Encyclopaedia Britannica; or, A dictionary of arts and sciences, compiled upon a new plan … > Volume 2, C-L

F A W (5?
ed, is not fecreted from glandules, but from the little
arteries of the adipofe membrane. Authors diftinguilh
it into two kinds, which they exprefs by the words
fevum or adejis, and finguedo. According to this di-
Ifimflion, there is no fuch thing as fevum or hard fat
in the human body, its fat being all of that fort ex-
prefled by pinguedo, or foft and oily. That this ole¬
aginous matter has a circulatory motion, or an egrefs
into the veins, is very evident from the fudden con-
fumption of it in many difeafes, and from its valt di¬
minution by exercife or labour.
Fat, in the fea language, fignifies the fame with broad.
Thus a flip is faid to have a fat quarter, if the trufling
in or tuck of her quarter be deep.
F. r- is ufed alfo for feveral utenfils; as, i. A great
wooden veffel, ufed for the meafuring of malt, and
containing a quarter or eight bulhels. 2. A large
brewing veffel, ufed by bewers to run their wort in.
q. A leaden pan or veflel for the making of fait at
Droitwich.
Fat likewife denotes an uncertain meafure of capacity.
Thus a fat of ifing glafs contains from 3^ hundred
weight to 4 hundred weight; a fat of unbound books,
half a maund or four bales; of wire, from 20 to 25
hundred weight; and of yarn, from 220 to 221
bundles.
FATE, denotes an inevitable neceflky depending upon a
fuperior caufe. It is alfo ufed to exprefs a certain un¬
avoidable delignation of things, by which all agents,
both neceffary and involuntary, are fwayed and direct¬
ed to their ends.
FATES, in mythology. See Parc a:.
FATHOM, a long meafure containing fix feet, ufed
chiefly at fea for meafuring the length of cables and
cordage.
FATUUS ignis, in phyfiology, a meteor otherwife
called Will-with-a-wifp. See Will.
FAVIFORM, in general, fomething refembling a honey¬
comb. Surgeons give this appellation to certain ulcers,
which emit a fanies through little holes, efpecially in
the head.
FAVISSiE', in antiquity, were, according to Feftus and
Gellius, cifterns to keep water in: but the favilfae in
the Capitol at Rome were dry cifterns or fubterraneous
cellars, where they laid up the old ftatues, broken
vefieis, and other things ufed in the temple. Thefe
were much the fame with what, in fome of the modern
churches, are called the archives and treafury.
FAUNALIA, in Roman antiquity, three annual fefUvals
in honour of the god Faunus ; the firft of which was-
obferved on the ides of February, the fecond on the
16th of the calends of March, and the third on the
nones of December. The principal facrifices on this-
occafion were lambs and kids. Faunus was a deity of
the Romans only, being wholly unknown to the Greeks.
FAUNSj a kind of rural deities, amnng the ancient Ro¬
mans, reprefented with horns on their heads, Iharp-
pointed ears, and the reft of their bodies like goats.
FAWN, among fportfmen, a buck or doe of the firft
year; or the young one of the buck’s breed in its firft
year.
|2 ) F E I
FE, or St Fe, the capital of New Mexico : W. long.
109°, N. lat. 36°.
St Fe de bagota, the capital of the kingdom of New
Granada: W. long- 730, N. lat. 4°. It is an arch-
bifhoprick and the feat of the governor of the .pro¬
vince,
St Fe is alfo a town of Spain, in the province of Gra¬
nada, fituated on the river Xemil : W. long. 30 45',
N. lat. 370 20'.
St Fe is alio the capital of a province of the fame name,
in Terra Fitma in South America, fituated on the ri¬
ver of St Martha, 200 miles fouthbf Garthagena: W.
long. 770, N. lat. 70 25'.
FEALTY, in law, an oath taken on the admittance of
any tenant, to be true to the lord of whom he holds
his land.
FEAST, or Festival, in a religious fenfe, is a day of
feafting and thankfgiving.
Among the ancients, feafts were inftituted upon va- .
rious accounts, but efpecially in memory of fome fa¬
vourable interpofition of Providence. Thus, the Jews
had their feaft of paffover, pentecoft, and tabernacles ;
the Greeks their cerealia, pahathenaea, <bc. and the
Romans their faturnalia, ambarvalia, dsc. See Pass-
over, Cerealia, <bc.
FEATHER, in phyfiology, a general name for the
covering of birds.; it being common 'to all the animals
of this clafs to have their whole body, or at leaft the
greateft part of it, covered wdth feathers or plumage.
FEBRIFUGE, in medicine, an apellation given to fuch'
medicines as mitigate, or remove a fever.
FEBRIS, fever, in medicine. See Fever.
FEBRUARY, in chronology, the fecond month of the
year, reckoning from January, firft added to. the ca-r
lendar of Romulus by Numa Pompilius.
February derives its name from Februa, a feaft held
by the Romans in-this month, in behalf of the manes,
of the deceafed ; at which ceremony facrifices were
performed, and the laft offices were paid to the ffiades
of the defumft.
February, in a common year, confifts only of twenty-
eight days ; but in the bifiextile year, it has twenty-
nine, on account of the intercallary day, added that
year.
FECIALES, or FoECiALESj a college of priefts infti¬
tuted at Rome by Numa, confifting of twenty perfons,
fele&ed out of the heft families; Their bufinefs was
to be arbitrators of all matters relating to war and
peace, and to be the guardians of the public faith.
FEE, in Scots law, fignifies a complete feudal property.
See Scots Law, title 10. Hence, where the bare
liferent of any feudal fubjedt is meant to be conveyed-
to A, and the abfolute property to B ; that meaning js
expreffed thus, to A in liferent, and to B in fee.
FEELERS, in natural hiftory, a name ufed by fome
for the horns of infedts.
FEELING, one of the five external-fenfes, by which
we obtain the ideas of folid, hard, foft, rough, hot,
cold, wet, dry', and other tangible qualities.
FEINT, in fencing, a ffiew of making a thruft at one
par;