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THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INFORMATION

ELEVENTH EDITION


VOLUME VI SLICE VI
Cockaigne to Columbus, Christopher


Articles in This Slice

[COCKAIGNE, LAND OF][COLEPEPER, JOHN COLEPEPER]
[COCKATOO][COLERAINE]
[COCKATRICE][COLERIDGE, HARTLEY]
[COCKBURN, SIR ALEXANDER JAMES EDMUND][COLERIDGE, JOHN DUKE COLERIDGE]
[COCKBURN, ALICIA][COLERIDGE, SIR JOHN TAYLOR]
[COCKBURN, SIR GEORGE][COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR]
[COCKBURN, HENRY THOMAS][COLERIDGE, SARA]
[COCKER, EDWARD][COLET, JOHN]
[COCKERELL, CHARLES ROBERT][COLET, LOUISE]
[COCKERILL, WILLIAM][COLEUS]
[COCKERMOUTH][COLFAX, SCHUYLER]
[COCK-FIGHTING][COLIC]
[COCK LANE GHOST][COLIGNY, GASPARD DE]
[COCKLE, SIR JAMES][COLIMA] (coast state of Mexico)
[COCKLE][COLIMA] (city of Mexico)
[COCKNEY][COLIN, ALEXANDRE]
[COCK-OF-THE-ROCK] (bird)[COLL]
[COCK-OF-THE-ROCK] (enclosed place)[COLLAERT, HANS]
[COCKROACH][COLLAR]
[COCK’S-COMB][COLLATERAL]
[COCKTON, HENRY][COLLATIA]
[COCKX, HIERONYMUS][COLLATION]
[COCOA][COLLÉ, CHARLES]
[COCO DE MER][COLLECTIVISM]
[COCOMA][COLLECTOR]
[COCO-NUT PALM][COLLE DI VAL D’ ELSA]
[COCYTUS][COLLEGE]
[COD][COLLEONI, BARTOLOMMEO]
[CODA][COLLETER]
[CODE][COLLETTA, PIETRO]
[CODE NAPOLÉON][COLLEY, SIR GEORGE POMEROY]
[CODIAEUM][COLLIER, ARTHUR]
[CODICIL][COLLIER, JEREMY]
[CODILLA][COLLIER, JOHN PAYNE]
[CODINUS, GEORGE][COLLIN, HEINRICH JOSEPH VON]
[COD-LIVER OIL][COLLIN D’HARLEVILLE, JEAN FRANÇOIS]
[CODRINGTON, CHRISTOPHER][COLLING, ROBERT]
[CODRINGTON, SIR EDWARD][COLLINGWOOD, CUTHBERT COLLINGWOOD]
[CODRUS][COLLINGWOOD] (city of Australia)
[CODY, WILLIAM FREDERICK][COLLINGWOOD] (town of Canada)
[CO-EDUCATION][COLLINS, ANTHONY]
[COEFFETEAU, NICOLAS][COLLINS, JOHN CHURTON]
[COEHOORN, MENNO][COLLINS, MORTIMER]
[COELENTERA][COLLINS, WILLIAM] (English poet)
[COELLO, ALONSO SANCHEZ][COLLINS, WILLIAM] (English painter)
[COELLO, ANTONIO][COLLINS, WILLIAM WILKIE]
[COELOM AND SEROUS MEMBRANES][COLLODION]
[COEN, JAN PIETERSZOON][COLLOT D’HERBOIS, JEAN MARIE]
[COENACULUM][COLLUSION]
[CŒNWULF][COLLYER, ROBERT]
[COERCION][COLMAN, SAINT]
[CŒUR, JACQUES][COLMAN, GEORGE]
[CŒUR D’ALÊNE][COLMAN, SAMUEL]
[COFFEE][COLMAR]
[COFFER][COLNE]
[COFFERDAM][COLOCYNTH]
[COFFEYVILLE][COLOGNE]
[COFFIN][COLOMAN]
[COG][COLOMB, PHILIP HOWARD]
[COGERS HALL][COLOMBES]
[COGHLAN, CHARLES FRANCIS][COLOMBEY]
[COGNAC][COLOMBIA]
[COGNITION][COLOMBIER, PIERRE BERTRAND DE]
[COGNIZANCE][COLOMBO]
[COHEN][COLON] (city of Panama)
[COHN, FERDINAND JULIUS][COLON] (town of Cuba)
[COHN, GUSTAV][COLON] (intestine)
[COHOES][COLONEL]
[COHORT][COLONIAL OFFICE]
[COIF][COLONNA] (Roman family)
[COIMBATORE][COLONNA, GIOVANNI PAOLO]
[COIMBRA][COLONNA, VITTORIA]
[COÍN][COLONNADE]
[COIN][COLONSAY]
[COINAGE OFFENCES][COLONY]
[COIR][COLOPHON] (ancient city of Ionia)
[COIRE][COLOPHON] (paragraph in manuscripts)
[COKE, SIR EDWARD][COLORADO]
[COKE, SIR JOHN][COLORADO RIVER] (stream of Argentine)
[COKE, THOMAS][COLORADO RIVER] (stream of U.S.A.)
[COKE][COLORADO SPRINGS]
[COL][COLOSSAE]
[COLBERT, JEAN BAPTISTE][COLOSSAL CAVERN]
[COLBERT DE CROISSY, CHARLES][COLOSSIANS, EPISTLE TO THE]
[COLBURN, HENRY][COLOSSUS]
[COLBURN, ZERAH][COLOUR]
[COLBY, THOMAS FREDERICK][COLOURS, MILITARY]
[COLCHAGUA][COLOUR-SERGEANT]
[COLCHESTER, CHARLES ABBOT][COLOURS OF ANIMALS]
[COLCHESTER] (town of England)[COLSTON, EDWARD]
[COLCHESTER] (township of Vermont)[COLT, SAMUEL]
[COLCHICUM][COLT’S-FOOT]
[COLCHIS][COLUGO]
[COLCOTHAR][COLUMBA, SAINT]
[COLD][COLUMBAN]
[COLDEN, CADWALLADER][COLUMBANI, PLACIDO]
[COLD HARBOR][COLUMBARIUM]
[COLDSTREAM][COLUMBIA] (city of Missouri)
[COLDWATER][COLUMBIA] (borough of Pennsylvania)
[COLE, SIR HENRY][COLUMBIA] (city of South Carolina)
[COLE, THOMAS][COLUMBIA] (city of Tennessee)
[COLE, TIMOTHY][COLUMBIA RIVER]
[COLE, VICAT][COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY]
[COLEBROOKE, HENRY THOMAS][COLUMBINE] (dancer)
[COLEMANITE][COLUMBINE] (plant)
[COLENSO, JOHN WILLIAM][COLUMBITE]
[COLENSO] (village of Natal)[COLUMBIUM]
[COLEOPTERA][COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER]

COCKAIGNE (Cockayne), LAND OF (O. Fr. Coquaigne, mod. Fr. cocagne, “abundance,” from Ital. Cocagna; “as we say ‘Lubberland,’ the epicure’s or glutton’s home, the land of all delights, so taken in mockerie”: Florio), an imaginary country, a medieval Utopia where life was a continual round of luxurious idleness. The origin of the Italian word has been much disputed. It seems safest to connect it, as do Grimm and Littré, ultimately with Lat. coquere, through a word meaning “cake,” the literal sense thus being “The Land of Cakes.” In Cockaigne the rivers were of wine, the houses were built of cake and barley-sugar, the streets were paved with pastry, and the shops supplied goods for nothing. Roast geese and fowls wandered about inviting folks to eat them, and buttered larks fell from the skies like manna. There is a 13th-century French fabliau, Cocaigne, which was possibly intended to ridicule the fable of the mythical Avalon, “the island of the Blest.” The 13th-century English poem, The Land of Cockaygne, is a satire on monastic life. The term has been humorously applied to London, and by Boileau to the Paris of the rich. The word has been frequently confused with Cockney (q.v.).

See D. M. Méon, Fabliaux et contes (4 vols., 1808), and F. J. Furnivall, Early English Poems (Berlin, 1862).


COCKATOO (Cacatuidae), a family of parrots characterized among Old World forms by their usually greater size, by the crest of feathers on the head, which can be raised or depressed at will, and by the absence of green in their coloration. They inhabit the Indian Archipelago, New Guinea and Australia, and are gregarious, frequenting woods and feeding on seeds, fruits and the larvae of insects. Their note is generally harsh and unmusical, and although they are readily tamed when taken young, becoming familiar, and in some species showing remarkable intelligence, their powers of vocal imitation are usually limited. Of the true cockatoos (Cacatua) the best known is the sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita), of a pure white plumage with the exception of the crest, which is deep sulphur yellow, and of the ear and tail coverts, which are slightly tinged with yellow. The crest when erect stands 5 in. high. These birds are found in Australia in flocks varying from 100 to 1000 in number, and do great damage to newly-sown grain, for which reason they are mercilessly destroyed by farmers. They deposit their eggs—two in number, and of a pure white colour—in the hollows of decayed trees or in the fissures of rocks, according to the nature of the locality in which they reside. This is one of the species most usually kept in Europe as a cage bird. Leadbeater’s Cockatoo (Cacatua Leadbeateri), an inhabitant of South Australia, excels all others in the beauty of its plumage, which consists in great part of white, tinged with rose colour, becoming a deep salmon colour under the wings, while the crest is bright crimson at the base, with a yellow spot in the centre and white at the tip. It is exceedingly shy and difficult of approach, and its note is more plaintive while less harsh than that of the preceding species. In the cockatoos belonging to the genus Calyptorhynchus the general plumage is black or dark brown, usually with a large spot or band of red or yellow on the tail. The largest of these is known as the funereal cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus funereus), from the lugubrious note or call which it utters, resembling the two syllables Wy—la—, the native name of the species. It deposits its eggs in the hollows of the large gum-trees of Australia, and feeds largely on the larvae of insects, in search of which it peels off the bark of trees, and when thus employed it may be approached closely. The cockateel (Calopsittacus novaehollandiae), the only species in the family smaller than a pigeon, and with a long pointed tail, is a common aviary bird, and breeds freely in captivity.


COCKATRICE, a fabulous monster, the existence of which was firmly believed in throughout ancient and medieval times,—descriptions and figures of it appearing in the natural history works of such writers as Pliny and Aldrovandus, those of the latter published so late as the beginning of the 17th century. Produced from a cock’s egg hatched by a serpent, it was believed to possess the most deadly powers, plants withering at its touch, and men and animals dying poisoned by its look. It stood in awe, however, of the cock, the sound of whose crowing killed it, and consequently travelers were wont to take this bird with them in travelling over regions supposed to abound in cockatrices. The weasel alone among mammals was unaffected by the glance of its evil eye, and attacked it at all times successfully; for when wounded by the monster’s teeth it found a ready remedy in rue—the only plant which the cockatrice could not wither. This myth reminds one of the real contests between the weasel-like mungoos of India and the deadly cobra, in which the latter is generally killed. The term “cockatrice” is employed on four occasions in the English translation of the Bible, in all of which it denotes nothing more than an exceedingly venomous reptile; it seems also to be synonymous with “basilisk,” the mythical king of serpents.


COCKBURN, SIR ALEXANDER JAMES EDMUND, 10th Bart. (1802-1880), lord chief justice of England, was born on the 24th of December 1802, of ancient Scottish stock. He was the son of Alexander, fourth son of Sir James Cockburn, 6th baronet, his three uncles, who had successively held the title, dying without heirs. His father was British envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the state of Columbia, and married Yolande, daughter of the vicomte de Vignier. Young Alexander was at one time intended for the diplomatic service, and frequently during the legal career which he ultimately adopted he was able to make considerable use of the knowledge of foreign languages, especially French, with which birth and early education had equipped him. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, of which he was elected a fellow, and afterwards an honorary fellow. He entered at the Middle Temple in 1825, and was called to the bar in 1829. He joined the western circuit, and for some time such practice as he was able to obtain lay at the Devon sessions, quarter sessions at that time affording an opening and a school of advocacy to young counsel not to be found anywhere fifty years later. In London he had so little to do that only the persuasion of friends induced him to keep his London chambers open. Three years after his call to the bar, however, the Reform Bill was passed, and the petitions which followed the ensuing general election gave rise to a large number of new questions for the decision of election committees, and afforded an opening of which he promptly availed himself. The decisions of the committees had not been reported since 1821, and with M. C. Rowe, another member of the western circuit, Cockburn undertook a new series of reports. They only published one volume, but the work was well done, and in 1833 Cockburn had his first parliamentary brief.

In 1834 Cockburn was well enough thought of to be made a member of the commission to inquire into the state of the corporations of England and Wales. Other parliamentary work followed; but he had ambition to be more than a parliamentary counsel, and attended diligently on his circuit, besides appearing before committees. In 1841 he was made a Q.C., and in that year a charge of simony, brought against his uncle, William, dean of York, enabled him to appear conspicuously in a case which attracted considerable public attention, the proceedings taking the form of a motion for prohibition duly obtained against the ecclesiastical court, which had deprived Dr Cockburn of his office. Not long after this, Sir Robert Peel’s secretary, Edward Drummond, was shot by the crazy Scotsman, Daniel M’Naughten, and Cockburn, briefed on behalf of the assassin, not only made a very brilliant speech, which established the defence of insanity, but also secured the full publicity of a long report in the Morning Chronicle of the 6th of March 1843. Another well-known trial in which he appeared a year later was that of Wood v. Peel (The Times, 2nd and 3rd of July 1844), the issue being in form to determine the winner of a bet (the Gaming Act was passed in the following year) as to the age of the Derby winner Running Rein—in substance to determine, if possible, the vexed question whether Running Rein was a four-year-old or a three-year-old when he was racing as the latter. Running Rein could not be produced by Mr Wood, and Baron Alderson took a strong view of this circumstance, so that Cockburn found himself on the losing side, while his strenuous advocacy of his client’s cause had led him into making, in his opening speech, strictures on Lord George Bentinck’s conduct in the case which had better have been reserved to a later stage. He was, however, a hard fighter, but not an unfair one—a little irritable at times, but on the whole a courteous gentleman, and his practice went on increasing.

In 1847 he decided to stand for parliament, and was elected without a contest Liberal M.P. for Southampton. His speech in the House of Commons on behalf of the government in the Don Pacifico dispute with Greece commended him to Lord John Russell, who appointed him solicitor-general in 1850 and attorney-general in 1851, a post which he held till the resignation of the ministry in February 1852. During the short administration of Lord Derby which followed, Sir Frederic Thesiger was attorney-general, and Cockburn was engaged against him in the case of R. v. Newman, on the prosecution of Achilli. This was the trial of a criminal information for libel filed against John Henry Newman, who had denounced a scandalous and profligate friar named Achilli, then lecturing on Roman Catholicism in England. Newman pleaded justification; but the jury who heard the case in the Queen’s Bench, with Lord Campbell presiding, found that the justification was not proved except in one particular: a verdict which, together with the methods of the judge and the conduct of the audience, attracted considerable comment. The verdict was set aside, and a new trial ordered, but none ever took place. In December 1852, under Lord Aberdeen’s ministry, Cockburn became again attorney-general, and so remained until 1856, taking part in many celebrated trials, such as the Hopwood Will Case in 1855, and the Swynfen Will Case, but notably leading for the crown in the trial of William Palmer of Rugeley in Staffordshire—an ex-medical man who had taken to the turf, and who had poisoned a friend of similar pursuits named Cook with strychnine, in order to obtain money from his estate by forgery and otherwise. Cockburn made an exhaustive study of the medical aspects of the case, and the prisoner’s comment when convicted after a twelve days’ trial was, alluding to the attorney-general’s advocacy, “It was the riding that did it.” In 1854 Cockburn was made recorder of Bristol. In 1856 he became chief justice of the common pleas. He inherited the baronetcy in 1858. In 1859 Lord Campbell became chancellor, and Cockburn became chief justice of the Queen’s Bench, continuing as a judge for twenty-four years and dying in harness. On Friday, the 19th of November 1880, he tried causes with special juries at Westminster; on Saturday, the 20th, he presided over a court for the consideration of crown cases reserved; he walked home, and on that night he died of angina pectoris at his house in Hertford Street.

Sir Alexander Cockburn earned and deserved a high reputation as a judge. He was a man of brilliant cleverness and rapid intuition rather than of profound and laboriously cultivated intellect. He had been a great advocate at the bar, with a charm of voice and manner, fluent and persuasive rather than learned; but before he died he was considered a good lawyer, some assigning his unquestioned improvement in this respect to his frequent association on the bench with Blackburn. He had notoriously little sympathy with the Judicature Acts. Many were of opinion that he was inclined to take an advocate’s view of the cases before him, making up his mind as to their merits prematurely and, in consequence, wrongly, as well as giving undue prominence to the views which he so formed; but he was beyond doubt always in intention, and generally in fact, scrupulously fair. It is not necessary to enumerate the many causes célèbres at which Sir Alexander Cockburn presided as a judge. It was thought that he went out of his way to arrange that they should come before him, and his successor, Lord Coleridge, writing in 1881 to Lord Bramwell, to make the offer that he should try the murderer Lefroy as a last judicial act before retiring, added, “Poor dear Cockburn would hardly have given you such a chance.” Be this as it may, Cockburn tried all cases which came before him, whether great or small, with the same thoroughness, courtesy and dignity, so that no counsel or suitor could complain that he had not been fully heard in a matter in which the issues were seemingly trivial; while he certainly gave great attention to the elaboration of his judgments and charges to juries. He presided at the Tichborne trial at Bar, lasting 188 days, of which his summing-up occupied eighteen.

The greatest public occasion on which Sir Alexander Cockburn acted, outside his usual judicial functions, was that of the “Alabama” arbitration, held at Geneva in 1872, in which he represented the British government, and dissented from the view taken by the majority of the arbitrators, without being able to convince them. He prepared, with Mr C. F. Adams, the representative of the United States, the English translation of the award of the arbitrators, and published his reasons for dissenting in a vigorously worded document which did not meet with universal commendation. He admitted in substance the liability of England for the acts of the “Alabama,” but not on the grounds on which the decision of the majority was based, and he held England not liable in respect of the “Florida” and the “Shenandoah.”

In personal appearance Sir Alexander Cockburn was of small stature, but great dignity of deportment. He was fond of yachting and of sport, and was engaged in writing a series of articles on the “History of the Chase in the Nineteenth Century” at the time of his death. He was fond, too, of society, and was also throughout his life addicted to frivolities not altogether consistent with advancement in a learned profession, or with the positions of dignity which he successively occupied. At the same time he had a high sense of what was due to and expected from his profession; and his utterance upon the limitations of advocacy, in his speech at the banquet given in the Middle Temple Hall to M. Berryer, the celebrated French advocate, may be called the classical authority on the subject. Lord Brougham, replying for the guests other than Berryer, had spoken of “the first great duty of an advocate to reckon everything subordinate to the interests of his client.” The lord chief justice, replying to the toast of “the judges of England,” dissented from this sweeping statement, saying, amid loud cheers from a distinguished assembly of lawyers, “The arms which an advocate wields he ought to use as a warrior, not as an assassin. He ought to uphold the interests of his clients per fas, not per nefas. He ought to know how to reconcile the interests of his clients with the eternal interests of truth and justice” (The Times, 9th of November 1864). Sir Alexander Cockburn was never married, and the baronetcy became extinct at his death.

Authorities.—The Times, 22nd of November 1880; Law Journal; Law Times; Solicitors’ Journal, 27th of November 1880; Law Magazine, new series, vol. xv. p. 193, 1851; Ashley’s Life of Lord Palmerston; Nash’s Life of Lord Westbury; “Reminiscences of Lord Chief Justice Coleridge,” by Lord Russell of Killowen, in the North American Review, September 1894; The Greville Memoirs; Croker’s Correspondence and Diaries; Justin M’Carthy’s History of Our Own Times; Serjeant Ballantine’s Experiences; Bench and Bar, by Serjeant Robinson; Fairchild’s Life of Lord Bramwell; Manson’s Builders of Our Law; Burke’s Peerage, ed. 1879; Foster’s Peerage, 1880.


COCKBURN, ALICIA, or Alison (1713-1794), Scottish poet, authoress of one of the most exquisite of Scottish ballads, the “Flowers of the Forest,” was the daughter of Robert Rutherfurd of Fairnalee, Selkirkshire, and was born on the 8th of October 1713. There are two versions of this song,—the one by Mrs Cockburn, the other by Jean Elliot (1727-1805) of Minto. Both were founded on the remains of an ancient Border ballad. Mrs Cockburn’s—that beginning “I’ve seen the smiling of Fortune beguiling”—is said to have been written before her marriage in 1731, though not published till 1765. Anyhow, it was composed many years before Jean Elliot’s sister verses, written in 1756, beginning, “I’ve heard them liltin’ at our ewe-milkin’.” Robert Chambers states that the ballad was written on the occasion of a great commercial disaster which ruined the fortunes of some Selkirkshire lairds. Later biographers, however, think it probable that it was written on the departure to London of a certain John Aikman, between whom and Alison there appears to have been an early attachment. In 1731 Alison Rutherfurd was married to Patrick Cockburn of Ormiston. After her marriage she knew all the intellectual and aristocratic celebrities of her day. In the memorable year 1745 she vented her Whiggism in a squib upon Prince Charlie, and narrowly escaped being taken by the Highland guard as she was driving through Edinburgh in the family coach of the Keiths of Ravelston, with the parody in her pocket. Mrs Cockburn was an indefatigable letter-writer and a composer of parodies, squibs, toasts and “character-sketches”—then a favourite form of composition—like other wits of her day; but the “Flowers of the Forest” is the only thing she wrote that possesses great literary merit. At her house on Castle-hill, and afterwards in Crichton Street, she received many illustrious friends, among whom were Mackenzie, Robertson, Hume, Home, Monboddo, the Keiths of Ravelston, the Balcarres family and Lady Anne Barnard, the authoress of “Auld Robin Gray.” As a Rutherfurd she was a connexion of Sir Walter Scott’s mother, and was her intimate friend. Lockhart quotes a letter written by Mrs Cockburn in 1777, describing the conduct of little Walter Scott, then scarcely six years old, during a visit which she paid to his mother, when the child gave as a reason for his liking for Mrs Cockburn that she was a “virtuoso like himself.” Mrs Cockburn died on the 22nd of November 1794.

See her Letters and Memorials..., with notes by T. Craig Brown (1900).


COCKBURN, SIR GEORGE, Bart. (1772-1853), British admiral, second son of Sir James Cockburn, Bart., and uncle of Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, was born in London. He entered the navy in his ninth year. After serving on the home station, and in the East Indies and the Mediterranean, he assisted, as captain of the “Minerve” (38) at the blockade of Leghorn in 1796, and fought a gallant action with the Spanish frigate “Sabina” (40) which he took. He was present at the battle of Cape St Vincent. In 1809, in command of the naval force on shore, he contributed greatly to the reduction of Martinique, and signed the capitulation by which that island was handed over to the English; for his services on this occasion he received the thanks of the House of Commons. After service in the Scheldt and at the defence of Cadiz he was sent in 1811 on an unsuccessful mission for the reconciliation of Spain and her American colonies. He was made rear-admiral in 1812, and in 1813-14, as second in command to Warren, he took a prominent part in the American War, especially in the capture of Washington. Early in 1815 he received the order of the Bath, and in the autumn of the same year he carried out, in the “Northumberland” (74), the sentence of deportation to St Helena which had been passed upon Bonaparte. In 1818 he received the Grand Cross of his order, and was made a lord of the admiralty; and the same year he was returned to parliament for Portsmouth. He was promoted to the rank of vice-admiral in 1819, and to that of admiral in 1837; he became senior naval lord in 1841, and held office in that capacity till 1846. From 1827 he was a privy councillor. In 1851 he was made admiral of the fleet, and in 1852, a year before his death, inherited the family baronetcy from his elder brother, being himself succeeded by his brother William, dean of York, who died in 1858.

See O’Byrne, Naval Biography; W. James, Naval History; Gentleman’s Magazine for 1853.


COCKBURN, HENRY THOMAS (1779-1854), Scottish judge, with the style of Lord Cockburn, was born in Edinburgh on the 26th of October 1779. His father, a keen Tory, was a baron of the Scottish court of exchequer, and his mother was connected by marriage with Lord Melville. He was educated at the high school and the university of Edinburgh; and he was a member of the famous Speculative Society, to which Sir Walter Scott, Brougham and Jeffrey belonged. He entered the faculty of advocates in 1800, and attached himself, not to the party of his relatives, who could have afforded him most valuable patronage, but to the Whig or Liberal party, and that at a time when it held out few inducements to men ambitious of success in life. On the accession of Earl Grey’s ministry in 1830 he became solicitor-general for Scotland. In 1834 he was raised to the bench, and on taking his seat as a judge in the court of session he adopted the title of Lord Cockburn. Cockburn’s forensic style was remarkable for its clearness, pathos and simplicity; and his conversational powers were unrivalled among his contemporaries. The extent of his literary ability only became known after he had passed his seventieth year, on the publication of his biography of Lord Jeffrey in 1852, and from the Memorials of his Time, which appeared posthumously in 1856. He died on the 26th of April 1854, at his mansion of Bonaly, near Edinburgh.


COCKER, EDWARD (1631-1675), the reputed author of the famous Arithmetick, the popularity of which has added a phrase (“according to Cocker”) to the list of English proverbialisms, was an English engraver, who also taught writing and arithmetic. He is credited with the authorship and execution of some fourteen sets of copy slips, one of which, Daniel’s Copy-Book, ingraven by Edward Cocker, Philomath (1664), is preserved in the British Museum. Pepys, in his Diary, makes very favourable mention of Cocker, who appears to have displayed great skill in his art. Cocker’s Arithmetick, the fifty-second edition of which appeared in 1748, and which has passed through about 112 editions in all, was not published during the lifetime of its reputed author, the first impression bearing date of 1678. Augustus de Morgan in his Arithmetical Books (1847) adduces proofs, which may be held to be conclusive, that the work was a forgery of the editor and publisher, John Hawkins; and there appears to be no doubt that the Decimal Arithmetic (1684), and the English Dictionary (second edition, 1715), issued by Hawkins under Cocker’s name, are forgeries also. De Morgan condemns the Arithmetick as a diffuse compilation from older and better works, and dates “a very great deterioration in elementary works on arithmetic” from the appearance of the book, which owed its celebrity far more to persistent puffing than to its merits. He pertinently adds,—“This same Edward Cocker must have had great reputation, since a bad book under his name pushed out the good ones.”


COCKERELL, CHARLES ROBERT (1788-1863), British architect, was born in London on the 28th of April 1788. After a preliminary training in his profession, he went abroad in 1810 and studied the great architectural remains of Greece, Italy and Asia Minor. At Aegina, Phigalia and other places of interest, he conducted excavations on a large scale, enriching the British Museum with many fine fragments, and adding several valuable monographs to the literature of archaeology. Elected in 1829 an associate of the Royal Academy, he became a full member in 1836, and in 1839 he was appointed professor of architecture. On Sir John Soane’s death in 1837 Cockerell was appointed architect of the Bank of England, and carried out the alterations that were judged to be necessary in that building. In addition to branch banks at Liverpool and Manchester he erected in 1840 the new library at Cambridge, and in 1845 the university galleries at Oxford, as well as the Sun and the Westminster Fire Offices in Bartholomew Lane and in the Strand; and he was joint architect of the London & Westminster Bank, Lothbury, with Sir W. Tite. On the death of Henry Lonsdale Elmes in 1847, Cockerell was selected to finish the St George’s Hall, Liverpool. Cockerell’s best conceptions were those inspired by classic models; his essays in the Gothic—the college at Lampeter, for instance, and the chapel at Harrow—are by no means so successful. His thorough knowledge of Gothic art, however, can be seen from his writings, On the Iconography of Wells Cathedral, and On the Sculptures of Lincoln and Exeter Cathedrals. In his Tribute to the Memory of Sir Christopher Wren (1838) he published an interesting collection of the whole of Wren’s works drawn to one scale.


COCKERILL, WILLIAM (1759-1832), Anglo-French inventor and machinist, was born in England in 1759. He went to Belgium as a simple mechanic, and in 1799 constructed at Verviers the first wool-carding and wool-spinning machines on the continent. In 1807 he established a large machine workshop at Liége. Orders soon poured in on him from all over Europe, and he amassed a large fortune. In 1810 he was granted the rights of naturalization by Napoleon I., and in 1812 handed over the management of his business to his youngest son, John Cockerill (1790-1840).

Thanks to his own energy and ability, aided by the influence of King William I. of the Netherlands, John Cockerill largely extended his father’s business. King William secured him a site at Seraing, where he built large works, including an iron-foundry and blast furnace. The construction of the Belgian railways in 1834 gave a great impetus to these works, branches of which had already been opened in France, Germany and Poland. In 1838 Cockerill met with a carriage accident which nearly proved fatal, and the prospect of his loss resulted in the credit of the firm being so badly shaken that in 1839 it was compelled to go into liquidation, the liabilities being estimated at 26 millions of francs, the assets at 18 millions. This reverse, however, was only temporary. John Cockerill had practically concluded negotiations to construct the Russian government railways, when his constitution, undermined by overwork, broke down. He died at Warsaw on the 19th of June 1840. The iron works, among the largest in Europe, are still carried on under the name of La Société Cockerill at Seraing (q.v.).


COCKERMOUTH, a market town in the Cockermouth parliamentary division of Cumberland, England, 27 m. S.W. of Carlisle, on the Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith, the London & North Western, and the Maryport & Carlisle railways. Pop. of urban district (1901) 5355. It is pleasantly situated on the river Derwent, at the junction of the Cocker, outlying hills of the Lake District sheltering it on the north, east and south. The castle has remains of Norman work in the keep, and other ancient portions (including the gateway) of later date, but is in part modernized as a residence. The grammar school was founded in 1676. The county industrial school is established in the town. The industries include the manufacture of woollens and confectionery, tanning and engineering, and there is a considerable agricultural trade. There are coal mines in the neighbourhood. A statue was erected in 1875 to the sixth earl of Mayo, who represented the borough (abolished in 1885) from 1857 to 1868. There is a Roman fort a mile west of the town, at Papcastle.

Cockermouth (Cokermuth, Cokermue) was made the head of the honour or barony of Allerdale when that barony was created and granted to Waltheof in the early part of the 12th century. At a later date the honour of Allerdale was frequently called the honour of Cockermouth. Waltheof probably built the castle, under the shelter of which the town grew up. Although it never received any royal charter, the earliest records relating to Cockermouth mention it as a borough. In 1295 it returned two members to parliament and then not again until 1640. By the Representation of the People Act of 1867 the representation was reduced to one member, and by the Redistribution Act of 1885 it was disfranchised. In 1221 William de Fortibus, earl of Albemarle, was granted a Saturday market, which later in the year was transferred to Monday, the day on which it has continued to be held ever since. The Michaelmas Fair existed in 1343, and an inquisition dated 1374 mentions two horse-fairs on Whit-Monday and at Michaelmas. In 1638 Algernon Percy, earl of Northumberland, obtained a grant of a fair every Wednesday from the first week in May till Michaelmas. The chief sources of revenue in Norman times were the valuable fisheries and numerous mills.


COCK-FIGHTING, or Cocking, the sport of pitting game-cocks to fight, and breeding and training them for the purpose. The game-fowl is now probably the nearest to the Indian jungle-fowl (Gallus ferrugineus), from which all domestic fowls are believed to be descended. The sport was popular in ancient times in India, China, Persia and other eastern countries, and was introduced into Greece in the time of Themistocles. The latter, while moving with his army against the Persians, observed two cocks fighting desperately, and, stopping his troops, inspired them by calling their attention to the valour and obstinacy of the feathered warriors. In honour of the ensuing victory of the Greeks cock-fights were thenceforth held annually at Athens, at first in a patriotic and religious spirit, but afterwards purely for the love of the sport. Lucian makes Solon speak of quail-fighting and cocking, but he is evidently referring to a time later than that of Themistocles. From Athens the sport spread throughout Greece, Asia Minor and Sicily, the best cocks being bred in Alexandria, Delos, Rhodes and Tanagra. For a long time the Romans affected to despise this “Greek diversion,” but ended by adopting it so enthusiastically that Columella (1st century A.D.) complained that its devotees often spent their whole patrimony in betting at the pit-side. The cocks were provided with iron spurs (tela), as in the East, and were often dosed with stimulants to make them fight more savagely.

From Rome cocking spread northwards, and, although opposed by the Christian church, nevertheless became popular in Great Britain, the Low Countries, Italy, Germany, Spain and her colonies. On account of adverse legislation cocking has practically died out everywhere excepting in Spain, countries of Spanish origin and the Orient, where it is still legal and extremely popular. It was probably introduced into England by the Romans before Caesar’s time. William Fitz-Stephen first speaks of it in the time of Henry II. as a sport for school-boys on holidays, and particularly on Shrove Tuesday, the masters themselves directing the fights, or mains, from which they derived a material advantage, as the dead birds fell to them. It became very popular throughout England and Wales, as well as in Scotland, where it was introduced in 1681. Occasionally the authorities tried to repress it, especially Cromwell, who put an almost complete stop to it for a brief period, but the Restoration re-established it among the national-pastimes. Contemporary apologists do not, in the 17th century, consider its cruelty at all, but concern themselves solely with its justification as a source of pleasure. “If Leviathan took his sport in the waters, how much more may Man take his sport upon the land?” From the time of Henry VIII., who added the famous Royal Cock-pit to his palace of Whitehall, cocking was called the “royal diversion,” and the Stuarts, particularly James I. and Charles II., were among its most enthusiastic devotees, their example being followed by the gentry down to the 19th century. Gervase Markham in his Pleasures of Princes (1614) wrote “Of the Choyce, Ordring, Breeding and Dyeting of the fighting-Cocke for Battell,” his quaint directions being of the most explicit nature. When a cock is to be trained for the pit he must be fed “three or foure daies only with old Maunchet (fine white bread) and spring water.” He is then set to spar with another cock, “putting a payre of hots upon each of their heeles, which Hots are soft, bumbasted roules of Leather, covering their spurs, so that they cannot hurt each other.... Let them fight and buffet one another a good space.” After exercise the bird must be put into a basket, covered with hay and set near the fire. “Then let him sweate, for the nature of this scowring is to bring away his grease, and to breed breath, and strength.” If not killed in the fight, “the first thing you doe, you shall search his wounds, and as many as you can find you shall with your mouth sucke the blood out of them, then wash them with warm salt water,... give him a roule or two, and so stove him up as hot as you can.”

Cocking-mains usually consisted of fights between an agreed number of pairs of birds, the majority of victories deciding the main; but there were two other varieties that aroused the particular ire of moralists. These were the “battle royal,” in which a number of birds were “set,” i.e. placed in the pit, at the same time, and allowed to remain until all but one, the victor, were killed or disabled; and the “Welsh main,” in which eight pairs were matched, the eight victors being again paired, then four, and finally the last surviving pair. Among London cock-pits were those at Westminster, in Drury Lane, Jewin Street and Birdcage Walk (depicted by Hogarth). Over the royal pit at Whitehall presided the king’s cockmaster. The pits were circular in shape with a matted stage about 20 ft. in diameter and surrounded by a barrier to keep the birds from falling off. Upon this barrier the first row of the audience leaned. Hardly a town in the kingdom was without its cockpit, which offered the sporting classes opportunities for betting not as yet sufficiently supplied by horse-racing. With the growth of the latter sport and the increased facilities for reaching the racing centres, cocking gradually declined, especially after parliament passed laws against it, so that gentlemen risked arrest by attending a main.

Among the best-known devotees of the sport was a Colonel Mordaunt, who, about 1780, took a number of the best English game-cocks to India. There he found the sport in high favour with the native rulers and his birds were beaten. Perhaps the most famous main in England took place at Lincoln in 1830 between the birds of Joseph Gilliver, the most celebrated breeder, or “feeder,” of his day, and those of the earl of Derby. The conditions called for seven birds a side, and the stakes were 5000 guineas the main and 1000 guineas each match. The main was won by Gilliver by five matches to two. His grandson was also a breeder, and the blood of his cocks still runs in the best breeds of Great Britain and America. Another famous breeder was Dr Bellyse of Audlem, the principal figure in the great mains fought at Chester during race-week at the beginning of the 19th century. His favourite breed was the white pile, and “Cheshire piles” are still much-fancied birds. Others were Irish brown-reds, Lancashire black-reds and Staffordshire duns.

In Wales, as well as some parts of England, cocking-mains took place regularly in churchyards, and in many instances even inside the churches themselves. Sundays, wakes and church festivals were favourite occasions for them. The habit of holding mains in schools was common from the 12th to about the middle of the 19th century. When cocking was at its height, the pupils of many schools were made a special allowance for purchasing fighting-cocks, and parents were expected to contribute to the expenses of the annual main on Shrove Tuesday, this money being called “cockpence.” Cock-fighting was prohibited by law in Great Britain in 1849.

Cocking was early introduced into America, though it was always frowned upon in New England. Some of the older states, as Massachusetts, forbade it by passing laws against cruelty as early as 1836, and it is now expressly prohibited in Canada and in most states of the Union, or is repressed by general laws for the prevention of cruelty to animals.

Cocks are fought at an age of from one to two years. “Heeling,” or the proper fastening of the spurs, and “cutting out,” trimming the wings at a slope, and cutting the tail down by one-third of its length and shortening the hackle and rump feathers, are arts acquired by experience. The comb is cut down close, so as to offer the least possible mark for the hostile bird’s bill. The cock is then provided with either “short heels,” spurs 1½ in. or less in length, or with “long heels,” from 2 to 2½ in. in length. The training of a cock for the pit lasts from ten days to a month or more, during which time the bird is subjected to a rigid diet and exercise in running and sparring. The birds may not be touched after being set down in the pit, unless to extricate them from the matting. Whenever a bird refuses to fight longer he is set breast to breast with his adversary in the middle of the pit, and if he then still refuses to fight he is regarded as defeated. Among the favourite breeds may be mentioned the “Irish gilders,” “Irish Grays,” “Shawlnecks,” “Gordons,” “Eslin Red-Quills,” “Baltimore Topknots,” “Dominiques,” “War-horses” and “Claibornes.”

Cock-fighting possesses an extensive literature of its own. See Gervase Markham, Pleasures of Princes (London, 1614); Blain, Rural Sports (London, 1853); “Game Cocks and Cock-Fighting,” Outing, vol. 39; “A Modest Commendation of Cock-Fighting,” Blackwood’s Magazine, vol. 22; “Cock-Fighting in Schools,” Chambers’ Magazine, vol. 65.


COCK LANE GHOST, a supposed apparition, the vagaries of which attracted extraordinary public attention in London during 1762. At a house in Cock Lane, Smithfield, tenanted by one Parsons, knockings and other noises were said to occur at night varied by the appearance of a luminous figure, alleged to be the ghost of a Mrs Kent who had died in the house some two years before. A thorough investigation revealed that Parsons’ daughter, a child of eleven, was the source of the disturbance. The object of the Parsons family seems to have been to accuse the husband of the deceased woman of murdering her, with a view to blackmail. Parsons was prosecuted and condemned to the pillory. Among the crowds who visited the house was Dr Johnson, who was in consequence made the object of a scurrilous attack by the poet Charles Churchill in “The Ghost.”

See A. Lang, Cock Lane and Common Sense (1894).


COCKLE, SIR JAMES (1819-1895), English lawyer and mathematician, was born on the 14th of January 1819. He was the second son of James Cockle, a surgeon, of Great Oakley, Essex. Educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cambridge, he entered the Middle Temple in 1838, practising as a special pleader in 1845 and being called in 1846. Joining the midland circuit, he acquired a good practice, and on the recommendation of Chief Justice Sir William Erle he was appointed chief justice of Queensland in 1863. He received the honour of knighthood in 1869, retired from the bench, and returned to England in 1879.

Cockle is more remembered for his mathematical and scientific investigations than as a lawyer. Like many young mathematicians he attacked the problem of resolving the higher algebraic equations, notwithstanding Abel’s proof that a solution by radicles was impossible. In this field Cockle achieved some notable results, amongst which is his reproduction of Sir William R. Hamilton’s modification of Abel’s theorem. Algebraic forms were a favourite object of his studies, and he discovered and developed the theory of criticoids, or differential invariants; he also made contributions to the theory of differential equations. He displayed a keen interest in scientific societies. From 1863 to 1879 he was president of the Queensland Philosophical Society (now incorporated in the Royal Society of Queensland); on his return to England he became associated with the London Mathematical Society, of which he was president from 1886 to 1888, and the Royal Astronomical Society, serving as a member of the council from 1888 to 1892. He died in London on the 27th of January 1895.

A volume containing his scientific and mathematical researches made during the years 1864-1877 was presented to the British Museum in 1897 by his widow. See the obituary notice by the Rev. R. Harley in Proc. Roy. Soc. vol. 59.


COCKLE, in zoology, a mollusc (Cardium) of the class Lamellibranchia (q.v.). A very large number of species of Cardium have been distinguished by conchologists. Besides the common species Cardium edule, two others occur in Britain, but are not sufficiently common to be of commercial importance. One of these is C. echinatum, which is larger than the common species, reaching 3 in. in diameter, and distinguished by the presence of spines along the ribs of the shell. The other is C. norvegicum, which is also somewhat larger than C. edule, is longer dorso-ventrally than broad, and is only faintly ribbed.

The two valves of the shell of the common cockle are similar to each other, and somewhat circular in outline. The beak or umbo of each valve is prominent and rounded, and a number of sharp ridges and furrows radiate from the apex to the free edge of the shell, which is crenated. The ligament is external, and the hinge carries cardinal teeth in each valve. The interior of the shell is remarkable for the absence of pearly lustre on its interior surface. The colour externally is reddish or yellowish. The pallial line, which is the line of attachment of the mantle parallel to the edge of the shell, is not indented by a sinus at the posterior end. In the entire animal the posterior end projects slightly more than the anterior from the region of the umbones.

The animal possesses two nearly equal adductor muscles. The edges of the mantle are united posteriorly except at the anal and branchial apertures, which are placed at the ends of two very short siphons or tubular prolongations of the mantle; the siphons bear a number of short tentacles, and many of these are furnished with eye-spots. The foot is very large and powerful; it can be protruded from the anterior aperture between the mantle edges, and its outer part is bent sharply forwards and terminates in a point. By means of this muscular foot the cockle burrows rapidly in the muddy sand of the sea-shore, and it can also when it is not buried perform considerable leaps by suddenly bending the foot. The foot has a byssus gland on its posterior surface.

On either side of the body between the mantle and the foot are two flat gills each composed of two lamellae. Cardium belongs to the order of Lamellibranchia in which the gills present the maximum of complexity, the original vertical filaments of which they are composed being united by interfilamentar and interlamellar junctions. In other respects the anatomy of the cockle presents no important differences from that of a typical Lamellibranch. The sexes are distinct, and the generative opening is on the side of the body above the edge of the inner lamella of the inner gill. The eggs are minute, and pass out into the sea-water through the dorsal or exhalent siphon. The breeding season is April, May and June. The larva for a time swims freely in the sea-water, having a circlet of cilia round the body in front of the mouth, forming the velum. The shell is developed on the dorsal surface behind the velum, the foot on the opposite or ventral surface behind the mouth. After a few days, when the mantle bearing the shell valves has developed so much as to enclose the whole body, the young cockle sinks to the bottom and commences to follow the habits of the adult. The usual size of the cockle in its shell is from 1 to 2 in. in breadth.

The common cockle is regularly used as food by the poorer classes. It occurs in abundance on sandy shores in all estuaries. At the mouth of the Thames the gathering of cockles forms a considerable industry, especially at Leigh. On the coast of Lancashire also the fishery, if it may be so called, is of considerable importance. The cockles are gathered by the simple process of raking them from the sand, and they are usually boiled and extracted from their shells before being sent to market. The cockle is liable to the same suspicion as the oyster of conveying the contamination of typhoid fever where the shores are polluted, but as it is boiled before being eaten it is probably less dangerous.

(J. T. C.)


COCKNEY, a colloquial name applied to Londoners generally, but more properly confined to those born in London, or more strictly still to those born within the sound of the bells of St Mary-le-Bow church. The origin of the word has been the subject of many guesses, from that in John Minsheu’s lexicon, Ductor in linguas (1617), which gives the tale of the town-bred child who, on hearing a horse neigh, asked whether a “cock neighed” too, to the confusion of the word with the name of the Utopia, the land of Cockaigne (q.v.). The historical examination of the various uses of “Cockney,” by Sir James Murray (see Academy, 10th of May 1890, and the New English Dictionary, s.v.) clearly shows the true derivation. The earliest form of the word is cokenay or cokeney, i.e. the ey or egg, and coken, genitive plural of “cock,” “cocks’ eggs” being the name given to the small and malformed eggs sometimes laid by young hens, known in German as Hahneneier. An early quotation, in Langland’s Piers Plowman, A. vii. 272, gives the combination of “cokeneyes” and bacon to make a “collop,” or dish of eggs and bacon. The word then applied to a child overlong nursed by its mother, hence to a simpleton or milksop. Thus in Chaucer, Reeve’s Tale, the word is used with daf, i.e. a fool. The particular application of the name as a term of contempt given by country folk to town-bred people, with their dandified airs and ignorance of country ways and country objects, is easy. Thus Robert Whittington or Whitinton (fl. 1520), speaks of the “cokneys” in such “great cytees as London, York, Perusy” (Perugia), showing the general use of the word. It was not till the beginning of the 17th century that “cockney” appears to be confined to the inhabitants of London.

The so-called “Cockney” accent or pronunciation has varied in type. In the first part of the 19th century, it was chiefly characterized by the substitution of a v for a w, or vice versa. This has almost entirely disappeared, and the chief consonantal variation which exists is perhaps the change of th to f or v, as in “fing” for thing, or “favver” for father. This and the vowel-sound change from ou to ah, as in “abaht” for “about,” are only heard among the uneducated classes, and, together with other characteristic pronunciations, phrases and words, have been well illustrated in the so-called “coster” songs of Albert Chevalier. The most marked and widely-prevalent change of vowel sound is that of ei for ai, so that “daily” becomes “dyly” and “may” becomes “my.” This is sometimes so marked that it almost amounts to incapacity to distinguish the vowels a and i, and is almost universal in large classes of the population of London. The name of the “Cockney School of Poetry” was applied in 1817 to the literary circle of which Leigh Hunt was the principal representative, though Keats also was aimed at. The articles in Blackwood’s Magazine, in which the name appeared, have generally, but probably wrongly, been attributed to John Gibson Lockhart.


COCK-OF-THE-ROCK, the familiar name of the birds of the genus Rupicola (subfamily Rupicolinae) of the Cotingas (allied to the Manakins, q.v.), found in the Amazon valley. They are about the size of a pigeon, with orange-coloured plumage, a pronounced crest, and orange-red flesh, and build their nests on rock. The skins and feathers are highly valued for decoration.


COCK-OF-THE-ROCK, the term originally for an enclosed place in which the sport of cock-fighting (q.v.) was carried on. On the site of an old cockpit opposite Whitehall in London was a block of buildings used from the 17th century as offices by the treasury and the privy council, for which the old name survived till the early 19th century. The name was given also to a theatre in London, built in the early part of the 17th century on the site of Drury Lane theatre. As the place where the wounded in battle were tended, or where the junior officers consorted, the term was also formerly applied to a cabin used for these purposes on the lower deck of a man-of-war.


COCKROACH[1] (Blattidae), a family of orthopterous insects, distinguished by their flattened bodies, long thread-like antennae, and shining leathery integuments. Cockroaches are nocturnal creatures, secreting themselves in chinks and crevices about houses, issuing from their retreats when the lights are extinguished, and moving about with extraordinary rapidity in search of food. They are voracious and omnivorous, devouring, or at least damaging, whatever comes in their way, for all the species emit a disagreeable odour, which they communicate to whatever article of food or clothing they may touch.

The common cockroach (Stilopyga orientalis) is not indigenous to Europe, but is believed to have been introduced from the Levant in the cargoes of trading vessels. The wings in the male are shorter than the body; in the female they are rudimentary. The eggs, which are 16 in number, are deposited in a leathery capsule fixed by a gum-like substance to the abdomen of the female, and thus carried about till the young are ready to escape, when the capsule becomes softened by the emission of a fluid substance. The larvae are perfectly white at first and wingless, although in other respects not unlike their parents, but they are not mature insects until after the sixth casting of the skin.

The American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) is larger than the former, and is not uncommon in European seaports trading with America, being conveyed in cargoes of grain and other food produce. It is very abundant in the Zoological Gardens in London, where it occurs in conjunction with a much smaller imported species Phyllodromia germanica, which may also be seen in some of the cheaper restaurants.

In both of these species the females, as well as the males, are winged.

In addition to these noxious and obtrusive forms, England has a few indigenous species belonging to the genus Ectobia, which live under stones or fallen trees in fields and woods. The largest known species is the drummer of the West Indies (Blabera gigantea), so called from the tapping noise it makes on wood, sufficient, when joined in by several individuals, as usually happens, to break the slumbers of a household. It is about 2 in. long, with wings 3 in. in expanse, and forms one of the most noisome and injurious of insect pests. Wingless females of many tropical species present a close superficial resemblance to woodlice; and one interesting apterous form known as Pseudoglomeris, from the East Indies, is able to roll up like a millipede.

The best mode of destroying cockroaches is, when the fire and lights are extinguished at night, to lay some treacle on a piece of wood afloat on a broad basin of water. This proves a temptation to the vermin too great to be resisted. The chinks and holes from which they issue should also be filled up with unslaked lime, or painted with a mixture of borax and heated turpentine.

See generally Miall and Denny, The Structure and Life History of the Cockroach (1887); G. H. Carpenter, Insects: their Structure and Life (1899); Charles Lester Marlatt, Household Insects (U.S. Department of Agriculture, revised edition, 1902); Leland Ossian Howard, The Insect Book (1902).


[1] The word is a corruption of Sp. cucaracha. In America it is commonly abbreviated to “roach.”


COCK’S-COMB, in botany, a cultivated form of Celosia cristata (natural order Amarantaceae), in which the inflorescence is monstrous, forming a flat “fasciated” axis bearing numerous small flowers. The plant is a low-growing herbaceous annual, bearing a large, comb-like, dark red, scarlet or purplish mass of flowers. Seeds are sown in March or April in pans of rich, well-drained sandy soil, which are placed in a hot-bed at 65° to 70° in a moist atmosphere. The seedlings require plenty of light, and when large enough to handle are potted off and placed close to the glass in a frame under similar conditions. When the heads show they are shifted into 5-in. pots, which are plunged to their rims in ashes or coco-nut fibre refuse, in a hot-bed, as before, close to the glass; they are sparingly watered and more air admitted. The soil recommended is a half-rich sandy loam and half-rotten cow and stable manure mixed with a dash of silver sand. The other species of Celosia cultivated are C. pyramidalis, with a pyramidal inflorescence, varying in colour in the great number of varieties, and C. argentea, with a dense white inflorescence. They require a similar cultural treatment to that given for C. cristata.


COCKTON, HENRY (1807-1853), English humorous novelist, was born in London on the 7th of December 1807. He published a number of volumes, but is best known as the author of Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist (1840) and Sylvester Sound, the Somnambulist (1844). He died at Bury St Edmunds on the 26th of June 1853.


COCKX (or Cock), HIERONYMUS [Jerome] (1510-1570), Flemish painter and engraver, was born at Antwerp, and in 1545 was admitted to the Gild of St Luke as a painter. It is as an engraver, however, that he is famous, a number of portraits and subject-pictures by him, and reproductions of Flemish masters, being well known. His brother Matthys (1505-1552) was also a painter.


COCOA,[1] more properly Cacao, a valuable dietary substance yielded by the seeds of several small trees belonging to the genus Theobroma, of the natural order Sterculiaceae. The whole genus, which comprises twelve species, belongs to the tropical parts of the American continent; and although the cocoa of commerce is probably the produce of more than one species, by far the greatest and most valuable portion is obtained from Theobroma Cacao. The generic name is derived from θεός (god) and βρῶμα (food), and was bestowed by Linnaeus as an indication of the high appreciation in which he held the beverage prepared from the seeds, which he considered to be a food fit for the gods.

The common cacao tree is of low stature, seldom exceeding 25 ft. in height, but it is taller in its native forests than it is in cultivated plantations. The leaves are large, smooth, and glossy, elliptic-oblong and tapering in form, growing principally at the ends of branches, but sometimes springing directly from the main trunk. The flowers are small, and occur in numerous clusters on the main branches and the trunk, a very marked peculiarity which gives the matured fruit the appearance of being artificially attached to the tree. Generally only a single fruit is matured from each cluster of flowers. When ripe the fruit or “pod” is elliptical-ovoid in form, from 7 to 10 in. in length and from 3 to 4½ in. in diameter. It has a hard, thick, leathery rind of a rich purplish-yellow colour, externally rough and marked with ten very distinct longitudinal ribs or elevations. The interior of the fruit has five cells, in each of which is a row of from 5 to 12 seeds embedded in a soft delicately pink acid pulp. Each fruit thus contains from 20 to 50 or more seeds, which constitute the raw cacao or “cacao beans” of commerce.

Branch of Cocoa Tree, with Fruit in section, much reduced.

The tree appears to have been originally a native of the coast lands of the Gulf of Mexico and tropical South America as far south as the basin of the Amazon; but it can be cultivated in suitable situations within the 25th parallels of latitude. It flourishes best within the 15th parallels, at elevations ranging from near the sea-level up to about 2000 ft. in height. It is now cultivated in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, New Granada, Venezuela, Surinam, Guiana, and in many of the West Indian islands, particularly in Trinidad, San Domingo, Grenada, Cuba, Porto Rico and Jamaica. Away from America it has been introduced, and is cultivated on a large scale in West Africa, Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies.

History.—The value of cacao was appreciated in its native country before the discovery of America by Europeans. The Spaniards found in use in Mexico a beverage known by the Aztec name of chocolath, from choco (cacao) and lath (water). W. H. Prescott records that the emperor Montezuma of Mexico was “exceedingly fond of it ... no less than 50 jars or pitchers being prepared for his own daily consumption; 2000 more were allowed for that of his household.” Bags of cacao containing a specified number of beans were also a recognized form of currency in the country. The product was early introduced into Spain, and thence to other parts of Europe. The Public Advertiser (London) of June 16, 1657, contains an announcement that “In Bishopgate St., in Queen’s Head Alley, at a Frenchman’s house, is an excellent West India drink, called chocolate, to be sold, where you may have it ready at any time, and also unmade at reasonable rates.” Chocolate was a very fashionable beverage in the early part of the 18th century.

Cultivated Varieties.—Numerous varieties of the cacao, i.e. of Theobroma Cacao, are recognized in cultivation. According to Dr P. Preuss, who has travelled extensively in the cacao producing countries of the world studying this crop, it is impossible to embody in a single table the characteristics of the world’s varieties. A separate classification is needed for almost each country. In 1882 the Trinidad forms were classified by Sir D. Morris. This table was later revised by Mr J. H. Hart, and more recently Mr R. H. Lock studied the Ceylon varieties. As the Ceylon cacaos were obtained mainly from Trinidad, and as Mr Lock’s results agree substantially with those of Sir D. Morris, they serve to illustrate the distinguishing characteristics of the West Indian and Ceylon forms. The main divisions are as follows:—

1. Criollo.—Pods relatively thin-walled and soft, rough, pointed at apex. The seeds or beans are plump and of pale colour. The ripe pods may be either red (colorado) or yellow (amarillo).

2. Forastero.—Pods relatively thick-walled and hard. The seeds vary in colour from pale to deep purple. Various varieties are recognized, such as cundeamor, amelonado, liso, calabacillo, differing in shape, colour and character of beans, &c., and of each of these again there may be a colorado and amarillo sub-variety. Of special interest is calabacillo, a variety with a smooth, small pod, and deep purple beans. It is considered by some to be sufficiently distinct to form a third type equivalent to criollo or forastero. Others again would raise amelonado to the rank of a distinct type. Of the above calabacillo is the hardiest and yields the least valuable beans; criollo is the most delicate and yields beans of the highest value, whilst forastero is intermediate in both respects. In general pale coloured beans are less bitter and more valuable than purple beans. Both, however, may occur in the same pod.

Alligator, or lagarto cacao, is the common name of a variety cultivated in Nicaragua, Guatemala, &c. Its pods are distinctly five-angled and beset with irregular, warty protuberances. Some regard it as a distinct species, T. pentagona, but others only as a variety of T. Cacao. Its produce is of high value.

T. bicolor, indigenous to Central America, is another species of some interest. It bears small, hard woody pods about 6 in. long and 3 in. in diameter, with curious surface markings. The beans possess a fetid odour and a bitter flavour and are known as “tiger cacao.” It is not likely to become of great commercial importance, although consumed locally where found. “Cacao bianco” and “pataste” are other names for this species.

Cultivation and Preparation.—Cacao requires for its successful cultivation a deep, well-watered and yet well-drained soil, shelter from strong winds, and a thoroughly tropical climate, with a mean annual temperature of about 80° F., a rainfall of from 50 to 100 or more in., and freedom from long droughts. Young plants are grown from seed, which may either be sown directly in the positions the future trees are to occupy, varying according to local circumstances from 6 to 25 ft. apart in all directions, or raised in nurseries and transplanted later. The latter course is desirable when it is necessary to water and otherwise tend the seedlings. However raised, the young plants require to be shaded, and this is usually done by planting bananas, cassava or other useful crops between the rows of cacao. In some countries, but not in all, permanent shade trees are planted amongst the cacao. Various leguminous trees are commonly used, e.g. the coral tree (Erythrina spp.) sometimes known as bois immortel and madre del cacao or mother of cocoa, Albizzia Lebbek, Pithecolobium Saman, &c. The various rubber trees have been employed with success. Wind belts are also necessary in exposed situations.

Cacao comes into bearing when about five years old, the small pink flowers and the succeeding large pods being borne directly on the trunk and main branches. The pods are carefully picked when ripe, broken open, and the slimy mass of contained seeds and their enveloping mucilaginous pulp extracted. The “beans” are next fermented or “sweated,” often in special houses constructed for the purpose, or by placing them in heaps and covering with leaves or earth, or in baskets, barrels, &c., lined with banana leaves. During fermentation the beans should be stirred once daily or oftener. The time of fermentation varies from one to twelve or even more days. Pale-coloured beans usually require less time than the deep purple and bitter kinds. The method adopted also considerably modifies the time required. The process of fermenting destroys the mucilage; the seeds lose to some degree their bitter flavour and their colour also changes: the pale criollo seeds, for example, developing a cinnamon-brown colour. The “fracture” of the beans also characteristically alters. Fermentation is not universally practised; the purple colour and bitter taste of unfermented cacao being wanted in some markets.

After the fermentation is completed the beans may or may not be washed, opinion as to the desirability of this process varying in different countries. In any case, however, they have to be dried and cured. When climatic conditions are favourable this is commonly done by spreading the beans in thin layers on barbecues, or stone drying floors, or otherwise exposing them to the sun. Sliding roofs or other means of rapidly affording shelter are desirable in case of showers, excessive heat, and also for protection at night. Artificial drying is now often resorted to and various patterns of drying houses are in use.

The appearance of the beans may often be improved by “claying,” a very slight coating of red earth or clay being added. Polishing the beans also gives them a brighter appearance, removes mildew, and remnants of dried mucilage, &c. This may be done by “dancing the cacao,” i.e. treading a heap with the bare feet, or by the use of special polishing machines. The cacao is now ready for shipment, and is usually packed in bags. Hamburg is the chief port in the world for cacao. Until quite recently, however, this position was held by Havre, which is now second in Europe. New York imports about the same amount as Havre. London follows next in importance.

Cacao-producing Countries.—In the following table the production in tons (of 1000 kilos = 2205 ℔) of the principal producing countries, arranged under continents, is given for 1905 and 1901. During this period the total world’s production has increased by about 40%, as indicated in the summary below. Study of the table will show where the increase has taken place, but attention is directed especially to the rapid development in West Africa.

America.
1905 (tons). 1901 (tons).
Ecuador 21,128 22,896
Brazil 21,091 18,324
Trinidad 20,018 11,943
San Domingo 12,785 6,850
Venezuela 11,700 7,860
Grenada 5,456 4,865
Cuba and Porto Rico 3,000 1,750
Haiti 2,343 1,950
Surinam 1,612 3,163
Jamaica 1,484 1,350
French West Indies 1,200 825
St. Lucia 700 765
Dominica 597 ..
——— ———
Total, America 103,114 82,541
Africa.
1905 (tons). 1901 (tons).
San Thomé 25,379 16,983
Gold Coast and Lagos 5,666 997
Cameroons 1,185 528
Congo Free State 195 ..
——— ———
Total, Africa 32,425 18,508
Asia.
1905 (tons). 1901 (tons).
Ceylon 3543 2697
Dutch East Indies 1492 1277
—— ——
Total, Asia 5035 3974
Other countries 800 700
World’s Production.
1905 (tons). 1901 (tons).
Tropical America and West Indies 103,114 82,541
West Africa 32,425 18,508
Asia 5,035 3,974
Other countries 800 700
——— ———
Total 141,374 105,723

Composition.—The relative weights of the various parts of a whole cacao pod are given thus by Prof. J. B. Harrison for British Guiana specimens:—

Calabacillo.Forastero.
Husk80.5989.87
Pulp7.614.23
Cuticles of the beans1.770.50
Kernels of the beans10.035.40
——————
100.00100.00

The husk is composed mainly of water and cellulose woody tissue, with their usual mineral constituents, and has a low manurial value. The pulp contains sugars which become converted into alcohol during fermentation. Fibrous elements and water compose about six-tenths of the cuticles, which also contain approximately: albuminoids (6%), alkaloids (2%), fat (2%), sugars (6%), starch (7%), colouring matter (4%), tartaric acid (3%) and small quantities of various mineral constituents. The average composition of the kernels, according to Payen, is:—

Per cent.
Fat (cacao butter) 50 
Starch 10 
Albuminoids 20 
Water 12 
Cellulose 2 
Mineral matter 4 
Theobromine 2 
Colouring matter (cacao-red) trace 
———
100.00

Manufacture of Cocoa and Chocolate.—The beans are cleaned and sorted to remove foreign bodies of all kinds and also graded into sizes to secure uniformity in roasting. The latter process is carried out in rotating iron drums in which the beans are heated to a temperature of about 260° to 280° F., and results in developing the aroma, partially converting the starch into dextrin, and eliminating bitter constituents. The beans also dry and their shells become crisp. In the next process the beans are gently crushed and winnowed, whereby the light shells are removed, and after removal by sifting of the “germs” the beans are left in the form of the irregular cocoa-nibs occasionally seen in shops. Cocoa-nibs may be infused with water and drunk, but for most people the beverage is too rich, containing the whole of the cacao-fat or cacao-butter. This fat is extracted from the carefully ground nibs by employing great hydraulic pressure in heated presses. The fat exudes and solidifies. When fresh it is yellowish-white, but becomes quite white on keeping. It is very valuable for pharmaceutical purposes and is a constituent of many pomades. With care it can be kept for a long time without going rancid.

After the extraction of the fat the resulting mass is ground to a fine powder when it is ready for use in the ordinary way. Many preparations on the market are of course not pure cocoa but contain admixtures of various starchy and other bodies.

The shells of the beans separated by the winnowing process contain theobromine, and their infusion with water is sometimes used as a substitute for coffee, under the name “miserabile.” More recently they have been put to good account as a cattle food.

In the preparation of chocolate the preliminary processes of cleaning, sorting, roasting and removing the shells, and grinding the nibs, are followed as for cocoa. The fat, however, is not extracted, but sugar, and sometimes other materials also, are added to the ground pasty mass, together with suitable flavouring materials, as for example vanilla. The greatest care is taken in the process and elaborate grinding and mixing machinery employed. The final result is a semi-liquid mass which is moulded into the familiar tablets or other forms in which chocolate comes on the market.

Cocoa as a beverage has a similar action to tea and coffee, inasmuch as the physiological properties of all three are due to the alkaloids and volatile oils they contain. Tea and coffee both contain the alkaloid caffeine, whilst cocoa contains theobromine. In tea and coffee, however, we only drink an infusion of the leaves or seeds, whilst in cocoa the whole material is taken in a state of very fine suspension, and as the preceding analysis indicates, the cocoa bean, even with the fat extracted, is of high nutritive value.

Cacao-consuming Countries.—The principal cacao-consuming countries are indicated below, which gives the imports into the countries named for 1905. These figures, as also those on production, are taken from Der Gordian.

Tons (1000 kilos).
United States of America34,958
Germany29,663
France21,748
United Kingdom21,106
Holland19,295
Spain6,102
Switzerland5,218
Belgium3,019
Austria Hungary2,668
Russia2,230
Denmark1,125
Italy971
Sweden900
Canada700
Australia600
Norway, Portugal and Finland692
———
Total  150,995

During recent years the use of cocoa has increased rapidly in some countries. The following table gives the increase per cent in consumption in 1905 over that in 1901 for the five chief consumers:—

Per cent.
United States70 
Germany61 
France21 
United Kingdom11 
Holland34 

(A. B. R.; W. G. F.)


[1] As a matter of nomenclature it is unfortunate that the corrupt form “cocoa,” from a confusion with the coco-nut (q.v.), has become stereotyped. When introduced early in the 18th century it was as a trisyllable co-co-a, a mispronunciation of cacao or cocoa, the Spanish adaptation from the Mexican cacauatl.


COCO DE MER, or Double Coco-nut, a palm, Lodoicea Sechellarum, which is a native of the Seychelles Islands. The flowers are borne in enormous fleshy spadices, the male and female on distinct plants. The fruits, which are among the largest known, take ten years to ripen; they have a fleshy and fibrous envelope surrounding a hard nut-like portion which is generally two-lobed, suggesting a large double coco-nut. The contents of the nut are edible as in the coco-nut. The empty fruits (after germination of the seed) are found floating in the Indian Ocean, and were known long before the palm was discovered, giving rise to various stories as to their origin.


COCOMA, or Cucamas, a tribe of South American Indians living on the Marañon and lower Huallaga rivers, Peru. In 1681, at the time of the Jesuit missionaries’ first visit, they had the custom of eating their dead and grinding the bones to a powder, which was mixed with a fermented liquor and drunk. When expostulated with by the Jesuits they said “it was better to be inside a friend than to be swallowed up by the cold earth.” They are a provident, hard-working people, partly Christianized, and bolder than most of the civilized Indians. Their languages show affinity to the Tupi-Guarani stock.


COCO-NUT[1] PALM (Cocos nucifera), a very beautiful and lofty palm-tree, growing to a height of from 60 to 100 ft., with a cylindrical stem which attains a thickness of 2 ft. The tree terminates in a crown of graceful waving pinnate leaves. The leaf, which may attain to 20 ft. in length, consists of a strong mid-rib, whence numerous long acute leaflets spring, giving the whole the appearance of a gigantic feather. The flowers are arranged in branching spikes 5 or 6 ft. long, enclosed in a tough spathe, and the fruits mature in bunches of from 10 to 20. The fruits when mature are oblong, and triangular in cross section, measuring from 12 to 18 in. in length and 6 to 8 in. in diameter. The fruit consists of a thick external husk or rind of a fibrous structure, within which is the ordinary coco-nut of commerce. The nut has a very hard, woody shell, enclosing the nucleus or kernel, the true seed, within which again is a milky liquid called coco-nut milk. The palm is so widely disseminated throughout tropical countries that it is impossible to distinguish its original habitat. It flourishes with equal vigour on the coast of the East Indies, throughout the tropical islands of the Pacific, and in the West Indies and tropical America. It, however, attains its greatest luxuriance and vigour on the sea shore, and it is most at home in the innumerable small islands of the Pacific seas, of the vegetation of which it is eminently characteristic. Its wide distribution, and its existence in even the smallest coral islets of the Pacific, are due to the character of the fruit, which is eminently adapted for distribution by sea. The fibrous husk renders the fruit light and the leathery skin prevents water-logging. The seed will germinate readily on the sea-shore, the seedling growing out through the soft germ-pore on the upper end of the hard nut. The fruits dropping into the sea from trees growing on any shores would be carried by tides and currents to be cast up and to vegetate on distant coasts.

The coco-nut palm, being the most useful of its entire tribe to the natives of the regions in which it grows, and furnishing many valuable and important commercial products, is the subject of careful cultivation in many countries. On the Malabar and Coromandel coasts of India the trees grow in vast numbers; and in Ceylon, which is peculiarly well suited for their cultivation, it is estimated that twenty millions of the trees flourish. The wealth of a native in Ceylon is estimated by his property in coco-nut trees, and Sir J. Emerson Tennent noted a law case in a district court in which the subject in dispute was a claim to the 2520th part of ten of the precious palms. The cultivation of coco-nut plantations in Ceylon was thus described by Sir J. E. Tennent. “The first operation in coco-nut planting is the formation of a nursery, for which purpose the ripe nuts are placed in squares containing about 400 each; these are covered an inch deep with sand and seaweed or soft mud from the beach, and watered daily till they germinate. The nuts put down in April are sufficiently grown to be planted out before the rains of September, and they are then set out in holes 3 ft. deep and 20 to 30 ft. apart.... Before putting in the young plant it is customary to bed the roots with soft mud and seaweed, and for the first two years they must be watered and protected from the glare of the sun under shades made of the plaited fronds of the coco-nut palm, or the fan-like leaves of the palmyra.” The palm begins to bear fruit from the fifth to the seventh year of its age, each stock carrying from 5 to 30 nuts, the tree maturing on an average 60 nuts yearly.

The uses to which the various parts of the coco-nut palm are applied in the regions of their growth are almost endless. The nuts supply no inconsiderable proportion of the food of the natives, and the milky juice enclosed within them forms a pleasant and refreshing drink. The juice drawn from the unexpanded flower spathes forms “toddy,” which may be boiled down to sugar, or it is allowed to ferment and is distilled, when it yields a spirit which, in common with a like product from other sources, is known as “arrack.” As in other palms, the young bud cut out of the top of the tree forms an esculent vegetable, “palm cabbage.” The trunk yields a timber (known in European commerce as porcupine wood) which is used for building, furniture, firewood, &c.; the leaves are plaited into cajan fans and baskets, and used for thatching the roofs of houses; the shell of the nut is employed as a water-vessel; and the external husk or rind yields the coir fibre, with which are fabricated ropes, cordage, brushes, &c. The coco-nut palm also furnishes very important articles of external commerce, of which the principal is coco-nut oil. It is obtained by pressure or boiling from the kernels, which are first broken up into small pieces and dried in the sun, when they are known as copperah or copra. It is estimated that 1000 full-sized nuts will yield upwards of 500 ℔. of copra, from which 25 gallons of oil should be obtained. The oil is a white solid substance at ordinary temperatures, with a peculiar, rather disagreeable odour, from the volatile fatty acids it contains, and a mild taste. Under pressure it separates into a liquid and a solid portion, the latter, coco-stearin, being extensively used in the manufacture of candles. Coco-nut oil is also used in the manufacture of marine soap, which forms a lather with sea-water. Coir is also an important article of commerce, being in large demand for the manufacture of coarse brushes, door mats and woven coir-matting for lobbies and passages. A considerable quantity of fresh nuts is imported, chiefly from the West Indies, into Britain and other countries; they are familiar as the reward of the popular English amusement of “throwing at the coco-nuts”; and the contents are either eaten raw or used as material for cakes, &c., or sweetmeats (“coker-nut”).


[1] The spelling “cocoa-nut,” which introduces a confusion with cocoa (q.v.) or cacao, is a corruption of the original Portuguese form, dating from (and largely due to) Johnson’s Dictionary. The spelling “coker-nut,” introduced to avoid the same ambiguity, is common in England.


COCYTUS (mod. Vuvo), a tributary of the Acheron, a river of Thesprotia (mod. pashalik of Iannina), which flows into the Ionian Sea about 20 m. N. of the Gulf of Arta. The name is also applied in Greek mythology to a tributary of the Acheron or of the Styx, a river in Hades. The etymology suggested is from κωκύειν, to wail, in allusion to the cries of the dead. Virgil describes it as the river which surrounds the underworld (Aen. vi. 132).


COD, the name given to the typical fish of the family Gadidae, of the Teleostean suborder Anacanthini, the position of which has much varied in our classifications. Having no spines to their fins, the Gadids used, in Cuvierian days, to be associated with the herrings, Salmonids, pike, &c., in the artificially-conceived order of Malacopterygians, or soft-finned bony fishes. But, on the ground of their air-bladder being closed, or deprived of a pneumatic duct communicating with the digestive canal, such as is characteristic of the Malacopterygians, they were removed from them and placed with the flat-fishes, or Pleuronectidae, in a suborder Anacanthini, regarded as intermediate in position between the Acanthopterygians, or spiny-finned fishes, and the Malacopterygians. It has, however, been shown that the flat-fishes bear no relationship to the Gadids, but are most nearly akin to the John Dories (see [Dory]).

The suborder Anacanthini is, nevertheless, maintained for the Muraenolepididae Gadids and two related families, Macruridae and Muraenolepididae, and may be thus defined:—Air-bladder without open duct. Parietal bones separated by the supra-occipital; prootic and exoccipital separated by the enlarged opisthotic. Pectoral arch suspended from the skull: no mesocoracoid arch. Ventral fins below or in front of the pectorals, the pelvic bones posterior to the clavicular symphysis and only loosely attached to it by ligament. Fins without spines; caudal fin, if present, without expanded hypural, perfectly symmetrical, and supported by the neural and haemal spines of the posterior vertebrae, and by basal bones similar to those supporting the dorsal and anal rays. This type of caudal fin must be regarded as secondary, the Gadidae being, no doubt, derived from fishes in which the homocercal fin of the typical Teleostean had been lost.

About 120 species of Gadids are distinguished, mostly marine, many being adapted to life at great depths; all are carnivorous. They inhabit chiefly the northern seas, but many abyssal forms occur between the tropics and in the southern parts of the Atlantic and Pacific. They are represented in British waters by eight genera, and about twenty species, only one of which, the burbot (Lota vulgaris), is an inhabitant of fresh waters. Several of the marine species are of first-rate economic importance. The genus Gadus is characterized by having three dorsal and two anal fins, and a truncated or notched caudal fin. In the cod and haddock the base of the first anal fin is not, or but slightly, longer than that of the second dorsal fin; in the whiting, pout, coal-fish, pollack, hake, ling and burbot, the former is considerably longer than the latter.

The cod, Gadus morrhua, possesses, in common with the other members of the genus, three dorsal and two anal fins, and a single barbel, at least half as long as the eye, at the chin. It is a widely-distributed species, being found throughout the northern and temperate seas of Europe, Asia and America, extending as far south as Gibraltar, but not entering the Mediterranean, and inhabits water from 25 to 50 fathoms deep, where it always feeds close to the bottom. It is exceedingly voracious, feeding on the smaller denizens of the ocean—fish, crustaceans, worms and molluscs, and greedily taking almost any bait the fisherman chooses to employ. The cod spawns in February, and is exceedingly prolific, the roe of a single female having been known to contain upwards of eight millions of ova, and to form more than half the weight of the entire fish. Only a small proportion of these get fertilized, and still fewer ever emerge from the egg. The number of cod is still further reduced by the trade carried on in roe, large quantities of which are used in France as ground-bait in the sardine fishery, while it also forms an article of human food. The young are about an inch in length by the end of spring, but are not fit for the market till the second year, and it has been stated that they do not reach maturity, as shown by the power of reproduction, till the end of their third year. They usually measure about 3 ft. in length, and weigh from 12 to 20 ℔, but specimens have been taken from 50 to 70 ℔ in weight.

As an article of food the cod-fish is in greatest perfection during the three months preceding Christmas. It is caught on all parts of the British and Irish coasts, but the Dogger Bank, and Rockall, off the Outer Hebrides, have been specially noted for their cod-fisheries. The fishery is also carried on along the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, where great quantities of the fish are caught with hook and line, and conveyed to market alive in “well-boats” specially built for this traffic. Such boats have been in use since the beginning of the 18th century. The most important cod-fishery in the world is that which has been prosecuted for centuries on the Newfoundland banks, where it is not uncommon for a single fisherman to take over 500 of these fish in ten or eleven hours. These, salted and dried, are exported to all parts of the world, and form, when taken in connexion with the enormous quantity of fresh cod consumed, a valuable addition to the food resources of the human race.

The air-bladder of this fish furnishes isinglass, little, if at all, inferior to that obtained from the sturgeon, while from the liver is obtained cod-liver oil, largely used in medicine as a remedy in scrofulous complaints and pulmonary consumption (see [Cod-liver Oil]). “The Norwegians,” says Cuvier, “give cod-heads with marine plants to their cows for the purpose of producing a greater proportion of milk. The vertebrae, the ribs, and the bones in general, are given to their cattle by the Icelanders, and by the Kamtchatdales to their dogs. These same parts, properly dried, are also employed as fuel in the desolate steppes of the Icy Sea.”

At Port Logan in Wigtonshire cod-fish are kept in a large reservoir, scooped out of the solid rock by the action of the sea, egress from which is prevented by a barrier of stones, which does not prevent the free access of the water. These cod are fed chiefly on mussels, and when the keeper approaches to feed them they may be seen rising to the surface in hundreds and eagerly seeking the edge. They have become comparatively tame and familiar. Frank Buckland, who visited the place, states that after a little while they allowed him to take hold of them, scratch them on the back, and play with them in various ways. Their flavour is considered superior to that of the cod taken in the open sea.

(G. A. B.)


CODA (Ital. for “tail”; from the Lat. cauda), in music, a term for a passage which brings a movement or a separate piece to a conclusion. This developed from the simple chords of a cadence into an elaborate and independent form. In a series of variations on a theme or in a composition with a fixed order of subjects, the “coda” is a passage sufficiently contrasted with the conclusions of the separate variations or subjects, added to form a complete conclusion to the whole. Beethoven raised the “coda” to a feature of the highest importance.


CODE (Lat. codex), the term for a complete and systematic body of law, or a complete and exclusive statement of some portion of the law; and so by analogy for any system of rules or doctrine; also for an arrangement in telegraphy, signalling, &c., by which communications may be made according to rules adopted for brevity or secrecy.

In jurisprudence the question of the reduction of laws to written codes, representing a complete and readily accessible system, is a matter of great historical and practical interest. Many collections of laws, however, which are commonly known as codes,[1] would not correspond to the definition given above. The Code of Justinian (see [Justinian I.]; [Roman Law]), the most celebrated of all, is not in itself a complete and exclusive system of law. It is a collection of imperial constitutions, just as the Pandects are a collection of the opinions of jurisconsults. The Code and the Pandects together being, as Austin says, “digests of Roman law in force at the time of their conception,” would, if properly arranged, constitute a code. Codification in this sense is merely a question of the form of the laws, and has nothing to do with their goodness or badness from an ethical or political point of view. Sometimes codification only means the changing of unwritten into written law; in the stricter sense it means the changing of unwritten or badly-written law into law well written.

The same causes which made collections of laws necessary in the time of Justinian have led to similar undertakings among modern peoples. The actual condition of laws until the period when they are consciously remodelled is one of confusion, contradiction, repetition and disorder; and to these evils the progress of society adds the burden of perpetually increasing legislation. Some attempt must be made to simplify the task of learning the laws by improving their expression and arrangement. This is by no means an easy task in any country, but in England it is surrounded with peculiar difficulties. The independent character of English law has prevented an attempt to do what has already been done for other systems which have the basis of the Roman law to fall back upon.

The most celebrated modern code is the French. The necessity of a code in France was mainly caused by the immense number of separate systems of jurisprudence existing in that country before 1789, justifying Voltaire’s sarcasm that a traveller in France had to change laws about as often as he changed horses. At first published under the title of Code Civil des Français, it was afterwards entitled the Code Napoléon (q.v.)—the emperor Napoleon wishing to attach his name to a work which he regarded as the greatest glory of his reign. The code, it has been said, is the product of Roman and customary law, together with the ordinances of the kings and the laws of the Revolution. In form it has passed through several changes caused by the political vicissitudes of the country, and it has of course suffered from time to time important alterations in substance, but it still remains virtually the same in principle as it left the hands of its framers. The code has produced a vast number of commentaries, among which may be named those of A. Duranton, R. T. Troplong and J. C. F. Demolombe. The remaining French codes are the Code de procédure civile, the Code de commerce, the Code d’instruction criminelle and the Code pénal. The merits of the French code have entered into the discussion on the general question of codification. Austin agrees with Savigny in condemning the ignorance and haste with which it was compiled. “It contains,” says Austin, “no definitions of technical terms (even the most leading), no exposition of the rationale of distinctions (even the most leading), no exposition of the broad principles and rules to which the narrower provisions expressed in the code are subordinate; hence its fallacious brevity.” Codes modelled on the French code have, however, taken firm root in most of the countries of continental Europe and in other parts of the world as well, such as Latin America and several of the British colonies.

The Prussian code (Code Frédéric) was published by Frederick the Great in 1751. It was intended to take the place of “Roman, common Saxon and other foreign subsidiary laws and statutes,” the provincial laws remaining in force as before. One of the objects of the king was to destroy the power of the advocates, whom he hoped to render useless. This, with other systems of law existing in Germany, has been replaced by the Civil Code of 1900 (see [Germany]).

The object of all these codes has been to frame a common system to take the place of several systems of law, rather than to restate in an exact and exhaustive form the whole laws of a nation, which is the problem of English codification. The French and Prussian codes, although they have been of great service in simplifying the law, have failed to prevent outside themselves that accumulation of judiciary and statute law which in England has been the chief motive for codification. A more exact parallel to the English problem may be found in the Code of the State of New York. The revised constitution of the state, as adopted in 1846, “ordered the appointment of two commissions, one to reduce into a written and a systematic code the whole body of the law of the state, and the other to revise, reform, simplify and abridge the rules and practice, pleadings, &c., of the courts of record.” By an act of 1847, the state legislature declared that the body of substantive law should be contained in three codes—the Political, the Civil and the Penal. The works of both commissions, completed in 1865, filled six volumes, containing the Code of Civil Procedure (including the law of evidence), the Book of Forms, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Political Code, the Penal Code and the Civil Code. In the introduction to the Civil Code it was claimed that in many departments of the law the codes “provided for every possible case, so that when a new case arises it is better that it should be provided for by new legislation.” The New York code was defective in the important points of definition and arrangement. It formed the basis, however, of the present codes of civil and criminal procedure in the state of New York. Much interest has attached to the Penal Code drawn up by Edward Livingston (q.v.) for the state of Louisiana. The system consists of a Code of Crime and Punishments, a Code of Procedure, a Code of Evidence, a Code of Reform and Prison Discipline, and a Book of Definitions. “Though the state for which the codes were prepared,” said Chief Justice Chase, “neglected to avail itself of the labours assigned and solicited by itself, they have proved, together with their introductions, a treasure of suggestions to which many states are indebted for useful legislation.” Most of the other states in the United States have codes stating the law of pleading in civil actions, and such states are often described as code states to distinguish them from those adhering to the older forms of action, divided between those at law and those at equity. A few states have general codes of political and civil rights. The general drift of legislation and of public sentiment in the United States is towards the extension of the principle of codification, but the contrary view has been ably maintained (see J. C. Carter, Provinces of the Written and the Unwritten Law, New York, 1889).

Since the time of Bentham, the codification of the law of England has been the dream of the most enlightened jurists and statesmen. In the interval between Bentham and our own time there has been an immense advance in the scientific study of law, but it may be doubted whether the problem of codification is at all nearer solution. Interest has mainly been directed to the historical side of legal science, to the phenomena of the evolution of laws as part of the development of society, and from this point of view the question of remodelling the law is one of minor interest. To Bentham the problem presented itself in the simplest and most direct form possible. What he proposed to do was to set forth a body of laws, clearly expressed, arranged in the order of their logical connexion, exhibiting their own rationale and excluding all other law. On the other hand the problem has in some respects become easier since the time of Bentham. With the Benthamite codification the conception of reform in the substantive law is more or less mixed up. If codification had been possible in his day, it would, unless it had been accompanied by the searching reforms which have been effected since, and mainly through his influence, perhaps have been more of an evil than a good. The mere dread that, under the guise of codification or improvement in form, some change in substance may secretly be effected has long been a practical obstacle in the way of legal reform. But the law has now been brought into a state of which it may be said that, if it is not the best in all respects that might be desired, it is at least in most respects as good as the conditions of legislation will permit it to be. Codification, in fact, may now be treated purely as a question of form. What is proposed is that the law, being, as we assume, in substance what the nation wishes it to be, should be made as accessible as possible, and as intelligible as possible. These two essential conditions of a sound system of law are, we need hardly say, far from being fulfilled in England. The law of the land is embodied in thousands of statutes and tens of thousands of reports. It is expressed in language which has never been fixed by a controlling authority, and which has swayed about with every change of time, place and circumstance. It has no definitions, no rational distinctions, no connexion of parts. Until the passing of the Judicature Act of 1873 it was pervaded throughout its entire sphere by the flagrant antinomy of law and equity, and that act has only ordered, not executed, its consolidation. No lawyer pretends to know more than a fragment of it. Few practical questions can be answered by a lawyer without a search into numberless acts of parliament and reported cases. To laymen, of course, the whole law is a sealed book. As there are no authoritative general principles, it happens that the few legal maxims known to the public, being apprehended out of relation to their authorities, are as often likely to be wrong as to be right. It is hopeless to think of making it possible for every man to be his own lawyer, but we can at least try to make it possible for a lawyer to know the whole law. The earlier advocates of codification founded their case mainly on the evils of judiciary law, i.e. the law contained in the reported decisions of the judges. Bentham’s bitter antipathy to judicial legislation is well known. Austin’s thirty-ninth lecture (Lectures, ed. 1869) contains an exhaustive criticism of the tenable objections to judiciary law. All such law is embedded in decisions on particular cases, from which it must be extracted by a tedious and difficult process of induction. Being created for particular cases it is necessarily uncomprehensive, imperfect, uncertain and bulky. These are evils which are incident to the nature of judiciary laws. The defective form of the existing statute law, moreover, has also given rise to loud complaints. Year by year the mass of legislation grows larger, and as long as the basis of a system is judiciary law, it is impossible that the new statutes can be completely integrated therewith. The mode of framing acts of parliament, and especially the practice of legislating by reference to previous acts, likewise produce much uncertainty and disorder. Some progress has, however, been made by the passing from time to time of various acts codifying branches of law, such as the Bills of Exchange Act 1882, the Partnership Act 1890, the Trusts Act 1893, and the Interpretation Act 1889.

The Statute Law Revision Committee also perform a useful work in excising dead law from the statute-book, partly by repeal of obsolete and spent acts and parts of acts, and partly by pruning redundant preambles and words. The construction of a section of an act may depend on the preamble and the context, and the repeal of the preamble and certain parts of the act may therefore affect the construction of what is left. This is provided for by a clause which is said to have been settled by Lord Westbury. It provides (in effect) that the repeal of any words or expressions of enactment shall not affect the construction of any statute or part of a statute. The lawyer, therefore, cannot rely on the revised edition of the statutes alone, and it is still necessary for him to consult the complete act as it was originally enacted.

The process of gradual codification adopted in India has been recommended for imitation in England by those who have had some experience of its working. The first of the Indian codes was the Penal Code (see [Criminal Law]), and there are also codes of civil and criminal procedure.

Whether any attempt will ever be made to supersede this vast and unarranged mass by a complete code seems very doubtful. Writers on codification have for the most part insisted that the work should be undertaken as a whole, and that the parts should have relation to some general scheme of the law which should be settled first. The practical difficulties in the way of an undertaking so stupendous as the codification uno coëtu of the whole mass of the law hardly require to be stated.

In discussions on codification two difficulties are insisted on by its opponents, which have some practical interest—(1) What is to be done in those cases for which the code has not provided? and (2) How is new law to be incorporated with the code? The objection that a code will hamper the opinions of the court, destroy the flexibility and elasticity of the common law, &c., disappears when it is stated in the form of a proposition, that law codified will cover a smaller number of cases, or will be less easily adapted to new cases, than law uncodified. The French system ordered the judges, under a penalty, to give a decision on all cases, whether contemplated or not by the code, and referred them generally to the following sources:—(1) Équité naturelle, loi naturelle; (2) loi romain; (3) loi coutumier; (4) usages, exemples, jugements, jurisprudence; (5) droit commun; (6) principes généraux, maximes, doctrine, science. The Prussian code, on the other hand, required the judges to report new cases to the head of the judicial department, and they were decided by the legislative commission. No provision was made in either case for incorporating the new law with the code, an omission which Austin justly considers fatal to the usefulness of codification. It is absurd to suppose that any code can remain long without requiring substantial alteration. Cases will arise when its meaning must be extended and modified by judges, and every year will produce its quota of new legislation by the state. The courts should be left to interpret a code as they now interpret statutes, and provision should be made for the continual revision of the code, so that the new law created by judges or directly by the state may from time to time be worked into the code.


[1] The most ancient code known, that of Khammurabi, is dealt with in the article [Babylonian Law].


CODE NAPOLÉON, the first code of the French civil law, known at first as the Code civil des Français, was promulgated in its entirety by a law of the 30th Ventose in the year XII. (31st of March 1804). On the 3rd of September 1807 it received the official name of Code Napoléon, although the part that Napoleon took in framing it was not very important. A law of 1818 restored to it its former name, but a decree of the 27th of March 1852 re-established the title of Code Napoléon. Since the 4th of September 1870 the laws have quoted it only under the name of the Code Civil.

Never has a work of legislation been more national in the exact sense of the word. Desired for centuries by the France of the ancien régime, and demanded by the cahiers of 1789, this “code of civil laws common to the whole realm” was promised by the constitution of 1791. However, the two first assemblies of the Revolution were able to prepare only a few fragments of it. The preparation of a coherent plan began with the Convention. The ancien régime had collected and adjusted some of the material. There was, on the one hand, a vast juridical literature which by eliminating differences of detail, had disengaged from the various French “customs” the essential part which they had in common, under the name of “common customary law”; on the other hand, the Roman law current in France had in like manner undergone a process of simplification in numerous works, the chief of which was that of Domat; while certain parts had already been codified in the Grandes Ordonnances, which were the work of d’Aguesseau. This legacy from the past, which it was desired to preserve within reason, had to be combined and blended with the laws of the Revolution, which had wrought radical reforms in the conditions affecting the individual, the tenure of real property, the order of inheritance and the system of mortgages. Cambacérès, as the representative of a commission of the Convention, brought forward two successive schemes for the Code Civil. As a member of one of the councils, he drew up a third under the Directory, and these projected forms came in turn nearer and nearer to what was to be the ultimate form of the code. So great was the interest centred in this work, that the law of the 19th Brumaire, year VIII., which, in ratification of the previous day’s coup d’état nominated provisional consuls and two legislative commissions, gave injunctions to the latter to draw up a scheme for the Code Civil. This was done in part by one of the members, Jacqueminot, and finally under the constitution of the year VIII., the completion of the work was taken in hand. The legislative machinery established by this constitution, defective as it was in other respects, was eminently suited for this task. Indeed, all projected laws emanated from the government and were prepared by the newly established council of state, which was so well recruited that it easily furnished qualified men, mostly veterans of the revolution, to prepare the final scheme. The council of state naturally possessed in its legislative section and its general assembly bodies both competent and sufficiently limited to discuss the texts efficiently. The corps législatif had not the right of amendment, so could not disturb the harmony of the scheme. It was in the discussions of the general assembly of the council of state that Napoleon took part, in 97 cases out of 102 in the capacity of chairman, but, interesting as his observations occasionally are, he cannot be considered as a serious collaborator in this great work.

Those responsible for the scheme have in the main been very successful in their work; they have generally succeeded in fusing the two elements which they had to deal with, namely ancient French law, and that of the Revolution. The point in which their work is comparatively weak is the system of hypothec (q.v.), because they did not succeed in steering a middle course between two opposite systems, and the law of the 23rd of March 1855 (sur la transcription en matière hypothécaire) was necessary to make good the deficiency. A fault frequently found with the Code Civil is that its general divisions show a lack of logic and method, but the division is practically that of the Institutes of Justinian, and is about as good as any other: persons, things, inheritance, contracts and obligations, and finally, in place of actions, which have no importance for French law except from the point of view of procedure, privileges and hypothecs, as in the ancient coutumes of France, and prescription. It is, mutatis mutandis, practically the same division as that of Blackstone’s Commentaries.

Of late years other objections have been expressed; serious omissions have been pointed out in the Code; it has not given to personal property the importance which it has acquired in the course of the 19th century; it makes no provision for dealing with the legal relations between employers and employed which modern complex undertakings involve; it does not treat of life insurance, &c. But this only proves that it could not foretell the future, for most of these questions are concerned with economic phenomena and social relations which did not exist at the time when it was framed. The Code needed revising and completing, and this was carried out by degrees by means of numerous important laws. In 1904, after the celebration of the centenary of the Code Civil, an extra-parliamentary commission was nominated to prepare a revision of it, and at once began the work.

The influence of the Code Civil has been very great, not only in France but also abroad. Belgium has preserved it, and the Rhine provinces only ceased to be subject to it on the promulgation of the civil code of the German empire. Its ascendancy has been due chiefly to the clearness of its provisions, and to the spirit of equity and equality which inspires them. Numerous more recent codes have also taken it as a model: the Dutch code, the Italian, and the code of Portugal; and, more remotely, the Spanish code, and those of the Central and South American republics. In the present day it is rivalled by the German civil code, which, having been drawn up at the end of the 19th century, naturally does not show the same lacunae or omissions. It is inspired, however, by a very different spirit, and the French code does not suffer altogether by comparison with it either in substance or in form.

See Le Code Civil, livre du centenaire (Paris, 1904), a collection of essays by French and foreign lawyers.

(J. P. E.)


CODIAEUM, a small genus of plants belonging to the natural order Euphorbiaceae. One species, C. variegatum, a native of Polynesia, is cultivated in greenhouses, under the name of croton, for the sake of its leaves, which are generally variegated with yellow, and are often twisted or have the blades separated into distinct portions.


CODICIL (Lat. codicillus, a little book or tablet, diminutive of codex), a supplement to a will (q.v.), containing anything which a testator desires to add, or which he wishes to retract, to explain or to alter. In English law a codicil requires to be executed with the same formalities as a will under the Wills Act 1837.


CODILLA, the name given to the broken fibres which are separated from the flax during the scutching process. On this account it is sometimes termed scutching tow. Quantities of this material are used along with heckled tow in the production of tow yarns.


CODINUS, GEORGE [Georgios Kodinos], the reputed author of three extant works in Byzantine literature. Their attribution to him is merely a matter of convenience, two of them being anonymous in the MSS. Of Codinus himself nothing is known; it is supposed that he lived towards the end of the 15th century. The works referred to are the following:—

1. Patria (Τὰ Πάτρια τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως), treating of the history, topography, and monuments of Constantinople. It is divided into five sections: (a) the foundation of the city; (b) its situation, limits and topography; (c) its statues, works of art, and other notable sights; (d) its buildings; (e) the construction of the church of St Sophia. It was written in the reign of Basil II. (976-1025), revised and rearranged under Alexius I. Comnenus (1081-1118), and perhaps copied by Codinus, whose name it bears in some (later) MSS. The chief sources are: the Patria of Hesychius Illustrius of Miletus, an anonymous (c. 750) brief chronological record (Παραστάσεις σύντομοι χρονικαί), and an anonymous account (διήγησις) of St Sophia (ed. T. Preger in Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum, fasc. i., 1901, to be followed by the Patria of Codinus). Procopius, De Aedificiis and the poem of Paulus Silentiarius on the dedication of St Sophia should be read in connexion with this subject.

2. De Officiis (Περὶ τῶν Όφφικίων), a sketch, written in an unattractive style, of court and higher ecclesiastical dignities and of the ceremonies proper to different occasions. It should be compared with the De Cerimoniis of Constantine Porphyrogenitus.

3. A chronological outline of events from the beginning of the world to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks (called Agarenes in the MS. title). It is of little value.

Complete editions are (by I. Bekker) in the Bonn Corpus scriptorum Hist. Byz. (1839-1843, where, however, some sections of the Patria are omitted), and in J. P. Migne, Patrologia graeca, clvii.; see also C. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897).


COD-LIVER OIL (Oleum Morrhuae, or Oleum Jecoris Aselli), the oil obtained from the liver of the common cod (Gadus morrhua). In the early process for extracting the oil the livers were allowed to putrefy in wooden tubs, when oils of two qualities, one called “pale oil,” and the other “light brown oil,” successively rose to the surface and were drawn off. A third oil was obtained by heating the liver-residues to above the boiling-point of water, whereupon a black product, technically called “brown oil,” separated. The modern practice consists in heating the perfectly fresh, cleaned livers by steam to a temperature above that of boiling water, or, in more recent practice, to a lower temperature, the livers being kept as far as possible from contact with air. The oils so obtained are termed “steamed-liver oils.” The “pale” and “light brown” oils are used in pharmacy; the “brown” oil, the cod oil of commerce, being obtained from putrid and decomposing livers, has an objectionable taste and odour and is largely employed by tanners. By boiling the livers at a somewhat high temperature, “unracked” cod oil is obtained, containing a considerable quantity of “stearine”; this fat, which separates on cooling, is sold as “fish stearine” for soap-making, or as “fish-tallow” for currying. The oil when freed from the stearine is known as “racked oil.” “Coast cod oil” is the commercial name for the oil obtained from the livers of various kinds of fish, e.g. hake, ling, haddock, &c. The most important centres of the cod-liver oil industry are Lofoten and Romsdal in Norway; the oil is also prepared in the United States, Canada, Newfoundland, Iceland and Russia; and at one time a considerable quantity was prepared in the Shetland Islands and along the east coast of Scotland.

Cod-liver oil contains palmitin, stearin and other more complex glycerides; the “stearine” mentioned above, however, contains very little palmitin and stearin. Several other acids have been identified: P. M. Meyerdahl obtained 4% of palmitic acid, 20% of jecoleic acid, C19H36O2, and 20% of therapic acid, C17H26O2; other investigators have recognized jecoric acid, C18H30O2, asellic acid, C17H32O2, and physetoleic acid, C16H30O2, but some uncertainty attends these last three acids. Therapic and jecoleic acids apparently do not occur elsewhere in the animal kingdom, and it is probable that the therapeutic properties of the oil are associated with the presence of these acids, and not with the small amount of iodine present as was at one time supposed. Other constituents are cholesterol (0.46-1.32%), traces of calcium, magnesium, sodium, chlorine and bromine, and various aliphatic amines which are really secondary products, being formed by the decomposition of the cellular tissue.

Cod-liver oil is used externally in medicine when its internal administration is rendered impossible by idiosyncrasy or the state of the patient’s digestion. The oil is very readily absorbed from the skin and exerts all its therapeutic actions when thus exhibited. This method is often resorted to in the case of infants or young children suffering from abdominal or other forms of tuberculosis. Its only objection is the odour which the patient exhales. When taken by the mouth, cod-liver oil shares with other liver-oils the property of ready absorption. It often causes unpleasant symptoms, which must always be dealt with and not disregarded, more harm than good being done if this course is not followed. Fortunately a tolerance is soon established in the majority of cases. It has been experimentally proved that this is more readily absorbed than any other oil—including other liver-oils. Much attention has been paid to the explanation of this fact, since knowledge on this point might enable an artificial product, without the disadvantages of this oil, to be substituted for it. Very good results have been obtained from a preparation named “lipanin,” which consists of six parts of oleic acid and ninety-four of pure olein. Cod-liver oil has the further peculiarity of being more readily oxidizable than any other oil; an obviously valuable property when it is remembered that the entire food-value of oils depends on their oxidation.

Cod-liver oil may be given in all wasting diseases, and is occasionally valuable in cases of chronic rheumatoid arthritis; but its great therapeutic value is in cases of tuberculosis of whatever kind, and notably in pulmonary tuberculosis or consumption. Its reputation in this is quite inexpugnable. It is essential to remember that “in phthisis the key of the situation is the state of the alimentary tract,” and the utmost care must be taken to obviate the nausea, loss of appetite and diarrhoea, only too easily induced by this oil. It is best to begin with only one dose in the twenty-four hours, to be taken just before going to sleep, so that the patient is saved its unpleasant “repetition” from an unaccustomed stomach. In general, it is therefore wise to order a double dose at bedtime. The oil may be given in capsules, or in the form of an emulsion, with or without malt-extract, or success may be obtained by adding, to every two drachms of the oil, ten minims of pure ether and a drop of peppermint oil. The usual dose, at starting, is one or two drachms, but the oil should be given eventually in the largest quantities that the patient can tolerate.


CODRINGTON, CHRISTOPHER (1668-1710), British soldier and colonial governor, whose father was captain-general of the Leeward Isles, was born in the island of Barbados, West Indies, in 1668. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, he was elected a fellow of All Souls, and subsequently served with the British forces in Flanders, being rewarded in 1695 with a captaincy in the Guards. In the same year he attended King William III. on his visit to Oxford, and, in the absence of the public orator, was chosen to deliver the University oration. In 1697, on the death of his father, he was appointed captain-general and commander-in-chief of the Leeward Isles. In 1703 he commanded the unsuccessful British expedition against Guadeloupe. After this he resigned his governorship, and spent the rest of his life in retirement and study on his Barbados estates. He died on the 7th of April 1710, bequeathing these estates to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts for the foundation of a college in Barbados. This college, known as the Codrington college, was built in 1714-1742. To All Souls College, Oxford, he bequeathed books worth £6000 and £10,000 in money, out of which was built and endowed the Codrington library there.


CODRINGTON, SIR EDWARD (1770-1851), British admiral, belonged to a family long settled at Dodington in Gloucestershire. He was the youngest of three brothers, who were left orphans at an early age, and were educated by an uncle, Mr Bethell. Edward Codrington was sent for a short time to Harrow, and entered the navy in July 1783. He served on the American station, in the Mediterranean and at home, till he was promoted lieutenant on the 28th of May 1783. Lord Howe selected him to be signal lieutenant on the flagship of the Channel fleet at the beginning of the revolutionary war with France. In that capacity he served in the “Queen Charlotte” (100) during the operations which culminated in the battle of the 1st of June 1794. The notes he wrote on Barrow’s account of the battle in his Life of Howe, and the reminiscences he dictated to his daughter, which are to be found in her memoir of him, are of great value for the history of the action. On the 7th of October 1794 he was promoted commander, and on the 6th of April 1795 attained the rank of post-captain and the command of the “Babet” (22). He continued to serve in the Channel, and was present at the action off L’Orient on the 23rd of June 1795. Codrington wrote notes on this encounter also, which are to be found in the memoir. They are able and valuable, but, like all his correspondence throughout his life, show that he was of a somewhat censorious disposition, was apt to take the worst view of the conduct of others, and was liable to be querulous. He next commanded the “Druid” (32) in the Channel and on the coast of Portugal, till she was paid off in 1797. Codrington now remained on shore and on half-pay for some years. In December 1802 he married Jane, daughter of Jasper Hall of Kingston, Jamaica.

On the renewal of the war after the breach of the peace of Amiens he was appointed (May 1805) to the command of the “Orion” (74) and was attached to the fleet on the coast of Spain, then blockading Villeneuve in Cadiz. The “Orion” took a conspicuous part in the battle of Trafalgar. Codrington’s correspondence contains much illuminative evidence as to the preliminaries and the events of the victory. From 1805 till 1813 he continued to serve first in the “Orion” and then (1808) in the “Blake” (74) in European waters. He was present on the Walcheren expedition, and was very actively employed on the Mediterranean coast of Spain in co-operating with the Spaniards against the French. In 1814 he was promoted rear-admiral, at which time he was serving on the coast of North America as captain of the fleet to Sir Alexander Cochrane during the operations against Washington, Baltimore and New Orleans. In 1815 he was made K.C.B., and was promoted vice-admiral on the 10th of July 1821. In December 1826 he was appointed to the Mediterranean command, and sailed on the 1st of February 1827. From that date until his recall on the 21st of June 1828 he was engaged in the arduous duties imposed on him by the Greek War of Independence, which had led to anarchy and much piracy in the Levant. On the 20th of October 1827 he destroyed the Turkish and Egyptian naval forces at Navarino (q.v.), while in command of a combined British, French and Russian fleet. As the battle had been unforeseen in England, and its result was unwelcome to the ministry of the day, Codrington was entangled in a correspondence to prove that he had not gone beyond his instructions, and he was recalled by a despatch, dated the 4th of June.

After the battle Codrington went to Malta to refit his ships. He remained there till May 1828, when he sailed to join his French and Russian colleagues on the coast of the Morea. They endeavoured to enforce the evacuation of the peninsula by Ibrahim peacefully. The Pasha made diplomatic difficulties, and on the 25th of July the three admirals agreed that Codrington should go to Alexandria to obtain Ibrahim’s recall by his father Mehemet Ali. Codrington had heard on the 22nd of June of his own supersession, but, as his successor had not arrived, he carried out the arrangement made on the 25th of July, and his presence at Alexandria led to the treaty of the 6th of August 1828, by which the evacuation of the Morea was settled. His services were recognized by the grant of the grand cross of the Bath, but there is no doubt that he was treated as a scape-goat at least to some extent. After his return home he was occupied for a time in defending himself, and then in leisure abroad. He commanded a training squadron in the Channel in 1831 and became admiral on the 10th of January 1837. From November 1839 to December 1842 he was commander-in-chief at Portsmouth. He died on the 28th of April 1851.

Sir Edward Codrington left two sons, Sir William (1804-1884), a soldier who commanded in the Crimea, and Sir John Henry (1808-1877), a naval officer, who died an admiral of the fleet.

See Memoir of the Life of Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, by his daughter Jane, Lady Bourchier, wife of Sir T. Bourchier, R.N. (London, 1873).

(D. H.)


CODRUS, in Greek legend, the last king of Athens. According to the story, it was prophesied at the time of the Dorian invasion of Peloponnesus (c. 1068 B.C.) that only the death of their king at the enemy’s hands could ensure victory to the Athenians. Devoting himself to his country, Codrus, in the disguise of a peasant, made his way into the enemy’s camp, and provoked a quarrel with some Dorian soldiers. He fell, and the Dorians, on discovering that Codrus had been slain, retreated homeward, despairing of success. No one being thought worthy to succeed Codrus, the title of king was abolished, and that of archon (q.v.) substituted for it.

See Lycurgus, Leocr. xx. [=84-87]; Justin ii. 6; Vell. Pat. i. 2; Grote, Hist. of Greece, pt. i. ch. 18; Busolt, Griechische Geschichte, i.


CODY, WILLIAM FREDERICK (1846-  ), American scout and showman, known under the name of “Buffalo Bill,” was born in 1846 in Scott county, Iowa. He first became known as one of the riders of the “Pony Express,” a mail service established in the spring of 1860 by the Central Overland California and Pike’s Peak Express Company to carry the mails overland from Saint Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, a distance of 1950 m., by means of relays of ponies, each rider being expected to cover about 75 m. daily. Owing to the wildness of the country and the hostility of the Indians, both the riders and the station-keepers led lives of great hardship and danger. The “Pony Express” was discontinued in 1861 upon the completion of the Pacific Telegraph company’s line, and young Cody became a scout and guide for the United States army. In 1863 he formally enlisted in the 7th regiment of Kansas cavalry, in which he served until the close of the Civil War. In 1867 he made a contract with the Kansas Pacific railway to furnish its employees with buffalo meat while the line was being extended through the wilderness, and his name of “Buffalo Bill” was given him from this circumstance. In 1868-1872 he was again an army scout and guide, serving against the Sioux and Cheyennes; and in 1872 was a member of the Nebraska house of representatives. During the Sioux-Cheyenne War of 1876 he served in the 5th United States Cavalry, and at the battle of Indian Creek killed the Cheyenne chief Yellow Hand in single combat. In 1883 he organized his “Wild West Show,” a spectacular performance on a large scale, his first European tour taking place in 1887. In the Nebraska national guard he again served against the Sioux in 1890-1891.


CO-EDUCATION, the term applied to the instruction and training of boys and girls, or of young people of both sexes, in the same school or institution, in the same classes and through the same courses of study. Examples of the thoroughgoing application of this principle can be found in every grade of education from the elementary school to the university. But the term “Co-education” is sometimes used in a wider sense, in order to include cases in which boys and girls, or young men and young women of university age, are admitted to membership of the same school or college but receive instruction wholly or in part in separate classes and in different subjects. Other variable factors in co-educational systems are the extent to which men and women are mixed on the teaching staff, and the freedom of intercourse permitted between pupils of the two sexes in class, in games and in other activities of school life. In another form of combined education (preferred by Comte, Système de politique positive, iv. 266), pupils of the two sexes are taught successively by the same teacher. By the English Board of Education, a distinction is drawn between mixed schools and dual schools. “Mixed schools” are those in which, for most subjects of the curriculum, boys and girls are taught together by the same teachers: in “dual schools” there are separate boys’ and girls’ departments under a single principal, but with separate entrances, classrooms and playgrounds for the two sexes.

History.—Co-education in early times was occasional and sporadic. For example, women were admitted by Plato to the inner circle of the Academy on terms of equality with men. The educational endowments of Teos provided that the professors of literature should teach both boys and girls. It is uncertain whether the Roman schools in classical times were attended by both sexes. A tombstone found at Capua represents a schoolmaster with a boy on one side and a girl on the other. Probably co-education was practised in country districts for economical reasons; and also in the home schools organized by wealthier families (Wilkins, Roman Education, pp. 42-43). At Charles the Great’s Palace School at Aachen (A.D. 782 onwards), Alcuin taught together the young princes and their sisters, as well as grown men and women. The Humanists of the Renaissance made the full development of personality a chief aim of education, and held up literary accomplishment as a desirable mark of personal distinction both for men and women. This led to the scholarly education of girls along with boys in the home schools of some great families. Thus, at Mantua (1423 onwards), Vittorino da Feltre taught Cecilia Gonzaga with her brothers and the other boy pupils at his boarding-school; but there is no evidence that the latter was otherwise co-educational. Luther and other Reformers urged that girls as well as boys should be taught to read the Bible. Hence came the tendency to co-education of boys and girls in some elementary schools in Protestant lands. This tendency can be traced both in Scotland and in the northern parts of England. It is believed that, in the early days of New England, district schools in smaller American towns were open to boys and girls alike, but that few girls advanced beyond reading and writing (Martin, Massachusetts Public School System, p. 130). At Dorchester, Mass., it was left to the discretion of the elders and schoolmen whether maids should be taught with the boys or not; but in practice the girls seem to have been educated apart. In 1602 the council of Ayr, Scotland, ordained that the girls who were learning to read and write at the Grammar School should be sent to the master of the Song School, “because it is not seemly that sic lasses should be among the lads” (Grant, History of the Burgh and Parish Schools of Scotland, p. 526 ff.). Meriden, Connecticut, seems to have made common provision for the elementary education of boys and girls in 1678. Northampton, Mass., did the same in 1680. Deerfield, Mass., in 1698 voted that “all families having children either male or female between the ages of six and ten years shall pay by the poll for their schooling”—presumably in the common school.

Thus the beginnings of co-education in its modern organized form may be traced back partly to Scotland and partly to the United States. The co-education of boys and girls, carried through in varying degrees of completeness, was not uncommon in the old Endowed Schools of Scotland, and became more frequent as increasing attention was given to the education of girls. At the Dollar Institution, founded by John McNabb for the benefit of the poor of the parish of Dollar and shire of Clackmannan (date of will, 1800), boys and girls have been educated together in certain classes since the beginning of the school in 1818. In the eastern parts of the United States, where the Puritan tradition also prevailed, co-education struck firm root, and spread chiefly for reasons of convenience and economy (Dexter, History of Education in United States, p. 430). But throughout the west, co-education was strongly preferred in elementary and secondary schools and in universities on the further ground that it was believed to be more in accordance with the democratic principle of equal educational opportunity for the two sexes.

It should be added, however, that the leaven of Pestalozzi’s thought has worked powerfully both in Europe and America in favour of the idea of co-education. His view was that all educational institutions should, as far as possible, be modelled upon the analogy of the family and of the home. At Stanz (1798-1799) he educated together in one household boys and girls ranging in age from five to fifteen. At Burgdorf (1799-1804) his work was in part co-educational. At Yverdun (1804-1825) Pestalozzi established a school for girls close to his school for boys. The girls received instruction from some of the masters of the boys’ school, and girls and boys met at evening worship, in short excursions and at other times.

In England, the Society of Friends have been the pioneers of co-education in boarding schools, both for younger children and for pupils up to fifteen or sixteen years of age. The practice of the society, though not exclusively co-educational, has long been favourable to co-education, either in its complete or restricted form, as being more in harmony with the conditions of family life. Ackworth school was established by the London Yearly Meeting in 1779 for the education of boys and girls; but the school has never been fully co-educational, the boys and girls being taught separately except in a few classes. At Sidcot school, which was founded in 1808 by the Associated Quarterly Meetings in the west of England for the education of children of Friends, boys and girls are taught together, except in certain handicraft subjects. Several other co-educational schools were founded by the Society of Friends during the first half of the 19th century.

Since that time the movement towards co-education in secondary schools and universities has steadily gained strength in England. It has been furthered by the diffusion of Pestalozzian ideas and also by the influence of American example. In England, private schools have made some of the most valuable co-educational experiments. A private boarding and day secondary school on co-educational lines was instituted by Mr W. A. Case in Hampstead in 1865. A co-educational boarding-school was founded in 1869 by Miss Lushington at Kingsley near Alton, Hants. In 1873 Mr W. H. Herford began the Ladybarn school for boys and girls at Withington in the suburbs of Manchester. The passing of the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889 led to the establishment of a considerable number of new mixed or dual secondary day-schools in Wales. Many English teachers gained experience in these schools and subsequently influenced English education. The work and writings of Mr J. H. Badley at Bedales, Petersfield, a co-educational boarding-school of the first grade, gave greatly increased weight to the principle of co-education. Important additions have also been made to the fund of co-educational experience by the King Alfred’s school (Hampstead), Keswick school, and West Heath school (Hampstead). In 1907 a Public Co-educational Boarding School was opened at Harpenden.

Since the Education Act 1902 became law, there has been a rapid increase of co-educational secondary day-schools of the lower grade, under county or borough education authorities, in all parts of England. This increase is due to two chief causes, viz. (1) The co-educational tradition of some of the higher grade board schools, many of which have become secondary schools; and (2) the economy effected by establishing one co-educational secondary school, in place of two smaller schools for boys and girls separately.

The idea of co-education in secondary schools has spread in several other European countries, especially in Holland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. In Scandinavia, the new practice appears to have begun with the establishment of a private higher secondary school, the Palmgremska Samskolan, in Stockholm, in 1876. A similar school, Nya Svenska Läroverket, was founded upon the same model in Helsingfors, Finland, in 1880. In Norway, the law of 1896 introduced co-education in all state schools. In Denmark, as in Norway, co-education was begun in private schools; on its proving a success there, it was introduced into the state schools, with two exceptions; and it is now obligatory in most state schools but optional in private schools (J. S. Thornton, Schools Public and Private in the North of Europe, 1907, p. 97). In Holland, there is now a good deal of co-education in lower secondary schools of the modern type. For example, at Utrecht, the state higher burgher school provides the same course of instruction, except in gymnastics, for boys and girls. At Almeloo, the municipal higher burgher school, though co-educational, differentiates the classes in several subjects. In Belgium, France, Germany and Austria, co-education, though frequent in elementary schools, is regarded as undesirable in secondary; but the movement in its favour in many parts of Germany seems to be gathering strength. All over Europe the Roman Catholic populations prefer the older ideal of separate schools for boys and girls.

Co-education in colleges and universities, which began at Oberlin, Ohio, in 1833, was adopted almost without exception by the state universities throughout the west of America from 1862 onwards. Since that time the idea has spread rapidly throughout Europe, and the presence of women students at universities originally confined to men is one of the most striking educational facts of the age.

Co-education in the United Kingdom, (a) England and Wales.—The Board of Education does not possess any summary showing the number of pupils in mixed public elementary schools or in mixed departments of such schools. In 1901, out of 31,502 departments of public elementary schools in England and Wales, nearly half (15,504) were mixed departments, in which boys and girls were educated together. But as the departments were of unequal size, it must not be inferred from this that half the children in public elementary schools in that year (5,883,762) were receiving co-education. Of the total number of departments in public elementary schools in England and Wales, the percentage of mixed schools fell from 51.6 in 1881 to 49.4 in 1891 and 49.2 in 1901. But these percentages must not be taken to prove an absolute decline in the number of children in mixed departments.

In England, out of 492 public secondary schools which were recognized by the Board of Education for the receipt of government grant for the school year ending July 31, 1905, and which contained 85,358 pupils, 108 schools, with 21,720 pupils, were mixed; and 20 schools, with 8980 pupils, were dual schools.

Thus, of the total number of pupils in the secondary schools referred to above, a little over 25% were in mixed schools, and about 10% were in dual schools. It is not safe to assume, however, that all the mixed schools were completely co-educational in their work, or that the dual schools were not co-educational in respect of certain subjects or parts of the course. It should also be remembered that, besides the secondary schools recognized by the Board of Education for the receipt of government grant, there is a considerable number of great endowed secondary boarding-schools (“public schools” in the English use of that expression) which are for boys only. There are also at least 5000 private secondary schools, of which, in 1897 (since when no comprehensive statistical inquiry has been made), 970, with 26,027 pupils, were mixed schools. But the great majority of the children in these mixed schools were under twelve years of age. The number of boys and girls over twelve years of age, in the mixed private secondary schools which were included in the 1897 return, was only 5488.

In Wales, for the school year ending July 31, 1905, out of 84 state-aided public secondary schools, 11 were mixed and 44 were dual schools. The number of scholars in the Welsh schools referred to above was 9340. Of these, 1457, or 15%, were in mixed schools, and 5085, or 54%, were in dual schools. The managers of dual schools in Wales have the power to arrange that boys and girls shall be taught together in any or all the classes; and, as a matter of fact, nearly all the dual schools are worked as mixed schools, though they appear in these figures under dual.

(b) Scotland.—In the public elementary schools, including the higher grade schools of Scotland, co-education is the almost universal rule. The exceptions, which for the most part are Roman Catholic or Episcopal Church schools, tend to diminish year by year. In 1905, out of 3843 departments in the Scotch public elementary and higher grade schools, 3783 were mixed. These include the infant departments. Out of the total number of children in the public elementary and higher grade schools, including infants’ departments, 98.43% were receiving co-education.

In the secondary schools of Scotland there has been in recent years little perceptible movement either towards co-education or away from it. What movement there is, favours the establishment of separate secondary schools for girls in the large centres of population. Out of 109 public secondary schools in Scotland in 1905-1906, 29 schools were for boys only and 40 schools for girls only. One school had boys and girls in separate departments. In the remaining 39 schools, boys and girls were taken together to an extent which varied with the subjects taken; but there was nothing of the nature of a strict separation of the sexes as regards the ordinary work of the school.

(c) Ireland.—In Ireland, the percentage of pupils on the rolls of mixed national schools (i.e. schools attended by boys and girls), to the total number of pupils on the rolls of all national schools, has slowly increased. In 1880 the percentage was 57.5; in 1898, 59.4; in 1905, 60.9.

The Commissioners of Intermediate Education in Ireland had on their list in 1906, 38 secondary schools which were classified by them as mixed schools. These schools were attended by 640 boys and 413 girls between 13 and 19 years of age. The commissioners do not know to what extent the boys and girls in these schools received instruction in the same classes. As, however, the schools are small, they believe that in the great majority of cases the boys and girls were taught together. In one large school not classified as mixed, the boys (117) and girls (60) were taught in the same classes.

Universities and University Colleges in the United Kingdom.—Women are admitted as members of the universities of London, Durham, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Wales, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, St Andrews, Glasgow, Dublin and the Royal University of Ireland. At Oxford and Cambridge women are not admitted as members of the university, but by courtesy enjoy entrance to practically all university lectures and examinations. The social life of the men and women students is more separate in the old than in the new universities. In no grade of education in the United Kingdom has the principle of co-education made more rapid advance than in the universities. The university education of women began in London (Queen’s College 1848, Bedford College 1849, both being preceded by classes in earlier years). The University of London in 1878 decided to accept from the crown a supplemental charter making every degree, honour and prize awarded by the university accessible to students of both sexes on perfectly equal terms. By charter in 1880, the Victoria University (now broken up into the universities of Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds) received power to grant degrees to women as well as to men. The charter of the university of Wales (1893) provides that “Women shall be eligible equally with men for admittance to any degree which our university is authorized to confer; every office created in the university, and the membership of every authority constituted by the charter shall be open to women equally with men.” In 1889 the Universities (Scotland) Act empowered the commissioners to make ordinances, enabling each university to admit women in graduation in one or more faculties and to provide for their instruction. At all the university colleges in the United Kingdom women are educated as well as men.

United States.—Co-education is a characteristic feature of the educational system of the different states of the American Union. Of elementary school pupils at least 96%, and of secondary school pupils 95%, are in mixed schools. In 1903, out of a total enrolment of 15,990,803 pupils in public elementary and secondary schools and training colleges, 15,387,734 were in schools attended by pupils of both sexes. Out of 550,600 pupils on the rolls of public secondary schools (high schools) in 1902, 523,300 were in co-educational schools. The same was true of 43% of the pupils (numbering over 100,000) in private secondary schools. In colleges and universities 62% of all undergraduates were in co-educational institutions, to which category thirty-four American universities belong (U.S. Commissioner of Education, Report for 1903, p. 2454). In America opinion is thus predominantly in favour of co-education, but there is a current of adverse criticism, especially among some who have had experience of school conditions in large cities.

General Review of the Question.—In schools for infants and younger children co-education is approved by all authorities. It is increasingly favoured on educational grounds in smaller schools for children up to 12 or 13 years of age or thereabouts. But where elementary schools have to be large, separate departments for boys and girls are generally preferable, though mixed schools are often established for reasons of economy. At the other end of the educational scale, viz. in the universities, the co-education of men and women in the same institution is fast becoming the rule. This is due partly to the prohibitive cost of duplicating teaching staff, laboratories, libraries and other equipment, partly to the desire of women to qualify themselves for professional life by passing through the same courses of training as are prescribed for men. The degree, however, to which social intercourse is carried on between men and women students differs widely in the different co-educational universities. There are occasional signs, e.g. at Chicago, of a reaction against the fullest form of academic co-education. And it is probable that the universities will provide, among many courses common to men and women, some (like engineering) suitable for men only, and others (like advanced instruction in home-science, or certain courses of professional preparation for teachers of young children) which will rarely be attended by any but women. Common use of the same university institutions is compatible with much differentiation in courses of study and with separately organized forms of collegiate life. It is with regard to the part of education which lies between the elementary schools and the universities that the sharpest division of opinion upon the principle of co-education now exists. In Europe, with the exception of Scandinavia, those who advocate co-education of the sexes in secondary schools up to 18 or 19 years of age are at present in a distinct minority, even as regards day schools, and still more when they propose to apply the same principle to boarding schools. But the application of the co-educational principle to all schools alike is favoured by an apparently increasing number of men and women. This movement in opinion is connected with the increase in the number of girls desiring access to secondary schools, a demand which can most easily and economically be met by granting to girls access to some of the existing schools for boys. The co-educational movement is also connected with a strong view of sex equality. It is furthered by the rapidly increasing number of women teachers who are available for higher educational work. Mixed secondary schools with mixed staffs are spreading for reasons of economy in smaller towns and rural districts. In large towns separate schools are usually recommended in preference, but much depends upon the social tradition of the neighbourhood. Those who advocate co-education for boys and girls in secondary schools urge it mainly on the ground of its naturalness and closer conformity to the conditions of healthy, unselfconscious home life. They believe it to be a protective against uncleanness of talk and school immorality. They point to its convenience and economy. They welcome co-education as likely to bring with it a healthy radicalism in regard to the older tradition of studies in boys’ secondary schools. They approve it as leading to mixed staffs of men and women teachers, and as the most effectual way of putting girls in a position of reasonable equality with boys in respect of intellectual and civic opportunity. On the other hand, those who oppose co-education in secondary schools rest their case upon the danger of the intellectual or physical overstrain of girls during adolescence; and upon the unequal rate of development of boys and girls during the secondary school period, the girls being more forward than the boys at first, but as a rule less able to work as hard at a somewhat later stage. The critics further complain that co-education is generally so organized that the girls’ course of study is more or less assimilated to that of the boys, with the result that it cannot have the artistic and domestic character which is suitable for the majority of girls. Complaint is also made that the head of a co-educational school for pupils over the age of 10 is usually a man, though the health and character of girls need the care and control of a woman vested with complete authority and responsibility. While demurring to the view that co-education of the sexes would be a moral panacea, the critics of the system admit that the presence of the girls would exert a refining influence, but they believe that on the whole the boys are likely to gain less from co-education than the girls are likely to lose by it. In all these matters carefully recorded observation and experiment are needed, and it may well be found that co-education is best for some boys and for some girls, though not for all. Temperaments and dispositions differ. Some boys seem by nature more fitted for the kind of training generally given to girls; some girls are by nature fitted for the kind of training generally given to boys. The sex division does not mark off temperaments into two sharply contrasted groups. The introduction of girls into boys’ secondary schools may remove or mitigate coarse traditions of speech and conduct where such persist. But it would be unfortunate if stiff and pedantic traditions of secondary education were now fixed upon girls instead of being reconsidered and modified in the interests of boys also. In any case, if co-education in secondary schools is to yield the benefits which some anticipate from it, great vigilance, careful selection of pupils and very liberal staffing will be necessary. Without these securities the results of co-education in secondary schools might be disappointing, disquieting or even disastrous.

Bibliography.—Plato in the Republic (v. 452-456) and Laws (vii. 804-805) argues that women should share as far as possible in education with men. Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), contends that “both sexes ought, not only in private families but in public schools, to be educated together.” J. G. Spurzheim, Principles of Education, pp. 272-288 (Edinburgh, 1821), replies to this argument. In the Board of Education Special Reports on Educational Subjects, vol. vi. (Wyman & Sons, 1900), J. H. Badley, writing on The Possibility of Co-education in English Preparatory and other Secondary Schools, is strongly in favour. “In co-education ... half-heartedness means failure. The more completely both sexes can be brought together upon an equal and natural footing the less the difficulties grow.” In the Board of Education Special Reports, vol. xi. (Wyman & Sons, 1902), Rev. Cecil Grant, writing on Can American Education be grafted upon the English Public School System? answers strongly in the affirmative; co-education is recommended on eight grounds:—(1) Vast economy of expenditure; (2) return to the natural system; (3) discipline made easier; (4) intellectual stimulus; (5) a better balance in instruction; (6) improved manners; (7) prevention of extremes of masculinity or femininity; (8) a safeguard against the moral danger.

Co-education: a series of Essays (London, 1903), edited by Alice Woods, is in favour of co-education, nine practical workers recording their experience; this is one of the best books on the subject. J. H. Badley’s Co-education after Fifteen: its Value and Difficulties. Child Life (London, January, 1906), is candid, judicious and practical. M. E. Sadler in Reports on Secondary Education in Hampshire, Derbyshire and Essex (1904, 1905 and 1906 respectively) gives details of the curriculum of many co-educational secondary schools. In the U.S. Commissioner of Education Report for 1903, vol. i. pp. 1047-1078, Anna Tolman Smith, writing on Co-education in the Schools and Colleges of the United States, gives an historical review of the subject with bibliography (compare bibliography in Report of U.S. Commissioner of Education for 1900-1901, pp. 1310-1325). G. Stanley Hall on Adolescence, its Psychology and its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion and Education, vol. ii. chap. xvii., on Adolescent Girls and their education (New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1904), is strongly against co-education during adolescence. In W. Rein’s Encyklopädisches Handbuch der Pädagogik (Langensalza, Beyer), art. “Gemeinsame Erziehung für Knaben und Mädchen,” K. E. Palmgren is in favour of co-education (vol. iii. of 2nd ed. 1905). See also W. Rein, Über gemeinsame Erziehung von Knaben und Mädchen (Freiburg, 1903), and Bericht über den I. Internationalen Kongress für Schulhygiene (Nürnberg, 1904), vol. ii. pp. 140 ff., “Co-education in der höheren Schulen.”

(M. E. S.)


COEFFETEAU, NICOLAS (1574-1623), French theologian, poet and historian, was born at Saint-Calais. He entered the Dominican order and lectured on philosophy at Paris, being also “ordinary preacher” to Henry IV., and afterwards ambassador at Rome. In 1606 he was vicar-general of the congregation of France, and received from Marie de’ Medici the revenues of the sees of Lombez and Saintes. He also administered the diocese of Metz, and was nominated to that of Marseilles in 1621, but ill-health obliged him here to take a coadjutor. Coeffeteau won considerable distinction in the controversy against the Protestant reformers and also wrote a History of Rome from Augustus to Constantine. Many of his theological writings were collected in one volume (Paris, 1622), and at the time of his death in 1623 he was engaged on a translation of the New Testament which is still in manuscript.


COEHOORN, MENNO, Baron van (1641-1704), Dutch soldier and military engineer, of Swedish extraction, was born at Leeuwarden in Friesland. He received an excellent military and general education, and at the age of sixteen became a captain in the Dutch army. He took part in the defence of Maastricht in 1673 and in the siege of Grave in the same year, where the small mortars (called coehorns) invented by him caused the French garrison considerable trouble (Seydel, Nachrichten über Festungskriege, Leipzig, 1818). He was made a colonel for his gallant conduct at the battle of Seneff (1674), and was present also at the battles of Cassel (1677) and Saint Denis (1678).

The circumstances of the time and the country turned Coehoorn’s attention to the art of fortification, and the events of the late war showed him that existing methods could no longer be relied upon. His first published work, Versterckinge de Vijfhoeks met alle syne Buytenwerken (Leeuwarden, 1682), at once aroused attention, and involved the author in a lively controversy with a rival engineer, Louys Paan (Leeuwarden, 1682, 1683; copies are in the library of the Dutch ministry of war). The military authorities were much interested in this, and entrusted Coehoorn with the reconstruction of several fortresses in the Netherlands. This task he continued throughout his career; and his experience in the work made him the worthy rival of his great contemporary Vauban. He formulated his ideas a little later in his chief work, Nieuwe Vestingbouw op en natte of lage horizont, &c. (Leeuwarden, 1685), in which he laid down three “systems,” the characteristic feature of which was the multiplicity and great saliency of the works, which were calculated and in principle are still eminently suited for flat and almost marshy sites such as those of the Low Countries. He borrowed many of the details from the works of his Dutch predecessor Freytag, of Albrecht Dürer, and of the German engineer Speckle, and in general he aimed rather at the adaptation of his principles to the requirements of individual sites than at producing a geometrically and theoretically perfect fortress; and throughout his career he never hesitated to depart from his own rules in dealing with exceptional cases, such as that of Groningen. Subsequent editions of Nieuwe Vestingbouw appeared in Dutch (1702, and frequently afterwards), English (London, 1705), French (Wesel, 1705), and German (Düsseldorf, 1709).

From 1688 to the treaty of Ryswick Coehoorn served as a brigadier. At the battle of Fleurus he greatly distinguished himself, and in 1692 he defended Namur, a fortress of his own creation. Namur was taken by Vauban; but the Dutch engineer had his revenge three years later, when the place, on which in the meantime Vauban had lavished his skill, fell to his attack. Coehoorn became lieutenant-general and inspector-general of the Netherlands fortresses, and the high-German peoples as well as his own countrymen honoured him. He commanded a corps in the army of the duke of Marlborough from 1701 to 1703, and in the constant siege warfare of these campaigns in the Low Countries his technical skill was of the highest value. The swift reduction of the fortress of Bonn and the siege of Huy in 1703 were his crowning successes. At the opening of his following campaign he was on his way to confer with Marlborough when he died of apoplexy at Wijkel on the 17th of March 1704.

His “first system” was applied to numerous places in Holland, notably Nijmwegen, Breda and Bergen-op-Zoom. Mannheim in Germany was also fortified in this way, while the “secondsystem” was applied to Belgrade and Temesvár in eastern Europe.

His son, Gosewijn Theodor van Coehoorn, wrote his life (re-edited Syperstein, Leeuwarden, 1860). See also v. Zastrow, Geschichte der beständigen Befestigung (Leipzig, 1828); von Brese-Winiari, Über Entstehen und Wesen der neueren Befestigungsmethode (1844); Cosseran de Villenoisy, Essai historique sur la fortification (1869); Mandar, Architecture des forteresses (1801); Krayenhoff, Verhandeling over de erste versterkingsmanier van Coehoorn (Hague, 1823); Bosscha, Nederlandsche heldend te Land (Amsterdam, 1838); Dewez, Histoire de Belgique (Brussels, 1823); Ypey, Narratio de rebus gestis Mennonis Cohorni (1771); Hennert, Dissertation sur la fortification permanente (1795); Böhms, Gründliche Anleitung zur Kriegsbaukunst (1776); Axiomatas of allgemeene bekentnisse over de Vestinghbouw door Menno Baron van Coehoorn, Uytgewerkt door E. W. Berg (MS. in Dutch Ministry of War); Bousmard, Essai général de fortification (1797); also the article [Fortification and Siegecraft].


COELENTERA, a group or grade of the animal kingdom, the zoological importance of which has risen considerably since the time (1887) of the publication of the first article under that heading in the Ency. Brit. (9th edit.), even though their numbers have been reduced by the elevation of the Sponges or Porifera to the rank of an independent Phylum under the title Parazoa (W. J. Sollas, 1884). For the Coelentera thus restricted, the term Enterocoela, in contrast to Coelomocoela (the old Coelomata), was suggested by E. R. Lankester (1900).

From the more complex colonial Protozoa the Coelentera are readily separated by their possession of two distinct sets of cells, with diverse functions, arranged in two definite layers,—a condition found in no Protozoan. The old criterion by which they and other Metazoa were once distinguished from Protozoa, namely, the differentiation of large and small sexual cells from each other and from the remaining cells of the body, has been broken down by the discovery of numerous cases of such differentiation among Protozoa. The Coelentera, as contrasted with other Metazoa (but not Parazoa), consist of two layers of cells only, an outer layer or ectoderm, an inner layer or endoderm. They have hence been described as Diploblastica. In the remaining Metazoa certain cells are budded off at an early stage of development from one or both of the two original layers, to form later a third layer, the mesoderm, which lies between the ectoderm and endoderm; such forms have therefore received the name Triploblastica. At the same time it is necessary to observe that it is by no means certain that the mesoderm found in various groups of Metazoa is a similar or homologous formation in all cases. A second essential difference between Coelentera and other Metazoa (except Parazoa) is that in the former all spaces in the interior of the body are referable to a single cavity of endodermal origin, the “gastro-vascular cavity,” often termed the coelenteron: the spaces are always originally continuous with one another, and are in almost every case permanently so. This single cavity and its lining serve apparently for all those functions (digestion, excretion, circulation and often reproduction) which in more complex organisms are distributed among various cavities of independent and often very diverse origin.

In the Coelentera the ectoderm and endoderm are set apart from one another at a very early period in the life-history; generally either by delamination or invagination, processes described in the article Embryology. Between these two cell-layers a mesogloea (G. C. Bourne, 1887) is always intercalated as a secretion by one or both of them; this is a gelatinoid, primitively structureless lamella, which in the first instance serves merely as a basal support for the cells. In many cases, as, for example, in the Medusae or jelly-fish, the mesogloea may be so thick as to constitute the chief part of the body in bulk and weight. The ectoderm rarely consists of more than one layer of cells: these are divisible by structure and function into nervous, muscular and secretory cells, supported by interstitial cells. The endoderm is generally also an epithelium one cell in thickness, the cells being digestive, secretory and sometimes muscular. Reproductive sexual cells may be found in either of these two layers, according to the class and sub-class in question. The mesogloea is in itself an inert non-cellular secretion, but the immigration of muscular and other cells into its substance, from both ectoderm and endoderm, gives it in many cases a strong resemblance to the mesoderm of Triploblastica,—a resemblance which, while probably superficial, may yet serve to indicate the path of evolution of the mesoderm.

The Coelentera may thus be briefly defined as Metazoa which exhibit two embryonic cell-layers only,—the ectoderm and endoderm,—their body-cavities being referable to a single cavity or coelenteron in the endoderm. Their position in the animal kingdom and their main subdivisions may be expressed in the following table:—

In the above-given classification, the Scyphomedusae, formerly included with the Hydromedusae as Hydrozoa, are placed nearer the Anthozoa. The reasons for this may be stated briefly.

The Hydromedusae are distinguished from the Scyphozoa chiefly by negative characters; they have no stomodaeum, that is, no ingrowth of ectoderm at the mouth to form an oesophagus; they have no mesenteries (radiating partitions) which incompletely subdivide the coelenteron; and they have no concentration of digestive cells into special organs. Their ectodermal muscles are mainly longitudinal, their endodermal muscles are circularly arranged on the body-wall. Their sexual cells are (probably in all cases) produced from the ectoderm, and lie in those radii which are first accentuated in development. They typically present two structural forms, the non-sexual hydroid and the sexual medusoid; in such a case there is an alternation of generations (metagenesis), the hydroid giving rise to the medusoid by a sexual gemmation, the medusoid bearing sexual cells which develop into a hydroid. In some other cases medusoid develops directly from medusoid (hypogenesis), whether by sexual cells or by gemmation. The medusoids have a muscular velum of ectoderm and mesogloea only.

The Scyphozoa have the following features in common:—They typically exhibit an ectodermal stomodaeum; partitions or mesenteries project into their coelenteron from the body-wall, and on these are generally concentrated digestive cells (to form mesenterial filaments, phacellae or gastric filaments, &c.); the external musculature of the body-wall is circular (except in Cerianthus); the internal, longitudinal; and the sexual cells probably always arise in the endoderm.

The Scyphomedusae, like the Hydromedusae, typically present a metagenesis, the non-sexual scyphistomoid (corresponding to the hydroid) alternating with the sexual medusoid. In other cases the medusoid is hypogenetic, medusoid producing medusoid. The sexual cells of the medusoid lie in the endoderm on interradii, that is, on the second set of radii accentuated in the course of development. The medusoids have no true velum; in some cases a structure more or less resembling this organ, termed a velarium, is present, permeated by endodermal canals.

The Anthozoa differ from the Scyphomedusae in having no medusoid form; they all more or less resemble a sea-anemone, and may be termed actinioid. They are (with rare exceptions, probably secondarily acquired) hypogenetic, the offspring resembling the parent, and both being sexual. The sexual cells are borne on the mesenteries in positions irrespective of obvious developmental radii.

The Ctenophora are so aberrant in structure that it has been proposed to separate them from the Coelentera altogether: they are, however, theoretically deducible from an ancestor common to other Coelentera, but their extreme specialization precludes the idea of any close relationship with the rest.

As regards the other three groups, however, it is easy to conceive of them as derived from an ancestor, represented to-day to some extent by the planula-larva, which was Coelenterate in so far as it was composed of an ectoderm and endoderm, and had an internal digestive cavity (I. of the table).

At the point of divergence between Scyphozoa and Hydromedusae (II. of the table of hypothetical descent), we may conceive of its descendant as tentaculate, capable of either floating (swimming) or fixation at will like Lucernaria to-day; and exhibiting incipient differentiation of myoepithelial cells (formerly termed neuro-muscular cells). At the parting of the ways which led, on the one hand, to modern Scyphomedusae, on the other to Anthozoa (III.), it is probable that the common ancestor was marked by incipient mesenteries and by the limitation of the sexual cells to endoderm. The lines of descent—II. to Hydromedusae, and III. to Scyphomedusae—represent periods during which the hypothetical ancestors II. and III., capable of either locomotion or fixation at will, were either differentiated into alternating generations of fixed sterile nutritive hydroids (scyphistomoids) and locomotor sexual medusoids, or abandoned the power of fixation in hypogenetic cases. During the period represented by the line of descent—III. to Anthozoa—this group abandoned its power of adult locomotion by swimming. During these periods were also attained those less important structural characters which these three groups present to-day.

(G. H. Fo.)


COELLO, ALONSO SANCHEZ (1515-1590), Spanish painter, according to some authorities a native of Portugal, was born, according to others, at Benifacio, near the city of Valencia. He studied many years in Italy; and returning to Spain in 1541 he settled at Madrid, and worked on religious themes for most of the palaces and larger churches. He was a follower of Titian, and, like him, excelled in portraits and single figures, elaborating the textures of his armours, draperies, and such accessories in a manner so masterly as strongly to influence Velazquez in his treatment of like objects. Many of his pictures were destroyed in the fires that consumed the Madrid and Prado palaces, but many good examples are yet extant, among which may be noted the portraits of the infantes Carlos and Isabella, now in the Madrid gallery, and the St Sebastian painted in the church of San Gerónimo, also in Madrid. Coello left a daughter, Isabella Sanchez, who studied under him, and painted excellent portraits.


COELLO, ANTONIO (1610?-1652), Spanish dramatist and poet, was born at Madrid about the beginning of the 17th century. He entered the household of the duke de Albuquerque, and after some years of service in the army received the order of Santiago in 1648. He was a favourite of Philip IV., who is reported to have collaborated with him; this rumour is not confirmed, but there is ample proof of Coello’s collaboration with Calderón, Rojas Zorrilla, Solís and Velez de Guevara, the most distinguished dramatists of the age. The best of his original plays, Los Empeños de seis horas, has been wrongly ascribed to Calderón; it was adapted by Samuel Tuke, under the title of The Adventures of five Hours, and was described by Pepys as superior to Othello. It is an excellent example of stagecraft and animated dialogue. Coello died on the 20th of October 1652, shortly after his nomination to a post in the household of Philip IV.


COELOM AND SEROUS MEMBRANES. In human anatomy the body-cavity or coelom (Gr. κοῖλος, hollow) is divided into the pericardium, the two pleurae, the peritoneum and the two tunicae vaginales.

The pericardium is a closed sac which occupies the central part of the thorax and contains the heart. Like all the serous membranes it has a visceral and a parietal layer, the former of which is closely applied to the heart and consists of endothelial cells with a slight fibrous backing: to it is due the glossy appearance of a freshly removed heart. The parietal layer is double; externally there is a strong fibrous protective coat which is continuous with the other fibrous structures in the neighbourhood, especially with the sheaths of the great vessels at the root of the heart, with prolongations of the fascia of the neck, and with the central tendon of the diaphragm, while internally is the serous layer which is reflected from the surface of the heart, where the great vessels enter, so that everywhere the two layers of the serous membrane are in contact, and the only thing within the cavity is a drop or two of the fluid secreted by the serous walls. When the parietal layer is laid open and the heart removed by cutting through the great vessels, it will be seen that there are two lines of reflection of the serous layer, one common to the aorta and pulmonary artery, the other to all the pulmonary veins and the two venae cavae.

The pleurae very closely resemble the pericardium except that the fibrous outer coat of the parietal layer is not nearly as strong; it is closely attached to the inner surface of the chest walls and mesially to the outer layer of the pericardium; above it is thickened by a fibrous contribution from the scalene muscles, and this forms the dome of the pleura which fits into the concavity of the first rib and contains the apex of the lung. The reflection of the serous layer of the pleura, from the parietal to the visceral part, takes place at the root of the lung, where the great vessels enter, and continues for some distance below this as the ligamentum latum pulmonis. The upper limit of the pleural cavity reaches about half an inch above the inner third of the clavicle, while, below, it may be marked out by a line drawn from the twelfth thoracic spine to the tenth rib in the mid axillary line, the eighth rib in the nipple line, and the sixth rib at its junction with the sternum. There is probably very little difference in the lower level of the pleurae on the two sides.

Fig. 1.—Diagram of verticalmedian section of Abdomen.
 A, Aorta. D, Duodenum.
 P, Pancreas. B, Bladder.
 I, Intestine. St, Stomach.
 R, Rectum. C, Colon.
 L, Liver. V, Vagina.
(The fine dots represent thegreat sac of the peritoneum, thecoarse dots the lesser sac.)

The peritoneum is a more extensive and complicated membrane than either the pericardium or pleura; it surrounds the abdominal and pelvic viscera, and, like the other sacs, has a parietal and visceral layer. The line of reflection of these, though a continuous one, is very tortuous. The peritoneum consists of a greater and lesser sac which communicate through an opening known as the foramen of Winslow, and the most satisfactory way of understanding these is to follow the reflections first in a vertical median (sagittal) section and then in a horizontal one, the body being supposed to be in the upright position. If a median sagittal section be studied first, and a start be made at the umbilicus (see fig. 1), the parietal peritoneum is seen to run upward, lining the anterior abdominal wall, and then to pass along the under surface of the diaphragm till its posterior third is reached; here there is a reflection on to the liver (L), forming the anterior layer of the coronary ligament of that viscus, while the membrane now becomes visceral and envelops the front of the liver as far back as the transverse fissure on its lower surface; here it is reflected on to the stomach (St) forming the anterior layer of the gastro-hepatic or lesser omentum. It now covers the front of the stomach, and at the lower border runs down as the anterior layer of an apron-like fold, the great omentum, which in some cases reaches as low as the pubes; then it turns up again as the posterior or fourth layer of the great omentum until the transverse colon (C) is reached, the posterior surface of which it covers and is reflected, as the posterior layer of the transverse meso-colon, to the lower part of the pancreas (P); after this it turns down and covers the anterior surface of the third part of the duodenum (D) till the posterior wall of the abdomen is reached, from which it is reflected on to the small intestine (I) as the anterior layer of the mesentery, a fold varying from 5 to 8 in. between its attachments. After surrounding the small intestine it becomes the posterior layer of the mesentery and so again reaches the posterior abdominal wall, down which it runs until the rectum (R) is reached. The anterior surface of this tube is covered by peritoneum to a point about 3 in. from the anus, where it is reflected on to the uterus and vagina (V) in the female and then on to the bladder (B); in the male, on the other hand, the reflection is directly from the rectum to the bladder. At the apex of the bladder, after covering the upper surface of that organ, it is lifted off by the urachus and runs up the anterior abdominal wall to the umbilicus, from which the start was made. All this is the greater sac. The tracing of the lesser sac may be conveniently started at the transverse fissure of the liver, whence the membrane runs down to the stomach (St) as the posterior layer of the lesser omentum, lines the posterior surface of the stomach, passes down as the second layer of the great omentum and up again as the third layer, covers the anterior surface of the transverse colon (C) and then reaches the pancreas (P) as the anterior layer of the transverse mesocolon. After this it covers the front of the pancreas and in the middle line of the body runs up below the diaphragm to within an inch of the anterior layer of the coronary ligament of the liver; here it is reflected on to the top of the Spigelian lobe of the liver to form the posterior layer of the coronary ligament, covers the whole Spigelian lobe, and so reaches the transverse fissure, the starting-point.

Fig. 2.—Diagram of HorizontalSection through upper part of 1stLumbar Vertebra.
A, Aorta. H.A, Hepatic Artery.
Sp, Spleen. K, Kidney.
B.D, Bile duct. L, Liver.
V.C, Vena Cava. St, Stomach.
P, Pancreas. P.V, Portal Vein.
The dotting of the peritoneum is as in fig. 1.

This section, therefore, shows two completely closed sacs without any visible communication. In the female, however, the great sac is not absolutely closed, for the Fallopian tubes open into it by their minute ostia abdominalia, while at the other ends they communicate with the cavity of the uterus and so with the vagina and exterior.

A horizontal section through the upper part of the first lumbar vertebra will, if a fortunate one (see fig. 2), pass through the foramen of Winslow and show the communication of the two sacs. A starting-point may be made from the mid-ventral line and the parietal peritoneum traced round the left side of the body wall until the outer edge of the left kidney (K) is reached; here it passes in front of the kidney and is soon reflected off on to the spleen, which it nearly surrounds; just before it reaches the hilum of that organ, where the vessels enter, it is reflected on to the front of the stomach (St), forming the anterior layer of the gastro-splenic omentum; it soon reaches the lesser curvature of the stomach and then becomes the anterior layer of the lesser omentum, which continues until the bile duct (B.D) and portal vein (P.V) are reached at its right free extremity; here it turns completely round these structures and runs to the left again, as the posterior layer of the lesser omentum, behind the stomach (St) and then to the spleen (Sp) as the posterior layer of the gastro-splenic omentum. From the spleen it runs to the right once more, in front of the pancreas (P), until the inferior vena cava (V.C) is reached, and this point is just behind the portal vein and is the place where the lesser and greater sacs communicate, known as the foramen of Winslow. From this opening the lesser sac runs to the left, while all the rest of the peritoneal cavity in the section is greater sac. From the front of the vena cava the parietal peritoneum passes in front of the right kidney (K) and round the right abdominal wall to the mid-ventral line. The right part of this section is filled by the liver (L), which is completely surrounded by a visceral layer of peritoneum, and no reflection is usually seen at this level between it and the parietal layer. Some of the viscera, such as the kidneys and pancreas, are retro-peritoneal; others, such as the small intestines and transverse colon, are surrounded, except at one point where they are attached to the dorsal wall by a mesentery or mesocolon as the reflections are called; others again are completely surrounded, and of these the caecum is an example; while some, like the liver and bladder, have large uncovered areas, and the reflections of the membrane form ligaments which allow considerable freedom of movement.

The tunica vaginalis is the remains of a process of the peritoneum (processus vaginalis) which descends into the scrotum during foetal life some little time before the testis itself descends. After the descent of the testis the upper part usually becomes obliterated, while the lower part forms a serous sac which nearly surrounds the testis, but does not quite do so. Posteriorly the epididymis is in close contact with the testis, and here the visceral layer is not in contact; there is, however, a pocket called the digital fossa which squeezes in from the outer side between the testis and epididymis. The parietal layer lines the inner wall of its own side of the scrotum.

For a full description of the topography of the serous membranes see any of the standard text-books of anatomy, by Gray, Quain, Cunningham or Macalister. Special details will be found in Sir F. Treves’ Anatomy of the Intestinal Canal and Peritoneum (London, 1885); C. B. Lockwood, Hunterian Lectures on Hernia (London, 1889); C. Addison, “Topographical Anatomy of the Abdominal Viscera in Man,” Jour. Anat., vols. 34, 35; F. Dixon and A. Birmingham, “Peritoneum of the Pelvic Cavity,” Jour. Anat. vol. 34, p. 127; W. Waldeyer, “Das Becken” (1899), and “Topographical Sketch of the Lateral Wall of the Pelvic Cavity,” Jour. Anat. vol. 32; B. Moynihan, Retroperitoneal Hernia (London, 1899). A complete bibliography of the subject up to 1895 will be found in Quain’s Anatomy, vol. 3, part 4, p. 69.

After Young and Robinson, Cunningham’s Text-Book of Anatomy.
Fig. 3.—Diagram of Longitudinal Section, showing the differentareas of the Blastodermic Vesicle.
a, Pericardium. c, Ectoderm. d, Entoderm.
b, Bucco-pharyngeal area. e, Placental area.
After Young and Robinson, Cunningham’s Text-Book of Anatomy.
Fig. 4.—Diagram of a Developing Ovum, seen in Longitudinal Section.
f, Spinal cord. i, Brain.
g, Notochord. k, Extra embryonic coelom.
h, Dorsal wall of alimentary canal.  Other numbers as in fig. 3.

Embryology.—As the mesoderm is gradually spreading over the embryo it splits into two layers, the outer of which is known as the somatopleure and lines the parietal or ectodermal wall, while the inner lines the entoderm and is called the splanchnopleure; between the two is the coelom. The pericardial area is early differentiated from the rest of the coelom and at first lies in front of the neural and bucco-pharyngeal area; here the mesoderm stretches right across the mid-line, which it does not in front and behind. As the head fold of the embryo is formed the pericardium is gradually turned right over, so that the dorsal side becomes the ventral and the anterior limit the posterior; this will be evident on referring to the two accompanying diagrams.

The two primitive aortae lie at first in the ventral wall of the pericardium, but with the folding over they come to lie in the dorsal wall and gradually bulge into the cavity as they coalesce to form the heart, so that the heart drops into the dorsal side of the pericardium and draws down a fold of the membrane called the dorsal mesocardium. In mammals A. Robinson (Jour. Anat. and Phys., xxxvii. 1) has shown that no ventral mesocardium exists, though in more lowly vertebrates it is present. Laterally the pericardial cavity communicates with the general cavity of the coelom, but with the growth of the Cuvierian ducts (see development of veins) these communications disappear. Originally the mesocardium runs the whole length of the pericardium from before backward, but later on the middle part becomes obliterated, and so the two separate reflections from the parietal to the visceral layer, already noticed, are accounted for.

Just behind the pericardium and in front of the umbilicus, which at first are close together, the mesoderm forms a mass which is called the septum transversum, and into this the developing lungs push bag-like protrusions of the coelom, consisting of visceral and parietal layers, and these eventually lose their connexion with the rest of the coelom, as the diaphragm develops, and become the pleural cavities. After the pericardium and pleurae have been separated off the remainder of the coelom becomes the peritoneum. At first the stomach and intestine form a straight tube, which is connected to the dorsum of the embryo by a dorsal mesentery and to the mid-ventral wall in front of the umbilicus by a ventral mesentery. Into the ventral mesentery the liver grows as diverticula from the duodenum, so that some of the mesentery remains as the falciform ligament of the liver and some as the lesser omentum. Into the dorsal mesentery the pancreas grows, also as diverticula, from the duodenum, while the spleen is developed from the mesoderm contained in the same fold. As the stomach turns over so that its left side becomes ventral, the dorsal mesentery attached to it becomes pulled out, in such a way that part of it forms the great omentum and part the gastro-splenic omentum. After the caecum is formed as a diverticulum from the intestine it is situated close to the liver and gradually travels down into the right iliac fossa. This passage to the right is accompanied by a throwing over of the duodenal loop to the right, so that the right side of its mesentery becomes pressed against the dorsal wall of the abdomen and obliterated. This accounts for the fact that the pancreas and duodenum are only covered by peritoneum on their anterior surfaces in man. The formation of the lesser sac is due to the turning over of the stomach to the right, with the result that a cave, known sometimes as the bursa omentalis, is formed behind it. Originally, of course, the whole colon had a dorsal mesocolon continuous with the mesentery, but in the region of the ascending and descending colon this usually disappears and these parts of the gut are uncovered by peritoneum posteriorly. The transverse mesocolon persists and at first is quite free from the great omentum, but later, in man, the two structures fuse[1] and the fourth layer of the great omentum becomes continuous with the posterior layer of the transverse mesocolon.

For further details see Quain’s Anatomy (London, 1908).

Comparative Anatomy.—In the Amphioxus the coelom is developed in the embryo as a series of bilateral pouches, called enterocoeles, from the sides of the alimentary canal; these are therefore entodermal in their origin, as in Sagitta and the Echinodermata among the invertebrates. In the adult the development of the atrium causes a considerable reduction of the coelom, represented by two dorsal coelomic canals communicating with a ventral canal by means of branchial canals which run down the outer side of the primary gill bars. Into the dorsal canals the nephridia open. In the intestinal region the coelom is only present on the left side.

In the higher vertebrates (Craniata) the coelom is developed by a splitting of the mesoderm into two layers, and a pericardium is constricted off from the general cavity. In all cases the ova burst into the coelom before making their way to the exterior, and in some cases, e.g. amphioxus, lamprey (Cyclostomata), eels and mud-fish (Dipnoi), the sperm cells do so too. The Cyclostomata have a pair of genital pores which lead from the coelom into the urino-genital sinus, and so to the exterior.

In the Elasmobranch fish there is a pericardio-peritoneal canal forming a communication between these two parts of the coelom; also a large common opening for the two oviducts in the region of the liver, and two openings, called abdominal pores, on to the surface close to the cloacal aperture. In the Teleostomi (Teleostean and Ganoid fish) abdominal pores are rare, but in most Teleostei (bony fish) the ova pass directly down oviducts, as they do in Arthropods, without entering the peritoneal cavity; there is little doubt, however, that these oviducts are originally coelomic in origin. In the Dipnoi (mud-fish) abdominal pores are found, and probably serve as a passage for the sperm cells, since there are no vasa deferentia. In fishes a complete dorsal mesentery is seldom found in the adult; in many cases it only remains as a tube surrounding the vessels passing to the alimentary canal.

In the Amphibia, Reptilia and Aves, one cavity acts as pleura and peritoneum, though in the latter the lungs are not completely surrounded by a serous membrane. In many lizards the comparatively straight intestine, with its continuous dorsal mesentery and ventral mesentery in the anterior part of the abdomen, is very like a stage in the development of the human and other mammalian embryos. In the mammalia the diaphragm is complete (see [Diaphragm]) and divides the pleuro-peritoneal cavity into its two constituent parts. In the lower mammals the derivatives of the original dorsal mesentery do not undergo as much fusion and obliteration as they do in adult man; the ascending and descending mesocolon is retained, and the transverse mesocolon contracts no adhesion to the great omentum. It is a common thing, however, to find a fenestrated arrangement of the great omentum which shows that its layers have been completely obliterated in many places.

In those animals, such as the rabbit, in which the tests are sometimes in the scrotum and sometimes in the abdomen, the communication between the peritoneum and the tunica vaginalis remains throughout life.

For further details and literature up to 1902, see R. Wiedersheim’s Vergleichende Anatomie der Wirbeltiere (Jena, 1902).

(F. G. P.)


[1] Some authorities hold that this alteration is not brought about by fusion, but by a dragging away of the posterior layer of the great omentum from the dorsal wall of the abdomen.


COEN, JAN PIETERSZOON (1587-1630), fourth governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, was born at Hoorn, and spent his youth at Rome in the house of the famous merchants the Piscatori. In 1607 he sailed from Amsterdam to the Indies as second commercial agent, and remained away four years. He had proved so capable that in 1612 he was sent out a second time at the head of a trading expedition. In the following year he was made a councillor and director-general of the East Indian trade. Afterwards he became president at Bantam, and on the 31st of October 1617 he was promoted in succession to Laurens Reaal to the post of governor-general. To his vigour and intrepidity the Dutch in no small measure owed the preservation and establishment of their empire in the East. He took and destroyed Jacatra, and founded on its ruins the capital of the Dutch East Indies, to which he gave the name of Batavia. In 1622 Coen obtained leave to resign his post and return to Holland, but in his absence great difficulties had arisen with the English at Amboina (the so-called massacre of Amboina), and in 1627 under pressure from the directors of the East India Company he again returned as governor-general to Batavia. In 1629 he was able to beat off a formidable attack of the sultan of Mataram, sometimes styled emperor of Java, upon Batavia. He died the following year.


COENACULUM, the term applied to the eating-room of a Roman house in which the supper (coena) or latest meal was taken. It was sometimes placed in an upper storey and reached by an external staircase. The Last Supper in the New Testament was taken in the Coenaculum, the “large upper room” cited in St Mark (xiv. 15) and St Luke (xxii. 12).


CŒNWULF (d. 821), king of Mercia, succeeded to the throne in 796, on the death of Ecgfrith, son of Offa. His succession is somewhat remarkable, as his direct ancestors do not seem to have held the throne for six generations. In 798 he invaded Kent, deposed and imprisoned Eadberht Præn, and made his own brother Cuthred king. Cuthred reigned in Kent from 798 to 807, when he died, and Cœnwulf seems to have taken Kent into his own hands. It was during this reign that the archbishopric of Lichfield was abolished, probably before 803, as the Hygeberht who signed as an abbot at the council of Cloveshoe in that year was presumably the former archbishop. Cœnwulf appears from the charters to have quarrelled with Wulfred of Canterbury, who was consecrated in 806, and the dispute continued for several years. It was probably only settled at Cloveshoe in 825, when the lawsuit of Cwœnthryth, daughter and heiress of Cœnwulf, with Wulfred was terminated. Cœnwulf may have instigated the raid of Æthelmund, earl of the Hwicce, upon the accession of Ecgberht. He died in 821, and was succeeded by his brother Ceolwulf I.

See Earle and Plummer’s edition of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 796, 819 (Oxford, 1892); W. de G. Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum, 378 (London, 1885-1893).

(F. G. M. B.)


COERCION (from Lat. coercere, to restrain), an application of moral or physical compulsion by which a person is forced to do or refrain from doing some act or set of acts apart from his own voluntary motion. Where the coercion is direct or positive, i.e. where the person is compelled by physical force to do an act contrary to his will,—for example, when a man is compelled to join a rebel army, and to serve as a soldier under threats of death,—his act is not legally a crime. Where the coercion is implied, as when a person is legally under subjection to another, the person coerced, having no will on the subject, is not responsible. But this principle is applied only within narrow limits, and does not extend to the command of a superior to an inferior; of a parent to a child; of a master to his servant or a principal to his agent. Where, however, a married woman commits a crime in the presence of her husband, she is generally presumed to have acted by his coercion, and to be entitled to acquittal, but this presumption does not extend to grave crimes, nor to those in which the principal part may be supposed to be taken by the woman, such as keeping a brothel. In civil matters, such as the making of a contract, where the law requires the free assent of the person who undertakes the obligation, coercion is a ground for invalidating the instrument.

The term “coercion” is inevitably somewhat ambiguous, and depends on the circumstances of the case. In a political sense, the application of the Crimes Act of 1887 to Ireland was called “coercion” by those opposed to the English Unionist party and government, as being special legislation differing from the ordinary law applicable in the United Kingdom.


CŒUR, JACQUES (c. 1395-1456), founder of the trade between France and the Levant, was born at Bourges, in which city his father, Pierre Cœur, was a rich merchant. Jacques is first heard of about 1418, when he married Macée de Léodepart, daughter of Lambert de Léodepart, an influential citizen, provost of Bourges, and a former valet of John, duke of Berry. About 1429 he formed a commercial partnership with two brothers named Godard; and in 1432 he was at Damascus, buying and bartering, and transporting the wares of the Levant—gall-nuts, wools and silks, goats’ hair, brocades and carpets—to the interior of France by way of Narbonne. In the same year he established himself at Montpellier, and there began those gigantic operations which have made him illustrious among financiers. Details are wanting; but it is certain that in a few years he placed his country in a position to contend not unsuccessfully with the great trading republics of Italy, and acquired such reputation as to be able, mere trader as he was, to render material assistance to the knights of Rhodes and to Venice herself.

In 1436 Cœur was summoned to Paris by Charles VII., and made master of the mint that had been established in that city. The post was of vast importance, and the duties onerous. The country was deluged with the base moneys of three reigns, charged with superscriptions both French and English, and Charles had determined on a sweeping reform. In this design he was ably seconded by the merchant, who, in fact, inspired or prepared all the ordinances concerning the coinage of France issued between 1435 and 1451. In 1438 he was made steward of the royal expenditure; in 1441 he and his family were ennobled by letters patent. In 1444 he was sent as one of the royal commissioners to preside over the new parlement of Languedoc, a dignity he bore till the day of his disgrace. In 1445 his agents in the East negotiated a treaty between the sultan of Egypt and the knights of Rhodes; and in 1447, at his instance, Jean de Village, his nephew by marriage, was charged with a mission to Egypt. The results were most important; concessions were obtained which greatly improved the position of the French consuls in the Levant, and that influence in the East was thereby founded which, though often interrupted, was for several centuries a chief commercial glory of France. In the same year Cœur assisted in an embassy to Amadeus VIII., former duke of Savoy, who had been chosen pope as Felix V. by the council of Basel; and in 1448 he represented the French king at the court of Pope Nicholas V., and was able to arrange an agreement between Nicholas and Amadeus, and so to end the papal schism. Nicholas treated him with the utmost distinction, lodged him in the papal palace, and gave him a special licence to traffic with the infidels. From about this time he made large advances to Charles for carrying on his wars; and in 1449, after fighting at the king’s side through the campaign, he entered Rouen in his train.

At this moment the great trader’s glory was at its height. He had represented France in three embassies, and had supplied the sinews of that war which had ousted the English from Normandy. He was invested with various offices of dignity, and possessed the most colossal fortune that had ever been amassed by a private Frenchman. The sea was covered with his ships; he had 300 factors in his employ, and houses of business in all the chief cities of France. He had built houses and chapels, and had founded colleges in Paris, at Montpellier and at Bourges. The house at Bourges (see [House], Plate II. figs. 7 and 8) was of exceptional magnificence, and remains to-day one of the finest monuments of the middle ages in France. He also built there the sacristy of the cathedral and a sepulchral chapel for his family. His brother Nicholas was made bishop of Luçon, his sister married Jean Bochetel, the king’s secretary, his daughter married the son of the viscount of Bourges, and his son Jean became archbishop of Bourges. But Cœur’s gigantic monopoly caused his ruin. Dealing in everything, money and arms, peltry and jewels, brocades and woollens—a broker, a banker, a farmer—he had absorbed the trade of the country, and merchants complained they could make no gains on account of “that Jacquet.” He had lent money to needy courtiers, to members of the royal family, and to the king himself, and his debtors, jealous of his wealth, were eager for a chance to cause his overthrow.

In February 1450 Agnes Sorel, the king’s mistress, suddenly died. Eighteen months later it was rumoured that she had been poisoned, and a lady of the court who owed money to Jacques Cœur, Jeanne de Vendôme, wife of François de Montberon, and an Italian, Jacques Colonna, formally accused him of having poisoned her. There was not even a pretext for such a charge, but for this and other alleged crimes the king, on the 31st of July 1451, gave orders for his arrest and for the seizure of his goods, reserving to himself a large sum of money for the war in Guienne. Commissioners extraordinary, the merchant’s declared enemies, were chosen to conduct the trial, and an inquiry began, the judges in which were either the prisoner’s debtors or the holders of his forfeited estates. He was accused of having paid French gold and ingots to the infidels, of coining light money, of kidnapping oarsmen for his galleys, of sending back a Christian slave who had taken sanctuary on board one of his ships, and of committing frauds and exactions in Languedoc to the king’s prejudice. He defended himself with all the energy of his nature. His innocence was manifest; but a conviction was necessary, and in spite of strenuous efforts on the part of his friends, after twenty-two months of confinement in five prisons, he was condemned to do public penance for his fault, to pay the king a sum equal to about £1,000,000 of modern money, and to remain a prisoner till full satisfaction had been obtained; his sentence also embraced confiscation of all his property, and exile during royal pleasure. On the 5th of June 1453 the sentence took effect; at Poitiers the shameful form of making honourable amends was gone through; and for nearly three years nothing is known of him. It is probable that he remained in prison; it is certain that his vast possessions were distributed among the intimates of Charles.

In 1455 Jacques Cœur, wherever confined, contrived to escape into Provence. He was pursued; but a party, headed by Jean de Village and two of his old factors, carried him off to Tarascon, whence, by way of Marseilles, Nice and Pisa, he managed to reach Rome. He was honourably and joyfully received by Nicholas V., who was fitting out an expedition against the Turks. On the death of Nicholas, Calixtus III. continued his work, and named his guest captain of a fleet of sixteen galleys sent to the relief of Rhodes. Cœur set out on this expedition, but was taken ill at Chios, and died there on the 25th of November 1456. After his death Charles VII. showed himself well disposed to the family, and allowed Jacques Cœur’s sons to come into possession of whatever was left of their father’s wealth.

See the admirable monograph of Pierre Clément, Jacques Cœur et Charles VII (1858, 2nd ed. 1874); A. Valet de Viriville, Charles Sept et son époque (3 vols., 1862-1865); and Louisa Costello, Jacques Cœur, the French Argonaut (London, 1847).


CŒUR D’ALÊNE (“awl-heart,” the French translation of the native name skitswish), a tribe of North American Indians of Salishan stock. The name is said to have been originally that of a chief noted for his cruelty. The tribe has given its name to a lake, river and range of mountains in Idaho, where on a reservation the survivors, some 400, are settled.