41(3 
C O M 
COM 
division into three parts, viz. the cranium, 
face, and inferior maxilla ; as it relates how- 
ever to the sentient organization, the head 
will only admit of two primary divisions : 
the cranium, containing the brain ; and the 
face, in the cavities of which are lodged the 
organs of sight, smell, and taste. The or- 
gans of hearing are situated on the sides of 
the cranium. A capacious cranium and a 
small face are the indices of a large brain 
and less developed senses of smell and taste. 
The relative proportion of the cranium 
and the face, also indicates a greater or iess 
degree of perfection in those faculties which 
are generally denominated intellectual or re- 
flective, compared with the external or sen- 
sitive. In man the cranium is relatively the 
largest, and the face the smallest ; and ani- 
mals, as they depart from these proportions, 
become in the same ratio more stupid and 
ferocious. To this general rule, however, 
there are some exceptions. See the article 
Physiognomy. 
One of the most simple means of as- 
certaining these proportions is by means of 
the facial line of Camper, and the angle 
which it forms with the basis of the cranium. 
The facial line is supposed to pass in con- 
tact with the upper incisores teeth, and the 
most prominent part of the forehead ; and 
the basilar line of the cranium is that which 
bisects longitudinally a plane passing through 
the external openings of the ear, and along 
the lower edge of the anterior aperture of 
the nostrils. In proportion as the forehead 
projects or the cranium is enlarged, the 
angle made by these lines must necessarily 
increase ; on the contrary, as the cranium di- 
minishes in size, or the forehead recedes, 
the facial line will incline further back and 
diminish the angle. In man the facial 
angle is wider than in any other animal, and 
it becomes always more acute in the different 
animals as they are removed from man. 
In the European, it is 85° ; negro, 70° ; 
orang-outang, 67° ; pug-dog, 35° ; polecat, 
31°, &c. 
Still more important relations, however, 
are discovered by means of a vertical and ' 
longitudinal section of the head. In the Eu- 
ropean the area of the section of the cra- 
nium is nearly four times as large as that of 
the face,, exclusive- of the inferior maxilla. 
In the negro the face is increased about one- 
fifth. The proportion of the cranium is still 
less in the orang-outang; in the sapajbus 
the face is nearly one-half of the cranium ; 
in most of the carnivora it is nearly equal. 
In the rodentia, pachydermata, ruminantia, 
and solipedia, the area of the section of the 
face is larger than that of the cranium. Of 
the rodentia, the hare and marmot have it 
one-third larger. In the porcupine it is more 
than double, a little more than double in 
hogs, nearly triple in the hippopotamus, and 
almost quadruple in the horse. (N. B. The 
above proportions are given on the authority 
of M. Cuvier.) 
These remarks are particularly interesting 
in relation to the mammalia order of ani- 
mals, as in these the cavity of the cranium 
is occupied entirely by brain; so that the 
description of the osseous part, indicates 
pretty accurately the external form of the 
whole encephalon. 
The proportion which the cranium bears 
to the face in birds, does not authorise the 
C O M 
same inductions as in the mammalia; and 
with respect to reptiles and fishes (the re- 
maining class of vertebral animals) no im- 
portant inferences can be made from the 
magnitude and form of the cranium, as the 
brain only occupies a small part of its cavity. 
In the nervous system of the mollusca, Crus- 
tacea, and insects, the utmost irregularity 
obtains ; and it has already been stated that 
in the zoophytes, which occupy the lowest 
rank in the scale of animal life, a distinct 
sentient organization has not hitherto been 
detected. For the internal organization and 
functions of the nervous system, consult the 
article Physiology. 
COMPARISON, in rhetoric, a figure that 
illustrates and sets off one thing, by resem- 
bling and comparing it with another, to 
which it bears a manifest relation and re- 
semblance, as in the following figure in Shak- 
speare : 
She never told her love. 
But let concealment, like a worm, 
Feed on her damask cheek : she pined in 
thought, 
And sat like Patience on a monument. 
Smiling at Grief. 
COMPASS, or mariner’s compass, an in- 
strument by which the ship’s course is deter- 
mined. S : ee Mag.netjsm, and Naviga- ■ 
TION. 
Compasses, or pair of compasses, a ma- 
thematical instrument for describing circles, 
or measuring figures. See Instruments 
Mathematical. 
COMPENSATION, in the civil law, a 
sort of right, whereby a debtor, sued by his 
creditor for the payment of a debt, demands 
that the debt may he compensated with what 
is owing him by the creditor, which, in that 
case, is equivalent to payment. 
CO MPERTOR IU M, in the civil law, sig- 
nifies a judicial inquest made by delegates 
to search out and relate the truth of a case. 
COMPITALIA, or Compitalitia, in 
Roman antiquity, feasts instituted by Serv-us 
Tullius in honour of the Lares. These feasts 
were observed on the 1 2th of January and 
6th of March. Tarquinius Superbus, con- 
sulting the oracle upon the subject of the sa- 
crifices to be offered on that occasion, was 
answered that he should oiler heads to the 
Lares: for which reason, the Romans pre- 
sented the heads of young children in sacri- 
fice to those deities. ’ But Junius Brutus or- 
dered poppy-heads' to be offered in their 
stead. Macrobius relates, that they satisfied 
the Lares, by offering the images of men 
and women made in straw; and that for each 
slave in their family, they threw pi so many 
bales of wool. 
COMPLEMENT, in astronomy, the dis- 
tance of a star from the zenith : or the arch 
comprehended between the place of the stay 
above the horizon and the zenith. 
Complement, in geometry, is what re- 
mains of a quadrant of a circle, or of 90°, af- 
ter any certain arch has been taken away 
from it. Thus, if the arch taken away be 
40°, its complement is 50: because 50-j-40 
—90. The sine of the complement oi an 
arch is called the co-sine, and that of the 
tangent the co-tangent, &c. 
Complements in a parallelogram, are 
the two smaller parallelograms made by 
drawing two right lines through the diago- 
nal, and parallel to the sides of the parallelo- 
gram. 
In every parallelogram, these complements 
are equal. -See Mechanics. 
COMPLEX terms, or ideas, in logic, are 
such as are compounded of several simple 
ones. Complex ideas are often considered 
as single and distinct beings, though they 
may be made up of several simple ideas, as a 
body, a spirit, a horse, a flower ; but when 
several of these ideas of a different kind are* 
joined together, which are usually considered 
as distinct single beings, they are called a 
compound idea, whether these united ideas 
be simple or complex. Complex ideas, how- 
ever compounded and recompounded, 
though their number is infinite, and their 
variety endless, may be all reduced under 
these three heads, modes, substances, and re- 
lations. 
Complex proposition, is either that which 
has at least one of its terms complex; or such 
as contains several members, as casual pro- 
positions ; or it is several ideas offering them- 
selves to our thoughts at once, by which we 
are led to affirm the same thing of different 
objects, or different things of the same ob- 
ject. Thus, God is infinitely wise, and in- 
finitely powerful. In like manner, in the 
proposition, Neither kings nor people are 
exempt from death. 
COM PLEXUS, in anatomy, a broad and 
pretty long muscle, lying along the back-part 
and side oi the neck. See Anatomy. 
COMPOSITE numbers, are such as can 
be measured exactly by a number exceeding 
unity; as 6 by 2 or 3, or 10 by 5, Ac. so 
that 4 is the lowest composite number- Com- 
posite numbers between themselves, are 
those which have some common measure be- 
sides unity; as 12 and 13, as being both 
measured by 3. 
Composite order. See Architecture. 
COMPOSITION, in grammar, the join- 
ing of two words together; or prefixing a 
particle to another word, to augment, dimi- 
nish, or change its signification. 
Composition, in logic, a method of rea- 
soning, by which we proceed from some ge- i 
neral self-evident truth, to other particular 
and singular ones. 
Composition, in music, the art of dis- i 
posing musical sounds into airs, songs, Ac. 
either in one or more parts, to be sung by a i 
voice, or played on instruments. 
Under composition are comprehended the . 
rules, 1. Of melody, or the art of making a 
single part ; that is,’ contriving and disposing ; 
the simple sounds, so as that their succession 
and progression may be agreeable to the ear. 
2. Of harmony, or the art of disposing and 
concerting several single parts together, so 
as that they make one agreeable whole. It 
may be proper to observe here, that melody 
being chiefly the business of the imagination, 
the rules of its composition serve only to] 
prescribe certain limits to it, beyond which 
the imagination, in searching out the variety 
and beauty of airs, ought not to go ; but 
harmony being the work of the judgment, 
its rules are more certain and extensive, aud 
more difficult in practice. 
Composition, in painting, consists of two- 
parts, invention and disposition ; the first 
of which is the choice of the objects which 
are to enter into the composition of the sub- 
ject the painter intends to execute, and 'is 
