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The common Yarraw which is in flower on our ditch-hanks, and in dry paftures the greateft part of the fummer, is a much nobler medicine than is fuppofed. The medical writers have faid much of it as a vulnerary., and recommended its external ufe in tumors and ulcers ; and internally, as a remedy for hae- morrhages of all kinds ; in which cafes experience fhews us, that a Strong decoction of the whole plant, roots and leaves, does wonders. The flowers of this plant have the hngular property of yielding a fine deep blue oil, by diftillation. The flowers of Chamomile do the fame ; but we do not know any other plant, except thefe two, that do it.
MILLEMORBfA, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the fcrophularia, or figwort, from its fuppofed virtues in many difeafes. Ga: Emac. Ind. 2.
MILLEPEDAj in conchyliology, the name given by authors toa fpeciesofmurexof the fpider fliell-kind, fo called from the great number of prominences in the fhape of points called feet in this feries of fhclls, which arife from its lip which is greatly extended. The body of the fhell is full of burrips and tubercles, and the tail is long and crooked. See the article Mueex.
MILLEPEDES (Cycl.) — Well-known infects, ufed on many occafions in medicine. This infect is otherwife called Afellus, or Qnefcus, in Englifh the IVood-louje. Mr. Ray defcribes feven different (pedes of this infect, fome of which we fee every day, others arc more rare. Thefe are, 1 . The common Millepes, cal- led the Afellut Afinlnui ; this is thinner and flatter than the blue kind, and carries antenna? ftrait forward, and its colour is a pale brownifh grey ; the laft ring of its body is acute, not annular, and the appendages of the titles are forked, as is alio the tail. This kind is common in old walls, and under the barks of old trees. 2. The greater blue or livid Mtllepet; this isconiiderably larger than the former, and is of a dufky bluifh black colour ; the laft ring of its body is annular, not pointed, its tail is not forked ; its body, like that of the former, is divided "into fourteen rim's, and it ealily. roils itfelf up into a round ball, 3. The great fea Aidlus ; this is three times as large as the common kind, its body is divided into twelve rings, its eyes are large and round, the antennae are long, and are compofed only oi three points, the tail is double, and has four horns ; its colour is ibmewhat paler than the common kind. 4. The .mountain Ajctlus j this is of the iize of the livid kind, and in the fame manner rolls itfelf up when touched ; its body is di- vided into eleven rings, and its colour is a mixture of black and red. 5. The great Cornwall Afellus ; this is about an inch in lengthy its antennae are very long, it has fourteen feet, and ib 01 a reddifh brown colour ; it is diftinguifhed from all the other kinds by the fhape of its tail, which is a flat lamina, divided into three points at the end j the eyes are fmall and black, and the body is compofed only or feven lings befide the head and tail ; the feet have all a fort of hooks at their end, and the hinder legs are longer than any of the others. 6. The Afellus aquatwus, or water Millepes ; this is Ibmewhat fmaller and flenderer than the common kind, its antennae are very {lender, and its colour is a pale brown- ifh grey, with a dark ltrcak running down the back j its body coniifls of feven joints, each of which has a pair of legs ; its hinder pair of legs are longer than the others, and it has another peculiar mark, which is, there are two very fiender horns uTuing from the tail, and making a kind of fork. The yth kind is the fhort fea Millepes ; this is broader as well as fhortcr than the common kind, and has two appendages on each fide the tail, which it ufa in fwimming ; this is of the fame colour with the common kind, but has a black lift run- ning down the back ; the eyes are fmall, the body confifts of ten joints, beiides the broad tail ; it rolls itfelf up in the man- ner of the blue IVood-hufe, and has under each ring of the body, befide a pair of legs, two fins that ferve it in fwim- ming. JZay's Hilt. Inf. p. 41.
The firft and fecond kinds are ufed in common in medicine ; but the fecond or blue kind, which rolls itfelf up into a ball, is the proper medicinal kind.
Befide thefe proper /tfelli, there are fome other fpecies com- monly called Bulices martni, which feem greatly to approach to their nature. Thefe art, 1, The horned lea pulex ; its body is compofed of twelve joints, it has feven pair of legs, and the hinder ones are longer than the others, the antenna* are a pair of very large horns, and at the bafe of thefe there ftaud two other very fhort and flender ones : It has fins to jfwjm with, and it is of a whitilh colour, and very flender body. 2. The pule x mar inns of BeUoniusj this is of the fhape of "the common afetti, but fome what flenderer and rounder bodied, and its legs are much longer; its back is brown, its eyes are large and black, and the antennae are ar- ticulated and have two fmall ones growing from their roots ; its body is pellucid, and it moves very fwif'tly in the water ; the tail is compofed of a large bundle of hairs,. This is found in great plenty under ftones by the fides of -.rivers near the fea. 3. The frefh-water puLx •„ this differs very little from the laft fpecies, but is Angular in the places it inhabits, which are the banks and mud of hot fprings, in which no other animal can live. Ray's Hift. Infedt. p. 44.
iMlLLEpORA, in botany, a name by which Ljnnasus diftin- jjujlhes that genus of tea-plants, of a kard Rruaure Kid Kill
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of holes, which are not ftellate or radiated, in which it differs from the madrepora.
MILLER.S-Tbumb, in ichthyology, an Englifh name for the fifh called alio the bull-head, and by authors the coitus. See the article Bull-head.
Some are Co erroneous as to fuppofe this fifh, and the loach to be the fame. See the articles Loach, and CoeitIs.
MILLIARIA Cohort, in antiquity. See the article Cohors Equitata.
MILLMOTH, in natural hiftory, the name of an infect ap- proaching to the nature of the beetle, but having no iheath wings, ft is common in the abodes of millers and bakers, and other perfons who deal in meal.
MILPHOSIS, a word ufed by the antient medical writers, as a name of the difeafe of the eye-lids, by which the hairs fall off from them, and the edges become red and tumid.
MILTOS, in the natural hiftory of the antients, the name of what we call reddle, a red earth of the ochreuus kind, ufed in painting. The Greeks ufed the word in a lefs determi- nate feufe, and called all the red earths by this name, with" adjectives derived from the names of the places where they were found, &c. to denote their differences. Many however have thought too boldly, that the cinnabar found native, and ^called by the Greeks minium, was alfi> comprehended under this name ; but for this there is no war-
' rant, and the paflage in Pliny which gave birth to the opini- on, is merely an error in the copies from the falfe pointing j and all that Pliny feems really to have meant, was, that the? Greeks called reddle by the name ot Miltos, and minium by that of cinnabar. Reddle feems to have been of very antient ufe in painting ; for we have plain teitimony in Homer, that it was ufed by the Greeks in the time of the Trojan war, that poet calling their {hips by an epithet which fignihes their be- ing painted with reddle ; and the accounts of the earlieft painters, which tell us that they ufed only four colours, make reddle to be one of thefe four. Hill's Theophrait. p. 124. Sec the articles Reddle andRuBiucA.
MILVAGO, in ichthyology, a name given by Gefner and fome others, to a fifh called by authors in general milvus and cucuhts, and by fome lucerna, and the flying fifh. It is a fpecies of the trigla, and is called by Artedi the trigla, with a fnout bifid at the extremity, and the iide-lines forked near the tail. See the article Trigla.
MILUS, fwfco?, a name given by the Greek writers to a plant ufed in garlands, and fometimes to a tree. Theophraitus evidently ufes it as the name of a tree, and Crato as that of a garland herb.
It fhould feem by comparifon of what they fay of this MUns, that it is no other than a corruption of the word milax, or f?nilax. This we know was ufed as the name of the yew- tree, and alfo as the name of that climbing plant which we at this time call fmilax ; and what ftrengtbens the opinion is, that this creeping fmilax was one of the common herbs ufed in garlands, having got into efteem on thefe occafions by the length and toughnefs of its branches, which were eafily twiit- ed into any form, and wound round about whatever they pleafed.
Pliny tells us, that it was a melancholy herb, and not fit for garlands ; becaufe it had been once a virgin, and was turned into this form in confequence of an unhappy love for the in- constant youth crocus ; but if this were to have been an ob- jection to the ufe of thefe plants among the antients, thofe garlands muft have been either very thin, or made of paltry weeds ; for the fancy of their poets had fcarce let any flow.e'r or herb worthy obfervation pais without fome fiich hiftory. There feems to have been no plant ufed fo frequently in the rites of Bacchus as the fmilax, or this climbing herb ; and this is by the earlieft writers fometimes called Milax, or MHot, and fometimes Smilax; fo that it fhould feem that they were only the fame word differently fpelt. Euripides frequently mentions it in his Bacchi, and fometimes celebrates it in flower, fometimes in fruit, calling it xu?Anca£- tto,-, and ai&c-ipoeo,-, the elegant fruited and the flowery fmilax ; and this laft fenfe of it Pliny has taken, calling it anthophorus, the flowery fmilax. Athenaeus, in his fifth book, mentions the bacchides as carrying fpears covered with vines, ivy, and fmilax, or Milot. In this fenfe of ornamenting gar- lands, fpears, 6fr. they meant only the herb fmilax, not the yew-tree.
MILVUS, the flying fijb, the name of a fifh remarkable for the length and fize of its gill-fins, which it fometimes makes yfe of to fly with : It is of the cuculus or gurnard kind, and is called by fome the rondine, and by others the falcone. See Tab. of fifties, N°. 41,
Its general fize is about fix inches in length ; its head is broad and flatted, and its body long and rounded, and very flender toward the tail. The fpace of the forehead between the eyes is large and hollow, and the whole head is covered with a flrong bony cruft ; this is rough and of feveral colours, as blue, yellow, and purple : This cruft covers alfo fome part of the back, and terminates in two very long and itrong fpines, which He down upon the back : It is covered with very hard fcalcs, every one of which riles into a fharp tubercle in the middle* The back is of the famf colours with the head, but
fomewhac
