Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/787

* MONDONEDO. 709 MONETARY COMMISSION. anciently an iniporhiiit town. It has a cathedral begun in tlie thirteentli century, with a baroque fagade. Tlieie are niarhle quarries in the neigli- borhood. The town manufactures cotton and linen fabrics. Population, in 1900, 10,019. MONDOVi, nion'do-ve'. A town of North- western ltalj% in the Province of Cuneo, 42 miles south of Turin (Map: Italy, B 3). It had a university from 1500 to 1719. Among its notable structures are the Cathedral of San Donato, dat- ing from 1450, a citadel with a Gothic tower, a royal lyceum, and a bishop's palace. There are three public libraries. In the vicinity are inter- esting remains of ruined buildings. There are manufactures of machinery, cloth, silk, paper, and earthenware. At the battle of Mondovl. on April 21. 1790. the Sai'dinians were totally de- feated bv the French. Population (commune), in 1S81. '17.902; in 1901, 19,255. MONER (from Neo-Lat. moneron, from Gk. iwn-qp-qs, mrincres, solitary, from fi6ms, monos, single + dpapli/Kiip, ararinkein. to join). The simplest form of Protozoa, and the nearest to what may have been the most primitive living being. The Monera of Haeckel dift'er from the rhizopods (Amoeba, etc.) in wanting a nucleus and contractile vesicles. Their body-substance is homogeneous throughout, not divided into a tenacious outer and soft inner mass, as in Amceba. They move by the contraction of the body and I he irregular protrusion of portions of the body, forming either simple processes (pseudopodia) or a network of gelatinous threads. The food, as some diatom, desmid. or protozoan, is swallowed whole, being surrounded and engulfed by the body, and the protoplasmic matter then absorbed. The simplest form known, and supposed to be really a living being, is Haeckel's Protamteba. It is like an amceba, but is not known to have a nucleus and acuoles. It reproduces by sim- ple self-division, much as in Amoeba. The individual moner — for example. Protamoeba — is simply a speck or drop of transparent, often col- orless, viscid fluid. This drop of protoplasm has the power of absorbing the protoplasm of other living beings, and thus of increasing in size — i.e. growing; and in taking its food makes various movements, one or more parts of its body being more movable than others, the faculty of motion thus being for the moment specialized; it has apparently the power of selecting one kind of food in preference to another, and, finally, of reproducing its kind by a process not only of simple self-division, but also of germ-production. Consult: Haeckel, History of Creation (New York. 1S7). See Protista. MONET, mo'na'. Claude (1840-). A French landscape painter, the leader of the Im- pressionist School. He was born in Paris. When a youth he entered the atelier of the Classicist Glcyre. but lack of sympathy with the style of work executed there caused his withdrawal. In the beginning his fancy was strongly drawn to the work of Corot, and certain mannerisms, which dis- appeared with inci'easing years, indicate the influ- ence of the Barbison School. He, however, ad- mitted no master, and for the most part drew his inspiration directly from nature, apparently car- ing little for subject, detail, or composition. His aim is chielly to reproduce the etTects of light and air, to portray the fleeting aspect of things. To Monet the effects of complementary contrasts and color mixtures are so distinctive and certain, that to these not similarly trained his repre- sentation of them appears allected and exag- gerated, but when seen under subdued light and from the requisite point of distance, they show great excellence. His earlier style may be stud- ied in "The ilouth of the Seine at Honfleur" (1805); "Camille;" ''Fontainebleau Forest'" (1860); "V'essels Leaving Havre" (1808), and many landscapes produced before 1875. Among his later works may be mentioned: "'Bordighera" — the town in the half distance, led up to by a foliaged foreground; "The Orchard" — a land- scape, vibrating with light and showing well the possibilities of Monet's use of pure color; "On Cape Martin, Near Mentone;" "Studies of Rouen and its Cathedral;" "how Tide at Pour- ville;" "Snow at Port Villers;" ''Church of Verna;" "Church of Varangeville." Consult: Buret, he peintre Claude Monet (Paris, 1878) ; Van Dyke, Modern Freneh MaMers (New York, 1890). MONETARY COMMISSION of the U. S. CoxGRES.s. The fall in thr value of silver after 1873 was the source of nuich debate in the Forty- fourth Congress, and in .ugust. 1870, a joint resolution was passed for the appointment of a commission of three Senators and three Repi'esen- tatives, together with e.pcrts chosen by the former, to inquire into : ( 1 ) the causes and economic effects of the decline in silver; (2) the policy of restoring the double standard; (3) the policy of retaining in circulation the legal tender notes; and (4) the best means for resuming specie payments. The commission as organized consisted of Senators .John P. .Jones, Lewis V, Bogy, and Oieorge S. Boutwell; Representatives Randall L. Gibson, George Willard, and Richard P. Bland. William S. Groesbeck of Ohio and Prof. Francis Bowen of Massachusetts were the expert members of the commission, and George M. Weston of Jlaine was appointed its secretary. The meetings of the commission were held in New York and Washington in the winter of 1876-77. The majority report of the commission declared that the recent production of silver relatively to gold had not been greater th;in formerly, but that the decline in the value of silver had resulted mainly frotn the demonetization of silver in Ger- many' the United States, and the Scandinavian States, the closure of the mints of Europe to its coinage, the temporary diminution of the Asiatic demand, the exaggeration of the yield of the Nevada silver mines, and the fear of further action against silver coinage by the governments. The policy of adopting the gold standard was con- demned in severe terms, and the unrestricted coinage of both metals was recommended. The report further stated that an attempt to intro- duce monometallism would result in a ruinous contest for a gold standard with the European nations, while if silver were remonetized by the United States the effect would be to attract that metal from other cf'Untries while it was cheap, in exchange for wli:it the United States had to export; and that the latter country would thus have the benefit of the rise which the commission believed would take place in its value when the temporary causes of its depression had passed. IJoutwell made a minority report against re- monetization of silver except on the basis of in- ternational agreement, and Prof. Francis Bowen