Cats/eye

( Min. ) A very hard precious stone, semitransparent, and, when cut in a particular way, presenting a chatoyant appearance; that is, when turned, it displays several colors in succe ion, like the opal. It derives its name from the similar property in the eye of the cat. The true or Oriental C. is found in Ceylon and Brazil, and is highly esteemed. There is a quartz C., of little value, found in Ceylon and at Hof, Bavaria. The tiger-eye variety is found in the Orange river region, S. Africa. It is plentiful and inexpensive. True C. is a variety of chrysoberyl, the variation in the ray of light being due to the twinned structure of the crystal or to contained impurities. Cat'tle Plague. See RINDERPEST. Cau'dine Forks. ( Hist . ) In the valley of Claudium in the A pennines, now called the Val D'Arpaja, the Romans under Veturius and Postumius, were completely surrounded by the Samnites in the spring, B. C. 321. Half their number were cut to pieces on the spot, and the remainder capitulated to the Samnite general, C. Pontius, and were compelled to pa under the yoke. The treaty of peace was, however, rejected by the Roman Senate, B. C. 320. The name of the pa into which the Roman army had been allured was Furculæ Caudinæ. According to Livy (b. ix. 2), it consisted of two narrow defiles, which opened into a plain, surrounded, excepting at these outlets, by mountains. The Romans advanced through the first defile, and found the second blocked up to oppose further progre , and their vigilant enemy at once closed the one through which they had entered. Hence retreat was impo ible. Causerie ( kaws -ree'), n. [Fr. causor , reason.] Informal, unstilted conversation or criticism; free and unconventional discu ion of historical or literary subjects, . Cau'tery, Electric or Galvano. In this form of C. the hot iron formerly employed is replaced by a platinum wire, heated to the required temperature by a galvanic current. It has largely taken the place of cauterizing irons. In its employment a special battery is used, having strong electric quantity. The knife or needle of platinum has an attached mechanism by which the circuit may be closed or broken at will, while the temperature may be increased, if desired, from a dull red to a white heat. The ease of its application and complete control of the temperature gives great value to this method, which is coming into very general use. For the purpose of removing internal tumors, ., the wire is formed into a hoop, and charged with the current after being placed in position, thus doing the work of the knife, while the flow of blood is checked by the cauterization of the severed parts. Cave, Continued from SECTION I, page 545. whose walls are composed of balsatic columns. Caves are also formed in lava, in cases where the crust has solidified while the liquid lava flowed out below, thus leaving a long underground tunnel, with black stalactites of lava depending from its roof. Extensive caves formed in this way, some of them over 100 feet wide, exist in the Azores, the Canary Islands, Iceland, and other volcanic regions. Many caves are of interest to geologists from their containing a detritus of clay, sand, gravel, ., within which are imbedded the bones of extinct animals, and occasionally the weapons and implements of man. These are known as bone caves (q.v.). Among the most famous of fo il-bearing caves in this country is that at Port Kennedy, Pennsylvania. In England are Kent's C. and Brixam C. , each of which has yielded human implements, while various similar caves exist on the continent of Europe. Many of these caves seem to have been the haunts of carnivorous animals, which dragged thither the bodies of their prey; and some of them seem afterward to have been used as human abodes for very long periods, if we may judge by the depth of the detritus in which traces of human occupation are formed, this being in turn often thickly covered with stalagmite.- Cave Animals. Among the various animals which dwelt in caves in the early human period were several carnivora, occasionally considerably larger in size than their modern representations. One of these was a large bear, Ursus spelsæus , or the C. bear, whose bones are found very abundantly in the Pleistocene caves of Europe. A ociated with it was Hyæna spelsea , no longer found in Europe, but resembling Hyæna crocuta of Africa. Felis spelsea , a fo il lion, very similar to the modern lion, was at that time an abundant tenant of the caves of Europe and Britain. The modern animal inhabitants of caves are of special interest from the fact that they are partly or wholly blind, while closely related to surface animals po e ed of vision. The eyes seem to have degenerated from disuse, or because no longer of utility and therefore lost through the action of natural selection. Of C. fauna that of Mammoth C. has been most studied. The animals found here include an amphibian Proteus , with embryonic eyes; several blind fish, such as Amblyopsis , Typhlichthys, .; hundreds of blind insects, of which, in some cases, only the females are blind; blind spiders and negriapods; numerous blind crustaceans; a few univalve mollusks, and other forms. This blindne exists in various degrees. Some of these animals are destitute of any trace of eyes, and others po e eyes in a rudimentary state; and many forms with well developed eyes inhabit caves, covering most of the orders of animal life above mentioned. It is thought probable that this retention of vision is due to their having inhabited caves for a comparatively brief period. -Cave Men. In all ages men seem to have sought shelter in natural caverns, and have frequently exсаvated artificial caverns as places of abode. During the palæolithic, or old-stone, period of human existence in Europe, caves, so far as we know, were the only abodes of men, who have left there numerous traces of their presence in the debris with which the floors are often deeply covered, there being occasionally 20 to 30 feet of succe ive layers of clay, pebbles, charcoal, and stalagmite, which contain articles of human manufacture which aid us in gaining some knowledge of the customs and condition of their inhabitants. Wild beasts usually chose dark and narrow caverns for their lairs. Men, on the contrary, made their dwellings in those of wide! entrances, high roofs, and shallow depth, admitting freely light and air, being often rather rock shelters than caves. Caves of this character have been investigated in Southern Belgium, along the valley of the Mense, and in that of the Vezère, a branch of the Dordogue,, in Southern France. One of the first examined was at Aurignac, in France In England, Kent Cavern is the most noted, while various others have been investigated. Similar caves have been found in Spain and Switzerland; and in southern France, near Mentone, is a cavern which has yielded a striking fo il skeleton of man. The antiquity of those C. dwellers is shown by the fact that many of the animals then living in Europe are now extinct. Among those were the C. bear and hyena, the sabre-toothed tiger, the woolly rhinoceros, and the mammoth, a huge, hairy elephant, long since vanished. Other animals now living, but not in that locality, were the reindeer and musk-ox, creatures belonging to an Arctic climate. There was a small species of horse, which seems to have been used only for food, while the dog, so long man's companion, was not known. There is an abundance of fish bones, but few of those of birds, showing that while the fishing art was known, there were no weapons suited to securing flying animals. Fire was used, and the C. dwellers cooked their food, but their arts were very crude. They had no pottery, and had not learned how to bore or polish stone. Their implements were made of chipped stones, horn, bone, and doubtle of wood, though no trace of the latter remains. They have left us arrow and lance-heads, knives, scrapers, and gouges of flint, many of them of fine workmanship. Bone needles and awls indicate that they wore skin clothing. Perforated shells and bored pieces of ivory were probably worn as ornaments, while the artistic skill of the C. men is shown by figures cut or scratched on pieces of bone and horn, some of these representing with much fidelity the outlines of fishes, deer, horses, and men, and even the great mammoth, now extinct,. The skeletons of the C. men have been in some instances preserved. Those found at Cromagnon, in the south of France, belonged to a tall and powerful race, nearly 6 feet high, and strongly built. Those found in the Belgian caves, on the contrary, indicate a much smaller race, but symmetrical in body, and with well-shaped heads. as Ce'dar. ( Bot . ) The common name of various trees, but more especially applied to the Cedar of Lebanon, follows:-C., BARBADOS. Juniper us barb a dens is. -C., BASTARD BARBADOS. Cedrela odorata, also called the Sweet-scented Barbados Cedar.-C., BASTARD. Gauzuma ulmifolia ; also a common name for Cedrela .- C . , BERMUDA. Juniper us Bermudiana.-C., GUIANA. Icica alti ima.-C., HONDURAS. Cedrela odorata.- C ., INDIAN, Abies (or Cedrus) deodara .-C., JAPAN. Cryptomeria japonica.-C., MOUNT ATLAS. Abies atlantic a.-C., OF GOA. Cupre us lusitanica .- C . OF LEBANON. Abies Cedrus , often called Cedrus Libani.- C . OF N. S. WALES. Cedrala australis.-C., PRICKLY. Cyathodes Oxycedrus.-C., RED. Juniper us virgin i an a ; of Australia: Cedrela australis.C., SHARP. Juniper us Oxycedrus.-C., STINKING. Torreya toxifolia .-C., VIRGIN I AN. Juniper us virgin i an a.C., WHITE, Cupre us thyoides; of Australia: Melia australis; of B. Guiana: Icica alti ima; of Dominica: Bignonia leucoxylon . Cedar Apples. ( Bot . ) The Pennsylvania name of the curious excrescences on Juniper us virgin i an a , caused by a fungus called Podisoma macropus . Celestial Sphere. The seeming spherical surface of the sky upon which all celestial objects appear to us to be projected. It is cro ed by systems of imaginary circles to fix the positions of stars upon its surface by means of spherical co-ordinates.