169 



CONTAGION, THE MATTER OF. 



CONTRACTION. 



170 



o N is still visible as a length, the two curves will appear to coincide 

 for a visible length, which forms the principal ocular f e iture of contact. 

 But this practical contact is not admitted in geometry, a science of 

 reason, in which no length is considered as invisible ; so that contact 

 is only said to exist where the ratio of p Q to o N diminishes not 

 merely very much but without limit. Let o N and P Q be the 

 fractions x and v of a linear unit. If then v dimmish without limit 

 when compared with x, but always retain a finite ratio to x*, the 

 contact is said to be of the first urder ; if also diminish witnout 

 limit when compared with x 2 , but always retain a finite ratio to x 3 , the 

 contact is said to be of the second order, and so on. These di ierent 

 orders of contact exhibit nothing to the eye but a closer approach, 

 the higher the order of contact ; except in this, that contacts of an 

 even order are always accompanied by the intersecting coincidence 

 shown at s, while contacts of an odd order make the curves tan- 

 gent to each other in the sense in which the word is used by Euclid, 

 as at T. 



CONTAGION, THE MATTER OF, a poison which, on entering 

 the blood, produces a definite train of morbid phenomena, and which 

 communicates to the blood the property of generating a similar poison, 

 capable of producing precisely similar morbid phenomena. Considered 

 as a morbific matter sui generis, contagion, then, is an agent which 

 produces a disease of a definite nature, one of the distinctive charac- 

 ters of which is that in its progress a peculiar matter is secreted from 

 the blood, which, when introduced into the blood of another indivi- 

 dual, produces precisely the same disease. The term contagion is also 

 in common use to denote the actual propagation of diseases of a 

 specific nature from person to person. Such diseases, so propagated, 

 are called contagious ; and the matter by which they are propagated is 

 called contagious matter or contagion. 



The disease called small-pox exhibits a series of morbid phenomena 

 peculiar to itself. These peculiar phenomena constitute it a distinct or 

 generic disease. The pustules formed in its progress, the formation of 

 which is one of the series of morbid phenomena distinctive of it, 

 contain a peculiar secretion, a specific poison, which, on being intro- 

 duced into the blood of a person previously in sound health, as by 

 inoculation, produces in that person small-pox. This disease, then, 

 presents all the characters of a contagious disease. 



According to the etymological signification of the term, the propa- 

 gation of disease from person to person by contagion depends on the 

 actual contact of the body which receives with that which communi- 

 cates the poison. But direct contact is not indispensable to the pro- 

 pagation of a contagious disease. There are contagious diseases 

 which are absolutely incommunicable without direct contact ; but 

 there are others which are capable of communication both by contact 

 and without it. A particle of the matter of small-pox, for example, 

 placed in direct contact with the body, will produce small-pox ; but 

 the matter of small-pox is likewise capable of being dissolved or 

 suspended in the air ; and the air thus leaded with small-pox matter, 

 on coming in contact with the body, is capable of producing small-pox. 

 Hence contagious diseases are divided into two great classes ; into 

 those hi which the contagious matter acts only by positive contact of 

 person with person, and into those in which it acts both by positive 

 contact and through the medium of the air. Contagion may therefore 

 be said to be immediate or mediate, contactual or remote. 



Contagion is carefully to be distinguished from infection. | IN- 

 FECTION.] 



CONTEMPT. A contempt in Lw is a disobedience of the rules, 

 orders, or process of a court of justice, or a disturbance or interruption 

 of its proceedings. Contempts by a contumacious resistance to the 

 process of a court, such as the refusal of a sheriff to return a writ, are 

 punishable by attachment ; but contempts done in the presence of the 

 court, which cause an obstruction to its proceedings in administering 

 the law, may be punished or repressed in a summary manner by the 

 commitment of the offender to prison or by fining him. The power oi 

 enforcing their process, and of vindicating then- authority against open 

 obstruction or defiance, is incident to all courts ; and the means which 

 the law intruste to them for that purpose are attachment for contempts 

 committed out of court, and commitment and fine for contempts done 

 in facie curia. [ATTACHMENT.] 



CONTENT (contentus, contained), the quantity of space contained 

 in any portion of space, measured by the number of times which some 

 arbitrary unit is contained in the space. Thus, linear content is 

 simply LENGTH ; superficial content is AREA or surface ; solid content 

 (in which sense the word is principally used), also called volume, is the 

 number of solid units contained in a space. These solid units are 

 always cubes, described on the unit of length. Thus, when the inch 

 or foot is employed in measuring lengths, the cubic inch or cubic foot 

 is always employed as the measure of solid content. 



The solid content of a rectangular parallelepiped (or figure like a 

 box) is found by multiplying together the units in the lengths of its 

 three dimensions. Thus, 3 feet of length, 24 feet of breadth, and 4 

 feet of height, give 3 x 24 x 4, or 80 cubic feet. 



The solid content of any cylinder or prism is found by multiplying 

 together the number of square units in the base and the number o1 

 linear units in the altitude ; and one-third of a similar product is 

 the content of a pyramid or a cone. The content of any irregular 

 olid bounded by planes must be found by dividing it into pyramids. 



Weight is thus connected with content accurately enough for 

 common purposes. Multiply the number of euoic/ee by 1000 times 

 ;he specific gravity ; the result is the number of ounces avoirdupois. 

 Roughly, multiply the number of cubic feet by the specific gravity, 

 and five-ninths of the result is the number of cwts. Thus, the specific 

 gravity of brick being 2, a cube of bricks 20 feet long every way 

 weighs | of 20 x 20 x 20 x 2, or 8889 cwt. 



To find the solid content of a sphere, take ^'ths of the rad. x 

 rad. x rad. Thus, the radius of a sphere being 4 feet, the number 

 of cubic feet contained is 4 x 4 x 4 x 377 -=- l>0, or 268 1. 



CONTINGENT REMAINDER. [REMAINDER.] 



CONTINUED BASE, in Music, is the figured base of a score used 

 throughout, and so called to distinguish it from the vocal base, as well 

 as from the base staves assigned to particular instruments. The term 

 is only to be found in very old music, and is now become obsolete. 



CONTRABAND. [CUSTOMS DUTIES.] 



CONTRACT. [AGREEMENT.] 



CONTRACTION, in Surgery, an abnormal and permanent alteration 

 in the relative position and forms of parts, arising from various causes. 

 Under the heads ANCHYLOSIS, and DISTORTION, some of the more 

 remarkable results of contractions have been pointed out. In this 

 article we shall describe the nature of club-foot and wry-neck, and 

 point out the recent mode of treating these contractions by surgical 

 operation, which has been remarkably successful. 



Club-foot, Talipes, is the term which has been applied to all kinds of 

 distortion of the foot. Four species have been described: talipes 

 raria, distortion of the foot inwards ; talipes valyus, eversion of the 

 foot ; talipes equinus, forced extension ; and talipes calcaneus or talus, 

 extreme flexion of the foot upon the leg. Till within a recent period 

 it was a generally received opinion, that all forms of club-foot con- 

 sisted in a malformation of the bones of the tarsus, more particularly 

 the astragalus, and this malformation was traced to a diseased con- 

 dition of the bones. It is a curious fact, however, that Hippocrates 

 attributed club-foot to the unnatural contraction of one set of liga- 

 menta and the elongation of another. Whether this be the original 

 cause of the distortion may be doubted, but there can be no doubt as 

 to its being a result, and that the only malformation which exists in 

 the parts is removed by relieving the contraction of the ligaments. It 

 is, however, to Delpech in modern times that we are indebted for a 

 sound view of the nature of club-foot, and more particularly for sug- 

 gesting, though himself unsuccessful, the modern operation for its 

 relief. Two cases of club-foot, which had been produced after the 

 bones had attained their full development, led him to regard the 

 irregular action of the muscles as the cause. To this conclusion also 

 Stromeyer of Berlin was led, by an inquiry in which he engaged, on 

 the occurrence of paralysis in the muscles of inspiration. The follow- 

 ing are the various sources of distortion dependent upon irregular 

 action of the muscles, according to Dr. Stromeyer. 



1. Structural changes in the muscles, iuflammation and wounds, 

 with loss of substance. 



2. Debility and inactivity of antagonists, produced either by wounds 

 of tendons or the bellies of antagonist muscles, or by paralysis of the 

 nerves of antagonist muscles. 



3. Diminution of voluntary power in the entire limb through which 

 the flexors or extensors preponderate over the extensors or flexors by 

 the constant organic contraction of the muscles. 



4. Painful affections of the part, restraining or prohibiting motion, 

 such as that from inflammation of a joint. 



5. Increased energy in the muscle, morbid contraction or motion in 

 the muscular fibres, tonic spasm. 



The various modes of treatment of club-foot formerly pursued indi- 

 cated the want of a definite knowledge of its nature. They were 

 mostly mechanical, and seldom effected the object they had in view. 

 The mode of treatment now more generally pursued is the use of 

 mechanical means after the performance of a surgical operation. The 

 operation consists in dividing the tendons of the contracted muscle, 

 which admits of the restoration of the malformed parts to their normal 

 position, and the space between the divided ends of the tendon is filled 

 up with new matter, and the function of the muscle is noimally per- 

 formed. This operation, simple as it is, was never performed till the 

 year 1784, when Lorenz, a surgeon at Frankfort, divided the teudo- 

 achillis for the cure of a case of club-foot, under the direction of 

 Thilenius. The same operation was afterwards unsuccessfully resorted 

 to by Sartorius and Michaelis. In 1816 Delpech again attempted it, 

 and upon more philosophical principles than his predecessors, but he 

 also failed. This did not prevent Stromeyer from repeating the opera- 

 tion in 1831, which was perfectly successful. In 1833 and 1836 he 

 published two memoirs, containing six successful cases. It was speedily 

 performed again by several surgeons in England and on the Continent, 

 and the value and utility of the operation are now universally admitted. 

 The principal rule to be observed in the operation is not to cut through 

 more parts than is necessary, and to divide the tendon of the con- 

 tracted muscle. The division of the teudo-achillis is however only 

 calculated to relieve talipes equinus and the sLghter cases of varus. 

 But in the severer forms of varus, the tendons of the tibialis posticus, 

 flexor longus pollicis, and sometimes of the tibialis posticus, require 

 division. In valgus the tendons of the peronei as well as the tendo- 

 achillis require division. The principal part of the treatment takes 



