CAT 
patient very fenfibly lofes the advantages of fight. The 
progrefs of acataradl is ufually very (low. No medicines 
are known, that are capable of removing this diforder of 
the eye ; but methods of operating on the cryflalline hu¬ 
mour are ufed to recover the light thus obftrudted ; for 
which, fee the article Surgery. 
CATA'RIA,/. in botany. See Dracocephalum, 
Hyssopus, and Nepeta. 
CATARIN'GA, a town of the ifland of Borneo, on a 
river of the fame name. 
CATAR'RH,/ [from y.aTec and fE<v, Or."to flow down.] 
A defluxion : called alfo brondos, catan kcuma, jluxio, rheu- 
ma, capiplcnium, See. It is an inflammation ot, or an in- 
creafed and morbid fecretion from, the mucous membrane 
of the nole, eyes, throat, mouth, or lungs, w hich in the 
leflcr degrees of it, is t ailed a cold. Dr. Cullen ranks this 
genus of d:feafe in the clafs pyrexia:, and order profluvia; 
for the cattle and cure of which, fee Medicine. 
CATAR'RHAL, or Catar'rhous, adj. Relating to 
a catarrh ; proceeding from a catarrh.—The catarrhal fe¬ 
ver requires evacuations. Floyer. 
CATASA'RC A,y. [from *«]«, and ca^l, Gr. flefli.] 
In medicine, a dropfy ; the fame as Anasarca. 
CATASCHAS'MOS,/. [from Gr. to fearify.] 
Scarification ; and, according to Diofcorides, a deeper {'ca¬ 
lcification titan common, which is necelfary in gangrene 
and fphacelus. 
CATAS'TASIS,/! [from Kafiirnga, Gr. to conftrtidh] 
In poetry, the third part of the ancient drama ; being that 
wherein the intrigue, or adlion, fet forth in the epitafis, is 
fupported, carried on, and heightened, till it be ripe for 
unravelling in the cataftrophe. Scaliger defines it, the 
full growth of the fable, while things are at a (land in that 
Confufion to which the poet has brought them. 
C ATAS'TOLE,/. [from nalarsMu, Gr. to moderate.] 
That gravity and modefly in drefs which, among other 
things” Hippocrates recommends as becoming the dignity 
of a phyfidan. 
CATAS'TROPHE,/. [Gr.] A final event; a conclu- 
lion, generally unhappy, or deflrudtive.— Here was a mighty 
revolution, the molt horrible and portentous cataftrophe 
that nature ever yet faw ; an elegant and habitable earth 
quite (battered. Woodward.— In dramatic poetry, it is the 
fourth and lad part in the ancient drama; or that imme¬ 
diately fucceediug the cataflafis : or, according to others, 
the third only ; the whole drama being divided into pro- 
tafis, epitafis, and cataftroplie; or, in the terms of Ari(- 
totle, prologue, epilogue, and exode. The cataflrophe is, 
therefore, only the Jifcovery or winding up of the plot. 
CATAWES'SY, atownof United America, in the (late 
of Pennfvlvania : eighteen miles north-eafl of Sunbury. 
CATB A'LOG AN, a town of the ifland of Samar, one 
of the Philippines, in the Eaftern Indian Sea. 
7 b CATCH, v. a. prefer. I catchcd or caught ; I have 
catched or caught ; \_ketfen, Dutch.] To layliold on with the 
hand : intimating the Juddennefs cf the aElion. —And when he 
arole againft me, 1 caught him by his beard, and Imote 
him, and (lew him. i Sam. xvii. 35.— 1 o flop any thing 
flying; to receive anything in the paflage : 
Others, to catch the breeze of breathing air, 
To Tufculum or Algido repair. Addifon. 
To feize any thing by purfuit.—I faw him run after a gild¬ 
ed butterfly, and, when he caught it, he let it go again. 
Shakefpeare. —To flop any thing falling; to intercept fall¬ 
ing. __A fhepherd diverted himfelf with tolling up eggs, 
and catching them again. SpeElator. —To enfnare; to en¬ 
tangle In a (bare; to take or hold in a trap.—-Thefe arti¬ 
ficial methods of realoning are more adapted to catch and 
entangle the mind, than to inflrudt and inform the undeor- 
flandyig. Locke. —To receive fuddenly : 
The curling fmoke mounts heavy from the fires; 
At length it catches flame, and in ablaze expires. Dryden. 
V.p l. 111 . No. 170. 
CAT 901 
To fatten fuddenly trpon ; to feize.—Would they, like 
Benhadad’s amballadors, catch hold of every amicable ex- 
preflion ? Decay of Piety. —To feize unexpectedly.—To 
catch fomething out of his mouth, that they might accufe 
him. Luke xi. 54. “-To feize eagerly.—They have caught 
up every thing greedily, with that bufy curiofity, and tin- 
fatisfadtory inquifitivenefs, which Seneca calls the difeafe 
ot the Greeks. Pope. —To pleafe ; to feize the affections; 
to charm : 
For I am young, a novice in the trade, 
The fool of love, unpractis'd to perfuade, 
And want the foot lung arts that catch the fair, 
But, caught myfelf, lie draggling in the (hare. Dryden. 
To receive any contagion or difeafe.—The fofteft of our 
Britkli ladies expofe their necks and arms to the open air ; 
which the men could not do without catching cold, ior want 
of being accuflomed to it. Addifon. 
To catch at. To endeavour fuddenly to lay hold on: 
Saucy lictors 
Will catch at us like (trumpets, and feald rhimers 
Ballad us out of tune. S/ia'kefpeare. 
To CATCH, v. n. To be contagious; to fpread infec¬ 
tion, or mi (chief : . 
Sicknefs is catching ; oh ! were favour fo! 
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go. Shakefpeare. 
To lay hold fuddenly : as, the hook catches; 
When the yellow hair in flame fliould fall, 
The catching fire might burn the golden cawl. Dryden. 
CATCH , f. Seizure; the a£t of feizing any thing that 
flies or hides : 
Taught by his open eye, 
His eye, that ev’n did mark her trodden grafs, 
That (he would fain the catch of Strephon fly. Sidney. 
Watch ; the pofture of feizing.—Both of them lay upon 
the catch for a great adtion; it is no wonder, therefore, 
that they were often engaged on one fubject. Addifon. — 
An advantage taken ; hold laid on, as in hafle : 
Fate of empires and the fall of kings, 
Should turn on flying hours, and catch of moments. Dryden. 
The adt of taking quickly from another.—Several quires, 
placed one over again!!; another, and taking the voice 
by catches authemw ife, give great pleafure. Bacon. —The 
thing caught; profit; advantage. — Hetlor (hall have a 
great catch, if he knock out your brains; he were as good 
crack a fufty nut with no kernel. Shakfpearc. —A fnatch; 
a (hort interval of adlion.— It has been writ by catches, with 
many intervals. Locke. —A taint; a (light contagion.— 
We retain a catch of thofe pretty (lories, and our awaken¬ 
ed imagination fmiles in the recolledtion. Glanville. —Any 
thing that catches and holds, as a hook. — A fmalFfwift- 
failing (hip: commonly written ketch. 
CATCH, f. in nmfic, a fugue in the unifon, wherein, 
to humour fome conceit in the words, the melody is bro¬ 
ken, and the fenfe interrupted in one part, and caught 
again or fupported by another; as in Shakefpeare’s plav 
of the Twelfth Night, where there is a catch fling by three 
perfons, in which the humour is, that each who (ings, calls 
and is called knave in turn : or, as defined by Mr. Ja.kfon, 
“ a catch is a piece for three or more voices, one of which 
leads, and the others follow in the fame notes, ft rmifl 
be fo contrived, that reds (which are made for that pnr- 
pofe) in the nuiiic of one line be filled up with a word or 
two from another line ; thefe form a crofs pnrpofe, or 
catch, from whence the name.” 
CATCH-FLY,/', in botany. SeeLYCHNis. 
CATCH-LAND. In Norfolk there are fome grounds 
which it is not known to what parifii they certainly belong, 
fo that the minifler who firft feizes the tithes, does by that 
right of pre-occupation enjoy them for that year : and the 
10 U land 
