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MURIATIC ACID 353 MURPHY MURIATIC ACID, hydrochloric acid. A solution of hydrogen chloride gas, HCl, in water. Hydrogen chloride is a colorless gas, with a pungent, irritating odor, having a specific gravity of 1.2596, compared with air as 1. It can be manu- factured by decomposing common salt with sulphuric acid, but is now produced very largely as a by-product in the manu- facture of salt cake (sodium sulphate). The strongest acid made contains 40 per cent, of hydrogen chloride. Its applica- tions are numerous : it is used in the production of chlorine; the manufacture of various chlorides; for purifying ani- mal and vegetable carbons; for extract- ing phosphates from bones; for prepar- ing carbonic acid; in the coal-tar color industry, and for many other useful purposes. MURILLO, BARTOLOME ESTEBAN (mo-rel'yo), a Spanish painter; born in Seville, Spain, in 1618. He acquired the rudiments of art from his uncle, Juan de Castillo; and being encouraged to visit Madrid, he acquired the counte- nance and patronage of the great painter Velasquez, th^n in the height of his repu- tation. He afterward returned to Seville, and there founded an Academy of Paint- ing, and earned by his labors an imper- ishable fame. His principal works are: "The Return of the Prodi:^al Son"; "Abraham Visited by the Angels"; "Christ Healing the Sick of the Palsy"; "The Pool of Bethesda"; — but his master- piece is "Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception," painted in 1678, and pur- chased by the French government for the sum of $118,000. He died in Seville, April 3, 1682. MURMANSK COAST, or Peninsula, that section of the Arctic shore stretch- ing from the frontier of Russia with Norway to Cape Svyatoff, on the White Sea, including a distance of about 250 miles. An inward sweep of the Gulf Stream washes the shore, keeping it free of ice the year round, though the White Sea, to the southward, is ice- bound six months of the year. This region assumed unusual importance dur- ing the latter part of the war, after the participation of Russia had been ended by the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, in the early months of 1918. As the only point on Russia's limited sea-coast open to receiv- ing supplies from her allies by sea, large supplies of munitions and foodstuffs had been landed here. In the spring of 1918 the Germans, moving through Finland, attempted to advance in this direction, with the intent to seize these supplies. The Allies immediately landed troops on the coast. The Soviet Government in Moscow protesting, the people of the region precipitated an uprising in favor of Allied intervention and established the Provisional Government of North Russia. More Allied troops, and later Americans, were landed and established a base from which a military campaign against the Soviet troops was waged for more than a year afterward. MUROM, a city of Russia, in the Government of Vladimir. It is situated on the Oka river. Prior to the World War it had important manufactures and extensive trade in grain. Pop. about 20,000. MUROMTSEFF, SERGEI ANDREY- EVITCH, Russian educator and political leader; born at Petrograd in 1850. He was educated at Moscow and Gottingen, and later became Professor of Roman law at the University of Moscow. In 1879 he became editor of the "Juridical Messenger," a law journal. Because of his liberal political views he had to leave the university in 1884, and eight years later his paper was suppressed and the Juridical Society was forbidden to hold any further meetings. On the establish- ment of the First Russian Duma, Mu- romtseff was elected Senior Deputy from Moscow by the Constitutional Demo- cratic party, and he was later elected President of the Duma. MURPHY, CHARLES FRANCIS, born in New York, in 1858. After a com- mon school education had been secured in the New York schools, he worked for a time as a factory operative and later as a street-car driver. In 1892 he be- came the Democratic leader in the 18th Assembly District of New York. In the succeeding years he was Commissioner of Docks and Ferries and treasurer of the board. From 1892-1902 Murphy was a prominent leader in Tammany Hall, the Democratic organization in New York city, and in 1902 he was elected "sachem" or chief, a position which he has held continuously since that time. MURPHY, JOHN FRANCIS, painter; born in Oswego, N. Y., in 1853, he moved to New York City when twenty-two years old, his art having been largely self- acquired. He made his first exhibition at the National Academy of Design in 1876, after which he devoted himself to landscapes. He was elected a member of the academy in 1887. He received the 2d Hallgarten prize in 1885 for his paint- ing "Tints of a Vanished Past"; also 1887, the Webb prize of the Society of American Artists. "Neglected Lands" and "October" are among the best examples of his talent.