Menial, that which belongs to household or domestic service, hence, particularly, a domestic servant. The idea of such service being derogatory has made the term one of contempt. The word is derived from an obsolete meinie or meyney, the company of household servants or retainers; a Scottish form is menzie. The origin is to be found in the O.Fr. meanie, popular Lat. mansionata, from mansio, mansion, from which comes Fr. maison, house.
Menier, Emile Justin (1826-1881), French manufacturer and politician, was born at Paris in 1826. In 1853, on the death of his father, Antoine Brutus Menier, he became proprietor of a large drug factory, founded in 1815 by the latter at Saint Denis, Paris, and in 1825 at Noisiel-sur-Marne. Antoine Brutus Menier had also manufactured chocolate in a small way, but Emile Justin from the first devoted himself specially to chocolate. He purchased cocoa-growing estates in Nicaragua and beet-fields in France, erected a sugar-mill, and equipped himself in other ways for the production of chocolate on a large scale. In 1864 he sold his interest in the drug-manufacturing business, and thenceforth confined himself to chocolate, building up an immense trade. Menier was a keen politician, and from 1876 till his death had a seat in the French Chamber, his general views being strongly Republican, while he consistently opposed protection. He was the author of several works on fiscal and economic questions, notably L'Impot sur le capital (1872), La Reforme fiscale (1872), Economic rurale (1875), L'Avenir economique (1875-1878), Atlas de la production de la richesse (1878). He died at Noisiel-sur-Marne in 1881, his sons succeeding to the business.
Meniere'S Disease, a form of auditory vertigo, first described by a French physician, Emile Antoine Meniere, in 1861. It usually attacks persons of middle age whose hearing has been previously normal. A. Politzer gives the following as the principal causes: intense heat and exposure to the sun, rheumatism, influenza, venereal diseases, anaemia and leukaemia. The disease presents itself in various forms, but the most usual is the apoplectoform, due to haemorrhage into the labyrinth, followed by more or less complete deafness in either or both ears. The attack usually sets in with dizziness, noises in the ears, nausea, vomiting and staggering gait, and the patient may suddently fall down with loss of consciousness. The seizures are usually paroxysmal, occurring at irregular intervals of days or weeks. Between the attacks the equilibrium may be disturbed, there being marked nystagmus and unsteadiness of gait. The attacks of vertigo tend to become less frequent and may entirely pass away, but the deafness may remain permanent. The treatment is directed towards relieving the troublesome head symptoms by the application of cold compresses. The drug that has proved most serviceable in diminishing the dizziness is potassium iodide, administered daily for at least a month. Politzer considers that the attacks may be averted by producing rarefaction of the air in the external meatus of the ear by means of a specially devised aspirating tube.
