Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/405

MENOPOMA MENSHIKOFF 393 orifice ; tail large, much compressed laterally, with a rayless cutaneous fin along the upper border. The color is said by De Kay to be pale slate, mottled with- dusky. It lives in fresh water, and is carnivorous and voracious, feeding on fish, worms, and mollusks; it is found in the Alleghany river and its tributa- ries, and many of the branches of the Ohio and Mississippi ; its most common name is "hellbender." Dr. Holbrook describes an- other species (M. fuscum), from western South Carolina, brownish above and yellowish white below; both species have the limbs fringed posteriorly. Van der Hoeven places the gi- gantic salamander of Japan in the genus cryp- tobranchus, under the name of C. Japonicus. This animal, the largest of the known naked amphibia, growing to a length of more than 3 ft. and to a weight of nearly 20 Ibs., was discovered by Siebold, who had several speci- mens alive, and kept one for many years in Europe. The form is robust; the tail occu- pies about one third of the length, and consti- tutes the principal organ of locomotion, as- sisted by a loose fold of skin extending from the head along the sides to the origin of the tail ; the lips are not very distinct, and the tongue is small ; the occiput is separated from the neck by two wide protuberances formed by the muscles of the jaws ; the skin above is covered with numerous rough prominences, which give it a very forbidding appearance ; the color is dark brown, with wide black- ish spots. Van der Hoeven maintains that this is not distinguished from menopoma by any generic character; it resembles the latter in form, habits, bones of the skull, number of vertebras (20 in the trunk and 24 in the tail), sternum, pelvis, ribs, and extremities ; the bones present cavities opening externally ; there is no gill aperture, and the branchias disappear early. It is slow in its movements, remaining quiet at the bottom of the water, rising to the surface every five or ten minutes to breathe air both by the nostrils and the mouth, but able to remain half an hour under water without renewing the contents of the lungs; generally inoffensive, it will bite se- verely when irritated ; it is voracious, feeding upon fish, frogs, insects, and even its own species, which it seizes with a sudden move- ment of the head; after eating, it generally fasts a week or two, and it is less voracious in winter than in summer ; it is able to endure extremes of heat and cold, and has a remark- able power of reproducing lost parts ; on land its motions are very awkward and slow. This species is confined to the lakes and streams of the high mountains of Niphon, between lat. 34 and 36 N"., and to some other parts of Japan and parts of China ; it is employed by the native physicians, in the form of food, as a preservative against contagious diseases and as a remedy in pulmonary complaints. There has been for some years a living speci- men in the zoological gardens in London. The remains of the gigantic salamander found in the tertiary fresh-water formations of Oenin- gen, formerly regarded as fossil human bones, the homo dilumi testis of Scheuchzer, are re- ferred to this genus by Van der Hoeven, under the name of C. primigenius ; in size, form, and structure it comes near to the Japanese species, and is one of the most interesting of the antediluvian animals which inhabited the fresh waters of Europe. The famous foot- prints of Hildburghausen, Germany, on which was established the cheirotherium of Dr. Kaup, have also been referred to a similar salaman- droid batrachian. (See LABYKINTHODON.) MENSES. See CATAMENIA. MENSHIKOFF. I. Alexander Danilovitch, prince, a Eussian statesman, born in Moscow about 1672, died in Berezov, Siberia, Nov. 2, 1729. The son of poor parents, he was brought up without education, and apprenticed to a baker ; but having entered the service of Peter the Great, he commended himself to his patron's favor by discovering a conspiracy among his guards. He served in the campaign of Azov, accompanied the czar to Holland and England, and on the death of Lefort became his princi- pal adviser, being equally active in preparing or executing the great schemes of national re- form, and in the warlike and diplomatic opera- tions against Charles XII. He distinguished himself at the siege of Schllisselburg in 1702, and was made major general and governor of Ingria in 1704. During the campaign of 1706 he gained the decisive battle of Kalisz over the Swedes. He was made a prince both of the German empire in 1706, and of Russia in 1707. In 1709 he greatly contributed to the victory of Poltava, and was made a field marshal ; in 1710 he commanded the Russian forces in the north, and took Riga; in 1711 he occupied Courland, and was made governor of St. Pe- tersburg; in 1712 he occupied Pomerania, and in 1713 took Stettin. His cupidity led him to commit numerous arbitrary acts, for which he was finally court-martialled and sentenced to death, but escaped with a heavy fine. He regained his influence under Catharine I. (l725-'7), of whose accession to the throne he was the principal instrument, and till her death exercised full sway over Russia. He was still more powerful at the beginning of the reign of the young Peter II., whose father-in- law he was about to become when he was sud- denly arrested through the influence of Dolgo- ruki (September, 1727), and banished with his family to Siberia. He at first bore his misfor- tunes with great firmness, but the loss of his wife and eldest daughter broke his spirit and hastened his death. The remaining members ef the family were recalled in 1730 by the em- press Anna. II. Alexander Sergeyeviteh, prince, a Russian soldier, great-grandson of the pre- ceding, born in 1789, died May 3, 1869. He entered the imperial service in 1805, was for some time attached to the embassy at Vienna, accompanied Alexander I. as aide-de-camp du-