Mucilage is made by dissolving gum arabic in water. There are other cheaper gums, however, that will answer the same purpose: mucilage may be made also from quince seeds and starch. For internal use it is most cheaply and abundantly obtained from flax-seed, or linseed. Eight ounces infused in two or three quarts of boiling water, forms a good mucilage.—White.
Mucilaginous, a. Slimy, viscous, soft with some degree of tenacity.
Mucous, a. Slimy, viscous.
Mucus, s. The viscous substance discharged at the nose; any viscous matter.
Mud, s. The slime at the bottom of still water; earth well moistened with water.
Mue, v. To moult, to change feathers.
Muffle, v. To cover from the weather; to blindfold; to conceal; to involve, to hood a hawk.
Mule, s. An animal generally between a he-ass and a mare, or between a horse and a she-ass.
These useful and hardy animals are the offspring of the horse and ass, or ass and mare; those produced between the two last are esteemed the best, as the mule is observed to partake less of the male than of the female parent; yet it is a general remark, that they almost always inherit, in some degree, the obstinacy of the parent ass, though it must be confessed that this vice is heightened by their being injudiciously broke in.
Savoy produces very large mules, but the finest are bred in Spain. They are chiefly used in countries where there are rocky and stony roads, as about the Alps and Pyrenees, &c. Great numbers of them are kept in these places, they are usually black, and are strong, well-made, and large, being mostly bred out of fine Spanish mares. They are sometimes fifteen or sixteen hands high, and a good one of this kind is worth fifty or sixty pounds. No creature is so proper for carrying large burdens, or more surefooted. They are much stronger for draught than our horses; often as thick-set as our dray-horses, and will travel for several months together with six or eight hundred weight on their backs.