MENTAL DISEASES. See Insanity.
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MENTON (Ital,, Mentone), a cantonal capital in the department of Alpes-Maritimes, France, situated 15 miles north-east of Nice, on the shores of the Mediterranean. The town, which has a population of about 8000, rises like an amphitheatre on a promontory by which its semicircular bay (5 miles wide at its entrance, and bounded on the W. by Cape Martin and on the E. by the cliffs of La Murtola) is divided. It is composed of two very distinct portions: below, along the sea-shore, is the town of hotels and of foreigners, which alone is accessible to wheeled vehicles; above is that of the native Mentonese, with steep, narrow, and dark streets, spread over and clinging to the mountain, around the strong castle which was once its protection against the attacks of pirates. Facing the south-east, and sheltered on the north and west by high mountains, the Bay of Menton enjoys a delicious climate, and is on this account much frequented by invalids requiring a mild and equable temperature. The mean for the year is 61° Fahr., exceeding that of Rome or of Pisa, and equalling that of Naples. Frost occurs on the average only once in ten years; in one particular year the thermometer did not fall below 46° Fahr. In summer the heat is never very great, the temperature rarely exceeding 86° Fahr. Winter and summer are the most agreeable seasons; in autumn the rain storms are accompanied by sudden changes of temperature, and in spring the sea breezes are apt to be violent. Besides the charms of its climate, Menton offers those of an almost tropical vegetation. Lemon-trees, olive-trees, and pines, rising above each other in successive stages, adorn the surrounding slopes. The district produces forty millions of lemons yearly, and this is the principal source of its natural wealth. The ...olive-trees are remarkable for the great size they have attained in the course of the centuries during which they have continued to bear. Of their wood a multitude of fancy objects are made for sale to strangers.
The origin of Menton is unknown. During the Middle Ages it was successively occupied by the Saracens, the Genoese, and the princes of Anjou. In the middle of the 14th century it was purchased as a single domain by the Grimaldis, lords of Monaco. During the times of the republic and the first empire it belonged to France; but in 1815 it again became the property of the princes of Monaco, who subjected it to such exactions that in 1848 its inhabitants, weary of finding their reasonable demands put off with empty promises, proclaimed their town free and independent, under the protection of Sardinia. Menton, with the neighbouring commune of Roquebrune, was united to France in 1860, at the same time as Nice and Savoy.
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