Chapter 30

{ Me*dji"di*e, Me*dji"di*eh } (?), n. [Turk. majdieh (prop. fem. a., fr. Ar. mejd glorious); -- so called after the sultan Abdul Mejid, lit., "servant of the Glorious One," i.e., of God.] 1. (a) A silver coin of Turkey formerly rated at twenty, but since 1880 at nineteen, piasters (about 83 cents). (b) A gold coin of Turkey equal to one hundred piastres ($4.396 or 18s. ¾d.); a lira, or Turkish pound.

2. A Turkish honorary order established in 1851 by Abdul-Mejid, having as its badge a medallion surrounded by seven silver rays and crescents. It is often conferred on foreigners.

{ ||Meg`a*lo*ce*pha"li*a (?), Meg`a*lo*ceph"a*ly (?) }, n. [NL. megalocephalia, fr. Gr. &?; having a large head.] (Med.) The condition of having an abnormally large head. -- Meg`a*lo*ce*phal"ic (#), a.

{ Meg`a*scop"ic (?), Meg`a*scop"ic*al (?) }, a. 1. (Physics) Of or pertaining to the megascope or the projection upon a screen of images of opaque objects. (b) Enlarged or magnified; -- said of images or of photographic pictures, etc.

2. (Geol.) Large enough to be seen; -- said of the larger structural features and components of rocks which do not require the use of the microscope to be perceived. Opposed to microscopic.

Mel`an*co`ni*a"ce*æ (?), n. pl. [NL.] (Bot.) A family of fungi constituting the order Melanconiales. -- Mel`an*co`ni*a"ceous (#), a.

Mel`an*co`ni*a"les (?), n. pl. [NL., fr. Melanconium, name of the typical genus, fr. Gr. &?; black + &?; dust, in allusion to the dark spores.] (Bot.) The smallest of the three orders of Fungi Imperfecti, including those with no asci nor pycnidia, but as a rule having the spores in cavities without special walls. They cause many of the plant diseases known as anthracnose.

Mel"a*nism (?), n. (Ethnol.) The character of having a high degree of pigmentation, as shown in dark skin, eyes, and hair.

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||Mel`a*no"ma (?), n.; L. pl. - nomata (#). [NL.; Gr. &?;, &?;, black + -oma.] (Med.) (a) A tumor containing dark pigment. (b) Development of dark-pigmented tumors.

Meld (?), v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Melded; p. pr. & vb. n. Melding.] [G. melden to announce.] (Card Playing) In the game of pinochle, to declare or announce for a score; as, to meld a sequence.

Meld, n. (Card Playing) Any combination or score which may be declared, or melded, in pinochle.

||Mê`lée" (?), n. A cavalry exercise in which two groups of riders try to cut paper plumes off the helmets of their opponents, the contest continuing until no member of one group retains his plume; -- sometimes called Balaklava mêlée.

Mé"lin*ite (?), n. [F.] (Chem.) A high explosive similar to lyddite, consisting principally of picric acid, used in the French military service.

Me*lun"geon (?), n. [Cf. F. mélanger to mix, mélange a mixture.] One of a mixed white and Indian people living in parts of Tennessee and the Carolinas. They are descendants of early intermixtures of white settlers with natives. In North Carolina the Croatan Indians, regarded as descended from Raleigh's lost colony of Croatan, formerly classed with negroes, are now legally recognized as distinct.

||Me*men"to mo"ri (?). [L.] Lit., remember to die, i.e., that you must die; a warning to be prepared for death; an object, as a death's-head or a personal ornament, usually emblematic, used as a reminder of death.

Me*mo"ri*al Day. A day, May 30, appointed for commemorating, by decorating their graves with flowers, by patriotic exercises, etc., the dead soldiers and sailors who served the Civil War (1861-65) in the United States; Decoration Day. It is a legal holiday in most of the States. In the Southern States, the Confederate Memorial Day is: May 30 in Virginia; April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in North Carolina and South Carolina; the second Friday in May in Tennessee; June 3 in Louisiana. [U. S.]

Memorial rose. A Japanese evergreen rose (Rosa wichuraiana) with creeping branches, shining leaves, and single white flowers. It is often planted in cemeteries.

||Mem"-sa`hib (?), n. [Hind. mem- shib; mem (fr. E. ma'am) + Ar. çhib master. See Sahib.] Lady; mistress; -- used by Hindustani-speaking natives in India in addressing European women.

Men*de"li*an (?), a. [See Mendel's law.] (Biol.) Pert. to Mendel, or to Mendel's law. -- Men*de"li*an*ism (#), Men*del"ism (#), n.

Mendelian character. (Biol.) A character which obeys Mendel's law in regard to its hereditary transmission.

Men"del's law (?). A principle governing the inheritance of many characters in animals and plants, discovered by Gregor J. Mendel (Austrian Augustinian abbot, 1822-84) in breeding experiments with peas. He showed that the height, color, and other characters depend on the presence of determinating factors behaving as units. In any given germ cell each of these is either present or absent. The following example (using letters as symbols of the determining factors and hence also of the individuals possessing them) shows the operation of the law: Tallness being due to a factor T, a tall plant, arising by the union in fertilization of two germ cells both bearing this factor, is TT; a dwarf, being without T, is tt. Crossing these, crossbreeds, Tt, result (called generation F1). In the formation of the germ cells of these crossbreeds a process of segregation occurs such that germ cells, whether male or female, are produced of two kinds, T and t, in equal numbers. The T cells bear the factor "tallness," the t cells are devoid of it. The offspring, generation F2, which arise from the chance union of these germ cells in pairs, according to the law of probability, are therefore on an average in the following proportions:

1 TT : 2 Tt : 1 tt;

and thus plants pure in tallness (TT) and dwarfness (tt), as well as crossbreeds (Tt), are formed by the interbreeding of crossbreeds. Frequently, as in this example, owning to what is called the dominance of a factor, the operation of Mendel's law may be complicated by the fact that when a dominant factor (as T) occurs with its allelomorph (as t), called recessive, in the crossbreed Tt, the individual Tt is itself indistinguishable from the pure form TT. Generation F1, containing only the Tt form, consists entirely of dominants (tall plants) and generation F2 consists of three dominants (2 Tt, 1 TT) to one dwarf (tt), which, displaying the feature suppressed in F1, is called recessive. Such qualitative and numerical regularity has been proved to exist in regard to very diverse qualities or characters which compose living things, both wild and domesticated, such as colors of flowers, of hair or eyes, patterns, structure, chemical composition, and power of resisting certain diseases. The diversity of forms produced in crossbreeding by horticulturists and fanciers generally results from a process of analytical variation or recombination of the factors composing the parental types. Purity of type consequently acquires a specific meaning. An individual is pure in respect of a given character when it results from the union of two sexual cells both bearing that character, or both without it.

Mer"cer*ize (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. -ized (?); p. pr. & vb. n. -izing (?).] [From (John) Mercer (1791-1866), an English calico printer who introduced the process + -ize.] To treat (cotton fiber or fabrics) with a solution of caustic alkali. Such treatment causes the fiber to shrink in length and become stronger and more receptive of dyes. If the yarn or cloth is kept under tension during the process, it assumes a silky luster. -- Mer`cer*i*za"tion (#), n.

Mer*cu"ri*al*ism (?), n. [Mercurial + -ism.] (Med.) The morbid condition produced by the excessive use of mercury, or by exposure to its fumes, as in mining or smelting.

||Me"ro (?), n. [Sp.; cf. Pg. mero.] Any of several large groupers of warm seas, esp. the guasa (Epinephelus guaza), the red grouper (E. morio), the black grouper (E. nigritas), distinguished as Me"ro de lo al"to (&?;), and a species called also rock hind, distinguished as Me"ro ca*brol"la (&?;).

Mer`o*zo"ite (?), n. [Gr. &?; part + Sporozoa.] (Zoöl.) A form of spore, usually elongate or falciform, and somewhat amœboid, produced by segmentation of the schizonts of certain Sporozoa, as the malaria parasite.

||Mes`o*my*ce"tes (?), n. pl. [NL.; meso- + mycetes.] (Bot.) One of the three classes into which the fungi are divided in Brefeld's classification. -- ||Mes`o*my*ce"tous (#), a.

||Mes`o*tho"ri*um (?), n. [NL.; meso- + thorium.] (Chem.) A radioactive product intermediate between thorium and radiothorium, with a period of 5.5 years.

Mes*qui"te bean. The pod or seed of the mesquite.

Mess, v. t. To make a mess of; to disorder or muddle; to muss; to jumble; to disturb.

It was n't right either to be messing another man's sleep.

Scribner's Mag.

Mes"sage stick. A stick, carved with lines and dots, used, esp. by Australian aborigines, to convey information.

Mess beef. Barreled salt beef, packed with about 80 pounds chuck and rump, two flanks, and the rest plates.

Me*tab"o*lism (?), n. (Biol.) The series of chemical changes which take place in an organism, by means of which food is manufactured and utilized and waste materials are eliminated.

Me*tal"lo*phone (?), n. [L. metallum metal + Gr. &?; sound.] (Music) (a) An instrument like a pianoforte, but having metal bars instead of strings. (b) An instrument like the xylophone, but having metallic instead of wooden bars.

||Me*ta"te (?), n. [Sp., fr. Mex. metlatl.] A flat or somewhat hollowed stone upon which grain or other food is ground, by means of a smaller stone or pestle. [Southwestern U. S. & Sp. Amer.]

Meth`a*nom"e*ter (?), n. [Methane + -meter.] An instrument, resembling a eudiometer, to detect the presence and amount of methane, as in coal mines.

||Mé`tier" (?), n. [F.] Calling; vocation; business; trade.

Not only is it the business of no one to preach the truth but it is the métier of many to conceal it.

A. R. Colquhoun.

Me"tol (?), n. [G.; trade name, fr. meta- + kresol cresol.] A whitish soluble powder used as a developer in photography. Chemically, it is the sulphate of methyl-p-amino-m-cresol.

Met"ric ton. A weight of 1,000 kilograms, or 2,204.6 pounds avoirdupois.

||Me"um (?), n. [L., neut. of meus mine.] Lit., mine; that which is mine; -- used in the phrase meum et tuum, or meum and tuum; as, to confound meum and tuum, to fail to distinguish one's own property from that of others; to be dishonest.

Ancestors . . . generally esteemed more renowned for ancient family and high courage than for accurately regarding the trifling distinction of meum and tuum.

Sir W. Scott.

||Mez"za ma*jol"i*ca (?). [It. See Mezzo; Majolica.] (Ceramics) Italian pottery of the epoch and general character of majolica, but less brilliantly decorated, esp. such pottery without tin enamel, but painted and glazed.

Mez"za*nine (?), n. 1. A flooring laid over a floor to bring it up to some height or level.

2. Also mezzanine floor. (Theat.) A floor under the stage, from which various contrivances, as traps, are worked.

Mho (?), n. [Anagram of ohm.] (Elec.) A unit of conductivity, being the reciprocal of the ohm.

Mhom"e*ter (?), n. [Mho + - meter.] (Elec.) An instrument for measuring conductivity.

Mi`cro*a*nal"y*sis (?), n. [Micro- + analysis.] Analysis of the structure of materials from careful observation of photomicrographs.

Mi`cro*bar"o*graph (?), n. [Micro- + barograph.] An instrument for recording minor fluctuations of atmospheric pressure, as opposed to general barometric surges.

Mi`cro*bi*ol"o*gy (?), n. [See Microbe; -logy.] The study of minute organisms, or microbes, as the bacteria. -- Mi`cro*bi`o*log"ic*al (#), a. -- Mi`cro*bi*ol"o*gist (#), n.

Mi*crog"ra*phy (?), n. [Micro- + -graphy.] Examination or study by means of the microscope, as of an etched surface of metal to determine its structure.

Mi`cro*par"a*site (?), n. A parasitic microörganism. -- Mi`cro*par`a*sit"ic (#), a.

Mi`cro*phon"ic (?), a. Of or pert. to a microphone; serving to intensify weak sounds.

Mi"cro*seism (?), n. [Micro- + Gr. &?; an earthquake, fr. &?; to shake.] A feeble earth tremor not directly perceptible, but detected only by means of specially constructed apparatus. -- Mi`cro*seis"mic (#), *seis"mic*al (#), a.

Mi`cro*seis"mo*graph (?), n. [Microseiem + -graph.] A microseismometer; specif., a microseismometer producing a graphic record.

Mi`cro*seis*mol"o*gy (?), n. [Microseiem + -logy.] Science or study of microseisms.

Mi`cro*seis*mom"e*ter (?), n. [Microseism + -meter.] A seismometer for measuring amplitudes or periods, or both, of microseisms. -- Mi`cro*seis*mom"e*try (#), n.

{ Mi`cro*tom"ic (?), Mi`cro*tom"ic*al (?) }, a. Of or pert. to the microtome or microtomy; cutting thin slices.

{ Mid"gard (md"gärd), n. Also Mid"garth (-gär), ||Mith"garthr (Icel. m"gärr') }. [Icel. miðgarðr.] (Teut. Myth.) The middle space or region between heaven and hell, the abode of human beings; the earth.

Mid"night` sun. The sun shining at midnight in the arctic or antarctic summer.

Mi*la"dy (?), n. [F., fr. English.] Lit., my lady; hence (as used on the Continent), an English noblewoman or gentlewoman.

||Mi`lieu" (?), n. [F., fr. mi middle (L. medius) + lieu place. See Demi-, Lieu.] Environment.

The intellectual and moral milieu created by multitudes of self-centered, cultivated personalities.

J. A. Symonds.

It is one of the great outstanding facts of his progressive relation to the elements of his social milieu.

J. M. Baldwin.

Milk (?), v. i. 1. To draw or to yield milk.

2. (Elec.) To give off small gas bubbles during the final part of the charging operation; -- said of a storage battery.

Milk sickness. (Veter.) A peculiar malignant disease, occurring in parts of the western United States, and affecting certain kinds of farm stock (esp. cows), and persons using the meat or dairy products of infected cattle. Its chief symptoms in man are uncontrollable vomiting, obstinate constipation, pain, and muscular tremors. Its origin in cattle has been variously ascribed to the presence of certain plants in their food, and to polluted water.

Mill (?), v. i. 1. To undergo hulling, as maize.

2. To move in a circle, as cattle upon a plain.

The deer and the pig and the nilghar were milling round and round in a circle of eight or ten miles radius.

Kipling.

3. To swim suddenly in a new direction; -- said of whales.

4. To take part in a mill; to box. [Cant]

Mill, n. 1. Short for Treadmill.

2. The raised or ridged edge or surface made in milling anything, as a coin or screw.

Mill, v. t. 1. (Mining) To fill (a winze or interior incline) with broken ore, to be drawn out at the bottom.

2. To cause to mill, or circle round, as cattle.

Mil"li*mi`cron (?), n. [Milli- + micron.] The thousandish part of a micron or the millionth part of a millimeter; -- a unit of length used in measuring light waves, etc.

Mi*lord" (?), n. [F. (also It., Sp., Russ.), fr. E. my lord.] Lit., my lord; hence (as used on the Continent), an English nobleman or gentleman.

Min"er*al*ize, v. t. To charge or impregnate with ore.

Min"i*mal (?), a. Of, pertaining to, or having a character of, a minim or minimum; least; smallest; as, a minimal amount or value.

||Mi`no*rat" (?), n. [G. Cf. Minor, a.] (Law) A custom or right, analogous to borough-English in England, formerly existing in various parts of Europe, and surviving in parts of Germany and Austria, by which certain entailed estates, as a homestead and adjacent land, descend to the youngest male heir.

Mint sauce. 1. A sauce of vinegar and sugar flavored with spearmint leaves.

2. Money. [Slang, Eng.]

Min*yan" (?), n. (Jewish Relig.) A quorum, or number necessary, for conducting public worship.

Mir"li*ton (?), n. [F.] A kind of musical toy into which one sings, hums, or speaks, producing a coarse, reedy sound.

Trilby singing "Ben Bolt" into a mirliton was a thing to be remembered, whether one would or no!

Du Maurier.

Mir"ror*scope (?), n. [Mirror + -scope.] See Projector, below.

Mir"ya*chit` (?), n. [Written also myriachit.] [Yakoot merjäk epileptic, fr. imerek jerk, rage.] (Med.) A nervous disease in which the patient involuntarily imitates the words or action of another.

Mi"tis cast`ing (?). [Perh. fr. L. mitis mild.] A process, invented by P. Ostberg, for producing malleable iron castings by melting wrought iron, to which from 0.05 to 0.1 per cent of aluminium is added to lower the melting point, usually in a petroleum furnace, keeping the molten metal at the bubbling point until it becomes quiet, and then pouring the molten metal into a mold lined with a special mixture consisting essentially of molasses and ground burnt fire clay; also, a casting made by this process; -- called also wrought-iron casting.

Mitis metal. The malleable iron produced by mitis casting; -- called also simply mitis.

Mi*tot"ic (?), a. (Biol.) Of or pertaining to mitosis; karyokinetic; as, mitotic cell division; -- opposed to amitotic. -- Mi*tot"ic*al*ly (#), adv.

||Mi`tra`illeur" (?), n. A mitralleuse.

Mix"er, n. A person who has social intercourse with others of many sorts; a person viewed as to his casual sociability; -- commonly used with some characterizing adjective; as, a good mixer; a bad mixer. [Colloq. or Slang, U. S.]

Mo"ab*ite stone (?). (Archæol.) A block of black basalt, found at Dibon in Moab by Rev. F. A. Klein, Aug. 19, 1868, which bears an inscription of thirty-four lines, dating from the 9th century b. c., and written in the Moabite alphabet, the oldest Phœnician type of the Semitic alphabet. It records the victories of Mesha, king of Moab, esp. those over Israel (2 Kings iii. 4, 5, 27).

Mod"ern*ism, n. Certain methods and tendencies which, in Biblical questions, apologetics, and the theory of dogma, in the endeavor to reconcile the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church with the conclusions of modern science, replace the authority of the church by purely subjective criteria; -- so called officially by Pope Pius X.

Mod"ern*ist, n. An advocate of the teaching of modern subjects, as modern languages, in preference to the ancient classics.

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||Mo`diste" (?), n. [F. See Mode; cf. Modist.] One, esp. woman, who makes, or deals in, articles of fashion, esp. of the fashionable dress of ladies; a dress- maker or milliner.

||Mo"dus vi*ven"di (?). [L.] Mode, or manner, of living; hence, a temporary arrangement of affairs until disputed matters can be settled.

Mog (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mogged (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Mogging.] [Etym. unknown.] To move away; to go off. [Prov. Eng. or Local, U. S.]

Mo*gul", n. A great personage; magnate; autocrat.

Mo*ham"med*an cal"en*dar. A lunar calendar reckoning from the year of the hegira, 622 a. d. Thirty of its years constitute a cycle, of which the 2d, 5th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 21st, 24th, 26th, and 29th are leap years, having 355 days; the others are common, having 354 days. By the following tables any Mohammedan date may be changed into the Christian date, or vice versa, for the years 1900-1935 a. d.

Months of the Mohammedan year.

1 Muharram . . . .. 30 2 Safar . . . . . . .. 29 3 Rabia I . . . . . . 30 4 Rabia II . . . .. 29 5 Jumada I . . . .. 30 6 Jumada II . . . . 29 7 Rajab . . . . . . .. 30 8 Shaban . . . . . . . 29 9 Ramadan . . . . . . 30 10 Shawwal . . . . . . 29 11 Zu'lkadah . . . . 30 12 Zu'lhijjah . . . 29* * in leap year, 30 days

a. h. a. d. a. h. a. d.

1317 begins May 12, 1899 1336* begins Oct.17, 1917 1318 May 1, 1900 1337 Oct. 7, 1918 1319* Apr.20, 1901 1338* Sept.26,1919 1320 Apr.10, 1902 1339 Sept.15,1920 1321+ Mar.30, 1903 1340 Sept.4, 1921 1322* Mar.18, 1904 1341* Aug.24, 1922 1323 Mar. 8, 1905 1342 Aug.14, 1923 1324 Feb.25, 1906 1343 Aug. 2, 1924 1325* Feb.14, 1907 1344* July 22,1925 1326 Feb. 4, 1908 1345 July 12,1926 1327* Jan.23, 1909 1346* July 1, 1927 1328 Jan.13, 1910 1347 June 20,1928 1329 Jan. 2, 1911 1348 June 9, 1929 1330* Dec.22, 1911 1349* May 29, 1930 1331 Dec.11, 1912 1350 May 19, 1931 1332 Nov.30, 1913 1351++ May 7, 1932 1333* Nov.19, 1914 1352* Apr.26, 1933 1334 Nov. 9, 1915 1353 Apr.16, 1934 1335 Oct.28, 1916 1354 Apr. 5, 1935 * Leap year + First year of the 45th cycle ++ First year of the 46th cycle

The following general rule for finding the date of commencement of any Mohammedan year has a maximum error of a day: Multiply 970,224 by the Mohammedan year, point off six decimal places, and add 621.5774. The whole number will be the year a. d., and the decimal multiplied by 365 will give the day of the year.

Mohammedan Era. The era in use in Mohammedan countries. See Mohammedan year, below.

Mohammedan year. The year used by Mohammedans, consisting of twelve lunar months without intercalation, so that they retrograde through all the seasons in about 32½ years. The Mohammedan era begins with the year 622 a.d., the first day of the Mohammedan year 1332 begin Nov. 30, 1913, acording to the Gregorian calendar.

||Moi`ré" (?), a. [F., p.p. of moirer to water (silk, etc.). See Moire.] Watered; having a watered or clouded appearance; -- as of silk or metals.

||Moi`ré" (?), n. 1. A watered, clouded, or frosted appearance on textile fabrics or metallic surfaces.

2. Erroneously, moire, the fabric.

Moi*ré" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Moiréed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Moiréeing (?).] Also Moire. [F. moiré.] To give a watered or clouded appearance to (a surface).

Mo*jar"ra (?), n. [Sp.] Any of certain basslike marine fishes (mostly of tropical seas, and having a deep, compressed body, protracile mouth, and large silvery scales) constituting the family Gerridæ, as Gerres plumieri, found from Florida to Brazil and used as food. Also, any of numerous other fishes of similar appearance but belonging to other families.

Moke (?), n. 1. A stupid person; a dolt; a donkey.

2. A negro. [U. S.]

3. (Theat. Slang) [More fully musical moke.] A performer, as a minstrel, who plays on several instruments.

{ Mol`o*ka"ne (?), Mol`o*ka"ny }, n. pl. [Russ. molokane.] See Raskolnik.

Mon (?), n. [Jap.] (Japan) The badge of a family, esp. of a family of the ancient feudal nobility. The most frequent form of the mon is circular, and it commonly consists of conventionalized forms from nature, flowers, birds, insects, the lightnings, the waves of the sea, or of geometrical symbolic figures; color is only a secondary character. It appears on lacquer and pottery, and embroidered on, or woven in, fabrics. The imperial chrysanthemum, the mon of the reigning family, is used as a national emblem. Formerly the mon of the shoguns of the Tokugawa family was so used.

Mon"goose (?), n.; pl. Mongooses (#). [Tamil manegos.] A Madagascan lemur (Lemur mongos).

||Mo*nil`i*a"les (?), n. pl. [NL., fr. L. monile necklace, -- because the conidia are produced in chains.] (Bot.) The largest of the three orders into which the Fungi Imperfecti are divided, including various forms.

Mon"ism (?), n. The doctrine that the universe is an organized unitary being or total self-inclusive structure.

Monism means that the whole of reality, i.e., everything that is, constitutes one inseparable and indivisible entirety. Monism accordingly is a unitary conception of the world. It always bears in mind that our words are abstracts representing parts or features of the One and All, and not separate existences. Not only are matter and mind, soul and body, abstracts, but also such scientific terms as atoms and molecules, and also religious terms such as God and world.

Paul Carus.

Mon"i*tor, n. A monitor nozzle.

Monitor nozzle. A nozzle capable of turning completely round in a horizontal plane and having a limited play in a vertical plane, used in hydraulic mining, fire-extinguishing apparatus, etc.