136 JE G I 
firlt writer who takes notice of the cathartic quality of 
rhubarb; and, according to Dr. Milward, is the fir ft in 
all antiquity who deferves the title of a man-midwife. 
EGINETIA,jf in botany. See Orobanche. 
EGINHARD, the celebrated lecretary and fuppofed 
fon-in-Iaw of Charlemagne. He is faid to have been car¬ 
ried through the fnow on the fhoulders of the afiebtion- 
ate and ingenious Imma, to prevent his being tracked 
from her apartments by the emperor her father : a ftory 
which the elegant pen of Addifon has copied and embel-' 
litlxed frqmanold German Chronicle, andinferted in the 
3d volume of the Spectator. This happy lover (fuppo- 
iing the dory to be true) feems to have poffelfed a heart 
not unworthy of fo enchanting a miftrefs, and to have re¬ 
turned her affebtion with the mod faithful attachment; 
for there is a letter of Eginhard’s dill extant, lamenting 
the deatli of his wife, which is written in the tendered 
drain of connubial affeblion. He was a native of Germa¬ 
ny, and educated by the munificence of his imperial maf- 
ter, of which he has left the mod grateful tedimony in his 
preface to the life of that monarch. Eginhard, after the 
lofs of his lamented wife, is fuppofed to have pa (fed the re¬ 
mainder of his days in religious retirement, and to have 
died foon after the year 840. His life of Charlemagne, 
Ills annals from 741'to 889, aixd his letters, are all inferted 
in the 2d volume of Duchefne’s Scriptores Francorum. 
But there is an improved edition of this valuable hidorian, 
with the annotations of Hermann Schmincke, in qto, 1711. 
-EGIPAN, in heathen mythology, a denomination giv¬ 
en to the god Pan, becaufe he was reprefented with the 
horns, legs, feet, &c. of a goat. 
EXIIPHILA, f. [an| and from goats being fond 
of it.] In botany, a genus of the tetrandria monogynia 
clafs, ranking in the natural order of vitices. The gene¬ 
ric characters are—Calyx: perianth one-leaved, bell- 
fhaped, four-toothed, loofe, very fliort, permanent. Co¬ 
rolla : one-petalled, falver-fhaped ; tube cylindric; nar¬ 
rower and longer than the calyx, border quadrifid, flat, 
equal; clefts oblong. Stamina : filaments capillary, in¬ 
fected into the mouth of the tube,ereff. Anthers round- 
ilh. Pidillum: germ roundifh, fuperior. Style capilla¬ 
ry, deeply bifid. Stigmas fimple. Pericarpium: a round- 
idx two-celled berry, furrounded with the permanent ca¬ 
lyx. Seeds : either in pairs or folitary.— EJfcntial Cha¬ 
racter. Calyx, four-toothed; corolla, quadrifid; ftyle, 
femibifid ; berry four-feeded. 
Species^ 1. Egiphila martinicenfis : leaves ovate-lan¬ 
ceolate acuminate fmooth, branches diffufed, panicles 
terminating or axillary, calyxes fmooth. This is a Ihrub 
fix feet high ; fimple, oppofite, petioled, lanceolate-ovate, 
acuminate, very fmooth, quite entire. Panicles termi¬ 
nal and axillary, leafy, compound, ftiff. Flowers white ; 
and is a native of Martinico, at the edge of the woods. It 
Bowers in November. 
2. Egiphila elata: leaves elliptic acuminate membra¬ 
naceous, panicles terminating, calyxes pubefcent. It is a 
climber, and rifes frequently to the height of fix or feven 
feet, or more. This and the two following fpecies fire 
natives of Jamaica. 
3. Egiphila foetida: leaves ovate-lanceolate, beneath 
hirfute, as are alfo the petioles, peduncles axillary folitary. 
4. Egiphila trifida: leaves ovate-lanceolate, fmooth, 
$ieduncles axillary trifid crowded. 
EGIS, in the ancient mythology, a name given to the 
fhield or buckler of Jupiter and Pallas. The goat Anxal- 
thea, which, had fuckled Jove, being dead, that god is 
faid to have covered his buckler with the fkin thereof; 
whence the appellation tzgis, from aiyo?, fhe-goat. 
Jupiter, afterwards reftoring the beaft to life again, covered 
ft with a new fkin, and placed it among the liars. As to 
his buckley', he made a prefent of it to Minerva : whence* 
thatgoddefs’s buckler is alfo called eegis.. Minerva, hav¬ 
ing killed the Gorgon Medufa, nailed her bead in the 
middle qf the tegis, which henceforth had the faculty of 
Jt -G 6 
converting into (lone all thofe who looked thereon ; as' 
Medufa herfelf had done during her life. 
EGISTHUS, in ancient hillory, was the fonof Thy- 
eftes by his own daughter Pilopeia, who, to conceal her 
fhame, expofedhim in the woods; fome fay he was taken 
up by a (hepherd, and fuckled by a goat, whence he was- 
called ALgiJlhus. He corrupted Clytemneftra the wife of 
Agamemnon ; and with her afliftance llew her llulband, 
and reigned feven years in Mycense. He was, together 
w ith Clytemneftra, llain by Oreftes. Pompey ufed to call 
Julius Csefar rEgiJlhus, on account of his having corrupted 
his wife Mutia, whom he afterwards put away, though he. 
had three children by her. 
EGITHALLUS, a promontory and citadel of Sicily, 
between Drepanum and the Emporium Aegiftanum, af¬ 
terwards called Accllus ; corruptly written Aegitharfus, in 
Ptolemy ; fituate near mount Eryx, and now called Capo 
di Santo Teodoro. 
EGIUM, a town of Achaia Propria, five miles from 
the place where Heliceftood, and famous for the council 
of the Acheans, which ufually met there on account either 
of the dignity or commodious fituation of the place. 
EGOBQL 1 UM, in antiquity, the facrifices of a goat 
offered to Cybele. The aegobolium was an expiatory fa-, 
orifice, which bore a near, refemblance to the taurobolium 
and criobolium, and feems to have been fometimes joined 
with them. 
EGOCERATOS, f. in botany. See PIugonia. 
EGOPODIUM, f [«i|, a goat, and a foot.} 
In botany, a genus of the pentandria digynia clafs, of the 
natural orderof umbellatre or umbelliferae. The generic 
charabters are—Calyx : umbel univerfal manifold, con¬ 
vex : partial fimilar, but flat. Involucre none. Proper 
perianth fcarcely obfervable. Corolla: univerfal uniform, 
with every flofcule fertile : particular with five petals, 
obovate, concave, inflex at the tip, and equal. Stamina: 
filaments fimple, twice as long as the corolla, with round.-’ 
ifh anthem. Piftillum : germ inferior. Styles fimple, 
erect, the length of the corolla, with headed ftigmas.' 
Fruit ovate-oblong, ftreaked, bipartile. Seeds : two, 
ovate-oblong, convex and ftreaked on one .fide, and flat 
on the other.— EJJ'ential Character. Fruits, ovate-oblong, 
ftreaked. 
The regopodium podagraria, called in Englilh herb- 
gerrard, gout-weed, afh-weed, and wold mailer-wort, is 
a weed not uncommon in hedges, orchards, &c. It is a 
perennial, and, being a great creeper, cannot be admitted 
into gardens without great caution. It requires no care, 1 
but to plant it in the (hade and to confine the roots. The 
Item grows from two to three feet in height, is branching- 
and furrowed : the upper leaves are ternate, and oppo- 
lite : leaflets lanceolate,’ferrate. The* umbels have about’ 
fourteen rays ;■ the flowers are white, and appear from 
May to July. Though it has the quality of mod umbel¬ 
late plants in being aromatic, yet it is not ufed at all in 
medicine : nor has it any title to its name of goutweed, 
though the Germans formerly ufed it to affuage the paifis- 
both of the gout and piles. Linnreus fays it is eaten in 
Sweden, boiled for greens, when‘tender in the fpring. 
Afh-weed, one of the Englilh names, is probably a cor¬ 
ruption from ach-weed. 
Egopodium, f. in botany. See Cicuta, Smyr*- 
NIUM. 
EGOPRICON, f. [It feems to be derived from «. i|,’ 
and rrfio) or to few, tie, or falteri".] In botany, age» 
nus of the monbecia monandria clafs. The generic cha- 1 
raclers are—I. Male flowers fmall, in an ovate ament. Ca¬ 
lyx: one-leaved, tubulous, trifid. Stamina: filament- 
one, longer than the calyx, erebt; with'an ovate anthem." 
II. Female flowers on the fame plant, folitary. Calyx and 
corolla: fame as in the male. Piftillum: germ ovate,- 
fuperior; ftyles three-, divaricate; with fimple permanent 
ftigmas. Pericarpium: a globular berry, tricoecous and 
trilocular within, with a bifid point. Capfuie tricoecous, 
ela;ie, 
2 
