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nanced, by the highest authority, in ail enlightened country. Itwill probably be objected, that abuses so gross and palpable, areconnived at only, on account of the revenue they produce to thetreasury ; but, is it compatible with sound policy, justice, and hu-manity, to supply any deficiency of the State, at the expence ofall that is most dear to man—his health? Beside, how often mustthe moral law be wounded for the sake of this public sacrifice?Would any person whose time-piece has received an injury ; orwhose cattle are attacked with the distemper; or whose dwellingthreatens to tumble down, ever think of employing a vagrant inpreference to either a professed watch-maker, farrier, or builder?and yet these considerations are but trivial, when compared to theinestimable value of health! Such impostors generally assume apompous and mysterious manner; they deal in duplicity of speechand action; always engage to cure, while they represent everycase as highly dangerous, in order to enhance their own import-ance ; in sliorf, they are equally afraid and incapable of giving areasonable explanation, or candid opinion: let these harpies of thedeluded multitude fairly state their successful experiments, notsupported by perjury ; and compare them with the number of un-fortunate victims whose credulity led them to a premature grave.Many instances of this melancholy description have come withinour knowledge ; and we doubt not hut every medical practitionerhas cases to produce, where, in consequence of taking quack-medicine, his patients were afllicted with inflammations of thebowels; obstructions of the liver, or intestines; and not seldom,with incurable consumption. Humanity can only drop the silenttear of sympathy over the deluded sufferers, while the governmentalone has the power to suppress and punish these pests of society,and to exercise the same degree of rigorous justice as is shewn tothe highway-robber and assassin ; whose crimes, though apparentlymore heinous, are less destructive in their influence on society,

Orillich.)

QUACK-MEDICINES, are those preparations of drugs soldin the shops under the stamp act; whence they pay a certain dutyto government, from which the medicines given by regular prac-titioners are wholly exempt.

QUAD[, an ancient people of Germany , situated on the S. E.of the mountains of Bohemia, on the hanks of the Danube , andextending as far as the river Marus, or March, running by Mora-via, which country they occupied.

QUADRAGESIMA, a denomination given to Lent , from itsconsisting of forty days.

QUADRANGLE, in geometry, is the same with a quadrila-teral figure, or one consisting of four sides and four angles.

QUADRANS, the quarter or fourth part of any thing, particu-larly the as, or pound.

Quadrans, in English money, the fourth part of a penny.Before the reign of Edward I. the smallest coin was a sterling, orpenny, marked with a cross; by the guidance of which a pennymight be cut into halves for a halfpenny, or into quarters or fourparts for farthings ; till, to avoid the fraud of unequal cuttings,that king coined halfpence and farthings in distinct round pieces.

QUADRANT, [ quadrans , Lat.] in geometry, is the arch of acircle, containing 90°, or the fourth part of the entire periphery.Sometimes also the space or area, included between this arch andtwo radii drawn from the centre to eacli extremity thereof, is calleda quadrant, or, more properly, a cuadrantal space, as being aquarter of an entire circle.

Quadrant, is also a mathematical instrument of great use inastronomy ami navigation, for taking the altitudes of the sun andstars, and for taking angles in surveying, &c. It is varioudy con-trived, and furnished with different apparatus, according to thevarious us: s it is intended for; but they all have this in common,that they consist of a quarter of a circle, whose limb is dividedinto 90°. Some have a plummet suspended from the centre, andare furnished with sights to look through. The principal andmost useful quadrants are the common surveying quadrant, astro-nomical quadrant, Adams’s quadrant, Cole’s quadrant, Gunter ’squadrant, Hadley’s quadrant, horodiclical quadrant, Sutton’s orCollin’s quadrant, and the Sinical quadrant, &c. See Astro-nomy, and Mensuration .

Quadrant, Astronomical , is large, usually made of brass,or wooden bars faced with iron-plates; having its limb nicely di-vided, either diagonally or otherwise, into degrees, minutes, and

seconds; and furnished with two telescopes, one fixed on the sideof the quadrant, and the other moveable about the centre, bymeans of the screw. 'There arc also dented wheels, which serveto direct the instrument to any object or plucnomeuon. The useof this curious instrument, in taking observations of the sun, pla-nets, and fixed stars, is obvious; for being turned horizontallyupon its axis, by means of the telescope, till the object is seenthrough the moveable telescope, then the degrees, &c. cut by theindex, give the altitude required. See Astronomy.

Quadrant, Common Surveying. See Mensuration .

Quadrant, Gunner’s, called also Gunner’s Square, is thatused for elevating and pointing cannon, mortars, &C. and consistsof two brandies either of brass or wood, between which is a qua-drantal arch divided into 90°, beginning from the shorter branch,and furnished with a tiiread and pUimmi l, as represented in tig. 3,Elate CLV. The use of the gunner’s quadrant is extremely'easy; for if the longest branch be placed in the mouth of lirepiece, and it be elevated till the plummet nit the degree neces-sary to hit a proposed object, the tiling is done. Sometimes oilone of the surfaces of the long branch are noted the divisions ofdiameters and weights of iron-builds, as also the bores of pieces.

Quadrant, Gunter’s, *0 called !r< m its inventor EdmundGunter , besides the usual apparatus of other quadrants, lias a sterc-ographical projection of the sphere on the plane of the equinoctial.It has also a calendar of the months, next to the divisions of thelimb. It is represented in Plate CLV. fig. 4.

Quadrant, Hadley’s, is an instrument of vtwt utility both innavigation and practical astronomy. It is named from Mr. Had-ley, who first published an account of it, though the invention ori-entated with the celebrated Dr. Hooke, and was completed bySir Isaac Newton . For its description, use, &c. see Naviga-tion. Plate CLV. fig. 1, represents a simple construction of asmall moveable quadrant, and fig. 2 represents a mural quadrant.Of the quadrant, (fig. 1,) CEBis the arch divided into 90°, and ge-nerally subdivided into smaller divisions, such as half-degrees, orthird parts of eaeli degree, &c. The centre of the arch is at A,and tin: v hole is connected together by means of strong metallicbars, as is shewn between the letters ABC in the figure; in thecentre A, a short'axis is fixed perpendu uiar to the plane of theinstrument, ami to the upper part of this axis is fastened (lie indexAD, which carries the telescope. This index generally has asmall lateral projection, as at E, upon which the nonius or vernieris marked, by which means the minutes, or smaller parts of eachdegree, may be discerned. (See Vernier.) r l lie screw P,commonly called the tangent-screw, with a nut that may be fast-ened to any part of the arch BC, screws likewise into the extre-mity of the index, and is useful for moving the index gently, ormore accurately than by the immediate application of the hand tothe index itself. Since the index is suspended at one end, viz. atA, if the other end I.) happens to be disengaged from the screw P,the lower end D of the index will naturally come down to C, onaccount of its own weight, and that of the telescope. Now, in or-der to avoid tliis tendency downwards, an arm \ of brass or ironis frequently affixed to the upper part of the index, which carries(lie leaden weight Z, sufficient to balance (lie weight of the indexand telescope; so that hv this means, even when disengaged fromthe screw P, the index will remain in any situation in which itmay be left. The whole frame ABC is supported upon a strongvertical axis FS, the lower part of which turns into the pedestalOKwi, and carries an index SX, which moves upon the dividedhorizontal circle O, fixed to the pedestal. This serves to fix theplane of the quadrant in any azimuth that may be required. Thelower part of the pedestal lias three claws, with a screw m in eacli ;In which means the axis FS may he set truly perpendicular.The plummet AO, suspended at A, serves to shew when tlu; edgeAC of the instrument is truly perpendicular, or when the first divi-sion of the arcli at C is exactly in the vertical which passes throughthe centre A of the quadrantal arc BC. The weight of the plum-met generally moves in a glass of water, which is fixed upon thearm GR ; tire object of which is to check the vibrations of thependulum ; which otherwise would be easily moved by everybreath of air, and would continue to move for a considerable timeafter. We do not mention the lenses or microscopes lhut are ap-plied to read oil tire divisions at E and at X, or to see tire coinci-dence of the plummet-line with a dot marked upon the arc at C,