Ill 



MUSKET. 



MUTINY ACT. 



r.3 



Mtuk has been noommeoded in typhus and other fevers, when 

 then exist low delirium, hiccup, twitching of the tendon*, Ac. I'.ut 

 hi fern**"** 1 action U not so constant as to justify much reliance upon 

 it. It is much more useful in ittimsm purely nervous and spasmodic, 

 where no inflammatory action has preceded or is present. Hence even 

 in epilepsy, as well as hysteria, it U serviceable. In laryngismus 

 stridulus, called epileptic croup, or crowing respiration, of children, it 

 is very useful. In combination with ammonia it is useful in arresting 

 a tendency to gangrene. Likewise in retrocedent gout it has proved 

 successful It was found of little avail in severe cases of Asiatic 

 cholera, though useful in the milder forms of it. 



Artificial musk should never be used for medical purposes. 



MfSKKT. [ARMS.] 



MUSLIN, a thin cloth, or fine calico, made of cotton. The name is 

 supposed to be derived from Masalia, since called Masulipatam, near 

 Madras, from which place such fabrics were first imported into Kiin]-. 

 Until the early part of the present century all the muslin used in 

 Europe was the manufacture of India. The durability of the India 

 muslins is not, as some have supposed, the consequence of any supe- 

 riority in the quality of the material of which they are made ; for the 

 raw cotton of India is far inferior to that which is used for these fine 

 fabrics in Europe, and which is brought from America and from Egypt. 

 The excellence of India muslins is owing to the skilfulness and patience 

 of the spinners and weavers in that country. Some of the muslins of 

 India, and especially those of Dacca, are of the most astonishing degree 

 of fineness, so as to justify their poetical description as " webs of 

 woven wind." Such however has been the result of the inventions of 

 England in this branch of industry, that not only are the muslin* 

 of British manufacture now used at home, almost to the exclusion of 

 those woven in India, but large quantities are exported to all) parts 

 of the world, and find their way even far into the interior of India. 

 Some of the kinds now made by machinery are of exquisite fineness. 

 [COTTON MANUFACTORE.] 



Paisley and Manchester are the chief seats of the muslin manu- 

 facture. Glasgow houses now carry on a vast trade in worked or 

 embroidered muslin. At first, the women and girls in the district 

 within twenty miles of that city were employed in the work ; but 

 afterwards it was found that an abundant supply of such labour could 

 be obtained in the north of Ireland. Even so early as the beginning 

 of the present century, it was estimated that 20,000 females earned a 

 living at this muslin work. When working, the muslin is stretched 

 over a hoop, and kept in its place by means of another hoop slightly 

 larger in diameter; the hoops are either held between the chin ami 

 the knee, or supported on some kind of stand. The embroidering is a 

 kind of chain stitch, produced by the needle. There are, however, 

 other kinds of sewed muslin work for which no hoop or tambour is 

 required. The extension of the trade to Ireland was chiefly deter- 

 mined by the circumstance that, when machine flax-spinning was 

 introduced in that country, the hand-spinners were thrown out of 

 employment, and were glad to accept the work which the Glasgow 

 firms offered to them. Until about the year 1830 the patterns {or the 

 murlin-workers were printed from engraved blocks, which in some 

 cases cost as much as five guineas each ; but the lithographic press has 

 greatly increased the rapidity and lessened the cost of producing 

 patterns; and, as one among many favourable consequences, the 

 artistic merit of the designs has been much increased. Agents for the 

 wholesale houses visit the country districts, seek out and employ the 

 women and girls, supply them with the muslin, fetch it away when 

 finished, and pay them for their work. In busy times, agents for 

 two or three firms will compete with each other at the same place ; 

 and the usual result, a rise in wages, is produced. The earnings 

 begin at 6d. per week for young workers, and rise to 6. ; first-class 

 hands occasionally earn 1 Oi, All the women and girls work at their 

 own homes, the employment being essentially a domestic and not a 

 factory one. It was estimated, so far back as 1851, that not less than 

 600.000/. was thus paid annually to women and girls for muslin- 

 working, chiefly in the west of Scotland and the north of Ireland. 



A somewhat analogous, but still distinct, application of female labour 

 Is noticed under EMBROIDERY AND SEWINO-UACHINKB. 



MUSTARD, OIL OK. White mustard-seed yields about 86 per 

 cent, of a yellow fixed oil, which appears to consist of glycerin unii.-.l 

 with two acids, crude acid (C M H,,O,) and oleic acid, in additi' m to 

 this fixed oil, mustard yields when moistened an essential oil [ KKHMP.NT] 

 which is the sulphocyamde of allyl (0,11,3, CyS). This body may be 

 obtained in a state of purity by rectifying the essential oil of mustard, 

 and also by distilling together sulphocyanide of potassium and iodide 

 of allyl. 



Kvilphocyanide of allyl is a colourless oil possessing an acrid taste, 

 and the excessively penetrating and pungent odour which U so well 

 known in mustard paste. It is only slightly soluble in water, but 

 soluble h> all proportions hi alcohol and ether. It has a powerful 

 blistering effect when applied to the skin. 



h. cyanide of allyl rapidly absorbs ammonia, producing thio- 



C.H.NS, -f KII, 



Mphocjruld* 

 ofallvl. 



C.H.N.S, 



Thlonin.iminr. 



Digested with hydrated oxide of lead, it forms <'x<j/>o/i'Nr, or it 

 urea. 



2C.II.NS, + 6PbO + 8HO = C, t n,,N,0, + 8(00,, PbO) + 4Pb8 



Sulphocranide SlnapoHnr. 



of allyl. 



MUTINY ACT is an annual measure passed by parliament to 

 on the executive government the right to raise and maintain in this 

 country for the ensuing year a standing army, consisting of a ] 

 number of men, and subject to the laws and discipline of war com- 

 prised in the act itself, and in the articles of war issued annually under 

 authority of the statute by her Majesty. 



Laws have, at various times, been made by the authority of the 

 crown for the maintenance of discipline in the army when in garrison, 

 on a march, ami in tin- presence of an enemy; these have been briefly 

 hinted at in the article on MARTIAL and MILITARY LAW, and may be 

 seen at length in Grose's ' History of the KmMiili Army ' (vol. ii.) ; but 

 the code which is now in use is one of the first-fruits of the Revolution 

 in 1688. Previously to that event the crown, except during the rivil 

 wars and the subsequent protectorate, had, at least practically, t he 

 supreme power over the militia (that is, over tlie whole military force), 

 which, with or without t ' of the nation, might be called out 



and employed as long as pay and quarters could lie obtained for the 

 troops. But the effort* then recently made to carry out a series of 

 measures tending to the maintenance and extension of arbitrary power 

 in the crown, joined to the increasing jealousy of the people for their 

 civil and religious liberties, led the two houses of parliament to take 

 the earliest opportunity, after the new king had been called to the 

 throne, of expressing in some public act of legislation their authority 

 over the regular troops of the nation; and an opportunity almost 

 immediately presented itself, nn occasion of a serious mutiny taking 

 place in the army. While the Koy.il Scotch and Dumbarton regi 

 under Marshal Schomberg, in their progress to the coast for the 

 purpose of being embarked for Holland, were quartered at Ipswich, a 

 large body of men refusing to proceed to their destination, di- 

 their officers, seized the military chest, and, with four pieces of cannon, 

 began their march for Scotland. Being pursued by General Ginckel, 

 with three regiments of Dutch dragoons, they surrendered at disci 

 but, in consequence of this event, and on the spur of the moment, a 

 bill was passed (April 12th, 1689) by which the army was put at once 

 under the control of the law with respect to discipline, and under its 

 protection with respect to pay and quarters. 



The enactments of this measure were particularly directed 

 the crimes of mutiny and desertion, for which the bill was immediately 

 required ; but the Act itself begins by laying down as maxims that 

 the raising or keeping a standing army in the country in time of peace, 

 unless it be with the consent of parliament, is against law ; and that 

 no man can be forejudged of life or limb, or subject to any kind of 

 punishment in any other manner than according to the estal < 

 laws of the realm. It then states that it is judged necessary, by their 

 Majesties and the parliament, during the] present time of danger and 

 for the defence of the Protestant religion, to continue and augment the 

 forces which are now on foot. Avoiding the acknowledgment that any 

 power exists in the crown for the appointment of courts-martial, it 

 authorises their Majesties to grant commissions to general olli. 

 assemble such courts for the purpose of trying and punishim; such 

 offences as mutiny and desertion. Provisions arc also made that 

 nothing in the Act shall exempt an officer or soldier from the ordinary 

 processes of law ; that it shall not concern the militia troops, and 

 that it shall only continue in force till the 10th of November in the 

 same year. The Act has ever since, with one exception, been 

 annually renewed: after the bill which passed in 'A] ml. ID'.i?, for 

 one year as usual, hod expired, no other was passed till .March, 1 7"L' ; 

 and, on a few occasions, the bill has been suffered to expire for i-. 

 days before the following one received the royal assent. 



The Mutiny Act has, with time, varied in many particulars from 

 that which was first passed, but it has been uniform in all it* prim i[i..l 

 points; such as the dependence of a standing army on tin- consent of 

 parliament, and the subjection of military men to all the processes) 

 of ordinary law. Instead however of the original formula above- 

 mentioned, by which the reason of keeping up a military force was 

 expressed, the Act now asserts that it is judged necessary by tin crown 

 and parliament to continue a body of forces (the number being exactly 

 specified) for the safety of the United Kingdom, the defence of the 

 possessions of her Majesty's crown, and the preservation of the balance 

 of power in Europe. In all the Acts which passed down to the com- 

 mencement of Queen Anne's reign the articles were few in number, 

 and some of them were very ill defined ; but, from that time, par- 

 liament seems to have intended to exercise a general legislative 

 jurisdiction over the army. Many new articles were then inserted ; 

 others have since been added, as the want became apjarent; and 

 the Mutiny Act may now be considered as a good general code of 

 law, in which are defined strictly but briefly all military offences of the 

 higher class, and, as precisely as possible, nearly all those of minor im- 

 portance. The military offences of the higher order, comprised in eleven 

 classes, consist in any commissioned or non-commissioned officer, or 

 soldier, exciting mutiny, or in not using his best endeavours to suppress 



