manna (mana)

[ And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna : and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Ex. xvi. 31. Each morning, on the ground Not common deaw, but Manna , did abound. Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, ii., Eden. Hence-2. Delicious food for either the body or the mind; delectable material for nourishment or entertainment. His tongue Dropp'd manna , and could make the worse appear The better reason, to perplex and dash Maturest counsels. Milton , P. L., ii. 113. Mine was an angel's portion then, And, while I fed with eager haste, The crust was manna to my taste. J. Montgomery , A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief. 3. Divine or spiritual food. Thou Manna , which from Heav'n we eat, To every Taste a several Meat! Cowley, The Mistre , For Hope. 4. In phar., a sweet concrete juice obtained by incisions made in the stem of Fraxinus Ornus, a native of Sicily, Calabria, and other parts of the south of Europe, and from other species of ash. It is either naturally concreted or exsiccated and puri fied by art. At the present day the manna of commerce is collected exclusively in Sicily, where the manna-ash is cultivated for the purpose in regular plantations. The best manna is in oblong pieces or flakes of a whitish or pale-yellow color, light, friable, and somewhat transparent. It has a slight peculiar odor, and a sweetish taste mixed with a slight degree of bitterne , and is employed as a gentle laxative for children or persons of weak habit. It is, however, generally used as an adjunct to other more active medicines. It consists principally of a crystallizable sweet substance named mannite, and certain other substances in smaller quantity. Sweetish secretions exuded by some other plants growing in warm and dry climates, as the Eucalyptus viminal is, the manna-gumtree of Australia, and the Tamarix Gallica, var. mannifera, of Arabia and Syria, are also considered to be kinds of manna. Small quantities of manna, known as Briaçon manna, are obtained from the common larch, Larix Europe a. - Jews' or Hebrew manna, manna of Sinai. (a) An exudation from the leguminous bush called camel's-thorn, Alhagi camelorum (including A. Maurorum ). See Alhagi and camel's-thorn. (b) The secretion of the tamarisk, Tamarix Gallica, var. mannifera. It is a honey-like liquid which exudes from punctures made by an insect, hardens on the stems, and drops to the ground. It is collected by the Arabs as a delicacy. - Madagascar manna. Same as dulcitol.-Persian manna. Same as Jews ' manna (a).Poland or Polish manna. Same as manna-seeds. manna-ash (man'ä-ash), n. A tree, Fraxinus Ornus. See ash1 and manna, 4. manna-croup (man'ä-kröp), n. mannaedt (man'äd), a. [ See semolina . IMG:content-0195.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0196.png:[blocks in formation]