rvl A K 
Hioulii be parted in the middle of March, juft before they 
beo-in to pu(h out new leaves. Thefe roots fhould be 
planted in pots filled with light rich earth, and plunged 
into a moderate hot-bed of tanners’ bark, obferving now 
and then to ref re fit them with water; but it mull not be 
o-iven to them in large quantities, for too much moiltuie 
will foon rot the roots, when they are in an unaftive (late. 
When the green leaves appear above ground, the plants 
will require more frequently to be watered, and they 
fhould have free air admitted to them every day, in pro¬ 
portion to the warmth ot the feafon, and the heat of the 
bed in which they are placed. As the plants advance in 
ftrength, they fhould have a greater fhare of air, but they 
muft conftantly remain in the ftove plunged in the tan, 
otherwife they will not thrive ; foi, when the pots aie 
placed cn (helves in the ftove, the moifture paffes too foon 
from the fibres, which generally fpread on the fides and 
bottoms of the pots, fo that the plants do not receive 
much nouriftiment from the water. But, wheie they aie 
conftantly kept in the tanners bark, and have piopei air 
and moifture, they will thrive, fo as from a (mail root to 
fill the pot in which they were planted, in one fummer. 
About Michaelmas the fir ft fort will begin to decay, and 
in a fliort time after the leaves will die to the ground ; 
but the pots muft be continued all the winter in the bark- 
bed, otherwife the roots will periih; for, although they 
are in an unaclive ftate, yet they will not keep very long 
from fhrinking, when taken out of the ground ; and, if the 
pots are taken out of the tan, and placed in any dry part 
of the ftove, the roots often fhrivel and decay ; but, when 
they are continued in the tan-bed, they fhould have but 
little water given to them when their leaves are decayed, 
left it rot’them. The firft fort flowers conftantly in July 
or Auguft, and will often produce ripe feeds in England. 
See Acokus, Alpinia, Amomum, Ganna, Costus, 
Donax, and Eucomis; alfo Linn. Tranf. vol. viii. 
M A RANT ABU AN', a fmall ifland in the Eaftern In¬ 
dian Sea, north of Borneo. Lat. 6. 55. N. Ion. 117. 39. E. 
MARANZA'NO, a town of Italy: four miles weft of 
Venice. 
MARA'S A, a town of Africa, in the kingdom of Wan- 
gara, on the Niger: 220 miles eaft of Ghana. Lat. 16, N. 
Ion. 17. E. 
MARASAK'HI, [• in botany. See Basella. 
M AR AS'C A, a town of Italy, in the department of the 
Upper Po : three miles weft of Cremona, 
MA'RASCH, or Me'rasch, a town of Afiatic Turkey, 
and capital of a fangiacate, under the pacha of Caramania; 
and the fee of a Jacobite bifliop: 200 miles eaft of Cogni, 
and 140 weft-fouth-weft of Diarbekir. Lat. 37. 24. N. 
Ion. 36. 35. E. 
MAR'ASIND I'SLANDS, two fmall lfiands in the Eaft¬ 
ern Indian Sea. Lat. 5. 15. S. Ion. 118. 20. E. 
MARASKAR', a fmall ifland on the eaft fide of the 
gulf of Bothnia. Lat. 63. 23. N. Ion. 21. 25. E. 
MARAS'MUS, J. [from fxoigam tv, Gr. to wafte.] A 
term applicable to every chronic difeafe, in which .great 
. emaciation of the folids take place. A marafmus is laid 
to be prefent in the laft ftage of every fpecies of confump- 
tion or decline ; but the term, is more efpecially ufed to 
denote the 1nefenteric confumption, or that fpecies of de¬ 
cline which occurs in children, and originates in derange¬ 
ment of the abdominal vifcera.—A marafmus imports a 
confumption following a fever; a confumption or wither¬ 
ing of the body, by reafon of a natural extinction of the 
native heat, and an extenuation of the body, caufed 
through an imVnoderate heat. Harvey. 
Pining atrophy, 
Marafmus, and wide-wafting peftilence. Milton. 
MARAS'NA, a town of Africa, in Wangara. Lat. 14. 
52. N. Ion. 16. 12. E. 
MAR ASO'NA. See Marathon. 
MARAT' (John-Paul), a native of Swiflerland, who 
became a prominent afilor in the French revolution, was 
M A R 331 
born in 1744. He went to Paris to fludy phyfic ; and, 
probably not having patience to purfue the profeflion in 
a regular courfe, he became an empiric, felling his medi¬ 
cines at an extravagant price. On the breaking-out of 
the revolution, he took the lead among the molt violent 
and favage of all the factions that difgraced the capital. 
He publifhed a periodical paper, entitled the “ Pubiicifte 
Parifien,” in which he, without fcruple, and without any 
regard to decency and truth, attacked the virtuous Neckar, 
and other men emineht for their integrity and public ta¬ 
lents. This journal did not laft long ; but the author had 
other projects in view ; and he next Let on foot a paper, 
entitled “The Friend of the People,” in which he un- 
blufliingly exhorted the people to revolt, pillage, and 
murder. He excited the troops to ufe their arms againft 
their generals, the poor to plunder the rich, and the people 
at large to rife againft the king. After the depofition of 
Louis XVI. he was named a deputy of the department of 
Paris, to the convention, in which aflembly he appeared 
armed with piltols. In April 1793, he publicly denounced 
the leaders of the Briflotine party, acculing them of treafon 
againft the ftate; he was fupported by Robefpierre, and 
a violent tumult enfued ; but Marat and his friends were 
fubdued, and liimfelf impeached and profecuted ; in a 
few days, being brought to trial, he was acquitted. The 
triumph of his party was now unbounded, and they foon 
gained fuch an afcendancy over their enemies, that they 
murdered or banifhed all that attempted to obftruft the 
progrefs of their nefarious projects; till at length (Sun¬ 
day, July 14, 1793,) their leader Marat fell a victim to 
the enthufiaftic rage of a female, Charlotte Corde, who 
had travelled from Caen, in Normandy, with a determi¬ 
nation of refcuing, as fhe hoped, her country from the 
hands of barbarians, by the aflaflination of one of the chief 
among them. He died unpitied by every human being 
who was not of the atrocious faction which he led, having, 
for fome weeks, added the moft favage part, and been the 
means of involving many of the molt virtuous characters 
in France in almolt indifcriminate (laughter. Previoufly 
to joining in revolutionary politics, he was known as an 
author, and publifhed a work “ On Man, or Principles of 
the reciprocal Influence of the Soul and Body,” in 2 vols. 
i2mo ; alfo, fome traCts on Eledtricity and Light, in which 
he attacked the Newtonian fyftem. New Ann. Reg, 1793. 
Britannic Mag. vol. i. p. 126, 7. 181-3. 
MARAT' LE GRAN'D, a town of France, in the de¬ 
partment of the Meufe: fix miles north of Bar le Due. 
MARA'TE, a low defert ifland in the Indian Sea, about 
eight miles from, the coaft of Africa, and four miles in 
circumference. On the fouth coaft is a good haven, fe- 
cure from all winds, efpecially the eaft, formed by two 
points of land, which extend north by weft, and fouth by 
eaft, enclofing a fpacious harbour, narrow at the mouth, 
where there lies a very long flat ifland with fome land- 
banks; the depth three fathoms in the (hallowelt place. 
Lat. 18. 35. N. 
MAR'ATIiON, in ancient-geography,.a village of At¬ 
tica, ten miles from Athens, celebrated for the victory 
which the iq, 000. Athenians and 1000 Plataeans, under 
the command of Miltiades, gained oyer the Perfian army, 
confiding of 100,000 foot and 10,000 horle ; or, according 
to Val. Maximus, of 300,000 ; or, as Juftin (ays, of 600,000, 
under the command of Datis and Artaphernes, on the 
28th of September, 490 B.C. the 3d year of the 72d olym¬ 
piad. In this battle, according to Herodotus, the Athe¬ 
nians loft only 192 men, and the Perfians 6300. Juftin 
has railed the lofs of the Perfians, in this expedition and 
in the battle, to 200,00.0 men. See the article Greece, 
vol. viii. p. 854, 5. 
The Perfians had thought themfelves fo fure of victory, 
that they had brought marble to Marathon, in order to 
erect a trophy there. The Grecians took this marble, and 
caufed a ftatue to be made of it by Phidias, in honour of 
the goddefs Nemelis, who had a temple near the place where 
the battle was fought. The memory of thofe Athenians. 
1 that. 
