fter Alexander the Great's time to the
territory "between the rivers" Euphrates and Tigris, stretching from
Babylonia NW. to the Armenian mountains; under irrigation it was very
fertile, but is now little cultivated; once the scene of high
civilisation when Nineveh ruled it; it passed from Assyrian hands
successively to Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, and Arab; now, after
many vicissitudes, it is in the deathly grasp of Turkish rule.

MESSENIA, a province of Greece, mainly the fertile peninsula between
the Gulfs of Arcadia and Coron; in ancient times the Messenians were
prosperous, excited Spartan envy, and after two long wars were conquered
in 668 B.C. and fled to Sicily.

MESSIAH (i. e. the Anointed one), one consecrated of God, who the
Jewish prophets predicted would one day appear to emancipate the Jewish
people from bondage and exalt them in the eyes of all the other nations
of the earth as His elect nation, and for the glory of His name.

MESSINA (78), on a bay at the NE. corner of Sicily; is a very
ancient city, but rebuilt after the earthquake of 1783; has a
12th-century cathedral, two old castles, and a university, founded 1549;
it manufactures light textiles, coral ornaments, and fruit essences; its
excellent harbour encourages a good trade.

MESSINA, STRAIT OF, 24 m. long, and at its narrowest 21/2 broad;
separates Sicily from the Italian mainland; here were the Scylla and
Charybdis of the ancients.

MESSUAGE, a dwelling-house with buildings and land attached for the
use of the household.

METABOLISM, name given to a chemical change in the cells or tissues
of living matter.

METAMORPHOSIS is a classical name for the changing of a human being
into a beast, an inanimate object, or an element, stories of which are
common in all folk-lore.

METAPHYSICS, the science of being as being in contradistinction from
a science of a particular species of being, the science of sciences, or
the science of the ultimate grounds of all these, and presupposed by
them, called by Plato dialectics, or the logic of being.

METASTASIO, an Italian poet, born at Rome, the son of a common
soldier named Trapassi; his power of improvising verse attracted the
attention of one Gravina, a lawyer, who educated him and left him his
fortune; he wrote opera librettoes, which were set to music by the most
eminent composers, was court poet at Vienna, and died there 40 years
after his active powers were spent (1698-1