MUR 
preserved in a cool situation, without wa- 
ter, for hours and even days. It is stated 
by Linnaius, to quit the water frequently 
by niglit, and range the meadows in searcli 
of snails and worms ; and, according to some 
writers, has been known to shelter itself in 
very severe weather in a hay rick ; these 
circumstances, however, tiiough not more 
extraordinary tlian many which are ascer- 
tained in natural history, appear to require 
further evidence. M. conger, or the conger 
eel, is generally darker above and more 
splendid beneath than the former species. 
It grows to its largest size in the Mediter- 
ranean, where it is sometimes found ten 
feet long, and of the weight of a hundred 
pounds. It is found in the North and 
American seas also: it occasionally, parti- 
cularly in the spring, makes excursions in- 
to rivers, and is found in vast abundance in 
the Severn, constituting a cheap and luxu- 
rious food to the inhabitants in its viejnity. 
Congers are extremely voracious, devouring 
immense quantities of the smaller fishes, 
and of crabs before the shell of the latter is 
completely formed and hardened. They 
are in some places no trifling article of com- 
merce, and in Cornwall, particularly, arc ta- 
ken with lines, having sixty or seventy 
hooks attached to each, baited with their 
favourite food. These lines are drawn to 
the land in tim morning, having been sunk 
the preceding night, and generally exhibit a 
great mnnber of victims. They are killed 
as fast as they are drawn to latid, and if 
they wind about the legs of the man em- 
ployed their compressive power is highly 
dangerous. They are then salted and dried, 
during which latter process two-thirds, or 
more, of the weight of tlie fish will not un- 
frequently drain off in oil. They ar e ex- 
ported in large quantities to the coasts of 
Spain and Portugal. For the Murrena ca- 
teiiatus, chain-striped Mursena, see Pisces, 
Plate V. fig, 5. 
MUREX, in natural history, a genus of 
insects of the Vermes Testacea class and 
order. Animal a Limax; shell univalve, 
spiral, rough, with membranaceous su- 
tures; aperture oval, ending in an entire 
straight or slightly ascending canal. There 
are between two and three hundred species, 
separated into sections. A. Spinorrs, with 
a produced beak. B. Sutures expanding 
into crisped foliations; beak abbreviated. 
C. With thick protuberant rounded sutures. 
D. More or less spinous, and without ma- 
nifest beak. E. With a long, straight, 
subulate closed beak, and unarmed with 
MUR 
spines. F. Tapering; subulate, with a very’ 
short beak. M. Despectus, is about five 
inches in length : inhabits the deep sea. 
Dredged up in plenty with oysters. Eaten 
by the poor ; but more frequently used as a 
bait for other fish. 
MURIATES, in chemistry, a genus of 
salts formed from the muriatic acid with 
certain bases. When heated they melt, and 
are volatilized, w ithout undergoing decom- 
position; they are soluble in water ; effervesce 
with sulphuric acid, and white acrid fumes of 
muriatic acid are disengaged ; when mixed 
with nitric acid they exhale the odour ofoxyr. 
muriatic acid. Tliereare twelve alkaline and 
earthy muriates. Muriate of potash, for- 
merly called febrifuge, or digestive salt of 
Sylvius, may be obtained by dissolving pot- 
ash in muriatic acid, and evaporating the 
solution till the salt crystallizes : it has a 
disagreeable taste, and will dissolve in about 
three jrarts of cold water. Specific gravity 
1.8. Tlie constituent parts are nearly as 
follow : 
Muriatic acid 29 
Potash 63 
Water 8 
too 
Muriate of soda, or common salt, has 
been known from the earliest ages. It exists 
abundantly in nature. Immense quantities 
of it are found in different countries, which 
require only to be dug out and reduced to 
powder. In this state it is called rock salt. 
It is also one of the constituents of sea- water, 
which, when evaporated yields the salt in 
crystals.Thissalt usually crystallizes in cubes : 
its specific gravity is about 2.12, and it is 
soluble in less than three times its weight of 
water. When pure it is not effected by ex- 
posure to the air; but the salt of commerce 
contains some muriate of magnesia yvhich 
renders it deliquescent. When heated, it 
decrepitates, and in a red heat it melts and 
evaporates in a white smoke without decom- 
position. It is composed of 
Muriatic acid 44 
Soda 50 
Water 6 
loo S ee Salt* 
Muriate of ammonia, formerly denomi- 
nated sal-ammoniac, because it was found 
in great quantities near the temple of Jupi- 
ter Ammon, in Africa. It was fill late- 
ly imported entirely from Egypt, but it is 
now made both in tliis country and on the 
