917 



CINNAMON AND CASSIA. 



CINQUE PORTS. 



018 



and to South America. Though found iu various parts of the island, 

 it is most abundant in the south-west part, near Colombo, and yields 

 the best cinnamon when growing in a sandy quartz soil. The time 

 for stripping off the bark is from May to October. The bark, after 

 being removed from the branches, is tied up in bundles for twenty- 

 four hours, during which time a sort of fermentation takes place, 

 which greatly facilitates the separation of the outer part of the bark 

 from the cuticle and epidermis, which is very carefully scraped off the 

 Ceylon cinnamon. It is then rolled up into quills, or pipes, about 

 three feet in length ; the thinner or smaller quill being surrounded 

 by larger ones ; a mark which always distinguishes cinnamon from 

 cassia. It is then conveyed to Colombo, where it is sorted by govern- 

 ment inspectors into three kinds, of which the two finest alone were 

 allowed to be exported to Europe, while the third, or inferior kind, 

 was reserved to be distilled, along with the broken pieces of the other 

 two, for the purpose of obtaining the oil of cinnamon. The select 

 cinnamon is formed into bales of about 924 I DS - weight, containing 

 some pepper or coffee, and wrapped in double cloths made of hemp, 

 and not, as stated by some writers, of the cocoa-tree. 



This fine cinnamon occurs in pieces about forty inches in length, 

 generally containing from six to eight rolls or quills in each, one 

 within the other, of the thickness of vellum paper, of a dull golden 

 yellow colour, smooth on both outer and inner surface. It is very 

 fragrant, agreeably aromatic, taste pleasant, warm, aromatic, slightly 

 astringent. Analysed by Vauquelin, it yielded volatile oil, tannin in 

 large quantity, an azotised colouring matter, resin, a peculiar acid, 

 mucilage, and feculum. 



The root of the cinnamon-tree yields a kind of camphor, and the 

 leave* yield an oil which resembles oil of cloves, which it is often used 

 to adulterate. This is quite distinct from the oil of cinnamon obtained 

 from the bark. The ripe berries yield by decoction a solid volatile oil, 

 similar to the oil of junipers. Cassia, according to Marshall and others, 

 is the bark of the old branches and trunk of the Cauiamomum Zeij- 

 laiiicum already mentioned, while others assert that is the bark of an 

 entirely different species, namely, of the Cinnamomum Cassia, (Nees 

 Fratres, et Blume), a native of China, but cultivated iu Java. This 

 last view is much the most probable : for not only is no cassia ex- 

 ported from Ceylon (except the rejected, or third sort of cinnamon, 

 which is introduced into England incorrectly under that name), but 

 almost all the cassia which reaches Europe comes from Canton, hence 

 called on the Continent Chinese cinnamon. Reagents produce very 

 different effects both on the infusion and oil of these two barks, which 

 is a rational ground for believing them to be obtained from different 

 species. Tincture of iodine renders decoction of cassia blue, but not 

 cinnamon. 



Cassia is easily distinguished from cinnamon. The bales in which it 

 arrives are much smaller, containing only from two to four pounds, 

 bound together by portions of the bark of a tree. The quills are 

 thicker, rolled once or twice only, and never contain thinner pieces 

 within ; the diameter of the bark is much thicker than that of ciu- 

 uainnu, and harder, the outer rind less caref ally removed (large pitches 

 of the cuticle and epidermis often remaining upon it), the colour 

 deeper, of a brownish fawn colour (that raised in Guiana is yellowish), 

 with the odour of cinnamon, but fainter, and less grateful, the taste 

 more acridly aromatic, pungent, less sweet, at the same time more 

 powerfully astringent, yet mucilaginous. 



Cassia is often substituted for [cinnamon, and it is also frequently 

 adulterated with cassia lignca (which is the bark of a degenerate 

 variety of the Cinnamomum Zeylanicum (Blume) growing in Malabar, 

 Penang, and Silhet), with the bark of Cinnamomum Cid'dlawan, and 

 with portions which by distillation have been deprived of their vola- 

 tile oil. This yields the bitter cinnamon, but what is sold in the shops 

 under the name of culitlawan bark, is, according to Blume, a mixture of 

 several Indian barks, especially those of Cinnamomum, Sintoc javanicum 

 and C. xantkonturutn. The old " folia Malabathri " is a mixture of 

 C. nitidum and other species. 



Oil of cinnamon is obtained chiefly from the fragments which fall 

 from the quills during the inspection and sorting at Colombo. These 

 fragments are coarsely powdered, and after being immersed for forty- 

 eight hours in sea-water, are distilled, when a milky fluid comes over, 

 which separates into two parts, a light oil which floats, and a heavy one 

 which sinks in the water. Eighty pounds weight of cinnamon yield 

 abouV two ounces and a half of light oil, and five ounces aud a half of 

 heavy oil About 100 gallons of oil of cinnamou are annually obtained 

 at Colombo. As the oil which is met with in commerce is a mixture 

 of these two, the specific gravity is variable, 1'035 to 1'090. In time 

 ,i hpontaneous separation takes place, and there are formed beautiful 

 transparent crystals of a slearopten or cinnamon-camphor. Sometimes 

 benzoic acid is formed. Oil of cassia is also obtained by distillation ; 

 at first it is whiter than oil of cinnamon, afterwards it becomes yellow, 

 but never of such a fiery yellow as cinnamon-oil. The odour is agree- 

 able but not so delicate and cinnamon-like : taste, acrid, burning, but 

 different from cinnamon. Specific gravity 1-0608: it reddens litmus 

 paper. At a low temperature crystals show themselves, which dis- 

 appear with an increase of heat. Some consider these a camphor, 

 others benzoic acid. Benzoic acid unquestionably exists in this oil. 

 < til ,{ cinnamon is adulterated with oil of cassia, with the oil of cassia- 

 buds, with the oil of the Cerasiu lauro-cerams, or cherry -laurel, and it 



[A also said, with oil of bitter almonds, an exceedingly dangerous 

 intermixture. 



Cinnamon is an extremely valuable aromatic stimulant, and influences 

 both the nervous and vascular system, especially of the stomach and 

 intestines. It is of great utility in weakness of the digestive powers, 

 unaccompanied with inflammatory action of the stomach; while in 

 fluxes from atony of the intestines, its astringent properties, due to 

 the tannin, render it a very useful medicine. It is the best of all 

 condiments to be taken with food, particularly vegetables, during the 

 prevalence or tendency to cholera. Even in fevers of an asthenic type, 

 it has been advantageously joined with bark, and the compound cinna- 

 mon-powder is added to many medicines. Oil of cinnamon, given on 

 sugar, is useful in cramps and other spasmodic diseases. Cassia has 

 the same properties in less degree. Clove cinnamon, stated by some to 

 be the produce of Persea caryopfiyllacea (Martius), is most probably the 

 bark of the Etujenia caryophyllata, or of Dicypelliiim caryophyllatiwm, a 

 native of Brazil. It has very little volatile oil. 



CINNAMON, OIL OF. [CINNAMTL.] 



CINNAMYL (C^O.,), the hypothetical radical essence of cin- 

 namon. 



Hydride of cinnamyl (C 18 H 7 0.j + H) is the purified essence or oil of 

 cinnamon. It is a fragrant oil, and forms with nitric acid a crystalline 

 compound (C i8 H,0 2 + N0 5 , HO), which, when mixed with water, is 

 resolved into its original constituents, hydride of cinnamyl and nitric 

 acid. When it is exposed to the air it absorbs oxygen, and becomes 

 converted into cinnamic acid (C 18 H 7 3 + HO). This acid is also easily 

 obtained by dissolving oil of balsam of Peru in a solution of potash iu 

 alcohol, evaporating to dryness, dissolving in hot water, and adding to 

 the cinnamate of potash then formed hydrochloric acid. With bases 

 it forms cinnamates. Nitric acid converts it into hydride of benzoyl. 

 When added to cold nitric acid, it is converted into nitro-citmamic acid. 

 The salts of this acid detonate when heated. When cinnamic acid is 

 treated with fuming sulphuric acid, sulplto-cinnamic acid is formed. 

 [BALSAMS.] 



CINNANILIDE. [CINNAMIC GROW.] 



CINNHYDRAMIDE. [CINNAMIC GROUP.] 



CINNITRANISIDE. [CINNAMIC GROUP.] 



CINQUE-CENTO STYLE. [RENAISSANCE.] 



CINQUE PORTS. It has been a subject of controversy, whether 

 this association of the maritime towns on that part of the English 

 coast which approaches nearest to the Continent existed in any shape 

 before the Norman conquest of England. Some writers have supposed 

 that it originated with the Romans, and that the five stations of 

 Regulbium or Reculver, Rutupise or Richborough, Dover, Lymne, and 

 Anderida, probably the present Eastbourne, were selected by them as 

 favourable points for protecting the southern coast, and no doubt as 

 being also good ports. When the altered state of the shore rendered 

 some of them no longer available as ports, the privileges, whatever 

 they were, were transferred to other ports more favourably situated ; 

 aud thus, as early as Edward the Confessor, only Dover continued, and 

 the places of the other four were supplied by Sandwich, Hythe, 

 Romney, and Hastings. Still of this there is no positive proof. The 

 Domesday Survey only mentions three, Sandwich, Dover, and Romney ; 

 but Mr. Jeake, the town-clerk of Rye, collected the charters relating 

 to the Cinque Ports, which were published in 1728, under the title of 

 ' Magna et Antiqua Charta Quinque Portuum,' &c. In these the first 

 charter of Edward I. confirms the peculiar privileges and liberties of 

 the towns granted by his predecessors, of whom the first named is 

 Edward the Confessor. From the Domesday Survey it appears that 

 the three ports mentioned, on consideration of certain services to be 

 performed by their shipping at sea, &c., were exonerated from such 

 contributions and burdens as other towns were generally charged with ; 

 and these, it is reasonably thought, might have been enfranchised by 

 the Confessor at one and the same time. 



Though some part of the municipal constitutions of the individual 

 ports may be anterior to the Norman invasion, yet the organisation of 

 the general body, as it has existed in later times, is plainly traceable to 

 the policy of the Conqueror, in securing, by every means, his com- 

 munications with the Continent. These ports and their members 

 occupy exactly the tract of sea-coast of which, after the victory of 

 Hastings, he showed most eagerness to possess himself, by sweeping 

 along it with his army before he directed his march towards London ; 

 aud the surrender into his hands of the castle of Dover, which in the 

 centre of the Cinque Ports' jurisdiction, was one of the stipulations 

 introduced into the famous oath which, iu Edward's lifetime, the duke 

 had extorted from Harold. To enable his government to wield the 

 resources of this maritime district with the greater vigour and 

 promptitude, ho severed it wholly from the civil and military 

 administrations of the counties of Kent and Sussex, erecting it into a 

 kind of palatine jurisdiction, under a yanliai, or Warden, who had the 

 seat of his administration at the castle of Dover, aud exercised over 

 the whole district the combined civil, military, and naval authority ; 

 xmiting in his own hands all the various functions which, to use the 

 terms most intelligible to modern readers, we may describe as those of 

 a sheriff of a county at large, a custos rotulorum, a lord lieutenant, 

 and an admiral of the coast. 



To the five ports of the Conqueror's time were added, before the 

 reign of Henry III., with equal privileges, what were called the ancient 



