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cafes of &e breaft and lungs, in which a thick arid vlfcous matter is the caufe. It is alfo capable of doing great good in many chronic complaints, where the caufe is of the fame kind. At prefent, however, it is very little ufed in the fhops. There ufed to be a compound fyrup of it, which is now out of ufe. See the article Asthma.
MAR SHM ALLOW, Althaa, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are the fame with thofe of the mallow, excepting that this has hairy or hoary leaves. See the article Mallow.
The fperies of Althaa or Marjlimallow, enumerated" by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe : i. The common Marjhmallow. the Althaa of all the old medicinal writers. 2. The angular- leav'd Marjhmallow. 3. The rounder-Ieav'd Marjhmallow. 4. The fhort blunt-lea v'd Marjhmallow. 5. The round- leav'd hoary fhrubby Marjhmallow. 6. The great-flowered Marjhmallovj. 7. The fharp-pointed-leav'd tree Marjh- mallow, with fmaller flowers. 8. The round-leav'd Spanifh tree Marjhmallow. 9. The Portugal tree Marjhmallozu, with round undulated leaves. 10. The larger-leav'd lefs hairy Portugal tree Marjhmallow. 11. The Venetian fea tree Marjhmallow, the common malva arborea of authors. r2. The French tree fea Marjhmallow. And 13. The Spanifh Marjhmallow, with undulated leaves. Town. Inft. p. 97, The parts of Althaa, ufed in medicine, are the leaves and roots. The leaves, by deco£tion, afford a foft mucilaginous fubftance, good in all complaints arifing from acrimony ; of great fervice in dyfenteries, &c. where the mucus of the in- teftines is raked off", and in many kinds of colics. It Is alfo found of ufe in obftructions of the urinary paflages, ftrangu- ries, heat of urine, &c. and is, by fome, held a great fecret for the cure of a gonorrhoea. Ray and others alfo fpeak of it as a peroral ; of ufe in coughs, and alfo pleurifies. Marjlmiallow root is a very valuable medicine, It is emollient and diuretic, and gives great relief in diforders of the kidneys and bladder, whether arifing from acrimony of the urine or gravel. It is good alfo in all diforders of the breaft and lun^ , arifing from a thin acrimonious phlegm. In both which cafes, a decocKon of the frefli root is the beft way of giving it. In diarrhceas and dyfenteries, a ftrong decoction of Marjhmallow- root, given clyfterwife, is alfo of great ufe. Externally, in form of a cataplafm, it is excellent for foftening and maturating hard tumours.
The fyrup of Marjhmallows, is lefs efficacious than the deco- ction ; on account of the fugar in the former, which makes an improper mixture with medicines of the mucilaginous kind. Ointment of Marjhmallows, called JJnguentum Dialthaa^ is applied to tumours and inflammations, as an emollient and fuppurative ; which qualities it derives from the mucilage of the plant, being boiled a long time with the oil, before any of the other ingredients are mixed.
The Emplajlrum Diachylon receives much of its virtue from the fame plant.
The Althaa of the antients was plainly a different plant from that which we call by that name. Our Althaa, or Marjli- mallow, is a very common plant, and grows in watery places, principally near the fea ; but the Althaa of the antients was a Scarce herb, and grew in the barren defarts of Arabia, Afia, and the ifland of Sicily. Theophraftus fays it was found in no other place. The Arcadians called it, the wild Mallow ; and only the people who ufed it in medicine called it Althaa. Theophraftus gives us this account of it, and adds, that its flowers are yellow; a circumftance in which it wholly differs from any of the accounts of later authors of the Marfnmallow, and from the plant itfelf, which we know by this name, its flowers being white. Diofcorides gives the fame account of the colour of the flower, and adds, that it was like a rofe in fhape : And other authors (ay, that its flower was like a rofe, but do not mention whether that likenefs confiffed in the fhape or colour. Others have recorded the liknefs of a rofe, and applied it to the colour of this flower, calling it a little flower, of the pale colour of a rofe. Thefe authors may, probably, have adapted the defcriptions of the antients, in the cafe of the rofe-like flower, to the common Marjlmiallow of our times ; but the defcriptions, as we find them in the antients, feem ra- ther to refer us to the Abutihn, or yellow Mallow kind, than to our own Althaa. Theophrejl. 1. g. c. 15. See the arti- cle Abutilon.
MARSHY Lands, a name given by our farmers to a fort of pafture land, or grazing ground, which lies near the fea, rivers, or fens.
As to lands lying near rivers, the great improvement of them is their being overflowed, which brings the foil of the uplands upon them, fo that they need no other mending, though kept conftantly mowed. The great inconveniency of thefe lands, is their being fubject to floods, which high hills near the fides of rivers, and the long courfe of them, befpeak to be frequent. And though the richeft land generally lies near fuch rivers, yet there is the greateft. danger of the crops being fpoiled, efpe- ciallywhen they are not enclofed ; and therefore cannot be fed with cattle. This, when feeding bears any thing of a price, would be the very beft way of managing thefe uncer- tain lands ; and enclofing them would be highly beneficial, on this account. Mortimer's Hufbandry. The MarJIi- lands in Lincolnfliire, and many other parts pf
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England, produce a fort of grafs, which feeds fheep in a better manner than that of almoft any other land, in regard to their fize, and the quantity of wool. The fheep about Grimfby, and fome other places in this county, produce fuch lufty wool, or, as they call it, wool of fo large a ftaple, that three or four fleeces ufually make a tod of twenty-eight pound weight. Se- veral hundred loads of this wool are yearly carried from thefe places to Norfolk, Suffolk, and other parts of the kingdom, for the cloth manufacturers. They fend this in large packs, which they call pockets, each containing about five and twenty hundred weight. Phil. Tranf. N°. 223. When Marjh-hnAs lie flat, it is neceffary for the owner to keep all the water he can from them. The fea water, in par- ticular, is to be kept from them as much as poflible ; and this is ufually done at a very great expence, by high banks and walls.
Two things greatly wanting in thefe lands in general, are good fhelter for the cattle, and frefli water. The careful farmer may, however, in a great meafure, obviate thefe, by digging, in proper places, large ponds to receive the rain water, and by planting trees and hedges in certain places toward the fea, where they may not only afford fhelter to the cattle, hut keep off the fea breezes, which often will cut off the tops of all the grafs in thefe places, and make it look as if it had been mowed.
Thefe lands fatten cattle the fooncft of any, and they preferve fheep from the rot. It would be a great advantage to them, if there were raifed, in the middle of every large Marjli, banks of earth in a crofs, or in the form of two femicirclcs, and thefe planted with trees ; thefe would ferve as a fhelter for cattle, let the wind blow from what quarter it would, and would foon repay the expence of making. Mortimer's Huf- bandry.
There are, in different parts of England, very large quanti- ties of land upon the fea coafts that would be worth taking in, though no one has yet thought of doing it. The coafts about Bolton, Spalding, and many other parts of Lincolnfliire, give frequent inftances of this, where the fea falls from the land, fo that on the outfide of the fea walls, on the owfe, where every tide the fait water comes, there grows a great deal of good grafs, and the owfe is firm to ride upon when the water is upon it.
This owfe, when taken in, hardly finks any thing at all, and they dig the walls from the outfide of it, all the earth they are made of being taken from thence, and the fea, in a few tides, filling it up again: And though the fea, at high water, comes only to the foot of the bank, yet once in a year or two fome extraordinary tides go over the banks, though they are ten foot high. Thefe banks are fifty foot broad at the bottom, and three foot at the top ; and the common price of making them is twenty-fix (hillings a pole, the earth being all carried in wheel-barrows, and the face toward the fea, where the greateft Hope is, being turfed. Mortimer's Hufbandry.
MARSILjEA, in botany, the name by which Linnjeus has called the pepper-grafs, called by the Englifh botanifts, gra- menpiperinum; by Vaillant and others, pilularia; znd°fa!- vinia by Micheli. The characters are thefe : It is one of the cryptogamia, or thofe plants which perform their fructification in fecret. The male flowers are very numerous, and ftand on the leaves without any pedicles. Thefe have no cup, but are each only a Angle filament, or receptacle, of a hemifpherico- convex form, with four pointed anthera, which are long, creft, and fpirally twitted. The female part of the frudifica- tion has no cup or petals, but confifts of a round quadrilocular fruit, which contains a vaft number of roundifh feeds. Lin- nxi Gen. Plant, p. 508. Micheli-, p. 58. Vaill. Bot. Par. 15. 6. See the article Pilularia.
MARSUIN, in zoology, a name by which many have called the phoazna or porpejfe, a fifh too often confounded with the dolphin. WillugbbyVm.. Pifc. p. 31. See the articles Del- phtnus and Phocjena.
MARSUPf ALE, in natural hiftory, a name given by Tyfon to the creature commonly called, the pojfum, or opojfum. The peculiar diilinaion of this creature from all others, is its hav- ing a pouch, or marfupium, under its belly, into which it re- ceives its young in time of danger. This has given occafion to its name Marfttpiale, but it is more generally called opojfum. See the article Opossum.
MARSUPIALIS Mufculus, in anatomy, a name given by Cow- per, and fome others, to a mufcle of the thigh, called alfo by fome, burfalis. It is that mufcle, called by Albinus, Win- dow, and the generality of modern authors, obturator internus.
MARSUPIUM Carneum, in anatomy, a name given by Spige- lius, Cowper, and fome other authors, to certain mufcles of the thigh, called by the French writers, let petits jumeaux, and by Albinus, gemini. Vefalius does not efleem them fepa- rate mufcles, _ but calls them only cornea portimies deeimo femur moventium mufeulo attenfa, flefhy portions affixed to the tenth mufcle of the thigh.
Riolan, who calls the pyriformis, or pyramidal mufcle of the thigh, the quadrigeminus, or quadrigemimis prior, calls thefe the quadrigemini fecundi &• tertii. They are fometimes diftjnet, fometimes they grow together.
MARTEAU, the name given by French naturalifts to a pecu- liar fpecies of oylter, called alfo molltum by others. It is one
of
