Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

In these several funds, but particularly in the Consolidated 3 per Cents, which is by far the greatest in amount, much business is transacted daily, both at the Bank and at the Stock Exchange, a building erected expressly for the buyers and sellers of the public funds to assemble in. Persons having occasion to invest money in the funds usually employ a broker, who finds a seller of the stock wanted, and, having agreed upon the price, delivers the particulars of the transfer to be made to a clerk in the proper office at the Bank, and fills up a receipt, to be signed by the seller, for the money paid. The transaction is completed in a short time, with very little trouble to the parties, and this facility of buying into or selling out of the funds induces many persons to lay out their money therein, in preference to all other securities. The transfer from the seller to the buyer is made free of all expense to the parties, on all the government funds; but transfers of the funds of any company or society are liable to a duty. Transfers are made at the Bank between the hours of eleven and one

o'clock; but may be made till three o'clock, on payment of a small fee to the clerks.

Besides the business which arises from the continual sale and purchase of property in the funds, a species of gambling has been engrafted on the fluctuations of their current price, commonly termed stock-jobbing. This consists principally in'making contracts for stock, to be fulfil led some weeks or months after, without any payment or transfer being made at the time, and generally without an intention of any transfer of stock being made at all; the object of the transaction being merely to pay or receive the difference between the current price of stock at the time of making the bargain, and the price it may be at on the day fixed for settling the account. Bargains of this nature are expressly declared by an act of 7 and 8 Geo. II. to be null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever, and persons concerned in them are in some cases liable to a heavy penalty; instances therefore frequently occur, in which persons who have entered into large speculations

[ocr errors]

in the funds, for time, refuse to fulfil their engagements, in which case those who have trusted them have no legal remedy whatever, the settlement of debts thus incurred resting, like all debts incurred by other kind of gaming, entirely on the honour of the party.

The dividends on the public funds were long expressly exempted from all taxes, charges, and impositions, whatsoever; they have, however, in common with all other descriptions of income, been lately made subject to the property tax. See STOCKS.

FUNERAL expenses, in law, are allow. ed previous to all other debts and charges; but if the executor or administrator be extravagant, it is a species of devastation or waste of the substance of the deceased, and shall only be prejudicial to himself, and not to the creditors or legatees of the deceased. But, in strictness, no funeral expenses are allowable against a creditor, except for the shroud, coffin, ringing the bell, parson, clerk, grave-digger, and bearer's tees, but not for pall or ornaments. FUNGUS, in surgery, denotes any spongy excrescence.

FUNGI, mushrooms.

The name of one of the seven families, or tribes, into which all vegetables are divided by Linnæus in his "Philosophia Botanica." In the sexual system they constitute the fourth order of the class Cryptogainia. It is the name also of the fifty-eight order of the "Fragments." These plants are rarely branched, sometimes creep, but are most commonly erect. Such as are furnished with branches have them of a light spongy substance like cork. Mushrooms differ from the fuci, in that those, which, like the fuci, have their seeds contained in capsules, are not branched as that numerous class of sea-weed is. The greatest part of mushrooms have no root; some, in their stead, have a number of fibres, which, by their inosculations, frequently form a net with unequal meshes, some of which produce plants similar to their parent vegetable. The stamina in these plants are still undetermined. The seeds are either spread over the surface of the plant, or placed in cavities which are open, and resemble the open capsules of some of the fuci. In mushrooms which are branched, the seeds are frequently visible by the naked eye, and always to be distinctly observed with the assistance of a good microscope. See AGARIC, &c.

These plants, particularly the powder of the lycoperdon, puff-ball, mixed into a

paste with white of egg, are very astringent, and of familiar use for stopping violent hæmorrhages. As a vegetable food, they are, at best, suspicious. Several fungi are rank poison. Agaric is on excres cence found upon the trunks and large branches of several trees, but chiefly upon the larch, and some oaks. It is of two sorts, the male and female; the former is yellow, hard, and woody, and used for dyeing black; the latter is covered with a yellow bark, and white within: it tastes sweet at first, but becomes bitter after being held a short time in the mouth. This is the sort used in medicine.

FUR, or FURR, in commerce. FURR.

See

FURIA, in natural history, a genus of the Vermes Intestina class and order, having a body linear, equal, filiform, and ciliate, each side with a single row of reflected prickles pressed close to the body: one species only is mentioned by Gmelin, viz. the F. infernalis, which inhabits the vast marshy plains of Bothnia and Finland, where it crawls up shrubs and sedge-grass, and being carried forwards by the wind, penetrates suddenly into the exposed parts of men and cattle, where it quickly buries itself under the skin, leaving a black point where it had entered, which is frequently succeeded by excruciating pains, inflammation, and even death. This fatal termination takes no length of time, a few hours, or a day, being sufficient for the whole process, unless the animal be almost instantly extracted by means of the knife or a milk poultice.

FURLING, in the sea language, signifies the wrapping up, and binding any sail close to the yard; which is done by hauling upon the clew-lines,buntlines, &c. which wraps the sail close together, and being bound fast to the yard, the sail is furled.

FURLING lines, on ship board, small lines made fast to the top-sail, top-gallantsail, and mizen-yard-arins, to furl up the sails by.

FURLONG, a long measure, equal to one-eighth of a mile, or forty poles. It is also used, in some law-books, for the eighth-part of an acre.

FURNACES. See LABORATORY.

FURR, in commerce, signifies the skin of several wild beasts, dressed in alum with the hair on, and used as part of dress, by magistrates and others. The kinds mostly made use of are, those of the ermine, sable, castor, hare, rabbit, &c. It was not till the later ages that the furs

FUS

of beasts became an article of luxury. The more refined nations of ancient times never used them; those alone who were stigmatized as barbarians were clothed in the skins of animals. During Captain Cook's last voyage to the Pacific Ocean, besides various advantages derived from it, as enlarging the boundaries of science, a new source of wealth was laid open, in the exchange of European commodities for furs of the most valuable and important kind on the north west of America. Previously to this, a similar trade had been carried on, though on a much narrower scale, in Canada. It was begun by the French almost two centuries back, and in time Montreal was the grand mart of this species of commerce. The number of Indians who resorted thither increased, as the name of the Europeans was more known. Whenever the natives returned with a new supply of furs, they usually brought with them a new and more distant tribe; thus a kind of market or fair was opened, to which the several Indian nations of the new continent resorted. Our own countrymen were not long easy without sharing in this trade, and the colony at New-York soon found means to divert the stream of this great circulation. The Hudson's bay trade, carried on by a company designated as the Hudson's Bay Company, was at one time almost the only trade in this article from Great Britain; there have, however, been other persons of late years engaged in it. About twenty years ago a commercial establishment of this kind was formed, under the title of the North-West Company. It was an association of about twenty persons, agreeing among themselves to carry on the fur trade.

Their capital was divided into twenty shares; of these a certain proportion was held by the people who managed the business in Canada, who were styled agents, and paid as such, independently of the profits of the trade. The articles manufactured here that are used in this traffic are, coarse woollen cloths of different kinds, blankets, arms, and ammunition, Manchester goods, all kinds of the coarser hardware, cotton, hats, and stockings.

FURRS, in heraldry, a bearing which represents the skins of certain beasts, used as well in the doubling of the mantles belonging to coat-armour, as in the coat-armours themselves. See ERMIN, ERMINOIS, &c.

FUSANUS, in botany, a genus of the Polygamia Monoecia class and order. Natural order of Elæagni, Jussieu. Essen

tial character: hermaphrodite; calyx five-cleft; corolla none; stamens four; germ inferior; stigmas four; drupe: male, calyx, &c. of the former; fruit abortive. Only one species.

FUSEE, in clock work, is that conical part drawn by the spring, and about which the chain or string is wound; for the use of which, see CLOCK and WATCH.

FUSIL, in heraldry, a bearing of a rhomboidal figure, longer than the lozenge, and having its upper and lower angles more acute and sharp than the other two in the middle. It is called in Latin fucus, a spindle, from its shape.

FUSILIERS, in military affairs, are soldiers armed like the rest of the infantry, only with shorter and lighter muskets than those of the battalion and grenadiers. They wear caps, which are somewhat less in point of height than common grenadier caps. There are three regiments in the English service.

FUSION, in chemistry, the application of heat to produce the dense fluid state in bodies. See CALORIC, CHEMISTRY, GLASS, HEAT, LABORATORY.

FUSTIAN, in commerce, a kind of cotton stuff, which seems as it were whaled on one side. Right fustians should be altogether made of cotton yarn, both woof and warp; but a great many are made, of which the warp is flax, or even hemp. There are fustains made of several kinds, wide, narrow, fine, coarse; with shag or nap, and without it.

FUSTICK, in the arts, is the wood of the morus tinctoria, a tree that grows to a considerable size in the West Indies. It is much used in dyeing yellow, and produces a large quantity of colouring matter. It is not very hard, and its colour is yellow, with orange veins. From a decoction, acids throw down a slight greenish yellow precipitate, which is redissolved by alkalies. Alum throws down a scanty yellow precipitate; the sulphates of iron and copper throw down yellow and brown precipitates; acetate of lead, an orange precipitate; and muriate of tin, avery copious fine yellow precipitate.

FUTTOCKS, in a ship, the timbers raised over the keel, or the encompassing timbers that make her breadth. Of these there are, the first, second, third, and fourth, denominated according to their distance from the keel, those next it being called first or ground futtocks, and the others upper futtocks: those timbers being put together make a framebend.

G.

G, In grammar, the seventh letter and branches internes maten of doin

fifth consonant of our alphabet; but in the Greek, and all the Oriental languages, it occupies the third place. It is one of the mutes, and cannot be sounded without the assistance of some vowel. Its sound is formed by shutting the teeth gently together, so as scarce to touch, by a small incurvation of the sides of the tongue upwards, with the top touching the palate, at the same time that the breath is pretty strongly pressed through the lips a little opened.

In English it has a hard and soft sound; hard, as in the word game, gun, &c. ; and soft, as in the word gesture, giant, &c.; at the end of words gh are pronounced like ff, as in the words rough, tough, &c The letter g is also used in many words where the sound is not perceived, as in sign, reign, &c.

As a numeral, G was anciently used to denote 400; and with a dash over it, thus, G,400,000. In music it is the character or mark of the treble cleff; and from its being placed at the head, or marking the first sound in Guido's scale, the whole scale took the name gamut.

GABEL, a word met with in old records, signifying a tax, rent, custom, or service, paid to the king, or other lord.

GABEL, according to the French duties or customs, a tax upon salt, which makes the second article in the king's revenue, and amounts to about one-fourth part of the whole revenue of the kingdom.

GABION, in fortification, is a kind of basket, made of osier-twigs, of a cylindrical form, having different dimensions, according to what purpose it is used for. Some gabions are five or six feet high, and three feet in diameter: these serve in sieges to carry on the approaches under cover, when they come pretty near the fortification. Those used in field-works are three or four feet high, and two and a half or three feet diameter. There are also gabions about one foot high, 12 inches diameter at top, and from eight to ten at bottom, which are placed along the top of the parapet, to cover the troops in firing over it; they are filled with earth. In order to make them, some picquets, three or four feet long, are stuck into the ground, in form of a circle, and of a proper diameter, wattled together with small

fences. made of gabions.

GAD, among miners, a small punch of iron, with a long wooden handle, used to break up the ore.

One of the miners holds this in his hand, directing the point to a proper place, while the other drives it into the vein by striking it with a sledge hammer.

GAD fly, or BREEZE fly, names given to a species of Estrus. See ŒESTRUS.

GADUS, the cod, in natural history, a genus of fishes of the order Jugulares. Generic character: the head smooth; gill membrane, seven-rayed; body oblong, covered with deciduous scales; fins all covered by the common skin; more than one dorsal fin, of which the rays are unarmed; ventral fins slender and ending in a point. There are twenty-three spesies, of which we shall notice those which follow:

G. morhua, or the common cod, inhabits the northern seas, both of Europe and America, in innumerable shoals, and constitutes an important article of human subsistence. Its general length is from two or three feet, and its common weight from fourteen to thirty pounds. It has occasionally however been known to weigh upwards of seventy. Its food consists of small fish, worms, crabs, and other testaceous fishes, and its voracity is extraordinary. It is prolific in the extreme, 'no less than a million of eggs having been counted in a single roe. Its sound, or air-bladder, is preserved with salt, and consider ed as a luxury; it is also converted into a sort of isinglass, in preparing which the inhabitants of Iceland are particularly skilful. Off the coasts of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and New England, and, more especially, on the great sand-bank off Newfoundland, this fish is found in inexhaustible abundance; the neighbourhood of the Polar Seas, where they return to deposit their spawn, and the immense number of worms to be found in these sandy bottoms, being the grand inducements to their preference of these situations. They are abundant also on the southern and western coasts of Iceland, but proceed towards the south only in very diminished numbers, and are rarely seen in that direction beyond the Straights

of Gibraltar. Before the discovery of Newfoundland, in 1496, Iceland was the principal scene for the cod fishery, which was speedily after that event transferred to Newfoundland, where it is conducted to such an extent, merely by the hook, baited with the herring and other small fishes, as to furnish employment for fifteen thousand British seamen, and to a more numerous portion of population at home, occupied on the various articles of manufacture, indispensible for a concern of such vast extent and importance.

C. aeglefinus, or the haddock, is distinguished from every other species by its forked tail, and by having the lower jaw longer than the upper. These fishes abound in the northern seas, and are found at particular seasons on particular coasts, to which they approach in shoals of several miles in length. On the coasts of Yorkshire they are particularly abundant in the season, which has been known to commence on the same day of the month in two successive years.

Three men will not unfrequently, during the continuance of these fishes on the coast, take three tons of them in a day : and they have been often sold to the poor for the low price of a half-penny a score. In stormy weather the haddock shelters itself in the mud at the bottom. Its general length is eighteen inches, and weight two pounds and a half.

G. merlangus, or the whiting, is, generally, about twelve inches long, and is elegantly formed. It abounds in the north ern seas, and is found in some parts of the Mediterranean. In the spring, whitings are caught on the British coasts in immense abundance, and they are consider ed by many as preferable for the table to every other species of the cod genus. Their favourite food consists of sprats and herrings.

G. pollachius, or the pollack, is found in the Baltic and Northern Seas, and on the coast of England also, in vast shoals, during the summer, at which time these fishes are so prone to catch at any thing on the surface of the water, that they may be caught only with a hook and feather. In the most boisterous and tempestuous weather they are strong enough to keep their situation, and resist the impetuosity of the waves. Their general weight is from two to four pounds.

G. merluccius, or the hake, is usually from one to two feet in length. It is found in the Mediterraneam and Northern seas, and abounds on the English coast, VOL. V.

and still more on that of Ireland; and to the poor of these countries is a considerable article of food. Being, however, a coarse fish, it is rarely seen at the tables of the opulent. They feed principally on the mackrel and herring. On the coasts of Brittany an extensive hake fishery is carried on, and almost always by night. On the coast of Waterford six men would, in the course of a single night, take a thousand of these fishes with a rod and line.

G. molva, or the ling (a word implying length) is generally from three to four feet in length, and has, occasionally, been seen of seven. These fishes are found in the depths of the Northern Seas, and constitute a considerable article of merchandize in Great Britain itself. Great numbers are salted and preserved for home consumption, as well as for exportation, for the last of which it is required by statute, that in order to any persons being entitled to the bounty on sending them abroad, they should measure twenty-two inches exclusively of the head. During their continuance in season, their liver is white and oily, but as they decline, these qualities proportionably diminish, and at length totally disappear.

G. lota, or the burbot, is to be met with in various parts, both of Europe and Asia, frequenting clear streams and lakes. In the Trent and Witham rivers, and in the fens of Lincolnshire, it is also highly abundant. Its food consists of almost all the smaller fishes, and also of worms and frogs. Its general weight is between two and three pounds, and it is regarded as excellent for the table. Its liver is particularly celebrated, as furnishing the most luxurious banquet.

GADOLINITE, in mineralogy, a metallic fossil, first discovered by Dr. Gadolin, from whom it is named; it is also called yttria from Ytterby, where it is found; its colour is black, passing into brownish black; it occurs massive, is shining, and its lustre is vitreous; fracture conchoidal; it is hard, scratches quartz slightly, is opaque, brittle, and of a specific gravity 4.05; it attracts the magnetic needles When pulverized and heated with dilute nitric acid, it is converted into a yellowish-grey thick jelly. It decrepitates before the blow pipe, assumes a redish white colour, and remains unfused if the fragments are not very minute; with borax it is converted into a yellow-coloured glass. A new earth, to which the name of yttria has been given, has been discovered in it; according to Vauquelin it consists of Ij

« PreviousContinue »