Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/56

 MET

M E T

but he conceals the method. The folemn manner in which he declares the fail, however, feems to imply, that what he relates is truth ; and he every where fpealcs from his own perfonal knowledge, and the work of his own hands. The menftruum he ufed was known by himfelf and many others, at Hall in Saxony, under the name of EJj'entia Dulds; he fa- credly affirms, that this was neither acid nor corrofive, even in the fiighteft degree ; that it left behind it no fasces, no fa- line nor earthy matter on evaporation alone ; and that it more approached to the nature of fpirit of wine, than to any other known liquid. He fays, that this liquor diflblved even gold, and that fo perfectly, that it would all rife with the liquor in diftillation. Mercury being diflblved in it, and the folution diftilled in a retort, he fays, that only a fmall quantity of earthy matter remained in the retort, which was white, of a ipongy texture, and fixed in the fire ; and that the reft of the body of the quickfilver was converted into a thin colourlefs and pellucid fpirit in the receiver : And that gold, treated in the fame manner, and diftilled with a very gentle heat, was left at the bottom of the retort in form of a refin ; and that this refin was foJuble in common rectified fpirit of wine, as was alfo the earth of the mercury ; and that fome days after the folution of this laft earth, the fait with which this fub- flance abounded, would feparate itfelf from the menftruum, and form regular cryftals at the fide of the glal's. This, he fays, is the true fait of mercury, containing all the virtues of that Metal, and not converted into a vitriol or corrofive fub- ftance, by means of the menftruum ufed to extract it. When the fait has thus formed as many {hoots as it will yield by this procefs, the remaining liquor is to be evaporated gently, and there will be found a like fait at the bottom of the veflel, of a white colour, an agreeable fmell, and infipid to the tafte : This, he fays, is fo fixed in the fire, that it is no more to de deflroyed or altered by it, like the Metal from which it is obtained. It readily melts into a mafs in the fire ; but if it be not immediately after that taken off" from the fire, it will run through whatever veflel it is melted in. The author attributes to this fait all the wonderful virtues that the metal it is made from is known to pofiefs ; and gives inftanccs of cures performed by it, which are fo well attefted, as fcarce to leave any doubt of his veracity. He fays, it works mildly by ftool, urine, and fweat. The cafes he gives of cares performed by it, arethefe: Two women, who were very bad with the venereal difeafe, two men in the laft ftages of hecti - fevers, feveral perfons in bad kinds of the fmall pox, and fome in peripneumnnies. The refin-like fubftance into which gold is converted by the fame operation, he fays alfo may be transformed in the fame manner into a white and fub- tile fait, of a very penetrating tafte ; and to this he attributes great virtues in the cure of haemorrhages and epileptic cafes, and adds, that It is an ingredient of the black compound powder, fo famed for epileptic cafes, prepared at the public orphan hofpital at Hall. Kunkel's Difiert. de Sal

That a difcovery of a manner of extracting the falts of Me- tals thus without the help of acids would be of great ufe to the world, is very evident, and the folemn manner in which this author aflerts the having done it, feems to infer a proba- bility of its being arrived at by others. He is very blame- worthy in not declaring the method ; but perhaps fome hints may be gathered from what he has been pleafed to declare about it.

Prince's Metal. Seethe article Prince.

METALLIC {Cyd.) — The antients have ufed this word very frequently as an epithet in the diftinetions of the feveral fub- ftances which they have treated of. But it is to be obferved, that the various writers have taken the word in a very dif- ferent fenfe. The medical writers in general mean by it fomething of the mineral kind, that more or lefs partakes of the nature ot fome one of the metals, and that is wholly dif- ferent from earths, ftones, C5'c. In this fenfe they call the Lapis Armenus^ which indeed is properly not a ftone, though we call it fo, but an ore of copper, metallic ; and by this term alone they diftinguifh it from the laps lazuli, which they call a ftone. The naturalifts, on the other hand, make no fuch diftinction, but call every thing metallic that is obtained out of the bowels of the earth ; and thus ftones, earths, falts, and even the liquid bitumens, are by them called metallic fub- ftances. The terms metallic oi), and metallic pitch, are found in the Greek naturalifts, as the names of the Petroleum and Piffafpbaltum; but the medical writers of the fame time di- ftinguiih thefe by the name Orycla:, which is properly foffil, a word of a very wide fenfe, taking in every thing produced in the earth ; but the particular ones, which contained the particles of metals in a more or tefs perfect form, they fepa- rated from thefe, and treated diftinctly of under the name of the Metallics; chalk, fand, earth, and ftones of all kinds, are called by the Greek naturalifts metalla, and the Latins have fometimes ufed the word metallum for lapis a ftone.

Metallic Germination. See the article Germina- tion.

Metallic Vegetation, See the article Vegetation.

METALLORUM Mater. See the article Mater Metal- forum.

METAPEDIUM, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome authors to a kind of ftone, called by others metatarfu/n, and fuppofed to imitate a human foot. It is only a lufus natura: in the formation of a common pebble.

METAPTOSIS, a word ufed by many phyfical writers to ex- prefs a change of one diftemper into another, whether it be by diadoche or diadexis, as it is called j when the change is for the better, and the morbid matter removes from a more noble to an ignoble part : Or by meiajlafis, when the change is for the worfe, and the morbid matter removes from an ignoble to a more noble part.

METASTASIS, Mkwi?, Remotio, in rhetoric, is ufed for the removing the blame from the perfon accufed to another perfon, or laying it upon fomething as a caufe. Thus Adam's excufing himfelf by blaming Eve, is an example of the for- mer ; and the laying the crime ot drunkennefs upon the wine, is an inftance of the latter. Vojf. Rhet. 1. i. p. 147.

METATARSUM, in natural hiftory, a name given by au- thors to a fort of ftone, fuppofed to reprefent a human foot. See the article Metapedium.

METATARSIUS, a flefhy mafs lying under the fole of the foot, fixed by one end in the fore-part of the great tuberofity of the os calcis, and running forward from thence, terminates- in a kind of fhort tendon, which is fixed in the tuberofity, and pofterior part of the lower fide of the fifth bone of the Mctatarfus. It may move this bone, much after the fame manner as the metacarpus moves the fourth bone of the me- tacarpus. IVinjlovfs Anatomy, p. 226.

METATHESIS, a word ufed by medical writers for a change of place in fuch humours, or other difeafed parts, as cannot be abfolutely removed or fent off. Thus a Metathefis of a cataract is a depreffion thereof, fo that it no longer fhuts out the light.

METATOR, among the Romans, a quarter-mafter. Out of every legion a tribune, and fome centurions, were appointed to go before the army, in order to chufe a place for a camp, and aflign and mark out quarters to each legion. Pitifc. Lex. Antiq. in voc.

METAXA, a word ufed by fome medical writers to exprdV filk.

METEGAVEL, in our old writers, a tribute or rent paid In victuals ; which was a thing ufual in this kingdom, as well with the king's tenants as others, till the reign of king Henry the firft. Blount. The word is Saxon, mctegavel; i. e. cibigablum,feu veSigaL

METEL, in natural hiftory, the name of a fort of nux vomica^ of the fame fhape with the common kind, but fomewhat larger.

MEEEMPSYCHI, in church hiftory, heretics, who, in imita- tion of the Pythagoreans, maintained the tranfmigration of" fouls. Hoftn. Lex. in voc. See the article Metempsy- chosis, CycL

METESSLB, an officer of the eaftern nations, who has the care and overfeeing of all the public weights and meafures, and fees that things are made juitly according to them. Po- cock's Egypt, p. 166.

METHOD {Cyd.) —The fupreme law of the philofophical Method is, to premife that which is neceflary towards the underftanding or eftabfifhing what follows. Wolf. Difc. Pnelim. Logic, c. 4.

The mathematical and philofophical Method arc the fame, a& may be feen by the practice of the geometers of antiquity, who conftantly obferve the law here mentioned. Id. ib. Several authors, as Ramus, Mcfits. de Port Royal, &c. have accufed Euclid of want of Method. Had thefe gentlemen at- tended to the fupreme law of all true Method^ they would have been more cautious in their cenfures. The jefui't Caftel has renewed this groundlefs accufation ; and to convince his- reader how much he excels the antients, he begins his- geometry by a petitio priucipH, Thus to prove Q .-

that the oppofite angles a, b, as alfo c, d are c^/d equal. He aflumes this principle, that the two / b *■ lines whole interjection forms thefe angles, are equally m-v clined to each other above and below. Now, being equally inclined to each other, is the fame as forming equal angles, which is the very thing to be proved a. We find the fame confufion of thought, which he introduces by way of illuftra- tion, in his doctrine of parallel lines; not to mention the ab- furdity of parallels being as it were one broad line ".- — [ a Ca/Li. Math. Univerf. p. 264. b Ib. p. 271.]

Method of Maximis eff Minimis. See the article Maxi-. mum, Cyd. and SuppL

METHODISTS, in botany, perfons who have attempted that ftudy upon certain principles, and have beftowed their la- bours upn the difpofition and arrangement of plants, and al- lotting them proper and diftinctive names. Lhmtei Syft. Nat. p. I.

METOPIUM, In botany, a name given by Pliny to the plant which produces the gum ammoniacum. He fays that the antient Greeks called it aifo by this name, but in that he errs. See the article Ammoniacum.

METRENCHYTES, a name given by chirurgical writers to a fort of fyringe, contrived on purpofe for injecting medicinal fubftances into the womb.

4. METRETES,