pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
MENEDEMUS, a Greek philosopher, was a native of Eretria, the chief city of Euboea. He was the son of Clisthenes, a man of noble birth but in poor circumstances. In his youth Menedemus is said to have been employ ed in sewing the canvass of tents. The precise period of his birth and death is unknown to us, but he was the contemporary of Aretus, Lycophron, and Antagoras of Rhodes. He therefore flourished probably from aboutn.c.300 to 279∙ Menedemus having been sent with a body of troops to the assistance of Megara, seems to have there studied philosophy under Stilpo, and then proceeded to Elis, which was distinguished for the Eliac sect, founded by Phaedo. It was afterwards called the Eretrian school, from Menedemus, who taught the same doctrines. On his return to his native place, he began to give lessons in philosophy, and was distinguished for the dignified character of his eloquence, and the gravity of his deportment. He was remarkable for his temperate mode of living, which his friend Lycophron (see Lycophron) satirized in a poem entitled Menedemus. He was employed by his countrymen in the highest offices of the state; but having been accused of favouring the cause of the Macedonians, he was obliged to leave his country, and proceed to Antigonus Gonatas. In this situation, he tried to rescue his ungrateful country from slavery, but Antigonus refused tolisten to his petition, upon which Menedemus ended his life by abstinence from food for seven days. The life of Menedemus is written by Diogenes Laertius.
MENEHOUD, St., an arrondisement of the department of the Marne in France. It extends over 476 square miles, and contains 32,500 inhabitants. It is divided into three cantons, and subdivided into fifty-two communes. The capital, of the same name, stands on an island of the river Aisme, where the smaller river Auve falls into it. It contains 750 houses and 3600 inhabitants, who make some thread lace, and trade extensively in fire-wood. This place has become celebrated from its being the spot where the united armies of Austria and Prussia received the first check, when invading France m the autumn of the year 1792.
MENELAUS, the son of Atreus, and the brother of Agamemnon, was the reigning king of Sparta, when Paris deprived him of his wife Helen. This rape occasioned the famous war of Troy.
MENES, born at a town of Thebais or Saïd, in Upper Egypt, was the founder of the Egyptian empire. He had three sons; Athotis,who ruled after him at This and Thebes; Curudes, who in Lower Egypt founded the kingdom of Heliopolis, which was afterwards the kingdom of the Diospoli-tans; and Necherophes, who reigned at Memphis. It is believed that this Menes reigned 117 years after the birth of Phaleg, son of Heber, which took place in the very year of the dispersion of mankind throughout the whole earth. In building Memphis, he stopped die Nile near it, by the construction of a causeway one hundred furlongs broad, which he caused to run through the mountains.
MENIALS, domestic or household servants, who live under their lord or master’s roof.
MENIN, a city of the Netherlands, in the province of West Flanders, and arrondisement of Courtray. It is situ ated on the river Lys, which is the boundary towards France. It is strongly fortified, and contains 4560 inhabitants, who manufacture linen, woollen, and cotton goods, lace, paper, [7:14:560]leather, and snuff, and carry on a considerable trade in com, cattle, and flax. Lat. 50. 49. N. Long. 2.59∙ E.
MENIPPEAN (Satìra Menippea), a kind of satire consisting of prose and verse intermixed. It is so called from Menippus, a Cynic philosopher, who delighted in composing satirical letters in this style. In imitation of him Varro also wrote satires under the title of Satirae Menippeae; and hence this sort of composition is also denominated Varronian satire. Amongst the moderns there is a celebrated piece under this title, which was first published in 1594, against the chiefs of the league, called also the Catholicon of Spain. It is esteemed a masterpiece for the time.
MENIPPUS, a Cynic philosopher, with whose private history we are but very slightly acquainted. Neither his birth-place nor the time during which he flourished, arc known with any degree of precision. It is supposed that he was a native of Gadara, a small village of Phoenicia, (Strab. xvi. 759), and that he lived before the year 200 b c., as he is spoken of by Hcrmippus, according to Diogenes Laërtius. He was originally a slave, but having purchased his liberty, he settled at Thebes, where he obtained the rights and privileges of a citizen. He devoted himself to usury, and amassed a considerable sum of money, but having been robbed, he fell into such despair that he hanged himself. This is the statement of Diogenes Laërtius, but the character left of him by the ancients does not agree with it. He was a follower of the Cynic philosophy, and regarded with contempt the luxuries of life. Lucian, in his Dialogues of the Dead, makes Diogenes describe him as “old, bald-headed, wearing a threadbare cloak, with abundance of apertures in it, pervious to every wind, and patched with rags of all possible colours; and as laughing incessantly at those conceited pedants, the philosophers, who are generally the objects of his derision.” Lucian has introduced Menippus in many of his dialogues, and always as a man despising the perishable things of this life. Varro, in his Satires, imitated the style of Menippus, so that they were called Satirae Menippeae. (Cic. 1, 2. Gell. xi. 18., xiii. 30.)
MENOLOGY, Menologium, (from μηv, month, and λοyος, discourse), is much the some as martyrology, or calendar, in the Latin. The Greek menologium is divided into the several months in the year, and contains an abridgment of the lives of the saints, with a bare enumeration of the names of those whose lives were never written. The Greeks have various menologies; and the Romans tax them with inserting divers heretics in their menologies as saints.
MENSA, in law books, a term which includes in it all patrimony, and necessaries for livelihood.
MENSALS, Mensalia, in church history, such livings as were formerly united to the tables of religious houses, and hence called mcnsal benefices.
MENSORES, amongst the Romans, were harbingers, whose business it was to go before the emperor, and fix upon lodgings for him when he travelled into any of the provinces. They also marked out encampments, and assigned every regiment its post.

Mensores were likewise land-surveyors, architects, or appraisers of houses and public buildings. The distributors of provisions in the army were called mensores frumentarii ; and the appellation of mensores was also applied to servants who waited at table.
MENSTRUAL, or Menstruous, in Physiology, is applied to the blood which flows from women at certain periods.
MENSTRUUM, in Chemistry, is any body which either in a fluid or subtilized state is capable of interposing its small parts between those of other bodies, so as to divide them subtly, and form a new uniform compound of the two.
MENTHA, Mint, a genus of plants belonging to the didynamia class, and in the natural method ranked under the forty-second order, VerticiUatae.
MENTOR, in fabulous history, a faithful friend of Ulysses, a son of Hercules, a king of Sidonia, who revolted against Artaxerses Ochus, and afterwards was restored to favour by his treachery to his allies. (Diod. 16.) An excellent artist in polishing cups and engraving flowers on them. (Elm. 33, c. 11; Mart. 9, ep. 60, v. 16.)
MENTZ, a considerable town of Germany, in the circle of the Lower Rhine, and capital of the late electorate of the same name, is situated on the Rhine near its confluence with the Maine, twenty miles north-west of Worms, fifteen west of Francfort, and seventy-five east of Triers, in E. long. 8. 20. N. lat.40.51.

Mentz, called by the Germans Mainz or Maynz, and by the French Mayence, is a city in the Rhenish province of Hesse-Darmstadt, but is garrisoned and ruled, as far as regards military affairs, by the German confederation. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhine, over which there is abridge of boats 1720 feet long, connecting it with the fortifications of Cassel. It is one of the most powerful defences of Germany on the side towards France, for besides its walls, it has a citadel and several strong forts, with no less than twenty-seven bastions. It is an ancient city, the Mogun-tium of the Romans; but though well built in some parts, it is in others in a ruinous state· It is the see of a Catholic bishop, whose cathedral is a very striking object, both from its size and the monuments and other antiquities. It contains eleven other churches, and several public buildings remarkable for their antiquity rather than their beauty. The city contains 2165 houses, and about 25,000 civil inhabitants, of whom one-third are said to be in a state of great destitution. There are a few manufactures on a small scale, but a considerable trade in wine, timber, and other goods, is carried on by the Rhine. The vicinity is fruitful in corn, and produces excellent wine. Lat. 49∙ 59∙ 50. N. Long. 7.35.40. E.
MENTZEL, Christian, born at Frustenwall in the Mittel-mark, is celebrated for his skill in medicine and botany, in pursuit of which he travelled through many countries, and had correspondents in the most distant parts of the world. He died in the year 1701, in about the seventieth year of his age. He was a member of the academy of the Curieux delaNature. His works are, 1. Index Nominum Plantarum, printed at Berlin, folio, in 1696, and reprinted, with additions, in 1715, under the title of Lexico Plantarum Polyglotton Universale ; 2. A Chronology of China, in German, printed at Berlin, in 1696,4to. The following manuscripts of his composition are preserved in the royal library at Berlin, viz., 1. Sur C Histoire Naturelle du Brasil, in 4 vols. folio; 2. Sur les Fleurs et les Plantes du Japon, with coloured plates, 2 vols. folio.
MENUGAT, a small town of Asiatic Turkey, in Caramania. It is situated on a river of the same name, which falls into the Gulf of Satalia, and it is twenty-one miles west of Alanieh.
MEOTIS, or Palus Maeotis, the sea of Azof, which divides Europe from Asia, extending from the Crimea to the mouth of the river Don or Tanais.
MEPHITIC, a name expressing any kind of noxious exhalation, but generally applied to that species of vapour called fixed air.
MEPHITIS Fanum, a temple erected near the Lacus Amsancti, to the goddess Mephitis, who was also worshipped at Cremona. Figuratively, Mephitis denotes a noisome or pestilential exhalation.
MER, a town of Hindustan, in the Gulf of Cutch, on the road from Luckput Bunder to Marcanic, The longitude has not been ascertained. Lat. 23. 32. N.
MERAT, a town of Hindustan, in the province of Delhi, situated upon the western bank of the Calcerundy. It has been from ancient times a place of considerable consequence, and is mentioned amongst the early conquests of Mahmoud of Ghizni, in the year 1018. In 1399 it was taken and destroyed by Tamerlane. It was afterwards rebuilt, and when this part of the province came into the possession of the British, it was fixed upon as the capital of one of the districts into which the British possessions in the Doab of the Ganges and Jumna were subdivided. In 1809 it was made one of the principal military stations under the Bengal presidency; it is thirtv-two miles N.E. from Delhi. Long. 77. 33. E. Lat. 29. 1. Ñ.
MERBAT, a town of Hadramaut, .in Arabia, which carries on a trade in incense; it is thirty-two miles north of Darfur.
MERCATOR, Gerard, one of the most celebrated geographers of his time, was born at Ruremonde in 1512. He applied himself with such industry to geography and mathematics, that he is said to have frequently forgotten to eat and drink. The emperor Charles V. had a particular· esteem for him, and the Duke de Juliers made him his cosmographer. He composed a chronology, some geographical tables, and an atlas, having engraved and coloured the maps himself. He died in 1594. His method of laying down charts is still used, and bears the name of Mercator’s charts. Mercator, Nicholas, an eminent mathematician of the seventeenth century, was born at Holstein in Denmark, and came about the time of the Restoration to England, where he lived many years. He was admitted a fellow of the Royal Society, and endeavoured to reduce astrology to rational principles. He published several works, particularly Cosmographia. He also gave the quadrature of the hyperbola by an infinite series, which was the first instance in the learned world of a series of this sort derived from the particular nature of the curve, and that in a manner equally new and refined.

Mercator’s Sailing is that which is performed by Mercator’s chart.
MERCATORUM Festum, was a festival kept by the Roman merchants on the 15th of May, in honour of Mercury, who presided over merchandise. A sow was sacrificed on the occasion, and the people present sprinkled themselves with water brought from the fountain called aqua Mercurii ; the whole concluding with prayers to the god for the prosperity of trade.
MERCHANT, a person who buys and sells commodities in gross, or deals in exchanges; or one who traffics in the way of commerce, either by importation or exportation.
MERCHET (Merchetum), a fine or composition paid by inferior tenants to the lord, for liberty to dispose of their daughters in marriage. No baron, nor military tenant, could marry his sole daughter and heir without such leave purchased from the king pro maritanda filia; and many of our servile tenants could neither send their sons to school, nor give their daughters in marriage, without express leave from the superior lord. According to Mr. Astle, the merchetum was a compact between the lord and his vassal for the redemption of an offence committed by the vassal’s unmarried daughter; and also a fine paid by a sokeman or a villain to his lord for permission to marry his daughter to a free man; but in cases where the vassal gave away his daughter without having obtained this license, he subjected himself to a heavier fine.
MERCURA, a town· and fortress of Hindustan in the south of India, province of Mysore, and district of Coorg, of which it is the capital. It was built by Hyder Ally in the year 1773, after he had conquered the country. It is seventy-two miles east from Seringapatam. Long. 75. 58. E. Lat. 12. 30. N.
MERCY-SEAT, or Propitiatory, in Jewish antiquity, the covering of the ark of the covenant. The Hebrew name of this cover, which we translate mercy-seat, is Cap-poreth, (Exod. xxv. 17, 22,) from cappor, which signifies to cover, to shut up, to expiate, or to pay. This cover was of gold, and at its two ends were fixed the two cherubim of the same metal, which, by their wings extended forwards, seemed to form a throne for the majesty of. God; who in Scripture is. represented to us as sitting between the cherubim, with the ark itself forming as it were his footstool. It was hence that God issued his oracles to Moses, or to the high priest who consulted him, (Exod. xxv. 22. Numb. vii. 89.)
MERDIN, a city of Diarbekir in Asiatic Turkey, situated upon the top of one of the lofty heights of a mountainous ridge, and commanded by a castle which crowns the summit of the rock. From its situation it is very difficult of access. On the northern side the access is by a narrow pathway which winds amidst rocks and precipices. On the south the road is somewhat better but still very steep, and about a mile and a half in length. The houses are all built of fine hewn stone, and are very old, appearing from the position of the town in a declivity, to rise successively one on the top of another. The works are kept in tolerable repair; but the castle which has a few old pieces of cannon mounted on its towers, is now in a very dilapidated state, having never been completely repaired since the place was taken by Timour. Notwithstanding the elevated situation of the city it has a plentiful supply of the finest water. In the recesses of the mountains the vine is cultivated with success, and wine and considerable quantities of brandy are made by the Armenians. The population of Merdin amounts to 11,000, of which 1500 are Armenians, 200 Jews, the remainder Turks, Arabs, and Kurds. Merdin is the frontier town of the pashalik of Bagdad towards Constantinople, and under the government of an officer appointed by the pasha; it is forty-five miles south from Diarbekir.
MERE a town of the county of Wilts in the hundred of the same name, 102 miles from London. It stands in an angle of the county running into Somersetshire, near a lake or merse, from which its name is derived. It is ilLbuilt, [7:14:593]but has an ancient cross which stands in the market-place. The river Stour rises near it. The market is held on Thursday. The population amounted in 1801 to 753; in 1811 to 972; in 1821 to 1151; and in 1831 to 1289.
MERETRIX, amongst the Romans, differed from prostibula. The prostibulae were common courtesans, with bills over their doors, signifying their profession, and were ready at all times to entertain customers; the meretrices entertained none but at night. The meretrices differed in their dress from the matrons. The former wore the toga and short tunics, like those of the men; the latter wore the palla and the stola of such a length as to reach to their feet.
MERIDEN, a town of the county of Warwick, situated in the hundred of Hemlingford, and ninety-seven miles from London. It is a great posting place, and near to it is the fine house and park of the Earls of Aylesford. The inhabitants were in 1801, 821; in 1811, 817; in 1821, 927; and in 1831, 892.
MERIDIAN, in Geography, a great circle supposed to be draw n through any part of the surface of the earth, and the two poles, and to which the sun is always perpendicular at noon. In astronomy, this circle is supposed to be in the heavens, and exactly perpendicular to the terrestrial one.
MERIDIANI, in antiquity, a name which the Romans gave to a kind of gladiators, who entered the arena about noon after the bestiarii (who fought in the morning against beasts) had finished. They were so called from meridies, noon, the time when they exhibited their shows. The meridiani were a sort of artless combatants, who fought man to man, sword in hand. Hence Seneca observes, that the combats of the morning were full of humanity compared with those which followed.
MERIDIONAL distance, in Navigation, is the same with departure, or easting and westing, being the difference of longitude between the meridian under which the ship now is, and any other meridian which she was under before.

Meridionad parts, miles, or minutes, in Navigation, are the parts by which the meridians in a Mercator’s chart increase, as the parallels of latitude decrease.
MERLIN, Ambrose, a famous English poet and reputed prophet, who flourished at the end of the fifth century. Many surprising and ridiculous things are related of him, and several English authors have represented him as having transported from Ireland to England the great stones which form Stonehenge on Salisbury plain. Extravagant prophecies have also been attributed to him.
MERMAID, or Merman, a sea-creature frequently talked of and supposed to be half human half fish. However naturalists may doubt of the existence of mermen or mermaids, there is abundance of testimony in its favour; but the authenticity and value of that testimony presents a different question. In the year 1187, Lary informs us that such a monster was fished up in the county of Suffolk, and kept by the governor for six months. It bore so near a conformity to man, that nothing seemed wanting to it but speech. One day ittook the opportunity ofmaking its escape; andplunging into the sea, was never more heard of. {Hist, d ’ Angleterre, p. i. p. 403.) In the year 1430, after a huge tempest, which broke clown the dykes in Holland, and made way for the sea into the meadows, some girls of the town of Edam in West Friesland, having gone in a boat to milk the cows, perceived a mermaid embarrassed in the mud, with very little water. They took it into their boat, and brought it with them to Edam, dressed it in woman’s apparel, and taught it to spin. It fed like one of them, but could never be brought to attempt speech. Some time afterwards it was brought to Haerlem, where it lived for some years, although still shewing an inclination to the water. (j9 elices de HollandeS) In Pontopidan’s Natural History of Norway, we have also accounts of mermaids, but not more remarkable nor any way better attested than the above, to which we have given a place, merely to shew how far the folly and extravagance of credulity have sometimes been carried by weak minds.
MERNITCH, a town of Hindustan in the province of Bejapoor, situated on the banks of the Krishna, and formerly the capital of a Hindu principality, and afterwards the capital of different Mahratta chieftains. It was taken by Hyder in 1778. Long. 75. E. lat. 16. 56. N..
MERNS, Mearns, or Kincardineshire, a county of Scotland. See Kincardineshire.
MERODACH, an ancient king of Babylon, who was placedamongst the gods, andworshipped by the Babylonians.
MEROPE, in Fabulous History, one of the Atlantides, who married Sisyphus the son of Aeolus, and like her sisters was changed into a constellation after death.
MEROPS, in Fabulous History, a king of the island of Cos, who married Clymene, one of the Oceanides. He was changed into an eagle, and placed amongst the constellations. A celebrated soothsayer of Percosus in Troas, also bore the name of Merops.
MERS or Mer se, a county of Scotland, called also Berwickshire. This last name it derives from the town of Berwick, which was the head of the shire before it fell into the hands of the English, and obtained the appellation of Mers or March, because it was one of the borders towards England. See Berwickshire.
MERSEBURG, one of the departments into which the Prussian government of Saxony is divided. It is formed out of a part of the dominion of the kingdom of Saxony, and several divisions which, before the late war, belonged to Prussia, and is now a compact territory, though some portions of the country of Saxe-Weimer and of Bernburg are mixed with and surrounded by it. The extent of the government is 4114 square miles, and in 1826 it contained 565,632 inhabitants, in sixty-nine cities or walled towns, eleven market towns, and 1648 villages and hamlets. It is divided into seventeen circles, one of which is of the same name as the government, and contains the capital and the district around it. This capital is situated upon the river Saal, at the point where the Geisalbach falls into that stream; it is surrounded with walls, and though old is well built. The dome, or cathedral church, is celebrated as the burial-place of the Emperor Rudolph of Swabia, of Bishop Ditt-mar, one of the oldest of the German authors, and other eminent persons; and also on account of an organ of great power, with 4000 pipes. There are three parochial churches, an orphan house, workhouse and hospital, 1895 dwellings, and 8056 inhabitants. There are also several institutions for education, especially an endowed grammar school. It contains some cloth manufactories, some tanneries, and extensive distilleries. Lat. 51. 21. 35. N. Long. 11.54. 15. E.