MUSWELU HILL MURDER 



5608 



MUTILATION 



Muswell Hill Murder. British 

 cause celebre. On the morning of 

 Feb. 14, 1896, Henry Smith was 

 found lying dead in the kitchen of 

 his house, Muswell Lodge, N. 

 London, and from the safe 100 in 

 gold was missing. In the kitchen 

 was found a toy bull's-eye lantern, 

 the property of the brother-in-law 

 of a man, Albert Millsome. He and 

 an associate, Henry Fowler, were 

 missing, and also found to have 

 been well supplied with money 

 after the outrage. They were 

 traced to Bath and captured after 

 a struggle. Millsome made a state- 

 ment putting the blame for the 

 murder and the robbery on Fowler. 

 While awaiting the jury's verdict, 

 Fowler made an attack on Mill- 

 some hi the dock and almost mur- 

 dered him. Both men were hanged. 



Mut. Egyptian goddess. Form- 

 ing with her consort Amen-Ra and 

 her son Khonsu the Theban triad, 

 her chief temple lay S. of Karnak. 

 Mistress of the sky, she appears in 

 human form wearing a vulture 

 head-dress and the double crown 

 of Egypt. See Karnak. 



Mutation. Theory which ac- 

 counts for the origin of species by 

 the sudden production of per- 

 manent variations from the parent. 

 It is founded on the experiments of 

 Hugo de Vries, of Amsterdam, in 

 breeding the variety lamarckiana 

 of Oenothera biennis, the evening 

 primrose. De Vries found this 

 plant on waste land in Holland, 

 where it had escaped from cultiva- 

 tion, and associated with it he 

 found a number of distinct forms 

 that had obviously been derived 

 from it. This led him to secure 

 seeds of the normal form, and to 

 breed from the seedlings these pro- 

 duced. The results of breeding 

 through several generations of the 

 plants were published in 1901. His 

 conclusion was that new forms 

 arise suddenly as it were by 

 leaps without any intermediates 

 connecting them with the parent. 



Darwin had taught that new 

 species are built up by the slow 

 accumulation of minute variations 

 which are seized hold of and fixed 

 by natural selection, if they are of 

 importance for the perpetuation of 

 the race. The suddenly-appearing 

 species of De Vries to which he 

 gave the name mutants are ap- 

 parently what the gardener had 

 long before termed sports, and 

 from which he had sometimes bred. 

 Apparently it is only certain species 

 that produce mutants. See Botany. 



Mute (Lat. mutus, dumb). Word 

 used in several connotations. 

 Primarily it denotes a person con- 

 genitally lacking the power of 

 speech, or who has been deprived 

 of it by long continued deafness, 



then called a deaf mute. (See 

 Deaf and Dumb.) It is also ap- 

 plied to a person who, though able, 

 refuses to speak, and specifically in 

 law to one who " stands mute." 



In modern practice, if a prisoner 

 stands mute of malice or will not 

 answer directly, the court orders a 

 plea of not guilty to be entered, 

 and his trial proceeds as if he had 

 pleaded directly. Formerly a jury 

 was impanelled to inquire whether 

 he stood obstinately mute, or was 

 dumb by the visitation of God. 

 In the latter case the trial pro- 

 ceeded as if he had pleaded not 

 guilty ; in the former, standing 

 mute was equivalent to conviction 

 if the arraignment were for treason, 

 and the prisoner received the judge- 

 ment and execution provided by 

 statute for that crime. 



An old funeral custom in Great 

 Britain, now disappearing, was the 

 presence of attendants supplied by 

 the undertaker and called mutes. 

 Wearing voluminous black cloaks 

 and crape bands hanging from 

 their hats, they stood outside the 

 door of the house from which the 

 corpse was to be brought, holding 

 in their hands staves tied up with 

 large black bows and streamers. 

 These figures were survivals from 

 ancient Roman funeral ceremonial 

 at which blark-garbed officials, 

 called lictores, attended the under- 

 taker or master of the ceremonies, 

 called designator, and marched with 

 him beside the corpse to the place 

 of burning or. burial outside the city. 



In music, mute is the name of a 

 mechanical device for softening or 

 deadening the sound of an instru- 

 ment. For stringed instruments 

 of the violin family the apparatus 

 is of wood or ivory, and is affixed 

 to the bridge ; while on instru- 

 ments such as the piano it is a pad 

 applied by a pedal arrangement. 

 In brass instruments it takes the 

 form of a leather pad inserted in 

 the bell. The words con sordini, 

 or muta, indicate when the mute 

 is to be employed, and senza sordini 

 when it is to be discontinued. 



In philology, mute is the" term 

 applied to letters which are not 

 pronounced, such as b in dumb, 

 and to consonants whose sound is 

 abruptly checked by complete 

 closure of the vocal organs. Mutes 

 are voiced b, d, g and unvoiced 

 p, t, k. 



Mutilation (Lat. mutilare, to 

 lop off ). In anthropology, a bodily 

 disfigurement effected under social 

 sanction. Practised throughout 

 human history, it is an artifice 

 having an amuletic, ornamental, or 

 useful purpose. It is prompted by 

 self-consciousness, desire for social 

 distinction, magico-religious or 

 hygienic considerations, or inex- 



plicable tradition, and is often 

 attended by rigid ceremonial ob- 

 servances. Distinguishable from 

 the penal disfigurement of slaves, 

 captives, and criminals, and the 

 austerities of religious ascetics, it 

 is usually intended to attract, not 

 to repel, ranking as a mode of per- 

 sonal enhancement or decoration. 



Accomplished by removing, 

 wounding, or deforming parts of 

 the body, this custom affects the 

 skin, limbs, and trunk, head, teeth, 

 and other organs. It includes cir- 

 cumcision and castration. Some 

 usages are traceable to palaeolithic 

 Europe ; others, such as ear-lobe 

 distension, were perhaps dissemin- 

 ated by the mariners who carried 

 the megalithic and early metal 

 cultures across the world. 



MUTILATION CUSTOMS. Skin- 

 mutilations include the shaving 

 and eradication of hair, even to the 

 eyebrows, the raising of scars by 

 cutting or burning, often as tribal 

 badges, and the puncturing of 

 designs by needle-tattooing, especi- 

 ally in E. Asia. Amulets may be 

 embedded in artificial warts. Chin- 

 ese ascetics affect elongated finger- 

 nails. 



Finger- joint amputation, at- 

 tested by palaeolithic cave-draw- 

 ings, is widely practised in aborigin- 

 al Australia and S. Africa for 

 mourning , in Mysore as a birth- 

 custom, now symbolically ; in 

 Tonga and Damaraland in time 

 of sickness ; and among the Man- 

 dan Indians as an initiation rite. 

 The foot-compression of high-born 

 Chinese women may be compared 

 with the deformity occasioned by 

 high-heeled shoes in Western civi- 

 lization. Constriction of the waist 

 or limbs by irremovable rings or 

 bands, and breast elongation occur. 

 The Nilotic Lango in E. Uganda 

 pierce the navel for brass rings 

 and bead ornaments. 



Head - deformation has been 

 widely practised since neolithic 

 times. Polynesian noses are often 

 flattened. The upper ears may 

 have 13 punctures, as in India, or 

 the lobes be punctured and dis- 

 tended until they rest upon the 

 shoulders, as in the Solomon 

 islands. Melanesian noses, S. 

 American and Nyasaland lips, and 

 Eskimo cheeks may be pierced for 

 plugging. Bongo lips are distended, 

 and Senegal lips artificially swollen. 

 The tongue may be pierced, and 

 some Saharan peoples excise the 

 soft palate in infancy. Tooth- 

 mutilation chiefly characterises 

 the dark-skinned peoples. 



See Circumcision ; Head-defer- 

 mation ; Tooth-Mutilation ; con- 

 sult also Fashion in Deformity, 

 W. H. Flower, 1881 ; Customs of 

 the World, W. Hutchinson, 1913. 



