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* CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 176 CAPITO. ing a private vessel. In some States, as ^lichi- gan, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, and Maine, ca])i- tal j)unishiuent has been abolislied. In the States of Xew York and Iowa, the legislatures, having once abolished the death penalty, felt con- strained by the consequent increase of crimes of violence to restore it. Cajjital punisliment has, moreover, been done away with in Holland, Kuniania, and Portugal, and since lS(i3 has been practically abandoned in Belgium. In Switzer- land it was totally abolished in 1874, but owing to a marked increase in the nimiber of murders, the cantons in 187'J recovered the right to re- establish it in their respective territories. Seven cantons again introduced it, although for a iiujiiber of years no death-sentence was passed. In the remaining fifteeji cantons, including more than four-lifths of the population, the death penalty remains totally abolished. In many European countries which still enforce this pen- alty, only a very small per cent, of those con- denmcd are actually executed. The method of "e.xecution is by hanging in Great Britain, Austria, Russia, and the great majority of commonwealths in the United States; by beheading in Germany and France; and in Spain by means of the garrote. Execution by electricity was introduced in Xew York by the law of June 4, 1888; it has been adopted in Massachusetts, and will doubtless extend to most of the States. In military law, owing to the necessity for enforcing strict discipline, capital punishment holds a more important place than in the ordinary criminal code. Consult: Copin- ger. All Essai/ on the Abolition of Capital Punish- ment (London, 1870) ; Berner, Die Abschaffung dcr Todesstrafe (Dresden, 1860) ; Moir, Capital Punishment (London, 1865). See Punishment; Penolooy. CAPITALS. The name applied to letters of larger size tlian the smaller and more usual char- acters of the same value in a font of type. Be- sides differing in size the larger sizes vary some- what in form from the smaller letters, as in B, b; G, g: R, r. Capitals are normally used only at the beginning of words, although in subject-head- ings or other special cases they may be employed throughout. Historically, capitals are older than small letters. The immediate ancestors of the European alphabets, the Greek and Roman let- ters, are not distinguished as to the two classes of letters, all being written alike in large, or majuscule, script. Not only the Greek and Latin inscriptions, but the oldest manuscripts were thus prepared. The same statement holds true still of all Oriental alphabets, in which there is no difference between large and small letters. Grad- nally there were evolved from the capitals, or nia- jusclcs, the small letters, or minuscules. The majuscules, being ill adapted to cursive writing, yielded more and more to the minusciles, which are the sources not only of the small letters, but of the characters employed in handwriting. The use of minuscules gained grinind but slowly, and the distinction between capitals and small let- ters was therefore comparatively late. Gradually, however, after minuscule writing had become the rule, it was thought necessarj' to denote the initial letters of words which were for some reason especially important, as at the beginning of a sentence, by the proper one of the old majus- cules, while the rest of the word, and probal)ly of the sentence, retained minuscule script. In n!anuscripts the capitals »re often richly illu- minated, gilded, or made the centre of a small design, frequently of excellent taste. There is, however, no strict rule as to their employment. The same uncertainty holds in early printed books. In the very oldest the capitals were often represented by a space which was afterwards filled in by hand, as in the case of the manu- scripts, aii<l in later books the capital, though printed, was colored in imitation of the older usage. In the course of time tlie capitals, which originally had been used mainly, altliciugli not exclusively, at the beginning of a section or ])ara- graph, became more frequent. First the initial word of a sentence began with a large letter to call attention to its ini])ortance. Then words within the sentence were treated in the same way. It is noteworthy, however, that it was practically only nouns which were capitalized initially. This usage still survives in Danish and (ierman, which uniformly begin each noun with a capital letter. German, however, is beginning to break away from this rule. English stands in this regard between German and French, with the other Romance languages, Russian, and the like. Each sentence and line of poetry, as well as the first word of a direct quotation, must begin with a capital. Proper names, and all words consid- ered as belonging even temporarily to that cate- gorj-, are similarly treated. This includes names of churches, works of art, religious denomina- tions, societies, and in sporadic instances nouns so strongly individualized as to be practically proper names, and ■ so forth. Examples are. Church of the Transfiguration, Holbein's Head of a Young Man, Mennonites, Liberal League, War of the Rebellion. Titles of books capitalize ini- jiortant words, although library usage departs irom this rule. Capitals are also used in names of months and days and the like, as well as in adjectives derive<l from proper names, in all of which cases French and its cognate languages write the small letter. All names of the Deity and frequently personal pronouns referring to God and Christ begin with capitals. In natural science the names of branches, orders, families, and genera are capitalized, and abbreviations of substantives. exce|)ting weights, measures, and the names of law writs, are written in capital let- ters. In the use of capitals in English, as in other languages, the individual usage of different writ- ers may vary slightly without seriously con- travening the general rules governing the use of this class of letters. CAPITAN, kii'p^-tan' (It., captain). A stock character in old Italian comedy, doubtless a development of the miles gloriosus of the Roman stage. He is a ludicrous blusterer, whose mouth reeks with blood and slaughter, but whose courage fails utterlv when |)ut to the test. CAPITATION (Fr. capitation, Med. Lat. enjiitatitt, numl)ering by heads, from enput, head). . tax levied on all persons as individuals, irrespective of property or occupation, also called poll-tax. ( Sec T.x. j The former term was often used in France for the tax better known as the taille, although this offensive impost was not impor-ed on all alike, the nobility enjoying many exemptions from it. CAP'ITO, .,r KOPFEL, kr.|/f,l, Wolfgaxo Fauhu H s ( 14781.">41 I. A German Protestant