144 



J H A PIER CH AHEN TON. 



time, to cuter into negotiations with the princess o 

 Orleans, relative to Chauteloup, wiiirJi formerly luu 

 belonged to her. In March, 1816', the king uomi 

 nated him a member of the academy of sciences 

 Chaptal's works on national industry, chemistry, the 

 o ul LI vat ion of the vine, &c., are very much esteemed 

 especially his Chimie appliyuee aujc Arts (Paris, 1807 

 4 vols.) ; his Chimie apptiyuee d C Agriculture (Paris 

 1823, 2 vols.) ; and Ue i' Industrie Franvaise, Paris 

 1819, 2 vols.). He was director of two ciiemica 

 manufactories, at Montpeliier uiul Neuilly, discoveret 

 tile application of old wool, instead of oil, in the 

 preparation of soap, and t lie mode of dyeing cottoi 

 with Turkish red. lie invented several kinds o 

 cement and iirtiticial Puzzolanas, by means of native 

 calcined oclire, without the aid of foreign matters , 

 new varnishes for earthen ware, without the use o. 

 lead ores and plumbago, &c. , which are so often de- 

 structive of health and life ; and extended the ap- 

 plication of chemical agents to bleaching. 



CHAPTER (from the Latin caput, head) ; one of 

 the chief divisions of a book. As the rules and sta- 

 tutes of ecclesiastical establishments were arrangec 

 in chapters, so also the assembly of the members 01 

 a religious order, and of canons, was called a chap- 

 ter, because some or ail of the diapters, containing 

 the rules, were read there ; and the place where 

 they assembled, as well as the reproof administered 

 to a delinquent member, by reading the rules of the 

 chapter transgressed, had the same name. The or- 

 ders of knights, which originally had much of the 

 ecclesiastical constitution, used this expression for 

 the meetings of their members, and even some cor- 

 porations of mechanics or tradesmen, call their as- 

 semblies chapter*. In England, as elsewhere, the deans 

 and chapters hod the right to choose the bishop, but 

 Henry VIII. assumed tliis right as a prerogative of the 

 crown. In Prussia, also, Protestant bishops have 

 been lately elected, and, still more lately, an arch- 

 bishop, without the vote of a chapter, by a mere 

 order of the government. 



CHARACTER. This name is given to certain 

 marks, used to signify objects or ideas. The written 

 language of the Chinese is a language of figures, 

 every object or notion being expressed in it by a par- 

 ticular figure. We, also, tor the sake of brevity and 

 precision, use, in several sciences, certain signs : tor 

 instance in : 



Astronomy, 

 O Sun, <J Mars, 

 1> Moon, |f Vesta, 

 Earth, X Juno, 

 y Mercury,o Pallas, 

 Venus, j Ceres, 

 <Y= Ram, ^Lion, 

 y Bull, fg Virgin, 

 H Twins, ..ArBa&nces, 

 63>Crab, TUScorpion, 



31 Jupiter, 

 *l Saturn, 

 H Herschel. 



^ Archer, 

 V5 Capricorn, 

 SSWaterman, 

 3 Fishes. 



Arithmetic, Algebra, and Geometry. 



I V IX C 



II VI X CC 



vii xx i), n 



VI11 L M, C13. 



234567890. 



IV 



fand, 

 but, 

 Ximo, 

 -f-BjF, 



: equal, 



v/ root, .". therefore, 

 o / deg. min. -o like 

 L angle, ^like&eq. 

 Atriangle, (| parallel. 

 D square, > greater than, 



, , er 



::: to^as, toQcircle, <iess than. 



Chemistry. 



Aair, Ogold, #iron, Ssalt, 

 V earth, 3) silver, % tin, ^sulphur, 

 Vwater, $ mercury, J^lead, gtartar. 

 Afire, Q copper, (D nitre, 

 Dalton, has in modern times introduced a system 

 of notation adapted to the atomic theory, of which 

 the following is a specimen. LetQdenote oxygen, 

 '[Hydrogen, Qnitrogen, and carbon, then the ato- 

 mic nature of their compounds may be shown thus 

 OG water, 

 OCD ammonia, 

 O o carbonic acid. 



Formerly there were more signs and abbreviation? 

 used in scientific works than at present. In 1Y 

 the use of signs in medical prescriptions has been 

 abolished from the danger of their being confounded. 

 CHARACTER MASKS ; such as appear, not in 

 dominos, but in the usual dress of certain ranks. 



CHARADE; a syllabic enigma ; that is, an enig- 

 ma, the subject of which is a name or a word, that is 

 proposed for discovery from an enigmatical descrip- 

 tion of its several syllables, taken separately, as so 

 many individual words. A charade may be called 

 complete, if the different enigmas which it contains 

 are brought into a proper relation to each other, and, 

 as a whole, unite in an epigrammatic point. 



CHARCOAL. (See Carbon.) To the informa- 

 tion contained in the article Carbon, we will only add 

 a fact lately announced in the scientific journals, that, 

 in Picardy, and other provinces of France, where 

 turf is almost exclusively used as fuel, the inhabitants, 

 by means of a cheap apparatus, are able to carbon 

 ize it so as to render it equal to the best charcoal. 



CHARDIN, JEAN, son of a Protestant jeweller in 

 Paris, and a jeweller himself, was born in 1643. He- 

 fore he had reached his twenty-second year, his father 

 sent him to the East Indies, in order to buy diamonds. 

 After a short residence in Surat, Chardin lived six 

 years in Ispahan, where he was less engaged in mer- 

 cantile business than in profound studies and scienti- 

 fic researches, making use of his connexions at court 

 for collecting the most authentic information of the 

 political and military state of Persia. He collected 

 the most valuable materials relating to antiquities and 

 history. In 1670, he returned to France. Finding, 

 however, that he could hope for no employment on 

 account of his religion, he again left France for Per- 

 sia, hi 1671, taking with him a considerable quantity 

 of jewels, &c. He spent ten years partly in Persia and 

 partly in India. In 1681, he arrived in London, when 

 he received the honour of knighthood. He publish- 

 ed the first volume of his travels, hi London, in 1686. 

 The other volumes were about to follow, when he 

 was appointed minister plenipotentiary of the king of 

 England to the states-general of Holland, and agent 

 of the English East India company to the same. His 

 new duties did not distract him from his favourite 

 imployment, so that, in 1711, two editions of his tra- 

 vels appeared. He soon after returned to England, 

 where he died in 1713. The exactness and truth of 

 lis statements, and the extent of his knowledge, have 

 jeen confirmed by all succeeding travellers. The 

 jest edition of Chardin's travels is that by Langles, 

 1811, hi ten vols. 8vo, with an atlas in folio. 



CHARENTE ; a river in France, rising in the de- 

 partment of the Upper Vienne. It falls into the sea 

 ibout eight miles below Rochefort, opposite to the 

 sle of Oleron, after a course of about 100 miles, 

 t gives its name to a department. See Departments. 

 CHARENTON ; a market-town about three 

 eagues and a half from Paris, on the road to Troyes 

 and Lyons, at the confluence of the Marne with the 

 Seine. To its situation, Charenton, which is a very 



