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 of slender needles arranged in divergent groups or of delicate fibres loosely matted together. The colour is brass-yellow and the lustre metallic. Before the chemical composition of the mineral had been determined it had been known as “capillary pyrites” or “hair pyrites” (Ger. Haarkies), and was not distinguished from the capillary forms of pyrites and marcasite: the name millerite was given by W. Haidinger in 1845, in honour of W. H. Miller. The hardness is 3–3 and the specific gravity 5·65. There are perfect cleavages parallel to the faces of the rhombohedron (100); and gliding planes parallel to the faces of the rhombohedron (110), on which secondary twinning may be readily produced artificially by pressure.

Typical specimens of millerite are found in the coal measures in the neighbourhood of Merthyr Tydvil in South Wales, where the delicate needles and fibres occur with crystals of quartz and pearl-spar in the fissures of septarian nodules of clay-ironstone. Radiating groups of needles are found with ankerite in cavities in haematite in the Sterling mine at Antwerp in Jefferson county, New York. At the Gap mine in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, the mineral occurs as fibrous encrusting masses with a velvety lustre. The most perfect crystals are those formerly found with calcite, diopside and a bright green chrome-garnet in a nickel mine at Orford in Sherbrooke county, Quebec.

 MILLER’S THUMB (Cottus gobio), a small fish, abundant in all rivers and lakes of northern and central Europe with clear water and gravelly bottom. The genus Cottus, to which the miller’s thumb belongs, is easily recognized by its broad, flat head, rounded and scaleless body, large pectoral and narrow ventral fins, with two dorsal fins, the anterior shorter than the posterior; the praeoperculum is armed with a simple or branched spine. The species of the genus Cottus are rather numerous, and are confined to the north temperate zone of the globe, the majority being marine, and known by the name of “bullheads.” The miller’s thumb is confined to fresh water; and only one other freshwater species is found in Europe, C. poecilopus, from rivers of Hungary, Galicia, and the Pyrenees; some others occur in the fresh waters of northern Asia and North America. The miller’s thumb is common in all suitable localities in Great Britain, but is extremely rare in Ireland; in the Alps it reaches to an altitude of 7000 ft. Its usual length is from 3 to 5 in. Generally hidden under a stone or in a hollow of the bank, it watches for its prey, which consists of small aquatic animals, and darts when disturbed with extraordinary rapidity to some other place of refuge. The female deposits her ova in a cavity under a stone, whilst the male watches and defends them until the young are hatched and able to shift for themselves.

 MILLET, FRANCIS DAVIS (1846–), American artist, was born at Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, on the 3rd of November 1846. He was a drummer boy with the Union forces in the Civil War; graduated from Harvard College in 1869; and in 1871 entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, where he studied under Van Lerius and De Keyser. In 1873 he was made secretary of the Massachusetts commission to the Vienna Exposition. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 he was correspondent of the London Daily News and Graphic, and of the New York Herald. On his return he was made a member from the United States of the International Art Jury at the Paris Exposition of 1878. He was director of decorations at the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, and in 1898 he went to Manila as war correspondent for The Times and for Harper’s Weekly. In 1880 he became a member of the Society of American Artists, and in 1885 was elected to full membership in the National Academy of Design, New York, and was for one term its vice-president; he became a member also of the American Water Color Society and of the Institute of Painters in Oil Colours, London. As a decorative artist his work may be seen at Trinity Church, Boston; the Bank of Pittsburg; and the Capitol at St Paul, Minnesota. His pictures are in many public collections: among them are “A Cosy Corner,” in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; “At the Inn,” in the

Union League Club, New York; and “Between two Fires,” in the Tate Gallery, London. He also wrote essays and short stories, and an English version of Tolstoi’s Sebastopol (1887); and among his publications are The Danube (1891), Capillary Crime and other Stories (1892), and Expedition to the Philippines (1899).

 MILLET (or ), JEAN FRANÇOIS (c. 1642–1679), commonly called, was born at Antwerp about 1642, and is generally classed amongst the painters of Flanders on account of the accident of his birth. But his father was a Frenchman, a turner in ivory of Dijon, who took service with the prince of Condé and probably returned after a time to his native country. He remained long enough in Antwerp to apprentice his son to an obscure member of a painter family called Laurent, pupil of Gabriel Franck. With Laurent, Francisque left Antwerp for Paris, and there settled in 1660 after marrying his master’s daughter. He was received a member of the Academy of Painting at Paris in 1673, and after gaining consideration as an imitator of the Poussins he died in 1679, bequeathing his art and some of his talents to one of his sons. Francisque probably knew, as well as imitated, Nicolas Poussin, Gaspar Dughet and Sebastian Bourdon; and it is doubtless because of his acquaintance with these travelled artists that, being himself without familiarity with the classic lands of Italy and Greece, he was able to imagine and reproduce Italian and Arcadian scenery with considerable grace and effectiveness. It is indeed surprising to observe, even at this day how skilfully he executed these imaginary subjects, enlivened them with appropriate figures, and shed over them the glow of a warm yet fresh and sparkling tone. Twelve of his most important landscapes, which remained in the palace of the Tuileries, were destroyed by fire; and though many of his pieces may still be found catalogued in Continental and English collections, others in great number remain unknown and unacknowledged.

His son, the younger (1666–1723), also called Francisque, was born in Paris, and was made a member of the Academy of Painting in 1709. He is not quite so independent in his art as his father; but he had clever friends, and when he wanted figures to his landscapes, he consulted Watteau, and other followers of the “court shepherdess” school. In the museum of Grenoble is a “Paysage” by him which is prettily adorned with Watteau’s figures.

MILLET, JEAN FRANÇOIS (1814–1875), French painter, who came of a peasant family, was born on the 4th of October 1814 in the hamlet of Gruchy, near Greville (La Manche), in the wild and picturesque district called La Hague. His boyhood was passed working in his father’s fields, but the sight of the engravings in an old illustrated Bible set him drawing, and thenceforth, whilst the others slept, the daily hour of rest was spent by Millet in trying to render the familiar scenes around him. From the village priest the lad learnt to read the Bible and Virgil in Latin, and acquired an interest in one or two other works of a high class which accompanied him through life; he did not, however, attract attention so much by his acquirements as by the stamp of his mind. The whole family seems, indeed, to have worn a character of austerity and dignity, and when Millet’s father finally decided to test the vocation of his son as an artist, it was with a gravity and authority which recalls the patriarchal households of Calvinist France. Two drawings were prepared and placed before a painter at Cherbourg named Mouchel, who at once recognized the boy’s gifts, and accepted him as a pupil; but shortly after (1835) Millet’s father died, and the eldest son, with heroic devotion, took his place at home, nor did he return to his work until the pressing calls from without were solemnly enforced by the wishes of his own family. He accordingly went back to Cherbourg, but after a short time spent there with another master (Langlois) started with many misgivings for Paris. The council-general of the department had granted him a sum of 600 francs, and the town council promised an annual pension of 400, but in spite of friendly help and introductions Millet went through great difficulties. The system of the École des Beaux Arts