C61 



MIMOTANNIC ACID. 



MINES, MILITARY. 



662 



Criticum,' No. VII. His son Xenarchus, who lived under Dionysius 

 during the Rhegian war, B.C. 393, also wrote mimes. We have speci- 

 mens of a mime in the fifteenth idyll of Theocritus. Philistion of 

 Nictca, another writer of mimes, was contemporary with the latter 

 years of Socrates. Suidas (*i\iirnW) calls his mimes lioloyic, or 

 " pictures of life." 



Among the Romans, mimes seem to have been nothing but irregular 

 harlequinades, probably the lineal ancestors of our " Punch." In the 

 time of Augustus, Bathyllus and Pylades divided the taste of the 

 Roman capital as actors of mimi. Among the mimographers of Rome 

 we find Mattius, Laberius, and Publius the Syrian, the second of whom 

 died B.C. 43, when the third was in the height of his popularity. 

 Laberius acted as well as composed mimes. The Roman mimes were 

 written in verse, but were often delivered extempore, and the manners 

 represented had much local truth. The actors in such pieces had also 

 the names of mimes, distinguishing them from the pantomimists, who 

 confined their representations entirely to action. In the reigns of the 

 earlier emperors we meet with other mimographers of celebrity, but 

 none came up to the reputation of Laberius and Publius. 



(Ziegler, J)e Minis Romanorum, Gottingen, 1789, quoted in 'Con- 

 versations Lexikon : ' Schlegel, Dramatiiche Verhiungen, lecture viii.) 



MIMOTANNIC ACID, Cachoutannic Acid (C 38 H 18 18 ). The tannic 

 acid produced from catechu possesses some properties different from 

 that of the tannic acid from oak bark, and Berzelius proposed to call 

 the one mimotannic acid, from Mimosa, and the other quercitannic 

 acid, from Qtttrcus, the name of the oak. 



MINARET (from the Arabic rn.ena.rah, a lantern), in Saracenic and 

 Eastern architecture', a very slender and lofty turret, having .one or 

 more projecting balconies around it, which divide it externally into 

 two or more stories. They are used in Mohammedan countries for the 

 purpose of calling the people to prayers, and therefore serve the purpose 

 of belfries. They are, however, generally more numerous than such 

 purpose actually demands, there being one at each angle of the building, 

 and sometimes a greater number, and hence they become highly 

 characteristic features, as well on account of their frequency as their 

 tall, graceful, column-like shape, which causes them to contrast so 

 picturesquely with the cupolas that crown the edifice, and together 

 with which they serve to produce a pleasing and varied architectural 

 outline. The resemblance to the column form is frequently greatly 

 increased by the uppermost gallery being corbelled and ornamented for 

 a short distance downwards, so as to assume the shape and mass of a 

 capital, above which the structure is usually made to terminate in a 

 small polygonal alcove, with open arches on its sides, and crowned by 

 an ogive or bulbous dome. Many of the Turkish minarets are alike 

 elegant in general form, and in their ornamentation. In some of those 

 in India (s in the mosque at Ahmedabad) the carving is almost pro- 

 fuse in its splendour, but the outline is much less happy than the 

 Saracenic examples. 



MINERAL ALKALI. [SODIUM; SODA.] 



MINERAL CHAMELEON. [MANGANESE.] 



MINERAL PURPLE. [COLOURING MATTERS.] 



MINERAL WATERS. Mineral waters, though generally charac- 

 terised by possessing some principle different from what is found in 

 common water, or some of the ordinary principles in unusual pro- 

 portion, yet among these are reckoned certain springs which have no 

 claim to repute beyond what is due to their extreme purity, such as 

 Malvern and Holywell ; or to having a higher temperature throughout 

 the year, than the mean of the latitude where they are situated. 

 These last are classed among the thermal springs, which are properly 

 divided into two sections, the minercd'ued hot springs and the 

 nnmineralised, among which are some only tepid, such as Matlock, 

 where some springs are 66, the lowest of the class in Britain, and 

 others cold, presenting this peculiarity, that the tepid springs rise 

 from fifteen to thirty yards above the level of the river Derwent, whilst 

 those which rise either above or below this range are cold. 



For practical purposes mineral-waters may be classed under four 

 heads, each susceptible of secondary heads, according as they are hot 

 or cold, or have other peculiarities, namely : saline, alkaline, chaly- 

 beate, and sulphureous. It will not be possible to mention more than 

 a few of the most important of each. 



Saline aperient springs : of these some are hot, others cold. The 



chief are Carlsbad, Marienbad, Eger or Franzensbad, Kissingen, 



W,iesbaden, Baden-Baden, Seidlitz, and Saidschutz, with Pullna, in 



.ny ; Cheltenham, ' Leamington, and Harrogate in England ; 



Dunblane, Piteaithly, and others in Scotland. 



Alkaline waters, owing their properties to different saline principles, 



are found at Carlsbad, Marienbad, Kissingen, Pullna, Saidschutz, Ems, 



TopliU, ami Wiesbaden, in Germany; Vichy and Mont d'Or, in 



; Harrogate, Scarborough, and other Yorkshire springs, 



Cheltenham, Leamington, Bath, and elsewhere, in England. 



Chalybeate waters : with these acidulous waters are often reckoned, 



as the iron ig often associated with much free carbonic acid gas. 



Some of the chief are Spa, Pyrmont, Schwalbach, Marienbad, Aix-la- 



!le, and Seltzer in Germany ; Tonbridge, Harrogate, and 



liriglitvii ill England, and Peterhead, in Scotland. 



Sulphureous waters : Aix-la-Chapelle, in Rhine Prussia, Bareges, and 

 other Pyrenean springs, are hot ; Harrogate, Askern, and others in 

 Yorkshire, cold ; Moffat and Strathpeffer in Scotland, also cold. 



lodtiretted and other waters. Many springs have of late been found 

 to contain a notable quantity of iodine or bromine, others contain 

 both : Creuzuach, in Germany, contains both, but most iodine ; 

 Llandrindod and Bualt in Radnorshire, the springs issuing from the 

 lias at Leamington, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, and Cheltenham, contain 

 iodine ; bromine, but not iodine, exists in small quantity, in the saline 

 aperient waters near London, such as Epsom, also in the springs from 

 the coal-formation of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and 

 Kingswood, and Bonnington near Edinburgh : Woodhall, near Ashby- 

 de-la-Zouch, contains most iodine of any British springs yet investigated. 



Organic matters, termed Baregine, glairine, toogene, &c., have been 

 found in many springs. Of these an account may be found in Dr. 

 Lankester's ' Askern and its Mineral Springs,' p. 103. 



It is impossible to give directions here for the selection of one kind 

 of mineral water in preference to another. A decision on this point 

 can only be made by a competent medical attendant. It may be 

 permitted to say a few words on calcareous springs, by which is meant 

 those waters in which some of the salts of lime predominate. These 

 are generally hard. While flowing under ground the lime is often in 

 the state of a soluble bicarbonate, but on reaching the external atmos- 

 phere, one portion of the carbonic acid escapes, and some of the 

 carbonate of lime is precipitated. Hence these waters exert a petri- 

 fying effect on substances thrown into the springs or receiving wells. 

 This is also the reason why such waters are best used on the spots 

 whence they emerge, and ill bear transportation. Such waters should 

 never be received in leaden cisterns or transmitted through leaden 

 pipes. The chief mineral waters in England which belong to this 

 group are Bath, Bristol, and Buxton. They are noted for their beneficial 

 effects in those diseases which are connected with the presence or 

 generation of an unhealthy acid in the stomach, such as gout, rheu- 

 matism, and some cutaneous diseases, in which the power of the water 

 token internally is often assisted by the use of the same water ex- 

 ternally as baths. The change of mode of life generally adopted at 

 watering places, the relaxation from hurtful over-exertion of mind and 

 body, conduce to promote the health of the visitors to these places 

 of resort. 



MINERVA. [ATHENE.] 



MIN ES. Mines are properly openings in the ground from which 

 any thing is dug. Until an opening is made, the name is not properly 

 applied, though the term is now generally used to signify coal, lead, 

 iron, and so forth, before an opening is made for digging them out. 



Mines belong to the tenant in fee-simple of the land, with the 

 exception of gold and silver mines, which belong to the king by his 

 prerogative, but by 1 W. & M. c. 30, a mine of copper or tin is not to 

 be considered a royal mine, though silver be extracted from the ore. 

 The owner of land in fee-simple is the owner of everything which lies 

 in a perpendicular direction under the surface to any depth. A 

 tenant for life, unless his estate is without impeachment of waste, 

 cannot dig earth, lime, clay, or stone, except for the repair of 

 buildings or the manuring of the land. In fact, the general principle 

 is, that the land, which term comprehends everything in it or that is 

 permanently attached to it, cannot be taken away by any other person 

 than the tenant in fee-simple or a tenant in tail. Accordingly a 

 tenant for life cannot open a new mine, but he may work^nines which 

 are already open, and he may open new shafts for working veins of 

 coals which have been already worked. A tenant in tail has an estate 

 of inheritance, and incident to it the power of committing waste, as by 

 cutting down timber or opening mines. 



If a man who has an estate in fee leases the land with the mines 

 upon it, the lessee is thereby empowered to dig for the minerals ; and 

 if he leases lands on which mines are already open, the lessee may 

 work them. 



The freehold of all copyhold lands is vested in the lord, and it is a 

 legal consequence that he has the freehold of the mines. In some 

 cases a copyholder of inheritance has by the custom of the manor a 

 right to the timber, and the lord has no right to dig mines, unless 

 there be a custom which gives him the right. 



If a man works mines under his own laud, and follows the ore or 

 other substance under his neighbour's land, he is a trespasser. 



The act 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 30, 6, 7, enacts certain punishments for 

 malicious injuries done to mines. [MALICIOUS INJURIES.] 



MINES, MILITARY, are excavations made in the rampart of a 

 fortress, or underground, in order to contain gunpowder, which, being 

 exploded, the rampart may be breached, or any works of the enemy, 

 above or near the mine, may be destroyed. 



The term offensive is applied to the mines which are formed by the 

 besiegers of a fortified place ; those which are formed by the garrison 

 are called defensive mines, or counter-mines, this term having been 

 given to the mines execxited by the besieged, as they were the latest 

 introduced in warfare. The cavity in which the powder is deposited 

 is called the chamber; and the excavated approach to the latter is 

 called the rjallery, if the dimensions are above 3 feet by 4 feet ; if 

 smaller than this, a branch. These are termed ascending or descending, 

 according to their direction, though if they are vertical they are termed 

 shafts. 



Two kinds of mines were anciently employed in the attack of 

 fortresses. One of them was merely a subterranean passage carried 

 under the walls from the exterior ground ; and be jig suddenly opened 



