has large interests in lumber, iron ore, and salt, and manufactures cars, chairs, etc. It has an outer or refuge harbor created by the Federal Government. Pop. (1910) 19,027; (1920) 19,457.
MICHIGAN COLLEGE OF MINES, a mining school at Houghton, Mich., part of the University of Michigan, founded in 1885. In the college there are 157 students with a faculty numbering 26. Nine college buildings make the physical basis of the institution, one of which is a library containing 30,000 volumes. Its entire support is the appropriation granted by the State of Michigan.
MICHIGAN, LAKE, one of the great fresh-water lakes between the United States and Canada, being the second largest lake in the world. Lake Superior being the largest. Unlike the other four big lakes, it lies wholly within United States territory. It is 320 miles long and averages 76 miles in width. Its surface is 581 feet above sea-level.
MICHIGAN, UNIVERSITY OF, a coeducational non-sectarian institution in Ann Arbor, Mich.; founded in 1837; reported at the close of 1919: Professors and instructors, 500; students, 7,000; volumes in the library, 413,666; endowment funds, $1,393,304; grounds and buildings valued at $8,075,660; income, $1,393,304; number of graduates. 36,789; president, Harry B. Hutchins.
MICHOACAN (mē-chō-ä-kän′), one of the States of Mexico, on the Pacific Coast; area 22,874 square miles; pop. about 1,000,000. It is to a large extent elevated and mountainous, among the mountains being the volcano of Jorullo; has rich mines of gold, silver, and other minerals. Capital Morelia; pop. about 40,000.
MICMACS, a tribe of Algonquin Indians, the first with whom the English came in contact in America; they remained hostile to the English and their colonies till 1760. They number from 3,000 to 4,000, and are mostly in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, Newfoundland, and New Brunswick.
MICROBES. See Bacteria.
MICROCOSM and MACROCOSM. The belief of the ancients that the world or cosmos was animated, or had a soul, led to the notion that the parts and members of organic beings must have their counterparts in the members of the cosmos. The natural philosophers of the 16th century—Paracelsus at their head—took up this notion anew in a somewhat modified shape, and considered the world as a human organism on the large scale, and man as a world, or cosmos, in miniature; hence they called man a microcosm (Greek, “little world”) and the universe itself the macrocosm (“great world”). With this was associated the belief that the vital movements of the microcosm exactly corresponded to those of the macrocosm, and represented them as it were in copy. From this it was an easy transition to the further assumption, that the movements of the stars exercise an influence on the temperament and fortunes of men. See Astrology.
MICROMETER (-krom′-), an instrument used with a telescope or microscope to measure small distances, or the apparent diameters of objects which subtend very small angles. Micrometers are variously constructed. The field of the telescope may be provided with a graduated scale, or a metallic ring, or a diaphragm having parallel and intersecting spider-lines or fine wires. The micrometer with a graduated scale is used for measuring distances by direct comparison.
MICRO-ORGANISM, any microscopic being of the animal or vegetable kingdom. See Bacteria.
MICROPHONE. See Telephone.
MICROSCOPE, an optical instrument by which objects are so magnified that details invisible or indistinct to the naked eye are clearly seen. In a simple microscope the magnifying power is interposed directly between the eye and the object, in the manner of a magnifying glass; and though the power may consist of several lenses, they combine as one; a triple set, of which either lens can be used singly, or any two, or all in combination, is usual. In a compound microscope, an aërial magnified image of the object is projected by one lens in the manner of a magic lantern, and this image is looked at and further magnified by a second power as in the simple microscope.
MICROSCOPY, CLINICAL, the employment of the microscope to detecting pathological and physiological conditions. It has become one of the most important departments of medical science, and has been especially valuable in the discovery of the bacilli of diseases, heretofore considered almost incurable. The most common form of microscopic examination is the blood test. The greatest strides in medical therapeutics in the
