Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/28

Rh 18 M U L M U L and published in 1841, in a folio entitled The Age of Francis I. of France. He was anxious again to visit the East, and in 1843 he accompanied, at his own request and his own charges, the Government expedition to Lycia, where he produced an extensive collection of masterly sketches of scenes unfamiliar to the art of his time. They were exhibited in London ; their merit was fully recognized by the British public, and the artist received numerous commissions for finished pictures. But his health was seriously impaired, he was suffering from heart-disease and from continued nasal haemorrhage ; and, returning to his native city, he died there on 8th September 1845. The works of Miiller are distinguished by much power and origin ality, by great speed and directness of execution, by the vigour and emphasis which mark the born sketcher, and by brilliant power of splendid and sharply-contrasting colour. The qualities of tender ness, gradation, and mystery, in which they are commonly wanting, might have been within the reach of the artist had his life been longer. Since his death, and especially since the Gillott sale of 1872, his works have commanded very large prices. The Chess- Players at Cairo, for which Mtiller received 25, has since sold for upwards of 4000. The print room of the British Museum possesses, through the bequest of Mr John Henderson, a very rich collection of M tiller s sketches. His biography by N. Neal Solly was published in 1875. MULLET. This name is applied to two very different kinds of fishes, which are distinguished as Red Mullets and Grey Mullets. Red Mullets (genus Jfullus, the name given by the ancient Romans) are marine fishes, with two short dorsal fins remote from each other : the first is com posed of feeble spines, the second of branched rays ; the anal fin is similar to the second dorsal. The body is covered with large thin scales. The form of the head is quite peculiar and characteristic; its anterior profile slopes downwards to the small mouth, which has but very small and feeble teeth, and from which two cylindrical barbels are suspended. These organs of touch are generally laid backwards and hidden in a groove between the branches of the lower jaw, but can be erected and called into action independently of each other. About forty different species of Red Mullets are known, chiefly from the tropical and sub-tropical parts of the Indo- Pacific Ocean. In the Atlantic the species are much less numerous, the most celebrated being the European Mullus barbatus (see vol. xii. p. 638, fig. 10), which is abundant in the Mediterra nean, and tolerably common on the coasts of England and Ireland. Formerly a second species, Mullus surmuletiis, was believed to exist in the European seas, but ichthyolo gists now incline more and more to the belief that this is only the female of M. barbatus. Red Mullets do not attain to any considerable size, the largest of the tropical species weighing only two or three pounds. They are ground -feeders, evidently using their barbels in discovering their food, which consists of ani malcules, worms, and, in the larger species, of small fishes; that they feed on putrid flesh is not borne out by the evidence drawn from their feeble jaws and dentition, but it is very probable that they are attracted to a decomposing body by the presence of the small crustaceans which feast upon it. Although the colours of these fishes are very brilliant, they are simple and evanescent ; only a few of the tropical species exhibit ornamentations in the form of black spots or bands. In many, as also in the European species, red colour prevails, and its preservation after death is con sidered to enhance the fitness of the fish for the table, and consequently its value for the market. To produce the intensity of this red colour, fishermen scale the red mullet immediately before its death, a process by which the red pigment-cells or chromatophores are excited to ex pand ; fishes which are allowed to die in the water show but little red, and therefore red mullets caught by the trawl are less valuable than those obtained in a trammel- net, by which the majority of the fish are secured alive. All the species of Red Mullets seem to be esteemed as food ; but none equal in this respect the European species, which was held in exaggerated esteem by the gourmands of the corrupt period of the Roman empire. They ex hibited the living fish and allowed them to die at the table immediately before they were consigned to the cook ; they kept them in large reservoirs until they were wanted, and paid fabulous prices for fishes somewhat above the average size. In our times red mullets have justly main tained their value as a delicacy for the table ; and from a commercial point of view their cultivation in suitable enclosed waters cannot be too strongly recommended to pisciculturists. Unfortunately, very little is known about their habits ; during the winter they retire into deep water, late in spring and during the summer they approach the coasts and enter even brackish water, but the state of their sexual organs shows clearly that these fishes do not come towards the shore in order to breed ; in fact nothing is known of their propagation. The Grey Mullets, like the Red Mullets, belong to the spiny-rayed fishes, but form a widely-diiferent and distinct family, Mugilidaz. They are not exclusively marine, but freely enter brackish water, live always close to the shore, and some of the tropical forms inhabit the pure fresh water of streams and rivulets, without, however, penetrating far inland. Their body is elegantly formed, wedge- shaped, and covered with scales of moderate size, firmly adherent to the skin. The two short dorsal fins are remote from each other, and the anterior is composed of four stiff spines. The anal fin is similar to the second dorsal ; the caudal fin strong and bilobed. The form of the snout is very peculiar and characteristic ; the mouth narrow, transverse in the true Mugil, and without, or with but feeble, teeth. About seventy different species are known, from almost every coast of the temperate and tropical zones ; they swim in small schools and are abundant wherever they occur. Four species are found on the British coasts Mugil septcntrionalis, Mugil capita, Mugil octoradiatus, and Mugil auratiis, the first two being about equally and generally distributed, whilst the others are scarcer. Some of the freshwater Grey Mullets of the tropics, especially those of the West Indian and Indo-Pacific islands, have the mouth more lateral or have distinct, though very minute, teeth ; they therefore have been formed into separate genera, Agonostoma and Myxus. Grey Mullets, at least some of the species, grow to a weight of 10 or 12 lb ; but the fish which usually come into the market rarely exceed half that weight. Those in which distinct teeth are developed feed principally on small aquatic animals, whilst the diet of those without teeth consists of animalcules or minute organic substances mixed with the mud or sand which they swallow in large quantities ; also confervoid growths to which small shells adhere are freely taken. To prevent the gills from being clogged by sand or mud, a peculiar apparatus separates these organs from the pharynx. Each branchial arch is provided on each side, in its whole length, with a series oi closely-set gill-rakers, each series fitting into the series of the adjoin ing arch ; they constitute together a sieve admirably fitted to permit the passage of the water, and to retain at the same time every other substance in the cavity destined for mastication. Also the structure of the intestinal tract is adapted in a remarkable manner to the peculiar diet of these fishes. One portion of the stomach is globular and surrounded by a thick mass of muscles, the cavity being small and coated with a tough epithelium. In fact this structure reminds us of the stomach of birds, in which it also serves for the trituration of hard substances. The intestine itself is long, six or seven times as long as the fish. Grey Mullets are very plainly coloured, gene rally greenish on the upper parts and more or less silvery on the side. They are wholesome food, well flavoured when taken out of clean water. As young fish bear transport easily, and rapidly grow to a marketable size in suitable enclosed waters, their cultivation deserves every attention on the part of pisciculturists. Indeed, in the fish- farrns of Western Italy, grey mullets, besides eels, red mullets, flat-fish, are the principal fish cultivated. MULLING AR, a market-town of Ireland, capital of West- meath, is situated near the Brosna and on the Royal canal, 44 miles west by north of Dublin. The principal buildings are the parish church with tower and spire, the Roman Catholic church, the court-house, the barracks, and the in firmary. Tanning, brewing, and the manufacture of coarse woollens are carried on. The population in 1881 was 4787. Mullingar was one of the ancient palatinate towns. It possessed an Augustine convent founded in 1227, and a