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 286 CONTAGION persons should not be encouraged to deprive themselves of the comforts of home whenever the symptoms are such as to preclude a reason- able expectation of benefit. Another impor- tant rule is, that if notable benefit be derived from a change of climate, the patient should not hasten to return, and it is desirable that the change be permanent. Various details which cannot here be fully considered enter into the hygienic management. The body should be well protected against changes of temperature, but an excess of clothing is to be avoided. Consumptive persons are not more likely to " take cold " than persons in health, and in general colds do not have a pernicious influence on the progress of the tuberculous affection. Sponging the body with cold water daily, followed by brisk rubbing with a dry towel, is generally useful. The use of alcohol- ic stimulants, wine, spirits, or malt liquors, the choice being determined by the taste and ex- perience of the patient, is often signally bene- ficial. As to the expectation of their utility in particular cases, the immediate effects are to be relied upon. In so far as they have a cor- dial effect, without producing upon the circu- lation and nervous system those effects which are understood by the term stimulation, they will be likely to be useful ; and some consump- tive patients are able to take the so-called al- coholic stimulants without those effects, in quantities which in health would cause intoxi- cation. Taken under the restriction just stated, there is little or no danger of patients becom- ing addicted to their use. This, however, af- fords no warrant for their use with this object in view, except in well marked and undoubted cases of the disease. Finally, it is to be re- marked that, treated after the plan which has been sketched, consumption is not fatal in so large a proportion of cases as formerly, when bleeding, cathartics, severe counter-irri- tation, restricted diet, and confinement within doors constituted the measures of treatment. A striking change is also manifest as regards the longer duration of the disease, and the maintenance of strength up to a short period before death in the cases which end fatally. It is an important consideration that the measures of treatment now generally pursued, when they do not effect a cure, promote a bet- ter tolerance of the disease, prolonging life, and contributing to the comfort of the patient while life continues. CONTAGION (Lat. contagio, from con, togeth- er, and tangere, to touch), primarily, the propa- gation of disease by contact. It is scarcely distinguished in usage, even by medical wri- ters, from infection, which designates the com- munication of disease by effluvia through the air. The contagious matter is the subtle, poisonous particles which diffuse themselves through the atmosphere, or attach themselves to various substances, as clothing and furni- ture. Concentrated in wool or fur, they re- tain their power of originating disease after CONTEMPT being carried to a great distance. Among dis- eases propagated by immediate contagion, or direct application of the contagious matter, are syphilis, cowpox, purulent ophthalmia, and sev- eral others ; among those communicated by re- mote contagion, or infection, are smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, mumps, and whooping cough. (See EPIDEMIC DISEASES.) CONTARINI, a Venetian family, which count- ed eight doges among its members, and a large number of other persons of distinction. I. An- drea, doge from 1367 to 1382. The Genoese under Pietro Doria conquered Chiozza in 1379, and even threatened Venice. Andrea, then about 80 years of age, took command of the fleet, reconquered Chiozza (1380), and freed the republic from its enemies. He refused the dig- nity of doge when first elected, but was obliged to assume it in order to avoid being treated as a rebel. II. Ambrogio, a Venetian ambassador, wrote an interesting account of his journey and mission to Persia in 1473 (Itinerario neW anno 1473 ad Usun Cassan, R& di Persia, Venice, 1487). Ill* Giovanni, a painter, whose style was formed on that of Titian, born in 1549, died in 1605. He visited Germany, where he remained for some time, and was knighted by the emperor Rudolph II. His greatest work is a " Resurrection," in the church of San Francesco di Paola in Venice. CONTEMPT, a disregard of the authority of a judicial tribunal or a legislative body, for which the offending party is liable to punish- ment by summary order, without the ordinary forms of criminal proceedings. A contempt may be either direct, as by refusal to obey an order of a court, or constructive, as when officers of a court are guilty of any corrupt conduct, abuse of process, or culpable neglect of duty. Instances of the former are when inferior magistrates or judges disobey writs issuing from superior courts, as by proceeding in a cause after it is stayed or removed by writ of prohibition, certiorari, supersedeas, and the like, or by refusal or neglect to obey some requisition made by writ of mandamus. So when parties to any suit or proceeding dis- obey any order made in such suit or proceed- ing. Thus, non-payment of costs which the court have adjudged to be paid, or the neglect to do any specific act, as to perform an award of arbitrators when the submission to the de- termination of such arbitrators has been made a rule of court, is held to be a contempt, for which process of attachment will be issued ; but in these and the like cases the attachment is to be regarded as a civil remedy for the benefit of one party against another, rather than as criminal process for the vindication of the authority of the court ; and the right to issue attachments in these cases is now re- strained within narrow limits. Under the head of constructive contempts may be speci- fied : 1. Misconduct of sheriffs and other min- isterial officers by oppression, extortion, or any abuse of process placed in their hands, as