[1] Devises to colleges are excepted from the operation of the act,
but such devises must be for purposes identical with or closely
resembling the original purposes of the college; and the exception
from this act does not supersede the necessity for a licence in
mortmain.
CORPS (pronounced as in French, from which it is taken, being a late
spelling of _cors_, from Lat. _corpus_, a body; cf. "corpse"), a word in
very general use since the 17th century to denote a body of troops,
varying from a few hundred to the greater part of an army. In a special
sense "corps" is used as synonymous with "army corps" (_corps d'armee_).
The word is applied to any organized body, as in _corps diplomatique_,
the general body of foreign diplomatic agents accredited to any
government (see DIPLOMACY), or _corps de ballet_, the members of a troop
of dancers at a theatre; so in _esprit de corps_, the common spirit of
loyalty which animates any body of associated persons.
CORPSE (Lat. _corpus_, the body), a dead human body. By the common law
of England a corpse is not the subject of property nor capable of
holding property. It is not therefore larceny to steal a corpse, but any
removal of the coffin or grave-cloths is otherwise, such remaining the
property of the persons who buried the body. It is a misdemeanour to
expose a naked corpse to public view, to prevent the burial of a dead
body, or to disinter it without authority; also to bury or otherwise
dispose of a dead body on which an inquest ought to be held, without
giving notice to a coroner. Anyone who, having the means, neglects to
bury a dead body which he is legally bound to bury, is guilty of a
misdemeanour, but no one is bound to incur a debt for such a purpose. It
is incumbent on the relatives and friends of a deceased person to
provide Christian burial for him; failing relatives and friends, the
duty devolves upon the parish. No corpse can be attached, taken in
execution, arrested or detained for debt. See further BODY-SNATCHING,
and BURIAL AND BURIAL ACTS.
CORPULENCE (Lat. _corpus_, body), or OBESITY (Lat. _ob_, against, and
_edere_, to eat), a condition of the animal body characterized by the
over-accumulation of fat under the skin and around certain of the
internal organs. In all healthy persons a greater or less amount of fat
is present in these parts, and serves important physiological ends,
besides contributing to the proper configuration of the body (see
NUTRITION). Even a considerable measure of fatness, however
inconvenient, is not inconsistent with a high degree of health and
activity, and it is only when in great excess or rapidly increasing that
it can be regarded as a pathological state (see METABOLIC DISEASES). The
extent to which excess of fat may proceed is illustrated by numerous
well-authenticated examples recorded in medical works, of which only a
few can be here mentioned. Thus Bright, a grocer of Maldon, in Essex,
who died in 1750, in his twenty-ninth year, weighed 616 [lb]. Dr F.
Dancel (_Traite de l'obesite_, Paris, 1863) records the case of a young
man of twenty-two, who died from excessive obesity, weighing 643 [lb].
In the _Philosophical Transactions_ for 1813 a case is recorded of a
girl of four years of age who weighed 256 [lb]. But the most celebrated
case is that of Daniel Lambert (q.v.) of Leicester, who died in 1809 in
his fortieth year. He is said to have been the heaviest man that ever
lived, his weight being 739 [lb] (52 st. 11 [lb]). Health cannot be long
maintained under excessive obesity, for the increase in bulk of the
body, rendering exercise more difficult, leads to relaxation and
defective nutrition of muscle, while the accumulations of fat in the
chest and abdomen occasion serious embarrassment to the functions of the
various organs in those cavities. In general the mental activity of the
highly corpulent becomes impaired, although there have always been many
notable exceptions to this rule.
Various causes are assigned for the production of corpulence (see
METABOLIC DISEASES). In some families there exists an hereditary
predisposition to an obese habit of body, the manifestation of which no
precautions as to living appear capable of averting. But it is
unquestionable that certain habits favour the occurrence of corpulence.
A luxurious, inactive, or sedentary life, with over-indulgence in sleep
and absence of mental occupation, are well recognized predisposing
causes. The more immediate exciting causes are over-feeding and the
large use of fluids of any kind, but especially alcoholic liquors. Fat
persons are not always great eaters, though many of them are, while
leanness and inordinate appetite are not infrequently associated. Still,
it may be stated generally that indulgence in food, beyond what is
requisite to repair daily waste, goes towards the increase of flesh,
particularly of fat. This is more especially the case when the
non-nitrogenous (the fatty, saccharine and starchy) elements of the food
are in excess. The want of adequate bodily exercise will in a similar
manner produce a like effect, and it is probable that many cases of
corpulence are to be ascribed to this cause alone, from the well-known
facts that many persons of sedentary occupation become stout, although
of most abstemious habits, and that obesity frequently comes on in the
middle-aged and old, who take relatively less exercise than the young,
in whom it is comparatively rare. Women are more prone to become
corpulent than men, and appear to take on this condition more readily
after the cessation of the function of menstruation.
For the prevention of corpulence and the reduction of superfluous fat
many expedients have been resorted to, and numerous remedies
recommended. These have included bleeding, blistering, purging, starving
(see FASTING), the use of different kinds of baths, and of drugs
innumerable. The drinking of vinegar was long popularly, but
erroneously, supposed to be a remedy for obesity. It is related of the
marquis of Cortona, a noted general of the duke of Alva, that by
drinking vinegar he so reduced his body from a condition of enormous
obesity that he could fold his skin about him like a garment.
In 1863 a pamphlet entitled "Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the
Public by William Banting," in which was narrated the remarkable
experience of the writer in accomplishing the reduction of his own
weight in a short space of time by the adoption of a particular kind of
diet, started the modern dietetic treatment, at first called "Banting"
after the author. After trying almost every known remedy without effect,
Banting was induced, on the suggestion of Mr Harvey, a London aurist, to
place himself upon an entirely new form of diet, which consisted chiefly
in the removal, as far as possible, of all saccharine, starchy and fat
food, the reduction of liquids, and the substitution of meat or fish and
fruit in moderate quantity at each meal, together with the daily use of
an antacid draught. Under this regimen his weight was reduced 46 [lb] in
the course of a few weeks, while his health underwent a marked
improvement. His experience, as might have been expected, induced many
to follow his example; and since then various regimens have been
propounded, all aiming at treating corpulence on modern physiological
principles (see also DIETETICS, METABOLIC DISEASES and NUTRITION). It is
important, however, to bear in mind that the treatment should be
followed under medical advice and observation; for, however desirable it
be to get rid of superabundant fat, it would be manifestly no gain were
this to be achieved by the sacrifice of the general health.
CORPUS CHRISTI, a city and the county-seat of Nueces county, Texas,
U.S.A., situated on Corpus Christi Bay opposite the mouth of the Nueces
river, 192 m. W.S.W. of Galveston and about 150 m. S.S.E. of San
Antonio. Pop. (1890) 4387; (1900) 4703, including 963 foreign-born and
460 negroes; (1910) 8299. It is served by the National of Mexico, the St
Louis, Brownsville & Mexico, and the San Antonio & Aransas Pass
railways. In 1908 the Federal government began work on a project to
connect Corpus Christi harbour with Aransas Pass by a channel 8-1/2 ft.
deep at low water and 75 ft. wide at the bottom, following a natural
depression between the two bays. Corpus Christi is a summer and winter
resort, with a very dry equable climate (average annual mean, 70.2 deg.
F.) and good bathing on the horseshoe beach of Corpus Christi Bay. The
city has an extensive coasting trade, and exports fruit, early
vegetables, fish and oysters. There was a small Spanish settlement here
at an early date, but no American settlement was made until after the
Mexican War. Corpus Christi was the base from which General Zachary
Taylor made his forward movement to the Rio Grande in 1846. It was
chartered as a city in 1876.
CORPUS CHRISTI, FEAST OF (Lat. _festum corporis Christi_, i.e. festival
of the Body of Christ, Fr. _fete-Dieu_ or _fete du sacrement_, Ger.
_Frohnleichnamsfest_), a festival of the Roman Catholic Church in honour
of the Real Presence of Christ in the sacrament of the altar, observed
on the first Thursday after Trinity Sunday. The doctrine of
transubstantiation was defined by the Lateran Council in 1215, and
shortly afterwards the elevation and adoration of the Host were formally
enjoined. This naturally stimulated the popular devotion to the Blessed
Sacrament, which had been already widespread before the definition of
the dogma. The movement was especially strong in the diocese of Liege,
and when Julienne, prioress of Mont-Cornillon near Liege (1222-1258),
had a vision in which the need for the establishment of a festival in
honour of the Sacrament was revealed to her, the matter was taken up
with enthusiasm by the clergy, and in 1246 Robert de Torote, bishop of
Liege, instituted such a festival for his diocese. The idea, however,
did not spread until, in 1261, Jacob Pantaleon, archdeacon of Liege,
ascended the papal throne as Urban IV. By a bull of 1264 Urban made the
festival, hitherto practically confined to the diocese of Liege,
obligatory on the whole Church,[1] and a new office for the festival was
written by Thomas Aquinas himself. As yet the stress was laid on
reverence for the Holy Sacrament as a whole; there is no mention in
Urban's bull of the solemn procession and exposition of the Host for the
adoration of the faithful, which are the main features of the festival
as at present celebrated. Urban's bull was once more promulgated, at the
council of Vienne in 1311, by Pope Clement V.; and the procession of
the Host in connexion with the festival was instituted, if the accounts
we possess are trustworthy, by Pope John XXII.
From this time onwards the festival increased in popularity and in
splendour. It became in effect the principal feast of the Church, the
procession of the Sacrament a gorgeous pageant, in which not only the
members of the trade and craft gilds, with the magistrates of the
cities, took part, but princes and sovereigns. It thus became in a high
degree symbolical of the exaltation of the sacerdotal power.[2] In the
15th century the custom became almost universal of following the
procession with the performance of miracle-plays and mysteries,
generally arranged and acted by members of the gilds who had formed part
of the pageant.
The rejection of the doctrine of transubstantiation at the Reformation
naturally involved the suppression of the festival of Corpus Christi in
the reformed Churches. Luther, in spite of his belief in the Real
Presence, regarded it as the most harmful of all the medieval festivals
and, though he fully realized its popularity, it was the first that he
abolished. This attitude of the reformers towards the festival, however,
intensified by their abhorrence of the traffic in indulgences with which
it had become closely associated, only tended to establish it more
firmly among the adherents of the "old religion." The procession of the
Host on Corpus Christi day became, as it were, a public demonstration of
Catholic orthodoxy against Protestantism and later against religious
Liberalism. In most countries where religious opinion is sharply divided
the procession of Corpus Christi is therefore now forbidden, even when
Catholicism is the dominant religion. In England occasional breaches of
the law in this respect have been for some time tolerated, as in the
case of the Corpus Christi procession annually held by the Italian
community in London. An attempt to hold a public procession of the Host
in connexion with the Eucharistic Congress at Westminster in 1908,
however, was the signal for the outburst of a considerable amount of
opposition, and was eventually abandoned owing to the personal
intervention of the prime minister.