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CURASSOW 



CURETON 



way it is employed in vivisection experiments as 

 an anaesthetic. 



At first it was supposed that curari contained 

 strychnine, but as its action was so entirely different, 

 this view was soon abandoned. Prolonged research 

 has separated a special alkaloid, Curarine, which 

 possesses the leading properties of the poison itself. 

 Curarine differs from all other crystallisable alka- 

 loids, save one, in containing no oxygen. Jt forms 

 salts, and is said to be twenty times as strong as 

 curari. In medicine curari is very little used. It 

 has been proposed to employ it in lockjaw, hydro- 

 phobia, and as an antidote in poisoning by 

 strychnia ; but although it quiets the spasm, it 

 has no direct curative effect, and it may cause an 

 equally fatal paralysis. 



Besides curari proper, there are two other arrow- 

 poisons called Corroval and Vao. These, which 

 are brought chiefly from Colombia, have an entirely 

 different action on the body, as they primarily stop 

 the beating of the heart, whereas with curari the 

 heart continues to beat after breathing has ceased. 



Curassow, or HOCCO (Crax), a genus of large 

 game-birds inhabiting the forests of Central and 

 South America. Their most distinctive features 

 concern the head. This is adorned with a crest 

 of feathers, curled forwards, and capable of being 

 raised and depressed ; while the often brightly 

 coloured cere is enlarged into a prominence at the 

 root of the high beak. Eight species are found 

 from Mexico to Paraguay, predominantly arboreal, 

 living mostly on fruits, but in general habit like 

 poultry. They are very unsuspicious of danger, 

 especially careless at the love-making season, and 

 are very readily tamed. The best-known species 

 is C. alector the Royal Pheasant of the Mexicans. 



Crested Curassow. 



It is a very sombre bird, about the size of a turkey. 

 It is occasionally domesticated, and a stock im- 

 ported into Holland at the end of last century 

 seemed to become acclimatised. It was, however, 

 lost amidst the troubles subsequent to the French 

 Revolution. Though their love-making is keen, 

 the birds are not very productive, and it is prob- 

 able that the natives have discovered that this 

 apparently very profitable bird will not breed 

 readily under domestication. Closely allied, and 

 of similar distribution and habit, are the fierce 

 Guans and Penelopes (Penelopinse), and the rare 

 Mountain Curassow (Oreophasis derbianus). The 

 Turkey (q.v. ) is also a near relative. 



Curate, literally one who has the cure (Lat. 

 cwra, ' care ' ) of souls, in which sense it is used in 

 the Church of England Prayer-book, 'all bishops 

 and curates ; ' as the cognate word cure is used in 

 French to denote the incumbent of a parish. It is, 



however, generally used now to denote the unbene- 

 ficed parochial clergy in the Church of England, 

 more exactly styled ' assistant curates. ' Formerly, 

 such curates were usually the deputies of non-resi- 

 dent incumbents, but now they are mostly helpers 

 of resident pastors. A curate, in this sense, is a 

 minister employed by the incumbent of a church 

 (rector or vicar), either as assistant to him in the 

 same church, or else in a chapel of ease within the 

 parish belonging to the mother-church. He must 

 be licensed and admitted by the bishop of the 

 diocese, or by an ordinary having episcopal juris- 

 diction, who also usually appoints his salary. Any 

 curate that has no fixed estate in his curacy, not 

 being instituted and inducted, is liable to removal 

 on six months' notice from the incumbent, and to 

 summary withdrawal of his license by the bishop. 

 In the latter case, an appeal to the archbishop of 

 the province is open. But there are perpetual 

 curates as well as temporary, who are appointed 

 where tithes are impropriate and no vicarage 

 was ever endowed : these are incumbents, and not 

 removable, and the impropriators are obliged to 

 maintain them. Their title in new district parishes 

 has been changed to that of vicar. 



Curator to a Minor. See GUARDIAN. 



Curb. See BRIDLE. The disease in horses 

 so called consists of strain of the straight ligament 

 which runs down the back of the hock ; is most 

 common in animals with straight small hocks and 

 that conformation known as sickle hams ; whilst 

 like other strains it occurs from sudden and 

 violent exertion, often proceeding in the lighter 

 breeds from leaping or galloping in heavy ground, 

 and in the heavier, from the effort of keeping 

 back a load whilst going down a steep incline. 

 Swelling appears on the outer and back part 

 of the joint, about 5 or 6 inches below the 

 point of the hock, generally causing lameness, 

 which is most apparent in trotting, and, in slight 

 cases, usually decreases after the animal has been 

 out for ten minutes. Fomentations must first 

 be used to allay the irritation and inflammation, 

 and a high-heeled shoe put in ; when heat and 

 tenderness disappear, cold applications will be 

 advisable ; after which the enlargement still con- 

 tinuing, a blister may be necessary ; whilst, from 

 the first, all work must be forbidden. 



Curcas. See PHYSIC NUT. 



Curcu'lio. See WEEVIL. 



Cur'cuma (Arab, kiirkum), an Indian genus 

 of Scitamineae, the ginger and cardamom order. 

 C. longa is widely cultivated in Southern Asia, 

 its rhizomes (radix curcumce longce of pharmacists) 

 being the source of Turmeric (q.v. ). Young plants 

 also yield a kind of arrowroot, but this is espe- 

 cially prepared from C. leucorhiza, with colourless 

 rhizomes. C. zedoaria yields a tonic medicine ( radix 

 zedoarice offlcinalis or zedoary of pharmacists), and 

 is also used as food. C. amada is the mango ginger 

 of Bengal. 



Cur<$, the name applied in France to a priest 

 with a cure of souls, properly the priest of a regular 

 parochial as opposed to a succursal church, but 

 commonly applied to any pastor with spiritual 

 functions. 



Cures, an ancient town of the Sabines, 25 miles 

 NE. of Rome, whence the Romans, after the people 

 of Cures united with them, came to be called 

 Quirites. See ROME. 



Cureton, WILLIAM, Syriac scholar, born at 

 Westbury, Shropshire, in 1808, studied at Oxford, 

 and was ordained in 1831. In 1837 he entered the 

 British Museum as assistant-keeper of manuscripts, 

 and here his labours brought to light a Syriac 

 version of the Epistle of Ignatius (q.v.), remains 



