Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 04.djvu/206

FONTAINEBLEATJ 166 FOOT FONTAINEBLEAU (fon'tain-blo) , a town of France, department of Seine-et- jMarne, near the Seine, in the forest of the same name, 32 miles S. S. E. of Paris, and 8 S. by E. of Melun. Manu- factures porcelain. Fontainebleau owes its celebrity, and indeed origin, to its palace, or chateau, a favorite residence of the French monarchs. This is a vast and superb pile, in fact, rather a collec- tion of palaces of different architectural periods, than a single edifice. Saracenic, Tuscan, and Greek orders are intermixed and interspersed with that of the Renais- sance, and with the most bizarre and dissimilar ornamentation ; yet, on the whole, the structure has a striking air of grandeur and majesty. It is surrounded by magnificent gardens, and lies in the forest of Fontainebleau, a finely wooded tract of 42,500 acres, intersected by the Seine, and presenting a very varied and picturesque surface. The chateau of Fontainebleau has been the scene of many historical events. Philip IV., Henry III., and Louis XIII. were born in it; and the first-named monarch died here. It was here that Louis XIV. signed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685. It was visited by Peter the Great; Louis XV. espoused the daughter of Stanislaus, King of Poland, in this pal- ace; Pope Pius VII. was confined within its walls for 18 months; and it is inti- mately connected with the history of Napoleon, who made it his favorite resi- dence. He signed his abdication in the palace, in 1814. It was comparatively neglected by Louis XVIII. and Charles X.; but Louis Philippe restored it to somewhat of its ancient grandeur. In 1837 the nuptials of the Due d'Orleans were celebrated here with great pomp. Under Napoleon III. the palace was still more enlarged and embellished, and be- came the scene of luxurious autumnal fetes, rivalling those of the days of Louis XIV. The forest of Fontainebleau became famous during the 19th century as the resort of many famous French painters of the modern school, Rousseau, Corot, Diaz, Millet, etc. Pop, about 15,000. FONTENOY, BATTLE OF, one of the most famous battles in the War of the Austrian Succession. It was fought at a small village of the same name, in western Belgium. Here, May 11, 1745, the French under Marshal Saxe defeated the Allies under the Duke of Cumber- land, with very heavy loss on both sides. FOOD, any substance which, taken into the body, is capable of sustaining or nourishing, or which assists in sustain- ing or nourishing the living being. Foods may be classed under three heads, gase- ous, liquid, and solid, the first two con- sisting of the air we breathe — the oxygen of which is so essential to life — and the water we drink. Milk, tea, coffee, cocoa, etc., are popularly called liquid food, but each of these is simply water in which various solid substances are dissolved, or held in suspension. The solid foods are of three kinds — viz., nitrogenous, non- nitrogenous, and mineral. Nitrogen compounds, or flesh formers, are essen- tially composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. They possess the only ingredients capable of building up and repairing the nitrogenous tissues of the body, but they also furnish a limited supply of heat, especially when heat-giv- ing compounds are deficient in the body. Nitrogenous compounds are found both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms under the forms of albumen, fibrin, casein, gelatine, and chondrin. Non-nitrogenous compounds, or heat givers, sometimes called carbonaceous compounds, are com- posed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. They serve to keep up the heat of the body, and so produce energy or force; but they contribute, also, to the repair and growth of the body. The chief heat givers are starch (abundant in the cereal grains), sugar, and fat. None of these substances will of itself sustain life. The mineral foods are the salts of soda and potash, the phosphates of lime and mag- nesia, iron, etc. As the daily waste of the body must be met by a daily supply of nourishment, it becomes of the utmost importance that such supply should con- sist of both flesh formers and heat givers, and in the proportion of two parts of the former to six of the latter. The National Pure Food Law, which went into effect in the United States Aug. 1, 1900, was aimed against Adulteration (q.v.). See Nutrition; Conservation of Food. The food of animals is not directly de- rived from inorganic nature, but medi- ately through the agency of plants. Plants can feed on and assimilate inor- ganic matter, in this respect differing from animals. A few plants, however, such as fungi, the sundew (Drosera), and Venus' fly trap, require animal food. The ordinary food of plants con- sists of carbon, water, and nitrogen. FOOT, that part of the lower extrem- ity below the leg on which we stand and walk. It is composed of three series or groups of bones — the tarsal, or hinder- most; the metatarsal, which occupy the middle portion; and the phalanges, which form the toes. The tarsal bones are seven in number. Above, they are connected with the tibia and fibula bones of the leg, and below from the