Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/425

 COUCHING COUGH 421 produces a fresh and larger crop. Cleaning land thoroughly in autumn keeps the roots from penetrating the soil deeply, and from get- ting a strong hold, almost impossible to be bro- ken. In the early autumn the roots strike hori- zontally and obliquely, and then go down till the growth of the plant is stopped by the cold of winter. The roots are nutritious, and are sometimes cleaned and fed to pigs, horses, and cattle. In some northern countries they have been used with flour in making bread. The ashes of couch grass contain only about 10 per cent, of potash and 5 per cent, of lime. Prof. Volcker found a little more than 20 per cent, of bone earth in it. The large amount of solu- ble silica found in its ashes explains why clay soils, rich in alkaline silicates, are conducive to its growth. In parts of Europe where paring and burning are much practised, it is known that the fouler the land is made by couch grass, the larger is the ensuing crop of turnips. COUCHING. See CATAEACT. COUCY, DC, a noble family of northern France in the middle ages, named from the town and castle of Coucy, near Laon. The historical im- portance of the family, a branch of that of Vermandois, began at the close of the llth century. The following are its more celebra- ted members. I. Thomas dc (called Thomas de Marie), son of Enguerrand L, count of Amiens, died in 1130. Through his second wife he be- came lord of the castle of Montaigu, which he fortified and made the scourge of the surround- ing country. Besieged by the neighboring no- bles and by his own father, he was helped by Prince Louis, afterward Louis VI. (the Fat), the siege being raised in 1105. He afterward laid waste his father's territories with great ferocity. Having incited the cities of Amiens and Laon to revolt, he joined the king and his father against them, and ravaged the com- munes with unequalled atrocity. In 1116 he succeeded his father in possession of Boves, Coucy, and Amiens. Vanquished by Louis VI., he implored and obtained his pardon, but soon again provoked his anger, was besieged in Coucy, and was mortally wounded in a sortie. II. Renand or Raoul de, castellan of Coucy, a minstrel, born about 1160. He went with the crusaders to the Holy Land in 1191, and was killed at Acre. He was the reputed author of 24 songs, remarkable for simplicity and tenderness, which were reprinted in 1830 under the editorship of Francisque Michel. He is the hero of a famous romance of the 13th century, which, under the title of Roumam dou chastelain de Coucy, was published in 1829. It is founded upon the following legend, which has been reproduced under various forms: Coucy was in love with a French lady, the wife of the chevalier de Fayel. Fighting in the ranks of the crusaders, he was mortally wounded, and deputed his servant to carry his heart to his mistress. The messenger was sur- prised by the husband, who caused the heart to be cooked arid presented to his wife; she tasted it, but, being informed of the origin of the dish, starved herself to death. III. Enguer- rand III., killed by falling from his horse, and being pierced by his own sword, in 1242. He rebuilt the castle of Coucy, distinguished him- self at the battle of Bouvines (1214), and was called u the Great." He is famous for his re- puted saying, "Je ne suis roi ne due, prince ne comte aussi; je suis le sire de Couci," which became the motto of his house. One of his daughters married the Scottish king Alexander II. IV. Engnerrand VII., the last and most il- lustrious of the house, died near Brusa, Asia Minor, in 1397. He was early left an orphan, his father being killed at Crecy in 1346, and was carried by the victorious English to the court of Edward III., who gave him his daugh- ter in marriage. He returned to Coucy in 1368 and restored his ruined estates. In the war that soon broke out between England and France he remained neutral. He fought for the pope in 1373 against the Milanese. In 1375 he asserted a claim to the possessions of the house of Hapsburg, in right of his mother Catharine of Austria, against his uncle, and gathered an army of vagabonds, with the en- couragement of Charles V. ; but after a cam- paign of unparalleled barbarity in Alsace, he was defeated by a body of Swiss, and his bandit army annihilated. He was subsequently chosen twice by the king to the delicate task of con- ciliating the turbulent Parisians. He fought in Flanders in 1382 and 1383, and in a futile inva- sion of Scotland. In 1390 he went with the duke de Bourbon in the Genoese expedition against Tunis, and in the unsuccessful siege of Afrikeah gained great honor. He was em- ployed on several embassies, and finally was given by the duke of Burgundy a sort of tutelage of his son the count de Nevers, one of the chiefs of the army for the relief of Hun- gary, then attacked by the Turks under Bajazet. Contrary to the judgment of Enguerrand and the other older commanders, a rash attack was made at Nicopolis, and the allied Christian army utterly defeated (Sept. 28, 1396). Enguerrand was taken prisoner, and died in captivity, his estates passing by sale to the house of Orleans. COUGH, a violent expiratory movement, ex- cited by some stimulus in the respiratory or- gans, in which the air is forcibly expelled, car- rying with it the mucus or other products ac- cumulated in the air passages. Any irritation from acrid vapors, liquid or solid foreign bodies, too abundant or morbid secretions, or even the action of cold air on the irritated mucous mem- brane, may produce a cough ; the impression is conveyed to the respiratory nervous centre, the medulla oblongata, by the excitor fibres of the par vagum, and the motor impulse is trans- mitted to the abdominal and other muscles concerned in respiration. Coughing occurs when the source of irritation is in or below the posterior fauces, and sneezing when the irritating cause acts on the nasal mucous mem- brane. The act of coughing, as defined by