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COMTE COMTE, AUGUSTE (kônt), a noted French philosopher, founder of the Positive Philosophy; bom in Montpellier, Jan. 19, 1798, On leaving college he became acquainted with Saint-Simon, and joined the band of brilliant disciples that distinguished social reformer had gathered around him. On the death of its founder^ in 1825, Comte deserted the Saint-Simonian school to found one of his own; and during the next 20 years devoted himself to the elaboration of an original system of scientific thought— Positive Philosophy. In his view the problem for philosophy is to ascertain the positive and verifiable basis of all knowledge, science, and religion—of the whole intellectual, moral, and religious world of man. In working out this problem Comte studied the basis of the State or civil society and set forth his conclusions in "The Positive Polity." He bases the law of morals or of conduct on the "social feeling" or altruism. The central fact of religion and the one object of religious worship is Humanity conceived as a personality. He contemplated the constitution of a priesthood whose authority was to have as wide a reach as the authority of the popes in mediæval times. His "Positive Philosophy," "Positivist Catechism," and "Positive Polity," have been translated into English. He died in Paris, Sept. 5, 1857.

COMUS, in later Greek mythology, a divinity of festive mirth, represented as a winged youth, sometimes drunk and languid as after a debauch, or. slumbering in a standing posture with legs crossed. Comus thus becomes the representative deity of riotous merry-making, of tipsy dance and jollity.

CONATY, THOMAS JAMES, an American clergyman; born in Ireland, Aug. 1, 1847. He was graduated at Montreal Theological School and or- dained a Roman Catholic priest in 1872, and from 1880 to 1897 was pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart and from 1893 to 1897 president of the Catholic Summer School. In 1896 he was made rector of the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D. C, and on Nov. 24, 1901, he was consecrated titular bishop of Samos. He became bishop of Monterey and Los Angeles, 1903. He was author of "New Testament Studies," etc. He died on Sept. 18, 1915.

CONCENTRATION CAMPS, or DISTRICTS, the terms are in military usage applied to points, contiguous to the scene of intended departure or operations, where troops are appointed to assemble in large force. The object may be an immediate attack on the enemy or embarkation for the front. During the World War the terms were also applied to the improvised places where war prisoners were confined, and at an earlier date to the camps in which the British collected Boer non-combatants during the war in South Africa (1899-1902), This is the sense in which the term is popularly used, and it was given a wider application during the rebellion in Cuba against Spanish rule (1896-1898) when the commanders of the Spanish forces compelled Cuban women and children and other non-combatants to remain within certain fixed boundaries. The idea has been put into practice in most modern campaigns, and concentration camps or districts, where non-combatants were kept out of danger and prevented from interfering with military operations, were established by the American forces in the Philippines during the war with Spain.

CONCEPCION, the name of several places in Spanish America, including (1) a province of Chile stretching from the Andes to the coast N. of Arauco. It is an important agricultural and cattle-raising district; and has valuable coal-mines. Area, 3,535 square miles; pop. about 225,000. Concepcion, the capital, near the mouth of the Biobio, has a cathedral and notable buildings. Its port is the safest in Chile. It ranks next to Valparaiso as a mart of foreign trade. Pop. about 55,000. (2) Concepcion del Uruguay, the former capital of the Argentine province of Entre Rios, on the Uruguay, 180 miles S. E. of Parana by the Entre Rios railway, with large slaughter-houses and active river-trade. (3) Concepcion, a town of Paraguay, on the Paraguay river, about 260 miles above Asuncion, with trade in mate. (4) The name of several places in Bolivia, the largest being Concepcion de Apolobamba, capital of the province of Caupolican, formerly a Franciscan mission. Its Indian population cultivate coca and cacao, and collect medicinal barks from the surrounding forests. (5) Concepcion, a town of Mexico, 50 miles W. of Chihuahua, in the upper Yaqui valley, famous for its apples. (6) Concepcion de la Vega, a town of San Domingo, 5 miles S. E. of Santiago.

CONCEPTION, in physiology, the first formation of the embryo of an animal; the first animation of the ovum at the moment when it escapes from the ovarium, passing through the Fallopian tube to the uterus.

In mental philosophy:

(1) The cognition of classes, as distinguished from individuals; that special