Comnenus
the name of a family, originally Italian, of which many members occupied the throne of the Byzantine empire from 1057 to 1204, and that of Trebizond from 1204 to 1461. See BYZANTINE EMPIRE, TREBIZOND, ALEXIUS COMNENUS. ANNA COMNENUS, who lived in the first half of the 12th century, was a high literary as well as historical celebrity. DAVID COMNENUS, the last representative of the imperial race in Trebizond, was executed at Adrianople in 1462, with all his family, by command of Mohammed II.
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Comoro Islands
a volcanic group in the Indian Ocean, between the N. extremity of Madagascar and the continent of Africa. They are four in number: Great Comoro, Mohilla, Johanna, and Mayotta; total area, 1,050 square miles; pop. about 70,000. The people are nominally Mohammedans, and are akin to the mixed races of Zanzibar. They have large flocks and herds; and the coast lands are very fertile, abounding in tropical grains and fruits. Mayotta belonged to France since 1843, and in the others became a French possession. Since 1914 the islands have been governed by the Governor-General of Madagascar.
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Company
a word of various applications, including: (1) A number of persons legally associated for the performance of any duty or the carrying on of any business. The profits are divided among the members or shareholders in proportion to the amount of capital invested. (2) The partners in any firm whose names do not appear in the title or style of the firm; in this use the word is generally contracted to Co. (3) A society, corporation, or guild for the promotion and protection of the interests of any trade. When companies are authorized by the State or Government, they are termed corporations. In military language, the smallest command of a captain of infantry. In the United States a company of infantry (full strength) numbers 100 men. In Europe it varies in strength from 48 rank and file (peace strength) to 120 (as in England), which is the limit of a dismounted officer's command, to 250 (as with the Continental armies), armies), where the captain is mounted. It is formed in three ranks in Germany, in two ranks in other countries, with a supernumerary rank containing the captain, a lieutenant, and the sergeants. In England it forms one-eighth of a war battalion, and has little independent action; on the Continent the company, which is one-fourth of the war battalion, acts almost independently. War strength (English): 3 officers (captain and 2 subalterns), 5 sergeants, 2 drummers, 5 corporals, 113 privates, 1 driver.
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Comparative Anatomy
as distinguished from special anatomy; the science which examines and compares the structure of two or more different kinds of animals, so as to discover their points of resemblance and unlikeness; and as such it is a most important department of the science of biology.
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Compass Brothers
- Between the years 1400 and 1790, there existed at Lubeck a guild of this name, which met twice a year. Their badge was a compass and sector suspended from a crowned letter "C," over which was a radiated triangular plate. In 1485 they adopted chains composed of these emblems united by eagles' tails. They appear to have been a magical or Kabbalistic society.
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Compensation
that which is given or received as an equivalent for services rendered, losses sustained, sufferings endured, or in payment of a debt; amends, remuneration, payment, recompense.
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Compensation Curb
A bar composed of two metals, usually brass and steel, free to act at one end but retained at the other, the free end carrying the curb pins that regulate the acting length of a hairspring. Not used in American watches and found only in old watches of European make.
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Complement
of an angle, what it lacks to make up 90°; of an arc, to make up a quadrant; and hence, in astronomy, the complement of a star is its zenithdistance. In music, two intervals, which together make up an octave, are called complementary. In arithmetic, if any number is sub subtracted from the next higher power of 10, the result is its complement. Thus 7 and 3 are complementary; so are 63 and 37; 881 and 119; and 1.4384386 is the complement to 8.5615614. In chromatics, red is the complement of green, orange of blue, and yellow of violet.
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Complexion
a word formerly applied to the temperament, and natural disposition of the body. The human skin was supposed to consist of only two parts-the cuticle, or epidermis, and the cutis, or real skin; but Malpighi showed that between these two was a soft gelatinous cellular texture, which he distinguished by the title rete mucosum. On this discovery that anatomist offered a suggestion as to the color of negroes. The rete mucosum is of very different color in different nations; and the difference of its color corresponds so exactly with the difference of their complexions, that there can be little doubt that it is the principal seat of the color of the human complexion.
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Compline
the last of the daily canonical hours in the Roman Catholic breviary; the complement of the Vespers or evening office.
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Composite
an order of plants, founded in 1751 by Linnæus, and adopted in 1763 by Adanson. It contains many plants separated from others by characters so obvious that it still stands with essentially the same limits as those assigned it in the infancy of botany. Lindley altered the name of the order to Asteraceæ. De Candolle, Lindley, etc., divided it thus-Sub-order 1, Tubuli' floræ: Tribe (1) Vernoniacex, (2) Eupatoriaceæ, (3) Asterioidesæ, (4) Senecioideæ, (5) Cynareæ. Sub-order 2, Labiatiflora: Tribe (1) Mutisiaceæ, (2) Nassauviacea. Sub-order 3, Liguli floræ: Tribe Cichoraceae. The eight tribes now mentioned were first properly discriminated by Lessing, who showed that each had a different stigma.
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Composite Order
a term denoting the last of the first orders of architecture. As its name implies, it is composed of two orders, the Corinthian, and the Ionic. In detail, the Composite is richer than the Corinthian, but it is less light and delicate in its proportions. Its architecture has only two faciæ, and the cornice varies from the Corinthian in having double modillions. The column is 10 diameters high. The principal ancient examples of this order are the temple of Bacchus at Rome, the arch of Septimius Severus, that of Titus, and the baths of Diocletian.
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