Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/85

 COLOCOTRONIS on the body and limbs, and the tail with par- tial black rings, the. stripes edged with tawny. It is very savage, and commits great havoc among the monkeys and small mammals of COLOGNE 81 Colocolo. Guiana. In its flat and wide head, large round- ed ears, stout limbs, and short tail it somewhat resembles the African serval. COLOCOTRONIS, Theodores, a modern Greek general, born in Messenia, April 3, 1770, died in Athens, Feb. 4, 1843. His father and grandfather both fell fighting against the Turks, and Theodores was habituated from his youth to the hardships of guerilla warfare. In 1806 he was compelled to fly from the Morea in order to escape the Turks, to whom his name had become a terror, and entered the military service of the Ionian Islands. Im- mediately on the outbreak of the revolution in 1821 he landed in the Morea, and was soon at the head of a large band of Greeks. In the two following years he was actively en- gaged in the operations against the Turks, dis- tinguished himself especially at the taking of Tripolitza and Corinth, and contributed greatly to the victory over Mahmoud Dramali in 1822. But instead of bending all his energies toward the achievement of Grecian independence, he engaged in quarrels with his brother chiefs, and at last made open war upon the recognized government. He was unsuccessful in his re- volt, however, and, having been defeated and taken prisoner, was confined on the island' of Hydra. But the Grecian leaders were soon compelled to liberate him, and to place him at the head of affairs in the Morea, in order to satisfy the people of that part of Greece, among whom he was very popular, and to oppose the progress of Ibrahim Pasha. In 1827 he assist- ed to elect Capo d'Istria president of Greece, and was afterward confirmed by him in his command of the Morea. He was a member of the provisional government established after the assassination of that statesman in 1831. Opposed to the regency which was established during the minority of Otho, and detected in a conspiracy against that government, he was condemned to death in April, 1 834. His punish- ment was, however, in consideration of the valuable services he had rendered the state, commuted to imprisonment for 20 years in the citadel of Nauplia ; and Otho on his being de- clared of age in the following year granted him a full pardon, restored him to his old rank as general, and bestowed on him the decora- tion of the order of the Saviour. From this time until his death he lived quietly at Athens, where he composed his "Memorabilia" re- lating to the history of Greece from 1770 to 1836, which were published at Athens in 1851 COLOCYNTH, the fruit of citrullus colocyn- this, a plant of the order cucurbitacea, some- what resembling a small watermelon, and growing in various parts of Asia and Africa. The pulp of the fruit, deprived of rind and seeds, is intensely bitter and powerfully ca- thartic. These properties are due to colo- cynthine, a neutral bitter substance existing in the dried pulp in the proportion of about 14 per cent. Colocynth is used in medicine chiefly in the form of compound extract, hi which it is combined with aloes, scammony, Colocynth. cardamom, and soap. This combination ren- ders its action milder, but not less efficacious. It is still further combined with calomel, jalap, and gamboge, in the compound cathartic pill. A tincture is used in Germany. The unripe fruit is said to be eatable when pickled. A hybrid between the colocynth and the water- melon has been produced in this country, which possesses the bitterness and purgative proper- ties of the former. COLOGNE (German, Kolri), a city of Prussia, capital of the province of the Rhine and of a district of the same name, situated on the left bank of the Rhine, in lat. 50 58' N., Ion. 7 E., 38 m. E. N. E. of Aix-la-Chapelle ; pop. in 1871, 129,233, mostly Roman Catholics. The suburb of Deutz, upon the opposite bank of the Rhine, is connected with it by a bridge of boats and by an iron railway bridge 1,352 ft. long. The city forms a semicircle which rests upon the Rhine, and is surrounded by strong