Custom lates the particular celerity with which each motion is and Habit to be performed: for a person accustomed, for a considerable time to one degree of celerity, becomes incapable of a greater; e. g. a man accustomed to slow walking will be out of breath before he can run 20 paces. The train or order in which our motions are to be performed is also established by custom; for if a man hath repeated motions, for a certain time, in any particular order, he cannot afterwards perform them in any other. Custom also very frequently associates motions and sensations: thus, if a person has been in use of associating certain ideas with the ordinary stimulus which in health excites urine, without these ideas the usual inclination will scarce excite that excretion; and, when these occur, will require it even in the absence of the primary exciting cause: e. g. it is very ordinary for a person to make urine when going to bed; and if he has been for any length of time accustomed to do so, he will ever afterwards make urine at that time, though otherwise he would often have no such inclination: by this means some secretions become in a manner subject to the will. The same may be said of going to stool; and this affords us a good rule in the case of costiveness; for by endeavouring to fix a stated time for this evacuation, it will afterwards, at such a time, more readily return. It is farther remarkable, that motions are inseparably associated with other motions: this perhaps, very often proceeds from the necessary degree of tension; but it also often depends merely on custom, an instance of which we have in the uniform motions of our eyes. 4. Effects on the whole Nervous Power. We have found, that, by custom, the nervous influence may be determined more easily into one part than another; and therefore, as all the parts of the system are strongly connected, the sensibility, irritability, and strength of any particular part may be thus increased. Čustom also has the power of altering the natural temperament, and of inducing a new one. It is also in the power of custom to render motions periodical, and periodically spontaneous. An instance of this we have in sleep, which is commonly said to be owing to the nervous power being exhausted, the necessary consequence of which is sleep, e. g. a rest of the voluntary motions to favour the recruit of that power; but if this were the case, the return of sleep should be at different times, according as the causes which diminish the nervous influence operate more or less powerfully; whereas the case is quite otherwise, these returns of sleep being quite regular. This is no less remarkable in the appetites, that return at particular periods independent of every cause but custom. Hunger, e. g. is an extremely uneasy sensation; but goes off of itself, if the person did not take food at the usual time. The excretions are farther proofs of this, e. g. going to stool, which, if it depended on any particular irritation, should be at longer or shorter intervals, according to the nature of the aliment. There are many other instances of this disposition of the nervous influence to periodical motions, as the story of the idiot of Stafford, recorded by Dr Plot (Spectator, N° 447.), who, being accustomed to tell the hours of the church clock as it struck, told them as exactly when it did not strike by its being out of order. Montaigne tells us of some oxen that were employed in a machine for C drawing water, who, after making 300 turns, which was the usual number, could be stimulated by no whip and or goad to proceed farther. Infants also cry for and expect the breast at those times in which the nurse has been accustomed to give it. Hence it would appear, that the human economy is subject to periodical revolutions, and that these happen not oftener may be imputed to variety; and this seems to be the reason why they happen oftener in the body than mind, because that is subject to greater variety. We see frequent instances of this in diseases, and in their crises; intermitting fevers, epilepsies, asthmas, &c. are examples of periodical affections; and that critical days are not so strongly marked in this country as in Greece, and some others, may be imputed to the variety and instability of our climate; but perhaps still more to the less sensibility and irritability of our system; for the exhibition of medicine has little effect in disturbing the crises, though it be commonly assigned as a cause. We are likewise subject to many habits independent of ourselves, as from the revolutions of the celestial bodies, particularly the sun, which determines the body, perhaps, to other daily revolutions besides sleeping and waking. There are also certain habits depending on the seasons. Our connections, likewise, with respect to mankind, are means of inducing habits. Thus regularity from associating in business induces regular habits both of mind and body. There are many diseases which, though they arose at first from particular causes, at last continue merely through custom or habit. These are chiefly of the nervous system. We should therefore study to counteract such habits; and accordingly Hippocrates, among other things for the cure of epilepsy, orders an entire change of the manner of life. We likewise imitate this in the chincough; which often resists all remedies, till the air, diet, and ordinary train of life, are changed. 5. Effects on the Blood-vessels. From what has been said on the nervous power, the distribution of the fluids must necessarily be variously affected by custom, and with that the distribution of the different excretions; for though we make an estimate of the proportion of the excretions to one another, according to the climate and seasons, they must certainly be very much varied by custom. On this head we may observe, that blood-letting has a manifest tendency to increase the quantity of the blood; and if this evacuation be repeated at stated times, such symptoms of repletion, and such motions, are excited at the returning periods, as render the operation necessary. The same has been observed in some spontaneous hemorrhagies. These, indeed, at first, may have some exciting causes, but afterwards they seem to depend chiefly on custom. The best proof of this is with regard to the menstrual evacuation. There is certainly something originally in females, that determines that evacuation to the monthly periods. Constant repetition of this comes to fix it, independent of strong causes, either favouring or preventing repletion; e. g. blood-letting will not impede it, nor filling the body induce it; and, indeed, so much is this evacuation connected with periodical motions, that it is little in our power to produce any effect by medicines but Custom and at those particular times. Thus if we would relax the Habit, uterine system, and bring back this evacuation when Customs. suppressed, our attempts would be vain and fruitless, unless given at that time when the menses should have naturally returned. CUSTOMS, in political economy, or the duties, toll, tribute, or tariff, payable to the king upon merchandise exported and imported, form a branch of the perpetual taxes. See TAX. aforesaid: poundage was a duty imposed ad valorem, Customs. at the rate of 12d. in the pound, on all other merchandise whatsoever: and the other imposts were such as were occasionally laid on by parliament, as circumstances and times required. These distinctions are now in a manner forgotten, except by the officers immediately concerned in this department; their produce being in effect all blended together, under the one denomination of the customs. The considerations upon which this revenue (or the more ancient part of it, which arose only from exports) was invested in the king, were said to be two: 1. Because he gave the subject leave to depart the kingdom, and to carry his goods along with him. 2. Because the king was bound of common right to maintain and keep up the port and havens, and to protect the merchant from pirates. Some have imagined they are called with us customs, because they were the inheritance of the king by immemorial usage and the common law, and not granted him by any statute: but Sir Edward Coke hath clearly shown, that the king's first claim to them was by grant of parliament 3 Edw. I. though the record thereof is not now. extant. And indeed this is in express words confessed by statute 25 Edw. I. c. 7. wherein the king promises to take no customs from merchants, without the common assent of the realm, "saving to us and our heirs the customs on wool, skins, and leather, formerly granted to us by the commonalty aforesaid." These were formerly called hereditary customs of the crown; and were due on the exportation only of the said three commodities, and of none other which were styled the staple commodities of the kingdom, because they were obliged to be brought to those ports where the king's staple was established, in order to be there first rated, and then exported. They were denominated in the barbarous Latin of our ancient records, custuma (an appellation which seems to be derived from the French word coustum or coutum, which signifies toll or tribute, and owes its own etymology to the word coust, which signifies price, charge, or as we have adopted it in English, cost); not consuetudines, which is the language of our law whenever it means merely usages. The duties on wool, sheep-skins or woolfells, and leather exported, were called custuma antiqua sive magna, and were payable by every merchant, as well native as stranger with this difference, that merchant-strangers paid an additional toll, viz. half as much again as was paid by natives. The custuma parva et nova were an impost of 3d. in the pound, due from merchantstrangers only, for all commodities as well imported as exported; which was usually called the aliens duty, and was first granted in 31 Edw. I. But these ancient hereditary customs, especially those on wool and woolfells, came to be of little account, when the nation became sensible of the advantages of a home manufacture, and prohibited the exportation of wool by statute 11 Edw. III. c. I. Other customs payable upon exports and imports were distinguished into subsidies, tonnage, poundage, and other imposts. Subsidies were such as were imposed by parliament upon any of the staple commodities before mentioned, over and above the custuma antiqua et magna: tonnage was a duty upon all wines imported, over and above the prisage and butlerage By these we understand, at present, a duty or sub- Blackst. sidy paid by the merchants at the quay upon all im-Comment. ported as well as exported commodities, by authority of parliament; unless where, for particular national reasons, certain rewards, bounties or drawbacks, are allowed for particular exports or imports. The customs thus imposed by parliament are chiefly contained in two books of rates, set forth by parliamentary authority; one signed by Sir Harbottle Grimeston, speaker of the house of commons in Charles II.'s time; and the other an additional one, signed by Sir Spencer Compton, speaker in the reign of George I. to which also subsequent additions have been made. Aliens pay a larger proportion than natural subjects, which is what is now generally understood by the aliens duty; to be exempted from which is one principal cause of the frequent applications to parliament for acts of naturalization. These customs are then, we see, a tax immediate ly paid by the merchant, although ultimately by the consumer. And yet these are the duties felt least by the people and if prudently managed, the people hardly consider that they pay them at all. For the merchant is easy, being sensible he does not pay them for himself; and the consumer, who really pays them, confounds them with the price of the commodity; in the same manner as Tacitus observes, that the emperor Nero gained the reputation of abolishing the tax of the sale of slaves, though he only transferred it from the buyer to the seller: so that it was, as he expresses it, remissum magis specie, quam vi: quia cum venditor pendere juberetur, in partem pretii emptoribus accrescebat. But this inconvenience attends it on the other hand, that these imposts, if too heavy, are a check and cramp upon trade; and especially when the value of the commodity bears little or no proportion to the quantity of the duty imposed. This in consequence gives rise also to smuggling, which then becomes a very lucrative employment: and its natural and most reasonable punishment, viz. confiscation of the commodity, is in such cases quite ineffectual; the intrinsic value of the goods, which is all that the smuggler has paid, and therefore all that he can lose, being very inconsiderable when compared with his prospect of advantage in evading the duty. Recourse must therefore be had to extraordinary punishments to prevent it; perhaps even to capital ones which destroys all proportion of punishment, and puts murderers upon an equal footing with such as are really guilty of no natural, but merely a positive offence. There is also another ill consequence attending high imposts on merchandise, not frequently considered, but indisputably certain; that the earlier any tax is laid on a commodity, the heavier it falls upon the consumer in the end; for every trader, through whose Π Cut. The Customs whose hands it passes, must have a profit, not only upon the raw materials and his own labour and time in preparing it, but also upon the very tax itself, which he advances to the government; otherwise he loses the use and interest of the money which he so advances. To instance in the article for foreign paper. merchant pays a duty upon importation, which he does not receive again till he sells the commodity, perhaps at the end of three months. He is therefore equally entitled to a profit upon that duty which he pays at the customhouse, as to a profit upon the original price which he pays to the manufacturer abroad; and considers it accordingly in the price he demands of the stationer. When the stationer sells it again, he requires a profit of the printer or bookseller upon the whole sum advanced by him to the merchants: and the bookseller does not fail to charge the full proportion to the student or ultimate consumer; who therefore does not only pay the original duty, but the profits of these three intermediate traders who have successively advanced it for him. This might be carried much farther in any mechanical, or more complicated, branch of trade. CUSTOM-House, an office established by the king's authority in the maritime cities, or port towns, for the receipt and management of the customs and duties of importation and exportation, imposed on merchandises, and regulated by books of rates. CUSTOS BREVIUM, the principal clerk belonging to the court of common pleas, whose business it is to receive and keep all the writs made returnable in that court, filing every return by itself; and, at the end of each term, to receive of the prothonotaries all the records of the nisi prius, called the posteas. CUSTOS Rotulorum, an officer who has the custody of the rolls and records of the session of peace, and also of the commission of the peace itself. He usually is some person of quality, and always a justice of the peace, of the quorum, in the county where he is appointed. CUSTOS Spiritualium, he that exercises the spiritual jurisdiction of a diocese, during the vacancy of any see, which by the canon law, belongs to the dean and chapter; but at present, in England, to the archbishop of the province by prescription. CUSTOS Temporalium, was the person to whom a vacant see or abbey was given by the king, as supreme lord. His office was, as steward of the goods and profits, to give an account to the escheator, who did the like to the exchequer. CUT-FEATHER, in the sea-language. If a ship has too broad a bow, it is common to say, she will not cut a feather; that is, she will not pass through the water so swift as to make it foam or froth. Cur-Purse, in Law; if any person clam et secretè, and without the knowledge of another, cut his purse or pick his pocket, and steal from thence above the value of twelve pence, it is felony excluded clergy. CUT-purses, or saccularii, were more severely punished than common thieves by the Roman and Athenian laws. CUT-Water, the sharp part of the head of a ship below the beak. It is so called, because it cuts or di vides the water before it comes to the bow, that it may not come too suddenly to the breadth of the ship, which would retard it. CUTANEOUS, in general, an appellation given to whatever belongs to the cutis or skin. Thus, we say, cutaneous eruptions: the itch is a cutaneous disease. CUTH, or CUTHAH, in Ancient Geography, a province of Assyria, which, as some say, lies upon the Araxes, and is the same with Cush; but others take it to be the same with the country which the Greeks call Susiana, and which to this very day, says Dr Wells, is by the inhabitants called Chusestan. F. Calmet is of opinion that Cuthah and Scythia are the same place, and that the Cuthites who were removed into Samaria by Salmaneser (2 Kings xvii. 24.) came from Cush or Cuth, mentioned in Gen. ii. 23. See the article CUSH. The Cuthites worshipped the idol Nergal, Id. ibid. 30. These people were transplanted into Samaria in the room of the Israelites, who before inhabited it. Calmet is of opinion, they came from the land of Cush, or Cuthah upon the Araxes; and that their first settlement was in the cities of the Medes, subdued by Salmaneser and the kings of Assyria his predecessors. The Scripture observes, that the Cuthites, upon their arrival in this new country, continued to worship the gods formerly adored by them beyond the Euphrates. Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who succeeded Sennacherib, appointed an Israelitish priest to go thither, and instruct them in the religion of the Hebrews. But these people thought they might reconcile their old superstition with the worship of the true God. They therefore framed particular gods for themselves, which they placed in the several cities where they dwelt. The Cuthites then worshipped both the Lord and their false gods together, and chose the lowest of the people to make priests of them in the high places; and they continued this practice for a long time. But afterwards they forsook the worship of idols, and adhered only to the law of Moses, as the Samaritans, who are descended from the Cuthites, do at this day. CUTICLE, the SCARF SKIN. See ANATOMY Index. CUTICULAR, the same with Cutaneous. CUTIS, the SKIN. See ANATOMY Index. CUTLERY, a general term which includes all cutting tools. See SUPPLEMENT. CUTTER, a small vessel, commonly navigated in the channel of England. It is furnished with one mast, and rigged as a sloop. Many of these vessels are used in an illicit trade, and others are employed by govern ment to take them; the latter of which are either under the direction of the admiralty or custom-house. CUTTER, is also a small boat used by ships of war. CUTTER of the Tallies, an officer of the exchequer, whose business is to provide wood for the tallies, to cut or notch the sum paid upon them; and then to cast them into court, to be written upon. See TALLY. CUTTING, a term used in various senses and various arts; in the general it implies a division or sepa ration. CUTTING is particularly used in heraldry, where the shield is divided into two equal parts, from right to left, parallel to the horizon, or in the fesse-way. The word also is applied to the honourable ordinaries, and even to animals and moveables, when they are divided equally the same way; so, however, as that Cutting. one moiety is colour, the other metal. The ordinaries CUTTING, in Surgery, denotes the operation of ex- Note. Medallions, where the relievo is to be great, CUTTING, in the manege, is when the horse's feet interfere; or when with the shoe of one foot he beats off the skin from the pastern joint of another foot. This is more frequent in the bind feet than the fore: the causes are either weariness, weakness in the reins, not knowing how to go, or ill shoeing. CUTTING, in painting, the laying one strong lively colour over another, without any shade or softening. The cutting of colours has always a disagreeable effect. CUTTING in wood, a particular kind of sculpture or engraving; denominated from the matter wherein it is employed. It is used for various purposes; as for figured letters; head and tail pieces of books; and even for schemes and other figures, to save the expences of engraving on copper; and the prints and stamps for paper, callicoes, linens, &c. The invention of cutting in wood, as well as that in copper, is ascribed to a goldsmith of Florence; but it is to Albert Durer and Lucas they are both indebted for their perfection. See ENGRAVING and PRINTING. One Hugo de Carpi invented a manner of cutting in wood, by means whereof the prints appeared as if painted in clair-obscure. In order to this, he made three kinds of stamps for the same design; which were drawn one after another through the press for the same print: they were so conducted, as that one served for the grand lights, a second for the demiteints, and a third for the outlines and the deep shadows. The art of cutting in wood was certainly carried to a very great pitch above two hundred years ago; and might even vie, for beauty and justness, with that of engraving in copper. At present it is in a low condition, as having been long neglected, and the application of artists wholly employed on copper, as the more easy and promising province; not but that wooden cuts have the advantage of those in copper on many accounts; chiefly for figures and devices in books; as being printed at the same time and in the same press as the letters; whereas for the other there is required a particular impression. In the representation of plants and flowers, and in designs for paper-hangings, where the outline only is wanted to be printed in a bold VOL. VII. Part I. + full manner, this method will be found cheaper and Cutting. The cutters in wood begin with preparing a plank On this block they draw their design with a pen or When the paper is dry, they wash it gently over with a sponge dipped in water; which done, they take off the paper by little and little, still rubbing it a little first with the tip of the finger; till at length there be nothing left on the block but the strokes of ink that form the design, which mark out so much of the block as is to be spared or left standing. Figures are sometimes cut out of prints, by taking away all the white part or blank paper, and cemented with gumwater to the surface of the wood. The rest they cut off, and take away very curiously with the points of very sharp knives, or little chisels or gravers, according to the bigness or delicacy of the work: for they need no other instruments. It differs from engraving in copper, because in the former the impression comes from the prominent parts or strokes left uncut; whereas in the latter, it comes from the channels cut in the metal. The manner of printing with wooden prints is much more expeditious and easy than that of copper-plate: because they require only to be dipt in the printingink, and impressed on the object in the same manner and with the same apparatus as the letter-printing is managed and for purposes that do not require great correctness, the impression is made by the hand only, a proper handle being fixed to the middle of the print, by which it is first dipped in the ink, spread by means of a brush on a block of proportionable size covered with leather; and then lifted up instantly, and dropped with some little force on the paper which is to receive the impression. Most of our readers are probably not ignorant that the art of engraving on wood has been revived of late years, and has been carried to great perfection by Messrs Bewick of Newcastle, and other ingenious artists. Of this number we may mention Messrs Nesbit and Anderson of London. The Natural History of Quadrupeds, in one volume 8vo, and the Natural E History CUTTINGS, or slips, in Gardening, the branches or sprigs of trees or plants, cut or slipped off to set again; which is done in any moist fine earth. The best season is from August to April; but care is to be taken, when it is done, the sap be not too much in the top, lest the cut die before that part in the earth have root enough to support it: nor yet must it be too dry or scanty; the sap in the branches assisting it to take root. In providing the cuttings, such branches as have joints, knots, or burrs, are to be cut off two or three inches beneath them, and the leaves to be stripped off so far as they are set in the earth. Small top branches, of two or three years growth, are fittest for this operation. CUTTLE-FISH. See SEPIA. The bone of the cuttle-fish is hard on one side, but soft and yielding on the other; so as readily to receive pretty neat impressions from medals, &c. and afterwards to serve as a mould for casting metals, which thus take the figure of the original; the bone is likewise frequently employed for cleaning or polishing silver. This fish contains in a certain distinct vessel a fluid as black as ink; which it is said to emit when pursued, and thus to conceal itself by discolouring the water. The particular qualities of this liquor are not yet determined. Dr Leigh says, he saw a letter which had been written with it ten years before, and which still continued. Some report that the ancients made their ink from it; and others, that it is the basis of China or Indian ink; but both these accounts appear to have little foundation. Pliny, speaking of the inks made use of in his time, after observing that the cuttle-fish is in this respect of a wonderful nature, adds expressly, that ink was not made from it. CUTTS, JOHN LORD, a soldier of most hardy bravery in King William's wars, was son of Richard Cutts, Esq. of Matching in Essex; where the family were settled about the time of Henry VI. and had a great estate. He entered early into the service of the duke of Monmouth, was aid-de-camp to the duke of Lorrain in Hungary, and signalized himself in a very extraordinary manner at the taking of Buda by the Imperialists in 1686; which important place had been for near a century and a half in the hands of the Turks. Mr Addison, in a Latin poem worthy of the Augustan age, plainly hints at Mr Cutts's distinguish ed bravery at that siege. Returning to England at the revolution, he had a regiment of foot; was creat ed baron of Gowran in Ireland, Dec. 6. 1690; appointed governor of the isle of Wight, April 14. 1693; was made a major-general; and, when the assassination project was discovered, in 1695-6, was captain of the king's guard. In 1698 he was complimented by Mr John Hopkins, as one to whom "a double crown was due," as a hero and a poet. He was colonel of the Coldstream, or second regiment of guards, in 1701; when Mr Steele, who was indebted to his interest for a military commission, inscribed to him his first work, "The Christian Hero." On the accession of Queen Anne, he was made a lieutenant-general of the forces Cutts 1 in Holland; commander in chief of the forces in Ire. land, under the duke of Ormond, March 23. 1704-5; and afterwards one of the lords justices of that king. Cyaxares. dom, to keep him out of the way of action; a circumstance which broke his heart. He died at Dublin, Jan. 26. 1706-7, and is buried there in the cathedral of Christ church. He wrote a poem on the death of Queen Mary; and published, in 1687, "Poetical Exercises, written upon several occasions, and dedicated to her Royal highness Mary princess of Orange." It contains, besides the dedication signed J. Cutts, verses to that princess; a poem on Wisdom; another to Mr Waller on his commending it; seven more copies of verses (one of them called La Muse Cavalier, which had been ascribed to Lord Peterborough, and as such mentioned by Mr Walpole in the list of that nobleman's writings), and 11 songs; the whole composing but a very thin volume. A specimen of his poetry is here added: Only tell her that I love, Leave the rest to her and fate; CUVETTE, or CUNETTE, in Fortification, is a ditch within a ditch, being a pretty deep trench, about four fathoms broad, sunk, and running along the middle of the great dry ditch, to hold water; serving both to keep off the enemy, and prevent him from mining. CYANITE, a species of mineral. See MINERALOGY Index. CYANOMETER, an instrument for measuring the intensity of the blue colour of the sky. See SUP PLEMENT. CYATHUS, xvatos (from the verb xvur, to pour out), was a common measure among the Greeks and Romans, both of the liquid and dry kind. It was equal to an ounce, or the twelfth part of a pint. The cyathus was made with a handle like our punch ladle. The Roman topers used to drink as many cyathi as there were muses, i. e. nine; also as many as there were letters in the patron's name. Thus, they had modes of drinking similar to the modern health-drinking or toasting. The cyathus of the Greeks weighed 10 drachms; but Galen says that a cyathus contains 12 drachms of oil, 13 drachms and one scruple of wine, water, or vi negar, and 18 drachms of honey; and he adds that among the Veterinarii the cyathus contained two ounces. CYAXARES, son of Phraortes, was king of Media and Persia. He bravely defended his kingdom, which the Scythians had invaded. He made war against Alyattes king of Lydia; and subjected to his power all Asia beyond the river Halys. He died after a reign of 40 years, in the year of Rome 165. CYAXARES II. is supposed by some to be the same as Darius the Mede. He was son of Astyages king of Media. He added seven provinces to his father's dominions, |