CON 



CON 



cal or civiL The constitutions of the Ro- 

 man emperors . make a part of the civil 

 law, and the constitutions of the church 

 make a part of the canon law. 



CONSTITUTIONS, apostolical, a collection 

 of regulations attributed to the apostles, 

 and supposed to have been collected by 

 St. Clement, whose name they likewise 

 bear. It is the general opinion, however, 

 that they are spurious, and that St. Cle- 

 ment had no hand in them. They ap- 

 peared first in the fourth age, but 

 nave been much changed and cor- 

 rupted since that time. They are 

 divided into eight books, consisting 

 of a great number of rules and precepts 

 relating to the duties of Christians, and 

 particularly the ceremonies and discipline 

 of the church. Mr. Whiston, in opposi- 

 tion to the general opinion, asserts them 

 to be a part of the sacred writings, dictat- 

 ed by the apostles in their meetings, ami 

 wrote down from their own mouth by 

 St. Clement, and intended as a supple- 

 ment to the New Testament, or rather as 

 a system of Christian faith and polity. 

 The reason why the constitutions are sus- 

 pected by the orthodox, and perhaps the 

 reasop also why their genuineness is de- 

 fended by Mr. Whiston, is, that they seem 

 to favour Arianism. 



CONSTRUCTION, in geometry, is the 

 drawing such lines, such a figure, &c. as 

 are previously necessary for the making 

 any demonstration appear more plain and 

 undeniable. 



CONSTRUCTION of equations, in algebra, 

 the method of drawing a geometrical fi- 

 gure, whose properties shall express the 

 given equation, in order to demonstrate 

 the truth of it geometrically. See EQ.UA- 

 TIOKS, construction of. 



COWSTHCCTIOW, in grammar, the con- 

 necting the words of a sentence accord- 

 ing to the rules of the language. Con- 

 struction is either simple or figurative, 

 according as the parts of the discourse 

 are placed in their natural order, or re- 

 cede from that simplicity, when shorter 

 and more elegant expressions are used 

 than the nature affords. The construc- 

 tion of words, called syntax, is distin- 

 guished into two parts, concord and re- 

 gimen. 



CONSUL, is an officer established by 

 virtue of a commission from the king, 

 and other princes, in all foreign coun- 

 tries of any considerable trade, to facili- 

 tate and dispatch business, and protect 

 the merchants of the nation. The con- 

 suls are to keep up a correspondence 

 with the ministers of England residing in 

 the courts whereon their consulate de- 

 VOL. IV. 



pends. They are to support the com- 

 merce and the interest of the nation ; to 

 dispose of the sums given and the pre- 

 sents made to the lords and principals of 

 places, to obtain their protection, and 

 prevent the insults of the natives on the 

 merchants of the nation. By the treaty 

 of Utrecht, between Great Britain and 

 Spain, the consul residing in the king of 

 Spain's dominions shall take inventories 

 of the estates of the English dying intes- 

 tate in Spain ; and these estates shall be 

 intrusted with two or three merchants, 

 for the security and benefit of the pro- 

 prietors and creditors. 



CONSULTATION, in law, a writ by 

 which a cause, being removed from the 

 spiritual court to the king's court, is re- 

 turned thither again ; and the reason is, 

 that if the judges of the king's court, by 

 comparing the libel with the suggestion 

 of the party, find the suggestion false or 

 not proved, and on that account the cause 

 to be wrongfully called from the eccle- 

 siastical court, then upon this consulta- 

 tion or deliberation they decree it to be 

 returned. This writ is in the nature of a 

 procedendo ; yet properly a consultation 

 ought riot to be granted, only in case 

 where a person cannot recover at the 

 common law. In causes of which the ec- 

 clesiastical and spiritual courts have juris- 

 diction, and they are not mixed with any 

 temporal thing, if suggestion is made for 

 a prohibition, a consultation shall be 

 awarded. See PROHIBITION. 



CONSUMPTION. See MEDICISC. 



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 contact. The contact 

 of two spherical bodies, and of a tangent 

 with the circumference of a circle, is only 

 in one point. 



CONTACT, angle of, is the opening be- 

 tween a curve line and a tangent to it. 



CONTAGION, in physic, the commu- 

 nicating a disease from one body to ano- 

 ther. In some diseases it is only effected 

 by an immediate contact, as in the syphi- 

 lis ; in others it is conveyed by infected 

 clothes; and in others it seems capable 

 of being transmitted through the air at 

 a considerable distance. Though a very 

 able writer in Dr. Rces's Cyclopedia 

 produces a variety of facts, to prove 

 that the most malignant contagions are 

 never conveyed to any great distance 

 through the atmosphere, but that they 

 are in fact rendered inert and harmless by 

 diffusion in the open air, and even in the 

 air of a well ventilated apartment. FIciice 



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