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484 MEYENDORFF MEYERBEER mouths, and there are very few good har- bors. Havana, Mobile, and Galveston are the most important ports; and Campeachy and Vera Cruz are two of the principal shipping points. The depth of the gulf is believed not to exceed three quarters of a mile. The reefs and shoals of the N. shore of Cuba and about the Florida keys render the passage into the Atlantic exceedingly intricate, but else- where there are few banks; the only large one lies about lat. 27 N., Ion. 86 W., 200 m. S. of Cape San Bias. Besides the S. E. and S. E. trade winds which prevail in the gulf, it is visited by violent northers, which occur at intervals from October to May; in some years they terminate in April. The most re- markable phenomenon connected with the gulf of Mexico is the Gulf stream (see ATLANTIC OCEAN), which enters it by .the channel of Yu- catan, passes around it, and flows out by the Florida channel. The temperature of the gulf water is 8 or 9 higher than that of the At- lantic ocean in the same latitude. In its cen- tre are found large quantities of fucus natans or gulf weed, floating in parallel lines from S. S. E. to N. N. W. MEYENDORFF, a Russian family, originating in Saxony, and including among its members Pope Clement II. They settled in Livonia about 1200, and became Swedish barons in the 17th century. Subsequently they acquired dis- tinction in the Russian military and diploma- tic service, especially PETER (1796-1863), who was ambassador in Vienna in 1850, and one of the negotiators of the convention of Olmutz ; ALEXANDER (died in 1865), a geographer and geologist, who promoted and accompanied in 1840 Murchison's and Verneuil's exploration of northern Russia ; GEORG (died in 1863), who published Voyage d'Orembourg d Boulchara (Paris, 1826); and FELIX (died in Carlsruhe, Jan. 16, 1871), who in 1857 married the prin- cess Olga, a daughter of the late prince Michael Gortchakoff, became secretary of legation in Berlin, and in 1864 charge d'affaires in Rome, his stormy interview with the pope, Jan. 1, 1866, resulting in a temporary rupture be- tween the cabinet of St. Petersburg and the holy see. Subsequently he was charge d'af- faires at Carlsruhe. MEYER, Felix, a Swiss painter, born in Win- terthur, canton of Zurich, Feb. 6, 1653, died May 28, 1713. He studied painting under Er- mels in Nuremberg, and gained reputation by his views of Swiss scenery. He was employed throughout Germany by princes and others in ornamenting their apartments in fresco. He also etched several plates of landscapes from his own designs. MEYER, Johann Georg, known as METER VON BREMEN, a German painter, born in Bremen, Oct. 28, 1813. He studied at Dusseldorf, and settled in Berlin in 1852. He acquired celeb- rity as a painter of childhood, and his works are popular in England, France, and the United States. Many of them have been engraved. MEYER, Johann Heinrieh, a German writer on art, born at Stafa, on the lake of Zurich, March 16, 1759, died in Weirnar, Oct. 14, 1832. He was a pupil of J. C. Fiissli, brother of J. H. Fuseli, and in 1786 visited Rome, where he formed so close an intimacy with Goethe that he was known as Goethe-Meyer. In 1797 he established himself in Weimar, and in 1807 was appointed director of the academy of painting. As a painter his productions were few and unimportant. He was the principal editor of Winckelmann's w>rks (8 vols., Dres- den, 1808-'20), and furnished most of the elab- orate notes, which he afterward arranged as a history of Greek art, under the title of Ge- schichte der bildenden Kunste ~bei den Griechen (2 vols. 8vo, Dresden, 1824; vol. iii., 1836). MEYER, Leo, a German philologist, born at Bledeln, Hanover, July 3, 1830. He completed his studies in Gottingen, and under Bopp and the brothers Grimm in Berlin, and was pro- fessor in the university of Gottingen from 1856 to 1865, when he was appointed to the chair of comparative philology at Dorpat. He has published numerous works on Greek philology and mythology, including Vergleichende Gram- matik der grwchischen und lateinischen Sprache (2 vols., Berlin, 1861-'5), and Gedrangte Ver- gleichung der griechischen und lateinischen Declination (1862). His most celebrated pro- duction is Die gothische Sprache : Hire Laut- gestaltung insbesondere im Verhaltniss zum Altindischen, Griechischen und Lateinischen (1869). MEYERBEER, Giaeomo, a German composer, born in Berlin, Sept. 5, 1794, died in Paris, May 2, 1864. His original name was Jakob Meyer Beer. (See BEER.) His parents be- longed to a wealthy Jewish family, distin- guished for a love of music. Giaeomo dis- played from his earliest childhood remarkable musical capacities; and it is said that in his fifth year he used to play little tunes spon- taneously on the piano. His first teacher on that instrument was Franz Lauska, an artist of local reputation. In the theories of music he was instructed by Karl Friedrich Zelter, after- ward teacher of Mendelssohn. His perfor- mance on the piano soon elicited general admi- ration, but he preferred to devote himself to the study of dramatic composition. Bernhard Anselm Weber, his first instructor in that branch of the art, was succeeded in 1810 by the abbe Georg Joseph Vogler, one of the most eminent scientific musicians and the principal organist of Germany, who had opened in Darmstadt a school to which only young men of remarkable talent were admitted. While in this school he became acquainted with Karl Maria von We- ber, who, after composing several operas, had resumed his studies at Darmstadt. Meyerbeer and Weber lived together for nearly two years in the same room, and their intimate relation lasted until the death of the latter (1826), who left the last two acts of his opera, "The three Pintos," to be completed by his friend. While