Part 18

I told you that Sir Francis Bacon thinks that the carp lives but ten years: but Janus Dubravius has writ a book _Of Fish and Fish Ponds_, in which he says, that carps begin to spawn at the age of three years, and continue to do so till thirty: he says also, that in the time of their breeding, which is in summer, when the sun hath warmed both the earth and water, and so apted them also for generation, that then three or four male carps will follow a female; and that then, she putting on a seeming coyness, they force her through weeds and flags, where she lets fall her eggs or spawn, which sticks fast to the weeds; and then they let fall their melt upon it, and so it becomes in a short time to be a living fish: and, as I told you, it is thought that the carp does this several months in the year.—_Walton._

CARRIER, _s._ One who carries something; a species of pigeons.

CARRION, _s._ The carcass of something not proper for food; flesh corrupted. Relating to carcasses.

CARRION CROW, (_Corvus corone_, LINN.; _Le Corneille_, BUFF.) _s._

The carrion crow is less than the raven, but similar to it in its habits, colour, and external appearance. It is about eighteen inches in length; its breadth about three feet. Birds of this kind are more numerous and as widely spread as the raven. They live mostly in woods, and build their nests on trees. The female lays five or six eggs, much like those of a raven. They feed on putrid flesh of all sorts; likewise on eggs, worms, insects, and various sorts of grain. They live together in pairs, and remain in England during the whole year.—_Bewick._

CARROT, _s._ A garden root.

The varieties of food, as I have termed them, are such articles as, by their saccharine matter, prove highly nutritious, although their gluten is in small proportion. Carrots stand foremost on this list, and hardly too much can be said on their excellent qualities. They appear particularly favourable to condition, as the skin and hair always look well under their use: they are highly nutritious, as we know from the fat accumulated when they are used; and so favourable are they to the free exercise of the lungs, that horses have been found even to hunt on them: and, in conjunction with a certain portion of corn, perhaps they would form as good a food as could be devised for our coach and machine horses, our hackneys, and, in fact, for all horses not used on “fast work.” In the _Museum Rusticum_ is an account of two hunters fed with carrots and small loaves made of barley and oatmeal mixed; and these horses were said to be the pride of the field. Agricultural horses may be supported on them wholly, when sliced and mixed with chaff.

CART, _s._ A wheel-carriage, used commonly for luggage.

CART-HORSE, _s._ A coarse unwieldy horse.

CARTILAGE, _s._ A smooth and solid body, softer than a bone, but harder than a ligament.

CARTOUCH, _s._ A case of wood, three inches thick at the bottom, holding balls. It is fired out of a small mortar.

CARTRIDGE, _s._ A case of paper or parchment filled with gunpowder, used for the greater expedition in charging guns.

CASCARILLA, _s._ A tonic bark. Dose from one to three drachms.

CASE, _s._ Condition with regard to outward circumstances; in physic, state of the body; condition with regard to leanness or health.

CASE, _v._ To put in a case or cover; to cover as a case; to strip off the covering; to unskin.

CASEWORM, _s._ A grub that makes itself a case.

CASSIA, _s._ A sweet spice.

_Cassino_, _s._ A game at cards.

Cassino is generally played by four persons, but occasionally by three or two; the points consist of eleven, and the lurch is six.

The points are thus calculated:—

That party which obtains the great cassino, or ten of diamonds, reckons 2 points. Ditto little cassino (the deuce of spades) 1 The four aces one point each 4 The majority in spades 1 The majority in cards 3 A sweep before the end of the game, when any player can match all on the board, reckons 1

In some deals at this game, it may so happen that neither party wins any thing, as the points are not set up according to the tricks, &c., obtained, but the smaller number is constantly subtracted from the larger, both in cards and points, and if they both prove equal, the game commences again, and the deal goes on in rotation; when three persons play at this game, the two lowest add their points together and subtract from the highest; but when their two numbers together amount to or exceed the highest, then neither party scores.

LAWS.

The deal and partners are determined by cutting, as at whist. The dealer gives four cards, by one at a time, to every player, and either regularly, as he deals, or by one, two, three, or four at a time, lays four, face upwards, on the board, and after the first cards are played, four others are to be dealt to each person till the pack is out; but it is only in the first deal that any cards are to be turned up.

The deal is not lost when a card is faced by the dealer, unless in the first round, before any of the four cards are turned up on the table: but should a card be faced in the pack before any of the said four are turned up, then the deal must be begun again.

Any person playing with less than four cards must abide by the loss, and should a card be found under the table, the player whose number is deficient is to take the same.

Each person plays one card at a time, with which he may not only take, at once, every card of the same denomination on the table, but likewise all that will combine therewith; as, for instance, a ten takes not only every ten, but also nine and ace, eight and deuce, seven and three, six and four, or two fives; and if he clear the board before the conclusion of the game, he scores a point. When a player cannot pair or combine, he is to put down a card.

The number of tricks are not to be examined or counted before all the cards are played, nor may any trick but that last won be looked at, as every mistake must be challenged immediately.

After the pack is dealt out, the player who obtains the last trick sweeps all the cards remaining unmatched on the table.

RULES.

The principal objects are to remember what has been played; and when no pairs or combinations can be made, to clear the hand of court cards, which cannot be combined, and are only of service in pairing or in gaining the final sweep: but should no court cards be left, it is best to play any small ones, except aces, as thereby combinations are often prevented.

In making pairs and combinations a preference should generally be given to spades, as obtaining a majority of them may save the game.

When three aces are out, take the first opportunity to play the fourth, as it then cannot pair; but when there is another ace remaining, it is better even to play the little cassino, that can only make one point, than to risk the ace, which may be paired by the opponent, and make a difference of two points; and if great cassino and an ace be on the board, prefer the ace, as it may be paired or combined, but great cassino can only be paired.

Do not neglect sweeping the board when an opportunity offers; always prefer taking up the card laid down by the opponent, and as many as possible with one card; endeavour likewise to win the last cards or final sweep.

While great or little cassino is in, avoid playing either a ten or a deuce.

When you hold a pair, lay down one of them, unless when there is a similar card on the table, and the fourth not yet out.

Attend to the adversaries’ score, and, if possible, prevent them from saving their lurch, even though you otherwise seemingly get less yourself, particularly if you can hinder them from clearing the board.

At the commencement of a game, combine all the cards possible, for that is more difficult than pairing; but when combination cannot be made, do not omit to pair, and also carefully avoid losing opportunities of making tricks.—_Hoyle._

CAST, _v._ To admit of a form by casting or melting; to warp, to grow out of form; to direct the hunting of a dog.

When hounds are at fault, staring about and trusting to their eyes and ears, a forward cast is the least likely to regain the scent; the place where they left is the most probable spot for them to hit the scent, and hounds knowing where they left the scent, will there try to recover it, nor is a wide cast often to be made without good reason; the scent should be tried to be retrieved by crossing the line of it, and a huntsman, by attending to this, will not fail to make a good cast, if he observes the point of the fox. When hounds cannot hit off a fault by themselves, the first cast should be speedy; the scent is then good, and hounds not likely to go over it. Every huntsman should adopt these rules; with a good scent his cast should be quick, with a bad scent, slow, and when hounds are picking along a cold scent, he is not to cast them at all.

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Hounds that are all well taught will cast forward to a hedge of their own accord. Time ought always to be allowed them to make their own cast; it is impertinence in a huntsman to prevent them, and prudence should induce him to humour his hounds in the cast they seem inclined to make, and either to stand still, or trot round with them, as circumstances may point out. Different countries require different casts; in an open country, wide casts are always necessary; in casting round a flock of sheep, the whipper-in ought to drive them the other way, lest they keep running on before the hounds; in every cast a huntsman should make it perfect one way, before he tries another.—_Daniel._

CAST, s. The act of casting or throwing; a throw; state of any thing cast or thrown; the throw of dice; chance from the cast of dice; a mould, a form; a shade, or tendency to any colour; manner, air, mien; a flight of hawks.

CASTER, _s._ A thrower, he that casts.

CASTILE SOAP, _s._ A kind of soap.

CASTING-NET, _s._ A net to be thrown into the water by hand.

The casting-net may be successfully employed in a certain depth of water, viz. gudgeon net at four, and large meshed casting net from six to eight feet: in the making great attention must be paid to putting in the widenings, or the net will never open freely, however skilful the person that throws it. In preparing it for casting, it must not be taken upon the shoulder so short as to prevent the leads having their proper swing, which is to be aided by the corresponding turn of the caster’s body, at the exact moment of delivering it from his arm; and the first object is, to let the leads all break the surface at once. Many persons jerk one part of the net high in the air (which assists the spreading), whilst the other part of the lead line drops close to the caster’s foot, making a variation of some seconds in the fall of the different leads into the water: fish must be very crowded, or extremely sleepy, if they remain within the curtailed range and slow sinking of a net so cast. The nicety of the art is, to be able to cover any particular spot, and to shape the net accordingly; and no one can be deemed a proficient, unless he is an ambidexter, and throws from either shoulder, as the turning and holes in a river may require.

For carp or large fish, the mesh should be an inch and three quarters, and the circumference of the lead line not less than twenty-four yards, and from that to twenty-eight; if made of silk, it will sink more speedily, and of course will admit to be thrown with success in deeper water and more weeds. By baiting a place in ponds with grains, worms, or graves, the fish may be collected, and the casting-net thrown over them: should there be much mud, let the net remain quiet some minutes, and the fish will rise from the mud, into which they may have sunk themselves at the noise of the net.

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N.B.—A piece of crumb of bread put into the stomach of either carp or tench suspected to be tainted with the mud, will absorb all the disagreeable taste, and should be taken out before they are sent to table.

CASTLE, _s._ _Vide_ CHESS.

CASTOR OIL, _s._ Oil made from the beaver.

A useful laxative in cases where it is necessary to open the bowels, and at the same time avoid irritation: it is therefore extremely proper in fevers accompanied with costiveness, particularly when there appears to be pain and irritation in the bowels, and may be given with four or six ounces of Epsom salts.

The dose is from half a pint to a pint, or a pint and half.—_White._

CASTRATE, _v._ To geld.

Castration is performed in various ways, but in all it expresses the removal of the testicles: there are methods of rendering the animal impotent without the actual ablation of these organs; for if by any other method the secretion of the spermatic glands is prevented, from which the uncontrollable sexual excitements arise, the end is answered.

Castration by cauterization is the method which has been principally practised among us; and as it is that taught at our alma mater, we may naturally suppose it has proved worthy of the patronage it has received. It is that I always practised, and was successful with it. But this by no means proves it the best; although good it must be, since I never had an untoward case in it; and the more, as, when I was called on to perform it, it was usually on adult horses, mostly on aged ones. Other plans may be still better: it is my duty, assuming as I do, to be a teacher, to bring them forward to view, that they may be compared together. A preliminary observation should be made previously to castrating, to see that the horse has no hernia or rupture: such cases have happened; and as in our method we open a direct communication with the abdomen, when the horse rises it is not improbable that his bowels protrude until they trail on the floor.

If a colt cannot be enticed with oats, &c., he must be driven into a corner between two steady horses, where, if a halter cannot be put on, at least a running hempen noose can be got round his neck; but, whichever is used, it should be flat, or the struggles, which are often long and violent, may bruise the neck, and produce abscess or poll evil. When his exertions have tired him, he may be then led to the operating spot: here his attention should be engaged while the hobbles are put on, if possible; if not, a long and strong cart-rope, having its middle portion formed into a noose sufficiently large to take in the head and neck, is to be slipped on, with the knotted part applied to the counter or breast, and the long pendent ends passed backwards between the fore legs, and, as expressed by Mr. Percivall, ‘extended obliquely backward, carried round the hind fetlocks within the hollows of the heels, brought forward again on the outside, passed under the collar rope, and a second time carried backwards over the outside of all, and extended to its full length in a direct line behind the animal.’ Thus fettered, Mr. Percivall says his hind feet may be drawn under him towards the elbows; I have, however, often found that, at the moment the rope touches the heels, the colt either kicks and displaces the rope, or altogether displaces himself; but his attention can generally be engaged by one fore leg being held up, or by having his ear or muzzle rubbed, or even by the twitch: if not, the rope may be carried actually around each fetlock, which then becomes a hobble; and this rope may be gradually tightened: in this way I have succeeded with very refractory colts; but it requires very able assistants, and, if possible, the man who has been used to the individual colt should be present. In either way, as soon as the rope is fixed, with a man to each end of it, behind the colt, let them, by a sudden and forcible effort in concert, approximate his hind legs to his fore, and thus throw him. Before the colt is cast, however, it should be endeavoured to ascertain that he is free from hernia: with an adult horse this is even more necessary.

Being satisfied that no hernia exists on either side, proceed to cast the horse, turning him, not directly on the left side, but principally inclining that way; and if possible let the croup be very slightly elevated: it is usual to place him directly flat on the left side, but I have found the above rather more convenient. Every requisite being at hand, and as Hurtrel d’Arboval, with his usual minuteness, observes, the operator, having his scalpel between his teeth, should place himself behind the horse, as the most convenient way to perform his manipulations, and firmly grasping the left testicle with his left hand, and drawing it out so as to render the scrotum tense, he should make an incision lengthways of the bag, from its anterior to its posterior part, or, as expressed by Hurtrel d’Arboval, in the direction of the grand axis of the organ. The incision may be carried at once through the integuments, the thin dartos expansion, and the vaginal coat of the testicles, by the dexterous operator, with a sweep of the scalpel: but with one less _au fait_ at the operation, it will be more prudent to make the first incision through the scrotum and dartos only, to the required extent, and then to do the same by the vaginal coat, thus avoiding to wound the testicle, which would produce violent resistance, and give unnecessary pain. The testicle, if the opening be sufficiently large, will now slip out; but the operator must be prepared, at the moment of so doing, to expect some violent strugglings, more particularly if he attempts to restrain the contractions of the cremaster, and by main force to draw out the testicle. Preparatory to this, therefore, the twitch should be tightened; the attendants, especially the man at the head, must be on the alert, and the testicle itself, at the time of this violent retraction of the cremaster, should be merely held, but not dragged in opposition to the contraction, otherwise peritonitis itself might be the result from any such violence. If the clams have been put on over the whole, according to Mr. Percivall’s method, they will assist in retaining the retracting parts; but I must again offer a caution, that they be not used with too much pressure. The resistance having subsided, provided the clams have been thus employed, they must now be removed; or, if they have not been previously in use, they must now be taken in hand, and, being wadded with tow, should be placed loosely on the cord, while time is given to free the _vas deferens_, or spermatic tube, which is seen continued from the epididymis, from the grip of the pincers. The Russians, Mr. Goodwin informs us, cut it through when they operate. Hurtrel d’Arboval does not note it in the French practice; but humanity is much concerned in its removal from pressure, from the excess of pain felt when it is included. It is also necessary, before the final fixing of the clams, to determine on the part where the division of the cord is to take place. To use Mr. Percivall’s words, “If it be left too long, it is apt to hang out of the wound afterwards, and retard the process of union;” indeed, I have known the end of it swell into a fungous excrescence, which greatly embarrassed the practitioner to destroy: on the other hand, if it be cut very short, and the arteries happen to bleed afresh after it has been relieved from the clams, the operator will find it no easy task to recover it from the retraction of the cremaster. The natural length of the cord, which will mainly depend on the degree of the descent of the gland, will be our best guide in this particular. The place of section determined on and marked, close the clams sufficiently tight to retain firm hold of the cord, and to effectually stop the circulation within it. There are now two modes of making the division; the one is to sever it with a scalpel, and then to sufficiently sear the end of it so as to prevent a flow of blood, avoiding, however, to burn it to a cinder, as is sometimes done. The other, and in some respects the preferable method, is to employ an edged firing-iron, which is to divide it by little crucial sawings, so that, when the cord is separated, it shall not present a uniform divided surface, but ragged edges, which will more perfectly destroy the mouths of the vessels, and tend to lessen the chances of hæmorrhage. This done, loosen the clams sufficiently to observe whether there be any flow of blood; gently wipe the end of the cord also with the finger, as sometimes an accidental small plug gets within the vessel, which afterwards is forced out, and therefore had better be removed by this means and at this time. Retain a hold on the clams a few minutes longer; and while loosening them gradually, observing to have an iron in readiness again to touch the end of the cord, if any blood makes its appearance. Satisfied on this point, sponge the part with cold water, but by no means dash it over them, as has been done; neither is any external application necessary, still less any resin seared on the end of the cord, which can only irritate, and will never adhere. On the after-treatment much difference of opinion has existed, and even yet exists. The powerful evidence of accumulated facts has now convinced veterinarians of both the necessity and propriety of some motion for the newly-castrated horse as a preventive of local congestion; such practice is common in most countries but our own, and seems salutary in all. Hurtrel d’Arboval, thus impressed, recommends the horse, immediately after the operation, to be led out to walk for an hour, and it is a general plan in France to walk such horses in hand an hour night and morning. Mr. Goodwin, in proof of its not being hurtful, informs us, that whole studs of horses brought to St. Petersburgh to be operated on, are immediately travelled back a certain portion of the distance, night and morning, until they arrive at home. I have, therefore, no hesitation in recommending a moderate degree of motion in preference to absolute rest, as practised among us: it is a plan which has long been followed with success among our own cutters; and perhaps our not adopting it before has arisen from prejudice against whatever was practised by illiterate persons, without reflecting that, illiterate as they are, their employers are not all so; and that, unless success attended their practices, they would cease to be employed.

For the French mode, twitching, &c., _vide_ GOODWIN, BLAINE, &c.

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_When a colt is to be gelded._—In the first or second week in June he should be cut; and when recovered he should be turned out for the summer.

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“I would not operate,” says Mr. Percivall, “during the season of changing the coat, nor even just prior to that period, from fear of interrupting the process, or checking it altogether; neither would I choose frosty or sultry weather: but, above all, it is advisable to suspend the operation when the flies abound. If the subject have passed the colt period of age, I would recommend a dose of aperient medicine before the operation be undertaken, unless he should be already living on green food.”

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