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700 
Look how I am bewitch’d; behold, mine arm 
Is, like a blasted sapling, withered up. Shakspeare. 
WI'THERBAND, s. A piece of iron, which is laid under 
a saddle, about four fingers above the horse’s withers, to keep 
the two pieces of wood tight, that form the bow. Farrier's 
Diet. 
WI'THEREDNESS, s. The state of being withered; 
marcidity.—The dead witheredness of good affections. Bp. 
Hall. —Water them as soon as set, till they have recovered 
their witheredness. Mortimer. 
WITHERIDGE, a parish of England, in Devonshire. 
Population 913. 
WITHERING (William), M. D. F. R. S„ was bom in 
1741, and finished his medical education in the university of 
Edinburgh, where he took his degree of doctor in 1766. 
From Stafford, where he first settled and married, he removed 
to Birmingham, and speedily attained, by his skill and assi¬ 
duity, to very extensive and profitable practice; without 
seeking much society, or neglecting his scientific pursuits in 
in order to secure it. The chief objects of his attention, in¬ 
dependently of his professional engagements, were botany 
and chemistry. The result of his scientific inquiries and la¬ 
bours appears in the following list of his valuable publica¬ 
tions ; viz. “ A Botanical Arrangement of British Plants,” in 
2 vols. 8 vo. 1776, which passed through two more editions, 
in 1787, 3 vols., and in 1796, 4 vols., with numerous im¬ 
provements and additions, some of which were suggested by 
his friends, and particularly by Dr. Stokes. In chemistry 
and mineralogy, a translation of Bergman’s “Sciagraphia 
Regni Mineralis,” 1783, and the following papers in the 
Philosophical Transactions; “ Experiments on different 
kinds of Marie found in Staffordshire,” 1773 ; an “ Analysis 
cf the Toad-stone of Derbyshire,” 1782 ; “ Experiments on 
the Terra Ponderosa,” 1784 ; and “ Analysis of a Hot Mi¬ 
neral Spring in Portugal,” 1798. In the improvement of his 
own profession, “ Account of the Scarlet Fever and Sore 
Throat, particularly as it appeared at Birmingham in the year 
1778;” and “ An Account of the Fox-glove and some of 
its Medical Uses; with Practical Remarks on the Dropsy and 
other Diseases,” 1785. Subject to pulmonic attacks, which 
weakened his lungs, he thought it necessary, in 1793 and 
1794, to pass the winter in a warmer climate, and he fixed 
on Lisbon. Afterwards he became incapable of his former 
professional exertions, and died at the Larches, near Birming¬ 
ham, in November, 1799, at the age of 58. In his intellec¬ 
tual character he joined unremitting application with sagacity 
and discernment. In his medical practice he limited pre¬ 
scription to that quantity and kind of medicine which was 
absolutely necessary for his patients; and if any in the in¬ 
ferior branches of the profession disliked this mode of prac¬ 
tice, their disapprobation of it was a testimony in its favour. 
In his disposition he was mild and humane, and his natural 
reserve did not preclude him from the pleasure of rational 
society. His valuable library and handsome property were 
inherited by an only son.— Gen. Biog. 
W1THERINGIA [so named by Mohs- L’PIeritier, in ho¬ 
nour of William Withering, M.D. F. R. S., &c., author of 
an Arrangement of British Plants, &c.], in Botany, a genus 
of the class tetrandria, order monogynia, natural order of 
luridre, solaneae (Juss.) —Generic Character. Calyx: pe¬ 
rianth one-leafed, very short, indistinctly four-toothed, per¬ 
manent. Corolla : one-petalled: tube subglobular; border 
four-parted; segments lanceolate, acute, recurved. Nectary 
four submarginate excavations in the tube of the corolla. 
Stamina: filaments four, erect, roundish, fastened below to 
the tube of the corolla, and villose. Anthers ovate, con¬ 
verging, opening at the sides. Pistil: germ superior, ovate. 
Style filiform, a little longer than the stamens. Stigma head¬ 
ed. Pericarp: berry two-celled. Seeds numerous, inserted 
into a tuo-parted receptacle.— Essential Character. Co¬ 
rolla subcampanulate, with four bumps in the tube. Calyx 
very small, indistinctly four-toothed. Pericarp two-celled. 
Witheringia solanacea. Stem herbaceous, scarcely a foot 
high, round, but cornered with the decurrent sides of the 
petioles, of a dirty red colour, and somewhat villose. Leaves 
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alternate, in pairs, ovate-oblong, acute, quite entire, some-’ 
what hairy, a hand in length. Petioles scarcely an inch long, 
scored above with two channels, red. Umbels many-flow¬ 
ered, axillary, sessile. Peduncles round, smooth, half an 
inch long. Corolla pale yellow; tube somewhat pitcher¬ 
shaped, bluntly four-cornered, with four protuberances, a 
line and half in diameter; segments of the border trilinear. 
Filaments whitish, smooth without, hirsute within.—Native 
of South America. 
WITHERLEY, a hamlet of England, in Leicestershire. 
Population 334. 
WITHERNE, a parish of England, in Lincolnshire; 3f 
miles north-west of Alford. 
WITHERNSEA, a township of England, East Riding 
of Yorkshire; 19 miles east-by-south "of Kingston-upou- 
Hull. r 
WITHERNSWICK, a parish of England, East Riding 
of Yorkshire; 12J miles east-by-north of Beverley. 
WETHERS, s. Is the joining of the shoulder-bones at the 
bottom of the neck and mane, towards the upper part of the 
shoulder. Farrier's Diet. 
Let the gall’d beast wince; 
We are unwrung in the withers. Shakspeare. 
WITHERS DALE, a parish of England, in Suffolk ; 7 
miles north-west of Halesworth. 
W1THERSFIELD, a parish of England, in Suffolk; 9 
miles west-by-north of Clare. 
WITHERSLACK, a township of England, in Westmor¬ 
land; 10 miles south-west of Kendal. 
W ETHER WRUNG. The hurt expressed by witherwrung 
sometimes is caused by a bite of a horse, or by a saddle being 
unfit, especially when the bows are too wide; for when they 
are so, they bruise the flesh against the spines of the second 
and third vertebrae of the back, which forms that prominence 
that rises above their shoulders. Farrier's Diet. 
To WITHHO'LD, v. a. [Withheldox withholden, pret. 
and part. Spenser has, for the sake of rhyme, very licenti¬ 
ously written withhault. ]—To restrain; to keep from action; 
to hold back. 
Sith mine he is, or free or bound; 
Withhold, O sovereign prince, your hasty hand 
From knitting league with him. Spenser. 
The prince 
Would fain have come with me to meet your grace; 
And by his mother was perforce withheld. Shakspeare\ 
To hinder; to obstruct.—What difficulties there are, which 
as yet withhold our assent till we be further and better satis¬ 
fied, I hope no indifferent amongst them will scorn or refuse 
to hear. Hooker. —To take away; to refuse. 
Soon as Titan gan his head exault. 
And soon again as he his light withhault. 
Their wicked engines they against it bent. Spenser. 
WITHTIO'LDEN, part. pass, of withhold. —The word 
keep back, sheweth, that it was a thing formerly due unto 
God ; for we cannot say that any thing is kept back, or with¬ 
holden, that was not due before. Spelman. 
WITHHO'LDER, s. One who withholds.—The words are 
spoken against them that invade tithes and church rights; 
and that which is there threatened, happened to this with- 
holder. Stephens. 
W1THIAL, a hamlet of England, in the parish of Pen- 
nard, Somersetshire. 
WITHIEL, a parish of England, in Cornwall; 5 miles 
west-south-west of Bodmin. 
WITHI'N, prep. [piSinnan, Sax.] In the inner part of. • 
Who then shall blame 
His pester’d senses to recoil and start. 
When all that is within him does condemn 
Itself for being there ? Shakspeare. 
In the compass of; not beyond : used both of place and 
time.—Next day we saw, within a kenning before us, thick 
clouds, which put us in hope of land. Bacon. —Not reaching 
to any thing external.—Were every action concluded within 
itself. 
