Catamenia, in Medicine, the monthly evacuations from the uterus of women not with child or not giving suck. They are so called from mensis "month," the period wherein they return. They are also called flowers, cowfes, &c. By the Jewish law a woman was unclean while the menstrual blood flowed; and the man who touched her, and the moveables she had touched, were declared unclean.—Lev. xv. See MIDWIFFERY and MEDICINE.

MENORES, among the Romans, were harbingeres, whose business it was to go before the emperor, and fix upon lodgings for him when he travelled into any of the provinces. They also marked out encampments, and assigned every regiment its post.

Menores were also land-furveyors, architects, or appraisers of houses and public buildings. The distributors of provisions in the army were called menores frumentarii. And menores was also an appellation given to servants who waited at table.