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226 CHAIX D'EST-ANGE CHALCEDONY bifurcating on the sides, one branch going to the ring in front, the other to the ring behind, causing a nearly continuous waving white line on the sides from the neck to the vent ; alter- nating with the dorsal bars there are irregular white blotches reaching to the abdomen, which is shining violet black ; the tail has four or five transverse rings. The abdominal plates are about 215 in number, and the bifid subcaudal scales from 40 to 50. In a specimen 42 inches long, the head measures a little over an inch, the body 36 inches, and the tail 5 inches ; they attain the length of more than 4 feet. Though fond of moist and shady places, it does not take to the water or to trees; it feeds on moles, mice, small birds, and reptiles, and even other snakes. It is found from New York to Florida ; its western limit is not positively known. CHAIX If | s i - M. | . Gnstave Louis Adolphe Tic- tor Charles, a French advocate, born in Rheiras, April 11, 1800. An able defence of the politi- cal conspirators of 1820 and 1821 gained for him early popularity. He afterward distin- guished himself in criminal trials, where he was considered as almost without a rival. Elected to the chamber of deputies by his native city in 1831, he took his seat among the moderate members of the opposition, and gave peculiar attention to the questions of copyright and individual liberty. One of the interesting trials in which he was engaged in 1832 was in reference to Victor Hugo's drama, Le roi tfamuse, when he was employed by the gov- ernment to sustain the suppression of the drama, and in which he had the author him- self and Odilon Barrot as adversaries. A mem- ber of the constituent assembly in '1848, he evinced great zeal in his opposition to the doc- trines of the socialists, with a leaning to the Bonapartists. His sympathies were rewarded in 1857 by the place of attorney general to the imperial court of justice, in which capacity he appeared as prosecutor against the Italians im- plicated in the attempt of Jan. 14, 1858, upon Napoleon III. Soon afterward he was made councillor of state, and became a senator in 1862, and vice president of council Oct. 18, 1863. CHALCEDON, an ancient town of Asia Minor, on the Bosporus, opposite Constantinople, and near the modern town of Scutari. It was found- ed by a colony from Megara about 680 B. 0., who were ridiculed as blind by the ancients because they settled here and overlooked the admirable site directly opposite, where Byzan- tium was founded about 20 years later. For this reason Chalcedon was often called the city of the blind. About 506, in the reign of Darius, it was taken by the Persians, then by the Athenians and Lacedaemonians, and after a period of independence fell under the dominion of the kings of Bithynia. The Romans got possession of it in 74 B. 0. Its walls were de- stroyed by Valens, and it is now but a poor vil- lage called Kadi-kei. In ecclesiastical history Chalcedon is celebrated as the seat of the fourth oecumenical council, convoked in 451, at the request of the patriarch of Constantinople, Flavian, by the emperor Marcian, to condemn the heresy of Eutyches concerning the two na- tures of Christ, and to counteract the effect of the unauthorized assembly held at Ephesus in 449, and generally stigmatized as the robber synod. The council met on Oct. 8, and 630 bish- ops, chiefly from the East, were present. Pope Leo I. presided by his legates. The creeds of Nice and Constantinople were adopted as the rule of faith ; and after a prolonged discussion the latrocinium of the Ephesian assembly, as well as the doctrines of Eutyches and Dioscorus, in favor of which that synod had pronounced, was condemned. The bishops professed their belief in the existence of two natures in Christ, and declared the Virgin Mary truly the mother of God, directing their decree against both Nestorian and Monophysite doctrines. Fifteen sessions were held, in which 30 disciplinary canons were promulgated, among which was the celebrated decree, opposed by the Roman legates, which made the see of Constantinople equal in privileges and jurisdiction, and next in rank, to that of Rome. It was also ordered that no bishop should take money for ordina- tion, that no ecclesiastic should undertake the administration of the temporal matters of the church or of widows and orphans, forsake the church for any other office, go before a lay tribunal, or hold more than one benefice. Bishops were forbidden to divide their prov- inces, and were given control over the clergy in monasteries. Deaconesses were forbidden to be appointed under the age of 40. Differ- ences were adjusted between the sees of An- tioch and Jerusalem, Nicomedia and Nice ; and Theodoret, deposed in consequence of a decree of the assembly of Ephesus, was restored to his bishopric. These decrees were confirmed by Leo, with the exception of the one relating to the see of Constantinople ; and throughout the Latin church the council of Chalcedon has al- ways been venerated. CHALCEDONY (from the city of Chalcedon), one of the numerous varieties of the quartz family, which are distinguished from each other, not by difference of chemical composi- tion, but by their external form, markings, and colors. The peculiarities of chalcedony con- sist principally in its mammillary, botryoidal, and stalactitic shapes, and its waxy or horny lustre and texture. It is found lining cavities in trap, and also in other rocks, being arranged in concentric layers, precisely as if its particles had been introduced in a gaseous or fluid form. The intermixture of coal with the purely sili- cious layers suggests that water was present during the production of the mineral incrusta- tion. By the variety of its colors and the high lustre it acquires by polishing, chalcedony is much esteemed as an ornamental stone, though its great hardness renders it very difficult to work. In several of the countries of Asia it is common to find articles of this stone, as cups,