CURAÇOA, a liqueur, chiefly manufactured in Holland. It is relatively simple in composition, the predominating flavour being obtained from the dried peel of the Curaçoa orange. The method of preparation is in principle as follows. The peel is first softened by maceration; then a part of the softened peel is distilled with spirit and water, and the remainder is macerated in a portion of the distillate so obtained. After two or three days the infusion is strained and added to the remainder of the original distillate. This simple method is subject to variations in manufacture, and the addition of a small quantity of Jamaica rum, in particular, is said to much improve the flavour. Dry Curaçoa contains about 39%, the sweet variety about 36% of alcohol. A lighter variety of Curaçoa, made with fine brandy, is known as “Grand Marnier.”
CURASSOW (Cracinae), a group of gallinaceous birds forming one of the subfamilies of Cracidae, the species of which are among the largest and most splendid of the game birds of South America, where they may be said to represent the pheasants of the Old World. They are large, heavy birds, many of them rivalling the turkey in size, with short wings, long and broad tail, and strong bill. In common with the family to which they belong, they have the hind toe of the foot placed on a level with the others, thus resembling the pigeons, and unlike the majority of gallinaceous birds. With the exception of a single species found north of Panama, the curassows are confined to the tropical forests of South America, east of the Andes, and not extending south of Paraguay. They live in small flocks, and are arboreal in their habits, only occasionally descending to the ground, while always roosting and building their nests on the branches of trees. Their nests are neat structures, made of slender branches interlaced with stems of grass, and lined internally with leaves. They feed on fruits, seeds and insects. They are often tamed in several parts of South America, but have never been thoroughly domesticated anywhere. Large numbers of these birds were, according to K. J. Temminck, brought to Holland from Dutch Guiana towards the end of the 18th century, and got so completely acclimatized and domesticated as to breed in confinement like ordinary poultry; but the establishments in which these were kept were broken up during the troubles that followed on the French Revolution. Their flesh is said to be exceedingly white and delicate, and this, together with their size and the beauty of their plumage, would make the curassows an important gain to the poultry yards of Europe, if they were not such bad breeders. The subfamily of curassows contains four genera and twelve species, all confined to South America, with the exception of Crax globicera—a Central American species, which extends northward into Mexico. This bird is about 3 ft. in length, of a glossy black colour over the whole body, excepting the abdomen and tail coverts, which are white. In common with the other species of this genus its head bears a crest of feathers curled forward at the tips, which can be raised or depressed at will. The female is of a reddish-brown colour, although varying greatly in this respect, and was formerly described as a separate species—the red curassow. In another species, Crax incommoda, the greater part of the black plumage is beautifully varied with narrow transverse bars of white. The galeated curassow (Pauxi galeata) is peculiar in having a large blue tubercle, hard and stony externally, but cellular within, and resembling a hen’s egg in size and shape, situated at the base of the hill. It only appears after the first moulting, and is much larger in the male than in the female.
CURATE (from the Lat. curare, to take care of), properly a presbyter who has the cure of souls within a parish. The term is used in this general sense in certain rubrics of the English Book of Common Prayer, in which it is applied equally to rectors and vicars as to perpetual curates. So, on the continent of Europe, it is applied in this sense to parish priests, as the Fr. curé, Ital. curato, Span. cura, &c. In a more limited sense it is applied in the Church of England to the incumbent of a parish who has no endowment of tithes, as distinguished from a perpetual vicar, who has an endowment of small tithes, which are for that reason sometimes styled vicarial tithes. The origin of such unendowed curacies is traceable to the fact that benefices were sometimes granted to religious houses pleno jure, and with liberty for them to provide for the cure; and when such appropriations were transferred to lay persons, being unable to serve themselves, the impropriators were required to nominate a clerk in full orders to the ordinary for his licence to serve the cure. Such curates, being not removable at the pleasure of the impropriators, but only on due revocation of the licence of the ordinary, came to be entitled perpetual curates. The term “curate” in the present day is almost exclusively used to signify a clergyman who is assistant to a rector or vicar, by whom he is employed and paid; and a clerk in deacon’s orders is competent to be licensed by a bishop to the office of such assistant curate. The consequence of this misuse of the term “curate” was that the title of “perpetual curate” fell into desuetude in the Anglican Church, and an act of parliament (1868) was passed to authorize perpetual curates to style themselves vicars (see [Vicar]). The term is in use in the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland to designate an assistant clergyman, and also to a certain extent in the American Episcopal Church, though “assistant minister” is usually preferred.
CURATOR (Lat. for “one who takes care,” curare, to take care of), in Roman law the “caretaker” or guardian of a spendthrift (prodigus) or of a person of unsound mind (furiosus), and, more particularly, one who takes charge of the estate of an adolescens, i.e. of a person sui juris, above the age of a pupillus, fourteen or twelve years, according to sex, and below the full age of twenty-five. Such persons were known as “minors,” i.e. minores viginti quinque annis. While the tutor, the guardian of the pupillus, was said to be appointed for the care of the person, the curator took charge of the property. The term survives in Scots law for the guardian of one in the second stage of minority, i.e. below twenty-one, and above fourteen, if a male, and twelve, if a female. Under the Roman empire the title of curator was given to several officials who were in charge of departments of public administration, such as the curatores annonae, of the public supplies of corn and oil, or the curatores regionum, who were responsible for order in the fourteen regiones or districts into which the city of Rome was divided, and who protected the citizen from exaction in the collection of taxes; the curatores aquarum had the charge of the aqueducts. Many of these curatorships were instituted by Augustus. In modern usage “curator” is applied chiefly to the keeper of a museum, art collection, public gallery, &c., but in many universities to an official or member of a board having a general control over the university, or with the power of electing to professorships. In the university of Oxford “curators” are nominated to administer certain departments, such as the University Chest.
CURCI, CARLO MARIA (1810-1891), Italian theologian, was born at Naples. He joined the Jesuits in 1826, and for some time was devoted to educational work and the care of the poor and prisoners. He became one of the first editors of the Jesuit organ, the Civiltà Cattolica; but then came under the influence of Gioberti, Rosmini and other advocates for reform. He wrote a preface to Gioberti’s Primato (1843), but dissented from his Prolegomena. After the events of 1870, Curci, at Florence, delivered a course on Christian philosophy; and in 1874 began to publish several Scriptural works. In his edition of the New Testament (1879-1880) he makes some severe remarks on the neglect of the study of Scripture amongst the Italian clergy. In the meantime he began to attack the political action of the Vatican, and in his Il Moderno Dissidio tra la Chiesa e l’Italia (1878) he advocated an understanding between the church and state. This was followed by La Nuova Italia ed i Vecchi Zelanti (1881), another attack on the Vatican policy; and by his Vaticano Regio (1883), in which he accuses the Vatican of trafficking in holy things and declares that the taint of worldliness came from the false principles accepted by the Curia. His former work at Naples drew him also in the direction of Christian Socialism. He was condemned at Rome, and in a letter to The Times (10th of September 1884) declares that it was on account of his disobedience to the decrees of the Roman Congregation: “I am a dutiful son of the Church who hesitates to obey an order of his mother because he does not see clear enough the maternal authority in it.” He was cast out of the Society of Jesus and suspended, and during this time Cardinal Manning put his purse at Curci’s disposal. Finally he accepted the decrees against him and retracted “all that he said contrary to the faith, morals and discipline of the Church.” He passed the remainder of his life in retirement at Florence, and, a few months before his death, was readmitted to the Jesuit Society. He died on the 8th of June 1891.