commence. The general excitement now gives way to depression. The countenance becomes deeply expressive of anxiety. The congested state of the eye begins to yield, and in its place a slight yellow tinge is observed. This goes on increasing till it extends down the ale of the nose and around the mouth. As the disease advances, in most cases the yellow tinge spreads itself over the whole skin, giving to the whole body, according to the complexion or temperament, various colours, from a pale lemon to deep orange or saffron colour. The pulse becomes slightly lessened in frequency. The coating on the tongue becomes yellow, and this organ towards its roof and at the edges and tips has a clean and dry red appearance. The stomach now becomes irritable and painful on pressure. Food is immediately rejected. There is a distressing sensation of internal heat. The vomiting is sudden, and not accompanied with any severe retching. The matters vomited are generally ingesta and a clear fluid, and only sometimes is bile discharged. The alvine secretions are mostly natural. The urine is diminished in quantity, and very yellow. There is frequent sighing of a deep and prolonged character. In malignant cases the breath exhaled has an acid odour. The intellectual functions are much affected, and the patient is in a state of low muttering delirium, or comatose. Sometimes petechia and miliary vesicles occur in this stage. In this state the patient may remain from two to seven days. The countenance then becomes more collapsed, the eye loses its full and prominent character, dark-coloured blotches and petechiae occur on the body, the pulse becomes small and thready, the tongue loses its coating and becomes bright red, thirst becomes urgent, and there is lastly the vomiting of a dark and mucous-looking fluid, which has been called the "black vomit," and has in fact given the name sometimes to this disease. This symptom, however, does not always occur. As death approaches the exhaustion becomes greater, the respiration is hurried and noisy, the surface and extremities become cold, and covered with a general clammy perspiration. In some the last moments are marked with great pain and strong convulsions, whilst in others death seems to come upon the patient unawares.

These general symptoms are by no means presented in every case, some having been constantly observed by one medical writer, whilst others have never witnessed them at all. Amongst the forms which this disease assumes, three are mentioned by some writers as pointing out important differences in the character of the disease: these are called inflammatory, adynamic, and malignant. The inflammatory occurs in full plethoric habits, and the whole of the symptoms indicate a greater amount of excitement and activity, and the disease proceeds to a fatal termination sooner. The adynamic variety occurs in those who have deficient animal vigour. In this form of the disease the pulse is slow, the skin cold and clammy, no resistance appears to be made to the progress of the disease, and the patient sinks in the course of four or five days. The malignant form is the worst of all: from the first the patient seems attacked with death; all the symptoms are low from the beginning, and no reaction is established. Persons seldom recover from this state, and many die during the first twenty-four hours of the attack.

The nature and origin of the black matter which is so often vomited in cases of yellow fever has been the subject of much investigation. The most correct view is probably that of Dr. Fordyce, who considered that it was identical with the incrustation of the tongue, gums, and lips found generally in violent fevers, and that probably this is an exudation thrown out from the surface of the stomach, or even from the duodenum and jejunum. When collected and given to animals it produced no bad effect upon them, and an atmosphere impregnated with its exhalations does not appear to be injurious. Under the microscope it has the appearance of minute scales of smoked mica, being of a dark brown or red colour. It is probably nothing more than the globules of blood broken down, which have oozed through the surface of the mucous membrane, instead of the ordinary secretion, and perhaps under the influence of the violent vomiting. It may frequently be mixed with bile, but it does not appear in the majority of cases to have the character of bile at all.

As it is difficult to give a definition of yellow fever, so is it difficult to give any rules by which it may be distinguished in individual cases from other diseases. Its occurring, however, generally in several individuals at the same time, soon leads to the development of the group of symptoms which we have described, and by which it may be distinguished from allied diseases.

occur.

The mortality from this disease is always very considerable. It is usually much greater at the commencement of the epidemic than it is at subsequent periods. In some instances all the cases occurring for the first few days after the breaking out of the fever have proved fatal. | Sometimes however the disease is very mild, and but few fatal cases The mortality is generally greatest amongst the young and robust, and this will perhaps account for its fatality amongst soldiers and seamen. This fever has been regarded as peculiar to places between 40° N. lat. and 20° S., and requires a climate in which the mean summer range is not less than 75°, or, according to some authors, 80°. More temperate climates are not, however, free from its attacks. It appeared at Lisbon in 1857. One-twelfth of the whole population was attacked with the disease, and of these one-third died. The total of the deaths in the whole population was between five and six thousand. From the histories of this attack in Europe, we may learn that none of

ARTS AND SCI. DIV. VOL. IV.

our towns have an immunity from this disease, and that it is only by carrying out those sanitary measures which are now so extensively adopted, that we can expect to be free from such a visitation of this disease as at Lisbon.

The morbid appearances of the body after death do not throw any light on the nature of this disease. In the head the dura mater is found studded with dark-coloured spots; under the arachnoid is frequently accumulated a yellowish serosity. The lesions in the chest are not remarkable. The stomach is generally distended with air, its mucous surface is occasionally suffused with blood, and its vessels are generally gorged with blood. The orifices of numerous canals may be seen, from which by slight pressure oozes a fluid which appears to be the "black vomit." The small intestines participate in some measure in the lesions of the stomach. The liver is sometimes engorged with blood, and sometimes it is hard and dry. The spleen is usually increased in volume and softened.

In the treatment of yellow fever much difference of practice has prevailed, according to the opinions of those called upon to treat the disease; and unfortunately that kind of evidence does not at present exist on which we could rely with regard to the value of any particular course of treatment. Under these circumstances the judicious practitioner will act on general principles, and treat whatever cases come before him according to the symptoms they present. As is mostly the case in the treatment of fevers which in their course exhibit both active and low symptoms, two very different plans of treatment have been recommended; the one antiphlogistic, the other stimulant. Without discussing the respective merits of these plans of treatment, it may be stated that both may be rendered necessary in different stages of the disease.

Amongst antiphlogistic remedies, blood-letting has been highly commended, but it is not so frequently employed as formerly. The next remedy in importance is mercury. Some of the best writers on yellow fever, and those who have had the largest experience, consider mercury as their sheet-anchor in this disease. It should be adminis tered in doses of sufficient quantity to affect speedily the mouth. Many practitioners who use this remedy do not employ blood-letting as an ordinary remedy, but only in those cases in which the inflammatory symptoms preponderate. In addition to these means, purgatives, emetics, antimonials, and cold affusion have had their advocates. These remedies are however all of them adapted more to particular states of the system than to the disease of yellow fever, and should be administered according as circumstances arise which may indicate their necessity. In cases where the disease assumes a remittent form, quinine may be administered with advantage. Dr. Stevens particularly insists on the administration of saline medicines in yellow fever, to which there is no objection, provided the stomach will retain them, and they probably have a beneficial effect on the system according to his theory.

Of all the questions connected with yellow fever, perhaps that which regards its cause has been discussed with the most zeal and bitterness. We cannot here go into any details of this discussion, but the great point in dispute is the contagiousness of this disease. Many of the early writers on yellow fever concluded that it was contagious, and on this account persons who have been exposed to its influence are obliged to submit to the most rigid quarantine regulations. But whilst there is much evidence to prove that this disease is communicable by a morbific matter generated in the human system in a state of disease, there can be no doubt that it has in most cases a local origin. Many recent writers have supposed that the local cause of this disease was to be found in the temperature and other atmospheric phenomena in the district visited by the disease; but this cause is too general to account for the exceeding local character of the disease in many instances. Cases are recorded in which the inhabitants of particular parts of a town, the one side of a street, or even one room of a house, have been attacked, whilst all others have escaped. The true theory of the production of these diseases is probably to be found in the fact that they originate in decomposing animal and vegetable matter, and afterwards become susceptible of communication from one individual to another by a poison generated in the body. The history of the development of the disease at Lisbon is remarkably confirmatory of these two points.

(Library of Practical Medicine, article "Yellow Fever," by Dr. Shapter; Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine, article "Yellow Fever," by Dr. Gillkrest; Bancroft, An Essay on the Disease called Yellow Fever; Dr. R. D. Lyons, Report on the Yellow Fever at Lisbon, in 1857.)

FIBRIN. Fibrin is an important constituent of animal and vegetable organisms. In animals it occurs dissolved in the blood, to the extent of parts in 1000, and is the principle of which muscle and the fibrous tissue of flesh are built up; indeed, these parts are usually looked upon as consisting of fibrin itself, though altered in several respects from the condition in which it exists dissolved in blood: the name also is derived from the fibrous character of these tissues, particularly from the bundles of fibres composing the muscles.

Fibrin has already been shortly noticed under the article ALBUMEN, as forming, with a few other closely allied substances, that interesting class of bodies known as the protein or albuminoid group; they are sanguigenous or blood-forming matters, and hence are usually termed plastic materials of nutrition, to distinguish them from those consti

F

tuents of food that serve to maintain the function of respiration only, and hence called respiratory elements. The lean part of meat contains large quantities of fibrin and other plastic materials, obtained in the first instance from certain parts of plants, and stored up, as it were, in a concentrated form for the use of man; while the fat of meat, together with such respiratory principles as sugar, starch, &c., serve to keep up the heat of the body by the gradual oxidation or slow burning they undergo during the process of respiration.

Fibrin undergoes spontaneous coagulation very soon after its removal from the living structure. Thus, blood freshly drawn from an animal is tolerably fluid, but after standing a short time becomes transformed into a gelatinous mass or clot; this is owing to the alteration of the fibrin from the liquid to the solid state. Again, the recently expressed juice of vegetables soon deposits a precipitate from a similar cause. This property of spontaneous coagulation is alone possessed by fibrin, and serves therefore to distinguish it from its congeners, albumen and casein.

1. Animal fibrin is most readily obtained from blood; it is, however, contained in some quantity in chyle and in lymph. To obtain it, fresh blood is briskly whipped with a bundle of twigs, when, after a short time, the fibrin, in the form of short elastic strings, is found adhering to the twigs. It is still contaminated with some of the red colouring matter of the blood, but by maceration in, and patient washing with water, it is finally obtained quite colourless. When dried, this fibrin has a horny appearance, is hard, opaque, of a grayish or yellowish colour, and without taste or odour. It is insoluble in cold water, alcohol, or ether, but by long contact with boiling water is to a certain extent decomposed. Heated with water in a sealed tube to 300° Fahr. it entirely dissolves, forming a solution precipitable by acids, and much resembling the solution of albumen obtained under similar circumstances. A somewhat analogous solution occurs if the fibrin, in contact with a little water, is exposed to the air for some time; but in this latter case a considerable amount of decomposition occurs, and sulphide of ammonium, butyric acid, leucin, and other principles are generated. Animal fibrin is soluble in moderately dilute solutions of the fixed caustic alkalies, yielding a liquid possessing the properties of albuminate of the base; acetic or tribasic phosphoric acids precipitate the fibrin, but in excess redissolve it. The fibrin may also be made to combine with other metallic oxides; the resulting compounds are, however, almost identical with the albuminates. Digested in strong sulphuric acid, fibrin swells up, and by aid of a gentle heat entirely dissolves. Hot nitric acid also dissolves it, the solution containing xanthoproteic acid, an acid that is also produced under similar circumstances from albumen and casein. Hot concentrated hydrochloric acid decomposes fibrin into leucin, tyrosin, and other matters.

Epidermose is the name given by M. Bouchardat to that part of the fibrin obtained from blood, that is not soluble in dilute hydrochloric acid; that chemist considering it to be identical with a substance which forms the base of the epidermis: while to the portion of the fibrin that is dissolved by the dilute acid he gives the name albuminose. According to Liebig, however, blood fibrin swells up in dilute hydrochloric acid, but does not form a true solution at all; while muscle-fibrin dissolves more or less completely in that menstruum.

Fibrin has been examined and analysed by several chemists with tolerably uniform results, but though its composition has been thus ascertained, its true constitution is not at present satisfactorily established. Mulder, who has paid considerable attention to this and the analogous azoto-sulphurised principles, gives the following as the percentage composition of fibrin :—

The combustion of fibrin is always attended with a residue or ash, containing phosphate of lime and a little phosphate of magnesia.

2. Vegetable fibrin is frequently met with in pharmaceutical operations on the newly-expressed juice of fresh vegetables, nearly all such liquors depositing coagulated fibrin on standing for a short time. Like animal fibrin it does not admit of being examined in the liquid state, but in the solid form is obtained in what is generally considered to be a more or less pure state, from the so-called gluten of wheat flour. Boiling alcohol dissolves a considerable portion (true gluten) of this gluten, and what remains undissolved after repeated ebullition with the alcohol and with ether, is vegetable fibrin. Its ultimate chemical composition is very much the same as that of animal fibrin. In contact with moisture it is slowly decomposed. A farther description of its characters and properties is unnecessary, inasmuch as, so far as those characters are known, it would be but a reiteration of what has already been detailed above under Animal Fibrin.

FIBRÖIN. This name has been applied by Mulder to the nitrogenous substance composing the fibre of silk. It is purified by treating

FIBULA, a term used among the Romans for the brooch or buckle with which their vests were usually fastened. It is derived from figo, "to fix," and the most ancient form of the word is supposed to have been figebula. These fastenings were made in very great variety, both as to material and form, and were sometimes decorated with engraved stones or gems, for like the modern brooches, fibula were employed for ornament as well as use. Fibula of gold were often used as presents. The most common were made of brass or iron. The most usual was that of a circular ring or disc of metal, with a pin moving on a hinge, and passing across the centre of the circle. Fibula were used by the Roman women for fastening the inner and outer garment (indutus and amictus), and the scarf or cloak; sometimes indeed they not only wore them for these purposes on their breast and one or both shoulders, but in the later and more luxurious ages as ornaments down their sleeves, and for fastening their tunics above the knee. Count Caylus, in his 'Recueil,' pl. 110, fig. 4, has engraved a fibula which served the double purpose of a fastening to the garment and a key. The richly ornamented buckles used by the Romans for fastening the belt and girdle were also called fibula. Fibula was a term likewise applied by the ancients to the iron brace or band used for joining or fastening beams, mentioned by Cæsar (De Bello Gall.,' 1. iv., c. 17) and described by Vitruvius (1. i., c. 5). The fibula chirurgica was an instrument used by surgeons for drawing the lips of a wound together, noticed by Pitiscus, in his 'Lexicon,' p. 778, who also mentions the fibula gymnastica, sive theatralis, quæ cantoribus et comodis inserviebat," particularly described by Celsus, and several times alluded to by Juvenal and Martial. This was a ring of light workmanship. FICHTELITE, a fusible volatile crystalline substance, found in the submerged pine-trees of the Fichtel-gebirge. Its composition is CH20. FICTION. [NOVEL; ROMANCE.]

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FICTIONS (in Law) have been somewhat quaintly defined to be "those things that have no real essence in their own body, but are so acknowledged and accepted in law for some especial purpose." These especial purposes are various. The law, it is said (by which we must understand those who for the time are the interpreters of it), shall never make any fiction but for necessity, and in avoidance of a mischief. (Coke's Rep.,' iii. 30.) This is as much as to say that those who interpret the law will, in order to avoid a special hardship, or remove some unexpected difficulty not provided for by the law, resort to a fiction; that is, they will imagine something to be which is not. It is said that such fictions have always a good end in view; that is, an end considered good by those who make or maintain the fictions. It was wisely said, that fictions of law must not be of a thing impossible; but the reason is rather curious, "for the law imitates nature." If we object to the soundness of the reason in the instance last mentioned, we cannot but approve of the following rule as to fictions: that a man could never be subject to the penalty of a statute by a fiction of law. The law, it was said, would also make fictions in order to avoid absurdity; but this could hardly have been said in earnest.

Blackstone shows by what fiction the Court of Queen's Bench origi nally held pleas of all personal actions: "It being surmised that the defendant is arrested for a supposed trespass which he never has in reality committed; and being thus in the custody of the marshal of the court, the plaintiff is at liberty to proceed against him for any other personal injury: which surmise, of being in the marshal's custody, the defendant is not at liberty to dispute." Such liberty of disputing the fiction would clearly spoil the whole business, and was therefore as necessarily disallowed as the fiction was allowed. (See also the fictions formerly resorted to in EJECTMENT, and in the Court of EXCHEQUER.) Of the same kind is the fiction mentioned by Blackstone, by which a contract made at sea is feigned to be made at the Royal Exchange, or other inland place, in order to draw the cognisance of the suit from the courts of Admiralty to those of Westminster Hall. "Such fictions," as Blackstone remarks, "are adopted and encouraged in the Roman law: a son killed in battle is supposed to live for over for the benefit of his parents; and by the fiction of postliminium and the lex Cornelia, captives, when freed from bondage, were held to have never been prisoners; and such as died in captivity were supposed to have died in their own country."

Fictions in law, though often ridiculous enough, have generally had their origin in some defect in the existing laws or course of procedure, and have pointed out in what respects the judges or interpreters of law, and, as we may suppose, general opinion also, under the influence of which judges must to some extent be, have felt that change was necessary. Many fictions, so far from being injurious, have been beneficial; but it must be remarked that they are the indications of a rude state of social organisation, and must gradually disappear with the improvement of the institutions of society; for their existence supposes a defect which it is the business of legislation to remedy. FIDDLE. [VIOLIN.]

FIDEI COMMISS. According to German civil law, the fidei commiss is intimately connected with the law of inheritance among the nobility, being the regulation according to which the whole or part of a family property is enjoyed by a certain member of the family, on the condition of leaving it unimpaired to the person pointed out by the particular family arrangement; either to the first-born male, when it is called majorat; or to the last-born male, when it is called minorat; or to the oldest member of the family without regard to direct descent, when it is called seniorat. Like the English law of entail, the object of this institution is to render the family property inalienable; it may however be mortgaged, but this is merely a temporary sequestration of the revenues which are applied to cancelling the debt. In modern times, this institution, like many others, has been abolished in some parts of Germany, partly by the introduction of the French law, as in the Rhenish provinces, and partly by the amalgamation of the former German civil law with the Code Napoleon, as in Bavaria. In the north of Germany, however, where the ancient Saxon law was prevalent, as in Hanover, Saxony, and other countries, it has been maintained, and is still in force.

FIDEICOMMISSUM, or a transaction dependent upon honour and probity (pudor) rather than legal sanction (vinculum juris), I. 2. 23, 1, in the Roman law, is something given by will or codicil, not directly to the person beneficially interested in it, but to some other person, with a request that he will transfer it to the party for whom it was intended. The person thus intrusted was called Heres Fiduciarius; and the person for whom it was intended Heres Fideicommissarius. It was necessary that an heir (heres in the Roman sense) should be named, or no property could be transmitted to the fideicommissarius; for, without the "institutio heredis," the will itself was invalid, but a fideicommissum might be left by an intestate in the manner prescribed in the Institutes 2. 23, 10. (Gaius, ii, 248, &c.) Originally it entirely depended on the good faith of the trustee (fiduciarius) whether he performed the will of the testator or not.

The origin of these fideicommissa probably was in a desire to evade the strictness of the old civil law; as we see in the case of Q. P. Rufus (Val. Max., iv. 2, 7), who, being an exile, was incapacitated from taking a gift under the will of a Roman citizen, but yet could claim it from his mother, to whom it had been given in trust for him. (See also Cic. de Fin., ii. 18, § 58; and Quintil. Declam., 325.) Gaius, however (Comm., ii. 285), attributes the origin of these testamentary injunctions to the capacity of the peregrini to receive bequests in this way; but he gives no account of the time when, or the mode in which, such capacity was obtained. In the time of Augustus the rights of the fideicommissarius became legally established by the emperor giving the consuls jurisdiction in such matters. Afterwards pretors were expressly appointed, under the name of Prætores Fideicommissarii, to take cognizance of such trusts, but the consuls still retained their jurisdiction also. (I. 2. 23, 1.) In the provinces the governors (præsides) took cognizance of fideicommissa. (Ulpian, 'Frag.,' 25, 12.) Fideicommissa, or trusts of specific things, became gradually assimilated as to their qualities and incidents to legacies. The following remarks apply to fideicommissa where the whole inheritance (hereditas in the Roman sense), or a determinate part, was given to a trustee in trust.

By the old Roman law, the heres who was the successor in universum jus defuncti, on taking possession of the testator's property, became liable to all his debts and obligations, and consequently those who only took the property as trustees (heredes fiduciarii) often refused to encumber themselves with a burden from which they could derive no advantage, and might sustain great loss. To remedy this inconvenience, it was enacted by the Senatusconsultum Trebellianum, passed in the time of Nero, that when the trustee had given up the property to the fideicommissarius (cestui que trust of the English law), all right of actions by or against the trustee, in respect of the property, should be transferred to the cestui que trust. (I. 2. 23, 4 & 6.)

If the trustee refused to accept the inheritance, the pretor, on the petition of the cestui que trust, could compel him under the Senatusconsultum Pegasianum, passed in the time of Vespasian, to accept and to transfer the property to his cestui que trust, who took it with all its burdens. No particular form was requisite in order to effect this transfer. (I. 2. 3, 5, and 6.)

By the Senatusconsultum Trebellianum, if the heres was required to transfer not more than three-fourths of the inheritance to the cestui que trust, the two parties were liable to all suits and burdens in respect of the property according to their several shares. If he was required to transfer more than three-fourths or the whole, the S. Pegasianum allowed him to retain one-fourth, as the Falcidian law did in the case of legacies. If the heres let himself be compelled to accept the trust under the S. Pegasianum, he lost his one-fourth. (D. 36, 1.)

The cestui que trust was himself sometimes only a trustee for others, and in this case never had the benefit of the one-fourth the same was the case if a legatee had to transfer a legacy to another.

In his remarks upon the origin of Uses and Trusts in England, Mr. Spence has given a short but clear and able sketch of the introduction of fideicommissa at Rome; and in a note to that part of his text which treats of the technical terms necessary to constitute a fideicommissum, he states "that these forms of expression are constantly referred to as

guides to the Court of Chancery on questions of the like nature." Vide int. al. "Knight v. Knight," 3 Beavan, 161 & 172. (Spence's Equitable Jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery, vol. i., p. 438.)

FIEF. [FEUDAL SYSTEM.]

FIELD (in Magnetism), is the space between the two poles of a magnet, where the two forces mutually re-act. [MAGNETISM] FIELD (in Optics), is the actual magnitude of the space that can be presented at once to the eye of the observer; it must vary with the magnifying power, and is large in proportion as this is small. With the lowest class of powers it is a circular space not exceeding the eighth or the tenth of an inch in diameter. With the power of 500, the field is only 1-70th of an inch in diameter. [MICROSCOPE.] FIELD-GLASS. Between the object-glass and the eye glass of a microscope there is usually interposed a convex lens, which receiving the diverging rays from the former before they form an image, has the effect of contracting the dimensions of the image and increasing its brightness, so that it is not too large or indistinct to be seen at once by means of the eye-glass. This interposed lens is called the field-lens, and that portion of the image which can be seen at once with the eyeglass is called the field of view of the microscope. [EYE-GLASS; FIELD; MICROSCOPE.] FIELD-MARSHAL, a military dignity conferred on generals and commanders of armies for distinguished services, and also as a compliment to persons of high personal rank, as princes of the blood royal.

It has been supposed that the term marshal is derived from Martis Seneschallus, but it is more probable that it came from the Saxon words mar, or marach, a horse, and scalck, a servant; and it appears to have designated the person who had the care of a certain number of horses in the royal stables. In the Teutonic laws such a person is called maris calcus, and the fine for his murder is particularly specified.

The earl-marshal of England had originally the chief command of the army; and history records the names of two noblemen, De Montmorency and Fitzosborne, on whom the title was conferred by William the Conqueror.

The office was by Henry VIII. made hereditary in the family of the duke of Norfolk; but it is probable that it had before that time ceased to be connected with the military service; for from the 'Anecdotes of the Howard Family,' we learn that while another person held the post of earl-marshal, Sir Robert Willoughby Lord Brooke was appointed by Henry VII. to be marshal of the army.

The title of Maréchal de France appears to have become a military dignity in that country in the time of Philip Augustus; and, according to Père Daniel, the first person who held it was Henry Clement, the commander of the French army at the conquest of Anjou, in 1204. Originally there was but one Maréchal de France, but, in 1270, when the king, Saint Louis, went on his expedition to Africa, a second was appointed. Francis I. added a third; and the number has since been greatly increased.

The maréchaux de camp, in the old French service, were charged with the duty of arranging the encampment and providing subsistence for the troops; and in action they had the command of the wings, or of the reserve of an army, under the general-in-chief. From the title borne by this class of general officers is derived that of feld-marschall in the German armies; and from the latter title has arisen that which corresponds to it in the British service.

The number of field-marshals in the British army is at present four. FIELD OF VIEW. [TELESCOPE.]

FI'ERI FA'CIAS, a judicial writ of execution issued on a judgment obtained in a personal action in the queen's courts. It is directed against the goods and chattels of the defendant, and is called a writ of fieri facias, from the words in it whereby the sheriff is commanded "quod fieri facias de bonis," &c., that he cause to be made of the goods and chattels of the defendant the debt or sum required. [EXECUTION.] It lies against privileged persons, as peers, &c., as well as other persons, and also against executors and administrators, so far as regards the goods of the deceased.

This writ, like all other writs of execution, being founded upon the judgment, must strictly conform to, and be warranted by, the terms of the judgment, or it will be void. By virtue of this writ, the sheriff may sell the goods and chattels of the defendant till he has raised enough to satisfy the judgment and costs, as well of the suit as of the execution; and also to satisfy any rent due to the landlord of the premises where the goods may be at the time of the taking, not exceeding one year's rent in the whole. If the judgment is not satisfied by the sale of the goods of the defendant, the plaintiff may have a capias ad satisfaciendum for the residue. [CAPIAS.]

The sheriff is not justified in breaking open any outer doors to execute this writ, but having peaceably obtained entrance, he may break open any inner door belonging to the defendant in order to obtain possession of the goods. The clothes which the defendant actually has on or in wearing cannot be taken, and royal palaces are privileged against the sheriff's intrusion for the purpose of levying upon the goods of a resident therein.

Formerly it was necessary that writs of execution should bear teste or date, and be returnable in term time; but now, by stat. 3 & 4 William IV., c. 67, they may be tested, that is, dated on the day when

issued, whether in term time or vacation, and may be made returnable immediately after the execution thereof.

If a fieri facias is issued against a clergyman, and the sheriff returns that he has no goods upon which the judgment can be levied, but that the defendant is a beneficed clerk not having any lay fee, the plaintiff may sue out a "fieri facias de bonis ecclesiasticis," which is directed to the bishop of the diocese, or to the archbishop during the vacancy of the bishop's see, commanding him to make of the ecclesiastical goods and chattels of the defendant within his diocese the sum therein mentioned. It is tested and made returnable exactly in the same manner as a common fieri facias, and is executed by means of a sequestration issued by the registrar of the diocese. [SEQUESTRATION.] (Bl. Com.' v. iii. Dr. Kerr's Edition; Archbold, Q. B. Pract. vol. ii.) FIFE, a very small flute with never more than one key, and seldom that, giving acute piercing sounds, and used, together with the side drum, for military purposes, in marching, &c. It is an octave higher than the flute, and in compass comprises two octaves. Fifes are of three sizes, named by the letters A, B, and C. The first is the lowest; the last, which is that in common use, is the highest.

FIFTEENTH, in Music, is the interval of the double octave. The fifteenth stop in organs is a range of metallic pipes, tuned two octaves higher than the diapasons.

FIFTH, an interval in music, and the most perfect of concords, the octave excepted. Its ratio is 3: 2. [CONCORD; HARMONY.]

There are three kinds of Fifths; the Perfect Fifth, the Flat or Diminished Fifth (called also the Imperfect Fifth), and the Extreme Sharp or Superfluous Fifth. The first (c, G) is composed of three whole tones and a semitone; the second (B, F) of two whole tones and two semitones; the third (C, G ) of four whole tones. Ex. :—

FIFTH MONARCHY MEN, a sect of religionists, whose distinguishing tenet was a belief in the coming of a fifth universal monarchy, of which Jesus Christ was to be the head, while the saints, under his personal sovereignty, should possess the earth. They appeared in England towards the close of the Protectorate; and in 1660, a few months after the Restoration, they broke out into a serious tumult in London under their leader Venner, in which many of them lost their lives, some being killed by the military, and others afterwards executed. Several Fifth Monarchy Men also suffered death in 1662, on a charge (most probably unfounded) of having conspired to kill the king and the Duke of York, to seize the Tower, &c. They are the same who were sometimes called Millennarians, their notion being that the reign of Christ upon earth was to last for a thousand years. They seem, also, from the extravagance and violence of conduct into which they occasionally broke out, to have been confounded in the popular imagination with the old Anabaptists of Münster. [ANABAPTISTS.]

FIG, the Ficus carica of botanists, is a small tree, with rough, lobed, deciduous leaves, naturally inhabiting the temperate parts of Asia, and now commonly cultivated in Europe for the sake of its fruit.

The most approved methods of propagating fig-trees are either by layers or cuttings, and the former method is generally preferred, because the plants at the end of the season are stronger and more fit Trees raised to be planted out where they are intended to grow. from layers generally come into bearing the second year. Grafting succeeds upon these trees as well as upon any other, but it is almost unnecessary and seldom practised. Before the trees are planted the ground should be well drained, and made from two feet and a half to three feet deep, with a mixture of good friable loam and decayed dung. Miller remarks, that "fig-trees bear the greatest quantity of well-flavoured fruit when growing upon chalky land where there has been a foot or more of a gentle loamy soil on the top."

It was generally believed until a few years back that pruning was injurious to the fig, but experience shows this opinion to be unfounded, and that it is as tractable in this respect as any other tree.

The object to be always kept in view is to have constantly a supply of fruit-bearing shoots, and for this purpose the old wood should be gradually cut away, and the young introduced to fill the space thus created. Since the climate of this country will not admit of two crops in one year being brought to maturity, as in other countries more favourable to its growth, the fruit formed after midsummer should be removed, in order to strengthen the tree and render it more productive the following season.

Several modes of training are practised and recommended: some gardeners recommend the fan system, others the horizontal; but this must depend entirely upon the growth of the tree: if it be luxuriant, the latter may be practised; if not, the former will answer better; as the more perpendicular a tree is trained the stronger it grows, and a contrary effect is produced by horizontal training. Mr. Knight recommends the branches to be trained in a downward direction as well as horizontally, and says, "The young wood ceases to elongate being trained close to the wall it is not so liable to be injured by very early in the season, and thence acquires perfect maturity, and by

frost."

where the summer heat is sufficient to ripen the fig, as a standard, In many parts of the continent where the winter is very cold, but the trees are planted in rows and bent down near the ground in winter, and then covered with leaves, which protect them from very severe frosts. Wall trees are unnailed and bent down on each side to within a few feet of the ground, and then protected in the same way as standards.

The nomenclature of figs is in a greater state of confusion than that of most other fruits, and the descriptions of them generally so imperfect that the same kind is grown in different parts of the country under many different names; an account of their synonyms, as far as they have been determined, will be found in the Horticultural Society's Fruit Catalogue, ed. 2.

The following is a list of the best sorts :-

Where anything can be used for protection which can conveniently be removed in fine mild weather, it will be found of greater utility than having the branches covered up from the commencement of winter. until the end of spring.

When the trees are planted in the border of a hot-house for the purpose of being forced, they are commonly trained to trellises; and the treatment is precisely the same as that recommended for open walls. After the fruiting season the border must be kept perfectly dry, in order that the trees may enjoy a season of rest; but a plentiful supply of water is given when they are in a state of growth.

Those who have not a house which can be appropriated entirely to the forcing of figs may nevertheless obtain good crops by planting the trees in pots and forcing them in a cherry-house, peach-house, or vinery. The time for beginning to force is from December to February, according as the fruit is wanted; and the temperature should be gradually increased from 50° to 65° or 70° Fahr. Some also approve of a bottom heat, and recommend the pots to be plunged in a bed of leaves or tan.

The fig-tree is very apt to throw off its fruit before it ripens, and various methods have been suggested to prevent this. In the Levant, to insure a crop, a process termed caprification is resorted to, which consists in placing among the cultivated figs branches of the wild fig, in which a kind of Cynips abounds. This insect, issuing from the wild fruit, enters the others, brushing about the pollen in the inside, and so fertilising the fruit. Or those figs that drop prematurely and are chiefly filled with male flowers are preserved and introduced

by insects to the flowers where they are wanted. To these processes