Map of Cairo.
Old Cairo: the Fortress of Babylon and the Nilometer.—About a mile south of the city is Masr-el-Atika, called by Europeans Old Cairo. Between Old Cairo and the newer city are large mounds of débris marking the site of Fostat (see below,History).The road to Old Cairo by the river leads past the monastery of the "Howling" Dervishes, and the head of the aqueduct which formerly supplied the citadel with water. Farther to the east is the mosque of Amr, a much-altered building dating fromA.D.643 and containing the tomb of the Arab conqueror of Egypt. Most important of the quarters of Masr-el-Atika is that of Kasr-esh-Shama (Castle of the Candle), built within the outer walls of the Roman fortress of Babylon. Several towers of this fortress remain, and in the south wall is a massive gateway, uncovered in 1901. In the quarter are five Coptic churches, a Greek convent and two churches, and a synagogue. The principal Coptic church is that of Abu Serga (St Sergius). The crypt dates from about the 6th century and is dedicated to Sitt Miriam (the Lady Mary), from a tradition that in the flight into Egypt the Virgin and Child rested at this spot. The upper church is basilican in form, the nave being, as customary in Coptic churches, divided into three sections by wooden screens, which are adorned by carvings in ivory and wood. The wall above the high altar is faced with beautiful mosaics of marbles, blue glass and mother-of-pearl. Of the other churches in Kasr-esh-Shama the most noteworthy is that of El Adra (the Virgin), also called El Moallaka, or The Suspended, being built in one of the towers of the Roman gateway. It contains fine wooden and ivory screens. The pulpit is supported on fifteen columns, which rest on a slab of white marble. The patriarch of the Copts was formerly consecrated in this church. The other buildings in Old Cairo, or among the mounds of rubbish which adjoin it, include several fort-likedersor convents. One, south of the Kasr-esh-Shama, is called Der Bablun, thus preserving the name of the ancient fortress. In the Der Abu Sephin, to the north of Babylon, is a Coptic church of the 10th century, possessing magnificent carved screens, a pulpit with fine mosaics and a semi-circle of marble steps.
Opposite Old Cairo lies the island of Roda, where, according to Arab tradition, Pharaoh's daughter found Moses in the bulrushes. Two bridges, opened in 1908, connect Old Cairo with Roda, and a third bridge joins Roda to Giza on the west bank of the river. Roda Island contains a mosque built by Kait Bey, and at its southern extremity is the Nilometer, by which the Cairenes have for over a thousand years measured the rise of the river. It is a square well with an octagonal pillar marked in cubits in the centre.
Northern and Western Suburbs.—Two miles N.E. of Cairo and on the edge of the desert is the suburb of Abbasia (named after the viceroy Abbas), connected with the city by a continuous line of houses. Abbasia is now largely a military colony, the cavalry barracks being the old palace of Abbas Pasha. In these barracks Arabi Pasha surrendered to the British on the 14th of September 1882, the day after the battle of Tel el-Kebir. Mataria, a village 3 m. farther to the N.E., is the site of the defeat of the Mamelukes by the Turks in 1517, and of the defeat of the Turks by the French under General Kleber in 1800. At Mataria was a sycamore-tree, the successor of a tree which decayed in 1665, venerated as being that beneath which the Holy Family, rested on their flight into Egypt. This tree was blown down in July 1906 and its place taken by a cutting made from the tree some years previously. Less than a mile N.E. of Mataria are the scanty remains of the ancient city of On or Heliopolis. The chief monument is an obelisk, about 66 ft. high, erected by Usertesen I. of the XIIth dynasty. A residential suburb, named Heliopolis, containing many fine buildings, was laid out between Mataria and Abbasia during 1905-10.
On the west bank of the Nile, opposite the southern end of Roda Island, is the small town of Giza or Gizeh, a fortified place of considerable importance in the times of the Mamelukes. In the viceregal palace here the museum of Egyptian antiquities was housed for several years (1889-1902). The grounds of this palace have been converted into zoological gardens. A broad, tree-bordered, macadamized road, along which run electric trams, leads S.S.W. across the plain to the Pyramids of Giza, 5 m. distant, built on the edge of the desert.
Helwan.—Fourteen miles S. of Cairo and connected with it by railway is the town of Helwan, built in the desert 3 m. E. of the Nile, and much frequented by invalids on account of its sulphur baths, which are owned by the Egyptian government. A khedivial astronomical observatory was built here in 1903-1904, to take the place of that at Abbasia, that site being no longer suitable in consequence of the northward extension of the city. The ruins of Memphis are on the E. bank of the Nile opposite Helwan.
Inhabitants.—The inhabitants are of many diverse races, the various nationalities being frequently distinguishable by differences in dress as well as in physiognomy and colour. In the oriental quarters of the city the curious shops, the markets of different trades (the shops of each trade being generally congregated in one street or district), the easy merchant sitting before his shop, the musical and quaint street-cries of the picturesque vendors of fruit, sherbet, water, &c., with the ever-changing and many-coloured throng of passengers, all render the streets a delightful study for the lover of Arab life, nowhere else to be seen in such perfection, or with so fine a background of magnificent buildings. The Cairenes, or native citizens, differ from the fellahin in having a much larger mixture of Arab blood, and are at once keener witted and more conservative than the peasantry. The Arabic spoken by the middle and higher classes is generally inferior in grammatical correctness and pronunciation to that of the Bedouins of Arabia, but is purer than that of Syria or the dialect spoken by the Western Arabs. Besides the Cairenes proper, who are largely engaged in trade or handicrafts, the inhabitants include Arabs, numbers of Nubians and Negroes—mostly labourers or domestics in nominal slavery—and many Levantines, there being considerable colonies of Syrians and Armenians. The higher classes of native society are largely of Turkish or semi-Turkish descent. Of other races the most numerous are Greeks, Italians, British, French and Jews. Bedouins from the desert frequent the bazaars.
At the beginning of the 19th century the population was estimated at about 200,000, made up of 120,000 Moslems, 60,000 Copts, 4000 Jews and 16,000 Greeks, Armenians and "Franks." In 1882 the population had risen to 374,000, in 1897 to 570,062, and in 1907, including Helwan and Mataria, the total population was 654,476, of whom 46,507 were Europeans.
Climate and Health.—In consequence of its insanitary condition, Cairo used to have a heavy death-rate. Since the British occupation in 1882 much has been done to better this state of things, notably by a good water-supply and a proper system of drainage. The death-rate of the native population is about 35 per 1000. The climate of the city is generally healthy, with a mean temperature of about 68° F. Though rain seldom falls, exhalations from the river, especially when the flood has begun to subside, render the districts near the Nile damp during September, October and November, and in winter early morning fogs are not uncommon. The prevalent north wind and the rise of the water tend to keep the air cool in summer.
Commerce.—The commerce of Cairo, of considerable extent and variety, consists mainly in the transit of goods. Gum, ivory, hides, and ostrich feathers from the Sudan, cotton and sugar from Upper Egypt, indigo and shawls from India and Persia, sheep and tobacco from Asiatic Turkey, and European manufactures, such as machinery, hardware, cutlery, glass, and cotton and woollen goods, are the more important articles. The traffic in slaves ceased in 1877. In Bulak are several factories founded by Mehemet Ali for spinning, weaving and printing cotton, and a paper-mill established by the khedive Ismail in 1870. Various kinds of paper are manufactured, and especially a fine quality for use in the government offices. In the Island of Roda there is a sugar-refinery of considerable extent, founded in 1859, and principally managed by Englishmen. Silk goods, saltpetre, gunpowder, leather, &c., are also manufactured. An octroi duty of 9%ad valoremformerly levied on all food stuffs entering the city was abolished in 1903. It used to produce about £150,000 per annum.
Mahommedan Architecture.—Architecturally considered Cairo is still the most remarkable and characteristic of Arab cities. The edifices raised by the Moorish kings of Spain and the Moslemrulers of India may have been more splendid in their materials, and more elaborate in their details; the houses of the great men of Damascus may be more costly than were those of the Mameluke beys; but for purity of taste and elegance of design both are far excelled by many of the mosques and houses of Cairo. These mosques have suffered much in the beauty of their appearance from the effects of time and neglect; but their colour has been often thus softened, and their outlines rendered the more picturesque. What is most to be admired in their style of architecture is its extraordinary freedom from restraint, shown in the wonderful variety of its forms, and the skill in design which has made the most intricate details to harmonize with grand outlines. Here the student may best learn the history of Arab art. Like its contemporary Gothic, it has three great periods, those of growth, maturity and decline. Of the first, the mosque of Ahmed Ibn-Tulun in the southern part of Cairo, and the three great gates of the city, the Bab-en-Nasr, Bab-el-Futuh and Bab-Zuwela, are splendid examples. The design of these entrance gateways is extremely simple and massive, depending for their effect on the fine ashlar masonry in which they are built, the decoration being more or less confined to ornamental disks. The mosque of Tulun was built entirely in brick, and is the earliest instance of the employment of the pointed arch in Egypt. The curve of the arch turns in slightly below the springing, giving a horse-shoe shape. Built in brick, it was found necessary to give a more monumental appearance to the walls by a casing of stucco, which remains in fair preservation to the present day. This led to the enrichment of the archivolts and imposts with that peculiar type of conventional foliage which characterizes Mahommedan work, and which in this case was carried out by Coptic craftsmen. The attached angle-shafts of piers are found here for the first time, and their capitals are enriched, as also the frieze surmounting the walls, with other conventional patterns. The second period passes from the highest point to which this art attained to a luxuriance promising decay. The mosque of sultan Hasan, below the citadel, those of Muayyad and Kalaun, with the Barkukiya and the mosque of Barkuk in the cemetery of Kait Bey, are instances of the second and more matured style of the period. The simple plain ashlar masonry still predominates, but the wall surface is broken up with sunk panels, sometimes with geometrical patterns in them. The principal characteristics of this second period are the magnificent portals, rising sometimes, as in the mosque of sultan Hasan, to 80 or 90 ft., with elaborate stalactite vaulting at the top, and the deep stalactite cornices which crown the summit of the building. The decoration of the interior consists of the casing of the walls with marble with enriched borders, and (about 20 ft. above the ground) friezes 3 to 5 ft. in height in which the precepts of the Koran are carved in relief, with a background of conventional foliage. Of the last style of this period the Ghuriya and the mosque of Kait Bey in his cemetery are beautiful specimens. They show an elongation of forms and an excess of decoration in which the florid qualities predominate. Of the age of decline the finest monument is the mosque of Mahommad Bey Abu-Dahab. The forms are now poor, though not lacking in grandeur, and the details are not as well adjusted as before, with a want of mastery of the most suitable decoration. The usual plan of a congregational mosque is a large, square, open court, surrounded by arcades of which the chief, often several bays deep, and known as the Manksura, or prayer-chamber, faces Mecca (eastward), and has inside its outer wall a decorated niche to mark the direction of prayer. In the centre of the court is a fountain for ablutions, often surmounted by a dome, and in the prayer-chamber a pulpit and a desk for readers. When a mosque is also the founder's tomb, it has a richly ornamented sepulchral chamber always covered by a dome (see furtherMosque, which contains plans of the mosques of Amr and sultan Hasan, and of the tomb mosque of Kait Bey).
After centuries of neglect efforts are now made to preserve the monuments of Arabic art, a commission with that object having been appointed in 1881. To this commission the government makes an annual grant of £4000. The careful and syste-matic work accomplished by this commission has preserved much of interest and beauty which would otherwise have gone utterly to ruin. Arrangements were made in 1902 for the systematic repair and preservation of Coptic monuments.
Museums and Library.—The museum of Egyptian antiquities was founded at Bulak in 1863, being then housed in a mosque, by the French savant Auguste Mariette. In 1889 the collection was transferred to the Giza (Ghezireh) palace, and in 1902 was removed to its present quarters, erected at a cost of over £250,000. A statue of Mariette was unveiled in 1904. The museum is entirely devoted to antiquities of Pharaonic times, and, except in historical papyri, in which it is excelled by the British Museum, is the most valuable collection of such antiquities in existence.
The Arab museum and khedivial library are housed in a building erected for the purpose, at a cost of £66,000, and opened in 1903. In the museum are preserved treasures of Saracenic art, including many objects removed from the mosques for their better security. The khedivial library contains some 64,000 volumes, over two-thirds being books and MSS. in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Amharic and Syriac. The Arabic section includes a unique collection of 2677 korans. The Persian section is rich in illuminated MSS. The numismatic collection, as regards the period of the caliphs and later dynasties, is one of the richest in the world.
History.—Before the Arab conquest of Egypt the site of Cairo appears to have been open country. Memphis was some 12 m. higher up on the opposite side of the Nile, and Heliopolis was 5 or 6 m. distant on the N.E. The most ancient known settlement in the immediate neighbourhood of the present city was the town called Babylon. From its situation it may have been a north suburb of Memphis, which was still inhabited in the 7th centuryA.D.Babylon is said by Strabo to have been founded by emigrants from the ancient city of the same name in 525B.C.,i.e.at the time of the Persian conquest of Egypt. Here the Romans built a fortress and made it the headquarters of one of the three legions which garrisoned the country. The church of Babylon mentioned in 1 Peter v. 13 has been thought by some writers to refer to this town—an improbable supposition. Amr, the conqueror of Egypt for the caliph Omar, after taking the town besieged the fortress for the greater part of a year, the garrison surrendering in AprilA.D.641. The town of Babylon disappeared, but the strong walls of the fortress in part remain, and the name survived, "Babylon of Egypt," or "Babylon" simply, being frequently used in medieval writings as synonymous with Cairo or as denoting the successive Mahommedan dynasties of Egypt.
Cairo itself is the fourth Moslem capital of Egypt; the site of one of those that had preceded it is, for the most part, included within its walls, while the other two were a little to the south. Amr founded El-Fostat, the oldest of these, close to the fortress which he had besieged. Fostat signifies "the tent," the town being built where Amr had pitched his tent. The new town speedily became a place of importance, and was the residence of the náibs, or lieutenants, appointed by the orthodox and Omayyad caliphs. It received the name of Masr, properly Misr, which was also applied by the Arabs to Memphis and to Cairo, and is to-day, with the Roman town which preceded it, represented by Masr el-Atika, or "Old Cairo." Shortly after the overthrow of the Omayyad dynasty, and the establishment of the Abbasids, the city of El-'Askar was founded (A.D.750) by Suleiman, the general who subjugated the country, and became the capital and the residence of the successive lieutenants of the Abbasid caliphs. El-'Askar was a small town N.E. of and adjacent to El-Fostat, of which it was a kind of suburb. Its site is now entirely desolate. The third capital, El-Katai, was founded aboutA.D.873 by Ahmed Ibn Tulun, as his capital. It continued the royal residence of his successors; but was sacked not long after the fall of the dynasty and rapidly decayed. A part of the present Cairo occupies its site and contains its great mosque, that of Ahmed Ibn Tulun.
Jauhar (Gohar) el-Kaid, the conqueror of Egypt for the Fatimite caliph El-Moizz, founded a new capital,A.D.968, whichwas named El-KÄhira, that is, "the Victorious," a name corrupted into Cairo. The new city, like that founded by Amr, was originally the camp of the conqueror. This town occupied about a fourth part, the north-eastern, of the present metropolis. By degrees it became greater than El-FostÄt, and took from it the name of Misr, or Masr, which is applied to it by the modern Egyptians. With its rise FostÄt, which had been little affected by the establishment of Askar and Katai, declined. It continually increased so as to include the site of El-Katai to the south. InA.D.1176 Cairo was unsuccessfully attacked by the Crusaders; shortly afterwards Saladin built the citadel on the lowest point of the mountains to the east, which immediately overlooked El-Katai, and he partly walled round the towns and large gardens within the space now called Cairo. Under the prosperous rule of the Mameluke sultans this great tract was filled with habitations; a large suburb to the north, the Hoseynia, was added; and the town of Bulak was founded. After the Turkish conquest (A.D.1517) the metropolis decayed, but its limits were the same. In 1798 the city was captured by the French, who were driven out in 1801 by the Turkish and English forces, the city being handed over to the Turks. Mehemet Ali, originally the Turkish viceroy, by his massacre of the Mamelukes in 1811, in a narrow street leading to the citadel, made himself master of the country, and Cairo again became the capital of a virtually independent kingdom. Under Mehemet and his successors all the western part of the city has grown up. The khedive Ismail, in making the straight road from the citadel to the Ezbekia gardens, destroyed many of the finest houses of the old town. In 1882 Cairo was occupied by the British, and British troops continue to garrison the citadel.
Bibliography.—S.L. Poole,The Story of Cairo(London, 1902), a historical and architectural survey of the Moslem city; E. Reynolds-Ball,Cairo: the City of the Caliphs(Boston, U.S.A., 1897); Prisse d'Avennes,L'Art arabe d'après les monuments du Caire(Paris, 1847); P. Ravaisse,L'Histoire et la topographie du Caire d'après Makrizi(Paris, 1887); E.W. Lane,Cairo Fifty Years Ago(London, 1896), presents a picture of the city as it was before the era of European "improvements," and gives extracts from theKhitatof Maqrizi, written in 1417, the chief original authority on the antiquities of Cairo; Murray's and Baedeker'sGuides, and A. and C. Black'sCairo of To-day(1905), contain much useful and accurate information about Cairo. For the fortress of Babylon and its churches consult A.J. Butler,Ancient Coptic Churches in Egypt(Oxford, 1884).
CAIRO,a city and the county-seat of Alexander county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the S. part of the state, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, 365 m. S. of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 10,324; (1900) 12,566, of whom 5000 were negroes; (1910 census) 14,548. Cairo is served by the Illinois Central, the Mobile & Ohio, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, the St Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, and the St Louis South-Western railways, and by river steamboat lines. The city, said to be the "Eden" of Charles Dickens'sMartin Chuzzlewit, is built on a tongue of land between the rivers, and has suffered many times from inundations, notably in 1858. It is now protected by great levees. A fine railway bridge (1888) spans the Ohio. The city has a large government building, a U.S. marine hospital (1884), and the A.B. Safford memorial library (1882), and is the seat of St Joseph's Loretto Academy (Roman Catholic, 1864). In one of the squares there is a bronze statue, "The Hewer," by G.G. Barnard. In the N. part of the city is St Mary's park (30 acres). At Mound City (pop. in 1910, 2837), 5 m. N. of Cairo, there is a national cemetery. Lumber and flour are Cairo's principal manufactured products, and the city is an important hardwood and cotton-wood market; the Singer Manufacturing Co. has veneer mills here, and there are large box factories. In 1905 the value of the city's factory products was $4,381,465, an increase of 40.6% since 1900. Cairo is a shipping-point for the surrounding agricultural country. The city owes its origin to a series of commercial experiments. In 1818 a charter was secured from the legislature of the territory of Illinois incorporating the city and bank of Cairo. The charter was soon forfeited, and the land secured by it reverted to the government. In 1835 a new charter was granted to a second company, and in 1837 the Cairo City & Canal Co. was formed. By 1842, however, the place was practically abandoned. A successful settlement was made in 1851-1854 under the auspices of the New York Trust Co.; the Illinois Central railway was opened in 1856; and Cairo was chartered as a city in 1857. During the Civil War Cairo was an important strategic point, and was a military centre and depot of supplies of considerable importance for the Federal armies in the west. In 1862 Admiral Andrew H. Foote established at Mound City a naval depot, which was the basis of his operations on the Mississippi.
CAIROLI, BENEDETTO(1825-1889), Italian statesman, was born at Pavia on the 28th of January 1825. From 1848 until the completion of Italian unity in 1870, his whole activity was devoted to the Risorgimento, as Garibaldian officer, political refugee, anti-Austrian conspirator and deputy to parliament. He commanded a volunteer company under Garibaldi in 1859 and 1860, being wounded slightly at Calatafimi and severely at Palermo in the latter year. In 1866, with the rank of colonel, he assisted Garibaldi in Tirol, in 1867 fought at Mentana, and in 1870 conducted the negotiations with Bismarck, during which the German chancellor is alleged to have promised Italy possession of Rome and of her natural frontiers if the Democratic party could prevent an alliance between Victor Emmanuel and Napoleon. The prestige personally acquired by Benedetto Cairoli was augmented by that of his four brothers, who fell during the wars of Risorgimento, and by the heroic conduct of their mother. His refusal of all compensation or distinction further endeared him to the Italian people. When in 1876 the Left came into power, Cairoli, then a deputy of sixteen years' standing, became parliamentary leader of his party, and, after the fall of Depretis, Nicotera and Crispi, formed his first cabinet in March 1878 with a Francophil and Irredentist policy. After his marriage with the countess Elena Sizzo of Trent, he permitted the Irredentist agitation to carry the country to the verge of a war with Austria. General irritation was caused by his and Count Corti's policy of "clean hands" at the Berlin Congress, where Italy obtained nothing, while Austria-Hungary secured a European mandate to occupy Bosnia and the Herzegovina. A few months later the attempt of Passanante to assassinate King Humbert at Naples (12th of December 1878) caused his downfall, in spite of the courage displayed and the severe wound received by him in protecting the king's person on that occasion. On the 3rd of July 1879 Cairoli returned to power, and in the following November formed with Depretis a coalition ministry, in which he retained the premiership and the foreign office. Confidence in French assurances, and belief that Great Britain would never permit the extension of French influence in North Africa, prevented him from foreseeing the French occupation of Tunis (11th of May 1881). In view of popular indignation he resigned in order to avoid making inopportune declarations to the chamber. Thenceforward he practically disappeared from political life. In 1887 he received the knighthood of the Annunziata, the highest Italian decoration, and on the 8th of August 1889 died while a guest of King Humbert in the royal palace of Capodimonte near Naples. Cairoli was one of the most conspicuous representatives of that type of Italian public men who, having conspired and fought for a generation in the cause of national unity, were despite their valour little fitted for the responsible parliamentary and official positions they subsequently attained; and who by their ignorance of foreign affairs and of internal administration unwittingly impeded the political development of their country.
CAISSON(from the Fr.caisse, the variant form "cassoon" being adapted from the Ital.casone), a chest or case. When employed as a military term, it denotes an ammunition wagon or chest; in architecture it is the term used for a sunk panel or coffer in a ceiling, or in the soffit of an arch or a vault.
In civil engineering, however, the word has attained a far wider signification, and has been adopted in connexion with a considerable variety of hydraulic works. A caisson in this sense implies a case or enclosure of wood or iron, generally employed for keeping out water during the execution of foundations and other works in water-bearing strata, at the side of or under rivers, and alsoin the sea. There are two distinct forms of this type of caisson:—(1) A caisson open at the top, whose sides, when it is sunk in position, emerge above the water-level, and which is either provided with a water-tight bottom or is carried down, by being weighted at the top and having a cutting edge round the bottom, into a water-tight stratum, aided frequently by excavation inside; (2) A bottomless caisson, serving as a sort of diving-bell, in which men can work when compressed air is introduced to keep out the water in proportion to the depth below the water-level, which is gradually carried down to an adequately firm foundation by excavating at the bottom of the caisson, and building up a quay-wall or pier out of water on the top of its roof as it descends. An example of a caisson with a water-tight bottom is furnished by the quays erected alongside the Seine at Rouen, where open-timber caissons were sunk on to bearing-piles down to a depth of 9¾ ft. below low-water, the brick and concrete lower portions of the quay-wall being built inside them out of water (seeDock). At Bilbao, Zeebrugge and Scheveningen harbours, large open metal caissons, built inland, ballasted with concrete, floated out into position, and then sunk and filled with concrete, have been employed for forming very large foundation blocks for the breakwaters (seeBreakwater). Open iron caissons are frequently employed for enclosing the site of river piers for bridges, where a water-tight stratum can be reached at a moderate depth, into which the caisson can be taken down, so that the water can be pumped out of the enclosure and the foundations laid and the pier carried up in the open air. Thus the two large river piers carrying the high towers, bascules, and machinery of the Tower Bridge, London, were each founded and built within a group of twelve plate-iron caissons open at the top; whilst four of the piers on which the cantilevers of the Forth Bridge rest, were each erected within an open plate-iron caisson fitted at the bottom to the sloping rock, where ordinary cofferdams could not have been adopted.
Where foundations have to be carried down to a considerable depth in water-bearing strata, or through the alluvial bed of a river, to reach a hard stratum, bottomless caissons sunk by excavating under compressed air are employed. The caisson at the bottom, forming the working chamber, is usually provided with a strong roof, round the top of which, when the caisson is floated into a river, plate-iron sides are erected forming an upper open caisson, inside which the pier or quay-wall is built up out of water, on the top of the roof, as the sinking proceeds. Shafts through the roof up to the open air provide access for men and materials to the working chamber, through an air-lock consisting of a small chamber with an air-tight door at each end, enabling locking into and out of the compressed-air portion to be readily effected, on the same principle as a water-lock on a canal. When a sufficiently reliable stratum has been reached, the men leave the working chamber; and it is filled with concrete through the shafts, the bottomless caisson remaining embedded in the work. The foundations for the two river piers of the Brooklyn Suspension Bridge, carried down to the solid rock, 78 and 45 ft. respectively below high-water, by means of bottomless timber caissons with compressed air, were an early instance of this method of carrying out subaqueous foundations; whilst the Antwerp quay-walls, commenced many years ago in the river Scheldt at some distance out from the right bank, and the foundations of six of the piers supporting the cantilevers of the Forth Bridge, carried down to rock between 64 and 89 ft. below high-water, are notable examples of works founded under water within wrought iron bottomless caissons by the aid of compressed air. The foundations of the two piers of the Eiffel Tower adjoining the Seine were carried down through soft water-bearing strata to a depth of 33 ft. by means of wrought iron bottomless caissons sunk by the help of compressed air; and the deep foundations under the sills of the new large Florida lock at Havre (seeDock) were laid underneath the water logged alluvial strata close to the Seine estuary by similar means. Workmen, after emerging from such caissons, sometimes exhibit symptoms of illness which is known ascaisson disease(q.v.).
As in the above system, significantly termed by French engineerspar caisson perdu, the materials of the bottomless caisson have to be left in the work, a more economical system has been adapted for carrying out similar foundations, at moderate depths, by using movable caissons, which, after the lowest portions of the foundations have been laid, are raised by screw-jacks for constructing the next portions. In this way, instead of building the pier or wall on the roof of the caisson, the work is carried out under water in successive stages, by raising the bottomless caisson as the work proceeds; and by this arrangement, the caisson, having completed the subaqueous portion of the structure, is available for work elsewhere. This movable system has been used with advantage for the foundations for some piers of river bridges, some breakwater foundations, and, at the Florida lock, Havre, for founding portions of the side walls.
Closed iron caissons, termed ship-caissons, and sliding or rolling caissons, are generally employed for closing graving-docks, especially the former (so called from their resemblance in shape to a vessel) on account of their simplicity, being readily floated into and out of position; whilst sliding caissons are sometimes used instead of lock-gates at docks, but require a chamber at the side to receive them when drawn back. They possess the advantage, particularly for naval dockyards where heavy weights are transported, of providing in addition a strong movable bridge, thereby dispensing with a swing-bridge across the opening.
The term caisson is sometimes applied to flat air-tight constructions used for raising vessels out of water for cleaning or repairs, by being sunk under them and then floated; but these floating caissons are more commonly known as pontoons, or, when air-chambers are added at the sides, as floating dry-docks.
(L. F. V.-H.)
CAISSON DISEASE.In order to exclude the water, the air pressure within a caisson used for subaqueous works must be kept in excess of the pressure due to the superincumbent water; that is, it must be increased by one atmosphere, or 15 lb per sq. in. for every 33½ ft. that the caisson is submerged below the surface. Hence at a depth of 100 ft. a worker in a caisson, or a diver in a diving-dress, must be subjected to a pressure of four atmospheres or 60 lb per sq. in. Exposure to such pressures is apt to be followed by disagreeable and even dangerous physiological effects, which are commonly referred to as caisson disease or compressed air illness. The symptoms are of a very varied character, including pains in the muscles and joints (the "bends"), deafness, embarrassed breathing, vomiting, paralysis ("divers' palsy"), fainting and sometimes even sudden death. At the St Louis bridge, where a pressure was employed equal to 4¼ atmospheres, out of 600 workmen, 119 were affected and 14 died. At one time the symptoms were attributed to congestion produced by the mechanical effects of the pressure on the internal organs of the body, but this explanation is seen to be untenable when it is remembered that the pressure is immediately transmitted by the fluids of the body equally to all parts. They do not appear during the time that the pressure is being raised nor so long as it is continued, but only after it has been removed; and the view now generally accepted is that they are due to the rapid effervescence of the gases which are absorbed in the body-fluids during exposure to pressure. Experiment has proved that in animals exposed to compressed air nitrogen is dissolved in the fluids in accordance with Dalton's law, to the extent of roughly 1% for each atmosphere of pressure, and also that when the pressure is suddenly relieved the gas is liberated in bubbles within the body. It is these bubbles that do the mischief. Set free in the spinal cord, for instance, they may give rise to partial paralysis, in the labyrinth of the ear to auditory vertigo, or in the heart to stoppage of the circulation; on the other hand, they may be liberated in positions where they do no harm. But if the pressure is relieved gradually they are not formed, because the gas comes out of solution slowly and is got rid of by the heart and lungs. Paul Bert exposed 24 dogs to pressure of 7-9½ atmospheres and "decompressed" them rapidly in 1-4 minutes. The result was that 21 died, while only one showed no symptoms. In one of his cases, in which the apparatus burst while at a pressure of 9½ atmospheres, death was instantaneous and the body was enormously distended, with the right heart full of gas.But he also found that dogs exposed, for moderate periods, to similar pressures suffered no ill effects provided that the pressure was relieved gradually, in 1-1½ hours; and his results have been confirmed by subsequent investigators. To prevent caisson disease, therefore, the decompression should be slow; Leonard Hill suggests it should be at a rate of not less than 20 minutes for each atmosphere of pressure. Good ventilation of the caisson is also of great importance (though experiment does not entirely confirm the view that the presence of carbonic acid to an amount exceeding 1 or 1¼ parts per thousand exercises a specific influence on the production of compressed air illness), and long shifts should be avoided, because by fatigue the circulatory and respiratory organs are rendered less able to eliminate the absorbed gas. Another reason against long shifts, especially at high pressures, is that a high partial pressure of oxygen acts as a general protoplasmic poison. This circumstance also sets a limit to the pressures that can possibly be used in caissons and therefore to the depths at which they can be worked, though there is reason to think that the maximum pressure (4¾ atmospheres) so far used in caisson work might be considerably exceeded with safety, provided that proper precautions were observed in regard to slow decompression, the physique of the workmen, and the hours of labour. As to the remedy for the symptoms after they have appeared, satisfactory results have been obtained by replacing the sufferers in a compressed air chamber ("recompression"), when the gas is again dissolved by the body fluids, and then slowly "decompressing" them.
See Paul Bert,La Pression barométrique(1878); and Leonard Hill,Recent Advances in Physiology and Biochemistry(1906), (both these works contain bibliographies); also a lecture by Leonard Hill delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain on the 25th of May 1906; "Diving and Caisson Disease," a summary of recent investigations, by Surgeon Howard Mummery,British Medical Journal, June 27th, 1908;Diseases of Occupation, by T. Oliver (1908);Diseases of Workmen, by T. Luson and R. Hyde (1908).
CAITHNESS,a county occupying the extreme north-east of Scotland, bounded W. and S. by Sutherlandshire, E. by the North Sea, and N. by the Pentland Firth. Its area is 446,017 acres, or nearly 697 sq. m. The surface generally is flat and tame, consisting for the most part of barren moors, almost destitute of trees. It presents a gradual slope from the north and east up to the heights in the south and west, where the chief mountains are Morven (2313 ft.), Scaraben (2054 ft.) and Maiden Pap (1587 ft.). The principal rivers are the Thurso ("Thor's River"), which, rising in Cnoc Crom Uillt (1199 ft.) near the Sutherlandshire border, pursues a winding course till it reaches the sea in Thurso Bay; the Forss, which, emerging from Loch Shurrery, follows a generally northward direction and enters the sea at Crosskirk, a fine cascade about a mile from its mouth giving the river its name (fors, Scandinavian, "waterfall;" in English the form isforce); and Wick Water, which, draining Loch Watten, flows into the sea at Wick. There are many other smaller streams well stocked with fish. Indeed, the county offers fine sport for rod and gun. The lochs are numerous, the largest being Loch Watten, 2¾ m. by ¾ m., and Loch Calder, 2¼ by 1 m., and Lochs Colam, Hempriggs, Heilen, Ruard, Scarmclate, St John's, Toftingale and Wester. So much of the land is low-lying and boggy that there are no glens, except in the mountainous south-west, although towards the centre of the county are Strathmore and Strathbeg (the great and little valleys). Most of the coast-line is precipitous and inhospitable, particularly at the headlands of the Ord, Noss, Skirsa, Duncansbay, St John's Point, Dunnet Head (346 ft.), the most northerly point of Scotland, Holburn and Brims Ness. From Berriedale at frequent intervals round the coast occur superb "stacks," or detached pillars of red sandstone, which add much to the grandeur of the cliff scenery.
Caithness is separated from the Orkneys by the Pentland Firth, a strait about 14 miles long and from 6 to 8 miles broad. Owing to the rush of the tide, navigation is difficult, and, in rough weather, dangerous. The tidal wave races at a speed which varies from 6 to 12 m. an hour. At the meeting of the western and eastern currents the waves at times rise into the air like a waterspout, but the current does not always nor everywhere flow at a uniform rate, being broken up at places into eddies as perilous as itself. The breakers caused by the sunken reefs off Duncansbay Head create the Bores of Duncansbay, and eddies off St John's Point are the origin of the Merry Men of Mey, while off the island of Stroma occurs the whirlpool of the Swalchie, and off the Orcadian Swona is the vortex of the Wells of Swona. Nevertheless, as the most direct road from Scandinavian ports to the Atlantic the Firth is used by at least 5000 vessels every year. In the eastern entrance to the Firth lies the group of islands known as the Pentland Skerries. They are four in number—Muckle Skerry, Little Skerry, Clettack Skerry and Louther Skerry—and the nearest is 4½ m. from the mainland. On Muckle Skerry, the largest (½ m. by ⅓ m.), stands a lighthouse with twin towers, 100 ft. apart. The island of Stroma, 1½ m. from the mainland (pop. 375), belongs to Caithness and is situated in the parish of Canisbay. It is 2¼ m. long by 1¼ m. broad. In 1862 a remarkable tide climbed the cliffs (200 ft.) and swept across the island.
Geology.—Along the western margin of the county from Reay on the north coast to the Scaraben Hills there is a narrow belt of country which is occupied by metamorphic rocks of the types found in the east of Sutherland. They consist chiefly of granulitic quartzose schists and felspathic gneisses, permeated in places by strings and veins of pegmatite. On the Scaraben Hills there is a prominent development of quartz-schists the age of which is still uncertain. These rocks are traversed by a mass of granite sometimes foliated, trending north and south, which is traceable from Reay southwards by Aultnabreac station to Kinbrace and Strath Helmsdale in Sutherland. Excellent sections of this rock, showing segregation veins, are exposed in the railway cuttings between Aultnabreac and Forsinard. A rock of special interest described by Professor Judd occurs on Achvarasdale Moor, near Loch Scye, and hence named Scyelite. It forms a small isolated boss, its relations to the surrounding rocks not being apparent. Under the microscope, the rock consists of biotite, hornblende, serpentinous pseudo-morphs after olivine and possibly after enstatite and magnetite, and may be described as a mica-hornblende-picrite. The remainder of the county is occupied by strata of Old Red Sandstone age, the greater portion being grouped with the Middle or Orcadian division of that system, and a small area on the promontory of Dunnet Head being provisionally placed in the upper division. By means of the fossil fishes, Dr Traquair has arranged the Caithness flagstone series in three groups, the Achanarras beds at the base, the Thurso flagstones in the middle, and the John o' Groats beds at the top. In the extreme south of the county certain minor subdivisions appear which probably underlie the lowest fossiliferous beds containing the Achanarras fauna. These comprise (1) the coarse basement conglomerate, (2) dull chocolate-red sandstones, shales and clays around Braemore in the Berriedale Water, (3) the brecciated conglomerate largely composed of granite detritus seen at Badbea, (4) red sandstones, shales and conglomeratic bands found in the Berriedale Water and further northwards in the direction of Strathmore. Morven, the highest hill in Caithness, is formed of gently inclined sandstones and conglomerates resting on an eroded platform of quartz-schists and quartz-mica-granulites. The flagstones yielding the fishes of the lowest division of the Orcadian series appear on Achanarras Hill about three miles south of Halkirk. The members of the overlying Thurso group have a wide distribution as they extend along the shore on either side of Thurso and spread across the county by Castletown and Halkirk to Sinclairs Bay and Wick. They are thrown into folds which are traversed by faults some of which run in a north and south direction. They consist of dark grey and cream-coloured flagstones, sometimes thick-bedded with grey and blue shales and thin limestones and occasional intercalations of sandstone. In the north-west of the county the members of the Thurso group appear to overlap the Achanarras beds and to rest directly on the platform of crystalline schists. In the extreme north-east there is a passage upwards into the John o' Groats groupwith its characteristic fishes, the strata consisting of sandstones, flagstones with thin impure limestones. The rocks of Dunnet Head, which are provisionally classed with the upper Old Red Sandstone, are composed of red and yellow sandstones, marls and mudstones. Hitherto no fossils have been obtained from these beds save some obscure plant-like markings, but they are evidently a continuation southwards of the sandstones of Hoy, which there rest unconformably on the flagstone series of Orkney. This patch of Upper Old Red strata is faulted against the Caithness flagstones to the south. For many years the flagstones have been extensively quarried for pavement purposes, as for instance near Thurso, at Castletown and Achanarras. Two instances of volcanic necks occur in Caithness, one piercing the red sandstones at the Ness of Duncansbay and the other the sandstones of Dunnet Head north of Brough. They point to volcanic activity subsequent to the deposition of the John o' Groats beds and of the Dunnet sandstones. The materials filling these vents consist of agglomerate charged with blocks of diabase, sandstone, flagstone and limestone.
An interesting feature connected with the geology of Caithness is the deposit of shelly boulder clay which is distributed over the low ground, being deepest in the valleys and in the cliffs surrounding the bays on the east coast. Apart from the shell fragments, many of which are striated, the deposit contains blocks foreign to the county, as for instance chalk and chalk-flints, fragments of Jurassic rocks with fossils and pieces of jet. The transport of local boulders shows that the ice must have moved from the south-east towards the north-west, which coincides with the direction indicated by the striae. The Jurassic blocks may have been derived from the strip of rocks of that age on the east coast of Sutherland. The shell fragments, many of which are striated, include arctic, boreal and southern forms, only a small number being characteristic of the littoral zone.
Climate and Agriculture.—The climate is variable, and though the winter storms fall with great severity on the coast, yet owing to proximity to a vast expanse of sea the cold is not intense and snow seldom lies many days continuously. In winter and spring the northern shore is subject to frequent and disastrous gales from the N. and N.W. Only about two-fifths of the arable land is good. In spite of this and the cold, wet and windy climate, progressive landlords and tenants keep a considerable part of the acreage of large farms successfully tilled. In 1824 James Traill of Ratter, near Dunnet, recognizing that it was impossible to expect tenants to reclaim and improve the land on a system of short leases, advocated large holdings on long terms, so that farmers might enjoy a substantial return on their capital and labour. Thanks to this policy and the farmers' skill and enterprise, the county has acquired a remarkable reputation for its produce; notably oats and barley, turnips, potatoes and beans. Sheep—chiefly Leicester and Cheviots—of which the wool is in especial request in consequence of its fine quality, cattle, horses and pigs are raised for southern markets.
Other Industries.—The great source of profit to the inhabitants is to be found in the fisheries of cod, ling, lobster and herring. The last is the most important, beginning about the end of July and lasting for six weeks, the centre of operations being at Wick. Besides those more immediately engaged in manning the boats, the fisheries give employment to a large number of coopers, curers, packers and helpers. The salmon fisheries on the coast and at the mouths of rivers are let at high prices. The Thurso is one of the best salmon streams in the north. The flagstone quarries, mostly situated in the Thurso, Olrig and Halkirk districts, are another important source of revenue. Of manufactures there is little beyond tweeds, ropes, agricultural implements and whisky, and the principal imports consist of coal, wood, manure, flour and lime.
The only railway in the county is the Highland railway, which, from a point some four miles to the south-west of Aultnabreac station, crosses the shire in a rough semicircle, via Halkirk, to Wick, with a branch from Georgemas Junction to Thurso. There is also, however, frequent communication by steamer between Wick and Thurso and the Orkneys and Shetlands, Aberdeen, Leith and other ports. The deficiency of railway accommodation is partly made good by coach services between different places.
Population and Government.—The population of Caithness in 1891 was 33,177, and in 1901, 33,870, of whom twenty-four persons spoke Gaelic only, and 2876 Gaelic and English. The chief towns are Wick (pop. in 1901, 7911) and Thurso (3723). The county returns one member to parliament. Wick is the only royal burgh and one of the northern group of parliamentary burghs which includes Cromarty, Dingwall, Dornoch, Kirkwall and Tain. Caithness unites with Orkney and Shetland to form a sheriffdom, and there is a resident sheriff-substitute at Wick, who sits also at Thurso and Lybster. The county is under school-board jurisdiction, and there are academies at Wick and Thurso. The county council subsidizes elementary schools and cookery classes and provides apparatus for technical classes.
History.—The early history of Caithness may, to some extent, be traced in the character of its remains and its local nomenclature. Picts' houses, still fairly numerous, Norwegian names and Danish mounds attest that these peoples displaced each other in turn, and the number and strength of the fortified keeps show that its annals include the usual feuds, assaults and reprisals. Circles of standing stones, as at Stemster Loch and Bower, and the ruins of Roman Catholic chapels and places of pilgrimage in almost every district, illustrate the changes which have come over its ecclesiastical condition. The most important remains are those of Bucholie Castle, Girnigo Castle, and the tower of Keiss; and, on the S.E. coast, the castles of Clyth, Swiney, Forse, Laveron, Knockinnon, Berriedale, Achastle and Dunbeath, the last of which is romantically situated on a detached stack of sandstone rock. About six miles from Thurso stand the ruins of Braal Castle, the residence of the ancient bishops of Caithness. On the coast of the Pentland Firth, 1½ miles west of Dunscansbay Head, is the site of John o' Groat's house.
See S. Laing,Prehistoric Remains of Caithness(London and Edinburgh, 1866); James T. Calder,History of Caithness(2nd edition, Wick); John Home,In and About Wick(Wick); Thomas Sinclair,Caithness Events(Wick, 1899);History of the Clan Gunn(Wick, 1890); J. Henderson,Caithness Family History(Edinburgh, 1884); Harvie-Brown,Fauna of Caithness(Edinburgh, 1887); Principal Miller,Our Scandinavian Forefathers(Thurso, 1872); Smiles,Robert Dick, Botanist and Geologist(London, 1878); H. Morrison,Guide to Sutherland and Caithness(Wick, 1883); A. Auld,Ministers and Men in the Far North(Edinburgh, 1891).
CAIUSorGaius, pope from 283 to 296, was the son of Gaius, or of Concordius, a relative of the emperor Diocletian, and became pope on the 17th of December 283. His tomb, with the original epitaph, was discovered in the cemetery of Calixtus and in it the ring with which he used to seal his letters (see Arringhi,Roma subterr.,l.iv.c.xlviii. p. 426). He died in 296.
CAIUS[AngliceKees, Keys, etc.],JOHN(1510-1573), English physician, and second founder of the present Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, was born at Norwich on the 6th of October 1510. He was admitted a student at what was then Gonville Hall, Cambridge, where he seems to have mainly studied divinity. After graduating in 1533, he visited Italy, where he studied under the celebrated Montanus and Vesalius at Padua; and in 1541 he took his degree in physic at Padua. In 1543 he visited several parts of Italy, Germany and France; and returned to England. He was a physician in London in 1547, and was admitted fellow of the College of Physicians, of which he was for many years president. In 1557, being then physician to Queen Mary, he enlarged the foundation of his old college, changed the name from "Gonville Hall" to "Gonville and Caius College," and endowed it with several considerable estates, adding an entire new court at the expense of £1834. Of this college he accepted the mastership (24th of January 1558/9) on the death of Dr Bacon, and held it till about a month before his death. He was physician to Edward VI., Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. He returned to Cambridge from London for a few days in June 1573, about a month before his death, and resigned the mastership to Dr Legge, a tutor at Jesus College. He died at his London House, in St Bartholomew's, on the 29thof July, 1573, but his body was brought to Cambridge, and buried in the chapel under the well-known monument which he had designed. Dr Caius was a learned, active and benevolent man. In 1557 he erected a monument in St Paul's to the memory of Linacre. In 1564 he obtained a grant for Gonville and Caius College to take the bodies of two malefactors annually for dissection; he was thus an important pioneer in advancing the science of anatomy. He probably devised, and certainly presented, the silver caduceus now in the possession of Caius College as part of itsinsignia; he first gave it to the College of Physicians, and afterwards presented the London College with another.
His works are:Annals of the College from 1555 to 1572; translation of several of Galen's works, printed at different times abroad.Hippocrates de Medicamenlis, first discovered and published by Dr Caius; alsoDe Ratione Victus(Lov. 1556, 8vo).De Mendeti Methodo(Basel, 1554; London, 1556, 8vo).Account of the Sweating Sickness in England(London, 1556, 1721), (it is entitledDe Ephemera Britannica).History of the University of Cambridge(London, 1568, 8vo; 1574, 4to, in Latin).De Thermis Britannicis; but it is doubtful whether this work was ever printed.Of some Rare Plants and Animals(London, 1570).De Canibus Britannicis(1570, 1729).De Pronunciatione Graecae et Latinae Linguae(London, 1574);De Libris propriis(London, 1570). He also wrote numerous other works which were never printed.
For further details see theBiographical History of Caius College, an admirable piece of historical work, by Dr John Venn (1897).
CAJAMARCA,orCaxamarca, a city of northern Peru, capital of a department and province of the same name, 90 m. E. by N. of Pacasmayo, its port on the Pacific coast. Pop. (1906, estimate) of the department, 333,310; of the city, 9000. The city is situated in an elevated valley between the Central and Western Cordilleras, 9400 ft. above sea level, and on the Eriznejas, a small tributary of the Marañon. The streets are wide and cross at right angles; the houses are generally low and built of clay. Among the notable public buildings are the old parish church built at the expense of Charles II. of Spain, the church of San Antonio, a Franciscan monastery, a nunnery, and the remains of the palace of Atahualpa, the Inca ruler whom Pizarro treacherously captured and executed in this place in 1533. The hot sulphur springs of Pultamarca, called the Baños del Inca (Inca's baths) are a short distance east of the city and are still frequented. Cajamarca is an important commercial and manufacturing town, being the distributing centre for a large inland region, and having long-established manufactures of woollen and linen goods, and of metal work, leather, etc. It is the seat of one of the seven superior courts of the republic, and is connected with the coast by telegraph and telephone. A railway has been undertaken from Pacasmayo, on the coast, to Cajamarca, and by 1908 was completed as far as Yonán, 60 m. from its starting-point.
The department of Cajamarca lies between the Western and Central Cordilleras and extends from the frontier of Ecuador S. to about 7° S. lat., having the departments of Piura and Lambayeque on the W. and Amazonas on the E. Its area according to official returns is 12,542 sq. m. The upper Marañon traverses the department from S. to N. The department is an elevated region, well watered with a large number of small streams whose waters eventually find their way through the Amazon into the Atlantic. Many of its productions are of the temperate zone, and considerable attention is given to cattle-raising. Coal is found in the province of Hualgayoc at the southern extremity of the department, which is also one of the rich silver-mining districts of Peru. Next to its capital the most important town of the department is Cajamarquilla, whose population was about 6000 in 1906.
CAJATAMBO,orCaxatambo, a town and province of the department of Ancachs, Peru, on the western slope of the Andes. Since 1896 the population of the town has been estimated at 6000, but probably it does not exceed 4500. The town is 110 m. N. by E. of Lima, in lat. 9° 53′ S., long. 76° 57′ W. The principal industries of the province are the raising of cattle and sheep, and the cultivation of cereals. Cochineal is a product of this region. Near the town there are silver mines, in which a part of its population is employed.
CAJETAN(Gaetanus),Cardinal(1470-1534), was born at Gaeta in the kingdom of Naples. His proper name was Tommaso[1]de Vio, but he adopted that of Cajetan from his birthplace. He entered the order of the Dominicans at the age of sixteen, and ten years later became doctor of theology at Padua, where he was subsequently professor of metaphysics. A public disputation at Ferrara (1494) with Pico della Mirandola gave him a great reputation as a theologian, and in 1508 he became general of his order. For his zeal in defending the papal pretensions against the council of Pisa, in a series of works which were condemned by the Sorbonne and publicly burnt by order of King Louis XII., he obtained the bishopric of Gaeta, and in 1517 Pope Leo X. made him a cardinal and archbishop of Palermo. The year following he went as legate into Germany, to quiet the commotions raised by Luther. It was before him that the Reformer appeared at the diet of Augsburg; and it was he who, in 1519, helped in drawing up the bull of excommunication against Luther. Cajetan was employed in several other negotiations and transactions, being as able in business as in letters. In conjunction with Cardinal Giulio de' Medici in the conclave of 1521-1522, he secured the election of Adrian Dedel, bishop of Tortosa, as Adrian VI. Though as a theologian Cajetan was a scholastic of the older Thomist type, his general position was that of the moderate reformers of the school to which Reginald Pole, archbishop of Canterbury, also belonged;i.e.he desired to retain the best elements of the humanist revival in harmony with Catholic orthodoxy illumined by a revived appreciation of the Augustinian doctrine of justification. Nominated by Clement VII. a member of the committee of cardinals appointed to report on the "Nuremberg Recess," he recommended, in opposition to the majority, certain concessions to the Lutherans, notably the marriage of the clergy as in the Greek Church, and communion in both kinds according to the decision of the council of Basel. In this spirit he wrote commentaries upon portions of Aristotle, and upon theSummaof Aquinas, and towards the end of his life made a careful translation of the Old and New Testaments, excepting Solomon's Song, the Prophets and the Revelation of St John. In contrast to the majority of Italian cardinals of his day, Cajetan was a man of austere piety and fervent zeal; and if, from the standpoint of the Dominican idea of the supreme necessity of maintaining ecclesiastical discipline, he defended the extremist claims of the papacy, he also proclaimed that the pope should be "the mirror of God on earth." He died at Rome on the 9th of August 1534.
See "Aktenstücke über das Verhalten der römischen Kurie zur Reformation, 1524-1531," inQuellen und Forschungen(Kön. Preuss. Hist. Inst., Rome), vol. iii. p. 1-20; T.M. Lindsay,History of the Reformation, vol. i. (Edinburgh, 1906).