Page:EB1911 - Volume 05.djvu/71

 represented by the shales and limestones of the Chari series of Cutch. Callovian rocks are also recorded from New Guinea and the Moluccas.

 CALM, an adjective meaning peaceful, quiet; particularly used of the weather, free from wind or storm, or of the sea, opposed to rough. The word appears in French calme, through which it came into English, in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian calma. Most authorities follow Diez (Etym. Wörterbuch der romanischen Sprachen) in tracing the origin to the Low Latin cauma, an adaptation of Greek , burning heat,  , to burn. The Portuguese calma has this meaning as well as that of quiet. The connexion would be heat of the day, rest during that period, so quiet, rest, peacefulness. The insertion of the l, which in English pronunciation disappears, is probably due to the Latin calor, heat, with which the word was associated.

 CALMET, ANTOINE AUGUSTIN (1672–1757), French Benedictine, was born at Mesnil-la-Horgne on the 26th of February 1672. At the age of seventeen he joined the Benedictine order, and in 1698 was appointed to teach theology and philosophy at the abbey of Moyen-Moutier. He was successively prior at Lay, abbot at Nancy and of Sénones in Lorraine. He died in Paris on the 25th of October 1757. The erudition of Calmet’s exegetical writings won him a reputation that was not confined to the Roman Catholic Church, but they have failed to stand the test of modern scholarship. The most noteworthy are:—Commentaire de la Bible (Paris, 23 vols., 1707–1716), and Dictionnaire historique, géographique, critique, chronologique et littéral de la Bible (Paris, 2 vols., 1720). These and numerous other works and editions of the Bible are known only to students, but as a pioneer in a branch of Biblical study which received a wide development in the 19th century, Calmet is worthy of remembrance. As a historical writer he is best known by his Histoire ecclésiastique et civile de la Lorraine (Nancy, 1728), founded on original research and various useful works on Lorraine, of which a full list is given In Vigouroux’s Dictionnaire de la Bible.

 CALNE, a market town and municipal borough in the Chippenham parliamentary division of Wiltshire, England, 99 m. west of London by the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 3457. Area, 356 acres. It lies in the valley of the Calne, and is surrounded by the high table-land of Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs. The church of St Mark has a nave with double aisles, and massive late Norman pillars and arches. The tower, which fell in 1628, was perhaps rebuilt by Inigo Jones. Other noteworthy buildings are a grammar school, founded by John Bentley in 1660, and the town-hall. Bacon-curing is the staple industry, and there are flour, flax and paper mills. The manufacture of broadcloth, once of great importance, is almost extinct. Calne is governed by a mayor, four aldermen and twelve councillors.

In the 10th century Calne (Canna, Kalne) was the site of a palace of the West-Saxon kings. Calne was the scene of the synod of 978 when, during the discussion of the question of celibacy, the floor suddenly gave way beneath the councillors, leaving Archbishop Dunstan alone standing upon a beam. Here also a witenagemot was summoned in 997. In the Domesday Survey Calne appears as a royal borough; it comprised forty-seven burgesses and was not assessed in hides. In 1565 the borough possessed a gild merchant, at the head of which were two gild stewards. Calne claimed to have received a charter from Stephen and a confirmation of the same from Henry III., but no record of these is extant, and the charter actually issued to the borough by James II. in 1687 apparently never came into force. The borough returned two members to parliament more or less irregularly from the first parliament of Edward I. until the Reform Bill of 1832. From this date the borough returned one member only until, by the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, the privilege was annulled. In 1303 Lodovicus de Bello Monte, prebendary of Salisbury, obtained a grant of a Saturday market at the manor of Calne, and a three days’ fair at the feast of St Mary Magdalene; the latter was only abandoned in the 19th century. Calne was formerly one of the chief centres of cloth manufacture in the west of England, but the industry is extinct.

 CALOMEL, a drug consisting of mercurous chloride, mercury subchloride, Hg2Cl2, which occurs in nature as the mineral horn-quicksilver, found as translucent crystals belonging to the tetragonal system, with an adamantine lustre, and a dirty white grey or brownish colour. The chief localities are Idria, Obermoschel, Horowitz in Bavaria and Almaden in Spain. It was used in medicine as early as the 16th century under the names Draco mitigatus, Manna metallorum, Aquila alba, Mercurius dulcis; later it became known as calomel, a name probably derived from the Greek , beautiful, and  , black, in allusion to its blackening by ammonia, or from  and  , honey, from its sweet taste. It may be obtained by heating mercury in chlorine, or by reducing mercuric chloride (corrosive sublimate) with mercury or sulphurous acid. It is manufactured by heating a mixture of mercurous sulphate and common salt in iron retorts, and condensing the sublimed calomel in brick chambers. In the wet way it is obtained by precipitating a mercurous salt with hydrochloric acid. Calomel is a white powder which sublimes at a low red heat; it is insoluble in water, alcohol and ether. Boiling with stannous chloride solution reduces it to the metal; digestion with potassium iodide gives mercurous iodide. Nitric acid oxidizes it to mercuric nitrate, while potash or soda decomposes it into mercury and oxygen. Long continued boiling with water gives mercury and mercuric chloride; dilute hydrochloric acid or solutions of alkaline chlorides convert it into mercuric chloride on long boiling.

The molecular weight of mercurous chloride has given occasion for much discussion. E. Mitscherlich determined the vapour density to be 8·3 (air＝1), corresponding to HgCl. The supporters of the formula Hg2Cl2 pointed out that dissociation into mercury and mercuric chloride would give this value, since mercury is a monatomic element. After contradictory evidence as to whether dissociation did or did not occur, it was finally shown by Victor Meyer and W. Harris (1894) that a rod moistened with potash and inserted in the vapour was coloured yellow, and so conclusively proved dissociation. A. Werner determined the molecular weights of mercurous, cuprous and silver bromides, iodides and chlorides in pyridine solution, and obtained results pointing to the formula HgCl, etc. However, the double formula, Hg2Cl2, has been completely established by H. B. Baker (Journ. Chem. Soc., 1900, 77, p. 646) by vapour density determinations of the absolutely dry substance.

Calomel possesses certain special properties and uses in medicine which are dealt with here as a supplement to the general discussion of the pharmacology and therapeutics of (q.v.). Calomel exerts remote actions in the form of mercuric chloride. The specific value of mercurous chloride is that it exerts the valuable properties of mercuric chloride in the safest and least irritant manner, as the active salt is continuously and freshly generated in small quantities. Its pharmacopeial preparations are the “Black wash,” in which calomel and lime react to form mercurous oxide, a pill still known as “Plummer’s pill” and an ointment. Externally the salt has not any particular advantage over other mercurial compounds, despite the existence of the official ointment. Internally the salt is given in doses—for an adult of from one-half to five grains. It is an admirable aperient, acting especially on the upper part of the intestinal canal, and causing a slight increase of intestinal secretion. The stimulant action occurring high up in the canal (duodenum and jejunum), it is well to follow a dose of calomel with a saline purgative a few hours afterwards. The special value of the drug as an aperient depends on its antiseptic power and its stimulation of the liver. The stools are dark green, containing calomel, mercuric sulphide and bile which, owing to the antiseptic action, has not been decomposed. The salt is often used in the treatment of syphilis, but is probably less useful than certain other mercurial compounds. It is also employed for<section end="Calomel" />