his name.

organ of hearing have immortalised In surgery his description of tracheotomy must be looked upon as his chef-d'œuvre.

CASSIAN, (St. John,) a Scythian monk, of the fifth century, who spent part of his life in the monastery of Bethlehem, with his friend Germain. Cassian went to Rome, and from thence to Marseilles, where he founded two religious societies, one of men, the other for nuns. He died about the year 448. He left Collations, or conferences of the fathers of the desert, and Institutions, in twelve books; and seven books upon the Incarnation. These are all written in Latin, and were printed at Paris, 1642, and at Leipsic, 1722, folio. Cassian is reckoned among the first of the SemiPelagians, of which sect Faustus of Riez, Vincent of Lerins, Gennadius of Marseilles, Hilary of Arles, and Arnobius the younger, were the principal defenders. The Semi-Pelagians were opposed by the whole united forces of St. Augustin and Prosper, without being overcome by them. This sect was condemned by some synods, and was rejected by the church. CASSIBELAN, or CASSIVELAUNUS, a petty British prince, who, when Julius Cæsar invaded England, is said by the old chroniclers to have been regent of Kent, in the minority of his nephews, sons of Lud. Cassibelan having rejected the demands which Caesar made by his deputies, the latter made his first descent upon the English shores; but foiled in that attempt, he renewed it soon after with no better success. His third attack was crowned with victory. Aided by the forces of the king of the Trinobantes, Cæsar forced the entrenchments of Cassibelan, and compelled that commander to submit to terms. He was succeeded by the elder of his nephews.

CASSIM-BEY, one of the chiefs of the Circassian Mamlukes in Egypt, entered into a conspiracy with Mohammed, the sheikh-el-belled, or supreme head of the Mamluke body, in order to shake off the subjection of Egypt to the Ottoman Porte. The Turkish viceroy, Ali-Morali Pasha, was himself a confederate in the plot; but Mohammed, a deposed pasha of Egypt resident in Cairo, having secured the aid of those beys who were hostile to Cassim and the sheikh-el-belled, put himself at the head of the troops who remained faithful; and after a desperate conflict of three days in the streets and houses of Cairo, the insurgents were completely defeated. The sheikh-el-belled

Mohammed escaped to Tripoli, but Cassim was slain fighting sword in hand to the last, and his head sent to Constantinople, Feb. 1726 (A.H. 1138.) He is said to have visited Vienna and other courts of Europe, and to have possessed acquirements superior to the generality of the rude militia who were so long predominant in Egypt.

CASSIM EBN AHMED, a descendant of Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, was wali or viceroy of Malaga during the civil wars which marked the last years of the Ommîyan khalifat in Spain. He at first espoused the cause of the legitimate monarch, Hesham II. against his Moorish rival Soliman Ebn Al-Hakem; and on the death or disappearance of that unfortunate prince (A.D. 1012, A.H. 403,) united with his brother Ali, wali of Centa, against the usurper Soliman, who was overthrown and slain A.D. 1016. Ali was now, in default of legitimate heirs, proclaimed king at Cordova, being the first Fatimite who ever reigned in Spain; but he was suffocated in a battle the following year, by his slaves, when Cassim, instantly repairing to Cordova, assumed the royal title in spite of the claims of his nephew Yahya, the son of the deceased Ali. He was eventually, however, induced to consent to a division of the kingdom, retaining Malaga, Seville, &c. for himself, and resigning Cordova to his nephew, whom he however expelled A.D. 1019, only to be himself driven out, three years later, by a general revolt provoked by his severity. Yahya now remounted the throne, and besieged his uncle in Xerez, the inhabitants of which ensured their own safety by giving him up (A.D. 1023, A.H. 414,) and he died some years later in confinement, after a life spent in the tumult of civil war, in which his restless ambition and ferocious courage made him a conspicuous character. The reign of Yahya was not, however, of long continuance, as he fell in battle (A.D. 1026,) against the king of Seville, and with him ended his race.

AKSAN

CASSIM-ED-DOWLAH KAR, the progenitor of the Atabeks of Syria, was a Turk by birth, and originally an officer at the court of the great Seljochian Sultan Malek Shah, from whom he received the privilege of standing constantly at his right hand. The favour with which he was regarded excited, however, the jealousy of the other courtiers, who succeeded in procuring his removal to the government of Aleppo. During the troubles which followed the death of

Malek Shah, A.D. 1092, A.н. 485, he at first embraced the party of Tutush, brother of the deceased monarch, of which he was for some time the most powerful supporter; but on an attempt of Takash to deprive him of Aleppo, he transferred his allegiance to Barkiarokh, eldest son of Malek Shah, who had been proclaimed sultan at Bagdad. (See BARKIAROKH.) Tutush, however, speedily advanced against him; and Aksankar, routed and made prisoner, was beheaded in the presence of his enemy, A.D. 1094 (A.H. 487.) His son Zenghi, who was only ten years old at the death of his father, eventually became independent sovereign of great part of Syria, and was father of the famous sultan Noor-ed-deen. (The name Aksankar, which signifies in Turkish White Hawk, is erroneously spelled Ascansar by Gibbon; and Abu'l-Faraj has confounded the subject of this notice with another Aksankar, surnamed Bourski, who was at this time emir of Moussoul.) (Abulfeda. Abul-Faraj. De Guignes. Gibbon.)

CASSINI, (John Dominic,) a great astronomer, and founder of a family of astronomers, was born in 1625, at Perinaldo, in the territory of Nice. His father, James Cassini, was a gentleman, who placed him under an able instructor during his years of childhood, and afterwards transferred him to the care of the Jesuits at Genoa. They, in 1646, published a collection of Latin poems, in which some of his were included. His taste for astronomy was first stimulated by the loan of an astrological work, which he received from an ecclesiastic. He proceeded so far in this chimerical system, as to draw up some predictions, and not without success; but afterwards becoming convinced of its fallacy, he utterly relinquished it, and thenceforth devoted himself with ardour to astronomy and the preliminary sciences. His attainments were exceedingly rapid, and when only twenty-five years of age he was elected by the senate of Bologna to fill the chair of astronomy in their university. Towards the close of the year 1652, a comet made its appearance, and, as it passed near the zenith, the opportunities for observing it were peculiarly favourable. In his account of it, dedicated to the duke of Modena, he repudiates the prevalent notion that comets were subject to no law, and beyond the reach of calculation, and relates his observations to determine the orbit of the one then present. He fixed a gnomon and meri

dian line in one of the churches at Bologna, which enabled him to make a number of solar observations, from which he formed more correct solar tables, and estimated the refraction with a degree of precision never before attained. In 1657 he was called on to accompany the ambassador to the pope from Bologna, in order to settle the disputes between that city and Ferrara, in consequence of the inundations of the Po; and on this occasion, to use the expression of Fontenelle, he showed that, although he was a mathematician, yet he had much intellect when brought into contact with other men. He was also appointed to repair the works of Fort Urban, and the pope (Clement IX.) was so sensible of his merit, that he frequently sent for him to converse with him, and solicited him to become an ecclesiastic. This he declined, but accepted the place of superintendent of the waters in the Papal states. In 1664-5, he discovered the time of the rotation of Jupiter to be 9 hours 56 minutes, (the latest observations by professor Airey making it 9h. 55m. 21.3s.) He also saw, for the first time, the shadows of the satellites on the disc, and in 1668, formed tables of the satellites (called in Italy, the Mediccan stars.) Into these tables there entered no less than twentyfive elements. With similar success he calculated the rotations of Mars and Venus, and made the apparent rotation of the sun to be about 27 days, which is very near the truth. In 1669 he came to Paris by invitation from Louis XIV. who offered him a pension equivalent to his employments in Italy. He at first declined this offer, until the pope and the senate of Bologna gave their consent, stipulating, however, that his absence should not last longer than a few years. It was not his intention to fix his residence permanently in France, but when the pope and the Bolognese endeavoured to recall him, he had become attached to his new appointment. Colbert resisted their applications, and granted him letters of naturalization in 1673, and in the same year he married a French lady. duties at the Royal Observatory of Paris commenced on September 14th, 1671, and his observations continued to 1683. He never returned to Italy, except for a short time in 1695. In the latter years of his life he became totally blind; in this resembling Galileo, and probably in both the loss of sight was induced by long continued and minute observations. They almost realized the fabulous history of

His

Tiresias, who became blind in consequence of endeavouring to see into the secrets of the gods. He died on the 14th September, 1712, being above 87 years of age. Besides the discoveries above mentioned it is admitted by Delambre, that he established by observation the coincidence of the nodes of the lunar equator and orbit. He discovered the first, second, third, and fifth satellites of Saturn, and was the first to perceive the permanent nature of the zodiacal light. Some modern astronomers have made it a subject of reproach that he was a Cartesian, and a modern biographer has explained his adherence to the system of Ptolemy by his being a member of the church of Rome. The fact was, however, that he was strictly an astronomer, and his researches did not go beyond the motions of the heavenly bodies. He did not enter on the causes of their motions, and there is no evidence that he had become acquainted with the works of Newton. His was not the merit of founding a system, but of observing and establishing facts of the highest importance in astronomy. Of his two sons, the eldest was killed at the battle of La Hogue; the younger is the subject of the following article.

CASSINI, (James,) son of the preceding, was born at Paris in 1677, and was at the early age of seventeen admitted into the Academy of Sciences. He visited England and Holland, and became acquainted with Newton, Flamsteed, &c. He succeeded his father at the Observatory, and was appointed maître des comptes. As he was travelling to his estate of Thury, near Clermont (Oise,) the carriage was upset, he became immediately paralytic, and died in 1756. He was considered to be a better mathematician than his father, and devoted himself chiefly to fundamental points of astronomy, and to the construction of tables. His work, De la Grandeur et de la Figure de la Terre, Paris, 1720, contains the account of the continuation of Picard's are of the meridian, with his conclusion that the earth is a spheroid, elongated towards the poles, contrary both to the theory and the observations of others. His Élémens d'Astronomie, Paris, 1740, (the correct edition of which is that of the Imp. Royale,) shows that, although inclined to the Copernican system, he was not completely decided on the subject. He cites Newton in two places, one to endeavour to explain the acceleration of Jupiter's motion, in an

other, for observations of a comet. He follows Descartes, like his father, and in this work prefers graphical methods to calculation. In his various communications to the Academy of Sciences, he proved his abilities as an observer. He determined, with great exactness, the times of revolution of the five satellites of Saturn then known, and first observed the inclination of the orbit of the fifth, now the seventh of them. He improved the methods and tables of refraction, and ascertained very nearly the variation of the obliquity of the ecliptic, and the length of the year, by comparison of a large number of equinoxes of his own and others.

CASSINI, (Francis Cæsar,) the son of James, was born at Paris, in 1714. He accompanied his father during his geodesical tours in 1733, and in his twenty-first year was elected into the academy. He succeeded his father at the Observatory, and as maître des comptes, and died of small-pox in 1784. He published, in 1744, the large triangulation of France, under the title of La Méridienne de Verifiée. He nearly completed the large map of France, of which his son presented 124 sheets to the National Assembly in 1789. He is best known by the name of Cassini de Thury, having been the first to take that appellation from the estate acquired by his grandfather.

CASSINI, (John Dominic,) son of the preceding, and best known by the title of count Cassini, was born at Paris, in 1748. He succeeded at the Observatory. The system of Newton, which had been adopted in an imperfect manner by his father, was fully professed by him. He was elected member of the academy in 1770, and in that year published an account of the voyage made by direction of the government, in order to ascertain the accuracy of Le Roy's chronometers. He, along with Mechain and Legendre, was employed in the operations for connecting the Observatories of Paris and Greenwich, by a chain of triangles, in 1787. After his father's death he made repeated applications to the government in order to obtain larger instruments, and to have the Observatory placed on a better footing. A party seems to have been formed against him, for in 1793 the National Convention resolved that the Observatory should be placed no longer under the control of one person, but of four, who should take the annual duty in rotation. Of the four, Cassini was one, and the

other three were his own pupils. Having refused to submit to this regulation, he resigned his charge on the 6th September, 1793, but received a peremptory order to quit the Observatory in twenty-four hours, and in the following year suffered an imprisonment of seven months. Thus terminated the connexion of the Cassini family with the Observatory of Paris, after it had lasted for 122 years. After his retirement from the Observatory, count Cassini abandoned astronomy entirely. Though he entered the Institute under the Empire, the name no longer appeared in the mathematical departments of science. He passed the remainder of his days chiefly at his residence in the country. The date of his death does not appear.

CASSINI, (Alexander Henry Gabriel, Count de,) son of James Dominic, was born at the Observatory at Paris, in 1781. On returning from school, in 1794, he completed his studies at the family estate of Thury, under the direction of his father. During the four years thus occupied, he contracted a taste for botany and other branches of natural history; but on his arrival at Paris, although efforts were made to induce him to cultivate astronomical science, which appeared to be the peculiar inheritance of his family, yet he showed rather a distaste for it. He became a lawyer, and was juge au tribunal de primière instance, and afterwards member of the court of cassation; he was in 1830 nominated a member of the chamber of peers. He died of the Asiatic cholera, which visited Paris in 1832. His relaxation after his legal employments consisted in botanical researches, and his attention was almost exclusively directed to the Compositæ. This was his favourite occupation during fifteen years. He had the advantage of access to the herbaria and libraries of Jussieu and Desfontaines. His first memoir on the style and stigma of these plants, was read at the Institute in 1812, and was succeeded by six others, all which he published in a separate form, under the title, Opuscules Phytologiques, Paris, 1826, 2 vols, 8vo. His divisions and proposed arrangement of this great family of plants, have, however, not been generally adopted by later botanists.

CASSIODORUS MAGNUS, or MARCUS AURELIUS, a statesman and historian, called by way of distinction "the senator,' was born at Scylacium, in the country of the Bruttii, about the year 470, though some date his birth ten years later. He

recommended himself, by his eloquence and learning, to Theodoric, who first made him governor of Sicily; and, when he had sufficiently proved his abilities and prudence in the administration of that province, admitted him to his cabinetcouncils, made him quæstor, and appointed him his secretary. Having passed through all the employments of the government, he was raised to the consulate, which he administered alone in the year 514. He was made master of the offices, and prætorian prefect, by Athalaric, who succeeded Theodoric, about the year 524, but afterwards, in the year 537, being discharged from all his offices by king Vitiges, he renounced a secular life, and retired into a monastery, which he founded at Viviers, in Calabria. Here he led the life of a man of letters, a philosopher, and a Christian. He entertained himself with the exercise of his mechanical ingenuity in the construction of sun-dials, water-clocks, perpetual lamps, &c. He also collected a noble library, which he enlarged and improved by several books of his own composing. About the year 556, he wrote two books De Divinis Lectionibus; and afterwards a book De Orthographia, in the preface to which he tells us, that he was then in his ninety-third year. There are extant twelve books of his of letters, ten of which he wrote as secretary of state, in the name of kings Theodoric and Athalaric, and two in his own. He composed also twelve books, De Rebus Gestis Gothorum, which are only extant in the abridgment of Jornandes. wrote also a commentary upon the Psalms, and several other pieces, theological and critical. He died at a very advanced age. He was unquestionably a man of genius and learning; but his Latin is impure, and his style is full of the conceits of the age. His works have been collected and printed several times; the best edition is that of Rohan, 1679, 2 vols, folio, with the notes and dissertations of John Garet, a Benedictine monk. In 1721, Signor Scipio Maffei published a work of Cassiodorus, which had long been missing; and in the following year the same was published at London, by Chandler, entitled Complexions, or short Commentaries upon the Epistles, the Acts, and the Revelation; which Dr. Lardner has enumerated among the Testimonies to the Credibility of the Gospel History. (Life of Cassiodorus by SainteMarthe, Paris, 1690, 12mo. Schlosser, Universal Historische Uebersicht, &c. iii. 4.).

He

CASSIUS, an ancient physician, who flourished in the age of Augustus, and was contemporary with Themison. He was surnamed the Iatrosophist, and belonged to the sect of the Asclopiades. Celsus, who lived shortly after Cassius, speaks of him with great eulogy, and regards him as the most ingenious physician of his age. No particulars of his life are extant, and he is only known in the present day by a work entitled, Naturales et Medicinales Questiones LXXXIV. circà Hominis Naturam et Morbos aliquot, Conrado Gesnero interprete, Zurich, 1562, 8vo, which, although small in size, abounds with the most interesting information respecting the early history of medicine, and the opinions of former times. A vigorous spirit of inquiry manifests itself in this work, and shows the author to have been a man superior to prejudice, and not bigoted to the opinion of his ancestors. He endeavours to unite the doctrines of the methodists with those of the pneumatists, but in some instances he displays the fallacy of the opinions entertained by both sects, without however being dogmatic as to his own. His work is a fine illustration of the spirit of the age in which he lived, and is deserving of being well studied.

CASSIUS. Of this name there were many persons at Rome, who were sprung from the patrician and plebeian families of Viscellus and Longinus respectively; but, as Bayle observes, it is not easy to refer them to their original stock; nor is it necessary to notice more than the following:-1. SPURIUS VISCELLINUS, who, after being thrice consul and twice honoured with a triumph, was put to death about B.C. 485, for attempting to make himself king.—2. LUCIUS ĤEMINA, who flourished about 608 v.c. and wrote four books of Annals, that carried back the history of Rome to a period antecedent to the time of Romulus, and contained in the last book an account of the second Punic war. A few fragments of this work are to be found at the end of the editions of Sallust by Cortius and Frottscher, and in Krause's Vit. et Fragment. Vet. Histor. Roman. 1833, Berol. It was from these Annals that Pliny learnt that the first physician who came from Greece to Rome was Arch-acetes (Chiefhealer), the son of Lys-anias (Freerfrom-pain), and that he had a shop bought for him at the public expense in a place called Acetia.-3. LUCIUS LONGINUS, who was so severe a judge, that his court was called "The Rock of

Culprits;" and such was the confidence placed in his integrity, that his private word was considered by Jugurtha equal to the public faith, when, at the persuasion of Cassius, he was induced to deliver himself up to the Romans; and it was from him that upright and severe judges were called "Cassiani.”—4. CAIUS LONGINUS, one of the leaders in the conspiracy against Cæsar, first distinguished himself as an officer in the campaign of Crassus; where, when the Parthians, after the defeat and death of the Roman general, pressed onwards in their career of victory and laid siege to Antioch, he contrived to draw their army into an unfavourable position, and after defeating and destroying Osaces, their leader, compelled Pacorus to abandon 'Syria. On his return to Rome he mixed himself up with politics, but without attaching himself at first to either of the great parties in the state; for he was too proud to follow, where he felt he ought to lead." On his first appearance as a public speaker, Cæsar said of him, that he did not very well know what he was aiming at; but whatever he did mean, his manner, at least, proved that he was in earnest. This remark was fully borne out by the subsequent conduct of Cassius; who, during the murder of Cæsar, said to one of the conspirators, "Strike, though your sword pass through my heart;" nor was it without reason that Cæsar said, when he heard of some persons plotting against him, "I have no fear of fat fellows and sleek fops, but of men with a sallow visage and spare habit, like Cassius.' Although he was professedly an Epicurean, he never indulged in the pleasures which that sect recommended; but carried himself rather with the unbending severity of the Stoic. Connected by family ties with the party opposed to Cæsar, for he had married Junia, the sister of Brutus, he followed the standard of Pompey; but after his defeat at Pharsalia, submitted to the conqueror, and delivered up the fleet under his command, according to Appian; while Dio Cassius and Suetonius attribute to Lucius Crassus the commission of an act, for which Appian is scarcely able to assign a fair excuse; except, perhaps, that by such a step Brutus was enabled to bring about a reconciliation between Cæsar and Cassius. This was, however, soon broken off by the two former partizans of Pompey combining to destroy the dictator, who had offended both equally by refusing to grant the honours they coveted. On the