Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/408

CONTINUITY. 348 CONTRABAND OF WAR. in the Latin sentence, Natura non facit saltum ("Nature does not make sudden leaps"). It is opposed to the prineiple of discielencss, which asserts that all dilTcroiices are hard and fixed, and that difl'erences of kind are not differences of degree. Of late the significance of the law of continuity is coming more and more to be recog- nized. Indeed, it is the fundamental presupposi- tion of all evolutionary thought, which maintains that all the diU'erences of organic species and genera are differences appearing here and there in a continuum of variation, and that they get their discrete character fi'oni the disappearance of intergradient forms. The law of continuity may be illustrated in many ways. The solar spectrum, for instance, presents us with a series of colors which blend into each other in such a way that it is impossible to say wiiere one color ends and another begins. Within this series we see many recognizably distinct colors; but this really means that red and blue are so did'erent that a normal eye cannot confuse them. It does not mean that they are so different that no con- ceivable difference in degree can account for the difference in kind. In fact, it takes only a glance at the spectrum to see that the difference in kind is mediated by differences in degree, and that these latter are not abrupt and intermittent, but con- tinuous and unbroken. By abstracting from the intervening colors and shades we can represent any detectable differences to ourselves as discrete, but this appearance of discreteness comes from failure to attend to the mediating shades. It is, however, to be observed that the continuity of the difference does not in the least prejudice the fact of difference. This truth can be stated in the following parado.x : The colors and shades that separate two gi'en colors in a spectrum also ■unite them. Generalizing this, we get the law that all intervenients while uniting separate, and wliile separating unite, the extremes between which they lie. See Identity; and for the con- tiiniity of the states of aggregation of chemical substances, Ckitical Point. CONTINUOUS SERVICE. See Enlist- ment. CONTOR'NIATE (It. contorniato, from con- torno, contour, from JIL. contornare, to go around, from Lat. com-, together + tomare, to turn, from tormis, Gk. rSpms, iornos, lathe). A term applied to a class of antique medals which have a deep line cut round the edge, like a furrow, and are also marked by a strongly projecting edge. They show on one side a head, often of an emperor or other ruler, sometimes Homer, Sallust, Horace, or other authors, and (m the other a scene from the circus or amphi- theatre or from mythology or, rarely, daily life. No contorniate is known to be certainly ear- lier than the third century a.d., and most of them are even later. Many explanations of the use of contorniates have been given : the most probable is that they were counters in games, the reliefs nn the sides being protected from con- tact with the lioard by the projecting rim. CONTORTED STRATA. See Geology. CONTOURS' (Fr., from ML. eontonmre, to go around). In topographical surv-eying and military sketching, the intersection of a hill by a horizontal plane. On topogi'aphical maps and military sketches hills are shown by contours, which are imaginary lines, generally represented in red or black on the map, drawn round the hill at exactly the same level. Height is also shown by contours; on a map the distance between con- tours, commonly called the vertical interval, is always a fixed number of feet. The value of contours in a map or sketcli to the engineer or military officer is that he is enabled to tell at a glance the slope of the ground to be traversed, and also whether the hills are gentle or steep, as the nearer together two contours appear on a map the steeper is the slope, and vice versa. See SIT^vE■i^NG ; and ENniNEERiNO, Military. See article Map. where contour lines are shown on the topographical map there given. CONTRABAND OF WAR (It. contrahhan- do, Sp., Port, contnibando, from ML. contra- hannum, contraband, from contra, against + banilum, hannum, proclamation, from OHG. ban, tier. Bann, AS. bann, Engl, ban; ultimately con- nected with Lat. fart, Gk. (prjvai, pht'nm, to speak ) . Goods of such character as to be liable to seizure by a belligerent in trade betw'een a neutral and the enemy in time of war. Inter- national complications arise over the definition of what, in a particular instance, constitutes contraband. To some extent this has been defined by treaty, especially by the United States, but the changes in methods of modern warfare render the list a constantly shifting one. tireat Britain has adopted the classification of (a) goods absolutely contraband, and (b) goods occasionMy contraband; i.e. making the decision depend upon the condition of being in- tended for warlike use. Under the latter head are included provisions, coal, horses, fittings for steam vessels, etc. Thus, in the case of a Swedish ship in the War of 1812 bound for the neutral port of Bilbao with a cargo" of grain intended for the use of the British fieet lying there, the cargo was subject to confiscation as contraband. So coal came up for discussion in the Crimean War, Great Britain claiming it to be included under the liead of occasional contra- band. France in the war of 1859 refused to treat coal as contraband. The United States at the time of the Civil War adopted the Eng- lish position, as did Germany in the war of 1870, while Russia follows France. Such dif- ferences threaten to furnish serious controversy in the event of war between any of the great commercial nations. The rules of international law provide that subjects of neutrals may carry contraband to either belligerent, but must do so at their own risk. So neutral merchants may trade in arms, ammunition, and stores in time of war as in time of peace, but either belligerent may capture such goods as are of direct and im- mediate use in war, if they cannot intercept them in their passage to the enemy while not within neutral jurisdiction. While a neutral is bound to prevent the departure of armed expeditions from its shores and the supplying of fighting gear to belligerent vessels in its ports, no duty is im- posed of restraining contraband trade, though it has no right to interfere in behalf of subjects whose property is seized by one belligerent on the way to another, provided it belongs to the class of forbidden commodities. Three requisites are necessary to constitute the offense of earri/ing contrahand: (1) Sale and transport of contraband goods within a neutral territory is permissible, but they may not be sent across the frontier to a belligerent