CONGAREE greater than that of Confucius. He was not, however, the originator of a religious creed. While striving to introduce a ritual more mi- nute than that of Moses, he rejected divine rev- elation, and erected a structure of moral phi- losophy founded upon the wants and tenden- cies of human nature. There was a time when European philosophers vied with one another in extolling the merits of Confucius as one of the sublimest teachers of truth among man- kind. This was especially done by the French encyclopedist philosophers of the 18th century, who, in order to strengthen the position they had taken against divine revelation, proposed to prove by the examples of Confucius, Soc- rates, and others, that the holiest truths had found their best interpreters among pagan phi- losophers. Certain it is that the doctrines of Confucius bear a strong resemblance to those of his Greek contemporaries, not merely in their ethical tendency, but also in the abstruse metaphysical reasoning upon which they are apparently founded. The books containing them, partly written by Confucius himself, part- ly by his disciples (see CHINA, LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE or;, bear almost the same relation to the Chinese world as the Bible does to the Christian. The knowledge of one's self is, according to Confucius, the basis of all real ad- vance in morals and manners. The duties man owes to society and himself are minutely de- fined by him ; and there are many passages in his writings closely approaching the Christian standard of morality. Having been asked whether any one sentence could express the ,conduct most fitting for one's whole life, he re- plied : "Do not unto others what you would not have them do to you." "It cannot be de- nied," says Dr. Williams, " that among much that is commendable, there are a few excep- tionable dogmas among his tenets ; but com- pared with the precepts of Grecian and Roman sages, the general tendency of his writings is good ; while in their general adaptation to the society in which he lived and their eminently practical character, they exceed those of west- ern philosophers." CONGAREE, a river of South Carolina, formed by the union of the Broad and Saluda at Co- lumbia, near the centre of the state. After a course of about 50 m. it receives the Wateree, below which it is called the Santee. The river is navigable by steamboats to Columbia. CONGESTION, strictly speaking, an accumula- tion of any liquid in an organ or tissue, but generally limited in medical works to an ab- normal amount of blood in the vessels of a part otherwise healthy, and in most cases from an enlargement of the minute arteries and capil- lary blood vessels. Congestion may also be passive from obstruction to the circulation from external or constitutional causes. Congestion, called hyperamia by Andral, may be entirely independent, as to its cause, of the organ or tissue in which it is seated. The highly vascu- lar organs, and those which receive the blood 221 VOL. v. 16 CONGESTION 239 most directly from the heart, as the brain, the lungs, the liver, and the spleen, are the most frequent seats of congestion, together with their capillaries. Congestion differs from in- flammation, to which, however it may lead, in its anatomical characters : in the former the organization and vital characters are unaltered, and the post-mortem appearance of sanguineous accumulation may be removed by the action of water ; but in the latter the redness is per- manent, the consistence is changed, and va- rious morbid products are effused ; though con- gestion precedes inflammation, it does not necessarily proceed to it. There are certain conditions of the circulation in which conges- tion may be said to be normal and physiologi- cal ; as, for example, in the erectile tissue of the nipple and other organs, and in the super- ficial coloration of the blushing cheek. Andral makes three degrees of congestion : 1, in which an increased amount of blood is sent to a part ; 2, in which, in addition, the capillaries are dilated, with retardation of the circulation, a tendency to coagulation of the blood, and dark- er color of the tissues ; this is the true type of congestion ; 3, in which there is complete stag- nation of the blood, with a darker coloration. As the first of these degrees is less than con- gestion, as ordinarily understood, so the last is more than congestion, involving a new condition of the affected parts. As congestion is a com- mencement of disease in many organs, the functional disturbances arising from it are va- rious. It is not always easy to ascertain the predisposing and exciting causes of congestion, though it may be stated as a general rule, that repeated stimulation of an organ or tissue pre- disposes it to congestion ; inflammation in a neighboring part may induce congestion, as for instance in the brain during inflammation of the air passages ; an unequal distribution of blood from cold or other causes may cause pul- monary or other visceral congestions. The redness and swelling are in proportion to the accumulation of blood ; the heat and pain are trifling, unless the congestion be extreme ; the distention of the vessels may end in their rup- ture, and in circumscribed or diffused haemor- rhage, though effusion of blood may also occur from a diseased state of the fluid, as in typhus, scurvy, and the oedematous congestions of chlorosis, without rupture of the vessels. It appears from the experiments of Magendie that a diminution in the proportion of fibrine in the blood, from any cause, predisposes to conges- tion ; Andral noticed also a diminution of this element in many cases of cerebral congestion, beginning with headache, dizziness, and bleed- ing at the nose, and ending often in coma and apoplexy. Congestions of the brain and spinal cord, if of long duration, or ending in hsemor- rhage, are highly dangerous and frequently fatal ; the spleen is sometimes congested to the point of rupture, causing death, without any premonitory symptoms. Frequent congestions of an organ bring on hypertrophy, thickening,
