697 



CAPIVIC ACID. 



CAPROIC ACID. 



688 



adversary, he is entitled to obtain an honourable capitulation. It may 

 be observed, that if the governor should postpone the proposals to 

 iiirreuder till his provisions are entirely exhausted, the besiegers may 

 refuse to grant terms to the garrison, which must then surrender at 

 discretion. 



When the reign of Napoleon was drawing to an end, and he found 

 himself reduced to the necessity of acting on the defensive, the duty 

 of defending the fortresses of France was impressed on the commanders 

 by every motive which the love of glory and the fear of disgrace can 

 inspire. In the Imperial decree concerning them, it is stated that 

 every commander who shall appear to have defended his fortress like a 

 man of honour and a faithful subject, shall, along with the officers and 

 soldiers who may have distinguished themselves in the defence, be 

 presented on a day of general parade, and receive, in presence of 

 the troops, public testimonials of the emperor's satisfaction ; that no 

 time shall be lost in exchanging those who may be made prisoners of 

 war ; and that every commander who shall be killed on the breach, or 

 die of his wounds, shall be buried with the same ceremonies as a Grand 

 Cross of the Legion of Honour. On the other hand it is stated, that 

 every capitulation made without a vigorous resistance continued to the 

 last moment, and without having sustained at least one assault on the 

 rampart of the place, is criminal and dishonourable : the commander 

 who so surrenders is made responsible for all the consequences of his 

 cowardice or treachery ; he is threatened with all the severity of the 

 law ; *nd the decree consigns to infamy, and punishes with death, him 

 who yields to the menaces or proposals of the enemy. 



If the resolution to surrender should be at length taken, the con- 

 ditions solicited by the governor should be expressed concisely in a 

 few articles, and should be such only as he can expect to obtain con- 

 sistently with the circumstances of the case. The governor should, 

 however, firmly insist upon their execution when granted. He is not 

 to separate himself from his garrison, but he must share its fate as well 

 after as during the eiege ; and he is to stipulate in favour of the sick 

 and wounded for as many advantages as he can possibly gain. 



It has happened that the governor of a fortress has been induced to 

 leave his post by an invitation to a personal conference with the general 

 of the besieging army, and that advantage has been taken of his absence 

 to assault the place in the hope of gaining it during the confusion then 

 expected to prevail there. History moreover records instances in 

 which the besieging troops have entered the place and committed dis- 

 orders even while the commanders have been occupied on the breach 

 in drawing up the articles of the capitulation. To avoid such mis- 

 fortunes the governor of a fortress should on no account go out for the 

 purpose of treating with the enemy, but he must employ in that duty 

 officers on whose zeal and firmness he can rely. 



By the terms of a capitulation the arms and military stores in the 

 place are generally given up to the besiegers ; the officers and troops 

 of the garrison retaining only their private property, and being allowed 

 to march out with the honours of war, that is, with drums beating, 

 colours flying, &c. When necessary, a convoy is allowed them for pro- 

 tection till they arrive at the place of their destination. 



CAPIVIC ACID (C.oH^O,). A resinous acid isomeric with pinic 

 acid, and found in balsam of capivi. [BALSAM.] 



< A 1'NOMOR is a colourless, limpid, volatile oil, obtained by Reichen- 

 bach, with several other products, from the heavy oil of tar. Its odour 

 resemble* that of ginger, and it has a styptic after taste. Its density 

 is 0'9775. It is perfectly neutral, boils at 845 Fahrenheit, and distils 

 unaltered. It burns with a sooty flame. It is very slightly soluble in 

 water, but dissolves in alcohol, ether, essential and fixed oils. It dis- 

 solve* phosphorus, sulphur, and selenium. It combines with chlorine, 

 emitting hydrochloric acid. It mixes with sulphuric acid, and imparts 

 to it a red colour ; nitric acid converts it .into oxalic acid, carbazotic 

 acid, and another crystalline substance which has not yet been 

 ifxaruined. Acetic acid takes up capnomor, and it dissolves several 

 organic acids ; potassium and sodium act but slightly upon it, and the 

 alkalies and alkaline earths decompose it but slowly. It has not been 

 analysed. 



CAPONNIERE, in fortification, is a passage protected on the 

 right and left by a wall or parapet. The term is generally applied 

 to that by which the communications are made across the main 

 iliU^i of the fortress to the outworks [BASTION, G. Jiff. 1], or from 

 the covered-way to the gorge of an advanced work. When a passage 

 exposed on one side only in thus protected, it has the name of a demi- 



' >].!;,' -. 



The projecting parapet is generally of earth, with its upper surface 

 descending gradually to the bottom of the ditch, in order that the 

 enemy may be completely exposed in advancing up to it, and also that 

 the ditch may be defended by a grazing fire from thence. A passage 

 nl this kind Is however exposed to the plunging fire of the enemy from 

 the crowning battery H, and from that which should correspond to it 

 on the left hand of the front of the fortification ; it may therefore be 

 further protected by a parados or elevation of earth extending along its 

 centre; for by this the defenders behind both parapets would In- 

 effectually concealed. 



Sometimes the onponniore is a vaulted gallery of brickwork, the sides 

 of which are pierced with loop-holes or narrow openings, for the 

 defence of the ditch by a fire of musketry. In this case a trench in cut 

 w th Mtrior, ud ptculkl to won icU of tu work, in or<Ur to 



prevent the enemy from approaching near enough to annoy the 

 defenders within. 



Palisade caponnieres are formed across the ditches of field-redoubts 

 when those ditches are incapable of being defended from the parapets. 

 If covered with a roof for protection against shells or grenades, that 

 roof should be kept below the level of the natural ground, in order that 

 it may be concealed from the view of the enemy at a distance. 



CAPRAL. [Rune ACID.] 



CAPRAMIDE. [Rune ACID.] 



CAPRIC ACID. [RUTIC ACID.] 



CAPRICORN, TROPIC OF. [TROPICS.] 



CAPRICORNUS, the tenth constellation in the zodiac, as a con- 

 stellation, but the part of the moveable ecliptic between 270 and 

 300 of longitude was also BO designated. [ECLIPTIC.] This constel- 

 lation never rises in our latitude to a greater altitude than 25, or 

 thereabouts (we speak of the largest stars, a and ft, in the horn). 

 Around it, in the visible portion of the heaven, are Aquarius, 

 Equeleus, Delphinus, Aquila, and Sagittarius. The brightest stars, 

 a and /3, are on the meridian at midnight towards the end of July. A 

 line drawn through the bright stars in Lyra -and Aquila will, when 

 lengthened, not pass far from the two brightest stars in Capricornus, 

 a and /3. 



The upper half of Capricornus is that of a goat, and the lower half 

 that of a fish. In some of the Eastern zodiacs it is altogether an 

 alligator or sea monster. According to Hyginus, Jupiter fixed this 

 constellation in the heavens in admiration of the ingenuity of Pan, 

 who, when the gods were obliged to escape from the giants in the 

 form of various animals, made himself half goat and half fish, and 

 lived in a river. 



The following are the principal stars : 



Character. 

 o 1 

 o 2 



No in Catalogue 

 of Flamstecd. 



5 



6 



9 



39 



40 



No. in Catalogue 

 of British 

 Association. 



6972 

 6974 

 6995 

 7506 

 7525 



Magnitude; 

 4 



CAPRIFIG'ATION, the process by which the maturation of the 

 fig ij) accelerated in the Levant. It is imagined that fruits which have 

 been bitten by insects ripen sooner than others, the wound appearing 

 to act as a stimulant to the local action of the parenchyma. This is 

 imitated by the Greeks in the following manner, which is called 

 caprificatiou. When the cultivated fig is preparing for becoming ripe, 

 a quantity of the branches of the caprifig or wild fig-tree are brought 

 into the fig orchards and placed upon the cultivated plants. The wild 

 figs are said to bring with them a great number of small insects called 

 Cynipi Ptenei, or Diplolepis ficus Caricce, which fly among the culti- 

 vated figs and pierce their fruit for the purpose of laying eggs. This they 

 say not only brings about an earlier ripening of the fig crop than would 

 otherwise be obtained, but enables the cultivator to obtain two harvests 

 a year. It is, however, thought that the practice deteriorates the 

 quality of the fruit. Caprification has been artificially imitated by 

 puncturing a fig with an awl, and introducing a little oil into the wound, 

 for the purpose of preventing its healing too soon. (De Candolle, 

 'PhysioL Vegetale,' p. 580; and Treviranus in the 'Linnsea for 1828,' 

 p. 70, tab. l,fig. 1 and 2, in which last place the insect is figured.) 

 But experiments do not confirm these popular statements ; on the 

 contrary, they show them to be mere fallacies. Professor Gaspariui, 

 a learned Sicilian botanist, has shown satisfactorily that the DiplolejnK 

 " neither hastens the maturity of the fig nor causes it to set, nor yet 

 is necessary for that purpose." (See his ' Memoir on Caprification,' 

 translated in the ( Journal of the Horticultural Society, 1 iii. 185.) 



The kind of Caprification above-mentioned must not be confounded 

 with another sort, of very high antiquity, that is practised with the 

 date palxn, and which has been mentioned by Herodotus (i. 183). In 

 this latter case the clusters of male flowers from wild date trees are 

 brought and shaken over the clusters of cultivated females, which are 

 thus fertilised and enabled to ripen. It is obvious that the two cases 

 are essentially different, although confounded under one common term. 

 In the fig the C'ynijis Paenes, brought by the wild branches, punctures 

 the cultivated figs, which is said to accelerate their ripening ; in the 

 palm the pollen of the wild males is shed upon the stigmas of the 

 cultivated females, and fecundates them. 



CAPROATES. [CAPKOIC ACID.] 



CAPROIC ACID (C^H^OJ. This acid, which was discovered by 

 Chevreul, exists either in the free state or in combination with gly- 

 cerine, in cow's and goat's butter, and also in considerable quantities 

 in cocoa-nut oil. In the series of fatty acids of the general formula 

 C.H.O, it is the member next higher than valerianic acid. It is now 

 seldom prepared from butter, in which it was first discovered. It may 

 be prepared from cocoa-nut oil by saponifying the oil with potash, and 

 distilling the soap with excess of dilute sulphuric acid. The distillate 

 which contains caproic and caprylic acids is neutralised by baryta, the 

 solution evaporated to dryness, and the mixture of the two salti 

 separated by treatment with alcohol, in whioh the caprylato of ) 



