series of papers in the Dublin University Magazine, vols. lxxviii. and lxxix.; Memorial, or Brief for Cagliostro in the Cause of Card. de Rohan, &c. (Fr.) by P. Macmahon (1786); Compendio della vita e delle gesta di Giuseppe Balsamo denominato il conte di Cagliostro (Rome, 1791); Sierke, Schwarmer und Schwindler zu Ende des XVIII. Jahrhunderts (1875); and the sketch of his life in D. Silvagni’s La Corte e la Società Romana nei secoli XVIII. e XIX. vol. i. (Florence, 1881). (L. V.*)
CAGNIARD DE LA TOUR, CHARLES (1777–1859), French engineer and physicist, was born in Paris on the 31st of March 1777, and after attending the École Polytechnique became one of the ingénieurs géographiques. He was made a baron in 1818, and died in Paris on the 5th of July 1859. He was the author of numerous inventions, including the cagniardelle, a blowing machine, which consists essentially of an Archimedean screw set obliquely in a tank of water in such a way that its lower end is completely and its upper end partially immersed, and operated by being rotated in the opposite direction to that required for raising water. In acoustics he invented, about 1819, the improved siren which is known by his name, using it for ascertaining the number of vibrations corresponding to a sound of any particular pitch, and he also made experiments on the mechanism of voice-production. In course of an investigation in 1822–1823 on the effects of heat and pressure on certain liquids he found that for each there was a certain temperature above which it refused to remain liquid but passed into the gaseous state, no matter what the amount of pressure to which it was subjected, and in the case of water he determined this critical temperature, with a remarkable approach to accuracy, to be 362° C. He also studied the nature of yeast and the influence of extreme cold upon its life.
CAGNOLA, LUIGI, Marchese (1762–1833), Italian architect, was born on the 9th of June 1762 in Milan. He was sent at the age of fourteen to the Clementine College at Rome, and afterwards studied at the university of Pavia. He was intended for the legal profession, but his passion for architecture was too strong, and after holding some government posts at Milan, he entered as a competitor for the construction of the Porta Orientale. His designs were commended, but were not selected on account of the expense their adoption would have involved. From that time Cagnola devoted himself entirely to architecture. After the death of his father he spent two years in Verona and Venice, studying the architectural structures of these cities. In 1806 he was called upon to erect a triumphal arch for the marriage of Eugene Beauharnais with the princess of Bavaria. The arch was of wood, but was of such beauty that it was resolved to carry it out in marble. The result was the magnificent Arco della Pace in Milan, surpassed in dimensions only by the Arc de l’Étoile at Paris. Among other works executed by Cagnola are the Porta di Marengo at Milan, the campanile at Urgnano, and the chapel of Santa Marcellina in Milan. He died on the 14th of August 1833, five years before the completion of the Arco del Sempione, which he designed for his native city.
CAGOTS, a people found in the Basque provinces, Béarn, Gascony and Brittany. The earliest mention of them is in 1288, when they appear to have been called Christiens or Christianos. In the 16th century they had many names, Cagots, Gahets, Gafets in France; Agotes, Gafos in Spain; and Cacons, Cahets, Caqueux and Caquins in Brittany. During the middle ages they were popularly looked upon as cretins, lepers, heretics and even as cannibals. They were shunned and hated; were allotted separate quarters in towns, called cagoteries, and lived in wretched huts in the country distinct from the villages. Excluded from all political and social rights, they were only allowed to enter a church by a special door, and during the service a rail separated them from the other worshippers. Either they were altogether forbidden to partake of the sacrament, or the holy wafer was handed to them on the end of a stick, while a receptacle for holy water was reserved for their exclusive use. They were compelled to wear a distinctive dress, to which, in some places, was attached the foot of a goose or duck (whence they were sometimes called Canards). And so pestilential was their touch considered that it was a crime for them to walk the common road barefooted. The only trades allowed them were those of butcher and carpenter, and their ordinary occupation was wood-cutting. Their language is merely a corrupt form of that spoken around them; but a Teutonic origin seems to be indicated by their fair complexions and blue eyes. Their crania have a normal development; their cheek-bones are high; their noses prominent, with large nostrils; their lips straight; and they are marked by the absence of the auricular lobules.
The origin of the Cagots is undecided. Littré defines them as “a people of the Pyrenees affected with a kind of cretinism.” It has been suggested that they were descendants of the Visigoths, and Michael derives the name from caas (dog) and Goth. But opposed to this etymology is the fact that the word cagot is first found in the for of Béarn not earlier than 1551. Marca, in his Histoire de Béarn, holds that the word signifies “hunters of the Goths,” and that the Cagots are descendants of the Saracens. Others made them descendants of the Albigenses. The old MSS. call them Chrétiens or Chrestiaas, and from this it has been argued that they were Visigoths who originally lived as Christians among the Gascon pagans. A far more probable explanation of their name “Chrétiens” is to be found in the fact that in medieval times all lepers were known as pauperes Christi, and that, Goths or not, these Cagots were affected in the middle ages with a particular form of leprosy or a condition resembling it. Thus would arise the confusion between Christians and Cretins. To-day their descendants are not more subject to goitre and cretinism than those dwelling around them, and are recognized by tradition and not by features or physical degeneracy. It was not until the French Revolution that any steps were taken to ameliorate their lot, but to-day they no longer form a class, but have been practically lost sight of in the general peasantry.
See Francisque Michel, Histoire des races maudites de France et d’Espagne (Paris, 1846); Abbé Venuti, Recherches sur les Cahets de Bordeaux (1754); Bulletins de la société anthropologique (1861, 1867, 1868, 1871); Annales medico-psychologiques (Jan. 1867); Lagneau, Questionnaire sur l’ethnologie de la France; Paul Raymond, Mœurs béarnaises (Pau, 1872); V. de Rochas, Les Parias de France et d’Espagne (Cagots et Bohémiens) (Paris, 1877); J. Hack Tuke, Jour. Anthropological Institute (vol. ix., 1880).
CAHER (or Cahir), a market-town of Co. Tipperary, Ireland, in the south parliamentary division, beautifully situated on the river Suir at the foot of the Galtee Mountains. Pop. (1901) 2058. It stands midway between Clonmel and Tipperary town on the Waterford and Limerick line of the Great Southern and Western railway, 124 m. S.W. from Dublin. It is the centre of a rich agricultural district, and there is some industry in flour-milling. Its name (cathair, stone fortress) implies a high antiquity and the site of the castle, picturesquely placed on an island in the river, was occupied from very early times. Here was a fortress-palace of Munster, originally called Dun-iasgach, the suffix signifying “abounding in fish.” The present castle dates from 1142, being built by O'Connor, lord of Thomond, and is well restored. It was besieged during the wars of 1599 and 1647, and by Cromwell. Among the fine environs of the town the demesne of Caher Park is especially noteworthy. The Mitchelstown stalactite caverns, 10 m. S.W., and the finely-placed Norman castle of Ardfinnan, on a precipitous crag 6 m. down the Suir, are other neighbouring features of interest, while the Galtee Mountains, reaching in Galtymore a height of 3015 ft., command admirable prospects.
CAHITA, a group of North American Indians, mainly of the Mayo and Yaqui tribes, found chiefly in Mexico, belonging to the Piman family, and numbering some 40,000.
CAHOKIA, the name of a North American Indian tribe of the Illinois confederacy, and of their mission station, near St Louis. The “Cahokia mound” there (a model of which is in the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass.) is interesting as the largest pre-historic earth-work in America.
CAHORS, a city of south-western France, capital of the department of Lot, 70 m. N. of Toulouse, on the railway between that city and Limoges. Pop. (1906) 10,047. Cahors stands on the right bank of the river Lot, occupying a rocky peninsula formed by a bend in the stream. It is divided into two portions
