CAT 
face the enemy without them; by which temerity, ill their 
war with the Gotha, multitudes were deltroyed. 
CATAPHRAC'T.HE NA'VES, f Ancient ihips armed 
and covered in fight, lo that they could not be eafdy da¬ 
maged by the enemy. They were covered with a Hage of 
boards or planks, on which the foldiers Hood to defend 
them; the rowers fitting underneath, lcreened from the 
enemy’s weapons. 
CATAPHRAC'TIC, adj. Belonging to a horfeman in 
complete armour. 
CATAPHRAC'TUS, f the Cataphract; in ich¬ 
thyology, a genus of filhes formed by Bloch, and adopted 
by Cepede; but in the Linnaen fyitem the fpecies belong 
to the genus Silurus, which fee. 
CATAPHRY'GIANS,y. A feft which fprung up in the 
fecond century, and l‘o called as being of the country of 
Phrygia. They were orthodox in every thing, fetting 
afide this, that they took Montanus for a prophet, and 
Prifcilia and Maximilla for true propheteffes, to be confult- 
ed in every thing relating to religion; as fuppofing the 
Holy Spirit had abandoned the church. See Montanist. 
CATAPLASM, /. [from Gr. to fpread 
like a plafter.] A poultice. Thefe take their name fome- 
times from the part to which they are applied, or effefts 
they produce; and were called anacollcma, and frontale, 
when any topical application of this fort was laid upon the 
forehead; epicarptum, and pericarpium, when they were ap¬ 
plied to the wrifts; epifpajlicum, when the external reme¬ 
dies only rubified the fkin; veficatorium, when it occa- 
fioned blillering; and Jinapifnata, when multard entered 
the compofition, becaule it produced irritation, and oc- 
cafioned rednels, heat, itching, and tumour, in the part to 
which it was applied. Thefe applications are fofter, and 
more eafy, than plalters or ointments. They are formed 
of fome vegetable fubftances, and applied of fuch a con¬ 
fidence as neither to adhere nor run: they are alfo more 
ufeful when the intention is effected by the perpetuity of 
the heat or cold which they contain, for they retain them 
longer than any other kind of compofition. When defign- 
ed to relax, or to promote fuppuration, they Ihould be 
applied warm. Their warmth, moilture, and the obltruff ion 
they give to perfpiration, is the method of anfwering that 
end. The proper heat, when applied warm, is no more 
than to promote a kindly pleafant fenlation ; for great 
heat prevents the delign for which they are uled. They 
Ihould be renew'ed as often as they cool. For relaxing and 
fuppurating, none excel the white-bread poultice, made 
with the crumb of an old loaf, a fufficient quantity of milk 
to boil the bread in until it is loft, and a little oil ; which 
lad ingredient, beiides preventing the poultice from dry¬ 
ing and kicking to the Ikin, alio retains the heat longer 
than the bread and milk alone would do. To preferve 
fhe heat longer, the poultice, when applied, may be cover¬ 
ed with a krong ox’s bladder. When defigned to repel, 
they Ihould be applied cold, and ought to be renewed as 
often as they become warm: a proper compofition for this 
end, is a mixture of oatmeal and vinegar. 
CATAPLE'XIS, J.. [from Gr. to krike.] Any 
fudden kupefaftion, or deprivation of fenlation in any of 
the members or organs. 
CATAPO'TlUM,yi in medicine, a pill or potion to 
be [wallowed at once without chewing. 
CATAP'PA, f. in botany. See Terminalia. 
CATAPSY'XIS, f. [from Gr. to refrigerate.] 
A refrigeration without lhivering, either univerfal, or of 
fome particular part. A chillneis, or, as Vogel defines it, 
an uneafy fenfe of cold in a mufcular or cutaneous part. 
CATAPTO'SIS, /. [from *a]Gr. to fall down.] 
That falling down which happens in apoplexies or epilep- 
iies; alfo, the fpontaneous and lifelefs falling down of a 
paralytic limb. «- 
CATAPUL'TA, f. A military engine of the ancient 
artillery. See Artillery, vol. ii. p. 229. 
CATAPUTIA, ,J. in botany. See Euphorbia and 
IjUCINUS. 
CAT egg 
CATA'RA, a town of Arabia : feventy-fix miles fouth- 
eak of El Catif. 
CAT'ARACT, f. [from v.oD.c/.pcto-<xu, Gr. to confound 
or dikurb.] A fall of water from on high: 
No fooner he, with them of man and beak 
Seleft for life, lhall in the ark be lodg’d, 
And fiielter’d round ; but all the catarafls 
Of Iieav’n fet open, on the earth krall pour 
Rain, day and night. Milton. 
A precipice or craggy rock, often in the bed of rivers, 
over which water pours with great noileand impetuolity : 
Torrents and loud impetuous cataraEls, 
Through roads abrupt, and rude unfaihioned travks. 
Run down the lofty mountain’s channel’d fides, 
And to the vale convey their foaming tides. Blackmcre. 
Strabo calls that a cataraft which we call a cafcade; and 
what we call a cataraft, the ancients ulually called a cata- 
dupa.' Herminius has an exprefs difiertation, “De Adrni- 
randis Mundi Cataraftis Supra et Subterraneis;” where 
he tiles the word in a new fenfe; fignifying, by cataratt, 
any violent motion of the elements. The mok itupendous 
cataratts are thofe of the Nile, the Danube, the Rhine, 
Rhaiadr in North Wales, Niagara in North America, &c. 
See thearticles Nile, Niagara, &c. Mils Williams, in her 
Tour through Swifierland, publilhed in 1798, gives the 
following elegantdefcription of the cataradl on theRhine at 
Schalfliaufen : “ When we reached the lummit of the hill 
which leads to the fall of the Rhine, we alighted from the car¬ 
riage, and walked down the keep bank, whence I law the river 
rolling turbulently overitsbedof rocks,and heard thenoile 
of the torrent, towards[which weweredelcending, increafing 
as we drew near. My heart lwelled with expectation s 
our path, as if formed to give the lcene its full effeci, 
concealed for fome time the river from our view; till we 
reached a wooden balcony, projefting on the edge of the 
water, and whence, juk lheltered from the torrent, it burfts 
in all its overwhelming wonders on the akonilhed fight. 
That kupendous cataraft, milling with, wild impetuolity 
over thofe broken unequal rocks, which, lifting up their 
lharp points amidk its lea of foam, dikurb its headlong 
courfe, multiply its falls, and make the afflicted waters 
roar; that cadence of tumultuous found, which had ne¬ 
ver tiiL now ftruck upon my ear; thole long feathery 
furges, giving the element a new afpeft; that ipray rikng 
into clouds of vapour, and rekectiiig the prifmatic colours^, 
while it difperfes itfelf over the hills; never, never can I 
forget the lenfations of that moment! when, with a fort 
of annihilation of felf, with every pak imprekion crafed 
from my memory, I felt as if my heart was burking with 
emotions too krong to be fuftained 1 What an effort does 
it require to leave, after a trankent glimpfe, a lcene on., 
which, while we meditate, we can take no account of 
time! its narrow limits feem too confined for the expand¬ 
ed fpirit; fuch objects appear to belong to immortality; 
they call the muling mind from all its little cares and va¬ 
nities, to higher deftinies and regions, more congenial.. 
than this world to the feelings they excite. I had been 
often fummoned by my fellow-travellers to. depart, had 
often repeated ‘but one moment more,’ and many ‘mo¬ 
ments more’ had elapfed, before I could rel’olve to tear 
myfeif from the balcony. We eroded the river, below, 
the fall, in a boat, and had leifure to obferve the lur- 
rounding feenery. The cataraft, however, had for me 
a fort of fafcinating power, which, if I withdrew my eyes 
for a moment, again, ikkened them on its impetuous wai¬ 
ters. In the back-ground of the torrent, a bare mountain 
lifts its head encircled with blue vapours; on the right 
riles a keep cliff, of an enormous height, covered with., 
wood, and upon.its fummit kands the cakle of Lauffen, 
with its frowning towers, and encircled with its crannied 
wall; on the left, human indukry has feized upon a Hea¬ 
der thread of this mighty torrent in its fall, and made it. 
fubfervient to the purpofe of commerce. Founderies, 
mills, 
