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LEFT MUSHROOM 857 MUSKEGON the museums of Great Britain the British Museum is the largest; being perhaps the greatest in the world. Museums illustrative of the industrial arts, though of recent origin, are of great importance. Foremost among institutions of this kind in Great Britain may be instanced the South Kensington Museum. All the chief capitals of Europe and many other large cities have valuable museums. New York City has two noted museums, the Metro- politan Museum of Art, and the Ameri- can Museum of Natural History; Boston has a Museum of Fine Arts; Chicago, the Field Columbian Museum; Phila- delphia, the Bourse and Commercial Mu- seums ; Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Museum and Art Gallery; and there are other notable institutions of this character con- nected with several sf the universities and large colleges, and also established in various cities by individual munifi- cence. MUSHROOM, or AGARIC, a genus of fungi, of the sub-order Hymenomycet&s, having a hymenium of unequal plates or gills on the lower side of the pileus. The species are very niunerous. Many are poisonous, many are edible, and some are among the most esteemed fungi. MUSIC, originally, any art over which the muses presided; afterward, that science and art which deals with sounds as produced by the human singing voice, and by musical instruments. The science of music includes several branches: (1) The physics, that is, the analysis of the cause and constitution of sound, the number of atmospheric vibrations which produce given sounds, and the arrange- ment of series of sounds standing in a definite relationship to each other as re- gards their vibration-number (scales) ; also, the form and construction of in- struments with reference to the character and nature of the sounds they produce; and, also the apparatus of experimental acoustics, such as sound-measures (to- nometers, sirens, tuning forks, etc). These branches, of course, involve prob- lems of pure mathematics. (2) The physiology of music. This deals with the construction and functions of the sound- producing organs of the human body, the vocal chords, larynx, etc., and, also, with the receptive organ of sound, the ear. (3) The mental philosophy of music, that is, the effect of music on the emotions and intellect. The art of music includes the formation of melody (sounds in suc- cession), and harmony, and counterpoint (sounds in combination) ; also, the "tech- nique" of voice production and singing, and of performing on musical instru- ments. The earliest efforts of mankind in music consisted in the elevation and depression of the voice in reading sacred writings and Ijnrical poetry, and in the construction of pipe instruments, tubes pierced with holes (flutes), tubes con- taining a vibrating tongue (reed instru- ments), and collections of pipes in which the sound was produced by rnaking the breath or other column of air impinge on a sharp edge (the syrinx and the organ), in using the lips as a cause of vibrations in open tubes (the trumpet family), in the stretching of strings in a frame (the lyre and harp family), in placing stretched strings over a resonance box (the lute and guitar family), in the use of the "bow" to excite vibrations (the viol family), and in the striking of strings over a resonance box by means of hammers (the dulcimer and harpsichord and pianoforte family). The ancient signs for the elevation and depression of the voice in reading were called accents (not stress, but the raising and the dropping of the voice without adding to its force). These led to a system called neumes; these again led to signs called notes, the position of which on lines showed their pitch, and the shape of which determined their duration. The use of letters in various positions to represent definite sounds was an es- sential element of ancient Greek music, which, however, was discarded at the revival of music in the early Christian Church; but the system has, in an im- proved form, been revived in the modern tonic sol-fa system. MUSK, Mimuhis moscJiatus, a garden- plant of musky odor from the region of the Columbia river. Also Erodium mosGhatum, musky stork's-bill, a rare plant, with pinnate leaves smelling of musk. Chemically it is an odoriferous, resinous substance obtained from the male Muskdeer. MUSKDEER {Moschiis moschiferus), a ruminant Ungulate forming a special family of the Artiodactyla. The muskv deer is an inhabitant of the mountainous regions of central Asia from the extreme N. to as far S. as Cochin-China and Nepal. There is only one species, with perhaps four well-marked varieties. MUSK DUCK (Cairina tnoschata), r duck wild in Guiana, etc., where tho males fight savagely with each other. It is often reared in poultry yards. Cor- rupted into Muscovy duck; called also Barbary duck. Also {Biziura lobata), an Australian duck. MUSKEGON, a city and county-seat of Muskegon co., Mich.; on Lake Michi- gan at the mouth of the Muskegon river,