cellence. He died in London, 1702, aged 62.

WYCOMB, or HIGH WYCOMB, a borough in Buckinghamshire, governed by a mayor, with a market on Friday. In 1744 a Roman tesselated pavement was discovered in an adjacent meadow; and near it are many corn and paper-mills. It is seated on the Wyck, 12 iniles S.S.E. of Aylesbury, and 31W.N.W. of London.

WYE, a town in Kent, with a market on Thursday, seated on the Stour, 10 miles S. of Canterbury, and 56 S.E, of London. Lon. 1.4 E. Lat. 51. 10 N.

WYE, a river of South Wales, which issuing out of Plynlimmon-hill, very near the source of the Severn, crosses the N.E. corner of Radnorshire, giving name to the town of Rhyadergowy (Fall of the Wye), where it is precipitated in a cataract. Then flowing between this county and Brecknockshire, it crosses Herefordshire, and dividing the counties of Gloucester and Monmouth, falls into the mouth of the Severn, below Chepstow. The romantic beauties of the Wye, which flows in a deep bed, between lofty rocks clothed with hanging woods, and here and there crowned by ruined castles, have employed the descriptive powers of the pen and pencil.

WYE, a river in Derbyshire, which rises in the N.W. part, above Buxton, and flowing S.E. falls into the Derwent, below Bakewell. WYE, a town of Switzerland, in a territory of the abbey of St. Gallen, with a palace. It is built on an eminence, 16 miles S.S. W. of Constance. Lon. 9. 4 E. Lat. 47. 34 N. WYKEHAM (William of) an illustrious English prelate, born at Wykeham, in Hampshire, in 1324. He owed his greatness to a generous patron, Nicholas Uvedale, lord of the manor of Wykeham, and governor of Win

chester; by whom he was maintained at schoo at Winchester, afterwards taken into his family, and appointed his secretary. Uvedale and Edyngdon, bishop of Winchester, introduced him to king Edward III. He was appointed surveyor of the royal buildings, and also chief justice in Eyre. It was by his advice that the king built Windsor castle in the magnificent manner in which it now appears. In 1359 he was constituted chief warden and survey or of the king's castles of Windsor, Leeds, Dover, and Hadlam; in 1363, warden and justiciary of the king's forests on this side Trent; keeper of the privy seal in 1364; within two years after secretary to the king; and io 1367 he succeeded Edyngdon in the see of Winchester; and in the same year was constituted chancellor of England, in which he continued till 1371. He was not wanting in attention to his diocese. He repaired the palaces and houses belonging to his see at a great expence, and was very active in establishing strict discipline and reforming abuses.-He founded New college, Oxford, and that at Winchester. He died at South Waltham in 1404.

WYMONDHAM, or WINDHAM, a town in Norfolk, with a market on Friday The steeple of the church is very high; on it was hung Ket, the rebel, in the reign of Edward VI. It is nine miles S.S. W. of Norwich, and 100 N.N.E. of London. Lon. 1. 6 E. Lat. 52. 36 N.

WYNENDALE, a town of Austrian Flanders, where general Webb, in 1708, with 6000 men only, defeated 24,000 French. It is eight miles E.N.E. of Dixmude.

WYRE, a river in Lancashire, which rises near Wyresdale, six miles S.E. of Lancaster, and passing by Garstang, enters the Irish sea below Poulton

X, A double consonant, and she twenty,

second letter in the English alphabet; which, however, begins no English word.

x

The r of the Latins, and of the Greeks, are compounded of cs, and xa; whence to this day, the letter a, in the English and French, has the same sound with cs, or ks. Thus we pronounce Alerander, exactly as if written Alecsander, or Aleksander. 2878

The Italians have no at all in their language, but both speak and write Alessandro. The Spaniards pronounce as if it were Alecthe like our c Berea; viz. Alexandro, The Portuguese pronounce it like

andro.

sh.

In foreign words, used in English, we sometime, soften the 4 into a doubles; as Brussels, for Bruxelles, &c.

This letter is not known in the Hebrew, or other oriental languages; but, in lieu of it, they write the two simple letters whereof it is compounded. And the like do the modern Germans.

X A LIGHTAK

of the Ptolemies, kings of Egypt, where it was placed on a civil account.

Some writers have taken it for ætate, and others for the initial letters of a proper mache; but as no reasons are assigned for either of those conjectures, Mr. Ward rather supposes it an abbreviation of the word! Hay money, impressed on those pieces, to denote their cutrency as money; which might be thought proper, as they have not the heads of kings stamped upon them, like their silter and bod coins; but always that of a Jupiter of the front, and an eagle perched on thunderbolt on the reverse,

This character, was afterwards applied a very different purpose by Constantine, the Great, who made use of it 10 depot XRICTOC, both in his coins and military ensignsewhere. in he was followed not only by some succeed! ing emperors, but also by private persons who, out of devotion, pat iron their tamps'aisother

utensils.

XABEA, a seaport of Spain, in Valencia, 38 miles N.E, of Alicant, and 54.S.S.W. of Valencia. Lon. 0. 25 E. Lat. 38. 40 N

XACCA, or SACCA, a seaport of Sicily, with an old castle. It is seated on the S. coast of the island, at the foot of a mountain, 20 miles S.E. of Mazara, and 41 S.S.W. of Palermo. Lon.' 13.2 E. Lat. 37, 41 N,

XAGUA, a seaport on the S. coast of the island of Cuba, one of the finest in America, '84 miles S.E. of Havanna. Lon. 80. 45 W. Lat. 22. 10 N.

XALAPA, a town of New Spain, in the province of Tlascala, with a bishop's see. It contains about two thousand inhabitants. This town is said to give name to the purgative root called jakop, or xalap. It is 60 iniles E. of Angelos. Lon. 98, 20 W. Ls. 19. 32 N.

XALISCO, a town of New Spain, in the province of Guadalajara Proper, seated on e Pacific ocean, 400 miles W. of Mexico. Lo 110. 5 W. Lat. 22. 30 N..

XANTHIUM. Small burdock. In bo tany, a genus of the class monœcia, order pentandria. Male: calyx common, imbricate; florets one-petalled, funnel-form, five-cleft; receptacle chaffy. Female: calyx two-leaved, two-flowered; corolless; drupe dry, prickly, bifid; nut two-celled. Three species: X. orientale, a native of India: X spinosum, of France and Portugal: X. strumarium, of our own country, and found on our dung hills. Stem unarmed; leaves heart-shaped, three-nerved at the base. It was once esteemed in the cure of scrophula, but, like most other remedies against this disease, proves ineffectual. The seeds are administered internally in some countries against erysipelas.

XANTHORIZA, in botany, a genus of the class pentandria, order polygynia. Calyx less; petals five; nectaries five, pedicelled; capsules five, one-seeded. One species, a shrub of Carolina and New Georgia, three feet high; leaves alternate, pinnate; flowers dark violet, panicled, and terminal.

XANTHORRHOEA. Yellow resin tree. In botany, a genus of the class hexandria, order monogynia. Corol six-petalled, permanent; filaments flat, linear, naked; capsule three-sided; seeds two, compressed, margined. One species, X. hastilis, a native of Australasia, or New South Wales,

Yet though at present we do not know of more than one species belonging to this genus, we have reason to believe there are various others. From its flowing with a kind of yellow gum, Dr. Smith has given to this plant the generic name of xanthorrhea, which is a Greek compound to express The English yellow-flow; and from the ordinary use made by the natives of New Holland of the wood of the detected species, that, we mean, of employing it for their spears, he has given it the specific name of hastilis, which is a Latin term importing this application.

The yellow gum that exudes from the tree is of a very peculiar kind, and employed for the most valuable purposes both in medicine and in the arts, The whole plant has hence been an object of minute investigation, both in our own country and abroad: and the following is M. Laugier's valuable description both of its history and chemical properties, drawn up chiefly from information communicated to him by that active and celebrated traveller M. Peron. We take the account from the Annales de Chimie, vol. lxxvi. 45 The resin of the tree in question,' says M. Peron, exudes naturally from the bark of a tree peculiar to New Holland, and of which Dr. Smith has made a new genus, under the name of xanthorrhoea hastilis; thus intending to express in one term the colour of the resin of this strange tree, and in the other the use which the natives make of its shoots for their spears.

It must be observed, however, that Dr. Smith's generic name is not strictly accurate; as the resin is very frequently brown, red like dragon's blood, green, &c. Hence the different names of yellow, red, green, &c. gum plant, or gum tree, given almost indiscriminately to the xanthorrhea by the English at Port Jackson. Whether these, varieties of colour indicate so many species or varieties of the tree that produces them, or depend merely on the age or

other circumstances of the individual tree, has not yet been ascertained.

"Hitherto botanists have admitted only one species of xanthorrhea, the hastilis, just mentioned: but as trees of this kind are found throughout the various parts of New Holland, an extent of country equal to all Europe, it is very probable that several species exist. Governor Philip, in his Voyage to Botany Bay, p. 60, and plate to p. 119, has given an incomplete description of the xanthorrhea; and a figure, which, though not very carefully executed, is sufficient to afford an idea of this extraordinary tree.

“It is particularly abundant at Geographer's Bay, Leuwin's Land, and in the environs of Botany Bay; and appears to prefer a sandy and barren soil. The shoots, which the savages use four, or even five yards; and are nearly of the for their spears, extend to the length of three, thumb, throughout their whole length. same size, which is scarcely equal to that of the

"Each of these shoots terminates in a kind of

spike, or ear, of a larger size, and fron fifteen to twenty-four inches long; from the surface of which exudes a kind of viscous liquor, of a pleasant saccharine taste, and a strong aromatic smell. The savages are very fond of it; and I found it, on tasting it, to be as I have described. To procure these tops of the xanthorrhoea, the natives have recourse to their clubs [casse-tête), which they throw with such strength and skill, that they are sure to cut off the ear at what length they please at the first stroke.

"The resin flows naturally from the trunk of the tree, making its way through the bark. The portion of the stem that is buried in the sand appears to furnish the greater part; at least large pieces are found in the sand, apparently still adhering to the bark. Some of these pieces are remarkable for the perfect regularity of their spherical form.

"The English employ this resin against dysentery, for which they esteem it an excellent medicine. The savages use it for many domestic purposes, and particularly for cementing the points of their spears to the shaft. With this substance too they prepare the celebrated instrųment that serves to discharge their spears; also their fishing implements, their stone hatchets, &c. They likewise employ it to unite the lips of wounds, however large or dangerous they may be; and I have seen some healed in this way by the first intention, that have appeared to me truly extraordinary.

The wood of the xanthorrhea, when burned, emits a smell, which is very pleasant at a little distance from the fire, but seemed to me too powerful if inhaled nearer. Such indeed is the odoriferous strength of this wood, that you may sometimes discover a party of savages more than a quarter of a league [half a mile] distant, merely by the smell it emits in burning.

"M. Martin-Moucan, formerly agent of the French government to Hyder Ali Khan, told me, on seeing a piece of the xanthorrhea and smelling to it, that it very much resembled the celebrated eagle wood, which fetches such a high price in India, and the country of which is hitherto unknown to Europeans. M. MartinMoncan considered it as by no means impossible, that the Malays, who in fact have long had a commercial Intercourse with New Holland, visit

Its coast to procure the wood of the xanthorrhea, which he believes to be the eagle wood itself.' "The resin of the xanthorrhoea is friable, and easily separates into scales before the nail. Its fracture is shining and compact. It has a yellow colour, and a very pleasant balsamic smell, resembling that of poplar buds. When rubbed in a mortar, it clots, and adheres to it strongly. It is rendered very perceptibly electric by friction. The paper on which it has been put when powdered retains enough of it to acquire a deep yellow colour, which cannot be removed.

64

Exposed to a gentle heat, it melts, swells up, gives out a considerable portion of aqueous vapour, diminishes in bulk, and acquires a brownish red colour inclining to purple. Placed on burning coals, it rises in dense fumes, very pungent, and so strongly aromatic as to be disagreeable; and soon after it flames, swells up considerably, and leaves a very bulky and very light Coally residuum.

"From a variety of experiments it appears, that the yellow substance which flows from the xanthorrhoea is composed of a large portion of resin, combined with a few hundredths of a kind of spongy gum, insoluble in water, of benzoic acid, and of a very acrid, yellowish volatile oil, very pleasant to the smell.

The yellowish substance of the xanthorrhoea then cannot be considered as a resin, properly so called; since it differs from resins in containing benzoic acid, to which it is indebted, at least in sonie measure, for its pleasant smell, and on this account it seems to belong rather to the balsams, than to the resins.

"What struck me most, observes M. Laugier, in the examination of this yellow substance, is its resemblance to that matter which the bees employ for stopping cracks in their hives, and to which the name of propolis has been given.

This resinous, odoriferous matter, when separated from the wax, by which its properties are concealed, exhibits the characters of the yellow substance; and, if subjected to the same processes, comports itself in the same manner. **It is considered by naturalists as ascertained almost to a demonstration, that the resinous matter which covers the buds of poplar trees, and preserves them from moisture, is that which the bees so carefully collect, to form their propolis. The smell of this matter, which is precisely the same with that of the propolis, strongly, supports this opinion.

The smell of the yellow substance too is similar to that of the poplar buds: and, if we cannot, bence infer its perfect identify with propolis, it is at least certain, that the difference between them is too trifling to admit the supposition, that bees could not employ the yellow substance for the same purpose. This conjecture, however, might easily be verified in countries where the tree that produces it so abundantly grows.

"The resin I have just analysed enters into the composition of a cement, which the natives, of New Holland employ for fixing the stone of their hatchets to the handle, and for securing the points of their spears. This cement is capable of acquiring such hardness, that the hardest substances cannot separate it, or even loosen the stone fastened by it. Its colour is a deep brown; and on rubbing it emits a fragrant smell, which does not differ from that of the yellow resin,

"I satisfied myself of the complete identity of

this cement with the yellow resin, by examining a sufficient quantity of it, taken from a hatchet brought home by M. Peron, and which her majesty, the empress Josephine, deigned to accept from that navigator, as a valuable proof of the industry of the natives of Nuyt's Land.

"A hundred parts of the brown powder furnished by the cement were digested in alcohol at 40° [sp. gr. 0-817]. Two portions of this liquid added in succession were sufficient to take up all the resin that the cement contained. What remained after the action of the alcohol was nothing but a blackish gray powder, without smell or taste. The weight of this residuum was 51 parts, so that the alkohol had taken up 49.

"The alcoholic solution had a deep red colour, and was exactly similar to that obtained by macerating in the same menstruum the yellow resin, after it had been melted and turned brown by heat. On evaporation it yielded a red resin, which had all the characters of the resin of the Xanthorrhoea.

"On the 51 parts not dissolved by the alcohol I boiled to dryness a small quantity of nitric acid, which caused the residuum to acquire a redness like that of oxyd of iron, and I treated this residuum with muriatic acid. After the action of this acid, the residuum, being 37 parts, was a white, dry powder, rough to the finger, and resembling fine sand,

"Ammonia, poured into the muriatic solution, separated seven parts of oxyd of iron; and oxilat of ammonia produced a precipitate equivalent to 3 parts of lime.

"This chemical examination shows, that 100 parts of the resinous cement are formed of

"This is the mode in which the resinous cement, called in the shops engravers' wax, is prepared. Brickdust is added to common resin: the mixture is melted, and cast in moulds; and thus it is formed into red cakes, which are sold to the engravers. I have satisfied myself, that the oftener this mixture has been melted the harder it is.

"I examined engravers' wax in comparison with the cement of the savages of New Holland; and I observed with surprise, that the propor tions of resin and brickdust were precisely the same with those of the yellow resin and sand in the cement I analysed.

"It appeared to me, however, that the engravers' wax, though very hard, particularly when it has been melted several times, is inferior in solidity to the cement of the natives of New Holland; a difference that may be ascribed to the difference between the resins, and the greater or less force with which their particles cobere.“

XANTHOXYLUM. Tooth-ach-tree. In botany, a genus of the class diœcia, order pentandría. Calyx five-parted, corolless. Female: pistils five; capsules five, one-seeded. Two species: X. trifoliatum, a Chinese shrub: X. clava Herculis, a native of Jamaica.

XANTIPPE, the wife of Socrates, and a woman of a violent temper. The philosopher was not unacquainted with her disposition before he married her. Xenophon asked him, "why he in that case married her?" "Because sheexercises my patience," said Socrates, "and in bearing her ill-humour, I am able to sup port every thing else from others."

XATIVA, a town of Spain, in Valencia. Having taken the part of Charles III. in 1707, Philip V. ordered it to be demolished, and a new town to be built, called St. Philip. It is seated on the side of a hill, at the foot of which runs the Xucar, 32 miles S. W. of Valencia, and 50 N.W. of Alicant. Lon. 0. 14 W. Lat. 39. 4 N.

XAVIER, or SABI, the capital of the kingdom of Whidah, on the slave coast of Guinea. It is noted for its great market, which is held at the distance of a mile from the walls. The market-place is surrounded by suttlers' booths, which are only permitted to scl! certain sorts of meat, as beef, pork, and the flesh of goats and dogs. Here slaves of both sexes are bought and sold, as well as oxen, sheep, dogs, hogs, fish, and birds. Here are to be found various commodities of Whidau manufacture, and every thing of European, Asiatic, or African production. Xavier is seated one mile from the river Euphrates.

XEBEC, or ZEBEC, a small three-masted vessel, navigated in the Mediterranean sea, and on the coasts of Spain, Portugal, and Barbary. The sails of the xebec are in general similar to those of the poleacre, but the hull is extremely different from that and almost every other ves. sel. It is furnished with a strong prow: and the extremity of the stern, which is nothing more than a sort of railed platform or gallery, projects farther behind the counter and but tock than that of any European ship. Being generally equipped as a corsair, the xebec is constructed with a narrow floor, to be more swift in pursuit of the enemy; and of a great breadth, to enable her to carry a great force of sail for this purpose without danger of overturning. As these vessels are usually very low built, their decks are forined with a great convexity from the middle of their breadth towards the sides, in order to carry off the water which falls aboard more readily by their scuppers. But as this extreme convexity would render it very difficult to walk thereon at sea. particularly when the vessel rocks by the agitation of the waves, there is a platform of grating extending along the deck from the sides of the xessel, towards the middle, whereon the crew may walk dry-footed whilst the water is conveved through the grating to the scuppers. The xcbecs, which are generally armed as vessels of war by the Algerines, mount from 16 to

24 cannon, and carry from 300 to 450 men, two-thirds of whom are generally soldiers.

XENOCRATES, a celebrated ancient Grecian philosopher, was born at Chalcedon in the 95th Olympiad. At first he attached himself to Aschines, but afterwards became a disciple of Plato, who took much pains in cultivating his genius, which was naturally heavy. As long as Plato lived, Xenocrates was one of his most esteemed disciples; after his death be closely adhered to his doctrine; and, in the second year of the 110th Olympiad, he took the chair in the academy, as the successor of Speusippus.

Xenocrates was celebrated among the Athenians, not only for his wisdom, but for his vir tues. He was an admirer of the mathematical sciences: and was so fully convinced of their utility, that when a young man, who was un◄ acquainted with geometry and astronomy, desired admission into the academy, he refused his request, saying, that he was not yet possessed of the handles of philosophy. In fine, Xenocrates was eminent both for the purity of his morals and for his acquaintance with science, and supported the credit of the Platonic school by his lectures, his writings, and his conduct. He lived to the first year of the 116th Olympiad, or the 82d of his age, wheit he lost his life by accidentally faliing, in the dark, into a reservoir of water.

XENOPHANES, the founder of the Eleatic sect of philosophy among the Greeks, was born at Colophon probably about the 65th Olympiad. From some cause or other he left his country early, and took refuge in Sicily, where he supported himself by reciting, in the court of Hiero, elegiac and iambic verses, which he had written in reprehension of the theogonies of Hesiod and Homer. From Sicily he passed over into Magna Græcia, where he took up the profession of philosophy, and became a celebrated preceptor in the Pythagorean school. Indulging, however, a greater freedom of thought than was usual among the disciples of Pythagoras, he ventured to introduce new opinions of his own, and in many particulars to oppose the doctrines of Epiimenides, Thales, and Pythagoras. Xenophanes possessed the Pythagorean chair of philosophy about seventy years, and lived to the extreine age of a hundred years, that is, according to Eusebius, till the 81st Olympiad.. The doctrine of Xenophanes concerning nature is so imperfectly preserved, and obscurely expressed, that it is no wonder that it has been differently represented by different writers. Perhaps the truth is, that he held the universe to be one in nature aui substance, but distine guished in his conception between the matter of which all things consist, and that latent divine force which, though not a distinct substance, but an attribute, is necessarily inherent in the universe, and is the cause of all, is per fection. Xenophanes was the author, of e veral poetical works, among which are mene. tioned a poem on the foundation, Colophon,