Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/749

 UTR

Were iifed in the fcouring or cleaning of clothes. The dung of fparrows was ufed by Tome people for this purpofc, as the dung of hogs is at this time, and this was therefore called by fome Ufnen. Hyflop, a plant famous for its cleanfing virtue, was alfo called by the lame name ; and fome have alfo applied it to the foldanella, or fea bind-weed.

Wherever, in the Arabian writers, the word Ufnen is ufed in any of thefe latter fenfes, there is (bmething added to diftin- gutfh which of the things before expreffed is meant by it ; but whenever it (lands alone and unexplained, it is to be under- stood as meaning the kali.

USSAC, in the materia medica of the Arabians, a name given by Serapio to the gum ammoniacum of the Greek writers. It feems no other than a falfe fpelling of the word affac, which is the common name of the gum in Avifenna, and other of the writers of that nation ; but this does not feem to be the fame drug which we call gum ammoniacum at this time.

USTRINA, among the Romans, the place where they burnt the bodies of the dead. It was commonly in the Campus Martius, or fome other place in the fuburbs, and fometimes in the city for perfons of quality ; and for the common people on the Efquiline mount. Da net. in voc. See the article Bustum.

USTULATION, UJlulaiio, a word ufed by pharmaceutic writers to exprefs the roafting or torrefying of humid or moift, fubftances over a gentle lire, fo as to render them fit for powdering. The fame word is alio ufed by fome for what we call burning of wine.

GTAMANIA, in zoology, the name of a bird of the web- footed kind, wanting the hinder toe. It is common about the ifland of Crete, and is very expert at diving. It is of the fize of a teal, and lias its head and back black, and its belly white. Its feathers are foft and (lender, and rather refemble down than plumage ; but they are very firmly affixed to the (kin. Its beak is (harp at the edges, and is covered in -a great part with down. Bellonius, who defcribes the bird, iuppofes it to be the only web-footed one that wants the hinder toe ; but in this he is miftaken : his defcription and figure comes alio fo near the common beak or razor-bill, that it is pretty certain the bird is nearly allied to that, if at all ef- fentially different. Bellamys, de Avib. Aldrovand. de Avib. T. 3. p. 240.

UTAS, Oclava, in our ftatutes, the eighth day following any feafl: or term ; as the Utas of St. Michael, &C. And any day between the feaft and the octave is (aid to be within the Utas. The ufe of this is in the return of writs, as appears by Stat 51 Hen 3. Blount, Cowel.

UTERINE (Cycl.) — Uterine Hemorrhages. In this dan- gerous diforder the ftyptic powder of Helvetius is much re- commended : and the ftybium ceratum has alfo been tried with great fuccefs. See the articles Styptic Powders and Vi- trum Antimonii Ceratum.

UTERINUS Lapis, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome authors to a (lone found in New Spain, and in fome other parts of America ; it is very hard and heavy, of a beautiful black, and capable of a very elegant polifh. The natives cut it into various fhapes, and apply it to the navel in difeafes of the womb, and pretend that it poifeffes very great virtues.

UTERUS {Cycl.) — Authors have differed as to the thicknefs of the Uterus of a woman with child. In an account of a dif- feclion of a woman dead in labour, mentioned in the Medical EfTays, vol. 4. art. 33, it is faid, the Uterus was found at leaft half an inch thick in the thinneft part, and a good deal more at the fundus.

Uterus of Fijhes. — Among the fifth kinds, all thofe which are oviparous have no Uterus; but, on the contrary, all the vi- viparous fifhes have this part. The whales, and all the ceta- ceous kinds, as alfo many of the cartilaginous ones, have the Uterus very fair. It is probable that the eel kind alfo have it ; but this is lefs certain, the generation of thofe fifties being yet fame what obfeure. The Uterus in the cetaceous fifhes is always divided into two precedes or horns ; but in the cartila- ginous ones it is divided into two glandulous bodies, which are pervious, and, according to the opinion of Needham, dis- charge a whitifh liquor into the womb, and are of great ufe in gravidation.

UTTANGTHEF, in our old law-books. See the article

OfJTFANGTHEF, Cycl.

UT Que ant Laxis, &c. inantient modern mufic, a hymn to St. John the Baptijl, compofed about the year 770, in the time of Charlemagne, according to Poffevin, by Paulus Dia- conus of Aquileia. It I> very famous in mufic, becaufe the fyllables whereby the mufical founds are diftinguifhed, were taken by Guido Aretine from the firft ftrophe there- of,

UTRAQUISTTE, in church hiflory, an appellation given by way of reproach, to thofe in Bohemia who communicate un- der both fpecies, bread and wine. Hofm.. Lex Univ. in voc.

UTRICULARIA, in botany, the name of a plant ufed by Linnaeus for what other authors have called lentlbularia, or hooded water milfoil. This, in his fyftem of botany, is alfo Sup pl. Vol. II.

U V A

a dlftina genus of plants, the characters of which are, that the cup is a two-leaved perianthium ; its leaves being very fmall, of an oval figure, hollow, and falling with the flower. The flower is labiated, and confiffs of one petal; the upper lip is plain, obtufe, and erc£ ; the lower is large, plain, and undivided; between the two there is a heart- faihioned palate, (landing a little out ; the nedtarium is corniculated, is morter than the petal, and is produced from its bafe. The ftamina are two (hurt and crooked filaments ; the anthera are fmall, and cohere together ; the piflillum has a round germen, a thread-like ftyle of the length of the cup, and a conic ftigma. The fruit is a large conic capfule, containing only one cavity. The feeds are very numerous.

UTRICULI Foliorum, a name given by the writers on the ana- tomy of plants to a number of fmall and fine veflels, which fill up the interftices between the feveral ramifications of the furculi, or minuteft divifions of the branches of the middle rib.

Thefe are to be examined by good microfcopes, in order to obtain any idea of their ftructure. This is found to be com- pofed of a reticular plexus of fine white' and flat filaments, whofe interlaces are again filled up with other fmaller Utriculi^ fo that nature feems but forming new bodies, by making con- geries of the fame, but in a more minute (late. When the largeft of thefe are opened by a fine inftrument, they are found to confift only of a white (kin, containing a greenifh matter, compofed of particles fo fine, that the belt glaffes are ufed in vain to diftinguiih their figure.

Accident fometimes offers what all the art in the world would attempt in vain ; and the leaves of trees, whofe cuticle has been eat off on one fide by fmall infects, fometimes afford views of thefe Utriculi, which no art could have laid open in fo nice a manner, or in fuch various views. Act. Erudit. Ann. 1722. p. 28.

UVA, Grape. Sec the article Grape.

Uva Gruina, in the materia medica, the nnme of the fruit of the great American vitis idea, or crane-berries. Dale t Pharm. p. 17-5.

Uva Lupiria, fp'olj '-Berries, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the common water-elder, and by others to the herba Paris, or herb true-love. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

Uva Marina, in botany, the name given by many authors to the ephedra, the fea-grape, or (hrub fea horfe-tail. J. Bau- hin. vol, 1. p. 406.

Uva ^uercus, in natural hiftory, a name given to certain acci- dental productions of the oak, a tree famous for producing many fuch, befide its common fruit : The bed account we have of this in particular, is from Mr. Merchant. He ob- ferved a vaft quantity of this production upon an oak of about twelve foot high ; this tree had no acorns, but there hung from almoft all the branches a great number of greyifti threads, of two inches or more in length, and of a filky flexible matter ; to feveral parts of thefe there were fixed certain round red berries, fometimes two or three, fometimes ten or twelve on a thread ; thefe were of the fize of a half- ripe red goofeberry, but they had no umbilicus, nor any ap- pearance of fibres ; they were hard, and not hollow, but filled with a cottony matter, very clofely compacted. The threads on which thefe berries were produced all grew out of the alas of the leaves, in the very places where the beds for the rudiments of young branches mould have come ; and over thefe filaments there were often a few fmall leaves, of the regular fliape of the oak-leaf.

It Is generally aflerted, that there are eggs of infects lodged in all thefe extraordinary productions of the oak, which are fuppofed to be produced by a wrong derivation of the juices, occafioned by the puncture of the fly which leaves thofe eggs ; but the molt accurate fearch could not dis- cover the leaft appearance of any animal remains in any part of thefe productions, neither in the berries, nor in the threads that fupport them.

There is another fpecies of this remarkable production, differ- ing from the former, by not having the long threads on which the berries of that are ftipported ; this, however, has been confounded by the generality of naturalifts under the fame name, and of this Mr. Marchant has given an equally accu- rate defcription. In the month of October he obferved a young oak of about fix foot high, in" a coppice-wood, in a very flouriftiing condition, very full' of branches and leaves, but without fruit. The young brunches of this oak were loaded with clufters of red berries, of the (hape and fize of common red goofeberries ; they flood principally at or near the extremities of the branches, and were of a very polifhed and fhining furface, and of a fpongy and tender fubftance. They flood in clufters of three, four, and five together, and each grew immediately to the branch, without any pedicle ; they had fome appearance of fibres, but not the leaft mark of an umbilicus, as in the regular fruits. On opening thefe ber- ries, they were found full of a mucilaginous and vifcous juice, of a red colour, tolerably fluid, and having fume fibres intermingled with it ; the tafte of this juice was acrid, and its fmell difagrceable, and like that of rotten wood ; but there appeared not in thefe, any more than in the other fpecies, 5 P any