MANNA

(Syrian mano, a gift; it being a term applied to the food given by God to the children of Israel in the wilderne .) What we now call manna is a saccharine substance which exudes from the bark of the Fraxinvs ornus, and some other species of ash, natives of the south of Europe, especially Sicily and Calabria. Manna is used in medicine as a mild aperient. It differs remarkably from common sugar in not being susceptible of vinous fermentation;so that, if mixed with common sugar and yeast, and subjected to the proce of fermentation, the sugar becomes converted into alcohol, but the manna remains unaltered in the liquor. When manna is di olved in boiling alcohol, the solution, as it cools, deposits it in flaky and acicular crystals, often arranged in concentric groups. Manna, thus purified, has been chemically designated by the term mannite. Various opinions have been entertained respecting the precise nature of the manna on which the Israeli tes were sustained, and attempts have been made at various times to I account for its miraculous nppearance on natural causes; but, in our opinion, without any succe . The Syriac word mano means a gift, referring to this circumstance, and is no doubt derived from the Hebrew mavku, the Scripture explanation of which is certainly the best. The word asks a question, and signifies " What is this?" "for they wist not what it was." (Exodus, xvi., 15.) And if they did not know thm " what it was," it is not l'.kely we should know now. They could see that it was a little round gram, or something like a grain, of the size of coriander-seed, and white as the hoar frost on the ground; but it had no com ponent parts such as they could describe. And even ad mining, as has been frequently maintained, that t exuded from the bark of the ash, or some other tree, it 'a incredilWe [s. 728]