OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bran (husk)

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​BRAN, the ground husk of wheat, oats, barley or other cereals, used for feeding cattle, packing and other purposes (see Flour). The word occurs in French bren or bran, in the dialects of other Romanic languages, and also in Celtic, cf. Breton brenn, Gaelic bran. The New English Dictionary considers these Celtic forms to be borrowed from French or English. In modern French bren means filth, refuse, and this points to some connexion with Celtic words, e.g. Irish brean, manure. If so, the original meaning would be refuse. “Bran-new,” i.e. quite new, is now the common form of “brand-new,” that which is fresh from the “brand,” the branding-iron used for marking objects, &c.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bran (name)

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​BRAN, in Celtic legend, the name of (1) the hero of the Welsh Mabinogi of Branwen, who dies in the attempt to avenge his sister’s wrongs; he is the son of Llyr (= the Irish sea-god Ler), identified with the Irish Bran mac Allait, Allait being a synonym of Ler; (2) the son of Febal, known only through the 8th-century Irish epic, The Voyage of Bran (to the world below); (3) the dog of Ossian’s Fingal. Bran also appears as a historical name, Latinized as Brennus. See Kuno Meyer and D. Nutt, The Voyage of Bran (London, 1895).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brancovan

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​BRANCOVAN, or Brancoveanu, the name of a family which has played an important part in the history of Rumania. It was of Servian origin and was connected with the family of Branko or Brankovich. Constantine Brancovan, the most eminent member of the family, was born in 1654, and became prince of Walachia in 1689. In consequence of his anti-Turkish policy of forming an alliance first with Austria and then with Russia, he was denounced to the Porte, deposed from his throne, brought under arrest to Constantinople and imprisoned (1710) in the fortress of Yedi Kuleh (Seven Towers). Here he was tortured by the Turks, who hoped thus to discover the fortune of £3,000,000, which Constantine was alleged to have amassed. He was beheaded with his four sons on the 26th of August 1714. His faithful friend Enake Vacarescu shared his fate. Constantine Brancovan became, through his tragic death, the hero of Rumanian popular ballads. His family founded and endowed the largest hospital in Walachia, the so-called Spital Brancovanescu.
See O. G. Lecca, Familiile Boereşti Române (Bucharest, 1899), p. 90, sqq. (M. G.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Choisy, François Timoléon

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​CHOISY, FRANÇOIS TIMOLÉON, Abbé de (1644–1724), French author, was born in Paris on the 16th of August 1644, and died in Paris on the 2nd of October 1724. His father was attached to the household of the duke of Orleans, and his mother, who was on intimate terms with Anne of Austria, was regularly called upon to amuse Louis XIV. By a whim of his mother, the boy was dressed like a girl until he was eighteen, and, after appearing for a short time in man’s costume, he resumed woman’s dress on the advice—doubtless satirical—of Madame de La Fayette. He delighted in the most extravagant toilettes until he was publicly rebuked by the duc de Montausier, when he retired for some time to the provinces, using his disguise to assist his numerous intrigues. He had been made an abbé in his childhood, and poverty, induced by his extravagance, drove him to live on his benefice at Sainte-Seine in Burgundy, where he found among his neighbours a kindred spirit in Bussy-Rabutin. He visited Rome in the suite of the cardinal de Bouillon in 1676, and shortly afterwards a serious illness brought about a sudden and rather frivolous conversion to religion. In 1685 he accompanied the chevalier de Chaumont on a mission to Siam. He was ordained priest, and received various ecclesiastical preferments. He was admitted to the Academy in 1687, and wrote a number of historical and religious works, of which the most notable are the following:—Quatre dialogues sur l’immortalitè de l’âme . . . (1684), written with the Abbé Dangeau and explaining his conversion; Traduction de l’Imitation de Jésus-Christ (1692); Histoire de France sous les règnes de Saint Louis . . . de Charles V et Charles VI (5 vols., 1688–1695); and Histoire de l’Église (11 vols., 1703–1723) He is remembered, however, by his gossiping Mémoires (1737), which contain striking and accurate pictures of his time and remarkably exact portraits of his contemporaries, although he has otherwise small pretensions to historical accuracy.
The Mémoires passed through many editions, and were edited in 1888 by M. de Lescure. Some admirable letters of Choisy are included in the correspondence of Bussy-Rabutin. Choisy is said to have burnt some of his indiscreet revelations, but left a considerable quantity of unpublished MS. Part of this material, giving an account of his adventures as a woman, was surreptitiously used in an anonymous Histoire de madame la comtesse de Barres (Antwerp, 1735), and again with much editing in the Vie de M. l’abbé de Choisy (Lausanne and Geneva, 1742), ascribed by Paul Lacroix to Lenglet Dufresnoy; the text was finally edited (1870) by Lacroix as Aventures de l’abbé de Choisy. See also Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, vol. iii.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cholones

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​CHOLONES, a tribe of South American Indians living on the left bank of the Huallaga river in the Amazon valley. The name is that given them by the Spanish. They were first met by the Franciscans, who established mission villages among them in 1676. They are a wild race but mild-mannered, very superstitious, and pride themselves on their skill as doctors. Their chief weapon is the blow-pipe, in the use of which they are adepts.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Choiseul-Stainville, Claude

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​CHOISEUL-STAINVILLE, CLAUDE ANTOINE GABRIEL, Duc de (1760–1838), French soldier, was brought up at Chanteloup, under the care of his relative, Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, who was childless. The outbreak of the Revolution found him a colonel of dragoons, and throughout those troublous times he was distinguished for his devotion to the royal house. He took part in the attempt of Louis XVI. to escape from Paris on the 20th of June 1791; was arrested with the king, and imprisoned. Liberated in May 1792, he emigrated in October, and fought in the “army of Condé” against the republic. Captured in 1795, he was confined at Dunkirk; escaped, set sail for India, was wrecked on the French coast, and condemned to death by the decree of the Directory. Nevertheless, he was fortunate enough to escape once more. Napoleon allowed him to return to France in 1801, but he remained in private life until the fall of the Empire. At the Restoration he was called to the House of Peers by Louis XVIII. At the revolution of 1830 he was nominated a member of the provisional government; and he afterwards received from Louis Philippe the post of aide-de-camp to the king and governor of the Louvre. He died in Paris on the 1st of December 1838.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cholula

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​CHOLULA, an ancient town of Mexico, in the state and on the plateau of Puebla, 8 m. by rail W. by N. of the city of that name, and 6912 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1900, estimate) 9000. The Interoceanic railway passes through Cholula, but the city’s commercial and industrial standing is overshadowed by that of its larger and more modern neighbour. At the time of the Spanish Conquest, Cholula—then known as Chololan—was a large and important town, consecrated to the worship of the god Quetzalcoatl, who had here one of the most imposing temples in Anahuac, built on the summit of a truncated pyramid, the largest of its kind in the world. This pyramid, constructed of sun-dried bricks and earth, 177 ft. high, and covering an area of nearly 45 acres, is the most conspicuous object in the town and is surmounted by a chapel dedicated to Nuestra Señora de los Remedios. A corner of the lower terrace of this great pyramid was cut through in the construction of the Puebla road, but nothing was discovered to explain its purpose, which was probably that of furnishing an imposing site for a temple. Nothing definite is known of its age and history, as the fanatical zeal of Cortez and his companions destroyed whatever historical data the temple may have contained. Cholula was visited by Cortez in 1519 during his eventful march inland to Montezuma’s capital, Tenochtitlan, when he treacherously massacred its inhabitants and pillaged the city, pretending to distrust the hospitable inhabitants. Cortez estimated that the town then had 20,000 habitations, and its suburbs as many more, but this was undoubtedly a deliberate exaggeration. The Cholulans were of Nahuatl origin and were semi-independent, yielding only a nominal allegiance to Montezuma. They were a trading people, holding fairs, and exchanging their manufactures of textiles and pottery for other produce. The pyramid is believed ​to have been built by a people occupying this region before the Cholulans.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cholon

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​CHOLON (“great market”), a town of French Indo-China, the largest commercial centre of Cochin China, 31/2 m. S.W. of Saigon, with which it is united by railway, steam-tramway and canal. Cholon was founded by Chinese immigrants about 1780, and is situated on the Chinese arroyo at the junction of the Lo-Gom and a canal. Its waterways are frequented by innumerable boats and lined in some places with native dwellings built on piles, in others by quays and houses of French construction. Its population is almost entirely Asiatic, and has more than trebled since 1880. In that year it had only 45,000 inhabitants; in 1907 it numbered about 138,000. Of these, 42,000 were Chinese, 73,000 Annamese, and 155 French (exclusive of a garrison of 92); the remainder consisted of Cambodians and Asiatic foreigners. During the rice season the town is visited by a floating population of 21,000 persons. The Chinese are divided into congregations according to their place of origin. Cholon is administered by a municipal council, composed of French, Annamese and Chinese traders. An administrator of native affairs, nominated by the governor, fills the office of mayor. There are a fine municipal hospital and municipal schools for boys and girls. The principal thoroughfares are lighted by electric light. The rice trade, almost monopolized by the Chinese, is the leading industry, the rice being treated in large steam mills. Tanning, dyeing, copper-founding, glass, brick and pottery manufacture, stone working, timber-sawing and junk building are also included among the industries.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Choiseul, César

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​CHOISEUL, CEÉSAR, Duc de (1602–1675), French marshal and diplomatist, generally known for the best part of his life as the marshal du Plessis-Praslin, came of the old French family of Choiseul, which arose in the valley of the Upper Marne in the 10th century and divided into many branches, three of the names of which, Hostel, Praslin and du Plessis, were borne, at one time or another, by the subject of this article. Entering the army at the age of fourteen as proprietary colonel of an infantry regiment, he shared in almost all the exploits of the French arms during the reign of Louis XIII. He took part in the siege of La Rochelle, assisted to defend the island of Ré against the attacks of the English under the duke of Buckingham, and accompanied the French forces to Italy in 1629. In 1630 he was appointed ambassador at the court of the duke of Savoy, and was engaged in diplomatic and administrative work in Italy until 1635, when war was declared between France and Spain. In the war that followed Plessis-Praslin distinguished himself in various battles and sieges in Italy, including the action called the “Route de Quiers” and the celebrated four-cornered operations round Turin. In 1640 he was made governor of Turin, and in 1642 lieutenant-general, and after further service in Italy he was made a marshal of France (1645) and appointed second in command in Catalonia. During the first War of the Fronde, which broke out in 1649, he assisted Condé in the brief siege of Paris; and in the second war, remaining loyal to the queen regent and the court party, he won his greatest triumph in defeating Turenne and the allied Spaniards and rebels at Rethel (or Blanc-Champ) in 1650. He then held high office at the court of Louis XIV., became minister of state in 1652, and in November 1665 was created duc de Choiseul. He was concerned in some of the negotiations between Louis and Charles II. of England which led to the treaty of Dover, and died in Paris on the 23rd of December 1675.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cholet

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​CHOLET, a town of western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Maine-et-Loire, 41 m. S.E. of Nantes on the Ouest-État railway between that town and Poitiers. Pop. (1906) 16,554. Cholet stands on an eminence on the right bank of the Moine, which is crossed by a bridge of the 15th century. A public garden occupies the site of the old castle; the public buildings and churches, the finest of which is Notre-Dame, are modern. The public institutions include the sub-prefecture, a tribunal of first instance, a chamber of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, and a communal college. There are granite quarries in the vicinity of the town. The chief industry is the manufacture of linen and linen handkerchiefs, which is also carried on in the neighbouring communes on a large scale. Woollen and cotton fabrics are also produced, and bleaching and the manufacture of preserved foods are carried on. Cholet is the most important centre in France for the sale of fat cattle, sheep and pigs, for which Paris is the chief market. Megalithic monuments are numerous in the neighbourhood. The town owes the rise of its prosperity to the settlement of weavers there by Edouard Colbert, count of Maulévrier, a brother of the great Colbert. It suffered severely in the War of La Vendée of 1793, insomuch that for years afterwards it was almost without inhabitants.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Crystal Palace, The

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​CRYSTAL PALACE, THE, a well-known English resort, standing high up in grounds just outside the southern boundary of the county of London, in the neighbourhood of Sydenham. The building, chiefly of iron and glass, is flanked by two towers and is visible from far over the metropolis. It measures 1608 ft. in length by 384 ft. across the transepts, and was opened in its present site in 1854. The materials, however, were mainly those of the hall set up in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of 1851. The designer was Sir Joseph Paxton. In the palace there are various permanent exhibitions, while special exhibitions are held from time to time, also concerts, winter pantomimes and other entertainments. In the extensive grounds there is accommodation for all kinds of games: the final tie of the Association Football Cup and other important football matches are played here, and there are also displays of fireworks and other attractions.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Crystallization

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​CRYSTALLIZATION, the art of obtaining a substance in the form of crystals; it is an important process in chemistry since it permits the purification of a substance, or the separation of the constituents of a mixture. Generally a substance is more soluble in a solvent at a high temperature than at a low, and consequently, if a boiling concentrated solution be allowed to cool, the substance will separate in virtue of the diminished solubility, and the slower the cooling the larger and more perfect will be the crystals formed. If, as sometimes appears, such a solution refuses to crystallize, the expedient of inoculating the solution with a minute crystal of the same substance, or with a similar substance, may be adopted; shaking the solution, or the addition of a drop of another solvent, may also occasion the desired result. “Fractional crystallization” consists in repeatedly crystallizing a salt so as to separate the substances of different solubilities. Examples are especially presented in the study of the rare-earths. Other conditions under which crystals are formed are given in the article Crystallography.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cryptomeria

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​CRYPTOMERIA, or Japanese Cedar, a genus of conifers, containing a single species, C. japonica, native of China and Japan, which was introduced into Great Britain by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1844. It is described as one of the finest trees in Japan, reaching a height of 100 or more feet, usually divested of branches along the lower part of the trunk and crowned with a conical head. The narrow, pointed leaves are spirally arranged and persist for four or five years; the cones are small, globose and borne at the ends of the branchlets, the scales are thickened at the extremity and divided into sharply pointed lobes, three to five seeds are borne on each scale. Cryptomeria is extensively used in Japan for reafforesting denuded lands, as it is a valuable timber tree; it is also planted to form avenues along the public roads. In Veitch’s Manual of Coniferae (ed. 2, 1900, p. 265) reference is made to “an avenue of Cryptomerias 7 m. in extent near Lake Hakone” in which “the trees are more than 100 ft. high, with perfectly straight trunks crowned with conical heads of foliage.” Professor C. S. Sargent, in his Forest Flora of Japan, says, “Japan owes much of the beauty of its groves and gardens to the Cryptomeria. Nowhere is there a more solemn and impressive group of trees than that which surrounds the temples and tombs at Nikko where they rise to a height of 100 to 125 ft.; it is a stately tree with no rival except in the sequoias of California.” Many curious varieties have been obtained by Japanese horticulturists, including some dwarf shrubby forms not exceeding a few feet in height. When grown in Great Britain Cryptomeria requires a deep, well-drained soil with plenty of moisture, and protection from cold winds.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Crypteia

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​CRYPTEIA (Gr. κρύπτειν, to hide), a kind of secret police in ancient Sparta, founded, according to Aristotle, by Lycurgus; there is, however, no real evidence as to the date of its origin. The institution was under the supervision of the ephors, who, on entering office, annually proclaimed war against the helots (serf-class) and thus absolved from the guilt of murder any Spartan who should slay a helot. It was instituted primarily as a precaution against the ever-present danger of a helot revolt, and secondarily perhaps as a training for young Spartans, who were sent out by the ephors to keep watch on the helots and assassinate any who might appear dangerous. Plato (Laws, i. p. 633) emphasizes the former aspect, but there can be little doubt that, at all events after the revolt of 464 (see Cimon), its more sinister purpose was predominant, as we may gather from the secret massacre of 2000 helots who, on the invitation of the ephors, claimed to have rendered distinguished service (Thuc. iv. 80).
See Helots; Ephor; also A. H. J. Greenidge, Handbook of Gk. Const. Hist. (London, 1896); G. Gilbert, Gk. Const. Antiq. (Eng. trans., London, 1895).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cryptobranchus

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​CRYPTOBRANCHUS, a genus of thoroughly aquatic, but lung-breathing tailed Batrachia, of the family Amphiumidae, characterized by a heavy, flattened build, a very porous tubercular skin, with a frilled fold along each side, short stout limbs with four very short fingers and five very short toes, and minute eyes without lids. The vertebrae are biconcave, and although the gills are lost in the adult, ossified gill-arches, two to four in number, persist. A strong series of vomerine teeth extends across the palate. Three species of this genus are known. One is the well-known fossil of Oeningen first described as Homo diluvii testis and shown by Cuvier to be nearly related to the gigantic salamander of Japan, Cryptobranchus maximus, which has since been found to inhabit China also; the third is the hellbender, mud-puppy or water-dog of North America, C. alleghaniensis, also known under the name of Menopoma. Both the fossil C. scheuchzeri and C. maximus grow to a length of over 5 ft. and are by far the largest Urodeles known, whilst C. alleghaniensis reaches the respectable length of 18 in.
The eggs are laid in rosary-like strings. They have been found, in Japan, deposited in deep holes in the water, where they form large clumps (70 to 80 eggs) round which the female coils herself. The gigantic salamander has also bred in the Amsterdam zoological gardens, the eggs numbering upwards of 500; the male, it is stated, took charge of the eggs, and for the ​ten weeks which elapsed before the release of the last larva, he kept close to them, at times crawling among the coiled mass of egg-strings or lifting them up, evidently for the purpose of aeration. The larva on leaving the egg is about an inch long, provided with three branched external gills on each side, and showing mere rudiments of the four limbs.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Crypto-porticus

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​CRYPTO-PORTICUS (Gr. κρυπτός, concealed, and Lat. porticus), an architectural term for a concealed or covered passage, generally underground, though lighted and ventilated from the open air. One of the best-known examples is the crypto-porticus under the palaces of the Caesars in Rome. In Hadrian’s villa in Rome they formed the principal private intercommunication between the several buildings.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Coulisse

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​COULISSE (French for “groove,” from couler, to slide), a term for a groove in which a gate of a sluice, or the side-scenes in a theatre, slide up and down, hence applied to the space on the stage between the wings, and generally to that part of the theatre “behind the scenes” and out of view of the public. It is also a term of the Paris Bourse, derived from a coulisse, or passage in which transactions were carried on without the authorized agents de change. The name coulissier was thus given to unauthorized agents de change, or “outside brokers” who, after many attempts at suppression, were finally given a recognized status in 1901. They bring business to the agents de change, and act as intermediaries between them and other parties. (See Stock Exchange: Paris.)