CAUCUS CAVALIER. 



109 



Inhabitants), with Bakou, the best harbour in the 

 Caspian. This region, from its abundance of beau- 

 tiful flowers, is called the Paradise of Roses. In the 

 neighbourhood are the fountains of naphtha, to which 

 the Parsees perform pilgrimages from India. Here, 

 too, is the temple of fire, where a fire is kept perpet- 

 ually burning. 



Beyond Terek, on the northern side of Caucasus, 

 lies, 6. the province of Caucasia (previous to 1822, 

 the government of Georgievsk), containing 33,586 

 square miles, with 146,500 inhabitants, of whom 

 21,000 are Russians, and 48,000 colonists. Here are 

 twenty-two fortified places (as Georgievsk, Kizliar (a 

 commercial city, with a population ot 9000), Alex- 

 androvsk, &c.) along the Cuban, the Kama and the 

 Terek, as defences against the savage tribes of the 

 mountains. Since 1825, Stavropol has been the 

 capital of this province, and general Jermoloff (q. v.) 

 the governor. The trade is mostly in the hands of 

 the Armenians. Here is the Scottish missionary sta- 

 tion of Kara, founded hi 1803, and enlarged by Mo- 

 ravians from Sarepta, with schools and" a printing- 

 office. 



CAUCUS ; an American term, used throughout 

 the United States, for those meetings which are held 

 by the different political parties, for the purpose of 

 agreeing upon candidates for office, or concerting any 

 measure which they intend to carry at the subse- 

 quent public or town meetings. From the feet that 

 the meetings were first held in a part of Boston 

 " where all the ship-business was carried on," Mr 

 Pickering, hi his vocabulary of Americanisms, (Bos- 

 ton, 1816), infers, that caucus might be a corrup- 

 tion of caulkers, the word meeting being understood. 

 He thinks he has sometimes heard the expression 

 a caucus meeting (caulkers' meeting). 



CAULAINCOURT. See Vicenza. 



CAUDINE FORKS. See Avellino. 



CAULKING, or CAUKING, of a ship, consists 

 hi driving a quantity of oakum, or old ropes untwist- 

 ed and drawn asunder, into the seams of the planks, 

 or into the intervals where the planks are joined to- 

 gether, hi the ship's decks or sides, in order to pre- 

 vent the entrance of water. After the oakum is 

 driven very liard into these seams, it is covered with 

 hot melted pitch or resin, to keep the water from 

 rotting it. Among the ancients, the first who made 

 use of caulking were the inhabitants of Phoeacia, 

 now Corfu. Wax and resin appear to have been 

 commonly used previously to that period. The Poles 

 use a sort of unctuous clay for the same purpose on 

 their navigable rivers. 



CAUSTIC. The name of caustic (Lat. causticus, 

 from Gr. xxia, I burn) is given to substances, which, 

 by their chemical action, disorganize the parts of the 

 body with which they are put in contact. They are 

 called, likewise, potential cauteries, to distinguish 

 them from the fire called actual cautery. Caustics, 

 in general, act by decomposing chemically the tissues 

 to which they are applied, by depriving them of life, 

 and producing a real local and circumscribed gan- 

 grene, called eschar or tlough. Those, the action of 

 which is powerful, for instance, caustic potassa, 

 concentrated sulphuric acid, &c., produce these 

 phenomena with such rapidity, that inflammation 

 takes pkce only after the formation of the eschar ; 

 whilst, on the contrary, inflammation is the Imme- 

 diate consequence of the less energetic caustics. In 

 both cases, suppuration occurs sooner or later, and 

 separates the disorganized from the surrounding parts. 

 Almost all the substances used as caustics have only 

 a local action : some, however, are capable of being 

 absorbed, and of exercising a deleterious action on 

 the economy hi general : arsenical preparations are 

 an instance of it. The employment of caustics is 



now confined to a small number of cases. The ac- 

 tual cautery and the knife are, hi general, preferred 

 to them. They are used principally hi order to 

 establish issues, particularly in cases in which it is 

 necessary to produce a powerful derivation ; to stop 

 the progress of certain gangrenous affections, such as 

 anthrax ; to open certain indolent abscesses ; to 

 change the mode of vitality of the skin in some can- 

 cerous or herpetic ulcers ; to destroy the excrescences 

 of wounds or proud flesh ; and, finally, to prevent the 

 absorption of the virus deposited at the surface of 

 poisoned wounds. 



CAUSTIC POTASSA (potassa fusa ; lapis cans- 

 ticus) ; impure hydrate of protoxyde of potassium ; 

 caustic kali with lime; common caustic. This is 

 seen in flat, irregular, brittle pieces, or in round 

 sticks, like the nitrate of silver ; of a greyish-white, 

 sometimes reddish ; of a savour extremely caustic, 

 and a slight odour sui generis. This substance is 

 extremely caustic ; it decomposes quickly the parts 

 with which it is put in contact, and leaves on the 

 skin a soft, greyish eschar, which comes off slowly. 

 Taken internally, it acts in the same way as all cor- 

 rosive poisons ; it has, nevertheless, been administeB- 

 ed, in very dilute solutions, as an antacid, diuretic, 

 and lithontriptic. It has succeeded in the gravel, 

 in nephritic colics, and other affections proceeding 

 from superabundance of uric acid. It has been re- 

 commended, likewise, in the treatment of scrofula, 

 and in some diseases of the skin, such as leprosy, 

 SEC. This solution, even when very diluted, soon 

 irritates the stomach, and brings on anorexia, which 

 prevents it from being used for any length of tune. 



CAUSTIC SODA (soda) ; protoxyde of sodium. 

 Its physical properties are similar to those of potassa, 

 and it may be used with advantage as a succedaneum 

 when employed as a caustic. In fact, the sub-carbo- 

 nate, which forms during its action on the skin, is 

 not deliquescent, as that of potassa, and, consequent- 

 ly, is not subject to spread. 



C AVALC ANTI, GDIDO ; a Florentine philosopher 

 and poet of the thirteenth century, the friend of 

 Dante, and, like him, a zealous Ghibelline. When 

 the dissensions of the GuelfsandGhibellines disturb- 

 ed the public peace of Florence, the citizens banish- 

 ed the chiefs of both parties. The Ghibellines were 

 exiled to Sarzana. On account of the unhealthy air 

 of that place, they were permitted to return ; but Ca- 

 valcanti had contracted a disease of which he died 

 (1300) at Florence. In his youth, he made a pilgrim- 

 age to St Jago de Compostella, in Galicia. Re- 

 turning home through France, he fell hi love, at Tou- 

 louse, with a young lady of the name of Mandetta. 

 To her most of his verses which we possess are ad- 

 dressed. They are remarkable, considering the pe- 

 riod at which they were written, for their oeautiful 

 style. His Canzone d'Amore has gained him the 

 most feme. The learned cardinal Egidio Colonna, 

 and some others, have made commentaries on it. 

 His Rime, published by Cicciaporci, appeared at Flo- 

 rence in 1813. 



CAVALIER, in fortification, is a work generally 

 raised within the body of the place, ten or twelve 

 feet higher than the rest of the works. It is most com- 

 monly situated within the bastion, and made much in 

 the same form. Sometimes the cavaliers are placed 

 in the gorges, or on the middle of the curtain ; they 

 are then made hi the form of a horse-shoe. Their 

 use is to command all the adjacent works and sur- 

 rounding country. They are seldom made except 

 when a rising ground overlooks some of the works. 

 In modern times, it is considered that cavaliers in a 

 bastion occupy too much room, render retrenchments 

 impossible, and, unless a ditch separates the cavalier 

 from the parapet of the bastion, cause the grenades 



