CAR 
CARLINA, in botany, English carline 
thistle, a genus of the Syngenesia Poly- 
gamia yEqualis class and order. Natural 
order of Compound Flowers; division of 
Capitatae. Cinarocephalae, Jussieu. Essential 
character: calyx radiated, with long, co- 
loured, marginal scales. There are nine 
species, most of them natives of the Soutii 
of France, Italy, and Spain. 
CARLIbtES, or Carlings, in a ship, 
two pieces of timber, lying fore and aft, 
along from beam to beam, whereon the 
ledges rest on which tlie planks of the ship 
are fastened. All the carlings have their 
ends let into the beams culvertail-wise : 
they are directly over the keel, and serve 
as a foundation for the whole body of the 
ship. 
CARMINATIVES, in pharmacy, medi- 
cines used in cholics, or other flatulent dis- 
orders, to dispel the wind. See Pharmacy. 
CARMINE, a powder of a very beauti- 
ful red colour, bordering upon a purple, 
and used by painters in miniature, though 
but rarely, because of its great price. 
CARNATION, in botany. See Dian- 
THCS. 
Carnation colour, among painters, is 
understood of all the parts of a picture, in 
general, which represent flesh, or which 
are naked and without drapery. 
CARNELIAN. See Chalcedony. 
CARNIVAL, or Carnaval, a time of 
rejoicing, a season of mirth, observed with 
great solemnity by the Italians, particularly 
at Venice, lasting from Twelfth-day till Lent. 
CARNIVOROUS, in zoology, an epithet 
generally applied to animals of every de- 
scription that subsist for the most part, or 
entirely, on animal food. In a more limited 
sense we understand by carnivorous ani- 
mals, those only of a savage and voracious 
nature, assimilating in our ideas some in- 
stinctive ferocity of character in the man- 
ners of those creatures when seeking and 
attacking their prey, as well as actually 
feeding on flesh. We naturally consider, 
for this reason, among the principal carni- 
vorous animals the lion, tlie tiger, and the 
wolf; or among birds, the eagle and the 
kite, with a host of other rapacious crea- 
tures, upon which nature has bestowed pre- 
'feminent advantages of courage, strength, 
and arms, to aid them in seizing upon, and 
tearing into pieces, those animals on which 
they feed: they have either formidable 
canine teeth or fangs ; claws or talops ; the 
quadrupeds possessing both, and the birds 
the latter. Fishes, witli very few exceptions. 
CAR 
are. carnivorous, but their only offensive 
weapons are the teeth, or in some species 
the spines and prickles disposed on various 
parts of the body. Quadrupeds that subsist 
both on flesh and vegetables are more or 
less deficient with respect to those charac- 
ters by which carnivorous quadrupeds are 
known ; and those still more so that subsist 
■entirely on roots, barks, fruits, grass, or 
other vegetables : the brutae have no cut- 
ting teeth either in the upper or lower jaw ; 
the pecor® have them only in the lower 
jaw ; and the front teeth of the bellu® are 
obtuse. The food of those animals is 
vegetables. See Mammalia. 
Carnivorous animals are characterized 
both by their internal organization, and their 
capacity and inclination for the destruction 
of their prey; their teeth are sharp and 
pointed, even though situated in the back 
part of the moutli ; and these teeth, deno- 
minated canine, are so long in most of the 
beasts of prey that they pass a considerable 
way beyond each other when the jaws are 
closed. The distribution of the enamel 
which is confined to the superficies of the 
teeth renders them extremely hard, and 
this circumstance, joined to an extraordi- 
nary bulk of those muscles employed in 
raising the lower jaw, gives to carnivorous 
quadrupeds the power of breaking the 
strongest bones. 
The rapacious birds are distinguished by 
a sharp hard bill, furnished on each side 
with a pointed process, by which they are 
enabled to tear asunder the pai ts of the 
animals they feed upon. As the digestion 
of animal substances is accomplished in a 
short time, the stomach of the carnivorous 
tribes has a simple figure without any pro- 
cesses or separations of its cavity to retain 
its contents, or to delay their passage into 
the intestines ; and as animal food furnishes 
but little excrement, the intestinal canal is 
short, and either totally unprovided with 
those dilatations which are so remarkable in 
vegetable eaters, or possesses them only in 
a slight degree. 
Carnivorous animals are furtlier distin- 
guished by the extraordinai-y strength of their 
members, 'which are commonly turnished 
with sharp claws; these are so contrived, 
both in the beasts of prey and the accipi- 
trine birds, that they turn inwards by the 
flexion of the limbs, or the action of seizing 
any thing, and are retracted by the exten- 
sion of the toes; thus giving facility and 
certainty to the capture and retention of 
fugitive animals. The senses of vision and 
