The deposit of silver on glass is not so adherent and unalterable
under the influence of sunlight and sulphurous fumes as the
tin-mercury amalgam, and, moreover, real silvered glass has in many
cases a slightly yellowish tinge. These defects have been overcome
by a process introduced by Lenoir, which consists of brushing over
the silvered surface with a dilute solution of cyanide of mercury,
which, instantaneously forming a kind of amalgam, renders the
deposit at once much whiter and more firmly adherent than before.
To protect the thin metallic film from mechanical injury and the
chemical action of gases and vapours it is coated with shellac or
copal varnish, over which, when dry, are applied two coatings of
red-lead paint or an electrolytically-deposited film of copper. This
precaution only applies when the silver forms the back of the
mirror.
Platinum Mirrors.—A cheap process of preparing mirror glass was to some extent prosecuted in France, whereby a thin but very adherent deposit of platinum is formed on the glass. A solution of chloride of platinum with a proportion of litharge and borate of lead dissolved in essential oil of spike is applied with a brush to well-cleaned glass, which is then placed on edge in a muffle furnace, and the platinum is thus burned in, forming an exceedingly thin but brilliant metallic backing having a somewhat grey lustre. It was used only for the lids of cheap boxes, toys, ornamental letters, &c.
Magic Mirrors.—Hand mirrors of metal are still in common use in Oriental countries, and in Japan bronze mirrors possess a religious significance. They have been known and used from the most remote period, mention of them being found in Chinese literature of the 9th century. The (reputed) first made Japanese mirror, preserved at Isé, is an object of the highest veneration in Japan, and an ancient mirror, connected with which is a tradition to the effect that it was given by the sun-goddess at the foundation of the empire, is a principal article of the Japanese regalia. The mirrors of Japan in general consist of thin disks, from 3 to 12 in. in diameter, of speculum metal with handles, cast in one piece. The polished face of the mirror is slightly convex in form, so that a reflected image is seen proportionately reduced in size; the back of the disk is occupied with ornamentation and inscriptions in bold relief, and its rim is also raised to the back. Much attention has been attracted to these mirrors by a singular physical peculiarity which in a few cases they are found to possess. These are known as magic mirrors from the fact that when a strong beam of light is reflected from their smooth and polished surface, and thrown on a white screen, an image of the raised ornaments and characters on the back of the mirror is formed with more or less distinctness in the disk of light on the screen. This peculiarity has at no time been specially observed by the Japanese, but in China it attracted attention as early as the 11th century, and mirrors possessed of this property sell among the Chinese at ten or even twenty times the price sought for the ordinary nonsensitive examples. The true explanation of the magic mirror was first suggested by the French physicist Charles Cléophas Person in 1847, who observed that the reflecting surface of the mirrors was not uniformly convex, the portions opposite relief surfaces being plane. Therefore, as he says, “the rays reflected from the convex portion diverge and give but a feebly illuminated image, while, on the contrary, the rays reflected from the plane portions of the mirror preserve their parallelism, and appear on the screen as an image by reason of their contrast with the feebler illumination of the rest of, the disk.” Such differences of plane in the mirror surface are accidental, being due to the manner in which it is prepared, a process explained by W. E. Ayrton and J. Perry (Proc. Roy. Soc., 1878, vol. xxviii.), by whom ample details of the history, process of manufacture and composition of Oriental mirrors have been published. A preliminary operation in polishing the surface consists of scoring the cast disk in every direction with a sharp tool. The thicker portions with relief ornament offer more resistance to the pressure of the tool than the thin flat portions, which tend to yield and form at first a concave surface, but this by the reaction of its elasticity rises afterwards and forms a slightly convex surface, while the more rigid thick, portions are comparatively little affected. This irregularity of surface is inconspicuous in ordinary light, and does not visibly distort images; but when the mirror reflects a bright light on a screen the unequal radiation renders the minute differences of surface obvious.
MIRZAPUR, a city and district of British India, in the Benares division of the United Provinces. The city is on the right bank of the Ganges; a station on the East Indian railway, about halfway between Allahabad and Benares, 509 m. N.W. from Calcutta. Pop. (1901), 79,862. The river front, lined with stone ghats or flights of stairs, mosques, Hindu temples and dwelling-houses of the wealthier merchants, is handsome; but the interior of the town is mainly composed of mud huts. Formerly it was the emporium of trade between central India and Bengal, which has now been diverted to the railways. It has European and native lace factories, and manufactures brass vessels and woollen carpets. The London Mission manages a high school and an orphanage. The municipal limits include the town of Bindhachal, an important centre of pilgrimage, with the shrine of Vindhyeshwari.
The District of Mirzapur extends into the Sone valley. Area, 5238 sq. m. It is crossed from east to west by the Vindhya and Kaimur ranges. A central jungly plateau connects these and separates the valley of the Ganges from that of the Sone. The part north of the Vindhyas is highly cultivated and thickly peopled, but the rest of the district consists largely of ravines and forests with a sparse population. The population in 1901 was 1,082,430, showing a decrease of 6·8% in the decade. The district comprises a large part of the hereditary domains of the raja of Benares, which are revenue-free. It is traversed, near the Ganges, by the main line of the East Indian railway. The Great Southern road used to start from the city.
MISCARRIAGE, in its widest sense a going astray, a failure. In law, the word is used in several phrases; thus, a miscarriage of justice is a failure of the law to attain its ends. In the Statute of Frauds (29 Car. II., c. 3) in the expression “debt, default or miscarriage of another,” the word has sometimes been interpreted as equivalent in meaning to default, but it is more usually considered to mean a species of wrongful act for the consequence of which the law makes a party civilly responsible. The term is also used (see Abortion) for the premature expulsion of the contents of the womb before the period of gestation is complete.
MISCEGENATION (from Lat. miscere, to mix, and genus, race), a mixture or blending of two races, particularly of a white with a black or negro race.
MISCELLANY, a term applied to a single book containing articles, treatises or other writings dealing with a variety of different subjects. It is a common title in the literature of the 17th and 18th centuries. The word is an adaptation of Lat. miscellanea (from miscellaneus, mixed, miscere, to mix), used in this sense by Tertullian, Miscellanea Ptolemaei (Tert. adv. Val. 12); the ordinary use of the word in Latin was for a dish of broken meats, applied by Juvenal (xi. 20) to the coarse food of gladiators.
The Lat. miscellaneus has affected the form of a word which is now usually spelled “maslin,” applied to a mixture of various kinds of grain, especially rye and wheat. This, however, is really from the O. Fr. mesteillon; Late Lat. mistilio, formed from mistus, past participle of miscere, to mix, mingle.
MISCHIEF, a term meaning originally calamity, trouble; now used particularly of annoying injuries or damage done in play or through petty spite. The word is derived through O. Fr. meschef, mod. méchef, from meschever, to do wrong, mes- amiss, and chever, bring to a head (chef, Lat. caput).
MISDEMEANOUR (from O. Fr. mes- and demener, to conduct oneself ill), the generic term used in English law to include all those offences against the criminal law which are not by common law or statute made treason or felony. In Russell on Crimes it is defined as a crime for which the law has not provided a particular name (6th ed., i. 193). The term misprision, at one time applied to the more heinous offences of this class, is now almost obsolete. The term misdemeanour includes not only all indictable offences below the degree of felony, some of them grave crimes, such as sedition, riot and perjury, but also the petty misdemeanours, which may be dealt with summarily by justices of the peace, and the most trifling breaches of local by-laws.
As a matter of legal history, many misdemeanours now represent what were originally described as trespasses against the peace, a phrase which is equivalent to a “tort” or delict, accompanied by circumstances calling for prosecution in the interest of the Crown and the public as well as for civil proceedings by the injured parties. Such acts as riot, public nuisance, sedition and the different forms of libel naturally came to be regarded as wrongs against the king’s peace. Many of the early statutes anent justices are particularly concerned with the punishment of rioters; and some offences now treated as misdemeanours belonged to the spiritual and not to the temporal courts, e.g. perjury.
While it is true that almost all crimes which in the middle ages were considered heinous fall into the categories of treason or felony, many statutory misdemeanours differ so little, if at all,
