(A. Sl.)
CANCRIN, FRANZ LUDWIG VON(1738-1812), German mineralogist and metallurgist, was born on the 21st of February 1738, at Breitenbach, Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1764 he entered the service of the landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt at Hanau, becoming professor of mathematics at the military academy, head of the civil engineering department of the state, director of the theatre and (1774) of the mint. A work on the copper mines of Hesse (1767) earned him a European reputation, and in 1783 he accepted from Catherine II. of Russia the directorship of the famous Staraya salt-works, living thenceforth in Russia. In 1798 he became a councillor of state at St Petersburg. He published many works on mineralogy and metallurgy, of which the most important, theGrundzüge der Berg- und Salzwerkskunde(13 vols., Frankfort, 1773-1791), has been translated into several languages. His son, Count Georg von Cancrin, or Kankrin (1774-1845), was the eminent Russian minister of finance.
CANDELABRUM(from Lat.candela, a taper or candle), the stand on which ancient lamps were placed. The most ancient example is the bronze candelabrum made by Callimachus for the Erechtheum at Athens, to carry the lamp sacred to Minerva. In this case it is probable the lamp was suspended, as in the example from Pompeii, now in the Naples museum; this consisted of a stalk or reed, the upper part moulded with projecting feature to carry the lamps, and a base resting on three lions’ or griffins’ feet; sometimes there was a disk at the top to carry a lamp, and sometimes there was a hollow cup, in which resinous woods were burnt. The origin of the term suggests that on the top of the disk was a spike to carry a wax or tallow candle (candelaorfunalia). Besides these bronze candelabra, of which there are many varieties in museums, the Romans used more ponderous supports in stone or marble, of which many examples were found in the Thermae. These consisted of a base, often triangular, and of similar design to the small sacrificial altars, and a shaft either richly moulded or carved with the acanthus plant and crowned with a large cup or basin. There is a fine example of the latter in the Vatican. The Roman examples seem to have served as models for many of the candelabra in the churches in Italy. The word “candelabrum” is also now used to describe many different forms of lighting with multiple points, and is often applied to hanging lights as well as to those which rise from a stand.
CANDIA,formerly the capital and still the most populous city of Crete (q.v.), to which it has given its name. It is situated on the northern shore somewhat nearer the eastern than the western end of the island, in 35° 20′ N. lat. and 25° 9′ E. long. It is still surrounded by its extensive Venetian fortifications; but they have fallen into disrepair, and a good part of the town is in a dilapidated condition, mainly from the effects of earthquakes. The principal buildings are the Venetian loggia (barbarously mutilated by the new régime), the Konak (now Prefecture), the mosques, which are fourteen in number, the new cathedral,the two Greek churches, the Armenian church, the Capuchine monastery, the bazaars and the baths. There are also some beautiful Venetian fountains. The town is the seat of a Greek archbishop. A highly interesting museum has been formed here containing the antiquities found during the recent excavations. The chief trade is in oil and soap, both of which are of excellent quality. The coasting trade, which is of considerable importance, is mainly carried on in Turkish vessels. The manufacture of leather for home consumption is an extensive industry and wine of good quality is produced in the neighbourhood. The harbour, which had grown almost inaccessible, was deepened by Mustapha Pasha between 1820 and 1840. It is formed for the most part by the ancient moles, and was never deep enough to admit the larger vessels even of the Venetians, which were accustomed to anchor in the port of the neighbouring island of Standia. A short distance from St George’s Gate there was a small village exclusively inhabited by lepers, who numbered about seventy families, but they have now been transported to Spinalonga. The population of the town is estimated at from 15,000 to 18,000, about half being Mahommedan Greeks. The site of Candia, or, as it was till lately locally known, Megalo castro (the Great Fortress), has been supposed to correspond with that of the ancientHeracleion, the seaport of Cnossus, and this appellation has now been officially revived by its Greek inhabitants. The ruins of Cnossus are situated at the distance of about 3 m. to the south-east at the village of Makryteichos or Long Wall. Founded by the Saracens in the 9th century, Candia was fortified by the Genoese in the 12th, and was greatly extended and strengthened by the Venetians in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. It was besieged by the Turks under the vizier Achmet in 1667; and, in spite of a most heroic defence, in which the Venetians lost 30,000 in killed and wounded, it was forced to surrender in 1669. (See alsoCrete.)
CANDIDATE,one who offers himself or is selected by others for an office or place, particularly one who puts up for election to parliament or to any public body. The word is derived from the Latincandidatus, clad in white (candidus). In Rome, candidates for election to the higher magistracies appeared in the Campus Martius, the Forum and other public places, during their canvass, in togas with the white of the natural wool brightened by chalk.
CANDLE(Lat.candela, fromcandere, to glow), a cylindrical rod of solid fatty or waxy matter, enclosing a central fibrous wick, and designed to be burnt for giving light. The oldest materials employed for making candles are beeswax and tallow, while among those of more recent introduction are spermaceti, stearine and paraffin wax. Waxlights (cereus, sc.funis) were known to the Romans. In the midlde ages wax candles were little used, owing to their expense, except for the ceremonies of the church and other religious purposes (seeLights, Ceremonial Use of), but in the 15th century, with the cheapening of wax, they began to find wider employment. The tallow candle, mentioned by Apuleius assebaceus, was long an article of domestic manufacture. The tallow was melted and strained, and then lengths of cotton or flax fibre, or rushes from which most of the external skin had been stripped, only sufficient being left to support the pith (“rushlights”), were dipped into it, the operation being repeated until the desired thickness had been attained. In Paris, in the 13th century, there was a gild of candlemakers who went from house to house to make tallow candles, the manufacture of wax candles being in the hands of another gild. This separation of the two branches of the trade is also exemplified by the existence of two distinct livery companies in the city of London—the Waxchandlers and the Tallowchandlers; the Frenchchandelleproperly means tallow candle, candles made of materials less fusible than tallow being calledbougies, a term said to be derived from the town of Bougie in Algeria, either because wax was produced there or because the Venetians imported wax candles thence into Europe. The old tallow “dips” gave a poor light, and tallow itself is now used only to a limited extent, except as a source of “stearine.” This is the trade name for a mixture of solid fatty acids—mainly stearic and palmitic—manufactured not only from tallow and other animal fats, but also from such vegetable fats as palm-oil. Paraffin wax, a mixture of solid hydrocarbons obtained from crude North American and Rangoon petroleum, and also yielded in large quantities by the Scotch shale oil industry, is, at least in Great Britain, a still more important material of candle-manufacture, which came into use about 1854. Spermaceti, a crystalline fatty substance obtained from the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), was introduced as a material for candles about a century earlier. In practice the candlemaker mostly uses mixtures of these materials. For instance, 5-10% of stearine, which is used alone for candles that have to be burnt in hot climates, is mixed with paraffin wax, to counteract the tendency to bend with heat exhibited by the latter substance. Again, the brittleness of spermaceti is corrected by the addition of beeswax, stearine, paraffin wax or ceresin (obtained from the mineral wax ozocerite). In some “composite” candles stearine is mixed with the hard fat (“cocoa-nut stearine”) expressed from cocoa-nut oil by hydraulic pressure; and this cocoa-nut stearine is also used for night-lights, which are short thick candles with a thin wick, calculated to burn from six to ten hours.
The stearine or stearic acid industry originated in the discovery made by M.E. Chevreul about 1815, that fats are glycerides or compounds of glycerin with fatty acids, mostly palmitic, stearic and oleic. The object of the candlemaker is to remove this glycerin, not only because it is a valuable product in itself, but also because it is an objectionable constituent of a candle; the vapours of acrolein formed by its decomposition in the flame are the cause of the unpleasant odours produced by tallow “dips.” He also removes the oleic acid, which is liquid at ordinary temperatures, from the palmitic and stearic acids, mixtures of which solidify at temperatures varying from about 130° to 155° F., according to the percentage of each present. Several methods are in use for the decomposition of the fats. In the autoclave process the fat, whether tallow, palm-oil or a mixture of the two, mixed with 25 or 30% of water and about 3% of lime, is subjected in an autoclave to steam at a pressure of about 120 ℔ per square inch for eight or ten hours, when nearly all of it is saponified. On standing the product separates into two layers—“sweet water” containing glycerin below, and the fatty acids with a certain amount of lime soap above. The upper layer is then boiled and treated with enough sulphuric acid to decompose the lime soap, the calcium sulphate formed is allowed to subside, and the fatty acids are run off into shallow boxes to be crystallized or “seeded” prior to the separation of the oleic acid, which is effected by pressing the solid blocks from the boxes, first cold and then hot, by hydraulic machinery. In another process saponification is effected by means of concentrated sulphuric acid. The fat is mixed with 4-6% of the acid and treated with steam in boiling water till the hydrolysis is complete, when on standing the glycerin and sulphuric acid sink to the bottom and the fatty acids rise to the top. Owing to the darkness of their colour, when this process is employed, the latter usually have to be distilled before being crystallized. The autoclave process yields about 45% of stearine, one-third of which is recovered from the expressed oleic acid, but with sulphuric acid saponification the amount of stearine is higher— over 60%—and that of oleic acid less, part of it being converted into solid material by the action of the acid. The yield of glycerin is also less. In a combination of the two processes the fat may first be treated by the autoclave process, so as to obtain a full yield (about 10%) of glycerin, and the resulting fatty acids then subjected to acid saponification, so as to get the higher amount of stearine. At the best, however, some 30% of oleic acid remains, and though often sought, no satisfactory method of converting this residue into solid has been discovered. It constitutes “red oil,” and is used in soap-making and in woollen manufacture. In the process patented by Ernst Twitchell in 1898, decomposition is effected by boiling the fat with half its bulk of water in presence of a reagent obtained by the action of sulphuric acid on oleic acid and an aromatic hydrocarbon such as benzene.
The wick is a most important part of a candle, and unless it is of proper size and texture either too much or too little fuel will be supplied to the flame, and the candle will gutter or be otherwise unsatisfactory. The material generally employed is cotton yarn, plaited or “braided” by machinery, and treated or “pickled” with a solution of boracic acid, ammonium or potassium nitrate, or other salt. The tightness of the plaiting varies with the material used for the candle, wicks for stearine being looser than for paraffin, but tighter than for wax or spermaceti. The plaited wick is flat and curls over as the candle burns, and thus the end is kept projecting into the outer part of the flame where it is consumed, complete combustion being aided by the pickling process it has undergone. In the old tallow dips the strands of cotton were merely twisted together, instead of being plaited; wicks made in this way had no determinate bias towards the outside of the flame, and thus were not wholly consumed, the result being that there was apt to be an accumulation of charred matter, which choked the flame unless removed by periodical “snuffing.”
Four ways of making candles may be distinguished—dipping, pouring, drawing and moulding, the last being that most commonly employed.Dippingis essentially the same as the domestic process already described, but the rate of production is increased by mounting a number of wicks in a series of frames, each of which in turn is brought over the tallow bath so that its wicks can be dipped.Pouring, used in the case of wax, which cannot well be moulded because it contracts in cooling and also has a tendency to stick to the moulds, consists in ladling molten wax upon the wicks suspended from an iron ring. When of the desired thickness the candles are rolled under a plate on a marble slab. Indrawing, used for small tapers, the wick, rolled on a drum, is passed through the molten wax or paraffin, drawn through a circular hole and slowly wound on a second drum; it is then passed again through the molten material and through a somewhat larger hole, and reeled back on the first drum, this process being repeated with larger and larger holes until the coating is of the required thickness. Inmoulding, a number of slightly conical moulds are fixed by the larger extremity to a kind of trough, with their tapered ends projecting downwards and with wicks arranged down their centres. The molten material is poured into the trough and fills the moulds, from which the candles are withdrawn when solidified. Modern candle-moulding machines are continuous in their operation; long lengths of wick are coiled on bobbins, one for each mould, and the act of removing one set of candles from their moulds draws in a fresh set of wicks. “Self-fitting ends,” which were invented by J.L. Field in 1864, and being shaped like a truncated cone enable the candles to be fixed in candlesticks of any diameter, are formed by means of an attachment to the tops of the moulds; spirally twisted candles are, as it were, unscrewed from their moulds. It is necessary to be able to regulate the temperature of the moulds accurately, else the candles will not come out freely and will not be of good appearance. For stearine candles the moulds are immersed in tepid water and the cooling must be slow, else the material will crystallize, though if it be too slow cracking will occur. For paraffin, on the other hand, the moulds must be rather hotter than the molten material (about 200° F.), and must be quickly cooled to prevent the candles from sticking.
A candle-power, as a unit of light in photometry, was defined by the (London) Metropolis Gas Act of 1860 as the light given by a sperm candle, of which six weighed 1 ℔ and each burned 120 grains an hour.
See W. Lant Carpenter,Soaps and Candles(London, 1895); C.E. Groves and W. Thorp,Chemical Technology, vol. ii. “Lighting” (London, 1895); L.L. Lamborn,Soaps, Candles and Glycerine(New York, 1906); J. Lewkowitsch,Oils, Fats, and Waxes(London, 1909).
See W. Lant Carpenter,Soaps and Candles(London, 1895); C.E. Groves and W. Thorp,Chemical Technology, vol. ii. “Lighting” (London, 1895); L.L. Lamborn,Soaps, Candles and Glycerine(New York, 1906); J. Lewkowitsch,Oils, Fats, and Waxes(London, 1909).
CANDLEMAS(Lat.festum candelarum sive luminum), the name for the ancient church festival, celebrated annually on the 2nd of February, in commemoration of the presentation of Christ in the Temple. In the Greek Church it is known asΎπαπάντη τοῦ Κυρίου(“the meeting of the Lord,”i.e.with Simeon and Anna), in the West as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin. It is the most ancient of all the festivals in honour of the Virgin Mary. A description is given of its celebration at Jerusalem in thePeregrinatioof Etheria (Silvia), in the second half of the 4th century. It was then kept on the 14th of February, forty days after Epiphany, the celebration of the Nativity (Christmas) not having been as yet introduced; the Armenians still keep it on this day, as “the Coming of the Son of God into the Temple.” The celebration gradually spread to other parts of the church, being moved to the 2nd of February, forty days after the newly established feast of Christmas. In 542 it was established throughout the entire East Roman empire by Justinian. Its introduction in the West is somewhat obscure. The 8th-centuryGelasian Sacramentary, which embodies a much older tradition, mentions it under the title of Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which has led some to suppose that it was ordained by Pope Gelasius I. in 4921as a counter-attraction to the heathen Lupercalia; but for this there is no warrant. The procession on this day was introduced by Pope Sergius I. (687-701). The custom of blessing the candles for the whole year on this day, whence the name Candlemas is derived, did not come into common use until the 11th century.
In theQuadragesimae de Epiphaniaas described by Etheria there is, as Monsignor Duchesne points out (Christian Worship, p. 272), no indication of a special association with the Blessed Virgin; and the distinction between the festival as celebrated in the East and West is that in the former it is a festival of Christ, in the latter a festival pre-eminently of the Virgin Mother.
See L. Duchesne,Christian Worship(Eng. trans., London, 1904); art.s.v.by F.G. Holweck in theCatholic Encyclopaedia.
See L. Duchesne,Christian Worship(Eng. trans., London, 1904); art.s.v.by F.G. Holweck in theCatholic Encyclopaedia.
1So Baronius,Ann. ad ann.544.
1So Baronius,Ann. ad ann.544.
CANDLESTICK,the receptacle for holding a candle, nowadays made in various art-forms. The word was formerly used for any form of support on which lights, whether candles or lamps, were fixed; thus a candelabrum (q.v.) is sometimes spoken of from tradition as a candlestick,e.g.as when Moses was commanded to make a candlestick for the tabernacle, of hammered gold, a talent in weight, and consisting of a base with a shaft rising out of it and six arms, and with seven lamps supported on the summits of the six arms and central shaft. When Solomon built the temple, he placed in it ten golden candlesticks, five on the north and five on the south side of the Holy Place; but after the Babylonish captivity the golden candlestick was again placed in the temple, as it had been before in the tabernacle by Moses. On the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, it was carried with other spoils to Rome. Representations of the seven-branched candlestick, as it is called, occur on the arch of Titus at Rome, and on antiquities found in the Catacombs at Rome. The primitive form of candlestick was a torch made of slips of bark, vine tendrils or wood dipped in wax or tallow, tied together and held in the hand by the lower end, such as are frequently figured on ancient painted vases. The next step was to attach to them a cup (discus) to catch the dripping wax or tallow.
A candlestick may be either “flat” or “tall.” The former has a short stem, rising from a dish, and is usually furnished with an extinguisher fitting into a socket; the latter has a pillar which may be only a few inches in height or may rise to several feet, and rarely has an extinguisher. The flat variety is sometimes called a “bedroom candlestick.” The beginnings of this interesting and often beautiful appliance are not exactly known, but it dates certainly as far back as the 14th century and is probably older. It is most usually of metal, earthenware or china, but originally it was made of some hard wood and had no socketed pillar, the candle fitting upon a metal spike, in the fashion still familiar in the case of many church candlesticks. It has been constantly influenced by mobiliary and architectural fashions, and has varied, as it still varies, from the severest simplicity of form and material to the most elaborate artistic treatment and the costliest materials—gold and silver, crystal, marble and enamel. Previous to the 17th century, iron, latten, bronze and copper were chiefly used, but thenceforward themost elegant examples were chiefly of silver, though in more modern periods Sheffield plate, silver plate and china became exceedingly popular. Sometimes the base and sconce are of one material and the pillar of another, as when the former are of silver and the pillar of marble or china. The choice and combination of materials are, indeed, infinite. The golden age of the candlestick lasted, roughly speaking, from the third quarter of the 17th century to the end of the 18th. The later Jacobean, Queen Anne and early Georgian forms were often extremely elegant, with broad bases, round, oval or square and swelling stems. Fine examples of these periods, especially when of silver, are much sought after and command constantly augmenting prices. As with most domestic appliances the history of the candlestick is an unceasing tendency towards simplicity, the most elaborate and fantastic forms, animals and reptiles, the monstrous creatures of mythology, lions and men-at-arms, angels and cupids, having gradually given place to architectural motives such as the baluster stem and to the classic grace of the Adam style. The candlestick in its modern form is, indeed, artistically among the least unsatisfactory of household plenishings.
CANDLISH, ROBERT SMITH(1806-1873), Scottish divine, was born at Edinburgh on the 23rd of March 1806, and spent his early years in Glasgow, where he graduated in 1823. During the years 1823-1826 he went through the prescribed course at the divinity hall, then presided over by Dr Stevenson MacGill, and on leaving, accompanied a pupil as private tutor to Eton, where he stayed two years. In 1829 he entered upon his life’s work, having been licensed to preach during the summer vacation of the previous year. After short assistant pastorates at St Andrew’s, Glasgow, and Bonhill, Dumbartonshire, he obtained a settled charge as minister of the important parish of St George’s, Edinburgh. Here he at once took the place he so long held as one of the ablest preachers in Scotland. Destitute of natural oratorical gifts and somewhat ungainly in his manner, he attracted and even riveted the attention of his audience by a rare combination of intellectual keenness, emotional fervour, spiritual insight and power of dramatic representation of character and life. His theology was that of the Scottish Calvinistic school, but his sympathetic character combined with strong conviction gathered round him one of the largest and most intelligent congregations in the city.
From the very commencement of his ministry in Edinburgh, Candlish took the deepest interest in ecclesiastical questions, and he soon became involved as one of the chief actors in the struggle which was then agitating the Scottish church. His first Assembly speech, delivered in 1839, placed him at once among the leaders of the party that afterwards formed the Free Church, and his influence in bringing about the Disruption of 1843 was inferior only to that of Thomas Chalmers. Great as was his popularity as a preacher, it was in the arena of ecclesiastical debate that his ability chiefly showed itself, and probably no other single man had from first to last so large a share in shaping the constitution and guiding the policy of the Free Church. He took his stand on two principles: the right of the people to choose their ministers, and the independence of the church in things spiritual. On his advice Hugh Miller was appointed editor of theWitness, the powerful Free Church organ. He was actively engaged at one time or other in nearly all the various schemes of the church, but special mention should be made of his services on the education committee, of which he was convener from 1846 to 1863, and in the unsuccessful negotiations for union among the non-established Presbyterian denominations of Scotland, which were carried on during the years 1863-1873. In the Assembly of 1861 he filled the moderator’s chair.
As a theologian the position of Candlish was perhaps inferior to that which he held as a preacher and ecclesiastic, but it was not inconsiderable. So early as 1841 his reputation in this department was sufficient to secure for him the government nomination to the newly founded chair of Biblical criticism in the university of Edinburgh. Owing to the opposition of Lord Aberdeen, however, the presentation was cancelled. In 1847 Candlish, who had received the degree of D.D. from Princeton, New Jersey, in 1841, was chosen by the Assembly of the Free Church to succeed Chalmers in the chair of divinity in the New College, Edinburgh. After partially fulfilling the duties of the office for one session, he was led to resume the charge of St George’s, the clergyman who had been chosen by the congregation as his successor having died before entering on his work. In 1862 he succeeded William Cunningham as principal of New College with the understanding that he should still retain his position as minister of St George’s. He died on the 19th of October 1873.
Though his greatest power was not displayed through the press, Candlish made a number of contributions to theological literature. In 1842 he published the first volume of hisContributions towards the Exposition of the Book of Genesis, a work which was completed in three volumes several years later. In 1854 he delivered, in Exeter Hall, London, a lecture on theTheological Essaysof the Rev. F.D. Maurice, which he afterwards published, along with a fuller examination of the doctrine of the essays. In this he defended the forensic aspect of the gospel. A treatise entitledThe Atonement; its Reality, Completeness and Extent(1861) was based upon a smaller work which first appeared in 1845. In 1864 he delivered the first series of Cunningham lectures, taking for his subjectThe Fatherhood of God. Published immediately afterwards, the lectures excited considerable discussion on account of the peculiar views they represented. Further illustrations of these views were given in two works published about the same time as the lectures, one a treatiseOn the Sonship and Brotherhood of Believers, and the other an exposition of the first epistle of St John.
See William Wilson,Memorials of R.S. Candlish, D.D., with a chapter on his position as a theologian by Robert Rainy.
See William Wilson,Memorials of R.S. Candlish, D.D., with a chapter on his position as a theologian by Robert Rainy.
CANDOLLE, AUGUSTIN PYRAME DE(1778-1841), Swiss botanist, was born at Geneva on the 4th of February 1778. He was descended from one of the ancient families of Provence, whence his ancestors had been expatriated for their religion in the middle of the 16th century. Though a weakly boy he showed great aptitude for study, and distinguished himself at school by his rapid attainments in classical and general literature, and specially by a faculty for writing elegant verse. He began his scientific studies at the college of Geneva, where the teaching of J.P.E. Vaucher first inspired him with the determination to make botanical science the chief pursuit of his life. In 1796 he removed to Paris. His first productions,Historia Plantarum Succulentarum(4 vols., 1799) andAstragalogia(1802), introduced him to the notice of Cuvier, for whom he acted as deputy at the Collège de France in 1802, and to J.B. Lamarck, who afterwards confided to him the publication of the third edition of theFlore française(1803-1815). ThePrincipes élémentaires de botanique, printed as the introduction to this work, contained the first exposition of his principle of classification according to the natural as opposed to the Linnean or artificial method. In 1804 he was granted the degree of doctor of medicine by the medical faculty of Paris, and published hisEssai sur les propriétés médicales des plantes comparées avec leurs formes extérieures et leur classification naturelle, and soon after, in 1806, hisSynopsis plantarum in flora Gallica descriptarum. At the desire of the French government he spent the summers of the following six years in making a botanical and agricultural survey of the whole kingdom, the results of which were published in 1813. In 1807 he was appointed professor of botany in the medical faculty of the university of Montpellier, and in 1810 he was transferred to the newly founded chair of botany of the faculty of sciences in the same university. From Montpellier, where he published hisThéorie élémentaire de la botanique(1813), he removed to Geneva in 1816, and in the following year was invited by the now independent republic to fill the newly created chair of natural history. The rest of his life was spent in an attempt to elaborate and complete his “natural” system of botanical classification. The results of his labours in this department are to be found in hisRegni vegetabilis systemanaturale, of which two volumes only were completed (1821) when he found that it would be impossible for him to execute the whole work on so extensive a scale. Accordingly in 1824 he began a less extensive work of the same kind—hisProdromus systematis regni vegetabilis—but even of this he was able to finish only seven volumes, or two-thirds of the whole. He had been for several years in delicate health when he died on the 9th of September 1841 at Geneva.
His son,Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyrame de Candolle, born at Paris on the 28th of October 1806, at first devoted himself to the study of law, but gradually drifted to botany and finally succeeded to his father’s chair. He published a number of botanical works, including continuations of theProdromusin collaboration with his son, Anne Casimir Pyrame de Candolle. He died at Geneva on the 4th of April 1893.
CANDON,a town of South Ilocos province, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on the W. coast, about 200 m. N. by W. of Manila. Pop. (1903) 18,828. Its climate is hot, though healthy. Candon is surrounded by an extensive and fertile plain, and is defended by a small fort. Its inhabitants are noted for their honesty and industry, as well as for their regard for law and order. They carry on an extensive traffic with the wild tribes of the neighbouring mountains. Indigo is grown in considerable quantity, as are rice and tobacco. The weaving of blankets, handkerchiefs, and cotton and silk cloths constitutes quite an important industry. The language is Ilocanc.
CANDYTUFT(Iberis amara, so called from Iberia,i.e.Spain, where many species of the genus are native, andamara, bitter,i.e.in taste), a small annual herb (natural order Cruciferae) with white or purplish flowers, the outer petals of which are longer than the rest. It is a native of western Europe and found wild on dry soil in cultivated ground in the centre and east of England. This and several other species of the genus are known as garden plants, and are of easy culture in ordinary garden soil if well exposed to sun and air. The common candytuft of gardens isI. umbellata, a hardy annual, native of southern Europe, and known in a number of varieties differing in colour of flowers.I. coronaria(rocket candytuft) has long dense heads of white flowers and is also an annual. Some species have a shrubby growth and are evergreen perennials; the best-known isI. sempervirens, a native of southern Europe, a much-branched plant about a foot high with long racemes of white flowers.I. gibraltaricais a showy, handsome half hardy evergreen.
CANE,a name applied to many plants which have long, slender, reed-like stalks or stems, as, for example, the sugar-cane, the bamboo-cane or the reed-cane. From the use as walking-sticks to which many of these plants have been applied, the name “cane” is improperly given to sticks, irrespective of the source from which they are derived. Properly it should be restricted to a peculiar class of palms, known as rattans, included under the two closely allied generaCalamusandDaemonorops, of which there are a large number of species. The plants are found widely extended throughout the islands of the Indian Archipelago, the Malay Peninsula, China, India and Ceylon; and also in Australia and Africa. They were described by Georg Eberhard Rumpf or Rumphius (1627-1702), governor of Amboyna, and author of theHerbarium Amboynense(6 vols. folio, Amsterdam, 1741-1755), under the name of Palmijunci, as inhabitants of dense forests into which the rays of the sun scarce can penetrate, where they form spiny bushes, obstructing the passage through the jungle. The slender stems rarely exceed an inch in diameter and are generally much smaller. They creep or trail to an enormous length, often reaching 500 or 600 ft., and support themselves on trees or bushes by recurved spines borne on the stalk or back of the midrib of the leaf, or by stiff hooks replacing the upper leaflets. In some cases the midrib is elongated beyond the leaflets to form a long whip-like structure, bearing recurved hooks at intervals. The natives, in preparing the canes for the market, strip off the leaves by pulling the cut plant through a notch made in a tree. The canes always present distinct rings at the junction of the sheathing leaves with the stem. They assume a yellow colour as they dry; and those imported from Calcutta have a glossy surface, while the produce of the Eastern Archipelago presents a dull exterior.
Canes, on account of their lightness, length, strength and flexibility, are used for a great variety of purposes by the inhabitants of the countries in which they grow. Split into thin strips they are twisted to form ropes and ships’ cables, an application mentioned by Captain Dampier in hisVoyages. A more important application, however, is for basket-work, and for making chairs, couches, pillows, &c., as the great strength and durability of thin and easily prepared strips admit of such articles being made at once airy, strong and flexible. Much of the beautiful and elaborate basket-work of the Chinese and Japanese is made from thin strips of cane, which are also used by the Chinese for larger works, such as door-mats, houses and sheds.
A very large trade with Western countries and the United States is carried on in canes and rattans, the principal centres of the trade being Batavia, Sarawak, Singapore, Penang and Calcutta. In addition to the varieties used for walking-sticks, whip and umbrella handles, &c., the common rattans are in extensive demand for basket-making, the seats and backs of chairs, the ribs of cheap umbrellas, saddles and other harness-work; and generally for purposes where their strength and flexibility make them efficient substitutes for whalebone. The walking-stick “canes” of commerce include a great many varieties, some of which, however, are not the produce of trailing palms. The well-known Malacca canes are obtained fromCalamus Scipionum, the stems of which are much stouter than is the case with the average species ofCalamus.
CANEA,orKhania, the principal seaport and since 1841 the capital of Crete, finely situated on the northern coast of the island, about 25 m. from its western extremity, on the isthmus of the Akrotiri peninsula, which lies between the Bay of Canea and the Bay of Suda (latitude 35° 31′ N., longitude 24° 1′ E.). Surrounded by a massive Venetian wall, it forms a closely built, irregular and overcrowded town, though of late years a few of its streets have been widened. The ordinary houses are of wood; but the more important buildings are of more solid materials. The Turks have a number of mosques; there are Greek churches and a Jewish synagogue; an old Venetian structure serves as a military hospital; and the prison is of substantial construction. The town is now the principal seat of government; the seat of a Greek bishop, who is suffragan to the metropolitan at Candia, and the official residence of the European consuls. The harbour, formed by an ancient transverse mole nearly 1200 ft. long, and protected by a lighthouse and a fort, would admit vessels of considerable tonnage; but it has been allowed to silt up until it shoals off from 24 ft. to 10 or even 8, so that large vessels have to anchor about 4 or 5 m. out. The principal articles of trade are oil and soap, and there is a pretty extensive manufacture of leather. The fosse is laid out in vegetable gardens; public gardens have been constructed outside the walls; and artesian wells have been bored by the government. To the east of the town a large Arab village had grown up, inhabited for the most part by natives of Egypt and Cyrenaica, who acted as boatmen, porters and servants, but since the fall of the Turkish government most of these have quitted the island; while about a mile off on the rising ground is the village of Khalepa, where the consuls and merchants reside. The population of the town is estimated at 20,000. Canea probably occupies the site of the ancient Cydonia, a city of very early foundation and no small importance. During the Venetian rule it was one of the strongest cities in the island, but it fell into the hands of the Turks in 1646, several years before the capture of Candia. In 1856 it suffered from an earthquake. The neighbouring plain is famous for its fruitfulness, and the quince is said to derive its nameCydoniafrom the town. (See alsoCrete.)
CANE-FENCING(the Fr.canne), the art of defending oneself with a walking-stick. It may be considered to be single-stick fencing without a guard for the hand, with the important difference that in cane-fencing the thrust is as important asthe cut, and thuscanneapproaches nearer to sabre-play. The cuts are practically identical with those of the single-stick (q.v.), but they are generally given after one or more rapid preliminary flourishes (moulinets, circles) which the lightness of the stick facilitates, and which serve to perplex and disconcert an assailant. The thrusts are similar to those in foil-play, but are often carried out with both hands grasping the stick, giving greater force and enabling it to be used at very close quarters. The canes used in French fencing schools are made of several kinds of tough wood and are about 3 ft. long, tapering towards the point. As very severe blows are exchanged, masks, gloves, padded vests and shin-guards, similar to those used in football, are worn.
See Georges d’Amoric,French Method of the Noble Art of Self-Defence(London, 1898); J. Charlemont,L’Art de la Boxe française et de la Canne(Paris, 1899).
See Georges d’Amoric,French Method of the Noble Art of Self-Defence(London, 1898); J. Charlemont,L’Art de la Boxe française et de la Canne(Paris, 1899).
CANEPHORAE(Gr.κάνεον, a basket, andφέρειν, to carry), “basket-bearers,” the title given of old to Athenian maidens of noble family, annually chosen to carry on their heads baskets with sacrificial implements and apparatus at the Panathenaic and other festivals. The term (also in the formCanephori) is applied in architecture to figures of either sex carrying on their heads baskets, containing edibles or material for sacrifices. The term might well be applied to the Caryatide figures of the Erechtheum. Those represented in the Panathenaic frieze of the Parthenon carry vases on their shoulders.
CANES VENATICI(“TheHounds,” or “theGreyhounds”), in astronomy, a constellation of the northern hemisphere named by Hevelius in 1690, who compiled it from the stars between the older asterisms Ursa Major, Boötes and Coma Berenices. Interesting objects in this portion of the heavens are: the famous spiral nebula first described by Lord Rosse;a-Canum Venaticorum, a double star, of magnitudes 3 and 6; this star was namedCor Caroli, or The Heart of Charles II., by Edmund Halley, on the suggestion of Sir Charles Scarborough (1616-1694), the court physician; a cluster of stars of the 11th magnitude and fainter, extremely rich in variables, of the 900 stars examined no less than 132 being regularly variable.
CANGA-ARGUELLES, JOSÉ(1770-1843), Spanish statesman, was born in 1770. He took an active part in the Spanish resistance to Napoleon in a civil capacity and was an energetic member of the cortes of 1812. On the return of the Bourbon line in 1814, Canga-Arguelles was sent into exile in the province of Valencia. On the restoration in 1820 of the constitution of 1812, he was appointed minister of finance. He continued at this post till the spring of 1821, distinguishing himself by the zeal and ability with which he sought to reform the finances of Spain. It was high time; for the annual deficit was greater than the entire revenue itself, and landed and other property was, to an unheard-of extent, monopolized by the priests. The measures he proposed had been only partially enforced, when the action of the king with regard to the ministry, of which he was a member, obliged him to resign. Thereafter, as a member of the Moderate Liberal party, Canga-Arguelles advocated constitutional government and financial reform, till the overthrow of the constitution in 1823, when he fled to England. He did not return to Spain till 1829, and did not again appear in public life, being appointed keeper of the archives at Simancas. He died in 1843. Canga-Arguelles is the author of three works:Elementos de la Ciencia de Hacienda(Elements of the Science of Finance), London, 1825;Diccionario de Hacienda(Dictionary of Finance), London, 1827; andObservaciones sobre la guerra de la Peninsula(Observations on the Peninsular War), in which he endeavoured to show that his countrymen had taken a far more effective part in the national struggle against the French than English historians were willing to admit.
CANGAS DE ONÍS, orCangas, a town of northern Spain, in the province of Oviedo; situated on the right bank of the river Sella, in a fertile, well-watered, partly wooded, undulating region. Pop. (1900) 8537. The trade of Cangas de Onís is chiefly in live-stock and coal from the neighbouring mines. A Latin inscription on the town-hall records the fact that this place was the residence of the first Spanish kings after the spread of the Moors over the Peninsula. Here early in the 8th century lived King Pelayo, who started the Christian reconquest of Spain. His historic cave of Covadonga is only 8 m. distant (seeAsturias). The church of the Assumption, rebuilt in the 19th century, is on the model and site of an older church of the middle ages. Near Cangas are ruins and bridges of the Roman period.
CANGAS DE TINÉO,a town of northern Spain, in the province of Oviedo, and on the river Narcea. Pop. (1900) 22,742. There is no railway and the river is not navigable, but a good road runs through Tinéo, Grado and the adjacent coal-fields, to the ports of Cudillero and Avilés. The inhabitants have thus an easily accessible market for the farm produce of the fertile hills round Cangas de Tinéo, and for the cloth, leather, pottery, &c., manufactured in the town.
CANGUE,orCang, the European name for the ChineseKiaorKea, a portable pillory, carried by offenders convicted of petty offences. It consists of a square wooden collar weighing from 20 to 60 ℔., through a hole in which the victim’s head is thrust. It fits tight to the neck and must be worn day and night for the period ordered. The offender is left exposed in the street. Over the parts by which it fastens slips of paper bearing the mandarin’s seal are pasted so that no one can liberate the condemned. The length of the punishment is usually from a fortnight to a month. As the cangue is 3 to 4 ft. across the convict is unable to feed himself or to lie down, and thus, unless fed by friends or passersby, often starves to death. As in the English pillory, the name of the man and the nature of his offence are inscribed on the cangue.
CANINA, LUIGI(1795-1856), Italian archaeologist and architect, was born at Casale in Piedmont. He became professor of architecture at Turin, and his most important works were the excavation of Tusculum in 1829 and of the Appian Way in 1848, the results of which he embodied in a number of works published in a costly form by his patroness, the queen of Sardinia.
CANINI, GIOVANNI AGNOLO(1617-1666), Italian designer and engraver, was born at Rome. He was a pupil of Domenichino and afterwards of Antonio Barbalonga. He painted some altar-pieces at Rome, including two admired pictures for the church of San Martino a’ Monti, representing the martyrdom of St Stephen and of St Bartholomew. Having accompanied Cardinal Chigi to France, he was encouraged by the minister Colbert to carry into execution his project of designing from medals, antique gems and similar sources a series of portraits of the most illustrious characters of antiquity, accompanied with memoirs; but shortly after the commencement of the undertaking Canini died at Rome. The work, however, was prosecuted by his brother Marcantonio, who, with the assistance of Picard and Valet, completed and published it in 1699, under the title ofIconografia di Gio. Ag. Canini. It contains 150 engravings. A reprint in Italian and French appeared at Amsterdam in 1731.
CANIS MAJOR(“Great Dog”), in astronomy, a constellation placed south of the Zodiac, just below and behind the heels of Orion.Canis minor, the “little dog,” is another constellation, also following Orion and separated from Canis major by the Milky Way. Both these constellations, or at least their principal stars, Sirius in the Great Dog and Procyon in the Little Dog, were named in very remote times, being referred to as the “dogs of Orion” or in equivalent terms. Sirius is the brightest star in the heavens; and the name is connected with the adjectivesσειρόςandσείριος, scorching. It may possibly be related to the ArabicSirāj, thus meaning the “glittering one.” Hommel has shown that Sirius and Procyon were “the twoSi’ray” or glitterers. It is doubtful whether Sirius is referred to in the Old Testament. By some it has been identified with the Hebrewmazzaroth, theLuciferof the Vulgate; by others withmazzaloth, theduodecim signaof the Vulgate; while Professor M.A. Stern identifies it with the Hebrewkimah, which is rendered variouslyin the Vulgate as Arcturus, Hyades and Pleiades.1The inhabitants of the Euphrates valley included both constellations in their stellar system; but considerable difficulty is encountered in the allocation of the Babylonian names to the dominant stars. The namekak-ban, which occurs on many tablets, has been determined by Epping and Strassmaier, and also by Jensen and Hommel, as equivalent to Sirius; etymologically this word means “dog-star” (or, according to R. Brown,Primitive Constellations, “bow-star”). On the other hand,KaksidiorKak-si-sa, meaning the “leader,” has been identified by Sayce and others with Sirius, while Hommel regards it as Procyon. The question is mainly philological, and the arguments seem inconclusive. We may notice, however, that connexions were made between Kaksidi and the weather, which have strong affinities with the ideas expressed at a later date by the Greeks. For example, its appearance in the morning with the sun heralded the “north winds,” theβορέαι ἐτησίαιoraquilones etesiae, the strong and dangerous north-westerly winds of Greece which blow for forty days from the rising of the star; again, when Sirius appeared misty the “locusts devour.” Sirius also appears in the cosmogony of Zoroaster, for Plutarch records that Ormuzd appointed this star to be a guard and overseer in the heavens, and in theAvestawe find that Tistrya (Sirius) is “the bright and happy star, that gives happy dwelling.” With the Egyptians Sirius assumed great importance. Appearing with the sun when the Nile was rising, Sirius was regarded as a herald of the waters which would overspread the land, renewing its fertility and promising good harvests for the coming season. Hephaestion records that from its aspect the rise of the water was foretold, and the Roman historian Florus adds that the weather was predicted also. Its rising marked the commencement of their new year, theannus canariusandannus cynicusof the Romans. It was the star of Sept or Sothis, and, according to one myth, was identified with the goddess Hathor—the Aphrodite of the Greeks. It was the “second sun” of the heavens, and according to Maspero (Dawn of Civilization, 1894) “Sahu and Sopdit, Orion and Sirius, were the rulers of this mysterious world of night and stars.”
The Greeks, borrowing most of their astronomical knowledge from the Babylonians, held similar myths and ideas as to the constellations and stars. Sirius was namedΣείριος, Κύων(the dog) andτὸ ἄστρον, the star; and its heliacal rising was associated with the coming of the dry, hot and sultry season. Hesiod tells us that “Sirius parches head and knees”; Homer speaks similarly, calling itκακὸν σῆμα, the evil star, and the star of late summer (ὀπώρα), the rainy and stormy season. Procyon (Προκύων) was so named because it rose beforeΚύων. The Euphratean myth of the dogs has its parallel in Greece, Sirius being the hound of the hunter Orion, and as recorded by Aratus always chasing the Hare; Pindar refers to the chase of Pleione, the mother of the Pleiads, by Orion and his dogs. Similarly Procyon became Maera, the dog of Icarius, when Boötes became Icarius, and Virgo his daughter Erigone.
The Romans adopted the Greek ideas. They named the constellationCanis, and Sirius was known asCanisalso, and asCanicula. Procyon becameAntecanemandAntecanis, but these names did not come into general use. They named the hottest part of the year associated with the heliacal rising of Sirius theDies caniculares, a phrase which has survived in the modern expression “dog-days”; and the pestilences which then prevailed occasioned the offering of sacrifices to placate this inimical star. Festus narrates, in this connexion, the sacrificing of red dogs at the feast of Floralia, and Ovid of a dog on the Robigalia. The experience of the ancient Greeks that Sirius rose with the sun as the latter entered Leo,i.e.the hottest part of the year, was accepted by the Romans with an entire disregard of the intervening time and a different latitude. To quote Sir Edward Sherburne (Sphere of Manilius, 1675), “The greater part of the Antients assign the Dog Star rising to the time of the Sun’s first entering into Leo, or, as Pliny writes, 23 days after the summer solstice, as Varro 29, as Columella 30.2...At this day with us, according to Vulgar computation, the rising and setting of the said Star is in a manner coincident with the Feasts of St Margaret (which is about the 13th of our July) and St Lawrence (which falls on the 10th of our August).”
Sirius is the most conspicuous star in the sky; it sends to the earth eleven times as much light as Aldebaran, the unit standard adopted in the revised Harvard Photometry; numerically its magnitude is -1.6. At the present time its colour is white with a tinge of blue, but historical records show that this colour has not always prevailed. Aratus designated itποικίλος, many coloured; the Alexandrian Ptolemy classified it with Aldebaran, Antares and Betelgeuse asὑπόκιρρος, fiery red; Seneca describes it as “redder than Mars”; while, in the 10th century, the Arabian Biruni termed it “shining red.” On the other hand Sufi, who also flourished in the 10th century, pointedly omits it from his list of coloured stars. The question has been thoroughly discussed by T.J.J. See, who shows that Sirius has shone white for the last 1000 to 1200 years.3The parallax has been determined by Sir David Gill and W.L. Elkin to be 0.37″; it is therefore distant from the earth over 5 × 10^13 miles, and its light takes 8.6 years to traverse the intervening space. If the sun were at the same distance Sirius would outshine it 30 times, the sun appearing as a star of the second magnitude. It has a large proper motion, which shows recurrent undulations having a 50-year period. From this Bessel surmised the existence of a satellite or companion, for which C.A.F. Peters and A. Auwers computed the elements. T.H. Safford determined its position for September 1861; and on the 31st of January 1862, Alvan G. Clark, of Cambridgeport, Mass., telescopically observed it as a barely visible, dull yellow star of the 9th to 10th magnitude. The mean distance apart is about 20 astronomical units; the total mass of the pair is 3.7 times the mass of the sun, Sirius itself being twice as massive as its companion, and, marvellously enough, forty thousand times as bright. The spectrum of Sirius is characterized by prominent absorption lines due to hydrogen, the metallic lines being weak; other stars having the same spectra are said to be of the “Sirian type.” Such stars are the most highly heated (seeStar).
Procyon, or a Canis minoris, is a star of the 2nd magnitude, one-fifth as bright as Sirius, or numerically 0.47 when compared with Aldebaran. It is more distant than Sirius, its parallax being 0.33″; and its light is about six times that of the sun. Its proper motion is large, 1.25″, and its velocity at right angles to the line of sight is about 11 m. per second. Its proper motion shows large irregularities, pointing to a relatively massive companion; this satellite was discovered on the 13th of November 1896 by J.M. Schaeberle, with the great Lick telescope, as a star of the 13th magnitude. Its mass is equal to about that of the sun, but its light is only one twenty-thousandth.