Chapter IV: , VII (173)

"On the 24th of March, 1882, an address of very serious public
import was delivered by Dr. Koch before the Physiological
Society of Berlin. … The address … is entitled 'The
Etiology of Tubercular Disease.' Koch first made himself
known, and famous, by the penetration, skill, and thoroughness
of his researches on the contagium of anthrax, or splenic
fever. … Koch's last inquiry deals with a disease which, in
point of mortality, stands at the head of them all. 'If,' he
says, 'the seriousness of a malady be measured by the number
of its victims, then the most dreaded pests which have
hitherto ravaged the world—plague and cholera included—must
stand far behind the one now under consideration.' Then
follows the startling statement that one-seventh of the deaths
of the human race are due to tubercular disease. Prior to Koch
it had been placed beyond doubt that the disease was
communicable; and the aim of the Berlin physician has been to
determine the precise character of the contagium which
previous experiments on inoculation and inhalation had proved
to be capable of indefinite transfer and reproduction. He
subjected the diseased organs of a great number of men and
animals to microscopic examination, and found, in all cases,
the tubercles infested by a minute, rod-shaped parasite, which
by means of a special dye, he differentiated from the
surrounding tissue. 'It was,' he says, 'in the highest degree
impressive to observe in the centre of the tubercle-cell the
minute organism which had created it.' Transferring directly,
by inoculation, the tuberculous matter from diseased animals
to healthy ones, he in every instance reproduced the disease.
To meet the objection that it was not the parasite itself, but
some virus in which it was imbedded in the diseased organ,
that was the real contagium, he cultivated his bacilli
artificially for long periods of time and through many
successive generations.
{2148}
With a speck of matter, for example, from a tuberculous human
lung, he infected a substance prepared, after much trial, by
himself, with the view of affording nutriment to the parasite.
In this medium he permitted it to grow and multiply: From the
new generation he took a minute sample, and infected therewith
fresh nutritive matter, thus producing another brood.
Generation after generation of bacilli were developed in this
way, without the intervention of disease. At the end of the
process, which sometimes embraced successive cultivations
extending over half a year, the purified bacilli were
introduced into the circulation of healthy animals of various
kinds. In every case inoculation was followed by the
reproduction and spread of the parasite, and the generation of
the original disease. … The moral of these experiments is
obvious. In no other conceivable way than that pursued by Koch
could the true character of the most destructive malady by
which humanity is now assailed be determined. And however
noisy the fanaticism of the moment may be, the common-sense of
Englishmen will not, in the long run, permit it to enact
cruelty in the name of tenderness, or to debar us from the
light and leading of such investigations as that which is here
so imperfectly described."

_J. Tyndall,
New Fragments,
pages 423-428._

MEDICAL SCIENCE: 19th Century.
The Theory of Germ Diseases.

"An account of the innumerable questions and investigations in
this department of modern pathogenesis, of the various views
on certain questions, etc., does not fall within the compass
of our brief sketch. Nor are we able to furnish a consistent
theory, simply because such an one does not [1889] exist. One
fact alone is agreed upon, to wit, that certain of the lower
fungi, as parasites within or upon the body, excite diseases
(infectious diseases). As regards the modus operandi of these
parasites two main theories are held. According to one theory,
these parasites, by their development, deprive the body of its
nutriment and endanger life particularly when, thronging in
the blood, they deprive this of the oxygen necessary for
existence. According to the other theory, they threaten life
by occasioning decompositions which engender putrid poisons
(ptomaines). These latter poisons were first isolated by P. L.
Panum in 1856, and have been recently specially studied by
Brieger (Ueber Ptomaine, Berlin, 1885-86). They act
differently upon bodies according to the variety of the
alkaloidal poison. Metschnikoff regards the white
blood-corpuscles as antagonists of these parasites (thus
explaining the cases of recovery from parasitic diseases), and
in this point of view calls them 'phagocytes.' On the other
hand E. Salmon and Theodore Smith ('Transactions of the
Washington Biological Society, February 22d, 1886) were the
first to demonstrate that sterilized nutritive solutions or
germ-free products of change of matter of the virulent
exciters of disease, when injected, afford protection. A.
Chauveau as early as 1880 had brought forward evidence of the
probability of this fact, and Hans Buchner in 1879 admitted
the possibility of depriving bacteria of their virulence.
Pasteur, however, believes he has demonstrated that by
continued cultures (also a sort of bacillary Isopathy)
'debilitated' germs act as prophylactics against the
corresponding parasitic diseases, and he even thinks he has
confirmed this by his inoculations against hydrophobia—a
view, at all events, still open to doubt. … The chief
diseases regarded as of parasitic origin at present are:
anthrax (Davaine, 1850); relapsing fever (Obermeier, 1873);
gonorrhœa and blenorrhœa neonatorum (Neisser, 1879); glanders
(Struck, 1882, Loeffler and Schütz); syphilis (Sigm.
Lustgarten, 1884); diphtheria (Oertel, Letzerich, Klebs);
typhus (Eberle, Klebs); tuberculosis (Koch, 1882); cholera
(Koch, 1884); lepra (Armauer-Hansen); actinomycosis (Bollinger
in cattle, 1877; Israel in man, 1884); septicæmia (Klebs);
erysipelas (Fehleisen); pneumonia (Friedländer); malarial
fever (Klebs, Tommasi-Crudeli, Marchiafava); malignant œdema
(Koch); tetanus (Carle and Rattone, Nicolaier, Roeschlaub
assumed a tetania occasioned by bacilli); cancer (Scheuerlen;
priority contested by Dr. G. Rappia and Prof. Domingo Freire
of Rio Janeiro); yellow fever (microbe claimed to have been
discovered by Freire); dysentery (bacillary diphtheritis of
the large intestine); cholera nostras (Finkler and Prior);
scarlet fever (Coze and Feltz, '72); variola and vaccina
(Keber, Zülzer, Weigert, Klebs); acute yellow atrophy of the
liver (Klebs, Waldeyer, Eppinger); endocarditis (Ziegler);
hæmophilia neonatorum (Klebs, Eppinger); trachoma (Sattler);
keratitis (Leber—aspergillus); ulcus rodens corneæ (Sattler);
gonorrhœal rheumatism (Petrone, Kammerer). If the bacterial
theory of infection, constantly threatening life by such
numerous pathogenic varieties of infecting organisms, must be
looked upon as a gloomy one, the anti-bacterial Phagocyte
Theory of Metschnikoff, professor of zoology in Odessa, is
adapted to make one feel more comfortable, inasmuch as it
brings into view the possibility of an antagonism to these
infecting organisms, and explains the method of nature's
cures. Metschnikoff observed that the wandering cells—the
white blood corpuscles—after the manner of amœbæ, surround,
hold fast, digest ('devour,' hence 'phagocytes'), and thus
render harmless the bacteria which have entered the body. …
The prophylactic effects of inoculation are explained on the
theory that by means of this operation the wandering cells are
prepared, as it were, for subsequent accidental irruptions of
similar pathogenic bacteria, are habituated or compelled
thereby to at once devour such organisms when they enter the
body spontaneously, and thus to render them harmless.
Inoculation would thus be a sort of training or education of
the phagocytes. The immunity of many persons from infectious
diseases, so far as it is not effected by inoculations, would
by analogy be explained on the theory that with such
individuals the phagocytes are from the outset so constituted
that they at once render harmless any stray bacteria which
come within their domain by immediately devouring them. …
When … in spite of the phagocytes, the patients die of
infectious diseases, the fact is to be explained by the
excessive number of the bacteria present, which is so great
that the phagocytes are unequal to the task of 'devouring'
them all."

_J. H. Baas,
Outlines of the History of Medicine,
pages 1007-1009._

{2149}

MEDICAL SCIENCE: 19th Century.
Sanitary Science and Legislation.

"Together with the growth of our knowledge of the causes of
disease there has been … slowly growing up also a new kind
of warfare against disease. It is this science of hygiene
which is now promising to transform all the old traditional
ways of dealing with disease, and which now makes possible the
organisation of the conditions of health. And this science of
hygiene, it must be repeated, rests on the exact knowledge of
the causes of disease which we are now obtaining. … At the
beginning of the eighteenth century Mead, a famous physician
of that day, whose reputation still lives, had proposed the
formation of a central board of health to organise common
measures for the public safety. It was not, however, until
more than a hundred years later, in 1831, under the influence
of the terror of cholera, that this first step was taken; so
that, as it has been well said and often since proved, 'panic
is the parent of sanitation.' In 1842 Sir Edwin Chadwick
issued his report on 'The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring
Population of Great Britain.' This report produced marked
effect, and may truly be said to have inaugurated the new era
of collective action, embodying itself in legislation directed
to the preservation of national health, an era which is thus
just half a century old. Chadwick's report led to a Royal
Commission, which was the first step in the elevation of
public health to a State interest; and a few years later
(1847) Liverpool, and immediately afterwards London, appointed
the first medical officers of health in Great Britain. In 1848
another epidemic of cholera appeared, and a General Board of
Health was established. During this epidemic Dr. Snow began
those inquiries which led to the discovery that the spread of
the disease was due to the contamination of drinking-water by
the intestinal discharges of patients. That discovery marked
the first great stage in the new movement. Henceforth the
objects to be striven for in the evolution of sanitation
became ever more clear and precise, and a succession of
notable discoveries in connection with various epidemics
enlarged the sphere of sanitation, and revealed new
possibilities in the prevention of human misery."

_H. Ellis,
The Nationalisation of Health,
pages 21-24._

"Of all countries of the civilized world, none has a sanitary
code so complete and so precise as England. In addition,
English legislation is distinguished from that of other
countries, by the fact that the principal regulations emanate
from Parliament instead of being simple administrative orders.
Thus the legislation is the work of the nation, which has
recognised its necessity in its own interest. Consequently the
laws are respected, and, as a rule, religiously observed,
without objection or murmur. In the whole country, the
marvellous results which have been produced can be seen.
Thanks to these laws, the rate of mortality has been lowered,
the mean duration of life increased, the amount of sickness
decreased. They have greatly alleviated the misery in the
houses of the poor, who, thanks to sanitary measures, have a
better prospect of recovering their health and the means of
providing for their subsistence and that of their families.
… The sanitary administration of England is, in accordance
with the Public Health Act of 1875, in the hands of a central
authority, the Local Government Board; and local authorities,
the Local Boards of Health. The Local Government Board
consists of a president, nominated by the Queen, and the
following ex-officio members:—the Lord President of the Privy
Council, all the principal Secretaries of State for the time
being, the Lord Privy Seal, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a
Parliamentary Secretary, and a permanent Secretary. The
President and Secretaries are, properly speaking, the
directors of the Local Government Board, the other members
being only consulted on matters of prime importance. Nine
special departments are controlled by the Local Government
Board:

1. Poor-law administration.
2. Legal questions.
3. Sanitary regulations respecting buildings.
4. Sanitary regulations respecting sewers, streets, etc.
5. Medical and hygienic matters.
6. Vaccination.
7. The Hygiene of factories.
8. The water supply of London.
9. Statistics.

Medical and sanitary matters are under the direction of a
Medical Officer, and an Assistant Medical Officer."

_A. Palmberg,
Treatise on Public Health: England,
chapter 1._

"The United States have no uniform legislation for the
organization of public hygiene to the present day. Each State
organizes this service as it chooses. … That which
characterizes the sanitary organization of the States is the
fact that, in a large number of States, the right is granted
to the sanitary administrations to carry before the justices
the infractions of the regulations on this subject. It is a
similar organization to that of Great Britain, with a little
less independence, and it is the logical result of the general
system of administration which exists in the American Union.
… Without doubt the day will come when the National Board of
Health will be by act of Congress, with the consent of all the
States, the real superior council of public hygiene of the
American Union."

_E. Sève,
On the General Organization of Public Hygiene
(Proceedings, International Sanitary Conference, 1881)._

"The General Government [of the United States] can do little
in the way of compulsory legislation, which might interfere
with the action of the several States to control their own
sanitary affairs. It is possible that upon the ground of power
to legislate with regard to commerce, it might establish some
general system of quarantine and do something toward the
prevention of the pollution of navigable streams; but it could
probably only do this with such restrictions and exceptions as
would make its action of little practical value, unless,
indeed, it should resort to its right of eminent domain, and
become liable for all damages, individual or municipal, which
its action might cause. … No one would deny that the General
Government can properly create an organization for the purpose
of collecting and diffusing information on sanitary matters;
but comparatively few understand how much real power and
influence such an organization might acquire without having
the slightest legal authority to enforce any of its
recommendations. The passing of sanitary laws, and the
granting to a certain department the power to enforce these
laws, will not ensure good public health unless the public at
large supports those laws intelligently, and it can only do
this through State and municipal sanitary organizations. The
General Government might do much to promote the formation of
such organizations, and to assist them in various ways. … By
the 'act to prevent the introduction of infectious or
contagious diseases into the United States, and to establish a
national board of health,' approved March 3, 1879, the first
step has been taken in the direction above indicated.
{2150}
The act provides for a national board of health, to consist of
seven members, appointed by the President, and of four
officers detailed from the Medical Department of the Army,
Medical Department of the Navy, and the Marine Hospital
Service, and the Department of Justice respectively. No
definite term of Office is prescribed, the Board being
essentially provisional in character. The duties of the board
are 'to obtain information upon all matters affecting the
public health, to advise the several departments of the
government, the executives of the several States, and the
Commissioners of the District of Columbia, on all questions
submitted by them, or whenever in the opinion of the board
such advice may tend to the preservation and improvement of
the public health.' The board is also directed to prepare a
plan for a national public health organization in conjunction
with the National Academy of Sciences."

_J. S. Billings,
Introduction to "A Treatise on Hygiene and Public Health,"
edited by A. IL Buck._

ALSO IN:
_Sir J. Simon,
English Sanitary Institutions_

_Sir J. Simon,
Public Health: Reports of the Medical Officer
of the Privy Council and Local Government Board._

_United States National Board of Health,
Annual Reports._

_Massachusetts Board of Health,
Annual Reports._

----------MEDICAL SCIENCE: End----------

MEDICI, The.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1378-1427, and after.

----------MEDINA: Start--------

MEDINA: the City of the Prophet.

By Mahomet's Hegira or flight from Mecca to Yethrib, A. D.
622, the latter city became the seat of Islam and was
henceforward known as Medina—Medinet-en-Neby—"the City of
the Prophet."

_S. Lane-Poole,
Studies in a Mosque,
chapter 2._

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 609-632.

MEDINA: A. D. 661.
The Caliphate transferred.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 661.

MEDINA: A. D. 683.
Stormed and sacked.

In the civil war which followed the accession of Yezid, the
second of the Omeyyad caliphs, Medina was besieged and stormed
by Yezid's army and given up for three days to every
imaginable brutality on the part of the soldiery. The
inhabitants who survived were made slaves.

_Sir W. Muir,
Annals of the Early Caliphate,
chapter 50._

ALSO IN:
_W. Irving,
Mahomet and his Successors,
volume 2, chapter 47._

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 715-750.

----------MEDINA: End----------

MEDINA DEL RIO SECO, Battle of.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1808 (MAY-SEPTEMBER).

MEDIOLANUM.

Modern Milan. Taken by the Romans in 222 B. C. from the
Insubrian Gauls.

See ROME: B. C. 295-191.

MEDIOMATRICI.

The original form of the name of the city of Metz, which had
been called Divodurum by the Gauls at an earlier day.

MEDISM. MEDIZED GREEKS.

During the wars of the Persians against the Greeks, the former
had many friends and allies, both secret and open, among the
latter. These were commonly called Medized Greeks, and their
treason went by the name of Medism.

MEDITERRANEAN FUND.

A special fund provided by the United States Congress, in
1803, for the War with Tripoli.

_H. Adams,
History of the United States,
volume 2, chapter 7._

MEDITERRANEAN SEA:
When named.

"For this sea … the Greeks had no distinctive name, because
it had so long been practically the only one known to them;
and Strabo can only distinguish it as 'the Inner' or 'Our'
Sea. … The now familiar appellation of Mediterranean is in
like manner first used by Solinus [third century], only as a
convenient designation, not as a strictly geographical term.
… The first extant author who employs it distinctly as a
proper name is Isidorus, who wrote in the seventh century."

_E: H. Bunbury,
History of Ancient Geography,
chapter 21, section 1,
chapter 23, section 2, foot-note,
chapter 31 (volume 2)._

MEERUT, The Sepoy mutiny at.

See INDIA: A. D. 1857 (MAY).

MEGALESIA, The.

See LUDI.

----------MEGALOPOLIS: Start--------

MEGALOPOLIS: B. C. 371.
The founding of the city.

See GREECE: B. C. 371.

MEGALOPOLIS: B. C. 317.
Defense against Polysperchon.

See GREECE: B. C. 321-312.

MEGALOPOLIS: B. C. 222.
Destruction and restoration.

The last exploit of Cleomenes of Sparta, in his struggle with
the Achæan League and its ally, the king of Macedonia, before
the fatal field of Sellasia, was the capture of Megalopolis,
B. C. 222. Most of the citizens escaped. He offered to restore
their town to them, if they would forsake the League. They
refused, and he destroyed it, so utterly that its restoration
was believed to be impossible. But in the following year the
inhabitants were brought back and Megalopolis existed again,
though never with its former importance.

_Polybius,
Histories,
book 2, chapter 55 and after (volume 1)._

MEGALOPOLIS: B. C. 194-183.
In the Achaian League.

"The city of Megalopolis held at this time [B. C. 194-183] the
same sort of position in the Achaian League which the State of
Virginia held in the first days of the American Union. Without
any sort of legal preëminence, without at all assuming the
character of a capital, Megalopolis was clearly the first city
of the League, the city which gave the nation the largest
proportion of its leading statesmen. Megalopolis, like
Virginia, was 'the Mother of Presidents,' and that too of
Presidents of different political parties. As Virginia
produced both Washington and Jefferson, so Megalopolis, if she
produced Philopoimen and Lykortas, produced also Aristainos
and Diophanes."

_E. A. Freeman,
History of Federal Government,
chapter 9, section 2._

----------MEGALOPOLIS: End--------

----------MEGARA: Start--------

MEGARA.

Megara, the ancient Greek city and state whose territory lay
between Attica and Corinth, forming part of the Corinthian
isthmus, "is affirmed to have been originally settled by the
Dorians of Corinth, and to have remained for some time a
dependency of that city. It is farther said to have been at
first merely one of five separate villages—Megara, Heræa,
Peiræa, Kynosura, Tripodiskus—inhabited by a kindred
population, and generally on friendly terms, yet sometimes
distracted by quarrels. …

See CORINTH: B. C. 745-725.

Whatever may be the truth respecting this alleged early
subjection of Megara, we know it in the historical age, and
that too as early as the 14th Olympiad, only as an independent
Dorian city, maintaining the integrity of its territory under its
leader Orsippus, the famous Olympic runner, against some
powerful enemies, probably the Corinthians. It was of no mean
consideration, possessing a territory which extended across
Mount Geraneia to the Corinthian Gulf, on which the fortified
town and port of Pêgæ, belonging to the Megarians, was
situated. It was mother of early and distant colonies,—and
competent, during the time of Solon, to carry on a protracted
contest with the Athenians, for the possession of Salamis;
wherein, although the latter were at last victorious, it was
not without an intermediate period of ill-success and
despair."

_G. Grote,
History of Greece,
part 2, chapter 9._

See, also, GREECE: THE MIGRATIONS.

{2151}

MEGARA: B. C. 610-600.
Struggle with Athens for Salamis.
Spartan arbitration favorable to the Athenians.

See ATHENS: B. C. 610-586.

MEGARA: B. C. 458-456.
Alliance with Athens in war with Corinth and Ægina.

See GREECE: B. C. 458-456.

MEGARA: B. C. 446-445.
Rising against Athens.

See GREECE: B. C. 449-445.

MEGARA: B. C. 431-424.
Athenian invasions and ravages.

See ATHENS: B. C. 431.

MEGARA: B. C. 339-338.
Resistance to Philip of Macedon.

See GREECE: B. C. 357-336.

----------MEGARA: End--------

MEGARA OF CARTHAGE, The.

See CARTHAGE: DIVISIONS.

MEGIDDO.

The valley of Megiddo, forming the western part of the great
Plain of Esdraelon, in northern Palestine—stretching from the
valley of the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea, along the
course of the river Kishon—was the field of many important
battles in ancient times. Thothmes III. of the eighteenth
Egyptian dynasty, whose reign is placed about 1600 B. C., met
there, near the city of Megiddo, and defeated a confederacy of
Syrian and Canaanite princes who attempted to throw off his
yoke. A remarkable account of his victory and of the spoils he
took is preserved in inscriptions on the walls of the temple
at Karnak.

_H. Brugsch,
History of Egypt,
chapter 13 (volume 1)._

It was at Megiddo, also, that Sisera, commanding the forces of
the Canaanites, was beaten and driven to flight by the
Israelites under Barak. Gideon's' assault on the Midianites
was from the slope of Mount Gilboa, which rises out of the
same valley. The latter battle has been called by historians
the Battle of Jezreel, and Jezreel is one of the forms of the
name of the valley of Esdraelon. It was there that the
Philistines were arrayed when Saul fought his last battle with
them, and on the slopes of Gilboa he fell on his sword and
died. On the same historic plain, near the city of Megiddo,
Josiah, king of Judah, fought against Necho, the Pharaoh of
Egypt, B. C. 609, and was defeated and mortally wounded. The
plain of Megiddo was so often, in fact, the meeting place of
ancient armies that it seems to have come to be looked upon as
the typical battle-ground, and apparently the name Armageddon
in Revelations is an allusion to it in that sense. The ancient
city of Megiddo has been identified in site with the present
town of Ledjûn, which is the Legio of the Romans—the station
of a Roman legion.

MEGISTANES, The.

"The king [of the Parthian monarchy] was permanently advised
by two councils, consisting of persons not of his own
nomination, whom rights, conferred by birth or office,
entitled to their seats. One of these was a family conclave,
… or assembly of the full-grown males of the Royal House;
the other was a senate comprising both the spiritual and the
temporal chiefs of the nation, the Sophi, or 'Wise Men,' and
the Magi, or 'Priests.' Together these two bodies constituted
the Megistanes, the 'Nobles' or 'Great Men'—the privileged
class which to a considerable extent checked and controlled
the monarch. The monarchy was elective; but only in the house
of the Arsacidæ."

_G. Rawlinson,
Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy,
chapter 6._

MEHDI, AL.

See MAHDI, AL.

MEHEMET ALI AND THE INDEPENDENT PASHALIK OF EGYPT.

See TURKS: A. D. 1831-1840;
and EGYPT: A. D. 1840-1869.

MEHERRINS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: IROQUOIS TRIBES OF THE SOUTH

MEIGS, Fort, Sieges of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812-1813
HARRISON'S NORTHWESTERN CAMPAIGN.

MELBOURNE MINISTRIES, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1834-1837; and 1841-1842.

MELCHITES.

A name applied in the religious controversies of the 6th
century, by the heretical Jacobites, to the adherents of the
orthodox church. It signified that they were imperialists, or
royalists, taking their doctrines from the sovereign power.

_H. F. Tozer,
The Church and the Eastern Empire,
chapter 5._

MELDÆ, The.

A tribe in ancient Gaul which was established in the north of
the modern French department of the Seine-et-Marne and in a
small part of the department of the Oise.

_Napoleon III.,
History of Cæsar,
book 3, chapter 2, footnote (volume 2)._

MELIAN FAMINE.

See GREECE: B. C. 416.

MELIGNANO, MARIGNANO, Battle of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1515.

MELISCEET INDIANS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

MELORIA, Battles of (1241 and 1284).

See PISA: A. D. 1063-1293.

MELOS: Siege, conquest and massacre by the Athenians:

See GREECE: B. C. 416.

MELUN, Siege of.

One of the important sieges in the second campaign of the
English king Henry V. in France, A. D. 1420.

_Monstrelet,
Chronicles,
book 1, chapters 226-230 (volume 1)._

MEMLUKS.

See MAMELUKES.

----------MEMPHIS, Egypt: Start--------

MEMPHIS, Egypt.

The foundation of Memphis is the first event in Egyptian
history, the one large historical incident in the reign of the
first king, who emerges a real man from the shadow land which
the Egyptians called the reign of the gods. … Menes, the
founder of Memphis and Egyptian history, came from the south.
Civilisation descended the Nile. His native place was Thinis,
or This, in Upper Egypt, a still older town, where his shadowy
predecessors ruled. … A great engineering work was the first
act of the builder. He chose his site … but the stream was
on the wrong side, flowing below the Libyan chain, flowing
over where the city should be, offering no water-bulwark
against the invader from the eastern border. So he raised, a
few miles to the south, a mighty dyke, and turned the river
into the present course, founding the city on the west bank,
with the desert behind and the Nile before. … The new city
received a name which reflects the satisfaction of the ancient
founder: he called it Mennufre, 'the Good' or 'Perfect
Mansion.' This was the civil name. … The civil name is
the parent of the Greek Memphis and the Hebrew Moph, also
found in the form Noph."

_R. S. Poole,
Cities of Egypt,
chapter 2._

See, also,
EGYPT: THE OLD EMPIRE AND THE MIDDLE EMPIRE.

{2152}

MEMPHIS: A. D. 640-641.
Surrender to the Moslems.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 640-646.

----------MEMPHIS, Egypt: End--------

----------MEMPHIS, Tennessee: Start--------

MEMPHIS, Tennessee: A. D. 1739-1740.
A French fort on the site.

See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1719-1750.

MEMPHIS, Tennessee: A. D. 1862.
Naval fight in the river.
Surrender of the city to the Union forces.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (JUNE: ON THE MISSISSIPPI).

----------MEMPHIS, Tennessee: End--------

MENAPII, The.

See BELGÆ;
also, IRELAND: TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.

MENDICANT ORDERS.
Franciscans.
Dominicans.

"This period [12-13th centuries], so prolific in institutions
of every sort, also gave birth to the Mendicant orders, a
species of spiritual chivalry still more generous and heroic
than that which we have just treated [the military-religious
orders], and unique in history. … Many causes combined to
call them into existence. In proportion as the Church grew
wealthy her discipline relaxed, and dangers menaced her on
every side. … The problem thus presented to the Church was
taken up at the opening of the 13th century, and thrown into
practical shape by two men equally eminent in intellectual
endowments and spiritual gifts. While each solved it in his
own way, they were both attached to each other by the closest
friendship. Dominic, a member of the powerful house of Guzman,
was born in the year 1170, at Callaruega (Calahorra, in Old
Castile), a village in the diocese of Osma. While pursuing his
studies in the university of Valencia, he was distinguished by
a spirit of charity and self·sacrifice. … Diego, Bishop of
Osma, … a man of severe character, and ardently devoted to
the good of the Church, found in Dominic one after his own
heart. He took the young priest with him on a mission which he
made to the south of France." Dominic was finally left in
charge of the mission. "His peaceful disposition, his spirit
of prayer, his charity, forbearance, and patient temper formed
a consoling contrast to the bloody crusade which had recently
been set on foot against the Albigenses. After spending ten
years in this toilsome and thankless mission, labouring only
for love of God and the profit of souls, he set out for Rome,
in 1215, with his plans fully matured, and submitted to Pope
Innocent III. the project of giving to the Church a new method
of defence, in an order which should combine the contemplative
life of the monk with the active career of a secular priest.
… Innocent gave his sanction to Dominic's project, provided
he would manage to bring it under some of the existing Rules.
Dominic accordingly selected the Rule of St. Augustine,
introducing a few changes, with a view to greater severity,
taken from the Rule of the Premonstratensians. That the
members of the new order might be free to devote themselves
entirely to their spiritual labours, they were forbidden to
accept any property requiring their active administration, but
were permitted to receive the incomes of such as was
administered by others. Property, therefore, might be held by
the Order as a body, but not administered by its members. Pope
Honorius III. confirmed the action of his illustrious
predecessor, and approved the Order in the following year,
giving it, from its object, the name of the 'Order of Friars
Preachers' ('Ordo Prædicatorum, Fratres Prædicatores'). …
Dominic founded, in the year 1206, an Order of Dominican nuns.
… The dress of the Dominicans is a white garment and
scapular, resembling in form that of the Augustinians, with a
black cloak and a pointed cap. Francis of Assisi, the son of a
wealthy merchant named Bernardini, was born in the year 1182,
in Assisi, in Umbria. His baptismal name was John, but from
his habit of reading the romances of the Troubadours in his
youth, he gradually acquired the name of Il Francesco, or the
Little Frenchman. … When about twenty-four years of age, he
fell dangerously ill, and, while suffering from this attack,
gave himself up to a train of religious thought which led him
to consider the emptiness and uselessness of his past life.
… He … conceived the idea of founding a society whose
members should go about through the whole world, after the
manner of the apostles, preaching and exhorting to penance.
… His zeal gradually excited emulation, and prompted others
to aspire after the same perfection. His first associates were
his townsmen, Bernard Quintavalle and Peter Cattano, and
others soon followed. Their habit consisted of a long brown
tunic of coarse woolen cloth, surmounted by a hood of the same
material, and confined about the waist with a hempen cord.
This simple but ennobling dress was selected because it was
that of the poor peasants of the surrounding country. … He
sent his companions, two-and-two, in all directions, saying to
them in taking leave: 'Go; always travel two-and-two. Pray
until the third hour; then only may you speak. Let your speech
be simple and humble.' … With St. Francis, absolute poverty
was not only a practice, it was the essential principle on
which he based his Order. Not only were the individual members
forbidden to have any personal property whatever, but neither
could they hold any as an Order, and were entirely dependent
for their support upon alms. … Hence the chief difference
between mendicant and other monastic orders consists in this,
that, in the former, begging takes the place of the ordinary
vow of personal poverty. … In 1223, Pope Honorius III.
approved the Order of Franciscans (Fratres Minores), to which
… Innocent III. had given a verbal sanction in 1210."

_J. Alzog,
Manual of Universal Church History,
section 247 (volume 2)._

"They were" called 'Friars' because, out of humility, their
founders would not have them called 'Father' and 'Dominus,'
like the monks, but simply 'Brother' ('Frater,' 'Frère,'
Friar). … Dominic gave to his order the name of Preaching
Friars; more commonly they were styled Dominicans, or, from
the colour of their habits, Black Friars. … The Franciscans
were styled by their founder 'Fratri Minori'—lesser brothers,
Friars Minors; they were more usually called Grey Friars, from
the colour of their habits, or Cordeliers, from the knotted
cord which formed their characteristic girdle."

_E. L. Cutts,
Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages,
chapter 5._

{2153}

"People talk of 'Monks and Friars' as if these were
convertible terms. The truth is that the difference between
the Monks and the Friars was almost one of kind. The Monk was
supposed never to leave his cloister. The Friar in St.
Francis' first intention had no cloister to leave."

_A. Jessopp,
The Coming of the Friars, 1._

ALSO IN:
_Mrs. Oliphant,
Life of St. Francis of Assisi._

_H. L. Lacordaire,
Life of St. Dominic._

_R. Pauli,
Pictures of Old England,
chapter 2._

_E. F. Henderson,
Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages,
book 3, number 8._

_P. Sabatier,
Life of St. Francis of Assisi._

MENENDEZ'S MASSACRE OF FLORIDA HUGUENOTS.

See FLORIDA: A. D. 1565.

MENHIR.

Meaning literally "long-stone." The name is usually given to
single, upright stones, sometimes very large, which are found
in the British islands, France and elsewhere, and which are
supposed to be the rude sepulchral monuments of some of the
earlier races, Celtic and pre-Celtic.

_Sir J. Lubbock,
Prehistoric Times,
chapter 5._

MENOMINEES, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

MENTANA, Battle of (1867).

See ITALY: A. D. 1867-1870.

----------MENTZ: Start--------

MENTZ: Origin.

See MOGONTIACUM.

MENTZ: A. D. 406.
Destruction by the Germans.

See GAUL: A. D. 406-409.

MENTZ: 12th Century.
Origin of the electorate.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1125-1152.

MENTZ: A. D. 1455-1456.
Appearance of the first printed book.

See PRINTING: A. D. 1430-1456.

MENTZ: A. D. 1631.
Occupied by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1631-1632.

MENTZ: A. D. 1792.
Occupation by the French Revolutionary army.
Incorporation with the French Republic.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).

MENTZ: A. D. 1793.
Recovery by the Germans.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JULY-DECEMBER).

MENTZ: A. D. 1801-1803.
Extinction of the electorate.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1801-1803.

----------MENTZ: End--------

MENTZ, Treaty of (1621).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1621-1623.

MENZEL PAPERS, The.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1755-1756, and 1756.

MERCED, The order of La.

"Jayme [king of Aragon, called El Conquistador], when a
captive in the hands of Simon de Montfort [see SPAIN: A. D.
1212-1238], had—mere baby as he was—made a vow that, when he
should be a man and a king, he would endeavour to do something
for the redemption of captives. So, before he was a man in
age, he instituted another religious order of knighthood,
called La Merced, which added to their other duties that of
collecting alms and using them for the ransoming of captives
to the Moors."

_C. M. Yonge,
The Story of the Christians and Moors of Spain,
page 184._

MERCENARIES, Revolt of the.

See CARTHAGE: B. C. 241-238.

MERCHANT ADVENTURERS.

"The original Company of the Merchant Adventurers carried on
trade chiefly with the Netherlands. Their principal mart was
at first Bruges, whence it was removed to Antwerp early in the
fifteenth century. In distinction from the staplers, who dealt
in certain raw materials, the Merchant Adventurers had the
monopoly of exporting certain manufactured articles,
especially cloths. Though of national importance, they
constituted a strictly private company, and not, like the
staplers, an administrative organ of the British government.
The former were all subjects of the English crown; the
staplers were made up of aliens as well as Englishmen. In the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries frequent dissensions broke
out between these two bodies regarding the exportation of
cloth. To carry on foreign trade freely in wool as well as in
cloth, a merchant had to join both companies. Much obscurity
hangs over the early history of the Merchant Adventurers. They
claimed' that John, Duke of Brabant, founded their society in
1216 or 1248, and that it originally bore the name of the
Brotherhood of St. Thomas à Becket. But it could scarcely have
existed in its later form before the reign of Edward III.,
when the cloth industry began to flourish in England. The
earliest charter granted to it as an organized association
dates from the year 1407. Their powers were greatly increased
by Henry VII. The soul of this society, and perhaps its
original nucleus, was the Mercers' Company of London. …
Though the most influential Merchant Adventurers resided in
London, there were many in other English towns. … The
contrast between the old Gild Merchant and the Company of
Merchant Adventurers is striking. The one had to do wholly
with foreign trade, and its members were forbidden to exercise
a manual occupation or even to be retail shopkeepers; the
other consisted mainly of small shopkeepers and artisans. The
line of demarkation between merchants and manual craftsmen was
sharply drawn by the second half of the sixteenth century, the
term 'merchant' having already acquired its modern
signification as a dealer on an extensive scale. Besides the
Company of Merchant Adventurers trading to the Low
Countries—which during the eighteenth century was called the
Hamburg Company—various new Companies of Merchant Adventurers
trading to other lands arose in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, especially during the reigns of Elizabeth and her
immediate successors. Among them were the Russian or Muscovy
Company, the Turkey or Levant Company, the Guinea Company, the
Morocco Company, the Eastland Company, the Spanish Company,
and the East India Company, the last-mentioned being the most
powerful of them all."

_C. Gross,
The Gild Merchant,
pages 148-156._

MERCHANT GUILD.

See GUILDS, MEDIÆVAL.

MERCHANT TAYLORS' SCHOOL.

See EDUCATION, MODERN: EUROPEAN COUNTRIES—ENGLAND.

MERCIA, The Kingdom of.

A kingdom formed at the close of the 6th century by the West
Angles, on the Welsh border, or March. The people who formed
it had acquired the name of Men of the March, from which they
came to be called Mercians, and their kingdom Mercia. In the
next century, under King Penda, its territory and its power
were greatly extended, at the expense of Northumbria.

_J. R. Green,
The Making of England._

See, also, ENGLAND: A. D. 547-633.

{2154}

MERCY FOR THE REDEMPTION OF CHRISTIAN CAPTIVES, The Order of.

"For the institution of this godlike order, the Christian
world was indebted to Pope Innocent III., at the close of the
12th century. … The exertions of the order were soon crowned
with success. One third of its revenues was appropriated to
the objects of its foundation, and thousands groaning in
slavery were restored to their country. … The order … met
with so much encouragement that, in the time of Alberic, the
monk (who wrote about forty years after its institution), the
number of monastic houses amounted to 600, most of which were
situated in France, Lombardy and Spain."

_S. A. Dunham,
History of Spain and Portugal,
book 3, section 3, chapter 4 (volume 4)._

MERGENTHEIM, Battle of (1645).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1640-1645.

----------MERIDA: Start--------

MERIDA, Origin of.

See EMERITA AUGUSTA.

MERIDA: A. D. 712.
Siege and capture by the Arab-Moors.

See SPAIN: A. D. 711-713.

----------MERIDA: End--------

MERIDIAN, Mississippi,
Sherman's Raid to.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863-1864 (DECEMBER-APRIL: TENNESSEE-MISSISSIPPI).

MERMNADÆ, The.
The third dynasty of the kings of Lydia, beginning
with Gyges and ending with Crœsus.

_M. Duncker,
History of Antiquity,
book 4, chapter 17 (volume 3)._

MEROË, The Kingdom of.

See ETHIOPIA.

MEROM, Battle of.

The final great victory won by Joshua in the conquest of
Canaan, over the Canaanite and Amorite kings, under Jabin,
king of Hazor, who seems to have been a kind of over-king or
chieftain among them.

_Dean Stanley,
Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church,
lecture 12 (volume 1)._

MEROVINGIANS, The.

See FRANKS: A. D. 448-456; and 511-752.

MERRIMAC AND MONITOR, Battle of the.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (MARCH).

MERRYMOUNT.

See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1622-1628.

MERTÆ, The.

See BRITAIN: CELTIC TRIBES.

MERTON, Statutes of.

A body of laws enacted at a Great Council held at Merton, in
England, under Henry III., A. D. 1236, which marks an
important advance made in the development of constitutional
legislation.

_G. W. Prothero,
Simon de Montfort._

MERU.

See MERV.

----------MERV: Start--------

MERV, OR MERU: A. D. 1221.
Destruction by Jingis Khan.

In the merciless march through Central Asia of the awful
Mongol horde set in motion by Jingis Khan, the great city of
Meru (modern Merv) was reached in the autumn of A. D. 1220.
This was "Meru Shahjan, i. e., Meru the king of the world, one
of the four chief cities of Khorassan, and one of the oldest
cities of the world. It had been the capital of the great
Seljuk Sultans Melikshah and Sanjar, and was very rich and
populous. It was situated on the banks of the Meri el rond,
also called the Murjab. … The siege commenced on the 25th of
February, 1221. The governor of the town … sent a venerable
imam as an envoy to the Mongol camp. He returned with such
fair promises that the governor himself repaired to the camp,
and was loaded with presents; he was asked to send for his
chief relations and friends; when these were fairly in his
power, Tulni [one of the sons of Jingis Khan] ordered them
all, including the governor, to be killed. The Mongols then
entered the town, the inhabitants were ordered to evacuate it
with their treasures; the mournful procession, we are told,
took four days to defile out. … A general and frightful
massacre ensued; only 400 artisans and a certain number of
young people were reserved as slaves. The author of the
'Jhankushai' says that the Seyid Yzz-ud-din, a man renowned
for his virtues and piety, assisted by many people, were
thirteen days in counting the corpses, which numbered
1,300,000. Ibn al Ethir says that 700,000 corpses were
counted. The town was sacked, the mausolemn of the Sultan
Sanjar was rifled and then burnt, and the walls and citadel of
Meru levelled with the ground."

_H. H. Howorth,
History of the Mongols,
volume 1, page 87._

See, also, KHORASSAN: A. D. 1220-1221.

MERV, OR MERU: A. D. 1884.
Russian occupation.

See RUSSIA. A. D. 1869-1881.

----------MERV: End--------

MERWAN I., Caliph, A. D. 683-684.

Merwan II., Caliph, 744-750.

MERWING.

One of the forms given to the name of the royal family of the
Franks, established in power by Clovis, and more commonly
known as the Merovingian Family.

MÉRY, Battle of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).

MESCHIANZA, MISCHIANZA, The.

See PHILADELPHIA: A. D. 1777-1778.

MESOPOTAMIA.

"Between the outer limits of the Syro-Arabian desert and the
foot of the great mountain-range of Kurdistan and Luristan
intervenes a territory long famous in the world's history, and
the chief site of three out of the five empires of whose
history, geography, and antiquities it is proposed to treat in
the present volumes. Known to the Jews as Aram-Naharaim, or
'Syria of the two rivers'; to the Greeks and Romans as
Mesopotamia, or 'the between-river country'; to the Arabs as
Al-Jezireh, or, 'the island,' this district has always taken
its name from the streams [the Tigris and Euphrates] which
constitute its most striking feature."

_G. Rawlinson,
Five Great Monarchies: Chaldœa,
chapter 1._

MESSALINA, The infamies of.

See ROME: A. D. 47-54.

MESSANA.

See MESSENE.

MESSAPIANS, The.

See ŒNOTRIANS.

----------MESSENE: Start--------

MESSENE, in Peloponnesus: B. C. 369.
The founding of the city.
Restoration of the enslaved Messenians.

See MESSENIAN WAR, THE THIRD;
also, GREECE: B. C. 371-362.

MESSENE: B. C. 338.
Territories restored by Philip of Macedon.

See GREECE; B. C. 357-336.

MESSENE: B. C. 184.
Revolt from the Achæan League.

A faction in Messene which was hostile to the Achæan League
having gained the ascendancy, B. C. 184, declared its
secession from the League. Philopœmen, the chief of the
League, proceeded at once with a small force to reduce the
Messenians to obedience, but was taken prisoner and was foully
executed by his enemies. Bishop Thirlwall pronounced him "the
last great man whom Greece produced." The death of Philopœmen
was speedily avenged on those who caused it and Messene was
recovered to the League.

_C. Thirlwall,
History of Greece,
chapter 65._

ALSO IN:
_Plutarch,
Philopœmen._

{2155}

MESSENE (MODERN MESSINA), in Sicily.
The founding of the city.

"Zancle was originally colonised by pirates who came from Cyme
the Chalcidian city in Opicia. … Zancle was the original
name of the place, a name given by the Sicels because the site
was in shape like a sickle, for which the Sicel word is
Zanclon. These earlier settlers were afterwards driven out by
the Samians and other Ionians, who when they fled from the
Persians found their way to Sicily. Not long afterwards
Anaxilas, the tyrant of Rhegium, drove out these Samians. He
then repeopled their city with a mixed multitude, and called
the place Messene, after his native country."

_Thucydides,
History,
translated by Jowett,
book 6, section 4._

MESSENE: B. C. 396.
Destruction by the Carthaginians.

See SYRACUSE: B. C. 397-396.

MESSENE: B. C. 264.
The Mamertines.

See PUNIC WAR, THE FIRST.

MESSINA: A. D. 1849.
Bombardment and capture by King Ferdinand.

See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.

----------MESSENIAN WARS: Start--------

MESSENIAN WARS, The First and Second.

The Spartans were engaged in two successive wars with their
neighbors of Messenia, whose territory, adjoining their own in
the southwestern extremity of Peloponnesus, was rich,
prosperous and covetable. "It was unavoidable that the
Spartans should look down with envy from their bare rocky
ridges into the prosperous land of their neighbours and the
terraces close by, descending to the river, with their
well-cultivated plantations of oil and wine. Besides, the
Dorians who had immigrated into Messenia had, under the
influence of the native population and of a life of
comfortable ease, lost their primitive character. Messenia
seemed like a piece of Arcadia, with which it was most
intimately connected. … Hence this was no war of Dorians
against Dorians; it rather seemed to be Sparta's mission to
make good the failure of the Dorization of Messenia which had
sunk back into Pelasgic conditions of life, and to unite with
herself the remains of the Dorian people still surviving
there. In short, a variety of motives contributed to provoke a
forcible extension of Spartan military power on this
particular side."

_E. Curtius,
History of Greece,
book 2, chapter 1 (volume 1)._

The First Messenian War was commenced B. C. 745 and lasted
twenty years, ending in the complete subjugation of the
Messenians, who were reduced to a state of servitude like that
of the Helots of Sparta. After enduring the oppression for
thirty-nine years, the Messenians rose in revolt against their
Spartan masters, B. C. 685. The leader and great hero of this
Second Messenian War was Aristomenes, whose renown became so
great in the despairing struggle that the latter was called
among the ancients the Aristomnean War. But all the valor and
self-sacrifice of the unhappy Messenians availed nothing. They
gave up the contest, B. C. 668; large numbers of them escaped
to other lands and those who remained were reduced to a more
wretched condition than before.

_C. Thirlwall,
History of Greece,
chapter 9._

See, also, SPARTA: B. C. 743-510.

MESSENIAN WARS: The Third.

"The whole of Laconia [E. C. 464] was shaken by an earthquake,
which opened great chasms in the ground, and rolled down huge
masses from the highest peaks of Taygetus: Sparta itself
became a heap of ruins, in which not more than five houses are
said to have been left standing. More than 20,000 persons were
believed to have been destroyed by the shock, and the flower
of the Spartan youth was overwhelmed by the fall of the
buildings in which they were exercising themselves at the
time."

_C. Thirlwall,
History of Greece,
chapter 17._

The Helots of Sparta, especially those who were descended from
the enslaved Messenians, took advantage of the confusion
produced by the earthquake, to rise in revolt. Having secured
possession of Ithome, they fortified themselves in the town
and withstood there a siege of ten years,—sometimes called
the Third Messenian War. The Spartans invited the Athenians to
aid them in the siege, but soon grew jealous of their allies
and dismissed them with some rudeness. This was one of the
prime causes of the animosity between Athens and Sparta which
afterward flamed out in the Peloponnesian War. In the end, the
Messenians at Ithome capitulated and were allowed to quit the
country; whereupon the Athenians settled them at Naupactus, on
the Corinthian gulf, and so gained an ardent ally, in an
important situation.

_Thucydides,
History,
book 1, sections 101-103._

Nearly one hundred years later (B. C. 369) when Thebes, under
Epaminondas, rose to power in Greece and Sparta was
humiliated, it was one of the measures of the Theban statesman
to found at Ithome an important city which he named Messene,
into which the long oppressed Messenians were gathered, from
slavery and from exile, and were organized in a state once
more, free and independent.

_C. Thirlwall,
History of Greece,
chapter 39._

ALSO IN:
_G. Grote,
History of Greece,
part 2, chapter 78._

----------MESSENIAN WARS: End----------

MESSIDOR, The month.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (OCTOBER) THE NEW REPUBLICAN CALENDAR.

MESTIZO. MULATTO.

A half-breed person in Peru, born of a white father and an
Indian mother, is called a Mestizo. One born of a white father
and a negro mother is called a mulatto.

_J. J. Von Tschudi,
Travels in Peru,
chapter 5._

METAPONTIUM.

See SIRIS.

METAURUS, Battle of the.

See PUNIC WAR, THE SECOND.

METAURUS, Defeat of the Alemanni.

See ALEMANNI: A. D. 270.

MÉTAYERS.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1789.

METEMNEH, Battle of(1885).

See EGYPT: A. D. 1884-1885.

METHODISTS:
Origin of the Religious Denomination.

"The term Methodist was a college nickname bestowed upon a
small society of students at Oxford who met together between
1729 and 1735 for the purpose of mutual improvement. They were
accustomed to communicate every week, to fast regularly on
Wednesdays and Fridays, and on most days during Lent; to read
and discuss the Bible in common, to abstain from most forms of
amusement and luxury, and to visit sick persons and prisoners
in the gaol. John Wesley, the master-spirit of this society,
and the future leader of the religious revival of the
eighteenth century, was born in 1703, and was the second
surviving son of Samuel Wesley, the Rector of Epworth, in
Lincolnshire. … The society hardly numbered more than
fifteen members, and was the object of much ridicule at the
university; but it included some men who afterwards played
considerable parts in the world.
{2156}
Among them was Charles, the younger brother of John Wesley,
whose hymns became the favourite poetry of the sect, and whose
gentler, more submissive, and more amiable character, though
less fitted than that of his brother for the great conflicts
of public life, was very useful in moderating the movement,
and in drawing converts to it by personal influence. Charles
Wesley appears to have been the first to originate the society
at Oxford; he brought Whitefield into its pale, and besides
being the most popular poet he was one of the most persuasive
preachers of the movement. There, too, was James Hervey, who
became one of the earliest links connecting Methodism with
general literature."

_W. E. H. Lecky,
History of England in the 18th Century,
chapter 9 (volume 2)._

METHUEN, Rout of.

The first Scotch army assembled by Robert Bruce after he had
been crowned king of Scotland, was surprised and routed by
Aymer de Valence, June 26, 1306.

_C. H. Pearson,
History of England during the Early and Middle Ages,
volume 2, chapter 14._

METHUEN TREATY, The.

See PORTUGAL: A. D. 1703;
and SPAIN: A. D. 1703-1704.

METÖACS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

METŒCI.

"Resident aliens, or Metœci, are non-citizens possessed of
personal freedom, and settled in Attica. Their number, in the
flourishing periods of the State, might amount to 45,000, and
therefore was about half that of the citizens."

_G. F. Schömann,
Antiquity of Greece: The State,
part 3, chapter 3, section 2._

METON, The year of.

"Hitherto [before the age of Pericles] the Athenians had only
had the Octaëteris, i. e., the period of eight years, of which
three were composed of thirteen months, in order thus to make
the lunar years correspond to the solar. But as eight such
solar years still amount to something short of 99 lunar
months, this cycle was insufficient for its purpose. … Meton
and his associates calculated that a more correct adjustment
might be obtained within a cycle of 6,940 days. These made up
235 months, which formed a cycle of 19 years; and this was the
so-called 'Great Year,' or 'Year of Meton.'"