Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/798

 788 CARIES CARIES the haunches, and is said to equal the venison of the best fallow deer of the English parks. The geographical range of the caribou is over all the northern parts of America, and abun- dantly over all the habitable parts of the arctic regions, and neighboring countries, extending to a much lower latitude than the range of the reindeer in the eastern continent, and passing still further south on all the principal moun- tain chains. The southern limit of the cari- bou appears to be about the parallel of Quebec, across the whole continent ; but the animal is most abundant between lat. 63 and 66 N. It was occasionally found until within a few years in the Adirondack mountains. (See REINDEER.) CHUBS, an Indian nation which when Co- lumbus reached the new world occupied Porto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, and a portion of the mainland of South America, in what is now Guiana and Venezuela. The name signified brave, and they were very fierce and cruel. They had canoes capable of carrying 50 men, and made constant war on the milder Yucayos occupying the larger islands. They were man- eaters, the term cannibals being originally one of the names of the nation. They were gradu- ally reduced or expelled from the islands to the mainland. At present only a few remain on Trinidad, Dominica, and St. Vincent. They are divided into the Caribs proper ; Galibi, in French Guiana ; Tuapoka, on the lower Orinoco ; Yaoi, in Trinidad and Venezuela; Guachire, on St. Margarita; and include apparently the Avari- gotes, Purugotes, and Acherigotes. They re- sembled some of our northwestern tribes in their use of paint, weeping on occasions of joy, and in fasting and severe probation for the chieftainship. The French began missions among them at an early day, and a catechism and dictionary of the Galibi were printed in 1663-'5 by Raymond Breton. HKK'A, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order of papayacece, containing about Carica spinosa. 10 species, natives of tropical America. They form small trees, generally without branches, with large, variously lobed leaves, resembling those of some kinds of palms. The male and female flowers are usually on different trees. The fruit is fleshy. The most remark- able species is the C. papaya, or papaw tree. (See PAPAW.) The C. digitata or spinosa, found in Brazil and Guiana, where it is called the chambura, is about 20- ft. high, with spiny stem and branches. Its juice is very acrid, causing blisters and itching when applied to the skin. The fruit is insipid and eaten only by ants ; and the flowers emit a stercoraceous odor. CARIES (Lat. caries, decay), a chronic inflam- mation of bone, accompanied generally by the formation of matter, which tends to make its way externally. The so-called spongy tissue, of which are composed the bones of the wrist and ankle and of the spine, and the ends of the long bones of the limbs, is that usually affected. It is to be distinguished from necrosis. In the latter disease a part of the bone has its blood supply cut off, dies, and acts as a foreign body, until thrown off by nature or removed by the surgeon. In caries the disease is, so to speak, centrifugal, the bone being gradually absorbed by the growth of a soft newly formed tissue, composed chiefly of microscopic cells, which is formed in the spaces of the spongy tissue nor- mally filled by marrow. In necrosis therefore the cause, being generally local, soon ceases to act, and the bone or piece of bone which has died, if not extruded by nature or removed by the surgeon, will act, as would a splinter, as a foreign body and to be expelled. . In caries, the disease, being constitutional, tends to spread and finally to implicate the whole bone or dis- trict of bone, and very frequently those which are contiguous. Necrosis may be compared to a slough of the soft parts, caries to an ulcer of the same. Scrofula and syphilis are the most frequent causes of caries. It may be excited by a local injury, but in such a case it is an ex- pression of some constitutional disturbance or condition ; the same injury in a healthy person not being followed by a like result. The symp- toms are those of a chronic inflammation : pain and tenderness, followed sooner or later by swelling, redness, and heat of the superficial parts ; the formation of matter, which tends to make its way by one or more (often sinuous) tracks to the nearest surface, and continues to be discharged so long as the disease lasts. A probe passed to the bottom of such a track would come in contact with roughened bone, or more often would impinge upon the new tissue spoken of above, through which it would have to be thrust in order to touch the bony^ wall of the cavity in which the disease existed. In caries of the spine the matter would make its way downward and present itself as an abscess in the groin. If near a joint, as for instance in caries of the upper end of the leg bone, this may by implication become disorganized. The patient's general health would probably indi-