M E L 
The icterus mucosus of Townsend, which 
Is perhaps the most frequent species of jaun- 
dice, is unattended either by pain or spas- 
modic affections; there are no gall-stones 
observed in the faeces; but these are generally 
discharged mixed with much slime and visci- 
dities. It is generally accompanied with, and 
indeed is most commonly occasioned bv, a 
depression of mind, especially when favoured 
by sedentary habits, breathing an impure at- 
mosphere, living upon unwholesome innutri- 
! tious diet, or indulging in the too free use of 
“ spirituous potation.” 
While it is the most frequent, and often- 
j times the most protracted, of any of the spc- 
j cies of jaundice, it is at the same time most 
| easy of cure when properly understood and 
managed. 
M.M. Emetics. Ca’omel purgatives. Bitter. 
Tonics, especially Colombo, with rhubarb. 
Pure air. Exercise ou horse back. Mental 
excitement. 
In icterus spasmodicus, opium, assafoctida, 
■ad her, electricity. If the spasm depends upon 
any irritations in the stomach or bowels, these 
to be removed by emetics, purgatives, antheL 
; mimics. In icterus ealculosus, emetics to 
facilitate the passage of the gall-stones. An- 
I tispasmodics. Warm bathing. Emollient 
clysters. Vegetable tonics, and steel. 
N. B. 'Fhe average doses of medicines will 
be found stated in the articles Materia Me- 
Jdica, and Pharmacy. 
MEDIETAS LINGUAE, a jury or in- 
| -quest impanelled, whereof the one-half con- 
sists; of natives or denizens, the other strangers; 
and used in pleas wherein the one party is 
a strange c, the other a denizen, 
MEDIUM, in logic, the mean or middle 
term of a syllogism, being an argument, rea- 
son, or consideration, for which we affirm or 
deny any thing ; or, it is the cause why the 
greater extreme is affirmed or denied of tiie 
less in the conclusion. 
Medium, or Mean, geometrical. See 
Mean. 
MEDULLA OBLONGATA. See Ana- 
tomy. 
Medulla spinalis. See Anatomy. 
MEDUSA, a genus of vermes of the or- 
der mollusca. The generic character is, body 
gelatinous, or bicuiar, and generally hat un- 
derneath: mouth central beneath. The ani- 
mals of this genus consist of a tender gelati- 
nous mass of different figures, furnished with 
arms or tentacular processes, proceeding from 
the lower surface: the larger species, when 
touched, cause a slight tingling and redness, 
and are usually denominated sea-nettles ; 
they are supposed to constitute the chief food 
-of cetaceous fish, and most of them shine with 
great splendour in the water. There are 44 
species. See Plate Nat. Hist. fig. 262. 
MEIONITI, a mineral found only among 
the lava of Vesuvius, always crystallized. Pri- 
mitive form, a prism whose bases are squares. 
It occurs usually in eight-sided prisms, and 
terminated by four-sided pyramids. Some- 
times the edges of the prism are truncated. 
Colour greyish-white; fracture fiat; melts 
before the blowpipe into a white spongy glass. 
M ELAM POD l U M, a genus of the class 
and order syngenesia polygamia necessaria. 
The calyx is five-leaved ; recept. chaffy, co- 
nical; down one-leaved, involuted, converging. 
There are three species, herbs of the West 
Indies.. 
MEL 
MELANITE, a mineral found in the 
neighbourhood of Vesuvius, and former- 
ly 7 called black garnet. Its colour is black 
or brownish. Crystallized in six-sided prisms, 
terminated by trihedral summits. It is com- 
posed of 40 silica 
28.5 alumina 
16.5 oxide of iron 
10.0 magnesia 
3.5 lime 
0.25 oxide of manganese. 
98.75 
MELALEUCA, a genus of the polyandria 
order, belonging to the poly adelphia class of 
plants. The calyx is quinquepartite, supe- 
rior; the corolla pentapetslous ; the filaments 
are very numerous, and collected in such a 
manner as to form five pencils: there is one 
style ; the capsule is half-covered with the 
calyx, formed like a berry, and is trivalved 
and trilocular. The species are 11, natives 
of India and the South Sea islands. The most 
remarkable species is the leucadcndron, from 
a variety of which (the latifolia, or broad- 
leaved leucadeudron) the cajeput oil is ob- 
tained ; a medicine in very high esteem among 
the Eastern nations, particularly in India. It 
is said to be obtained by distillation from the 
fruit of the tree. Vv hen brought into this 
country it is a liquid of a greenish colour, of a 
fragrant but at the same time a very peculiar 
odour, and of a warm pungent* taste. Some 
authors, however, represent this oil as b. ing, 
when of the best quality, a white or colourless 
fluid ; and it has been said by the authors of 
the Dispensatorium Brunsvicense, when pre- 
pared in Europe from the seeds sent from 
India, to be entirely of this appearance. 
Hitherto the oleum cajeput has been but 
little employed either in Britain or on the 
continent of Europe ; but in India it is used 
both internally and externally, and is highly 
extolled for its medical properties. It is ap- 
plied externally where a warm and peculiar 
stimulus is requisite; it is employed for re- 
storing vigour after luxations and sprains, 
and for easing a violent pain in gouty and 
rheumatic cases, in tooth-ache, and similar af- 
fections ; but it has been chiefly celebrated as 
taken internally, and it is particularly said to 
operate as a very powerful remedy against 
tympanic affections. 
MELAMP\ RUM, cozu-tcheat, a genus 
of the angiospermia order, in the didynamia 
class of plants, and in the natural method 
ranking under the 40th order, personate. 
The calyx is quadrifkl; the upper lip of the 
corolla is compressed, with the edges folded 
back; the capsule is bilocular and oblique, 
opening at one side ; three are two gibbous 
seeds. There are five species, four of them 
natives ot Britain, and growing spontaneously 
among corn-fields. They are exelient food 
for cattle; and Linnarus tells us, that where 
they abound, the yellowest and best butter is 
made. Their seeds, when mixed with bread, 
give it a dusky colour ; and, according to 
some authors, produce a vertigo, and other 
disorders of the head ; but this is denied by 
Mr. Withering, though he allows that they 
give it a bitter taste. 
MELASTOMA, the American gooseberry 
tree , a genus of the monogynia order, in the 
decandria class of plants, and in the natural 
method ranking under the 17th order, caly- 
U.8 
M E L 155 
cantliema*. The calyx is quinquefid and 
campannlated ; the petals are live, inserted 
into the calyx ; the berry is quinque'.ocular, 
and wrapped in the calyx. There are 67 spec, 
most ot them shrubs, of the warm parts of 
America, and veryjbeauliful on account of the 
variegation of their leaves. Most of the leaves 
are ot two different colours on their surfaces ; 
the under side being either white, gold-co- 
loured, or russet, and the upper parts of 
different shades of green; so that they make a 
fine appearance in the hot-house all the year 
round. 1 here are but few of these plants in 
the European gardens ; which may, perhaps, 
have been occasioned by the difficulty of 
bringing over growing plants from the West 
Indies; and the seeds, being small when taken 
out from the pulp of their fruits, rarely suc- 
ceed. Some of these species strike very 
easily from cuttings. 
MELCH1FES, in church history, the 
name given to the Syriac, Egyptian, and 
other Christians of the Levant. They cele- 
brate mass in tire Arabian language. The 
religious, among the Melchites, follow tire 
rule of St. Basil, the common rule of all the 
Greek monks. They have four fine con- 
vents, distant about a day’s journey front 
Damns, and never go out of the cloister. 
MELCIilZEDECHiANS, in church 
history, a sect which arose about the begin- 
ning of the third century, and affirmed, that 
Melchisedech was not a man,' but a heavenly 
power, superior to Jesus Christ. 
MELEAGRIS, in ornithology, the tur- 
key, a genus ot birds belonging to the order 
of gallhuc. 1 he head is covered with spongy 
caruncles; and there is likewise a membrana- 
ceous longitudinal caruncle on the throat. 
There are but two species, viz. the galiopavo, 
or North American turkey of Ray; and the 
satyra, or horned turkey. The first has a 
caruncle both on the head and throat; and 
the breast of the male is bearded or tufted. 
It lives upon grain and insects; when the 
cock struts, he blows up his breast, spreads 
and erects his feathers, relaxes the caruncle 
on the forehead, and the naked parts of the 
face and neck become intensely rod. Barbot 
informs us that very few turkeys are to be met 
with in Guinea, and those only in the hands 
of the chiefs of the European forts ; the ne- 
groes declining to breed any on account of 
their tenderness, which sufficiently proves 
them, not to be natives of that climate. He 
also remarks, that neither the common poul- 
try nor ducks arc natural to Guinea, any- 
more than the turkey. Neither is that bird 
a native of Asia ; tire" first that were seen iu 
Persia were brought from Venice by some 
Armenian merchants. They are bred in 
Ceylon, but not found wild. In fact, the 
turkey ; properly so called, was unknown to 
the antient naturalists, and even to the old 
world, before the discovery of America; and 
with this the Portuguese name peru remark- 
ably coincides. It was a bird peculiar to the 
new continent, and is now the commonest 
wild-fowl in the northern parts of that coun- 
try, where they are frequently met with by 
hundreds in a flock; in the day-time they 
frequent the woods, where they feed on 
acorns, and return at night to the swamps to 
roost, which they do on the trees. They are 
frequently taken by means of dogs, though 
they run faster for a time ; but the dogs per- 
sisting in the pursuit, the birds soon grow 
