Quincy Railroad (Map: Nebraska, F 3). It is the centre of a farming and stock-raising district, and has some manufactures. There is a public school library of 3000 volumes. Population, in 1890, 1380; in 1900, 1238.
MINDORO, mē̇n-dō′rō̇. One of the Philippine Islands, among which it ranks seventh in size. It is situated south of the main body of Luzon, from which it is separated by a sea channel, 7½ miles wide (Map: Philippine Islands, F 7). Its extreme length from northwest to southeast is 110 miles, and its greatest width is 58 miles. The area of the mainland is 4040, and of the 26 dependent islands 68 square miles, making a total of 4108 square miles. The island has an oval shape with no large indentations, though there are a number of small bays and several almost land-locked harbors. The coasts, though generally having deep water close to shore, are lined, especially along the west side, with submarine reefs. Mindoro is, next to Mindanao, the most elevated of the Philippine Islands. The whole interior forms a mountainous plateau, reaching in Mount Halcón the height of 8860 feet. Almost the whole of the island, from the mountain summits to high-water mark, is covered with unbroken virgin forests, though in the narrow strip of lowland along the western coast there are some prairie and marshy regions. The rivers are all short and simple streams running down from the edge of the plateau on all sides, there being no large river-system. The climate is more variable than that prevailing in the southern islands, and Mindoro is especially exposed to the monsoons. The proximity of the forests to the coast towns renders these unhealthful and subject to intermittent and typhoid fevers.
In spite of the fertility and natural wealth of the island, its economic conditions are in a very backward state. A very small portion of it is cultivated, and the yield of agricultural products is scarcely enough for home consumption. The cultivation of sugar, cotton, and hemp is increasing, and a little of the latter is exported. The mineral wealth is believed to be considerable, but only the coal-beds and sulphur springs have begun to be exploited. The principal exports are forest products, such as timber and pitch, and the forests also are the basis of the principal industries—wood-cutting and rattan-splitting. Communication is almost exclusively carried on in coasting vessels, the interior being a rough and pathless wilderness.
The population of Mindoro was estimated in 1901 at 106,000, including some 30,000 savages inhabiting the interior. The inhabitants are chiefly Malayans, with a few Visayans, and the languages spoken are Visayan, Manguiano, and Tagálog. By the act of the Philippine Commission of June 23, 1902, Mindoro was incorporated in the Province of Marinduque, with the capital at Bóac, situated on the island of Marinduque (q.v.). See Philippine Islands.
MIND-READING. See Muscle-Reading; Telepathy.
MIND-STUFF THEORY. A metaphysical theory which explains the relation of matter and mind by affirming their identity under the form of atoms of mind-stuff. These atoms are of a nature between physical atoms and psychical monads, representing an indivisible element, as the former, but being qualitatively rather than quantitatively determined, as the latter. Mind and matter, according to this theory, are but forms of composition of the atoms of mind-stuff; only under the most rarely favorable conditions does this composition result in intelligence, as in the higher animals, but at the same time no matter is to be conceived as ‘dead’ matter, since it is built up of elements whose essential character is psychical. The theory was propounded by W. K. Clifford, in Mind (old series), vol. iii.
MINE, Submarine. See Torpedo.
MINE GAS. An explosive gas encountered in coal mines, also known as fire-damp. It consists principally of marsh gas (CH₄), which is the combustible element, but it contains also small proportions of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. Owing to its light specific gravity—about one-half that of air—it is always found in the upper portions of the workings. The explosive qualities are first shown when the gas is mixed with from four to five volumes of air; when free from air it will not take fire. The danger resulting from the presence of this gas in coal mines has largely been removed, in recent years, by the use of the safety lamp (q.v.) and by improved methods of ventilation. See Coal.
MINEO, mē̇-nā′ō̇. A town in the Province of Catania, Sicily, 27 miles southwest of Catania (Map: Italy, J 10). It occupies the site of the ancient Menæ, founded by Ducetius, 459 B.C., and captured by the Saracens in 840. In the vicinity is the famous Lago de’ Palici, the Lacus Palicorum of volcanic origin. Population, in 1901, of commune, 9828.
MI′NER, Alonzo Ames (1814-95). A Universalist minister. He was born at Lempster, N. H. He received an academical education, and after teaching for several years was ordained to the Universalist ministry in 1839, and served as pastor to churches in Methuen, Lowell, and Boston, Mass. He was president of Tufts College, Medford, Mass., from 1862 to 1874, when he returned to his former pastorate of the Second Universalist Church, Boston. He was appointed a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University in 1863; was a member of the State Board of Education of Massachusetts from 1869, serving twenty-four years, and chairman of the Board of Visitors to the State Normal School from 1873; was for twenty-one years president of the Massachusetts State Temperance Alliance, and was the Prohibition candidate for Governor in 1878. He was the original projector of the Universalist Publishing House in Boston, and was prominent in the anti-slavery agitation. He edited the journal, The Star of Bethlehem, contributed to periodicals, and published Bible Exercises (1854); Old Forts Taken (1878); and Doctrines of Universalism. His Life has been published by Emerson (Boston, 1896).
MINER, Charles (1780-1865). An American author, born at Norwich, Conn. When nineteen years old he removed with his family to the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, where he became interested in various newspapers. He was a member of Congress from 1825 till 1829. The most important of his publications is a History of Wyoming (1845), which contains a description of the Wyoming massacre given by eye-witnesses.
