Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/876

 858 MOSCHELES MOSCOW of the head are like those of monitors ; the teeth of the jaws are compressed, sharp-edged, sup- ported on a socket in a shallow furrow, without true roots ; there are teeth also on the pterygoid bones, as in the iguanians ; there seem to have been 28 teeth in each jaw, with broad base and slightly curved. The head is elongated, and the mouth wide ; the vertebra concavo-convex, 34 from head to tail, the latter having nearly 100 ; as the articular processes are absent from the middle of the back, it has been inferred that Mosasaurus (restored). the body possessed greater flexibility than that of the crocodiles ; the tail is compressed later- ally, and has strong V-shaped bones below, in- dicating its use as a powerful swimming organ ; the ribs have a single head ; the humerus short and thick as in the ichthyosaurus, and the limbs probably flattened into fins as in enaliosaurians. It must have been a very active marine carniv- orous animal. The best known species, M. Camperi (Oonyb.), had a head 4 ft. long, while that of the largest living monitor is only 5 in., and the length of the animal must have been 25 ft. After the capture of Maestricht by the French (1794), these bones were sent to Paris. (See Cuvier's Ossemens fossiles.} This genus was abundant on the coast of New Jersey in the cretaceous epoch, and ten species have been described in the United States. Some of them attained a length of more than 50 ft. Their movements must have been rapid, by lateral undulations in the water, and serpent-like on land ; according to Prof. Cope, they were prob- ably able to coil themselves like snakes ; they were veritable sea serpents of the cretaceous seas. ' Clidastes and macrosaurus were small- er and more slender allied genera. The ge- nus geosaurus (Cuv.), found in the calcareous schists of Monheim, Bavaria, came nearer the crocodiles in the pelvis and thigh bones. See "Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences," pp. 91, 92 (Philadelphia, 1859). MOSCHELES, Ignaz, a German composer, born of Jewish parents in Prague, May 30, 1794, died March 10, 1870. At eight years of age he received musical instruction from F..D. Weber. In three years he became a skilful pianist; and at 14 he was introduced at Vienna to Haydn and Beethoven, and by their advice became the pupil of Albrechtsberger, with whom he made rapid progress. As a pianist he competed with Hummel, then reputed the first performer in Germany. After an extensive continental tour he in 1820 went to England, where he resided during the next 26 years. From 1825 to 1846 he was professor in the academy of London and conductor of the philharmonic concerts, after which he became musical pro- fessor in the conservatory of Leipsic. Prob- ably no musician has so greatly influenced the cultivation in England of the classical music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and kindred com- posers, or so fully developed a taste for piano- forte music and a knowledge of the resources of the instrument. As a performer of the sonatas and concertos of Beethoven he was without a superior. His compositions for the pianoforte are finished specimens of classical music, and his trios, quintets, &c., for the vio- lin and other instruments, evince great theo : retical knowledge. He translated into English Schindler's "Life of Beethoven," to which he added valuable notes. See Aus Moscheles's Leben, edited by his wife (2 vols., Leipsic, 1872-'3), and adapted from the German by A. D. Coleridge (London, 1873). MOSCI1I, an ancient people of Asia, S. of the Caucasus, whose territory at the time of Au- gustus was divided between Colchis, Iberia, and Armenia, and from whom a mountain range extending from the Caucasus to the Anti-Taurus received the name of Moschic mountains. Their name, in early classical writers, frequently appears coupled with that of the Tibareni, and the two tribes are gen- erally identified with the Meshech and Tubal of Scripture. (See JAPHETH.) MOSCHUS, a Greek bucolic poet, of the 3d century B. C. Ho was 'a native of Syracuse, and a pupil or imitator of Bion. Four of his lost idyls and some small fragments of his po- ems are still extant, chiefly in the Doric dialect. They are usually joined with those of Bion and Theocritus. The best editions are those of Jacobs CGotha, 1795), Wakefield (London, 1795), and Manso (Leipsic, 1807). MOSCOW (Russ. Moskva). I. A central gov- ernment of Russia, bordering on Tver, Vladi- mir, Riazan, Tula, Kaluga, and Smolensk ; area, 12,854 sq. m. ; pop. in 1867, 1,678,784. Its sur- face is low and undulating, and its soil is only moderately fertile. The climate is temperate in summer, but the cold is intense in winter. The navigable streams are the Oka and its trib- utaries, the Moskva and Kliasma. Cattle and horses are reared in great numbers, but the in- habitants are chiefly engaged in manufactures. It is divided for administrative purposes into 13 districts. II. A city, capital of the govern- ment, on the river Moskva, 390 S. E. of St. Pe-