t-class battleships and cruisers, a weight
is used instead of an anchor, the test being to lift 9 tons at the rate
of 25 ft. per minute. Capstans on dock walls in British government
dockyards are usually driven by hydraulic or air pressure, conveyed
through pipes to small engines underneath the capstans. (J. W. D.)

CAPSULE (from the Lat. _capsula_, a small box), a term in botany for a
dry seed vessel, as in the poppy, iris, foxglove, &c., containing one or
more cells. When ripe the capsule opens and scatters the seed (see
BOTANY). The word is used also for a small gelatinous case enclosing a
dose of medicine, and for a metal cap or cover on bottles and jars. In
anatomy the term is used to denote a cover or envelope partly or wholly
surrounding a structure. Every diarthrodial joint possesses a fibrous or
ligamentous capsule, lined with synovial membrane, attached to the
adjacent ends of the articulating bones. The term is particularly
applied to the sac which encloses the crystalline lens of the eye; to
Glisson's capsule, a thin areolar coat of fibrous tissue lying inside
the tunica serosa of the liver; to the glomerular capsules in the kidney
substance; to the suprarenal capsules, two small flattened organs in the
epigastric region; and to the internal and external capsules of the
brain (see BRAIN, fig. 14 and explanation).

CAPTAIN (derived from Lat. _caput_, head, through the Low Lat.
_capitanus_), a chief or leader, in various connexions, but particularly
a grade officer in the army or navy.

At sea the name of captain is given to all who command ships whether
they belong to the military navy of their country or not, or whether
they hold the substantive rank or not. Thus a lieutenant when in command
of a vessel is addressed as captain. In France a naval lieutenant is
addressed as _mon capitaine_ because he has that comparative rank in the
army. The master of a merchant ship is known as her captain. But the
name is also used in the strict sense of foreman, or head man, to
describe many of the minor or "petty" officers of a British or American
man-of-war--the captain of a top, of the forecastle, or of a gun. The
title "post captain" in the British navy means simply full captain, and
is the equivalent of the French _capitaine de vaisseau_. It had its
origin in the fact that captains appointed to a ship of twenty guns and
upwards were included in, or "posted" on, the permanent list of captains
from amo