounds, its body is oblong, and its back broad and flat. Its head, and the upper part of its neck, is in the male of a fine bluifh or greenifh black, very bright and mining j the lower part of its neck is white, ( and the middle oi the back, part of the neck and part of the wings are black, the reft are grey ; the tail is grey ; all the under part of the body is of a faint aih-colour. The beak is near four inches long, hooked and pointed at the end, and fer- rated, and is part black and part red. The feet and legs are red ; the three fore toes are joined by a membrane, but the hinder one loofe, yet that is encreafed in breadth by a fmall membrane. Its head feathers ftand loofe, and make the head look larger than it is ; but it has not, properly fpcaking, the creft winch many of the birds of the fame genus have. Roy, Ornithol. p. 253.

'I his is the figure of the male Merganfer ; the female differs fo much from this, as to be not only eftcemed a different bird by the common people, but even defcribed as fuch by authors. It is called by our people the DuncUver, or Sparling Fowl, and by authors, mergus cirratus longirojler, the long-bcak'd creftcd diver. The great difference, however, is, that the female is of a fomewhat reddifh brown on the head, and has a creft. See the article Dundiver.

MERE PRIX, among the Romans. The Mcretrices were the better fort of curtezans, and differed much from the profli- hula, or common proftitutes, who had bills or inferiptions, tituli, over their doors, and were ready at all times to enter- tain their cuftomers ; whereas the Merctrices entertained none but at night.

I he Merctrices were diftmguifhed from the matrons by their drefs, being obliged to wear the toga and fhort tunics, like thofe of the men ; whereas the matrons wore the flola, which was a garment that reached down to their feet, as did like- wife their palta, or outer robe. Pitifc.

MERGEN, a word ufed by fome of the chemical writers to exprefs coral.

MERGUS, in the Linnsean fyftemof zoology, the name of a diftinct genus of birds, of the order of the anferes. The di- ftinguifhing characteriftic of this genus is, that the beak is fomewhat cylindric, and has a crooked point. Linnai Syft. Natur. p. 46.

The characters of this genus, according to Mr. Ray, are thefe : The feet are webbed, the three fore toes being con- nected by a membrane, but the hinder toe is left loofe. The beak is narrow, hooked at the end, and ferrated. Of this genus are the merganfer, or goofander, the female of which fpeciesiscalledthef&W/'Lw. 2.Thert/<W/7/.f ofAldrovand. 3. The ferula of the Venetians. Which fee under their fe- vcral heads. And laftly, the Mergus Rbe'tn ; commonly cal- led fimply by the name Mergus. Ray's Ornithol. p. 254. This hit is of the fize of a duck, and fomewhat refcmbles that bird in fhape. It is all over very beautifully variegated with black and white. Its beak is black ; and its belly is"varicgated with grey, with the black inftead of white. Its tail is black; its legs brown, and the membrane of its feet black. Notwith- standing that this fcems defcribed as a different fpecies by au- thors, there is much room to fufpect that it is the fame with our albellus. Aldrovand. deAvib. T, 3. p. 275. Ray 's Or- nithol. p. 254.

Mergus Alhellus Diclus, in zoology, the name of the common Mergus, called Mergus cirratus major, the greater crelled diver, and Mergus Rbein, the diver of the Rhine, and com- monly known in England by the name of the j mew. Its common weight is a .pound and a h.ilf, and its beak is an inch and half in length. Its head and neck are white, e xcept that it has a large black fpot ending in a point, and unround- ing the bottom of that tuft of feather-* which hang from the back part of the head, and are what authors call the cirrus or crefl ; and another oblong black ftreak which runs from the angles of the beak to the eyes. Its throat, bread, and belly, are all fnow white, and its 'back all over of a fine deep black ; hut Us moulder feathers, which are long and hang over the

back, in part on each fide, are white. Near the joining of the wings to the back, there are two or three arched black lines ; and on the lower part of the neck there is another line, making a fort of ring of the fame colour. The wing feathers are partly black, partly white. Its beak is of a lead-colour'd grey, large at the bafe, and tapering to a fharp hooked point. In the female the head is reddifh, the throat is white; but there is a fort of circle of a brownifh colour on the breaft. Its upper part alfo is almoft all grey, and it has no creft. It Feeds on fifh, and is very common on our coafts. Ray's Or- nithol. p. 254.

Mergus Cirratus Minor, in zoology, a name by which Gcfncr calls the capo negro, a fpecies of duck, called in Englifh, the tufted duck, from its having a tuft of feathers, of an inch and half in length, hanging from the back of its head. Gef?ier, de Avib.

MERIDIONAL {Cycl.)— Meridional Parts. To find the Aieridional Parts to any fpheroid, with the fame cxactnefs as in a fphere.

Let the femi-diametcr of the equator be to the difhnce of the focus of the generating ellipfe from the center as m to 1. Let A reprefent the latitude for which the meridional parts are re- quired, s the fine of this latitude, the radius being unit; find

the ark B, whofe fine is - ; take the logarithmic tangent of

half the complement of B from the common tables ; fubtract this logarithmic tangent from io.oocoooo, or the loo-a- rithmic tangent of 45 ; multiply the remainder by

'" ' m '" •* & c - ant * the product fubtracted from the

meridional parts in the fphere, computed in the ufual manner for the latitude A, will give the meridional parts exprefled in minutes for the fame latitude in the fpheroid, provided it be oblate.

Example: If mm : r : : 1000: 22, then the greateft dif- ference of "the meridional parts in the fphere and fpheroid is 76 . 0929 minutes : In other cafes it is found by multiplying the remainder above-mentioned by 1 1 74 . 078. When the fpheroid is oblong, the difference of the meridional parts in the fphere and fpheroid, for the fame latitude, is then determined by a circular ark. Phil. Tranf. N. 461. Seel:. 14. See alfo Maclaurin's Fluxions, art. 895 — 899. Mr. Murdoch has folved this problem by infinite feries, and has computed a table of meridional parts for an oblate fphe- roid, fuch as is mentioned in the foregoing example. See his Treat, intituled, Mcrcator's Sailing applied to the true Figure of the Earth, Lond. 174L 4*.

MERIS, in mufic, an appellation given by Mr. Sauveur to the forty third part of an octave. See Mem. Acad. Scienc 1701. The word is Greek, f*ap« 3 a part.

MERLANGUS, in ichthyography, a name given by Bello- nius, and fome other authors, to a fmall fpecies of whiting or afellus mollis, called by the Venetians, mollo, and by fome other nations, the capelon. Willughbfs Hift. Pifc. p. 171. Seethe article Mollo.

MERLANUS, a name given by fome writers in ichthyography to the common whiting or afellus mollis five albus. Ronde- let. de Pifc. p. 97. See the article Whiting.

MERLUCIUS, in zoology, the name of a fifh commonly cal- led the hake, and by fome authors the afellus alter. It is a moderately large fifh, growing to two foot or more in in length, and refembling the common pike in figure, from whence it has its name, Merlucius, quafi maris lucius, the fea pike. It in fome meafure refcmbles the common whiting in colour, the back being of a pale greyifh hue, and the belly white. It is covered with fmall fcales. Its head is broad and flat, and its mouth very wide, as in the frefh water pike. The jaws are both, but efpecially the lower, armed with long fharp teeth, with others finaller and fhorter between them. The eyes are large, and their iris of a fine yellow. It has two fins on the back, the firft near the head, the other not far diftant from it, and fo long as to reach nearly to the tail. Its gill-fins are narrow, and its belly-fins are placed very hio-h. Its tail is not forked. It is caught in the Englifh and other feas, and is a valuable fifh for the table. Ray's Ichthyoor. p. 174.

MEROPS, in zoology, the name of a bird called alfo apiafler, and in Englifh the bee-eater.

It refembles the king-fifher in fhape, and is of the fize of a black-bird. Its beak is long, black, and a little crooked, and the irifes of its eyes of a fine red. Its head is long and large. The feathers growing at the infertion of the upper chap are of a bluifh green ; but thofe on the middle of the head are white ; the crown, however, a little backwarder is of a reddifh brown, fbmetimes with a flight admixture of green ; and there runs on each fide a black line from the an- gle of the beak through the orbit of the eyes ; its neck and moulders arc green, but with a caft of rednefs ; audits belly and breaft are blue. The tips of the long wing feathers are blackifh, and the reft are variegated with a bright green and a fine orange colour. Its tail is of a fine blue, and the two middle feathers of it are longer than any of the others. Its legs are very fhort and thick, and are of the fame form with

the