tain. At this time he was unable to give any | account of the mental processes by which these results were reached; but a few years later he could explain them satisfactorily, and from these explanations it appeared that his processes did not differ materially from those ordinarily adopted in mental computation. Among the questions proposed to him were the following: How many days and hours in 1,811 years? His answer, given in 20 seconds, was 661,015 days, 15,864,360 hours. How many seconds in 11 years? The answer, given in four seconds, was 346,896,000. When 8 or 9 years of age, he gave answers with a delay of but a few seconds to such questions as these: What is the square of 999,999? Multiply the square twice by 49 and once by 25. (The answer requires 17 figures.) What are the factors of 4,294,967,297? (=232+1). The French mathematicians had announced this as a prime number. Colburn immediately gave 641 × 6,700,417. What are the factors of 247,483? He replied, "941 and 263, which are the only factors." The rapidity of his mental processes and the power of his memory must have been at this time almost inconceivable. After leaving Boston, Mr. Colburn exhibited his son for money throughout the middle and part of the southern states, and in January, 1812, sailed with him for England. After travelling over England, Scotland, and Ireland, they spent 18 months in Paris. Here young Colburn was placed in the lycée Napoléon, but was soon removed by his father, who at length, in 1816, returned to England in the deepest penury. The earl of Bristol soon became interested in the boy, and placed him in Westminster school, where he remained till 1819. In consequence of his father's refusal to comply with certain arrangements proposed by the earl, he was removed from Westminster, and Mr. Colburn now proposed to his son that he should qualify himself to become an actor. Accordingly, he studied for this profession, and was for a few months under the tuition of Charles Kemble. His first appearance, however, satisfied both his instructor and himself that he was not adapted for the stage, and accordingly he accepted a situation as assistant in a school, and soon afterward commenced a school of his own. To this he added the performing of some astronomical calculations for Dr. Thomas Young, then secretary of the board of longitude. In 1824, on the death of his father, he was enabled by the earl of Bristol and other friends to return to America. He went to Fairfield, N. Y., as assistant teacher of an academy; but not being pleased with his situation, he removed in March following to Burlington, Vt., where he taught French, pursuing his studies at the same time in the university. Toward the end of 1825 he connected himself with the Methodist church, and after nine years of service as an itinerant preacher, he settled in Norwich, Vt., in 1835, where he was soon after appointed professor of languages in Nor wich university. In 1833 he published his autobiography. From this it appears that his faculty of computation left him about the time he reached the age of manhood; and aside from his early talent for calculation, he gave no evidence of remarkable abilities. COLBY, Thomas, an English engineer, born at Rochester, Sept. 1, 1784, died in Liverpool, Oct. 9, 1852. He was educated at the royal military academy at Woolwich, and received his first commission as second lieutenant of engineers when 17 years old. The next year he became chief personal assistant of Captain Mudge, then superintendent of the ordnance survey. During the four following years he passed the summers in making observations at various prominent points, and the winters in preparing the results for publication and superintending the engraving of the ordnance maps. He became identified with the great trigonometrical survey of England, and upon the publication of the third volume of the records his name appeared associated with that of Col. Mudge upon the title page. In 1807 he was raised to the rank of captain. In 1813 it was determined to extend the meridian line into Scotland, and Capt. Colby was placed in charge of the work. In 1817 he accompanied Biot, a scientific agent of the French government, on his trip to Shetland, and afterward assisted in connecting the French with the English triangulation by observations across the straits of Dover. Upon the death of Gen. Mudge in 1820, Colby was appointed his successor as superintendent of the survey and in the board of longitude, was elected a fellow of the royal society, and promoted to the rank of major, and soon after to that of lieutenant colonel. Having undertaken a thorough survey of Ireland, he received the sanction of the duke of Wellington for raising and training three companies of sappers and miners to aid in the work. After a series of experiments on the heating and cooling of metallic rods, he succeeded in so uniting a bar of brass and iron that its extremities always remained the same distance apart whatever the temperature. With this " compensation bar" he measured a base line of eight miles on the south side of Lough Foyle; and such was the exactitude obtained that the same apparatus has since been used in the remeasurement of the English bases, in measuring a base at the Cape of Good Hope, and also those required for the great arc of the meridian in India. Col. Colby continued his superintendence of the survey till his promotion in 1846 to the grade of major general, when by the regulations of the service his active connection with it ended. He had brought English maps to an excellence not before attained, marking the seconds of latitude and longitude on the margin, and introducing into them geological facts and features. COLCHESTER, a municipal and parliamentary borough, market town, and river port of Essex, England, on the river Colne, and the Great carriage factories, breweries, vinegar works, &c. Colchester was made a bonding port in 1808, but the custom house and warehouses are at Hythe, one of its suburbs, situated a short distance below, at the head of navigation on the Colne. The foreign commerce is inconsiderable, but a large coasting trade is carried on with London and the northern counties.-Colchester is supposed to be the Camulodunum of the Romans, and there is probably no town in England richer in remains of that people. Coins, vases, urns, lamps of bronze and pottery, rings, bracelets, tessellated pavements, and various other antiquities, have been found near it in great profusion. The Saxons, uniting the Latin castra with the name of the river on which it stands, called it Colne Ceaster. It was fortified by Edward the Elder, and at the time of the Domesday survey was a place of no small note. It was taken and occupied by the royalists in 1648 after a memorable siege, and was soon after blockaded by the parliamentarians, to whom the garrison surrendered after 11 weeks' resistance. COLCHESTER, a county of Nova Scotia, bounded N. by Northumberland strait, and S. and S. W. by Mines basin, Cobequid bay, and the Shubenacadie river; area, 1,300 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 23,331. It is intersected by numerous rivers, and traversed by the Cobequid range of hills. The soil is of variable fertility. Among the minerals are coal, gypsum, and limestone. The principal occupations are agriculture, lumbering, and ship building. The county was originally settled by the French, who on their expulsion were replaced by emigrants from the north of Ireland and Massachusetts. Capital, Truro. COLCHESTER, Lord. See ABBOT, CHARLES. The COLCHICUM (from Colchis, a country where it abounded), a common name of the colchicum autumnale (Linn.), or meadow saffron, a perennial bulbous-rooted plant, growing naturally in the temperate climates of Europe, and cultivated for its medicinal properties. It prefers wet meadows, which it often covers with its bright, purple, crocus-like blossoms. The bulb or corm resembles that of a tulip, and feeds the growing plant, being exhausted and replaced every year. Colchicum closely resembles the autumn crocus, from which it is distinguished by having six stamens instead of three, and three styles instead of one. corm, seeds, and flowers all possess the medicinal properties of the plant, which depend upon the alkaloid, colchicia. From the corm and seeds are prepared wines, extracts, and tinctures.-Colchicum is employed in the treatment of gout and rheumatism, and allied affections. The preparation for gout, celebrated under the name of eau médicinale d'Husson, is said to be a vinous infusion of colchicum It materially lessens the duration of the parox ysms of gout, but is apt when too freely used to depress the system and thereby induce a more speedy recurrence of the disease. It has been shown to increase not only the water, but the organic solid constituents of the urine; this increase, however, is not due to uric acid, as might perhaps be supposed from its action in gout. It has a marked sedative action upon the heart, stimulates the secretions, and is apt to excite nausea and catharsis. While there is no doubt that advantage may be obtained from the administration of colchicum in certain forms or conditions of gout, rheumatic gout, and rheumatism, yet grave disadvantages are apt to result if it is given injudiciously. It should never be administered in the asthenic forms of gout or rheumatism; the doses should always be small at first, and gradually increased; it should not be allowed to excite continued nausea, or vomiting or purging; it should not be given for more than a week or ten days continuously, as its effects are apt to accumulate in the system; it should rarely or never be given to aged people or young chil Colchicum. dren. In fine, its appropriate use is limited to the sthenic forms of gout and acute forms of rheumatism that occasionally occur in people of robust constitution, who are in the prime of life. It should be remembered that where neuralgia occurs in persons who come of a gouty or rheumatic race, it sometimes yields to a judicious course of colchicum. The dose of the acetic extract of colchicum is from 1 to 2 grains three times a day; of the wine of the root from 10 to 20 drops, and of the wine of the seeds 20 to 30 drops, three times a day. The tincture of the seeds may be given in the dose of half a teaspoonful to a teaspoonful. COLCHIS (modern Mingrelia and part of Imerethia), an ancient country of Asia, at the E. extremity of the Euxine, bounded N. by the Caucasus, E. and S. E. by Iberia and the Moschian mountains, S. by Armenia, S. W. by Pontus, and W. by the Euxine. Colchis was celebrated in Greek mythology as the destination of the Argonauts, and as the country of | Medea and the golden fleece. Its early history is involved in obscurity. The early Greek writers speak of it only under the name of Ea, the seat of King Eetes. Cyrus or his immediate successor seems to have annexed it to the Persian empire; but its inhabitants soon recovered their liberty, and erected their territory into an independent state. During the Mithridatic war it was tributary to the kingdom of Pontus. On the overthrow of Mithridates it was annexed by the Romans; and after the conclusion of the civil wars it was incorporated with Pontus, and subjected to the rule of a proconsul. Under the later emperors it was known as Lazica, from Lazi, a predominant tribe. In A. D. 572 the Colchians rose in rebellion, and joined the Persians against the Byzantine empire. Colchis, according to Strabo, abounded in fruit of every kind, and in material for ship building. It was inhabited by a number of tribes, whose dark complexion, crispy hair, language, and customs indicated, in the opinion of Herodotus, their Egyptian origin. They were famous for the manufacture of linen. Their chief town was Dioscurias. The Phasis (now the Rion) is the celebrated river of this country. COLD. See CATARRH. COLDEN. I. Cadwallader, a physician and statesman, born in Dunse, Scotland, Feb. 17, 1688, died on Long Island, N. Y., Sept. 28, 1776. He studied at Edinburgh, and at the age of 20 emigrated to America, and practised as a physician for some years in Pennsylvania. He then visited England, but returned to Pennsylvania in 1716, and in 1718, at the solicitation of Gov. Hunter, settled in New York. The next year he was appointed the first surveyor general of the colony, became in 1720 a member of the king's council of the province, and in 1761 was appointed lieutenant governor of New York, and held the commission during the remainder of his life. He was repeatedly placed at the head of the government by vacancies in the governorship. He published works upon a variety of subjects, medicine, philosophy, and history; his "History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada, depending on New York" (New York, 1727; 3d ed., 2 vols., London, 1755) is especially worthy of mention; but his favorite pursuit was botany, and he sent to Linnæus several hundred American plants, of which that botanist published descriptions. II. Cadwallader David, grandson of the preceding, born near Flushing, L. I., April 4, 1769, died at Jersey City, Feb. 7, 1834. He commenced the practice of law in New York in January, 1791, removed his office for a time to Poughkeepsie, and in 1796 resumed his station at the New York bar, where he received the appointment of district attorney, and soon became eminent in the profession, which he practised for several years, intermitted only by a voyage to France for the benefit of his health. In 1812 he was colonel of a regiment of volunteers; in 1818 was elected a member of the house of assembly; in the same year succeeded De Witt Clinton as mayor of New York city; in 1822 was elected to congress, and in 1824 to the senate of his own state, from which he withdrew in 1827. He was an active promoter of internal improvements, his name being especially connected with the completion of the Erie and Morris canals. Public education and the reformation of juvenile of fenders were also subjects to which he devoted much attention. For many years he was one of the governors of the New York hospital. He wrote a biography of Robert Fulton (1817) and "Memoir of the Celebration of the Opening of the New York Canals " (1825). COLD HARBOR, Battles of. See CHICKA HOMINY. COLE, Thomas, an American painter, born at Bolton-le-Moor, Lancashire, England, Feb. 1, 1801, died at Catskill, N. Y., Feb. 11, 1848. His father, a small woollen manufacturer, after repeated reverses in business, emigrated to America in 1819, and established himself in Steubenville, Ohio. The artist's childhood was unmarked by striking incidents, but the direction of his tastes could be seen in his employment as a designer in a print factory, and in making woodcuts for printers. A fine organization and great fondness for poetry and scenery were his chief characteristics. Two years were spent at Steubenville in the employment of his father, who kept a small shop, when a portrait painter named Stein passed through the town in the pursuit of his vocation, and Cole, fascinated by the sight of his canvas and colors, at once determined to become a painter. With rude materials, mostly prepared by himself, he attempted landscapes and miscellaneous subjects, and finally portraits. In February, 1822, he went on foot to Clairsville, where he proposed to establish himself as a portrait painter. The western states did not then afford a promising field for artists, and both at Clairsville and Zanesville, which he subsequent COLDSTREAM, a town of Berwickshire, Scotland, 12 m. S. W. of Berwick; pop. about 2,200. It is situated on the left bank of the Tweed, here spanned by a handsome bridge. Besides the parish church, there are several places of worship, and a number of schools and libraries. The principal trade is in agricultural products and in cattle. Adjoining the town is the celebrated ford of the Tweed which was repeatedly crossed by the invading armies of both Scotland and England. Monk raised a corps here in 1659'60, which was at first known as Monk's regi-ly visited, he not only failed to meet with any ment, but subsequently it was included, under the name of Coldstream guards, in the brigade which parliament allowed to Charles II.; it retains this designation as a regiment in the foot guards or household brigade, and is one of the oldest corps in the British army. COLDWATER, a city, the capital of Branch co., Michigan, on the Coldwater river and the Michigan Southern railroad, 103 m. W. S. W. of Detroit; pop. in 1870, 4,381. It is the commercial centre of a fertile country. The river affords good water power, which has been improved. There are six or eight churches, two banks, two weekly newspapers, and a monthly periodical. In 1871 there were 18 schools, of which one was a high school, with 20 teachers and 1,128 pupils. COLE, a central county of Missouri, bounded N. E. by the Missouri river, S. E. by the Osage, which joins the Missouri at the E. extremity of the county, and drained by Moreau creek; area, 410 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 10,292, of whom 1,251 were colored. It has an undulating surface, and a generally fertile soil, though in some places the land is too rocky for cultivation. Timber, limestone, and buhrstone are abundant. The Pacific railroad of Missouri passes through it. The chief productions in 1870 were 115,299 bushels of wheat, 165,550 of Indian corn, 60,668 of oats, 24,599 of potatoes, and 2,798 tons of hay. There were 1,570 horses, 1,520 milch cows, 2,496 other cattle, 4,701 sheep, and 8,402 swine; 2 manufactories of boots and shoes, 1 of carriages and wagons, 1 of furniture, 1 of saddlery and harness, 3 flour mills, 2 saw mills, and 3 breweries, Capital, Jefferson City, which is also the capital of the state. encouragement, but when he rejoined his family in the spring at Pittsburgh he was in debt for the means of support during his absence. Undiscouraged by reverses, he spent the spring and summer of 1823 in making careful studies from nature in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, and the autumn saw him established in Philadelphia as a landscape painter.、 The ensuing winter was one of great privation. He painted small landscapes and comic pieces, and was often glad to find regular employment in ornamenting chairs, brushes, and japanned ware. His powers however were rapidly developing, and in the works of this period may be seen the germ of that rich and harmonious style for which he was afterward distinguished. In the spring of 1825 he removed to New York, where his family were now established, and fixed his studio in the garret of his father's house in Greenwich street. The scenery of the Hudson called out all his artistic enthusiasm, and during a visit to the Catskills in the autumn of this year he painted several landscapes, which were exhibited on his return to the city. These pictures attracted the attention and praise of Durand, Dunlap, and Trumbull, and "from that time," says Bryant in his funeral oration on Cole, "he had a fixed reputation, and was numbered among the men of whom our country has reason to be proud." The next four years found Cole in the enjoyment of great prosperity; commissions flowed in upon him from all quarters; and visits to the White mountains, the Catskills, and Niagara afforded varied and striking studies. But in the midst of a career from which few artists would have cared to deviate, Cole felt that the literal re autumn of 1841 found him again in Rome, where he executed a duplicate of his "Voyage of Life," which elicited the praise of Thorwaldsen, who visited his studio repeatedly to see it. In the succeeding spring he travelled over many parts of Sicily, and returned to New York in the summer. An exhibition of his works was opened in Boston and New York in the winter of 1843-4, for which he painted a number of Sicilian views of great beauty, including a large picture of Mount Etna from Taormina, executed in five days; this is now in the Wadsworth gallery, Hartford, Conn., as are also the "View of the White Mountains" and the "View of Northwest Bay on Lake Winnipiseogee." The "Angel appearing to Shepherds" is in the Boston Athenæum. Thenceforth until his death he painted with industry, executing among other works the "Cross in the Wilderness," "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso," "Home in the Woods," the "Hunter's Return," the "Mountain Ford," &c. The "Cross and the World," a work in two parts, dictated by earnest religious conviction, he left unfinished. His life and genius were made the subject of a funeral oration by his friend William Cullen Bryant. In all the relations of life Cole's amiability and generosity were engagingly displayed, and to those who could sympathize with his enthusiastic and impressible nature, he especially endeared himself. His life was one of singular purity, and in the latter part of it he manifested a sincere and unostentatious piety. His poetic feeling, so amply illustrated in his works, frequently found expression in rhythmical forms, and his miscellaneous papers in prose and verse, few of which were ever made public, possess considerable literary merit. production of natural scenery, however profitable it might be, could not satisfy him; and he determined to enter the higher sphere of imaginative composition. The fruit of this determination was witnessed in his pictures of the "Garden of Eden" and the "Expulsion," exhibited in 1828. The merit of these works was admitted, but they failed to satisfy the public taste so completely as his simple landscapes. In June, 1829, Cole sailed for Europe, and for two years painted in London, where he contributed to several of the annual exhibitions; but from ignorance of the peculiar features of American scenery, or the injustice of hanging committees, his pictures were either regarded as exaggerations of nature, or were so disadvantageously placed that they attracted less attention than their merits deserved. In May, 1831, he visited Florence, and made careful studies in the chief galleries. In the succeeding February he visited Rome, and returning to Florence in July, worked with an assiduity which surprised himself, finishing more pictures in three months than he had done in double that time before. Among these were views on the Arno and in the vicinity of Rome and Naples. The influence of Italian scenery and of his studies of old Italian art had meanwhile wrought a change in his style, and the public were disappointed with these works upon their arrival in America, complaining that the artist had lost his first freshness and originality, and that his Italian landscapes were overcharged copies from the old masters. In November, 1832, he returned to New York, and during the ensuing year, while at Catskill, he received from Mr. Luman Reed of New York an order to fill an entire room of his house with pictures. The magnitude of the undertaking required several years of undivided labor, the most of COLEBROOKE, Henry Thomas, an English oriwhich was devoted to the "Course of Empire," entalist, born in London, June 15, 1765, died a series of five pictures, in which are presented, there in March, 1837. He was the son of Sir to use his own words, "an illustration of the George Colebrooke, who in 1769 was appointed history of the human race, as well as an epit- chairman of the board of directors of the East ome of man, showing the natural changes of India company. His early education was conlandscape, and those effected by man in his ducted by a private tutor. In 1782 he was progress from barbarism to civilization, to lux- appointed to a writership in the East India ury, to the vicious state, or state of destruction, company, and in 1783 he arrived in Madras. and to the state of ruin or desolation." The He soon went to Calcutta, and was employed series has been called "a great epic poem." in the company's board of accounts. In 1786 Mr. Reed died before the completion of the he was appointed assistant collector of revenue work, and at the distribution of his estate it in Tirhoot. In the mean time he had devoted was purchased by the New York gallery of much attention to the study of Sanskrit, but fine arts, and is now in the gallery of the New his interest in it does not seem to have been York historical society. For the next few so much literary as scientific, his love of asyears Cole was engaged upon works of a similar tronomy and mathematics leading him to declass, chief among which were the "Depar-sire to ascertain what the Hindoos knew in reture" and the "Return," the "Dream of Arcadia," and the "Voyage of Life." The last, an allegorical series of four pictures, representing childhood, youth, manhood, and old age, are among the most popular of his works, and through the engravings by Smillie are most extensively known. They are now owned by J. Taylor Johnston of New York. In November, 1836, he married Miss Maria Bartow. The gard to these sciences. In 1789 he was transferred to Purneah, and in 1793 to Nattore. He had now become interested in the religion, philosophy, and laws of the Hindoos. In 1794 he presented to the Asiatic society his first paper, "On the Duties of a Faithful Hindoo Widow." At the same time his views on commerce and finance were far in advance of his age; and though a servant of the East India |