McSHS&RT
509
lAADAOASOAR
McSherry, James, author; b. at Liberty Town, Fred-
erick County. Maryland, 29 July, 1819; d. at Fred-
erick City. Maryland, 13 July, 1869, was the son of
James MoSherry and Anne Ridgely Sappington, and
grandson of Patrick McSherry, who came from Ireland
in 1745 to Lancaster County, Pa., and removed later to
Maryland. He graduated from Mount St. Mary's Col-
lege, Emmitsburg, Md., in 1838, studied law, and was
admitted to the bar in 1840. He began the practice of
his profession in Gettysburg, Pa., but returned to
Maryland in 1841, marrying Eliza Spjiurier on 30 Sep-
tember of that year. Of his fiye children the oldest,
James, became chief justice of Maryland. He con-
tinued in the practice of law at Frederick until his
death. Mr. McSherry was always of a literary turn,
his writings showing a strong Catholic spirit, and is
best known for his " History of Maryland (Baltimore.
1849) . He was a frequent contributor to the " United
States Catholic Magazine", and also wrote "P6re
Jean, or the Jesuit Missionary" (1849) and " Willitoff,
or the Days of James the First : a Tale " ( 1851) , repub-
lished in German (Fn^fort, 1858).
Lamb. Biog. Diet, of Ike U. <S., V, 312; Soharf. History of Western Maryland, I (Philadelphia, 1882). 412-13.
J. P. W. McNeal.
McSherry, James, jurist, son of the aboye, b. at Frederick, Marj-land, 30 December, 1842; died there 23 October, 1907. He received a collegiate education to the year before graduation at Mount St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, but was compelled to leave there in 1861 on account of his outspoken South- ern sympathies, being arrested and confined for a time at Fort McHenry. Baltimore. He studied law in his father's office and was admitted to the bar on 8 Feb- ruary, 1864. On 26 February, 1866, he married Miss Clara Louise McAleer^ by whom he had six children. In 1887 he was appointed chief judge of the circuit court for Frederick and Montgomery Counties and, as such, a meml)er of the court of appeals of the State, and was elected for the full term on 8 November, 1887, without opposition. Judge McSherry was appointed chief justice of the court of appeals on 25 January, 1896, which position he filled witn distinction until ms death. The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon Judge M^heny by Mount St. Mary's College in 1904 and by the University of Maryland in 1907.
The Sun (Baltimore, 34 October, 1907); Nat. Cyc. of Amer. Biography, a. v.
J. P. W. McNeal.
McSherry, Richard, physician; b. at Martinsbiirg, Va. (now \V. Va.), 21 November, 1817; d. Baltimore, Md., 7 October, 1885, son of Dr. Ricliard McSherry. He was educated at Georgetown College and at the University of Maryland, and received the degree of M. D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1841. Being appointed assistant surgeon on the medical corps of the U. S. Army on 21 August. 1838, he served under General Taylor in the Seminole War and resigned his commission on 30 April, 1840. He married in 1842 a daughter of Robert Wilson of Baltimore. From 1843 to 1856 he served as assistant surgeon in the U. S. Navy, and after that practised medicine in Baltimore until 1883. He was the first president of the Balti- more Academy of Medicine, of which he was also one of the founders. Dr. McSherry contributed to medical journals, and was also the author of " El Puchero, or a Mixed Dish from Mexico" (1850); "Essays" (1869), and "Health and How to Promote It" (1883).
Lamb, Biog. Diet. ofU. S., V, 312.
J. P. W. McNeal.
Mactarifl, a titular see of the Byzantine Empire. This town is not spoken of by any ancient geographers; the " Notitia Afric® " mentions it amon^ the towns of the Byzantine Empire. It is now the village of Mae- tar, headquarters of the civil administration between Kairouan and the Kef, in Tunisia, sitiv!*«d 950 metres
above the sea-level, in a well-watered region. Punic
civilization lon^ flourished here, as is attested by sev-
eral interesting inscriptions. It was counted a Roman
town until the year 170 at least, having become a col-
ony during the last years of Marcus Aurelius, under
the name of ^Elia Aurella Mactaris, as we see from
other Latin inscriptions. In the vicinity of Mactaris a
numl)er of enormous dolmens majr be seen. The re-
mains of the Roman city are very important; among
them are two triumphal arches, an amphitheatre, pub-
lic baths, a temple, an aqueduct, tombs, etc. The
ruins of a basilica have furnished several Christian
epitaphs, among others those of two bishops. There
has also been found an altar covering the remains of
two martyrs, one of whom was named Felix. Six
bishops are known, from 255 to the sixth century,
among them Victor, a contemporary of Cassiodorus,
who tells us that this Victor revised the books of
Cassian.
TouLOTTE, Oi'ographie de VAfrigue chrHienne, Bytactne H Tripolitaine (Montreuil-sur-Mer, 1894), 127-133.
S. Pi^TRIDES.
Madagascar. — On the second day of March, 1500, a fleet of thirteen ships, commanded by Pedro Alvarez Cabral, sailed from Lisbon to explore the Indian Ocean. On 10 August, one vessel of .this fleet, com- manded by Diego Dias, having been parted from the rest by stress of weather, came in signt of a point of land on the east coast of a large island. To this island the name of St. Lawrence was given, the day of its discovery being the feast of that martyr; it is now the island of Madagascar, situated to the south-east of Africa, between 11° 57' 30^ and 25*» 38' 55* S. latitude, and between 43° 10' and 50° 25' East long. Many small islands of less importance are adjacent to it in ^e Indian Ocean and the Mozambique Channel, the principal being St. Mary, Mayotte, and No8si-B4.
The island of Madagascar is, on the whole, very thinly populated, the population averaging little more than thirt'een to the square mile; but this population is unequally distributed, dense in the central regions and sparse in other parts. The principal ethnological divisions are the Hova, the Betsileo, the Sakalava, the Betsimisaraka, the Sihamaka, the Antaimoro. the Antano8}r. Since the French conquest of the island these various peoples, or tribes, have been distributed in provinces, circuits, and districts, all under the ad- ministration of a governor-general who resides at the capital, Tananarivo. Divers opinions have been put forward by the learned as to the origin of the peoples of Madagascar. M. Alfred Grandidier, who is an acknowledged authority in such matters, thinks, and the greater number of anthropologists think with him, that this population is of the black Indonesian race, and is therefore one of the chief groups of the Malayo- Polynesian'countries. Malagasy (the native language) seems to be related to the Nlalayo-Polynesian lan- guages, is, like them, agglutinative^ and has a gram- mar apparently based on general pnnciplcs analogous to theirs. It is very rich on the material and physical side, and poor in the expression of abstract ideas.
The religion of the Malagasies appears to be funda- mentally a kind of mixed Monotneism, under the form of a Fetishism which finds expression in nu- merous superstitious practices of which these people are very tenacious. Even those who have received Christian instruction and baptism retain a tendency to be guided, in the various circumstances of their lives, rather by these superstitious prescriptions than by the dictates of reason and faith. They admit the existence of the soul, but without, apparently, formr ing any very exact notion of it; in their conception, it is not so much a spirit made in the image of the Creator as a double of the man, only more subtile than the visible corporeal man. The Malagasy is naturally prone to lying, cupidity, and sexual Ususs&inl^^^^
