Encyclopaedia Britannica [3, 1 ed.]

Table of contents :
Cover
Title
MAC
MAH
MEC
MED
MED
MED
MED
MED
MED
MET
MET
MID
MID
MON
MOR
MOR
MUS
MUS
NAM
NAV
NIC
OPT
OPT
PAR
PIS
PNE
PYT
REL
SAC
SES
SIG
SPE
SUP
SUR
SWI
TOR
VAT
WHI
Corrigenda

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ENCYCLOPAEDIA VOLUME

the

BRITANNICA. THIRD.

ENCYCLOPEDIA O R,

Britannica:

A

DICTIONARY O

ARTS and

F

SCIENCES,

COMPILED UPON A NEW PLAN. IN

WHICH

The different SCIENCES and ARTS are digefted into diftinct Treatifes or Syftems; AND

The various TECHNICAL TERMS, &C. are explained as they occur in the order of the Alphabet. JLLUSTRATED WXTH ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY COPPERPLTTiT

By a

SOCIETY

1

N

»/ G E N TL E M E N «

THREE

SCOTLAND.

VOLUMES.

VOL.

III.

LONDON: Printed for J o H N D o N A L D s o N, Corner of Arundel Street in the Strand. M. DCC. LXXIII.

Encyclopaedia O

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Brxtanmca;

K,

A

NEW

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ARTS

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and

S C I E N C E S.

MAC

MAC

ACAO, an ifland of China, in the province of Canton, fifty miles fouth of Canton. MACAO, in ornithology. See PSITTACUS. MACCABEES, two apocryphal books of fcripture; fo called from Judas Mattathias, furnamed Maccabeus. The firft book of the Maccabees is an excellent hiftory, and comes nearelt to the ftyle and manner of thefacredhiftorians of any extant. It contains the hiftory of forty years, from the reign of AntiochusEpiphanes to the death of Simon the high prieft; that is, from the year of the world 3829 to the year 3869, 131 before Chrift. The fecond book of the Maccabees begins with two epiftles fent from the Jews of Jerufalem to the Jews of Egypt and Alexandria, to exhort them to obferve the feaft of the dedication of the new altar eredled by Judas on his purifying the temple. After thefe epiftles follows the preface of the author to his hiftory, which is an abridgment of a larger work, compofed by one Jafon, a Jew of Cyrene, who wrote the hiftory of Judas Maccabeus and his brethren, and the wars againft Antiochus Epiphanes and Eupator his fon. This fecond book does not, by any means, equal the accuracy and excellency of the firft. It con* tains a hiftory of about fifteen years, from the execution of HeliodorusJs commiffion, who was fent by Seleucus to fetch away the treafures of the temple, to the'vi&ory obtained by Judas Maccabeus overNicanor; that is, from the year of the world 3828, to the year 3843, 147 years before Chrift. MACCLESFIELD, a market town of Chelhire, thirty-five miles eaft of Chefter, from whence the noble family of Parker take the title of earl. Vox. III. N° 69. 2

MACE, the fecond coat or covering of the kernel of the nutmeg, is a thin and membranaceous fubftance, of an oleaginous nature and a yellowifh colour; being met with in flakes of an inch and more in length, which are divided into a multitude of ramifications. It is of an extremely fragrant, aromatic and agreeable flavour, and of a pleafant, but acrid and oleaginous tafte. Mace is carminative, ftomachic, and aftringent; and poflefles all the virtues of nutmeg, but is lefs aftringent. MACEDONIA, a province of European Turky, bounded by Servia and Romania, on the north and eaft; by the gulphs of Salonichi, Conteffa and Theflaly, on the fouth ; and by Albania and Epirus, on the weft. MACERATION, is an infufion of, or foaking ingredients in water or any other fluid, in order either to foften them, or draw out their virtues. MACHIAN, a fmall ifland of the Moluccas, which produces the beft cloves : it is fituated under the equator, in 1250 E. long, and is ftibje