complete vinegar. By distillation, this liquor yields an ardent spirit, which is sometimes called rack, or arrack, and is more esteemed than that obtained by distillation from rice or sugar, and merely fermented, and flavored with the cocoanut juice. If boiled with quick-lime, it thickens into a sirup, which is used by confectioners in the East Indies, though it is much inferior to sugar produced from the sugar-cane. COCYTUS (from KWKUEIV, to lament); a river of ancient Epirus, which falls into the Acheron. The waters of both are tinged with black. The Greek poets call this river the black Cocytus, echoing with groans. It encircles the region of Tartarus, and is composed of the tears of the damned. According to mythology, Cocytus is the son of Styx, and father of Phlegethon and Menthe. Pausanias advances the following conjecture respecting this river: "At Cichyrus is lake Acheron, with the rivers Acheron and Cocytus, whose waters are very ungrateful to the taste. Homer, I imagine, had seen these rivers, and, in his bold description of hell, gave to the streams in it the names of those in Thesprotia." COD (gadus, L., Bloch.); a genus of fishes belonging to the order jugulares (soft-finned, sub-brachial, of Cuvier), distinguished by the following characters :— a smooth, oblong or fusiform body, covered with small, soft, deciduous scales; ventrals attached beneath the throat, covered by thick skin, and drawn out to a point; head scaleless; eyes lateral; opercle not dentated; jaws and anterior part of the vomer furnished with several ranges of moderate-sized, unequal, pointed teeth, forming a card or rasp-like surface; the gills are large, seven-rayed, and opening laterally; a small beard at the tip of the lower jaw; almost all the species have two or three dorsal fins, one or two anal, and one distinct caudal fin; the stomach is sacciform and powerful, the cœca very numerous, and the intestines of considerable length; they have a large, strong swimming-bladder, frequently dentated or lobed at its borders.-The most interesting of all the species is the common or Bank cod (G. morrhua, L.). Regarded as a supply of food, a source of national industry and commercial wealth, or as a wonder of nature in its continuance and multiplication, this fish may justly challenge the admiration of every intelligent observer. Though found in considerable numbers on the coasts of other northern regions, an extent of about 450 miles of ocean, laving the chill and rugged shores of Newfoundland, is the favorite annual resort of countless multitudes of cod, which visit the submarine mountain known as the Grand Banks, to feed upon the crustaceous and molluscous animals abundant in such situations. Hither, also, fleets of fishermen regularly adventure, sure of winning a rich freight in return for their toils and exposure, and of conveying plenty and profit to their homes and employers. Myriads of cod are thus yearly destroyed by human diligence; myriads of millions, in the egg state, are prevented from coming into existence, not only by the fishermen, who take the parents before they have spawned, but by hosts of ravenous fishes, and an immense concourse of other animals, which attend upon their migrations to feed upon their spawn: yet, in despite of the unceasing activity of all these destructive causes, year after year finds the abundance still undiminished, inexhaustible by human skill and avidity, irrepressible by the combined voracity of all the tribes of ocean. This, however, is by no means the sum of destruction to which the species is liable. After the spawn is hatched, while the fry are too young and feeble to save themselves by flight or resistance, they are pursued and devoured in shoals by numerous greedy tyrants of the deep, and, still worse, by their own gluttonous progenitors, clearly showing that without some extraordinary exertion of creative energy, the existence of the species could not have been protracted beyond a few years. Such, however, is the fecundity with which the All-wise has endowed this race, that if but one female annually escaped, and her eggs were safely hatched, the species would be effectually preserved. This is not so surprising when we recollect that the ovaries of each female contain not fewer than 9,344,000 eggs, as has been ascertained by careful and repeated observation.-Few members of the animal creation contribute a greater mass of subsistence to the human race; still fewer are more universally serviceable than the codfish, of which every part is applied to some useful purpose. When fresh, its beautifully white, firm and flaky muscles furnish our table with one of the most delicious dainties; salted, dried, or otherwise conserved for future use, it affords a substantial and wholesome article of diet, for which a substitute could not readily be found. The tongue, which is always separated from the head when the fish is first caught, even epicures consider a delicacy; and tongues, salted or pickled along with the swimming-bladders, which are highly nutritious, being almost entirely pure gelatine, are held in much estimation by house-keepers, under the title of tongues and sounds. The sound or swimmingbladder of codfish, if rightly prepared, supplies an isinglass equal to the best Russian, and applicable to all the uses for which the imported is employed. The liver of the cod, when fresh, is eaten by many with satisfaction, but it is more generally reserved, by fishermen, for the sake of the large quantity of fine limpid oil which it contains. This is extracted by heat and pressure, and forms the wellknown cod-liver oil of commerce, which, in many respects, and for most uses, is superior to the commonly-used fish-oil. The heads of codfish, after the tongues are cut out, and the gills are saved for bait, are thrown overboard, on account of want of room, and because salting would not preserve them to any advantage. Yet the head, being almost entirely composed of gelatine, is, when fresh, the richest, and perhaps the most nutritive part of the fish. The fishermen, it is true, make use of it for their own nourishment, but the great mass is thrown into the sea-a circumstance we can scarce reflect upon without regret, when we remember how many poor, in various charitable institutions, and through the country generally, might be luxuriously fed with this waste. If vessels were provided with the requisite implements and fuel, these heads would furnish a large amount of strong and valuable fish-glue or isinglass, that would well repay the trouble and expense of its preparation. The intestines of the codfish also yield a tribute to the table; the French fishermen, especially, prepare from them a dish somewhat similar, and not far inferior, to the sounds. Finally, the ovaries or roes of the females are separated from their membranes, and the eggs, nicely pickled, afford an agreeable and gustful relish, far more delicate and inviting to the palate than the celebrated Russian caviare. In addition to these usual modes of employing the different parts of our fish, the Norwegians, Icelanders and Kamtschadales pound up the backbones and other refuse parts, for the purpose of feeding their dogs and other domestic animals during the winter. Strange as such diet may appear, it is stated as a well-established fact, that cows, fed upon these pounded bones, mingled with a small quantity of vegetable matter, yield a larger supply and a better quality of milk than those supported upon more ordinary are provender. The usual mode of preserving codfish for commercial purposes is by salting them immediately after they are caught, having first removed the head, bowels, &c. Those which are carefully selected and salted with greater attention to their whiteness, are usually called dunfish, and bring a better price than such as are salted in bulk, with little regard to the discoloration caused by imperfect washing and draining before being packed. Where facilities are afforded for drying, by an adjacent shore, or by the construction of the vessel, cod are cured by drying alone, or with a very small quantity of salt. This process requires several days' exposure to sun and air, and, when skilfully conducted, keeps the fish, for an indefinite period, in a very desirable condition of whiteness and freshness, both peculiarly advantageous to the appearance of the fish at respectable tables. Cod thus cured called stock-fish, and, before being cooked, require to be softened, by soaking in water and pounding with a wooden mallet.The spawning season, on the Banks of Newfoundland, begins about the month of March, and terminates in June; consequently the regular period of fishing does not commence before April, on account of the storms, ice and fogs; and, indeed, many fishermen consider the middle of May as sufficiently early. After the month of June, cod commence their migrations to other quarters, and, of course, the fishing is suspended until the ensuing season. During the months of April and May, fresh cod, of several species, are caught, in considerable abundance, on the Atlantic coast of the U. States, as far south as the capes of Delaware, and perhaps still more to the southward. At this season, the markets of this country are, for a short time, supplied with this fine fish. The inhabitants of the north-eastern cities, being near to the great fisheries, and employing vessels built for the conveyance of live fish, are liberally provided with all the luxuries obtainable from this great gift of Providence.-The common or Bank cod (cabeliau or morue) varies in size and weight according to its age and the season of the year. The average length is about 2 or 3 feet, and the weight between 30 and 50 pounds. Single cod have been caught weighing three times as much, measuring 5 feet in length; but such specimens are uncommon, the greater number approaching the average above given. The color is a yellowish-gray on the back, maculated with yellowish and brown; the belly white or reddish, with golden spots in young individuals. The fins are yellowish, with the exception of the anal, which are grayish; the head is large and flattened, with an enormous gape to the mouth; the upper jaw projects beyond the lower, which has a cirrhus or beard about the length of a finger; the eyes are very large, and veiled by a transparent membrane; the scales are of large size; first ray of the first anal fin not articulated and spinous.-Professor Mitchill, in his interesting paper on the fishes of New York, enumerates 10 species of cod among the supplies brought to the market of that city, caught on the coasts adjacent. To his valuable researches, published in the first volume of the New York Philosophical Transactions, the reader may advantageously refer, who desires to be intimately acquainted with the distinctions by which these species are discriminated. They are named as follows:-Gadus morrhua, Bank cod; G. callarias, dorse cod; G. tomcodus, tomcod; G. aglefinus, haddock; G. blennoides, blennoid cod; G. purpureus, New York pollock; G. merluccius, hake; G. tenuis, slender cod; G. longipes, codling; G. punctatus, spotted cod. The whole process of cod-fishing is highly interesting, but the briefest description of it would require far more space than can be afforded here. The importance of this fishery, and the great national interests which it involves, has made it a fruitful source of diplomatic discussion, and led to the establishment of various regulations, to which all are obliged to conform who participate in its advantages. It is obviously out of our power satisfactorily to treat of these topics, and all the interesting matter connected with the subject, in an article solely designed to give a general sketch of the characters of the genus, and of the most interesting species of cod. COD, Cape. (See Cape Cod.) CODE, in jurisprudence, is a name given, by way of eminence, to a collection of laws. (For the derivation of the word, see Codex. For the different parties, among the lawyers of our times, respecting the advantages of codes and codifying, see Law. For the different codes of modern times, see the respective countries, and the following list.) CODE CIVIL. (See Codes, les Cinq.) CODE OF JUSTINIAN. (See Civil Law.) CODES, LES CINQ (French; the five codes); the new French digests of laws. The civil code (Code civil) or general law of the country, the commercial code, the penal code, the codes of civil and criminal procedure, form, together, a whole, which, whatever may be their absolute value, will remain a perpetual monument of the state of things in France which proceeded from the revolution, and particularly of Napoleon's administration. They originated from the spirit of the times and of the nation; and are, in some respects, the key-stone of the revolution, as they secure, in a great measure, its reasonable demands. Like all human works, they are chargeable with imperfection, and they have been criticised with severity by some political parties and some learned works. (See Savigny Von dem Beruf unserer Zeit zur Gesetzgebung, 1816-On the Aptitude of the present Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence; translated from the German of F. C. von Savigny, by a Barrister of Lincoln's Inn.) Yet, compared with the preceding condition of jurisprudence in France, they must be acknowledged by all to have been a great and undeniable benefit to the country, as well as to the age in which they were produced. The laws in France, before the revolution, were in a state of the greatest confusion. The Roman or civil law was universally in force as subsidiary to the local customs, and was applied, particularly, to the regulation of contracts. But with regard to the rights of property of married people, the modifications of landed property, feudal rights, &c., the greatest differences prevailed in different parts of the kingdom. The invasions of the German tribes must have effaced, in a great measure, with the Roman law, the last traces of the ancient laws of the Gallic nation; and that more or less completely, according to the degree to which the Roman constitution had taken root among the ancient inhabitants, and to the political importance which they themselves maintained under their new masters. Hence, in the northern part of France, and under the dominion of the Franks, the Roman institutions were more generally supplanted by the German, than in the south, nearer to Italy, where the country was more populous and under the dominion of the Visigoths and Burgundians. Here some portions of the Roman municipal and judicial institutions had always been preserved; the civil law, particularly, as it was contained in the collection of Theodosius II, remained valid, especially with regard to the rights of property between married people. The provinces where it thus continued in force were called pays du droit écrit. The many droits coutumiers of different districts, baronies and counties which were to be found in France, even in the pays du droit Romain, originated when the authority of a general government had given place to feudal anarchy, when every barony and every city formed an independent whole, and the king was nothing but the first among the great feudal lords of France (the dukes of Normandy, Aquitaine, Burgundy and Brittany, the counts of Champagne, Flanders, Provence, &c.), and, in his own domains, scarcely more than the first among the inferior barons. In each of these divisions, a particular system of law developed itself in the struggle of the old, free municipal institutions with the usurpations of the barons, in which the former perished entirely. The peculiarities of these different laws, however, proceeded less from the true wants and the spirit of the nation, than from accidental circumstances and events. It must, however, be acknowledged, that the laws of the provinces or ancient principalities of the realm, which were founded partly on express provisions adopted by the sovereign in unison with the states, are of greater importance. Among these, the laws of Normandy are of the most consequence, since they are, at least with regard to the feudal rights and the general principles of landed property, the foundation of the whole English law. (See Houard's Traité sur les Coutumes Anglo-Normandes, Dieppe, 1776, 4 vols., 4to.) William I made the feudal law of the Normans the predominant law of England, and founded the different branches of his government on feudal principles; even the language of the courts of justice and of the official papers of the government in England remained French for centuries; and French formulas are still used in parliament and in legal language, though sometimes singularly perverted. After the law of Normandy, the customs and statutes of the city and county of Paris were of chief importance, since they served as a model for many others, and were considered, in some measure, as a subsidiary source of law in the jurisdiction of the parliament of Paris. Some of these particular systems of law had been reduced to writing in very early times; for instance, the Établissements de St. Louis, which were in force in the royal baronies, and were revised by Louis IX; and the conseils of Peter Desfontaines, of the 13th century. Besides the general privileges of the cities, particular municipal laws were sometimes granted. (See examples in the great collection of royal ordinances, begun by Laurière, 1723.) Most of these particular laws, however, were preserved only in the memory of the inhabitants and of the judges, and were, consequently, very uncertain in their application. Therefore, after Charles VII had driven the English from the French territory, it was decreed in the assembly of the states, 1453, that all customary laws should be reduced to writing. The inhabitants were first questioned as to the law in use (by tens, or per turbam) until it was believed that sufficient certainty was obtained: the laws were then arranged by men learned in the law, examined in the council of state, and confirmed by the king. This operation continued almost a hundred years, and produced several hundreds of such particular systems, the most complete collection of which, containing more than 400, was made by Bourdot de Richebourg (Coutumier général, Paris, 1724, 8 vols., folio). Besides this mass of particular laws, some general laws were passed. The first and second dynasty promulgated capitularia, with the consent of the nation. But the third dynasty, as we have already observed, was not only obliged, in the time of feudal anarchy, to grant complete independence and sovereignty to the great vassals and lords of the kingdom (pays hors l'obéissance du roy), but even the inferior barons, the king's particular vassals, who had been enfeoffed by him out of his own domains, made themselves almost entirely independent. The legislative power of the king could, therefore, at first, be exercised only by granting privileges to the cities, by which the power of the barons was limited, to the advantage not only of the citizens, but also of the crown. From the time of Philip Augustus (1180-1223), it became an established principle, that the king could unite vacant fiefs of the kingdom with his hereditary domains, as crown lands; and one of the first acquisitions of this kind was the duchy of Normandy. The great power which thus accrued to the king was so much strengthened by the address and personal authority of Louis IX (1226-1270), that he was enabled to make general laws, partly with, partly without, the consent of the barons. These were called ordonnances. They were in force, however, only in the hereditary domains of the king: the great barons exercised an equal legislative power in their own territories. After almost all these fiefs had certain period (for instance, Code Louis XV, by Chaussepierre, containing the ordonnances from 1722 to 1740, 12 vols., 12mo. ; or relating to single objects, Code noir; Code des Cures, Paris, 1780, 4 vols., 12mo.; Code pénal, by l'Averdy, 1777, 12mo., &c.), but never as a legal designation. The government of Louis XIV was distinguished for its legislative activity. Comprehensive ordonnances, or rather real codes of law, appeared on the civil process (1667), on the criminal process (1670), on commercial law (1673), on the forest law (1669), on the marine (1681), and on ecclesiastical jurisdiction (1695). The most important ordonnances of Louis XV relate to donations (1731), wills (1735), and substitutions (1747). In this state of things, the great diversity in the existing laws was as burdensome as it was revolting to reason. It would betray but a superficial acquaintance with history, to suppose that such a diversity of laws could exist without great disadvantages. It retards the developement of the science of law, as it requires the study of many accidental details, rather than of the general principles of universal right, by which the Roman law has attained its high perfection. It is also a very injurious check to civil intercourse, and a source of insecurity and loss to those who enter into any legal connexions with the inhabitants of other provinces. Nothing contributes more to promote the internal intercourse of a nation, the foundation of its greatness, than uniformity of laws. Hence the reduction of those 400 particular systems of customs into one civil code, was one of the things most desired by the French nation; and Napoleon, after having restored peace, and settled the subject of ecclesiastical relations, could think of nothing which would contribute more to promote his popularity and the good of France, than the execution of this project, which had been attempted in vain during the revolution. The emperor himself remarked at St. Helena, that he considered the code which bears his name to be the best monument which he had erected for himself. The abolition of so many systems of law, of the feudal privileges, of the family trusts, of the indivisibility of the fiefs, made the preparation of a general civil code possible, and even necessary, which was acknowledged as early as in the first constitution of 1791. Yet the three projects of Cambacérès, then deputy, afterwards second consul, and finally grand chancellor of the empire, in 1793 been united with the crown, excepting some small sovereignties, as the principalities of Dombes, Orange, Bouillon, the counties of Avignon and Venaissin; and after the marriage of king Charles VIII with the daughter and heiress of the duke of Bretagne, the authority of the ordonnances extended over the whole kingdom. At the same time, the royal power approached that absoluteness, which was prepared under Richelieu by the entire subjection of the nobles, completed under Louis XIV, and the abuse of which, under Louis XV, produced the revolution. Among the ordonnances of this period, are distinguished those on jurisdiction and the order of procedure, in which France was then in advance of the rest of Europe. The more ancient refer to local subjects, and the connexions of the church with the state. To the former belong the ordonnances of 1446 and 1453, and that of Villers Cotterets (1539), which was almost contemporaneous with the law of criminal procedure of Charles V, in Germany, and introduced the written trial instead of the usual irregular and tumultuous process, which was different in every seigneurie. Its author was the chancellor Guillaume Poyet, from whom it was also called Guillelmine. We might also mention the ordonnance of Orleans (1560), the ordonnance of Blois (1579), and others. None of these ordonnances, nor any collection of them, bore the name of code. The earlier incomplete collections of them (a systematic one was first made by Fontanon, 1611, 4 vols, folio; a chronological one by Neron and Girard, 1620, 4 vols., folio) were superseded by that published by the chancellor Pontchartrain, the first volume of which, edited by De Laurière, appeared in 1723. The work has been continued by Secousse, Villevaults, Bréquigny, Camus and Pastoret, 1816, 18 vols., folio. It is to be concluded with the reign of Francis I. Henry III intrusted the systematic arrangement of the ordonnances of his predecessors to the famous Brisson, who published them under the name of Code Henri, or Basiliques, though they acquired no legal authority. Under Louis XIII (1629), an express ordonnance respecting the judicial procedure, and other subjects, which had furnished matter of complaint to the states, was sketched, in 461 articles, by the chancellor Michael de Marillac, but was not acknowledged by the courts, as it was not registered. It was called Code Marillac or Code Michau; and, in later times, the name code has been applied to several private collections of the ordonnances of a |