MOSOSAURUS-MOSQUE. Commentarii (Helmst. 1753); Dissertationes ad Hist. Ecclesiasticam pertinentes (2 vols. new ed. Altona, 1767); and Versuch einer unparteiischen Ketzergeschichte (2 vols. Helmst. 1746-1748). IIis standpoint is that of liberal orthodoxy; yet he is essentially dogmatic, and pays more regard to the mere 'opinions' of men than to the character and genius shining through them; hence, his Church History is far inferior in point of richness, depth, and suggestiveness to that of Neander. MOSOSAURUS (MEUSE LIZARD), a genus of huge marine lizards, whose remains occur in rocks of cretaceous age. It is the type of a distinct order of Reptilia, the Pythonomorpha, of which 33 species have been described, 30 from North America, the remainder European. One of the latter (M. Hofmanii) was first known from a nearly perfect head dug out Head of Mososaurus. wards that part of the town in which the precious specimen was deposited. This head is four feet in length, and the animal to which it belonged is esti. mated to have been 40 feet long. The total number of the vertebrae was 133; they were concave in front and convex behind, and were fitted to each other by a ball-and-socket joint, admitting of easy and universal flexion. The only limbs are two anterior paddles. The form of the body is excessively elongate, and the tail so prolonged and attenuated at the end, as well as flattened, as to give these animals somewhat the form of gigantic eels. They were carnivorous, and evidently swallowed large objects whole. As the suspensor of the lower jaw was not as elongate as in the serpents, and did not allow of the same extension of the gape, an extra articulation was situated in each branch of the ramus of the under jaw, which allowed of a lateral expansion of the fauces. Cope first showed the affinities of these reptiles to be in part with the serpents and in part the lizards. They were supposed by Cuvier to be near the monitors. The largest species, M. maximus, from New Jersey beds, was probably 75 feet in length; M.missouriensis, from Kansas, was scarcely smaller. The Baptosauri present marked modifications, and the Clidastes (q. v.) contain the smaller species; C. propython, from Alabama, the least, was 14 feet in length. The largest existing Lacertian is 5 feet in length. MOSQUE, Arabic mesjid, Ital. moschea, a Mohammedan house of prayer. The form of the oldest mosques (at Jerusalem and Cairo) is evidently derived from that of the Christian Basilica. The original forms became, however, entirely obliterated in the progress of Mohammedan architecture, and arcaded courts, gateways, domes, and minarets, became characteristic of Saracenic art. Wherever the Mohammedan faith prevailed, from Spain to India, beautiful examples of these buildThey vary considerably in style in of St Peter's Mount in 1780, and popularly called the Great Mosque at Delhi, from the North-east.-From Fergusson's Hand-Book of Architecture. different countries, the Saracens generally borrowing much from the architecture of the various nations who adopted their faith. In India, the mosques have many features in common with the temples of the Jains, while in Turkey they resemble the Byzantine architecture of Constantinople. Everywhere the dome is one of the leading and most beautiful features of the mosques, which commonly consist of porticoes surrounding an open square, in the centre of which is a tank or fountain for ablution. Ara besques and sentences of the Koran inscribed upou the walls, which are generally white-washed, and never bear any device representing a living thing, are the only ornaments of the interior. The floor is generally covered with mats or carpets; there are no seats. In the south-east is a kind of pulpit (Mimbar) for the Imám; and in the direction in which Mecca lies (the Kibleh), there is a niche (Mehrab) towards which the faithful are required to look when they pray. Opposite the pulpit, there MOSQUITO-MOSSES. is generally a platform (Dikkeh), surrounded by a parapet, with a desk bearing the Koran, from which portions are read to the congregation. The five daily prayers (see MOHAMMEDANISM), which are generally Baid at home-especially by the better classes-on week-days, are said in the mosque by the whole congregation on Fridays, the days of Al-Gumah, or the Assembly, the Moslem Sundays, together with some additional prayers, and at times a sermon is superadded to the service. It is not customary for women to visit the mosques, and if they do, they are sepa rated from the male worshippers. The utmost Bolemnity and decorum are preserved during the service, although in the hours of the afternoon (when there is no worship) people are seen lounging, chatting, even engaged in their trade, in the interior of the sacred building. On entering the mosque, the Moslem takes off his shoes, carries them in his left hand, sole to sole, and putting his right foot first over the threshold, he then performs the necessary ablutions, and finishes by putting his shoes and any arms he may have with him upon the matting before him. The congregation generally arrange themselves in rows parallel to that side of the mosque in which is the niche, and facing that side. The chief officer of a mosque is the Nazir, under whom are two Imams, a kind of religious official, in no way to be compared with what we understand by a clergyman of a creed, but who performs a certain number of religious rites, as long as the Nazir allows him to do so, and who, being very badly remunerated, generally has to find some other occupation besides. There are further many persons attached to a mosque in a lower capacity, as Mueddins (q. v.), Bowwabs (door-keepers), &c., all of whom are paid, not by contributions levied upon the people, but from the funds of the mosque itself. The revenues of mosques are derived from lands. With many of the larger mosques, there are schools, academies (Medressehs), and hospitals connected, and public kitchens, in which food is prepared for the poor. MOSQUITO (Span. gnat), a name very generally given to the most troublesome species of Culex, and allied genera. See GNAT. The name M. is given, according to Humboldt, in some parts of tropical South America to species of Simulia, which are active during the day, whilst species of Culex, active chiefly during the night, are called Zancudoes; but these latter are the mosquitoes of other countries generally. The name was probably first used in the West Indies, where it particularly designates a species (C. Mosquito) very similar to the common gnat, but not quite so large, with black proboscis, and marked with silvery white on the head, thorax, and abdomen. It abounds in the warm parts of America, especially in marshy districts and in the vicinity of stagnant waters. It and similar species extend even to very northern regions, appearing during the heat of summer in prodigious swarms. Similar species are found also in similar situations in almost all parts of the world, and are almost as great a pest in Lapland as within the tropics. The bite which they inflict is painful, and their incessant sharp buzzing prevents sleep. In India and other countries, beds are provided with mosquito curtains of gauze, which are closely drawn, to protect the occupant, while the natives who cannot avail themselves of such protection, smear their bodies with oil. So numerous are mosquitoes in some localities in South America, that the wretched inhabitants sleep with their bodies covered over with sand three or four inches deep, the head only being left out, which they cover with a handkerchief; and travellers have been obliged to have recourse to the same expedient. Even thick clothes afford at best a very partial protection from mosquitoes, being readily penetrated by the proboscis. Mosquitoes are readily attracted to a lamp, and perish in its flame; but where they are numerous, a lamp only causes additional swarms to congregate to its neighbourhood until it is extin guished, as is often very soon the case, by their dead bodies. MOSQUITO COAST, MOSQUITO TERRITORY, or MOSQUITIA, formerly a native king. dom, under the protectorate of Britain, lies on the the north, Nicaragua on the west, and Costa Rica east coast of Central America, having Honduras on on the south. The area is estimated at 15,000 English square miles, but as 20,000 miles of contested territory lie between it, and Honduras and Nicaragua, its extent would be more correctly given at 25,000 square miles. The coast is low, with many bays and lagunes, and possesses a number of good harbours. The two principal rivers are the Rio de Ocean), and the Rio Escondido, both of which flow Segovia (which rises within 35 miles of the Pacific into the Caribbean Sea. The climate is rainy, and the temperature, considering the latitude, is cool and equal, the thermometer seldom rising above $2 or falling below 71°. On the whole, this territory is one of the most healthy parts of Central America Ague is not unusually common, epidemics are exceedingly rare, and white people who do not recklessly expose themselves enjoy the best health. The swampy grounds are generally covered with dense forests, in which dye-woods and timber-trees of great value abound. Rice, maize, manioc, and other tropical plants, are cultivated. The country abounds in deer of various kinds, half-wild horses and oxen roam in the savannahs, which are covered with tall grass, and alligators and serpents are common. The chief exports are mahogany, cocoa, ginger, sarsaparilla, and tortoise-shell, but the whole trade is inconsiderable. The inhabitants are of various races, the greater portion being aboriginal, but many are a cross between the native Indians than from 10,000 to 15,000 in all. Their chief occu and runaway negroes; they do not number more pations are hunting and fishing, but a little agricul ture and cattle breeding are also practised. and though never conquered, was claimed by Spain The M. C. was discovered in 1502 by Columbus, till about 1660, when the king, with consent of his people, placed himself under the protection of Britain. British colonists at different times attempted to found settlements in various parts of the country, but from various causes were soon after compelled to withdraw. Of late years they have met with more success. The foothold Britain thus obtained in Central America was viewed with great jealousy by the United States, who left no means untried to effect her expulsion. During the British protectorate consisting of a legislative body, and regular jury a sort of constitutional government was established, courts. In July 1850, the United States and Great Britain bound themselves by the Clayton-Bulwer treaty not to occupy, fortify, colonise, or exercise dominion over the M. C., or any part of Central America;' and in November 1859, Britain ceded the protectorate of M. C. along with the Bay Islands to Honduras, a proceeding which gave rise to much discontent among the natives of the coast, and a complete rebellion of the islanders. However, by a subsequent treaty, concluded 26th January 1860, the whole territory was finally handed over to Nicaragua. MOSSES (Musci), an order of acotyledonous plants, consisting of mere cellular tissue without vessels, and distinguished from Hepatica (q. v.), the order with which they are most nearly allied, by having always a leafy stem, and an operculated MOSTAR-MOTETT. capsule or urn (sporangium or theca), which opens at the top, and is filled with spores arranged around a central column (columella). The capsule is covered by a hood (calyptra); and when it is ripe, and has thrown off the calyptra and operculum, exhibits around its mouth a single or double row of rigid processes, few or numerous, but always either four or a multiple of four, collectively called the peristome. These reproductive organs are viewed by many botanists as female flowers or pistillidia; whilst reproductive organs of another kind, sometimes found on the same plant, but more generally on distinct plants, are regarded as male flowers or antheridia. These are minute cylindrical sacs, occurring in the axils of the leaves, or collected into a head enclosed by variously modified leaves at the summit of the stem, and finally bursting and discharging a great number of spherical or oval vesicles, through the transparent walls of which, when moistened with water, filaments (spermatozoids) coiled up within them may be seen wheeling rapidly round and round. As the sacs merely discharge these vesicles and perish, it is Moss (Funaria hygrometrica). (From Stark's Mosses.) 1, perfect plant; a, branches clothed with leaves; b, seta, or footstalk; c, capsule; d, operculum, or lid. 2, branch producing stellate heads, having masses of male flowers, and filaments in centre. 3, spore of moss, germinating. 4, spore of moss in a more advanced state. supposed that the spermatozoids contained in them may effect the fertilisation of the spore-producing capsules; but this wants confirmation, and their particular office as reproductive organs is not yet fully ascertained.—None of the M. are large plants, many are very small. Many have elongated stems, often branching; others have the stem scarcely developed, so that they seem to consist of a mere tuft of leaves. They are generally social in their manner of growth. They are among the first plants which begin to clothe the surface of rocks, sands, trunks of trees, &c., adapting inorganic matter for the support of higher kinds of vegetation. They love moisture, and are generally more abundant in cold and temperate than in hot climates. They struggle for existence on the utmost limits of vegetation in the polar regions and on mountain-tops. They dry up and appear as dead in a very dry state of the atmosphere, but revive when moisture returns. Some of them grow in bogs, which they gradually Sll up and consolidate. They are of great use in protecting the roots of many plants from cold and from drought, and afford harbour to multitudes of insects. Some of them supply food for cattle, particularly for the reindeer, when nothing better is to be obtained, and a wretched kind of bread is even made by some of the dwellers in the Arctic regions, of species of Sphagnum. Some are astringent and diuretic, but their medicinal virtues are unimportant. Among the other principal uses to which they are applied by man are the packing of things liable to be broken, the littering of cattle, the covering of garden plants in winter, and the stuffing of the open space in roofs to moderate the heat of attic rooms in summer and their cold in winter-perhaps the most important use to which they are ever put, at least in Britain, and to which, as the benefit is great and easily attained, it is wonderful that they are not much more frequently applied. The abundance of M. in meadows and pastures is disagreeable to farmers. The best remedies are proper drainage, the application of lime, and the liberal use of other manures, by which the soil may be enriched, so that better plants may grow with sufficient luxuriance, upon which the M. are choked and disappear. Almost 1500 species of M. are known. Many of the M. are very beautiful, and their capsules and other organs are interesting objects of study, even with an ordinary magnifying-glass. MOSTAR, a town of European Turkey, capital of Herzegovina (q. v.), on the Narenta, 45 miles south-west of Bosna-Serai. It is surrounded by embattled walls, contains ten mosques, a Greek church, and a famous Roman bridge of one arch, 95 feet in span. Silk, grapes, and wine are produced, and knife-blades and weapons are manufactured. M. is also a place of considerable trade. Pop. 10,000. MO'SUL, a town of Asiatic Turkey, in the province of Al-Jezireh (ancient Mesopotamia), is situated on the right bank of the Tigris, opposite the ruins of ancient Nineveh (q. v.), and 180 miles up the river from Bagdad. It is surrounded by walls, and is still in a more flourishing condition than most Turkish towns, on account of its caravantrade with Diarbekir, Bagdad, and Aleppo, though its prosperity is nothing to what it formerly was. During the Middle Ages it supplied all Europe with its rich manufactures-muslins, according to Marco Polo, got their name from this town; now, on the contrary, the bazaars of M. are filled with the manufactures of the West. The principal causes of its diminished importance are the rise of Abushehr (q. v.) as an emporium of trade, and the opening up of the new sea-route to India by the Isthmus of Eaez. M. is the seat of a Jacobite patriarch, and was formerly the great metropolis of all the Mesopotamian Christians (the Nestorians, the United Chaldæans, the Jacobites, &c.), but war, pestilence, incessant anarchy, have greatly reduced their num famine, Mohammedan proselytism, oppression, and bers. The population is variously estimated at from 18,000 to 40,000, of whom perhaps about a fourth are Christians. There are also about 1500 Jews; the rest are Mohammedans (Arabs, Kurds, and Turks). MOTACI'LLIDE. See WAGTAIL. MOTETT, a name applied to two different forms of musical composition-1. A sacred cantata, consisting of several unconnected movements, as a solo, trio, chorus, fugue, &c. ; 2. A choral composition, generally also of a sacred character, beginning with an introduction in the form of a song, perhaps with figurative accompaniment; after which follow several fugue subjects, with their expositions, the whole ending either with the exposition of the last subject, a repetition of the introduction, or a specia final subject. A motett differs in this respect from MOTH-MOTHERWELL. double or triple fugue, that the subjects never the larvae of some small species proving very appear simultaneously, but are introduced one after destructive to clothes, books, &c. The largest and the other. In one form of the motett, the successive most splendid moths inhabit tropical countries. phrases of an entire chorale are treated as so many Some of the most interesting and important kinds fugal subjects of moth are noticed in separate articles. A complete account of the British Moths (2 vols.), accompanied by accurately coloured plates, is published by W. and R. Chambers. MOTH, the popular name of all the insects included in the section Nocturna of the order Lepidoptera (q. v.). They formed the genus Phalana of Linnæus, but are now distributed into many genera and families, the species being extremely numerous. Among them are the very largest Lepidoptera, and also the smallest. They are distinguished from Hawk-moths, and from most of the butterflies, by their bristle-shaped antennæ, tapering from base to apex. The antennæ are frequently feathered or pectinated, especially in the males. The proboscis is generally similar to that of butterflies; but there are some groups of moths in which it is merely rudimentary, and these are supposed to take no food after they pass from the larva state. The thorax is generally shorter and more robust than in butterflies; the tibiæ of the legs often bear a kind of spur; the wings are held either in a horizontal or in an inclined position when at rest; or, as in many of the smaller moths, are wrapped round the body. The two wings of the same side are generally hooked together in repose by means of bristles on the margin. The females of a few species are wingless.-Moths are generally nocturnal, although to this rule there are a few exceptions. They often exhibit great richness and Mother Carey's Chicken, or Storm Petrel (Procellaria beauty of colours, although in brightness of colour they are not generally equal to butterflies. Their food is similar to that of butterflies.-They lay great numbers of eggs, which exhibit varieties of form and colour as great as those of the insects themselves. Their caterpillars are more widely various in form aud characters than those of butterflies; differing from each other in the number of their legs, and in horns, protuberances, caudal appendages, hairy covering, &c. Some are social both in the larva and chrysalis state; forming, on A, the belt of eggs; B, the caterpillar; C, the pupa in its cocoon; D, the moth. their entering the latter state, very urious nests. The chrysalis of a moth is never angular nor furnished with protuberances, and is generally enveloped in a silken cocoon, pretty close and compact; although some moth chrysalids are found in a mere space filled with threads which cross each other in various directions. Silk-worm (q. v.) moths are among the insects most useful to man; but moths in general are regarded by him as injurious, the larvae of many feeding on leaves of various kinds, and often destroying valuable crops; and MOTHERWELL, WILLIAM, a Scottish poet and antiquary, was born in Glasgow, 13th October 1797, and educated chiefly at the grammar-school of Paisley, where, in his fifteenth year, he entered the office of the sheriff-clerk. At the age of twenty-one, he was appointed sheriff-clerk depute of the county of Renfrew. In the following year he published his first work, the Harp of Renfrewshire, containing biographical notices of the poets of that district, from the 16th to the 19th century. This work was but the prelude to one of far greater importance-his Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern. MOTHERWORT-MOTION. which appeared at Glasgow in 1827. In 1828, he commenced the Paisley Magazine, in which some of his finest original pieces first saw the light, and in the same year accepted the editorship of the Paisley Advertiser, a Conservative journal. In 1830, he became editor of the Glasgow Courier. He died in that city, November 1, 1835, at the early age of 38. M. displays in his best moods (but only then, for his inspiration was not constant, and at times he pours forth a stream of very mediocre sentimentalities) a rich, beautiful, and strong imagination, great warmth and tenderness of feeling, and a thorough knowledge of the language of a poet. His Jeanie Morison is unsurpassed for the mingled pathos and picturesque beauty of its reminiscences of boyish love; The Sword-Chant of Thorstein Raudi is perhaps the most heroic rune in the English tongue; and the little piece beginning, My heid is like to rend, Willie,' has seldom been read without tears. An enlarged edition of his poetical remains, accompanied by a memoir of his life, was published in London in 1849. MOTHERWORT (Leonurus Cardiaca), a plant of the natural order Labiata, found about hedges and in waste places in Europe, and now abundantly naturalised in some parts of North America. It is not very common in Britain, and probably has been introduced. It is perennial, has a branched stem Motherwort (Leonurus Cardiaca). about three feet high, stalked leaves, the lower ones 3-lobed, and crowded whorls of reddish-white flowers. The calyx has five pungent spreading eth. The upper lip of the corolla is shaggy on the upper side, the lower lip trifid. The anthers are sprinkled with shining dots. The plant was formerly in much use as a domestic pectoral medicine, but is now comparatively little employed. It has a strong, but not agreeable smell.-Other species of the same genus are found in Europe and the north of Asia. MOTION, LAWS OF, are the fundamental principles connecting force and motion in the physical aniverse; and are obviously to be derived from experiment alone, since intuitive reasoning cannot possibly give us any information as to what may or may not be a law of nature. Though these laws are derived from experiment, it cannot be said that we have any very direct experimental proofs of their truth-our most satisfactory verifications of the are derived from the exact accordance of the results of calculation with those of observation in the case of such gigantic combinations of mutually influencing bodies as that of the solar system; and it is by such proofs that they must be considered to have been finally established. They seem first to have been given systematically and completely by Newton, at the opening of the Principia; but the first two were known to Galileo, and some of the many forms of a part of the third were known to Hooke, Huyghens, Wren, and others. We shall give them here in order, with a few brief comments, shewing their necessity and their use. First, then, we naturally inquire, what matter would do if left to itself; and, by considering cases in which less and less external force is applied to a body, we are led to the statement called the first law of motion: 1. Every body continues in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line, except in 80 far as it may be compelled by impressed forces to change that state. This expresses simply the inertia of matter-i. e., a body cannot alter its state of rest or motion; for any such alteration external force is required. Hence the definition of Force (q. v.), as that which changes or tends to change a body's state of rest or motion. Now, how does the change of state depend on the force which produces it? This is obviously a new question, to be resolved by experiment; and the answer is the second law of motion: 2. Change of motion is proportional to the impressed force, and takes place in the direction of the straight line in which the force acts. Newton's silence is as expressive as his speech. Nothing is here said about the previous motion of the body, or about the number of forces which may be at work simultaneously. Hence, a force produces its full effect in the form of change of motion, whether it act singly, or be associated with others; and whatever, moreover, be the original motion of the body to which it is applied. Hence, there is no such thing as equilibrium of forces; every force produces motion-and what we call equilibrium is not the balancing of forces, but the balancing of their effects. Hence, the absurdity of attempting to found the science of Statics on any other basis than is to be derived from the second law of motion; which, in fact, leads us at once (by the Parallelogram of Velocities, which is a purely geometrical conception) to the Parallelogram of Forces, and thence, with the help of the third law, to the whole subject of Statics. The second law also supplies the means of measuring force and mass; and oi solving any problem whatever concerning the motion of one particle. But more is required before we can study the motion of a system of particles-as a rigid body, or a liquid, for instance; or a system of connected bodies. Here there are mutual actions and reactions of the nature of pressure or of transference of energy (see FORCE) between the parts-and these are regulated by the third law of motion. 3. To every action there is always an equal and contrary reaction: or, the mutual actions of any two bodies are always equal and oppositely directed in the same straight line. Thus, the mutual pressure between two bodies has equal, but opposite, values for the two. The tension of a rope is the same throughout, and tends as much to pull back the horse at one end as to pull forward the canal-boat at the other. The earth exerts as much attractive force on the sun as the sun exerts |