carriage factories, breweries, vinegar works, &c. Colchester was made a bonding port in 1808, but the custom house and warehouses are at Hythe, one of its suburbs, situated a short distance below, at the head of navigation on the Colne. The foreign commerce is inconsiderable, but a large coasting trade is carried on with London and the northern counties.-Colchester is supposed to be the Camulodunum of the Romans, and there is probably no town in England richer in remains of that people. Coins, vases, urns, lamps of bronze and pottery, rings, bracelets, tessellated pavements, and various other antiquities, have been found near it in great profusion. The Saxons, uniting the Latin castra with the name of the river on which it stands, called it Colne Ceaster. It was fortified by Edward the Elder, and at the time of the Domesday survey was a place of no small note. It was taken and occupied by the royalists in 1648 after a memorable siege, and was soon after blockaded by the parliamentarians, to whom the garrison surrendered after 11 weeks' resistance.

COLCHESTER, a county of Nova Scotia, bounded N. by Northumberland strait, and S. and S. W. by Mines basin, Cobequid bay, and the Shubenacadie river; area, 1,300 sq. m.; pop. in 1871, 23,331. It is intersected by numerous rivers, and traversed by the Cobequid range of hills. The soil is of variable fertility. Among the minerals are coal, gypsum, and limestone. The principal occupations are agriculture, lumbering, and ship building. The county was originally settled by the French, who on their expulsion were replaced by emigrants from the north of Ireland and Massachusetts. Capital, Truro.

COLCHESTER, Lord. See ABBOT, CHARLES. COLCHICUM (from Colchis, a country where it abounded), a common name of the colchicum autumnale (Linn.), or meadow saffron, a perennial bulbous-rooted plant, growing naturally in the temperate climates of Europe, and cultivated for its medicinal properties. It prefers wet meadows, which it often covers with its bright, purple, crocus-like blossoms. The bulb or corm resembles that of a tulip, and feeds the growing plant, being exhausted and replaced every year. Colchicum closely resembles the autumn crocus, from which it is distinguished by having six stamens instead of three, and three styles instead of one. corm, seeds, and flowers all possess the medicinal properties of the plant, which depend upon the alkaloid, colchicia. From the corm and seeds are prepared wines, extracts, and tinctures.-Colchicum is employed in the treatment of gout and rheumatism, and allied affections. The preparation for gout, celebrated under the name of eau médicinale d'Husson, is said to be a vinous infusion of colchicum It materially lessens the duration of the parox ysms of gout, but is apt when too freely used to depress the system and thereby induce a more speedy recurrence of the disease.

The

It

has been shown to increase not only the water, | but the organic solid constituents of the urine; this increase, however, is not due to uric acid, as might perhaps be supposed from its action in gout. It has a marked sedative action upon the heart, stimulates the secretions, and is apt to excite nausea and catharsis. While there is no doubt that advantage may be obtained from the administration of colchicum in certain forms or conditions of gout, rheumatic gout, and rheumatism, yet grave disadvantages are apt to result if it is given injudiciously. It should never be administered in the asthenic forms of gout or rheumatism; the doses should always be small at first, and gradually increased; it should not be allowed to excite continued nausea, or vomiting or purging; it should not be given for more than a week or ten days continuously, as its effects are apt to accumulate in the system; it should rarely or never be given to aged people or young chil

Colchicum.

dren. In fine, its appropriate use is limited to the sthenic forms of gout and acute forms of rheumatism that occasionally occur in people of robust constitution, who are in the prime of life. It should be remembered that where neuralgia occurs in persons who come of a gouty or rheumatic race, it sometimes yields to a judicious course of colchicum. The dose of the acetic extract of colchicum is from 1 to 2 grains three times a day; of the wine of the root from 10 to 20 drops, and of the wine of the seeds 20 to 30 drops, three times a day. The tincture of the seeds may be given in the dose of half a teaspoonful to a teaspoonful.

COLCHIS (modern Mingrelia and part of Imerethia), an ancient country of Asia, at the E. extremity of the Euxine, bounded N. by the Caucasus, E. and S. E. by Iberia and the Moschian mountains, S. by Armenia, S. W. by Pontus, and W. by the Euxine. Colchis was celebrated in Greek mythology as the destination of the Argonauts, and as the country of

Medea and the golden fleece. Its early history is involved in obscurity. The early Greek writers speak of it only under the name of Æa, the seat of King Eetes. Cyrus or his immediate successor seems to have annexed it to the Persian empire; but its inhabitants soon recovered their liberty, and erected their territory into an independent state. During the Mithridatic war it was tributary to the kingdom of Pontus. On the overthrow of Mithridates it was annexed by the Romans; and after the conclusion of the civil wars it was incorporated with Pontus, and subjected to the rule of a proconsul. Under the later emperors it was known as Lazica, from Lazi, a predominant tribe. In A. D. 572 the Colchians rose in rebellion, and joined the Persians against the Byzantine empire. Colchis, according to Strabo, abounded in fruit of every kind, and in material for ship building. It was inhabited by a number of tribes, whose dark complexion, crispy hair, language, and customs indicated, in the opinion of Herodotus, their Egyptian origin. They were famous for the manufacture of linen. chief town was Dioscurias. The Phasis (now the Rion) is the celebrated river of this country. COLD. See CATARRH.

Their

He

COLDEN. I. Cadwallader, a physician and statesman, born in Dunse, Scotland, Feb. 17, 1688, died on Long Island, N. Y., Sept. 28, 1776. He studied at Edinburgh, and at the age of 20 emigrated to America, and practised as a physician for some years in Pennsylvania. then visited England, but returned to Pennsylvania in 1716, and in 1718, at the solicitation of Gov. Hunter, settled in New York. The next year he was appointed the first surveyor general of the colony, became in 1720 a member of the king's council of the province, and in 1761 was appointed lieutenant governor of New York, and held the commission during the remainder of his life. He was repeatedly placed at the head of the government by vacancies in the governorship. He published works upon a variety of subjects, medicine, philosophy, and history; his "History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada, depending on New York" (New York, 1727; 3d ed., 2 vols., London, 1755) is especially worthy of mention; but his favorite pursuit was botany, and he sent to Linnæus several hundred American plants, of which that botanist published descriptions. II. Cadwallader David, grandson of the preceding, born near Flushing, L. I., April 4, 1769, died at Jersey City, Feb. 7, 1834. He commenced the practice of law in New York in January, 1791, removed his office for a time to Poughkeepsie, and in 1796 resumed his station at the New York bar, where he received the appointment of district attorney, and soon became eminent in the profession, which he practised for several years, intermitted only by a voyage to France for the benefit of his health. In 1812 he was colonel of a regiment of volunteers; in 1818 was elected a member of the house of assembly; in the same year

production of natural scenery, however profitable it might be, could not satisfy him; and he determined to enter the higher sphere of imaginative composition. The fruit of this determination was witnessed in his pictures of the "Garden of Eden" and the "Expulsion,” exhibited in 1828. The merit of these works was admitted, but they failed to satisfy the public taste so completely as his simple landscapes. In June, 1829, Cole sailed for Europe, and for two years painted in London, where he contributed to several of the annual exhibitions; but from ignorance of the peculiar features of American scenery, or the injustice of hanging committees, his pictures were either regarded as exaggerations of nature, or were so disadvantageously placed that they attracted less attention than their merits deserved. In May, 1831, he visited Florence, and made careful studies in the chief galleries. In the succeeding February he visited Rome, and returning to Florence in July, worked with an assiduity which surprised himself, finishing more pictures in three months than he had done in double that time before. Among these were views on the Arno and in the vicinity of Rome and Naples. The influence of Italian scenery and of his studies of old Italian art had meanwhile wrought a change in his style, and the public were disappointed with these works upon their arrival in America, complaining that the artist had lost his first freshness and originality, and that his Italian landscapes were overcharged copies from the old masters. In November, 1832, he returned to New York, and during the ensuing year, while at Catskill, he received from Mr. Luman Reed of New York an order to fill an entire room of his house with pictures. The magnitude of the undertaking required several years of undivided labor, the most of which was devoted to the "Course of Empire," a series of five pictures, in which are presented, to use his own words, “an illustration of the history of the human race, as well as an epitome of man, showing the natural changes of landscape, and those effected by man in his progress from barbarism to civilization, to luxury, to the vicious state, or state of destruction, and to the state of ruin or desolation." The series has been called "a great epic poem." Mr. Reed died before the completion of the work, and at the distribution of his estate it was purchased by the New York gallery of fine arts, and is now in the gallery of the New York historical society. For the next few years Cole was engaged upon works of a similar class, chief among which were the "Departure and the "Return," the "Dream of Arcadia," and the "Voyage of Life." The last, an allegorical series of four pictures, representing childhood, youth, manhood, and old age, are among the most popular of his works, and through the engravings by Smillie are most extensively known. They are now owned by J. Taylor Johnston of New York. In November, 1836, he married Miss Maria Bartow. The

autumn of 1841 found him again in Rome, where he executed a duplicate of his " Voyage of Life," which elicited the praise of Thorwaldsen, who visited his studio repeatedly to see it. In the succeeding spring he travelled over many parts of Sicily, and returned to New York in the summer. An exhibition of his works was opened in Boston and New York in the winter of 1843-4, for which he painted a number of Sicilian views of great beauty, including a large picture of Mount Etna from Taormina, executed in five days; this is now in the Wadsworth gallery, Hartford, Conn., as are also the "View of the White Mountains" and the "View of Northwest Bay on Lake Winnipiseogee." The "Angel appearing to Shepherds" is in the Boston Athenæum. Thenceforth until his death he painted with industry, executing among other works the "Cross in the Wilderness," "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso," "Home in the Woods," the "Hunter's Return," the "Mountain Ford,” &c. The "Cross and the World," a work in two parts, dictated by earnest religious conviction, he left unfinished. His life and genius were made the subject of a funeral oration by his friend William Cullen Bryant. In all the relations of life Cole's amiability and generosity were engagingly displayed, and to those who could sympathize with his enthusiastic and impressible nature, he especially endeared himself. His life was one of singular purity, and in the latter part of it he manifested a sincere and unostentatious piety. His poetic feeling, so amply illustrated in his works, frequently found expression in rhythmical forms, and his miscellaneous papers in prose and verse, few of which were ever made public, possess considerable literary merit.

COLEBROOKE, Henry Thomas, an English orientalist, born in London, June 15, 1765, died there in March, 1837. He was the son of Sir George Colebrooke, who in 1769 was appointed chairman of the board of directors of the East India company. His early education was conducted by a private tutor. In 1782 he was appointed to a writership in the East India company, and in 1783 he arrived in Madras. Ile soon went to Calcutta, and was employed in the company's board of accounts. In 1786 he was appointed assistant collector of revenue in Tirhoot. In the mean time he had devoted much attention to the study of Sanskrit, but his interest in it does not seem to have been so much literary as scientific, his love of astronomy and mathematics leading him to desire to ascertain what the Hindoos knew in regard to these sciences. In 1789 he was transferred to Purneah, and in 1793 to Nattore. He had now become interested in the religion, philosophy, and laws of the Hindoos. In 1794 he presented to the Asiatic society his first paper, "On the Duties of a Faithful Hindoo Widow." At the same time his views on commerce and finance were far in advance of his age; and though a servant of the East India