m c u s 
CUSSHOO'N, f. A brigade or legion of troops in Hin- 
tlo.iftan, confiding of about three thoufand men, cavalry, 
artillery, and infantry. 
CUSSI'E, a town of Egypt: fifteen miles fouth of 
Afnmunein. 
CU-SSTTAH', an Indian town of North America, in 
the weftern part of Georgia, twelve miles above the 
Broken Arrow, on Chattahoofee river. 
CUS'SO, f. In botany, a name given by Mr. Bruce 
to the Banksia Abyssinica. 
CUSSONIA,yi [In memory of Cujfcn , a celebrated 
botanift, who laboured to complete the clafs of umbel¬ 
late plants. Linn. Sttppl. ] In botany, a genus of the clafs 
pentandria, order digynia, natural order araliae. The 
generic charadters are—Calyx : umbel none, but three 
or more peduncles, umbelled, colledting the flowers 
into a raceme or fpike; involucre none, but fcattered 
bractes at the bafe of the peduncles ; perianthium one- 
leafed, truncate, obfcurely five-toothed, fliorter than the 
corolla, permanent. Corolla: petals five, oblong, acute. 
Stamina: filaments five, very fliort; antheras ovate. 
Piftillum: germ inferior, turbinate; ftyles two, filiform, 
patulous; ftigmas Ample, obtufe. Pericarpium: twin, 
compreiied, angular, crowned with the calyx and ftyles, 
two-celled, two-valved. Seeds : folitary.— Ejfential Cha- 
raEler. Petals, three-cornered ; margin of the receptacle 
dilated into a five-toothed calyx. 
Species, i. Cuflbnia thyrfiflora, or clufter-flowered cuf- 
fonia: leaves digitate, leaflets felflle, wedge-form, trun¬ 
cate, three-toothed; flowers racemed. Stem frutefeent; 
at bottom fcabrous, unequal, Ample, the thicknefs of a 
finger; very Ample at top; leaves at the top of the 
item, approximating, alternate, petioled, digitated in 
fives ; racemes terminating, umbelled ; rays four, very 
Ample, naked below, but with racemed flowers at the 
end, the raceme cylindric. There is a variety of this 
with jointed leaflets, the loweft joint dilated at the end 
into fmaller lobes, whence the leaflets are as it were pro¬ 
liferous. 
2. Cuflbnia fpicata, or fpike-flowered cuflbnia : leaves 
digitate, leaflets petioled, fpatulate ; ligule three or five- 
palmate, finely ferrate ; flowers in fpikes. This and the 
foregoing are natives of the Cape of Good Hope. Juf- 
fieu regards this genus as fcarcely diftinct from panax. 
If it is to be preferved, the fhrubby panaces fhould be 
referred to it. 
CUSSORE',/. [Indian.] A term ufed in Hindooftan 
for the difeount or allowance made on the exchange of 
rupees, in contradiftinclion to batta. Batta is the fum 
deducted : cuflore the fum added. 
CUS'TARD, f. \_cwjlard, Welfh.] A kind of fweet- 
meat made by boiling eggs with milk and fugar till the 
whole thickens into a mafs : 
Now may’rs and ftirieves all hufir’d and fatiate lay ; 
Yet eat, in dreams, the cuflard of the day. Pope. 
CUS'TARD-APPLE, f. in botany. See Annona. 
CUS'TARD-COFFIN, f. Cruft made to hold a cuf- 
tard.—It is a paltry cap, a cijlard-coffin. Shakefpeare. 
CUSTI'NE, or Conde sur Moselle, a town of 
France, in the department of the Meurt, and chief place 
of a canton, in the diftridt of Nancy, fituated on the 
Mofelle : two leagues north-north-weft of Nancy. 
CUS'TODY, f icujiodia, Lat.] Imprifonment; re- 
ftraint of liberty.—The council remonftranced unto 
queen Elizabeth the confpiracies againft her life, and 
therefore they advifed her, that (lie fhould go lefs 
abroad weakly attended; but the queen anfwered, fhe 
had rather be dead than put in cijlody. Bacon. 
For us enfiav’d, is cujlody fevere, 
And ftripes, and arbitrary punilhment. Milton. 
Care; guardianfhip ; charge.—Under the cujlody and 
charge of the foils of Merari, (hall be the boards of the 
tabernacle. Numb. in. 36. 
c u s 
We being grangers here, how dar’ft thou truft 
So great a charge from thine own cujlody ? Shakcfpcare. 
Defence ; prefervation ; fecurity.—There was prepared 
a fleet of thirty thips for the cujlody of the narrow feas. 
Bacon. 
CUS'TOM, f. [coujlume, Fr.j Habit; habitual prac¬ 
tice.— Cujlom , a greater power than nature, feldom fails 
to make them worfhip. Locke. 
Blood and deftrudtion thall be fo in ufe, 
That mothers fhall but fmile when they behold 
Their infants quarter’d by the hands of war; 
All pity choak’d with cujlom of fell deeds. Shakefpeare. 
Fafhion ; common way of adting.—And the prieft’s cujlom 
with the people was, that when any man offered facrifice, 
the prieft’s fervant came, while the flefti was in feething, 
with a flefti-hook of three teeth in his hands, x Sam. ii.— 
Eftabliflied manner. — According to the cujlom of the 
prieft’s office, his lot was to burn incenfe when he went 
into the temple of the Lord. Luke, i.—Pradtice of buy¬ 
ing of certain perfons.—You fay he is afliduous in his 
calling, and is he not grown rich by it > Let him have 
your cujlom , but not your votes. Addifon. —Application 
from buyers: as, this trader has good cuftom. A tax, a 
tribute paid for goods. 
“ Custom is a fecond nature.” The Latins fay, Con- 
fuetudo ejl altera natura ; or, Altera natura vfus cjl. In High 
Germ. Die gewonheir ejl die andere natur. This faying is 
as true as it is univerfally noticed ; and there are very 
few who, in one refpedt or other, have not frequent ex¬ 
perience of the fadt. 
The force of cujlom and habit hath fuch influence upon 
our actions and feelings, by warping and varying them, 
that its operations demand the attention of all thofe who 
would be acquainted with human nature. The fubjedf, 
however, is as intricate as it is curious. Some pleafures 
are fortified by cuftom ; and yet cuftom begets familiari¬ 
ty, and confequently indifference: 
If all the years were playing holidays, 
To fport would be as tedious as to work: 
But when they feldom come, they wifh’d-for come, 
And nothing pleafeth but rare accidents. Shakefpeare. 
Whatever be the caufe, it is certain that we are much 
influenced by Cuftom: it hath an effect upon our plea¬ 
fures, upon our actions, and even upon our thoughts 
and fentiments. Habit makes no figure during the vi¬ 
vacity of youth : in middle age it gains ground ; and in 
old age governs without controul. In that period of life 
generally fpeaking, we eat at a certain hour, take exer- 
cife at a certain hour, go to reft at a certain hour, all by 
the diredtion of habit: nay, a particular feat, table, bed, 
comes to be elfential; and a habit in any of thefe cannot 
be controuled without uneafinefs. Any flight or mode- 
rate pleafure, frequently reiterated for a long time, forms 
a peculiar connexion between us and the thing that caufes 
the pleafure. This connexion, termed habit , has the ef¬ 
fect to awaken our defire or appetite for that thing when 
it returns not as ufual. During the courfe of enjoy¬ 
ment, the pleafure rifes infenfibly higher and higher till 
a habit be eftablifhed ; at which time the pleafure is at 
its height. It continues not, however, ftationary : the 
fame cuftomary reiteration which carried it to its height, 
brings it down again by infenfible degrees, even lower 
than it was at firft. Spirituous liquors, at firft difagree- 
able, readily produce an habitual appetite : and cuftom 
prevails fo far, as even to make us fond of things origi¬ 
nally difgufting, fuch as olives, aflafeetida, tobacco, fnuff, 
&c. Play or gaming, at firft barely amufing by the oc¬ 
cupation it affords, becomes in time extremely agree¬ 
able ; and is frequently profecuted with avidity, as if it 
were the chief bufinefs of life. The fame obfervation 
is applicable to the pleafures of the internal fenfes, thofe 
of knowledge and virtue in particular: children have 
fcarcely any fenfe of thefe pleafures j and men very little 
who 
