918 CURSONS. 
CUTTING. 
be applied. This is one of the most curious and | of Good Hope as the Hassagay-tree. Its usual 
laborious operations in the whole business of | 
currying. The knife used for this purpose is of 
a rectangular form, with two handles, one at each 
end, and a double edge. After the leather is 
properly shaved, it is thrown into the water 
again, and scoured upon a board or stone com- 
monly appropriated to that use. Scouring is per- 
formed by rubbing the grain or hair side with a 
piece of pumice stone, or with some other stone 
of a good grit. These stones force out of the lea- 
ther a white substance, called the bloom, produced 
by the oak bark in tanning. The hide or skin is 
then conveyed to the shade or drying place, 
where the oily substances are applied, termed 
stuffing or dubbing. When it is thoroughly dry, 
an instrument, with teeth on the under side, 
called a graining-board, is first applied to the 
flesh-side, which is called graining; then to the 
grain-side, called bruising. The whole of this 
operation is intended to soften the leather to 
which it is applied. Whitening, or paring, suc- 
ceeds, which is performed with a fine edge to the 
knife already described, and used in taking off 
the grease from the flesh. It is then boarded up, 
or grained again, by applying the graining-board 
first to the grain, and then to the flesh. It is 
now fit for waxing, which is performed first by 
colouring. This is effected by rubbing, with a 
brush dipped in a composition of oil and lamp- 
_ black, on the flesh, till it be thoroughly black: it 
is then sized, called dlack-sizing, with a brush or 
| sponge, dried and tallowed; and, when dry, this 
_ sort of leather, called waxed, or black on the flesh, 
_is curried. The currying leather on the hair or 
grain side, called Glack on the grain, is the same 
with currying on the flesh, until we come to the 
| operation of scouring. Then the first black is 
| applied to it while wet; which black is a solution 
of the sulphate of iron called copperas, in fair 
water, or in the water in which the skins, as 
they come from the tanner, have been soaked. 
This is first put upon the grain after it has been 
rubbed with a stone; then rubbed over with a 
brush dipped in stale urine; the skin is then 
stuffed, and, when dry, it is seasoned, that is, 
rubbed over with a brush dipped in copperas 
water, on the grain, till it is perfectly black. 
After this, the grain is raised with a fine grain- 
ing-board. When it is thoroughly dry, it is 
whitened, bruised again, and grained in two or 
three different ways, and, when oiled upon the 
grain, with a mixture of oil and tallow, it is fin- 
ished. 
CURSONS. Spurs on the stems and branches 
| of apple-trees, currant-buskes, and other fruiting 
ligneous plants. 
CURTISIA. Anevergreen, Cape-of-Good-Hope, 
timber tree, of the staff-tree tribe. It forms a 
genus of itself, and takes for its specific name 
Fagimea ; and this name alludes to the resem- 
blance of its leaves to those of the beech. It is 
knowa among the English population of the Cape 
height is about 30 or 35 feet. It was introduced 
to Britain about the middle of the latter half of 
last century. 
CUSCUTA. See Doppzr. 
CUSTARD-APPLE. See Annona. 
CUSTOMS OF COUNTIKS. See Lzasn. 
CUT. A clean wound, inflicted with any sharp 
instrument. The lips or edges of a cut in a 
horse or in any other large animal ought to be 
placed together by means of tow, ligaments, 
strips of plaster, or other appliances, but ought 
not to be dressed with balsams or ointments. 
The whole art of healing a cut or clean wound is 
to exclude the air from it, and allow it to be un- 
disturbedly dealt with by the mere organism of 
the system. 
CUTANEOUS DISEASES. Diseases of the 
skin of animals. The chief of these which attack 
the animals of the farm will be found noticed in 
the articles Scan, Maneu, Surreit, Hipr-Bounp, 
and Warts. See also the articles Curicue and 
Skin. . 
CUTICLE. The epidermis of plants and ani- 
mals. The cuticle of plants will be noticed in the 
article Eprpermis. The cuticle of animals is the 
outer one of the three layers which constitute 
their skin, and is sometimes popularly designated 
the scarf-skin. It serves as a firm insensible 
covering, not only of the whole body, but of the 
immediately subjacent layers of the rete mucosum 
or web-like mucilaginous suffusion, and of the 
dermis, cutis, or highly organized membrane of 
the true skin. It consists of myriads of thin, 
transparent, microscopic scales, somewhat like 
those of fish : it is attached to the dermis by means 
of papille which run into its substance; and it is | 
separable from the dermis by means of blistering 
ing in the dead body. Its thickness is very dif- 
ferent in different parts of the body; and is cap- 
able, in any one part, of being greatly increased 
by frequent friction or abrasion. | 
CUTTING. A horse’s wounding the inside of 
his fetlock-joint when travelling. The most fre- | 
quent cause of it is the inclined position of the 
toe either inward or outward of a straight line 
He ahaa AL nimple, | 
to the point of the shoulder. When the toe in- 
clines outward, the inner quarter of the hoof is 
generally lower than the outer quarter; so that, 
in order to give the foot a proper position, and to 
prevent cutting, the outer quarter of the hoof 
should be lowered, or the outer branch of the 
shoe made thinner than the inner branch. When 
the toe inclines inward, cutting takes place on 
the inside of the knee, at the lower part of the 
joint ; and this is technically called the speedy 
cut, from its happening upon the trot or the gal- 
lop, and is considered a dangerous unsoundness, 
from its sometimes giving so sudden and violent 
a blow as to bring the animal instantly to the 
ground. The remedies for this are to keep the 
toe as short as possible, and to alter the improper 
in the living subject, and of maceration and boil- | 
