Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/338

* CASSELL. 288 CASSIANXJS. CASSELL, John ( 1817-65). An English pub- /isher, Ijoin in 2vlanehester, the son of aii inn- keeper. As a temperance lecturer, he wandered to London, where he established hinislf as dealer in tea, coffee, and patent medicines. In 1850 he began to act as publisher of his books, written to diffuse knowledge among the working classes. After carrying through many schemes lie founded the pul)lishing house of Cassell, Fetter & Galpin (18511). CASSIA, kash'a (Lat., from Gk.Kaaaia, Kama, kas^ia, A-((Si(i, cassia, from Heb. ijetsi'oth, cas- sia, from (jutitsa to cut). A name given by the ancients to a kind of fragrant medicinal bark. Cassia is also the botanical name of a genus of plants of the natural order Leguminosa;, contain- ing many species, more than 200 having been described as trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, natives of Africa and of the warm parts of Asia and America. They have abruptly pinnate leaves, and flowers w"ith deciduous calyx of five somewhat unequal sepals and corolla of five petals. The leaves and pods of many species have a peculiar sweetish but nauseous smell, and a nauseous, bitter taste. They contain a purgative principle, and the leaves of some of the Asiatic and African species are highly valued and are mucli used as a medicine under the name of senna, the species Cassia acutifolia and Cas- sia angustifoUa supplying the best. The leaves of Cassia Uaryhmdica possess similar properties, and are now used to some extent in the United States. Cassia fistula yields the cassia-pods, is a large tree, a native of Eg-pt and other parts of Africa, perhaps also of the East Indies, where it is widely diffused and cultivated, as well as in the West Indies and in the warm parts of America. Its pods, which have obtained for it the name of pudding-pipe tree, are sometimes two feet in length, cylindrical, black, consisting of thin, brittle woody valves, within which is a cavity divided by nuinerous thin transverse par- titions, each ceil containing a single seed im- bedded in a soft black pulp. It is this pulp that is the part used in medicine : it has a sweetish • mucilaginous taste, and in small doses acts as a mild laxative. It is sometimes removed from the pods when fresh, or an extract is obtained after they are dried, by boiling and evaporating. It is said to contain 61 to 6!) per cent, of sugar. The cassia-pods of the West Indies contain much more pulp, and are therefore more valuable, than those imported from the East. Cassia-bark, or cassia-wood, sometimes called China cinnamon, is a bark very similar to cinnamon both in ap- pearance and properties: it comes, however, in thicker pieces and less closely quilled, and has a less sweet and delicate but more pungent flavor. It is the product of the Cinnumomum cassia or arumaticiitii, a tree of the same genus with the cinnamon-tree, a native of China and extensively cultivated there. It is highly es- teemed by the Chinese, and is now largely im- ported into Europe. As it contains a greater proportion of essential oil. and is also much cheupcrthantniecinnamon.it is much more gen- erally used. The oil which it contains is called oil of cassia, and is very similar to oil of cinna- mon. Coarse cinnamon is sometimes sold as cassia. Cassia-buds are believed to be the dried flower-buds of the same tree which yields cassia- bark. They are now imported into the United States in large quantities, and arc much used in confectionery. In flavor and other qualities they resemble cassia-bark; in appearance they are very similar to cloves. CAS'SIAN GENS. A Roman patrician clan, which bccuiuc ]:ilcbcian and was esteemed among the most prominent of Rome. But one patrician member *of the gens is mentioned, Spurius Cas- sius 'iscelliiius, consul n.c. 502. Under the Re- public the family names are Hemina, Longinus, Rarmensis, Ravilla, Sabaco, Varus, and Viscel- linus. CAS'SIA'NTJS, Johannes, also called Johan- nes JIas>iliensis, or Johannes Eremita (c.360- C.435 ). A teacher of the ancient Church. He was born jirobably in I'rovence. He received a good education, went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and became a monk at Bethlehem; then removed to Kgyjit. and lived there as an ancho- rite from 385 to 400. In the latter year he went to Constantinople, and there was made a deacon by Chrysostom. After the exile of the latter he vent to Rome to lay the case before the bishop, Innocent I. (405). and lived in Rome for some years. He next is found in Marseilles, where he established a monastery for monks and a con- vent for nuns, and there died. His monastery was afterwards known as that of Saint Victor, of which the present Church of Saint Victor is the relic. It served as a model to a multitude of monastic institutions in Gaul and Spain. He also employed his pen in the promotion of nio- nasticism. and his great work, dating from 420, and one which has been strongly influential, is The Instilulcs of the Cwtwhia, and the Remedies for the Eit/ht Principal Faults, in twelve books, four on the monastic nile and eight on the sins against which the monks had to contend — glut- tony, incontinence, covet ousness, anger, dejection, distress of heart, vainglory, pride. His seccmd chief work is his twenty-four Conferences with various eminent monks upon monastic interests and the vexed questions of theology. It is the supplement to the Institutes. Cassianus's Grecian erudition, and his dislike of dogmatic subtleties, led him to take part in two doctrinal controversies. He wrote The Incar- nation of the Lord, against Nestorius, and in it pointed out the connection between Xestorianism and Pelagianism. Deeming that Saint Augustine had gone too far in his theory of irresistible grace, he utilized one of his Conferences to set forth his view that the grace of God always co- operates with our will for its advantage. This view certainly was an apjiroach to that of I'ela- gius, and later was called semi-Pelagianism. (See Pel.gi. ism.) As it gained support from the Massilian monks. Saint Augustine, having been informed of it by his friend. Prosper of Aquitaine, wrote strongly against it in his trea- tises The Predestination of the Saints and The dift of Perseverance. The distinction has been thus wittily expressed: Saint .ugustine regards the natural man as dead, Pclagius as sound and well, and Cassianus as sick. Cassianus's works, which are all in Latin, ap- peared for the first time in entirely satisfactory fonn edited by JI. Petschenig (2 vols., Vienna, 1886-88). and in English, translation by E. C. S. Gibson, in Vol. XI. of the ^ieene and PostSicene Fathers. 2d series (London and New York. 1884), except that certain parts are untranslated, bo-
 * )ipe cassia, or purging cassia, of the shops. It