MALTA 



3615 



MAMMALS 



Italian and English are the languages of the 

 educated classes, but the people generally speak 

 a mixture of Arabic and Italian. Population 

 in 1911, including a garrison of about 8,000 Brit- 

 ish troops, 228,530. 



MALTA, KNIGHTS OF, an ancient and illus- 

 trious Order founded in Jerusalem in 1048, and 

 first called Knights of Saint John, or Knights 

 Hospitalers of Saint John (which see). See, 

 also, MALTA. 



MALVERN HILL, BATTLE OF, the last of the 

 Seven Days' Battles of the War of Secession, 

 was fought at Malvern Hill, Va., fifteen miles 

 southeast of Richmond, on July 1, 1862. The 

 Federal army of the Potomac, numbering 80,- 

 000 men, was commanded by General McClel- 

 lan, and the Confederate army of Northern 

 Virginia, under General Lee, was about equal 

 in strength. McClellan's communications with 

 his base of supplies on the York River were cut, 

 and he retreated under hardships and severe 

 fighting to Malvern Hill, a strong ^position near 

 the James River. The Confederates, flushed 

 with previous victories, attacked him at this 

 point ; then ensued one of the fiercest battles of 

 the war, lasting from early morning until even- 

 ing, when the Confederates withdrew. The 

 Confederate loss was about 5,000; the Federals 

 lost about one-third that number. This battle 

 ended the famous Peninsula Campaign. See 

 WAR OF SECESSION. 



MAMELUKES, mam'elukes, Turkish slaves 

 who were taken into Egypt and who became so 

 powerful that they established a dynasty of 

 sultans who ruled Egypt from 1250 to 1517. 

 As slaves they were placed in the army and 

 rose to become the military aristocracy of the 

 country, eventually filling all the highest posts 

 in the state. Armies of Mamelukes overran 

 Asia Minor, Syria and Cyprus and ruled the 

 Eastern Mediterranean. The Mamelukes re- 

 sisted the invasion of Egypt by Selim I of Tur- 

 key, but they were utterly defeated and Egypt 

 became a Turkish province in 1517. 



As the Turkish power declined later, the 

 Mamelukes became more haughty and arro- 

 gant, and were again practically independent. 

 Napoleon encountered them in 1798 at the Bat- 

 tle of the Pyramids and defeated them. It 

 was treachery, however, that led to their final 

 downfall; in 1811 Mehemet Ali caused a general 

 massacre of them throughout the country. 

 Their ambitions had plunged Egypt into anar- 

 chy for years, and their extinction was regarded 

 by the Egyptian people as a merciful deliver- 

 ance from oppression. 



MAMMALS, mam'alz, members of the high- 

 est class of vertebrate animals, which includes 

 man and all the animals which resemble him in 

 the most important points of structure. To 

 this important group belong the largest of ex- 

 isting animals, the whales; also a number of 

 others which man has domesticated and made 

 to serve useful purposes, as the horse, ox, sheep, 

 goat and dog. The distinguishing characteris- 

 tic of mammals is their development and mode 

 of nourishment during the earliest periods of 

 life. Except among the lowest orders, the 

 young are brought into the world alive and are 

 fed upon the mother's milk. On account of this 

 distinct characteristic of suckling their young 

 the entire group is named mammalia, a word 

 from the Latin mamma, which means teat. Of 

 many interesting habits and characteristics com- 

 mon to the mammalian group, none is more 

 important than the instinct to care for the 

 young. Reaching its highest degree of develop- 

 ment in the human species, it takes there the 

 form of love, care and protection for children, 

 making possible the family. 



The skin of the majority of mammals is cov- 

 ered with hair of various kinds, ranging from 

 fine wool to coarse bristles, and sometimes 

 spines. The Cetacea, however, an order to 

 which whales belong, are almost entirely lack- 

 ing in hair, the thick skin and coat of blubber 

 beneath it holding the heat within the body, 

 and serving the purpose of a hairy covering. 

 In general structure, the skeleton of mammals 

 conforms to that of man. The cranium is di- 

 minished in proportion to the removal of the 

 animal in classification from man. 



A distinguishing characteristic of the mam- 

 malian skull is that it forms a single piece, com- 

 posed, of bones joined together; the lower jaw 

 unites directly with the skull without the in- 

 tervention of a connecting bone. The skull 

 is attached to the vertebral column by two 

 projections at the end of the occipital bone. 

 Mammals never have more than four limbs; 

 the front limbs are always present, but the 

 Cetacea and a few other mammals have no 

 hind limbs, or only the rudiments of these. 

 Toothless mammals are found only in the low- 

 est order, represented by the ant-eater (which 

 see). All mammals have warm, red blood, 

 which courses, from a four-chambered heart, 

 through the arteries into all parts of the body, 

 and returns to the lungs to be purified. Air is 

 breathed into the lungs by all animals of this 

 class, including whales and other water-inhabit- 

 ing mammals. V.L.K. 



