23 



CANTIIARIDES CANTON. 



of Kent, the memorable arrival of St Augustin took 

 place in 596 ; an event which, through the influence 

 of his queen Bertha, was rapidly followed by the 

 conversion of this king and his people to Christian- 

 ity ; and the foundation of the archiepiscopal see of 

 Canterbury. In the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleven! li 

 centuries, the city was dreadfully ravaged by the 

 Danes, and on one occasion, in 101 1, with such brutal 

 ferocity, tliat nearly the whole of the inliabitants, in- 

 cluding women, children, and the archbishop him- 

 self, were barbarously massacred, and the cathedral 

 burnt to its bare walls. It gradually, however, re- 

 covered, and at the conquest, its buildings exceeded 

 in extent those of London. The ecclesiastical im- 

 portance of the place, in particular, advanced with 

 great rapidity, which was consummated by the mur- 

 der of Thomas a Becket, whose politic canonization 

 by the pope rendered Canterbury the resort of pil- 

 grims from every part of Europe. Not only were the 

 priory and see benefited by the offerings of the rich 

 devotees, but the prosperity of the town itself was 

 greatly advanced by the money spent in it by so 

 many wealthy strangers. Erasmus describes the 

 church, and especially the chapel in which he was 

 interred, as glittering with the gold and jewels offer- 

 ed up by the princes, nobles, and wealthy visitors of 

 his shrine; all of which Henry VIII. appropriated 

 to himself on the dissolution of the priory in 1539, 

 when he ordered the bones of Becket to be burnt to 

 ashes. Several of the English monarchs have made 

 a temporary residence at Canterbury, which was also 

 occupied by Oliver Cromwell in the civil wars, 

 whose troopers made a stable of the cathedral. 



Canterbury is of an oval shape, and the four prin- 

 cipal streets are disposed in the form of a cross, with 

 a great number of smaller streets, lanes, and alleys. 

 It has been considerably improved within the last 

 half-century, especially as respects paving, watching, 

 lighting, and the removal of cumbrous projections 

 and signs. The culture of hops being carried on all 

 round the city, it is rendered one of the first hop- 

 markets in England ; it has also been celebrated from 

 time immemorial for the excellence of its brawn. 

 Much business arises from its situation on the hig-h 

 road to France, which has induced many Jews to 

 settle here, where they possess a synagogue. 



The archbishop of Canterbury is primate, and me- 

 tropolitan of all England, and deemed the first peer 

 in the realm after the royal family. He places the 

 crown on the sovereign's head at the coronation, and 

 wherever the court may be, the king and queen are 

 deemed his parishioners. The four prelates of Lon- 

 don, Winchester, Lincoln, and Rochester, are re- 

 spectively his provincial dean, subdean, chancellor, 

 and chaplain. His province comprehends the sees 

 of twenty-one suffragan bishops, and he has the no- 

 mination of the several officers belonging to the ec- 

 clesiastical courts, over which he presides, and the 

 privilege of conferring degrees in the faculties of 

 law, physic, and divinity. The present venerable 

 cathedral is a repair and revival of that built by 

 Lanfranc, the first primate after the conquest, the 

 whole of which was nearly destroyed by fire in 1174. 

 It exhibits specimens of the style of every age from 

 the Norman accession to the period of the dissolution 

 of monasteries. Population in 1831, 14,463. 



CANTHARIDES, or Spanish fly (in medicine) ; 

 the name of a kind of fly, the cantharis vesicatoria, 

 Geoffrey ; meloe vesicatoria, Lin. ; lytta vesicatoria, 

 Fab. ; belonging to the family of the trachelides. 

 They are very common in Spain, Italy, and France, 

 where they are found in large families on the ash, 

 lilac, viburnum, &c. Their body is from 6 to 10 

 lines long; the feelers are black, setaceous, com- 

 posed of 12 articulations ; the. elytro long, flexible, 



of a shining, golden green, and the tarses of a deep 

 brown. Their odour is strong, penetrat ing, peculiar, 

 and unpleasant; their taste extremely acrid; their 

 powder is of a brownish grey, intermixed with shin- 

 ing particles of a metallic green colour. According 

 to Robiquet, they contain, with several other ingre- 

 dients, a peculiar substance, called cantharidin. (q. v.) 

 These insects are, of all the vesicating substances, 

 t IK isc which are most commonly used. Their action 

 is principally confined to the skin ; however, their 

 active principles may be absorbed, and cause serious 

 accidents. The application of a blister is often fol- 

 lowed by strangury, luematurm, priapism, &c. Taken 

 internally, they act as the most energetic acrid 

 poison; they produce irritation on the intestines, 

 and especially affect the genito-urinary organs, which 

 they stimulate violently. In certain disorders, they 

 are administered in small doses, as powerful stimu- 

 lants. The medicine is of a very dangerous charac- 

 ter, and its use requires the greatest caution on the 

 part of the physician. Several species of blistering 

 fly are found in America, some of which are more 

 powerful than the Spanish fly. 



CANTHARIDIN, the vesicating principle of the 

 cantharides , or Spanish fly, is white, in small, crys- 

 talline scales, insoluble in water and cold alcohol, 

 soluble in ether, boiling oils, and alcohol, from which 

 it precipitates by cooling. The vesicating proper- 

 ties could be extracted from cantharides by oil of 

 turpentine, and probably a satisfactory ointment 

 be prepared by merely evaporating the oil of 

 turpentine at a moderate temperature. See Can- 

 tharides. 



CANTICLES. See Solomon, Song of. 



CANTIUM ; an ancient territory in South Bri- 

 tain, whence the English word Kent is derived, sup- 

 posed to have been the first district which received a 

 colony from the continent. The situation of C anti- 

 urn occasioned its being much frequented by the Ro- 

 mans, who generally took their way through it in 

 their marches to and from the continent. Few places 

 in Britain are more frequently mentioned by the Ro- 

 man writers than Portus Rutupensis. Portus Dubris 

 (now Dover), Durobrivae and Durovernum (now Ro- 

 chester and Canterbury) were also Roman towns and 

 stations. Cantium, in the most perfect state of the 

 Roman government, made a part of the province 

 called F/avia Casariensis. See Kent. 



CANTO FERMO ; the name given to the ancient 

 chants of the Roman Catholic church, which were 

 adopted as standing melodies. These chants, until 

 counterpoint was discovered, were unaccompanied, 

 or only harmonized with octaves. 



CANTO FIGURATO. This term was applied, 

 by the old Christian Ecclesiastics to the canto fermo 

 in its more cultivated state, when harmony began to 

 assume modulation. 



CANTON, the principal city of the Chinese province 

 of the same name, otherwise called Quang-tong, or 

 Koan-ton, is situate in 23 7' N. lat., and 113 14' E. 

 Ion., on the banks of the river Taho, which is here 

 very wide. This city, distinguished for size, wealth, 

 and a numerous population, is the only seaport in 

 China open to the ships of Europe and America. 

 The estimate of missionaries, that it contains 1,000,000 

 of inhabitants, is exaggerated. The number is pro- 

 bably nearer 750,000. The circuit of the walls; 

 which are of a moderate height, is above nine miles. 

 Only about a third part, however, of the space en- 

 closed is covered with buildings ; the rest is occu- 

 pied with pleasure-gardens and fish-ponds. The 

 neighbouring country is very charming, hilly towards 

 the east, and presenting, in that quarter, a beautiful 

 prospect. The houses are mostly of one story ; but 

 those of the mandarins and principal merchants are 



