CASSANO ALL’ IONIO, a town of Calabria, Italy, in the province of Cosenza; its railway station (6 m. S. of the town) is 37 m. N. by E. from the town of Cosenza, while it is 6 m. W. of Sibari, on the line between Metaponto and Reggio. Pop. 6842. It is very finely situated, 820 ft. above sea-level: the rock above it is crowned by a medieval castle commanding beautiful views: a tower is still pointed out as that from which the stone was thrown which killed Milo, but this rests on an erroneous identification of Cassano with the ancient Compsa (q.v.). There are warm sulphurous springs here which are used for baths.
CASSAVA, the name given to the farinaceous root of two species of Euphorbiaceous plants, the bitter cassava, Manihot utilissima, and the sweet cassava, M. Aipi, both highly important sources of food starches; Manihot is given as the native Brazilian name in Spanish writings of the 16th century. They are herbaceous or semi-shrubby perennials with very large fleshy, cylindrical, tapering roots as much as 3 ft. long and 6 to 9 in. in diameter, and filled with milky juice. The slender stems,
5 to 9 ft. high, bear large spreading long-stalked leaves, with the blade divided nearly to the base into three to seven long narrow segments. The plants are probably natives of South America, but the bitter cassava, which is the more important of the two in an economic sense, has been introduced into most tropical regions, and is extensively cultivated in west tropical Africa and the Malay Archipelago, from which, as well as from Brazil and other South American states, its starch in the form of tapioca is a staple article of export. The sap of the bitter cassava root contains hydrocyanic acid, and the root, being therefore highly poisonous, cannot be eaten in a fresh condition; while on the other hand the sweet cassava is perfectly innocuous, and is employed as a table vegetable. Exposure to heat dissipates the poisonous principle, and the concentrated juice is in that state used as the basis of cassareep and other sauces. From the bitter cassava roots many different food preparations are made in Brazil. The roots are preserved for use by being simply cleaned, sliced and dried; from such dried slices manioc or cassava meal, used for cassava cakes, &c., is prepared by rasping. The starch also is separated and used for food under the name of Brazilian arrowroot; and this, when agglomerated into pellets on hot plates, forms the tapioca (q.v.) of commerce. Cassava starch has a stellate hilum, which readily distinguishes it under the microscope from other starches.
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| Cassava or Manioc (Manihot utilissima), less than half nat. size. | |
| 1, An inflorescence showing at a a fruit which will presently separate into five one-seeded parts, about 12 nat. size. 2, Pistil of female flower. |
3, Stamens and fleshy disc of male flower. 4, Seed with its appendage (strophiole or caruncle). |
CASSEL, a town of northern France in the department of Nord, 34 m. N.W. of Lille by rail. Pop. (1906) 1844. It stands on an isolated hill (515 ft.) from which portions of France, Belgium and England can be seen, with 32 towns and 100 villages, including St Omer, Dunkirk, Ypres and Ostend. The former hôtel de ville (1634), the hôtel de la Noble Cour, once the seat of the jurisdiction of maritime Flanders, now the town-hall, and the hôtel des ducs d’Halluin are the historic buildings of the town. Cassel has a communal college. Its industrial establishments include tanneries, oil-mills, salt refineries and breweries, and there is trade in cattle and butter.
The town, supposed to occupy the site of Castellum Menapiorum, was a Roman station, as numerous remains of the Gallo-Roman period attest, and an important centre of roads. It is frequently mentioned in the wars of the middle ages, and was the scene of important battles in 1071, when Robert, count of Flanders, vanquished his rival Arnulf; 1328, when Philip of Valois defeated the Flemish; and 1677, when William of Orange was defeated by Philip, duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV. General D. R. Vandamme (1770–1830) was born in the town.
CASSEL, or Kassel, a city of Germany, capital of the former electorate of Hesse-Cassel, and, since its annexation by Prussia in 1866, capital of the province of Hesse-Nassau. Pop. (1885) 64,083; (1905) 120,446. It is pleasantly situated, in a hilly and well-wooded country, on both sides of the river Fulda, over which a stone bridge leads to the lower new town, 124 m. by rail N.N.E. from Frankfort-on-Main. The river is navigable for barges, and railways connect the town with all parts of Germany. The streets of the old town are narrow and crooked, and contain many picturesque gabled houses, generally of the 17th century, but those of the upper and lower new town, and the three suburbs, are not surpassed by any in Germany. The principal streets are the Königs-strasse (5100 ft. long and 60 broad), the Schöne Aussicht, and the Stände-platz (180 ft. broad with four rows of linden trees). The large Friedrichs-platz is 1000 by 450 ft. in area. In it stands a marble statue of the landgrave Frederick II. There is a fine view from the open side. The former residence of the electors (Residenzschloss) fronts this square, as well as the Museum Fridericianum, with a façade of Roman-Ionic columns. The museum contains various valuable collections of curiosities, interesting mosaics, coins, casts, a library of 230,000 volumes, and valuable manuscripts. In the cabinet of curiosities there is a complete collection of clocks and watches from the earliest to the present time. Among these is the so-called Egg of Nuremberg, a watch made about 1500 by Peter Henlein. Among other public places and buildings worthy of notice are the Roman Catholic church, with a splendid interior; the Königs-platz, with a remarkable echo; the Karls-platz, with the statue of the landgrave Charles; and the Martins-platz, with a large church—St Martin’s—with twin towers, containing the burial-vaults of the Hessian princes. The gallery of paintings, housed in a handsome building erected in 1880 on the Schöne Aussicht, contains one of the finest small collections in Europe, especially rich in the works of Rembrandt, Frans Hals and Van Dyck.
The town contains numerous educational institutions, including a technical college, a school of painting, a celebrated classical school, which the emperor William II. attended, and a military academy. The descendants of the French refugees who founded the upper new town have a church and hospital of their own. There are three Roman Catholic churches, an English church, and two synagogues. Music is much cultivated, and there is an opera with a first-rate orchestra, of which Ludwig Spohr was at one time conductor. The opera-house or theatre was built
