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M E T 
great objection to Clap’s hypothefis, that of the velocity 
of fire-balls being greater than is confident with a body 
revolving round the earth, however, remains in full force, 
except it can be fliown that the velocity of meteors has 
been much over-rated. From the law of gravitation it 
is demondrable, that the velocity of a body revolving 
round the earth cannot, even when in perigee, and near 
the lurface of the earth, be lefs than five, nor more than 
feven, miles per fecond. Hence, then, if the velocity of 
a meteor exceeds feven miles per fecond, it cannot be a 
body revolving in an orbit round the earth. It does not 
appear, however, to be fatisfa&orily alcertained that the 
velocity of fire-balls exceeds feven miles per fecond. It 
is not perhaps going beyond probability to lay, that no 
obferver faw the great meteor of Auguft 18th, 1783, for 
more than an extent of tv/o hundred miles ; as a proof, 
it may be remarked that the burding of the meteor, faid 
to have taken place over Lincolnlhire, was not obferved 
at Kendal, though the diftance from the neared point, or 
that of greated apparent altitude, was not more than one 
hundred miles. Now, if the meteor took 30 feconds to 
move two hundred miles, it gives 6| miles per fecond; 
which is within the required limits. And, farther, let 
thofe who faw the meteor pafs nearly through the zenith, 
endeavour to edimate the time it feemed to take in paf- 
fing through an arc of io° ; or let the like obfervation be 
made upon a fhooting dar. Perhaps few', if any, wall be 
found to infid upon the time being lb little as one fecond; 
but io° in one fecond W'ould correfpond only to eight 
miles of velocity, at the height of fifty miles above the 
earth’s furface. It may therefore perhaps be dill deemed 
problematical, u'hether the velocity of either the larger or 
fmaller meteors ever exceeds feven miles per fecond; as 
alfo whether it ever falls diort of five miles per fecond. 
Upon the whole, the hypothefis of fire-balls being fome- 
thing of the nature of comets, that is, bodies revolving 
around the earth in eccentric orbits, appears in the pre- 
fent date of the fcience to be as probable as any other. 
The light and heat acquired in pafling through the pe¬ 
rigee might be varioufly accounted for; but it would be 
premature to enter into a difquifition on this head, as 
long as fuch doubts remain refpe&ing the real velocity of 
this fort of meteors. 
The Aurora Borealis and Ignis Fatuus have 
been fully explained under thofe articles, vol. ii. and x. 
Some have coniidered Comets among the meteors, or 
tranfient bodies of the air; but their nature has, we 
hope, been fatisfaftoriiy explained under the article 
Astronomy, vol. ii. p. 401. In refpeft all’o to Mcteoro- 
litcs, or dones from the atmofphere, we think it not ne- 
ceffary here to enlarge upon thofe mod curious and unac¬ 
countable of all meteors; for, although many indances 
of fuch productions have appeared iince the publication 
of our feventh volume, (particularly a mafs of meteoric 
iron in Brafil in the year 1810, which weighed i4,ooolbs.) 
yet w'e do not find that any new light has been thrown 
upon that very oblcure fubjeft. We therefore conclude 
with referring to the article Fire-ball in that volume. 
METEOROM'ANCY, /! [from meteor, and ftuvluct, 
divination.] A lpecies of divination by meteors ; princi¬ 
pally by lightning and thunder. This method of divina¬ 
tion palled from the Tufcans to the Romans, with whom, 
as Seneca informs us, it was held in high edeem. 
METF.OROS'COPE, J'. [from meteor, and oxonta, to 
view.] A name which the ancient mathematicians gave 
to fuch indruments as they ufed for obferving and de¬ 
termining the didances, magnitudes, and places, of the 
heavenly bodies ; many of which they regarded as meteors. 
The name, how'ever, may much more properly be applied 
to meteorological indruments. 
METEOROS'COPIST, J. One w'ho dudies the nature 
of meteors. 
METEOROS'COPY,yi That part of philofophy which 
confiders the nature of meteor-s. 
METE'OROUS, adj. Having the nature of a meteors 
From the hill 
To their fix dation, all in bright array, 
The cherubim defeended, on the ground 
Gliding meteorous, as evening mid 
Ris’n from a river. MiltotCs Paradife Lojt, 
METEPEC', a town of the province of Mexico. 
ME'TER,yi [from mete .] Ameafurer: as, a coal- meter, 
a land -meter. 
MET'EREN (Emanuel Van,) a Flemifli hidorian, was 
born at Antwerp in 1535, and was a relation of Abraham 
Ortelius the geographer. He adopted the principles of 
the reformation ; and, being obliged to leave his coun¬ 
try, took refuge in England, where he died in 16 u. 
His “ Hidory of the Low-Countries, from 1500 to his 
own Time,” printed fird in Latin in 1598, folio, and 
then in Flemifli at Delft in 1599, 4to. w'as feveral times 
reprinted, and was tranflated into French and German. 
It has been in confiderable edeem, though even the pro- 
tedant writer Van Reyd charges the author with partiality 
and credulity, and the Catholics are of courfe dill lefs 
favourable to him. Gen. Biog. 
MET'ERISCH, a town of Moravia, in the circle of 
Iglau : feventeen miles ead of Iglau, and feventy-fix 
fouth-ead of Prague. 
METESSIB', f. An officer among the eadern nations, 
who has the care and overfight of public weights and 
meafures. 
ME'TEWAND, or Meteyard, f. A daff of a certain 
length wherewith meafures are taken.—A true touch- 
done, a fure metewand lieth before their eyes. Afchurn's 
Schoulmaftcr .—Ye ffiall do no unrighteoufnels in meteyard, 
weight, ormeafure. Lev. xix. 35. 
METEZAU' (Clement) a celebrated French architect, 
W'ho flouridied in the former part of the 17th century, 
w'as a native of Dreux, but fettled at Paris, became ar¬ 
chitect to Louis XIII. and acquired much fame by car¬ 
rying into execution, with Tiriot, a Parifian mafon, the 
plan fuggeded by cardinal Richelieu for reducing Ro¬ 
chelle by means of an immenfe dyke, in imitation of 
wdiat Caefar had done at Durazzo, and Alexander the 
Great at Tyre. This fcheme was to run a folid wall 
acrofisa gulf upw'ardsof 740 fathoms, or more than three- 
quarters of a mile, broad, into which the fea rolled with 
great force, and, when the wind was high, with an im- 
petuofity which feemed to fet at defiance the art of man. 
When the cardinal fird propofed his plan, thofe who 
ought to have been the bed judges treated the fcheme 
with ridicule. They faid, that there were many things 
that made a great figure in books, which had but a paltry 
appearance w'hen they were attempted to be put into 
praCfice. But thofe who had undertaken the bufinefs 
were not to be turned afide by any obdacies. They 
began, by throwing in huge rocks, to lay a kind of 
foundation ; upon thefe were placed vad dones, cemented 
by the mud thrown up by the lea. Thefe were fupported 
by immenfe beams, driven into the bottom with incre¬ 
dible labour. It was railed fo high, that the foldiers 
w'ere not incommoded by the water, even at fpring-tides. 
The platform was nearly 30 feet wide, and 90 feet at 
the foundation. At each extremity there was a drong 
fort, in the middle there was an open paffage of 150 
paces, feveral veffels being funk immediately before it, 
together with high dakes in a double row, and before 
thefe 35 veffels linked together, fo as to form a kind of 
floating pallifade. This amazing dyke was completed in 
fomewhat lefs than fix months, and proved the principal 
means of occafioning the furrender of the city. So ho¬ 
nourable w'ere the exertions of Metezau in this bufinefs, 
that his portrait was circulated widely through France, 
to which were attached the following iines: 
Dicitur Archimedes terrain potuilfe movere : 
Aiquora qui potuit fiffere, non minor ed. 
METEZAU ; 
