CAR 
CA'PUT, / [wa, cabah, an helmet, or nsp, kapa , com- 
paft, or, according to Varro, from capio, to take, becaufe 
from it the fenfes take their origin.] The head; the feat 
of lenfation. In botany it means the round top of a plant. 
In anatomy it has the fame import with procejus, the head 
of a bone. 
CA'PUT BARO'NIiE, in ancient tenures, the caftle 
or chief feat of a nobleman ; which defcends to the eld ell; 
daughter, if there be no fon, and mult not be divided 
amonglt the daughters, like unto lands, &c. 
CA'PUT DRACO'NIS, or Dragon’s Head, f. A 
name given by fome to a fixed ftar of the firft magnitude, 
in the head of the conftellation Draco. 
CA'PUT GALLINA'CUM. See Hedysarum. 
CA'PUT JEJU'NII, f in our ancient records, is ufed 
for Alh Wednelday, being the head or firft day of the 
beginning of the Lent faft. 
CA'PUT LUPI'NUM, f. [caput and lupus, Lat.] An 
exprelfion applied to an outlawed felon, becaufe anciently 
he might be knocked on the head like a wolf. Co. Lit. 128. 
But this is a vulgar error : for, though an outlaw was faid 
caput gerere lupinurri, yet it was never permitted any one to 
kill him, unlefs he refufed to furrender himfelf peaceably ; 
though it fieems, that in the counties of Hereford and 
Gloucefter, outlaw’s were treated as having capita lupina. 
Bra&on 128. But now wilfully to kill an outlaw is clearly 
murder. 1 Hal. P. C. 497. 
CA'PUT MEDU'SiE. See Elymus and Euphorbia. 
CA'PUT MOR'TUUM, a term ufed by the old cliemifts, 
but now entirely rejected. It denoted the fixed refidue of 
operations. As the earlier chemilts did not examine thefe, 
they did not find any inconvenience in one general term 
to denote them ; but the molt flender acquaintance with 
modern chemiftry muft fhow that it is utterly impractica¬ 
ble to denote, by one general term, all the various mat¬ 
ters that remain fixed in certain degrees of heat. 
CA'PUT PUR'GIA, f. [a barbarous word, from caput, 
the head, and purgo, to purge.] Medicines which purge 
the head ; errhines ; mafticatories. 
CAPYBAR'A,/i in zoology. See Cavia. 
CA'PYS, a Trojan who came with Aineas into Italy, 
and founded Capua. He was one of thole w'ho, again ft 
the advice of Thymcetes, wifhed to deftroy the wooden 
horfe, which proved the deftruftion of Troy. 
CAR,/, [car, Welfh; Aarre, Dutch; crat. Sax. carrus, 
Lat.] A fmall carriage of burden, ufually drawn by one 
horfe or two.—When a lady comes in a coach to our Ihops, 
it muft be followed by a car loaded with Wood’s money. 
Swift. —In poetical language, any vehicle of dignity or 
fplendour ; a chariot of war, or triumph : 
See w r here he comes the darling of the war ! 
See millions crowding round the gilded car! Prior. 
The Charles’s wain, or Bear; a conftellation: 
Ev’ry fixt and ev’ry wand’ring ftar, 
The Pleiads, Hyads, and the Northern Car. Dryden. 
CAR, a lake of Ireland, in the county of Armagh: 
fourteen miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Armagh. 
CAR, or Char, a river of England, which runs into 
the fea at Charmouth, in Dorfetlhire. 
CAR and CHAR. The names of places beginning with 
car and char fignify a city, from the Brit, cacr, a city, as 
Carlijle, See. 
CA'RA, a fmall ifland near the weft coaft of Scotland, 
a little to the fouth of the ifland of Glgo. 
CA'RA, a river of European Ruflia, which direfts its 
courfe towards the Arftic Ocean, and forms the boundary 
between Afia and Europe, for the lpace of about 140 
miles ; the Arabian chain terminating lo far from the fea 
of Cara-fkoi, or Karfkoi. 
CA'RA, f. in botany. See Dioscorea. 
CARABA'YA, or Carava'ya, a diftrift or jurifdic- 
tion of South America, in the province of Buenos Ayres, 
about forty leagues in extent: the country is mountain¬ 
ous, but in many places fertile in grain, fruit, and legumes; 
CAR 733 
there are alfo mines of gold and filver. St. Jean del Oro 
is the capital. 
CAR'ABINE, f. [carabine, Fr.] A fire-arm, fiiorter 
than a mufket, carrying a ball of twenty-four to the pound, 
borne by the light horfe, hanging at a belt over the left 
ftioulder. The barrel is two feet and a half long; and is 
fometimes furrowed fpirally within, which is laid to add 
to the range of the piece. 
CARABINEE'R, f. a foldier or trooper armed with a 
Carabine. 
CAR'ABUS, f. [from y.a^x, the head; nct^x to 
ISaim, becaufe it waiks upon its head. Sckrevelius. nap Aa- 
rab, Heb.] In entomology, a genus of inlefts belonging 
to the order of coleoptera ; the characters of which are -. 
antennae filiform; feelers moftly fix, the laft joint obtufe 
and truncate; thorax flat, margined ; fnells margined ; 
commonly called the Ground Beetle. Thefe infefts, the 
greater part of which, having no wings under the elytra 
or fhells, are exceedingly quick in running; they devour 
the larvae of other infefts, and all the weaker animals they 
can overcome; the legs are long, thighs compreffed, 
fhanks rounded and ciliate within, the fore-ones fpinous 
before the tip. Some kinds, avoiding the light, appear 
only in the night time; while others ramble about in the 
middle of the day, and feem to be moft vigorous when, 
the fun fhines intenfely, at which time numbers of them 
may be feen running in pathways and fandy piaces. If 
thefe infefts are clofely purfued, they emit a ftrong fetid 
odour ; and, when caught, ejeft both from the mouth and 
vent a liquor of an acrid and cauftic nature, the l’mell of 
which is fimilar, but rather more oftenfive, than the odour 
it fends forth when purfued. One or two fpecies are faid 
to terrify their antagonifts by making a loud mapping 
noifie, which has been fancifully compared to the explo- 
fion of a mufquet in miniature ; whence the carabus cre¬ 
pitans, the moft diftinguifhed for this faculty, has been 
called the bombardier by French entomologifts. The an¬ 
cients confidered the carabi as poifonous, and fuppofed 
that, if their cattle happened to fwallow any of them, an 
inflammation of the inteftines would enfue. The carabi 
formed alfo an article in their materia medica; both Hip¬ 
pocrates and Pliny fpeak of them as poflefling the fame 
properties as the cantharides. Their larvae are chiefly 
found under ground, or in decayed wood, or under the 
bark of trees. There are no lefs than three hundred and 
fixty fpecies of this genus now afeertained, moftly named 
from their colour, fize, fpots, ftripes, &«•;. and clalfed in 
five divifions, according to the form of the thorax or 
fhield, viz. 
I. Thorax heart-fhaped.—In this divifion the moft cu¬ 
rious fpecies are the following: Carabus maxillofus: 
black; apterous, or without wings under the cafes or 
fhells ; mandibles exferted ; thorax lengthened behind, 
two-lobed ; inhabits the cape of Good Hope. See fig. 4, 
in the Engraving of Capsicum and Carabus. —C. gem- 
matus; apterous, fhells ftriate, greenifh bronzed, each: 
with a triple row of bronzed dots : inhabits England ; de¬ 
lineated at fig. 5.—C. crepitans ; the bombardier; winged ; 
head thorax and legs reddifh ferruginous ; fhells black : 
inhabits England; reprefented at fig. 6.—C. cinftus ; 
wings under the elytra; brown; head and thorax green 
bronzed ; margin of the fhells and legs pale: inhabits 
Hindooftan; fhown at fig. 7.—C. granulatus, one of the 
moft beautiful fpecies found in England, is delineated on 
the leaf at the top of the Plate Carica; and Carabus 
auratus, on the fruit, in the fame Engraving. 
II. Thorax narrowed behind.—In this divifion the fol¬ 
lowing are the moft rare : Carabus trilineatus; apterous, 
body black; edges of the thorax brown; fhells light brown, 
with a black future and line : inhabits Germany ; fhown 
in the Engraving at fig. 8.—C. cephalotes ; winged ; body 
and wing-cafes black, very fmooth ; thorax convex: in¬ 
habits England ; 'delineated at fig. 9.— C. interruptus ; 
winged ; black ; thorax and fnells remote, ftriate : inha¬ 
bits India; delineated at fig. 10. 
III. Thorax fquare.—-The moft curious in this divifion 
are : 
