MOll 



MOR 



MOOSE ET.M. The red elm. 



MOOSE WOOD. Acer striatum. 

 The striped maple. This term is also 

 applied to the Dirca paluslns, or leath- 

 er wood. 



MORAINE. The longitudinal 

 masses of stones and rubbish found 

 at the bases and along the edges of 

 great glaziers, or in places where 

 they have existed. 



MORASS. Swampy moor land. 



MORDANT. A substance which 

 unites chemically with the fibre of 

 wool, cotton, &.C., and with the col- 

 ouring matter also, forming with both 

 insoluble compounds. See Cotton 

 Dyeing. Acetate of alumina, alum, 

 solution of tin, and pyrolignite of iron 

 (red liquor) are the most important 

 mordants. 



MORDELLA. A genus of coleop- 

 terans, now the type of a family, Mor- 

 dellidcp. They are heteromerans, with 

 an elevated and arched body, low 

 head, thorax semicircular, or trape- 

 zoid, elytra very short, pointed at the 

 tips. 



MOREL. MorcheUa escuknla. Lat- 

 ticed mushroom. An edible mush- 

 room much esteemed in Europe, 

 where it is stuffed with force-meat, 

 and fried for the table. It grows in 

 woods, has a wide, hollow stalk two 

 inches high, with a yellowish or gray- 

 ish ribbed head, of small width, and 

 two or three inches deep. 



MOROCCO LEATHER. The true 

 sort is of goat's skins, tanned on the 

 grain side ; but sheep skins are often 

 sold. The skins are first steeped in 

 a fermenting mixture of bran and 

 water for a few days, worked on the 

 horse, steeped twelve hours in fresh 

 water, and rinsed. They are then 

 steeped in lime-pits until the hair can 

 be removed, cleansed, and the sur- 

 face dressed with hard schist to ex- 

 pel the lime. They are then work- 

 ed on the horse-beam, and subjected I 

 afterward to a species of fulling by 

 being agitated by pegs in a revolving 

 cask with water. 



The skins are again immersed a 



night and day in a fermenting bath, 



worked, and sailed for dyeing. They 



are first mordanted by solution of tin 



504 



I or alum, two skins being sowed to- 

 gether to make a bag to hold the fluid, 

 ; and the colour given by a solution of 

 cochineal, in cream of tartar and wa- 

 I ter. 



; MOROXITE. A native phosphate 

 of lime of a mulberrv colour. 

 I MOROXYLIC ACID. An acid 

 , lound in the bark of the white mul- 

 i berry-tree. 



MORPHIA. The active narcotic 

 I principle of opium. It is extremely poi- 

 1 sonous : composition, 72 34 carbon, 

 6-36 H . 5 N., 16 3 oxygen.— (?7re.) 



MORPHOLOGY (from iiop<^7], 

 form, and 7.oyor, a diseoursc). The 

 doctrine of the metamorphosis of 

 plants, from which it appears that pe- 

 tals, stamens, and carpels are merely 

 modified leaves ; that their position 

 and mode of development are similar 

 with that of leaves. A seed is also 

 analogous to a leaf bud. 



MORTAR. " This is composed of 

 quicklime and sand, reduced to a 

 paste with water. When dry, it be- 

 comes as hard as stone and as dura- 

 ble ; and adhering very strongly to 

 the surface of the stones which it is 

 employed to cement, the whole wall, 

 in fact, becomes nothing else than 

 one single stone. The bricks or stones 

 should be dipped in water before mor- 

 tar is added, otherwise it does not 

 adhere to them so perfectly. But 

 this effect is produced very imper- 

 fectly unless the mortar be very well 

 prepared. The lime ought to be pure, 

 completely free from carbonic acid, 

 and in the state of a very fine pow- 

 der ; the sand should be free from 

 clay, and partly in the state of fine 

 sand, and partly in that of gravel ; 

 the water should be pure, and if pre- 

 viously saturated with lime, so much 

 the better. The best proportions, ac- 

 cording to the experiments of Doctor 

 Higgins, are three parts of fine sand, 

 four parts of coarse sand, one part of 

 quicklime, recently slacked, and as 

 little water as possible. The stony 

 consistence which mortar acquires is 

 owing partly to the absorption of car- 

 bonic acid, but principally to the com- 

 bination of part of the water with the 

 1 lime. This last circumstance is the 



