Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/331

MELOS. 297 MELTING-POINT. Every act of liis musical dramas resembles a syuipluiiiic movement in so much that the me- lodic outline is never interrupted by a full ca- dence. The leading motives are treated and de- velopeil exactly like the themes in a symphony. Wagner is, therefore, justiticd iu speaking of his 'endless melinly.' In the opera every number closes with a full cadence. An act consists, therefore, of a collection of several numliers, each complete in itself, having no connection whatever with the preceding or following number. Al- though each number has its nielos, the act can have none, and consequently no artistic unity, be- cause the fundamental principle of unit}' is con- tinuity. See also Leitmotiv; Musical Drama; Recitative. MELO'SA. A C'liilean plant. See IVLadia. MELOZZO DA FORLI, mi-lot'so da for-le'. An Italian painter of the fifteenth century. See FORLi, ilELOZZO IlA. ' MELPOMENE, mel-p6m'e-ne (Lat., from Gk. MiA-ofiti'i/. the Singing One, pres. part, of fiHtrcaBai, mclpesthm, to sing). In Grecian mythology, one of the Xine JIuses. When the individual muses were assigned specific functions, Melpomene was called the muse of tragedy. In ancient art she was represented with a mask in her right hand and a roll of a part of a play in her left. See MusES. MEL'EOSE. A city, including the villages of Melrose Higlilands, Fells, and Wyoming, in Jlid- dlesex County, Mass., seven miles nortli of Bos- ton; on the Boston and JIaine Railroad (ilap: Massachusetts, E 3). It is a popular residential suburb of Boston, attractive for its fine site, has a public library and a public park, and is en- gaged to some extent in manufacturing, the prin- cipal products being rubber boots and shoes. Prominent features of interest are Middlesex Fells, a State reservation of 1800 acres, and a large natural reservoir, S])ot Pond. The gov- ernment is administered, ruider the charter of 1900, by a mayor annually elected, and a uni- cameral council, one-third of whose members are elected at large. The council elects the city clerk, treasurer, and collector, and confirms the execu- tive's nominations of other subordinate officials. The school board is independently clioscn by pop- ular vote. Population, in 1890! 8.519; in" 1900, 12,962. Melrose was settled probably as early as 1033, and formed a part of Charlestown until !649, and of Maiden from 1640 until Melrose was incorporated in 16.50. In 1900 it received a city charter. Consult Drake, History of Middle- sex Count ii (Boston, 1880). MELKOSE. A village of Roxburghshire, Scotland, on the Tweed, at the foot of the Eildon Hills. 29 miles southeast of Edinburgh (Map: Scotland. F 4). Population, in 1901, 2195. It is noted for the remains of its Cister- cian abliey, celebrated in history and literature, and one of the' finest of fJothie ruins. Its erection dates from 132G. after the destruction by the English in 1322 of the Abbcv of the Vir- gin Mary built by David I. between 1126 and 1146 at Old Melrose on a promontory overlooking the river two miles to the northeast. The abbey was built finm a fund supplied by King Robert Bruce and his snn David II. and was not finished until the middle of the sixteenth century. It was much mutilated and despoiled by the English in 1385 and in 1545. The present remains arc the major portions of the abbey church, the choir, the transept, part of the nave, and the southern aisle with its eight small chajjcls, and fragments of the cloister, a square of 150 feet. The church is 258 feet long, width of transept 137 feet, height of central square tower 84 feet. It is a composite of late lUuuboyant Gothic areliitec- ture, rich in the elaborate ornamentation of that style, traceried windows, shafts, capitals, vault- ings, and Hying buttresses being its distinctive features. Abbotsford (q.v.), the home of Sir Walter Scott, is about three miles south of Mel- rose Abbey. MELTING-POINT. The temperature at which a given suljstance passes from the solid into the liquid state. Diti'erent substances gen- erally have diflercnt melting-points. Thus, mercury if solidified by cold would melt at a temperature of 40-' below 0° C. ( — 40° F.) ; ice melts at 0° C. (32° F.); sulphur at 115° C. (239° F.); tin at 230° C. (446° F.) ; lead at 324° C. (615° F.); zinc at 418° C. (784° F.) ; aluminum at 727° C. (1341° F.) ; silver at 968° C. (1774° F.) ; gold at 1072° C. (1862° F.) ; copper at 1082° C. (1980° F.) ; pure iron at 1704° C. (3099° F.); platinum at 1777° C. (3231° F. ) ; etc. The presence of more or less impurity in a given substance generally causes a corresponding depression of its melt- ing-point, and hence the latter is often de- termined when it is required to ascertain whether a given sub- stance, especially a carbon compound of known melting-point is perfectly ])ure. Such determinations ma,y be conveniently carried out by means of the apparatus shown in the accompanying fig- ure. The apparatus con- sists of an ordinary round-bottomed flask of about 2.50 cubic centimeters capacity, with the greater part of the neck cut off: in this is an ordinary test-tube widened in one place so as to be readily held by the ilask without touching its bottom ; both contain, to about the same level, some liquid (say. strong sul- phuric acid) that may lie heated to a somewhat higli temperature without boiling. To carry out a determination, a snuill amoint of the given sub- stance is introduced into a capillary tube of glass, the latter is tied on to a thermometer so that the substance is very near the mercury bulb, the thermometer with the capillary tube is im- mersed in the liquid of the test-tube, the tem- perature is allowed to rise very slowly, and the ))oint is carefully noted at which the contents of the capillary tube begin to change color and be- come transparent. For very preci.sp determina- tions, however, this method cannot be employed. MELTING-POIXT APPARATCB.