Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/278

 266 MASTIFF tained from the island of Scio or Chios in the Grecian archipelago, and from northern Africa and western Asia. It was known to the an- cients, being correctly described by Diosco- rides and Pliny, and that from Chios being par- ticularly recommended by Galen. It is col- lected during July or August, when the juice slowly exuding from the tree hardens in tears on the bark, or on cloth placed to receive it, or falls upon the ground. The best quality, known as mastic in tears, consists of tears of various sizes, pale yellow, semi-transparent, roundish, oval, or flattened, and brittle. The more ordinary kind, termed mastic in sorts, is obtained in irregular masses, mixed with bark, sand, and other impurities. Mastic has a sweet resinous odor and an aromatic taste. Alcohol dissolves about 90 per cent, of it, leav- ing a tenacious resin that is soluble in turpen- tine. Chloroform, ether, and oil of turpentine are its proper solvents. By the inhabitants of the countries from which it is procured mas- tic is considered highly efficacious in purify- ing the breath and preserving the teeth, and it is extensively used for these purposes by the Turkish ladies. It is friable when first put into the mouth, but by chewing becomes soft and opaque. It is sometimes used for filling de- cayed teeth. Dissolved in oil of turpentine, it makes an excellent varnish used upon pictures, but of late for this and other uses it is largely superseded by the Australian resin dammar. Mastic has little medicinal effect, although it is an ingredient of a popular dinner pill composed of aloes, mastic, and red-rose leaves ; the use of the mastic is to completely divide the aloes. MASTIFF (canis urcanus), a variety of the dog family, large and powerful, with truncated muzzle and elevated skull, strong neck, muscu- lar back, and robust limbs. The condyles of the lower jaw are above the line of the upper mo- lars ; the head is large, with the ears small and partly drooping ; the tail truncated and carried erect ; there is occasionally a fifth hind toe. The mastiff is calm, dignified, courageous, not easily irritated, but when angry a most deter- mined and fierce assailant. If we seek for the original where the race is now the most nu- merous and in the highest perfection, it would be in the mountains of Thibet, though there is no similar wild animal in that region ; the nearest wild type is the lycaon of the Cape of Good Hope (see HY^NA), which possesses many of the characteristics of the mastiffs. The mastiff form became known to the Greeks about the time of the Macedonian conquest, and the classic Roman writers describe the pendulous lips, fiery eyes, loose folds of skin above the brows, and other characters of the modern mastiff of Thibet. The color of the Asiatic breed is generally very dark, almost black, with a few tan-colored spots about the face and limbs. The mastiff of Thibet is the largest and finest of the breed, and extends through S. and E. Tartary. The English mas- tiff, perhaps derived from this, but smaller and MASTODON somewhat crossed with the stag and blood hounds, is more elegant in form and more ma- jestic;- the color is usually dark buff, with dark muzzle and ears ; one mentioned by Ham- Mastiff (Canis urcanus). ilton Smith measured 29 in. in height at the shoulder, and others are described as engaging singly with the lion, and able to cope with the bear and leopard. On the continent of Eu- rope they are generally white, with large clouds of black or reddish ; they have been seen 30 in. high at the shoulder. Mastiffs are very sagacious, and make excellent watch dogs. MASTODON (Gr. /zacrrdf, nipple, and ododf, tooth), an extinct proboscidian mammal, com- ing near the elephant, found either in the ter- tiary or more recent deposits in all quarters of the globe except Africa. This animal has the vaulted and cellular skull of the elephant, with large tusks in the upper jaw, and heavy form ; from the characters of the nasal bones Mastodon giganteus. and the shortness of the head and neck, it has been concluded that it had a trunk ; the crowns of the molars are divided by transverse rows of mammillary conical prominences, whence the