141 many others entirely unknown at present. The building China. of bridges indeed was once a luxurious folly of the emperors; so that they were multiplied from whim or caprice, without any necessity, and without use. Still, however, many of them are extremely beautiful and magnificent. The arches of some are very lofty and acute, with easy stairs on each side, the steps of which are not quite three inches in thickness, for the greater facility of ascending and descending; others have no arches, but are composed of large stones, sometimes 18 feet in length, placed transversely upon piles like planks. Some of these bridges are constructed of stone, marble, or brick; others of wood; and some are formed of a certain number of barks joined together by very strong iron chains. These are known by the name of floating bridges, and several of them are to be seen on the large rivers Kiang and Hoang-ho. For several centuries the Chinese have made no pro- Ship-buildgress in ship-building. Their vessels have neither mi- ing. zen, bowsprit, nor top-mast. They have only a main and fore-mast, to which is sometimes added a small topgallant-mast. The main-mast is placed almost in the same part of the deck as ours; but the fore-mast stands much farther forward. The latter is to the former in the proportion of two to three; and the mainmast is generally two-thirds of the length of the vessel. They use mats for sails, strengthening them with whole bamboos equal in length to the breadth of the sail, and extended across it at the distance of a foot from one another. Two pieces of wood are fixed to the top and bottom of the sail; the upper serves as a sail-yard; and the lower, which is about five or six inches in thickness, keeps the sail stretched when it is necessary to hoist or lower it. This kind of sail may be folded or unfolded like a screen. For caulking their vessels they do not use pitch, but a particular kind of gum mixed with lime, which forms a composition of such excellent quality, that one or two wells in the hold are sufficient to keep the vessel dry. They have not yet adopted the use of pumps, and therefore draw up the water with buckets. Their anchors are made of the hard wood called iron wood, which they say is much superior to the metal, because the latter sometimes bend, but the former never do. China. 140 Bridges. that of the Greeks or Romans; but has nevertheless Almost all the houses and buildings in China are A multiplicity of bridges is rendered necessary in China by the vast number of canals and rivers which intersect the empire. Anciently, however, the Chinese bridges were much more ingenious as well as magnificent than they are at present. Some of them were so contrived that they could be erected in one day to supply the place of others which might happen to be broken down, or for other purposes. At that time they had bridges which derived their name from their figure; as resembling the rainbow; draw-bridges, bridges to move with pulleys, compass-bridges, &c. with The Chinese pretend to have been the first inventors of the mariners compass, but seem to have little inclination to improve such an important instrument; however, they are expert in manoeuvring a vessel, and make excellent coasting pilots, though bad sailors in an open See CHINA, SUPPLEMENT. sea. CHINA-Root, in the Materia Medica, the root of a species of SMILAX, brought both from the East and West Indies; and thence distinguished into oriental and occidental. Both sorts are longish, full of joints, of a pale reddish colour, with no smell, and very little taste. The oriental, which is the most esteemed, is considerably harder, and paler-coloured than the other. Such should be chosen as is fresh, close, heavy, and upon being chewed appears full of a fat unctuous juice. It is generally supposed to promote insensible perspiration and the urinary discharge, and by its unctuous quality to obtund acrimonious juices. China-root was. first brought into Europe in the year 1535, and used as a specific against venereal and cutaneous disorders.. Chion Chippi Chione. CHINA-Ware. See PORCELAIN. CHINCA, a sea-port town in Peru in South America, situated in an extensive valley of the same name, in W. Long. 76. o. S. Lat. 13. 0. CHINCOUGH, a convulsive kind of cough to which children are generally subject. See MEDICINE Index. CHINESE, in general, denotes any thing belong ing to China or its inhabitants. CHINESE Swanpan. See ABACUS. CHINKAPIN. See FAGUS, BOTANY Index. CHINNOR, a musical instrument among the Hebrews, consisting of 32 chords. Kircher has given a figure of it, which is copied on Plate CXLV. CHINON, an ancient town of Tourrain in France, remarkable for the death of Henry II. king of England, and for the birth of the famous Rabelais. It is seated on the river Vienne, in the department of Indre and Loire. E. Long. o. 18. N. Lat. 47. 2. CHIO, or CHIOS, an Asiatic island lying near the coast of Natolia, opposite to the peninsula of Ionia. It was known to the ancients by the name of Ethalia, Macris, Pithyusa, &c. as well as that of Chios. According to Herodotus, the island of Chios was peopled originally from Ionia. It was at first governed by kings but afterwards the government assumed a republican form, which by the direction of Isocrates was modelled after that of Athens. They were, however, soon enslaved by tyrants, and afterwards conquered by Cyrus king of Persia. They joined the other Grecians in the Ionian revolt; but were shamefully abandoned by the Samians, Lesbians, and others of their allies so that they were again reduced under the yoke of the Persians, who treated them with the utmost severity. They continued subject to them till the battle. of Mycale, when they were restored to their ancient liberty this they enjoyed till the downfal of the Persian empire, when they became subject to the Macedonian princes. In the time of the emperor Vespasian the island was reduced to the form of a Roman province; but the inhabitants were allowed to live according to their own laws under the superintendence of a prætor. It is now subject to the Turks, and is called Scio. See that article. CHICOCCA. See BOTANY Index. CHIONANTHUS, the SNOW-DROP or FRINGESee BOTANY Index. TREE. CHIONE, in fabulous history, was daughter of Dadalion, of whom Apollo and Mercury became enamoured. To enjoy her company, Mercury lulled her to sleep with his caduceus; and Apollo, in the night under the form of an old woman, obtained the same favours as Mercury. From this embrace Chione became mother of Philammon and Autolycus; the former of whom, as being son of Apollo, became an excellent musician; and the latter was equally notorious for his robberies, of which his father Mercury was the patron. Chione grew so proud of her commerce with the gods, that she even preferred her beauty to that of Juno; for which impiety she was killed by the goddess and changed into a hawk.Another of the same name was daughter of Boreas and Orithia, who had Eumolpus by Neptune. She threw her son into the sea; but he was preserved by his fa ther. CHIOS. See CHIO and Scro. CHIOURLIC, an ancient town of Turkey in Europe, and in Romania, with a see of a Greek bishop. It is seated on a river of the same name, in E. Long. 7. 47. N. Lat. 41. 18. CHIOZZO, an ancient and handsome town of Italy in the Venetian territories of Austria, and in a small island, near the Lagunes, with a podesta, a bishop's see, and a harbour defended by a fort. E. Long. 12. 23. N. Lat. 45. 17. CHIPPENHAM, a town of Wiltshire, seated on the river Avon, containing 3410 inhabitants in 1811. It has a handsome stone bridge over the river, consisting of 21 arches; and sends two members to parliament. There is bere a manufacture of the best superfine woollen cloth in England. W. Long. 2. 12. N. Lat. 51. 25. CHIPPING, a phrase used by the potters and china men to express that common accident both of our own stone and earthen ware, and the porcelain of China, the flying off of small pieces, or breaking at the edges. Our earthen wares are particularly subject to this, and are always spoiled by it before any other flaw appears in them. Our stone wares escape it better than these; but not so well as the porcelain of China, which is less subject to it than any other manufacture in the world. The method by which the Chinese defend their ware from this accident, is this: They carefully burn some small bamboo canes to a sort of charcoal, which is very light, and very black; this they reduce to a fine powder, and then mix it into a thin paste, with some of the varnish which they use for their ware; they next take the vessels when dried, and not yet baked, to the wheel; and turning them softly round, they, with a pencil dipt in this paste, cover the whole circumference with a thin coat of it; after this, the vessel is again dried; and the border made with this paste appears of a pale grayish colour when it is thoroughly dry. They work on it afterwards in the common way, covering both this edge and the rest of the vessel with the common varnish. When the whole is baked on, the colour given by the ashes disappears, and the edges are as white as any other part; only when the baking has not been sufficient, or the edges have not been covered with the second varnishing, we sometimes find a dusky edge, as in some of the ordinary thick tea-cups. It may be a great advantage to our English manufacturers to attempt something of this kind. The willow is known to make a very light and black charcoal: but the elder, though a thing seldom used, greatly exceeds it. The young green shoots of this shrub, which are almost all pith, make the lightest and the blackest of all charcoal; this readily mixes with any liquid, and might be easily used in the same way that the Chinese use the charcoal of the bamboo cane, which is a light hollow vegetable, more resembling the elder shoots than any other English plant. It is no wonder that the fixed salt and oil contained in this charcoal should be able to penetrate the yet raw edges of the ware, and to give them in the subsequent baking a somewhat different degree of vitrification from the other parts of the vessel; which, though, if given to the whole, : a Chipping it might take off from the true semivitrified state of represented them as a compound of man and horse ; that ware, yet at the edges is not to be regarded, and and perhaps it was at first imagined by the Greeks,Chiron. only serves to defend them from common accidents, as well as the Americans, when they first saw cavalry, and keep them entire. The Chinese use two cautions that the horse and the rider constituted the same ani. Music. а politus, Palamedes, Ulysses, Mnestheus, Diomedes, Ca- Chiron more particularly. It is pretended that the CHIROGRAPH was also anciently used for a fine; Grecian Bacchus was the favourite scholar of the Cenand the manner of engrossing the fines, and cutting taur; and that he learned of this master the revels,the parchment in two pieces, is still retained in the orgies, bacchanalia, and other ceremonies of his woroffice called the chirographer's office. ship. According to Plutarch, it was likewise at the CHIROGRAPHER of Fines, an officer in the school of Chiron that Hercules studied music, medicine, common pleas, who engrosses fines acknowledged in and justice ; though Diodorus Siculus tells us, that that court into a perpetual record (after they have Linus was the music-master of this hero. But among been examined, and passed by other officers), and all the heroes who have been disciples of this Centaur, writes and delivers the indentures thereof to the par- no one reflected so much honour upon him as Achilles, ty. He makes two indentures; one for the buyer, whose renown he in some measure shared ; and to the other for the seller ; and a third indented piece, whose education he in a particular manner attended, containing the effect of the fine, and called the foot of being his grandfather by the mother's side. Apollothe fine : and delivers it to the custos brevium.-— The dorus tells us, that the study of music employed a consame officer also, or bis deputy, proclaims all fines in siderable part of the time which he bestowed upon his court every term, and indorses the proclamations on young pupil, as an incitement to virtuous actions, and the backside of the foot ; keeping, withal, the writ of a bridle to the impetuosity of liis temper. One of covenant, and the writ of fine. the best remains of antique painting now existing, is CHIROMANCY, a species of divination drawn a picture opon this subject, dug out of the ruins of from the lines and lineaments of a person's hand, by Herculaneum, in which Chiron is teaching the young which means, it is pretended, the dispositions may be Achilles to play on the lyre. The death of this phidiscovered. See Divination, No 9. losophic musician was occasioned, at an extreme old CHIRON, a famous personage of antiquity; styled age, by an accidental wound in the knee with a poiby Plutarch, in his dialogue on music, “ The wise Cene soned arrowed, shot by his schslar Hercules at another. taur.” Sir Isaac Newton places his birth in the first He was placed after his death by Musæns among the age after Deucalion's deluge, commonly called the constellations, through respect for liis virtues, and in Golden Age ; and adds, that he formed the constella- gratitude for the great services which he bad rendertions for the use of the Argonauts, when he was 88 ed the people of Greece. Sir Isaac Newton says Chronol. years old ; for he was a practical astronomer, as well in proof of the constellations being formed by Chiron P. 151. as his daughter Hippo: he may, therefore, be said to and Alusæus for the use and honour of the Argonauts, have flourished in the earliest ages of Greece, as he that nothing later than the expedition was delineated preceded the conquest of the Golden Fleece, and the on the sphere : according to the same author, Chiron Trojan war. He is generally called the son of Saturn lived till after the Argonautic expedition, in which and Phillyra; and is said to have been born in Thes- he had two grandsons. The ancients hare not failed to saly among the CENTAURS, who were the first Greeks attribute to him several writings; among which, actbat had acquired the art of breaking and riding hor. cording to Suidas, are precepts, vrobnxus, in verse, comses: whence the poets, painters, and sculptors, bave posed for the use of Achilles; and a piedicinal trea Chiron tise on the diseases incident to horses and other qua- a coat of mail. The shell is plated, and consists of ma- Chiton drupeds, ittlargıxov ; the lexicographer even pretends, ny parts lying upon each other transversely : the inhaChiton. that it is from this work the Centaur derived his name. bitant is a species of the DoRis. See CONCHOLOGY Chivalr Fabricius gives a list of the works attributed to Chi- Index. son of Noah. CHITTRICK'S MEDICINE FOR THE STONE. This CHIRONOMY, in antiquity, the art of represent. medicine was some years ago kept as a secret, and bad ing any past transaction by the gestures of the body, great reputation as a lithontriptic, which indeed it more especially by the motions of the hands : this seems in many cases to deserve. It was discovered by made a part of liberal education ; it had the approba Dr Blackrie to be no more than soap-lye ; and the tion of Socrates, and was ranked by Plato among the following receipt for using it was procured by General political virtues. Dunbar : “ Take one tea-spoonful of the strongest CHIROTONY, among ecclesiastical writers, de- soap-lye, mixed in two table-spoonfuls of sweet milk, notes the imposition of hands used in conferring priest- an hour before breakfast, and at going to bed. Be ly orders. However, it is proper to remark, that fore you take the medicine, take a sup of pure milk, chirotony originally was a method of electing magis. and immediately after you have swallowed the medicine trates, by holding up the hands. take another. If you find this agrees with you for CHIRURGEON, or SURGEON. See Surgeon. two or three days, you may add balf as much more to CHIRURGERY. See SURGERY. the dose." CHISLEY-LAND, in Agriculture, a soil of a middle a CHIVALRY, (from cheval," a horse"); an ab- Definition ligations, and turn of mind, with all the other distin- rished in Europe in the dark ages, during the vigour To ascertain the period at which the order sprung Difficulty the origir sculpture, masonry, joinery, carpentry, &c. ing, is no easy task. In the history of society, such of chival These are chissels of different kinds; though their a multiplicity of collateral facts appear interwoven, chief difference lies in their different size and strength, together, and causes and effects run into each other as being all made of steel well sharpened and tempered: by a gradation so imperceptible, that it is exceedingly but they have different names, according to the differ. difficult , even for the nicest eye, to discern causes ent uses to which they are applied. The chissels used from their immediate eflects, or to distinguish to in carpentry and joinery are, 1. The former ; which which among a number of collateral ciscumstances the is used first of all before the parting chissel, and just origin of any particular event is to be referred. The after the work is scribed. 2. The paring chissel age to which we must look for the origin of chivalry which has a fine smooth edge, and is used to pare off was singularly rude and illiterate. Even the principal or smooth the irregularities which the former makes. events of that period, emigrations, wars, and the esta. This is not struck with a mallet as the former is, but blishment of systems of laws and forms of government, is pressed with the shoulder of the workman. 3. Skew. have been but imperfectly, and in many instances un. former : this is used for cleansing acute angles with the faithfully, recorded. But the transactions which took point or corner of its narrow edge. 4. The mortise. place in the ordinary course of civil and domestic life, chissel ; which is narrow, but very and which, though less striking, must have always pre- Add to these difficulties which oppose our researches way for an augre, and the other to cut such wood as on this subject, that the nations of Europe were in is to be rounded, hollowed, &c. 6. Socket-chissels, that age a mixed multitude, consisting of the aboriwhich are chiefly used by carpenters, &c. bave their ginal inhabitants, who, though either subdued by the shank made with a hollow socket at top; to receive a Roman arms, or at least compelled to retire to the strong wooden sprig, fitted into it with a shoulder. woods and mountains, still obstinately retained their These chissels are distinguished, according to the primitive manners and customs ; Roman colonies, and breadth of the blade, into half-inch chissels, three such of the original inhabitants of the countries in which quarters of an inch chissels, &c. 7. Ripping chissels; these were established, as bad yielded not only to the which is a socket chissel of an inch broad, having a arms of the Romans, but also to the influence of their blunt edge, with no basil to it. Its use is to rip or tear laws, arts, and manners; and the barbarians, who pro- , two pieces of wood asunder, by forcing in the blunt ceeding from the northern regions of Asia and Europe, edge between them. the wilds of Scythia and Germany, dissolved the fabric CHITON, in Zoology, a genus of the order of ver- of the Roman empire; and made themselves lords of mes testactæ. The name chiton is from xitas, lorica, Europe. Amid this confusion of nations, institutions, Chivalry, and customs, it becomes almost impossible to trace any regular series of causes and effects. Yet as the history of that period is not entirely unknown to us, and the obscure and imperfect records in which it is preserved, while they commemorate the more remarkable events, throw a faint light on the customs, manners, and ordinary transactions of the age; we can at least collect some circumstances, which, if they did not of themselves give rise to the institution of chivalry, must certainly have co-operated with others to that end. We may even be allowed, if we proceed with due diffidence and caution, to deduce, from a consideration of the effect, some inferences concerning the cause; from those particulars of its history which are known to us, we may venture to carry imagination backwards, under a proper restraint, to those which are hid under the darkness of a rude and illiterate age. Distinction Distinction of ranks appears to be essentially necesof ranks an sary to the existence of civil order. Even in the simpart of the plest and rudest social establishments, we find not meremechanism ly the natural distinctions of weak and strong, young of society. and old, parent and child, husband and wife; these are always accompanied with others which owe their institution to the invention of man, and the consent, either tacit or formal, of the society among whom they prevail. In peace and in war, such distinctions are equally necessary; they constitute an essential and important part of the mechanism of society. 3 essential 4 The early pre-eminence of the mili racter. One of the earliest artificial distinctions introduced among mankind, is that which separates the bold and skilful warrior from those whose feebleness of body and tary cha mind renders them unable to excel in dexterity, stratagem, or valour. Among rude nations, who are but imperfectly acquainted with the advantages of social order, this distinction is more remarkably eminent than in any other state of society. The ferocity of the human character in such a period produces almost continual hostilities among neighbouring tribes; the elements of nature, and the brute inhabitants of the forest, are not yet reduced to be subservient to the will of man; and these, with other concomitant circumstances, render the warrior, who is equally distinguished by cunning and valour, more useful and respectable than any other character. Subordi rank intro On the same principle, as the boundaries of society nate dis- are enlarged, and its form becomes more complex, the tinctions of classes into which it is already distinguished are again duced into subdivided. The invention of arts, and the acquisisociety. tion of property, are the chief causes of these new distinctions which now arise among the orders of society; and they extend their influence equally through the whole system. Difference of armour, and different modes of military discipline, produce distinction of orders among those who practise the arts of war; while other circumstances, originating from the same general causes, occasion similar changes to take place amidst the 6 scenes of peace. The dis into the None of the new distinctions which are introduced tinction in-among men, with respect to the discipline and conBroduced duct of war, in consequence of the acquisition of promilitary or-perty and the invention of arts, is more remarkable der by the than that occasioned by the use of horses in military use of ca expeditions, and the training of them to the evoluvalry. tions of the military art. Fire-arms, it is true, 'give VOL. VI. Part I. to those who are acquainted with them a greater su Chivalry, periority over those to whom their use is unknown, than what the horseman possesses over him who fights on foot. But the use of fire-arms is of such importance in war, and the expence attending it so inconsiderable, that wherever these have been introduced, they have seldom been confined to one particular order in an army; and, therefore, they produced indeed a remarkable, though transient, distinction among different nations, but establish no permanent distinctions in the armies in any one nation. But to maintain a horse, to equip him with costly furniture, to manage him with dexterity and vigour, are circumstances which have invariably produced a standing and conspicuous distinction among the military order, wherever bodies of cavalry have been formed. The Roman equites, who, though they became at length a body of usurers and farmers-general, were originally the only body of cavalry employed by the state, occupied a respectable rank between the senators and the plebeians; and the elegance and humanity of their manners were suitable to their rank. In ancient Greece, and in the celebrated monarchies of Asia, the same distinction prevailed at a similar period. 7 ancient Since the circumstances and principles on which Military this distinction depends are not such as must be con-distinctions fined in their influence to one particular nation, or one among the region of the globe, we may hope to trace their effects Germans. among the savage warriors of Scythia and Germany, as well as among the Greeks or Romans. From the valuable treatise of Tacitus de Moribus Germanorum, we learn that, among the German warriors, a distinc tion spmewhat of this nature, did actually subsist; not so much indeed a distinction between the warrior who fought on horseback and those who fought on foot, as between those whom vigour of body and energy of mind enabled to brave all the dangers of war, and such as, from the imbecility of youth, the infirmities of age, or the natural inferiority of their mental and bodily powers, were unequal to scenes of hardship and deeds of valour. The youth was not permitted to take arms and join his warlike countrymen in their mi-‹ litary expeditions whenever he himself thought proper: there was certain age before which he could not be invested with armour. When he had attained that period, if not found deficient in strength, activity, or courage, he was formally honoured with the shield and the lance, called to the duties, and admitted to all the privileges of a warrior. Germans. Another fact worthy of notice, respecting the man- Respectaners of the barbarians of Germany before they esta- bility of the blished themselves in the cultivated provinces of the women aRoman empire, is, that their women, contrary to what mong the we find among many other rude nations, were treated with a high degree of respect. They did not generally vie with the men in deeds of valour, but they animated them by their exhortations to distinguish themselves in the field; and virgins especially were considered with a sacred veneration, as endowed with prophetic powers, capable of foreseeing events hid in the womb of futurity, and even of influencing the will of the deities. Hence, though domestic duties were their peculiar province, yet they were not harshly treated nor confined to a state of slavery. There appears indeed a striking analogy between the condition of the women G among |