Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/781

 WOL

. fmall, in quantity, and of a dufky-brownifhliue, that raiders it little regarded. Trait. Phyf. de Veflandes, Though ftfeatl gives a blue dye, yet it is ufed to prepare cloth for green and many other colours, when chey are defigned to bj permanent, and not to fade, Boyle's Works abr. vol. I. p. 169.

Befide the plant properly figntfied by the name Woad, which dyes a blue colour, we have two others known in our Englifh ticrbals under this name, as alio that of wold or weld. Th'el'e are both called by the common people d$er*'s wecd ) and are the hdcola and the genijla tirJloria.

The antients confounded all thefe three plants alfp under the fame names. Paul us iEgineta fecrhs to make them all the fame plant ; and Ncophytus, fpeaking of the ifatts 9 or our Woad, properly fo called, fays, that it was called by the La- tins, latum. This liitum has been by fome underftood to mean the luteola, and by others the genijla tinfloria ; but the latter opinion only is right, for it is defcribed to us by the an- tients as having leaves like the tinum, or flax, and flowers like the broom.

WOLF, Lupus, in zoology. See the article Lupus.

Wolf, in the hiftory of 'infects, the name of a fmall white worm or maggot, which fofefts granaries, and does very great damage there.

It is in this ftate of the worm that it does the mifchief ; but this is not its perfect form, for it is afterwards transformed into A fmall moth, with white wings fpotted with black. This little maggot has fix legs, and as it creeps along, there iflues from its mouth an extremely fine thread or web, by which it faftens itfelf to every thing it touches, fo that it can- not fall. Its mouth is furnifhed with a pair of reddiih forceps, or biting inftruments, by means of which it gnaws its way not only into wheat and other grain, but perforates even beams of wood, boxes, books, and every tiling it meets with. Toward the end of fummer this pernicious infect may be feen crawling up the walls of corn-chambers, infefted with them, in great numbers ; they are then fearching a proper place where they may abide in fafcty during their aurelia-ftate ; for when the time of their undergoing this change approaches, they forfake their food, and the little cells they had formed of hollowed grains of corn clotted together, by means of the web coming from their mouths. They now wander about till they find fome wood, or other fubftance, to their mind, into which they gnaw holes with their phangs, capable of concealing them ; and there enveloping themfelves in a cover- ing of their own fpinning, they foon become a dark coloured fort of aurelb. They remain in this ftate all the winter ; but in April or May they come forth in their moth-fhape, and are then feen in vaft numbers taking ihort flights, and creeping up the walls. In this ftate they eat nothing; but they foon copulate and lay eggs, which are in the Chape of a hen's egg, but no larger than a grain of fand. Each female lays fixty or feventy eggs, which flie depofits in the little wrinkles of the grains of corn, where in about fixteen days they hatch, and the minute maggots immediately perforate the grain, and eat out all its fubftance, and with the threads which come from their mouths cement other grains to it, which they, in the fame manner, (coop out and deftroy.

The watchful obferver has two opportunities of defiroying thefe devourers from among his corn. One is, when they forfake their food, and afcend the walls, which they will fome- times almoft cover. The other, when they appear in the moth-ftate. At both thefe times they may be crufhed to death againft the walls in great numbers, by clapping facks upon them : but they may be exterminated more effectually by clofing up all the windows and doors, and burning brim- fione on a pan of charcoal, letting the room be full of the fumes of it for twenty-four hours. This certainly deftroys the animals, and does no fort of injury to the grain, not commu-. nicating the flighted fcent to it. Baiter's Microfcope, p. 222.

tVoLF-/Vy. See the article Lupus.

WotF-Sp/der. See the article Lupus.

WofF-Net, a term ufed by the fportfmen for a kind of net ufed in fifliing, which takes great numbers, and has its name from the deftruction it caufes.

It is ufed both in rivers and ponds, and is of the nature of the rattle, excepting only the wanting the four Wings. The trunk or coffer confifts of feven feet, befidc the two gullets. It is fupported by hoops, and is to be placed in fome part where there is an abundance of fedges, rufhes, and water- grafs. There is to be a place made for the net here, by the ufe of a paring-knife, cutting away all the weeds and other matter, for the fpace that will contain it j and when the net is placed, there are to be two allies cut or cleared in the fame manner, one on each fide of the net, that the ftfh may be invited into them, and by them into the net. There muft be fome itoncs or leaden weights ufed to fink the net, and a long pole faftened to the upper part of the mouth of it, by means of which, ' when it is well filled with fifth, it may be lifted up and taken to the fhorc.

\\ T oi¥ -Tooth, a term ufed by our dealers in horfes to exprefs an inconvenience that creature is fubject to, in regard to its teeth.

iiuppL. Vol. II.

W O M

i 'here are ufu illy two of thefe /fo/wj-teethj which are {mail and grow in the upper jaw, next to die great grinding teeth : thefe are fo tender and painful, that the horfe cannot chew it? meat, but is forced to let a great part of it fall out of his hiouth, or to (wallow it half chewed.

The remedy, in this cafe, is to tie up the horfe's head to fome part of the rafter, and open his riiouth with a cord, then with an inftrument like a carpenter's gouge, and a mallet, the teeth that are thus troub'efome are to be knocked out, and the holes filled up with fait.

If the upper-jaw teeth hang over thofe of the under jaw, and by that means cut the mouth, the fame inftrument is to be bled, and the teeth are to be pared fhortcr by little and little. When they are fufficiently pared down, they muft be filed fmooth, and the mouth walhcd with vinegar and fait, and the whole complaint will be thus removed.

Wotr's-Grapes. Sec the afticleLYcosTApHYLJE.

WolfV-/Wj. Seethe article Lycopersicon.

WOMB (Cycl.) — It is the opinion of Boyle, that as in the earth, which is the fruitful Womb of all the feeds of plants, fo in the Wombs of all animals, while in a fit and proper ftate for con- ception, there muft concur three things; a benign heat to cherflh, a due fermentation to agitate and dilate, and a due proportion of moifiurc, ready to enter with eafe into the pores opened by the fermentation. '

To thefe qualities is owing, in all probability, the menftrual difcharge of women, the blood being agitated and rarified, in a part deftined to thefe offices, for the ufe of an included foe- tus ; and when that is not there, this fluid fwells, and opens the veffels, fo as to bin ft out into a profiuvium. It is re- markable that the Womb in the human, and one more fpecies of animal befide, that is, the monkey, difcharges this blood regularly; all other animals, at the time of the effervefcence in that part, which is at intervals of longer periods, difcharg- ing only a fmall quantity of an aqueous matter, as is feen in mares, cows, csY. It is obferved by the medical writers, that there is an evident confent of many parts of the body with the Womb, that is, feveral parts which are always affected with it, and owe their being affected to fome diforder in that part, which it propagates and continues to them. The antients had an opinion of fympathy on this occafion j but fuch obfeure and unmeaning Solutions are now thrown afide; and we find that this joint affection of the feveral parts to the Womb, is owing only to the vicinity of the parts, or the com- munication and ftrucWe of the veffels, by which the vitiated liquors of the body being conveyed from one part to another, may there excite the fame or different affections : but becaufe this way of fympathifing by veffels has many confiderable and unobvious varieties, thefe muft be examined at large, in order to a perfect underftanding of the effects they produce. The diverlity and various ufes of the veffels in the bodies of the perfecter animals muft be underftood ; and the neceflity of motion and fenfe depending from the brain, the animal fpirits, and thefyftem of the nerves, confidered: the nature and office of thefe being well underftood, it will appear plainly, that they, being thus difpeifed through the whole body, cannot but produce a confent of parts through the whole ; bu; that this will be mo ft fenfible where the connections are greateft, and leaft fo where leaft. Boyle's Difiertationes Mediae. The Womb has been generally fuppofed Co extremely tender a part, that the leaft fcratch or injury offered it, muft caufe an inflammation, of which death itfelf would be the confequence. But the Paris academy affords, in their memoirs, an inftance fomething very different from this. A waflier- woman, of a robuft habit of body, and about thirty years old, who was then fix or feven months gone with child, accidentally fell down upon a flake of an old pale, which wounded her to two or three fingers breadth, and a confiderable depth, a little below the navel : from that time flie never felt the child ftir ; but eight days after, flie voided, by the vagina, a large quantity of putrid blood, and, this continued eight or ten days. The external wound was healed in the common way, and the woman went to her ufual work, and continued well to her nine months end ; fhe now expected delivery, but no pains came on, and {he thus continued to the fifteenth month without much uneafinefs ; but then fhe perceived a tumor to arife in that part of the belly where fhe had been hurt. This, in fine, opened of itfelf, and after difcharging a laudable matter for forty days, at the end of that time it healed up.

In the twenty-feventh month this tumor returned again, and became then much larger than before ; in three days it became vehemently enraged, and, on opening it, there was difcharg- ed a quart of funking matter, which greatly relieved her ; af- ter three more days dreffing, there began to appear fome bones, and, in fine, day by day fome were difcharged, till, on the whole, the compleat fkcleton of a fectus of between fix and feven months was difcharged.

In this cafe, there is no doubt but that the Womb itfelf was pierced through by the point of the flake, at the time of the fall, and the fcetus killed by the wound, and afterwards be- coming putiid in the matrix, its parts were difcharged one by one through the wound in that organ.

This feems wholly contradictory to that great tenderoefs fup- 5 Z * pofed