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CLICK-BEETLE 



CLIMATE 



Click-beetle, or SKIP-JACK. See WIRE- 

 WORMS. 



Client. See AGENT AND CLIENT. See also 

 PATRON. 



Clifford, a family descended from Walter, 

 Richard Fitzponce's son, who by marriage, prior to 

 J138, acquired Clifford Castle on the Wye, 17 miles 

 W. of Hereford, and who assumed the surname 

 Clifford. He was the father of Fair Rosamond, 

 Henry II. 's mistress, who seems to have died about 

 1176, and to have been buried at Godstow Nunnery, 

 near Oxford. The legend of her murder by Queen 

 Eleanor appears first in the 14th century ; the 

 Woodstock maze, the clue, the dagger, and the 

 poisoned bowl belong to a yet later age. Among 

 Walter's descendants were the soldier-judge Roger 

 de Clifford, who by marriage with Isabella de 

 Vipont got Brougham Castle in Westmoreland 

 (circa 1270); John (1435-61), the savage Lancas- 

 trian; Henry (1455-1523), the 'shepherd lord;' 

 Henry (1493-1542), fifteenth Lord Clifford and first 

 Earl of Cumberland ; George, third earl ( 1558- 

 1605), naval commander ; and Henry, fifth and last 

 earl (1591-1643). To a cadet branch belonged 

 Thomas Clifford (1630-73), a Catholic member of 

 the Cabal, who in 1672 was created Lord Clifford of 

 Chudleigh. 



Clifford, WILLIAM KINGDON, F.R.S., one of 

 the foremost mathematicians of his time, was born 

 at Exeter, May 4, 1845. He was educated at a 

 school in his native town, at King's College, Lon- 

 don, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. While at 

 Trinity he did not confine himself to examination 

 subjects, but read largely in the great mathemati- 

 cal writers, and came out second wrangler in 1867, 

 next year being elected a fellow of his college. 

 At this time, while excelling in gymnastics, he 

 would also solve and propound problems in the 

 pages of the Educational Times, and could discuss 

 with ease complicated theorems of solid geometry 

 without the aid of paper or diagram. A High- 

 Churchman at first (though on unconventional 

 speculative grounds), Clifford soon after taking 

 his degree threw off all dogmatic restraints, 

 and discussed the fundamental questions of the 

 philosophy of religion with complete independence. 

 In August 1871 ne was elected to the chair of 

 Mathematics and Mechanics at University College, 

 London, which post he retained until his untimely 

 death at Madeira, March 3, 1879. Clifford first 

 established his reputation as an original thinker 

 with the faculty or expressing scientific thought in 

 plain and simple language by a Friday evening dis- 

 course at the Koyal Institution, On Some of the Con- 

 ditions of Mental Development. He was a valued 

 member of the London Mathematical Society, con- 

 tributing to the Proceedings; for a time he acted 

 as secretary, and afterwards vice-president of the 

 Mathematical and Physical section of the British 

 Association ; he also lectured to the Sunday Lecture 

 Society on various physical and philosophical sub- 

 jects. The versatility of his mind for philosophical 

 and scientific discussion was further shown by 

 his varied- contributions to periodical literature. 

 Clifford issued in his lifetime the first part of 

 Elements of Dynamics (1878). A further portion, 

 edited by Mr R. Tucker, was published in 1887. 

 A work on the Common Sense of the Exact 

 Sciences, which Clifford left unfinished, was com- 

 pleted and edited by Professor Karl Pearson in 

 1885. A selection from his Mathematical Papers 

 appeared in 1881, and a series of lectures on Seeing 

 and Thinking in 1879. Clifford's general scientific 

 and philosophical writings are collected, with a 

 prefatory memoir, in Lectures and Essays, edited 

 by L. Stephen and F. Pollock, 1879 (2 vols. ; 2d ed. 

 in 1 vol. 1886). Mrs Clifford (nee Lucy Lane) has 



published a really striking novel, or rather tragedy, 

 Mrs Keith's Crime (1885), Aunt Anne (1892), and 

 two books for young children of quite unusual 

 interest, Anyhow Stories (1884) and Very Short 

 Stories and Verses for Children ( 1886). 



Clifton, England. See BRISTOL. 



Clifton (now Niagara Falls), a town and 



port of entry of Ontario, on the Niagara River, 

 about 2 miles below the cataract. Here a noble 

 suspension-bridge and a cantilever cross the river, 

 connecting the Canadian railways with the railway 

 systems of New York. Pop. 4000. 



Climacteric Years ( from Gr. klimakter, ' the 

 step of a stair or ladder,' klimax). It was long 

 believed that certain years in the life of man had a 

 peculiar significance to him, and were the critical 

 points, as it were, of his health and fortunes. The 

 mystical number 7 and its multiples with odd 

 numbers (e.g. 35, 49) constituted crises of this 

 kind. The most important of all was the 63d year, 

 called, by way of eminence, the ' climacteric year ' 

 or ' grand climacter, ' which was supposed to be 

 fatal to most men ; its influence being attributed 

 to the fact that it is the multiple of the two 

 mystical numbers 7 and 9. An actual ' change of 

 life ' ( Fr. dge critique ) in woman is marked by the 

 cessation of menstruation, usually between the 

 48th and 52d years. Astrologers called any period 

 which an evil conjunction marked as threatening, 

 a climacteric time. 



Climate ( from the Greek klima, ' a slope or 

 inclination,' afterwards applied to a tract of 

 country, with reference to its supposed inclina- 

 tion to the pole, and the effect of the obliquity of 

 the sun's rays upon the temperature ), a term now 

 employed as including not merely the conditions 

 of a place or country with regard to temperature, 

 but also its meteorological conditions generally, 

 in so far as these exercise an influence on the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms. The effect of 

 the sun's rays is greatest where they fall perpen- 

 dicularly on the surface of the earth, and diminishes 

 as their obliquity increases ; the surface which 

 receives any given amount of the sun's rays 

 increasing with their increased obliquity, as a'b' 

 is greater than ab in the annexed figure ; whilst 



at the same time the oblique rays being subjected 

 to the influence of a greater number of particles 

 of the atmosphere, as c'a' is longer than ca, a 

 greater amount of their heat is absorbed before 

 they reach the surface of the earth at all. The 

 greater or smaller extent of surface receiving a 

 certain amount of heat, also makes important 

 differences to arise from exposure by slope towards 

 the equator or towards the nearest pole. Elevation 

 is a most important cause of differences of climate. 

 As we ascend from the level of the sea to the 

 greatest mountain altitudes, the temperature 

 gradually diminishes, and we ultimately reach a 

 region of perpetual snow, as in approaching the 

 poles. The progressive diminution of the tempera- 

 ture is, however, affected by many causes, so that 

 the line of perpetual snow is far from being at the 

 same elevation in all places of the same latitude. 

 Thus the snow-line on the southern side of the 

 Himalayas is depressed by the heavy rainfall 

 brought by the winds from the Indian Ocean ; 

 and that on the northern side is elevated by the 

 extreme drought and summer heat in the vast 



