Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/297

FLOYD sidential elector, and voted for James Buchanan, for whose nomination he had exerted himself at the democratic national convention, and in whose favor during the canvass he had made many speeches in different parts of the country. In March, 1857, he was appointed by President Buchanan secretary of war. When Major An- derson moved his garrison from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, Dec. 26, 1860, and President Buchanan refused to withdraw the United States troops from Charleston harbor, Floyd resigned and retired from Washington. During the latter part of his administration of the war department he had dispersed the army to re- mote parts of the country, and transferred 113,000 muskets and many cannon from north- ern to southern arsenals. He was indicted by the grand jury of the District of Columbia as being privy to the abstraction of $870,000 in bonds from the department of the interior, in the winter of 1860, but failed to appear for trial. Soon after the beginning of the civil war he was made a brigadier general in the con- federate army, and commanded with Generals Wise and Henningsen in Western Virginia. On Sept. 10, 1861, he was defeated and driven from Gauley bridge by Gen. Cox, with the loss of baggage, ammunition, and camp equipage. He commanded a brigade at Fort Donelson when it was besieged by Gen. Grant, and the night before the surrender, Feb. 16, 1862, he, with Gen. Pillow and about 3,000 men of the garri- son, escaped into Tennessee. For this retreat he was officially censured by the confederate government. He never again held a command. FLOYD) William, an American general, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, born in Suffolk co., N. Y., Dec. 17, 1734, died in Western, Oneida co., Aug. 4, 1821. He was the son of an opulent land owner, whose ancestors had emigrated from Wales and settled on Long Island. On the outbreak of the differences between Great Britain and her American colonies, Floyd ar- dently espoused the cause of the latter, and was appointed to the command of Suffolk county, and a delegate to the first continental congress in Philadelphia. During his absence the British assembled a naval force in Gardi- ner's bay, with the intention of invading Long Island and levying contributions; but Gen. Floyd returned, assembled the Suffolk militia, and displayed so much energy and daring that the enemy abandoned their enterprise. He was reflected a delegate to the general colo- nial congress, and continued a member by ssive elections for eight years. In 1777 lie was chosen a senator of the state of New York, retaining his seat in congress. He was a member of the first congress under the con- stitution, and declined a reelection. He was one of the presidential electors in 1801, giving his vote to Mr. Jefferson. In the same year he was chosen a member of the convention to ivise the constitution of New York, and was afterward twice presidential elector. FLUORESCENCE 289 FLUGEL, Cnstav Lebrecht, a German orientalist, born in Bautzen, Feb. 18, 1802. He studied philology, and especially the oriental languages, at Leipsic, Vienna, and Paris, and in 1832 obtained a professorship at Meissen, which he held till 1850, when he resigned it on account of his feeble health. His most im- portant work is an edition of Hadji Khalfa's bibliographic and encyclopedic lexicon in Ara- bic, with a Latin translation and commentary, published at Leipsic and London, at the ex- pense of the oriental translation fund (7 vols., 1835-'58). In 1834 he published an edition of the Koran, and in 1842 Concordantim Corani AraMccB. His recent works are Mani und seine LeJire (1862), and Die ardbischen, turki- schen^und persischen Handschriften (1865-'7). FLUGEL, Johann Gottfried, a German lexicog- rapher, born at Barby, near Magdeburg, Nov. 22, 1788, died in Leipsic, June 24, 1855. He was employed as a merchant's clerk till 1810, when he went to the United States. He re- turned to Germany in 1819, and was professor of the English language at the university of Leipsic from 1824 to 1838, when he was ap- pointed United States consul in Leipsic. He is the author of Triglotte, oder Tcaufmannisches Worterbuch in drei Sprachen (German, Eng- lish, and French, 2d ed., 1854), Pralctisches HandbucJi der engliscJien Handelscorrespondenz (6th ed., 1853), and other writings. His " Com- plete Dictionary of the English and German, and German and English Languages " has passed through several editions, and is exten- sively used in Germany, England, and the United States. FLUORESCENCE, a peculiar appearance ex- hibited by certain bodies, either solid or in so- lution, which is due to a change of refrangi- bility in the rays of light. Sir David Brevv- ster in 1833, having thrown a beam of sunlight concentrated by a lens through an alcoholic solution of chlorophyl in a transparent vessel, found that while the emergent beam was, as should be expected, of the color of the solu- tion a fine emerald green the path of the beam through the liquid was marked to a cer- tain depth by a bright blood-red light, emitted in all directions. Supposing this effect due to a reflection of part of the admitted light by minute solid particles suspended in the liquid, he. termed the phenomenon one of in- ternal dispersion. He discovered similar re- sults in fluor spar and some other media ; the new colors, however, not being always the same. In 1845 Sir John Herschel found that a weak solution of bisulphate of quinine, about 1 part of the salt to 200 of water, acidulated by addition of a little sulphuric acid, when viewed by transmitted solar light, appeared colorless ; but that, at the same time, it emitted from a thin stratum at the surface at which the beam entered a beautiful sky-blue light, which in various other directions was seen as if emanating from the liquid. Beyond the thin stratum thus seen, the peculiar blue rays