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CATAPPAN. 
plasms are commonly made of meals, powders, 
boiled pulps, &c., mixed with water, milk, or 
some other liquid. They are called sinapisms 
when mustard forms their base. 
CATAPPAN,—botanically Zerminalia Catappa. 
An ornamental, fructiferous, evergreen, tropical 
timber tree, of the combretum tribe. It is a na- 
tive of India, and was introduced to Britain in 
1778. It is one of the most beautiful trees in 
the world; and, at the same time, possesses con- 
siderable economical value. Its stem usually at- 
tains a height of about twenty feet; its leaves 
grow in bunches at the end of the branches; its 
flowers have a whitish green colour; and its fruit 
resembles the almond in both appearance and 
taste, but has a flavour similar to that of the 
English filbert. The kernels of the fruit yield a 
fixed oil, and are eaten in India, not only as a 
dessert, but as a light and nourishing diet; and 
the timber is esteemed a valuable kind of native 
wood, and generally used in making pikoties.— 
A large subdivision of the terminalia genus, in- 
cluding the medicinal benzoin tree, take the Ca- 
tappan for their type, and are distinguished from 
the rest of the genus by having their fruit com- 
pressed or much attenuated at the margin. 
CATARACT. A disease in the eye of man or 
of the lower animals. Its principal feature is the 
opacity of the crystalline lens, and the conse- 
quent obscuration or total loss of vision. But in 
the horse, the other internal parts of the eye, 
also, are much deranged; and the iris, in parti- 
cular, adheres sometimes to the lens and some- 
times to the cornea, and, in some cases, so con- 
tracts its pupillary opening as to render the ca- 
taract scarcely perceptible. Cataract in the horse 
is never an independent disease, but occurs in 
consequence of the inflammatory action of oph- 
thalmia; and, when fully formed, is incurable. 
The operation of couching or extracting, which 
acts beneficially in some other animals, is in a 
great measure rendered nugatory in the horse by 
the complication of the disease over other parts 
than the lens; and even when partially success- 
ful, it cannot enable the animal to discern minute 
objects, or prevent him from always being very 
timid and easily started. Cataract in one eye of 
an ox is not of very rare occurrence, and does 
not prevent him from fulfilling the ends of his 
being ; and cataract in both eyes is much less fre- 
quent than in the horse, and renders it expedient 
to devote him immediately to the shambles. 
CATARRH. Copious and diseased secretion 
of mucus from the nose, mouth, throat, and bron- 
chize of animals. It is exceedingly various in 
_ extent and character, but is accompanied always 
with more or less of inflammatory action, and fre- 
quently with more or less of febrile excitement ; 
and it comprises most or all of the diseases which 
are popularly designated colds. Its varieties 
arise, not only from degrees and modifications of 
inflammatory and febrile action, but from the 
extent of surface inflamed, the particular organs 
LO UAUIPACR Ett: 
or parts of organs affected, the mutual connexions 
of the affected organs, the simultaneousness or 
successiveness of attack in different parts, and 
sometimes the special character of the exciting 
cause and the complication of action from ac- 
companying distemper in the stomach, bowels, or 
general constitution. When it arises from epi- 
demic or epizootic causes, or prolongs and exas- 
perates itself into violent fever, it generally takes 
the name of influenza, and requires different 
treatment from what is proper in its ordinary 
forms. See the article Inrivnnza. A general 
but slight affection of the extensive mucous 
surface of the nose, mouth, and throat, con- 
stitutes a common cold, or catarrh in the most 
general sense; and an affection of a more aggra- 
vated kind, or one which sinks deeper into the 
air passages, so as to produce sensations of stran- 
gulation or dyspnoea, becomes, in popular lan- 
guage, strangles, sore-throat and inflamed breast, 
or, in technical language, angina parotidea, an- 
gina pharyngo-laryngea, and angina trachealis 
vel bronchealis. We shall, in the present article, 
speak only of catarrh in the most general sense, 
or of what is popularly called a common cold. 
The causes of catarrh in the horse are very 
numerous, and often exceedingly slight and tri- 
vial. If the system happen to be in a reposing 
or morbidly disposed condition, catarrh is ex- 
cited by the most trifling causes; and even when 
the system is energetic and in the exercise of 
full self-defence, the disease may be occasioned 
by exposure to rain or unusual cold, by change 
of stable, clothing, or weather, by neglect of 
grooming, by sudden cooling after labour, by ex- 
posure to any great or sudden transitions of tem- 
perature, or by the prevalence of sharp east 
winds during the moulting of spring. An attack 
is first indicated by a thin watery secretion from 
the nose, and sometimes also from the eyes. The 
lymphatic glands are irritated by the flow of the 
acrid secretion, and become tumefied and tender ; 
symptomatic fever follows the inflammatory ac- 
tion ; cough, in many instances, is excited ; coag- 
ulable lymph, and afterwards yellow muco-puru- 
lent matter, flow from the nose; and, in the 
course of a few days, the several symptoms either 
vanish or become aggravated into other and 
worse forms of disease. A mere catarrh, viewed 
in itself, is very seldom an affair of any conse- 
quence; but, if neglected, and especially if mal- 
treated, it often induces the most serious and 
even incurable diseases of the chest and lungs. 
“On the first attack of this complaint,” says 
Mr. White, “bleeding will generally be found an 
effectual remedy; but if it is neglected until a 
considerable discharge has taken place from the 
nostrils, it seldom proves beneficial. A dose of 
fever powder is to be given every morning. and 
evening until the symptoms abate, or a consid- 
erable diuretic effect is produced, and then every 
second or third day only. Sometimes a swelling 
takes place in the parotid glands, which are situ- 
