MOLTKE 



3881 



MOMMSEN 



VON MOLTKE 



MOLT'KE, HELMUTH CARL BERNHARD, Count 

 von (1800-1891), a Prussian soldier and military 

 genius, ranking with Bismarck as a builder 

 of the German Empire. He was born at 

 Parchim, and in 1812 enrolled in the Royal 

 Military Academy 

 at Copenhagen. 

 In 1822 he entered 

 the Prussian army 

 as second lieuten- 

 ant, and in 1835 

 attained the rank 

 of captain. After 

 serving as adju- 

 tant to Prince 

 Henry in Rome 

 he returned to 

 Germany, and in 

 1857 was appoint- 

 ed chief of the staff of the Prussian army. The 

 full test of his efficiency was made in the Seven 

 Weeks' War in 1855 between Austria and Prus- 

 sia. The great triumph of his career, however, 

 was the Franco-German War of 1870-1871, 

 which he had foreseen and prepared for; his 

 plans were carried out with remarkable pre- 

 cision. He was made a field-marshal on his 

 return to Berlin from France; Parliament 

 granted him $225,000 and appointed him a 

 member of the upper house for life. The title 

 of count was also conferred upon him. 



After the accession of Emperor William II in 

 1888 he resigned on account of advanced age, 

 and when he was ninety all Germany celebrated 

 his birthday. Moltke was a man of simplicity 

 and of devotion to duty. His writings include 

 essays on Turkish affairs, The Franco-German 

 War oj 1870-1871 and Moltke's Tactical Prob- 

 lems jrom 1858 to 1882. 



Helmuth Joannes Ludwig von Moltke (1848- 

 ), a nephew of the above, also chose the 

 army for his career. He served in the Franco- 

 German War and upon the outbreak of the War 

 of the Nations in 1914 was expected to take an 

 important part in the conflict. After the Battle 

 of the Marne in August he was superseded tem- 

 porarily by Von Falkenhayn, and the latter's 

 preeminence was assured in December. 



MOLUCCAS, mo luk'az, or SPICE ISLANDS, 

 a large group of islands belonging to the Dutch 

 East Indies, situated southeast of the Philippine 

 Islands, and having New Guinea on the east, 

 Celebes on the west and Timar on the south. 

 Geographically they are a division of the Malay 

 Archipelago (which see). There are several 

 hundred islands in the group, and they have 



been in possession of the Netherlands since the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century. They 

 have a combined area of 43,864 square miles, 

 and for purposes of administration are divided 

 into three residences (provinces), Ternate, Am- 

 boyna and Banda. These islands are of vol- 

 . canic origin, high and mountainous, but exceed- 

 ingly fertile. They produce a great variety of 

 spices (from which they derive the name Spice 

 Islands), fruits, fine woods, birds of paradise, 

 rice and cotton. The chief city and center of 

 trade is Amboyna, on the island bearing that 

 name. Population, about 412,000. 



MOMEN'TUM, the quantity of motion that 

 a body has when moving. This quantity depends 

 first on the mass of the body, that is, its size 

 and weight; and second, on the speed with 

 which it moves. A small body, such as a bullet, 

 moving with great velocity, may have a mo- 

 mentum no greater than the momentum of a 

 large body moving very slowly. For example, a 

 four-ounce bird flying at the rate of sixteen feet 

 a second has the same momentum as a two- 

 pound puppy walking at the rate of two feet a 

 second. This principle is usually expressed in 

 the formula : Momentum Mass X Velocity. 

 The product is expressed in the abstract units 

 of foot-pound-second or centimeter-gram-sec- 

 ond in the given direction, which means the 

 momentum of so many pounds or grams of 

 mass moving so many feet or centimeters per 

 second. The unit centimeter-gram-second is 

 that employed in the metric system (which 

 see). 



MOMMSEN, mohm'zen, TUEODOR (1817-1903), 

 a German scholar, teacher and writer, the au- 

 thor of one of the finest historical works ever 

 written, Momm- 

 sen's History of 

 Rome. At the age 

 of thirty-one he 

 was elected pro- 

 fessor of law at 

 Leipzig Univer- 

 sity, but two years 

 later was removed 

 for political rea- 

 sons. He then 

 went to the Uni- 

 versity of Zurich 



THEODOR MOMMSEN 



One of the most profound 

 m Switzerland as scholars of Germany in the 

 professor of Ro- eteenth century, 

 man law, and after two years became profes- 

 sor of history at the University of Breslau. 

 From 1858 until his death he was professor of 

 ancient history in Berlin University. He served 



