monly, in England, from five to six ounces: it rarely exceeds eight. Its duration is from three to four, and sometimes, though rarely, five days. With respect to the nature of the discharge, it differs very much from pure blood. It never coagulates, but is sometimes grumous, and membranes like the decidua are formed in difficult menstruations. In some women, it always smells rank and peculiar; in others, it is inodorous. The use of this monthly secretion is said to be, to render the uterus fit for the conception and nutrition of the fœtus; therefore girls rarely conceive before the catamenia appear, and women rarely after their entire cessation, but very easily soon after menstruation.

CATANIA (anciently Catana); a city of Sicily, in the valley of Demona, on the borders of the valley of Noto, the see of a bishop, the suffragan of Monreal; 47 miles S. S. W. Messina, 85 E. S. E. Palermo; lat. 37° 30′ N.; lon. 15° 6' E. The population is variously estimated at from 40 to 80,000. It is situated on a gulf of the Mediterranean, at the foot of mount Etna. This city has been repeatedly visited by tremendous earthquakes, and was laid in ruins by one in 1693, when 18,000 people were destroyed; and upon the situation which it occupied, the present city is built; the lava serving, at the same time, for a foundation, as well as a quarry, from which stone was dug for its construction. Catania is reviving with great splendor, and has much more the features of a metropolis and royal residence than Palermo. The principal streets are wide, and well paved with lava. Most of the edifices have an air of magnificence unknown in other parts of the island, and the town has a title to rank among the elegant cities of Europe. Here is a university with three faculties, much celebrated in Sicily. The inhabitants have always been noted for their superiority over the other Sicilians in politeness. The Benedictine convent of St. Nicholas is very large. Every part has been rebuilt since the earthquake of 1693. An obelisk of red granite, placed on the back of an antique elephant of touchstone, stands in the centre of the great square, which is formed by the town-hall, seminary and cathedral. The cathedral, dedicated to St. Agatha, the patroness of the city, has suffered so much by earthquakes, that little of the original structure remains. The other religious edifices are profusely ornamented, but in a bad taste. The harbor, though one of the largest in the

island, is not much frequented; but the trade is considerable. The exports are wheat, barley, wine, oil, &c.

CATAPLASMS, or POULTICES, are soft compounds, intended to be applied to the surface of the body. They are commonly made of meals, powders, boiled pulps, &c., mixed with water, milk, or some other liquid. They are called sinapisms when mustard forms their base.

CATAPULTS (Latin, catapulta; Greek, Karanéλra); certain machines of the ancients, corresponding to our heavy cannon. The catapults differed from the ballista by throwing more horizontally, the latter more in a curve. The form also differed, and the catapults resembled, in their general shape, a cross-bow. The whole machine rested on a frame, and, if intended for the field, had wheels. The size of these machines varied much. The large catapults shot arrows of 3 cubits, or 44 Roman feet, in length, often larger ones, and sometimes beams 12 feet long. Burning arrows were likewise often thrown by the catapults. The large ones threw their arrows 4 stadia, but not more than 2 stadia with precision. Pliny ascribes the invention of catapults to the Syrians; Plutarch and Diodorus, to other nations. At the siege of Jerusalem, the Romans had 300 catapults and 40 ballistæ. The Romans did not carry all the parts of these machines with them, but only the ropes and fastenings, with the necessary tools; and the soldiers built the catapults when they wanted them. The terms catapult and ballista were often used indiscriminately; and, in later times, the word catapult went entirely out of use. Vegetius and Ammianus Marcellinus never introduce it, and employ ballista to signify all machines throwing large arrows or beams, and onager for those throwing stones.

CATARACT. By this term two very different diseases are designated by some writers, viz. the true cataract, and amaurosis, or gutta serena. By the first of these terms, in its most common signification, is understood opacity of the crystalline lens, or its capsule, or both. By the second is meant a disease of the retina, by which it is rendered unsusceptible of the action of light. In cataract, the lens becomes opaque, loses its transparency, and is no longer capable of transmitting the light. The causes of cataract are numerous. Inflammation may produce it. Sometimes it is ascribed to a state of the vessels of the part which prevents a proper nourishment of the lens or its

manufactories, &c. In flat countries, as Holland, the lower part of Germany, and the West Indies, people must resort to windmills, on account of the want of falls. Many cataracts are remarkable for their sublimity; and the falls of Niagara surpass all others of the known world in grandeur. The whole mass of water which empties itself from the great inland seas of North America is here compressed into a channel of three quarters of a mile in width, and plunges over a precipice of 150 to 160 feet in height. The river, more than a mile above the falls, is divided by Grand and Navy islands, and has a gradual descent of 57 feet from this place. The banks preserve the level of the country, and, in some parts, rise 100 feet from the water: the whole stream is covered with foam and waves. At the grand falls, the river is three quarters of a mile broad, and the precipice curves nearly in a semicircle, extending in the longest line on the American or eastern side. An island, called Goat island, divides the cataract into two principal portions-the American fall on the east, and the Horse-shoe on the west, or Canada side. A small portion of the fall on the American side is cut off by a small island on the precipice: the rest descends in one body, almost perpendicularly, from a height of 164 feet, and 1000 feet in width. Both the falls on the American side are crossed by bridges. The Horse-shoe fall is 14 feet less in height, but surpasses the other much in grandeur. The great body of the water passes the precipice with such force, that it forms a curled sheet, which strikes the water below 50 feet from the base of the precipice, and visitors can pass behind the sheet of water. The best view of this cataract is from Table rock. It is frequently adorned with a rainbow. Sometimes three are seen in the clouds of spray, which rise 100 feet above the precipice. (See Dwight's Travels.) The river Montmorency forms a cataract 250 feet in height and 50 feet in breadth; nine miles below Quebec.-The falls of the river Chaudière, not far from the cataract just mentioned, are about 100 feet in height. The Mississippi forms a cataract of 40 feet in height, above its junction with the Ohio. The stream is 700 feet in width, and the surrounding country level. The Missouri, at a distance of 500 miles from its sources, descends 360 feet in 18 miles. There are three principal cataracts; one of 87, one of 47, and one of 26 feet in height. The river is 1000 feet broad, and

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the whole scene is described as most beautiful, only surpassed by the falls of Niagara.-The falls of Passaic, in New Jersey, at Patterson, about 15 miles from Newark, are among the most celebrated of the U. States. The river is 150 feet broad, and falls, in one entire sheet, into a chasm 70 feet in depth, and 12 wide. Its waters form the moving power for one of the most manufacturing districts of the U. States.-The Mohawk river, near its junction with the Hudson, forms the falls termed the Cohoes, about 60 feet high.The Housatonic river, in the north-west of Connecticut, forms the finest cataract in New England.-In Georgia, the cataract in the Tuccoa creek is interesting. It passes through a channel 20 feet wide, over a precipice of 187 feet, in one sheet, if the season is wet.-A similar cataract occurs in the river Ache, in Bavaria; falling 200 feet, by five steps, and being entirely scattered in spray. Its noise is heard at a distance of several miles.— Bellows falls, on the Connecticut river, near Walpole, are grand and striking.Glen's falls, in the Hudson river, are similar.-The highest cataract in America is that of Tequendama, in the river Bogotá, or Funza, a branch of the Magdalena. The river rises in the lofty plain, in which Bogotá is situated, 9000 feet above the sea, and is precipitated into the lower country, through deep ravines and over steep precipices, and finally plunges 600 feet into a deep chasm.-The cataracts of the Nile (one at Syene, and the other some distance above) have been described, by Mr. Bruce, as grand, principally from the wildness and desolation of the scene; but the highest of them does not exceed 40 feet in height.—The primary regions of Europe abound in cataracts. The torrents are seldom of great size, but the rocky beds over which they roar and dash in foam and spray, the dark glens into which they rush, and the wildness of the whole scenery, often produce awful emotions.-The most remarkable cataract in Scotland is the Fyers.-The river Gotha has a fall of celebrity at Trolhatta, in Sweden. It descends 100 feet.-One of the most considerable falls in Europe has lately been discovered in the river Lattin, in Swedish Lapland. It is described as half a mile in width and 400 feet in height.-Another, of immense size, has been discovered by Mr. Esmark, in the river Maamelven, in Norway, consisting of three separate falls, the whole height being 800 feet.-The Alpine highlands, in Europe, abound in beautiful falls. The

cataract near Schaffhausen is 400 feet broad and 70 high. The river Orco, descending from mount Rosa into Italy, forms a cascade, the height of which is estimated at 2400 feet. The fall of the Evanson, flowing from the same mountain, is stated to be 1200 feet high.-At Staubbach, in the canton of Bern, in Switzerland, a small stream descends a height of 1400 feet.-In Italy, the falls of Terni and Tivoli are beautiful, and were celebrated even among the ancients.— At Terni, about 45 miles north of Rome, the Evelino plunges over a precipice of marble rocks, 300 feet high. The waters contain lime, which produces many petrifactions. At Tivoli, 18 miles north-east of Rome, are the falls of the Anio or Teverino, a branch of the Tiber. It falls nearly 100 feet deep. (See Woodbridge's System of Universal Geography, Hartford, 1827.)

CATARRH (from karappεw, I flow down); an increased secretion of mucus from the membranes of the nose, fauces and bronchia, accompanied with fever, and attended with sneezing, cough, thirst, lassitude, and want of appetite. There are two species of catarrh, viz: catarrhus à frigore, which is very common, and is called a cold in the head; and catarrhus à contagio, the influenza, or epidemic catarrh, which sometimes attacks a whole city, Catarrh is also symptomatic of several other diseases. It is seldom fatal, except in scrofulous habits, by laying the foundation of phthisis; or where it is aggravated, by improper treatment, or repeated exposure to cold, into some degree of peripneumony; when there is hazard of the patient, particularly if advanced in life, being suffocated by the copious effusion of viscid matter into the air-passages. The epidemic is generally, but not invariably, more severe than the common form of the disease. The latter is usually left to subside spontaneously, which will commonly happen in a few days, by observing the antiphlogistic regimen. If there should be fixed pain of the chest, with any hardness of the pulse, a little blood may be taken from the arm, or topically, followed by a blister; the bowels must be kept regular, and diaphoretics employed, with demulcents and mild opiates, to quiet the cough. When the disease hangs about the patient in a chronic form, gentle tonics and expectorants are required, as myrrh, squill, &c. In the epidemic catarrh, more active evacuations are often required, the lungs being more seriously affected; but, though these

should be promptly employed, they must not be carried too far, the disease being apt to assume the typhoid character in its progress; and, as the chief danger appears to be that suffocation may happen from the cause above-mentioned, it is especially important to promote expectoration, first by antimonials, afterwards by squill, the inhalation of steam, &c., not neglecting to support the strength of the patient as the disease advances.

CATECHESIS; the science which teaches the proper method of instructing beginners in the principles of the Christian religion by question and answer, which is called the catechetical method. (See Method.) Hence catechist and catechise. The art of the catechist consists in being able to elicit and develope the ideas of the youthful minds of learners. This part of religious science was first cultivated in modern times, and Rosenmüller, Dinter, Schmid, Wolrath, Doltz, Gräffe, Daub, Winter, Heinrich Müller, and others have particularly distinguished themselves by their writings upon it.

The

CATECHETICAL SCHOOLS; institutions for the elementary education of Christian teachers, of which there were many in the Eastern church from the 2d to the 5th century. They were different from catechumenical schools, which were attached to almost every church, and which were intended only for the popular instruction of proselytes, and of the children of Christians; whereas the catechetical schools were intended to communicate a scientific knowledge of Christianity. first and most renowned was established about the middle of the 2d century, for the Egyptian church at Alexandria, on the model of the famous schools of Grecian learning in that place. (See Alexandrian School.) Teachers like Pantænus, Clement and Origen gave them splendor and secured their permanence. They combined instruction in rhetoric and oratory, in classical Grecian literature, and the Eclectic philosophy, with the principal branches of theological study, exegesis, the doctrines of religion, and the traditions of the church; distinguished the popular religious belief from the Gnosis, or the thorough knowledge of religion; established Christian theology as a science, and finally attacked the dreams of the Chiliasts (believers in a millennium); but, by blending Greek speculations and Gnostic phantasies with the doctrines of the church, by an allegorical interpretation of the Bible, and the assumption of a secret sense in the Scriptures, different

from the literal, contributed to the corruption of Christianity. The distraction of the Alexandrian church by the Arian controversies proved the destruction of the catechetical schools in that place, about the middle of the 4th century. The catechetical school at Antioch appears not to have been a permanent institution, like the Alexandrian, but only to have been formed around distinguished teachers, when there happened to be any in the place. There were some distinguished teachers in Antioch, about the year 220. We have no certain information, however, of the theological teachers in that place, such as Lucian, Diodorus of Tarsus, and Theodore of Mopsuestia, until the latter part of the 4th century. These teachers were distinguished from the Alexandrian by more sober views of Christianity, by confining themselves to the literal interpretation of the Bible, by a cautious use of the types of the Old Testament, and by a bolder discussion of doctrines. The Nestorian and Eutychian controversies, in the 5th century, drew after them the ruin of the schools at Antioch. Of a similar character were the catechetical school instituted at Edessa, in the 3d century, and destroyed in 489, and the school afterwards established at Nisibis, by the Nestorians, in its stead; both of which were in Mesopotamia. To these catechetical schools succeeded, at a later date, the cathedral and monastic schools, especially among the Western Christians, who, as late as the 6th century, made use of the heathen schools, and bad never established catechetical schools even at Rome. (See Schools.)

CATECHISM; a book which contains the principles and first instructions to be communicated in any branch of knowledge, particularly in religion. In modern times, the word has been applied more freely than formerly. Thus we see catechisins of chemistry, history, and, in France, catechism des gens de bon sens (a satire), catechism du bon ton, &c. The word is derived from the Greek karnyéw, 1 sound, i. e., into the ears of the person to be instructed. The word, however, is chiefly used to denote the books that contain the religious instruction which any sect deems most important to be Laught to the children and the people, in a popular and easy form, generally in the form of question and answer. In the Catholic church, each bishop has the right to make a catechism for his diocese. But, in modern times, their catechisms are generally a pretty close copy of the one

drawn up by the council of Trent, of which an English translation was published in London (1687), "permissu superiorum," under the patronage of James II. Among Protestants, the catechism of Luther acquired great celebrity, and still continues to be used by many clergymen in Germany, where regular instruction in religion, during a certain period prescribed by law, must precede the confirmation, which takes place between the 13th year of age and the 17th. Clergymen, however, in some parts of that country, have been allowed to publish and use their own catechisms; and it is a matter of no little interest, to observe how the many different philosophical schools of Germany have influenced the tone of the catechisms by their various systems of morals, &c. Some, which we have seen, were books of 300 pages, and rather philosophical systems, supported by numerous quotations from the Bible, than simple catechisms. Such catechisms, however, are going out of use. The catechetical mode of giving instructions in Christianity had much declined previous to the reformation, when it was revived, and numerous catechisms sprung up. The proper preparation of such manuals, the communication of religious and moral instruction in a short compass and a simple form, is a thing of no small difficulty. In England, soon after the reformed religion was established there, a short catechism was introduced, consisting of the creed, the Lord's prayer, and the decalogue, to which a few cautious, explanatory passages were added, about 1549, it is supposed by archbishop Craniner. "A Shorte Catechisme or Playne Instruction, conteynynge the Summe of Christian Learninge, sett fourth by the King's Maiesties Authoritie for all Scholemaisters to teach," was the work which closed the labors of the reformers in the reign of Edward VI, whose name it commonly bears. It was printed both in Latin and in English, in 1553, and may fairly be considered as containing the sense of the church of England then established. The catechism of the English church, now in use, is drawn up, after the primitive manner, by way of question and answer. The questions and answers relative to the sacraments were subjoined to it, at the revision of the liturgy, in the first year of James I. As now extant, it consists of five parts, viz.:-1. the doctrine of the Christian covenant; 2. the articles of belief; 3. the commandments; 4. the duty and efficacy of prayer; and, 5. the nature