CASTOROIL. 



CATACOMBS. 



broad towards the bue ; the skin thick, smooth, of a brownish red or 

 yellow, the mum more or le** friable or tenacious according to age ; 

 adhering to them are in general the remain* of the oil or fat bags. The 

 odour is peculiar, very penetrating, and unpleasant ; the taste U also 

 peculiar, bitterish, somewhat acrid or aromatic, and enduring. The 

 bags of American castor are smaller, narrower at the base, of a great 

 variety of colours, yellow or orange-brown or brownish-black, the skin 

 thinner, more of the consistence of paper, the surface often wrinkled, 

 and in general no vestiges of the oil-bags present. Both kinds are 

 occasionally slit open and a part of their contents abstracted. A seam 

 on the surface and an internal cavity, sometimes filled with other 

 materials, indicate when this fraud has been effected. 



Castor should be kept in a cool place, in a well-corked bottle. 



Brandes, from 1000 parts of Canadian castor, obtained : 



Volatile oil ....... 10-0 



Castorine pure ....... 7'" 



Castorine with carbonate, unite, and benzoate 



of lime ....... 3-5 



Castoreum -resin old ...... lio-n 



Castoreum-resinoid with benzoate and urate 



of lime ....... 16-0 



Castoreum-resinoid obtained by ether . . I'D 



Castoreum-resinoid from watery extract . 1-5 



Albumen with trace of phosphate of lime . 0'5 



Osmazome-like matter ..... 2'0 



Phosphate of lime ...... 14-0 



Carbonate of lime ..... 386-0 



Carbonate of magnesia ..... 4-0 



Sulphate of potaasa, sulphate and phosphate 



of lime ........ 2-0 



Animal mucus ...... 23'0 



Carbonate of ammonia ..... 8'2 



Animal matter ...... 23'0 



Skin and salts ....... 192'0 



Loss and moisture ..... 2291 



Occasionally carbolic acid and talldnr arc found in Canadium cas- 

 toreum. The latter is derived from the willows on which the beaver 

 feeds. Russian castoreum has far more volatile oil and resin. 



Castorine is also called Cattorrum camphor. It may be obtained by 

 boiling one part of castor in six of alcohol, and leaving the filtered 

 liquid to cool, when it falls to the bottom. It is very combustible, 

 and is neither acid nor alkaline ; it has a copperish taste. It crystal- 

 lises in long diaphanous fasciculated primus, is insoluble in cold water 

 and cold alcohol, but dissolves 'in 100 parts of boiling alcohol, also in 

 the volatile oils. Bizio considers it the active principle of castor, but 

 it is more probable that the active properties depend upon the essential 

 oil and resinoid principle : the most proper menstruum to take up 

 these is alcohol or the ethers. Rectified spirit in preferable to proof 

 Kpirit to form the tincture. The compound tincture of the Edinburgh 

 I'hannaco|weia is a valuable form of exhibition. It should n> 

 prepared as an extract or a decoction. The powder is not an objection- 

 able form, if too high a temperature be not employed to dry and 

 render it friable. 



If from five to ten grains of castor be received into the stomach, a 

 gentle heat U felt in that organ ; a more considerable dose causes a 

 still greater sense of heat, and increased strength and frequency of 

 pulse. That the principles of castor pass into the blood is proved by 

 the secretions acquiring it* odour during the employment of it inter- 

 nally. It appear* to act specially on the cerebro-spinal and ganglionic 

 systems of nerves, so as to modify their condition. Hence it is used 

 against spasmodic symptoms, and to restore the healthy action of the 

 nervous system when that U disturbed. It is rarely given to excite 

 the digestive organs, the heart, or the lungs, but chiefly to influence 

 the brain, the spinal cord, and the uterus. Its employment is some- 

 times followed by very profound sleep, which, if the dose be moderate, 

 need not excite alarm. Castor is most useful in hysteria, hypochon- 

 dria*!*, nervous palpitations of the heart, convulsive hiccup, colic, and 

 similar diseases. It ought not to be employed if any morbid sensibility 

 of the stomach or enlargement of the heart exist. 



CASTOR OIL. [CBOTON.] 



KiUIC ACID. [CAHTOHIN.I 



TOKIN. A white, crystalline, fatty substance contained in the 

 secretion of the beaver, known in pharmacy aa rnttonum. By long 

 boiling with nitric acid it is converted into ttutoric acid. Neither of 

 thaw substances has been analysed. Castorin appears to be allied to 



CASUISTRY, the name of a science which professes to give rules 

 for the resolution of doubt* of conscience. It was greatly cultivated in 

 the 16th and 16th centuries, especially by the Jesuit*, and was calcu- 

 lated to be a very efficient instrument of the crafty policy ascribed to 

 that order. For the confessor, who professed himself able to lay down 

 exact rules of conduct, to weigh the merit* of two conflicting duties, 

 and decide which was the greater of two sins, hod the means of 

 obtaining an almost boundless influence over his penitent But 

 casuistry under some form, and more or lew elaborated, must be 

 studied wherever confession, penitence, and absolution under the 

 guidance of the priesthood are doctrines of a church, and where con- 



sequently the younger, more inexperienced, or less learned priest*, 

 require authoritative direction in difficult case*. The science of 

 casuistry, however, though so liable to abuse that it has been termed, 

 not inaptly, the " art of quibbling with God," has been cultivated in 

 the reformed as well as the papal church, and for a specimen of its 

 subtleties we may refer to Bishop Taylor's ' Due-tor Dubitantium, or 

 Rule of Conscience.' There is a professor of casuistry in the uni . 

 of Cambridge, whose lectures, however, have been discontinue) I. 

 a full account of the casuist*, see Mayer's ' Bibliotheca of Casuist*,' 

 divided into three heads : Lutheran, Calvinist, and Roman. Casuistical 

 works, or manuals for the guidance of priest*, are constantly on sale 

 in Roman Catholic countries. 



CATACOMBS, subterraneous excavations, used as vault* for the 

 burial of the dead. They are found in most parts of the world, but 

 chiefly in those countries which, like Italy, Sicily, and Egypt, offer 

 extensive beds of soft tvfo or of some other stone which is easily cut, 

 and which yet is adhesive enough not to fall in. The probable origin 

 of many of them is that they were mere quarries, where materials were 

 dug for building; and when spacious caverns were thus made, the 

 adaptation of them aa places of interment was natural and obvious. 



The catacombs of Rome, the entrance into which is on the Via 

 Appia, at a short distance from the city, are very extensive, and have 

 evidently been used both as burying places and as places of worship ; 

 for Christian altars, inscriptions, and paintings, of a very early date, 

 and of great interest in the history of early Christian art and icono- 

 graphy, still exist in these gloomy crypt*. The commonly received 

 opinion is, that during the persecutions the early Christians retired 

 thither to worship in secret, and that the remains of many thousands 

 of martyrs were deposited there apart from the pagan Romans. The 

 long galleries of these catacombs, which twist and turn in a curious 

 manner, are, generally speaking, about eight feet high and five feet 

 wide; there are mostly three tiers of graves or cells, running length- 

 wise, one above another, along the galleries, and in some instances 

 there are two and even three of these dark galleries, beneath one 

 another. At certain irregular intervals these subterranean passage* 

 converge, and then expand into large vaulted chambers, which still 

 look like churches. The more regular chapels met with in many of 

 them are the works of a later age, some of them having been formed 

 by order of the popes, and executed with great care. Although the 

 cross and the monogram of Christ have long been affixed to every 

 accessible corner, and the traditions of the Romish church give the 

 exclusive occupancy of the catacombs to the Christian dead, there 

 seems good ground to believe that the ancient and pagan Romans 

 deposited their dead in them. According to the ciceroni, or guides, 

 taking in their different ramifications, these cold gloomy galleries run 

 for twenty miles under ground, and several recent travellers have 

 stated their length at six miles, confessing, however, that from their 

 having fallen in and become dangerous in many parts it is not possible 

 to penetrate them to anything like that extent. Agincourt, ' History 

 of Art by it* Monument*,' has, in Vol. I. plates ix.-xiii., collected 

 together plans, sections, views, and illustrations of the content* of 

 " The most celebrated Catacombs, Pagan and Christian.'' 



The catacombs of Naples, which are cut in tufo under the hill 

 called Capo di Monte, do not differ materially from those of Rome, 

 except that the main streets are much wider; and their real extent. 

 which is considerable, is liable to the same exaggeration. The entrance 

 into them in rendered horrible by a vast heap of skulls and boned, the 

 remains of the victims of a plague which desolated Naples in the 

 16th century. Some of these passage* are almost covered with 

 Christian symbols, and the paintings in one of the huge vaulted 

 chambers or churches, though badly drawn, have retained a wonderful 

 freshness of colouring, considering their underground damp situation. 

 The spreading palm-tree is a frequent feature in these pictures. On 

 the site of the ancient Etruscan city, Tarqiiinia, about three miles 

 from the small modern town of Corneto, catacombs of immense extent 

 have been opened within the last century and a half. They were 

 excavated in the white calcareous stone of which the hill|i.x formed on 

 which the ancient city stood, and they must have been in use at tlie 

 best time of Etruscan art, as the walls are decorated with fresco 

 paintings of figure* ; friezes executed with great skill and spirit, and 

 vases of admirable form and decoration, mosaics, arms, Ac., have been 

 found in them. (D' Agincourt ; Inghiromi, ' Monument! Etnischi ; ' and 

 Von Stack elberg, ' Aelteste Denkmuler dcr Malerei, oder Wandgeiniilde 

 us den Hypogaen von Tarquinii.') At Palermo and at Syracuse 

 are similar recesses; the catacombs of the latter place being very con- 

 siderable, and laid out with great regularity, while close in the neigh- 

 UIUI)I'M| tl ity of quarries and subterranean excavations 



that might have been turned to the same uses. These catacomb; form 

 extenxive street* of tombs with circular halls, far more regular in plan 

 than the catacombs of Rome ; and in their cane it is evident that they 

 were originally used by the pagan population, and subsequently by the 

 Christians, a* they ore filled with Greek and Roman as well OB Christian 

 and Saracenic tombs. The entrance to these catacombs is under the 

 small church of San Giovanni, in the lower part of Acradina. In the 

 inland of Malta, catacomb* of a much more limited extent are found at 

 Citti Veccbia, cut into the rock on which that old town stands. They 

 occur again in the Greek islands of the Archipelago. At Milo (one of 

 the Cyclades) we have seen a mountain completely honeycombed with 



