604 



CUBANGO 



CUCKOO 



was opened to the world's trade, and soon reached 

 unexampled prosperity. The civil war in the United 

 States ruined its sugar industry and so benefited 

 Cuba; but the suppression of slavery by the Spanish 

 government (1880-86) without compensation created 

 discontent not abated by the constitution of 1884. 

 A serious insurrection took shape in 1895. Absolute 

 freedom from Spanish rule was demanded, a Cuban 

 Kepublic was proclaimed, and soon a bloody guerilla 

 war was in progress. In their efforts to crush the 

 rebellion the Spanish government sent to Cuba up- 

 wards of 200,000 soldiers, of whom a very large pro- 

 portion died in hospital. The savage and destruc- 

 tive character of the war, and the cruelties believed 

 to have been shown by the Spaniards even towards 

 non-combatants, provoked very pronounced sym- 

 pathy with the insurgents on the part of the 

 United States, and American intervention was 

 repeatedly threatened. The destruction of an 

 American war-ship by an explosion in Havana 

 harbour embittered American feeling, and in April 

 1898 the United States and Spain were at war. 

 The harbour of Havana was blockaded; but the 

 centre of military operations was Santiago, where 

 there was sharp fighting. The total destruction of 

 the Spanish fleet in August ended the short war, and 

 the Spanish troops were deported from the island. 

 By the termsof the peace negotiations at Paris ( 1898), 

 Spain relinquished her sovereignty in Cuba, which 

 thus became independent, though occupied in a mili- 

 tary way by the United States during the formation 

 of a stable autonomous civil government. 



See Gallenga, The Pearl, of the Antilles (1873) ; other 

 books on Cuba by Hazard ( New York, 1871 ) and Ballou 

 (Boston, 1885), Larrinaga (1881), Piron (Paris, new ed. 

 1889), R. H. Davis (1897 ), Richard Davey (1898), R. P. 

 Porter (1899) ; and works cited at WEST INDIES. 



Cubango. See NGAMI. 



Cube, a solid bounded by six equal square 

 faces, opposite pairs of whicli are parallel ; the 

 three edges meeting at any point being at right 

 angles to one another. This form frequently 

 occurs in nature, especially among crystals (see 

 CRYSTALLOGRAPHY). In arithmetic, the cube of 

 a number is the product of its multiplication three 

 times by itself ; if the edge of a cube be a line of 

 4 inches, its solid content is 64 cubic inches. The 

 cube root of a number is that number which, mul- 

 tiplied three times by itself, produces the first 

 number. See INVOLUTION, ROOT, DOUBLING THE 

 CUBE. 



Cubebs, or CUBEB PEPPER, the dried berries 

 of Piper Cubeba, a climbing shrub, a native of 

 Sumatra, Java, and Southern Borneo. The fruits 

 of other species of Piper are sometimes substi- 

 tuted for the true cubeb. Although known to 

 the Arabs in the middle ages, cubebs fell gradu- 

 ally into disuse, till at the beginning ot this 

 century all reference to it was omitted in medical 

 books, and its importation into Britain ceased 

 entirely. It is again, however, coming into use. 

 As a stomachic and carminative in indigestion it 

 nas a certain value, while in piles and in sore 

 ihroats its administration is attended with benefit. 



Cubebs contains a volatile oil, a crystalline sub- 

 stance called cubebin, and resinous bodies, one of 

 which is cubebic acid. The cubebin is inactive, 

 while the volatile oil is not believed to have the 

 full virtue of the cubebs. It enters, however, into 

 the composition of a well-known voice lozenge, to 

 which it imparts highly stimulating properties. 

 The diuretic properties are held by some to be 

 entirely due to the resinous bodies, but on this 

 point there is difference of opinion. The dose of 

 powdered cubebs is from one to three drachms, 

 that of the volatile oil ten drops, and of the 

 aleoresin five to thirty drops. 



Cubic Equations. A cubic eouation in a 

 given quantity is an equation in which the highest 

 exponent of that quantity in any term is 3. 

 Every such equation can be reduced to the form 

 x* + px + q = 0, where x is the variable and p and 

 q are constants. Every equation of this form has 

 three roots, all of which may be real, or one may 

 be real and two imaginary. An equation contain- 

 ing any number of variables in which the greatest 

 sum of the exponents of the variables in any term 

 is 3 is called a cubic equation. Thus x?y + 5y 3 

 + 6 = and xyz + z 2 are cubic equations in x, 

 y, and x, y, z respectively. See EQUATIONS. 



Cubit ( Lat. cubUus, ' fore-arm ' ), a Roman 

 measure of length, supposed to equal the length 

 of the fore-arm from the elbow to the tip of the 

 middle finger. It was 1 Roman feet ( 17 English 

 inches). The English cubit is 1 English feet. 

 The cubit of Scripture is generally estimated at 

 22 inches. 



Cubitt, SIR WILLIAM, engineer, born at Dil- 

 ham, in Norfolk, in 1785, was a miller, cabinet- 

 maker, and millwright until 1812, when he became 

 chief-engineer in Messrs Ransome's works at Ips- 

 wich, where he was a partner from 1821 to 1826. 

 In 1823 he joined the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 and removing to London, was afterwards engaged 

 in most of the public undertakings of his day. The 

 improvement of the Severn and of Boulogne port, 

 the Bute docks at Cardiff, and the water- works for 

 Berlin are among his works. He also invented 

 the treadmill, and constructed the South-Eastern 

 Railway ; and for his services in connection with 

 the erection of the Great Exhibition buildings he 

 was knighted in 1851. He died 13th October 1861. 



Cucking-stool. See DUCKING-STOOL. 



Cuckoo (Cuculus), a well-known genus of birds 

 in the order Coccygomorphse, or, according to 

 others, Picari.ie, and type 01 a large family (Cucu- 

 lidre). The common cuckoo ( Cuculus canorus] is a 

 widely distributed bird, breeding in summer in the 

 northern parts of Europe and Asia, and migrating 

 in winter to Africa, as far as the Cape, or to India. 

 It is best known for the ' coo-coo ' cry with which 

 it announces its arrival and that of spring, and for 

 its habit of utilising for its own family the nests 

 and the brooding of other birds. The cuckoo is 

 slightly over a foot in length ; the bill is as long as 

 the head, slender and slightly curved ; the wings 

 are long and pointed ; the tail is also long and 

 rounded ; the upper part of the shank is feathered. 



Cuckoo. 



The upper surface is ashen gray, the belly and legs 

 are whitish with undulating transverse brown lines, 

 the tail is spotted with white above, and the root of 

 the bill and the feet are yellow. The young birds 



