MOST FAVOURED NATION 



5b5 1 



MOTHERCRAFT 



Most Favoured Nation Clause. 



In cnminrn-iiil treaties, a clause 

 L'l.tiitiiiir preferential treatment to 

 part inil.tr countries in regard to 

 tluiirs imposed on goods imported 

 from those countrir-i. Such pre- 

 ference is frequently conditional 

 ti I H in reciprocal treatment being 

 granted by the most favoured 

 n;ii inn or nations. See Free Trade ; 

 Protection ; Reciprocity ; Tariff 

 Reform. 



Mosul OR MOSSCL City of 

 Mesopotamia, capital of a vilayet 

 of the same name. It stands on the 

 Tigris, about 220 m. N. of Bagdad. 

 Opposite it, on the E. side of the 

 river, are the vast mounds which 

 are the remains of Nineveh. It is 

 the seat of a patriarch of the Chal- 

 dean Catholics. Though not as 

 prosperous as it was in compara- 

 tively recent times, it still does a 

 considerable trade. It once was 

 famous for its muslin, the name 

 being derived from that of the 

 town. From it an important cara- 

 van road leads through Rovanduz 

 into N.W. Persia. 



There are oilfields in the vilayet, 

 and a concession to work them was 

 granted to a British company before 

 the Great War. By a decision of 

 the Allies at San Remo in 1920, 

 the validity of this concession was 

 upheld, and the French Govern- 

 ment were allotted the former 

 German interests in the British 

 company. Before and during the 

 war Mosul was the headquarters 

 of a Turkish army corps, and after 

 the granting by the Allies of the 

 armistice to Turkey in Oct., 1918, 

 it was occupied by the British 

 on Nov. 3. . Pop. '80,000. See 

 Mesopotamia, Conquest of ; N. V. 



Moszkowski, Mcmrrz (b. 1854). 

 Polish composer. Born at Breslau, 

 Aug. 23, 1854, he studied music at 

 Dresden and Berlin. A fine 

 performer, he gave up some time to 

 concert tours, but became better 

 known as a composer. His works in- 

 clude concertos for violin and piano, 

 orchestral suites, many piano pieces, 

 the opera Boabdil and the ballet 

 hum in. Pron. Moshkofski. 



Motala. Town of Sweden, in the 

 Ian or co. of Ostergotland. It 

 stands on the E. shore of Lake 

 Wetter, 42 m. W.S.W. of Norr- 

 koping. The river Motala enters 

 the lake close to the town. Indus- 

 tries include large machine shops, 

 and engine works, the largest in 

 Sweden. Pop. 4,000. 



Motet. Vocal music in the con- 

 trapuntal style. Formerly it was 

 set to either secular or sacred 

 words, but since the beginning of 

 the 14th century it has been exclu- 

 sively reserved for the latter, and 

 employed in the service of the 

 Church. Its best period was from 



about 1500 to 1600, contemporary 

 with the golden age of its secular 

 counterpart, the madrigal. The 

 beat composers of that century 



Mosul, Mesopotamia. Street scene in 

 the bazaar ol the city 



produced both kinds. More modern 

 compositions by Haydn, Mozart, 

 Cherubini, Mendelssohn and others, 

 which bear the name, have little in 

 common with the true motet style, 

 and may be regarded rather as 

 anthems or short sacred cantatas. 

 See Counterpoint. 



Moth. Popular name for an 

 insect of the second division 

 (Heterocera) of the scale- winged 

 order (Lepidoptera) ; the first 

 division (Rhopalocera) consisting of 

 the butterflies. When only British 

 insects were known to British natu- 

 ralists it was easy to define the 

 difference between a butterfly and 

 a moth, but now that we have an 

 extensive knowledge of the lepi- 

 doptera of the world it is found 

 that there is no real distinction, 

 and the continued separation of 

 the two groups is more convenient 

 for purposes of classification than 

 scientifically correct. 



The popular distinction has 

 never really tallied with that of 

 the naturalist, for the garden 

 tiger moth and the burnet moths 

 are generally regarded as butter- 

 flies on account of their bright 

 coloration, and the skipper butter- 

 flies as moths because of their 

 sober hues. Structurally, moths 

 agree with butterflies, and the de- 

 velopment of the individual ex- 

 hibits the same four well-marked 

 stages of egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, 

 and winged adult. All butterflies 

 are active in sunshine and most 

 moths fly either at twilight (cre- 

 puscular) or during the hours of 

 darkness (nocturnal) ; but even in 

 this matter there is no strict uni- 

 formity, for some butterflies fly at 



night as well as by day, and many 

 moths fly only in sunshine. 



There are two features, not very 

 obvious except to the naturalist, 

 in which moths differ from butter- 

 flies; in the latter the antennae 

 have knobbed tips ; the burnet 

 moths make some approach to 

 these in having clubbed antennae, 

 but in the majority of moths the 

 antennae are either thread-like or 

 feathered. A butterfly's wings all 

 work independently, but in the 

 majority of moths the fore and 

 hind wings are united in flight by 

 a bristle on the hind-wing fitting 

 into a catch on the forewing. 



In the matter of size there is 

 great diversity, for the atlas-moth 

 of India may be only a fraction less 

 than a foot across the outspread 

 wings, whilst large numbers are 

 smaller than the tiny clothes- 

 moth. Economically, moths must 

 be considered as inimical to 

 human industry, for though the 

 caterpillars of the silk-moths supply 

 a valuable raw material, most 

 moth-larvae attack our food crops, 

 our fruit, stored grain, and even our 

 clothing. On the other hand, many 

 are destroyers of noxious weeds. 

 See colour plate ; Burnet Moth ; 

 Butterfly ; Clearwing Moth ; Eggar 

 Moth ; Emperor Moth ; Goat Moth ; 

 Ghost Moth; Insect; consult also 

 The Moths of the British Isles, R. 

 South, 1909 ; Butterflies and Moths 

 of the United Kingdom, W. E. 

 Kirby, 1909. 



Mothercraft. Art and science 

 of motherhood. The experience of 

 Infant Welfare Centres and similar 

 bodies has shown that the educa- 

 tion of mothers in the conditions of 

 maternity and the proper care and 

 feeding of children is an all-impor- 

 tant factor in the preservation of 

 child life. Even now, the ill-founded 

 assumption that a woman by the 

 mere fact of maternity becomes 

 instinctively qualified for the care 

 of children is too widespread. 



The ignorance of mothers is re- 

 sponsible to a greater extent 

 than is commonly supposed for 

 the comparative feebleness of 

 many eldest-born children, and 

 learning by experience in this 

 matter is perilous for the com- 

 munity. There is a growing move- 

 ment for the definite instruction of 

 prospective mothers in prenatal 

 conditions, in the feeding of child- 

 ren, and in their proper treat- 

 ment in the matter of clothing, 

 hours of sleep, fresh air and kin- 

 dred matters, both in normal and 

 abnormal circumstances. There 

 is now in London a school where 

 a scientific course is given in 

 mothercraft to mothers, expectant 

 mothers, and nurses, and in time 

 facilities will, it is hoped, be avail- 



