Encyclopædia Americana: A Popular Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature ...

APPENDIX. (MADISON-MICA.)

esteem for virtues social, domestic and personal. His manners were simple, but courteous and winning. He was a devoted friend to our revolution and to liberal principles of government. The eulogium which bishop Madison pronounced upon general Washington is one of the finest discourses called forth by the death of that illustrious man.

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE U. STATES. The first Methodist society in the U. States was formed in New York, in 1766, by some Methodist emigrants from Ireland. Their numbers increased so rapidly that, in 1768, they erected a meeting-house. Several preachers were soon after sent out from England, and the first conference was held at Philadelphia, in 1773, under the superintendence of Thomas Rankin, who had been appointed, by Wesley, to the general oversight of the societies in this country. During the war, all the English preachers, except Mr. Asbury, returned home. At the close of the revolution (1784), the societies having been hitherto dependent on other churches for the administration of the ordinances, as their teachers were merely lay preachers, Wesley sent out doctor Coke with directions to consecrate Mr. Asbury superintendent or bishop of the American church, which was done at a conference held in Baltimore, in 1784: twelve of the preachers were, at the same time, ordained elders. The form of government is Episcopal; the title, the Methodist Episcopal church. Three orders of ministers are recognised-deacons, elders and bishops. "Any person who thinks himself moved by the Holy Ghost to preach the gospel, on application to his preacher, is licensed, if judged fit, to exhort; after exercising his talents as an exhorter for sufficient length of time, he is licensed as a local preacher by the local preachers' conference, and may be admitted as a travelling preacher by the annual conference. After travelling two years, he is ordained a deacon, and in two years more becomes an elder." The local preachers above-mentioned are persons occupied with some secular business, who preach on Sundays. The annual conferences are meetings composed of all the travelling preachers, in full connexion, or who are to be received into full connexion. There are at present nineteen. The general conference is composed of representatives from the annual conferences, and

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is held once in four years, and has power to make rules and regulations for the churches, with certain limitations. Each society is divided into classes of about 12 persons, under a leader, whose duty it is to see each person in his class at least once a week, to exhort, reprove, advise them. The band societies are composed of three or four true believers, who have confidence in each other, and must be all men or all women, all married or all unmarried. They meet at least once a week, to engage in religious exercises, and advise and exhort each other. The whole number of members (in 1831) is 513,114; preachers, 2010: the whole number of hearers who attend Methodist preaching in the U. States is about 1,000,000. The Methodists in this country are Wesleyans. A Methodist theological seminary has been opened at Middletown (Ct.), during the present year. (See the Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Yearly Minutes of the Annual Conferences.)

MICA, the name of a very familiar species in mineralogy, often improperly called isinglass, is possessed of the following properties: primitive form, an oblique rhombic prism of 60 and 120°; its ordinary forms are a regular six-sided prism, so short as to be called a six-sided table; a six-sided table in which the terminal edges are truncated, and an oblique six-sided pyramid, with alternate broader and narrower lateral planes; cleavage highly perfect; lustre pearly, often inclining to metallic; color various shades of gray, generally passing into green, brown, and black, also into white and red; streak white gray; transparent or translucent. It is less transparent in the direction of the axis than perpendicular to it, and presents different colors in these directions, for instance, oil-green in the first, and liver-brown in all the others; sectile; thin laminæ are elastic; hardness rather below that of calcareous spar; the acute edges of the lamine, however, will sometimes scratch glass; specific gravity 2.949. Mica is not common in well defined crystals, but more often occurs massive, having a columnar or granular composition, the faces of composition being irregularly streaked and rough. Much diversity exists among the analyses which have been made of mica, from various localities, by different chemists, as will be seen from the annexed table.

Before the blow-pipe, several varieties first lose their transparency, and then melt into a scoria, white or colored, or even black; others are infusible; and they show, in general, as much difference in this respect as in their composition. Mica forms one of the constituent parts of various rocks, as granite, gneiss, mica-slate and porphyry. It sometimes occurs in masses of considerable dimensions, containing imbedded crystals of garnet, tourmaline and topaz. Remarkable varieties of mica are found in Siberia, particularly at a place called Witim, where it exists in plates one or two feet broad, and which are perfectly cleavable, and nearly or quite transparent, in thin laminæ. At Zinnwald, in Bohemia, it is found in very perfect crystals, possessing two axes of double refraction. It also occurs in the Horlberg in Bavaria, in Moravia, in Switzerland, at Mount St. Gothard, and at Mount Vesuvius. At the last mentioned locality it is found in the drusy cavities of the ejected specimens of lava, in crystals with one axis of double refraction, and often possessed of remarkable transparency. In the U. States, handsome varieties of mica have been discovered in numerous localities, among which may be mentioned the distinct prismatic crystals of Acworth, New Hampshire, implanted on feldspar, and shooting into quartz; the dark-green distinctly cleavable variety, forming a large vein at Monroe, New York; the rose-red rhomboidal crystals of Goshen, Mass.; and the emerald-green variety, in scales, from Brunswick, Maine. As a variety of mica, lepidolite requires to be mentioned. It has been treated by some

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Klaproth. Klaproth. Peschier. Peschier.

authors as a distinct species, but without
any sufficient reasons. It occurs in
granular compositions, of a peach-blossom
red color, sometimes passing into several
pale shades of green. Its chemical con-
stituents are, according to Wenz,

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and a trace of iron. Before the blow-pipe, upon charcoal, it intumesces, and fuses very easily into a transparent globule. It is found near Rozena in Moravia, and at Uto in Sweden, in primitive rocks. In the U. States, it occurs in Maine, at Paris, in large pieces of unusually fine colors, and frequently embracing crystals of red, green and blue tourmaline. It is cut into snuff-boxes and various ornaments. Perfectly cleavable varieties of brown and gray mica are used in Siberia, in Mexico and Peru, instead of window glass. It is particularly employed in the construction of lanterns, and where glass would be liable to crack from sudden changes of temperature; also on board ships of war, where its elasticity enables it to withstand the concussion produced by the discharge of artillery, which would be sufficient to shatter ordinary window glass. It is sometimes used for various optical purposes, and enters into the composition of the artificial avanturine.