The abridgement of the gardeners dictionary / [Philip Miller].

  • Miller, Philip, 1691-1771
Date:
1763
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The abridgement of the gardeners dictionary / [Philip Miller]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    913/958
    SWEET WILLIAMS. Sea Dianthus. WILLOW. See Salix. WILLOW, the French. See Epiloblum. WIND is defined to be the flream or current of the air, together with fuch vapours as the air carries along with it, or it is a fin hole agitation of the air, whereby a large quantity thereof flows out of one place or region to another. The ancients made but four winds, according to the four cardinal points, but this was quickly looked upon as too ■grofs a di\ifion. The following age added eight more to this number, which was thought too nice a fubdividing, and therefore they reduced the Taft number to four, taking every other or middle wind, and adding them to the old account} but our failors, who are far beyond the ancients for their {kill in navigation, have divided -the horizon into thirty-two equal parts, adding twenty-eight to the four cardinal winds ; a thing ufeful in navigation, but of no great concern in natural philofophy, unleis it be to give a hint, that the wind blows from all parts of the heavens. Of the qualities of winds. I. A wind that blows from the fea is always moif; in fum- tner it is cold, in winter warm, unlefs the fea be frozen up. This is well demonftrated thus : There is vapour continually rifing out of all water (as appears even hence, that a quan¬ tity of water, being left a little while in an open veflel, is found fenfibly diminifhed), but efpecially if it be expofed to the fun's rays, in which cafe the evaporation is beyond all expectation. By this means the air incumbent on the fea becomes impregnated with a deal of vapour, but the winds blowing from off the fea, fweep thefe vapours along with them, and confequently are always moift. Again, water in fummer, (Sc. conceives lefs heat than terreltrial bodies, expofed to the fame rays of the fun ; but in winter fea water is warmer than the earth, covered with froft, fnow, &c. Wherefore, as the air, contiguous to any body, is found to partake of its heat and cold, the air, contiguous to fea water, will be warmer in winter and colder in fummer, than that contiguous to the earth : or thus; vapours raifed from water by the fun’s warmth in winter, are warmer than the air they rife in, as appears from the vapours condenfing, and becoming vifible, almolt as foon as they are got out into the air. Frefti quantities of va¬ pours, therefore, continually warming the atmofphere over the fea, will raife its heat beyond that over the land. Again, the fun’s rays reflected from the earth into the air in fummer are much more than thofe from the water into the air. The air therefore over the earth, warmed by the reflection of more rays than that over water, is warmer. Hence fea winds make cloudy hazy weather. z. Winds which blow from the Continent are always dry, in fummer warm, and cold in winter; for there is much lefs vapour arifing from the earth than from water, and there¬ fore the air over the Continent will be impregnated with much fewer vapours : add, that the vapours or exhalations raifed by a great degree of heat out of the earth, are much finer and lefs fenfible than thofe from water. The wind therefore, blowing over the Continent, carries but little vapour with it, and is therefore dry. Our northern and foutherly winds, how’ever, which are commonly efteemed the caufes of cold and warm weather, Dr. Derham obferves, are really the effeCts of the cold or warmth of the atmofphere : hence it is, that we frequently fee a warm foutherly wind on a fudden changed to the north, by the fall of fnow or hail ; and that in a cold frofty morning we fee the wind north, which afterward wheels about toward the foutherly quarters, when the fun has well wanned the air, and again in the cold evening turns north¬ erly or eafterly. Some winds are drying, others are moift j fome gather clouds, others difperfe them; fome are warm, others cold; but their influence is not one and the fame in all places, for fuch winds as are warm in one country are cold in another; thofe that are wet with us are dry with other nations, and on the contrary. The dry winds are fuch as carry but a few vapours along with them, and therefore lick off the moift particles from the bodies over which they pafs ; and thus in Holland the north and eaft winds, with the intermediate points, are dry¬ ing, becaufe the cold northern fea yields but few vapours in comparifon of thofe that come from warmer parts of the ocean, but the wefterly winds and others are moift, becaufe they iflue from warm and vaporous parts, the weftern wind feldom failing to fend rain. Such winds gather clouds which blow from the quarters where the vapours arife, which, in conjunction w’ith the va¬ pours of our own region, fill tae air ; and, on the contrary, thofe that bring little vapour along with them, and bear away that which hangs over us, bring fair weather. Winds are either warm or cold, as the countries are from whence they blow; and therefore when a brilk wind blows from a cold quarter, it allays the heat of fummer, which is' very troublefome in ftill weather. Thus a quick blaft of a pair of bellows will put out a flame, which a gentle blow¬ ing increafes ; for the quick blaft drives all the flame to one fide, where it is fiifled by the force of the incumbent air for want of aliment, but a gentle wind augments the motion of the flame every way, and makes it feize on more parts of fuel. Now, becaufe all the heat or cold of wind proceeds from the heat or cold of the country where it blows, therefore the fame winds are cold or hot every where. Beyond the line they are juft the reverfe of what they are with us; their cold winds are from the fouth, ours from the north ; and as our fouth winds are warm, from no other reafon but becaufe they bring us an air heated by the fun; for the very fame reafon the north winds are warm to our antipodes. From what has been faid, it is evident that the fun is the caufe of the wind, and motion the caufe of the vapours. Of W I N E S, and vinous liquors*. WINE is a brilk, agreeable, and fpirituous ju'ce, drawn from vegetable bodies, and fermented. Dr. Boerhaave characterizes wine, that the firft thing that it affords by diftillation be a thin, fatty, inflammable, iffc. fluid, called a fpirit; and in this it is diftinguifhed from another clafs of fermented vegetable juices, viz. vinegars; which, in head of fuch fpirit, yield for the firft thing an acid, uninflammable matter. In order to the making wflnes, it will be of great advan¬ tage to be well acquainted with the buflnefs of fermentation. This Dr. Boerbaave defines and explains as follows : Fermentation is a change produced in vegetable bodies* by means of an inteftine motion excited therein ; the effeCt whereof is this, that the part which firft rifes from them in diftillation is either a thin, fat, acrid, hot, tranfparent, vo¬ latile, and inflammable fluid, that will mix with water ; or elfe a thin, acid, pellucid, lefs volatile, uninflammable li¬ quor, capable of extinguilhing fire. The liquor, obtained by means of fermentation, is called thin, becaufe none appears to be thinner than the fpirit of fermented vegetables; acid, becaufe it ails almoft like fire, when applied to the tongue or other parts of the body ; volatile, becaufe there appears to be no liquor that is raifed with greater eafe ; but it is this liquor being totally inflam¬ mable, and at the fame time capable of mixing wich water, that ultimately diftinguilhes fermentation from all other ope¬ rations