32(3 
C H A 
C H A 
Knights of the Chapel, called also poor 
knights of Windsor, were instituted by Henry 
YIH. in his testament. Their number was 
at first thirteen, but lias been since augmented 
to twenty-six. They assist in the fu- 
neral services of the kings of England: 
they are subject to the office of the canons of 
Windsor, and live on pensions assigned them 
by the order of the garter. They bear a blue 
or red cloke, with the arms of St. George on 
the left shoulder. 
CHAPLAIN, an ecclesiastic who officiates 
in a chapel. 
The king of Great Britain has forty-eight 
chaplains in ordinary, who wait four each 
month, preach in the chapel, read the service 
to the family, and to the king in his private 
oratory, and say grace in the absence of the 
clerk of the closet. Besides, there are twenty- 
four chaplains at Whitehall, fellows of Ox- 
ford or Cambridge, who preach in their turns, 
and are allowed 30/. per annum each. Ac- 
cording to a statute of Plenry VIII. the per- 
sons vested with a power of retaining chap- 
lains, together with the number each is al- 
lowed to qualify, is as follows : an archbishop, 
eight ; a duke or bishop, six ; marquis or 
earl, live ; viscount, four ; baron, knight of 
the garter, or lord-chancellor, three ; a 
duchess, marchioness, countess, baroness, the 
treasurer and controller of the king’s house, 
clerk of the closet, the king’s secretary, dean 
of the chapel, almoner, and master of the 
rolls, each of them two ; chief justice of the 
king’s bench, and warden of the cinque ports, 
each one. All these chaplains may purchase 
a licence or dispensation, and take two bene- 
fices with cure of souls. A chaplain must 
be retained by letters testimonial under hand 
and seal ; for it is not sufficient that he serve 
as chaplain in the family. 
CHAPLET, a string of beads used by the 
Roman catholics to count the number of their 
prayers. The invention of it is ascribed to 
Peter the Hermit, who probably learned it 
of the Turks, as they owe it to the East In- 
dians. Chaplets are sometimes called pater- 
nosters, and are made of coral, of diamond, 
of wood, &c. The common chaplet contains 
fifty ave-marias and five pater-nosters. 
CHAPPE', in heraldry, the dividing an 
escutcheon by lines drawn from the centre 
of the upper edge to the angles below, into 
three parts, the sections on the sides being of 
a different metal or colour from the rest. 
CM AKA, a genus of the monandria order, 
in the monoecia class of plants. There is 
neither male calyx nor corolla ; and the an- 
thera is placed under the germen. r J he fe- 
male calyx is tetraphyllous ; no corolla; the 
stigma quinquefid, with one roundish seed. 
There are 4 species. 
CHAR ACTER, in a general sense, denotes 
any mark whatever, serving to represent 
either things or ideas : thus letters are cha- 
racters, types, or marks, of certain sounds ; 
words, of ideas, See. See Letter, &c. 
Character. If one person apply to ano- 
ther for the character of a third peron, and a 
good character as to his solvency be given, 
yet if, in consequence of this opinion, the 
party asking the question suffer loss through 
the person’s insolvency, no action lies against 
him w ho gave the character if it were fairly 
given. I lisp. Rep. 442. 
But if a man wickedly asserts that which he 
knows to be false, and thereby draws his 
C H A 
neighbour into a loss, it is actionable. 3 T. 
R. 351. But if the party giving credit also 
knew that the party credited was in bad cir- 
cumstances an action will not lie. I Esp. 
Rep. 290. 
Character, a mark or abbreviation used 
in certain arts and sciences. 
Characters in Algebra and. Arithmetic, 
a, b, c, d, &c. die first letters of the alphabet, 
are the characters of given quantities ; and z, y, 
x, See. the last letters, are the characters of 
quantities sought. See Algebra. 
m, n, r, s, t, &c. are characters of indetermin- 
ate exponents both of ratios and of powers : 
thus, x , y , z , Ac. denote undetermined 
powers of different kinds ; m x, ny, rz, different 
multiples or submultiples of the quantities x, y, 
z, according as m, n, r, are either whole num- 
bers or fractions. 
is the sign of the real existence of the 
quantity it stands before, and is called an affirm- 
ative or positive sign. It is also the mark of 
addition, and is read plus, or more; thu*, a -| -b, 
or 3 -{- 5, implies a is added to b, or 3 added 
to 5. 
— before a single quantity, is the sign of ne- 
gation or negative existence, shewing the quan- 
tity to which it is prefixed to be less than no- 
thing. But between quantities it is the sign of 
subtraction, and is read minus, or less; thus, 
a — b, or 8 — 4, implies b subtracted from a, or 
8 after 4 has been subtracted. 
— is the sign of equality, though Des Cartes 
and some others use this mark x > ; thus, a — b 
signifies that a is equal to b. Wolfius, and some 
others, use the mark = for the identity of 
ratios. 
X is the sign of multiplication, shewing that 
the quantities on each side the same are to be 
multiplied by one another, as « X b is to be read 
a multiplied into b ; 4x8, the product of 4 
multiplied into 8. Wolfius and others make the 
sign of multiplication a dot between the two 
factors ; thus 5 . 4 signifies the product of .5 and 
4. In algebra the sign is frequently omitted, and 
the two quantities put together ; thus bd ex- 
presses the product of b and d. When one or 
both of the factors are compounded of several 
letters, they are distinguished by a line drawn 
over them ; thus, the factum pf a -j- b — c into 
d, is wrote d X a b — c. Leibnitz, Wolfius, 
and others, distinguish the compound factors 
by including them in a parenthesis thus (a -j- b 
— c ) d. 
is' the sign of division ; thus, a b denotes 
the quantity a to he divided by b. In algebra 
the quotient is often expressed like a fraction, 
thus — — denotes the quotient of a divided by b. 
b 
Wolfius makes the sign of division two dots ; 
thus 12^4 denotes the quotient of 12 divided 
by 4, =r: 3. If either the divisor or dividend, or 
both, be composed of several letters, for exam- 
ple a -j- b c, instead of writing the quotient 
a b 
like a fraction, — — , Wolfius includes the com- 
pound quantities in a parenthesis, thus ( a -j- b ) 
©- is the character of involution ; vu is the 
character of evolution. 
"7 or [_ — are signs of majority ; thus, a ~7 b 
expresses that a is greater than b. 
/_ or ~~Z\ are signs of minority ; and when 
we would denote that a is less than b, we write 
a Z. b, or a _] b. 
co is the character of similitude used by Wol- 
fius, Leibnitz, and others: it is used in other 
authors for the difference between two quanti- 
ties, while it is unknown which is the greater of 
the two. 
* ; is the mark of geometrical proportion dis- 
junct, and is usually placed between two pair of 
equal ratios, as, 3 [ 6 * ; 4 ; 8, shews that 3 is 
to 6 as 4 is to 8. 
the mark of geometrical proportion con- 
tinued, implies the ratio to be still carried on 
without interruption, as 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 
are in the same uninterrupted proportion. 
ff is the character of radicality, and shews, 
according to the index of the power that is set 
over it, or after it, that the square, cube, or 
other root, is extracted, or to be extracted; thus, 
^/16, or ff 1 16, or >ff (2) 16, is the square roots 
of 16. iff 25, the cube root of 25, &c. This cha< 
racter sometimes affects several quantities, dis, 
tinguished by a line drawn over them ; thus] 
— 0, the term + py vat 
ffb -j- d denotes the sum of the square roots of 
b and d. When any term, or terms, of an equaJ 
tion are wanting, they are generally supplied by 
one or more asterisks : thus in the equation 
/ 4 py 4 - If 2 4 1 
-py 
rushing, is marked with an asterism, as y 
i/ 4 q. See Algebra. 
Characters used in Astronomy. See Astro- 
nomy. 
Characters used in the arithmetic of infinites. 
• the character of an infinitesimal or fluxion j 
thus, x, y, Ac. express the fluxions or differed 
tials of the variable x and y ; and two, three, or; 
more dots, denote second, third, or higher fluxi- 
ons. Mr. Leibnitz, instead of a dot, prefixes the 
letter d to the variable quantity, in order to 
avoid the confusion of dots in the dffierencing 
of differentials. SeeCAi.cuLui differential^ 
Characters in Medicine and Pharmacy. 
recipe M. manipulus, a haud- 
d, da. or ana, of each ful 
to 
P. a pugil 
P. iE. equal quant! 
ties 
S. A. according 
art 
q. s. a sufficient quan- 
tity 
q. pi. as much as you 
please 
P. P. pulvis patrum, the 
jesuits’ bark, 
like 
j|) a pound, or a pint 
g an ounce 
J a drachm 
3 a scruple 
gr. grains 
15 or jj, half of any 
thing 
cong. congius, a gal- 
lon 
eoch. cochleare, a 
spoonful 
Characters used in Music, and of musical 
notes, with their proportions, are as follow. 
character of a 
large 
K a long 
□ a breve 
£2 a semibreve 
p minim 
/ crotchet 
£ quaver 
^ semiquaver 
^ demisemiquaver 
i 
Ts 
a 
$ character of a sharp note : this character 
the beginning of a line, or space, denotes th, 
all the notes in that line are to be taken a semi 
tone higher than in the natural series ; and the 
same affects all the octaves above or below 
though not marked : but when prefixed to any 
particular note, it shews that note alone to be 
taken a semitone higher than it would be with- 
out such character. 
& or b, character of a flat note : this is the 
contrary to the other above, that is, a semitom 
lower. 
h character of a natural note : when in jj 
line or series of artificial notes, marked at the 
beginning & or jjJ, the natural note happens to 
be required, it is denoted by this character, 
character of the treble cliff. 
character of the mean cliff. 
bass cliff. 
, or .2, or characters of common duplj 
