Part 309 (1/2)
MESMER, FRIEDRICH ANTON, a German physician, born near Constance; bred for the Church, but took to medicine; was the founder of animal magnetism, called mesmerism after him, his experiments in connection with which created a great sensation, particularly in Paris, until the quackery of it was discovered by scientific investigation, upon which he retired into obscurity, ”to walk silent on the sh.o.r.e of the Bodensee, meditating on much” (1733-1815).
MESMERISM, animal magnetism so called, or the alleged power which, by operating on the nervous system, one person obtains control over the thoughts and actions of another.
MESOPOTAMIA, the name given after Alexander the Great's time to the territory ”between the rivers” Euphrates and Tigris, stretching from Babylonia NW. to the Armenian mountains; under irrigation it was very fertile, but is now little cultivated; once the scene of high civilisation when Nineveh ruled it; it pa.s.sed from a.s.syrian hands successively to Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, and Arab; now, after many vicissitudes, it is in the deathly grasp of Turkish rule.
MESSENIA, a province of Greece, mainly the fertile peninsula between the Gulfs of Arcadia and Coron; in ancient times the Messenians were prosperous, excited Spartan envy, and after two long wars were conquered in 668 B.C. and fled to Sicily.
MESSIAH (i. e. the Anointed one), one consecrated of G.o.d, who the Jewish prophets predicted would one day appear to emanc.i.p.ate the Jewish people from bondage and exalt them in the eyes of all the other nations of the earth as His elect nation, and for the glory of His name.
MESSINA (78), on a bay at the NE. corner of Sicily; is a very ancient city, but rebuilt after the earthquake of 1783; has a 12th-century cathedral, two old castles, and a university, founded 1549; it manufactures light textiles, coral ornaments, and fruit essences; its excellent harbour encourages a good trade.
MESSINA, STRAIT OF, 24 m. long, and at its narrowest 2 broad; separates Sicily from the Italian mainland; here were the Scylla and Charybdis of the ancients.
MESSUAGE, a dwelling-house with buildings and land attached for the use of the household.
METABOLISM, name given to a chemical change in the cells or tissues of living matter.
METAMORPHOSIS is a cla.s.sical name for the changing of a human being into a beast, an inanimate object, or an element, stories of which are common in all folk-lore.
METAPHYSICS, the science of being as being in contradistinction from a science of a particular species of being, the science of sciences, or the science of the ultimate grounds of all these, and presupposed by them, called by Plato dialectics, or the logic of being.
METASTASIO, an Italian poet, born at Rome, the son of a common soldier named Trapa.s.si; his power of improvising verse attracted the attention of one Gravina, a lawyer, who educated him and left him his fortune; he wrote opera librettoes, which were set to music by the most eminent composers, was court poet at Vienna, and died there 40 years after his active powers were spent (1698-1782).
METEORS or SHOOTING STARS are small bodies consisting of iron, stone, and certain other familiar elements which are scattered in immense numbers through planetary s.p.a.ce; they revolve round the sun in clouds or in long strings, and when the earth gets close to them numbers are drawn down to its surface, friction with the atmosphere rendering them luminous and grinding them usually to fine dust; larger meteors are known as fireb.a.l.l.s and aerolites, many of which have reached the earth; comets are ma.s.ses of meteors.
METHODISTS, a body of Christians founded by John Wesley in the interests of personal religion, ecclesiastically governed by a Conference with subordinate district synods, and holding and professing evangelical principles, which they teach agreeably to the theology of Arminius; the name is also given to the followers of Whitefield, who are Calvinists in certain respects.
METHYLATED SPIRIT, is alcohol adulterated with 10 per cent. of wood-spirit.
METIS (i. e. wise counsel), in the Greek mythology the daughter of Oceanos and Tethys, and the first wife of Zeus; afraid lest she should give birth to a child wiser and more powerful than himself, he devoured her on the first month of her pregnancy, and some time afterwards being seized with pains, he gave birth to ATHENA (q. v.) from his head.
MeTRE, the name given to the unit of length in the metric or decimal system, and equal to 39.37 English inches, the tenths, the hundreds, and the thousands of which are called from the Latin respectively decimetres, centimetres, and millimetres, and ten times, a hundred times, and a thousand times, which are called from the Greek respectively decametres, hectometres, and kilometres.
METTERNICH, CLEMENT, PRINCE VON, Austrian diplomatist, born at Coblenz; served as amba.s.sador successively at the courts of Dresden, Berlin, and Paris, and became first Minister of State in 1809, exercising for 40 years from that date the supreme control of affairs in Austria; one of his first acts as such was to effectuate a marriage between Napoleon and the Archd.u.c.h.ess Maria Theresa, himself escorting her to Paris; he presided at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and from that date dominated in foreign affairs in the interest of the rights of kings and the repression of popular insurrection; he had to flee from Vienna in 1848, but returned in 1851, after which, though not called back to office, he continued to influence affairs by his advice (1773-1859).
METZ (60), strongest fortress in Lorraine, on the Moselle, 105 m.