Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/99

CASWELL CAT 91 " America and the American Church " (1839), "City of the Mormons" (1842-'3), "Scotland and the Scottish Church" (1853), "The West- ern World Eevisited " (1854), and other works. CASWELL, a N. county of North Carolina, bordering on Virginia ; area, 400 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 16,081, of whom 9,494 were colored. It is intersected by Hycootee river and County Line creek, affluents of Dan river. The sur- face is undulating, and the soil fertile. The Richmond, Danville, and Piedmont railroad crosses the N. W. corner. The chief produc- tions in 1870 were 80,597 bushels of wheat, 237,257 of Indian corn, 93,646 of oats, and 2,262,053 Ibs. of tobacco. There were 1,543 horses, 2,126 milch cows, 1,984 other cattle, 2,765 sheep, and 9,175 swine. There were 5 manufactories of carriages and wagons, 2 of iron castings, 2 of chewing tobacco, and 9 flour mills. Capital, Yanceyville. CASWELL, Richard, an American revolution- ary general and statesman, born in Maryland, Aug. 3, 1729, died Nov. 20, 1789. In 1746 he removed to North Carolina, where in 1754 he became a member of the colonial assembly, in which he continued to hold a seat till 1771. He was then chosen speaker of the house of commons, and colonel of the county militia, and at the outbreak of the revolution identified himself with the patriots. He soon after be- came treasurer of the state. In 1776, in com- mand of a regiment of minute men, he defeated the loyalists at Moore's creek, and for this ser- vice was appointed brigadier general. For three years he was president of the provincial congress which framed the state constitution, under which he was elected the first governor. He was engaged in the disastrous battle of Camden in 1780, became comptroller general of the state in 1782, and was again elected governor in 1784, to which office he was twice reflected. In 1787 he was a delegate to the convention assembled at Philadelphia for the formation of the federal constitution ; in 1789 he was speaker of the state senate, and he was subsequently one of the convention by which the federal constitution was ratified in North Carolina. He was presiding in the senate when he was struck with fatal paralysis. CAT, a general name for animals of the genus felis (Linn.), which comprises about 50 species of carnivorous mammalia, the characters of which are closely assimilated, and at the same time widely different from other genera. It is characterized by six incisor teeth above and below ; two canine teeth in each jaw, power- ful and formed for tearing ; molar or cheek teeth, four in the upper jaw and three in the lower, thin, pointed, and wedge-shaped, formed for cutting. The head is large, round, and wide ; the eyes have the pupil often oblong ; the tongue has strong horny papillae, directed backward. The feet are formed for walking ; the toes are five in number on the fore feet and four on the hind feet, armed with strong, sharp, and hooked claws, retracted when the animal walks. The intestines are very short, as in all animals living almost exclusively on animal food. The animals composing this genus (which includes the lion, tiger, panther, &c.) are the most powerful and ferocious of all predatory quadrupeds, as the eagles and birds of prey are among the feathered tribes. The different spe- cies are distributed over every portion of the globe, with the exception of Australia and the South Pacific islands ; but the most formidable are found in the warmest climates ; no species has been discovered common to the old and the new world. The favorite resorts of these animals are the thick forests of the tropics, where they lie concealed during the day, and prowl at night in search of prey ; the more northern and smaller species prefer rocky and well wooded situations. The cats hunt a living prey, which they secure by cunning and watchfulness, springing upon their unsuspecting victims from an ambush, or stealthily crawling up to them. Some species, as the leopard and jaguar, pur- sue their prey into trees. The couguar lies in wait on a branch or overhanging rock, and falls upon animals passing beneath. Their aspect is ferocious, their instincts bloody, and their strength great ; even their voice has something in it harsh and terrible. The anatomical struc- ture of the cats is indicative of great strength and activity; the jaws are very powerful* bear- ing teeth shaped like wedges, thin and sharp, re- quiring but little force to cut through the flesh on which they feed ; the structure of the joint admits of no lateral motion, and the whole force of the immense temporal and masseter muscles is exerted in a perpendicular or cutting direction. To assist in tearing their food, the surface of the tongue is covered with numer- ous horny papillae ; these may be felt, on a small scale, on the tongue of the domestic cat ; the tongue is rather an organ for removing muscu- lar fibres from bones, and for retaining flesh in the mouth, than an organ of taste. The neck, shoulders, and fore limbs display a remarkable muscular development ; the lion can drag away with ease cattle and horses which it has killed ; a single blow of the fore limb of a Bengal tiger has been known to fracture a man's skull. The mechanism by which their claws are retracted and prevented from being blunted during walk- ing is as follows : the claw itself is supported on the last bone, which consists of two por- tions united to each other at nearly a right an- gle ; the articulation is at the upper end of the vertical portion, while the flexor tendons are attached to the other portion ; the action of these muscles causes the whole bone to move through an arc of 90 round the end of the sec- ond bone. In the state of rest the claw is kept retracted by a slip of the extensor muscle, and by elastic ligaments ; in the state of action, the strong tendon of the flexor, with its circular sweep, protrudes the claw with prodigious pow- er. The domestic cat is generally believed to have sprung from the Egyptian cat (felis mani- culata, Etippell), a native of the north of Africa.