Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/426

 C A L

CAt amus aucupeteriuSfOi calamus Jlr Ml us, among fowlers, a bird- call. Salmaf. ub. fup. p. 1 18, et 1087. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. I. p. 318. SeeCALL, Cycl. and Suppl.

Calamus alfo denotes a fort of mcafure otherwsfe called canna, or reed. Beveriti.Synt. de ponder, p. 178, 224, & 262. Mont- fauc. Palseogr. Gr. p. 365. Pitifc. Lex. ub. fup. See Canna.

CALANDRE, in natural hiftory, a name given by the French writers to an infect that does vaft mifchief in granaries. It is properly of the fcarab clafs ; it has two antenna, or horns, formed of a great number of round joints, and covered with a foft and ftiort down; from the anterior part of the head there is thruft out a trunk, which is fo formed at the end, that the crea- ture eafily makes way with it through the coat or fkin that co- vers the grain, and gets at the meal or farina,on which it feeds ; the inftde of the grains is alfo the place where the female de- pofits her eggs, that the young progeny may he horn with pro- vifion about them. When the female has pierced a grain of corn for this purpofe, {he depofits in it one egg, or at the ut- moft two, but fhe moft frequently lays them fingle ; thefe eggs hatch into fmall worms which are ufually found with their bo- dies rolled up in a fpira! form, and after eating till they arrive at their full growth, they are changed into chryfahs, and from thefe, in about a fortnight, comes out the perfect calandre. The female lays a confiderable number of eggs, and the en- creafe of thefe creatures would be very great, but nature has fo ordered it, that while in the egg ftate, and even while in that of the worm, they are fubjecT; to be eaten by mites ; thefe little vermin are always very plentiful in granaries, and they deftroy the far greater number of thefe larger animals. Deflandes Trat.de Phyf.

CALANGAY, in natural hiftory, a name given by the people of the Philippine Wands to a fpecies of Parrot very common there; it is all over white, and has a creft of white feathers on its head ; it is of the fize of a pigeon, and is eafdy kept tame, and'learnt to talk. It is called alfo in fome of the Philippines cataiua and abacay.

CALASH, or CALESH,a fmall light kind of chariot, or chair, with very low wheels, ufed chiefly for taking the air in parks and gardens.

The word is French calcche, which Menage derives from the latin carrttSy carri, carrifcus, carr'tfea, carrefa, calefca, caleche. Menag. Orig. p. 150. voc. caleche.

The calajb is for the moft part richly decorated, and open on all fides, for the conveniency of the air, and profpe£t ; or at moft in- clofed with light mantlets of wax cloth, to be opened and fliut at pleafure. Savar. Di£r. Com. T. 1. p. 577. voc. carroffc. In the Philofophical Tranfactions, we have a defcription of a new fort of calajb, going on two wheels, not hung on traces, yet eafier than the common coaches, over which it has this fur- ther advantage, that whereas a common coach will overturn if one wheel go on a furface a foot and half higher than that of the other, this will admit of a difference of 3^ of a foot, without danger of overturning. Add, that it would turn over and over, that is, after being turned fo as that the fpokes are parallel to the horizon, and one wheel flat over the head of him that rides in it, and the other flat under him, it will turn once more, by which the wheels are placed \\~\Jlatu quo, without any diforder to the horfe, or rider. Phil. Tranf. N° 171. p. 1028.

CALASIRIS, or Calassis, in antiquity, a Hnnen tunic worn by the Phcenician,./Egyptian, Roman and other Priefts. We alfo find mention of the calajb is as worn by the foldiers,and by women. In which laftfenfe it feems to have been a knot in the womens gown, whereby it was drawn about the neck. Fejl. in voc. calajfis. Vojf. Etym. p. 9 1. Terror de re veft. c. 23. Pitifc. Lex, Ant. T. 1. p. 319.

CALATHIANA viola, in botany, a name given by many wri ters to a fpecies of gentian, called alfo by others pkeutmnantue. See Gentiana.

CALATHUS, xa7i«e@-, in antiquity, a kind of hand-bafket made of light wood, or rufhes ; ufed by the women fometimes to ga- ther flowers, but chiefly, after the example of Minerva, to put their work in. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 1. p. 319. The figure of the calathus, as reprefented on antient monu- ments, is narrow at the bottom, and widening upwards, like that of a top. Pliny compares it to that of a lilly. Plin, Hift. Nat. 1. 21. c. 5. Fab.Thef, p. 41 J. feq.

The calathus or work-bafket of Minerva, is no lefs celebrated among the poets, than her diftafF. Hift. Acad. Infer. T. 3. p. 400.

Calathus is alfo ufed to denote a drinking cup a. Pliny feems likewife to ufe it for the calyx of a flower ^.— ^ Fab, Thef. p. 412. b Plin. Hift. Nat. 1. 25. c. 7.] See Calyx.

CALATOR, m antiquity, a cryer, or officer appointed to pub- lish fomething aloud, or call the people together. The word is formed from the Greek x^s, voce, I call. Such minifters the pontifices had, whom they ufed to *end before them when they went to facrifice on ferine or holydays, to ad- vertife the people to leave off work. Serv. ad Geor. I. 1. v. 268.

The magiftrates alfo ufed calatores, to call the people to the co- mitia, both curiata and centuriata. The officers in the army alfo had calatores, as had likewife many private families, to in- vite their guefts to entertainments. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 1. p. 320. SeeCoMixiA, Cycl. and Suppl.

C A L

CALAUDRA, in zoology, the name of a bird of the lark kind^ and of the fhape of the common lark, but confiderably larger j its head is large and thick, its beak fhorter, and ftronger than in the common larks, but its feet made exactly as theirs. Its breaft is of a finning grey, fpotted with black, like the breaft of a thrufh ; its back, tail, and wings arc of an umbre colour j or fomewhatgreenifh brownj and it has a ring of black feathers round its neck. This bird is either the fame with the common Englifli bunting called by authors emberiza alba, or very like it. Geficr de Avib.

CALAUR1TIS, in the materia medica of the anticnts, a name given to a fort of litharge; we find the litharge made in the fame operation will be of different colours, according to the

. degree of heat it receives, and we have accordingly dignify'd it with the founding names of litharge of gold, and litharge of filver ; the Greeks went yet farther, and added to thefe a third kind which they called litharge of lead or molybditis. All thefe forts of litharge were brought in great abundance fromCa- lauros, a fmall ifland near Crete, to the Greeks, for their ufe in medicine. The fires here not being fo ftrong however as in fome other places, where furnaces were worked, there was lefs of the yellow litharge brought from this place than of the others. This therefore kept its ufual name of chrylites amoiie them, but the other two were indifferently called calaurhis. It is not eafy to diftinguifh in thefe writers which of the two they mean by this name; but there is fo little real difference be- tween them that an error is of very little confequence.

CALCADIS, in the materia medica, a name given by the Ara- bians to white vitriol, or to fome white vitriolic mineral. All the account we have of the calcadis is in Avifenna, who in treating of the zagi or alzagiat, which is his general name for all the vitriolic minerals, tells us, that there are four kinds, the colcothar which is yellow, the fory which is redifh, the calcanthum which is green, and the calcadis which is white.

CALCAGIUM, in middle age writers, a tax or contribution paid by the neighbouring inhabitants towards the making or repairing a common caufeway. Kenn, Glofs. ad Paroch. An- tiq. in voc. Du Gauge, Glofs. Lat.T.i. p. 680.

CALCANTHUM (CycL)— That fulphur is contained in vitriol is evident from the fmell it yields in calcination ..and in di {filiation. If it be urged with a ftrong fire from the beginning; and the fpirit thus drawn be rectify 'd, the liquor which firft conies over has a highly fulphureous fmell. The common oil of vitriol diverted on antimony, and then diftilled, yields a much greater quantity of fulphur than could have been produced if any other acid li- quor had been employed ; and the fame oil of vitriol digefted with fpirit of vitriol, and diftiled, yields at the latter end of the diftillation an oil and a large quantity of fulphureous flow- ers. The acid faline principle in vitriol, is manifeft in its fpirit,or in that ftronger acid liquor commonly,but improperly called its oil. Thefe are the principles of vitriol in general - but to thefe fome add another, which is the fait feparated from the colcothar, or caput mortuum of vitriol after diftilla- tion ; but this is not different from the faline acid matter which goes off in form of the oil, only that it is more fixed * and it is therefore not to be fuppofed an additional principle Phil. Tranf. N° 103. F "

CALCAR, in anatomy, the fame with cakaneum. See Cal- caneum, Cycl.

Calcar, in glafs-making, is the name of a fmall oven, or reverberatory furnace, in which the firft calcination of fend and fait of potafhes is made for the turning them into what they ca\\ frit. Boerhaave,Chym. p. 184. This furnace is made in the fafhion of an oven, ten foot long, feven broad in the wideft part, and two foot deep. On one fide of it is a trench fix inches fquare, the upper part of which is level with the calcar, and feparated only from it at the mouth, by bricks nine inches wide. Into this trench they put fea coal, the flame of which is carried into every part of the furnace, and is reverberated from the roof upon the frit, over the furface of which, the fmoak flies very black, and goes out at the mouth of the calcar; the coals burn on iron grates, and the afhes fall through. Neri's Art of Glafs, p. 240.

CALCARIOUS, fomething that partakes of the nature and qualities of calx, or lime. We fay a calcaneus earth, calcarious ftone. Lifter fpeaks much of a calcarious nitre. Lifter, de Therm, p. 6 & 24, 38, & 58. See Nitre.

Several authors attribute the heat of therms, or hot fprings to the admixture of a calcarious earth or ftone with the wa- ter. Giorn. de Lettr. d'ltal. T. 28. p. 93. Phil. Tranf. N° 160. p. 924.

CALCARIUS Lapis, the. ftone of which lime is made.

The lapis calcarius is found unfit for the making of glais, by reafon of the acid fait it abounds with. Hehnont, de Lithias. c. 3. n. 7. Caji. Lex. Med. p. 122.

CALCEARIUM, or Calciarium, in antiquity, a donative, or largefs beftowed on the Roman foldiers for buying fhoes. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 1. p. 320. Aquin. Lex. Mint! T. 1. p. 149.

In monaftries, calcearium denoted the daily fervice of clean- ing the ihoes of the religious. Du Conge, loc. cit.

CALCEDO-