Micmacs
a tribe of Algonquin Indians, the first with whom the English came in contact in America; they remained hostile to the English and their colonies till 1760. They number from 3,000 to 4,000, and are mostly in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, Newfoundland, and New Brunswick.
MICROBES. See BACTERIA.
MICROCOSM and MACROCOSM. The belief of the ancients that the world or cosmos was animated, or had a soul, led to the notion that the parts and members of organic beings must have their counterparts in the members of the cosmos. The natural philosophers of the 16th century--Paracelsus at their head- MICROSCOPY took up this notion anew in a somewhat modified shape, and considered the world as a human organism on the large scale, and man as a world, or cosmos, in miniature; hence they called man a microcosm itself the macrocosm ("great world"). (Greek, "little world") and the universe With this was associated the belief that the vital movements of the microcosm exactly corresponded to those of the macrocosm, and represented them as it were in copy. From this it was an easy transition to the further assumption, that the movements of the stars exercise an influence on the temperament and for tunes of men. See ASTROLOGY. ment used with a telescope or microscope MICROMETER (-krom'-), an instruto measure small distances, or the apparent diameters of objects which subtend very small angles. Micrometers are variously constructed. The field of the telescope may be provided with a graduated scale, or a metallic ring, or a diaphragm having parallel and intersecting spider-lines or fine wires. The micrometer with a graduated scale is used for measuring distances by direct comparison. being of the animal or vegetable king-