the strong acid fluid previously described, may be separated by sulphuric acid. It affords, when decomposed by solution of ammonia, 61.4 per cent. of silica; and hence was at first supposed by Sir. H. Davy to consist of two prime proportions of acid=2·652, and one of silica4-066, the sum of which numbers may represent its equivalent 6718. One volume of it condenses two volumes of ammonia, and they form together a peculiar saline substance, decomposed by water. The composition of this salt is easily reconciled to the numbers given as representing silica and fluoric acid, on the supposition that it contains one prime of ammonia to one of the fluosilicic gas; for 200 cubic inches of ammonia weigh 36-2 grains and 100 of the acid gas 110-77. Now 36-2: 2:13:: 110-77: 652. FLURRY, n. s., Goth. flokra. Hurry; violent commotion; a gust or storm of wind; a hasty blast. The boat was overset by a sudden flurry from the North. He lived (not Death, but Juan) in a hurry Swift. Of waste, and haste, and glare, and gloss, and glitter, In this gay clime of bear-skins, black and furryWhich (though I hate to say a thing that's better) Peep out sometimes when kings are in a flurry, Through all "the purple and fine linen"-fitter For Babylon's than Russias' royal harlot, And neutralize her outward show of scarlet. Byron. FLUSH, v. n., v., a., adj., & n. s. Fr. flus, or flur, Lat. Aluflus; Dutch, fluysen. To flow; to flow with violence; to approach with rapidity: applied to a rapid motion of the blood, from mental or any other excitement, which produces a glow in the skin, and a redness in the cheeks; it is used of a transient change of color in the face, not of a settled complexion. Thus it is applied to any sudden elation of the mind. The substantive expresses afflux; sudden impulse; violent flow. The adjective is used as a cant term for affluent; abounding. It sometimes means fresh; full of vigor. Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She married. Shakspeare. Hamlet. He took my father grossly, full of brad, With all his crimes broad blown, and flush as May; And how his audit stands, who knows, save Heaven? If the place but affords Any store of lucky birds, As I make 'em to flush, Shakspeare. Each owl out of his bush. Ben Jonson's Owls. Thus Eve with countenance blithe her story told; But in her cheek distemper flushing glowed. Milton's Paradise Lost. At once, arrayed Atterbury's Sermons. In all the colours of the flushing year, It is enough that Fortune found him flush Of youth and vigour, beauty, and those things Which for an instant clip Enjoyment's strings. Byron. FLUSHING, an important sea-port of the island of Walcheren, situated on the north side of the Scheldt, at the mouth of that river. The approach to the harbour is between jetties, and inside the town are two basins, one of which will contain a fleet of men of war; hence the importance of this place to the French, who, in 1795, stipulated for its possession jointly with the Dutch, and afterwards obtained it exclusively. The batteries nearly command the mouth of the Scheldt. This town is a noted and was the birth place of De Ruyter. resort of English smugglers. It is well built, 1809 it sustained a successful siege from the Bri tish army landed in Walcheren, and was not evacuated until the 23rd December, when our troops endeavoured to destroy the inner basins. Buonaparte soon after annexed the island Walcheren to France, and thus it continued until 1814. Population 5700. Old Flushing is a suburb on the west side of the New town. In FLUSHING, a town of America, on a bay in Long Island. Long. 73° 50′ W., lat. 40° 45′ N. FLUSTER, v. a. From to flush. To make hot and rosy with drinking; to make half drunk. Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits, Have I to-night flustered with flowing cups, And they watch too. Shakspeare. Othello. FLUTE, v. a. & n. s. Fr. fluste, flute; Ital. flauto; Belg. fluite (a musical pipe). To cut columns into hollows; a channel or furrow in a pillar; a regular ornamental concave extending from the base to the capital of a column: a wind instrument, with stops for the fingers. In floites made he discordaunce Chaucer. Romaunt of the Rose. Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke. The soft complaining flute In dying notes discovers Whose dirge is whispered by the warbling lute. FLUTE, in music, is the simplest of all musical instruments of the wind kind. It is played on by blowing it with the mouth; and the tones or notes are changed by stopping and opening the holes disposed for that purpose along its side. The ancient fistulæ, or flutes, were made at first of reeds; afterwards of wood, and at length of metal. But how they were blown, whether as our flutes, or hautboys, does not appear. a ist of All-Hallows Church, London. They failed,. however, in procuring for the flute a reception into concerts of various instruments; for which reason one Thomas Stanesby, a very curious maker of flutes and of the instruments of the like kind, about 1732, adverting to the scale of Marsennus, in which the lowest note was C, invented what he called the new system; in which, by making the flute of such a size as to be a fifth above concert pitch, the lowest note became C sol fa ut. By this contrivance the necessity of transposing the flute part was taken away; for flute of this size, adjusted to the system above mentioned, became an octave to the violin. To further this invention of Stanesby, one Lewis Merci, an excellent performer on the flute, published, about 1735, six solos for this instrument, three of which are said to be accommodated to Mr. Stanesby's new system; but the German flute was now become a favorite instrument, and Stanesby's ingenuity failed of its effect. One great objection, indeed, lies against this instrument, which, however, equally affects all perforated pipes; namely, that they are never perfectly in tune, or cannot be made to play all their notes with equal exactness. The flute was of such importance in antiquity, that several female divinities laid claim to the honor of its invention. Of this number the principal was Minerva, or Pallas, the daughter of Jupiter: sometimes called Musica, or the musi`cian, from a statue made by Demetrius, in which, when the serpents of the Gorgon were struck, they resounded like a lute. She is said by Hyginus to have found herself laughed at by Juno and Venus, whenever she played the flute in their presence; and on examining herself in a fountain, which served as a mirror, was convinced that she had been justly derided for the distor- Flutes have a compass of nineteen diatonic tion of her countenance, occasioned by swelling intervals, viz. from D, first space below the treher cheeks in the act of blowing the flute. How-ble clef, to A-sharp (or B-flat), the octave above ever, a cause more worthy of her wisdom is as- the first ledger line, including every chromatic signed for her throwing aside the flute, upon interval; but, generally, only to the second ocseeing Apollo perform on the lyre; for, by hav- tave above the second line, treble clef. ing his mouth at liberty, she found that it enabled him to sing during the time he played. The performer upon the ancient flutes played always upon two at the same time, and placed round his mouth a species of bandage, tied behind the head, in order that the cheeks might not protrude, and for the better management of the breath. The right flute had only two holes, and produced low sounds; the left had several holes, and produced higher sounds. When the musicians performed, upon these two flutes of different sounds, it was said the piece was performed 'tibiis imparibus' or 'tibiis dextris et sinistris.' When they performed upon two flutes of the same sound it was said, that the piece was performed 'tibiis paribus dextris,' if upon those of grave sounds; and 'tibiis paribus sinistris' if upon high-sounding flutes. The present flute was originally called the flute à bec, or beaked flute, from the reed resembling the mouth of a bird. This instrument, at the beginning of the last century, till the works of Corelli came over, was in far more general use as a concert instrument than the violin. Sonatas for two flutes, and a thorough base, violone or theorbo, were innumerable: with solos, duets, and concertos for the same instrument; nor was there a ballad then printed which was not transposed for the flute at the bottom of the page. The concert flutes for which this music was composed were generally F and C. Besides the true concert flute, others of a less size were soon introduced into concerts of violins; in which case the method was to write the flute part in a key correspondent to its pitch. This practice was introduced in 1710, by one Woodcock, a celebrated performer, and William Babell, organ FLUTE, GERMAN, an instrument entirely dif ferent from the common flute. It is not, like that, put into the mouth to be played; but the end is stopped with a tompion or plug, and the lower lip is applied to a hole about two inches and a half or three inches distant from the end. This instrument is usually about a foot and a half long; rather bigger at the upper end than the lower; and perforated with holes, besides that for the mouth, the lowest of which is stopped and opened by the little finger's pressing on a brass or sometimes a silver key, like those in hautboys, bassoons, &c. Its sound is exceedingly sweet and agreeable; and serves as a treble in a concert. FLUTE, or FLUYT, from flotte, a little boat, is a kind of long vessel with flat ribs or floortimbers, round behind, and swelled in the middle; serving chiefly for the carrying of provisions in fleets or squadrons of ships; though it is often used in merchandise. FLUTES, OF FLUTINGS, in architecture, are perpendicular cavities cut along the shaft of a column or pilaster. They are supposed to have been first introduced in imitation of the plaits of women's robes; and are therefore called by the Latins striges and ruga. The French call them cannelures, as being excavations; and we, flutes or flutings, as bearing some resemblance to the musical flute. They are chiefly affected in the Ionic order, in which they had their first rise; though they are also used in all the richer orders, as the Corinthian and Composite; but rarely in the Doric, and scarcely ever in the Tuscan. FLUTTER, v. n., v. a. & n. s. Sax. Floreɲan: Fr. flotter; Belg. flodderon. Is a frequentative of fly, and signifies to take short flights with great agitation of the wings. The noun is used to express vibration; undulation; quick and irregular motion; hurry; tumult; confusion; irregular position; disorder of mind. The verb, in addition to these applications, signifies to move with great show and bustle; to move irregularly; to be in a state of uncertainty. Fluttering, agitating between hope and fear. To drive in disorder like a flock of birds suddenly roused. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, and spreadeth abroad her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him. Deut. Then (lest some sentry fowl the fraud descry. And bid his fellows from the danger fly) Close to the ground in expectation lies Till in the snare the fluttering covey rise. Pope. Id. Gay's Rural Sports. Ye spirits to your charge repair; The fluttering fan be Zephyretta's care. No rag, no scrap of all the beau or wit, That once so fluttered, and that once so writ. His thoughts are very fluttering and wandering, and cannot be fixed attentively to a few ideas successively. Watts. Fair crews triumphant, leaning from above, Shall wave their fluttering kerchiefs as they move. Darwin. What singular emotions fill Their bosoms who have been induced to roam With fluttering doubts if all be well or illWith love for many and with fears for some; All feelings which o'erleap the years long lost, And bring our hearts back to their starting-post. Byron. Don Juan, FLUVANNA, a county of Virginia, bounded north by Albemarle, north-east by Louisa, east by Goochland, west by Amherst, and south by fames River, which divides it from Buckingham. It is twenty-two miles long, and thirty broad, and contains about 5000 inhabitants. Columbia is the chief town. FLUVANNA, a river of Virginia, which rises in the Blue Mountains, and runs into the Rivanna at Columbia, to form James River. FLUVIA, a river of Spain in Catalonia, which runs into the Mediterranean at Ampurias. On the 14th June, 1795, there was an engagement on its banks, between the French under general Scherer, and the Spaniards under general Urratia, wherein the latter were defeated, with the loss of above 600 men, though they displayed the utmost bravery, and crossed the river up to the waist in water, to attack the French, who lost only eighty-five men. FLUVIATIC, adj. Lat. fluviaticus. Belonging to rivers. FLUX, n. s., adj. & v. a. Lat. Alurus; Fr.. flur. The act of flowing; the state of passing away; any flow or issue of matter. Concourse; confluence; the state of being melted. Fluxion is frequently used as a synonyme of flux; in mathematics it is defined by Harris, The arithmetic or analysis of infinitely small variable quantities; or the method of finding an infinitely small quantity, which, being taken an infinite number of times, becomes equal to a quantity given:' as an adjective, flux signifies inconstant; not durable; maintained by a constant succession of parts. Fluxility, capability; possibility, or tendency to liquefaction. Left and abandoned of his velvet friends; 'Tis right, quoth he; thus misery doth part The flux of company. Shakspeare. As You Like It. The simple and primary motion of fire is flux, in a direct line from the centre of the fuel to its circumference. Digby. Whether the heat of the sun in animals whose parts are successive, and in a continual flux, can produce a deep and perfect gloss of blackness. Browne's Vulgar Errours. Experiments seem to teach, that the supposed aversation of nature to a vacuum is but accidental, or in consequence, partly of the weight and fluidity, or at least fluxility of the bodies here below. Boyle. What the stated rate of interest should be, in the constant change of affairs, and flux of money, is hard to determine. Locke. Quinces stop fluxes of blood. Arbuthnot. By the perpetual flux of the liquids, a great part of them is thrown out of the body. Id. The flurion increased, and abscesses were raised. Wiseman. A penetration into the abstruse difficulties and depths of modern algebra and flurions, is not worth the labour of those who design the learned professions as the business of life. Watts. Eat eastern spice, secure From burning flures and hot calenture. Halifax. FLUX, in hydrography, a regular periodical motion of the sea, happening twice in twentyfour hours; wherein the water is raised and driven violently against the shores. The flux or flow is one of the motions of the tide; the other, whereby the water sinks and retires, is called the reflux or ebb. See TIDE. FLUX, in medicine, an extraordinary evacuation of some humor. Fluxes are variously denominated according to their seats and the humors voided; as a flux of the belly, uterine flux, hepatic flux, salival flux, &c. The flux of the belly is of two kinds, viz. the diarrhea, and the dysentery, or bloody flux. See MEDICINE. FLUX, in metallurgy, is sometimes used synonymously with fusion. An ore is said to be in liquid flux, when it is completely fused. But the word is most generally used to signify certain saline matters, which facilitate the fusion of ores, and other substances, which are difficultly fusible in assays and reductions of ores. Fixed alkalies, nitre, borax, tartar, and common salt, are the saline matters of which fluxes are generally composed. The word is more pticularly applied to mixtures of different proportions of only nitre and tartar; and these fluxes are called by particular names, according to the proportions of these ingredients. Black flux is produced from the mixture of two parts of tartar and one part of nitre detonated together. As the quantity of nitre which enters into the com-, position of this flux is not sufficient to consume all the inflammable matter of the tartar, the alkali which remains after the detonation contains much black matter, of the nature of coal, and is therefore called black flux. This flux is so prepared, that it shall contain a certain quantity of inflammable matter; for it is thereby capable, not only of facilitating the fusion of metallic earths like the white flux, but also of reviving these metals. From this property it is also called reducing flux; the black flux, therefore, or crude flux, made with such proportions of the ingredients as to be convertible into black flux, ought always to be used when metallic matters are at once to be fused and reduced, or even when destructive metals are to be fused. The advantage of M. Morveau's reducing flux, seems to depend on its containing no excess of alkali. It is made of eight parts of pulverised glass, one of calcined borax, and half a part of powder of charcoal. Care must be taken to use a glass which contains no lead. The white glasses contain in general a large proportion, and the green bottle glasses are not perhaps entirely free from it. FLUX, CRUDE, is the mixture of nitre and tartar in any proportions, without detonation. Thus the mixture of equal parts of the two salts used in the preparation of the white flux, or the mixture of one part of nitre and two parts of tartar for the preparation of the black flux, are each of them a crude flux before detonation. It has also been called white flux, from its color; but the name of crude flux is more convenient. Crude flux is detonated and alkalised during the reductions and fusions in which it is employed; and is then changed into white or black flux, according to the proportions of which it is composed. This detonation produces good effects in these fusions and reductions, if the swelling and extravasation of the detonating matters be guarded against. Accordingly crude flux may be employed successfully in many operations; as, in that for procuring the regulus of antimony. FLUX, WHITE, is made with equal parts of nitre and of tartar detonated together, by which they are alkalised. The residuum of this detonation is an alkali composed of the alkalies of the nitre and of the tartar, both which are abso lutely of the same nature. As the proportion of nitre in this mixture is more than is sufficient to consume entirely all the inflammable matter of the tartar, the alkali remaining after the detonation is perfectly white, and is therefore called white flux: and, as this alkali is made very quickly, it is also called extemporaneous alkali. When a small quantity only of white flux is made, some nitre always remains undecomposed, and a little of the inflammable principle of the tartar, which gives a red or even a black color to some part of the flux; but this does not happen when a large quantity of white flux is made; because then the heat is much greater. This small quantity of undecomposed nitre and tartar which remains in white flux is not hurtful in most of the metallic fusions in which this flux is employed: but if the flux be required perfectly pure, it may easily be disengaged from those extraneous matters by a long and strong calcination, without fusion. FLUXES FOR ASSAYING MINERALS. Under the article BLOW-PIPE, we have described the method of vitrifying any small portion of mineral substance, by which the process of assaying may be very quickly performed. The fluxes recommended by Sir T. Bergman, for this purpose, are the following: 1. The phosphoric acid, or rather the microcosmic salt, which contains that acid partly saturated with mineral, partly with volatile alkali, and loaded besides with much water and a gelatinous fat. This salt, when exposed to the flame, boils and foams violently, with a continual crackling noise, until the water and volatile alkali have flown off; afterwards it is less agitated, sending forth something like black scoriæ arising from the burnt gelatinous part: these, however, are soon dispelled, and exhihit a pellucid sphericle encompassed by a beautiful green cloud, which is occasioned by the deflagration of the phosphorus, arising from the extrication of the acid by the inflammable matter. The clear globule which remains, upon the removal of the flame, continues longer soft than that formed by borax; and therefore is more fit for the addition of the matter to be dissolved. The volatile alkali is expelled by the fire; therefore an excess of acid remains in what is left behind, which readily attracts moisture in a cool place. 2. The mineral alkali, or sal sodæ, when put upon charcoal, melts superficially, penetrates the charcoal with a crackling noise, and then disappears. In the spoon it yields a permanent and pellucid sphericle, as long as it is kept fluid by the blue apex of the flame; but, when the heat is diminished, it becomes opaque, and assumes a milky color. It attacks several earthy matters, particularly those of the silicious kind, but cannot be employed on charcoal. 3. Crystallised borax, exposed to the flame urged by the blow-pipe or charcoal, first becomes opaque, white, and excessively swelled, with various protuberances, or branches proceeding out from it. When the water is expelled, it easily collects itself into a mass, which, when well fused, yields a transparent sphericle, retaining its transparency even after cooling. If calcined borax he employed, the clear sphericle is ob tained the sooner. See METALLURGY. 351 FLUXION S. 1. The doctrine of fluxions, by many degrees the inost important discovery that has been made in abstract science in modern times, comprehends the analysis of quantities considered as variable. It consists of two principal branches, the first of which shows how the relation may be found between the variation in any quantity and the variation of any function of that quantity; and the second shows how, from the variation in the function, the quantity on which the function depends may be discovered. The former of these is by English mathematicians called the direct, and the latter the inverse method of fluxions, but by foreigners they have been generally denominated the differential, and the integral calculus. 2. It is agreed on all hands that either to Sir Isaac Newton, or M. Leibnitz, the honor of discovering this admirable method of investigation belongs. But whether they separately made the discovery, or Leibnitz took advantage of some hints which he might have had from a common friend of Newton and himself, and published as his own what he thus obtained, has never been satisfactorily determined. Certain it is that the method came from the hand of Leibnitz both in its form and metaphysics, in a shape exceedingly different from the manner in which it was explained by Newton; and experience has shown that the Leibnitzian form of the calculus is much better adapted to the higher class of investigations than that of Newton. 3. M. Leibnitz unquestionably was the first person that laid the principles of the method before the public. This he did in the Leipsic acts of 1684; where he gave precepts, but without demonstrations, for performing some elementary openations in the method; and there can be no doubt that, long before that period, he was intimately acquainted with its principles. 4. But though Leibnitz was the first that published any thing on the subject, there can be little doubt that Newton had first made the discovery; for he had made use of it prior to 1669 in his Compendium of Analysis and Quadrature of Curves; and there are traces of this method in matters which must have engaged his attention three or four years before that period. In 1687 his Principia appeared; the most stupendous achievement of human intellect that the world has ever seen, a work entirely founded on the fluxionary calculus. Till about 1699, it appeared to be generally taken for granted that Newton and Leibnitz had separately and independently made the discovery; but about this period Nicholas Facio de Duillier, a Genoese, retired to England, and, it has been said, conceiving that he had been undervalued by Leibnitz, published a little tract on the curve of swiftest descent; and he took occasion to say, that, for the sake of truth and his own conscience, he was obliged to declare Newton the first inventor of the new calculus; and that he left others the task of determining whether Leibnitz the second inventor had borrowed from the English mathematician. 5. Leibnitz, hurt at the remark and the insinuation conveyed in it, answered, however, with great moderation; that he could not believe that M. Facio's remark was made with Newton's approbation; and that he would not enter into any dispute with that great man for whom he had the most profound veneration. That when he published his differential calculus, in 1684, he had been master of it about eight years. He admitted that Newton informed him, about the same time, of his knowing how to draw tangents by a general method which was not impeded by irrational quantities; but, as the information was unaccompanied by any explanation, he could not know whether this method was or was not deduced from the differential calculus; especially as Huygens, who was at that time unacquainted with this calculus, affirmed himself to be in possession of a method of drawing tangents which possessed the same advantages. That the first English work in which he had seen the differential calculus explained was in the preface to Wallis's Algebra, not published till 1693; and that, relying on all circumstances, he appealed entirely to the candor of Newton. The 6. Writings succeeded each other at first but slowly; but, as the partizans of each grew more zealous and positive, the controversy grew hotter, till at length, in 1711, M. Leibnitz complained loudly to the Royal Society, of the conduct of Dr. Keil, who had accused him of having published the method of fluxions invented by Newton as his own, merely disguising his piracy by devising other names and characters. Royal Society accordingly appointed a committee to examine all the writings relative to the question, and in 1712 published these writings with the report of the committee under the title of Commercium epistolicum de Analysi promota. The conclusion of the report is, that Keil had not calumniated Leibnitz. It has been said that in this business Newton did not appear, but left the care of his reputation to his countrymen; but this is a mistake, for in the course of the dispute Newton wrote two very sharp letters against Leibnitz, in which there is evidently some art employed to weaken those strong testimonies of esteem which on previous occasions he had expressed for him, particularly in the celebrated scholia to prop. 7. book 2, of the Principia, in which Newton says, In a correspondence in which I was engaged with the very learned geometrician Mr. Leibnitz ten years ago, having informed him that I was acquainted with a method of determining the maxima and minima, drawing tangents, and doing other similar things which succeeded equally in rational equations |