Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/576

 CUR

C Y A

the kings of England at their coronation. Matt. Paris in

Hen. 3.

It is faid, the point of it is broken, as an emblem of mercy.

CURTILAGE, cunilagium, inlaw, a yard, backfide, or piece of ground, lying near a dwelling-houfe.

CURTILLA, in zoology, a name given by fome to the cor- vus flvaticus of Gefner.

CURVATAP1NIMA, in zoology, a name by which fome authors call the fifh more frequently named the bmito. Marg- graves Hifl. Braf. See the article Bonito.

CURVATOR coccygis, in anatomy, a name given by Albinus to a mufcle of the coccyx difcovered by himfelf, and not defcribed by any other author. It is an oblong, thin, and fmall mufcle, and for the moft part tendinous. It arifes with a double head, one from the inner, and the other from the lower and lateral part of the os facrum, and defcending, ter- minates in three extremities. He calls it the curvator coccygis, from its office, which is the bending the coccyx; and fays, that he found it in different ftates, in three fubjeits ; one very perfect and entire; in a fecond, more imperfect and degene- rating; and in the third, refembling a ligament rather than a mufcle.

CURVATURE (Cycl.) See the Appendix.

CURUCUI, in zoology, the name of an American bird of the wood-pecker kind, and very remarkably beautiful. It is of the fize of the magpye ; its legs are fhort, and feathered al- moft to the toes with black feathers, and under its head it has a fort of beard on each fide, made up with black brifrles. Its breafl and belly are of a very bright and elegant red, and its back and tail are of a deep blue, with a glow of a fiery red fhining through the whole. Its tail is broad, and is ter- minated by a broad black line ; the tops of its wings are of a fhining green, the middle of the wings are black, made hoary by innumerable white (pots, and their long feathers, are all of a blackifh brown ; the wings are of a hoary white un- derneath. Ray's Ornithol. p. 96.

CURVE (Cycl.) — Modern geometers frequently confider curves as compofed of an infinite number of infinitely fmall right lines ; and it is often faid, that the antients alfo confidered curves as polygons of an infinite number of fides. But it is certain, that this principle no where appears in their wri- tings. We never find them refolving any figure into infi- nitely fmall elements. On the contrary, they feem to avoid fuch fuppofitions, as if they judged them unfit to be received into geometry, though it was fometimes obvious, that their demo nitrations might have been abridged, by admitting fuch notions. They confidered curvilinear areas as the limits of circumfcribed or inferibed figures of a more fimple kind, which approach to thefe limits; fo that the difference between them may become lefs than any given quantity. The in- feribed and circumfcribed figures were always conceived to be of a magnitude and number that is aflignable ; and they demonftrated the menfuration, or the proportions of the cur- vilinear limits themfelves, by arguments ab abfurdo. But modern geometers have abandoned the foundations of the antients. It was thought unneceffary to conceive the figures circumfcribed or inferibed, in the curvilinear area, or folid, as being always aflignable and finite ; and the precau- tions of Archimedes and the antients came to be confidered as a check upon geometricians, ferving only to retard their progrefs. Therefore, mftead of aflignable finite figures, in- divifiblc, or infinitely fmall elements were fubftitutcd ; and thefe being fuppofed infinite in number, their fum was fup- pofed to coincide with the curvilinear area or folid. See Maclaur. Fluxions, in the Introd.

Curves of the fecond order. See Lines of the third order, Ap- pendix.

Logarithmic Curve. See Logarithmic, in the Appendix.

CURVICAUDA, in natural hiftory, the name of a fpecies of bee fly, very common in England, and very troublefome to horfes, commonly known by the name of the wringlc tail, See Wr ingle tail.

CURV1ROSTRA fopis, in natural hiflory, the name of a fpe- cies of foflilefhcll, found very frequently in the ftone quarries of Northamptonshire, and the neighbouring counties. It is a fpecies of cockle, and is diftinguifhed by its beak not ftanding in the middle, but always inclining to one or the other fide. The fhell is fometimes found remaining entire, and in its na- tive ftate and condition, but more frequently there is ftony matter depofited in its place. Hill's Hift. of Foff. p. 646. CURVITY. See Curvature. Radius of Cvkvity. See Curvature, Appendix. CURURU, in botany, a name ufed by Plumier in the fame fenfe with the fcriana of the fame author, in its generical characters, and called by Linnaeus paulinia. Plumier, Gen. 36. See the article PauLINIA. CURURUCA, in zoology, the name of an American frefh wa- ter fifh, of an oblong, and not flatted, body. It grows to a foot and half in length ; its mouth is very large ; it has one long back fin, which is divided as it were into two in the mid- dle, and the anterior rays of this are rigid, and prickly, the hin- der ones more flexile and foft. Its fcales are moderately large, and of a filvery brightnefs, with a flight mixture of brown and

yellow on the back and fides ; its tail, and back-fin, ^are of a greyifh colour; thofe on the belly are of a brownifb yellow. It is eaten in the Brafils. Margrave's HiR. Brafil.

CUSCASOW, the name of a Mooriih difh eaten in Eeypt. It is made of flower tempered with water, rolled in the hands into fmall pieces, and then put into a colander, over a boiling pot, flopped clofe round ; fo that it is dreffed with the fleam, and when it is done enough they put butter, to it. Pocock's Egypt, p. 183.

CUSCUTA, dodder. In the Linnaean fyftem of botany, this makes a diftinct genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : the calyx is a one-leaved pcrianthium, in form of a cup, flefhy at the bafe, and divided flightly into four ob- tufe fegments at the rim. The flower is compofed of on- ly one petal, of an oval figure, a little longer than the cup, and divided flightly into four obtufe fegments at the edge. The ftamina are four pointed filaments of the length of the cup; the anthers are roundifhj the germen of the piftil is round ifh; the ftyles are two in number, arid are erect, and ihort ; the fligmata are fimple ; the fruit is flefhy, and round- ifh, and contains two cells fplitting open horizontally; the feeds are two from each flower. Linnai Gen. Plant, p. co. The characters of dodder, according to Tournefort, are thefe : the flower is compofed only of one leaf, which is hollowed into the fhape of a bell, and is divided into ma- ny fegments at the edges: the piftil arifes from the cup, and is fixed, in the manner of a nail, to the hinder part of the flower; this finally becomes a membranaceous fruit, of a roundifh, but fomewhat angulated figure, perfo- rated in its hinder part, and ftanding upon acapiule, which fills the bafis of the cup, and containing very fmall feeds. The fpecies of dodder, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe : r. The common cufcuta, or dodder. 2. The epithy- ?num, fmall dodder, or dodder of thyme. Town. Inft. p, 652. See Dodder.

CUSI, in natural hiftory, a name given by the people of the Phi- lippine iflands to a very fmall and very beautiful fpecies of parrot.

CUSTOS (Cycl.) — Custos placitorum corona, in our anticnt writers of law, feems to he the fame with him we now call cufos rotukrum, which is mentioned in the writ de odio & atia. Reg. of Writs, fol. 133. b. See alfo Bract on lib 2. c. 5.

CUTT-water, the fharp part of the head of a fhip below the beak. It is fo called becaufe it cuts or divides the water be- fore it comes to the bow, that it may not come too fuddenly to the breadth of the fhip, which would retard her.

CUTAMBULI, a name given by^thc old writers on medi- cine to certain worms bred under the fldn, and caufin"' by their creeping a very uneafy fenfation. Afterwards°the fame word was ufed to exprefs certain uneafy itchings caufed by a fcorbutic habit, and refembling the crawling; of worms.

CUTANEOUS eruptions, in infants. See the article Infa nt.

CU T HBERT duck, in zoology, the name given by authors, as well as by our own people, to a fpecies of duck which breeds In fome of our northern iflands, and leads its young to fea as foon as they are hatched, whence neither they, nor the old ones, ever return till the breeding time again. It is of the fize of the common duck ; the male is variegated with black and white ; its back being white, and its tail and long wing-feathers black ; its beak is fhorter than the common ducks, and its legs and feet are black; the female is of one colour, a dull dufky brown. One great Angularity in thefe birds, both male and female, is, that the feathers at the fides of the beak run to an angle under the noftrils. Ray's Ornithol. p. 227. There feems great reafon to fufpect that this and the eider, or anas plumis morfijfimis, arethe fame fpecies of bird. SeeEiDER.

CUTTING teeth, in anatomy. See Dentes incifores.

CUTTLK-f/h bone. See Sepium, Cycl.

CUTTOFOE, in botany, a name given by the people of Guinea to a plant which they efteem greatly for its medi- cinal virtues. They boil it in water, and give the decoc- tion in all cafes of the colic, in which it proves a cure. It is a fpecies of the anonis, or reft-barrow, and is common to Africa, and the Weft-Indies, Sir Hans Sloane having very well figured, and defcribed it, under the name of anonis nm fpinofa minor glabra pro\umbens fore luteo, the yellow-flowered fmall, procumbent, fmooth anonis, without thorns. It is found in vaft abundance on the banks of the Rio Cobre, near the city of St. Jago de la Vega, or Spanifh town. Phil. Tranf. N°232.

CUURDO, in botany, is, with fome authors, the name of the cinnamon tree. Pijo, Mant. Arom. p. 165.

CYAMEA, in natural hiftory, the name by which the antients called the black, flinty eagle-ftone. Pliny defcribes its blackifh colour, and fays, that, when broken, there was found within. it another ftone of the bignefs ofahorfe-bean. This is what rattles in it when fhaken. CYAMOS, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for the

common, garden bean. Chabr^us, p. 14 r. CYANUS, the blue bottle, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, ^ the characters of which are thefe : The flower is of the flofculous kind, being compofed of a number of flofcules; but thefe of two different kinds ; thofe which ftand in the

middle