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E L O 
E M B 
E M B 
ter is to the transverse axis ; or it is a mean 
proportional between two circles, described 
on the conjugate and transverse axes. 
ELLIPTOIDES, in geometry, a name 
used by some to denote infinite ellipses, de- 
fined by the equation ai/ n ^~ n =bx m (« — x) 11 ' 
Of these there are several sorts: thus, if 
ay'—bx 2 (a — .r) it is a cubical elliptoid: and 
if ay 4 =bx 2 (a — .r) 2 , it denotes a biquadratic 
elliptoid, which is an ellipsis of the third or- 
der in respect of the Apollonian ellipsis. 
ELLIS I A, a genus of the monogvnia or- 
der, in the pentandria class of plants; and 
in the natural method ranking under the 
28th order, lurid*. The corolla is mono- 
petalous and funnel-sliaped ; the berry car- 
nous and bilocular; there are two seeds mu- 
ricated or set with small raised points, the 
one higher than the other. There is one 
species, an annual plant of Virginia. 
ELOGY, or Eulogy, elogium, a praise 
or panegyric bestowed on any person or thing, 
in consideration of its merit. The beauty of 
elogy consists in an expressive brevity. 
Elogiums should not have so much as one 
epithet properly so called, nor two words 
synonymous. They should strictly adhere to 
truth ; for extravagant and improbable elogies 
rather lessen the character of the person or 
thing they would extol. See Rhetoric. 
ELOINED, in law, signifies restrained or 
hindered from doing something ; thus it is 
said, that if those within age are eloined, so 
that they cannot sue personally, their next 
friends shall sue for them. 
ELONGATION, in astronomy, the di- 
gression or recess of a planet from the sun, 
with respect to an eye placed on our earth. 
The term is chiefly used in speaking of Venus 
and Mercury, the arch of a great circle in- 
tercepted between either of these planets and 
the sun, being called the elongation of that 
planet from the sun. But here it is to be 
observed, that it is only a circle which has 
the sun for its centre ; that the greatest elon- 
gation is in a line touching the planet’s orbit. 
Eor in an elliptic orbit it may be, that the 
elongation from the sun may grow still great- 
er, even after it has left the place where the 
line joining the earth and planet touches its 
orbit. Eor after that, the true distance of the 
planet from the sun may increase, whilst the 
distance of the sun and planet from the earth 
does not increase, but rather decrease. But 
because the orbits of the planets are nearly 
circular, such small differences may be neg- 
lected in astronomy. The greatest elonga- 
tion of Venus is found by observation to be 
about forty-eight degrees, and the greatest 
elongation of Mercury about twenty-eight 
degrees, upon which account this planet is 
rarely seen with the naked eye. See As- 
tronomy. 
Elongation is also used for the differ- 
ence in motion between the swiftest and the 
slowest of two planets, or the quantity of 
space the one has passed beyond the other. 
Elongation, angle of, is an angle con- 
tained under lines drawn from the centres of 
the sun and planet to the centre of the earth. 
Elongation, in surgery, is an imperfect 
luxation, occasioned by the stretching or 
lengthening of the ligaments of any joint. 
See Surgery. 
ELOPEMENT, is when a married wo- 
man of her own accord departs from her 
husband, and dwells with an adulterer; for 
which without voluntary reconciliation to the 
husband she shall lose her dower by the sta- 
tute of Westminster ii. c. 34. If a wife will- 
ingly leaves her husband, and goes away and 
continues with her avouterer, she shall be 
barred for ever of action to demand her dower 
that she ought to have of her husband’s 
lands, if she is convicted thereof; except 
that her husband willingly and without coer- 
cion of the church, reconciles her, and suffers 
her to dwell with him ; in which case, she 
shall be restored to her action. 13 Ed. I. 
st. i. c. 34. See Adultery. 
ELOPS, a genus of fishes of the order of 
abdominales, of which there is but a single 
species, viz. the saurws, or scar-fish, which 
inhabits the coast of Carolina. ' The generic 
character is, tail armed above and beneath ; 
body long, and differing from the salmon in 
wanting the fleshy back-fin. Head large, 
smooth, shining, compressed, and flattened ; 
eyes half-covered with the skin of the head ; 
body slender, covered with large angular 
scales ; tail deeply cleft, with a bony scale or 
spine above and beneath before it. 
ELYMUS, a genus of the digynia order, 
in the triandria class of plants ; and in the 
natural method ranking under the fourth 
order, gramina. The calyx is lateral, bi- 
valved, aggregate, and multilloious. There 
are eleven species, known in general by the 
name of lyme grass ; one or other of which 
may be found in most parts of the world. 
ELYSIUM, or Elysian Fields, in hea- 
then mythology, certain plains abounding 
wiih woods, fountains, verdure, and every 
delightful object ; supposed to be the habi- 
tation of heroes and good men after death. 
According to some, the fable of Elysium is of 
Phoenician extraction, or rather founded 
upon the account of Paradise delivered, in 
the scriptures. 
EMANCIPATION, in the Roman law, 
the setting free a son from the subjection of 
his father; so that whatever moveables he 
acquires, belong in propriety to him, and 
not to his father, as before emancipation. 
Emancipation puts the son in capacity of ma- 
naging his own affairs, and of marrying with- 
out his father’s consent, though a minor. 
Emancipation differs from manumission, as 
the latter was the act of a master in favour 
of a slave, whereas the former was that of a 
father in favour of his soil There were two 
kinds of emancipation : the one tacit, which 
was by the son’s being promoted to some 
dignity, by his coining of age, or by his mar- 
rying, in all which cases he became his own 
master of course ; the other express, where 
the father declared before a judge, that he 
emancipated his son. In performing this, 
the father was first to sell his son imaginarily 
to another, whom they called pater fiducia- 
rius, father in trust, of whom being bought 
back again by the natural father, he manu- 
mitted him before the judge, by a verbal de- 
claration. 
EMBALMING, is the opening of a dead 
body, taking out the intestines, and filling 
the place with odoriferous and desiccative 
drugs and spices, to prevent its putrifying. 
The Egyptians •excelled all other nations in 
the art of preserving bodies from corruption; 
for some that they have embalmed upwards 
of 2000 years ago, remain whole to this day, 
and are often brought into other countries as 
great curiosities. Their manner of embalm- 
ing was thus: They scooped the brains with an 
iron scoop out at the nostrils, and threw in 
medicaments to fill up the vacuum: they also 
took out the entrails, and having filled the 
body with myrrh, cassia, and other spices, 
except fiank incense, proper to dry up the 
humours, they pickled it in nitre, where it lay 
soaking for 70 days. The body was then h 
wrapped up in bandages of line linen and 
gums, to make it stick like glue, and so was 
delivered to the kindred of the deceased, en- 
tire in all its features, the very hairs of the 
eye-lids being preserved. They used to 
keep the bodies of their ancestors, thus em- 
balmed, in small houses, magnificently adorn- . 
ed, and took great pleasure in beholding 
them, without any change in their size, fea- 
tures, or complexion. The Egyptians also 
embalmed birds, &c. The prices for em- 
balming were different: the highest was a ta- 
lent, the next 20 minae, and sc^ decreasing to 
a very small matter ; but those who had not 
wherewithal to answer this expence, content- 
ed themselves hvith infusing, by means of a 
syringe, through the fundament, a certain 
liquor extracted ,vom the cedar, and leaving 
it there, wrapped up the body in salt of 
nitre; the oil thus preyed upon the intestines, 
so that when they took it out, the intestines 
came away with it, dried, and not in the least 
putrified; the body being inclosed in nitre, 
grew dry, and nothing remained besides the 
skin glued upon the bones. 
The method of embalming used by the 
modern Egyptians, according to Maill’et, is 
to wash the body several times with rose- 
water, which, he elsewhere observes, is more 
fragrant in that country than with us; they 
afterwards perfume it with incense, aloes, 
and a quantity of other odours, of which they 
are by no means sparing; and then they bury 
the body in a winding-sheet, made partly of 
silk and partly of cotton, and soaked, as is 
supposed, with some sweet-scented water or 
liquid perfume, though Maillet uses only the 
term moistened; this they cover with another 
doth of unmixed cotton, to which they add 
one of the richest suits of clothes of the de- 
ceased. The expence, he says, on these oc- 
casions, is very great, though nothing like 
what the genuine embalming cost in former 
times. 
The principle of embalming depends either 
on the absorption of the fluids of the body, 
or the impregnation of them with some sub- 
stance which will preserve the solids from 
putrefaction. Hence, absorbing-powders 
have been used, and also nitre, which power- 
fully acts on the flesh, though, like all other 
saline matter, it tends to prevent the body 
from drying. Dr. Hunter recommended the 
injecting of oil of turpentine impregnated 
with camphor and other aromatic gums into 
the blood-vessels, which is a very rational 
method. 
EMBARGO, in commerce, an arrest on 
ships, or merchandize, by public authority ; 
or a prohibition of the state, commonly on 
foreign ships, in time of war, to prevent their 
going out of port, sometimes to prevent their 
coming in, and sometimes both, for a limited 
time. The king may lay embargoes on ships, 
or employ those of his subjects, in time of 
danger, for service and defence of the nation ; 
but they must not be for the private advan- 
tage of a particular trader or company, and 
