7©| CAN 
lid, or Secrets of Nativities, translated by M. d’Herbelot, 
he wrote, 2. Kitab al Keranat al Cabir-u cf-Sagir; the 
great and the little Book of Syzyges, or of the Conjunc¬ 
tions of the Planets. 3. A Manual of Medicine. 4. Fi -1 
tavahumi; of Physiognomy. 5. Menazel ol Carnari, de 
Mmlionibus Lun«e ; and Several other works of aftrology. 
CANCA'LE, a fea-port town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the llle and Vilaine, and chief place of a canton, 
in the diftrict of St. Malo, celebrated for oiflers. The 
Englifin landed here in 1758, and burnt and deftroyed above 
a hundred. Ships in the bay. It is three leagues eafl of St. 
Malo. Lat. 48. 49. N. Ion. 15.48. E. Ferro. 
To CAN'CEL, v. a. [canceller , Fr. from cancellis notare, 
Eat. to mark with crofs lines.] To crofs a writing. To 
efface; to obliterate in general : 
Thou, w'hom avenging pow’rs obey, 
Cancel tny debt, too great to pay, 
Before the fad accounting day. Rofcommon. 
CAN'CELLATED, particip. adj. Crofsbarred; mark¬ 
ed with lines eroding each other.—The tail of the caftor 
is aimed bald, though the bead is very hairy ; and canccU 
lated , w ith tome refemblance to the Scales of fillies. Grew. 
C ANCELLA'TION,/! According to Bartoltis, is an 
expunging or wiping out of the contents of an indrument, 
by two lines drawn in the manner of a crofs. 
CANCELT.I,/! A term ufed to denote lattice win¬ 
dows, or thole made of cfofs bars difpofed latticewife; 
it is alfo ufed for the rails or balluders inclodng theccm- 
mimion-table, a court of judice, or the network in the 
iniide of hollow bones. 
CAN'CER, the CitAB,yi in zoology, a genus belong¬ 
ing to the order of infecla aptera. The generic charac- 
ters are thefe—They have eight legs, (feldom ten or fix,) 
beftdes the two large claws which anfvver the purpofe of 
hands. They have two eyes at a considerable didance 
from each other, and for the mod part fupported by a kind 
of pedunculi or footdalks; the eyes are likewife elonga¬ 
ted and moveable; they have two clawed palpi, and the 
tail is jointed. This germs includes the lobder, Shrimp, 
Sec. There are no lefs than eighly-feven Species of can¬ 
cer, didinguifhed principally by the length of their tails 
and the margins of their breads. The following are the 
mod remarkable: 
1. The gammarus, or common lobder, with a fmooth 
thorax, Short ferrated Snout; very long antennae; and be¬ 
tween them two Shorter ones, bifid ; claws and fangs large, 
the greater tuberculated, the lefler ferrated on the inner 
edge; four pair of legs; fix joints in the tail; tail-fins 
rounded. It inhabits all the rocky Shores of our ifland, 
but chiefly where there is a depth of water. The lobder 
was well known to the ancients, and is deferibed by Ari- 
dotle under the name of It is found as far as the 
Hellefpont; and is called at Conthmtinople liezuda and 
liepnda. Lo'bders fear thunder, and are apt to cad their 
claws on a great clap ; it is faid that they will do the fame 
on the firing of a great gun. The habitation of this fpe- 
cies is in the cleared water, at the loot of rocks that im¬ 
pend over the lea. Ibis has given opportunity of exa¬ 
mining more clofely into the natural hiftory of the animal, 
than ol' many others wlso live in an element that prohibits 
mod of the human refearches, and limits the enquiries of 
the mod inquifitive. Some lobders are taken by hand ; 
but the greater quantity in pots, a fort of trap formed of 
twigs, and baited with garbage; they are formed like a 
wire mouie-trap, fo that when the lobder gets in there is 
no return. Thefe are fadened to a cord funk in the tea, 
and their place marked by a buoy. They begin to breed 
in the fpring, and continue breeding mod part of the futn- 
mer. They propagate more humano, and are extremely 
prolific. Dr. Bader fays he counted 12,444 eggs under 
the tail, befides thofe that remained in the body unpro- 
truded. They depofit thofe eggs in the fand, where they 
are foon hatched. 
Lobders change their fhell annually. Previous to their 
CAN 
putting off their old one, they appear fick, languid, and 
redlefs. They totally acquire a new coat in a few days; 
but, during the time that they remain defencelefs, they 
feek forne very lonely and fecure place, for fear of being 
devoured by fuclvof their brethren as are not In the fame 
fituafion. |t is alfo remarkable, that lobders and crabs 
will renew their claws, if by accident they are torn off; 
and it is certain they will grow again in ad'ew weeks, tho’ 
they never attain to the fize of the fird. They are very vo¬ 
racious animals, and feed on fea-weeds, garbage, and all 
forts of dead bodies. The pincers of one of the lobfter’s 
large claws are furnidiedwith knobs, and thofe of the other 
are always ferrated. With the former it keeps firm hold 
of the dalks of l’ubmarine plants, and with tlve latter it 
cuts and minces its food very dexteroufiy. The knobbed 
or numb claw, as the fifliermen call it, is fometimes on the 
tight and fometimes on the left .fide indifferently. The 
female lobder does not cad her fhell the fame year that die 
depofits her ova. "When the ova fird appear externally, 
they are fmall, .and extremely black; but they become 
aimed as large as ripe elder-berries before they are depo- 
fited, and turn of a dark brown colour towards the end 
of the time of Iter depositing them. They continue full, 
and depofiting the ova in condant fucceffion, as long as'any 
of that black fubdance can be found in their body, which, 
when boiled, turns of a beautiful red colour, and is called 
the coral. Hen lobders are found in berry at all times of 
the year, but chiefly in winter. It is a common miflake, 
that a berried lobder is always in perfection for'the table. 
When her berries appear large and broivnifh, die will al¬ 
ways be found exhauded, watery, and poor. Though the 
ova be cad at all times of the year, they feem only to 
come to life during the warm fummer-months of July and 
Auguft. Great numbers of them may then be found, 
tinder the appearance of tadpoles, fwimming about the 
little pools left by the tides among the rocks, and many alfo 
under their proper form from half an inch to four inches 
in length. In cading their fhells, it is hard to conceive 
how the lobder is able to draw the fifli of their large claws 
out, leaving the fhells entire and attached to the fiiell of 
their body, in which date they are condantly found. The 
fifliermen fay the lobder pines before cading, till tire fifli 
of its large claws is no thicker than the quill of a goofe,- 
which enables it to draw its parts through the joints and 
narrow paffage near the trunk. The new fhell is quite 
membranaceous at fird, but hardens by degrees. Lobders 
only grow in fize while their fhells are in a foft date. They 
are chofen for the table, by their being heavy in propor¬ 
tion to their fize ; and by the hardnefs of their fhells on 
their iides, which, when in perfection, will not yield to 
moderate preffure-. Barnacles and other fmall fifli adhe¬ 
ring to them are reckoned fure fignsof fuperior goodnefs. 
Cock lobders are in general better than the liens in win¬ 
ter ; they are didinguifhed by the narrownefs of their tails, 
and by their having a flrong fpine upon the centre of 
each of the tranfverfe proceifes beneath the tail, which 
fupport the four middle plates of their tails. The fifli of 
a lobder’s claw is more tender, delicate, and eafy of di- 
geflion, than that of the tail. In fummer, the lobders 
are found near the fliore, and thence to about fix fathoms 
water ; in winter, they are feldom taken in lefs than twelve 
or fifteen fathoms. They are much more aCtive and alert 
in warm weather than in cold. In the water, they can 
run nimbly upon their legs or fmall claws ; and if alarmed 
can fpring, tail foremefi, to a furprifmg didance, as fvvitt 
as a bird can fly. The fifliermen can fee them pafs about 
thirty feet; and, by the fwiflnefs of their motion, fup- 
pofe they may go much farther. Athenseus remarks 
this circumdance, and fays, that “ the incurvated lobders 
will fpring with the activity of dolphins.’* Their eyes 
are raifed upon moveable bales, which enables them to 
lee readily every way. When frightened, they will fpring 
from a cohfiderable didance to their hold in the rock, and, 
what is not lefs furprifmg than true, will throw them- 
felves into their hold in that manner through an entrance 
barely 
