893 



MONTACUTA. 



MORINGACEJ3. 



894 



children; and since all influence of the father on the child must cease 

 with the act of fecundation, these anomalies must be dated from the 

 moment of conception. 



From extended observation it has been found that all the forms and 

 varieties which monstrosity presents are apparently under the control 

 of certain fixed laws ; or, in other words, there appear to be a number 

 of general facts which are applicable to all cases of malformation. 

 Some of these facts it is necessary to be acquainted with, since, by a 

 knowledge of them, we may often be enabled to distinguish (when 

 reading or hearing descriptions of monsters, or looking at figures in 

 old works) those anomalous cases which may really have existed, from 

 others which are only the fanciful and absurd productions of a fertile 

 imagination. To one of these laws we have already alluded, for 

 instance, the fact that union between two individuals forming a double 

 monster always takes place by corresponding parts of the body; and 

 we shall now briefly mention several others. 



Monstrosity, however complicated and extensive, is never carried to 

 such a degree as to remove the animal affected with it out of the 

 aeries of natural beings in which it has been originally placed ; no entire 

 being nor organ has ever been met with so deformed that the species 

 to which it belonged could not be recognised. Again, in the most 

 extensively deformed monsters the relative connections between 

 different organs are never so completely altered that it becomes im- 

 possible to distinguish them by the position which they occupy. Thus 

 the heart has never been found in the cranium, nor the lungs in the 

 pelvis. 



Anomalies are more frequent in proportion as they do not affect 

 vital organs nor interfere with any important functions. Thus we 

 very commonly meet with irregularities in the course of bloodvessels, 

 since it signifies little through what channels the blood is conveyed, 

 so that it arrives at the organ which it is destined to supply. It has 

 also been found that the parts most liable to vary are those which are 

 the latest in attaining their complete evolution ; and this fact may 

 very readily be explained, for if the process of development be dis- 

 turbed or arrested by any cause during the course of foetal life, those 

 organs which are already nearly or fully formed at the time of the 

 occurrence of such disturbing influence will be little or not at all 

 altered, while on the contrary complete suppression or a very marked 

 alteration may be effected in other parts whose formation has not com- 

 menced or is very imperfect. This fact has been explained in another 

 manner, by supposing that different organs are subordinate in their 

 formation one to another, one being produced by another whose 

 development preceded it. Thus the suppression of any part will not 

 influence those which have been previously formed, while it must 

 necessarily lead to the complete absence of all those which ought to 

 have followed it in the order of development. 



A kind of compensation or balancing has sometimes been observed 

 between different organs in monsters ; excess of development in one 

 part being accompanied with a corresponding arrest of formation in 

 some other organ. Thus an individual having several supernumerary 

 fingers or toes on one hand, frequently has the opposite limb furnished 

 with fewer than the usual number, and monsters deprived of the 

 brain have been observed to have the face unusually large. Many 

 other applications have been made of this law of compensation, as it 

 has been termed by Geoffrey St. Hilaire. 



It has been said that the left side of the body is more frequently 

 deformed than the right, and that a greater number of monsters 

 belong to the female than to the male sex, which last fact Meckel 

 explains by the theory that the generative organs are in both sexes 

 originally female, and that many monsters remain of that sex by 

 arrest of development, who, if naturally formed, would have been 

 males. 



For further information upon the subject of Monstrosity the reader 

 may particularly consult nailer's treatise ' De Monstris ; ' Meckel's 

 'Manual of Pathological Anatomy' (German); Geoffroy St. Hilaire's 

 ' Anatomic Philosophique ; ' and his sou Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire's 

 ' Histoire des Anomalies ; ' and Carpenter's ' Human Physiology." 



MONTACUTA, a genus of Acephalous Lamellibranchiate Mollusca, 

 belonging to the family Kelliadce. The shell is small, thin, equivalve, 

 inequilateral, transversely oblong or obliquely oval, surface smooth or 

 concentrically striated, or rarely radiatingly furrowed ; beaks inflected ; 

 inner margins smooth ; hinge-margin with a trigonal incision and carti- 

 lage pit, and a pair of diverging laminar teeth in one or both valves ; 

 ligament internal ; muscular scars suborbioular ; pallial impression 

 simple ; animal oblong, its mantle freely open in front with simple 

 margins, not furnished with siphonal tubes posteriorly ; a single 

 eiphonal orifice, or none ; foot very large, strong, and broad, furnished 

 with a byssal groove. Such are the characters of this somewhat 

 unsatisfactory genus as given by Messrs. Forbes and Hanley. They 

 enumerate three species as British M. ferruyinosa, M. bidentata, 

 II. fubftriata. 



MONTAGNA, Dr. Leach's name for a genus of Macrurous Crusta- 

 ceans allied to Callianaan. 



MONTIA, a genus of Plants named in honour of Dr. Joseph Monti, 

 professor of botany and prefect of the medical garden at Bologna. He 

 paid much attention to the scientific arrangement of the Oraminacete 

 and Cyperacere. He published also a catalogue of the plants in the 

 botanic garden at Bologna, in which he described several new species. 



The following are the principal works which he published : ' Catalog! 

 Stirpium agri Bononiensis Prodromus, Gramina et adfinia complectens,' 

 Bononise, 1719, 4to; 'Indices Horti Bononiensis ad Usurn Demon- 

 strationum qua: in Horto Bononije quotannis habeutur,' Bonouiffi, 

 1724, 4to. 



The genus Montia, belongs to the natural order Portnlacece, and has 

 a persistent calyx of 2 sepals ; a corolla 5-parted with 3 segments 

 smaller than the others, with the tube split to the base in front ; 3 

 stamens inserted iu the throat and opposite to the smaller segments 

 of the corolla; the ovary turbinate ; the style very short ; the stigmas 

 3, downy ; the capsule of 1 cell with 3 valves and 3 seeds. There is 

 but one species of this genus, M. fontana, which is a native of Great 

 Britain. It is also found in North and South America in bogs, ponds, 

 and ditches ; and is commonly known by the name of Water-Chick- 

 weed. It closely resembles the species of the genus Claytonia. 



(Babington, Manual of British Botany.) 



MONTICELLITE, a Mineral, occurring crystallised at Vesuvius. 

 Primary form a right rhombic prism. Crystals small, and have 

 usually the aspect of quartz. Colour generally yellowish. No cleavage 

 planes have been observed. Hardness 5'0 to 6'0. Sometimes uearfy 

 transparent and colourless. It has not been analysed 



MONTICULARIA. [MADBEPHYLUOSA.] 



MONTIPOBA. [MADREPORE.] 



MONTIVALTIA. [MADREPHYLLKEA.] 



MOON-SEED is the seed of various kinds of Menispcrmum, and is 

 so called on account of its figure. 



MOON-WORT. [BOTRYCHIUM.] 



MOOR-BUZZARD, the English name for Circus ceruginosus of 

 Aldrovandus and authors. [FALCONID.E.] 



MOOR-COCK, one of the names of the Red Grouse. [TETRAONID*.] 



MOOR-FOWL, one of the names of the Red Grouse. [TETRAONIDJS.] 



MOOR-HEN, the common English name for the Galliuule, or 

 Water-Hen, Fitlica chloropus, Linn. [RALLiD.fi.] 



MOOR-TITLING, one of the names for the Chick-Stone, Stoue- 

 Chatter, Stone-Chat, Stone-Smith, and Stone-Smick, Saxicola rubicola, 

 Bechstein. [SAXICOLA.] 



MOOSE-DEER. [CERVIDA] 



MOSSES. [Musci.] 



MORACE^E, Morads, a natural order of Exogenous Plants which 

 were formerly placed as a sub-order of Urticaceie. The species are trees 

 or shrubs, with a milky juice, sometimes climbing. The leaves are 

 commonly lobed and rough. The flowers are small, monoecious, ami 

 collected in heads, spikes, or catkins. The ovules are solitary and 

 suspended. The embryo lies iu the midst of fleshy albumen, hooked, 

 with the radicle long, superior, folded down towards the cotyledons. 



Although the Mulberry and Fig grow in Europe, all the Moracea; 

 are extra-European. The species inhabit the temperate and tropical 

 latitudes of both hemispheres, often forming vast forests. The genus 

 Ficus is the most distinguishing feature of this order. [Ficus.] 

 Most of the plants of this order furnish caoutchouc. [INDIA RUBBER.] 

 The fruit of the Mulberry is edible, and the leaves of the genus 

 Morue are the food of the Silk- Worm. [MoRUS.] Several species of 

 Dorstenia are used in medicine. [DORSTENIA.] Other genera of this 

 order yielding useful products are Bromsonetia and Madura. 

 [BROUSSONETIA ; MACLURA.] 



This order embraces 8 genera and 184 species. 



MORCHELLA, a genus of Fungi, one of the species of which is 

 eatable. M. escidenta, the Morel, springs up in orchards, woods, aud 

 cinder-walks, early in the spring and summer, and is believed to he 

 most plentiful in places where fires have been made. The country 

 people in Germany are so persuaded of this, that they formerly set 

 fire to woods in order to obtain a crop of morels, of which they are 

 very fond. At last the practice was put down by law. This fungus 

 has a stalk from one to three inches long, and a spherical cap, from 

 the size of a pigeon's egg to that of a swan's, hollow, pale-brown, or 

 even gray, and deeply pitted all over its surface, the depressions being 

 separated by raised anastomosing lines. The plant has a slight smell 

 and an agreeable taste, and is employed for various purposes of cook- 

 ing, both fresh and dried. In the former state it is moat commonly 

 stewed or stuffed with force-meat ; in the latter it is employed as an 

 ingredient iu sauces. In this country it is of rather rare occurrence. 



MOREL. [MORCHELLA.] 



MORILLON, one of the names of the Golden Eye (Clangula vulgaris), 

 [DUCKS.] 



MORINGA. [MORINGACE.E.] 



MORINGACE^E, Moringads, a small natural order of Exogenous 

 Plants, embracing the species of the genus Moringa. They are cha- 

 racterised by the possession of a many-leaved calyx, perigynous petals 

 aud stamens, 1-celled anthers, stipitate and consolidated siliquose fruit, 

 and seeds without albumen. This order is referred by most botanists 

 to a position near Leguminosce, but Liudley places them in his 

 Violates. They are natives of the East Indies and Arabia. 



The root of Moringa, pterygosperma has a pungent odour with a 

 warm biting and somewhat aromatic taste. The seeds of this plant 

 are called by the French Pois Queinques and Chicot. They are the 

 Ben-Nuts of old writers, from which the Oil of Ben was extracted. It 

 is chiefly used by perfumers as the basis of various scents* It does 

 not readily freeze and on this account is used by watchmakers. The 



