Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/325

 MEAL WORM MEASLES 313 put in command and made brigadier general of volunteers, Feb. 3, 1862. He was engaged in the battles before Richmond, at Antietam, at Fredericksburg, where he was wounded, and at Chancellorsville. In May, 1863, he re- signed, but early in 1864 he was recommis- sioned and was assigned to the command of the district of the Etowah, including portions of Tennessee and Georgia, where he performed valuable services till January, 1865. After be- ing mustered out of service he was appointed secretary of Montana territory, and in Septem- ber, 1866, the governor appointed him acting governor in his absence. Meagher was travel- ling to take measures to protect settlers from Indian hostilities when he fell from the deck of a steamboat and perished. He published " Speeches on the Legislative Independence of Ireland" (12mo, New York, 1853), and " Last Days of the 69th New York Regiment in Virginia " (8vo, 1861). ME1L WORM, the name given in Europe to the larva of a black heteromerous beetle, the tene- brio molitor (Linn.). The perfect insect, about two thirds of an inch long, appears in the evening in the least frequented parts of dwell- ings, in flour mills, bake houses, and pantries. The larva is more than an inch long, cylin- drical, scaly, and of an ochrey yellow color; it is destructive to flour and meal, and to arti- cles made from them ; it is said to remain two years in this condition, and occasionally to have been eaten and rejected from the human stom- ach ; it forms a favorite food for the domes- ticated nightingale. The name of meal worm is given in New England to the larva of a small delta moth (py rails fari- nalis, Harr.). The moth is often seen on the ceil- ing of rooms, resting with its tail curved over the back ; the fore wings are long and narrow, and cover the hind ones when at rest ; they are light brown, crossed by two curved white lines, and have a dark choco- late spot at the base and tip of each. The larvae are long and slender, tapering at each end, naked, and with numerous legs ; they are often seen in flour barrels, meal chests, and similar places. Some of the larvae of the moths of the genus tinea make a thick whi- tish gray web over corn and meal. MEALY BUG, a very destructive insect in greenhouses, of the order hemiptera, and fam- ily coccidce or bark lice, the coccus Adonidum (Linn.). The perfect insects resemble small scales; the reddish larvso are small, but very active, flat and oval in shape ; the females have a beak with which they pump up the juices of plants ; they fix themselves from time to time for the purpose of changing their skin, when they cover themselves with a white, powdery, cottony substance, which has given them their common name. Several broods are produced Meal Worm Moth (Py- ralis farinalis). ' in a year, which cause great annoyance in hot- houses ; the eggs are deposited in a similar cottony material. In the natural state many are destroyed by ichneumon parasites and are devoured by birds. Alkaline washes are found most effectual in checking their ravages, both within and out of the greenhouse. MEANDRINA. See CORAL. MEARIM, a river of Brazil, rising in the cen- tral portion of Maranhao, and flowing N. to lat. 3 20' S., where it unites with the Pindare to form the Maranhao, at the mouth of which is the island of San Luiz. Brazilians call the entire stream, from its source to the sea, Mea- rim. This river has so strong a current that the tide, after long resistance, rises with a fu- rious bore (pororoco), like that which occurs at the mouth of the Amazon, traversing in 15 minutes a distance usually requiring nine hours. The Mearim is navigated by steamers. MEA1NS, The. See KINCAEDINESHIEE. MEASLES (rubeola, morbilli), a contagious exanthematous fever, attended with a charac- teristic eruption. Up to the latter part of the last century measles and scarlet fever were confounded together, or at least were esteemed, like simple and confluent smallpox, to be mere varieties of a common disease. Measles com- mences with the ordinary symptoms of fever, chilliness, loss of appetite, and lassitude, suc- ceeded by heat of the skin, thirst, and fre- quency of pulse ; but in addition to these, the attack is almost invariably attended with in- flammation of the mucous membrane lining the air passages; the eyes are red and watery; there is defluxion from the nostrils, hoarseness, and cough. The eruption commonly appears on the fourth day, at first about the head and neck, then the trunk and arms, and finally reaching the lower extremities ; it takes two or three days to complete its course, and when it reaches the feet and legs has often begun to disappear from the face. The eruption con- sists of little papules, somewhat resembling flea bites, of a dark red color, which as they coalesce at their edges assume an irregularly crescentic form. The period of incubation, that is, the time elapsing from exposure to the contagion to the time of attack, is put down as from seven to fourteen days. All ages are liable to it, though infants at the breast are not so apt to be attacked as those somewhat older. It often shows itself in newly recruited regi- ments, spreading from one individual to an- other so rapidly as to assume the form of an epidemic. The disease is not commonly dan- gerous, though when introduced into the Pacific islands, some years since, it proved exceedingly fatal. When the eruption is fully out, the cough, at first dry and troublesome, generally becomes softer and less frequent; and at the end of six or seven days from the coming out of the first papules they have disappeared. Where danger occurs, it is from inflammation of the air passages ; the disease may thus be- come complicated with croup, or in subjects