MAT 



MAT 



MASTOIDES, in anatomy, the same 

 with mammillaris ; being- applied to such 

 processes in the body as have the appear- 

 ance of breasts or dugs, arising in a broad 

 basis, and terminating in an obtuse top. 

 Mastoides is sometimes applied to the 

 muscle which stoops the head, proceed- 

 ing from the neck-bone and breast- 

 bone, and terminating in the process of 

 the mammiformis. See MAMMILLARY 

 glarat. 



MATCH, a kind of rope slightly twist- 

 ed, and prepared to retain fire for the 

 uses of artillery, mines, fire-works, Sec. 

 It is made of hempen tow, spun on the 

 wheel like cord, but very slack ; and is 

 composed of three twists, which are after- 

 wards again covered with tow, so that 

 the twists do not appear : lastly, it is boil- 

 ed in the lees of old wines. This, when 

 once lighted at the end, burns on gradu- 

 ally and regularly, without ever going 

 out, till the whole be consumed : the 

 hardest and driest match is generally the 

 best. 



MATERIAroetffca. It is a subject of cu- 

 riosity rather than of use, to enquire by what 

 means mankind are induced, in the first in- 

 stance,to have recourse to substances,when 

 in a state of disease, which, for the most 

 part, they abhor and fly from when in a 

 state of health ; and how they came to dis- 

 cern that in these substances chiefly, nature 

 has treasured up the remedies of sick- 

 ness, the restoratives of a vitiated or de- 

 bilitated constitution. From whatever 

 source this knowledge has been derived, 

 we feel it daily to be a knowledge of a 

 very important character, and we are sen- 

 sible of its having been very generally 

 diffused at a very early period of ancient 

 history. Accident, in the first instance, 

 and experience confirming the result of 

 some fortunate discovery, were perhaps 

 the chief foundation of therapeutic science 

 in the simplest and rudest ages of the 

 world. Yet the whole can by no means 

 be traced to this source, for the general 

 fallacy of experience is sufficient to prove, 

 that it has had but a very small share in 

 establishing the virtues which have been as- 

 cribed to most medicines ; and it was pro- 

 bably from a too frequent disappointment 

 in practice, from palpable proof of the un- 

 certainty of those remedies which are re- 

 commended by the ancients, that physi- 

 cians in times comparatively modern have 

 been induced to seek for means, not only 

 for ascertaining more exactly the quali- 

 ties of established medicines, but of in- 

 vestigating the virtues of substances alto- 

 gether new and untried. 



Hence unquestionably the union of che- 

 mistry with the art of healing ; for among 

 the earliest chemists we meet with the 

 first attempts at departing from the usual 

 catalogue of medicines in pursuit of a new 

 list. Paracelsus led the way, by introduc- 

 ing the absurd notion of astral influences 

 and of signatures ; to which succeeding 

 and more rational chemists suggested the 

 mility of a chemical analysis. The doc- 

 trine of astral influences and of signatures, 

 has been altogether exploded for a long 

 time, though we still trace certain vesti- 

 ges of its former existence in many of our 

 latest publications on the JVlateria Medica. 

 Chemical analysis, as it ought to do, has 

 completely triumphed over the two for- 

 mer systems, and IB Ja'ily extending its 

 enquiries. To arts, manufactures, and 

 commerce, these enquiries have been pre- 

 eminently useful, nor have they been 

 without their benefit to medicine ; yet 

 the benefit resulting from this last ap- 

 plication has by no means been equal 

 to that which has resulted to the two 

 former. 



The means then resorted to in the pre- 

 sent day for determining substances to be 

 remedial or medicinal, or, in other words, 

 the previous steps to their introduction in- 

 to the Materia Medica, are their own sen- 

 sible qualities, their botanical affinity, 

 their chemical examination, and general 

 experience. 



Having introduced them into the medi- 

 cal catalogue, our two next subjects of 

 consideration are, their classification or 

 arrangement, and the best mode of em- 

 ploying them, whether simply, and on ac- 

 count of their own specific virtues, or in 

 connection with other substances, by 

 which their proper qualities are so inter- 

 mixed with the qualities of the other sub- 

 stances employed, as to acquire an in- 

 creased, a diminished, or altogether a 

 new action ; and consequently to be pro- 

 ductive of a different result. 



The former consideration alone be- 

 longs, strictly speaking, to the present 

 article ; the latter constituting the proper 

 subject of pharmacy or compound medi- 

 cine. For the theory and practice, there- 

 fore, of combining and compounding me- 

 dicinal substances, we refer our readers 

 to the article PHARMACY ; and shall here 

 confine ourselves, as strictly as we may 

 be able, to the materials actually em- 

 ployed in medicine, on account of their 

 own supposed inherent virtues, and 

 which for the most part are denominated 

 simples. 



What ought to be classification of these 



