ÇA IRA, a song of the French Revolution, with the refrain:--

"_Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira!_

_Les aristocrates à la lanterne._"

The words, written by one Ladré, a street singer, were put to an older

tune, called "Le Carillon National," and the song rivalled the "Carmagnole"

(_q.v._) during the Terror. It was forbidden by the Directory.

CAIRD, EDWARD (1835-1908), British philosopher and theologian, brother of

John Caird (_q.v._), was born at Greenock on the 22nd of March 1835, and

educated at Glasgow University and Balliol College, Oxford. He took a first

class in moderations in 1862 and in _Literae humaniores_ in 1863, and was

Pusey and Ellerton scholar in 1861. From 1864 to 1866 he was fellow and

tutor of Merton College. In 1866 he became professor of moral philosophy in

the university of Glasgow, and in 1893 succeeded Benjamin Jowett as master

of Balliol. With Thomas Hill Green he founded in England a school of

orthodox neo-Hegelianism (see HEGEL, _ad fin._), and through his pupils he

exerted a far-reaching influence on English philosophy and theology. Owing

to failing health he gave up his lectures in 1904, and in May 1906 resigned

his mastership, in which he was succeeded by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson,

who had previously for some time, as senior tutor and fellow, borne the

chief burden of college administration. Dr Caird received the honorary

degree of D.C.L. in 1892; he was made a corresponding member of the French

Academy of Moral and Political Science and a fellow of the British Academy.

His publications include _Philosophy of Kant_ (1878); _Critical Philosophy

of Kant_ (1889); _Religion and Social Philosophy of Comte_ (1885); _Essays

on Literature and Philosophy_ (1892); _Evolution of Religion_ (Gifford

Lectures, 1891-1892); _Evolution of Theology in the Greek Philosophers_

(1904); and he is represented in this encyclopaedia by the article on

CARTESIANISM. He died on the 1st of November 1908.

For a criticism of Dr Caird's theology, see A.W. Benn, _English Rationalism

in the 19th Century_ (London, 1906).

CAIRD, JOHN (1820-1898), Scottish divine and philosopher, was born at

Greenock on the 15th of December 1820. In his sixteenth year he entered the

office of his father, who was partner and manager of a firm of engineers.

Two years later, however, he obtained leave to continue his studies at

Glasgow University. After a year of academic life he tried business again,

but in 1840 he gave it up finally and returned to college. In 1845 he

entered the ministry of the Church of Scotland, and after holding several

livings accepted the chair of divinity at Glasgow in 1862. During these

years he won a foremost place among the preachers of Scotland. In theology

he was a Broad Churchman, seeking always to emphasize the permanent

elements in religion, and ignoring technicalities. In 1873 he was appointed

vice-chancellor and principal of Glasgow University. He delivered the

Gifford Lectures in 1892-1893 and in 1895-1896. His _Introduction to the

Philosophy of Religion_ (1880) is an attempt to show the essential

rationality of religion. It is idealistic in character, being in fact a

reproduction of Hegelian teaching in clear and melodious language. His

argument for the Being of God is based on the hypothesis that thought--not

individual but universal--is the reality of all things, the existence of

this Infinite Thought being demonstrated by the limitations of finite

thought. Again his Gifford Lectures are devoted to the proof of the truth

of Christianity on grounds of right reason alone. Caird wrote also an

excellent study of Spinoza, in which he showed the latent Hegelianism of

the great Jewish philosopher. He died on the 30th of July 1898.

CAIRN (in Gaelic and Welsh, _Carn_), a heap of stones piled up in a conical

form. In modern times cairns are often erected as landmarks. In ancient

times they were erected as sepulchral monuments. The _Duan Eireanach_, an

ancient Irish poem, describes the erection of a family cairn; and the

_Senchus Mor_, a collection of ancient Irish laws, prescribes a fine of

three three-year-old heifers for "not erecting the tomb of thy chief."

Meetings of the tribes were held at them, and the inauguration of a new

chief took place on the cairn of one of his predecessors. It is mentioned

in the _Annals of the Four Masters_ that, in 1225, the O'Connor was

inaugurated on the cairn of Fraech, the son of Fiodhach of the red hair. In

medieval times cairns are often referred to as boundary marks, though

probably not originally raised for that purpose. In a charter by King

Alexander II. (1221), granting the lands of Burgyn to the monks of Kinloss,

the boundary is described as passing "from the great oak in Malevin as far

as the _Rune Pictorum_," which is explained as "the Carne of the Pecht's

fieldis." In Highland districts small cairns used to be erected, even in

recent times, at places where the coffin of a distinguished person was

"rested" on its way to the churchyard. Memorial cairns are still

occasionally erected, as, for instance, the cairn raised in memory of the

prince consort at Balmoral, and "Maule's Cairn," in Glenesk, erected by the

earl of Dalhousie in 1866, in memory of himself and certain friends

specified by name in the inscription placed upon it. (See BARROW.)

CAIRNES, JOHN ELLIOTT (1823-1875), British political economist, was born at

Castle Bellingham, Ireland, in 1823. After leaving school he spent some

years in the counting-house of his father, a brewer. His tastes, however,

lay altogether in the direction of study, and he was permitted to enter

Trinity College, Dublin, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1848, and six

years later that of M.A. After passing through the curriculum of arts he

engaged in the study of law and was called to the Irish bar. But he felt no

very strong inclination for the legal profession, and during some years he

occupied himself to a large extent with contributions to the daily press,

treating of the social and economical questions that affected Ireland. He

devoted most attention to political economy, which he studied with great

thoroughness and care. While residing in Dublin he made the acquaintance of

Archbishop Whately, who conceived a very high respect for his character and

abilities. In 1856 a vacancy occurred in the chair of political economy at

Dublin founded by Whately, and Cairnes received the appointment. In

accordance with the regulations of the foundation, the lectures of his

first year's course were published. The book appeared in 1857 with the

title _Character and Logical Method of Political Economy_. It follows up

and expands J.S. Mill's treatment in the _Essays on some Unsettled

Questions in Political Economy_, and forms an admirable introduction to the

study of economics as a science. In it the author's peculiar powers of

thought and expression are displayed to the best advantage. Logical

exactness, precision of language, and firm grasp of the true nature of

economic facts, are the qualities characteristic of this as of all his

other works. If the book had done nothing more, it would still have

conferred inestimable benefit on political economists by its clear

exposition of the true nature and meaning of the ambiguous term "law." To

the view of the province and method of political economy expounded in this

early work the author always remained true, and several of his later

essays, such as those on _Political Economy and Land_, _Political Economy

and Laissez-Faire_, are but reiterations of the same doctrine. His next

contribution to economical science was a series of articles on the gold

question, published partly in _Fraser's Magazine_, in which the probable

consequences of the increased supply of gold attendant on the Australian

and Californian gold discoveries were analysed with great skill and

ability. And a critical article on M. Chevalier's work _On the Probable

Fall in the Value of Gold_ appeared in the _Edinburgh Review_ for July

1860.

In 1861 Cairnes was appointed to the professorship of political economy and

jurisprudence in Queen's College, Galway, and in the following year he

published his admirable work _The Slave Power_, one of the finest specimens

of applied economical philosophy. The inherent disadvantages of the

employment of slave labour were exposed with great fulness and ability, and

the conclusions arrived at have taken their place among the recognized

doctrines of political economy. The opinions expressed by Cairnes as to the

probable issue of the war in America were largely verified by the actual

course of events, and the appearance of the book had a marked influence on

the attitude taken by serious political thinkers in England towards the

southern states.

[v.04 p.0951]

During the remainder of his residence at Galway Professor Cairnes published

nothing beyond some fragments and pamphlets mainly upon Irish questions.

The most valuable of these papers are the series devoted to the

consideration of university education. His health, at no time very good,

was still further weakened in 1865 by a fall from his horse. He was ever

afterwards incapacitated from active exertion and was constantly liable to

have his work interfered with by attacks of illness. In 1866 he was

appointed professor of political economy in University College, London. He

was compelled to spend the session 1868-1869 in Italy but on his return

continued to lecture till 1872. During his last session he conducted a

mixed class, ladies being admitted to his lectures. His health soon

rendered it impossible for him to discharge his public duties; he resigned

his post in 1872, and retired with the honorary title of emeritus professor

of political economy. In 1873 his own university conferred on him the

degree of LL.D. He died at Blackheath, near London, on the 8th of July

1875.

The last years of his life were spent in the collection and publication of

some scattered papers contributed to various reviews and magazines, and in

the preparation of his most extensive and important work. The _Political

Essays_, published in 1873, comprise all his papers relating to Ireland and

its university system, together with some other articles of a somewhat

similar nature. The _Essays in Political Economy, Theoretical and Applied_,

which appeared in the same year, contain the essays towards a solution of

the gold question, brought up to date and tested by comparison with

statistics of prices. Among the other articles in the volume the more

important are the criticisms on Bastiat and Comte, and the essays on

_Political Economy and Land_, and on _Political Economy and Laissez-Faire_,

which have been referred to above. In 1874 appeared his largest work, _Some

Leading Principles of Political Economy, newly Expounded_, which is beyond

doubt a worthy successor to the great treatises of Smith, Malthus, Ricardo

and Mill. It does not expound a completed system of political economy; many

important doctrines are left untouched; and in general the treatment of

problems is not such as would be suited for a systematic manual. The work

is essentially a commentary on some of the principal doctrines of the

English school of economists, such as value, cost of production, wages,

labour and capital, and international values, and is replete with keen

criticism and lucid illustration. While in fundamental harmony with Mill,

especially as regards the general conception of the science, Cairnes

differs from him to a greater or less extent on nearly all the cardinal

doctrines, subjects his opinions to a searching examination, and generally

succeeds in giving to the truth that is common to both a firmer basis and a

more precise statement. The last labour to which he devoted himself was a

republication of his first work on the _Logical Method of Political

Economy_.

Taken as a whole the works of Cairnes formed the most important

contribution to economical science made by the English school since the

publication of J.S. Mill's _Principles_. It is not possible to indicate

more than generally the special advances in economic doctrine effected by

him, but the following points may be noted as establishing for him a claim

to a place beside Ricardo and Mill: (1) His exposition of the province and

method of political economy. He never suffers it to be forgotten that

political economy is a _science_, and consequently that its results are

entirely neutral with respect to social facts or systems. It has simply to

trace the necessary connexions among the phenomena of wealth and dictates

no rules for practice. Further, he is distinctly opposed both to those who

would treat political economy as an integral part of social philosophy, and

to those who have attempted to express economic facts in quantitative

formulae and to make economy a branch of applied mathematics. According to

him political economy is a mixed science, its field being partly mental,

partly physical. It may be called a positive science, because its premises

are facts, but it is hypothetical in so far as the laws it lays down are

only approximately true, _i.e._ are only valid in the absence of

counteracting agencies. From this view of the nature of the science, it

follows at once that the method to be pursued must be that called by Mill

the physical or concrete deductive, which starts from certain known causes,

investigates their consequences and verifies or tests the result by

comparison with facts of experience. It may, perhaps, be thought that

Cairnes gives too little attention to the effects of the organism of

society on economic facts, and that he is disposed to overlook what Bagehot

called the postulates of political economy. (2) His analysis of cost of

production in its relation to value. According to Mill, the universal

elements in cost of production are the wages of labour and the profits of

capital. To this theory Cairnes objects that wages, being remuneration, can

in no sense be considered as cost, and could only have come to be regarded

as cost in consequence of the whole problem being treated from the point of

view of the capitalist, to whom, no doubt, the wages paid represent cost.

The real elements of cost of production he looks upon as labour, abstinence

and risk, the second of these falling mainly, though not necessarily, upon

the capitalist. In this analysis he to a considerable extent follows and

improves upon Senior, who had previously defined cost of production as the

sum of the labour and abstinence necessary to production. (3) His

exposition of the natural or social limit to free competition, and of its

bearing on the theory of value. He points out that in any organized society

there can hardly be the ready transference of capital from one employment

to another, which is the indispensable condition of free competition; while

class distinctions render it impossible for labour to transfer itself

readily to new occupations. Society may thus be regarded as consisting of a

series of non-competing industrial groups, with free competition among the

members of any one group or class. Now the only condition under which cost

of production will regulate value is perfect competition. It follows that

the normal value of commodities--the value which gives to the producers the

average and usual remuneration--will depend upon cost of production only

when the exchange is confined to the members of one class, among whom there

is free competition. In exchange between classes or non-competing

industrial groups, the normal value is simply a case of international

value, and depends upon reciprocal demand, that is to say, is such as will

satisfy the equation of demand. This theory is a substantial contribution

to economical science and throws great light upon the general problem of

value. At the same time, it may be thought that Cairnes overlooked a point

brought forward prominently by Senior, who also had called attention to the

bearing of competition on the relation between cost of production and

value. The cost to the producer fixes the limit below which the price

cannot fall without the supply being affected; but it is the desire of the

consumer--_i.e._ what he is willing to give up rather than be compelled to

produce the commodity for himself--that fixes the maximum value of the

article. To treat the whole problem of natural or normal value from the

point of view of the producer is to give but a one-sided theory of the

facts. (4) His defence of the wages fund doctrine. This doctrine, expounded

by Mill in his _Principles_, had been relinquished by him, but Cairnes

still undertook to defend it. He certainly succeeded in removing from the

theory much that had tended to obscure its real meaning and in placing it

in its very best aspect. He also showed the sense in which, when treating

the problem of wages, we must refer to some fund devoted to the payment of

wages, and pointed out the conditions under which the wages fund may

increase or decrease. It may be added that his _Leading Principles_ contain

admirable discussions on trade unions and protection, together with a clear

analysis of the difficult theory of international trade and value, in which

there is much that is both novel and valuable. The _Logical Method_

contains about the best exposition and defence of Ricardo's theory of rent;

and the _Essays_ contain a very clear and formidable criticism of Bastiat's

economic doctrines.

Professor Cairnes's son, CAPTAIN W.E. CAIRNES (1862-1906), was an able

writer on military subjects, being author of _An Absent-minded War_ (1900),

_The Coming Waterloo_ (1905), &c.

[v.04 p.0952]

CAIRNGORM, a yellow or brown variety of quartz, named from Cairngorm or

Cairngorum, one of the peaks of the Grampian Mountains in Banffshire,

Scotland. According to Mr E.H. Cunningham-Craig, the mineral occurs in

crystals lining cavities in highly-inclined veins of a fine-grained granite

running through the coarser granite of the main mass: Shallow pits were

formerly dug in the kaolinized granite for sake of the cairngorm and the

mineral was also found as pebbles in the bed of the river Avon. Cairngorm

is a favourite ornamental stone in Scotland, being set in the lids of

snuff-mulls, in the handles of dirks and in brooches for Highland costume.

A rich sherry-yellow colour is much esteemed. Quartz of yellow and brown

colour is often known in trade as "false topaz," or simply "topaz." Such

quartz is found at many localities in Brazil, Russia and Spain. Much of the

yellow quartz used in jewellery is said to be "burnt amethyst"; that is, it

was originally amethystine quartz, the colour of which has been modified by

heat (see AMETHYST). Yellow quartz is sometimes known as citrine; when the

quartz presents a pale brown tint it is called "smoky quartz"; and when the

brown is so deep that the stone appears almost black it is termed morion.

The brown colour has been referred to the presence of titanium.

CAIRNS, HUGH MCCALMONT CAIRNS, 1ST EARL (1819-1885), Irish statesman, and

lord chancellor of England, was born at Cultra, Co. Down, Ireland, on the

27th of December 1819. His father, William Cairns, formerly a captain in

the 47th regiment, came of a family[1] of Scottish origin, which migrated

to Ireland in the time of James I. Hugh Cairns was his second son, and was

educated at Belfast academy and at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating with

a senior moderatorship in classics in 1838. In 1844 he was called to the

bar at the Middle Temple, to which he had migrated from Lincoln's Inn.

During his first years at the chancery bar, Cairns showed little promise of

the eloquence which afterwards distinguished him. Never a rapid speaker, he

was then so slow and diffident, that he feared that this defect might

interfere with his legal career. Fortunately he was soon able to rid

himself of the idea that he was only fit for practice as a conveyancer. In

1852 he entered parliament as member for Belfast, and his Inn, on his

becoming a Q.C. in 1856, made him a bencher.

In 1858 Cairns was appointed solicitor-general, and was knighted, and in

May of that year made two of his most brilliant and best-remembered

speeches in the House of Commons. In the first, he defended the action of

Lord Ellenborough, who, as president of the board of control, had not only

censured Lord Canning for a proclamation issued by him as governor-general

of India but had made public the despatch in which the censure was

conveyed. On the other occasion referred to, Sir Hugh Cairns spoke in

opposition to Lord John Russell's amendment to the motion for the second

reading of the government Reform Bill, winning the most cordial

commendation of Disraeli. Disraeli's appreciation found an opportunity for

displaying itself some years later, when in 1868 he invited him to be lord

chancellor in the brief Conservative administration which followed Lord

Derby's resignation of the leadership of his party. Meanwhile, Cairns had

maintained his reputation in many other debates, both when his party was in

power and when it was in opposition. In 1866 Lord Derby, returning to

office, had made him attorney-general, and in the same year he had availed

himself of a vacancy to seek the comparative rest of the court of appeal.

While a lord justice he had been offered a peerage, and though at first

unable to accept it, he had finally done so on a relative, a member of the

wealthy family of McCalmont, providing the means necessary for the

endowment of a title.

The appointment of Baron Cairns of Garmoyle as lord chancellor in 1868

involved the superseding of Lord Chelmsford, an act which apparently was

carried out by Disraeli with less tact than might have been expected of

him. Lord Chelmsford bitterly declared that he had been sent away with less

courtesy than if he had been a butler, but the testimony of Lord Malmesbury

is strong that the affair was the result of an understanding arrived at

when Lord Chelmsford took office. Disraeli held office on this occasion for

a few months only, and when Lord Derby died in 1869, Lord Cairns became the

leader of the Conservative opposition in the House of Lords. He had

distinguished himself in the Commons by his resistance to the Roman

Catholics' Oath Bill brought in in 1865; in the Lords, his efforts on

behalf of the Irish Church were equally strenuous. His speech on

Gladstone's Suspensory Bill was afterwards published as a pamphlet, but the

attitude which he and the peers who followed him had taken up, in insisting

on their amendments to the preamble of the bill, was one difficult to

maintain, and Lord Cairns made terms with Lord Granville in circumstances

which precluded his consulting his party first. He issued a circular to

explain his action in taking a course for which many blamed him. Viewed

dispassionately, the incident appears to have exhibited his statesmanlike

qualities in a marked degree, for he secured concessions which would have

been irretrievably lost by continued opposition. Not long after this, Lord

Cairns resigned the leadership of his party in the upper house, but he had

to resume it in 1870 and took a strong part in opposing the Irish Land Bill

in that year. On the Conservatives coming into power in 1874, he again

became lord chancellor; in 1878 he was made Viscount Garmoyle and Earl

Cairns; and in 1880 his party went out of office. In opposition he did not

take as prominent a part as previously, but when Lord Beaconsfield died in

1881, there were some Conservatives who considered that his title to lead

the party was better than that of Lord Salisbury. His health, however,

never robust, had for many years shown intermittent signs of failing. He

had periodically made enforced retirements to the Riviera, and for many

years had had a house at Bournemouth, and it was here that he died on the

2nd of April 1885.

Cairns was a great lawyer, with an immense grasp of first principles and

the power to express them; his judgments taking the form of luminous

expositions or treatises upon the law governing the case before him, rather

than of controversial discussions of the arguments adduced by counsel or of

analysis of his own reasons. Lucidity and logic were the leading

characteristics of his speeches in his professional capacity and in the

political arena. In an eloquent tribute to his memory in the House of

Lords, Lord Chief Justice Coleridge expressed the high opinion of the legal

profession upon his merits and upon the severe integrity and single-minded

desire to do his duty, which animated him in his selections for the bench.

His piety was reflected by that of his great opponent, rival and friend,

Lord Selborne. Like Lord Selborne and Lord Hatherley, Cairns found leisure

at his busiest for teaching in the Sunday-school, but it is not recorded of

them (as of him) that they refused to undertake work at the bar on

Saturdays, in order to devote that day to hunting. He used to say that his

great incentive to hard work at his profession in early days was his desire

to keep hunters, and he retained his keenness as a sportsman as long as he

was able to indulge it. Of his personal characteristics, it may be said

that he was a spare man, with a Scottish, not an Irish, cast of

countenance. He was scrupulously neat in his personal appearance, faultless

in bands and necktie, and fond of wearing a flower in his button-hole. His

chilly manner, coupled with his somewhat austere religious principles, had

no doubt much to do with the fact that he was never a popular man. His

friends claimed for him a keen sense of humour, but it was not to be

detected by those whose knowledge of him was professional rather than

personal. Probably he thought the exhibition of humour incompatible with

the dignity of high judicial position. Of his legal attainments there can

be no doubt. His influence upon the legislation of the day was largely felt

where questions affecting religion and the Church were involved and in

matters peculiarly affecting his own profession. His power was felt, as has

been said, both when he was in office and when his party was in opposition.

He had been chairman of the committee on judicature reform, and although he

was not in office when the Judicature Act was passed, all the reforms in

the legal procedure of his day owed much to him. He took part, when out of

office, in the passing of the Married Women's Property Act, and was

directly responsible for the Conveyancing Acts of 1881-1882, and [v.04

p.0953] for the Settled Land Act. Many other statutes in which he was

largely concerned might be quoted. His judgments are to be found in the Law

Reports and those who wish to consider his oratory should read the speeches

above referred to, or that delivered in the House of Lords on the

Compensation for Disturbance Bill in 1880, and his memorable criticism of

Mr Gladstone's policy in the Transvaal, after Majuba Hill. (See Hansard and

_The Times_, 1st of April 1881.) His style of delivery was, as a rule, cold

to a marked degree. The term "frozen oratory" has been applied to his

speeches, and it has been said of them that they flowed "like water from a

glacier.... The several stages of his speech are like steps cut out in ice,

as sharply defined, as smooth and as cold." Lord Caims married in 1856 Mary

Harriet, eldest daughter of John McNeill, of Parkmount, Co. Antrim, by whom

he had issue five sons and two daughters. He was succeeded in the earldom

by his second but eldest surviving son, Arthur William (1861-1890), who

left one daughter, and from whom the title passed to his two next younger

brothers in succession, Herbert John, third earl (1863-1905), and Wilfrid

Dallas, fourth earl (b. 1865).

AUTHORITIES.--See _The Times_, 3rd and 14th of April 1885; _Law Journal,

Law Times, Solicitors' Journal_, 11th of April 1885; the _Law Magazine_,

vol. xi. p. 133; the _Law Quarterly_, vol. i. p. 365; _Earl Russell's

Recollections; Memoirs of Lord Malmesbury_; Sir Theodore Martin, _The Life

of the Prince Consort_; E. Manson, _Builders of our Law_; J.B. Atlay,

_Victorian Chancellors_, vol. ii.

[1] See _History of the family of Cairnes or Cairns_, by H.C. Lawlor

(1907).

CAIRNS, JOHN (1818-1892), Scottish Presbyterian divine, was born at Ayton

Hill, Berwickshire, on the 23rd of August 1818, the son of a shepherd. He

went to school at Ayton and Oldcambus, Berwickshire, and was then for three

years a herd boy, but kept up his education. In 1834 he entered Edinburgh

University, but during 1836 and 1837, owing to financial straits, taught in

a school at Ayton. In November 1837 he returned to Edinburgh, where he

became the most distinguished student of his time, graduating M.A. in 1841,

first in classics and philosophy and bracketed first in mathematics. While

at Edinburgh he organized the Metaphysical Society along with A. Campbell

Fraser and David Masson. He entered the Presbyterian Secession Hall in

1840, and in 1843 wrote an article in the _Secession Magazine_ on the Free

Church movement, which aroused the interest of Thomas Chalmers. The years

1843-1844 he spent at Berlin studying German philosophy and theology. He

was licensed as preacher on the 3rd of February 1845, and on the 6th of

August ordained as minister of Golden Square Church, Berwick-on-Tweed.

There his preaching was distinguished by its impressiveness and by a broad

and unaffected humanity. He had many "calls" to other churches, but chose

to remain at Berwick. In 1857 he was one of the representatives at the

meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in Berlin, and in 1858 Edinburgh

University conferred on him an honorary D.D. In the following year he

declined an invitation to become principal of Edinburgh University. In 1872

he was elected moderator of the United Presbyterian Synod and represented

his church in Paris at the first meeting of the Reformed Synod of France.

In May 1876, he was appointed joint professor of systematic theology and

apologetics with James Harper, principal of the United Presbyterian

Theological College, whom he succeeded as principal in 1879. He was an

indefatigable worker and speaker, and in order to facilitate his efforts in

other countries and other literatures he learnt Arabic, Norse, Danish and

Dutch. In 1890 he visited Berlin and Amsterdam to acquaint himself with the

ways of younger theologians, especially with the Ritschlians, whose work he

appreciated but did not accept as final. On his return he wrote a long

article on "Recent Scottish Theology" for the _Presbyterian and Reformed

Review_, for which he read over every theological work of note published in

Scotland during the preceding half-century. He died on the 12th of March,

1892, at Edinburgh. Among his principal publications are _An Examination of

Ferrier's "Knowing and Being," and the Scottish Philosophy_--(a work which

gave him the reputation of being an independent Hamiltonian in philosophy);

_Memoir of John Brown, D.D._ (1860); _Romanism and Rationalism_ (1863);

_Outlines of Apologetical Theology_ (1867); _The Doctrine of the

Presbyterian Church_ (1876); _Unbelief in the 18th Century_ (1881);

_Doctrinal Principles of the United Presbyterian Church_ (Dr Blair's

Manual, 1888).

See MacEwen's _Life and Letters of John Cairns_ (1895).

(D. MN.)

CAIRNS, a seaport of Nares county, Queensland, Australia, 890 m. direct

N.N.W. of Brisbane. Pop. (1901) 3557. The town lies parallel with the sea,

on the western shore of Trinity Bay, with an excellent harbour, and a long

beach, finely timbered. Cairns is the natural outlet for the gold-fields,

tin-mines and silver-fields of the district and for the rich copper

district of Chillagoe. A government railway, 48 m. long, runs to Mareeba,

whence a private company's line continues to Mungana, 100 m. W. There is

also a line belonging to a private company connecting Chillagoe with

Mareeba. In the vicinity of Cairns are extensive sugar plantations, with

sugar mills and refineries; the culture of coffee and tobacco has rapidly

extended; bananas, pine-apples and other fruits are exported in

considerable quantities and there is a large industry in cedar. The Barron

Falls, among the finest in Australia, are near Kuranda, 19 m. from Cairns.

Cairns became a municipality in 1885.

CAIRO (Arabic _Misr-al-Kahira_, or simply _Misr_), the capital of modern

Egypt and the most populous city in Africa, on the Nile, 12 m. S. of the

apex of the Delta, in 30° 3' N. and 31° 21' E. It is 130 m. S.E. of

Alexandria, and 148 E. of Suez by rail, though only 84 m. from the

last-named port by the overland route across the desert, in use before the

opening of the Suez Canal. Cairo occupies a length of 5 m. on the east bank

of the Nile, stretching north from the old Roman fortress of Babylon, and

covers an area of about 8 sq. m. It is built partly on the alluvial plain

of the Nile valley and partly on the rocky slopes of the Mokattam hills,

which rise 550 ft. above the town.

The citadel, which is built on a spur of the Mokattam hills, occupies the

S.E. angle of the city. The prospect from the ramparts of this fortress is

one of striking picturesqueness and beauty. Below lies the city with its

ancient walls and lofty towers, its gardens and squares, its palaces and

its mosques, with their delicately-carved domes and minarets covered with

fantastic tracery, the port of Bulak, the gardens and palace of Shubra, the

broad river studded with islands, the valley of the Nile dotted with groups

of trees, with the pyramids on the north horizon, and on the east the

barren cliffs, backed by a waste of sand. Since the middle of the 19th

century the city has more than doubled in size and population. The newer

quarters, situated near the river, are laid out in the fashion of French

cities, but the eastern parts of the town retain, almost unimpaired, their

Oriental aspect, and in scores of narrow, tortuous streets, and busy

bazaars it is easy to forget that there has been any change from the Cairo

of medieval times. Here the line of fortifications still marks the eastern

limits of the city, though on the north large districts have grown up

beyond the walls. Neither on the south nor towards the river are there any

fortifications left.

_Principal Quarters and Modern Buildings._--From the citadel a straight

road, the Sharia Mehemet Ali, runs N. to the Ezbekia (Ezbekiyeh) Gardens,

which cover over 20 acres, and form the central point of the foreign

colony. North and west of the Ezbekia runs the Ismailia canal, and on the

W. side of the canal, about half a mile N. of the Gardens, is the Central

railway station, approached by a broad road, the Sharia Clot Bey. The Arab

city and the quarters of the Copts and Jews lie E. of the two streets

named. West of the Ismailia canal lies the Bulak quarter, the port or

riverside district. At Bulak are the arsenal, foundry and railway works, a

paper manufactory and the government printing press, founded by Mehemet

Ali. A little distance S.E. of the Ezbekia is the Place Atabeh, the chief

point of intersection of the electric tramways which serve the newer parts

of the town. From the Place Atabeh a narrow street, the Muski, leads E.

into the heart of the Arab city. Another street leads S.W. to the Nile, at

the point where the Kasr en Nil or Great Nile bridge spans the river,

leading to Gezira Bulak, an island whereon is a palace, now turned into a

hotel, polo, cricket and tennis grounds, and a racecourse. The districts

between the bridge, the Ezbekia [v.04 p.0954] and the Ismailia canal, are

known as the Ismailia and Tewfikia quarters, after the khedives in whose

reigns they were laid out. The district immediately south of the bridge is

called the Kasr el-Dubara quarter. Abdin Square, which occupies a central

position, is connected with Ezbekia Gardens by a straight road. The narrow

canal, El Khalig, which branched from the Nile at Old Cairo and traversed

the city from S.W. to N.E., was filled up in 1897, and an electric tramway

runs along the road thus made. With the filling up of the channel the

ancient festival of the cutting of the canal came to an end.

The government offices and other modern public buildings are nearly all in

the western half of the city. On the south side of the Ezbekia are the post

office, the courts of the International Tribunals, and the opera house. On

the east side are the bourse and the Crédit Lyonnais, on the north the

buildings of the American mission. On or near the west side of the gardens

are most of the large and luxurious hotels which the city contains for the

accommodation of Europeans. Facing the river immediately north of the Great

Nile bridge are the large barracks, called Kasr-en-Nil, and the new museum

of Egyptian antiquities (opened in 1902). South of the bridge are the

Ismailia palace (a khedivial residence), the British consulate general, the

palace of the khedive's mother, the medical school and the government

hospital. Farther removed from the river are the offices of the ministries

of public works and of war--a large building surrounded by gardens--and of

justice and finance. On the east side of Abdin Square is Abdin palace, an

unpretentious building used for official receptions. Adjoining the palace

are barracks. N.E. of Abdin Square, in the Sharia Mehemet Ali, is the Arab

museum and khedivial library. Near this building are the new courts of the

native tribunals. Private houses in these western districts consist chiefly

of residential flats, though in the Kasr el-Dubara quarter are many

detached residences.

_The Oriental City._--The eastern half of Cairo is divided into many

quarters. These quarters were formerly closed at night by massive gates. A

few of these gates remain. In addition to the Mahommedan quarters, usually

called after the trade of the inhabitants or some notable building, there

are the Copt or Christian quarter, the Jews' quarter and the old "Frank"

quarter. The last is the Muski district where, since the days of Saladin,

"Frank" merchants have been permitted to live and trade. Some of the

principal European shops are still to be found in this street. The Copt and

Jewish quarters lie north of the Muski. The Coptic cathedral, dedicated to

St Mark, is a modern building in the basilica style. The oldest Coptic

church in Cairo is, probably, the Keniset-el-Adra, or Church of the Virgin,

which is stated to preserve the original type of Coptic basilica. The

Coptic churches in the city are not, however, of so much interest as those

in Old Cairo (see below). In the Copt quarter are also Armenian, Syrian,

Maronite, Greek and Roman Catholic churches. In the Copt and Jewish

quarters the streets, as in the Arab quarters, are winding and narrow. In

them the projecting upper stories of the houses nearly meet. Sebils or

public fountains are numerous. These fountains are generally two-storeyed,

the lower chamber enclosing a well, the upper room being often used for

scholastic purposes. Many of the fountains are fine specimens of Arab

architecture. While the houses of the poorer classes are mean and too often

dirty, in marked contrast are the houses of the wealthier citizens, built

generally in a style of elaborate arabesque, the windows shaded with

projecting cornices of graceful woodwork (_mushrebiya_) and ornamented with

stained glass. A winding passage leads through the ornamental doorway into

the court, in the centre of which is a fountain shaded with palm-trees. The

principal apartment is generally paved with marble; in the centre a

decorated lantern is suspended over a fountain, while round the sides are

richly inlaid cabinets and windows of stained glass; and in a recess is the

_divan_, a low, narrow, cushioned seat. The basement storey is generally

built of the soft calcareous stone of the neighbouring hills, and the upper

storey, which contains the harem, of painted brick. The shops of the

merchants are small and open to the street. The greater part of the trade

is done, however, in the bazaars or markets, which are held in large

_khans_ or storehouses, of two storeys and of considerable size. Access to

them is gained from the narrow lanes which usually surround them. The khans

often possess fine gateways. The principal bazaar, the Khan-el-Khalil,

marks the site of the tombs of the Fatimite caliphs.

_The Citadel and the Mosques._--Besides the citadel, the principal edifices

in the Arab quarters are the mosques and the ancient gates. The citadel or

El-Kala was built by Saladin about 1166, but it has since undergone

frequent alteration, and now contains a palace erected by Mehemet Ali, and

a mosque of Oriental alabaster (based on the model of the mosques at

Constantinople) founded by the same pasha on the site of "Joseph's Hall,"

so named after the prenomen of Saladin. The dome and the two slender

minarets of this mosque form one of the most picturesque features of Cairo,

and are visible from a great distance. In the centre is a well called

Joseph's Well, sunk in the solid rock to the level of the Nile. There are

four other mosques within the citadel walls, the chief being that of Ibn

Kalaun, built in A.D. 1317 by Sultan Nasir ibn Kalaun. The dome has fallen

in. After having been used as a prison, and, later, as a military

storehouse, it has been cleared and its fine colonnades are again visible.

The upper parts of the minarets are covered with green tiles. They are

furnished with bulbous cupolas. The most magnificent of the city mosques is

that of Sultan Hasan, standing in the immediate vicinity of the citadel. It

dates from A.D. 1357, and is celebrated for the grandeur of its porch and

cornice and the delicate stalactite vaulting which adorns them. The

restoration of parts of the mosque which had fallen into decay was begun in

1904. Besides it there is the mosque of Tulun (c. A.D. 879) exhibiting very

ancient specimens of the pointed arch; the mosque of Sultan El Hakim (A.D.

1003), the mosque el Azhar (the splendid), which dates from about A.D. 970,

and is the seat of a Mahommedan university; and the mosque of Sultan

Kalaun, which is attached to the hospital or madhouse (_muristan_) begun by

Kalaun in A.D. 1285. The whole forms a large group of buildings, now

partially in ruins, in a style resembling the contemporaneous medieval work

in Europe, with pointed arches in several orders. Besides the mosque proper

there is a second mosque containing the fine mausoleum of Kalaun. Adjacent

to the _muristan_ on the north is the tomb mosque of al Nasir, completed

1303, with a fine portal. East of the Khan-el-Khalil is the mosque of El

Hasan[=e]n, which is invested with peculiar sanctity as containing relics

of Hosain and Hasan, grandsons of the Prophet. This mosque was rebuilt in

the 19th century and is of no architectural importance. In all Cairo

contains over 260 mosques, and nearly as many _zawias_ or chapels. Of the

gates the finest are the Bab-en-Nasr, in the north wall of the city, and

the Bab-ez-Zuw[=e]la, the only surviving part of the southern

fortifications.

_Tombs of the Caliphs and Mamelukes._--Beyond the eastern wall of the city

are the splendid mausolea erroneously known to Europeans as the tombs of

the caliphs; they really are tombs of the Circassian or Burji Mamelukes, a

race extinguished by Mehemet Ali. Their lofty gilt domes and fanciful

network or arabesque tracery are partly in ruins, and the mosques attached

to them are also partly ruined. The chief tomb mosques are those of Sultan

Barkuk, with two domes and two minarets, completed AD. 1410, and that of

Kait Bey (c. 1470), with a slender minaret 135 ft. high. This mosque was

carefully restored in 1898. South of the citadel is another group of

tomb-mosques known as the tombs of the Mamelukes. They are architecturally

of less interest than those of the "caliphs". Southwest of the Mameluke

tombs is the much-venerated tomb-mosque of the Imam esh-Shafih or Shaf'i,

founder of one of the four orthodox sects of Islam. Near the imam's mosque

is a family burial-place built by Mehemet Ali.

[Illustration]

_Old Cairo: the Fortress of Babylon and the Nilometer._--About a mile south

of the city is Masr-el-Atika, called by Europeans Old Cairo. Between Old

Cairo and the newer city are large mounds of débris marking the site of

Fostat (see below, _History_). [v.04 p.0955] The road to Old Cairo by the

river leads past the monastery of the "Howling" Dervishes, and the head of

the aqueduct which formerly supplied the citadel with water. Farther to the

east is the mosque of Amr, a much-altered building dating from A.D. 643 and

containing the tomb of the Arab conqueror of Egypt. Most important of the

quarters of Masr-el-Atika is that of Kasr-esh-Shama (Castle of the Candle),

built within the outer walls of the Roman fortress of Babylon. Several

towers of this fortress remain, and in the south wall is a massive gateway,

uncovered in 1901. In the quarter are five Coptic churches, a Greek convent

and two churches, and a synagogue. The principal Coptic church is that of

Abu Serga (St Sergius). The crypt dates from about the 6th century and is

dedicated to Sitt Miriam (the Lady Mary), from a tradition that in the

flight into Egypt the Virgin and Child rested at this spot. The upper

church is basilican in form, the nave being, as customary in Coptic

churches, divided into three sections by wooden screens, which are adorned

by carvings in ivory and wood. The wall above the high altar is faced with

beautiful mosaics of marbles, blue glass and mother-of-pearl. Of the other

churches in Kasr-esh-Shama the most noteworthy is that of El Adra (the

Virgin), also called El Moallaka, or The Suspended, being built in one of

the towers of the Roman gateway. It contains fine wooden and ivory screens.

The pulpit is supported on fifteen columns, which rest on a slab of white

marble. The patriarch of the Copts was formerly consecrated in this church.

The other buildings in Old Cairo, or among the mounds of rubbish which

adjoin it, include several fort-like _ders_ or convents. One, south of the

Kasr-esh-Shama, is called Der Bablun, thus preserving the name of the

ancient fortress. In the Der Abu Sephin, to the north of Babylon, is a

Coptic church of the 10th century, possessing magnificent carved screens, a

pulpit with fine mosaics and a semi-circle of marble steps.

Opposite Old Cairo lies the island of Roda, where, according to Arab

tradition, Pharaoh's daughter found Moses in the bulrushes. Two bridges,

opened in 1908, connect Old Cairo with Roda, and a third bridge joins Roda

to Giza on the west bank of the river. Roda Island contains a mosque built

by Kait Bey, and at its southern extremity is the Nilometer, by which the

Cairenes have for over a thousand years measured the rise of the river. It

is a square well with an octagonal pillar marked in cubits in the centre.

_Northern and Western Suburbs._--Two miles N.E. of Cairo and on the edge of

the desert is the suburb of Abbasia (named after the viceroy Abbas),

connected with the city by a continuous line of houses. Abbasia is now

largely a military colony, the cavalry barracks being the old palace of

Abbas Pasha. In these barracks Arabi Pasha surrendered to the British on

the 14th of September 1882, the day after the battle of Tel el-Kebir.

Mataria, a village 3 m. farther to the N.E., is the site of the defeat of

the Mamelukes by the Turks in 1517, and of the defeat of the Turks by the

French under General Kleber in 1800. At Mataria was a sycamore-tree, the

successor of a tree which decayed in 1665, venerated as being that beneath

which the Holy Family, rested on their flight into Egypt. This tree was

blown down in July 1906 and its place taken by a cutting made from the tree

some years previously. Less than a mile N.E. of Mataria are the scanty

remains of the ancient city of On or Heliopolis. The chief monument is an

obelisk, about 66 ft. high, erected by Usertesen I. of the XIIth dynasty. A

residential suburb, named Heliopolis, containing many fine buildings, was

laid out between Mataria and Abbasia during 1905-10.

On the west bank of the Nile, opposite the southern end of Roda Island, is

the small town of Giza or Gizeh, a fortified place of considerable

importance in the times of the Mamelukes. In the viceregal palace here the

museum of Egyptian antiquities was housed for several years (1889-1902).

The grounds of this palace have been converted into zoological gardens. A

broad, tree-bordered, macadamized road, along which run electric trams,

leads S.S.W. across the plain to the Pyramids of Giza, 5 m. distant, built

on the edge of the desert.

_Helwan._--Fourteen miles S. of Cairo and connected with it by railway is

the town of Helwan, built in the desert 3 m. E. of the Nile, and much

frequented by invalids on account of its sulphur baths, which are owned by

the Egyptian government. A khedivial astronomical observatory was built

here in 1903-1904, to take the place of that at Abbasia, that site being no

longer suitable in consequence of the northward extension of the city. The

ruins of Memphis are on the E. bank of the Nile opposite Helwan.

_Inhabitants._--The inhabitants are of many diverse races, the various

nationalities being frequently distinguishable by differences in dress as

well as in physiognomy and colour. In the oriental quarters of the city the

curious shops, the markets of different trades (the shops of each trade

being generally congregated in one street or district), the easy merchant

sitting before his shop, the musical and quaint street-cries of the

picturesque vendors of fruit, sherbet, water, &c., with the ever-changing

and many-coloured throng of passengers, all render the streets a delightful

study for the lover of Arab life, nowhere else to be seen in such

perfection, or with so fine a background of magnificent buildings. The

Cairenes, or native citizens, differ from the fellahin in having a much

larger mixture of Arab blood, and are at once keener witted and more

conservative than the peasantry. The Arabic spoken by the middle and higher

classes is generally inferior in grammatical correctness and pronunciation

to that of the Bedouins of Arabia, but is purer than that of Syria or the

dialect spoken by the Western Arabs. Besides the Cairenes proper, who are

largely engaged in trade or handicrafts, the inhabitants include Arabs,

numbers of Nubians and Negroes--mostly labourers or domestics in nominal

slavery--and many Levantines, there being considerable colonies of Syrians

and Armenians. The higher classes of native society are largely of Turkish

or semi-Turkish descent. Of other races the most numerous are Greeks,

Italians, British, French and Jews. Bedouins from the desert frequent the

bazaars.

At the beginning of the 19th century the population was estimated at about

200,000, made up of 120,000 Moslems, 60,000 Copts, 4000 Jews and 16,000

Greeks, Armenians and "Franks." In 1882 the population had risen to

374,000, in 1897 to 570,062, and in 1907, including Helwan and Mataria, the

total population was 654,476, of whom 46,507 were Europeans.

_Climate and Health._--In consequence of its insanitary condition, Cairo

used to have a heavy death-rate. Since the British occupation in 1882 much

has been done to better this state of things, notably by a good

water-supply and a proper system of drainage. The death-rate of the native

population is about 35 per 1000. The climate of the city is generally

healthy, with a mean temperature of about 68° F. Though rain seldom falls,

exhalations from the river, especially when the flood has begun to subside,

render the districts near the Nile damp during September, October and

November, and in winter early morning fogs are not uncommon. The prevalent

north wind and the rise of the water tend to keep the air cool in summer.

_Commerce._--The commerce of Cairo, of considerable extent and variety,

consists mainly in the transit of goods. Gum, ivory, hides, and ostrich

feathers from the Sudan, cotton and sugar from Upper Egypt, indigo and

shawls from India and Persia, sheep and tobacco from Asiatic Turkey, and

European manufactures, such as machinery, hardware, cutlery, glass, and

cotton and woollen goods, are the more important articles. The traffic in

slaves ceased in 1877. In Bulak are several factories founded by Mehemet

Ali for spinning, weaving and printing cotton, and a paper-mill established

by the khedive Ismail in 1870. Various kinds of paper are manufactured, and

especially a fine quality for use in the government offices. In the Island

of Roda there is a sugar-refinery of considerable extent, founded in 1859,

and principally managed by Englishmen. Silk goods, saltpetre, gunpowder,

leather, &c., are also manufactured. An octroi duty of 9% _ad valorem_

formerly levied on all food stuffs entering the city was abolished in 1903.

It used to produce about £150,000 per annum.

_Mahommedan Architecture._--Architecturally considered Cairo is still the

most remarkable and characteristic of Arab cities. The edifices raised by

the Moorish kings of Spain and the Moslem [v.04 p.0956] rulers of India may

have been more splendid in their materials, and more elaborate in their

details; the houses of the great men of Damascus may be more costly than

were those of the Mameluke beys; but for purity of taste and elegance of

design both are far excelled by many of the mosques and houses of Cairo.

These mosques have suffered much in the beauty of their appearance from the

effects of time and neglect; but their colour has been often thus softened,

and their outlines rendered the more picturesque. What is most to be

admired in their style of architecture is its extraordinary freedom from

restraint, shown in the wonderful variety of its forms, and the skill in

design which has made the most intricate details to harmonize with grand

outlines. Here the student may best learn the history of Arab art. Like its

contemporary Gothic, it has three great periods, those of growth, maturity

and decline. Of the first, the mosque of Ahmed Ibn-Tulun in the southern

part of Cairo, and the three great gates of the city, the Bab-en-Nasr,

Bab-el-Futuh and Bab-Zuwela, are splendid examples. The design of these

entrance gateways is extremely simple and massive, depending for their

effect on the fine ashlar masonry in which they are built, the decoration

being more or less confined to ornamental disks. The mosque of Tulun was

built entirely in brick, and is the earliest instance of the employment of

the pointed arch in Egypt. The curve of the arch turns in slightly below

the springing, giving a horse-shoe shape. Built in brick, it was found

necessary to give a more monumental appearance to the walls by a casing of

stucco, which remains in fair preservation to the present day. This led to

the enrichment of the archivolts and imposts with that peculiar type of

conventional foliage which characterizes Mahommedan work, and which in this

case was carried out by Coptic craftsmen. The attached angle-shafts of

piers are found here for the first time, and their capitals are enriched,

as also the frieze surmounting the walls, with other conventional patterns.

The second period passes from the highest point to which this art attained

to a luxuriance promising decay. The mosque of sultan Hasan, below the

citadel, those of Muayyad and Kalaun, with the Barkukiya and the mosque of

Barkuk in the cemetery of Kait Bey, are instances of the second and more

matured style of the period. The simple plain ashlar masonry still

predominates, but the wall surface is broken up with sunk panels, sometimes

with geometrical patterns in them. The principal characteristics of this

second period are the magnificent portals, rising sometimes, as in the

mosque of sultan Hasan, to 80 or 90 ft., with elaborate stalactite vaulting

at the top, and the deep stalactite cornices which crown the summit of the

building. The decoration of the interior consists of the casing of the

walls with marble with enriched borders, and (about 20 ft. above the

ground) friezes 3 to 5 ft. in height in which the precepts of the Koran are

carved in relief, with a background of conventional foliage. Of the last

style of this period the Ghuriya and the mosque of Kait Bey in his cemetery

are beautiful specimens. They show an elongation of forms and an excess of

decoration in which the florid qualities predominate. Of the age of decline

the finest monument is the mosque of Mahommad Bey Abu-Dahab. The forms are

now poor, though not lacking in grandeur, and the details are not as well

adjusted as before, with a want of mastery of the most suitable decoration.

The usual plan of a congregational mosque is a large, square, open court,

surrounded by arcades of which the chief, often several bays deep, and

known as the Manksura, or prayer-chamber, faces Mecca (eastward), and has

inside its outer wall a decorated niche to mark the direction of prayer. In

the centre of the court is a fountain for ablutions, often surmounted by a

dome, and in the prayer-chamber a pulpit and a desk for readers. When a

mosque is also the founder's tomb, it has a richly ornamented sepulchral

chamber always covered by a dome (see further MOSQUE, which contains plans

of the mosques of Amr and sultan Hasan, and of the tomb mosque of Kait

Bey).

After centuries of neglect efforts are now made to preserve the monuments

of Arabic art, a commission with that object having been appointed in 1881.

To this commission the government makes an annual grant of £4000. The

careful and syste-matic work accomplished by this commission has preserved

much of interest and beauty which would otherwise have gone utterly to

ruin. Arrangements were made in 1902 for the systematic repair and

preservation of Coptic monuments.

_Museums and Library._--The museum of Egyptian antiquities was founded at

Bulak in 1863, being then housed in a mosque, by the French savant Auguste

Mariette. In 1889 the collection was transferred to the Giza (Ghezireh)

palace, and in 1902 was removed to its present quarters, erected at a cost

of over £250,000. A statue of Mariette was unveiled in 1904. The museum is

entirely devoted to antiquities of Pharaonic times, and, except in

historical papyri, in which it is excelled by the British Museum, is the

most valuable collection of such antiquities in existence.

The Arab museum and khedivial library are housed in a building erected for

the purpose, at a cost of £66,000, and opened in 1903. In the museum are

preserved treasures of Saracenic art, including many objects removed from

the mosques for their better security. The khedivial library contains some

64,000 volumes, over two-thirds being books and MSS. in Arabic, Persian,

Turkish, Amharic and Syriac. The Arabic section includes a unique

collection of 2677 korans. The Persian section is rich in illuminated MSS.

The numismatic collection, as regards the period of the caliphs and later

dynasties, is one of the richest in the world.

_History._--Before the Arab conquest of Egypt the site of Cairo appears to

have been open country. Memphis was some 12 m. higher up on the opposite

side of the Nile, and Heliopolis was 5 or 6 m. distant on the N.E. The most

ancient known settlement in the immediate neighbourhood of the present city

was the town called Babylon. From its situation it may have been a north

suburb of Memphis, which was still inhabited in the 7th century A.D.

Babylon is said by Strabo to have been founded by emigrants from the

ancient city of the same name in 525 B.C., _i.e._ at the time of the

Persian conquest of Egypt. Here the Romans built a fortress and made it the

headquarters of one of the three legions which garrisoned the country. The

church of Babylon mentioned in 1 Peter v. 13 has been thought by some

writers to refer to this town--an improbable supposition. Amr, the

conqueror of Egypt for the caliph Omar, after taking the town besieged the

fortress for the greater part of a year, the garrison surrendering in April

A.D. 641. The town of Babylon disappeared, but the strong walls of the

fortress in part remain, and the name survived, "Babylon of Egypt," or

"Babylon" simply, being frequently used in medieval writings as synonymous

with Cairo or as denoting the successive Mahommedan dynasties of Egypt.

Cairo itself is the fourth Moslem capital of Egypt; the site of one of

those that had preceded it is, for the most part, included within its

walls, while the other two were a little to the south. Amr founded

El-Fostat, the oldest of these, close to the fortress which he had

besieged. Fostat signifies "the tent," the town being built where Amr had

pitched his tent. The new town speedily became a place of importance, and

was the residence of the náibs, or lieutenants, appointed by the orthodox

and Omayyad caliphs. It received the name of Masr, properly Misr, which was

also applied by the Arabs to Memphis and to Cairo, and is to-day, with the

Roman town which preceded it, represented by Masr el-Atika, or "Old Cairo."

Shortly after the overthrow of the Omayyad dynasty, and the establishment

of the Abbasids, the city of El-'Askar was founded (A.D. 750) by Suleiman,

the general who subjugated the country, and became the capital and the

residence of the successive lieutenants of the Abbasid caliphs. El-'Askar

was a small town N.E. of and adjacent to El-Fostat, of which it was a kind

of suburb. Its site is now entirely desolate. The third capital, El-Katai,

was founded about A.D. 873 by Ahmed Ibn Tulun, as his capital. It continued

the royal residence of his successors; but was sacked not long after the

fall of the dynasty and rapidly decayed. A part of the present Cairo

occupies its site and contains its great mosque, that of Ahmed Ibn Tulun.

Jauhar (Gohar) el-Kaid, the conqueror of Egypt for the Fatimite caliph

El-Moizz, founded a new capital, A.D. 968, which [v.04 p.0957] was named

El-K[=a]hira, that is, "the Victorious," a name corrupted into Cairo. The

new city, like that founded by Amr, was originally the camp of the

conqueror. This town occupied about a fourth part, the north-eastern, of

the present metropolis. By degrees it became greater than El-Fost[=a]t, and

took from it the name of Misr, or Masr, which is applied to it by the

modern Egyptians. With its rise Fost[=a]t, which had been little affected

by the establishment of Askar and Katai, declined. It continually increased

so as to include the site of El-Katai to the south. In A.D. 1176 Cairo was

unsuccessfully attacked by the Crusaders; shortly afterwards Saladin built

the citadel on the lowest point of the mountains to the east, which

immediately overlooked El-Katai, and he partly walled round the towns and

large gardens within the space now called Cairo. Under the prosperous rule

of the Mameluke sultans this great tract was filled with habitations; a

large suburb to the north, the Hoseynia, was added; and the town of Bulak

was founded. After the Turkish conquest (A.D. 1517) the metropolis decayed,

but its limits were the same. In 1798 the city was captured by the French,

who were driven out in 1801 by the Turkish and English forces, the city

being handed over to the Turks. Mehemet Ali, originally the Turkish

viceroy, by his massacre of the Mamelukes in 1811, in a narrow street

leading to the citadel, made himself master of the country, and Cairo again

became the capital of a virtually independent kingdom. Under Mehemet and

his successors all the western part of the city has grown up. The khedive

Ismail, in making the straight road from the citadel to the Ezbekia

gardens, destroyed many of the finest houses of the old town. In 1882 Cairo

was occupied by the British, and British troops continue to garrison the

citadel.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--S.L. Poole, _The Story of Cairo_ (London, 1902), a

historical and architectural survey of the Moslem city; E. Reynolds-Ball,

_Cairo: the City of the Caliphs_ (Boston, U.S.A., 1897); Prisse d'Avennes,

_L'Art arabe d'après les monuments du Caire_ (Paris, 1847); P. Ravaisse,

_L'Histoire et la topographie du Caire d'après Makrizi_ (Paris, 1887); E.W.

Lane, _Cairo Fifty Years Ago_ (London, 1896), presents a picture of the

city as it was before the era of European "improvements," and gives

extracts from the _Khitat_ of Maqrizi, written in 1417, the chief original

authority on the antiquities of Cairo; Murray's and Baedeker's _Guides_,

and A. and C. Black's _Cairo of To-day_ (1905), contain much useful and

accurate information about Cairo. For the fortress of Babylon and its

churches consult A.J. Butler, _Ancient Coptic Churches in Egypt_ (Oxford,

1884).

CAIRO, a city and the county-seat of Alexander county, Illinois, U.S.A., in

the S. part of the state, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi

rivers, 365 m. S. of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 10,324; (1900) 12,566, of whom

5000 were negroes; (1910 census) 14,548. Cairo is served by the Illinois

Central, the Mobile & Ohio, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis,

the St Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, and the St Louis South-Western

railways, and by river steamboat lines. The city, said to be the "Eden" of

Charles Dickens's _Martin Chuzzlewit_, is built on a tongue of land between

the rivers, and has suffered many times from inundations, notably in 1858.

It is now protected by great levees. A fine railway bridge (1888) spans the

Ohio. The city has a large government building, a U.S. marine hospital

(1884), and the A.B. Safford memorial library (1882), and is the seat of St

Joseph's Loretto Academy (Roman Catholic, 1864). In one of the squares

there is a bronze statue, "The Hewer," by G.G. Barnard. In the N. part of

the city is St Mary's park (30 acres). At Mound City (pop. in 1910, 2837),

5 m. N. of Cairo, there is a national cemetery. Lumber and flour are

Cairo's principal manufactured products, and the city is an important

hardwood and cotton-wood market; the Singer Manufacturing Co. has veneer

mills here, and there are large box factories. In 1905 the value of the

city's factory products was $4,381,465, an increase of 40.6% since 1900.

Cairo is a shipping-point for the surrounding agricultural country. The

city owes its origin to a series of commercial experiments. In 1818 a

charter was secured from the legislature of the territory of Illinois

incorporating the city and bank of Cairo. The charter was soon forfeited,

and the land secured by it reverted to the government. In 1835 a new

charter was granted to a second company, and in 1837 the Cairo City & Canal

Co. was formed. By 1842, however, the place was practically abandoned. A

successful settlement was made in 1851-1854 under the auspices of the New

York Trust Co.; the Illinois Central railway was opened in 1856; and Cairo

was chartered as a city in 1857. During the Civil War Cairo was an

important strategic point, and was a military centre and depot of supplies

of considerable importance for the Federal armies in the west. In 1862

Admiral Andrew H. Foote established at Mound City a naval depot, which was

the basis of his operations on the Mississippi.

CAIROLI, BENEDETTO (1825-1889), Italian statesman, was born at Pavia on the

28th of January 1825. From 1848 until the completion of Italian unity in

1870, his whole activity was devoted to the Risorgimento, as Garibaldian

officer, political refugee, anti-Austrian conspirator and deputy to

parliament. He commanded a volunteer company under Garibaldi in 1859 and

1860, being wounded slightly at Calatafimi and severely at Palermo in the

latter year. In 1866, with the rank of colonel, he assisted Garibaldi in

Tirol, in 1867 fought at Mentana, and in 1870 conducted the negotiations

with Bismarck, during which the German chancellor is alleged to have

promised Italy possession of Rome and of her natural frontiers if the

Democratic party could prevent an alliance between Victor Emmanuel and

Napoleon. The prestige personally acquired by Benedetto Cairoli was

augmented by that of his four brothers, who fell during the wars of

Risorgimento, and by the heroic conduct of their mother. His refusal of all

compensation or distinction further endeared him to the Italian people.

When in 1876 the Left came into power, Cairoli, then a deputy of sixteen

years' standing, became parliamentary leader of his party, and, after the

fall of Depretis, Nicotera and Crispi, formed his first cabinet in March

1878 with a Francophil and Irredentist policy. After his marriage with the

countess Elena Sizzo of Trent, he permitted the Irredentist agitation to

carry the country to the verge of a war with Austria. General irritation

was caused by his and Count Corti's policy of "clean hands" at the Berlin

Congress, where Italy obtained nothing, while Austria-Hungary secured a

European mandate to occupy Bosnia and the Herzegovina. A few months later

the attempt of Passanante to assassinate King Humbert at Naples (12th of

December 1878) caused his downfall, in spite of the courage displayed and

the severe wound received by him in protecting the king's person on that

occasion. On the 3rd of July 1879 Cairoli returned to power, and in the

following November formed with Depretis a coalition ministry, in which he

retained the premiership and the foreign office. Confidence in French

assurances, and belief that Great Britain would never permit the extension

of French influence in North Africa, prevented him from foreseeing the

French occupation of Tunis (11th of May 1881). In view of popular

indignation he resigned in order to avoid making inopportune declarations

to the chamber. Thenceforward he practically disappeared from political

life. In 1887 he received the knighthood of the Annunziata, the highest

Italian decoration, and on the 8th of August 1889 died while a guest of

King Humbert in the royal palace of Capodimonte near Naples. Cairoli was

one of the most conspicuous representatives of that type of Italian public

men who, having conspired and fought for a generation in the cause of

national unity, were despite their valour little fitted for the responsible

parliamentary and official positions they subsequently attained; and who by

their ignorance of foreign affairs and of internal administration

unwittingly impeded the political development of their country.

CAISSON (from the Fr. _caisse_, the variant form "cassoon" being adapted

from the Ital. _casone_), a chest or case. When employed as a military

term, it denotes an ammunition wagon or chest; in architecture it is the

term used for a sunk panel or coffer in a ceiling, or in the soffit of an

arch or a vault.

In civil engineering, however, the word has attained a far wider

signification, and has been adopted in connexion with a considerable

variety of hydraulic works. A caisson in this sense implies a case or

enclosure of wood or iron, generally employed for keeping out water during

the execution of foundations and other works in water-bearing strata, at

the side of or under rivers, and also [v.04 p.0958] in the sea. There are

two distinct forms of this type of caisson:--(1) A caisson open at the top,

whose sides, when it is sunk in position, emerge above the water-level, and

which is either provided with a water-tight bottom or is carried down, by

being weighted at the top and having a cutting edge round the bottom, into

a water-tight stratum, aided frequently by excavation inside; (2) A

bottomless caisson, serving as a sort of diving-bell, in which men can work

when compressed air is introduced to keep out the water in proportion to

the depth below the water-level, which is gradually carried down to an

adequately firm foundation by excavating at the bottom of the caisson, and

building up a quay-wall or pier out of water on the top of its roof as it

descends. An example of a caisson with a water-tight bottom is furnished by

the quays erected alongside the Seine at Rouen, where open-timber caissons

were sunk on to bearing-piles down to a depth of 9¾ ft. below low-water,

the brick and concrete lower portions of the quay-wall being built inside

them out of water (see DOCK). At Bilbao, Zeebrugge and Scheveningen

harbours, large open metal caissons, built inland, ballasted with concrete,

floated out into position, and then sunk and filled with concrete, have

been employed for forming very large foundation blocks for the breakwaters

(see BREAKWATER). Open iron caissons are frequently employed for enclosing

the site of river piers for bridges, where a water-tight stratum can be

reached at a moderate depth, into which the caisson can be taken down, so

that the water can be pumped out of the enclosure and the foundations laid

and the pier carried up in the open air. Thus the two large river piers

carrying the high towers, bascules, and machinery of the Tower Bridge,

London, were each founded and built within a group of twelve plate-iron

caissons open at the top; whilst four of the piers on which the cantilevers

of the Forth Bridge rest, were each erected within an open plate-iron

caisson fitted at the bottom to the sloping rock, where ordinary cofferdams

could not have been adopted.

Where foundations have to be carried down to a considerable depth in

water-bearing strata, or through the alluvial bed of a river, to reach a

hard stratum, bottomless caissons sunk by excavating under compressed air

are employed. The caisson at the bottom, forming the working chamber, is

usually provided with a strong roof, round the top of which, when the

caisson is floated into a river, plate-iron sides are erected forming an

upper open caisson, inside which the pier or quay-wall is built up out of

water, on the top of the roof, as the sinking proceeds. Shafts through the

roof up to the open air provide access for men and materials to the working

chamber, through an air-lock consisting of a small chamber with an

air-tight door at each end, enabling locking into and out of the

compressed-air portion to be readily effected, on the same principle as a

water-lock on a canal. When a sufficiently reliable stratum has been

reached, the men leave the working chamber; and it is filled with concrete

through the shafts, the bottomless caisson remaining embedded in the work.

The foundations for the two river piers of the Brooklyn Suspension Bridge,

carried down to the solid rock, 78 and 45 ft. respectively below

high-water, by means of bottomless timber caissons with compressed air,

were an early instance of this method of carrying out subaqueous

foundations; whilst the Antwerp quay-walls, commenced many years ago in the

river Scheldt at some distance out from the right bank, and the foundations

of six of the piers supporting the cantilevers of the Forth Bridge, carried

down to rock between 64 and 89 ft. below high-water, are notable examples

of works founded under water within wrought iron bottomless caissons by the

aid of compressed air. The foundations of the two piers of the Eiffel Tower

adjoining the Seine were carried down through soft water-bearing strata to

a depth of 33 ft. by means of wrought iron bottomless caissons sunk by the

help of compressed air; and the deep foundations under the sills of the new

large Florida lock at Havre (see DOCK) were laid underneath the water

logged alluvial strata close to the Seine estuary by similar means.

Workmen, after emerging from such caissons, sometimes exhibit symptoms of

illness which is known as _caisson disease_ (_q.v._).

As in the above system, significantly termed by French engineers _par

caisson perdu_, the materials of the bottomless caisson have to be left in

the work, a more economical system has been adapted for carrying out

similar foundations, at moderate depths, by using movable caissons, which,

after the lowest portions of the foundations have been laid, are raised by

screw-jacks for constructing the next portions. In this way, instead of

building the pier or wall on the roof of the caisson, the work is carried

out under water in successive stages, by raising the bottomless caisson as

the work proceeds; and by this arrangement, the caisson, having completed

the subaqueous portion of the structure, is available for work elsewhere.

This movable system has been used with advantage for the foundations for

some piers of river bridges, some breakwater foundations, and, at the

Florida lock, Havre, for founding portions of the side walls.

Closed iron caissons, termed ship-caissons, and sliding or rolling

caissons, are generally employed for closing graving-docks, especially the

former (so called from their resemblance in shape to a vessel) on account

of their simplicity, being readily floated into and out of position; whilst

sliding caissons are sometimes used instead of lock-gates at docks, but

require a chamber at the side to receive them when drawn back. They possess

the advantage, particularly for naval dockyards where heavy weights are

transported, of providing in addition a strong movable bridge, thereby

dispensing with a swing-bridge across the opening.

The term caisson is sometimes applied to flat air-tight constructions used

for raising vessels out of water for cleaning or repairs, by being sunk

under them and then floated; but these floating caissons are more commonly

known as pontoons, or, when air-chambers are added at the sides, as

floating dry-docks.

(L. F. V.-H.)

CAISSON DISEASE. In order to exclude the water, the air pressure within a

caisson used for subaqueous works must be kept in excess of the pressure

due to the superincumbent water; that is, it must be increased by one

atmosphere, or 15 lb per sq. in. for every 33½ ft. that the caisson is

submerged below the surface. Hence at a depth of 100 ft. a worker in a

caisson, or a diver in a diving-dress, must be subjected to a pressure of

four atmospheres or 60 lb per sq. in. Exposure to such pressures is apt to

be followed by disagreeable and even dangerous physiological effects, which

are commonly referred to as caisson disease or compressed air illness. The

symptoms are of a very varied character, including pains in the muscles and

joints (the "bends"), deafness, embarrassed breathing, vomiting, paralysis

("divers' palsy"), fainting and sometimes even sudden death. At the St

Louis bridge, where a pressure was employed equal to 4¼ atmospheres, out of

600 workmen, 119 were affected and 14 died. At one time the symptoms were

attributed to congestion produced by the mechanical effects of the pressure

on the internal organs of the body, but this explanation is seen to be

untenable when it is remembered that the pressure is immediately

transmitted by the fluids of the body equally to all parts. They do not

appear during the time that the pressure is being raised nor so long as it

is continued, but only after it has been removed; and the view now

generally accepted is that they are due to the rapid effervescence of the

gases which are absorbed in the body-fluids during exposure to pressure.

Experiment has proved that in animals exposed to compressed air nitrogen is

dissolved in the fluids in accordance with Dalton's law, to the extent of

roughly 1% for each atmosphere of pressure, and also that when the pressure

is suddenly relieved the gas is liberated in bubbles within the body. It is

these bubbles that do the mischief. Set free in the spinal cord, for

instance, they may give rise to partial paralysis, in the labyrinth of the

ear to auditory vertigo, or in the heart to stoppage of the circulation; on

the other hand, they may be liberated in positions where they do no harm.

But if the pressure is relieved gradually they are not formed, because the

gas comes out of solution slowly and is got rid of by the heart and lungs.

Paul Bert exposed 24 dogs to pressure of 7-9½ atmospheres and

"decompressed" them rapidly in 1-4 minutes. The result was that 21 died,

while only one showed no symptoms. In one of his cases, in which the

apparatus burst while at a pressure of 9½ atmospheres, death was

instantaneous and the body was enormously distended, with the right heart

full of gas. [v.04 p.0959] But he also found that dogs exposed, for

moderate periods, to similar pressures suffered no ill effects provided

that the pressure was relieved gradually, in 1-1½ hours; and his results

have been confirmed by subsequent investigators. To prevent caisson

disease, therefore, the decompression should be slow; Leonard Hill suggests

it should be at a rate of not less than 20 minutes for each atmosphere of

pressure. Good ventilation of the caisson is also of great importance

(though experiment does not entirely confirm the view that the presence of

carbonic acid to an amount exceeding 1 or 1¼ parts per thousand exercises a

specific influence on the production of compressed air illness), and long

shifts should be avoided, because by fatigue the circulatory and

respiratory organs are rendered less able to eliminate the absorbed gas.

Another reason against long shifts, especially at high pressures, is that a

high partial pressure of oxygen acts as a general protoplasmic poison. This

circumstance also sets a limit to the pressures that can possibly be used

in caissons and therefore to the depths at which they can be worked, though

there is reason to think that the maximum pressure (4¾ atmospheres) so far

used in caisson work might be considerably exceeded with safety, provided

that proper precautions were observed in regard to slow decompression, the

physique of the workmen, and the hours of labour. As to the remedy for the

symptoms after they have appeared, satisfactory results have been obtained

by replacing the sufferers in a compressed air chamber ("recompression"),

when the gas is again dissolved by the body fluids, and then slowly

"decompressing" them.

See Paul Bert, _La Pression barométrique_ (1878); and Leonard Hill, _Recent

Advances in Physiology and Biochemistry_ (1906), (both these works contain

bibliographies); also a lecture by Leonard Hill delivered at the Royal

Institution of Great Britain on the 25th of May 1906; "Diving and Caisson

Disease," a summary of recent investigations, by Surgeon Howard Mummery,

_British Medical Journal_, June 27th, 1908; _Diseases of Occupation_, by T.

Oliver (1908); _Diseases of Workmen_, by T. Luson and R. Hyde (1908).

CAITHNESS, a county occupying the extreme north-east of Scotland, bounded

W. and S. by Sutherlandshire, E. by the North Sea, and N. by the Pentland

Firth. Its area is 446,017 acres, or nearly 697 sq. m. The surface

generally is flat and tame, consisting for the most part of barren moors,

almost destitute of trees. It presents a gradual slope from the north and

east up to the heights in the south and west, where the chief mountains are

Morven (2313 ft.), Scaraben (2054 ft.) and Maiden Pap (1587 ft.). The

principal rivers are the Thurso ("Thor's River"), which, rising in Cnoc

Crom Uillt (1199 ft.) near the Sutherlandshire border, pursues a winding

course till it reaches the sea in Thurso Bay; the Forss, which, emerging

from Loch Shurrery, follows a generally northward direction and enters the

sea at Crosskirk, a fine cascade about a mile from its mouth giving the

river its name (_fors_, Scandinavian, "waterfall;" in English the form is

_force_); and Wick Water, which, draining Loch Watten, flows into the sea

at Wick. There are many other smaller streams well stocked with fish.

Indeed, the county offers fine sport for rod and gun. The lochs are

numerous, the largest being Loch Watten, 2¾ m. by ¾ m., and Loch Calder, 2¼

by 1 m., and Lochs Colam, Hempriggs, Heilen, Ruard, Scarmclate, St John's,

Toftingale and Wester. So much of the land is low-lying and boggy that

there are no glens, except in the mountainous south-west, although towards

the centre of the county are Strathmore and Strathbeg (the great and little

valleys). Most of the coast-line is precipitous and inhospitable,

particularly at the headlands of the Ord, Noss, Skirsa, Duncansbay, St

John's Point, Dunnet Head (346 ft.), the most northerly point of Scotland,

Holburn and Brims Ness. From Berriedale at frequent intervals round the

coast occur superb "stacks," or detached pillars of red sandstone, which

add much to the grandeur of the cliff scenery.

Caithness is separated from the Orkneys by the Pentland Firth, a strait

about 14 miles long and from 6 to 8 miles broad. Owing to the rush of the

tide, navigation is difficult, and, in rough weather, dangerous. The tidal

wave races at a speed which varies from 6 to 12 m. an hour. At the meeting

of the western and eastern currents the waves at times rise into the air

like a waterspout, but the current does not always nor everywhere flow at a

uniform rate, being broken up at places into eddies as perilous as itself.

The breakers caused by the sunken reefs off Duncansbay Head create the

Bores of Duncansbay, and eddies off St John's Point are the origin of the

Merry Men of Mey, while off the island of Stroma occurs the whirlpool of

the Swalchie, and off the Orcadian Swona is the vortex of the Wells of

Swona. Nevertheless, as the most direct road from Scandinavian ports to the

Atlantic the Firth is used by at least 5000 vessels every year. In the

eastern entrance to the Firth lies the group of islands known as the

Pentland Skerries. They are four in number--Muckle Skerry, Little Skerry,

Clettack Skerry and Louther Skerry--and the nearest is 4½ m. from the

mainland. On Muckle Skerry, the largest (½ m. by 1/3 m.), stands a

lighthouse with twin towers, 100 ft. apart. The island of Stroma, 1½ m.

from the mainland (pop. 375), belongs to Caithness and is situated in the

parish of Canisbay. It is 2¼ m. long by 1¼ m. broad. In 1862 a remarkable

tide climbed the cliffs (200 ft.) and swept across the island.

_Geology._--Along the western margin of the county from Reay on the north

coast to the Scaraben Hills there is a narrow belt of country which is

occupied by metamorphic rocks of the types found in the east of Sutherland.

They consist chiefly of granulitic quartzose schists and felspathic

gneisses, permeated in places by strings and veins of pegmatite. On the

Scaraben Hills there is a prominent development of quartz-schists the age

of which is still uncertain. These rocks are traversed by a mass of granite

sometimes foliated, trending north and south, which is traceable from Reay

southwards by Aultnabreac station to Kinbrace and Strath Helmsdale in

Sutherland. Excellent sections of this rock, showing segregation veins, are

exposed in the railway cuttings between Aultnabreac and Forsinard. A rock

of special interest described by Professor Judd occurs on Achvarasdale

Moor, near Loch Scye, and hence named Scyelite. It forms a small isolated

boss, its relations to the surrounding rocks not being apparent. Under the

microscope, the rock consists of biotite, hornblende, serpentinous

pseudo-morphs after olivine and possibly after enstatite and magnetite, and

may be described as a mica-hornblende-picrite. The remainder of the county

is occupied by strata of Old Red Sandstone age, the greater portion being

grouped with the Middle or Orcadian division of that system, and a small

area on the promontory of Dunnet Head being provisionally placed in the

upper division. By means of the fossil fishes, Dr Traquair has arranged the

Caithness flagstone series in three groups, the Achanarras beds at the

base, the Thurso flagstones in the middle, and the John o' Groats beds at

the top. In the extreme south of the county certain minor subdivisions

appear which probably underlie the lowest fossiliferous beds containing the

Achanarras fauna. These comprise (1) the coarse basement conglomerate, (2)

dull chocolate-red sandstones, shales and clays around Braemore in the

Berriedale Water, (3) the brecciated conglomerate largely composed of

granite detritus seen at Badbea, (4) red sandstones, shales and

conglomeratic bands found in the Berriedale Water and further northwards in

the direction of Strathmore. Morven, the highest hill in Caithness, is

formed of gently inclined sandstones and conglomerates resting on an eroded

platform of quartz-schists and quartz-mica-granulites. The flagstones

yielding the fishes of the lowest division of the Orcadian series appear on

Achanarras Hill about three miles south of Halkirk. The members of the

overlying Thurso group have a wide distribution as they extend along the

shore on either side of Thurso and spread across the county by Castletown

and Halkirk to Sinclairs Bay and Wick. They are thrown into folds which are

traversed by faults some of which run in a north and south direction. They

consist of dark grey and cream-coloured flagstones, sometimes thick-bedded

with grey and blue shales and thin limestones and occasional intercalations

of sandstone. In the north-west of the county the members of the Thurso

group appear to overlap the Achanarras beds and to rest directly on the

platform of crystalline schists. In the extreme north-east there is a

passage upwards into the John o' Groats group [v.04 p.0960] with its

characteristic fishes, the strata consisting of sandstones, flagstones with

thin impure limestones. The rocks of Dunnet Head, which are provisionally

classed with the upper Old Red Sandstone, are composed of red and yellow

sandstones, marls and mudstones. Hitherto no fossils have been obtained

from these beds save some obscure plant-like markings, but they are

evidently a continuation southwards of the sandstones of Hoy, which there

rest unconformably on the flagstone series of Orkney. This patch of Upper

Old Red strata is faulted against the Caithness flagstones to the south.

For many years the flagstones have been extensively quarried for pavement

purposes, as for instance near Thurso, at Castletown and Achanarras. Two

instances of volcanic necks occur in Caithness, one piercing the red

sandstones at the Ness of Duncansbay and the other the sandstones of Dunnet

Head north of Brough. They point to volcanic activity subsequent to the

deposition of the John o' Groats beds and of the Dunnet sandstones. The

materials filling these vents consist of agglomerate charged with blocks of

diabase, sandstone, flagstone and limestone.

An interesting feature connected with the geology of Caithness is the

deposit of shelly boulder clay which is distributed over the low ground,

being deepest in the valleys and in the cliffs surrounding the bays on the

east coast. Apart from the shell fragments, many of which are striated, the

deposit contains blocks foreign to the county, as for instance chalk and

chalk-flints, fragments of Jurassic rocks with fossils and pieces of jet.

The transport of local boulders shows that the ice must have moved from the

south-east towards the north-west, which coincides with the direction

indicated by the striae. The Jurassic blocks may have been derived from the

strip of rocks of that age on the east coast of Sutherland. The shell

fragments, many of which are striated, include arctic, boreal and southern

forms, only a small number being characteristic of the littoral zone.

_Climate and Agriculture._--The climate is variable, and though the winter

storms fall with great severity on the coast, yet owing to proximity to a

vast expanse of sea the cold is not intense and snow seldom lies many days

continuously. In winter and spring the northern shore is subject to

frequent and disastrous gales from the N. and N.W. Only about two-fifths of

the arable land is good. In spite of this and the cold, wet and windy

climate, progressive landlords and tenants keep a considerable part of the

acreage of large farms successfully tilled. In 1824 James Traill of Ratter,

near Dunnet, recognizing that it was impossible to expect tenants to

reclaim and improve the land on a system of short leases, advocated large

holdings on long terms, so that farmers might enjoy a substantial return on

their capital and labour. Thanks to this policy and the farmers' skill and

enterprise, the county has acquired a remarkable reputation for its

produce; notably oats and barley, turnips, potatoes and beans.

Sheep--chiefly Leicester and Cheviots--of which the wool is in especial

request in consequence of its fine quality, cattle, horses and pigs are

raised for southern markets.

_Other Industries._--The great source of profit to the inhabitants is to be

found in the fisheries of cod, ling, lobster and herring. The last is the

most important, beginning about the end of July and lasting for six weeks,

the centre of operations being at Wick. Besides those more immediately

engaged in manning the boats, the fisheries give employment to a large

number of coopers, curers, packers and helpers. The salmon fisheries on the

coast and at the mouths of rivers are let at high prices. The Thurso is one

of the best salmon streams in the north. The flagstone quarries, mostly

situated in the Thurso, Olrig and Halkirk districts, are another important

source of revenue. Of manufactures there is little beyond tweeds, ropes,

agricultural implements and whisky, and the principal imports consist of

coal, wood, manure, flour and lime.

The only railway in the county is the Highland railway, which, from a point

some four miles to the south-west of Aultnabreac station, crosses the shire

in a rough semicircle, via Halkirk, to Wick, with a branch from Georgemas

Junction to Thurso. There is also, however, frequent communication by

steamer between Wick and Thurso and the Orkneys and Shetlands, Aberdeen,

Leith and other ports. The deficiency of railway accommodation is partly

made good by coach services between different places.

_Population and Government._--The population of Caithness in 1891 was

33,177, and in 1901, 33,870, of whom twenty-four persons spoke Gaelic only,

and 2876 Gaelic and English. The chief towns are Wick (pop. in 1901, 7911)

and Thurso (3723). The county returns one member to parliament. Wick is the

only royal burgh and one of the northern group of parliamentary burghs

which includes Cromarty, Dingwall, Dornoch, Kirkwall and Tain. Caithness

unites with Orkney and Shetland to form a sheriffdom, and there is a

resident sheriff-substitute at Wick, who sits also at Thurso and Lybster.

The county is under school-board jurisdiction, and there are academies at

Wick and Thurso. The county council subsidizes elementary schools and

cookery classes and provides apparatus for technical classes.

_History._--The early history of Caithness may, to some extent, be traced

in the character of its remains and its local nomenclature. Picts' houses,

still fairly numerous, Norwegian names and Danish mounds attest that these

peoples displaced each other in turn, and the number and strength of the

fortified keeps show that its annals include the usual feuds, assaults and

reprisals. Circles of standing stones, as at Stemster Loch and Bower, and

the ruins of Roman Catholic chapels and places of pilgrimage in almost

every district, illustrate the changes which have come over its

ecclesiastical condition. The most important remains are those of Bucholie

Castle, Girnigo Castle, and the tower of Keiss; and, on the S.E. coast, the

castles of Clyth, Swiney, Forse, Laveron, Knockinnon, Berriedale, Achastle

and Dunbeath, the last of which is romantically situated on a detached

stack of sandstone rock. About six miles from Thurso stand the ruins of

Braal Castle, the residence of the ancient bishops of Caithness. On the

coast of the Pentland Firth, 1½ miles west of Dunscansbay Head, is the site

of John o' Groat's house.

See S. Laing, _Prehistoric Remains of Caithness_ (London and Edinburgh,

1866); James T. Calder, _History of Caithness_ (2nd edition, Wick); John

Home, _In and About Wick_ (Wick); Thomas Sinclair, _Caithness Events_

(Wick, 1899); _History of the Clan Gunn_ (Wick, 1890); J. Henderson,

_Caithness Family History_ (Edinburgh, 1884); Harvie-Brown, _Fauna of

Caithness_ (Edinburgh, 1887); Principal Miller, _Our Scandinavian

Forefathers_ (Thurso, 1872); Smiles, _Robert Dick, Botanist and Geologist_

(London, 1878); H. Morrison, _Guide to Sutherland and Caithness_ (Wick,

1883); A. Auld, _Ministers and Men in the Far North_ (Edinburgh, 1891).

CAIUS or GAIUS, pope from 283 to 296, was the son of Gaius, or of

Concordius, a relative of the emperor Diocletian, and became pope on the

17th of December 283. His tomb, with the original epitaph, was discovered

in the cemetery of Calixtus and in it the ring with which he used to seal

his letters (see Arringhi, _Roma subterr._, l. iv. _c._ xlviii. p. 426). He

died in 296.

CAIUS [_Anglice_ KEES, KEYS, etc.], JOHN (1510-1573), English physician,

and second founder of the present Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge,

was born at Norwich on the 6th of October 1510. He was admitted a student

at what was then Gonville Hall, Cambridge, where he seems to have mainly

studied divinity. After graduating in 1533, he visited Italy, where he

studied under the celebrated Montanus and Vesalius at Padua; and in 1541 he

took his degree in physic at Padua. In 1543 he visited several parts of

Italy, Germany and France; and returned to England. He was a physician in

London in 1547, and was admitted fellow of the College of Physicians, of

which he was for many years president. In 1557, being then physician to

Queen Mary, he enlarged the foundation of his old college, changed the name

from "Gonville Hall" to "Gonville and Caius College," and endowed it with

several considerable estates, adding an entire new court at the expense of

£1834. Of this college he accepted the mastership (24th of January 1558/9)

on the death of Dr Bacon, and held it till about a month before his death.

He was physician to Edward VI., Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. He returned

to Cambridge from London for a few days in June 1573, about a month before

his death, and resigned the mastership to Dr Legge, a tutor at Jesus

College. He died at his London House, in St Bartholomew's, on the 29th

[v.04 p.0961] of July, 1573, but his body was brought to Cambridge, and

buried in the chapel under the well-known monument which he had designed.

Dr Caius was a learned, active and benevolent man. In 1557 he erected a

monument in St Paul's to the memory of Linacre. In 1564 he obtained a grant

for Gonville and Caius College to take the bodies of two malefactors

annually for dissection; he was thus an important pioneer in advancing the

science of anatomy. He probably devised, and certainly presented, the

silver caduceus now in the possession of Caius College as part of its

_insignia_; he first gave it to the College of Physicians, and afterwards

presented the London College with another.

His works are: _Annals of the College from 1555 to 1572_; translation of

several of Galen's works, printed at different times abroad. _Hippocrates

de Medicamenlis_, first discovered and published by Dr Caius; also _De

Ratione Victus_ (Lov. 1556, 8vo). _De Mendeti Methodo_ (Basel, 1554;

London, 1556, 8vo). _Account of the Sweating Sickness in England_ (London,

1556, 1721), (it is entitled _De Ephemera Britannica_). _History of the

University of Cambridge_ (London, 1568, 8vo; 1574, 4to, in Latin). _De

Thermis Britannicis_; but it is doubtful whether this work was ever

printed. _Of some Rare Plants and Animals_ (London, 1570). _De Canibus

Britannicis_ (1570, 1729). _De Pronunciatione Graecae et Latinae Linguae_

(London, 1574); _De Libris propriis_ (London, 1570). He also wrote numerous

other works which were never printed.

For further details see the _Biographical History of Caius College_, an

admirable piece of historical work, by Dr John Venn (1897).

CAJAMARCA, or CAXAMARCA, a city of northern Peru, capital of a department

and province of the same name, 90 m. E. by N. of Pacasmayo, its port on the

Pacific coast. Pop. (1906, estimate) of the department, 333,310; of the

city, 9000. The city is situated in an elevated valley between the Central

and Western Cordilleras, 9400 ft. above sea level, and on the Eriznejas, a

small tributary of the Marañon. The streets are wide and cross at right

angles; the houses are generally low and built of clay. Among the notable

public buildings are the old parish church built at the expense of Charles

II. of Spain, the church of San Antonio, a Franciscan monastery, a nunnery,

and the remains of the palace of Atahualpa, the Inca ruler whom Pizarro

treacherously captured and executed in this place in 1533. The hot sulphur

springs of Pultamarca, called the Baños del Inca (Inca's baths) are a short

distance east of the city and are still frequented. Cajamarca is an

important commercial and manufacturing town, being the distributing centre

for a large inland region, and having long-established manufactures of

woollen and linen goods, and of metal work, leather, etc. It is the seat of

one of the seven superior courts of the republic, and is connected with the

coast by telegraph and telephone. A railway has been undertaken from

Pacasmayo, on the coast, to Cajamarca, and by 1908 was completed as far as

Yonán, 60 m. from its starting-point.

The department of Cajamarca lies between the Western and Central

Cordilleras and extends from the frontier of Ecuador S. to about 7° S.

lat., having the departments of Piura and Lambayeque on the W. and Amazonas

on the E. Its area according to official returns is 12,542 sq. m. The upper

Marañon traverses the department from S. to N. The department is an

elevated region, well watered with a large number of small streams whose

waters eventually find their way through the Amazon into the Atlantic. Many

of its productions are of the temperate zone, and considerable attention is

given to cattle-raising. Coal is found in the province of Hualgayoc at the

southern extremity of the department, which is also one of the rich

silver-mining districts of Peru. Next to its capital the most important

town of the department is Cajamarquilla, whose population was about 6000 in

1906.

CAJATAMBO, or CAXATAMBO, a town and province of the department of Ancachs,

Peru, on the western slope of the Andes. Since 1896 the population of the

town has been estimated at 6000, but probably it does not exceed 4500. The

town is 110 m. N. by E. of Lima, in lat. 9° 53' S., long. 76° 57' W. The

principal industries of the province are the raising of cattle and sheep,

and the cultivation of cereals. Cochineal is a product of this region. Near

the town there are silver mines, in which a part of its population is

employed.

CAJETAN (GAETANUS), CARDINAL (1470-1534), was born at Gaeta in the kingdom

of Naples. His proper name was Tommaso[1] de Vio, but he adopted that of

Cajetan from his birthplace. He entered the order of the Dominicans at the

age of sixteen, and ten years later became doctor of theology at Padua,

where he was subsequently professor of metaphysics. A public disputation at

Ferrara (1494) with Pico della Mirandola gave him a great reputation as a

theologian, and in 1508 he became general of his order. For his zeal in

defending the papal pretensions against the council of Pisa, in a series of

works which were condemned by the Sorbonne and publicly burnt by order of

King Louis XII., he obtained the bishopric of Gaeta, and in 1517 Pope Leo

X. made him a cardinal and archbishop of Palermo. The year following he

went as legate into Germany, to quiet the commotions raised by Luther. It

was before him that the Reformer appeared at the diet of Augsburg; and it

was he who, in 1519, helped in drawing up the bull of excommunication

against Luther. Cajetan was employed in several other negotiations and

transactions, being as able in business as in letters. In conjunction with

Cardinal Giulio de' Medici in the conclave of 1521-1522, he secured the

election of Adrian Dedel, bishop of Tortosa, as Adrian VI. Though as a

theologian Cajetan was a scholastic of the older Thomist type, his general

position was that of the moderate reformers of the school to which Reginald

Pole, archbishop of Canterbury, also belonged; _i.e._ he desired to retain

the best elements of the humanist revival in harmony with Catholic

orthodoxy illumined by a revived appreciation of the Augustinian doctrine

of justification. Nominated by Clement VII. a member of the committee of

cardinals appointed to report on the "Nuremberg Recess," he recommended, in

opposition to the majority, certain concessions to the Lutherans, notably

the marriage of the clergy as in the Greek Church, and communion in both

kinds according to the decision of the council of Basel. In this spirit he

wrote commentaries upon portions of Aristotle, and upon the _Summa_ of

Aquinas, and towards the end of his life made a careful translation of the

Old and New Testaments, excepting Solomon's Song, the Prophets and the

Revelation of St John. In contrast to the majority of Italian cardinals of

his day, Cajetan was a man of austere piety and fervent zeal; and if, from

the standpoint of the Dominican idea of the supreme necessity of

maintaining ecclesiastical discipline, he defended the extremist claims of

the papacy, he also proclaimed that the pope should be "the mirror of God

on earth." He died at Rome on the 9th of August 1534.

See "Aktenstücke über das Verhalten der römischen Kurie zur Reformation,

1524-1531," in _Quellen und Forschungen_ (Kön. Preuss. Hist. Inst., Rome),

vol. iii. p. 1-20; T.M. Lindsay, _History of the Reformation_, vol. i.

(Edinburgh, 1906).

[1] He was christened Giacomo, but afterwards took the name of Tommaso in

honour of Thomas Aquinas.

CAJUPUT OIL, a volatile oil obtained by distillation from the leaves of the

myrtaceous tree _Melaleuca leucadendron_, and probably other species. The

trees yielding the oil are found throughout the Indian Archipelago, the

Malay Peninsula and over the hotter parts of the Australian continent; but

the greater portion of the oil is produced from Celebes Island. The name

cajuput is derived from the native _Kayuputi_ or white wood. The oil is

prepared from leaves collected on a hot dry day, which are macerated in

water, and distilled after fermenting for a night. This oil is extremely

pungent to the taste, and has the odour of a mixture of turpentine and

camphor. It consists mainly of cineol (see TERPENES), from which cajuputene

having a hyacinthine odour can be obtained by distillation with phosphorus

pentoxide. The drug is a typical volatile oil, and is used internally in

doses of ½ to 3 minims, for the same purposes as, say, clove oil. It is

frequently employed externally as a counter-irritant.

CAKCHIQUEL, a tribe of Central American Indians of Mayan stock, inhabiting

parts of Guatemala. Their name is said to be that of a native tree. At the

conquest they were found to be in a much civilized condition.

See D.G. Brinton, _Annals of the Cakchiquels_.

[v.04 p.0962] CALABAR (or OLD CALABAR), a seaport of West Africa in the

British protectorate of Southern Nigeria, on the left bank of the Calabar

river in 4° 56' N., 8° 18' E., 5 m. above the point where the river falls

into the Calabar estuary of the Gulf of Guinea. Pop. about 15,000. It is

the capital of the eastern province of the protectorate, and is in regular

steamship and telegraphic communication with Europe. From the beach, where

are the business houses and customs office, rise cliffs of moderate

elevation, and on the sides or summits of the hills are the principal

buildings, such as Government House, the European hospital and the church

of the Presbyterian mission. The valley between the hills is occupied by

the native quarter, called Duke Town. Here are several fine houses in

bungalow style, the residences of the chiefs or wealthy natives. Along the

river front runs a tramway connecting Duke Town with Queen Beach, which is

higher up and provided with excellent quay accommodation. Among the public

institutions are government botanical gardens, primary schools and a high

school. Palms, mangos and other trees grow luxuriantly in the gardens and

open spaces, and give the town a picturesque setting. The trade is very

largely centred in the export of palm oil and palm kernels and the import

of cotton goods and spirits, mostly gin. (See NIGERIA for trade returns.)

Calabar was the name given by the Portuguese discoverers of the 15th

century to the tribes on this part of the Guinea coast at the time of their

arrival, when as yet the present inhabitants were unknown in the district.

It was not till the early part of the 18th century that the Efik, owing to

civil war with their kindred and the Ibibio, migrated from the

neighbourhood of the Niger to the shores of the river Calabar, and

established themselves at Ikoritungko or Creek Town, a spot 4 m. higher up

the river. To get a better share in the European trade at the mouth of the

river a body of colonists migrated further down and built Obutöng or Old

Town, and shortly afterwards a rival colony established itself at Aqua Akpa

or Duke Town, which thus formed the nucleus of the existing town. The

native inhabitants are still mainly Efik. They are pure negroes. They have

been for several generations the middle men between the white traders on

the coast and the inland tribes of the Cross river and Calabar district.

Christian missions have been at work among the Efiks since the middle of

the 19th century. Many of the natives are well educated, profess

Christianity and dress in European fashion. A powerful bond of union among

the Efik, and one that gives them considerable influence over other tribes,

is the secret society known as the Egbo (_q.v._). The chiefs of Duke Town

and other places in the neighbourhood placed themselves in 1884 under

British protection. From that date until 1906 Calabar was the headquarters

of the European administration in the Niger delta. In 1906 the seat of

government was removed to Lagos.

Until 1904 Calabar was generally, and officially, known as Old Calabar, to

distinguish it from New Calabar, the name of a river and port about 100 m.

to the east. Since the date mentioned the official style is Calabar simply.

Calabar estuary is mainly formed by the Cross river (_q.v._), but receives

also the waters of the Calabar and other streams. The Rio del Rey creek at

the eastern end of the estuary marks the boundary between (British) Nigeria

and (German) Cameroon. The estuary is 10 to 12 m. broad at its mouth and

maintains the same breadth for about 30 m.

CALABAR BEAN, the seed of a leguminous plant, _Physostigma venenosum_, a

native of tropical Africa. It derives its scientific name from a curious

beak-like appendage at the end of the stigma, in the centre of the flower;

this appendage though solid was supposed to be hollow (hence the name from

[Greek: phusa], a bladder, and _stigma_). The plant has a climbing habit

like the scarlet runner, and attains a height of about 50 ft. with a stem

an inch or two in thickness. The seed pods, which contain two or three

seeds or beans, are 6 or 7 in. in length; and the beans are about the size

of an ordinary horse bean but much thicker, with a deep chocolate-brown

colour. They constitute the E-ser-e or ordeal beans of the negroes of Old

Calabar, being administered to persons accused of witchcraft or other

crimes. In cases where the poisonous material did its deadly work, it was

held at once to indicate and rightly to punish guilt; but when it was

rejected by the stomach of the accused, innocence was held to be

satisfactorily established. A form of duelling with the seeds is also known

among the natives, in which the two opponents divide a bean, each eating

one-half; that quantity has been known to kill both adversaries. Although

thus highly poisonous, the bean has nothing in external aspect, taste or

smell to distinguish it from any harmless leguminous seed, and very

disastrous effects have resulted from its being incautiously left in the

way of children. The beans were first introduced into England in the year

1840; but the plant was not accurately described till 1861, and its

physiological effects were investigated in 1863 by Sir Thomas R. Fraser.

The bean usually contains a little more than 1% of alkaloids. Of these two

have been identified, one called _calabarine_, and the other, now a highly

important drug, known as _physostigmine_--or occasionally as _eserine_. The

British pharmacopoeia contains an alcoholic extract of the bean, intended

for internal administration; but the alkaloid is now always employed. This

is used as the sulphate, which has the empirical formula of

(C_{15}H_{21}N_3O_2)_2, H_2SO_4, plus an unknown number of molecules of

water. It occurs in small yellowish crystals, which are turned red by

exposure to light or air. They are readily soluble in water or alcohol and

possess a bitter taste. The dose is 1/60-1/30 grain, and should invariably

be administered by hypodermic injection. For the use of the oculist, who

constantly employs this drug, it is also prepared in _lamellae_ for

insertion within the conjunctival sac. Each of these contains

one-thousandth part of a grain of physostigmine sulphate, a quantity which

is perfectly efficient.

Physostigmine has no action on the unbroken skin. When swallowed it rapidly

causes a great increase in the salivary secretion, being one of the most

powerful _sialogogues_ known. It has been shown that the action is due to a

direct influence on the secreting gland-cells themselves. After a few

minutes the salivation is arrested owing to the constricting influence of

the drug upon the blood-vessels that supply the glands. There is also felt

a sense of constriction in the pharynx, due to the action of the drug on

its muscular fibres. A similar stimulation of the non-striped muscle in the

alimentary canal results in violent vomiting and purging, if a large dose

has been taken. Physostigmine, indeed, stimulates nearly all the

non-striped muscles in the body, and this action upon the muscular coats of

the arteries, and especially of the arterioles, causes a great rise in

blood-pressure shortly after its absorption, which is very rapid. The

terminals of the vagus nerve are also stimulated, causing the heart to beat

more slowly. Later in its action, the drug depresses the intra-cardiac

motor ganglia, causing prolongation of diastole and finally arrest of the

heart in dilatation. A large lethal dose kills by this action, but the

minimum lethal dose by its combined action on the respiration and the

heart. The respiration is at first accelerated by a dose of physostigmine,

but is afterwards slowed and ultimately arrested. The initial hastening is

due to a stimulation of the vagus terminals in the lung, as it does not

occur if these nerves are previously divided. The final arrest is due to

paralysis of the respiratory centre in the medulla oblongata, hastened by a

quasi-asthmatic contraction of the non-striped muscular tissue in the

bronchial tubes, and by a "water-logging" of the lungs due to an increase

in the amount of bronchial secretion. It may here be stated that the

non-striped muscular tissue of the bladder, the uterus and the spleen is

also stimulated, as well as that of the iris (see below). It is only in

very large doses that the voluntary muscles are poisoned, there being

induced in them a tremor which may simulate ordinary convulsions. The

action is a direct one upon the muscular tissue (cf. the case of the

gland-cells), since it occurs in an animal whose motor nerves have been

paralysed by curare.

Consciousness is entirely unaffected by physostigmine, there being

apparently no action on any part of the brain above the medulla oblongata.

But the influence of the alkaloid upon the [v.04 p.0963] spinal cord is

very marked and characteristic. The reflex functions of the cord are

entirely abolished, and it has been experimentally shown that this is due

to a direct influence upon the cells in the anterior cornua. It is

precisely the reverse of the typical action of strychnine. Near the

termination of a fatal case there is a paralysis of the sensory columns of

the cord, so that general sensibility is lowered. The alkaloid calabarine

is, on the other hand, a stimulant of the motor and reflex functions of the

cord, so that only the pure alkaloid physostigmine and not any preparation

of Calabar bean itself should be used when it is desired to obtain this

action.

Besides the secretions already mentioned as being stimulated, the bile, the

tears and the perspiration are increased by the exhibition of this drug.

There remains only to consider its highly important action upon the eye.

Whether administered in the form of the official lamella or by subcutaneous

injection, physostigmine causes a contraction of the pupil more marked than

in the case of any other known drug. That this action is a direct and not a

nervous one is shown by the fact that if the eye be suddenly shaded the

pupil will dilate a little, showing that the nerves which cause dilatation

are still competent after the administration of physostigmine. Besides the

_sphincter pupillae_, the fibres of the ciliary muscle are stimulated.

There is consequently spasm of accommodation, so that clear vision of

distant objects becomes impossible. The intra-ocular tension is markedly

lowered. This action, at first sight somewhat obscure, is due to the

extreme pupillary contraction which removes the mass of the iris from

pressing upon the spaces of Fontana, through which the intraocular fluids

normally make a very slow escape from the eye into its efferent lymphatics.

There is a marked antagonism in nearly all important particulars between

the actions of physostigmine and of atropine. The details of this

antagonism, as well as nearly all our knowledge of this valuable drug, we

owe to Sir Thomas Fraser, who introduced it into therapeutics.

The clinical uses of physostigmine are based upon the facts of its

pharmacology, as above detailed. It has been recommended in cases of

chronic constipation, and of want of tone in the muscular wall of the

urinary bladder. It has undoubtedly been of value in many cases of tetanus,

in which it must be given in maximal doses. (The tetanus antitoxin should

invariably be employed as well.) Sir Thomas Fraser differs from nearly all

other authorities in regarding the drug as useless in cases of strychnine

poisoning, and the question must be left open. There is some doubtful

evidence of the value of the alkaloid in chorea. The oculist uses it for at

least six purposes. Its stimulant action on the iris and ciliary muscle is

employed when they are weak or paralysed. It is used in all cases where one

needs to reduce the intra-ocular tension, and for this and other reasons in

glaucoma. It is naturally the most efficient agent in relieving the

discomfort or intolerable pain of photophobia; and it is the best means of

breaking down adhesions of the iris, and of preventing prolapse of the iris

after injuries to the cornea. In fact it is hardly possible to

over-estimate its value in ophthalmology. The drug has been highly and

widely recommended in general paralysis, but there remains grave doubt as

to its utility in this disease.