Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/579

* COUNSELOR. 495 now used synonymously with attorney. See At- torney; Lawyek. COUNT (OF. conle, comtc, Fr. comte, from Lat. comes, companions, from com-, together + ij-e, Gk. I4vai, ienal, SUt. i, to go). In classical writers down to the end of the fourth century, the meanings attached to the word comes were comparatively few and simple. At first the word signified merely an attendant, and differed from sociiis chielly in e.xjjressing a less intimate and equal relation to the persons accompanied. A little later, in Horace's time, it was applied to those young men of family whom it had be- come customary to send out as pupils under the eye of a governor of a province, or the commander of an army. Very soon the fashion of having attendants at home was introduced. The Em- peror had many comites in this sense, and to these, as he graduallj- became the centre of power, he transferred the various offices of his household and of the State. The example of the emperors of the West was followed by the emperors of the East. ISIost of the titles at present applied to court officials are translations of the names applied to similar offices in the Byzantine Empire. The comes sacmrum laigl- iionum was grand almoner and practically chan- cellor of the exchequer; the comes curia' was the grand master of ceremonies ; the comes equoriim, the grand equerry. The comes mar- cariim, or count of the marches, was the original of the later marquis. In France, the count of the palace (comes palatii) was the highest dignitary in the State after the mayor of the palace, and in the eleventh century had already acquired a rank apart from that of the other counts. He pre- sided in the court of the sovereign in his absence, and possessed sovereign jurisdiction. The habit of instituting counts jialatine was adopted by Spain and England. The counts of Chartres, Chnnipagne, Blois, and Toulouse arrogated to themselves the authority to appoint palatine co'uits. and the ancient houses of Chartres and of Blois continued to claim in perpetuity the title of coimt palatine as that of their eldest sons. Counts of this sovereign class owed their origin to the feebleness of the later Carolingian kings, under whom they contrived gradually to convert the provinces and towns which they had" governed as royal ofTicers into principalities hereditary in their families. It was then that the counts came to be known by the names of their counties. The title was never used in Eng- land, though its Latin equivalent has always been the common translation for 'earl,' and the wife of an earl from a very early period has been styled 'coimtess.' For the history of the office in Gennany, where it was of great im- portance, see Gkaf. Consult: Kanibaud, L'em- pire greC au Xe siecle (Paris, 1870) ; Luchaire, Histoire des institutions monarchiques elc la France sous les premiers Capctiens (Paris, ISS.S) : Maury. "La noblesse et les titres nobili- aires en France," Rertie des Deux Mondes (De- cember, 1882) ; Pfaff, Geschichte des Pfalzgrafen- amfes (Halle, 1847). COUNTER-CHANGED. A term in her- aldry (q.v.). When several metals and colors are intermixed, one being set against another, they are said to be counter-changed. COUNTER-IRRITANTS. COUNTERCLAIM. In pleading, an allirma- tive cause of action asserted by the defendant against the plaintilV and introduced in ccinuec- tion with his answer or defense proper. The counterclaim is a modern statutory device for enabling a person who is sued on a chiim against him to procure an adjudication, at the same time, of a legal claim which he has against the ])arty suing him. Its purpo.se is to consolidate the causes of action which two parties may have against one another, reducing the amount and cost of litigation and compelling the adjudica- tion, so far as possible, of all open controversies between them. No such practice existed at (jommon law, but every claim, no matter how closely related to another and opposing claim, constituted a separate cause of action and had to be separately prosecuted. As early as the year 1729, however, an act of the British Parliament introduced the principle of the set-off (q.v,), wherebj-, in case of nmtual indebtedness growing out of the same transaction, the defendant was enabled to set his claim off against that of the plaintiff and have it allowed on tlie Judgment, It was not until the Judicature Acts in 1875, however, that the defendant acquired the right of setting up a cross-claim, constituting a dis- tinct cause of action. Both the set-otT and the coimterclaim exist in the United States, the forkier generally, but the latter only in the so-called 'code States,' which have adopted the reformed procedure. These differ among themselves, however, as to the na- ture of the actions which can be pleaded by way of counterclaim, some following the modern English practice, under which any cause of ac- tion, however divergent from that alleged in the complaint, may be set up, and others, like New York, limiting the right of counterclaim to a matter arising out of the same transaction as that on which the action is based, or. in an action on contract, any other cause of action on con- tract, (New York Code of Civil Procedure, § 501.) See Plea; Pleading: Recoupment; and consult the authorities referred to tmder Pleading. COUNTERFEITING ( from counterfeit, from OF,, Fr. contrefuit, counterfeit, from ML. con- tra facere, to imitate, from Lat, contra, against + facere, to make). The criminal offense of falsely and fraudulently making an article in the semblance of .another with the intent to in- duce the acceptance and use of such spurious article for the genuine one. It is used :most frequently of imitations of coined money, but is applied also to spurious trade-marks, or dies. The most important Briti.sh statute on this topic is the Coinage OtTense Act, ISCl (24 and 2.5 Vict. e. Oil). In this country the subject is dealt with in the Revised Statutes of the Vnited States (§ .541.3 et seq. ), especially so far as it re- lates to Federal coinage and securities and the money or securities of foreign nations: and other forms of coimterfeiting are made punishable by State legislation. See Coinage: Forgery, COUNTER-IRRITANTS. Medical agents applied to the skin so as to redden (rubefaci- ents), to vesicate (blisters or vesicants), or to produce pustules, purulent issues, or even sloughs of skin and of the subcutaneous textures (pustulants). Counter-irritants act by reflex influence upon central nerve-centres which con-