Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/725

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
CAL—CAL
653

Being all condemned to the rack in order to extort confes sion, they appealed to the parliament ; but this body, being as weak as the subordinate magistrates, sentenced the father to the torture, ordinary and extraordinary, to be broken alive upon the wheel, and then to be burnt to ashes ; which diabolical decree was carried into execution on the 9th of March 1762. Pierre Galas, the surviving son, was banished for life ; the rest were acquitted. The distracted widow, however, found some friends, and among them Voltaire, who laid her case before the council of state at Versailles ; and the parliament of Toulouse was ordered to transmit the proceedings. These the king and council unanimously agreed to annul ; the chief magistrate of Toulouse was degraded and fined ; old Galas was declared to have been innocent ; and every imputation of guilt was

removed from the family. See Causes Celelres, torn. iv.

CALASIO, Mario de (1550-1620), a Franciscan, and professor of the Hebrew language at Rome, was born in 1550 at a small town in Abruzzo, from which he took his name. His Concordance of the Bible (which occupied him forty years) was published at Rome in 1621, the year after his death. This work has been highly approved and commended both by Protestants and Roman Catholics, and is indeed an admirable work ; for, besides the Hebrew words of the Bible, which compose the body of the book, with the Latin version over against them, there are in the margin the differences between the Septuagint version and the Vulgate ; so that at one view may be seen wherein the three Bibles agree, and wherein they differ. At the beginning of every article there is a kind of dictionary, which gives the signification of each Hebrew word, affords an opportunity of comparing it with other Oriental languages (Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee), and is extremely useful for determining more exactly the true meaning of the Hebrew words. It has been several times reprinted ; but the original edition is the best.

CALATAFIMI, a town of Sicily, in the province of Trapani and district of Alcamo, about 30 miles from Palermo. It lies between two hills in a fine corn country, and is celebrated for its cattle and its cheese. In one of its churches, Santa Croce, there is a fine altar of mosaic work ; and in the neighbourhood are the extensive and well-preserved ruins of Segesta. On the hill above the town stands the Saracenic castle of Kalat-al-Fimi, from which it derives its name, and about four miles distant is the battle-field on which Garibaldi won his first victory over the Neapolitans on May 15, 1860. Population, 9414.

CALATAYUD, a town of Spain, in the province of Saragossa in Aragon, 45 miles S.W. of the city of that name, in 41 24 N. lat., 1 35 W. long. It stands on the left bank of the River Jalon, near its confluence with the Jiloca, partly on the plain and partly on a rocky slope, which is covered with remains of ancient Moorish fortifica tions. It is generally spacious and well built, and contains several squares, the largest of which is used as the market place, numerous convents, three hospitals, a fort, a pro vincial and municipal hall, an episcopal palace, a college, barracks, a theatre, and a bull-arena ; there are also two colleyiatas, or collegiate churches, both of them handsome edifices, and eleven other parish churches. The principal articles of manufacture are coarse brown paper, leather, and woollen stuffs. The soil of the neighbourhood is fertile and well cultivated. Calatayud is a Moorish city, and receives its name (Job s Castle) from Job the nephew of Musa ; but it stands near the site of the ancient Bilbilis, the birthplace of the poet Martial, and was for the most part built out of its ruins. Population, 9830.

CALCAR, or Kalcker, John de (1499-1546), an eminent painter, born at Calcar, in the duchy of Cleves, in 1499. He was a disciple of Titian at Venice, and perfected himself by studying Raffaelle. He imitated those masters with such success as to deceive the most skilful critics. Among his various pieces is a Nativity, represent ing the angels around the infant Christ, which he arranged so that the light emanated wholly from the child. He died at Naples in 1546.

CALC-SPAR, or Calcareous Spar, is the popular name for certain of the crystalline forms of carbonate of lime or calcite (CaCO 3 ), containing in 100 parts 56 of lime and 44 of carbonic acid. The name includes only the varieties of calcite which belong to the rhombohedral or hexagonal order, to the exclusion of aragonite, which, having the same composition, belongs to the rhombic or right prismatic system, the two minerals forming a striking example of dimorphism. Gale-spar is also the same in chemical com position as marble, limestone, chalk, stalagmitic deposits, tfcc., which are among the most abundant ingredients in the rocky masses of the earth. The primary form of calc-spar is an obtuse rhombohedron, the faces of which are inclined to each other in the terminal edges at an angle of 105 5, and all secondary crystals, however various they may be, tend to break or split up into that primary form. The variety of crystalline forms assumed by the mineral is exceedingly great, upwards of 800 being enumerated, of which 700 have been figured by Count Bournon in his treatise on carbonate of lime. The forms, although thus numerous, fall chiefly under the two heads of rhombo- hedrons, of which Iceland spar is a type, and scalenohedrons, which may be represented by the variety known as dog s- tooth spar. (See Mineralogy.) Pure calc-spar is a transparent, colourless mineral with a vitreous lustre ; its specific gravity is about 2 721 ; and in hardness it is inter mediate between gypsum and fluor-spar, occupying the third place in the standard scale. It is frequently tinted in red, yellow, green, brown, and grey, from the presence of foreign matter. Pure, transparent rhombohedral crystals, obtained by cleavage or otherwise, are distinguished as Iceland spar, on account of the largest and finest crystals being found in that island, or as doubly-refracting spar (German, Doppel- spath), from their exhibiting in the highest degree the double refraction of light. Before the blow-pipe it is reduced to caustic lime, and moistened with hydrochloric or other acid it displays a brisk effervescence. It occurs abundantly in almost all parts of the world, Andreasberg in the Hartz and the Derbyshire lead mines being noted localities for large fine crystals. Magnificent cleavage rhombohedrons are obtained from Iceland, one having been noted which exceeded 6 yards long and 3 yards high. Pro fessor Dana notices one nearly transparent crystal, weigh ing 165 Ib, now in the cabinet of Yale College, found in the Rossie Lead Mine, New York State, and he cites a large number of other localities in the United States where crystals occur. Iceland spar, on account of its high double refracting property, is very extensively employed in optical research. It is most conveniently used in the form of a Nicol s prism, which consists of a long rhomboidal crystal cut obliquely into two equal portions in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the longer diagonal of the base. The two halves are cemented together in their original position with Canada balsam ; and in this condi tion the ordinary ray undergoes total reflection from the prism, whilst the extraordinary ray passes through.

CALCHAS, the most famous soothsayer among the

Greeks at the time of the Trojan war, was the son of Thestor. He foretold to the Greeks the length of time they would be engaged in the siege of Troy, and when the fleet was detained by adverse winds, at Aulis, he explained the cause and demanded the sacrifice of Iphigenia. When the Greeks were visited with pestilence on account of

Chryseis, he disclosed to them the reasons of Apollo's