Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/9

 MAD

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To know whether the dog which has bitten a perfon be or be not mad, it is neceffary to know the marks by which a dog, in that condition, is to be diftinguifhed from others ; thefe are, that he foams at the mouth, lolls out his tongue, claps his tail between his legs, and runs up and down, without ceafing, as if he was purfued ; he makes a hoarfe noife when he barks, and is afraid of all animals that come in his way, mapping at every thing he meets, even his mafter whom he ufed to fawn upon ; and other dogs are afraid of him, and avoid him.

Perfons bit by a mad dog are ufually afflicted with very violent diforders, fometimes fooner, fometimes later, accord- ing to the malignity of the poifon imbibed by the wound, and other accidents. The moft proper thing the fur- gepn can do on this occafion, is to enlarge the wound with the knife, and promote the flowing out of the blood ; then to warn it with fait water, or with Venice-treacle diffolved in vinegar ; and when the texture of the part will permit, that is, when only the common integuments, or flefliy parts are wounded, to apply the actual cautery to the wound, and af- terwards drefs it as other burns. Another method much practifed, is to make a tight ligature above the wound, to pre- vent, as much as may be, the return of the blood by the veins from that part ; then to enlarge the wound with a knife, and wafh it as before directed ; then cauterize it if the part will admit that operation, if not, cleanfe the wound, if deep, by means of a fyringe, and apply over it a platter of the mercurial kind ; and if the perfon be plethoric, to open a vein. After the Venice-treacle has been ufed for a day or two in thefe cafes, the wound is to be dreffed with honey, or with the common digeftive ointment, mixed with the /Egyptian oint- ment, or with red precipitate, and be kept open by means of thefe dreflings for fome weeks j for wounds of this kind muft never be healed too foon, efpccially when they have not been cauterized. Hei/ler's Surg. 99.

Dr. de Sault argues for the rabies carina, depending on fmall worms, of which, he fays, there are a great number found in the heads of thofe who die of this difeafe. From the analogy of this terrible difeafe with others; fuch as the itch, lues vene- rea, &c. which, in his opinion, are alfo contagious, by worms communicated from one perfon to another, he was led to think that the cure of the rabies was oniy to be per- formed by mercury, and the fuccefs confirmed his theory ; for of four men who had all been bit at the fame time by the fame wolf, two were treated by the common fpecifics of plung- ing in the fea, &c. and died fome days after of the rabies. The other two, having all thefigns of an approaching rabies, were cured by Mr. de Sauk's method* which is this : If he is confulted immediately after the perfon is bit, he orders him to be bathed in the fea, that the common confidence in this method may calm his mind. As foon as the patient re- turns, he puts him on the ufe of Palmarius's powder, com- pofed of Fol. Rut. Verben. Salv. Plantag. Polypod. Abfinth. Vulg. Menth. Artemif. MelifT. Betonic. Hyperic. Centaur. Min. ana partes aequales, with fome coralline. A dram of this powder is to be taken every morning, in a glafs of white wine or warm water. This he gives for twenty or thirty days, as there is more or Iefs preemption of the poifon hav- ing entered the blood. From the firft day of taking the pow- der, he rubs a dram or two of ung, Neapolit. upon the wound, and fkin round it, every other day. After doing this thrice, he applies the ointment every third day ; and after- wards every fourth day, till he has made ufe of two or three ounces of the ointment. If the patient has delayed feveral days to take his advice, he ufes the mercurial friction three or four times a day, for four days, and encreafes the dofe of Palma- rius's powder ; then forbears the inunction two days, left a falivation mould be brought on. Our author likewife recom- mends mufic as of ufe to calm the mind, and divert the fear which people, in danger of this difeafe, generally have. Medic. Eff. Edinb.

Dr. James relates the cure he made of dogs that were mad, and how he preferved others from the rabies, who had been bit by wa^dogs, by giving dofes of turbith mineral every day, or every other day. The other dogs of the pack that had been bit, died, notwithftanding the famous pewter medicine, dipping in the fea, and the other common fpecifics. The Doctor likewife mentions three people who were bit by mad dogs, and efcaped the rabies by the ufe of the turbith. Phil. Tranf. N<\ 441. §. 8.

Mr. Fuller relates the good effe&s of the pulvis antyliflus, compofed of lichen, ciner. terreft. and piper, nigr. a a. in preventing the rabies. Phil. Tranf. N°. 448. §. 5. A perfon who had been bit by a mad dog, and began to have fymptoms of the rabies, was faved by having one hundred and twenty ounces of blood taken in a week, and being bathed in cold water. Phil. Tranf. ibid. §. 6. Mr Nourfe relates the hiftory of a lad bit in the thumb by a mad dog ; he took morning and evening a dram of the pulvis antdyjfus forty days, and bathed in the fea ten days ; he was cut for the ftone foon after, and recovered very well ; nine- teen months after which he died, with all the fymptoms of the hydrophobia. Phil. Tranf. N*. 445, See the article Hy- drophobia.

We have an account of a man bit by one of thefe animals; who was cured by bleeding, nitre, and mithridate. See Phil. Tranf. N°. 475. Sett. 4. The pulvis antilyjfus, and cold bathing, far from alleviating the fymptoms in this patient, rather increafed them. The cold bath was obferved to aug- ment the head-ach. Dr. Mortimer, the editor of the tranf- actions, propofes warm bathing.

The Tonquinefe pretend to an infallible remedy for the bite of the mad dog. Their method is to take about fixteen grains of the beft mufk ; of the pureft native cinnabar, and fineft Vermillion, each about twenty four grains ; and having re- duced them feparately to impalpable powders, they mix and adminifter them in about a gill of arrack. This, in two or three hours, generally throws the patient into a found fleep, and perfpiration : If not, they repeat the dofe, and think the cure certain. See Phil. Tranf. ^.474. p. 225. feq. Where Mr. Reid, to whom we are obliged for this receipt, obferves, as to the vermillion, that though it be a preparation of cin- nabar, yet, as the Tonquinefe feem fo think its virtue diffe- rent, it were to be wifhed, that we knew their method of preparing it, in which they certainly excel. This compofition of mufk and cinnabar has been applied with fuccefs to other diftempers, only as Tonquin vermillion is not eafy to be had, Mr. Reid fubftituted an equal quantity of factitious cinnabar in its ftead, and fometimes adminiftered it in rum or brandy inftead of arrack. See the article Musk.

MADNlNG-Money, old Roman coins, found about Dunftable, are (a called by the country- people j and have their name from ?nagintum, ufed by the emperor Antoninus in his Dunftable itinerary. Camb. Blount.

MADON, in botany, a name by which Pliny, and fome other authors, have called the white bryony. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

MADOR, a word ufed by fome authors to exprefs the fweat which arifes under a fyncope or fainting, whether it be cold or hot, or in larger or fmaller quantities.

MADREPORA, in botany, the name of a genus of fea plants, the characters of which are, that they are almoft of a ftony hardnefs, refemblmg the corals, and are ufually divided into branches, and pervious by many holes or cavities, which are frequently of a ftellar figure.

The fpecies of Madrepora, enumerated by Mr. Tourneforf, are thefe : 1. The ftarry Madrepora. 2. The branched Madrepora. 3. The Madrepora, commonly called Mille- pora. 4. The common white oculated Madrepora, called the oculated white coral. 5. The fmall white ftellated and verrucofe Madrepora, called the coralloide porus, and the aftroites. 6. The much branched, and elegantly ftellated white Aladrcpora. 7. The punctated verrucofe Madrepora, 8. The abrotanum-like Madrepora. 9. The branched erect Madrepora, with numerous tubercles bending upwards, 10. The white compreffed Madrepora, of a foliaceous ftructure, and fieve-Iike texture, ir. The white cyprefs-like Madre- pora, or white porus, with hollow tubercles. 12. The great tree Madrepora. Tourn. Inft. p. 573.

MAEL Coronde, in the language of the Ceylonefe, the flower- ing cinnamon tree. This is a name given to a peculiar fpecies of the cinnamon tree, which is all the year round found full of flowers. The flowers are not eafily to be diftinguifhed from the very fineft cinnamon flowers, but they produce no fruit, which the flowers of the fine cinnamon always do. The bark is much like- that of the beft cinnamon, in external appear- ance ; but it has very little tafte or fmell. The tree grows very large, and the inhabitants fometimes tap it, by boring a hole into the trunk, at which it bleeds a thin watery juice, in the manner of our birch tree.

M^MACTERION, M (fll ^ w, in chronology, the fourth month of the Athenian year. It contained twenty-nine days, and anfwered to the latter part of our September and beginning of October. The Bceotions called it Alalcomenius. It took its name from the feftival Mamaclerica, facred to Jupiter, kept at this time. See Pott. Archaol. Grsec. 1. 2. c. 20. Tom. I. p. 413.

MvEMACYLON, in the materia medica, a name given by Diofcorides, and the antients in general, to the fruit of the Arbutus, or ftrawberry-tree.

MtENA, in zoology, the name of a fmall fifh, caught in vaft abundance about the fhores of the Mediterranean, and com- mon in the markets of Italy, where they are accounted but a poor fort of fifh, and fold at a very cheap rate. It is fome- what of the figure of the pearch, but broader and thinner, and is feldom above four or five inches in length. Its colour is a dufky pale green, and pale yellow, variegated with tranf- verfe black lines, and fome longitudinal ones of a fine blue j and on each fide, near the middle of the body, and juft below the line which runs from the gills to the tail, it has a large black fpot. This fifh changes its colour in the different feafons of the year, being white in winter, and greenifh, or yellow- ifh, and ftreaked and fpotted in the fummer. The eyes are large, and the tail not much forked. Its back fin has the an- terior rays prickly, the reft fmooth. Rondelet. de Pifc 1. 5. c. 13. p. i-?8. Aldrovand. de Pifc. 1. 2. c. 39. p. 223. Gefner. de Pifc. p. 612.

M^na Candida, in ichthyology, a name given by many au- thors to the fmaris. It is not very improper, for they are

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