Madonna
a word originally used in Italy, like madame in France, as a title of honor and dignity, but now exclusively applied to the Virgin Mary, as in other languages she is called "Our Lady."
It is also applied to a number of celebrated pictures, in which the Virgin forms the sole or principal object, as the Madonnas of Raphael.
MADRAS (ma-dras'), a province of British India, occupying with its dependencies and Mysore, the entire S. of the peninsula of India, surrounded on every side except the N. by the sea, bounded on the N. by Bengal and the Central Provinces, the territory of Hyderabad and Mysore; area, 142,330 square miles; pop. about 43,000,000. It comprises 22 Brit ish districts, 3 agencies under special administration, and 5 native states, viz., Travancore, Cochin, Pudukota, Banganapalli, and Sandúr. The three chief rivers, Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri, MADRE DE DIOS rise in the western Gháts and enter the Bay of Bengal. The climate is varied; in the Nilgiri Hills it is temperate, on the Malabar coast the monsoon brings an excessive rainfall, while in the central table-land the rainfall is low and the heat almost unendurable. The soil is sandy along the coast, but there are many fertile districts; while iron, copper, lead, and coal are found in considerable quantities. There are extensive forests in the presidency, yielding teak, ebony, and other valuable timber trees.
The principal vegetable products are rice, wheat, barley, maize, and other grains; sugar-cane, areca, yam, plantain, tamarind, jack-fruit, mango, melons, cocoanuts, ginger, r, turmeric, pepper, tobacco, oil seeds, coffee and cotton. Irrigation has been employed with excellent results. The wild animals are the elephant, tiger, chetah, jackal, wild hog, etc. The Madras administration authority is vested in a governor, with a council of three members appointed by the king, of whom one is the commander-in-chief. For legislative purposes the council is increased by nominations of the governor. In each of the 22 districts there is a collector and a sessions judge. The chief educational institution is the Madras University, an examining body granting degrees in arts, law, medicine, and engineering. The imports amount to about $30,000,000, and the exports to $60,000,- 000 annually.
Capital, Madras, situated on the E. or Coromandel coast of India, 835 miles S. W. of Calcutta, and 790 miles S. E. by rail of Bombay; has Fort St. George (1639), Government House (the governor's residence); churches and chapels of all denominations; the cathedral of St.
George's; Presidency College; the central institution of the Free Church of Scotland's Mission; the Medical and Civil Engineering Colleges; a flourishing school of art; a central museum; public statues to Lord Cornwallis, Sir T. Munro, and General Neill. The city is supplied with water from the Red Hill Reservoir, and sanitation is carefully enforced. Though situated on an open, surf-beaten coast of the Indian Ocean, the city possesses an important maritime trade, equal to more dency. Madras has been greatly improved in recent years by modern facilities. It is third in size among the cities than one-third that of the entire presiof India. The site of Madras was acquired in 1639 from the Hindu Rajah of Chandgherry, by Mr. Francis Day, the chief of the company's trading settlement at Armagon. Pop. about 525,000.