Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/551

* CHAMELEON. 473 CHAMID^. rounding objects. It may dt'pcnd in part on the action of light; it is certainly connected with the fear and other passions of the creature. Milne Kdwards has discovered that it depends upon the presence of two dift'crcntly colored layers of pigment unilcnicatli a transparent skin. Both may show simultaneously, or Idend, or one may replace the other. This power of changing color is possessed by many lizards, and is explained more fully under ifEiwcuRosis. One species (Chamwieon viilf/aris) is found wild along the European shore of the Arediterranean, and is often made captive. Antorirnn Vhnmcleotis are the snull. slender lizards of the iguanid genus Anolis. very com- mon throughout tropical America and represent- ed in the southern I'nited States by a single species {Anolis principalis), often also called 'scorpion.' It is 3 to 3^^ inches long in body, with a tail 5 to G inches long. Below it is white, above emerald-green, or the color of any natural object upon which it rests. Beneath the capacious mouth is a large dewlap, which "can be vertically expanded like a fan, when it is of a deep-red shade, or may be retracted so as to be scarcely visible." They are extremely active during the warm hours of the day, and extremely amusing as they dart and scramble about bushes, rocks, or buildings in search of insects, of which they destroy a vast number. In .lamaica and the Antilles they are often household pets. A close- ly allied tropical species is illustrated on the Colored Plate of Lizakds. CHAMELEON. A southern constellation within tlie Antarctic polar circle. CHAMFER (OF. chamfrein, chant f rain, of uncertain origin). In architecture, an angle or arris which is obliquely beveled or cut off is said to be chamfered. The chamfer is sometimes a concave or hollow chamfer; when it does not extend over the entire length of the arris it is called a stopped chamfer. It was most used in medi;T>val architecture, and in Gothic buildings it is greatly varied and decorated. CHAMFORT, sbax'for', S£b.stiex Roch Nicolas (1741-94). A French epigrammatist, the best talker of his generation in France. He was born in Auvergne, an illegitimate child, was educated on a scholarship in Paris, and achieved a distinction in classic studies that led him in after-years to write, "What I learned I have forgotten. The little that I do loiow I have guessed." He left school to become an abbe, "a costume, not a profession," he said, adding when offered a benefice that he "|)refcrred honor to honors." For the moment, however, he got neither. Booksellers declined his books, and for a year he lived by writing other people's sermons and on chance journalistic crumbs. Then he won an academic prize and became the fashion in the literary salons, where he led a life of gallantry from which he had pn^sently to seek rest and re- cuperation at Spa and elsewhere. Returning, he wrote a successful drama, ha jeunc Indienne (1764). He made a living, scanty to be sure, more by his tongue than liy his pen, paying for his entertainment by the entertainment that he gave to his hosts, especially Madame llelvctius, and C'habanon, who resigned to him a pension of 1200 livres on the Mercure dc France. Occasion- ally he won academic prizes, as by his eulogies on Molifere and I.afontaine. But with every epi- gram his reputation grew. The King added 120O livres to his pension and the Prince dc Condc uuule liim his secretary, a post that he found uncongenial to his bohemianism. lie withdrew to Auteuil. and married a clever woman of forty- eight, who died six months after. Then he went to Holland, but returned to accept a seat in the Academy in 1781. An unfortunate and mysterious love affair so(jn made him quit the Court forever, but he gathered about him at the house of M. do Vaudreuil a congenial circle, which included Mirabeau, whom Chamfort help- ed with his orations. He worked actively for the licvolution with tongue and pen, for a time a.s .secretary of the .lacobin Club and as street ora- tor. He was with the stormers of the Bastille. But with the fall of the Oinindists his political life ended and his criticisms of the Terrorists soon made them anxious to silence his bitter tongue with the guillotine. This he escaped by suicide with dagger and pistol. He did not die immediately, liowever, but lived to bequeath to the world two final epigrams. "I declare," he dictated to the police who came to arrest him and signed with his blood, "that I wished to die free rather than be led slave to prison." To Abbe Sieves, who owed his political fortune to Chamfort's epigram on the Third Estate, "It is everything and has nothing," he said, as his last word, "I am going at last from a world where the heart must either break or turn to bronze." Xo writing of Chamfort's is worth recalling save his aphorisms {Maxiines et pensces), which, after those of La Rochefoucauld, are the keenest and most incisive, the most pregnantly cynical of modern literatu're. They are restrained in ut- terance, violent in implication, subtle in manner, iconoclastic in effect. Chamfort's Works form five volumes (1824-2.5) ; his select Works (1852) have a critical preface by Houssaye. Consvilt : Sainte - Beuve, Causeries du lundi, Vol. IV. (Paris, 1857-62) ; and Pelisson, Chamfort, Etude siir sa vie, son caractere et ses Merits (Paris, 1895). CHAMFRON, or CHAMPFRAIN (Fr. chaiifrcht. of uncertain nriiiin). A frontlet of metal, forming part of the armor worn by a charger in late niedi;Eval times. It protected the forehead, eyes, and nostrils, and was frequently provided with a projecting spike. It came into use about the beginning of the Fourteenth Cen- tury. In the Fifteenth Century the chamfron was sometimes adorned with precious metals and became an object of great cost. To prevent shying in tourneys, the chamfron was often made so that the horse could see nothing in front of him. CHAMID.a:, kam'i-d§ (Neo-Lat. nom. i>l., from Ck. jo/i'tii', c/iaiHeiH, to gape) . A group of curious marine Pelecypoda. allied to the genus Cardita. and having shells with unequal valves, that exhibit a tendency to spiral development of the beaks. In the recent forms, and many of the fossil rei)resentatives, which are far more numer- ous than those now living, one of the valves is attached to some supporting object by direct cementation of the outer wall of the valve, and there is usually a considerable thickness of the shell-wall of this valve. The only living genus, Cliama, is less different from the normal clam form, as seen in Cardita, than are its numerous fossil relatives from the Mesozoic and Tertiary rocks. Chama has a shell of which the larger