CON 
To CONSU'M-E, v. n. To wafteaway; to be exhaufted: 
Thefe violent delights have violent ends, 
And in their triumph die ; like fire and powder, 
Which, as they meet, confume. Shakcfpeare. 
CONSU'MEDLY, adv. ExcefTively. A low word .—T 
am fure they talked of me, for they laughed confumedly. 
Beaux Stratagem. 
CONSU'MER,y. One that fpends, wattes, or deftroys 
any thing.—Money may be confidered as in the hands 
of the confumer , or cf the merchant who buys the com¬ 
modity, when made to export. Locke. 
To CONSUM'MATE, v. a. [ eonfovimer , Fr. conj'um- 
mare, Lat.] To complete ; to perfect; to fmifh ; to end. 
Anciently accented on the firft fyllable : 
Yourfelf, myfelf, and other lords, will pafs 
To corfunmate this bufmefs happily. Shakcfpeare. 
CONSUM'MATE, adj. Complete ; perfeCt; finilh- 
ed : omnibus numcris abfolutus .—If a man of perfect and 
confunimatc virtue falls.into a misfortune, it raifes our 
pity, bur not our terror. Addifon .—I do but itay till your 
marriage be corfummate. Shakefpcare. 
Earth, in her rich attire 
Confimmatc lovely fmil’d. Milton. 
CONSUM’MATELY, adv. Completely.—Every ex¬ 
cellence, more peculiarly appropriated to the fublimer 
ode, is confummatcly difplayed in this poem of Ifaiah. J. 
Wanton's EJfay on Pope. 
CONSUMMATION, f. Completion ; perfection ; 
end.—That juft and regular procefs, which it mud be 
fuppofed to take from its original to its confummation. Ad¬ 
difon .—The end of the prefent fyftem of things ; the end 
of the world.—From the firft beginning of the world unto 
the iaft confummation thereof, it neither hath been, nor can 
be, otherwife. Hooker .—-Death ; end of life : 
Ghoft, unlaid, forbear thee ! 
Nothing ill come near thee ! 
Quiet confummation have, 
Unremoved by the grave ! 'Shakefpeare. 
CONSUMPTION, f. [ ’confumptio , Lat.] The aft of 
confuming ; wafte ; deftruCtion.—In commodities, the 
value tifes as its quantity is lefs and vent greater ; which 
depends upon its being preferred in its corfumption. Locke. 
•—The Hate of wafting or perifhing.—Etna and Vefuvius 
have fent forth flames for this two or three thoufand 
years, yet the mountains thdmfelves have not fuffered 
any conliderable diminution or cmfumptieit ; but are, at 
this day, the'higheft mountains in thofe countries. Wood¬ 
ward .—[In phyiic.] A wafte of mufcular flefh. It is 
frequently attended with a heCtic fever, and is divided 
by phyficians into feveral kinds, according to the variety 
cf its caufes, Sjuincy .—The elTential and diftinguilhing 
character of a confirmed cofumption, is a wafting of the 
body by rcafon of an ulcerated (late of the lungs, at¬ 
tended with a cough, a difeharge of purulent mattery 
and a heCtic fever. Blackmore. —-See, for its caufes and 
cure, the article Medicine. 
CONSUMPTIVE', adj. Definitive; wafting'; ex- 
haufting ; having the quality trf confuming.—A. long 
confumptive war is more likely to break this grand alli¬ 
ance than difable France. Addifon .—Difeafed with a con¬ 
sumption.—Nothing taints found lungs fooner than in¬ 
spiring the breath of confumptive lungs. Harvey .—By an 
exaft regimen a confumptive perfon may hold out for years. 
Arbuthnot. 
CONSUMPTIVENESS, f. A tendency to a con¬ 
sumption. 
CON'SUS, a d city at E.omc, who prefided over coun¬ 
sels. His temple was-covered in the Maximus Circus, 
to (hew that cour.fels ought to be fecret and inviolable. 
Some fuppofe that it is the fame as Neptunus Equeftris. 
Romulus inftituted feftivals to his honour, called Confua- 
c O N 131 
lia, during the celebration of which the Romans carried 
away the Sabine women. 
CONSU'TILE, adj. [ confutilis , Lat.] That is lewed 
or ftitched together. 
CONSYG'NA, the wife of Nicomedes king of Bithy- 
nia, torn in pieces by dogs for her lafeivious deportment. 
CON'TA, a river of Italy, in Genoa, which.runs into 
the fea near Albenga. 
To CONTA'BULATE, v. a. [ conialuio , Lat.] To floor 
with boards. 
CONTABULA'TION, /. [ contabulatio , I.at.] A join¬ 
ing of boards together ; a boarding a floor. 
CONTACT, f. [ coht-aElus , Lat.] Touch; clofe union; 
juncture of one body to another.—The Platonilts hold, 
that the fpirit of tiie lover doth pafs into the [pints of 
the perfon loved, which caufeth the defire of return into 
the body ; whereupon followed! that appetiteof contaEl 
and conjunction. Bacon. 
CONTAC'TION,/ [ contaElus , Lat.] The aCt of touch¬ 
ing ; a joining one body to another.—That deleterious it 
may be at fome diftance, and aeftruCtive without corpo¬ 
ral contdMihn, there is no high improbability. Brown. 
CONTA'GION, f. [contagio , Lat.] The emiftion from 
body to-, body by which difeafes are communicated : 
If we two be one, and thou play falfe, 
I do digeft the poifon of thy flel’n. 
Being ftrumpeted by thy contagion. Shakefpcare. 
InfeCtion ; propagation of mifehief, or difeafe.—Nor will 
the goodnels of intention excufe the fcandal and contagion- 
of example. King Charles. 
Down fell they, 
And the dire hifs renew’d, and the dire form 
Catch’d by contagion. Milton , 
Peftilence ; venomous emanations : 
Will he fteal out of his whoiefome bed, 
To dare the vile contagion of the night ? Shakefpcare. 
Of diforders produced by contagion, it is laid, fome 
require an immediate- contact with the bodies of the in¬ 
fected, as in the cale of the lues venerea, and the fmalf- 
pox, as alfo the mealies, which require at leaft an ap¬ 
proach within the reach of the effluvia from an infeCted 
body. In other inftances the infeCtion is fpread by more 
general caufes, fuch as the air, diet, &c. Of thefe there 
are three kinds, which differ only in their being more or 
lefs in quantity, and are all curable by the fame means, 
applied in different degree . Thefe infectious effluvia 
fpring from either fermenting vegetable fluids, putrify- 
ing animal or vegetable bodies, or mineral exhalations. 
And it is remarkable that each of thefe alike are de- 
ItruCtive of flame. It is by the annihilation cf the vital 
principle in us, that infeCtion proves fo fatal ; it is thus 
that fome poifons fo foon deftroy us. According to the 
kind of effluvia and its degree, different difeafes are pro¬ 
duced. Where mineral exhalations prevail, nervous co¬ 
lics, nervous and intermittent fevers, peripneumonia no-, 
tha, &c. When putrid ones are diffuled in the air, feur- 
vies, plagues, gangrenes, &c. are the confequence. Thefe 
are called fomites. At every infpiration thefe effluvia arc 
taken into our bodies, and thus produce their ill effeCts.. 
They are fvvallowed with our food, by which their quan¬ 
tity being increafed, their power of aCtion is alfo greater ; 
polfefling an afiimilating property too, no wonder that 
deftruCtion is fo fpeedy, as in many inftances is obferved. 
In fhort, fo fimilar are the effeCts of infection and poifon, 
that they may be confidered as the fame, differing only 
in their modes of communication and virulence. But 
another diftinCtion is to be made between the two tetms. 
There are fome difeafes which are acquired by the par¬ 
ticles of morbid matter floating in the atmofphere, either 
from that matter being inhaled by the lungs, impreg¬ 
nating wnat we eat or drink, or abforbedby the inhaling 
veffels of the lkin, nofe, or fauces;- whilft.others are 
communicated by contact alone; hence the former of 
thefe 
