contacourt

See conteck our. contact (kon'takt), n. [F. contact = Sp. Pg. contacto = It. contatto, When several metals at the same temperature are soldered to each other so as to form a continuous chain, the difference of potentials of the extreme metals is the same as if these two metals are in direct contact. At kins on , tr. of Mascart and Joubert, I. 177. 2. Specifically, in math ., coincidence, as of two curves, in two or more consecutive points; the having a point and the tangent plane at that point in common.-3. The act of making one body abut against another; the bringing together so as to touch. - Angle of contact, in math ., the angle of contingence or curvature; the angle between a curve and its tangent. - Chords of contact. See chord . Contact action, the action by which a substance causes changes in other substances which are brought into contact with it, apparently without itself taking part in the changes, or at least without being permanently altered by them. Thus, platinum black will cause a combination between oxygen and hydrogen gases when they are brought together with it, but is not itself altered. See catalysis , 2, and catalytic. - Contact deposit, a metalliferous deposit, or aggregation of ore, usually accompanied by more or le veinstone, and occupying a position between or at the junction of two rocks of different lithological character. The copper-mines in Connecticut and New Jersey, the first worked in the United States, were opened on deposits of this kind, which oссиpied a position between the trappean rock and the sandstone, or between the latter and the underlying crystalline ma es. - Contact goniometer. See goniometer. Contact of surfaces, contact of plane sections of the surfaces; the existence of a double point in the curve of mutual intersection of the surfaces. But if either surface has a double point at the double point of the curve of intersection, it is further requisite that the surface not having the double point shall be capable of being so moved that the intersection should begin to move away from the double point by a motion along that surface. If both surfaces have double points at the double point of the intersection, contact consists in having the same tangent plane and the same point of tangency. - Contact of the nth order, in math . , coincidence of n + 1 consecutive points. rustic. Happine to dance with the contadinas at a village feast. Hawthorne, Marble Faun, ix. 2. A rustic dance. contadino (kon-tä-dēnō), n.; pl. contadini (-nē). [It., The produce of the orchard is divided equally between contadino and landlord. Encyc. Brit ., XIII. 452, note. contagia, n. Plural of contagium . contagion (kon-tā'jon), n. [= F. contagion = Sp. contagion = Pg. contagião = It. con tag i one , contagio (n-), also contagium (see contagi um), a touching, contact, particularly contact with something unclean or infectious, contamination, contingere (contag-), touch: see contact, contingent.] 1. Infectious contact or communication; specifically and commonly, the communication of a disease from one person or brute to another. A distinction between contagion and infection is sometimes adopted, the former being limited to the transmi ion of disease by actual contact of the dis eased part with a healthy absorbent or abraded surface, and the latter to transmi ion through the atmosphere by floating germs or miasmata. There are, however, cases of transmi ion which do not fall under either of these divisions, and there are some which fall under both. In common use no precise discrimination of the two words is attempted. See epidemic and endemic. The miserable prey of the contagion of disease, and the worse contagion of vice and sin. Sumner , Prison Discipline. IMG:content-1146.png:[blocks in formation] contagium (kon-ta'ji-um), n.; pl. contagia (-a). [F. contage = Sp. Pg. It. contagio, L. con tagium, a collateral form of contagio (n-), contagion: see contagion.] 1. Same as contagion. - 2. The morbific matter conveyed from the sick to the well in the spread of communicable diseases. Now contagia are living things, which demand certain elements of life just as inexorably as trees, or wheat, or barley. Tyndall, Int. to Life of Pasteur, p. 35. But even the most cleanly people would contract cholera, syphilis, or small-pox, if the contagium were in their midst. The Sanitarian , XV. 293.