MAN 



MAN 



custom, or is created by act of parlia- 

 ment; yet being in subsidiumjudicice, has 

 of late been exercised in a variety of in- 

 stances. 



It is grounded on a suggestion by affi- 

 davit of the party's own right, and the 

 deial of justice below. It is sometimes 

 granted upon a rule to shew cause only, 

 but sometimes it is peremptory in the 

 first instance. When it issues to do the 

 thing, or shew cause, an action lies for a 

 false return, if there be in fact such false 

 return ; but the Court will not itself try 

 the truth of the return in the first in- 

 stance. It is usually applied to the re- 

 storing of officers in corporations, or to 

 electing new ones, where others have 

 been wrongfully elected. See statutes 9 

 Anne, c. 20, and 12 George HI. c. 21. It 

 is a writ of very general application, and 

 great utility,and may be said generally to lie 

 where any person by his office has a clear 

 duty to perform, and neglects to perform 

 it, and the Court can order him to do the 

 act required. 



MANDRAKE, a species of the Atropa, 

 from which a reference has been made, 

 possesses a long taper root, resembling 

 the parsnep : running three or four feet 

 into the ground ; immediately from the 

 crown of the root arises a circle of leaves, 

 at first standing erect, but when grown 

 to their full size, they spread open and 

 lie upon the ground ; these leaves are 

 more than afoot in length, and about five 

 inches broad in the middle, of a dark- 

 green colour, and a fa'tid scent : among 

 these come out the flowers, each on a 

 scape, three inches in length ; they are 

 five-cornered, of an herbaceous white 

 colour, spreading open at top like a 

 primrose, having five haiiy stamens, and 

 a globular germ supporting an awl-shap- 

 ed style, which becomes a globular soft 

 berry, when full-grown as large as a nut- 

 meg, of a yellowish green colour, and 

 when ripe full of pulp. 



Many singular facts are related of this 

 plant, among which we select the follow- 

 ing : the roots have been supposed to 

 bear a resemblance to the human form, 

 and are figured as such in the old herbals, 

 being distinguished into the male with a 

 long beard, and the female with a prolix 

 head of hair. Mountebanks carry about 

 fictitious images, shaped from roots of 

 bryony and other plants, cut into form, or 

 forced to grow through moulds of earth- 

 en ware, as mandrake roots. It was fabled 

 to grow under a gallows, where the mat- 

 ter falling from the dead body gave it the 

 shape of a man ; to utter a great shriek, 

 nr terrible groans, at the digging- up ; and 



it was asserted, that he who would take 

 up a plant of mandrake, should in com- 

 mon prudence tie a dog to it, for that 

 purpose ; for if a man should do it him- 

 self, he would surely die soon after. See 

 Martyn's botany. 



MANDREL, a kind of wooden pulley, 

 making a member of the turner's lathe, of 

 which there are several kinds, as the flat 

 mandrels, which have three or more lit- 

 tle pegs or points near the verge, and 

 are used for turning fiat boards on ; the 

 pin mandrels are those which have a long- 

 wooden shank to fit into a large hole 

 made in the work to be turned ; hollow 

 mandrels are those hollow of themselves, 

 and used for turning hollow work; screw 

 mandrels for turning screws, &c. 



MANETTIA, in botany, so named 

 from Xavier Manetti, Prefect of the Bo- 

 tanic Garden at Florence ; a genus of the 

 Tetrandria Monogynia class and order. 

 Natural order of Contorts. Rubiacese, 

 Jussieu. Essential character: calyx eight- 

 leaved; corolla four-cleft; capsule infe- 

 rior, two-valved, one-celled; seeds imbri- 

 cate, orbicular, with a central seedlet. 

 There are three species. 



MANGANESE, in chemistry, a sub- 

 stance that has long been employed in 

 the manufacture of glass, on account of 

 its property of depriving- that substance 

 of its colour. From its appearance it was 

 called black magnesia, or manganese. It 

 was considered as an ore of iron, because 

 it was found combined with the oxide of 

 that metal. Bergman and Scheele gave 

 an accurate description of its nature and 

 properties. It is generally found in the 

 state of an oxide, either white, or black, 

 or red. The white contains the smallest, 

 proportion of iron and of oxygen. This ore 

 soon tarnishes in the air by absorbing oxy- 

 gen. The red contains more iron than 

 the white, and is crystallized. The black 

 or the brown ore is frequently crystalliz- 

 ed like the red. Manganese is procured 

 in the metallic state, by reducing the ox- 

 ide to powder, and forming it into a paste 

 with water. It is then exposed to a strong 

 heat, not less than 160 of Wedgwood, 

 with charcoal, arid the metal, after a time, 

 is found at the bottom of the crucible, or 

 in the midst of the scoriae in small glo- 

 bules, which amount to nearly one-third 

 of the manganese employed. Manga- 

 nese, in the metallic state, is of a greyish 

 white colour, with considerable brillian- 

 cy, and of a granular texture. The speci- 

 fic gravity is 6.85. It is hard as iron ; is 

 one of the most brittle and most infusible 

 of the metals. When exposed to the air 

 it is quickly tarnished, and at length falls 



