CAN 
This feenis only a preparation for bringing their fpawn to 
maturity; for, without farther delay, they withdraw to 
leek a lodging upon land ; in the mean time the fpawn 
grows larger, is excluded out of the body, and dicks to 
the barbs under the flap, or more properly the tail. This 
bunch is feen as big as an hen’s egg, and exactly refem- 
bling the rows of herrings. In this ftate of pregnancy 
they once more feek the (here for the lad: time ; and, (ha¬ 
lting off their fpawn into the water, leave accident to 
bring it to maturity. At this time whole fhoals of hun¬ 
gry nlh are at the (bore in expectation of this annual (ap¬ 
ply ; the (ea to a great di(lance feems black with them ; 
and about two-thirds of the crabs’ eggs are immediately 
devoured by thefe rapacious invaders. The eggs that 
efcape are hatched under the fand ; and, foon after, mil¬ 
lions at a time of the little Crabs are feen quitting the 
(hore, and (lowly travelling up to the mountains. The 
old ones, however, are not Co atftive to-return ; they have 
become fo feeble and lean, that they can hardly creep 
along, and the fled) at that time changes its colour. The 
mod of them, therefore, are obliged to continue in the 
flat parts of the country till they recover, making holes 
in the earth, which they cover at the mouth with leaves 
and dirt, fo that no air may enter. There they throw off 
their old (hells, which they leave, as it were, quite whole ; 
the place where they opened on the belly being unfeen. 
At that time they are quite naked, and almoft without 
motion for (ix days together, when they become fo fat as 
to be delicious food. They have then under their flo- 
machs four large white dones, which gradually decreafe 
in proportion as the (hell hardens, and, when they come 
to perfeffion, are not to be found. It is at that time that 
the animal is feen dowdy making its way back ; and all 
this is mod commonly performed in the fpace of fix weeks. 
This animal, when poffefled of its retreats in the moun¬ 
tains, is impregnable; for, only fubliding upon vegeta¬ 
bles, it ftldom ventures out; and, its habitation being in 
the mod inacceflible places, it remains fora great part of 
the feafon in perfect fecurity. It is only when impelled by 
the defire of bringing forth its young, and when compel¬ 
led to defeend into the flat country, that it is taken. At 
that time the natives wait for its defeent in eager expefta- 
tion, and deflroy thoufands; but, difregarding their bo¬ 
dies, they only feek for that fmall fpawn winch lies on 
each (ide of the flomach, within the (hell, of about the 
thicknefs of a man’s thumb. They are much more valu¬ 
able upon their return after they have cad their diell; for, 
being covered with a (kin refembling foft parchment, al¬ 
mod every part except the domach may be eaten. They 
-are taken in holes by feeling for them with an indrument; 
they are fought after by night, when on their journey, by 
flambeaux. The inftant the animal perceives itfelf attack¬ 
ed, it throws itfelf on its back, and with its claws pinches 
mod terribly whatever it happens to faden on. But the 
dexterous crab-catcher takes them by the hinder legs irv 
fuch a manner, that the nippers cannot touch him, and 
thus he throws them into his bag. Sometimes alfo they 
are caught when they take refuge in the bottoms of holes 
in rocks by the fea-fide, by clapping a dick to the mouth 
of the hole, which prevents their getting out ; and then 
foon after, the tide coming, enters the hole, and the ani¬ 
mal is found, upon its retiring, drowned in its retreat. 
Thefe crabs are of various fizes, thelarged about fix in¬ 
ches wide ; they walk fide-ways like the fea-crab, and are 
fltaped like them : fome are black, feme yellow, fome red, 
and others variegated with red, white, and yellow, mixed. 
Some of thefe are poifonous ; and feveral people have died 
of eating of the crabs, particularly of the black kind. The 
light-poloured are reckoned the bed ; and, when full in 
flefli, are very well tailed. In fome of the fugar iflands 
Shey are eaten without danger ; and are no fmall help to 
tiie negro (laves, who, on many of thefe illands, would 
fare very hard without them. 
CAN'CER,/ £from Gr. a crab.] In medi- 
C A N ?o7 
cine, a rbundifli, unequal, hard, and livid, tumour. By 
the term cancer, the Roman writers underdcod what the- 
Greeks called gangrene and fphacelus ; but the difeale 
which is now called cancer, is what the Greeks and Ro¬ 
mans meant by carcinoma, and carcinos. It is called alfo 
lupus, bgcaufe it eats away the flefli like a Wolf. Galen 
lays, that, as the crab is furniflied with claws on both (ides 
of its body, fo in the carcinoma, or carcinos-, the veins, 
which are extended from the tumor, reprefent with it a 
figure like a crab. And Boerlraave fays, that if the flag- 
nating matter of a fchirrhus is put in motion, fo as to in¬ 
flame the veffels fituated in its margin, it becomes malig¬ 
nant, and then is called a cancer. With Hippocrates we 
may, perhaps, moll properly confider all the fpecies as 
compriled in the occult and open cancer. A cancer then 
is, as P. zEgineta deferibes it, an unequal tumor, with 
or without an ulcer. Hippocrates calls that an occult 
cancer, that is yet unburft, or without an ulcer ; and that 
an open or an ulcerated one, that is burft or ulcerated. 
For the caufes and cure of all the different kinds, fee the 
article Surgery. 
CAN'CER, in affronomy, one of the- twelve figns of 
zodiac, ufua-lly drawn on the globe in the form of a crab, 
and in books of affronomy denoted by a character refem¬ 
bling the number flxty-nine, turned fidevvays, tints s°- 
It is one of the forty-eight old conffellations; and, from- 
the hieroglyphic mode of writing among the Egyptians, 
Chaldeans, &c. it is probable that they gave the name and- 
figure to this conffellation from the following circum- 
ffance, viz. that, as the crab is an animal that goes fidelingf 
backwards, fo the fun, in his annual courfe through the 
zodiac, when he arrives at this part of the ecliptic, hav-- 
ing reached his utmoft limit northwards, begins there to- 
return back again towards the fouth. But the Greeks, 
who adapted fome fable of their own to every thing of 
this kind, pretend that when Hercules was fighting with 
the Lernaean hydra, there was a crab upon the rnarlh which 
feized his foot. The hero crufhed the reptile to pieces- 
under his heel; but Juno, in gratitude for the offered fer- 
vice, little as it was, railed the creature into the heavens,- 
The number of ftars in the fign cancer, Ptolemy makes 
13, Tycho 15, Bayer and Hevelius 29, and Flamfteed 83. 
Tropic of CAN'CER, an imaginary circle in the hea¬ 
vens, pafling through the beginning of the fign Cancer,- 
and parallel to the equinodiial, through the beginning of 
which the fun paffes in June, and makes our longeff day; 
it is called the northern tropic. 
To CAN'CERATE, v. n. to grow cancerous; to be-- 
come a cancer.— But, ffriking his fill upon the point of 
a nail, his hand canceratec !, he fell into a fever, and foon' 
after died. L'Ef range. 
CANCER A'TION,/ A growing cancerous. 
CAN'CEROUS, adj. Having the virulence and quali¬ 
ties of a cancer.—How they are to be treated when they 
are ffrumous, fchirrhou's, or cancerous, you may fee in their- 
proper places. Wifeman. 
CAN'CEROUSNESS,/. The ftate of being cancerous, 
CAN'CHE, a river of France, which runs into the fea,- 
near Etaples, in the department of the Straits of Calais. 
CAN'CHES, a mountain of South America, which gives 
name to aqurifdidtion in .Peru, it is a part ot the Andes. 
Lat. 14. 10. S. Ion. 54. o. W. of Ferro. 
■ CAN'CHY, a town of France, in the department of the 
Somme : five miles north of Abbeville. 
CAN'CHY, a town of France, in the department of the 
Calvados : ten miles weft of Baveux. 
C ANCON', a town of France, in the department of the 
Lot and Garonne, and chief place of a canton, in the dif- 
t-ridl of Monflanquin : two leagues well of Monflanquin. 
CAN'CRINE, adj. Having the qualities of a crab. 
CANCRO'MA, the Boat-bill, in ornithology, a ge¬ 
nus of birds belonging to the order of Grallce ; the charac¬ 
ters of which are—The bill is broad, with a keel along the 
middle; the nollrils are fmall, and lodged in a furrow 
the 
