CON 
or that these bodies are converted into real 
bone. We do not know whether any such os- 
sifications have been analysed. 
II. Concretions, intestinal. Concretions 
of very considerable size are sometimes found 
lodged in the stomach and intestines; seldom 
indeed in the human body, but more fre- 
quently in some of the inferior animals. 
Some of these bodies have acquired great 
celebrity under the name of bezoars ; but 
their medical virtue, at least in this country, 
has long ago sunk to its just level. We are in 
possession of a chemical analysis of only a 
very small number of such concretions ; even 
their figure and external characters have 
been but imperfectly described. 
1. Of the horse. Two concretions, taken 
from the intestines of the horse, have been 
analysed; the first by Fourcroy, the second 
by Bertholdi; and both of them were com- 
posed of the same constituents. The first 
was of a grey colour, round, and weighed 
five pounds. It was radiated or crystallized 
in its structure. In the centre were several 
cavities filled with vegetable matter. It was 
insoluble in cold, but slightly soluble in boiling 
water. It was composed almost entirely of 
phosphat of magnesia and ammonia. The 
second was brownish-grey, round, and above 
four inches in diameter. Its specific gravity 
was 1,670. It was composed of eight con- 
centric strata, all crystallized. In the centre 
there was found a small plate of iron. Its 
constituents were 
18.0 magnesia 
26. 0 phosphoric acid 
3. 2 ammonia 
46. 0 water 
4. 0 animal matter 
97. 2 
2. Bezoars. The substances called be- 
zoars, are supposed to be concretions formed 
in the stomach or intestines of different 
graminivorous animals. They are brought 
to Europe from India and America, and vary 
exceedingly both in their appearance and 
properties. To attempt a description would 
be useless, till we know more precisely the 
* animals in which they are formed, and how 
many different animals yield them. Dr. 
Pearson analysed one specimen, and found it 
entirely composed of vegetable matter. See 
Calculi, and Bezoar. 
III. Concretions, gouty. It isw.ell known 
that concretions occasionally make their ap- 
pearance in joints long subject to gout. 
These concretions, from their colour and 
softness, have received the name of chalk- 
stones. They are usually small, though they 
have been observed of the size of an egg. It 
had long been the opinion of physicians that 
these concretions were similar to the urinary 
calculi. Of course, after the discovery of 
uric acid byScheele, it was usual to consider 
the gouty chalkstones as collections of that 
acid. They were subjected to a chemical 
analysis by Dr. Wollaston, in 1797, who 
found them composed of uric acid and soda. 
Gouty concretions are soft and friable. 
Cold water has little effect upon them ; but 
boiling water dissolves a small portion. If 
an acid is added to this solution, small cry- 
stals of uric acid are deposited on the sides 
of the vessel. 
These concretions are completely soluble 
CON 
in potash, when the action of the alkaline so- 
lution is assisted by heat. 
When treated with diluted sulphuric or 
with muriatic acid, the soda is separated ; but 
the uric acid remains, and may be separated 
by filtration. The liquid, when evaporated, 
yields crystals of sulphat or muriat of soda, 
according to the acid employed. The resi- 
duum possesses ail the characters of uric 
acid. When distilled it yields ammonia, 
prussic acid, and the acid sublimate of 
Scheele. When dissolved in a little nitric 
acid, it tinges the skin of a rose colour, and 
when evaporated, leaves a rose-coloured de- 
liquescent residuum. It is soluble in potash, 
and may be precipitated by any acid and by 
ammonia; first in the state of a jelly, and 
then breaking down into a white powder. 
When uric acid, soda, and a little warm 
water, are triturated together, a mass is form- 
ed, which, after the surplus of soda is washed 
off, possesses the chemical properties of gouty 
concretions. 
COND, Con, or Conn, in the sea-lan- 
guage, to guide or direct the ship to her right 
course, by giving directions to the man at 
the helm how to steer. 
CONDENSER, a pneumatic engine or 
syringe, whereby an uncommon quantity of 
air may be crowded into a given space ; so 
that sometimes ten atmospheres, or ten times 
as much air as there is at the same time in 
the same space without the engine, may be 
thrown in by means of it, and its egress pre- 
vented by valves properly disposed. 
It consists of a brass cylinder, wherein is 
a moveable piston ; which being drawn out, 
the air rushes into the cylinder, through p 
hole provided on purpose ; and when the 
piston is again forced into the cylinder, the 
air is driven into the receiver through an ori- 
fice, furnished with a valve to hinder its get- 
ting out. See Pneumatics. 
CONDERS, a term used in the herring 
fishery, for people who stand on cliffs or emi- 
nences near the sea-coast, to direct the fish- 
ermen which way the shoal of herrings pass- 
es ; their course being more conspicuous to 
those who stand on high cliffs ashore, than to 
those on board the vessels. 
CONDITION, in the civil law, a clause 
of obligation stipulated as an article of a 
treaty or contract ; or in a donation of testa- 
ment, legacy, & c. : in which last case a do- 
nee does not lose his donative, if it is charged 
with any dishonest or impossible conditions. 
The conditions under which a donation can 
be made, are distinguished into three kinds : 
1. The casual, which depends merely on 
chance ; 2. The potestative, which is abso- 
lutely in our power ; and, 3. The mixed 
condition, which is compounded of the other 
two. 
Condition, in common law, a restraint 
annexed to a thing, so that by the non-ner- 
formance the party to it shall sustain loss, 
and by the performance receive advantage ; 
or it is a restriction of men’s acts, qualifying 
or suspending the same, and making them 
uncertain whether they shall take effect or 
not. Also it is defined to be, what is referred 
to a contingency, which may or may not 
take place. 
CONDITIONAL syllogism, in logic, a 
syllogism where the major is a corqiitional 
proposition. Thus, 
3 G 2 
CO N 419 
If there is a God, he ought to be wor- 
shipped : 
Bfit there is a God ; 
Therefore he ought to be worshipped. 
The Arminian divines maintain, that all 
the decrees of God relating to the salvation 
and damnation of man, are truly conditional ; 
and the calvinists that they are absolute. 
The science of conditionals, that is, of con- 
ditional truths, is the knowledge which God 
has of things considered not according to 
their essence, their nature, or their real ex- 
istence, but under a certain supposition 
which import" a condition never to be ac- 
complished. 
CONDORMIENTES, in church-history, 
religious sectaries, who hold their name from 
sleeping all together, men and women, young 
and old. They arose in the thirteenth cen- 
tury near Cologne, where they are said to 
have worshipped an image of Lucifer, and 
to have received answers and oracles front- 
him. 
CONDUCTOR, in surgery, an instru-' 
ment which serves to conduct the knife in the 
operation of cutting for the stone, and in 
laying up sinuses and fistulas. See- Sur- 
g ERY. 
Conductor* in electricity. All bodies 
are divided into conductors and non-conduct- 
ors. The latter are called electrics. See 
Electricity. 
Conductors, in military affairs, are as- 
sistants given to the commissary of the stores 
to receive or deliver out stores to the army, 
to attend at the magazines by turns when in 
garrison, and to look after the ammunition- 
waggons in the field. They bring their ac- 
counts every night to the commissary, and 
are immediately under his command. 
CONDYLOMA, in medicine, a tubercle 
or callous eminence which arises in the folds 
of the anus, or rather a swelling or hardening 
of the wrinkles of that part. See Surgery . 
CONE, in geometry, a solid figure, hav- 
ing a circle for its base, and its top terminated 
in a point or vertex. See Conic Sections. 
CONE and Key-, accounts and key. A 
woman at tiie age of 14 or 13, might take 
the charge of her house and receive cone 
and key ; so that a woman was held to be of 
competent years, when she was able to keep 
the accounts and key of her house. 
CONFECTION signifies a liquid or soft 
electuary, of which there are various sorts 
directed in dispensatories. See Pharmacy. 
CONFECTOR, iii Roman antiquity, a 
sort of gladiator hired to fight in the amphi- 
theatre against beasts, thence also denomi- 
nated bestiarius. 
CONFEDERACY, inlaw, is when two 
or more confederate, to do any damage 
or injury to another, or to commit any 
unlawful act. And though a writ of confe- 
deracy do not lie if the party be not indict- 
ed and in a lawful manner acquitted, yet. 
false confederacy between divers persons 
shall be punished, though nothing be put in 
execution. 
CONFERVA, a genus belonging to (lie 
cryptogamia class oi plants ; an<^ in the na- 
tural method ranking under the 57th order, 
algx. The tubercles are of different sizes, 
oil capillary, very long fibres. There are 
21 species, most of which. grow on. stones in 
slow streams, oa the skips of cisterns* or- us 
ponds. 
