ly any difference is to be seen in the size of the first and of the last berry on the raceme, and indeed they could be compared to miniature bunches of grapes. It has been thought that the red currant is a native of this country, an opinion founded on its identity with the R. albinervium of Michaux. According to the "Flora of North America," the red currant appears to be "abundant in our northern latitudes, agreeing in every respect with the European form." It occurs throughout Canada to the mouth of Mackenzie river, at Sault Ste. Marie, and at the sources of St. Croix river (Torrey and Gray). It has been noticed growing wild on the rocky banks of the Winooski, in Vermont. Josselyn, who wrote in 1672, makes mention in his "New England Rarities" of "red and black currants." The black currant (R. nigrum, Lam.), differing from the common currant in the great size of the plant, in smoother leaves, in flower and in fruit, also in possessing a powerful aromatic principle with proportionately less acidity, has by successive experiments become ranked with the most valuable of the smaller garden fruits. The variety known as the black Naples has larger berries than any other, and is considered the best. The fetid currant (R. prostratum, L'Héritier), with pale red and bristly fruit, exhaling, as well as the leaves, a disagreeable odor, grows on mountain sides and in cold woods at the northward, reaching as far as Lake Superior and the Rocky mountains. The thirsty wayfarer and the hunter, on meeting with its berries, find them not too unpleasant for refreshment. The R. floridum (L'Hér.), with rather large yellow-greenish flowers, and with smooth, black fruit, occurring in woods from Canada to Kentucky, is our native black currant, but is inferior in value to the European species. The Missouri currant (R. aureum, Pursh.) is remarkable for its early yellow blossoms, exhaling a delicious, spicy odor, and considered a highly ornamental shrub. red flowering currant (R. sanguineum, Ph.), from western America, and abundant among rocks along the streams throughout Oregon, is a very beautiful shrub, bearing clusters of light crimson blossoms, which appear early in spring. Its fruit is insipid, but its flowers recommend it for the garden. Another, with flowers not so brightly colored (R. malvaceum, Sm.), has been noticed as a native of California. The genus ribes, embracing the gooseberries, comprises in North America something like 28 distinct species. The propagation of the currant is easy, as it will grow in almost any garden soil, in the open sun or in the shade of fences, where the fruit is longer in ripening but still sure. The best mode to be pursued is, never to allow suckers taken from the roots of old plants to be used for new planting out; but to employ well ripened, straight, and stout shoots, removing all the buds or eyes from the lower portions which are to be inserted in the soil, which will prevent future suckers from springing up

The

around the stem. Sometimes, after the stem has been trained upright for 2 or 3 feet, the branches are spread thinly upon a low espalier; or, in case this is not used, a thin, spreading head is carefully grown. All superfluous wood, as it makes its appearance, is removed, and about midsummer the ends of the fruit-bearing branches are pinched off, in order to allow the fruit to swell and increase. But the currant will reward the least degree of attention that is given to it. The juice of the currant contains sugar and malic acid, to the presence of which is owing its pleasant flavor. Currant wine is considered a valuable beverage, and for preserves, tarts, or for the dessert, currants are especially esteemed. When freshly gathered they are refrigerant and very grateful to the palate. An excellent jelly is prepared from them, and for other domestic purposes their reputation is well known. The fruit of the black currant is far less esteemed, indeed to many persons is positively disagreeable. A jelly made of it is used as a remedy for hoarseness or sore throat, and lozenges made of the berries, and especially of their skins, are of much service in pectoral complaints. A wine is made in Russia from the black currant berries, and in Siberia the leaves, dried and mixed with souchong, are made into a drink resembling in flavor green tea. The fruit, leaves, and wood are tonic and stimulant. We have seen the dried fruit of the better garden sorts used in making puddings which possessed much merit.-The word currant is said to be a corruption of Corinth, the original place whence the small raisins were brought known as the currants of commerce. The Ionian islands, Greece, and Turkey are the principal currant-exporting countries, and directly from those countries, and indirectly through England, not less than about 2,500,000 lbs., valued at about $150,000, were imported into the United States in the year ending June 30, 1857. CURRENCY. See MONEY.

CURRENT RIVER, an affluent of Black river, Arkansas, rises in Texas co., Mo., and has a S. W. course of over 250 m. It is navigable by flatboats, and abounds with excellent fish. Jack's Fork is its principal branch.

CURRENTS. See ATLANTIC OCEAN.

CURRIE, JAMES, a Scottish physician, born at Kirkpatrick-Fleming, Dumfriesshire, May 31, 1756, died at Sidmouth, Devonshire, Aug. 31, 1805. In early life he went to Virginia, with a view of following commercial pursuits, but returning after the breaking out of the American war, he commenced the study of medicine at Edinburgh, was graduated at Glasgow in 1780, and in the following year began to practise in Liverpool. He was very successful in applying affusions of cold and tepid water to the cure of disease, and his great work on this subject, "Medical Reports on the Effects of Water, cold and warm, as a Remedy in Febrile Diseases," appeared in 1797, a 2d volume in 1804, and a 5th edition in 1814. Beside several other medical works, he wrote "A Letter, Commer

cial and Political, to William Pitt," under the assumed name of Jasper Wilson, which attracted much attention. In 1800 he published an edition of the works of Robert Burns, in 4 vols., for the benefit of the poet's family. This edition has been frequently reprinted. It contains an account of the life of Burns, and a criticism on his writings, to which are prefixed "Some Observations on the Character and Condition of the Scottish Peasantry."

CURRITUCK, a N. E. co. of N. C.; area estimated at 200 sq. m.; pop. in 1850, 7,236, of whom 2,447 were slaves. It borders on Va., and embraces within its limits several islands separated from the mainland by Currituck sound. The surface is level, and the soil sandy. In 1850 the productions were 292,593 bushels of corn, 66,332 of sweet potatoes, and 20,382 lbs. of butter. The county was named from a tribe of Indians who once possessed the land. Capital, Currituck Court House.

CURRY, DANIEL, an American clergyman and author, born in Peekskill, N. Y., Nov. 26, 1809, was graduated in 1827 at the Wesleyan university at Middletown, Conn., and was in the same year elected principal of the Troy conference academy, where he remained several years. In 1841 he removed to Georgia, where he was regularly inducted into the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, and was stationed successively at Athens, Savannah, and Columbus. When the difficulties arose on the subject of slavery, which finally resulted in a division of the church, he connected himself with the northern branch, and entered the New York conference. After having been stationed in the cities of New York, New Haven, Brooklyn, and Hartford, he officiated for 3 years as president of the Indiana Wesleyan university. He then return ed to Brooklyn, and is now (1859) pastor of the Methodist church in Middletown. He has contributed largely to various magazines of the day, and among his works are his "Life of Wycliffe" and "Metropolitan City of America." He has also published an edition of Southey's "Life of Wesley," with notes.

CURRY POWDER, a powder used in cooking, prepared in the East Indies. The ingredients in its manufacture are turmeric, coriander, black pepper, 4 oz. each; fenugreek, 3 oz.; ginger, 2 oz.; cummin seed, ground rice, 1 oz. each; cayenne pepper and cardamoms, oz. each. Curry powder is subject to extensive adulteration, and with very pernicious ingredients, red lead being frequently detected in it. As this is a highly poisonous oxide, the quantity taken in curry powder at a meal has been known to produce a serious effect. It is therefore a safer, as well as a more economical plan, to purchase the materials, and prepare the article.

CURRYING, the art of finishing tanned leather to give it the smoothness and pliancy it requires for most of its uses. The skin is first softened by soaking it in water, and it is then beaten with a mace or mallet upon a hurdle or lattice-work support. It is next laid over a

plank called a beam, which projects at a slant from the floor, and the workman, leaning over the end of this, and against the skin to hold it in its place, shaves off the inequalities on the flesh side with a broad blade, called a head knife or beam knife, the edge of which is turned over. This instrument is held firmly in both hands; and as it is used, the currier continually examines with his fingers the effect produced, and moves the skin to bring all parts of it under its action. After it is sufficiently shaved, the skin is thrown into cold water, and well scoured upon a stone slab, the flesh side being laid next the stone, and the grain or hair side well rubbed with a tool of metal or stone called a stretching iron, which is held in both hands. The whitish matter (bloom) gathered from the tan pit is thus forced out, and_the_inequalities of thickness still more reduced. Tools of several kinds are employed for scraping and dressing down the irregularities of the surfacesometimes a circular knife, among others, shaped like a bowl, the bottom being open for the insertion of the hand. By these operations the skin is softened and prepared for the dubbing (daubing) process. Each side of it is well rubbed with an oily compound made by boiling cod oil with the skins of sheep; and the leather is then hung up to dry. Either before or after this it is subjected to the action of rubbing with the pommel or graining board, an instrument shaped somewhat like a brush, with a leather strap on the back to give a secure hold for the hand slipped under it. It is entirely of hard wood, the under or rubbing surface made with transverse grooves like a crimping board. The leather is folded over, leaving the flesh side out, and is strongly rubbed with the pommel. is then spread out, leaving the other side exposed to receive a similar application. By this operation the flexibility is greatly increased. After this graining process, the leather is in good condition for storing and keeping till wanted for sale; or, after delicately shaving the flesh side with a very sharp knife, it may be immediately submitted to the process of waxing. A color composed of oil and lampblack is well rubbed in on the flesh side with a hard brush till the surface is thoroughly black; upon this is applied with a brush or sponge a coat of stiff size and tallow, and when dry it is rubbed with a broad smooth lump of glass. The sizing and rubbing are then repeated. Leather thus treated is distinguished either by the name "waxed," or "black on the flesh," and is used for the uppers of men's boots and shoes. If curried on the other side, it is called "black on the grain," and this sort is used for the uppers of ladies' shoes. The treatment is the same for both up to the waxing. To the leather to be made black on the grain is applied a solution of copperas, the effect of which is to produce a black dye by the union of the iron of this salt with the gallic acid of the tan. It is then rubbed with a brush dipped in stale urine, and when dry the application of oil and lampblack is

It

made; and when this is dry another application of the copperas with rubbing. After this it undergoes the treatment with the pommel again, and several other processes of rubbing, polishing, and dubbing or oiling.

CURTIS, BENJAMIN ROBBINS, an American jurist, born in Watertown, Mass., Nov. 4, 1809, was graduated at Harvard college in 1829. He was admitted to the bar in 1832, and commenced the practice of the law at Northfield, Mass., but soon removed to Boston, where he took a high rank and secured an extensive business. He was remarkable for the extent and readiness of his legal attainments, the clearness and accuracy of his statements, and the vigorous grasp of his logic. Upon the death of the late Judge Woodbury, he was appointed a judge of the supreme court of the United States in September, 1851. This office he held till the autumn of 1857, when he resigned it. Since his retirement from the bench, he has resumed the practice of his profession in Boston. Few distinguished lawyers in our country have devoted themselves so exclusively to their profession as Judge Curtis. He was for one or two years a member of the house of representatives in Massachusetts, but has taken very little part in politics.-GEORGE TICKNOR, an American lawyer and juridical author, younger brother of the preceding, born in Watertown, Mass., Nov. 28, 1812, was graduated at Harvard college in 1832. He was admitted to the bar in 1836, and has ever since been engaged in the practice of the law in Boston. He has made several valuable contributions to the literature of his profession. He is the author of treatises on the "Rights and Duties of Merchant Seamen" (1844); on the "Law of Copyright" (1847); and on the "Law of Patents" (1849). These are all works of acknowledged merit. He has also compiled a volume of "Equity Precedents,' ," a digest of English and American admiralty decisions, and 2 vols. of the series of digests of the reports of the United States, published by Little, Brown, and co., were prepared by him. He has also published (1854) the first volume of a work entitled "Commentaries on the Jurisprudence, Practice, and Peculiar Jurisdiction of the Courts of the United States," which was highly commended by Chief Justice Taney. But the work by which he is best known is a "History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Constitution of the United States," the first volume of which was published in 1855, and the second in 1858. This is a work of careful and patient research, candid political judgment, and great clearness of style. Mr. Curtis served for 2 or 3 years as a member of the Massachusetts house of representatives, but he has allowed politics to interfere but little with the labors of his profession, and his historical and constitutional investigations.

CURTIS, GEORGE WILLIAM, an American author, born at Providence, R. I., Feb. 24, 1824. His father, George Curtis, was from Worcester, Mass.; his mother was a daughter of James

Burrill, a U. S. senator from Rhode Island, who distinguished himself in opposition to the Missouri compromise. Mr. Curtis received his early education in Mr. Green's school at Jamaica Plain, Mass. When he was 15 his father removed from Providence to New York, where he began an apprenticeship to trade in the counting-house of a dry goods importer. He remained in this position, however, only a year. In 1842 he went with his elder brother to reside with the_association for agriculture and education at Brook Farm, in West Roxbury, Mass., where he passed a year and a half in study and agricultural labor; after which, attracted by the cultivated and intellectual society at Concord, Mass., in whose circle Mr. Emerson and Mr. Hawthorne were included, Mr. Curtis, with his brother, spent 18 months there, living with a farmer, and both taking part regularly in the ordinary work of the farm; and then 6 months in tilling a small piece of land on their own account. In 1846 Mr. Curtis went to Europe, and after a year in Italy entered the university of Berlin, where he remained a few months, and witnessed the revolutionary scenes in that city in the spring of 1848. The 2 subsequent years he spent chiefly in travel through central and southern Europe, and in Egypt and Syria. In 1850 he returned to the United States, and in the summer of that year published his first book, the "Nile Notes of a Howadji." He soon after joined the editorial staff of the "New York Tribune," and in the summer of 1851 wrote a series of letters to that journal from various watering places, which were afterward collected in a volume, under the title of "Lotus Eating." His second book, however, was the "Howadji in Syria," published in 1852. In the autumn of 1852 "Putnam's Monthly" was commenced in New York, of which Mr. Curtis was one of the original editors, and with which he continued connected till the magazine was merged in another, and virtually ceased to exist. "Prue and I," which was published in 1856, was made up from some of his contributions to that periodical. The second publishers of "Putnam's Monthly" were Dix, Edwards, and co., and in this house Mr. Curtis was a silent partner, pecuniarily responsible, but taking no part in its commercial management. In the spring of 1857 the house was found to be insolvent, and he then, in connection with Mr. Miller, who had been its printer, assumed its assets and liabilities, in the hope of saving the creditors from loss. The attempt was unsuccessful, and he was compelled in a few months to abandon an enterprise in which his private fortune had been entirely sunk. As a lyceum lecturer, upon which field of labor Mr. Curtis entered in 1853, he has met with great success. He delivered a poem at the university of Rochester in 1853, and another before a society in Brown university the year following. His orations on similar occasions have been numerous. In the presidential canvass of 1856 he enlisted with great zeal as a public speaker on behalf of the republican party.

In the winter of 1858 he appeared as the advocate of the rights of woman, in a lecture entitled "Fair Play for Women." To the current literature of the day he has been a constant contributor since 1853, through "Harper's Monthly," as well as through "Putnam's Monthly," as long as it existed, and through "Harper's Weekly," newspaper, since the autumn of 1857. CURTIUS, ERNST, a German philologist and archæologist, born in Lübeck, Sept. 2, 1814, became professor in Berlin in 1843, was tutor of Frederic William, the son of the present regent of Prussia, until 1850, and appointed in 1856 professor in Göttingen, as successor of the famous Herrman. He has written largely on Grecian antiquities. Among his more recent works is Die Ionier vor der Ionischen Wanderung (1855).-His brother, GEORG, born April 16, 1820, officiating since 1851 as professor in Prague, has written several philological works, including a Greek grammar for the use of colleges (2d ed. Prague, 1855).

CURTIUS, MAROUS, a Roman hero, who lived about the middle of the 4th century B. C., and who is said to have sacrificed himself for the good of his country. The legend which relates this event is in substance as follows: An earthquake once happening at Rome, a large portion of the area of the forum sank down, and a vast chasm appeared there. All attempts to fill it up were vain, and the city was smitten with consternation, especially as the haruspices had declared that it could only be filled by casting into it that on which the greatness of Rome depended. While every one was hesitating and doubting as to the meaning of the haruspicial declaration, the heroic Marcus presented himself, and proclaiming that Rome contained nothing more indispensable to her greatness than a valiant citizen fully accoutred for battle, he offered himself as a victim; and, having arrayed himself in complete armor and mounted his war horse, he galloped into the abyss. Then the earth closed, the chasm vanished, and the forum resumed its wonted aspect. But the place of the chasm, and of the sacrifice of Marcus, was ever after called Lacus Curtius. Other versions of the legend are given by different authors, but the above has obtained the greatest currency.

CURTIUS, RUFUS QUINTUS, the Roman historian of Alexander the Great. Respecting his life and the age in which he lived we have no accurate information. Some critics make him contemporary with Vespasian, and some with Constantine, but it is probable that the former are nearer the truth. The history of Curtius is entitled De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni. It consisted originally of 10 books, but the first 2 have perished, and the 8 that remain are not by any means perfect. It is not a good historical authority. The best edition is that of Zumpt (Berlin, 1849).

CURULE CHAIR, a state chair among the ancient Romans, permission to use which was a mark of high honor, and only granted, under the republic, to the dictator, consuls, prætors,

censors, chief ædiles, the flamen dialis, and those deputed by the dictator to act under himself. In the times of the empire this honor was granted to others. The magistrates entitled to use this chair were called curule magistrates, and when they went to council, the chair was borne on a chariot (currus), whence its name. At first it was only adorned with ivory, but in later times it was overlaid with gold.

CURVE, or CURVED LINE, in geometry, a line which continually and continuously changes its direction. In the higher geometry, a curve is a line in which the coordinates of each point fulfil the same laws. The circumference of a circle is the simplest of all curves. The laws which each point in it must obey are various. One is that each point is equally distant from the centre; another that each part of the line is equally curved, &c. The circle is taken as the measure of curvature. The circle which would exactly fit any curve at any point is called the circle of curvature at that point, and its radius, the radius of curvature. A law by which this radius increases and diminishes in going to different points is usually considered the most vital law of the curve, or intrinsic equation.

CURZON, PAUL ALFRED DE, & French painter, born Sept. 7, 1820. He excels chiefly in landscape painting, has explored the Morea in company with Edmond About and Charles Garnier, and has executed many good pictures, especially those of the Acropolis of Athens, and the shores of the Cephissus, which were favorably noticed at the universal exhibition in Paris in 1855. He also received a second medal in 1857.

CUSH, the name of the eldest son of Ham, as well as of a southern region of the scriptural world, which is rendered Ethiopia by the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and by almost all other versions of the Hebrew Bible, and Mohrenland, or land of the blacks, by Luther. There can be no rational doubt that Ethiopia, in its more common and limited sense, was designated by that appellation in Hebrew, though Bochart has contended for its meaning exclusively southern Arabia. Ezekiel (xxix. 10) speaks of it as lying beyond Syene, which perfectly agrees with the classical definition of the boundaries of Ethiopia; Mizraim (Egypt) and Cush are often connected by the prophets, and mentioned together in the Psalms (lxviii. 31). The Cushites appear together with other African nations in historical relations; their black complexion is alluded to in the Bible as well as in the Mishna. But whether Cush did or did not include any other region in the world known to the Hebrews, especially southern Arabia, is a question which has elicited a great deal of ethnological controversy. Michaelis and a number of other critics defend the affirmative. Gesenius maintains the negative. The former opinion is strengthened by a number of scriptural passages in which Cush appears together with Arabian tribes, by its being rendered Arabia in the Chaldee paraphrase of Jonathan, and by the existence of a

tribe called Beni Chusi in Yemen, according to Niebuhr. We find, beside, the land of Cush compassed by the river Gihon (Gen. ii. 13), and Cush as the father of Nimrod, who founded empires in Asia; the same name is connected by Ezekiel with Elam or Susiana, which again agrees with the classical names of Cissians and Cosseans given to the inhabitants of the latter country, and with its modern name, Khusistan. The Himyarites, an ancient people of southern Arabia, are styled by Syrian writers both Cushæans and Ethiopians. The classical term Ethiopia, too, comprised many distant and distinct nations, having in common only their sun-burnt complexion. Homer calls them "a divided race, the last of men, some of them at the extreme west, and others at the extreme east." Strabo says nearly the same. Herodotus speaks of an eastern or Asiatic, and a western or African Ethiopia. The prevalent opinion of the latest ethnological and biblical scholars is, therefore, that Cush in its limited meaning designates Ethiopia, but is also the name of several other Asiatic regions situated along the shores of the southern ocean, and inhabited by people of the Hamitic family. "Recent linguistic discovery," says George Rawlinson ("Translation of Herodotus," book i. essay xi.), "tends to show that a Cushite or Ethiopian race did in the earliest times extend itself along the shores of the southern ocean from Abyssinia to India. The whole peninsula of India was peopled by a race of this character, before the influx of the Aryans; it extended from the Indus along the sea-coast through the modern Beloochistan and Kerman, which was the proper country of the Asiatic Ethiopians; the cities on the northern shores of the Persian gulf are shown by the brick inscriptions found among their ruins to have belonged to this race; it was dominant in Susiana and Babylonia, until overpowered in the one country by Aryan, in the other by Semitic intrusion; it can be traced, both by dialect and tradition, throughout the whole south coast of the Arabian peninsula; and it still exists in Abyssinia, where the language of the principal tribe (the Galla) furnishes, it is thought, a clue to the cuneiform inscriptions of Susiana and Elymais, which date from a period probably a thousand years before our era." CUSHING, CALEB, an American statesman and jurist, born in Salisbury, Essex co., Mass., in. Jan. 1800. He belongs to an old colonial family, which has been largely represented in offices of public service. At the age of 17 he was graduated at Harvard college, and for nearly 2 years subsequent performed the duties of tutor of mathematics and natural philosophy in that institution. Meanwhile he entered upon the study of law, and after the unusual preparatory period of 5 years, was admitted to the bar, commencing practice at Newburyport. Although he attained high professional success, he continued to give a part of his attention to literary studies, and became prominent among the contributors to the "North American Review," by his papers upon historical and legal topics. The po

litical life of Mr. Cushing commenced in 1825, when he was elected a representative from Newburyport in the lower house of the Massachusetts legislature. In 1826 he was elected to the state senate. At the beginning of his public life he was a member of the then republican party. In 1829 Mr. Cushing visited Europe on a tour of pleasure, and remained abroad nearly 2 years. The fruits of this tour were his "Reminiscences of Spain," a collection of miscellanies published in 1833, which indicated a minute acquaintance with Spanish history and literature. To this succeeded, in the same year, his elaborate and learned "Historical and Political Review" of the revolution of Three Days in France, and of the consequent events in other European nations. A portion of this work, which was issued in 2 volumes, had previously appeared in the "American Annual Register." In 1833 Mr. Cushing resumed political life, and was again elected a representative from Newburyport to the Massachusetts legislature, in which position he continued 2 years. In 1835 he was elected from the Essex north district of Massachusetts a representative to congress, in which body he served for 4 consecutive terms. Having supported John Quincy Adams for the presidency, Mr. Cushing thenceforward, until the administration of President Tyler, remained a member of the whig party. At that time, however, in company with Mr. Wise of Virginia and others, abandoning his former political associates, he supported the administration, and has ever since been connected with the democratic party. His congressional career was distinguished by unusual application to public service, as well as by eloquence and parliamentary accomplishments of a high order. His influence was felt, not less in the labors and deliberations of the committee room, than in the debates of the house, as is attested by the numerous and voluminous reports which he had occasion to prepare and submit for its legislative action. In 1843 President Tyler nominated Mr. Cushing as secretary of the treasury, but the nomination was rejected by the senate. The appointment of commissioner to China was then tendered him, and in the summer of 1843 he proceeded to that country. In 1844 he negotiated the first treaty of the U. S. government with the emperor of China. On his return home he was again elected to represent Newburyport in the state legislature, and during the session of 1847 became conspicuous by his advocacy of the Mexican war, a measure not at all favored by a majority of the people of the state. A bill to appropriate funds to equip the Massachusetts regiment of volunteers having been defeated in the legislature, Mr. Cushing furnished the requisite sum from his own means. He was then appointed colonel of the regiment, and in the spring of 1847 accompanied it to the Rio Grande in Mexico. Soon after his arrival at the seat of war, where he was attached to the army under command of Gen. Taylor, he received the appointment of brigadier-general. During the war he was one of the 3 officers con