CON 
on that account the cause to be wrongfully 
called from the ecclesiastical court, then 
upon this consultation or deliberation they 
decree it to be returned. This writ is in 
the nature of a procedendo ; yet properly 
a consultation ought not be granted, only 
in case where a person cannot recover at 
the common law. lu causes of which the 
ecclesiastical and spiritual courts have juris- 
diction, and they are not mixed with any 
temporal thing ; if suggestion is made for a 
prohibition, a consultation shall be awarded. 
See Prohibition. 
CONSUMPTION. See Medicine. 
CONTACT, is when one line, plane, or 
body is made to touch another, and the 
parts that do thus touch are called tlie 
points or places of contact. The contact of 
two spherical bodies, and of a tangent with 
the circumference of a circle, is only in one 
point. 
Contact, angle of, is the opening be- 
tween a curve line and a tangent to it. 
■ CONTAGION, in physic, the communi- 
cating a disease from one body to another. 
In some diseases it is only effected by an 
immediate contact, as in the syphilis ; in 
others it is conveyed by infected clothes, 
and in others it seems capable of being 
transmitted through the air at a considerable 
distmce. Though a very able writer in Dr. 
Rees’s Cyclopedia produces a variety of 
facts to prove that the most malignant con- 
tagions are never conveyed to any great 
distance tlirough the atmosphere, but that 
they are in fact rendered inert and harmless 
by diffusion in the open air, and even in the 
air of a well ventilated apartment. Hence 
the same writer, who has given an article of 
great interest on this subject, infers that all 
pestilence is propagated by near approach 
to, or actual contact of the diseased, or by 
the conveyance of the contagious poison in 
articles impregnated with it. This noxious 
matter is in many cases readily distinguished 
by the peculiarly disagreeable smell which 
it communicates to the air. No doubt this 
matter differs according to the diseases 
which it communicates, and the substance 
from which it has originated. Morveau 
lately attempted to ascertain its nature ; but 
he soon found the chemical tests hitherto 
discovered altogether insufficient for that 
purpose. He has put it beyond a doubt, 
however,, that the noxious matter which 
liscs from putrid bodies is of a compound 
nature; and that it is destroyed altogether 
by certain agents, particularly by those 
gaseous bodies which readily part with their 
CON 
oxygen. He exposed air infected by putrid 
bodies to the action of various substances ; 
and he judged of the result by the effect 
which these bodies had in destroying the 
fetid smell of the air. The following is the 
result of his experiments : odorous bodies, 
such as benzoin, aromatic plants, &c. have 
no effect whatever ; neither have the solu- 
tions of myrrh, benzoin, &c. in alcohol, 
though agitated in infected air. Pyrolig- 
nous acid is equally inert. Gunpowder, 
when fired in infected air, displaces a por- 
tion of it ; but what remains still retains its 
fetid odour. Sulphuric acid has no effect ; 
sulphurous acid weakens the odour, but 
does not destroy it. Vinegar diminishes the 
odour, but its action is slow and incom- 
plete. Acetic acid acts instantly, and de- 
stroys the fetid odour of infected air com- 
pletely. The fumes of nitric acid, first em- 
ployed by Dr. Carmichael Smith, are equally 
efficacious. Muriatic acid gas, first pointed 
out as a proper agent by Morveau himself, is 
equally Ineffectual. But the most powerful 
agent is oxymuriatic acid gas, first proposed 
by Mr. Cruickshanks, and now employed 
with the greatest success in the British navy 
and military hospitals. 
We shall observe that these gases are 
readily procured. Nitre, or as it is called 
in the new chemistry, nitrate of potash, mix- 
ed with sulphuric acid, yields a very power- 
ful gas, the acid combining with the potash, 
the base of the nitre, expels the nitrous 
acid gas in fumes. Muriatic acid gas is ob- 
tained in a similar manner by using common 
salt, the alkali combines with the acid and 
the muriatic gas goes off in vapour. Pre- 
vention being, however, much better than 
the means of cure, we shall give some rules 
for the management of persons sick with 
contagious diseases. Cleanliness is essen- 
tially necessary ; the chamber door should 
ever be kept open, and the vrindow as much 
as possible in the day : the bed curtains should 
not be drawn, except to ward off the direct 
light from the window; dirty clothes, uten- 
sils, &c. should be frequently changed, and 
washed veiy clean ; all discharges from the 
patient should be instantly removed: visi- 
tors and attendants should avoid the patient’s 
breath, and tlie vapour from his body, and 
from all evacuations ; they should never go 
into an infected chamber with an empty 
stomach, and on coming from it they should 
■blow their nose and expectorate freely. 
During the prevalence of a contagious 
epidemic, great caie should be taken to 
avoid all causes of debility, and to preserve 
