CONCEPT 



1524 



CONCLAVE 



CONCEPT, kon'srpt. A concept is one's idea 

 of a class of objects, expressed by common 

 nouns without modifiers, as cat, horse, house. 

 If I say the cat, I usually refer to one partic- 

 ular cat. If I say a cat, I mean one cat, but 

 not any particular cat, while the word cat, 

 without any limitation, means all cats. For 

 this reason a concept is called a class, or gen- 

 eral, idea, or notion. 



Concepts are formed by the child as a result 

 of direct observation. That is, he arrives at 

 the general idea cat by the observation of 

 many cats. His first idea of cats is that of 

 his own pet kitten and includes size and color. 

 Repeated observations stamp the picture of 

 the kitten on his memory. When he sees 

 another cat of different size and color he may 

 at first think it to be some other animal, but 

 he soon learns that it also is a cat. He then 

 reconstructs his idea and omits from it those 

 qualities not common to both cats, such as 

 size and color. One cat may be black and the 

 other white; one may be small and the other 

 large, but both have round heads, pointed 

 ears, a long body, four legs and a tail. The 

 child soon learns that all cats have these 

 characteristics, and he blends them all into 

 his general idea (concept) cat. All concepts 

 are formed by a similar process. 



The formation of concepts is an essential 

 step in mental development. Since all con- 

 cepts are formed from ideas of individual 

 objects gained through observation, their accu- 

 racy depends upon the accuracy of one's 

 observations. Teachers and parents should 

 therefore help children to observe objects care- 

 fully and accurately. Clear concepts are essen- 

 tial to clear thinking. 



CONCERTINA, konsurte'nah, an improved 

 form of accordion. Usually six-sided, this in- 

 strument is composed of a bellows with two 

 ends on which the stops or studs are placed. 

 It is held between the hands so that the fingers 

 fall naturally on these studs, and the performer 

 so operates the valves that air is admitted to 

 the metallic reeds, and sounds are produced. 

 As there are two tongues or reeds for each tone, 

 sound may be produced by pulling the bellows 

 open or pressing them together. Including 

 chromatic tones, the range of the instrument 

 is from the lowest violin G to the C three and 

 one-half octaves higher. Concertina music is 

 artistic and beautiful when played by a skilled 

 performer. 



CONCH, konic, from a Greek word meaning 

 shell, or shell-like, is applied to a large and 



useful mollusk of tropical waters, found abun- 

 dantly in the West Indies and on the coast 

 of Florida. It has a heavy spiral shell, which 

 is used for many purposes. Shiploads of the lat- 



CONCH SHELL. 



ter are sent to various parts of the United States 

 and Europe to be ground up for porcelain mak- 

 ing, to be burned into lime or to be used as 

 ornaments. Many of them, with the end broken 

 off, are used as dinner horns on Southern planta- 

 tions. From some conchs inferior cameos are 

 cut (see CAMEO) . The pink Bahama conchs fur- 

 nish the valuable "conch pearls."' Others are 

 used in button making, and in the East Indies 

 the shell of one species is used as a musical in- 

 strument. The animal itself is sometimes eaten, 

 and the poorer people of Southern Florida and 

 near-by islands once used them for food and 

 collected them for sale. The egg cases of 

 these mollusks look like leathery circles strung 

 upon a cord, and have been called "sea neck- 

 laces." 



CONCLAVE, kon'klave, an assembly of peo- 

 ple meeting privately. Originally the word 

 related solely to the assembly and place of 

 meeting of cardinals of the Roman Catholic 

 Church for the election of the Pope. The 

 word in French or Latin means a room which 

 may be locked. Long ago Popes were chosen 

 by the clergy and the people, but elections 

 frequently were attended by confusion. In 

 the Council of Lyons in 1274 the present 

 method was developed. Ten days after the 

 death of a Pope, the cardinals meet in the city 

 in which he died. A large hall is divided into 

 small rooms, three of which are given to those 

 of princely rank, two to each of the ordinary 

 cardinals. The first day the meeting place 

 may be viewed by the public, but thereafter 

 the cardinals are locked in and allowed no 

 communication with the outer world until after 

 the election. Their food is prepared in the 

 same building, but formerly it was passed 



