MON 
ilenoniination invented or retained to facili- 
tate the stating of accounts by keeping 
them still on a fixed footing not to be 
changed, like current coins, which the au- 
thority of the sovereign raises or lowers ac- 
cording to the exigencies of the state. Of 
this kind are pounds in England and its de- 
pendencies, for which there never was a 
•coin to answer. In France livres were of 
that kind, but for the franc of modem 
France, which answers in value to the livre, 
there is a corresponding coin. Among the 
ancients, the Greeks reckoned their monies 
of account by the drachma, mlnae, and 
talenta. The drachma was equal to about 
7^d. sterling ; of these 100 made a mince, 
equal to 31. 4s. 7d. and 60 minae made a ta- 
lent, equal to 1931. 15s. ; hence 100 talents 
amounted to 19,3751. The same denomi- 
nations were used in other Asiatic nations, 
but the values were different. Roman 
monies of account were the sestertius and 
the sestertium : the former was worth some- 
thing less than Sd. and 1000 of these, equal 
the sestertium was worth 81. Is. 5\d. ster- 
ling. For the theory of coins and of money 
in general, and for a great variety of inte- 
resting and important information on these 
and other topics of political economy con- 
nected with them, we refer to a treatise on 
the coins of the realm by the Earl of Liver- 
pool, £Sid to Mr. Wheatley’s Essay on the 
Theory of Money and the Principles of 
Commerce. 
Money bringing into court. In some 
fictions at law the defendant is allowed to 
pay a sura into court, which he contends is 
the fair amount of the plaintiff ’s just de- 
mand, and the plaintiff will afterwards pro- 
ceed at his peril. This can only be done 
where the damages can readily be ascertain- 
ed in money. 
MONEYERS, officers of the mint, who 
work and coin gold and silver money, and 
answer all waste and charges. 
MONKEY. See Simia. 
MONNIERIA, in botany, so named 
from Mons. Monnier, of Paris, a genus of 
the Diadclphia Pentandria class and order. 
Essential character: calyx five-parted, with 
the upper segment long ; corolla ringent ; 
stamens two, the upper with two authers, 
the lower with three ; capsules five, one- 
seeded. There is but one species, rAz. M. 
trifolia. This is an annual plant, with a 
dichotomous stem, ternate leaves, and white 
flowers in a bifid spike. It is a native of 
America. 
MONOCHORD, in music, an ancient 
MON 
instniment, or machine, so called because it 
is furnished with only one string. Its use is 
to measure and adjust the ratios of the in- 
tervals, which it effects by the means of 
moveable bridges, calculated to divide the 
chord at the pleasure of the performer. 
The monochord was regarded by the an- 
cients as the only means of forming the ear 
to the accurate perception, and the voice to 
the true intonation of those minute and dif- 
ficult intervals which were then practised in 
melody. Lord Stanhope, who has employ- 
ed much time on the subject of music, has 
described a new monochord, of which the 
following is his Lordship’s account. 
1. The wire is made of steel, which does 
not keep continually lengthening, like brass 
or iron. 2. llie whole wire forms one 
straight horizontal line, so that the moveable 
bridge can be moved without altering the 
tension of the wire ; which is not the case 
when the wire pulls downwards on the 
bridges. 3. The ends of the wire are not 
twisted round the two stout steel pins that 
keep it stretched ; but each end of the 
wire is soft soldered in along groove formed 
in a piece of steel, which goes over its cor- 
responding pin. 4. One of these two-steel 
pins is strongly fastened by a brass slider, 
which is moved by means of a screw with 
very fine threads, this screw having a large 
micrometer head minutely divided on its 
edge, and a corresponding nonius ; whence 
the tension of the wire may be very exactly 
adjusted. 6. A slider is fixed across the 
top of the moveable bridge, and is moved 
by means of another screw with very fine 
threads. 6. The slider is adjusted to the 
steel rod or scale, by means of mechanical 
contact against projecting pieces of steel 
firmly fixed on that steel scale, at the respec- 
tive distances specified in the monochord 
table. 7. Each bridge carries a metallic 
finger, which keeps the wire close to the 
top of such bridge, while the remainder of 
tlie wire is made to vibrate. 8. The vibra- 
tions of the wire are produced by touching 
it with a piece of cork with the same clastic 
force, and always at the distance of one 
inch from the immoveable bridge. The 
Stanhope raonochord, though very ingeni- 
ously constructed, is in some respects thought 
inferior to the monochord contrived by Mr. 
Atwood. In this gentleman’s apparatus the 
string hangs vertically, its tension being re- 
gulated by a weight suspended at its lower 
extremity, a little below the place where 
the string comes into contact with a fixed 
pulley j the lengtli of the string is terminated 
