Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 04.djvu/153

FERONIA 123 FERRIC OXIDE ways. The city has several handsome public buildings, including a custom house, a postoffice, public schools, and hospitals. It is the port of entry and the provincial police headquarters for East Kootenay. It is the center of an im- portant hunting region. Its industries include sawmills, railway-car shops, breweries, brick works, etc. The Crow's Nest Pass coal mines are in the neigh- borhood. Pop. about 8,000. FERONIA, in mythology, a Roman goddess, commonly ranked among the rural divinities, and worshiped with great solemnity both by the Sabines and the Latins, but more especially by the former; in astronomy, an asteroid, the 72d found; discovered by Peters, on Jan. 9, 1862. Also a genus of Au^-antiaceas (citronworts), the order to which the orange belongs. The single species is the wood apple or elephant apple (F. ele- phantum). The fruit is gray with a hard rind. It grows in India. Also an insect of the Coleoptera, belonging to the section Pentamera, and family Carabidse. FERRARA (fair-rar'a), a fortified city of central Italy, capital of province of same name, and formerly an independ- ent duchy under the rule of the House of Este; situate in a low marshy plain, on the left bank of the Volano, 5 miles S. of the Po, 26 N. N. E. of Bologna. Under the rule of its native princes Ferrara was the seat of one of the most polished and refined of the Italian courts. Fer- rara contains a cathedral built in 1135, a university and a fine public library (in which are deposited the MSS. and other relics of the poets Ariosto and Tasso), and one of the finest theaters in Italy. Its manufactures and trade are incon- siderable. Ariosto resided in this city, and here, in 1516, was published the first edition of his immortal "Orlando"; and here, too, in 1533, he breathed his last. The house in which he lived is still care- fully preserved. Ferrara, besides being the birthplace, was also the place of im- prisonment of the poet Tasso {q. v.). Cardinal Bentivoglio was also a native of Ferrara. From a small town Ferrara became a walled city, A. d. 670. The family of Este possessed it first as chief magistrates, and afterward as heredi- tary sovereigns, from about 1030 to 1597; when, on the death of its last duke, and the extinction of the male line of the house, it was taken possession of by the Pope. In 1796, the French entered Ferrara, and made it the capital of the department of Basso Po. In 1814, the Church again recovered it, but in 1859 it became a part of the new Kingdom of Italy. Pop. of commune about 90,000. FERRERO, GUGLIELMO, an Italian historian. He was born near Naples in 1872, studied law at Pisa and literatui'e at Bologna, and collaborated with Lom- broso in producing, "La donna delin- quente." His first important work was II Mondo criminale italiano," written in collaboration with Sighele and Bian- chi. He had already commenced his study of Roman history and between 1902 and 1908 produced his "Grandezza e decadenza di Roma," which has since been translated into the principal Eu- ropean languages. The work shows much original reflection and is boldly critical of Latin and Greek authorities. During 1906, he lectured on Roman history at Paris, and during 1907 and 1908 visited South America and the United States, lecturing at the Lowell Institute and else- where. His principal work, in four volumes, is knovra in English as the "Greatness and Decline of Rome." His other works include : "Characters and Events of Roman History"; "Fra i due mondi" (English translation: "Between Two Worlds") ; Ancient Rome and Mod- ern America: A Comparative Study of Morals and Manners." FERRET COL (fer'ra), a pass of the Pennine Alps, in Switzerland, connecting Orsieres, in the latter counti-y, with Cor- mayeur, in Piedmont. Height 7,640 feet above sea-level. FERRIC OXIDE, FeiO,, peroxide of iron, sesquioxide of iron, red oxide of iron, rouge, colcothar. It occurs in na- ture as red haematite, specular iron ore, and is obtained by heating, FeSoj, fer- rous sulphate in the preparation of sul- phuric acid. It is a red powder, nearly insoluble in acids; it is used as a pig- ment, and to give an orange or purple color to glass and porcelain, according to temperature. Ferric oxide is not mag- netic, and is unaltered by heat. It is used to polish glass, and when finely divided by jewelers under the name of rouge. The hydrated sesquioxide is ob- tained in a bulky brown precipitate by precipitating ferric chloride by am- monia; soda or potash must not be used, as the oxide retains a large quantity of these substances. The hydrate occurs native as brown haematite. Hydrated ferric oxide is soluble in acids form- ing ferric salts; these solutions dissolve excess of the oxide, which is afterward precipitated as a basic salt. The hy- drated oxide is used to remove H:S from coal gas, and as a mor-lant in dyeing. It is reduced by organic matter, but is reoxidized in the air. Ferric oxide unites with ferrous oxide to form magnetic oxide of iron, Fe.Oj-FeO, or FeaOi.