COBWEBS 



1453 



COCHINEAL 



a dozen wriggling, hissing serpents around the 

 upper part of his body. It is said that the 

 fangs of the snake are extracted, but this is 

 not always the case. For explanation of this 

 curious fact, see SERPENT CHARMING. 



COB 'WEBS, the irregular webs spun in 

 neglected corners by certain types of spiders. 

 See SPIDEUWEBS; SPIDER. 



COCAINE, ko'kain, also kokane', a bitter 

 drug prepared from coca leaves. It is used by 

 dentists to deaden pain and by oculists to dilate 

 the pupil of the eye. Within recent years it 

 has also been successfully employed in surgical 

 operations. When it is injected into the spinal 

 canal the entire body below the point of in- 

 jection becomes insensible to pain. To be 

 effective cocaine must come in contact with 

 mucous surfaces or be injected beneath the 

 skin. 



It has a quieting, restful influence which has 

 led to a widespread and dangerous habit, for 

 its continued use causes sleeplessness, nervous 

 twitching, mental and moral weakness and cer- 

 tain death. Its presence in some patent medi- 

 cines has in many cases started this deadly 

 habit. A "coke fiend" will lie, beg, steal or do 

 anything to obtain this drug. In 1914, when 

 the Harrison act prohibited the sale of cocaine 

 in the United-States except under a physician's 

 prescription, many habitual users were nearly 

 crazed for want of it. As a result benevolent 

 societies were kept busy trying to furnish relief 

 to the victims and to bring them back to a nor- 

 mal moral and physical state. 



Coca, the shrub from whose rusty leaves 

 cocaine is made, is native in South America 

 but is now also cultivated in Ceylon, India 

 and Java. It grows from three to six feet 

 high and bears yellow flowers. The South 

 American Indians, especially in Peru and 

 Brazil, chew as a stimulant the dried leaves 

 mixed with finely-powdered chalk. A small 

 quantity will enable, a person to resist fatigue, 

 and for a time to need less food, and it makes 

 breathing easier in mountain climbing; but the 

 reaction is always depressing. This habit, like 

 the use of the drug, is also detrimental. J.H.K. 



COCCUS, kahk'kus. See SCALE INSECT. 



COCHIN-CHINA, ko cheen' , or ko' chin, a 

 name which once applied to the entire empire 

 of Annam, but is now confined to the French 

 colony of that name, lying in the extreme 

 southern part of French Indo-China. It was 

 formerly Lower Cochin-China. It consists for 

 the most part of a vast alluvial plain formed 

 by the deltas of the Mekong, Saigon and 



other rivers, but in the east there is a small 

 hilly area with an altiude of 1,500 to 2,900 feet. 

 The country has an area of 22,000 square 

 miles more than one-tenth that of France, 

 and about that of West Virginia. About one- 

 fourth is under cultivation, the remainder 

 being covered with dense forests. The soil 



LOCATION MAP 



is very fertile, and the low wet lands produce 

 vast quantities of rice, which is the chief 

 product. Cocoanut palms, areca nuts, bamboo, 

 tobacco, sugar cane, maize and cotton are also 

 grown. The wild animals include the panther, 

 tiger and elephant and many serpents. The 

 beast of burden is the water buffalo. Large 

 numbers of poultry, swine and ducks are 

 raised. The first, an excellent breed, probably 

 has given its name to the Cochin-China fowls 

 so well known in America. There is no harbor 

 on the seacoast, but Saigon on the Saigon 

 River and Mitho on the Mekong are reached 

 by the largest vessels. The population is 

 about 3,000,000, fewer than 8,000 of whom are 

 Europeans; in religion more than half are 

 Buddhists. 



COCHINEAL, kahch'ineel, a natural dye- 

 stuff used for the production of crimson and 

 scarlet tints and for the preparation of carmine 

 and lake. It consists originally of the bodies 

 of minute cochineal insects, which are found 

 feeding upon various species of cacti, more 

 especially the nopal plant, a native of Mexico 

 and Peru. The insects are brushed from the 

 branches of the cactus into bags and then 

 killed by immersion in hot water or by ex- 

 posure to the sun, steam or heat of an oven. 

 The dried insects have the form of irregular 

 fluted and concave grains, of which about 

 70,000 weigh only a pound. They are collected 

 three times during the growing season. 



The dye is prepared from the dried bodies 

 of the female insects, which are placed in a 

 vessel with ammonia water. This vessel is 

 then placed in boiling water, uncovered, which 

 causes part of the ammonia to evaporate. The 



