MELINE, James Florant, American law yer and author: b. Sacket's Harbor, N. Y.; el Brooklyn, N. Y., 14 Aug. 1873. He was grad uated at Mount Saint Mary's College, Emmetts burg, Md., and went to Cincinnati, where he was one of the professors at the Athenzum, and, while teaching, studied law. He was also one of the editors of the Catholic Tele graph. After spending some time abroad in study and travel he returned to Cincinnati, was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law; later he relinquished his profession and established a banking business, also holding consulates for France and other nations. In 1860 his business failed and shortly afterward he enlisted in the Federal army. He served throughout the Civil War under General Pope, attaining the rank of colonel, and after the war was for two years chief of the Bureau of Civil Affairs in the third military district. At the end of that time he went to New York and devoted himself to literary work, writing for the Galaxy, the Nation and the Catholic World. In the latter periodical he first published the articles controverting Froude's statements and conclusions in regard to Mary Queen of Scots; these articles, which aroused wide interest, were afterward revised and published in book form under the title 'Mary Queen of Scots and Her Latest English Historian> (1871). He also wrote 'Two Thousand Miles on Horseback' (1867) ; 'Commercial Traveling> (1869), and 'Life of Sixtus the Fifth' (1871).
MtLINITE, an explosive em ployed by the French government late in the 19th century, in charging torpedo shells and in the preparation of rupturing charges for the use of the engineer corps and cavalry in effect ing demolitions. As originally used it was com posed of 70 per cent of picric acid mixed with 30 per cent of pyroxylin dissolved in 45 parts of acetone. Later it consisted exclusively of fused picric acid which was poured into the shell when in the molten condition and cast there in such a manner as to leave a central canal in the mass in which the fuse terminated in a mercuric fulminate detonator by which the charge was fired. By the use of this fuse the detonation of the charge was delayed suffi ciently to allow the shell to penetrate armor and reach the farther side of it 'before the ex plosion. MeUnite was very thoroughly tested at Bouchet in 1892 to determine the degree of safety that it possesses when exposed to shocks, fire and the accidental rupture of recep tacles containing it, and the results were most favorable. The name, like that of other explo sives, is going into disuse because of the prac tice of describing explosives by their principal constituents.