MONSIGNY, iiir.x'senyi-'. Pikrre Alexandre
DE ( 172it-1817). A X"'renth composer, born at
Fauqucmborgnc, Pas-de-Cnlais. He received
some iiistriKtion in lianiiony from Gianotte. in
Paris, and in 1759 produced liis first opera, Les
aicux iudixcrclt. Its success was immediate,
and Monsifinv followed it up with Le cadi dttpS
( 17t)l ). From this lime he had the poet Sedaine
as collaborator. Together they wrote: On ne
s'avisc jamais de tout (17(31)"; Le roi et le fer-
mier ( 1702); Rose et Colas ( 176G); Le d^serteur
(17C9); and Le faucon (1772). After Felix, ou
I'ciifant trouve (1777; text by Sedaine), Mon-
.si^Tiy ceased to write.
MONSOON' (from Fr. monson, mon^on, mous- xijii. it. niDii.soiic, Sp. monzon, Port, inomao, from Slulay /»(?M//i, season, year, monsoon, from Hind. mausiiii, from Ar. mausiiii, monsoon, from ma- saiiiK, to mark). In general, any wind or sys- tem of winds that cliaufjes regularly with the months or seasons. This term was brought to England from the East Indies by the Portu- guese, Spanish, and Italian navigators. Its use in English first occurs in lliilduyt's Voyages. In India. .Siam, and the East Indies there is a very regular cliaiige of the winds with tlic seasons. They blow from southwest or south from April to Octolier. and from northeast or north from Oc- tober to -April. The existence of these winds in India was first made known to the Europeans by the expeditions of Alexander the Great. ^Modern knowledge of the corresponding winds in Siam and the Philippines dates from the mid- dle of the sixteenth century; similar regular seasonal changes in the wind direction charac- terize many ])ortions of the globe, so that Aus- tralia. Texas, ISrazil, Africa, and Kuro|)e have prevailing win<ls at each season of the year: yet the <'ontrast is nowhere so strongly marked as on the south and southeast coasts of Asia and the neighl>oring islands. During the winter sea- son the cool air from the interior of the conti- nent, fiowing outward and keeping near the ground, becomes a north or northeast wind as it flows southward over the China Sea into the Bay of Bengal and into the Arabian Sea. This wind even passes beyond the equator to latitude 10' S., by which time it has lieen dellected into a west wind and fiows eastward over the north- western coast of .Vustralia. South of this zone of north winds are the southeast trade winds of the Southern Hemisphere. By reason of the change from winter to sununer the Asiatic con- tinent iH'comes heated; consequently the north- oast monsdon ceases and a strong indraught takes place, and eventually, in .Inly and .ugu-t. the greater part of the air over the south Imlian Ocean responds to this indraught, so that from latitude 25° S. to latitude 5° S. a strong south- east trade wind prevails. Between latitudes 5° south and 5° north this southeast trade crosses the equator as a .southerly wind, and turning toward the right becomes the southwest monsoon w ind of India. Siam. and the adjacent seas. It was for a long time loiisjdcred doubtful whether the winds of the .Siinlhern Hemispbere could thus cross the equator and enter the Xortheni HiMui- sphere, but the monsoon charts |iul>lished daily for many years by the (Jovernment of India leave us no room to doubt this remarkable change. In the midst of the southeast trades of the southern Indian 0<'ean occur violent typhoons, which move from the neigliborhood of .Java and Northern Australia westward and away from the equal(jr, turning in their course before they reach Jladagascar and move south- eastward until they are lost. These typhoons generally develop in the South Indian Ocean when the northeast monsoon is at its maximum in India.
The southwest monsoon is usually accompanied by rain in portions of India and in the adjacent East Indies. The northeast monsoon brings rain to the west coast of the Bay of Bengal. In gen- eral, the locations of the rain areas vary with the direction of the wind in accordance with the rule that a wind that is forced to ascend over a hilly coast brings rain to it. Through this inter- change between the seasons of northeast and southwest monsdoMs, all of India has an oppor- tunity of being well watered and of raising an- nual crops of grain. Xeverthelcss it occasionally happens that the southwest monsoon fails to bring much rain; this may indeed happen for several successive years (as in 1895 and 1890. and again in 1899). by reason of which distressing famines and great loss of life arc caused. Since 1880 the Government meteorologists of India, H. E. Blanford and .John Eliot, have devoted a great deal of attention to methods of predicting the probable ch;u'acter of the monsoon rains. These predictions are generally issued in the month of April and relate to the coming months of .luly and August. A remarkably large percentage of these predictions have been successful, but the failure of the forecasts for 1899 indicated that al)normal conditions prevailed in some distant region, and has greatly stinuilated the study of the relation between the Imliaii monsoon and the condition of the atmosphere over the whole globe. The general statement of the conditions that bring about monsoons is discussed at length by Prof. William Ferrel in .1 Treatise on the Winds (New York, 1889). He has emphasized the im- portant rule that monsoons are stronger in pro- portion as the heated interior land surface is elevated above sea-level. On the coast of Ja- maica. West Indies, the diurnal sea breeze is remarkably strong, owing to the steej) gradient of the land as it ascends from sea-level to the tops of mountains. In India the southwest mon- soon develops on a grand sc.-ile because of the average elevation of the Himalayas, which stretch east and west for 1300 miles at an average alti- tude of 18.000 feet, and also because of the mountains and plateaus behind the Himalayas in the interior of Asia. The monsoon, like the daily hind and sea breeze, depends for its inten- sity ultimately <in the beat jirodiU'ed by solar radiation. Any change in the radi;itii>n will pro- duce corresponding ell'eets on the monsoon. E. D. Archibald, in Xaliire (.hine 22. 189.'!. London), has maintained that there are systematic mon- soon variations |iarallel to the variations of the spots on the sun. But these changes are barely ajipreciable. and further investigation mav modi- fy hi, re-ults.
MONS SA'CER (Eat.. .Sacred Mount). A hill near liome. made famous hy the secession thither of the Plebs in B.C. 494. It is conjectur- ally identified with an eminence near the Ponle Xonieiitano. about three miles from the Porta Pia.
MONSTER. See ^Moxstrosity.
MONSTRANCE (OF. monslrnnce, from IIL. rnoiistranlia, monstrance, from Lat. monstrare.
