Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/853

F U L F U M faund between tlie Aymestry limestone and the underlying lower Ludbw beds, rendering the former particularly liable to slides or subsidences (see Murchison, tiiluria). From the presence in it of beds of the mineral, a thick deposit of blue and yellow clays with bands of rubbly limestone in the Oolitic or Jurassic series of rocks in England has received the name of Fuller s Earth (see GEOLOGY). The consump tion of fuller s earth has fallen off considerably, owing to the employment of other substances for the cleansing of cloth. It was in past times largely mined in the Downs, south of B.ith, for use in the cloth-mills of Bradford-on-Avon, Frome, and Gloucestershire. FULMAR, from the Gaelic Fidmaire, the Fulmarus glacial is of modern ornithologists, one of the largest of the Petrels (Procdlariidce) of the northern hemisphere, being about the size of the Common Gull (Larus canus) and not unlike it in general coloration, except that its primaries are grey instead of black. This bird, which ranges over the North Atlantic, is seldom seen on the European side below Lit. 53 N., but on the American side comes habitually to lat. 45, or even lower. It has been commonly believed to have two breeding places in the British Islands, namely, St Kilda and South Barra ; but, according to Mr Robert Gray (Birds of the West of Scotland, p. 499), it has abandoned the latter since 1844, while he is assured of its now breed ing in Skye. Northward it established itself about 1838 on Myggenses Holm, one of the Faroes, while it has several stations off the coast of Iceland and Spitsbergen, as well as at Bear Island. Its range towards the pole seems to be only bounded by open water, and it is the constant atten dant upon all who are employed in the whale and seal fisheries, shewing the greatest boldness in approaching boats and ships, and feeding on the offal obtained from them. By our seamen it is commonly called the " Molly Mawk " * (cor rupted from the Dutch Mallemuck), and is extremely well known to them, its night, as it skims over the waves, first with a few beats of the wings and then gliding for a long way, being very peculiar. It only visits the land to deposit its single white egg, which is laid on a rocky ledge, where a shallow nest is made in the turf and lined with a little dried grass. Many of its breeding-places are a most valuable property to those who live near them and take the eggs and young, which, from the nature of the locality, are only to be had at a hazardous risk of life. In St Kilda it is said that from 18,000 to 20,000 young are killed in one week of August, the only time when, by the custom of the com munity, they are allowed to be taken. These, after the oil is extracted from them, serve the islanders with food for the winter. This oil, says Mr Gray, having been chemically ex amined by Mr E. C. C. Stanford, was found to be a fish-oil, and to possess nearly all the qualities of that obtained from the liver of the cod, with a lighter specific gravity. It, however, has an extremely strong scent, which is said by those who have visited St Kilda to porvade every thing and person on the island, and is certainly retained by an egg or skin of the bird for many years. Whenever a live example is seized in the hand it ejects a considerable quantity of this oil from its mouth. The Fulmar is said by Mr Darwin (Origin of Species, ed. 4, p. 78) to be the most numerous bird in the world ; but on whose authority the statement is nude does not appear, and to render it probable we should have to unite specifically with the Atlantic bird, not only its Pacific representative, F. pacificus, which some ornitho logists deem distinct, but also that which replaces it in the Antarctic seas and is considered by most authorities to be a perfectly good species, F. ylacialioides. The differences between them are, however, exceedingly slight, and for Mr 1 A name misapplied in the southern hemisphere to Diomedea inclanophrys, one of the Albatrosses. Darwin s purpose on this particular occasion it matters little how they are regarded. It is a more interesting question whether the statement is anyhow true, but one that can hardly be decided as yet. (A. N.) FULTON, ROBEKT (17G5-1815), an American engineer and mechanician, was born in 17G5 at Little Britain in Pennsylvania. At the age of seventeen he adopted the profession of a portrait and landscape painter, but he also, even then, devoted a considerable portion of his time to mechanical pursuits. In his twenty-second year he visited England, with the view of improving himself in art by the instructions of his countryman West. There he made the acquaintance of the duke of Bridgewater, Earl Stanhope, and Watt ; and partly by their influence he was led to devote his attention more exclusively to mechanical en gineering. In 1793 he had conceived the design of pro pelling vessels by steam, but did not at that time find a suitable opportunity for putting his views into practice. His time was also much engrossed in devising a method of superseding the locks on canals by a plane of double incline for which he obtained a patent from the British Govern ment in 1794. In the same year he obtained patents for flax-spinning and rope-twisting machines, and various other mechanical inventions, bearing chiefly upon the construc tion of canals, on which latter subject he published a trea tise. In 1797 he removed to Paris, and remained for seven years in the house of Joel Barlow, the American minister at the court of France, prosecuting his scientific studies. During that period he projected the first pano rama ever^ exhibited in Paris, and made important experi ments on submarine explosives. These experiments were further continued in America, ;but although Congress voted him 5000 dollars for prosecuting them, his plans were finally declared impracticable. It was also at Paris that he first succeeded, after repeated trials, in propelling a boat through the water by the aid of steam. In 180G he returned to America and repeated the experiment on a larger scale and with more decided success. In 1809 he took out his first patent, but his rights were disputed, and after protracted legislation a compromise was effected. In 1814 Fulton constructed the first j United States war steamer, and lie was engaged upon an improvement of his submarine torpedo when he died, February 24, 1815. Sec Life of Robert Fulton, by C. D. Colden, 1817, and the bio graphy by James llcmvick in Spark s American Biography. FUMITORY, or F^(mar^a, Linn. (Germ. JErdrauch, Fr. Fumcterre), a genus of annual, rarely perennial, herbs of the natural order Fttmariacea , with stems usually branched and straggling, often climbing by means of their petioles ; leaves alternate and decompound, with narrow segments ; flowers in racemes, small, tubular, and purple or whitish, with purple tips ; sepals 2, and deciduous ; petals 4, and conni- vent, the upper one saccate or spurred at the base, the two inner cohering at the apex ; stamens G, and in two bundles opposite the outer petals ; style deciduous ; and capsule one- seeded and indehiscent. There are several British species of the genus. The Common Fumitory, F. officinal** (Germ. Taubcnkropf], called by Shakespeare the " rank fumitory " or "fumiter" (Henry F., v. 2; Lear, iv. 4), is a plant in digenous to Europe, North Africa, and Asia, and is found as an introduced species in the United States. It has glauc ous leaves and pale or dark rose-purple flowers, which bloom throughout the summer, and grows to a height of one or two feet. It is a common weed in corn-fields, and like other members of the genus flourishes best in rich cultivated ground. In past times it was in esteem for its reputed cholagogue and other medicinal properties, and in England, boiled in water, milk, or whey, it was used as a cosmetic. The herbage of F. officinalis and F. racemosa is used in Chiu.1 under the name of T&e-hwa-ti-ting as an application IX. 103