Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/878

Rh 846 M R M R, this primeval flower from a somewhat fern-like Cryptogam, of which the foliage-leaves, the envelopes of the spore-bearing leaves, the micro- and macrosporangiosphores had become permanently differ entiated in ascending order ; of which the mierospores, doubtless through the intervention of a spore-eating insect, had come to ger minate upon the macrosporangium instead of upon the ground ; and in which this variation (evidently advantageous, since making ferti lization at once more certain and more economical) was aided to per petuate itself by the contemporaneous evolution of those floral colours which are nascent even among the Thallophytes. And thus the mor- phologist, though excluding teleological and functional considera tions from his anatomical researches, has yet a physiological ideal, and enters sooner or later upon a new series of inquiries those of the interdependence of structure and function. Milne-Edwards s law of the physiological division of labour, Dohrn s principle of functional change, the speculations of Claude Bernard, Spencer, and Haeckel, experimental inquiries such as those of Semper, where organisms are subjected to special modifications of their environment, and the like, are all contributions to this newest and evolutionary department of morphology. Such ideas are even applied to the study of cellular morphology. Thus, Spencer points out the relation of the shapes of cells to their environments ; James ingeniously explains the occurrence of cell-division by the rapid increase of bulk over surface which the growth of a solid involves, and the corresponding increase of difficulty of nutrition ; and the writer has attempted to explain the forms of free and united cells a* specializations of a (protomyxoid) cycle in which variations of func tional activity are accompanied by the assumption of corresponding forms, the whole series of changes depending upon the properties of protoplasm under the variations in the supply of energy from the environment. Rauber, His, and others have even attempted to explain embryological phenomena in terms of the simplest cellular mechanics, but as yet such speculations are somewhat crude. 1 10. Orientation and Subdivisions of Morphology. The position of morphology in the classification of the sciences and the proper mode of subdividing it camiot be discussed within these limits, although the latter is especially the subject of much disagreement. The position above assumed, that of including under morphology the whole statical aspects of the organic world, is that of Haeckel, Spencer, Huxley, and most recent animal morphologists ; botanists frequently, however, still use the term under its earlier and more limited significance. 2 (P. GE. ) MORRIS, ROBERT (1734-1806), American statesman, was born at Liverpool, England, on 20th January 1734. At the age of thirteen he accompanied his father to America, and after serving in a counting-house at Philadelphia he became in 1754 partner in the business. From 1776 to 1778 he was delegate to the Continental Congress, and he was one of those who signed the Declaration of Inde pendence. During the war he served on the committee of ways and means, and freely placed his immense wealth at the disposal of his country, his personal credit being at one time pledged to the amount of $1,400,000. He also in 1780 established the Bank of North America, and until 1784 acted as superintendent of finance. In 1786 he be came a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, and he was one of the convention which framed the Federal constitu tion in 1787. From 1786 to 1795 he was United States senator. On account of the disastrous result of some of his financial speculations Morris passed the later years of his life in a debt prison. He died at Philadelphia, 8th May 1806. Robert Morris had as his assistant-superin tendent of finance Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816), with whom he engaged also in several mercantile enterprises. Gouverneur Morris, who rose to some eminence as a states man and orator, was more fortunate in his speculations than his colleague, and latterly became celebrated for the munificence of his hospitality. He was the author of a series of essays on currency and finance, which are included in the Life, Correspondence, and Writings of Gouverneur Morris, 3 vols., edited by Jared Sparks, 1832. MORRIS-DANCE, or MORRICE-DANCE, a performance for a long time associated with certain festive seasons in England, but now wholly discontinued. The origin of the name is doubtful ; and whether the dance was indigenous to England, or was introduced by John of Gaunt from Spain, or was borrowed from the French or Flemings, must be left to conjecture. That, as the name would seem to indicate, it was a development of the morisco- dance or Spanish fandango is not, however, invalidated by the fact that the morisco was for one person only, for, although latterly the morris-dance was represented by various characters, uniformity in this respect was not always observed, and the elements of the dance may have been borrowed from the morisco. There are few references to it earlier than the reign of Henry VII., but it would appear that in the reign of Henry VIII. it was an almost essential part of the principal village festivities. Although allusions to it in poems are very frequent in the 16th and 17th centuries, nothing more than fragmentary descriptions have been handed down to us, so that an accurate know ledge of its characteristic features at even any particular period is impossible. In earlier times it was usually danced by five men and a boy dressed in a girl s habit, who was called Maid Marian. There were also two musicians ; and, at least sometimes, one of the dancers, more gaily and richly dressed than the others, acted as &quot; foreman of the morris.&quot; The garments of the dancers were ornamented with bells tuned to different notes so as to sound in harmony. 3 Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, and Little John were characters extraneous to the original dance, and were introduced when it came to be associated with the May-games. At Betley, in Staffordshire, there is a painted window of the time of Henry VIII., or earlier, portraying the morris, the characters including Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, the hobby-horse, the piper, the tabourer, the fool, and five other persons apparently representing various ranks or callings. The hobby-horse, which, latterly at least, was one of the principal characters of the dance, consisted of a wooden figure attached to the person of the actor, who was covered with trappings reaching to the ground, so as to conceal his feet. The morris-dance was abolished along with the May-games and other festivities by the Puritans, and, although revived at the Restoration, the pageant gradually degenerated in character and declined in importance. Maid Marian latterly was personated by a clown who was called Malkin. Though the dance is now wholly discontinued, it is probable that some of the original elements of it still survive in a country-dance which, under the same name, is still popular in the north of England. See Douce, &quot; Dissertations on the Ancient Morris Dance,&quot; in his Illustrations of Shakspcare (1839) ; Strutt, Sports and Pastimes of the People of England ; and Brand, Popular Antiquities (1849). MORRISON, ROBERT (1782-1834), the first Protestant missionary to China, was born of Scottish parents at Morpeth, Northumberland, on 5th January 1782. After receiving an elementary education in Newcastle, he was apprenticed to a lastmaker, but his spare hours were devoted to studies connected with theology, and in 1803 he was received into the Independent academy at Hoxton. In the following year he offered his services to the London Missionary Society, by which, after he had attended the mission college of Gosport and studied Chinese under a native teacher, he was sent to Canton in 1807. He was appointed translator to the East India Company s factory 1 See, BIOLOGY, vol. iii. p. 681 sq. ; Spencer, Principles of Biol. ; Haeckel, Gen. Morph. ; C. Bernard, l*h,enomenes d. I. vie communs aux an. et aux veg. ; Semper, Animal Life (1880) ; James, Edin. Med. Journal, 1883 ; Geddes, Zool. Anzeiger, 1SS3 ; Rauber, Morph. Jahrb., vi. ; Haeckel, Kalkschwiimme, i. p. 481, &c. 2 See Haeckel, Gen. Morph., i. Introduction ; also Comte, Phil. Pos., iii. (1851-1854) ; Spencer, Prin. of Biol., i. ; Gegeubaur, Comp. Anat. ; Asa Gray, Manual; and the article BIOLOGY; also Geddes, Jena Zeitschr., 1883. 3 See Sir Walter Scott s Fair Maid of Perth, note on a dress pre served by tbe glover incorporation of Perth.