Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/233

* CARBONABI. 193 CARBON COMPOUNDS. the society. Like other secret societies, it sought to dignify itself auJ rationally account for its existence by claiming a high antiquity, but such accounts are fabulous. There is every reason to believe that it originated during the last French regime in Xaplcs. Botta, in his Storia d'llalia, states that under Murat's Government the Mea- politan republicans, haling the French and King Ferdinand equally, escaped into the wild defiles of the Abruzzi, and funned a secret society, nam- ing themselves C'arlionari. The peculiar phrase- ology of the Carbonari is taken from the voca- tion of charcoal-burners. They were wont, for instance, to speak of "clearing the forest of wolves." The "wohes' probably meant at first foreign tyrants; but in the course of time the term was applied to the Xeapolitan Bourbons. Among themselves the initiated were styled 'good cousins.' The various societies do not seem to Lave possessed a common centre, or to have been properly organized for combined action. A place of meeting was- styled baracca, or hut; the ex- ternal neighborhood "the forest' ; and the interior of the hut was the lendita or 'place for selling coal.' A union of several of these "huts' formed a 'republic' The superior "huts' (alte vendite) at Kaples and Salerno endeavored, but without suc- cess, to eflFeet a centralization of the Carbonari. The society, soon after its institution, numbered from 24,000 to 30,000 adherents, and increased so rapidly in Italy, that in ilareh, 1820, it is said as many as 650,000 new members were in- itiated, including considerable numbers of the militai"y and clergy. After the restoration of the Bourbons, several secret political unions were formed in France, which in 1S20 were confederated with the Car- bonari. Paris was made the headquarters of a Carbonarism which, adopting all the sjTubolic phraseology, rules, and regulations of the Italian societies, received from the systematizing genius of the French an organic character which it had never before possessed. The initiated styled themselves hons cou.iins, and spoke of the unini- tiated as pwifani (heathens). Written documents and communications were strictly prohibited, and treachery was punished by assassination. After the July Revolution, several of the leading French Carbonari attached themselves to the new regime, and their society was gradually dis- solved. In its place the new Charbotinerie demo- cratifjue «as founded, having for its object the establishment of a republican government, founded on the principles of Babeuf (q.v.). The endeavors of these new Carbonari to make Paris the centre of all political movements led to the secession of the Italian refugees. Xapo- leon III. in his young republican days was a member of this society, and Charles Albert (q.v.) of Sardinia was persistently charged with being a Carbonaro. Though the Carbonari did some service in the cause of Italian unity by awaken- ing the feeling of patriotism, it is doubtful if the results they accomplished were in proportion to their pretensions and to the vast resources w'hich they commanded. When members were initiated in such large numbers it was inevitable that the fer'or which actuated the original founders of the society should disappear. In the course of time the activity of the Carbonari degenerated into a mere spouting of .sj-mbolic catchwords and the celebration of an awe-inspiring ritual. It was as a revolt against namby-pamby patriotism mixed with nuunmery that Mazzini founded the revolutionary society of Young Italy (q.v.). Consult: Memoirs of the Secret Societies of the South of Italy, Particularly the Carbonari (Lon- don, 1821) ; Heckethorn, The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries (New York, 1897) ; Saint Ednie, Constitution des Carbonari (Paris, 1821) ; Cantd, II conciliatore e i Carbonari (Milan, 1878). CARBONATED or ACID'TJLOTJS WA- TERS. Natural waters containing a large amount of carbonic acid. While the quantity of the latter in spring and well water rarely exceeds S per cent, by volume, its quantity in carbonated waters is usually as great as 30 to CO per cent, and is often much greater. The spring water at Saint-Nectaire in Puy de Dome, France, is .said to contain in every 100 volumes as much as 400 volumes of carbonic acid. The carbonic acid exists in such waters in the free state, but is generally accompanied by either sodium bicar- bonate or iron carbonate. Waters containing sodium bicarbonate are known as carbonated alkaline or acidulous alkaline: such are the fa- mous German mineral sjuings at Altwasser, Pyrmont, Reinerz, Salzbiimn, and Seltzer, as well as the Xavajo and L'te Springs, Manitou, Colo., the Xapa Soda Springs, California, and the Hot Springs, Virginia, in the United States. Waters containing iron carbonate are called car- bonated chalybeate, or acidulous chalybeate; such are the waters of the spring at Irkeston, near Nottingham, in England, as well as the Iron L'te Spring of Manitou, Colo., and the Eawley Springs of Virginia, in the L'nited States. Car- bonated waters are very refreshing and exhil- arating, and may be useful in certain disordered conditions of the stomach; they relieve nausea, and generally increase the discharge of liquid from the system. See Aisbated Watees; Chaly- beate 'aters; and iliNEKAL Waters. CARBONATES. See Cabboxic-Acid Gas. CARBON COMPOUNDS, or Organic Com- pounds. A very large number of chemical sub- stances that form the subject of the science of Organic Chemistry. The reason for tei-ming the compounds of carbon 'organic compounds,' is that many of them could originally be obtained only from the bodies of animals and plants. For the same reason, their fonnation was for a long time supposed to require the agency of life. Since 184.5, however, every year has seen the artificial production of a host of carbon conipounds ; and not only have most of the natural animal and vegetable substances been reproduced artificially, but thousands of compounds have been prepared that are not known to exist ready-formed any- where in nature. It is mainh' on account of their large number that the chemistry of these com- pounds is treated as a brandi distinct from the chemistry of the other elements. There is, how- ever, another reason for this division of tho science. Most of the compounds of carbon con- tain, besides carbon itself, only two or three other elements (hj-drogen, oxygen, nitrogen), and those in relative quantities often the same, or very nearly the same, in different compounds. The cause of the great variety found among the carbon compounds is mainly in the great variety of ways in which the few elements are capable of combining with carbon. The theories of the constitution of carbon compounds are therefore