London: Police: The Metropolitan Police force was founded by Home Secretary Robert Peel in 1829 and remains accountable to his successor, not to local councillors. By 1900 the Metropolitan Police District, which inherited responsibility for patrols against highwaymen, extended into the countryside in a 20-mile (32-km)…

police: The development of professional policing in England: The Metropolitan Police Act (1829) established the London Metropolitan Police Department, an organization that would become a model for future police departments in Great Britain, the British Commonwealth, and the United States. The “New Police,” as the force was called, was organized into a hierarchy of…

Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the London Metropolitan Police and, by association, a name often used to denote that force. It is located on the River Thames at Victoria Embankment just north of Westminster Bridge in the City of Westminster. The London police force was created in 1829 by an act

Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the London Metropolitan Police and, by association, a name often used to denote that force. It is located on the River Thames at Victoria Embankment just north of Westminster Bridge in the City of Westminster. The London police force was created in 1829 by an act

subway: Work on the Metropolitan Railway began in 1860 by cut-and-cover methods—that is, by making trenches along the streets, giving them brick sides, providing girders or a brick arch for the roof, and then restoring the roadway on top. On January 10, 1863, the line was opened using steam…

Lorenzo Rodríguez: His Sagrario Metropolitano (c. 1749–69), a small church adjoining the cathedral in Mexico City, is a principal Churrigueresque monument in the New World. Its facades are lavishly ornamented in the tradition of Rodríguez’ native Andalusia but surpass even that style in their richness and complexity of…

Bloomington: …city was the site of Metropolitan Stadium, which was the home ballpark (1961–81) of Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins and the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings. The city is home to a community college (1968). Bloomington adjoins Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport, and a light-rail line links the city with Minneapolis.…

hinterland: …a metropolitan hinterland is the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) as designated by the U.S. Census Bureau. MSA’s are comprised of a central city, defined by the corporate limits; an urbanized, built-up area contiguous to the central city; and a non-urbanized area, delimited on a county basis, economically tied to the…

Thomas Fortune Ryan: In 1892 he organized the Metropolitan Street Railway Co., a large traction syndicate in New York City whose securities-holding firm, the Metropolitan Traction Company, is considered to have been the first holding company in the United States. The syndicate ultimately merged with August Belmont’s Interborough Rapid Transit Company in 1905.…

swimming: History: …in 1869, ultimately became the Amateur Swimming Association, the governing body of British amateur swimming. National swimming federations were formed in several European countries from 1882 to 1889. In the United States swimming was first nationally organized as a sport by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) on its founding in…

Toronto: Transportation: …came the creation of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) to provide public transportation for the whole region. New subway lines and extensions were added to the system, although many were delayed because of a lack of funding. Other changes to the transit system included phasing out the trolleys. To facilitate…

Toronto Zoo: …municipality of Toronto and the Metropolitan Toronto Zoological Society. It replaced the overcrowded and outdated municipal Toronto Zoo at Riverdale. Originally called Metro Toronto Zoo, it was renamed Toronto Zoo in 1998.

Los Angeles: Transportation of Los Angeles: …creating the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to build and operate such a system.

reproductive system disease: Metrorrhagia: Bleeding between menstrual periods, after intercourse, and at or after menopause is frequently due to some abnormality of the cervix; the possibility of cancer must be borne in mind. Such bleeding may also come from a polyp on the cervix or a cervical erosion.…

Olympia: The remains of Olympia: The Metroum, or Temple of the Great Mother of the Gods, was a small Doric temple of the 4th century bce just below the treasuries. Because the cult no longer existed in Roman times, the temple became used for the display of statues of Roman emperors.

palm: Distribution: …and the sago palm (Metroxylon) are useful, and their distribution may be due in part to human activities. Eugeissona utilis grows in dense local stands to the exclusion of other trees in the uplands of Borneo. The vegetation dominated by Prestoea montana is distinctive in the montane forests of…

palm: Distribution: …New Guinea are dominated by Metroxylon sagu. Both the doum palm and the sago palm (Metroxylon) are useful, and their distribution may be due in part to human activities. Eugeissona utilis grows in dense local stands to the exclusion of other trees in the uplands of Borneo. The vegetation dominated…

New York Mets, American professional baseball team based in Flushing, Queens, New York. The Mets have won two World Series championships (1969 and 1986) and five National League (NL) pennants. The Mets trace their roots to the proposed Continental League, whose formation was announced in 1959 by

Tapio, the Finnish god of the forest and ruler of the game therein. He was a personified form of the various forest spirits important to hunters dependent on the forest for their livelihood. Tapio, the personified forest, was sometimes depicted as being the size of a fir tree, fierce-looking, like

Pindus Mountains: …the principal one is the Métsovo (Katára pass; 5,593 feet [1,705 metres]), a historic defile that carries the highway from the Epirus (Ípeiros) to Thessaly.

Gabriel Metsu was a Dutch painter of scenes of everyday life who was best known for his use of the window format to frame his subjects. Metsu was the son of a painter and tapestry designer who died before Metsu was born. He was raised in Leiden by his mother, a midwife, and later also by a

Quentin Massys was a Flemish artist, the first important painter of the Antwerp school. Trained as a blacksmith in his native Leuven, Massys is said to have studied painting after falling in love with an artist’s daughter. In 1491 he went to Antwerp and was admitted into the painters’ guild. Among

maitrī, (Sanskrit), in Buddhism, the perfect virtue of sympathy. See

Crown Princess Mette-Marit is a Norwegian of middle-class background who, despite intense public scrutiny of what was seen by many as her checkered past, wed Crown Prince Haakon of Norway. Mette-Marit was the daughter of a journalist and a bank employee. Her parents divorced when she was young, and

angiosperm: Annotated classification: Order Metteniusales Family: Metteniusaceae. Order Solanales Families: Convolvulaceae, Hydroleaceae, Montiniaceae, Solanaceae, Sphenocleaceae. Order Vahliales Family: Vahliaceae.

Klemens von Metternich was an Austrian statesman, minister of foreign affairs (1809–48), and a champion of conservatism, who helped form the victorious alliance against Napoleon I and who restored Austria as a leading European power, hosting the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15. Metternich, the

Klemens von Metternich was an Austrian statesman, minister of foreign affairs (1809–48), and a champion of conservatism, who helped form the victorious alliance against Napoleon I and who restored Austria as a leading European power, hosting the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15. Metternich, the

Maitreya, in Buddhist tradition, the future Buddha, presently a bodhisattva residing in the Tushita heaven, who will descend to earth to preach anew the dharma (“law”) when the teachings of Gautama Buddha have completely decayed. Maitreya is the earliest bodhisattva around whom a cult developed and

Julien Offroy de La Mettrie was a French physician and philosopher whose Materialistic interpretation of psychic phenomena laid the groundwork for future developments of behaviourism and played an important part in the history of modern Materialism. La Mettrie obtained a medical degree at Reims,

Kaveri River: There the Mettur Dam, 5,300 feet (1,620 metres) long and 176 feet (54 metres) high, impounds a lake (Stanley Reservoir) of 60 square miles (155 square km). The Mettur Project, completed in 1934, created an important agricultural and industrial area by improving irrigation and providing hydropower.

Kaveri River: The Mettur Project, completed in 1934, created an important agricultural and industrial area by improving irrigation and providing hydropower.

Targum: To prevent misconceptions, a meturgeman expanded and explained what was obscure, adjusted the incidents of the past to the ideas of later times, emphasized the moral lessons to be learned from the biblical narratives, and adapted the rules and regulations of the Scriptures to the conditions and requirements of…

Metz, city, Moselle département, Grand Est région, northeastern France, situated at the confluence of the Moselle and Seille rivers, northwest of Strasbourg and south of the Luxembourg frontier. It was partly rebuilt and its suburbs considerably extended after World War II. Metz derives its name

Edgar Allan Poe: Themes, technique, and legacy: dissolution (“Ligeia,” “Morella,” “Metzengerstein”), and his tales of fatality (“The Assignation,” “The Man of the Crowd”). Even when he does not hurl his characters into the clutch of mysterious forces or onto the untrodden paths of the beyond, he uses the anguish of imminent death as the means…

postal system: Growth of business correspondence in the Middle Ages: …among these was the so-called Butcher Post (Metzger Post), which was able to combine the carrying of letters with the constant traveling that the trade required.

bryophyte: General features: , the liverwort Metzgeria) but may be many cell layers thick and have a complex tissue organization (e.g., the liverwort Marchantia). Branching of the thallus may be forked, regularly frondlike, digitate, or completely irregular. The margin of the thallus is often smooth but is sometimes toothed; it may…

bryophyte: Form and function: …genera of the liverwort order Metzgeriales, the water-conducting cells have a form similar to water-conducting cells of vascular plants, but the cells of the liverworts and hornworts, like those of mosses, lack the lignin that characterizes the cell walls of water-conducting cells of vascular plants.

ceremonial object: Sound devices: …where they were known as metziltayim or tzeltzelim. The sistrum, used in pre-Hellenistic Egypt in the worship of the goddesses Isis and Hathor and in Rome and Phoenicia, as well as among the Hebrews, is composed of a handle and frame with transverse metal rods and mobile disks. Producing a…

Albert Gleizes: …Robert Delaunay, Fernand Léger, and Jean Metzinger. Together the five artists made history at the 1911 Salon des Indépendants when they exhibited their works in the same room, the notorious “Salle 41” (“Room 41”). Though Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque had been painting in such a fashion since about 1907,…

Gabriel Metsu was a Dutch painter of scenes of everyday life who was best known for his use of the window format to frame his subjects. Metsu was the son of a painter and tapestry designer who died before Metsu was born. He was raised in Leiden by his mother, a midwife, and later also by a

telephone: Early sound transmitters: …the 1850s Italian American inventor Antonio Meucci had electrical devices in his home called telettrofoni that he used to communicate between rooms, though he did not patent his inventions. By 1861 Johann Philipp Reis of Germany had designed several instruments for the transmission of sound. The transmitter Reis employed consisted…

Meudon, town, Hauts-de-Seine département, Île-de-France région, north-central France. It is a southwestern suburb of Paris, standing on a hill on the south bank of the Seine River. Meudon is bordered to the south by woods and by the terrace of Meudon and has a fine panoramic view of Paris. The

Adam Frans van der Meulen was a Flemish Baroque painter who specialized in battle scenes. Meulen was a pupil of the painter of battle scenes Pieter Snayers, of the Flemish school, and was called to Paris about 1666 by the finance minister Jean Colbert, at the request of Charles Le Brun, to fill the

Constantin Meunier was a Belgian sculptor and painter, one of the principal social-realist artists of the late 19th century in Europe. Meunier began his career as a sculptor, but during the years 1857–84 he pursued only painting. After visiting some mines and factories, Meunier demonstrated in his

Karl Blossfeldt: …to study in Rome under Moritz Meurer, a decorative artist and professor of ornament and design. Along with several other assistants, Blossfeldt created and photographed casts of botanical specimens in and around Rome. He continued to work with Meurer through 1896 and traveled beyond Italy to North Africa and Greece…

Les Diaboliques: …irredeemably cruel headmaster (played by Paul Meurisse). His abusive treatment of both his wife (Véra Clouzot) and his mistress (Simone Signoret), both teachers at the school, drives them to conspire in his murder, which they disguise as an accidental drowning. When his body goes missing, however, and a ragtag detective…

The Stranger: Plot summary: …character of The Stranger is Meursault, a Frenchman who lives in Algiers (a pied-noir). The novel is famous for its first lines: “Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday, I don’t know.” They capture Meursault’s anomie briefly and brilliantly. After this introduction, the reader follows Meursault through the novel’s…

Kamel Daoud: …his novel Meursault, contre-enquête (2013; The Meursault Investigation).

Kamel Daoud: …his novel Meursault, contre-enquête (2013; The Meursault Investigation).

Lorraine: départements of Vosges, Meuse, Meurthe-et-Moselle, and Moselle.

Western sculpture: Early Gothic: …in the region of the Meuse. The activity of one of the chief artists, a goldsmith called Nicholas of Verdun, extends at least from the so-called Klosterneuburg altar (1181) into the early years of the 13th century. His style is characterized by graceful, curving figures and soft, looping drapery worked…

Meuse River, river, rising at Pouilly on the Langres Plateau in France and flowing generally northward for 590 miles (950 km) through Belgium and the Netherlands to the North Sea. In the French part, the river has cut a steep-sided, sometimes deep valley between Saint-Mihiel and Verdun, and beyond

Belgium: Relief, drainage, and soils: Its northern boundary is the Sambre-Meuse valley, which traverses Belgium from south-southwest to northeast.

battles of the Meuse-Argonne, (September 26–November 11, 1918), a series of final confrontations on the Western Front in World War I. Following the German retreat from the Marne River in July, Gen. Ferdinand Foch and the Allied high command designed a series of convergent and practically

Western architecture: Germany and the Low Countries: …stylistic classifications: the style of Meuseland, the Scheldt district style, the style of the bishopric of Utrecht, and the style prevalent in the provinces of Groningen and Friesland. The Meuseland churches are characterized by their use of the Carolingian basilica plan. Among the most outstanding examples are St. Servatius at…

food preservation: Food irradiation: …a larger unit such as megaelectron volt (MeV), which is equal to one million electron volts.

Karl August Folkers: His research team also discovered mevalonic acid, which is a key substance in the production of numerous important biochemical compounds, including carotenoids, steroids, and terpenes.

Judaism: Contemporary Judaism: …in Israel, groups such as Mevaqshe Derekh (“Seekers of the Way”) have tried to bridge secular Israeli culture and Jewish tradition and to maintain traditional Jewish ethical standards even in wartime; in Russia, thousands of young people gather on several occasions of the year to dance and sing and express…

Mawlawīyah, fraternity of Sufis (Muslim mystics) founded in Konya (Qonya), Anatolia, by the Persian Sufi poet Rūmī (d. 1273), whose popular title mawlānā (Arabic: “our master”) gave the order its name. The order, propagated throughout Anatolia, controlled Konya and environs by the 15th century and

Mawlawīyah, fraternity of Sufis (Muslim mystics) founded in Konya (Qonya), Anatolia, by the Persian Sufi poet Rūmī (d. 1273), whose popular title mawlānā (Arabic: “our master”) gave the order its name. The order, propagated throughout Anatolia, controlled Konya and environs by the 15th century and

Süleyman Çelebi: …is the great religious poem Mevlûd-i Nebi, or Mevlûd-i Peygamberi (“Hymn on the Prophet’s Nativity,” Eng. trans., 1943, reprint, 1957).

Süleyman Çelebi: …is the great religious poem Mevlûd-i Nebi, or Mevlûd-i Peygamberi (“Hymn on the Prophet’s Nativity,” Eng. trans., 1943, reprint, 1957).

Samuel ha-Nagid: …to be the author of Mevo ha-Talmud (“Introduction to the Talmud”), a long-lived Talmudic manual. He also wrote a concordance to the Bible, encouraged learning in all fields, and became a respected, even revered figure among both Arabs and Jews.

Charlotte Mew was an English writer who is notable for her short, well-crafted, highly original poetry. Mew’s life was largely unhappy. Two of her brothers died in infancy and another in boyhood, and a brother and sister were committed to mental hospitals at a young age. Mew and her sister Anne

Charlotte Mew was an English writer who is notable for her short, well-crafted, highly original poetry. Mew’s life was largely unhappy. Two of her brothers died in infancy and another in boyhood, and a brother and sister were committed to mental hospitals at a young age. Mew and her sister Anne

Udaipur: …of the princely state of Udaipur (Mewar) in 1568 by Maharaja Udai Singh after the sack of Chittaurgarh. A walled city, it stands on a ridge crowned by the maharaja’s City Palace, which was begun in 1570. To the west lies Lake Pichola with its two small islands and marble…

Mewār painting, one of the most important schools of Indian miniature painting of the 17th and 18th centuries. It is a school in the Rājasthanī style and was developed in the Hindu principality of Mewār (in Rājasthān state). The works of the school are characterized by simple bright colour and

Mina, tribe and caste inhabiting Rājasthān and Punjab states in northern India, and Punjab province, Pakistan, who speak Hindi and claim descent from the Rājputs. The Mina are possibly of inner Asiatic origin, and tradition suggests that they migrated to India in the 7th century with the Rājputs,

Rajasthan: Population composition: …southeast, and in the northeast Mewati, which shades off into Braj Bhasa (a Hindi dialect) toward the border with Uttar Pradesh.

mews, row of stables and coach houses with living quarters above, built in a paved yard behind large London houses of the 17th and 18th centuries. Today most mews stables have been converted into houses, some greatly modernized and considered highly desirable residences. The word may also refer to

Mars Express, European spacecraft that mapped the surface of Mars. The European Space Agency’s Mars Express was launched on June 2, 2003, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and went into Mars orbit on December 25, 2003. Mars Express carried a colour stereo camera, an energetic neutral atoms

Ynes Enriquetta Julietta Mexia was an American botanical collector and explorer whose discoveries helped to clarify and complete botanical records. The descendant of Mexican-Americans living in Texas, she lived in Texas, Philadelphia, and Mexico City before moving to San Francisco in 1908, having

Ynes Enriquetta Julietta Mexia: …new genus of Compositae (Mexianthus mexicanus) and more than 500 new species of plants, many of which were named in her honour.

Aztec, Nahuatl-speaking people who in the 15th and early 16th centuries ruled a large empire in what is now central and southern Mexico. The name Aztec is derived from Aztlán (variously translated as “White Land,” “Land of White Herons,” or “Place of Herons”), an allusion to their origins, probably

Mexicali, city, capital of Baja California estado (state), northwestern Mexico. The city is situated across the Mexico-U.S. border from Calexico, California. The name Mexicali, formed from the first two syllables of Mexico and California, was chosen as a gesture of international friendship.

Hispanics in the United States: The U.S. Census of 2000: …as a “person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin,” regardless of skin colour. From 1990 to 2000 the Hispanic population in the United States rose by nearly 60 percent, from 22.4 million in 1990 to 35.3 million in 2000, and some…

Caprifoliaceae: Major genera and species: Mexican abelia (A. floribunda) is cultivated as an ornamental and has bright green oval leaves and small clusters of fragrant pinkish purple tubular flowers. It may reach 1.8 metres (6 feet) but usually is shorter. The glossy abelia (A. ×grandiflora) has pinkish white blooms and…

agouti: …presumably by native Caribbean tribes: D. mexicana in Cuba, D. punctata in Cuba and the Cayman Islands, and D. leporina, the Brazilian agouti, in the Virgin Islands and the Lesser Antilles.

Hispanic Americans: Mexican Americans: Today’s Mexican Americans trace their history to a development that began more than four centuries ago, when Spain conquered Mexico and made it a colony. Before that the territory was inhabited exclusively by American Indians. Mexican Americans are, therefore, the second oldest component…

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), legal-aid resource and activist organization established in 1968 by Mexican American lawyers in San Antonio, Texas, with help from a grant by the Ford Foundation. Modeled on the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP, the Mexican American Legal

ash: Major species: The Mexican ash (F. uhdei), a broad-crowned tree that is widely planted along the streets of Mexico City, reaches a height of 18 metres (59 feet), and has leaves with five to nine leaflets.

avocado: Major types: …avocados are divided into the Mexican (Persea americana, variety drymifolia), West Indian (P. americana, variety americana), and Guatemalan (P. americana, variety guatemalensis) races, with more than 1,000 cultivars between them. The Mexican race is native to Mexico and is characterized by the anise-like odour of the leaves

Gila monster: A closely related species, the Mexican beaded lizard (H. horridum), is slightly larger (to 80 cm [about 32 inches]) and darker but otherwise similar in appearance.

ladybug: Beneficial insects: …beetle (Epilachna borealis) and the Mexican bean beetle (E. varivestis).

heteropteran: Harmful aspects: …the American tropics, occurs through cone nose bugs (Reduviidae), so-called because of the shape of their head. The insect receives trypanosomes when it feeds on the blood of an infected person. The trypanosome passes part of its life cycle in the insect and again becomes infective to humans. Instead of…

beech: Major species: The Mexican beech, or haya (F. mexicana), a timber tree often 40 metres (130 feet) tall, has wedge-shaped leaves. The Oriental beech (F. orientalis), a pyramidal Eurasian tree about 30 metres (100 feet) tall, has a grayish white trunk and wavy-margined wedge-shaped leaves up to 15…

bird-of-paradise flower: Other species: The dwarf poinciana (Caesalpinia pulcherrima), a showy tree grown throughout the American tropics and subtropics, is sometimes known as the Mexican bird-of-paradise or red bird-of-paradise.

hawk: Smaller, the common, or Mexican, black hawk (B. anthracinus) has some white markings and ranges from northern South America into the southwestern United States. Both species feed on frogs, fish, and other aquatic creatures.

Latin American literature: Post-boom writers: …successful Arráncame la vida (1985; Mexican Bolero) ironically revisits the most hallowed theme of 20th-century Mexican fiction: the Revolution. But Mastretta portrays revolutionary Mexico from a woman’s perspective, which gives the whole process a subtly ironic twist that sometimes turns into outright humour. Montero’s and Mastretta’s titles are drawn from…

chia, (Salvia hispanica), species of flowering plant in the mint family (Lamiaceae), grown for its edible seeds. The plant is native to Mexico and Guatemala, where it was an important crop for pre-Columbian Aztecs and other Mesoamerican Indian cultures. Chia seeds are touted for their health

Morelet’s crocodile, (Crocodylus moreletii), medium-sized crocodile species inhabiting forests and wetlands and coastal freshwater and brackish waterways in Belize, northern Guatemala, and states in Mexico bordering the Gulf of Mexico. The species is distinguished from others by the shape of its

bald cypress: The closely related Montezuma, or Mexican, cypress (T. mucronatum) is native to the southwestern U.S., Mexico, and Guatemala. It is generally considered to be a separate species and is distinguished from the bald cypress by its shorter, persistent leaves and larger cones. It rarely produces knees.

Douglas fir: Major species: The Mexican Douglas fir (P. lindleyana) is largely native to the Sierra Madre mountain ranges of Mexico. Its taxonomy is contentious, and it is sometimes considered a subspecies of P. menziesii.

Mexico: Peña Nieto and the return of PRI rule: …election), and its ally, the Mexican Green Ecologist Party (Partido Verde Ecologista de México; PVEM), which captured about 7 percent, were poised to command a solid majority in the 500-seat Chamber of Deputies. Beyond the PRI’s triumph, the biggest story of the election was the victory of independent candidate Jaime…

elderberry: Major species and uses: …species of elderberry include the blue, or Mexican, elder (S. caerulea), which grows to 15 metres (48 feet) and has deep blue or purple fruits; it is found in western North America. European red elder (S. racemosa), native from northern Europe to North China, has round clusters of scarlet berries…

Mexico: The Mexican Empire, 1821–23: The first Mexican Empire spanned only a short transitional period during which Mexico became an independent republic. Independence from the former mother country had been the only glue which bound republicans and monarchists together, but, once that elusive goal had been achieved,…

Bracero Program, series of agreements between the U.S. and Mexican governments to allow temporary labourers from Mexico, known as braceros, to work legally in the United States. The program ran from 1942 to 1964, and during that time more than 4.5 million Mexicans arrived in the United States, most

frangipani: …white-edged yellow flowers of the Mexican frangipani (P. rubra acutifolia) are a popular component of the Hawaiian lei.

free-tailed bat: …the millions, such as the Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana) colonies at Carlsbad Caverns National Park and in downtown Austin, Texas. In the past, guano (excrement) was mined from caves in which the bats roosted and was used as fertilizer and to produce sodium nitrate for gunpowder. Free-tailed bats…

Jamaican fruit bat, (Artibeus jamaicensis), a common and widespread bat of Central and South America with a fleshy nose leaf resembling a third ear positioned on the muzzle. The Jamaican fruit bat has gray-brown fur and indistinct, whitish facial stripes. It has no tail, and the membrane stretching