the stone weight measure, are used. In the Prussian ariny, 7, 10, 25, 50, 75 pound mortars are customary. Formerly they were used even of 120 pounds weight; but these are not employed at present, except in particular cases. Their length is generally from 23 to 34 times the diameter of the caliber. The interior parts of a mortar are the chamber, the bore, the mouth, the vent. The chamber is the place where the charge of powder is lodged. The shape of the chamber varies. It is generally conical, more or less truncated. Land mortars are those used in sieges, and mounted on beds. The beds are made of very solid timber, and placed upon very strong timber frames. The bed is so made as to turn round. Stone mortars serve to throw stones into the enemy's works, when near at hand. Sea mortars are those which are fixed in bomb-vessels, for bombarding places by sea. They are made much longer, and somewhat heavier than land mortars. The use of mortars is thought to be older than that of cannon, for they were employed in the wars of Italy to throw balls of red-hot iron and stones long before the invention of shells. It is generally believed that the Germans were the inventors, and that they were used at the siege of Naples, in the reign of Charles VIII, in 1435. It is more certain that shells were thrown out of mortars at the siege of Wachtendonk, in 1588, by the count of Mansfeld. (For further information, see Bomb, and Howitzer.)

MORTAR. (See Cement.)

MORTGAGE. A mortgage is a conveyance or transfer of real or personal estate to secure the grantee or assignee the payment of some debt, or the performance of some agreement, with a condition or understanding that, in case of the debt being paid, or the agreement being performed, within a certain time, and in the specified manner, the conveyance or assignment shall be void, and the land, or personal property revert to, or rather, still belong to the mortgager. The English, and so the American mortgage of land is mostly borrowed from the civil law (see Kent's Commentaries, vol. 4, part 4, lecture 57; Brown's Civil Law, vol. i., p. 200), or, at least, many of the rules and incidents of the Roman hypotheca coincide with ours relating to mortgages. The essential characteristic of a mortgage, however, according to the import and definition of the term, must be the same in all countries, namely, an agreement that the property conveyed or transferred, whether

real or personal, shall not absolutely go and belong to the grantee or assignee, in case the debt intended to be secured shall be paid, or the contract, whatever it may be, intended to be guarantied, shall bo performed within the time and terms agreed upon. The rules and incidents of such an hypothecation will therefore have some resemblance under all codes of laws. There is no limitation of the kind of debts or contracts, the payment or performance of which may be secured by mortgage for all legal ones may be so guarantied. What will be a sufficient conveyance of the property, whether real or personal, will again depend on the laws of the place. A conveyance of land, for instance, must, in most countries, be made in writing, and with certain formalities. So in England, the right of property in a ship must appear by a bill of sale. Whatever these rules are by which the absolute transfer of property is regulated, they will equally apply to a conveyance or assignment by way of hypothecation. As real estate is usually required by the laws to be conveyed by written documents, and according to the laws of most places, these conveyances are evidenced by public records of the instruments by which they are made, there is no necessity of an open, visible possession of the estate by the grantee, that the public may take notice of the grant, for they may find the evidence of it at the office of public record. The case is not the same with personal property, the title to which is usually confirmed and established to the purchaser by a delivery of the article into his possession. In respect to all chattels, of which manual possession and transfer from place to place is practicable, the delivery by the vendor, and actual possession by the purchaser, are very material circumstances in establishing the right of property in the latter. It is, indeed, laid down as a maxim of the English, and also of the American law, that movables cannot be validly sold or mortgaged without a delivery actual or constructive, to the purchaser o mortgagee, and a possession by him. But this rule is very much modified and relaxed; not that a delivery to, and possession by the vendee and mortgagee are not considered requisite to establish his title, but a very liberal interpretation has been put upon circumstances showing a constructive delivery and possession. The object and policy of the law is to leave the novable, just as it does land, to be used either by the mortgager or mortgagee, without affecting their mutual rights and obligations

cupied the electorate of Hanover. On his return, he was made one of the four generals of the consular guard, and, May 19, 1804, marshal of the empire. In September, he took the command of a division of the grand army; in October, passed to the left bank of the Danube, and was defeated in the battle of Dürnstein by Kutusoff. In the war with Prussia, he took possession of the electorate of Hesse (November 1, 1806); passed through Hamburg to the shores of the Baltic; occupied the Hanse towns, and conducted the hostilities against Sweden, till Napoleon, towards the end of the campaign, recalled him to the grand army, where he took part in the battle of Friedland. He then commanded in Spain, where, in connexion with Lannes, he took Saragossa, defeated the Spaniards at Ocaña, and assisted Soult in his plans against Badajoz. In 1812, he commanded in Russia, and was left in the Kremlin by Napoleon when he marched out of Moscow, with orders to blow it up. At the reopening of the camFaign, in 1813, he was placed at the head of the young guards, fought at Lützen, Bautzen, Dresden, Hanau, and, in 1814, in the different battles in France; and, April 8, acceded to Napoleon's dethronement. Louis XVIII made him peer of France. He was in Lisle when the king fled to that city, in 1815, and informed the king of the unfavorable disposition of the garrison. Louis went to Ghent, and Mortier entered the service of Napoleon. After the second restoration, he lost his dignity of peer, but was made commander of the military division in Rouen. In 1816, he was placed in the chamber of deputies, and in 1819 again made a peer.

MORTIER. (See Cap.)

MORTIFICATION, in medicine, is the death of a part of the body while the rest continues alive, and often in a sound state. If the part be a vital organ, as the lungs, its death must necessarily be followed by that of the whole person. Mortification is called gangrene, and sphacelus, when Occurring in soft or fleshy parts, as in the stomach or the limbs; and caries when in a bone, as in the spine, in the skull, &c. It is caused by violent inflammation, by exposure to freezing cold, by hospital fevers, by languid, or impeded, or stopped circulation, as in cases of bed-ridden or palsied persons, and by improper food, particularly the spurred or mildewed grain. It may be recognised, when prereded by inflammation, by the following signs: subsidence of pain, heat and redness, and loss of sensibility; brown lividity,

blistered skin, with bloody serum in the vesicles, offensive odor occurring in the part, and by a small, rapid, intermitting pulse; by shiverings followed with cold sweat, diarrhoea,delirium, hickup, dejection of spirits, and by a wild, cadaverous countenance. When a part having been frozen is suddenly exposed to heat, mortification rapidly ensues; the part becomes florid; inflammation is unsuccessfully attempted, and sphacelus is the result. In the above species a distinctly marked line divides the dead and living portions; often a healthy separation ensues. Mortification is common in the fevers, wounds and injuries of the crowded jails and military hospitals of Europe. This gangrene is considered contagious by some surgeons, the nurses and orderlies suffering from ulcers and sloughs on the hands, when touched with the sponges used in cleansing the sick. The same effect is produced on the sound portions of the skin of the sick. This hospital gangrene is distinguished by its rapid spread to contiguous parts, as from fingers to arms, by the oozing of grumous blood, by horrible fetor, by fatal depression of spirits, and by the sullen despair of patients who, on the day of battle or of amputation, were the bravest of the brave. Sometimes the cutting a nail to the quick, or a slight bruise, will induce gangrene in old or debilitated persons.Mildew mortification differs from other kinds in appearance and process, begin ning with coldness and numbness in fingers or toes, without fever, but with spasins, and hebetude of mind; it separates arms, legs or thighs, and nose. more often found in the voluptuous rich than in the laboring poor, in huge feeders than in free' drinkers. It is thought to be connected with a diseased state of the digestive organs, and great nervous debility. Mr. Pott sometimes checked it by opium in a few days, and, after the dropping off of the affected parts, the patients recovered health. There is a dry gangrene to which palsied persons, as well as others, are liable, which slowly destroys the limb, and commonly without inflammation or putrefaction. This is sometimes explained by the absence of warmth, and moisture, and air, which are removed by preceding atrophy-the color livid, though sometimes nearly natural. When the bones of the leg mortify, or become carious, new osseous matter is provided, in sound con stitutions. This process, occupying years when left to nature, is much accelerated by the artificial removal of the dead bone

It is

MORTMAIN. Lands held by a 'corporation are said to be held in mortmain (mortua manu, dead hand); the meaning of which is that the estate is a perpetuity, or, in other words, is not alienable. The expression has particular reference to estates held by the religious and eleemosynary corporations in England, which became objects of jealousy very early, it being apprehended that all the lands of the kingdom might come by conveyances prompted by the piety or superstition of proprietors into the hands of those corporations. Accordingly, conveyances and devises to corporations, civil or ecclesiastical, were forbidden by magna charta, and have been restrained and interdicted by subsequent statutes. In the U. States, the amount of real estate that may be held by a corporation is usually limited in its charter, and it is also understood, as the general law, that any corporation can only hold land for the purposes of its incorporation, unless authority is expressly given in its charter. The English statutes of mortmain have been held to be in force in Pennsylvania (3 Binney's Reports, App. 626), but they have not been expressly recognised as being a part of the common law in other states.

MORTON, John, one of the signers of the American Declaration of Independence, was born in the county of Chester (now Delaware), in Pennsylvania. About the year 1764, he was sent, as a delegate, to the general assembly of Pennsylvania, of which he continued to be for many years an active and distinguished member. He was deputed to the congress of 1774. On the question of declaring independence, in 1776, the delegation from Pennsylvania being divided, Mr. Morton gave his casting vote in the affirmative. This was an act of signal intrepidity, under all the circumstances of the case. In the following year, he assisted in organizing a system of confederation for the colonies, and was chairman of the committee of the whole at the time when it was agreed to (November 15, 1777). He died in that year, of an inflammatory fever, in the 56th year of his age. His character was truly estimable in private as well as public life.

MORVEAU, Louis Bernard Guyton de, baron, a celebrated chemist, born at Dijon, January 4, 1737, distinguished himself, in 1773, by the invention of the method of purifying the atmosphere by means of chlorine, which is now generally employed with the greatest success. Morveau was previously general-advocate of the parliament at Dijon, an able man

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of business, eloquent and upright. He founded a school at Dijon for his favorite study, chemistry, and, during 13 years, himself conducted it. In 1801 appeared his Description complète des Procédés de Désinfection. In 1791 he was made meinber of the national assembly, afterwards of the convention. At the battle of Fleu rus, he ascended in a balloon. In 1797 he retired to private life. Subsequently he was chosen a director of the polytechnic school, which he assisted to establish, and a member of the institute. After the restoration he was pensioned. He died January 2, 1816. His wife translated several chemical works from the English, Swedish and German; also Werner's treatise on the exterior characters of fossils (1790).

MORVEN. (See Fingal.)

MORVIEDRO, or MURVIEDRO ; a town of Spain, in Valencia, 13 miles northnorth-east of Valencia; lon. 22′ W.; lat. 39° 38′ N.; population 6273. It is supposed to be the ancient Saguntum destroyed by Hannibal, and which fell a victim to its fidelity to the Romans. It was afterwards rebuilt by the Romans with great splendor. The city of Morviedro is full of the remains of antiquity; the walls of the houses, the city gates, and doors of the churches and inns, are covered with Roman inscriptions. The most curious monuments are the castle and the theatre. The name is supposed to be derived from an allusion to this circumstance-muri veteres (ancient walls).

MOSAICS are imitations of paintings by means of colored stones, pieces of glass, of marble, and even of wood of different colors, cemented together with much art. The name is sometimes supposed to be derived from Moses, as the pretended inventor; sometimes from Musa, in the sense of elegance, beauty; and sometimes from povaciov, museum (a grotto consecrated to the muses), perhaps from the circumstance that mosaic work was first used in grottoes. The Italian musaico, as well as the French mosaïque, originated from the word musaicon of the Byzantine Greeks, who first introduced the art into Italy. We know nothing with precision of the invention and history of this art in antiquity. Probably it originated in the East, but received its perfection from the Greeks, and was thus conveyed to the Romans in Sylla's time. In Italy, and in most of the countries occupied by the Ro. mans, many floors ornamented with mosaic work have been found amongst the ruins. When, in the fifth century, the arts aud

sciences were driven from Italy by the distracted state of the country, this art was preserved by the Byzantine Greeks, and was restored to Italy in the thirteenth century, where it attained the highest perfection, particularly when Clement VIII, at the commencement of the 17th century, had the whole of the interior of the dome of St. Peter's ornamented with this work. Giambattista Calandra improved mosaic by the invention of a new cement. He and many succeeding artists employed the art for copying original paintings of famous artists, and thus eternizing them in their original freshness and beauty; for one of the greatest advantages of this kind of painting is its wonderful power of preservation. In this manner Guercino's Martyrdom of St. Petronilla, and Dominichino's Communion of the dying St. Jerome, were preserved. Peter Paul, of Christophoris, founded, at the commencement of the 18th century, a school for mosaic in Rome, and many of his scholars carried the art to a still higher degree of excellence. In recent times two kinds of mosaic are particularly fainous, the Roman and the Florentine. In the former the paintings are formed by joining very small pieces of stone, which gives greater variety and elegance, and facilitates the representation of large historical paintings. The Florentine style, which makes use of larger pieces of stone, is far more troublesome, and is adapted only for small paintings. Mosaic in wood the Italians call tansia, or tarsia; the French marqueterie. (See Marquetry.) In the most costly mosaics, precious stones have been cut to furnish materials; but in common works of this art enamels of different colors, manufactured for the purpose, are the material employed. The enamel is first formed into sticks, from the ends of which pieces of the requisite size are cut or broken off. These are confined in their proper places upon a plate of metal or stone, by a cement made of quicklime, pulverized limestone, and linseed oil. The cement is spread over the plate, and a drawing made on it to guide the artist before he commences his work. He has also constantly before him the painting to be copied. After the whole has adhered, it is allowed to dry two months, and is then polished with a flat stone and emnery. Inlaid works, of agate and other costly stones, are executed on the same principle as mosaic, except that the stones are larger, and cut to the shape of different parts of the object to be represented, whereas in mosaic the pieces are of the same size and

shape. The opus reticulatum of the a cients, with which columns and walls were sometimes incrusted, is found to consist of small stones, of a pyramidal form, the apex of which is imbedded in mortar, while the base, which is polished, forms the outer surface. A mode has recently been invented of sawing the plate with the mosaic paintings into two or three sheets, and thus multiplying the paintings. Should smoke or dirt soil the surface, it has only to be polished to be restored to its original beauty. In 1819, Fernbach, a native of Baden, invented a new kind of mosaic painting, imitating with surprising fidelity the color, the juncture, the lustre, &c., of mineral bodies. Professor Blank's mosaics of moss have also attracted much attention. See J. B. Blank's description of his Mosaic Paintings (Würtzburg, 1820).

MOSAMBIQUE, or MOSAMBICO; a kingdom of Africa, on the east coast, and in that part of the Indian sea which passes between the continent and the island of Madagascar. It takes its name from the capital, situated on an island, the chief of three islands which form a part of the kingdom. The city of Mosambico is said to have once been very handsome; the houses well built, especially the churches and convents, and the fort, or castle, which is about a musket-shot from the town; but it is now much reduced. Mr. Salt stated the population, in 1809, at 500 Portuguese, 800 persons of Arabian extraction, and 1500 negroes. The trade is in gold, ivory and slaves. The fort is one of the strongest and best contrived which the Portu guese have on this coast. The kings of Portugal spared no cost to fortify and garrison Mosambico, and to provide it with an hospital for the sick, and a well-stored magazine, with all necessaries for shipping, though the charge of keeping them up often exceeds the revenues it affords. Lon. 41° 38′ E.; lat. 15° 5' S. The island of Mosambico, though the largest of the three islands, is nevertheless very small, not being above two bow-shots in breadth, and about six in length; about two miles from the continent. The bay is about three miles in circuit, so that the points of land on each side advance into the sea. The other two, St. George and St. James, lie on each side of it, facing the continent in a direct line with it. Over against that of St. George, and about a mile from it, is the cape called by the Portuguese Cabo Cetra, which is a peninsula, joined to the continent by a small neck of land, covered with the sea at high, but fordable at low water