Chapter X: Front Matter (10)

See A. Castiglione, _Sulle cose antiche della città di Mazzara_
(Alcamo, 1878).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Th. Mommsen in _Corpus inscr. lat._ (Berlin, 1883), x. 739.

MAZZINI, GIUSEPPE (1805-1872), Italian patriot, was born on the 22nd of June 1805 at Genoa, where his father, Giacomo Mazzini, was a physician in good practice, and a professor in the university. His mother is described as having been a woman of great personal beauty, as well as of active intellect and strong affections. During infancy and childhood his health was extremely delicate, and it appears that he was nearly six years of age before he was quite able to walk; but he had already begun to devour books of all kinds and to show other signs of great intellectual precocity. He studied Latin with his first tutor, an old priest, but no one directed his extensive course of reading. He became a student at the university of Genoa at an unusually early age, and intended to follow his father's profession, but being unable to conquer his horror of practical anatomy, he decided to graduate in law (1826). His exceptional abilities, together with his remarkable generosity, kindness and loftiness of character, endeared him to his fellow students. As to his inner life during this period, we have only one brief but significant sentence; "for a short time," he says, "my mind was somewhat tainted by the doctrines of the foreign materialistic school; but the study of history and the intuitions of conscience--the only tests of truth--soon led me back to the spiritualism of our Italian fathers."

The natural bent of his genius was towards literature, and, in the course of the four years of his nominal connexion with the legal profession, he wrote a considerable number of essays and reviews, some of which have been wholly or partially reproduced in the critical and literary volumes of his _Life and Writings_. His first essay, characteristically enough on "Dante's Love of Country," was sent to the editor of the _Antologia fiorentina_ in 1826, but did not appear until some years afterwards in the _Subalpino_. He was an ardent supporter of romanticism as against what he called "literary servitude under the name of classicism"; and in this interest all his critiques (as, for example, that of Giannoni's "Exile" in the _Indicatore Livornese_, 1829) were penned. But in the meantime the "republican instincts" which he tells us he had inherited from his mother had been developing, and his sense of the evils under which Italy was groaning had been intensified; and at the same time he became possessed with the idea that Italians, and he himself in particular, "_could_ and therefore _ought_ to struggle for liberty of country." Therefore, he at once put aside his dearest ambition, that of producing a complete history of religion, developing his scheme of a new theology uniting the spiritual with the practical life, and devoted himself to political thought. His literary articles accordingly became more and more suggestive of advanced liberalism in politics, and led to the suppression by government of the _Indicatore Genovese_ and the _Indicatore Livornese_ successively. Having joined the Carbonari, he soon rose to one of the higher grades in their hierarchy, and was entrusted with a special secret mission into Tuscany; but, as his acquaintance grew, his dissatisfaction with the organization of the society increased, and he was already meditating the formation of a new association stripped of foolish mysterious and theatrical formulae, which instead of merely combating existing authorities should have a definite and purely patriotic aim, when shortly after the French revolution of 1830 he was betrayed, while initiating a new member, to the Piedmontese authorities. He was imprisoned in the fortress of Savona on the western Riviera for about six months, when, a conviction having been found impracticable through deficiency of evidence, he was released, but upon conditions involving so many restrictions of his liberty that he preferred the alternative of leaving the country. He withdrew accordingly into France, living chiefly in Marseilles.

While in his lonely cell at Savona, in presence of "those symbols of the infinite, the sky and the sea," with a greenfinch for his sole companion, and having access to no books but "a Tacitus, a Byron, and a Bible," he had finally become aware of the great mission or "apostolate" (as he himself called it) of his life; and soon after his release his prison meditations took shape in the programme of the organization which was destined soon to become so famous throughout Europe, that of _La Giovine Italia_, or Young Italy. Its publicly avowed aims were to be the liberation of Italy both from foreign and domestic tyranny, and its unification under a republican form of government; the means to be used were education, and, where advisable, insurrection by guerrilla bands; the motto was to be "God and the people," and the banner was to bear on one side the words "Unity" and "Independence" and on the other "Liberty," "Equality," and "Humanity," to describe respectively the national and the international aims. In April 1831 Charles Albert, "the ex-Carbonaro conspirator of 1821," succeeded Charles Felix on the Sardinian throne, and towards the close of that year Mazzini, making himself, as he afterwards confessed, "the interpreter of a hope which he did not share," wrote the new king a letter, published at Marseilles, urging him to take the lead in the impending struggle for Italian independence. Clandestinely reprinted, and rapidly circulated all over Italy, its bold and outspoken words produced a great sensation, but so deep was the offence it gave to the Sardinian government that orders were issued for the immediate arrest and imprisonment of the author should he attempt to cross the frontier. Towards the end of the same year appeared the important Young Italy "Manifesto," the substance of which is given in the first volume of the _Life and Writings_ of Mazzini; and this was followed soon afterwards by the society's _Journal_, which, smuggled across the Italian frontier, had great success in the objects for which it was written, numerous "congregations" being formed at Genoa, Leghorn, and elsewhere. Representations were consequently made by the Sardinian to the French government, which issued in an order for Mazzini's withdrawal from Marseilles (Aug. 1832); he lingered for a few months in concealment, but ultimately found it necessary to retire into Switzerland.

From this point it is somewhat difficult to follow the career of the mysterious and terrible conspirator who for twenty years out of the next thirty led a life of voluntary imprisonment (as he himself tells us) "within the four walls of a room," and "kept no record of dates, made no biographical notes, and preserved no copies of letters." In 1833, however, he is known to have been concerned in an abortive revolutionary movement which took place in the Sardinian army; several executions took place, and he himself was laid under sentence of death. Before the close of the same year a similar movement in Genoa had been planned, but failed through the youth and inexperience of the leaders. At Geneva, also in 1833, Mazzini set on foot _L'Europe Centrale_, a journal of which one of the main objects was the emancipation of Savoy; but he did not confine himself to a merely literary agitation for this end. Chiefly through his agency a considerable body of German, Polish and Italian exiles was organized, and an armed invasion of the duchy planned. The frontier was actually crossed on the 1st of February 1834, but the attack ignominiously broke down without a shot having been fired. Mazzini, who personally accompanied the expedition, is no doubt correct in attributing the failure to dissensions with the Carbonari leaders in Paris, and to want of a cordial understanding between himself and the Savoyard Ramorino, who had been chosen as military leader.

In April 1834 the "Young Europe" association "of men believing in a future of liberty, equality and fraternity for all mankind, and desirous of consecrating their thoughts and actions to the realization of that future" was formed also under the influence of Mazzini's enthusiasm; it was followed soon afterwards by a "Young Switzerland" society, having for its leading idea the formation of an Alpine confederation, to include Switzerland, Tyrol, Savoy and the rest of the Alpine chain as well. But _La Jeune Suisse_ newspaper was compelled to stop within a year, and in other respects the affairs of the struggling patriot became embarrassed. He was permitted to remain at Grenchen in Solothurn for a while, but at last the Swiss diet, yielding to strong and persistent pressure from abroad, exiled him about the end of 1836. In January 1837 he arrived in London, where for many months he had to carry on a hard fight with poverty and the sense of spiritual loneliness, so touchingly described by himself in the first volume of the _Life and Writings_. Ultimately, as he gained command of the English language, he began to earn a livelihood by writing review articles, some of which have since been reprinted, and are of a high order of literary merit; they include papers on "Italian Literature since 1830" and "Paolo Sarpi" in the _Westminster Review_, articles on "Lamennais," "George Sand," "Byron and Goethe" in the _Monthly Chronicle_, and on "Lamartine," "Carlyle," and "The Minor Works of Dante" in the _British and Foreign Review_. In 1839 he entered into relations with the revolutionary committees sitting in Malta and Paris, and in 1840 he originated a working men's association, and the weekly journal entitled _Apostolato Popolare_, in which the admirable popular treatise "On the Duties of Man" was commenced. Among the patriotic and philanthropic labours undertaken by Mazzini during this period of retirement in London may be mentioned a free evening school conducted by himself and a few others for some years, at which several hundreds of Italian children received at least the rudiments of secular and religious education. He also exposed and combated the infamous traffic carried on in southern Italy, where scoundrels bought small boys from poverty-stricken parents and carried them off to England and elsewhere to grind organs and suffer martyrdom at the hands of cruel taskmasters.

The most memorable episode in his life during the same period was perhaps that which arose out of the conduct of Sir James Graham, the home secretary, in systematically, for some months, opening Mazzini's letters as they passed through the British post office, and communicating their contents to the Neapolitan government--a proceeding which was believed at the time to have led to the arrest and execution of the brothers Bandiera, Austrian subjects, who had been planning an expedition against Naples, although the recent publication of Sir James Graham's life seems to exonerate him from the charge. The prolonged discussions in parliament, and the report of the committee appointed to inquire into the matter, did not, however, lead to any practical result, unless indeed the incidental vindication of Mazzini's character, which had been recklessly assailed in the course of debate. In this connexion Thomas Carlyle wrote to _The Times_: "I have had the honour to know Mr Mazzini for a series of years, and, whatever I may think of his practical insight and skill in worldly affairs, I can with great freedom testify that he, if I have ever seen one such, is a man of genius and virtue, one of those rare men, numerable unfortunately but as units in this world, who are worthy to be called martyr souls; who in silence, piously in their daily life, practise what is meant by that."

Mazzini did not share the enthusiastic hopes everywhere raised in the ranks of the Liberal party throughout Europe by the first acts of Pius IX., in 1846, but at the same time he availed himself, towards the end of 1847, of the opportunity to publish a letter addressed to the new pope, indicating the nature of the religious and national mission which the Liberals expected him to undertake. The leaders of the revolutionary outbreaks in Milan and Messina in the beginning of 1848 had long been in secret correspondence with Mazzini; and their action, along with the revolution in Paris, brought him early in the same year to Italy, where he took a great and active interest in the events which dragged Charles Albert into an unprofitable war with Austria; he actually for a short time bore arms under Garibaldi immediately before the reoccupation of Milan, but ultimately, after vain attempts to maintain the insurrection in the mountain districts, found it necessary to retire to Lugano. In the beginning of the following year he was nominated a member of the short-lived provisional government of Tuscany formed after the flight of the grand-duke, and almost simultaneously, when Rome had, in consequence of the withdrawal of Pius IX., been proclaimed a republic, he was declared a member of the constituent assembly there. A month afterwards, the battle of Novara having again decided against Charles Albert in the brief struggle with Austria, into which he had once more been drawn, Mazzini was appointed a member of the Roman triumvirate, with supreme executive power (March 23, 1849). The opportunity he now had for showing the administrative and political ability which he was believed to possess was more apparent than real, for the approach of the professedly friendly French troops soon led to hostilities, and resulted in a siege which terminated, towards the end of June, with the assembly's resolution to discontinue the defence, and Mazzini's indignant resignation. That he succeeded, however, for so long a time, and in circumstances so adverse, in maintaining a high degree of order within the turbulent city is a fact that speaks for itself. His diplomacy, backed as it was by no adequate physical force, naturally showed at the time to very great disadvantage, but his official correspondence and proclamations can still be read with admiration and intellectual pleasure, as well as his eloquent vindication of the revolution in his published "Letter to MM. de Tocqueville and de Falloux." The surrender of the city on the 30th of June was followed by Mazzini's not too precipitate flight by way of Marseilles into Switzerland, whence he once more found his way to London. Here in 1850 he became president of the National Italian Committee, and at the same time entered into close relations with Ledru-Rollin and Kossuth. He had a firm belief in the value of revolutionary attempts, however hopeless they might seem; he had a hand in the abortive rising at Mantua in 1852, and again, in February 1853, a considerable share in the ill-planned insurrection at Milan on the 6th of February 1853, the failure of which greatly weakened his influence; once more, in 1854, he had gone far with preparations for renewed action when his plans were completely disconcerted by the withdrawal of professed supporters, and by the action of the French and English governments in sending ships of war to Naples.

The year 1857 found him yet once more in Italy, where, for complicity in short-lived émeutes which took place at Genoa, Leghorn and Naples, he was again laid under sentence of death. Undiscouraged in the pursuit of the one great aim of his life by any such incidents as these, he returned to London, where he edited his new journal _Pensiero ed Azione_, in which the constant burden of his message to the overcautious practical politicians of Italy was: "I am but a voice crying _Action_; but the state of Italy cries for it also. So do the best men and people of her cities. Do you wish to destroy my influence? _Act_." The same tone was at a somewhat later date assumed in the letter he wrote to Victor Emmanuel, urging him to put himself at the head of the movement for Italian unity, and promising republican support. As regards the events of 1859-1860, however, it may be questioned whether, through his characteristic inability to distinguish between the ideally perfect and the practically possible, he did not actually hinder more than he helped the course of events by which the realization of so much of the great dream of his life was at last brought about. If Mazzini was the prophet of Italian unity, and Garibaldi its knight errant, to Cavour alone belongs the honour of having been the statesman by whom it was finally accomplished. After the irresistible pressure of the popular movement had led to the establishment not of an Italian republic but of an Italian kingdom, Mazzini could honestly enough write, "I too have striven to realize unity under a monarchical flag," but candour compelled him to add, "The Italian people are led astray by a delusion at the present day, a delusion which has induced them to substitute material for moral unity and their own reorganization. Not so I. I bow my head sorrowfully to the sovereignty of the national will; but monarchy will never number me amongst its servants or followers." In 1865, by way of protest against the still uncancelled sentence of death under which he lay, Mazzini was elected by Messina as delegate to the Italian parliament, but, feeling himself unable to take the oath of allegiance to the monarchy, he never took his seat. In the following year, when a general amnesty was granted after the cession of Venice to Italy, the sentence of death was at last removed, but he declined to accept such an "offer of oblivion and pardon for having loved Italy above all earthly things." In May 1869 he was again expelled from Switzerland at the instance of the Italian government for having conspired with Garibaldi; after a few months spent in England he set out (1870) for Sicily, but was promptly arrested at sea and carried to Gaeta, where he was imprisoned for two months. Events soon made it evident that there was little danger to fear from the contemplated rising, and the occasion of the birth of a prince was seized for restoring him to liberty. The remainder of his life, spent partly in London and partly at Lugano, presents no noteworthy incidents. For some time his health had been far from satisfactory, but the immediate cause of his death was an attack of pleurisy with which he was seized at Pisa, and which terminated fatally on the 10th of March 1872. The Italian parliament by a unanimous vote expressed the national sorrow with which the tidings of his death had been received, the president pronouncing an eloquent eulogy on the departed patriot as a model of disinterestedness and self-denial, and one who had dedicated his whole life ungrudgingly to the cause of his country's freedom. A public funeral took place at Pisa on the 14th of March, and the remains were afterwards conveyed to Genoa. (J. S. Bl.)

The published writings of Mazzini, mostly occasional, are very
voluminous. An edition was begun by himself and continued by A. Saffi,
_Scritti editi e inediti di Giuseppe Mazzini_, in 18 vols. (Milan and
Rome, 1861-1891); many of the most important are found in the
partially autobiographical _Life and Writings of Joseph Mazzini_
(1864-1870) and the two most systematic--_Thoughts upon Democracy in
Europe_, a remarkable series of criticisms on Benthamism, St
Simonianism, Fourierism, and other economic and socialistic schools of
the day, and the treatise _On the Duties of Man_, an admirable primer
of ethics, dedicated to the Italian working class--will be found in
_Joseph Mazzini: a Memoir_, by Mrs E. A. Venturi (London, 1875).
Mazzini's "first great sacrifice," he tells us, was "the renunciation
of the career of literature for the more direct path of political
action," and as late as 1861 we find him still recurring to the
long-cherished hope of being able to leave the stormy arena of
politics and consecrate the last years of his life to the dream of his
youth. He had specially contemplated three considerable literary
undertakings--a volume of _Thoughts on Religion_, a popular _History
of Italy_, to enable the working classes to apprehend what he
conceived to be the "mission" of Italy in God's providential ordering
of the world, and a comprehensive collection of translations of
ancient and modern classics into Italian. None of these was actually
achieved. No one, however, can read even the briefest and most
occasional writing of Mazzini without gaining some impression of the
simple grandeur of the man, the lofty elevation of his moral tone, his
unwavering faith in the living God, who is ever revealing Himself in
the progressive development of humanity. His last public utterance is
to be found in a highly characteristic article on Renan's _Réforme
Morale et Intellectuelle_, finished on the 3rd of March 1872, and
published in the _Fortnightly Review_ for February 1874. Of the 40,000
letters of Mazzini only a small part have been published. In 1887 two
hundred unpublished letters were printed at Turin (_Duecento lettere
inedite di Giuseppe Mazzini_), in 1895 the _Lettres intimes_ were
published in Paris, and in 1905 Francesco Rosso published _Lettre
inedite di Giuseppe Mazzini_ (Turin, 1905). A popular edition of
Mazzini's writings has been undertaken by order of the Italian
government.

For Mazzini's biography see Jessie White Mario, _Della vita di
Giuseppe Mazzini_ (Milan, 1886), a useful if somewhat too enthusiastic
work; Bolton King, _Mazzini_ (London, 1903); Count von Schack, _Joseph
Mazzini und die italienische Einheit_ (Stuttgart, 1891). A. Luzio's
_Giuseppe Mazzini_ (Milan, 1905) contains a great deal of valuable
information, bibliographical and other, and Dora Melegari in _La
giovine Italia e Giuseppe Mazzini_ (Milan, 1906) publishes the
correspondence between Mazzini and Luigi A. Melegari during the early
days of "Young Italy." For the literary side of Mazzini's life see
Peretti, _Gli scritti letterarii di Giuseppe Mazzini_ (Turin, 1904).
(L. V.*)

MAZZONI, GIACOMO (1548-1598), Italian philosopher, was born at Cesena and died at Ferrara. A member of a noble family and highly educated, he was one of the most eminent savants of the period. He occupied chairs in the universities of Pisa and Rome, was one of the founders of the Della Crusca Academy, and had the distinction, it is said, of thrice vanquishing the Admirable Crichton in dialectic. His chief work in philosophy was an attempt to reconcile Plato and Aristotle, and in this spirit he published in 1597 a treatise _In universam Platonis et Aristotelis philosophiam praecludia_. He wrote also _De triplici hominum vita_, wherein he outlined a theory of the infinite perfection and development of nature. Apart from philosophy, he was prominent in literature as the champion of Dante, and produced two works in the poet's defence: _Discorso composto in difesa della comedia di Dante_ (1572), and _Della difesa della comedia di Dante_ (1587, reprinted 1688). He was an authority on ancient languages and philology, and gave a great impetus to the scientific study of the Italian language.

MAZZONI, GUIDO (1859- ), Italian poet, was born at Florence, and educated at Pisa and Bologna. In 1887 he became professor of Italian at Padua, and in 1894 at Florence. He was much influenced by Carducci, and became prominent both as a prolific and well-read critic and as a poet of individual distinction. His chief volumes of verse are _Versi_ (1880), _Nuove poesie_ (1886), _Poesie_ (1891), _Voci della vita_ (1893).

MEAD, LARKIN GOLDSMITH (1835- ), American sculptor, was born at Chesterfield, New Hampshire, on the 3rd of January 1835. He was a pupil (1853-1855) of Henry Kirke Brown. During the early part of the Civil War he was at the front for six months, with the army of the Potomac, as an artist for _Harper's Weekly_; and in 1862-1865 he was in Italy, being for part of the time attached to the United States consulate at Venice, while William D. Howells, his brother-in-law, was consul. He returned to America in 1865, but subsequently went back to Italy and lived at Florence. His first important work was a statue of Ethan Allen, now at the State House, Montpelier, Vermont. His principal works are: the monument to President Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois; "Ethan Allen" (1876), National Hall of Statuary, Capitol, Washington; an heroic marble statue, "The Father of Waters," New Orleans; and "Triumph of Ceres," made for the Columbian Exposition, Chicago.

His brother, WILLIAM RUTHERFORD MEAD (1846- ), graduated at Amherst College in 1867, and studied architecture in New York under Russell Sturgis, and also abroad. In 1879 he and J. F. McKim, with whom he had been in partnership for two years as architects, were joined by Stanford White, and formed the well-known firm of McKim, Mead & White.

MEAD, RICHARD (1673-1754), English physician, eleventh child of Matthew Mead (1630-1699), Independent divine, was born on the 11th of August 1673 at Stepney, London. He studied at Utrecht for three years under J. G. Graevius; having decided to follow the medical profession, he then went to Leiden and attended the lectures of Paul Hermann and Archibald Pitcairne. In 1695 he graduated in philosophy and physic at Padua, and in 1696 he returned to London, entering at once on a successful practice. His _Mechanical Account of Poisons_ appeared in 1702, and in 1703 he was admitted to the Royal Society, to whose _Transactions_ he contributed in that year a paper on the parasitic nature of scabies. In the same year he was elected physician to St Thomas's Hospital, and appointed to read anatomical lectures at the Surgeons' Hall. On the death of John Radcliffe in 1714 Mead became the recognized head of his profession; he attended Queen Anne on her deathbed, and in 1727 was appointed physician to George II., having previously served him in that capacity when he was prince of Wales. He died in London on the 16th of February 1754.

Besides the _Mechanical Account of Poisons_ (2nd ed., 1708), Mead
published a treatise _De imperio solis et lunae in corpora humana et
morbis inde oriundis_ (1704), _A Short Discourse concerning
Pestilential Contagion, and the Method to be used to prevent it_
(1720), _De variolis et morbillis dissertatio_ (1747), _Medica sacra,
sive de morbis insignioribus qui in bibliis memorantur commentarius_
(1748), _On the Scurvy_ (1749), and _Monita et praecepta medica_
(1751). A _Life_ of Mead by Dr Matthew Maty appeared in 1755.

MEAD. (1) A word now only used more or less poetically for the commoner form "meadow," properly land laid down for grass and cut for hay, but often extended in meaning to include pasture-land. "Meadow" represents the oblique case, _maédwe_, of O. Eng. _maéd_, which comes from the root seen in "mow"; the word, therefore, means "mowed land." Cognate words appear in other Teutonic languages, a familiar instance being Ger. _matt_, seen in place-names such as Zermatt, Andermatt, &c. (See Grass.) (2) The name of a drink made by the fermentation of honey mixed with water. Alcoholic drinks made from honey were common in ancient times, and during the middle ages throughout Europe. The Greeks and Romans knew of such under the names of [Greek: hodromeli] and _hydromel_; _mulsum_ was a form of mead with the addition of wine. The word is common to Teutonic languages (cf. Du. _mede_, Ger. _Met_ or _Meth_), and is cognate with Gr. [Greek: methu], wine, and Sansk. _mádhu_, sweet drink. "Metheglin," another word for mead, properly a medicated or spiced form of the drink, is an adaptation of the Welsh _meddyglyn_, which is derived from _meddyg_, healing (Lat. _medicus_) and _llyn_, liquor. It therefore means "spiced or medicated drink," and is not etymologically connected with "mead."

MEADE, GEORGE GORDON (1815-1872), American soldier, was born of American parentage at Cadiz, Spain, on the 31st of December 1815. On graduation at the United States Military Academy in 1835, he served in Florida with the 3rd Artillery against the Seminoles. Resigning from the army in 1836, he became a civil engineer and constructor of railways, and was engaged under the war department in survey work. In 1842 he was appointed a second lieutenant in the corps of the topographical engineers. In the war with Mexico he was on the staffs successively of Generals Taylor, J. Worth and Robert Patterson, and was brevetted for gallant conduct at Monterey. Until the Civil War he was engaged in various engineering works, mainly in connexion with lighthouses, and later as a captain of topographical engineers in the survey of the northern lakes. In 1861 he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, and had command of the 2nd brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves in the Army of the Potomac under General M'Call. He served in the Seven Days, receiving a severe wound at the action of Frazier's Farm. He was absent from his command until the second battle of Bull Run, after which he obtained the command of his division. He distinguished himself greatly at the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. At Fredericksburg he and his division won great distinction by their attack on the position held by Jackson's corps, and Meade was promoted major-general of volunteers, to date from the 29th of November. Soon afterwards he was placed in command of the V. corps. At Chancellorsville he displayed great intrepidity and energy, and on the eve of the battle of Gettysburg was appointed to succeed Hooker. The choice was unexpected, but Meade justified it by his conduct of the operations, and in the famous three days' battle he inflicted a complete defeat on General Lee's army. His reward was the commission of brigadier-general in the regular army. In the autumn of 1863 a war of manoeuvre was fought between the two commanders, on the whole favourably to the Union arms. Grant, commanding all the armies of the United States, joined the Army of the Potomac in the spring of 1864, and remained with it until the end of the war; but he continued Meade in his command, and successfully urged his appointment as major-general in the regular army (Aug. 18, 1864), eulogizing him as the commander who had successfully met and defeated the best general and the strongest army on the Confederate side. After the war Meade commanded successively the military division of the Atlantic, the department of the east, the third military district (Georgia and Alabama) and the department of the south. He died at Philadelphia on the 6th of November, 1872. The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Harvard University, and his scientific attainments were recognized by the American Philosophical Society and the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. There are statues of General Meade in Philadelphia and at Gettysburg.

See I. R. Pennypacker, _General Meade_ ("Great Commanders" series, New
York, 1901).

MEADE, WILLIAM (1789-1862), American Protestant Episcopal bishop, the son of Richard Kidder Meade (1746-1805), one of General Washington's aides during the War of Independence, was born on the 11th of November 1789, near Millwood, in that part of Frederick county which is now Clarke county, Virginia. He graduated as valedictorian in 1808 at the college of New Jersey (Princeton); studied theology under the Rev. Walter Addison of Maryland, and in Princeton; was ordained deacon in 1811 and priest in 1814; and preached both in the Stone Chapel, Millwood, and in Christ Church, Alexandria, for some time. He became assistant bishop of Virginia in 1829; was pastor of Christ Church, Norfolk, in 1834-1836; in 1841 became bishop of Virginia; and in 1842-1862 was president of the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, near Alexandria, delivering an annual course of lectures on pastoral theology. In 1819 he had acted as the agent of the American Colonization Society to purchase slaves, illegally brought into Georgia, which had become the property of that state and were sold publicly at Milledgeville. He had been prominent in the work of the Education Society, which was organized in 1818 to advance funds to needy students for the ministry of the American Episcopal Church, and in the establishment of the Theological Seminary near Alexandria, as he was afterwards in the work of the American Tract Society, and the Bible Society. He was a founder and president of the Evangelical Knowledge Society (1847), which, opposing what it considered the heterodoxy of many of the books published by the Sunday School Union, attempted to displace them by issuing works of a more evangelical type. A low Churchman, he strongly opposed Tractarianism. He was active in the case against Bishop Henry Ustick Onderdonk (1789-1858) of Pennsylvania, who because of intemperance was forced to resign and was suspended from the ministry in 1844; in that against Bishop Benjamin Tredwell Onderdonk (1791-1861) of New York, who in 1845 was suspended from the ministry on the charge of intoxication and improper conduct; and in that against Bishop G. W. Doane of New Jersey. He fought against the threatening secession of Virginia, but acquiesced in the decision of the state and became presiding bishop of the Southern Church. He died in Richmond, Virginia, on the 14th of March 1862.

Among his publications, besides many sermons, were _A Brief Review of
the Episcopal Church in Virginia_ (1845); _Wilberforce, Cranmer,
Jewett and the Prayer Book on the Incarnation_ (1850); _Reasons for
Loving the Episcopal Church_ (1852); and _Old Churches, Ministers and
Families of Virginia_ (1857); a storehouse of material on the
ecclesiastical history of the state.

See the _Life_ by John Johns (Baltimore, 1867).

MEADVILLE, a city and the county-seat of Crawford county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on French Creek, 36 m. S. of Erie. Pop. (1900), 10,291, of whom 912 were foreign-born and 173 were negroes; (1910 census) 12,780. It is served by the Erie, and the Bessemer & Lake Erie railways. Meadville has three public parks, two general hospitals and a public library, and is the seat of the Pennsylvania College of Music, of a commercial college, of the Meadville Theological School (1844, Unitarian), and of Allegheny College (co-educational), which was opened in 1815, came under the general patronage of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1833, and in 1909 had 322 students (200 men and 122 women). Meadville is the commercial centre of a good agricultural region, which also abounds in oil and natural gas. The Erie Railroad has extensive shops here, which in 1905 employed 46.7% of the total number of wage-earners, and there are various manufactures. The factory product in 1905 was valued at $2,074,600, being 24.4% more than that of 1900. Meadville, the oldest settlement in N.W. Pennsylvania, was founded as a fortified post by David Mead in 1793, laid out as a town in 1795, incorporated as a borough in 1823 and chartered as a city in 1866.

MEAGHER, THOMAS FRANCIS (1823-1867), Irish nationalist and American soldier, was born in Waterford, Ireland, on the 3rd of August 1823. He graduated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, in 1843, and in 1844 began the study of law at Dublin. He became a member of the Young Ireland Party in 1845, and in 1847 was one of the founders of the Irish Confederation. In March 1848 he made a speech before the Confederation which led to his arrest for sedition, but at his trial the jury failed to agree and he was discharged. In the following July the Confederation created a "war directory" of five, of which Meagher was a member, and he and William Smith O'Brien travelled through Ireland for the purpose of starting a revolution. The attempt proved abortive; Meagher was arrested in August, and in October was tried for high treason before a special commission at Clonmel. He was found guilty and was condemned to death, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in Van Diemen's Land, whither he was transported in the summer of 1849. Early in 1852 he escaped, and in May reached New York City. He made a tour of the cities of the United States as a popular lecturer, and then studied law and was admitted to the New York bar in 1855. He made two unsuccessful ventures in journalism, and in 1857 went to Central America, where he acquired material for another series of lectures. In 1861 he was captain of a company (which he had raised) in the 69th regiment of New York volunteers and fought at the first battle of Bull Run; he then organized an Irish brigade, of whose first regiment he was colonel until the 3rd of February 1862, when he was appointed to the command of this organization with the rank of brigadier-general. He took part in the siege of Yorktown, the battle of Fair Oaks, the seven days' battle before Richmond, and the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, where he was wounded, and Chancellorsville, where his brigade was reduced in numbers to less than a regiment, and General Meagher resigned his commission. On the 23rd of December 1863 his resignation was cancelled, and he was assigned to the command of the military district of Etowah, with headquarters at Chattanooga. At the close of the war he was appointed by President Johnson secretary of Montana Territory, and there, in the absence of the territorial governor, he acted as governor from September 1866 until his death from accidental drowning in the Missouri River near Fort Benton, Montana, on the 1st of July 1867. He published _Speeches on the Legislative Independence of Ireland_ (1852).

W. F. Lyons, in _Brigadier-General Thomas Francis Meagher_ (New York,
1870), gives a eulogistic account of his career.

MEAL. (1) (A word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. _Mehl_, Du. meel; the ultimate source is the root seen in various Teutonic words meaning "to grind," and in Eng. "mill," Lat. _mola_, _molere_, Gr. [Greek: mylê]), a powder made from the edible part of any grain or pulse, with the exception of wheat, which is known as "flour." In America the word is specifically applied to the meal produced from Indian corn or maize, as in Scotland and Ireland to that produced from oats, while in South Africa the ears of the Indian corn itself are called "mealies." (2) Properly, eating and drinking at regular stated times of the day, as breakfast, dinner, &c., hence taking of food at any time and also the food provided. The word was in O.E. _mael_, which also had the meanings (now lost) of time, mark, measure, &c., which still appear in many forms of the word in Teutonic languages; thus Ger. _mal_, time, mark, cf. _Denkmal_, monument, _Mahl_, meal, repast, or Du. _maal_, Swed. _mal_, also with both meanings. The ultimate source is the pre-Teutonic root _me-_ _ma-_, to measure, and the word thus stood for a marked-out point of time.

MEALIE, the South African name for Indian corn or maize. The word as spelled represents the pronunciation of the Cape Dutch _milje_, an adaptation of _milho_ (_da India_), the millet of India, the Portuguese name for millet, used in South Africa for maize.

MEAN, an homonymous word, the chief uses of which may be divided thus. (1) A verb with two principal applications, to intend, purpose or design, and to signify. This word is in O.E. _maenan_, and cognate forms appear in other Teutonic languages, cf. Du. _meenen_, Ger. _meinen_. The ultimate origin is usually taken to be the root _men-_, to think, the root of "mind." (2) An adjective and substantive meaning "that which is in the middle." This is derived through the O. Fr. _men_, _meien_ or _moien_, modern _moyen_, from the late Lat. adjective _medianus_, from _medius_, middle. The law French form _mesne_ is still preserved in certain legal phrases (see MESNE). The adjective "mean" is chiefly used in the sense of "average," as in mean temperature, mean birth or death rate, &c.

"Mean" as a substantive has the following principal applications; it is used of that quality, course of action, condition, state, &c., which is equally distant from two extremes, as in such phrases as the "golden (or happy) mean." For the philosophic application see ARISTOTLE and ETHICS.

In mathematics, the term "mean," in its most general sense, is given to some function of two or more quantities which (1) becomes equal to each of the quantities when they themselves are made equal, and (2) is unaffected in value when the quantities suffer any transpositions. The three commonest means are the arithmetical, geometrical, and harmonic; of less importance are the contraharmonical, arithmetico-geometrical, and quadratic.

From the sense of that which stands between two things, "mean," or the plural "means," often with a singular construction, takes the further significance of agency, instrument, &c., of which that produces some result, hence resources capable of producing a result, particularly the pecuniary or other resources by which a person is enabled to live, and so used either of employment or of property, wealth, &c. There are many adverbial phrases, such as "by all means," "by no means," &c., which are extensions of "means" in the sense of agency.

The word "mean" (like the French _moyen_) had also the sense of middling, moderate, and this considerably influenced the uses of "mean" (3). This, which is now chiefly used in the sense of inferior, low, ignoble, or of avaricious, penurious, "stingy," meant originally that which is common to more persons or things than one. The word in O. E. is _gemaéne_, and is represented in the modern Ger. _gemein_, common. It is cognate with Lat. _communis_, from which "common" is derived. The descent in meaning from that which is shared alike by several to that which is inferior, vulgar or low, is paralleled by the uses of "common."

In astronomy the "mean sun" is a fictitious sun which moves uniformly in the celestial equator and has its right ascension always equal to the sun's mean longitude. The time recorded by the mean sun is termed mean-solar or clock time; it is regular as distinct from the non-uniform solar or sun-dial time. The "mean moon" is a fictitious moon which moves around the earth with a uniform velocity and in the same time as the real moon. The "mean longitude" of a planet is the longitude of the "mean" planet, i.e. a fictitious planet performing uniform revolutions in the same time as the real planet.

The arithmetical mean of n quantities is the sum of the quantities
divided by their number n. The geometrical mean of n quantities is the
nth root of their product. The harmonic mean of n quantities is the
arithmetical mean of their reciprocals. The significance of the word
"mean," i.e., middle, is seen by considering 3 instead of n
quantities; these will be denoted by a, b, c. The arithmetic mean b,
is seen to be such that the terms a, b, c are in arithmetical
progression, i.e. b = ½(a + c); the geometrical mean b places a, b, c
in geometrical progression, i.e. in the proportion a : b :: b : c or
b² = ac; and the harmonic mean places the quantities in harmonic
proportion, i.e. a : c :: a - b : b - c, or b = 2ac/(a + c). The
contraharmonical mean is the quantity b given by the proportion a : c
:: b - c : a - b, i.e. b = (a² + c²)/(a + c). The
arithmetico-geometrical mean of two quantities is obtained by first
forming the geometrical and arithmetical means, then forming the means
of these means, and repeating the process until the numbers become
equal. They were invented by Gauss to facilitate the computation of
elliptic integrals. The quadratic mean of n quantities is the square
root of the arithmetical mean of their squares.

MEASLES, (_Morbilli_, _Rubeola_; the M. E. word is _maseles_, properly a diminutive of a word meaning "spot," O.H.G. _masa_, cf. "mazer"; the equivalent is Ger. _Masern_; Fr. _Rougeole_), an acute infectious disease occurring mostly in children. It is mentioned in the writings of Rhazes and others of the Arabian physicians in the 10th century. For long, however, it was held to be a variety of small-pox. After the non-identity of these two diseases had been established, measles and scarlet-fever continued to be confounded with each other; and in the account given by Thomas Sydenham of epidemics of measles in London in 1670 and 1674 it is evident that even that accurate observer had not as yet clearly perceived their pathological distinction, although it would seem to have been made a century earlier by Giovanni Filippo Ingrassias (1510-1580), a physician of Palermo. The specific micro-organism responsible for measles has not been definitely isolated.

Its progress is marked by several stages more or less sharply defined. After the reception of the contagion into the system, there follows a period of incubation or latency during which scarcely any disturbance of the health is perceptible. This period generally lasts for from ten to fourteen days, when it is followed by the invasion of the symptoms specially characteristic of measles. These consist in the somewhat sudden onset of acute catarrh of the mucous membranes. At this stage minute white spots in the buccal mucous membrane frequently occur; when they do, they are diagnostic of the disease. Sneezing, accompanied with a watery discharge, sometimes bleeding, from the nose, redness and watering of the eyes, cough of a short, frequent, and noisy character, with little or no expectoration, hoarseness of the voice, and occasionally sickness and diarrhoea, are the chief local phenomena of this stage. With these there is well-marked febrile disturbance, the temperature being elevated (102°-104° F.), and the pulse rapid, while headache, thirst, and restlessness are usually present. In some instances, these initial symptoms are slight, and the child is allowed to associate with others at a time when, as will be afterwards seen, the contagion of the disease is most active. In rare cases, especially in young children, convulsions usher in, or occur in the course of, this stage of invasion, which lasts as a rule for four or five days, the febrile symptoms, however, showing some tendency to undergo abatement after the second day. On the fourth or fifth day after the invasion, sometimes later, rarely earlier, the characteristic eruption appears on the skin, being first noticed on the brow, cheeks, chin, also behind the ears, and on the neck. It consists of small spots of a dusky red or crimson colour, just like flea-bites, slightly elevated above the surface, at first isolated, but tending to become grouped into patches of irregular, occasionally crescentic, outline, with portions of skin free from the eruption intervening. The face acquires a swollen and bloated appearance, which, taken with the catarrh of the nostrils and eyes, is almost characteristic, and renders the diagnosis at this stage a matter of no difficulty. The eruption spreads downwards over the body and limbs, which are soon thickly studded with the red spots or patches. Sometimes these become confluent over a considerable surface. The rash continues to come out for two or three days, and then begins to fade in the order in which it first showed itself, namely from above downwards. By the end of about a week after its first appearance scarcely any trace of the eruption remains beyond a faint staining of the skin. Usually during convalescence slight peeling of the epidermis takes place, but much less distinctly than is the case in scarlet fever. At the commencement of the eruptive stage the fever, catarrh, and other constitutional disturbance, which were present from the beginning, become aggravated, the temperature often rising to 105° or more, and there is headache, thirst, furred tongue, and soreness of the throat, upon which red patches similar to those on the surface of the body may be observed. These symptoms usually decline as soon as the rash has attained its maximum, and often there occurs a sudden and extensive fall of temperature, indicating that the crisis of the disease has been reached. In favourable cases convalescence proceeds rapidly, the patient feeling perfectly well even before the rash has faded from the skin.

Measles may, however, occur in a very malignant form, in which the symptoms throughout are of urgent character, the rash but feebly developed, and of dark purple hue, while there is great prostration, accompanied with intense catarrh of the respiratory or gastro-intestinal mucous membrane. Such cases are rare, occurring mostly in circumstances of bad hygiene, both as regards the individual and his surroundings. On the other hand, cases of measles are often of so mild a form throughout that the patient can scarcely be persuaded to submit to treatment.

Measles as a disease derives its chief importance from the risk, by no means slight, of certain complications which are apt to arise during its course, more especially inflammatory affections of the respiratory organs. These are most liable to occur in the colder seasons of the year and in very young and delicate children. It has been already stated that irritation of the respiratory passages is one of the symptoms characteristic of measles, but that this subsides with the decline of the eruption. Not unfrequently, however, these symptoms, instead of abating, become aggravated, and bronchitis of the capillary form (see BRONCHITIS), or pneumonia, generally of the diffuse or lobular variety (see PNEUMONIA), supervene. By far the greater proportion of the mortality in measles is due to its complications, of which those just mentioned are the most common, but which also include inflammatory affections of the larynx, with attacks resembling croup, and also diarrhoea assuming a dysenteric character. Or there may remain as direct results of the disease chronic ophthalmia, or discharge from the ears with deafness, and occasionally a form of gangrene affecting the tissues of the mouth or cheeks and other parts of the body, leading to disfigurement and gravely endangering life.

Apart from those immediate risks there appears to be a tendency in many cases for the disease to leave behind a weakened and vulnerable condition of the general health, which may render children, previously robust, delicate and liable to chest complaints, and is in not a few instances the precursor of some of those tubercular affections to which the period of childhood and youth is liable. These various effects or sequelae of measles indicate that although in itself a comparatively mild ailment, it should not be regarded with indifference. Indeed it is doubtful whether any other disease of early life demands more careful watching as to its influence on the health. Happily many of those attending evils may by proper management be averted.

Measles is a disease of the earlier years of childhood. Like other infectious maladies, it is admittedly rare, though not unknown, in nurslings or infants under six months old. It is comparatively seldom met with in adults, but this is due to the fact that most persons have undergone an attack in early life. Where this has not been the case, the old suffer equally with the young. All races of men appear liable to this disease, provided that which constitutes the essential factor in its origin and spread exists, namely, contagion. Some countries enjoy long immunity from outbreaks of measles, but it has frequently been found in such cases that when the contagion has once been introduced the disease extends with great rapidity and virulence. This was shown by the epidemic in the Faroe Islands in 1846, where, within six months after the arrival of a single case of measles, more than three-fourths of the entire population were attacked and many perished; and the similarly produced and still more destructive outbreak in Fiji in 1875, in which it was estimated that about one-fourth of the inhabitants died from the disease in about three months. In both these cases the great mortality was due to the complications of the malady, specially induced by overcrowding, insanitary surroundings, the absence of proper nourishment and nursing for the sick, and the utter prostration and terror of the people, and to the disease being specially malignant, occurring on what might be termed virgin soil.[1] It may be regarded as an invariable rule that the first epidemic of any disease in a community is specially virulent, each successive attack conferring a certain immunity.

In many lands, such as the United Kingdom, measles is rarely absent, especially from large centres of population, where sporadic cases are found at all seasons. Every now and then epidemics arise from the extension of the disease among those members of a community who have not been in some measure protected by a previous attack. There are few diseases so contagious as measles, and its rapid spread in epidemic outbreaks is no doubt due to the well-ascertained fact that contagion is most potent in the earlier stages, even before its real nature has been evinced by the characteristic appearances on the skin. Hence the difficulty of timely isolation, and the readiness with which the disease is spread in schools and families. The contagion is present in the skin and the various secretions. While the contagion is generally direct, it can also be conveyed by the particles from the nose and mouth which, after being expelled, become dry and are conveyed as dust on clothes, toys, &c. Fortunately the germs of measles do not retain their virulence long under such conditions, comparing favourably with those of some other diseases.