small glass tumbler, the one male, the other female, having a bag filled with eggs affixed on each side the abdomen. In the space of fourteen days the increase was astonishing: it would have been impossible to have taken a single drop of water out of the glass, without taking with it either the larva or a young monoculus. I again repeated the experiment, by selecting another pair; and at the expiration of the last fourteen days my surprise was increased beyond measure. The contents of the glass appeared a mass of quick-moving animated matter; and being diversified by colors of red, green, ashcolor, white, &c., afforded, with the assistance of the magnifier, considerable entertainment. M. quadricornis, the four-horned monoculus, a very small species, about half a line in length, and of an ashen-gray color. From the head arise four antennæ, two forwards and two backwards; all furnished with a few hairs, which give them the figure of a branch. Between the antennæ, on the fore part of the head, is situated a single eye. From the head to the tail the body goes down, decreasing in shape like a pear; and is composed of seven or eight rings, which grow continually more straitened. The tail is long, divided into two; each division giving rise outwardly to three or four bristly, hairs. The animal carries its eggs on the two sides of its tail, in the form of two yellowish parcels filled with small grains, and which, taken together, nearly equal the insect in bigness. This minute insect is found in standing pools. A number of them being kept in a bottle of water, some will be seen loaded with their eggs, and after a while depositing the two parcels, either jointly or separately. MONODON, in ichthyology, a genus of fishes belonging to the order of cete; the characters of which are these: there are two very long, straight, and spirally twisted teeth, which stick out from the upper jaw; and the spiracle, or breathing bole, is situated on the anterior part of the skull. There is but one species: M. monoceros, the horned narwhal, sometimes grows to twenty-five feet in length, exclusive of the horn, or, as some authors say, to forty, or even sixty feet long, and twelve broad; but the usual size is from sixteen to twenty. It is particularly noted for its horn or horns. Of these there are always two in young animals; though the old ones have generally but one, sometimes none. From the circumstance of only one tooth being usually found, the animal has acquired the name of unicorn fish, or sea unicorn. They inhabit the northern seas, from Norway to within the Arctic Circle: they are plentiful in Davis's Straits and the north of Greenland; where the natives, for want of wood, make rafters of the horns. From the tooth or horn may be distilled a very strong sal volatile: the scrapings are esteemed alexipharmic, and were used of old in malignant fevers, and against the bites of serpents. The use of it to the animal seems to be chiefly as a weapon of offence, and a very powerful one it appears to be: there are many instances of its having been found in the bottom of ships which returned from the north seas, probably owing to the animal's mistaking the ship for a whale, and attacking it with such fury as not to be able to get out the weapon from the wood. It may also serve as an instrument to loosen and disengage from the rocks or bottom of the sea the sea plants on which it feeds. These fishes swim swiftly, and can only be struck when numbers happen to be found together, and obstruct their own course with their horns. Their skin is white, with black spots on the back, and has a great quantity of blubber underneath. The tooth. of this animal was anciently imposed upon the world as the horn of a unicorn, and sold at a very high price. There is a magnificent throne made of this species of ivory for the Danish monarchs, which is still preserved in the castle at Rosenberg. The price of this material was superior to gold. MON'ODY, n. s. Fr. monodie; Gr. μovwdia. A poem sung by one person, not in dialogue: or see below. MONODY, from μovoç, alone, and adw, I sing, was, in ancient poetry, a mournful kind of song, sung by a person all alone, to give vent to his grief. MONECIA, from μovog, alone, and oikia, a house; the twenty-first class in Linnæus's sexual method. See BOTANY. MONOG'AMY, n. s. Į Fr. monogamie; Gr MONOG'AMIST. 4 μονος and γαμος, marriage. The marriage of one wife: one who disallows polygamy, or second marriages. Monogamy is the state or condition of those who have only married once, or are restrained to a single wife. Dr. Rees. MONOGYNIA, from μovos, alone, and yuvŋ, a woman, the first order in the first thirteen classes of Linnæus's sexual method; consisting of plants which, besides their agreement in their classic character, generally derived from the number of their stamina, have only one style, or female organ. See BOTANY. MONOLOGUE, n. s. Fr. monologue; Gr. μόνος and λόγος. A scene in which a person of the drama speaks by himself; a soliloquy. He gives you an account of himself, and of his returning from the country, in monologue; to which unnatural way of narration Terence is subject in all Dryden. his plays. MONONGAHELA, a river of the United States, which rises at the foot of Laurel Mountain in Virginia; thence meanders north by east into Pennsylvania; thence winding north by west separates Fayette and Westmoreland from Washington County, and, passing into Alleghany County, joins the Alleghany at Pittsburg, and forms the Ohio. See ОHIо. About fifteen miles from its mouth it receives the Youghiogany from the south-east. It is about 220 miles long from its source to its mouth, and 300 yards broad for ninety-five miles. MONOPHYSITES, from povog, alone, and quoc, nature, a general name given to those churches in the Levant who own only one nature in Jesus Christ; and who maintain that the divine and human nature of Christ were so united as to form only one nature, yet without any change, confusion, or mixture of the two natures. The monophysites, however, properly so called, are the followers of Severus, a learned monk of Palestine, who was created patriarch of Antioch in 513, and of Petrus Fullensis. They were encou raged by the emperor Anastatius, but depressed by Justin and succeeding emperors. However, this sect was restored by Jacob Baradæus, an obscure monk, insomuch, that when he died bishop of Edessa A. D. 588, he left it in a most flourishing state in Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and other countries. The laborious efforts of Jacob were seconded in Egypt and the adjacent countries by Theodosius bishop of Alexandria; and he became so famous, that all the monophysites of the east considered him as their second founder, and are called Jacobites, in honor of their new chief. The monophysites are divided into two sects or parties, the one African, the other Asiatic: at the head of the latter is the patriarch of Antioch, who resides for the most part in the monastery of St. Ananias, near the city of Merdin: the former are under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Alexandria, who generally resides at Grand Cairo, and are subdivided into Cophts and Abyssinians. From the fifteenth century downwards, all the patriarchs of the monophysites have taken the name of Ignatius, to show that they are the lineal successors of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch in the first century, and consequently the lawful patriarchs of Antioch. In the seventeenth century, a small body of the monophysites in Asia abandoned for some time the doctrine and institution of their ancestors, and embraced the communion of Rome: but the African monophysites, notwithstanding that poverty and ignorance which exposed them to the seductions of sophistry and gain, stood firm in their principles, and made an obstinate resistance to the promises, presents, and attempts employed by the papal missionaries to bring them under the Roman yoke; and, in the eighteenth century, those of Asia and Africa have persisted in their refusal to enter the communion of the Romish church, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties and allur ing offers that have been made from time to time by the pope's legates, to conquer their inflexible constancy. MONOPOLI, a well built town of Naples, in the Terra di Bari, on the Adriatic. It contains a fine cathedral, a number of other churches, and has 15,600 inhabitants. Its manufactures are hempen and other stuffs; and its trade in these articles, wine and cloves. Six miles off are the remains of the ancient Egnotia, and several curious subterranean villages in the neighbourhood. MONOPOLY, n. s. Fren. monopole; Gr. of sale: exclusive right of market: it is commonly used for an usurped privilege or advantage of this kind: monopolist is one who obtains this privilege in any way: to monopolise is to engross the sole power or privilege of sale. It moves me more perhaps than folly ought, When some green heads, as void of wit or thought, Suppose themselves monopolists of sense, And wiser men's ability pretence. Cowper. A MONOPOLY, in law, is the act of one or more persons making themselves the sole masters of the whole of a commodity, manufacture, and the like, in order to make private advantage of it, by selling it again at a very advanced price: or it is a license or privilege allowed by the king for the sole buying and selling, making, working, or using any thing whatsoever. Monopolies had been carried to an enormous height during the reign of queen Elizabeth; and were heavily complained of by Sir Edward Coke, in the beginning of the reign of king James I.: but were in great measure remedied by statute 21 Jac. I. c. 3, which declares such monopolies to be contrary to law, and void (except as to patents, not exceeding the grant of fourteen years, to the authors of new inventions, and except also patents concerning printing, saltpetre, gunpowder, great ordnance, and shot); and monopolists are punished with the forfeiture of treble damages and double costs, to those whom they attempt to disturb; and if they procure any action, brought against them for these damages, to be stayed by any extrajudicial order, other than of the court wherein it is brought, they incur the penalties of præmunire. Combinations also, among victuallers or artificers, to raise the price of provisions, or any commodities, or the rate of labor, are in many cases severely punished by particular statute; and, in general, by statute 2 and 3 Edw. VI. c. 15, with the forfeiture of £10 or twenty days' imprisonment, with an allowance of only bread and water, for the first offence; £20 or the pillory for the second; and £40 for the third, or else the pillory, loss of one ear, and perpetual infamy. In the same manner, by a constitution of the emperor Zeno, all monopolies and combinations to keep up the price of merchandise, provisions, or workmanship, were prohibited, under pain of a forfeiture of goods and perpetual banishment. Dr. Smith's opinion respecting engrossing and forestalling is well known; the popular fear respecting them he compares to the popular terrors and suspicions of witchcraft, and he concludes by observing, that the law which should restore entire freedom to the inland trade of corn would probably prove as effectual to put an end to the popular fears of engrossing and forestalling, as the law which put an end to all prosecutions for witchcraft, destroyed the fear and suspicion of it, by taking away the great cause which encouraged and supported them. 'If,' says Dr. Smith, a merchant ever buys up corn, either going to a particular market, or in a particular market, in order to sell it again soon after in the same market, it must be because he judges that the market cannot be so liberally supplied through the whole season as upon that particular occasion, and that the price, therefore, must soon rise. If he judges wrong in this, and if the price does not rise, he not only loses the whole profit of the stock which he employs in this manner, but a part of the stock itself, by the expense and loss which necessarily attend the storing and keeping of corn. He hurts himself, therefore, much more essentially than he can hurt even the particular people whom he may hinder from supplying themselves upon that particular market day, because they may afterwards supply themselves just as cheap upon any other market day. If he judges right, instead of hurting the great body of the people, he renders them a most important service. By making them feel the inconveniences of a dearth somewhat earlier than they otherwise might do, he prevents their feeling them afterwards so severely as they certainly would do, if the cheapness of price encouraged them to consume faster than suited the real scarcity of the season. When the scarcity is real, the best thing that can be done for the people is to divide the inconveniences of it as equally as possible through all the different months, and weeks, and days of the year. The interest of the corn merchant makes him study to do this as exactly as he can : and as no other person can have either the same interest, or the same knowledge, or the same abilities to do it so exactly as he, this most important operation of commerce ought to be trusted entirely to him; or, in other words, the corn trade, so far at least as concerns the supply of the home market, ought to be left perfectly free.' Indeed, when we consider the numerous and great obstacles and difficulties which must lie in the way of every person who attempts to get into his possession the whole, or the greater part of any commodity; the immense capital or credit which he must possess; the confidence he must place on the integrity of his agents, and the reliance he must have on their skill and judgment; the effect on the price of the commodity, which his attempts to monopolise it must necessarily produce; and the great probability that he will be compelled to desist from his undertaking long before he has brought it to a close, from an erroneous calculation of his means: it will appear evident that it cannot be the interest of any man to risque his capital in such an absurd and impracticable undertaking. If there should be persons so blind to their own interests as to begin the attempt, their punishment may safely be left to flow from their own measures, as long before they can materially, or even in a trifling degree, injure the public, they will either open their eyes to their own folly, or be incapacitated by their own ruin from proceeding in their enterprise. MONOPTOTE, n. s. Gr. μóvoç and Two. A noun used only in some one oblique case. Pope. language was already overstocked with monosyllables, Poets, although not insensible how much our yet, to save time and pains, introduced that barbarous custom of abbreviating words, to fit them to the measure of their verses. Swift. ble, ending with a single consonant preceded by Monosyllables and words accented on the last sylla a single vowel, double that consonant, when they take another syllable beginning with a vowel. Murray. MONOTHELITES, from povos, single, and 9λnua, will, an ancient sect which sprung out of the Eutychians; thus called, as only allowing of one will in Jesus Christ. The Monothelites had their rise in 630, and had the emperor Heraclius for an adherent: they were the same with the Acephalous Severians. They allowed of two wills in Christ, considered with regard to the two natures; but reduced them to one, by reason of the union of the two natures; thinking it absurd there should be two free wills in one and the general council in 680, as being supposed to desame person. They were condemned by the sixth stroy the perfection of the humanity of Jesus Christ, depriving it of will and operation. Their sentiments were afterwards embraced by the Ma ronites. MONOTONY, n.s. Gr. μονοτονία, μόνος and Tovos, sound; Fr. monotonie. Uniformity of sound; want of variety in cadence. I could object to the repetition of the same rhymes within four lines of each other as tiresome to the ear through their monotony. Pope's Letters. A mechanical attention to these resting-places has perhaps been one cause of monotony, by leading the reader to a similar tone at every stop, and a uniform cadence at every period. Murray. MONOTROPA, bird's-nest, a genus of the monogynia order, and monandria class of plants: CAL. none; petals ten; and of these the five exterior have a melliferous hollow at the base : CAPS. quinquevalved. In some of the flowers a fifth part of the number is excluded. There are two species. The most remarkable is, M. hippopithys, a native of Britain and some of the more northerly kingdoms of Europe. It is about five inches high, having no other leaves than oval scales, and terminated with a nodding spike of flowers, which in the seeding state becomes erect the whole plant is of a pale yellow color, smelling like the primrose, or like beans in blossom. The country people in Sweden give the dried plant to cattle that have a cough. MONREALE, a charming town of Sicily, about two miles W.S. W. of Palermo: its situation in particular is beautiful, and its cathedral one of the finest specimens extant of the enriched Gothic architecture. Its roof is supported by pillars, and the walls are covered with morasses. Population about 8000. In the vicinity is a well endowed convent. by Dr. Alexander Monro, his son and successor, in a splendid 4to volume; Edinburgh, 1781; to which he prefixed a life of the author, by another of his sons. MONRO (John), M. D., an eminent English physician, born at Greenwich in Kent, but descended of a Scottish family. He was educated in London, and afterwards at St. John's College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow, and from which he received his degree while he was abroad; for he studied physic at several universities. In 1757 he was appointed joint physician along with his father, to Bridewell and Bethlehem hospitals. He published an excellent answer to Dr. Battie's Treatise on Madness, and died in 1791. MONS, a fine old fortified town of the Netherlands, the capital of Hainault, stands partly on a hill, and partly in a plain, on the small river Trouille. It is surrounded by an earthen mound and ditch, and is the only strong place between Brussels and the French frontier. It has several squares, and tolerably regular streets. The market place contains the government-house, and the house of the provincial council. The hotel de ville, a large old building, erected in 1716, has a fine steeple, and is situated in a square where the principal streets meet. The church of St. Elizabeth is remarkable as occupying the site of an ancient castle, demolished in 1618, and said to have been founded by Julius Cæsar. The charitable institutions are, a large hospital con structed by Vauban, a foundling hospital, and a workhouse. The public library is extensive : and Mons has woollen, cotton, linen, and lace manufactories of good extent. Its command of coal has led likewise to the establishment of iron foundries, salt works, earthenware, oil, and soap works; in all of which articles its trade is considerable. It communicates with Paris by the canal of St. Quentin. Mons has frequently experienced the depopulating effects of war. In 1691 it was besieged by Louis XIV.; when, to prevent its bombardment, the citizens compelled the governor to capitulate. In 1709 it was taken by the duke of Marlborough and prince Eugene, after the battle of Malplaquet. In 1746 it was again taken by marshal Saxe; and in the wars of the French revolution (1792, 1793, 1794), it was successively taken and retaken by opposing parties. Twenty-three miles E. N. E. of Valenciennes, and thirty-six S. S. W. of Brussels. Population 20,000. MONRO (Dr. Alexander), senior, a most eminent physician and anatomist. He showed an early inclination to the study of physic; and his father, after giving him the best education that Edinburgh afforded, sent him successively to London, Paris, and Leyden. In London he attended the lectures of Messrs. Hawksbee and Whiston on experimentaì philosophy, and the anatomical demonstrations of Mr. Cheselden. In Paris he attended the hospitals, and the lectures on physic and surgery. In autumn 1718 he went to Leyden, and studied under the great Boerhaave, by whom he was particularly esteemed. On his return to Edinburgh, in autumn 1719, Messrs. Drummond and Macgill, who were then conjunct nominal professors of anatomy to the Surgeon's Company, having resigned in his favor, he began to read public lectures on anatomy, which were the first regular course of lectures on any of the branches of medicine that had ever been read at Edinburgh, and may be considered as the opening of that medical school which has since acquired such great reputation all over Europe. About 1720 his father communicated to the physicians and surgeons at Edinburgh a plan, which he had long formed in his own mind, of having the different branches of physic and surgery regularly taught at Edinburgh; which was highly approved of by them, and by their interest regular professorships of anatomy and medicine were instituted in the university, of the former of which Dr. Monro was the first professor. But, although he was elected to this professorship in 1721, he was not inducted into the university till the year 1725. From this time he regularly gave a course of lectures on anatomy and surgery, from October to May. A task in which he persevered with the greatest assiduity, and without the least interruption, for nearly forty years; and so great was the reputation he had acquired, that students flocked to him from the most distant corners of the empire. In 1759 our professor entirely relinquished the anatomical theatre to his son Dr. Alexander, who had returned from abroad, and had assisted MONS SACER, in ancient geography, a mounhim in the course of lectures in 1758. He still, tain of the Sabines beyond the Anio, to the however, rendered his labors useful to mankind, east of Rome; whither the people retired once by reading clinical lectures at the hospital. He and again to avoid the tyranny of the patrihad the satisfaction to behold that seminary of cians. From this secession, and the altar of medical education which his father had planned, Jupiter Terribilis erected there, the mountain and he had begun, frequented yearly by 300 or took its name. 400 students and to see it arrive at a degree of reputation far beyond his most sanguine hopes, being equalled by few, and excelled by none in Europe. He was elected F. R. S. of London, and an honorary memberof the Royal Academy of Surgery at Paris. He died July 10th 1767, in the seventieth year of his age. A collection of all his works, properly arranged, corrected, and illustrated with copper plates, has been published MONSELICE, a town of Italy, in the province of Padua, situated on a navigable canal. It is ten miles from the Adige River, and twenty from the Po, and has considerable manufactures of woollen and linen. It has also a brisk trade by its canal with Padua. Population 9000. Ten miles S. S. W. of Padua. MON'SIEUR, n. s. Fr. Sometimes a term of reproach for a Frenchman. A Frenchman his companion; An eminent monsieur, that, it seems, much loves A Gallian girl. Shakspeare. Cymbeline. MONSIGNORI (Francesco), a celebrated painter, born at Verona in 1455. He studied under Andrea Mantegna, by whose precepts he acquired a good taste for historical composition, and an excellent style of portrait painting. His talents procured him the patronage of the marquis of Mantua, who allowed him a large pension, and employed him several years. He was accustomed to amuse himself often in observing Monsignori at work; and, one day taking particular notice of a picture representing the death of Sebastian, the marquis acknowledged every part of the painting to be elegant, but objected that the expression of the figure was not natural, as neither in the look, the limbs, or attitude, appeared the agony of a person in such a situation, bound with cords, and pierced with arrows. The painter asserted the truth of his figure, and endeavoured to justify it, by affirming, that he had taken every part from nature, having engaged a porter for his model, who was tied in the posture described in the painting. The marquis desired to see the porter in the proper position the next day, that it might be determined which of them judged best, according to truth and nature. As soon, therefore, as the marquis was informed that the apparatus was ready, he rushed suddenly into the room, having in his hand a cross-bow fixed for execution; and, with a countenance distorted with fury, cried aloud to the porter, Traitor! prepare for death! -you shall die instantly!'-As he approached, the porter, terrified, struggled, and strained every muscle, joint, and limb, to disengage himself, each line of his face expressing the agony of his mind. 'Now,' said the marquis to the painter, 'compare your two models; what he was yesterday, while unterrified; and what he is now, under the dread of execution; and do you determine which has most of nature, and which expression is most suitable to the situation of Sebastian.' The painter profited by the experiment, confessed the justice of the observation, altered his design, and improved it so much that it was allowed to be the finest of all his performances. Monsignori copied animals with astonishing accuracy, and excelled in perspective. He died in 1519. MONSOON', n. s. Fr. monson, monçon ; Arab. MONSOONS. In the Indian ocean these winds are partly general, and blow all the year round the same way, as in the Ethiopic Ocean; and partly periodical, i. e. half the year blow one way, and the other half nearly on the opposite points: and these points and times of shifting differ in different parts of this ocean. These The shifting latter are what we call monsoons. of these monsoons is not all at once; in some places the time of the change is attended with MONSTER, n.s. & v. a. French monstre, monstreux; Latin monstrosus. An unnatural production; something physically or morally deformed, or unshapely, strange or wicked: Shakspeare uses it as a verb for to disorder, or put out of the common order of things: monstrosity and monstruosity are the state of being monstrous: monstrous is, strange; irregular; enormous; unusually hateful or shocking: as an adverb it is generally used in banter or reproach. The other derivatives explain themselves. |