244 VOCABULARY. 



ing a species of supple and more or less elastic webs, varying 

 in their structure and vital properties, and intended, in gen- 

 eral, to absorb or secrete certain fluids, and to separate, en- 

 velop, and form other organs. Bichat has divided the mem- 

 branes into simple and compound. 



MEMBRA'XA NIC'TITANS. The ' haw ' of the horse's eye. It is 

 a triangular-shaped cartilage, concealed within the inner cor- 

 ner of the eye, and is black or pied. It is used by the horse, 

 in lieu of hands, to wipe away dust, insects, &c. The eye 

 of the horse has strong muscles attached to it, and one, 

 peculiar to quadrupeds, by the aid of which the eye may be 

 drawn back out of the reach of danger. When this muscle 

 acts, the haw, which is guided by the eyelids, shoots across 

 the eye with the rapidity of lightning, and thus carries off 

 the offending matter. Its return is equally rapid. Youatt. 

 (Prof. Youatt denounces the practice of cutting out the 

 haw as barbarous, that is, in ordinary cases of inflammation. 

 He says that if farriers and grooms were compelled to walk 

 for miles in the dust without being permitted to wipe or 

 cleanse their eyes, they would feel the torture to which they 

 often subject the horse.) 



MI'OCENE. Literally, less recent. In geology, a term applied 

 to the middle division of the tertiary strata, containing fewer 

 shells of recent species than the Pliocene, but more than the 

 Eocene. Lyell. 



The Miocene is apparently the culminating age of the 

 mammalia, so far as physical development is concerned, 

 which accords with its remarkably genial climate and exu- 

 berant vegetation. In Europe the beds of this age present 

 for the first time examples of the monkeys. Among carniv- 

 orous animals, we have cat-like creatures, one of which is dis- 

 tinguished from all modern animals of its group by the long, 

 saber-shaped canines of its upper jaw, fitting it to pull down 

 and destroy those large pachyderms which could have easily 

 shaken off a lion or a tiger. Here also we have the elephants, 

 the mastodon, a great, coarsely-built, hog-like elephant, 

 some species of which had tusks both in the upper and lower 

 jaw ; the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and the horse, all of 

 extinct species. J. W. Dawson. 



MORPHOLOG'ICAL. That which has relation to the anatomical 



