MOLUCCAS. 697 MOLYNETJX. istrativcly the aieliipclayo is divided into the three residencies of Ternate, Amboyna, and Banda. Tlie chief city as well as the eoniniereial centre is Amboyna (q.v.), on the island of the same name. The population is estimated at 40(1,000, and consists ehieliy of Alfurese (q,v.) and Malays, the former being the original in- habitants, and found especially in the interior of the islands. Some of them are in a com- paratively high state of civilization. The num- ber of I'apuans and foreigners is insignitieant. The il(jluccas were discovered by the Por- tuguese in 1512 and were formally taken posses- sion of by them in 1521. They were soon, 111 wever, taken by the Dutch, who started the cultivation of spices here. In 1005 Amboyna was made the chief station of the Dutch East India Company, which also built forts on sev- eral other islands. With the annexation of the Moluccas to the Dutch possessions in the East Indies, the Government also acquired a part of New Guinea and Celebes and a few other islands which constituted parts of the former vast possessions of the sultans of Ternate and Tidore. BlBLlOGR.PHT. Wallace. The Malay Archi- jichifio (London. 1800); Botemeyer, Die Moliik- Kill I Leipzig, 1888) ; Hemsley, "Botany of .luan Fernandez, S. E. Moluccas, and Admiralty Islands," in f'hfiUenfier Voyage lieports. Botany, vol. i. (London, 1885) : Klipenthal. Ergehnisse liner zoologisehen Forschungsreise in den Jlohik- ken tiiid Borneo (Frankfort, 1807 et seq.) ; Mar- tin. Keiscn in den Molukken, Oeologischer Teil (Leyden. 1807 et seq.). MOLTJCHE, mo-loo'ehii (Western people). An important tribe of Araucan stock (q.v.), Msiding on the northern headstreams of the Limay River in Southwestsrn .rgentina. They are distinguished for tlieir light comi)lpxion and regular features. Unlike most of their kindred, they are sedentary and industrial, having large lierds of sheep and extensive apple orchards, whence they are sometimes called by the Span- iards Manzaneros, or 'Apple people.' MOLY ( Lat.. from Gk. nuv). A magic herb with a black root and white (lower, given by Hermes to Odysseus as a protection against the magic of Circe. In later writers, the word is applic-d to garlic. Cf. Odyssey, X. 305. MOLYB'DENITE (from nwlybdcna, from Lat. inolyhdwna, from Gk. noXifSdaiva. niolyh- daina. galena or litharge, from ^6Xu;a5os, mo- lyhdos, lead). A mineral molybdenum disulphide that crystallizes in the hexagonal s.vstem. has a metallic lustre, and is oi a bluish gray color. It occvns in granite, gneiss, limestone, and other crystalline rocks, and is found at various locali- ties in Sw'eden, Norway, Finland, Saxony. France, Italy, Canada, and in the United States at arinus points in New England, New York, I'cnnsylvania, and California. It was long con- founded with certain compounds of lead and of antimony until about 1778. when Scheele clearly showed that it was quite distinct from those substances. It is said that a fine blue pigment can he prepared from this mineral, which has been proposed as a substitute for indigo in dyeing silk, cotton, and linen. See MoLYiiUENl'M. MOLYBDE'NUM (Neo-Lat., from Lat. mol- yhilwnii. galena or litharge). A metallic element discovered in 1782 by Hjelm. Tlie name was applied by the ancients to various substances containing lead. Sul)sc(iuently it was applied to graphite and the mineral molybdenite. Mol- ybdenum is not found native, but in combina- tion as the sulphide l,nwtybdfnile) , as the oxide (niolybdite), with lead (wulfenUe) , and with cobalt (pateraite). In smaller quantities it is also found in other minerals. The metal itself is obtained by heating its chloride or trioxide to redness in a current of hj-drogen. Jlolybde- ntnn (symbol. Mo; atomic weight, 95.09) is a silver-white metal with a specific gravity of 8.6, and a melting ])oint above that of platinum. It combines »ith oxygen to form the following four oxides: a monoxide (MoO), a sesquioxide (M02O3), a dioxide (MoO,), and a trioxide (M0O3), of which the trioxide is the only im- portant commercial com])ound of molybdenum. The trioxide. usually called 'molybdic acid,' com- bines with bases to form molybdates, of which the ammonium molybdate, (NHJ.MoO,, is of value as a laboratory reagent for phosphoric acid. MOLYN, mo-lin', Pieter de (c.l59C-lGGl ). A Dutcli landscape and genre painter, born in London. A pupil of Frans Hals at Haarlem, lie was received into the guild there in 1010, and elected dean in 1033. Besides land- scapes in the st.vle of Jan van Goven, enli- vened with biblical and other accessory figures or animals, he painted village festivals, military scenes, and the like, with a broad touch and warm, forcible coloring. His pictures are very rare. The Brunsw'iek Gallery contains a fine landscape of "Sandhills with Group of Trees" (1626); the Berlin Museum a '"Ravine with Figures" of very powerful effect. In the JIu- seum at Brussels may be seen a "Niglit Festival" (1625) ; at Haarlem the "Sacking of a Village" (1630); at Hanover a "Surprise by Robbers" (1640) ; and in the Louvre a "'Cavalry Attack" (1643). Several of those attributed to him in other galleries are probably by Pieter Mulier (q.v.). MOLYN, Pieter de, the younger. See 5Iu- LIER. MOLYNEUX, mul'i-nvks, William (1656- 08). Au Irish philosopher and author, born in Dublin. He graduated at Trinity College. Dub- lin, in 1675; studied law at the Middle Temple, London, in 1675-78; published a translation (IfiSO) of Descartes's Medilalirmcs de Prima, Philosophia (1041); and in 1083 assisted in founding the Dublin Philosophical Society. In 1680-00, owing to the disturbances attending Tyrconnel's government, he resided in Chester, England, where he wrote the major part of his Diopfriea yova: A Treatise of Dictptrics (1692), which long continued to he the most im- portant work on the subject. From 1602 until his death he represented Dublin University in the Irish Parliament. He imlilished in 1698 his Caxe of Ireland Staled, in Uelation to Its Being Bound by Acts of Parliament Made in England i 1608), his best-known work, in which he sought to prove the independence of the Irish Parlia- ment, and which evoked much discussion. Hi.s further writings imdude ScioDiericum Telesco- picum (1086). describing "a new contrivance of adapting a telescope to a horizontal dial." The philosophical society of which he was a founder was dissolved in 1688. and later suc- ceeded bv the Roval Irish .cademv.
