COBURG 37 leversed, whence it is sometimes called the spectacle snake. The common name is, however, the Portuguese one, Cobra, C. capella, C. de or di capello. It is from two to four or even six feet long, is com- mon in India, and is so venomous that it cocco COBRA causes the death of more people than does the tiger. Notwithstanding this, it is kept in various temples, fed with milk and sugar, and worshiped. COBURG, a thin fabric of worsted and cotton, or worsted and silk, twilled on one side, for ladies' dresses, intended as a substitute for merino. COBURG, the name of a family in Germany, dating from the 5th century, noted for intermarriages with royal houses, especially during the 19th cen- tury. A sister of Duke Ernest I. be- came Duchess of Kent and mother of Queen Victoria; the duke's brother Leo- pold became King of the Belgians, and married in succession daughters of George IV. of England and of Louis Philippe; one of his nephews, Ferdinand, married the Queen of Portugal, and was regent of that kingdom, 1853; another, August, married a daughter of Louis Philippe; one of his sons, Duke Ernest 11., declined the crown of Greece, 1863, and another. Prince Albert, was the hus- band of his cousin. Queen Victoria, of England. COBURG PENINSULA, a peninsula on the N. coast of Australia in the northern territory of South Australia. COBURN, FOSTER DWIGHT, an American agriculturalist and public of- ficial, born in Jefferson co.. Wis., in 1846. He was educated in the common schools. After serving in the Civil War he be- came a farmer and stock raiser in Frank- lin CO., Kan. In 1882 he was secretary of the Kansas Department of Agricul- ture and from 1894 to 1914 was editor of the Kansas City "Live-Stock In- dicator." He was chief of the depart- ment of live stock at the St. Louis Ex- position and was for many years a re- gent of the State Agricultural College. He was one of the foremost authorities in agricultural matters in the United States. In 1906 he was appointed United States Senator from Kansas, but declined the appointment. He served as chair- man of the Draft Appeal Board of the 1st district of Kansas, in 1917. His works include: "Swine Husbandry"; "The Book of Alfalfa"; "Swine in America," and over 30 volumes on agri- culture published by the State of Kansas. COBWEB, the web or network spun by spiders to catch their prey. COCA, the dried leaf of Erythroxylon Coca, a shrub, 4-8 feet high, growing wild in Peru, and cultivated there on the Andes, between 2,000 and 5,000 feet high. It is used chiefly by the Peruvian miners, who chew its leaves mixed with the ashes of Chenopodium qninoa. It is said to give them great power of enduring fa- tigue on a scanty supply of food. The officinal preparation in the United States is fluid extract of coca. COCAINE, an alkaloid obtained from the leaves of coca. A new and most im- portant discovery to the medical profes- sion was made in 1884, through pure ac- cident, by a German student who had occasion to experiment with hydrochlo- rate of Cocaine. Getting some by acci- dent in his eye, he was amazed to find that it caused the surface to become in- sensible to all feeling. The remedy has already been widely employed by oph- thalmic surgeons, with brilliant results. Nor has its use been confined to the eye. When applied locally to the interior of the larynx, to the ear (in severe neu- ralgia), and to other delicate membranes, its effect is the same; pain and irrita- bility are relieved, and the surgeon is en- abled to accomplish his purpose without causing any suffering in cases where general anaesthesia is not desirable. Co- caine is one of the drugs most commonly employed by drug addicts, and its sale is carefully safeguarded in most States. See Drug Addiction. COCCO, coco ROOT, or EDDOES. plants of the genus Colocasia, and of the nearly allied genus Caladhtyn, of the or- der A)rtceie, widely cultivated in trop- ical and subtropical countries for their ediblo starchy root-stocks, of which the
