CAS 



CAS 



GASS1XE, in botany, a genus of the 

 Pentandria Trigynia class anil order. Na- 

 tural order of Dtimosae. Rhamni, Jus- 

 sieu. Essential character: calyx quin- 

 quepartite ; petals five ; berry trisper- 

 mous. There are four species, of which 

 C. Capensis, Cape cassine, or phillyrea, 

 I'.as a woody stulk, which in this country 

 seldom rises more than six feet high, 

 sending- out many branches, covered 

 with a purplish bark. The flowers are 

 produced in roundish bunches from the 

 side and at the end of the branches ; they 

 are while, and have five small petals 

 spreading open ; germ roundish, crown- 

 ed by a bifid or trifid stigrna. This shrub 

 is a native of the Cape. 



CASSIXI (JOHN DOMIXTC,) an eminent 

 astronomer, was born of noble parents, 

 at a town in Piedmont in Italy, June 8, 

 1625. After laying a proper foundation 

 in his studies at home, he was sent to 

 continue them in a college of Jesuits at 

 Genoa. He had an uncommon turn for 

 Latin poetry, which he exercised so very 

 early, that some of his poems were pub- 

 lished when he was but 11 years old. At 

 length he met with books of astronomy, 

 which he read with great eagerness. 

 Pursuing the bent of his inclinations in 

 this way, in a short time he made so 

 amazing a progress, that in 1650 the se- 

 nate of Bologna invited him to be their 

 public mathematical professor. Cassini 

 was but 25 years of age when lie went to 

 Bologna, where he taught mathematics, 

 and made observations upon the heavens, 

 with great care and assiduity. In 1652 a 

 comet appeared, which he observed with 

 great accuracy ; and he discovered that 

 comets were not bodies accidentally ge- 

 nerated in the atmosphere, as had been 

 supposed, but of the same nature, and 

 probably governed by the same law, as 

 the planets. The same year he resolved 

 an astronomical problem, which Kepler 

 and Bulliald had given up as insolvable ; 

 viz. to determine geometrically the apo- 

 gee and eccentricity of a planet, from its 

 true and mean place. In 1653, when a 

 church in Bologna was repaired and en- 

 larged, he obtained leave of the senate to 

 correct and settle a meridian line, which 

 had been drawn by an astronomer in 

 1575. In 1657 he attended as an assistant 

 to a nobleman, who was sent to Rome to 

 compose some differences which had 

 arisen between Bologna and Ferrara, 

 from the inundations of the Po ; and he 

 shewed so much skill and judgment in 

 the management of the affair, that in 

 1663 the Pope's brother appointed him 

 inspector-general of the fortifications of 



the castle of Urbino; and he had after- 

 ward committed to him the care of all 

 the rivers in the ecclesiastical state. 



In the mean time he did not neglect his 

 astronomical studies, and made several 

 discoveries relating to the planets .Mars 

 and Venus, particularly the revolution 

 of Mars upon his own axis ; but the point 

 he had chiefly in view was, to settle an 

 accurate theory of Jupiter's satellites ; 

 which, after much labour and observa- 

 tion, he happily effected, and published 

 it at Rome, among other astronomical 

 pieces, in 1666. 



Picard, the French astronomer, get- 

 ting Cassini's tables of Jupiter's satellites, 

 found them so very exact, that he con- 

 ceived the highest opinion of his skill; 

 and from that time his fame increased so 

 fast in France, that the government de- 

 sired to have him a member of the aca- 

 demy. Cassini however could not leave 

 his station without leave of his superiors; 

 and therefore the king, Lewis the XlVth, 

 requested of the Pope, and the senate of 

 Bologna, that Cassini might be permit- 

 ted to come into France. Leave was 

 granted for six years, and he came to Pa- 

 ris in the beginning of 1669, where he 

 was immediately made the king's astro- 

 nomer. When this term of six years was 

 near expiring, the Pope and the senate 

 of Bologna insisted upon his return, on 

 pain of forfeiting his revenues and emo- 

 luments, which had hitherto been remit- 

 ted to him : but the minister Colbert pre- 

 vailed on him to stay, and he was natura- 

 lized in 1673; the same year also in 

 which he was married. 



The Royal Observatory of Paris had 

 been finished some time, and Cassini was 

 appointed to be the first inhabiter ; 

 which he took possession of in Septem- 

 ber, 1671, when he set himself with fresh 

 alacrity to attend the duties of his pro- 

 fession. In 1672 he endeavoured to de- 

 termine the parallax of Mars and the 

 Sun ; and in 1677 he proved that the di- 

 urnal rotation of Jupiter round his axis 

 was performed in 9 hours 58 minutes, 

 from the motion of a spot in one of his 

 larger belts : also in 1684 he discovered 

 four satellites of Saturn, besides that 

 which Huygens had found out. In 1693 

 he published a new edition of his " Ta- 

 bles of Jupiter's Satellites," corrected by 

 later observations. In 1695 he took a 

 journey to Bologna, to examine the me- 

 ridian line which he had fixed there in 

 1655 ; and he shewed, in the presence 

 of eminent mathematicians, that it had 

 not varied in the least during that 40 

 years. In 1700 he continued the meri- 



