Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/766

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clfe. On the contrary, if the Weight of the body be too little for good health, it may be increafed by adding to food and fleep, and by leffening exercife ; and the food muft be m- cfealed chiefly by increafmg drink and liquid nourifhment. For the difcharges are commonly lefs from drink and liquid nou- rifhment, than from dry and folid food. Dr. Bryan Robinfon of the Food and Difcharge of Hum. Bod. p. 89, 90. There is but one Weight under which a body can enjoy the beft and uninterrupted health, and that Weight muft be fuch, that perfpiration and urine may be nearly equal at all feafons of the year; for by this means the body will be uniformly drained of its moifture : the inward parts by urine, and the more fuper- ■ficial parts by perfpiration, without any irregular and unnatu- ral difcharges, and its moving Weight will continue nearly the fame at all feafons of the year. Dr. Bryan Robin fon thinks this Weight may be fettled, by his obfervations in his treatife on the food and difcharges of human bodies. A quick increafe of Weight in human bodies often produces diftempers ; the beft way to prevent this increafe is either by faffing or exercife. But amidft a variety of difturbing caufes, nothing (o effectually prevents fuch an increafe of Weight as a very exact and regular diet, which may prevent the difcharges from running into irregularities and difprcportions to one ano- ther. See Dr. Bryan Robinfon of the Food and Difcharges of Human Bodies, p. 82. feq.

Men and other animals of extraordinary Weight, are often recorded in the writings of the learned. We have lately had two inftances of uncommon bulk and Weight in men near Halifax in Yorkfhire. One weighed 35 itone and fome odd pounds, which is about 500 lb. And his brother weighed 34 itone odd pounds ; between them they make 70 ftone, or 980 pounds. Phil. Tranf. N°. 479. p. 102.

Athletic Weight, in the animal ceconomy, that Weight of the body under which an animal has the greateft ftrength and activity. Dr. Robinfon thinks this happens when the Weight of the heart, and the proportion of the Weight of the heart to the Weight of the bedy, are greateft. For the ftrength of an animal is meafured by the ftrength of its mufclcs, and the ftrength of the mufcles is meafured by the ftrength of the heart. Alio the activity of an animal is meafured by the Weight of the heart, in proportion to the Weight of the body. See Differ t. on the Food and Difcharges of Human Bodies. p. 117, 118.

If the Weight of the body of an animal be greater than its ath- letic Weight, it may be reduced to that Weight by evacuations, dry food, and exercife. Thefe leffen the Weight of the body by wafting its fat, and leffening its liver, and they increafe the Weight of the heart, by increafmg the quantity and motion of the blood ; fo that by lefiening the Weight of the body, and by increafmg that of the heart, they will foon reduce the animal to its athletic Weight. Thus a game ccck, in ten days, is reduced to its athletic Weight, and prepared for fight- ing. If the food which, with the evacuations and exercife, reduced the cock to his athletic Weight in ten days, be conti- nued any longer, the cock will lofe his ftrength and activity. It is known by experience, that a cock cannot (land above 24 hours at his athletic Weight, and that he has even changed for the worfe in 12 hours. When he is at the top of his condi- tion, his head is of a glowing red colour, his neck thick, and his thigh thick and firm ; the da)- after, his complexion is lefs glow- ing, his neck thinner, and his thigh fofter ; and the third day his thigh will be very foft and flaccid. Four game cocks, re- duced to their athletic Weight, were killed, and found to be very full of blood, with large hearts, large mufcles, and no fat.

It is to be obferved, that the athletic Weight of an animal is a very dangerous Weight. Fevers and apoplexies are the difor- ders which commonly happen to animals under or near their athletic Weights, Hence, horfes fed upon dry food are much more fubjedt. to fevers and apoplexies, than horfes fed upon grafs. Dr. Robinfon, ibid.

WELD, {Cycl.) the name by which our farmers commonly call the luteola, or dyers weed.

This is a very rich commodity among the dyers, and is the more -advantageous to the farmer, as it may be raifed on very poor land, and at a very fmall expence. Moderately fertile land dees beft for it ; but it will grow upon the moil barren ; and if tills be but dry and warm, it will require no tillage. The ■feed may be fown with barley or oats, and only harrowed in with brufh or furze, or rolled down with a wooden roller. It is a very fmall feed, and the greateft difficulty about it is the fowing it even. It is a flow grower ; a gallon of feed is fuffi- cient for an acre ; and though it makes but little progrefs the firft mmmer, it begins to grow after the corn is cut, and the next year yields a good crop.

There is a great nicety required in the time for gathering it ; for this fhculd be when the ftalk is full ripe, and the feeds not fo ripe as to fall out ; it is to be pulled up by the hand, and made up into little bundles to dry. The feed may be either thiaflied out as foon as it is houfed, or in the fpring follow- ing ; but the plant muft he carefully kept dry. The feed fells at about ten (hillings the bufhel, and the dyers ■\£z it for deep lemon colour, and bright yellows. It is morel

cultivated in Kent than in any other part of England, and it there yields the farmer from forty {hillings to ten pound an acre. Mortimer's Husbandry, p. 165.

WELL {Cycl.)— In Scotland they have a Well, which Sibbald has mentioned as foretelling ftorms. It is a deep and large Well near Edinburgh, and from- the noifes heard in it at certain times, is called by the people the routing Well. They go to this to liften after the pre! ages of weather, and it is faid that ftorms are particularly foretold by it; and that noifes are not only heard in it before ftorms happen, but that they are always heard determinateiy and distinctly on that fide whence the ftorm will come. Sibbald's Prod. Hift. Scot. In the Philofophical Transitions we have an account of a boiling Well. Seethe article Spring.

WELLE Corona's, fandy cinnamon, a name given by the Cey- lonefe to a fpecies oi cinnamon which feels hard and gritty between the teeth, as if it were full of particles of fand, tho* in reality there is no fatid among it.

The bark of this tree comes off very eafily ; but it is not fo fit to roll up into quills as the right cinnamon, for it is more ri- gid and ftubboni, and apt to burif. open. It is of a fharp but bitterifh tafte. The roots of all the cinnamon-trees yield more or lefs camphor, but this as fmall a quantity as any of them. Philof. Tranf. No. 409.

WENDING, at fca, a term for bringing a fhip's head about, and teems only to be a corruption from winding. They fay, haw wends tbejbip ?

WEPOLON, in zoology, the Ceyioncfe name of an Eaft In- dian ferpent, of a very long and flendcr body, and in fome de- gree refembling a piece of cane.

WERST, or Wurst, a Ruffian meafure equal to 3500 Eng- lifii feet. A degree of a great circle of the earth contains about 104 Werjls and a half. Phil. Tranf. N°. 445. Sect. 7.

WEST-ASHTON Water is a chalybeat water, refembling that of Holt. See Phil. Tranf. N°. 461. Sec*. 20.

WESTERWALD Earth, a kind of earth mentioned by Agri- cola, of a whitifh yellow colour, of a like nature to the terra Silefiaca, but preferable to it, as yielding more fait. He tells us that it diffbives lilver (b much better than other menftrua, as to render it potable, and parable Into- a ufeful medicine in cephalic cafes. Boyle's Works, vol. 1. p. 501.

WESTiNG, in navigation, the fame with departure. Seethe article Departure, Cycl.

WET {Cycl.) — Wet Air. See the article Moisture of the Air.

Wet Couch, a term ufed by the mal titers for one of the princi- pal articles of malt-making.

In the making malt, the ufual way is to foafc the grain in water two or three days, till it becomes plump and fwelled, and the water is brown ; the water is then drained away, and the barley is removed to a floor, where it is thrown into a wet couch, that is, an even heap of about two foot thick. In this heap the barley fpontaneoufly heats, and begins to grow, mooting out firft the radicle, and, if fuffered to con- tinue growing, foon after the blade ; but at the eruption of the radicle, the procefs is to be flopped ftiort, by fpreading the wet couch thin over the floor, and turning it once every four or five hours for two days, laying it thicker each time; after this it is thrown into a large heap, and there fuffered to grow hot of itfelf, and afterwards fpread abroad again and cooled, and then thrown upon the kiln to be dried crifp with- out fcorchiug. Shaw's Lectures, p. 186.

WHALE {Cycl.)— The Whate-ftfhery of the Caroline iflands is the moffc eafy and agreeable of that of all other places, and, befide the great profit, affords a pleafant fpectacle to multi- tudes of people on the fnores.

There are ten or twelve of thefe ifles difpofed in form of a cir- cle, fo that they make a fort of port, in which the feais per- petually calm and pleafant.

When a Whale appears in this gulf, the people all get into their canoes, and rowing toward the fea, keep between the creature and its retreat, and drive him forwards towards the ifles at the bottom of the port. They drive him in this man- ner before them into the mallows, where they plunge into the water themfelvcs, and fome get ropes and chains about him, while others dart him with their fpears. Their agility and addrefs is wonderful in this. The creature can never get away when they have once got him faftened, but is foon kil- led, and got to the fhore.

The anatomy of the bones of the Whale has been fo little un- derftood, that there have been many very great errors in re- gard to fuch of them as have been at times found foffile, or bu- ried in the earth among the teeth of elephants, and the remains of teftaceous and other animals. The molt frequent and moft ridiculous of all the wrong opinions about thefe, is their hav- ing originally belonged to creatures of the human fpecies ; yet many, even among the more intelligent part of the world, have taken them for the remains of giants. The vertebras of a Whale have been miftaken for thole of a giant, and a part of its fins for a hand, and fo of the reft. While the world, more ready to fpread the marvel, than to inquire into the truth, have made computations of the height of the man to whom bones of that lize muft have belonged, and from their propor- tion