MEAD 



MEAN 



107 



and Thoughts upon Democracy in Europe, a discus- 

 sion of the prominent schools of economics and 

 socialism. Apart from his eloquence, the features 

 of his writing that most forcibly arrest attention 

 are his manly, outspoken tone, his candid fairness 

 except sometimes when he is speaking of the 

 moderates his sterling love of justice and of free- 

 dom, but above all things else his keen and accurate 

 insight into the historical tendencies of modern 

 Europe. 



The best source for Mazzini's life and works is the 

 collected edition of his Scritti, Editi ed Inediti, 16 vols. , 

 the first eight (1861-74) prepared for the press by 

 Mazzmi himself, the last eight (1877-89) by Aurelio 

 Satli, his brother triumvir at Home. An English edition 

 1 6 vols. 1864-70 ; new ed. 1890-91 ) has been selected from 

 the first eight vok. of the Xrritti. See also Memoir by 

 E. A. Vinturi (2d ed. 1877); Marriott, Maken of 

 Modern I tain (1889); and Clarke, Selected Etsayi of 



Mead, a fermented liquor made from honey. 

 The honey ia mixed with water and fermented. 

 Cottagers sometimes use the honey which remains 

 in the combs after the usual processes of dropping 

 and squeezing, for making mead, which is a thin and 

 very brisk, but at the same time luscious beverage. 

 Mead has been in use from very ancient times, and 

 was known equally to the polished nations of 

 southern Europe and the barbarous trilies of more 

 northern regions. The Latin name is Hydromel. 



Meade. i iEoitGE GORDON, an American general, 

 was born 31st December 1815, at Cadiz, in Spain, 

 where his father was a merchant and United States 

 navy agent till 1816. He graduated at West Point 

 in 1x35, served for a time against the Seminoles 

 and in the Mexican war, but was mostly employed 

 on survey duty and in the construction of light- 

 houses until the civil war, Winning captain of 

 engineers in 1856, and major in 1862. In 1861 he 

 obtained a brigade of volunteers, and during the 

 peninsular campaign received a severe gunshot 

 won nd. He distinguished himself at Antietam 

 and at Fredericksburg, and was promoted major- 

 general in Novemlier 1862. In June 1863 he was 

 place.l in command of the Army of the Potomac, 

 superseding Honker (q.v.) on the* night of the 27th. 

 A week later Gettysburg had l>een fought, and 

 Lee's effort to carry the war into the country north 

 of the Potomac had leen defeated. Meade MMOU 

 brigadier-general in the regular army <nt 3d July, 

 and major-general in 1864. After the war he com- 

 manded various military departments, until his 

 death, which occurred at Philadelphia, 6th Novem- 

 ber 1872. There is an equestrian statue of him 

 ( 1887) in Fairmont 1 'ark there. 



Meadow Sail ron. See COLCHICUM. 



Meadows-Taylor. See TAYLOR ( PHILIP M.). 



Mradville, capital of Crawford county, Penn- 

 sylvania, on French Creek, 113 miles by rail N. 

 of I'ittsluirg. It manufactures woollens, paper, 

 .s'l;'-s. machinery, agricultural implements, Vc. , 

 has oil refineries and large rail way -shops, and is 

 the seat of Allegbaiiy College (Methodiflt, founded 

 I xi.". I, and of a Unitarian theological school. Pop. 

 i I'.XHI) 10,291. 



Measlier. THOMAS FKANCIS, Irish patriot, was 

 born in Waterford, M August 1823, son of a wealthy 

 meii-liant who represented Waterfonl for several 

 year>. He had his education at the Jesuit college 

 of < longowes Wood in Kildare, and at Stonyhurst, 

 and early devoted himself to the patriotic cause as a 

 prominent and fearless meml>er of the Young Ireland 

 party. In 1848 he was sentenced to death under the 

 'Treason-felony' Act, but was sent for life to Van 

 Diemen's Land instead. He made his escape in 

 ndied law in the I'nited States, but on the 

 outbreak of the war volunteered into the national 



army. In 1861 he organised the 'Irish brigade" 

 for the Federals, and distinguished himself by his 

 courage in the seven days' battles around Rich- 

 moiMl. at the second battle of Bull Run, Fredericks- 

 burg, and Antietam. After the war he became 

 secretary of Montana territory, and while taking 

 measures as temporary governor to keep the hostile 

 Indians in check, fell from the deck of a steamboat 

 into the Missouri, near Fort Benton, and was 

 drowned, 1st July 1867. 



Ural. See BREAD. 



.Meal-tub Plot, a conspiracy fabricated in 1679 

 by Thomas Dangerlield to gain credit as an informer 

 equal to that of Titus Dates and Bedloe. The son 

 of a Roundhead farmer, he was born alxmt 1050 at 

 Waltham in Essex, and he had first started with 

 the baseless assertion that the Presbyterians were 

 conspiring to destroy the government and set up a 

 republic. When this was discovered to be a lie he 

 was Hung into Newgate, whereupon he rounded at 

 once upon the Roman Catholics, declaring that the 

 pretended Presbyterian plot was only a cover for 

 their own design upon the king's life, and that the 

 papers would l>e found concealed at the bottom of 

 a meal-tub in the house of one Mrs Cellier, who, 

 together with Lady Powis, was actually tried and 

 acquitted for the plot. Dangerlield himself was 

 whipped and pilloried in June 1685, and on his way 

 back from Tyburn was killed by a blow in the eye 

 from the cane of a barrister, Robert Frances, who 

 was executed for the murder. 



Meal-worm, the larva of a small black beetle, 

 Tenebrio molitor, allied to the common Blaps (q.v.). 

 Both adults and larvae are too common about 

 bakeries, granaries, and stores, for the eggs are 

 laid in meal, flour, and similar food-stuffs, on which 

 the emerging larva; feed voraciously. The adult 

 resembles Blaps, and is about half an inch long ; 

 the larva is decidedly longer, thin and round, 

 yellowish in colour. An American species, T. 

 obacuriis, has also become common in Britain. 

 The preventive is thorough cleanliness. The meal- 

 worms are often used as food for cage-birds. 



Mealy Bug ( Coccus adonidum or Dactylojrius 

 longisjrinus ; seeCoccus), an insect naturalised in 

 our hothouses, and very commonly found on such 

 plants as Stephanotis and Camellia, orchids and 

 pine-apples. The young appear like small reddish- 

 nrown moving specks on the leaves and small 

 branches, to which they afterwards atfix themselves 

 by the beak. As they grow older they become 

 darker in colour, and are covered over with a white 

 powdery-looking substance. After fertilisation, 

 which usually takes place in spring, the female, 

 remaining in the position descril>ed, lays her eggs 

 between her body and the surface of the plant, 

 after which her liody shrivels up until it forms a 

 covering for the mass of eggs, rendered more effec- 

 tual by the large amount of cottony material 

 formed over it. The young can be seen developing 

 in scores in the midst of this material, from which 

 they afterwards free themselves, and run about on 

 the plant. The Mealy Bug is disliked by gardeners 

 chiefly on account of the amount of dirt that 

 collects round it on the leaves and branches, and 

 the injury it does to the Howers and fruit. Lightly 

 syringing the plants with soft soap and quassia 

 solutions with a little paraffin oil in addition is 

 generally sufficient to check the ravages of this 

 little pest, especially if put on before the larvte 

 acquire their mealy coats. On valuable plants this 

 may lie painted with brushes. Tobacco smoke 

 proves useful in the early stages. 



Mean, in Mathematics, is a term interpolated 

 lietween two terms of a series, and consequently 

 intermediate in magnitude. The Geometrical 

 Mean (q.v.) of two numbers is always less than 



