502 M 1 T 
cheefe or corn ; a weevil. See Acarus firo.—The Idea 
of two is as dilfinff from the idea of three, as the mag¬ 
nitude of the earth from that of a mile. Locke. 
The polilh’d glafs, whole (mail convex 
Enlarges to ten millions of degrees. 
The mite invifible elfe. Philips. 
The twentieth part of a grain.—The Seville piece of eight 
contains thirteen pennyweights twenty-one grains and 
fifteen mites, of which there are twenty in the grain, of 
fterling filver; and is in value forty-three Englifli pence 
and eleven hundredths of a penny. Arhuthnot. —Half a 
farthing.—She threw in two mites, which make a farthing. 
JJL fork xii. 41.—Any thing proverbially fimall; 
Though any man’s corn they do bite. 
They will not allow him a mile. Tuffer. 
Are you defrauded, when he feeds the poor? 
Our mite decreafes nothing of your ftore. Drydcn. 
Did I e’er my mite with-hold 
From the impotent and old ? Swift. 
A fmall particle.—Put blue-bottles into an ant-hill, they 
will be ftained with red, becaufe the ants thruft in their 
(tings, and inftil into them a fmall mite of their Hinging 
liquor, which hath the fame effect as oil of vitriol. Ray 
on Creation. 
MITEL'LA, f. [the form of the fruit being fomewhat 
like a mitre.] In botany, a genus of the clafs decandria, 
order digynia-, natural order of fucculentce, (faxifragae, 
Jnjf.) Generic characters—Calyx: perianthiumone-leafed, 
half-five-cleft, bell-fiiaped, permanent. Corolla: petals 
five, multifid-capillary, tw'ice as large as the calyx, and 
inferted into it. Stamina: filaments ten, awl-lhaped, in- 
ferted into the calyx, Ihorter than the corolla; anthers: 
■roundilh. Piftillum : germ roundiih, bifid ; ftyles fcarcely 
any; ftigmas blunt. Pericarpium: capfule ovate, one- 
celled, half-two-valved; valves flat, rolled back at top, 
equal. Seeds: very many.— EJfential Ckarafter. Calyx 
five-cleft; corolla five-petalled, inferted into the calyx; 
petals pinnatifid ; capfule one-celied, tw'o-valved; valves 
equal. There are four fpecies. 
1. Mitella diphyila, or tw’o-leaved mitella: leaves heart- 
fliaped ; fcape two-leaved. Root perennial, from which 
come out many heart-ihaped angular leaves, home of which 
are obtufe, and others end in acute points; they are in¬ 
dented on their edges, of a lucid green, a little hairy, and 
Hand upon pretty long foot-ftalks. The flower-ftalks 
arife immediately from the root, having two or three an¬ 
gular leaves towards the bottom, and about the middle 
of the (talk come out two fmall leaves with acute angles, 
placed oppofite. The ftalks rife eight or nine inches high, 
and are terminated by a loofe fpike of fmall whitiih flow¬ 
ers, the petals of which are fringed on their edges. They 
appear the beginning of June. Native of moll parts of 
North America, in w r oods. 
1. Mitella cordifolia, or heart-leaved mitella : leaves 
heart-ihaped, with briftly teeth; fcape nearly naked. Sup- 
poled by Willdenow, we know not on what foundation, 
to be a native of the north of Alia. Michaux found it 
in Canada. This appears to dift’er from the preceding in 
having fharper brillle-pointed teeth to the leaves, and only 
one very fmall leaf, with a few fcales, on the (talk. 
3. Mitella prollrata, or prollrate mitella: Hems prof- 
trate; root creeping; leaves alternate, roundilh-hcart- 
fhaped, fharpilh, with flight obtufe lobes. Native of the 
fouthern limits of Canada. 
4. Mitella nuda, or naked mitella: leaves kidney- 
ftiaped; fcape naked. This feldom rifes more than five 
or fix inches high. The leaves are not fo angular as thole 
of the firft lort; the flower-ftalks are always naked, the 
fpikes of flowers Ihort.er, and more compact. Native of 
Siberia and North America. 
Thefe plants are increafed by parting the roots in au¬ 
tumn. They love lhade, and a foft loamy foil. See BiXA 
and Ti ark 1,la. 
M I T 
MITEL'LA, f. in furgery, a fcarf for fu[pending a 
wounded or bruifed arm. 
MI rES'CENT, adj. [front mitefco, Lat. to grow mild.] 
Growing mild.' 
MIT'GAING, a town of Hindooftan, in the circar of 
Surgooja : forty miles north of Surgooja. 
MITH'CAH, [Hebrew.] The name of a place. 
MITH'NITE, J\ [Hebrew.] One of a people. 1 Citron, ii. 
MI'THRAS, an ancient god of the Perfians, whom 
they worlhipped, as Plutarch fays, according to the laws 
ot Zoroafter, invoking him as the mediator between Oro- 
rnazes and Arimanius. Mithras was fuppofed to be the 
Sun ; to him they offered facrifices, and addreffed their 
prayers, and they had priefts fet apart for fervice ; and 
they alfo w'orfhipped fire as an emblem of the fun ; but 
they had neither temples, ftatues, nor altars. This Mith¬ 
ras was not well known in Europe until his worlhip was 
brought to Rome, which happened, according to Plutarch, 
in the time of the Piratic war, A.U.C. 687. It is from 
this epoch, and more efpecially from the time of the 
fecond and third century of the Chriftian era, that the 
worlhip and myfteries of this divinity were celebrated at 
Rome. That the Romans worlhipped Mithras as the fun, 
is evident from an infcription dated in the third confu- 
late of Trajan, or about the year of Chrift 101. This is 
the dedication of an altar to the Sun, under the name of 
Mitlira, deo Soli inviflo Bli three. This epithet, invincible, 
is frequently given to the Sun upon other monuments, 
and it denotes that luminary to be the firft and lord of 
all the reft. But the worlhip of Mithras was not known, 
in Egypt and Syria in the time of Origen, who died about 
the year of Chrift 263 ; though it was common at Rome 
for more than a century before this time. The myfteries 
of Mithras were both impious and abominable, llnce hu¬ 
man vidtims were offered on this occafion. The barba* 
rous cuftom of facrificing men was aboliflied by Adrian, 
but reftored again by Commodus, as Lampridius informs 
us. This worlhip made great progrefs in fucceeding ages. 
It was not only fpread through Italy and Greece ; but it 
appears from Socrates and Sozomen, that the Egyptians,, 
and particularly the people of Alexandria, worlhipped the 
fame divinity. Mithras was alfo known in the ifland of 
Crete; and that he was worlhipped by the Gauls appears 
by a figure of this god found at Lyons. The worlhip of 
this divinity was not only extenlive, but of long du¬ 
ration ; for it was not deftroyed when the emperors em¬ 
braced Chriftianity; but at length it was proferibed at 
Rome in the year 378, by order of Gracchus, prefect of 
the praetorium. According to M. Freret, the feafts of 
Mithras were derived from Chaldea, where they had been 
inftituted for celebrating the entrance of the Sun into the 
fign Taurus. 
In the year 1747, in digging the foundation of a large 
houfe, in the llreet called Micklegate, at York, the work¬ 
men went much below any former foundation that could 
be obferved on this fpot; and, at the depth of ten feet, 
came to a Hone, which on taking up appeared to have 
figures on it, but miferably defaced. Mr. Drake, F. R. S. 
fent a drawing of it to Dr. Stukely, who foon after re¬ 
turned the following explanation of this uncommon piece 
of fculpture. “ The drawing you lent of the bas-relief, 
dug up in a cellar in Micklegate, is a great curiofity. It 
is a Iculpture of Mithras, as ufual, facrificing a bull. He 
has on the Perfian mantle called candys, and the Phrygian 
bonnet called tyura. He reprelents the archimagus, per¬ 
forming the great annual facrifice, at the fpring-equinox, 
according to the patriarchal ufage. Thefe ceremonies to 
Mithras were generally celebrated in a cave of a rock; there¬ 
fore this fculpture was found fo deep in the earth. There 
is commonly a figure on each fide of him, habite^ in the 
fame manner, Handing crofs-legged : the one holds a 
torch up, the other down : there is only the latter in your 
fculpture; the other is imperfect. Underneath is the fi¬ 
gure of a horfe, denoting the lun’s courle : for in litne, 
wiieu the old patriarchal cuftoms became profaned, and 
defecrated 
