Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/735

 UNG

The lad had no fenfe in thofe parts of the horns which were at a difbnee from his ringers ; but they might be cut or pulled anyway, without giving him pain; when they were moved near the roots, where they joined the finger, the pain was very great. The back of his hand was lull of horny fub- , fiances, of a like texture with thefe, but not elevated above the fkin ; they had the appearance of broad and flat warts, but were much larger and harder. The difeafe feized the lad af- ter the fmall-pox. The common length of thefe horns on his fingers was between three and five inches. Phil. Tranf. >K 229. Unguis Odoratus, in the materia medica, a thin flat teftaceous fubflance, of an oval or oblong figure* rounded at both ends, and marked on the furface with three or four concentric circles, or oval lines. Its colour is a dufky brown, with Come admix- ture of the orange, fome times of a purplifh tinge. Its ufiial fize is that of a full grown nail of a man's thumb; and its thicknefs rather lefs than that of the nail. It is tough, flexile, and elaftic ; and has-no peculiar fmell or taftc. The want of fmell might feem to argue this to be a difFerent fubftance from the Unguis odoratus of the antients ; but the truth is, that theirs owed all its fweet flavour to its being brought over among aromatic drugs.

There were two kinds of it, the largeft of which they had from the red-fea, and the other from Babylon ; and both were the opercula of two ipecies of mu rex- i hells. See the article

Mo REX.

Diofcorides tells us that this Unguis was the operculum or po- ma of the fhcll, which' {topped the mouth at pleafure, and from under which the creature thruffc out its tongue to feed ; and he adds, that the fliell-filh to which it belonged was taken in the marines of India, when the waters were dried away ; and that the Indian fpikenard growing in great abun- dance in thefe marines, the creature became fwect-fcented in every part, by feeding on it. Butinthe latter part of his account .hefeems to forget the beginning; for he concludes with telling us, that there were only two kinds brought into Greece in his time, the one from the Red Sea, the other from Babylon. The truth is, that fpikenard grows neither in the Red Sea, nor any where about Babylon, but only in India beyond the Ganges, or about its banks. The fpikenard alfo does not. grow in the water, but only in marfhy places, and therefore can never be in the way of feeding fhell-hfh. Nay, this very author, in his description of the fpikenard, tells us, that it grows on mountains, and that the fpikenard which grows in wet places, is another kind, and not the fine aromatic fpike- nard fo valued in the fhops ; even the laft kind, however, could not ferve for the feeding the filh neither; for he fays, , that it grows in wet or moifl grounds, but not in the water. From this, and fome other fuch paffages, itappcars thntDio- fcorides was an author too much of Pliny's {lamp, and collect- ed his accounts of tilings from different authors, and that with- out a fufiicient knowledge of the fubjech; fo that he often con- tradicts himfelf. As to the Indian fpikenard, Garcias tells us, that it is not produced wild, but is a cultivated plant, raifed by lowing the feeds in gardens, not under water. Avifenna feems to have feen this ablurdity in Diofcorides, about the Ihell-fifh feeding under water on the fpikenard, and though he tranflates the account of his Unguis odoratus*, or adfer althaib, verba- tim from Diofcorides in other parts, yet he here alters the fenfe, and fays, that the ihell-filh was found in an ifland in the Indies, on which ifland the fpikenard alfo grew in great abundance.

This, however, is but avoiding one error by another ; for though, by this, he gets over theabfurdity of the fpikenard's growing under water ; yet he falls into a much worfe, which is, of the fhell-fifli to which the Unguis odoratus belongs, being found on dry land.

It is very certain that no fhell-fifli, living in the water, can fubfiil, without fome means of doling up its cavity, fo as to keep out the water at pleafure ; this is done in the bivalve kinds, by clofing the two valves j but in the ftromboidecnes, by drawing down this operculum, which is the Unguis odora- tus, to the mouth of the- fhell. A land-fhell therefore can have no occafion for fuch a part as the poma or operculum, and no fuch drug as the Unguis odoratus can be found about it. But it is to be obferved, that Avifenna did not know that the Unguis odoratus was a covering or operculum of the mouth of a fhell, but thought that it was only a fragment cut or broken

' indeterminately from any part of the fhell. This therefore might appear no abfurdity to him, and the thin and flat Un- . gucs he law might appear fragments artificially cut from fome of the thin-fhelled kind of land (nails.

Unguis OJfa, in anatomy, are two bones which help to com- pleat the internal fides of the orbit of the eye, to cover the fore-part of the labyrinth of the nofe, and form the lachrymal duct.

They have their name from the Latin Unguis, a nail of the hand, and are alfo, by fome authors, from their office in forming the lachrymal duct, called offa lachrymalia. They are each fituated in the orbit of the lower part of the in- ternal angle ; they are the leaf! bones of the face, and are very thin and tranfparent. They are in fhape fomewhat longer than broad, and not unaptly referable the figure of the finger

u n 1

nails, _ especially while in their natural places; for, feeing £ alterj out of the fhell, their figure becomes fomewhat more irregular* .fcach -of them is divided, by anatomifts, into two fides the one external, the greateil part of which appears in the orbit in an enure fkull; the other internal, which is hid ; t Wo extre- mities, the one upper, the other lower $ and two edges, one anterior, the other poflerior: The.outfide h fmootb, and a httle concave ; toward the anterior edge is a groove full of fmall holes like a fieve, called the lachrymal groove. It be- gins at the upper extremity, and runs down lower on'this fide than any other part of the bone, the lower extremity of it be- ing hid by the os maxillare. It is difringmmed from the reft of the outfide by a very fharp prominent edge. The inlide is rough and unequally convex, with a perpendicular deprefiion anfwering to the fharp prominence on the outfide. On the upper part of this infide, final! portions of cellulous laminae arc fbmctimes obfervable, which communicate with the entry of the frontal finus ; and there are likewife fome about the middle, which compleat the anterior ethmoidal cells ; and others toward the lower end, which cummunicate with the rugged portions of. the upper border of the finus maxillaris i thefe, however, often vary, and are fometimes wanting. Thefe bones are altogether without diploe; they are connected with the os frontis, and with the os ethmoides, coverino- a part of the cells in that bone, with the nafal aprphyfes of The os maxillare, and with the groove cf that bone in fuch a man- ner, that the two grooves, joined together, form an entire tube, called the lachrymal 'duct ; they alfo Cover a little the opening of the maxillary finufes, and join the inferior conchas of the nares, of which they appear 'to be only a continuation in advanced age. IVinJlow's Anatomy, p. 36.

Unguis of. a Flower, among botanifts. See the article Petal.

Unguis, in natural hiftory, a name given by authors to a ge- nus of lheils, called more ufually folenes. See the article So- le n.

UNGULA Oculi, the name given by fome to a difeafe of the eye, called by others ptcrygion.

UNGULUS, in antiquity, a remarkable kind of bracelet; -Hofnu in voc. See the article Bracelet.

UNHALTER, in the manege. A horfe is faid to unh alter ^ himfelf, that turns offhis halter. See the article Halter.

UNICORN [Cycl.)—Sea Unicorn, in natural hiftory, the name of a fifh of the whale kind, remarkable for having a horn growing out at its nofe, in the manner of the fuppofed Uni- corn's horn, as defcribed by many too credulous authors. This fifli feeds on flefh, or other fifti, and is not only found in the main fea, but fometimes gets' up into large rivers. In the year 1636 there was a large one caught in the river Ofte» near its difcharging itfelf into the Elbe, hi the duchy of Bre- men ; this place is four German miles from the fea; The fkin of. this fifh .was 1 fpotted with dark brown fpots upon a white ground, the epidermis was tranfparent, and under it was another fkin very thin and fpotted ; but the true fkin was; brown, and near art inch in thicknefs. On the top of the head there is only a femilunar hole, .as in the porpoifes ; this hole opens into the two channels, which run through the fkull to the palate, and are called the ductus bydrogogh The peo- ple who examined this creature, were not abie to find ahy aperture in the body for the difcharge of the excrements 5 whence it has been generally believed, that the creature voids them through this paffage in the head.

Authors have differed in the name of the procefs iflrnng from the head, fome calling it a horn, others a tooth ; fome are of opinion that it ferves it to break the ice with for air ; but others pretend that it is an offenfive weapon, with which it ■yyounds the common whale, and other large fifh ; and that when it has plunged it up to the head in the whale's body, it fucks the juices of that animal. Sec Tab. of Fifties, N. 1. The fifh was near twenty foot long, and about four foot in diameter. The horn flood on the fore-part of the head, juffc above the mouth, and was fix foot long, white like ivorv, and curioufly wreathed or twilled. The body was fmooth and .flippery, like that of an eel ; the head, in proportion to the body, was fmall, not -exceeding fixteen inches in lengthy the eyes not larger than a fix-pence. It had, on each fide of the neck, two black fins, one above, another at a fmall diftance; thefe were two foot long, of the breadth of a hand, and about half an inch in thicknefs. Phil. Tranf. N°. 447. p. 149. Unicorn's horn has been fo common in the Danifh and neigh- bouring feas, that there was a magnificent throne built only of them in that kingdom ; the horns are from ten to fifteen foot in length, and are all white, and furrowed with a fpiral line. They are the horns of that kind of whale called nartvcl 7 or the ^-Unicorn, Brown's Travels.

Unicorn's horn has the fame medicinal virtues with hart's-horn and ivory ; but at prefent is only kept as an ornament to druggifl's fhops.

Sea-V nicorn is alfo a name given to two forts of fmall fifties caught in the American feas, and known among 'authors jin- der the name ofmonoccros pijeis. 'See the article Monoceros;

Unicornu Fojftk, Fojfde'Umcorn's 'Horn, the name of a fub- flance much ufed in medicine in fome'D arts' of the world, but which feems to have been very little undentood by many who have written of it. Dr. Hill, from the examination of the

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