C O M
yields no z'mlc, Mr. Marggraf denies it to be true calamine- See ch„* article ZlNK.
COMMOIGNE, inlaw, a word fignifying a fellow-monk, that lives in the fame convent. 3 lni\. 1 c. Blount.
COMMON, {Cyct.) commuris, ^1,,, in the antient mufic, was an' appellation given to the feventh fpecies of the diapafon. Euclid. Introd Harm. p. 16. Edit. Mcibom. See Diapason.
Common bench. The court of common pleas -was antiently called common bench, Blount and Coiuel.
In law hooks and references, the court of common pleas is writ C. IS. from communi banco : and the jufticcs of that court are filled jitjlkiarii de banco.
Common chords, in mufic, is fometimes ufed to denote the third, fifth and oStave of any note, considered as a bafs.
Common day, in plea of land, figntfles an ordinary day in court, as otlabis hi llar'n, quindena pafchg, &c. It is mentioned in 13 Rich. If. flat. i. c. 1 7. and in the ihitute 51 Hen, III. concerning general days in bank. Blount and ( towel.
Common divijor, in arithmetic, that number which exactly di- vides any tw>> other numbers, without a remainder.
Common meafure, in arithmetic, a number that exactly meafures two other numbers, without a remainder. And the greater} number that can meafure any two other numbers, is called their greateft emmon me<'fure\ thus 4 is the greatcft common meafure of 8 and 1 2.
Common pleas. This court was originally eftablifhed for the determination of pleas merely civil, and was at firit ambula- tory, and removed with the king wherever he went : but was fixed to one place by magna cbarta, cap. 1 1. Commnn'ta placita 7ion jequantur curiam nofh am Jed teneantur in aliquo ctrto loco. The juriluielion of this court is founded on original writs, if- fuing out of the chancer)', which are the king's mandates for them to proceed on to determine fuch and fuch ealifes a . But this is to be underftood when the caufe is between common perfons ; for when an attorney, or any perfon belonging to the court, is plaintiff, he fues by writ of privilege, and is fued by bill, which is in nature of a petition $ both winch originally commence in the common pleas, and have no foundation in the chancery. — [ 3 4 Inir 99. b 4 Lift, ibid. J This court, Sir Edward Coke fays, is the lock and key of the common law in common picas; for herein are real actions, whereupon fines and recoveries do pais ; as alio all other real actions by original writs ; alfo common pleas, nuxtoi perfona], in divers of which the king's bench has a concurrent jurifdic- tion with this court*. But the jurifdiciion of each court is at this day fo well eftablifhed, that as the court of king's bench -cannot determine a mere real action, fo neither can the court of common pleas enquire of felony or treafon b . — [» 4 Infc. ibid. b Vid. nHawk. P. C p. 2. j
This court, without any writ, may, upon a fuggeflion only, grant prohibitions, to keep as well temporal as ecclefiaftieal courts within their bounds and jurifdiction. See 4 Lift. 99. awdVaughan?, Reports, p. 157.
in term time, this court may award a habeas corpus by the common law, for any perfon committed for any caufe under treafon or felony ; and thereupon difcharge him, if it (hall clearly appear by the return, that the commitment was againft
■ law, as being made by one who had no jurifdiclion of the caufe, or for a matter, for which, by law, no man ought to be punifhed. Vvl.Vaugb. 154, feq 2 Jones 14.
timft (-/"Commons. ' The houfeof commons, in Fortefcue's time, . who wrote during the reign of Henry VI. confuted of up- wards of three hundred members : in Sir Edward Coke's a time
■ their number amounted to 403. At the time of the union,
■ there were five hundred and thirteen members for England and Wales, to which forty-five reprefentatives for Scutfand were added ; fo that the whole number of members is at this day 558.— [ a 4.In£L-foL 1.]
COMMUNICATION, communication in rhetoric, the fame
with anacoevofis. See Anacoenosis COMORTH, in our ftatutes, is ufed for a contribution or fub-
fidy. It is faid to be derived from the Britifh cymirtb, fubfi- .-. dium.
The flat. 4 Hen. IV. c. 27. and 27 Hen. VIII. c. 6 prohibit
■ the levying any fuch in Wales, ortheMarches.
It is faid this comorth was gathered at marriages, and when young p Hefts faid their firft mafies, and fometimes for redemp- tion of murders or felonies. Blount.
COMOSANDALOS, k^oWkM , in antiquity, a crown of flowers worn in the feftival chthonia. Pott Archcsol. See the article Chthonia.
COMPAGES areolaris montium, a term devifed by Kircher to exprefswhat he in other places calls the annularity, or annular difpofition of mountains, which he fays run in continued chains, forming belts or ridges in the manner of fpines, all round the globe of the earth, from north to foutb, and fo on from that point to north again, and in the fame manner from eaft to weft, and from weft to eaft again. Kircher, Mund. Subt. See the article Mountain.
COMPAGUS, in antiquity, a kind of fummer fhoe worn by
the Roman fenators, confuting only of a fole at the bottom^
it was faftened with leathern ftraps, cro fling one another many
. times about the leg. Dacier, Not. fur Hor. 1. 1 . fat. 6. Kenn.
Rom. Ant. P. 2. 1. 5. c. 8. p. 324.
Suppl. Vol. 1, z
COM
Rubenius makes the cbmpagi to have been a fort of caligre woffi by the Roman generals as well as fenators. Under die later emperors, in the middle age, we read of the fame worn by popes, bifhops and abbots. Kubien. de re Veil 1 2. c 5 Ferrar. Anal, de re Veft. c. 37 Du Cange, Gloff Lat. T. 1. p. 708, feq. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. I. p. 337. Sckoet. Lex. Ant. p. 2<; 7.
COMPANY (C:d.)— Companies of foot on the Britifli eftablifh* ment commonly ufed to confifl of one captain, one lieutenant, one enfign, three ferjeants, three corporals, two drums, and 49 private centinels ; in all 60. But of late years, companies have been increafud, by the addition of 20 centinels, to 80 men. Ten, and fometimes twelve companies, make a regi- ment. 6
COMPARTMENTS, (Cycl.) in gardening, are beds, plats, borders and toralks, laid out according to the form of the ground, and depend more on a good fancy than on any fct of rules, for their conftruSion. They are alfo fometimes merely diver- fities or knots of flower gardens or parterres, of which there are an infinite variety, according to the fancy of the defigner. Plain compartments, are pieces of ground divided into equal fquares and flower-beds, marked out by lines, and made of re- gularly equal length and breadth. Some allow to thefc fquares borders of two feet broad, if the plot of ground be fmall, and if larger, of three feet, and edge the borders with box, or with upright hardy thyme : the alleys up between are to be laid ^ with land or gravel, and kept clean weeded.
COMPASS (Cyel.) — The compafs has been fometimes obferved to be difturbed by tile electricity of its glafs cover, and this from fo flight an application of the finger as was barely necef- fary to wipe off a little duft. The fame glafs, rubbed a little more with the finger, a bit of muflin, or of paper, would at- traa either end of the needle, lb as to hold it to the glafs for feveral minutes, far out of the due dircftion, according to what part of the glafs was moft excited. And when the nee- dle, after adhering to the glafs, has dropt loofe, and made vi- brations, thofe would not be billed, as ulual, by that point where the needle fhould reft, but either be made all on one fide, or be very unequally divided, by means of fome remains of eiecMcal virtue in that part of the glafs which had attraft- ed [In. needle, until at length, after fifteen minutes or more, all the electricity being evaporated, the magnetical power took place. Phil. Tranf. N° 480. p. 2:3.
The cure for .-this inconvenience, is to moiften the furface of the glafs : a wet finger will do it immediately and effectually. Phil. Tranf N ! 8 . p. 244.
There is reafon to'l elieve, that glafs does at times become in fome degree attrafii-V^ without- any friction at all, and may pofiibly be excited bj great concuflions in the air, fuch as thunder, or :. ol great ordnance, and fo may di-
sturb the compafs,
The mariner's compafs, with a chart, is muchlefs dangcroufly moved than the common compafs with a bare needle And the deeper or farther diftant the needle hangs below the glafs, the lefs difturbance it is likely to receive.
The minute, irregular, reciprocating variations, which have been obferved in the directions of dipping and horizontal nee- dles, and mentioned in the philofophical tranfactions a , may probably have been caufed by the glaflcs which covered the in- ftruments made ufe of b .— [« N° 425. b Phil. Tranf. N° 480. P 245O
COMPETENTES, in church hiftory, an appellation given to the catechumens, when being fufticiently inftructed in the chri- ftian religion, they required baptifm. Hofjn. Lex, in voc. See Baptism.
COMPITA, in zoology, a name by which fome have called the colymbus major, or fiianelle, the great Venetian diver. See Eisanelle.
COMPLEXI pars, in anatomy, a name given by Riolanus, and others, to a mufcle called by Albinus biventer cervkis, and by fome the complexes.
COMPLEXUS, (CW.) a pretty long and broad mufcle, lying on the pofterior lateral part of the neck, all the way to the occi- put. It is complicated, by reafon of the decuflations of its different portions, but is generally looked upon to be but one mufcle. It is fixed below by fmall fhort tendons, to the tranf- verfe apophyfes of all the vertebra of the neck, except the firft, to which it is fixed only near the root of its tranfverfe apophy- fis ; from thence it runs up obliquely backward, crofling un- der the fplenius, and after communicating with it by fome faf- ciculi of fibres, it is afterwards inferted above, by a broad flefhy plane, in the pofterior part of the fuperior tranfverfe line ol the os occipitis, near the crifta or fpine of that bone. At its infertion, it joins by one edge the complexus of the other fide, and by the other the Iplenius, which covers it a little. IVhif.ovjs Anat. p. 235.
CoMPlr.sus ?wW, a mufcle called alfo mafloideus lateralis. Id is long, ilender, narrow, and indented, and lies alono* all the in- fide of the neck up to the car, where it increafes a little in breadth. It is fixed by one extremity in all the tranfverfe apo- phyfes of the neck, except the firft, by the fame number of branches or digitations, which are moftiy flefhy, and are dif- pofed obliquely : from thence it afcends, and having reached above the tranfverfe apophyfis of the firft vertebra, it forms a 7 I fmall
