THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INFORMATION

ELEVENTH EDITION

VOLUME XVII SLICE VII
Mars to Matteawan

Articles in This Slice

MARS, in astronomy, the fourth planet in the order of distance from the sun, and the next outside the earth. To the naked eye it appears as a bright star of a decidedly reddish or lurid tint, which contrasts strongly with the whiteness of Venus and Jupiter. At opposition it is brighter than a first magnitude star, sometimes outshining even Sirius. It is by virtue of its position the most favourably situated of all the planets for observation from the earth. The eccentricity of its orbit, 0.0933, is greater than that of any other major planet except Mercury. The result is that at an opposition near perihelion Mars is markedly nearer to the earth than at an opposition near aphelion, the one distance being about 35 million miles; the other 63 million. These numbers express only the minimum distances at or near opposition, and not the distance at other times. The time of revolution of Mars is 686.98 days. The mean interval between oppositions is 2 years 49½ days, but, owing to the eccentricity of the orbit, the actual excess over two years ranges from 36 days to more than 2½ months. Its period of rotation is 24 h. 37 m. 22.66 s. (H. G. Bakhuyzen).

Motions.—The accompanying diagram will convey a notion of the varied aspects presented by the planet, of the cycles of change through which they go, and of the order in which the oppositions follow each other. The outer circle represents the orbit of Mars, the inner one that of the earth. AE is the line of the equinoxes from which longitudes are counted. The perihelion of Mars is in longitude 335° at the point π. The ascending node Ω is in longitude 47°. The line of nodes makes an angle of 74° with the major axis, so that Mars is south of the ecliptic near perihelion, but north of it near aphelion. Around the inner circle, representing the earth’s orbit, are marked the months during which the earth passes through the different parts of the orbit. It will be seen that the distance of Mars at the time of any opposition depends upon the month in which opposition occurs. The least possible distance would occur in an opposition about the end of August, a little before Mars reached the perihelion, because the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit throws our planet a little farther from the sun and nearer the orbit of Mars in July than it does in August. The opposition of 1909 occurred on the 24th of September, at a point marked by the year near the equinox, and the month and years of the oppositions following, up to 1941, are also shown in the same way. Tracing them around, it will be seen that the points of opposition travel around the orbit in about 16 years, so that oppositions near perihelion, when Mars is therefore nearest the earth, occur at intervals of 15 or 17 years.

The axis of rotation of the planet is inclined between 23° and 24° to the orbit, and the equator of the planet has the same inclination to the plane of the orbit. The north pole is directed toward a point in longitude 355°, in consequence of which the projection of the planet’s axis upon the plane of the ecliptic is nearly parallel to the line of our equinoxes. This projection is shown by the dotted line SP-NP, which corresponds closely to the line of the Martian solstices. It will be seen that at a September opposition the north pole of the planet is turned away from the sun, so that only the southern hemisphere is presented to us, and only the south pole can be seen from the earth. The Martian vernal equinox is near Q and the northern solstice near A. Here at the point S.P. the northern hemisphere is turned toward the sun. It will be seen that the aspect of the planet at opposition, especially the hemisphere which is visible, varies with the month of opposition, the general rule being that the northern hemisphere of the planet is entirely seen only near aphelion oppositions, and therefore when farthest from us, while the southern hemisphere is best seen near perihelion oppositions. The distances of the planet from the sun at aphelion and at perihelion are nearly in the ratio 6:5. The intensity of the sun’s radiation on the planet is as the inverse square of this ratio. It is therefore more than 40% greater near perihelion than near aphelion. It follows from all this that the southern hemisphere is subjected to a more intense solar heat than the northern, and must therefore have a warmer summer season. But the length of the seasons is the inverse of this, the summer of the northern hemisphere being longer and the heat of the southern hemisphere shorter in proportion.

Surface Features.—The surface features of the planet will be better understood by first considering what is known of its atmosphere and of the temperature which probably prevails on its surface. One method of detecting an atmosphere is through its absorption of the different rays in the spectrum of the sunlight reflected from the planet. Several observers have thought that they saw fairly distinct evidence of such absorption when the planet was examined with the spectroscope. But the observations were not conclusive; and with the view of setting the question at rest if possible, W. W. Campbell at the Lick Observatory instituted a very careful series of spectroscopic observations.[1] To reduce the chances of error to a minimum the spectrum of Mars was compared with that of the moon when the two bodies were near each other. Not the slightest difference could be seen between any of the lines in the two spectra. It being certain that the spectrum of the moon is not affected by absorption, it followed that any absorption produced by the atmosphere of Mars is below the limit of perception. It was considered by Campbell that if the atmosphere of Mars were ¼ that of the earth in density, the absorption would have been visible. Consequently the atmosphere of Mars would be of a density less than ¼ that of the earth.[2]

Closely related to the question of an atmosphere is that of possible clouds above the surface of the planet, the existence of which, if real, would necessarily imply an atmosphere of a density approaching the limit set by Campbell’s observations. The most favourable opportunity for seeing clouds would be when they are formed above a region of the planet upon which the sun is about to rise, or from which it has just been setting. The cloud will then be illuminated by the sun’s rays while the surface below it is in darkness, and will appear to an observer on the earth as a spot of light outside the terminator, or visible edge of the illuminated part of the disk. It is noticeable that phenomena more or less of this character, though by no means common, have been noted by observers on several occasions. Among these have been the Mt Hamilton and Lowell observers, and W. H. Pickering at Arequipa. Campbell has shown that many of them may be accounted for by supposing the presence of mountains not more than two miles in height, which may well exist on the planet. While this hypothesis will serve to explain several of these appearances, this can scarcely be said of a detached spot observed on the evening of the 26th of May 1903, at the Lowell Observatory.[3] Dr Slipher, who first saw it, was so struck by the appearance of the projection from the terminator upon the dark side of the disk that he called the other observers to witness it. Micrometric measures showed that it was some 300 miles in length, and that its highest point stood some 17 miles above the surface of the planet. That a cloud should be formed at such a height in so rare an atmosphere seems difficult to account for except on the principle that the rate of diminution of the density of an atmosphere with its height is proportional to the intensity of gravity, which is smaller on Mars than on the earth. The colour was not white, but tawny, of the tint exhibited by a cloud of dust. Percival Lowell therefore suggests that this and other appearances of the same kind seen from time to time are probably dust clouds, travelling over the desert, as they sometimes do on the earth, and settling slowly again to the ground.

Temperature.—Up to a recent time all that could be said of the probable temperature of Mars was that, being more distant from the sun than the earth, and having a rarer atmosphere, it had a general mean temperature probably below that of the earth. Greater precision can now be given to this theoretical conclusion by recent determination of the law of radiation of heat by bodies at different temperatures. Regarding it as fairly well established that at ordinary temperatures the radiation varies directly as the fourth power of the absolute temperature, it is possible when the “solar constant” is known to compute the temperature of a non-coloured body at the distance of Mars which presents every part of its surface in rapid succession to the sun’s rays in the absence of atmosphere only. This has been elaborately done for the major planets by J. H. Poynting,[4] who computes that the mean temperature of Mars is far below the freezing point of water. On the other hand an investigation made by Lowell in 1907,[5] taking into account the effect of the rare atmosphere on the heat lost by reflection, and of several other factors in the problem hitherto overlooked, led him to the conclusion that the mean temperature is about 48° Fahr.[6] But the temperature may rise much above the mean on those regions of the surface exposed to a nearly vertical noon-day sun. The diurnal changes of temperature, being diminished by an atmosphere, must be greater on Mars than on the earth, so that the vicissitudes of temperature are there very great, but cannot be exactly determined, because they must depend upon the conductivity and thermal capacity of the matter composing the surface of the planet. What we can say with confidence is that, during the Martian winter of between eight and twelve of our months, the regions around either pole must fall to a temperature nearer the absolute zero than any known on this planet. In fact the climatic conditions in all but the equatorial regions are probably of the same nature as those which prevail on the tops of our highest mountains, except that the cold is more intense.[7]

Having these preliminary considerations in mind, we may now study the features presented to our view by the surface of the planet. These have a permanence and invariability which markedly differentiate them from the ever varying surfaces of Jupiter and Saturn, and show that what we see is a solid surface, like that of our earth. They were observed and delineated by the leading astronomers of the 16th century, especially Huygens, Cassini and Hooke. These observers could only distinguish the different regions upon the planet as bright or dark. Reasoning as they did in the case of the moon, it was naturally supposed that the brighter regions were land and the darker ones seas. The observers of our time find that the darker regions have a slightly blue-green aspect, which might suggest the idea of water, but are variegated in a way to show that they must be composed of a solid crust, like the brighter regions. The latter have a decidedly warm red or ochre tint, which gives the characteristic colour to the planet as seen by the naked eye. The regions in equatorial and middle latitudes, which are those best seen from our planet, show a surface of which the general aspect is not dissimilar to that which would be presented by the deserts of our earth when seen from the moon. With each improvement in the telescope the numerous drawings of the planet show more definiteness and certainty in details. About 1830 a fairly good map was made by W. Beer and J. H. Mädler, a work which has been repeated by a number of observers since that time. The volume of literature on the subject, illustrated by drawings and maps, has become so great that it is impossible here to present even an abstract of it; and it would not be practicable, even were it instructive, to enter upon any detailed description of Martian topography. A few great and well-marked features were depicted by the earliest observers, who saw them so plainly that they may be recognized by their drawings at the present time. There is also a general agreement among nearly all observers with good instruments as to the general features of the planet, but even in the latest drawings there is a marked divergence as to the minuter details. This is especially true of the boundaries of the more ill-defined regions, and of the faint and difficult markings of various kinds which are very numerous on every part of the planet. There is not even a close agreement between the drawings by the same observer at different oppositions; but this may be largely due to seasonal and other changes.

The most striking feature, and one which shows the greatest resemblance to a familiar terrestrial process, is that when either polar region comes into view after being turned nearly a year away from the sun, it is found to be covered with a white cap. This gradually contracts in extent as the sun shines upon it during the remaining half of the Martian year, sometimes nearly disappearing. That this change is due to the precipitation of watery vapour in the form of ice, snow or frost during the winter, and its melting or evaporation when exposed to the sun’s rays, is so obvious a conclusion that it has never been seriously questioned. It has indeed been suggested that the deposit may be frozen carbonic acid. While we cannot pronounce this out of the question, the probabilities seem in favour of the deposit being due to the precipitation of aqueous vapour in a frozen form. At a temperature of −50° C., which is far above what we can suppose to prevail in the polar regions during the winter, the tension of aqueous vapour is 0.034 mm. On the other hand Faraday found the tension of carbonic acid to be still an entire atmosphere at as low a temperature as −80° C. Numerically exact statements are impossible owing to our want of knowledge of the actual temperature, which must depend partly upon air currents between the equator and the poles of Mars. It can, however, be said, in a general way, that a proportion of aqueous vapour in the rare atmosphere of Mars, far smaller than that which prevails on the earth, would suffice to explain the observed formation and disappearances of the polar caps. Since every improvement in the telescope and in the conditions of observation must enable modern observers to see all that their predecessors did and yet more, we shall confine our statements to the latest results. These may be derived from the work of Professor Lowell of Boston, who in 1894 founded an observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona, 7250 ft. above sea-level, and supplied it with a 24″ telescope, of which the main purpose was the study of Mars. This work has been continued with such care and assiduity that its results must take precedence of all others in everything that relates to our present subject.[8]

Among the more probable conclusions to be drawn from Lowell’s observations, the following are of most interest. The darker areas are all seamed by lines and dots darker than themselves, which are permanent in position, so that there can be no bodies of water on the planet. On the other hand, their colour, blue-green, is that of vegetation. This fades out as vegetation would at certain seasons to faint blue-green, but in some places to a tawny brown. Each hemisphere undergoes these changes in its turn, the changes being opposite in opposite hemispheres. The changes in the dark areas follow some time after the melting of the polar caps. The aspect of these areas suggests old sea bottoms, and when on the terminator appear as depressions, though this may be only apparent and due to the dark colour. The smoothness and soft outline of the terminator shows that there are no mountains on Mars comparable with ours, but that the surface is surprisingly flat. White spots are occasionally visible in the tropical and temperate regions, which are perhaps due to the condensation of frost or snow, or to saline exudation such as seasonally occurs in India (Lowell). Moreover in winter the temperate zones are more or less covered by a whitish veil, which may be either hoar frost or cloud. A spring haze seems to surround the north polar cap during its most extensive melting; otherwise the Martian sky is quite clear, like that of a dry desert land. When either polar cap is melting it is bordered by a bluish area, which Lowell attributes to the water produced by the melting. But the obliquity at which the sun’s rays strike the surface as the cap is melting away is so great that it would seem to preclude the possibility of a temperature high enough to melt the snow into water. Under the low barometric pressure prevailing on the planet, snow would evaporate under the influence of the sun’s rays without changing into water. It is also contended that what looks like such a bluish border may be formed around a bright area by the secondary aberration of a refracting telescope.[9]

The modern studies of Mars which have aroused so much public interest began with the work of Schiaparelli in 1877. Accepting the term “ocean,” used by the older observers, to designate the widely extended darker regions on the planet, and holding that they were really bodies of water, he found that they were connected by comparatively narrow streaks. (Schiaparelli considered them really water until after the Lowell observations.) In accordance with the adopted system of nomenclature, he termed these streaks canale, a word of which the proper rendering into English would be channels. But the word was actually translated into both English and French as canal, thus connoting artificiality in the supposed waterways, which were attributed to the inhabitants of the planet. The fact that they were many miles in breadth, and that it was therefore absurd to call them canals, did not prevent this term from being so extensively used that it is now scarcely possible to do away with it. A second series of observations was made by Schiaparelli at the opposition of 1879, when the planet was farther away, but was better situated as to altitude above the horizon. He now found a number of additional channels, which were much finer than those he had previously drawn. The great interest attaching to their seemingly artificial character gave an impetus to telescopic study of the planet which has continued to the present time. New canals were added, especially at the Lowell Observatory, until the entire number listed in 1908 amounted to more than 585. The general character of this complex system of lines is described by Lowell as a network covering the whole face of the planet, light and dark regions alike, and connecting at either end with the respective polar caps there. At their junctions are small dark pinheads of spots. The lines vary in size between themselves, but each maintains its own width throughout. But the more difficult of these objects are only seen occasionally and are variable in definiteness. Of two canals equally well situated for seeing, only one may be visible at one time and only the other at other times. If this variability of aspect among different canals is true as they are seen from the Lowell Observatory, we find it true to a much greater extent when we compare descriptions by different observers. At Flagstaff, the most favourably situated of all the points of observation, they are seen as fine sharp lines, sometimes as well marked as if drawn with a pencil. But other observers see them with varying degrees of breadth and diffuseness.

One remarkable feature of these objects is their occasional “gemination,” some of the canals appearing as if doubled. This was first noticed by Schiaparelli, and has been confirmed, so far as observations can confirm it, by other observers. Different explanations of this phenomenon have been suggested, but the descriptions of it are not sufficiently definite to render any explanation worthy of entire confidence possible. Indeed the more cautious astronomers, who have not specially devoted themselves to the particular phenomena, reserve a doubt as to how far the apparent phenomena of the finer canals are real, and what the markings which give rise to their appearance might prove to be if a better and nearer view of the planet than is now possible could be obtained. Of the reality of the better marked ones there can be no doubt, as they have been seen repeatedly by many observers, including those at the Lick Observatory, and have actually been photographed at the Lowell Observatory. The doubt is therefore confined to the vast network of lines so fine that they never certainly have been seen elsewhere than at Flagstaff. The difficulty of pronouncing upon their reality arises from the fact that we have to do mainly with objects not plainly visible (or, as Lowell contends, not plainly visible elsewhere). The question therefore becomes one of psychological optics rather than of astronomy. When the question is considered from this point of view it is found that combinations of light and shaded areas very different from continuous lines, will, under certain conditions, be interpreted by the eye as such lines; and when such is the case, long practice by an observer, however carefully conducted, may confirm him in this interpretation. To give a single example of the principles involved; it is found by experiment that if, through a long line so fine as to approach the limit of visibility, segments not too near each other, or so short that they would not be visible by themselves, be taken out, their absence from the line will not be noticed, and the latter will still seem continuous.[10] In other words we do not change the aspect of the line by taking away from it a part which by itself would be invisible. This act of the eye, in interpreting a discontinuous series of very faint patches as a continuous line, is not, properly speaking, an optical illusion, but rather a habit. The arguments for the reality of all the phenomena associated with the canals, while cogent, have not sufficed to bring about a general consensus of opinion among critics beyond the limit already mentioned.

Accepting the view that the dark lines on Mars are objectively real and continuous, and are features as definite in reality as they appear in the telescope, Professor Lowell has put forth an explanation of sufficient interest to be mentioned here. His first proposition is that lines frequently thousands of miles long, each following closely a great circle, must be the product of design rather than of natural causes. His explanation is that they indicate the existence of irrigating canals which carry the water produced annually by the melting of the polar snows to every part of the planet. The actual canals are too minute to be visible to us. What we really see as dark lines are broad strips of vegetation, produced by artificial cultivation extending along each border of the irrigating streams. On the other hand, in the view of his critics, the quantity of ice or snow which the sun’s rays could melt around the poles of Mars, the rate of flow and evaporation as the water is carried toward the equator, and several other of the conditions involved, require investigation before the theory can be established.[11]

The accompanying illustrations of Mars and its canals are those of Lowell, and represent the planet as seen by the Flagstaff observers.

Satellites and Pole of Mars.—At the opposition of Mars which occurred in August 1877 the planet was unusually near the earth. Asaph Hall, then in charge of the 26″ telescope at the Naval Observatory in Washington, took advantage of this favourable circumstance to make a careful search for a visible satellite of the planet. On the night of the 11th of August he found a faint object near the planet. Cloudy weather intervened, and the object was not again seen until the 16th, when it was found to be moving with the planet, leaving no doubt as to its being a satellite. On the night following an inner satellite much nearer the planet was observed. This discovery, apart from its intrinsic interest, is also noteworthy as the first of a series of discoveries of satellites of the outer planets. The satellites of Mars are difficult to observe, on account not merely of their faintness, but of their proximity to the planet, the light of which is so bright as to nearly blot out that of the satellite. Intrinsically the inner satellite is brighter than the outer one, but for the reason just mentioned it is more difficult to observe. The names given them by Hall were Deimos for the outer satellite and Phobos for the inner one, derived from the mythological horses that drew the chariot of the god Mars. A remarkable feature of the orbit of Phobos is that it is so near the planet as to perform a revolution in less than one-third that of the diurnal rotation of Mars. The result is that to an inhabitant of Mars this satellite would rise in the west and set in the east, making two apparent diurnal revolutions every day. The period of Deimos is only six days greater than that of a Martian day; consequently its apparent motion around the planet would be so slow that more than two days elapse between rising and setting, and again between setting and rising.

Owing to the minuteness of these bodies it is impossible to make any measures of their diameters. These can be inferred only from their brightness. Assuming them to be of the same colour as Mars, Lowell estimates them to be about ten miles for Deimos and somewhat more for Phobos. But these estimates are uncertain, not only from the somewhat hypothetical character of the data on which they rest, but from the difficulty of accurately estimating the brightness of such an object in the glare of the planet.

A long and careful series of observations was made upon these bodies by other observers. Later, especially at the very favourable oppositions of 1892 and 1894, observations were made by Hermann Struve at Poulkova, who subjected all the observations up to 1898 to a very careful discussion. He showed that the inclination of the planes of the orbits to the equator of the planet is quite small, thus making it certain that these two planes can never wander far from each other. In the following statement of the numerical elements of the entire system, Struve’s results are given for the satellites, while those of Lowell are adopted for the position of the plane of the equator.

The relations of the several planes can be best conceived by considering the points at which lines perpendicular to them, or their poles, meet the celestial sphere. By theory, the pole of the orbital plane of each satellite revolves round the pole of a certain fixed plane, differing less from the plane of the equator of Mars the nearer the satellite is to Mars. Lowell from a combination of his own observations with those of Schiaparelli, Lohse and Cerulli, found for the pole of the axis of rotation of Mars[12]:—

R.A. = 317.5°;    Dec. = +54.5°; Epoch, 1905.

Tilt[13] of Martian Equator to Martian ecliptic, 23°. 59′. Hermann Struve, from the observations of the satellites, found theoretically the following positions of this pole, and of those of the fixed planes of the satellite orbits for 1900:—

Lowell’s position of the pole is that now adopted by the British Nautical Almanac.

The actual positions of the poles of the satellite—orbits revolve around these poles of the two fixed planes in circles. Putting N for the right-ascensions of their nodes on the plane of the terrestrial equator, and J for their angular distance from the north terrestrial pole, N, and J, for the corresponding poles of the fixed planes, and t for the time in years after 1900, Struve’s results are:—

Deimos.

N1 = 46°.12′ + 0.463′ t; J =36°.42′ − 0.24′ t
(N − N1) sin J = 97.6′ sin (356.8° − 6.375° t)
J − J1 = 97.6 cos (356.8° − 6.375° t)

Phobos.

N1 = 47° 14.3′ + 0.46′ t; J1 = 37° 21.9′ − 0.24′ t
(N − N1) sin J = 53.1′ sin (257°.1′ − 158.0° t)
J − J1 = 53.1′ cos (257°1′ − 158.0 t)

The other elements are:—

Bibliography.—Flammarion, La Planète Mars et ses conditions d’habitilité (Paris, 1892), embodies so copious a résumé of all the publications and drawings relating to Mars up to 1891 that there is little occasion for reference in detail to early publications. Among the principal sources may be mentioned the Monthly Notices and Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, the publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, especially vols. vi., viii. and ix., containing observations and discussions by the Mt Hamilton astronomers, and the journals, Sidereal Messenger, Astronomy and Astrophysics and Astrophysical Journal. Schiaparelli’s extended memoirs appeared under the general title Osservazioni astronomiche e fisiche sull’ asse di rotazione e sulla topografia del pianeta Marte, and were published in different volumes of the Memoirs of the Reale Accademia dei Lincei of Rome. The observations and drawings of Lowell are found in extenso in Annals of the Lowell Observatory. Lowell’s conclusions are summarized in Mars and its Canals, by Percival Lowell (1906), and Mars as the Abode of Life (1909). In connexion with his work may be mentioned Mars and its Mystery, by Edward S. Morse (Boston, 1906), the work of a naturalist who made studies of the planet at the Lowell Observatory in 1905. Brief discussions and notices will also be found in the Lowell Observatory Bulletins. The optical principles involved in the interpretations of the canals are discussed in recent volumes of the Monthly Notices, R.A.S., and in the Astrophysical Journal. In 1907 the veteran A. R. Wallace disputed Lowell’s views vigorously in his Is Mars Habitable? and was briefly answered by Lowell in Nature, who contended that Wallace’s theory was not in accord with celestial mechanics.

(S. N.)

[1] Astronomy and Astrophysics, iii. 752, and Astron. Soc. of the Pacific, Publications, vi. 273 and ix. 109.

[2] According to Percival Lowell these results were, however, inconclusive because the strong atmospheric lines lie redwards beyond the part of the spectrum then possible to observe. Subsequently, by experimenting with sensitizing dyes, Dr Slipher of the Lowell Observatory succeeded in 1908 in photographing the spectrum far into the red. Comparison spectrograms of Mars and the Moon, taken by him at equal altitudes on such plates, eight in all, show the “a” band, the great band of water-vapour was distinctly stronger in the spectrum of Mars, thus affording what appeared decisive evidence of water vapour in the atmosphere of the planet.

[3] Lowell, Mars and its Canals, p. 101.

[4] Phil. Trans., vol. 202 A, p. 525.

[5] Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences, vol. xlii. No. 25.

[6] Professor F. W. Very concurs with Lowell (Phil. Mag., 1908).

[7] According to Lowell, the climatic conditions are proportionally warm in summer.

[8] The great space penetration of the Lowell Observatory is shown in the case of stars. More stars have been mapped there in a given space than at the Lick, and Mr Ritchey of the Yerkes Observatory found stars easily visible there which were only just perceptible at Yerkes.

[9] As against this, Lowell’s answer is that the effect is not optical; for the belt surrounds the melting, not the making cap.

[10] For limits of this theory and Lowell’s view of its inapplicability to Mars, see Astrophys. Jour., Sept. 1907.

[11] Prof. Lowell’s theory is supported by so much evidence of different kinds that his own exposition should be read in extenso in Mars and its canals and Mars as the abode of life. In order, however, that his views may be adequately presented here, he has kindly supplied the following summary in his own words:—

“Owing to inadequate atmospheric advantages generally, much misapprehension exists as to the definiteness with which the surface of Mars is seen under good conditions. In steady air the canals are perfectly distinct lines, not unlike the Fraunhofer ones of the Spectrum, pencil lines or gossamer filaments according to size. All the observers at Flagstaff concur in this. The photographs of them taken there also confirm it up to the limit of their ability. Careful experiments by the same observers on artificial lines show that if the canals had breaks amounting to 16 m. across, such breaks would be visible. None are; while the lines themselves are thousands of miles long and perfectly straight (Astrophys. Journ., Sept. 1907). Between expert observers representing the planet at the same epoch the accordance is striking; differences in drawings are differences of time and are due to seasonal and secular changes in the planet itself. These seasonal changes have been carefully followed at Flagstaff, and the law governing them detected. They are found to depend upon the melting of the polar caps. After the melting is under way the canals next the cap proceed to darken, and the darkening thence progresses regularly down the latitudes. Twice this happens every Martian year, first from one cap and then six Martian months later from the other. The action reminds one of the quickening of the Nile valley after the melting of the snows in Abyssinia; only with planet-wide rhythm. Some of the canals are paired. The phenomenon is peculiar to certain canals, for only about one-tenth of the whole number, 56 out of 585, ever show double and these do so regularly. Each double has its special width; this width between the pair being 400 m. in some cases, only 75 in others. Careful plotting has disclosed the fact that the doubles cluster round the planet’s equator, rarely pass 40° Lat., and never occur at the poles, though the planet’s axial tilt reveals all its latitudes to us in turn. They are thus features of those latitudes where the surface is greatest compared with the area of the polar cap, which is suggestive. Space precludes mention of many other equally striking peculiarities of the canals’ positioning and development. At the junctions of the canals are small, dark round spots, which also wax and wane with the seasons. These facts and a host of others of like significance have led Lowell to the conclusion that the whole canal system is of artificial origin, first because of each appearance and secondly because of the laws governing its development. Every opposition has added to the assurance that the canals are artificial; both by disclosing their peculiarities better and better and by removing generic doubts as to the planet’s habitability. The warmer temperature disclosed from Lowell’s investigation on the subject, and the spectrographic detection by Slipher of water-vapour in the Martian air, are among the latest of these confirmations.”—[Ed.]

[12] Bulletin Lowell Obsy., Monthly Notices, R.A.S. (1905), 66, p. 51.

[13] St Petersburg Memoirs, series viii., Phys. Mars-classe, vol. viii.

MARSALA, a seaport of Sicily, in the province of Trapani, 19 m. by rail S. of Trapani. Pop. (1881), 19,732; (1901), 57,567. The low coast on which it is situated is the westernmost point of the island. The town is the seat of a bishop, and the cathedral contains 16 grey marble columns, which are said to have been intended for Canterbury Cathedral in England, the vessel conveying them having been wrecked here. The town owes its importance mainly to the trade in Marsala wine.

Marsala occupies the site of Lilybaeum, the principal stronghold of the Carthaginians in Sicily, founded by Himilco after the abandonment of Motya. Neither Pyrrhus nor the Romans were able to reduce it by siege, but it was surrendered to the latter in 241 B.C. at the end of the First Punic War. In the later wars it was a starting point for the Roman expeditions against Carthage; and under Roman rule it enjoyed considerable prosperity (C.I.L. x. p. 742). It obtained municipal rights from Augustus and became a colony under Pertinax or Septimus Severus. The Saracens gave it its present name, Marsa Ali, port of Ali. The harbour, which lay on the north-east, was destroyed by Charles V. to prevent its occupation by pirates. The modern harbour lies to the south-east. In 1860 Garibaldi landed at Marsala with 1000 men and began his campaign in Sicily. Scanty remains of the ancient Lilybaeum (fragments of the city walls, of squared stones, and some foundations of buildings between the walls and the sea) are visible; and the so-called grotto and spring of the Sibyl may be mentioned. To the east of the town is a great fosse which defended it on the land side, and beyond this again are quarries like those of Syracuse on a small scale. The modern town takes the shape of the Roman camp within the earlier city, one of the gates of which still existed in 1887. The main street (the Cassaro) perpetuates the name castrum.

MARSDEN, WILLIAM (1754-1836), English orientalist, the son of a Dublin merchant, was born at Verval, Co. Wicklow on the 16th of November 1754. He was educated in Dublin, and having obtained an appointment in the civil service of the East India Company arrived at Benkulen, Sumatra, in 1771. There he soon rose to the office of principal secretary to the government, and acquired a knowledge of the Malay language and country. Returning to England in 1779 with a pension, he wrote his History of Sumatra, published in 1783. Marsden was appointed in 1795 second secretary and afterwards first secretary to the admiralty. In 1807 he retired and published in 1812 his Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language, and in 1818 his translation of the Travels of Marco Polo. He was a member of many learned societies, and treasurer and vice-president of the Royal Society. In 1834 he presented his collection of oriental coins to the British Museum, and his library of books and Oriental MSS. to King’s College, London. He died on the 6th of October 1836.

Marsden’s other works are: Numismata orientalia (London, 1823-1825); Catalogue of Dictionaries, Vocabularies, Grammars and Alphabets (1796); and several papers on Eastern topics in the Philosophical Transactions and the Archaelogia.

MARSEILLES, a city of southern France, chief seaport of France and of the Mediterranean, 219 m. S. by E. of Lyons and 534 m. S.S.E. of Paris, by the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée railway. Pop. (1906), commune 517,498; town 421,116. Marseilles is situated on the Golfe du Lion on the eastern shore of a bay protected to the south by Cape Croisette but open towards the west; to the east the horizon is bounded by an amphitheatre of hills, those in the foreground clothed with vegetation while the more distant eminences are bare and rugged. The city is built on undulating ground and the south-western and most aristocratic quarter covers the slopes of the ridge crowned by a fort and the church of Notre-Dame de la Garde and projecting westward into the bay to form a protection for the harbour. The newest and most pleasant portion lies on the south-eastern slope of the ridge, between the southern end of the Rue Paradis and the Prado avenues, which is better protected than most other quarters from the mistral that blows down the Rhone valley, and where in summer the temperature is always a little lower than in the centre of the town. The old harbour of Marseilles opens on the west to the Golfe du Lion, the famous Rue Cannebière[1] prolonged by the Rue Noailles leading E.N.E. from its inner end. These two streets are the centre of the life of the city. Continued in the Allées de Meilhan and the Boulevard de la Madeleine, they form one of its main arteries. The other, at right angles with the first, connects the Place d’Aix with the spacious and fashionable Promenade du Prado, by way of the Cours Belsunce and the Rue de Rome. Other fine streets—the Rue St Ferréol, the Rue Paradis and the Rue Breteuil are to the south of the Cannebière running parallel with the Rue de Rome. To these must be added the neighbouring avenue of Pierre Puget named after the sculptor whose statue stands in the Borély Park. The Prado, with its avenues of trees and fine houses, runs to within a quarter of a mile of the Huveaune, a stream that borders the city on the south-east, then turns off at right angles and extends to the sea, coming to an end close to the Borély Park and the race-course. From its extremity the Chemin de la Corniche runs northwards along the coast, fringed by villas and bathing establishments, to the Anse des Catalans, a distance of 4½ miles.

The old town of Marseilles is bounded W. by the Joliette basin and the sea, E. by the Cours Belsunce, S. by the northern quay of the old port, and N. by the Boulevard des Dames. It consists of a labyrinth of steep, dark and narrow streets inhabited by a seafaring population. Through its centre runs the broad Rue de la République, extending from the Cannebière to the Place de la Joliette. The entrance to the old harbour is defended by Fort St Jean on the north and Fort St Nicolas on the south. Behind the latter is the Anse (Creek) de la Réserve. Beyond this again, situated in succession along the shore, come the Château du Pharo, given by the empress Eugénie to the town, the Anse du Pharo, the military exercising ground, and the Anse des Catalans. To the old harbour, which covers only 70 acres with a mean depth of 19½ ft. and is now used by sailing vessels, the basin of La Joliette (55 acres) with an entrance harbour was added in 1853. Communicating with the old harbour by a channel which passes behind Fort St Jean, this dock opens on the south into the outer harbour, opposite the palace and the Anse du Pharo. A series of similar basins separated from the roadstead by a jetty 2½ m. long was subsequently added along the shore to the north, viz. the basins of Lazaret and Arenc, bordered by the harbour railway station and the extensive warehouses of the Compagnie des Docks et Entrepôts, the Bassin de la Gare Maritime with the warehouses of the chamber of commerce; the Bassin National with the refitting basin, comprising six dry docks behind it; and the Bassin de la Pinède entered from the northern outer harbour. These new docks have a water area of 414 acres and over 11 m. of quays, and are commodious and deep enough for the largest vessels to manœuvre easily.

In the roads to the south-west of the port lie the islands of Ratonneau and Pomègue, united by a jetty forming a quarantine port. Between them and the mainland is the islet of Château d’If, in which the scene of part of Dumas’ Monte Cristo is laid.

Marseilles possesses few remains of either the Greek or Roman periods of occupation, and is poor in medieval buildings. The old cathedral of la Major (Sainte-Marie-Majeure), dating chiefly from the 12th century and built on the ruins of a temple of Diana, is in bad preservation. The chapel of St Lazare (late 15th century) in the left aisle is in the earliest Renaissance style, and a bas-relief of white porcelain by Lucca della Robbia is of artistic value. Beside this church and alongside the Joliette basin is a modern building begun in 1852, opened for worship in 1893 and recognized as the finest modern cathedral in France. It is a Byzantine basilica, in the form of a Latin cross, 460 ft. long, built in green Florentine stone blended with white stone from the neighbourhood of Arles. The four towers which surmount it—two at the west front, one over the crossing, one at the east end—are roofed with cupolas. Near the cathedral stands the bishop’s palace, and the Place de la Major, which they overlook, is embellished with the statue of Bishop Belsunce, who displayed great devotion during the plague of 1720-1721. The celebrated Notre-Dame de la Garde, the steeple of which, surmounted by a gilded statue of the Virgin, 30 ft. in height, rises 150 ft. above the summit of the hill on which it stands, commands a view of the whole port and town, as well as of the surrounding mountains and the neighbouring sea. The present chapel is modern and occupies the site of one built in 1214.

On the south side of the old harbour near the Fort St Nicolas stands the church of St Victor, built in the 13th century and once attached to an abbey founded early in the 4th century. With its lofty crenellated walls and square towers built of large blocks of uncemented stone, it resembles a fortress. St Victor is built above crypts dating mainly from the 11th century but also embodying architecture of the Carolingian period and of the early centuries of the Christian era. Tradition relates that St Lazarus inhabited the catacombs under St Victor; and the black image of the Virgin, still preserved there, is popularly attributed to St Luke. The spire, which is the only relic of the ancient church of Accoules, marks the centre of Old Marseilles. At its foot are a “calvary” and a curious underground chapel in rock work, both modern. Notre-Dame du Mont Carmel, also in the old town, occupies the place of what was the citadel of the Massaliots when they were besieged by Julius Caesar.

Of the civil buildings of the city, the prefecture, one of the finest in France, the Palais de Justice, in front of which is the statue of the advocate Antoine Berryer (1790-1868) and the Exchange, all date from the latter half of the 19th century. The Exchange, built at the expense of the Chamber of Commerce, includes the spacious hall of that institution with its fine mural paintings and gilding. The hôtel-de-ville (17th century) stands on the northern quay of the old harbour. All these buildings are surpassed by the Palais Longchamp (1862-1870), situated in the north-east of the town at the end of the Boulevard Longchamp. The centre of the building is occupied by a monumental château d’eau (reservoir). Colonnades branch off from this, uniting it on the left to the picture gallery, with a fine collection of ancient and modern works, and on the right to the natural history museum, remarkable for its conchological department and collection of ammonites. In front are ornamental grounds; behind are extensive zoological gardens, with the astronomical observatory. The museum of antiquities is established in the Château Borély (1766-1778) in a fine park at the end of the Prado. It includes a Phoenician collection (containing the remains that support the hypothesis of the Phoenician origin of Marseilles), an Egyptian collection, numerous Greek, Latin, and Christian inscriptions in stone, &c. A special building within the city contains the school of art with a valuable library and a collection of medals and coins annexed to it. The city also has a colonial museum and a laboratory of marine zoology. The triumphal arch of Aix, originally dedicated to the victors of the Trocadéro, was in 1830 appropriated to the conquests of the empire.

The canal de Marseille, constructed from 1837 to 1848, which has metamorphosed the town and its arid surroundings by bringing to them the waters of the Durance, leaves the river opposite Pertuis. It has a length of 97 miles (including its four main branches) of which 13 are underground, and irrigates some 7500 acres. After crossing the valley of the Arc, between Aix and Rognac, by the magnificent aqueduct of Roquefavour, it purifies its waters, charged with ooze, in the basins of Réaltort. It draws about 2200 gallons of water per second from the Durance, supplies 2450 horse-power to works in the vicinity of Marseilles, and ensures a good water-supply and efficient sanitation to the city.

Marseilles is the headquarters of the XV. army corps and the seat of a bishop and a prefect. It has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a chamber of commerce, a board of trade arbitration, and a branch of the Bank of France. The educational institutions include a faculty of science, a school of medicine and pharmacy, and a faculty (faculté libre) of law, these three forming part of the university of Aix-Marseille; lycées for boys and girls, a conservatoire of music, a school of fine art, a higher school of commerce, a school for ships’ boys, a school of navigation and industrial schools for both sexes.

Trade and Industry.—Marseilles is the western emporium for the Levant trade and the French gate of the Far East. It suffers, however, from the competition of Genoa, which is linked with the Rhine basin by the Simplon and St Gotthard railway routes, and from lack of communication with the inland waterways of France. In January 1902 the chamber of deputies voted £3,656,000 for the construction of a canal from Marseilles to the Rhone at Arles. This scheme was designed to overcome the difficulties of egress from the Rhone and to make the city the natural outlet of the rich Rhone basin. Much of the activity of the port is due to the demand for raw material created by the industries of Marseilles itself. The imports include raw silk, sesame, ground-nuts and other oil-producing fruits and seeds largely used in the soap manufacture, cereals and flour, wool, hides and skins, olive and other oils, raw cotton, sheep and other livestock, woven goods, table fruit, wine, potatoes and dry vegetables, lead, cocoon silk, coffee, coal, timber. The total value of imports was £64,189,000 in 1907, an increase of £18,000,000 in the preceding decade. The exports, of which the total value was £52,901,000 (an increase of £21,000,000 in the decade) included cotton fabrics, silk fabrics, cereals and flour, hides and skins, wool fabrics, worked skins, olive and other oils, chemical products, wine, refined sugar, raw cotton, wool, coal, building-material, machinery and pottery.

The port is the centre for numerous lines of steamers, of which the chief are the Messageries Maritimes, which ply to the eastern Mediterranean, the east coast of Africa, Australia, India, Indo-China, Havre and London, and the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, whose vessels run to Algiers, Tunis, Malta, Corsica, Morocco and the Antilles. In addition many important foreign lines call at the port, among them being the P. and O., the Orient, the North German Lloyd, and the German East Africa lines.

Marseilles has five chief railway stations, two of which serve the new harbours, while one is alongside the old port; the city is on the main line of the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée railway from the Riviera and Toulon to Paris via Arles, Avignon and Lyons, another less important line connecting it with Aix.

Soap-making, introduced in antiquity from Savona and Genoa, is carried on in upwards of fifty factories. These utilize the products of the oil-distilleries and of the chemical works, the latter being also an important adjunct to the manufacture of candles, another leading industry. A large quantity of iron, copper and other ores is smelted in the blast-furnaces of Saint Louis in the vicinity and in other foundries, and the Mediterranean Engineering Company and other companies have large workshops for the construction or repair of marine steam-engines and every branch of iron shipbuilding. To these industries must be added flour-milling, the manufacture of semolina and other farinaceous foods and of biscuits, bricks and tiles, rope, casks, capsules for bottles and other tin-goods, tanning, distilling, brewing and sulphur- and sugar-refining. There are state tobacco and match factories.

History.—The Greek colony of Massalia (Lat. Massilia) was founded by the mariners of Phocaea in Asia Minor, about 600 B.C. The settlement of the Greeks in waters which the Carthaginians reserved for their own commerce was not effected without a naval conflict; it is not improbable that the Phoenicians were settled at Marseilles before the Greek period, and that the name of the town is the Phoenician for “settlement.” Whether the judges (sophetim, “suffetes”) of the Phoenician sacrificial tablet of Marseilles were the rulers of a city existing before the advent of the Phocaeans, or were consuls for Punic residents in the Greek period, is disputed. In 542 B.C. the fall of the Phocaean cities before the Persians probably sent new settlers to the Ligurian coast and cut off the remote city of Massalia from close connexion with the mother country. Isolated amid alien populations, the Massaliots made their way by prudence in dealing with the inland tribes, by vigilant administration of their oligarchical government, and by frugality united to remarkable commercial and naval enterprise. Their colonies spread east and west along the coast from Monaco to Cape St Martin in Spain, carrying with them the worship of Artemis; the inland trade, in which wine was an important element, can be traced by finds of Massalian coins across Gaul and through the Alps as far as Tirol. In the 4th century B.C. the Massaliot Pytheas visited the coasts of Gaul, Britain and Germany, and Euthymenes is said to have sailed down the west coast of Africa as far as Senegal. The great rival of Massalian trade was Carthage, and in the Punic Wars the city took the side of Rome, and was rewarded by Roman assistance in the subjugation of the native tribes of Liguria. In the war between Caesar and Pompey Massilia took Pompey’s side and in A.D. 49 offered a vain resistance to Caesar’s lieutenant Trebonius. In memory of its ancient services the city, “without which,” as Cicero says, “Rome had never triumphed over the Transalpine nations,” was left as a civitas libera, but her power was broken and most of her dependencies taken from her. From this time Massilia has little place in Roman history; it became for a time an important school of letters and medicine, but its commercial and intellectual importance declined. The town appears to have been christianized before the end of the 3rd century, and at the beginning of the 4th century was the scene of the martyrdom of St Victor. Its reputation partly revived through the names of Gennadius and Cassian, which give it prominence in the history of Semi-Pelagianism and the foundation of western monachism.

After the ravages of successive invaders, Marseilles was repeopled in the 10th century under the protection of its viscounts. The town gradually bought up their rights, and at the beginning of the 13th century was formed into a republic, governed by a podestat, who was appointed for life, and exercised his office in conjunction with 3 notables, and a municipal council, composed of 80 citizens, 3 clerics, and 6 principal tradesmen. During the rest of the middle ages, however, the higher town was governed by the bishop, and had its harbour at the creek of La Joliette which at that period ran inland to the north of the old town. The southern suburb was governed by the abbot of St Victor, and owned the Port des Catalans. Situated between the two, the lower town, the republic, retained the old harbour, and was the most powerful of the three divisions. The period of the crusades brought prosperity to Marseilles, though throughout the middle ages it suffered from the competition of Pisa, Genoa and Venice. In 1245 and 1256 Charles of Anjou, count of Provence, whose predecessors had left the citizens a large measure of independence, established his authority above that of the republic. In 1423 Alphonso V. of Aragon sacked the town. King René, who had made it his winter residence, however, caused trade, arts and manufactures again to flourish. On the embodiment of Provence in the kingdom of France in 1481, Marseilles preserved a separate administration directed by royal officials. Under Francis I. the disaffected constable Charles de Bourbon vainly besieged the town with the imperial forces in 1524. During the wars of religion, Marseilles took part against the Protestants, and long refused to acknowledge Henry IV. The loss of the ancient liberties of the town brought new disturbances under the Fronde, which Louis XIV. came in person to suppress. He entered the town by a breach in the walls and afterwards had Fort St Nicolas constructed. Marseilles repeatedly suffered from the plague, notably from May 1720 to May 1721.

During the Revolution the people rose against the aristocracy, who up to that time had governed the commune. In the Terror they rebelled against the Convention, but were promptly subdued by General Carteaux. The wars of the empire, by dealing a blow to their maritime commerce, excited the hatred of the inhabitants against Napoleon, and they hailed the return of the Bourbons and the defeat of Waterloo. The news of the latter provoked a bloody reaction in the town against those suspected of imperialism. The prosperity of the city received a considerable impulse from the conquest of Algeria and from the opening of the Suez Canal.

See P. Castanier, Histoire de la Provence dans l’antiquité, vol. ii. (Paris, 1896); E. Caman, Marseille au XXme siècle (Paris, 1905); P. Joanne, Marseille et ses environs.

[1] From the Latin cannabis, Provençal cannèbe, “hemp,” in allusion to the rope-walks formerly occupying its site.

MARSH, ADAM (Adam de Marisco) (d. c. 1258), English Franciscan, scholar and theologian, was born about 1200 in the diocese of Bath, and educated at Oxford under the famous Grosseteste. Before 1226 Adam received the benefice of Wearmouth from his uncle, Richard Marsh, bishop of Durham; but between that year and 1230 he entered the Franciscan order. About 1238 he became the lecturer of the Franciscan house at Oxford, and within a few years was regarded by the English province of that order as an intellectual and spiritual leader. Roger Bacon, his pupil, speaks highly of his attainments in theology and mathematics. His fame, however, rests upon the influence which he exercised over the statesmen of his day. Consulted as a friend by Grosseteste, as a spiritual director by Simon de Montfort, the countess of Leicester and the queen, as an expert lawyer and theologian by the primate, Boniface of Savoy, he did much to guide the policy both of the opposition and of the court party in all matters affecting the interests of the Church. He shrank from office, and never became provincial minister of the English Franciscans, though constantly charged with responsible commissions. Henry III. and Archbishop Boniface unsuccessfully endeavoured to secure for him the see of Ely in 1256. In 1257 Adam’s health was failing, and he appears to have died in the following year. To judge from his correspondence he took no interest in secular politics. He sympathized with Montfort as with a friend of the Church and an unjustly treated man; but on the eve of the baronial revolution he was on friendly terms with the king. Faithful to the traditions of his order, he made it his ambition to be a mediator. He rebuked both parties in the state for their shortcomings, but he did not break with either.

See his correspondence, with J. S. Brewer’s introduction, in Monumenta franciscana, vol. i. (Rolls ser., 1858); the biographical notice in A. G. Little’s Grey Friars in Oxford (Oxford, 1892), where all the references are collected. On Marsh’s relations with Grosseteste, see Roberti Grosseteste epistolae, ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls ed., 1861), and F. S. Stevenson, Robert Grosseteste (London, 1809).

(H. W. C. D.)

MARSH, GEORGE PERKINS (1801-1882), American diplomatist and philologist, was born at Woodstock, Vermont, on the 15th of March 1801. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1820, was admitted to the bar in 1825, and practised law at Burlington, Vermont, devoting himself also with ardour to philological studies. In 1835 he was a member of the Supreme Executive Council of Vermont, and from 1843 to 1849 a Whig representative in Congress. In 1849 he was appointed United States minister resident in Turkey, and in 1852-1853 discharged a mission to Greece in connexion with the imprisonment by the authorities of that country of an American missionary, Dr Jonas King (1792-1869). He returned to Vermont in 1854, and in 1857 was a member of the state railway commission. In 1861 he became the first United States minister to the kingdom of Italy, and died in that office at Vallombrosa on the 23rd of July 1882. He was buried in a Protestant cemetery in Rome. Marsh was an able linguist, writing and speaking with ease the Scandinavian and half a dozen other European languages, a remarkable philologist for his day, and a scholar of great breadth, knowing much of military science, engraving and physics, as well as of Icelandic, which was his specialty. He wrote many articles for Johnson’s Universal Cyclopaedia, and contributed many reviews and letters to the Nation. His chief published works are: A Compendious Grammar of the Old Northern or Icelandic Language (1838), compiled and translated from the grammars of Rask; The Camel, his Organization, Habits, and Uses, with Reference to his Introduction into the United States (1856); Lectures on the English Language (1860); The Origin and History of the English Language (1862; revised ed., 1885); and Man and Nature (1865). The last-named work was translated into Italian in 1872, and, largely rewritten, was issued in 1874 under the title The Earth as Modified by Human Action; a revised edition was published in 1885. He also published a work on Mediaeval and Modern Saints and Miracles (1876). His valuable library was presented in 1883 by Frederick Billings to the university of Vermont. His second wife, Caroline (Crane) Marsh (1816-1901), whom he married in 1839, published Wolfe of the Knoll and other Poems (1860), and the Life and Letters of George Perkins Marsh (New York, 1888). This last work was left incomplete, the second volume never having been published. She also translated from the German of Johann C. Biernatzki (1795-1840), The Hallig; or the Sheepfold in the Waters (1856).

MARSH, HERBERT (1757-1839), English divine, was born at Faversham, Kent, on the 10th of December 1757, and was educated at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he was elected fellow in 1782, having been second wrangler and second Smith’s prizeman. For some years he studied at Leipzig, and between 1793 and 1801 published in four volumes a translation of J. D. Michaelis’s Introduction to the New Testament, with notes of his own, in which he may be said to have introduced German methods of research into English biblical scholarship. His History of the Politics of Great Britain and France (1799) brought him much notice and a pension from William Pitt. In 1807 he was appointed Lady Margaret professor of divinity at Cambridge, and lectured to large audiences on biblical criticism, substituting English for the traditional Latin. Both here, and afterwards as bishop of Llandaff (1816) and of Peterborough (1819), he stoutly opposed hymn-singing, Calvinism, Roman Catholicism, and the Evangelical movement as represented by Charles Simeon and the Bible Society. Among his writings are Lectures on the Criticism and Interpretation of the Bible (1828), A Comparative View of the Churches of England and Rome (1814), and Horae Pelasgicae (1815). He died at Peterborough on the 1st of May 1839.

MARSH, NARCISSUS (1638-1713), archbishop of Dublin and Armagh, was born at Hannington, Wiltshire, and educated at Oxford. He became a fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, in 1658. In 1662 he was ordained, and presented to the living of Swindon, which he resigned in the following year. After acting as chaplain to Seth Ward, bishop of Exeter and Salisbury, and Lord Chancellor Clarendon, he was elected principal of St Alban Hall, Oxford, in 1673. In 1679 he was appointed provost of Trinity College, Dublin, where he did much to encourage the study of the Irish language. He helped to found the Royal Dublin Society, and contributed to it a paper entitled “Introductory Essay to the Doctrine of Sounds” (printed in Philosophical Transactions, No. 156, Oxford, 1684). In 1683 he was consecrated bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, but after the accession of James II. he was compelled by the turbulent soldiery to flee to England (1689), where he became vicar of Gresford, Flint, and canon of St Asaph. Returning to Ireland in 1691 after the battle of the Boyne, he was made archbishop of Cashel, and three years later he became archbishop of Dublin. About this time he founded the Marsh Library in Dublin. He became archbishop of Armagh in 1703. Between 1699 and 1711 he was six times a lord justice of Ireland. He died on the 2nd of November 1713.

MARSH, OTHNIEL CHARLES (1831-1899), American palaeontologist, was born in Lockport, New York, on the 29th of October 1831. He graduated at Yale College in 1860, and studied geology and mineralogy in the Sheffield scientific school, New Haven, and afterwards palaeontology and anatomy in Berlin, Heidelberg and Breslau. Returning to America in 1866 he was appointed professor of vertebrate palaeontology at Yale College, and there began the researches of the fossil vertebrata of the western states, whereby he established his reputation. He was aided by a private fortune from his uncle, George Peabody, whom he induced to establish the Peabody Museum of Natural History (especially devoted to zoology, geology and mineralogy) in the college. In May 1871 he discovered the first pterodactyl remains found in America, and in subsequent years he brought to light from Wyoming and other regions many new genera and families, and some entirely new orders of extinct vertebrata, which he described in monographs or periodical articles. These included remains of the Cretaceous toothed birds Hesperornis and Ichthyornis, the Cretaceous flying-reptiles (Pteranodon), the swimming reptiles or Mosasauria, and the Cretaceous and Jurassic land reptiles (Dinosauria) among which were the Brontosaurus and Atlantosaurus. The remarkable mammals which he termed Brontotheria (now grouped as Titanotheriidae), and the huge Dinocerata, one being the Uintatherium, were also brought to light by him. Among his later discoveries were remains of early ancestors of horses in America. On becoming vice-president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1875 he gave an address on the “Introduction and Succession of Vertebrate Life in America,” summarizing his conclusions to that date. He repeatedly organized and often accompanied scientific exploring expeditions in the Rocky Mountains, and their results tended in an important degree to support the doctrines of natural selection and evolution. He published many papers on these, and found time—besides that necessarily given to the accumulation and care of the most extensive collection of fossils in the world—to write Odontornithes: A Monograph on the Extinct Toothed Birds of North America (1880); Dinocerata: A Monograph on an Extinct Order of Gigantic Mammals (1884); and The Dinosaurs of North America (1896). His work is full of accurately recorded facts of permanent value. He was long in charge of the division of vertebrate palaeontology in the United States Geological Survey, and received many scientific honours, medals and degrees, American and foreign. He died in New Haven on the 18th of March 1899.

See obituary by Dr Henry Woodward (with portrait) in Geol. Mag. (1899), p. 237.

MARSH (O. F. mersc, for merisc, a place full of “meres” or pools; cf. Ger. Meer, sea, Lat. mare), an area of low-lying watery land. The significance of a marsh area is not so much in the manner of its formation as in the peculiar chemical and physical results that accompany it, and its relation to the ecology of plant and animal life. Chemically it is productive of such gases as arise from decomposing vegetation and are transitory in their effects, and in the production of hydrated iron oxide, which may be seen floating as an iridescent scum at the edge of rusty, marshy pools. This sinks into the soil and forms a powerful iron cement to many sandstones, binding them into a hard local mass, while the surrounding sandstones are loose and friable. A curious morphological inversion follows in a later geological period, the marsh area forming the hard cap of a hill (see [Mesa]) while the surrounding sandstones are weathered away. Salt marshes are a feature of many low-lying sea-coasts and areas of inland drainage.

MARSHAL (med. Lat. marescalcus, from O.H.Ger. marah, horse, and scalc, servant), a title given in various countries to certain military and civil officers, usually of high rank. The origin and development of the meaning of the designation is closely analogous with that of constable (q.v.). Just as the title of constable, in all its medieval and modern uses, is traceable to the style and functions of the Byzantine count of the stable, so that of marshal was evolved from the title of the marescalci, or masters of the horse, of the early Frankish kings. In this original sense the word survived down to the close of the Holy Roman empire in the titular office of Erz-Marschalk (arch-marshal), borne by the electors of Saxony. Elsewhere the meaning of office and title was modified. The importance of cavalry in medieval warfare led to the marshalship being associated with military command; this again led to the duty of keeping order in court and camp, of deciding questions of chivalry, and to the assumption of judicial and executive functions. The marshal, as a military leader, was originally a subordinate officer, the chief command under the king being held by the constable; but in the 12th century, though still nominally second to the constable, the marshal has come to the forefront as commander of the royal forces and a great officer of state. In England after the Conquest the marshalship was hereditary in the family which derived its surname from the office, and the hereditary title of earl-marshal originated in the marriage of William Marshal with the heiress of the earldom of Pembroke (see [Earl Marshal]). Similarly, in Scotland, the office of marischal (from the French maréchal), probably introduced under David I., became in the 14th century hereditary in the house of Keith. In 1485 the Scottish marischal became an earl under the designation of earl-marischal, the dignity coming to an end by the attainder of George, 10th earl-marischal, in 1716. In France, on the other hand, though under Philip Augustus the marshal of France (marescalcus Franciae) appears as commander-in-chief of the forces, care was taken not to allow the office to become descendible; under Francis I. the number of marshals of France was raised to two, under Henry III. to four, and under Louis XIV. to twenty. Revived by Napoleon, the title fell into abeyance with the downfall of the Second empire.

In England the use of the word marshal in the sense of commander of an army appears very early; so Matthew Paris records that in 1214 King John constituted William, earl of Salisbury, marescalcus of his forces. The modern military title of field marshal, imported from Germany by King George II. in 1736, is derived from the high dignity of the marescalcus in a roundabout way. The marescalcus campi, or maréchal des champs, was originally one of a number of officials to whom the name, with certain of the functions, of the marshal was given. The marshal, being responsible for order in court and camp, had to employ subordinates, who developed into officials often but nominally dependent upon him. On military expeditions it was usual for two such marshals to precede the army, select the site of the camp and assign to the lords and knights their places in it. In time of peace they preceded the king on a journey and arranged for his lodging and maintenance. In France maréchal des logis is the title of superior non-commissioned officers in the cavalry.

Similarly at the king’s court the marescalcus aulae or intrinsecus was responsible for order, the admission or exclusion of those seeking access, ceremonial arrangements, &c. Such “marshals” were maintained, not only by the king, but by great lords and ecclesiastics. The more dignified of their functions, together with the title, survive in the various German courts, where the court marshal (Hofmarschall) is equivalent to the English lord chamberlain. Just as the marescalcus intrinsecus acted as the vicar of the marshal for duties “within” the court, so the marescalcus forinsecus was deputed to perform those acts of serjeanty due from the marshal to the Crown “without.” Similarly there appears in the statute 5 Edw. III. cap. 8, a marescalcus banci regii (maréchal du Banc du Roy), or marshal of the king’s bench, who presided over the Marshalsea Court, and was responsible for the safe custody of prisoners, who were bestowed in the mareschalcia, or Marshalsea prison. The office of marshal of the queen’s bench survived till 1849 (see [Lord Steward]; and [Marshalsea]). The official known as a judge’s marshal, whose office is of considerable antiquity, and whose duties consisted of making abstracts of indictments and pleadings for the use of the judge, still survives, but no longer exercises the above functions. He accompanies a judge of assize on circuit and is appointed by him at the beginning of each circuit. His travelling and other expenses are paid by the judge, and he receives an allowance of two guineas a day, which is paid through the Treasury. He introduces the high sheriff of the county to the judge of assize on his arrival, and swears in the grand jury. For the French maréchaussée see [France]: § Law and Institutions.

In the sense of executive legal officer the title marshal survives in the United States of America in two senses. The United States marshal is the executive officer of the Federal courts, one being appointed for each district, or exceptionally, one for two districts. His duties are to open and close the sessions of the district and circuit courts, serve warrants, and execute throughout the district the orders of the court. There are United States marshals also in Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippines. They are appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of four years, and, besides their duties in connexion with the courts, are employed in the service of the internal revenue, public lands, post office, &c. The temporary police sworn in to maintain order in times of disturbance, known in England as special constables, are also termed marshals in the United States. In some of the southern and western states of the Union the title marshal has sunk to that of the village policeman, as distinct from the county officers known as sheriffs and those of the justices’ courts called constables.

In England the title of marshal, as applied to an executive officer, survives only in the army, where the provost marshal is chief of the military police in large garrisons and in field forces. Office and title were borrowed from the French prévot des maréchaux, the modern equivalent of the medieval praepositus marescalcorum or guerrarum.

MARSHALL, ALFRED (1842-  ), English economist, was born in London on the 26th of July 1842. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors’ School and St John’s College, Cambridge, being second wrangler in 1865, and in the same year becoming fellow of his college. He became principal of University College, Bristol, in 1877, and was lecturer and fellow of Balliol College, Oxford in 1883-1884. He was professor of political economy at Cambridge University from 1885 to 1908, and was a member of the Royal Commission on Labour in 1891. He became a fellow of the British Academy in 1902. He wrote (in conjunction with his wife) Economics of Industry (1879), whilst his Principles of Economics (1st ed., 1890) is a standard English treatise.

MARSHALL, JOHN (1755-1835), American jurist, chief-justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was born on the 24th of September 1755 at Germantown (now Midland), in what four years later became Fauquier county, Virginia. He was of English descent, the son of Thomas Marshall (1732-1806) and his wife Mary Isham Keith. Marshall served first as lieutenant and after July 1778 as captain in the Continental Army during the War of Independence. He resigned his commission early in 1781; was admitted to the bar after a brief course of study, first practised in Fauquier county; and after two years began to practise in Richmond. In 1786 we find him counsel in a case of great importance, Hite v. Fairfax, involving the original title of Lord Fairfax to that large tract of country between the headwaters of the Potomac and Rappahannock, known as the northern neck of Virginia. Marshall represented tenants of Lord Fairfax and won his case. From this time, as is shown by an examination of Call’s Virginia Reports which cover the period, he maintained the leadership of the bar of Virginia. He was a member of the Virginia Assembly in 1782-1791 and again in 1795-1797; and in 1788, he took a leading part in the Virginia Convention called to act on the proposed constitution for the United States, with Madison ably urging the ratification of that instrument. In 1795 Washington offered him the attorney-generalship, and in 1796, after the retirement of James Monroe, the position of minister to France. Marshall declined both offers because his situation at the bar appeared to him “to be more independent and not less honourable than any other,” and his “preference for it was decided.” He spent the autumn and winter of 1797-1798 in France as one of the three commissioners appointed by President John Adams to adjust the differences between the young republic and the directory. The commission failed, but the course pursued by Marshall was approved in America, and with the resentment felt because of the way in which the commission had been treated in France, made him, on his return, exceedingly popular. To this popularity, as well as to the earnest advocacy of Patrick Henry, he owed his election as a Federalist to the National House of Representatives in the spring of 1799, though the feeling in Richmond was overwhelmingly in favour of the opposition or Republican party. His most notable service in Congress was his speech on the case of Thomas Nash, alias Jonathan Robbins, in which he showed that there is nothing in the constitution of the United States which prevents the Federal government from carrying out an extradition treaty. He was secretary of state under President Adams from the 6th of June 1800 to the 4th of March 1801. In the meantime he had been appointed chief-justice of the Supreme Court, his commission bearing date the 31st of January. Thus while still secretary he presided as chief-justice.

At the time of Marshall’s appointment it was generally considered that the Supreme Court was the one department of the new government which had failed in its purpose. John Jay, the first chief-justice, who had resigned in 1795, had just declined a reappointment to the chief-justiceship on the ground that he had left the bench perfectly convinced that the court would never acquire proper weight and dignity, its organization being fatally defective. The advent of the new chief-justice was marked by a change in the conduct of business in the court. Since its organization, following the prevailing English custom, the judges had pronounced their opinions seriatim. But beginning with the December term 1801, the chief-justice became practically the sole mouthpiece of the court. For eleven years the opinions are almost exclusively his, and there are few recorded dissents. The change was admirably adapted to strengthen the power and dignity of the court. The chief-justice embodied the majesty of the judicial department of the government almost as fully as the president stood for the power of the executive. That this change was acquiesced in by his associates without diminishing their goodwill towards their new chief is testimony to the persuasive force of Marshall’s personality; for his associates were not men of mediocre ability. After the advent of Mr Justice Joseph Story the practice was abandoned. Marshall, however, still delivered the opinion in the great majority of cases, and in practically all cases of any importance involving the interpretation of the Constitution. During the course of his judicial life his associates were as a rule men of learning and ability. During most of the time the majority were the appointees of Democratic presidents, and before their elevation to the bench supposed to be out of sympathy with the federalistic ideas of the chief-justice. Yet in matters pertaining to constitutional construction, they seem to have had hardly any other function than to add the weight of their silent concurrence to the decision of their great chief. Thus the task of expounding the constitution during the most critical period of its history was his, and it was given to him to preside over the Supreme Court when it was called upon to decide four cases of vital importance: Marbury v. Madison, M‘Culloch v. Maryland, Cohens v. Virginia and Gibbons v. Ogden. In each of these cases it is Marshall who writes the opinion of the court; in each the continued existence of the peculiar Federal system established by the Constitution depended on the action of the court, and in each the court adopted a principle which is now generally perceived to be essential to the preservation of the United States as a federal state.

In Marbury v. Madison, which was decided two years after his elevation to the bench, he decided that it was the duty of the court to disregard any act of Congress, and, therefore, a fortiori any act of a legislature of one of the states, which the court thought contrary to the Federal Constitution.

In Cohens v. Virginia, in spite of the contention of Jefferson and the then prevalent school of political thought that it was contrary to the Constitution for a person to bring one of the states of the United States, though only as an appellee, into a court of justice, he held that Congress could lawfully pass an act which permitted a person who was convicted in a state court, to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, if he alleged that the state act under which he was convicted conflicted with the Federal Constitution or with an act of Congress.

In M‘Culloch v. Maryland, though admitting that the Federal government is one of delegated powers and cannot exercise any power not expressly given in the Constitution, he laid down the rule that Congress in the exercise of a delegated power has a wide latitude in the choice of means, not being confined in its choice of means to those which must be used if the power is to be exercised at all.

Lastly, in Gibbons v. Ogden, he held that when the power to regulate interstate and foreign commerce was conferred by the Constitution on the Federal government, the word “commerce” included not only the exchange of commodities, but the means by which interstate and foreign intercourse was carried on, and therefore that Congress had the power to license vessels to carry goods and passengers between the states, and an act of one of the states making a regulation which interfered with such regulation of Congress was, pro tanto, of no effect. It will be seen that in the first two cases he established the Supreme Court as the final interpreter of the Constitution.

The decision in M‘Culloch v. Maryland, by leaving Congress unhampered in the choice of means to execute its delegated powers, made it possible for the Federal government to accomplish the ends of its existence. “Let the end be legitimate,” said Marshall in the course of its opinion, “let it be within the scope of the Constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, are constitutional.”

If the decision in M‘Culloch v. Maryland gave vigour to all Federal power, the decision in Gibbons v. Ogden, by giving the Federal government control over the means by which interstate and foreign commerce is carried on, preserved the material prosperity of the country. The decision recognizes what the framers of the Constitution recognized, namely that the United States is an economic union, and that business which is national should be under national, not state, control.

Though for the reasons stated, the four cases mentioned are the most important of his decisions, the value of his work as an expounder of the Constitution of the United States is not to be measured by these cases alone. In all he decided forty-four cases involving constitutional questions. Nearly every important part of the Constitution of the United States as it existed before the amendments which were adopted after the Civil War, is treated in one or more of them. The Constitution in its most important aspects is the Constitution as he interpreted it. He did not work out completely the position of the states in the Federal system, but he did grasp and establish the position of the Federal legislature and the Federal judiciary. To appreciate his work, however, it is necessary to see that it was the work not of a statesman but of a judge. Had Marshall been merely a far-seeing statesman, while most of his important cases would have been decided as he decided them, his life-work would have been a failure. It was not only necessary that he should decide great constitutional questions properly, but also that the people of the United States should be convinced of the correctness of his interpretation of the Constitution. His opinions, therefore, had to carry to those who studied them a conviction that the constitution as written had been interpreted according to its evident meaning. They fulfilled this prime requisite. Their chief characteristic is the cumulative force of the argument. The ground for the premiss is carefully prepared, the premiss itself is clearly stated; nearly every possible objection is examined and answered; and then comes the conclusion. There is little or no repetition, but there is a wealth of illustration, a completeness of analysis, that convinces the reader, not only that the subject has been adequately treated, but that it has been exhausted. His style, reflecting his character, suits perfectly the subject matter. Simple in the best sense of the word, his intellectual processes were so clear that he never doubted the correctness of the conclusion to which they led him. Apparently from his own point of view, he merely indicated the question at issue, and the inexorable rules of logic did the rest. Thus his opinions are simple, clear, dignified. Intensely interesting, the interest is in the argument, not in its expression. He had, in a wonderful degree, the power of phrase. He expressed important principles of law in language which tersely yet clearly conveyed his exact meaning. Not only is the Constitution interpreted largely as he taught the people of the United States to interpret it, but when they wish to express important constitutional principles which he enunciated they use his exact words. Again, his opinions show that he adhered closely to the words of the Constitution; indeed no one who has attempted to expound that instrument has confined himself more strictly to an examination of the text. In the proper, though not in the historical, sense he was the strictest of strict constructionalists, and as a result his opinions are practically devoid of theories of government, sovereignty and the rights of man.

A single illustration of his avoidance of all theory and his adherence to the words of the Constitution will suffice. In the case of the United States v. Fisher the constitutional question involved was the power of Congress to give to the United States a preference over all other creditors in the distribution of the assets of a bankrupt. Such an act can be upheld on the ground that all governments have necessarily the right to give themselves priority. Not so Marshall. To him the act must be supported, if supported at all, not on any theory of the innate nature of the government, national or otherwise, but as a reasonable means of carrying out one of the express powers conferred by the Constitution on the Federal government. Thus, he upholds the act in question because of the power expressly conferred on the Federal government to pay the debts of the union, and as a necessary consequence of this power the right to make remittances by bills or otherwise and to take precautions which will render the transactions safe.

It is important to emphasize the fact that Marshall adhered in his opinions to the Constitution as written, not only because it is a fact which must be recognized if we are to understand the correct value of his work in the field of constitutional law, but also because there exists to-day a popular impression that by implication he stretched to the utmost the powers of the Federal government. This impression is due primarily to the ignorance of many of those who have undertaken to praise him. During his life he was charged by followers of the States Rights School of political thought with upholding Federal power in cases not warranted by the constitution. Later, however, those who admired a strong national government, without taking the trouble to ascertain whether the old criticism by members of the States Rights Party was just, regarded the assumption on which it was founded as Marshall’s best claim to his country’s gratitude.

As a constitutional lawyer, Marshall stands without a rival. His work on international law and admiralty is of first rank. But though a good, he was not a great, common law or equity lawyer. In these fields he did not make new law nor clarify what was obscure, and his constitutional opinions which to-day are found least satisfactory are those in which the question to be solved necessarily involves the discussion of some common-law conception, especially those cases in which he was required to construe the restriction imposed by the Constitution on any state impairing the obligation of contracts. His decision in the celebrated case of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, in which he held that a state could not repeal a charter of a private corporation, because a charter is a contract which a subsequent act of the state repealing the charter impairs, though of great economic importance, does not touch any fundamental question of constitutional law. The argument which he advances lacks the clearness and finality for which most of his opinions are celebrated. It is not certain with whom he thought the contract was made: with the corporation created by the charter, with the trustees of the corporation, or with those who had contributed money to its objects.

Of the wonderful persuasive force of Marshall’s personality there is abundant evidence. His influence over his associates, already referred to, is but one example though a most impressive one. From the moment he delivered the opinion in Marbury v. Madison the legal profession knew that he was a great judge. Each year added to his reputation and made for a better appreciation of his intellectual and moral qualities. The bar of the Supreme Court during his chief-justiceship was the most brilliant which the United States has ever known. Leaders, not only of legal, but political thought were among its members; one, Webster, was a man of genius and commanding position. To a very great degree Marshall impressed on the members of this bar and on the profession generally his own ideas of the correct interpretation of the Constitution and his own love for the union. He did this, not merely by his arguments but by the influence which was his by right of his strong, sweet nature. Statesmen and politicians, great and small, were at this time, almost without exception, members of the bar. To influence the political thought of the bar was to a great extent to influence the political thought of the people.

In 1782 he married Mary Willis Ambler, the daughter of the then treasurer of Virginia. They had ten children, six of whom grew to full age. For the greater part of the forty-eight years of their married life Mrs Marshall suffered intensely from a nervous affliction. Her condition called out the love and sympathy of her husband’s deep and affectionate nature. Judge Story tells us: “That which, in a just sense, was his highest glory, was the purity, affectionateness, liberality and devotedness of his domestic life.” For the first thirty years of his chief-justiceship his life was a singularly happy one. He never had to remain in Washington for more than three months. During the rest of the year, with the exception of a visit to Raleigh, which his duties as circuit judge required him to make, and a visit to his old home in Fauquier county, he lived in Richmond. His house on Shockhoe Hill is still standing.

On Christmas Day 1831 his wife died. He never was quite the same again. On returning from Washington in the spring of 1835 he suffered severe contusions, from an accident to the stage coach in which he was riding. His health, which had not been good, now rapidly declined and in June he returned to Philadelphia for medical attendance. There he died on the 6th of July. His body, which was taken to Richmond, lies in Shockhoe Hill Cemetery under a plain marble slab, on which is a simple inscription written by himself. In addition to his decisions Marshall wrote a famous biography of George Washington (5 vols., 1804-1807; 2nd ed., 2 vols., 1832), which though prepared hastily contains much material of value.

The principal sources of information are: an essay by James B. Thayer (Boston and New York, 1904); Great American Lawyers (Philadelphia, 1908), ii. 313-408, an essay by Wm. Draper Lewis; and Allan B. Magruder, John Marshall (Boston, 1885), in the “American Statesmen Series.” The addresses delivered on Marshall Day, the 4th of February 1901, are collected by John F. Dillon (Chicago, 1903). In the “Appendix” to Dillon’s collection will be found the “Discourse” by Joseph Story and the “Eulogy” by Horace Binney, both delivered soon after Marshall’s death. For a study of Marshall’s decisions, the Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall, edited by Joseph P. Collon, Jr. (New York and London, 1905), is of value.

(W. D. L.)

MARSHALL, JOHN (1818-1891), British surgeon and physiologist, was born at Ely, on the 11th of September 1818, his father being a lawyer of that city. He entered University College, London, in 1838, and in 1847 he was appointed assistant-surgeon at the hospital, becoming in 1866 surgeon and professor of surgery. He was professor of anatomy at the Royal Academy from 1873 till his death. In 1883 he was president of the College of Surgeons, also Bradshaw lecturer (on “Nerve-stretching for the relief or cure of pain”), Hunterian orator in 1885, and Morton lecturer in 1889. In 1867 he published his well-known textbook The Outlines of Physiology in two volumes. He died on the 1st of January 1891. “Marshall’s fame,” wrote Sir W. MacCormac in his volume on the Centenary of the College of Surgeons (1900), “rests on the great ability with which he taught anatomy in relation to art, on the introduction into modern surgery of the galvano-cautery, and on the operation for the excision of varicose veins. He was one of the first to show that cholera might be spread by means of drinking water, and issued a report on the outbreak of cholera in Broad Street, St James’s, 1854. He also invented the system of circular wards for hospitals, and to him are largely owing the details of the modern medical student’s education.”

MARSHALL, STEPHEN (c. 1594-1655), English Nonconformist divine, was born at Godmanchester in Huntingdonshire, and was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (M.A. 1622, B.D. 1629). After holding the living of Wethersfield in Essex he became vicar of Finchingfield in the same county, and in 1636 was reported for “want of conformity.” He was a preacher of great power, and influenced the elections for the Short Parliament of 1640. Clarendon esteemed his influence on the parliamentary side greater than that of Laud on the royalist. In 1642 he was appointed lecturer at St Margaret’s, Westminster, and delivered a series of addresses to the Commons in which he advocated episcopal and liturgical reform. He had a share in writing Smectymnuus, was appointed chaplain to the earl of Essex’s regiment in 1642, and a member of the Westminster Assembly in 1643. He represented the English Parliament in Scotland in 1643, and attended the parliamentary commissions at the Uxbridge Conference in 1645. He waited on Archbishop Laud before his execution, and was chaplain to Charles I. at Holmby House and at Carisbrooke. A moderate and judicious presbyterian, he prepared with others the “Shorter Catechism” in 1647, and was one of the “Triers,” 1654. He died in November 1655 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, but his body was exhumed and maltreated at the Restoration. His sermons, especially that on the death of John Pym in 1643, reveal eloquence and fervour. The only “systematic” work he published was A Defence of Infant Baptism, against John Tombes (London, 1646).

MARSHALL, a city and the county-seat of Saline county, Missouri, U.S.A., situated a little W. of the centre of the state, near the Salt Fork of the La Mine River. Pop. (1890), 4297; (1900), 5086 (208 being foreign-born and 98 negroes); (1910) 4869. It is served by the Missouri Pacific and the Chicago & Alton railways. The city is laid out regularly on a high, undulating prairie. It is the seat of Missouri Valley College (opened 1889; co-educational), which was established by the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and includes a preparatory department and a conservatory of music. The court-house (1883), a Roman Catholic convent and a high school (1907) are the principal buildings. The Missouri colony for the feeble-minded and epileptic (1899) is at Marshall. The principal trade is with the surrounding farming country. The municipality owns and operates the waterworks. Marshall was first settled and was made the county seat in 1839; it became a town in 1866 (re-incorporated 1870) and a city in 1878.

MARSHALL, a city and the county-seat of Harrison county, Texas, U.S.A., about 145 m. E. by S. of Dallas. Pop. (1890), 7207; (1900) 7855 (3769 negroes); (1910) 11,452. Marshall is served by the Texas & Pacific and the Marshall & East Texas railways, which have large shops here. Wiley University was founded in 1873 by the Freedman’s Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Bishop College, was founded in 1881 by the American Baptist Home Mission Society and incorporated in 1885. Marshall is situated in a region growing cotton and Indian corn, vegetables, small fruits and sugar-cane; in the surrounding country there are valuable forests of pine, oak and gum. In the vicinity of the city there are several lakes (including Caddo Lake) and springs (including Hynson and Rosborough springs). The city has a cotton compress, and among its manufactures are cotton-seed oil, lumber, ice, foundry products and canned goods. The municipality owns and operates the waterworks. Marshall was first settled in 1842, was incorporated in 1843, and received a city charter in 1848; in 1909 it adopted the commission form of government.

MARSHALL ISLANDS, an island group in the western Pacific Ocean (Micronesia) belonging to Germany. The group consists of a number of atolls ranged in two almost parallel lines, which run from N.W. to S.E. between 4° and 15° N. and 161° and 174° E. The north-east line, with fifteen islands, is called Ratak, the other, numbering eighteen, Ralik. These atolls are of coralline formation and of irregular shape. They rise but little above high-water mark. The highest elevation occurs on the island of Likieb, but is only 33 ft. The lagoon is scarcely more than 150 ft. deep and is accessible through numerous breaks in the reef. On the outward side the shore sinks rapidly to a great depth. The surface of the atolls is covered with sand, except in a few places where it has been turned into soil through the admixture of decayed vegetation. The reef in scarcely any instance exceeds 600 ft. in width.

The climate is moist and hot, the mean temperature being 80.50° F. Easterly winds prevail all the year round. There is no difference between the seasons, which, though the islands belong to the northern hemisphere, have the highest temperature in January and the lowest in July. Vegetation, on the whole, is very poor. There are many coco-nut palms, bread-fruit trees (Artocarpus incisa), various kinds of bananas, yams and taro, and pandanus, of which the natives eat the seeds. From the bark of another plant they manufacture mats. There are few animals. Cattle do not thrive, and even poultry are scarce. Pigs, cats, dogs and rats have been imported. There are a few pigeons and aquatic birds, butterflies and beetles. Crustacea and fish abound on the reefs.

The natives are Micronesians of a dark brown colour, though lighter shades occur. Their hair is not woolly but straight and long. They practise tattooing, and show Papuan influence by distending the ear-lobes by the insertion of wooden disks. They are expert navigators, and construct curious charts of thin strips of wood tied together with fibres, some giving the position of the islands and some the direction of the prevailing winds. Their canoes carry sails and are made of the trunk of the bread-fruit tree. The people are divided into four classes, of which only two are allowed to own land. The islands lie entirely within the German sphere of interest, and the boundaries were agreed upon between Great Britain and Germany on the 10th of April 1889. Their area is estimated at 160 sq. m., with 15,000 inhabitants, who are apparently increasing, though the contrary was long believed. All but about 250 are natives. The administrator of the islands is the governor of German New Guinea, but a number of officials reside on the islands. There is no military force, the natives being of peaceful disposition. The chief island and seat of government is Jaluit. The most populous island is Majeru, with 1600 inhabitants. The natives are generally pagans, but a Roman Catholic mission has been established, and the American Mission Board maintains coloured teachers on many of the islands. There is communication with Sydney by private steamer, and a steamer sails between Jaluit and Ponape to connect with the French boats for Singapore. The chief products for export are copra, tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl, sharks’ fins and trepang. The natives are clever boat-builders, and find a market for their canoes on neighbouring islands. They have made such progress in their art that they have even built seaworthy little schooners of 30 to 40 tons. The only other articles they make are a few shell ornaments.

The Marshall Islands may have been visited by Alvaro de Saavedra in 1529, Captain Wallis touched at the group in 1767, and in 1788 Captains Marshall and Gilbert explored it. The Germans made a treaty with the chieftains of Jaluit in 1878 and annexed the group in 1885-1886.

See C. Hager, Die Marshall-Inseln (Leipzig, 1886); Steinbach and Grösser, Wörterbuch der Marshall-Sprache (Hamburg, 1902).

MARSHALLTOWN, a city and the county-seat of Marshall county, Iowa, U.S.A., near the Iowa River and about 60 m. N.E. of Des Moines. Pop. (1890), 8914; (1900), 11,544, of whom 1590 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 13,374. Marshalltown is served by the Chicago & North-Western, the Chicago Great Western, and the Iowa Central railways, the last of which has machine shops here. At Marshalltown are the Iowa soldiers’ home, supported in part by the Federal Government, and St. Mary’s institute, a Roman Catholic commercial and business school. The city is situated in a rich agricultural region, and is a market for grain, meat cattle, horses and swine. There are miscellaneous manufactures, and in 1905 the factory product was valued at $3,090,312. The municipality owns and operates its waterworks and its electric-lighting plant. Marshalltown, named in honour of Chief Justice John Marshall, was laid out in 1853, and became the county-seat in 1860. It was incorporated as a town in 1863, and was chartered as a city in 1868.

MARSHALSEA, a prison formerly existing in Southwark, London. It was attached to the court of that name held by the steward and marshal of the king’s house (see [Lord Steward] and [Marshal]). The date of its first establishment is unknown, but it existed as early as the reign of Edward III. It was consolidated in 1842 with the queen’s bench and the Fleet, and was then described as “a prison for debtors and for persons charged with contempt of Her Majesty’s courts of the Marshalsea, the court of the queen’s palace of Westminster, and the high court of admiralty, and also for admiralty prisoners under sentence of courts martial.” It was abolished in 1849. The Marshalsea Prison is described in Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit.

MARSHBUCK, a book-name proposed for such of the African bushbucks or harnessed antelopes as have abnormally long hoofs to support them in walking on marshy or swampy ground. (See [Bushbuck] and [Antelope].)

MARSHFIELD, a city of Wood county, Wisconsin, about 165 m. N.W. of Milwaukee. Pop. (1890), 3450; (1900), 5240, of whom 1161 were foreign-born; (1905) 6036; (1910) 5783. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western, the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha, and the Minneapolis, St Paul & Sault Ste Marie railways. It contains the mother-house of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother. Lumbering is the most important industry, and there are various manufactures. The city is situated in a clover region, in which dairying is important, and Guernsey and Holstein-Friesland cattle are raised. The municipality owns and operates the waterworks and the electric-lighting plant. The site of Marshfield was part of a tract granted by the Federal government to the Fox River Improvement Company, organized to construct a waterway between the Mississippi river and Green Bay, and among the original owners of the town site were Samuel Marsh of Massachusetts (in whose honour the place was named) and Horatio Seymour, Ezra Cornell, Erastus Corning, and William A. Butler of New York. Marshfield was settled about 1870, and was first chartered as a city in 1883.

MARSH GAS (methane), CH4, the first member of the series of paraffin hydrocarbons. It occurs as a constituent of the “fire-damp” of coal-mines, in the gases evolved from volcanoes, and in the gases which arise in marshy districts (due to the decomposition of vegetable matter under the surface of water). It is found associated with petroleum and also in human intestinal gases. It is a product of the destructive distillation of complex organic matter (wood, coal, bituminous shale, &c.), forming in this way from 30 to 40% of ordinary illuminating gas. It may be synthetically obtained by passing a mixture of the vapour of carbon bisulphide with sulphuretted hydrogen over red-hot copper (M. Berthelot, Comptes rendus, 1856, 43, p. 236), CS2 + 2H2S + 8Cu = 4Cu2S + CH4; by passing a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide over reduced nickel at 200-250° C., or hydrogen and carbon dioxide at 230-300° C. (P. Sabatier and J. B. Senderens, Comptes rendus, 1902, 134, pp. 514, 689); by the decomposition of aluminium carbide with water [H. Moissan, Bull. Soc. Chim., 1894, (3) 11, p. 1012]; and by heating phosphonium iodide with carbon bisulphide in a sealed tube to 120-140° C. (H. Jahn, Ber., 1880, 13, p. 127). It is also obtained by the reduction of many methyl compounds with nascent hydrogen; thus methyl iodide dissolved in methyl alcohol readily yields methane when acted on by the zinc-copper couple (J. H. Gladstone and A. Tribe, Jour. Chem. Soc., 1884, 45, p. 156) or by the aluminium-mercury couple. It may be obtained in an indirect manner from methyl iodide by conversion of this compound into zinc methyl, or into magnesium methyl iodide (formed by the action of magnesium on methyl iodide dissolved in anhydrous ether), and decomposing these latter substances with water (E. Frankland, 1856; V. Grignard, 1900),

Zn(CH4)2 + H2O = 2CH4 + ZnO; 2CH3MgI + H2O = 2CH4 + MgI2 + MgO.

In the laboratory it is usually prepared by J. B. A. Dumas’ method (Ann., 1840, 33, p. 181), which consists in heating anhydrous sodium acetate with soda lime, CH3CO2Na + NaOH = Na2CO3 + CH4. The product obtained by this method is not pure, containing generally more or less ethylene and hydrogen.

Methane is a colourless gas of specific gravity 0.559 (air = 1). It may be condensed to a colourless liquid at −155° to −160° C. under atmospheric pressure (S. Wroblewsky, Comptes rendus, 1884, 99, p. 136). It boils at -162° C. and freezes at −186° C. Its critical temperature is −99.5° C. (J. Dewar). The gas is almost insoluble in water, but is slightly soluble in alcohol. It decomposes into its constituents when passed through a red-hot tube, small quantities of other hydrocarbons (ethane, ethylene, acetylene, benzene, &c.) being formed at the same time. It burns with a pale flame, and when mixed with air or oxygen forms a highly explosive mixture. W. A. Bone (Jour. Chem. Soc., 1902, 81, p. 535; 1903, 83, p. 1074) has shown that in the oxidation of methane by oxygen at 450-500° C. formaldehyde (or possibly methyl alcohol) is formed as an intermediate product, and is ultimately oxidized to carbon dioxide. Methane is an exceedingly stable gas, being unaffected by the action of chromic acid, nitric acid, or a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acids. Chlorine and bromine, however, react with methane, gradually replacing hydrogen and forming chlor- and brom-substitution products.

MARSHMAN, JOSHUA (1768-1837), English Baptist missionary and orientalist, was born on the 20th of April 1768, at Westbury Leigh, in Wiltshire. He followed the occupation of a weaver until 1794, but having meanwhile devoted himself to study he removed to Broadmead, Bristol, to take charge of a small school. In 1799 he was sent by the Baptist Missionary Society to join their mission at Serampur. Here, in addition to his more special duties, he studied Bengali and Sanskrit, and afterwards Chinese. He translated the Bible into various dialects, and, aided by his son, established newspapers and founded Serampur College. He received the degree of D.D. from Brown University, U.S.A., in 1810. He died at Serampur on the 5th of December 1837. His son, John Clark Marshman (1704-1877), was official Bengali translator; he published a Guide to the Civil Law which, before the work of Macaulay, was the civil code of India, and wrote a History of India (1842).

Marshman translated into Chinese the book of Genesis, the Gospels, and the Epistles of Paul to the Romans and the Corinthians; in 1811 he published The Works of Confucius, containing the Original Text, with a Translation, and in 1814 his Clavis Sinica. He was also the author of Elements of Chinese Grammar, with Preliminary Dissertation on the Characters and Colloquial Mediums of the Chinese, and was associated with W. Carey in the preparation of a Sanskrit grammar and of a Bengali-English dictionary.

See J. C. Marshman, Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward (2 vols., 1859).

MARSI, an ancient people of Italy, whose chief centre was Marruvium, on the eastern shore of Lake Fucinus. They are first mentioned as members of a confederacy with the Vestini, Paeligni and Marrucini (Liv. viii. 29, cf. viii. 6, and Polyb. ii. 24, 12). They joined the Samnites in 308 B.C. (Liv. ix. 41), and on their submission became allies of Rome in 304 B.C. (Liv. ix. 45). After a short-lived revolt two years later, for which they were punished by loss of territory (Liv. x. 3), they were readmitted to the Roman alliance and remained faithful down to the social war, their contingent (e.g. Liv. xliv. 46) being always regarded as the flower of the Italian forces (e.g. Hor. Od. ii. 20, 18). In this war, which, owing to the prominence of the Marsian rebels is often known as the Marsic War, they fought bravely against odds under their leader Q. Pompaedius Silo, and, though they were frequently defeated, the result of the war was the enfranchisement of the allies (see [Rome]: History, “The Republic”). The Marsi were a hardy mountain people, famed for their simple habits and indomitable courage. It was said that the Romans had never triumphed over them or without them (Appian). They were also renowned for their magicians, who had strange remedies for various diseases.

The Latin colony of Alba Fucens near the north-west corner of the lake was founded in the adjoining Aequian territory in 303, so that from the beginning of the 3rd century the Marsians were in touch with a Latin-speaking community, to say nothing of the Latin colony of Carsioli (298 B.C.) farther west. The earliest pure Latin inscriptions of the district seem to be C.I.L. ix. 3827 and 3848 from the neighbourhood of Supinum; its character generally is of the Gracchan period, though it might be somewhat earlier.

Mommsen (Unteritalische Dialekten, p. 345) pointed out that in the social war all the coins of Pompaedius Silo have the Latin legend “Italia,” while the other leaders in all but one case used Oscan.

The chief record of the dialect or patois we owe to the goddess Angitia, whose chief temple and grove stood at the south-west corner of Lake Fucinus, near the inlet to the emissarius of Claudius (restored by Prince Torlonia), and the modern village of Luco. She (or they, for the name is in the plural in the Latin inscription next cited) was widely worshipped in the central highlands (Sulmo, C.I.L. ix. 3074, Furfo Vestinorum, ibid. 3515) as a goddess of healing, especially skilled to cure serpent bites by charms and the herbs of the Marsian woods. Her worshippers naturally practised the same arts—as their descendants do (see A. de Nino’s charming collection of Usi e costumi abruzzesi), their country being in Rome counted the home of witchcraft; see Hor. Sal. 1, 9, 29, Epod. 17, 28, &c.

The earliest local inscriptions date from about 300 to 150 B.C. and include the interesting and difficult bronze of Lake Fucinus, which seems to record a votive offering to Angitia, if A(n)ctia, as is probable, was the local form of her name. Their language differs very slightly from Roman Latin of that date; for apparently contracted forms like Fougno instead of Fucino may really only be a matter of spelling. In final syllables the diphthongs ai, ei, oi, all appear as ē. On the other hand, the older form of the name of the tribe (dat. plur. Martses = Lat. Martiis) shows its derivation and exhibits the assibilation of -tio- into -tso- proper to many Oscan dialects (see [Osca Lingua]) but strange to classical Latin.

See R. S. Conway, The Italic Dialects, pp. 290 seq. (from which some portions of this article are taken by permission of the syndics of the Camb. Univ. Press); on the Fucino-Bronze, ib. p. 294.

(R. S. C.)

MARSIGLI [Latinized Marsilius], LUIGI FERDINANDO, Count (1658-1730), Italian soldier and scientific writer, was born at Bologna on the 10th of July 1658. After a course of scientific studies in his native city he travelled through Turkey collecting data on the military organization of that empire, as well as on its natural history. On his return he entered the service of the emperor Leopold (1682) and fought with distinction against the Turks, by whom he was wounded and captured in an action on the river Raab, and sold to a pasha whom he accompanied to the siege of Vienna. His release was purchased in 1684, and he afterwards took part in the war of the Spanish succession. In 1703 he was appointed second in command under Count Arco in the defence of Alt-Breisach. The fortress surrendered to the duke of Burgundy, and both Arco and Marsigli were court martialled; the former was condemned to death and the latter cashiered, although acquitted of blame by public opinion. Having thus been forced to give up soldiering, he devoted the rest of his life to scientific investigations, in the pursuit of which he made many journeys through Europe, spending a considerable time at Marseilles to study the nature of the sea. In 1712 he presented his collections to his native city, where they formed the nucleus of the Bologna Institute of Science and Art. He died at Bologna on the 1st of November 1730. Marsigli was a fellow of the London Royal Society and a member of the Paris Academy of Science.

Bibliography.—A list of his works, over twenty in number, is given in Niceron’s Memoirs; his Breve ristretto del saggio fisico intorno alla storia del mare was published at Venice in 1711, and again at Amsterdam (in French) in 1725; the Stato militare dell’ impero ottomano was published at Amsterdam and the Hague in Italian and French (1732), the Osservazioni intorno al Bosforo Tracio in Rome (1681) and the Danubius pannonico-mysicus, a large work in six volumes containing much valuable historic and scientific information on the Danubian countries, at the Hague (1725). See Fontenelle, “Éloge” in the Mém. de l’acad. des sciences (Paris, 1730); Quincy, Mémoires sur la vie de M. le comte Marsigli (Zürich, 1741), and Fantuzzi’s biography of Marsigli (Bologna, 1770).

MARSILIUS OF PADUA [Marsiglio Mainardino] (1270-1342), Italian medieval scholar, was born at Padua, and at first studied medicine in his own country. After practising various professions, among others that of a soldier, he went to Paris about 1311. The reputation which he had gained in the physical sciences soon caused him to be raised to the position of rector of the university (for the first term of the year 1313). While still practising medicine he entered into relations with another master of Paris, the philosopher John of Jandun, who collaborated with him in the composition of the famous Defensor pacis (1324), one of the most extraordinary political and religious works which appeared during the 14th century. A violent struggle had just broken out between pope John XXII. and Louis of Bavaria, king of the Romans, and the latter, on being excommunicated and called upon to give up the empire, only replied to the pope’s threats with fresh provocations. Marsilius of Padua and John of Jandun, though they had both reason to be grateful for the benefits of John XXII., chose this moment to demonstrate, by plausible arguments, the supremacy of the Empire, its independence of the Holy See, and the emptiness of the prerogatives “usurped” by the sovereign pontiffs—a demonstration naturally calculated to give them a claim on the gratitude of the German sovereign.

The Defensor pacis, as its name implies, is a work intended to restore peace, as the most indispensable benefit of human society. The author of the law is the people, i.e. the whole body, or at least the most important part (valentior) of the citizens; the people should themselves elect, or at least appoint, the head of the government, who, lest he should be tempted to put himself above the scope of the laws, should have at his disposal only a limited armed force. This chief is responsible to the people for his breaches of the law, and in serious cases they can condemn him to death. The real cause of the trouble which prevails among men is the papacy, a “fictitious” power, the development of which is the result of a series of usurpations. Marsilius denies, not only to the pope, but to the bishops and clergy, any coercive jurisdiction or any right to pronounce on their own authority excommunications and interdicts, or in any way to impose the observation of the divine law. He is not opposed to penalties against heretics, but he would have them pronounced only by civil tribunals. Desiring to see the clergy practise a holy poverty, he proposes the suppression of tithes and the seizure by the secular power of the greater part of the property of the church. The clergy, thus deprived of its wealth, privileges and jurisdiction, is further to be deprived of independence, for the civil power is to have the right of appointing to benefices, &c. The supreme authority in the church is to be the council, but a council summoned by the emperor. The pope, no longer possessing any more power than other bishops (though Marsilius recognizes that the supremacy of the Church of Rome goes back to the earliest times of Christianity), is to content himself with a pre-eminence mainly of an honorary kind, without claiming to interpret the Holy Scriptures, define dogmas or distribute benefices; moreover, he is to be elected by the Christian people, or by the delegates of the people, i.e. the princes, or by the council, and these are also to have the power to punish, suspend or depose him. Such is this famous work, full of obscurities, redundancies and contradictions, in which the thread of the argument is sometimes lost in a labyrinth of reasonings and citations, both sacred and profane, but which nevertheless expresses, both in religion and politics, such audacious and novel ideas that it has been possible to trace in it, as it were, a rough sketch of the doctrines developed during the periods of the Reformation and of the French Revolution. The theory was purely democratic, but was all ready to be transformed, by means of a series of fictions and implications, into an imperialist doctrine; and in like manner it contained a visionary plan of reformation which ended, not in the separation of the church from the state, but in the subjection of the church to the state. To overthrow the ecclesiastical hierarchy, to deprive the clergy of all their privileges, to reduce the pope to the rank of a kind of president of a Christian republic, which governs itself, or rather submits to the government of Caesar—such is the dream formed in 1324 by two masters of the university of Paris.

When in 1326 Louis of Bavaria saw the arrival in Nuremberg of the two authors of the book dedicated to him, startled by the boldness of their political and religious theories, he was at first inclined to treat them as heretics. He soon changed his mind, however, and, admitting them to the circle of his intimates, loaded them with favours. Having become one of the chief inspirers of the imperial policy, Marsilius accompanied Louis of Bavaria to Italy, where he preached or circulated written attacks against the pope, especially at Milan, and where he came within the sight of the realization of his wildest utopias. To see a king of the Romans crowned emperor at Rome, not by the pope, but by those who claimed to be the delegates of the people (Jan. 17, 1328), to see John XXII. deposed by the head of the Empire (April 18), and a mendicant friar, Pietro de Corbara, raised by an imperial decree to the throne of St Peter (as Nicholas V.) after a sham of a popular election (May 12), all this was merely the application of principles laid down in the Defensor pacis. The two authors of this book played a most active part in the Roman Revolution. Marsilius, appointed imperial vicar, abused his power to persecute the clergy who had remained faithful to John XXII. In recompense for his services, he seems to have been appointed archbishop of Milan, while his collaborator, John of Jandun, obtained from Louis of Bavaria the bishopric of Ferrara.

Marsilius of Padua also composed a treatise De translatione imperii romani, which is merely a rearrangement of a work of Landolfo Colonna, De jurisdictione imperatoris in causa matrimoniali, intended to prove the exclusive jurisdiction of the emperor in matrimonial affairs, or rather, to justify the intervention of Louis of Bavaria, who, in the interests of his policy, had just annulled the marriage of the son of the king of Bohemia and the countess of Tirol. But, above all, in an unpublished work preserved at Oxford, the Defensor minor, Marsilius completed and elaborated in a curious manner certain points in the doctrine laid down in the Defensor pacis. In it he deals with ecclesiastical jurisdiction, penances, indulgences, crusades and pilgrimages, vows, excommunication, the pope and the council, marriage and divorce. Here his democratic theory still more clearly leads up to a proclamation of the imperial omnipotence.

Marsilius of Padua does not seem to have lived long after 1342. But the scandal provoked by his Defensor pacis, condemned by the court of Avignon in 1326, lasted much longer. Benedict XII. and Clement VI. censured it in turn; Louis of Bavaria disowned it. Translated into French, then into Italian (14th century) and into English (16th century), it was known by Wycliffe and Luther, and was not without an influence on the Reform movement.

See J. Sullivan, American Historical Review, vol. ii. (1896-1897), and English Historical Review for April 1905; Histoire littéraire de la France (1906), xxxiii. 528-623; Sigmund Riezler, Die literarischen Widersacher der Päpste zur Zeit Ludwig des Baiers (Leipzig, 1874).

There are numerous manuscripts of the Defensor pacis extant. We will here mention only one edition, that given by Goldast, in 1614, in vol. i. of his Monarchia sacri imperii; an unpublished last chapter was published by Karl Müller, in 1883, in the Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen, pp. 923-925.

Count Lützow in The Life and Times of Master John Hus (London and New York, 1909), pp. 5-9, gives a good abstract of the Defensor pacis and the relations of Marsilius to other precursors of the Reformation.

(N. V.)

MARSIVAN, or Merzifun (anc. Phazemon?), a town in the Amasia sanjak of the Sivas vilayet of Asia Minor, situated at the foot of the Tavshan Dagh. Pop. about 20,000, two-thirds Mussulman. It is a centre of American missionary and educational enterprise, and the seat of Anatolia College, a theological seminary, and schools which were partly destroyed in the anti-Armenian riots of 1893 and 1895. There is also a Jesuit school. Marsivan is an unusually European place both in its aspect and the commodities procurable in the bazaar.

MARS-LA-TOUR, a village of Lorraine, between Metz and the French frontier, which formed part of the battlefield of the 16th of August 1870. The battle is often called the battle of Mars-la-Tour, though it is more usually named after Vionville. (See [Metz]; and [Franco-German War].) At Mars-la-Tour occurred the destruction of the German 38th brigade.

MARSTON, JOHN (c. 1575-1634), English dramatist and satirist, eldest son of John Marston of Coventry, at one time lecturer of the Middle Temple, was born in 1575, or early in 1576. Swinburne notes his affinities with Italian literature, which may be partially explained by his parentage, for his mother was the daughter of an Italian physician, Andrew Guarsi. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1592, taking his B.A. degree in 1594. The elder Marston in his will expresses regret that his son, to whom he left his law-books and the furniture of his rooms in the Temple, had not been willing to follow his profession. John Marston married Mary Wilkes, daughter of one of the royal chaplains, and Ben Jonson said that “Marston wrote his father-in-law’s preachings, and his father-in-law his sermons.” His first work was The Metamorphosis of Pigmalions Image, and certaine Satyres (1598). “Pigmalion” is an erotic poem in the metre of Venus and Adonis, and Joseph Hall attached a rather clumsy epigram to every copy that was exposed for sale in Cambridge. In the same year Marston published, under the pseudonym of W. Kinsayder, already employed in the earlier volume, his Scourge of Villanie, eleven satires, in the sixth of which he asserted that Pigmalion was intended to parody the amorous poetry of the time. Both this volume and its predecessor were burnt by order of the archbishop of Canterbury. The satires, in which Marston avowedly took Persius as his model, are coarse and vigorous. In addition to a general attack on the vices of his age he avenges himself on Joseph Hall who had assailed him in Virgidemiae. He had a great reputation among his contemporaries. John Weever couples his name with Ben Jonson’s in an epigram; Francis Meres in Palladis tamia (1598) mentions him among the satirists; a long passage is devoted to “Monsieur Kinsayder” in the Return from Parnassus (1606), and Dr Brinsley Nicholson has suggested that Furor poeticus in that piece may be a satirical portrait of him. But his invective by its general tone, goes far to justify Mr W. J. Courthope’s[1] judgment that “it is likely enough that in seeming to satirize the world without him, he is usually holding up the mirror to his own prurient mind.”

On the 28th of September 1599 Henslowe notices in his diary that he lent “unto Mr Maxton, the new poete, the sum of forty shillings,” as an advance on a play which is not named. Another hand has amended “Maxton” to “Mastone.” The earliest plays to which Marston’s name is attached are The History of Antonio and Mellida. The First Part; and Antonio’s Revenge. The Second Part (both entered at Stationers’ Hall in 1601 and printed 1602). The second part is preceded by a prologue which, in its gloomy forecast of the play, moved the admiration of Charles Lamb, who also compares the situation of Andrugio and Lucia to Lear and Kent, but the scene which he quotes gives a misleading idea of the play and of the general tenor of Marston’s work.

The melodrama and the exaggerated expression of these two plays offered an opportunity to Ben Jonson, who had already twice ridiculed Marston, and now pilloried him as Crispinus in The Poetaster (1601). The quarrel was patched up, for Marston dedicated his Malcontent (1604) to Jonson, and in the next year he prefixed commendatory verses to Sejanus. Far greater restraint is shown in The Malcontent than in the earlier plays. It was printed twice in 1604, the second time with additions by John Webster. The Dutch Courtezan (1605) and Parasitaster, or the Fawne (1606) followed. In 1605 Eastward Hoe,[2] a gay comedy of London life, which gave offence to the king’s Scottish friends, caused the playwrights concerned in its production—Marston, Chapman and Jonson—to be imprisoned at the instance of Sir James Murray. The Wonder of Women, or the Tragedie of Sophonisba (1606), seems to have been put forward by Marston as a model of what could be accomplished in tragedy. In the preface he mocks at those authors who make a parade of their authorities and their learning, and the next play, What you Will (printed 1607; but probably written much earlier), contains a further attack on Jonson. The tragedy of The Insatiate Countesse was printed in 1613, and again, this time anonymously, in 1616. It was not included in the collected edition of Marston’s plays in 1633, and in the Duke of Devonshire’s library there is a copy bearing the name of William Barksteed, the author of the poems, Myrrha, the Mother of Adonis (1607), and Hiren and the Fair Greek (1611). The piece contains many passages superior to anything to be found in Marston’s well-authenticated plays, and Mr A. H. Bullen suggests that it may be Barksteed’s version of an earlier one drafted by Marston. The character and history of Isabella are taken chiefly from “The Disordered Lyfe of the Countess of Celant” in William Paynter’s Palace of Pleasure, derived eventually from Bandello. There is no certain evidence of Marston’s authorship in Histriomastix (printed 1610, but probably produced before 1599), or in Jacke Drums Entertainement, or the Comedie of Pasquil and Katherine (1616), though he probably had a hand in both. Mr R. Boyle (Englische Studien, vol. xxx., 1901), in a critical study of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, assigns to Marston’s hand the whole of the action dealing with Hector, with the prologue and epilogue, and attributes to him the bombast and coarseness in the last scenes of the play. It will be seen that his undoubted dramatic work was completed in 1607. It is uncertain at what time he exchanged professions, but in 1616 he was presented to the living of Christchurch, Hampshire. He formally resigned his charge in 1631, and when his works were collected in 1633 the publisher, William Sheares, stated that the author “in his autumn and declining age” was living “far distant from this place.” Nevertheless he died in London, in the parish of Aldermanbury, on the 25th of June 1634. He was buried in the Temple Church.

Marston’s works were first published in 1633, once anonymously as Tragedies and Comedies, and then in the same year as Workes of Mr John Marston. The Works of John Marston (3 vols.) were reprinted by Mr J. O. Halliwell (Phillipps) in 1856, and again by Mr. A. H. Bullen (3 vols.) in 1887. His Poems (2 vols.) were edited by Dr A. B. Grosart in 1879. The British Museum Catalogue tentatively assigns to Marston The Whipper of the Satyre his pennance in a white sheete; or, the Beadle’s Confutation (1601), a pamphlet in answer to The Whipping of the Satyre. For an account of the quarrel of Dekker and Marston with Ben Jonson see Dr R. A. Small, The Stage Quarrel between Ben Jonson and the so-called Poetasters; in E. Koelbing, Forschungen zur englischen Sprache und Litteratur, pt. i. (1899). See also three articles John Marston als Dramatiker, by Ph. Aronstein in Englische Studien (vols. xx. and xxi., 1895), and “Quellenstudien zu den Dramen Ben Jonsons, John Marstons ...” by Emil Koeppel (Münchener Beiträge zur roman. und engl. Philologie, pt. xi. 1895).

[1] Hist. of Eng. Poetry, iii. 70.

[2] Revived at Drury Lane (1751) as The Prentices, in 1775 as Old City Manners, and said to have suggested Hogarth’s “Industrious and Idle Prentices.”

MARSTON, PHILIP BOURKE (1850-1887), English poet, was born in London on the 13th of August 1850. His father, John Westland Marston (1819-1890), of Lincolnshire origin, the friend of Dickens, Macready and Charles Kean, was the author of a series of metrical dramas which held the stage in succession to the ambitious efforts of John Tobin, Talfourd, Bulwer and Sheridan Knowles. His chief plays were The Patrician’s Daughter (1841), Strathmore (1849), A Hard Struggle (1858) and Donna Diana (1863). He was looked up to as the upholder of the outworn tradition of the acted poetic drama, but his plays showed little vitality, and Marston’s reviews for the Athenaeum, including one of Swinburne’s Atalanta in Calydon, and his dramatic criticisms embodied in Our Recent Actors (1888) will probably claim a more enduring reputation. His Dramatic and Poetical Works were collected in 1876. The son, Philip Bourke, was born in a literary atmosphere. His sponsors were Philip James Bailey and Dinah Mulock (Mrs Craik). At his father’s house near Chalk Farm he met authors and actors of his father’s generation, and subsequently the Rossettis, Swinburne, Arthur O’Shaughnessy and Irving. From his earliest years his literary precocity was overshadowed by misfortunes. In his fourth year, in part owing to an accident, his sight began to decay, and he gradually became almost totally blind. His mother died in 1870. His fiancée, Mary Nesbit, died in 1871; his closest friend, Oliver Madox Brown, in 1874; his sister Cicely, his amanuensis, in 1878; in 1879 his remaining sister, Eleanor, who was followed to the grave after a brief interval by her husband, the poet O’Shaughnessy, and her two children. In 1882 the death of his chief poetic ally and inspirer, Rossetti, was followed closely by the tragedy of another kindred spirit, the sympathetic pessimist, James Thomson (“B. V.”), who was carried dying from his blind friend’s rooms, where he had sought refuge from his latest miseries early in June of the same year. It is said that Marston came to dread making new friendships, for fear of evil coming to the recipients of his affection. In the face of such calamities it is not surprising that Marston’s verse became more and more sorrowful and melancholy. The idylls of flower-life, such as the early and very beautiful “The Rose and the Wind” were succeeded by dreams of sleep and the repose of death. These qualities and gradations of feeling, reflecting the poet’s successive ideals of action and quiescence, are traceable through his three published collections, Songtide (1871), All in All (1875) and Wind Voices (1883). The first and third, containing his best work, went out of print, but Marston’s verse was collected in 1892 by Mrs Louise Chandler Moulton, a loyal and devoted friend, and herself a poet. Marston read little else but poetry; and of poetic values, especially of the intenser order, his judgment could not be surpassed in sensitiveness. He was saturated with Rossetti and Swinburne, and his imitative power was remarkable. In his later years he endeavoured to make money by writing short stories in Home Chimes and other American magazines, through the agency of Mrs Chandler Moulton. His popularity in America far exceeded that in his own country. His health showed signs of collapse from 1883; in January 1887 he lost his voice, and suffered intensely from the failure to make himself understood. He died on the 13th of February 1887.

He was commemorated in Dr Gordon Hake’s “Blind Boy,” and in a fine sonnet by Swinburne, beginning “The days of a man are threescore years and ten.” There is an intimate sketch of the blind poet by a friend, Mr Coulson Kernahan, in Sorrow and Song (1894), p. 127.

(T. Se.)

MARSTON MOOR, BATTLE OF, was fought on the 2nd of July 1644 on a moor (now enclosed) seven miles west of York, between the Royalist army under Prince Rupert and the Parliamentary and Scottish armies under the earl of Manchester, Lord Fairfax and Lord Leven. For the operations that preceded the battle see [Great Rebellion]. Rupert had relieved York and joined forces with the marquess of Newcastle’s army that had defended that city, and the Parliamentarians and Scots who had besieged it had drawn off south-westward followed by the Royalists. On the morning of the 2nd of July, however, Rupert’s attack on their rearguard forced them to halt and deploy on rising ground on the south edge of the moor, their position being defined on the right and left by Long Marston and Tockwith and divided from the Royalist army on the moor by a lane connecting these two villages. The respective forces were—Royalists about 18,000, Parliamentarians and Scots about 27,000. The armies stood front to front. On the Royalist right was half the cavalry under Rupert; the infantry was in the centre in two lines and the left wing of cavalry was under General (Lord) Goring. The lane along the front was held by skirmishers. On the other side the cavalry of the Eastern Association under Lieut.-General Cromwell and that of the Scots under Major-General Leslie (Lord Newark) formed the left, the infantry of the Eastern Association under Major-General Crawford, of the Scots under Lord Leven, and of the Yorkshire Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax was in the centre and the Yorkshire cavalry under Sir Thomas Fairfax was on the right wing.

During the afternoon there was a desultory cannonade, but neither side advanced. At last, concluding from movements in the enemy’s lines that there would be no fighting that day, Rupert and Newcastle strolled away to their coaches and their soldiers dismounted and lay down to rest. But seeing this Cromwell instantly advanced his wing to the attack (5 p.m.). His dragoons drove away the skirmishers along the lane, and the line cavalry crossed into the moor. The general forward movement spread along the Parliamentary line from left to right, the Eastern Association infantry being the first to cross the road. In Rupert’s momentary absence, the surprised Royalist cavalry could make no head against Cromwell’s charge, although the latter was only made piecemeal as each unit crossed the lane and formed to the front. Rupert soon galloped up with his fresh second line and drove back Cromwell’s men, Cromwell himself being wounded, but Leslie and the Scots Cavalry, taking ground to their left, swung in upon Rupert’s flank, and after a hard struggle the hitherto unconquered cavalry of the prince was broken and routed. Then, being unlike other cavalry of the time, a thoroughly disciplined force, the Eastern Association cavalry rallied, leaving the pursuit to the Scots light horse. On the Parliamentary right, Goring had swept away the Yorkshire horse, and although most of his troopers had followed in disorderly pursuit, Sir Charles Lucas with some squadrons was attacking the exposed right of Leven’s infantry. At the same time the Parliamentary infantry had mostly crossed the lane and was fighting at close quarters and suffering severely, Newcastle’s north-country “White-Coat” brigade driving back and finally penetrating their centre. Lord Leven gave up the battle as lost and rode away to Tadcaster. But the Scots on the right of the foot held firm against Lucas’s attacks, and Cromwell and Leslie with their cavalry passed along the rear of the Royal army, guided by Sir Thomas Fairfax (who though wounded in the rout of his Yorkshire horse had made his way to the other flank). Then, on the ground where Goring had routed Fairfax, Cromwell and Leslie won an easy victory over Goring’s scattered and disordered horsemen. The Eastern Association infantry had followed the horse and was now in rear of the Royalists. The original Parliamentary centre of foot, a remnant, but one containing only the bravest and steadiest men, held fast, and soon the Royalist infantry was broken up into isolated regiments and surrounded by the victorious horse and foot of the enemy. The White-Coats retreated into an enclosure and there defended themselves to the last man. The rest were cut down on the field or scattered in the pursuit and at nightfall the Royalist army had ceased to exist. Some of Rupert’s foot regiments made their way to York, but the dispirited garrison only held out for a fortnight. Rupert rallied some six thousand of the men and escaped over the hills into Lancashire, thence rejoining King Charles in the south. But the Northern army, the main hope of the Royalist cause, was destroyed.

MARSUPIALIA (from Lat. marsupium, a “pouch,” or “bag”), the group of mammals in which the young are usually carried for some time after birth in a pouch on the under-surface of the body of the female. The group, which has also the alternative title of Didelphia, is by some authorities regarded as a sub-class of the mammalia of equal rank with the Monotremata, while by others it is brigaded with the placentals, so that the two together form a sub-class of equal grade with the one represented by the monotremes. There is much to be urged in favour of either view; and in adopting the former alternative, it must be borne in mind that the difference between monotremes and marsupials is vastly greater than that which separates the latter from placentals. In elevating the marsupials to the rank of a sub-class the name Metatheria has been suggested as the title for the higher grade, with Marsupialia as the designation for the single order by which they are now represented. It is, however, less liable to cause confusion, and in many other ways more convenient to employ the better known term Marsupialia in both senses.

Marsupials may be defined as viviparous (that is non-egg-laying) mammals, in which the young are born in an imperfect condition, and almost immediately attached to the teats of the mammary glands; the latter being generally enclosed in a pouch, and the front edge of the pelvis being always furnished with epipubic or “marsupial” bones. As a rule there is no allantoic placenta forming the means of communication between the blood of the parent and the foetus, and when such a structure does occur its development is incomplete. In all cases a more or less full series of teeth is developed, these being differentiated into incisors, canines, premolars and molars, when all are present; but only a single pair of teeth in each jaw has deciduous predecessors.

The pouch from which the marsupials take their name is supported by the two epipubic bones, but does not correspond to the temporary breeding-pouch of the monotremes. It may open either forward or backwards; and although present in the great majority of the species, and enclosing the teats, it may, as in many of the opossums, be completely absent, when the teats extend in two rows along the whole length of the under-surface of the body. Whether a pouch is present or not, the young are born in an exceedingly imperfect state of development, after a very short period of gestation, and are immediately transferred by the female parent to the teats, where they remain firmly attached for a considerable time; the milk being injected into their mouths at intervals by means of a special muscle which compresses the glands. In the case of the great grey kangaroo, for instance, the period of gestation is less than forty days, and the newly-born embryo, which is blind, naked, and unable to use its bud-like limbs, is little more than an inch in length.

As additional features of the sub-class may be mentioned the absence of a corpus callosum connecting the right and left hemispheres of the brain,[1] and of a fossa in the septum between the two auricles of the heart. In the skull there are always vacuities, or unossified spaces in the bones of the palate, while the “angle,” or lower hind extremity of each half of the lower jaw is strongly bent inwards so as to form a kind of shelf, and the alisphenoid bone takes a share in the formation of the tympanum, or auditory bladder, or bulla. Didelphia, the alternative name of the group was given in allusion to the circumstance that the uterus has two separate openings; while other features are the inclusion of the openings of the alimentary canal and the urino-genital sinus in a common sphincter muscle, and the position of the scrotum in advance of the penis. The bandicoots alone possess a placenta. Lastly the number of trunk-vertebrae is always nineteen, while there are generally thirteen pairs of ribs.

As regards the teeth, in all cases except the wombats the number of upper incisors differs from that of the corresponding lower teeth. As already stated, there is no vertical displacement and succession of the functional teeth except in the case of a single tooth on each side of each jaw, which is the third of the premolar series, and is preceded by a tooth having more or less of the characters of a molar (see fig. 1). In some cases (as in rat-kangaroos) this tooth retains its place and function until the animal has nearly, if not quite, attained its full stature, and is not shed and replaced by its successor until after all the other teeth, including the molars, are in place and use. In others, as the thylacine, it is rudimentary, being shed or absorbed before any of the other teeth have cut the gum, and therefore functionless. It may be added that there are some marsupials, such as the wombat, koala, marsupial ant-eater and the dasyures, in which no such deciduous tooth, even in a rudimentary state, has been discovered. In addition to this replacement of a single pair of functional teeth in each jaw, it has been discovered that marsupials possess rudimentary tooth-germs which never cut the gum. According to one theory, these rudimentary teeth, together with the one pair of functional teeth in each jaw that has vertical successors, represent the milk-teeth of placental mammals. On the other hand, there are those who believe that the functional dentition (other than the replacing premolar and the molars) correspond to the milk-dentition of placentals, and that the rudimentary tooth-germs represent a “prelacteal” dentition. The question, however, is of academic rather than of practical interest, and whichever way it is answered does not affect our general conception of the nature and relationships of the group.

Unfortunately the homology of the functional series does not by any means end the uncertainty connected with the marsupial dentition; as there is also a difference of opinion with regard to the serial homology of some of the cheek-teeth. For instance, according to the older view, the dental formula in the thylacine or Tasmanian wolf is i. 4⁄3, c, 1⁄1 p. 3⁄3, m. 4⁄4 = 46. On the other hand, in the opinion of the present writer, this formula, so far as the cheek-teeth are concerned, should be altered to p. 4⁄4, m. 3⁄3, thus bringing it in accord, so far as these teeth are concerned, with the placental formula, and making the single pair of replacing teeth the third premolars. It may be added that the formula given above shows that the marsupial dentition may comprise more teeth than the 44 which form the normal full placental complement.

As regards geographical distribution, existing marsupials, with the exception of two families, Didelphyidae and Epanorthidae, are mainly limited to the Australian region, forming the chief mammalian fauna of Australia, New Guinea, and some of the adjacent islands. The Didelphyidae are almost exclusively Central and South American, only one or two species ranging into North America. Fossil remains of members of this family have also been found in Europe in strata of the Oligocene period.

History.—The origin and evolution of the Australian marsupials have been discussed by Mr B. A. Bensley. In broad contrast to the views of Dr A. R. Wallace, this author is of opinion that marsupials did not effect an entrance into Australia till about the middle of the Tertiary period, their ancestors being probably opossums of the American type. They were then arboreal; but they speedily entered upon a rapid, although short-lived, course of evolution, during which leaping terrestrial forms like the kangaroos were developed. The short period of this evolution is at least one factor in the primitive grade of even the most specialized members of the group. In the advance of their molar teeth from a tritubercular to a grinding type, the author traces a curious parallelism between marsupials and placentals. Taking opossums to have been the ancestors of the group, the author considers that the present writer may be right in his view that marsupials entered Australia from Asia by way of New Guinea. On the other hand there is nothing absolutely decisive against their origin being southern.

Again, taking as a text Mr L. Dollo’s view that marsupials were originally arboreal, that, on account of their foot-structure, they could not have been the ancestors of placentals, and that they themselves are degenerate placentals, Mr Bensley contrasts this with Huxley’s scheme of mammalian evolution. According to the latter, the early monotremes which became specialized into modern monotremes, gave rise to the ancestors of the modern marsupials; while the modern placentals are likewise an offshoot from the ancestral marsupial stock. This phylogeny, the author thinks, is the most probable of all. It is urged that the imperfect placenta of the bandicoots instead of being vestigial, may be an instance of parallelism, and that in marsupials generally the allantois failed to form a placental connexion. Owing to the antiquity of both placentals and marsupials, the arboreal character of the feet of the modern forms of the latter is of little importance. Further, it is considered that too much weight has been assigned to the characters distinguishing monotremes from other mammals, foetal marsupials showing a monotreme type of coracoid, while it is probable that in the long run it will be found impossible to maintain the essential dissimilarity between the milk-glands of monotremes and other mammals.

Another view is to regard both marsupials and placentals as derivates from implacental ancestors more or less nearly related to the creodont carnivora, or possibly as independently descended from anomodont reptiles (see [Creodonta]). Finally, there is the hypothesis that marsupials are the descendants of placentals, in which case, as was suggested by its discoverer, the placenta of the bandicoots would be a true vestigial structure.

Classification.

Existing marsupials may be divided into three main divisions or sub-orders, of which the first, or Polyprotodontia, is common to America and Australasia; the second, or Paucituberculata, is exclusively South American; while the third, or Diprotodonts, is as solely Australasian inclusive of a few in the eastern Austro-Malayan islands.

1. Polyprotodonts.—The Polyprotodonts are characterized by their numerous, small, sub-equal incisors, of which there are either five or four pairs in the upper and always three in the lower jaw, (fig. 2) and the generally strong and large canines, as well as by the presence of from four to five sharp cusps or tubercles on the crown of the molars. The pouch is often absent, and may open backwards. For the most part the species are carnivorous or insectivorous.

The first family is that of the true or American opossums—Didelphyidae, in which there are five pairs of upper incisors, while the feet are of the presumed primitive arboreal type, the hind foot having the four outer toes sub-equal and separate, with the first opposable to them all. With the exception of the water-opossum, forming the genus Chironectes, all the living members of the family may be included in the genus Didelphys. The latter may, however, be split up into several sub-generic groups, such as Metachirus, Philander, Marmosa (Micoureus or Grymaeomys), Peramys, Dromiciops, &c. The small South American forms included in Marmosa, which lack the pouch, and have numerous teats, and molar teeth of a primitive type, are doubtless the most generalized representatives of the group (see [Opossum]; and [Water-Opossum]).

Nearly allied is the Australian family Dasyuridae, characterized by the presence of only four pairs of upper incisors, the generally small and rudimentary condition of the first hind toe, which can but seldom be opposed to the rest, and the absence of prehensile power in the tail; the pouch being either present or absent, and the fore feet always five-toed. The stomach is simple, and there is no caecum to the intestine, although this is present in the opossums.

The largest representative of the family is the Tasmanian wolf, or thylacine, alone representing the genus Thylacinus, in which the dentition numbers i. 4⁄3, c. 1⁄1, p. 4⁄4, m. 3⁄3 = 46; with the incisors small and vertical, the outer one in the upper jaw being larger than the others. Summits of the lower incisors, before they are worn, with a deep transverse groove, dividing it into an anterior and a posterior cusp. Canines long, strong and conical. Premolars with compressed crowns, increasing in size from before backwards. Molars in general characters resembling those of Sarcophilus, but of more simple form, the cusps being less distinct and not so sharply pointed. Deciduous molar very small, and shed before the animal leaves the mother’s pouch. General form dog-like, with the head elongated, the muzzle pointed, and the ears moderate, erect and triangular. Fur short and closely applied to the skin. Tail of moderate length, thick at the base and tapering towards the apex, clothed with short hair. First hind toe (including the metacarpal bone) absent. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 13, L. 6, S. 2, Ca. 23. Marsupial bones unossified. The gradual passage of the thick root of the tail into the body is a character common to the Tasmanian wolf and the aard-vark, and may be directly inherited from reptilian ancestors (see [Thylacine]).

The next genus is represented solely by the Tasmanian devil, Sarcophilus (or Diabolus) ursinus, a medium-sized animal with a dental formula similar to that of the dasyures, but with teeth (fig. 2) approximating to those of the thylacine, though markedly different in details. The first hind toe is absent.

In the “native cats,” or dasyures, constituting the genus Dasyurus, the dental formula is i. 4⁄3, c. 1⁄1, p. 3⁄3, m. 3⁄3: total 42. The upper incisors are nearly equal and vertical, with the first slightly longer, narrower, and separated from the rest. Lower incisors sloping forward and upward. Canines large and sharply pointed. First two premolars with compressed and sharp-pointed crowns, and slightly developed anterior and posterior accessory basal cusps. Molars with numerous sharp-pointed cusps. In the upper jaw the first two with crowns having a triangular free surface; the last small, simple, narrow and placed transversely. In the lower jaw the molars more compressed, with longer cusps; the last not notably smaller than the others. Ears of moderate size, prominent and obtusely pointed. First hind toe rudimentary, clawless or absent; its metatarsal bone always present. Tail generally long and well clothed with hair. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 13, L. 6, S. 2, Ca. 18-20 (see [Dasyure]).

The genus Phascologale comprises a number of small marsupials, none exceeding a rat in size, differing from the dasyures in possessing an additional premolar—the dentition being i. 4⁄3, c. 1⁄1, p. 4⁄4, m. 3⁄3: total 46—and in having the teeth generally developed upon an insectivorous rather than a carnivorous pattern, the upper middle incisors being larger and inclined forward, the canines relatively smaller, and the molars with broad crowns, armed with prickly tubercles. The muzzle is pointed. Ears moderately rounded, and nearly naked. Fore feet with five sub-equal toes, with compressed, slightly curved pointed claws. Hind feet with the four outer toes sub-equal, with claws similar to those in the fore feet; the first toe almost always distinct and partially opposable, though small and nailless, sometimes absent.

In some respects intermediate between the preceding and the next genus is Dasyuroides byrnei, of Central Australia, an animal of the size of a rat, with one lower premolar less than in Phascologale, without the first hind toe, and with a somewhat thickened tail. The pouch is incomplete, with two lateral folds, and the number of teats six.

Sminthopsis includes several very small species, with the same dental formula as Phascologale, but distinguished from that genus by the narrowness of the hind foot, in which the first toe is present, and the granulated or hairy (in place of broad, smooth and naked) soles. A pouch is present, and there are eight or ten teats. Nearly allied is the jumping Antechinomys laniger, of East Central Australia, an elegant mouse-like creature, with large oval ears, elongated limbs, a long and tufted tail and no first hind toe. In connexion with the large size of the ears is the excessive inflation of the auditory bulla of the skull.

From all other members of the family the marsupial, or banded, ant-eater (Myrmecobius fasciatus) differs by the presence of more than seven pairs of cheek-teeth in each jaw, as well as by the exceedingly long and protrusile tongue. Hence it is made the type of a distinct sub-family, the Myrmecobiinae, as distinct from the Dasyurinae, which includes all the other members of the family. From the number of its cheek-teeth, the banded ant-eater has been regarded as related to some of the primitive Jurassic mammals; but this view is disputed by Mr Bensley, who regards this multiplicity of teeth as a degenerate feature. On the other hand, it is noteworthy that this marsupial retains in its lower jaw the so-called mylo-hyoid groove, which is found in the aforesaid Jurassic mammals. Myrmecobius has a total of 52 or 54 teeth, which may be classed as i. 4⁄3, c. 1⁄1, p. + m. (8 or 9) / (8 or 9). The teeth are all small and (except the four posterior inferior molars) separated from each other by an interval. Head elongated, but broad behind; muzzle long and pointed; ears of moderate size, ovate and rather pointed. Fore-feet with five toes, all having strong pointed, compressed claws, the second, third and fourth nearly equal, the fifth somewhat and the first considerably shorter. Hind-feet with no trace of first toe externally, but the metatarsal bone is present. Tail long, clothed with long hairs. Fur rather harsh and bristly. Female without pouch, the young when attached to the nipples being concealed by the long hair of the abdomen. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 13, L. 6, S. 3, Ca. 23. The single species, which is a native of western and southern Australia, is about the size of an English squirrel, to which its long bushy tail gives it some resemblance; but it lives entirely on the ground, especially in sterile sandy districts, feeding on ants. Its prevailing colour is chestnut-red, but the hinder part of the back is marked with broad, white, transverse bands on a dark ground.

With the bandicoots, or Peramelidae, we come to a family of polyprotodonts which resemble the diprotodonts in the peculiarly specialized structure of their hind limbs; an adaptation which we must apparently regard as having been independently acquired in the two groups. The dentition is i. 5⁄3, c. 1⁄1, p. 4⁄4, m. 3⁄3; total, 48; the upper incisors being small, with short, broad crowns; the lower incisors moderate, narrow, proclivous; canines well developed. Premolars compressed, pointed; and the molars with quadrate tuberculated crowns. Deciduous premolar preceded by a minute molariform tooth, which remains in place until the animal is nearly full grown. Fore feet with two or three of the middle toes of nearly equal size, and provided with strong, sharp, slightly curved claws, the other toes rudimentary. Hind feet long and narrow; the first toe rudimentary or absent; the second and third very slender and united in a common integument; the fourth very large, with a stout elongated conical claw; the fifth smaller than the fourth (see fig. 6). The terminal phalanges of the large toes of both feet cleft at their extremities. Head elongated, with the muzzle long, narrow and pointed. Stomach simple. Caecum of moderate size. Pouch complete, generally opening backwards. Alone among marsupials bandicoots have no clavicles. More remarkable still is the development of a small allantoic placenta.

In the true bandicoots of the genus Perameles (fig. 5) the fore-feet have the three middle toes well developed, the third slightly larger than the second, the fourth somewhat shorter, provided with long, strong, slightly curved, pointed claws. First and fifth toes very short and without claws. Hind feet with one or two phalanges, in the first toe forming a distinct tubercle visible externally; the second and third toes very slender, of equal length, joined as far as the terminal phalange, but with distinct claws; the fifth intermediate in length between these and the largely developed fourth toe. Ears of moderate or small size, ovate, pointed. Tail rather short, clothed with short depressed hairs. Fur short and harsh. Pouch opening backwards. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 13, L. 6, S. 1, Ca. 17. (see [Bandicoot].)

The rabbit-bandicoot, Peragale (or Thylacomys) represents a genus in which the cheek-teeth are curved, with longer crowns and shorter roots than in the last. Hind extremities proportionally longer with inner toe represented only by a small metatarsal bone. Muzzle much elongated and narrow. Fur soft and silky. Ears very large, long and pointed. Tail long, its apical half-clothed on the dorsal surface with long hairs. Pouch opening forwards. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 13, L. 6, S. 2, Ca. 23.

The one species, from Western Australia, is the largest member of the family, being about the size of a rabbit, to which it bears sufficient superficial resemblance to have acquired the name of “native rabbit” from the colonists. It burrows in the ground, but in other respects resembles bandicoots in habits.

In the pig-footed bandicoot (Choeropus castanotis) the dentition generally resembles that of Perameles, but the canines are less developed, and in the upper jaw two-rooted. Limbs very slender; posterior nearly twice the length of the anterior. Fore feet with the functional toes reduced to two, the second and third, of equal length, with closely united metacarpals and short, sharp, slightly curved, compressed claws. First toe represented by a minute rudiment of a metacarpal bone; the fourth by a metacarpal and two small phalanges without a claw, and not reaching the middle of the metacarpal of the third; fifth entirely absent. Hind foot long and narrow, mainly composed of the strongly developed fourth toe, terminating in a conical pointed nail, with a strong pad behind it; the first toe represented by a rudimentary metatarsal; the remaining toes completely developed, with claws, but exceedingly slender; the united second and third reaching a little way beyond the metatarso-phalangeal articulation of the fourth; the fifth somewhat shorter. Tail not quite so long as the body, and covered with short hairs. Ears large and pointed, and folded down when the animal is at rest. Fur soft and loose. Pouch opening backwards. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 13, L. 6, S. 1, Ca. 20.

The only species of this genus is about the size of a small rat, found in the interior of Australia. Its general habits and food appear to resemble those of other bandicoots. A separate family, Notoryctidae, is represented by the marsupial mole (Notoryctes typhlops), of the deserts of south Central Australia, a silky, golden-haired, burrowing creature, with a curious leathery muzzle, and a short, naked stumpy tail. The limbs are five-toed, with the third and fourth toes of the front pair armed with enormous digging claws; there are no external ear-conchs; and the dentition includes four pairs of upper, and three of lower, incisors, and distinctly tritubercular cheek-teeth. The small pouch, supported by the usual epipubic bones, opens backwards. In correlation with its burrowing habits, some of the vertebrae of the neck and of the loins are respectively welded together. The eyes have degenerated to a greater extent than those of any other burrowing mammal, the retina being reduced to a mass of simple cells, and the cornea and sclerotic (“white”) to a pear-shaped fibrous capsule enclosing a ball of pigment. The reason for this extreme degeneration is probably to be found in the sandy nature of the soil in which the creature burrows, a substance which would evidently irritate and inflame any functional remnant of an eye. The portion of the lachrymal duct communicating with the cavity of the nose has, on the other hand, been abnormally developed, apparently for the purpose of cleansing that chamber from particles of sand which may obtain an entrance while the animal is burrowing. (See [Marsupial Mole].)

2. Paucituberculates.—The second sub-order of marsupials, the Paucituberculata, is exclusively South American, and typically represented by the family Epanorthidae, the majority of the members of which are extinct, their remains being found in the probably Miocene Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia, although one existing genus (Caenolestes) survives in Ecuador and Colombia. One of the two living species was, indeed, described so long ago as the year 1863, under the preoccupied name of Hyracodon, but attracted little or no attention, as its affinities were not fully recognized. Externally Caenolestes has a shrew-like appearance. The elongated skull (fig. 8) has four pairs of upper incisors and long upper canines, while in the lower jaw there is a single pair of procumbent incisors, followed by several small teeth representing the canine and earlier premolars. The three pairs of molars in each jaw are, like the last premolar, quadritubercular oblong teeth. The five-toed feet are of normal structure, and the rat-like tail is prehensile towards the tip. The female has a small pouch. The extinct members of the family are represented by the genera Epanorthus, Acdestis, Garzonia, &c. In a second family—Abderitidae—also from the Patagonian Miocene, the penultimate premolar is developed into an enormous tooth, with a tall, secant and grooved crown, somewhat after the fashion of the enlarged premolar of Plagiaulax. From the structure of the skull, it is thought probable that Abderites had an elongated snout, like that of many Insectivora. As a sub-order, the Paucituberculata are characterized by the presence of four pairs of upper and three of lower incisor teeth; the enlargement and forward inclination of the first pair of lower incisors, and the presence of four or five sharp cusps on the cheek-teeth, coupled with the absence of “syndactylism” in the hind limbs.

3. Diprotodonts.—The third and last sub-order of marsupials is the Diprotodontia, which is exclusively Australasian and includes the wombats, koala, cuscuses, kangaroos and their relatives. There are never more than three pairs of upper and one of lower incisors, of which the middle upper and the single lower pair are large and chisel-like (fig. 9); the canines are small or absent; the cheek-teeth have bluntly tuberculate or transversely-ridged crowns in most cases; and the hind-feet are syndactylous. With one exception, the intestine has a caecum, and the pouch is large and opens forwards. It should be added that Professor Elliot Smith has pointed out a certain peculiarity in its commissures whereby the brain of the diprotodonts differs markedly from that of the polyprotodonts and approximates to the placental type. Dr Einar Lönnberg has also recorded certain adaptive peculiarities in the stomach. Most of the species, particularly the specialized types, are more or less completely herbivorous.

The first family, Phascolomyidae, is typified by the wombats; but according to the view adopted by Mr H. Winge, and endorsed by Professor Max Weber, is also taken to include the koala. In this wider sense the family may be characterized as follows. The tympanic process of the alisphenoid bone of the skull is short, not covering the cavity of the tympanum, nor reaching the paroccipital process. The tail is rudimentary, the first hind-toe opposable, the first pair of upper incisors very large, but the second and third either absent or small and placed partially behind the larger pair; and only five pairs of cheek-teeth in each jaw. The stomach has a cardiac gland, and the number of teats is two.

In the wombats (Phascolomys) the dentition is i. 1⁄1, c. 0⁄0, p. + m. 5⁄5, total 24; all the teeth growing from persistent pulps, and the incisors large and chisel-like, with enamel only on the front surface. The cheek-teeth strongly curved, forming from the base to the summit about a quarter of a circle, the concavity being directed outwards in the upper and inwards in the lower teeth. The first of the series (which appears to have no predecessor) single-lobed; the other four composed of two lobes, each subtriangular in section. Limbs equal, stout and short. Fore-feet with five distinct toes, each furnished with a long, strong and slightly curved nail, the first and fifth considerably shorter than the other three. Hind-feet with a very short nailless first toe, the second, third and fourth toes partially united by integument, of nearly equal length, the fifth distinct and rather shorter; all four with long and curved nails. In the skeleton the second and third toes are distinctly more slender than the fourth, showing a tendency towards the character so marked in the following families. Tail rudimentary. Caecum very short and wide, with a vermiform appendage (see [Wombat]).

In addition to remains referable to the existing genus, the Pleistocene deposits of Australia have yielded evidence of an extinct giant wombat constituting the genus Phascolonus (Sceparnodon).

The koala, or “native bear” (Phascolarctus cinereus), which differs widely from the wombats in its arboreal habits, is less specialized as regards its dentition, of which the formula is i. 3⁄1, c. 1⁄0, p. + m. 5⁄5, total 30. Upper incisors crowded together, cylindroidal, the first much larger than the others, with a bevelled cutting edge (fig. 9). Canine very small; a considerable interval between it and the first premolar, which is as long from before backwards but not so broad as the molars, and has a cutting edge, with a smaller parallel inner ridge. The molar-like teeth slightly diminishing in size from the first to the fourth, with square crowns, each bearing four pyramidal cusps. The lower incisors are partially inclined forwards, compressed and tapering, bevelled at the ends. Cheek-teeth in continuous series, as in the upper jaw. Fore-feet with the two inner toes slightly separated from and opposable to the remaining three, all with strong curved and much compressed claws. Hind-foot (fig. 10) with the first toe placed far back, large and broad, the second and third (united) toes considerably smaller than the other two; the fourth the largest. No external tail. Fur dense and woolly. Ears of moderate size, thickly clothed with long hair. Caecum very long and dilated, with numerous folds. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 11, L. 8, S. 2, Ca. 8. Ribs eleven pairs (see [Koala]).

Here may be noticed three genera of large extinct marsupials from the Pleistocene of Australia whose affinities appear to ally them to the wombat-group on the one hand and to the phalangers on the other. The longest known is Diprotodon, an animal of the size of a rhinoceros, with a dental formula of i. 3⁄1, c. 0⁄0, p. 1⁄1, m. 4⁄4, total 28. The first upper incisor very large and chisel-like, molars with prominent transverse ridges, as in Macropus, but without the longitudinal connecting ridge. Complete skeletons disinterred by Dr E. C. Stirling indicate that in the structure of the feet this creature presents resemblances both to the wombats and the phalangers, but is nearer to the former than to the latter. On the other hand, the considerably smaller Nototherium, characterized by its sharp and broad skull and smaller incisors, seems to have been much more wombat-like, and may perhaps have possessed similar burrowing habits.

The last of the three is Thylacoleo carnifex, so named on account of its supposed carnivorous habits. In the adult the dentition (fig. 11) is i. 3⁄1, c. 1⁄0, p. + m. 4⁄3, total 24. The first upper incisor is much larger than the others; canine and first two premolars rudimentary. In the lower jaw there are also one or two small and early deciduous premolars; third premolars of both jaws formed on the same type as that of the rat-kangaroos, but relatively much larger; molars rudimentary, tubercular. The functional teeth are reduced to one pair of large cutting incisors situated close to the middle line, and one great, cutting, compressed premolar, on each side above and below. As already mentioned, Thylacoleo was originally regarded as a carnivorous creature, but this view was subsequently disputed, and its diet supposed to consist of soft roots, bulbs and fruits, with an occasional small bird or mammal. Recently, however, the pendulum of opinion has swung back towards the original view: and Dr R. Broom believes Thylacoleo to have been “a purely carnivorous animal, and one which would be quite able to, and probably did, kill animals as large or larger than itself.” The affinities of the creature are clearly with the phalangers.

By means of the little musk-kangaroo, the cuscuses and phalangers constituting the family Phalangeridae, are so closely connected with the kangaroos, or Macropodidae, that in the opinion of some naturalists they ought all to be included in a single family, with three sub-families. Theoretically, no doubt, this is correct, but the typical members of the two groups are so different from one another that, as a matter of convenience, the retention of the two families seems advisable. From the Phascolomyidae, the two families, which may be collectively designated Phalangeroidea, differ by the circumstance that in the skull the tympanic process of the alisphenoid covers the tympanic cavity and reaches the paroccipital process. The tail is long and in some cases prehensile; the first hind-toe may be either large, small or absent; the dentition usually includes three pairs of upper and one of lower incisors, and six or seven pairs of cheek-teeth in each jaw; the stomach is either simple or sacculated, without a cardiac gland; and there are four teats.

With the exception of the aberrant long-snouted phalanger, the members of the family Phalangeridae have the normal number of functional incisors, in addition to which there may be one or two rudimentary pairs in the lower jaw. The first in the upper jaw is strong, curved and cutting, the other two generally somewhat smaller; the single lower functional incisor large, more or less inclined forwards; canines 1 / (1 or 0) upper small or moderate, conical and sharp-pointed; lower absent or rudimentary; premolars variable; molars 3⁄3, or 2⁄2, with four obtuse tubercles, sometimes forming crescents. Limbs subequal. Fore-feet with five distinct subequal toes with claws. Hind-feet short and broad, with five well-developed toes; the first large, nailless and opposable; the second and third slender and united by a common integument as far as the claws. Caecum present (except in Tarsipes), and usually large. The lower jaw has no pocket on the outer side. All are animals of small or moderate size and arboreal habits, feeding on a vegetable or mixed diet, and inhabiting Australia, Papua and the Moluccan Islands.

As the first example of the group may be taken the elegant little long-snouted phalanger (Tarsipes rostratus, fig. 12), a west Australian creature of the size of a mouse, which may be regarded as representing by itself a sub-family (Tarsipediinae), characterized by the rudimentary teeth, the long and extensile tongue, and absence of a caecum. The head is elongated, with a slender muzzle and the mouth-opening small. The two lower incisors are long, very slender, sharp-pointed and horizontally placed. All the other teeth are simple, conical, minute and placed at considerable and irregular intervals apart in the jaws, the number appearing to vary in different individuals and even on different sides of the jaw of the same individuals. The formula in one specimen was i. (2 − 2) / (1 − 1), c. (1 − 1) / (0 − 0), p. + m. (3 − 4) / (2 − 3); total 20. The lower jaw is slender, nearly straight, and without a coronoid process or inflected angle. Fore-feet with five well-developed toes, carrying small, flat, scale-like nails, not reaching the extremity of the digits. Hind-feet rather long and slender, with a well-developed opposable and nailless first toe; second and third digits united, with sharp, compressed curved claws; the fourth and fifth free, with small flat nails. Ears of moderate size and rounded. Tail longer than the body and head, scantily clothed with short hairs, prehensile. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 13, L. 5, S. 3. Ca. 24.

As indicated in the accompanying illustration, the long-snouted phalanger is arboreal in habits, extracting honey and probably small insects from long-tubed flowers by means of its extensile tongue.

The remaining members of the family may be included in the sub family Phalangerinae, characterized by the normal nature of the dentition (which shows rudimentary lower canines) and tongue. Cuscuses and phalangers form a numerous group, all the members of which are arboreal, and some of which are provided with lateral expansions of skin enabling them to glide from tree to tree like flying-squirrels. The typical members of the group are the cuscuses (Phalanger), ranging from the Moluccas and Celebes to New Guinea, in which the males are often different in colour from the females. The true phalangers, or opossums of the colonists, constitute the genus Trichosurus, while the ring-tailed species are known as Pseudochirus; the latter ranging to New Guinea. Dactylopsila is easily recognized by its attenuated fourth finger and parti-coloured fur; the flying species are classed as Petauroides, Petaurus, Gymnobelideus and Acrobates, the last no larger than a mouse; while Dromicia, Distaechurus and Acrobates are allied types without parachutes (see [Phalanger]).

An equally brief notice must suffice of the kangaroo tribe or Macropodidae, since these receive a special notice elsewhere. The dentition is i. 3⁄1 c. (0 or 1) / 0 p. 3⁄3 m. 3⁄3; the incisors being sharp and cutting, and those of the lower jaw frequently having a scissor-like action against one another. The broad molars are either bluntly tuberculated or transversely ridged; the outer side of the hind part of the lower jaw has a deep pocket; and the hind-limbs are generally very long, with the structure of the foot similar to that of the bandicoots. The family is connected with the Phalangeridae by means of the musk-kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus); forming the sub-family Hypsiprymnodontinae. Then come the rat-kangaroos, or kangaroo-rats, constituting the sub-family Potoroinae; while the tree-kangaroos (Dendrolagus), rock-wallabies (Petrogale), and wallabies and kangaroos (Macropus) form the Macropodinae (see [Kangaroo]).

Extinct Marsupials

Reference has been made to the Australasian Pleistocene genera Phascolonus, Diprotodon, Nototherium and Thylacoleo, whose affinities are with the wombats and phalangers. The same deposits have also yielded remains of extinct types of kangaroo, some of gigantic size, constituting the genera Sthenurus, Procoptodon and Palorchestes. Numerous types more or less nearly allied to the phalangers, such as Burramys and Triclis have also been described, as well as a flying form, Polaeopetaurus. It is also interesting to note that fossil remains indicate the former occurrence of thylacines and Tasmanian devils on the Australian mainland. Of more interest is the imperfectly known Wynyardia, from older Tertiary beds in Tasmania, which apparently presents points of affinity both to phalangers and dasyures. From the Oligocene deposits of France and southern England have been obtained numerous remains of opossums referable to the American family Didelphyidae. These ancient opossums have been separated generically from Didelphys (in its widest sense) on account of certain differences in the relative sizes of the lower premolars, but as nearly the whole of the species have been formed on lower jaws, of which some hundreds have been found, it is impossible to judge how far these differences are correlated with other dental or osteological characters. In the opinion of Dr H. Filhol, the fossils themselves represent two genera, Peratherium, containing the greater part of the species, about twenty in number, and Amphiperatherium, with three species only. All are comparatively small animals, few of them exceeding the size of a rat.

Besides these interesting European fossils, a certain number of didelphian bones have been found in the caves of Brazil, but these are either closely allied to or identical with the species now living in the same region.

The occurrence in the Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia of fossil marsupials allied to the living Caenolestes has been mentioned above. The alleged occurrence in the same beds of marsupials allied to the thylacine is based on remains now more generally regarded as referable to the creodont carnivores (see [Creodonta]).

Mesozoic Mammals.—Under the heading of [Multituberculata] will be found a brief account of certain extinct mammals from the Mesozoic formations of Europe and North America which have been regarded as more or less nearly related to the monotremes. The same deposits have yielded remains of small mammals whose dentition approximates more nearly to that of either polyprotodont marsupials or insectivores; and these may be conveniently noticed here without prejudice to their true affinities. Before proceeding further it may be mentioned that the remains of many of these mammals are very scarce, even in formations apparently in every way suitable to the preservation of such fossils, and it hence seems probable that these creatures are stragglers from a country where primitive small mammals were abundant. Not improbably this country was either “Gondwana-land,” connecting Mesozoic India with Africa, or perhaps Africa itself. At any rate, there seems little doubt that it was the region where creodonts and other primitive mammals were first differentiated from their reptilian ancestors.

Of the Old World forms, the family Triconodontidae is typified by the genus Triconodon, from the English Purbeck, in which the cheek-teeth carry three cutting cusps arranged longitudinally. There seems to have been a replacement of some of these teeth; and it has been suggested that this was of the marsupial type. To the same family are referred Phascolotherium (fig. 14), of the Lower Jurassic Stonesfield slate of England, and Spalacotherium (fig. 15), of the Dorsetshire Purbeck; the latter having the three cusps of the cheek-teeth rotated so as to assume a tritubercular type. Other genera are Menacodon and Priacodon, the former American, and the latter common to Europe and North America. By one authority Amphilestes (fig. 16), of the Stonesfield Slate, is included in the same group, while by a second it is regarded as representing a family by itself. Amphitherium, of the Stonesfield Slate, typifies the family Amphitheriidae, which includes the American Dryolestes, and in which some would class the European Purbeck genus Amblotherium, although Professor H. F. Osborn has made the last the type of a distinct family. Yet another family, according to the palaeontologist last named, is typified by the genus Stylacodon, of the English Purbeck. To mention the other forms which have received names will be unnecessary on this occasion.

It will be observed from the figures of the lower jaws, which are in most cases the only parts known, that in many instances the number of cheek-teeth exceeds that found in modern marsupials except Myrmecobius. The latter has indeed been regarded as the direct descendant of these Mesozoic forms; but as already stated, in the opinion of Mr B. A. Bensley, this is incorrect. It may be added that the division of these teeth into premolars and molars in figs. 14 and 16 is based upon the view of Sir R. Owen, and is not altogether trustworthy, while the restoration of some of the missing teeth is more or less conjectural. As regards the affinities of the creatures to which these jaws belonged, Professor Osborn has referred the Triconodontidae and Amphitheriidae, together with the Curtodontidae (as represented by the English Purbeck Curtodon), to a primitive group of marsupials, while he has assigned the Amblotheriidae and Stylacodontidae to an ancestral assemblage of Insectivora. On the other hand, in the opinion of Professor H. Winge, a large number of these creatures are primitive monotremes. Besides the above, in the Trias of North America we have Dromotherium and Microconodon, extremely primitive forms, representing the family Dromotheriidae, and apparently showing decided traces of reptilian affinity. It may be added that a few traces of mammals have been obtained from the English Wealden, among which an incisor tooth foreshadows the rodent type.

Authorities.—The above article is partly based on that by Sir W. H. Flower in the 9th edition of this work. See also O. Thomas, Catalogue of Monotremata and Marsupialia in the British Museum (1888); “On Caenolestes, a Survivor of the Epanorthidae,” Proc. Zool. Soc. London (1895); J. D. Ogilby, Catalogue of Australian Mammals (Sydney, 1895); B. A. Bensley, “A Theory of the Origin and Evolution of the Australian Marsupialia,” American Naturalist (1901); “On the Evolution of the Australian Marsupialia, &c.,” Trans. Linn. Soc. (vol. ix., 1903); L. Dollo, “Arboreal Ancestry of Marsupials,” Miscell. Biologiques (Paris, 1899); B. Spencer, “Mammalia of the Horn Expedition” (1896); “Wynyardia, a Fossil Marsupial from Tasmania,” Proc. Zool. Soc. London (1900); J. P. Hill, “Contributions to the Morphology of the Female Urino-genital Organs in Marsupialia,” Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, vols. xxiv. and xxv.; “Contributions to the Embryology of the Marsupialia,” Quart. Journ. Micr. Science, vol. xliii.; E. C. Stirling, “On Notoryctes typhlops,” Proc. Zool. Soc. London (1891); “Fossil Remains of Lake Cadibona,” Part I. Diprotodon, Mem. R. Soc. S. Australia (vol. i., 1889); R. Broom, “On the Affinities of Thylacoleo,” Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales (1898); H. F. Osborn, “Mesozoic Mammalia,” Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia (vol. ix., 1888); E. S. Goodrich, “On the Fossil Mammalia from the Stonesfield Slate,” Quart. Journ. Micr. Science (vol. xxxv., 1894).

(R. L.*)

[1] The presence or absence of the corpus callosum has been much disputed; the latest researches, however, indicate its absence.

MARSUPIAL MOLE (Noloryctes typhlops), the “Ur-quamata” of the natives, an aberrant polyprotodont from central South Australia, constituting a family (Noloryctidae). This is a small burrowing animal, of a pale golden-yellow colour, with long silky hair, a horny shield on the nose, and a stumpy leathery tail. The feet are five-toed, and the third and fourth toes of the front pair armed with enormous claws adapted for digging. Neither ear-conches nor eyes are visible externally. There are but three pairs of incisor teeth in each jaw, and the upper molars are tricuspid. This animal spends most of its time burrowing in the sand in search of insects and their larvae, but occasionally makes its appearance on the surface.

MARSUS, DOMITIUS, Latin poet, the friend of Virgil and Tibullus, and contemporary of Horace. He survived Tibullus (d. 19 B.C.), but was no longer alive when Ovid wrote (c. A.D. 12) the epistle from Pontus (Ex Ponto, iv. 16) containing a list of poets. He was the author of a collection of epigrams called Cicuta (“hemlock”)[1] from their bitter sarcasm, and of a beautiful epitaph on the death of Tibullus; of elegiac poems, probably of an erotic character; of an epic poem Amazonis; and of a prose work on wit (De urbanitate). Martial often alludes to Marsus as one of his predecessors, but he is never mentioned by Horace, although a passage in the Odes (iv. 4, 19) is supposed to be an indirect allusion to the Amazonis (M. Haupt, Opuscula, iii. 332).

See J. A. Weichert, Poetarum latinorum vitae et reliquiae (1830); R. Unger, De Dom. Marsi cicuta (Friedland, 1861).

[1] According to others, a reed-pipe made of the stalks of hemlock; the reading scutica (“whip”) has also been proposed.

MARSYAS, in Greek mythology, a Phrygian god or Silenus, son of Hyagnis. He was originally the god of the small river of the same name near Celaenae, an old Phrygian town. He represents the art of playing the flute as opposed to the lyre—the one the accompaniment of the worship of Cybele, the other that of the worship of Apollo. According to the legend, Athena, who had invented the flute, threw it away in disgust, because it distorted the features. Marsyas found it, and having acquired great skill in playing it, challenged Apollo to a contest with his lyre. Midas, king of Phrygia, who had been appointed judge, declared in favour of Marsyas, and Apollo punished Midas by changing his ears into ass’s ears. In another version, the Muses were judges and awarded the victory to Apollo, who tied Marsyas to a tree and flayed him alive. Marsyas, as well as Midas and Silenus, are associated in legend with Dionysus and belong to the cycle of legends of Cybele. A statue of Marsyas was set up in the Roman forum and colonies as a symbol of liberty. The contest and punishment of Marsyas were favourite subjects in Greek art, both painting and sculpture. In Florence there are several statues of Marsyas hanging on the tree as he is going to be flayed (see [Greek Art], fig. 54, Pl. II.); Apollo and the executioner complete the group. In the Lateran museum at Rome there is a statue representing Marsyas in the act of picking up the flute, a copy of a masterpiece by Myron (Hyginus, Fab. 167, 191; Apollodorus i. 4, 2; Ovid, Metam. vi. 382-400, xi. 145-193), for which see [Greek Art], fig. 64 (Pl. III.).

MARTABAN, a town in the Thaton district of Lower Burma, on the right bank of the Salween, opposite Moulmein. It is said to have been founded in A.D. 573, by the first king of Pegu, and was once the capital of a powerful Talaing kingdom; but it is now little more than a village. Martaban is frequently mentioned by European voyagers of the 16th century; and it has given the name of “Martavans” to a class of large vessels of glazed pottery, also known in India as “Pegu jars.” It was twice captured by the British, in 1824 and 1852. The Bay of Martaban receives the rivers Irrawaddy and Salween.

MARTELLO TOWER, a kind of tower formerly used in English coast defence. The name is a corruption of Mortella. The Martello tower was introduced in consequence of an incident of the French revolutionary wars. In September 1793 a British squadron of three ships of the line and two frigates was ordered to support the Corsican insurgents. It was determined in the first place to take a tower on Cape Mortella which commanded the only secure anchorage in the Gulf of San Fiorenzo. This tower, according to James, was named “after its inventor”; but the real derivation appears to be the name of a wild myrtle which grew thickly around. The tower, which mounted one 24-pounder and two 18-pounders on its top, was bombarded for a short time by the frigates, was then deserted by its little garrison, and occupied by a landing party. The tower was afterwards retaken by the French from the Corsicans. So far it had done nothing to justify its subsequent reputation. In 1794, however, a fresh attempt was made to support the insurgents. On the 7th of February 1400 troops were landed, and the tower was attacked by land and sea on the 8th. The “Fortitude” and “Juno” kept up a cannonade for 2½ hours and then hauled off, the former being on fire and having sixty-two men killed and wounded. The fire from the batteries on shore produced no impression until a hot shot set fire to the “bass junk with which, to the depth of 5 ft., the immensely thick parapet was lined.” The garrison of thirty-three men then surrendered. The armament was found to consist only of two 18-pounders and one 6-pounder. The strong resistance offered by these three guns seems to have led to the conclusion that towers of this description were specially formidable, and Martello towers were built in large numbers, and at heavy expense, along the shores of England, especially on the southern and eastern coasts, which in certain parts are lined with these towers at short intervals. They are structures of solid masonry, containing vaulted rooms for the garrison, and providing a platform at the top for two or three guns, which fire over a low masonry parapet. Access is provided by a ladder, communicating with a door about 20 ft. above the ground. In some cases a deep ditch is provided around the base. The chief defect of the tower was its weakness against vertical fire; its masonry was further liable to be cut through by breaching batteries. The French tours modèles were somewhat similar to the Martello towers; their chief use was to serve as keeps to unrevetted works. While the Martello tower owes its reputation and its widespread adoption in Great Britain to a single incident of modern warfare, the round masonry structure entered by a door raised high above the base is to be found in many lands, and is one of the earliest types of masonry fortification.

MARTEN, HENRY (1602-1680), English regicide, was the elder son of Sir Henry Marten, and was educated at University College, Oxford. As a public man he first became prominent in 1639 when he refused to contribute to a general loan, and in 1640 he entered parliament as one of the members for Berkshire. In the House of Commons he joined the popular party, spoke in favour of the proposed bill of attainder against Strafford, and in 1642 was a member of the committee of safety. Some of his language about the king was so frank that Charles demanded his arrest and his trial for high treason. When the Great Rebellion broke out Marten did not take the field, although he was appointed governor of Reading, but in parliament he was very active. On one occasion his zeal in the parliamentary cause led him to open a letter from the earl of Northumberland to his countess, an impertinence for which, says Clarendon, he was “cudgelled” by the earl; and in 1643, on account of some remark about extirpating the royal family, he was expelled from parliament and was imprisoned for a few days. In the following year, however, he was made governor of Aylesbury, and about this time took some small part in the war. Allowed to return to parliament in January 1646, Marten again advocated extreme views. He spoke of his desire to prepare the king for heaven; he attacked the Presbyterians, and, supporting the army against the parliament, he signed the agreement of August 1647. He was closely associated with John Lilburne and the Levellers, and was one of those who suspected the sincerity of Cromwell, whose murder he is said personally to have contemplated. However, he acted with Cromwell in bringing Charles I. to trial; he was one of the most prominent of the king’s judges and signed the death warrant. He was then energetic in establishing the republic and in destroying the remaining vestiges of the monarchical system. He was chosen a member of the council of state in 1649, and as compensation for his losses and reward for his services during the war, lands valued at £1000 a year were settled upon him. In parliament he spoke often and with effect, but he took no part in public life during the Protectorate, passing part of this time in prison, where he was placed on account of his debts. Having sat among the restored members of the Long Parliament in 1659, Marten surrendered himself to the authorities as a regicide in June 1660, and with some others he was excepted from the act of indemnity, but with a saving clause. He behaved courageously at his trial, which took place in October 1660, but he was found guilty of taking part in the king’s death. Through the action, or rather the inaction of the House of Lords, he was spared the death penalty, but he remained a captive, and was in prison at Chepstow Castle when he died on the 9th of September 1680. Although a leading Puritan, Marten was a man of loose morals. He wrote and published several pamphlets, and in 1662 there appeared Henry Marten’s Familiar Letters to his Lady of Delight, which contained letters to his mistress, Mary Ward.

Marten’s father, Sir Henry Marten (c. 1562-1641), was born in London and was educated at Winchester school and at New College, Oxford, becoming a fellow of the college in 1582. Having become a barrister, he secured a large practice and soon came to the front in public life. He was sent abroad on some royal business, was made chancellor of the diocese of London, was knighted, and in 1617 became a judge of the admiralty court. Later he was appointed a member of the court of high commission and dean of the arches. He became a member of parliament in 1625, and in 1628 represented the university of Oxford, taking part in the debates on the petition of right.

See J. Forster, Statesmen of the Commonwealth (1840); M. Noble, Lives of the English Regicides (1798); the article by C. H. Firth in Dict. Nat. Biog. (1893); and S. R. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War and History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate.

MARTEN,[1] a name originally belonging to the pine-marten (Mustela martes), but now applied to all members of the same genus of carnivorous mammals (see [Carnivora]). Martens are limited to the northern hemisphere, ranging throughout the greater part of the northern temperate regions of both Old and New Worlds, and southwards in America to 35° N. lat., while in Asia one species is met with in Java.

The species appear to be similar in their habits. They live in woods and rocky places, and spend most of their time in trees, although descending to the ground in quest of prey. They climb with great facility, and are agile and graceful in their movements. Some are said occasionally to resort to berries and other fruit for food, but as a rule they are carnivorous, feeding chiefly on birds and their eggs, small mammals, as squirrels, hares, rabbits and moles, but chiefly mice of various kinds, and occasionally snakes, lizards and frogs. In proportion to their size they are among the most bloodthirsty of animals, though less so than the weasels. The female makes her nest of moss, dried leaves and grass in the hollow of a tree, but sometimes in a hole among rocks or ruined buildings, and produces several young at a birth, usually from four to six. Though wild and untameable to a great degree if captured when fully grown, if taken young they are docile, and have frequently been made pets, not having the strong unpleasant odour of the smaller Mustelidae. The pine-marten appears to have been partially domesticated by the Greeks and Romans, and used to keep houses clear from rats and mice. In the same way, according to Brian Hodgson, the yellow-bellied weasel (Putorius kathia) “is exceedingly prized by the Nepalese for its service in ridding houses of rats. It is easily tamed; and such is the dread of it common to all murine animals that not one will approach a house where it is domiciled.” It is, however, to the great value attached to the pelts of these animals that their importance to man is chiefly due. Though all yield fur of serviceable quality, the commercial value varies immensely, not only according to the species from which it is obtained, but according to individual variation, depending upon age, sex, season, and other circumstances. The skins from northern regions are more full and of a finer colour and gloss than those from more temperate climates, as are those of animals killed in winter compared to the same individuals in summer. Fashion has, moreover, set fictitious values upon slight shades of colour. Enormous numbers of animals are caught, chiefly in traps, to supply the demand of the fur trade, Siberia and North America being the principal localities from which they are obtained.

With the exception of the pekan (M. pennanti), the martens are much alike in size, general colouring and cranial and dental characters. The following description by Dr Elliott Coues of the American marten (M. americana) will apply almost equally well to most of the others. “It is almost impossible to describe the colour of the marten, except in general terms, without going into the details of the endless diversities occasioned by age, sex, season, or other incidents. The animal is ‘brown,’ of a shade from orange or tawny to quite blackish; the tail and feet are ordinarily the darkest, the head lightest, often quite whitish; the ears usually have a whitish rim, while on the throat there is usually a large tawny-yellowish or orange-brown patch, from the chin to the fore legs; sometimes entire, sometimes broken into a number of smaller, irregular blotches, sometimes wanting, sometimes prolonged on the whole under surface, when the animal is bicolor like a stoat in summer. The general ‘brown’ has a greyish cast, as far as the under fur is concerned, and is overlaid with rich lustrous blackish-brown in places where the long bristly hairs prevail. The claws are whitish; the naked nose pad and whiskers are black. The tail occasionally shows interspersed white hairs, or a white tip.”

The following are the best-known species:—

Mustela foina: the beech-marten, stone-marten or white-breasted marten.—Distinguished from the following by the greater breadth of the skull, and some minute but constant dental characters, by the dull greyish-brown colour of the fur of the upper parts and the pure white of the throat and breast. It inhabits the greater part of the continent of Europe, but is more southern than the next in its distribution, not being found in Sweden or Norway.

M. martes, the pine-marten (see figure).—Fur rich dark brown; under fur reddish-grey, with clear yellow tips; breast spot usually yellow, varying from bright orange to pale cream-colour or yellowish-white. Length of head and body 16 to 18 in., of tail (including the hair) 9 to 12 in. This species is extensively distributed throughout northern Europe and Asia, and was formerly common in most parts of Great Britain and Ireland. It is still found in the northern counties of England and North Wales, but in decreasing numbers. In Scotland it is rare, but in Ireland may be found in almost every county occasionally. Though commonly called “pine-marten,” it does not appear to have any special preference for coniferous trees.

Next comes M. zibellina, the sable (German, Zobel and Zebel; Swedish, sabel; Russian, sobel, a word probably of Turanian origin), which closely resembles the last, if indeed it differs except in the quality of the fur—the most highly valued of that of all the group. The sable is found chiefly in eastern Siberia.

Very distinct is the brilliantly coloured orange-and-black Indian marten (M. flavigula), found from the Himalaya and Ceylon to Java.

The North American M. americana is closely allied to the pine-marten and Asiatic sable. The importance of the fur of this animal as an article of commerce may be judged of from the fact that 15,000 skins were sold in one year by the Hudson’s Bay Company as long ago as 1743. It is ordinarily caught in wooden traps of simple construction, being little enclosures of stakes or brush in which the bait is placed upon a trigger, with a short upright stick supporting a log of wood, which falls upon its victim on the slightest disturbance. A line of such traps, several to a mile, often extends many miles. The bait is any kind of meat, a mouse, squirrel, piece of fish or bird’s head. It is principally trapped during the colder months, from October to April, when the fur is in good condition, as it is nearly valueless during the shedding in summer. It maintains its numbers partly in consequence of its shyness, which keeps it away from the abodes of men, and partly because it is so prolific, bringing forth six to eight young at a litter. Its home is sometimes a den under ground or beneath rocks, but oftener the hollow of a tree, and it is said to take possession of a squirrel’s nest, driving off or devouring the rightful proprietor.

The pekan or Pennant’s marten, also called fisher marten, though there appears to be nothing in its habits to justify the appellation, is the largest of the group, the head and body measuring from 24 to 30 in., and the tail 14 to 18 in. It is also more robust in form than the others, its general aspect being more that of a fox than a weasel; in fact its usual name among the American hunters is “black fox.” Its general colour is blackish, lighter by mixture of brown or grey on the head and upper fore part of the body, with no light patch on the throat, and unlike other martens generally darker below than above. It was generally distributed in wooded districts throughout the greater part of North America, as far north as Great Slave Lake, lat. 63° N., and Alaska, and extending south to the parallel of 35°; but at the present time is almost exterminated in the settled parts of the United States east of the Mississippi.

(W. H. F.)

[1] By all old authors, as Ray, Pennant, Shaw and Fleming, the word is written “Martin,” but this form of spelling is now generally reserved for the bird (see [Martin]). The word, as applied to the animal here described, occurs in most Germanic and Romanic languages: German, marder; Dutch, marter; Swedish, mard; Danish, maar; English, marteron, martern, marten, martin and martlett; French, marte and martre; Italian, martora and martorella; Spanish and Portuguese, marta. Its earliest known use is in the form martes (Martial, Ep. x. 37), but it can scarcely be an old Latin word, as it is not found in Pliny or other classical writers, and Martial often introduced foreign words into his Latin. Its etymology has been connected with the German “martern,” to torment. A second Romanic name for the same animal is fuina, in French fouine. The term “Marten Cat” is also used.