Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 5, BUR-CHI

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[ 174 1
CAR
CarcafTone.
'Carbuncle de-luces : others blazon them, royal fceptres, placed in
faltier, pale and feffe.
; CARCASSE, or Caucus, in the art of war, an
iron cafe, or hollow capacity, about the bignefs of a
bomb, of an oval figure, made of ribs of iron, filled
with combuftible matters, as meal powder, faltpetre,
fulphur, broken glafs, (havings of horn, turpentine,
tallow, &c. It has two or three apertures out of which
the fire is to blaze, and the defign of it is to be thrown
■ out of a mortar, to fet houfes on fire, and do other exe¬
cution. It has the name carcqfle, becaufe the circles
which pafs from one ring or plate to the other feem to
reprefent the ribs of a human carcafe.
CARCASSONE, an ancient city of France, in
Lower Languedoc, with a bifhop’s fee. It is divided
into the upper and lower town. I hey are both (ur-
rounded with walls: ancf though their fituations are
different, they are both watered by the river Aude. The
upper town is feated on a hill, with a caftle that com¬
mands it as well as the lower town. ^ It is ftrong, not
only by its fituation on a craggy rock, but alfo by fe-
veral large towers which are joined to its walls, and
which render it of difficult accels. 1 he cathedral
church is remarkable for nothing but its antiquity.
The lower town is large, and built after the modern
taffe. The ftreets are very ilraight, and lead to a large
fquare in the middle, from whence may be feen the four
gates of the town. There is here a manufa&ure of
cloth. The neighbouring country is full of olive-
trees ^ and in the mountains there is a fine marble,
commonly called marble of Languedoc. E. Long. 2. 25.
N. Lat. 43. n. „ . , , ,
This place bore a confiderable (hare m that celebra¬
ted crufade undertaken againft the Albigenfes in the
beginning of the 13 th century, and which forms one
of the moft aftonilhing inftances of fuperilition and of
atrocious barbarity to be found in the annals of the
world. When the royal power was nearly annihilated,
during the reigns of the laff kings of the Carlovingian
race in France, moft of the cities of Languedoc erect¬
ed themfelves int6 little independent Hates, governed
by their own princes. Carcaffone was then under the
dominion of vifeounts. At the time when P«pe Inno¬
cent III. patronized and commanded the profecution
of hoftilities againft the Albigenfes for the crime of
herefy, Raymond the reigning vifeount was included
in that profeription. Simon de Montfort, general of
the army of the church, invefted the city of Carcaffone
in 1209. The inhabitants, terrified at the fate of fe-
veral other places where the moft dreadful maffacres
had been committed, demanded leave to capitulate ;
but this aft of mercy was only extended to them under
' ~i condition equally cruel, incredible, and unparalleled
in hi ft or y, if we are not compelled to believe it by
the unanimous teftimony of all the cotemporary wri¬
ters. The people found in the place were all obliged,
^without diftinftion of rank or fex, to evacuate it in a
ftate of nudity ; and Agnes the vifeountefs was not ex¬
empted, though young and beautiful, from this igno¬
minious and (hocking puniffiment. “ On les fit tortir
tout nuds de la ville de Carcaffone (fays an ancient
author) afin qu’ils receuffent de la honte, en montrant
>Ces parties du corps que la pur eta de la langue n’ex-
,prime point, defquelles ils avoint abufe, et s’en etoient
ifervis dans des crimes execrables.” It feems by this
imputation that the Albigeois were acculed by their CaraaCae
enemies of fome enormities, probably unjuft, and ft- Ca’r^
milar to thofe which religious enmity and prejudice
have attributed to the followers of Zinzendorf in the
prefent century.
C ARCERES, in the ancient Circenfian games, were
inclofures in the circus, wherein the horfes were re-
ftrained till the fignal was given for ftarting, when by
an admirable contrivance, they all at once (lew open.
CARCHEMISH, in Ancient Geography, a town
lying upon the Euphrates, and belonging to the AL
fyrians. Necho king of Egypt took it from the king
of Affyria, 2 Chr. xxxv. 20- Necho left a garrifon
in it, which was taken and cut to pieces, in the
fourth year of Jehoiachin king of Judah, by Nebu¬
chadnezzar king of Babylon, 2 Kings xxiii. 29. Ifaiah
(x. 9.) fpeaks of Carchemiffi, and feems to fay, that
Tiglath-pilefer made a conqueft of it, perhaps from
the Egyptians. Rhis is thought to be the fame city
with that called Circefiutn by the Greeks and Latins.
CARCINOMA, in Medicine; the fame with Can¬
cer. See Medicine and Surgery Index.
CARD, among artificers, an inftrument confifting
•of a block of wood, befet with ffiarp teeth, ferving M
arrange the hairs of wool, flax, hemp, and the like :
there are different kinds of them, as hand-cards, ftock-
cards, &c. They are made as follows :
A piece of thick leather, of the fize intended for
the card, is {trained in a frame for that purpofe ; and
then pricked full of holes, into which the teeth or pieces
of iron wire are inferted. After which the leather is
nailed by the edges to a flat piece of wx>od, in the form
of an oblong fquare, about a foot in length, and. half
a foot in breadth, with a handle placed, in the middle
of one of the longer Tides.
The teeth are made in the following manner. The
wire being drawn of the fize intended, a Ikain or num¬
ber of wires are cut into proper lengths by means of a
gauge, and then doubled in a tool contrived for that
purpofe: after which they are bent into the proper
dire&ion by means of another tool; and then placed in
the leather, as mentioned above.
Cards, among gamefters, little pieces of fine thin
pafteboard of an oblong figure, of^feveral fizes j out
moft commonly in Britain, three inches and a. half
long and two and a half broad, on which are painted
feveral points and figures.
The moulds and blocks for making cards are exaflly
like tbofe that were ufed for the firft printed books.
They lay a (lieet of wet or moift paper on the block,
which is very flightly done over with a fort of ink made
of lamp-black diluted in water, and mixed with fome
ftarch to give it a body. They afterwards rub it oft
with a round lift. The court-cards are coloured by
means of feveral patterns, Viylz&fane-jjles. Thefe con-
fift of papers cut through with a penknife ; and in thefe
apertures they apply feverally the Various colours, as
red, black, &c. Thefe patterns are painted with oil-
colours, that the brulhes may not wear them out j
and when the pattern is laid on the pafteboard, they
flightly pafs over it a bruffi full of colour, which, leav¬
ing it within the openings, forms the face or figure of
the card.
Among (harpers, divers forts of falfe and fraudulent
cards have been contrived j as, 1. Markedczx&s, where
the