Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/454

 CAP

CAP

Among chtairgieal inftruments we meet with a filver cap, pi- Uehs argenteus, (though of late alfo made of wood, or even white wax) perforated at both ends, applied to the paps of nurfing women, when ulcerated, for the more commodious giv- ing of "fuck. Vid. Scultet. Arm. Chir. P. i. tab. J3. fig. 7. Caft. Lex. Med. p. 500.

Cap, in phytology, a name given to the hufk or green fucculent coat which covers the upper part of a nut, and connects it to the parent tree. Grew, Anat. of Plant. 1. i.e. 6. §. 8. The cap confifts of a pilling and parenchyma derived from the bark,and ramulets from the lignous body of the branch.

Cap of a mujhroom is the head or fupcrior part expanded over the footftalk, fomewhat in manner of a canopy, or umbrello. Bradl. new Improv. Garden. P. 1. p. 121. Sec Mushroom.

Neptune's Cap. See the article Nlttune.

CAP ASH, a kind of head-drefs worn by the women of Candia. It is of a ftiffened fine muffin, and is made foastoftand up ve- ry high, and extends out a great way on the right fide. P acock" s ■ kgypt, V. 2. P. 2. p. 10.

CAPEDUNCULA, in Roman antiquity, thevcfTels wherein the facred fire of Vefta was preferved. See Vestals, Cycl.

CAPEL, Capella, inchemiftry. See Vessels.

CAPE LAN, in zoology, a name given by fome authors to the fmall fpecies of whiting called by the Venetians math, and by others the afellus omnium minimus, and merlangus. Willughby, Hift. Pifc, p. 171.

CAPELINE, a kind of bandage ufed by the French furgeons in cafes of amputations; confuting of a roller with two equal heads. Trev. Diet. Univ. T. 1, p. 1408. Le Clerc, Trait. Chir. Oper. c. 21. Comp!. Surg. p. 219, feq. where the man- ner of making the capeliv.e is defcribed.

CAPELLA {Cycl.) in zoology, the name of the bird commonly known in England by the name of the lapwing or baftard plo- ver, and called by fome, in Latin, vanellus. It is a very well known bird, about the fize of a pigeon, and has a beautiful creft upon its head. Its legs are long and red, and it is re- markable for running very fwiftly; it lays in open places on the ground, but ufually covers its eggs with a few loofeftraws. It is very clamorous about its breeding time, and it is faid has the cunning to fly about, and make a great noife where its neft is not, to lead people away from the place where it is. Ray's Ornitholog. p. 228.

CAPER (Cycl.) — When the capers are budded for flowering, the fhoots are cut away, and the leaves and flower-buds ftript off"; and being paffed through a fieve, the capers are thereby feparated from the leaves.

This is a fpeedy way, without which they would come too dear for common ufe. Bradl. Diet. Botan. in voc. Some fay the plant grows in Oxfordfhire, and might doubtlefs be propagated in other places. In England broom-buds pick- led are frequently fubftituted for capers. Hough. Coll. T. 3. N. 349. p. 6. Savar. Diet. Com. T. 1. p. 553.

Long Capers are the flyle or piftil of the flower which grows into a fruit, long and round like an olive or acorn when ripe, containing divers hard brown feeds, like the acini of grapes. Bradl. loc. cit.

Capuchin Capers are produced by a plant formerly brought from India, thus called by reafon the bottom of the calix of the flow- er refembles the capoucke of the religious of St. Francis. Savar. Diet. Com. T. 1. p. 554. See Ciparis.

Caper is alfo a veffel ufed by the Dutch, for cruizing and taking prizes from the enemy.

In which fenfe caper amounts to the fame with privateer. See Privateer, Cycl.

Capers are commonly double officered, and crouded with hands even beyond the rate of (hips of war, in regard the thing chief- ly in view is boarding the enemies. Aubin, Diet. Mar. p. 170.

CAPH, a Jewifh meafure of capacity for things eftimated by kim- hi at the 30th part of the log, by Arbuthnot at the ifcth part of the bin, or ip.& of the feah, amounting to five eighths of an Eno;lifh pint. Arbuthn. Tab. Ant Coins, &c. p. 14. The capb does not occur in fcripture as the name of any mea- fure. Ho/L de veter. menhir. & ponder. 1. 1 . p. 1 23.

CAPHURA(Cyc/.)-- The original name of the drug which we call camphor. The Arabians call it caphur and cofor. The authors who have written firft of the navigation and trade of the Eaft Indies, have diftinguifhed three kinds of camphor, which they fay are put to different ufes, and bear a different price in the Indies. The firft kind is the camphora craffa ; this we call the crude or unrefined camphor, and import it in large and dirty cakes,which are purified into the clear and pellucid form we fee it in, in Holland and el ft: where. The fecond kind is the camphora fana the Indians put this to no other ufe; but the an- ointing the ftatues of their gods. And the third is called efculent or eatable camphor ; this is ufed by them in foods, and is called alfo camphor of Borneo, from the ifiand of that name, which is the place it is principally brought from.

This is more proper for internal ufe than any other kind. The camphor of the Arabians in general is the fame with the drug that we know by this name; only it is to be obferved, that what we find defcribed in Averrhdes under the name of camphora Indica, as it ftands in the interpretations of the works of that author, muff needs be a fubftance wholly different from our camphor, or that of the antients. The Arabians in general

agreed that camphor was cold and dry, in the third degree, as they exprefs it, but Averroes fays, that the camphora Indica is dry and hot in the fecond degree.

Thefe authors paid too great a refpect to one another, to differ ' fo widely as this without alledging a reafon for it, and as Aver- roes in this place gives none, it is probable he was not fenfible of this account differing from that of the others, but meant fome other fubftance, and not camphor, by the phrafe. Hp (as s that this camphor was called in theArabic, cofor algend There feems to have been a double error in the place, one of the ori- ginal copyifts, and another of the tranflator; the name probably at firft flood hofer alithend, and then the text is recorici'cable to what the reft of thefe authors fays, for kofer fignifies bitu- men, and by the addition of the alihend becomes the name of bitumen Judaicum, which all the fame authors attribute thefe very qualities to; and the tranflator miftaking the word Judai- cum for Indicum, made the text much lefs intelligible than it would have been ; for had he called it caphura Judaica, we fhould have known that as no camphor came from Juda-a, fome other thing muft have been meant by the word. What moft of all confirms this opinion of what is called the Juda:an camphor of Averroes not being what we call camphor, is that himfelf defcribes our camphor in the fame chapter, and gives it the fame degree of cold and dry that the Arabians do. See Camphor.

CAP1CATINGA, in the materia medica, a name by which foixfe authors have called the aorta afiaticus, or Afiatick fweet flag. Pifc p. 241.

CAPIDOLIUS, in ichthyology, a name given by Paulusjovius, and fome others,to the fifh we call the grampus, and the gene- rality of authors the orca. According to the Artedian fyftem, it is a fpecies of the delphinus or dolphin, and it is diftinguifh- ed by that author by the name of the dolphin with the fnout bending upwards, and with broad ferrated teeth. See the ar- ticles Orca and Grampus.

CAPILLAMENT(t>/)— Bradley feems to ijsftnin capitla- ments to the fmall er flowers; and Jlamina (which he corruptly calls apices) to thelarger. Bradl. Bot. Diet. T. 1. in.yoc.

Capillament is alfo applied to the firings or threads about the roots of plants. Mill. Gard. Diet, hi voc. Trev. Diet. Univ. T. 1. p. 141 1.

CAPILLARY {Cycl) — Capillary plants amount to much the fame with what areotherwife denominated acaulofe plants. Vid. Pay, Hift. Plant. T. 1 . 1. 3. Phil. Tranf. N° 1 86. p. 284. ghiinc. Lex. Phyf. Med. p. 66. See Acaulose.

Arbor Capillaris or Capillata, an antient tree at Rome, on which the veftal virgins when fhaven for their office, hung up their hair, and confecrated it to the gods. Plin. Hift. Nat. 1. 10. c. 44. Fejl. in voc. Fab. Thef p. 448.

Capillary is alfo ufed by mineralifls infpeakingof ores which ramify or fhoot out fine branches like threads.^ In which fenfe it amounts to the fame fenfe with what is other- wife called arborefcent and Jlriated. Woodward fpeaks of ca- pillary or arborefcent filver, and iron a ; Grew defcribes a piece of pure capillary copper from the mine at Heragrunt, the feve- ral ftrise, or capilli of which are fhort, of a redifh golden co- lour, growing together almoft like thofe of the little ftone-mofs b. — [*PF6odw. Nat. Hift. Engl. FofT.T. 1. p. 114. » Grew,Mui\ Reg. Societ. P. 3. Sec. 2. c. 1. p. 326.]

Capillary roots. See Fibrose roots.

Capillary tube. — Some doubt whether the law holds through- out, of the afcent of the fluid being always higher as the tube is fmaller ; Dr. Hook's experiments, with tubes almoft as fine as cobwebs, feem to fhew the contrary. The water in thefe, he obferves, did not rife fo high as one would have expected. The highefthe ever found was at 21 inches above the level of the water in the bafon, which is much fhort of what it ought to have been by the law above-mentioned. Hook, Microgr. Obf. 6. p. 1 1. See Tube.

Capillary vejfels. Many fmall veffel s of animal bodies have been difcovered by the modern invention of injecting the vef- fels of animals with acoloured fluid, which upon cooling grows hard. But though moft anatomifts know the manner of filling the large trunks,few are acquainted with the art of filling the ca- pillaries, Mr. Monro has given us what he, after many trials has found moft fuccefsful, in the Medic. Eff. Edinb. Vol. 1. art. 9. where he enters into a very nice detail of the operation, to which we muft refer the curious. Some particulars we mall give under the headinjedion.

Capillary worms, in children, are the fame with what are otherwife called crinones, comedones, and dracunculi : See Cri- Nones, Cycl.

CAPILLITTUM veneris, in phyfiology, denotes a meteor ap- pearing in the air, in form of fine threads refembJinga fpider's web.

Some think that the capillitium veneris derives its origin from a cloud, the watery parts of which having been exhaled by the fun's heat, only the earthy and fulphureous parts are left be- hind, which fhoot into this figure.

It is fometimes alfo found hanging about woods and coppices, or even extended on the groundlike a fine net, frequently enough miftaken for fptders webs. Chawu. Lex. Philof. p. 90.

CAPILLUS Veneris, maiden-hair, in botany, &c. See Adian-

TUM.

CAPI-