MESEMBRYACEJE 199 MESOPOTAMIA of yellow sandstone rise anothei' 200 or 300 feet higher. On the green, level top and around the base are found the ruins of the ancient aborigines, known as cliff dwellings. The Mesa Verde is a point of great attraction to tourists. MESEMBRYACEJE (-bri-a'se-e) , an order of perigynous exogens, alliance Ficoidales. It consists of succulent shrubs or herbs, with opposite simple leaves. The flowers are terminal, though so short-stalked as to appear lateral; they are showy, and generally open un- der the influence of sunshine, closing on its departure. Petals in many rows. Stamens indefinite in number; ovary in- ferior or nearly superior, many or one- celled. Stigmas numerous, distinct, ovules indefinite, attached to a central placenta. Fruit capsular, surrounded by the fleshy calyx opening in a stellate manner at the apex, or splitting at the base. Found chiefly on the hot, sandy plains of south Africa. A few grow in the N. of Africa, in the S. of Europe, in Asia, the islands of the Pacific, and South America. Known genera, 16; species upward of 400. MESHHED, MESHED, or MASH- HAD (the "place of martyrdom") , a city of Persia, capital of Khorasan, and the center of important trade routes to Merv, Bokhara, and elsewhere, situated on a tributary of the Hari-Rud, 200 miles N. W. of Herat, and 460 E. by N. of Teheran; manufactures felt-rugs, car- pets, swords, turquoise jewelry, and vel- vet, cotton, and silk goods. Imam Riza, a follower of Ali, was the 8th imam of the Shiite sect, to which body of Mos- lems Meshhed is a sacred city. The climate is severe in winter, owing to the elevation, 3,055 feet. In summer the temperature ranges from 76° to 90° F. Near by are the ruins of Tas, the o.ld capital of Khorasan, in which were buried Firdousi, the celebrated poet, Ha- roun-el-Raschid, the Sultan of the "Ara- bian Nights," and the Imam Riza, Pop. about 60,000. MESIHI (mes'i-he), a Turkish poet; flourished in the 14th century. He is one of the seven poets called by the Turks "the Pleiades," and whose names, writ- ten in gold, are suspended in the temple of Mecca. Sir William Jones, in his "Commentaries on Asiatic Poetry," translated one of his idyls. MESMER, FRIEDRICH ANTON, or FRANZ, a German physician; born near Constance, Baden, May 23, 1734. He was bred for the priesthood at Dillingen and Ingolstadt. but took up the study of medicine at Vienna, and took his doctor's degree in 1766 with a treatise on the in- fluence of the planets. About 1772 he be- gan to investigate the curative powers of the magnet, and was led to adopt the opinion that there exists a power, similar to magnetism, which exercises an ex- traordinary influence on the human body. This he called animal magnetism (see Mesmerism), and published an account of his discovery, and of its medicinal value, in 1775. He died in Meersburg, Baden, Mar. 5, 1815. MESMERISM (mez'-), the system popularized by Mesmer, and by him called animal magnetism. Mesmer de- lighted in mysterious surroundings, and affected a strange weird style of dress; but one of his disciples, the Marquis de Puysegur, showed that sleep might be induced by gentle manipulation alone, thus removing mesmerism from the sphere of mystery. The chief phe- nomena are a hypnotic state induced by the patient gazing fixedly at some bright object, or by passes made by the oper- ator; muscular rigidity, sometimes to such an extent as to admit of the body resting supported only by the head and heels on two chairs, insensibility to pain, and perverted sensation, as exhibited in a slightly hypnotized patient drinking water and imagining it to be delicious wine or nauseous medicine at the will of the operator. See Hypnotism. MESNE (men), an English law term, meaning middle, intermediate, interven- ing; as, a mesne lord, that is, one who holds lands of a superior, which or part of which he sublets to another person; in this case he intervenes between the two, being a tenant of the superior lord, and lord to their inferior tenant. MESOPOTAMIA (-ta'mia), in ancient geography, a country of western Asia, situate between the Tigris and the Euphrates. It was called, in the Old Testament, Aram Naharaim, or "Syria between the two waters," and Padan Aram, i. e., "Syria of the Plain," and is first mentioned in the Scriptures as the country where Nahor and his family set- tled (Gen. xxiv: 10). It was long part of the seat of the very ancient Babylonian dominion, and subsequently of the Mede, Persian, and Macedonian, The Romans obtained possession of Mesopotamia in 165. Jovian surrendered it to the Per- sians in 363, The Carmathians overran it in 902, and the Turks conquered it be- tween 1514-1516. Modern Mesopotamia is largely peopled by Arabs, and comprised of the two pashaKcs of Bagdad and Diarb^kr. Many years before the World War Ger-
