Louis; others went to Iowa, others to California. The last
branch was dissolved in 1895.

See also the articles SOCIALISM; OWEN; SAINT-SIMON; FOURIER, &c.; and
the bibliography to SOCIALISM. The whole subject is admirably covered
in Morris Hillquit's work, referred to above; and see also Noyes's
_History of American Socialisms_ (1870); Charles Nordhoff's
_Communistic Societies of the United States_ (1875); and W. A. Hinds's
_American Communities_ (1878; 2nd edition, 1902), a very complete
account.

COMMUTATION (from Lat. _commutare_, to change), a process of exchanging
one thing for another, particularly of one method of payment for
another, such as payment in money for payment in kind or by service, or
of payment of a lump sum for periodical payments; for various kinds of
such substitution see ANNUITY; COPYHOLD and TITHES. The word is also
used similarly of the substitution of a lesser sentence on a criminal
for a greater. In electrical engineering, the word is applied to the
reversal of the course of an electric current, the contrivance for so
doing being known as a "commutator" (see DYNAMO). In America, a
"commutation ticket" on a railway is one which allows a person to travel
at a lower rate over a particular route for a certain time or for a
certain number of times; the person holding such a ticket is known as a
"commuter."

COMNENUS, the name of a Byzantine family which from 1081 to 1185
occupied the throne of Constantinople. It claimed a Roman origin, but
its earliest representatives appear as landed proprietors in the
district of Castamon (mod. _Kastamuni_) in Paphlagonia. Its first member
known in Byzantine history is Manuel Eroticus Comnenus, an able general
who rendered great services to Basil II. (976-1025) in the East. At his
death he left his two sons Isaac and John in the care of Basil, who gave
them a careful education and advanced them to high official positions.
The increasing unpopularity of the Macedonian dynasty culminated in a
revolt of the nobles and the soldiery of Asia against its feeble
representative Michael VI. Stratioticus, who abdicated after a brief
resistance. Isaac was declared emperor, and crowned in St Sophia on the
2nd of September 1057. For the rulers of this dynasty see ROMAN EMPIRE,
LATER, and separate articles.

With Andronicus I. (1183-1185) the rule of the Comneni proper at
Constantinople came to an end. A younger line of the original house,
after