MAGIC LANTERN.

In the middle ages magic asserted its supremacy over the whole of Christian Europe; but it had entirely lost the gious character communicated to it by the Chaldeans. It had degenerated into the "black art." It dealt only with the night-side of nature, with the Evil One and his mps, with the loathsome practices of witchcraft and the enchantments of the necromancer. The scholar rose supear to this low kind of theurgy, but he, too, no longer watt communion with the heavenly powers; he devoted a his energies to the discovery of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of eternal youth, to the sources of illimitable wealth and endless life.

At the present day the belief in magic, witchcraft, and sorry is found prevailing everywhere among savage and -civilized peoples, and a curious family resemblance may be traced in the rites practised by those who lay claim to the possession of occult powers. Even in the nations must advanced in civilization the peasantry and the uneducated classes, as a rule, still believe in the efficacy of carms, spells, the interpretation of dreams, the power of the gypsies to tell fortunes, and more rarely in the stence of witchcraft. Even among those who have red the advantages of education a vast amount of cality in reference to magic still prevails, and clever tors are still able to reap a rich harvest by pretendmg to be the possessors of occult powers. The tricks of -rappers, slate-writers, and other mediums have been try exposed, but they are as yet by no means an The latest exploits of some members of this class as teachers of theosophy, the occult sciences, tee Buddhism, &c., are interesting as showing how the belief in magic yet lingers in spite of the influences of ration, and also of the readiness with which persons of better things should be expected fall a prey to any adent charlatan willing to pander to their superstition. MAGIC LANTERN is a species of lucernal microinvented by Kircher in 1645, its object being to ob

tact race.

enlarged representation of figures on a screen in a arsened room, by means of the pencils of light issuing alamp or candle and passing through a convex lens. Latially it consists of a powerful lamp, 7, the light of is concentrated by the reflector r upon the lens a. use of this lens is to throw the light in a proper a upon a transparent picture contained in a slide, at bc. This picture is painted with bright transcours upon a thin plate of glass. The figures of picture being strongly illuminated, the light proceeds strong parallel beam to the lens de, which has its focus 1. After this point it continues to diverge in the direcfg and fh, until it is received upon a screen placed the reoption of the image. It is thus manifest that ee of the image will depend on the distance of the ve from the focal point ; but bearing in mind that the drasty of light diminishes as the square of the disce, the image becomes less and less bright as the distance of the screen is increased. The tube in which the lens de red is also made movable for the purpose of adjustB, as in the case of the telescope.

MAGIC SQUARE.

A remarkable improvement in the manner of employing the magic lantern was first exhibited in London by Philipsthal in the year 1802. The lantern itself was similar to, but larger than that which served for more general purposes, and the images were represented on a transparent screen, which was stretched in a vertical position across a theatre or an apartment; and this being made quite dark, the spectators occupied the space in front of the screen, while the apparatus was disposed on the opposite side. All light was excluded both before and behind the screen, except that which, in proceeding from the lantern, produced the image to be observed; and the screen being itself invisible the spectators could scarcely divest themselves of the idea that they were looking into a dark cavern, in which the objects appeared to be gradually advancing towards or receding from them. The illusions produced caused the name of phantasmagoria to be applied to the apparatus. The introduction of the lime light, and still more recently of the intensely powerful electric light, have much improved the effect of objects exhibited by the magic lantern, and it is now among the most valued appliances of the professor of science. A diagram scratched with a pin's point upon a smoked glass becomes visible in its enlarged form to a large audience; photographs and small pictures are enlarged to any extent, in fact a good photograph of any small part of the moon seen by the help of an electric lantern is one of the most wonderful and beautiful objects which science has revealed to us. Further, with suitable appliances, small living objects, such as inhabit stagnant waters, or transparent parts of living plants and animals, &c., may be made visible to numbers of persons at once, many processes of nature are seen without the fatigue of the microscope, &c. In fact for purposes of illustration the magic lantern, once neglected as being merely an ingenious toy, is now fast becoming indispensable. The name given to the instrument is certainly most unfortunate.

MAGIC SQUARE, a term applied to a set of numbers

arranged in a square in such a manner that the vertical, horizontal, and diagonal columns shall give the same sums. Such arrangements were known very early to the Hindus, Egyptians, and Chinese, among whom, as also among the Europeans of the middle ages, a belief existed that such squares had astrological and divinatory qualities. Emanuel Moschopolos, of Constantinople, wrote on them in Greek in the middle of the fifteenth century. (See Montucla's History," vol. i. p. 346; "Encyclopédie Méth.," art. " Quarrés Magiques;" Hutton's "Dictionary," and the "Mathematical Recreations" of the same author.)

The following is a sample of a magic square

2016 4212 1656 3852 1296 3492 936 3132 576 2772 216 252 2052 4248 1692 3888 1332 3528 972 3168 612 2412 2448 288 2088 4284 172-3924 1368 3364 1008 2808 648) 684 2481 324 2124 4320 1764 3960 1404 3204 1014 2844 2880 720 2520 360 2160 4356 1800 3600 1440 3240 1080 1116 2916 756 2556 396 2196 3996 1836 3636 1476 3276 3312 1152 2952 792 2592 36 2232 4032 1872 3672 1512 1549 3348 1188 2988 432 2628 72 226 1068 1908 3708 3744 1581 3384 82 3024 468 2664 105 2304 4104 1944 1980 378 1224 3420 E61 3060 504 2700 144 2340 4140 4176 1620 3816 1260 3450 900 3096 540 2736 180 2376

MAGISTER EQUITUM. See MASTER OF THE

HORSE.

MAʼGISTRATE, a word derived from the Latin magistratus, which contains the same element as magnus and magister, and signifies both a person and an office. A Roman magistratus is defined to be one who presides in a court and declares the law; that is, a judge. The kings of Rome were probably the sole magistratus originally, and on their expulsion the two consuls were the magistratus. In course of time other offices, as those of prætor and ædile, were created; and those who filled these offices were elected in the forms prescribed by the constitution. The original notion of a magistratus, then, is one who is elected to an office, and has jurisdiction.

In England the term magistrate is usually applied to justices of the peace in the country, to borough magistrates in municipal towns, and to those called police magistrates, such as there are in London and some other large towns. It has also been applied in other ways; for instance, people have sometimes said that the king is the chief magistrate in the state. But these applications of the term do not agree with its proper sense. A Roman magistratus was elected, and so far he differed from an English justice of the peace; he also exercised delegated power in his jurisdiction, in which respect, as well as being elected, he differed from the King of England, who is not elected, and does not exercise delegated jurisdiction, but delegates jurisdiction to others.

In Scotland the term magistrate includes all in authority. The sovereign is the first or supreme magistrate of the kingdom; all the others, such as judges, are deemed subordinate magistrates. In common language, however, the term magistrate applies in a particular manner to the provost, bailies, commissioners, and stipendiaries of burghs. Justices of the peace also receive this appellation. Magistrates of royal burghs have much the same civil jurisdiction within the burgh as has the sheriff, except where by statute special and exclusive power has been conferred on the sheriff. The criminal jurisdiction of the magistrates is now limited to matters of police, unless when, as in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, they are vested with a right of sheriffship, in which case they have the same criminal jurisdiction as the sheriff.

MAGLIABEC CHI, ANTONIO, the finest specimen yet developed of the genus bookworm, was born in Florence, 28th October, 1633. He was brought up to the trade of a jeweller, but his ardent devotion to literature obtained for him in 1673 the appointment of librarian to the Grandduke Cosmo III., a post which he retained until his death. Being now in a position to gratify his love of reading without stint he abandoned himself wholly to the acquisition of knowledge, and his habits became those of a literary

and nights among his books, often without leaving his chair or changing his clothes. He could hardly spare time for his meals, and his food was that of a hermit or ascetic. He is said never to have gone further from Florence than to the neighbouring town of Prato, and that only once for the purpose of inspecting a MS. It was also said of him that he read every book he could get hold of, and he remembered everything that he had read. Certainly be was a prodigy of memory, and he served as a walking encyclopædia to the grand-duke and to the scholars and literary men of Florence. Tradition asserts that the townspeople when they were in want of information on any subject were accustomed to wait upon him as he walked from his house to the library, and that his stores of information were always at the service of inquirers. His only publications were some letters, a short catalogue of MSS. in the Laurentian Library, and the editions of the "Hodopericon" of Ambrosio, the "Camaldulensia" and the "De Prostartia Virorum sui Evi" of Benedetto Accolti. He died 12th July, 1714, bequeathing his library of 30,000 vols. and MSS. to Florence, where it is still preserved entire.

MAGʼNA CAR'TA. Though the "Great Charter" (Magna carta or Magna charta) granted by King John was not the original of those privileges and franchises which the barons (or chief tenants of the crown), the ecclesiastical persons, citizens, burgesses, and merchants enjoy, it defined them, it formed in its written state a document to which appeal might be made, under whose protes tion any person who had any interest in it might find shelter, and which served, as if it were a portion of the common law of the land, to guide the judges to the decisions which they pronounced in all questions between the king and his subjects.

King John was compelled to grant the charter by an armed force, consisting of a very large portion of the baronage, which he was unable to resist. The charter was sealed in the open field, at a place called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines. The memorable day was 5th Juni, 1215. See JOHN.

Always throughout the earlier history of England the "laws" of some previous (so-believed) golden epoch were desired in seasons of tyranny; thus the laws of Alfred" assumed to be a re-issue of the "laws of Ini" (an ancient king of Kent about 690), and the “laws of Cent" (Canute) were a re-issue of the code of Alfred. Th laws of Edward the Confessor" repeated and extend those of Cnut, and in their turn became the longing of the nation, oppressed by the stern and foreign Norman rule. At length Henry I., one of our most astute rulers, yielded to the national revival of English spirit, and re-enacted the long-desired laws of Edward" in the famous Charter of Liberties of 1100, given to the unbounded joy of his sabjects at his accession. Upon the fourteen articles of this charter, confirmed successively by Stephen and by Herry II., the bulk of the Great Charter (Magna Carta) of Johr, son of Henry II., is based. It has sixty-three articles, and most of these are equivalent to one of the forty-nine articles of the barons which were presented to the enraged and humiliated king for his acceptance. In some instances the charter goes beyond the articles. The most important articles of Magna Carta, all of which were absolutely new as regards Henry I.'s Charter of Liberties, though most of them had been foreshadowed by the wise government of that born statesman and ruler, Henry II., are to this effect:-(A) That no "scutage" or “ail," with the exception of the three ordinary feudal aids (why amounts to saying that no imperial taxation), shall be levnd without the consent of Parliament. (B) That a Parliament of the whole kingdom (meaning a Parliament of bar nor tenants-in-chief) shall be summoned in a regular marner for the imposition of aids, except the three ordinary ads.

MAGNA CARTA.

(C) That no freeman shall be imprisoned, exiled, or otherwse punished except by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land, Art. 39. (D) That justice stall not be sold, nor denied, nor delayed to any one (Art. 40%, and that the Court of Common Pleas should not follow the king's person, but be held in some fixed place, Art. 17. Many of the oppressive feudal exactions were abolished, mi cthers fixed in their sums. Widows were protected from being forced to remarry, that the taxes on their marrace might be levied by the crown, &c. In these most mportant ways the royal prerogative was for the first time aarately defined and limited, and the large number of epis made, and the solemn way in which the charter was parised, sworn to at every hundred-mote and town-mote Lafont the whole kingdom, enable it always hereafter to be readily referred to. Towns were secured in the enyment of their charters and customs, and the foundations of trade then solidly laid. The execution of the charter was intrusted to a committee of twenty-four of the greatest tamins.

At John's death, the regent Pembroke reissued the Great Carter, omitting the clauses referring to taxation because of the king's minority, Henry III. being but quite a boy. He promised to re-enact them as soon as the king was old ega to reign. Next year (1217) it was found necessary to scare the allegiance of the people (the French being **In the land) by again swearing to the charter, and this tall the clauses relating to the forests were extracted and taken into a charter by themselves. Henceforward the two carters, Magna Carta and Carta de Foresta, were separ* Lacted and dealt with. In 1218 the two charters again solemnly confirmed, and again in 1223: at each estment certain new provisions being introduced. In 1225 Henry issued a fresh charter, "by our spontaneous roc-will," as if to assert a freedom of action in the matter, i also in the last clause stating the important fact that Larter was issued in return for a grant of a "fifteenth," at is, a fifteenth part of all personal property and income, acknowledging the corner-stone of our parliamentary Eberty, of claiming redress of grievances before grantples. The tyrannous, and at the same time inaie, government of Henry III. soon led to many revolts, ta of 1237 and 1244 being the main struggles, and Lay, in 1253, the king found himself at his wits' end for By, and was forced to give up his illegal taxation and extra the charters in return for a grant of money. The y analogous way in which his barons, after he had ken faith, pinned him down to the Provisions of rd, as their fathers had pinned John to those of Runede, was not equally efficacious, as St. Louis (Louis Let France) interposed, and his verdict in favour of the was f such solemn weight, owing to his remarkable endency over men's minds, that the barons submitted. An and again the barons tried to get the Great Charter ped, until at last, under Simon de Montfort, they under* the government for themselves, and made the king 47ber.

After Evesham, and the death of De Montfort, the young Pe Edward really ruled, and that wise and good prince, the Dictum de Kenilworth, which he caused his father proclaim in 1266, undertook to observe all charters # re given, and to govern legally, though by giving Detam voluntarily he had managed to preserve the prative and power undiminished. His wars Edward the Great occasionally to overstep the s of taxation fixed by Magna Carta; and the public tisfaction, led by the Archbishop Winchelsey, HumBolun, earl of Hereford, and Roger Bigod, earl Nerk, forced him at last to the explicit Confirmatio Cam (confirmation of the charters) in 1297, which Petre and re-enacts the whole of Magna Carta in clear French. A Latin copy, which uses the word

tallagium, is called De Tallagio non Concedendo, and is in all probability a draft, or an unauthorized translation of the true Confirmatio, from which it differs in other particulars as well as the insertion of the word talliage. This is necessary to mention, as the famous Petition of Right, in referring to the legislation of the great Edward in 1628, refers to De Tallagio and not to the Confirmatio Cartarum, and De Tallagio was expressly received as a statute by the judges (in 1637) in Hampden's case. In March, 1299, Edward confirmed the charters of the forests, "saving the rights of our crown," a clause which stung his Parliament to fury, and which he at once omitted, when issuing a new charter two months later. In March, 1300, certain articles in the charters (Articuli super Cartas) were issued as a supplement to provide for a few overlooked abuses (purveyance, &c.), and for commissioners to supervise the administration of the forests and guard the charters from infringements, &c.

Finally the complete charter was confirmed by Edward in 1301 at the Parliament of Lincoln, in return for a money grant, and has never since been altered. It is the keystone of the liberties of England, the source whence all her other liberties proceed.

Many pilgrimages are made by lovers of English freedom to its cradle at Runnymede, opposite which, on 5th June, 1215, King John lay on the opposite bank, the barons on the marshy flat itself. They met together on the island in mid stream, and the whole proceedings, so momentous in their consequences, took but one day, so impotent was the king to resist. One copy of Magna Carta, with John's scal yet attached and the signatures of the barons, brown with age, and partly destroyed by fire, is readily accessible at the British Museum. The feelings with which one gazes upon this old tattered fragment of parchment are fitly described by the gravest historians as those of reverence. It is certainly enough to move the most callous of men, to see before his eyes the actual foundation-stone of that vast and infinitely diverse structure which is the admiration and envy of all nationsthe most perfect, because the most elastic, system of polity the world has yet seen, which each generation at its will may and does alter to its own needs, but which each alike respects, preserves, and reveres; such, and resting upon this brown shrivelled parchment and what is signified thereby, is the British Constitution.

MAG'NA GRÆ'CIA, a term used to designate the south of Italy, which, with its flourishing Greek colonies, was, until a late period of the Roman dominion, Greek and not Roman in its population and manners. It does not appear to have been applied to the country north of Cuma and Neapolis (Naples). The term is used by Polybius and subsequent Greek and Roman writers.

MAGNE'SIA. See MAGNESIUM.

MAGNE'SIAN MICA is the name often applied to BIOTITE, from its being largely composed of silicate of magnesia; it is one of the most commonly occurring varieties of the dark coloured micas. It crystallizes in the hexagonal system, and is usually found in trap and similar eruptive rocks.

MAGNE SITE is the carbonate of magnesia. It usually occurs massive or fibrous, but sometimes in crystals of the hexagonal system. It is found associated with magnesian rocks, and is used for the manufacture of Epsom salts or sulphate of magnesia; for this the carbonate is treated with sulphuric acid.

MAGNESIUM. This metal was first obtained by Davy from magnesia the oxide, by electrolysis. It is found largely diffused in nature, among minerals in combination, as oxide, carbonate, borate, and phosphate; also abundantly as silicate in meerschaum, steatite, hornblende, asbestos, tale, and chrysolite. As chloride it is found in sea-water, and as chloride and sulphate in many mineral

MAGNESIUM.

waters. As sulphate it is found abundantly in the Stassfurt mines, and known as kieserite; also as carbonate and phosphate in the bones of animals, and in many plants in combination with organic acids. All sea-weeds contain it, some in considerable quantity. Magnesium is placed among the metals of the alkaline earths, but its salts more closely resemble those of zinc. It is obtained on the large scale from the chloride by fusion with metallic sodium, and purified by sublimation. It is a silver white crystalline inetal, having a specific gravity of 175, and is easily drawn into wire. It melts and volatilizes at the same temperature as zinc, and is unalterable in dry air. When heated it burns with an intense white light, forming magnesia. It is much used in wire and filings for pyrotechnic and illuminating purposes. The light is rich in actinic rays, and is useful for taking photographs. The light is also used for signalling, and has been seen at sea at a distance of 28 miles. It is useful in chemical analysis, replacing zinc, on account of its purity and the absence of arsenic, and as a reducing agent. It burns also in chlorine gas. The symbol is Mg, the atomic weight 24. It forms only one oxide, magnesia (MgO). This is a white, tasteless, inodorous, bulky powder of specific gravity 3-2. It can be melted by the oxyhydrogen blowpipe into a vitreous enamel. On account of its highly refractory character it is used in the manufacture of bricks for furnace beds, where high temperatures are required. It is almost insoluble in water. It is usually obtained by heating the carbonate. It occurs native as brucite, which is a hydrated magnesium oxide.

Magnesium carbonate (MgCO3) is found native in large quantity as magnesite; it is almost pure, and is much used in the manufacture of Epsom salts and other medicinal salts of magnesia. It is also a large constituent of mountain limestone or dolomite, of which the Houses of Parliament are built. Obtained by precipitation from solution by an alkaline carbonate, it is a white light powder containing some hydrate, and having the formula 3MgCO3MgO,5H,O; it forms double carbonates with all the alkalies. It is soluble in water containing carbonic acid, the solution forming the well-known medicine, fluid magnesia.

Magnesium sulphate, or Epsom salts (MgSO47H2O), is a well-known salt, and a large article of manufacture for medicinal purposes. It contains seven equivalents of water of crystallization, and may be easily mistaken for zinc sulphate, which is poisonous. This salt is found in many spring and well waters, especially in those of Surrey in the vicinity of Epsom, from which village it derives its name, and where it was first discovered in 1675 by Dr. Green. It is also found in sea-water, but the largest source of its manufacture is kieserite as obtained at Stassfurt. It was formerly obtained from dolomite. Sulphate of magnesia is a convenient antidote in cases of poisoning by the salts of lead or barytes.

Magnesium chloride (MgCl2) is an important constituent of sea-water. It is a crystalline bitter salt, very soluble in water and in alcohol, and very deliquescent. At a red heat it melts to a clear liquid. The solution, when heated, decomposes; hydrochloric acid is given off, and magnesia deposited. The chloride and the sulphate are both used as a dressing for cotton goods, and in fixing aniline colours.

Magnesium bromide (MgBr.) and magnesium iodide (Mgle) resemble the chloride; both are decomposed when the solutions are evaporated.

Magnesium fluoride (MgFl) is a white powder, insoluble in water and in most acids.

Magnesium nitrate (MgNO33H,O) is an extremely deliquescent crystalline salt, made by dissolving magnesia in nitric acid.

Magnesium ethyl (MgC2H5) is one of the organo-metallic

bodies which have excited much interest among chemists. It is a colourless liquid, with strong garlic odour, which takes fire in the air and violently decomposes water.

The salts of magnesia are generally colourless, and are distinguished from those of other metals by the insolubility of the ammonia-phosphate, in which form magnesium is usually estimated. It is distinguished from zine and other metals by not being precipitated by sulphide of ammoniam, and from the alkaline earths by the carbonate not being precipitated in the presence of ammonium chloride. Heated before the blowpipe with cobalt nitrate, magnesium salts leave a rose-coloured residue.

Medicinal Properties of Magnesia. — Oxide of maznesium, termed also, from the mode of procuring it, calcined magnesia, or magnesia usta, is an alkaline earth, possessing the usual qualities of alkalies in their hatitudes with acids, and likewise the property of exiting generally purgative action of the intestines. This lastmentioned power gives it a distinctive character anerg alkaline remedies, as it can be employed not merely to counteract acidity, but also to remove the exciting cause when that consists in the presence of crude or undigested acid-yielding materials in the stomach. Its action 38 3 purgative seems mainly to depend upon its meeting with acids in the stomach, and so forming soluble salts. When these are not present the magnesia remains undissolved, and if used repeatedly may accumulate in the intestines, and, becoming agglutinated by the mucous secretions, give rise to much uneasiness. When, however, acidity exists, either along with constipation or diarrhoea, more particu larly in children, from the milk disagreeing, or from a diet unsuited to their delicate organs of digestion being forced upon them, magnesia is a very proper medicine, especially as it appears to possess a specific power of diminishing gastro-intestinal irritation. It is generally expedient to add rhubarb to it, and combine it with some carminative. In such a state of combination it is peculiarly useful in what is termed diarrhaa crapulosa, arising from too great a mixture or too large a quantity of food.

Citrate of magnesia is prepared from magnesia alba, citric acid, bicarbonate of soda, and sugar. It is made up in the form of granules, which, when thrown into water, dissolve with effervescence, and it forms a pleasant mildly aperient draught, resembling the limonade purgatij of France, which is generally prepared in a liquid form.

MAGNET (derived from the Gr. magués) is a metallic body possessing the remarkable property of attracting iron and some other metals. Stones with this property were found abundantly near Magnesia in Lydia, from which circumstance the name was derived. The attracting power of the magnet-stone, or lodestone, was known at a very early period, as references are made to it by Aristotle, and more particularly by Pliny. It is a heavy ferrugineus ore of a dull grayish colour. It is now scientifically calbu Magnetite, and is an iron ore with the chemical composition Fe3O4. It is also found in Spain, Elba, Sweden, a Arkansas, but not always in the magnetic condition. T ores of cobalt and nickel also frequently possess the magnetic properties.

If a piece of iron, or, better still, of steel, be rubbed with a lodestone an artificial magnet is produced, having practically identical properties; such a bar or needle is also called a magnet. A magnetic needle is best fitted for matefesting the magnetic properties. In 1600 Dr. Gilbert published the great treatise which founded the theory of magnetism, and for the first time demonstrated that te great attractive power of a magnet lay in two rezios or poles, usually the ends or nearly the ends of the magnet. In fact just in the middle, equidistant from the poles, there is practically no attraction at all. One of these poles always seeks to point towards the north when free to move, and the other, of course, to point towards the south.