consequently, there must have been formed by digestion in the fowl, no less than 137.796 grains of phosphate of lime, besides 511.911 grains of carbonate; consequently, lime (and perhaps also phosphorus) is not a simple substance, but a compound, formed of ingredients which exist in oat-seed,water and air, the only substances to which the fowl had access: silica may enter into its composition, as part of the silica had disappeared; but if so, it must be combined with a great quantity of some other substance. (Aun. de Chim. xxix. 61).

These consequences,' as Dr. Thompson observes, whom we follow in this article, are too important to be admitted without a very rigorous examination. The experi

must be absolutely certain that the hen has no access to any calcareous earth, and that she is not diminished in weight; because, in that case, some of the calcareous earth of which part of the body is composed, may have been employed. This rigour is the more necessary, as it seems pretty evident from experiments made long ago, that some birds, at least, cannot produce eggs unless they have access to calcareous earth. Dr. Fordyce found, that if the canary bird was not supplied with lime at the time of her laying, she frequently died, from her eggs not coming forward properly. (On Diges- · tion). He divided a number of these birds, at the time of their laying eggs, into two parties: to the one he gave a piece of mortar, which the little animals swallowed greedily; they laid their eggs as usual, and all of them lived; whereas many of the other party, which were supplied with no lime, died."

Vauquelin also ascertained, according to Fourcroy, that pigeon's dung contained an acid of a peculiar nature, which encreased when the matter is diluted with water; but gradually gives place to ammonia, which is at last exhaled in abundance. (Fourcroy, i. 70).

FEE, in law, feudum, beneficium, all land in England is in the nature of a feud or fee, and subject to the original conditions of the grant, which is supposed to come from the crown; but now that distinction is very im material.

FEE simple, is an estate to a man and his heirs, and is the largest estate which one can have; it descends to heirs of all kinds, and may be granted or devised at pleasure. When it is created by deed, it must be ex pressly stated to be to the grantee and his heirs; for an estate to A, for ever, is only good for life: in a will, however, this strictness is not required; any words which shew the intent of the testator will be sufficient. In a deed, a man cannot give a feesimple to one, and then afterwards, in case he dies without heirs, to another. In a will, words which import this, are often constru ed only to give the first taker an estate tail. It may be forfeited for treason or felony. Upon an exchange, a fee may pass without expressing the word heir; so also on a fine or recovery. A grant to the King, or a corporation, sole for ever, necessarily gives a fee, because they never die.

FEELERS, in natural history, a name used by some for the horus of insects.

FEELING, one of the five external senses, by which we obtain the ideas of solid, hard, soft, rough, hot, cold, wet, dry, and other tangible qualities. This sense is the coarsest, but at the same time, the surest of all others; it is besides the most universal. We see and hear with small portions of our body, but we feel with all. Nature has bestowed that general sensation wherever there are nerves, and they are every where, where there is life. Were it otherwise, the parts divested of it might be destroyed without our knowledge. seems that upon this account, nature has provided that this sensation should not require a particular organization. The structure of the nervous papillæ is not absolutely necessary to it. The lips of a fresh wound, the periosteum, and the tendons, when uncovered, are extremely sensible without them. These nervous extremities serve only to the perfection of feeling, and to diversify sensation. Feeling is the basis of all other sensations.

It

FELAPTON, in logic, one of the six moods of the third figure of syllogisms, wherein the first proposition is an universal negative, the second an universal affirmative, and the third a particular negative.

FELIS, the cat, in natural history, a genus of Mammalia of the order Feræ. Generic character: six foreteeth, intermediate ones equal, three grinders on each side; tongue prickly backwards; claws retractile. Animals of this comprehensive class never unite in companies for mutual defence, but accomplish their ferocious and bloody purposes with solitary energy. They are swift and strong, have many of them, a peculiar facility in climbing trees, and falling from any considerable height, alight on their feet. They spring on their prey with the suddenness of lightning, and suck its blood before they devour it. They will eat vegetables, only when other food is not within their reach. They are principally distinguished by their large and pointed claws, which are lodged in a sheath, and protruded or withdrawn at pleasure. The numerous species of this genus differ extremely in size and in colour, but in form and character, possess a family resemblance, and are crafty, fierce, and sanguinary. There are twentythree species, of which we shall notice those which follow:

F. leo, or the lion. This is the largest species of the Felis genus, and has occasionally been known to measure eight feet in length, exclusively of its tail, which is

about three or four. Its colour is of a pale tawny, and the male possesses an extremely full and flowing mane. The female is des

titute of this, and is considerably smaller than the male. It has been known to live in a state of confinement, to the age of sixty-three, or seventy years, though from a philosophical examination of its general structure, it would be concluded that its average duration would not exceed twentyfive. The parental affection of the lioness is extreme: in support of her young she braves the most formidable dangers, and is wrought up to a pitch of agitation and exertion, which render her in such circumstances, a more terrible adversary than the lion himself. She produces her young in the most remote and sequestered situations, and to provide for their wants, engages in the most rapid excursions, and most daring attacks, returning to her cubs with the fruit of her toils and dangers, with the most impatient impetuosity, and feeding them with the yet convulsed members of her prey. It is reported, by some authors, that she endeavours, occasionally, to obscure the track to her den by brushing out the marks of it with her tail, and when suspicious of particular danger to her young, will remove them in her mouth to a place of greater security, with looks of unutterable menace and antipathy at any creature, however formidable, which may shew the slightest disposition to impede her progress. She produces but one litter, consisting of four or five in number, in the year. These are at first extremely small, little exceeding the size of a half grown kitten, and they are five years in attaining their full growth.

The lion is found in the warmer regions of Asia, but attains his highest perfection in the interior of Africa. His strength is such, that with a single stroke of his paw he has broken the back of a horse, and he has been known, not unfrequently, to carry off a young buffalo between his teeth. He rarely engages in full daylight in the pursuit of prey, but on the approach of night quits his habitation, and with a roar which can be resembled only to a peal of thunder, and overwhelms the other inhabitants of the wilderness or forest with consternation, commences his career of havock. His sense of smell is far from being acute, and he depends in the chase only upon actual sight or probable inference. He frequently consumes at one repast sufficient to satisfy him for two or three days; he breaks the bones of the buffalo with perfect

ease and frequently swallows them; and the reversed prickles on his tongue are of extraordinary strength and extension. After a full repast, he returns to his den and enjoys a state of slumber and repose, till the calls of hunger rouse him to fresh activity, and impel him to recommence the work of blood. The lion, in the exertion of his full energies, must present one of the most impressive images that can be conceived. The general majesty of his countenance, surrounded by his full mane intensely erected, and lighted up by the glaring indignation of his eye, connected with the thunder of his voice, and all the apparatus of destruction in his mouth and paws, has in every age, caused him to be considered as furnishing admirable materials for sublime and terrific imagery.

At the Cape of Good Hope, it is by no means uncommon to hunt the lion, and in an open and spacions plain, in which he finds it impossible to escape his pursuers by flight, he checks his progress, and fronts his adversaries awaiting their attack. Several of the dogs which first dare to assault him, generally fall under his stroke, but in a few moments he is overwhelmed by numbers, and literally torn to pieces. The negroes of the Cape are reported to eat his flesh; and his skin, which was formerly deemed a mantle for a hero, is now more frequently employed for the bed of a Hot

tentot.

only manifest tranquillity and contentment, but occasionally engage in sports and gambols with smaller animals, among which they have been led to associate. They are susceptible of attachment and gratitude, will caress their keepers, display a magnanimous forbearance with respect to the offensive freedom and petulant insults of weaker creatures, and after having once, as it were, pledged themselves for the security of any which, by an act of wantonness, may have been thrown as victims into their den, will endure extreme hunger before they can permit themselves to destroy them. The natural excitability of these animals, however, is so great, that all the discipline of education is frequently insufficient effectually to repress their passions within secure limits, and in some unlucky coincidence of circumstances, those familiarities with them which had been permitted without the slightest resistance, or reluctance, have proved fatal to the persons who engaged in them. Though the lion frequently attacks his prey in open chase, he generally adopts the system of ambuscade, and will lurk on his belly in some thicket, frequently near the water, awaiting the approach of any animal which its evil destiny may impel near it, on which he will spring with a sudden bound, rarely failing of success, and sometimes reaching to the distance of twenty feet. When this leap is unsuccessful, the object is permitted to escape without pursuit, and he retraces his steps slowly to the thicket, as it were abashed by his failure, and anticipating the consequences of greater adroitness in his ensuing effort.

Lions have in various countries been employed as emblems of state, and insignia of sovereignty. In Persia, two large lions with fetters of gold are stationed on days of peculiar ceremony and splendour, on each side of the hall of audience; and in Rome, Anthony was drawn through the streets by lions harnessed to his chariot. To furnish entertainment for the inhabitants of that splendid and luxurious city, lions were conveyed in vast numbers from the interior of Africa, to exhibit at the public festivals, at which they fought with each other, with other animals, and even at length with men. This diversion was first exhibited by Quintus Scævola, but was afterwards carried to far greater extent. Sylla displayed in the Arena, a hundred lions during his pretorship. Julius Cæsar, to conciliate the people, entertained them

confinued combat, notwithstanding the first and almost fatal discomfiture, were truly admirable.

It is recorded by Mr. Pennant, that in the beginning of the last century, as a British party in India were indulging themselves in rural recreation and festivity, totally unsuspicious of danger, an immense tiger was seen advancing towards them, and was so near as to be almost in the act to hound upon them. Dismay and consternation instantly pervaded every individual present but one, who was a lady, and who, with a promptness and self-possession, probably never exceeded, furled a large umbrella in the face of the tiger, and thus most happily effected its retreat.

The catastrophe of Mr. Monro, in similar circumstances, was recorded by one of his companions, and may be not improperly noticed in this connection. In the year 1792, several British gentlemen, together with Mr. Monro, went to shoot deer on Sangar island, on the shores of which they observed innumerable traces of the feet of both these animals, not only of the deer, but of the tiger. They continued their sport, however, for a very considerable time, and after completing it, were sitting down for refreshment near a jungle, when a tiger, with a most horrible roar, darted from the jungle, and seizing on Mr. Monro, hurried back with him to the thicket, dragging him through the thickest bushes with amazing rapidity, and making every thing bend and yield to its prodigious strength. A tigress accompanied it in its progress. The tiger was fired at by the two remaining gentlemen, and was obliged to drop its prey; and in a few moments afterwards their unfortunate friend was advancing towards them weltering in his blood. He had received, however, such deep wounds from the teeth and claws of the tiger, as precluded the possibility of recovery, and after twenty-four hours of agony he expired. The scene was dreadful beyond all the expression of words. At the time of the assault, an immense fire of several whole trees was burning by the spot, and shortly after their departure from these fatal shores, the gentlemen observed the tigress to make her re-appearance in all the agitation of unbounded fierceness and disappointed vengeance. The tigress produces but one litter, consisting generally of five young, in a year. In her defence of these, that fury which, even, in ordinary times,

seems to mark her character, is wrought up to a paroxysm, in which she defies all danger, and exposes herself frequently to certain destruction. See Meinmalia, Plate XIV. fig. 3.

F. pardus, the panther. It was for some time a question whether the panther were not to be found in the new as well as in the

old world; it is now, however, fully ascertained not to belong to America. It is found in Africa from the coast of Barbary to the south of Guinea, in the last of which it is found in considerable numbers. Its length is about six feet and a half without the tail, which generally measures three; its colour is a bright tawny yellow, thickly studded along the upper part of its body, with circles of black spots containing a single spot in the centre. It is extremely ferocious, and its depredations in Africa resemble those of the tiger in Asia; though the panther, indeed, abstains, unless when urged by extreme hunger, from attack on man. Its mode of attack is always by surprise, and bursting from the thicket with an immense spring, or approaching with extreme silence and caution on its belly, it lights instantly upon its prey, and the moment of alarm is made by it, frequently, the moment of destruction. In China, where the skins of beautiful and brilliant quadrupeds are in high estimation, there is a variety of this species, the skin of which is sold for about six guineas. The number of panthers im ported by the rich and ambitious among the Romans, to supply the popular sports of that city, is almost incredible; four hundred and ten were exhibited by Augustus within only a few days, and the immense demands which were made on Africa for this purpose, tended at length to render them procurable in the territory of Manritania, only with very great labour and expense. In that country they are at present rare, comparatively with what they must have been before those vast exportations; but farther to the south they are extremely numerous. See Mammalia, Plate XIV. fig. 2.

F. leopardus, or the leopard. This animal is principally distinguished from the preceding by its less lively yellow colour, its inferior size, and the closer arrangement of the spots with which it is diversified. Its manners are similar to those of the panther, and both inhabit the same territories. Among the vast herds of Lower Guinea they commit the most destructive havoc;