M A T 
M A T 
took leave of the court, and retired to a life of repofe at 
Trent, where he foon after died of the plague, in the year 
1577. Ke left feveral works, of which the following are 
the titles: 1. Dialogus de Morbi Gallici curacione; 
printed in the collection of Luifinus. a. Apologia verfus 
A mat urn Lufitanum ; Venice, 1558. 3. Epiftolarum Me- 
dicinalium, Libri V. Prague, 1561. 4. Difputatio ad- 
verfus viginti Problemata Melch'ioris Guilandi; Ven. 1563. 
5. Opu-fcula de Simplicium Medicamentorum Facultatibus 
lecundum genera et loca ; ibid. 1569; which is a compen¬ 
dium of vegetable materia medica. His Epiftolae alfo re¬ 
late chiefly to the virtues of plants, and their mode of ex¬ 
hibition. 
But the fame and honour acquired by this phyfician 
were chiefly owing to his labours on Diofcorides. He 
began in 1548 to illuftrate this ancient author, in an edi¬ 
tion with copious commentaries in the Italian language, 
printed at Venice, which was foon twice reprinted. It 
appeared in the Latin language firftat Venice in 1 554 with 
{mall plates. Many improved editions were afterwards 
given; of which the belt is that of Venice, 1565, folio, 
with large plates, and numerous additions and corrections. 
It has been tranflated into feveral modern languages. 
With refpeft to his merits in this work, Haller remarks, 
that, while he was deep in the Itudy of the Arabians and 
their followers, he too much neglefted the original fources, 
and the examination of plants. He was, therefore, fre¬ 
quently impofed upon by his friend; and correfpondents.; 
nor did he fcruple fometimes to give fictitious figures 
drawn from the defcriptions of the ancients. He did not, 
however, altogether negleCV practical botany; but difco- 
vered feveral plants in Bohemia and about Gorizia, the 
properties of which he made the fubjeft of experiments on 
malefactors. He had the afliitance of leveral perfons of 
diltinCtion in bis enquiries, and his labours were a great 
improvement upon thofe of his predeceffors in the fame 
walk. He deferves cenfure, however, for his attempts to 
difparage the merits of fome former writers, and for the 
acrimony with which he carried on controverlies with his 
contemporaries. 
Matthiolus was twice married, and left feveral children. 
One of his Cons was phyfician to John George, eleCtor of 
Saxony. Halleri Bibl Botan. Eloy. Did. Med. 
MAT'TIA, a river of Albania, which runs into the 
Adriatic to the fouth of Alellio. 
MATTI'ACI, in ancient geography, a people who, 
according to Tacitus, refembled the Batavi in their habits 
and manners, and who had a common origin with them. 
They were alike valiant, but lefs firm in combat. They 
were taken under the protection of the Romans; and are 
fuppoled to have inhabited the country now called Zea¬ 
land. 
MATTI'ACUM, a town of Germany, placed by Pto¬ 
lemy between Budoris and Artaunum ; fuppofed to be 
Ivlarpurg in Hcjfe. The Maltiacea Aqua -was a linall town, 
now IVefbadcn, oppolite Mentz. Tacitus. 
MAT'T'fG, or Ma'tich, a river of Bavaria, which 
runs into the Inn near Braunau. 
MATTIGA'Y, a town of Hindoofian, in Myfore, on 
the Cauvery, oppolite Alumbaddy. 
MAT'TIGKOFEN, a town of Bavaria : thirteen miles 
eaft of Berkhaufen, and nine fouth of Braunau. 
MATTINATEL'LO, a town of Naples, in Capitanata: 
feven miles ealt of Monte St. Angelo. 
MATTING,/! The aCl of furnilhing with mats ; the 
act of growing thick like a mat. Mats; the texture of 
which mats are made. 
MATTINGLEY, a village in Hampftiire, north of 
Hartley-row ; with a fair on the 26th of July. 
MAT'TINS. See Matins, p. 535. 
MAT'TISHAL, a village in Norfolk; with a fair on 
the Tutlday before Holy Thurfday. 
MATTITHl'AH, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
MAT'TO GROSS'O, a jurifUiftion of Brafil, between 
547 
the 52d and 64th degrees of weft longitude, and the 10th 
and 23d of fouth latitude. 
MATTOCK, /. An inftrument which nearly refem- 
bles a pickax, but has both ends of the iron part of i$_ 
broad inftead of picked.—Give me that mattock, and the 
wrenching-iron. S/iakefpeare. —The Turks laboured with 
mattocks and pickaxes to dig up the foundation of the wall, 
Knollcs. 
You mull dig with mattock and with fpade, 
And pierce the inmoft centre of the earth. S/iakefpeare. 
MAT'TRAH, a town of Arabia, in the province of 
Oman : three miles weft of Malcat. 
MATTRESS, J. \_matras, Fr. attras, Weld).] An in¬ 
ferior kind of bed.—Their mattrejfes were made of feathers 
and draw, and fometimes of furs from Gaul. Arbuthnot. 
Nor will the raging fever’s fire abate 
With golden canopies and beds of ftate ; 
But the poor patient will as foon be found 
On the hard mattrefs or the mother ground. Dryderl. 
The ftraw-mattrefs is much ufed in the navy, and a I fa 
by officers in the army when on fervice, inllead of the 
feather-bed, differing from the paiilaffe in one particular 
only ; the draw in the latter being loofe, whereas that of 
the mattrefs is quilted in. 
MATTUCASH'LASH,/. An ancient Scotch weapon, 
fometimes called arm-pit dagger, which was worn there 
ready to be ufed on coming to clofe quarters. This, with 
a broad Avoid and fhield, completely armed the High¬ 
landers. Since the ufe of fire-arms, this weapon has been 
laid afide. James's Mil. Did. 
MATrUaCHK/E'A, / [To named by Schreber in 
commemoration of count Matlufchka, a German botnnift, 
who was born in the year 1734, and died in 1779. The 
following works rank him in the lift of authors on botany ; 
Flora Silefiaca, 2 vols. 8vo. 177S. Enumeratio ftirpium 
in Silefia fponte crefcentium, 1779, a fort of compen¬ 
dium of the other work.] Generic charafters—Calyx: pe¬ 
rianth inferior, cloven into lour, ovate, acute, villofe, leg- 
ments. Corolla: of one petal; tube long; limb cloven 
into four roundifh lobes. Stamina : filaments four, nearly 
equal, the length of, the clefts of the limb ; antherse 
roundilh, two-celled. Piftillum : germen fuperior, four- 
cleft, furrowed on each fide ; ifyle thread-fhaped ; ftigma 
fitnple, (Aubl.) Pericarpium: none. Seeds: two or four, 
very final], naked, (Jujf)—EJfential Char abler. Calyx in 
four deep fegments ; corolla funnel-lhaped, equally four- 
cleft ; feeds naked. 
Mattufchkaea hirfuta, a fingle fpecies. Native of moift 
and fandy places at Aroura and Orapu, in Guiana, where 
it flowers in June or July. According to Aublet, the 
whole plant is completely covered with reddtlh or rulty 
hairs; ilem (lender, branched, villofe, from one to two 
feet high ; leaves oppoflte, fefiile, ovate, villofe, longitu¬ 
dinally ribbed ; flowers capitate, terminal, yellow ; recep¬ 
tacle chaffy, with fringed fcales between each flower. 
Vahl’s defcription of this plant differs fomewhat from 
this; for which reafon we fubjoin profeffor Martyn’s trans¬ 
lation : “ Stem filiform, ereit, frequently quite Ample ; 
hirfute, as is the whole plant, efpecially the calyx. Leaves 
almoft iike thofe of Thymus lerpyllurn, fefiile, oppolite, 
acute, veinlefs, obfcurely three-nerved: the loweft (mailer, 
approximating, ovate; the upper oblong, remote, three 
lines long ; flowers in a terminal ("effile head, the lize of a 
pea. This plant is a finger’s length in height, or more, 
but never fo gigantic as Aublet has drawn it, according 
to an obfervation of Van Rohr, an eye-witnefs, who ga¬ 
thered it in Guiana, and communicated it to Lund.” 
MAT'TUr, a town of Perfia, in Chufiftan: fifteen 
miles north-eaft of El Tiib. 
MATUA'RO, an ifland near the north-eaft coaft of 
New Zealand, in a bay called the Bay of IJlands, Lat. 35. S. 
Ion. 1.56. 28. E. 
MATU GUANA 
