the uniting several small particles of a natural body into sensible masses or concretes, whereby it becomes so and so figured and determined, and is endowed with such and such properties.
Concretion is also the act whereby soft bodies are rendered hard; or an insensible motion of the particles of a fluid or soft body, whereby they come to a concretion. It is indifferently used for induration, condensation, congelation, and coagulation.
CONCUBINAGE sometimes expresses a criminal or prohibited commerce between the two sexes; in which sense it comprehends adultery, incest, and simple fornication.
In its more restrained sense, concubinage is used for a man's and a woman's cohabiting together in the way of marriage, without having passed the ceremony thereof.
Concubinage was anciently tolerated: the Roman law calls it an allowed custom, licita coniunctura. When this expression occurs in the constitutions of the Christian emperors, it signifies what we now call a marriage in concubinage.
The concubinage tolerated among the Romans in the time of the republic, and of the heathen emperors, was that between persons not capable of contracting marriage together; nor did they even refuse to let inheritances descend to children which sprung from such a tolerated cohabitation. Concubinage between such persons they looked on as a kind of marriage, and even allowed it several privileges; but then this concubinage was confined to a single person, and was of perpetual obligation as much as marriage itself. Hottoman observes, that the Roman laws had allowed of concubinage long before Julius Caesar made that law whereby every one was allowed to marry as many wives as he pleased. The emperor Valentinian, Socrates tells us, allowed every man two.
Concubinage is also used for a marriage performed with less solemnity than the formal marriage; or a marriage with a woman of inferior condition, and to whom the husband does not convey his rank or quality. Cujas observes, that the ancient laws allowed a man to espouse, under the title of concubine, certain persons, such as were esteemed unequal to him, on account of the want of some qualities requisite to sustain the full honour of marriage. He adds, that though concubinage was beneath marriage, both as to dignity and civil effects; yet was concubine a reputable title, very different from that of mistress among us. The commerce was esteemed so lawful, that the concubine might be accused of adultery in the same manner as a wife.
This kind of concubinage is still in use in some countries, particularly in Germany, under the title of a half-marriage, morgenabend marriage, or marriage with the left-hand; alluding to the manner of its being contracted, viz. by the man's giving the woman his left hand instead of the right. This is a real marriage, though without solemnity; the parties are both bound forever; though the woman be thus excluded from the common rights of a wife for want of quality or fortune.
The children of concubines were not reputed either legitimate or bastards, but natural children, and were capable only of donations. They were deemed to retain the low rank of the mother; and were on this ground unqualified for inheriting the effects of the father.