Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/761

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peeled degree of cold, it is always neceflary that the ice and the added matter, whatever it be, fhould both run together and intimately uniting form one clear fluid ; 'tis hence that no new cold is produced with oil, which tho' it melts the ice, yet cannot mix itfelf into a homogenc liquor with it, but muft always remain floating on the furface of the water, produced by the melting of the ice. Mem, Acad. Scienc. Par. 1734.

In the freezing of wines and the like liquors, the aqueous parts freeze firft, and are by this means feparated from the truly vinousj an obfervation which may be made of great ufe, in the wine trade. The experiment may be made by art, at any time : take a quart of common red port, put it into a Florence wine flask, and bury it in a mixture of one part common fait, and two parts fnow or beaten ice, the confe- rence will be, that the aqueous part of the wine foon turns to ice, and the rich thick remainder of the true vinous parts, may be poured off by inclination. Natural cold, however, in freezing wines, performs this experiment much better. By this means, wines, vinegars and malt liquors, may be all reduced to a fourth part of their quantity for exportation, without any confiderable lofs of their eflential parts, little more then the mere water freezing, and the eflential part of the wine remaining thus admirably cured, and capable of keeping feveral years.

It is eafy to fee, that a great ufe may be made of this in the wine trade, as large quantities of the pooreft wines might thus be converted into rich ones, and thequinteflence of the richer wines might be procured for the amending the poor ones ; and vaft advantages might be reaped from this in wine coun- tries.

Wines and vinegars concentrated by freezing, tho' they keep unaltered for feveral years, yet are liable to feme accidents in procefs of time.

Thus wines on being concentrated feem to acquire a more au- ftere tafte than they had originally; and this is not wonder- ful, as the condenfation brings the faline and rough matter in- to a third or a fourth part o' the compafs that it originally lay in j fo that this is properly no addition or increafe of the rough tafte, but probably on the contrary, fome mitigation of it in regard to the clofenefs to which this rough matter is brought, which of itfelf ought rather to multiply the effect in a greater proportion.

The change may be conceived owing to this, that all wines are obferved to grow mild and foft by lying long, which effect is greatly promoted in them by a fucceflive feparation of their tartar, and a gentle evaporation of fome part of their water occafioning that neceflity which is frequently found in the fummer months of filling up the casks ; but in our concen- trated wine, tho' the fame tartar be fucceflively feparated, yet there is found no concurrent flow evaporation, for the con- centrated wine grows foft and mellow in a well flopped glafs, where no diminution of the quantity is perceived; the effect in this cafe proceeds principally from a clofer and more inti- mate combination of the fpirituous, with the grofler and more terreftial part. StabI, de Concentrat.

Befide this, there feems another remarkable change incident to the concentrated wine, not only in the tafte, but more abundantly in the (in el!. For if an auftere and rough wine. and of the ufual fmell of fuch wines, be put up in bot- tles, its tafte after two or three years not only becomes more mellow and fmooth, but its fmell at this time, perfectly re fembles that of fack or canary. This is a high degree of me- lioration, and will give a poor auftere German wine, for fuch were thofe on which Stahl made the experiments, the flavour of fo rich a wine as canary, and that fo perfectly, that ver" good judges may not find out the difference by their fmell, tho' the tafte is abundantly different. Whatever advantage the dealer in wines may forefee from the fuccefs of thefe ex- periments, there is this farther inducement to his bringing them into practice in the large way, that every thing will anfwer better, and not worfe, than the experiments in the fmaller quantities. All thefe experiments have been made with little portions, which are very well known not to keep fo well as larger 3 and it is evident both from reafon and experience, that great bulks of liquor are much lets fubject to changes and alterations from the external effects of air and heat, which are the two great incentives to fermentative motions; and that if fuch fmall parcels fuffered no change for the worfe. much lefs need it be apprehended, that any larger would! Shaw's Chem. Eflay. Freezing rains. Our own annals give us many accounts of the damage done to our trees by rum freezing as they fall, and confequently forming cakes of ice about all the branches which by degrees increafe to a weight that the branch is un- able to fupport. In the year 1672, there fell fuch a rain as this at Briftol, and over a)! the country thereabouts. Moft of the orchards expofed to the north-eaft, were deftroyed by it. and had it continued longer, and been attended with gufts of wind, fcarce any thing could have flood before it. A piece of an afh tree of juft three quarters of a pound weight was Sup pl. Vol. I,

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Weighed, with its coat of ice upon it occafioned by this rairi j the ice weighed iixteen pounds', befide what was melted off by the perfons hands who brought it. The {talks of grafs were furrounded with coats of ice, fome of which were five niches round by meafirre. All the time that the orchards and hedges were thus breaking under the loads of the ice, the waters were all free, and not fo much as a puddle frozen over. 1 ne roads were rendered impaffable by the parts of trees every where fallen acrofs them, and the noife of the icy boughs rattling againll one another, as (hook by the wind, was very terrible. Where this rain fell upon the fnow, it immediately became ice as on the trees.

It is remarkable, that men who were out on the road, com- plained of the moil exceffive colds, and were in agonies on coming into a warm room ; though all the while in fome places, there only fell a kind of fleet, which was wet under Jhe feet, and gave no appearance of froft upon the ground. I his fort of temper in the air preceeded alfo the freezing rains, in the very places where they happened. Tho' this fevere weather happened in December, as foon as it was over, which was in a few days, there was a fudden change, into not only a mild, but a hot leafon. People complained of exceffive fweat- ing, both by night and day, and the trees and hedge-bufhes put forth their buds for leaves and bloffoms, as if it had been April ; fome of the apple-trees flowered before Chriftmas, and had the young fruit before New-years day. Dr. Beat in Phil. Iranf. N° go. FREGAROLA, in zoology, a name given by many, to a fmall river fifh, well known in England by the name of the mi- now. Wilhghbfs Hilt. pifc. p. 268. See the article Phoxi-

NUS.

FREGGIA, in zoology, the name of a long anguilliform fifh of the taenia kind, more commonly called cavagiro. H'il- /2 5%' s Hift. pifc. p. 1 1 7. See the article Cavagiro.

IREIsER, a name ufed by fome for the ftrawberry plant. Ger. Eniac. Ind. 4.

FRENCH hole. See the article Bolus.

French grafs, a name given by our farmers to a plant ralfed tor the food of cattle, and more properly called faint foin. It had its name French grafs, from its coming originally to us from France, and from its ufe in ferving both frelh and dried for the food of cattle ; the common clover is called grafs alfo by the farmers, tho' neither this nor the other, are properly grades. Some of our farmers alfo call it everlafting grafs, from its long continuance, a ftrong crop often yielding a plentiful annual produce for forty years without any renewing See the article Saint Fein.

FRESH (Cycl.) _ Fresh the hawfe, on board a {hip. See Hawse, Cycl.

FREsH-iuater jhell-f/h, Sec Fluviatiles cochlea.

FRETTS, in mineralogy, a term ufed by our miners to exprefs the worn fide of the banks of the rivers in mine countries, where they fearch for the fhoad flones, or grewts, warned down from the hills in order from them to trace out the running of the fhoad up to the mine. Philof. Tranfafl. N° 60. See Shoad.

FRETUM, f might, ox freight, in geography. See the article Straight, Cycl.

There are three kinds of freights: I. Such as join one ocean to another. Of this kind are the freights of Magellan and Le Maire. 2. Thofe which join the ocean to a gulph. The freights of Gibraltar and Babehnandel are of this kind, the Mediterranean and Red fea being only large gulphs. 3. Thofe which join one gulph to another; as the freight of Caffa, which joins the Palus Maeotis to the Euxine or Black fea. The paflage of freights is commonly dangerous, on account of the rapidity and oppofite motion of currents.

FRICIUM, in pharmacy, a name given to fuch medicines as are intended to be rubbed into the feveral parts of the body. The antients had three kinds of fricia, the dry, the foft, and the liquid, the firft was ufed in the way of fumigation, the fecond was bound on the part with cloths, and the Jaft was ufed by way of embrocation.

FRIESLANDfor^. See Cheval defrife, Cycl.

FRIGAT, in fea affairs, a fhip of war, ufually of two decks, light built, and defigned for fwift failing. When it hath but one deck, and confequently is of a {mailer fize, they call her a light frigat.

FRIGHT. This pafiion has been known not only to caufe, but to cure difeafes. Mr. Boyle mentions agues, gout and fciati- ca, cured by this means. See Works abr. p. 82, &c. It is a commonly known cure for the hiccough, to put the pa- tient in a (udden fright.

FRINGILLA, in the Linnaean fyftem of zoology, the name of a large genus of birds of the general order of the paficres. The diftinguiming characters of this genus are thefe : the tongue is whole and even, the beak is of a conic fhape, and one man- dible receives the other into the finus of its bafis. Of this genus are the fparrow, linnet, greenfinch, and the like. Lin- ntsi Syitema Natural, p. 48.

FRINGILLAGO, in zoology, a name by which fome have II S called