Encyclopaedia Britannica; or, A dictionary of arts and sciences, compiled upon a new plan … > Volume 2, C-L

CON ( 274 ) CON
the head of the fenate: they commanded the armies,
and were fupreme judges of the differences between
the citizens; but as they had made fome abufe of this
power, it was allowed by the Valerian law for the
party aggrieved to appeal from their tribunal to the
people, efpecially in cafes whefe the life of a citizen
was concerned. Under the emperors, conful was lit¬
tle more than an honourable title, and at laft it be¬
came abfolutely extinft in the time of Juftinian. From
the eftabliihment of the republic to the confulate of
Bafil, that is, from the year of R6me 244, to the
year of Rome 1294, t^e years are accounted by the
confuls; but after that period, the time was computed
by the years of the emperors reigns and the indidions.
Consul, at prefect, is an officer eftablifhed by virtue of
a commiffion from the king and other princes, in all
foreign countries of any confiderable trade, to facilitate
and difpatch bufinefs, and proted the merchants of the
nation. The confuls are to keep up a correfpondence
with the minifters of England refiding in the courts
whereon their confulate depends. They are to fup-
port the commerce and the intereft of the nation; to
difpofe of the films given and the prefents made to the
lords and principals of places, to obtain their protedi-
on, and prevent the infults of the natives pn the mer¬
chants of the nation.
CONSUMMATION, the end or completion of the
work. Thus we fay, the confummation of all -things,.
meaning the world.
CONSUMPTION^ in medicine, a word of very exten-
five fignification, implies all diforders that bring any
decay or wafte upon the confHtution; but is molt ufed
for the phthifis pulmonalis. See Medicine.
CONTACT, is when one line, plane, or body, is made
to touch another, and the parts that do thus touch,
are called the points or places of contad
CONTAGION, in phylic, the communicating a difeafe
from one body to another. In fome difeafes it is on¬
ly effeded by an immediate contad or touch, as the
venom of the pox;-in o hers, it is conveyed by in-
feded cloaths, as the itch ; and in others, it is tranf-
mitted through the air at a confiderable didance, by
means of (teams or effluvia expiring from the fick. as
in the plague and other peftilential diforders, in which
cafe the air is faid to be contagious.
CONTEMPLATION, an ad of the mind, whereby it
applies itfelf to confider and refled upon the works of
God, nature, fcc.
CONTEMPORARY, a perfon or thing that exifted in
the fame age with another. Thus, Socrates, Plato,
and Ariftophanes, were contemporaries.
CONTENT, in geometry, the area or quantity of
matter or (pace included in certain bounds. See Geo¬
metry.
CONTESSA, a port-town of Turkey, in Europe, in
the province of Macedonia, fituated on a bay of the
Archipelago, about 200 miles weft of Conftantinople:
E. long. 250, and N. lat. 410.
•CONTEXT, among divines and critics, that part of
fcripture or of a writing that precedes and follows the
text.
CONTI, a town of Picardy in France, about fifteen
miles fouth-weft of Amiens: E. long. 20 20', N. lat.
49° 40 -
CONTIGUITY, in geometry, is when the furface of
one body touches that of another.
CONTINENT, in general, an appellation given to
things continuled without interruption; in which fenfe
we fay, continent fever, <bc.
Continent, in geography, a great extent of land not
interrupted by feas, in contradiftindion to ifland and
peninfula, See Geography.
CONTINGENT, fomething cafual or unufual. Hence
future contingent, denotes a conditional event which
may or may not happen, according as circumftances
fall out.
Contingents are fometimes ufed by mathematicians in
the fame fenfe as tangent. See Tangent.
Continued proportion, in arithmetic, is that where
the confequent of the firft ratio is the fame with the
antecedent of the fecond; as 4 : 8 :: 8 : 16, in con¬
tradiftindion to difcrete proportion.
CONTINUITY, is defined by fome fchoolmen the im¬
mediate cohefion of parts in the fame quantum ; by
others, a mode of body, whereby its extremities be*
come one ; and by others, a date of body refulting
from'the mutual implication of its parts. There are
two kinds of continuity, mathematical and phyfical.
The firft is merely imaginary, fince it fuppofes real or
phyfical parts where there are none,
Phyfical continuity is that date of two or more par¬
ticles, in which their parts are fo mutually implicated
as to conftitute one uninterrupted quantity or conti¬
nuum.
CONTINUO, in mufic, fignifies the thorough bafs, as
baflb continuous the continual orthorough bafs, which
is fometimes marked in mufic books by the letters B. C.
CONTOI^SION, in medicine, has many fignifications.
1. It denotes the iliac paffion. 2. An incomplete dif-
location, when.a bone is in part, but not entirely, for¬
ced from its articulation. 3, A diflocation of the ver¬
tebrae, of the back fide-ways, or a crookednefs of thefe
vertebrae. And,. 4. A diforder of the head, in which
it is drawn towards one fide, either by a fpafmodic
contra&ion of,the mufcles on the fame fide, or a palfy
of the antagonift mufcles on the other.
CONTOUR, in painting, the out line, or that which
defines a figure.
- A great part of the (kill of the painter lies in mana¬
ging the contours well. Contour, with the Italian
painters, fignifies the lineaments of the face.
CONTOURNE, in heraldry, is ufed when a beaft is
reprefented (landing or running with its face to the fi-
nifterfide of the efcutcheon. they being always fuppo-
fed to look to the right, if not otherwife exprefled.
CONTOURNIATED, a term among antiquaries ap¬
plied to medals, the edges of which appear as if turned
in a lath. This fort of work feems to have had its o-
rigin in Greece, and to have been defigned to perpe¬
tuate the memories of great men, particularly thofe who
had bore away the prize at the folemn games. Such
are