MUSLIN 



4037 



MUSTARD 



fur, cost about $100. When the long hair is 

 removed and the silky underfur dyed, the lat- 

 ter is sold as Hudson seal. 



MUSLIN, muz'lin, a fine cotton fabric, 

 named after the city of Mosul in Mesopotamia, 

 where it was first made. Muslin manufacture 

 was introduced from India into Europe about 

 the end of the seventeenth century, and is now 



nsively carried on in France, Great Britain 

 and the United States. India and the other 

 Eastern countries now make almost no muslin, 

 and depend for their supply on the nations of 

 Western Europe. Muslin is usually woven 

 plain, similar to calico, but its texture is more 

 like that of gauze. It is sometimes adorned 

 with figured patterns, printed by the same 

 processes as in calico printing, and is princi- 

 pally used for women's dresses, curtains and 

 hangings. 



MUSSEL, mus"l, from the Latin musculus, 

 meaning small fish, is the name given two 

 groups of hard-shelled animals, one found in 

 the sea, and the other in fresh water. They 

 belong to the division known as mollusks 

 (which see), and have a soft, dark-colored body 

 enclosed in a hinged shell consisting of a right 

 and a left valve. The common sea mussel of 

 tli<> north temperate zone is used extensively as 

 food by Europeans, and by American fisher- 



: as bait. Farmers near the coast regions 

 find it a valuable fertilizer. This mussel is 

 usually about three inches long, though some 

 of the largest specimens are twice that length. 

 Its shell is black on the outside, pearly-blue 

 within. By means of a tuft of long, silky fila- 

 ments at one end of the shell the mussel 

 anchors itself to rocks, sometimes remaining 



1 for a lifetime. Fresh-water mussels are 



!ly valued because they produce fresh-water 

 pearls (see PEARL), sometimes worth as much 

 as $25,000. For an important class of mussels 

 see CLAM. 



MUSSET, miisch', ALFRED DE (1810-1857), a 

 h poet, dramatist and novelist, born in 

 Paris. His boyhood was passed among sur- 

 lint:> uhirh developed his literary tend- 

 ency, for his father was a man of letters, and 

 other writers came often to the house. Aft* r 

 his graduation, with honors, from college, he 

 studied law for a time and then medicine, but 

 found both professions distasteful and decided 

 !!> to literature. His 



first volume of poems, Tales oj Spain and Italy, 

 appeared when he wa.^ t\ years old, 



and with the two volumes which followed, in 

 1831 and 1832, won him prominence in the 



world of letters. His next productions were 

 dramas, some of which met with considerable 

 success. Attempting as they do to combine the 

 merits of the classic and the romantic schools, 

 they are the most original dramatic works pro- 

 duced in his generation. The dialogue is par- 

 ticularly brilliant. Several of his novels, nota- 

 bly The Confessions of a Child of the Age, 

 Margot and Mimi Pinson, are of special inter- 

 est because they contain much autobiographic 

 material. It is as a poet that Musset ranks 

 highest, however, much of his work holding a 

 place with the best poetry produced in France. 



MUS'TARD, the common name of two spe- 

 cies of the botanical family of the same name 

 (see subhead below). These are the black and 

 white mustard; they are annual plants, both in 

 Europe and in America. In the United States 

 black mustard 

 appears as a 

 weed, growing to 

 a height of more 

 than six feet in 

 southern Califor- 

 nia, and forming 

 hedges which it 

 is impossible to 

 penetrate. White 

 mustard, although 

 in all other ways 

 resembling the 

 ranker species 

 very closely, sel- 

 dom grows taller 

 than two or three 

 feet. The plant 

 itself is dark 

 green, with stiff. 

 branching stems; 

 it is covered with bristling hairs below, which 

 disappear toward the top. From June to Sep- 

 tember it blooms with small, brilliant, yellow 

 (lowers. This plant has great commercial value. 

 Tlie pods, which are very small. anl contain 

 only one row of seeds, are gathered before fully 

 ripe and allowed to ripen. When dry they burst 

 open, and the seeds are then shaken out and 

 ground. Mustard has no odor until water is 

 added. The liquid preparation is given in small 

 doses for the treatment of dyspepsia, and as an 

 emetic; more commonly, mustard is used in 

 making plasters. Commercial mustard, which 

 is used for food flavoring, is usually much adul- 

 terated with flour. 



The Mustard Family, or Cruciferae, kroosij' 

 ere, has 1300 species and is easily distm- 



BLACK MUSTARD 



