W O M 



val acres f f land have been rendered unprodu£Uve. The 

 fire proceeds from a burning ftratum of coal about four feet 

 thick, and eight or ten yards deep, to which the air has free 

 accefs ; as the main bed of coal has been dug out from 

 under it. In colleAing the calcined fubftances for repair- 

 ing the roads, fulphur and alum are frequently found. 

 Tatenhill, a fmall village on a fteep eminence two miles N. 

 from Wolverhampton, was the fcene of a fevere battle 

 between Edward the Elder and the Danes, in the beginning 

 of the loth century. In this place was founded, before 

 the Norman Conqueft, a college with a dean and five pre- 

 bends, which fubfifted till the general diflTolution by 

 Henry VIII. The prefent church, or chapel, is appa- 

 rently a part of that eftablifhment. At Wrottefley, a 

 village in the parifh of Wolverhampton, extenfive ancient 

 remains have been difcovered, fuppofed, by Dr. Plott, in his 

 Hiftory of StafFordfhire, to be vcftiges of the old Theoten- 

 hall of the Danes : but later antiquaries imagine thefe re- 

 mains to belong to the Uriconium of Roman Britain. 

 The parifh of Wolverhampton, although varied with 

 eminences, is in general level, and ornamented with a num- 

 ber of agreeable hamlets and country-feats. — Hiftory and 

 Antiquities of StafFordfhire, by the Rev. Stebbing Shaw, 

 fol. Lond. 1798. Beauties of England and Wales, Staf- 

 fordlhire, 8vo. Lond. 18 14. 



WOLVES-Teeth, of a horfe, are overgrown grinders, 

 the points of which, being higher than the reft, prick the 

 creature's tongue and gums in feeding, fo as to hinder 

 chewing of the meat. 



They are feldom met with but in young horfes ; but if 

 they be not daily worn by chewing, they will grow up even 

 to pierce the roof of the mouth. 



There are ufually two of thefe wolves-teeth, which are 

 fmall, and grow in the upper-jaw, next to the great grind- 

 ing-teeth : thefe are fo tender and painful, that the horfe 

 cannot chew his meat, but is forced to let a great part of it 

 fall out of his mouth, or fwallow it half chewed. 



The remedy, in this cafe, is to tie up the horfe's head to 

 fome part of the rafter, and open his mouth with a cord ; 

 then with an inftrument like a carpenter's gauge, and a 

 mallet, the teeth that are tlnis troublefome are to be knocked 

 out, and the holes filled up with fait. 



If the upper-jaw teeth hang over thofe of the under-jaw, 

 and by that means cut the mouth, the fam« inftrument is to 

 be ufed, and the teeth are to be pared ftiorter by little and 

 little. When they are fufficiently pared down, they muft 

 be filed fmooth, and the mouth waftied with vinegar and 

 fait, and the whole complaint will be thus removed. 



Wolves, Rout of. See Rout. 



Wolves IJlands, in Geography, a clufter of fmall iflands 

 near the E. coaft of Maine. N. lat. 45° 4'. W. long. 

 66* 50'. 



WOLVEY, a village of England, in the county of 

 Warwick. It was at this place that Edward IV. was fur- 

 prifed and taken prifoner by Richard Nevil, earl of War- 

 wick ; 10 miles N.E. of Coventry. 



WOLZ. See Wels. 



WOMAN, FcEMiNA, Mulier, the female of man. 



A woman, in England, as foon as ftie is married, with 

 all her moveables, is wholly In poiejlate v'lrl, or at the will 

 and difpofal of her hufband. 



There are divers confiderable things relating to women in 

 the laws of England, which fee under Wife. 



St. Auguftine calls women the devout fix ; at leaft, this 

 is the common opinion ; though others rather think, that in 

 the prayer ufually attributed to that father, and ftill re- 

 hearfed in the Romiftj church to the Holy Virgin, the words 



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" intercede pro devoto fosmineo fexu," are to be underftood 

 of women devoted or confecrated to God in religious 

 houfes ; which had been fufficiently exprefled by the words, 

 " ora pro populo, interveni pro clero." 



It is a popular tradition among the Mahometans, which 

 obtains to this day, that women fhall not enter paradife. 



An anonymous author, about the clofe of the fixteenth 

 century, publiftied a little Latin diflertation, to prove that 

 women are not men ; that is, are not reafonable creatures : 

 " Differtatio perjucunda, qua anonymus probare nititur mu- 

 lieres homines non effe." He alfo endeavours to prove, 

 what naturally follows from this principle, -viz. that women 

 (hall not be faved, that there is no future hfe or happinefs 

 for them. His proofs are all taken from Scripture, or 

 founded on Scripture. Though, after all, his aim is not 

 fo much to degrade women to the condition of brutes, as to 

 ridicule the principle or method of many Proteftants, who, 

 in points of controverfy, admit of no proofs or confider- 

 ations but what are taken from Scripture alone. This ap- 

 pears from the conclufion of the work. " Probavi, opinor, 

 inviftiflimia SS. literarum teftimoniis, mulierem non effe 

 hominem, nee eam falvari : quod fi non eff^eci, oftendi tamen 

 univerfo mundo, quomodo hujus temporis hseretici, et prx- 

 fertim Anabaptiftse, facram foleant explicare Scripturam, 

 et quo utantur methodo ad ftabilienda fua execranda dog- 

 mata." * 



Yet Simon Gediccus, a Lutheran divine, wrote a ferious 

 confutation of this piece in 1595, wherein the women are 

 reftored to the expeftation of'^ heaven, on their good be- 

 haviour. 



The ancient Marcionites allowed their women to baptize ; 

 as we are alfured by St. Epiphanius, Hxr. 42. cap. 4. the 

 Montanifts admitted women to the priefthood, and even the 

 epifcopate, Epiph. Hasr. 49. cap. 2. The modern Quakers 

 alfo permit their women to preach and prophefy, on an equal 

 footing with the men. 



It is a point much controverted, how far learning'and 

 ftudy become the fex ? Erafmus handles the queftion at 

 large in one of his letters to Budseus. Lud. Vives, in his 

 Inftitutio Foeminsc Chriftianse, has a chapter exprefsly on the 

 fame fubjeft. Madam Schurman, a German lady, has gone 

 beyond them both, in a treatife on this problem, " Num foe- 

 minx Chriftianae conveniat ftudium literarum ?" 



Several of the women remarkable for learning have been 

 alfo diftinguifhed for their want of conduft. The reafon, 

 no doubt, lay in this ; that their firll ftudies lying in books 

 of gallantry and intrigue, the imagination was early turned 

 that way, and the memory filled with a fort of ideas, which 

 a favourable difpofition, and age, adopted too eafily, and 

 improved too faft. It is not that ftudy in itfelf has any 

 natural tendency to produce fuch effefts ; rather the con-, 

 trary : the clofe abftraded refearches of metaphyfica, 1q. 

 gics, mathematics, phyfiCs, criticifm, &c. no doubt would 

 be the fureft means to fecure and eftablifti the virtue of qon. 

 tinency in a woman. 



For an account of women hired to weep at funerals by 

 the Romans, fee Pr^^fiCjE. 



Women were allowed to fing, in 1772, in the collegiate 

 church of St. Gudula, at Bruffels. It was in the performance 

 of high mafs on a Sunday, v.'hen a confiderable number of 

 voices and inftruments were aflembled in the choir ; and we 

 were glad to find among the former two or three \yomen, 

 who though they wer« not fine fingers, yet their being em- 

 ployed, proved that female voices might have admidion in 

 the church, without giving offence or fcandal to piety, or 

 even bigotry. If the practice were to become general, of 

 admitting vyomen to fing the foprano part in the cavhedraU, 

 4 E 2 ' ii 



