cat a chthonic (katakthonik)

[ Profe or Milne of Japan, says the "Atheneum," has established in the Takas him a coal-mine, near Nagasaki, an underground, or, as he prefers to call it, a cat a chthonic , cataclysm (kat'a-klizm), n. [= F. cataclysme observatory. = Science, IV. 266. Sp. It. cataclismo = Pg. cataclysmo , cat a clysmos, κατακλυσμός , a flood, deluge, κατά , down, + κλύζειν, wash, dash, as waves; cf. L. cluere, cleanse.] 1. A deluge or an overflowing of water; a flood; specifically, the Noachian flood.-2. In geol . , an inundation or deluge, or other violent and sudden physical action of great extent, supposed to have been the catacomb efficient cause of various phenomena (as of the deposition of different formations of diluvium or drift) for which the gradual action of moderate currents, or that of ice, is considered to have been inadequate. This war is no accident, but an inevitable result of long incubating causes; inevitable as the cataclysms that sweep away the monstrous births of primeval nature. O. W. Holmes, Old Vol. of Life, p. 82. 3. Figuratively, a sudden or violent action of overwhelming force and extended sweep. In minds accustomed to philosophic thought a change of opinion does not come by abrupt cataclysm , but by gradual development. J. R. Seeley, Nat. Religion, p. 231. Theory of cataclysms, or of catastrophes, also called the doctrine of violent upheavals , the view that there has been in geological time a succe ion of catastrophes which destroyed all living things, and nece itated repeated creative acts to repeople the earth. See catastrophe. cataclysmal (kat-a-kliz'mal), a . [ cataclysm + al .] 1. Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a cataclysm. The question is not yet settled whether they [elevations and subsidences] were of a slow and gradual nature like some now in progre , or whether, like others that have occurred in connection with earthquakes, they may have been rapid and cataclysmal . J. W. Dawson, Nature and the Bible, p. 161. The French Revolution has been so often lifted by sensational writers into the region of cataclysmal and almost superhuman occurrences, that a narrative is especially acceptable which tends to range it among the facts which appeal to our ordinary experience. Westminster Rev. , CXXV. 568. 2. Of or pertaining to cataclysmists; holding the doctrine of violent upheavals: as, the cat aclysmal school of geologists. cataclysmic (kat-a-kliz'mik), a. [ -ic ; = F. cataclysm i que .] Pertaining to, of the nature of, or characterized by cataclysms. In the reign of his [Frederick's] grandnephew, whose evil lot fell on the cataclysmic times of Napoleon. Lowe, Bismarck, I. 43. to clysheie has always been in Geology a tendencriteade grand changes experienced by the earth's crust to extraordinary causes. J. Croll, Climate and Cosmology, p. 11. cataclysm ist (kat-a-kliz'mist), n. [ F. cat a com be = Pr. cathacumba = Sp. catacumba = Pg. catacumba (usually in plural), sepulchral vault, ML. cumba, a tomb of stone: see comb3, coomb.] Originally, the name of a locality near Rome, the "Hollows," in which the church of St. Sebastian, with extensive burial-vaults, was built; but afterward applied to the vaults themselves, and to similar underground burial-places. The most celebrated of these catacomb IMG:content-3254.jpg:[graphic] subterranean vaults are those in and about this spot, the work of the early Christians. They consist of a labyrinth of narrow galleries, from 4 to 5 feet wide, at different lev Catacomb. Tomb of St. Cornel i us, Catacombs of Calixtus, Rome, 3d century. (From Roller's "Cat a combes de Rome.") els, excavated in the soft granular tufa underlying the Campagna. In each wall loculi, or berth-like rece es, contained the bodies of the dead. The entrances to these were closed with slabs of stone, carefully sealed, and marked with inscriptions or rude pictures. In some cases small rooms, called cubicula , were set apart for families of distinction in the church, especially for martyrs. Though d, e, f these catacombs probably served to some extent as places of refuge and concealment for Christians during the earlier persecutions, the original idea of their construction was undoubtedly that they should be used only as burial vaults. The length of the galleries in the Roman catacombs has been variously estimated at from 350 to 900 miles, and the number of bodies there interred is said to be over 6,000,000. Similar underground burial-places are found at Naples, Cairo, Paris, etc. Those of Paris are abandoned quarries extending under a large portion of the city, which were made into a bonery in 1786, when the intramural cemeteries of the city were condemned and the bones were removed thither.