[Maltebrun, Conrad], geographer, born in Denmark; studied in Copenhagen, but banished for his revolutionary sympathies; settled in Paris; was the author of several geographical works, his "Geographic Universelle" the chief (1775-1826).
[Malthus, Thomas R.], an English economist, born near Dorking, in Surrey; is famous as the author of an "Essay on the Principle of Population," of which the first edition appeared in 1798, and the final, greatly enlarged, in 1803; the publication provoked much hostile criticism, as it propounded a doctrine which was disastrous to the accepted theory of perfectibility, and which aimed at showing how the progress of the race was held in check by the limited supply of the means of subsistence, a doctrine that admittedly anticipated that struggle for life on a larger scale which the Darwinian hypothesis requires for its "survival of the fittest" (1766-1834).
[Malvern, Great] (6), a watering-place in Worcestershire, on the side of the Malvern Hills, with a clear and bracing air, a plentiful supply of water, and much frequented by invalids.
[Mambrino], a Moorish king, celebrated in the romances of chivalry, who possessed a helmet of pure gold which rendered the wearer of it invulnerable, the possession of which was the ambition of all the paladins of Charlemagne, and which was carried off by Rinaldo, who slew the original owner; Cervantes makes his hero persuade himself that he has found it in a barber's brass basin.
[Mamelukes], originally slaves from the regions of the Caucasus, captured in war or bought in the market-place, who became the bodyguard of the Sultan in Egypt, and by-and-by his master to the extent of ruling the country and supplying a long line of Sultans of their own election from themselves, many of them enlightened rulers, governing the country well, but their supremacy was crushed by the Sultan of Turkey in 1517; after this, however, they retained much of their power, and they offered a brilliant resistance to Bonaparte at the battle of the Pyramids in 1798, who defeated them; but recovering their power after his withdrawal and proving troublesome, they were by two treacherous massacres annihilated in 1811 by Mehemet Ali, who became Viceroy of Egypt under the Porte.
[Mammon], the Syrian god of riches, which has given name to the modern passion for material wealth, specially conceived of as an abnegation of Christianity, the profession of which is in flat antagonism to it.
[Mammoth], an extinct species of elephant of enormous size found fossilised in Northern Europe and Asia in deposits alongside of human remains, and yielding a supply of fossil ivory.
[Mammoth Cave], a cave in Kentucky, U.S., about 10 m., the largest in the world, and rising at one point to 300 ft. in height, with numerous side branches leading into grottoes traversed by rivers, which here and there collect into lakes; name also of another of smaller dimensions in California.
[Man, Isle Of] (56), a small island in the Irish Sea, 35 m. W. of Cumberland and about the same distance E. of Co. Down; from its equable climate and picturesque scenery is a favourite holiday resort; it has important lead mines at Laxey and Foxdale; fishing and cattle-grazing are profitable industries; the people are Keltic, with a language and government of their own; the island is a bishopric, with the title Sodor and Man.
[Man of Destiny], name given to Napoleon Bonaparte as reflecting his own belief, for he was a fatalist.