MATICIN. 



MATTHEW, ST., THE GOSPEL OF. 



applied externally. It does not owe its astringent properties to tannin : 

 and it eona to exert vital action on bleeding Tassels, so as speedily 

 to arrest the hjemorrhage. It hai been used to check other discharge*, 

 tucb a* the profuse expectoration and also the night-sweat* of con- 

 sumptive patients. Few drugs exert more than a temporary influence 

 over these symptoms ; but among such, Matico seems well entitled to 

 attention. Still more potent is oxido of zinc in such oases. 



MATICIN. A non-axotised bitter principle, of unknown composi- 

 tion, found in the leaves of the Arlattthc elongota. 



MATINS (from the Italian mattina, or the French matin, morning), 

 strictly the first part in the daily service of the Romish church. Mating 

 or maUins however were divided into two parts, which were originally 

 distinct offices and hours ; namely, the nocturn and matin lan/li. The 

 octanu or vigils were derived from the earliest period of Christianity. 

 We learn from Pliny the younger, as well as from Justin Martyr, Ti-r- 

 tullian, and various writers of the first three centuries, that the 

 Christians in those times of persecution held their assemblies in the, 

 night, in order to avoid detection. On these occasions they celebrated 

 the memory of Christ's death in the holy mysteries. When pereecu-, 

 tion had intermitted and finally ceased, although the Christians were 

 able to celebrate all their rites, and did administer the sacrament in 

 the day-time, yet a custom which had commenced from necessity was 

 retained from devotion and choice ; and nocturnal assemblies for the 

 worship of God in psalmody and reading still continued. The monastic 

 orders, which, in the 4th century, arose under Pachomius, Anthony, 

 Basil, and others, in Egypt, Pontus, and Syria, tended to preserve this 

 custom of nocturnal vigils; and in the following centuries we find, 

 from the testimony of Cassionus, Augustine, and others, that the same 

 custom remained in most parts of the East and West. In the 6th 

 century Benedict, the great founder of monastic societies in the West, 

 prescribed the same in his Rule; and nocturnal assemblies were 

 common about that time, especially in monasteries. The laudt, or 

 more properly matin laudt, followed next after the nocturne, and were 

 supposed to begin with day-break. We find allusions in the writings 

 of Cyprian, and all the subsequent fathers, to the morning as on hour 

 of prayer ; but whether there was in the 3rd century any assembly 

 of the [church for the purpose of public morning worship is uncer- 

 tain. However, about the end of the third or beginning of the 

 4th century there was public worship at this hour, as wo learn from 

 the ' Apostolical Constitutions,' where we have the order of the 

 service. 



(Bingham's Antiqnitia of the Christian Church, b. xiii. ; Palmer's 

 Ori'jina Lituryica.) 



MATRASS, a glass chemical vessel, employed for the purpose of 

 digesting, boiling, and distillation, and sometimes, while one is used as 

 the body, another serves as the receiver in the lost-mentioned operation. 

 Florence flasks are very commonly used for these purposes, and they 

 answer admirably, on account of the excellent nature of the glass, which 

 is such as to resist the effects of sudden alterations of temperature. 

 Sometimes matrasses are very conveniently formed with flat bottoms, 

 instead of their being round as in oil-flasks. 



MATRIX, or GANGUE. Metallic ores are seldom found unmixed 

 in the places in which they occur; they not only accompany each 

 other, but are frequently associated with useless stony bodies, and these 

 are called the matrix, or gangue. 



It also happens that ores in some cases become gangues with 

 relation to more precious minerals ; those which may bo distinguished 

 as metallic gangues are iron pyrites, spathose iron-ore, oxide of iron, 

 hydrate of iron, and blende ; the earthy gangues are usually quartz, 

 felspar, limestone, carbonate of baryta, sulphate of lime, sulphate of 

 baryta, and fluor-spar. 



MATRONS, JURY OF. When a widow alleges herself to bo with 

 child by her late husband, and it is suspected that she is not pregnant, 

 or not so by the husband, a writ de ventre inspiciendo may be obtained 

 out of chancery, on behalf of the next heir, whose rights might be 

 prejudiced by a supposititious, or spurious, child. Under this writ a 

 jury of "discreet and lawful women" is impannelled, to try, by 

 inspection of her person (ct ubera et ventrem tractando), whether the 

 widow is with child or not, and if with child, to inquire of the time of 

 conception, and of that of the expected delivery. If the widow be 

 found to be pregnant, the sheriff, on returning the writ, certifies the 

 court of common picas to this effect ; whereupon the widow, unless 

 she be remarried (in which case she is not to be taken from her 

 husband), is to bo kept in a castle, or other safe place, until her 

 delivery, in order, as far as possible, to prevent any child being 

 improju-rly introduced as the issue of the husband, to the disherison 

 of the heir. (Bracton. lib. 2, cap. 82 ; Croke, Elir., 560 ; 8 Vesey, 260 ; 

 1!1 VimTs'Abr.',M7.) 



In the parliament roll of Edw. II. (1 ' Rot. Porl.,' 853, 354), is a 

 curious proceeding, instituted on the 18th July, 1315, by the sisters 

 and coheirs of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, who had died on 

 the 3Wh June, 1314, to recover their inheritance out of the king's 

 hands, notwithstanding the alleged pregnancy of the countess, his 

 widow. At the parliament held in January following, (more than 

 eighteen months after the death of the earl), the king's sergeants 

 insisted that it was stiU the duty of the crown to retain possession of 

 the estate for the benefit of the expected offspring, whose birth had 

 /row *<H*rat ecuuet (penuittento natura) been so long deferred; oud 



it was not until Eautcr term, 18,16, that the impediment was treated as 

 removed. 



A jury of matrons is also summoned to inquire into the fact of 

 pregnancy in cases where a woman convicted of treason or felony, upon 

 sentence of death being pronounced, pleads, in stay of execution, that 

 she is with iiM. If the matrons impanuelled to try this allegation 

 find it to be true, the convict, whether she be married or unmarried, is 

 respited until after her delivery. In some of the cases reported, the 

 matrons have been directed to inquire whether the convict is yuiek 

 with child; in other cases, and those by far more numerous, the 

 inquiry seems to have been general, namely, ynynant or not pregnant. 

 (Hawkins ' P. C.', book ii., cap. 51, sec, 9.) As the child is now kn< >wu 

 to have the same degree of foetal life before as after thu change of 

 position which occasions the sensation called quickening, the latter 

 form of the inquiry appears to be not only the more humane but also 

 the more correct ; more especially as the law has now rejected the 

 distinction between quick and not quick, in cases of attempts to 

 procure abortion. (7 Will IV. & 1 Viet., c. 85, s. 6.) After delivery 

 the convict is not to be executed without an award of execution by the 

 court. But when called upon to say why execution should not be 

 awarded against her, the convict cannot plead that she is again with 

 child ; such further pregnancy being considered not to be a sufficient 

 ground for suspending, for a second time, the execution of the 

 sentence. The jailor is, under such circumstances, punishable for his 

 ice. But if the ground of the first postponement was the 



preservation of the infant, there seems to be no reason why the life of 

 the second child should be sacrificed. ' Blackst. Com.' by Christian, 

 vol. iv. p. 395 ; by Kerr, iv. p. 465. 



The form of proceeding where a woman alleges herself to be with 

 child by her late husband, which is described in the passage of Bracton 

 already referred to, is evidently taken from the Roman form of pro- 

 ceeding in a similar case, as described in ' Dig.' 25, tit. 4, " De Inspi- 

 ciendo Ventre, custodiendoque Partu." 



MATTER is the name given to every thing which is not mind. 

 Such seems to be the only way of defining the word ; and though the 

 definition may appear to assume that mind is not matter, the contrary 

 of which has been contended by the class of writers called materialists 

 [MATEBIALISM], yet it does not really do so. For whatever theory 

 may be adopted as to the nature of mind, whether it be considered as a 

 separate principle from matter, or merely as a different manifestation 

 of the same principle, the word mind is indifferently retained ; and our 

 definition may consequently be at once reconciled with the materialist 

 theory by paraphrasing it thus : matter is the name given to the 

 substance composing the universe, under all its different modifica- 

 tions, excepting only that one which is known by the name of niiinl. 



Matter then is the name for that out of which all objects external to 

 the mind are thought to be composed, the question being reserved, 

 whether the mind is or is not composed of the same substance. What 

 this substance is, to which the name of matter is given, we do not 

 know, and have no means of knowing. Various speculations have been 

 mode as to its nature, and theories formed concerning the manner of 

 its composition; but these have no better basis than conjecture. 

 Other speculations have been made as to whether there is such a thing 

 as matter or not; and some philosophers have seen in the solid 

 around us nothing but a creation of the mind. [BERKELEY, in Bioa. 

 Drv.; IDEALISM.] 



There is no need to enter here into any of these speculations. It is 

 sufficient to know and say that man, subject to certain affections of 

 his senses, is led to assign those affections to an external cause. This 

 external cause is that which he colls matter. What this matter is in 

 iteelf he knows not. Ho knows only its capability of producing in 

 him certain affections, the ordinary affections of the five senses (sensa- 

 tions as they are called), and those which give the ideas of extension 

 and resistance. Thus, having already supposed something without, he 

 pronounces these ito be qualities of that something ; ignorant all the 

 while what that something is, and knowing it only as the subitratitm of 

 the qualities. 



MATTHEW, ST., THE GOSPEL OF, is a canonical book of the 

 New Testament, ascribed by the unanimous consent of the early Chris- 

 tian writers to the apostle Matthew. 



It is not easy to determine the language in which this gospel was 

 composed. That it was written in Hebrew (by which we are to under- 

 stand the Syro-Choldaic dialect spoken in Palestine in the time of 

 Christ), and that it was composed for the Jewish Christians, is asserted 

 l>y I'.ijiias (Euaebius, ' Hist. Ecc.,' iii 39), Irenacus (Ibid., v. 8), Origan 

 (ibid., vi., 26), Eusobius (Ibid., iii. 24), and Jerome (' Comment, in 

 Matt.,' ]>ncf., and ' De Vir. illust.,' c. .3) ; and their account is followed 

 by others of the early Christian writers. On the other hand it ia 

 argued in favour of a Greek original that these testimonies ore incon- 

 clusive, for that Papios was a weak and credulous man, and that the 

 other writers merely followed his account ; that wo find no traces of 

 the actual existence of the Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew, for nil (lie 

 quotations in the works of the early fathers arc made from the ' 

 copy which we now have; that explanations arc i . .Inch 



would be useless to Jewish readers (see Matt., i. 23 ; x.\ 

 that parallel passages of the Old Testament are generally quoted from 

 the Srptuaguit ; and that the Greek Gospel which we now have bears 

 every mark of being not a translation but an original document In 



