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 488 MEZZOFANTI MIALL sifting a sugary meal is obtained, which is used for sweetening pinole (see MAIZE), and other- wise as a substitute for sugar. The great value of the pods is as a food for horses and cattle, which eat them with the greatest avidity ; in many places entirely destitute of grass the mezquite beans are most welcome to the trav- eller. It has been proposed in Utah and Colo- rado to employ the mezquite as a hedge plant, to which its thorny character would adapt it ; but its great liability to be attacked by borers makes the experiment doubtful. The tree exudes a gum resembling gum arabic. (See GUM.) The plant called by Americans the screw-pod or screw-bean mezquite, and by the Mexicans tornillo, is prosopis -pubescens, to which the name strombocarpa has also been given ; it has a similar general appearance to the mezquite, but is more slender ; its spines are smaller, and its leaves pubescent on the under surface ; the pod is curiously twisted to form Screw Pod of Mezquite. a close spiral about 2 in. long; this also con- tains a sweetish pulp, but is less valuable as a food for animals than the mezquite. The tree, which is found from Utah and Nevada south- ward, is less abundant than the mezquite, and generally prefers a moister soil. MEZZOFANTI, Ginseppe Gaspardo, an Italian linguist, born in Bologna, Sept. 17, 1774, died in Rome, March 15, 1849. He was educated for the church, and was ordained in 1797. He had an extraordinary memory, and before the close of his university career had mastered the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Coptic, Span- ish, French, German, and Swedish languages. At the age of 23 he was appointed professor of Arabic at Bologna ; but on the annexation of that city to the Cisalpine republic, he was removed from his professorship for refusing to take the oath to the new constitution. After the conclusion of the concordat between Pius VII. and Napoleon, Mezzofanti was restored to the university, and named professor of oriental languages. The suppression of his professor- ship in 1808 left him mainly dependent on pri- vate tuition for his own support and that of his sister's children. The wars of which north- ern Italy was so long the theatre had afford- ed him many opportunities of extending his knowledge as a linguist. In the hospital of Bologna, to which he had attached himself as volunteer chaplain, were invalids from most of the countries of central and eastern Europe ; and while administering to them he acquired a knowledge of their respective languages. In 1812 he was appointed assistant librarian, and in 1815 head librarian of the university of Bologna. After the conclusion of peace, his reputation as a linguist rapidly extended. In 1817 he could read 20 languages and write 18. Lord Byron, whom he is said to have beaten in talking English slang, pronounced him a monster of languages, a Briareus of parts of speech, and a walking polyglot. Having gone to Rome in 1831 as one of a deputation sent by the Bolognese to congratulate Gregory XVI. on his election, he was induced by the pope to accept a prebend in the church of St. John Lateran, and soon afterward a canonry in St. Peter's. In 1833 he succeeded Angelo Mai as chief keeper of the Vatican library,, an office which he held till 1838, when he was made a cardinal. During his residence in Rome he gained a knowledge of Irish, Welsh, Lappish, Sanskrit, Persian, Georgian, Armenian, Chi- nese, and several African tongues. His fami- liarity with the dialectical varieties and local idioms of the principal languages, as well as with their respective literatures, and his power of passing from one to another in conversation, were almost incredible. At the time of his death he is said to have been acquainted with 114 languages. Mezzofanti, though a learned theologian and canonist, is almost unknown as an author, his only published work being a panegyrical " Memoir of Father Emanuel da Ponte," a brother professor (Bologna, 1820). His life has been written by Charles William Russell, D. D., principal of Maynooth college (London, 1858; 2d ed., 1863). MEZZOTINTO. See ENGRAVING, vol. vi., p. 653. MIAKO. See KIOTO. MIALL, Edward, an English journalist, born in Portsmouth in 1809. He was educated in the Protestant dissenters' college at Wymond- ley, Herts, and for several years officiated as an Independent minister at Ware and Leices- ter. In 1841 he established the " Nonconform- ist " newspaper in London, in the interests of the " anti-state-church " party, and is still its editor and proprietor. He was elected to par- liament for Rochdale in 1852, but lost his seat in 1857, and was returned for Bradford in 1869. In parliament he has been a persistent advocate of manhood suffrage and other popu- lar reforms. He has published " The Noncon- formist's Sketch Book " and " Views of the Voluntary Principle " (1845) ; " Ethics of Non- conformity " (1848) ; " The British Churches