912 CAT 
the punifhment, but the certainty of it. The death of a 
criminal is a lei's powerful reftraint againt the comniifiion 
of crimes, than the long and lading example of a criminal 
deprived of hi liberty, and making an expiation, by the 
labourof the remainder of his life, for the wrongs he has 
done to fociety. The corruption of every government al¬ 
ways begins by that of its principles. The principles of 
good government begin to be corrupted, not only when 
the national character and the fpirit of equality w hich the 
laws have produced are gone; but they are corrupted 
likewife when, the fpirit of equality becomes too ftrong, 
and ev$iy one willies to be equal to him whom the law has 
decreed to be his fuperior. If the fovereign, as w'ell as 
the magiftrates and the perfons in authority, ceafe to be 
refpeCted; if no particular regard is paid to old perfons, 
to fathers and to mothers, nor to mailers; the date in 
which this takes place is moll afluredly haftening on very 
rapidly to its ruin.” The empiefs Catharine II. died in a 
fit of apoplexy, on the iorli of November, 1796, in the 
lixty-eighth year of her age. For the principal events of 
her reign, her political character, and portrait, fee the ar¬ 
ticle Russia. 
CA'dHARINE (Knights of St. Catharine of Mount 
Sinai), an ancient military order, erefted for the protedlion 
of pilgrims going to pay their devotions to the (brine of St. 
Catharine, a virgin of Alexandria, diftinguithed for her 
learning, and faid to have futfered martyrdom underMax- 
jmin. The body of the martyr having been difeovered on 
Mount Sinai, caufed a great concourfe of pilgrims; and 
travelling being dangerous, by reafon of the Arabs, an or¬ 
der of knighthood was ere<fled in 1063, on the model of 
that of the holy fepulchre, and under the patronage of St. 
Catharine; the knights of which obliged themfelves by 
oath to guard the body of the faint, keep the roads feeure, 
obferve the rule of St. Bafil, and obey their grand-malfer. 
Their habit was white, and on it were departed the inftru- 
ments of martyrdom whereby the faint hatl.fuffered, viz. a 
half-wheel armed with fpikes, and travel-fed with a fword 
flained with blood. 
CA'THARINE (Fraternity of St.Catharine at Sienna), 
a religious fociety, mftituted in that city in honour of St. 
Catharine. This fraternity yearly endows a certain num¬ 
ber of deflitute virgins, and has the privilege of redeem¬ 
ing annually two criminals condemned for murder, and 
the fame number-of debtors, by paying their debts. 
CA'THARINE (order of St.) a dignity bellowed on 
the ladies of the firlt quality in the Ruffian court. It was 
inllituted in 1714 by Catharine wife of Peter the Great, in 
memory of his (ignal efcape from the Turks in 1711. The 
emblems of this order are a red crofs, fupported by a fi¬ 
gure of St. Catharine, and fallened to a fcarlet firing edged 
with filver, on which are inferibed the name of St. Catha¬ 
rine, and the motto, Pro Jide et patria. 
CA'THARINES, a town of United America, in the 
(late of New-York, fituated on a river which runs into the 
lake Seneca : 165 miles north-weft of New-York. 
CATH'AR'TICS, f. [jtaSaifw, Gr. to purge.] This 
word is generally ufed asexpreilive of purging medicines ; 
but it alfo implies enietics.—The vermicular or periftaltic 
motion of the inteftines continually helps on their con¬ 
tents, from the pylorus to the reftum ; and every irrita¬ 
tion either quickens that motion in its natural order, or oc- 
talions fome little inverfions in it. I11 both, what but 
(lightly adheres to the coat will be loofened, and they will 
be' more agitated, and thus rendered more fluid. By this 
only it is manifeft how a cathartic haflens and increafes the 
difeharges by ftool; but, where the force of the (timulus is 
great, all the appendages of the bowels, and all the vifeera 
in the abdomen, will be twitched; by which a great deal 
will be drained back into the inteflines, and made a part of 
what they dilcharge. Quincy .—Plato has called mathema¬ 
tical demonflrations the cathartics or purgatives of the 
foul. Addifon. 
The piercing cauftics ply their fpiteful powV, 
Emetics ranch, and keen cathartics fcour. Garth. 
CAT 
CATHAR'TIC ALNESS, f. Purging quality. 
CA'THECU,yi in botany. See Akeca. 
CATHE'DRA, f. [Lat. a chair.] A term ufed for a 
profeflor’s chair, and a preacher’s pulpit. Alfo for the 
bilhop’s throne in a church. 
CATHE'DRAL, adj. [from cathedra , Lat. a chair of 
authority; an epifcopal fee.] Epifcopal ; containing the 
fee ot a bifhop.—A cathedral church is that wherein there 
are two or more perfons, with a bifhop at the head of them, 
that do make, as it were, one body politic. Ayliffe. —Be¬ 
longing to an epifcopal church.—His conftant and regular 
aflilting at the cathedral lei vice was never interrupted by 
the fharpnefs of weather. Locke. —In low phrafe, antique ; 
venerable; old. This feems to be the meaning in tlic 
following lines : 
Here aged trees cathedral walks compofe, 
And mount the hill in venerable rows. Pope. 
CATHE'DRAL, f. The head church of a diocefe. 
The denomination cathedral leems to have taken its rile 
from the manner of fitting in the ancient churches, or aflem- 
blies of primitive Chriltians: in thefe, the council, i. e. 
the elders and priefls, was called Prejbyterium ; at their head 
was the bifliop, who held the place of chairman, Cathedralis 
or Calhcdraticus ; and the prefbyters, who fat on either fide, 
were alfo called by the ancient fathers, AJfeJJ'ores EpiJ'copo- 
rum. The epifcopal authority did not refide in the bilhop 
alone, but in all the prelbyters, whereof the bifhop was 
prefident. A cathedral, therefore, originally, was diffe¬ 
rent from what it is now; the Chriftians, till the time of 
Conftantine, having no liberty to build any temple : by 
their churches they only meant their aflemblies; and by 
cathedrals, nothing more than confiliories. 
CATHE'M, a town of Arabia: eighty miles fouth of 
Baffbra, and 170 nerth-eaft of El Catif. Lat. 29. N. Ion. 
E. Ferro. 
CATHENON', a town of France, in the department of 
the Mofelle, and chief place of a canton in the diftridt of 
Thionville: one league and a half N. N. E. Thionville. 
CATHE'RETICS, f. [from Gr. to remove.] 
Medicines of a cauftic nature, fervingto eat off proud flefli. 
CATHERLOU'GH, a town of Ireland, in the county of 
Catherlough, and province of Leinfler, feated on the ri¬ 
ver Barrow: fixteen miles north-eaft of Kilkenny. Lat. 
65. 52. 45. N. Ion. 7. i.W. 
CATHERLOU'GH, a county of Ireland,about twenty- 
eight miles in length, and eight in breadth; bounded on 
the eaft byWicklow and Wexford, on the well by Queen’s- 
county, on the north by Kildare, and on the fouth and 
fouth-welt by Wexford. It contains 5600 houfes, 42 pa- 
rifhes, five baronies or boroughs, and fends fix members 
to parliament, viz. tw T o for the county, two for Cather¬ 
lough, and two for Old Leiglden. 
CA'THETER, f. [from xafloi/m, Gr. to thrufl into; 
alfo called aulijcos.~\ A long crooked tube, for palling 
along the urethra into the bladder, either for the difeovery 
of a (lone, or to occafion a flow of urine, if fiipprefled. 
The Latins call it fifiula , and it had the epithet anea be¬ 
llowed on it from the matter of which it was formed, being 
of brafs or copper, though it is now made both of fleel and 
of filver. It is the name alfo for bougie. See S.u RGery. 
CA'THETUS, f. in geometry, a name by which the 
perpendicular leg of a right-angled triangle is fometimes 
called. Or it is in general any line or radius falling per¬ 
pendicularly on another line, or fm face. 
Cathetus of Incidence, in catoptrics, is a right line 
drawn from a radiant poiiH, or point of incidence, perpen¬ 
dicular to tire refiedling line, or plane of the fpeculum. 
Cathitus of Reflection, or of the Eye, a right line 
drawn from the eye, perpendicular to the plane of reflec¬ 
tion. 
CA'THETUS, f in architedlure, denotes the axis of a 
column, &c. In the Ionic capital, it denotes a line palling 
perpendicularly through the eye or centre of the volute. 
^CA'TIiOLIC, adj. [catholique, Fr. uni- 
verfai 
