MAT
will foon clarify. This is a common and a very ufeful me- thod ; for poor wines could fcarce be kept potable, even a few months, without it, Nor could ft urns be prepared in large quantities without this help. Shaw's Lectures, p. 191. MATER (Cycl.) — Mater MeiaUorum, in natural hiftory, a name given by the Saxon mineralifts, and thofe of fome other places, to a peculiar kind of marcafite ormundic, which they fuppofe, according to the expreflion, to be the mother, or parent of metals.
The marcafite they call by this name is the common yellow kind, but in a foul ftate, it being ufually mixed with fome, poor ore of iron, or with fome {tony matter, which has made it concrete loofely and irregularly, and it is found fomc- times formed into thin undulated plates, and fometimes into complex maffes ; but is always cavernous or fpungy, or full of fmal ler or larger holes. Thcfc are often empty ; but in fome pieces they contain parcels either of pure native metals, or of rich ores. Pieces of native copper are found in fome, and ores of iron and tin in others. And it is faid in Saxony, that native filvcr, in thin plates, is found in fome few. MATERF1LON, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the jacea nigra, or common knapweed. Our Englifh name matfellon fecms a corruption of this. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2. See the article Jacea. MATERIA (Cycl,)— Materia Cbemica, a term ufed by authors to exprefs fuch bodies as are the peculiar objects of chemical experiments.
The Materia Cbemica, in a larger fenfe, takes in all the bo- dies of the globe, all thefe being the fubjects of chemiftry in its extenfive fenfe ; but the curious, in chemical refearches, maybe defirous of knowing in general, what bodies they ought to procure, and have in readinefs for them. Dr. Shaw has given a lift of thefe for his portable laboratory, which will jferve in general as well as on that particular occafion. This collection being diftributed under proper clafies, will come into a fmall compafs, and may be conveniently carried either by land or fea, along with that ufeful furnace, and its ncceflary apparatus.
The natural arrangement of the Materia Cbemica is into the general divifion of animal, vegetable and mineral fubftances. But thofe who are defirous of a larger collection, may enlarge the number of general divifions, according to Becher' s me- thod, by which all chemical fubjects are arranged into eight general claffes ; metals, minerals, decompounds, falts, gums, earths, {tones, fpirits, and oils.
The clafs of metals contains gold, filver, copper, iron, tin, and lead ; and all thefe are to be kept both in their natural and artificial ftate ; that is, in their ores, and as feparatcd from them for human ufes. To thefe natural metals are to be added the artificial or compound ones, viz. pewter, bell- metal, brafs, gun-metal, pin-metal, Bath-metal, wells- metal, princes-metal, London-metal, white copper, white gold, and yellow filver. Under minerals are included, anti- mony, bifmuth, zink, marcafite, cobalt, zafFer, final t, arfenic, manganefe, orpiment, mercury, native cinnabar, and fulphur. All thefe are to be kept both in their natural ftate as dug out of the earth, and as purified. Becher's Phyf. Subter. p". 187.
The decompounds of minerals include aurum fulminans, lu- na cornea, the calxes of gold and filver, ultramarine, diftilled verdegreafe, burnt copper, nutty, or calcin'd tin, fugar of lead, cadmia, tutty, black lead, red lead, litharge, white lead, glafs of lead, fimple and martial regulus of antimony, glafs and cinnabar of antimony, the preparations of quick- filver, as fublimate, precipitate, and the reft. The fame fort of arrangement may alfo take in the feveral kinds of decom- pounds of animal and vegetable fubftances. Shaw's Port. Laborat.
The clafs of falts takes in fea fait, nitre, alum, vitriol, bo- rax, tartar, fugar, potafh, and the compound faline fluxes for ftubborn ores. And to thefe are to be added the tribe of artificial falts, of which number are the tartarum vitriolatum, fixed nitre, foluble tartar, terra foliata tartari, nitrum nitra- tum, fal ammoniac, Epfom falts, volatile falts, and feveral others of a fimilar nature.
Under the gums arc ranked pitch, refin, turpentine, wax, camphor, amber, pit-coal, jet, and all bitumens, balfams, and infpiffated juices.
Among the earths are taken in ores, wafhed ores, fluds, calxes of metals, lime, plafter, gypfum, chalk, boles, ftiells, fand, and the foflils commonly and properly called earths, whether they be of the calcarious or of the vitrefci- ble kinds ; that is, whether in the fire they are converted into a fort of lime, or run into a glafs.
Stones include flints, pebbles, quarry ftone, cryftal, talc, the vulgar {tones, and all the gems from the diamond down to the fpars.
Laftly, under fpirits and oils come aqua regia, aqua fortis, oil of vitriol, fpirit of fait, fpirit of nitre, fpirit of fulphur, fpirit of alum, fpirit of vinegar, fpirit of wine, fpirit of urine, fpirit of tartar, fpirit of turpentine, oil of tartar per dcliqiiium ; theeffential oils of nutmegs, cloves, and the like ; the ex- prefled oils of olives, almonds, linfeed, and the like ; and the compound oils, as butter of antimony, artificial bal- fams, &c.
MAT
It is eafy tn fee that this fort of claffmg is not fit for the natu- ralift, who ftudies bodies for their natural qualities, nor in- deed for the nice diftinguifher of any kind ; but in this man- ner Becher advifes the young operator in chemiftry, to pro- cure to himfelf a fort of artificial alphabet of nature, and this will (erve the purpofe very well, where no more is meant than a mere Materia Cbemica, to be put in fuch order, that it may be readily had recourfe to in all its parts. With this the young operator is to proceed regularly, as he would do in learning a language. Forming firft fyllables out of the join- ing of two or more letters of this alphabet, and then words, by combining thefe firft fets together, and finally, whole dif- courfes j that is, forming thefe various firnple bodies into mixts, compounds, and decompounds. Becher's Phyf. Sub- ter. p. 179.
To avoid mifcarriages, and prevent being impofed upon, it will be very proper to cultivate a knowledge of the pro- ductions of nature in their crude ftate, and peculiar places of growth, where being firft viewed and examined before they are gathered or dug up, an exact knowledge of them, as na- ture furnifhes them, may be procured. For want of this previous qualification, men, otherwife of great fagarity, have erred in their operations, and perhaps blamed the original author of a procels, in which they mifcarry ; while they are all the while ufing a wrong fubject, or an adulterated or im- perfect one, inftead of the true. From this miftake alone, numberlefs complaints have arifen of the failure and uncer- tain fuccefs in the procefles and experiments recorded even by the beft authors.
The perfon who would work in chemiftry with pleafure and fuccefs, fliould make a fufficiently copious collection of a Materia Ghemica of this kind, all the particulars of which he is well afiiired of, as to their genuinenefs and perfection in in their kinds. Thefe being always ready, will prevent the ncceffity of fending to the druggiit at every turn, where the things fent for are often either not to be had, or only in a fo- phifticated ftate ; when this alphabet of nature, compofed of the feveral materials of chemical refearches, is like the letter in a printing-houfc, diftributed and lodged in proper cells, it may readily be drawn out for uie as occafion requires. It is impoftible to exprefs with how little expence and trouble, yet with how great profit and pleafure, numerous experiments, and thofe of the moft difficult kind, may be made, when the operator has, in this manner, all his materials about him. Becher tells us, that he has,, in this manner, gone through fifty experiments in a day; and, while writing on chemical iubjects, if any difficulty or uncertainly occurred, he imme- diately got up from his defk, made the neccfi?,ry experiment, and fat down again to write the certain fact : So that he af- firms, there was very little more trouble in making the expe- riment at the fire, than in defcribiiif'; the procefs by the pen. MATES, on board a fhip, are afiiftants to the feveral officers ;, as Mnjler's Mates, Surgeon's Mates, Gunner's Mates, Ca- penter's Mate, Boatjwains Mate, Cook's Alate, Corporal's Mate. MATHEDORAM, a name by which fome chemifts have cal- led jal gemrn, MA I TIES, in natural hiftory, the name of a ftone defcribed by feveral authors. The characters they give of it are, that it is of a pale greyifh colour, and of the form of the nipples of a woman's breaft, feveral of thefe nipples appearing upon one ftone.
There have been many abfurd and idle conjectures, as to the origin of this {tone ; but it may be eafy to account for its fi- gure on very plain and natural principles. We find in the earth many {tones, refembling exactly the figures of {hells of various kinds, and parts of other animals. Thefe have, in general, once been the things they thus reprefent petrified, or altered into the nature of ftone, by the infinuation of ftony particles into their pores.
Among thefe none are fo frequent as the remains of the echini marini, or fea eggs, as we call them. Thcfc we find in va- rious forms ; fometimes fingle fpines, fometimes whole {hells, and fometimes only parts of fhclls preferved. It is well known, that all the echini marini have fpines or fpikes, whence they have their name ; and in many of the fpec'ies which we find recent on ourfhores, thefe fpines are joined to the body of the fhcll by a fmall protuberance, which, from its refemblance to a nipple, we call papilla. Now we frequently find thefe pa- pilla; delineated in crcux, in pebbles, and other ftones, fome- times fingly, and fometimes in numbers together, in the form in which they adhered to the fhell. We find, in other foflils, that whatever ftieli, c?V. is fometimes delineated in crenx on ftone, is alfo fometimes done in the elevated manner; and it is plain, that there needs no more to the formation of one of thefe matita: than the petrifaction of a piece of the fhell of one of thofe echini which have large papillce, fuch as thofe of the red fea, with fome of its papilla; upon it. As to the colour, it is not to be limited to grey alone, but may be as various as the colours of ftones, fince any fpecies of ftone may have gone to the formation of it ; and whatever colour the ftony matter was, of that will the Matitcs be. MATKNELTZEL, in zoology, the name of a bird approach- ing to the fnipc kind, and called by Gefner galtinida erythra •
and
