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

FEN ( 587 ) F E R
vage cats. The only dlfFerence'between them is, that
the favage cat is ftronger, larger, and more ferocious.
The cat is a native of almoft every country in the
world ; and all the varieties in their appearance may
be reafonably enough attributed to the climates which
produce them. See figures of the principal fpecies of
the Felis, on Plate LXXVIII, LXXIX, and LXXX.
FELKIRK, a town of Auftria, in Germany, thirty-five
miles fouth-eall of Conftance.
FELLOWSHIP, or Company, in arithmetic. See
Arithmetic, p. 386.
FELO de se, inlaw, a wer.fon that lays deliberately violent
, hands on himfelf, and is the occafion of his untimely
death, whether by hanging, drowning, ftabbing, (hoot¬
ing, or any other way.
FELON, inlaw, a perfon guilty of felony. SeeFELONY.
FELONY, in law, a capital crime, next in degree to
petit treafon, and committed with an evil intention;
fuch are murder, theft, filicide, fodomy,’rape, 6r.
FELT, in commerce, a fort of ftuff deriving all its con¬
fidence merely from being fulled, or wrought with
lees and fize, Without either fpinning or weaving.
Felt is made either of wool alone, or of wool and
hair. Thole of French make, yards long, and i-f
broad, for cloaks, pay each 2I. 14 s. 1-1^5% d. on
importation; and draw back 1 1. 12s. 3d. on ex¬
porting them again.
FELTRI, a town of Italy, fubjeft to Venice, thirty-
five miks north of Padua.
FELUCCA, in fea-affairs, a little veflel with fix oars,
frequent in the Mediterranean, which has this pecu¬
liarity, that its helm may be applied either in the head
or Hern, as occafion requires.
FEMALE, a term peculiar to animals, fignifying that
fex which conceives and generates its young within it-
felf.
FEMININE, in grammar, one of the genders of nouns.
^ The feminine gtender ferves to intimate that the noun
belongs to the female. In Latin, the femine gender
is moll commonly diltinguilhed by the article as
it is in the Greek by . In the French, the article /a
commonly denotes this gender; but we have no fuch
diflinflion by articles in the Englilh language.
FEMUR, os femoris, in anatomy. Se^ Anatomy,
FEN. a place overflowed with water, pr abounding with
bogs.
FENCE, in country-affairs, a hedge, wall, ditch, bank,
or other inclofure, made around gardens, woods, corn¬
fields,
The chief reafon why wood-lands and plantations fo
feldom profper, is in a great meafure owing to the ne¬
glect of fencing them round to keep out the cattle. Tks
negleft prevails much in the 'northern parts of this
illand, though the ufe of fences is certainly more ne-
ceffary there than in the fouth, as the lands require
more Ihelter and warmth. There are feveral ways
of fencing lands, but the ufual is that of hedging it
with either white or black, thorn, crab, holly; alder,
or furze,. *
Fence month, the month wherein deer begin to fawn,
during which it is unlawful to hunt in the forell.
It commences fifteen days before mid-fummer, and
ends fifteen days after it. This month, by ancient
forellers is called defence-month.
FENCING, the art of making a proper ufe of the fword,
as well for attacking an enemy, as for defending one’s
felf.
FENNEL, in botany. See Anethum.
FEOD, the fame with fee. See Fee.
FEODAL. and Feodatory. See Feudal, and Feu¬
datory.
FEOFFMENT, in law, is a gift or grant of any ma¬
nors, meffuages, lafcds, or tenements, to another in fee ;
that is, to him and his heirs for ever, by delivery of
feifin, and poffefiion of the ellate granted.
FER/E, in zoology, an order of quadrupeds, the difHn-
guilhing characters of winch are, that all the animals
belonging to it have fix fore teeth in each jaw, and the
canine, or dog-teeth, confiderably long.
Under this order are compn. bended the following
genera, viz. the phoca, canis, felis, vivgrra, mullela,
urfus, didelphis, talpa, forex, and erinaceus. See.
Cams, Felis, &c.
FERALIA, in antiquity, a feflival obferved among, the
Romans on February 21ft, or, according to Ovid, on
the 17th of that month, in honour of the manes of their
deceafed friends and relations. During the ceremony,
which confilled in making prefents at their graves, mar¬
riages were forbidden, and the temples of the divini¬
ties Ihut up ; becaufe they fancied that, during this
feftival, the gholls fuffered no pains in hell, but were
permitted to wander about their graves, and feall up¬
on the‘meats prepared for them.
FER de fowrchette, in heraldry, a crofs having at
each end a forked iron, like that formerly tifed by foL
diers tb rell their mufquets on. It differs from the
crofs fourche, the ends of which turn forked, where¬
as this has that lort of fork fixed upon the.fquare end.
See Plate LXXX. fig. 4.
Fer de. moulin, milrinde, inke de vtoulin, in he¬
raldry, is a bearing fuppofed to reprefent the iron-ink
or ink of a mill, which fullains the moving mill (lone.
FERDEN, or Verden, a city of Germany, fubjeCt to
Hanover;.it is fituated in lower Saxony, on the river
All.er,. twenty fix miles fouth call of Bremen : E. Ion.
90, and N. lat. 5 30 24/.
FERENTARII, in Roman antiquity,' were auxiliary
troops, lightly armed; their weapons being a fword,
bow, arrows, and a fling,
FERETINO, a city and bilhop’s fee of Italy, about
fjfty miles call of Rome: E. long. 140 5', and N. lat,
41 ° ^ \
FERIfE, in Roman, antiquity, holidays, or days upon
which they abflained from work.
The Romans had two kinds of fe'ris: 1. The public,
common to all the people in general. 2. The private,
which were only kept by fome private families.
The public ferise were fourfold: 1. Stativa; ferise,
holidays which always fell out upon the fame day of
das