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LEFT FIN 182 FINE AKTS rapid the rate (other things being equal) the less effective the operation. FIN, the organ by which locomotion is effected in a fish. As a rule fins con- sist of a membrane supported by rays. Of these organs the two pectoral fins, so called from being situated on the breast, where they are just behind the branchial aperture, are modifications of the an- terior limbs in other vertebrata. The ventral fins, so called from being, as a rule, situated on the belly, correspond to the hind limbs in other vertebrata. Often there are also one or more dorsal fins on the back, two anal fins near the anus, while the tail is technically called the caudal fin. In carpentry, a tongue on the edge of a board. In commerce, a blade of whalebone. In machinery, a slip inserted longitudinally into a shaft or arbor, and left projecting so as to form a guide for an object which may slip thereon, but not rotate; a spline or feather. In molding, a mark or ridge left in casting at the junction of the parts of the mold. FINANCE, the art of managing money matters, the person who professes this art being called a financier. Fi- nances, in the plural, is often used for money itself, but still with a reference to the purpose to which it is to be applied, as where the finances of a country are said to have improved or fallen off. It is used in the United States as in England, rather in a political and economic sense than ofiicially; but in France there have been, from time to time, comptrollers- general of finances, councils of finances, bureaus of finances, etc., and at the present time, Minister of Finances. FINANCES, UNITED STATES. See United States, section Finance. FINCH, FRANCIS MILES, an Ameri- can poet, and associate judge of N. Y. Court of Appeals; born in Ithaca, N. Y., June 9, 1827. He was graduated at Yale; and was the author of the well- known lyrics "Nathan Hale" and "The Blue and the Gray," and of several popu- lar college songs. He died July 31, 1907. FINCK, HENRY THEOPHILTJS, an American musical critic; born in Bethel, Mo., Sept. 22, 1854. He was graduated at Harvard in 1876; and from 1878 to 1881 studied physiological psychology at Berlin, Heidelberg, and Vienna. He was musical critic of the New York "Evening Post," and a contributor to the "Nation." His works include: "Wagner and Other Musicians" (1887) ; "Romantic Love and Personal Beauty" (1887) ; "The Pacific Coast Scenic tour" (1890); "Chopin, and Other Musical Essays," "Lotos Time in Japan" (1895) ; "Spain and Morocco"; "Paderewski"; "Primitive Love" (1899) "Songs and Song Writers" (1900) "Eduard Grieg" (1905) ; "Massenet' (1910); "Henry Strauss" (1917). FINDLAY, a city and county-seat of Hancock co., 0.; on the Toledo and Ohio Central, the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chi- cago and St. Louis, and other railroads; 44 miles S. of Toledo. It is in the heart of the oil and gas fields of Ohio. It con- tains Findlay College, electric lights, electric railroads, several banks, and numerous daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals. In the vicinity are rich beds of clay and vast deposits of gravel and sand. There are manufactories of glass, pressed bricks, furniture, wooden imple- ments, nails, and an oil refinery, machine shops, foundries, extensive potteries, and rolling mills. Pop. (1910) 14,858; (1920) 17,021. FINDLAY COLLEGE, a coeducational institution in Findlay, O.; founded in 1882 under the auspices of the Church of God; reported at the close of 1919: Professors and instructors, 19; students, 535. President, W. H. Guyer, A. M., D. D. FINE ARTS, a term generally ap- plied to those arts in which the artist seeks chiefly to give pleasure by the im- mediate impression produced on the mind by his work. These arts are thus dis- tinguished from arts which are designed to answer some practical purpose, and so have been termed useful. Antique, Mediaeval and Modern Art. — In its general acceptation, the term an- tique art is understood to be that of a period antecedent to the revival of the classical studies in western Europe, or before the risorgimento, or renaissance, of the arts from their assumed period of lethargy. There was, in fact, a distinct character about the productions of the artists of the more ancient and themore modern times, which was sufficiently marked to produce in the best of them a separate style of art. The antique school was distinguished by an anthro- pomorphism and a divination of the hu- man form; the mediaeval school was formed on and characterized by a species of contempt for the human figure, and an aspiration after an ideal perfection, and therefore there is something vague and undefined in its efforts to represent the objects it copied; while the modern school has united the indefiniteness of its aim with that clearness of the per- ception of its objects which is so marked a characteristic of its production. The antique schools date from the dawn of civilization to the end of the 10th cen- tury; the mediseval schools date from the