CONVULSIONISTS COOKE. 



439 



muscles of the face are affected ; St P'itus's dance, 

 when the muscles of the arm are thrown into invo- 

 luntary motions, with lameness and rotations. The 

 hysterical epilepsy, or other epilepsies, arising from 

 different causes, are convulsive diseases of the uni- 

 versal kind. The muscles of the globe of the eye, 

 throwing the eye into involuntary distortions, in de- 

 fiance of the direction of the will, are instances of 

 partial convulsion. The muscles principally affected 

 in all species of convulsions, are those immediately 

 under die direction of the will ; as those of the eye- 

 lids, eye, face, jaws, neck, superior and inferior ex- 

 tremities. The muscles of respiration, acting both 

 voluntarily and involuntarily, are not unfrequently 

 convulsed ; as the diaphragm, intercostals, &c. The 

 more immediate causes of convulsions are mental af- 

 fections, or any irritating cause exciting a great ac- 

 tion in die arterial system of the brain and nerves. 

 After muscles have been once accustomed to act 

 involuntarily, and with increased action, the same 

 causes can readily produce the same effects on those 

 organs. All parts that have muscular fibres may be 

 convulsed. The sensations in the mind most capa- 

 ble of producing convulsions, are timidity, horror, 

 anger, great sensibility of the soul, &c. 



CONVULSIONISTS. See Jansenists. 



COOK, JAMES ; a British seaman, highly cele- 

 brated for his maritime discoveries. He was born at 

 Marton, a village in the north riding of Yorkshire, 

 in 1728, of sober and industrious parents, not above 

 the rank of peasantry. After having learned read- 

 ing, writing, and a little arithmetic, at a country 

 school, he was put apprentice to a shopkeeper at 

 Snaith, a small town on the sea-coast. Here he ac- 

 quired such a taste for the occupation of a sailor, and 

 so much consequent dislike of his business, that his 

 master gave up his indentures and he soon after 

 bound himself to two brothers, ship-owners of Whit- 

 by, for three years, and continued in their employ for 

 some time after. At the commencement of the 

 French war in 1755, he entered the royal navy. In 

 1759, he was made master of the Mercury, which 

 belonged to the squadron sent against Quebec, and 

 performed the hazardous service of taking soundings 

 in the river St Lawrence, opposite the French en- 

 campment. He also made a chart of the river St 

 Lawrence below Quebec, in a very satisfactory man- 

 ner. After the capture of Quebec, he assisted at 

 the taking of Newfoundland, and afterwards made a 

 survey of the harbour of Placentia. At the end of 

 1762, he returned to Britain ; but, the next year, 

 he went again to Newfoundland as a marine survey- 

 or. After again visiting Britain, he went out in 

 the same capacity with Sir Hugh Palliser, appointed 

 governor of Labrador and Newfoundland. In this 

 situation, he made himself known to the Royal Society 

 by the communication of an observation on a solar 

 eclipse, in 1766, with the longitude of the place de- 

 duced from it. 



In 1768 he was appointed to the command of the 

 Endeavour, a vessel destined to convey to the Pacific 

 ocean persons employed by government to make ob- 

 servations on the transit of Venus. He sailed from 

 Deptford, June 30, 1768, with the rank of lieutenant 

 in the navy. He was accompanied by Mr (afterwards 

 Sir Joseph) Banks, and the Swedish naturalist Dr 

 Daniel Solander. The transit of Venus, June 3, 

 1769, was advantageously observed at Otaheite ; the 

 neighbouring islands were explored, and lieutenant 

 Cook then sailed for New Zealand, where he arrived 

 in October. Six months were employed in examin- 

 ing the shores of the islands ; after which he took 

 his departure for New Holland, the eastern coast of 

 which he attentively surveyed. On his return, Cook 

 was raised to the rank of master and commander in 



the navy. An account of the voyage, drawn up bj 

 doctor Hawkesworth, was speedily published, and a 

 second expedition was planned to explore the antarc- 

 tic regions, for the purpose of ascertaining the exist- 

 ence or non-existence of a circum-polar southern 

 continent. 



On this occasion, two ships were employedthe 

 Resolution, of which captain Cook liad the com- 

 mand, and the Adventure, under captain Furneaux. 

 Doctor John Reinhold Forster and his son went out 

 as naturalists, Mr Hodges as painter, and Messrs 

 AVales and Bayley as astronomers. The voyage was 

 commenced in July, 1772 ; and, after proceeding as 

 far south as the latitude of 71 , where a barrier of 

 ice opposed any further progress, discovering the 

 island of New Georgia, in 54 south latitude, and 

 visiting Otaheite and other places, captain Cook re- 

 turned to Britain in 1775. So successful were the 

 means employed by captain Cook for the prevention 

 of disease among his crew, that only one man was 

 lost by sickness during the expedition. The captain 

 having communicated to the Royal Society a paper 

 describing the regulations and remedies which he 

 had adopted, he was chosen a fellow of that body, 

 and his experiments were rewarded by the Copleiaiv 

 gold medal. Government rewarded him with the 

 rank of post-captain in the navy, and the appoint- 

 ment of captain in Greenwich Hospital. The narra- 

 tive of this voyage was drawn up by captain Cook 

 himself, and merely arranged for the press by doctor 

 Douglas, afterwards bishop of Salisbury. 



In July 1776, he sailed on an expedition to ascer- 

 tain whether any communication existed between the 

 Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the arctic regions. In 

 this voyage, he again commanded the Resolution, 

 which was accompanied by the Discovery, and ex- 

 plored a considerable extent of the western coast ol 

 North America. He also discovered the Sandwich 

 islands, and to Owhyhee, one of this group lie re- 

 turned from his American survey, to pass the winter 

 of 1778. In February, captain Cook sailed for Kara- 

 tschatka, but was compelled by an accident to put 

 back to Owhyhee. A boat having been stolen by 

 one of the islanders, the captain went on shore to 

 seize the king of Owhyhee, and keep him as a host- 

 age till the boat was restored. The people, how- 

 ever, were not disposed to submit to this insult : their 

 resistance brought on hostilities, and, in attempting 

 to reach his boat captain Cook and some of his at- 

 tendants became victims to the fury of the irritated 

 islanders. The death of this great seaman took place 

 Feb. 14, 1779. A medal in commemoration of him 

 was struck by order of the Royal Society ; his eulogy 

 was pronounced in the Florentine academy, and was 

 made a prize subject by one of the French scientific 

 societies. 



COOKE, GEORGE FREDERIC ; a theatrical per- 

 former of great eminence. He was born in Westmin- 

 ster, April 17, 1756. His father was a subaltern offi- 

 cer in the army, who, dying when young, left his 

 wife in straitened circumstances. The youth evinc- 

 ed an early taste for his future profession ; and, be- 

 ing apprenticed to a printer, he neglected the labours 

 or the office, and engaged his companions to assist 

 him in performing plays. His indentures were con- 

 sequently cancelled, and he was dismissed. He was 

 then tried in the navy; but his inclination for the 

 stage overcame all restraint, and he at length joined 

 an itinerant company of actors. Here he was quite 

 in his element ; and, after having acquired a compe- 

 tent acquaintance with stage business, he became the 

 hero of the scene at York, Newcastle, Chester, Man- 

 chester, Liverpool, and other places. He acquired so 

 much fame, that, in 1794, he was engaged by the 

 manager of the Dublin theatre ; and after pertbrnv 



