naturally from combustible bodies, and artificially by many chemical processes. Upon its first discovery it was styled gas sylvestre, from its being produced by burning charcoal: from its acrid properties it has obtained the name of aerial acid, and cretaceous acid; from its noxious qualities it has been called mephitic air, or mephitic gas; and, in the new chemical nomenclature, it is now called carbonic acid gas. See AIR, CARBONIC ACID, and CHEMISTRY.

FIZGIG, n. s. A kind of dart or harpoon with which seamen strike fish. Can'st thou with fizgigs pierce him to the quick, Or in his skull thy barbed trident stick?

Sandys. Job. FLAB'BY, adj. Teut. flabbe (a fly-flap); FLAB'ILE. Ital. flappo, fiappo; Lat. flacYielding; easily shaken or wafted to and

cus.

fro.

Paleness, a weak pulse, palpitations of the heart, flabby and black flesh, are symptoms of weak fibres. Arbuthnot.

Pulls out the rags contrived to prop Her flabby dugs, and down they drop. Swift. FLACCID, adj. Į Lat. flaccidus (à flaccus) FLACCIDITY, n. s. 5 Limber; weak; lax. The bowing and inclining the head is found in the great flower of the sun: the cause I take to be is, that the part against which the sun beateth waxeth more faint and flaccid in the stalk, and thereby less able to support the flower. Bacon.

They whose muscles are weak or flaccid, are unapt to pronounce the letter r. Holder.

The surgeon ought to vary the diet as he finds the fibres are too flaccid and produce funguses, or as they harden and produce callosities. Arbuthnot.

There is neither fluxion nor pain, but flaccidity joined with insensibility. Wiseman's Surgery.

FLACCUS (Caius Valerius), an ancient Latin poet, of whom we have very imperfect accounts remaining. He wrote a poem on the Argonautic expedition; of which, however, he did not live to finish the eighth book, dying at about thirty years of age. John Baptista Pius, an Italian poet, completed the eighth book of the Argonautics; and added two more, from the fourth of Apollonius; which supplement was first added to Aldus's edition 'in 1523.

FLACOURTIA, in botany, a genus of plants of the monocia class, and icosandria order. Male CAL. five-parted: COR. none: stamens numerous. Female CAL. many-leaved: COR. none; germ superior; styles five to nine; berry manycelled. Species one; a thorny shrub of Madagascar.

FLAG, v. n., v. a. & n. s. Saxon Fleog, FLAC GINESS, n. s. Fleogan (to fly); FLAG'GY, adj. Teut. (Old) flagFLAG-OFFICER, geren, to be loosFLAG'-SHIP, ened. To hang FLAG-STAFF. loose or free; metaphorically to grow dejected; spiritless; feeble; to droop: as a verb active to suffer, to droop or become feeble: as a substantive, the ensign of a ship or regiment; a water plant with a large bladed leaf: a flag-officer is the commander of a squadron: flag-ship, that in which the commander of a squadron sails: flag-staff, the staff on which the flag is fixed: flaggy is lax; limber; weak, in tension or taste.

by

She took an ark of bulrushes, and laid it in the flags Exodus ii. 3. the river's brink. Can bulrushes but by the river grow? Can flags there flourish where no waters flow? Sendys sels; square, if ships; if gallies, pendants. He hangs out as many flags as he descryeth vesId.

His flaggy wings, when forth he did display, Were like two sails, in which the hollow wind Is gathered full, and worketh speedy way. Faerie Queene.

These flags of France that are advanced here, Before the eye and prospect of your town, Have hither marched to your endamagement. Shakspeare.

Id.

That basking in the sun thy bees may lie, And resting there, their flaggy pinions dry. My flagging soul flies under her own pitch, Like fowl in air too damp, and lags along As if she were a body in a body: My senses too are dull and stupified, Their edge rebated: sure some ill approaches. Id. Don Sebastian. The duke, less numerous, but in courage more, On wings of all the winds to combat flies:

His murdering guns a loud defiance roar, And bloody crosses on his flagstaffs rise.

Dryden.

Byron.

lags

or stones.

He will in the three hot months bite at a flag-worm,

or a green gentle.

Id.

FLAG, in the army, a small banner of distinction, stuck in the baggage-waggon, to distinguish the baggage of one brigade from another, and of one battalion from another; that they may be marshalled by the waggon-master general according to the rank of their brigades, to avoid the confusion that might otherwise arise.

FLAG, in the marine, a certain banner or standard, by which an admiral is distinguished at sea from the inferior ships of his squadron; also the colors by which one nation is distinguished from another. See our plates FLAGS I. and II. In the British navy, flags are either red, white, or blue; and are displayed from the top of the main-mast, fore-mast, or mizen-mast, according to the rank of the admiral. When a flag is displayed from the flag-staff on the mainmast, the officer distinguished thereby is known to be an admiral; when from the fore-mast, a =vice admiral; and when from the mizen-mast, a rear admiral. The first flag in Great Britain is the royal standard, which is only to be hoisted when the king or queen is on board the vessel; the second is that of the anchor of hope, which characterises the lord high admiral, or lords commissioners of the admiralty; and the third is the union flag, in which the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew are blended. This last is appropriated to the admiral of the fleet who is the first naval officer under the lord high admiral. The next flag after the union is that of the white squadron, at the main-mast head: and the last, which characterises an admiral, is the blue, at the same mast head. For a vice-admiral, the first flag is the red, the second the white, the third VOL. IX.

the blue, at the flag-staff on the fore-mast. The same order proceeds with regard to the rear admirals, whose flags are hoisted on the top of the mizen-mast; the lowest flag in our navy is accordingly the blue on the mizen-mast.

All the white flags have a red St. George's cross in them, in order readily to be distinguished from the French white flag with a white cross. Besides the national flag, merchant ships frequently bear on the mizen-masts smaller flags, with the arms of the city where the master ordinarily resides; and sometimes on the fore-mast, with the arms of the place where the person who freights them lives.

When a council of war is held at sea, if it be on board the admiral, they hang a flag on the main-shrouds; if in the vice-admiral, in the fore-shrouds; and if in the rear-admiral, in the mizen-shrouds.

To hang out the white flag, is to ask quarter; or it shows, when a vessel is arrived on a coast, that it has no hostile intention, but come to trade or the like. The red flag is a sign of defiance, in battle.

To strike the flag is to pull it down upon the cap, or to take it in, out of respect, or submission, way justly their superior. To lower or strike the due from all ships or fleets inferior to those any flag in an engagement is a sign of yielding. The way of leading a ship in triumph is to tie the flags to the shrouds, or the gallery, in the hind part of the ship, and let them hang down towards the water, and to tow the vessels by the stern. Livy relates, that this was the way the Romans used those of Carthage.

FLAG-OFFICERS, in the British navy, are—the admiral, vice admiral, and rear admiral of the white, red and blue. See ADMIRAL, FLAG, and FLEET.

FLAG-STONE, a genus of argillaceous earth, of a gray, yellowish, or reddish-white color; not giving fire with steel, nor effervescing with acids. Its specific gravity is from 2600 to 2780. Semetimes it is found compact, and sometimes like the argillaceous grit; in which case its gravity is less. Its general use is for flooring houses, though sometimes it is used for covering them. There are calcareous flag-stones found near Woodstock in England, of a yellowish-white color, and moderately hard, containing a little iron. The specific gravity is 2585.

FLAG. See IRIS.

FLAG, CORN. See GLADIOLUS.

FLAG, SWEET-SCENTED. See ACORUS. FLAGELET, or Fr. flageolet; Lat. flatiFLAGEOLET, n. s. lis. A small flute, easily blown.

Play us a lesson on your flagelet.

Where Rhenus strays his vines among,
The egg was laid from which he sprung,
And though by Nature mute,

Or only with a whistle blessed,
Well taught he all the sounds expressed
Of flagelet or flute.

More.

Cowper.

bottom, the mouth-piece, and that behind the neck. The ambit of the flageolet, according to the scale exhibited by Mersennus, is two octaves from g sol re ut upwards.

FLAGELLANTES, a sect of fanatics of the thirteenth century, who chastised and disciplined themselves with whips in public. This sect rose in Italy in 1260; its author was one Rainer a hermit; and it was propagated through almost all the countries of Europe. A great number of persons of all ages and sexes made processions, walking two by two with their shoulders bare, which they whipped till the blood ran down, to obtain mercy from God, and appease his indignation against the wickedness of the age. They were then called the devout; and, having esta blished a superior, he was called the general of the devotion. Though the primitive Flagellantes were exemplary in point of morals, yet they were soon joined by a turbulent rabble, who were infected with the most ridiculous and impious opinions, so that the emperors and pontiffs thought proper to put an end to this religious phrensy, by declaring all devout whipping contrary to the divine law, and prejudicial to the soul's eternal interest! However, this sect revived in Germany towards the middle of the fourteenth century, and rambling through many provinces occasioned great disturbances. They held, among other extravagancies, that flagellation was of equal virtue with the sacraments; that the forgiveness of all sins was to be obtained by it from God without the merits of Jesus Christ; that the old law of Christ was soon to be abolished, and that a new law enjoining the baptism of blood to be administered by whipping was to be substituted in its place. They were burnt by the inquisitors in several places; but they appeared again in Thuringia and Lower Saxony in the fifteenth century; and rejected not only the sacraments, but every branch of external worship. Their leader Conrad Schmidt, and many others, were burnt in Germany about A. D. 1414.

A modern flagellation, which frequently takes place at Rome, is thus described by Mr. Hobhouse in his notes to Childe Harold, Canto IV. It is administered in the oratory of the Padre Caravita and in another church at Rome.

The ceremony takes place at the time of vespers. It is preceded by a short exhortation, during which a bell rings, and whips, that is, strings of knotted whip-cord, are distributed quietly amongst such of the audience as are on their knees in the middle of the nave. Those resting on the benches come to edify by example only. On a second bell, the candles are extinguished, and the former sermon having ceased, a loud voice issues from the altar, which pours forth an exhortation to think of unconfessed, or, unrepented, or unforgiven crimes. This continues a sufficient time to allow the kneelers to strip off their upper garments; the tone of the preacher is raised more loudly at every word, and he vehemently exhorts his hearers to recollect that Christ and the martyrs suffered much more than whipping-Show, then, your penitence-show your sense of Christ's sacrifice-show it with the whip.' The flagellation begins. The darkness, the tumultuous sounds of blows in every direction- Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us! bursting out at inter

vals-the persuasion that you are surrounded by atrocious culprits and maniacs, who know of an absolution for every crime-the whole situation has the effect of witchery, and so far from exciting a smile fixes you to the spot in a trance of restless horror, prolonged beyond expectation o bearing.

"The scourging continues ten or fifteen mi nutes, and when it sounds as if dying away, a bel! rings, which seems to invigorate the penitents, for the lashes beat about more thickly than before. Another bell rings, and the blows subside. Ata third signal the candles are re-lighted, and the minister who has distributed the disciplines, collects them again with the same discretion; for the performers, to do them justice, appear to be too much ashamed of their transgressions to make a show of their penance, so that it is very difficult to say whether even your next neighbour has given himself the lash or not.

'The incredulous or the humourist must not suppose that the darkness favors evasion. There can be no pleasantry in doing that which no one sees, and no merit can be assumed where it is not known who accept the disciplines. The flagellation does certainly take place on the naked skin; and this ferocious superstition, of which antiquity can furnish no example, has, after being once dropt, been revived as a salutary corrective of an age of atheism. The former processions of flagellants have not been yet renewed, but the crowds which frequent the above ceremony leave no doubt that they would be equally well attended.

'Such an innovation may be tolerated, and perhaps applauded, in the days of barbarism, when the beating of themselves was found the only expedient to prevent the Italians from the beating of each other; but the renewal of it at this period must induce us to fear that the gradual progress of reason is the dream of philanthropy, and that a considerable portion of all societies, in times the most civilised as well as the most ignorant, are always ready to adopt the most unnatural belief, and the most revolting practices. It is singular, however, that the humane Pius, and the intelligent Cardinal-secretary, do not perceive the objectionable part of an institution which was prohibited at its first rise by some of the wisest Italian princes, and is now allowed no where but at Rome.' (p. 320—323).

FLAGELLARIA, in botany, a genus of plants of the hexandria class and trigynia order: CAL six-parted: COR. none; berry superior, oneseeded. Species two: Indian plants, one a creeper, the other a fine flowering shrub.

FLAGELLATION, n. s. Fr (old) flagellation; from Lat. flagello. The use of the scourge. By Bridewell all descend,

As morning prayer and flagellation end. Garth. FLAGITIOUS, adj. Lat. flagitius, beFLAGIT IOUSNESS, n. s. cause worthy of the lash.'-Ainsworth. Wicked; atrocious; guilty of great crimes.

First, those flagitious times,
Pregnant with unknown crimes,
Conspire to violate the nuptial bed.

No villainy or flagitious action was ever yet committed, but, upon a due enquiry into the causes of it, it will be found that a lye was first or last the principal engine to effect it. South. Perjury is a crime of so flagitious a nature, we cannot be too careful in avoiding every approach towards it. Addison.

But if in noble minds some dregs remain, Not yet purged off, of spleen and sour disdain, Discharge that rage on more provoking crimes, Nor fear a dearth in these flagitious times.

Pope.

FLA'GRATE, v. a. 】 FLAGRANCE, n. s.

FLAGRANCY,

Gay.

Lat. flagro (to burn), flagrans; Fr. (old) flagrance, flagrant. AinsFLAGRANT, adj. worth derives the Latin FLAGRANTLY, adv. verb from Gr. Aɛyw (2nd FLAGRATION, n. s. J fut. playw), to burn. To burn or injure by fire: flagrance, or flagrancy, means burning; flaring: hence, metaphorically, notoriousness; and notorious or glaring crime: flagrant is ardent; eager; burning with desire; 'flaming into notice; and hence the flaming color, red: the adjective is only used figuratively: flagration is also burning; state of being on fire.

Lust causeth a flagrancy in the eyes, as the sight and the touch are the things desired, and therefore the spirits resort to those parts. Bacon's Natural History.

A thing which filleth the mind with comfort and heavenly delight, stirreth up flagrant desires and affections, correspondent unto that which the words contain. Hooker.

As lovers of chastity and sanctimony, and haters of uncleanness, they bring to him a woman taken in the flagrance of her adultery. Bp. Hall. Lovelace (1659).

We feared no flagration. Typhons destructive and flagrating power lying hid in the sun was made more temperate.

Greenhill (1705). With equal poise let steady justice sway, And flagrant crimes with certain vengeance pay; But, 'till the proofs are clear, the stroke delay.

Smith.

When fraud is great, it furnishes weapons to defend itself, and at worst, if the crimes be so flagrant that a man is laid aside out of perfect shame, he retires loaded with the spoils of the nation. Swift.

Warton.

A species of wit flagrantly unsuitable. FLAIL, n. s. Sax. Flegel; Fr. fleau; Lat. flagellum. It is directly the old Fr. flael, or fluiel, Todd. The instrument with which grain is beaten out of the ear.

Our soldiers, like the night-owl's lazy flight, Or like a lazy thrasher with a flail, Fell gently down as if they struck their friends. Shakspeare. Henry VI. When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn, That ten day-labourers could not end.

Milton.

in this pile shall reign a mighty prince, Born for a scourge of wit, and flail of sense. Dryden.

The dexterous handling of the flail, or the plough, afid being good workmen with these tools, did not hinder Gideon's and Cincinnatus's skill in arms and government. Locke.

When in the barn the sounding flail I ply, Where from the sieve the chaff was wont to fly, The poultry there will seem around to stand, Waiting upon her charitable hand.

Gay.

The thresher, Duck, could o'er the queen prevail, The proverb says, no fence against a flail. Swift.

FLAILS consist of the following parts: 1. The hand-staff, or piece held in the thresher's hand. 2. The swiple, or that part which strikes out the corn. 3. The caplins, or strong double leather, made fast to the tops of the hand-staff and swiple. 4. The middle band, being the leather thongs, or fish-skin, that ties the caplins together.

FLAKE, n. s., v. a., & v. n. I Saxon, place; FLAKY, adj. Gothic, floka Teut. flac, from Goth. fla; Lat. floccus, to divide. thing; to flake is to form, or break, into laminæ, A loose piece, or portion; a laminated body, or or loose portions.

The flakes of his tough flesh so firmly bound, As not to be divorced by a wound.

And from his wide-devouring oven sent A flake of fire, that, flushing in his beard, Him all amazed, and almost made affeared.

Sandys.

Faerie Queene.

The silent hour steals on,
And flaky darkness breaks within the East.

Shakspeare. Crimson circles, like red flakes in the element, when the weather is hottest. Sidney.

The teeth cut away great flakes of the metal, till it received the perfect form the teeth would make.

Moxon.

Small drops of a misling rain, descending through a freezing air, do each of them shoot into one of those figured icicles; which, being ruffled by the wind, in their fall are broken, and clustered together into small parcels, which we call flakes of snow.

Grew's Cosmologia. The earth is sometimes covered with snow two or three feet deep, made up only of little flakes or pieces of ice. Burnet. Upon throwing in a stone, the water boils for a considerable time, and at the same time are seen little flakes of scurf rising up. Addison.

Pope.

Hence, when the snows in winter cease to weep, And undissolved their flaky texture keep,