(D. F. T.)
1But see the E. major fugue in the second book of theWohltemperirtes Klavier, where the entry of the diminished subject (in a new position of the scale) is very tender and solemn.2For technical terms see articlesCounterpointandFugue.
1But see the E. major fugue in the second book of theWohltemperirtes Klavier, where the entry of the diminished subject (in a new position of the scale) is very tender and solemn.
2For technical terms see articlesCounterpointandFugue.
CONTREXÉVILLE, a watering-place of north-eastern France, in the department of Vosges, on the Vair, 39 m. W. of Épinal by rail. Pop. (1906) 940. The mineral springs of Contrexéville have been in local repute since a remote period, but became generally known only towards the end of the 18th century; and the modern reputation of the place as a health resort dates from 1864, when it began to be developed by a company, the Société des Eaux de Contrexéville, and more particularly from about 1895. In the ten years after this latter date many improvements were made for the accommodation of visitors, for whom the season is from May to September. The waters of the Source Pavilion, which are used chiefly for drinking, have a temperature of 53° F. and are characterized chiefly by the presence of calcium sulphate. They are particularly efficacious in the treatment of gravel and kindred disorders, by the elimination of uric acid.
SeeThirty-five years at Contrexéville(1903), by Dr Debout d’Estrées.
CONTROL(Fr.contrôle, older formcontre rolle, from Med. Lat.contra-rotulus, a counter roll or copy of a document used to check the original; there is no instance in English of the use of “control” in this, its literal, meaning), a substantive (whence the verb) for that which checks or regulates anything, and so especially command of body or mind by the will, and generally the power of regulation. In England the “Board of Control,” abolished in 1858, was the body which supervised the East India Company in the administration of India. In the case of “controller,” a general term for a public official who checks expenditure, the more usual form “comptroller” is a wrong spelling due to a false connexion with “accompt” or “account.” A “control” or “control-experiment,” in science, is an experiment used, by an application of the method of difference, to check the inferences drawn from another experiment.
CONTUMACY(Lat.contumacia, obstinacy; derived from the roottem-, as intemnere, to despise, or possibly from the roottum-, as intumere, to swell, with anger, &c.), a stubborn refusal to obey authority, obstinate resistance; particularly, in law, the wilful contempt of the order or summons of a court (seeContempt of Court). In ecclesiastical law, the contempt of the authority of an ecclesiastical court is dealt with by the issue of a writde contumace capiendofrom the court of chancery at the instance of the judge of the ecclesiastical court; this writ took the place of thatde excommunicato capiendoin 1813, by an act of George III. c. 127 (seeExcommunication).
CONUNDRUM(a word of unknown origin, probably coined in burlesque imitation of scholastic Latin, as “hocus-pocus” or “panjandrum”), originally a term meaning whim, fancy or ridiculous idea; later applied to a pun or play upon words, and thus, in its usual sense, to a particular form of riddle in which the answer depends on a pun. In a transferred sense the word is also used of any puzzling question or difficulty.
CONVENT(Lat.conventus, fromconvenire, to come together), a term applied to an association of persons secluded from the world and devoted to a religious life, and hence to the building in which they live, a monastery or (more particularly) nunnery. The diminution “conventicle” (conventiculum), generally used in a contemptuous sense as implying sectarianism, secrecy or illegality, is applied to the meetings or meeting-places of religious or other dissenting bodies.
CONVENTION(Lat.conventio, an assembly or agreement, fromconvenire, to come together), a meeting or assembly; an agreement between parties; a general agreement on which is based some custom, institution, rule of behaviour or taste, or canon of art; hence extended to the abuse of such an agreement, whereby the rules based upon it become lifeless and artificial. The word is of some interest historically and politically. It is used of an assembly of the representatives of a nation, state or party, and is particularly contrasted with the formal meetings of a legislature. It is thus applied to those parliaments in English history which, owing to the abeyance of the crown, have assembled without the formal summons of the sovereign; in 1660 a convention parliament restored Charles II. to the throne, and in 1689 the Houses of Commons and Lords were summoned informally to a convention by William, prince of Orange, as were the Estates of Scotland, and declared the throne abdicated by James II. and settled the disposition of the realm. Similarly, the assembly which ruled France from September 1792 to October 1795 was known as the National Convention (see below); the statutory assembly of delegates which framed the constitution of the United States of America in 1787 was called the Constitutional Convention; and the various American state constitutions have been drafted and sometimes revised by constitutional ...
(Continued in volume 7, slice 3, page 46.)