Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/96

 CASTOR RIVER CASTRES the blows of Pollux, while Idas was struck with a thunderbolt by Jupiter. According to another tradition, Castor was slain in a war between Athens and Lacedremon. Jupiter per- mitted Pollux to pass alternately one day with his brother on Olympus and another on the earth. The worship of these brothers was es- tablished by the Achseans, adopted by the Dorians, and spread throughout Greece, Italy, and Sicily. They were the tutelary gods of hospitality, presided over gymnastic exercises, and were eminently the mighty helpers of man. They calmed tempests, appearing as light flames on the tips of the masts. They some- times appeared in battle, riding on magnificent white steeds at the head of the army. By their assistance the Romans believed themselves to have gained the battle of Lake Regillus. Placed among the stars, they became the constellation Gemini. In works of art they are usually represented as young horsemen in white attire, with a purple robe, armed with the lance, and wearing a helmet crowned with stars. At Rome the men swore by the temple of Pollux, ^Ede- pol, and the women by that of Castor, jEcas- tor. Around the ancient temple consecrated to them in the forum the equites marched in magnificent procession every year on July 15. CASTOR RIVER, a stream of S. E. Missouri, which rises in St. Francois co., flows S., com- municates by several arms with a group of small lakes in Stoddard co., and afterward unites with the Whitewater river. The stream thus formed, which is sometimes called the Castor, but more frequently the Whitewater, flows through a low swampy region, in which most of the streams spread themselves over a large surface and form extensive marshes or lakes. It receives the outlet of Lake Pemisco, and finally discharges itself into Big lake. CASTRATION, a surgical operation practised upon some of the domestic animals, which con- sists in taking away the necessary and essential organs of reproduction, namely, the testicles in the male or the ovaries in the female. When performed upon the female, the operation is more commonly known as spaying. The object to be accomplished in either case is to moderate the impetuosity of the animals, to render them more docile and submissive, or more adapted to the kind of labor required of them, to in- crease their size, or to dispose the system to the accumulation of fat. The advantages which it sometimes confers in these respects are, how- ever, often more than counterbalanced by other effects. Thus it undoubtedly diminishes the activity, the courage, the endurance, and even the intelligence, or at least the quickness of its manifestation. It is not therefore an opera- tion to be performed on all animals, even of the male sex, indiscriminately, but should be ap- plied with judgment only to those cases in which it is required by the special conditions, the particular employment, or the peculiar nat- ural disposition of the animal. Castration may be performed at all ages ; but its effects are more decided if performed before than after the age of puberty. In the first case, the ani- mal never arrives at the usual fully developed adult condition, and, if of the male sex, does not acquire the external marks which distin- guish him from the female, nor the general masculine bodily contour. On the other hand, if these sexual characters have already been developed, they do not disappear on castration, and the animal simply loses the power of repro- ducing his species. (See EUNUCH.) CASTREN, Matthias Alexander, a Finnish philo- logist, born at Tervola, Dec. 2, 1813, died in Helsingfors, May 7, 1852. He devoted himself to collecting the monuments of the genius of Finland scattered through the various tribes, and as a preparation he undertook in 1838 to travel on foot through Finnish Lapland. He then visited Karelia, to make himself more fa- miliar with the language, with a view to the translation into Swedish of the celebrated pop- ular poem, the "Kalevala." Aided by govern- ment, he pursued his investigations through Norwegian and Russian Lapland, and even through the land of the Samoyeds of Europe and Siberia. He was appointed linguist and ethnographer to the academy of St. Petersburg, and with the aid of the university of Helsing- fors he extended his researches throughout Siberia, from the frontiers of China to the shores of the Arctic ocean. With feeble con- stitution and delicate health, he accomplished extraordinary labors, and sent home, in addi- tion to the documents connected with his own studies, reports and letters of great value. Many of these were published in the Russian and Swedish periodicals of the day. Castren was honored on his return to his country, in 1851, a year before his death, with the office of first professor of the Finnish language and literature at the university of Helsingfors. The literary society of Finland and the academy of St. Petersburg caused his writings to be published after his death, the latter body ap- pointing Schiemer as editor of the works, pub- lished in St. Petersburg in German in 1853 and 1856, while Finnish editions were brought out at Helsingfors in 1852, 1853, and 1855, and a German edition of part of them appeared also in Leipsic. Among his works are Elementa Grammatices Tscheremisice, Elementa Gram- matices Syrjance, De Affixw Personalibus Lin- guarum Altaicarum, and an Ostiak grammar in German. His Samoyed grammar and dic- tionary were published in St. Petersburg in 1854 and 1855, and hisTungusian dictionary in 1857. Borg published in 1853 a biographical sketch of Castren, and a monument has been dedicated to his memory at Helsingfors. CASTRES, a town of Languedoc, France, de- partment of Tarn, 20 m. S. E. of Albi ; pop. in 1866, 21,357. It lies in a fertile valley on both sides of the river Agout, which is here crossed by two stone bridges. It is the seat of a Prot- estant consistory, having been one of the first towns to embrace the doctrines of Calvin. It