270 MET 
Vitruvius, to fignify the fpace or interval between the den¬ 
tils. Baldus observes, that, in an ancient manufcript 
copy of that author, the word metatome is found for me- 
toche. Hence Daviler takes occafion to fufpeft, that the 
common text of Vitruvius is corrupted: and concludes, 
that it Ihouid not-'be metoche, but metatome, q. d. fection. 
METOCHI'TA (Theodore), a modern Greek liillo- 
rian, who flourifhed in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen¬ 
turies. He attained to high honours in the Conftanti- 
nopolitan empire ; but, in the reign of Andronicus the 
younger, he was baniilied and his goods confifcated. He 
was afterwards recalled, and ended his life in a monaftery 
of his own foundation, in 135a. He was a man of ex- 
tenfive and very deep learning, and was called by his 
contemporaries a living library. He wrote, 1. A Com¬ 
pendium of Roman Hiftory, from Julius Casfar to Con- 
itantine, which was firft: publiflied with notes and a La¬ 
tin verfion by Meurfius, in 1618. 2. A Conftantinopo- 
litan Hiftory. 3. A facred Hiftory. 4. A Paraphrafe on 
Arillotle’s Phyfics. 
ME'TON, a celebrated mathematician of Athens, who 
flourifned 432 B. C. was the fon of Paufanias. He ob- 
ierved, in the firft year of the 87th Olympiad, the lolftice 
at Athens, and publilhed his cycle of nineteen years, by 
which he endeavoured to adjuft the courfe of the fun 
and moon, and to make the folar and lunar years begin at 
the fame point of time. This is called the Mctonic period, 
or cycle. It is alfo called the golden number, from its 
great ufe in the calendar. (See the article Chronology, 
vol. iv. p. s37.) It is known that Meton was living about 
the year 412 B. C. for, when the Athenian fleet was fent 
to Sicily, he efcaped from being- embarked on that dif- 
aftrous expedition by counterfeiting an appearance of 
idiotifm. Moreri. 
METON'IC, adj. Relating to the cycle of Meton. 
METONYM'IC, or Metonym'ical, adj. Put by me¬ 
tonymy for fomething elfe. 
METONYM'ICALLY, ado. By metonymy; not lite¬ 
rally.—The dilpolition of the coloured body, as that mo¬ 
difies the light, may be called by the name of a colour 
metonymically, or efficiently; that is, in regard of its turn¬ 
ing the light that rebounds from it, or pafles through it, 
into this or that particular colour. Boyle. 
METON'YMY, /! [Greek; from p.vrx, againft, and 
tvoux, name.] A rhetorical trope confifting in a tranfmu- 
tation or change of names ; or a putting of the effect for 
the caufe, or the fubjefit for the adjunct; and vice verfa. — 
They differ only as caufe and effiedl, which, by a metonymy 
ulual in all forts of authors, are frequently put one for 
another. Tillotjon. 
MET'OPE, or Met'opa, in architecture, the fquare 
fpace or interval between the triglyphs, in the Doric frieze. 
'Phe word, in the original Greek, iignifies the diftance be¬ 
tween one aperture or hole and another, or between one 
triglyph and another; the triglyphs being fuppofed to be 
folives or joilts that fill the apertures. It is derived from 
y-cTx, between, and any, a hole. The ancients uled to 
adorn thefe parts with carved works, or paintings, repre¬ 
senting the heads of oxen, veftels, balons, and other uten- 
iils of the heathen facrifices. ' 
METO'PIUM, f. in botany, a name given by Pliny to 
the plant which produces the gum ammoniacum. It is 
alfo the Jarriaica name of the Rhus metopium, or hog 
gum-tree. See that article. 
METOPOS'COPIST, f. [from metopofeopy .~\ One (killed 
in metopoicopy; a phyliognomift. 
, METOPOS'COPY,/.' [Greek; from u£Ta;woy, the fore¬ 
head, and < 7 v.<j'k\x, inlpedtion.] The art of difcovering 
the temperament, inclinations, and manners, of perlons, 
by infpefting the lines in their faces, and efpecially of 
their foreheads. Metopoicopy is no more than a branch 
of phyfiognomy; the latter taking its conjectures from 
all parts of the body. Giro Spontoni, who has written 
on the fubject of metopoicopy, obierves, that there are 
ieven principal lines to be confidered in the forehead; 
M E T 
each of which has its peculiar planet. The firft is the 
line of Saturn, the fecond of Jupiter, &c. 
MEPO PUM, J. [Lat. from p^wTcot, Gr.] The fore¬ 
head. Phillips. Scott. 
METO'SIS, jl in furgery, an amaurofis, or rather a 
blmdnefs, from exceflive Ihort-fightednefs ; fince amaurofis 
implies that the deled of fight is owing to torpor, or 
infenlibilky of the retina and optic nerve; and this at 
length degenerates into metofs, or abfolute blindnefs; 
which is among the afflidions of our aged and venerated 
monarch. 
ME'TR A, in fabulous hiftory, a daughter of Erefich- 
thon, a Theflalian prince, beloved by Neptune. When 
her father had fpent all his fortune to gratify the canine 
hunger under which he laboured, Ihe proftituted herfelf 
to her neighbours, and received for reward oxen, goats, 
and Iheep, which Ihe prefented to Erifichthon. Some fay 
that Ihe had received from Neptune the power of chan¬ 
ging herfelf into whatever animal Ihe pleafed; that her 
father fold her continually to gratify his hunger; and 
that (lie foon after affumed a different fliape, and became 
again his property. Ovid Met. viii. 21. 
METRAHEN'NY, or Miniet Rahine', a town of 
Egypt: fix miles fouth of Gizeh. 
METRA'MO, a river of Naples, which rifes in Cala¬ 
bria Ultra, and runs into the Mediterranean four miles 
fouth of Nicotera. Lat. 38. 30. Ion. 16. 15. E. 
ME'TRE, f. [from umoov, Gr. a mealiire.] Speech con¬ 
fined to a certain number and harmonic difpofition of 
fyllables; verfe ; meafure ; numbers.—For the metre fake, 
fome words be driven awry which require a ftraighter 
placing in plain profe. Afcham's Schoolmajier. 
Abufe the city’s belt good men in metre, 
To laugh at lords. Pope. 
Metre is defined “ an arrangement of fyllables and 
feet according to certain rules.” In this abltraft and ge¬ 
neral fenfe, it comprehends indiferiminately either an 
entire verfe, a part of a verfe, or any number of verfes. 
But a Metre, in a fpecific fenfe, means a combination of 
two feet, and fometimes only one foot. 
The diftinftion between rhythm and metre is this: 
Rhythm refpebts the time only; and is a general name 
expreffing the proportion that fubfifts between the parts 
of time employed in the pronunciation of different feet; 
the leaft divifion of which is that which is employed in 
the pronunciation of a fnort fyllable. Metre reipe&s both 
the time and order of the lyllables. The Rhythm of a 
Dafityl and Anapaslf is the fame ; the Metre different. 
The diftimftion is fimilar to that of Combinations and 
Permutations in Arithmetic. Two feet were affigned to 
a metre, becauie, in the Greek theatre, the perfon, whole 
office it was to beat time, railed his foot only once wdiile 
the aftor pronounced two feet. But in dadtylic metre, 
and in the metres compofed of double feci, one of thefe 
double feet only is conlidered to be a metre. 
Metre is divided into nine fpecies. 1. Iambic. 2. Tro¬ 
chaic._ 3. Daftylic. 4. Anapacftic. 5. Paeonic. 6. Cho- 
riambic. 7. Antifpaftic. 8. Ionic a majore. 9. Ionic a 
rninore. See Iambic, Ionic, &c. 
Each Ipecies derives its name from the foot that prevails 
in it, or of which at firft perhaps it was entirely compofed. 
But other feet, befides that from which the fpecies is de¬ 
nominated, are admiflible under certain reftridtions (to 
be mentioned hereafter), and in the knowledge of thefe 
principally confilts the art of (canning. It is not, how¬ 
ever, iufficient merely to know to which of thefe fpecies 
a verfe is to be referred; but the ftudent mull alio exa¬ 
mine how many feet, or how many pairs of feet, or metres, 
are to be found in it. He will then be able to annex 
another name according to the number of thefe metres ; 
and will call it either Monometer, Dimeter, Trimeter, 
Tetrameter, Pentameter, or Hexameter. Laftly, he will 
once more examine whether the Verfe, with refpe£l to the 
Metres , be complete, deficient, or redundant; and will 
accordingly 
