lemons in a glass phial, and, mixing it with sugar and borax finely powdered, let it digest eight days, and then use it. Homberg proposes bullock's gall mixed with alum, and, after the alum has precipitated, exposed three or four months to the sun in a close phial, as one of the best menstrua for removing freckles.

FREDUM. In Antiquity, a composition made by a criminal to be freed from prosecution, a third part of which was paid into the fiscus or exchequer; or it was the price paid to the magistrate for protection against the violences of resentment. In some extraordinary cases, where it was more difficult to protect the person who had committed violence, the fredum was augmented.

FREEHOLD. That land or tenement which a man holds in fee simple, fee tail, or for term of life.

FREEMAN. In ancient Law, in England, one free from servitude, as distinguished from a villain or bondsman; also one who enjoys the freedom of a city or burrough. A freeman in the United States, is one who has a right to vote.

| Although cold, in general, contracts most bodies, and heat expands them, yet there are some instances to the contrary, especially in the extreme cases or states of these qualities of bodies. Thus, though iron, in common with other bodies, expands with heat, yet, when melted, it is always found to expand in cooling again. Thus also, though water expands gradually as it is heated, and contracts as it cools, yet in the act of freezing it suddenly expands again, and that with an enormous force, capable of rending rocks, or bursting the very thick shells of metal, &c. A computation of the force of freezing water was made by the Florentine Academicians, from the bursting of a very strong brass globe or shell by freezing water in it; when, from the known thickness and tenacity of the metal, it was found that the expansive power of a spherule of water, only one inch in diameter, was sufficient to overcome a resistance of more than twenty-seven thousand pounds, or thirteen tons, and a half. Such a prodigious power of expansion, almost double that of the most powerful steam-engines, and exerted in so small a mass, seemingly by the force of cold, was thought a very material argument in favor of those who supposed that cold, like heat, is a positive substance.

Dr. Black's discovery of latent heat, however, has afforded an easy and natural explication of this phenomenon. He has shown that, in the act of congelation, water is not cooled more than it was before, but rather grows warmer: that as much heat is discharged and passes from a latent to a sensible state, as, had it been applied to water in its fluid state, would have heated it to one hundred and thirty-five degrees. In this process, the expansion is occasioned by a great number of minute bubbles suddenly produced. Formerly these were supposed to be cold in the abstract; and to be so subtile, that insinuating themselves into the substance of the fluid, they augmented its bulk, at the same time that, by impeding the motion of its particles upon each other, they changed it from a fluid

FREEZING. In Philosophy, the same with congelation. Freezing may be defined the fixing a fluid body into a solid mass, by the action of cold. Water and some other fluids suddenly dilate and expand in the act of freezing, so as to occupy a greater space in the solid than in the liquid state: in consequence of which ice is specifically lighter than water, and floats upon it. Water also loses of its weight by freezing, being found lighter after it is thawed than before it was frozen. And it even evaporates nearly as fast while frozen, as while it is fluid. Water which has been boiled freezes more readily than that which has not been boiled; and a slight disturbance of the fluid disposes it to freeze more speedily; having sometimes been cooled several degrees below the freezing point, without to a solid. But Dr. Black shows, that these are congealing when kept quite still, but suddenly only air extricated during the congelation; and to freezing into ice on the least motion or disturbance. the extrication of this air he ascribes the prodigious Water, covered over with a surface of oil of olives, expansive force exerted by freezing water. The does not freeze so readily as without it; and nut only question, therefore, is, by what means this air oil absolutely preserves it under a strong frost, comes to be extricated, and to take up more room when olive oil would not. Rectified spirit of wine, than it naturally does in the fluid? To this it may nut oil, and oil of turpentine, seldom freeze. The be answered, that perhaps part of the heat, which surface of water, in freezing, appears all wrinkled; is discharged from the freezing water, combines the wrinkles being sometimes in parallel lines, and with the air in its unelastic state, and, by restoring sometimes like rays, proceeding from a centre to its elasticity, gives it that extraordinary force; as is the circumference. Fluids standing in a current seen also in the case of air suddenly extricated in of air grow much colder than before. Fahrenheit the explosion of gunpowder. The degree of exhad long ago observed, that a pond, which stands quite calm, often acquire a degree of cold much beyond what is sufficient for freezing, and yet no congelation ensued; but if a slight breath of air happens in such a case to brush over the surface 'If a vessel of water,' says Mr. Cavendish, of the water, it freezes the whole in an instant. It'with a thermometer in it, be exposed to the cold, has also been discovered, that all substances grow the thermometer will sink several degrees below colder by the evaporation of the fluids which they contain, or with which they are mixed. If both these methods, therefore, be practised upon the same body at the same time, they will increase the cold to almost any degree of intenseness we please.

pansion of water, in the state of ice, is by some authors computed at about one-tenth of its volume. Oil and quicksilver shrink and contract after freezing.

the freezing point, especially if the water be covered up so as to be defended from the wind, and care taken not to agitate it; and then on dropping in a bit of ice, or on mere agitation, spicule of ice shoot suddenly through the water, and the enclosed thermometer rises quickly to the freezing point, where

FREIGHT. In Commerce, the sum of money agreed to be paid for the burden of a ship; also the burden itself, or the cargo of a ship.

it remains stationary.' In a note, he adds, that though, in conformity to the common opinion, he has allowed that mere agitation may set the water a freezing, yet some experiments made by Dr. Blagden seem to show, that it has not much, if any, FRENCH-HORN. A musical instrument, bent effect of that kind, otherwise than by bringing the into a circle, and going two or three times round. water in contact with some substance colder than It grows gradually larger and wider towards the itself. Though in general also the ice shoots rap-end, and in some horns is nine or ten inches over. idly, and the enclosed thermometer is raised very quickly ; yet he once observed it to rise very slowly, taking up not less than half a minute, before it ascended to the freezing point; but in this experiment the water was cooled not more than one or two degrees below freezing; and it should seem, that the more the water is cooled below the freezing point, the more rapidly the ice shoots and the enclosed thermometer rises.'

6

FRESCO PAINTING. Is a peculiar mode of practice in that art, and is performed by employing colors mixed and ground with water upon a stucco, or plaster, sufficiently fresh and wet to imbibe and embody the colors with itself. The term fresco, as applied to painting, is said to have been adopted because the practice of it is used in the open air; 'Andare al Fresco,' signifying to take the air,' or Mr. Cavendish then observes, that from the walk abroad in the air:' but it seems more probforegoing experiments we learn, that water is ca- able that another meaning of the word fresco has pable of being cooled considerably below the given rise to this particular adoption of it, viz. new freezing point, without any congelation taking or fresh, relative to the state of the plaster in which place; and that, as soon as by any means a small it is wrought. It is very ancient, having been part of it is made to freeze, the ice spreads rapidly practised in the earliest ages of Greece and Rome. through the whole of the water. The cause of this rise of the thermometer is, that all or almost all bodies, by changing from a fluid to a solid state, or from the state of an elastic to that of an unelastic fluid, generate heat; and that cold is produced by the contrary process. Thus all the circumstances of the phenomenon may be perfectly well explained; for, as soon as any part of the water freezes, heat will be generated thereby, in consequence of the above-mentioned law, so that the newly formed ice and remaining water will be warmed, and must continue to receive heat by the freezing of fresh portions of water, till it is heated exactly to the freezing point, unless the water could become quite solid before a sufficient quantity of heat was generated to raise it to that point, which is not the case; and it is evident, that it cannot be heated above the freezing point; for as soon as it come thereto, no more water will freeze, and consequently no more heat will be generated.

The reason why the ice spreads all over the water, instead of forming a solid lump in one point, is, that, as soon as any small portion of ice is formed, the water in contact with it will be so much warmed as to be prevented from freezing, but the water at a little distance from it will still be below the freezing point, and will consequently begin to freeze. Were it not for this generation of heat, the whole of any quantity of water would freeze as soon as the process of congelation began; and in like manner the cold is generated by the melting of ice; which is the cause of the long time required to thaw ice and snow. It was formerly found that, by adding suow to warm water, and stirring it about until all was melted, the water was as much cooled as it would have been by the addition of the same quantity of water rather more than one hundred and fifty degrees colder than the snow; or, in other words, somewhat more than one hundred and fifty degrees of cold are generated by the thawing of the snow; and there is great reason to believe that just as much heat is produced by the freezing of water. The cold generated in the experiment just mentioned was the same whether ice or snow was used.'

FRICTION. In a general sense, the act of rubbing or grating the surface of one body against that of another, called also attrition. The phenomena arising upon the friction of divers bodies under different circumstances, are very numerous and considerable. Mr. Hawksbee gives us a number of experiments of this kind; particularly of the attrition, or friction of glass, under various circumstances, the result of which was, that it yielded light, and became electrical.

All bodies by friction are brought to conceive heat; many of them to emit light; particularly a cat's back, sugar, beaten sulphur, mercury, seawater, gold, copper, &c., but, above all, diamonds; which, when briskly rubbed against glass, gold, or the like, yield a light equal to that of a live coal when blowed by the bellows.

FRICTION IN MECHANICS. Denotes the resistance a moving body meets with from the surface on which it moves. Friction arises from the roughness or asperity of the surface of the body moved on, and that of the body moving; for such surfaces consisting alternately of eminences and cavities, either the eminences of the one must be raised over those of the other, or they must be both broke and worn off; but neither can happen without motion, nor can motion be produced without a force impressed. Hence, the force applied to move the body is either wholly, or partly spent, on this effect; and consequently there arises a resistance, or friction, which will be greater, other things being equal, as the eminences are the greater, and the substance the harder; and as the body, by continual friction, becomes more and more polished, the friction diminishes.

Hence it follows, that the surfaces of the parts of machines that touch each other should be as smooth and as polished as possible. However, it is found by experience, that the flat surfaces of metals, or other bodies, may be so far polished as to increase friction; because the attraction of cohesion becomes sensible, as we bring the surfaces of bodies nearer and nearer to contact. But, as no

body can be so much polished, as quite to take | rheumatism, stimulant applications are used, as away all inequality; witness those numerous ridges hartshorn and oil, camphorated oil, turpentine, oil discovered by the microscope on the smoothest of amber, or cajeput oil. In swellings of the glands, surfaces; hence arises the necessity of anointing or in the thickening of the cellular substance which the parts that touch, with oil, or soine other fatty

matter.

remains after an abscess, gentle rubbing with oily matters contributes to discuss them. In cedema or watery swelling of the limbs, rubbing with the hand in the direction of the returning veins and lymphatics assists their action. In white swelling of the knee-joint, a cure has been accomplished by rubbing, alone. It must be vigorous and long-continued; and in some towns, persons gain a livelihood by undertaking this operation. A little flour is put in the palms of the hands, and the rubbing is continued for an hour or two at a time. Medicines are introduced into the system by friction, of which we have a frequent example in the rubbing in of mercury in the form of blue ointment.

Mr. Emerson, in his Principles of Mechanics, deduces from experiments the following remarks relating to the quantity of friction: when a cubic piece of soft wood of eight pounds' weight moves upon a smooth plane of soft wood, at the rate of three feet per second, its friction is about one third of the weight; but if it be rough, the friction is little less than half the weight on the same supposition, when both the pieces of wood are very smooth, the friction is about one-fourth of the weight; the friction of soft wood on hard, or of hard wood upon soft, is one-fifth or one half of the weight; of hard wood upon hard wood one-seventh or one-eighth; of polished steel moving on steel FRIGATE. A ship of war, of a size larger or pewter, one-fourth; moving on copper or lead, than a sloop or brig, and less than a ship of the one-fifth of the weight. He observes in general, line; usually having two decks and carrying from that metals of the same sort have more friction thirty to forty-four guns. But ships mounting a than those of different sorts: that lead makes much less number than thirty guns are sometimes called resistance; that iron or steel running in brass makes frigates; as are ships carrying a larger number. the least friction of any; and that metals oiled make the friction less than when polished, and twice as FRIGATOON. A Venetian vessel, commonly little as when unpolished. Desaguliers observes used in the Adriatic sea, with a square stern, and that, in Mons. Camus's experiments on small mod-carrying only a mainmast, mizzen, and bowsprit. els of sledges in actual motion, there are more cases wherein the friction is less than where it is more than one-third of the weight.

ordered to be led to execution, but with private orders to be reprieved on the scaffold, have expired at the block without a wound.

FRIGHT, or TERROR. Sudden fear is frequently productive of very remarkable effects upon As it appears from the experiments of Ferguson the human system. Of this many instances occur and Coulomb, that the least friction is generated in medical writings. In general the effects of terwhen polished iron moves upon brass, the gudgeons ror are a contraction of the small vessels and a and pivots of wheels, and the axles of friction- repulsion of the blood in the large and internal rollers, should all be made of polished iron, and ones: hence proceed general oppression, trembling, the bushes in which these gudgeons move, and the and irregularity in the motions of the heart; while friction-wheels, should be formed of polished brass. the lungs are also overcharged with blood. Frights When every mechanical contrivance has been often occasion incurable diseases, as epilepsy, stuadopted for diminishing the obstruction which arises por, madness, &c. We have also accounts of perfrom the attrition of the communicating parts, it sons absolutely killed by terror, when in perfect may be still farther removed by the judicious ap-health at the time of receiving the shock. Persons plication of unguents. The most proper for this purpose are swine's grease and tallow, when the surfaces are made of wood, and oil when they are of metal. When the force with which the surfaces are pressed together is very great, tallow will diminish the friction more than swine's grease. When the wooden surfaces are very small, unguents will lessen their friction a little, but it will be greatly diminished if wood moves upon metal greased with tallow. If the velocities, however, are increased, or the unguent not often enough renewed, in both these cases, but particularly in the This event so sudden, and so dreadful in its conlast, the unguent will be more injurious than useful. sequences, struck him in such a manner, that givThe best mode of applying it, is to cover the rub-ing a loud cry, he became altogether stupid and bing surfaces with as thin a stratum as possible, for insensible, and was seized without the least resistthe friction will then be a constant quantity, and ance. They carried him away to Glocau, where will not be increased by an augmentation of ve- he was brought before the council of war, and relocity. ceived sentence as a deserter. He suffered himself to be led and disposed of, at the will of those FRICTION IN MEDICAL SCIENCE. It is about him, without uttering a word, or giving the useful, in many cases, to rub diseased parts of the least sign that he knew what had happened or body with the hand or with the flesh-brush. would happen to him. He remained immovable Sometimes liniments or embrocations rubbed upon as a statue wherever he was placed, and was wholly such parts; sometimes nothing is interposed be-passive with respect to all that was done to him or tween the hand and the skin. In palsy and in about him. During all the time that he was in

Out of many instances of the fatal effects of fear, the following is selected as one of the most singular:-George Grochantzy, a Polander, who had enlisted as a soldier in the service of the king of Prussia, deserted during the war. A small party was sent in pursuit of him, and, when he least expected it, surprised him singing and dancing among a company of peasants in an inn.

custody, he neither eat, nor drank, nor slept, nor there are evils which we ought to fear. Those had any evacuation. Some of his comrades were that arise from ourselves, or which it is in our sent to see him; after that he was visited by some power to prevent, it would be madness to despise, officers of his corps, and by some priests; but he and audacity not to guard against. External evils, still continued in the same state, without discover- which we cannot prevent, or could not avoid withing the least signs of sensibility. Promises, en- out a breach of duty, it is manly and honorable to treaties, and threatenings, were equally ineffectual. bear with fortitude. Insensibility to danger is not It was at first suspected, that those appearances fortitude any more than the incapacity of feeling were feigned; but these suspicions gave way, when pain can be called patience; and to expose ourselves it was known that he took no sustenance, and that unnecessarily to evil is worse than folly, and very the involuntary functions of nature were in a great blamable presumption. measure suspended. The physicians concluded that he was in a state of hopeless idocy; and after some time they knocked off his fetters, and left him at liberty to go whither he would. He received his liberty with the same insensibility that he had shown upon other occasions; he remained fixed and immovable; his eyes turned wildly here and there without taking cognisance of any object, and the muscles of his face were fallen and fixed like those of a dead body. He passed nineteen days in this condition, without eating or any evacuation, and died on the twentieth day. He had been sometimes heard to fetch deep sighs; and once he rushed with great violence on a soldier, who had a mug of liquor in his hand, forced the mug from him, and having drunk the liquor with great eagerness let the mug drop to the ground.

FRIGID, FRIGIDUS. Cold. Is variously used. A frigid style, is a low, jejune manner of diction; wanting force, warmth of imagination, figures of speech, &c. This, and the bombast, are the two chief faults opposite to the sublime. The frigid consists in degrading an object, or sentiment, which is sublime in itself, by our mean conception of it, or by our weak, low, and childish description of it; this betrays entire absence, or at least great poverty of genius. Of this there are numerous examples commented upon with much humor, in the treatise on the Art of Sinking, in Dean Swift's works; the instances being taken chiefly from Sir Richard Blackmore. The bombast lies, in forcing an ordinary or trivial subject out of its rank, and endeavoring to raise it into the sublime; or in attempting to exalt a sublime object beyond all natural and reasonable bounds. Writers of genius may sometimes fall into this error, which is too common, by unluckily losing sight of the true point of the sublime. This is also called fustian, or rant.

FRIGID ZONES. The two zones or divisions of the earth, comprehended between the poles and the polar circles. They are the north frigid zone, at the north pole, and the south frigid zone, at the south pole.

FRINGILLA. In Ornithology, a comprehensive genus of birds, of the order of the passeres, with the beak of a conic, sharp-pointed figure, the two chaps of which mutually receive each other. To this genus belong the goldfinch, the chaffinch, greenfinch, yellow-hammer, Canary-bird, linnet, sparrow, &c.

Yet frights have been known to cure, as well as to cause diseases. Mr. Boyle mentions agues, gout, and sciatica thus cured. Among the ludicrous effects of fear, the following instance, quoted from a French author, shows upon what slight occasions this passion may be sometimes excited in a very high degree. When Charles Gustavus was besieging Prague, a boor of most extraordinary visage desired admittance to his tent; and, being allowed entrance, offered, by way of amusing the king, to devour a whole hog of one hundred pounds' weight in his presence. The old general, Konigsmark, who stood by the king's side, and who, soldier as he was, had not got rid of the prejudices of his childhood, hinted to his royal master that the peasant ought to be burnt as a sorcerer. 'Sir,' said the fellow, irritated at the remark, if your majesty will but make that old gentleman take off his sword and his spurs, I will eat him immediately before I begin the hog.' Konigsmark (who had, The Canary-bird was originally brought from at the head of a body of Swedes, performed won- the Canary islands; first known in Europe about ders against the Austrians, and who was looked the end of the fifteenth century; and not bred in upon as one of the bravest men of the age) could that part of the world till about the middle of the not stand this proposal, especially as it was accom- seventeenth. Their naturalization appears to have panied by a most hideous and preternatural expan-originated in accident. A vessel which was carrysion of the frightful peasant's jaws. Without ut-ing, among other commodities, a number of these tering a word, the veteran suddenly turned round, ran out of the court, and thought not himself safe until he had arrived at his quarters; where he remained above twenty-four hours locked up securely, before he had got rid of the panic which had so severely affected him.

The ingenious Dr. Beattie observes, in his Elements of Moral Science, that fear should not rise higher than to make us attentive and cautious; when it gains an ascendancy in the mind it becomes an insupportable tyranny, and renders life a burden. The object of fear is evil; and to be exempt from fear, or at least not enslaved to it, gives dignity to our nature, and invigorates all our faculties. Yet

It

birds to Leghorn, was wrecked on the coast of Italy; and being thus set at liberty, they flew to the nearest land, which was the island of Elba, where they found the climate so favorable, that they multiplied, and would probably have become domesticated, had they not been caught in snares. seems that the breed, thus introduced, has long been lost. Various treatises, says Professor Beckmann, have been published, on the manner of rearing these birds; and many people have made it a gainful trade. The natives of the Tyrol have been peculiarly industrious in this profession. At Ymst, there is a company, which, after the breeding season is over, send out persons to different parts of

Germany and Switzerland, to purchase birds from upon them, at the same time darting their long those who breed them. Each agent commonly tongue from their mouth, which is covered over returns with three or four hundred birds, which with a glutinous substance, to which whatever it are afterward carried for sale, not only through touches is certain to adhere. every part of Germany, but also to England, Rus- The frog is not only capable of existing with a sia, and even Constantinople. About sixteen hun- small portion of nourishment, but will live several dred are sent yearly to England, where the dealers, hours after the head has been severed from the notwithstanding the expenses they have incurred, frame; and school-boys frequently, in the wantonand after having carried them on their backs, per-ness of cruelty, strip the unfortunate creatures of haps a hundred miles, sell them at a few shillings their skin, for the purpose of seeing how much apiece. When they were first brought from the vigor they are possessed of, though suffering the Canaries, they were so costly as to be purchasable most excruciating torture and pain. only by the rich.

FRIZING OF CLOTH. A term, in the woollen manufactory, applied to the forming of the nap of a cloth, or stuff, into a number of little hard burrs or prominences, covering almost the whole ground thereof.

FRONDESCENTIÆ TEMPUS. In Botany, the precise time of the year and month, in which each species of plants unfolds its first leaves. All plants produce new leaves every year; but all do not renew them at the same time. Among woody plants, the elder, and most of the honey-suckles; among the perennial herbs, the crocus and tulipFROG. The external figure of the frog is too are the first that push or expand their leaves. The well known to require being particularly described: time of sowing the seeds decides with respect to its active powers are astonishingly great, when annuals. The oak and ash are constantly the latest compared with its unwieldy shape: it is the best in pushing their leaves; the greatest number unswimmer of all four-footed animals; and Nature fold them in spring; the mosses and firs in winter. has finely adapted it for those ends; the arms being These striking differences seem to indicate that light and pliant, the legs long, and endowed with each species of plants has a temperature proper or great muscular strength. peculiar to itself, and requires a certain degree of The portion of brain which this animal possess-heat to extricate the leaves from the buds. This es, is much less than might be supposed from its temperature, however, is not so fixed or constant make the swallow is wide, and the stomach nar- as it may at first view appear. Among plants of row, though capable of being distended to an as- the same species, there are some more early than tonishing size: the heart of the frog, as in all other others; whether that circumstance depends, as it animals that are truly amphibious, has but one most commonly does, on the nature of the plants, ventricle, so that the blood can circulate whilst it is or is owing to differences in heat, exposure, and under water, without any assistance from the lungs; soil. In general, it may be affirmed that small and these resemble a number of small bladders, joined young trees are always earlier than larger or old together like the cells of a honeycomb, and can be ones. The pushing of the leaves is likewise acdistended or exhausted at the creature's will. celerated or retarded, according to the temperature of the season; that is, according as the sun is sooner or later in dispensing the degree of heat suitable to each specics.

FRONTISPIECE. In Architecture, the principal face of a fine building. Hence, also, by a figure, we say, the frontispiece of a book; meaning an ornament with an engraven title on the first page.

pansion.

A single female produces from six to eleven hundred eggs at a time; but this only happens once a year. The male is of a grayish brown color; but the skin of the female is of a yellow hue: these colors grow deeper every time they change them, which frequently happens every eighth day. The frog generally lives out of the water; but, when the cold nights set in, it returns to its native place, always making choice of those stagnant waters at the bottom of which it is most - likely to remain concealed: there it remains torpid FROST. In Physics, that state of the natural during the winter season: but it is roused into ac- world, in which the atmosphere so absorbs the tivity by the genial warmth of spring. The croak-caloric from bodies on the surface of the globe, as ing of these animals has long been considered as to leave them, more or less, without fluidity or exthe certain symptom of approaching rain; for no weather-glass can describe a change of season with more accuracy than this vociferous and noisy tribe; and we could hardly imagine, that a creature of that size could send forth sounds that would extend the distance of three miles. All very dry and hot seasons are allowed to be injurious to this animal's health; and, as they live chiefly upon snails and worms, at those periods they find it difficult to procure a sufficiency of food. The method they adopt to ensnare these unsuspecting creatures, affords entertainment to the curious mind; for when they observe their destined prey approaching, for some moments they remain immovably fixed, and, when they are sufficiently near, spring suddenly

It appears that water, and other fluids, are capable of containing caloric in two very different states. In the one, they seem to imbibe it in such a manner, that it eludes all the methods by which it is customary to observe it, either by our sensation of feeling, or by the thermometer. In the other, it manifests itself obviously to the senses, either by the touch, the thermometer, or the emission of light.

In the first of these states, the body is called cold; but here we are not to suppose a total absence of heat or caloric: for even those fluids that are coldest, contain it in a very considerable proportion Thus vapor, which is colder to the touch, than the