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 works for the manufacture of the mineral acids, alum, white-lead, soda and other substances. His labours in the cause of applied science were at length recognized by the French government, which presented him with letters of nobility, and the cordon of the order of Saint Michel. During the Revolution a publication by Chaptal, entitled Dialogue entre un Montagnard et un Girondin, caused him to be arrested; but being speedily set at liberty through the intermission of his friends, he undertook, in 1793, the management of the saltpetre works at Grenelle. In the following year he went to Montpellier, where he remained till 1797, when he returned to Paris. After the coup d’état of the 18th of Brumaire (November 9, 1799) he was made a councillor of state by the First Consul, and succeeded Lucien Bonaparte as minister of the interior, in which capacity he established a chemical manufactory near Paris, a school of arts, and a society of industries; he also reorganized the hospitals, introduced the metrical system of weights and measures, and otherwise greatly encouraged the arts and sciences. A misunderstanding between him and Napoleon (who conferred upon him the title of comte de Chanteloup) occasioned Chaptal’s retirement from office in 1804; but before the end of that year he was again received into favour by the emperor, who bestowed on him the grand cross of the Legion of Honour, and made him treasurer to the conservative senate. On Napoleon’s return from Elba, Chaptal was made director-general of commerce and manufactures and a minister of state. He was obliged after the downfall of the emperor to withdraw into private life; and his name was removed from the list of the peers of France until 1819. In 1816, however, he was nominated a member of the Academy of Sciences by Louis XVIII. Chaptal was especially a popularizer of science, attempting to apply to industry and agriculture the discoveries of chemistry. In this way he contributed largely to the development of modern industry. He died at Paris on the 30th of July 1832.

 CHAPTER (a shortened form of chapiter, a word still used in architecture for a capital; derived from O. Fr. chapitre, Lat. capitellum, diminutive of caput, head), a principal division or section of a book, and so applied to acts of parliament, as forming “chapters” or divisions of the legislation of a session of parliament. The name “chapter” is given to the permanent body of the canons of a cathedral or collegiate church, presided over, in the English Church, by the dean, and in the Roman communion by the provost or the dean, and also to the body of the members of a religious order. This may be a “conventual” chapter of the monks of a particular monastery, “provincial” of the members of the order in a province, or “general” of the whole order. This ecclesiastical use of the word arose from the custom of reading a chapter of Scripture, or a head (capitulum) of the regula, to the assembled canons or monks. The transference from the reading to the assembly itself, and to the members constituting it, was easy, through such phrases as convenire ad capitulum. The title “chapter” is similarly used of the assembled body of knights of a military or other order. (See also ; ; ).

 CHAPTER-HOUSE (Lat. capitolium, Ital. capitolo, Fr. chapitre, Ger. Kapitelhaus), the chamber in which the chapter or heads of the monastic bodies (see and ) assembled to transact business. They are of various forms; some are oblong apartments, as Canterbury, Exeter, Chester, Gloucester, &c.; some octagonal, as Salisbury, Westminster, Wells, Lincoln, York, &c. That at Lincoln has ten sides, and that at Worcester is circular; most are vaulted internally and polygonal externally, and some, as Salisbury, Wells, Lincoln, Worcester, &c., depend on a single slight vaulting shaft for the support of the massive vaulting. They are often provided with a vestibule, as at Westminster, Lincoln, Salisbury and are almost exclusively English.

 CHAPU, formerly an important maritime town of China, in the province of Cheh-kiang, 50 m. N.W. of Chên-hai, situated in one of the richest and best cultivated districts in the country. It is the port of Hang-chow, with which it has good canal communication, and it was formerly the only Chinese port trading with Japan. The town has a circuit of about 5 m. exclusive of the suburbs that lie along the beach; and the Tatar quarter is separated from the rest by a wall. It was captured and much injured by the British force in 1842, but was abandoned immediately after the engagement. The sea around it has now silted up, though in the middle of the 19th century it was accessible to the light-draught ships of the British fleet.

 CHAR (Salvelinus), a fish of the family Salmonidae, represented in Europe, Asia and North America. The best known and most widely distributed species, the one represented in British and Irish lakes, is S. alpinus, a graceful and delicious fish, covered with very minute scales and usually dark olive, bluish or purplish black above, with or without round orange or red spots, pinkish white or yellowish pink to scarlet or claret red below. When the char go to sea, they assume a more silvery coloration, similar to that of the salmon and sea trout; the red spots become very indistinct and the lower parts are almost white. The very young are also silvery on the sides and white below, and bear 11 to 15 bars, or parr-marks, on the side. This fish varies much according to localities; and the difference in colour, together with a few points of doubtful constancy, have given rise to the establishment of a great number of untenable so-called species, as many as seven having been ascribed to the British and Irish fauna, viz. S. alpinus, nivalis, killinensis, willoughbyi, perisii, colii and grayi, the last from Lough Melvin, Ireland, being the most distinct. S. alpinus varies much in size according to the waters it inhabits, remaining dwarfed in some English lakes, and growing to 2 ft. or more in other localities. In other parts of Europe, also, various local forms have been distinguished, such as the “omble chevalier” of the lakes of Switzerland and Savoy (S. umbla), the “Säbling” of the lakes of South Germany and Austria (S. salvelinus), the “kullmund” of Norway (S. carbonarius), &c., while the North American S. parkei, alipes, stagnalis, arcturus, areolus, oquassa and marstoni may also be regarded as varieties. Taken in this wide sense, S. alpinus has a very extensive distribution. In central Europe, in the British islands and in the greater part of Scandinavia it is confined to mountain lakes, but farther to the north, in both the Old World and the New, it lives in the sea and ascends rivers to spawn. In Lapland, Iceland, Greenland and other parts of the arctic regions, it ranks among the commonest fishes. The extreme northern point at which char have been obtained is 82° 34′ N. (Victoria lake and Floeberg Beach, Arctic America). It reaches an altitude of 2600 ft. in the Alps and 6000 ft. in the Carpathians.

The American brook char, S. fontinalis, is a close ally of S. alpinus, differing from it in having fewer and shorter gill-rakers, a rather stouter body, the back more or less barred or marbled with dark olive or black, and the dorsal and caudal fins mottled or barred with black. Many local varieties of colour have been distinguished. Sea-run individuals are often nearly plain bright silvery. It is a small species, growing to about 18 in. abundant in all clear, cold streams of North America, east of the Mississippi, northward to Labrador. The fish has been introduced into other parts of the United States, and also into Europe.

Another member of the same section of Salmonidae is the Great Lake char of North America, S. namaycush, one of the largest salmonids, said to attain a weight of 100 ℔. The body is very elongate and covered with extremely small scales. The colour varies from grey to black, with numerous round pale spots, which may be tinged with reddish; the dorsal and caudal fins reticulate with darker. This fish inhabits the Great Lakes regions and neighbouring parts of North America.

 CHAR-À-BANC (Fr. for “benched carriage”), a large form of wagonette-like vehicle for passengers, but with benched seats