5 H C H O 
CHO'RAL, [choralfs, Lat.] Any perfon that.by vir¬ 
tue of the orders of the clergy, was in ancient time ad¬ 
mitted to fit and lerve God in the choir. Dugdale, in 
his Hiftory of St. Paul's Church, fays, that there were 
formerly fix vicars choral belonging to that church. 
CHO'RAN KIAMEN, a''poll of Chinefe Tartary: 
twenty miles weft-fouth-weft of I^imgouta. 
CHORASANfi or Korasan, a province of Perfia, 
bounded on the north by Chnrafm and the country of 
the Ulbec Tartars, on the eaft by Bukharia and Canda- 
liar, on the fouth by Segeftan, and on the weft by the 
province of Mezanderan and the Cafpian Sea, about one 
hundred and fifty leagues in length and one hundred and 
forty in breadth. The principal towns are Heret, Kenef, 
Talekan, Merwa, Zaweh, See. 
CHORA'ZIM, or ChoraziN, a town of Galilee, now 
defolate: two 1 -miles diftant from Capernaum. St. Luke. 
CHORD, f. [ chorda, Lat. from vo^Joua, to roll up or 
twift.] A cord; a rope. By anatomifts it is fometimes 
uled to denote the tendons and inteftines of animals. In 
its primitive or fcientific application, it is written chord ; 
in its common or vulgar ufe, the h is omitted. 
CHORD, f. in mufic, a firing formed of dried gut; or 
of wire of gold, filver, fteel, or brafs, and applied to the 
conftru&ion of many different muficai infiruments, both 
ancient and modern. By the vibrations of thefe chords 
the fenfation of found is excited, and by their divifions 
the feveral degrees of tune are determined. Chords of 
gold wire in harpficliords yield a found almofl twice as 
ftrong as thole of brafs j while fteel wires give a feebler 
found than brafs, as being lefs heavy and lefs dudtile.— 
By chord, in mufic, is alfo uuderftood the intervals which 
are to accompany the bafs or fundamental note: thus we 
fay, the common chord, the chord of the fixth, See. For 
the Nature, Conttruftion, Inverfion, and Refolution, of 
Chords, fee the article Music. 
CHORD, f. in geometry, a right line, conneiting the 
two extremes of an arch ; lb called from its refemblance 
to the chord or firing of a bow. It has the following 
properties: i. The chord is bilected by a perpendicular 
drawn to it fiom the centre, z. Chords of equal arcs, in 
the fame or equal circles, are themfelves equal. 3. Un¬ 
equal chords have to one another a lefs ratio thafi that of 
their arcs. 4.. The chord of an arc is a mean proportional 
between the diameter and the verfed fine of that arc. See 
Geometry. 
\To CHORD, as.a. To furnilh with firings cr chords; 
to firing: 
What paffion cannot mufic raife and quell? 
When Jubal ftruck the chorded lliell, 
His lilt’ning brethren flood around. Drjden. 
CHORDE'E, oi-Chorde', f [Fr. from %o<A, a cord.] 
A painful contraction of the fraenum of the penis, as if 
it were drawn inward with a firing.—For the caule and 
cure, fee Medicine. 
CHO REA, f. [from yo^oc, a chorus, which of old ac¬ 
companied dancing.] A convulfive motion of the mem¬ 
bers as if the perfon were dancing, is called chorea fan Sit 
V'ttl , St. Vitus's dance; becaufe, as Horftius relates, feme 
devotees of St. Vitus exercifed themfelves lo long in dan¬ 
cing that their inrellefts were dilbr-dered, and could only 
be re ft o red by dancing again attheanniverfary of St. Vitus. 
CHOREPISCOTUS, f Formerly a fuffragan or local 
bilhop, holding a' middle rank between bilhops and pref- 
byters, and delegated to exercife epiicopal juriidiclion 
within certain diftrifts, when'the boundaries of particu¬ 
lar churches, over which feparate bi/hops preiided, were 
confiderably enlarged. It is alfo a dignity ftill fubfifting 
in fome cathedrals in Germany, iignilying the fame with 
chori epifeopus, or bilhop of the choir. 
CHOR'FAKAN, or Corfuican, a town of Arabia, 
in the country of Oman, pillaged by the Portuguefe in 
15081 fixty-four miles fouth-eafi of Julfar. 
CHOR/GES, a town of France, in the department of 
C H O 
the Higher Alps, burned by the duke of Savoy in 169* 
ten miles weft of Embrun. 
CHO'RIAMBUS, f. in ancient poetry, a foot confin¬ 
ing of four fyllables, whereof the firft and laft are long, 
and the two middle ones are fnort ; or, which is the fame 
thing, it is made up of a trochseus and an iambus: fuch 
is the word nobilitas. 
CHO'RIN, a town of Germany, in the circle of Upper 
Saxony, and Ucker Mark of Brandenburg: fix miles 
fouth of Neu Augermunde. 
CIIO'RION, f. [from yuyta, to efcape.] The external 
membrane of the foetus, fo named becaufe it always efcapes 
from the womb with the child. See Anatomy of the 
Gravid Uterus,, vol. i. p. 650. 
CHCFRISTER, f. [from chorus, Lat.] A finger in ca¬ 
thedrals, ufually a finger of the lower order ; a finging 
boy. A finger in a concert. This fenfe is, for the moil; 
part, confined to poetry : 
And let the roaring organs loudly play 
The praifes of the Lord in lively notes ; 
The whiles, with hollow throats, 
The' chorijiers the joyous anthem fing. Spenfer. 
CHOR'LEY, a market town in Lancalhire, fituated 
near a rivulet called Chor, which, iffuing from feveral 
fprings, runs through the town, and'flows along the 
pkiurefque and plealant valleys beneath it, communi¬ 
cating with the river Yarrow, after giving motion to fe¬ 
veral mills, engines, cotton machines. See. The Yarrow 
is a larger riv.er, that enriches more than one-haif of the 
extremities of this townlhip lying to the fouth-eafi, on 
whole banks, and for many miles around, are bleaching 
grounds and printing-works of confiderable extent. From 
Chor-, and the addition of the word ley, (from leaj, Sax. 
fignifying a field,) comes Chorley.. It is fituated near the 
centre of the county, on the great road from London to 
Glafgow and Edinburgh. It is diftant twenty-two miles 
from Manchefter, ten from Prefton, and 201 from Lon¬ 
don. Its markets are Tueldays and Saturdays ; fairs, 
March 26, May 5, Auguft. 20, and September 4; the three 
former for horned cattle, and the latter for toys, final! 
wares, and woollen cloths brought from York (hire. The 
cotton-manufadlure in all Its branches, from the grain to 
the finiflled piece, is carried .on and flourilhes here, and 
in the neighbourhood for many miies round ; as likewife 
the trade of bleaching and printing cottons, fuitians, 
callicoes, and muffins The neighbourhood abounds in 
mines of coal, can el, lead, and alum ; in beds of gravel, 
land, and marl; and in rocks of ijtone, and quarries of 
flag and Hate, afhlar, and mill-ftone ; all of which are ar¬ 
ticles that tend to eftablifh an advantageous trade on their 
new canal.—Five miles louth-eaft of Chorley .is the vil¬ 
lage of Rivington, noted for the peak or beacon, which 
is on'a very high hill, commanding a prof'peil of vatt ex¬ 
tent, and which ferved in the civil wars as a watch-tower. 
It ftill ferves as a land and fea mark, and as the centre 
mark of Lancafhire. Here is a grammar-fchool founded 
by James Pilkington, bifhop of Durham in the reign of 
queen Elizabeth. 
CHORO'GRAPIIER, f. [from a region, and 
y%a.(pa, to deferibe.] He that deferibes'particular regions 
or countries. 
CHOROGRA'PHICAL, adj. Defcriptive of particular 
regions and countries ; laying down the boundaries of 
countries.—I have, added a cborographical deferiptien of 
this terreftrial paradife. Raleigh. 
CHOROGRA'PHiCALLY, adv. In a cborographical 
manner; according to the rule of chorography; in a 
manner defcriptive of particular regions. 
CHORO'GRAPHY, f. The art of delineating or de- 
feribing fome particular country or province. This differs 
from geography, as the defeription of a particular coun¬ 
try differs from that of the whole earth ; and from topo¬ 
graphy, as the defeription of a country differs from that 
of a townoradiftritt. Chorography, in painting or fculp- 
ture a 
