ing the temperature of our climate to the Milling. (See Fulling.) plant and the animal would be very con

Milt. (See Spleen.) siderable. Yet, in a good menagerie, MIRACLES, in the drama. (See Mysteries.) much ought to be attempted, gradually Mirchill, doctor Samuel Latham, was but systematically, to realize such a de- born in the year 1764, in Queen's county, sirable object as the exhibition of animals Long Island, not far from New York. His in their natural habits. If the cat tribe family were Quakers, and bis father was a are pent up in close dens, what idea can respectable farmer. For the excellent edube formed of the crouch and the spring cation, classical as well as otherwise, which which characterize both their sport and he received, he was indebted to his matertheir seizure of prey? With every re- nal uncle, doctor Samuel Latham, who, gard to their security, they might have a perceiving the germs of his talents, adoptsufficient range to exhibit this peculiar ed him as his son, and gave him every adproperty. We can acquire no adequate vantage which the best tuition could afnotion of the kangaroo in a cage; but in ford. After the termination of the revoa paddock, its remarkable bound at once lutionary war, young Mitchill, then in his fixes our attention and curiosity. In a twentieth year, was sent to Edinburgh to very interesting book (Waterton's Wan- attend the courses of its school of mediderings in South America), there is an cine. He did not, however, confine himaccount of the sloth, which shows that self to the medical lectures, but regularly we can know nothing of some animals, attended the distinguished professors of unless we see them in their natural con- natural science and history, and devoted, dition. This traveller delights in won- likewise, a portion of his time to the anderful stories, which he tells in a style cient and modern languages, and even to approaching to exaggeration; but there is the elegant arts. Soon after his return, no reason to doubt the general accuracy he analysed the springs at Saratoga, which of his descriptions of natural objects. soon after attained great celebrity. In The sloth is usually described as slow in 1792, he was chosen a member of the his movements, and as in a perpetual legislature of his native state, and, shortly state of pain; and from his supposed in- afterwards, was appointed professor of action his name is derived. And why is chemistry, natural history, and agriculthis? He had not been seen in his na- ture, in Columbia college. He was the tive woods by those who described him: first person in this country to promulgate, he was resting upon the floor of some in his chemical lectures, the nomenclaplace of confinement. His feet are not ture of Lavoisier, which he had adopted, formed for walking on the ground; they although he had been the pupil, at Edincannot act in a perpendicular direction; burgh, of the famous doctor Black, who and his sharp and long claws are curved. upheld the phlogistic theory. In 1796, He can only move on the ground by pull- he made a memorable mineralogical reing himself along by some inequalities port to the agricultural society, which is on the surface, and, therefore, on a smooth to be found entire in the Medical Reposifloor he is perfectly wretched. He is in- tory. To natural history, and especially tended to pass his life in trees; he does botany, he was zealously devoted, as apnot move or rest upon the branches, but pears from the discourse which he delivunder them; he is constantly suspended ered at the anniversary of the New York by his four legs, and be thus travels from historical society, giving an account of branch to branch, eating his way, and every work and writer that has illustrated sleeping when he is satisfied. To put the botany of North and South America. such a creature in a den is to torture him. In the practice of his profession, doctor If the sloth be placed in a menagerie, he Mitchill was highly distinguished. He should have a tree for his abode; and was a professor of materia medica in the then we should find that he is neither ha- university, the adviser, trustee or attendbitually indolent nor constantly suffering. ing physician of the New York city hos

MERCURIALS. (See Advocate.) pital, and of a large number of the charMERLIN. (See Hawk.)

itable institutions of that town, and a Méry. (See Barthélemy and Méry, in voluminous writer on matters of medical this Appendix.)

science. He was the originator of the METALLIC TRACTORS. (See Perkins.) American Medical Repository, and its

MIDDLESEX, EARL OF. (See Sackville, presiding editor until the close of the Charles.)

fourteenth volume. Notwithstanding the Milpoil. (See Yarrow.)

variety and extent of his professional and MILLIGRAMME. (See Gramme.) scientific labors, he yet found time to mingle in the bustle of politics. It has same way. By other statutes, the wilful already been mentioned that, in 1793, he destruction, casting away, or burning of was a member of the state legislature. any ship, with intent to injure the owner, In 1797, he was again elected, and was is punishable with death. In case of muafterwards successively chosen to the sev- tiny, the master is justified in using means enth, eighth, and ninth congresses; to the sufficient to repress it ; and if the death of national senate; again to the legislature; any of the mutineers ensue, the master is and, in fine, to the eleventh congress. He justified, provided the force which he was employed in many municipal offices, uses be fairly required by the exigency of and in commercialor moneyed institutions, the occasion ; and the master's conduct is in which he acted as commissioner, or di- not to be scanned too nicely, as it must rector, or manager. In private life, doc- be borne in mind, that he is generally tar tor Mitcbill was remarkable for affability removed from all assistance, and that his and simplicity of manners. He bore own safety and that of the ship and cargo with singular equanimity the most un- chiefly depend upon the due maintenance reasonable demands on his time, to which of his authority. Mutiny in the royal his celebrity exposed him in various ways. navy is punishable under the provisions He was kind, affectionate and cheerful. of the statute 22 George II, c. 33, When engaged in controversy, he never which contains the rules or articles of the allowed himself to be carried away by navy. Among the numerous offences undue excitement: at the same time, he enumerated in that statute, those which knew how to repel attack, as well by ar- partake of the character of mutiny are as gument as by raillery and sarcasm. He follows: the running away with the ship, died in 1831, in his sixty-eighth year. or any ordnance, ammunition or stores MITYLENE. (See Lesbos.)

belonging thereto, the making or endeavMOORFOWL. (See Grouse.).

oring to make any mutinous assembly, MOTHER OF PEARL. (See Nacre.) the uttering of any words of sedition or MOUNTAIN LAUREL. (See Kalmia.) mutiny, the concealing of any traitorous MUFFLE. (See Assaying.)

or mutinous design, the striking of a suMULEJENNY. (See Cotton Manufacture.) perior officer, or drawing or offering to Muræna. (See Lamprey.)

draw or lift up any weapon against him, MURDER. (See Homicide.)

being in the execution of his office, on MUSCOGEES. (See Creeks.)

any pretence whatsoever, the presuming Muscovado. (See Sugar.)

to quarrel with a superior officer, being in MUSQUASH. (See Muskrat.)

the execution of his office, or the disoMutiny, on board of a merchant ves- beying of any lawful command of a susel, was not formerly punishable by death perior officer. All the above offences are in England; but now, by statute 11 and punishable with death. With regard to 12 William III, C. 7, sec. 9, made some, and those the least heinous of them, perpetual by 6 George I, c. 19, it is the court-martial has a discretionary powenacted, that any seaman or mariner, er of awarding a less punishment. The who shall

, in any place where the admi- behaving with contempt towards a superal has jurisdiction, lay violent hands on rior officer, being in the execution of his his commander, whereby to hinder him office, the concealing of traitorous or mufrom fighting in defence of the ship and tinous words spoken by any, to the prejugoods committed to his charge, or shall dice of bis majesty or government, or the confine his master, or make or endeavor concealing of any words, practice, or deto make a revolt in the ship, shall suffer sign, tending to the hinderance of the serpains of death, loss of lands, goods and vice, and not revealing the same to the chattels, as pirates, felons and robbers upon commanding officer, and the endeavoring the seas have suffered and ought to suffer. to make a disturbance on account of the Similar offences, such as the running unwholesomeness of the victuals, or on away with the ship, or any barge, boat, any other ground, are punishable with ordnance, ammunition, goods, or merchan- such punishment as a court-martial shall dises, the yielding of them up voluntarily think fit to award. Mutiny in the army to pirates, the bringing of seducing mes- is punishable under the mutiny act. By sages from pirates, enemies, or rebels, the this act the king is empowered to make confederating with, or attempting to cor- articles of war ; i. e. rules or orders for rupt, any commander or mariner to yield the better government of the army. The up or run away with the ship, &c.; the mutiny act provides that no offence shall turning pirate, or going over to pirates, be made punishable with death, except are, by the same acts, punishable in the those which are specified therein. These

e

are, mutiny and sedition; not endeavor- edge was the property of only one caste, ing to suppress the same; not giving in- it was by no means difficult to employ it formation of the same to the command- in the subjugation of the great mass of ing officer; misbehavior before, the ene- society. An acquaintance with the momy; shamefully abandoning or giving up tions of the heavenly bodies, and the vaa post; compelling the commanding offi- riations in the state of the atmosphere, cer so to do; leaving one's post before enabled its possessor to predict astronomirelieved; being found sleeping on one's cal and meteorological phenomena, with post; holding correspondence with any a frequency and an accuracy which could rebel or enemy; entering into terms with not fail to invest him with a divine charthe same, without the license of his majes- acter. The power of bringing down fire ty or of the commanding officer; strik- from the heavens, even at times when the ing or using violence towards a superior electric influence was itself in a state of officer, being in the execution of his duty; repose, could be regarded only as a gift disobeying any lawful command of a su- from Heaven. The power of rendering perior officer; and deserting. The laws the human body insensible to fire was an of the U. States for the punishment of irresistible instrument of imposture; and mutiny in the army and navy, and on board in the combinations of chemistry, and the merchant ships, are very similar to those influence of drugs and soporific embroof England.

cations on the human frame, the ancient MYRIOGRAMME. (See Gramme.) magicians found their most available reMysticetus. (See Whale.)

sources. The secret use which was thus made of scientific discoveries and of re

markable inventions, has, no doubt, preN.

vented many of them from reaching the present times; but though we are very

ill informed respecting the progress of the Naso. (See Ovid.)

ancients in various departments of the NATURAL Magic. [The following ob- physical sciences, yet we have sufficient servations on this subject are from the evidence that almost every branch of preface to doctor Brewster's treatise on knowledge had contributed its wonders Natural Magic.] The subject of natural to the magician's budget; and we may magic is one of great extent as well as of even obtain some insight into the sciendeep interest. In its widest range, it em- tific acquirements of former ages by a braces the history of the governments and diligent study of their fables and their the superstitions of ancient times; of the miracles. The science of acoustics furmeans by which they maintained their nished the ancient sorcerers with some of influence over the human mind; of the their best deceptions. The imitation of assistance which they derived from the thunder in their subterranean temples arts and the sciences, and from a knowl- could not fail to indicate the presence of edge of the powers and phenomena of a supernatural agent. The golden virnature. When the tyrants of antiquity gins, whose ravishing voices resounded were unable or unwilling to found their through the temple of Delphos; the stone sovereignty on the affections and interests from the river Pactolus, whose trumpet of their people, they sought to entrench notes scared the robber from the treasure themselves in the strong-holds of super- which it guarded; the speaking head, natural influence, and to rule with the which uttered its oracular responses at delegated authority of Heaven. The Lesbos ; and the vocal statue of Memprince, the priest, and the sage, were non, which began at the break of day to leagued in a dark conspiracy to deceive accost the rising sun,—were all deceptions and enslave their species; and man, who derived from science, and from a diligent refused his submission to a being like observation of the phenomena of nature. himself, became the obedient slave of a The principles of hydrostatics were spiritual despotism, and willingly bound equally available in the work of decephimself in chains when they seemed to tion. The marvellous fountain which have been forged by the gods. This sys- Pliny describes in the island of Andros, tem of imposture was greatly favored by as discharging wine for seven days, and the ignorance of these early ages. The water during the rest of the year; the human mind is at all times fond of the spring of oil which broke out in Rome marvellous; and the credulity of the indi- to welcome the return of Augustus from vidual may be often measured by bis own the Sicilian war; the three empty urns attachment to the truth. When knowl- which filled themselves with wine at the annual feast of Bacchus in the city of which hallowed their ancient temples, we Elis ; the glass tomb of Belus, which recognise all the transformations of the was full of oil, and which, when once modern phantasmagoria. It would be an emptied by Xerxes, could not again be interesting pursuit to embody the inforfilled; the weeping statues, and the per- mation which history supplies respecting petual lamps of the ancients,—were all the the fables and incantations of the ancient obvious effects of the equilibrium and superstitions, and to show how far they pressure of fluids. Although we have no can be explained by the scientific knowldirect evidence that the philosophers of edge which then prevailed. This task antiquity were skilled in mechanics, yet has, to a certain extent, been performed there are indications of their knowledge, by M. Eusebe Salverte, in a work on the by no means equivocal, in the erection of occult sciences, which has recently apthe Egyptian obelisks, and in the trans- peared ; but, notwithstanding the ingenuity portation of huge masses of stone, and and learning which it displays, the inditheir subsequent elevation to great heights vidual facts are too scanty to support the in their temples. The powers which they speculations of the author, and the deemployed, and the mechanism by which scriptions are too meagre to satisfy the they operated, have been studiously con- curiosity of the reader.* cealed; but their existence may be in- Neff, Felix; a young Protestant clerferred from results otherwise inexplica- gyman, who devoted his life to the preachble; and the inference derives additional ing of the divine word to the scattered confirmation from the mechanical ar- inhabitants of the dreary regions called rangements which seem to have formed the High Alps of France. He received a part of their religious impostures. When, a tolerable education from the pastor of in some of the infamous mysteries of an- the village, near Geneva, in which he was cient Rome, the unfortunate victims were born. He learned the trade of a nursery carried off by the gods, there is reason to gardener; but his passion for romantic adbelieve that they were hurried away by venture made him enter as a private solthe power of machinery; and when Apol- dier in the service of Geneva, in 1815. lonius, conducted by the Indian sages to At sixteen, he published a valuable little the temple of their god, felt the earth ris- treatise on the culture of trees. Within ing and falling beneath his feet like the two years after he became a soldier, he agitated sea, he was, no doubt, placed up- was made a sergeant of artillery, in conon a moving floor capable of imitating sequence of his theoretical and practical the heavings of the waves. The rapid knowledge of mathematics. He at length descent of those who consulted the ora- quitted the army to devote himself to thecle in the cave of Trophonius; the mov- ological studies. He first assumed the ing tripods which Apollonius saw in the functions of a pastor-catechist, and was Indian temples; the walking statues at ultimately called to the duties which Antium, and in the temple of Hierapolis; he was so anxious to undertake, by one and the wooden pigeon of Archytas,--are of those Independent congregations of specimens of the mechanical resources England whose ministers are received in of the ancient magic. But of all the sci- the Protestant churches of France. He ences, optics is the most fertile in marvel- was ordained in London, in 1823, and, lous expedients. The power of bringing within six months after, was appointed the remotest objects within the very grasp pastor of the department of the High of the observer, and of swelling into gi- Alps. In order to visit his various flocks, gantic magnitude the almost invisible the pastor had to travel from his fixed bodies of the material world, never fails residence, twelve miles in a western dito inspire with astonishment even those rection, sixty in an eastern, twenty in a who understand the means by which southern, and thirty-three in a northern; these prodigies are accomplished. The and Neff persevered, in all seasons, in ancients, indeed, were not acquainted passing on foot from one district to anwith those combinations of lenses and other, climbing mountains covered with mirrors wbich constitute the telescope snow, forcing a way through the valleys, and the microscope; but they must have been familiar with the property of lenses * We must caution the young reader against and mirrors to form erect and inverted some of the views given in M. Salverte's work. images of objects. There is reason to

In his anxiety to account for every thing miracuthink that they employed them to effect lous by natural causes, he has ascribed to the

same origin some of those events, in sacred histothe apparition of their gods; and in some jy, which Christians cannot but regard as the reof the descriptions of the optical displays sult of divine agency.

choked up by the masses of rocks that decided of those who assumed arms to were hurled down by the winter's storm, resist the arbitrary measures of the mother and partaking of the coarse fare and im- country. He joined the provincial army perfect shelter of the peasant's hut. His at Cambridge, and soon afterwards acfirst attempt at improving his people was companied Arnold in his long and toilto impart an idea of domestic conveni- some march to Canada. At the siege of ence. Chimneys and windows to their Quebec, he was wounded, and carried hovels were luxuries to which few of from the engagement. On his return, he them had aspired, till he taught them how was invested with the command of a regieasy it was to make a passage for the ment, and retained it until the conclusion smoke, and to procure admittance for the of the war, after which he was promoted Jight and air. He next convinced them to the rank of brigadier. He was a man that warmth might be obtained more of great liberality and amiableness of wholesomely than by pigging together in character. He died at Elizabethtown, stables, from which the muck of the cat- New Jersey, March 31, 1791. tle was removed but once during the Oil Plant. (See Sesamum Orientale.) year. He taught them, also, bow to cul- ONAGER. (See Ballista.) tivate their lands to advantage, and the Orchard Bird. (See Oriole.) proper remedies to be used in cases of ORLANDO. (See Roland.) sickness. He improved their manners, ORNITHORYNCHUS. (See Platypus.) which had been so savage that the women Orr, Hugh, was born January 13, had not been permitted to sit at table with 1717, at Lochwinioch, in the county of their husbands or brothers, but stood be- Renfrew, Scotland. He was educated a hind them, and received morsels from gunsmith and house-lock filer; and at their hands. He labored hard to diffuse the age of twenty came to America. One knowledge among them ; and, with a view year he resided at Easton, Massachuof providing proper teachers for these iso- setts, and the next he removed to Bridgelated tracts, he persuaded a number of water. There he built a shop, and set up young persons in assemble, during the the first trip-hammer in that part of the most dreary part of the year, when they country, where he was for several years could not labor in the fields, and to work the only maker of edge tools, of which hard with him in the attainment of knowl- he manufactured many sorts.' In 1748, edge, which they were afterwards to he made five hundred muskets for the spread among their neighbors. His un- province of Massachusetts Bay, and, dur, remitting labors finally destroyed his ing the revolutionary war, commenced health, and he was obliged to quit the in- anew the manufacturing of arms. In clement district in which he had accom- concert with a French gentleman, he set plished so much good. He lingered for up a foundery for the casting of cannon. some time in a debilitated state, and at These were cast solid and bored : most length died at Geneva, April 12, 1829. of them were iron ; a few were brass. A Nephritis. (See Kidney.)

great quantity of cannon-shot was also NEPTUNIAN HYPOTHESIS. (See Geol- cast at the same furnace, and, together ogy.)

with the cannon, formed a valuable acNew GUERNSEY. (See Egmont Island.) quisition to the country at that period. New Sarum. (See Salisbury.) Besides spreading the manufacture of Newt; an obsolete name for a species edge tools through various parts of Mas. of small lizard. (See Lizard.)

sachusetts, Rhode Island and ConnectiNIEPER. (See Dnieper.)

cut, Mr. Orr originated the business of Night-Jan. (See Goat-Sucker.) exporting flax-seed from the part of the Nonius. (See Vernier.)

country in which he resided, and probaNotæ Tironianz. (See Abbreviations.) bly gave the first impulse to the manuNushirwan. (See Persia.)

facturing of cotton. For several years, NuTCRACKER. (See Nuthatch.) he was elected a senator for the county

of Plymouth, and enjoyed the intimacy

and confidence of governor Bowdoin. 0.

He died in December, 1798, in the eightysecond year of his age. In private life,

he was exemplary; and his attachment to OBSTETRICS. (See Midwifery.) his adopted country was pure and ardent.

OGDEN, Matthias, of New Jersey, a Osborn, John, was born at Sandwich, brigadier-general in the army of the U. Massachusetts, in 1713, and graduated at States, was among the earliest and most Harvard college in 1737, where he was