[1] The word "climb" (O.E. _climban_), meaning strictly to ascend (or
similarly descend) by progressive self-impulsion, with some apparent
degree of laborious effort and by means of contact with the surface
traversed, is connected with the same root as in "cleave" and
"cling." For Alpine climbing, &c., see MOUNTAINEERING.
CLINCHANT, JUSTIN (1820-1881), French soldier, entered the army from St
Cyr in 1841. From 1847 to 1852 he was employed in the Algerian
campaigns, and in 1854 and 1855 in the Crimea. At the assault on the
Malakoff (Sept. 8th, 1855) he greatly distinguished himself at the head
of a battalion. During the 1859 campaign he won promotion to the rank of
lieut.-colonel, and as a colonel he served in the Mexican War. He was
made general of brigade in 1866, and led a brigade of the Army of the
Rhine in 1870. His troops were amongst those shut up in Metz, and he
passed into captivity, but soon escaped. The government of national
defence made him general of division and put him at the head of the 20th
corps of the Army of the East. He was under Bourbaki during the campaign
of the Jura, and when Bourbaki attempted to commit suicide he succeeded
to the command (Jan. 23rd, 1871), only to be driven with 84,000 men over
the Swiss frontier at Pontarlier. In 1871 Clinchant commanded the 5th
corps operating against the Commune. He was military governor of Paris
when he died in 1881.
CLINIC; CLINICAL (Gr. [Greek: kline], a bed), an adjective strictly
connoting association with the bedside, and so used in ecclesiology of
baptism of the sick or dying, but more particularly in medicine to
characterize its aspect as associated with practice on the living
patient. Thus clinical experience is opposed to what is learnt from
laboratory research or theoretical considerations. The substantive
"clinic" is technically employed for a medical school or class where
instruction is given in practical work as illustrated by the examination
and treatment of actual cases of disease.
CLINKER. (1) (From an old Dutch word _klinkaerd_, from _klinken_, to
ring), a hard paving brick, a brick with a vitrified surface, or a fused
mass of brick; also the incombustible residue of coal, which occurs,
half-fused into hard masses, in grates or furnaces; a fused mass of
lava. (2) (From _clinch_, or _clench_, a common Teutonic word, meaning
"to fasten together"), a term appearing usually in the form
"clinker-built" as opposed to "cravel-built," for a boat whose strakes
overlap and are not fastened "flush."
CLINOCLASITE, a rare mineral consisting of the basic copper arsenate
(CuOH)3AsO4. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system and possesses a
perfect cleavage parallel to the basal plane; this cleavage is obliquely
placed with respect to the prism faces of the crystal, hence the name
clinoclase or clinoclasite, from Gr. [Greek: klinein], to incline, and
[Greek: klan], to break. The crystals are deep blue in colour, and are
usually radially arranged in hemispherical groups. Hardness 2-1/2-3;
specific gravity 4.36. The mineral was formerly found with other copper
arsenates in the mines of the St Day district of Cornwall. It has also
been found near Tavistock in Devonshire, near Sayda (or Saida) in
Saxony, and in the Tintic district of Utah. It is a mineral of secondary
origin, having resulted by the decomposition of copper ores and
mispickel in the upper part of mineral veins. The corresponding basic
copper phosphate, (CuOH)3PO4, is the mineral pseudomalachite, which
occurs as green botryoidal masses resembling malachite in appearance.
CLINTON, DE WITT (1769-1828), American political leader, was born on the
2nd of March 1769 at Little Britain, Orange county, New York. His
father, James Clinton (1736-1812), served as a captain of provincial
troops in the French and Indian War, and as a brigadier-general in the
American army in the War of Independence, taking part in Montgomery's
attack upon Quebec in 1775, unsuccessfully resisting at Fort Montgomery,
along the Hudson, in 1777 the advance of Sir Henry Clinton, accompanying
General John Sullivan in 1779 in his expedition against the Iroquois in
western New York, and in 1781 taking part in the siege of Yorktown,
Virginia. De Witt Clinton graduated at Columbia College in 1786, and in
1790 was admitted to the bar. From 1790 to 1795 he was the private
secretary of his uncle, George Clinton, governor of New York and a
leader of the Republican party. He was a member of the New York assembly
from January to April 1798, and in August of that year entered the state
senate, serving until April 1802. He at once became a dominant factor in
New York politics, and for the next quarter of a century he played a
leading role in the history of the commonwealth. From 1801 to 1802 and
from 1806 to 1807 he was a member of the Council of Appointment, and
realizing the power this body possessed through its influence over the
selection of a vast number of state, county and municipal officers, he
secured in 1801, while his uncle was governor, the removal of a number
of Federalist office-holders, in order to strengthen the Republican
organization by new appointments. On this account Clinton has generally
been regarded as the originator of the "spoils system" in New York; but
he was really opposed to the wholesale proscription of opponents that
became such a feature of American politics in later years. It was his
plan to fill the more important offices with Republicans, as they had
been excluded from appointive office during the Federalist ascendancy,
and to divide the smaller places between the parties somewhat in
accordance with their relative strength.[1] In counties where the
Federalists had a majority very few removals were made.
In 1802 Clinton became a member of the United States Senate, but
resigned in the following year to become mayor of New York city, an
office he held from 1803 to 1807, from 1808 to 1810, and from 1811 to
1815. During his mayoralty he also held other offices, being a member of
the state senate from 1806 to 1811 and lieutenant-governor from 1811 to
1813. In 1812, after a congressional caucus at Washington had nominated
Madison for a second term, the Republicans of New York, desiring to
break up the so-called Virginia dynasty as well as the system of
congressional nominations, nominated Clinton for the presidency by a
legislative caucus. Opponents of a second war with Great Britain had
revived the Federalist organization, and Federalists from eleven states
met in New York and agreed to support Clinton, not on account of his war
views, which were not in accord with their own, but as a protest against
the policy of Madison. In the election Clinton received 89 electoral
votes and Madison 128.
As a member of the legislature Clinton was active in securing the
abolition of slavery and of imprisonment for debt, and in perfecting a
system of free public schools. In 1810 he was a member of a commission
to explore a route for a canal between Lake Erie and the Hudson river,
and in 1811 he and Gouverneur Morris were sent to Washington to secure
Federal aid for the undertaking, but were unsuccessful. The second war
with Great Britain prevented any immediate action by the state, but in
1816 Clinton was active in reviving the project, and a new commission
was appointed, of which he became president. His connexion with this
work so enhanced his popularity that he was chosen governor by an
overwhelming majority and served for two triennial terms (1817-1823). As
governor he devoted his energies to the construction of the canal, but
the opposition to his administration, led by Martin Van Buren and
Tammany Hall, became so formidable by 1822 that he declined to seek a
third term. His successful opponents, however, overreached themselves
when in 1824 they removed him from the office of canal commissioner.
This partisan action aroused such indignation that at the next election
he was again chosen governor, by a large majority, and served from 1825
until his death. As governor he took part in the formal ceremony of
admitting the waters of Lake Erie into the canal in October 1825, and
thus witnessed the completion of a work which owed more to him than to
any other man. Clinton died at Albany, N.Y., on the 11th of February
1828. In addition to his interest in politics and public improvements,
he devoted much study to the natural sciences; among his published works
are a _Memoir on the Antiquities of Western New York_ (1818), and
_Letters on the Natural History and Internal Resources of New York_
(1822).
See J. Renwick's _Life of De Witt Clinton_ (New York, 1845); D.
Hosack's _Memoir of De Witt Clinton_ (New York, 1829); W. W.
Campbell's _Life and Writings of De Witt Clinton_ (New York, 1849);
and H. L. McBain's _De Witt Clinton and the Origin of the Spoils
System in New York_ (New York, 1907).