Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/183

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Moseley
177
Moser

youngest daughter of John Gwyn Jeffreys [q. v.] the conchologist.

Moseley's principal characteristic was an inborn aversion to accept any statement or recorded observation which he had not been able to verify for himself. He was an effective lecturer. Personally he was very genial, and a staunch friend.

Among his scientific achievements may be named his discovery of a system of tracheal vessels in 'Peripatus' that furnished a new clue to the origin of tracheae, while the memoir on 'Peripatus' itself constituted an important contribution towards a knowledge of the phylogeny of arthropods. His investigations on living corals were the means of clearing up many doubtful points concerning the relationships between the members of that group, and led to the establishment of the group of hydrocorallin. Moseley also was the discoverer of the eyes on the shells of several species of chiton, to the minute structure of which his last publication was devoted. It was in recognition of such services to biological science that the Royal Society in 1887 awarded him their 'royal medal.'

Of all his writings Moseley's 'Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger,' 8vo, London, 1879, 2nd ed. 1892, is the one that appeals to the widest circle of readers, and approaches Darwin's 'Journal of the Cruise of the Beagle' in interest and importance.

To the official reports of the results of the cruise he contributed a portion of the 'Narrative' and two independent zoological reports: one 'On certain … Corals,' and the other 'On the Structure of the peculiar Organs on the Head of Ipnops.'

In addition to the foregoing, Moseley wrote a treatise 'On the Structure of the Stylasteridæ—Croonian Lecture,' 4to, London, 1878, and contributed upwards of thirty papers to the 'Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science,' to the 'Proceedings' and 'Transactions' of the Royal Society, to the 'Transactions of the Linnean Society' and other journals, besides writing the section on zoology for the 'Admiralty Manual of Scientific Enquiry,' 8vo, 1886. Moseley's manuscript 'Journal of Zoological Observations made during the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger 'is preserved in the library of the zoological department of the British Museum (natural history).

[G. C. Bourne's Memoir, with portrait, in 2nd ed. of Moseley's Notes by a Naturalist, 1892; Times, 13 Nov. 1891; Nature, 26 Nov. 1891; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; information kindly supplied by the Hon. G. C. Brodrick, warden of Merton College, Oxford, and by Professor E. Ray Lankester.]

MOSELEY, HUMPHREY (d. 1661), bookseller, conjectured to be a son of Samuel Moseley, a Staffordshire man, who was a stationer in London (Arber, Transcripts, ii. 249, iii. 683), was admitted a freeman of the Stationers' Company in 1627 (ib. iii. 686), when he probably began business. He was 'clothed' of the same company on 28 Oct. 1633, and in July 1659 was chosen one of its wardens. The first entry of a book licensed to him in the 'Stationers' Register' is on 29 May 1630. He became the chief publisher of the 'finer literature' of his age (Masson, Milton, vi. 400). He published the first collected edition of Milton's 'Poems,' 1645, and prefixed an address to the reader, in which he said: 'It is the love I have to our own language that hath made me diligent to collect and set forth such pieces, both in prose and verse, as may renew the wonted honour and esteem of our English tongue.' He published also early editions of Howell, Waller, Crashaw, Denham, D'Avenant, Cartwright, Donne, Fanshawe, Henry Vaughan, and many other authors, as well as translations of Spanish and Italian novels and contemporary French romances. His shop was in St. Paul's Churchyard. He died on 31 Jan. 1660-1, and was buried in St. Gregory's Church. By his will he appointed his wife Anne and his only daughter Anne his executrices, and left bequests to his brothers Thomas and Charles Moseley and Richard Frampton, and 10l. for a bowl or cup for the Stationers' Company.

[Masson's Life of Milton, vi. 400; Arber's Transcripts of Stationers' Registers; Arber's List of London Booksellers, 1890; Smyth's Obituary (Camden Soc.), p. 53.]

MOSER, GEORGE MICHAEL (1704–1783), chaser and enameller, son of Michael Moser, an eminent Swiss engineer and worker in metal, was born at Schaff hausen in 1704. He studied at Geneva, and, coming early to England, was first employed by a cabinet-maker in Soho, named Trotter, as a chaser of brass ornaments for furniture. He subsequently rose to be head of his profession as a gold-chaser, medallist, and enameller, and was particularly distinguished for the compositions in enamel with which he ornamented the backs of watches, bracelets, and other trinkets. A beautiful example of this work was a watch-case executed for Queen Charlotte, adorned with whole-length figures of her two eldest children, for which he received 'a hatful of guineas.' Moser was drawing-master to George III during his boyhood, and on his accession to the throne was employed to engrave his first great seal. When