58S E F F 
ECTROPIUM, in surgery, is when the 
eye-lids are inverted, or retracted so as to 
shew their internal or red surface, and cannot 
sufficiently cover the eye. 
ECTY PE, among antiquarians, an im- 
pression of a medal, seal, or ring, or a figured 
copy of an inscription, or other antient mo- 
nument. 
EDDY-TIDE, or Eddy- water, among 
seamen, is where the water runs back con- 
trary to the tide; or that which hinders the 
free passage of the stream, and so causes it to 
return again. 
EDGINGS, among gardeners, a series of 
small but durable plants, set round the 
edges or borders of flower-beds, &c. 
The best and most durable plant for this 
use is box, which, if well planted, and rightly 
managed, will continue in strength and 
beauty for many years. The seasons for plant- 
ing these are the autumn and very early in 
the spring ; and the best species for this pur- 
pose is the dwarf Dutch box. The edgings 
of box are now only planted on the sides of 
borders next walls, and not, as was some time 
since the fashion, all 1 round borders, or fruit- 
beds, in the middle of gardens, unless they 
have a gravel-walk between them, in which 
case it serves to keep the earth of the bor- 
ders from washing down on the walks in hard 
rains, and fouling the gravel. Daisies, thrift, 
or sea-july-flowers, and chamomile, are also 
used by some for this purpose ; but they 7 grow 
out of form, and require yearly transplanting. 
EDICT, in matters of polity, an order or 
instrument, signed and sealed by a * rince, 
to serve as a law to his subjects. V\ e find 
frequent mention of the edicts of the praetor, 
the ordinances of that officer in the Roman 
law. In the French law, the edicts are of 
several kinds; some importing a new law or 
regulation; others, the erection of new 
offices, establishments of duties, rents, &c. 
and sometimes articles of pacification. In 
France edicts are much the same as a procla- 
mation is with us, but with this difference, 
that the former have the authority of a law' 
in themselves, from the power which issues 
them forth, whereas the latter are only de- 
clarations of a law, to which they refer, and 
have no power in themselves. 
Edicts cannot exist in Britain, because the 
enacting of laws is lodged in the parliament, 
and not in the king. 
Edicts are all sealed with green-wax to 
shew that they are perpetual and irrevocable. 
EEL, in ichthyology. See Murtena. 
Eels, microscopic, those discovered by 
the microscope in pepper-water and other in- 
fusions of plants, & c. See Microscope. 
Ef.l, sea, anguilla marina, a fish otherwise 
called conger, being a species of mursna, 
with the upper edge of the back-fin black. 
See Murska. 
'Ezh-spear, a cruel instrument with three 
or four jagged teeth, used for catching of 
eels; that with the four teeth is best, which 
they strike into the mud at the bottom of tlie 
river, and if it strikes against any eels, it 
never fails to bring them up. 
EFFERVESCENCE. See Chemistry. 
EFFLUVIUM, in physiology, a term 
much used by philosophers and physicians, 
to express the minute particles which exhale 
from most, if not all, terrestrial bodies inform 
of insensible vapours. 
EFT. See Lacerta. 
EGG 
EGG, ovum, in physiology, a body form- 
ed in certain females, in which is contained 
an embryo, or foetus of the same species, 
under a cortical surface, or shell. The ex- 
terior part of an egg is the shell, which is in 
a hen, for instance, a white, thin, and friable 
cortex, including ali the other parts. The 
shell becomes more brittle by being exposed 
to a dry heat. It is lined every where with 
a very thin, but pretty tough, membrane, 
which, dividing at, or very near, the obtuse 
end of the egg, forms a small bag, where only 
air is contained. In new-laid eggs this folli- 
cuius appears very little, but becomes larger 
when tire egg is kept. Within this membrane 
are contained the albumen, or white, and the 
vitellus, or yolk, each of which have their dif- 
ferent virtues. The albumen is a cold, vis- 
cuous, white liquor in the egg, differing in 
consistence in its different parts. It is ob- 
served, that there are two distinct albumens, 
each of which are inclosed in its proper 
membrane; of these, one is very thin and 
liquid, and the other more dense and vis- 
cuous, and of a somewhat whiter colour, but 
in old and stale eggs, after some days incu- 
bation, inclining to a yellow. As this second 
albumen covers the yolk on all sides, so it is 
itself surrounded by the other external liquid. 
The albumen of a fecundated egg is as sweet 
and free from corruption, during all the time 
of incubation, as it is in new-laid eggs; as is 
also the vitellus. As the eggs of hens con- 
sist of two liquors separated one from another, 
and distinguished by two branches of umbi- 
lical veins, one of which goes to the vitellus, 
and the other to the albumen, so it is very 
probable that they are of different natures, 
and consequently appointed for different pur- 
poses. When the vitellus grows warm with 
incubation, it becomes more tumid, and 
like melting wax, or fat; whence it takes up 
more space, for as the foetus increases, the 
albumen insensibly wastes aw r ay, and con- 
denses; the vitellus, on the contrary, seems 
to lose little or nothing of its bulk, when the 
foetus is perfected, and only appears more 
liquid and humid when the abdomen of the 
foetus begins to be formed. The chick in the 
egg is first nourished by the albumen; and, 
when this is consumed, by the vitellus, as with 
milk. Not long before the exclusion of the 
chick, the whole yolk is taken into its abdo- 
men; and the shell, at the obtuse end of the 
egg, frequently appears cracked, some time 
before the exclusion of the chick. The chick 
is sometimes observed to perforate the shell 
with its beak. After exclusion, the yolk is 
gradually wasted, being conveyed into the 
intestines by a small duct. See Comtara- 
tive Anatomy. 
According to a chemical analysis of eggs, 
they consist of four parts ; an osseous cover- 
ing, called the shell, a membrane which co- 
vers the constituent parts of the egg; the 
white, or albumen, and the yolk. In 100 
parts of the shell of hen’s-eggs there are, 
89.6 of carbonat of lime 
5.7 of phosphat of lime 
4.7 of animal matter 
100.0 
The white, or albumen, is nearly of the 
same nature as the serum of blood. See 
Albumen. 
The yolk contains a lymphatic substance, 
mixed with a certain quantity of mild oil. 
E J E 
There is a considerable asalogy between the 
eggs of animals and the seeds of vegetables. 
T he yolk of eggs renders oils and resins so- 
luble.' 
EGYPTIANS, gipsies, are a kind of 
commonwealth among themselves of wander- 
ing impostors and jugglers, who made their 
first appearance in Germany, about the be- 
ginning of the sixteenth century, and have 
since spread themselves over all Europe and 
Asia. By the laws of England, gipsies were 
formerly subject to imprisonment and forfei- 
ture of goods, but they are now considered 
chiefly as rogues and vagabonds, and are de- 
scribed as such in the vagrant act. 4Black. 166. 
EHRETIA, in botany, a genus of the 
monogynia order, in the pentandria class of 
plants, and in the natural method ranking 
under the 4 1st order, asperifol be. The fruit 
is a bilocular berry ; the seeds solitary and 
bilocular; the stigma emarginated. There 
are five species, trees and shrubs of the West 
Indies. * 
EHRHARTA, a genus of the monogynia 
order, in the hexandria class of plants. The 
calyx is a tvvo-valved, one-flowered glume ; 
the corolla is a double glume, each tv\o-valv- 
ed; the exterior one compressed, and scymi- 
tar-shaped, transversely wrinkled, and gash- 
ed at the base. There are six stamina, three 
on each side the pistil, in a parallel line. T he 
stigma is simple, compressed, four-tufted, 
and torn at the top. There are five species ; 
grasses of the Cape. 
EJECTION E CUSTODLE, a writ which 
lies against him who casts out the guardian 
from any land during the minority of the heir. 
EJECTMENT. An ejectment is a mixed 
action, by which a lessee for years, when ous- 
ed, may recover his term and damages ; it is 
real in respect of the lands, but personal in 
respect of the damages. Since the disuse of 
real action, this mixed proceeding is become 
the common method of trying the title to 
lands or tenements. Runn. on Ejectments. 
The modern method of proceeding in eject- 
ment, entirely depends on a string of legal 
fictions; no actual lease is made; no actual 
entry by the plaintiff; no actual ouster by 
the defendant ; but all are merely ideal for 
the sole purpose of trying the title! To this 
end, a lease for a term of years is stated in 
the proceedings to have been made by him 
who claims title to the plaintiff, who is" gene- 
rally an ideal fictitious person, who has no 
existence, though it ought to be a real per- 
son to answer for the defendant’s costs. In 
this proceeding, which is the declaration, (for 
there is no other process in this action) it is 
also stated, that the lessee, in consequence 
of the demise to him made, entered into the 
premises; and that the defendant, who is also 
now another ideal fictitious person, and who 
is called the casual ejector, afterwards enter- 
ed thereon, and ousted the plaintiff ; for which 
ouster the plaintiff brings this action. Under 
this declaration is written a notice, supposed 
to be written by this casual ejector, directed 
to the tenant in possession of the premises; 
in which notice the casual ejector informs the 
tenant of the action brought by the lessee, 
and assures him, that as he, the casual ejec- 
tor, has no title at all to the premises, he shall 
make no defence, and therefore he advises 
the tenant to appear r m court, at a certain 
time, and defend his own title, otherv ise he, 
the casual ejector, will suffer judgment to be 
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