^ CAS 
^er be revived in the dried specimens at 
any time, by leaving them for the space of 
15 or 20 minutes in warmw’ater ; tlie colours 
reappearing vrhile the insect is kept moist, 
and fading again as the insect dries. 
The larvaj of the cassidae are commonly 
found concealed on the under surface of the 
leaves of the plants on which they feed, and 
often hide themselves under a cover of their 
own excrements, which they support in the 
air above their bodies by means of their 
lateral spines, and the bristles at the extre- 
mity of tlieir tail, to shelter themselves from 
the sun and rain. The larvae cast their skins 
several times before they pass into the pupa 
state. The perfect female insect deposits 
the eggs in regular order on the leaves of 
plants, and covers them with excrements to 
conceal them. The common English name 
of the insects of this tribe is the tortoise 
beetle. We have only an inconsiderable 
number of the species indigenous to this 
country, and those only of a small size ; 
many of the large kinds, and those distin- 
guished for their vivid hues and colours, are 
natives of South America. 
CASSINE, in botany, a genus of the 
Pentandria Trigynia class and order. Na- 
tural order of Dumosae. Rhamni, Jussieu. 
Essential character: calyx quinquepartite; 
petals five ; berry trispermoiis. There are 
four species, of which C. Capensis, Cape 
cassine, or phillyrea, has a woody stalk, 
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 white, and have five 
small petals spreading open ; germ roundish, 
crowned by a bifid or trifid stigma. This 
shrub is a native of the Cape. 
CASSINI (John Dominic), 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 stu- 
dies at I'.ome, 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 published when he was but It 
years old. At length he met with books of 
astronomy, which he read with great eager- 
ness Pursuing the bent of his inclinations 
in this way, in a short time he made so 
amazing a progress, that in 1650 the senate 
cf Bologna invited him to be their public 
mathematical professor. Cassini w'as but 
£5 years of age vvhen he went to Bologna, 
CAS 
where he taught mathematics, and made 
observations upon tlie heavens, with great 
care and assiduity. In 1652 a comet ap- 
peared, which he observed with great accu- 
racy ; and he discovered that comets were 
not bodies accidentally generated in the at- 
mosphere, 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, wliich 
Kepler and Bulliald had given up as in- 
solvable ; viz. to determine geometrically 
the apogee and eccentricity of a planet, 
from its tme and mean place. In 1653, 
when a church in Bologna was repaired 
and enlarged, he obtained leave of the se- 
nate to correct and settle a meridian line, 
which had been drawn by an astronomer in 
1575. In 1637 he attended as an assistant to 
a nobleman, who was sent to Rome to com- 
pose some differences which had arisen be- 
tween Bologna and Ferrara, from the inun- 
dations 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 genera! of the for- 
tifications of the castle of Urbino : and he 
had afterward 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 dis- 
coveries relating to the planets Mars and 
Venus, particularly the revolution of Mars 
upon his own axis : but the point he had chief- 
ly in view, was to settle an accurate tlieory 
of Jupiter’s satellites ; which, after much 
labour and observation, he happily effected, 
and published it at Rome, among other 
astronomical pieces, in 1666. 
Picard, the French astronomer, getting 
Cassini’s tables of Jupiter’s satellites, found 
them so very exact, that he conceived the 
highest opinion of his skill ; and from that 
time his fame increased so fast in France, 
that the government desired to have him a 
member of the academy. Cassini however 
could not leave his station without leave of 
his superiors; and therefore the king, 
Lewis the XIVth, requested of the Pope 
and the senate of Bologna, that Cassini 
might be permitted to come into France. 
Leave was granted for six years, and he 
came to Paris in the beginning of 1669, 
where he w'as immediately made the king’s 
astronomci’. When tliis 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 emoluments, 
which had hitherto been remitted to him : 
H 2 
