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940 Useful Insects (1902); House, Garden and Field (1904); The Early Naturalists (1912). He died at Leeds Feb. 21 1921.

 MICHAELIS, GEORG (1857- ), Prussian official, was born on Sept. 7 1857 at Haynau. He studied law and was for some years after 1885 a lecturer at the university of Tokyo. On his return to Germany he continued his official career and rose to the position of Under-Secretary of State in the Prussian Ministry of Finance. On the outbreak of the World War he was appointed director of the Imperial department for the control of the grain trade, and in Feb. 1917 State commissioner for the national food supply. On the retirement of Bethmann Hollweg in July 1917 the influence of the higher military authorities, including Hindenburg (in the leading strings of Ludendorff), was exercised in favour of the appointment of a chancellor who would accommodate his policy to theirs in home as well as in foreign affairs. In the hope of avoiding conflicts between the highest military and the highest civil authorities of the empire, the immediate entourage of the Emperor, in particular the chief of his Civil Cabinet, Valentini, seems to have suggested the appointment of a colourless Prussian official. Michaelis was accordingly appointed, but even in the first weeks of his chancellorship his weakness became manifest. The so-called Peace Resolution in favour of a peace "without annexation or indemnities" had been passed by the Reichstag on July 19. Michaelis was confronted with the demand of the parliamentary majority that in his public utterances he should identify himself with the spirit and the letter of this resolution. Under the influence of the military authorities he attempted to evade this obligation by declaring himself, in a phrase that became celebrated, the supporter of the resolution "as he understood it." There was a storm of indignation throughout the country, but Michaelis had still further to compromise himself, together with Adml. von Kapelle, over the naval mutiny before it was recognized that his position was altogether untenable. He was with some difficulty induced to resign, and was succeeded by Count Hertling on Nov. 1 1917. He was then appointed chief president in the province of Pomerania, an office which he held till 1919.

 MICHELER, JOSEPH ALFRED (1861- ), French general, was born at Phalsbourg (Meurthe) on Sept. 23 1861. He entered St. Cyr in Oct. 1880 and was appointed a sub-lieutenant on the completion of his course in 1882. He was promoted lieutenant in 1886, captain in 1891, major in 1901 and lieutenant-colonel in 1909. Three years later he was made a colonel. At the outbreak of the World War he was employed as chief-of-staff to the VI. Corps. In Oct. 1914 he was promoted general of brigade, and in Jan. 1915 was transferred as chief-of-staff to the I. Army. On Aug. 3 1915 he took over command of the 53rd Inf. Div., being later (March 25 1916) promoted a temporary general of division and appointed to the XXXVIII. Army Corps. Ten days later he was placed at the head of the X. Army. On June 22 1916 he was confirmed in his rank as general of division. He commanded the X. Army during the battle of the Somme, and was then called to the head of a new group of armies formed behind the centre for the exploitation of the victory counted upon in Gen. Nivelle's Aisne scheme. He was thus involved very deeply in the controversies which centred upon that scheme both before and after April 16 1917. It was principally his criticisms that initiated the internal crisis, and led to the council of war, in which, however, he seems not to have followed up his objections. His relations were strained with his subordinate Mangin as well as with Nivelle, and the latter sought afterwards to saddle him with part of the responsibility for the relative failure of the offensive. His group of armies being broken up he returned to the duties of an army commander. In May 1918 he vacated the command of the V. Army which he had held for a year. He was made a commander of the Legion of Honour (Sept. 30 1916).

 MICHELHAM, HERBERT STERN, (1851-1919), British financier, was born Sept. 28 1851, the son of Hermann de Stern, Portuguese baron and banker, and Julia Goldsmid. He entered his father's banking house, Stern Bros., of London, Paris and Belgium, and inherited from his father the Portuguese barony and a fortune of 2,000,000, which was much increased by his own financial ability. In July 1905 he was created a baronet and in Dec. was raised to the peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron Michelham. He presented to the nation the quadriga surmounting the arch on Constitution Hill, and subscribed liberally for the purchase of pictures for the National Gallery, besides forming a valuable private collection. He was also well known as an owner of race-horses. During the World War he bought the Hotel Astoria in Paris for use as a British hospital, and established and maintained a convalescent home for officers at Cimiez. He died in Paris Jan. 7 1919 and was succeeded by his son Herman Alfred Stern, 2nd Baron (b. 1900).

 MICHELSON, ALBERT ABRAHAM (1852- ), American physicist, was born in Strelno, Germany, Dec. 19 1852. His parents moved to San Francisco, Cal., where he studied in the public schools. He graduated from U.S. Naval Academy in 1873 and was instructor in physics and chemistry there during 1875-9. He was then for a short time in the Nautical Almanac office. From 1880 to 1882 he studied in Berlin, Heidelberg and Paris. He resigned from the navy in 1881. In 1883 he was appointed professor of physics at the Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, O., and six years later accepted a similar position at Clark University. In 1892 he was appointed professor and head of the department of physics at the university of Chicago. He early directed his researches to the velocity of light and while in Cleveland invented his interferometer (see 14.693), which enabled him to measure distances by means of the length of light-waves. In 1892 he was a member of the Bureau Internationale des Poids et Mesures and in 1897 of the International Committee of Weights and Measures. He was made president of the American Physical Society in 1901 and of the American Society for the Advancement of Science in 1910. He received medals and prizes from many learned societies and in 1907 was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics. In 1920 he was able to demonstrate by means of light-interference that the diameter of Alpha Orionis was 260,000,000 miles. This was the first computation ever made of the size of a star. He was the author of numerous papers on light and in 1903 published Light Waves and Their Uses, being Lowell lectures for 1899. In 1921 he was awarded the gold medal of the Society of Arts, London. (For the "Michelson-Morley experiment," in interference of light, with its bearing on the Einstein theory, see .)

 MICHIGAN (see 18.371). The pop. of Michigan in 1920 was 3,668,412, an increase of 30.5% within the decade. Of the total pop. 61.1 % lived in places having at least 2,500 inhabitants, as compared with 47-2% in 1910. This increase in the urban percentage was greater than in any other state in the Union for the decade. The rural pop. underwent a slight actual decrease from 1,483,129 in 1910 to 1,426,852 in 1920.