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have not studied Mathematics .” It first appeared in 1756, 4to.and Inis been several times reprinted in Svo. On the accession ofthe present king, to whom he had read lectures, Mr. Ferguson ob-tained a pension of fifty pounds a year. In 1763 he was electeda fellow of the Royal Society , without pay ing the admission fee, orthe annual subscriptions: the same year appeared his AstronomicalTables and Precepts, Svo. In 1767 he published Tables and Tractsrelative to several Arts and Sciences, 8vo. Besides these workshe was the author of Select Mechanical Exercises; the YoungGentleman and Lady’s Astronomy ; an Easy Introduction to As-tronomy ; an Introduction to Electricity ; the Art of Drawing inPerspective made easy ; and several tracts of papers in the Philo-sophical Transactions . He was a man of the clearest judgement, andthe most unwearied application to study ; benevolent, meek, andinnocent in his manners as a child : humble, courteous, and com-municative ; instead of pedantry, philosophy seemed to produce inhim only diffidence and urbanity,—a love for mankind and forhis Creator, lie died in 1776, aged 66. Ilis friends had gene-rally considered him as possessing very little wealth, however heleft behind about the sum of six thousand pounds.
FERUE, in Roman antiquity, holidays, or days upon whichthey abstain from work. Proclamation was generally made bythe herald, by command of the Rex Sacrorum, or Elamines, thatall should abstain from business; and whoever transgressed the or-der was severely fined.—The feria; were of two kinds, public andprivate.
i. Feria Private, the Private Eerie, were holidays ob-served by particular persons or families on account of birth-days,funerals, &c. These belonged to, and were one division of, thedies festi. See Ef.sti.
ii. Eerie Public.®, the Public Eerie, were of four kinds,viz.
1. Ferie Concf.ptive were moveable feasts, the days forthe celebration of which were fixed by the magistrates or priests ;of this sort were the Feria; Latina;, Paganalia, Compitalia, Ac.which happened every year, but the days for keeping them wereleft to tlie discretion of the magistrates or priests. Of these the
Eerie Latin.® were feasts at which a white bull was sacrificed,and the Latin and Roman towns provided each a set quantity ofmeat, wine, and fruits ; and during the celebration, the Romansand Latins swore eternal friendship to each other, taking home apiece of the victim to every town. The festival was instituted byI arqmnius II. when he overcame the Tuscans, and made a leaguewith the Latins, proposing to build a common temple to JupiterFatialis, at which both nations might meet and oiler sacrifices fortheir common safety. At first the solemnity lasted but one day,but it was at different times extended to ten. It was held on theAlban mount, and celebrated with chariot races at the capitol,where the victor was treated with a large draught of wormwooddrink. b 3
2. Ferie Imperative were fixed and instituted by the merecommand of consuls, prxtors, or dictators, upon the gaining ofsome victory or other fortunate event.
3. FkrieNi.indinai.es. See Nundine.
. t erie Stativa were kept as public feasts by the wholecity upon certain moveable days appointed in their calendar ;—stub were the Compitalia, Carmentalia, Litpercaiia, &c. See"Gonaua, Carmentalia, Ac .
I 1 Erie, in the Rogiisli breviarv, is applied to the days of the)'eek; thus Monday is the feria secunda, Tuesday the feria lertia.
he occasion of (his was, that the first Christians usjjil to keep the'aster-week holy. They have also extraordinary feria-, viz. the,, rei ' l as t days of passion-week, the two following Luster-days, and
c second feria; of rogation.
I’ERINA, the ancient city ofThala in Africa, taken and de-by Metellus in the war with Jugurtha . It was visited l>v
"tr. Gri
d to haveppointed.
" lr - LSruce in ids late travels through Africa, who expocleifound many magnificent ruins in the place, but was disap
* he only remarkable objects be met with were the baths, "Inch
hre excetsivelv warm. T .
I' EHMANaGII, a county of Ireland , in the province of Fl-bounded bv Cavan on the J- Tyrone on the N. and is.I'., by
* >'vconnel on the N. A. Leitrim on the S. VY. and Monaghan onth, -W. It is 38 miles long and 24 broad. A great part otitis takenU P with bogs, and the great lake, called Lough Fame.
FERMENT , in chemistry, any body which being applied toanother, produces fermentation. Ferments are either matters al-ready in the act of fermentation, or tiiat soon run into this act.Of the first kind are the flowers of wine, vest, fermenting beer, orfermenting wine, Ac. and of the second are tha new expressed ve-getable juices of summer fruit. Among distillers ferments are allthose bodies, which, when added to the liquor, only correct somefault therein, and by removing some obstacle to fermentation,forward it by secondary means: as also such as, being added intime of fermentation, make the liquor yield a larger proportion ofspirit, and give it a finer flavour* *
FERMENTATION, a sensible internal motion of the consti-tuent particles of a moist, fluid, mixed, or compound body; bythe continuance of which motion these particles are gradually re-moved from their former situation or combination, and again, altersome visible separation is made, joined together in a different or-der and arrangement; so that a new compound is formed, havingqualities very sensibly different from those of the original fluid.Fermentation, properly so called, is confined to the \ egetable and•animal kingdoms; for the effervescences between the acids andalkalies, however much they may resemble the fermentation ofvinous liquors, arc nevertheless exceedingly different. It is di-vided into three kinds; or rather, there are three different stagesof it, viz. the vinous, the acetous, and the putrefactive. Of thefirst, vegetables alone are susceptible : the ilesh of young animalsis in some slight degree susceptible of the second. The fact re-lated by M. Grosier, respecting the lamb, wine, and million spi-rit of the Chinese , seem to shew that animal substances are alsocapable of the vinous fermentation; unless we suppose that theflesh of these animals had been previously mixed with rice or someother vegetable substance. But animal substances are particularlysusceptible of the third, which vegetables do not so easily .fall intowithout previously undergoing the first and second. The pro-duce of the first stage is wine, or some other vinous liquor ; of thesecond, vinegar; and of the third, ammonia. See Barm, Brew-ing, Chemistry, Vinegar, Ac . Fermentation is one of tiiemost obscure processes in nature and no attempt has been made tosolve it with any degree of probability. All that we know withregard to it is, that the liquor, however clear and transparent atfirst, no sooner begins to ferment than it becomes turbid, depositsa sediment, emits a great quantity of fixed air, and throws up ascum to the top, acquiring at the same time some degree of heat.The heat of the vinous stage, however, is but moderate, seldomor never exceeding that of the human body. The heat of theacetous is considerably greater; and that of the putrefactive is thegreatest of all, insomuch that putrefying substances, when heapedtogether in great quantities, will sometimes break forth into actualflame. The spontaneous decomposition of bodies is retarded bvextreme cold, by the sudden drying of the parts, or bv preservationin closed vessels. The two first circumstances necessarily retardthe chemical effects by depriving the parts of that fluidity whichis almost indispensably necessary in chemical processes/ It willeasily be understood that the third condition will retard the spon-taneous decomposition of bodies; when it is considered that theatmosphere itself is the solvent, or at least the receptacle of manyof the component parts of bodies, with which it is disposed to unite.In well-closed vessels the parts of organized bodies, which are dis-posed to fly off in the elastic state, are prevented from escaping ;and such parts as might form new combinations, by absorbing ei-ther the contents or the component parts of the atmosphere, areprevented for want of a free communication. The three conditionsfor the accomplishment of fermentation are, therefore, fluidity ormoisture, moderate heat, or a due temperature, and the access ofthe air; the fermentation will likewise he modified according to thevarious component parts of bodies. In the vinous fermentation, thevegetable matter being held in solution by a considerable quantityof water, and a small quantity of yeast being added, the fluid be-comes turbid and frothy ; oxygen is absorbed, bubbles of c arbonicacid gas are disengaged, which rise to the surface and break. Thedisengagement becomes more and more abundant; mucilage isseparated, part of which subsides to the bottom; and part beingexpanded into froth by the elastic fluid forms yeast. Duringthe course of several days, these effects gradually come to theirheight, and diminish again very slutvly, and thus we obtainwine, brandy, cyder, beer, Ac. from grapes, apples, pears, and
other