Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/321

 COPLAND COPPER 317 covered with mud and lime. So little rain falls that this is sufficient for protection, and even the principal church is built in this way. The only solid edifice in the city is an old church, the massive walls of which have enabled it to withstand the most violent earthquakes. In the plaza is a bronze statue of Juan Godoy, who discovered the celebrated silver mines of Chafiarcillo in 1832. Copiapo has a college and several convents. Among its industrial establishments are a number of works for the reduction of silver ore, iron founderies, and factories for the making of crushing mills and other machinery used in connection with the mines. It has a considerable trade through its port, Caldera, with which it is connected by railway. Its old port, the village of Copiapo, at the mouth of the river, lat. 27 20' S., and Ion. 71 2' W., is now little used. COPLAND, James, an English physician, born at Deerness, in the Orkney islands, in 1792, died July 12, 1870. He studied medicine at Edinburgh, visited the principal hospitals of Europe, and spent some time in Africa, inves- tigating diseases peculiar to that continent. In 1820, after his return to London, he became a member of the royal college of physicians. From 1822 to 1828 he was editor of the London "Medical Repository," and from 1824 to 1842 a lecturer on pathology and the prac- tice of medicine, first at the Windmill school, and next at the school of the Middlesex hos- pital. He published "Outlines of Pathology and Practical Medicine," "Elements of Physi- ology," and a "Dictionary of Practical Medi- cine," in four volumes, which was reprinted in the United States and translated into German. In 1850 he published an essay on palsy and apoplexy. COPLESTOX, Edward, D. D., an English bish- op, born at Offwell, Devonshire, Feb. 2, 1776, died near Chepstow, Oct. 14, 1849. He was educated at Oxford, in 1802 was appointed professor of poetry there, and in 1813 published his lectures under the title of Prcelectiones Academic. In 1814 he became provost of Oriel college, in 1826 dean of Chester, and in 1827 bishop of LI and aff and dean of St. Paul's, London. He contributed to the " Quarterly Review," and wrote an " Inquiry into the Doc- trines of Necessity and Predestination " (1821). COPLEY, John Singleton, an American painter, born in Boston, July 3, 1737, died in London in September, 1815. Without the aid of instruc- tors, and before seeing any tolerable picture, he painted pieces which were highly admired. In his 17th year he adopted painting as a profes- sion, and in 1760 he sent to the royal academy a picture of a "Boy and Tame Squirrel," the coloring of which was deemed exquisite. He obtained a considerable income as a portrait painter, till in 1774 he visited Italy, where he studied especially the works of Titian and Cor- reggio. In 1775 he established himself in Lon- don, and in 1783 was chosen a member of the royal academy. The most celebrated of his works 18 the "Death of Lord Chatham," now in the national gallery, representing th% orator falling after his speech in opposition to the American war, and containing also portraits of the most distinguished peers. It was en- graved by Bartolozzi on a plate of 30 inches by 22, and impressions were sent by the painter to Washington and John Adams. In 1790 he was commissioned to paint the large picture, now in the council chamber of the Guildhall, of the " Siege and Relief of Gibraltar." Some of his most esteemed paintings are portraits of several members of the royal family, " Major Pierson's Death on the Isle of Jersey," "Charles I. demanding the five Impeached Members in the House of Commons," and the "Surrender of Admiral de Whiter to Lord Duncan." They are remarkable for correct- ness of drawing and brilliancy of coloring. His best works were collected by his son Lord Lyndhurst, and many of them have been en- graved. A sketch of his life and works, by A. T. Perkins, was published in Boston in 1873. COPPER (Lat. cuprum, from Cyprus the isl- and, in which the ores of this metal were mined by the ancient Greeks), one of the first metals known to man. Tubal Cain, the seventh in de- scent from Adam, we are told, was " an instruc- tor of every artificer in brass and in iron." In the book of Job we read that * copper is mol- ten out of the stone." Cheops, an Egyptian king of the fourth dynasty, it is recorded, worked a copper mine in the peninsula of Sinai. The ancient Egyptians employed an alloy of it for working hard stones, and Wilkinson suggests that they may have had the art of hardening it. The Syrians and Phoanicians, as also the Greeks and Romans, consumed the metal largely in the manufacture of monuments and .statues of bronze. The single colossus of Rhodes, after having lain in fragments for nine centuries, is said to have required 900 camels to convey its pieces away. The ores seem, therefore, not only to have been worked ex- tensively by the ancients, but the skill and facilities for producing large castings appear to have been quite equal to those possessed by the moderns. Besides its use as an alloy hi the manufacture of bronze, it was also employed in coin in the pure state. The metal itself was probably first discovered, as it is now found, in a native state, and by the melting of this the nature of the rich ores associated with it came to be known. The obscure races that inhabited this continent prior to the Indians possessed an acquaintance with it, as appears from the various small utensils of copper found in the ancient mounds of the western country ; and the extensive mining works, probably of the same people, at Lake Superior (see COPPER MINES), testify to the knowledge of it possessed by some ancient race of greater skill than the Indians. The Aztecs of Mexico made use of chisels and axes of copper, some of which arc found with the large half-finished blocks of granite in the quarries of Mitla ; and these