CAUSSIN, Nicholas, surnamed the Just, a French Jesuit, was born at Troyes in Champagne, in the year 1589, and entered into the order of Jesuits when he was twenty-six years of age. He taught rhetoric in several of their colleges, and afterwards began predication, by which he gained great reputation. He increased this reputation by publishing books; and in time was preferred to the office of confessor to the king. But he did not discharge this office to the satisfaction of Cardinal Richelieu, though he did so to that of every honest man; and therefore it is not to be wondered at that he was at length removed from it. He died in the Jesuits' convent at Paris in 1651. None of his works is held in so great estimation as that entitled La Cour Sainte, in 5 vols. 12mo. It has been printed a great many times, and translated into Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and English. The popularity of this work, on its first appearance, was immediate and unbounded; which led some one, at the time, to remark, "que le P. Caussin avec mieux fait ses affaires à la cour sainte qu'à la cour de France." He published several other books both in Latin and French; particularly, 1. De Eloquentia Sacra et Humana; 2. La Vie Neute des Filles décotes qui font état de n'être ni mariées ni religieuses, Paris, 1644, 12mo; 3. Réponse à la Théologie des Jésuites; 4. Symbolica Ægyptiorum sapientia, Paris, 1618 and 1634, 4to and 8vo.

CAUSTICITY, a quality belonging to several substances, by means of which the parts of living animals may be corroded and destroyed.

CAUSTICS is an appellation given to substances of so hot and fiery a nature, that, being applied, they consume, and as it were burn, the texture of the parts, like hot iron. Caustics are generally divided into four sorts; the common stronger caustic, the common milder caustic, the antimonial caustic, and the lunar caustic or nitrate of silver.

Caustic Curve, in the higher geometry, a curve formed by the concourse or coincidence of the rays of light reflected from some other curve.

CAUTERIZATION, the act of burning or searing some morbid part, by the application of fire either actual or potential.

CAUTERY, in Surgery, a medicine for burning, eating, or corroding any solid part of the body.

CAUTIONER, in Scotch Law, that person who becomes bound for another to the performance of any deed or obligation.