Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 13, MAT-MIC

MEL [ 497 ] MEL
jylelicerej mnur, fo called when their contents arc of the conlift-
II. ence of honey. See Tumour, Surgery Index.
jyieute. ^ MELICER F A, Melicertes, or Mehcertus, in fa¬
bulous hidory, a fon of Athamas and Ino. He was
faved by his mother from the furv of his father, who
prepared to dafh him againft a wall as he had done his
brother Learchus. The mother was fo terrified that lire
threw herfelf into the fea with Melicerta in her arms.
Neptune had compaffion on the misfortunes of Ino and
her fon. He changed them both into fea deities.
Ino was called Leucothoe or Matuta ; and Melicerta was
known among the Greeks by the name of Palcemon,
and among the Latins by that of Portumnus. Some
fuppofe that the Iflhmian games were inilituted in ho¬
nour of Melicerta.
MELIL L A, an ancient town of Africa, in the king¬
dom of Fez, and in the province of Garet. It was ta¬
ken by the Spaniards in 1469, but returned back to
the Moors. W. Long. 2. 9. N. Lat. 20.
MELILOT. See Trifolium, Botany and Agri¬
culture Index,
MELINDA, a kingdom on the eaft coaft of Africa,
fituated according to fome, between the third and
fourth degree of fouth latitude j though there is great
difagreement among geographers as to its extent. It
is allowed by all, however, that the coafts are very
dangerous •, being full of rocks and (helves, and the
fea at fome feafons very liable to tempefts. The king¬
dom of Melinda is for the mod part rich and fertile •,
producing almoft all the necelfaries of life except wheat
and rice, both which are brought thither from Cam-
baya and other parts ; and thofe who cannot purchafe
them make ufe of potatoes in their dead, which are
here fine, large, and in great plenty. They likevvife
abound with great variety of fruit trees, roots, plants,
and other efculents, and ivith melons of exquifite fade.
They have alfo great plenty of venifon, game, oxen,
(beep, hens, geefe, and other poultry, &c. and one breed
of (beep whofe tails weigh between 30 and 40 pounds.
The capital city is alfo called Melinda,
MELINUM, in Natural Hiflory, the name of an
earth famous in the earlied ages of painting, being
the only white of the great painters of antiquity j and,
according to Pliny’s account, one of the three colours
with which alone they performed all their works. From
the defeription given of this earth it feems to be alu¬
minous, tolerably pure, and in a date of minute di-
vifion.
MELISSA, in fabulous hidory, a daughter of Me-
liffus king of Crete, who with her fider Amalthaea fed
Jupiter with the milk of goats. She fird found out the
means of collefting honey •, whence it has been fabled
that (be was changed into a bee, as her name is the
Greek word for that infeed.
Melissa, Baum, a genus of plants, belonging to the
didynamia clafs ; and in the natural method ranking
under the 42d order, Verticillat*. See Botany Index.
MELISSUS of Samos, a Greek philofopher, was
the fon of Rhagines and the difciple of Parmenides ;
and lived about 440 B. C. He pretended that the
univerfe is infinite, immoveable, and without a vacuum.
Themidocles was among his pupils.
MELITE, in Ancient Geography, an idand refer¬
red to Africa by Scylax and Ptolemy •, but nearer Si¬
cily, and allotted to it by the Romans: commended
Vol. XIII. Part II. '
for its commodious harbours ; for a city well built, MeUe
with artificers of every kind, efpecially weavers of fine
linen •, all owing to the Phoenicians, the firlt colonifts. ,
Now Malta ; remarkable for St Paul’s (hipwreck. See
Malta.
Melite, Melita, or Mel it in a Inful a ; an ifiand on
the coait of Illyricum in the Adriatic. The Catuli
Melitcei (Pliny) w'ere famous. Now Melede, the name
of the ifland Samos. See Samos.
Melite, in Ancient Geography, a town of Ionia,
(truck out of the number of Ionian towns on account of
the arrogance of the people, and Smyrna admitted in
lieu of it. The (ituation is not fpecified.
MELITENSIS terra, the Earth of Malta : an
earth of which there are two very different kinds , the
one of which is a bole, the other a marl. The latter
is that known by medical authors under this name;
the former is the Malta earth now in ufe j but both
being brought from the fame place, are confufedly cal¬
led by the fame name. The Maltefe marl, which is
the terra Melitenjis of medical authors, is a loofe,
crumbly, and light earth, of an unequal and irregular
texture *, and, when expol’ed to the weather, foon falls
into fine foft powder : but when preferved and dried,
it becomes a loofe, light mafs, of a dirty white colour,
with a grayifh call : it is rough to the touch, adheres
firmly to the tongue, is very eafily crumbled to pow¬
der between the fingers, and (fains the hands. Thrown
into the water, it (wells, and afterwards moulders a-
way into a fine powder. It ferments very violently
Avith acids. Both kinds are found in great abundance
in the ifland of Malta, and the latter has been much
efteemed as a remedy againfl: the bites of venomous
animals. The other has fupplied its place in the Ger¬
man (hops •, and is ufed there as a cordial, fudorific,
and aftringent.
MELITO (canonized), bifliop of Sardis in Lydia,
in the fecond century j remarkable for the apology he
prefented to the emperor Aurelius, in favour of the
Chriftians •, on which Eufebius and the other ancient
ecclefiaftical writers bellow great praifes : but that apo¬
logy and all Melito’s other wmrks are loft.
MEL ITUS, a Greek orator and poet, the. accufer
of Socrates. The Athenians, after the death of So¬
crates, difeovering the iniquity of the fentence they
had paffed againft that great philofopher, put Melitus
to death, 400 B. C.
MELLER, a lake of SAveden, 80 miles long, and
30 broad •, on which ftands the city of Stockholm.
MEL LI, with the country of the Mundingoes, in
Africa. The country formerly called Mel/i, now chief¬
ly inhabited by the Mundingoes, Avho (fill retain pretty
much of the chara6ler aferibed to the people of Melli,
lies to the fouth of the river Gambia ; on the weft it
borders on the kingdom of Kabo 5 on the fouth it hag
Melli, properly fo called, and the mountains that part
it from Guinea •, and on the eaft it extends to the king¬
dom of Gago. With a great part of this country we
are little acquainted, as is the cafe Avith regard t«
moft of the inland territories of Africa ; but toAvards
the fea coaft this country is a little better known.
The firft place of note we meet with is Kachao, a
Portuguefe colony, fituated on the river of St Do¬
mingo, which falls info the fea about 26 leagues below
this town.—About 26 leagues above Kachao, on the
3 R fame