CAP 
IS developed by its diminution. Tims, if 
equal quantities of pounded ice and water, 
each at 32° of Fahrenheit, be exposed to 
heat in two similar vessels in a water-bath, 
the water will be heated to 178“ before the 
ice is all dissolved, the water produced from 
wliich will, of course, still remain at 32°, so 
tliat the increase of capacity in the ice, 
during its solution, is sufficient to enable it 
to absorb, without any elevation of its tem- 
perature, as much caloric as has raised the 
temperature of an equal quantity of water 
146° ; and the like quantity is also again 
emitted on its becoming again congealed. 
If a quantity of water be exposed without 
agitation to a degree of cold equal to 24° 
or 25°, it will frequently acquire this tem- 
perature without freezing ; but as soon as 
congelation begins, the thermometer will 
immediately rise to 32°, and the whole will 
remain at that temperature till all the water 
is converted into ice. 
This latter change of capacity appears to 
be absolutely essential to the well-being of 
the universe, as affording a constant modi- 
fication of the action of heat and cold, 
whose effects would otherwise be inordinate. 
If this did not take place, the whole of a 
mass of water which was exposed to a tem- 
perature above the boiling point would be 
instantly dissipated in vapour with explosion. 
The feet, however, is, that the capacity of 
those portions of the liquid which are suc- 
cessively resolved into a vapour becomes 
thereby sufficiently augmented to enable 
them to absorb the superabundant caloric as 
fast as it is communicated : and it is for this 
reason that boiling water in an open vessel 
never reaches a higher temperature than 
212°. The polar ices would all instantane- 
ously di.ssolve, whenever the temperature 
of the circumambient air was above 32°, if it 
were not that each particle absorbs a quantity 
of caloric in its solution, and thereby gene- 
rates a degree of cold w’|iich arrests and re- 
gulates the progress of the thaw ; and the 
converse of tliis takes place in congelation, 
which is in its turn moderated by the heat 
developed in consequence of the diminu- 
tion of capacity, which takes place in the 
\vater during its transition to a solid state. 
Capacity, in law, the ability of a man, 
or body politic, to give or take lands, or 
other things, or sue actions. 
Our law allows the king two capacities, a 
natural and a polftical ; in the first he may 
purchase lands to him and his heirs ; in the 
latter to him and his successors. Tlie clergy 
have the like. 
CAP 
CAPARASON, or horse-cloth, a sort of 
cover for a Iiorse. For led liorses it is com- 
monly made of linen cloth, bordered round 
with woollen, and enriched W'ith ihe arms of 
the master upon the middle, which covers 
the croupe, and with two ciphers on the 
two sides. The caparasons for the army 
are sometimes a great bear’s skin, and those 
for stables are of single buckram in summer, 
and of cloth in the winter. 
CAPELLA, in astronomy, a bright fixed 
star of tlie first magnitude, in the left 
shordder of the constellation Auriga. It is 
in the Britannic Catalogue the fourteenth 
in order of that constellation. Its longitude 
is 17° 31' 41'', its latitude 22° 5l' 47". 
CAPER. See Capparis. 
CAPIAS, is a writ of two sorts, one 
wdiereof is called capias ad respondendum, 
before judgment, where an original is sued 
out, &c. to take the defendant and make 
him answer the plaintiff: and the other a 
writ of execution, after judgment, being of 
divers kinds. 
Capias ad respondendum, is a writ com- 
manding the sheriff to take the body of tiie 
defendant, if he may be found in liis baili- 
wic or county, and him safely to keep, so 
that he may have him in court on the day 
of the return to answer to the plaintiff of a 
plea of debt, or trespass, or the like, as 
the case may be. And if the sheriff return 
that he cannot be found, then there issues 
another writ, called an alias capias; and 
after tliat another, called pluries capias; and 
if upon none of these he can be found, then 
he may be proceeded against unto outlawry. 
But all this being only to compel an ap- 
pearance, after the defendant hath appear- 
ed, the effect of these writs is taken off’, and 
the defendant shall be put to answer, unless 
it can be in cases where special bail is 
required, and there the defendant is actually 
to be taken into custody. 
Capias ad satisfaciendum, is a writ di- 
rected to the sheriff, cominaiiding him to 
take the body of the defendant and him 
safely to keep, so that he may have his body 
in court at the return of the writ, to make 
the plaintiff satisfaction for his demand ; 
otherwise he is to remain in custody till he 
do. When a man is once taken in execu- 
tion upon this writ no otiier process can be 
sued out against his lands or goods. But if 
a defendant die whilst charged in execution 
upon this writ, the plaintiff may, after ids 
death, sue out new executions against his 
lands, goods, or chatties. 
Capias utlegalum, is a writ that lies 
