The high moon sails upon her beauteous way,
Serenely smoothing o'er the lofty walls
Of those tall piles and sea-girt palaces,
Whose porphyry pillars, and whose costly fronts,
Fraught with the orient spoil of many marbles,
Like altars ranged along the broad canal,
Seem each a trophy of some mighty deed
Reared up from out the waters.

Byron. The Doge of Venice.
They erred, as aged men will do; but by
And by we'll talk of that; and if we don't
"Twill be because our notion is not high

Of politicians, and their double front

Who live by lies, yet dare not boldly lie. Byron. They reached the hotel: forth streamed from the front door

A tide of well clad waiters; and around The mob stood, and as usual several score Of those pedestrian Paphians, who abound In decent London, when the day light's o'er. Id. FRONT, in architecture, denotes the principal face or side of a building, or that presented to their chief aspect or view.

FRONTAL, n. s. Fr. frontale; Lat. frontale. Any external form of medicine to be applied to the forehead, generally composed among the ancients of coolers and hypnoticks.

We may apply intercipients upon the temples of mastick: frontales may also be applied. Wiseman.

The torpedo, alive, stupefies at a distance; but after death produceth no such effect; which had they retained, they might have supplied opium, and served as frontals in phrensies.

Browne.

FRONTAL, FRONTLET, or brow-band, in the Jewish ceremonies, consists of four several pieces of vellum, on each of which is written some text of scripture. They are all laid on a piece of black calf's leather with thongs to tie it by. The Jews apply the leather with the vellum on their foreheads in the synagogue, and tie it round the head with the thongs.

FRONTATED, adj. Lat. frons. In botany, the frontated leaf of a flower grows broader and broader, and at last perhaps terminates in a right line: used in opposition to cuspated, which is, when the leaves of a flower end in a point. FRONTBOX, n. s. Front and box. The box in the playhouse from which there is a direct view to the stage.

How vain are all these glories, all our pains, Unless good sense preserve what beauty gains! That men may say, when we the frontbox grace, Behold the first in virtue, as in face.

Pope.

FRONTIER, n. s. & adj. Fr. frontiere. The limit or utmost verge of any territory; the border; properly that which terminates not at the

Draw all the inhabitants of those borders away, or plant garrisons upon all those frontiers about him. Spenser on Ireland. I upon my frontiers here keep residence, That little which is left so to defend. Milton. Yet had his temple high

Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast Of Palestine, in Gath and Askalon, An Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds. Id. Paradise Lost. A place there lies on Gallia's utmost bounds, Where rising seas insult the frontier grounds.

Addison.

Beyond the frontiers, his anxious view could discover nothing, except the ocean, inhospitable deserts, hostile tribes of barbarians of fierce manners and unknown language, or dependant kings who would gladly purchase the emperor's protection by the sacrifice of an obnoxious fugitive. Gibbon.

FRONTIERS are the extremes of a kingdom or country, which the enemies find in front when they would enter it. They were anciently called marches.

FRONTINAC, FORT, a fortress of Canada, or. the north-west side of Lake Ontario, three miles from its mouth, and 300 from Quebec. It was taken from the French, in August 1759, by the British under colonel Bradstreet, though defended by 110 men and sixty pieces of cannon, besides Indians.

FRONTINUS (Sextus Julius), an ancient Roman anthor, of consular dignity, who flourished under Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan. He commanded the Roman armies in Britain; was made city prætor when Vespasian and Titus were consuls; and curator of the aqueducts by Nerva, which occasioned nis writing De Aquæductibus Urbis Romæ. He wrote four books upon the Greek and Roman art of war; a tract De re Agrariâ, and another De Limitibus. These have been often separately printed; but were all collected in a neat edition at Amsterdam, in 1661, with notes by Robert Keuchen. He died under Trajan.

FRONTISPIECE, n. s. Fr. frontispice; Lat. frontispicium, id quod in fronte conspicitur. That part of any building or other body that directly meets the eye.

With frontispiece of diamond and gold Embellished, thick with sparkling orient gems The portal shone. Milton's Paradise Lost Who is it has informed us that a rational soul can

inhabit no tenement, unless it has just such a sort of frontispiece?

Locke. The frontispiece of the townhouse has pillars of a beautiful black marble, streaked with white.

FRONTLET, n. s.

on ?

Addison

Fr. fronteau; Lat. frons. A bandage worn upon the forehead. They shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. Deut. vi. 8. How, now, daughter, what makes that frontlet You are too much of late i' the frown. Shakspeare. To the forehead frontlets were applied, to restrain Wiseman's Surgery. FRONTO (Marcus Cornelius), a Roman orator, preceptor to the emperor Marcus Aurelius and

and intercept the influx.

Lucius Verus. The former made him consul, and erected a statue to his honor.

When the frost seizes upon wine, only the more waterish parts are congealed; there is a mighty spicompass lies secure from the freezing impression.

If your shop stands in an eminent street, the frontrooms are commonly more airy than the backrooms; and it will be inconvenient to make the frontroom shallow. Moron.

FRONZELLA, one of the seventeen almost naccessible passes through the mountains of Vicenza, in Italy, commencing in the Valley of Brenta. It is the narrowest of them, and is so ⚫covered by perpendicular rocks, 300 feet high, that a ray of the sun can scarcely penetrate into he pass, and the eye cannot perceive the sky.' Yet this road (says, Dr. Oppenheim), is the easiest and most passable' of the seventeen, - except during rain or snow, when it is the most perilous.'

FRORE, adj. Dutch bevrozen, frozen. Frorne. Frozen. This word is not used since the time of Milton.

O, my heart-blood is well nigh frorne I feel, And my galage grown fast to my heel.

Spenser's Past. The parching air Burns frore, and cold performs the' effect of fire. Milton.

appear

FROST, n. s. Sax. Fort; Dan. Swed. FROSTED, adj. and Teut. frost; Belg. FROSTILY, adv vrost. The last effect of FROST INESS, n. s. cold; the power or act of FROSTY, adj. congelation; the ance of plants and trees sparkling with congelation of dew: the adjective is applied to whatever in appearance resembles this: the adverb is applied not only to natural cold but to want of animal warmth, and to coldness of affection; likewise to the head that is gray with age.

His eyen twinkeled in his hed aright,
As don the sterres in a frosty night.

Chaucer. Prologue to Cant. Tales.
There they doe finde that godly aged sire,
With snowy lockes adowne bis shoulders shed;
As hoary frost with spangles doth attire
The mossy branches of an oke halfe ded.

Spenser's Faerie Queene.
This is the state of man; to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls.
Shakspeare. Henry VIII.
Where is loyalty?

If it be banished from the frosty head,
Where shall it find a harbour in the earth?

Souch

saw

'Tis the same landscape which the modern Mars Who marched to Moscow, led by Fame the Syren! To lose by one month's frost some twenty years Of conquest and his guard of grenadiers. Byrum.

FROST, in physiology. Having under the articles COLD, CONGELATION, and FREEZING, entered fully into the various phenomena of freezing, we shall only here add a few miscellaneous observations on particular effects of frost

Being derived from the atmosphere, (see METEOROLOGY), frost naturally proceeds from the upper parts of bodies downwards, as the water and the earth: so, the longer a frost is continued, the thicker the ice becomes upon the water in ponds, and the deeper into the earth the ground is frozen. In about sixteen or seventeen days frost, Mr. Boyle found it had penetrated fourteen inches into the ground. At Moscow, in a hard season, the frost will penetrate two feet deep in the ground; and captain James found it penetrated ten feet deep in Charlton Island, and the water in the same island was frozen to the depth of six feet. Scheffer assures us, that in Sweden the frost pierces two cubits or Swedish ells into the earth, and turns what moisture it finds there into a whitish substance, like ice; and standing waters to three ells, or more. The same author also mentions sudden cracks in the ice of the lakes of Sweden, nine or ten feet deep, and many leagues long; the rupture being made with a noise not less loud than if many guns were discharged together. By such means, however, the fishes are furnished with air; so that they are rarely found dead. In the northern parts of the world the most compact bodies are affected by frost. Timber is often apparently frozen, and rendered exceedingly difficult to saw. Marl, chalk, and other less solid terrestrial concretions, will be shattered by strong and durable frosts. Metals are contracted by frost, thus, an iron tube twelve feet long, upon being exposed to the air in a frosty night, lost two lines of its length. On the contrary, frost swells or dilates water nearly one tenth of its bulk. Mr. Boyle made several experiments with metalline vessels, exceedingly thick and strong; which being filled with water, close stopped, and exposed to the cold, burst by the expansion of the frozen fluid within them. Trees are often destroyed by frost,

as if burnt up by the most excessive heat; and, in very strong frosts, walnut trees, ashes, and even oaks, are sometimes split and cleft, so as to be seen through, and this with a terrible noise, like the explosion of fire-arms. In cold countries, the frost often proves fatal to mankind; producing gangrenes, and even death itself. Those who die of it have their hands and feet first seized, till they grow past feeling it; after which the rest of their bodies are so invaded, that they are taken with a drowsiness, which if indulged, they awake no more, but die insensibly. It also sometimes seizes the abdomen and viscera, which on dissection are found to be mortified and black.

The great power of frost on vegetables is sufficiently known: but the differences between the frosts of a severe winter, and those which happen in the spring mornings, in their effects on plants and trees, were never perfectly explained till by Messrs. Du Hamel and Buffon, in the Memoirs of the Paris Academy. The frosts of severe winters are much more terrible than those of the spring, as they bring on a privation of all the products of the tenderer parts of the vegetable world; but then they are not frequent, such winters happening perhaps but once in an age; and the frosts of the spring are in reality greater injuries to us than these, as they are every year repeated. In regard to trees, the great difference is this, that the frosts of severe winters affect even their wood, their trunks and large branches; whereas those of the spring have only power to hurt the buds. The winter frosts happening at a time when most of the trees in our woods and gardens have neither leaves, flowers, nor fruits upon them, and have their buds so hard as to be proof against slight injuries of weather, especially if the preceding summer has not been too wet; in this state, if there are no unlucky circumstances attending, most trees bear moderate winters very well: but hard frosts, which happen late in winter, cause very great injuries even to those trees which they do not utterly destroy. These are, 1. Long cracks following the direction of the fibres. 2. Parcels of dead wood en closed round with wood yet in a living state. And 3. That distemperature which foresters call the double blea, which is a perfect circle of blea, or soft white wood, which, when the tree is afterwards felled, is found covered by a circle of hard and solid wood.

The opinions of authors about the exposition of trees to the different quarters, have been very different, and most of them grounded on no rational foundation. Many are of opinion that the effects of frosts are most violently felt on those trees which are exposed to the north, and others think the south, or the west the most strongly affected by them. There is no doubt but the north exposure is subject to the greatest cold. It does not, however, follow from this, that the injury must be always greatest on the trees exposed to the north in frosts: on the contrary, there are abundant proofs, that it is on the south side that trees are generally most injured by frost: and it is plain from repeated experiments, that there are particular accidents, under which a more moderate frost may do more injury to vegetables, than the

most severe one which happens to them unde more favorable circumstances. It is plain from the accounts of the injuries trees received by the frost in 1709, that the greatest of all were owing to repeated false thaws, succeeded by repeated new frosts. But the frosts of the spring furnish abundantly more numerous examples of this truth; and some experiments made by the count de Buffon, in his own woods, prove incontestably, that it is not the severest cold or most fixed frost that does the greatest injury to vegetables. This is an observation directly opposite to the common opinions, yet it is not the less true, nor any way discordant to reason.

We find, by a number of experiments, that it is humidity that makes frost fatal to vegetables: and therefore every thing that can occasion humidity in them, exposes them to these injuries, and every thing that can prevent or take off an over proportion of humidity in them, every thing that can dry them, though with ever so increased a cold, must prevent or preserve them from those injuries. Numerous experiments and observations tend to prove this. It is well known that vegetables always feel the frost very desperately in low places where there are fogs. The plants which stand by a river side are frequently found destroyed by the spring and autumnal frosts, while those of the same species, which stand in a drier place, suffer little or perhaps not at all by them; and the low and wet parts of forests are well known to produce worse wood than the high and drier. The coppice wood in wet and low parts of common woods, though it push out more vigorously at first than that of other places, yet never comes to so good a growth; for the frost of the spring killing these early top shoots, obliges the lower part of the trees to throw out lateral branches: and the same thing happens in a greater or less degree to the coppice wood that grows under cover of larger trees in great forests; for here the vapors, not being carried off either by the sun or wind, stagnate and freeze, and in the same manner destroy the young shoots, as the fogs of marshy places. It is a general observation, also, that the frost is never hurtful to the late shoots of the vine, or to the flower-buds of trees, except when it follows heavy dews, or a long rainy season, and then it never fails to do great mischief, though it be ever so slight. The frost is always observed to be more mischievous in its consequences on newly cultivated ground than in other places; and this is because the vapors, which continually arise from the earth, find an easier passage from those places than from others. Trees also which have been newly cut, suffer more than others by the spring frosts, which is owing to their shooting out more vigorously. Frosts also do more damage on light and sandy grounds, than on the tougher and firmer soils, supposing both equally dry; and this seems partly owing to their being more early in their productions, and partly to their lax texture suffering a greater quantity of vapors to transpire. It has also been frequently observed, that the side-shoots of trees are more subject to perish by the spring frosts than those from the top; and M. Buffon, who examined into this with great accuracy, always found the

efects of the song bosts much reter ser te ground man elsewhere. The shoots with a foot of the ground quickly perished by them; those whch good at two or three feet high bore them much better; and those at four feet and upwards frequently remained wholy unhurt, wie the bowe oces were entirely destroyed. A series of observations have prored, beyond all doubt, that it is not the hard frosts which so moch bort plants, as those frosts, though less severe, which happen when they are full of moisture; and this clearly explains the account of an 'he great damages done by the severe frosts being on the south side of the trees which are affected by them, though that side has been plainly all the while less cold than the north. Great damage is also done to the western sides of trees and plantations, when after a rain with a west wind the wind turns about to the north at sunset, as is frequently the case in spring, or when an east wind blows upon a thick fog before suprising.

It should be added that frost is in the northern parts of the world a constant assistant in preserving meat. It has also other recommendations, and becomes an important assistant of their architecture, in the hands of the Esquimaux tribes. Their winter huts are built entirely of snow frozen into a solid mass. The snow is formed into blocks, which laid over each other, and gradually bending inwards, terminate in a regular dome, sometimes nine or ten feet high. A plate of ice forms the window. When clusters of these huts have had their intervals filled up with snow and drift, they cannot be distinguished from the surrounding plain, and may be walked over; hence the idea of Greenland subterranean habitations; but, when the roof is thinned by thawing, a leg is apt to come down through it. The entrance is long, and under ground, as described by Scoresby. In the interior, raised benches of snow, covered with skins, serve for sitting or sleeping on. Heat, light, and cooking, are afforded by one lamp, having a wick eighteen inches long, fed with oil or blubber, and which, when lighted through its whole length, makes a most brilliant and beautiful flame. Close to it the temperature is raised to thirty-eight degrees, but in receding falls to twenty-three degrees, and cannot be raised higher without the danger of melting this frail mansion. In spring, indeed, the dripping causes much inconvenience, and brings on severe colds. These mansions, however, are said to be much more comfortable than those roofed with skins, the heat and closeness of which produce very bad effects.

Captain Franklin mentions a curious fact with regard to frozen fish in his late Journey to the Polar Seas. "It may be worthy of notice here, he says, that the fish froze as they were taken out of the nets, and in a short time became a solid mass of ice; and by a blow or two of the hatchet were easily split open, when the intestines might be removed in one lump. If in this completely frozen state they were thawed before the fire, they recovered their animation. This was particularly the case with the carp, and we had occasion to observe it repeatedly, as Dr. Richardson occupied himself in examining the

stracture of the Liferent speces of Aud aways, in the winder, söder the thawing them before he could ease have seen a carp recover so far as to lag DC with each nigir, after it had been mix i thirty-sa bours' p. 248.

A few pages onward be gives us the flig statement of other effects of extre cold these regions. • The weather during this (December) was the coldest we daring our residence in America The se mometer suck on one occasion to 57° bew zero, and never rose beyond 6° above it; a mean for the mouth was-29-70. Dering thee intense colds, however, the atmosphere was gene rally calm, and the wood-cutters and others wes about their ordinary occupations without using any extraordinary precautions, yet without freng any bad effects. They had their rein-deer shrs on, leathern mittens lined with blankets, ani furred caps; but none of them used any defence for the face, nor did they need to do so. Indeed we have already mentioned that the heat is abstracted most rapidly from the body during strong breezes, and most of those who have perished from cold, in this country, have fallen a sacrifice to their being overtaken on a lake, or other unsheltered place, by a storm of wind. The mtense colds were, however, detrimental to us in another way. The trees froze to their very centres, and became as hard as stones, and more difficult to cut. Some of the axes were broken daily, and by the end of the month we had oriv one left that was fit for felling trees. By entrusting it only to one of the party who had been bred a carpenter, and who could use it with dexterity, it was fortunately preserved until the arrival of our men with others from Fort Providence.

'A thermometer hung in our bed room at the distance of sixteen feet from the fire, but exposed to its direct radiation, stood, even in the daytime, occasionally at 15° below zero, and was observed more than once, previous to the kindling of the fire in the morning, to be as low as 40° below zero. On two of these occasions the chronometers (Nos. 2149 and 2151), which during the night lay under Mr. Hood's and Dr. Richardson's pillows, stopped while they were dressing themselves.'-pp. 254, 255.

We subjoin a chronological list of some of the most remarkable frosts recorded in history.

923. The Thames frozen thirteen weeks.

987. Frost lasted 120 days; began December 22d.

998. The Thames frozen five weeks.

ground. The vines and fruit-trees were destroyed, and famine ensued.

In 1067 the cold was so intense, that most of the travellers in Germany were frozen to death or the roads.

1063. The Thames frozen fourteen weeks.

1076. Frost in England from November till April.

1114. Several wooden bridges carried away by

ice.

1205. Frost from January 14th till March 22d. 1407. Frost that lasted fifteen weeks.

1434. From November 24th to February 10th, Thames frozen down to Gravesend.

1683. Frost for thirteen weeks. 1708-9. Severe frost for many weeks. 1715. The same for many weeks.

1739. One for nine weeks; began December 24th.

:742. Severe frost for many weeks.

1747. Severe frost in Russia.

1754. Severe one in England.

1760. The same in Germany. 1776. The same in England.

1788. Thames frozen below bridge; booths on it.

:795. Severe frost in England.

1814. The Thames was frozen over in January and booths erected on various parts of it. The river Tyne also was frozen at Newcastle to the depth of twenty inches.

From a bulky work of the German writer Pilgram, published at Vienna 1788, some' interesting facts with regard to the severity of the frosts abroad, for above 1000 years may be gathered the later dates are supplied from the observations of professor Platt of Kiel.

A. D.

In 401 the Black Sea was entirely frozen over. In 462 the Danube was frozen, and Theodomir marched over it to avenge his brother's death in Suabia.

In 763 the Black Sea and the Dardanelles were both frozen over. The snow in some places rose fifty feet high, and the ice was so heaped in the cities as to push down the walls. In 800 the winter was intensely cold. in 822 the great rivers of Europe, such as the Danube, the Elbe, and the Seine, were so hard frozen as to bear heavy waggons for a month. In 860 the Adriatic was frozen.

in 874 the winter was very long and severe. The snow continued to fall from the beginning of November to the end of March, and incumbered the ground so much, that the forests were inaccessible for the supply of fuel. In 891, and again in 893, the vines were killed by the frost, and the cattle perished in their stalls.

In 991 the winter lasted very long, with extreme severity. Every thing was frozen; the crops totally failed; and famine and pestilence closed the year.

the snow lay very long.

In 1133 it was extremely cold in Italy; the Po was frozen from Cremona to the sea; the heaps of snow rendered the roads impassable, the wine casks were burst, and even the trees split, by the action of the frost, with immense noise.

In 1179 the snow was eight feet deep in Austria, and lay till Easter. The crops and vintage failed; and a great murrain consumed the cattle.

The winters of 1209 and 1210 were both of them very severe; insomuch that the cattle died for want of fodder.

In 1216 the Po froze fifteen ells deep, and wine burst the casks.

In 1234 the Po was again frozen; and loaded waggons crossed the Adriatic to Venice. A pine forest was killed by the frost at Ravenna. In 1236 the Danube was frozen to the bottom, and remained long in that state.

In 1269 the frost was most intense in Scotland, and the ground bound up. The Categat was frozen between Norway and Jutland.

In 1281 such quantities of snow fell in Austria as to bury the very houses.

In 1292 the Rhine was frozen over at Breysach, and bore loaded waggons. One sheet of ice extended between Norway and Jutland, so that travellers passed with ease; and, in Germany, 600 peasants were employed to clear away the snow, for the advance of the Austrian army.

In 1305 the rivers in Germany were frozen, and much distress was occasioned by the scarcity of provisions and forage.

In 1316 the crops wholly failed in Germany. Wheat, which some years before sold in England at 6s. a quarter, now rose to £2. In 1323 the winter was so severe, that both horse and foot passengers travelled over the ice from Denmark to Lübeck and Dantzic. In 1339 the crops failed in Scotland, and such a famine ensued, that the poorer sort of people were reduced to feed on grass, and many of them perished miserably in the fields. Yet in England wheat was at this time sold so low as 3s. 4d. a quarter.

In 1344 it was clear frost from November to March, and all the rivers in Italy were frozen

over.

In 1392 the vineyards and orchards were destroyed by the frost, and the trees torn to pieces.

The year 1408 had one of the coldest winters

ever remembered :-Not only the Danube was frozen over, but the sea between Gothland and Oeland, and between Norway and Denmark; so that wolves, driven from their forests, came over the ice into Jutland. In France the vineyards and orchards were destroyed.