consumable

Capable of being consumed; susceptible of consumption or total destruction; fit for consumption. con-sume', v. t. & i. [O. Fr.consumer; Sp.con sumir; Ital. con sum are, from Lat. con sumo to take up wholly, to consume: con = cum = with, together, fully, and sumo to take.] A. Transitive: I. Literally: 1. To destroy, as by decomposition, waste, or fire. "And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty."-2 Kings i. 12. 2. To bring to utter ruin, to destroy, to extermi "Separate yourselves from among this congregation, nate. "A consult of coquets below Was call'd, to rig him out a beau."- Swift . 4. A person consulted. "'Bon,' cried the consult , 'a happy prognostic. " Gentleman Instructed, p. 543. (Davies.) 5. Agreement, concert. march t' oppose the faction in consult With dying Dorax. Dryden: Don Sebastian , iv. 1. *con-sult-a-ble, a. [Eng. consult; -able.] Able or ready to be consulted. "I have got my. collection stuck on tablets and put in consultable order."-E. Forbes, in Memorials of Wilson and Geikie , ch. xii., p. 422 (July 18, 1847). 2. To devour, to eat up greedily. “... onely the stomache lay idle and consumed all." -Camden: Remains; Wise Speeches. 3. To wear away, to waste, to cause to disappear. "His flesh is consumed away, ."- Job xxxiii. 21. *4. To spend, to pa . "Thus in soft anguish she consumes the day." Thomson: Spring. IMG:content-0737.png:[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small] ch. xix. I. Ord. Lang.: Completed, perfected, finished. II. Law : Perfected, as a marriage by cohabit a- 2. The state or proce of being consumed, or of gradual waste and decay. "I can get no remedy against this consumption of the " -Shakesp .: Hen. IV ., Pt . II ., i. 2. purse 3. The proce of using up or utilizing. [II. 1.] II. Technically : (2) The amount or quantity of industrial products expended or utilized. "Every new advance of the price to the consumer is a new incentive to him to retrench the quality of his con- sumption."-Burke: On a Regicide Peace , Let. 3. 2. Medicine : (1) Hist .: A disease called by the Greeks phthisis =a decline, a decay, a wasting away, from phthio = to decay, to dwindle. The Romans retained the Greek word phthisis , though they had also a word of their own, consumptio : from the Latin came the English word Consumption. [Etym.] Phthisis in medicine became a genus, with the proper meaning of wasting away, and under it were reckoned var i- ous species, as Phthisis pul monal is , P. hepatica , P. Tuberculosis , . Consumption also is a genus, with at least two species, one the Pulmonary and the other the Mesenteric form. (2) Symptoms, .: The remote origin of con- sumption is often hereditary tendency or const i- tutional proclivity. In the former case the skin in childhood has a pale pasty look, the upper lip is large, and the cheeks full. If the complexion be dark the color is sallow; if fair, it is unnaturally white, with large conspicuous veins: those who are fair being sometimes very beautiful, those who are dark generally the reverse. The circulation in both cases is languid, and the strength as a rule small. There is generally mental precocity in the fair, while there are often dullne and stupidity in the dark. Sooner or later "tubercle" is deposited at the apex of one of the lungs, just beneath the shoulder-bone. [TUBEFCLE.] The irritation which it causes produces a dry cough, soon followed by more or le difficulty of breathing. Expectoration next takes place when the cough comes, the matter ejected being, in the earliest stage, frothy-like saliva, then with specks of opaque matter, then wholly tenacious, and at times streaked with blood. The original tubercles are now breaking, but others are commencing, the disease traveling downward till it pervades the whole lobe of the lung, after which a similar proce tends to begin in the 1. The end of the present system of things; the remaining lobe. Long before this, however, the end of the world. 2. Death; the end of life. IMG:content-0738.png:[blocks in formation] tion and completion : "The arrival at a conclusion is comprehended in both these terms, but they dif fer principally in application; wishes are consum- mated ; plans are completed : we often flatter ourselves that the completion of all our plans will be the consummation of all our wishes, and thus expose ourselves to grievous disappointments: the consummation of the nuptial ceremony is not always the consummation of hopes and joys; it is fre quently the beginning of misery and disappoint ment: we often sacrifice much to the completion of a purpose which we afterward find not worth the labor of attaining." ( Crabb : Eng . Synon .) con-sum-mā-tõr, s . [CON SUM MATER.] IMG:content-0739.png:[blocks in formation] whole constitution has sympathized with the local injury. There are hectic fever, night perspirations, emaciation, and other symptoms, till the scene is closed by cædem a of the lower limbs, aphthe (small ulcers) in the mouth, mild delirium, and death. The mean duration of the disease from the first deposition of tubercle is twenty-three months, but in more than one-half the cases the fatal result takes place within nine months and often within four. There are various types of it, specially an acute, a chronic, and a latent type. It exists in all countries of the world, but not equally in all. The Pacific coast of this country, Colorado, Florida, the eastern frontier of the Cape of Good Hope, parts of India, Australia, and New Zealand, are good resorts for consumptive patients, who, how- ever, being feeble, must not over-fatigue themselves in those lands. In this country consumption pro- duces about one in five of all the deaths which occur. The mortality is greater between twenty and forty than above and below those ages, and in IMG:content-0740.png:[blocks in formation] public a embly expectoration in any other places than cuspidors partly filled with water should be absolutely prohibited. Otherwise when the sputa becomes dry the tread of feet causes it to rise in the dust, and the bacilli are taken into the lungs of pa ers by inhalation. The water in spittoons pre- vents this, and the ve els themselves should be emptied directly into a sewer flushed by water. (1) Mesenteric consumption : [MARASMUS.] (2) Pulmonary consumption : [1.2.] "The stoppage of women's courses, if not looked to, sets them into a consumption , dropsy, or other disease."- Harvey. IMG:content-0741.png:[blocks in formation] the doctrine that tubercles were congeries of bacilli which were engaged in the destruction of the sub boards. stance of the part affected. Dr. Koch conducted a series of experiments and then gave to the world LATE.] his celebrated remedy (or rather protection) against the scourge by inoculation with an atteinst lymph containing the specific morbific matter a the result of his announcement being, as invariable in the medical world, a division of opinion as to its utility. Other methods of treatment have been pits posed, among them the inhalation of dry hot air, the degree of heat being sufficient to kill the mi- crobes. The surgeon general of the English military establishment advocated the use of dilute carbolic acid, by per dermic absorption, stating that leprosy another. bacillus has thus been killed. With the IMG:content-0742.png:[blocks in formation] 5. Point of contact: Math.: The point in which two lines, planes, or bodies touch each other. Crabb thus discriminates between contact and touch: "The former expre es a state, and referring to two bodies actually in that state; the latter on the other hand implying the abstract act of touch ing : we speak of things coming or being in contact , but not of the contact instead of the touch of a thing: the poison which comes from the poison-tree is so powerful in its nature, that it is not nece ary to come in contact with it in order to feel its baneful influence; some insects are armed with stings so inconceivably sharp that the smallest touch po ible is sufficient to produce a puncture into the flesh." -(Crabb: Eng . Synon.)