182 



MICKOTOME 



MIDDLESEX 



no a* to effect the coarse ail j nut men t ; A, the eye- 

 piece, or ocular. 



For a more complete account of the different kindi of 

 microaoopet, and the rarioui purposes t.) Inch they are 

 applied, aee Quekett On the MirroKopc (1X86); Car- 

 penter. Tkr MieroKOpe ( 18o2 ; 6th ed. 1SHO); worki on 

 the microMope by Hogg and Beale; The Micnteopiit, 

 by Wythe ( 3d ed. 177). 



Microtome, an inRtrnment for rutting thin 

 sections of |xirtions of plants ami animal- prelimin 

 arj- to their microscopic examination. The object* 

 to* be cut are imbedded in some material such as 

 paraffin or celloidin, or frozen in gum. which makes 

 tin- slicing of minute or delicat objects reailily 

 feasible. The cutting; u-ed to be done by holding 

 l lie prepared object in one hand and wielding 11 

 razor in the other, but this method, apt to yield 

 section* of unequal or insufficient thinness, has 

 given place to the use of Home form of microtome, 

 which is at once quicker and more effective. These 

 instrument* are quite simple devices by which a 

 sliding razor slices a fixed but adjustable object, 

 or by which the object is made to move np and 

 down acroHs the edge of a razor. As typical forms 

 mav be noted tlie free/ing microtomes of Knther- 

 ini d and others ; the sliding microtomes common on 

 the Continent ; the ingenious ' Kocker ' of the ( 'am- 

 bridge Instrument Company a favourite instru- 

 ment in Itritish lal>oralories ; and more clal>orate 

 and automatic machines manufactured by the same 

 company. 



Midas, a common name of the ancient Phrygian 

 kind's, most famous of whom is Midas, son of 

 ionium and Cylxde, and pupil of Orpheus. For 

 hi- kindness to Silenns lie \\ - promised by 1 limiy-iis 

 wliatever he should ask, and in his folly he asked 

 that everything he touched should become gold ; 

 but, us the very food he touched was at once changed 

 into gold, he was soon fain to implore the god to 

 lake hock his fatal gift. He was told to bathe in 

 the sources of the 1'actolns, and from that day to 

 thi- it- -anils have yielded grains of gold. ODM, 

 when A|H)llo and Pan were engaged in a musical 

 coni|K'tilion on the lyre and the flute, Midas un- 

 called in to decide between them. He gave the 

 palm to Pan, wliereuixin Apollo changed his ears 

 to those of an ass. He concealed the deformity 

 under his Phrygian cap, but could not hide it from 

 hi- barlx-r, who felt so heavy the burden of a secret 

 he dared not reveal that he dug a hole in the 

 ground and whis|vcred into it, ' King Midas has 

 ass's ears.' He then tilled up the hole, and his 

 heart wax lightened ; but out of the ground sprung 

 up a reed which ever whispered the shameful secret 

 to the breeze. 



MiddHhuru. capital of the Dutch province of 

 Zealand, in the i-land of Walcheren, and 4(i miles 

 by rail XE. of Flushing. In former times it wa- 

 one of the leading mercantile cities of the t'nited 

 Province-, --ending many ships to the East and 

 \\ 'e-t Indies, and the I.eiant (Thomas Cromwell 

 was one of its merchants) ; but its commercial 

 ini|M>rtance has greatly declined, except for an 

 active inland trade in corn, potatoes, and madder. 

 Cotton factories represent its only industry of note. 

 The town house, founded hy Charles the. Hold in 

 14IW, i-adotned with twenty-five statues of rount- 

 and countejwes of Holland and Zealand. A once 

 celebrated abliey (founded in the I '2th century ) is 

 now used as administrative offices. The museum 

 of the Academy of Sciences contains one of the 

 earliest telescope* made by I,ip|>erhey, a native of 

 the town, who. there are good grounds for believing, 

 was the original inventor of the instrument. The 

 new church has marble monuments to the sea- 

 heroes, .1. and C. Kvcrtscn, who wen- killed lighting 

 against the English in 1006. Pop. (18U3) 17,560. 



Middle Ages is the collective term for the 

 centuries thai intervened between the close of 

 classic times and the dawn of the modern epoch. 

 The term does not apply to Asiatic history, except 

 in part, in the Orient. Hy general acceptance, the 

 middle ages arc consid<Ted to Ix-gin after the over- 

 throw of the Western Empire of Koine in 47t>. and 

 to terminate at the Reformation, in the first quarter 

 of the Kith century, or even earlier, in the la.-t half 

 of the preceding century, when printing was in- 

 vented, America discovered, ami the Renai-sance 

 of Learning was called forth by the Greek refugee* 

 from Constantinople. 



Middle Level. See BEDFOKH I.KVKI.. 



MiddlesboroilKh. a great iron-manufacturing 

 and shipping centre in the North Hiding of York- 

 shire, is a municipal, parliamentary, and county 

 Ixpiough, and capital ol the district of Clevelaml. 

 It is on the south liank of the Tecs near its 

 mouth, 15 miles by rail EXE. of Darlington, M N. 

 of York, and 24<>' X. by \V. of London. In 1X29 

 the site was occupied by a solitary farmhouse 

 surrounded by marshy land ; tin' town owes its 

 remarkahlv rapid growth partly to the extension 

 thither (in 18.30) of the Stockton and Darlington 

 Railway, but mainly to the discovery of iron oie 

 in the adjoining Clevelaml hills (1800). Another 

 industry that of Ixiring salt was added in 1886. 

 There are here iron and steel works, blast furnaces, 

 chemical works, wood and iron shipbuilding yards, 

 sawmills, marine engineering works, w ire. nail, and 

 tube works, salt ami soda works. \c. Of the total 

 liritish produce of iron Cleveland contributed over 

 a fourth; the make of pig-iron in Middlesbrough 

 rose from 964,01 Ml tons in isTnt.iover -J.IKKI.INKI tons 

 in ISilS. At the shipbuilding yards :tiKm men are 

 employed. The cx]>ort of coal i- exten.-ive. Here 

 are a spacious dock : a graving dock, finished in 1875 

 at a cost of 120,000; and the South Care break- 

 water i Ixiil NS i. nearly 2.\ miles long. There are, 

 lx>sides Anglican churches and Nonconformist 

 chapels, a Catholic cathedral and a .lewi.-h syna- 

 gogue. The town-hall and municipal buildings were 

 erected at a cost of 120,000, and were opened in 

 Iss'.i by the Prince ami Prince of Wales. Among 

 other public building* are a market-house, corpora- 

 tion baths, hanks, workhouse, royal exchange, high 

 school. \-e. ; and there are theatres, chilis, masonic 

 and temperance halls. The Alliert Park of 72 M 

 wa given in I8(W to the borough by Mr H. W. F. 

 liolckow (1806-78), the first mayor 'and member of 

 parliament ; on the celebration of Middle-borough 

 Jubilee in 1881 a monument to Mr Holckow's 

 memory was unveiled. There is also a monument 

 in Exchange Place to Mr Yaiighan, the founder of 

 the I 'leveland iron trade. The first governing Ixxly 

 was established in 1841 ; the borough was incorpor- 

 ated in IHHt ; and since iMiT Middli-slMiroiigh 

 returns one member to parliament. The area of 

 the municipal Iniiough is 2X13 acres; of the pallia- 

 mentarv Ixirongh, 471"> acres. Pop. of the township 

 of Mid.llcslx.roughilsol '.'.->; (1S21)40; (1831) K>1 ; 

 (1841) 54C..-1; ( 18.11 ) 7l>:tl : of municipal borough 

 (1801) 18,S!>2: (1871) 3!l,824 ; (ISSl) .V>,2SS ; (1S!I|) 

 7.">. .MD. See II. (!. Keid's .MultllculHiriiii'ih tintl it* 

 Juliilce (1881). 



Middlesex, a small county in the south of 

 England, hounded on the X. by Hertfordshire, on 

 the E. by Essex, on the W. by Htickingham-hire, 

 and on the S. by the Thames" and the county of 

 London. The "northern Ixmndary is irregular, 

 having lieen determined originally by the estates 

 of the ahly of St Albans and the bishopric of 

 Ely. On the east the river Lea ami on the west the 

 Co'lne and the Hrent form the natural Imnndaries. 

 Although the area is but 233 so. m., the population 

 I is largo (560.012 in 1891), which is accounted for 



