318 



MO RON 



MORPHINE 



ill-kept garden-. open areas, and -nk-,' or market- 

 places ; the eight large cemeteries are outside the 

 walls. In the )>azaar and merchant*' quarter the 

 ' K u-e! ia. ' H partially-covered area a considerable 

 local trade is HWTtwl mi with the coiintry-|Mople, 

 the mountaineers from the Migbboorillg Atlas, and 

 with Sus. TaKlet, Ma/agan, Sutli, and Mogador, 

 though the commercial importance of Morocco is 

 much less than that of rex. Morocco possesses 

 many mosques, one of which, the Kutuhia, has u 

 tower nfter the model of the. Hassan in Kaliat 

 and the Giralda in Seville, 230 feet high. There 

 are several tanning and leather-dyeing establish- 

 ments of considerable extent, though of late 

 years Euro|xean goods have l>een gradually dis- 

 placing native manufactures. The population 

 varies according to the presence or ahsence of 

 the sultan, his court, and army. In ordinary 

 times, it does not exceed liO.OOO, of whom from 

 7UOO to SINMI are Jews, living in a 'mellah,' or 

 Ghetto, under the most degrading physical, politi- 

 cal and moral conditions. Hut no Europeans 

 reside permanently in the city. On the south, 

 outside the walls, stands the imperial palace, an 

 irregular conglomeration of gardens and buildings 

 covering almut 180 acres. lint of late the sultan 

 has resided very little here, a year or more often 

 elapsing without his setting foot in the place. 



Morocco was founded in 1072 l>y the Emir Jusef 

 lien Tachefyn, and reached the summit of its 

 |>ros[>erity in the 13th century. In thise days 

 it is affirmed to have contained more than 

 700,000 inhabitants. But for several centuries, 

 owing to civil wars, during which the rel>ellious 

 Her here more than once sacked it, the city, like 

 all the interior towns of Morocco, has hcen rapidly 

 retrograding. However, owing to its excellent 

 situation in sight of the Atlas, from which cool 

 -t i earns are always flowing, its genial healthy 

 climate, and its command of the trade routes across 

 the mountains, Marakesch is safe to have a great 

 future when Morocco knows other masters than 

 the Moors. 



See Chenier, Recherchtt hutoriqua tur let Ataurei 

 ( 1787 ) ; Godard, Dacription et Hutoire duMaroc( I860 ) ; 

 Kenoo, Detcriptian gfixjrapliique de FEmpirc dt Marnc 

 ( 1846) : Tissot, Reck, tur In litiMi. comparte dt la Maure- 

 lanie Tiniitiiiie (1877); Hooker and Ball, Tour in 

 M'unrro (18~H); Castellanon, /'(./. hint, de Marruccoi 

 (1878); Lent Timbuktu (vol. i. 1HH4); De Kerdec-Oheny, 

 Hiiidr dii l';ii,nifnr au Aliirof (1888); Erckmann, 

 Le Afarof M<iderne (1885); Thomson, TrureU in the 

 AUat and finullirra Monirru (lx!l>; Ue Foucnuld, 

 Rteonnaimanrt au Manx- ( 1888 ) ; Xtutlield, Et Maijh n I, 

 ( 1886 ) ; Harrix, The Land of an A fritan *lt.an ( 1889 1 ; 

 De 1 Martinique, Morocco (1889); l)c Cainpou, Un 

 Empire gui troule (1886); works by Benal (1893), 

 Montbard (1894), and Harm (18%)': and the works 

 and nanera noted in the bibliographies of Renou, De la 

 Martiniere, and of Playfair and the present writer ( 1894 ). 

 See also MOORS, BEKIIKKS, BAKBAKY. 



Moron, a town of Spain, on the Guadaini, 32 

 inili^ Ijy rail SK. of Seville. Pop. 14,879. 



Moroni, GIOVANNI 1! vmsTA(1525-78), portrait 

 jiainter, was horn near Bergamo; best known hy 

 his 'Tailor' in the National Gallery. 



l, a market town of Northumberland, 

 on the winding \Vansbcck. 10 miles N. of New- 

 Ic. The parish church dat-s from the Mill 

 century ; the free grammar -school, founded by 

 I-M ward VI. in I.VVJ. has all endowment of nearly 

 500 a year, ami in IX.11I was rebuilt, after a 

 chancery suit lasting ISO years. The town-hall 

 (restore*! in 1870) wa- elected in 1714 by Sir John 

 Vanhrugh, and tin' county hall in 1818 at a cost of 

 80,000. Morpeth has flannel factories, breweries, 

 tanneries, iron-foundries. ,Vc.. with collieries and 

 quarries in the neighlNiurhood. From 1 .V>.'t t i 1 1 Is:;-. 1 



it returned two members to parliament, but now 

 onlv one ; the parliamentary borough was extended 

 in isas. Pop. (1S.-.1) 10,011 ; (1881) 33,402; of mu- 

 nicipal horough (1881) 4968; (1891)5219. 



.Morpheus i Gr., 'moulder'), in classic mytho- 

 logy, the son of sleep and the god of dreams. He 

 is so named because lie shapes or moulds the dreams 

 that visit the sleeper. He is first mentioned by 

 < Kid. and is represented as an old man with wings, 

 pouring somniferous va)>our out of a horn. 



Morphine, ot M(.i:rin\. < II N" II it, v . .,- 

 the first alkaloid isolated in a pure state (by 

 Serturner, an aimtliecary, in Hanover in 1816). 

 The name morphia was given to it in allusion to 

 its crystalline form (Gr. mnr/ihi~, ' form '). It is tin- 

 most important of the alkaloids e\i-tinu in opium, 

 of which it usually constitutes from 1th to ,'. th by 

 weight, ami in which it is combined with meconic, 

 sulphuric, and probably othei -acids. It is obtained 

 as white, silky, translucent crystals, with a hitter 

 taste and alkaline reaction. Morphine is soluble 

 in about IOOO parts of cold and in 400 of boiling 

 water; boiling alcohol dissolves it ficely: but it is 

 insoluble in pure ether and chloroform. Morphine 

 is not so easily detected in cases of poisoning by 

 opium as Meconic Acid (<i. v. under Meconium). 

 The following are some of the ordinary tests for it : 

 concentrated nitric acid added to morphine or any 

 of its salts gives an orange colour ; when it is mixed 

 with iodic acid iodine is liberated ; in solution it 

 gives a blue colour with persalts of iron. 



Morphine is the only opium alkaloid which is 

 soluble in lime-water, and this property allords one 

 of the best menus of extracting it. A watery in- 

 fusion of opium is boiled with milk of lime, tillered, 

 mixed with powdered sal-ammoniac, ami again 

 boiled. 15y this means the lime is converted into 

 the chloride of calcium, the ammonia is volatilised 

 by the heat, while the morphine is precipitated in 

 an impure form, which admits of easy purification. 



Morphine combines with acids to form ci \stallis 

 able salts, which are readily soluble in water and 

 in alcohol. Of these, the hydroehlorate (muriate), 

 the acetate, the bimeconate, and other salts are 

 much used in medicine. Apomorphia, a white 

 crystalline powder with physiological properties 

 like those of morphia, is obtained by heating 

 morphia with an excess of hydrochloric acid. 



The therapeutic uses of morphine and its salte 

 an' very similar to those of Opium (q.v. ), but mor- 

 phine is employed largely in cases where Hypo- 

 dermic Injection (<|.v.) is desired. The ordinary 

 dose of morphine, or its salts, when given to an 

 adult to allay pain or induce sleep, ranges from 

 an eighth of a grain to half a grain. Many 

 persons arc- addicted to the habitual use of mor- 

 phine. The effects nre very much the same as those 

 of opium, and it is taken for the same reasons ; 

 but morphine is more rapid in action and more 

 eilicacions, and is not accompanied by some incon- 

 veniences which attend the use of opium. The 

 habitual abuse has its origin in the legitimate use 

 as a medicinal agent. But when the habit is 

 established, the evil consequences soon set in, 

 though some constitiitions sutler much more than 

 others. As a rule, luiliilins lieconie pale, sallow, 

 emaciated, appetite is diminished, digestion dis. 

 ordered, sleeplessness sets in, and clefics extra 

 doses of the drug. If, as is usual, the morphine 

 is siibcutaneously injected, all parts of the liody 

 within reach of thes\ringe ma\ become one nia-s 

 of sores, so that it is hard to lind a place for a 

 new injection. The will is enfeebled : the man or 

 woman Womes a mere paralytic. \ special hos- 

 pital has l>een equip|ied in Paris for victims of this 

 self indulgence. See Sharpcy on Morphinomania' 

 in the \inftef nth Century ( 1S87). 



