# General Information (C)

C.I.D.
The C.I.D. (Criminal Investigation Department) is the detective section of the British police force. It was established in 1878 by E Howard Vincent. A "Special Branch" was founded in 1883 to deal with the Fenian troubles, it now deals with the protection of high-ranking individuals and protection of the state, such as harassing members of the Communist Party.

CA-Cricket Presents
CA-Cricket Presents by Computer Associates is a desktop presentation package for the Mac that lets you conceptualise, create, and produce complete presentations including slides, transparencies, speaker's notes, and audience handouts. It includes a copy of Acta Outliner, which can be used during the conceptualization stage of a presentation. A hotlink can be created between the Acta Outliner and the presentation so edits made to the outline are reflected in the presentation. You can produce charts, overhead slides, flipcharts, illustrations, and tables complete with legends and captions. The product includes freehand painting and drawing capabilities and a graded background feature for creating the background for your shows. CA-Cricket Presents' basic business chart capabilities include a data-entry screen or importing files from spreadsheets and generating charts from the data. The tabling tool lets you create matrices to easily handle numbers and word charts.

Cab
see "Cabriolet"

Cabala
see "Qabbala"

Caballa
see "Qabbala"

Cabbala
see "Qabbala"

Cable
In nautical terms, a cable is 183 metres.

Cabriolet
A cabriolet (cab) was a vehicle similar to a hackney-carriage with two or four wheels, originally drawn by a single horse but later by a motor. The original cabriolets were for a single passenger beside the driver and were a kind of hooded chaise. In the beginning of the 19th century an effort was made to introduce cabriolets into Britain, to supersede hackney carriages. It was not until 1823, however, that licences were obtained for cabriolets. At first their number was limited to twelve. These were of an improved pattern, with a folding hood, and seated two passengers, the driver being separated from them by a partition. In 1832 all restrictions were removed, and cabriolets came into popular favour. In 1836 a cabriolet on four wheels, the precursor of the brougham, was introduced, and from this the clarence evolved. In 1834 a patent was taken out for an improved, two-wheeled safety cab by Hansom, the architect of Birmingham town hall. The safety consisted in an arrangement of the framework which prevented the cab tilting backwards or forwards in case of accident. These cabriolets had a small body, hung between wheels of over seven feet diamiter. Two years later a fresh patent was obtained for an improved hansom. Motor cabs were first introduced in 1897, but failed to pay and were phased out, only to start to reappear in London around 1905.

Cachuca
The cachuca is a graceful dance marked by movements of the head and shoulders.

Cade
A cade was a British measurement for herrings equal to 500 fish.

Cadenza
In music, a cadenza is an ornamental passage sometimes introduced before the close of a section of a musical composition. At one time they were left to the improvisation of the performer, but since the end of the 19th century they have been written out in full by the composer.

Cadmium
Cadmium is a metal element with the symbol Cd.

Caesium
Caesium is an alkaline metal discovered by Bunsen in 1860, by spectral analysis, in the mineral water of Durkheim. It also occurs in the mineral pollux. Caesium is a soft metal closely resembling potassium, and is characterized by a spectrum containing two bright blue lines, along with others in the red, yellow and green.

Caestus
A caestus was a boxing-glove weighted with metal, and used by the Greek and Roman pugilists.

Cafeine
see "Caffeine"

Caffeine
Caffeine (Theine or methyl-theobromine) is a white, bitter, crystalline alkaloid usually derived from coffee or tea and used in medicine as a nervous system stimulant. It was discovered in coffee by Runge in 1820, and in tea by Oudry in 1827.

Caftan
A Caftan (Kaftan) is a long garment with long sleeves and tied at the waist by a girdle, worn under a coat in the Middle East. The term has also come to describe a long, full, usually collarless robe with wide sleeves that is worn at home for lounging or on the beach as a cover-up.

Cahuecite
Cahuecite is an explosive which was invented by Cahue in 1875.

Cairn
In Scottish archaeology, a cairn is a mound of stones raised over a prehistoric grave, like an English barrow. Ancient cairns are of two types - chambered from the stone age and unchambered from the bronze age. Chambered cairns are again found in two forms; long cairns and horned cairns.

Caisson
A caisson is a water-tight box, usually of sheet iron, and constructed so that it may be floated or sunk at will. Caissons are used for two distinct purposes. 1) for closing the entrance to docks, the caissons being of two general types, floating and sliding. Floating caissons include those which, when the height of the water inside and outside of the dock is the same, are raised by their natural buoyancy from the bottom, and may be floated out of their position against the sill into a recess provided for the purpose, leaving the entrance open. Sliding caissons fulfil the same pupose, but instead of floating are drawn back on a plane sliding surface or on rollers which bear some portion of their weight. 2) As foundations to a dam, quay wall or bridge, the caissons being so constructed as to be capable of being floated into the required position, and there sunk.

Cajeput Oil
Cajeput Oil is a volatile oil distilled from the leaves of the cajeput tree. It is a bluish-green liquid with a strong penetrating odour. It is applied externally as a counter-irritant for chilblains, myalgia and rheumatism, and is used internally as a carminative for gastro-intestinal troubles.

Cakewalk
The cakewalk is an American dance which originated amongst the blacks.

Calabar
Calabar is a powerful narcotic poison derived from the Calabar Bean. It operates as a purgative and an emetic. These properties provided it with its use as an ordeal in Africa where persons suspected of witchcraft were administered calabar beans. If the beans caused purging the victim was guilty, and if vomiting they were innocent.

Calamine
Calamine is a pink powder that is made of zinc oxide with a small amount of ferric oxide. It is used in lotions, ointments, and liniments. It is a customary mixture that is soothing and healing to the skin. It is great for itchy rashes such as poison ivy. It is natural but some formulas contain phenol which can cause poisoning when applied to the skin. A blend of natural calamine and aloe vera is a good pure skin treatment for burns, rashes and insect bites.

Calciferol
see "Vitamin D"

Calcium
Calcium is a lustrous silver-white brittle alkaline metal element with the symbol Ca. Its oxide occurs widely in nature as lime.

Calcium Alginate
Calcium Alginate is used in many foods for binding and is also used as a film-former in peel-off masks. It is a stabiliser for oil-in-water emulsions.

Calcium ammonium
Calcium ammonium is a compound formed by exposing calcium to ammonia gas. It is a bronze-coloured substance which catches fire on exposure to air.

Calcium Carbide
Calcium Carbide is a substance formed by heating quicklime and carbon in an electric furnace. It is a greyish crystalline substance which decomposes immediately on coming into contact with water, generating acetylene.

Calcium Carbonate
Calcium carbonate is a natural occurring salt that is found in limestone, chalk, and marble. It is used as a pigment and for pigment prolonging.

Calcium Chloride
Calcium Chloride is customarily used in road salt and antifreeze. It is used in cosmetics as an emulsifier and texturizer. If taken internally, it can cause constipation and stomach problems. It can also cause lung difficulties if inhaled during manufacturing or processing but it's toxicity in cosmetics is unknown.

Calcium propionate
Calcium propionate is a food additive used to prevent mold growth on bread and rolls.

Calcutta and Burma Steam Navigation Company
The Calcutta and Burma Steam Navigation Company was established in 1856 as a shipping company operating between England and Arabia, Persia, India, Burma and Yokohama. It changed its name in 1862 to the British India Steam Navigation Company.

Calendar Creator Plus
Calendar Creator Plus makes it easy to maintain an up-to-the-minute, annotated calendars on a PC. It handles all calendar needs and eliminates the clutter of paper calendars. Calendar Creator Plus lets you create customised overlays that include listings such as scheduled events, projects, personal and employee vacation days. By merging multiple overlays with the basic calendar date template, an unlimited number of calendars can be created. Calendar Creator Plus supports two types of events; fixed events and floating events.

Calends
Calends was the first day of the Roman calendar month.

Calf
A calf is a young bovine animal, especially a young cow.

Caliche
Caliche is naturally occuring, crude sodium nitrate found in deposits a few feet below the surface in South America. It contains about 20 to 50 per cent sodium nitrate and traces of sodium iodate.

Calico
Calico is a cotton cloth named from Calicut, a city of India. It was first brought to England by the East India Company in 1631. The name is generally given to any plain white cotton cloth, and in America it is applied to printed cottons.

Calico-Printing
Calico-Printing is the art of applying colours to woven fabric, usually calico. It was first introduced to Britain from India in 1676, and was originally accomplished with hand-blocks made of wood.

Caliper Compass
A caliper compass is a device used to measure the bore of cannon, small-arms etc.

Calipers
Calipers are a kind of compass with curved legs used in machine shops for measurements, such as the determination of shafts, bores and centering. For example, a caliper compass is used for measuring the bore of firearms.

Calisthenics
Calisthenics are physical exercises designed and practised to give grace and strength to the body.

Callipers
Callipers are an instrument for measuring dimensions of circular solids.

Calomel
Calomel (beautiful black) is a compound of mercury, sulphuric acid and sodium chloride.

Calorie
Calorie is the metric unit of measurement of heat. It is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water from 14.5 to 15.5 degrees centigrade.

Calotype
Calotype is the process of producing photographs by the action of light upon paper impregnated with silver nitrate. The process was invented by Dr Fox Talbot around 1840.

Calumet
A calumet is a kind of pipe used by the American Indians for smoking tobacco. Its bowl is usually of soft red soapstone, and the tube a long reed ornamented with feathers. The calumet was used in the ratification of all solemn engagements, both of war and peace. To accept the calumet was to accept the proposed agreement, and to reject it was to reject the agreement.

Cam
In mechanics, a cam is a revolving disc (commonly heart-shaped) with a curved surface, or a cylinder with grooves used to give a variable or reciprocating motion to other bodies, which slide or roll in contact with it. Any desired motion may be transmitted by suitably shaping the periphery of the cam.

Camaieu
A camaieu is a monochrome drawing or painting with a single colour, varied only by graduation of the single colour in terms of light and dark.

Caman
A caman is a stick used for playing hurling. Traditionally they are made from ash, which gives the best performance.

Cambrian
The Cambrian period was the third geological period, 450,000,000 years ago.

Cambric
Cambric is a fine kind of linen originally manufactured at Cambrai in Flanders.

Camelot
Camelot was the castle of Arthur.

Cameo
A cameo is a small relief carving.

Camlet
Camlet is a fabric made of long wool, hand spun, sometimes mixed with cotton, silk or linen. Originally it was made from camel's hair or the hair of the Angora goat.

Camog
A camog is a crooked, broad-bladed stick used for playing Camogie.

Camouflage
Camouflage is colours or structures which allow an animal to blend in with its surroundings.

Campania
The Campania was a mail steamer of the Cunard Line built in 1893. She was 610 feet long, had a displacement of 12950 tons and a speed of 21 knots.

Campanile
A campanile is a bell-tower detached from the church to which it belongs. It is a common feature in Italian architecture.

Campanology
Campanology is strictly speaking the science of bells, dealing with all aspects of bells, but the term is generally restricted to bell ringing.

Camphene
Camphene is a solid terpene occurring in the oil of ginger. It is oxidised by chromic acid to form camphor.

Camphine
Camphine is the trade name of a purified spirit of turpentine formerly used for burning in lamps, and generally prepared by distilling turpentine with quicklime.

Camphor
Camphor is a crystalline substance of the terpene group, obtained by distillation from the wood or young shoots of certain trees. It is a feeble antiseptic and insecticide and is used in the manufacture of celluloid.

Camphor of peppermint
see "Menthol"

Campos
The campos are the open grassy plains of South America.

Camwood
Camwood is a red dye-wood imported from tropical West Africa, and obtained from the Baphia nitida tree. The wood is of a very fine colour and is often turned to make knife-handles and similar articles. The dye obtained from it is brilliant, but not permanent.

Canada Balsam
Canada Balsam is a fluid oleoresin obtained from the balsam fir, common in Canada and the USA. It is used in medicine, microscopy and in making varnish and was at one time used as a cement in the manufacture of compound lenses by opticians as its refractive index is almost as good as that of glass.

Canal
A canal is an artificial open water channel.

Canaster
A canaster (canister) was a rush basket in which South American tobacco was packed.

Cancer
Cancer is a disease of malignant tumours, what causes it is unknown, however experiments in the 1950s revealed a connection between conscious belief and cancer, that is patients who had cancerous tumours removed and believed themselves to be free of the cancer were less likely to suffer re-emergence of the cancer than patients who believed the cancer would re-occur.

Candelabrum
A candelabrum is a large candlestick.

Candellia Wax
Candellia Wax is a herbal wax used in lipsticks and in creams and as a replacement for rubber.

Candle
A candle is a solid wax cylinder enclosing a wick of loosely-twisted threads placed longitudinally in its centre. It is burnt to provide light.

Candy
The candy is an eastern measurement of weight varying from 560 lbs upwards.

Cang
A cang was a Chinese instrument for punishment for trifling offences. It was a kind of wooden cage fitting closely around the neck, with the weight proportioned to the nature of the offence, but so constructed that the culprit couldn't lie down nor feed himself. The cang was not removed during the period of punishment which lasted two or three months. Inscribed on the cang was the nature of the offence and the name of the criminal who was generally left exposed at the city gates.

Canister
see "Canaster"

Canning
Canning is the commercial operation of food preserving which involves the use of heat and sealing the food in airtight containers.

Cannula
A cannula is a tube used in surgery to draw abnormal fluid from the body.

Canoe Polo
Canoe Polo is a form of water polo in which the players are in short low canoes, known as bats, which they propel with a double paddle.

Canon
In geography, a canon is a deep ravine or valley with precipitous sides made by the rapid flow of a river and the action of denudation.

Cantabile
In music, cantabile is a term applied to movements intended to be performed in a graceful, elegant and melodious style.

Cantaro
The cantaro is a measure of weight and capacity used in the past in the Mediterranean countries. In Turkey it was 125 lb, in Egypt 99 lb, in Malta 175 lb and in Spain to measure wine it was about 3.5 gallons.

Canvas
Canvas is a precision drawing package for the Mac that lets you create presentation materials, desktop publishing images, or architectural renderings. Its large selection of powerful, easy-to-use tools makes it one of the more popular drawing programs. Icons and menu options provide continuous multipoint Bezier curves, instant autotrace conversion of bitmap images to unlimited drawing layers, 1/65,000th of an inch precision, and text and graphics in 16.7 million colours plus PostScript gray scales in 1% increments. For touching up clipped or scanned art, Canvas provides a number of painting tools which can be used on the same layers as the drawing tools. Canvas supports 24-bit colour on the Macintosh II, hairlines to 1/1000th of an inch, auto-dimensioning of lines and arcs, and a zoom capacity ranging from 3% to 3,200%. The program adds area and perimeter calculations, a peel-away ruler, PixelPaintcompatible colour palettes, smooth multipoint polygons, and special effects such as object rotation in one degree increments, distortion, and one or two point perspective. Canvas also features object libraries (macros) that function as extensions to the drawing toolbox. Up to 32 objects can be added to any macro library, and macro libraries can be saved as individual files. A desk accessory version of Canvas can be invoked while working with other programs and provides approximately 80%, of the program's capabilities. The program also has a bitmap conversion option for transforming scanned colour or gray scale images into one of 15 predefined halftone or dithered images (for the Macintosh II only).

Canzone
Canzone is an Italian and Provencal form of poetry, used chiefly for love themes, though religious and other subjects were not entirely excluded. the earliest Provencal specimens date from the 12th century, those in Italian from the 13th. The number of stanzas varies, five or six being the most common, and the last stanza was invariably shorter than the others.

Capacitor
A capacitor is an electrical device consisting of two conductive bodies separated by insulating material and thus possessing capacitance.

Capital Punishment
Capital punishment is punishment by death. Capital punishment is retained in 92 countries and territories, including the 37 states of the USA, China, and Islamic countries. It was abolished in the UK in 1965 for all crimes except treason. Methods of execution include electrocution, lethal gas, hanging, shooting, lethal injection, garrotting, and decapitation. In Britain, the number of capital offences was reduced from over 200 at the end of the 18th century, until capital punishment was abolished in 1866 for all crimes except murder, treason, piracy, and certain arson attacks. Its use was subject to the royal prerogative of mercy. The punishment was carried out by hanging (in public until 1866). Capital punishment for murder was abolished 1965 but still exists for treason. In 1990, Ireland abolished the death penalty for all offences. In Saudi Arabia execution is by beheading in public. Countries that have abolished the death penalty fall into three categories: those that have abolished it for all crimes (44 countries); those that retain it only for exceptional crimes such as war crimes (17 countries); and those that retain the death penalty for ordinary crimes but have not executed anyone since 1980 (25 countries and territories). The first country in Europe to abolish the death penalty was Portugal in 1867. In the USA, the Supreme Court declared capital punishment unconstitutional in 1972, as a cruel and unusual punishment, but decided in 1976 that this was not so in all circumstances. It was therefore reintroduced in some states. Many countries use capital punishment for crimes other than murder, such as drug offences (in Malaysia and elsewhere). In 1977 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ruled out imposition of the death penalty on those under the age of 18. The covenant was signed by President Carter on behalf of the USA, but in 1989 the US Supreme Court decided that it could be imposed from the age of 16 for murder, and that the
retarded could also face the death penalty.

Capnomancy
Capnomancy is divination by observation of smoke from incense or a sacrifice.

Capricorn
Capricorn is a sign of the zodiac symbolised by a goat.

Caproic Acid
Caproic acid (hexoic acid) is one of the products of the butyric fermentation of sugar. It can be made bu the oxidation of hexyl alcohol, and is an oily liquid with a faint disagreeable odour.

Capsicin
Capsicin is an alkaloid and the active principle of the capsules of Capsicum annuum. It has a resinous aspect and a burning taste.

Capsicum oleoresin
Capsicum oleoresin is an oil from the pepper family that is used in hair tonics to arouse the scalp. It is said to upgrade hair growth.

Capstan
A capstan is an engine for raising weights. A ship's capstan is a revolving barrel with a vertical axis powered by people used for winding cable, raising the anchor etc.

Captopril
Captopril is a drug used to control high blood pressure and aid in the relief of heart failure. It has the possible side effects of: increased heart rate, low blood pressure, loss of taste, lack of appetite, rash, itching, dizziness and fainting.

Carat
Carat is the unit of measurement of gold purity.

Carbide
see "carbides"

Carbides
A carbide is a compound of carbon and another element.

Carbohydrate
A carbohydrate is a complex chemical compound. Consisting of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. In foods it forms sugars and starch.

Carbolic Acid
Carbolic acid (phenol, phenic acid, hydroxybenzene) is a strong poison used as an antiseptic distilled from coal-tar. It was discovered by Laurent in 1846.

Carbon
Carbon is a non-metallic, chiefly trivalent element found native (as in diamond and graphite) or as a constituent of coal, petroleum, and asphalt, of limestone and other bicarbonates, and of organic compounds or obtained artificially in varying degrees of purity especially as carbon black, lampblack, activated charcoal and coke. It has the symbol C and is contained in all life forms.

Carbon Copy Plus
Carbon Copy Plus by Microrim is a menu-driven remote control program for IBM-compatible microcomputers that allows the user to control and/or monitor one PC from another over a communications link. Suitable for support purposes and typically used with standard dial-up modems, Carbon Copy Plus connects two PCs so their screens and keyboards are linked as one. Whatever the remote user sees on-screen will be seen on the local screen. Users can open up a movable chat window where they can type messages to each other. Whatever is displayed on the host screen is displayed on the guest screen. Carbon Copy Plus includes a universal graphics translator, that automatically translates CGA, EGA, VGA, Hercules, and PS/2 graphics images when dissimilar graphics adapters are used in the host and guest PC. Files can be transferred between machines using commands similar to those in DOS. Carbon Copy Plus supports background file transfer, allowing the host PC to send or receive files while working in a foreground application.

Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide (carbonic anhydride) is a colourless, poisonous, heavy gas composed of carbon and oxygen. It is the final product of the complete combustion of carbon. Carbon dioxide is present as about 5 percent of exhaled air.

Carbon Monoxide
Carbon Monoxide (carbonic oxide) is a colourless, tasteless, odourless, extremely poisonous gas produced when carbon is burned in a limited supply of air.

Carbon Tetrachloride
Carbon tetrachloride is a substance resembling chloroform in odour, and prepared by the action of chlorine on carbon disulphide. It is a colourless liquid with a pleasant odour used as a solvent for many organic substances. It is non-inflammable and as such is used as a substitute for benzene in degreasing woollen goods and in dry-cleaning. It attacks most metals, lead and tin being most resistant to it. Carbon tetrachloride is registered under the trade name benzinoform.

Carbonado
Carbonado is a powdered form of diamond.

Carbonate
A carbonate is a salt formed by the union of carbon dioxide with a base element.

Carbonic anhydride
see "Carbon Dioxide"

Carbonic Oxide
see "Carbon Monoxide"

Carboniferous
The Carboniferous was the seventh geological period, 250,000,000 years ago. This era marked the formation of the coal beds.

Carborundum
Carborundum is silicon carbide and is extremely hard.

Carboxyl
In chemistry, carboxyl is a form of a substance with the monovalent methyl united to the monovalent group. Carboxyl is a characteristic part of a large number of organic acids.

Carboxyl group
In chemistry, a carboxyl group is a univalent organic radical (-COOH) which is the functional group of all the carbolic acids.

Carboy
A carboy is a large globular wicker-covered glass bottle used for holding acid or other corrosive liquids.

Carburettor
A carburettor is a device for charging air with a hydrocarbon.

Carcanet
A carcanet was a necklace or collar of jewels. They were manufactured in Venice during the fifteenth century.

Card
A card is an instrument for combing, opening and breaking wool, flax etc. It is made by inserting bent teeth of wire into a thick piece of leather and nailing this to a rectangular board.

Cardan Suspension
see "Gimbal"

Cardboard
Cardboard is a kind of stiff paper or pasteboard made by sticking together several sheets of paper.

Cardbox Plus
Cardbox Plus is a file manager that works well where a card-index solution might have been used. It has unique indexing facilities including the ability to highlight and search on free-format comment text. Cardbox Plus is ideal for mailing list and simple customer record applications.

Caret
A caret (from the Latin meaning something is missing) is a writer's mark indicating that something should be inserted at this point, usually an omitted word or phrase.

Caries
Caries is a disease of bone resulting from inflammation of bony tissue.

Carillon
A carillon is a set of bells in a tower or belfry on which tunes may be played. The bells are fixed and are struck on the outside by hammers.

Carlton Club
The Carlton Club was a famous political club in Pall Mall, London. It was the recognised headquarters of the Conservative Party, and was founded in 1832 by the Duke of Wellington.

Carmania
The Carmania was a turbine steamer built for the Cunard Company and launched in 1905. She was 678 feet long and had a gross tonnage of 21000 and could carry 2656 passengers and had a normal speed of 21 knots.

Carmen
Carmen is an opera written by Bizet and released shortly before his death.

Carminative
Carminatives are a class of remedies used in medicine for the relief of gastric and intestinal discomfort caused by the collection of gases formed during imperfect digestion.

Carmine
Carmine is a red colouring derived from the cochineal insect. It was first prepared by a Franciscan monk at Pisa and manufacture began in 1650.

Carolina Tea
see "Appalachian Tea"

Carotene
see "vitamin a"

Carpal tunnel syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common disorder that causes pain, and interferes with the use of the hand. It is caused by pressure on the median nerve as the nerve passes through a canal formed by the bones and ligaments in the wrist (the carpal tunnel). A wide variety of conditions can cause the carpal tunnel to narrow and put pressure on the median nerve, including injuries, such as wrist fractures; arthritis complicated by swelling of the tendons in the carpal tunnel; pregnancy, which may cause the synovium around the tendons to thicken; and glandular abnormalities, such as diabetes and thyroid disorders. Work that involves repetitive wrist motions may also cause carpal tunnel syndrome. Symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome include pain and numbness in the thumb and in the index, middle, and ring fingers. Many people wake at night with these symptoms. Some sufferers experience weakness of hand muscles and may drop objects. Symptoms often occur when the wrist is flexed during such activities as driving a car or holding a book while reading. Doctors treat carpal tunnel syndrome by attempting to improve the underlying condition. In many cases, doctors apply a splint to the wrist and prescribe anti-inflammatory medications. In some cases, surgery is performed to relieve symptoms and to prevent permanent damage to the median nerve.

Carpel
Carpel is a botanical term referring to a simple pistil or a single member of a compound pistil.

Carpet
Carpet is a thick fabric, often made of wool, used for covering a floor. It is made by knotting short lengths of yarn to the warp threads during weaving.

Carpolite
Carpolite is a term applied to fossils of fruits.

Carron oil
Carron oil is a mixture of linseed oil and lime water which was formerly used for treating burns. It was first used at the Carron ironworks near Falkirk.

Carron-Oil
Carron-Oil is a linament composed of linseed-oil and lime-water. It was so named on account of being used to treat burns at the Carron Ironworks.

Carse
Carse is the name given in Scotland to a wide fertile valley.

Cart
A cart is a strong two or four wheeled vehicle used in farming and for carrying heavy goods.

Carte-Blanche
A Carte-Blanche is a blank piece of white paper, signed and sealed and given to a person to fill-up as he pleases, thus giving unlimited power to decide.

Cartel
A cartel is a written agreement for the exchange or ransom of prisoners.

Cartesian Diver
A Cartesian Diver is a hydrostatic toy consisting of a little hollow figure, which has a small opening some distance below the top, and is rather lighter than an equal volume of water, so it can float. The figure is placed in a bottle of water closed with a bladder of rubber so as to exclude air. On pressing the bladder the air inside the figure is compressed drawing a little water into the figure which causes it to sink. Removing the pressure on the bladder excludes the water from the figure and it rises again.

Carthamic Acid
see "Carthamin"

Carthamin
Carthamin (Carthamic Acid) is an astringent bitter principle obtained from the flowers of the arthamus tinctorius. It is a red pigment used in silk-dyeing and the preparation of rouge.

Carton
A carton is a light box or case for holding goods.

Cartouche
In architecture, a cartouche is a scroll ornament.

Cartridge-paper
Cartridge-paper is a thick paper. It is so named because it was originally used to make soldiers' cartridges.

Carucate
A carucate was formerly as much land as one team could plough in one year. The size varied according to the nature of the soil and the practice of husbandry in different districts.

Caruncle
A caruncle is a small hard outgrowth formed on the seeds of certain plants, such as the castor oil plant.

Caryatide
In architecture, caryatides are figures of women dressed in long robes, serving to support entablatures.

Caryopsis
Caryopsis is a botanical term for a one-seeded indehiscent fruit with pericarp fused to the seed-coat, as in wheat and barley.

Casareep
Casareep is the concentrated juice of the roots of the cassava flavoured with aromatics and boiled to remove the toxins. It is then used as a relish in soups and other dishes. It is the basis of the Jamaican dish ''pepper-pot''. Casareep is also a powerful antiseptic and was used for preserving meat in tropical countries.

Cascara
Cascara is an extract of the bark of the Californian buckthorn used as a laxative or cathartic.

Cascarila
Cascarila is the aromatic bitter bark of Croton Eleutheria.

Case-hardening
Case-hardening is a process whereby iron objects have their outside layer converted to steel. The object is put in a box containing carbon and is heated until red hot. Then it is immersed in cold water where upon a layer of steel forms on the object.

Casein
Casein is a protein found in milk. It can be separated by the action of acid, the enzyme rennin, or bacteria (souring); it is also the main protein in cheese. Casein is used as a protein supplement in the treatment of malnutrition and is used commercially in cosmetics, glues, and as a sizing for coating paper.

Cash flow
Cash flow is the input of cash required to cover all expenses of a business, whether revenue or capital. Alternatively, the actual or prospective balance between the various outgoing and incoming movements which are designated in total. Cash flow is positive if receipts are greater than payments; negative if payments are greater than receipts. A 'cash flow forecast' is one of the most important forms of financial planning for any business. The business needs to know if monthly outgoings are going to be greater than receipts. If it does not have finance, such as bank deposits or an overdraft facility, to cover a period of negative cash flow, the company will go bankrupt even if the business is fundamentally profitable in the long term.

Cash register
The cash register is a machine invented in 1879 by James Ritty for retail traders. Simply they consist of keys which pressed record the value of sales, a display which indicates to the customer the values, and a cash draw which cannot be opened except by registering the fact to the machine.

Cassareep
Cassareep is the concentrated juice of the roots of the common or bitter cassava, flavoured by aromatics and deprived of its poisonous properties by boiling. It has antiseptic properties and is used in cooking, including forming the basis of the Jamaican dish, "pepper-pot".

Cassier's Magazine
Cassier's Magazine was a magazine founded in 1891 by Louis Cassier, and published in New York as the first monthly publication devoted to purely engineering and scientific subjects. It was particularly noted for its illustrations.

Cassina
Cassina are an Italian furniture-making company. They were established in 1923 in Meda, Italy. Cassina moved from craft to mass production after 1945 and successfully sold modern design to a sophisticated international niche market, using designers such as Franco Albini, Gio Ponti and Vico Magistretti. Ponti's 'Superleggera' chair of 1957 was among the most successful of Cassina's products.

Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia is a constellation in the northern hemisphere situated next to Cephus. It contains fifty-five stars.

Cassock
A cassock is a long close fitting tunic, buttoning up to the neck and reaching down to the feet, worn by the clergy.

Cast iron
Cast iron is a cheap but valuable constructional material, most commonly used for automobile engine blocks. Cast iron is partly refined pig iron, which is very fluid when molten and highly suitable for shaping by casting; it contains too many impurities such as carbon to be readily shaped in any other way. Solid cast iron is heavy and can absorb great shock but is very brittle.

Castanets
Castanets are small concave shells of ivory or hard wood used by the Spaniards and Moors to make a rattling sound to accompany dancing. A pair of castanets are held in the palm of the hand and struck with the middle finger.

Caste
Caste is an Indian hereditary class system with members socially equal, united in religion and usually following the same trade. A member of one caste has no social intercourse with a member of any other caste except their own. There are four main groups: Brahmans (priests), Kshatriyas (nobles and warriors), Vaisyas (traders and farmers), and Sudras (servants); plus a fifth group, Harijan (untouchables). No upward or downward mobility exists, as in classed societies. The system dates from ancient times, and there are more than 3,000 subdivisions. In Hindu tradition, the four main castes are said to have originated from the head, arms, thighs, and feet respectively of Brahma, the creator; the members of the fifth were probably the aboriginal inhabitants of the country, known variously as Scheduled Castes, Depressed Classes, Untouchables, or Harijan (a name coined by Gandhi meaning 'children of God'). This lowest caste handled animal products, garbage, and human wastes and so was considered to be polluting by touch, or even by sight, to others. Discrimination against them was made illegal 1947 when India became independent, but persists.

Castilian
Castilian is a member of the Romance branch of the Indo-European language family, originating in north-west Spain, in the provinces of Old and New Castile. It is the basis of present-day standard Spanish and is often seen as the same language, the terms castellano and espanol being used interchangeably in both Spain and the Spanish-speaking countries of the Americas.

Casting
Casting is the process of producing solid objects by pouring molten material into a shaped mold and allowing it to cool. Casting is used to shape such materials as glass and plastics, as well as metals and alloys. The casting of metals has been practiced for more than 6,000 years, using first copper and bronze, then iron. The traditional method of casting metal is sand casting. Using a model of the object to be produced, a hollow mold is made in a damp sand and clay mix. Molten metal is then poured into the mold, taking its shape when it cools and solidifies. The sand mold is broken up to release the casting. Permanent metal molds called dies are also used for casting, in particular, small items in mass-production processes where molten metal is injected under pressure into cooled dies. Continuous casting is a method of shaping bars and slabs that involves pouring molten metal into a hollow, water-cooled mold of the desired cross section.

Castor
Castor is a reddish-brown bitter substance obtained from the anal glands of the beaver and used in perfume and medicine.
Castor is a star (Alpha Geminorum) of magnitude 1.6, the fainter star of the zodiacal constellation Gemini, or the Twins. In 1719 it was discovered to be a visual binary star, with components of magnitudes 2.8 and 2.0 separated by 6 seconds of arc and revolving around each other in about 350 years. Each of these components has been found to be a spectroscopic binary. In addition, a faint companion, separated from the other two by 72 sec of arc, has been discovered. This star is also a spectroscopic binary, the two components of which revolve around each other in about one day. Hence, the entire system of the star Castor contains at least six stars. Its distance is about 45 light-years from the earth.

Castor oil
Castor oil is a pale yellow nauseous acrid oil obtained from the seeds of the Castor oil plant and used as a purgative and lubricant.

Catacomb
Catacombs are subterranean cemeteries.

Catafalque
A catafalque is a temporary and ornamental structure, representing a tomb, placed over the coffin of a distinguished person or over a grave.

Catalase
In chemistry, a catalase is any of various enzymes capable of decomposing hydrogen peroxide.

Catalepsy
Catalepsy is a disease characterised by seizures or trances which last for hours or days with a suspension of sensation and consciousness.

Catalyst
A catalyst is a substance which facilitates a reaction, without being consumed by the reaction itself. It is a term generally used in chemistry, although it is equally applicable in applied Psychology, such as in the role of an antagonist or provocateur.

Catamaran
A catamaran is a boat comprised of a keel and two side arms. They were originally rafts used in the east, particularly by the natives of the Madras and Coromandel coasts.

Cataract
Cataract is another name for a waterfall. In medicine, a cataract is a disease of the eye consisting in opacity of the lens which looks milky-white.

Catarrh
Catarrh is the inflammation of a mucous membrane, particularly that of the nose, throat or bronchial tubes, causing an increased flow of mucus.

Catboat
A catboat is a sailing boat with a single mast set well forward and rigged with one sail.

Catechism
A catechism is an elementary book containing a number of principles in any science or art, but particularly in religion, reduced to the form of questions and answers.

Catenary
A catenary is a curve taken up by a flexible cable suspended between two points, under gravity. For example, the curve of overhead suspension cables that hold the conductor wire of an electric railroad or tramway.

Caterpillar track
Caterpillar track is the trade name for an endless flexible belt of metal plates on which certain vehicles such as tanks and bulldozers run, which takes the place of ordinary tyred wheels and improves performance on wet or uneven surfaces. A track-laying vehicle has a track on each side, and its engine drives small cogwheels that run along the top of the track in contact with the ground. The advantage of such tracks over wheels is that they distribute the vehicle's weight over a wider area and are thus ideal for use on soft and waterlogged as well as rough and rocky ground.

Cathartic
A cathartic is a medicine which is capable of producing the second grade of purgation, of which a laxative is the first.

Cathetometer
A cathetometer is a device for measuring small differences in height.

Cathode
A cathode is a negative electrical pole or terminal.

Cathode Rays
Cathode rays are a stream of electrons emitted from the cathode of an electron tube and accelerated to high velocity by an electron gun. The rays can be deflected by magnetic or electric fields.

Cathode-ray Oscilloscope
A cathode-ray oscilloscope is an instrument for examining electrical quantities, and particularly varying electrical quantities both periodic and transient, by means of a luminous trace on the screen of a cathode-ray tube. The quantities to be investigated or measured are made to deflect the electron beam in the cathode-ray tube, and thus to produce corresponding movement of the light spot on the screen. In addition to examining electrical quantities as such, the oscilloscope is widely used to examine any physical quantity the changing values of which can be converted into corresponding changes of electric potential.

Cathode-ray Tube
A cathode-ray tube is an electron tube containing a thermionic cathode and an electron gun for the production of cathode rays which are directed axially along the tube in the direction of the flattened, wide end. The internal surface of the wider end of the tube is coated with a phosphor which emits light at the point of impact of the high speed electrons.

Cation
A cation is a positively charged ion which, in an electrolyte or in a gas-filled electron tube, travels towards the negative electrode or cathode.

Cato Street Conspiracy
The Cato Street Conspiracy was a plot to murder British ministers in 1820. Arthur Thistlewood, who had already been mixed up with revolutionary projects, conceived a plan for assassinating Lord Castlereagh and his ministerial colleagues at a dinner in Grosvenor Square, London on February 23rd. Arms were collected in a hired rendezvous in the neighbouring Cato Street. The plot was discovered, and Thistlewood and his colleagues arrested, and he and four others were executed.

Catoptrics
Catoptrics is the branch of optics which explains the properties of incident and reflected light, and particularly that which is reflected from mirrors or polished surfaces.

Cattle Plague
see "Rinderpest"

Catty
The catty was a Chinese unit of weight equivalent to 1.5 lbs.

Caudle
Caudle is a warm, thin spiced gruel made with wine and sugar which was given to invalids and women after childbirth.

Caul
A caul is a woman's close-fitting cap or hair net. They were originally made of gold net and worn by women between the 14th and 16th centuries.

Cauldron
A cauldron is a large boiling vessel, usually of a deep basin shape with a hoop handle and a removable lid.

Causeway
A causeway is a raised road across a low or wet piece of land.

Caustic soda
see "Sodium hydrate"

Cautery
A cautery is a heated metal instrument used for burning or searing organic tissue.

Cavalcade
A cavalcade is a procession of riders on horse-back.

Cavatina
In music, a cavatina is a melody of simpler character than the aria, and without a second part and a dacapo or return part.

Cave
A cave is a deep hollow place under ground.

Cavendish
Cavendish is softened tobacco which has been sweetened with molasses and then pressed into cakes.

Cavendish Experiment
The Cavendish Experiment was conducted by Henry Cavendish for the purpose of ascertaining the mean density of the earth by means of the torsion balance.

Caviare
Caviare is the roes of certain large fish prepared and salted. The best is made from the roes of the sterlet and sturgeon caught in the lakes and rivers of Russia.

Cavo-Rilievo
Cavo-Rilievo is a form of sculpture in which the highest surface of the relief is only level with that of the original stone.

CBI
The CBI is the British organisation of employers.

CC:Mail
CC:Mail is a network communications system which functions transparently across different networks, operating systems and hardware platforms. As such it has the ability to connect groups of users across a LAN or collecton of LANs. CC:Mail enables a central database to be maintained which is called the CC:Mail post office. This structure contains single copies of messages together with pointers to individual mailboxes. This cuts down on network traffic and also disk storage space. As the package is of a modular nature, CC:Mail may be expanded as requirements grow with ease. Anything that can be created or viewed on a workstation may be transmitted across the LAN to the central post office. When the message is received by the post office the recipient is notified. Items within the message can be multiple so that one message may contain many items. These items can be text, graphics, files and screen output. Items may be edited when they are viewed and returned the sender, forwarded, printed, archived or deleted. If the item is of special interest it may be saved in a private folder for personal use or made public by placing it on a bulletin board. If an old message is required a search can be made by name, keyword phrase, and date. Management of the system is carried out by the CC:Mail Administrator who creates the mail directory.

CCIR
The CCIR (Comite Consultatif Internationale des Radio), is a major constituent of the International Telecommunications Union, issuing both Radio Regulations and Recommendations for all uses of radio transmission.

CCITT
The CCITT (Comite Consultatif Internationale des Telephones et Telegraphes), is a major constituent of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that sets standards for the operation of telecommunications services across international boundaries. Many CCITT standards are adopted for use domestically.

CCU
A CCU (Communications Concentrator Unit) is a small computer connected between a main computer and one or more serial devices operating as an intermediary to relieve the main computer of much of the routine work connected with receiving information from the serial devices.

Cedilla
A cedilla is a mark made under the letter c, especially in French, to indicate that it is to be pronounced like the English s.

Ceilidh
A ceilidh is a Gaelic festival of singing and dancing held in Scotland and Ireland.

Cellulitis
Cellulitis is a disease characterised by the existence of a spreading inflammation of the tissues underlying the skin.

Celluloid
Celluloid is a hard, unstable synthetic substance once used for films. It is composed of gun-cotton and camphor and is moulded to the desired shape by heat.

Cellulose
Cellulose is the cellular tissue of plants. It is a member of the carbohydrate family and is allied to starch. In plants, cellulose is normally combined with woody, fatty, or gummy substances. With some exceptions among insects, true cellulose is not found in animal tissues. Microorganisms in the digestive tracts of herbivorous animals break down the cellulose into products that can then be absorbed. Cellulose is insoluble in all ordinary solvents and may be readily separated from the other constituents of plants. Depending on its concentration, sulfuric acid acts on cellulose to produce glucose, soluble starch, or amyloid; the last is a form of starch used for the coating of parchment paper. When cellulose is treated with an alkali and thenexposed to the fumes of carbon disulfide, the solution yields films and threads. Rayon and cellophane are cellulose regenerated from such solutions. Cellulose acetates are spun into fine filaments for the manufacture of some fabrics and are also used for photographic safety film, as a substitute for glass, for the manufacture of safety glass, and as a molding material. Cellulose ethers are used in paper sizings, adhesives, soaps, and synthetic resins. With mixtures of nitric and sulfuric acids, cellulose forms a series of flammable and explosive compounds known as cellulose nitrates, or nitrocelluloses. Pyroxylin, also called collodion cotton, is a nitrate used in various lacquers and plastics; another, collodion, is used in medicine, photography, and the manufacture of artificial leather and some lacquers. A third nitrate, guncotton, is a high explosive.

Celtic
The Celtic was a mail steamer of the White Star Line, launched in 1901. It was 700 feet long, with a gross tonnage of 20880 and a displacement of 37700 tons and a speed of 17 knots.

Cement
Cement is a mixture of chalk and clay used for building.

Cenotaph
A cenotaph is a monument erected in honour of a deceased person, but not containing his body. The Greeks erected cenotaphs, and a number were built in England after the Great War, the most famous is in Whitehall, London which was designed by Sir E Luytens and unveiled by the King on Armistice Day (11th November 1920).

Census
The census is a questionnaire issued every ten years in Britain which gathers detailed figures concerning the population, classified according to sex, age, occupation, size of families and geographical distribution.

Cental
The cental was a weight of 100 pounds legal in Britain since 1879 and used primarily for corn. The term was invented by Danson, a barrister, in order to meet the need for a uniform measure in the Liverpool corn trade. It was first introduced in February 1859, and legalized twenty years later.

Centaurus
Centaurus (the Centaur) is a southern constellation, which is visible chiefly south of the equator. The brightest star in this constellation, Alpha Centauri, is also the third brightest star in the sky. It is about 4.3 light-years from the earth and is the closest visible star to the earth's solar system. The star is actually a double star, with a third star, Proxima Centauri, revolving around the others.

Centiare
A centiare is a French measurement, the hundredth part of an are.

Centner
A centner is a European name for a hundred-weight.

Cento
A cento is a poem formed out of verses taken from one or more poets, so arranged as to form a distinct poem.

Central Criminal Court
The Central Criminal Court was set up in 1834 in the Old Bailey, which stands on the site of old Newgate Prison. Here serious criminal cases from London and the surrounding areas are heard.

Ceres
Ceres is a planet with a diameter of 256 km which was discovered on the 1st of January 1801 by M. Plazzi at Palermo. It was named Ceres after the goddess Ceres who was so highly esteemed by the ancient Sicilians.

Cerium
Cerium is a rare metal element with the symbol Ce.

Ceruleum
Ceruleum is a blue pigment, consisting of stannate of protoxide of cobalt mixed with stannic acid and sulphate of lime.

Cetearth-3
Cetearth-3 is used in cosmetics as an emulsifier and lotion. It dries out the skin and causes numerous allergic reactions.

Ceti
see "Menkar"

Cetyl Alcohol
Cetyl alcohol (fatty alcohol) is a moisturiser used in cosmetics to keep oil and water from separating and also as a foam booster.

CGI
CGI (The Common Gateway Interface) is a specification that allows computer Web servers execute other programs and incorporate their output into the text, graphics, and audio sent to a client Web browser. The server and the CGI program work together to enhance and customise the World Wide Web's capabilities. By providing a standard interface, the CGI specification allows developers use a wide variety of programming tools, such as C and Perl.

Chablis
Chablis is a white burgundy wine produced near the town of the same name in the Yonne departement of central France.

Chain
The chain is a unit of the imperial scale of measurement of length equivalent to 22 yards or 20.168 metres. A chain is comprised of 100 links, each 7.92 inches long. 10 chains equal one furlong, and 10 square chains equal one acre.

Chains
see "chain"

Chaldee
Chaldee is an ancient Semetic language.

Chalder
The chalder was a Scottish dry measure containing 16 bolls, equivalent to 12 imperial quarters. It was originally used in weighing grain.

Chaldron
The chaldron is an old English unit of capacity measurement equivalent to 36 bushels. It was used as a measure of coal in England, equal to 6,800 lbs.

Chalice
A chalice is a ceremonial cup.

Chalk
Chalk is a pure soft limestone, opaque white, and usually formed by the accumulation of the shells of foraminifera together with those of larger marine organisms.

Challenger Expedition
The Challenger Expedition was a voyage for the scientific purposes of investigating the conditions of life in the deep sea of the Atlantic, Pacific and Antarctic Oceans organised in 1872 by the British government. The corvette Challenger started from Sheerness in December 1872 and returned in May 1876 after collecting information about the ocean beds, currents, temperature and also collecting samples of fauna.

Chalybeate Water
Chalybeate Water is water holding iron in solution, either as a carbonate or as a sulphate with or without other salts.

Chambers
In legal talk, chambers are the rooms where barristers do their work before appearing in court.

Chambertin
Chambertin is a high quality red Burgundy wine named after the place where it is produced. It was a favourite with Louis XIV and Napoleon.

Chance-Medley
Chance-Medley is a now obsolete legal term which has been replaced by the term 'manslaughter'. It described a homocide which occurred either in self-defence, on a sudden quarrel, or in the commission of an unlawful act without any deliberate intention of doing mischief.

Changeling
A changeling is a child substituted for another, usually at birth. There was formerly a belief that week or peevish children were changelings, perhaps swapped by fairies or other evil spirits.

Chap-Book
Chap-Books were a type of cheap literature sold cheaply by chapmen and peddlers who hawked them from district to district. They contained stories and biographies of a generally popular nature and were the fore runners of modern periodicals.

Chapadmalal
Chapadmalal is a world famous stud-horse farm in Argentina.

Chaplet
A chaplet is a string of beads used by Roman Catholics to count the number of their prayers. A chaplet is a third of a rosary, and usually consists of fifty-five beads.

Charcoal
Charcoal is an amorphous form of carbon formed by charring wood.

Chargeurs Reunis
The Chargeurs Reunis was a French steamship line established at Paris in 1872, running between Havre and Indo-China, east Africa and South America.

Chariot
A chariot was a two wheeled vehicle used in ancient warfare.

Charterhouse
Charterhouse is a celebrated school and charitable foundation in the city of London. It was built in 1371 as a priory for Carthusian monks by Sir Walter Manny. After the dissolution of the monasteries it passed through several hands until it came to Thomas Sutton who converted it into a hospital and school. In 1872 it was moved to Godalming and the premises in London sold to the Merchant Taylors' School. New buildings were erected at the original site in 1875.

Chase
In Norman times, a chase (or chace) was a hunting ground stocked with beasts and under private, rather than royal ownership which was called a forest.

Chasing
Chasing is the art of working decorative forms in low-relief in gold, silver or other metals.

Chasuble
A chasuble is the upper garment worn by a priest during the celebration of mass. It was originally circular, had a hole in the middle for the head, but no holes for the arms. In later times the sides were cut away to allow a freer motion.

Chatham Chest
The Chatham Chest (later Greenwich Chest) was a fund established in 1590 on the recommendation of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins for the relief of sick and wounded seamen. The deduction of money from seamen's pay to the fund ceased in 1829 by which time the fund was practically merged in the general relief funds of the Greenwich Hospital.

Chatterton's Compound
Chatterton's Compound is a mixture of Stockholm tar, resin and gutta-percha. It was once used in the construction of submarine telegraph cables.

Chausses
Chausses were a tight covering for the legs and body, reaching to the waist, and worn by almost all men of Europe at one time.

Chauvinism
Chauvinism is fanatical devotion to a cause, especially patriotism. The term comes from Nicholas Chauvin who was a soldier so enthusiastically devoted to Napoleon that his comrades ridiculed him.

Cheese
Cheese is a food made from the curds (solids) of soured milk from cows, sheep, or goats, separated from the whey (liquid), then salted, put into moulds, and pressed into firm blocks. Cheese is ripened with bacteria or surface fungi, and kept for a time to mature before eating. There are six main types of cheese. Soft cheeses may be ripe or unripe, and include cottage cheese and high-fat soft cheeses such as Bel Paese, Camembert, and Neufchatel. Semi-hard cheeses are ripened by bacteria (Munster) or by bacteria and surface fungi (Port Salut, Gouda, St Paulin); they may also have penicillin moulds injected into them (Roquefort, Gorgonzola, Blue Stilton, Wensleydale). Hard cheeses are ripened by bacteria, and include Cheddar, Cheshire, and Cucciocavallo; some have large cavities within them, such as Swiss Emmental and Gruyere. Very hard cheeses, such as Parmesan and Spalen, are made with skimmed milk. Processed cheese is made with dried skim-milk powder and additives, and whey cheese is made by heat coagulation of the proteins from whey; examples are Mysost and Primost. From 1980 in France a cheese has the same appellation controlee status as wine if it is made only in a special defined area – for example, Cantal and Roquefort are appellation controlee cheeses, but not Camembert and Brie, which are made in more than one region.

Cheese Aerial
A cheese aerial is a type of rotatable aerial employed in Radar on the centimetric waveband. It consists of a parabolic metallic reflector, and is usually fed by a waveguide.

Chemdet
Chemdet is an anionic drilling detergent for drilling muds. It is added to water based mud systems to reduce the surface tension.

Chemical Bond
Chemical bond is the force retaining two atoms together in a molecule as, for example, the force exerted by a pair of shared electrons.

Chemical change
In chemistry, chemical change is a change in which the chemical structure of a substance is changed.

Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of the composition of substances.

Cheng
The cheng is a Chinese musical instrument. It is comprised of a series of tubes with free reeds. Its introduction into Europe led to the development of the accordion and harmonium.

Chenille
Chenille is an ornamental fabric made by weaving or twisting together warp-like threads with a weft the loose ends of which protrude all round in the form of a pile.

Chess
Chess is a game of skill played on a chequered board.

Chest
A chest was a British measurement of tea ranging from 80 to 84 lbs.

Chica
Chica is an organge-red pigment prepared from Bignnia Chica by the Indians of the upper Orinoco and Rio Negro in South America and used to adorn the person.

Chicken pox
Chicken pox is an infectious disease of children and adults.

Chicle
Chicle is a gum-like substance obtained from the bully tree and used for making chewing gum.

Chilli
Chilli is a spice, being either the pod or powder of capsicum.

Chintz
Originally, chintz was a painted or stained calico imported from India.

Chiton
A chiton was a simple garment extending half-way to the knee and worn in ancient Greece.

Chloral Hydrate
Chloral Hydrate is a crystalline compound of the marsh gas series, discovered by Liebig in 1831, which, when taken dissolved in water, produces deep sleep, but not insensibility to pain.

Chloralum
Chloralum is a compound of chlorine and aluminium used as an antiseptic and disinfectant invented by Gamgee in 1870.

Chlorate
A chlorate is a salt formed by the reaction of chloric acid and metal.

Chlorates
see "chlorate"

Chlordane
Chlordane is a man-made chemical that was registered for use as a pesticide in the United States from 1948 to the present. It is a tan, glassy substance (almost solid) that has a mild, irritating smell. Chlordane is not a single chemical, but is a mixture of more than 50 chemicals. Because it does not dissolve in water, before it can be used, it must be placed in water with emulsifiers (soap-like substances) to make a milky-looking mixture of liquid particles. It was used mainly to stop termites in houses and was used on corn and other crops. The presence of chlordane in the soil under a house will kill termites that come into contact with it and will repel or kill any that might try to enter the house at a later time. The production of chlordane by industries and registration of the pesticide with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for all above-ground uses had stopped by 1983, but above-ground use of any chlordane that was still on store shelves or already bought was still allowed until April 14, 1988. In the fall of 1987, use of chlordane to kill termites was allowed only on the outside of buildings, and other uses were suspended in April of 1988 until more information was gathered on the amount of chlordane in air. Use of chlordane was stopped mainly because of concern over cancer risk, evidence of human exposure and build up in body fat, persistence in the environment, and danger to wildlife. This compound stays in the environment for many years and is still found in food, air, water, and soil, and is also present in some form in the fat of almost all humans.

Chlordiazepoxide hydrochloride
Chlordiazepoxide hydrochloride (Librax, Libritabs, Librium, Mesural, Multum, Risolid, Silibrin, Sonimen, Zetran) is an orally ingested or injected limbic Central Nervous System depressant used in medicine for the management of anxiety disorders or the short-term relief of anxiety.

Chloric acid
Chloric acid is a oxyacid of chlorine. It is a powerful oxidising agent.

Chlorine
Chlorine is a gaseous element with the symbol Cl.

Chloroform
Chloroform (trichloRomethane) is a compound of carbon, hydrogen and chlorine, and was made from alcohol, water and bleaching powder. It was discovered by Soubeiran in 1831 and independently by Liebig in 1832. It was first used as an anaesthetic in 1847.

Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll is the green colouring matter of plant leaves and absorbs the light necessary for photosynthesis. Chlorophyll absorbs mainly red, violet, and blue light and reflects green light. The great abundance of chlorophyll in leaves and its occasional presence in other plant tissues, such as stems, causes these plant parts to appear green. In some leaves, chlorophyll is masked by other pigments. Chlorophyll is a large molecule composed mostly of carbon and hydrogen. At the center of the molecule is a single atom of magnesium surrounded by a nitrogen-containing group of atoms called a porphyrin ring. The structure somewhat resembles that of the active constituent of hemoglobin in the blood. A long chain of carbon and hydrogen atoms proceeds from this central core and attaches the chlorophyll molecule to the inner membrane of the chloroplast, the cell organelle in which photosynthesis takes place. As a molecule of chlorophyll absorbs a photon of light, its electrons become excited and move to higher energy levels. This initiates a complex series of chemical reactions in the chloroplast that enables the energy to be stored in chemical bonds.

Chlorpromazine hydrochloride
Chlorpromazine hydrochloride (Thorazine) is a depressive drug which is orally ingested or injected. It has undetermined psychotropic effects on the Central Nervous System and is used in the management of manic psychotic disorders and disturbances.

Chocolate
Chocolate is a confectionery made from cocoa beans and introduced to Europe from Mexico and Brazil about 1520. It was sold in the London coffee-houses in 1650.

Cholera
Cholera is an infectious disease caused by the micro organism Vibrio cholerae. It is endemic in India and some other tropical countries and occasionally spreading to temperate climates. The symptoms of cholera are diarrhea and the loss of water and salts in the stool. In severe cholera, the patient develops violent diarrhea with characteristic "rice-water stools," vomiting, thirst, muscle cramps, and sometimes circulatory collapse. Death can occur as quickly as a few hours after the onset of symptoms. The mortality rate is more than 50 percent in untreated cases, but falls to less than 1 percent with proper treatment. Treatment consists mainly of intravenous or oral replacement of fluids and salts. Packets for dilution containing the correct mixture of sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate, and glucose have been made widely available by the WHO. Most patients recover in three to six days. Antibiotics such as tetracyclines, ampicillin, chloramphenicol, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole can shorten the duration of the disease, but have their own long term risks in damage to the immune system.

Cholesterol
Cholesterol is a steroid alcohol present in animal cells and body fluids.

Choline Magnesium Trisalicylate
Choline magnesium trisalicylate is a drug used to treat arthritis; mild-to-moderate pain and fever. It has the possible side effects of: ringing in the ears and hearing loss, nausea, vomiting, gastric distress, hidden bleeding, rash, hypersensitivity manifested by shock and/or asthma.

Chorten
see "Tope"

Christie's
Christie's is a famous fine art auction house in London founded in 1766.

Chromatic Aberration
Chromatic aberration is the presence of prismatic colours at the edges of an optical image due to the refractive index of the lens material being different for light of different frequencies.

Chromium
Chromium is a metal element with the symbol Cr.

Chromosome
A chromosome is a chemical found in all cells which determines how the cell will act.

Chronoscope
The chronoscope is an apparatus invented by Wheatstone in 1840 to measure small intervals of time.

Church Ale
Church ales were important social and money-raising functions in the Tudor and Stuart periods in England. The churchwardens at this time sold, or distributed free of charge, ale and food, sometimes in the church house or in a barn or in the church itself, with the purpose of attracting local residents where they might then be induced to pay the parish rates.

Chutney
Chutney is a condiment composed of fruits, acids and spices used extensively in India, and from there introduced to the West.

Cider
Cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented apple juice. The manufacture consists in crushing the apples and squeezing out the juice. The juice is poured into casks, where it ferments and clears itself of impurities. The strength and flavour of the cider is dependant upon the variety of apple used.

Cincinnati Royals
The Cincinnati Royals are an American professional basketball team. The club was originally formed as the Rochester Royals.

Cinematograph Films Act
The Cinematograph Films Act of 1927 was a British act of Parliament which came into force on April 1st 1928 for a ten year period until March 31st 1938. The act required that British renters of films included in their output a certain proportion of films made in the British Empire. Exhibitors of films were also required to show a proportion of British films. The proportions were on a sliding scale, gradually increasing over the ten year period.

Cinnamic Acid
Cinnamic Acid or phenylacrylic acid is a white, crystalline organic compound found naturally in combination in some balsams and prepared synthetically by heating benzaldehyde with sodium acetate in the presence of acetic anhydride.

Circuit
A circuit is a path for electrical current. Current can flow only when the circuit is closed, that is when it presents a continuous conductive path.

Citral
see "Geranial"

Citric acid
Citric acid is found in citrus fruits. It has the formulae c6h807.

City Line
The City Line was an English steampship company plying between Glasgow and Liverpool, London and Bombay and Karachi. It was founded in 1839 by George Smith and Sons and sold in 1901 to J R Ellerman.

Clan Line
The Clan Line was an English steamship line begun in 1878 conducting a fortnightly service from Liverpool and Glasgow to Karachi and Bombay. In 1881 and 1882 the business was expanded and started calling also at south and east African ports, Colombo, Madras and Calcutta. In 1893 the service was further extended with a service from New York to south and east African ports.

Claque
A claque was a body of men hired to applaud, laugh and weep as appropriate in theatres with the intention of making the show a success. It originated in France around 1760 and ceased around 1878.

Clarendon Press
The Clarendon Press was the name formerly given to the press at the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1672 and the printing house erected in 1711 to 1713 with profits from the sale of Lord Clarendon's 'History of the Rebellion', the copyright of which was given to the university by his son. Since 1830 the press has been known as the Oxford University Press.

Clarinet
A clarinet (clarionet) is a woodwind musical instrument of the reed kind invented by Johann Denner in Nuremberg around 1690.

Clarion
A clarion is a musical instrument of the trumpet family.

Clarionet
see "Clarinet"

Claris CAD
Claris CAD is a drawing and drafting program that provides most of the features required by professional artists, draftspeople, and engineers creating two-dimensional drawings. It is one of the most comprehensive design programs available on the Macintosh. There are many tools available for geometric construction including double line drawing, spline and freehand curves, the ability to join lines into polygons, and the ability to unjoin the lines in an object. Rotating objects around a point and mirroring objects around a line is easy. Claris CAD includes many tools that aid in precise placement of objects and text. You can create an unlimited number of layers that can be viewed in any combination. Each layer can use multiple scales of measurement. Dimensioning can be automatic and is easily edited. You have a choice of linear, radial, diametral, and angular dimensioning, and all can be preset or custom-made. Claris CAD offers a wide variety of features, including 25 drawing tools and tool modifiers; up to four different ways of drawing objects; the ability to have precise specifications for the size, location, and angles of objects in a drawing; automatic updating of drawings to meet new specifications; support of the five drawing standards used in professional drawing environments; precise zoom controls; and the ability to manage several windows on the screen at one time. Fonts can range in size from one point to 127 points. Style sizes and justifications can be combined. Text can be coloured and rotated. Claris CAD allows you to create libraries of objects that can be recalled by sight or name. Claris CAD includes MacPlot drivers to support Hewlett-Packard and Houston Instrument plotters.

Clef
In music, a clef is a sign placed at the beginning of a stave to indicate the pitch and name of notes. There are now only three clefs in use: the treble or G clef; the base or F clet; and the C clef. The G clef consists of the five highest lines, the F clef of the five lowest lines, of the great stave.

Cleopatra's Needle
Cleopatra's Needle is a famous monolith which was erected at Heliopolis around 1500 BC before the great temple which stood there. It was removed to Alexandria by Augustus Caesar in 14 BC and presented to England by Mehemet Ali in 1819 and brought to London in 1878 by Sir Erasmus Wilson (the British government thinking it not worth the cost of removal) and erected on the Thames embankment between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge. It is made of granite and stands roughly 21 meters tall.

Clepsydra
A clepsydra was a Greek and Roman water clock which measured time by the rate of the flow of water through small holes at the bottom of an earthenware globe.

Clerestory
The clerestory is that part of the walls of a Gothic church which rise above the aisle and contains a row of windows. Its purpose being to admit as much light as possible to the nave.

Click
Click is a peculiar variety of speech which occurs in the Bushman and Hottentot languages. The sounds are produced by pressing the tongue against some portion of the teeth-ridge or palate, and then quickly withdrawing it so as to produce an implosive click.

Climate
Climate is the average state of the atmosphere with regard to warmth, wind, rain and other variable conditions throughout a long period of time. It is dependant on the interaction of atmospheric conditions, such as wind, cloud, temperature and rainfall and on the surface features of the earth itself, such as the distribution of land and water, mountains and ocean currents. Hence it may vary considerably in places only a few kilometres apart.

Clincher-built
see "Clinker-built"

Clinker-built
Clinker-built, formerly clincher-built, was a term applied to a boat or ship built with the lower edge of each plank overlapping the one below it, like the tiles on a roof.

Clipper
A clipper is a sharp bowed fast sailing vessel.
Clipper is a database development tool based on the dBase III Plus file structure. All code developed with Clipper can be linked and compiled into machine-executed code that can be run directly from the DOS prompt. Clipper allows many enhancements to the database parameters of dBase III Plus and dBase IV and offers the ability to create user-defined functions, link object files compiled with other languages (such as C and assembler) and data arrays, and call external programs. No runtime module is required. Clipper contains a library, an error handler, a debugger, and a compiler. The library stores frequently used routines. The error handler system lets a programmer control the response of an application when and where errors occur. The debugger assists in finding and correcting both logical and execution errors. The compiler translates the source code into an executable format. Once the source code is debugged and compiled, the program (stored in an executable file) will run faster than non-compiled dBase III Plus programs. This executable file can be transported to any machine. You do not need Clipper or a runtime version to run the compiled program. Clipper makes it easy to create multi-user applications that support record and file locking and can open files for shared or exclusive access. It supports single and multi-user commands with no need to purchase additional runtime licences or multi-user versions.

Cloak
A cloak is a loose fitting, usually sleeveless outer garment.

Clog
A clog is a wooden soled, leather uppered boot.

Cloisonne
Cloisonne is a form of decorative enamel.

Clonidine Hydrochloride
Clonidine hydrochloride is a drug used to treat control high blood pressure; to suppress abstinence symptoms during narcotics withdrawal. It has the possible side effects of: drowsiness, dizziness, fatigue, sedation, nervousness, headache, dizziness on changing position quickly, mouth dryness, constipation and itching.

Clonus
Clonus is a rapidly alternating contraction and relaxation of muscles, resulting in violent tremors of part of a limb.

Clotted Cream
Clotted Cream is made by allowing milk to stand in shallow pans for 12 hours at 60 degrees farenheight and then gently heating it to 180 degrees farenheight until the surface becomes wrinkled. More cream is separated by this system and it is more easily churned, and the scalding cures taints. Clotted cream contains about 67.5 per cent butterfat.

Cloud
A cloud is a mist formed above the ground by floating water particles.

Clove hitch
The clove hitch is a knot.

Cloxacillin Sodium
Cloxacillin sodium is a drug used to treat systemic infections. It has the possible side effects of: Nausea, vomiting, stomach distress, diarrhoea and hypersensitivity (rash, itching, chills, fever, sneezing and/or wheezing)

Clubmen
Clubmen were associations founded in the southern and western counties of England, to restrain the excesses of the armies during the civil wars oif 1642 - 1649. They professed neutrality, but inclined towards the king, and were considered enemies by his opponents.

Clutch
A clutch is an apparatus by which two rotating shafts may be connected or disconnected for the purpose of causing one to drive the other.

Co-axial Cable
Co-axial cable is cable consisting of two conductors, one a central wire and the other a cylinder concentric with the wire, the space between them being filled with a dielectric.

Co-education
Co-education is the education of the two sexes together, not only in the same institution, but also in the same classes. The idea is coincident with the belief that the mental capacities of boys and girls are equal, and that their roles should to a large extent be interchangeable.

Co-respondent
A co-respondent is the person charged with adultery jointly with the defendant spouse on a divorce petition, or a joint defendant to an appeal.

Coal
Coal is a solid combustible material of vegetable origin occurring in a fossilised state.

Coal-tar
Coal-tar is a thick black viscous liquid produced by the destructive distillation of coal. Coal-tar yields benzene, creosote, paraffin, aniline and dyes.

Coalition
A coalition is an alliance of States or political parties for common action on a specified policy.

Coast
In geography, the coast is the edge of land in contact with the sea.

Coastal Trade
Coastal trade is sea-borne trade between different ports in the same country.

Coaster
A coaster is a ship which carries cargo around a country's coast.

Coastguard Service
The British Coastguard Service was established in 1923 as a department of the Board of Customs and Excise for the protection of British shores. The Coastguard Service is involved with life-saving, providing aid to ships, the prevention of smuggling and certain customs services.

Coaxial Cable
A coaxial cable is a cable in which one conductor surrounds the other. The electromagnetic wave travels between the grounded outer shield and the central conductor. Coaxials can carry much wider bandwidth and higher frequencies than twisted wire pair, while suffering less interference problems due to the grounded outer conductor. Where the maximum frequency capable on twisted pair wiring is about 16 megahertz and then only for short distances, coaxial cable readily carries several hundred megahertz for 300 metres.

Cobalt
Cobalt is a metal element with the symbol Co. It was discovered among the ore veins in Cornwall in early times and called mundic by the miners. It was identified as a metal in 1733 by Brandt.

Cobden Club
The Cobden Club was an institution formed to spread and develop Codben's principles. It held its first meeting in 1866 with Gladstone in the chair.

Coble
A coble was a low, flat-bottomed boat with a square stern formerly used in the cod and turbot fishing industries. It weighed about one ton, was twenty feet long and five feet wide, rowed by three pairs of oars and fitted with a lug-sail. It was well adapted for encountering a heavy swell and were extensively used on the north-east coast of Britain in the early twentieth century. The term is also applied to a smaller boat used in salmon fishing.

COBOL
COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language) is a computer programming language described by hackers as "a weak, verbose, and flabby language used by card wallopers to do boring mindless things on dinosaur mainframes".

Coca
Coca is the dried leaves of the South American shrub, Erythroxylon Coca, from which cocaine is extracted.

Coca Wine
Coca Wine (vinum cocoe) was a wine used for stimulating purposes around 1905, consisting of one part coca and eight parts sherry. It was strongly medicated, containing half a grain of alkaloid in the ounce. It was largely consumbed by drunks who bought it from licensed grocers. A weaker preparation was sold by wine merchants. It was probably the inspiration for the non-alcoholic drink Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is the trade name of a sweetened, carbonated drink, originally made with coca leaves and flavoured with cola nuts, and containing caramel and caffeine. It was invented in 1886 and sold in every state of the USA by 1895 and in 155 countries by 1987.

Cocaine
Cocaine is an alkaloid derived from the leaves of the coca plant. It is a white crystalline powder used as a local anaesthetic and also as a euphoric drug.

Cocamidopropyl betaine
Cocamidopropyl betaine (CAPB) is a surfactant used in shampoos, detergents, and cleansing lotions. CAPB is an aklkylamidobetaine and functions as an amphoteric surfactant with anionic and cationic properties depending on pH. Betaines are less foaming than other surfactants and are expensive; however, they are relatively gentle to the skin, have a low potential to irritate the eyes, have good conditioning characteristics, and have antibacterial activity.

Cocamidopropyl Betaine
Cocamidopropyl betaine (CAPB) is an increasingly used surfactant in shampoos, detergents, and cleansing lotions. CAPB is an aklkylamidobetaine and functions as an amphoteric surfactant with anionic and cationic properties depending on pH. Betaines are less foaming than other surfactants and are expensive; however, they are relatively gentle to the skin, have a low potential to irritate the eyes, have good conditioning characteristics, and have antibacterial activity. A number of cases of contact allergy to CAPB has been reported in the past several years.

Coccidiosis
Coccidiosis is a disease of rabbits caused by the Coccidium coccidia and detected by small yellow spots on the liver. It was commonly mistaken for tuberculosis at one time until the discovery of the coccidia organisms.

Cock-Lane Ghost
The Cock-Lane Ghost was a hoax conducted by William Parsons, his wife, daughter and a female ventriloquist during 1760 and 1761 at number 33 Cock-lane, London. In the house, unaccountable noises were heard and a number of persons declared to have seen a ghost. To spite a previous lodger, Kemt, the owner of the house claimed the ghost was a lady poisoned by Kemt. The truth was discovered and the parents were condemned to the pillory and two years imprisonment in 1762.

Cockade
A cockade is a kind of rosette worn in the hat by men-servants of naval and military officers, or of individuals holding office under the Crown. It was formerly worn in the hats of soldiers.

Cocoon
Cocoon is the name given to the silken case enveloping the chrysalis of several Lepidoptera, especially the silk moths. The term is also applied to the silk sack in which spiders wrap their eggs.

Codeine
Codeine is an alkaloid derived from opium used as a pain killer and a sedative.

Coefficient
In science a coefficient is a pure numeric characteristic of some property of a material. It appears in the form of a constant multiplying a term or terms in an equation expressing the behaviour of the material in question.

Coemption
In Roman law, coemption was a form of civil marriage by a fictious sale of the two parties to each other.

Coercion
In law, coercion is moral or physical pressure employed to force a person to do some act. In civil law, where an act is required to be done freely, such as in marriage etc., it will be invalidated by the element of coercion.

Cofferdam
A cofferdam is a particular form of temporary dam used to exclude water from the site of docks, quay-walls, or the abutments of bridges during construction.

Cognitive Development
Cognitive Development was an English bulletin board system (BBS) operated during the early 1990s specialising in artificial intelligence and computer virus information. The BBS was deemed controversial for its open distribution of computer viruses and was condemned by the British computer press (notably Personal Computer World) but its activities were found not to be aimed at computer crime, but at assisting PC users in combating virus attacks.

Coke
Coke is the residue, mainly amorphous carbon, left on heating bituminous coal and thus driving off its volatile constituents, or on heating hydrocarbons to a point at which they decompose with deposition of carbon (cracking).

Col
In geography, a col is a narrow, high pass through a mountain chain formed by the meeting of river or glacier valleys from opposite sides of the range.

Colchicine
Colchicine is an alkaloid derived from meadow saffron.

Coley's Fluid
Coley's fluid was a fluid obtained by the culture of the bacili of erysipelas, streptococci, and staphtlococci used in the treatment of cancer.

Colic
Colic is severe abdominal griping pains.

Colitis
Colitis is inflammation of the colon.

Collectivism
Collectivism is a social system in which capital, natural resources, productive plant and all the means of wealth are held by the community. The word was first used by the anarchist, Bakunin to differentiate his policy from Marxism.

Collier
A collier is a medium-sized bulk carrier ship normally operated on coastal and short-sea routes.

Collodion
Collodion is a solution of nitro-cellulose in a mixture of alcohol and ether. Collodion is a thick and very inflammable liquid used in the manufacture of artificial silk, artificial leather, artificial pearls and photography. Iodised collodion, used in photography, was invented by Scott Archer in 1851.

Colloids
In chemistry, colloids are particles which are intermediate in size between crystalloids that form true solutions and suspensions that eventually settle.

Collops
Collops is a British dish of minced meat fried with onions and then slowly cooked in stock.

Colonnade
A colonnade is a row of columns, frequently covered with a roof projecting from an adjacent building. Colonnades were common in ancient Greece.

Colophon
A colophon is the notice found in manuscripts and printed books which gives the name of the printer and the date and place of issue etc.

Colorimetry
Colorimetry is the measurement of the depth of colour of liquids for the purpose of inferring their chemical compositions.

Colosseum
The Colosseum is a famous building in Rome. Its construction started under Emperor Vespasian in 72 and was completed in 80. The Colosseum was intended for gladiatorial combats and is shaped in a large ellipse with tiers of stone benches around a central space, and no roof.

Colossus
A colossus is a statue exceeding life size. The famous Colossus of Rhodes was a bronze statue of Helios which was reckoned to be about 30 meters tall.

Colt 45s
see "Houston Astros"

Columbium
Columbium is an alternative name for the element Niobium, so named from being discovered in the mineral columbite.

Column
In architecture, a column is an upright support in a building, usually of stone, with a decorated base and capital.

Coma
A coma is a state of deep unconsciousness.

Coma Berenices
Coma Berenices is a constellation of small stars situated east of Leo and above Virgo. According to legend, it is the beautiful hair of Queen Berenice of Egypt who consecrated it to Aphrodite.

Comb
A comb is a toothed instrument for arranging and smoothing hair. Combs have been used at least since the times of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.

Combining weight
In chemistry, the combining weight is the weight of an element which will combine with 8 grams of oxygen,or 1.008 grams of hydrogen.

Combustion
Combustion is the process of oxidation when it proceeds with sufficient violence and velocity to give rise to the easily apparent phenomena of heat and light.

Comet
A comet is a small body orbiting the sun on an elliptical path with a long tail of dust and ice.

Commensalism
Commensalism is the regular association of different species and genera of plants and animals living together, but independently. Either or both species may benefit by the association. For example, certain bacteria and fungi grow together on a substratum on which either will grow separately, but when the bacteria are present the fungi grow better and are more fruitful.

Commode
A commode is an occasional table supported by a cupboard, sometimes also with drawers. They were very popular in the 18th century. The term is also applied to a bedside cupboard.

Commune of Paris
The Commune of Paris was a period of anarchy and bloodshed in Paris at the end of the Franco-German war. It lasted from March 18th until May 28th 1871, and began with the refusal of the Paris National Guards to give up their arms, their murder of General Thomas and General Lecomte and their organisation of themselves into a Central Committee. On March the 18th, Thiers, the head of the national government, retired with the regular troops to Versailles, and the Parisian central committee assumed the executive power in Paris. They proceeded to elect a communal council of seventy-five members on March the 26th and April the 16th. This body passed resolutions for the abolition of conscription, free rent for the quarters October 1870 to April 1871, complete separation of the church and state, the supression of the budget for public worship and the restitution to the nation of all property held by ecclesiastical bodies in mortmain, enforced enrolment in the National Guard of every man between 19 and 35, the institution of a labour commission, the establishment of cooperative workshops, all education to be in the hands of the laity only. They were finally defeated by the army who shot their communist prisoners without trial.

Communism
Communism is a political system in which major industries are operated by and for the benefit of the entire society, as opposed to the benefit of a small number of shareholders or the owner. Often dismissed as an unworkable system by opponents, communist societies function splendidly among less industrial people such as the Chiquitos of South America, however the system is very prone to being wrecked by individual greed.

Compactor
A compactor is a device which crushes and compresses rubbish into small and convenient parcels.

Companion of Honour
The Companion of Honour is a British order of chivalry, founded by George V in 1917. It is of one class only, and carries no title, but Companions append 'CH' to their names. The number is limited to 65 and the award is made to both men and women.

Compass
A compass is an instrument for finding direction.

Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that translates high level language code into machine language code. It was invented by Grace Murray Hopper in 1951.

Compost
Compost is a mixture of manures, or earths and manures, varying in proportions and quality to suit different plants and used by gardeners to feed their plants and improve soil quality.

Compound
A compound is a substance made of two or more elements and differing from a mixture in that the elements are present in a constant proportion no matter how or where the compound is prepared.

Compton Effect
The Compton Effect is the experimental proof by A. H. Compton in 1923 that X-rays, scattered by falling on a solid such as carbon are altered in frequency. The experiment affords proof that light is at once wave-like and particle-like in nature.

Compurgation
Compurgation was an ancient form of procedure in criminal cases whereby a prisoner succeeded if he could find a sufficient number of people, depending on the gravity of the charge, to swear to his innocence.

Computer
A computer is a programmable electronic device.

Conacre
Conacre is a term applied to a system common in Ireland of under-letting a portion of a farm for a single crop, the rent being paid to the farmer in money or labour.

Conation
In psychology, conation is a term used by Sir William Hamilton to designate one of the three great divisions of the mind, the other two being cognition and feeling. As used by him it included the mental states of desire and volition alone; but modern writers make the term broad enough to include every state of mental change, so that we find conation wherever consciousness, of itself, drifts from one state to another. Although akin to feeling and attention, it is distinct from both. The word is occasionally applied to those sensations, whether painful or pleasant, which accompany muscular activity. The adjective ''conative'' was first used by Cudworth in 1688.

Concertina
A concertina is a wind musical instrument comprised of bellows and two keyboards. It was invented in 1829 by Wheatstone.

Conchology
Conchology is the scientific study of shells. It was first reduced to a system by John Major of Kiel in 1675.

Conciliation
Conciliation is the settlement of a dispute by reference to a commission which makes a report, but does not give an award or judgement.

Concordat
Originally a concordat was any pact or agreement; later one between ecclesiastical and secular authorities, and especially one between the Pope and a temporal ruler concerning ecclesiastical matters within the latter's domains.

Concorde
Concorde is an all-in-one graphics program for business and presentation applications. It combines text, business graphics, free-form drawing and also painting and has a slideshow capability with animation, into one integrated program. There is also a large clip-art library of images spanning almost 20 diskettes. Concorde has an image database of over 2000 symbols, maps, icons and pictures which can be incorporated into charts or you can create your own drawings. All images can be flipped, rotated or cut and pasted. The product includes a library of animations for show-time presentations. Slide shows can be created as self running or manually controlled. A library of catchy tunes is included to accompany any portion of the presentation. Concorde creates numerous graphs, including three dimensional, clustered, stacked, single and multiple line bar charts, pie and exploded pie charts, x-y, scatter, stretched and stacked icon and also multiple area graphs. You can automatically label and size any chart and can select colours and textures. Text can be moved, copied, merged with images and graphs or saved as a text slide. Any graph can be edited horizontally and vertically or rescaled. There are fifteen medium and high resolution font styles, which can be scaled to any size. All text is proportionally spaced. Concorde reads DIF, Lotus 1-2-3, Symphony and SYLK files. You can capture any graphics or text screen with Concorde's Capture program. While Concorde offers a multitude of presentation capabilities, its strength is in putting together PC-based slide shows. Copied to self-running disks, these shows produce effective marketing or training tools. Concorde is useful for creating tutorials or program demonstrations.

Concrete
Concrete is a building material of cement, sand, stone and water.

Conductor
In physics, a conductor is a substance in which free electrons and/or ions are available to move under the influence of an electric field and thus to produce the phenomenon known as electric current. A conductor must therefore exist in a state of at least partial ionisation.

Confucianism
Confucianism is an ancient Chinese doctrine. It takes its name from its supposed founder - Confucious, but predates him and Confucious never claimed to do more than preserve the virtues of the past. Confucianism inculates no worship of a god, and is probably then an adaptation of Tao. It is widely practised in China and Korea.

Conga
The conga is an Afro-Cuban dance usually performed in a long line using simple repetitive steps.

Congo Red
Congo Red is a dye belonging to the azo-dyes. It is manufactured from benzidine and napthionic acid, and can be used directly on cotton without employing a mordant.

Conia
Conia is the volatile alkaloid poison found in hemlock.

Consanguinity
Consanguinity is the relation between persons descended from a common ancestor.

Conscience Clause
A conscience clause is a clause in certain British Acts of Parliament which dispenses people from certain duties if they have religious objections to their performance.

Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory training of every eligible man for military service.

Consecration
Consecration is the act of dedicating a thing or person to the special service of a god.

Conservatives
The Conservatives are a political party, the name being invented by John Croker in 1830, whose leading principal is the preservation of national institutions. The Conservatives evolved from the earlier Tory party, and are still referred to as Tories.

CONSIGHT
CONSIGHT is an industrial machine vision object-recognition system which uses lighting effects to produce silhouette-like images.

Consistory Court
The Consistory Court is the spiritual court of a diocesan bishop in the Church of England presided over by a lawyer, his Chancellor, administering ecclesiastical law. In the Church of Rome it is a meeting of Cardinals presided over by the Pope to discuss important ecclesiastical affairs.

Console
In architecture, a console is an ornamental bracket used to support a cornice, usually in a curved form.

Consomme
Consomme is a thin clear soup made from stock.

Constant
In mathematics a constant is a fixed value.

Constantan
Constantan is an alloy of copper and nickel.

Constellation
A constellation, in astronomy, is a divisional area of the sky. Generally it is a group of fixed stars named after a mythological person or animal.

Constipation
Constipation is irregular and insufficient evacuation of the bowels.

Constituency
A constituency is a body of electors.

Consulate
A consulate is a building in which a consul transacts his official business.

Contempt of Court
Contempt of Court is the disobedience to, or disregard of the rules, orders, or dignity of a court, and is punishable by fine or committal to prison. Less serious offences may sometimes be purged by an apology.

Continental System
The Continental System was a plan devised by Napoleon to exclude Britain from all intercourse with the continent of Europe. It began with the decree of Berlin November 21st 1806, by which the British Islands were declared to be in a state of blockade; all commerce, intercourse and correspondence were prohibited; every Briton found in France, or a country occupied by French troops, was declared a prisoner of war; all property belonging to Britons, fair prize, and all trade in goods from Britain or British colonies entirely prohibited. Britain replied by orders in council prohibiting trade with French ports, and declaring all harbours of France and allies subjected to the same restrictions as if they were closely blockaded. Further decrees on the part of France, of a still more stringent kind, declared all vessels of whatever flag, which had been searched by a British vessel or paid duty to Britain, denationalised, and directing the burning of all British goods. The decrees were annulled at the fall of Napoleon in 1814.

Contraband
Contraband is the term used to describe goods which are prohibited to be imported or exported by the laws of a state.

Contract
Contract is a legal term for an agreement made between two or more persons which is recognised by law and whereby each party to the agreement undertakes to do, or to refrain from doing, a particular act in consideration of the other party undertaking to do, or refraining from doing, some other specified act.

Contract Bridge
Contract Bridge is a variety of Auction Bridge in which only the exact number of tricks which the declarer contracts to make score towards the game. The variety evolved around 1912, and gained popularity from 1930 onwards.

Contract Note
A contract note is the summary of a contract sent by a broker or agent to his principal.

Contralto
In music, contralto is the highest voice of a male adult, or the lowest of a woman or boy. It is also known as Alto or counter-tenor.

Convention of Gastein
The Convention of Gastein was signed by Austria and Prussia in 1865 at the close of the Schleswig-Holstein War. By it Schleswig was ceded to Prussia and Holstein to Austria.

Conveyancing
Conveyancing is the transfer by mutual consent of the parties of real property by means of written documents, or conveyances.

Convocation
A convocation is an assembly of the clergy of England, belonging either to the province of Canterbury or to that of York, to consult on ecclesiastical matters.

Convulsions
Convulsions are involuntary contractions of muscles which are usually under conscious control.

Conway's Law
In computing, Conway's Law is the rule that the organisation of the software and the organisation of the software team will be congruent; originally stated as "If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler". This was originally promulgated by Melvin Conway, an early proto-hacker who wrote an assembler for the Burroughs 220 called SAVE. The name `SAVE' didn't stand for anything; it was just that you lost fewer card decks and listings because they all had SAVE written on them.

Cooked Mode
In computing, cooked mode is the normal character-input mode, with interrupts enabled and with erase, kill and other special-character interpretations done directly by the tty driver. Most generally, `cooked mode' may refer to any mode of a system that does extensive pre-processing before presenting data to a program.

Cooking
Cooking is the art of preparing food for the table by subjecting it to heat in various ways. In its higher developments, cooking also involves making the food attractive to the eye.

Coon-can
Coon-can is a card game for between 2 and 7 players, and is derived from an old Spanish game called Conquian.

Cooperage
Cooperage is the making of wooden vessels by binding strips or staves of wood with hoops to form cylinders (barrels, casks etc.). The art probably started for preserving wine. The coopers of London were incorporated in 1501.

Copaiba
Copaiba is a mixture of resin and volatile oil which pours from the cut stems of species of Copaifera trees indigenous to tropical America. In small doses copaiba is a diuretic.

Copal
Copal is a naturally occurring resin used in varnish where it is dissolved in alcohol or turpentine.

Cope
A cope is a silken vestment, open in the front and reaching to the feet, used in the Roman Catholic Church and more rarely in the Church of England.

Copophone
The copophone is a musical instrument consisting of a series of glass tumblers connected with a sounding board. The sounds are produced by moving wet fingers around the edge of the glasses. It was invented by Chevalier Coelho who first demonstrated it at parties in London in 1875.

Copper Sulphate
Copper Sulphate (blue stone) is a copper salt found naturally as chalcanthite and made by the action of sulphuric acid on copper oxide. It usually exists as blue crystals and is used in electroplating and in plant sprays.

Coppice
A coppice or copse is a small wood.

Copra
Copra is the dried flesh of the coconut.

Coprolite
Coprolite is the fossilised excrement of reptiles (dinosaur dung, so to speak). They occur in the form of nodules and contain a lot of phosphatic material. The term has come to apply to any phosphatic nodule.

Coprophilia
Coprophilia is the rather unusual condition of deriving sexual pleasure from faeces and excrement.

Copse
see "Coppice"

Coptic
Coptic is a Hamitic language descended from ancient Egyptian, and extinct from about 1700.

Cordovan
Cordovan is a fine leather which took its name from the Spanish city of Cordova where it was manufactured in large quantities.

Corduroy
Corduroy is a thick cotton material corded, or ribbed on one surface.

Cordwain
Cordwain is a Spanish shoe-leather made of goat skin or split horse hide. It was much used throughout Europe in the Middle Ages.

Core Dump
In computing (especially UNIX) a core dump is a copy of the contents of core, produced when a process is aborted by certain kinds of internal error

Core Wars
Core Wars is a game between `assembler' programs in a simulated machine, where the objective is to kill your opponent's program by overwriting it. It was popularised by A. K. Dewdney's column in `Scientific American' magazine, this was actually devised by Victor Vyssotsky, Robert Morris, and Dennis Ritchie in the early 1960s (their original game was called `Darwin' and ran on a PDP-1 at Bell Labs).

Corel Draw
Corel Draw is a powerful, vector-based graphics package that works under Microsoft Windows. It includes a variety of well-integrated features and offers extensive compatibility with other Windows-based programs. The drawing tools are icon-based and are very powerful. Although there are fewer basic tools in Corel Draw than in other graphics programs, each tool has multiple capabilities. The toolbox lets you draw freehand; autotrace or import images; scale, rotate, mirror, and edit images; and fill, pattern, or colour images. The program automatically smooths Bezier curves, and includes calligraphic pen shapes and special fountain fills with radial or linear effects. Type can be added to any image, skewed, stretched, rotated, mirrored, fit to a curve, kerned, or altered to create custom letter shapes, or printed in any of 102 fonts. Corel Draw supports the Pantone Colour Matching System and colour blending. The program is compatible with many popular word processing and desktop publishing programs and has extensive import/export utilities. Users can cut and paste graphics between Corel Draw and other Windows applications via the Windows clipboard and output to slidemakers via the SCODL format.

Cork
Cork is the bark of a species of oak tree (Cork Oak) native to south Europe and north Africa. The bark is first stripped off when the tree is about 20 years old, and the process is repeated roughly every 9 years. The best cork is produced when the tree is about 40 years old, though the tree is productive for about 150 years.

Corn Laws
Corn Laws are various enactments designed to ensure an adequate supply of cereal foods to a country, usually by protection allotted to its own farmers. In England from the 11th to the 15th centuries all exports of grain were forbidden except with special permission in times of a glut. This attempted protection ironically resulted in making agriculture inefficient and diminishing supplies, and in 1436 exports were allowed when the price dropped below a certain level.

Corn Syrup
Corn syrup is a sweet, thick liquid made by treating cornstarch with acids or enzymes. It may be dried and used as corn syrup solids in coffee whiteners, and other dry products. Corn syrup contains no nutritional value other than calories, promotes tooth decay, and is used mainly in foods with little intrinsic nutritional value.

Corned Beef
Beef meat which has been ''corned'', that is soaked in water with salt and a little potassium nitrate, for about 10 days.

Cornell University
Cornell University is an American university at Ithaca, in New York state. It was founded in the latter part of the 19th century mainly through the benefactions of Ezra Cornell.

Cornish
The Cornish language was a Celtic language spoke in Cornwall as recently as the 19th century, but is now all but extinct except in certain place names.

Corolla
Corolla is a botanical term referring to a flower's petals collectively. What in popular terms may be thought of as the ''flower'' of a plant.

Corona Club
The Corona Club was founded in 1900 by Sir William Hamilton to unite the Colonies and Great Britain more closely by social intercourse.

Coronet
A coronet is a special crown worn by nobles on State occasions and represented above their coats of arms. The designs vary according to the rank of the wearer. In England, the Prince of Wale's coronet is distinguished from the royal crown by having a single instead of a double arch. A duke's coronet has on the rim 8 strawberry leaves; that of a marquis, 4 strawberry leaves and 4 silver balls alternately; that of an earl has 8 silver balls on long spikes alternating with strawberry leaves set lower; a viscount's coronet has 16 silver balls close together, and a baron's 6. Coronets for earls were first allowed by Henry II; for viscounts by Henry VIII and for barons by Charles II.

Corporal Punishment
Corporal Punishment is the striking or beating of a person as punishment. Caning in schools is corporal punishment, and is a subject of continuous debate as to whether or not it should be allowed. In the past in England certain criminals were whipped, such as incorrigible rogues, perpetrators of robbery with violence and larceny. The whipping of women was banned in England in 1820.

Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi is the festival in the Roman Catholic Church held on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. It was established as a general festival in 1264 by a bull of Pope Urban IV. It commemorates the institution of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and among Roman Catholics is the occasion of outdoor processions.

Corrosion
Corrosion is the external chemical changes which take place in materials in ordinary use, resulting in their injury or destruction. The corrosion of metal is very important, but the corrosion of stone is also a major problem. The corrosion or iron is commonly known as rusting.

Corrosive Sublimate
Corrosive Sublimate is the popular name for mercuric chloride.

Corrugated Iron
Corrugated iron is sheet-iron strengthened by being bent into parallel furrows. It is largely used for roofing, and when dipped in melted zinc to give it a thin coating, is commonly known as galvanized iron.

Corsned
In Saxon times, corsned was a piece of bread consecrated by exorcism, to be swallowed by any person suspected of a crime. If guilty, it was expected that the swallower would fall into convulsions, or turn deadly pale, and that the bread would find no passage. If innocent, it was believed the morsel would turn to nourishment.

Corvee
Corvee is a form of forced labour. The term is especially applied to the unpaid labour owed by tenants in France to their lord under the feudal system. The system died out with serfdom in Europe, except in France where it was continued in the form of a labour or money payment for the upkeep of roads.

Cosmetics
Cosmetics are materials used to improve the personal appearance. They fall into two categories. Those which improved the natural appearance of the skin and hair and remove blemishes; and those which camouflage. Soap is the most commonly used cosmetic. It is used to loosen and remove dirt and dead skin cells.

Cosmology
Cosmology is the study of the structure of the universe.

Costermonger
A costermonger is an itinerant dealer in fruit, vegetables, fish etc. deriving the name from costard, a favourite apple. The London costermongers were viewed as useful at relieving the markets when glutted during the 19th century.

Cotswold Games
The Cotswold Games are an obsolete English rural sports meeting, probably dating back to the sixteenth century. the games were revived in 1604, with royal approval, by Robert Dover, who called them Cotswold's Olympick Games. They became known as Dover's Games and lasted until 1850.

Cotswold's Olympick Games
see "Cotswold Games"

Cottage
The term cottage was originally applied to a small house without land, and is mentioned in 1275.

Cotton Mills Act
The Cotton Mills Act was passed in 1819 laying down a minimum age for the employment of children and a maximum working week of 72 hours.

Cotton-seed oil
Cotton-seed oil is an oil expressed from the seeds of the cotton plant. It is obtained in large quantities in the USA where the higher grade oil is used as an edible cooking oil and the cheaper grades are used for making soap.

Cotton-wool
Cotton-wool is the term used for cotton when used in the open form, without being spun or woven. It is usually composed of short fibres which are no use for spinning, and is used in medicine for applying antiseptic material and for removing make-up and for wadding and stuffing.

Cottonian Library
The Cottonian Library was formed by Sir Robert Cotton around 1600 and secured to the public by a statute of 1700. In 1731 part of the collection was damaged by fire and the remainer of the books were removed to the British Museum in 1757.

Cotyledon
The cotyledon is the first leaf of an embryo plant and is formed within the seed.

Coumarone
Coumarone is a liquid organic compound found in coal-tar. It belongs to the benzo-furfurane class of compounds and is used as a source of resin for making varnish.

Counter-irritant
A counter-irritant is a remedy applied to the body externally which relieves a discomfort somewhere else by producing a local irritation. They effect relief by reflex action due to the sensation they impart to the nerves of the skin below.

Coup d'Etat
A Coup d'Etat is a sudden, forcible assumption of power in the State by a party or person in defiance of constitutional rights.

Coupe
A coupe is a small four-wheeled closed carriage for 2 persons. The term has come to also describe a motor car with a single-compartment body containing two or three seats or a half-compartment in a railway coach.

Couplet
A couplet is two rhymed lines of verse, either comprising a self-contained poem, or forming a unit in a longer poem.

Coupon
A coupon is a small certificate which entitles the holder to some payment, gift or benefit.

Courage Best
Courage Best is one of the most popular cask conditioned ales in the south of England. It is a copper-coloured, medium strength ale.

Court
Court is the suite of the sovereign, or the place where the sovereign sojourns with his suite. A court is also a place where the sovereign administers justice through his judges.

Court Martial
A Court Martial is a court for the trial of offences against the military or naval discipline or for the administration of martial law.

Covalence
In chemistry, covalence is the combining of atoms by means of the sharing of electrons.

Covalency
Covalency is the bonding of two atoms in a molecule by the mutual sharing of a pair of electrons, one from each atom.

Coventicle Act
The Coventicle Act of 1664 declared that a meeting of more than five persons (except the household) for religious worship not in accordance with the Book of Common Prayer was a seditious assembly. It was repealed by the Toleration Act of 1689.

Coventry Act
The Coventry Act was passed to prevent malicious maiming and wounding in 1671, in consequence of Sir John Coventry being maimed in the streets of London by Sir Thomas Sandy's and others on 21st December 1670. The act was repealed in 1828.

Cow-catcher
A cow-catcher is a frame of steel bars projecting forwards and downwards from the front of a locomotive in order to prevent cattle and other obstructions from getting under the wheels of the train.

Cowl
A cowl is a sleeveless garment with a hood worn by members of certain religious orders in the Catholic Church.

CP/M
CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers) is an early microcomputer OS written by hacker Gary Kildall for 8080 and Z80 based machines. It was very popular in the late 1970s but was virtually wiped out by MS-DOS after the release of the IBM PC in 1981. Legend has it that Kildall's company blew its chance to write the OS for the IBM PC because Kildall decided to spend a day IBM's reps wanted to meet with him enjoying the perfect flying weather in his private plane. Many of CP/M's features and conventions strongly resemble those of early DEC operating systems such as TOPS-10, OS/8, RSTS, and RSX-11.

Crack
Crack is the crystalline form of cocaine.

Cracking
In the petro-chemical industry, the term cracking applies to the heating of a hydrocarbon to the point at which it decomposes with deposition of carbon.

Crambo
Crambo is an old guessing game which was very popular in the 17th century. One player thinks of a word and mentions another word with which it rhymes. The other players try to guess the word by defining the word guessed by a synonym without actually naming it. For example; "A word rhyming with dog"; "Is it a mist?"; "No it's not fog"; "Is it a pig?"; "Yes it is hog". In Dumb Crambo the word guessed has to be portrayed in pantomime without speaking.

Cramp
Cramp is a severe spasm of certain muscles, usually of a limb, but often of the chest or abdomen.

Cran
A cran was a British measure used for herrings, equal to 37.5 gallons.

Craniology
see "Phrenology"

Crap-shooting
Crap-shooting (Craps) is a form of gambling with dice which is especially popular in America. Two dice are rolled or "shot" from the open hand; a throw of 7 or 11 (nick or natural) wins all stakes; 2, 3 or 12 (crap) loses all. Any other number (a point) entitles the thrower to continue until he wins by throwing the same number again, or loses by throwing the 7.

Craps
see "Crap-shooting"

Crater
A crater was a large earthenware vessel used for mixing wines in Greece and Rome. The term also describes the outlet of a volcano or the hole made in the earth by an explosion.

CRC
CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) is a powerful error checking method for data and digital communications. The transmitting terminal computes a numeric value representative of the number of marking bits in the associated block of data and sends that value to the receiver, where the number is recomputed to compare against the block as received. Depending on the number of bits in the CRC numeric value the error trapping efficiency ranges from about 97 percent at CRC-6 to 99.997 percent at CRC-32. Values of CRC-8 and CRC-16 are adequate for most data message block sizes, while CRC-32 is needed mainly for very long blocks of tens of thousands of characters.

Cream
Cream is the thicker substance that rises to the top of milk which is allowed to stand. It contains all the constituents of milk, with a larger but variable quantity of solids. A medium cream contains 36 percent butterfat, 6 percent albuminoids and 2.5 percent milk sugar. The butterfat content varies between 15 and 56 per cent.

Cream of Tartar
see "Tartar"

Creatine
see "Methyl-guanidine-acetic acid"

Creative Evolution
Creative Evolution is a tenet of philosophy put forward by Bergson that asserts that evolution is not purely mechanistic (as Darwin claimed) but that inherited characteristics and the effect of the environment are used by the individual, perhaps unconsciously, in an act of self-creation.

Credence Table
A credence table was a "tasting" table used in Italy at a time when attempts to poison princes and nobles was a common practice. Today a credence table is a small table in a church by the side of the altar on which the bread and wine are placed ready for the Eucharist.

Credentials
Credentials are official documents issued to a representative or agent, guaranteeing his status and authority.

Creosote
Creosote is a generic term applied to acid liquors which are obtained during the destructive distillation of wood, and also to a fraction obtained in the distillation of coal-tar.

Crepe de Chine
Crepe de Chine was originally a mixed silk and wool fabric, today it is a usually pure wool fabric, woven so as to give a slightly crinkled effect when put through a special finishing process.

Crescent
Crescent is a geometrical form resembling the moon in its first quarter, and used as a charge in heraldry. It is perhaps bet known as the symbol of the Ottoman Turks and a symbol of Islam.

Cresol
The cresols (hydroxy-toluenes, methyl-phenols) are organic compounds present in the crude phenol obtained from coal-tar. They are used in antiseptics.

Cretaceous
The Cretaceous was the eleventh geological period, 95,000,000 years ago. The first marsupials evolved.

Cretinism
Cretinism is a disease developed in early childhood due to the absence or deficiency of the thyroid gland or to goitre. The disease is distributed the world over, but is especially common in certain areas such as Switzerland and Derbyshire.

Cribbage
Cribbage is a card game usually for 2 players, but also played in pairs by 4 players. It was invented by John Suckling in the first half of the 17th century and is very popular in London, and pubs throughout Britain where it is played for money and in competition leagues.

Criminology
Criminology is the science dealing with the nature and causes of crime. It is a branch of sociology and psychology. It was first developed by Lombroso, of Turin, who published a work on the subject in 1875.

Crimping-House
A crimping-house was a place used to entrap people into the army and later into the mercantile marine. Some of them in London were destroyed by the populace following the death of a young man killed while trying to escape from one in 1794. The Merchant Shipping Act of 1894 made crimping illegal and subject to punishment by a heavy fine.

Crochet
Crochet is a form of knitting done with a hooked needle and cotton or thin wool.

Croquet
Croquet is a lawn game which was introduced into England around 1850. It comprises 4 balls - blue, red, black and yellow, always played in that order - which are struck with a wooden mallet through 6 hoops and against a peg in a prescribed order.

Croquettes
Croquettes is a savoury mixture of meat, fowl, fish, cheese, nut egg etc. bound together with a sauce and then coated with egg and breadcrumbs and fried.

Crosstalk for Windows
Crosstalk for Windows is an asynchronous communications package that takes advantage of the Microsoft Windows graphical user environment. Similar to Crosstalk XVI, this product uses menus to help link a PC to any other PC, minicomputer, mainframe, or subscription information service. It was the first communications product available for Windows. The program's script language and macro capabilities are limited compared to other PC comunications programs that automate script building. Except for the automatic scripts created for logging into public databases, the user must manually create and edit scripts to automate tasks such as logging into local systems or using a line editor such as EDLIN in DOS.

Crosstalk XVI
Crosstalk XVI is a flexible menu or command-driven communication program that links your PC to any other PC, minicomputer, mainframe, or subscription information service. Crosstalk XVI has full support for auto-dial and auto-answer modems and works as a smart terminal that emulates most popular dumb terminals. It can transfer data and programs using popular error-checking protocols such as XMODEM and KERMIT. Because all important communications parameters are available on the main status screen, you can view a single screen instead of searching through layers of screens to change particular parameters. Incoming data can be routed to any display, printer, or disk. Data can be sent from the keyboard or a disk file. The screen display shows characters seIlt and received by the modem and whether the modem is on or offline. The product stores and transmits login information and commands to a remote system, and public databases such as CompuServe

Croton Oil
Croton Oil is a fatty oil obtained from the seeds of Croton tiglium. It is an extremely powerful cathartic and is used in medicine.

Croup
Croup is the inflammation of the larynx.

Crown Jewels
Crown Jewels are jewelled emblems of royalty. The British Crown Jewels are kept on public display at the Tower of London and comprise crowns, orbs, sceptres, swords and an anointing spoon.

Crown Lands
Crown Lands are lands belonging to the sovereign.

Crozier
The crozier is a bishop's staff of office. It resembles a shepherd's crook in shape, and may have developed from the hooked staff carried by the Roman augurs.

Crwth
The crwth was a Welsh form of violin with 6 strings. 4 of the strings were played with a bow, the other 2 being plucked by the fingers.

Cryophorus
The cryophorus is an instrument inveneted by Wollaston about 1812 to demonstrate the relation between evaporation at low temperatures and the production of cold.

Crypt
A crypt is a chamber or compartment under a church or public building. In early Christian churches it was usually built to hold a saint's tomb or the relics of saints.

Cryptography
Cryptography is writing in cipher with the intention of hiding the meaning from all who do not possess the key.

Crystal
A crystal is a body, usually bounded by symmetrically arranged plane surfaces possessing properties which differ in magnitude in different directions.

Crystal Gazing
Crystal Gazing, or Crystallomancy was a mode of divining by means of a transparent body, such as a precious stone or crystal globe. The operator first muttered over it certain formulas of prayer, and then gave the crystal (a beryl was preferred) into the hands of a young man or virgin who received an answer from the spirits within the crystal.

Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a large building with a central hall, 1600 ft long, built entirely of iron and glass, with towers at either end 282 ft high, at Sydenham in London. It was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton and reconstructed in 1854 from the building used for the Great Hyde Park Exhibition of 1851.

Crystalloids
In chemistry, crystalloids are substances which, when dissolved in liquid, will diffuse through a semipermeable membrane.

Crystallomancy
see "Crystal Gazin"

Cubebs
Cubebs is an eastern condiment made from dried unripe berries of a plant closely related to the pepper.

Cubit
The cubit was a Hebrew, Roman and English unit of measurement. The English cubit was equal to 18 inches, the Hebrew 22 inches and the Roman 17.5 inches.

Cucullus
A cucullus was a hooded cloak of coarse woollen material worn by lower orders in Rome.

Cullinan Diamond
The Cullinan Diamond was a diamond of over 3000 carats found in Cullinan mine in the Transvaal in 1907. It was bought by the Transvaal government for 150,000 pounds and presented to King Edward VII as the largest diamond known. It has subsequently been cut into 9 large stones.

Cummann na nGaedheal
see "Fine Gael"

Cuneiform
Cuneiform describes the form of writing used in inscriptions by the ancient Babylonians, Persians and Hittites. The characters are all in the form of a wedge and were developed from earlier ideographs and represent not so much individual characters as syllables or entire words.

Cup
A cup is an alcoholic beverage consisting of the lighter wines, such as claret, sherry, cider, hock, champagne, etc. mixed with soda-water, and sweetened with sugar. Fruit juices and slices of fruit and spices are sometimes added.

Cupel
A cupel is a receptacle made from bone-ash and used in cupellation.

Cupellation
Cupellation is an ancient method of extracting silver from its ores by alloying the silver with lead, and then removing the lead from the lead-silver alloy by melting it in a receptacle made from bone-ash and called a cupel. Air is then passed over the surface of the metal, oxidising the lead to litharge which is blown off.

Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a spherical roof. The term is also used to describe the cover of gun emplacements.

Cupro nickel
Cupro nickel is an alloy of copper and nickel

Curare
Curare is a poison derived from the bark of a South American tree.

Curcumin
Curcumin is a colouring matter formed from turmeric dissolved in alcohol.

Curfew
A curfew is a signal given, generally by the ringing of a bell, to warn inhabitants of a town to extinguish their fires. It was used to avoid the danger of fires at night when houses were built of wood. The practice generally died out from 1100, and today the term describes ordering citizens to remain indoors between certain hours.

Curia Regis
Curia Regis was a court of law established by William I and attended by all the great officers of state as a final Court of Appeal.

Curia Romana
Curia Romana is the name given to the judicial and administrative organisations for the Government of the Roman Catholic Church, including the body of Cardinals and officials who reside at Rome.

Curie
Curie is the unit of measurement of radioactivity.

Curling
Curling is a Scottish national game played with stones on the ice, said to have been introduced from the Low Countries in the 16th century.

Current account
In economics, a current account is that part of the balance of payments concerned with current transactions, as opposed to capital movements. It includes trade (visibles) and service transactions, such as investment, insurance, shipping, and tourism (invisibles). The state of the current account is regarded as a barometer of overall economic health.

Curry
Curry is an Indian dish composed of various solids - fish, meat, fowl or eggs - served in a hot flavoured sauce. The sauces vary, but are based upon chilli, black pepper, coriander and turmeric.

Curtilage
Curtilage is the land which surrounds and belongs to a dwelling-house.

Custard
Custard is a sweet sauce made from eggs, sugar, milk and vanilla essence. The eggs are beaten with the sugar and then milk and the vanilla essence are added. The dish may also be steamed and served set as a desert.

Cut-water
The cut-water is the sharp part of the bow of a ship, so called because it cuts or divides the water.

Cutlet
A cutlet is a small slice of veal, mutton or lamb, trimmed into shape and usually part of the rib.

Cutter
A cutter is a small vessel resembling a sloop, with one mast and a straight running (not fixed) bowsprit, the sails being usually a fore-and-aft mainsail, gaff topsail, stay foresail and jib.

Cuttle-bone
Cuttle-bone is the dorsal plate of Sepia officinalis, formerly used in medicine as an absorbent and now used for polishing wood and as a tooth powder.

Cutty-stool
A cutty-stool was a low stool of repentance. It was a seat set apart in Presbyterian churches in Scotland, on which offenders against chastity were exhibited before the congregation and submitted to the minister's rebukes before they were readmitted to church priviledges.

CWT
see "Hundredweight"

Cyanamide
Cyanamide is a colourless crystalline substance. It is the amide of cyanic acid and is prepared by the interaction of ammonia and cyanogen chloride.

Cyanic Acid
Cyanic Acid (HCNO) is a volatile liquid prepared by the distillation of urea. It is very unstable and if heated above zero degrees Celsius explodes with the formation of a polymer cyanmelide.

Cyanide
Cyanide is a salt of hydrocyanic acid. Notably potassium cyanide.

Cyanocobolamin
see "Vitamin B12"

Cyanogen
Cyanogen is a colourless gas with a peculiarly characteristic odour. It is inflammable and extremely poisonous. It is derived from Prussian Blue, and was first obtained in the free state by Gay Lussac in 1815, being the first instance of the isolation of a compound radical.

Cybernetics
Cybernetics is the study of systems in which the action of a mechanism is controlled by information received from an external source.

Cyclone
A cyclone is an area of low atmospheric pressure.

Cyclopia
Cyclopia is the medical condition of a person born with only one eye orbit.

Cyclotron
A cyclotron is an apparatus for imparting energies in the order of millions of electron-volts to charged particles by causing them to follow a spiral path inside a pair of hollow semicircular electrodes between which an oscillating voltage is applied.

Cymbal
The cymbal is a brass musical instrument, and the oldest recorded known musical instrument. Generally it consists of a suspended brass disk which is struck with a stick.

Cyrillic
The Cyrillic alphabet (Cyrillitza) was invented by St Cyril in 845. It contains forty-two letters and is fashioned from ancient Greek.

Cyrillitza
see "Cyrillic"

Cystitis
Cystitis is an inflammation of the bladder.

Cytochrome
Cytochrome is a type of protein.

Czapka
A czapka, or lancer cap, was a distinctive headdress worn by the Uhlans.

Copyright 1997,1998 Servile Software Enquiries to Matthew Probert

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