Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/73

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the leaving behind of part of the fecundines after abortion. In young people thefe are lefs dangerous, and fuldom remain in the womb more than a year, but in older perfons they fome- times remain many years, and at length often occaiion the death of the perfon. When they are produced in the womb at the fame time with a regular fcetus, they ufually deprive it of part of its nutriment, and occaiion falle pains, and many irregular complaints, during the time of geitation ; but thefe ufually are attended with fewer accidents at the time of deli- very than when the fame fubftances are produced alone in the womb. The German writers of wonders give accounts of thefe concretions being living animals, armed with claws and beaks, or wide mouths, and destroying the foetus when they are in the womb at the fame time with one; but thefe are idle reports, and are to be looked upon in the lame light with the hiitories of Sooterkins. Junk. Confp, Med. p. 721. The figns of a Mole in the uterus are very dubious, and dur- ing the firft months of geitation, it is fcarce poflible to diftin- guifh it from a genuine foetus ; but after this, if the fymptoms qf pregnancy go on, and there is no motion perceived at a time when the fcetus ought to ftir, it is fhrewdly to be fu- ipedted that this is the caie ; and this becomes the more evi- dent, if after this time there come on irregular and uncertain discharges of blood from the uterus, at different times ; in this cale there is alio ufually fo great a fkcciduy in the liga- ments of the uterus, that it does not retain us place in the body ; but when the perfon turns in bed, is plainly felt fal- ling like a dead weight from one fide of the abdomen to the other. It is alfo obferved, that in thefe cafes j tho' the belly fwells as much as when there is a genuine fcetus!, yet it is not fo regularly rounded before, but is flatter at the middle, and mote turgid toward the fides, fo that the burthen teems carried on one or the other fide, or partly in both, while the middle remains empty. There is always in this cafe alfo a fenfation of a weight on the lower part of the abdomen, greater by much than in the cafe of their being really a child there. At the regular time of delivery, the caie becomes much plainer than before ; for there then come on either no pains at all, or thole which come are flight and inconiiderable, very irregular in their periods and returns, and by no means furficient for the exclulion of a fcetus* When the Mole happens at the fame time with the foetus', it is feldom to be difcovered till the time of delivery, or if it be found out fooner, there can be nothing done till both that arid the fcetus are excluded ; after this the womb is to be very carefully cleanfed, as in abortions. At other times, when the cafe is obvious, that there is a Mole without any foetus, the common forcing medicines are to be given for feveral days every month, about the time of the pe- riodic returns of the raenles ; and if thefe do not bring it away. recourfe is to bq had to the hand of the midwife. Junker's Confp. Med. p. 723.

We find a very lingular inftance in Kerkring^ of a Mole, in which achild was enclofed. The whole was declared a falfe conception, and might have been facrificed as fuch, had not fome perfon prefent obferved Something itir within it, and, on the opening it, taken out the living child. Kerkring, Specil. Anat. M°*-a> in zoology, the name of a fifh commonly called in Englifb, the fun fjb. It -Is- of a very lingular figure". Its body is broad and ihort, and its hinder extremity is terminated by a circular fin, which ferves it for a tail ; fo that it looks like the head of a large fifh fever'd from its body ; it is frequently of two foot in length, and fometimes very much exceeds that fize, growing even to two hundred weight. It has no fcales, but is cover'd with a hard, harfh, and rough fkin. Its back is black, and its belly white ; the fides are of a middle colour between both. Its back afad belly both terminate in a narrow cage. Its mouth is very fmall for the fize of the fifh, andj when open, is round. Its jaws are hard, and edged like a knife within ; ex- ternally they are rough, as if befet with feyeral rows of fmall teeth. The head does not at all project from the reft of the body. The eyes are very fmall. It has only one pair of fins, which arc fituated hear the gills, which are only two elliptic holes covered with their proper merhbranes. Its flefh is very fott, and its bones are all grifly and tender. The fkin fticks very firmly to the flefh, and is not eafily taken off. It is caught in the Mediterranean, and fometimes in the Britim feas, See I ab.ofKifhes,N°. 27. militgbby's Hift. Pifc. p. 151. MOLAGO Cadi, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called the plant which produces the common black pep- per. Hort. 'Mai. vol. 8. p. 23. MOLANGA, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the plant which produces the common black pepper. Pifi. Mant. Arom. p. 492. MOLARES Denies {Cyc}.)— Thefe are twenty in number, five being placed on each fide of both jaws, immediately after the canini. The two firft in each row are fmall, the two next larger, as is alfo the laft, which appears very late, and is often wholly wanting. The Molares have been, accord- ing to this difference in their fize, diftinguifhed into fmall grinders, large grinders, and denies fapientia, or the teeth of wiidom, fo called, becaufe they feldom appear till peopl arrived at years of difcretion.

The bodies of the Mchresm general are very thick, {hort, and irregularly cylindrical, or rather with four fides, a little

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rounded, and terminated by a broad end, more or lefs filled; with obtufe points, cut, in fome meafure, like ib many diamonds. The name of crown is alfo frequently given to the bodies of thefe teeth, from fome fort of refemblance they are fuppofed to have to it. In the two fmall Molares, the crown is lefs than in the others, and often not fo large as the bodies of the canini : they have ufually but two points. In the two large Molares, the crown has a much greater ex- tent, and the points are three, four, or five in number. The fifth grinder, or dens fapientiee, has ufually a crown much like the two former, but commonly more rounded, and with fewer points. The roots of the Molares are long, and more or lefs flat ; in fome fingle, in others two, three, or four, and fometimes, but rarely, five in number; fometimes all thefe roots are diftinc~t, fometimes they are wholly united, and fometimes they are united only in part ; they are generally ftrait, and at a greater diftance from one another at their ex- tremities than at the crown of the tooth. The roots of the fmall grinders appear often fingle, without being fo in reality ; for in examining them narrowly, they are found to have two roots united, or foldered together ; and fometimes all the di- flin&ion that appears, is in their having two feparate points. The great Molares have commonly feveral roots, the firft three, and the fecond four ; or fometimes, the firft four, and the fecond five ; but thefe numbers are variable. The roots are fometimes all perfectly diftinct, and fometimes they are partly diftin£t, and partly united in the fame tooth in different degrees ; and in fome fubjccls, one or more of .their points are bent outward, inward, or in other directions ; and it is not always that more roots are met with in the upper teeth than in the lower. The fifth grinder has often but one root, and that is fometimes very fliort, and fometimes remarkably long. It is common to meet with this tooth in grown perfons almoft wholly hid in its focket., and it has, in thefe cafes, but a very fmall opening for it to appear at. In all the Me- lares, near the collar, the roots, be they ever fo many, meet and unite into one body. Win/low's Anatomy, p. 43, Molares, in the natural hiftory of the ancients, the name for the compound mineral bodies we now call pyrites and mar- cafites. See the articles Pyrites, and Marcasite. MOLDAVJCAj in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : The flower coniifts of one leaf, and is of the labiated kind. The upper lip is fomewhat arched, bifid at the extremity, and turned upwards j the rower one is alfo bifid, and both of them terminate in marginated edges, refembling the mouth of fome animal. The cup is tubu- lated, and ufually divided into two unequal lips. The piftil arifes from this, and is fixed in the manner of a nail to the hinder part of the flower, and furrounded by four embryos, which ripen into oblong feeds, and are contained in the cup of the flower.

The fpecies oiMoldavna, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe: 1. The blue-flowered betony-leaved Moldavica. 2. The white-flowered betony-leaved Moldavica. 3. The betony- leaved Moldavica, with flefh-colouied flowers : And 4. The ftrong-fcented trefoil Moldavica of America, called by fome, the balm of Gilead plant, from its fmell. Town. Inft. p. 184. MOLE, Talpa, in zoology. See the article Talpa, Mole, Mela, in medicine. See the article Mola. Mcle-HHIs. Thefe little hillocks of earth are a very great prejudice to the pafture lands, not only in wafting fo much of the land as they cover, but in hindering the fcythe in mow- ing. In the weft of England they ufe a peculiar inftrument for the breaking up of thefe ; it is a flat board, very thick, and of about eight inches in diameter, into which there is fattened a perpendicular handle of three or four foot long. It has four broad and Iharp iron teeth at the front, which rea- dily cut through the hill, and fpread the earth it confifts of; and behind there is a large knob, proper for breaking the clods with, if there are any. Some ufe a fpade, or other com- mon inftrument, in the place of this, but not fo well. There is, however, a much better inftrument even than this, for deftroying thefe hills, where they are in very great numbers. This is a kind of horfe machine; it has a lharp iron about three foot over, and with a ftrong back. It is about four or five inches broad, and has two long handles for a horfe to be harneffed to, and a crofs bar of iron to ftrengthen it at the bottom of the handles, reaching from the one handle to the other. The middle of this erofs bar is furnifhed with one, two, or more, fharp pieces of iron, like fmall plow-iharcs, to cut the Mole-bills into two, three, or more parts. The iron behind is of a femicircular figure. A fingle horfe is ha'r- nefs'd to this machine, and a boy muft be employed to drive it, and a man to hold and guide it ; the lharp irons or fhares are the firft things that meet the hill, they run through it, break its texture, and cut it into feveral parts, and the circu- lar iron following immediately behind them, cuts up the whole by the roots, and leaves the land level. This inftru- ment will deftroy as many Mole-hills in one day as a common labourer can in eight, and would be of very great advantage to the kingdom, if brought into general ufe. Mortimer's Hufbandry, p. 331.

It is to be obferved, that this leaving a naked fpace in the place of every hill, it will be neceflary to go over the land, and fow them with hay-feed, other wife thefe fpots will want

the