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the vegetable blues to red, but less readily and powerfully than the molybdous acid.

M. Bucholz found that 100 parts of the sulphuret gave 90 parts of molybdic acid. In other experiments, in which he oxidised molybdenum, he found that 100 of the metal combined with from 49 to 50 of oxygen. Berzelius, after some vain attempts to analyse the molybdates of lead and barytes, found that the only method of obtaiinng an exact result was to forin a molybdate of lead. He dissolved 10 parts of neutral nitrate of lead in water, and poured an excess of solution of crystallised molybdate of ammonia into the liquid. The molybdate of lead, washed, dried, and heated to redness, weighed 11.068. No traces of lead were found in the liquid by sulphate of ammonia; hence these 11.068 of lead evince 67.3 per cent. of oxide of lead. This salt then is composed of Molybdic acid Oxide of lead

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Molybdic acid has a specific gravity of 3.460. In an open vessel it sublimes into brilliant yellow scales; 960 parts of boiling water dissolve one of it, affording a pale yellow solution, which reddens litmus, but has no taste. Sulphur, charcoal, and several metals, decompose the molybdic acid. Molybdate of potash is a colorless salt. Molybdic acid gives, with nitrate of lead, a white precipitate, soluble in nitric acid; with the nitrates of mercury and silver, a white flaky precipitate; with nitrate of copper a greenish precipitate; with solutions of the neutral sul phate of zinc, muriate of bismuth, muriate of antimony, nitrate of nickel, muriates of gold and platinum, it produces white precipitates. When melted with borax it yields a bluish color; and paper dipped in its solution becomes, in the sun, of a beautiful blue.

The neutral alkaline molybdates precipitate all metallic solutions. Gold, muriate of mercury, zinc, and manganese, are precipitated in the form of a white powder; iron and tin, from their solutions in muriatic acid, of a brown color; cobalt of a rose color; copper, blue; and the solutions of alum and quicklime, white. If a dilute solution of recent muriate of tin be precipitated, by a dilute solution of molybdate of potash, a beautiful blue powder is obtained.

The concentrated sulphuric acid dissolves a considerable quantity of the molybdic acid, the solution becoming of a fine blue color as it cools, at the same time that it thickens; the color disappears again on the application of heat, but returns by cooling. A strong heat expels the sulphuric acid. The nitric acid has no effect on it; but the muriatic dissolves it in considerable quantity, and leaves a dark blue residuum when distilled. With a strong heat it expels a portion of sulphuric acid from sulphate of potash. It also disengages the acid from nitre and common salt by distillation. It has some action upon the filings of the metals in the moist way. VOL. XV.

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MOLYBDOUS ACID. The deut-oxide of molybdenum is of a blue color, and possesses acid properties. Triturate 2 parts of molybdic acid, with 1 part of the metal, along with a little hot water, in a porcelain mortar, till the mixture assumes a blue color. Digest in 10 parts of boiling water, filter, and evaporate the liquid in a heat of 120°. The blue oxide separates. It reddens vegetable blues, and forms salts with the bases. Air or water, when left for some time to act on molybdenum, converts it into this acid. It consists of about 100 metal to 34 oxygen.

MOLYN (Peter), surnamed Tempesta, an eminent painter, born at Haerlem in 1637. He was the disciple of Snyders, whose style of painting he at first imitated. But his genius led him to the study of dismal subjects; and as he excelled in painting tempests, storms, and shipwrecks, he was called Tempesta. His pictures are very rare, and held in great estimation. The name of Pietro Mulier, or de Mulieribus, was given him on account of having caused his wife to be assassinated, in order to marry a young lady of Genoa. But, this villainous transaction being discovered, he was seized, imprisoned, and capitally condemned. However, his great merit as an artist occasioned a mitigation of the sentence; but he was still detained in prison, where he followed his profession, and would have continued there in all probability for life, had he not escaped to Placentia, when Louis XIV. bombarded the city of Genoa, after he had been in confinement sixteen years. To this artist are attributed several very neat prints, executed with the graver only, in a style greatly resembling that of John Vander Velde. They consist chiefly of candle-light pieces and dark subjects.

MOLYN (Peter), the elder, a native of Holland, and a painter; but not so eminent nor so infamous as Tempesta. Some suppose the prints above mentioned ought to be ascribed to the latter; as, though very neatly executed, they are labored heavy performances, and not equal in any degree to what one might expect from the hand of an artist of so much repute as Tempesta.

MOLYNEUX (Dr. William), a celebrated mathematician and astronomer, born in Dublin, in 1656. In 1675 he entered in the Middle Temple, where he spent three years in the study of the law; but the bent of his genius strongly tended towards mathematics and philosophy. Returning to Ireland, in 1678, he married Lucy, the daughter of Sir William Domville, attorneygeneral. Being master of an easy fortune, he continued to prosecute his studies in natural and experimental philosophy, particularly astronomy; and about 1681 commenced a literary correspondence with Flamstead the king's astronomer, which he kept up for several years. In 1683 he formed a design of erecting a philosophic society at Dublin, in imitation of the Royal Society at London; and by the countenance of Sir William Petty, who accepted the office of president, they began a weekly meeting that year, when our author was appointed their first secretary. Mr. Molyneux's reputation for learning recommended

D

him, in 1684, to the favor of the duke of Ormond, then lord lieutenant of Ireland; by whose influence he was appointed that year, with Sir William Robinson, surveyor-general of the king's buildings, and chief engineer. In 1686 he was sent abroad to view the principal fortresses in Flanders. He travelled with lord Mountjoy through that country, Holland, part of Germany, and France. Upon his return from Paris to London, in April 1689, he published his Sciothericum Telescopium, containing a description of the structure and use of a telescopical dial invented by him. He spent two years with his family at Chester, where he wrote his Dioptrics, dedicated to the Royal Society. Here he lost his lady, who died soon after she had brought him a son. As soon as tranquillity was restored in Ireland, he returned home; and upon the convening of a new parliament, in 1692, was chosen one of the representatives for Dublin. In 1695 he was elected for the University, whom he represented to the end of his life; and that learned body conferred on him the degree of L.L. D. He was likewise nominated a commissioner for the forfeited estates, with a salary of £500 a year; but declined it as an invidious office. In 1698 he published The Case of Ireland stated, in relation to its being bound by Acts of Parliament made in England. Among those with whom he maintained correspondence and friendship Mr. Locke was in a particular manner attached to him, as appears from their letters. In 1698, which was the last year of his life, he went to England, to visit that great man; and soon after his return to Ireland was seized with a fit of the stone, of which he died. He published several pieces in the Philosophical Trans

actions.

MOMBACA, a kingdom and large town on the eastern coast of Africa, to the south of Melinda. The town was visited by Vasco de Gama in 1497, who was well received, but afterwards an attempt was made to betray him, from which he escaped with some loss. In revenge for this the town was attacked and plundered by Almeda, in 1507. The natives afterwards recovered possession; but in 1529 is was retaken and occupied by the Portuguese till 1631, when the native king, having collected a large force, took it by storm, and put to death all the Portuguese. Since that time the natives have retained possession here, and have treated in the most hostile manner all Europeans. The consequence is, that it is rarely if ever visited. The country is represented as fertile in rice, millet, fruits, and cattle, and the climate as temperate and healthy. It is much frequented by Arab vessels. The town is situated on an island, and defended by a fort.

MOME, n.s. Either Fr. momom, a game MOMMERY. played in silence; or Belgic A dull, stupid blockhead; a stock; a post: an unmeaning show.

moom.

Mome, malthorse, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch! Either get thee from the door, or sit down at the hatch. Shakspeare. All was jollity, Feasting and mirth, light wantonness and laughter, Piping and playing, minstrelsy and masking,

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Till life fled from us like an idle dream, A shew of mommery without a meaning.

MOʻMENT, n. s. MO'MENTALLY, adv. MOMENTA NEOUS adj. MOMENTANY, MOMENTARY, MOMENTOUS.

Rowe.

Fr. moment; Lat. momentum, impulse, or any thing causing motion: hence the smallest motion, and hence, probably, that small particle of time called a moment. Weight; active power; consequence; importance; a small indivisible portion of time: momentally, for a moment: momentaneous, momentany, and momentary, all mean lasting for, or done in a moment: momentous, weighty; important.

We do not find that our Saviour reproved them of error, for thinking the judgment of the scribes to be worth the objecting, for esteeming it to be of any moment or value in matters concerning God.

Hooker.

Small difficulties, when exceeding great good is sure to ensue; and, on the other side, momentany benefits, when the hurt which they draw after them is unspeakable, are not at all to be respected. Id

What towns of any moment but we have?

Shakspeare.
If I would go to hell for an eternal moment, or so,
I could be knighted.
Id. Merry Wives.

Momentary as sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream.

Shakspeare. Flame above is durable and consistent; but with Bacon. us it is a stranger and momentary.

Can these or such be any aid to us? Look they as they were built to shake the world? Or be a moment to our enterprise?

Scarce could the shady king

Ben Jonson.

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MOMORDICA, male balsam apple, a genus of the syngenesia order, and monœcia class of plants; natural order thirty-fourth, cucurbitaceae: MALE CAL. quinquefid: COR. sexpartite; the filaments are three in number: FEMALE CAL. trifid: COR. quinquepartite; style trifid; fruit an apple parting asunder with a spring. The most remarkable species are:

1. M. balsamina, the male balsam apple, is a native of Asia, and has a trailing stalk like the melon, with smooth leaves, cut into several segments, and spread open like a hand. The fruit is oval, ending in acute points, having several deep angles, with sharp tubercles placed on their edges. It changes to a red or purplish color when ripe, opening with an elasticity, and throwing out its seeds. This species is famous in Syria for curing wounds. The natives cut open the unripe fruit, and infuse it in sweet oil, which they expose to the sun for some days, until it become red, and then present it for use. Dropped on cotton, and applied to a fresh wound, the Syrians reckon this oil the best vulnerary next to balsam of Mecca. It often cures

large wounds in three days. The leaves and stems are used for arbors or bowers.

2. M. elaterium, wild or spurting cucumber, has a large fleshy root somewhat like briony, whence come forth every spring several thick, rough, trailing stalks, dividing into many branches, and extending every way two or three feet these are garnished with thick, rough, almost heart-shaped leaves, of a gray color, standing upon long foot-stalks. The flowers come out from the wings of the stalks: these are male and female, growing at different places on the same plant like those of the common cucumber: but they are much less, of a pale yellow color, with a greenish bottom; the male flowers stand upon thick, short foot-stalks, but the female flowers sit upon the young fruit: which, after the flower is faded, grows into an oval form, an inch and a half long, swelling like a cucumber, of a gray color like the leaves, and covered over with short prickles. The elaterium of the shops is the fruit, or rather the inspissated fæcula, of the juice of the unripe fruit of this species. It is usually sent from Spain and the southern parts of France, where the plant is common, in small, flat, whitish lumps, or cakes, that are dry, and break easily between the fingers. It is of an acrid, nauseous, bitter taste, and has a strong offensive smell when newly made; but these, as well as its other properties, it loses after being kept for some time. It is a very violent purge and vomit, and is now seldom used. From the property which the plant has of throwing out its seeds, with a violent force, upon being touched, it has sometimes been called Noli me tangere.

MOMUS, in mythology, the god of raillery, or the jester of the celestial assembly, who ridiculed both gods and men. Being chosen by Vulcan, Neptune, and Minerva, to give his judgment concerning their works, he blamed them all Neptune for not making his bull with horns before his eyes, in order that he might give a surer blow; Minerva for building a house that could not be removed in case of bad neighbours; and Vulcan for making a man without a window in his breast that his treacheries might be seen. For his free reflections upon the gods Momus was driven from heaven. He is generally represented raising a mask from his face, and holding a small figure in his hand.

MONA, in ancient geography, an island in the sea, between Britain and Ireland, described by Cæsar as situated in the mid passage between both islands, and stretching out in length from south to north; called Monaæda by Ptolemy; Monapia, or Monabia, by Pliny: supposed to be the Isle of Man.

MONA, another island, between Britain and Ireland, mentioned by Tacitus, more to the south, and of greater breadth, than the above; situated on the coast of the Ordovices, and separated by a narrow strait, an ancient seat of the Druids, now Anglesey. See ANGLESEY.

MONA, and MONITA, i. e. the monkey and his cub, two West India Islands in the middle of the passage between Hispaniola and Porto Rico. The Mona Isle is seven miles from east to west, and nearly two wide, once in good cultivation. It is now abandoned to wild goats, and so seldom

approached, that a sailor has been known to have been six months on it before any passing vessel observed his signals.

MONACO, a principality of the Sardinian states, bounded by the county of Nice, the Genoa territory, and the sea. Its superficial extent is fifty-five square miles; sheltered on the north side by lofty mountains, and open on the south to the Mediterranean. Its climate is of a high temperature, and favorable to the growth of oranges, lemons, olives, &c. The pastures also are good, and the cattle numerous. Inhabitants about 6000. The towns are Monaco and Mentone, containing together about 3000 inhabitants. Monaco, until 1792, was governed by its own princes: in that year the French incorporated it with their republic, and retained possession of it until 1815, when it was placed under the king of Sardinia, reserving, however, the rent of the lands (about £5000 a year) to the prince.

MONACO, a small town, the capital of the above principality, is situated on a steep rock, projecting into the sea. Population 1200. It is seven miles west of Nice.

MOʻNAD, n. s. Į Gr. povac. An indivisible thing.

Mo'NADE.

Disunity is the natural property of matter, which of itself is nothing but an infinite congeries of physical monads.

More.

MONAGHAN, a county in the province of Ulster, and kingdom of Ireland. It is bounded on the north by Tyrone, on the east by Armagh, on the south by Cavan, and on the west by Fermanagh county. Monaghan comprises 288,500 statute acres, of which 72,855 are exempted from county cess. A loss, in this case, much to be regretted, many of the great landed proprietors being natives and residents of the sister kingdom. The baronies are Cremourne, Dartney, Farney, Monaghan, and Trough, divided into but twenty parishes, averaging about 14,000

acres

to each. The population amounts to 174,000; the number of dwellings to 32,000; and the number of children receiving gratuitous education exceeds 7000. The chief towns are Monaghan, the place of assizes, having a jail, a barrack, and an endowed classical school, Bally bay, Clones, Newbliss, Castle-Blaney, Carrickmacross, Smithborough, Emyvale, and Glasslough. The surface of Monaghan is hilly, but not mountainous, save on the north-west angle, where the Sliebh-Raughley range intrudes. There are many small lakes scattered amongst the numerous little eminences that encumber the face of this county, but no river of magnitude except the Blackwater.

Monaghan is not deficient in mineral treasures. Rich lead ore and antimony have been discovered in the elevated lands stretching from Ballybay to Clontibrid; and coal of a good quality at Carrickmacross. The staple of Monaghan is linen cloth, most of the county being devoted to its manufacture: no fewer than fourteen bleach mills exist on one small stream, issuing from an insignificant pool in the high lands. The roads of this county are in general excellent: but one claims particular notice, that is, the great road from Dublin to Derry, which, in passing through this county, has been most skillfully constructed.

The funds for this purpose were advanced by government, and are to be repaid by instalments from the grand jury. The parishes of Monaghan, but few in number, are provided with churches, glebe houses, and lands upon a very liberal scale, and the tithes of most of them are now arranged under the commutation act of Mr. Goulburne.

MONAGHAN, the chief town in the above county, is eighty-four miles distant from Dublin on the new line of road. The streets are wide, and well laid out; the jail is an architectural and well designed edifice; and the diocesan school is an imposing object. This town would undoubtedly derive much benefit from the execution of the proposed canal that is to connect Lough Erne with Lough Neagh. MON'ARCH, n. s. Fr. monarch; Gr. μeMON'ARCHIAL, adj. vapxos. A suprenie govMONARCH'ICAL, ernor; a king: to moMON'ARCHISE, v.n. narchise is to assume MON'ARCHY, n. s. kingly state monarchy, the system of monarchical government, or the state governed.

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Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth Do all expect that you should rouse yourself.

Shakspeare.

Id.

Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyne, In thy vats our cares be drowned. Allowing him a breath, a little scene To monarchise, be feared, and kill with looks. Id. I past Unto the kingdom of perpetual night. The first that there did greet my stranger soul, Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick, Who cried aloud, What scourge for perjury Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence? Id.

That storks will only live in free states is a pretty conceit to advance the opinion of popular policies, and from antipathies in nature to disparage monarch

ical government.

Browne.

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without subjecting us to the dangers and inconveniences of either. Sir R. Walpole. The decretals resolve all into a monarchical power at Rome. Baker's Reflections on Learning.

A MONARCHY is a state governed by an individual head or where the supreme power is lodged in the hands of a single person. Of the three forms of government, viz. democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy, the last is the most powerful, all the sinews of government being knit together, and united in the hand of the prince; but then there is imminent danger of his employing that power to oppressive purposes. As a democracy is the best calculated to direct the end of a law, and an aristocracy to invent the means by which that end shall be obtained, a monarchy is most fit for carrying these means into execution.

Of monarchies some are absolute and despotic, where the will of the monarch is uncontrolable; others are limited, where the prince's authority is restrained by laws, and part of the supreme power lodged in other hands, as in Britain. Some monarchies again are hereditary, where the succession devolves immediately from father to son; and others are elective, where, on the death of the monarch, his successor is appointed by election, as in Poland, before its dismemberment. The most ancient monarchy was that of the Assyrians, which was founded soon after the deluge. Historians usually reckon four grand or almost universal monarchies or empires, the ASSYRIAN, PERSIAN, GRECIAN, and ROMAN, of which we treat in their due order, or alphabetical place. The strong resemblance of these four universal empires to the prophetic description of them given by Daniel, under the similitude of four great beasts (an emphatical scriptural expression for the various tyrannies that have prevailed among mankind), and this vision being seen too by the prophet at a time when only the first of them had begun to exercise its tyranny over the world, must satisfy every man of the divine inspiration of that prophet. See Daniel ii., vii., and viii.; Prideaux's Connexion; Selden, De Quatuor Monarchiis, &c. MONARDA, Indian horehound, Oswego tea, or American field basil, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, and diandria class of plants; natural order forty-second, verticillata: COR. unequal, with the upper lip linear, involving the filaments: SEEDS four. The most remarkable species is :-

M. zeylanica, a native of the East Indies. It rises with an herbaceous four-cornered, hoary stalk, and bears leaves that are entire, nearly heart-shaped, woolly, deep-notched on the edges, and having foot-stalks. The flowers, which are purplish and fragrant, surround the stalk in whorls, each whorl containing about fourteen flowers; and are succeeded by four small kidney-shaped shining seeds, lodged in the bottom of the permanent flower cup. The Indians superstitiously believe that a fumigation of this plant is effectual for driving away the evil spirit; and from this imaginary property its name, in the Ceylonese language, is derived. Grimmius relates, in his Laboratorium Ceylonicum, that for taste and smell this species of horehound

stands remarkably distinguished. A water and subtile oil are obtained from it, both of which are greatly commended in obstructions of the matrix. A syrup is likewise prepared from it, which is useful in these disorders, as well as in diseases of the stomach.

MONARDES (Nicholas), an excellent Spanish physician of Seville, who lived in the sixteenth century, and deservedly acquired great reputation by his skill and writings. His Spanish works were translated into Latin by Clusius, into Italian by Annibal Brigantus, and those upon American drugs have appeared in English. He died about 1578.

MONASTEREVAN, a post town of Ireland, in Kildare, Leinster, thirty-six miles from Dublin. This town has its name from a magnificent monastery which was founded here, in which St. Evan, in the beginning of the seventh century, placed a number of monks from St. Munster, and which was a sanctuary. St. Evan's festival is held on the 22d December. At the suppression of monasteries this abbey was granted to George lord Audley, who assigned it to Adam Loftus, viscount Ely. It afterwards came into the family of Moor, earls of Drogheda, and has been beautifully repaired by lord Drogheda, yet still preserving the venerable appearance of an abbey. The grand canal is carried up to this town from Dublin, since which it has been much enlarged with new buildings. It is a market town, and holds four fairs. MONASTERY, n. s MONASTIC, adj. MONASTICALLY, adv.

Fr. monastere; Lat.

monasterium.

A re

ligious house or convent: monastic, of or pertaining to such an establishment, or to the habits of a monk.

I drave my suitor to forswear the full stream of the world, and to live in a nook merely monastick.

Shakspeare. As You Like It. When young, you led a life monastick, And wore a vest ecclesiastick;

Denham.

Now in your age you grow fantastick. of friers derive the institution of their monastick life The silicious and hairy vests of the strictest orders from the example of John and Elias.

Browne's Vulgar Errours. Then courts of kings were held in high renown; There, virgins honourable vows received, But chaste as maids in monasteries lived. Dryden.

In a monastery your devotions cannot carry you so far toward the next world, as to make this lose the sight of you. Pope.

I have a dozen years more to answer for, all monastically passed in this country of liberty and delight. Swift.

MONASTERY, is only properly applied to the houses of monks, mendicant friars, and nurs: abbeys, priories, &c., are more properly called religious houses. The houses belonging to the several religious orders in England and Wales were cathedrals, colleges, abbeys, priories, preceptories, commanderies, hospitals, friaries, hermitages, chantries, and free chapels. These were under the direction and management of various officers. The dissolution of houses of this kind began so early as 1312, when the templars were suppressed; and in 1323 their lands, churches, advowsons, and liberties, in England, were given by 17 Ed. II. stat. 3 to the prior and brethren of the hospital

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