516 MIA MIC 
Mr, a town of China, of the third rank, in Ho-nan : 
thirty-feven miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Hoai-king. 
MI, a river of China, which rifes in the province of 
Chan-tong, and runs into the Chinefe Sea in lat. 37.12. 
N. Ion. x 19. 14. E. 
MI, a river of China, which runs into the Tom at 
Tcha-lin-tcheou. 
MI'A, a town of Japan, in the ifland of Niphon : 
eighty-five miles eaft of Meaco. 
MIA'CO. See Meaco, vol. xiv. p. 585. 
MIADWZ'NA, a town of Poland, in the palatinate of 
Kiev: thirty-fix miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Bialacerkiev. 
MI'AGRUS, in mythology, the god of flies. 
MIALNANA-'EN, a mountain of' Scotland, in the 
county of Perth: ten miles eaft-north-eaft of George’s 
Town. 
MI'AM, f. A weight for gold at Malacca; 320 miams 
being — 29oz. iydwt. i6gr. Englifti troy. 
MIAMA'JA, a town of Japan, on the north coaft of 
Niphon. Lat. 41. 10. N. Ion. 1.41.E. 
MI'AMI (Great), a river of America, in the ftate of 
Ohio, forming the weftern boundary of the ftate, and di¬ 
viding it from Indiana territory. It enters the Ohio 333 
miles below Marietta, according to the winding of the 
river. At its mouth it is 300 yards wide; but at the 
Pickawee towns, above feventy miles higher, it is not 
above 30 yards wide, though it is paflable for loaded 
boats fifty miles higher. Its ftream is rapid, without 
cataradts. This river has feveral boatable branches, one 
of which extends towards the Sandulky, with an interme¬ 
diate portage of fix or eight miles, and another opens a 
communication with Au Glaze by a ftiort portage. The 
channel of the river is ftony ; hence it is fometimes called 
A fj'ereniet , or Rocky River. Its waters are very clear and 
tranfparent. One of the principal branches of the Miami 
river is called Mad River, or Pickawee Fork. This is a 
pleafant ftream, and pafles through an agreeable level 
country of the greateft fertility. 
Miami (Little), difcharges itfelf, after a fouth-weftern 
courfe, into the Ohio, about 300 miles below Marietta. 
It is 70 miles in length, and at its mouth 70 miles wide. 
Its depth of water does not allow the pafiage of loaded 
boats. 
Miami of the Lahe, fometimes called Omee and Maii- 
mieh, is a confiderable ftream,, navigable with canoes to 
the portages which lead to the head of the Wabafti, and 
through Au Glaze, one of its branches, towards the head 
of Loromie’s creek, a head-water of the Great Miami. 
Its portage is three miles. The river falls into Lake Erie, 
at the louth-weft corner of the lake. On this river there 
is a village called Miami, near Miami fort. 
MI'AMIS, an Indian nation, which inhabit the vici¬ 
nity of the Miami river, and the fouthern fide of the lake 
Michigan. Thefe people can raife about 300 warriors. 
In confequence of lands ceded to the United States by 
the treaty of Greenville, Auguft 3d, 1795, government 
paid them a fum in hand, and engaged to pay them an¬ 
nually, for ever, to the value of 1000 dollars in goods. 
MI'AMIN, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
MI'AN-KO'H, a mountain of Perfia, in the province 
of Chorofan: thirty miles fouth of Abiverd. 
MI'AN-SHE'HR, a town of Perfia, in the province of 
Ghilan : fifty miles north-weft of Refhd. 
MIA'NA, a town cf Perfia, in the province of Adir- 
beitzan. This is the place where the celebrated travel¬ 
ler M. Thevenot died on his return from Ifpahan. It is 
forty-five miles fouth of Ardebil, and lixty iouth-eaft of 
Tabris. Lat. 37. 12. N. Ion. 47. 22. E. 
MIA'NA, a town of Italy, in the, Bellunefe : twenty- 
four miles weft-north-weft of Beiluno. 
MIA'O-TCHING', a town of China, of the third rank, 
in Chan-fi: feventeen miles fouth-weft of Kiai. 
MI'ASLOW NOW'E. See Kortschin, vol. xi. 
MI'ASM, or Mias'ma, f. [from p.ia.tvu, Gr. to infedt.] 
Such particles or atoms as are fuppofed to ariie from dil- 
tempered, putrefying, or poifonous, bodies, and to affedt 
people at a diftance.—The plague is a malignant fever, 
caufed through peftilential miafms infinuating into the 
humoral and confiftent parts of the body. Harvey on Con- 
J’umptions. 
MIASMAT'IC, adj. Contagious; infectious. 
MIAS'SA, a town of Italy, in the Bellunefe: five mile* 
eaft of Beiluno. 
MI ATA', one of the Society Iflands in the South Pa¬ 
cific Ocean. Lat. 7. 52. S. ion. 148. 6. W. 
MIATAU', a duller of fmall iflands in the Chinefe 
Sea, near the coaft of Chan-tong, extending from fix to 
thirty-fix miles north of Tong-tcheou. 
MIATHIR', a town of Morocco, in the province of 
Duguela, near a mountain of the fame name. 
MIB'HAR, [Hebrew.] A Scripture name. 
MIB'SAN, [Hebrew.] A man’s name, in Scripture. 
MI'CA, /! [from mico, Lat. tolhine.] Muscovy Glass* 
or Glimmer; in mineralogy, a genus of argillaceous 
earth. Generic characters—Confifting of filex and alu- 
mine, with a fmall proportion of oxyd of iron, and ge¬ 
nerally a little magnelia and lime ; glabrous, meagre, 
lhining, fpontaneoufly falling into granular fragments, 
eafily breaking into difcoid fragments, lightifti, parafiti- 
cal; fufible before the blow-pipe into a white or coloured 
enamel. 
Mica is fo called from its glittering appearance; by 
which it may in general be eafily recognized in compound 
rocks, as granite, gneis, &c. When diftinCtly cryftal- 
lized, which does not often happen, its form is ulually 
an hexhedral plate; and, according to Sauflure, thele 
plates are almoft always fet on their edges. Sometimes a 
a great number being clofely applied to each other pro 
duce a fix-fided prifm. In whatever form mica occurs, 
it has the peculiar property of being divifible into laminae 
to any extent; which often, Amply in confequence of 
their extreme tenacity, refleCt the colours of the rain¬ 
bow. Haiiy fays, that by calculation he found the thick- 
nefs of fome of thefe laminae to be not more than the fix 
hundred thoufandth part of an inch. When the cryftal- 
line laminae of mica are in complete contact with each 
other throughout the whole extent of their furface, they 
are ufually tranfparent; otherwife they are not, unlelg 
divided into very thin plates : but the facility with which 
mica may be fo divided renders it peculiarly proper for 
enclofing minute objects to be viewed by the microlcope. 
Mica is a conftituent part of almoft all granite; and ap¬ 
pears to have been originally cryftallized in the body of 
that compound rock. It is alfo commonly met with in 
fand-ltones and fecondary fchifti: in which cafe it ia 
hardly to be conlidered as the refult of cryftallization; 
but as the detritus of cryftallized mica, that has been 
fubfequently depofited with the other component parta 
of the ftrata in which it occurs. There are eleven 
fpecies. 
1. Mica membranacea, or Mufcovy talc: tranfparent, 
with large parallel elallic eafily-feparable plates. Found 
in Malabar, Siberia, Ruflia, Finland, France, and neaF 
Geneva, in large plates, which are often fubftituted in 
Ruflia inftead of glafs ; and, when employed in the win¬ 
dows of flips of war, which till lately was the common 
cuftoin, has the advantage of glafs in not being liable to 
be flattered by the fliock of cannon : but by expofure it 
lofes its tranfparency. According to Ellis’s account, this 
fpecies of mica occurs in large plates in Hudfon’s Bay; 
and Kalm found it in Pennlylvania, in leaves of half a 
yard in diameter, and of equal tranfparency with the Si¬ 
berian kind. Indeed the Swedes, who from 1630 to 1655 
had colonies in New Jerley and Pennfylvania, employed 
it, as the Ruffians do, inftead of glafs in the windows. 
Not being eafily injured by fire, it makes a very good 
fubllitute for glafs in the conftrudlion of lanterns, &c. 
Befides the name of Vitrum Mufcoviticum, or Mulcovite 
glafs, it is fometimes called (diodes Maria ; becaufe em¬ 
ployed, when broken into fmall pieces or Icales, in, /rolling 
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