MALACHITE,a copper-ore of fine green colour, sometimes polished as an ornamental stone. The name is derived from Gr.μαλάχη, the mallow, in allusion to the colour of the mineral being rather like that of the mallow-leaf. Malachite was perhaps one of the green minerals described by Theophrastus under the general name ofσμάραγδος; and according to the late Rev. C. W. King it was probably thesmaragdus medicusof Pliny, whilst hismolochitesseems to have been a different stone from our malachite and may have been a green jasper. It is suggested by J. L. Myres (Ency. Bib.) that malachite may have been the Heb.soham, of the high priest’s breastplate.
Malachite is a basic cupric carbonate, represented by the formula CuCO3Cu(HO)2, and has usually been formed by the action of meteoric agencies on other copper-minerals; hence it is found in the upper part of ore-deposits, often as an incrustation, and occasionally as a pseudomorph after cuprite, chalcocite, &c. When formed, as commonly happens, by the alteration of copper-pyrites the iron of this mineral usually takes the form of limonite, which may remain associated with the malachite. Occasionally, though but rarely, malachite occurs in small dark-green prismatic crystals of the monoclinic system. Its usual mode of occurrence is in nodular or stalagmitic forms, with a mammillated, reniform or botryoidal surface, whilst in other cases it forms fibrous, compact or even earthy masses. The nodules, though commonly dull on the outside, may display on fracture a beautiful zonary structure, the successive layers often succeeding each other as curved deposits of light and dark tints. The colours include various shades of apple-green, grass-green, emerald-green and verdigris-green. Certain varieties exhibit a finely fibrous structure, producing on the fractured surface a soft silky sheen.
Whilst malachite is found in greater or less quantity in most copper-mines, the finer varieties useful for ornamental purposes are of very limited occurrence, and the lapidary has generally drawn his supply from Russia and Australia. The principal source in recent years has been the Medno-Rudiansk mine near Nizhne Tagilsk, on the Siberian side of the Urals, but it was formerly obtained from mines near Bogoslovsk to the north and Gumishev to the south of this locality. A mass from Gumishev, preserved in the museum of the Mining Institute of St Petersburg weighs 3240℔ and still larger masses have been found near Nizhne Tagilsk. The mineral is prized inRussia for use in mosaic-work, and for the manufacture of vases, snuff-boxes and various ornamental objects. Even folding doors, mantelpieces, table-tops and other articles of furniture have been executed in malachite, the objects being veneered with thin slabs cleverly fitted together so as to preserve the pattern, and having the interspaces filled up with fragments and powder of malachite applied with a cement. The malachite is sawn into slabs, ground with emery and polished with tripoli. Its hardness is less than 4, but it takes a good polish like marble: it is rather denser than marble, having a specific gravity of 3.7 to 4, but it is more difficult to work, in consequence of a tendency to break along the curved planes of deposition. Exceptionally fine examples of the application of malachite are seen in some of the columns of St Isaac’s Cathedral in St Petersburg, which are hollow iron columns encrusted with malachite. Large masses of ornamental malachite have been found in Australia, especially at the old Burra Burra copper-mine in South Australia. The Copper Queen and other mines in Arizona have yielded fine specimens of malachite associated with azurite, and polished slabs of the mixed minerals sometimes show the vivid green and the deep blue carbonate in very striking contrast. This natural association, cut as an ornamental stone, has been named, by Dr G. F. Kunz, azurmalachite. Malachite is occasionally used for cameo-work, and some fine antique examples are known. It was formerly worn as an amulet to preserve the wearer from lightning, contagion and witchcraft.
The mineral, when ground, has been used as a pigment under the name of “mountain green.” The coarser masses are extensively used, with other minerals, as ores of copper, malachite containing about 57% of metal. “Blue malachite” is a name sometimes given to azurite (q.v.), whilst “siliceous malachite” is a term inappropriately applied to chrysocolla (q.v.).
The mineral, when ground, has been used as a pigment under the name of “mountain green.” The coarser masses are extensively used, with other minerals, as ores of copper, malachite containing about 57% of metal. “Blue malachite” is a name sometimes given to azurite (q.v.), whilst “siliceous malachite” is a term inappropriately applied to chrysocolla (q.v.).
(F. W. R.*)
MALACHOWSKI, STANISLAW(1736-1809), Polish statesman, the younger son of Stanislaw Malachowski, palatine of Posen, the companion in arms of Sobieski. From his youth Malachowski laboured zealously for the good of his country, and as president of the royal court of justice won the honourable title of the “Polish Aristides.” He was first elected a deputy to the Coronation Diet of 1764, and the great Four Years’ Diet unanimously elected him its speaker at the beginning of its session in 1788. Accurately gauging the situation, Malachowski speedily gathered round him all those who were striving to uphold the falling republic and warmly supported every promising project of reform. He was one of the framers of the constitution of the 3rd of May 1791, exceeding in liberality all his colleagues and advocating the extension of the franchise to the towns and the emancipation of the serfs. He was the first to enter his name as a citizen of Warsaw in the civic register and to open negotiations with his own peasantry for their complete liberation. Disappointed in his hopes by the overthrow of the constitution, he resigned office and left the country in 1792, going first to Italy and subsequently to his estates in Galicia, where he was imprisoned for a time on a false suspicion of conspiracy. In 1807 Malachowski was placed at the head of the executive committee appointed at Warsaw after its evacuation by the Prussians, and when the grand duchy of Warsaw was created Malachowski became president of the senate under King Frederick Augustus of Saxony. In the negotiations with the Austrian government concerning the Galician salt-mines Malachowski came to the assistance of the depleted treasury by hypothecating all his estates as an additional guarantee. In 1809 he died at Warsaw. His death was regarded as a public calamity, and multitudes followed his remains to their last resting-place in the Church of the Holy Cross. In all the other towns of the grand duchy funeral services were held simultaneously as a tribute of the respect and gratitude of the Polish nation.
See August Sokolowski,Illustrated History of Poland(Pol.), vol. iv. (Vienna, 1900);Life and Memoirs of S. Malachowski, edited by Lucyan Siemienski (Pol; Cracow, 1853).
See August Sokolowski,Illustrated History of Poland(Pol.), vol. iv. (Vienna, 1900);Life and Memoirs of S. Malachowski, edited by Lucyan Siemienski (Pol; Cracow, 1853).
(R. N. B.)
MALACHY, ST(c.1094-1148), otherwise known as Maol-Maodhog (or Maelmaedhog) Ua Morgair, archbishop of Armagh and papal legate in Ireland, was born at Armagh. His father, an Irish clergyman, theFearleighlinn, orlector, at the university, was said to have been of noble family. Having been ordained to the priesthood, he for some time acted as vicar of Archbishop Celsus or Ceallach of Armagh, and carried out many reforms tending to increase conformity with the usage of the Church of Rome. In order to improve his knowledge of the Roman ritual he spent four years with Malchus, bishop of Lismore (in Munster), a strong advocate of Romanism. Here he became acquainted with Cormac MacCarthy, king of Desmond, who had sought refuge with Malchus, and, when he subsequently regained his kingdom, rendered great services to Malachy. On his return from Lismore, Malachy undertook the government of the decayed monastery of Bangor (in Co. Down), but very soon afterwards he was elected bishop of Connor (now a small village near Ballymena). After the sack of that place by the king of Ulster he withdrew into Munster; here he was kindly received by Cormac MacCarthy, with whose assistance he built the monastery of Ibrach (in Kerry). Meanwhile he had been designated by Celsus (in whose family the see of Armagh had been hereditary for many years) to succeed him in the archbishopric; in the interests of reform he reluctantly accepted the dignity, and thus became involved for some years in a struggle with the so-called heirs. Having finally settled the diocese, he was permitted, as had been previously stipulated by himself, to return to his former diocese, or rather to the smaller and poorer portion of it, the bishopric of Down. Although the Roman party had by this time obtained a firm hold in the north of Ireland, the organization of the Church had not yet received the sanction of the pope. Accordingly, in 1139, Malachy set out from Ireland with the purpose of soliciting from the pope the pallium (the token of archiepiscopal subjection to Rome) for the archbishop of Armagh. On his way to Rome he visited Clairvaux, and thus began a lifelong friendship with St Bernard. Malachy was received by Innocent II. with great honour, and made papal legate in Ireland, though the pope refused to grant the pallium until it had been unanimously applied for “by a general council of the bishops, clergy and nobles.” On his way home Malachy revisited Clairvaux, and took with him from there four members of the Cistercian order, by whom the abbey of Mellifont (in the county of Louth) was afterwards founded in 1141. For the next eight years after his return from Rome Malachy was active in the discharge of his legatine duties, and in 1148, at a synod of bishops and clergy held at Inis-Patrick (St Patrick’s Island, near Skerries, Co. Dublin), he was commissioned to return to Rome and make fresh application for the pallium; he did not, however, get beyond Clairvaux, where he died in the arms of St Bernard on the 2nd of November 1148. The object of his life was realized four years afterwards, in 1152, during the legateship of his successor. Malachy was canonized by Clement III. in 1190.
The influence of Malachy in Irish ecclesiastical affairs has been compared with that of Boniface in Germany. He reformed and reorganized the Irish Church and brought it into subjection to Rome; like Boniface, he was a zealous reformer and a promoter of monasticism. But perhaps his chief claim to distinction is that of having opened the first Cistercian monastery in Ireland, five more being soon afterwards established. Several works are attributed to him, but are all probably spurious. The most curious of these is aProphecy concerning the Future Roman Pontiffs, which has produced an extensive literature. It is now generally attributed to the year 1590, and is supposed to have been forged to support the election of Cardinal Simoncelli to the papal chair.
St Bernard’sLifeof Malachy, and two sermons on his death will be found in J. P. Migne,Patrologia Latina; clxxxii., clxxxiii.; see alsoAnnals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, ed. J. O’Donovan (Dublin, 1851); G. Germano,Vita, gesti e predittioni del padre san Malachia(Naples, 1670); the ecclesiastical histories of Ireland by J. Lanigan (1829) and W. D. Killen (1875); A. Bellesheim,Geschichte der katholischen Kirche in Irland, Bd. I. (Mainz, 1890); G. T. Stokes,Ireland and the Celtic Church(6th ed., 1907); J. O’Hanlon,Life of Saint Malachy(Dublin, 1859); articles inDictionary of National Biographyand Herzog-Hauck’sRealencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie. On theProphecy, see thetreatise by C. F. Menêtrier (Paris, 1689); Marquis of Bute inDublin Review(1885); A. Harnack inZeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, Bd. III.
St Bernard’sLifeof Malachy, and two sermons on his death will be found in J. P. Migne,Patrologia Latina; clxxxii., clxxxiii.; see alsoAnnals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, ed. J. O’Donovan (Dublin, 1851); G. Germano,Vita, gesti e predittioni del padre san Malachia(Naples, 1670); the ecclesiastical histories of Ireland by J. Lanigan (1829) and W. D. Killen (1875); A. Bellesheim,Geschichte der katholischen Kirche in Irland, Bd. I. (Mainz, 1890); G. T. Stokes,Ireland and the Celtic Church(6th ed., 1907); J. O’Hanlon,Life of Saint Malachy(Dublin, 1859); articles inDictionary of National Biographyand Herzog-Hauck’sRealencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie. On theProphecy, see thetreatise by C. F. Menêtrier (Paris, 1689); Marquis of Bute inDublin Review(1885); A. Harnack inZeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, Bd. III.
MALACOSTRACA.Under this zoological title are included several groups of Crustacea (q.v.), united by characters which attest their common origin, though some, and probably all of them, were already separated in distant geological ages, and some have now attained a peculiar isolation. Throughout the whole, the researches made since 1860 have not only added a great throng of new species, genera and families, but have thrown a flood of light upon questions of their phylogeny, systematic arrangement, horizontal and bathymetric distribution, organization, habits of life and economic importance. There are at least seven orders: the stalk-eyed Brachyura, Macrura, Schizopoda, Stomatopoda, and the sessile-eyed Sympoda, Isopoda, Amphipoda. An ocular segment claimed by the former division is not present or in no case demonstrable in the latter. In neither does the terminal segment or telson, whether large or obsolescent, whether articulated or coalescent, carry appendages, unless occasionally in fusion with itself. Between the eyes and the tail-piece in all the orders nineteen segments are counted, the proof of a segment’s existence depending on its separateness, complete or partial, or on a sutural indication, or else on the pair of appendages known to belong to it. All these marks may fail, and then the species must be proved to be Malacostracan by other evidence than the number of its segments; but if some exceptions exhibit fewer, none of the Malacostraca exhibits more than 19 (+1 or + 2) segments, unless the Nebaliidae be included. Of the corresponding pairs of appendages thirteen belong to the head and trunk, two pairs of antennae, one pair of mandibles, two pairs of maxillae, followed by three which may be all maxillipeds or may help to swell the number of trunk-legs to which the next five pairs belong. The abdomen or pleon carries the remaining six pairs, of which from three to five are called pleopods and the remainder uropods. Underlying the diversity of names and functions and countless varieties of shape, there is a common standard to which the appendages in general can be referred. In the maxillipeds and the trunk-legs it is common to find or otherwise easy to trace a seven-jointed stem, the endopod, from which may spring two branches, the epipod from the first joint, the exopod from the second.1The first antennae are exceptional in branching, if at all, at the third joint. In the mandibles and maxillae some of the terminal joints of the stem are invariably wanting. In the rest of the appendages they may either be wanting or indistinguishable. The latter obscurity results either from coalescence, to which all joints and segments are liable, or from subdivision, which occasionally affects joints even in the trunk-legs. The carapace, formerly referred only to the antennar-mandibular segments, may perhaps in fact contain elements from any number of other segments of head and trunk, Huxley, Alcock, Bouvier giving support to this opinion by the sutural or other divisional lines inPotamobius,Nephrops,Thalassina, and various fossil genera. Not all questions of classification internal to this division are yet finally settled. Between the Brachyura and Macrura some authors uphold an order Anomura, though in a much restricted sense, the labours of Huxley, Boas, Alcock and conjointly Alphonse Milne-Edwards and Bouvier, having resulted in restoring the Dromiidea and Raninidae to the Brachyura, among which de Haan long ago placed them. The French authors argue that from the macruran lobsters (Nephropsidae) anciently diverged two lines: one leading through the Dromiidea to the genuine Brachyura; or crabs, the other independently to the Anomura proper, which may conveniently be named and classed asMacrura anomala. Spence Bate maintained that the Schizopoda ought not to form a separate order, but to be ranged as a macruran tribe, “more nearly allied to the degraded forms of the Penaeidea than to those of any other group” (”Challenger” Reports, “Macrura,” p. 472, 1888). According to Sars, the Sympoda (or Cumaceans), in spite of their sessile eyes, have closer affinities with the stalk-eyed orders. H. J. Hansen and others form a distinct order Tanaidea for the decidedly anomalous group called by SarsIsopoda chelifera.
1.Brachyura.—For the present, as of old, the true Brachyura are divided into four tribes:Cyclometopa, with arched front as in the common eatable crab;Catometopa, with front bent down as in the land-crabs and the little oyster-crab;Oxyrhyncha, with sharpened beak-like front as in the various spider-crabs;Oxystomata, including the Raninidae, and named not from the character of the front but from that of the buccal frame which is usually narrowed forwards. In these tribes the bold and active habits, the striking colours, or the fantastic diversities of structure, have so long attracted remark that recent investigations, while adding a multitude of new species and supplying the specialist with an infinity of new details, have not materially altered the scientific standpoint. New light, however, has been thrown upon the “intellectual” capacity of Crustacea by the proof that the spider-crabs deliberately use changes of raiment to harmonize with their surroundings, donning and doffing various natural objects as we do our manufactured clothes. Others have the power of producing sounds, one use to which they put this faculty being apparently to signal from their burrow in the sand that they are “not at home” to an inopportune visitor. Deep-sea exploration has shown that some species have an immensely extended range, and still more, that species of the same genus, and genera of the same family, though separated by great intervals of space, may be closely allied in character. A curious effect of parasitism, well illustrated in crabs, though not confined to them, has been expounded by Professor Giard, namely, that it tends to obliterate the secondary sexual characters. Modern research has discovered no crab to surpassMacrocheira kämpferi, De Haan, that can span between three and four yards with the tips of its toes, but at the other end of the scale it has yieldedCollodes malabaricus, Alcock, “of which the carapace, in an adult and egg-laden female, is less than one-sixth of an inch in its greatest diameter.” The most abyssal of all crabs yet known isEthusina abyssicola, Smith, or what is perhaps only a variety of it,E. challengeri, Miers. Of the latter the “Albatross” obtained a specimen from a depth of 2232 fathoms (Faxon, 1895), of the former from 2221 fathoms, and of this S. I. Smith remarks that it has “distinctly faceted black eyes,” although in them “there are only a very few visual elements at the tips of the immobile eye-stalks.”TheBrachyura anomala, or Dromiidea, “have preserved the external characters and probably also the organization of the Brachyura of the Secondary epoch” (Milne-Edwards and Bouvier, 1901). They agree with the true crabs in not having appendages (uropods) to the sixth segment of the pleon, the atrophy being complete in the Homolidae and Homolodromiidae, whereas in the Dromiidae and Dynomenidae a pair of small plates appear to be vestiges of these organs. In the family Homolidae stands the strange genusLatreillia, Roux, with long slender limbs and triangular carapace after the fashion of oxyrhynch spider-crabs. InHomolathe carapace is quadrilateral. Between these two a very interesting link was discovered by the “Challenger” in the speciesLatreillopsis bispinosa. Henderson. Bouvier (1896) has shown thatPalaeinachus longipes, Woodward, from the Forest Marble of Wiltshire, is in close relationship, not to the oxyrhynch Inachidae, but to the generaHomolodromiaandDicranodromiaof the Homolodromiidae, and that the Jurassic crabs in general, of the family Prosoponidae (Meyer), are Dromiidea.2.Macrura.—TheMacrura anomala, or Anomura in restricted sense, are popularly known through the hermit-crabs alone. These only partially represent one of the three main divisions, Paguridea, Galatheidea, Hippidea. The first of these is subdivided intoPagurinea,Lithodinea,Lomisinea, each with a literature of its own. Among the Pagurinea is theBirgus latro, or robber-crab, whose expertness in climbing the coco-nut palm need no longer be doubted, since in recent years it has been noted and photographed by trustworthy naturalists in the very act. Alcock “observed one of these crabs drinking from a runnel of rain-water, by dipping the fingers of one of its chelipeds into the water and then carrying the wet fingers to its mouth.” Hermits of the genusCoenobitahe found feeding voraciously on nestling sea-terns. That pagurids must have the usually soft pleon or abdomen protected by the shell of a mollusc is now known to be subject to a multitude of exceptions.Birgusdispenses with a covering;Coenobitacan make shift with half the shell of a coco-nut;Chlaenopaguruswraps itself up in a blanket of colonial polyps;Cancellus tanneri, Faxon, was found in a piece of dead coral rock;Xylopagurus rectus, A. Milne-Edwards, lodges in tubes of timber or bits of hollow reed. The last-named species has a straight symmetrical abdomen, with the penultimate segment expanded and strongly calcified to form a back-door to the very unconventional habitation. This it enters head-foremost from the rear, while “hermits” in general are forced to go backwards into their spiral or tapering shelters by the front. Some of the species can live in the ocean at a depth of two or three miles. Some can range inland up to a considerable height on mountains. The advantage that this group has derived from the adoption of molluscshells as houses or fortresses, ready built and light enough for easy transport, is obviously discounted by a twofold inconvenience. There is nothing to ensure that the supply will be equal to the demand, and Nature has not arranged that the borrowed tenement shall continue to grow with the growth of its new tenant. To meet these defects it is found that numerous species encourage or demand the companionship of various zoophytes, simple or colonial. These sometimes completely absorb the shell on which they are settled, but then act as a substitute for it, and in any case by their outgrowth they extend the limits of the dwelling, so that the inmate can grow in comfort without having to hunt or fight for a larger abode. Among theLithodinea, or stone crabs, besides important readjustments of classification (Bouvier, 1895, 1896), should be noticed the evidence of their cosmopolitan range, and the speciesNeolithodes agassizii(Smith) andN. grimaldii, Milne-Edwards and Bouvier, which carry to an extreme the spinosity characteristic of the group (fig. 1). S. I. Smith’s investigations on the early stages ofHippa talpoida, Say, were published in 1877.Fig. 1.—Neolithodes grimaldii, A. Milne-Edwards and Bouvier.With regard to the accessions to knowledge in the enormous group of the genuine Macrura, reference need only be made to the extensive reports in which Spence Bate, S. I. Smith, Faxon, Wood-Mason, Alcock, and others have made known the results of celebrated explorations. Various larval stages have been successfully investigated by Sars. Alcock (1901) describes from his own observation the newly hatchedPhyllosomalarva ofThenus orientalis, Fabricius. An admirable discrimination of the larval and adult characters of the genusSergesteshas been given by H. J. Hansen (Proc. Zool. Soc., London, 1896). Singularity excites our wonder inThaumastocheles zaleucus, v. Willemoes Suhm, which makes up for its vanished eyes by its extraordinarily elongate and dentated claws; inPsalidopus huxleyi, Wood-Mason and Alcock (1892), bristling with spikes from head to tail; in the Nematocarcinidae, with their long thread-like limbs and longer antennae; in species ofAristaeopsisreported by Chun from deep water off the east coast of Africa, bright red prawns nearly a foot long, with antennae about five times the length of the body. That certain species, particularly many from deep water, have disproportionately large eggs, is explained by the supposition that the young derive the advantage of being hatched in an advanced stage of development.Fig. 2.—Anaspides tasmaniae, Thomson.3.Schizopoda.—This order of animals for the most part delicately beautiful, has for the moment five families—Lophogastridae, Eucopiidae, Euphausiidae, Mysidae and Anaspididae. In the Euphausiidae the digitiform-arborescent branchiae, as if conscious of their own extreme elegance, remain wholly uncovered. In the two preceding families they are partially covered. In the Mysidae the branchiae are wanting, and some would form this family into a separate order, Mysidacea. InAnaspides, a peculiar fresh-water genus discovered in 1892 by G. M. Thomson on Mount Wellington, in Tasmania, the gills are not arborescent, and there are seven segments of the trunk free of the carapace (fig. 2). A membranaceous carapace separates the Eucopiidae from the more solidly invested Lophogastridae. Among many papers that the student will find it necessary to consult may be mentioned the “Challenger”Reporton Schizopoda, by Sars, 1885, dealing with the order at large; “British Schizopoda,” by NormanAnn. Nat. Hist.(1892); “Decapoden und Schizopoden,”Plankton-Expedition(Ortmann, 1893); “Euphausiidae,” by Stebbing,Proc. Zool. Soc.(London, 1900);Mysidae of the Russian Empire, by Czerniavski (1882-1883); andMysidae of the Caspian, by Sars (1893-1895-1897).4.Stomatopoda.—This order, at one time a medley of heterogeneous forms, is now confined to the singularly compact group of the Squillidae. Here the articulation of the ocular segment is unusually distinct, and here two characters quite foreign to all the preceding groups come into view. The second maxillipeds are developed into powerful prehensile organs, and the branchiae, instead of being connected with the appendages of head and trunk, are developed on the pleopods, appendages of the abdomen. At least three segments of the trunk are left uncovered by the carapace. The developing eggs are not carried about by the mother, but deposited in her subaqueous burrow, “where they are aerated by the currents of water produced by the abdominal feet of the parent.” An excellent synopsis of the genera and species is provided by R. P. Bigelow (Proc. U.S. Mus.vol. xvii., 1894). For the habits and peculiarities of these and many other Crustaceans, A. E. Verrill and S. I. Smith on theInvertebrates of Vineyard Soundshould be consulted (1874). The general subject has been illuminated by the labours of Claus, Miers, Brooks (”Challenger” Report, 1886), and the latest word on the relationship between the various larvae and their respective genera has been spoken by H. J. Hansen (Plankton-Expedition Report, 1895). The striking forms ofAlimaandErichthus, at one time regarded as distinct genera, are now with more or less certainty affiliated to their several squillid parents.Fig. 3.—Pseudocuma pectinatum, Sowinsky.5.Sympoda.—This order of sessile-eyed decapods was absolutely unknown to science till 1779. A species certainly belonging to it was described by Lepekhin in 1780, but the obscureGammarus esca, “food Gammarus” beloved of herrings, described by J. C. Fabricius in the preceding year, may also be one of its members. Nutritious possibilities are implied inDiastylis rathkii, Kröyer, one of the largest forms, which, though slender and rarely an inch long, in its favourite Arctic waters is found “in incalculable masses, in thousands of specimens” (Stuxberg, 1880). Far on in the 19th century eminent naturalists were still debating whether in this group there were eyes or no eyes, whether the eyes were stalked or sessile, whether the animals observed were larval or adult. The American T. Say in 1818 gave a good description of a new species and founded the premier genusDiastylis, but other investigators derived little credit from the subject till more than sixty years after its introduction by the Russian Lepekhin. Then Goodsir, Kröyer, Lilljeborg, Spence Bate and one or two others made considerable advances, and in 1865 a memorable paper by G. O. Sars led the way to the great series of researches which he has continued to the present day. The nameCumacea, however, which he uses cannot be retained, being founded on the preoccupied nameCuma(Milne-Edwards, 1828). The more recent nameSympoda(see Willey,Results, pt. v. p. 609, 1900) alludes to the huddling together of the legs, which is conspicuous in most of the species. Ten families are now distinguished—Diastylidae, Lampropidae, Platyaspidae, Pseudocumidae, all with an articulated telson; without one, the Bodotriidae (formerly calledCumidae), Vaunthompsoniidae, Leuconidae, Nannastacidae, Campylaspidae, Procampylaspidae. All the Leuconidae and Procampylaspidae are blind, and some species in most of the other families. Usually the sides of the carapace are strangely produced into a mock rostrum in front of the ocular lobe, be it oculiferous or not. The last four or five segments of the trunk are free from the carapace. The slender pleon has always six distinct segments, the sixth carrying two-branched uropods, the preceding five armed with no pleopods in the female, whereas in the male the number of pairs varies from five to none. The resemblance of these creatures to miniature Macrura is alluded to in the generic nameNannastacus, meaning dwarf-lobster. In this genus alone of the known Sympoda the eyes sometimes form a pair, in accordance with the custom of all other malacostracan orders except this and of this order itself in the embryo (Sars, 1900). The most but not the only remarkable character lies in the first maxillipeds. These, with the main stem more or less pediform, have the epipod and exopod modified for respiratory purposes. The backward-directed epipods usually carry branchial vesicles. The forward-directed exopods either act as valves or form a tube (rarely two tubes), protensile and retractile, for regulating egress of water from the branchial regions. This mechanism as a whole is unique, although, as Sars observes, the epipod of the first maxillipeds has a respiratory function also in the Lophogastridae and Mysidae and in the cheliferous isopods. As a rule armature ofthe carapace is much more developed in the comparatively sedentary female than in the usually more active male. Only in the male do the second antennae attain considerable length, with strong resemblance to what is found in some of the Amphipoda. About 150 species distributed among thirty-four genera are now known, many from shallow water and from between tide-marks, some from very great depths. H. J. Hansen concludes that “they are all typically ground animals, and as yet no species has been taken under such conditions that it could be reckoned to the pelagic plankton.” As they have been found in all zones and chiefly by a very few observers, it is probable that a great many more species remain to be discovered. In recent years thirteen species, all belonging to the same genusPseudocuma(fig. 3), have been recorded by Sars from the Caspian Sea. A bibliography of the order is given in that author’sCrustacea of Norway, vol. iii. (1899-1900).Fig.4.—Rhabdosoma piratum, Stebbing.6.Isopoda.—This vast and populous order can be traced far back in geological time. It is now represented in all seas and lands, in fresh-water lakes and streams, and even in warm springs. It adapts itself to parasitic life not only in fishes, but in its own class Crustacea, and that in species of every order, its own included. In this process changes of structure are apt to occur, and sometimes unimaginable sacrifices of the normal appearance. The order has been divided into seven tribes, of which a fuller summary than can here be given will be found in Stebbing,History of Crustacea(1893). The first tribe, called Chelifera, from the usually chelate or claw-bearing first limbs, may be regarded asIsopoda anomala, of which some authors would form a separate order, Tanaidea. Like the genuine isopods, they have seven pairs of trunk-legs, but instead of having seven segments of the middle body (or peraeon) normally free, they have the first one or two of its segments coalesced with the head. Instead of the breathing organs being furnished by the appendages of the pleon with the heart in their vicinity, the respiration is controlled by the maxillipeds, with the heart in the peraeon (see Delage,Arch. Zool. expér. et gén., vol. ix., 1881). There are two families, Tanaidae and Apseudidae. Occasionally the ocular lobes are articulated.The genuine Isopoda are divided among theFlabellifera, in which the terminal segment and uropods form a flabellum or swimming fan; theEpicaridea, parasitic on Crustaceans; theValvifera, in which the uropods fold valve-like over the branchial pleopods; theAsellota, in which the first pair of pleopods of the female are usually transformed into a single opercular plate; thePhreatoicidea, a fresh-water tribe, known as yet only from subterranean waters in New Zealand and an Australian swamp nearly 6000 ft. above sea-level; and lastly, theOniscidea, which are terrestrial. Only the last of these, under the contemptuous designation of wood-lice, has established a feeble claim to popular recognition. Few persons hear without surprise that England itself possesses more than a score of species in this air-breathing tribe. Those known from the world at large number hundreds of species, distributed among dozens of genera in six families. That a wood-louse and a land-crab are alike Malacostracans, and that they have by different paths alike become adapted to terrestrial life, are facts which even a philosopher might condescend to notice. Of the other tribes which are aquatic there is not space to give even the barest outline. Their swarming multitudes are of enormous importance in the economy of the sea. If in their relation to fish it must be admitted that many of them plague the living and devour the dead, in return the fish feed rapaciously upon them. Among the most curious of recent discoveries is that relating to some of the parasiticCymothoidae, as to which Bullar has shown that the same individual can be developed first as a male and then as a female. Of lately discovered species the most striking is one of the deep-sea Cirolanidae,Bathynomus giganteus, A. M. Edwards (1879), which is unique in having supplementary ramified branchiae developed at the bases of the pleopods. Its eyes are said to contain nearly 4000 facets. The animal attains what in this order is the monstrous size of 9 in. by 4. A general uniformity of the trunk-limbs in Isopoda justifies the ordinal name, but the valviferous Astacillidae, and among the Asellota the Munnopsidae, offer some remarkable exceptions to this characteristic. Among many essential works on this group may be named theMonogr. Cymothoarumof Schiödte and Meinert (1879-1883); “Challenger”Report, Beddard (1884-1886);Cirolanidae, H. J. Hansen (1890);Isopoda Terrestria, Budde-Lund (1885);Bopyridae, Bonnier (1900);Crustacea of Norway, vol. ii. (Isopoda), Sars (1896-1899), while their multitude precludes specification of important contributions by Benedict, Bovallius, Chilton, Dohrn, Dollfus, Fraisse, Giard and Bonnier, Harger, Haswell, Kossmann, Miers, M’Murrich, Norman, Harriet Richardson, Ohlin, Studer, G. M. Thomson, A. O. Walker, Max Weber and many others.7.Amphipoda.—As in the genuine Isopoda, the eyes of Amphipoda are always sessile, and generally paired, and, in contrast to crabs and lobsters, these two groups have only four pairs of mouth-organs instead of six, but seven pairs of trunk-legs instead of five. From the above-named isopods the present order is strongly differentiated by having heart and breathing organs not in the pleon, but in the peraeon, or middle body, the more or less simple branchial vesicles being attached to some or all of the last six pairs of trunk-legs. Normally the pleon carries six pairs of two-branched appendages, of which the first three are much articulated flexible swimming feet, the last three few-jointed comparatively indurated uropods. There are three tribes,Gammaridea,Caprellidea,Hyperiidea. The middle one contains but two families, the cylindrical and often thread-like skeleton shrimps, Caprellidae, and their near cousins, the broad, flattened, so-called whale-lice, Cyamidae. This tribe has the pleon dwindled into insignificance, whereas in the other two tribes it is powerfully developed. The Hyperiidea are distinguished by having their maxillipeds never more than three-jointed. In the companion tribes these appendages have normally seven joints, and always more than three. The order thus sharply divided is united by an intimate interlacing of characters, and forms a compact whole at present defying intrusion from any other crustacean group. Since 1775, when J. C. Fabricius instituted the genusGammarusfor five species, of which only three were amphipods, while he left five other amphipods in the genusOniscus, from this total of eight science has developed the order, at first very slowly, but of late by great leaps and bounds, so that now theGammarideaalone comprise more than 1300 species, distributed among some 300 genera and 39 families. They burrow in the sands of every shore; they throng the weeds between tide-marks; they ascend all streams; they are found in deep wells, in caverns, in lakes; in Arctic waters they swarm in numbers beyond computation; they find lodgings on crabs, on turtles, on weed-grown buoys; they descend into depths of the ocean down to hundreds or thousands of fathoms; they are found in mountain streams as far above sea-level as some of their congeners live below it. The Talitridae, better known as sandhoppers, can forgo the briny shore and content themselves with the damp foliage of inland forests or casual humidity in the crater of an extinct volcano. Over the ocean surface, as well as at various depths, float and swim innumerableHyperiidea—the wonderfulPhronima, glass-like in its glassy barrel hollowed out of some Tunicate; theCystisoma, 4 or 5 in. long, with its eye-covered head; theRhabdosoma, like a thin rod of glass, with needle-like head and tail, large eyes, but limbs and mouth-organs all in miniature, and the second antennae of the male folding up like a carpenter’s rule (fig. 4). On jelly-fishes are to be found species ofHyperiaand their kindred, so fat and wholesome that they have been commended to shipwrecked men in open boats as an easily procurable resource against starvation. Many of the Amphipoda are extremely voracious. Some of them are even cannibals. The Cyamidæ afflict the giant whale by nibbling away its skin; theChelura terebransis destructive to submerged timber. But, on the other hand, they largely help to clear the sea and other waters of refuse and carrion, and for fishes, seals and whales they are food desirable and often astoundingly copious. From the little flea-like species, scarcely a tenth of an inch long, up to the great and rare but cosmopolitanEurythenes gryllus, Lichtenstein, and the still largerAlicella gigantea, Chevreux, nearly half a foot long, captured by the prince of Monaco from a depth of 2936 fathoms, not one of these ubiquitous, uncountable hordes has ever been accused of assailing man. For the naturalist they have the recommendation that many are easy to obtain, that most, apart from the very minute, are easy to handle, and that all, except as to the fleeting colours, are easy to preserve.A nearly complete bibliography of the order down to 1888 will be found in the “Challenger”Reports, vol. xxviii., and supplementary notices in Della Valle’sMonograph of the Gammarini(1893), the scope of his work, however, not covering the Hyperiidea and Oxycephalidae of Bovallius (1889, 1890); but since these dates very numerous additions to the literature have been made by Birula, Bonnier, Norman, Walker and others, especially theCrustacea of Norway, vol. i. (Amphipoda), Sars (1890-1895), demanding attention, and the quite recentAmphipoda of the Hirondelle, Chevreux (1900), andHyperiidea of the Plankton-Expedition, Vosseler (1901).
1.Brachyura.—For the present, as of old, the true Brachyura are divided into four tribes:Cyclometopa, with arched front as in the common eatable crab;Catometopa, with front bent down as in the land-crabs and the little oyster-crab;Oxyrhyncha, with sharpened beak-like front as in the various spider-crabs;Oxystomata, including the Raninidae, and named not from the character of the front but from that of the buccal frame which is usually narrowed forwards. In these tribes the bold and active habits, the striking colours, or the fantastic diversities of structure, have so long attracted remark that recent investigations, while adding a multitude of new species and supplying the specialist with an infinity of new details, have not materially altered the scientific standpoint. New light, however, has been thrown upon the “intellectual” capacity of Crustacea by the proof that the spider-crabs deliberately use changes of raiment to harmonize with their surroundings, donning and doffing various natural objects as we do our manufactured clothes. Others have the power of producing sounds, one use to which they put this faculty being apparently to signal from their burrow in the sand that they are “not at home” to an inopportune visitor. Deep-sea exploration has shown that some species have an immensely extended range, and still more, that species of the same genus, and genera of the same family, though separated by great intervals of space, may be closely allied in character. A curious effect of parasitism, well illustrated in crabs, though not confined to them, has been expounded by Professor Giard, namely, that it tends to obliterate the secondary sexual characters. Modern research has discovered no crab to surpassMacrocheira kämpferi, De Haan, that can span between three and four yards with the tips of its toes, but at the other end of the scale it has yieldedCollodes malabaricus, Alcock, “of which the carapace, in an adult and egg-laden female, is less than one-sixth of an inch in its greatest diameter.” The most abyssal of all crabs yet known isEthusina abyssicola, Smith, or what is perhaps only a variety of it,E. challengeri, Miers. Of the latter the “Albatross” obtained a specimen from a depth of 2232 fathoms (Faxon, 1895), of the former from 2221 fathoms, and of this S. I. Smith remarks that it has “distinctly faceted black eyes,” although in them “there are only a very few visual elements at the tips of the immobile eye-stalks.”
TheBrachyura anomala, or Dromiidea, “have preserved the external characters and probably also the organization of the Brachyura of the Secondary epoch” (Milne-Edwards and Bouvier, 1901). They agree with the true crabs in not having appendages (uropods) to the sixth segment of the pleon, the atrophy being complete in the Homolidae and Homolodromiidae, whereas in the Dromiidae and Dynomenidae a pair of small plates appear to be vestiges of these organs. In the family Homolidae stands the strange genusLatreillia, Roux, with long slender limbs and triangular carapace after the fashion of oxyrhynch spider-crabs. InHomolathe carapace is quadrilateral. Between these two a very interesting link was discovered by the “Challenger” in the speciesLatreillopsis bispinosa. Henderson. Bouvier (1896) has shown thatPalaeinachus longipes, Woodward, from the Forest Marble of Wiltshire, is in close relationship, not to the oxyrhynch Inachidae, but to the generaHomolodromiaandDicranodromiaof the Homolodromiidae, and that the Jurassic crabs in general, of the family Prosoponidae (Meyer), are Dromiidea.
2.Macrura.—TheMacrura anomala, or Anomura in restricted sense, are popularly known through the hermit-crabs alone. These only partially represent one of the three main divisions, Paguridea, Galatheidea, Hippidea. The first of these is subdivided intoPagurinea,Lithodinea,Lomisinea, each with a literature of its own. Among the Pagurinea is theBirgus latro, or robber-crab, whose expertness in climbing the coco-nut palm need no longer be doubted, since in recent years it has been noted and photographed by trustworthy naturalists in the very act. Alcock “observed one of these crabs drinking from a runnel of rain-water, by dipping the fingers of one of its chelipeds into the water and then carrying the wet fingers to its mouth.” Hermits of the genusCoenobitahe found feeding voraciously on nestling sea-terns. That pagurids must have the usually soft pleon or abdomen protected by the shell of a mollusc is now known to be subject to a multitude of exceptions.Birgusdispenses with a covering;Coenobitacan make shift with half the shell of a coco-nut;Chlaenopaguruswraps itself up in a blanket of colonial polyps;Cancellus tanneri, Faxon, was found in a piece of dead coral rock;Xylopagurus rectus, A. Milne-Edwards, lodges in tubes of timber or bits of hollow reed. The last-named species has a straight symmetrical abdomen, with the penultimate segment expanded and strongly calcified to form a back-door to the very unconventional habitation. This it enters head-foremost from the rear, while “hermits” in general are forced to go backwards into their spiral or tapering shelters by the front. Some of the species can live in the ocean at a depth of two or three miles. Some can range inland up to a considerable height on mountains. The advantage that this group has derived from the adoption of molluscshells as houses or fortresses, ready built and light enough for easy transport, is obviously discounted by a twofold inconvenience. There is nothing to ensure that the supply will be equal to the demand, and Nature has not arranged that the borrowed tenement shall continue to grow with the growth of its new tenant. To meet these defects it is found that numerous species encourage or demand the companionship of various zoophytes, simple or colonial. These sometimes completely absorb the shell on which they are settled, but then act as a substitute for it, and in any case by their outgrowth they extend the limits of the dwelling, so that the inmate can grow in comfort without having to hunt or fight for a larger abode. Among theLithodinea, or stone crabs, besides important readjustments of classification (Bouvier, 1895, 1896), should be noticed the evidence of their cosmopolitan range, and the speciesNeolithodes agassizii(Smith) andN. grimaldii, Milne-Edwards and Bouvier, which carry to an extreme the spinosity characteristic of the group (fig. 1). S. I. Smith’s investigations on the early stages ofHippa talpoida, Say, were published in 1877.
With regard to the accessions to knowledge in the enormous group of the genuine Macrura, reference need only be made to the extensive reports in which Spence Bate, S. I. Smith, Faxon, Wood-Mason, Alcock, and others have made known the results of celebrated explorations. Various larval stages have been successfully investigated by Sars. Alcock (1901) describes from his own observation the newly hatchedPhyllosomalarva ofThenus orientalis, Fabricius. An admirable discrimination of the larval and adult characters of the genusSergesteshas been given by H. J. Hansen (Proc. Zool. Soc., London, 1896). Singularity excites our wonder inThaumastocheles zaleucus, v. Willemoes Suhm, which makes up for its vanished eyes by its extraordinarily elongate and dentated claws; inPsalidopus huxleyi, Wood-Mason and Alcock (1892), bristling with spikes from head to tail; in the Nematocarcinidae, with their long thread-like limbs and longer antennae; in species ofAristaeopsisreported by Chun from deep water off the east coast of Africa, bright red prawns nearly a foot long, with antennae about five times the length of the body. That certain species, particularly many from deep water, have disproportionately large eggs, is explained by the supposition that the young derive the advantage of being hatched in an advanced stage of development.
3.Schizopoda.—This order of animals for the most part delicately beautiful, has for the moment five families—Lophogastridae, Eucopiidae, Euphausiidae, Mysidae and Anaspididae. In the Euphausiidae the digitiform-arborescent branchiae, as if conscious of their own extreme elegance, remain wholly uncovered. In the two preceding families they are partially covered. In the Mysidae the branchiae are wanting, and some would form this family into a separate order, Mysidacea. InAnaspides, a peculiar fresh-water genus discovered in 1892 by G. M. Thomson on Mount Wellington, in Tasmania, the gills are not arborescent, and there are seven segments of the trunk free of the carapace (fig. 2). A membranaceous carapace separates the Eucopiidae from the more solidly invested Lophogastridae. Among many papers that the student will find it necessary to consult may be mentioned the “Challenger”Reporton Schizopoda, by Sars, 1885, dealing with the order at large; “British Schizopoda,” by NormanAnn. Nat. Hist.(1892); “Decapoden und Schizopoden,”Plankton-Expedition(Ortmann, 1893); “Euphausiidae,” by Stebbing,Proc. Zool. Soc.(London, 1900);Mysidae of the Russian Empire, by Czerniavski (1882-1883); andMysidae of the Caspian, by Sars (1893-1895-1897).
4.Stomatopoda.—This order, at one time a medley of heterogeneous forms, is now confined to the singularly compact group of the Squillidae. Here the articulation of the ocular segment is unusually distinct, and here two characters quite foreign to all the preceding groups come into view. The second maxillipeds are developed into powerful prehensile organs, and the branchiae, instead of being connected with the appendages of head and trunk, are developed on the pleopods, appendages of the abdomen. At least three segments of the trunk are left uncovered by the carapace. The developing eggs are not carried about by the mother, but deposited in her subaqueous burrow, “where they are aerated by the currents of water produced by the abdominal feet of the parent.” An excellent synopsis of the genera and species is provided by R. P. Bigelow (Proc. U.S. Mus.vol. xvii., 1894). For the habits and peculiarities of these and many other Crustaceans, A. E. Verrill and S. I. Smith on theInvertebrates of Vineyard Soundshould be consulted (1874). The general subject has been illuminated by the labours of Claus, Miers, Brooks (”Challenger” Report, 1886), and the latest word on the relationship between the various larvae and their respective genera has been spoken by H. J. Hansen (Plankton-Expedition Report, 1895). The striking forms ofAlimaandErichthus, at one time regarded as distinct genera, are now with more or less certainty affiliated to their several squillid parents.
5.Sympoda.—This order of sessile-eyed decapods was absolutely unknown to science till 1779. A species certainly belonging to it was described by Lepekhin in 1780, but the obscureGammarus esca, “food Gammarus” beloved of herrings, described by J. C. Fabricius in the preceding year, may also be one of its members. Nutritious possibilities are implied inDiastylis rathkii, Kröyer, one of the largest forms, which, though slender and rarely an inch long, in its favourite Arctic waters is found “in incalculable masses, in thousands of specimens” (Stuxberg, 1880). Far on in the 19th century eminent naturalists were still debating whether in this group there were eyes or no eyes, whether the eyes were stalked or sessile, whether the animals observed were larval or adult. The American T. Say in 1818 gave a good description of a new species and founded the premier genusDiastylis, but other investigators derived little credit from the subject till more than sixty years after its introduction by the Russian Lepekhin. Then Goodsir, Kröyer, Lilljeborg, Spence Bate and one or two others made considerable advances, and in 1865 a memorable paper by G. O. Sars led the way to the great series of researches which he has continued to the present day. The nameCumacea, however, which he uses cannot be retained, being founded on the preoccupied nameCuma(Milne-Edwards, 1828). The more recent nameSympoda(see Willey,Results, pt. v. p. 609, 1900) alludes to the huddling together of the legs, which is conspicuous in most of the species. Ten families are now distinguished—Diastylidae, Lampropidae, Platyaspidae, Pseudocumidae, all with an articulated telson; without one, the Bodotriidae (formerly calledCumidae), Vaunthompsoniidae, Leuconidae, Nannastacidae, Campylaspidae, Procampylaspidae. All the Leuconidae and Procampylaspidae are blind, and some species in most of the other families. Usually the sides of the carapace are strangely produced into a mock rostrum in front of the ocular lobe, be it oculiferous or not. The last four or five segments of the trunk are free from the carapace. The slender pleon has always six distinct segments, the sixth carrying two-branched uropods, the preceding five armed with no pleopods in the female, whereas in the male the number of pairs varies from five to none. The resemblance of these creatures to miniature Macrura is alluded to in the generic nameNannastacus, meaning dwarf-lobster. In this genus alone of the known Sympoda the eyes sometimes form a pair, in accordance with the custom of all other malacostracan orders except this and of this order itself in the embryo (Sars, 1900). The most but not the only remarkable character lies in the first maxillipeds. These, with the main stem more or less pediform, have the epipod and exopod modified for respiratory purposes. The backward-directed epipods usually carry branchial vesicles. The forward-directed exopods either act as valves or form a tube (rarely two tubes), protensile and retractile, for regulating egress of water from the branchial regions. This mechanism as a whole is unique, although, as Sars observes, the epipod of the first maxillipeds has a respiratory function also in the Lophogastridae and Mysidae and in the cheliferous isopods. As a rule armature ofthe carapace is much more developed in the comparatively sedentary female than in the usually more active male. Only in the male do the second antennae attain considerable length, with strong resemblance to what is found in some of the Amphipoda. About 150 species distributed among thirty-four genera are now known, many from shallow water and from between tide-marks, some from very great depths. H. J. Hansen concludes that “they are all typically ground animals, and as yet no species has been taken under such conditions that it could be reckoned to the pelagic plankton.” As they have been found in all zones and chiefly by a very few observers, it is probable that a great many more species remain to be discovered. In recent years thirteen species, all belonging to the same genusPseudocuma(fig. 3), have been recorded by Sars from the Caspian Sea. A bibliography of the order is given in that author’sCrustacea of Norway, vol. iii. (1899-1900).
6.Isopoda.—This vast and populous order can be traced far back in geological time. It is now represented in all seas and lands, in fresh-water lakes and streams, and even in warm springs. It adapts itself to parasitic life not only in fishes, but in its own class Crustacea, and that in species of every order, its own included. In this process changes of structure are apt to occur, and sometimes unimaginable sacrifices of the normal appearance. The order has been divided into seven tribes, of which a fuller summary than can here be given will be found in Stebbing,History of Crustacea(1893). The first tribe, called Chelifera, from the usually chelate or claw-bearing first limbs, may be regarded asIsopoda anomala, of which some authors would form a separate order, Tanaidea. Like the genuine isopods, they have seven pairs of trunk-legs, but instead of having seven segments of the middle body (or peraeon) normally free, they have the first one or two of its segments coalesced with the head. Instead of the breathing organs being furnished by the appendages of the pleon with the heart in their vicinity, the respiration is controlled by the maxillipeds, with the heart in the peraeon (see Delage,Arch. Zool. expér. et gén., vol. ix., 1881). There are two families, Tanaidae and Apseudidae. Occasionally the ocular lobes are articulated.
The genuine Isopoda are divided among theFlabellifera, in which the terminal segment and uropods form a flabellum or swimming fan; theEpicaridea, parasitic on Crustaceans; theValvifera, in which the uropods fold valve-like over the branchial pleopods; theAsellota, in which the first pair of pleopods of the female are usually transformed into a single opercular plate; thePhreatoicidea, a fresh-water tribe, known as yet only from subterranean waters in New Zealand and an Australian swamp nearly 6000 ft. above sea-level; and lastly, theOniscidea, which are terrestrial. Only the last of these, under the contemptuous designation of wood-lice, has established a feeble claim to popular recognition. Few persons hear without surprise that England itself possesses more than a score of species in this air-breathing tribe. Those known from the world at large number hundreds of species, distributed among dozens of genera in six families. That a wood-louse and a land-crab are alike Malacostracans, and that they have by different paths alike become adapted to terrestrial life, are facts which even a philosopher might condescend to notice. Of the other tribes which are aquatic there is not space to give even the barest outline. Their swarming multitudes are of enormous importance in the economy of the sea. If in their relation to fish it must be admitted that many of them plague the living and devour the dead, in return the fish feed rapaciously upon them. Among the most curious of recent discoveries is that relating to some of the parasiticCymothoidae, as to which Bullar has shown that the same individual can be developed first as a male and then as a female. Of lately discovered species the most striking is one of the deep-sea Cirolanidae,Bathynomus giganteus, A. M. Edwards (1879), which is unique in having supplementary ramified branchiae developed at the bases of the pleopods. Its eyes are said to contain nearly 4000 facets. The animal attains what in this order is the monstrous size of 9 in. by 4. A general uniformity of the trunk-limbs in Isopoda justifies the ordinal name, but the valviferous Astacillidae, and among the Asellota the Munnopsidae, offer some remarkable exceptions to this characteristic. Among many essential works on this group may be named theMonogr. Cymothoarumof Schiödte and Meinert (1879-1883); “Challenger”Report, Beddard (1884-1886);Cirolanidae, H. J. Hansen (1890);Isopoda Terrestria, Budde-Lund (1885);Bopyridae, Bonnier (1900);Crustacea of Norway, vol. ii. (Isopoda), Sars (1896-1899), while their multitude precludes specification of important contributions by Benedict, Bovallius, Chilton, Dohrn, Dollfus, Fraisse, Giard and Bonnier, Harger, Haswell, Kossmann, Miers, M’Murrich, Norman, Harriet Richardson, Ohlin, Studer, G. M. Thomson, A. O. Walker, Max Weber and many others.
7.Amphipoda.—As in the genuine Isopoda, the eyes of Amphipoda are always sessile, and generally paired, and, in contrast to crabs and lobsters, these two groups have only four pairs of mouth-organs instead of six, but seven pairs of trunk-legs instead of five. From the above-named isopods the present order is strongly differentiated by having heart and breathing organs not in the pleon, but in the peraeon, or middle body, the more or less simple branchial vesicles being attached to some or all of the last six pairs of trunk-legs. Normally the pleon carries six pairs of two-branched appendages, of which the first three are much articulated flexible swimming feet, the last three few-jointed comparatively indurated uropods. There are three tribes,Gammaridea,Caprellidea,Hyperiidea. The middle one contains but two families, the cylindrical and often thread-like skeleton shrimps, Caprellidae, and their near cousins, the broad, flattened, so-called whale-lice, Cyamidae. This tribe has the pleon dwindled into insignificance, whereas in the other two tribes it is powerfully developed. The Hyperiidea are distinguished by having their maxillipeds never more than three-jointed. In the companion tribes these appendages have normally seven joints, and always more than three. The order thus sharply divided is united by an intimate interlacing of characters, and forms a compact whole at present defying intrusion from any other crustacean group. Since 1775, when J. C. Fabricius instituted the genusGammarusfor five species, of which only three were amphipods, while he left five other amphipods in the genusOniscus, from this total of eight science has developed the order, at first very slowly, but of late by great leaps and bounds, so that now theGammarideaalone comprise more than 1300 species, distributed among some 300 genera and 39 families. They burrow in the sands of every shore; they throng the weeds between tide-marks; they ascend all streams; they are found in deep wells, in caverns, in lakes; in Arctic waters they swarm in numbers beyond computation; they find lodgings on crabs, on turtles, on weed-grown buoys; they descend into depths of the ocean down to hundreds or thousands of fathoms; they are found in mountain streams as far above sea-level as some of their congeners live below it. The Talitridae, better known as sandhoppers, can forgo the briny shore and content themselves with the damp foliage of inland forests or casual humidity in the crater of an extinct volcano. Over the ocean surface, as well as at various depths, float and swim innumerableHyperiidea—the wonderfulPhronima, glass-like in its glassy barrel hollowed out of some Tunicate; theCystisoma, 4 or 5 in. long, with its eye-covered head; theRhabdosoma, like a thin rod of glass, with needle-like head and tail, large eyes, but limbs and mouth-organs all in miniature, and the second antennae of the male folding up like a carpenter’s rule (fig. 4). On jelly-fishes are to be found species ofHyperiaand their kindred, so fat and wholesome that they have been commended to shipwrecked men in open boats as an easily procurable resource against starvation. Many of the Amphipoda are extremely voracious. Some of them are even cannibals. The Cyamidæ afflict the giant whale by nibbling away its skin; theChelura terebransis destructive to submerged timber. But, on the other hand, they largely help to clear the sea and other waters of refuse and carrion, and for fishes, seals and whales they are food desirable and often astoundingly copious. From the little flea-like species, scarcely a tenth of an inch long, up to the great and rare but cosmopolitanEurythenes gryllus, Lichtenstein, and the still largerAlicella gigantea, Chevreux, nearly half a foot long, captured by the prince of Monaco from a depth of 2936 fathoms, not one of these ubiquitous, uncountable hordes has ever been accused of assailing man. For the naturalist they have the recommendation that many are easy to obtain, that most, apart from the very minute, are easy to handle, and that all, except as to the fleeting colours, are easy to preserve.
A nearly complete bibliography of the order down to 1888 will be found in the “Challenger”Reports, vol. xxviii., and supplementary notices in Della Valle’sMonograph of the Gammarini(1893), the scope of his work, however, not covering the Hyperiidea and Oxycephalidae of Bovallius (1889, 1890); but since these dates very numerous additions to the literature have been made by Birula, Bonnier, Norman, Walker and others, especially theCrustacea of Norway, vol. i. (Amphipoda), Sars (1890-1895), demanding attention, and the quite recentAmphipoda of the Hirondelle, Chevreux (1900), andHyperiidea of the Plankton-Expedition, Vosseler (1901).
(T. R. R. S.)
1In Huxley’s terminology the first two or three joints of the stem constitute a “protopodite,” from which spring the “endopodite” and “exopodite.”
1In Huxley’s terminology the first two or three joints of the stem constitute a “protopodite,” from which spring the “endopodite” and “exopodite.”
MALAGA,a maritime province of southern Spain, one of the eight modern subdivisions of Andalusia; bounded on the W. by Cadiz, N. by Seville and Cordova, E. by Granada, and S. by the Mediterranean Sea. Pop. (1900), 511,989; area, 2812 sq. m. The northern half of Malaga belongs to the greatAndalusian plain watered by the Guadalquivir, the southern is mountainous, and rises steeply from the coast. Of the numerous sierras may be mentioned that of Alhama, separating the province from Granada, and at one point rising above 7000 ft.; its westward continuation in the Sierra de Abdalajis and the Axarquia between Antequera and Malaga; and not far from the Cadiz boundary the Sierras de Ronda, de Mijas, de Tolox and Bermeja, converging and culminating in a summit of nearly 6500 ft. The rivers which rise in the watershed formed by all these ranges reach the sea after a short and precipitous descent, and in rainy seasons are very liable to overflow their banks. In 1907 great loss of life and destruction of property were caused in this manner. The principal river is the Guadalhorce, which rises in the Sierra de Alhama, and, after a westerly course past the vicinity of Antequera, bends southward through the wild defile of Peñarrubia and the beautifulvegaor vale of Malaga, falling into the sea near that city. The only other considerable stream is the Guadiaro, which has the greater part of its course within the province and flows past Ronda. There is an extensive salt lagoon near the northern boundary. The mountains are rich in minerals, lead, and (in the neighbourhood of Marbella) iron, being obtained in large quantities. There are warm sulphurous springs and baths at Carratraca. Though the methods of agriculture are for the most part rude, the yield of wheat in good seasons is considerably in excess of the local demand; and large quantities of grapes and raisins, oranges and lemons, figs and almonds, are annually exported. The oil and wines of Malaga are also highly esteemed, and after 1870 the manufacture of beet and cane sugar developed into an important industry. In 1905 there were about 500 flour mills and 230 oil factories beside 95 stills and 100 wine-presses in the province. Malaga has suffered severely from the agricultural depression prevalent throughout southern Spain, but its manufacturing industries tend to expand. The fisheries are important; a fleet of about 300 boats brings in 18,000,000 ℔ annually, of which 25% is exported. The internal communications are in many parts defective, owing to the broken nature of the surface; but the province is traversed from north to south by the Cordova-Malaga railway, which sends off branches from Bobadilla to Granada and Algeciras. A branch line along the coast from Malaga to Vélez Malaga was opened in 1908.
Malaga, the capital (pop. 130,109), Antequera (31,609), Vélez Malaga (23,586), Ronda (20,995), Coín (12,326), and Alora (10,325), are described in separate articles. Other towns with more than 7000 inhabitants are Marbella (9629), Estepona (9310), Archidona (8880) and Nerja (7112). The population of the province tends gradually to decrease, as many families emigrate to South America, Algeria and Hawaii.
Malaga, the capital (pop. 130,109), Antequera (31,609), Vélez Malaga (23,586), Ronda (20,995), Coín (12,326), and Alora (10,325), are described in separate articles. Other towns with more than 7000 inhabitants are Marbella (9629), Estepona (9310), Archidona (8880) and Nerja (7112). The population of the province tends gradually to decrease, as many families emigrate to South America, Algeria and Hawaii.
MALAGA,the capital of the province of Malaga, an episcopal see, and, next to Barcelona, the most important seaport of Spain, finely situated on the Mediterranean coast, at the southern base of the Axarquia hills and at the eastern extremity of the fertile vega (plain) of Malaga in 36° 43′ N. and 4° 25′ W. Pop. (1900), 130,109. From the clearness of its sky, and the beautiful sweep of its bay, Malaga has sometimes been compared with Naples. The climate is one of the mildest and most equable in Europe, the mean annual temperature being 66.7° Fahr. The principal railway inland gives access through Bobadilla to all parts of Spain, and a branch line along the coast to Vélez-Malaga was opened in 1908. Malaga lies principally on the left bank of a mountain torrent, the Guadalmedina (“river of the city”); the streets near the sea are spacious and comparatively modern, but those in the older part of the town, where the buildings are huddled around the ancient citadel, are narrow, winding and often dilapidated. Well-built suburbs have also spread on all sides into the rich and pleasant country which surrounds Malaga, and several acres of land reclaimed from the sea have been converted into a public park. There are various squares or plazas and public promenades; of the former the most important are the Plaza de Riego (containing the monument to General José Maria Torrijos, who, with forty-eight others, was executed in Malaga on the 11th of December 1831, for promoting an insurrection in favour of the constitution) and the Plaza de la Constitucion; adjoining the quays is the fine Paseo de la Alameda. The city has no public buildings of commanding architectural or historical importance. The cathedral, on the site of an ancient mosque, was begun about 1528; after its construction had been twice interrupted, it was completed to its present state in the 18th century, and is in consequence an obtrusive record of the degeneration of Spanish architecture. The woodwork of the choir, however, is worthy of attention. The church of El Cristo de la Victoria contains some relics of the siege of 1487. There are an English church and an English cemetery, which dates from 1830; up to that year all Protestants who died in Malaga were buried on the foreshore, where their bodies were frequently exposed by the action of wind and sea. Of the old Moorish arsenal only a single horseshoe gateway remains, the rest of the site being chiefly occupied by an iron structure used as a market; the Alcazába, or citadel, has almost disappeared. The castle of Gibralfaro, on a bold eminence to the north-east dates from the 13th century, and is still in fairly good preservation.
During the 19th century so much silt accumulated in the harbour that vessels were obliged to lie in the roads outside, and receive and discharge cargo by means of lighters; but new harbour works were undertaken in 1880, and large ships can now again load or discharge at the quays, which are connected with the main railway system by a branch line. About 2150 ships of 1,750,000 tons enter at Malaga every year. Iron, lead, wine, olive oil, almonds, fresh and dried fruit, palmetto hats and canary seed are exported in large quantities, while the imports include grain, codfish, fuel, chemicals, iron and steel, machinery, manures and staves for casks. Although trade was impeded during the early years of the 20th century by a succession of bad harvests and by the disastrous floods of September 1907, the number of industries carried on in and near Malaga tends steadily to increase. There are large cotton mills, iron foundries, smelting works and engineering works. Pottery, mosaic, artificial stone and tiles are produced chiefly for the home market, though smaller quantities are sent abroad. There is a chromo-lithographic establishment, and the other industries include tanning, distilling and the manufacture of sugar, chocolate, soap, candles, artificial ice, chemical products, white lead and pianos. Foreign capital has played a prominent part in the development of Malaga; a French syndicate owns the gas-works, and the electric lighting of the streets is controlled by British and German companies.
Malaga is theΜάλακαof Strabo (iii. 156) and Ptolemy (ii. 4, 7) and theMalaca foederatorumof Pliny (iii. 3). The place seems to have been of some importance even during the Carthaginian period; under the Romans it became a municipium, and under the Visigoths an episcopal see. In 711 it passed into the possession of the Moors, and soon came to be regarded as one of the most important cities of Andalusia. It was attached to the caliphate of Cordova, but on the fall of the Omayyad dynasty it became for a short time the capital of an independent kingdom; afterwards it was dependent on Granada. In 1487 it was taken and treated with great harshness by Ferdinand and Isabella after a protracted siege. In 1810 it was sacked by the French under General Sebastiani. The citizens of Malaga are noted for their opposition to the Madrid government; they took a prominent part in the movements against Espartero (1843), against Queen Isabella (1868) and in favour of a republic (1873).