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 previously cleaned with cedar oil) dry like a paraffin block. The method is more tedious and more messy than the paraffin process; but amongst its advantages must be reckoned that little or no heat is required, and that the embedding mass is transparent, though it does not allow of such thin sections as paraffin.

The above accounts present an outline of the complex processes employed to-day, by which, on the one hand, sections 30 in thickness may be made through the entire human brain; and, on the other, organisms invisible to the naked eye may be cut into a long ribbon of consecutive sections 1 (one-thousandth of a millimetre) thick, every minutest fragment being retained in its proper place.

 MIDAS, the name of several Phrygian kings. The first of these was said to have been the son of Gordius and Cybele, whose first priest he was, and in whose honour he founded a temple at Pessinus. Having taken the drunken Silenus back to his youthful charge Dionysus, he was rewarded by the god with the power of transforming everything he touched into gold. Finding himself in danger of starvation, even his food and drink being changed by his touch, Midas entreated Dionysus to take back the gift. By the command of the god he bathed in the river Pactolus, which henceforth became auriferous (Ovid, Metam. xi. 85–145; Hyginus, Fab. 191). Another story connects him with the musical contest between Apollo and Marsyas (or Pan). Having decided against the god, his ears were changed into those of an ass. He concealed them under a Phrygian cap; but the secret was discovered by his barber, who, being unable to keep it, dug a hole in the ground and whispered into it “Midas has the ears of an ass.” He then filled up the hole, thinking his secret safe; but the reeds which grew up over the spot proclaimed it to all the world. Midas with the ass’s ears was a frequent subject of the Attic satyr-drama. There is no doubt that Midas was the name of one or more real persons around whom religious legends have grown up. The name “Midas the king” occurs on a very ancient tomb in the valley of the Sangarius, the legendary seat of the Phrygian kingdom. The Phrygian monarchy was destroyed by the Cimmerians about 670, and the name Midas became in Greek tradition the representative of this ancient dynasty.

 MIDDELBURG, the ancient capital of the province of Zeeland, Holland, in the middle of the island of Walcheren, 4 m. by rail N. by E. of Flushing, with which it is also connected by steam tramway and by ship canal (1873), which continues to Veere on the N.E. coast, with a branch eastward to Arnemuiden. Pop. (1903), 19,002. Middelburg contains many splendid old houses, which recall the prosperity which distinguished it until the end of the 18th century. The beautiful town-hall, built by Anton Keldermans about 1512, with a square tower 180 ft. high, and a façade adorned with statues of the counts and countesses of Zeeland and Holland, contains the valuable city archives and antiquarian and historical collections. The old abbey of St Nicholas, founded in 1150, and now occupied by the provincial council, has some fine old tapestry of the end of the 16th century. The building was added to in the 14th and 15th centuries, and partly rebuilt after a fire in 1492. It was the scene in 1505 of a meeting of the knights of the Golden Fleece, and was frequently the residence of royal visitors, including Maximilian, Philip the Fair and Charles V. The abbot of Middelburg formerly possessed a vote of his own in the Provincial States. What was formerly the nave of the abbey church is now the New Church, and the ancient choir constitutes the Choir Church. These churches are interesting for the monuments of William II., count of Holland, king of the Romans (d. 1256), the 16th century scholar Hadrian Junius, and Jan Pieterszoon; and the tombs of Jan and Cornelius Evertsen, who fell in the naval war against England in 1666. The high tower (280 ft.), known as de lange Jan, standing apart from the church contains a good chime of bells. The corn exchange, the hof St Joris and the hof St Sebastian (formerly buildings belonging to the gilds of archers, and now places of amusement) also deserve mention. The museum of antiquities belonging to the Zeeland Society of Arts and Sciences (founded at Flushing in 1769, and transferred to Middelburg in 1801) contains a complete collection of the fauna and flora of the province, many maps, plans and drawings relating to Zeeland, the first telescope made by Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Jansen in Middelburg in 1608, and some provincial Roman antiquities.

The extensive trade which Middelburg formerly carried on with the East and West Indies and with England and Flanders, was ruined by the war with England and the French occupation. But the construction of the railway in 1872, followed by the opening of the ship canal and the large dock (1876), as well as the establishment, by the aid of the chamber of commerce, of certain manufacturing industries (iron, machinery, furniture, oil and cigars), lifted it out of its isolation.  MIDDELBURG, a town of the Transvaal, 98 m. E. by rail of Pretoria, and 251 m. W. of Lourenco Marques. Pop. (1904), 5085—of whom 2343 were whites. It is prettily situated on the high veld, 5090 ft. above the sea, on one of the head streams of the Olifants River. Middelburg is the chief town of an administrative division of the same name, and is a trading centre for a large district. It is also the centre of one of the richest coalfields in South Africa. From some of the adjacent collieries excellent steam coal is obtained. Copper and cobalt are found in the neighbourhood.

Middelburg was chosen in 1901 as the place of conference for peace negotiations between the British and the Boers. After the occupation of Pretoria in June 1900 by Lord Roberts the Boer forces had been reduced to guerilla warfare, and Lord Kitchener, learning that the Transvaal commandants were despondent, invited General Botha to enter into negotiations, on the basis of the recognition of British sovereignty. The conference between Lord Kitchener and General Botha was opened on the 28th of February and the negotiations, which ended in failure, were protracted until the 16th of March (see
 * History, § The War of 1899–1902).

 MIDDLE AGES, THE. This name is commonly given to that period of European history which lies between what are known as ancient and modern times, and which has generally been considered as extending from about the middle of the 5th to about the middle of the 15th centuries. The two dates adopted in old textbooks were 476 and 1453, from the setting aside of the last emperor in the West until the fall of Constantinople. In reality it is impossible to assign any exact dates for the opening and close of such a period. The trend of recent historical research leads one even to doubt the validity of the very conception of any definite medieval period. The evolution of modern European society has been continuous. Progress has not been uniform. There was much retrogression with the intrusion of new barbarian races; but from their absorption by the 10th century until the 20th there is not a century in which some notable gain was not made towards the attainments of modern civilization. The correct perspective places between the summits of modern and ancient times, not a long level stretch of a thousand years, with mankind stationary, spell-bound under the authority of the Church, absorbed in war or monastic dreams, but a downward and then a long upward slope, on both of which the forces which make for civilization may be seen at work.

It is clear that a survey of the history of these so-called middle ages—long use makes the term inevitable—must include not only the political phase, but also economics, religion, law, science, literature, &c., since all are involved in the concept. A hurried outline of each of these vital branches of our civilization will at once reveal the falseness of the usual periodizing. It is only after having traced these one by one that we can properly review the process as a whole. 