W O L 
WOO 
013 
WITH.ERINGIA, a genus of plants of the 
class and order tetrandria monogyuia. Tire 
corolla is sub-campanulate ; calyx very small, 
four-toothed; perianthium two-celled. There 
is one species, a herb of South America. 
WITZEN1A, a genus of plants of the 
class and order triandria monogjuia. The 
corolla is one-petalled ; stigma emarginate ; 
capsule superior. There is one species, a 
herb of the Cape. 
WITHERNAM, in law, a writ that lies 
xvhere a distress is driven out of the county, 
Sad the sheriff cannot make deliverance to 
j the party distrained ; in that case this writ is 
directed to the sheriff, commanding him to 
take as many of the beasts, or goods, of the 
party into his keeping, till he make deliver- 
ance of the first distress. 
WITNESS, one who is sworn to give evi- 
dence in a cause. 
If a man is subpoenaed as a witness upon a 
trial, he must appear in court on pain of 100/. 
to be forfeited to the king, and 10/. together 
•with damages equivalent to the loss sustained 
by the w ant of his evidence to the party ag- 
grieved. 3 Black. Com. 369. 
But witnesses ought to have a reasonable 
time, that their attendance upon the court 
may be of as little prejudice to themselves as 
possible ; and the court of king’s-bench held, 
that notice at two in the afternoon to attend 
the sitting that evening at Westminster was 
too short a time. Str. 510. 
Where a witness cannot be present at a 
trial, he may, by consent of the plaintiff and 
defendant, or by rule of court, be examined 
Upon interrogatories at the judge’s chambers. 
No witness is bound to appear to give evi- 
dence in a cause unless his reasonable expence 
is tendered him, and if he appears till such 
charge is actually paid him, except he both 
resides and is summoned to give evidence 
within the bills of mortality. 
WOAD, in botany. See Isatis, and In- 
digo. 
WOLF, See Canis. 
WOLF-HOLES, in the defence of places, 
are round holes, generally about two or three 
feet in diameter at the top, one at bottom, 
and two and a half deep, dug in the front of 
any work. Sometimes a sharp-pointed stake 
or two are fixed at the bottom, and covered 
with very thin planks, and green sods; con- 
sequently the enemy, on advancing, fall in, 
and are put.into confusion. 
WOLFRAM, fin ore of tungsten, is found 
,jn different parts of Germany, in Sweden, Bri- 
tain, T ranee, and Spain ; and almost con- 
stantly accompanied by ores of tin. It oc- 
curs both massive and crystallized. The 
primitive form of its crystals," according to the 
observations ot Mr. Haiiy, is a rectangular 
parelleloptped, whose length is 8.66, whose 
breadth is five, and thickness 4.33. It is not 
common, however, to find crystals of this per- 
fect form in many cases: the angles, and some- 
times the edges, of the crystal are wanting ; 
owing, as Mr. Hauy has shewn, to the super- 
position of plates, whose edges or angles de- 
crease according to a certain law. 
Colour brown or brownish black. Streak 
reddish brown. Powder stains paper with 
the same colour. Texture foliated. Easily 
separated into plates by percussion. Specific 
gravity from 7. to 7.3. Moderately electric 
by communication. Not magnetic. Infusi- 
ble by tiie blowpipe. Forms with borax a 
Vol.II. 
woo 
greenish globule, and with microcosmic salt a 
transparent globule of a deep red. 
The specimen of this ore, examined by 
Messrs. d’Elhuyarts, was composed of 
65 oxide of tungsten 
22 oxide of manganese 
13 oxide of iron 
100 . 
Another specimen from Puy-lcs-Mines in 
France, analysed by Vauquelin and Hecht, 
contained 
67.00 oxide of tungsten 
18.00 black oxide of iron 
6.25 black oxide of manganese 
1.50 silica 
7.25 oxide of the iron and manganese 
100.00 
W OMEN. By the 26 G. II. c. 33, no suit 
shall be had in any ecclesiastical court, to 
compel a celebration of marriage in facie ec- 
clesia;, by reason of any contract of matrimony 
whatsoever, whether per verba de praesenti, or 
per verba de futuro : and the marriage of 
any person under the age of twenty-one, 
without the consent of parents or guardians, 
shall be null and void. 
By 20 II. VI. c. 9 peeresses shall be tried 
as peers for treason or felony. 
And by stat. 3 W. c. 9, a woman being 
convicted of an offence, for which a man may 
have his clergy, shall suffer the same punish- 
ment that a man should suffer, who has the 
benefit of his clergy allowed ; that is, shall be 
burnt in the hand, and further kept in prison 
as the court shall think fit, not exceeding one 
year. 
But she shall be only once intitled to the 
benefit of the said statute. 
WOOD, a solid substance, whereof the 
trunks and branches of trees consist. See the 
articles Tree, Trunk, Branch, Under- 
wood, Plants, physiology of. Timber, 
&c. 
The wood lies immediately under the 
bark, and forms by far the greatest part 
of the trunk and large branches of trees. It 
consists of concentric layers, the number of 
which increases with the age of the part. 
Each of these layers, as Mr. Duhamel ascer- 
tained, may be separated into several thinner 
layers, and these are composed chiefly of lon- 
gitudinal fibres. Plence the reason that wood 
may be much more easily split asunder than 
cut across. 
The wood, when we inspect it with atten- 
tion, is not, through its whole exent, the same; 
the part of it next the bark is much softer and 
whiter, and more juicy than the rest, and has 
for that reason obtained a particular name ; 
it has been called the alburnum or aubier. 
The perfect wood is browner, and harder, 
and denser, than the alburnum, and the layers 
increase in density the nearer they are to the 
centre. Sir John Hill gave to the innermost 
layer of wood the name of corona; or rather 
he gave this name to a thin zone which, ac- 
cording to him, lies between the wood and 
the pith. 
Mortimer observes that all kinds of wood 
are to be preserved from insects and from 
many other occasions of decay, by oily sub- 
stances, particularly the essential “oils of ve- 
getables. Oil of spike is excellent; and oil 
of juniper, turpentine, or any other of this 
kind, will serve the purpose ; these will pre- 
serve tables, instruments, &c. from being 
eaten to pieces by these vermin ; and linseed- 
oil will serve, in many cases, to the same pur- 
pose; probably nut-oil will do also, and this 
is a sweeter oil, and a better vaniish for 
wood. 
Some of the West Indian trees afford a sort 
of timber which, if it would answer in point of 
size, would have great advantages over any 
of the European wood in ship-building for the 
merchant-service, no worm ever touching 
this timber. The acajou, or tree which pro- 
duces the cashew-nut, is of this kind; and 
there is a tree of Jamaica, known by the name 
of the white wood, which has exactly the 
same property ; and so have many other of 
their trees. 
To season wood expeditiously for sea-ser- 
vice, Mr. Boyle observes, that it has been 
usual to bake it in ovens. 
The art of moulding wood is mentioned 
by Mr., Boyle as a desideratum in the art of 
carving. He says, he had been credibly in- 
formed of its having been practised at the 
Hague; and suspects that it might have been 
performed by some menstruum that softens 
the wood, and afterwards allows i • to harden 
again, in the manner that tortoise-shell is 
moulded; or perhaps by reducing the wood 
into a powder, and then uniting it into a mass 
with strong but thin glue. And he adds, that, 
having mixed saw-dust with a fine glue made 
of isinglass, slightly straining out what was 
superfluous through a piece of linen, the re- 
mainder, formed into a ball, and dried, be- 
came so hard as to rebound when thrown; 
against the floor. 
The people who work much in wood, and 
about small works, find a very surprising 
difference in it, according to the different sea- 
sons at which the tree was cut down ; and thts 
not regularly the same in regard to all species, 
but different in regard to each. The button- 
mould makers find that the wood of the pear- 
tree, cut in summer, works toughest ; holly, 
oil the contrary, works toughest when cut 
in wfinter; box is mellowest when it has been 
cut in summer, but hardest when cut* about 
Easter; hawthorn works mellow when cut 
about October, and the service is always 
tough if cut in summer. 
Wood Staining. 
To stain zvood yellow . lake any while 
wood, and brush it over several times with 
the tincture of turmeric root, made by putting 
an ounce of turmeric, ground to powder, to a 
pint of spirit, and after they have stood for 
some days, straining off the tincture. Ifth© 
yellow colour is desired to have a reddish 
cast, a little dragon’s blood must be add- 
ed. 
A cheaper, butless strong and bright yellovf 
is, by the tincture of French berries made boil- 
ing-hot. 
Wood may also be stained yellow by means 
of aqua fortis, which will sometimes produce a 
very beautiful yellow colour, but at other 
times a browner. Care must be taken, 
however, that the aqua fortis is not too 
strong ; otherwise a blackish colour will be the 
result. 
To stain wood red. For a bright red stain 
for wood, make a strong infusion of Brazil 
wood in stale urine, or water impregnated 
with pearl-ashes, in the proportion of an ounce 
to a gallon; to a gallon of either of which, 
the proportion of Brazil wood must, be a 
