Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/665

Rh MAT M A T 633 MATSYS, QUINTIN. See MASSYS. MATTER, PROPERTIES OF. If we knew thoroughly the nature of any piece of matter, the deduction of its proper ties would be a question of mere reasoning, just as (for instance) the definition of a circle really involves all the properties which mathematical methods have deduced from it. But, as we do not even know what matter is, in the abstract, the converse operation is (at least for the present) the natural and necessary one. We must endeavour from the experimentally ascertained properties of matter to dis cover what it is. The reader will find the limits of our present knowledge in the article ATOM. The properties of matter may be arranged in several classes, thus : 1. Properties of matter in itself ; such as Inertia, Hard ness, Brittleness, ELASTICITY (q. v. ), Density, Compressibility, Viscosity, &c. These depend upon its ultimate structure and upon the law and intensity of the so-called molecular forces. Ses ATOM, CONSTITUTION OF BODIES, ATTRACTION. 2. Relative properties of different kinds of matter, chemical, catalytic, &amp;lt;tc. See CAPILLARY ACTION, CHEM ISTRY, DIFFUSION, &c. 3. Properties relative to different forms of energy : Conductivity (Thermal and Electric), Specific Gravity, Specific and Latent Heat, Transparency, Colour, Specific Inductive Capacity, Radiating and Absorbing Power, Mag netic Retentiveness, &c., Thermo-electric Position, Refrac tive Index, Reflective Power, Double Refraction, Rotatory Polarization, &c. These will be found mainly under the heads ELECTRICITY, HEAT, LIGHT, MAGNETISM, &c. MATTEUCCI, CARLO (1811-18G8), an Italian physicist, was born at Forli, June 20, 1811. In 1832, after com pleting his studies at L Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, he became professor of physics at Bologna, where he had passed his earlier student days. In 1837 he removed to Ravenna, and in 1840 settled as professor of physics at Pisa. From 1847 he took an active part in politics, and in 1860 was chosen an Italian senator. At the same time he became general telegraph director, and later the superintendent of the meteorological bureaus. He died at Leghorn, June 25, 1868. He is the author of four scientific treatises : Lczioni di fisica (2 vols., Pisa, 1841 ; second edition 1851), Lczioni sui fcnomcni fisico- chimici dci corpi vivcnti (Pisa, 1844; second edition 1846), Manuale di tclcgrafia clcttrica (Pisa, 1850; and several later editions), and Cours special sur V induction, h magnctismc dc rotation, &c. (Paris, 1854). His numerous papers were published in the Annalcs dc Chimie ct dc Physique (1829-58) ; and most of them also appeared at the time in the Italian scientific journals. They relate almost en tirely to electrical phenomena, such as the magnetic rotation of light, the action of gas batteries, the effects of torsion on magnetism, the polarization of electrodes, &c., sufficiently complete accounts of which are given in Wiedemann s Galvanismus. Nine memoirs, entitled &quot;Electro-Physiological Researches,&quot; were published in the Philosophical Transactions, 1845-60. See Bianchi s Carlo Mat- tcucci c V Italia del suo Umpo (Rome, 1874). MATTHEW (Ma00a&amp;gt;s or MarOalo^, i.e., VHP, a short ened form of Mattaniah or Mattithiah, equivalent to Theodorus; comp. vol. xi. p. 370), one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, and, according to tradition, the author of the First Gospel. In its full Hebrew form the name occurs several times in the Old Testament, being borne by more than one person of priestly or Levitical family. Matthew, in the Gospel which bears his name, is described as having been a tax gatherer (reAwv*;?, Matt. x. 3), and the circumstances of his call to become a follower of Jesus, which he received as he sat at the &quot; receipt of custom &quot; or &quot; tax office &quot; in one of the towns by the Sea of Galilee, are briefly related in chap. ix. 9. It has some times been doubted, but without any good reason, whether the precisely parallel narrative relating to &quot; Levi the son of Alphaeus&quot; (Mark. ii. H; Luke v. 27, 28) has reference to the same person (compare the double names Simon and Peter, Joses and Barnabas, and others). In the lists of the names of the apostles given in the synoptical Gospels and in the Acts, Matthew ranks third or fourth in the second group of four. Little is recorded of him except the feast which he gave in his house at the beginning of his discipleship ; the way in which this is related seems to indicate that he was (comparatively at least) a wealthy man. He was also present in &quot;the upper room&quot; at Jerusalem after the ascension, when Matthias was elected to be the successor of Judas. Tradition has nothing trustworthy to tell about his subsequent career, but there is nothing inherently improbable in the allegation of Eusebius (//. E., iii. 24) that he spent several years in Jerusalem preaching to the Hebrews (and writing the Gospel which bears his name), or that he afterwards extended his missionary activities in other directions. Socrates (//. E., i. 19) speaks of him as having carried the gospel to Ethiopia ; the earlier legends, however, embodied in the apocryphal Ada Andrew et Matthxi and Ada et Martyr- ium Mattlixi, unanimously point to the regions bordering on the Black Sea (&quot;Pontus&quot; and the land of the Anthro pophagi) as having been the scene of his labours, (see the article of Lipsius on the &quot; Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles&quot; in Smith s Did. of Christ. Biog. ; also his Apofa: Ajiostelgegch., 1883). According to the Gnostic Heracleon, whose statement is quoted and apparently homologated by Clement of Alexandria (Strom, iv. 9), Matthew died a natural death. He is commemorated aa a martyr by the Greek Church on November 16, and by the Roman on September 21, the scene of his martyrdom being placed by the Breviary in &quot;Ethiopia&quot;; the same authority affirms that his body was afterwards translated to Salerno, where it now lies in the church built by Robert Guiscard. In Christian art (following Jerome) he is generally regarded as symbolized by the &quot;man&quot; in Ezek i 10 Rev iv. 7. MATTHEW, GOSPEL OF. See GOSPELS, vol. x. p. 789 sqq. MATTHEW OF PARIS, one of our most important writer* iii connexion with English mediaeval history, was born about the year 1200, or possibly somewhat earlier. His surname was probably derived either from his having been born in Paris or having studied in the university there ; but his English origin is proved by the tone in which he uniformly speaks of foreigners, especially the French, while his knowledge of the French language is attested by the fact of his having written in that language, and also by the introduction of many French words in his Latin writ ings. We have it on his own authority, as recorded in an autograph marginal note (MS. Cott., Nero, D. 1, fol. 165&), that he assumed the monastic habit at the abbey of St Alban s on the 21st of January 1217. In 1236 he accompanied the newly-elected prior of his abbey, John of Hertford, to London, to attend the ceremony of the nuptials of Henry III. and Eleanor of Provence ; and in October 1247 he w r as at Westminster, in order to be present at the celebration of the feast of St Edward the Confessor, when he was desired by the king himself to write an account of the proceedings, The most important event in his tranquil and uneventful life (which was passed chiefly within the walls of his monastery) occurred in the year 1248, when he was sent on a mission to the Benedic tine monastery of Holm (Throndhjem), which had become involved in difficulties owing to the maladministration of one of its abbots. He returned to England after more than a year s absence, and we can trace him as attending the royal court at Winchester in July 1251, and as present at York on the occasion of the marriage of Henry s daughter with Alexander II. of Scotland, some six months later. In March 1257 Henry himself visited St Alban s, and XV. 80