310 



COLDINGHAM COLIC. 



New York. After a residence of a year in this city, 

 he was appointed the first surveyor-general of the 

 lands of the colony, and, at the same time, master in 

 chancery. In 1120, he obtained a seat in the king's 

 council, under governor Burnet. For some time pre- 

 vious to this, he had resided on a tract of land, about 

 nine miles from Newburgh, on Hudson river, for 

 which he had received a patent, where he was ex- 

 posed, every moment, to the attacks of the Indians, 

 the tract being situated on the frontier. In 1761, he 

 wiis chosen lieutenant-governor of New York, and 

 occupied this station during the remainder of his life, 

 l>eing placed repeatedly at the head of affairs by 

 the absence or death of several governors. During 

 one of those periods, tin- paper intended to be 

 di>tributed in New York, under the British stamp- 

 net, arrived, and was put under his care, in the for- 

 tification called fort George. The people assembled 

 in multitudes, under several leaders, and determined 

 to cause the paper to be delivered up and destroyed. 

 But, though the fort was declared untenable by the 

 engineers, and the people threatened to massacre 

 him, Golden defended his trust, and finally succeed- 

 ed in securing it on board a British man-of-war, then 

 lying in the port. The populace burned him in effigy, 

 and destroyed his carriages, in his sight. After the 

 return of governor Tryon, in 1775, he retired to a 

 seat on Long Island, where he died, Sept. 28, 1776, 

 in the eighty-ninth year of his age, a few hours before 

 nearly one-fourth part of the city of New York was re- 

 duced to ashes. 



Mr Colden's productions were numerous, consist- 

 ing of botanical and medical essays. Among 

 them is a treatise, showing the causes, and point- 

 ing out the remedies, of the yellow ferer, which, 

 about the year 1743, desolated New York. He also 

 wrote an account of the prevalent diseases of the 

 climate, and a history of the five Indian na- 

 tions. But the work which cost him most 

 time and labour, was one published, at first, un- 

 der the title of the Cause of Gravitation ; but which 

 being afterwards much enlarged, appeared in 1751, 

 with the title of the Principles of Action in Matter, 

 to which is annexed a Treatise on Fluxions. He 

 corresponded with many of the most distinguished 

 characters of the day, among whom were Linnaeus, 

 Gronovius, the earl of Macclesfield, doctor Frank- 

 lin, &c. Mr Colden always took great delight in 

 the study of botany. His descriptions of between 

 three and four hundred American plants were pub- 

 lished in the Acta Upsaliensia. He paid attention 

 also to the climate, and left a long course of diurnal 

 observations on the thermometer, barometer, and 

 winds. 



COLDINGHAM ; the name of a parish and vil- 

 lage situated on the Scottish border, about two miles 

 from Eyemouth, Berwickshire. It is supposed to be 

 the Colonia of Ptolemy and the Coldana of Bede. 

 Besides the ancient village of Coldingham, there are 

 two of lesser note, named Auckeneraw and West 

 Preston. The church, wliich was partially rebuilt 

 in 1670, is all that remains of the priory of Colding- 

 ham, said to be the most ancient nunnery in Scotland, 

 and to have been re-founded in 1098, by Edgar, king 

 of Scotland, for Benedictine monks. Here, on the 

 promontory called Abb's head, stand the remains of 

 a chapel, to the north-west of which is a lofty penin- 

 sular rock, crowned with the ruins of Fast castle, 

 which, though deemed an impregnable fortress, was 

 several times, during hostilities between the two 

 kingdoms, taken and re-taken by surprise. Several 

 fortlets were formerly scattered over this parish ; 

 and on an eminence called Wardlaw are vestiges of 

 nn ancient oval encampment. Population of the 

 parish in 1831, 2668. 



COLDSTREAM , the name of a parish and town 

 in Berwickshire, on the northern bank of the Tweed. 

 The parish is about eight miles in length and four in 

 breadth ; the soil is rich, and in the highest state of 

 cultivation. Its ancient name was Luyn-el, or Lien- 

 liall, the church of which, now in ruins, with its 

 cliapel of Hirsel, belonged to the priory of Cistercian 

 nuns founded at this place, by Gospatrick, Earl of 

 D unbar; but on the erection of a new church, its de- 

 signation was changed to Kirktown, and afterwards 

 to Coldstream. The town is situated at the conflu- 

 ence of the river Leet with the Tweed, which is here 

 crossed by a bridge tliat unites the two kingdoms. 

 It is a thriving place, the chief thoroughfare from 

 Edinburgh to Newcastle, and other parts in that 

 direction, passing through it. Population of the 

 parish in 1831, 2897. \\ lien general Monk quarter- 

 ed here in 1659 60, he raised a regiment of horse 

 which he called, and which still continues to be cal- 

 led, the Coldstream Guards. 



COLIC (from xx, colon, the name of one of the 

 intestines). The appellation of colic is commonly 

 given to all pains in the abdomen, almost indiscrimi- 

 nately; but, from the different causes and circum- 

 stances of this disorder, it is differently denominated. 

 When the pain is accompanied with a vomiting of 

 bile, or with obstinate costiveness, it is called a bili- 

 ous colic ; if flatus causes the pain, that is, if attended 

 with temporary distension, relieved by the discharge 

 of wind, it takes the name <& flatulent or windy colic ; 

 when accompanied with heat and inflammation, it 

 takes the name of inflammatory colic ; or enteritis. 

 When this disease arises to a violent height, and is 

 attended with obstinate costiveness, and an evacua- 

 tion of faeces by the mouth, it is called passio iliaca, 

 or iliac passion. Doctor Cullen enumerates seven 

 species of colic. One of the most important is the 

 colica Pictmum. This is called, from the places 

 where it is endemial, the Poictou, the Surinam, the 

 Devonshire colic ; from its victims, the plumbers' and 

 the painters' colic ; from its symptoms, the dry belly- 

 ache, the nervous and spasmodic colic. It has been 

 attributed to the poison of lead, and this is undoubt- 

 edly the cause, when it occurs to glaziers, painters, 

 and those employed in lead works ; but, though this 

 is one, it is by no means the only cause. In Devon- 

 shire, it certainly more often arises from the early 

 cider, made of harsh, unripe fruit, and in the West 

 Indies from new rum. The characteristics of this 

 disease are, obstinate costiveness, with a vomiting of 

 an acrid or porraceous bile, pains about the region of 

 the navel, shooting from thence to each side with ex- 

 cessive violence, strong convulsive spasms in the in- 

 testines, and a tendency to a paralysis of the extre 

 mities. It is occasioned by long-continued costive- 

 ness ; by an accumulation of acrid bile ; by cold ap- 

 plied either to the extremities, or to the belly itself; 

 by a free use of unripe fruits, and by great irregu- 

 larity in the mode of living. From its occurring 

 frequently in Devonshire, and other cider countries, 

 it has been supposed to arise from an impregnation 

 of lead received by the stomach ; but this seems to 

 be a mistake, as it is a very prevalent disease in the 

 West Indies likewise, where no cider is made, and 

 where there is only a very small quantity of lead in the 

 mills employed to extract the juice from the sugar- 

 canes. One or other of the causes just enumerated 

 may justly be said always to give rise to this species 

 of colic. The dry belly-ache is always attended with 

 some degree of danger, which is in proportion to the 

 violence of the symptoms, and the duration of the 

 disease. Even when it does not prove fatal, it is too 

 apt to terminate in palsy, and to leave behind it con- 

 tractions of the hands and feet, with an inability in 

 their muscles to perform their office; and in this 



