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students in divinity, in which a question is slated by the respon-dent, who is then opposed by other students in their turns ; dur-ing which the professor solves the difficulties which the respondentcannot overcome.
EXEGETES, [from e|>i yinfj-ai, to explain,] among the Athe-nians , persons learned in the laws, whom the judges used to con-sult in capital causes.
EXEGET1CA, in algebra, the art of finding, either in num-bers or lines, the roots of the equation of a problem, according asthe problem is either numerical or geometrical.
EXEMPLAR denotes the image, conceived in the mind of theartist, whereby he conducts his work.
EXEMPLIFICATION of Letters Patent, denotes acopy made from the enrolment, and sealed with the great seal;which is as effectual to be shewed, or pleaded as the ori-ginal.
EXEMPTIONS, in law. Peers are exempted from beingsworn upon inquests ; and knights, clergymen, and others, fromappearing at the sheriff’s turn. Persons of 70 years of age, sur-geons, apothecaries, butchers, &c. are exempted from serving onjuries; and justices of the peace, attorneys, &c. from parishoffices.
EXERCISE, among physicians, is either active or passive.The active is walking, hunting, dancing, playing at bowls, andthe like ; as also speaking, and other joint exertions of the bodyand mind. The passive is riding in a coach or on horseback ;sailing, &c. Exercise may be continued to a beginning of weari-ness, and ought to be used before dinner in a pure light air.Journeys into the country contribute greatly to preserve and re-establish health. Exercise increases the circulation of the blood,attenuates the fluids; promotes a regular perspiration, and a duesecretion of all the humours ; accelerates the animal spirits ; faci-litates their distribution into all the fibres of the body ; strengthensthe parts; creates an appetite, and helps digestion. Boerhaaverecommends bodily exercise in diseases of a weak and lax fibre.By riding on horseback, says his commentator, the pendulous vis-cera of the abdomen are shaken every moment, and gently rubbedone against another, while in the mean time the pure air acts onthe lungs with greater force. But a weak man should not ridewith a full stomach, but either before dinner, or after the diges-tion is near finished; for when the stomach is distended, weakpeople do not bear these concussions. Sailing is also an exerciseof great u se to weak people. To strengthen the body by Muscu-lar motion, running, leaping, and other active exercises, are to beUsed. these we should begin with the most gentle, such asrl'.| m§> and increase it by degrees till we. come to Tunning.
1 hose exercises of the body are more especially serviceable whichexercise the mind at the same time. The ancients appointed re-wards for those who excelled in gymnastic exercises, that thebodies of their youth might thus be hardened for warlike toils.But, though nothing is more' conducive to health than moderateexercise, yet violent exercise dissipates the spirits, weakens thebody, destroys the elasticity of the fibres, and exhausts the fluidparts of the blood. Great care should therefore be taken, to pro-portion the degree of exercise to the strength of the patient.Swinging has often been found very beneficial to consumptive andother debilitated persons.
Exercise, in military affairs, is the ranging of a body of sol-diers in form of battle, and making them perform the several mo-Itons and military evolutions with dilferent management of theirnr,m > in order to make them expert therein. See Manual Ex-ercise.
Exercise, in the royal navy, is the preparatory practice ofmanaging the artillery and small arms, in order to make the ship’screw perfectly skilled therein, so as to direct its execution success-Rdly in the time of battle. See Navy , and Naval Tactics.
. Exercise may also be applied with propriety to the form->fig of our fleets into orders of sailing, lines of battle, &c. an artwhich the French have termed evolutions, or tacliques. See■Naval Tactics’.
. Exercises are also understood of what young gentlemen learn! n die academics and riding-schools, such as fencing, drawing, rid-the great horse, &c. The delicate springs of our frail nia-c mies lose their activity and become enervated, and the vesselsare choked by obstructions, when we totally desist from exercise,
and the consequences necessarily affect the brain : a very stud oesand sedentary life is therefore equally prejudicial to the body andthe mind. An inclination to study “is highly commendable': butit ought not to inspire us with an aversion to’ society. The natu-ral lot of man is to live among his fellows : and whatever may beour situation in life, there are a thousand occasions where a manmust desire to render himself acreeable.
EXERCITOR, in Scots law, he who employs a ship intrade, whether he be owner, or only freights her from the owner.
EXERGAS1A, or EXPOSITION. See Oratory.
EXERGUE, or EXERGUM, [of if, from, and Efysv, th«-work,] the circular space between the work and edge of acoin or medal, on which tiie inscription or motto is usuallyplaced.
EXETER , [ 7 . d. Excester, i. e. a city upon the Ex,] the ca'pital of Devonshire , anciently called Isex, and Isia Damnonio-rum. It is large, populous, and wealthy, with gates, walls, andsuburbs; the circumference is about three miles. It is 31 milesN.N. E. of Dartmouth , and 78 S. W. of Bristol.
Exeter , a bishopric of England, comprehending the countiesof Cornwall and Devonshire . The bishop’s seat was transferred:to Exeter, from Crediton, by Edward the Confessor .
Exeter, a town and river of New Hampshire .
Exeter, a town of North Carolina, in New Hanover county, .36 miles N. of Wilmington .
EXFOLIATION , the scaling of a bone, or its rising into thinlaminar.
EX GRAVI QUERELA, in law, is a writ,- that lies for the per-son to whom any lands or tenements in fee are devised by will,and the heir of the devisor enters thereon, and detains them fromthe devisee. Also, where a person devises such lands to anotherin tail witli the remainder over in fee : here if the tenant in tailenter, and is seised by force of the intail, and afterwards he dieswithout issue, the person in remainder, or reversion, may bringthis writ to execute the devise. .
EXHALATION and EVAPORATION' are often used sy-nonymously, but accurate writers distinguish them, appropiia'ingthe latter to the raising of moist fumes from liquid bodies, and theformer to the emission of dry effluvia from solid bodies, as earth ,fire, minerals, &c. In this sense, exhalations are dry and subtlecorpuscles, loosened from hard terrestrial bodies, either by theheat of the sun, the action of the air, or some other cause; andemitted upwards to a certain height in the atmosphere, where,.mixing with the vapours, they help to form clouds, and returnback in rain, mist, &c.
EXHAUSTED Receiver, in pneumatics, a glass or othervessel, applied on the plate of an air-pump, where the air is ex-tracted out of it by the working of the pump. Things placed init are said to be in vacuo. See Pneumatics.
EXHAUSTIONS, in mathematics, or the method of exhaus-tions, is a way of proving the equality of two magnitudes, by areductio ad absurdum ; shewing, that if one be supposed eithergreater or less than the other, there will arise a contradiction. It'is founded upon the exhausting of a quantity by continually takingaway certain parts of it. This method was of frequent use amongthe ancient mathematicians; as Euclid, Archimedes , &c. It isfounded on what Euclid says in his 10 th book; viz. that those.quantities whose difference is less than any assignable quantity, areeoual; for if they were unequal, be the difference ever so small,yet it may be so multiplied, as to become greater than either ofthem ; if not so, then it is really nothing. 'Phis he assumes in the -proof of prop. 1 . book x. which imports, that if, from the greaterof two quantities, be taken more than its half, and from the re-! tnainder more than its half, and so continually, there w ill, at length,remain a quantity less than either of those proposed. Thus : twoquantities, A anti B, are equal, when, if to or from one of them,as A, any other quantity, as d, be subtracted, however small it be,then the sum or difference is respectively greater or less than theother quantity B, viz. d being an indefinitely small quantity,if A -(- d be grea er than B,and A — d less than B,then is A equal to B.
On this foundation it is demonstrated, that if -a regular polygon ofinfinite sides be inscribed in, or circumscribed about, a circle ; thespace, which is the difference between the circle and the polygon,
1 will.