Encyclopaedia Britannica [3, 1 ed.]

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ENCYCLOPAEDIA VOLUME

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BRITANNICA T H I R D,

Encyclopedia Britan nica; O R,

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T I O NARY O F

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SCIENCE

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COMPILED UPON A NEW PLAN. IN WHICH

The different

and ARTS are digefted into diltincl Treadles or Syftems; SCIENCES

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The various TECHNIC ALTER MS, &C. are explained as they occur in the order of the Alphabet,

ILLUSTRATED WITH ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY COPPERPLATES.

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THREE V O L.

SCOTLAND.

VOLUMES. III.

EDINBURGH: Printed for A. BELL and C. MACFARQUHAR; And iold by COL IN MACFAR QV H A R, at his Printing-oillce, Nicolfon-ftreet.

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Encyclopaedia O

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MAC

MAC ACAO, an ifland of China, in the province of Canton, fifty miles fouth of Canton. MACAO, in ornithology. See PSITTACUS. MACCABEES, two apocryphal books of fcripture; fo called from Judas Mattathias, furnamed Maccabeus. The firft book of the Maccabees is an excellent hi dory, and comes neared to the dyle and manner of the facredhidorians of any extant. It contains the hidoryof forty years, from the reign of AntiochusEpiphanes to the death of Simon the high pried; that is, from the year of the world 3829 to the year 3869, 131 before Chrid. The fecond book of the Maccabees begins with two epidles fent from the Jews of Jerufalem to the Jews of Egypt and Alexandria, to exhort them to obferve the fead of the dedication of the new altar eredled by Judas on his purifying the temple. After thefe epidles follows the preface of the author to his hidory, which is an abridgment of a larger work, compofed by one Jafon, a Jew of Cyrene, who'wrote the hidory of Judas Maccabeus and his brethren, and the wars againd Antiochus Epiphanes and Eupator his fon. This fecond book does not, by any means, equal the accuracy and excellency of the firft. It contains a hidory of about fifteen years, from the execution of Heliodorus’s commiflion, who was fent by Seleucus to fetch away the treafures of the temple, to the viftory obtained by Judas Maccabeus overNicanor; that is, from the year of the world 3828, to the year 3843, 147 years before Chrid. MACCLESFIELD, a market-town of Chefhire, thirty-five miles ead of Cheder, from whence the noble jamily of Parker take the title of earl. VQL. III.

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MACE, the fecond coat or covering of the kernel of the nutmeg, is a thin and membranaceous fubdance, of an oleaginous nature and a yellowifh colour; being met with in flakes of an inch and more in length, which are divided into a multitude of ramifications. It is of an extremely fragrant, aromatic and agreeable flavour, and of a pleafant, but acrid and oleaginous tade. , Mace is carminative, domachic, and adringent; and poflefTes all the virtues of nutmeg, but is lefs adringent. MACEDONIA, a province of European Turky, bounded by Servia and Romania, on the north and ead; by the gulphs of Salonichi, Contefla and Theflaly, on the fouth ; and by Albania and Epirus, on the wed. MACERATION, is an infufion of, or foaking ingredients in water or any other fluid, in order either to foften them, or draw out their virtues. MACHIAN, a fmall ifland of the Moluccas, which produces the bed cloves : it is fituated under the equator, in 1250 E. long, and is fubjeft to the Dutch. MACHINE, in general, whatever hath force fufficient to raife or dop the motion of a heavy body. See M«CHANICS.

MACHINERY, in epic and dramatic poetry, is when the poet introduces the ufe of machines, or brings fome fupernatural being upon the flage, in order to folve fome difficulty, or to perform fome exploit out of the reach of human power. See COMPOSITION. MACKERAN, or MACKAN, the capital of a province in Perfia of the fame name ; fituated in E. long. 66°, and N. lat. 26°. 4 MACKEREL, in ichthyology. See SCOM*R. A MACR^CERCI,

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MAG

MACR.OCERCI, a name given to that clafs of animal- MADURA, the capital of the province0 of the fame name in the hither India : E. long. 77 , and N. lat.. cules, with tails longer than their bodies. io°. Mx'ICROPYRENIUM, in natural hiftory, a genus of foffils, confiding of cruftated feptarise, with a long MYEMACTERION, the fourth month of the Athenian year, confiding of only twenty-nine days, and anfwernucleus Handing out at each end of the mafs. ing to the latter part of September and the beginning MACROTELOSTYLA, in natural hidory, a name of of Obtober. a genus of cryftals, which are'compofed of two pyramids, joined to the end of a column; both the pyra- MAIN A, in ichthyology. See SPARUS. mids, as alfo the column, being hexangular, and the MAES, a river which arifes in Burgundy, and runsthrough Lorrain and Champaign into the Netherlands, whole body confequently compofed of eighteen planes. and at lad, after palling by many confiderable towns, MACUL.E, in altronomy, dark fpots appearing on the difchargesitfelfinto the German fea, a little below the luminous faces of the fun, moon, and even fome of Briel. the planets. See ASTRONOM Y. Thefe fpots are moft numerous and eaftly obferved MAESTRICHT, a town in the provine of Brabant, fituated on the river Maes, thirteen miles north o£ in the fun. It is not uncommon to fee them in vaLiege: E. long. 50 qo', and N. lat. 50° 55'. rious forms, magnitudes, and numbers, moving over the fun’s dilk. They were firft of all difcovered by MAGADOXA, the capital of the territory of the fame name, at the mouth of the river Magadoxa, on the the lyncean adronomer Galileo, in the year 1610, foon coad of Anian, in Africa: E.lon.410, andN.lat. 2°. after he had iinilhed his new-invented telefcope. MAGAZINE, a place in which dores are kept, of arms, MAD APPLE. SeeSoLANUM. ammunition, provilions,