The standard biography is that by John Morley (1881). Cobden’s speeches were collected and published in 1870. The centenary of his birth in 1904 was celebrated by a flood of articles in the newspapers and magazines, naturally coloured by the new controversy in England over the Tariff Reform movement.
COBET, CAREL GABRIEL(1813-1889), Dutch classical scholar, was born at Paris on the 28th of November 1813, and educated at the Hague Gymnasium and the university of Leiden. In 1836 he won a gold medal for an essay entitledProsopographia Xenophontea, a brilliant characterization of all the persons introduced into theMemorabilia,SymposiumandOeconomicusof Xenophon. HisObservationes criticae in Platonis comici reliquias(1840) revealed his remarkable critical faculty. The university conferred on him an honorary degree, and recommended him to the government for a travelling pension. The ostensible purpose of his journey was to collate the texts of Simplicius, which, however, engaged but little of his time. He contrived, however, to make a careful study of almost every Greek manuscript in the Italian libraries, and returned after five years with an intimate knowledge of palaeography. In 1846 he married, and in the same year was appointed to an extraordinary professorship at Leiden. His inaugural address,De Arte interpretandi Grammatices et Critices Fundamentis innixa, has been called the most perfect piece of Latin prose written in the 19th century. The rest of his life was passed uneventfully at Leiden. In 1856 he became joint editor ofMnemosyne, a philological review, which he soon raised to a leading position among classical journals. He contributed to it many critical notes and emendations, which were afterwards collected in book form under the titlesNovae Lectiones,Variae LectionesandMiscellanea Critica. In 1875 he took a prominent part at the Leiden Tercentenary, and impressed all his hearers by his wonderful facility in Latin improvisation. In 1884, when his health was failing, he retired as emeritus professor. He died on the 26th of October 1889. Cobet’s special weapon as a criticwas his consummate knowledge of palaeography, but he was no less distinguished for his rare acumen and wide knowledge of classical literature. He has been blamed for rashness in the emendation of difficult passages, and for neglecting the comments of other scholars. He had little sympathy for the German critics, and maintained that the best combination was English good sense with French taste. He always expressed his obligation to the English, saying that his masters were three Richards—Bentley, Porson and Dawes.
See an appreciative obituary notice by W.G. Rutherford in theClassical Review, Dec. 1889; Hartman in Bursian’sBiographisches Jahrbuch, 1890; Sandys,Hist. Class. Schol.(1908), iii. 282.
COBHAM, a village in the Medway parliamentary division of Kent, England, 4 m. W. of Rochester. The church (Early English and later, and restored by Sir G.G. Scott) is famous for its collection of ancient brasses, of which thirteen belonging to the years 1320-1529 commemorate members of the Brooke and Cobham families. There are some fine oak stalls and some tilting armour of the 14th century in the chancel. Cobham college, containing 20 almshouses, took the place, after the dissolution, of a college for priests founded by Sir John de Cobham in the 14th century. The present mansion of Cobham Hall is mainly Elizabethan. The picture gallery contains a fine collection of works by the great masters, Italian, Dutch and English.
The Cobham family was established here before the reign of King John. In 1313 Henry de Cobham was created Baron Cobham, but on the execution of Sir John Oldcastle (who had been summoned to parliament,jure uxoris, as Baron Cobham) in 1417, the barony lay dormant till revived in 1445 by Edward, son of Sir Thomas Brooke and Joan, grand-daughter of the 3rd Baron Cobham. In 1603 Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham, was arraigned for participation in the Raleigh conspiracy, and spent the remainder of his life in prison, where he died in 1618. With him the title expired, and Cobham Hall was granted to Lodowick Stewart, duke of Lennox, passing subsequently by descent and marriage to the earls of Darnley. The present Viscount Cobham (cr. 1718) belongs to the Lyttelton family (seeLyttelton, 1st Baron).
COBIJA, orPuerto La Mar(the official title given to it by the Bolivian government), a port and town of the Chilean province of Antofagasta, about 800 m. N. of Valparaiso. It is the oldest port on this part of the coast, and was for a time the principal outlet for a large mining district. It was formerly capital of the Bolivian department of Atacama and the only port possessed by Bolivia, but the seizure of that department in 1879 by Chile and the construction of the Antofagasta and Oruro railway deprived it of all importance, and its population, estimated at 6000 in 1858, has fallen to less than 500. Its harbour is comparatively safe but lacks landing facilities. Smelting for neighbouring mines is still carried on, and some of its former trade remains, but the greater part of it has gone to Tocopilla and Antofagasta. The town occupies a narrow beach between the sea and bluffs, and was greatly damaged by an earthquake and tidal wave in 1877.
COBLE(probably of Celtic origin, and connected with the rootceuorcau, hollow; cf. Welshceubol, a ferry-boat), a flat-bottomed fishing-boat, with deep-lying rudder and lug-sail, used off the north-east coast of England.
COBLENZ(Koblenz), a city and fortress of Germany, capital of the Prussian Rhine Province, 57 m. S.E. from Cologne by rail, pleasantly situated on the left bank of the Rhine at its confluence with the Mosel, from which circumstance it derived its ancient nameConfluentes, of which Coblenz is a corruption. Pop. (1885) 31,669; (1905) 53,902. Its defensive works are extensive, and consist of strong modern forts crowning the hills encircling the town on the west, and of the citadel of Ehrenbreitstein (q.v.) on the opposite bank of the Rhine. The old city was triangular in shape, two sides being bounded by the Rhine and Mosel and the third by a line of fortifications. The last were razed in 1890, and the town was permitted to expand in this direction. Immediately outside the former walls lies the new central railway station, in which is effected a junction of the Cologne-Mainz railway with the strategical line Metz-Berlin. The Rhine is crossed by a bridge of boats 485 yds. long, by an iron bridge built for railway purposes in 1864, and, a mile above the town, by a beautiful bridge of two wide and lofty spans carrying the Berlin railway referred to. The Mosel is spanned by a Gothic freestone bridge of 14 arches, erected in 1344, and also by a railway bridge.
The city, down to 1890, consisted of the Altstadt (old city) and the Neustadt (new city) or Klemenstadt. Of these, the Altstadt is closely built and has only a few fine streets and squares, while the Neustadt possesses numerous broad streets and a handsome frontage to the Rhine. In the more ancient part of Coblenz are several buildings which have an historical interest. Prominent among these, near the point of confluence of the rivers, is the church of St Castor, with four towers. The church was originally founded in 836 by Louis the Pious, but the present Romanesque building was completed in 1208, the Gothic vaulted roof dating from 1498. In front of the church of St Castor stands a fountain, erected by the French in 1812, with an inscription to commemorate Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. Not long after, the Russian troops occupied Coblenz; and St Priest, their commander, added in irony these words—“Vu et approuvé par nous, Commandant Russe de la Vitte de Coblence: Janvier 1er, 1814.” In this quarter of the town, too, is the Liebfrauenkirche, a fine church (nave 1250, choir 1404-1431) with lofty late Romanesque towers; the castle of the electors of Trier, erected in 1280, which now contains the municipal picture gallery; and the family house of the Metternichs, where Prince Metternich, the Austrian statesman, was born in 1773. In the modern part of the town lies the palace (Residenzschloss), with one front looking towards the Rhine, the other into the Neustadt. It was built in 1778-1786 by Clement Wenceslaus the last elector of Trier, and contains among other curiosities some fine Gobelin tapestries. From it some pretty gardens and promenades (Kaiserin Augusta Anlagen) stretch along the bank of the Rhine, and in them is a memorial to the poet Max von Schenkendorf. A fine statue to the empress Augusta, whose favourite residence was Coblenz, stands in the Luisen-platz. But of all public memorials the most striking is the colossal equestrian statue of the emperor William I., erected by the Rhine provinces in 1897, standing on a lofty and massive pedestal, at the point where the Rhine and Mosel meet. Coblenz has also handsome law courts, government buildings, a theatre, a museum of antiquities, a conservatory of music, two high grade schools, a hospital and numerous charitable institutions. Coblenz is a principal seat of the Mosel and Rhenish wine trade, and also does a large business in the export of mineral waters. Its manufactures include pianos, paper, cardboard, machinery, boats and barges. It is an important transit centre for the Rhine railways and for the Rhine navigation.
Coblenz(Confluentes, Covelenz, Cobelenz) was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 9 b.c. Later it was frequently the residence of the Frankish kings, and in 860 and 922 was the scene of ecclesiastical synods. At the former of these, held in the Liebfrauenkirche, took place the reconciliation of Louis the German with his half-brother Charles the Bald. In 1018 the city, after receiving a charter, was given by the emperor Henry II. to the archbishop of Trier (Treves), and it remained in the possession of the archbishop-electors till the close of the 18th century. In 1249-1254 it was surrounded with new walls by Archbishop Arnold II. (of Isenburg); and it was partly to overawe the turbulent townsmen that successive archbishops built and strengthened the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein (q.v.) that dominates the city. As a member of the league of the Rhenish cities which took its rise in the 13th century, Coblenz attained to great prosperity; and it continued to advance till the disasters of the Thirty Years’ War occasioned a rapid decline. After Philip Christopher, elector of Trier, had surrendered Ehrenbreitstein to the French the town received an imperial garrison (1632), which was soon, however, expelled by the Swedes. They in their turn handed the city over to the French, but the imperial forces succeeded in retaking it bystorm (1636). In 1688 it was besieged by the French under Marshal de Boufflers, but they only succeeded in bombarding the Altstadt into ruins, destroying among other buildings the old merchants’ hall (Kaufhaus), which was restored in its present form in 1725. In 1786 the elector of Trier, Clement Wenceslaus of Saxony, took up his residence in the town, and gave great assistance in its extension and improvement; a few years later it became, through the invitation of his minister, Ferdinand, Freiherr von Duminique, one of the principal rendezvous of the Frenchémigrés. This drew down upon the archbishop-elector the wrath of the French republicans; in 1794 Coblenz was taken by the Revolutionary army under Marceau (who fell during the siege), and, after the peace of Lunéville, it was made the chief town of the Rhine and Mosel department (1798). In 1814 it was occupied by the Russians, by the congress of Vienna it was assigned to Prussia, and in 1822 it was made the seat of government of the Rhine province.
See Daniel,Deutschland(Leipzig, 1895); W. A. Günther,Geschichte der Stadt Koblenz(Cobl., 1815); and Bär,Urkunden und Akten zur Geschichte der Verfassung und Verwaltung der Stadt Koblenz bis zum Jahre 1500(Bonn, 1898).
COBOURG, the capital of Northumberland county, Ontario, Canada, on Lake Ontario and the Grand Trunk railway; 70 m. E.N.E. of Toronto. Pop. (1901) 4239. It has a large, safe harbour, and steamboat communication with St Lawrence and Lake Ontario ports. It contains car-works, foundries, and carpet and woollen factories, and is a summer resort, especially for Americans. Victoria University, formerly situated here, was removed to Toronto in 1890.
COBRA(Naja tripudians), a poisonous Colubrine snake, belonging to the familyElapidae, known also as the hooded snake, cobra di capello ornaga. In this genus the anterior ribs are elongated, and by raising and bringing forward these, the neck can be expanded at will into a broad disk or hood. It possesses two rows of palatine teeth in the upper jaw, while the maxillary bones bear the fangs, of which the anterior one only is in connexion with the poison gland, the others in various stages of growth remaining loose in the surrounding flesh until the destruction of the poison fang brings the one immediately behind to the front, which then gets anchylosed to the maxillary bone, and into connexion with the gland secreting the poison, which in the cobra is about the size of an almond. Behind the poison fangs there are usually one or two ordinary teeth. The cobra attains a length of nearly 6 ft. and a girth of about 6 in.
The typical cobra is yellowish to dark-brown, with a black and white spectacle-mark on the back of the hood, and with a pair of large black and white spots on the corresponding under-surface. There are, however, many varieties, in some of which the spectacle markings on the hood are wanting. The cobra may be regarded as nocturnal in its habits, being most active by night, although not unfrequently found in motion during the day. It usually conceals itself under logs of wood, in the roofs of huts and in holes in old walls and ruins, where it is often come upon inadvertently, inflicting a death wound before it has been observed. It feeds on small quadrupeds, frogs, lizards, insects and the eggs of birds, in search of which it sometimes ascends trees. When seeking its prey it glides slowly along the ground, holding the anterior third of its body aloft, with its hood distended, on the alert for anything that may come in its way. “This attitude,” says Sir J. Fayrer, “is very striking, and few objects are more calculated to inspire awe than a large cobra when, with his hood erect, hissing loudly and his eyes glaring, he prepares to strike.” It is said to drink large quantities of water, although like reptiles in general it will live for many months without food or drink. The cobra is oviparous; and its eggs, which are from 18 to 25 in number, are of a pure white colour, somewhat resembling in size and appearance the eggs of the pigeon, but sometimes larger. These it leaves to be hatched by the heat of the sun. It is widely distributed, from Transcaspia to China and to the Malay Islands, and is found in all parts of India, from Ceylon to the Himalayas up to about 8000 ft. above the level of the sea.
Closely allied isN. haje, the common hooded cobra of all Africa, theSpy-slange,i.e.spitting snake of the Boers.
The cobra is justly regarded as one of the most deadly of the Indian Thanatophidia. Many thousand deaths are caused annually by this unfortunately common species, but it is difficult to obtain accurate statistics. The bite of a vigorous cobra will often prove fatal in a few minutes, and as there is no practicable antidote to the poison, it is only in rare instances that such mechanical expedients as cauterizing, constriction or amputation can be applied with sufficient promptitude to prevent the virus from entering the circulation. Owing to a small reward offered by the Indian government for the head of each poisonous snake, great numbers of cobras have been destroyed; but only low-caste Hindus will engage in such work, the cobra being regarded by the natives generally with superstitious reverence, as a divinity powerful to injure, and therefore to be propitiated; and thus oftentimes when found in their dwellings this snake is allowed to remain, and is fed and protected. “Should fear,” says Sir J. Fayrer, “and perhaps the death of some inmate bitten by accident, prove stronger than superstition, it may be caught, tenderly handled, and deported to some field, where it is released and allowed to depart in peace, not killed” (Thanatophidia of India). Great numbers, especially of young cobras, are killed by the adjutant birds and by the mungoos—a small mammal which attacks it with impunity, apparently not from want of susceptibility to the poison, but by its dexterity in eluding the bite of the cobra. Mere scratching or tearing does not appear to be sufficient to bring the poison from the glands; it is only when the fangs are firmly implanted by the jaws being pressed together that the virus enters the wound, and in those circumstances it has been shown by actual experiment that the mungoos, like all other warm-blooded animals, succumbs to the poison. In the case of reptiles, the cobra poison takes effect much more slowly, while it has been proved to have no effect whatever on other venomous serpents.
In the Egyptian hieroglyphics the cobra occurs constantly with the body erect and hood expanded; its name wasouro, which signifies “king,” and the animal appears in Greek literature asouraiosandbasiliscus. With the Egyptian snake-charmers of the present day the cobra is as great a favourite as with their Hindu colleagues. They pretend to change the snake into a rod, and it appears that the supple snake is made stiff and rigid by a strong pressure upon its neck, and that the animal does not seem to suffer from this operation, but soon recovers from the cataleptic fit into which it has been temporarily thrown.
The cobra is the snake usually exhibited by the Indian jugglers, who show great dexterity in handling it, even when not deprived of its fangs. Usually, however, the front fang at least is extracted, the creature being thus rendered harmless until the succeeding tooth takes its place, and in many cases all the fangs, with the germs behind, are removed—the cobra being thus rendered innocuous for life. The snake charmer usually plays a few simple notes on the flute, and the cobra, apparently delighted, rears half its length in the air and sways its head and body about, keeping time to the music.
The cobra, like almost all poisonous snakes, is by no means aggressive, and when it gets timely warning of the approach of man endeavours to get out of his way. It is only when trampled upon inadvertently, or otherwise irritated, that it attempts to use its fangs. It is a good swimmer, often crossing broad rivers, and probably even narrow arms of the sea, for it has been met with at sea at least a quarter of a mile from land.
COBURG, a town of Germany, the twin capital with Gotha of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, on the left bank of the Itz, an affluent of the Regen, on the southern slope of the Frankenwald, the railway from Eisenach to Lichtenfels, and 40 m. S.S.E. of Gotha. Pop. (1905) 22,489. The town is for the most partold, and contains a number of interesting buildings. The ducal palace, known as the Ehrenburg, is a magnificent building, originally erected on the site of a convent of bare-footed friars by Duke John Ernest in 1549, renovated in 1698, and restored in 1816 by Duke Ernest I. It contains a vast and richly decorated hall, the court church and a fine picture gallery. In the gardens are the mausoleum of Duke Francis (d. 1806) and his wife, a bronze equestrian statue of Duke Ernest II. and a fountain in commemoration of Duke Alfred (duke of Edinburgh). In the market square are the medieval Rathaus, the government buildings, and a statue of Prince Albert (consort of Queen Victoria), by William Theed the younger (1804-1891). In the Schloss-platz are the Edinburgh Palace (Palais Edinburg), built in 1881, the theatre and an equestrian statue of Duke Ernest I. Among the churches the most remarkable is the Moritzkirche, with a lofty tower. The educational establishments include a gymnasium, founded in 1604 by Duke John Casimir (d. 1633) and thus known as the Casimirianum, a commercial, an agricultural and other schools. The Zeughaus (armoury) contains the ducal library of 100,000 volumes, and among other public buildings may be mentioned the Augustenstift, formerly the seat of the ministerial offices, and the Marstall (royal mews). On a commanding eminence above the town is the ancient castle of Coburg, dating from the 11th century (see below). In 1781 it was turned into a penitentiary and lunatic asylum, but in 1835-1838 was completely restored, and now contains a natural history museum. The most interesting room in this building is that which was occupied by Luther in 1530, where the surroundings may have inspired, though (as is now proved) he did not compose, the famous hymn,Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott; the bed on which he slept, and the pulpit from which he preached in the old chapel are shown. Coburg is a place of considerable industry, the chief branches of the latter being brewing, manufactures of machinery, colours and porcelain, iron-founding and saw-milling; and there is an important trade in the cattle reared in the neighbourhood. Among various places of interest in the vicinity are the ducal residences of Callenberg and Rosenau, in the latter of which Albert, Prince Consort, was born in 1819; the castle of Lauterburg; and the village of Neuses, with the house of the poet J. M. F. Rückert, who died here in 1866, and on the other side of the river the tomb of the poet Moritz August von Thümmel (1738-1817).
The town of Coburg, first mentioned in a record of 1207, owed its existence and its name to the castle, and in the 15th and 16th centuries was of considerable importance as a halting-place on the great trade route from NurembergviaBamberg to the North. In 1245 the castle became the seat of the elder branch of the counts of Henneberg (Coburg-Schmalkalden). The countships of Coburg and Schmalkalden passed by the marriage of Jutta, daughter of Hermann I. (d. 1290), to Otto V. of Brandenburg, whose grandson John, however, sold them to Henry VIII. of Henneberg, his brother-in-law. Henry’s daughter Catherine (d. 1397) married Frederick III. of Meissen, and so brought the castle, town and countship into the possession of the Saxon house of Wettin. In 1549 Duke John Ernest of Saxony made Coburg his residence and turned the old castle into a fortress strong enough to stand a three years’ siege (1632-1635) during the Thirty Years’ War. In 1641 Coburg fell to the dukes of Saxe-Altenburg. In 1835 it became the residence of the dukes of Saxe-Coburg. For the princes of the house of Coburg seeWettinAndSaxe-Coburg.
COCA, orCuca(Erythroxylon coca), a plant of the natural order Erythroxylaceae, the leaves of which are used as a stimulant in the western countries of South America.1It resembles a blackthorn bush, and grows to a height of 6 or 8 ft. The branches are straight, and the leaves, which have a lively green tint, are thin, opaque, oval, more or less tapering at the extremities. A marked characteristic of the leaf is an areolated portion bounded by two longitudinal curved lines one on each side of the midrib, and more conspicuous on the under face of the leaf. Good samples of the dried leaves are uncurled, are of a deep green on the upper, and a grey-green on the lower surface, and have a strong tea-like odour; when chewed they produce a sense of warmth in the mouth, and have a pleasant, pungent taste. Bad specimens have a camphoraceous smell and a brownish colour, and lack the pungent taste. The flowers are small, and disposed in little clusters on short stalks; the corolla is composed of five yellowish-white petals, the anthers are heart-shaped, and the pistil consists of three carpels united to form a three-chambered ovary. The flowers are succeeded by red berries. The seeds are sown in December and January in small plots (almacigas) sheltered from the sun, and the young plants when from 1½ to 2 ft. in height are placed in holes (aspi), or, if the ground is level, in furrows (uachos) in carefully-weeded soil. The plants thrive best in hot, damp situations, such as the clearings of forests; but the leaves most preferred are obtained in drier localities, on the sides of hills. The leaves are gathered from plants varying in age from one and a half to upwards of forty years. They are considered ready for plucking when they break on being bent. The first and most abundant harvest is in March, after the rains; the second is at the end of June, the third in October or November. The green leaves (matu) are spread in thin layers on coarse woollen cloths and dried in the sun; they are then packed in sacks, which, in order to preserve the quality of the leaves, must be kept from damp.
In the Kew Bulletin for January 1889 is an account of the history and botany of the plant, which has been so long under cultivation in South America that its original home is doubtful. As the result of this cultivation numerous forms have arisen. The writer distinguishes from the typical Peruvian form with pointed leaves a varietynovo-granatense, from New Granada, which has smaller leaves with a rounded apex. The plant is now cultivated in the West Indies, India, Ceylon, Java and elsewhere. It has been estimated that coca is used by about 8,000,000 of the human race, being consumed in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Rio Negro. In Peru the Indians carry a leathern pouch (thechuspaorhuallqui) for the leaves, and a supply of pulverized unslaked lime, or a preparation of the ashes of the quinoa plant (Chenopodium Quinoa), calledlliptaorllucta. Three or four times a day labour is suspended forchaccharoracullicar, as the mastication of coca is termed. The leaves, deprived of their stalks, are chewed and formed into a ball (acullico) in the mouth; a small quantity of the lime or llipta is then applied to the acullico to give it a proper relish. Two or three ounces of coca are thus daily consumed by each Indian.
Coca was used by the Peruvian Indians in the most ancient times. It was employed as an offering to the sun, or to produce smoke at the great sacrifices; and the priests, it was believed, must chew it during the performance of religious ceremonies, otherwise the gods would not be propitiated. Coca is still held in superstitious veneration among the Peruvians, and is believed by the miners of Cerro de Pasco to soften the veins of ore, if masticated and thrown upon them.
The composition of different specimens of coca leaves is very inconstant. Besides the important alkaloidcocaine(q.v.), occurring to the extent of about O.2% in fresh specimens, there are several other alkaloids. The preparations of coca leaves are incompatible with certain drugs which might often be prescribed in combination with them, such as salts of mercury, menthol and mineral acids, which latter decompose cocaine into benzoic acid and ecgonine.
Coca leaves and preparations of them have no external action. Internally their action is similar to that of opium, though somewhat less narcotic, and causing a dilatation of the pupil of the eye instead of a contraction. When masticated, the leaves first cause a tingling in the tongue and mucous membrane of the mouth, owing to a stimulation of the nerves of common sensation, and then abolish taste owing to a paralysis of the terminals of the gustatory nerves. They have a definite anaesthetic actionupon the mucous membrane of the stomach, from which there come in large part those organic sensations which we interpret as hunger. Hence it is possible, under the influence of coca, to go without food or consciousness of needing it, for as long a period as three days. The drug is not a food, however, as its composition and history in the body clearly show, and the individual who comfortably fasts under its influence nevertheless shows all the physical signs of starvation, such as loss of weight. In small doses coca stimulates the intestinal peristalsis and thus is an aperient, but in large doses it paralyses the muscular coat of the bowel, causing constipation, such as is constantly seen in coco-maniacs, and in those inhabitants of Peru and the adjacent countries who take it in excess or are markedly susceptible to its influence.
The injection of coca leaves has a very remarkable effect upon the higher tracts of the nervous system—an effect curiously contrary to that produced by their chief ingredient upon the peripheral parts of the nervous apparatus. The mental power is, at any rate subjectively, enhanced in marked degree. In the absence of extended experiments in psychological laboratories, such as have been conducted with alcohol, it is not possible to say whether the apparent enhancement of the intellect is an objectively demonstrable fact. The physical power is unquestionably increased, such muscular exercises as are involved in ascending mountains being made much easier after the chewing of an ounce or so of these leaves. Excess in coca-chewing leads in many cases to great bodily wasting, mental failure, insomnia, weakness of the circulation and extreme dyspepsia. For other pharmacological characters and the therapeutic employments of coca seeCocaine.
1Garcilasso de la Vega, writing of the plant, says that it is calledcucaby the Indians,cocaby the Spaniards; and Father Blas Valera states that the leaves are calledcucaboth by Indians and Spaniards (The Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, 1609-1617; trans, by C. R. Markham, Hakluyt Soc., 1871). See also, on the namecuca, Christison,Brit. Med. Journ., April 29, 1876, p. 527.
1Garcilasso de la Vega, writing of the plant, says that it is calledcucaby the Indians,cocaby the Spaniards; and Father Blas Valera states that the leaves are calledcucaboth by Indians and Spaniards (The Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, 1609-1617; trans, by C. R. Markham, Hakluyt Soc., 1871). See also, on the namecuca, Christison,Brit. Med. Journ., April 29, 1876, p. 527.
COCAINE, C17H21NO4, an alkaloid occurring to the extent of about 1% in the leaves ofErythroxylon coca(see above). It is associated with many other alkaloids: cinnamyl cocaine, C19H23NO4; α-truxilline, (C19H23NO4)2; β-truxilline, (C19H23NO4)2; benzoylecgonine, C16H19NO2; tropa-cocaine, C15H19NO2; hygrine, C8H15NO; cuscohygrine, C13H24NO2. These substances, which may be collectively termed “cocaines,” are all derivatives of ecgonine (q.v.). Cocaine is benzoylmethyl ecgonine. It crystallizes from alcohol in prisms, which are sparingly soluble in water. Its solution has a bitter taste, alkaline reaction, and is laevorotatory. Its use as a local anaesthetic (seeAnaesthesia) makes it the most valuable of the coca alkaloids, and it is much used in ophthalmic practice. Applied to the conjunctiva it causes anaesthesia, dilatation of the pupil, diminution of the intraocular tension, and some interference with accommodation. The conversion of the mixture obtained by extracting coca-leaves into cocaine is effected by saponifying the esters into ecgonine and the respective acids, and then benzoylating and methylating the ecgonine. Homologues of cocaine—ethylbenzoylecgonine, &c.—have been prepared; they closely resemble natural cocaine. Cinnamyl cocaine is cinnamylmethylecgonine,i.e.cocaine in which the benzoyl group is replaced by the cinnamyl group. α- and β-truxillines, named from their isolation from a coca of Truxillo (Peru), are two isomeric alkaloids which hydrolyse to ecgonine, methyl alcohol, and two isomeric acids, the truxillic acids, C18H16O4. The alkaloids are therefore methyl truxillylecgonines. The truxillic acids have been studied by K. Liebermann and his students (Ber., vols. 21-27, and 31), and are diphenyl tetramethylene dicarboxylic acids.
COCANADA, orCoconada, a town of British India, in the Godavari district of Madras, on the coast in the extreme north of the Godavari delta, about 315 m. N. of Madras. Pop. (1901) 48,096, showing an increase of 18% in the decade. As the administrative headquarters of the district, and the chief port on the Coromandel coast after Madras, Cocanada was formerly of considerable importance, but its shipping trade has declined, owing to the silting of the anchorage, and to the construction of the railway. It is connected by navigable channels with the canal system of the Godavari delta, and by a branch line with Samalkot on the East Coast railway. The anchorage is an open roadstead, with two lighthouses. The chief exports are rice, cotton, sugar and oilseeds. Mills have been established for cleaning rice. The town contains a second-grade college, a high school, and a literary association.
COCCEIUS[strictlyKoch],JOHANNES(1603-1669), Dutch theologian, was born at Bremen. After studying at Hamburg and Franeker, where Sixtinus Amama was one of his teachers, he became in 1630 professor of biblical philology at the “Gymnasium illustre” in his native town. In 1636 he was transferred to Franeker, where he held the chair of Hebrew, and from 1643 the chair of theology also, until 1650, when he succeeded Fr. Spanheim the elder as professor of theology at Leiden. He died on the 4th of November 1669. His chief services as an oriental scholar were in the department of Hebrew philology and exegesis. As one of the leading exponents of the “covenant” or “federal” theology, he spiritualized the Hebrew scriptures to such an extent that it was said that Cocceius found Christ everywhere in the Old Testament and Hugo Grotius found him nowhere. He taught that before the Fall, as much as after it, the relation between God and man was a covenant. The first covenant was a “Covenant of Works.” For this was substituted, after the Fall, the “Covenant of Grace,” to fulfil which the coming of Jesus Christ was necessary. He held millenarian views, and was the founder of a school of theologians who were called after him Cocceians. His theology was founded entirely on the Bible, and he did much to promote and encourage the study of the original text. In one of his essays he contends that the observance of the Sabbath, though expedient, is not binding upon Christians, since it was a Jewish institution. His most distinguished pupil was the celebrated Campeius Vitringa. His most valuable work was hisLexicon et Commentarius Sermonis Hebraici et Chaldaici(Leiden, 1669), which has been frequently republished; his theology is fully expounded in hisSumma Doctrinae de Foedere et Testamento Dei(1648).
His collected works were published in 12 folio volumes (Amsterdam, 1673-1675). See Herzog-Hauck,Realencyklopädie.
His collected works were published in 12 folio volumes (Amsterdam, 1673-1675). See Herzog-Hauck,Realencyklopädie.
COCCIDIA, an important order of Sporozoa Ectospora, parasites possessing certain very distinctive characters. With one or two possible exceptions, they are invariably intracellular during the entire trophic life of the individual. They always attack tissue-cells, usually of an epithelium, and never blood-corpuscles. Correlated with the advanced degree of parasitism, there is a complete absence of specialization or differentiation of the cell-body, and the trophozoite is quite incapable of any kind of movement. In all cases, so far as known, the life-cycle is digenetic, an asexual generation (produced by schizogony) alternating with a sexual one (gametogony). After conjugation of two highly-differentiated gametes has taken place, a resistant oocyst is formed, which provides for the dispersal of the species; inside this sporogony (spore- and sporozoite-formation) goes on.
Hake (1839) was, perhaps, the first to describe a Coccidian, but he regarded the parasites as pathological cell-products. In 1845 N. Lieberkühn pointed out the resemblances to Gregarines, with which organisms he consideredHistory.Coccidia to be allied. A year later, H. Kloss proved the existence of similar parasites in the snail, and attempted to construct their life-history; this form was subsequently namedKlossia helicinaby A. Schneider. The asexual part of the life-cycle was first described by Th. Eimer in 1870, for a Coccidian infesting the mouse, which was afterwards elevated by Schneider into a distinct genusEimeria. The generic nameCoccidiumwas introduced by R. Leuckart in 1879, for the parasite of the rabbit. It was many years, however, before the double character of the life-cycle was realized, and the ideas of L. and R. Pfeiffer, who first suggested the possibility of an alternation of generations, for a long time found no favour. In the first decade of the 20th century great progress was accomplished, thanks largely to the researches of F. Schaudinn and M. Siedlecki, who first demonstrated the occurrence of sexual conjugation in the group; and the Coccidian life-history is now one of the best known among Sporozoa.
Coccidia appear to be confined1to four great phyla, Vertebrates,Molluscs, Arthropods and Annelids; the first named group furnishes by far the most hosts, the parasites being frequently met with in domestic animals, both birds and mammals. FollowingHabitat: effects on host.from the casual method of infection, the epithelium of the gut or of its appendages (e.g.the liver [Plate I., fig. 1]) is a very common seat of the parasitic invasion. But in many cases Coccidia are found in other organs, to which they are doubtless carried by lymphatic or circulatory channels. In Molluscs, they often occur in the kidneys (fig. 2); in Insects, they are met with as “coelomic” parasites, the fat-bodies, pericardial cells, &c., being a favourite habitat; even the testis is not free from their attentions in one or two instances, though the ovary appears always immune.
The parasite invariably destroys its host-cell completely. The latter is at first stimulated to abnormal growth and activity and becomes greatly hypertrophied, the nucleus also undergoing karyolytic changes (fig. 4). The fatty materials elaborated by the host-cell are rapidly used up by the Coccidian, as nourishment; and at length the weakened and disorganized cell is no longer able to assimilate but dies and is gradually absorbed by the parasite, becoming reduced to a mere enclosing skin or envelope. In some cases (ex.Cyclospora caryolyticaof the mole) the parasite is actually intranuclear, the nucleus becoming greatly swollen and transformed into a huge vacuole containing it.
The effects of a Coccidian infection upon the host as a whole depend largely upon the extent to which endogenous multiplication of the parasites takes place. On the one hand, schizogony may be so limited in extent as not to cause appreciable injury to the host. This seems to be often the case in forms infecting Molluscs and Arthropods. On the other hand, where schizogony is rapid and prolonged, the results are often serious. For, although any one individual only causes the death of a single host-cell, yet the number of the parasites may be so enormously increased by this means, that the entire affected epithelium may be overrun and destroyed. Thus are occasioned grave attacks of coccidiosis, characterized by severe enteritis and diarrhoea, which may end fatally. In the case of the Vertebrates, secondary causes, resulting from the stoppage of the bile ducts, also help to produce death. There is, however, one factor in the endangered animal’s favour. Schizogony cannot go on indefinitely; it has a limit, dependent upon the supply of host-cells, and consequently of nutriment, available. As this shows signs of becoming exhausted, by the rapid multiplication of the parasites, the latter begin to make preparations for the exogenous cycle, inaugurated by gametogony. When conjugation has taken place and sporogony is begun, the danger to the host is at an end. So that, if the acute stage of the disease is once successfully passed, the regenerative capacity of the epithelium may be able to restore something like equilibrium to the deranged metabolism in time to prevent collapse.
Coccidium schubergi, parasitic in the intestine of a centipede (Lithobius forficatus), may be taken as an example of a Coccidian life-history (see Schaudinn, 1900): some of the more important variations exhibited by other forms will beMorphology and life-history.noted afterwards. The trophozoite, or actively-growing parasite, is an oval or rounded body (fig. 3, I.). The general cytoplasm shows no differentiation into ectoplasm and endoplasm; it is uniformly alveolar in character. The nucleus is relatively large, and possesses a distinct membrane and a well-marked reticulum in which are embedded grains of chromatin. Its most conspicuous feature is the large deeply-staining karyosome, which consists of the greater part of the chromatin of the nucleus intimately bound up with a plastinoid basis. When fully grown, the trophozoite (now a schizont) undergoes schizogony. Its nucleus divides successively to form a number of nuclei, which travel to the periphery, and there become more or less regularly disposed (fig. 3, II. and III.). The protoplasm in the neighbourhood of each next grows out, as a projecting bud, carrying the nucleus with it. In this manner are formed a number of club-shaped bodies, the merozoites, which are at length set free from the parent-body (IV.), leaving a certain amount of residual cytoplasm behind. By the rupture of the disorganized host-cell,2the fully-formed merozoites are liberated into the intestinal lumen, and seek out fresh epithelial cells. Each is more or less sickle-shaped, and capable of active movements. Once inside a new host-cell, the merozoite grows to a schizont again.
After this course has been repeated several times, gametogony sets in, the trophozoites growing more slowly and becoming the parent-cells of the sexual elements (gametocytes), either male individuals (microgametocytes) or female ones (megagametocytes). A microgametocyte (fig. 3, VI. ♂) is characterized by its dense but finely reticular or alveolar cytoplasm, very different from the loose structure of that of a schizont. The male elements (microgametes) are formed in a manner essentially comparable to that in which the formation of merozoites takes place. Although the details of the nuclear changes and divisions vary somewhat, the end-result is similar, a number of little nuclear agglomerations being evenly distributed at the surface (VII. ♂) Each of these elongates considerably, becoming comma-shaped and projecting from the gametocyte. Nearly all the body of the male gamete (VIII. ♂) consists of chromatin, the cytoplasm only forming a very delicate zone or envelope around the nucleus. From the cytoplasm two long fine flagella grow out, one of which originates at the anterior end, the other, apparently, at the hinder end, acting as a rudder; but it is probable that this also is developed at the anterior end and attached to the side of the body. By means of their flagella the numerous microgametes break loose from the body of the microgametocyte and swim away in search of a female element.
A megagametocyte (VI. ♀) is distinguished by its rather different shape, being more like a bean than a sphere until ripe for maturation, and by the fact that it stores up in its cytoplasm quantities of reserve nutriment in the form of rounded refringent plastinoid grains. Each female gametocyte gives rise to only a single female element (megagamete), after a process of nuclear purification. The karyosome is expelled from the nucleus into the cytoplasm, where it breaks up at once into fragments (VII. ♀). Meanwhile the gametocyte is becoming spherical, and its changes in shape aid in setting it free from the shrivelled host-cell. The fragments of the karyosome, which are, as it were, squeezed out to the exterior, exert a powerful attraction upon the microgametes, many of which swarm round the now mature megagamete. The female nucleus (pronucleus) approaches the surface of the cell (VIII. ♀), and at this spot a little clear cytoplasmic prominence arises (cone of reception). On coming into contact with this protuberance (probably attracted to it by the female pronucleus), a microgamete adheres. Partly by its own movements and partly by the withdrawal of the cone of attraction, the male penetrates into the female element and fertilization is accomplished. Only one microgamete can thus pass into the megagamete, for immediately its entry is effected a delicate membrane is secreted around the copula (zygote), which effectually excludes other less fortunate ones. This membrane rapidly increases in thickness and becomes the oocyst (IX.), and the copula is now ready to begin sporogony.
Sporogony goes on indifferently either inside the host or after the cyst has been passed out with the faeces to the exterior. The definitive nucleus of the zygote (resulting from the intimate fusion of the male and female pronuclei, by means of a somewhat elaborate “fertilization-spindle” [X.]) gives rise by successive direct divisions to four nuclei (XII.), around which the protoplasm becomes segregated; these segments form the four sporoblasts. Around each sporoblast two membranes are successively secreted (exospore and endospore), which constitute the sporocyst (XIII.); the sporocyst and its contents forming the spore. The nucleus of each spore next divides, again directly, and this is followed by the division of the cytoplasm. As a final result, each of the four spores contains two germs (sporozoites), and a certain amount of residual protoplasm (fig. 3, XIV.); this latter encloses a viscid, vacuole-like body, which aids in the subsequent dehiscence of the sporocyst. On being eaten by a fresh host, the wall of the oocyst is dissolved at a particular region by the digestive juices, which are thus enabled to reach the spores and cause the rupture of the sporocysts. As the result of instructive experiments, Metzner has shown that it is the pancreatic and not the gastric juice by which this liberation of the germs is effected. The liberated sporozoites creep out and proceed to infect the epithelial cells. The sporozoites (XV.) are from 15-20 µ long by 4-6 µ wide; they are fairly similar to merozoites in form, structure and behaviour, the chief point of distinction being that they have no karyosome in the nucleus (cf. above).