nslation of "The
Customs of the Sea," with the Catalan text. (T. T.)

CONSUMPTION (Lat. _consumere_), literally, the act of consuming or
destroying. Thus the word is popularly applied to phthisis, a "wasting
away" of the lungs due to tuberculosis (q.v.). In economics the word has
a special significance as a technical term. It has been defined as the
destruction of utilities, and thus opposed to "production," which is the
creation of utilities, a utility in this connexion being anything which
satisfies a desire or serves a purpose. Consumption may be either
productive or unproductive; productive where it is a means directly or
indirectly to the satisfaction of any economic want, unproductive when
it is devoted to pleasures or luxuries. Its place in the science of
economics, and its close relation with production, are treated of in
every text-book, but special reference may be made to W. Roscher,
_Nationaloekonomie_, 1883, and G. Schoenberg, _Handbuch d. polit.
Oekonomie_, 1890-1891.

CONSUS, an ancient Italian deity, originally a god of agriculture. The
time at which his festival was held (after harvest and seed-sowing), the
nature of its ceremonies and amusements, his altar at the end of the
Circus Maximus always covered with earth except on such occasions, all
point to his connexion with the earth. In accordance with this, the name
has been derived from _condere_ (= Condius, as the "keeper" of grain or
the "hidden" god, whose life-producing influence works in the depths of
the earth). Another etymology is from _conserere_ ("sow," cf. Ops Consiva
and her festival Opiconsivia). Amongst the ancients (Livy i. 9; Dion.
Halic. ii. 31) Census was most commonly identified with [Greek: Poseidon
Hippios] (Neptunus Equester), and in later Latin poets Consus is used
for Neptunus, but this idea was due to the horse and chariot races which
took place at his festival; otherwise, the two deities have nothing in
common. According to another view, he was the god of good counsel, who
was said to have "advised" Romulus to carry off the Sabine women (Ovid,
_Fasti_, iii. 199) when they visited Rome for the first celebration of
his festival (Consualia). In later times, with the introduction of Greek
gods into the Roman theological system, Consus, who had never been the
object of special reverence, sank to the level of a secondary deity,
whose character was rather abstract and intellectual.

His festival was celebrated on