substance, which binds together the bones of the body.

LIGHT, the principle or substance which renders objects perceptible. It travels 192,000 miles in a second of time.

LIGHT'NING, the electric fluid, in a state of considerable agitation, and passing visibly from cloud to cloud. [or limestone.† LIME, a preparation of chalk LIN'IMENT, a medicinal liquid used as an external application.

drawing on stone for the purpose of taking impressions from it.

LITHOT'OMY, the art of extracting stones from the bladder.

LIV'ER, (An.) the largest gland of the body, which secretes the bile.

LIXIVIA'TION, the process of washing a substance in water, to extract from it any soluble or saline particles.

LOAM, a natural mixture of sand, clay, and silex (flint), in a

LIN'SEED, the seed of the flax-minute state. plant.‡

LOG, in Navigation, is an in

LIN'TEL, that part of the door-strument thrown over a ship's frame that lies upon the door posts.

LIQUEFACTION, the state of being melted.

LITH'ARGE, calcined lead.
LITHOGRAPHY, the art of

side, to measure the current, or the rate of sailing.

LOG'ARITHMS, a series of artificial numbers for the purpose of expediting calculations.

LOG'WOOD, a flourishing tree of

* LIGHTNING. The sheet lightning, whieh appears on a summer's evening, is harmless, when unattended by thunder. Forked lightning is caused by the sudden escape of the electric fluid concentrated in the cloud, and sometimes occasions injury. The most dangerous is the ball lightning, when the electric fluid descends in a compact stream, and seems to roll along the ground. This kind, however, is exceedingly rare. Lightning is to thunder what the flash is to gunpowder.

+ LIME,-in its native state is in the form of carbonate, and is burnt to disengage the carbonic acid. When made into mortar, of one part water and three parts lime, it is called hydrate of lime, and being mixed with silica, alumina, and oxide of iron, it forms plastic cements and mortars, and afterwards imbibing carbonic acid from the atmosphere, it again becomes a carbonate of lime, as hard as at first; and hence its use in building.

lf cold

LINSEED. This seed, when dried, produces by pressure an excellent paint oil. It is first bruised, and then ground into a pasty mass. drawn oil be required, the paste is at once subjected to an hydraulic press, by which oil of a very fine quality is obtained, but in a very limited quantity. To obtain the main supply, the paste is heated before undergoing the action of the press. It is therefrom transferred to a heated pan, in which it is kept in constant motion. When heated thoroughly, it is removed and put into bags; these are placed in the press in layers; the pressure is then applied, and the oil is made to ooze out from every pore in the bags, into a receptacle prepared for that purpose. When the seed is taken out of the bags, it presents almost the hardness and solidity of a board, and constitutes the oil cake used for fattening cattle. Other vegetable oils, as Olive, Hemp, and Rape, are all produced from the plants bearing their names, and by a similar process.

South America, whose wood affords a beautiful purple dye.

LONGITUDE,the distance of any place from a meridian line, as any towns east and west of Greenwich. LUBRICATION, the anointing a surface to diminish the effects of friction. In watchwork, a fine olive oil is used,-in wood, soft soap and black lead, in large machinery, oil or tallow.

LUCIFER MATCHES, those by which light is obtained instantaneously; some are ignited by friction against a rough substance; others ignite by contact with an acid.

LUNA'TION, the time between one full moon and the next.

M.

MACE, an ensign of authority: (Bo.) a spice obtained from a tree in the Molucca Islands, which yields nutmegs, the mace being the rind or covering of the nutmegs.

MACERA'TION, the process of softening bodies in fluids.

MAC'HIAVELISM, a word expressive of a policy in which cunning and artifice are considered as the best means to attain an end.

MACK'EREL, a salt-water fish.* MAD'DER, (Bo.) a plant from the roots of which a fine red dye is produced.

MADRIGAL, (Mu.) a vocal composition without accompaniment.

MAGAZINE, a place for warlike stores; also a literary miscellany.

MAGNE'SIA, a soft, white, light earth, consisting of oxygen and a metallic base called magnesium.

MAG'NETISM, that branch of science which treats of the property of attracting or repelling iron, displayed by the magnet or loadstone.

a

MAGNETISM (ANIMAL,) phrase applied to an influence said to be exercised by one animal body upon another, resembling that of the magnet.

MAIZE, an Indian bread corn. MALA'RIA, a term applied to the fever resulting from bad air in marshy places.

MAL'LEABLE, capable of extension by hammering; when metals can be flattened, they are said to be laminable; when drawn into wire, ductile.

MALT, grain steeped in water, fermented, and dried on a kiln. † *MACKEREL.-This fish is most abundant off the coasts of Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Suffolk, and Norfolk; they come in large shoals, and are taken either by the line or the net. The French adopt the line method, two men being able to take from 500 to a 1000 fish in a favourable day. The English use a drift net, made of small fine twine, with a mesh of about two inches and a half. In order to take a large range while fishing, a number of nets are attached lengthwise, and extend from three quarters of a mile to a mile and a half. These nets are set in the evening, and sometimes hauled once during the night, at others allowed to remain in the water all night. The fish, while moving about in the dark, are caught in the meshes of the net, which are large enongh to admit their heads, but not to allow the body to pass through.

MALT.-The grain generally used for making malt is barley. The barley is first steeped in water, for about forty-six hours. When the water has been drained off, it is thrown upon a stone floor, in a flat heap, called a couch, the thickness of which is at first about 16 inches; but this heap is

MAMMALIA, that class of animals which suckle their young. MAM'MOTH, an extinct species of elephant found in a fossil state. MANDA'MUS, (L.) a writ, requiring the party to whom it is addressed to perform some particular act therein expressed.

MANDARIN', a Chinese magistrate or nobleman,

MAN'DIBLE, (An.) the jawalso the name given to the upper and under bill of birds.

MANGANE'SE, is a dull whitish metal, very hard, brittle, and difficult of fusion. Oxyde of Manganese is one of the materials from which oxygen can be easily obtained.

MANGE, an eruptive disease in animals, often caused by dirt and confinement, or bad and insufficient food.

MANIPULATION, a word signifying a work done with the hands; also, the smaller processes employed in chemical combinations.

MAN'NA, a white sweet juice, or gum, of medicinal virtues, obtained from a species of ash tree in the south of Europe.

MAN'OR, a district granted originally by the Crown, over which the lord possesses a feudatory jurisdiction.

MANSLAUGHTER, killing a person without malice, but not wholly without fault. [ing illness.

MARAS'MUS, a species of wastMARL, a species of earth, being a mixture of carbonate of lime and clay, used for enriching poor land.

MAS'TIC, a resin extracted from a tree cultivated in the Levant.

MATHEMAT'Ics, the science of magnitude and number, or whatever may be measured or computed.

MATRIX, a mould that forms or imbeds bodies, or that in which any thing is generated.

tity.

MAUSOLEUM, a large tomb.* MAXILLA, (An.) the jaw bone. MAX'IMUM, the greatest quan[in the vicinity of rivers. MEADOW, a low piece of ground MECHANICS, that science which treats of moving forces, and their practical application to the making of tools, engines, and machines.

gradually reduced by turning it twice a day, with wooden shovels. During this process the grain germinates; and when the first shoot is a quarter or half an inch in length, it is removed to the floor of a heated kiln, by which its germination is stopped, and the grain thoroughly dried, and, in some cases, partially roasted. By this process the barley undergoes a chemical change, which imparts to it a sweet quality, from which a spirit is extracted. When the malt is used for beer, it is first bruised, and the meal conveyed into iron vessels called mash tuns, in which hot water is poured upon it. After being steeped some time, and the water and the malt have been well stirred up together, the water containing a good deal of malt extract is drawn off. When all the fermentable matter has been extracted, the residue is used for the feeding of cattle.

MAUSOLEUM.-When a magnificent tomb is erected for the purpose of recording the virtues of a deceased patriot or philanthropist, to excite their survivors to noble actions, its costliness and beauty may be productive of some advantage. But where it is intended merely as a token of individual affection, such a lavish expenditure must be lamented. Thousands are suffering from disease and want, and that which is sometimes expended upon a

MEDALLION, (Ar.) a tablet on which are raised figures and ornaments; also a large medal to commemorate a particular event.

MER'CURY, or QUICKSILVER; (Ch.) a metal which is fluid at common temperature, and passes off in vapour when greatly heatMEDULLARY, a substance re-ed; it combines with many sembling marrow in appearance metals, and is soluble in numerous and consistence, such as that of acids. the brain. [ber species. MEL'ON, a fruit of the cucumMEMBRANE, (An.) a web of fibres or tissue, enveloping the brain and certain internal parts of the body.

MEN'STRUUM, any liquid in which solid bodies are dissolved or separated.

MEPHIT'IC, noxious or poisonous, like carbonic acid gas.

MERIDIAN, a circle dividing the earth into two hemispheres, eastern and western.

mem

MES'ENTERY, a thick brane full of glands, lying in the cavity of the abdomen, by which the intestines are supported.

MESNE PROCESS, (L.) (Meen Process) an intermediate process between the beginning and the end of a suit.

MES'SUAGE, (L.) house and ground set apart for domestic purposes.

METALLURGY, the art of separating metals from their ores. METAMORPHOSIS, a transfor

mausoleum, would serve for the erection of an hospital or an asylum. The mausoleum here represented is in Delhi, and was erected by Akbar, to perpetuate the memory of his father, Humayoon, an emperor reigning

over a part of India and Cabul; and it is one among many similar memorials of departed royalty. It is of large dimensions, composed entirely of marble, richly ornamented with costly mosaic; and has long excited the curiosity and admiration of travellers.

mation into a new and different shape.

METAPHOR, a figure of speech by which one object is made to represent another.

METAPHYSICS, the science which treats of the nature and properties of mind or spiritual existence.

METEMPSYCHO'SIS, the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, from one body to another after death.

METEOROLOGY, the science which takes cognisance of meteors and of atmospheric phenomena.

METEOR'IC CYCLE, or Golden Number, a period of nineteen years, in which the lunations of the moon return to the same day of the month.

ther arising from putrefying matter or extensive marshes.*

MICA, a mineral of a greyish colour (called also talc). It consists of an unlimited series of transparent lamina, adhering to each other, but easily separable into thin flexible plates, and is used as a substitute for glass.

MICROSCOPE, an optical instrument which greatly magnifies objects.

MIN'ARET, a kind of spire or steeple, whence, in Mohammedan towns, the hour for general prayer is proclaimed.

MINERAL'OGY, the science which treats of the structure, properties, and varieties of minerals. MIN'IMUM, the least.

MIRAGE, or FA'TA MORGA'NA, an optical deception occasionally seen in particular states of the atmosphere.†

MEZZOTIN'TO, a mode of engraving on copper, by first roughing the surface; upon this the design is made. The effect of light and shade is produced by scraping such portions as will give the subject the appearance required. MIT TIMUS, (L.) a warrant for MIAS'MA, noxious effluvia,whe-keeping a person in custody.

MIS'SAL, a mass book of the Church of Rome.

MIASMA, or MALARIA. This morbific matter is indigenous to some countries, and has its origin in certain peculiar conditions of the soil. The overflow of the Nile produces plague; that of the Ganges, cholera ; that of the parts situated in the tropics, yellow fever; and in our own marshes, a simple intermittent.

+ MIRAGE. The illusions of the mirage arise from vertical reflection, horizontal or lateral reflection, and suspension. In the vertical, the mirage presents the appearance of a sheet of water, in which objects are reflected and reversed as they would be in a lake. This effect was once peculiarly tantalizing to the French army in Egypt, under the command of Napoleon, when they were in great want of water. The soil of lower

Egypt being a vast horizontal plain, the morning and evening aspect of the country presented nothing remarkable, but after the soil had become heated by the sun, the prospect was changed, and seemed as if bounded by a general inundation, the objects appearing to rest on islands in a large lake. On approaching the supposed water it appeared to recede, and the reflected objects to vanish. In the horizontal or lateral reflection, the image is reflected sideways. At the lake of Geneva a bark was seen in the distance approaching the town by the left bank of the lake, and at the same moment there was seen above the water an image of the sails, which in place of following the direction of the bark, receded from it, and seemed to approach Geneva by the right bank of the lake, the image