F A M
FAR
FALSE (Cycl.) — False Gallop, in the manege. See Gallop,' Cycl.
False Alarm, in war, a feigned, or a miftakert alarm. See the article Alarm.
False Judgment. See Falso Judhlo, Cycl.
¥ AhSE-Sbeat, on board a {hip. See Sheat.
FALSE-$f«H, inaShip. See Stem.
False Tokens, in law, is ufed where perfons get money or goods into their hands by forged letters, or other counterfeit means. This is punifhable by imprifonment by Stat. 33 Hen. 8. c. I.
False Tone, in mufic— Some call the interval of two femi-tones major by this name; but others, more properly call it a di- miniihed third. Vid. Ozanam, Diet. Math. p. 653. See In- terval.
FALSIFY, in law, is ufed for proving any thing to be falfe. Hence we find
Falsifying a Record, for {hewing it to be erroneous. Thus lawyers teach, that a perfon purchasing land of another, who is afterwards outlawed of felony, $3c. may falftfy the record, not only as to the time wherein the felony is fuppofed to have been committed, but alfo as to the point of the offence. But where a man is found guilty by verdict, a purchafer cannot falfify as to the offence ; though be may for the time where the party is found guilty generally in the indi£tment, becaufe the time is not material upon evidence. 2 Hawk. PI. Crown, 459. We alfo meet with
Falsifying a Recovery. Thus, it is faid, the iffue in tail may falftfy a recovery fuffered by tenant for life, &c.
FALSO Bordone, in the Italian mufic, is ufed to denote the bur- den or ground bafs of a fong, when it is not exact to the rules of harmony, i. e. when the notes move all the fame way, as is often the cafe in the pfalms, and other parts of divine office. The name is more particularly given to a certain harmony produced by the accompanyments of feveral fixths following one another, which make feveral fourths between two higher parts; becaufe the third part is obliged to make thirds with the bafs. Brojf. Muf. Diet, in Voc.
FALUN, a word ufed in many parts of France, as the name of a particular fort of manure of lands, which is dug out of the earth, and is no other than fragments of fea (hells bury'd at confiderable depths, and amafled in prodigious ftrata in many parts of that kingdom. Thefe they fpread upon the lands in the manner of dung ; and being as it were calcined and very friable, they readily diflblve, and are the fineft manure of any for fome foils.
FALX(Cyr/.)— Falx, the fickle fijb, in ichthyology, a fmall fifh of the tenia kind, common about the fhores of the Mediter- ranean ; but feldom brought to fale becaufe of its glutinous nature, being wholly converted into a fort of glue, when clrefied. It is a foft and fmooth oblong fifh, and has its name from its refembling a fickle in figure. It is often of an ell long, and with that length is not above the breadth of one's hand. It is of a filvery colour, but its back fin is red. Its eyes are large, and its head very ill fhaped. The common people call it the marmot fifh. TVilloughby, Hift. Pifc. p. 117,
FAMES Canina, exceffive appetite, in medicine. See Orexis, Canine, and Bulimy.
FAMILIA {Cycl.) — Familia, in natural hiftory, a term ufed by authors to exprefs a certain order of animals, or other na- tural productions, agreeing in their principal characters, and containing numerous individuals, not only different from one another, but that in whole fets, feveral numbers being to be collected out of the fame family, all of which have the fami- ly character, and all fome fubordinate diftinction peculiar to that whole number ; or though found in every individual of it, not found in thofe of any others.
It has been too common to confound the words, clafs, family, order, &c. in natural hiftory. But the determinate meaning of the word Familia feems to be that larger order of creatures, under which claries and genera are fubordinate difti net ions. Among the quadrupeds, the feveral genera of the unguicu- lated creatures agree one with another in many general cha- racters common to all ; and in which they differ from the ungulated animals, which have alfo their feveral peculiar cha- racters common to all, and yet different from all thofe of the others. Thefe naturally conftitute certain larger divifions in- to Families, and no one would ever break through thefe, or bring the cat and the horfe into the fame Family. In the fame manner, in ichthyology, there are feveral genera of fifhes, which agree perfectly in certain common characters, and difagree from all others in them. The bream and the herring, though very different in genus, may yet be brought into the fame Family, both having many characters in com- mon, as well as many different ones ; but no one would ever be for bringing the herring and the whale into the fame Fami- ly. The arrangement of natural bodies into thefe Families, or general and larger clafles, is of the utmoft ufe to natural hifto- ry, when it is properly done, and the divifions are genuine and natural ; when other wife, it is hurtful, Thefe divifions of animals into Families are of two kinds, the one artificial or hypothetical, the other natural. The artifi- cially contrived Families, or clafles of bodies, are founded on Suppl. Vol. I.
certain accidents of the things under confideratiori, riot made from the parts of the bodies themfelves. Of this artificial kind are thofe diftinctions Co much in ufe among the old naturalifts* founded on the place of growth and time of flowering of plants, the time and mariner of bringing forth in animals°the food of creatures, and their different magnitudes. And to thefe falfe foundations for general divifions may be added thofe founded on the number of certain external parts of the crea- tures.
The abfurdity of the firft of thefe methods is eafily fe'en, firice it requires a prior knowledge of the objects before they come under our coufideration. If an unknown plant, mineral or animal be offered to a naturalift, how is he to inform himfelf of its time of flowering, its place of produSion, or its man- ner of bringing forth its young. And as this is impofiible, it is alfo impofiible that he fhould ever refer to its family, or trace it out among the individuals of it. As to the latter method of making the number of certain external parts, the character of a family, it is eafy to fee the abfurdity of it in re- gard to the fifties, for the fins of thefe animals are not always the fame in number, in the different fpecies truly and proper- ly belonging to one genus. Thus the pearch, gadus, fyngna- thus, and many others have more or fewer fins, in the fame genus. Thefe ate the errors of the artificial or hypothetical clafles and families of natural bodies.
The natural families are liable to no fuch objections. In thefe all the genera refered to the fame family, agree perfectly and punctually in their principal parts; the feveral individuals of which thefe families are compofed, being reduced into genera ; thefe are to be arranged into their proper clafles, according to* their mutual agreements; and of thefe clafles, the fmaller the number, the eafier and plainer will be the whole method. Thefe natural families can be only founded on effential charac- ters, and in the quadruped kingdom, they are to be taken ei- ther from the figures of the hoofs or claws, or from the teeth. In birds, the figure and proportion of the beak, is a very proper character; and in fifties, the figure of the head, and the fituation of the tail, are to be confidered ; and are ftable and effential characters. The whole animal world may eafily be thus reduced to families, and from thofe to clafles, genera, and fpecies, and the ftudy of nature rendered much more regular and eafy, than it can be by any artificial divifions. Linnwi Faun. Suec. Artedi Ichthyolog. FAN, Flabellum {Cycl.) — That this machine was known to the antients, is very evident from what Terence fays,
Cape hoc flabellum, & ventulum buic fie farito.
And Ovid Art. Amand. 1. 161.
Profuit £ff tenuis Veritas moviffe flcibclh.
Thefe fans of the antients were made of different materials* but the moft elegant were compofed of peacocks feathers, or perhaps painted fo, as to reprefenta peacock's tail. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. in voc. Flabellum.
FANIONS, fmall flags carried along with the baggage. See Flag.
FANTASIA, in the Italian mulic, fignifies fancy, and is ufed for a compofition, wherein the compofer ties himfelf to no particular time, but ranges according as his fancy leads, amidft various movements, different airs, &c. This is otherwife called the capricious Jlylc : before fonnatas were ufed there were many of this kind, fome of which remain even now. Brojf, Dia. Muf. in voc.
FANTOME com, in husbandry, a term ufed by the farmers in fome of our counties for lean, light and lank corn, as they call in the fame places fantom flefti, that which is lean and poor, and can hardly hang on the bones. Ray's Englifh Words, p. 17.
FANUM, among the Romans, a temple or place confecrated to fome deity. The deified men and women among the heathens had likewife their Fana ; even the great philolbpher Cicero, erected one to his daughter Tullia. Mem. Acad. Infcrip. vol. It p. 488. feq.
FARAND MAN, in old writers, a traveller or merchant frran- ger, to whom by the law of Scotland juftice ought to be done with all expedition, that his bufinefs or journey be not hin* dered. Skene de verb, fignificat.
FARCIMINALIS tunica, the fame with the Allantoides.
FARCEY. We have in the Philofophical Tranfactions, an ac- count of a horfe being cured of this difeafe by hemlock. The difcovery was accidental, the mafter of the horfe riding near a place were hemlock grew abundantly, fuffered his horfe to eat greedily of it, and he became better from that time, and in a few days was wholly cured. We generally efteem hem- lock a poifon, but befide this proof of its falutary effect, it is well known, that its feeds are eaten by fome birds, particu- larly by the buftards in very great quantities, and that with- out any harm.
FARD1NGEL was the fourth part of a yard land, or of a plough land, according to Spelman. Vid. Du Cangc, Glofs. Lat. voc. Ferdingtl,
u B FAREN,.
