Anacardium occidentale, Cashew Nut plant, belonging to the nat. ord. Anacardiaceae.
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1. Branch (reduced), bearing flowers |
4. Stamen seperated. |
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the name of cashew apple. By fermentation it yields an alcoholic beverage, from which a spirit for drinking is distilled in the West Indies and Brazil. The stem of the tree yields a gum analogous to gum arabic.
CASHIBO, or Carapache (“bat”), a tribe of South American Indians of Pannoan stock, living in scanty numbers on the west side of the Ucayali, Peru. They are a wild, savage people who have always been foremost in attacks on the Jesuits. They joined Juan Santos in 1744 in the destruction of missions.
CASHIER. (1) (Adapted from the Fr. caissier, one in charge of the caisse, or money-box), one who has charge of the payment or receiving of money in a business house. The “cashier” may be a high executive official of a banking or mercantile house—thus the name of chief cashier of the Bank of England appears on all notes issued during his occupation of the post—or he may be merely a clerk, who receives payment for goods sold, and has the right to give receipts for the same.
(2) (In origin ultimately the same as “quash,” to annul, from Lat. quassare, to dash or break to pieces, a frequentative of quatere, to shake, but also connected in form and meaning with cassare, to make, cassus, empty or void), a military term, meaning originally to disband, and probably adopted from the Dutch in the 16th century. The word in various forms is used in the same sense in most European languages. It is now used in English for the dismissal of a commissioned officer from the army and navy for particularly serious offences, in the words of the Army Act, 1881, s. 16, for “behaving in a scandalous manner unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.” “Cashiering” involves not merely the loss of the commission, but also a permanent disqualification from serving the state in any capacity.
CASH REGISTER, a species of calculating machine adapted for use in connexion with the cash-tills of shops, in order to provide a record of the money received. Such machines are made in great variety and widely used. Sometimes the records are constituted by holes punched in a roll of paper; in other cases they are shown on dials by the aid of adding mechanism. A common form has a number of keys, each representing a particular sum and each attached to a counting mechanism which records how many times it has been used. By pressing appropriate combinations of these keys the amount of any purchase can be registered, and the combined records of all the counting mechanism give the total that has been passed through the machine in any selected period. Each key when pressed also raises an indicator which informs the customer how much he has to pay. In their more elaborate forms these cash registers may have a separate money-drawer for each assistant employed in the shop, thus enabling the proprietor to ascertain how many customers each man has served and how much money he has taken, and also to fix responsibility for mistakes, bad money, &c. The machines are also made to deliver a printed receipt for each purchase, showing the amount, date and assistant concerned, and they may be arranged to keep separate records of credit sales, money received on account, and money paid out.
CASILINUM (mod. Capua), an ancient city of Campania, Italy, 3 m. N.W. of the ancient Capua. Its position at the point of junction of the Via Appia and Via Latina, and at their crossing of the river Volturnus by a three-arched bridge, which still exists, gave it considerable importance under the Roman republic; and while the original pre-Roman town, which was doubtless dependent on the neighbouring Capua, stood entirely on the left (S.) bank, surrounded on three sides by the river, the Roman city extended to the right bank also; remains of it have been found at some 25 ft. below the modern ground-level, the river-bed having risen considerably. In the Second Punic War it was occupied by Fabius Cunctator in 217 B.C., taken by Hannibal after a gallant defence by troops from Praeneste and Perusia in the winter of 216–215, but recaptured in the following year, serving the Romans as their base of operations against Capua. It lost its independence and became a praefectura. Caesar conducted a colony thither in 59 B.C., which was renewed by Antony in 44 B.C. The veterans took Octavian’s side after Caesar’s death, but it seems to have been united with Capua before the time of Vespasian, and it does not occur in the list of independent communities given by Pliny, who indeed (Hist. Nat. iii. 70) speaks of the morientis Casilini reliquiae, and only its position at the junction of the roads redeemed it from utter insignificance. (T. As.)
CASIMIR III., called “The Great,” king of Poland (1310–1370), the son of Wladislaus Lokietek, king of Poland, and Jadwiga, princess of Kalisch, was born at Kowal in Kujavia in 1310. Casimir belongs to that remarkable group of late medieval sovereigns who may be called the fathers of modern diplomacy, inasmuch as they relegated warfare to its proper place as the instrument of politics, and preferred the council-chamber to the battle-field. He was educated at the court of Charles Robert of Hungary, who had married Casimir’s beautiful sister Elizabeth, and who gave his brother-in-law an excellent education under Italian masters. In his youth Casimir was considered frivolous and licentious; while his sudden flight from the field of Plowce, the scene of his father’s great victory over the Teutonic knights, argued but poorly for his personal courage. When, therefore, he ascended the Polish throne in 1333, the future of his country, which then consisted of little more than the lately reunited provinces of Great and Little Poland, seemed dark indeed; especially as she was still at war with the Teutonic Order and with John of Luxemburg, king of Bohemia, who claimed the crown of Poland also. Fortunately Casimir was a man of penetrating genius. His father had been a hero who
