Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/70

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without ever being wet ; and they have often been feen to cat one another. Their manner of eating is by tbrufting al- ternately one jaw forward and the other backward ; and in this manner grinding their food s and after they have done feeding, they teem to chew the cud.

There are feveral lefler diitindiions obfervable in the Mites, which are found among different fubftanccs. Thofe in malt- duft and oatmeal, are much nimbler than the cheefe Mites* and have more and longer hairs. The Mites among figs re- femble beetles, and have two feelers at the fnout, and two very long horns over them ; thefe have only fix legs, and are more fluggifli than thofe in malt-duff;. Thofe found among figs had alfo very long hairs, and thofe befet at certain distan- ces with other fmaller hairs ; whence Mr. Lewenhoek conjec- tures, that thefe longer and larger hairs are jointed at thofe places where the fhort ones are found. There are a fort of wandering A&tes, found wherever there is any thing they can feed on ; thefe are often found in form of a white dud, and are not fuipected to be living creatures.

The Mite is an animal very tenacious of life ; it will live months without food j and Mr. Lewenhoek had one which lived eleven weeks on the point of a pin, on which he had fixed it for examining it by his microfcope. Lewenboek's Ar- can. Nat. T. 4, p. 368.

MITELLA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : The flower is of the roface- ous kind, confiding of many petals difpofed in a circular form. The piflil arifes from the cup of the flower, and finally becomes a roundifli and pointed fruit, which when ripened fplits into two parts, and in fbme degree refembles a mitre, and contains ufually roundifli feeds.

The fpecies of Mitella, enumerated by Mr. Tournefortj are thefe : 1. The American Mitella, with fimbriated petals. 2. The American Mitella, with whole petals. 3. The great American dying Mitella, called Orelland, Jchiotl, and Wruow. Tourn. Lift. p. 241.

Mitella, in furgery, a name given to the fcarf for fufpending the arm when injured.

MITHRIDATES, in natural hiflory, the name of a (lone found in fome parts of Perfia, feeming to be the fame as the mithridax or mithrax. See the next article.

MITHRIDAX, in natural hiflory, the name of a gem defcribed by Solinus, and mentioned by fome of the later writers, who have quoted him, or borrowed from him j but the name is not met with in any author earlier than his time. The quali- ties he bellows upon it, are the fame with thofe given by Pliny to the mithrax ; and as the word mithrax never occurs in Solintis, it is highly probable that he means this ftone by it. He fays* that when the fun fhines upon the Mithridax, it (hews a great many various colours. Ifidore fays the fame thing, evidently borrowing the account and almoft the words from him.

Pliny tells us, that the mithrax has the fame quality, and that it is in itfelf whitiih. Its name is taken from the Periian word' for the fun, and is the fame as gemma fills. Pliny in- deed, in the latter end of his book, defcribes a (lone called ■ folis gemma, without faying that it is the fame with the tm- ihrax ; but his accounts in both places agree very well one with another ; and the common cuflom of that author of col- lecting at large from all the writers of his time, might ealily lead him to defcribe a thing twice, which he found in two authors called by two different names. The mithrax both of Pliny, and all the other antients, is evi- dently the opal ; and the Mithridax having no other qualities attributed to it, but thofe the opal poffefTes, may be determin- ed to be only a corruption of the fame name.

MITHRAX, in natural hiflory, the name given by Pliny and the antients, to a gem found in Perfia, which when held up to the fun (hewed many colours. It was probably no other than the opal. Hence the barbarous writers of the middle ages feem to have taken their account of the Mitbridates, See the preceding article.

MI PRE (Cycl.) — Mitre is ufed by the writers of the Iriili hiflory for a fort of bafe money, which was very common there about the year 1 270 ; and for thirty years before, and as many after. There were befide the Mttre, fevera-l other pieces called ac- cording to the figures imprefled upon them, rofaries,- lionades, eagles, and by the like names. They were imported from France, and other countries, and were fo much below the proper currency of the kingdom, that they were not worth fo much as a half-penny each. They were at length decry M in the year 1300, and good coins (truck in their place. Thefe were the mil Irifh coins in which the fcepter was left out. They were (truck in the reign of Edward the fou of our Henry the Third, and are (till found among the other anti- quities of that country. They have the king's head in a tri- angle full-faced. The penny, when well preferved, weighs twenty-two grains; the half-penny ten grains and a half., Simon's Irifh Coins.

MITTA, in our old writers, an antient Saxon meafure. Its quantity is not certainly known; but it is fa id to be menfura decern modiorum, a meafure of ten bufhels. Doom/day. Mitta, or Miicha, befides being a meafure for fait and corn, is ufed for the place where the caldrons were put to boil fait. 8

Calderias quoqite ad fal conficiendum cum protiriis fedibus Mitchffi vocantur. Gale's Hill. Brit. 767. Blount.

MITTENDARII, among the Romans, corrimifEoners Tent in- to the provinces by order of the prcrfetlus prestorio, or cap- tain of the guards, upon fome public account, as to mfpect the behaviour and management of provincial governors, and obferve whatever wasamifs ; all which they were to lay be- fore the prefect, who had authority to remedy fuch abufes. Pitifc. in voc.

MIT TENDO Manu[criptum pedis finis, In law, a writ judicial, directed to the treafurer and chamberlains of the exchequer, to fearch for and tranfmit the foot of a fine, acknowledged before juftices in eyre, into the common-pleas, Ufc. Reg. Orig. 14. Blount. Cowel.

MITU, or Mitu-Porangu; in zoology, the name of a Brafiiian bird of the pheafant-kind, according to Marggrave, and the generality of thofe who fpeak of it; but fuppofed by Mr. Ray, rather to approach to the nature of the peacock, or turkey-cock.

It is larger than the common Englifh cock, and is all over the back, wings, life, of a fine deep black ; but on the belly of a partridge-brown ; and has a feries of fine gloffy black fea- thers on its head, which it occafionally raifes up into a fort of creft. Its beak is very beautiful, broad at the bafe and nar- row at the point, and of a fine bright red. Its tail is very long, and it can at pleafure raife and expand it like the tur- key. It is very eafily tamed, and loves to rooft on trees. Its flefll is very fine and delicate; See Tab. of Birds, N°. 24. Marggrave's Hlft. Braiil.

MIXT, in chemiftry. See the article Aggregate.

MIXTURE {Cycl.) — MrxTiiRA Simplex, jimple Mixture, in pharmacy, the name of a form of medicine ufed in the prefcriptions of fome modern phyficians. It is made by mixing ten ounces of the fpiritus theriacalis camphoratus of 'Bates, fix ounces of fpirit of tartar, and two ounces of fpirit of vi- triol ; thefe are to be fet in a glafs hermetically fealed for three weeks that they may be perfectly mixed ; the dofe is a dram or thereabouts; Its virtues are, that it refills putre- faction, promotes fweat, and is of great fcrvice in malignant fevers. See the article Mixture, Cycl.

MIZNEPHETH, in the jewilh antiquities, a kind of mitre worn by the high-pricft. See the article Cidaris.

MIZQUITL, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for that fpecies of the Acacia, or Egyptian thorn, whofe unripe fruit affords the infpifTated juice, which is the true fuccus acacise of the {hops, and whofe gum, naturally flowing from the trunk and branches, is the true gum arabic. Hernand, p. 59. Dale Pharm. p. 343.

MNEME-CEPHALICUM Balfamw, h the name of a famous compound balfam'j faid to have been purchafed from a certain Englifh phyfician by Charles Duke of Burgundy, at the price of ten thoufand florins. Some who have been very lavifh in its praifes have affirmed, that it has a power of pre- ferving in the mind the remembrance of all things that are pall ; but this Teems ftretching the praife of it a little too far.- It is' prepared in the following manner : Take of the juices of the leaves of baum, and bafil juices, of the flowers of tama- rifk lillies, primrofes, rofemary, lavender, borrage, and broom^ of each two ounces ; of lillies of the valleys roles, and vio- lets, each one ounce ; of cubebs, cardamoms, grains of para- dife, and yellow launders, carpobalfamum, florcntine iris,; faftron, favory, piony-flowers, and thyme, of each half art ounce ; of liquid ftorax, ftorax-calamita, oppoponax, bdellium, galbanum, gum ivy, and labdanum, of each fix drams ; roots of long birth-wort and piony, and oil of turpentine, fpikenard, coftus, juniper, bays, maftich, ben, and fpike, of each five drams. The dry ingredients are to be beaten to powder, then mixed with the reft, and a fuffkient quantity of water being added the whole is to be diftilled by an alembic, and) the oil carefully feparated from the water. The method of ufing it is this : The firft two months the pafiVes of the ears and noftrils are to be anointed with the bignefs°of a pea- of it every day ; then for two months longer, the fame is to be repeated every third day ; after this, it is to be ufed once a week, then once a fortnight, till a year is expired ; and after this it is to be ufed once in two months for the fucceeding years. This is the account of Sennertus. Senmrt. Pradf!

L. 1. c. 5.

MNEMONIC Tables. Among the artifices to affift the me- mory, this is one of great ufe.

Mnemonic Tables exhibit in a regular manner", what is to be remembred of the fame fubject. And altho' the fciences ought to be taught in a fcientifical manner, as much as pof- fible, and that every thing mould be fo placed as to be in- telligible and demonftrable from what has preceded it ; yet tables ought not to be rejected, as they are helps to retain the doctrines of which the mind has had fufficient evidence ". In fuch tables the properties of things are to be expreffed eoncifely ; illuftrations and demonftrations fhould be left out, as the propofition ought to have been made fufficiently clear and certain, before it is regiftred in the table. Hence the contents of fuch tables ought only to be the definitions, and the propofitions relative to the fubject. If a fubject require a long table, this may be fubdivided into fmaller ; by making firft a table of the moft general heads, and referring frora

each