Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/357

Rh M A L M A L 335 Adelaide, and being also frequently observed by him between Sydney and the northern extremity of New Zealand, as well as in the same latitude of the Indian Ocean. He describes its bill as having the greyish-yellow ridge broad and fiat, while that of D. chlororhynchus is laterally compressed and the ridge round. All these birds seem to have much the same habits. (A. N.) MALLET, PAUL HENP.I (1730-1807), born in Geneva in 1730, and educated there, became tutor in the family of the count of Calenberg in Saxony. In 1752 he was appointed professor of belles lettres to the academy at Copenhagen, but as the French language was then little known in Denmark he had but few students. He was naturally attracted to the study of the ancient literature and history of his adopted country, and in 1755 he published the first fruits of his researches, under the title Introduction a Vhistoire de Danemarck ou Von traiie de la religion, des moeurs, des lois, et des usages des anciens Danois. A S3cond part .was issued in 1750, more parti cularly relating to the ancient literature of the country, and bearing the title Monuments de la mytholoyie et de la poesie des Celtes, et particnlierement des anciens Scandi- naves. In the same year a translation of the work appeared in Danish. This is the work by which the author is best known in Britain. Though intended only as a preliminary dissertation to the formal history of Denmark, by which it was followed, it has all the merits of an independent work, complete in itself, and presenting a .eeneral view of the civilization and culture, religion and O * O customs, of the Scandinavian nations. A translation into English, with notes and preface, by Bishop Percy, was issued in 1770 under the title of Northern Antiquities (republished with additions in 1847). It had a wido circulation, and attracted much attention on account of its being the first (though a very defective) translation into French of the Edda. Mallet s dissertations and notes are vitiated by untenable theories as to the racial affinities of the early inhabitants of Scandinavia; but, judged by the standards of its time, his work was of great merit and usefulness. Its publication attracted the notice of the king to its author, and he was chosen as preceptor of the prince of Denmark. In 1760 he returned to Geneva, and became professor of history in his native city. While there te was requested by the czarina to undertake the education of the heir-apparent of Russia (afterwards the Czar Paul I.), but declined the honour. An invitation more congenial to his tastes led to his accompanying Lord Mountstuart in his travels through Italy and thence to England, where he was presented at court and commissioned to writo the history of the house of Brunswick. He had previously received a similar commission from the landgrave of Hesse- Cassel for the preparation of a history of the house of Hesse, and both works were completed in 1785. The quietude of a literary life was rudely broken by the shock of the Revolution, to which he was openly hostile. His leanings to the unpopular side were so obnoxious to his fellow citizens that he was obliged to quit his native country in 1792, and remained in exile till 1801. He died at Geneva, 8th February 1807. A memoir of his life and writings by Simonde Sismondi was published at Geneva in 1807. Besides the Introduction to the His tory of Denmark, his principal works are Histoire de Danemarck, 3 vols., Copenhagen, 1758-77 ; Histoire de la inaison de Hesse, 4 vols., 1767-85 ; Histoire de la maison de Brunswick, 4 vols., 1767-85 ; Histoire de la maison ct des etats de Mecklenbourg, 1796 ; Histoire des Swisses ou Hchtticns, 4 vols., Geneva, 1803; Histoire de la Ligue Hanseatique, 1805. MALLOW, botanically Malva, the typical genus of Malvacese,, embracing about sixteen species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere. The mallows possess the reniform one-celled anthers which distinguish the Malvacese from all other dichlamydeous exogens. The petals also are united by their base to the tube formed by the coalesced filaments of the stamens. The special characters which separate the genus Malva from others most nearly allied to it are the involucre, consisting of a row of three separate bracts attached to the lower part of the true calyx, and the numerous single-seeded carpels disposed in a circle around a central axis, from which they become detached when ripe. The flowers are mostly white or pinkish, never yellow, the leaves radiate-veined, and more or less lobed or cut. Three species are natives of Britain. The musk mallow (Malva moschata) is a perennial herb with live-partite, deeply-cut leaves, and large rose-coloured flowers clustered together at the ends of the branched stems, and is found growing along hedges and borders of fields, blossoming in July and August. It owes its name to a slight musky odour diffused by the plant in warm dry weather when it is kept in a confined situation. The round-leaved mallow (Malva rotundifolia) is a creeping annual, growing in waste sandy places, with roundish serrate leaves and small pinkish-white flowers produced in the axils of the leaves from June to September. It is common throughout Europe and the north of Africa, extending to western Asia. The common mallow (Malva sylveytris), the mauve of the French, is an erect biennial plant with long-stalked roundish-angular serrate leaves, and conspicuous axillary reddish-purple flowers, blossoming from May to September. Like most plants of the order it abounds in mucilage, and hence forms a favourite domestic remedy for colds and various other complaints affecting the mucous membrane. The aniline dye called mauve derives its name from its resemblance to the colour of this plant. The marsh mallow (Altliiea officinalis], the quimauve of the French, belongs to another genus having an involucre of numerous bracts. It is a native of marshy ground near the sea or in the neighbourhood of saline springs. It is an erect perennial herb, with somewhat woody stems, velvety, ovate, acute, unequally serrate leaves, and delicate pink showy flowers blooming from July to September. The flowers are said to yield a good deal of honey to bees. The root is used in medicine as a demulcent, on account of its containing more mucilage than the common mallow. It ia supposed to form a chief ingredient in the well-known pdte de guimauvc lozenges. The marsh mallow is remarkable for con taining asparagin, C 4 H 8 N 2 3 ,H 2 0, which, if the root be long kept in a damp place, disappears, butyric acid being developed. The root also contains about 25 per cent, of starch and the same quantity of mucilage, which differs from that of gum arnbic in containing one molecule less of water and in being precipitated by neutral acetate of lead. The marsh mallow is far more largely used on the Continent than in England. The mallow of Scripture, Job xxx. 4, has been sometimes identi fied with Jew s mallow (Corchorus olitorius), but more plausibly (the word PMplD implying a saline plant) with Atriplex Halimus, or sea orache. In Syria the Halimus was still known by the name Mall&li in the time of Ibn Beitar. See Bochart, Hicroz., iii. 16. MALLOW, a municipal and parliamentary borough, market-town, and watering-place in the county of Cork, Ireland, is situated on the Blackwater, 150 miles south west from Dublin, and 20 north from Cork. The town owes its prosperity to its beautiful situation in a fine valley surrounded by mountains, and to its tepid mineral spring, which is very efficacious for general debility and for scorbutic and consumptive complaints. A spa-house with pump-room and baths was erected in 1828. Besides the parish church in the Later English style, erected in 1818, the principal buildings of the town are the court-house, the work-house and infirmary, and the bridewell. There are a manufactory of mineral water, a condensed-milk manufactory, corn-mills, and tanneries. Mallow received a charter of incorporation from James I. The population of the borough in 1871 was 4165, and in 1881 it was 4437. MALMESBURY, a parliamentary borough and market- town of Wilts, England, is finely situated on an eminence