infolding of the skin, which extend forward over the back; but in one species the opening is longitudinal. The eggs are few in number and of large size, with much food-yolk, for in most species the embryos remain in the pouch until they are fully matured. How the eggs get into the pouch is not known, but Gadow thinks it most likely that they are placed there by the help of the male immediately after fertilization. Five or six species of these small, brightly colored frogs have been described from the tropical forests of Venezuela and the Upper Amazon. Consult Gadow, Amphibia and Reptiles (London, 1901).

MAR'SUPIA'LIA. The marsupials form one of the great subdivisions of the class Mammalia, and are of special interest because of their ancestral history and relationships, and their remarkable geographical distribution. Although ranked as an order, Marsupialia is coëxtensive with the subclass Metatheria (q.v.). Its principal characters are as follows: the brain is small, with the surface-folding absent or very simple, the corpus callosum rudimentary, and the cerebellum completely exposed. Epipubic bones are present in both sexes, and there are other important skeletal characters, prominently a tendency to the separation of bones ankylosed in the higher Eutheria. The mammary glands are provided with long teats, and are usually inclosed in a marsupium or pouch, which serves to protect the helpless young. This pouch, however, may be very imperfect or even wholly wanting, the young being protected only by the hair of the mother's abdomen. The young when born are very minute and undeveloped. That of a big kangaroo is no larger than a man's little finger. They are not merely imperfect foetuses, but 'actual larvæ,' inasmuch as they are provided with a special sucking mouth, in adaptation to their needs, which is later replaced by a true mouth. The young when born are transferred by the lips of the mother to the pouch, where they are placed upon a teat to which the temporary sucking mouth clings; and, as they are unable to suck, the milk is injected into them by the action of special muscles of the mammary gland. (See GLAND.) The organs of reproduction are peculiar to the group, which is often called 'Didelphia' in reference to their character. The oviducts never unite to form a uterus and the vagina is always double, at least in part; the testes hang suspended in front of the penis and the glans of the latter is often bifurcate. The anus and urino-genital opening are surrounded by a common sphincter muscle. It was formerly supposed that no allantoic placenta was present in the group, but it is now known to exist in some bandicoots (Perameles). The egg is minute, as in other Eutheria, but incompletely divides

at first.

In dentition and habits as great a variety exists among the marsupials as in all the, rest of the mammals together, for carnivorous, herbivorous, insectivorous, and omnivorous forms are all well known. In distribution, one family, the Didelphyida (opossums), is peculiar to the American continent, where it is spread from New York State to Patagonia; only one of the 24 species, however, occurs north of Mexico. All the other marsupials (except one) are confined to the Australasian region, where they completely dominate all other mammals, and form the most char

VOL. XIII.-8.

acteristic feature of the fauna. Their survival and prosperity in Australia is doubtless due to the entire absence there of destructive carnivores, except the dingo, of doubtful antiquity; and they have become diversified within their limited circumstances in the same way as have the larger company of mammals all over the world, to enable them to utilize all possible advantages. The fact of marsupials existing in America, and especially in the Neotropical region, has excited much speculation as to how they came there, so remote from Australia. Geological researches show that during the Mezozoic Age marsupials inhabited Europe and North America, but none of that period have been found in Australian rocks. These oldest ancestors of the race appear to have been mainly of the polyprotodont type, little differentiated from the diprotodonts, however; and either this differentiation occurred very long ago (in Jurassic or Cretaceous times) or the latter is a condition which has arisen, as Beddard suggests, independently in both South Tertiary Age was finished pouched marsupials America and Australia. At any rate, before the disappeared from the Northern Hemisphere and survived only in Australasia and South America. The hypothesis of a former land connection between Australia and Patagonia is no longer regarded as tenable; but it is interesting to know that a diprotodont (see OPOSSUM-RAT) exists in Patagonia.

The relationships of marsupials have become much better understood than formerly. The name Metatheria was originally given with the idea that this group was intermediate between the Prototheria (monotremes) and higher Eutheria, and in a sense this is true, but the former belief that it represents a stage of development from the Prototheria to the monodelphic mammals is not now accepted. The distinctions between the marsupials and the Monotremata are fundamental, and there is no evidence of the derivation of the two branches from any common source. On the contrary, as Beddard concludes in a learned review of the subject, the great specialization of the structure of the marsupials (including evidence of degeneration), and their age, point to the fact that they are the descendants of an early form of eutherian mammal, since the time when the stock had acquired diphydonty and the allantoic placenta. See the article MAM

MALIA.

CLASSIFICATION. Rather less than 150 species are known, but they exhibit a most extraordinary variety of size, form, and color. The classification of the marsupials is based primarily upon the dentition, although the characters of the feet have been given much weight recently. There are two principal groups, the Polyprotodontia, which have numerous small, subequal incisor teeth, and the Diprodontia, which have not more than six incisors in each jaw and usually have only two in the lower jaw. The former includes the opossums, Tasmanian wolf and 'devil,' the dasyures, bandicoots, and the like, while in the latter are the wombats, phalangers, koala, and kangaroos. Descriptive articles will be found under each of these terms and the related words.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. In addition to standard works and books descriptive of Australia, consult the great folio volumes, with magnificent colored plates, of J. Gould, entitled Monograph of the Macropodidæ (London, 1841), and Mammals of

Australia (London, 1863); Kreft, Mammals of Australia, folio, large plates (Sydney, 1871); Waterhouse, Mammalia, vol. i. (London, 1848); Thomas, Catalogue of Marsupialia and Monotremata in the British Museum (London, 1888); Parker and Haswell, Text-Book of Zoology (London and New York, 1897); Beddard, Mammalia (London and New York, 1902).

MARSUPIAL MOLE. A small burrowing marsupial of Southern Australia, which is not a mole at all, but simulates one in external appearance, and in many curious adaptations of structure. Consult Beddard, Mammalia (London and New York, 1902), and the special authorities there referred to.

MAR'SUS, DOMITIUS (c.54 B.C.-c.4 B.C.). A Roman poet of the Augustan Age. He seems to have been a friend of Mæcenas (Martial viii. 56, 21), but is not mentioned by Horace. His works include: Cicuta, a collection of epigrams; De Urbanitate, a treatise on the use of wit in oratory, which is quoted by Quintilian; Amazonis, an epic; and erotic elegies and fables. He is frequently mentioned by Martial (iv. 29, 7; vii. 29, 7), who praises the wit and severity of his satire. The few fragments of his works that remain may be found in Bährens, Fragmenta Poetarum Romanorum (1886). Consult also: Weichert, De Domitio Marso Poeta (1828); and his Poetarum Latinorum Reliquiæ (1830).

MAR'SYAS (Lat., from Gk. Mapovas). One of the Sileni of Asia Minor, and therefore at once a spirit of the water and of music, especially of the flute, which was associated with the worship of the great goddess Cybele, as whose devoted servant Marsyas appears in the Phrygian legend. Thus he is called the son of Hyagnis, to whom was attributed sometimes the invention of the flute, and a teacher of Olympus, to whom the development of the art was assigned. Under Greek and especially Attic influence other features were added to the legend. Athena, so ran the story, had invented the flutes, but, observing the reflection of her distorted face, threw them from her. They were found by the Silenus, or satyr, Marsyas, who became so skillful that he ventured to challenge the god of the cithara, Apollo, to a musical contest. Here two versions follow. According to one, King Midas as judge gave the decision to Marsyas, whereupon Apollo bestowed on the umpire asses' ears for his poor judgment. In the other version the muses were the arbiters, and gave the decision to Apollo, as his instrument allowed him to add song. In both versions the god hung his presumptuous rival to a tree and flayed him alive, or caused him to be flayed by a Scythian slave. At Celænæ in Phrygia Marsyas was worshiped at the cavern whence flows the tributary of the Mæander that bears his name, and here also was shown his skin, which had been hung up in warning by the victorious god. Marsyas was a favorite figure in art. The Athenian sculptor Myron made a famous group of Athena and Marsyas, of which the latter figure seems reproduced in a marble statue in the Lateran. Another celebrated group is represented by the statues of Marsyas hung from the tree, and the celebrated Florentine figure of the Scythian whetting his knife; of the other figures of this group no certain copies have been identified. The competition was also represented on the base of the statues of Leto, Apollo, and Artemis at Man

tinea, by Praxiteles, and of this composition three of the four slabs are now in the Museum at Athens.

MARTEL, CHARLES. See CHARLES MARTEL. MARTEL, mär'těl', LouisS JOSEPH (1813-92). He A French politician, born at Saint-Omer. studied law, entered politics, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of 1849. He was a member of the Corps Législatif in 1863 and 1869; in 1871 was elected to the National Assembly, and was vice-president of the Chamber. In 1875 he was elected life member of the Senate; in 1876-77 he became Minister of Justice and Public Instruction, and in 1879-80 he was president of the Senate.

MARTEL DE JANVILLE, de zhän'vêl', GABRIELLE, Countess de (c.1850-). A French author, born at the Château of Koëtsal (Morbihan), and better known by her pen name, Gyp. She was the great-grandniece of Mirabeau, and married the Comte Martel de Janville in 1869. She created the essentially Parisian characters Petit Bob, Loulou, and Paulette, types of a more or less risqué society, which she describes in witty dialogue, and with piquant satire. Her novels include: Petit Bob (1882); La vertu de la baronne (1882); Autour du mariage (1883); Elle et lui (1885); Le plus heureux de tous (1885); Autour du divorce (1886); Sac à papier (1886); Pour ne pas l'être? (1887); Pauvres petit' femmes (1888); Mademoiselle Loulou (1888); Bob au salon (1888); Ohé! les psychologues (1889); Mademoiselle Eve (1889), successfully dramatized.

MARTELÉ, mär'te-lâ' (Fr., hammered). In music, a direction for bow instruments, indicating that notes so marked are to be played with a clean, decided stroke. When the term is used in piano music it means that the keys are to be struck heavily and firmly.

MARTELLO TOWER. A round masonry tower designed to form part of a system of coast defense. The original Martello tower was situated in the Gulf of San Fiorenzo, Corsica, and was named after its inventor. In 1794 two British war ships unsuccessfully attacked it, with loss to themselves; this single experience, it is said, leading afterwards to the adoption of Martello towers by the English. They were erected along the more exposed parts of the south coast and the south and southeastern coasts of Ireland. They were determined on and built hurriedly during the Napoleonic wars, owing to fear of a French invasion. They are about 40 feet high, solidly built, and situated on or near the beach. The walls are five and one

half feet thick and were supposed to be bombproof; the base formed the magazine, the garrison occupied the two upper rooms, and the swivel heavy gun and its accompanying howThey were a itzers were placed on the roof. great expense to the nation, and have always been regarded as worthless. They are now dismantled and, except in the few instances where they are utilized by the Coast Guard, abandoned.

MARTEN (Fr. martre, marte, from ML. martus, marturis, mardarus, mardalus, mardarius, from OHG. mardar, Ger. Marder, from OHG. mart, AS. mear þ, marten; probably connected with Lith. martis, bride). Either of two species of fur-bearing animals of the genus Mus

tela, which also contains the sables. The body is elongated and supple, as in weasels, the legs short, and the toes separate, with sharp, long claws. The nose is grooved and the ears are shorter and broader than in weasels, and the tail is bushy. The martens exhibit great agility and gracefulness in their movements and are very expert in climbing trees, among which they generally live, furnishing a lofty hollow in a decaying trunk with a bed of leaves. Here the young are brought forth in litters of six to eight early each spring; but in a mountainous country all will make dens, sometimes in crevices of rocks.

The term marten is somewhat indefinite, but is most applied in America to the animal which is the nearest analogue to the Old World sable (q.v.), and hence is frequently called the American sable or pine marten: technically it is Mustela Americana. This species, which for 250 years has supplied the most valuable of the American furs gathered from its tribe, originally had a range wherever forests grew from New Jersey and Pennsylvania to Labrador and Hudson Bay, and from Colorado and central California to the barren grounds of the Arctic coast; and it was so plentiful that periodically it overflowed certain districts and spread in hordes, scattering far and wide in search of food. On the other hand, periods of astonishing scarcity of martens occur every eight or ten years, no cause for which is known. The incessant trapping which goes on in the wilderness seems to have little effect upon them, but this species everywhere rapidly fades away before the approach of civilization. They keep mostly to the trees, and hence like the denser parts of the forest, but they constantly descend to the ground for food, especially in winter, when they regularly hunt for hares and grouse of all kinds, trailing them with nose to the track like hounds. Their broad

feet enable them to move rapidly, even over soft snow. They also hunt persistently for squirrels, chase them in the trees and on the ground, and enter their nests. To this diet is added whatever mice and birds and small fare comes their way.

Martens have little to fear from native foes; the much larger fisher is said to kill them occasionally, and it is not improbable that the great horned owl now and then manages to pounce on one, but very few of the carnivores care to taste their flesh unless driven to it by extreme hunger, They are trapped from November until toward March, when their coat begins to become ragged and dull in hue, and with the approach of the rutting season they are no longer attracted by the baits offered by trappers. This species averages about 18 inches in length of head and body, plus seven to eight inches of tail. Its highly variable tints may be described as rich brown, somewhat lighter below. The winter fur is full and soft, an inch and a half deep, and has sparsely scattered through it coarse black hairs which the furrier pulls out. The tail has longer hairs, but is less bushy than that of the fisher. The distinction between this animal and either the European pine marten or the Asiatic sable is not visible to an inexperienced eye, and it is only recently that naturalists have agreed to regard them as specifically distinct.

A much larger American species, unlike anything in the Old World, is Pennant's marten (Mustela Pennanti), the 'pekan' of French-Canadian trappers and commonly known to Ameri

cans as the 'black cat' or 'fisher,' the latter an erroneous name, since the animal never catches fish. It is the largest of its race, and is described under FISHER. For illustration of the pine marten ece Plate of FUR-BEARING ANIMALS. Two other species are natives of Northern Europe, namely, the now rare and restricted pine or sweet marten (Mustela martes) and the more common beech or stone marten (Mustela foina), which is not now regarded as an inhabitant of Great Britain. The habits of both are substantially the same as have been described above, and they differ mainly in the pine marten having (like the American form) a yellowish throat and chest, while that of the beech marten is white. Consult Coues, Fur-Bearing Animals (Washington, 1877).

MARTÈNE, mår'tân', EDMOND (1654-1739). A Roman Catholic scholar. He was born at Saint-Jean-de-Lône, near Dijon; became a Benedictine monk at eighteen, and joined the famous Congregation of Saint Maur. He spent his life in the service of learning, searching the libraries of Germany, France, and the Netherlands, the fruits of the search appearing in many works, notably in the new edition of the Gallia Christiana (14 vols., 1715-56); Commentarius in Regulam Sancti Patris Benedicti (1690); Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum (1717); Veterum Scriptorum et Monumentorum Historicorum Dogmati33). corum et Moralium Amplissima Collectio (1724

MARTENS, mär'tens, FRIEDRICH FROMMHOLD VON (1845-). A Russian writer on international law, born at Pernau, in Livonia. He studied law at the universities of Saint Petersburg, Vienna, Heidelberg, and Leipzig. In 1868 he became an official of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and thereafter continued to be an active and influential figure in matters of foreign diplomacy. He took part in the Brussels conference 1887 he was a member of the Red Cross conferfor the codification of martial law. In 1884 and

ences.

Two years afterwards he represented his Government at the Brussels conference for commerce and maritime law. He was intrusted with the office of arbitrator between England and and two years afterwards he was a delegate to France in the New Zealand question in 1891, published: Recueil de traités et conventions conthe Hague conference on arbitration. Martens clus par la Russie avec les puissances étrangères (1874-95), and La Russie et l'Angleterre dans l'Asie Centrale (1879). He is famous for his lated into German and French. work International Law (1882), which was trans

MARTENS, GEORG FRIEDRICH VON (17561821). A German publicist and diplomat, born at Hamburg. He studied at the universities of Göttingen, Ratisbon, and Vienna. From 1783 to 1789 he was professor of law at Göttingen. In 1808 he entered into the Westphalian civil service as Counselor of State. After the restoration, he was made Privy Councilor by the King of Hanover. Martens's chief literary work is Recueil des traités (1817-35), but he acquired special fame by his Précis du droit des gens madernes de l'Europe (1821-64).

MAR'TENSEN, HANS LASSEN (1808-84). A Danish theologian and bishop. He was born at Flensburg, Schleswig, August 19, 1808: studied theology at the University of Copenhagen; and in 1840 became professor at the university, first