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LEFT MESSINES 201 METALLURGY The town runs parallel with the strait, and has, for its finest part, the Marina, a long line of buildings facing the har- bor, and running parallel with it for more than a mile. A broad quay sepa- rates it from the water. The town sweeps along the swelling eminences, and grad- ually rises so as to present almost every public edifice in a striking point of view. The whiteness of the buildings forms a beautiful contrast to the dark-green of the forests behind. The harbor, which is formed by a projecting tongue of land, curved in the shape of a sickle, is 4 miles in circumference, the finest in the Mediterranean, and can accommodate more than 1,000 ships. The entrance, which is 700 yards wide, is defended by Fort Porto Reale and Fort Salvatore. On Dec. 28. 1908, Messina was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake, which killed over 95,000 people. The city has now been partially rebuilt and its in- dustries resumed. Pop. about 130,000. MESSINES, a village in Belgian Flan- ders. It was occupied by the Germans when they overran Belgium in the sum- mer of 1914, and constantly under fire during the fighting around Ypres. In the battle of Messines Ridge (q.v.) the village was captured by the Rifle Brigade of the New Zealand Division. The Germans had orders to hold the place at all costs and the fighting was intense in cellars and dugouts before the New Zealanders gained possession. MESSINES RIDGE (Belgium). On June 7, 1917, General Plumer's Second British Army attacked Messines Ridge, occupied by German troops, after twenty mines, the work of months, had been ex- ploded. It was a one day's battle in which the British won high ground that commanded the country around for nine miles in the direction of Ypres. The British by this operation gained a posi- tion that had long threatened their lines in the Ypres region. 7,200 prisoners fell into British hands, including 145 officers. 67 guns, some of large caliber, were cap- tured, as well as 294 machine guns and 94 trench mortars. The British losses were about 16,000. The Germans recap- tured Messines Ridge in the spring of 1918, but lost it when the allied armies began their great offensive in the sum- mer of that year. MESTIZOS (mes-te'zos), people of mixed origin in countries where Spanish Europeans have settled and intermingled with the natives, as in the Philippines. META (ma'ta), a river of South America, rising on the E. slope of the N. E. range of the Andes, about 40 miles S. of Bogota (United States of Colombia), flowing a general E. N. E. course into Venezuela, and entering the Orinoco river; length, about 500 miles. METABOLA (-tab'o-la), a sub-class of insects, containing those having com- plete metamorphosis. The larva, pupa, and imago are all very different in ap- pearance, and these several states con- stitute three quite distinct phases of life. The larva is known as a maggot, a grub, or a caterpillar. The pupa, which is al- w^ays quiescent, is sometimes called a chrysalis. Dallas divides it into two sec- tions: Mandibulata, containing the or- ders Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and Neu- roptera; and Haustellata, containing the orders Lepidoptera, Diptera, and Apha- niptera. METACARPUS (-kar'pus), the bony structure of the palm of the hand, be- tween the wrist and the fingers; it com- prises five shafted bones. METACENTER, the point of inter- section of the vertical line passing through the center of gravity of a float- ing body in eqiiUihi-io, and a vertical line through the center of gravity of the fluid displaced, if the body be turned through a small angle, so that the axis takes a position inclined to the vertical. If the metacenter is above the center of gravity, the position of the body is stable; if be- low it, it is unstable. METALLOGRAPHY, the study of the structure of metals and alloys, and their relation to the physical properties. Seri- ous work along these lines was first begun in 1863 by Sorby. He made the first rock sections, and compared the structure of iron and steel with that of meteorites. The study was soon developed, until it has _ become the recognized method for testing the strength of materials, and the results of different alloys with iron, steel, and other metals. METALLURGY. For the specific treatment of the ores of copper, gold, iron, silver, tin, zinc, etc., see the articles on those metals. As now understood metallurgy is the art of extracting metals from their ores. The operations are partly mechanical and partly chemical. Those processes which depend principally on chemical re- actions for their results have reference chiefly to the roasting and smelting of ores, and are described under the heads of the different metals. But there are certain preliminary operations of a me- chanical kind which metallic ores under- go, such as crushing, jigging, washing, etc., which we shall describe here, as they are essentially the same for the ores of