Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/239

* MYCORRHIZA. 201 MYERS. certain fungi with the roots of higher pUmts. The fungi oitiuT grow inside the cells of the cortex (eiidolrupliio niyeorrhiza) or invest the voung alisorliing portions of the roots with a jaeket of interwoven hyphie (eototrophic niy- I'orrhiza. Fig. b. ). Recent investigations have shown that niycorrhizal fungi are very wide- spread and that they are associated with per- haps more than half of the higher plants. They are particularly abundant in luimus, and the conclusion has lieen reached that a large number of hunnis plants are very much benelited by their iirescnce, and further, that some ])lants, su<li as the Indian pipe, certain orchids, and even the beech tree, are unable to comj^lete their normal life cycle in sterilized soil. The relation between the fungus and the higher plants is not fully known, but it is believed that the finigus by its digestive powers secures and pre- pares certain foodstuft's, especially those contain- ing nitrogen, for the roots. Whether or not the fungus gains benefit from the higher plants is not altogether clear, although it is probable that it lives in part as a parasite, getting certain carbohydrate foods. See Stjibiosis. MYELAT, rae'i'i-lat (Bur., unoccupied coun- try). A division of Burma, India, comprising sixteen of the Southern .Shan States, the largest having an area of 1000 sqiiare miles, and the smallest 4 square miles. Total area. 3723 square miles. The region is sparsely populated, the few inhabitants being chiefly occupied in the cultiva- tion of rice and sugar-cane. MYELITIS (Neo-Lat., from Gk. iiveUs, mi/chs. marrow). An inflammation of the sub- stance of the spinal cord which may be limited to the white or the gi"ay matter and involve the whole cord or isolated jiortions of it. Yhen the white matter is inflamed with the meninges it is called 'cortical myelitis;' when the gray mat- ter only is affected it is known as 'central myeli- tis.' The disease may extend transversely, or may proceed in an upward or downward direc- tion. The catises are, in general, injuries of va- rious kinds, exposure, and overexertion; the infec- tious diseases, such as measles, typhus fever, and smallpox; and caries or tumors of the spine or the cord itself. The symptoms depend upon the extent and location of the inflammatory process. A transverse myelitis, for instance, produces com- plete paralysis of all the voluntary muscles whose nerve fibres arise from nuclei below the seat of the lesion. In children the disease attacks the anterior horns of the gray matter (when it is called polionnielHisi or 'infantile spinal paraly- sis"), and results in rapid loss of power and atro- phy of certain groups of muscles. MY'ER, Albert .Tames (18-27-80). An Ameri- can meteorologist, born at Newburg. N. Y. He graduated at Hobart College, and took his degree in medicine at the University of Buffalo in 18.51. In 1854 he was appointed assistant surgeon in the United States .rmy. and was assigned to Texas, where he first developed his celebrated signal system of flags by day and torches by night, which afterwards came into general use. In ISflO he was commissioned major and made chief signal officer of the army. On the outbreak of the Civil War he was made signal officer on the staff of General Butler, and afterwards on that of General JlcClellan. and was successively brevetted lieutenant-colonel, colonel, and briga- dier-general, his last promotion being for distin- guished services in organizing, instructing, and commanding the signal corps of the army, and for especial service on October 5, lS(i4, at Al- latoona, Ga., where his -signal system enabled the apparently doomed garrison to summon assist- ance from the main army. On July 28, 1866, he was made colonel in the Regular Army and chief signal ollicer. In 1870 he commenced his work of observing and giving notice by telegraph of the approach and force of storms on the north- ern lakes and seacoast. at the military posts in the interior, and at other [loints in the States and Territories. He published A Miintiul of Hiy- luils for the United Htutcs Army and yary (1808). A short time before his death he was promoted to the full rank of brigadier-general of the United States Army. MYER, Fort, See Fort ilvER. MY'ERS, Frederic William Henry ( 1843- 1001). An English poet and essayist, born Feb- ruary 6, 1843, at Keswick, where his father was incumbent of Saint .John's Church. He was edu- cated at Cheltenham, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating with distinction, and gaining a fellowship in his college (1805). His taste for poetry was shown in his boyhood. He delighted in Homer, .ISschylus, Lucretius, in frag- ments of Sappho, and in Pindar. Before quit- ting school he had learned all Vergil by heart. He was for many years inspector of schools. In 1882 he took an active part in founding the Society for Psychical Research, of which he became president. He died in Rome, January 17, 1001. The verse of Myers, which belongs mostly to an early period, comprises Habit Paul (1865): Poems "(1870); and the Reneiral of Youth (1882). In these collections are pieces of rare beauty, which give the author one of the first places among the lesser poets. Myers un- doubtedly wrote some of the finest essays of his time in Essays Modern and Classical (1885), and in Science and a Future Life (1893). He also prepared for the "English Jlen of Letters Series" an admirable Life of Wordsworth (1880). His work in psychical research is represented by his contributions to the Pliantasms of the Liviny (1886). After his death appeared a remarkable book on the evidences of immortality entitled Human Personality and Its Siirriral of Bodily Death, ed. by R. Hodgson and A. Johnson (Lon- don, 1903). Consult the London Athenwum for January 26. 1901. MYERS, Peter Hamilton (1812-78). An American author, born at Herkimer, N". Y. He practiced law in Brooklyn, and wrote a number of novels dealing with the early settlers of New York State, among which are: The First of the K,ucl;erhockers: A Talc of 1673 (1848): The You)ifi Patroon. or (Viristmns in 190 (1849); The Kinri of the Huronf! (1849). republished in England under the title Blanche Montaigne (1850) : and The Prisoner of the Border: A Tale of IS3fi (1857). MYERS, Philip Van Ness (1846—). An American educator and author, born at Tribes' Hill, N. Y. He graduated at Williams College in 1871, studied law for a year, and then went to South America on a scientific mission. After two years in Europe he returned to the United States and became president of Farmers' College, Ohio, in 1879. In 1390 he was appointed profes-