M (E R 
MODYPOU'R, a town of Hindoollan, In Bahar : nine 
miles fouth of Patna. 
MOD'ZIEN, a town of Perfia, in the province of Ma- 
zanderan : forty-eight miles fouth-well of Aftarabad. 
MOE, adj. [ma, Sax. See Mo.] More; a greater num¬ 
ber.—The chronicles of England mention no moe than 
only fix kings bearing the name of Edward fince the con- 
queft; therefore it cannot be there Ihould be more. Hooker. 
MOE,/. A dillorted mouth. See Mow. 
MOE'BIUS (George), an eminent German Lutheran 
divine and profeflor, was born at Lauch in Thuringia, in 
the year 1616. He became profeflor of philofophy, and 
afterwards of divinity, in the univerlity of Leipfic, where 
he died in 1697, about the age of eighty-one. He was 
the author of a variety of works in the Latin and German 
languages; the moll celebrated of which is “ On the Ori¬ 
gin, Propagation, and Duration, of the Pagan Oracles.” 
This treatile was written in oppofition to Van Dale’s fa¬ 
mous performance, and is diltinguilhed by much profound 
and recondite erudition. Gen. Biog. 
MOECK'ERN, a town of the duchy of Magdeburg : 
fixteen miles eall of Magdeburg. 
MO'EN, or Mo'na, an ifland of Denmark, fituated in 
the Baltic, feparated from the fouth end of the ifland of 
Zealand, and from the north-eall coalt of Falller, by a nar¬ 
row lea; about fixteen miles in length, and from three to 
five in breadth. It contains one town, Stoege or Stege, 
and feveral villages. Lat. 55. o.N. Ion. iz. zo. E. 
MO'EN, or Mon, a river which rifes in Weltphalia 
three miles north-well of Brilon, pafles by Rhuden, &c. 
and joins the Roer at Nehem. 
MOEN'CHIA, f. in botany, received its name from 
Ehrhart in memory of Conrad Moench, a profeflor of bo¬ 
tany at Hefle Caflel, author of the Flora Hafliaca. See 
Sagina erefta. 
MCEO'NIA. SeeMASONiA. 
MO'ERDYCK, a village of Brabant, fituated on the 
fouth fide of the Bies Bofch, the place from whence boats 
generally go from Brabant to Holland. John William of 
Naflau, lladtholder of Friefland, a prince of great hopes, 
•was drowned here as he was going to Holland, in the year 
1711. It is four miles north-eall of Clundert. 
MCERHIN'GIA, f. [named by Linnaeus in honour of 
'Paul Henry Gerard Marking, a German phyfician, in the 
duchy of Oldenburg, who was the author of various bo¬ 
tanical trafts. His firfl treatile appeared in 1733, entitled 
the Anatomy of Vegetables, in which the apparent llruc- 
ture of leaves, after being macerated in water, is particu¬ 
larly confidered. Mcerhing printed a catalogue of his own 
garden in 1737, and furniflied afterwards feveral papers for 
the Ephemerides Naturae Curioforum. He died in 1792, 
at the advanced age of eighty-two years.] Mountain 
Chickweed ; in botany, a genus of the clafs oftandria, 
order digynia, natural order of caryophyllei. Generic 
charadlers—Calyx: perianthium four-leaved ; leaflets lan¬ 
ceolate, fpreading, permanent. Corolla: petals four, 
ovate, undivided, fpreading, fhorter than the calyx. Sta¬ 
mina: filaments eight, capillary; antherae Ample. Piftil- 
lum : germ globular ; llyles two, ereit, the length of the 
flamens ; lligmas Ample. Pericarpium : caplule fubglo- 
bular, one-celled, four-valved. Seeds : very many, round- 
ifh, convex on one fide, angular on the other.— Effential 
Chara&er. Calyx four-leaved; petals four; capfuie one- 
celled, four-valved. 
Mcerhingia mufeofa, a folitary fpecies. It is an an¬ 
nual plant, with a very fiender root. Stem filiform, eight, 
ten, or twelve, inches long, upright, very much branched ; 
covered with linear very-narrow oppoiite leaves, dilated 
at the bale, as it were perfoliate, oblong. Flowers axillary, 
ere£l, on llender one-flowered peduncles; calyx fipread- 
ing, greenilh ; petals narrow, milk-white. Stigmas con¬ 
verging. Capiules ovate-conical, yellovvifti when ripe, 
containing eight or ten feeds, firfl white and finally black, 
kidney-form, fliining, fixed by a pedicel to the receptacle. 
Native of the mountains of France, Italy, SwilTerland, 
Vol. XV. No. 2069. 
M CE R (109 
Auflria, Silefia ; among mofs on rocks, by the trunks of 
trees, or fprings or little rills of water. Introduced in 
1775, by Drs. Pitcairn and Fothergill. It flowers in June 
and July. 
MCE'RIS, a king of Egypt; the lad of the three hun¬ 
dred kings from Menes to Sefollris ; he reigned fixty- 
eight years. 
MCE'RIS, in ancient geography, a lake of Egypt, con¬ 
cerning the iituation and extent, and even the exigence, 
of which, authors have differed. It has been reprefented 
as the noblell and moll wonderful of all the works of the 
kings of Egypt; and accordingly Herodotus conllders it 
as much fuperior to the pyramids or the labyrinth. As 
to its fituation, Herodotus (lib. ii.) and Strabo (lib. xvii.) 
mark it out by placing the labyrinth on its borders, and 
by fixing the towns which were round it, fuch as Achan- 
tus to the fouth, Aphroditopolis towards the eall, and 
Arfinoe to the north : Diodorus Siculus (lib. i.) and Pliny 
(lib. v.) confirm thefe authorities, by placing it at twenty- 
four leagues from Memphis, between the province of that 
name and that of Arfinoe. If the lake, like that of Ma- 
reotis, had totally difappeared, doubts as to its fituation 
might Hill have been entertained ; but the pofition marked 
by the above-mentioned hillorians leads us to a lake, ac¬ 
tually exifting, known by the name of Birket il Kerun, 
(which fee,) more than fifty leagues in circumference. 
With regard to the extent of this lake, we recur again to 
the tellimonies above cited : Herodotus fays, that the cir¬ 
cumference of the lake Moeris was 3600 lladia, or fixty 
fchenes, w'hich, fays the hiltorian, form the dimenfions of 
the maritime bafe of Egypt, (feventy-five leagues.) He 
adds that it llretches from north to fouth, and that its 
greateft depth is three hundred feet. The hiltorian has 
fixed the meafure of the fchene in Lower Egypt at four 
miles, or one and a quarter league, fo that the fixty Ichenes 
make feventy-five leagues. If we compare the meafures 
by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, we lhall find that the bale 
of Egypt was ellimated at feventy-five leagues ; and hence 
it will follow, according to the account of Herodotus, 
that the lake was in circuit feventy-five leagues. The 
depth of three hundred feet afcribed to this lake by hil- 
torians mull be exaggerated ; but perhaps lefs fo than we 
maybe led to imagine. The bottom which it occupies is 
a bafon, formed by the mountains. It is very low, fince 
the Nile runs into it even by the canal of Tatnieh. Al¬ 
though the mud may have gradually collefted in a feries 
of ages, its depth is- Hill very confiderable. Two pyra¬ 
mids, fays Herodotus, conllrudled in an ifland towards 
the middle of the lake, rife from three hundred feet below 
the water, and are as high out of it. Each of them has 
on its fummit a coloflal llatue, feated on a throne. Their 
total elevation, taken from the bafe, is a lladium of fix 
hundred feet; thus marking the meafure of the lladium, 
as he had before, in giving the circumference of the lake, 
reduced it to fifty toiles. Thefe pyramids no longer exill; 
nor indeed did they exill in the time of Augullus, for 
they are not mentioned by Strabo. Lake Mceris, fays 
Herodotus, occupies a foil very dry, and dellitute of 
fprings. It derives its waters from the Nile, which runs 
into it during fix months ; and during the remainder of 
the year it rellores them to the river. According to the 
natives of the country, a canal is pierced acrofs the. moun¬ 
tain, the extended chain of which commands Memphis. 
This is an outlet by which the fuperfluous waters are 
poured into the lands of Libya on the vvellern fide. As 
for the earth that was taken from the lake, the hiltorian 
was informed, that it had been conveyed to the river, and 
carried by the current into the fea. According to the ac- - 
count of Strabo, the province of Arfinoe contains the 
wonderful lake of Moeris, which releinbles the fea in its 
extent, its colour, and its Ihores: “ As deep as it is ex- 
tenfive, it receives at the beginning of the inundation the 
waters which would otherwife cover theharvells and the 
habitations of men ; they are conducted thither by a large 
canal. When the Nile lubfides, they return by two other 
7 Q canals 
