The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 101

CALAS, JEAN, a tradesman of Toulouse, whose son committed suicide, and who was charged with murdering him to prevent his going over to the Catholic Church; was tried, convicted, and sentenced to torture and death on the wheel (1762); after which his property was confiscated, and his children compelled to embrace the Catholic faith, while the widow escaped into Switzerland. Voltaire, to his immortal honour, took up her case, proved to the satisfaction of the legal authorities in France the innocence of the victims, got the process revised, and Louis XV. to grant a sum of money out of the royal bounty for the benefit of the family.

CALAVE'RAS, an inland county of California, E. of San Francisco, rich in minerals, with copper and gold mines.

CALCHAS, the soothsayer who accompanied Agamemnon to the siege of Troy; enjoined the sacrifice of Iphigenia to propitiate the G.o.ds, foretold the length or the war, and advised the construction of the wooden horses, a device by means of which Troy was surprised and taken.

CALCULUS, DIFFERENTIAL AND INTEGRAL, in mathematics, is the method by which we discuss the properties of continuously varying quant.i.ties.

The nature of the method and the necessity for it may be indicated by a simple example; e. g. the motion of a train in a track, or the motion of a planet in its...o...b..t. If we know the successive positions of the moving body at successive short intervals of time, the rules of the differential calculus enable us to calculate the speed, the change of speed, the change of direction of motion (i. e. the curvature of the path), and the effective force acting on the body. Conversely, given the force at every point, and the initial position and velocity, the rules of the integral calculus a.s.sist us in calculating the position and velocity of the body at any future time. Expressed somewhat crudely, the differential calculus has to do with the _differentials_ (increments or decrements) of varying quant.i.ties; while the integral calculus is a process of summation or _integration_ of these differentials.

CALCUTTA (900), on the left bank of the Hooghly, the largest and westernmost branch of the Ganges delta, about 80 m. from the sea; is the capital of Bengal and the Indian Empire, and the residence of the Governor-General; the Government buildings, Bishop's College (now an engineering school) High Court, town hall, bank, museum, university, St.

Paul's cathedral, and many other English Buildings have earned for it the name "city of palaces"; but the native quarters, though being improved, are still squalid, the houses of mud or bamboo; an esplanade, numerous quays, an excellent water-supply, gas, and tramway services, add to the amenities; there are extensive dockyards, warehouses, iron-works, timber yards, and jute mills; extensive railway and steamboat communications make it the chief emporium of commerce in Asia; s.h.i.+ps of 5000 tons enter the docks; founded in 1686, Calcutta was captured by Surajah Dowlah, and the "Black Hole" ma.s.sacre perpetrated in 1756; became the capital of India in 1772, and has suffered frequently from cyclones; the population are two-thirds Hindus, less than a third Mohammedan, and 4 per cent.

Christian.

CALDECOTT, RANDOLPH, artist, born in Chester; exercised his art chiefly in book ill.u.s.trations, which were full of life, and instinct with a kindly, graceful humour; though professionally untrained, his abilities as an artist were promptly and generously recognised by the Academy; he suffered from ill-health, and died in Florida, whither he had gone to recruit (1846-1886).

CALDER, SIR ROBERT, British naval officer; served bravely in several naval engagements; was tried by court-martial, and reprimanded for not following up a victory which he had gained, a sentence which was afterwards found to be unjust; attained afterwards the rank of admiral (1745-1818).

CALDERON DE LA BARCA, the great Spanish dramatist, born at Madrid; entered the army, and served in Italy and Flanders, producing the while dramas which were received with great enthusiasm; took holy orders, and became a canon of Toledo, but to the last continued to write poems and plays; he was a dramatist of the first order, and has been ranked by the more competent critics among the foremost of the cla.s.s in both ancient and modern times (1600-1681).

CALDERWOOD, DAVID, a Scotch ecclesiastic, born at Dalkeith; became minister of Crailing; first imprisoned, and then banished for resisting the attempts of James VI. to establish Episcopacy in Scotland; wrote a book, "Altare Damascenum," in Holland, whither he had retired, being a searching criticism of the claims of the Episcopacy; returned on the death of the king, and wrote a "History of the Kirk" (1575-1650).

CALEDONIA, the Roman name for Scotland N. of the Wall of Antoninus, since applied poetically to the whole of Scotland.

CALEDONIAN Ca.n.a.l, a ca.n.a.l across the NW. of Scotland, executed by Telford, for the pa.s.sage of s.h.i.+ps between the Atlantic and the North Sea, 60 m. long, 40 m. of which consist of natural lakes; begun 1803, finished 1823; cost 1,300,000; has 28 locks; was constructed for the benefit of coasting vessels to save the risks they encountered in the Pentland Firth.

CALENDS, the first day of the Roman month, so called as the day on which the feast days and unlucky days of the month were announced.

CAL'GARY, the capital of Alberta, in NW. territory of Canada.

CALHOUN, JOHN CALDWELL, an American statesman, born in S. Carolina, of Irish descent; all through his public life in high civic position; leader of "the States rights" movement, in vindication of the doctrine that the Union was a mere compact, and any State had a right to withdraw from its conditions; and champion of the slave-holding States, regarding slavery as an inst.i.tution fraught with blessing to all concerned. His chief work is a treatise on the "Nature of Government" (1789-1850).

CALIBAN, a slave in Shakespeare's "Tempest," of the grossest animality of nature.

CALICUT (66), chief town on the Malabar coast, in the Madras Presidency of India, the first port at which Vasco da Gama landed in 1498, whence the cotton cloth first imported from the place got the name "calico."

CALIFORNIA (1,208), the most south-westerly State in the American Union; occupies the Pacific seaboard between Oregon and Mexico, and is bounded landward by Nevada and Arizona. It is the second largest State, larger by a quarter than the United Kingdom. In the N. the rainfall is excessive, and winters severe; in the S. there is little rain, and a delightful climate. Wheat is the most important product; the grape and all manner of fruits grow luxuriantly. Mineral wealth is great: it is the foremost State for gold and quicksilver; lead, silver, copper, iron, sulphur, coal, and many other minerals abound. The industries include brandy and sugar manufactures, silk-growing, s.h.i.+pbuilding, and fis.h.i.+ng.

All products are exported, eastward by the great Central, Union, and Southern Pacific railroads; and seaward, the chief port being San Francisco, the largest city, as Sacramento is the capital of the State.

The Yosemite Valley, in the Sierra Nevada, through which falls the Merced River, is the most wonderful gorge in the world. Captured from Mexico in 1847, the discovery of gold next year raised great excitement, and brought thousands of adventurers from all over the world. Const.i.tuted a State in 1850, the original lawlessness gradually gave way to regular administration, and progress has since been steady and rapid.

CALIFORNIA, LOWER (30), an extensive, mountainous, dry, and scarcely habitable peninsula, stretching southward from the State, in Mexican territory; agriculture is carried on in some of the valleys, and pearl and whale fisheries support some coast towns.

CALIGULA, Roman emperor from A.D. 37 to 41, youngest son of Germanicus and Agrippina, born at Antium; having ingratiated himself with Tiberius, was named his successor; ruled with wisdom and magnanimity at first, while he lived in the unbridled indulgence of every l.u.s.t, but after an illness due to his dissipation, gave way to the most atrocious acts of cruelty and impiety; would entertain people at a banquet and then throw them into the sea; wished Rome had only one head, that he might shear it off at a blow; had his horse installed as consul in mockery of the office; declared himself a G.o.d, and had divine honours paid to him, till a conspiracy was formed against him on his return from an expedition into Gaul, when he was a.s.sa.s.sinated (12-41).

CALIPH, the t.i.tle adopted by the successors of Mahomet, as supreme in both civil and religious matters. The princ.i.p.al caliphates are: (1) the Caliphate of the East, established by Abubekr at Mecca, transferred to Bagdad by the Aba.s.sides (632-1258); (2) the Caliphate of Cordova, established at Cordova by Abderrahman (756-1031); (3) the Caliphate of Egypt, established by the Fatimites (909-1171). It was at Bagdad that Moslem civilisation achieved its final development.

CALISTO, daughter of Lycaon, king of Arcadia; changed by Juno into a she-bear, and placed by Jupiter among the stars.

CALIXTUS, the name of three popes: C. I., Pope from 218 to 222; C. II., pope from 1119 to 1124; C. III., Pope from 1455 to 1458.

CALIXTUS, GEORGE, a Lutheran theologian of an eminently tolerant type, born at Sleswick; travelled for four years in Germany, Belgium, England, and France; accused of heresy, or rather apostasy, for the liberal spirit in which he had learned in consequence to treat both Catholics and Calvinists, and for considering the Apostles' Creed a broad enough basis for Christian union and communion, which might embrace both; his friends, however, stood by him, and he retained the position he held in the Lutheran Church (1586-1656).

CALLA'O (32), a port in Peru, 7 m. from Lima, with a fine harbour the safest on the coast, if not in the world; its prosperity depends on trade, which is less than it was before the annexation of the nitrate fields to Chile.

CALLCOTT, JOHN WALL, an eminent musical composer, born at Kensington; was a pupil of Handel's, and is celebrated for his glee compositions (1766-1821). SIR AUGUSTUS WALL, landscape painter, brother; was knighted for his eminent skill as an artist (1779-1841).

LADY MARIA, wife of Sir Augustus, author of "Little Arthur's History of England" (1779-1842).

CALLERNISH, a district in the W. of the island of Lewis, 10 m. from Stornoway; noted for its circles of standing stones, from 10 to 17 ft. in height, the whole in cruciform arrangement.

CALLIC'RATES, along with Ictinos, architect of the Parthenon in Athens.

CALLIM'ACHUS, Greek architect, inventor of the Corinthian order, 4th century B.C.

CALLIMACHUS, Greek poet, born in Cyrena; taught grammar and belles-lettres at Alexandria; was keeper of the library there; of his writings, which are said to have been on a variety of subjects and very numerous, only a few epigrams and hymns remain; was admired by Catullus, Ovid, and Propertius, and flourished in the 3rd century B.C.

CALLI'OPE, the muse of epic poetry and eloquence, is represented with a tablet and stylus, and sometimes with a paper roll. See MUSES.

CALLIS'THENES, a disciple of Aristotle, who accompanied Alexander the Great to India, and was put to death by his order for remonstrating with him on his adoption of the manners and style of the potentates of the East, but professedly on a charge of treason.