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teaches to infer from the various symptoms, the nature of the disease; diagnos tics, to distinguish the symptoms of different diseases; and prognostics, to infer, from the past and present state of a disease, its future course. Therapeutics is the science of the cure of diseases, often divided into general, treating of the subject of cure in general, its character, &c., and special, of the cures of the particular diseases. Surgery treats of mechanical injuries, and the mode of relieving diseases and derangements by mechanical means. Obstetrics treats of the modes of facilitating delivery. Materia medica is the science of medicines, their external appearance, history, and effects on the human organization. Pharmacy teaches how to preserve drugs, &c., and to mix medicines. Clinics (q. v.), or medical practice, applies the results of all these sciences to real cases. We should mention, in this connexion, the history and literature of medicine, the history of diseases, a very interesting branch, political medicine, which is divided into medical police and forensic medicine, that branch which enables the physician to give to courts and other legal authorities proper explanations in regard to personal injuries, particular appearances of the body, &c., as whether a wound was mortal, how inflicted, whether a child was dead before born, &c. In many countries, physicians are appointed by the government for this purpose. We must lastly mention midwifery, as taught, in many countries, to women, who nmake a regular study and business of it. A student of medicine ought to be well versed in the two learned languages, and cannot dispense with a respectable knowledge of English, French, German and Italian. Among the works which treat of medicine at large are Dictionnaire des Sciences Médicales, par une Société de Médecins et Chirurgiens (Paris, Panckoucke, containing 60 vols., 1812 to 1822), and Journal complémentaire du Dict. des Sciences Med. (from 1818 to 1824, 17 vols., still continued); Encyklop. Wörterbuch der Medicin. Wissenschaften (edited by the professors of the medical faculty at BerlinGräfe, Hufeland, Link, Rudolphi, von Siebold, Berlin, vol. i, 1827); also Good's Book of Medicine.-Medical Geography is geography applied to medicine, treating all the subjects of geography which have any influence upon the health, the bodily structure, activity of mind, and the diseases of men. It is a science of great interest.-See Geographical Nosology (in German), Stuttgart, 1823, by Schnurrer.-Medical Topog

raphy is the description of single places or tracts of country as to the circumstances which make them interesting in a medical point of view-the winds, rivers, springs, mountains, the sea, woods, plains, struc ture of the houses, way of living of the people, their amusements and customs; in short, every thing which affects the health of the inhabitants. Geographical situation, elevation, &c., belong to a complete medical topography. (See Metzler's Guide for the drawing up of Medical Topographies, in German.)

MEDIETAS LINGUE; a jury or inquest, whereof the one half consists of denizens, the other strangers, in pleas wherein the one party is a stranger.

MEDINA, OF MEDINA EL NEBI (the city of the prophet); before the days of Mohammed, Jathreb, anciently Iatrippa; a city of Arabia, in Hedsjas, 70 miles E. of Jambo, its port on the Red sea, 180 N. of Mecca; lon. 40° 10′ E.; lat. 25° 13′ N.; population, about 8000. It is regarded by Mohammedans as sacred, from its containing the tomb of Mohammed. Most of the houses are poorly built, and the place is of no importance, except from its containing the sepulchre of Mohammed. This sepulchre is held in high veneration by Mohammedans, yet the visiting it is not considered necessary or highly meritorious, and Medina is much less visited by pilgrims than Mecca. Neither the tomb nor the mosque in which it is enclosed, is distinguished by any magnificence; but it was remarkable for an immense treasure of pearls, precious stones, &c., accumu lated for ages by the contributions of rich Mohammedans, until it was pillaged by the Wahabees, a few years since. (See Mohammed.)

MEDINA SIDONIA, Alfonso Perez Guzman, duke of; admiral of the armada. (q. v.) Philip II received him, after his disaster, with unexpected favor. Medina died in 1615.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA (Nostrum Mare, Internum Mare, with the Romans); the large mass of waters between Europe, Asia and Africa, which receives its name from its inland position, communicating with the great ocean only by the straits of Gibraltar. (q. v.) Its northern shore is irregular, forming large gulfs, which have received separate names; between the western coast of Italy and the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, it is called the Tuscan, or Tyrrhenian sea (Mare Inferum); between Italy and Illyria and Dalmatia, the Adriatic, or Gulf of Venice; farther south, to the west of Greece, the

Ionian sea (the two latter formed the Mare Superum of the Romans); to the northeast of Greece, between Turkey in Europe and Natolia (Asia Minor), the Archipelago, or Egean sea. Its southern shore is less indented. It receives the waters of the Black sea, by a current which sets constantly through the Dardanelles, and thus mingles the waters of the Danube, the Po, and the Nile, with those of the Dnieper and the Ebro. Its length from east to west is about 2000 miles; its general breadth varies from 7-800 to 4-500 miles; between Genoa and Biserta it is about 375 miles; between the southern part of Italy and cape Bon, not quite 200 miles. The principal islands of the Mediterranean are the Balearic isles, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Elba, the Lipari islands,' Malta, the Ionian isles, Candia (Crete) and Cyprus. (See these articles.) The winds are irregular, the tides variable and slight, rarely exceeding two feet of rise and fall, and the sea is generally short and rough. A strong central current sets into the Atlantic through the straits of Gibraltar; on each shore are superficial counter currents setting from the ocean into the sea; but a rapid under current sets out. In a commercial point of view, the Mediterranean is of the greatest interest; its shores contain numerous celebrated ports, and its waters are covered with the ships of all the western nations. The different maritime powers maintain a naval force in the sea, which till lately has been infested with pirates. Its coasts were the seats of.some of the earliest civilized nations, the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks and Romans.-See Steel's Chart of the Mediterranean (London, 1823).

Mediterranean Pass. In the treaties between England and the Barbary states, it used to be agreed, that the subjects of the former should pass the seas unmolested by the cruisers of those states; and, for better ascertaining what ships and vessels belonged to British subjects, it was provided, that they should produce a pass, under the hand and seal of the lord high admiral, or the lords commissioners of the admiralty. The passes were made out at the admiralty, containing a very few words, written on parchment, with ornaments at the top, through which a scolloped indenture was made; the scolloped tops were sent to Barbary, and being put in possession of their cruisers, the commanders were instructed to suffer all persons to pass who had passes that would fit these scolloped tops.

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MEDIUM (Latin, middle or mean), in science; the space or substance through which a body moves or acts. Thus air is the medium through which sound is transmitted, light passes, &c. A transparent medium is that which allows the free passage of rays of light; a refracting medium is one which turns them aside in their course.—Medium, in logic. (See Syllogism.) (See Circu

MEDIUM, CIRCULATING. lating Medium.)

MEDLAR (mespilus Germanica); a small European tree, allied to and somewhat resembling the quince, and belonging to the natural family rosacea. The flowers are moderately large, white, and solitary at the extremities of the branches; the calyx and peduncles are cottony; the fruit, in the cultivated varieties, is large, and, before it is perfectly ripe, has an excessively austere and astringent taste. The medlars do not ripen naturally on the tree, but are collected in the autumn, and spread upon straw till they become soft, and approach the state of decomposition. They have now a sweet, vinous flavor, which, however, is not to the taste of most people.

MEDOC; formerly a country of France, in the western part of Guienne, between the Garonne and the sea, in the present department of the Gironde. A great part of it is covered with woods and marshes, but, along the Garonne, the soil is fertile, and yields excellent wines. (See Bordelais Wines.)

MEDULLA, in anatomy; the fat substance which fills the cavity of a long bone. (See Bones, and Marrow.)

Its

Medulla, in vegetable; physiology, the pith of plants, is lodged in the centre or heart of the vegetable body. In the parts most endued with life, like the root, or especially young growing stems or branches, the medulla is usually of a pulpy substance, but tolerably firm, though rather brittle. Its color is pale green, or yellowish, with a watery transparency, the substance being very juicy. juices partake but little, or not at all, of the peculiar flavor of the plant, they being more of the nature of sap. In branches or stems more advanced in growth, the medulla is found of a drier, more white, and evidently cellular texture. In this state, it is well known in the full grown branches of elder, the stems of rushes, &c. In these, it is dry, highly cellular, snow white, extremely light and compressible, though but slightly elastic. In the greater number of plants, no vessels

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are perceptible in the pith, but in some, entire vessels, conveying proper juice, are present, as in the gum elastic fig-tree, the proper juice of which is seen exuding from different points of the pith, in a horizontal section of the stem. Little is yet known, with certainty, concerning the functions of the pith. It appears, on the whole, to be a mere reiteration of the cellular envelope, and subservient to the vessels which surround, and occasionally pass through it.

MEDUSA. (See Gorgons.)

MEERMAN, John, a Dutch scholar and statesman, born at the Hague, in 1753, was the only son of Gerard Meerman, known as the author of a Thesaurus Juris civilis et canonici, and Origines Typographica, and who had been created baron of the German empire. The son received his early education at the Hague and at Rotterdam, and, while hardly ten years old, translated and published, without the knowledge of his father, Molière's Mariage Force. He then studied at Leyden, at Leipsic under Ernesti, and at Göttingen under Heyne. After travelling through England, Italy and France, he took the degree of doctor of laws, at Leyden. The number of his writings, on different subjects, proves his extensive knowledge, and his zeal for virtue and piety. In 1787, in company with his wife, he visited England, Scotland, and Ireland, Germany, Italy, and Northern Europe, and published full and accurate accounts of his travels, in 11 volumes. His time and labors were also employed in the service of the state, the church, and literary institutions. Under the reign of Louis Bonaparte, he was director of the fine arts and of public instruction in the kingdom of Holland. Some years before his death, the dignity of senator of France was conferred on him, and he was called to Paris. After the restoration, he returned to his country, and died in 1816. Besides his Travels, his History of William, count of Holland, and an edition, with notes, of the Histoire des Voyages faits par l'Empereur Charles V, by J. Vandenesse, deserve mention. As director of the arts and sciences, he also rendered important assistance in the preparation of the Jaarbaken van Wetenschappen en Kunsten in het Konigryk Holland over de Jaren 1806-7. His widow, an esteemed poetess, has written his life. His valuable library, the catalogue of which is a literary curiosity, was sold by auction, at the Hague, in 1824, and brought 171,000 Dutch guilders, 32,000 of which were paid for the manu

scripts. The prices have been printed. MEERSCHAUM. (See Magnesite.) MEGERA; one of the Furies. (See Eumenides.)

MAGALONY. (See Megatherium.) MEGALOPOLIS (i. e. large city); a city of Arcadia, one of the largest cities of Greece, on the Helisson, containing many temples, a stoa, &c. The theatre of Megalopolis was the largest in Greece. The city was built at the suggestion of Epaminondas, after the victory of the Thebans at Leuctra, about 368 B. C., as a city of the Baotian league, and was peopled from 38 cities. It is, at present, the inconsiderable place Sinano. Philopamen, Polybius, and other distinguished men, were born here.

MEGALOSAURUS (Greek, giant lizard); an extinct species of lizard, of an enormous size, which, according to Cuvier (Recherches sur les Ossements Fossiles, vol. ii. part 2, p. 343), would be as large as a whale, if we assign to it the proportions which its characters indicate. It was discovered in England, by Mr. Buckland, and has also been found in France and Germany.

MEGARA; a daughter of Creon, king of Thebes, given in marriage to Hercules, because he had delivered the Thebans from the tyranny of the Orchomenians. When Hercules went to hell, by order of Eurystheus, violence was offered to Megara, by Lycus, a Theban exile, and she would have yielded to her ravisher, had not Hercules returned that moment and punished him with death. This murder displeased Juno, and she rendered Hercules delirious, so that he killed Megara and the three children he had by her, in a fit of madness, thinking them to be wild beasts. (See Hercules.) Some say that Megara did not perish by the hand of her husband, but that he afterwards married her to his friend Iolas.

MEGARA. (See Megaris.)

MEGARIS, a small state of ancient Greece, west of Attica, occupied the upper and wider part of the isthmus of Corinth. The capital city, Megara, was rendered illustrious, not only by the firmness with which it maintained its inde pendence, but also by a school of philosophy, founded by one of its citizens, Euclid (q. v.), a disciple of Socrates. Pausanias (i, 40-44) enumerates its many splendid public buildings. See Reinganum's Das alte Megaris (Berlin, 1825).

MEGATHERIUM, or GIANT SLOTH; an extinct genus of the sloth family, of which fossil remains have been found only in

America. Two species have been discovered, the M. Cuvieri and the M. Jeffersonii; the latter was first described by president Jefferson, under the name of megalonyx, or great claw (Transactions of the Am. Phil. Soc., iv. 246). The megatherium unites some of the generic character of the armadilloes with some of those of the sloth; its size must have been equal to that of the rhinoceros. Three specimens of the first species have been discovered in South America, and one in Georgia. The only fragments of the second species hitherto discovered, were found in Green Briar county, Va., in a saltpetre cave. (See Godman's Am. Nat. History, vol. ii, 173–201.)

MEGRIM; a species of headache; a pain generally affecting one side of the head, towards the eye, or temple, and arising, sometimes from the state of the stomach, sometimes from rheumatic and gouty affections. In French it is called migraine, derived from hemicrania, from the Greek hu (signifying, in compound words, half) and pavior (the skull). It affects chiefly persons of weak nerves.

MEHEMED ALI PACHA. (See Mohammed, Viceroy of Egypt.)

MEHUL, Stephen Henry, a celebrated musical composer, and member of the institute of France, born at Givet, in 1763, received his first lessons from a blind organist at his native place, and became such a proficient that, at the age of 12, he was appointed joint organist to the abbey of Valledieu. The desire of improving his talents attracted him to Paris in 1779. He there studied under Edelmann, and, afterwards, under Gluck; and, after the departure of the latter for Vienna, Méhul presented to the royal academy of music the opera of Cora and Alonzo; but his Euphrosine and Coradin was first performed at the comic opera, in 1790. This was followed, at different periods, by Stratonice, Irato, Joseph, and many other operas, besides the ballets of the Judgment of Paris, Dansomanie, and Perseus and Andromeda. Méhul was one of the three inspectors of instruction at the conservatory of music, from its creation, in 1795, till its suppression, in 1815. He was then appointed superintendent of music at the king's chapel, and professor of composition at the royal school of music. He was chosen a member of the institute in 1796, and of the academy of fine arts in 1816, and was also a knight of the legion of honor. He died at Paris, 1817. Méhul read before the institute two reports Sur l'Etat Actuel de la Musique en

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France, and Sur les Travaux des Elèves du Conservatoire à Rome.

MEIBOM, John Henry (in Latin, Meibomius), a celebrated physician, was a native of Helmstädt, where he was born in 1590. After travelling in Italy, and taking his doctor's degree at Basil, he returned home, and occupied a medical chair in the university of Helmstädt. In 1626, he was appointed physician of Lubeck, where he died, in 1655. His works are Aurelii Cassiodori Formula Comitis Archiatrorum (1668, 4to.); De Usu Flagrorum in Re medica et venerea; Jusjurandum Hippocratis, Gr. et Lat., with commentaries relative to the history of Hippocrates, his disciples, &c. After his death appeared his treatise De Cerevisiis, Potibusque et Ebriaminibus extra Vinum aliis.-His son, Henry Meibom, also a physician, was born at Lubeck in 1638, and became professor of medicine in the university of Helmstädt. In 1678, he was made professor of poetry and history. He was the author of numerous medical and anatomical dissertations, and distinguished himself by his investigation of the sebaceous glands and ducts in the eyelids, the valves of the veins, and the papillæ of the tongue. His principal historical publication, Rerum Germanicarum Tomi tres, is a collection of writers on German history. He also wrote many pieces concerning the dukes of Brunswick and Lunenberg, and, in 1687, he published Ad Saxoniæ inferioris Historiam Introductio. Henry Meibom died in 1700.

MEIBOMIUS, Marcus, a learned philologist, born at Tönningen, in the duchy of Holstein, in 1630. Settling at Stockholm, he acquired the favor of queen Christina, whom he inspired with much of the same enthusiasm, with respect to the ancients, which possessed himself. Having prevailed upon his royal mistress to be present at a concert, which he proposed to conduct entirely upon the plan of the ancient Greeks, and at which professor Naudaus was to dance a Greek dance, the ridicule of some of the courtiers at the absurdity of the performance, excited his anger so violently, that, forgetful of the presence of the sovereign, he struck M. Bourdelot, a physician, who, as he fancied, encouraged it, a violent blow in the face. This indiscretion induced him to quit Sweden for Denmark, where he obtained a professorship in the college established for the edu cation of the young nobility at Sora, was eventually advanced to the rank of a royal counsellor, and made president of the customs. His inattention to the duties of

his post soon caused his removal, on which he repaired to Amsterdam, and became historical professor there, but lost this appointment, also, by his petulance in refusing to give lessons to the son of one of the principal burgomasters. After visiting France and England, Meibomius returned to Amsterdam, and died there, in 1711. His principal work is an edition of the seven Greek musical writers, Aristoxenus, Euclid, Nicomachus, Alypius, Gaudentius, Bacchius, and Aristides Quintilianus, with an appendix, containing the De Musica of Martianus Felix. His other writings are Dialogues on Proportions, On the Construction of the Trireme Galleys of the Ancients, and an edition of Diogenes Laertius (2 vols., 4to.).

MEINAU; a charming island in the beautiful lake of Constance, belonging to Constance, with 50 inhabitants and an ancient castle. It is much resorted to by travellers in Switzerland.

MEINERS, Christopher, born at Ottendorf, kingdom of Hanover, in 1747, studied at Göttingen from 1767, and afterwards became one of the most valuable teachers there. His works are very numerous, on various subjects, and of unequal merit. As an academical teacher, his activity in organizing and promoting the prosperity of his university was untiring, and it is much to be regretted that his history of the university was left incomplete. His favorite study was the history of human civilization, and particularly of religion, to which some of his earliest writings, among them his Historia Doctrina de Deo vero, relate. His latest work on this subject, Allgemeine kritische Geschichte der Religion (Hanover, 1806, 2 vols.), is, however, more defective in acuteness of criticism and clearness of arrangement than his previous writings. Some of his earlier treatises bear the impress of a judicious, calm and independent thinker. From his writings on the middle ages, and particularly from his learned lives of the restorers of learning in the 15th and 16th centuries, a new Bayle may find materials for attack and defence. A French translation of his History of the Origin, Progress and Decline of Learning in Greece and Rome procured his election into the national institute. He died in 1810.

MEININGEN, SAXE (in German, SachsenMeiningen-Hildburghausen); a duchy in the German confederation, belonging to the ducal house of Saxe-Meiningen, of the Gotha branch of the Ernestine line. (See Saxony.) The population of the duchy is 130,500, on an area of 870 square

miles, about one half of which was acquired in 1826, by the extinction of the male Saxe-Gotha line. The duke, in conjunction with the other princes of the Saxon Ernestine line, has the 12th vote in the diet, and has by himself one vote in the plenum. The religion is Lutheran. In 1824, a new constitution was granted by the duke to the part of the present duchy then under his government, admitting the peasants to the ducal diet as a third estate. The contingent to the army of the confederacy is 1150 men; income, 750,000 guilders; debt, 2,500,000. The capital is Meiningen, with 4500 inhabitants, containing a large and handsome ducal palace, with a library of 24,000 volumes and the state archives. (See Germany.) Long. 10° 24′ E.; lat. 50° 35′ N.

MEIONITE. (See Scapolite.)

MEISSEN, the oldest city in the kingdom of Saxony, was built by the emperor Henry I, in 922, as a bulwark against the incursions of the Sclavonians. It lies on the left bank of the Elbe; population, 4100. In the vicinity is a school, established by the elector Maurice, in 1543, in the building of the ancient Afra monastery. Lon. 13° 27′ E.; lat. 51° 19′ N. The cathedral, an old monument of German art, is a remarkable building. The porcelain manufacture has been carried on here since 1710.

MEISSNER, Augustus Gottlieb, born at Bautzen, in 1753, studied law and the belles-lettres at Leipsic and Wittenberg from 1773 to 76, and died at Fulda, where he was director of the high seminaries of education, in 1807. He was also, for some time, professor of æsthetics and classical literature at Prague. His works were, at one period, very popular in Germany. A glowing imagination, an easy style, grace, wit, and a brilliant manner, united with a delicate tone of gallantry, were the causes of his success. His principal productions are comic operas, in the French style; Sketches, a miscellaneous collection of anecdotes, tales, &c.; several historical romances, as Alcibiades, Bianca Capello, &c. He also translated Hume's History of England.

MELA, Pomponius; a geographer, who flourished during the first century of the Christian era. Little more is known of him than that he was a native of Spain, and the author of a treatise, in three books, in the Latin language, De Situ Orbis, containing a concise view of the state of the world, so far as it was known to the ancient Romans. Among the latest and best editions of this work are that of