437 



MAJOR-GENERAL. 



MALICIOUS INJURIES TO PROPERTY. 



433 



hag also to regulate the distribution of the officers and men for the 

 performance of any particular service ; and he has a temporary charge 

 of the effects appertaining to any individual of the corps, in the event 

 of the absence or death of such individual. 



This class of field-officers does not appear to have existed before the 

 beginning of the 17th century ; and, at first, such officers had the title 

 of serjeanta-majfir, a designation borne at an earlier time by a class 

 corresponding to that of the present majors-general of an army. 

 (Grose, vol. i. p. 243.) 



No mention is made of either lieutenants-colonel or majors as field- 

 officers in the account of Queen Elizabeth's army in Ireland (1600). 

 But Ward, in his 'Animadversions of Warre' (1639), has given a 

 description of the duties of the latter class, under the name of 

 serjeants-major, from which it appears that those duties were then 

 nearly the same as are exercised by the present majors of regiments. 

 They are stated to consist in receiving the orders from the general 

 commanding the army; in conveying them to the colonel of the 

 regiment, and subsequently in transmitting them to the officers of the 

 companies ; also, in superintending the distribution of ammunition to 

 the troops, and in visiting the guard by day or night. 



A brigade-major is a staff-officer who performs for a brigade, or in a 

 garrison, duties ^corresponding to those of a major in a regiment or 

 battalion. 



A serjeant-major of a regiment is a non-commissioned officer, who in 

 general superintends the military exercises of the soldiers : on parade, 

 he has the care of dressing the line. 



MAJOR-GENERAL. [GESEKAL.] 



MALAMIC ACID. [MALIC ACID.] 



MALAMIDE. [MALIC Aero.] 



MALANILIC ACID. [MALIC ACID.] 



MALATES. [MALIC ACID.] 



MALE FERN, the rhizoma, incorrectly termed root, of the 

 Nephrodium Filix Mas (Richard), Aspidium Fills Mas (Smith), has 

 been celebrated from ancient times as an anthelmintic. The rootstock 

 of young plants should be collected in spring or summer, and a fresh 

 supply obtained every year, as a change occurs in the part a few months 

 after being collected. It should be quickly dried, and preserved in 

 glass or earthenware vessels in a dry place. The interior should 

 exhibit a greenish colour, and possess a disagreeable odour, with a 

 bitter harsh astringent taste. Male fern buds have the same 

 properties. 



The rhizoma contains a volatile oil, which may be extracted by 

 sulphuric ether ; resin, tannin, uncrystallisable sugar, starch, and woody 

 fibre. The oil, which is of two distinct kinds, one pure, and the other 

 united with resin and an extractive, is the active principle. Formerly 

 a powder of the whole substance was administered, but as the dose of 

 this is bulky, Peschier has recommended pills of ethereal extract, 

 which are found to be very efficacious against that kind of tape-worm 

 which is denominated the Bothriocephalia latus, or broad tape-worm. 

 It ia scarcely possessed of any power over the Tjenia solium. The 

 former infests the small intestines of the inhabitants of Poland, Russia, 

 Switzerland, and some districts of France, in all which countries the 

 male fern has a high reputation as a remedy; but it is not much 

 valued as an anthelmintic in Britain, where the broad tape-worm is 

 nearlv unknown. 



MALEATES. [MALEIC Acm] 



MALEIC ACID (C.H.O,). An organic acid, prepared by the dry 

 distillation of malic acid. It crystallises in oblique rhomboidal prisms, 

 which are colourless and inodorous, and possess a nauseous but acid 

 taste. They are soluble in water, alcohol, and ether, and the solution 

 reddens litmus. Heated strongly, maleic acid is converted into an- 

 hydrous maleic acid (C s HjO 8 ). When long boiled it is converted into 

 fumaric acid, which is isomeric with maleic acid ; and finally, when 

 the lime salt is placed in contact with putrid cheese, it is converted 

 into succinic acid. It unites with bases to form ma/eates. 



MALIC ACID (C S H 4 0,, 2HO) was discovered in 1785 by Scheele. It 

 received its name from having been first obtained from the juice of 

 apples, in which it exists in considerable quantity, and also, as has 

 been since ascertained, in various other fruits, as cherries, raspberries, 

 strawberries, in house-leek, and the berries of the sorbus or mountain- 

 ash. Mr. Donovan, who procured it from the last mentioned source, 

 obtained it of so great purity that he supposed it to be a new and 

 peculiar acid, which he called sorbic acid ; but it has since been proved 

 to be identical with the malic. A mucilaginous substance which 

 accompanies the acid obtained from apples prevents its properties from 

 being perfectly and readily developed. 



Various processes have been proposed for procuring this acid, and 

 they are generally complicated : the following, proposed by Liebig, 

 is perhaps aa good as any : Add carbonate of lime, but not to perfect 

 saturation, to the expressed juice of the mountain ash ; the solution is 

 to be decomposed by nitrate of lead, which precipitates malate of lead ; 

 tlii.-i, after washing with cold water, is to be heated with boiling dilute 

 iric acid, rind the resulting mass with sulphide of barium, by 

 which there are formed sulphide of lead and sulphate of baryta, while 

 the clear liquor contains malic acid, to which ammonia is then added 

 to convert it into bimalate of ammonia, which readily crystallises ; this 

 salt i to be precipitated by acetate of lead, and the resulting malate of 

 lead decomposed by hydrosulphuric acid ; the clear liquor, separated 



from the sulphide of lead, being evaporated by a gentle heat, yields 

 crystals of malic acid, which are not however regular in their form. 

 Malic acid is colourless, inodorous, very sour to the taste, and acts 

 strongly on vegetable blues ; in a moist air it is deliquescent ; it is very 

 soluble both in water and alcohol. Nitric acid converts it into 

 oxalic acid. Its saline compounds are called malates, some of which 

 exist in nature, as for example, bimalate of lime in the juice of the 

 houseleek. 



When malic acid is subjected to a heat of about 350 Fahr., it is de- 

 composed into water and two isomeric pyro-acids, the maleic and the 

 fumaric acids. 



The malates are not an important class of salts. We shall mention 

 the general properties of a few of them. They may be divided into 

 two classes, namely : the neutral malates which have the formula 

 C 8 H 4 9 , 2MO, and the bimalates consisting of C 8 H,0 ? , MO HO. 



Malate of ammonia is a deliquescent salt, but the bimalate is crystal- 

 lisable, unalterable in the air, and insoluble in alcohol. Malate of 

 potash is a deliquescent mass ; the bimalate forms crystals which are 

 unalterable in the air and insoluble in alcohol. Malate of soda is a 

 deliquescent mass, the supermalate crystallises. Malate of lime is spa- 

 ringly soluble in water, requiring 147 parts of it cold, and 65 when 

 boiling : the hot solution deposits crystalline grains on cooling. It is 

 stated to be more soluble in some saline solutions than in pure water ; 

 the bimalate occurs in houseleek and some varieties of sedum ; it may 

 be formed by adding acid to the neutral salt ; by exposure to heat it 

 dries as a transparent varnish, which distinguishes it from other salts 

 of lime and vegetable acids. It is soluble in water, but insoluble in 

 alcohol. Malate of magnesia yields crystals which are unalterable in the 

 air and are soluble in twenty-eight parts of water ; with excess of acid, 

 a gummy deliquescent saline mass is formed. Malate of baryta both 

 neutral and acidulous, is soluble and gummy ; an insoluble subsalt may 

 also be formed. Malate of strontia is gummy and deliquescent, the 

 acid salt is but slightly soluble, but more so in hot than in cold water ; 

 the hot solution deposits crystals on cooling. Of the metallic malates 

 we shall state the properties of a few : Zinc forms three different com- 

 pounds with this acid : the neutral malate crystallises in short four- 

 sided prisms ; it is soluble in 55 parts of cold water ; by boiling water 

 it is decomposed into a supersalt which dissolves, and a subsalt which is 

 precipitated ; bimalate of zinc crystallises in large regular octohedrons ; 

 the submalate is an insoluble white powder. Malate of peroxide of 

 iron is a reddish brown-coloured deliquescent mass soluble both in 

 water and alcohol. Malate of copper, whether neutral or acidulous, 

 dries so as to form a green varnish which is unalterable in the air. 

 The malate of silver is a gummy mass, but the bimalate is a crystal- 

 lisable salt, which readily separates as such from solution in water. 

 Malate of lead is nearly insoluble in cold water, but dissolves in boiling 

 water, and the solution on cooling deposits brilliant white crystalline 

 scales of this salt. 



Malic acid forms two amides, namely, Afalamic add (C 8 H 4 ; , 

 NH 2 HO) isomeric with aspartic acid, and malamidc (CjHjN.,0,,) isome- 

 ric with asparagin. [ASPARAGIN.] 



The following compounds are closely related to these amides ; 



Fhenyl-malamlde or malanllide . . CjHjfC^II.jjNjO,, 

 Puenyl-maltmidc or malanile . . . C,H 1 (C 1J H i )NO 4 

 Phtnyl-malamic acid or malanilic acid . CsIIjtC^H-JNO,, 



MALICIOUS INJURIES TO PROPERTY. At common law- 

 mischief perpetrated with whatever motive against the property of 

 another was not punishable criminally, unless the act amounted to 

 felony, or was accompanied with a breach of the peace, or affected the 

 public convenience. In other oases the offender was liable only to an 

 action for damages at the suit of the party injured. But the legis- 

 lature has, at different times, interposed to repress, by penal enactments, 

 injuries to private property of an aggravated nature, committed with 

 the malicious intention of injuring the owner of such property. The 

 different statutory provisions against mischievous acts dono wilfully 

 and maliciously were modified, as well as consolidated, by 7 & 8 Geo. 

 IV., o. 30,* which also contains a provision rendering it immaterial 

 whether the malice of the offender be against the owner of the property 

 or otherwise. 



By the third section of that statute it is made felony punishable "by 

 transportation for life or not less than seven years, or by imprisonment 

 not exceeding four years, with or without whipping in the case of a 

 male, to cut, break or destroy, or damage with intent to destroy or to 

 render useless, any goods or articles of silk, woollen, or linen, or of 

 articles in which any of those materials are mixed, or any frame-work- 

 knitted piece, stocking, hose, or lace, in any stage of manufacture ; to 

 cut, break or destroy, or render useless warps or shoots of silk, woollen, 

 linen or cotton, or of any of those materials mixed with each other or 

 with any other material ; or looms, frames, machines, engines, racks, 

 tackles, or implements prepared for or employed in manufacturing or 

 preparing such goods ; or to enter by force into any place with intent 

 to commit any of those offences. By section 4, it is made felony 

 punishable by transportation for seven years, or imprisonment not 



* A bill Inm been introduced Into Parliament, in the present session (J sue), 

 to consolidate the whole of the existing laws relating to malicious injuries to 

 property. 



