CASEIN 



1214 



CASHMERE GOAT 



the possessive was formed by adding es to 

 the noun, as in Chaucer's phrase, "lordes 

 werre" (lord's war). As this gave many pos- 

 sessives the same form as the plural, gradually 

 the e was dropped and the apostrophe substi- 

 tuted to indicate the omission, so we now write 

 it lord's. If a word ending in an s sound 

 becomes awkward to pronounce through the 

 addition of another s, the apostrophe alone is 

 added; as, Moses' law, for goodness' sake. In 

 some words, however, the s is almost always 

 added; as, Burns's poems, the empress's com- 

 mand. There is no fixed rule for the forma- 

 tion of such possessives, and the problem is 

 often avoided altogether by using the prepo- 

 sitional phrase with of where it does not affect 

 the meaning; as, in the law of Moses, the 

 poems of Burns. The tendency is to indicate 

 possession by means of the preposition of in 

 most cases where the object is without life; 

 as, the clasp of the necklace, not the necklace's 

 clasp; the cause of the war, not the war's cause. 



Plural Possessives. In forming plural pos- 

 sessives the apostrophe only is added if the 

 noun ends in s; as, in ladies' gloves, birds' 

 nests. When the plural form of the noun does 

 not end in s the possessive is formed as in the 

 singular, by adding both the apostrophe and 

 the s, as, men's clothes, women's hats, chil- 

 dren's toys. 



Compound Possessives. Only the last word 

 in a compound word is inflected, as, sister-in- 

 law's. The same rule is followed if joint pos- 

 session is to be indicated, as, Thurber and 

 Brown's studio, William and Mary's uncle. 

 But where the possession is not common, the 

 sign of the possessive must be added to each 

 noun; as, Grant's and Lee's forces; the poem 

 is neither Bryant's nor Whittier's. 



Double Possessive. There is a curious idio- 

 matic double possessive in common use which 

 is a mixture of two constructions, the inflected 

 possessive and the possessive indicated by of ; 

 as, a play of Shakespeare's; a cousin of Phil- 

 ip's. In some cases this double form is abso- 

 lutely necessary to bring out the meaning; 

 for instance, "this picture of my uncle" does 

 not convey at all the same meaning as "this 

 picture of my uncle's." The same is true of 

 expressions like "this introduction of Shaw," 

 or "this introduction of Shaw's." 



For a detailed account of the cases and in- 

 flections of pronouns, see PRONOUN. L.M.B. 



CASEIN, ka'sein, the substance in milk 

 which forms' the curd in making cheese. 

 Casein alone will not form curd, but needs the 



action of some acid. In its natural state it 

 bears a close resemblance to the white of an 

 egg. It also occurs in beans and peas and 

 is one of their most valuable food elements. 

 It is a compound of nitrogen, carbon, hydro- 

 gen, oxygen and sulphur. See MILK; FOOD, 

 subhead Chemistry of Food. 



CASGRAIN, kasgraN', HENRI RAYMOND 

 (1831-1904), a Canadian historian, known as 

 Abbe Casgrain. He was born at Riviere Ouelle, 

 Quo., studied theology at Quebec Seminary, 

 and was ordained a priest in 1856. After 

 teaching for three years, he became a priest 

 at the Basilica in Quebec, where he remained 

 until 1873. He is chiefly known for the his- 

 torical studies of French Canada to which he 

 devoted the remainder of his life. His first 

 book, Legendes Canadiennes, appeared in 1861. 

 Of his later books the most valuable for 

 students are Biographies Canadiennes; Un 

 Pelerinage au Pays d'Evangeline; and Mont- 

 calm et Levis. Casgrain's aim was to portray 

 the early French-Canadians as they really 

 were, and he succeeded in presenting vivid 

 narratives, but he was sometimes misled by 

 his racial sympathy to exaggerate the com- 

 mendable features of their history and to mini- 

 mize their faults or weaknesses. 



CASGRAIN, THOMAS CHASE (1852- ), a 

 Canadian barrister and statesman, Postmaster- 

 General of the Dominion and since 1912 a 

 member of the International Waterways Com- 

 mission which may consider and determine all 

 questions relating to the Great Lakes and 

 other waterways on the boundary between the 

 United States and the Dominion. Casgrain 

 was born in Detroit, Mich., but his parents' 

 home was in Quebec, where he attended the 

 seminary and Laval University. Called to the 

 bar in 1877, he soon rose to eminence in his 

 profession. In 1885 he was junior counsel for 

 the Crown at the trial of Louis Riel for treason. 

 He sat as a Conservative in the Quebec 'legis- 

 lature from 1886 to 1890 and again from 1892 

 to 1896. During the latter period he was also 

 attorney-general of the province of Quebec, 

 and secured a law against corrupt practices at 

 elections. For eight years (until 1904) he was 

 then a member of the Dominion House, of 

 Commons. In 1914 he was again elected to 

 the House of Commons and became Post- 

 master-General in the Borden Ministry. 



CASH 'MERE GOAT, a variety of goat re- 

 markable for its fine, silky fleece, which is used 

 to make the famous, costly cashmere, or kash- 

 mir, shawls. A full-grown goat yields only 



