CATANIA. 325 CATAKACT. 20,000 volumes and 300 :XISS., and the observatory is associated with that on Mount Etna. Under the Carmelite Church all' liulirizzo is an ancient Roman bath almost complelcly jireserved, and not far from it is a spring probably fed by the underground Amenanus, that emerges just he- fore emptying into the harbor. The uiiiversitv (founded in 14-14) has about 1000 students (for- merly over 2000). a school of ])Iiarmacy, a library of over nO.OOO volumes ( foiuulcd in 1 f ,");"> ) , and a fine collection of shells. The .cademy of Nat- ural Sciences (founded in 182.3) has always l>een active in promoting the investigations of naturalists in Sicily. The suiTounding country, on account of its fertility, has been called the 'granarj' of Sicily,' and produces grain, hemp, flax, silk, cotton, wool, licorice, fruit, wine, and oil. It also has sulphur and salt mines and marble-quar- ries, and !Mount Etna supplies snow. The fish- eries are extensive. The principal mantifactures of Catania are linen, cotton, and silk goods, and objects in lava, wood, marble, and Sicilian am- ber. The terra-cotta figures of Sicilian peasants are interesting. Commercially the city is ac- tive, is the residence of a United States consul, and has regular communication by steamboat with the other ports of Sicily and of Italy, and with the eastern Mediterranean. The classic Catana was founded by Greeks from Chalcis about B.C. 729, and soon became prosperous. Here, in the Sixth Century, B.C., died Stesichorus, who created the chorus of the Greek drama, and the situation of whose tomb is said to have given name to the Piazza Stesicorea. In B.C. 47G the town was depopu- lated by Hiero I. and renamed Etna, receiving a new population of Svracusans and Peloponne- sians, who were, however, expelled in B.C. 461. In the war between Athens and Syracuse, Catania was the Athenian headquarters. In B.C. 403 it was sacked by Dionysius; in B.C. 396 it was captured by the Carthaginians; and it was one of the first Sicilian towns acquired by the Ro- mans, under whom it flourished greatly. It suffered during the Servile and the Civil" wars. It was taken from Belisarius by the Goths, plundered by the Saracens, fortified by the Kormans, and in a.d. 1160 almost destroyed by an earthquake. Being restored and iii 1232 equipped by Frederick II. with the fortress of Rocca Orsina, it flourished under the Aragonese rulers of the Fourteenth Century. On March 8, 1660, in a terrific eruption of Etna, a stream of lava turned its course from the town to the har- bor, which it partl.v filled up. Catania also suffered greatly from the earthquake of 1693. Most of the ruins here were excavated by Prince P.iscari in the Eighteenth Century, and" his col- lections, studied by Goethe in 1787, can be seen in the Museo Biscari. Population, in 1881, 100,000; in 1901, 146,504. CATANIA. A gulf on the ea.st coast of Sicily, extending in the form of a semicircle from Acireale to Cape Santa Croce, near Augus- ta, a di-itance of 18 miles (Map: Italy, K 10). CATANZAEO, ka'tiin-zii'rfi. An episcopal city in southern Italy, capital of the province of the same name, beautifully sitiated on a rocky hill, 8 miles from the Gulf of Squillaec, near the southern extremity of the Italian Peninsula (Map: Italy, L 9). The climate being cool and healthful in summer, many wealthy families reside here. The castle was built by Robert Guiscard; the provincial museum contains nunu>rous antiquities and jjaintings, and the cathedral is not without architectural merit. The coimtry is luxuriant with olive groves, and the town has silk and velvet factories. Po])ula- tion, in 1881 (coniiiume), 29,000: in 1001,
- 2,ooo.
CAT'APLASM. See Pot:i.TiCE. CAT'APUXT, or CAT'APUL'TA (Lat., Gk. mra-i'/.n/C, kattii>cltts, from (Jk. Kara, kata, down + ■na'/.y.eiv, pallein, to brandish). An en- gine of war used in ancient times for projecting stones, long darts, or javelins. There were different kinds and sizes of catapults, to which various nan;es were given. The catiipult was less powerful than the balista, but more uniform in its range. Catapults were used occasionally in the latter part of the Eighteenth Century. There was one erected at Gibraltar during its siege by General Jlelville, for the purpose of throwing stones a short distance over the edge of the rock in a particular space frequented by the Spaniards where they could not be annoyed by shot or shell. For illustration, and its posi- tion in the development of artillery, see Artil- lery. CATAKACT. See Waterfall. CATARACT (Fr. cataracte, Lat. cataracta, from (ik. Harap'paKTiif, katarrhaktcs, waterfall, from Kara, kata, down + prpjvivai, rhegnynai, to break; or less probably from dpanaccv, arassein, to dash in pieces). An opaque condition of the lens of the eye or of its capsule. It is readily distinguished from opacities of the cornea, or clear front part of the eye, by its position just behind the pupil — that round'and varying aper- ture in tlic iris through which light is admitted into the back of the eye. Cataract is called primary when independent of other disease of the ej-e, and secondary, or complicated, when the reverse is true. The opacity of the capsule of the lens or of the lens itself, following operations for cataract, is known as secondary cataract or after-cataract. Cataract may effect the lens alone {lenticular cataract),' or the front or back of the capsule of the lens (cap.iiilar cata- ract), or both lens and capsule {capsulo-lcnilcii- lar cataract). A cataract is called partial when limited to a portion of the lens; complete wlien involving the whole; stationary if it remains l)artial; progressive if it tends to include the entire lens. The last is either senile, congeni- tal, juvenile, or traumatic. In patients under thirty-five years of age cataracts are soft and white, and are called so/'t cataracts. In older persons the nucleus is hard and yellowish, and then the term hard cataract is "applied. The whiteness of a cataract nuiy vary from the color of half-boiled white of egg to that of snow. Heat will produce a like change on the lens removed from the body, just as it changes white of egg from transparent to opaque. The round lens o? the fish is seen at table in this opaque condi- tion. Cataract is painless and unaccompanied by intlaiiwnation. It occasions blindness simply by obstructing the passage of the light; but eat.i- ract alone does not produce so complete blind- ness but that the patient can tell light from
