MORTON 317 MOSCHELES elected to Congress; re-elected two years later. Appointed minister to France by President Garfield. In 1888 he was elected Vice-President on the ticket headed by Benjamin Harrison, and was governor of New York in 1894-1896. Died in 1920. MORTON, OLIVER PERRY, an American statesman; born in Wayne co., Ind., Aug. 4, 1823; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1847 ; elected gov- ernor of Indiana in 1861, and by his loy- alty to the government did much to sus- tain the administration during the try- ing times of the Civil War. He was elected a United States Senator from Indiana as a Republican in 1867, serving till 1877, and in the latter year was a member of the Electoral Commission. He died in Indianapolis, Ind., Nov. 1, 1877. MORTON, PAUL, American financier and politician; born in Detroit in 1856; died in New York City in 1911. He was educated in Nebraska public schools, and at the age of 16 entered the employ of the Burlington and Missouri River rail- road as office boy. By his abilities he gained rapid promotion, becoming vice- president of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., in 1890. In 1904 he was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Roosevelt, but in 1905 he resigned, to be- come president of the Equitable Life As- surance Co. of New York City. MORTON, WILLLA.M THOMAS GREEN, an American dental surgeon, and the reputed discoverer of anaesthetics ; born in Charlton, Mass., in 1819. In 1840 he commenced the study of den- tistry in Baltimore, and began to prac- tice in Boston. In 1844, in the latter city, while engaged in experimental study, he discovered ethereal anaethesia. It was first publicly tested on Oct. 16, 1846, in a surgical operation at the Mas- sachusetts General Hospital. He pat- ented his new anaesthetic under the name of "letheon," offering its advantages free to the charitable institutions of England and the United States. The committee of the French Academy awarded the Montyon prize of $1,250 to be equally divided between Dr. Jackson and Dr. Morton; but the latter refused to receive this joint award, protested against the decision of the Academy, and in 1852 received the Montyon prize medal. He died in New York City, July 15, 1868. MOSAIC, a term applied to any work which exhibits a representation on a plane surface by the joining together of minute pieces of hard, colored sub- stances, such as marble, glass, or natural stones united by cement (mastic), and serving as floors, walls, and the orna- mental coverings of columns. Mosaic work is of Asiatic origin, and is proba- bly referred to in Esther, ch. i: 6, about 519 B. C. It had attained to great excel- lence in Greece, in the time of Alexander and his successors. The Opus tesselatum was a tesselated geometrical pavement. Byzantine mosaics date from the 4th cen- tury A. D. The art was revived in Italy by Tafi, Gaddi, Cimabue, and Giotto, who designed mosaics, and introduced a higher style in the 13th century. In the 16th century Titian and Veronese also designed subjects for this art. The prac- tice of copying paintings in mosaics came into vogue in the 17th century; and there is now a workshop in the Vatican. Modern Roman mosaic consists of pieces of artificial enamel, in place of natural stone. Italy at present leads in this art, and St. Peter's in Rome is remarkably rich in specimens of such work. In pyrotechnics, a device consisting of a surface with diamond-shaped compart- ments, formed by two series of parallel lines crossing each other. The effect is produced by placing at each intersection four jets of fire which run into the ad- joining ones. M0SASAT7RXJS, in palasontology, the name given by Conybeare to a gigantic marine Saurian, called by Wagler Sau- rochampsa. It is now made the type of a family, Mosasauridse. M. camperi was discovered in the Maestricht chalk in 1780, and was named by Sommering La- certa gigantea. It came into possession of the French at the fall of Maestricht (1794). Another species, M. princeps, is believed to have been 70 feet long. MOSBY, JOHN SINGLETON, an American military officer; born in Pow- hatan CO., Va., Dec. 6, 1833; was gradu- ated at the University of Virginia, and became a lawyer. On the outbreak of the Civil War, he entered the Confederate service as adjutant of the 1st Virginia Cavalry. In 1862-1865 he was colonel of the "Partisan Rangers," an independent cavalry command that did very effective work in cutting National communica- tions, capturing outposts, etc. After the war he practiced law at Warrentown, Va.; was United States consul at Hong Kong in 1875-1885. He wrote "War Reminiscences" (1887) and "The Dawn of the Real South" (1901). Died in 1916. MOSCHELES, IGNAZ (mosh'e-les), a Bohemian musician; born in Prague, May 30, 1794, of Jewish parents; was between 1808 and 1816 the favorite music master Vol. VI — Cyc — u
