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LEFT CONCEPTION, IMMACULATE 97 CONCHOLOGY application of abstraction, comparison, and attention which elaborates what logicians call notions or concepts; the acts of the mind in producing concepts or notions. (2) The notions or concepts so pro- duced; the "general" or "abstract ideas" of Locke; the "abstract general notions" of Hamilton. These are properly ex- pressed by common terms, and constitute the object of study in pure or formal logic. The number of attributes em- braced in a concept or notion constitutes its intention, comprehension, or logical content, and this determines its area or sphere of applicability, that is, its ex- tension or logical extent. These two quantities exist in an inverse ratio to one another. The maximum of the ex- tent of a conception or notion is the minimum of the content, and the maxi- mum of the content is the minimum of the extent. On this single maxim pure or formal logic has been based. CONCEPTION, IMMACULATE, in the Roman Catholic Church, the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was born without the stain of original sin. This doctrine came into favor in the 12th century, when, however, it was opposed by St. Bernard, and it afterward became a sub- ject of vehement controversy between the Scotists, who supported, and the Tho- mists, who opposed it. In 1708 Clement XI. appointed a festival to be celebrated throughout the Church in honor of the immaculate conception. Since that time it was received in the Roman Church as an opinion, but not as an article of faith till 1854, when the Pope issued a bull which makes the immaculate conception a point of faith. CONCEPTION OF OUR LADY, an order of nuns, founded in Portugal in 1484 by Beatrix de Sylva, in honor of the immaculate conception. It was con- firmed in 1489 by Pope Innocent VIII. In 1489 Cardinal Ximenes put the nuns under the direction of the Franciscans, and imposed on them the rule of St. Clara. The order subsequently spread into Italy and France. CONCEPTUALISM, the distinctive speculative opinion, or opinions, of the conceptualists. CONCEBTINA, a musical instrument invented by Professor Wheatstone, the principle of which is similar to that of the accordion. It is composed of a bel- lows, with two faces or ends, generally polygonal in shape, on which are placed the various stops or studs, by the action of which air is admitted to the free metallic reeds which produce the sounds. In the English concertina the compass is three octaves and three notes. CONCERTO, a composition for the display of the qualities of some especial instrument, accompanied by others of a similar or dissimilar character. The word is at the present time usually ap- plied to a composition for a solo instru- ment accompanied by full orchestra, as opposed to a sonata, in which the soloist is unaccompanied by other instruments, or only supported by the pianoforte. CONCH, a marine shell, especially of the Strombus gigas; and, in art, a spiral shell used by the Tritons as a trumpet, and still used by some African people in war. The shells are found in large numbers in West Indies, in Florida, and in Bahamas. The conches are shipped generally to Europe and used for medi- cal purposes, ornaments, etc. CONCHA, JOSE GUTIERREZ DE LA, a Spanish soldier and statesman, born in Cordoba, Argentina, in 1809. He served in the Spanish army and was appointed captain-general of Cuba. In 1862 was made a minister to France, and between 1864-68 served as president in the Span- ish senate. He died in 1895. CONCHA, MANUEL GUTIERREZ DE LA, a Spanish general, brother of Jose Concha, born in 1808. In 1845 he put down an uprising in Catalonia, and in 1847 amicably adjusted a dispute be- tween Portugal and Spain. In the revo- lution of 1868 he vainly aided the cause of the Bourbons and was forced to flee from Spain. He was killed in 1874 while assaulting a fortress at Estella. CONCHOID, a curve invented by Nicomedes in the 2d century A. D., and used by him for finding two mean pro- portionals. CONCHOLOGY, the science of shells. Two well-marked stages in its develop- ment are traceable. At first shells were studied without any reference to the ani- mals of which they constituted the hard framework or sekelton. Subsequently the study took a wider scope, and for the first time became worthy of being called a science, when the animals and their shells were viewed as parts of one common whole. When shells, and they alone, were stud- ied, conchology was a not unsuitable name, except that the termination -ology suggested that the investigation was more scientific than in most cases it really was. When the animals came to be carefully examined, M. de Blainville proposed for this deeper study the name malacozoology — i. e., the study of the