Chapter Measure One's Length on the Ground to Meissonier-like Exactness of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Mediaeval or Middle Ages begin with the Council of Chalcedon (451), and end with the revival of literature in the fifteenth century, according to the Rev. J. G. Dowling. According to Hallam, they begin from the downfall of the Western Empire, in 476, to the Italian expeditions of Charles VIII. of France (1494-1496).

Median Apples Pome-citrons.

Median Stone (The). Said to cure blindness, and, if soaked in ewe's milk, to cure the gout.

Medicine, in alchemy, was that agent which brought about the transmutation of metals, or renewed old age; the philosopher's stone, and the elixir of life.

“How much unlike art thou, Mark Antony!
Yet, coming from him, that great medicine hath
With his tinct gilded thee.”
Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra. l. 5.

   Father of Medicine. Aretæos of Capadocia, who lived at the close of the first and beginning of the second century, and Hippocrates of Cos (B.C. 460- 357) are both so called.

Medicinal Days The sixth, eighth, tenth, twelfth, sixteenth, eighteenth, etc., of a disease; so called because, according to Hippocrates, no “crisis” occurs on these days, and medicine may be safely administered. (See Crisis .)

Medicinal Hours Hours proper for taking medicine, viz. morning fasting, an hour before dinner, four hours after dinner, and bed-time. (Quincy.)

Medina (Economy, Latin medium, the golden mean.) Step-sister of Elissa and Perissa, but they could never agree upon any subject. (Spenser: Faërie Queene, book ii.)
   Medina means in Arabic “city.” The city so called is “Medinat al Nabi” (city of the prophet).

Mediterranean (Key of the). The fortress of Gibraltar, which commands the entrance.

Medium (A), in the language of spirit-rappers, etc., is some one possessed of “odylic force,” who puts the question of the interrogator to the “spirit” consulted.

Medora The betrothed of the Corsair. (Byron: The Corsair.)

Medoro (in Orlando Furioso). A Moorish youth of extraordinary beauty; a friend of Dardinello, King of Zumara. After Dardinello was slain, Medoro is wounded by some unknown spear. Angelica dresses his wounds, falls in love with him, marries him and they retire to India, where he becomes King of Cathay in right of his wife.

Medusa Chief of the Gorgons. Her head was cut off by Perseus (2 syl.), and Minerva placed it in her aegis. Everyone who looked on this head was instantly changed into stone.
    The tale is that Medusa, famous for her hair, presumed to set her beauty above that of Minerva; so the jealous goddess converted her rival's hair into snakes, which changed to stone anyone who looked thereon.
   The most famous painting of Medusa is by Leonardo da Vinci; it is called his chef d'oeuvre.

Meerschaum (2 syl., German, sea-froth.) This mineral, from having been found on the sea-shore in rounded white lumps, was ignorantly supposed to be sea-froth petrified; but it is a compound of silica, magnesia, lime, water, and carbonic acid. When first dug it lathers like soap, and is used as a soap by the Tartars.

Meg Mons Meg. An old-fashioned piece of artillery in the castle of Edinburgh, made at Mons, in Flanders. It was considered a palladium by the Scotch. (See Long Meg .)

“Sent awa' our crown, and our sword, and our sceptre, and Mons Meg to be keepit by thae English ... in the Tower of London [N.B. It was restored in 1828].”- Scott: Rob Roy, chap, xxvii.

   A roaring Meg. A