224

LUNGS....MADAGASCAR.

to the mouth of the Columbia at the Pacific Ocean, is said to be three thousand five hundred and fifty-five miles. See COLUMBIA and MISSOURI RIVERS.

LUNGS, the organ of respiration, or that part of the body by which breathing is performed. It is a melancholy observation, that this vital organ is oftener affected with mortal disease at the present day, than in former times. It is stated in Doctor Willich's Lectures, that it appears from the London bills of mortality, that in the years 1776, 1777, and 1778, taken on an average, five thousand eight hundred and fifty-three persons died annually in that city, of disorders in the lungs; and that the consumption and other pulmonary complaints carried off every year about eighty thousand people, in the island of Great Britain. As a cure of the consumption, Doctor Beddoes, of England, recommends a tincture of the vegetable called fox-glove. The beneficial action of this remedy is said to consist in producing a great diminution of that action of the arteries by which the ulceration of the lungs is continually increased; and in so augmenting the action of the absorbents, that the purulent matter is quickly carried away by them, their proper energies are fully renewed, and the ulcers are, consequently, healed, As a preventive of this dreadful malady, the consumption, the same Dr. Beddoes gives the following directions. "Resume the flannels and "other woollen garments of our ancestors; diminish 66 your fires; throw open your doors and windows; re"turn to the robust and manly exercises of your more "vigorous forefathers. Abolish the whole present sys"tem of female dress, education, employments and amusements; and give us again the hearty, romping, "becf-eating lasses of good Bess's (or queen Elizabeth's) day."....New London Review.

M.

MADAGASCAR, a large island in the Indian sea,

about ninety leagues east of the continent of Africa;

MADDER....MADEIRA.

225

extending eight hundred miles in length, and from one hundred and twenty to two hundred in breadth. The natives are friendly, intelligent, grateful, and hospitable; and they are ingenious artists. "These amiable people (says Dr. Morse) are torn from their country, their families, their parents, their children, their lovers, and sold in thousands, in the French colonies, (particularly in the Isle of France) and more cruelly treated than beasts of burden. To relieve themselves from their insupportable wretchedness, they gladly meet death they often hang or poison themselves, or rush into the open ocean in a little boat."

MADDER, a plant that, in Europe, is cultivated in very large quantities for dying red. If mixed with the food of young pigs or chickens, it colours their bones red. If they are fed alternate fortnights with a mixture of madder, and with their usual food alone, their bones will consist of concentric circles of white and red. ....Phil. Trans. It has been said, in some respectable publications, that madder might be raised in the United States to great advantage.

MADEIRA, an island in the Atlantic Ocean, one hundred and twenty miles in circumference; lying north-westerly of the northern coasts of Africa, in about thirty-four degrees north latitude. It produces sugar and excellent wine. The scorching heat of summer, and the icy chill of winter, are equally unknown here; for spring and autumn reign continually, and produce flowers and fruits throughout the year. When the Portuguese discovered this island in 1419, it was with. out inhabitants, and covered with wood: yet there are proofs of its having been inhabited in ancient times. A question then arises, if this island was sometimes inhabited, and at other times deserted, what became of its inhabitants? It must have been some uncommon event which could induce them to abandon so pleasant and fruitful a country without leaving a single family behind. If they perished in the island, it is still more extraordinary; for it is a most singular circumstance that all the inhabitants of any place should be destroyed, and yet the place itself remain....Morse, Belknap.

226 MAELSTROOM....MAESE....MAGELLAN.

MAELSTROOM, an extraordinary and dangerous whirlpool on the coasts of Norway: the name Maelstroom being said to signify the navel of the sea. The body of waters which form this dreadful whirlpool is extended in a circle above thirteen miles in circumference. In the midst of this stands a rock, against which the tide, in its ebb, is dashed with inconceivable fury; when it instantly swallows up all things which come within the sphere of its violence. When the stream is most boisterous, and its fury heightened by a storm, it is dangerous to come within a mile of it: boats and ships having been carried away, by not guarding against it before they were within its reach. It likewise happens frequently, that whales, coming too near the stream, are overpowered by its violence; and are heard to roar with terror at perceiving themselves drawn towards this vortex.... Goldsmith.

MAESE, a large river which rises in France, passes along the borders of Holland, and empties into the German Ocean. In 1421, the Maese having burst its dikes, and being considerably swelled when the tide came in with great violence, the country bordering on Dort was overflowed: seventy-two villages were overthrown, and above a hundred thousand persons perished. In the general calamity of this inundation, an infant miraculously escaped; it floated in its cradle on the water, a cat belonging to the family sitting on the side of it. When the cradle inclined, the cat, in a panic, leaped on the highest side, and by the counterpoise restored the equilibrium. This was perceived from the land, the cradle was waited for, and the infant was saved. From this infant descended a respectable family, in Holland, by the name of Van der Hoven.... Courtenvaux.

MAGELLAN, a famous strait of South America; lying between the extreme southern point of the American continent and the island of Terra del Fuego, and in about fifty-three degrees south latitude. In the year 1518, this strait was discovered by Ferdinando Magellan, a Portuguese, in the service of Spain, who was the first navigator that sailed round the world. In 1520, he found a passage through this strait from the Atlantic to

MAHOMETANS....MAINE.

227

the Pacific Ocean; and the same year he was murder. ed by the inhabitants of the Marianne islands.

MAHOMETANS, the disciples of the famous impostor Mahomet, who was an Arab, or a descendant of Ishmael. Mahomet was born at Mecca in Arabia, in the year of our Lord 575; and was brought up to the business of merchandize. When about twenty-five years of age, he married Khadijah, a rich widow. At the age of forty, he betook himself to a cave; and he pretended to have had in this recess, familiar conferences with the Supreme Being and with holy angels. Here he composed the Koran, or Alkoran, assisted, as has been said, by Boheira, a Nestorian monk. His first care, after

emerging from the cave, was to convert his near relations and his domestics to the faith of the Koran: he then became bold and open in spreading his doctrines, which so exasperated the people of his tribe against him, that to escape assassination, he fled to Medina. His followers, nevertheless, rapidly increased; and when he found himself sufficiently powerful to take the field against his enemies, he declared, in substance, that God had commissioned him to destroy the lives of such as should refuse to submit to the Koran; promising, at the same time, the voluptuous joys of paradise and eternal scenes of sensuality to such as should fall in battle. Mahomet, having created at Mecca a spiritual and temporal monarchy, died in 632, aged 57; and his followers soon over-ran a great part of Asia, and all that part of Africa which was under the Roman dominion; and at length they subjugated some of the fairest parts of Europe, now called Turkey. The Holy Land, and the places of the churches to which the apostles wrote their epistles, are all, except Rome, under the dominion of Mahometans.

MAINE, a large district, belonging to Massachusetts; situated between 43° and 48° 15′ north latitude; bounded by Lower Canada, by the province of New-Brunswick, by the Atlantic Ocean, and by New-Hampshire. According to Dr. Morse, its length, on an average, is two hundred miles, and its average breadth two hundred miles. Mr. Sullivan, in his history of the district

228

MAIZE...MALACCA.

or province of Maine, makes its extent, by a straight line on the sea coast two hundred and forty miles, and its average breadth, back into the country, ninety miles. From about the year 1630 to the year 1652 the province of Maine had a separate government: it then came under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, and was incorporated with it by charter, in 1691. Three hundred and eighty-five thousand acres of land in this district, have been granted by the Legislature of Massachusetts, for the encouragement of learning, and for other benevolent purposes.

MAIZE, or Indian Corn, a most excellent kind of grain, found originally in North America. "Maize considered in all respects, is the best of all the corns. It is food for most animals, and its plant yields a great increase of grain. As a food to man it is remarkably wholesome and nourishing, and admits of the greatest variety in its preparations; and its stalks are wholesome fodder. Seasons which injure other crops do not effect maize in the same degree: the raising of it is therefore the best provision against famine and want." It is an opinion favored by experiments, that a smaller quantity of the meal or flour of maize will sustain life, than that of any other grain which is known. This valuable grain, which, in past ages, was scarcely cultivated, except in America, has, of late, been introduced into the southern parts of Europe, and some other countries, and is fast growing in credit over the world.

MALACCA, a peninsula of Asia: bordering on the Southern Ocean; extending six hundred miles in length, and two hundred in breadth. It is famed for the superior excellence of its pine apples, and for the largeness of its cocoa-nuts, which have shells that will hold an English quart. The natives of Malacca (an ignorant and barbarous people) are in the practice of eating a great quantity of opium, which sometimes occasions furious intoxication. Those who take too large a dose fall into a paroxism of rage, from which death alone can relieve them. Such is the fury with which opium inspires them, that it is no uncommon thing for a Malaypirate to push himself forward against the lance that has