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 whole fore-limb was very mobile. The first front toe was rudimentary, having no phalanges, but the fifth was rather less aborted, although clawless; the other three carried enormous claws, protected by reflected sheaths. The hind-foot is remarkable for the great backward projection of the calcaneum, and likewise for the peculiar shape of the astragalus; the middle toe alone carries a claw, this being of huge size, and ensheathed like those of the fore foot. No trace of a bony armour in the skin has been detected; but, from the evidence of other genera, it may be assumed that the body was clothed in a coat of long, coarse hair. Although similar teeth occur in the phosphorite beds of South Carolina, which may have been transported from elsewhere, no undoubted remains of Megatherium are known from North America.

The typical species ranged from Argentina and Chili to Brazil. For certain small ground-sloths from Patagonia with Megatherium-like teeth, see.

 MEGHNA, a river of India. It forms, in the lower part of its course, the great estuary of the Bengal delta, which conveys to the sea the main body of the waters of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, which unite at Goalanda in Faridpur district. The united waters, turbid and of great depth, are sometimes split into half a dozen channels by sand-banks, sometimes spread into a wide sheet of water. The river enters the sea by four principal mouths, enclosing the three large islands of Dakshin Shahbazpur, Hatia and Sandwip. It is navigable by native boats and river steamers all the year; but the navigation is difficult and sometimes dangerous on account of shifting sand-banks and snags, and boisterous weather when the monsoon is blowing. The most favourable season is between November and February. Alluvion and diluvion are constantly taking place, especially along the seaboard, and in Noakhali district the land is said to have made rapid advance on the sea; while the islands fringing the mouth are annually being cut away and redeposited in fresh shapes. The regular rise of the tide is from 10 to 18 ft., and at springs the sea rushes up in a dangerous bore. It is greatest at the time of the biennial equinoxes, when navigation is sometimes impeded for days together. The tidal wave advances like a wall topped with foam of the height of nearly 20 ft., and at the rate of 15 m. an hour; in a few minutes it is past, and the river has changed from ebb to flood tide. A still greater danger is the “storm wave” which occasionally sweeps up the Meghna under a cyclone.  MEHÁDIA, a market town of Hungary, in the county of Krassó-Szörény, 287 m. S.E. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900), 2492. The town is the site of the ancient Roman colony Ad Mediam, near which passed the Roman road from the Danube to Dacia. It contains the ruins of a fortress, and other Roman remains. In its neighbourhood are the famous Hercules baths (Hungarian, Herkulesfürdö). These are situated in a narrow rocky ravine in the valley of the Cserna, where there are 22 hot springs, of which nine are in use, the most powerful being the Hercules spring. The springs are all strongly impregnated with

salts of sulphur, iodine, bromine and chlorine, and their average temperature is 70° to 145° F. They were famous in the Roman period under the name of Thermae Herculis or Fontes Herculis. Their popularity is attested by numerous inscriptions and relics. After the fall of the Roman Empire they fell into disuse until 1735, but in modern times they have been much frequented.  MEHEMET ALI (1769–1849), pasha and afterwards viceroy of Egypt, was born at Kavala, a small seaport on the frontier of Thrace and Macedonia. His father, an Albanian, was an aga, a small yeoman farmer, and he himself lived in his native town for many years as a petty official and trader in tobacco. In 1798 he became second in command of a regiment of bashi-bazouks, or volunteers, recruited in his neighbourhood to serve against Napoleon in Egypt. He took part in the battle of Aboukir (July 25, 1799), was driven into the sea with the routed Turks, and was saved from drowning by the gig of the British admiral, Sir Sidney Smith. In 1801 he returned to Egypt, in command of his regiment, and on the 9th of May distinguished himself by heading a bold cavalry charge at the battle of Rahmanieh. In the troubled years that followed, Mehemet Ali, leader of a compact body of Albanian clansmen, was in the best position to draw advantage from the struggle for power between the Mamelukes and the representatives of the Porte. In 1803 he cast in his lot with the former; in 1804 he turned against them and proclaimed his loyalty to the sultan; in 1805 the sheiks of Cairo, in the hope of putting a stop to the intolerable anarchy, elected him pasha, and a year later an imperial firman confirmed their choice. The disastrous British expedition of 1807 followed; and while at Constantinople the prestige of the sultan was being undermined by the series of revolutions which in 1808 brought Mahmud II. to the throne, that of Mehemet Ali was enhanced by the exhibition at Cairo of British prisoners and an avenue of stakes decorated with the heads of British slain.

The situation revealed to the astute Albanian boundless possibilities for gratifying his ambition. In spite of his chance victories, he was too shrewd an observer not to recognize the superiority of European methods of warfare; and as the first step towards the empire of which he dreamed he determined to create an army and a fleet on the European model. In 1808 the building and organization of the navy was begun with the aid of French officers and engineers. In 1811 the massacre of the Mamelukes left Mehemet Ali without a rival in Egypt, while the foundations of his empire beyond were laid by the war against the Wahhābīs and the conquest of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The Wahhābī War, indeed, dragged on till 1818, when (q.v.), the pasha’s son, who in 1816 had driven the remnant of the Mamelukes into Nubia, brought it to an end. This done, the pasha turned his attention southward to the vast country watered by the Upper Nile. In 1820 the oasis of Siwa was subdued by his arms; in 1823 he laid the foundations of Khartum.

By this time Mehemet Ali was the possessor of a powerful fleet and of an army of veterans disciplined and drilled by European officers. To obtain these money had been necessary; and to raise money the pasha had instituted those internal “reforms”—the bizarre system of state monopolies and the showy experiments in new native industries which are described in the article (q.v.). The inherent viciousness of these expedients had, however, not as yet been revealed by their inevitable results, and Mehemet Ali in the eyes of the world was at once the most enlightened and the most powerful of the sultan’s valis. To Mahmud II., whose whole policy was directed to strengthening the authority of the central power, this fact would have sufficed to make him distrust the pasha and desire his overthrow; and it was sorely against his will that, in 1822, the ill-success of his arms against the insurgent Greeks forced him to summon Mehemet Ali to his aid. The immediate price was the pashalik of Crete; in the event of the victory of the Egyptian arms the pashaliks of Syria and Damascus were to fall to Mehemet Ali, that of the Morea to his son Ibrahim. The part played by Mehemet Ali in the Greek War is described elsewhere (see : History; : History; ;