Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 6, CHI-Crystallization

CON [ 561 ] CON
fcjngui-collateral relations agreeing witk the lineal In this,
||ty- that they defeend from the fame ilock or anceftor j
u >'^Jbut differing in this, that they do not defeend the one
from the other. Collateral kinfmen, then, are fuch as
lineally fpring from one and the fame anceftor, who is
the Jlirps, or “ root,” the Jlipes. “ trunk,” or common
flock, from whence thefe relations are branched out.
As if John Stiles hath two fens, who have each a nu¬
merous iffue ; both thefe iffues are lineally defeended
from John Stiles as their common anceftor 5 and they
are collateral kinfmen to each other, becaufe they are
all defeended from this common anceftor, and all have
a portion of his blood in their veins, which denominates
them confanguineous.
We muft be careful to remember, that the very be¬
ing of collateral confanguinity conftfts in this defeent
from one and the fame common anceftor. Thus Ti-
tius and his brother are related ; why ? becaufe both
are derived from one father: Titius and his fhft cou-
fm are related \ why ? becaufe both defeend from the
fame grandfather-, and his fecond couftn’s claim to
confanguinity is this, that they are both derived from
one and the fame great-grandfather. In ftiort, as
many anceftors as a man has, fo many common flocks
he has from which collateral kinfmen may be derived.
And as we are taught by holy writ, that there is one
couple of common anceftors belonging to us all, from
whom the whole race of mankind is defeended, the
obvious and undeniable confequence is, that all men
are in fome degree related to one another. For, in-
Vol. VI. Part II.
deed, if we only fuppofe each couple of cur ancettors Cor.ftnrui.
to have left, one with another, two children j and, iutJ'
each of thoie children to have left, on an average, two 1 *"""~
more (and without fuch a fuppefition the human fpe-
cies muft be daily diminiftiing) ; we fhall find that all
of us have now fubfifting near 270 millions of kindred
in the 15th degree, at the fame diftance from the feve-
ral common anceftors as we ourfelves are ; befides thole
that are one or two degrees nearer to our father from
the common flock, who may amount to as many
more (b). And if this calculation (hould appear in¬
compatible with the number of inhabitants on the earth,
it is becaufe, by intermarriages among the feveral de-
feendants from the fame anceftor, a hundred or a thou-
fand modes of confanguinity may be confolidated in one
perfon ; or he may be related to us a hundred or a thou-
fand different ways.
The method of computing thefe degrees in the ca¬
non law, which we have adopted, is as follows. We
begin at the common anceftor, and reckon downwards j
and in whatfoever degree the two perfons, or the
moft remote of them, is diftant from the common an¬
ceftor, that is the degree in which they are related to
each other. Thus, Titius and his brother are related
in the firft degree} for from the father to each of
them is counted only one : Titius and his nephew are
related in the fecond degree $ for the nephew is two
degrees removed from the common anceftor, viz. his
own grandfather, the father of Titius : or (to give
a more illuftrious infiance from the Englifti annals)-
4 King
ceftors in the firft degree, the number of whom is doubled at every remove \ becaufe each of our anceftors has alfo-
two immediate anceftors of his own.
1 2
2 4
3 8
4
7 128
8 256
9 512
10 1024
11 2048
12 4096
13 8192
14 16384
15 32V68
16 65536
17 131072
18 262144
19 524288
20 1048576
A fhorter way of finding the number of anceftors at any given degree, is by fquaring the number of anceftors at
half that number of degrees. Thus 16, the number of anceftors at 4 degrees, is the fquare of 4, the number of
anceftors at 2 ; 256 is the fquare of 16 ; 65536 of 256 j and the number of anceftors at 40 degrees would be the
fquare of 1,048,576, or upwards of a million of millions.
(b) This will fw-ell more confiderably than the former calculation : for here, though the firft term is but 1, the
denominator is 4 ; that is, there is one kinfman (a brother) in the firft degree, who makes, together with the
propojitus, the two defeendants from the firft couple of anceftors j and in every other degree, the number of kin¬
dred muft be the quadruple of thofe in the degree which immediately precedes it. For fince each couple of
anceftors*