in matters of policy, signifies the form of government established in any country or kingdom.

Constitution also denotes an ordinance, decision, regulation, or law, made by authority of any superior, ecclesiastical or civil.

Apostolical Constitutions, a collection of regulations attributed to the apostles, and supposed to have been collected by St Clement, whose name they likewise bear.

It is the general opinion, however, that these Constitutions are spurious, and that St Clement had no hand in framing them. They appeared first in the fourth century; but they have been much changed and corrupted since that time. They are divided into eight books, consisting of a great number of rules and precepts, relating to the duties of Christians, and particularly to the ceremonies and discipline of the church. Whiston, in opposition to the general opinion, asserts that they are a part of the sacred writings, dictated by the apostles at their meetings, and written down from their own mouths by St Clement, and intended as a supplement to the New Testament, or rather as a system of Christian faith and polity. The reason why the Constitutions are suspected by the orthodox, and perhaps the reason also why their genuineness is defended by Whiston, is, that they seem to savour of Arianism.

in a physical sense, signifies the particular temperament or condition of the body.

CONSTRUCTOR, an appellation given to several muscles, on account of their drawing together or closing some of the orifices of the body.