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The prejler is a violent wind breaking forth with flalhes 

 of lightning. This is rarely obferved ; fcarcely ever with- 

 out the ecnephlas. Seneca fays, it is a typho, or turbo, kindled 

 or ignited in the air. 



The ecnephiar is a fudden and impetuous wind, breaking 

 out of fome cloud ; frequent in the Ethiopic fea, particu- 

 larly about the Cape of Good Hope. The feamen call them 

 travados. 



The exhydrta is a wind buriling out of a cloud, with a 

 great quantity of v/ater. This only feems to differ, in de- 

 gree, from the ecnephlas, which is frequently attended with 



Ihowers. ,■ , ■ j 



A typho, or vortex, moft properly called a ivhsrl-ivind, or 

 hurricane, is an impetuous wind, turning rapidly every way, 

 and fweeping all round the place. It frequently defcends 

 from on high. The Indians call it orancan ; the Turks, &c. 

 oliphant. It is frequent in the Eattern ocean, chiefly about 

 Siam, China, &c. and renders the navigation of thofe parts 

 exceedingly dangerous. 



Dr. Frankhn, in his Phyfical and Meteorological Ob- 

 fervations, read to the Royal Society in 1756, fuppofes a 

 whirl-wind and a water-fpout to proceed from the fame 

 caufe ; their only difference being, that the latter pafles over 

 the water and the former over the land. This opinion is 

 corroborated by the obfervations of M. de la Pryme, and 

 many others, who have remarked the appearances and effefts 

 of both to be the fame. They have both a progreffive as 

 well as a circular motion ; they generally rife after calms 

 and great heats, and occur moll frequently in the warmer 

 latitudes : the wind blows every way from a large furround- 

 ing fpace both to the water-fpout and whirl-wind ; and a 

 water-fpout has, by its progreffive motion, pafled from the 

 fea to the land, and produced all the phenomena and effefts 

 of a whirl-wind : fo that there is no reafon to doubt their 

 being meteors arifing from the fame general caufe, and ex- 

 plicable upon the fame principles, furni(hed by eleftrical 

 experiments and difcoveries. See Hurricane, and Water- 

 Spout. 



For Dr. FrankUn's ingenious method of accounting for 

 both thefe phenomena, fee his Letters and Papers, &c. 

 vol. i. p. 191, &c. p. 216, &c. 



WHISKET, or WisKET, in Rural Economy, a term 

 often ufed provincially to fignify a baflcet, efpecially in the 

 northern counties. See Basket. 



WHISKY, a term fignifying water, and applied in the 

 Highlands and iflands of Scotland and in Ireland to ftrong 

 water or diftilled liquor. The fpirit drank in the North is 

 drawn from barley, and is faid to be preferable to any 

 Englifh malt-brandy : it is ftrong, but not pungent, and 

 free from the empyreumatic tafte or fmell. 



WHISPERING. See Hearing, Attention, &c. 

 WHlSPERlNG-i'/acfj, fuch as domes and galleries, depend 

 on this principle, that the voice being applied to one end 

 of an arch, ealily pafles by repeated refleftlons to the 

 other. 



Thus, let A B C ( Plate XV. Pneumatics, fg. 8. ) reprefent 

 the fegment of a fphere ; and fuppofe a low voice uttered 

 at D, the vibrations extending themfelves every way, fome 

 of them will impinge upon the points E, E, &c. and thence 

 be reflefted to the points F, F, &c. thence to G, G, &c. 

 till at laft they meet in C ; where, by their union, they 

 caufe a much ftronger found than in any part of the feg- 

 ment whatever, even at D the point whence they firft pro- 

 ceeded. 



Accordingly, all the contrivance in a whifpering-place is, 

 that near the perfon who whifpers there be a fmooth wall, 

 arched<either cylindrically, or clliptically ; in which cafe he 



I 



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will be heard diftinftly by another perfon, who places his ear 

 pretty near the wall on the oppofite fide. A circular arch 

 will do, but not fo well. It is demon ftrated by all the wri- 

 ters on CoNics (which fee), that if from any point in the 

 circumference of an ellipfe two lines be drawn to the foci, 

 thofe lines make equal angles with one curve at that point. 

 Confequently, the found which is produced in one focus of 

 an elliptical chamber, and is reflefted from the wall to the 

 other focus, makes all the angles of incidence equal to the 

 angles of refleftion refpeflively. Hence that focus is the 

 place where the found is bcft heard. 



Places famed for the conveyance of whifpers are, the pri- 

 fon of Dionyfius at Syracufe, which increafed a foft whifper 

 to a loud noife ; the clap of one's hand to the found of a 

 cannon, &c. ; the aquedufts of Claudius, which carried a 

 voice fixteen miles ; and divers others enumerated by Kir- 

 cher in his Phonurgia. 



The moft confiderable in England are, the dome of St. 

 Paul's, London, where the ticking of a watch maybe heard 

 from fide to fide ; and a very eafy whifper be fent. all round 

 the dome : this Dr. Derham found to hold not only in the 

 gallery below, but above upon the fcaflc)ld, where a whif- 

 per would be carried over one's head round the top of the 

 arch, though there be a large opening in the middle of it 

 into the upper part of the dome : and the famous whifper- 

 ing-place in Gloucefter cathedral, which is no other than a 

 gallery at the eaft end of the choir, leading from one fide 

 of it to the other. It confifts of five angles and fix 

 fides, the middlemoft of which is a naked window ; yet 

 two whifperers there hear each other at the diftance of 

 twenty-five yards. See Birch's Hift. of the Royal Society, 

 vol. i. p. 120. See Echo. 



WHIST, or Whisk, a well-known game at cards. Mr. M 

 T. Matthews, one of the laft and moft approved writers on the * 

 game of whitt, has publiftied {1816) a tenth edition of his 

 " Advice to the Young Whift Player, &c." in which he has 

 comprifed, under the detail of 108 maxims, fuch inftruftions 

 as are neceflary to be obferved by thofe who wifti to play 

 this game with (liill and fuccefs. It would far exceed our 

 limits, if we attempted to follow him in this detail ; and an 

 abridgment, if it were prafticable, would be of little ufe ; 

 nor indeed is it neceflary, as thofe who are defirous of ac- 

 quiring a knowledge of the minutise of the game will confult 

 the author, whofe " Advice" may be eafily and cheaply 

 procured. We ftiall, however, feleft fome of thofe inftruc- 

 tions that are the moft important, and fubjoin thofe laws of 

 the game that ferve to prevent or fettle difputes among 

 players. 



The following maxims comprehend thofe inftruftions that 

 relate to leads, to which we have annexed fome other direc- 

 tions that are immediately connefted with them. It is 

 highly neceflary, fays Mr. M., to be correft in leads. When 

 a good player plays an eight, and then a feven, it may be 

 known that he leads from a weak hand ; and the contrar)', 

 when he plays the feven firft : the cafe is the fame with a 

 tray or a deuce. 



Good players never lead a nine or ten, but for one of 

 thefe reafons : 



I ft. From a fequence up to the king. 

 2d. From nine, ten, knave, and king. 

 3d. When the beft of a weak fuit not exceeding three in 

 number. 



I. The fafeft leads are thofe that are . furnifhed by fe- 

 quences of three or more cards ; in which cafe the player 

 is advifed to lead the higheft, and to put on the lovveft to 

 his partner's lead, and to put the higheft on his adverfarj-'s ; 

 and with a tierce to the king and feveral others, to begin 



with 



