FOS
(81 )
FOS
Horace paints the Goddefs, preceded by Ncceffity, hold- ing Nails and Wedges in her Hands, with a Cramp-iron, and melted Lead to fallen it ; rarely accompanied with Fi- delity, unlefs when ihe abandons a Family; Tor in that cate Fidelity never fails to depart with her, as well as Friends.
The Painters reprefent her in a Woman's Habir, with a Bandage before her Eyes, to (hew that /he afls without Dif- cernment; {landing on a Wheel, to exprefs her Instability. The Romans, fays LaBantius, reprefented her with a Cor- nucopia, and the Helm of a Ship, to mew that fhe diftri- butes Riches, and direcls the Affairs of the World. In ef- fefl, 'tis with fuch Characters, that we fee her reprefented on fo many Medals, with the Infcriptions, FORT UN A AUG. FORTUNA REDUX. FORTUNE AUG. or REBUCIS, o;c. Sometimes fhe is feen pointing at a Globe before her Feet, with a Sceptre in one Hand, "holding the Cornucopia in the other.
The Romans had a Male, and Female Fortune for the Objecls of their Adoration: The Fcrtuna Virilis, honour'd by the Men ; and the Fortuna Muliebris, by the Women.
On the Reverfe of a Medal o£Commodus, we have a Re- prefentation of Fortune, under the Quality, or Surname of Manens, i. e. flable, permanent; holding a Horie by the Reins. On the Greek Medals we meet with ArAGH, or KAAH TTXH, Good Fortune. Conjlantine gave the Epithet Anthoufia, i. e. flouri/hing, to the Fortune of his new City Constantinople.
FORUM, in Antiquity, is us'd in divers Acceptations. Sometimes for a Place of Negotiation, or Merchandizing, anfwering to our Marketplace ; in which fenfe it has ufually fome Adjective added to it, as Forum Soarium, the Beait Market; Forum <Pi fear 'htm, the Fifh Market; Olitorium Forum, the Herb Market, &c. See Market.
Forum, again, is us'd for any Place, where the Governor of a Province convenes his People, to give Judgment, ac- cording to Courfe of Law : Whence a Man is laid Forum agere, when he keeps the Affixes; Forum indieere, when he appoints the Place where they are to be kept, &c.
Fop.um is alfo a publick Standing Place in the City of Rome, where Caufes were judicially try'd, and Orations deli- ver'd to the People.
Of the^ Forums there were feveral ; at firft only three, viz. RomWium, ffulianum, and Augufium : But that Num- ber was afterwards increas'd to fix, by the Addition of the I'ranfitorium, call'd alio 'Palladium 5 the I'rojantim, and Saluftii Forum.
The firft, and moft eminent of thefe, was the Forum Romanum, call'd alfo Forum fetus ; and abfolutcly, Forum-, or the Forum.
Tn this was an Apartment, call'd the Roflra, where the Lawyers pleaded ; the Officers harangued ; Funeral Ora- tions were deliver *d, £f?c. See Rostra.
In the fame Forum was the Comitium, or Hall of Juftice, with the Sancluary of Saturn, the Temple of Cafior, ike. See Comitium.
F0R.UM is alfo us'd among Cafuifis, &c. (or Jurifdi&ion. Thus, they fay in Foro Legis, or the Outer Forum, i. e. in the Eye of the Law, or the common Courfe of Jultice: In Foro Confcientiee, or the Inner Forum, i. e. in the Eye of GOD, or a Man's own Confcience.
There are a great many things not condemn'd in Foro Zegis, which yet are criminal in Foro Confcient'w.—
FOSS, in Fortification, &c. a 2)itch, cr Moat. See Ditch, &c.
The Word is form'd of the Participle Fojfum, of the Verb fodio, I dig. — — •
Foss, in Anatomy, a kind of Cavity in a Bone, with a large Aperture, but no Exit, or Perforation, When the Aperture is very narrow, it is called a Sinus. In the Cranium there are fix internal, and fourteen ex- ternal Foffes. The Cavity of the Orbit, which contains the Eye, is a Fofs.
Foss is particularly us'd for a Cavity, or Denture in the Back Part of the Neck. See Neck.
Voss-Way, was antiently one of the four great Highways of England ; fo call'd, becaufe in fome Places it was never perfected, but left as a great Ditch. See Way, fee alfo Watling Street.
FOSSA Magna, or Naviculars, is an oblong Cavity, forming the Infide of the Pudendum Mi'-liebre, and which prefents it felf upon opening the Labia $ and in the Middle whereof are the CarunciiU Myrtiformcs. See Pudendum. Fossa, in our antient Cufloms, was a Ditch, full of Wa- ter, where Women; committing Felony, were drowned ; but Men hanged.
Nam ££? ipfl in omnibus tenement! s fuh omnem ab an- tiquo Icgalcm habuere juflitiam, videlicet ferritin, foffam, fnrcas, & fimilia. Se'eFup.cA.
In another Senfc 'tis taken for a Grave, as appears by thefe old Verfcs ;
Hie jaceut in Fofsa Bed-E venerabilis offa, Hie eft foffitus, qui Vis crat hie cathedratus.
FOSSARII, in Antiquity, a kind of Officers in theEaftern Church, whofe Bufinels was, to inter the Dead.
Ciaconius relates, that Confiantine created 950 FoQaries^ whom he took out of the divers Colleges or Companies of Tradefmen : He adds, that they were exempted from Taxes 3 Services, onerary Offices, %$c.
Fa. Goar, in his'Nores on thcGretk Euchclogos, infinuates, that the Foffarn were efUbiim'd in the times of the Apo- files; and that the young Men, who carried off the Body of Ananias, and thofe Perfons full of the Fear of GOD, who interr'd St. Stephen, were of the Number. St.Jerom allures us that the Rank o£JFo^arins held the firft Place among the Clerks : But he is to be understood of thofe who had the Dircftion and Intendance of the Interment of the Devout.
FOSSIL Kingdom. The Chemifts divide all Bodies into three Gaffes, or Kingdoms ; viz. Feffii, or Mineral ; Ve- getable^ and Animal. See each in its Place, Fossil, Ve- getable, &c.
Fossil, in Natural Hiflory, is us'd, in a general Senfe, for any thing dug up, or found under Ground. Such are all Minerals, Metals, Rock Salts, &c.
There are alfo" Fojftl SaltPetre, Foffil Borax, S*c. Fossils may be diftinguifn'd into i° Such as are Natives of the Earth ; and i° Such as are adventitious and repo- fited therein by any extraordinary Means, as Earthquakes, Deluges, £5?c.
Native Fossixs, or Fossils properly fo called, are ftricHy defln'd to be fenfible Bodies generated, and growing in, and of the Earth; whofe conftituent Parts are fo fimple,, and homogeneous, that there is no apparent DUlincfion of Yeffels, and Juices; between the Part, and the Whole. Native Fof/ils are either Simple, or Compound. Simple Fossils are thofe, whofe Parts, however divided,, are all of the fame Nature, i. e. of the fame Gravity, Mag- nitude, Figure, Hardncfs, and Mobility.
Such is Quickfilver, which, however divided, is always found the fame.
Compound Fossils are thofe which may be divided into different, or diffimilar Parts.
As Antimony, which may be refolv'd by Fire- into Sul- phur, and a Metalline Part.
The Simple Fq/fils arc all Metals, Salts, Stones, both vulgar and pretious, and Earths. See Metal, Salt, Stone, and Earth.
The Compound Fossils are all Sulphurs, all Semimetals,; or what we properly call Minerals 5 and all Bodies com- bin'd out of any two, or more of the preceding, either Simple, or Compound FoJJils. See Sulphur, and Semi- metal.
Adventitious, or Foreign Fossils, include the fuhterra- neous Exuvife of Sea and Land Animals, and even vegeta- bles ; as Shells, Bones, Teeth, Leaves, Stalks, &c. which are found in great Abundance, in divers Parts of the Earth.
Thefe Extraneous Fofjils have employ'd the Curiofity of feveral of our lateft and beft Naturaliits, who have each. their feveral Syfrem to account for the Surprizing Appear- ances of petrify'd Sea-fiiTies, in Places far remote from the Sea, and on the Tops of Mountains : Shells in the Middle of Quarries of Stones: Elephants Teeth, and Bones of di- vers Animals, peculiar to the Southern Climates; and Plants only growing in the Ealr, found in our Northern and We- llern Parts. See Shell, &c.
Some will have thefe Shells, £f?c. to be real Stones, anct Stone Plants, form'd attcr the ufual manner of other figur'd Stones, and Stone Plants : Of which Opinion is our learned Dr. Lifter.
That Author, tho' he allows of petrify'd Shells on the Sea Shores, will by no means agree, that there are any fuch Petrifactions in the Midland Countries. The Shell-like Stones, found in our Quarries, he contends, are Lapides fui generis ; and never were any Part of an Animal.
His Reafons are, that their Matter, and Texture, is per- fectly the fame with that of the Rock, or Quarry, where they are taken 5 as Iron-ftone Shells are all Iron-flonc; Spar, or Cryftalline, all Sparr, £f?c. That Quarries of different Stone yield different Sorts of thefe Shells : And that there are no Animals in Nature, which yield any thing exacfly like them; See Stone, and Stone 'Plant.
But i° Thefe Shells found under Ground, are perfectly conformable to thofe in the Sea in Figure, Subitance, Mag- nitude, f$c. i° The Subftance of thefe Foffiis differs effen- tially from the common Subftance of Stones. 'Tis true, wo frequently find them covcr'd, or incruifated with a Mineral, or Stony Matter, which has gradually infinuatcd it felf into the Pores; but it is eafy dilUnguifhing that Matter from the Subftance of the Shell.
The common Opinion is, that thefe foffil Shells, with all other foreign Bodies, found within the Earth, as Bones, Trees, Plants, &c. were buried therein at the time of the univerfal Deluge ; and that having been penetrated either by the Bituminous Matter, abounding chiefly in watery
- X Places 5
