Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/779

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and fiat (tales which cover them, fcarce at all increafe the j weight, and yet make an admirable defence for the middle \ part, where it is extended into thin plates between the ribs. In examining this part more narrowly, we find that it is tra- veled in all parts by a number of furrows or lines running from rib to rib, each marked with a vaft number of dufky- coloured points or foots. Mr. Reaumur compares thefe to the ridges and holes in the common papers on which pins are kept, and obferves, that thefe little dufky fpots are the holes which receive the items or pedicles of the feveral ferics of fcales. This is diftinctly feen by the microfcope, as the Wing is never wholly cleared of the fcales; and the few which re- main fingly in their places, always fill up fome of the holes or obfcure points in thefe feveral ferics.

The Wings of butterflies, thus large, and thus light, are very well able to fufhin them a long time in the air, and thus might be expected to fly better than moft other infedls; but many people have obferved the irregular manner in which thefe infects ufually fly, which is not ftrait forward, but up and down, and to one fide and the other : this has been fup- pofed owing to fome imperfection of the Wings; but, in reality, it is their great perfection that enables the creature to do this, and this manner of flying is abfolutely neceflary to the preferving their life, as birds of many kinds are continually after them while they are on the Wing; and it is a pleafant fight to obferve, in what manner this fort of dodging motion in the butterfly difappoints the bird that flies ftrait at it, and often prefervcs it fafely for a long way together. All the beautiful variety of colours, which we fee on the Wings of thefe infects, is owing to the fcales and feathers. The fob- fiance of the Wing is tranfparent, and of one uniform and dufky-whitifh colour; this however is wholly hid by the fcales planted on it, and is like the earth in a meadow, covered with a profufion of flowers of various forts and colours. Cer- tain parts of the Wings of fome fpecics have only blue fcales, other parts only purple, and others only yellow, and fo on, in the different fpecies of different colours, a fine deep black and a pearly white being two very common colours in them, and capable of producing a fine variety in the fhadowing : Arid as thefe arrangements of coloured fcales are difpofed with a beautiful regularity, they give us all the appearances of clouded veins and eyes that we fee. Reaumur's Hift. Inf. vol. i. P. i. p. 260. Wings of Gnats. Thefe are of a very curious flructure, and well worthy the ufe of the microfcope, to fee them diftinctly. It is well known, that on touching the Wings of butterflies, a coloured powder is left on the fingers, which, though to the naked eye it appear a mere fhapelefs duff, yet when examined by the microfcope, it is found to be very regularly figured beautiful bodies, in form of feathers and fcales : Thefe are of various figures, and all of them very elegant. The genera- lity of flies have nothing of this kind; but the clofe examina- tion of the Wings of the gnat will mew, that they arc not wholly deftitute of them; they arc much more fparingly be- llowed indeed upon the gnat than on the butterfly; but then they are arranged with great regularity. Reaumur's Hift. Inf. vol. 4. p. 577.

The Wings of the gnat, like thofe of moft other infefls, are of a cartilaginous fubftance; friable,"and tranfparent as a flake of talc, and the circumference, and many parts of the inner ftructurc of the Wing are ftrengthened by flender but firm libs, which are divaricated into feveral ramifications. Thefe appear to us to be mere ftrait fibres; but they are probab'v hollow, and perform the office of veflels, for carrying the fluids or air neceflary to the fupport of the Wing, as well as to ftrengthen it. In the Wings of butterflies there are fimil.r ribs, but they are there all hid by the fcales; but it is not fo in'the gnat, for in its Wings, as in thofe of the other flies, thefe ribs feem naked.

The affiftance of the microfcope (hews, however, that they are not abfolutely fo in the Wings of gnats; but thefe nerves or ribs, with their feveral ramifications, look like fo many ftalks'of a plant covered with fmall oblong leaves. The feve- ral fcales that are attached to thefe ribs, make acute angles with them, and are directed toward the end of the Wing. ' The number of thefe fcales is very fmall in comparifon with tiiat of the butterfly-clafs; but they make a (lighter and more | elegant ornament. There are fome fpecies which have the intermediate fpaccs of the Wing adorned alfo with thefe fcales"; but they are in thefe but thinly tattered. The intermediate fpaccs of the Wings, when they have no fcales, are finely wrought and pointed, and the innner edge of the Wings is al- ways bordered with a row of fcales in form of a fringe, which, in fome fpecies, is compofed of fcales all of the fame equal lize, and in others is made up of many of very various lengths; and the exterior edge of the Wing, which is furrounded by a rib much thicker and ftronger than the interior, is not fringed with a feries of fcales, but is befet, at certain diftances, with a fort of long prickles. Ibid. p. 57S.

The ordinary (hape of the fcales of the gnats Wings, is that of an oblong battledoor, one end of which is broader, and the other more pointed. The narrower, end is that from which goes the ftalk by which it adheres to the rib. The other end is fometimes more, fometimes lefs round, and is fometimes a

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little hollowed in the middle. Some of thefe fcales are much longer m proport.on to their breadth than others, and fome ot them have their extremity formed into an open crefcent. Ail have a number of fine lines running longitudinally through the whole fcale. Ibid. p. 579. a

Grf-Wisc, at Tea. Seethe article GoosT.-Win?

WINTER {Cyd.)-W lN -s E K-H,.yning, in oui ftatutcs, a leatou between the eleventh day of November, and the three- and twentieth of April, which is excepted from the liberty of commoning in theforeft of Dean, &i. Stat. 20 Car. 2. c. v Bkunt. ->

WINTERANUS Cortex, in botany, a name given to the wild cinnamon-tree, the characters of which are thefe : The trunk is about the thicknefs of one's thigh, rifing to about twenty or thirty foot high, having many branches and twi^s liahging downwards, making a very comely top. The bark confiits of two parts, viz. outward and inward. The outward bark is thin as a milled milling, of a wbitifh-afh or grey colour, with lome white fpots here and there on it, and feveral (hallow furrows of a darker colour, running varioufly through it, and making it rough; its taffe is aromatic. The inward bark is much thicker than cinnamon, being equal in thicknefs to a miiled crown-piece, fmooth, of a whiter colour than the out- ward, of a much more biting and aromatic taftc, fomething like that of cluves, and not glutinous like cinnamon, but dry and crumbling between the teeth. The leaves come out near the ends of the twigs, without any order, (landing on inch- long foot-ftalks; they are each of them two inches long, and one inch broad near the end where broadeft, and roundifh, being narrow at the beginning, and thence increafing in breadth to near its end, of a yelbwifh green colour, (hining and fmooth, without any inciflures about its edges, and fomewhat refembling the leaves of bay or laurocerafus. The ends of the twigs are branched into bunches of flowers, (landing fome- thing like umbels, each of which has a foot-ftalk, on°thc top of which is a calyx made up of fome foliola, within which (tand five fcarlet or purple petala, and within them is a large ftylus. To thefe follow fo many cauliculated berries, of the bignefs of a large pea, roundifh, green, and containing within a mucilaginous pale green, thin pulp, four black drilling feeds, or acini, of an irregular figure.

All the parts of this tree, when frefh, are very hot, aromatic, and biting to the tafte, which is fo troublefome as fometimes to need a remedy from fair water. It grows in the low-land, or Savanna-woods in Jamaica, Antigua, and the other Ca- ribhec Iflands.

The bark of this tree is what is chiefly in ufe, both in the plantations of the Englilh between the tropics, in the Weft Indies, and in Europe, and is, without any difficulty, cured by only cutting oft" the bark, and letting it dry in the (hade. The people of the Weft Indies ufe it inftead of all other fpices, being thought very good to confume the immoderate humidi- ties of the ftomach, help digeftion, expel wind, (sfc. It is likewife, as well there as in Europe, thought a very good remedy againft the fcurvy, and to cleanfe and invigorate the blood, being, among the apothecaries and druggifts of London,- ufed for thofe purpofes under this name, though differing from the true Cortex Winteranus, as may appear from the defciiptions of both; but may very well fupply its place. Phil. Tranf. N°. 102. See the article Cortex, Cycl WIOCHIST, among the Indian natives of Virginia, is their pried, who is alfo generally their phyfician; and is the perfon in the greateft honour amongft them, next to their king, or great war captain. Phil. Tranf. N°. 454. SeS. I. WIRE (Cycl.) — Iron Wire is made from fmall bars of iron, which are called ojleam iron, which are firft drawn out to a greater length, and to about the thicknefs of ones little finger, at a furnace, with a hammer gently moved by water. Thefe thinner pieces are bored round, and put into a furnace to aheal for twelve hours. A pretty ftrong fire is ufed in this opera- tion.

After this they are laid under water for three or four months, the longer the better; then they are delivered to the workmen, called rippers, who draw them into Wire through two or three holes. After this they aneal them again for fix hours, and water them a fecond time for about a week, and they are then delivered again to the rippers, who draw them into Wire of the thicknefs of a large packthread. They are then anealed a third time, and then watered for a week longer, and deli- vered to the fmall Wire-drawers, called overhouje-men. In the mill where this work is performed, there are feveral barrels hooped with iron, which have two hooks on their up- per fides, on each whereof hang two links, which (land acrofs, and are faftened to the two ends of the tongs, which catch hold of the Wire, and draw it through the hole. The axis on which the barrel moves does not run through the center, but is placed on one fide, which is that on which the hooks are placed, and underneath there is faftened to the barrel a fpoke of wood, which they call a /mingle, which is drawn back a good way by the cogs in the axis of the wheel, and draws back the bairel, which falls to again by its own weight. The tongs hanging on the hooks of the barrel are by the workmen faftened to the end of the Wire, and by the force of the wheel,

the