. MECKLENBURG-STRELITZ
(98), adjacent to the foregoing on the SE., presents similar
characteristics, and is united to it in government; the capital is
Neustrelitz (9).

MEDEA, a famous sorceress of Greek legend, daughter of AEetes, king
of Colchis, by whose aid JASON (q. v.) accomplished the object
of his expedition, and acquired the Golden Fleece, and who accompanied
him back to Greece as his wife; by her art she restored the youth of
Eson, the father of her husband, but the latter having abandoned her she
avenged herself on him by putting the children she had by him to death;
the art she possessed was that of making old people young again by first
chopping them in pieces and then boiling them in a caldron.

MEDIA, a country on the SW. of the Caspian Sea, originally a
province of the Assyrian empire, from which it revolted; was after 150
years of independence annexed to Persia by Cyrus, of which it had formed
the NW. portion.

MEDIAEVALISM, a tendency in literature and art to conform in spirit
or otherwise to mediaeval models.

MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE OR FORENSIC MEDICINE, is the branch of medical
study which bears on legal questions, the detection of crime or the
determination of civil rights.

MEDICI, an illustrious family who attained sovereign power in
Florence in the 15th century, the most celebrated members of which were:
COSMO DE, surnamed the "Father of his Country," was exiled for ten
years but recalled, and had afterwards a peaceful and prosperous reign;
was a student of philosophy, and much interested in literature
(1389-1464). LORENZO DE, the Magnificent, did much to demoralise
Florence, but patronised literature and the arts (1448-1492). Other
celebrated members of the family were POPES LEO X., CLEMENT
VII., and CATHERINE AND MARY DE MEDICI (q. v.).

MEDICINE-MAN, one among the American Indians who professes to cure
diseases or exorcise evil spirits by magic.

MEDINA (lit. the city) (76), called also Medina-en-Nabi, 210 m. N.
of Mecca, the City of the Prophet, as the place in which he found refuge
after his "flight" from Mecca in 632; it was here he from that date
lived, where he died, and where his tomb is, in a beautiful and rich
mosque called El Haram (i. e. the inviolate), erected on the site of
the prophet's house. See HEGIRA.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA, so called by the ancients as lying in the
presumed middle of the earth surrounded by Europe, Asia, and Africa; the
largest enclosed