couon kerchiefs over the shoulders and bosom; and the more gaudy the colors, the more superb is a dress esteemed. The language is a dialect of the Scandinavian. The revenue collected out of the produce of the islands is for every sheep of the permanent or estimated stock of each farm, a lamb's skin; and for every sixty sheep killed, 36lbs. of tallow, and thirty skins. The proportion of wool paid as tax, is sold at a fixed price to the people of Thorshavn. It amounted formerly to between 3000 and 4000 rix dollars. The civil establishment is under the direction of a military officer, commanding thirty men, who maintain the form of mounting guard, and keeping a look out. Under the commandant are, the landfoged or treasurer, and the sysselmen, or governors of districts. FERONIA, the goddess of woods and orchards, so named from the town where were a wood and temple consecrated to her. Strabo relates, that those who sacrificed to this goddess walked barefoot upon burning coals, without being hurt. She was the guardian deity of freed men, who received their cap of liberty in her temple. FERRACINO (Bart.), an Italian engineer, of considerable repute in the seventeenth century, was born at Bassano, and originally a sawyer. He first invented a saw to be worked by wind, and then constructed various clocks and hydraulic engines, which have been much admired. One of the latter, made for the procurator Belegno, was famous in Italy within these few years it was framed on the principle of the screw of Archimedes, and raised water to the height of thirty-five feet. He also built the bridge over the Brenta, at his native town. He died in 1750. FERRAH, a large walled town of Afghaunistaun, situated in a fertile valley: it gives its name to a considerable river, falling into the lake of Zarra, the Ariapaulus of the ancients, and is supposed to be the Parrah, mentioned in ancient geography as the capital of the Parthian province of Anabon. It stands in long. 61° 40′ E., and lat. 33° 7′ N. FERRAR, (Robert), an English prelate and martyr of the sixteenth century, was born at Halifax, Yorkshire, and studied both at Oxford and Cambridge. He became a canon regular of the order of St. Augustine, and was chosen prior of the monastery of St. Oswald, which dignity he surrendered on the dissolution of 1540, receiving a pension of £100 per annum. Embracing the principles of the reformation, he became chaplain to archbishop Cranmer, and, after his example, took a wife. By Edward VI. he was made bishop of St. David's; but in consequence of issuing out his commission to his chancellor to visit his chapter, and inspect into some dilapidations in an exploded form, his enemies found occasion to accuse him of a præmunire, and so great were the expenses of the prosecution, that he became unable to pay is first fruits and tenths, and was imprisoned for them as a debtor On the accession of queen Mary he was brought, in company with Hooper, Bradford, and others, before Gardiner, bishop of to the crown. Winchester, who after treating him with great indignity delivered him up for trial to his successor, Morgan, by whom he was declared guilty of heresy, and being turned over to the secular arm was burnt at Caermarthen, on the 30th of March, 1555. This prelate appears to have been of a headstrong and imprudent disposition, but was treated with remarkable and personal ill will by both Protestants and Papists. FERRARA, or the FERRARESE, a duchy and province of Italy, in the ecclesiastical states, bounded on the north by the Po, and on the east by the Adriatic. The part formerly belonging to this province, beyond the Po, was in 1815 united to Lombardy. It is now properly a legation of the papal states, and is supposed to contain about 171,000 inhabitants. It is well watered by branches of the Po, which often overflow it: but is indifferently cultivated, though fit for corn, pulse, and hemp, which it produces, as well as some silk and wine. This duchy was formerly possessed by the house of Este; but pope Clement VIII. took possession of it in 1598, after the death of Alphonso II., duke of Ferrara, as a fief of the church. In October, 1796, the inhabitants of this province, uniting with those of Bologna, Modena, and Reggio, erected the ci-devant Cispadane republic. In October, 1797, they joined the other Italian states in forming the Cisalpine republic, of which this duchy constituted a department, entitled the Lower Po, and was then found to contain 154,000 citizens, who elected twelve deputies to the councils. But in July, 1799, the whole province was reduced, and the democratic government overthrown by the Austrians, who were again obliged to surrender to the French in May, 1800. They occupied it until 1814. FERRARA, an ancient and large city of Italy, capital of the above duchy. It is seated in an agreeable and fertile plain, watered by the river Po on one side, and on the other encompassed by a strong wall and deep broad ditches. It has a citadel, erected by pope Clement VIII. In the middle of the city is a magnificent castle, surrounded with water, formerly the palace of the dukes, and now of the papal legate. It contains some fine paintings. The duke's garden and park are called the Belvidere. The theatre here is one of the best in Italy. Here are also a good drawing academy, and a valuable collection of minerals and antiquities.. Manuscripts of Ariosto, Tasso, and Guarini are shown; also the houses which they respectively occupied. The hospital of St. Ann was the prison of Tasso. The two Strozzi, the poets, and Bentivoglio, the historian, as well as Savonarola, the Dominican, were natives of Ferrara. Ferrara had formerly a considerable trade; but it was greatly reduced by the exactions of the popes. The ancient university, founded in 1391, by pope Boniface IX., had dwindled into a wretched college of the Jesuits before the revolution. In 1735 it was advanced to an archbishopric by pope Clement XII. The country around is so marshy, that a heavy shower of rain renders the roads almost impassable. It has an ancient cathedral and about 100 churches, and contained 30,000 inhabitants in 1797, including 171 FER 1600 Jews, who carry on silk manufactures, &c. On the 11th of June, 1796, the French, under Buonaparte, arrived in this city, and began to establish the late democratic constitution. On the 19th February, 1797, it was formally ceded to the Cispadane republic by the pope. In July, 1799, it surrendered after a long siege, to the Austrians, under general Klenau. Murat's army was defeated here in the beginning of April, 1815, by an Austrian force under general Mohr and count Neipperg. It is sixty-seven miles north of PoBologna, and forty south-east of Mantua. pulation, 24,000. FERRARI (Octavian), an Italian philosophical writer, was born at Milan, in 1518. He became professor of ethics and politics at his native place, but removed afterwards to Padua, where he explained the principles of Aristotle four years, and then returned to Milan. He died in 1586. His works are, 1. De Sermonibus exotericis. 2. De Disciplinæ, Encyclica: seu Clavis 3. De Philosophie Peripatetica Aristotelica. Origine Romanorum. 4. A Translation of Athenæus into Latin. FERRARI (Francis Bernardin), of the same family with the foregoing, was born at Milan in 1577, and laid the foundation of the AmbroHis works sian library. He died in 1669. are, 1. De Antiquo Ecclesiasticarum Epistolarum genere. 2. De Ritu Sacrarum Ecclesiæ Catholicæ concionum. 3. De veterum acclamationibus et plausu. FERRARI (Octavio), another professor of the same family, was born in 1607, and educated at the Ambrosian College, where he presided in the He afterwards removed to chair of rhetoric. Padua, and greatly benefited that university by his labors and fame. He died in 1682. His principal work is entitled Origines Linguæ Italicæ, folio; besides which he wrote several dissertations on subjects of antiquity. FERRARI (John Baptist), was a Jesuit of Sienna, who published a Syriac Dictionary in 1622, He wrote also De Malorum Aureorum Cultura, 1646; and De Florum Cultura, 1633. He died in 1655. 4to. FERRARI (Gaudenzio), a painter born at Valdugia, in 1484, was employed by Raffaelle in the Vatican, and thereby acquired a beautiful style of design and coloring. He died in 1550. Another painter of this name, John Andrew Ferrari, of Genoa, excelled in landscapes as well as historical subjects. He died in 1669. FERRARI (Lewis), a mathematician, was born FERRARIA, in botany, a genus of the trian- four species, natives of the Cape of Good Hope, FER FERRARS (George), a lawyer, poet, and historian, descended from an ancient family in ̧ Hertfordshire, and born about A. D, 1510, near St. Alban's. He was educated at Oxford, and thence removed to Lincoln's Inn, where he was soon called to the bar. Cromwell, earl of Essex, introduced him to king Henry VIII. who employed him, and in 1535 gave him a grant of the manor of Flamstead, in his native county. He was, however, for some years afterwards in embarrassed circumstances: and being, in 1542, in attendance on his duty as a member of the house of commons, he was taken in exccution by a sheriff's officer and committed to the compter. The house, having heard of his confinement, despatched their serjeant to require his release. This was refused, and an affray took place between the clerks of the compter and that officer, who had his mace broken. On his returning, and making a report to the house of what had happened, the members in a body repaired to the bar of the house of lords to complain of the breach of privilege; when the latter judged the contempt to be very great, and referred the punishment of the offenders to the discretion of the lower house. The members now resolved that the serjeant should repair once more to the sheriffs of London (who in the late affray had supported the clerks of the compter), and demand their prisoner without writ or warrant, his mace being a sufficient badge of his authority: when the city magistrates delivered up the insolvent senator to the officers of the house. But this tardy obedience did not exempt the parties from punishment, for the sheriffs and the plaintiff, at whose suit Ferrars was arrested, were committed to the tower, and the clerks to Newgate; and an act of parliament was passed discharging Ferrars from liability for the debt. This extraordinary transaction, it is said, obtained the entire approbation of the king, and became the basis of that In the reign of Edward rule of parliament which exempts members to this day from arrest. VI. Mr. Ferrars attended lord Somerset as a commissioner of the army, in his expedition to Scotland in 1548. He died in 1579, at Flam2. History stead. He wrote, 1. A Translation of Magna Charta, and several early statutes. 3. Six Trageof the Reign of Queen Mary, published in Grafton's Chronicle, 1569, folio. dies, or dramatic Poems, published in the Mirror for Magistrates, in 1559, 1587, and 1610. FERRARS (Henry), a Warwickshire gentleman, of a good family, eminent for his genealogical and neraldic researches. Mr. Wood says, that out of the collections of this gentleman Sir William Dugdale laid part of the foundation of his celebrated Antiquities of Warwickshire. Camden also mentions his assistance in relation to Coventry. Some poems of his were published in the reign of queen Elizabeth; and he died in 1633. FERREARAT. See FERIARA. Lat. ferreus. Irony; of iron. In the body of the glass there is no ferreous or Browne's Vulgar Errours. magnetical nature. They are cold, hot, purgative, diuretick, ferruginous, Ruy. saline, petrifying, and bituminous. On long exposure to air, the granites or porphories of this country exhibit a ferruginous crust; the iron being calcined by the air first becomes visible, and is then washed away from the external surface, which becomes white or gray, and thus in time seems to decompose. Darwin. FERRERAS (Don John de), a learned Spanish ecclesiastic, a native of Labaneza, was born in 1652. After studying at Salamanca he obtained the cure of St. James of Talavera, whence he removed to Madrid, and became a member of the academy. He assisted in the compilation of the great Spanish Dictionary, and was the author of various works in philosophy, theology, and history, the most considerable of which is a general History of Spain, in ten volumes, 4to. FERRET, n. s. & v. a. Į Fr. furet, Teut. FERRETER, n. s. fret; Welsh, fured; Port. frao; Dutch, ferret; Lat. viverra, i. e. a creature that lives or sees under the earth. A species of mustela used in the destruction of rats, hunting of rabbits, &c. See MUSTELA: hence to ferret is to hunt out of concealment, or lurking places. FERRETTO, in glass-making, a substance which serves to color glass. It is made by a simple calcination of copper, but serves for several colors. There are two ways of making it: the first is this:-Take thin plates of copper and lay them on a layer of powdered brimstone, in the bottom of a crucible; over these lay more brimstone, and over that another layer of the plates, and so on, alternately, till the pot is full. Cover the pot, lute it well, place it in a windfurnace, and make a strong fire about it for two hours. When it is taken out and cooled, the copper will be found so calcined that it may be crumbled to pieces between the fingers like a friable earth. It will be of a reddish, and, in some parts, of a blackish color. This must be powdered and sifted fine for use. Another way of making ferretto is as follows: make several stratifications of plates of copper and white vitriol, alternately, in a crucible, which place on the floor of the glass furnace, near the eye, and let it stand there three days; then take it out, and make a new stratification with more fresh vitriol calcine again as before. Repeat this operation six times, and a most valuable ferretto will be obtained. FERRI (Ciro), a painter, born at Rome in 1634, was bred under Pietro da Cortona; and the works of the scholar are often mistaken for those of the master. The grand duke of Tuscany noiminated him chief of the Florentine school. He died in 1689. FERRIAR (John), a respectable modern physician and polite writer, was born at Chester, in 1764. He graduated at Edinburgh, after which he settled in practice at Manchester, and became senior physician to the infirmary and the lunatic asylum. He contributed largely to the formation of the literary and scientific institutions of that place; and supplied many papers in their Transactions. He died in 1815. Dr. Ferriar was the author of, 1. Medical Histories, 3 vols. 8vo. 2. Illustrations of Sterne, in which the plagiarisms of that writer were detected, 8vo. 3. Bibliomania, an Epistle, 8vo. 4. An Essay towards a Theory of Apparitions, 8vo. 5. On the medical Properties of the Digitalis Purpurea, 8vo. FERRIER (Arnold de), an eminent French lawyer, born at Toulouse in 1506. He was admitted LL.D. at Padua: was a professor in the university of Toulouse, and a counsellor in the parliament of that city. He went afterwards ambassador to Venice, where he continued several years. He wrote several works, and assisted F. Paul in his history of the council of Trent. After long entertaining sentiments in favor of the Protestant religion, he at last openly renounced popery in his seventy-sixth year, and died three years afterwards. FERRINGTOSH, Gael. i. e. the Thane's lands, a barony of Scotland, in Ross-shire, whose ancient owner having greatly assisted to quash a rebellion which threatened the north of Scotland upon the revolution in 1688, and having, in consequence of his patriotic exertions, incurred great damage by the depredations of the opposite faction upon his property, he received, by way of compensation, an exemption from all duties upon spirits distilled from grain, the growth of his lands in this district. The family continuing steadfast in their adherence to government this singular privilege of exemption from excise was continued to them till 1784, when it was taken away by act of parliament, and a suitable compensation authorised to be made. This, upon being submitted to a jury before the court of exchequer, November 29th, 1785, was fixed at £21,580. FERRO, FER, or HIERO, the smallest and most westerly of the Canary islands. It contains about seven square leagues, and a population of 5000. The chief exertions of the inhabitants are turned towards the rearing of cattle. Fogs are very common over this island, whence it has received in the neighbourhood the name of the Black Canary. It presents on all sides to the sea a face of bold and craggy rock. In the interior the appearance of the country improves ; and a great part of the island is tolerably fruitful, Good wine and brandy are exported to Teneriffe. Bees thrive exceedingly on account of the multitude of aromatic flowers, and the honey is excellent. The island abounds also in figs, and the quantity is sometimes so great, that to prevent their being lost, it is necessary to convert them into brandy. The woods have deer, red-legged partridges, bustards, and pheasants. A great disadvantage is the want of water, of which Ferro is said to contain not more than thre fountains. Hence the cattle are said sometimes to quench their thirst with sea water. Ferro, FERROPRUSSIC ACID. being once supposed to be the most westerly point of the old world, was originally employed by all geographers as their first meridian, and the longitude reckoned from it. El Golfo, or the Gulf, on the east side, is the principal village. Long. 17° 46′ W., lat. 27° 45′ N. FERROL, an important sea-port of Spain, on the north coast of Galicia, naving one of the best harbours of Europe; being ten miles deep, and from a quarter to half a mile broad, with depth for the largest ships to Ferrol, five miles from the entrance, and for frigates two miles further. Both shores are lofty and lined with forts, and the haven, or arsenal, which is formed by piers, may be closed with a boom. The strength of these works will account for the retreat of Sir James Pulteney, who landed with a very efficient force in the vicinity, in the end of August 1799, but judged it necessary to re-embark. The bays of Ares and Betanzos are separated from Ferrol harbour by a peninsula: the islands of Marola and Miranda are in the entrance. These bays are open to the north-west, and consequently dangerous. The basin in which the ships are laid up is or great extent, and solid workmanship; each vessel has its own store-house, where the boatswains', carpenters', and gunners' stores, are distinctly marked. The marine barracks are a vast and beautiful building, affording accommodation for 6000 men. The establishments are all naval; there is an academy for the Guardas Marinas: a mathematical school for marine artillerists; a nautical, and even a pilot school. The town has 10,000 inhabitants, but little more trade than what the presence of the fleet produces, foreign merchandise not being allowed to enter it: and the manufactures are confined to sail-cloths, ropes, hardware, and leather. The climate is moist. The town is of very recent erection, having been but a village until 1752, when Ensennada, minister of Ferdinand VI., apprised of the advantages of its situation, determined to establish dock-yards, arsenals, and manufactories here. It is twenty-one miles north-east of Corunna, and thirty-six north-west of Lugo. Long. 8° 11' 29" W., lat. 43° 29′ 30′′ N. FERROL, CAPE, a cape on the north-west coast of Newfoundland. Long. 57° 11′ W., lat. 51° 4' N. FERROPRUSSIC, or FERROCYANIC, ACID. Into a solution of prussiate of potash pour hydrosulphuret of barytes, as long as any precipitate will fall. Filter the whole, and wash the precipitate with cold water; dry it, and, having dissolved 100 parts in cold water, add gently concentrated sulphuric acid thirty parts; shake them well together, and set the mixture aside to settle. The supernatant liquid is ferroprussic acid, first discovered by Mr. Porrett. It has a pale lemon-yellow color, but no smell. Heat and light decompose it. Hydrocyanic acid is then formed, and white ferroprussiate of iron, which soon becomes blue. Its affinity for the bases enables it to displace acetic acid, without heat, from the acetates, and to form ferroprus 1 atom azote 173 17.50 17.50 1 atom iron This sum represents the weight of its prime equivalent. Ferroprussiate of potash, an of barytes, will each therefore, according to him, consist of an an atom of acid + an atom of base + two atoms of water. It has been supposed that Mr. Porrett's new acid is nothing but a hydrocyanate or prussiate of iron, which, from the mutability of its constituents, is easily decomposed by heat and light; and that the only permanent compound which that acid forms is in triple salts. This is the old opinion, and also the present opinion of several eminent chemists. These compounds we shall call ferroprussiates. M. Vauquelin and M. Thenard style them ferruginous prussiates. Ferroprussiate of potash is made by heating pearl-ash with the hoofs and horns of animals in a heated iron vessel. This salt is now manufactured in several parts of Great Britain; and therefore the experimental chemist need not incur the trouble and nuisance of its preparation. An extemporaneous ferroprussiate of potash may however be made by acting on Prussian blue with pure carbonate of potash, prepared from the ignited bicarbonate or bitartrate. Of the purified Prussian blue, add successive portions to the alkaline solution, as long as its color is destroyed. Filter the liquid, saturate the slight alkaline excess with acetic acid, concentrate by evaporation, and allow it slowly to cool. Quadrangular bevelled crystals of the ferroprussiate of potash will form. This salt is transparent, and of a beautiful lemon or topaz-yellow. Its specific gravity is 1.830. It has a saline, cooling, but not unpleasant taste. In large crystals it possesses a certain kind of toughness, and, in thin scales, of elasticity. The inclination of the bevelled side to the plane of the crystal is about 135°. It loses about thirteen per cent. of water when moderately heated; and then appears of a white color, as happens to the green copperas; but it does not melt like this salt. Water at 60° dissolves nearly one-third of its weight of the crystals; and, at the boiling point, almost its own weight. It is not soluble in alcohol; and is not altered by exposure to the air. Exposed in a retort to a strong red heat, it yields prussic acid, ammonia, carbonic acid, and a coaly residue consisting of charcoal, metallic iron, and potash. When dilute sulphuric or muriatic acid is boiled on it, prussic acid is evolved, and a very abundant white precipitate of protoprussiate of iron and potash falls, which afterwards, treated with liquid chlorine, yields a Prussian b.ue, equivalent to fully one-third of the salt employed. Neither sulphuretted hydrogen, the hydrosulphurets, nor infusion of galls, produce any change on this salt. Red oxide of mercury acts powerfully on its solution at a moderate heat. Prussiate of mercury is formed, which remains in solution; while peroxide of iron and metallic mercury precipitate. This salt is said 174 FERRO PRUSSIC ACID. Ferroprussiate of soda may be prepared from Prussian blue and pure soda, by a similar process to that prescribed for the preceding salt. It crystallises in four-sided prisms, terminated by dihedral summits. They are yellow, transparent, have a bitter taste, and effloresce, losing in a warm atmosphere thirty-seven and a half per cent. At 55° they are soluble in four parts and a half of water, and in a much less quantity of boiling water. As the solution cools crystals separate. Their specific gravity is 1-458. They are said to be soluble in alcohol. Ferroprussiate of lime may be easily formed from Prussian blue and lime water. Its solution yields crystalline grains by evaporation. Ferroprussiate of barytes may be formed in the same way as the preceding species. Its crystals are rhomboidal prisms, of a yellow color, and soluble in 2000 parts of cold water and 100 of boiling water. By Mr. Porrett's second account of this salt it is composed of Ferroprussiate of strontian and magnesia have also been made. Ferroprussiate of iron.-With the protoxide of iron and this acid we have a white powder, which, on exposure to air, becomes blue, passing into deutoferroprussiate of iron, or Prussian blue. We have already described the method of making the ferroprussiate of potash, which is the first step in the manufacture of this beautiful pigment. This is usually made by mixing together one part of the ferroprussiate of potash, one part of copperas, and four parts more of alum, each previously dissolved in water. Prussian blue, consisting of the deutoferroprussiate of iron, mixed with more or less alumina, precipitates. It is afterwards dried on chalk stones, in a stove. Pure Prussian blue is a mass of an extremely deep blue color, insipid, inodorous, and consiNeither water nor derably denser than water. alcohol has any action on it. Boiling solutions of potash, soda, lime, barytes, and strontites, decompose it; forming on one hand soluble ferroprussiates with these bases, and on the other a residue of brown deutoxide of iron, and a yellowish-brown sub-ferroprussiate of iron. Aqueous chlorine changes the blue to a green in a few minutes, if the blue be recently precipitated. Aqueous sulphuretted hydrogen reduces the blue ferroprussiate to the white protoferroprussiate. Its igneous decomposition in a retort has lately been executed by M. Vauquelin with minute attention. He regards it as a hydrocyanate or mere prussiate of iron; but the changes he describes are very complex, nor do they invalidate Mr. Porrett's opinion, that it is a combination of red oxide of iron, with a ferruretted acid. The general results of M. Vauquelin's analysis were hydrocyanic acid, hydrocyanate of ammonia, an oil soluble in potash, crystalline needles, which contained no hydrocyanic acid, but were merely carbonate of ammonia; and, finally, a ferreous residue slightly attracted by the magnet, and containing a little undecomposed Prussian blue. Proust, in the Annales de Chimie, vol. LX., states, that 100 parts of Prussian blue, without alum, yield 0-55 of red oxide of iron by combustion; and, by nitric acid, 0.54. 100 of prussiate of potash and iron, he further says, afford, after digestion with sulphuric or nitric acid, thirty-five parts of Prussian blue. FERRY is also used for a liberty by prescription, or by the king's grant, to have a boat for passage, on a frith or river, for carrying passengers, horses, &c., over it, for a reasonable toll. FERRULE, n. s. Lat. ferrum, iron; but this word, the Fr. verole, and Teut. vere, are traced by Mr. Thomson to the barb. Lat. virola, and Gr. Yupow, to bend. An iron ring put round any thing to keep it from cracking. The fingers ends are strengthened with nails, as we fortify the ends of our staves or forks with iron hoops or ferrules. Ray. Saxon, Faɲan (to go), Fen; Goth. far; Teut. FER RIAGE, n. s. ferg; Bel. vear; Swed. farga. Skinner traces all these words be carried, as their more probable origin; Minto the Lat. veho: Dr. Johnson suggests ferri, to sheu refers at once to the Greek pepw, to bear. To carry or be carried over water in a boat. Ferry and ferry-boats are names for the vessel of carriage, and the former is a name often given to the accustomed place of passage. A ferryman is he who manages or conducts one over a FER'RY, v. a., v. n. & n. s." ferry. Ferriage, the fare or price paid for his services. A ferryboat to carry over the king's household. |