"Internat. Sci. Series," vol. xxxi.
(1881); J. S. Gardiner, _Nature_, lxix. 371. (G. C. B.)

CORAM, THOMAS (1668-1751), English philanthropist, was born at Lyme
Regis, Dorset. He began life as a seaman, and rose to the position of
merchant captain. He settled at Taunton, Massachusetts, for several
years engaging there in farming and boat-building, and in 1703 returned
to England. His acquaintance with the destitute East End of London, and
the miserable condition of the children there, inspired him with the
idea of providing a refuge for such of them as had no legal protector;
and after seventeen years of unwearied exertion, he obtained in 1739 a
royal charter authorizing the establishment of his hospital for
foundling infants (see FOUNDLING HOSPITALS). It was opened in Hatton
Garden, on the 17th of October 1740, with twenty inmates. For fifteen
years it was supported by voluntary contributions; but in 1756 it was
endowed with a parliamentary grant of L10,000 for the support of all
that might be sent to it. Children were brought, however, in such
numbers, and so few (not one-third, it is said) survived infancy, that
the grant was stopped, and the charity, which had been removed to
Guilford Street, was from that time only administered under careful
restrictions. Coram's later years were spent in watching over the
interests of the hospital; he was also one of the promoters of the
settlement of Georgia and Nova Scotia; and his name is honourably
connected with various other charities. In carrying out his
philanthropic schemes he spent nearly all his private means; and an
annuity of L170 was raised for him by public subscription. He died on
the 29th of March 1751.

COR ANGLAIS, or ENGLISH HORN (Ger. _englisches Horn_ or _alt Hoboe_;
Ital. _corno inglese_), a wood-wind double-reed instrument of the oboe
family, of which it is the tenor. It is not a horn, but bears the same
relation to the oboe as the basset horn does to the clarinet. The cor
anglais differs slightly in construction from the oboe; the conical bore
of the wooden tube is wider and slightly longer, and there is a larger
globular bell and a bent metal crook to which the double reed mouthpiece
is attached. The fingering and method of producing the sound are so
similar in both instruments that the player of the one can in a short
time master the other, but as the cor anglais is pitched a fifth lower,
the music must be transposed for it into a key