Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/261

 and an active member of the Society of Arts. He was also a member of the board of agriculture, and a very energetic supporter of the Scottish Corporation in London and other Scottish charities.

In 1759 Melville invented a piece of carriage ordnance, intended for a ship gun, which, though shorter than the navy four-pounder and lighter than the navy twelve-pounder, equalled in its cylinder the 8-inch howitzer. It was first manufactured for the navy in 1779 and proved very destructive, especially against timber. Carronades, as the new pieces were called, from the place of manufacture, Carron, Stirlingshire, were used with great effect in the sea-fight between De Grasse and Rodney on 12 April 1782. At that date no less than 429 ships in the navy mounted this class of gun, ranging in calibre from thirty-two to twelve-pounders. They continued in use, mainly in the British and American navies, until the middle of this century (cf. Notes and Queries, 1st ser. xi. 247–8;, Annals of Commerce, 1805, iii. 609; , Cyclopædia, s. v. ‘Cannon’).

Melville, who was long a well-known figure in Edinburgh society, was blind during the last years of his life, owing, as he believed, to injury to the eyes caused by an explosion when he was in command of the outposts at the reduction of Guadeloupe. He died on 29 Aug. 1809, the oldest general in the British army. 

MELVIN, JAMES (1795–1853), Latin scholar, was born in Aberdeen, of poor parents, on 21 April 1795. He passed through the grammar school a few years after Byron had left it, during Cromar's rectorship, and was the first bursar of his year at Marischal College, whence he graduated A.M. in 1816. After acting successively as usher at a private school kept by Bisset at Udny, and at Old Aberdeen grammar school under Ewen Maclachlan [q. v.], he became in 1822 a master at the Aberdeen grammar school, and in 1826 he succeeded Cromar as rector. He also became ‘lecturer on humanity’ (i.e. Latin) at Marischal College, and was created LL.D. by the college in 1834. He formed a wonderful collection of classical and mediæval Latin literature, and became probably the most accomplished Scottish Latinist of his day. An appreciative account of his teaching and personality was contributed to ‘Macmillan's Magazine’ for January 1864 by a former pupil, Professor David Masson, who, with pardonable exaggeration, compares Melvin as a ruler and inspirer of boys to Thomas Arnold [q. v.] His method of instruction was certainly most dissimilar, being minute, punctilious, and strictly philological. In 1839 and in 1852 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the professorship of Latin at Marischal College. On 18 June 1853 a testimonial in the shape of 300l. in a silver snuff-box (souvenir of an inveterate habit) was presented to him by old pupils. Severe application had told upon his health, and he died at his house in Belmont Street, 29 June 1853. He was publicly buried in the town churchyard on 5 July.

‘Latin Exercises as dictated by the late James Melvin, LL.D., to which are prefixed Dissertations on a variety of Latin Idioms and Constructions,’ was published by the Rev. Peter Calder, rector of Grantown grammar school, in 1857. A supplementary volume or key appeared in 1858, and a third edition, revised by the Rev. J. Pirie, Edinburgh, in 1873, 8vo. Melvin also wrote for use in his school a Latin grammar, which first appeared in 1822, and passed through three editions, and a number of grammatical ‘Melviniana’ were appended by W. D. Geddes, professor of Greek in Aberdeen University, to his ‘Principles of Latinity,’ Edinburgh, 1860.

Melvin was said to have been long occupied with a large Latin dictionary, but does not appear to have left any materials. His books (6,984 in number) were presented to Marischal College in September 1856 by his sister and executrix, Agnes Melvin. A stained-glass window in the university library, Aberdeen, represents Melvin in his rectorial robes, in association with Buchanan, Arthur Johnston, and Ruddiman. The device is a beehive and grapes, and the inscription, ‘Mel-vinum Natura dedit, gaudete Camenæ’ (, The Melvin Memorial Window, 1885). 

MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL (1604–1657), founder of the Anglo-Jewish community. [See .]

MENDES, FERNANDO, M.D. (d. 1724), physician, was born of Jewish parentage in the province of Beira, Portugal. He graduated M.D. at Montpellier in December 1667, and became physician to John IV of Portugal. When Catherine of Braganza was on her way to England to become the wife of Charles II, she was attacked during her