725 



MARSUPIOCRINITES. 



MASTODON. 



726 



Wellington Valley bone-caves are 1st, that the fossils are not refer- 

 rible to any known extra-Australian genus of Mammals ; 2nd, that the 

 fossils are not referrible, from the present evidence, to any existing 

 species of Australian Mammal ; 3rd, that the greater number certainly 

 belong to species either extinct or not yet discovered living in Aus- 

 tralia ; 4th, that the extinct species of Macropus, Dasymus, and Phas- 

 colomyi, especially Jlaeropug Atlas and" M. Titan, are larger than the 

 largest known existing species ; 5th, that the remains of the saltatory 

 animals, as the Macropi and Hypsiprymni, are all of young individuals, 

 while those of the Burrowing Wombat, the Climbing Phalanger, and 

 the Ambulatory Dasyure, are the remains of adults. (Owen, in 

 Mitchell's ' Three Expeditious into the Interior of Eastern Australia,' 



fco 



Dr. Buckland observes, that the discovery of the Marsvpiata, both 

 in the secondary and tertiary formations, shows that this order, so far 

 from being of more recent introduction than other orders of Mam- 

 malia, is in reality the first and most ancient condition under which 

 animals of this class appeared upon our planet ; that, as far as we 

 know, it was their only form during the secondary period ; that it was 

 co-existent with many other orders in the early parts of the tertiary 

 period ; and that its geographical distribution in the present creation 

 is limited to North and South America, and to Australia, with the 

 adjacent islands. (' Bridgewater Treatise.') 



The lower jaw of the Phascolotherium presented to the British 

 Museum by Mr. Broderip will be found in the wall-case Q of that 

 Institntion with the remains of Cavern Bears. 



(Waterhouse, A Natural Hittory of Mammalia, vol. i. ; Dr. J. E. 

 Gray, British Mincum Catalogue; Owen, British Fossil Mammals; 

 Proceedings of Geological and Zoological Societies ; Buckland, Bridge- 

 v/aler Treatite.) 



MARSUPIOCRINITES, a genus of Crinoidea, proposed by Pro- 

 feasor Phillips for some remarkable fossils noticed by. Sir Roderick 

 Murchinoi in the strata of the Silurian system. (' The Silurian 

 System,' pL 18,'fig. 3.) The arms are formed of two rows of calcareous 

 plates. [EXCRINITES.] 



MARSUPITES, a fossil genus of Echinodermata, established by 

 Miller in his work on the Crinoidea. In many respects it resembles 

 the Crinoidea, but has no stem. [ENCMNITES.] It belongs to the 

 Chalk. 



MARTAGON. [LILIUM.] 



MARTEAU. [SQUALID^;.] 



MARTEN, or MARTIN, the name of a Carnivorous Quadruped 

 (Mtutda Maries, Linn.), of the Weasel family. [MCSTELID.E.] 



MARTES. [MusTELiD*.] 



MARTIN, the name for some of the Swallow Tribe, as the House 

 Martin (Hirundo urbica, Linn.), the Bank or Sand Martin (Hirundo 

 riparia), and the Black Martin or Swift. [HIRUNDINID.E ; SWAL- 

 LOWS.] 



MARTINISITE, a Mineral composed of 91 per cent, of chloride of 

 sodium and 9 per cent, of sulphate of magnesia. It comes from the 

 salines of Hassfurth. (Dana, Mineralogy.) 



MARYSOLE. [PLEURONECTID^E.] 



MASARIS (Fabricius), a genus of Hymenopterous Insects, the type 

 of the tribe Masaridw, the first of the third family of the aculeated 

 Jlymenopleraihe Diploptera. [DrpLOPTEBA.j 



MASCAGNIN, a Mineral, a native Sulphate of Ammonia. It occurs 

 stalactitic, pulverulent, or efflorescent. Colour yellow or grayish. 

 Taste acrid, bitter. Translucent, opaque. Found in the fissures of 

 the earth, and among the lavas of JEtna and Vesuvius, in the Solfatara, 

 and near Sienna in Tuscany. 



The following analysis is by Gmelin : 



Sulphuric Acid 



Ammonia 



Water 



53-29 

 22-80 

 2391 



-100 



MASSA'RIUM, a provisional generic name of M. De Blainville for 

 Alcyonium Minna of M tiller. 



MASSICOT. [LEAD.] 



MASTERWORT, the ol 1 name of an Umbelliferous Plant with 

 fleshy tuberous roots, growing in moist meadows and woods in the 

 north of Europe and in Newfoundland. It baa a stem from 1 to 2 

 feet high, broad twice-ternate leaves, flat large umbels of white or pink 

 flowers, and thin orbicular straw-coloured fruit. Botanists calls this 

 .plant Jmperatoria Oitruthium ; it has acrid, bitter, somewhat aromatic 

 roots, and formerly had a great reputation as a remedy for toothache, 

 and u a cure for agues, whence no doubt its names have been derived. 

 It retains a place in continental medical practice, but it is disused in 

 England. [IMPEKATORIA.] 



MASTICH. [PISTACHIA.] 



MASTIFF, the name of a variety of dog of a very old English 

 breed, now seldom seen in its original state of purity. Manwood states 

 that the word is derived from 'mase thefese,' because it is supposed 

 to terriff thieves by its voice, which, when the animal is excited, is 

 fearfully deep and loud. This is the Dogue de Forte Race of Buffon 

 and the French, the Maitivu of Ray, the Canis ifolostua of Linnams, 

 and the Villalicu* or Catenariut of Dr. Caius. 



A true-bred Mastiff is of considerable size, and very stoutly built. 



The head is well developed and large, the lips deep and pendulous 

 on each side of the mouth, and the whole aspect noble. 



It appears from Claudian and Gratius that the British dogs, mastiffs 

 probably, were highly prized at Rome; and Camden notices the em- 

 ployment of a special officer, Procurator Cynegii, appointed in Britain 

 for superintending the breed of these dogs and their transmission to 

 that city, where they appeared in the combats of animals at the 

 amphitheatre, and sometimes upon occasions even more cruel, for 

 there can be little doubt that they were set to worry those unhappy 

 Christians whom the tyrants of the time ordered to be sewed up in 

 the skins of beasts and then exposed to the attacks of those powerful 

 and savage dogs. Pennant quotes Strabo for the fact that the Gauls 

 trained British Mastiffs for war, and used them in their battles. 

 According to Dr. Caiua, three were a match for a bear uud four for a 

 lion ; but Stow mentions a lion-fight with three of these dogs, in 

 which, though two were disabled, and afterwards died, the lion was 

 so much harassed that he retreated, and refused to resume the 

 battle. 



The Mastiff is capable of great .attachment, and when kept as a 

 guard is of unfailing vigilance, giving the alarm by its powerful bark, 

 and never ceasing till it has roused the family or secured the intruder. 

 It is now comparatively little used as a watch-dog, especially in great 

 towns, where an active police has almost entirely superseded it. 



Mastiff (Cams Jtolotsut). 



MASTIGUS (Hoff.), a genus of Insects belonging to the fourth family 

 (Clairicornei) of the Pentamera. 



MA'STODON, the name of an extinct genus of gigantic Pachyder- 

 matous Proboscidian Mammals (Maatotherium, Fischer), whose remains 

 are found abundantly in the third and fourth, or Pliocene, divisions of 

 the tertiary fresh-water deposits, and also, but less frequently, in the 

 deposits of the second, or Miocene, period. 



In the greater portion of their organisation the Mastodons must 

 have closely resembled the elephants. [ELEPHANTID^.] The tusks, 

 the proboscis, the general conformation of the body and the limbs were 

 very similar ; and the principal distinction between the two genera 

 was formed by the molar teeth. These indeed were gradually pushed 

 forward from behind as they are in the Elephant, and displayed the 

 same relative increase in proportion as the animal was advanced in 

 life ; but, unlike those of the Elephant, their crowns exhibited on 

 cutting the gum large conical points of a mammiform structure, whence 

 the animal derives its name. As these conical paints were worn do'vii 

 by mastication, the tooth presented discs more or less large, according 

 to the degree of attrition which it had undergone. The following 

 cuts, which are very much reduced in size, as will be understood from 

 what we have already stated, will explain this difference in the tooth 

 more clearly than words. Before the tooth has suffered from detritus 

 it presents the following appearance : 



Molar Tooth of Mastodon, not worn. 



And after exposure to a comparatively small degree of detrition it 

 has the aspect represented in the following cut : 



