Hornbeam. See Botany Index.

CarpoBalsam, in the Materia Medica, the fruit of the tree which yields the true oriental balsam. The carpobalsam is used in Egypt, according to Prosper Alpinus, in all the intentions in which the balsam itself is applied; but the only use the Europeans make of it is in Venice treacle and mithridate: and in these not a great deal, for cubeb and juniper-berries are generally substituted in its place.

CarpoCratians, a branch of the ancient Gnostics, so called from CarpoCrates, who in the second century revived and improved upon the errors of Simon Magus, Menander, Saturinos, and other Gnostics. He owned, with them, one sole principle and father of all things, whose name as well as nature was unknown. The word, he taught, was created by CarpoCrates angels, vastly inferior to the first principle. He opposed the divinity of Jesus Christ; making him a mere man, begotten carnally on the body of Mary by Joseph, though possessed of uncommon gifts which set him above other creatures. He inculcated a community of women; and taught, that the soul could not be purified, till it had committed all kinds of abominations, making that a necessary condition of perfection.

Carpoliti, or Fruit-stone Rocks of the Germans, are composed of a kind of jasper, of the nature of the amygdaloides, or almond-stones. Bertrand asserts that the latter are those which appear to be composed of elliptical pieces like petrified almonds, though, in truth, they are only small oblong pieces of calcareous stone rounded by attrition, and sometimes small mussel-shells connected by a stony concretion. The name of Carpoliti, however, is given in general by writers on fossils to all sorts of stony concretions that have any resemblance to fruit of whatever kind.

Carpus, the Wrist. See Anatomy Index.