442 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 



CONTEMPT OF COURT 



in 1870, which was generally favourable to their 

 retention ; and by a Select Committee in 1882, which 

 reported that the acts had diminished venereal 

 disease, and had increased the efficiency of the 

 army. The army returns, however, leave this fact 

 in some doubt ; and while medical and sanitary 

 principles support the acts, and the opinion of the 

 clergy and the police in the garrison towns credited 

 them with good results, they were condemned by 

 a wave of strong public feeling in 1883, and have 

 .since been repealed. This repeal, however, has 

 not yet been adopted in the colonies. 



Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts. 



"This legislation was begun in 1869, but now stands 

 on acts passed in 1878, 1884, and 1886. These 

 -acts, and the orders issued under them by the 

 Privy-council, constitute a most important code 

 -of administrative regulations for the protection of 

 cattle, sheep, goats, and all other ruminating 

 .animals, and also swine, against cattle-plague (or 

 rinderpest), contagious pleuro-pneumonia, foot and 

 mouth disease, sheep-pox, sheep-scab, glanders, 

 farcy, swine fever, and anthrax. The Privy- 

 council have also issued an order relating to 

 rabies in dogs. Since 1888 the acts are ad- 

 ministered by the county councils in counties, 

 town councils in boroughs over 10,000, and by the 

 police authorities in smaller towns in England ; 

 and in Scotland by certain mixed boards for the 

 counties, and by the town councils in parlia- 

 mentary burghs. The method of working is that 

 on the report of a local veterinary inspector, the 

 Privy-council declare a place to be infected, and 

 direct all animals suffering from cattle-plague to 

 be slaughtered, compensation being given to the 

 owners out of money provided by parliament. As 

 regards pleuro-pneumonia, the local authority may 

 take the initiative in declaring a place infected, 

 and they provide the compensation for slaughtered 

 cattle out of a local assessment. The same process 

 is followed as regards foot and mouth disease, but 

 the power of slaughter does not exist in this case. 

 The place 'declared' is often only a field or a 

 cow-shed, but may be indefinitely extended. The 

 Privy-council have a general power of making 

 orders with reference to the transit or movement 

 of animals affected with pleuro-pneumonia or foot 

 and mouth disease ; and a large part of the admin- 

 istration consists in carrying out these ' movement 

 orders,' which are numerous and modified frcm 

 time to time. It is the duty of every person hav- 

 ing a diseased animal to give immediate notice 

 to the police. For the purposes of these acts 

 the Privy-council has a large jurisdiction over 

 markets, exhibitions, landing wharves, the treat- 

 ment of cattle by railway companies and on board 

 ship, &c. They are responsible for the regulations 

 connected with the landing of foreign animals, 

 which is allowed only at prescribed places. In con- 

 nection with this the local authorities have power 

 to provide wharves, lairs, sheds, &c. , for the landing, 

 reception, and slaughter of foreign animals. 



The Act of 1886 transferred to the Local Govern- 

 ment Boards of England and Ireland and the 

 Board of Supervision in Scotland the power of 

 issuing orders relating to dairies, cow-sheds, and 

 milk-shops, and to local sanitary authorities the 

 power of making regulations under such orders. 

 These regulations may deal with the lighting, 

 ventilation, cleansing, drainage, and water-supply 

 of 'dairies and cow -sheds in the occupation of 

 persons following the trade of cow-keepers or 

 dairymen ; the cleanliness of milk-stores, milk- 

 shops, and of milk-vessels used for containing 

 milk for sale by such persons ; and may prescribe 

 precautions to be taken by purveyors of milk 

 and persons selling milk by retail against infec- 

 tion or contamination. The result of this transfer 



of powers has been to place milk-selling under 

 stricter supervision than hitherto, as it is unlaw- 

 ful for any person to carry on the trade without 

 being duly registered. 



Contango. See STOCK EXCHANGE. 



Contari'ni, the name of a noble family in 

 Venice, one of the twelve that elected the first 

 Doge. Between 1043 and 1674, eight Doges were 

 furnished by this family, which also counted amongst 

 its members four patriarchs, and a large number 

 of generals, statesmen, artists, poets, and scholars 

 (see VENICE). CARDINAL GASPARO CONTARINI 

 (1483-1542) distinguished himself as Venetian am- 

 bassador at the court of Charles V. , and was papal 

 legate at the Diet of Ratisbon ( 1541 ), where he 

 displayed great moderation, seeking by concessions 

 to bring about the reunion of the Protestants with 

 the church. SlMONE (1563-1633) was Venetian 

 ambassador at several Italian courts, in Spain, in 

 Constantinople, &c., and was a Latin poet. LUDO- 

 VICO (1629-1653) was ambassador in Paris. 



Contemporaneity, in Geology, has a some- 

 what more extended signification than the word 

 bears in ordinary language. When a geologist 

 speaks of the Silurian systems of America and 

 Europe having been accumulated contemporane- 

 ously, he does not infer that they were precisely 

 synchronous, but merely implies that each occupies 

 the same relative position in the succession of 

 systems. Each was preceded by a Cambrian and 

 succeeded by a Devonian system ; but for aught 

 he can tell, the Silurian period may have commenced 

 earlier or endured longer in one area than the other. 

 Professor Huxley has suggested the term homotaxis 

 ( ' similarity of order ' ) as a substitute for contem- 

 poraneity. According to this view we should apply 

 the term homotaxial instead of contemporaneous to 

 widely separated systems which contain the same 

 assemblages of fossils all that the proposed term 

 indicates being this, that the order of organic suc- 

 cession was the same in both regions. All the 

 evidence, however, goes to show that in the earlier 

 ages of the world the climate of the earth was 

 not differentiated into zones as it is now, so that 

 faunas and floras were enabled to extend themselves 

 readily in every direction. Hence, although it is 

 im possible to say that any particular bed of palaeo- 

 zoic or mesozoic limestone in Europe is of precisely 

 the same age as a similar limestone in America, 

 yet it seems in the highest degree probable that 

 the great system to which both these limestones 

 happen to belong was accumulated during one and 

 the same long-continued period. Geologists seem 

 to be justified, therefore, in describing the successive 

 systems of the Old and New Worlds as actually 

 contemporaneous. 



Contempt of Court, a disregard of the 

 rules or an offence against the dignity of a court 

 which has power to punish for such offence. 

 Contempts, according to the law of England, 

 maybe classed as ( 1 ) disobedience to the Queen's 

 writ ; ( 2 ) contempts in the face of the court, 

 as when a witness refuses to be sworn or pre- 

 varicates in his evidence, or where jurymen 

 refuse to give a verdict ; ( 3 ) contemptuous words 

 or writings concerning a court; (4) refusing to 

 comply with the rules and awards of a court ; 

 ( 5 ) abuse of the process of a court ; and ( 6 ) for- 

 gery of writs, or any deceit tending to impose on 

 a court. Any act which insults or resists the 

 power of a court or the persons of the presiding 

 judges, or which plainly tends to create a disregard 

 of judicial authority, may be a contempt, as un- 

 seemly behaviour, applauding, talking boisterously 

 and obstreperously while the business of a court is 

 proceeding, intimidating a suitor to discontinue 

 his action, kidnapping or corrupting witnesses or 



