MECHOACAN, a province of Mexico, bounded by Panuco, on the north; by Mexico Proper, on the east; by the Pacific ocean, on the south; and by Guadalajara, or New Galicia, on the west. MECKLENBURG Mecklenburg, a province of Germany, in the province of Lower Saxony, about 100 miles long, and 60 broad; bounded by the Baltic sea, on the north; by Pomerania, on the east; by Brandenburg, on the south; and by the duchies of Holstein, Lunenburg, and Lawenburg, on the west. MECON, a great river, which rises in the north of further India, and, running south through the kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia, falls into the Indian ocean. MECONIUM, in medicine, a black thick faeces gathered in the intestines of infants, and brought with them into the world at the time of their birth. MECONIUM, in pharmacy, the extract of English poppies. Meconium has all the virtues of the foreign opium, but in a somewhat lower degree. See ORUM. MEDAL, a piece of metal in the form of coin, intending to convey to posterity the portrait of some great person, or the memory of some illustrious action. The parts of a medal are the two sides, one of which is called the face or head, and the other the reverse. On each side is the area, or field, which makes the middle of the medal; the rim, or border; and the exergum: and one the two sides are distinguished the type or the figure represented, and the legend or inscription. As to the antiquity of medals, the Greek are certainly the most ancient; for long before the building of Rome the Greeks had beautiful money in gold, silver, and copper. This plainly appears from several genuine medals of Macedon, older than Philip and Alexander; from Greek medals with the names of several magistrates prior to the Macedonian empire; to which we may add some Sicilian coins of still greater antiquity. As the Greek medals are the most ancient, so are they M E D the most beautiful; they have a design, accuracy, force, and delicacy, that expresses even the muscles and veins, and are struck with such exquisite art, as the Romans could never come up to. Those struck when Rome was governed by consuls, are the most ancient among the Romans: but the copper and silver medals do not go beyond the 484th year of Rome, nor the gold beyond the year 546. Among the imperial medals, we distinguish between the upper and lower empire: the first commenced under Julius Cæsar, and ended A. D. about 260; the lower empire includes near 1200 years, and ends at the taking of Constantinople. It is the custom, however, to account all the imperial medals till the time of the Paleologi, among the antique; though we have none of any considerable beauty later than the time of Heraclius, who died in 641. The Gothic medals make part of the imperial ones. Modern medals are those struck within these 300 years. There are no true Hebrew medals, except a few shekels of copper and silver, but none of gold; though there is mention made of one in the king of Denmark's cabinet. There was formerly no difference between money and medals. An old Roman had his purse full of the same pieces that we now preserve in cabinets. As soon as an emperor had done any thing remarkable, as gaining a victory, giving up a tax, or the like, it was immediately stamped on a coin, and became current thro' his whole dominions. This was a pretty device to spread abroad the virtues of an emperor, and make his actions circulate; and thus a fresh coin was a kind of gazette, that published the latest news of the empire. Several of our modern coins have the legend round the edges: but the ancients were too wise to regicide their exploits on so nice a surface. As to the figures upon medals, the Romans always appear in the proper dress of their country, so that we may observe the little variations of the mode in the drapery of the medal: they would have thought it ridiculous to have drawn an emperor of Rome in a Grecian cloak or a Phrygian mitre. On the contrary, we often see a king of England or France dressed up like a Julius Cæsar, as if they had a mind to pass themselves upon posterity for Roman Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7.