402 CHE 
deities of the fame name. The circle in the earlielt pe¬ 
riods among the Egyptians was the fymbol of divinity 
and perfection; and leems with great propriety to have 
been chofen by them as the character of the lun, efpe- 
■cially as, when furrounded by fmall itrokes projecting 
from its circumference, it may form fome reprefentation 
~ of the emiffion of rays. The femicircle is, in like man¬ 
ner, the image of the moon, the only one of the heavenly 
bodies that appears under that form to the naked eye. 
The character T? is fuppofed to reprefent the fcythe of 
Saturn; % the thunderbolts of Jupiter; $ the lance of 
Mars, together with his fliield ; 9 the looking-glafs of 
Venus; and 9 the caduceus or wand of Mercury. The 
expreffion by characters adopted among the ancient che- 
milts, agrees with this mythological fignification only in 
the character afiigned to gold. Gold, according to the 
chemilts, was the molt perfeCt of metals, to which all 
.others Teemed to be inferior in different degrees. Silver 
approached nearell to it; but was diftinguiflied only by 
■a femicircle, which, for the more perfpicuity, was drawn 
double, and thence had a greater refemblance to the molt 
remarkable appearance of the moon ; the name of which 
this metal had already obtained. All the other metals, 
as they feemed to have a greater or lefs affinity to gold or 
fiver, were diflinguiffied by characters compofed of the 
characters affigned to thefe precious metals. Thus, in 
the character the adepts difcover gold, with a filver 
colour. The crofs placed at the bottom, wdiich among 
the Egyptian hieroglyphics had always a myfterious fig- 
nification, expreffes, in their opinion, an unknown forne- 
thing, without which quickfilver would be filver or gold. 
This fomething is combined alfo with copper, the poffible 
change of which into gold is expreffed by the character 9 • 
The character $ declares the like honourable affinity al¬ 
fo ; though the femicircle is applied in a more concealed 
manner; for, according to the propereft mode of writing, 
the point is wanting at the top, or the upright line ought 
only to touch the horizontal, and not to interfeCt it. Phi- 
lofophical gold is concealed in fteel; and, on this ac¬ 
count, according to the ancient chemilts, it produced 
fuch valuable medicines. Of tin one-half is filver, and 
the other conlilts of the fomething unknown; for this 
reafon the crofs with the half-moon appears in In 
lead this fomething is predominant, and a limilitude is 
oblerved in it to lilver. Hence in its character Ij, the 
crols Hands at the top, and the lilver character is only 
fufpended on the right hand behind it. The mythologi¬ 
cal signification of thefe characters cannot be older than 
the Grecian mythology ; but the chemical may be traced 
to a much earlier period. Some, who confider them as 
remains of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, pretend that they 
may be difcovered on the table of Ifis, and employ them 
as a proof of the high antiquity, if not of the art of 
making gold, at leaft of chemiitry. We are told alfo 
that they correfpond with many other charaders, which 
the adepts have left us as emblems of their wifdom. 
If we are defirous of deciding without prejudice re- 
fpeCliDg both thefe explanations, it will be found necef- 
fary to make ourfelves acquainted with the oldeft form 
of the characfers, which, in all probability, like thole 
ufed in writing, were fubjeCled to many changes, before 
they acquired that form which they have at prefent. Sau- 
maife, Du Cange, and Huet, took the trouble to colled 
thefe characters; and the following is the conclulion 
which they form from them : the character of Mars, ac¬ 
cording to the oldeft mode of reprefenting it, is evidently 
an abbreviation of the word ©ovpo?, under which the 
Greek mathematicians underilood that deity; or, in 
other words, the firfl letter ©, with the lafl letter ? placed 
above it. The character of Jupiter was originally the in¬ 
itial letter of Ztv?; and in the oldeft manufcripts of the 
mathematical and allrological works of Julius Finnicus 
the capital Z only is ufed, to which the laft letter ; was 
afterwards added at the bottom, to render the abbrevia¬ 
tion more diftinCt, The fuppofed looking-glafs of Venus 
CHE 
is nothing elfe than the initial letter, diftorted a little, 
of the word < 3 >wcr<ppo?, which was the name of that god- 
defs. The imaginary fcythe of Saturn has been gradu¬ 
ally formed from the two firft letters of his name Kpovoc, 
which tranfcribers, for the fake of difpatch, made always 
more convenient for ufe, but at the fame time lefs per¬ 
ceptible. To difcover in the pretended caduceus of Mer¬ 
cury the initial letter of his Greek name one 
needs only look at the abbreviations in the oldeft manu- 
fcripts, wdiere they will find that the 2 was once written 
'asC; they will remark alfo that tranfcribers, to diftin- 
guiffi this abbreviation from the reft Hill more, placed the 
C thus U , and added under it the next letter t. If thole 
to whom this deduction appears improbable, will only 
take the trouble to look at other Greek abbreviations, 
they will find many that differ Hill farther from the ori¬ 
ginal letters they exprefs, than the prefent character 9 
from the C and r united. It is poffible alfo that later 
tranfcribers, to whom the origin of this abbreviation was. 
not known, may have endeavoured to give it a greater 
refemblance to the caduceus of Mercury. In fhort, it 
cannot be denied that many other characters are real 
fymbols, or a kind of proper hieroglyphics, that repre¬ 
fent certain atributes or circumftances, like the charac¬ 
ters of Aries, Leo, and other figns or fymbols ufed in 
the ancient aftronomy. 
CHEM'NITZ, a towm of Germany, in the circle of 
Upper Saxony, and marquifate of Meilfen; containing 
three churches and an liofpitnl: thirty-fix miles weft- 
fouth-weft of Drefden, and thirty-two lbuth-weft of 
Meilfen 1 . 
CHEM'NITZ (Martin), a Lutheran divine, born at 
Britzen, in the marquifate of Brandenburg, in 1522. His 
father was a wool-comber. After having learned the ru¬ 
diments of literature, he went to Magdeburg, where he 
made fome progrefs in ai ts anti languages. Then he re¬ 
moved to Franckfort-upon-the-Oder, to cultivate philo¬ 
sophy under his relation George Sabinus; and then to 
Wirtemberg, where he ftudied under Philip MelanCtlion. 
Afterwards he became a fchool-mafter in Pruffia ; and, 
in 1552, was made librarian to the Prince. He now de¬ 
voted himlelf wholly to the ftudy of divinity, though he 
was a confiderable mathematician, and {killed particu¬ 
larly in aftronomy. He removed to Brunfwick, where he 
fpent the laft thirty years of his life ; and where he died in 
1586. His works are, 1. Harmonia Evangeliorum ; 2. Ex- 
amen Concilii Tridentini; 3. A Treatiie a gain ft the Je- 
fuits. His Examination of the Council of Trent has al¬ 
ways been efteemed as a mafterly performance. 
CHE'MOSH. See Chamos. 
CHEMO'SIS, [from ^aiia, to gape.] An inflammation, 
of the eyes, where the white fwims above the black, and 
gives the appearance of a gap or aperture. 
CHE'MUNG, a town of United America in Tioga 
county, New York. By the ftate cenfus of 1796, 
eighty-one of its inhabitants were electors. It has New¬ 
ton weft, and Owego eaft, about 160 miles north-Weft 
from New York city, meafuring in a ftraight line. Be¬ 
tween this place and Newton, general Sullivan, in his 
victorious expedition againft the Indians, in 1779, had a 
defperate engagement with the fix nations, whom he de¬ 
feated, The Indians were ftrongly intrenched, and it re¬ 
quired the utmoft exertions of the American army, with 
field pieces, to dillodge them ; although the former, in¬ 
cluding 250 tories, amounted only to 800 men, while the 
Americans were 5000 in number, and well appointed in 
every refpeCt. 
CHEN-IN, a town of Afia, in the kingdom of Corea: 
thirty miles w'eft-north-weft of Tlin-tcheou. 
CHEN-SI, a province of China, bounded on the eaft 
by Hoang-ho, which feparates it from Chan-fi; on the 
fouth by the provinces of Se-tchuen and Hou-quang, on 
the north by Tartary and the great wall, and on the welt 
by the country of the Moguls. Chen-fi is one of the moft 
extenfiye provinces of the empire; it had formerly three 
viceroys 5 
