Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/511

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ner teeth of a horfc. About the feventh or eighth year, when the cavity fills,the tooth being fmooth and equal, it is faid to be rafed. Gull. Gent. Dia. in voc.

CHARCOAL (Cycl.) — Mathematical inftrument-malcers, en- gravers, &c. find charcoal of great ufe to polifh their brafs and copper plates, after they have been rubbed clean with pow- dered^ pumice flone. Mr. Boyle fays, that the more curious burn it a fecond time, and quench it in a convenient fluid. Plates of horn are polifbable the fame way, and aglofs may- be afterward given with tripoly. .goy/e's Works, abr. vol. I. p. 147.

CHARGE (Cycl.) — The common allowance for the charge of powder of a piece of ordnance, is half the weight of theball. In the Britilh navy, the allowance for thirty-two pounders is but feven-fixteenths of the weight of the bullet. But a late author is of opinion, that if the powder in all fliip-cannon whatever was reduced to one third of the weight of the ball, or even lefs, it would be a confiderable advantage, not only by faring ammunition, but by keeping the guns cooler and quieter, and at the fame time more effeflually injuring the veffels of the enemy. With the prefent allowance of powder, the guns are heated, and their tackle and furniture drained, and this only to render the bullet lefs efficacious. For a bullet which can but juft pafs thro' a piece of timber, and lofes al- mod all its motion thereby, has a much better chance of rending and figuring it, than if it paffed thro' with a much greater velocity. Vid. Robins, Propof. for increafing the flrength of the Britifh navy, p. 1 7 to 20.

Charge, in the fea language, is fometimes ufed for burden; thus a pip of charge is fuch as draws much water, or fwims deep in the fea: tho' fometimes an unweildy fhip, that will not ware nor (leer, is called a fliip of charge. Guill. Gent. Diet. P. 3. in voc.

CHARGED (Cyr/.J — Charged cylinder, is that part of the chafe of a gun where the powder and ball are contained Guill. Gent. Dia. P. 2. in voc

CHARIOTS [Cycl.) — Chariots of war, in antiquity. The antients made ufe of chariots in war. Thefe were of different kinds ; but the moft terrible were thofe armed with pikes and fcythes, thus ; the beam to which the horfes were faftened was armed with pikes, having iron points to them which pro- jected forward ; the yokes of the horfes had likewife two lon°- points of three cubits: to the axle-tree alfo were fixed iron fpits, armed at their extremities with fcythes ; between the fpokes of the wheels were placed javelins, and the very fellies of the "/heels were furnifhed with fcythes, which tore every tiling they met with to pieces.

The axle-tree was longer than ufual, and the wheels ftroncer, that they might be able to refill the fhock of the motion, and the chariot be lefs fubjea to overturn. The driver's feat was a kind of little tower, made of very folid wood, and raifed breafthigh. The charioteer was armed all over, and covered with iron. Sometimes feveral men well armed were put in thefe chariots, who fought with darrs and arrows. Diodor. Sicul. I.17. g>.Curt. I.4. Xetioph. Cyropaed. 1. 6.

Chariots, in the Heathen mythology, were fometimes confe- crated to the fun : and the fcripture obferves, that Jofiah" burnt thofe which had been offered to the fun by the kings his pre- deceflbrs. This fuperllitious cuftom was an imitation of the Heathens, and principally of the Perfians, who had horfes and chariots confecrated in honour of the fun. Herodotus, Xeno- phon, and Quintus Curtius k, fpeak of white chariots, crown- ed,^ which were confecrated to the fun, among the Perfians, which in their ceremonies were drawn with white horfes, con- fecrared to the fame luminary'. — [' 2 Kings xxiii. 11. " He- rodot. 1. 7. Xenoph. Cyropsd. I. 8. Jg. Curt. 1. 3. = Calmct.

Dia. Bibi.]

CHARISIA, Kagmt, in the Heathen theology, a wake or nio-ht- feftival iiiflif.ur.ed in honour of the graces! It continued the whole night, mod of which time was fpent in dancin<» ; after which, cakes made of yellow flower, mixed with honey, and other fweet-meats, were diffributed among the amftants.

Charisia is fometimes alfo ufed to fignify tile fweet-meats dif- tributed on fuch occafions. Pitife. in voc.

CHARISIUS, x«.- ml ;, in the Heathen theology, a furname given to Jupiter.

The word is derived from yap., gratia, /. e. grace or favour • he being the god by whofe influence men obtain the favour and affeaion of one another. On which account the Greeks ufed at their meals to make a libation of a cup to Jupiter Charifius. Pott. Archaeol. Gnec. T. 2. 1. 4. c. 20.

CHARLOCK, rapiftrum, in hufbandry, a very troublcfome weed among corn, being more frequent than almoftany other. There aretwo principal kinds of it ; the one witha yellow flower,the other with a white. Some fields are particularly fubjea to be over-run with it, efpecially thofe which have been ma- nured with cow-dung alone, that being a manure very favour- able to the growth of it. The farmers in Come places are fo fenfible of this, that they always mix horfe-dung with their cow-dung, when they ufe itfor arable land. See Rapistrum. When barley, as is often the cafe, is infeflxd with this weed to fuch a degree as to endanger the crop, it is a very good method to mow down the charlock in May, when it is in flower,cuttin°- it fo low as jufi to take off the tops of the leaves of the barley

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with it : by this means the barlev will get up above the weed , and people have got four quarters of grain from an acre or^ fuch land, as would have yielded them fcarce any thine without this expedient. Where any land is particularly fub- ject to this weed, the bed method is to fow it with orals feed and make a pafiure of it ; for then this plant will not be trou- bleiome, It growing no where where there is a coat of grafs upon the ground. Mortimer's Hufbandry, p. 3 1 „ CHARNUB, in the materia medica, a name given by fome of the antient writers to the filiqua dulcis, or carob tree. The Arabian phyficmns mention two kinds of this; the Syrians and Nabathaan ; the firft they call aljembut, and the other al- nabat. Avuenna tells us, that the firft of' thefe was a purge, and was given with fucceft in pains of the bowels; and the

rn:?™,™^'' S ' rai '" P loflu ™ °f the menfes.

MiAKUJNIUb, x H „ m, charcnea,,, is ufed as an epithet for caves, fome of which are found in Italy, and in other parts of the world, where the air is fo loaded with a poifonous vapour, that animals cannot live in them even a few moments. Call Lex. in voc. J

CHARRE, an Englifh name for a fifh of the truttaceous kind of which there are two fpecies, difiinguifhed by the red charre and the g,k charre; the former of which is called by the ich- thyographids umbla minor, and the latter, the carpio lacus be- naci.

Red Charre, called by the Welch torgoch, is a large n(h, longer and (Tenderer 111 its general fhape than the trout. The back is of a dufty olive-colour, and is fpotted with obfeurely white pots : the belly is not carried to an edge, but is about a finger broad : this, in moft of thefe fifties, is of an eleo-ant red, lometimes deeper, and fometimes paler ; but in fome, parti- cularly in the female, it is white. The fcales are very fmall, and the fide lines running from the gills to the tail are perfectly drait : the belly fins are red : the opening of the mouth is wide, and the jaws are nearly of the fame length, the lower being only a very little longer than the other, and more point- ed : the teeth are fmall and fliarp. It is caught in the lakes of Wales, and is efteemed a very fine fifli ; but itsflefh does not boil fo red as that of the trout. IFMoughby, Hid. Pifc. p 10-

Gilt Charre is fomething like the trout in figure, but it is broader, and its belly is prominent, efpecially when the fifh is large: the ufual fize is abcut a foot in lengih, which it rarely

CXC f l S :, r e fcales m v "y fm:J1 > and thc b ^ ^ variegated with black fpots. Its belly and the lower pans of its fides are

r a S ne n. E ^ ' lvCrC0l ° Ur: theftu,i k Pe'l^id, and the. nole bluifh. This is very common in fome of the lakes of Italy, but is not peculiar to that kingdom, as has byfome been imagined, being frequent in fome foreign, and in fome of the Northern lakes ; and there is no doubt, but that the fifh there caught, and called the gilt charre and the carpio la. cus benaci, are entirely the fame fifh. It is a very finely fla-

\%„„-r' and much vaIued at E r=at tables, milmshh. Hilt. Pifc. p. 197. *

CHARRING denotes the reducing vegetables to charcoal See

Charcoal, Cycl. CHARTARIUS, the fame with cbartophylax. Sec Charto-

PHYIAX, Cycl.

CHARTERER is in fome places, as Chefhire, ufed for a free-

holder. Blount Law Dia in voc CHARTOPHYLACIUM, a place' where records were kept.

SeeCHARTOPHYLAX, Cyd. r

CHARYBDIS a word ufed by Dr. Plot to expreft certain open- ings which he fuppofes in the bottom of the fea, by which its waters are received and conveyed by a fubterranean circulation to the origin of fountains and fprings. The fluxus mofchom- cus, or maalftrome on the coaft of Norway, is fuppofed to be owing to fome fuch fubterranean indraught; and it is advanced alio, that the Mediterranean fea could not be emptied of the vaft quantities of waters it receives, but mufl overflow the land of Egypt, unlefs fwallowed by fome fuch charykdis, which is either in fome part of the bafon of that fea, or near the mouth of it ; 1,1 which cafe, it may be the occalion of that ftrong under-current, defcribed by all thofe who have treated of this fea. An immenfe charyidis, placed near the Strait's mouth, may be hid under the imraenfity of waters there • but as it would abforb the deep waters continually, and that in large quantities, it would neceiTarily caufe fuch an under-cur- rent there. Plot, deOrig. Font.

CHASCUSA, or Cascusa, in the botanical writings of the antients, a name given by the Greeks to the antirrhinum of th» Latin writers. It has been fuppofed by fome, that thc cafiufa, or dmfcufa, was the fame with the phytcuma of Diofcorides • but that author tells us the phyteuma was prickly, and had leaves like the ftruthium, which was a kind of thiflle ufed in the dying of wool : whereas Pliny tells us, that thc chafcufa or antirrhinum has leaves like thofe of flax, that is, fmooth' narrow, and oblong. '

CHASING (Cycl.^Inchafng at fea, thefe rules are generally obferved : ,f the chafed be found any thing to the windward the chajer is to bring all his tacks aboard, and to fhape hi! courfe to meet her at the neareft angle. If the chafed be to t the leeward, then the chafer may come iii with' h;r, except fhe bear upright before the wind, and fo outfail her; or that fhe bring herfelf clofe by a wind, and the chafer prove the more

leeward