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duccd into heraldry. The sable spots in ermine are'not of anydetenuiuate number, but may be more or less at the pleasure ofthe painter or furrier.

Ermine , an order of knights, instituted in 1450 by Francis I.duke of Bretagne, and formerly subsisting in France .

ERMINES, in heraldry, the reverse, of ermine, t. e. whitespots on a black field.

EUNODEA, in botany, a genus of the tetrandria monogyniaclass and order. Calyx four-parted ; corolla one-petaled, salver-*Jshaped ; berry two-celled ; seeds solitary. One species, viz. E.littoralis, a native of Jamaica .

ERODll M, Cranes-Bill , in botany, a genus of the mona- jdelphia pentandria class and order. Calyx live-leaved ; corolla!five-petaled ; nectary five scales, alternate with the filaments and jglands at the base of the stamens; fruit five-grained, with a spiral jbeak, bearded on the inside. There are twenty-eight species.

EKOD1US, a genus of insects of the order coleoptera. An-tenna moniliform ; feelers filiform ; body roundish, gibbous, itn-marginate ; thorax transverse ; shells closely united, longer thanthe abdomen ; jaw horny, bilid : lip horny, emarginate. Thereare four species.

EllOS, [ijot, i. e, love,] in mythology, one Of the two chiefsover all the other Cupids, being the cause of love.

ERO IEUM, a genus of the class and order pentandria mono-gynia. Calyx five-leaved ; corolla live-petaled ; the style trilid ;berry juiceless, three-celled, many-seeded. There are two spe-cies, natives of Jamaica .

EROTIA, a festival in honor of Eros, celebrated by the Thes-pians every titth year witii sports and games.

EKO’l 1C, from Ejo;, love] of, or belonging to love.

EROTICUM Delirium, m medicine, a kind of melancholycontracted ihiough excess ot love.

Kill’ACM, a county ot Germany, in Suabia .

Lrpach, a town and castle in the above county, 8 miles S. E.of Uim.

F.RQUIKO, a sea-port of Africa, on the coast of Ahex, on theRed Sea; 320 milesS.W. of Mecca . Lon. 39. 5. E. Let.17. 30.N.

EUR 11 IN E, [tf’fiva,] in pharmacy, medicines which when snuff-ed up the no-e promote a discharge of tmteus. I hese are morefriendly to the constitution and nerves than sternutatories, by jbeirsubtile, acrid, and volatile salt, gently stimulating .the pituitarymembrane, and drawing the mucid humour irom it. 1 bey arealso much safer. Those prepared of cephalic herbs are of sin ularservice m oppressive pains ot die head, hermicrania, lethargic dis-orders, weaknesses of memory, stuffings of the head, and coryza,mucous detluxions of the eves, drowsiness, vertigoes, and in caseswhere the malignant humours generated by the lues venerea arelodged in the membranes of the nostrils.

Errhines, Mild, are marjoram, basilicon, thyme, hyssop, sa-vory, marum syriacum, the tops of origanum, ilowers of lilies ofthe valley, and gum benzoin, the resin of guaiacum, tine raspingsof aloes wood, dry volatile salt of sal ammoniac, perfumed withoil of marjoram, and white vitriol.

Errhines, Violent, are, euphorbium, the powder of whitehellebore, several sorts of snuffs, precipitate mercury, turbith mi-neral, and pepper.

ERllOUR, or ERROR, in philosophy, amistakeof our judge-ment, giving assent to that which is not true. Mr. Locke reducesthe causes of error in philosophy, to these four; 1st, want of proofs;Udly, want of ability to use them ; 3dly, want of will to use them;and, 4tblv, wrong measures of probability. He observes uponthe first of these, that the greatest part of mankind want conveni-ences and opportunities of making experiments and observationsthemselves, or of collecting the testimonies of others, being pre-vented by the necessity of their condition. Upon the 2nd, heobserves, that there are many, who, from the state of their condi-tion, might bestow time in "collecting proofs, but yet are not ableto carry a train of consequences in their heads, nor weigh exactlythe preponderance of contrary proofs and testimonies, merely fromthe difference in men’s understandings, apprehensions, and reason-ings. He remarks, 3dly, that though some have opportunitiesand leisure enough, and want neither parts, learning, nor otherhelps, that they never come to the knowledge ot several tiuthswithin their reach, cither upon account of their attachment topleasure or business; or otherwise because of their laziness oraversion to study. The 4tb cause of error he imputes, 1. To the

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practice of taking for principles propositions that are not in them-selves certain and evident, but, on the contrary, doubtful andfalse. 2. To received hypotheses. 3. To predominant passionsor inclinations. And, 4. To authority, or the giving up ot our as-sent to the common received opinions either of our friends orparty, neighbours or country. r l he causes of error in philosophy,or the reasons w hy all former philosophers have through so manyages erred, according to Lord Bacon , are these following: 1.Want of time suited to learning. 2. The little labour bestowedupon natural philosophy. 3. Few entirely addicted to naturalphilosophy. 4. The end of the sciences wrong fixed. 5. Awrong way chosen. 6. The neglect of experiments. 7. Re-gard to antiquity and authority. 8. Admiration of the works inuse. 9. The artifice of teachers and writers in the sciences. 10.Ostentatious promises of the moderns. 11. Want of proposingworthy tasks. 12. Superstition and zeal being opposite to naturalphilosophy, as thinking philosophy dangerous, on account of theschool theology; from the opinion that deep natural inquiriesshould subvert religion. 13. Schools and academies proving un-favourable to philosophy. 14. Want of rewards. And, 15. De-spair, and the supposition of impossibility.

Error Loci, i. e . Error of Place, a term introduced intomedicine by Boerhaave , from the opinion that the vessels were ofdifferent sizes for the circulation of blood, serum, and lymph; andthat when the larger sized globules were forced into the less ves-sels by an error of place, they were obstructed. But this opinionis now exploded.

Error, in law, signifies an error in pleading, or in the process;and the writ which is brought for remedy thereof, is called a writof error. A writ of error is a commission to judges ot a superiorcourt, by which they are authorized to examine the record uponwhich a judgement was given in an inferior court, and on such ex-amination, to affirm or reverse the same according to law. Jenk.Rep. 25. For particulars as to the practice of writs of error, seeImpey’s K. B. anil C. P.

EPSE, or GAELIC LANGUAGE. See Gaelic.

ERUCA, the general name of caterpillars of all kinds. Thecaterpillar state is that through which every butterfly must passbefore it arrives at its perfection and beauty: and, in the samemanner, all the known winged animals, except only the puceron,pass through a reptile state; none else being produced in theirwinged form. The change from caterpillar to butterfly- was longesteemed a metamorphosis, a real change of one animal into an-other ; but this is not the case. The egg of a butterfly produces abutterfly, with all the lineaments of its parent; only ttiese are notdisclosed at first, but for the greater part of the animal’s life arecovered with a case or muscular coat, in which are legs for walk-ing, which only suit it in this state; but its mouth takes in nou-rishment, which is conveyed to the included animal; and alter aproper time this covering is thrown off, and the butterfly, whichall the while might be discovered in it by an accurate observerwith the help of a microscope, appears in its proper form. Beforeit passes into this state, however, there requires a state of rest forthe wings to harden, and the other parts to acquire their properfirmness; this is transacted in a time of perfect rest, when the ani-mal lies in what is called the nymph or chrysalis state, in appear-ance only a lump of inanimate matter. There is a determinedtime for each of these changes in every species; but, in the seve-ral different kinds, the periods are very different. There is nosign of sex in the animal while in the caterpillar state: the propa-gation of the species is the business of the creature in its ultimateperfection; and till that, these parts are never excluded; one fe-male butterfly, when she has been impregnated by the male, willproduce 300* or 400 eggs, or even more. There is no way ofknowing the sexes of these little creatures by viewing the parts;but the whole figure and manner of the animal shews the differ-ence. The females are always larger than the males; they arealso more slow in their motion 1 -; and some of them have no wings,or, at the most, only very small ones. The males, however, havea sort of beards, more beautiful than the antenna: or horns of thefemales: the female is much stronger as well as bigger than themale ; and often, in case of danger or disturbance, she flies awaywith him in time of copulation. On dissecting the female, heruterus affords an astonishing sight. The number of eggs in thetubes is amazing: but these have not all the same figure; and, insome species, as the silk-worm, &c. the eggs are of a beautiful4 N blue;