370 



COMPASSES COMPLEXION. 



in France, as early as the twelfth century. The 

 liritish first suspended the compass, so as to enable 

 it to retain always a horizontal position, and the 

 Dutch gave names to the divisions of the card. The 

 earliest missionaries to China found the magnetic 

 needle in use in that country. 



The compass is composed essentially of a magnetic 

 needle, suspended freely on a pivot, and containing a 

 card, marked with the thirty-two points of direction 

 into which the horizon is divided, and which are 

 thence called points of the compass. The needle 

 always points to the north (excepting slight varia- 

 tions), and the direction which the ship is steering is 

 therefore determined by a mere inspection of the 

 card. This apparatus is enclosed in a brass box, 

 with a glass covering, to allow the card to be 

 seen without being disturbed by the wind. This 

 again is freely suspended within a larger box, so as to 

 prevent, as much as possible, the needle from being 

 affected by the motion of the vessel. The whole is 

 then placed in the binnacle in sight of the man at the 

 helm. On the inside of that part of the compass-box 

 which is directly on a line with the vessel's bow, is a 

 clear black stroke, called the lubber line, which the 

 steersman uses to keep his required course ; that is, 

 he must always keep the point of the card, which in- 

 dicates his course, coinciding with the lubber-line. 

 The compass here described is called the steering 

 compass. Several other sorts are used for different 

 purposes, but the principle on which they are con- 

 structed is the same. Some land compasses are of 

 the size of a watch-seal, and actually fixed in such 

 seals ; others of the size and external form of a pocket 

 watch. Sometimes a little sundial is affixed to com- 

 pass-boxes. The box, of whatever material it is made , 

 must have no particle of iron in its construction. See 

 Magnetism and Navigation. 



COMPASSES, or PAIR OF COMPASSES ; a ma- 

 thematical instrument, used for the describing of cir- 

 cles, measuring lines, &c. The common compasses 

 consist of two tranches or legs of iron, brass, or other 

 metal, pointed at bottom, and joined by a rivet, 

 whereon they move as on a centre. We have com- 

 passes of various kinds, and contrivances accommo- 

 dated to the, various uses for which they are in- 

 tended. 



COMPIEGNE ; a French town, in the department 

 de rOise, 15| leagues N. N. E. of Paris. It has 

 6260 inhabitants, crooked streets and ill built houses, 

 and some manufactures and commerce. Formerly, 

 it was supported only by the court, which occasionally 

 resided here. It has two fairs, one in April, and one 

 in November. Charles VI. took this town from the 

 duke of Burgundy in 1415. In 1430, Joan of Arc 

 was taken prisoner here by the English. 



COMPLEXION. The human skin, till the time of 

 Malpighi, was supposed to consist only of two parts 

 the cuticle, epidermis or scarf-skin, and the cutis 

 or real skin ; but that anatomist, about the middle of 

 the seventeenth century, discovered between these a 

 cellular texture, soft and gelatinous, to which the 

 names of rete muscosum and corpus reticulare have 

 been given. He demonstrated the existence of this 

 membrane, at first in the tongue, and in the inner parts 

 of the hands and feet; but, by his subsequent la- 

 bours, and also by those of Ruysch and other ana- 

 tomists, it has been proved to exist, between the 

 epidermis and cutis, in all parts of the human body. 

 Malpighi, on the discovery of this membrane, offered 

 a conjecture respecting the cause of the colour of 

 negroes. He supposed that this membrane contain- 

 ed a juice or fluid of a black colour, from which their 

 blackness arose. The actual existence of a black 

 pigment has been since ascertained, but has never 

 been procured in sufficient quantity to admit of minute 



and analytical examination. The rete ntuscofrtti is 

 of very different colours in different nations ; and the 

 ilillen-nce of its colour so completely agrees with the 

 difference of their complexions, that there can be no 

 doubt that it is the sole, or, at least, the principal, 

 seat of the colour of the human complexion. Its thick- 

 ness varies in different parts of the body ; and the 

 depth of its colour, for the most part, is in proportion 

 to its thickness. The black colour of the. negn.t^ !, 

 destroyed by several causes ; indeed, whatever de- 

 stroys the rete moscosum destroys it, as wounds, burns, 

 &c. ; and, as this membrane is never reproduced, the 

 scar remains white ever afterwards. Hawkins (in his 

 Travels into the Interior of Africa, p. 120) mentions 

 that the land-cloud of Africa, called, by the Portu- 

 guese, ferrino, clianges the black colour of the ne- 

 groes into a dusky grey ; according to some other 

 authors, the cliange is into a red copper colour. At 

 Darfur a species of leprosy prevails among the na- 

 tives, which they call borras, and which gives them 

 the appearance of being piebald, changing to a white 

 colour parts both of their skin and their hair. 

 There are, also, several instances of the colour of ne- 

 groes being either entirely or partially changed, from 

 the operation of causes which cannot be detected or 

 explained. A boy, who was born in Virginia, of black 

 parents, continued of his native colour till he was 

 three years old : at that period, a change of colour 

 began to take place, though the health of the boy 

 continued good, and there was no assignable cause 

 for the alteration, in his food or mode of life. At 

 first, white specks made their appearance on his neck 

 and breast, which soon increased in number and size ; 

 from the upper part of his neck down to his knees, 

 he was completely dappled ; his hair was also chang- 

 ed, but not to the same degree, since, though some 

 parts of it were white, in general it retained the 

 black colour and crispature of the negro. The 

 colour of those parts of his body which had under- 

 gone the change was of a more livid white than is 

 found among the fairest Europeans ; nor did the flesh 

 and blood appear through these parts of his skin 

 so clear and lively as through the skin of white 

 people. He was not liable to oe tanned. Philoso- 

 phical Transactions (vol. xix. p. 781). For the 

 classification of the varieties of the human complex- 

 ion, see the article Man ; see also Facial Angle. 



The nature and colour of the hair seem closely 

 connected with the complexion. In proportion to 

 the thinness of the skin, and the fairness of the com- 

 plexion, the hair is soft, fine, and of a white colour : 

 this observation holds good, not only in the great 

 varieties of the human race, but also in the Albinos. 

 Next to them, in fairness of complexion, is the Gothic 

 race, the rutilee coma of whom were a distinguishing 

 characteristic, even in the time of the Romans. 

 The Celtic tribes are not so fair as the Gothic, and 

 their hair is darker and more inclined to curl ; so that 

 the observation which Tacitus makes respecting the 

 Silures still applies to them Color -ati vultus, torti 

 crines. But, though the colour of the hair is evi- 

 dently connected with the complexion, yet its tenden- 

 cy to curl does not appear to be so. The brown 

 complexioned Celts have curled hair; the Mon- 

 golian and American varieties, of a much darker 

 complexion, have hair of a darker colour, but long 

 and straight Among that portion of the Malay 

 variety which inhabits the South sea islands, soft and 

 curled hair is frequently met with. The colour of the 

 eye is also connected with the complexion. In the 

 Africans, professor Sommering remarks that the tuni- 

 ca adnata, or white of the eye, is not so resplendent- 

 ly white as in Europeans, but rather of a yellowish- 

 brown, something similar to what occurs in the jaun 

 dice. The iris, in the negroes, in general, is of a vm 



