Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/699

 MITRAILLEUSE spatch him with his sword. It is said that to avoid being poisoned, which he was apprehen- sive of, he had accustomed himself to the use of antidotes to such a degree that the most baneful drugs had little effect on him. His son sent his body to Amisus as a peace offer- ing to Pompey ; but the Roman general caused it to be interred with regal honors in the sep- ulchre of the Pontic kings at Sinope. Mithri- dates had a powerful memory, was well ac- quainted with Greek literature, and under- stood more than 20 languages which were spoken in his dominions. MITRAILLEUSE. See AETILLERY, vol. i., p. 792. MITRE (Gr. ///rpa), an ornament worn upon the head by certain ecclesiastics of the Roman Catholic and Greek churches, consisting of a Persian Mitra, from a Pompeiian Greek Mitra, from a Bust Mosaic. at Dresden. stiff cap rising in two points, one before and the other behind, and having two ribbon-like pendants which fall on the shoulders. In the strict generic sense, the ancient mitra was a scarf which was sometimes bound around the thyrsus of Bacchus and his votaries in the cele- bration of his rites. In a secondary sense, it was a scarf worn like a turban by the Persians and Arabians, and by the women of Greece. The mitra worn by the ' Phrygians and Amazons was a point- ed cloth cap tied by strings or lappets un- der the chin. Bac- chus was often rep- resented with a mi- tra, from which the Greeks gave him the name //^rpo^dpof. The Persian deity Mithra and the Egyptian god Osiris appear with a similar head covering, and it has also been traced in India. The Jewish high priests wore the mitznepTieth, which was copied from the mitre made for Aaron (Exod. xxviii.), on the front of which, over a blue lace, was a plate of pure gold, having engraven on it, " like the engravings of a signet, Holiness to the Lord." When the mitre was first adopted by Christian ecclesiastics is uncertain, but it is supposed that its first form was a circlet of silver gilt or of gold, set sometimes with pre- cious stones, and called oTsyavoe or corona, and ni6api or diadema. In the 6th century John of Cappadocia, bishop of Constantinople, added Phrygian Mitra, from a Pom peiian Painting MITSCHERLICH 681 Bishop's Mitre. to this band embroidered fringes and sacred images. In the western churches a white linen kerchief was worn, tied behind by a bandage, the ends of which fell on the shoulders. In the beginning of the 8th century it was cus- tomary to wear both the kerchief and the corona. In the latter part of the 10th century the mitre was a close-fitting cap with a round top ; in the 1 1th the horns began to show them- selves in two short points on the sides above each ear ; and in the 12th century these had grown into low round protuberances. Toward the beginning of the 13th century the mitre took a different shape, the two horns being more elevated and worn in front and behind, as at present. At the period of the renaissance it assumed its present bulging shape and un- due height. Three kinds of mitres are now used in the Ro- man church : the pre- cious 'mitre, often made of gold or sil- ver and adorned with gems ; the gold-em- broidered mitre, made of cloth of gold or white silk embroi- dered with gold ; and the plain mitre, of white damask or linen, with red edging or fringe on the lappets. The use of the mitre is not restricted to bishops ; cardinals, abbots of great houses by special papal privilege, and canons of highly favored cathedrals or royal collegiate churches, are allowed to wear it. In the English church the mitre has not been worn since the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. MITSCHERLICH, Eilhard, a German chemist, born at Neuende, near Jever, grand duchy of Oldenburg, Jan. 7, 1794, died in Berlin, Aug. 28, 1863. He was the son of a clergyman, and studied at the gymnasium of Jever, where Schlosser instructed him in oriental history and philology. He pursued his studies espe- cially in this department at Paris, Heidelberg, and Gottingen, where he published Mirchondi Historia Thaheridarum (1815); and in 1818 he went to Berlin to study chemistry. He discovered the law of isomorphism, for which he received the medal of the royal society of London. At the invitation of Berzelius he accompanied him to Stockholm in 1819, and passed two years in his laboratory. On his return to Berlin, he succeeded Klaproth in the academy of sciences and in the chair of chem- istry. His first results in the discovery of isomorphism were presented to the Berlin academy in 1819, and next year they were generally accepted. Its doctrine was devel- oped by him in a long series of observations. In 1823 he completed the theory by the dis- covery that some substances, as sulphur and carbon, under different circumstances, crys- tallize in two dissimilar forms. Such bodies are termed dimorphous. The reports of his