perfect plants, are the same. In the Sexual System, the ferns constitute the first order, or secondary division of the twenty-fourth class, Cryptogamia; in Tournefort's Method, they are the sixteenth class; and in Ray's the fourth, under the name of Capillares. Haller denominates them Epiphyllosperma, that is, plants that bear their seeds on the back of the leaf: others term them Acaules, because they have properly no stem. These plants in figure approach the more perfect vegetables, being furnished, like them, with roots and leaves. The roots creep and extend themselves horizontally under the earth, throwing out a number of very slender fibres on all sides. The stem in these plants is not to be distinguished from the common foot-stalk, or rather middle rib of the leaves; so that, in strict propriety, the greater num ber of ferns may be said to be Acaules, that is, to want the stem altogether: in plants of the second section, however, the middle rib, or stalk proceeding from the root, overtops the leaves, and forms a stem, upon which the flowers are supported. The leaves proceed either singly, or in greater numbers, from the extremities of the branches of the main root. They are winged, or hand-shaped, in all the genera, except in adder's-tongue, pepper-grass, and some species of spleenwort. The flowers of the ferns, whatever be their nature, are in the greater number of genera fastened, and as it were glued to the back of the leaves; in some they are supported upon a stem or stalk, which rises above the leaves, and is either, as we said above, a prolongation of their middle rib, or issues out of the centre of the plant, unconnected with the leaves altogether. From these different modes of flowering arise the two sections, or divisions, of this natural order, viz. 1. those in which the parts of fructification grow upon the leaves; 2. those in which the flowers are borne upon foot-stalks that overtop the leaves. FILLAGREE work, a kind of enrichment on gold or silver, wrought delicately, in manner of little threads or grains, or both intermixed. In Sumatra, manufactures of this kind are carried on to very great perfection. But what renders this a matter of great curiosity is, that the tools made use of are very coarse and clumsy. The gold is melted in a crucible of their own forming, and, instead of bellows, they blow with their mouths through a piece of bamboo. They draw and flatten the wire in a manner similar to that adopted by Europeans. It is then twisted, and thus a flower, or the shape of a flower, is formed. Patterns of the flowers or foliage are prepared on paper, of the size of the gold plate on which the fillagree is to be laid. According to this they begin to dispose on the plate the larger compartments of the foliage, for which they use plain flat wire, of a larger size, and fill them up with the leaves. A gelatinous substance is used to fix the work, and after the leaves have been placed in order, and stuck on, bit by bit, a solder is prepared of gold filings and borax, moistened with water, which they strew over the plate, and then putting it in the fire a short time, the whole becomes united. When the filagree is finished, it is cleansed with a solution of salt and alum in water. The Chinese make most of their filagree of silver, which looks very elegant; but is deficient in the extraordinary delicacy of Malay work. FILLET, in heraldry, a kind of orle or bordure, containing only a third or fourth part of the breadth of the common bordure. It is supposed to be withdrawn inwards, and is of a different colour from the field. It runs quite round, near the edge, as a lace over a cloak. It is also used for an ordinary, drawn like a bar, from the sinister point of the chief, across the shield, in manner of a scarf; though it sometimes is also seen in the situation of a bend, fesse, cross, &c. FILM, a thin skin or pellicle. In plants it is used for that thin, woody skin, which separates the seeds in the pods, and keeps them apart. FILTER, in chemistry, a strainer com. monly made of bibulous or filtering paper in the form of a funnel, through which any fluid is passed, in order to separate the gross particles from it, and render it limpid. There are several filters made of flannel and linen cloth. The filter pro duces the same effect, with regard to li quids, that the sieve does in dry matters. Filters are of two sorts: the first are simple pieces of paper or cloth, through which the liquor is passed without farther trouble; the second are twisted up like a skein or wick, and first wetted, and then squeezed as dry as possible; one end is put into the liquor to be filtrated, the other end is to hang out below the sur face of the liquor; by this means the purest part of the liquor distils drop by drop out of the vessel, leaving the dregs behind: a filter of this kind acts upon the principle of the syphon. Water is freed from various impurities by means of basins made of porous stone; this is often very necessary at sea, when the water becomes foul, and on land, where there are no fresh springs. The filter is of use to all those in and near the metropolis, who are supplied with water from the Thames, the New River, and the ponds from Hampstead. Many patents have been obtained for filtering machines, which may be seen in various parts of London. We shall observe, that Mr. Peacock obtained, about twelve years since, one for a new species of filtration, by means of gravel of different sizes, suitable to the several strata. The various sizes of the particles of gravel, as placed in layers, should be nearly in the quadruple ratio of their surfaces; that is, upon the first layer, a second is to be placed, the diameters of whose particles are not to be less than one half of the first, and so on in this proportion. This arrangement of filtering particles will gradually fine the water, by the grosser particles being quite intercepted in their partly ascending with the water. An advantage in these filters is, that they may be readily cleansed by drawing out the body of the fluid, by which it will descend in the filter, and I carry with it all the foul and extraneous substances. A patent was also granted to Mr. Joshua Collier of Southwark, for a most ingenious method of filtering and sweetening water, oil, and every other liquid. The following is the contrivance, which combines the application of machinery with the antiseptic properties of charcoal. Fish oil is one of the liquids which he had particularly in view, to free it from every thing disagreeable, either in taste, smell, or colour; to accomplish which he poured a quantity of oil into a convenient vessel, heated to the temperature of 120° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, adding caustic mineral alkali of the specific gravity of 1.25. He then agitated the mixture, afterwards allowing it to stand till the sediment subsided, and then drew it off into another vessel, with a sufficient quantity of burnt charcoal finely powdered, and a small quantity of diluted sulphuric acid, to decompose the saponaceous matter still suspended in the oil, when the oil became clear at the surface: he then agitated the contents of this vessel, and left the coally, saline, and aqueous particles to subside; after- The principle of the improved filtering machines consists in combining hydrostatic pressure with the mode of filtering per ascensum, which procures the peculiar advantage of causing the fluid and its sediment to take opposite directions. The filtering surface remains the same, while the dimensions of the chamber in which the sediment is received may be varied. To adapt the machines to every purpose for which they are intended, chambers must be provided, of various capacities, for the precipitated matter. The space required is very great with respect to the oil trade, and as all dimensions will be required occasionally, no particular limits can be fixed. For distilleries and breweries they may be smaller in proportion, and a very small chamber will be sufficient for domestic economy. If water is to be freed from noxious particles, it must be made to pass through an iron box in its way to the filtering chamber, and the box must contain charcoal finely powdered; the water is received into this box, and delivered by two apertures, which are opened and closed by cocks. Another part of the invention consists in filtering machines in the form of stills, in which charcoal may be repeatedly burnt, after any fluid substances have passed through it, for the purpose of freeing them from noxious particles, or discharg ing their colouring matter. To the filtering apparatus of Mr. Collier, instruments are attached for discovering the comparative qualities of oils, which depend, in some measure, on their specific gravities: spermaceti oil, when compared with fish oils, being as 875 to 920. To do this a glass vessel, of any shape most convenient, is employed, with a glass bubble and a thermometer. If the oil is pure, the bubble sinks, when the mercury rises to a particular standard. When spermaceti oil is impure, the bubble floats, though of the temperature required. To determine the tendency of oils, used for burning, to congeal in cold weather, a freezing mixture may be put into a phial of thin glass, into which let a thermometer be immersed, and a single drop of the oil permitted to fall on the outside of the vessel, where it will instantly congeal. As the cold produced by the mixture decreases, let the temperature be observed, by the thermometer, at which the oil becomes fluid, and runs down the side of the glass. FIN, in natural history, a well known part of fishes, consisting of a membrane supported by rays, or little bony or cartilaginous ossicles. The number, situation, and figure of fins, are different in different fishes. As to number, they are found from one to ten, or more; with respect to situation, they are dorsal, placed on the back; pectoral, generally situated on the side near the gills; ventral, on the belly before the vent; anal, when behind the vent; and caudal, terminating the tail; and as to figure, they are either of a triangular, roundish, or oblong square form. Add to this, that in some they are very small; whereas in others they are almost equal to the whole body in length. FINAL letters, among Hebrew grammarians, five letters so called, because they have a different figure at the end of words from what they have in any other situation. These are caph, mem, nun, phe, tzade, all comprehended in the word camnephatz; which, at the end of words, are written thus, whereas, in any other situation their form is thus, youn, on which account they are likewise called biform. FINANCES, in political economy, denote the revenue of a king or state. In former times, when the whole revenue drawn from the people, by a few taxes, was considered as the personal property of the sovereign, the purposes to which it was applied depended on his discretion, or that of his minister. As few princes were inclined, in times of peace, to provide for the extraordinary charges of a state of warfare, these were defrayed by extraordinary contributions from the people, which ceased with the occasion. Few sovereigns possessed sufficient credit, either with their own subjects or foreigners, to contract debts, so that, at the conclusion of a war, there was no occasion for a greater expenditure than before its commencement, and the revenue drawn from the people reverted to its former state. It is the system of defraying extraordinary expenses by borrowing the money, for which an annual interest must be paid, and of suffering the debts thus incurred to accumulate, by which the sum to be annually paid is continually increasing, and the expenses of every war are rendered far greater than those which preceded it, that has swelled the revenue and expen diture of most of the nations of Europe to an enormous magnitude, and caused their systems of finance to become com. plicated and oppressive. In Great Britain, where the system of running in debt, or, as it is commonly termed, the funding system, has been. carried to a greater height than in any other country, its natural attendants, enormous taxation and expenditure, have made equal progress; and it is probably owing chiefly to the publicity which is given to all matters of finance, so that every person, with little trouble, may know how all the money raised for the public service is expended, that the people have been induced to submit to taxes, which both from their nature and amount would have appeared incredible to their forefathers. The English system of finance rests on the produce of the various taxes which have been imposed at different periods, the aggregate amount of which, after deducting the expenses of collection, together with a few small articles, which cannot properly be called taxes, forms the whole of the public income: this income is annually appropriated to the several branches of the national expenditure, and when, in consequence of any extraordinary expenses, it is known that the income of the current year will be insufficient to meet all the demands upon it, it is usual to borrow the sum necessary to make up the deficiency, either from individuals or public bodies, and to allow a fixed rate of interest on the money thus obtained, till the prin cipal shall be repaid, or till the period originally agreed upon shall have expired. FINE, in law, is sometimes called a feoffment of record; or, rather, it is an acknowledgment of a feoffment on re. cord: it has at least the effect of a feoffment in conveying lands, though it is one of those conveyances at the common law, by which lands and freeholds will pass without livery or seisin. It is an amicable composition of a suit, either actual or fictitious, by leave of the King's justices, whereby the lands in question become, or are acknowledged to be, the right of one of the parties. It is now a very general mode of conveyance, by reason of its extensive and binding ef fect. There are four sorts of fines, but that most usually employed is called, fine sur conusance du droit come ceo qu'il a de son done, or a fine upon acknowledgment of the right of the cognizee, as that which he hath of the gift of the cog FIR nizor. The purposes for which fines are now levied are, to cut off estates tail, to bar the wife of her dower, and also to make purchasers more secure in their title; for by virtue of the statute 4 Henry VII. c. 24, all persons not within age, and not under disability, such as femmes coverts, persons insane, and beyond sea, are barred of their rights by a fine levied of lands, with proclamation, unless they claim within five years. The legal learning, with respect to the effect and operation and mode of levying fines, is so abstruse, that, in a general dictiona ry, it is better to consider them only, as in fact they are, a species of solemn conveyance for the barring the wife of dower when levied by her, which she is enabled to do notwithstanding coverture, or to cut off entails, &c. than to attempt an imperfect description of fines in particular. FINERY, in the iron works, one of the forges at which the iron is hammered and fashioned into what they call a bloom or square bar. See IRON. FINESSE, a French term, current in this country, and is used chiefly to denote that subtility made use of for the pur poses of deception. FINGER board, in music, that thin, black covering of wood laid over the neck of a violin, violincello, &c. on which, in performance, the strings are pressed by the fingers of the left hand, while the right manages the bow. FINGERING, in music, the art of disposing the fingers in a convenient, natural, and apt manner, in the performance of any instrument, but more especially the organ and piano-forte. One of the first things that a skilful master teaches is good-fingering, and to attain this, a pupil should spare no pains, so as to be able to give passages with articulation, accent, and expression. See FINGERS, the extreme part of the hand, divided into five members. ANATOMY. The names of the fingers, reckoning from the thumb, are, 1. Pollex, 2. Index. 3. Medius. 4. Annularis. 5. Auricularis. FINING, or Refining. See-CLARIFICATION and Refining. FINITE, something bounded or limited, in contradistinction to infinite. FIRE. The word heat has been used with so much precision by Doctors Black, Irvine, Crawford, and others, that the word fire seems to have been rendered of little use, except to denote a mass of matter in a state of combustion, which YOL. V. is, indeed, its vulgar acceptation. The which see. : FIRE, balls of, in meteorology, a kind of luminous bodies, generally appearing at a great height above the earth, with a splendour surpassing that of the moon; and sometimes equalling her apparent They generally proceed in this size. hemisphere from north to south with vast velocity, frequently breaking into several smaller ones, sometimes vanishing with a report, sometimes not. These luminous appearances no doubt constitute one part of the ancient prodigies, blazing-stars, or comets, which last they sometimes resemble in being attended with a train; but frequently they appear with a round and well defined disk. The first of these, of which we have any accurate account, was observed by Dr. Halley and some other philosophers, at different places, in the year 1719. From the slight observations they could take of its course among the stars, the perpendicular height of this body was computed at about seventy miles from the surface of the earth. The height of others has also been computed, and found to be various though in general it is supposed to be beyond the limits assigned to our atmosphere, or where it loses its refrac tive power. The most remarkable of these on record appeared on the 18th of August 1783, about 9 o'clock in the evening. It was seen to the northward of Shetland, and took a southerly direction for an immense space, being observed as far as the southern provinces of France, and one account says, that it was seen at Rome also. During its course it appeared frequently to have changed its shape; sometimes appearing in the form of one ball, sometimes of two or more; sometimes with a train, sometimes without one. It passed over Edinburgh nearly in the zenith, and had then the appearance of a well-defined round body, extremely luminous, and of a greenish colour; the light which it diffused on the ground giving likewise a greenish cast to objects. After passing the zenith it was attended by a train of considerable length, which, continually augmenting, at last obliterated the head entirely; so that it looked like a wedge flying with the obtuse end foremost. The motion was not apparently swift, by reason of its great height though in reality it must have moved with great rapidity, on account of the vast space it travelled over in a short time. In other places its appearance was very different. At Greenwich, we are told, thaf two bright balls parallel to each other led the way, the diameter of which ap peared to be about two feet; and were followed by an explosion of eight others, not elliptical, seeming gradually to mutilate, for the last was small. Between each two balls a luminous serrated body extended, and at the last a blaze issued, which terminated in a point. Minute particles diated from the whole. The balls were tinted first by a pure bright light, then followed a tender yellow, mixed with azure, red, green, &c; which, with a coalition of bolder tints, and a reflection from the other balls, gave the most beautiful rotundity and variation of colours that the human eye could be charmed with. The sudden illumination of the atmosphere, and the form and singular transition of this bright luminary, tended much to make it awful: nevertheless, the amazing vivid appearance of the different balls, and other rich connective parts not very easy to delineate, gave an effect equal to the rainbow in the full zenith of its glory. F.RE, extinguishing of. The world has long een of an opinion, that a more ready way than that in general use might be found for extinguishing fires in buildings and it has been generally attempted upon the doctrine of explosion, Za. chary Greyl was the first person who put this plan into execution with any tolerable degree of success. He contrived certain engines, easily manageable, which he proved, before some persons of the first rank, to be of sufficient efficacy, and offered to discover the secret by which they were contrived for a large premium, given either from the crown, or raised by a subscription of private persons. But the scheme meeting with no better success than things of this nature usually do, he died without making the discovery. Two years after this, the person who had his papers found the method, and it was shown before the King of PoJand and a great concourse of nobility at Dresden, and the secret purchased at a very considerable price. Afterwards, the same person carried the invention to Paris, and many other places, and practised it every where with success. The secret was this: A wooden vessel was provided, holding a very considerable quantity of water: in the centre of this was fixed a case made of iron plates, and filled with gun-powder; from this vessel to the head of the larger vessels containing the water, there was conveyed a tube or pipe, which might convey the fire very readily through the water to the gunpowder contained in the inner vessel. This tube was filled with a preparation easily taking fire, and quickly burning away; and the manner of using the thing was, to convey it into the room or build. ing where the fire was, with the powder in the tube lighted. The consequence of this was, that the powder in the inner case soon took fire, and with a great explosion burst the vessel to pieces, and dispersed the water every way: thus was the fire put out in an instant, though the room was flaming before in all parts at once. The advantage of this invention was, that, at a small expense, and with the help of a few people, a fire in its beginning might be extinguished; but the thing was not so general as it was at first expected that it would prove, for though of certain efficacy in a chamber or close building, where a fire had but newly begun, yet when the mischief has increased so far that the house was fallen in, or the top open, the machine had no effect. FIRE in chimneys, method of extinguish ing. It is well known, that the inner parts of chimneys easily take fire; the soot that kindles therein emits a greater flame, according as the tunnel is more elevated, because the current of air feeds the fire. If this current could therefore be suppressed, the fire would soon be extinguished. In order to this, some discharge a pistol into the chimney, which produces no effect. Water thrown into the chimney at the top is equally useless, because it comes down through the midIt would be more advisable to stop, with dle of the tunnel, and not along the sides. a wet blanket, the upper orifice of the tunnel; but the surest and readiest method is, to apply the blanket either to the throat of the chimney, or over the whole front of the fire-place. If there happens to be a chimney-board or a register, nothing can be so effectual as to apply them immediately; and having by that means stopped the draught of air from below, the burning soot will be put out as readily and as completely as a candle is put out by an extinguisher, which acts exactly upon the same principle. Mr. Smart's machine for sweeping chimneys is admirably adapted to extinguish those that are on fire. See CHIMNEY-sweeping. FIRE, securing buildings against. Dr. Hales proposes to check the progress of fires by covering the floors of the adjoin |