CATACOMBS CATALONIA. 



91 



Vela are abodes for the living and sepulchres for the 

 dead, cut in the rocks ; at Agrigentum, subterra- 

 neous caves, labyrinths, and tombs, arranged with 

 great order and symmetry. There are also caverns 

 in the environs of Syracuse, which may be ranked 

 with the principal monuments of this description, 

 from their extent and depth, their architectural or- 

 naments, and from some historical recollections at- 

 tached to them. In the catacombs of Rome, coffins 

 are sometimes found, and it. is supposed that the 

 bones in them belonged to Christians. Inscriptions 

 are also seen on the walls of the apartments. But, 

 though they may not have been used by the Christ- 

 ians as tombs, it is certain that they served for places 

 of assembling for secret exercises of devotion. See 

 Artaud's Voyage dans les Catacombesde Rome, Paris, 

 L810. 



The catacombs in the tufa mountains of Capo di 

 Monte, near Naples, consist of subterraneous galler- 

 ies, halls, rooms, basilicas, and rotundos, which ex- 

 tend to the distance of two Italian miles. Through- 

 out there are seen niches for coffins (loculi) and bones. 

 A description of them was given by Celano, in 1643. 

 They probably owe their origin to the quarries which 

 afforded tufa for the walls of the cities Palaeopolis 

 and Neapolis, and afterwards served as sepulchres for 

 the Christian congregations. 



The catacombs of Paris are extensive subterraneous 

 galleries, to which you descend from the buildings 

 on the western side of the barriere d'enfer. Tfie 

 name itself, which has been given to this labyrinth 

 of caverns and galleries, from its resemblance to the 

 asylums and places of refuge of the persecuted 

 Christians under Naples and Rome, informs us of the 

 purpose to which it has been applied since 1786. 

 These galleries were originally the quarries from 

 which materials were excavated for constructing the 

 edifices of the capital. The weight of the superin- 

 cumbent houses rendered it necessary to prop them ; 

 and when the cemeteries of the demolished churches 

 and the burying-grounds were cleared in 1786, the 

 government resolved to deposit the bones in these 

 quarries, which were consecrated for that purpose. 

 The relics often generations were here united in the 

 repose of the grave. Eight times as great as the 

 living tide that rolls over this spot is its subterraneous 

 population. By the light of wax tapers you descend 

 ninety feet to a world of silence, over which the Pari- 

 sian police keeps watch as strictly as over the world 

 of noise and confusion above. You enter a gallery, 

 where two can just go abreast. A black streak on 

 the stones, of which the walls consist, points out the 

 way, which, from the great number of intersecting 

 bye-passages, it would oe difficult to retrace without 

 this aid, or without guides. The plain of Montrouge 

 and the great suburb St Jacques, as well as St 

 Germain, and, according to some, the channel of 

 the Seine, are thus undermined. Among the cu- 

 riosities of this part of that lower world is a plan 

 of the harbour of Mahon, which, in his hours of 

 leisure, an ingenious soldier faithfully copied, from 

 memory, in the material of the quarries. You fi- 

 nally enter the hall, whence you are ushered into 

 the realms of death by the inscription which once 

 stood over the entrance to the churchyard of St Sul- 

 pice : Has ultra melas requiescunt beatam spem ex- 

 tpectantes. Narrow passages between walls of ske- 

 letons ; chambers in which mausoleums, altars, can- 

 delabras, constructed of human bones, with festoons 

 of skulls and thigh-bones, interspersed, occasionally, 

 with inscriptions, not always the most happily select- 

 ed, from ancient and modern authors, excite the 

 gloomy impression which is always produced, even in 

 the most light-minded, by the sight of the dissolution 

 of the human frame. Fatigued with these horrible 



embellishments, you enter a simple chapel, without 

 bones, and containing an altar of granite. The in- 

 scription D. M. II et III Septembr. MDCCXCII. 

 recalls to memory the victims of those mournful days 

 whose remains are here united. It is the only spot 

 in the whole labyrinth, that speaks immediately to 

 the heart of every body. On leaving these rooms, 

 consecrated to death, where, however., the air is al- 

 ways preserved pure by means of secret passages, 

 you may visit a geological cabinet, formed by Mr 

 Hericourt de Thury, the director of the carrieres sovs 

 Paris, who has also published a description of them 

 (Paris, 1815). Specimens of the minerals furnished 

 by the regions you have traversed, and a collection 

 of diseased bones, in a contiguous hall, scientifically 

 arranged, are the last curiosities which these excava- 

 tions offer. Three hundred toises east of the road to 

 Orleans you finally turn to the light of day. We un- 

 derstand that it has lately been prohibited to visit 

 this remarkable spot, because a person had lost him- 

 self in this labyrinth, and had never been heard of 

 again. 



In Rome, there is a Franciscan church, under 

 which, for centuries, the bones of the monks of the 

 convent, and of many persons, who think their eter- 

 nal happiness will be promoted by their burial there, 

 have been preserved, ingeniously arranged in col- 

 umns, altars, arches, garlands, festoons, and archi- 

 tectural ornaments. Every year, mass is read there. 



CATACOUSTICS (from xar,and a.x/>vu, I hear), 

 called, also, cataphonics ; the science of reflected 

 sounds, or that part of acoustics which considers the 

 properties of echoes. See Acoustics. 



CATAFALCO. See Castrum Doloris. 



CATALEPSY. This is a spasmodic disease, and, 

 by some regarded as a species of tetanus. It affects 

 the whole body, so as to render it immovable, as if 

 dead. Tetanus differs from catalepsy in its subjects 

 and causes. Females are most liable to the last, 

 while the first is equally produced in both sexes by 

 appropriate causes. Tetanus is most frequently pro- 

 duced by punctured wounds of {fndinous textures, 

 and most readily in hot weather. Sometimes, how- 

 ever, it occurs, like catalepsy, independently of 

 wounds. The spasm is more limited in tetanus ; 

 sometimes being most severe, in the muscles of the 

 face, producing lock-jaw ; now it attacks the muscles 

 of the trunk, on the fore part, producing emprostho- 

 tonos, and now the muscles of the back part, produc- 

 ing opisthotonos , or curvature of the trunk back- 

 wards. During all this, the natural temperature may 

 remain, the pulse be perfectly natural, and the sense? 

 unimpaired. Under the most active and varied treat- 

 ment, tetanus has always been a very fatal malady. 



Catalepsy is a universal spasmodic disease of the 

 organs of locomotion. The body remains in the po- 

 sition in which it may have been when attacked with 

 the fit, and the limbs preserve any situation in which 

 they may be placed. The senses are obliterated, and 

 the mind totally inactive, nothing being able to rouse 

 the patient. The pulse and temperature remain na- 

 tural. The fit is of uncertain length ; according to 

 some writers, not lasting more than a quarter of an 

 hour, though known by others to be much longer. 

 This disease is an obstinate one, and is very liable to 

 recur, even when the patient seems in the least re- 

 spect liable to a recurrence. It is, for the most part, 

 a consequence of some other disease. This may be 

 a local affection ; but it more frequently occurs in a 

 generally enfeebled constitution, induced by some 

 grave malady, or one which has been caused by the 

 gradual operation of unobserved morbid causes. 



CATALOGUES OF BOOKS. See Books, Ca- 

 talogues of, and Bibliography. 



CATALONIA (anciently Tarraconensis) ; a pro- 



