Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/689

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
CAB—CAB
617

After the subversion of the Government of the terrorists, Cabanis, on the establishment of central schools, was named professor of Hygiene in the medical schools of the metropolis. Next year he was chosen member of the National Institute, and was subsequently appoint 3d clinical professor. He was afterwards member of the Council of Five Hundred, and then of the Conservative Senate. The dissolution of the Directory was the result of a motion which he made to that effect. But his political career was not of long continuance. A foe to tyranny in every shape, he was decidedly hostile to the policy of Bonaparte, and constantly rejected every solicitation to accept a place under his Government.

For some years before his death his health became gradually more impaired, and he retired from the laborious duties of his profession, spending the greatest part of his time at the chateau of his father-in-law at Meulan. Here he solaced himself with reading his favourite poets, and even had it in contemplation to resume that translation of the Iliad which had been the first effort of his youthful muse. The rest of his time was devoted to acts of kind ness and beneficence, especially towards the poor, who flocked from all parts to consult him on their complaints. Cabanis died May 5 1808, leaving a widow and a daughter.

A complete edition of Cabanis s works was begun in 1825, and five volumes were published. One of his minor works, Coup d &il stir les revolutions et les reforines de la medccin, has been translated into English. His principal work, Rapports du physique ct du moral de I hommi, consists in part of memoirs, read in 1796 and 1797 to the Institute, and printed among their Transactions. It is an admirable sketch of physiological psychology, and is replete with information. Psychology is with Cabanis directly linked on to biology, for sensibility, the fundamental fact, is the highest grade of life and the lowest of intelligence. All the intellectual processes are evolved from sensibility, and sensibility itself is a property of the nervous system. The soul is not an entity, but a faculty; thought is the function of the brain. Jiut as the stomach and intestines receive food and digest it, so the brain receives impressions, digests them, and has as its organic secretion, thought. Alongside of this harsh miterialism Cabanis held another principle, the application of which altogether changes his theory. He belonged in biology to the school of Stahl, the vitalist or animist, and in the posthumous work, Lettre sur les causes premieres, the consequences ot this opinion became clear. Life is something added to the organism ; over and above the universally diffused sensibility there is some living and productive power to which we give the name of Nature. But it is impossible to avoid ascribing to this power both intelli gence and will. In us this living power constitutes the ego, which is truly immaterial and immortal. These results Cabanis did not think out of harmony with his earlier theory, and it is possible that a point of view may be attained whence both appear justified. The Lottra was not published till 1824, when it appeared with notes by F. BJrard.

CABARRUS, François (1752-1810), conspicuous in Spanish history as a financier, was born at Bayonne, where his father was a merchant. Being sent into Spain on business he fell in love with a Spanish lady, and marrying her, settled in Madrid. Here his private business was the manufacture of soap ; but he soon began to interest himself in the public questions which were ventilated even at the court of Spain. The enlightenment of the 18th century had penetrated as far as Madrid ; the king, Charles III., was favourable to reform ; and a circle of men animated by the new spirit were trying to infuse fresh vigour into an enfeebled state. Among these Cabarrus became conspicuous, especially in finance. H e originated a bank, and a company to trade with the Philippine Islands; and as one of the council of finance he had planned many reforms in that department of the administration, Avhen Charles III. died (1788), and the reactionary Government of Charles IV. arrested every kind of enlightened progress. The men who had taken an active part in reform were suspected and prosecuted. Cabarrus himself was accused of embezzle ment, and thrown into prison. After a confinement of two years he was released, created a count, and employed in many honourable missions ; he would even have been sent to Paris as Spanish ambassador, had not the Directory objected to him as being of French birth. Cabarrus took no part in the transactions by which Charles IV. was obliged to abdicate and make way for Joseph, brother of Napoleon, but his French birth, and intimate knowledge of Spanish affairs recommended him to the Emperor as the fittest person for the difficult post of minister of finance. In this capacity Cabarrus died (1810). His beautiful daughter Th6r6se, under the name of Madame Tallien (afterwards Princess of Chimay), played an interesting part in the later stages of the French Revolution.

CABATUAN, a town of the Philippine Islands, in the province of Iloilo, in Panay, situated on the banks of the River Tiguin, which changes from an almost empty channel to an impetuous torrent, so that navigation is frequently impossible. The town, which was founded in 1732, has about 23,000 inhabitants, who are principally engaged in the cultivation of rice and the manufacture of cocoa-nut oil. See Bowring s Philippine Islands.

CABAZERA, a town of the Philippine Islands, capital of the province of Cagayan in Luzon, with a population of about 15,000. Tobacco-growing is the most important occupation of the district.

CABBAGE. The parent form of the variety of useful culinary vegetables included under this head is generally supposed to be the wild or sea cabbage (Brassica oleracea), a plant found near the sea coast of various parts of England and continental Europe, although Alph. de Candolle considers it to be really descended from the two or three allied species which are yet found growing wild on the Mediterranean coast. In any case the cultivated varieties have departed very widely from the original type, and they present very marked and striking dissimilarities among themselves. The wild cabbage is a comparatively insignifi cant plant, growing from 1 to 2 feet high, in appearance very similar to the corn mustard or charlock (Sinapis arvensis), but differing from it in having smooth leaves. The wild plant has fleshy, shining, waved, and lobed leaves (the uppermost being undivided but toothed), large yellow flowers, elongated seed-pod, and seeds with conduplicate cotyledons. Notwithstanding the fact that the cultivated forms differ in habit so widely, it is remarkable that the flower, seed-pods, and seeds of the varieties present no appreciable difference.

The late Dr Lindley proposed the following classification for the various forms, which includes all yet cultivated : 1. All the leaf-buds active and open, as in wild cabbage and kale or greens ; 2. All the leaf-buds active, but forming heads, as in Brussels sprouts ; 3. Terminal leaf-buds alone active, forming a head, as in common cabbage, savoys, &c. ; 4. Terminal leaf-bud alone active and open, with most of the flowers abortive and succulent, as in cauliflower and broccoli ; 5. All the leaf-buds active and open, with most of the flowers abortive and succulent, as in sprouting broccoli. The least variety bears the same relation to com mon broccoli as Brussels sprouts do to the common cabbage, Of all these forms there are numerous gardeners varieties, all of which reproduce faithfully enough their parent form by proper and separate cultivation. Under Dr Lindley s first class, common or Scotch kale is a variety which formerly was in extensive cultivation, and is still found in the cottage " kail-yards " or gardens of the Scottish peasantry. It sends up a stout central stem, growing upright to a height of about 2 feet, with close-set, large thick plain leaves of a light red or purplish hue. The lower leaves are stripped off for use as the plants grow up, and used for the preparation of broth or " Scotch kail," a

dish at one time in great repute in the north-eastern