Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/748

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tind, with very large gill fins, called by the writers on thefe fubjedls, milvus. It fometimes ufes thefe fins inftead of wings for flying. Ray's Ichthyol. p. 283. See Milvus.

FODDER? (Cyci.) in mining, is a meafure containing twenty- two hundred and an half weight, though in London but twenty hundred weight. Houghton's compl. Miner, in the ex- plan, of the terms.

FOECIALES, among the Romans, a college of priefts, firft in- stituted by Numa, whofe office it was to declare war, and pro- claim peace. No war could be undertaken till they had ex- amined and found the caufes for it juft, and neceflary, and till fatisfaction had been refufed. Hofm. Lex. in voc. See Claricatio and War.

FOENICULUM, finhel, in botany, the name of a genus of um- belliferous plants, the characters of which are thefe ; the flower is of the rofaceous kind, or compofed of feveral petals ar- ranged in a circular form; thefe ftand on a cup, which after- wards becomes a fruit compofed of two long and thick feeds which are gibbofe and ftriated on one fide, and fiat and plain on the other. To this it is to be added, that the leaves are very finely divided, and ftand on complex ftalks. The fpecies of fennel enumerated by Mr.Tournefort are thefe. 1. The common fennel with blackifh acrid feeds. 2. The com- mon German fennel. 3. The blackifh leaved fennel. 4. The fwcet fennel with large pale coloured feeds. 5. The fweet fennel of the azores ifiands. 6. The white flowered fennel with fmall roundifh feeds. 7. The crooked fennel, called by authors fefeli of Marfeilles. 8. The perennial wild fennel, with fhort leaves, called by fome the broad leaved fpi'gnel. 9. The tall wild fennel, with longer leaves. 10. The dwarf wild fennel, with peucedanum leaves. II. The wild fennel, with bluifh green leaves. 12. The annual fennel, with long and narrow umbels, called by authors gtngidium, and vifna- ga. 13. The tall globular headed fennel, called by authors, the hippomarathrum. 14. The oriental fennel, called by au- thors cummin. 15. The oriental fennel, called cummin with hairy feeds. 16. The annual fennel, with the fmell of origa- num, called by authors, the lefier ammi. 17. The little an- nual Portugal fennel, with the fmell of dill, called by fome wild dill. 18. The little acrid Portugal fennel, called the dwarf ammi. 19. The fmall fennel with wide umbels, call- ed mountain daucus, and felinum, by fome authors. 20. The fmalleit water fennel, called by authors the leafl walerfum. Toum Inft. p. 311.

FOENUMgn^aw, fenugreek, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe; the flower is of the papilionaceus kind, and its piftil which arifes from the cup, finally becomes a flat and hornlike pod, containing a number of feeds approaching to a rhomboidal or reniform ihape. The leaves ftand three on every ftalk. The fpecies of fcenugreek, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe; 1. The common cultivated fcemigreek. 2. The common wild fcemigreek. 3. The fmaller Arabian -wW&fcenu- greek. 4. The many podded wild fenugreek. 5. The wild fenugreek with numerous long pods. 6. The Sicilian fcemi- greek, with birdsfoot pods. Tourn. Inft. p. 409.

FOETOR (Cyci) — Foetor oris, a term ufed by medical writers to exprefs that ill fmell in the mouth, ufually, tho* often improperly, called by us a ftinking breath. This is a malady arifing in different cafes from very different caufes; as from the fcurvy, and particularly that fpecies of it which affe6ts the mouth, and is therefore called Jlomacace ; from the french pox; from an ulceration whether fimple or fiftulous in the lungs, which is the cafe in confumptions; from ulcers in the mouth ; from caries or rottennefs of the teeth, or from any other impurity of them ; from crudities in the ftomach arifing from a bad digeition, and in particular, from a weaknefs about the left orifice of the ftomach, from which part the foetid va- pours will often arife in very great abundance. Juncker's Confp. Med. p. 607.

Method of cure. According to the different caufes of this difor- der, it requires a very different method of cure in cafes where it depends on the fcurvy, pox, or other difeafes. Thole dif- cafes are to be attacked by the proper medicines, in order to its cure ; when it arifes from a carious tooth, there is no cure for it, but the drawing the tooth -, when the impurities of the teeth occafion it, the cleaning them proves a cure, funcker's Confp. Med. p. 607.

FOETUS {Cyci) — The formation of the bones in a fetus is very gradual and regularly performed. In the firft two months there is nothing of a bony nature in the whole; after this, the hardnefs of the parts where the principal bones are to be fitu- ated becomes by degrees perceptible. Dr. Kerkring defcribes the progrefs of the oftification from fceletons which he had prepared from fetus's of two months, and thence up to nine. In the firft two months, or till the end of that time, there ap- pears not any thing bony ; after this in the third and fourth months, and fo on, the feveral parts one'affer another, acquire their bony nature. In the firft itages every thing is membra- nous, where the bones are to be ; thefe by degrees tranfmigrate into cartilages; and from thefe by the fame fort of change con- tinued, the bones themfdves are by degrees formed. All this

FOE

is done by nature, fay fuch flow, tho' fiich certain progreffions, that the niceft eye can never fee it doing, tho' it eafiTy fees it when done.

While fetus's continue in the womb, their mufcles common- ly afi only by their natural contrafiion, or the fcetus is kid to be in a fleeping ftate; but fometimes, when its eafe or preferva- tion requires a change of fituntion, it feems to perform fome voluntary motions, which are called its llirrings. The pof- ture of the child in the womb, is owing to the mufcles be- ing left to their natural contraction.-, the ftronger always prevailing, till their antagonifts exert fuch a retiftance by be- ing ftretched, as brings them to an equilibrium. See Monro in Medic. Eff. Edinb. vol. I. p. 152.

Fcetufes increafe proportionally lefs, the longer they continue in the womb. Mauriceau pretends, that the increafe of a child is fixty-four times its own weight in triple the time. Thus he fays, that at the birth, a child weighs twelve pounds, of fixteen ounces each ; at the three months, it wewhs three ounces ; at one month i. of a drachm ; and at ten days. lefs than half a grain. Monro, ibid. p. 153. Nutrition of the Foetus. How the nutrition of the fcetus is per- formed, is difputed among the learned. Mr. Monro is of opinion, that the fcetus in viviparous animals is nourifhed by the navel alone. He has given a curious diiTertation on this fubjta in the Medical Eilays". Where he obferves, 1. That the fcetus is capable of receiving its whole nourifhment by the umbilical vein alone, whereas no fcetus can fubfift without the umbilical veffels. 2. That the liquor of the amnios is ill cal- culated, in its natural ftate, for the food of a fcetus; and be- comes altogether unfit food in morbid cafes. 3. That it is highly improbable that a creature fhould furnilh its fubfiftence out of its own body, which muft be the cafe, if the fcetus feeds on the liquor of the amnios. 4. That it cannot be in- ferred from any refemblance of the liquor of the ftomach and amnios, nor from any other appearances, that the liquor of the amnios is ever fent down into the ftomach. 5. That no direa proof can be had of the liquor of the amnios, being prelTed or fwallowed down ; but on the contrary, all circum- ftances make it probable, that it does not go down. 6. That all the phenomena of a fcetus, can moft reafonably be ac- counted for, without fuppoling the liquor of the amnios to be any part of its food ; hence he thinks it reafonable to exclude the mouth from the office of conveying the aliment of the fce- tufes of viviparous animals, and to believe that all their nourifh- ment is conveyed by the umbilical veffels. [< lb. Vol. 2. Art. 9.] Hippocrates among the anticnts was of opinion, that the fce- tus was nourifhed both by the mouth, and by the umbilical veffels. He maintains, that the child in the womb with its lips comprefied together attrafls nourifhment; for which he affigns this reafon ; that unlets the child had fucked in utero, it neither could depofit excrement, nor know how to fuck fo foon as it is born. Mr. Gibfon, in the Medical Eflays of Edin- burgh a, has lately adopted this opinion ; that the fcetus is nourifhed by the mouth and by the navel alfo, as moft probable. Mr. Monro, has anfwered him loc. cit Hi Vol r Art. 13.] ' *

Mr. Monro has given us feveral curious obfervations relating to the queftion about the nutrition of the ftetufes of oviparous animals. See Med. Eff. Edinb. Art. 10. or its Abridgment, vol. 1. p. 323, feqq.

He has alfo there confidercd the nourifhment of plants in a fcetus ftate. And he thews the analogy there is between thefe and animal fcetufes. To fix the analogy between animals and plants, he obferves, that the former may be faid to remain in the ftate of a fcetus, So long as the young creature is folely nourifhed by liquors furnifhed by the uterus of the parent ; and plants are to be confidered as fcetufes only, while the feed' is ripening, and before the earth, water, moifture of the air, &c. have communicated immediately any matter for its in- creafe.

The fame author has given us fome praflical corollaries, from his eilay on the nutrition of fcetufes of viviparous animals, where he makes feveral very juft obfervations relating to abor- tion, its caufes, and the method of preventing it in manv cafes See Medic. Eff. Edinb. Vol. 2. Art. 11. The liquors fent into the fcetus by the umbilical vein, not having their propelling force communicated from ihe mother, the ftate of the mother's pulfe cannot affba the child other- wife than by occafioning abortion, or vitiating the fluids. Hence the impreffions faid to be made on children by the ima- ginations of the mother, cannot be accounted for phylically. Hence alfo children may be infeaed with the difeafed juices of the mother ; but it is poffible for them to efcape catching their mother's difeafes, if either thefe be only topical, with- out affeaing the whole mafs of the fluids ; or even when the mother's blood is fpoiled, the child may be free of her difeafc, if the morbid particles be fuch as the placeman- veffels cannot abforb. See Medic. Eff. Edinb. Vol. 2. p. 238. The mother fupplies liquors to the. fetus, which returns others to the mother, by means of the uterine and umbilical veffels. This feems proved from obfervations; fcetufes whofe placen- ta were not in the lead feparated from the uterus, having

been