M Y D 
fmall pear-fliapexl pendant wattles, adhering by very 
(mail necks : they were feated at about three quarters of 
an inch from each other, and in the dried (pecimen were 
of a fubftance refembling ifinglafs. The legs are ex¬ 
tremely long ; and the thighs, to a diltance nearly equal 
to that of the leg itfelf, are quite bare. The whole leg 
and thigh of a black colour, except that round the knee, 
as well as round each joint of the toes, is a pale band or 
■zone. The whole length of the leg and thigh is coated 
with hexagonally-longitudinal lcales or divifions. 
If this bird be collated with the defcriptions of the 
My fieri a Americana, or common jabiru, it will clearly 
appear to be a diltinfl fpecies. It approaches much more 
nearly to Myfteria Novae Hollandias, or New-Holland 
jabiru; but in that bird there is not the flighted appear¬ 
ance of the membranaceous or femi-tranfparent part on 
each fide of the upper mandible. The colours all'o both 
of the bill and legs are widely different from thofe of the 
New-Holland jabiru ; but it agrees with that fpecies in 
having the head and neck covered with feathers. An 
exabl reprefentation of the head of this fpecies, half the 
natural fize, is given at fig. 3. 
MYCTERIS'MUS, f. in rhetoric, a taunt ; a clofer 
kind of farcafm. 
MY'DA, a river of Auftria, which runs into the Da¬ 
nube near Stockerau. 
MY'DAN, a town of Candahar, capital of a diftrifl in 
Cabuliftan : twenty-four miles fouth-weft of Cabul. 
MYDE'SIS, J. [Greek.] A rottennefs proceeding from 
too much moifture. 
MYDOR'GE (Claude), an able French mathematician, 
was the Ibn of a wealthy counfellor to the parliament, and 
born at Paris in the year 1585. He was educated to the 
legal profeffion, and became counfellor to the Chatelet, 
and afterwards treafurer of France in the generality of 
Amiens. Thefe places, however, he held only for the 
fake of rank, being more partial to mathematical ftudies 
than the practice of the courts, and mailer of an ample 
fortune, which permitted him to indulge his predominant 
inclination. The fimilarity of their talte led him to cul¬ 
tivate an acquaintance and friendfliip with Des Cartes ; 
and, in 162.7 ar >d 1628, he furnilhed that philofopher 
with the excellent glaffes which he made ufe of in ex¬ 
amining and explaining the nature of light, of vifion, and 
of refraction. He defended Des Cartes in the difpute 
which he had with M. Fermat, a celebrated mathemati¬ 
cian at Touloufe ; and was afterwards one of the me¬ 
diators of the peace which was made between thofe learned 
men in 1638. On another occafion he Hood forward to 
repel an attack made upon his friend when he was abfent 
from France, and undertook to refute, either viva voce 
or in writing, any objections which might be preferred 
a gain It the dioptrics and geometry of that able man. In 
1638, he publifhed a Latin treatife On Conic Sections, in 
four books, which father Merfenne has inferred in his 
Abridgment of Univerfal Geometry, Sec. In 1642, he 
and Des Cartes received an invitation from fir Charles 
Cavendilh, brother to the earl of Newcaftle, to fettle in 
England, which the latter was inclined to accept, and would, 
molt probably, have been accompanied by our author j but 
the breaking out of the civil wars in this country put an 
end to all negociation on this fubjeCt. About this time 
hefuccefsfully defended the writings of Des Cartes again ft 
the attacks of the Jefuits. He died at Paris in 1647, in 
the fixty-third year of his age. With fuch zeal was he 
infpired for the interefts of fcience, that he fpent above a 
hundred thoufand crowns on the fabrication of glaffes 
fortelefcopes, burning mirrors, mathematical inftruments, 
mechanical engines, and on experiments in natural phi- 
lofophy ; which alone would have entitled him to refpeCl- 
ful notice, even if he had been entirely unknown as a 
fcientific writer. Gen. Biog. 
MY'DRECHT, a town of Holland, in the department 
of Utrecht: twelve miles weft-fouth-weft of Utrecht. 
MYDRIA'SIS, f. [from pv<tu.a, to abound with moif- 
Voi». XVI. No. 1124. 
M Y G 433 
tore, becaufe it was fuppofed to proceed from a redun¬ 
dance of moifture, or humours-] A preternatural dilata¬ 
tion of the pupil of the eye. It is an ordinary fymptom 
of the guttaferena, apoplexy, compreffion of the brain, See. 
MY'DRIM, a village in Carmarthenlhire, South Wales ; 
with a fair on the 12th of March. 
MYEDZYR'ZCE, a town of Poland, in Volhynia : 
forty-two miles north of Conftantinow. 
MYE'LOS, f. [Greek.] The marrow of the bones; the 
fpinal marrow. 
MY'ERS TOWN, a town of Pennfylvania: feventeen 
miles weft of Reading. 
MYGBA'OTH, J'. in the Jewiflr antiquities, a kind of 
mitre worn by the priefts. See Miznefheth, vol. xv. 
P- 597 - 
MYGDO'NIA, in ancient geography, a diftrift of Ma¬ 
cedonia, to the north of the Sinus Thermaicus, and ealt 
of the river Axius, which feparates it from Bottseis, and 
well of the river Strymon. Pliny. —Alfo, a diftrict of Me¬ 
sopotamia, which took its name from that of Macedonia, 
running along the Euphrates, from Zeugma down to 
Thapfacus, extending a great way ealt, becaufe Nifibis 
was reckoned to it. 
MYGDO'NIUS, a river of Mefopotamia, which was 
formed of many lireams, and difeharged itfelf into the 
Chaboras. 
MYGE'NES, the molt wefterly and one of the fmallelt 
of the Faroer illands in the North Sea. Lat. 61. 53. N. 
Ion. 10. 32. E. 
MYGIN'DA, f. [fo named by Jacquin, in honour of 
Francis Mygind , a German nobleman, well Ikilled in bo¬ 
tany, and protestor of the botanic garden at Vienna.] In 
botany, a genus of the clafs tetrandria, order tetragynia, 
natural order of rhamni, Juff. Generic Characters—Ca¬ 
lyx : perianthium four-parted, very fmall, permanent. 
Corolla: petals four, roundilh, flat, lpreading very much. 
Stamina: filaments four, awl-fhaped, ereft, Ihorter than the 
corolla; anthers roundilh. Piftillum: germen roundilh; 
llyles four, ereCt, Ihort; lligmas acute. Pericarpium : 
drupe globular. Seed : nut ovate, acute.— EJfential Cha¬ 
racter. Calyx four-parted ; petal four ; drupe globular. 
There are four fpecies. 
1. Myginda uragoga, or downy-leaved myginda: leaves 
fubcordate, acuminate, fubferrate, pubefeent. This is an 
upright fhrub, divided into few branches; on fandy fliores 
three feet high, in woods eight feet. Root thick, knobbed, 
irregular; the bark brown without, orange within; the 
wood folid, whitilh, very bitter. Leaves ovate or lan¬ 
ceolate, acute, very finely ferrate, on very fliort red pe¬ 
tioles, oppofite, but fometimes alternate. Peduncles fili¬ 
form, axillary, oppofite, bifid ; each divifion trifid and 
three-flowered ; the middle flower opening long before 
the fide ones. Flowers fmall, of a dark lhining red. Fruit 
red, foft, the fize of peafe. The Spaniards call it yerva tie 
maravetli. At Carthagena they ufe a decoftion or infu- 
lion of the root as a powerful diuretic : the leaves have 
the fame quality in a much fraaller degree. It is abundant 
about Carthagena in New Spain, and in the Illand of St. 
Martin, in places not far from the fea. 
2. Myginda rhacoma, or fmooth-leaved myginda: leaves 
lanceolate-ovate, obtufe, crenate ; flowers monogynous ; 
ltyle four-cleft. This is an upright branching <hrub,from 
two to three feet in height, with an alh-coloured bark. 
Leaves fmall, half an inch in length, oppofite, ftiffifh, 
lcarcely nerved, fmooth, lomewhat lhining, on very ihort 
petioles. Flowers in fmall racemes, very minute, red. 
Native of Jamaica, on the weftern fandy coaft; flowering 
in fummer. I11 habit it refembles the preceding, but has 
fmallerovate leaves, and an undivided ltyle. 
3. Myginda latifolia, or broad-leaved myginda: leaves 
elliptic, crenulate, fubcoriaceous ; ftigmas two to four, 
fefiile. This is a branching (hrub, three or four feet 
in height. Branches fcattered, four-cornered, fmooth. 
Leaves oppofite, oblong, blunt, remotely notched, veined, 
very fmooth, rigid, an inch long, on Ihort petioles. 
5 S Flowers 
