C U R 
C U R 
court, by a sequestration' of the profits of the 
benefice; but if he has no licence from the 
bishop, he is put to his remedy at common 
law, where he must prove the agreement, 
CURAT ELLA, a genus ot the tligynia i 
order, belonging to the -poly andria class of 
plants, and in the natural method ranking 
with those of which the order is doubtful. 
T he calyx is pentaphyllous; the petals four ; 
the styles two; the capsules bipartite, with! 
the cells dispermous. 
CURATOR, among civilians, a person j 
regularly appointed to manage the affairs of \ 
minors, or persons mad, deaf, dumb, &c. in J 
countries where the civil law prevails, minors 1 
have tutors assigned them till they are of 
the age of 14, between which ana 05 they j 
have curators appointed them. There are ! 
also curators for the estate of debtors, and of ; 
persons dying without hArs. 
CURCULIO, in zoology, a genus of in- J 
sects belonging to the order of coleoptera. 
The feelers are subclavated, and rest upon the j 
snout, which is prominent and horny. These j 
insects are divided into the following fami- I 
lies: 1. Those which have the rostrum i 
longer than the thorax, and whose thighs are 
simple. 2. Those which have the rostrum ' 
longer than the thorax, and the thighs thicker 
and made for leaping. 3. Those which have 
the rostrum longer than the thorax, and the 
thighs dentated. 4. Those which have den- 
tated thighs, and a rostrum shorter than the 
thorax. 5. Those whose thighs are without 
teeth or spines, and the rostrum shorter than 
.the thorax. There are no less than 95 spe- 
cies, principally distinguished by their co- 
lour. 
The lame of the curculiones do not differ 
from those of most coleopterous insects. 
They bear a resemblance to oblong soft 
worms. They are provided anteriorly with 
six scaly legs, and the head likewise is scaly. 
But the places where those lame dwell, and 
their transformations, afford some singulari- 
ties. Some species of them, that .are dread- 
ed for the mischief they do in granaries, find 
means to introduce themselves, while yet 
small, into grains of corn, and tiiere make 
their abode. It is very difficult to discover 
them, as they lie concealed within the grain. 
There they grow at leisure, enlarging their 
dwelling-places as they grow, at the expence 
of the interior meal, of the grain on which 
they feed. Corn-lofts are often laid waste 
by these insects, whose numbers are some- 
times so great as to devour and destroy all 
the grain. When the insect, after having 
eaten up the meal, is come to its full size, it 
remains within the grain, hidden under the 
empty husk, which subsists alone ; and there 
transformed, it becomes a chrysalis, nor does 
it leave it till a perfe< t insect, making its way 
through the husk of the grain. It is no easy 
matter to discover by the eye the grains of 
corn thus attacked and hollowed out by these 
insects, as they outwardly appear large and 
full : but the condition the curculio has re- 
duced them to, renders them much lighter; 
and if you throw corn infested by these in- 
sects into water, all the spoiled grains will 
swim, and the rest sink to the bottom. Other 
larvae of curculiones are not so fond of com, 
but fix in the same manner on several other 
seeds. Beans, peas, and lentils, that are 
preserved dry, are liable to be eaten by these 
little animals ; which, prey upon the inward 
part of the grain, where they have taken up 
their habitation, and do not come forth till 
they have completed their transformation, by 
breaking through the outward husk of the 
grain : this is discoverable by casting tnose 
grains into water; those that swim are gene- 
rally perforated by the curculiones. Other 
species are lodged in the inside of plains. 
T he heads of artichokes and thistles are often 
bored through and eaten away by the larvae 
ot large curculiones.. Another species smaller, 
but singular, pierces and inwardly consumes 
the leaves of elms. It frequently happens 
that almost all the leaves of an elm appear 
yellow, and, as it were, dead towards one of 
tneir edges, while the whole remainder of 
the leaf is green. Upon inspecting these 
leaves, the dead part appears to form a kind 
of bag or small bladder. The two laminae or 
outward pellicles of the leaf, as well above as 
below, are entire, but distant and separated 
from each other ; whilst the parenchyma that 
lies between them lias been consumed bv se- 
veral small larva- of the curculio, which have 
made themselves that dwelling, in which 
they may be met with. After their transfor- 
mation they come forth, by piercing a kind 
of bladder, and give being to a curculio that 
is brown, small, and hard to catch, from the 
nimbleness with which it leaps. The pro- 
perty of leaping, allotted to this single spe- 
cies, depends on the shape -and length of 
its hinder legy 
CURCUMA, turmeric, a genus of the 
monogynia order, in the monandria class of 
plants, and in the natural method ranking 
under the eighth order, scitaminea?. It has 
four barren stamina, with a fifth fertile. There 
are three species: 1. The rotunda, with a 
round root, having a fleshy-jointed root like 
that of ginger, but round ; which sends up 
several spear-shaped oval leaves, that rise 
upwards of a foot high, and are of a sea-green 
colour. From between these arise the llower- 
stalks, supporting a loose spike of flowers of 
a pale yellowish colour, inclosed in several 
different s paths', or sheaths, which drop off. 
The flowers are never succeeded by seeds in 
this country. 2. The longa has long fleshy 
roots of a deep-yellow colour, which spread 
under the surface of the ground like those of 
ginger; they are about the thickness 6f a 
man’s finger, having many round knotty 
circles, from which arise four or five large 
spear-shaped leaves, standing upon long foot- 
stalks. The flowers grow in loose scaly 
spikes on the top of the footstalks, which 
rise: from the larger knobs of the roots, and 
grow about a foot high ; they are of a yellow- 
ish-red colour, and shaped somewhat like 
those of the Indian reed. 3. The pallida, 
which differs from the others in being an an- 
nual plant. These plants grow naturally 
in India, whence the roots are brought to 
Europe for use. They are very tender, so 
will not live in this country unless kept con- 
stantly in a stove. They are propagated by 
parting the roots. The root communicates a 
beautiful but perishable yellow dye, with 
alum, to woollen, cotton, or linen. In medi- 
cine it is esteemed an aperient and emrne- 
nagogue, and of singular efficacy in the jaun- 
dice. 
CURIA, in Roman antiquity, a certain di- 
vision, or portion of a tribe. Romulus di- 
vided the people into 30 curiae, or wards, 
whereof there were 10 in every tribe, that 
cut ‘ 471 
each might keep the ceremonies of their 
j feasts and sacrifices in the temple, or holy 
j place, appointed for every curia. 1 he priest 
ot the curia was called curio. 
Curia, in the English law, generally sig- 
nifies a court ; and has been taken for the 
customary tenants, who do their suit and ser- 
vice at the court of the lord. 
C uria advisurc vitlt, a deliberation which 
a court of justice takes upon some point of 
difficulty that arises in a cause, before they 
give judgment. 
Curia aqute cursus, a court held by the 
lord of the manor of Gravesend, for the bet- 
ter management of barges and boats that use 
the passage on the Thames between that 
place and London, Ac. 
Curia claudundu, a writ that lies to com- 
pel a man to make a fence, or wall, between 
his lands and that of the plaintiff. 
CURIOSUS, an officer of the Roman em- 
pire, during the middle age ; when one or two 
were dispatched annually into each province 
to take care that no frauds or abuses wer'e- 
committed with regard to the posts and! 
roads, and to bring intelligence to court of 
what passed in all the provinces. They an- 
swer nearly to what we call comptrollers. 
CURRANS, or Currants. See Rises. 
Currants 'also signify a smaller kind 
of grapes brought principally from Zante and 
Cephalonia. ’They are gathered off the 
bunches, and laid to dry in the sun, and so 
put up in large butts. They are opening 
and pectoral, but are more used" in thekitchea 
than in medicine. 
CURREN 1', in hydrography, a stream or 
flux ot water in any direction. In the sea 
currents are either r.a; viral, occasioned by the 
diurnal motion ot the earth round its axis, or 
accidental, caused by the waters being driven, 
against promontories, or into gulphs and 
streights, where wanting room to spread,, 
they are driven back, and thus disturb the 
ordinary flux of the sea. Dr. Halley makes- 
it highly probable that in the Downs there 
are under-currents, by which as much water 
is carried out as is brought in by the upper 
currents. 
Currents, in navigation, are certain 
settings ot the stream, by which ships are com- 
pelled to alter their course or velocity, or 
both, and submit to the motion impressed 
upon them by the current. The knowledge 
of them being so necessary an article in navi- 
gation, we shall shew a more accurate way of 
discovering the way they set, together with, 
their strength, than that of guessing by the 
ripplings of the water, and by the driving of 
the froth along shore. Take your ship’s 
boat, with three or four men, a compass, a 
log-line with a large log to it, and a kettle or 
iron pot, with a coil or two of inch-rope 
fastened to its bale. When at a proper dis- 
tance from the ship, heave your kettle over- 
board, and let it sink 80 or 100 fathoms, which 
will ride the boat nearly as fast as if at anchor.. 
Heave your log, and turn your half-minute 
glass, observing at the same time 'to set the 
drift of the log by the compass : then will the 
knots run out during the half-minute, give 
the current’s strength, and the compass its 
setting. Now to know how to make proper 
allowances for currents, it is evident, if a cur- 
rent sets just with the course of the ship, then 
the motion of the ship is increased by as 
much as is the drift or velocity of the current;; 
