COMPLUTENSIAN POLYGLOT CONCEPTION. 



373 



do not find the olive colour of the Mongolian variety 

 with the features of the Malay ; nor the brown col- 

 our of the Malay with the features of the Mongolian ; 

 nor the black skin of the Ethiopian variety, or the 

 red colour of the American, united with any set of 

 features but those which characterize their respec- 

 tive varieties. It, however, by no means follows that 

 the hypothesis of different races having been original- 

 ly formed, must be adopted, because climate is not 

 adequate to the production of the radical varieties of 

 complexion which are found among mankind. Man, 

 as well as animals, has a propensity to form natural 

 varieties 



COMPLUTENSIAN POLYGLOT. See Cicala 

 de Henares. 



COMPOSITE ORDER. See Architecture. 



COMPOST, in husbandry and gardening ; seve- 

 ral sorts of soils, or kinds of earthy matter mixed to- 

 gether ; or a mixture of earth and putrid animal sub- 

 stance, or vegetable substance ; in fact, any artificial 

 manure to assist the soil in the work of vegetation. 

 See Colonies, pauper. 



COMPOSTELLA, or SAN JAGO DE COMPO- 

 STELLA (anciently Brigantium); a city of Spain, 

 and capital of Galicia, ninety- eight miles W. of 

 Astorga ; Ion. 8 30> W. ; lat. 42 52' N. ; popula- 

 tion, about 12,000. It is situated in a beautiful plain, 

 on all sides surrounded with agreeable hills, between 

 the Sar and Sarella, which unite about half a league 

 below. It is the see of an archbishop. In the me- 

 tropolitan church are preserved, as the people be- 

 Jieve, the remains of St James, the patron of Spain, 

 to whom the church is dedicated, and from whom 

 the town is named. There are twelve parish 

 churches, fourteen religious houses, and four hos- 

 pitals. The annual revenue of the archbishop is 

 said to amount to 60,000 ducats. A university was 

 established here in the year 1532, consisting of four 

 colleges. The order of St Jago takes its title from 

 this city, the knights of which possess eighty-seven 

 commanderies, with an annual income of 200,000 

 ducats. 



COMPOSTELLA, NUOVA ; a town of Mexico 

 in Guadalaxara, built by Nunez de Guzman, once the 

 see of a bishop, removed to Guadalaxara ) 300 miles 

 W. N. W. Mexico; Ion. 106<> 11' W. ; lat. 21 

 20* N. There are silver mines in the neighbourhood. 



COMPOUND BLOWPIPE; an instrument pro- 

 ducing an intense heat from the combustion of oxygen 

 and hydrogen gases. The gases are contained each 

 in a separate gas-holder, and are expelled by the pres- 

 sure of a column of water, not being allowed to mix 

 until they arrive nearly at the aperture of a pipe tip- 

 ped with platina, when they are inflamed. The heat 

 produced is sufficient to melt all the earths, and the 

 natural as well as artificial compounds which they 

 form with each other. The metals, also, are brought 

 by it into a state of ebullition, and are even complete- 

 ly volatilized. This modification of the oxyhydrogen 

 blowpipe, as it has sometimes been called, which was 

 invented by doctor Hare, of Philadelphia, is far pre- 

 ferable to that of Newman, or rather of Brooke, who 

 appears to have been the first inventor, since it is not 

 attended by any danger, whereas the original instru- 

 ment, in which the gases were previously mingled, 

 was liable to a violent and hazardous explosion. The 

 compound blowpipe has been found of occasional use 

 in the arts, where an intense and long-continued heat 

 is required. 



COMPRESSIBILITY ; the quality of bodies of 

 being reducible, by sufficient power, to a narrower 

 space, in consequence of their porosity, without dimin- 

 ishing their quantity of matter. All bodies are pro- 

 bably compressible, though the liquids, in particular, 

 offer an almost invincible resistance to compression. 



Those bodies which occupy their former space, when 

 the pressure is removed, are called elastic. 



COMPRESSION MACHINES; instruments for 

 compressing or condensing elastic fluids. Such, for 

 instance, is an air-pump with cocks, by which the 

 air can be condensed in tight vessels. For the com- 

 pression of liquids (for instance, water), Abich has 

 constructed a metallic cylinder of twenty inches five 

 and ten-twelfth lines high, three and a half inches 

 seven and a half toes in diameter, one inch, two and a 

 half lines thick. This cylinder is filled with water, and 

 an iron piston, covered with leather, and, exactly fit- 

 ting the bore, is pressed into it. For this pressure, a 

 screw was first used ; but, in order to produce a bet- 

 ter application of the power, a lever was afterwards 

 employed to force down the piston. A mark on the 

 piston shows, by its distance from a little ledge 

 across the cylinder, how far the piston has been forced 

 down, and, when the force subsides, how far it has 

 been driven up. See Zimmerman on the Elasticity 

 of Water, Leipsic, 1779. The latest experiments on 

 the compressibility of water, we owe to Oersted (An- 

 nales de Chimie et de Physique) and Mr Perkins, so 

 distinguished for his mechanical invention. 



COMUS (from the Greek) ; the name of a merry 

 company of young people, who came singing into 

 the houses of their friends and mistresses, to entertain 

 them with their music. Camus was also the name of 

 the songs sung at festive entertainments. This name 

 is not given, by early ancient writers, whose works 

 have been preserved, to a divinity presiding over such 

 meetings, who is a creation of later times, which 

 gave him the name of the festive songs in which were 

 celebrated the praises of the giver of social joys He 

 is first mentioned by Philostratus. 



CONCAVE. See Convex. 



CONCAVE LENS ; an epithet for glasses ground 

 hollow on the inside, so as to reflect on the hollow 

 side. 



CONCENTRATION (in Chemistry) ; the act of 

 increasing the strength of fluids, by volatilizing part 

 of their water. 



CONCENTRIC ; an epithet for figures having one 

 common centre. 



CONCEPTION, IMMACULATE. The belief is en- 

 tertained in the Roman Catholic church, that the 

 virgin Mary was born without the stain of origi- 

 nal sin. St Bernard, in the twelfth century, re- 

 jected this doctrine, in opposition to the canons of 

 Lyons, and it afterwards became a subject of vehe- 

 ment controversy between the Scotists and the 

 Thomists. The Dominicans espoused the opinion of 

 St Thomas, the Franciscans that of Scotus. Sixtus 

 IV., himself a Franciscan, allowed toleration on this 

 point. In the fifth session of the council of Trent, it 

 was resolved, that the doctrine of the conception of 

 all men in original sin was not intended to include 

 the Virgin. The controversy was revived in the 

 university of Paris towards the close of the sixteenth 

 century. During the times of Paul V. and Gregory 

 XV., such was the dissension in Spain, that both 

 Philip and his successor sent special embassies to 

 Rome, in the vain hope that this contest might be 

 terminated by a bull. The dispute continued to run 

 so high in Spain, that, in the military orders of St 

 James, of the Sword, of Calatrava, and of Alcan- 

 tara, the knights, on their admission, vowed to main- 

 tain the doctrine. In 1708, Clement XI. ap- 

 pointed a festival to be celebrated throughout the 

 church in honour of the immaculate conception. 

 Since that time, it has been received in the Roman 

 church as an opinion, but not as an article of faith. 

 This belief is held by the Greek church also, which 

 celebrates the feast under the title of the concep- 

 tion of St Anne. Petrus de Alva et Astorga pul> 



