able trade, to facilitate and despatch business and protect the merchants of the nation.

During the prevalence of a contagious epidemic, great care should be taken to avoid all causes of debility, and to preserve an equal state of mind. The general alarm which prevails on such occasions contributes, not a little, to extend the evil.

CONTOUR. The outline of a figure. It is sometimes used with great latitude, to express the general cast on lineaments of the visage.

CONTRABAND. In commerce, a prohibited commodity or merchandise bought or sold, imported or exported, in prejudice to the laws and ordinances of a state, or the public prohibitions of the sovereign.

CONTAGION. In physic, the communicating 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 distance. Though a very able writer in Dr. Rees's Cyclopedia produces a variety of facts to prove that the most malignant contagions are never conveyed to any great distance through 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 CONTRACT. A covenant or agreement bethis subject, infers that all pestilence is propagated tween two or more persons, with a lawful considby near approach to, or actual contact of the dis-eration or cause. Contracts are either express or eased, or by the conveyance of the contagious implied. Express contracts are, where the terms poison in articles impregnated with it. This nox- of the agreement are openly uttered, as to pay a ious matter is in many cases readily distinguished stated price for certain goods. Implied, are such by the peculiarly disagreeable smell which it com- as reason and justice dictate, and which therefore municates to the air. No doubt this matter differs the law presumes that every man undertakes to according to the diseases which it communicates, perform. 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 rises from putrid bodies is of a compound nature; and that it is destroyed CONVENTICLE. A term applied first to the altogether by certain agents, particularly by those little private meetings of the followers of John gaseous bodies which readily part with their oxy-Wickliffe, and afterwards to the religious meetings gen. He exposed air infected by putrid bodies to of the Nonconformists. the action of various substances; and he judged of the result by the effect which these bodies had in CONVEX. An appellation given to the extedestroying the fetid smell of the air. The follow-rior surface of gibbous or globular bodies; in oping is the result of his experiments: Gunpowder, position to the hollow inner surface, which is called when fired in infected air, displaces a portion of it; concave. but what remains still retains its fetid odor. Sul- The word is of peculiar import in catoptrics and phuric acid has no effect; sulphurous acid weak- | dioptrics, where it is applied to mirrors and lenses. ens the odor, but does not destroy it. Vinegar di- A convex mirror represents its images smaller minishes the odor, but its action is slow and incom- than the objects, as a concave one represents them plete. Acetic acid acts instantly, and destroys the larger. A convex mirror reflects the rays from it fetid odor of infected air completely. The fumes diverging, and therefore disperses and weakens of nitric acid, first employed by Dr. Carmichael their effect: a concave one reflects them converg Smith, are equally efficacious. Muriatic acid gas, ing; so that they concur in a point, and have their first pointed out as a proper agent by Morveau effect increased. By how much the mirror is a himself, is equally ineffectual. But the most pow-portion of a smaller sphere, by so much does it dierful agent is oxymuriatic acid gas, first proposed by Mr. Cruickshanks.

Prevention 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 essentially necessary: the chamber door should ever be kept open, and the window 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, utensils, &c. should be frequently changed, and washed very clean all discharges from the patient should be instantly removed: visiters and attendants should avoid the patient's breath, and the vapor from his body, and from all evacuations; they should never go into an infected chamber with an empty somach, and on coming from it they should blow their nose and expectorate freely.

CONTRAST. The artificial opposition in works of painting and sculpture, of groups, attitudes, or colors; so as by their variety and striking dif ference, to strengthen the effect of the whole.

minish the objects and disperse the rays the more.

CONVOCATION. In England, an assembly of the clergy, consisting of an upper and lower house, which meets when the parliament meets, to consult on the affairs of the church.

CONVOLVULUS. A plant so called, because it creeps up and twists itself round whatever is near it. Some few sorts are cultivated in gardens, and bear a beautiful blue flower.

CONVOY. In marine affairs, one or more ships of war, employed to accompany and protect merchant's ships, and prevent their being insulted by pirates or the enemies of the state in time of war.

Convoy, in military affairs, a detachment of troops employed to guard any supply of men,

money, ammunition, provisions, stores, &c. con- | long-continued action of heat, both in the dry and veyed in time of war by land or sea, to a town or humid way. army.

The application of a dry heat in the cookery of meat is of two kinds, as it is carried on in close COOKERY, or COOKING. The exercise of vessels, or as it is exposed to the air. The first of art in the preparation of food for human sustenance. these which we shall consider is baking. In this It consists not only in the application of heat under practice meat has generally a covering of paste, by various modifications and circumstances, but also which any considerable exhalation is prevented, in the due intermixture of condiments, calculated and the retention of the juices renders the meat as well to please the palate as to promote nutrition. more tender. In all cases, when the heat applied The exercise of this art is peculiar to man, and it loosens, and in some measure extricates the air, has been deemed by naturalists one of his peculiar without exhaling it, the substance submitted to this characteristics, that he is "a cooking animal." Dr. process is rendered more tender than when an exCullen says, that the cooking of vegetables by boil- halation is allowed. In broiling, an exhalation ing renders them more soluble in the stomach, not-takes place; but as the heat of a naked fire is more withstanding the degree of coagulation which their nearly applied, the outer surface is in some measjuices undergo. In the second place, the applica-ure hardened before the heat penetrates the whole, tion of a boiling heat dissipates the volatile parts of vegetable substances, which are seldom of a nutritious nature, but, in many cases, have a tendency to prove noxious. In the third place, boiling, helps to extricate a considerable quantity of air that, in the natural state of vegetables, is always fixed in their substance; and it is probably in this way especially, that heat contributes to the dividing and loosening the cohesion of their smaller parts. Thus they are rendered less liable to ferment, and to pro-ed by the heat, it is always necessary to interpose duce that flatulence which is so troublesome to weak stomachs.

The cookery of animal substances is of two kinds, as it is applied in a humid form in boiling and stewing; or in a dry form, in roasting, broiling, and baking. By the joint application of heat and moisture to meat in boiling, the texture is certainly rendered more tender and more soluble in the stomach; and it is only in this way that the firmer parts, as the tendinous, ligamentous, and membranous parts, can be duly softened, and their gelatinous substance rendered subservient to nutrition. Yet these effects are different according to the degree of boiling. A moderate boiling may render their texture more tender without much diminution of their nutritious quality; but if the boiling is extended to extract every thing soluble, the substance remaining is certainly less soluble in the stomach, and at the same time much less nutritious. But as boiling extracts, in the first place, the more soluble, and therefore the saline parts; so what remains is, in proportion, less alkalescent, and less heating to the system.

and thereby a great exhalation is prevented, while the whole is rendered sufficiently tender; but this kind of cookery is suited to meats that are chosen to be eaten a little raw. Nearly akin to this is the practice of frying, in which the meat being cut into thin slices, and laid in a pan over the naked fire, the heat is applied more equally to the whole substance. But as the part of the meat lying next to the bottom of the vessel would be suddenly hardensome fluid matter, usually of an oily quality, as butter. A strong heat applied to the latter renders it empyreumatic, or at least less miscible with the fluids of the stomach: so that all fried meats are less easily digested than those of any other preparation. Sometimes, indeed, the same thing happens to baked meats, to which an oily matter, and that only, is added to avoid the too drying heat of the oven. It is obvious that the preparations of stewing and frying may be frequently joined together; and according to their being more or less of the one or other, the effects may be imagined.

COOLING. Is the progressive decrease of temperature from a higher to a lower degree. The temperature of the atmosphere in the hottest climates, has hardly ever been known to exceed 130, and it is but seldom that it reaches that most oppressive degree of heat. In the human species, nature has made ample provision, and has furnished them with industry sufficient for counteracting the effects of a very high or a very low temperature; but without any artificial assistance, few are Boiling in digesters, or vessels accurately closed, the degrees of heat in which human beings can produces effects very different from boiling in open live with perfect comfort. Making some allowvessels. From meat cooked in the latter, there is ance for the natives of different climates, the whole no exhalation of volatile parts; the solution is made range of temperature may be said to reach from the with great success, and if not carried very far, the sixtieth to the seventieth degree of Fahrenheit's meat may be rendered very tender, while it still scale. Below 60° most persons have no objection retains its most sapid parts; and this is esteemed to a gentle fire in their apartments; and above 70° always the most desirable state of boiled meat. If they generally complain of heat. Yet when the a small quantity of water only is applied, and the natural temperature of the atmosphere is above 50°, heat continued long in a moderate degree, the pro- cooled liquors are generally preferred for drink ; cess is called stewing, which has the effect of ren- but when the temperature is above 70°, then not dering the texture of meat more tender, without only cooled liquors, but cool apartments also, are extracting much of the soluble parts. This, there- articles of great luxury; and (it may in great fore, leaves the meat more sapid, and in a state per-measure be said) of necessity. The languor which haps the most nourishing of any form of cookery; is commonly induced by heat, is in great measure as we learn from the admirable essays and experi- relieved by artificial cooling. Patients affected ments of Count Rumford, who found very unusual with fevers of the intermittent and putrid kinds, effects produced on meat, by a low degree and which are so very common and destructive in hot

climates, receive great benefit from the use of cool-with oil of turpentine, forms a beautiful transparent ed liquors, and such are plentifully administered to them, whenever they can be obtained.

The practice of cooling liquors, at the tables of the great was not usual in any country besides Italy and the neighboring states, before the end of the sixteenth century. In the middle of that century, there were no ice-cellars in France. Towards the end of this century, under the reign of Henry III., the use of snow must have been well known at the French court, though it appears that it was considered by the people as a mark of excessive and effeminate luxury. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, this luxury must have been very common in France. At that period there were many who dealt in snow and ice; and that was a free trade which every one might carry on: but soon after government farmed out a monopoly of cooling waters.

The method of cooling liquors by placing them in water in which salt-petre has been dissolved, could not be known to the ancients, because they were unacquainted with that salt. This property of saltpetre was first discovered in the first half of the sixteenth century, and it was not remarked till a long period afterwards that it belongs also to other salts. The Italians were the first persons by whom it was employed; and about the year 1550, all the water as well as the wine drunk at the tables of the great and opulent families at Rome, was cooled in this manner. Towards the end of the sixteenth century this method of cooling liquors was well known. Since that period, the art of making ice has been mentioned in the writings of all philosophers, where they treated on heat and cold. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the French began to congeal all kinds of welltasted juices, which were served up as refreshments at the tables of the great and wealthy. This was a grand invention for the art of cookery, and afterwards it became common, especially in the last century, and since that time the confectioners have universally practised it.

COOP. A place where fowls are kept confined; also a vessel made of twigs, in which fish are caught; and a barrel or vessel for keeping liquids.

COOPER. A maker of tubs, coops, or barrels. The company of coopers in England was incorporated in the reign of Henry VII.

COOT. A water fowl, mostly of a black color, called also a Moor Hen. These birds frequent lakes and still rivers, where they make their nests among the rushes, &c. floating on the water, so as to rise and fall with it.

COPAL. Improperly called gum copal, is a hard, shining, transparent, citron-colored, odoriferous, concrete juice of an American tree, but which has neither the solubility in water common to gums, nor the solubility in alcohol common to resins, at least in any considerable degree. By these properties it resembles amber. It may be dissolved by digestion in linseed oil, rendered drying by quicklime, with a heat very little less than sufficient to boil or decompose the oil. This solution, diluted

varnish, which, when properly applied, and slowly dried, is very hard, and very durable. This varnish is applied to snuff-boxes, tea-boards, and other utensils. It preserves and gives lustre to paintings, and greatly restores the decayed colors of old pictures, by filling up the cracks, and rendering the surfaces capable of reflecting light more uniformly.

COPERNICAN SYSTEM. A particular system of the sphere, first proposed by Pythagoras, and afterwards revived by Copernicus, a Polish astronomer. According to this system the sun is supposed to be placed in the centre, and all the other bodies to revolve round it in a particular order; which notion is now universally adopted, under the name of the solar system.

COPPER. A hard heavy metal, of a reddish color, heavier than iron or tin, but lighter than silver, lead, or gold. Its ductility is very great, and its divisibility prodigious; for, as Mr. Boyle observes, a single grain of it dissolved in an alkali, will give a sensible color to more than five hundred thousand times its weight of water. The Romans are said to have had nothing but copper money till within five years of the first Punic war, (about two hundred and sixty years before our Saviour's nativity) when they first began to coin silver. Accordingly, at Rome, one who owed a great deal of money, was said to have a great deal of other people's copper.

COPPERAS. Is the sulphate of iron, and is commonly called green vitriol. If sulphuric acid be diluted with water, and be poured upon iron, much efferescence will be seen the metal will be dissolved, and the solution, when evaporated, will exhibit the sulphate of iron, or common copperas, which is a neutral salt in a very impure state.

COPPERPLATE. A plate on which figures are engraven; also the impression which is taken off the plate on paper, by means of printing.

COPYRIGHT. The sole right which an author has in his own original literary composi tions; the exclusive right of an author to print, publish, and vend his own literary works, for his own benefit. In some countries, in Europe, this right is perpetual; in others, as in England, France, and the United States, it is for a limited period. A copyright may also exist in a translation, or in part of a work, as in notes or additional matter, with an exclusive right to the whole; but, an abridgement of a book is not considered in England and the United States, a violation of the original copyright. So a person may use plain quotations, if, by its application, he makes it a part of his own work; but cannot take the whole, or a large part of a work, under the pretence of a quotation. Also if an encyclopedia or review copies so much of a book as to serve as a substitute for the book itself, it becomes liable to an action for a violation of property.

In this country congress has passed the following laws relating to the rights in literary property. If a person publish any work, the copyright of

which has been secured, during the existence of such right, except by consent of the author, which must be in writing, signed in the presence of two witnesses, forfeits every copy and every sheet to the author; and, he also incurs a forfeiture, if the work be a map, chart, or book, of fifty cents for every sheet, and if a print, of one dollar for every print, found in his possession. It is also provided, that any one who publishes a manuscript without the consent of the author, shall be liable to pay him all damages occasioned by such injury. There is also a forfeiture of one hundred dollars, if a person, in publishing a book, inserts therein that it has been entered according to act of congress, or words to that effect, provided he has not legally acquired the copyright to the same.

portion to those which are perpetually forming, by the silent but persevering efforts of the sea worms by which coral is produced. Banks of coral are found at all depths, and at all distances from the shore, entirely unconnected with the land, and detached from each other. By a quick progression, they grow up towards the surface; while the winds, heaping up the coral from deeper water, chiefly accelerate the formation of these banks into shoals and islands. They become gradually shallower; and when once the sea meets with resistance, the coral is quickly thrown up by the force of the waves breaking against the bank. These coral banks have been seen in all their stages-some in deep water-others with a few rocks appearing above the surface, just formed into islands without the least appearance of vegetation; and, lastly, others covered with soil and weeds.

The loose corals, rolled inward by the billows in large pieces, ground, and, the reflux being unable to carry them away, become a bar to the coagulated sand with which they are always intermixed. This sand being easiest raised, is lodged at top; and when its accumulated mass is elevated by violent storms, and no longer within the reach of common waves, it becomes a resting-place to birds whom the search of prey draws thither. Their dung, feathers, &c. augment the soil, and prepare it for the reception of accidental roots, branches, and seeds, cast up by the waves, or brought thither by birds. Thus islands are formed: the leaves and rotten branches, intermixing with the sand, produce in time a light black mould, in which trees and shrubs vegetate and thrive. Cocoa nuts, which continue long in the sea without losing their vegetative powers, having been thrown on such islands, produce trees which are particularly adapted to all soils, whether sandy, rich, or rocky.

The sums which have been paid for copyrights, have varied with the nature of the work, the reputation of the author, and the liberality of the publisher. An original work, the author of which is unknown, and the success of which must depend on the taste and talents of the writer, and the taste and wants of the age, will stand little chance; while a book, suited to the market, for which the publisher can calculate the demand, may command a liberal price. A compilation or a dictionary may succeed, where the poems of a Milton, the philosophy of a Franklin, or the histories of a Robertson could find no encouragement. Chateaubriand received for his complete works half a million of francs. Moore has a life annuity of five hundred pounds for his Irish Melodies. Sir Walter Scott received in 1815, for his three last poems, three thousand guineas apiece. Campbell received for his Pleasures of Hope, after it had been published fifteen years, one thousand guineas; for his Gertrude, after having been published six years, fifteen hundred guineas. Byron received for the fourth canto of Childe Harold, twenty-one hundred The violence of the waves, within the tropics, pounds. Cowper's poems, in 1815, though the must generally be directed to two points, according copyright had only two years to run, were sold for to the monsoons. Hence the islands formed from eight thousand guineas. Cotta, a German book-coral banks must be long and narrow, and lie nearseller, is said to have given Gothe for his completely in a meridional direction. Even supposing the works, thirty thousand crowns. In England, large sums are paid for books which promise a rapid sale; but, in the United States, instances are comparatively few where authors receive much compensation, unless exceptions be made for those who have prepared popular school books.

CORAL. Coral belongs to the class of those surprising productions of nature, which are named zoophites, or plant-animals, on account of their filling up the intermediate space between the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Zoophites make a most interesting department for study in natural history. The production of coral reefs and Islands presents one of those geological changes, by which the earth's surface has been modified, and has received a new accession from the sea.

The common foundation of the clusters of islands discovered by modern navigators in the Pacific Ocean, as well as of those belonging to New South Wales, is evidently of coral structure, immense reefs of which shoot out in all directions. There is every reason to believe that the islands which are occasionally raised by the tremendous agency of subterraneous volcanoes, do not bear any pro

banks to be round, as they seldom are when large, the sea meeting most resistance in the middle, must heave up the matter in greater quantities there, than towards the extremities; and, by the same rule, the ends will generally be open, or at least lowest. They will also commonly have soundings there, as the remains of the banks, not accumulated, will be under water. Where the coral banks are not exposed to the common monsoon, they will alter their direction, and become either round, or extended in the parallel, or of irregular forms, according to accidental circumstances.

Captain Flinders, in his voyage to Terra Australis, gives a lively and interesting description of a coral reef on the southern coast of New South Wales. On this reef he landed, and the water being very clear round the edges, a new creation, as it were, but imitative of the old, was presented to the view. Wheat sheaves, mushrooms, stags' horns, cabbage leaves, and a variety of other forms, were glowing under water with vivid tints of every shade between green, purple, brown, and white; equalling in beauty, and excelling in grandeur the most favorite parterre of the curious florist. These were different species of coral and fungus, grow

"This island is well advanced in the above progressive state; having been many years, probably some ages, above the reach of the highest spring tides, or the wash of the surf in the heaviest gales. I distinguished, however, in the rock which forms its basis, the sand, coral, and shells formerly thrown up, in a more or less perfect state of cohesion; small pieces of wood, pumice stone, and other exHis description of a coral island which he after-traneous bodies, which chance had mixed with the wards visited on the same coast, is truly philosophical, and throws great light on these surprising productions of nature.