Chapter XVIII: Part 18

The green coloration and shape of the typical mantis are procryptic, serving to conceal the insect alike from its enemies and prey. The passage from leaf to flower simulation is but a step which, without interfering with the protective value of the coloration so far as insectivorous foes are concerned, carries with it the additional advantage of attracting flower-feeding insects within reach of the raptorial limbs. This method of allurement has been perfected in certain tropical species of _Mantidae_ by the development on the prothorax and raptorial limbs of laminate expansions so coloured on the under side as to resemble papilionaceous or other blossoms, to which the likeness is enhanced by a gentle swaying kept up by the insect in imitation of the effect of a lightly blowing breeze. As instances of this may be cited _Idalum diabolicum_, an African insect, and _Gongylus gongyloides_, which comes from India. Examples of another species (_Empusa eugena_) when standing upon the ground deceptively imitate in shape and hue a greenish white anemone tinted at the edges with rose; and Bates records what appears to be a true case of aggressive mimicry practised by a Brazilian species which exactly resembles the white ants it preys upon.

MANTIS-FLY, the name given to neuropterous insects of the family _Mantispidae_, related to the ant-lions, lace-wing flies, &c., and named from their superficial resemblance to a _Mantis_ owing to the length of the prothorax and the shape and prehensorial nature of the anterior legs. The larva, at first campodeiform, makes its way into the egg-case of a spider or the nest of a wasp to feed upon the eggs or young. Subsequently it changes into a fat grub with short legs. When full grown it spins a silken cocoon in which the transformation into the pupa is effected. The latter escapes from its double case before moulting into the mature insect.

MANTLE, a long flowing cloak without sleeves, worn by either sex. Particularly applied to the long robe worn over the armour by the men-at-arms of the middle ages, the name is still given to the robes of state of kings, peers, and the members of an order of knights. Thus the "electoral mantle" was a robe of office worn by the imperial electors, and the Teutonic knights were known as the _orde alborum mantellorum_ from their white mantles. As an article of women's dress a mantle now means a loose cloak or cape, of any length, and made of silk, velvet, or other rich material. The word is derived from the Latin _mantellum_ or _mantelum_, a cloak, and is probably the same as, or another form of, _mantelium_ or _mantele_, a table-napkin or table-cloth, from _manus_, hand, and _tela_, a cloth. A late Latin _mantum_, from which several Romance languages have taken words (cf. Ital. _manto_, and Fr. _mante_), must, as the _New English Dictionary_ points out, be a "back-formation," and this will explain the diminutive form of the Spanish _mantilla_. From the old French _mantel_ came the English compounds "mantel-piece," "mantel-shelf," for the stone or wood beam which serves as a support for the structure above a fire-place, together with the whole framework, whether of wood, stone, &c., that acts as an ornament of the same (see CHIMNEYPIECE). The modern French form _manteau_ is used in English chiefly as a dressmaker's term for a woman's mantle. "Mantua," much used in the 18th century for a similar garment, is probably a corruption of _manteau_, due to silk or other materials coming from the Italian town of that name, and known by the trade name of "mantuas." The Spanish _mantilla_ is a covering for the head and shoulders of white or black lace or other material, the characteristic head-dress of women in southern and central Spain. It is occasionally seen in the other parts of Spain and Spanish countries, and also in Portugal.

"Mantle" is used in many transferred senses, all with the meaning of "covering," as in zoology, for an enclosing sac or integument; thus it is applied to the "tunic" or layer of connective-tissue forming the body-wall of ascidians enclosing muscle-fibres, blood-sinuses and nerves (see TUNICATA). The term is also used for a meshed cap of refractory oxides employed in systems of incandescent lighting (see LIGHTING). The verb is used for the creaming or frothing of liquids and of the suffusing of the skin with blood. In heraldry "mantling," also known as "panache," "lambrequin" or "contoise," is an ornamental appendage to an escutcheon, of flowing drapery, forming a background (see HERALDRY).

MANTON, THOMAS (1620-1677), English Nonconformist divine, was born at Laurence Lydiard, Somerset, in 1620, and was educated at Hart Hall, Oxford. Joseph Hall, bishop of Norwich, ordained him deacon: he never took priest's orders, holding that "he was properly ordained to the ministerial office." He was one of the clerks at the Westminster Assembly, one of Cromwell's chaplains and a "trier," and held livings at Stoke Newington (1645) and St Paul's, Covent Garden (1656). He disapproved of the execution of Charles I. In 1658 he assisted Baxter to draw up the "Fundamentals of Religion." He helped to restore Charles II. and became one of his chaplains, refusing the deanery of Rochester. In 1662 he lost his living under the Act of Uniformity and preached in his own rooms and in other parts of London. For this he was arrested in 1670.

His works are best known in the collected edition by J. C. Ryle (22
vols. 1870-1875).

MAN-TRAPS, mechanical devices for catching poachers and trespassers. They have taken many forms, the most usual being like a large rat-trap, the steel springs being armed with teeth which met in the victim's leg. Since 1827 they have been illegal in England, except in houses between sunset and sunrise as a defence against burglars.

MANTUA (Ital. _Mantova_), a fortified city of Lombardy, Italy, the capital of the province of Mantua, the see of a bishop, and the centre of a military district, 25 m. S.S.W. of Verona and 100 m. E.S.E. of Milan by rail. Pop. (1906), 31,783. It is situated 88 ft. above the level of the Adriatic on an almost insular site in the midst of the swampy lagoons of the Mincio. As the belt of marshy ground along the south side can be laid under water at pleasure, the site of the city proper, exclusive of the considerable suburbs of Borgo di Fortezza to the north and Borgo di San Giorgio to the east, may still be said to consist, as it formerly did more distinctly, of two islands separated by a narrow channel and united by a number of bridges. On the west side lies Lago Superiore, on the east side Lago Inferiore--the boundary between the two being marked by the _Argine del Mulino_, a long mole stretching northward from the north-west angle of the city to the citadel.

On the highest ground in the city rises the cathedral, the interior of which was built after his death according to the plans of Giulio Romano; it has double aisles, a fine fretted ceiling, a dome-covered transept, a bad baroque façade, and a large unfinished Romanesque tower. Much more important architecturally is the church of St Andrea, built towards the close of the 15th century, after plans by Leon Battista Alberti, and consisting of a single, barrel-vaulted nave 350 ft. long by 62 ft. wide. It has a noble façade with a deeply recessed portico, and a brick campanile of 1414. The interior is decorated with 18th-century frescoes, to which period the dome also belongs. Mantegna is buried in one of the side chapels. S. Sebastiano is another work of Alberti's. The old ducal palace--one of the largest buildings of its kind in Europe--was begun in 1302 for Guido Bonaccolsi, and probably completed in 1328 for Ludovico Gonzaga; but many of the accessory apartments are of much later date, and the internal decorations are for the most part the work of Giulio Romano and his pupils. There are also some fine rooms of the early 19th century. Close by are the Piazza dell' Erbe and the Piazza Sordello, with Gothic palaces. The Castello di Corte here, the old castle of the Gonzagas (1395-1406), erected by Bartolino da Novara, the architect of the castle of Ferrara, now contains the archives, and has some fine frescoes by Mantegna with scenes from the life of Ludovico Gonzaga. Outside of the city, to the south of Porta Pusterla, stands the Palazzo del Te, Giulio's architectural masterpiece, erected for Frederick Gonzaga in 1523-1535; of the numerous fresco-covered chambers which it contains, perhaps the most celebrated is the Sala dei Giganti, where, by a combination of mechanical with artistic devices, the rout of the Titans still contending with artillery of uptorn rocks against the pursuit and thunderbolts of Jove appears to rush downwards on the spectator. The architecture of Giulio's own house in the town is also good.

Mantua has an academy of arts and sciences (_Accademia Vergiliana_), occupying a fine building erected by Piermarini, a public library founded in 1780 by Maria Theresa, a museum of antiquities dating from 1779, many of which have been brought from Sabbioneta, a small residence town of the Gonzagas in the late 16th century, a mineralogical museum, a good botanical garden, and an observatory. There are ironworks, tanneries, breweries, oil-mills and flour-mills in the town, which also has printing, furriery, doll-making and playing-card industries. As a fortress Mantua was long one of the most formidable in Europe, a force of thirty to forty thousand men finding accommodation within its walls; but it had two serious defects--the marshy climate told heavily on the health of the garrison, and effective sorties were almost impossible. It lies on the main line of railway between Verona and Modena; and is also connected by rail with Cremona and with Monselice, on the line from Padua to Bologna, and by steam tramway with Brescia and other places.

S. Maria delle Grazie, standing some 5 m. outside the town, was consecrated in 1399 as an act of thanksgiving for the cessation of the plague, and has a curious collection of _ex voto_ pictures (wax figures), and also the tombs of the Gonzaga family.

Mantua had still a strong Etruscan element in its population during the Roman period. It became a Roman municipium, with the rest of Gallia Transpadana; but Martial calls it little Mantua, and had it not been for Virgil's interest in his native place, and in the expulsion of a number of the Mantuans (and among them the poet himself) from their lands in favour of Octavian's soldiers, we should probably have heard almost nothing of its existence. In 568 the Lombards found Mantua a walled town of some strength; recovered from their grasp in 590 by the exarch of Ravenna, it was again captured by Agilulf in 601. The 9th century was the period of episcopal supremacy, and in the 11th the city formed part of the vast possessions of Bonifacio, marquis of Canossa. From him it passed to Geoffrey, duke of Lorraine, and afterwards to the countess Matilda, whose support of the pope led to the conquest of Mantua by the emperor Henry IV. in 1090. Reduced to obedience by Matilda in 1113, the city obtained its liberty on her death, and instituted a communal government of its own, _salva imperiali justitia_. It afterwards joined the Lombard League; and the unsuccessful attack made by Frederick II. in 1236 brought it a confirmation of its privileges. But after a period of internal discord Ludovico Gonzaga attained to power (1328), and was recognized as imperial vicar (1329); and from that time till the death of Ferdinando Carbo in 1708 the Gonzagas were masters of Mantua (see GONZAGA). Under Gian Francesco II., the first marquis, Ludovico III., Gian Francesco III. (whose wife was Isabella d'Este), and Federico II., the first duke of Mantua, the city rose rapidly into importance as a seat of industry and culture. It was stormed and sacked by the Austrians in 1630, and never quite recovered. Claimed in 1708 as a fief of the empire by Joseph I., it was governed for the greater part of the century by the Austrians. In June 1796 it was besieged by Napoleon; but in spite of terrific bombardments it held out till February 1797. A three days' bombardment in 1799 again placed Mantua in the hands of the Austrians; and, though restored to the French by the peace of Lunéville (1801), it became Austrian once more from 1814 till 1866. Between 1849 and 1859, when the whole of Lombardy except Mantua was, by the peace of Villafranca, ceded to Italy, the city was the scene of violent political persecution.

See Gaet. Susani, _Nuovo prospetto delle pitture, &c., di Mantova_
(Mantua, 1830); Carlo d'Arco, _Delle arti e degli artefici di Mantova_
(Mantua, 1857); and _Storia di Mantova_ (Mantua, 1874).

MANU (Sanskrit, "man"), in Hindu mythology, the first man, ancestor of the world. In the Satapatha-Brahmana he is represented as a holy man, the chief figure in a flood-myth. Warned by a fish of the impending disaster he built a ship, and when the waters rose was dragged by the fish, which he harnessed to his craft, beyond the northern mountains. When the deluge ceased, a daughter was miraculously born to him and this pair became the ancestors of the human race. In the later scriptures the fish is declared an incarnation of Brahma. See SANSKRIT LITERATURE; INDIAN LAW (_Hindu_).

MANUAL, i.e. belonging to the hand (Lat. _manus_), a word chiefly used to describe an occupation which employs the hands, as opposed to that which chiefly or entirely employs the mind. Particular uses of the word are: "sign-manual," a signature or autograph, especially one affixed to a state document; "manual-exercise," in military usage, drill in the handling of the rifle; "manual alphabet," the formation of the letters of the alphabet by the fingers of one or both hands for communication with the deaf and dumb; and "manual acts," the breaking of the bread, and the taking of the cup in the hands by the officiating priest in consecrating the elements during the celebration of the Eucharist. The use of the word for tools and implements to be used by the hand, as distinct from machinery, only survives in the "manual fire-engine." From the late Latin use of _manuale_ as a substantive, meaning "handbook," comes the use of the word for a book treating a subject in a concise way, but more particularly of a book of offices, containing the forms to be used in the administration of the sacraments other than the Mass, but including communion out of the Mass, also the forms for churching, burials, &c. In the Roman Church such a book is usually called a _rituale_, "manual" being the name given to it in the English Church before the Reformation. The keyboard of an organ, as played by the hands, is called the "manual," in distinction from the "pedal" keys played by the feet.

MANUCODE, from the French, an abbreviation of _Manucodiata_, and the Latinized form of the Malay _Manukdewata_, meaning, says Crawfurd (_Malay and Engl. Dictionary_, p. 97), the "bird of the gods," and a name applied for more than two hundred years apparently to birds-of-paradise in general. In the original sense of its inventor, Montbeillard (_Hist. nat. oiseaux_, iii. 163), _Manucode_ was restricted to the king bird-of-paradise and three allied species; but in English it has curiously been transferred[1] to a small group of species whose relationship to the _Paradiseidae_ has been frequently doubted, and must be considered uncertain. These manucodes have a glossy steel-blue plumage of much beauty, but are distinguished from other birds of similar coloration by the outer and middle toes being united for some distance, and by the extraordinary convolution of the trachea, in the males at least, with which is correlated the loud and clear voice of the birds. The convoluted portion of the trachea lies on the breast, between the skin and the muscles, much as is found in the females of the painted snipes (_Rostratula_), in the males of the curassows (_Cracidae_), and in a few other birds, but wholly unknown elsewhere among the _Passeres_. The manucodes are peculiar to the Papuan sub-region (including therein the peninsula of Cape York), and comprehend, according to R. B. Sharpe (_Cat. B. Brit. Museum_, iii. 164), two genera, for the first of which, distinguished by the elongated tufts on the head, he adopts R. P. Lesson's name _Phonygama_, and for the second, having no tufts, but the feathers of the head crisped, that of _Manucodia_; and W. A. Forbes (_Proc. Zool. Soc._ 1882, p. 349) observed that the validity of the separation was confirmed by their tracheal formation. Of _Phonygama_ Sharpe recognizes three species, _P. keraudreni_ (the type) and _P. jamesi_, both from New Guinea, and _P. gouldi_, the Australian representative species; but the first two are considered by D. G. Elliot (_Ibis._ 1878, p. 56) and Count Salvadori (_Ornitol. della Papuasia_, ii. 510) to be inseparable. There is a greater unanimity in regard to the species of the so-called genus _Manucodia_ proper, of which four are admitted--_M. chalybeata_ or _chalybea_ from north-western New Guinea, _M. comriei_ from the south-eastern part of the same country, _M. atra_ of wide distribution within the Papuan area, and _M. jobiensis_ peculiar to the island which gives it a name. Little is known of the habits of these birds, except that they are, as already mentioned, remarkable for their vocal powers, which, in _P. keraudreni_, Lesson describes (_Voy. de la Coquille_, "Zoologie," i. 638) as enabling them to pass through every note of the gamut. (A. N.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] _Manucodiata_ was used by M. J. Brisson (_Ornithologie_, ii. 130)
as a generic term equivalent to the Linnaean _Paradisea_. In 1783
Boddaert, when assigning scientific names to the birds figured by
Daubenton, called the subject of one of them (_Pl. enlum._ 634)
_Manucodia chalybea_, the first word being apparently an accidental
curtailment of the name of Brisson's genus to which he referred it.
Nevertheless some writers have taken it as evidence of an intention
to found a new genus by that name, and hence the importation of
_Manucodia_ into scientific nomenclature, and the English form to
correspond.

MANUEL I., COMNENUS (c. 1120-1180), Byzantine emperor (1143-1180), the fourth son of John II., was born about 1120. Having distinguished himself in his father's Turkish war, he was nominated emperor in preference to his elder surviving brother. Endowed with a fine physique and great personal courage, he devoted himself whole-heartedly to a military career. He endeavoured to restore by force of arms the predominance of the Byzantine empire in the Mediterranean countries, and so was involved in conflict with his neighbours on all sides. In 1144 he brought back Raymond of Antioch to his allegiance, and in the following year drove the Turks out of Isauria. In 1147 he granted a passage through his dominions to two armies of crusaders under Conrad III. of Germany and Louis VII. of France; but the numerous outbreaks of overt or secret hostility between the Franks and the Greeks on their line of march, for which both sides were to blame, nearly precipitated a conflict between Manuel and his guests. In the same year the emperor made war upon Roger of Sicily, whose fleet captured Corfu and plundered the Greek towns, but in 1148 was defeated with the help of the Venetians. In 1149 Manuel recovered Corfu and prepared to take the offensive against the Normans. With an army mainly composed of mercenary Italians he invaded Sicily and Apulia, and although the progress of both these expeditions was arrested by defeats on land and sea, Manuel maintained a foothold in southern Italy, which was secured to him by a peace in 1155, and continued to interfere in Italian politics. In his endeavour to weaken the control of Venice over the trade of his empire he made treaties with Pisa and Genoa; to check the aspirations of Frederic I. of Germany he supported the free Italian cities with his gold and negotiated with pope Alexander III. In spite of his friendliness towards the Roman church Manuel was refused the title of "Augustus" by Alexander, and he nowhere succeeded in attaching the Italians permanently to his interests. None the less in a war with the Venetians (1172-74), he not only held his ground in Italy but drove his enemies out of the Aegean Sea. On his northern frontier Manuel reduced the rebellious Serbs to vassalage (1150-52) and made repeated attacks upon the Hungarians with a view to annexing their territory along the Save. In the wars of 1151-53 and 1163-68 he led his troops into Hungary but failed to maintain himself there; in 1168, however, a decisive victory near Semlin enabled him to conclude a peace by which Dalmatia and other frontier strips were ceded to him. In 1169 he sent a joint expedition with King Amalric of Jerusalem to Egypt, which retired after an ineffectual attempt to capture Damietta. In 1158-59 he fought with success against Raymond of Antioch and the Turks of Iconium, but in later wars against the latter he made no headway. In 1176 he was decisively beaten by them in the pass of Myriokephalon, where he allowed himself to be surprised in line of march. This disaster, though partly retrieved in the campaign of the following year, had a serious effect upon his vitality; henceforth he declined in health and in 1180 succumbed to a slow fever.

In spite of his military prowess Manuel achieved but in a slight degree his object of restoring the East Roman empire. His victories were counterbalanced by numerous defeats, sustained by his subordinates, and his lack of statesmanlike talent prevented his securing the loyalty of his subjects. The expense of keeping up his mercenary establishment and the sumptuous magnificence of his court put a severe strain upon the financial resources of the state. The subsequent rapid collapse of the Byzantine empire was largely due to his brilliant but unproductive reign. Manuel married, firstly, a sister-in-law of Conrad III. of Germany; and secondly, a daughter of Raymond of Antioch. His successor, Alexis II., was a son of the latter.

See John Cinnamus, _History of John and Manuel_ (ed. 1836, Bonn); E.
Gibbon, _The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ (ed. Bury, London,
1896), v. 229 sqq., vi. 214 sqq.; G. Finlay, _History of Greece_ (ed.
1877, Oxford), iii. 143-197; H. v. Kap-Herr, _Die abendländische
Politik Kaiser Manuels_ (Strassburg, 1881). (M. O. B. C.)

MANUEL II. PALAEOLOGUS (1350-1425), Byzantine emperor from 1391 to 1425, was born in 1350. At the time of his father's death he was a hostage at the court of Bayezid at Brusa, but succeeded in making his escape; he was forthwith besieged in Constantinople by the sultan, whose victory over the Christians at Nicopolis, however (Sept. 28, 1396), did not secure for him the capital. Manuel subsequently set out in person to seek help from the West, and for this purpose visited Italy, France, Germany and England, but without material success; the victory of Timur in 1402, and the death of Bayezid in the following year were the first events to give him a genuine respite from Ottoman oppression. He stood on friendly terms with Mahommed I., but was again besieged in his capital by Murad II. in 1422. Shortly before his death he was forced to sign an agreement whereby the Byzantine empire undertook to pay tribute to the sultan.

Manuel was the author of numerous works of varied
character--theological, rhetorical, poetical and letters. Most of
these are printed in Migne, _Patrologia graeca_, clvi.; the letters
have been edited by E. Legrand (1893). There is a special monograph,
by B. de Xivrey (in _Mémoires de l'Institut de France_, xix. (1853),
highly commended by C. Krumbacher, whose _Geschichte der
byzantinischen Litteratur_ (1897) should also be consulted.

MANUEL I. (d. 1263), emperor of Trebizond, surnamed the Great Captain ([Greek: ho stratêgikôtatos]), was the second son of Alexius I., first emperor of Trebizond, and ruled from 1228 to 1263. He was unable to deliver his empire from vassalage, first to the Seljuks and afterwards to the Mongols. He vainly negotiated for a dynastic alliance with the Franks, by which he hoped to secure the help of Crusaders.

MANUEL II., the descendant of Manuel I., reigned only a few months in 1332-1333. Manuel III. reigned from 1390 to 1417, but the only interest attaching to his name arises from his connexion with Timur, whose vassal he became without resistance.

See G. Finlay, _History of Greece_ (ed. 1877, Oxford), iv. 338-340,
340-341, 386; Ph. Fallmerayer, _Geschichte des Kaisertums Trapezunt_
(Munich, 1827), i. chs. 8, 14, ii. chs. 4, 5; T. E. Evangelides,
[Greek: Historia tês Trapezountos] (Odessa, 1898), 71-73, 87-88,
126-132.

MANUEL, EUGENE (1823-1901), French poet and man of letters, was born in Paris, the son of a Jewish doctor, on the 13th of July 1823. He was educated at the École Normale, and taught rhetoric for some years in provincial schools and then in Paris. In 1870 he entered the department of public instruction, and in 1878 became inspector-general. His works include: _Pages intimes_ (1866), which received a prize from the Academy; _Poèmes populaires_ (1874); _Pendant la guerre_ (1871), patriotic poems, which were forbidden in Alsace-Lorraine by the German authorities; _En voyage_ (1881), poems; _La France_ (4 vols., 1854-1858); a school-book written in collaboration with his brother-in-law, Lévi Alavarès; _Les Ouvriers_ (1870), a drama dealing with social questions, which was crowned by the Academy; _L'Absent_ (1873), a comedy; _Poésies du foyer et de l'école_ (1889), and editions of the works of J. B. Rousseau (1852) and André Chénier (1884). He died in Paris in 1901.

His _Poésies complètes_ (2 vols., 1899) contained some fresh poems; to
his _Mélanges en prose_ (Paris, 1905) is prefixed an introductory note
by A. Cahen.

MANUEL, JACQUES ANTOINE (1775-1827), French politician and orator, was born on the 10th of December 1775. When seventeen years old he entered the army, which he left in 1797 to become a lawyer. In 1814 he was chosen a member of the chamber of representatives, and in 1815 he urged the claim of Napoleon's son to the French throne and protested against the restoration of the Bourbons. After this event be actively opposed the government, his eloquence making him the foremost orator among the members of the Left. In February 1823 his opposition to the proposed expedition into Spain to help Ferdinand VII. against his rebellious subjects produced a tumult in the Assembly. Manuel was expelled, but he refused to accept this sentence, and force was employed to remove him. He died on the 20th of August 1827.

MANUEL, LOUIS PIERRE (1751-1793), French writer and Revolutionist, was born at Montargis (Loiret). He entered the Congregation of the Christian Doctrine, and became tutor to the son of a Paris banker. In 1783 he published a pamphlet, called _Essais historiques, critiques, littéraires, et philosophiques_, for which he was imprisoned in the Bastille. He embraced the revolutionary ideas, and after the taking of the Bastille became a member of the provisional municipality of Paris. He was one of the leaders of the _émeutes_ of the 20th of June and the 10th of August 1792, played an important part in the formation of the revolutionary commune which assured the success of the latter _coup_, and was made _procureur_ of the commune. He was present at the September massacres and saved several prisoners, and on the 7th of September 1792 was elected one of the deputies from Paris to the convention, where he was one of the promoters of the proclamation of the republic. He suppressed the decoration of the Cross of St Louis, which he called a stain on a man's coat, and demanded the sale of the palace of Versailles. His missions to the king, however, changed his sentiments; he became reconciled to Louis, courageously refused to vote for the death of the sovereign, and had to tender his resignation as deputy. He retired to Montargis, where he was arrested, and was guillotined in Paris on the 17th of November 1793. Besides the work cited above and his political pamphlets, he was the author of _Coup d'oeil philosophique sur le règne de St Louis_ (1786); _L'Année française_ (1788); _La Bastille dévoilée_ (1789); _La Police de Paris dévoilée_ (1791); and _Lettres sur la Révolution_ (1792). In 1792 he was prosecuted for publishing an edition of the _Lettres de Mirabeau à Sophie_, but was acquitted.

MANUEL DE MELLO, DOM FRANCISCO (? 1611-1666), Portuguese writer, a connexion on his father's side of the royal house of Braganza, was a native of Lisbon. He studied the Humanities at the Jesuit College of S. Antão, where he showed a precocious talent, and tradition says that at the age of fourteen he composed a poem in _ottava rima_ to celebrate the recovery of Bahia from the Dutch, while at seventeen he wrote a scientific work, _Concordancias mathematicas_. The death of his father, Dom Luiz de Mello, drove him early to soldiering, and having joined a contingent for the Flanders war, he found himself in the historic storm of January 1627, when the pick of the Portuguese fleet suffered shipwreck in the Bay of Biscay. He spent much of the next ten years of his life in military routine work in the Peninsula, varied by visits to the court of Madrid, where he contracted a friendship with the Spanish poet Quevedo and earned the favour of the powerful minister Olivares. In 1637 the latter despatched him in company with the conde de Linhares on a mission to pacify the revolted city of Evora, and on the same occasion the duke of Braganza, afterwards King John IV. (for whom he acted as confidential agent at Madrid), employed him to satisfy King Philip of his loyalty to the Spanish crown. In the following year he suffered a short imprisonment in Lisbon. In 1639 he was appointed colonel of one of the regiments raised for service in Flanders, and in June that year he took a leading part in defending Corunna against a French fleet commanded by the archbishop of Bordeaux, while in the following August he directed the embarcation of an expeditionary force of 10,000 men when Admiral Oquendo sailed with seventy ships to meet the French and Dutch. He came safely through the naval defeat in the channel suffered by the Spaniards at the hands of Van Tromp, and on the outbreak of the Catalonian rebellion became chief of the staff to the commander-in-chief of the royal forces, and was selected to write an account of the campaign, the _Historia de la guerra de Cataluña,_ which became a Spanish classic. On the proclamation of Portuguese independence in 1640 he was imprisoned by order of Olivares, and when released hastened to offer his sword to John IV. He travelled to England, where he spent some time at the court of Charles I., and thence passing over to Holland assisted the Portuguese ambassador to equip a fleet in aid of Portugal, and himself brought it safely to Lisbon in October 1641. For the next three years he was employed in various important military commissions and further busied himself in defending by his pen the king's title to his newly acquired throne. An intrigue with the beautiful countess of Villa Nova, and her husband's jealousy, led to his arrest on the 19th of November 1644 on a false charge of assassination, and he lay in prison about nine years. Though his innocence was clear, the court of his Order, that of Christ, influenced by his enemies, deprived him of his _commenda_ and sentenced him to perpetual banishment in India with a heavy money fine, and the king would not intervene to save him. Owing perhaps to the intercession of the queen regent of France and other powerful friends, his sentence was finally commuted into one of exile to Brazil. During his long imprisonment he finished and printed his history of the Catalonian War, and also wrote and published a volume of Spanish verses and some religious treatises, and composed in Portuguese a volume of homely philosophy, the _Carta de Guia de Casados_ and a _Memorial_ in his own defence to the king, which Herculano considered "perhaps the most eloquent piece of reasoning in the language." During his exile in Brazil, whither he sailed on the 17th of April 1655, he lived at Bahia, where he wrote one of his _Epanaphoras de varia historia_ and two parts of his masterpiece, the _Apologos dialogaes_. He returned home in 1659, and from then until 1663 we find him on and off in Lisbon, frequenting the celebrated _Academia dos Generosos_, of which he was five times elected president. In the last year he proceeded to Parma and Rome, by way of England, and France, and Alphonso VI. charged him to negotiate with the Curia about the provision of bishops for Portuguese sees and to report on suitable marriages for the king and his brother. During his stay in Rome he published his _Obras morales_, dedicated to Queen Catherine, wife of Charles II. of England, and his _Cartas familiares_. On his way back to Portugal he printed his _Obras metricas_ at Lyons in May 1665, and he died in Lisbon the following year.

Manuel de Mello's early Spanish verses are tainted with Gongorism, but his Portuguese sonnets and _cartas_ on moral subjects are notable for their power, sincerity and perfection of form. He strove successfully to emancipate himself from foreign faults of style, and by virtue of his native genius, and his knowledge of the traditional poetry of the people, and the best Quinhentista models, he became Portugal's leading lyric poet and prose writer of the 17th century. As with Camoens, imprisonments and exile contributed to make Manuel de Mello a great writer. His _Letters_, addressed to the leading nobles, ecclesiastics, diplomats and literati of the time, are written in a conversational style, lighted up by flashes of wit and enriched with apposite illustrations and quotations. His commerce with the best authors appears in the _Hospital das lettras_, a brilliant chapter of criticism forming part of the _Apologos dialogaes_. His comedy in _redondilhas_, the _Auto do Fidalgo Aprendiz_, is one of the last and quite the worthiest production of the school of Gil Vicente, and may be considered an anticipation of Molière's _Le Bourgeois gentilhomme_.

There is no uniform edition of his works, but a list of them will be
found in his _Obras morales_, and the various editions are set out in
Innocencio da Silva's _Diccionario bibliographico portugues_. See _Dom
Francisco Manuel de Mello, his Life and Writings_, by Edgar Prestage
(Manchester, 1905), "D. Francisco Manuel de Mello, documentos
biographicos" and "D. Francisco Manuel de Mello, obras autographas e
ineditas," by the same writer, in the _Archivo historico portuguez_
for 1909. Manuel de Mello's prose style is considered at length by G.
Cirot in _Mariana historien_ (Bordeaux, 1905). pp. 378 seq.
(E. Pr.)

MANUL (_Felis manul_), a long-haired small wild cat from the deserts of Central Asia, ranging from Tibet to Siberia. The coat is long and soft, pale silvery grey or light buff in hue, marked with black on the chest and upper parts of the limbs, with transverse stripes on the loins and rings on the tail of the same hue. The Manul preys upon small mammals and birds. A separate generic name, _Trichaelurus_, has been proposed for this species by Dr K. Satunin.

MANURES AND MANURING. The term "manure" originally meant that which was "worked by hand" (Fr. _manoeuvre_), but gradually came to apply to any process by which the soil could be improved. Prominent among such processes was that of directly applying "manure" to the land, manure in this sense being what we now call "farmyard manure" or "dung," the excreta of farm animals mixed with straw or other litter. Gradually, however, the use of the term spread to other materials, some of home origin, some imported, some manufactured by artificial processes, but all useful as a means of improving the fertility of the soil. Hence we have two main classes of manures: (a) what may be termed "natural manures," and (b) "artificial manures." Manures, again, may be divided according to the materials from which they are made--e.g. "bone manure," "fish manure," "wool manure," &c.; or according to the constituents which they mainly supply--e.g. "phosphatic manures," "potash manures," "nitrogenous manures," or there may be numerous combinations of these to form mixed or "compound" manures. Whatever it be, the word "manure" is now generally applied to anything which is used for fertilizing the soil. In America the term "fertilizers" is more generally adopted, and in Great Britain the introduction of the "Fertilizers and Feeding Stuffs Act" has effected a certain amount of change in the same direction. The modern tendency to turn attention less to the consideration of manurial applications given to land and more to the physical and mechanical changes introduced thereby in the soil itself, would seem to be carrying the word "manure" back more to its original meaning.

The subject of manures and their application involves a prior consideration of plant life and its requirements. The plant, growing in the soil, and surrounded by the atmosphere, derives from these two sources its nourishment and means of growth through the various stages of its development.

Chemical analysis has shown that plants are composed of water, organic
or combustible matters, and inorganic or mineral matters. Water
constitutes by far the greater part of a living plant; a grass crop
will contain about 75% of water, a turnip crop 89 or 90%. The organic
or combustible matters are those which are lost, along with the water,
when the plant is burnt; the inorganic or mineral matters are those
which are left behind as an "ash" after the burning. The combustible
matter is composed of six elements: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen,
nitrogen, sulphur and a little phosphorus. About one-half of the
combustible matter of plants is carbon. Along with hydrogen and oxygen
the carbon forms the cellulose, starch, sugar, &c., which plants
contain, and with these same elements and sulphur the carbon forms the
albuminoids of plants. The inorganic or mineral matters comprise a
comparatively small part of the plant, but they contain, as essential
constituents of plant life, the following elements: potassium,
calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus and sulphur. In addition, other,
but not essential, elements are found in the ash e.g. sodium, silicon
and chlorine, together with small quantities of manganese and other
rarer elements.

The above constituents that have been classed as "essential," are
necessary for the growth of the plant, and absence of any one will
involve failure. This has been shown by growing plants in water
dissolved in which are salts of the elements present in plants. By
omitting in turn one or other of the elements aforesaid it is found
that the plants will not grow after they have used up the materials
contained in the seed itself. These elements are accordingly termed
"essential," and it therefore becomes necessary to inquire how they
are to be supplied.

The atmosphere is the great storehouse of organic plant food. The
leaves take up, through their stomata, the carbonic acid and other
gases of the atmosphere. The carbonic acid, under the influence of
light, is decomposed in the chlorophyll cells, oxygen is given off and
carbon is assimilated, being subsequently built up into the various
organic bodies forming the plant's structure. It would seem, too, that
plants can take up a small quantity of ammonia by their leaves, and
also water to some extent, but the free or uncombined nitrogen of the
air cannot be directly assimilated by the leaves of plants.

From the soil, on the other hand, the plant obtains, by means of its
roots, its mineral requirements, also sulphur and phosphorus, and
nearly all its nitrogen and water. Carbon, too, in the case of fungi,
is obtained from the decayed vegetable matter in the soil. The roots
are able not only to take up soluble salts that are presented to them,
but they can attack and render soluble the solid constituents of the
soil, thus transforming them into available plant food. In this way
important substances, such as phosphoric acid and potash, are supplied
to the plant, as also lime. Roots can further supply themselves with
nitrogen in the form of nitrates, the ammonia and other nitrogenous
bodies undergoing ready conversion into nitrates in the soil. These
various mineral constituents, being now transferred to the plant, go
to form new tissue, and ultimately seed, or else accumulate in the sap
and are deposited on the older tissue.

Whether the nitrogen of the air can be utilized by plants or not has
been long and strenuously discussed, Boussingault first, and then
Lawes, Gilbert and Pugh, maintaining that there was no evidence of
this utilization. But it was always recognized that certain plants,
clover for example, enriched the land with nitrogen to an extent
greater than could be accounted for by the mere supply to them of
nitrates in the soil. Ultimately Hellriegel supplied the explanation
by showing that, at all events, certain of the Leguminosae, by the
medium of swellings or "nodules" on their roots, were able to fix the
atmospheric nitrogen in the soil, and to convert it into nitrates for
the use of the plant. This was found to be the result of the action of
certain organisms within the nodules themselves, which in turn fed
upon the carbohydrates of the plant and were thus living in a state of
"symbiosis" with it. So far, however, this has not been shown to be
the case with any other plants than the Leguminosae, and, though it is
asserted by some that many other plants can take up the nitrogen of
the air directly through their leaves, there is no clear evidence as
yet of this.

We must now consider how the different requirements of the plant in regard to the elements necessary to maintain its life and to build up its structure affect the question of manuring.

Under conditions of natural growth and decay, when no crops are gathered in, or consumed on the land by live stock, the herbage, on dying down and decaying, returns to the atmosphere and the soil the elements taken from them during life; but, under cultivation, a succession of crops deprives the land of the constituents which are essential to healthy and luxuriant growth. Without an adequate return to the land of the matters removed in the produce, its fertility cannot be maintained for many years. In newly opened countries, where old forests have been cleared and the land brought under cultivation, the virgin soil often possesses at first a high degree of fertility, but gradually its productive power decreases from year to year. Where land is plentiful and easy to be obtained it is more convenient to clear fresh forest land than to improve more or less exhausted land by the application of manure, labour and skill. But in all densely peopled countries, and where the former mode of cultivation cannot be followed, it is necessary to resort to artificial means to restore the natural fertility of the land and to maintain and increase its productiveness. That continuous cropping without return of manure ends in deterioration of the soil is well seen in the case of the wheat-growing areas in America. Crops of wheat were taken one after another, the straw was burned and nothing was returned to the land; the produce began to fall off and the cultivators moved on to fresh lands, there to meet, in time, with the same experience; and now that the available land has been more or less intensely occupied, or that new land is too far removed for ready transport of the produce, it has been found necessary to introduce the system of manuring, and America now manufactures and uses for herself large quantities of artificial and other manures.

That the same exhaustion of soil would go on in Great Britain, if unchecked by manuring, is known to every practical farmer, and, if evidence were needed, it is supplied by the renowned Rothamsted experiments of Lawes and Gilbert, on a heavy land, and also by the more recent Woburn experiments of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, conducted on a light sandy soil. The following table will illustrate this point, and show also how under a system of manuring the fertility is maintained:--

TABLE 1.--Showing Exhaustion of Land by continuous Cropping without Manure, and the maintenance of fertility through manuring. (Rothamsted 50 years; Woburn 30 years.)

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 1. Rothamsted (heavy land). |
+------+-----+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | | | Average yield of corn per acre. |
| | | +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+-------------+
|Crop. |Plot.| Treatment. | 8 years, | 10 years,| 10 years,| 10 years,| 10 years,| 10 years,| Average |
| | | |1844-1851.|1852-1861.|1862-1871.|1872-1881.|1882-1891.|1892-1901.| of 50 years,|
| | | | | | | | | | 1852-1901. |
+------+-----+--------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+-------------+
| | | | Bush. | Bush. | Bush. | Bush. | Bush. | Bush. | Bush. |
|Wheat | 3 |Unmanured | | | | | | | |
| | | continuously | 17.2 | 15.9 | 14.5 | 10.4 | 12.6 | 12.3 | 43.1 |
| | 2 |Farm-yard | | | | | | | |
| | | manure yearly| 28.0 | 34.2 | 37.5 | 28.7 | 38.2 | 39.2 | 35.6 |
|Barley| 7-2 |Unmanured | | | | | | | |
| | | continuously | -- | 22.4 | 17.5 | 13.7 | 12.7 | 10.0 | 15.3 |
| | 1-0 |Farm-yard | | | | | | | |
| | | manure yearly| -- | 45.0 | 51.5 | 50.2 | 47.6 | 44.3 | 47.7 |
+------+-----+--------------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+-------------+
| 2. Woburn (light land). |
+------+-----+--------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | | | Average yield of corn per acre. |
| | | +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+
|Crop. |Plot.| Treatment. | 10 years, | 10 years, | 10 years, | Average |
| | | | 1877-1886. | 1887-1896. | 1897-1906. | of 30 years, |
| | | | | | | 1877-1906. |
+------+-----+--------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+
| | | | Bush. | Bush. | Bush. | Bush. |
|Wheat | 7 |Unmanured | | | | |
| | | continuously | 17.4 | 14.5 | 10.8 | 14.2 |
| | 11b |Farm-yard | | | | |
| | | manure yearly| 26.7 | 27.8 | 24.0 | 26.2 |
|Barley| 7 |Unmanured | | | | |
| | | continuously | 23.0 | 18.1 | 13.3 | 18.1 |
| | 11b |Farm-yard | | | | |
| | | manure yearly| 40.0 | 39.9 | 36.6 | 38.8 |
+------+-----+--------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+

Whereas on the heavier and richer land of Rothamsted the produce of unmanured wheat has fallen in 58 years from 17.2 bushels to 12.3 bushels, on the lighter and poorer soil of Woburn it has fallen in 30 years from 17.4 bushels to 10.8 bushels; barley has in 50 years at Rothamsted gone from 22.4 bushels to 10 bushels, whilst at Woburn (which is better suited for barley) it has fallen in 30 years from 23 bushels to 13.3 bushels. At both Rothamsted and Woburn the application of farm-yard manure has kept the produce of wheat and barley practically up to what it was at the beginning, or even increased it. Similar conclusions can be drawn from the use of artificial manures at each of the experimental stations named, exemplifying the fact that with suitable manuring crops of wheat or barley can be grown years after year without the land undergoing deterioration, whereas if left unmanured it gradually declines in fertility. Practical proof has further been given of this in the well-known "continuous corn-growing" system pursued, in his regular farming, by Mr John Prout of Sawbridgeworth, Herts, and subsequently by his son, Mr W. A. Prout, since the year 1862. By supplying, in the form of artificial manures, the necessary constituents for his crops, Mr Prout was enabled to grow year after year, with only an occasional interval for a clover crop and to allow of cleaning the land, excellent crops of wheat, barley and oats, and without, it may be added, the use of farm-yard manure at all.

In considering the economical use of manures on the land regard must be had to the following points: (1) the requirements of the crops intended to be cultivated; (2) the physical condition of the soil; (3) the chemical composition of the soil; and (4) the composition of the manure. Briefly stated, the guiding principle of manuring economically and profitably is to meet the requirements of the crops intended to be cultivated, by incorporating with the soil, in the most efficacious states of combination, the materials in which it is deficient, or which the various crops usually grown on the farm do not find in the land in a sufficiently available condition to ensure an abundant harvest. Soils vary greatly in composition, and hence it will be readily understood that in one locality or on one particular field a certain manure may be used with great benefit, while in another field the same manure has little or no effect upon the produce.

For plant life to thrive certain elements are necessary, viz. carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, among the organic or combustible matters, and among the inorganic or mineral matters, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus and sulphur. We must now examine the extent to which these necessary elements occur in either of the two great storehouses, the atmosphere and the soil, and how their removal in the form of crops may be made up for by the use of manures, so that the soil may be maintained in a state of fertility. Further, we must consider what functions these elements perform in regard to plant life, and, lastly, the forms in which they can best be applied for the use of crops.

Of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen there is no lack, the atmosphere providing carbonic acid in abundance, and rain giving the elements hydrogen and oxygen, so that these are supplied from natural sources. Iron, magnesium and sulphur also are seldom or never deficient in soils, and do not require to be supplemented by manuring. Accordingly, the elements for which there is the greatest demand by plants, and which the soil does not provide in sufficiency, are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and, possibly, calcium. Manuring, apart from the physical and mechanical advantages which it confers upon soils, practically resolves itself, therefore, into the supply of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and it is with the supply of these that we shall accordingly deal in particular.

1. _Nitrogen._--Though we are still far from knowing what are the
exact functions which nitrogen fulfils in plant life, there is no
doubt as to the important part which it plays in the vegetable growth
of the plant and in the formation of stem and leaf. Without a
sufficiency of nitrogen the plant would be stunted in growth. Its
growth, indeed, may be said to be measured by the supply of nitrogen,
for while mineral constituents like phosphoric acid and potash are
only taken up to the extent that the plant can use them i.e. according
to its rate of growth, this actual growth itself would seem to be
determined by the extent of the nitrogen supply. This it is which
causes the ready response given to a crop by the application of some
quickly-acting nitrogenous material like nitrate of soda, and which is
marked by the dark-green colour produced and the pushing-on of the
growth. Similarly, this use of nitrogen, by prolonging growth, defers
maturity, while over-use of nitrogen tends to produce increase of leaf
and lateness of ripening. Along with this growth of the vegetative
portions, and seen, in the case of corn crops, mainly in the straw,
there is a corresponding decrease, from the use of nitrogen in excess,
in the quality of the grain. In corn a smaller grain and lesser weight
per bushel are the result of over-nitrogen manuring. The composition
of the grain is likewise affected, becoming more nitrogenous. With
crops, however, where rapid green growth is required, nitrogen effects
the purpose well, though here, too, over-manuring with nitrogen will
tend to produce rankness and coarseness of growth. Experiments at
Rothamsted and elsewhere, as well as everyday practice of the farm,
bear testimony to the paramount importance of nitrogen-supply, and to
the crops it is capable of raising. This applies not only to corn
crops of all kinds, but to root crops, grass, potatoes, &c. Leguminous
crops alone seem to have no need of it. In view of this practical
experience, Liebig's "mineral theory"--according to which he laid down
that plants only needed to have mineral constituents, such as
phosphoric acid, potash and lime, supplied to them--reads strangely
nowadays. The use of mineral manures without nitrogen other than that
already present in the soil or supplied in rain has been shown, alike
at Rothamsted and Woburn, to produce crops of wheat and barley little
better than those from unmanured land. The lack of nitrogen in
ordinary cultivated soils is much more marked than is that of mineral
constituents, and consequently even with the application of nitrogen
alone (as by the use of nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia), good
crops have been grown for a large number of years. This has been shown
both at Rothamsted and at Woburn. On the other hand, experiments at
these stations have demonstrated that better and more lasting results
are obtained by the judicious use of nitrogenous materials in
conjunction with phosphates and potash.