in the Materia Medica, the root of a species of SMILAX, brought both from the East and West Indies; and thence distinguished into oriental and occidental. Both sorts are longish, full of joints, of a pale reddish colour, with no smell, and very little taste. The oriental, which is the most esteemed, is considerably harder, and paler-coloured than the other. Such should be chosen as is fresh, close, heavy, and upon being chewed appears full of a fat unctuous juice. It is generally supposed to promote insensible perspiration and the urinary discharge, and by its unctuous quality to obtund acrimonious juices. China-root was first brought into Europe in the year 1535, and used as a specific against venereal and cutaneous disorders. disorders. With this view it was made use of for some time; but has long since given place to more powerful medicines.

**CHINA-Ware.** See Porcelain.

**CHINCA,** a sea-port town in Peru in South America, situated in an extensive valley of the same name, in W. Long. 76°. S. Lat. 13°.

**CHINCOUGH,** a convulsive kind of cough to which children are generally subject. See Medicine Index.

**CHINESE,** in general, denotes anything belonging to China or its inhabitants.

**CHINESE Swanpan.** See Abacus.

**CHINKAPIN.** See Fagus, Botany Index.

**CHINNOR,** a musical instrument among the Hebrews, consisting of 32 chords. Kircher has given a figure of it, which is copied on Plate CXLV.

**CHINON,** an ancient town of Tourrain in France, remarkable for the death of Henry II, king of England, and for the birth of the famous Rabelais. It is seated on the river Vienne, in a pleasant and fertile country, in E. Long. 0°. 18°. N. Lat. 47°.

**CHIO,** or **CHIOS,** an Asiatic island lying near the coast of Natolia, opposite to the peninsula of Ionia. It was known to the ancients by the name of Ethalia, Macris, Pithyusa, &c. as well as that of Chios. According to Herodotus, the island of Chios was peopled originally from Ionia. It was at first governed by kings: but afterwards the government assumed a republican form, which by the direction of Ifocrates was modelled after that of Athens. They were, however, soon enslaved by tyrants, and afterwards conquered by Cyrus king of Persia. They joined the other Grecians in the Ionian revolt; but were shamefully abandoned by the Samians, Lesbians, and others of their allies: so that they were again reduced under the yoke of the Persians, who treated them with the utmost severity. They continued subject to them till the battle of Mycale, when they were restored to their ancient liberty: this they enjoyed till the downfall of the Persian empire, when they became subject to the Macedonian princes. In the time of the emperor Vespasian the island was reduced to the form of a Roman province; but the inhabitants were allowed to live according to their own laws under the superintendence of a praetor. It is now subject to the Turks, and is called Scio. See that article.

**CHICOCCA.** See Botany Index.

**CHIONANTHUS,** the Snow-drop or Fringe-tree. See Botany Index.

**CHIONE,** in fabulous history, was daughter of Dædalion, of whom Apollo and Mercury became enamoured. To enjoy her company, Mercury lulled her to sleep with his caduceus; and Apollo, in the night under the form of an old woman, obtained the same favours as Mercury. From this embrace Chione became mother of Philammon and Autolycus; the former of whom, as being son of Apollo, became an excellent musician; and the latter was equally notorious for his robberies, of which his father Mercury was the patron. Chione grew so proud of her commerce with the gods, that she even preferred her beauty to that of Juno; for which impiety she was killed by the goddess and changed into a hawk.—Another of the same name was daughter of Boreas and Orithia, who had Eumolpus by Neptune. She threw her son into the sea; but he was preserved by his father.

**CHIOS.** See Chio and Scio.

**CHIOURLIC,** an ancient town of Turkey in Europe, and in Romania, with a see of a Greek bishop. It is seated on a river of the same name, in E. Long. 7°. 47°. N. Lat. 41°. 18°.

**CHIOZZO,** an ancient and handsome town of Italy in the territory of Venice, and in a small island, near the Lagunes, with a podesta, a bishop's see, and a harbour defended by a fort. E. Long. 12°. 23°. N. Lat. 45°. 17°.

**CHIPPEHAM,** a town of Wilthire, seated on the river Avon. It is a good thoroughfare town; has a handsome stone bridge over the river, consisting of arches; and sends two members to parliament. There is here a manufacture of the best superfine woollen cloth in England. W. Long. 2°. 12°. N. Lat. 51°. 25°.

**CHIPPING,** a phrase used by the potters and china men to express that common accident both of our own stone and earthen ware, and the porcelain of China, the flying off of small pieces, or breaking at the edges. Our earthen wares are particularly subject to this, and are always spoiled by it before any other flaw appears in them. Our stone wares escape it better than these; but not so well as the porcelain of China, which is less subject to it than any other manufacture in the world. The method by which the Chinese defend their ware from this accident, is this: They carefully burn some small bamboo canes to a sort of charcoal, which is very light, and very black; this they reduce to a fine powder, and then mix it into a thin paste, with some of the varnish which they use for their ware; they next take the vessel when dried, and not yet baked, to the wheel; and turning them softly round, they, with a pencil dipped in this paste, cover the whole circumference with a thin coat of it; after this, the vessel is again dried; and the border made with this paste appears of a pale grayish colour when it is thoroughly dry. They work on it afterwards in the common way, covering both this edge and the rest of the vessel with the common varnish. When the whole is baked on, the colour given by the ashes disappears, and the edges are as white as any other part; only when the baking has not been sufficient, or the edges have not been covered with the second varnishing, we sometimes find a dusky edge, as in some of the ordinary thick tea-cups. It may be a great advantage to our English manufacturers to attempt something of this kind. The willow is known to make a very light and black charcoal; but the elder, though a thing seldom used, greatly exceeds it. The young green shoots of this shrub, which are almost all pith, make the lightest and the blackest of all charcoal; this readily mixes with any liquid, and might be easily used in the same way that the Chinese use the charcoal of the bamboo cane, which is a light hollow vegetable, more resembling the elder shoots than any other English plant. It is no wonder that the fixed salt and oil contained in this charcoal should be able to penetrate the yet raw edges of the ware, and to give them in the subsequent baking a somewhat different degree of vitrification from the other parts of the vessel; which, though, if given to the whole, it might take off from the true semifluid state of that ware, yet at the edges is not to be regarded, and only serves to defend them from common accidents, and keep them entire. The Chinese use two cautions in this application: the first in the preparation; the second in the laying it on. They prepare the bamboo canes for burning into charcoal, by peeling off the rind. This might easily be done with our elder shoots, which are so succulent, that the bark strips off with a touch. The Chinese say, that if this is not done with their bamboo, the edges touched with the paste will burst in the baking; this does not seem indeed very probable; but the charcoal will certainly be lighter made from the peeled sticks, and this is a known advantage. The other caution is, never to touch the vessel with hands that have any greasy or fatty substance about them; for if this is done, they always find the vessel crack in that place.