in form and treatment, and many of them, inlaid with satinwood, ebony, holly or box, are extremely elegant.
CUPID (Cupido, “desire”), the Latin name for the god of
love, Eros (q.v.). Cupid is generally identical with Amor. The
idea of the god of love in Roman poetry is due to the influence of
Alexandrian poets and artists, in whose hands he degenerated
into a mischievous boy with essentially human characteristics.
His usual attribute is the bow. For the story of Cupid and
Psyche, see under Psyche.
CUPOLA (Ital., from Lat. cupula, small cask or vault, cupa, tub), a term, in architecture, for a spherical or spheroidal covering to a building, or to any part of it. In fortification the word is used of a form of armoured structure, in which guns or howitzers are mounted. It is a low flat turret resembling an overturned
saucer and showing little above the ground except the muzzles of the guns. See for details and illustrations Fortification and Siegecraft; also Ordnance.
CUPPING. The operation of cupping is one of the methods that have been adopted by surgeons to draw blood from an
inflamed part in order to relieve the inflammation. The skin
is washed and dried; a glass cup with a rounded edge is then
firmly applied, after the air in it has been heated; the cooling
of the air causes the formation of a partial vacuum, and the blood
is thus drawn from the neighbouring parts to the skin under the
cup. Either the blood is drawn from the patient’s body through
a number of small wounds which are made in the skin, with a
special instrument, before the cup is applied; or the cup is
simply applied to the unbroken skin and the blood drawn into
the subcutaneous tissue within the circumference of the cup.
The result of both methods is the same,—namely, a withdrawal
of blood locally from the inflamed part. The former is called
moist cupping, the latter dry cupping. This operation has naturally
declined in vogue with the obsolescence of blood-letting as
a remedy.
CUPRA, the name of two ancient Italian municipia in Picenum.
1. Cupra Maritima (Civita di Marano near the modern Cupra Marittima), on the Adriatic coast, 48 m. S.S.E. of Ancona, erected in the neighbourhood of an ancient temple of the Sabine goddess Cupra, which was restored by Hadrian in A.D. 127, and probably (though there is some controversy on the point) occupied the site of the church of S. Martino, some way to the south, in which the inscription of Hadrian exists. At Civita the remains of what was believed to be the temple were more probably those of the forum of the town, as is indicated by the discovery of fragments of a calendar and of a statue of Hadrian. Some statuettes of Juno were also among the finds. An inscription of a water reservoir erected in 7 B.C. is also recorded. But the more ancient Picene town appears to have been situated near the hill of S. Andrea, a little way to the south, where pre-Roman tombs have been discovered.
See C. Hülsen in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie (Stuttgart, 1901), iv. 1760; G. Speranza, Il Piceno (Ascoli Piceno, 1900), i. 119 seq.
2. Cupra Montana, 10 m. S.W. of Aesis (mod. Jesi) by road. The village, formerly called Massaccio, has resumed the ancient name. Its site is fixed by inscriptions—cf. Th. Mommsen in Corp. Inscrip. Lat. ix. (Berlin, 1883), p. 543; and various ruins, perhaps of baths, and remains of subterranean aqueducts have been discovered near the church of S. Eleuterio.
See F. Menicucci in G. Colucci, Antichità Picene, xx. (1793).
CUPRITE, a mineral consisting of cuprous oxide, Cu2O, crystallizing in the cubic system, and forming an important ore of copper, of which element cuprite contains 88.8%. The
name cuprite (from Lat. cuprum, copper) was given by W. Haidinger in 1845; earlier names are red copper ore and ruby
copper, which at once distinguish this mineral from the other
native copper oxide—cupric oxide—known as black copper ore
or melaconite. Well-developed crystals are of common occurrence;
they usually have the form of the regular octahedron,
sometimes in combination with the cube and the rhombic
dodecahedron. A few Cornish crystals have been observed with
faces of a form {hkl} known as the pentagonal icositetrahedron,
since it is bounded by twenty-four irregular pentagons. In
this class of cubic crystals there are no planes or centre of symmetry,
but the full number (thirteen) of axes of symmetry; it is
known as the trapezohedral hemihedral class, and cuprite affords
the best example of this type of symmetry. The etching figures
do not, however, conform to this lower degree of symmetry, nor
do crystals of cuprite rotate the plane of polarization of plane-polarized
light. The colour of the
mineral is cochineal-red, and the lustre
brilliant and adamantine to sub-metallic
in character; crystals are
often translucent, and show a crimson-red
colour by transmitted light. On
prolonged exposure to light the crystals
become dull and opaque. The streak is
brownish-red. Hardness 3½; specific
gravity 6.0; refractive index 2.85.
 |
Compact to granular masses also occur, and there are two curious varieties—chalcotrichite and tile-ore—which require special mention. Chalcotrichite (from Gr. χαλκός, copper, and θρίξ, τριχός, hair) or “plush copper ore” is a capillary form with a rich carmine colour and silky lustre; the delicate hairs are loosely matted together, and each one is an individual crystal enormously elongated in the direction of the diagonal or the edge of the cube. Tile-ore (Ger. Ziegelerz) is a soft earthy variety of a brick-red to brownish-red colour; it contains admixed limonite, and has been formed by the alteration of chalcopyrite (copper and iron sulphide).
Cuprite occurs in the upper part of copper-bearing lodes, and is of secondary origin, having been produced by the alteration of copper sulphides. Beautifully crystallized specimens were formerly found in Wheal Gorland and Wheal Unity at Gwennap, and in Wheal Phoenix near Liskeard in Cornwall; they also occur in the copper mines of the Urals, and in Arizona. Isolated crystals bounded by faces on all sides, and an inch or more in diameter, are found embedded in a soft white clay at Chessy near Lyons; they are usually altered on the surface, or throughout, to malachite. Chalcotrichite comes from Wheal Phoenix and Fowey Consols mine in Cornwall, and from Morenci in Arizona; tile-ore from Bogoslovsk in the Urals, Atacama in South America, and other localities. Small crystals of cuprite, together with malachite, azurite and cerussite, are sometimes found encrusting ancient objects of copper and bronze, such as celts and Roman coins, which have for long periods remained buried in the soil. Artificially formed crystals have been observed in furnace products. (L. J. S.)
CUPULIFERAE, a botanical order, or, in recent arrangements,
group of orders, containing several familiar trees. The plants
are trees or shrubs with simple leaves alternately arranged and
small unisexual flowers generally arranged in catkins and pollinated
by wind-agency. The generally one-seeded nut-like fruit
is associated with the persistent often hardened or greatly
enlarged bracts forming the so-called cupule which gives the
name to the group. The group is subdivided as follows, and
these subdivisions are now generally regarded either as distinct natural orders or the first two as sub-orders of one natural order.
Betuleae or Betulaceae. Female flowers arranged, two to three together on scale-like structures formed by the union of bracts, in catkins; ovary two-celled; fruit small, flattened, protected between the ripened scales of the catkin. Includes Betula (birch) and Alnus (alder).
Coryleae or Corylaceae. Female flowers in pairs, the bracts enlarging in the fruit to form a membranous cup (hazel), or a flat three-lobed structure (hornbeam). Ovary two-celled. Includes Corylus (hazel) and Carpinus (hornbeam).
Fagaceae (Cupuliferae in a restricted sense). Bracts forming a fleshy or hard cupule which envelops the one to several fruits. Ovary three-celled. Includes Quercus (oak), Fagus (beech), Castanea (sweet-chestnut).
Detailed accounts of the trees will be found under separate headings.
