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lation of Anacharsis Cloots. He was born at Cleves, in 1755, and became possessed of a considerable fortune, which he partly dissipated through misconduct. The example of his uncle, Cornelius Pauw, who published several popular works, inspired him with an inclination to become an author. He travelled in different parts of Europe, and formed an acquaintance with many eminent individuals, among whom was the celebrated Edmund Burke; but the politics of that statesman did not suit the irregular and ardent disposition of Cloots, to whom the French revolution at length opened a career which he thought worthy of his ambition. The first scene in which he distinguished himself was the ridiculous masquerade called the embassy of the human race, partly contrived by the duke de Liancourt. On the 19th of June, 1790, Cloots presented himself at the bar of the national assembly, followed by a considerable number of the porters of the French metropolis, in foreign dresses, to represent the deputies of all nations. He described himself as the orator of the human race, and demanded the right of confederation, which was granted him. At the bar of the assembly, April 21, 1792, he made a strange speech, in which he recommended a declaration of war against the king of Hungary and Bohemia, proposed that the assembly should form itself into a diet during a year, and finished by offering a patriotic gift of 12,000 livres. On the 12th of August, he went to congratulate the legislative assembly on the occurrences of the preceding 10th, and offered to raise a Prussian legion, to be called the Vandal legion. The 27th of the same month, he advised the assembly to set a price on the heads of the king of Prussia and the duke of Brunswick, praised the action of John J. Ankarstrom, the assassin of the king of Sweden, and, among other absurd expressions, he said, "My heart is French, and my soul is sans-culotte." He displayed no less hatred to Christianity than to royalty, declaring himself the "personal enemy of Jesus Christ." In September, 1792, he was nominated deputy from the department of the Oise to the national convention, in which he voted for the death of Louis XVI, "in the name of the human race. This madman, becoming an object of suspicion to Robespierre and his party, was arrested, and condemned to death, March 24, 1794. He suffered with several others, and, on his way to the guillotine, he discoursed to his companions on materialism and the contempt of

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death. On the scaffold, he begged the executioner to decapitate him the last, that he might have an opportunity for making some observations essential to the establishment of certain principles while the heads of the others were falling.

CLOS, Choderlos de la (his entire name was Pierre Ambroise François Ch. de la Clos), well known for his extraordinary and dangerous novel, Les Liaisons dangereuses, born at Amiens, in 1741, was an officer in the army, afterwards secretary and confidant of the duke of Orleans, whom he assisted in his plans during the revolution. In 1791, he entered the Jacobin club, and edited the journal Ami de la Constitution. He died, during the consular government, at Tarentum, in 1803, in the rank of general of brigade in the artillery in the army of Naples.

CLOSE-HAULED (au plus pres, in French), in navigation; the general arrangement or trim of a ship's sails, when she endeavors to make progress, in the nearest direction possible, towards that point of the compass from which the wind blows.

CLOSE-QUARTERS; certain strong barriers of wood, stretching across a merchant-ship in several places. They are used as a place of retreat when a ship is boarded by her adversary, and are therefore fitted with several small loopholes, through which to fire the small arms. They are likewise furnished with several small caissons, called powder-chests, which are fixed upon the deck, and filled with powder, old nails, &c., and may be fired at any time. Instances are known in which close-quarters have proved highly effective.

CLOTH. (See Cotton, Woollen, Silk, &c.) CLOTHING. A very striking fact, exhibited by the bills of mortality, is the very large proportion of persons who die of consumption. It is not our intention to enter into any general remarks upon the nature of that fatal disease. In very many cases, the origin of a consumption is an ordinary cold; and that cold is frequently taken through the want of a proper attention to clothing, particularly in females. We shall, therefore, offer a few general remarks upon this subject, so important to the health of all classes of persons. Nothing is more necessary to a comfortable state of existence, than that the body should be kept in nearly a uniform temperature. The Almighty Wisdom, which made the senses serve as instruments of pleasure for our gratification, and of pain for our protection, has rendered the feelings arising from excess or deficiency of heat so acute, that we instinctively seek shelter from the

scorching heat and freezing cold. We bathe our limbs in the cool stream, or clothe our bodies with the warm fleece. We court the breeze, or carefully avoid it. But no efforts to mitigate the injurious effects of heat or cold would avail us, if nature had not furnished us, in common with other animals (in the peculiar functions of the skin and lungs), with a power of preserving the heat of the body uniform under almost every variety of temperature to which the atmosphere is liable. The skin, by increase of the perspiration, carries off the excess of heat; the lungs, by decomposing the atmosphere, supply the loss; so that the internal parts of the body are preserved at a temperature of about 98°, under all circumstances. In addition to the important share which the function of perspiration has in regulating the heat of the body, it serves the further purpose of an outlet to the constitution, by which it gets rid of matters that are no longer useful in its economy. The excretory function of the skin is of such paramount importance to health, that we ought, at all times, to direct our attention to the means of securing its being duly performed; for if the matters that ought to be thrown out of the body by the pores of the skin are retained, they invariably prove injurious. When speaking of the excrementitious matter of the skin, we do not mean the sensible moisture which is poured out in hot weather, or when the body is heated by exercise, but a matter which is too subtile for the senses to take cognizance of, which is continually passing off from every part of the body, and which has been called the insensible perspiration. This insensible perspiration is the true excretion of the skin. A suppression of the insensible perspiration is a prevailing symptom in almost all diseases. It is the sole cause of many fevers. Very many chronic diseases have no other cause. In warm weather, and particularly in hot climates, the functions of the skin being prodigiously increased, all the consequences of interrupting them are proportionably dangerous. Besides the function of perspiration, the skin has, in common with every other surface of the body, a process, by means of appropriate vessels, of absorbing, or taking up, and conveying into the blood-vessels, any thing that may be in contact with it. It is also the part on which the organ of feeling or touch is distributed. The skin is supplied with glands, which provide an oily matter, that renders it impervious to water, and thus secures the evaporation of the sensible per

spiration. Were this oily matter deficient, the skin would become sodden, as is the case when it has been removed a fact to be observed in the hands of washerwomen, when it is destroyed by the solvent powers of the soap. The hair serves as so many capillary tubes to conduct the perspired fluid from the skin. The three powers of the skin, perspiration, absorption and feeling, are so dependent on each other, that it is impossible for one to be deranged without the other two being also disordered. For if a man be exposed to a frosty atmosphere, in a state of inactivity, or without sufficient clothing, till his limbs become stiff and his skin insensible, the vessels that excite the perspiration and the absorbent vessels partake of the torpor that has seized on the nerves of feeling; nor will they regain their lost activity till the sensibility be completely restored. The danger of suddenly attempting to restore sensibility to frozen parts is well known. If the addition of warnth be not very gradual, the vitality of the part will be destroyed. This consideration of the functions of the skin will at once point out the necessity of an especial attention, in a fickle climate, to the subject of clothing. Every one's experience must have shown him how extremely capricious the weather is in this country. Our experience of this great inconstancy in the temperature of the air ought to have instructed us how to secure ourselves from its effects. The chief end proposed by clothing ought to be protection from the cold; and it never can be too deeply impressed on the mind (especially of those who have the care of children), that a degree of cold that amounts to shivering cannot be felt, under any circumstances, without injury to the health, and that the strongest constitution cannot resist the benumbing influence of a sensation of cold constantly present, even though it be so moderate as not to occasion immediate complaint, or to induce the sufferer to seek protection from it. This degree of cold often lays the foundation of the whole host of chronic diseases, foremost amongst which are found scrofula and consumption. Persons engaged in sedentary employments must be almost constantly under the influence of this degree of cold, unless the apartment in which they work is heated to a degree that subjects them, on leaving it, to all the dangers of a sudden transition, as it were, from summer to winter. The inactivity to which such persons are condemned, by weakening the body, renders it incapable

of maintaining the degree of warmth necessary to comfort, without additional clothing or fire. Under such circumstances, a sufficient quantity of clothing, of a proper quality, with the apartment moderately warmed and well ventilated, ought to be preferred, for keeping up the requisite degree of warmth, to any means of heating the air of the room so much as to render any increase of clothing unnecessary. To heat the air of an apartment much above the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere, we must shut out the external air; the air also becomes extremely rarefied and dry; which circumstances make it doubly dangerous to pass from it to the cold, raw, external air. But in leaving a moderately well warmed room, if properly clothed, the change is not felt; and the full advantage of exercise is derived from any opportunity of taking it that may occur.-The only kind of dress that can afford the protection required by the changes of temperature to which high northern climates are liable, is woollen. Nor will it be of much avail that woollen be worn, unless so much of it be worn, and it be so worn, as effectually to keep out the cold. Those who would receive the advantage which the wearing of woollen is capable of affording, must wear it next the skin; for it is in this situation only that its health-preserving power can be felt. The great advantages of woollen cloth are briefly these: the readiness with which it allows the escape of the matter of perspiration through its texture; its power of preserving the sensation of warmth to the skin under all circumstances; the difficulty there is in making it thoroughly wet; the slowness with which it conducts heat; the softness, lightness and pliancy of its texture. Cotton cloth, though it differs but little from linen, approaches nearer to the nature of woollen, and, on that account, must be esteemed as the next best substance of which clothing may be made. Silk is the next in point of excellence, but it is very inferior to cotton in every respect. Linen possesses the contrary of most of the properties enumerated as excellences in woollen. It retains the matter of perspiration in its texture, and speedily becomes imbued with it; it gives an unpleasant sensation of cold to the skin; it is very readily saturated with moisture, and it conducts heat too rapidly. It is, indeed, the worst of all the substances in use, being the least qualified to answer the purposes of clothing. There are several prevailing errors in the mode of adapting

clothes to the figure of the body, particularly amongst females. Clothes should be so made as to allow the body the full exercise of all its motions. The neglect of this precaution is productive of more mischief than is generally believed. The misery and suffering arising from it begin while we are yet in the cradle. When they have escaped from the nurses' hands, boys are left to nature. Girls have, for a while, the same chance as boys, in a freedom from bandages of all kinds; but, as they approach to womanhood, they are again put into trammels in the forms of stays. The bad consequences of the pressure of stays are not immediately obvious, but they are not the less certain on that account. The girl writhes and twists to avoid the pinching which must necessarily attend the commencement of wearing stays tightly laced. The posture in which she finds ease is the one in which she will constantly be, until, at last, she will not be comfortable in any other, even when she is freed from the pressure that originally obliged her to adopt it. In this way most of the deformities to which young people are subject originate; and, unfortunately, it is not often that they are perceived until they have become considerable, and have existed too long to admit of remedy.

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CLOTILDE DE VALLON CHALIS, Marguerite Eléonore; born at Vallon, a castle on the Ardeche, in Languedoc, in the 1405. The poems of this lady, which have been preserved, did not make their appearance till 1803. At the age of 11, she translated a poem of Petrarch into verse. Fortunate circumstances, particularly her acquaintance with several distinguished female poets of her time, unfolded her poetical talents. In 1421, she married Berenger de Surville, a young knight, who was soon obliged to follow the dauphin (Charles VII) to Puy-en-Velay. On the occasion of this separation, she composed a beautiful poem, which takes the first rank amongst her works. After being married seven years, she lost her husband, who fell before Orleans. After this, she occupied her time with the education of young females possessed of poetical talent. Among these were Sophie de Lyonna and Juliette de Vivarez. By chance, she became acquainted with Margaret of Scotland, wife of the dauphin Louis. In consequence of a poem which she composed in praise of duke Philip the Good, Margaret sent her a crown of artificial laurel, with silver leaves, and interwoven with 12 golden flowers; but Clotilde

would not listen to the pressing invitations which she received to appear at court. In 1495, she commemorated, in a poem, the triumphs of Charles VIII. The year of her death is not known. Her poems, which are distinguished for delicacy and grace, appear to have been lost, when one of her descendants, Joseph Etienne de Surville (who, in 1798, was shot as a secretly returned emigrant), a man himself possessed of a talent for poetry, on searching the archives of his family, discovered, in 1782, the hand-writing of Clotilde. With difficulty he deciphered the writing, studied the language, and soon found his pains richly rewarded. On his emigration, in 1791, he left the manuscript of Clotilde behind him, which, with many other family records, became a prey to the flames. The copies, which had been previously taken of several pieces, came from his widow into the hands of the present publisher, M. Vanderbourg. The genuineness of these poems is not to be doubted, although it is apparent that, in some instances, M. de Surville has ventured to make alterations.

CLÔTURE, LA (the close); the term used in the French chamber of deputies, when one party insists upon having a discussion closed, and the vote taken. Though it cannot be denied, that the French improve in parliamentary skill, yet they are very far from parliamentary order, we might say decency, compared with the example of England and the U. States. This is principally owing to two causes: the first is want of experience. Parliamentary proprieties are things which cannot be regulated by orders and decrees, because great strictness of rule injures the freedom which gives value to parliamentary proceedings. They must be learned by practice, and rest on the convictions of the opposition, as well as of the other party. The second cause is the violence of parties. Neither in England nor in the U. States do there exist parties so entirely and essentially opposed as in France. No political partisan in England or the U. States thinks of destroying the constitution. The animosity, therefore, between parties cannot be, in either of these countries, so great as in France. The consequence of this is, that the opposition, or liberal party, in the French chambers, give vent to their feelings, and the administration party will not listen, but call, Aux voix! La clôture! during the speeches of their opponents, and not unfrequently make a noise similar to that of the Polish diet, and very much out of place in a deliberative body. The 23

VOL. III.

president of the chamber rings his bell, and sometimes closes the session, because he cannot restore order. The réglement of the chambre does not appear to be the cause of this disorder. It is dated June 25, 1814, and is an imitation of the English usages. This body of rules, with those for the chamber of peers, given July 2, 1814, and the law of Aug. 13, 1814, respecting the forms in which the king communicates with the chambers, and they with each other, are not in the Bulletin des Lois; they are contained in Lanjuinais' Constitutions de la Nation Française, Paris, 1819.

CLOUD. The clouds are aqueous vapors, which hover at a considerable height above the surface of the earth. They differ from fogs only by their height and less degree of transparency. The cause of the latter circumstance is the thinness of the atmosphere in its higher regions, where the particles of vapor become condensed. The varieties of clouds are numerous. Some cast a shade which covers the sky, and, at times, produces a considerable darkness; others resemble a light veil, and permit the rays of the sun and moon to pass through them. Clouds originate like fogs. The watery evaporations which rise from seas, lakes, ponds, rivers, and, in fact, from the whole surface of the earth, ascend, on account of their elasticity and lightness, in the atmosphere, until the air becomes so cold and thin that they can rise no higher, but are condensed. Philosophers, however, are of very different opinions respecting the way in which the condensation and the whole formation of the clouds proceed. De Luc, whose theory is considered the most probable, believes that the water, after its ascent in the form of vapors, and before it takes the shape of clouds, exists in a gaseous state, not affecting the hygrometer, which is the reason why the air, in the higher regions, is always dry. He explains the clouds to be collections of small vesicles, in the transformation of which from the gaseous state, he believes that caloric operates, in part at least, because, according to his opinion, clouds communicate a degree of heat to the body which they render damp. According to Hube, clouds are collections of precipitated bubbles, and differ by their negative electricity from fogs, the electricity of which is generally positive. If clouds and fogs lose their electricity, rain is produced. These explanations are, however, by no means perfectly satisfactory. More on this subject is to be found in Mayer's Lehrbuch über die Physische Astronomie, Theorie der Erde und Meteorologie, Göt

tingen, 1805. The change of winds contributes essentially to the formation of clouds and fogs. In countries where this change is small and infrequent, as between the tropics, these phenomena of humidity in the atmosphere must be comparatively rare, but, when they happen, the more violent, because a great quantity of vapor has had time to collect. The distance of the clouds from the surface of the earth is very different. Thin and light clouds are higher than the highest mountains; thick and heavy clouds, on the contrary, touch low mountains, steeples, and even trees. The average height of the clouds is calculated to be two miles and a half. Their size is likewise very different. Some have been found occupying an extent of 20 square miles, and their thickness, in some cases, has been ascertained, by travellers, who have ascended mountains, to be a thousand feet: others are very thin, and of small dimensions. The natural history of clouds, not as respects their chemical structure, but their forms, their application to meteorology, and a knowledge of the weather, has been well treated by Lucas Howard, in his Essay on Clouds. He distributes clouds into three essentially different formations. These formations are—1. cirrus, consisting of fibres which diverge in all directions; 2. cumulus, convex and conical aggregates, which increase from a horizontal basis upwards; 3. stratus, layers vastly extended, connected and horizontal. The clouds are generally assigned to three atmospherical regions, the upper, the middle and the lower one, to which a fourth, the lowest, may be added. In the upper region, the atmosphere is in such a state, that it can receive and sustain aqueous matter dissolved into its integrant parts. This state of the atmosphere corresponds to the highest state of the barometer. To this region belongs the cirrus, which has the least density, but the greatest height, and variety of shape and direction. It is the first indication of serene and settled weather, and first shows itself in a few fibres, spreading through the atmosphere. These fibres by degrees increase in length, and new fibres attach themselves to the sides. The duration of the cirrus is uncertain, from a few minutes to several hours. It lasts longer, if it appears alone, and at a great height; a shorter time, if it forms in the neighborhood of other clouds. The middle region is the seat of cumulus, which is generally the most condensed, and moves with the stream of air nearest to the earth. This region can re

ceive much humidity, but not in perfect solution. The humidity becomes collected, and shows itself in masses rising conically, and resting on the third region. The appearance, increase and disappearance of the cumulus, in fine weather, are often periodical, and correspondent to the degree of heat. Generally, it forms a few hours after sunrise, attains its highest degree in the hottest hours of the afternoon, and decreases and vanishes at sun-set. Great masses of cumulus, during high winds, in the quarter of the heavens towards which the wind blows, indicate approaching calm and rain. If the cumulus does not disappear, but rises, a thunderstorm is to be expected during the night. If the upper region, with its drying power, predominates, the upper parts of the cumulus become cirrus. But, if the lower region predominates (into which the densest vapors are attracted and dissolved into drops), the basis of the cumulus sinks, and the cloud becomes stratus, which is of moderate density, and its lower surface rests generally upon the earth or the water. This is the proper evening cloud, and appears first towards sunset. To this belong also those creeping fogs, which, in calm evenings, ascend from the valleys, and extend themselves in undulating masses. The stratus remains quiet, and accumulates layers, till at last it falls as rain. This phenomenon-the dissolution of clouds into rain-is called nimbus. Howard further makes subdivisions, as, cirro-cumulus, cirrostratus, &c. Also the real stratus, the horizontal layer of clouds, sometimes rises higher than at other times, which depends on the season, the polar height of the place, or the heights of mountains: the cumulus is also sometimes higher and sometimes lower. On the whole, however, the different kinds remain one above another. Th. Forster has followed Howard in his investigations respecting the clouds, and Göthe, the German poet, has made an application of this theory in his work entitled Zur Naturwissenschaft, vol. i.

CLOUD, ST.; a charmingly situated village, two leagues E. from Paris, in the department of Seine-and-Qise, with a royal castle and magnificent garden, which were much embellished by Napoleon. On the 7th of September, and some days following, perhaps a sixth part of the population of Paris is assembled here, full of gayety, attending the fair, which affords a striking picture of a certain class of the French people. As the residence of the monarch of France, St. Cloud is historically interesting. Many events in the civil dis

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