MELBOURNE 183 MELODEON In the spi'ing of 1901 the first session of the Parliament of the new Australian Commonwealth was opened here by the Duke of York. It has one of the three mints of the Commonwealth from which, up to 1918, about $700,000,000 of gold coin and bullion have been issued. Mel- bourne is the second largest port of Australia, the total tonnage of vessels entered in 1916-1917 being more than 5,800,000. Pop. about 600,000; incl. of suburbs about 700,000. MELBOURNE, W. L., VISCOUNT, an English statesman, born in 1779. MELCHIZEDEK (-kiz'e-dek) ("King of righteousness"), in the story of Gene- sis, King of Salem and priest of "Su- preme El." He met Abram on his return from the victorious expedition against Chedorlaomer, gave him his blessing, and received tithes from him. MELEAGER (mel-e-a'jur) , in classic fable, a chieftain of the ..Etolian Caly- don, son of JEneas and Altheae. MELEAGRIS (-a'gris), a breed of turkey; a genus of gallinaceous birds of the family Meleagridse, or the sub-family Meleagrinas. They are the largest birds of the order to which they belong. Head naked, with wattles or folds of bright- colored skin, tuft of long hair on the breast, plumage more or less metallic. MELEGNANO (mel-en-ya'n5), for- merly MARIGNANO (ma-ren-ya'no) , a town of northern Italy, 12 miles S. E. of Milan. Here Francis I. of France defeated the Swiss in 1515, and the French routed the Austrian rear-guard in 1859. MELENARA, Spain, one of three towns having two sets of wireless com- munications of the Marconi system of the "Compaiiia Nacional de Telegrafia sin Hilos," holding a government con- cession. The other two stations are at Cadiz and Teneriffe. MELES (me'lez), the badger; the typi- cal genus of the family Melidse. M. taxus (or vulgaris) is the largest of the in- digenous British mammals. The siffleur of the United States and Canada is M. labradoricus, and the Indian badger, M. collaris. MELILLA, a Spanish fortress town on the northern coast of Morocco. Built on a peninsula extending out into the Mediterranean sea, and defended by forts on the land side. In 1902 the port was opened to commerce. Pop. about 40,000. MELINE, FELIX JULES, a French statesman; born in 1838. After joining the bar he was active as a democrat in opposing the Empire. He declined elec- tion during the Commune. In 1872 he was returned to the National Assembly as a conservative Republican. Secretary of Agriculture, 1883-1885. Under Secre- tary of State a few months under Simon. Secretary of Agriculture, in Ferry's cab- inet in 1883-1885. President of the Cham- ber of Deputies,^ 1888. Carried through his great protective measures which went into force in 1892. Re-elected President of Chamber, 1894. Prime Minister under Faure, 1896. The elections of 1898 forced the cabinet to resign and he returned to the Chamber of Deputies. Was a candi- date for President of France in 1899. Meline lost much of his political influence by taking sides against Captain Dreyfus in the famous affair. After 1903 a mem- ber of the Senate for the Vosges. He founded the Society for Agricultural Merit. MELLON, ANDREW WILLIAM, an American banker and public official, born in Pittsburgh in 1852, was educated at the University of Pittsburgh, and following his entrance into business life, became associated with Henry C. Frick in the development of coal and iron enterprises. He was a director and official in many important industrial and financial insti- tutions. He was a student of finance and a well-known authority on official subjects. He founded the town of Do- nora, Pa., where he established great steel mills. He became secretary to the treasurer in the Cabinet of President Harding, March 4, 1921. MELLON INSTITUTE OF INDUS- TRIAL RESEARCH, a part of the Uni- versity of Pittsburgh, but having a sepa- rate endowment of its own. Its object is to secure advancement in industrial processes by close co-operation between the practical industry and the workers in science. A person desiring to find some new industrial process gives to the school an amount of money sufficient to pay a chemist or engineer for a year's work, the institution furnishing the facilities for his enterprise. The results for a few years remain the possession of the donor. In 1918 more than fifty research workers were studying work given them by pat- rons of the institute. MELO, capital of the department of Cerro Largo, Uruguay, 200 miles N. E. of Montevideo. Center of a region in which cattle raising is the chief industry. Pop. about 10,000. MELODEON, a wind instrument with a row of reeds and operated by keys. In 1846 a method of drawing air through
