g 5 8 COM 
portaut, therefore, that to fuch tribunals as adminifter in 
G eat Britain the internal laws, thould be confided the ar¬ 
bitration of all alien interests; of which f rand-right forms 
fo confiderable'a part. 
COM'MEROIAL, adj. Relating to commerce or traffic. 
COM'MERCY, a town of France, and principal place 
of a diltrift, in the department of the Meufe, given by 
the duke of Lorrain to the biffiops of Metz. It became 
afterwards a kind of fovereignty, divided between the 
lioufes of Naflau and Retz, who ceded their rights to 
the duke of Lorrain. It contains two pariffies : eight 
leagues fouth fouth-eaH of Verdun, and five and a half 
eaH of Bar-le-Duc. 
COM'MERSON (Philibert), doftor of phyfic, king’s 
botanift, and member of the faculty at Montpelier, was 
born at Chatillon les Dombes, near Bourg in Breffie, in 
1727. He difcovered an early propenfity to botany and 
other branches of natural hiftory, which he purfued with 
unremitting ardour; for after finifliing his academical 
courfe, and during his refidence at Montpelier as a phy- 
fician, he confulted the gratifying his botanical avidity, 
more than either decency or difcretion allowed. He 
would pluck the rarell and molt precious plants in the 
king’s botanic garden there, to enrich his herbal; and 
when on this account the directors of the garden refuted 
him admittance, he fcaled the walls by night to continue 
his depredations. The reputation he gained during a re¬ 
fidence of four years at Montpelier, was fo extenfive, that 
he was chofen by Linnaeus to form the queen of Swe¬ 
den’s colleftion of the rarell fiffies in the Mediterranean, 
and to compote accurate delcriptions of them ; which 
undertaking he executed with great labour and dexterity, 
producing an elegant Ichthyology a vols. 4-to. with a Dic¬ 
tionary and Bibliography, containing accounts of all the 
authors who had treated that branch of natural hiltory. 
Among his various productions, is a dilfertation intitled 
“■ The Martyrology of Botany,” containing accounts of all 
the authors who loll their lives by the fatigues and acci¬ 
dents incident tothe zeal for acquiring natural curiofities ; 
a lilt, in which his own name was deltined to be inrolled. 
Sometimes he has been found in his clofet with a candle 
burning long after fun-rife, with his head bent over his 
herbal, unconfcious of the return of day; and would 
come from his botanical excurfions in a piteous condi¬ 
tion, torn with briars, bruifed with falls from rocks, ema¬ 
ciated with hunger and fatigue, after many narrow efcapes 
from precipices and torrents. Tliefe ardent occupations 
did not however extinguilh fentiments of a more tender 
nature. M. Commerlbn married, in 1760, a wife, who 
died in childbed two years after; and whole memory he 
preferved by naming a new kind of plant, whole fruit 
feemed to contain two united hearts, “ Pulcheria Commer- 
J'onia." He arrived at Paris in 1764, where he became 
connected, with all the learned botanifts, particularly the 
celebrated Juffieu; and was recommended tothe duke 
de Praflin, minifier for the marine department, to accom¬ 
pany M. Bougainville in his voyage round the world. 
The duke conceived the highefi idea of his merit from 
the fketch he drew of the obfervations that might be made 
relative to natural hiftory in fuch a voyage ; and he failed 
accordingly in 1766, making the molt induftrious life of 
every opportunity to fulfil his engagements. He died at 
thelfle of France in 1773, and by his will left to the king’s 
cabinet all his botanical collections, which, before he en¬ 
gaged in this voyage, amounted to above 200 volumes in 
folio; thofe made during the voyage, together with his 
papers and herbal, were fent home in thirty-two cafes, 
containing an ineftimable treafure of hitherto unknown 
materials for natural hiltory: MefTrs. Juffieu, D’Auben- 
ton, and Thouin, were commiffioned to examine and ar¬ 
range them. Among the high mountains in the interior 
parts of the ifla.nd of Madagascar, M. Commerfon relates 
in his letters, that he found a nation of dwarfs, about 
three feet and a half high, called Kimojfe , or 2 >umojfe, in 
the language of the country ; fomewhat paler than the 
other blacks, but with intellectual faculties not inferior 
C O M 
to their neighbours. The above particulars are derived 
from the eulogy of M. de Lande on this famous botaniit. 
COM'MERSONI A, f [this name was given byForfter 
in memory of Commerfon, the French traveller.] In bo¬ 
tany, a genus of the clafs pentandria, order pentagynia. 
The generic characters are—Calyx : perianthium cne- 
leafed, five-parted, corolliferous ; divifions. ovate acute. 
Corolla: five-petalled; petals linear, dilated at the bale 
on both tides with an infieCted lobe, fpreading; neClary 
five-parted, within the ftamens; divifions lanceolate, 
ereft, lliorter than the petals; corpufcles filiform, five, 
viilofe, from the divifions of the neCtary. Stamina: fila¬ 
ments five, very fliort at the bafes of the petals; anther* 
roundiffi, twin. Piftillum : germ globular, viilofe, with 
five fwellings ; ftyles five, filiform, approximating, Ihort; 
Itigmas globular. Perianthium: capfule globular, five- 
celled, echinate, with long, hairy briftles; cells two- 
feeded. Seeds: ovate.— EJjential Charatter. Calyx, one- 
leafed, bearing the corolla; petals, five ; neCtary, five- 
parted: caplules, five-celled, echinate. 
There is but one fpecies, called Commerfonia echinata, 
or prickly Commerfonia. It is a tree, with alternate, ob¬ 
liquely ovate, acuminate, ferrate, leaves, hoary under¬ 
neath; flowers minute, panicled, hoary; the fruit very 
much refembles that of fparrmannia, both in form and 
furface; a native of Otaheite and the other Society ifles; 
difcovered April the 30th, 1774. See Barringtonia. 
To COM'MIGR ATE, <v. n. [con and tnigro, Lat.] To 
remove in a body, or by confent, from one country to 
another. 
COM'MIGR ATION, f A removal of a large body of 
people from one country to another.—Both the inha¬ 
bitants of that, and of our world, loll all memory of their 
commigration hence. Woodward. 
COMMINA'TION, /. \_commhiatio , Lat.] A threat; a 
denunciation of puniffiment, or of vengeance.—Some 
parts of knowledge God has thought fit to feclude from, 
us; to fence them not only by precept and commination , 
but with difficulty and impoffibilities. Decay of Piety.— 
The recital of God’s threatenings on Hated days. 
COMMI'NATORY, adj. Denunciatory; threatening. 
COMMIN'GES, before the revolution, a country of 
France, in Gafcony, about fifteen leagues in length, and 
fix in breadth ; the fee of a bifiiop, whole refidence was 
at St. Bertrand, the capital. 
To COMMIN'GLE, <v. a. [commifceo, Lat.] To mix 
into one mafs; to unite intimately ; to mix; to blend : 
Blefh are thofe, 
Whofe blood and judgment are lb well commingled. 
That they are not a pipe for fortune’s finger. 
To found what Hop ffie pleafe. Shakefpeare. 
To COMMIN'GLE, v. n. To unite one with another. 
—Diflolutionsof gum tragacanth and oil of fweet almonds 
do not commingle, the oil remaining on the top till they 
be dined. Bacon. 
COMMINU'IBLE, adj. Frangible; reducible to pow¬ 
der; fufceptible of pulverization.—The belt diamonds 
are cotnminuible ; and are fo far from breaking hammers, 
that they fubmit to peHilation, and refill not any ordi¬ 
nary peltle. Brown. 
To COMMINU'FE, -v. a. \c 6 mminuo, Lat.] To grind ; 
to pulverize; to break into final 1 parts.—Parchment, 
Ikins, and cloth, drink in liquors, though themfelves be 
entire bodies, and not comminuted ; as land and allies. Bacon. 
C 0 MMINU'T 10 N,yi The aft of grinding into linall 
parts; pulverization.—The jaw in men, and animals fur- 
nilhed with grinders, hath an obliqueor tranlverfe motion, 
necelfary for comminution of the meat. Ray. —Attenuation. 
—Caufes of fixation are the even fpreading of the fpirits 
and tangible parts, the clolenefs of the tangible parts, 
and the jejunenefs or extreme comminution of fpirits; of 
-which the two firfi may be joined with a nature liquefi¬ 
able. Bacon. 
COMMI'RE (John), a celebrated Latin poet, born at 
Amboife in 1625, entered into the fociety of the Jefuits, 
4 and 
