MITHRAS 



driving MUhradates from Pontus 

 and ilrfi.it ing also hia brother-ill- 

 l.tu. 'I': i. men, king of Armenia, 

 \\-itli wln'iu Mitliradatea bad taken 

 II.- penetrated too far, how- 

 nt. Mesopotamian Armenia, 

 a i el was compelled to return. In 

 tin- meantime Mithradatea re- 

 covered the greater portion of 

 I'untu-i, and the military efforts of 

 ri^ht years were brought to nought. 

 i r was finally brought to an 

 end l>y Pompey, whose army drove 

 M Stimulates into the Crimea, 

 \\hnv, at his request, a Gallic 

 attendant put an end to his life. 



Mithras OR MITHRA. Sun god 

 among the Persians, chief of the 

 kindly spirits created by Ormuzd. 

 He was looked upon as the god of 

 faithfulness and purity, and the 

 protector of man. Mithraism, 

 brought to Rome 68 B.C., was very 

 prevalent throughout the Roman 

 empire, especially in the army, in 

 the L'nd and 3rd centuries of our 

 era, and was a rival of Christianity, 

 but was suppressed A.D. 378. 



Mitla OR MICTLAN (Place of the 

 dead). Village of Mexico. It is 

 situated 30 m. E. of Oaxaca in the 

 dist. of Tlacolula. Within a moun- 

 tain-girt valley are five groups of 

 ancient buildings. Rectangular 

 in shape, massive and built of 

 dressed stone, each group is ar- 

 ranged as a quadrangle with a 

 paved inner court ; the exterior 

 walls have neither door nor win- 

 dow, and the inner walls are pierced 

 by doorways with single stone slab 

 link-Is. In 1495 the Aztecs cap- 

 tured the place, but beyond this its 

 history is obscure. See Mexico. 



Mitrailleuse (Fr. mitraille, 

 grape shot). French name for 

 machine guns in general. The 

 original Montigny 

 mitrailleuse was 

 taken up by the 

 French in 1869 

 and introduced in 



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actuated by hand. The cartridges 

 were carried in metal plates, having 

 25 holes drilled through them cor- 

 responding to the arrangement of 

 the barrels. The breech-block 

 having been slid back, a plate full 

 of cartridges was slipped into 

 grooves on its forward face. When 

 the breech-block was pushed for- 

 ward again, it carried the car- 

 tridges into the barrels and simul- 

 taneously cocked the firing me- 

 chanism. By revolving a crank 

 handle the cartridges were fired 



Mitrailleuse. Diagram illustrating principal parts of the 

 mechanism. A. Trail. B. Carriage. C. Axle-pin. 

 D. Trunnion. E. Loading lever. F and 0. Elevating 

 gear. H, J, and K. Apparatus for ejecting empty car- 

 tridge cases from plates. L. Firing lever 



the army for the Franco- Prussian 

 War, 1870-71. 

 This weapon consisted of 25 



Mitre. 1. Gothic. 2. Roman, with 



bands detached ; two forms used in 



R.C. Church. 3. Anglican mitre 



By courtesy of Burnt, Oaltl and Wath- 

 bourne, and A. B. Uowaray A Co., Ltd. 



successively, one complete revolu- 

 tion of the crank firing all 25 in 

 approximately one second. It was 

 possible to fire 250 shots per minute. 

 The French had 156 of these 

 weapons at the time of the Franco- 

 Prussian War, but they were em- 

 ployed in conjunction with the 

 artillery, and field-gun tactics ap- 

 plied to them, with the result that 

 it was rarely possible to obtain 

 their full effect, 

 and though effec- 

 tive when con- 

 cealed, they were 

 soon put out of 

 action by the op- 

 posing artillery 

 when located. 

 See Machine Gun. 

 Mitral Valve. 

 Valve in the left 

 ventricle of the 

 heart, consisting 

 of two flaps 

 which surround 

 the opening from 



the left auricle into the left 

 ventricle. During the process of 

 systole, or contraction of the heart, 



MITRE 



cornea narrowed, and may be pre- 

 vented by adhesions from closing 

 fully. This condition, known as 

 mitral stenosis, prevent* the blood 

 from passing freely in the heart 

 from the auricle to the ventricle. 

 See Heart. 



Mitre. Head-dress of bishops 

 and certain abbots of the Western 

 Church, and occasionally of other 

 ecclesiastics. The Jewish high 

 priests wore a tall form of head- 

 dress, called mitra in the Septua- 

 gint, but it is denied that the mitre 

 was an adaptation of this. In its 

 early forms, the mitre, which came 

 into use about the 10th century, 

 was low and simple. In the 14th 

 century it increased to a foot or 

 more in height. In the Church of 

 England mitres fell into gradual 

 disuse after the Reformation, dis- 

 appearing in the 18th century, but 

 were revived by some Anglican 

 bishops after 1885. The English 

 form is smaller than that worn by 

 bishops of the R.C. Church, The 

 mitre of bishops of the Greek 

 Church is a dome-shaped crown. 

 See Tiara. 



Mitre. In building and joinery, 

 the line formed by the inter- 

 section or juncture, generally 

 at a right angle, of two similar 

 blocks or mouldings, the meet- 

 ing ends being equally bevelled. 

 In certain ancient Greek struc- 

 tures, the mitre was not carried 

 straight through the entire joint, 

 but was deflected, thus making 

 the joining half mitre and 

 half butt-joint. In the case of 

 double blocks the mitring was 

 generally done on the inner blocks, 

 the outer forming a butt- j obit 

 See Joinery. 



rifie barrels mounted inside a the valve is opened and blood 



casing somewhat resembling in ap- passes freely from the auricle into 



peaxance the barrel of a field-gun, the ventricle. In diastole, the 



The breech-block, provided with valve closes, and thus prevents the 



firing mechanism and strikers for blood from flowing back from the 

 the 25 cartridges, slid backwards 

 and forwards in the barrel casing 



when a " loading lever " was 



ventricle into the auricle. In cer- 

 tain diseases, e.g. rheumatic fever, 

 the mitral valve sometimes be- 



Mitre. A. Common form. B. Mitre 

 where wooden members are of 

 different widths. C. Greek mitre. 

 D. Tongued mitre. E. Keyed 

 mitre ; e, wooden keys glued and 

 driven into the saw cats at an angle 



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