of Sakkara begins with the sixth king of the 1st Dynasty, a fact which may throw some doubt on the supposed foundation of Memphis by Menes. Until recently he was looked upon as semi-mythical, but the discovery of the tombs of many kings of the 1st Dynasty including probably that of Menes himself, as well as an abundance of remains of still earlier ages in Egypt has given him a personality. He was probably ruler of Upper Egypt and conquered the separate kingdom of Lower Egypt.
See Egypt; K. Sethe, “Menes und die Grundung von Memphis,” in his Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Alterthumskunde Aegyptens, iii. 121. (F. Ll. G.)
MENGS, ANTONY RAPHAEL (1728–1779), German painter,
was born in 1728 at Aussig in Bohemia, but his father, Ismael Mengs, a Danish painter, established himself finally at Dresden,
whence in 1741 he took his son to Rome. The appointment of
Mengs in 1749 as first painter to the elector of Saxony did not
prevent his spending much time in Rome, where he had married
in 1748, and abjured the Protestant faith, and where he became
in 1754 director of the Vatican school of painting, nor did this
hinder him on two occasions from obeying the call of Charles III.
of Spain to Madrid. There Mengs produced some of his best
work, and specially the ceiling of the banqueting-hall, the
subject of which was the Triumph of Trajan and the Temple
of Glory. After the completion of this work in 1777, Mengs
returned to Rome, and there he died, two years later, in poor
circumstances, leaving twenty children, seven of whom were
pensioned by the king of Spain. Besides numerous paintings
in the Madrid gallery, the Ascension at Dresden, Perseus and
Andromeda at St Petersburg, and the ceiling of the Villa Albani
must be mentioned among his chief works. In England, the
duke of Northumberland possesses a Holy Family, and the
colleges of All Souls and Magdalen, at Oxford, have altar-pieces
by his hand. In his writings, in Spanish, Italian and German,
Mengs has put forth his eclectic theory of art, which treats of
perfection as attainable by a well-schemed combination of
diverse excellences—Greek design, with the expression of
Raphael, the chiaroscuro of Correggio, and the colour of Titian.
His intimacy with Winckelmann—who constantly wrote at his
dictation—has enhanced his historical importance, for he formed
no scholars, and the critic must now concur in Goethe’s judgment
of Mengs in Winckelmann und sein Jahrhundert; he must deplore
that so much learning should have been allied to a total want
of initiative and poverty of invention, and embodied with a
strained and artificial mannerism.
See Opere di Antonio Raffaello Mengs (Parma, 1780); Mengs Werke, übersetzt v. G. F. Prange (1786); Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst (1880); Bianconi, Elogio storico di Mengs Milan, 1780); Woermann, Ismael und Raphael Mengs (Leipzig, 1893).
MENGTSZE, a city in the S.E. of the province of Yunnan, China. Pop. about 12,000. It was selected by the French
convention of 1886 as the seat of the overland trade between
Tongking and Yunnan, and opened two years later. It is
beautifully situated in the centre of a valley basin on a plateau
3500 ft. above sea-level. The country round is fertile and
well cultivated, and the place must have been one of considerable
wealth before the T’aip’ing rebellion, as the ruins of many fine
temples attest. A considerable overland trade has sprung up
since the opening of Mengtsze. Of the import trade (Hong-Kong
supplied 86%, and of the export trade 70%, Cochin-China,
Tongking and Annam claiming the remainder. Tin (68%) and
opium (27·8%) are the principal exports, and textiles (71%),
mostly cottons, and tobacco (4%) are the chief imports. On
the Tongking side this trade follows the Red River route as far
as Manhao, which is distant from Mengtsze about 40 m., though
the navigation of the river is difficult. From Manhao the transit
is by coolies or pack animals. Concessions have been obtained
by the French government to build a line of railway from the
Tongking frontier at the town of Laokay via Mengtsze to
Yunnan-fu. The climate is equable and healthy.
MENHADEN, economically one of the most important fishes of the United States, known by a great number of local names,
“menhaden” and “mossbunker” being those most generally
in use. The Indians and white settlers used it as a manure,
and the name is Narragansett for “fertilizer.” Its scientific
name is Clupea (or Alosa) menhaden and Brevoortia tyrannus.
It is allied to the European species of shad and pilchard, and,
like the latter, approaches the coast in immense shoals, which
are found throughout the year in some part of the littoral
waters between Maine and Florida, the northern shoals retiring
into deeper water or to more southern latitudes with the
approach of cold weather. The average size of the menhaden
is about 12 in. It is too bony and oily for a table-fish, but is
used as bait for cod and mackerel. A large fleet is engaged
in the fishery; and a great number of factories extract the
oil for tanning and currying, and for adulterating other more
expensive oils, and manufacture the refuse into a valuable guano.
MENIAL, that which belongs to household or domestic service,
hence, particularly, a domestic servant. The idea of such
service being derogatory has made the term one of contempt.
The word is derived from an obsolete meinie or meyney, the
company of household servants or retainers; a Scottish form is
menzie. The origin is to be found in the O.Fr. mesnie, popular
Lat. mansionata, from mansio, mansion, from which comes
Fr. maison, house.
MÉNIER, EMILE JUSTIN (1826–1881), French manufacturer
and politician, was born at Paris in 1826. In 1853, on the
death of his father, Antoine Brutus Ménier, he became proprietor
of a large drug factory, founded in 1815 by the latter at Saint
Denis, Paris, and in 1825 at Noisiel-sur-Marne. Antoine Brutus
Ménier had also manufactured chocolate in a small way, but
Emile Justin from the first devoted himself specially to chocolate.
He purchased cocoa-growing estates in Nicaragua and beet-fields
in France, erected a sugar-mill, and equipped himself in other
ways for the production of chocolate on a large scale. In 1864
he sold his interest in the drug-manufacturing business, and
thenceforth confined himself to chocolate, building up an
immense trade. Ménier was a keen politician, and from 1876
till his death had a seat in the French Chamber, his general
views being strongly Republican, while he consistently opposed
protection. He was the author of several works on fiscal and
economic questions, notably L’Impôt sur le capital (1872), La
Réforme fiscale (1872), Économie rurale (1875), L’Avenir
économique (1875–1878), Atlas de la production de la richesse
(1878). He died at Noisiel-sur-Marne in 1881, his sons succeeding
to the business.
MÉNIÈRES DISEASE, a form of auditory vertigo, first described by a French physician, Emile Antoine Ménière, in
1861. It usually attacks persons of middle age whose hearing
has been previously normal. A. Politzer gives the following
as the principal causes: intense heat and exposure to the sun,
rheumatism, influenza, venereal diseases, anaemia and leukaemia.
The disease presents itself in various forms, but the most
usual is the apoplectoform, due to haemorrhage into the labyrinth,
followed by more or less complete deafness in either or
both ears. The attack usually sets in with dizziness, noises
in the ears, nausea, vomiting and staggering gait, and the
patient may suddenly fall down with loss of consciousness.
The seizures are usually paroxysmal, occurring at irregular
intervals of days or weeks. Between the attacks the equilibrium
may be disturbed, there being marked nystagmus and unsteadiness
of gait. The attacks of vertigo tend to become less frequent
and may entirely pass away, but the deafness may remain
permanent; The treatment is directed towards relieving the
troublesome head symptoms by the application of cold compresses.
The drug that has proved most serviceable in diminishing
the dizziness is potassium iodide, administered daily for
at least a month. Politzer considers that the attacks may be
averted by producing rarefaction of the air in the external
meatus of the ear by means of a specially devised aspirating
tube.
MENIN (Flemish Meenen), a town of Belgium in the province of West Flanders situated on the Lys 7 m. S. of Courtrai. Pop. (1904), 19,377. It manufactures linen and flannel, and in the neighbourhood are extensive tobacco plantations. It was first