CON 
CONGRUOUSLY, adv. Suitably; pertinently; con¬ 
fidently.—This conjecture is to be regarded, becaufe, 
r.ongruou/ly unto it, one having warmed the bladder, found 
it then lighter than the oppolite weight. Boyle. 
CON'GUE,/. in Hindooftan, an inftrument which pro¬ 
claims the approach of danger among tlte Polygar dif- 
triCts, and about the Mugley Pafs, into the Myfore coun¬ 
try. It is ufed as a call to arms. 
CO'NI, a town of Italy, in the principality of Pied¬ 
mont, fituated on the Stura, laid to be firft founded in 
1520, during the pontificate of Califhis II. The origin 
of the town is faid to be this : the inhabitants of fome 
villages had been forely oppreffed by their lords, who, 
among other enormities, pretended a privilege granted 
by the emperor to deflower the brides before their huf- 
bands touched them ; the people at length attacked their 
lords, expelled them the country, and deftroyed their 
caftles, which had ferved them as a protection for their 
enormities ; and, left their tyrants ihould return with fo¬ 
reign aid, they left their home, and founded Coni. Their 
numbers daily increafing, they formed an alliance with 
the city of Afti, and Luchin duke of Milan, and became 
a flourilhing republic, which form of government con¬ 
tinued fome years. At length they fubmitted to Charles 
of Anjou, comte of Provence. Some time after his death, 
they came under Jane, queen of Naples, who being in¬ 
capable of fupporting the weight of government, the 
town of Coni, for protection, voluntarily fubmitted to 
Amadeus VI. comte of Savoy; to which it has fince 
continued faithful. It has been frequently befieged, firft 
in 1515 by the Swifs, under Francis Stampa, a gentleman 
of Milan, to open a certain road to Francis I. who was 
then entering Italy, with a numerous army, to make war 
on the confederate'princes. The unlhaken courage of 
the inhabitants appeared for the firft time on this occa- 
fion; for, while other ftronger towms of Piedmont fur- 
rendered, either to capitulation or force, Coni alone re¬ 
mained, and refilled all the attacks of the enemy. In 
1542, it was again befieged by Claude Annebaud, admi¬ 
ral of France, whom Francis I. out of hatred to the duke 
of Savoy, had lent with an army of eighteen thoufand 
men to lay wafte Piedmont; tlte befieged had only three 
hundred foot, and fifty horfe ; the French battered the 
town for the fpace of fix days, without intermiflion, with 
eighteen pieces of heavy cannon, and did confiderable 
mifehief to the walls and the mo'll elevated buildings of 
the place ; but, after lofing about four hundred men 
killed, and many wounded, they were compelled to raife 
the fiege. Fifteen years after that, marechal Briflac, one 
of the mod experienced commanders of his time, w r ho 
commanded the French army in Italy, attacked Coni 
mod vigoroufly, but with no better fuccefs; this-fiege 
continued fifty-eight days, fifty-tw'O pieces of cannon 
playing without interruption on the walls of the town, 
which-began to give way ; but fome new troops arriving 
from the imperial army, the marechal Briflac was com¬ 
pelled to retire, after having had four thoufand men killed 
or wounded. In 1639, it was befieged by the cardinal 
Valette and the duke of Longueville, during the civil 
wars which agitated Piedmont, without fuccefs ; nor did 
the comte of Harcourt fucceed any better two years after, 
though he befieged the place fifty-four days. It was 
again befieged by the French in 1696, and in 1706. In 
1703, the duchefs of Savoy retired to Coni during the 
fiege of Turin. In 1744, it was befieged by the French 
and Spanifli troops, who were, however, compelled to 
raife the fiege. In confequence of the rapid fucceffes of 
the French republican army in Piedmont, during the 
months of April and May, 1796, the king of Sardinia 
found it necelfary to make overtures for peace, and placed 
Coni, with Alexandria, Suza, and Tortona, in the hands 
ofthe French, as holtages of his good faith. It is thirty- 
one miles fouth of Turin, Lat. 44. 22. N. Ion. 25. 18. E. 
Ferro. 
CO'NIC, or Conical, adj. [conioiSy Lat.] Having the 
i 
CON 75 
form of a cone, or round decreafing.—They are conical 
veffels, with their bales towards the heart ; and, as they 
pafs on, their diameters grow' ftill lefs. Arbuthnot. 
Tow’ring firs in conic forms arife, 
And with a pointed fpear divide the (kies. Prior. 
CONIC SECTIONS, in geometry, are figures made 
by the mutual interfeciion of a cone and a plane ; and, 
in the higher geometry, are productive of the fcience of 
curves, which inveftjgates the cone, and the feveral 
curve lines ariling from the fections of it. Many pro¬ 
blems can be folved by conic feCtions, that cannot be 
folv-ed by right lines and circles ; and hence a competent 
knowledge of them is of great ufe in geometrical aftro- 
nomy, as well as in many of the mathematical fciences. 
It has with truth been attributed to fir Chriftopher 
Wren, that his fuperior acquaintance wfith conic fec¬ 
tions, alone enabled him to complete the dome of St. 
Paul’s cathedral in London, with that exactitude of pro¬ 
portion which enlarges the voice in what is termed the 
whilpering gallery, and which gives it the pre-eminence 
over St. Peter’s at Rome, and over every other ftruCture 
of the kind at prefent known in the univerfe. 
The foundation of the fcience of conic feCtions, was 
probably laid by Menechmus, a difciple of Eudoxus, in 
his attempts for folving the famous Delian problem on 
the duplication of the cube ; and it was farther extended 
by Ariftaeus, Euclid, Conon, and Archimedes. It is not 
eafy to afeertain, at this diftance of time, and by means 
of the few r authentic records which remain, what are the 
appropriate difcoveries of each of thefe ancient mathe¬ 
maticians. Menechmus, how'ever, is faid to have folved 
the Delian problem in two different ways ; one of which 
was by means of two parabolas, and the other by a pa¬ 
rabola and hyperbola with its afymptotes. This cir- 
cumftance leads us to conclude that lie muft have had a- 
confiderable degree of acquaintance with the properties of 
thefe curves ; and it is not unreafonable to imagine that 
others, whole writings and whole names are loft, might 
have preceded him in their attention to this fcience. 
Ariftaeus is faid to have written five books on the conic 
lections ; of which Euclid, his immediate fuccelfor, and y 
as fome fay, his difciple and friend, might probably 
avail himfelf in the four books which he wrote on the 
fame fubjefit, Thefe were afterward collected and com¬ 
pleted by Apollonius, who added four books, written 
by himfelf. Conon was alfo a writer on this fubjett 9 
and is faid to have difeovered fome properties of the co¬ 
nic fections, which were afterward more largely explain¬ 
ed and more correCtly demonftrated by Apollonius. Of 
the claims of Archimedes to feveral valuable improve¬ 
ments in this fcience, none who are acquainted with his 
writings can entertain a doubt ; though they Ihould not 
incline to acquiefce in the teftimony of Heraclitus, his 
biographer, who aferibes the origin of this fcience to him j 
and who afferts, without fufficient evidence, and even 
in contradiction to Archimedes’ own acknowledgment, 
that Apollonius availed himfelf of what he had writ¬ 
ten, and publilhed the w'ork of Archimedes as his own. 
It w r ould lead us far beyond our limits to enumerate the 
various difcoveries, belides the quadrature of the para¬ 
bola, which occur in the writings of this ancient ma. 
thcmatician. They are recorded in his works, to which 
every one may have accefs. It is moll probable that this 
fcience, like many others, was gradually augmented and 
improved ; and that each of thofc ancient mathemati¬ 
cians, whole names we have mentioned, and others whole 
w ritings are loft, contributed to advance it to the ftate in 
which Apollonius found it. It has been commonly af- 
ferted, and very generally believed, that the terms para¬ 
bola, eihpfe, and hyperbola, were firft introduced by 
Appllonius. This fait, however, has been much con¬ 
troverted, becaufe the appellations of parabola and el 
lipfe occur in the works of Archimedes. But there are 
very fubftantial veafons for believing that they were in 
ferted 
