MET 



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M I A 



distinction is sometimes made between 

 method and system. This last is an ar- 

 rangement, founded throughout all its 

 parts on some one principle; whereas 

 method is an arrangement less fixed and 

 determined, and founded on more general 

 relations. 



METHODISTS. Sects of Christians founded 

 by John and Charles Wesley, and the Rev. 

 George Whitneld : hence called AVhit- 

 fieldean and AVesleyan Methodists. The 

 former are Calvinists ; the latter, so far as 

 regards free-will, are Arminians. They 

 were named Methodists from the exact 

 regularity of their lives, and the strict- 

 ness of their principles and rules ; or ra- 

 ther, because they pretended to reduce 

 religion to exact rules and axioms, in 

 which they were compared to the me- 

 thodical physicians at Rome, of which 

 Themison was the head. These endea- 

 voured to reduce medicine to strict rules, 

 and supposed that all diseases arose from 

 rigidity of the fibres of the body. There 

 were also a sect of polemical doctors of 

 the 17th century called Methodists. They 

 distinguished themselves by their zeal and 

 dexterity in defending the Romish Church 

 against the attacks of the Protestants. 



ME'TOCHE. In architecture, the space 

 between two dentils. 



METOJ'CI, [AtToty^oi. The resident aliens 

 in Athens. 



METON'IC CTCLE. The period of nine- 

 teen years, ia which the lunations return 

 to the same days of the month. Disco- 

 vered by, and named after, Melon, a cele- 

 brated mathematician at Athens, who 

 flourished about 430 years before Christ. 



MET'ONYMT, (M-ruwuu*, from MTOI, 

 beyond, and ovo/un, name. A rhetorical 

 trope, in which one word is put for an- 

 other. Thus we say a man has a clear 

 head, where the word head is put by 

 metonymy for understanding or intellect. 



MET'OTE, [AiroTri, from fj^irct and c^y,, 

 an aperture. A name in architecture for 

 the space between the triglyphs of the 

 Doric frieze, which used to be painted or 

 adorned with carved work. 



ME'TRB, Fr. from pir^i, measure. 1. In 

 French measures, the metre is the ten- 

 millionth part of a quadrant of the meri- 

 dian, which is adopted as the unit of 

 length. It is equal to 36'9413 Fr. inches, 



or 39 3702 Eng. inches. 2. In poetry, 



a system of feet of just length. The dif- 

 ferent metres are the different manners 

 of ordering and combining the quantities, 

 or the long and short syllables. See MEA- 

 SURE. 3. Metre is a general name for 



a description of machine fitted with clock- 

 work, so adjusted as to indicate the 

 quantity of fluid which passes through 

 it: The gas-metre is the best known of 

 Ui;s machines. 



MBTROMA'MA, from metre and tnnnia. 

 \. A disease, by no means uncommon, in 

 which the patient is seized with a desire 

 for composing verses. 2. A term syn- 

 onymous with nymphomania, in which 

 case it is derived from metra, the womb ; 

 and mania, madness. 



MET'RONOME, fAireov and ti?, Ian 

 An instrument for measuring time in 

 music. 



METROSIDE'ROS. A genus of trees. Icos- 

 andria Monogynia. "Warm climates. The 

 Botany Bay willow, and the ironwood of 

 India, are the best known species. 



ME'L-M and TU'CM. Mine and thine 

 Latin words used in law for the proper 

 guides of right. 



MEZB'REON. The spurge olive or widow- 

 wail (Daphne mezereum) ; also the root of 

 that plant used in medicine. 



MEZ'ZAMXE, from Ital. mezzo, half. A 

 low window, less in height than in 

 breadth. 



MEZ'ZO. In music, an Italian word, sig- 

 nifying half. Thus mezzo-forte, mezzo- 

 piano, mezzo-voce, imply a middle degree 

 of piano, or soft. By mezzo soprano is 

 understood a pitch of voice between the 

 soprano and treble, and counter-tenor. 



MEZZOTIN'TO, Ital. from mezzo, half, and 

 tinto, Lat. tinetut, painted. A particular 

 manner of engraving in imitation of paint- 

 ing in Indian Ink. It is done by furrow- 

 ing the surface of the plate all over with 

 an instrument for the purpose : till the 

 whole is of a regular roughness, so that 

 were an impression to be taken from the 

 plate at this stage, it would be black all 

 over. The design is then drawn, and 

 where deepest shades are, the plate is left 

 untouched ; b\it where the shades are 

 lighter, the rough surface is scraped down 

 in proportion to the highness of the shade 

 required ; so that when the paper is to be 

 left perfectly white, the plate is thorough- 

 ly burnished. By disposing the different 

 parts of a figure on different plates, mez- 

 zotintos are printed in colours, so as in 

 some measure to represent actual paint- 

 ings. 



MI'ASM, i u.icuru,at,, from uututa, to in- 



MIAS'MA, ) feet. A Greek word, import- 

 ing pollution or corruption, and used to 

 designate any effluvium, which by its 

 application to the human system is capa- 

 ble of exciting disease. Miasmata are 

 principally regarded as excitants of inter- 

 mittent, remittent, and yellow fevers, 

 dysentery and typhus. That of the last 

 is commonly considered to be generated 

 in the human body, and is sometimes 

 called the typhoid fames. The other mias- 

 mata are produced from moist vegetable 

 or animal matter, in some unknown state 

 of decomposition, and are conveyed 

 through the medium of the atmosphere. 

 Little is known of the chemical natuie <A 



