93 



CATECHU CATHARI. 



Uiey contain ille gal, nay, aiiti-constitutional, precepts. 

 When the complaints on this score Ix-came too loud 

 to be disregarded, the pitiful excuse was made, that 

 the offensive turn of the passages was owing to er- 

 rors of the piv>>. 



CATECHU (terra Japonica); an extract prepared 

 from the wood and the green fruit of the minwsa ca- 

 techu (Lin.), and of several other trees of the same 

 family, which grow in the East Indies, principally in 

 Bengal. There are three sorts of catechu. The 

 first, Bombay catechu, is in square pieces, of a red- 

 dish-brown colour, friable, of a uniform texture, frac- 

 ture uneven, of a specific gravity of about 1*39. The 

 second, Bengal catechu, is in round pieces, of the 

 weight of three or four ounces, of a deep chocolate 

 colour internally, and resembling iron rust extern: il- 

 ly, more friable, of the specific gravity of 1-28. The 

 third kind, catechu in masses, is in irregular pieces of 

 two or three ounces, of a reddish-brown colour, shin- 

 ing, homogeneous, and wrapped up in large-nerved 

 leaves. These Uiree kinds of catechu are inodorous, 

 of an astringent taste at first, but, soon after, sweet 

 and agreeable ; at least this is the case with the first 

 and last sort. Catechu is one of the best astringents 

 to be found in the materia medica, and likewise one 

 of the most in use. 



CATECHUMENS is a name which was applied 

 to those converted Jews and heathens, in the first 

 ages of the church, who were to receive baptism, 

 liad a particular place in the church, but were not 

 permitted to be present at the celebration of the sa- 

 crament. Afterwards, it was applied to those young 

 Christians who, for the first time, wished to partake 

 of this ordinance, and, for this purpose, went through 

 a preparatory course of instruction. 



CATEGORY, in logic ; an assemblage of all the 

 beings contained under any genus or kind, ranged in 

 order. The school philosophers distribute ail be- 

 ing-s, ail the objects of our thoughts or ideas, into 

 certain genera or classes, which classes the Greeks 

 call categories, and the Latins, predicaments, and 

 which Mr Harris lias styled philosophical arrange- 

 ments. The ancients, following Aristotle, generally 

 make ten categories. Undpr the first all substances 

 are comprised, and all accidents or attributes under 

 the nine last, viz. , quantity, quality, relation, action, 

 passion, time, place, situation, and habit. This ar- 

 rangement, however, is arbitrary, and now almost 

 excluded. Accordingly, some philosophers think 

 that all nature may be better considered under these 

 seven divisions spirit, matter, Quantity, substance, 

 figure, motion, and rest. Others make but two cate- 

 gories, substance and attribute, or subject and acci- 

 dent ; or three, accident being divided into the inher- 

 ent and circumstantial. The arrangement of the 

 ten categories was borrowed from the Pytliagorean 

 school. It is said to have been invented by Archytas 

 of Tarentum. From him it passed to Plato (who, 

 however, admitted only five categories substance, 

 identity, diversity, motion, and rest), and from Plato to 

 Aristotle. The Stoics held four subjects, qualities, 

 independent circumstances, relative circumstances. For 

 the categories of Kant, see Kant. 



CATENARY ; that curve in the higher geometry 

 wliich is formed by a chain or cord when allowed to 

 hang freely between two points. A knowledge of 

 the properties of this curve is of essential service to 

 the civil engineer, since it has been found the best 

 suited for domes, and is olsp the curve assumed by 

 the chains of a suspension brid jje. This curve is, be- 

 sides, remarkable in being the line of swiftest de- 

 scent ; that is, any body being allowed to fall to the 

 earth through this curve, will descend in a shorter 

 time than it would have done in any other line what- 

 ever from the same height. This fact was taken ad- 



vantage of some years since by Mr Rupp of \Virtem- 

 berg, who constructed a slide on the face of a his;h 

 and rocky eminence on the banks of the lake Lu- 

 cerne. On the top of this acclivity was an immense 

 forest of fir trees, which were of no use on account 

 of the impossibility of conveying them to a market- 

 able place. The individual above mentioned con- 

 structed a slide or trough of wood in the form of ti.e 

 catenary curve, extending from the forest to the lake, 

 a distance of eight miles, down which slide, the trees, 

 when cut and squared, are launched ; ;mil such is 

 the rapidity with which the logs move, that they de- 

 scend from the top to the bottom of the slide in six 

 minutes, the workmen being warned by telegraphic 

 signals. The trees are thence conveyed with facility 

 to the German ocean. An interesting description of 

 this slide is given by Professor Playfair. 



CATERPILLAR. See Papilio. 



CATGUT. The strings of certain musical instru- 

 ments, the cords of clock-weights, and those of some 

 other machines and implements, are made of a dense, 

 strong animal substance, denominated catgut. It is 

 made from the intestines of different quadrupeds, par- 

 ticularly those of cattle and sheep. The manufac- 

 ture is chiefly carried on in Italy and France. The 

 texture from which it is made is that which anato- 

 mists call the muscular coat, which is carefully sepa- 

 rated from the peritoneal and mucous membranes. 

 After a tedious and troublesome process of steeping, 

 scouring, fermenting, inflating, &c., the material is 

 twisted, rubbed with horse-hair cords, fumigated with 

 burning sulphur, to improve its colour, and dried. 

 Cords of different size, and strength, and delicacy, 

 are obtained from different demestic animals. The 

 intestine is sometimes cut into uniform stripes, with an 

 instrument made for the purpose. To prevent offen- 

 sive effluvia during the process, and to get rid of the 

 oily matter, the French make use of an alkaline li- 

 quid, called eau de Javelle. Catgut for stringed in- 

 struments, as violins and harps, is made principally 

 in Rome and Naples. For the smallest violin strings, 

 3 thicknesses are used ; for the largest, 7 ; and, for 

 the largest bass-viol strings, 120. In the kingdom 

 of Naples, whence the best strings, commonly called 

 Roman, are obtained, there are large manufactories 

 of this article. 



CATHARI ; a denomination which was applied, 

 from the middle of the eleventh to the thirteenth 

 century, to several parties and sects, that appeared 

 first in Lombardy, and afterwards in other countries 

 of the West, and which were violently persecuted, 

 on account of their Manichean tenets and usages. 

 As they originated in Bulgaria, they were sometimes 

 termed Bulgarians, whence arose the French term 

 of abuse, Bougres. Sometimes, in token of their 

 contemptibleness, as men of the lowest class, they 

 were called Patarenes, or Patarines, from Pataria, a 

 region of bad reputation near Milan ; sometimes 

 Publicans, or Popelites, and, in the Low Countries, 

 Piphles. But the most general name, by which 

 they were denoted, in the middle ages, was Ca- 

 thari (either from x.u.6a.eoi, the pure, which they 

 claimed to be, or from the national appellation Cha- 

 zars, because they were said to have proceeded from 

 Chazary, the present Crimea ; whence ketzer, the 

 German word for heretics). 



The religious views and practice of the sects com- 

 prehended under this name differed much, according 

 to the age and country in which they appeared, and 

 according to the spirit of their leaders ; but they all 

 agreed in an obstinate resistance to Catholicism, and 

 in the following points of doctrine and religious life : 

 In common with the old Manicheans, but without 

 esteeming Manes a prophet, they entertained an 

 aversion to the mixture of Judaism in Christianity 



