as editor of The Weekly Register, 

 a leading R.C. journal, for the en- 

 couragement of Liberal thought 

 and good literature. 



Mezen OK MESEN. River of N. 

 Russia. It is in the governments of 

 Archangel and Vologda. Rising in 

 Vologda ; it runs W. and N.W. into 

 the Gulf of Mezcn in the White Sea, 

 after a course of 500 m. The in- 

 habitants of the district and town of 

 the same name are occupied in 

 fishing, hunting, cattle and reindeer 

 breeding. 



Mezieres. Town of France, 

 capital of the dept. of the Ardennes. 

 It stands on both banks of the 

 Meuse, 47 m. N.E. 

 of Reims, and with 

 Charleville (q.v.) on 

 the left bank forms 

 the twin town of 

 Mezieres - Charleville. 

 An old fortress, it is 

 arms also an important rly. 

 centre and has hardware manufac- 

 tures. It was captured by the 

 Prussians in 1815 and 1871. and in 

 the Great War the Germans cap- 

 tured it in Aug., 1914, and estab- 

 lished a headquarters there. An 

 objective of the Franco- American 

 offensive in the last month of the 

 war, it was reached by the French 

 Nov. 8, the Germans before they 

 left blowing up mines all over the 

 town, and afterwards bombarding 

 it for 24 hours. Over 700 houses out 

 of a total of 1,000 were destroyed. 

 Pop. 10,000. Mezieres has been 

 " adopted " by Manchester. 



A village of this name is in the 

 dept. of Sornme, 15 m. S.E. of 

 Amiens. Evacuated by the British 

 in March, 1918, it fell to the Ger- 

 mans, together with a large am- 

 munition dump. It was recaptured 

 by the Canadians, Aug., 1918. See 

 Somme, Battles of the. 



Mezotur. Town of Hungary. 

 Situated on the Koros, 90 m. by 

 rly. from Budapest, it is a typical 

 market town of the Alfdld, with a 

 municipal area of 160 sq. m. ; it 

 trades in wheat, wine, horses, and 

 cattle, and manufactures pottery. 

 Pop. 26,000. 



Mezquit (Prosopis). Genus of 

 trees of the natural order Legumi- 

 nosae. Natives of Southern, Cen- 

 tral, and Western America, their 

 twisted pods are sweet and much 

 used for cattle food. The leaves are 

 twice divided into numerous leaf- 

 lets. The branches are often 

 armed with spines, and the small 

 green or yellow flowers are clus- 

 tered in heads or spikes. P. glan- 

 dulosa, in addition to its hard, 

 durable timber, yields a gum like 

 gum-arabic. 



Mezzofanti, GIUSEPPE GASPARDO 

 (1774-1849). Italian cardinal and 

 linguist. The son of a carpenter, 



5386 



he was born at Bologna, Sept. 17, 

 1774, and in 1797 was ordained 

 priest and appointed professor of 

 Arabic at ___._,_ 

 Bologna, but 

 he refused the 

 oath to the 

 Cisalpine Re- 

 p u b 1 i c. He 

 became pro- 

 fessor of Ori- 

 e n t a 1 1 a n- 

 guage?, 1803, 

 and li- 

 branan 



of Bologna University, 1815, keeper 

 of the Vatican library, 1833, and 

 cardinal, 1 838. He died March 14, 

 1849. Mezzofariti easily surpasses 

 all other linguists on record. Ac- 

 quainted with 114 languages and 

 dialects, he spoke at least half that 

 number fluently, composed verses 

 in many, and had a sound know- 

 ledge of the chief literatures. See 

 Life, C. W. Russell, 1858. 



Mezzo -Soprano. Woman's 

 voice of medium pitch. It pos- 

 sesses something of the full and 

 sympathetic quality of the con- 

 tralto, but with extended upward 

 range. Its ordinary compass is 

 about : 



J P-ST- e 



Bflat 



while exceptional voices will cover 

 about : 



V.GL 



f ^ Bflat 



A Hat 

 See Soprano ; Contralto. 



Mezzotint. Process of en- 

 graving. A copper or steel plate 

 is taken and the " ground " made 

 thereon by means of a " cradle " or 

 rocking tool, which raises a burr 

 all over. This, if inked and printed, 

 would give a uniform black. To 

 obtain the picture, the high lights 

 are scraped away by a scraper, 



Mezquit. 1. Branch with foliage and 

 pods. 2. Flower spikes 



MHOW 



and then burnished with a burnish 

 er ; the middle lights being treated 

 in the same way, though less 

 drastically, and the darkest 

 shadows left intact. In mezzotint, 

 therefore, the process is from dark 

 to light, this being the opposite to 

 other kinds of engraving. 



The invention of mezzotint is 

 ascribed to Ludwig von Siegen, an 

 officer in the forces of William VI, 

 landgrave of Hesse ; von Siegen 

 was the author of an extant mezzo- 

 tint portrait of Amelia Elizabeth of 

 Hesse, 1642 He communicated 

 his discovery to Prince Rupert, 

 whom he met at Brussels, and the 

 latter introduced the process into 

 England in 1660, and practised it 

 himself with some success.Evelyn's 

 Sculptura (1662) credited him 

 with the actual invention, and for 

 nearly' two centuries the error 

 remained unconnected in Great 

 Britain. During the 17th century, 

 Blooteling and other Dutch en- 

 gravers in London developed the 

 process, the elder John Smith and 

 Richard Earlom continued to 

 popularise it, and it was in Great 

 Britain that it reached the zenith 

 of perfection towards the end of 

 the 18th century. On the Conti- 

 nent it never really took root. 



In England, the decline of paint- 

 ing during the reign of Anne and 

 George "I acted as a discourage- 

 ment to mezzotint, but the latter 

 became again an art of first-class 

 importance with the rise to fame 

 of Reynolds, Gainsborough, Rom- 

 ney, and other English masters, 

 whose manner lent itself specially 

 to reproduction in this medium. 

 James McArdell, J. R. Smith, 

 Valentine Green, S. W. Reynolds, 

 John Jones, and Charles Turner 

 were among the first mezzotinters 

 of this time. The later introduction 

 of steel-faced plates hastened the 

 abandonment of pure mezzotint for 

 a mixed style of mezzotint and line 

 and stipple engraving. Samuel 

 Cousins was one of the best 

 exponents of the " mixed " method. 

 Modern revivalists of the art in- 

 clude Sir H. Herkomer, Sir Seymour 

 Haden, and. in combination with 

 the etched line, Sir Frank Short. 

 See Engraving ; Etching. 



M.F.H. Abbrev. for Master of 

 Foxhounds. 



Mho. In electricity, the unit of 

 conductance or electric conduc- 

 tivity. It is the reciprocal of 

 resistance, the ohm, i.e. I/ohm, 

 mho being ohm written back- 

 wards. The term was introduced 

 by Lord Kelvin. 



Mhow. Military station of 

 Central India, Indore State. It is 

 13 m. S.W. of Indore town, on a 

 height above the Gumber river near ! 

 the Vindhya Range. Pop. 30,000. 



