remains of the Gallo-Roman period sufficiently attest. It is frequently mentioned in the wars of the Middle Ages, and was the scene of important battles in 1071, 1328, and 1677. In 1771 General Vaudanime was born in the town.
Population in 1872, 3250.CASSIA BARK is the aromatic bark derived from various species of Cinnamomum other than C. zeylanicum, which is the source of the true cinnamon of commerce. The greater part of the supply coming from China, it is some times termed Chinese cinnamon. The tree or trees which yield the Chinese supplies are very extensively cultivated throughout the southern provinces of that empire, and grow with little call for attention in situations unsuited for other forms of cultivation. From various species of Cinuamomum, cassia is also obtained in Northern India and Nepal, in Java, Borneo, Sumatra, and the Philippine Islands. The bark is imported into England in bundles, which are from 1 foot to 18 inches in length, and weigh about 1 lb. The bundles consist of quills of bark from half an inch to an inch in diameter, generally single, rarely double. The bark is much thicker than that of true cinnamon ; the taste is more pungent and the flavour less delicate, though somewhat .similar to that of cinnamon. A large quantity of thick, woody bark, of inferior quality, is now imported under the name Cassia vera, or Wild Cassia. The properties of cassia bark depend on the presence of a volatile oil the oil of cassia, which is imported in a pretty pure state as an article of commerce /rom Canton. Cassia bark is in much more extensive demand on the Continent of Europe than in Great Britain, being preferred to cinnamon by Southern nations. Both oil and bark are useful in medicine ; but their chief use is for flavouring liqueurs and chocolate, and in cooking generally. When ground as a spice it is difficult to distin guish cassia from cinnamon, and it is a common practice to substitute the cheap common spice for the more valuable article. The adulteration may be detected by the behaviour of a decoction in presence of iodine, which, in the case of cinnamon, produces little effect, but with cassia strikes a deep blue colour. Cassia Buds, which have a pleasing cinnamon flavour, are the immature fruits of the tree or trees which yield Chinese cassia. They are brought in considerable quantities from Canton, and used as a spice and in confectionery. Some confusion occasionally arises from the fact that Cassia is the generic name of an extensive genus of leguminous plants, which, in addition to various other medicinal products, is the source of the senna leaves which form a most important article of materia medica.
CASSIANUS, Joannes Eremita, or Joannes Massiliensis, a celebrated recluse, and one of the first founders of monastic institutions in Western Europe, was probably born about 3GO, and is supposed to have died about the year 448. The place of his nativity has been much disputed, but he spent the early part of his life in the monastery of Bethlehem, with his friend Germanus. In company with that monk he visited Egypt, and dwelt for several years among the ascetics of the desert near the banks of the Nile. In 403 he repaired to Constantinople, where he received ordination as deacon from the hands of Chrysostom. At Marseilles he founded two religious societies a convent for nuns, and the abbey of St Victor, which during his time is said to have contained 5000 inmates. In later times his regulations enjoyed a high repu tation, and were adopted by the monks and nuns of Port Royal. He was eventually canonized ; and a festival in his honour long continued to be celebrated at Marseilles on the 25th of July. Cassianus was one of the first and most prominent of the Semi-Pelagians, a sect who rejected the Augustinian positions that man, since the fall of Adam, is by nature wholly worthless and incapable of even right desire, and that everything holy in him is the Divine gift, bestowed without reference to any merit, or even wish, on his part ; but did not assert, with Pelagius, that man is born perfectly pure, and that the exercise of his free-will is sufficient to secure salvation. Cassianus maintained that while man is by nature sinful, he yet has some good remaining in him, and that, while the immediate gift of God s grace is necessary to salvation, conversion may also be commenced by the exercise of man s will. He further asserted that God is always willing to bestow his grace on all who seek it, though, at the same time, it is true that he sometimes bestows it without its being sought. These views have been held by a very large part of the church from his time, and embrace much of the essence of Arminianism. The style of Cassianus is careless and even slovenly, and displays no marks of literary polish, but its direct simplicity is far superior to the rhetorical conceits and affectations which disfigure most of the writings of that age. He has left Collationes Patrum, or conferences of the fathers of the desert ; De Institutione Coenobiorum, in twelve books, of which the first part gives an account of the Eastern monasteries, and the second contains discourses on the eight worst sins ; and seven books upon the Incarnation, in confutation of the Nestorian heresy. The first edition of his collected works is that of Basel, 1559 ; the best are those of Frankfort, 1722, and of Leipsic, 1733, which contain commentaries by Gazet.
See G. F. Wiggers, De Joanne Cassiano Massiliensi, Eostock,1824, 1825 ; and Gett ken, Historia Scmipclagianismi, Gottingen, 1826.
CASSINI, the name of a family of distinguished as tronomers, who succeeded one another as directors of the Observatory at Paris for four generations.
Giovanni Domenico Cassini, the first and most famous, was born at Perinaldo, near Nice, on 8th June 1G25, and died on 14th September 1712. He was educated by the Jesuits of Genoa, among whom he gained some reputation as a writer of Latin verse. His study of astronomy was introduced by a fancy for astrology ; but, notwithstanding the success of several of his predictions, he became convinced of the baseless character of the art, and thenceforth gave himself entirely to the pursuit of the science, in which, at the age of twenty-five, he had made so much progress that he was appointed professor of astronomy in the University of Bologna. Here he made the observations on the comet of 1652 which formed the subject of his first book; in this he denied that comets are free from subjection to law, and explained them as the result of a mixture of exhala tions from the earth and from the stars. About this time he gave a good deal of attention to experiments on the transfusion of blood, and on the habits and structure of insects. Five years later he had an opportunity of dis playing his ability, as a man of business, on the occasion of a dispute between Bologna and Ferrara caused by the inundations of the Po ; and his success was such that he was asked to continue to act as the representative of the Bolognese. He was also, soon after, appointed to take charge of the repairing of Fort Urban ; and already he had gained the patronage of the Pope, Alexander VII. Clement IX., too, valued him so highly that it was only on condition that he should return to Italy after two or three years that he would consent to his accepting Colbert s offer of the directorship of the Observatory at Paris. Cassini, however, became attached to his new situation, was naturalized, and married a French lady. On 14th September 1671, he commenced his observations; and his discoveries soon made him the best known astronomer in Europe, and gained him a reputation of an extravagant character. See Astronomy, vol. ii.
