84 



CHAIN-SHOT 



CHALEURS 



Trade, says : 'Since the Act of 1871, which came 

 into operation in the early part of 1873, until the 

 latter part of 1883, a period of about eleven years, 

 nearly 165,000 tons of chain have been certified 

 to, in accordance with the act of parliament, as 

 having duly withstood the statutory tests, repre- 

 senting about 3,199,000 fathoms of chain, and for 

 which it is computed that from about two and a 

 quarter million to about two and a half' million 

 pounds sterling have been paid. ' 



Chain-shot, an obsolete artillery projectile, 

 consisting of two balls connected by a short chain, 

 formerly used to destroy the rigging of ships, &c. 

 As case-shot and shrapnel shell answer the same 

 purpose, its use has been discontinued. 



Chalaza* The first layer of albumen deposited 

 upon the yolk of an egg as it descends the bird's 

 oviduct, is peculiarly viscous, and thus becomes 

 twisted into two strands which keep the yolk in 

 the middle of the more fluid albumen. These 

 cords are also called chalazce. 



Chalce'don, a city of ancient Bithynia, at the 

 entrance of the Euxine, opposite to Byzantium. It 

 was founded 684 B.C. by a colony from Megara, and 

 soon became a place of considerable trade and im- 

 portance. Taken by the Persians, it finally merged 

 into the Roman empire, under which it was made 

 a free city. Chosroes, the Persian, captured it in 

 616 A.D., after which it declined, until it was 

 finally demolished by the Turks, who used its 

 ruins to build mosques and other edifices at Con- 

 stantinople. Chalcedon was the birthplace of the 

 philosopher Xenocrates. 



The council of Chalcedon was the fourth oecumeni- 

 cal council, and was assembled (451 A.D. ) by the 

 emperor Marcian for the purpose of drawing up a 

 form of doctrine in regard to the nature of Christ 

 which should equally avoid the errors of the Nes- 

 torians ( q. v. ) and Monophysites ( q. v. ). Six hundred 

 bishops, almost all of the Eastern Church, were 

 present. The doctrine declared to be orthodox 

 was, that in Christ there were two natures, which 

 could not be intermixed (this clause was directed 

 against the Monophysites ), and which also were not 

 in entire separation ( this was directed against the 

 Nestorians), but which were so conjoined, that their 

 union destroyed neither the peculiarity of each 

 nature, nor the oneness of Christ's person. 



Chalced'ony (often misspelled Calcedony], a 

 beautiful mineral of the quartz family, consisting 

 of quartz with some admixture of opal. It derives 

 its name from Chalcedon in Bithynia, near which it 

 is found in considerable abundance, and has been 

 known by the same name from ancient times. It 

 never occurs in crystals, but usually in mammillary, 

 botryoidal, or stalactitic forms, lining or entirely 

 filling the cavities of rocks, and more particularly 

 old igneous rocks, such as the basalt-rocks of Scot- 

 land, the Faroe Isles, Iceland, &c. It constitutes 

 the whole or the principal part of many agates. It 

 is generally translucent, sometimes semi-trans- 

 parent, has a somewhat waxy lustre, and is in 

 colour generally white or bluish white, sometimes 

 reddish white, sometimes milk white, less frequently 

 gray, blue, green, yellow, brown, or even black. 

 Its fracture is even, or very slightly conchoidal. 

 Chalcedony is much used in jewelry, for brooches, 

 necklaces, and ornaments of all sorts, the largest 

 pieces being sometimes made into little boxes, cups, 

 &c. It was much used by the ancients, and many 

 beautiful engraved specimens appear in antiquarian 

 collections. Chalcedonies with disseminated spots 

 of brown and red were once very highly prized, and 

 were called Stigmites or St Stephen's stones. Petri- 

 fied plants are sometimes found in chalcedony, in 

 which they appear to have been incased whilst it 

 was in course of formation. Specimens of chal- 



cedony are sometimes found inclosing a little water 

 in the interior, which gives them a very beautiful 

 appearance ; but the water easily escapes, and to 

 prevent this, rings or other ornaments made of such 

 stones are kept in distilled water when not worn. 

 The ancients set a very high value on these en- 

 hydrites (Gr. en, 'in,' and hydor, 'water'). See 

 JASPER. 



Chalced'onyx (or, erroneously, Calcedonyx), a 

 name given to agates formed of cacholong, or a 

 white opaque chalcedony, alternating with a grayish 

 translucent chalcedony. 



riialrhiliuitl. the Indian name of a green- 

 coloured stone, taken from a quarry near Santa Fe, 

 and by some regarded as a species of turquoise, by 

 others identified with Jade (q.v. ). It was valued 

 above gold by the ancient Mexicans, who fashioned 

 it into beads and ornaments. 



Chalcididae, a small family of short-tongued 

 lizards, restricted to America. Chalcides ( C. 

 flavescens) occurs in tropical America. Hetero- 

 dactylus is an allied Brazilian genus. The same 

 title is applied to a family of insects. See CHALCIS. 



Chalcis, the capital of the Greek island of 

 Euboea, on the Euripus, a strait separating the 

 island from Bceotia, and here only 120 feet wide. 

 Chalcis is a place of very great antiquity, and it 

 soon became a great trade centre, sending out 

 colonies to Macedonia, where the peninsula of 

 Chalcidice commemorated its name, as well as to 

 Campania ( Cumce ), South Italy, and Sicily. Suc- 

 cessively Athenian, Macedonian, and Roman, it 

 was a place of great military importance, nearly 

 nine miles in circumference, and had many fine 

 temples, theatres, and other public buildings. 

 Aristotle died here. In the middle ages it was 

 prosperous under the Venetians, who held it for 

 nearly three centuries, until its conquest by the 

 Turks in 1470. Pop. ( 1879) 6877 ; ( 1889) 9919. 



Chalcis, a typical genus of a large family of 

 Hymenopterous insects, not unlike small wasps. 

 The family (Chalcididaj or Pteromalini) has this 

 great importance that the larvae of its members are 

 parasitic in the eggs, larvae, or pupae of other insects, 

 and as some of the latter are very destructive to 

 plants, their parasites are animals to be thankful 

 for. Thus forms so different as the cabbage butter- 

 fly and the destructive Hessian fly have their attend- 

 ant Pteromalini. Many of the so-called gall-wasps 

 (Cynipidse) which cause many of the commonest 

 galls for instance on the oak, or the curious bunches 

 on rose and briar bushes are preyed upon by Chal- 

 cididse. Some of the hosts of these Chalcidse are 

 themselves parasitic, and thus we have parasites 

 within parasites, or double parasitism, there being 

 in this case no honour among thieves. Altogether 

 over 2000 species of Chalcididse are known. 



Chaldaea. See BABYLONIA ; for CHALDEE, see 

 ARAM^EA. 



Chaldcr, an old Scotch dry measure, con- 

 taining 16 bolls. See BOLL and FIARS. 



Chaldron ( Lat. caldarium, ' a vessel for warm 

 water ' ), an old dry measure used in selling coal, 

 and containing 36 heaped bushels (= 25J cwt. ). 

 Coal is now sold by weight. 



Chalet is the French-Swiss name for the wooden 

 hut of the Swiss herdsmen on the mountains ; but 

 is also extended to Swiss dwelling-houses generally, 

 and to picturesque and ornate villas built in imita- 

 tion of them. 



Chaleurs, BAY OF, an inlet of the Gulf of St 

 Lawrence, between Gaspe, a district of Quebec, 

 and New Brunswick, having a depth of 90 miles 

 from east to west, and a width varying from 12 to 

 20. It is deep and well sheltered, and much 

 frequented for its mackerel fisheries. 



