Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 1.djvu/855

 FUN

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FUN

Fund of the Gall Bladder, the Stomach, Sic. See Gall Bladder, Stomach, &c.

Fundus Plants, is that Part of a Plant, where the Stalk juft meets, and joins the Root.

Fundus Cali, is the Point oppofite to the Point of Cul- mination 5 or the Point of the Ecliptick, wherein it is inter- fered by the Meridian, beneath the Horizon.—

Fund, in Commerce, is ufed for the Capital, or Stock of a Merchant, Company, or Corporation $ or the Sum of Mo- ney they put into Trade. See Stock, Capital, &c.

In this Senfe we fay abfolutely, the Funds, the Publick Funds ; meaning the Stock of the great Companies, or Cor- porations, as the Bank, South Sea, Eaft India, &c. See Bank, Company, Sic.

FUNDAMENT, the Anus, or Aperture, thro' which a Man voids his Excrements. See Anus.

FUNDAMENTAL, fomething that ferves as a Bafe, Reft, Support, or Foundation for any thing. See Founda- tion.

The Apoftles Creed contains the fundamental Points of Religion. The Salic Law is the fundamental Law of the Polity of France.

Fundamental, in Mulic, the principal Note of a Song, orCompoiition,to which all the reft are in fomemeafure ad- apted, and by which they are fway'd ; call'd alio the Key of the Song. See Key.

FUNERAL, the Ceremonies perform 'd at an Interment; or the laft Offices paid the Deceafed. See Obsequies.

The Word is form'd of the Latin Funus ; and that of Funalia, by reafon of the Torches (which were Funes, cera circumdati) us'd in the Funerals of the Romans. Tho' others derive Funus from the Greek ®w&, Death, or Slaughter.

The Funeral Rites among the antient Romans were very numerous.

The Deceased was kept feven Days ; and every Day wafti'd ■with hot Water, and fometimes anointed with Oil, that in cafe he were only in a Slumber, he might thus be waked 5 and every now and then his Friends meeting, made a horri- ble Outcry, or Shout, with the fame View : Which laft Ac- tion they call'd Conclamatio.

The third Conclamation was on the feventh Day ; when, if no Signs of Life appear'd, the Defunct was drefs'd and embalmed by the Pollin&ores, plac'd in a Bed near the Door, with his Face and Heels outward, toward the Street ; and the Outride of the Gate, if the Deceas'd were of Condition, garnifti'd with Cyprefs Boughs.

In the courfe of thefe feven Days an Altar was rais'd near his Bed fide, call'd Jlcerra ; on which his Friends every day ofter'd Incenfe; and the Libitinarii provided Things for the Funeral.

On the feventh Day a Crier was fent about the City to invite the People to the Solemnization of the Funeral in thefe Words, Exequias L. T"ito L. Filio, quibus eft commo- dum, ires. Jam tempus eft. Ollus ex edibtts ejfertur.

The People being atTembled, the laft Conclamation ended, and the Bed cover'd with Purple ■ a Trumpeter march'd forth, followed by old Women, call'd Preeficee, ringing Songs in praife of the Deceas'd : And laftly, the Bed fol- lowed, bore by the next Relations. And if the Perfon were of Quality and Office, the waxen Images of all his Predeceffors were carried before him on Poles. See Image.

The Bed was followed by his Children, Kindred, H$c. atrati, or in Mourning : From which Act of following the Corps, thefe Funeral Rites were called Exequia.

The Body thus brought to the Roftra, the next of Kin laudabat IJefunElum fro rojlris, made a Funeral Oration in his Praife, and that of his Anceftora.

This done, the Body was carried to the Pyra, or funeral File, and there burnt : His Friends firft cutting off a Finger, to be buried with a fecond Solemnity. See Pyra, and Rogus.

The Body confumed, the Allies were gather'd ; and the Prieft fprinkling the Company thrice with clean Water, the eldett of the Pr<eficce crying aloud, Meet, difmifs'd the People, who took their leave of the Deceas'd in this Form, Vale, Vale, Vale : Nos te ordinc quo natura permiferit, fequemur.

The Allies, inclos'd in an Urn, were laid in the Sepulcher, or Tomb. See Urn, Sepulcher, and Tomb.

The firft Romans did not burn their Dead, but interr'd them, as we do. See Burning.

'Pliny, lib. 7. c. 54. allures us, that the Cuftom of Burning was not introduced till after they had learnt, that their Enemies dug up, and expos'd the Bodies of their Soldiers buried in remote Countries. And yet 'Plutarch, in his Life of Numa, obferves, that Nitma was buried ; as having ex- prelly forbid them by his Teftament to burn him : Which jhews that the Romans had practiced Burning before him. This Cuftom of burning the Dead, fo religioufly ob- ferv'd by the Greeks and Romans, was held in Abhorrence by feveral other Nations. Herodotus relates, that the Perfians detefted it ; as hold-

ing Fire fo be a God. The Egyptians declined to bum their Dead ; as taking Fire for an inanimate Beaft ■ and judging it Impiety to commit the Bodies of the Deceafed to be devour'd by Beafts. The Cuftom of burning among the Romans ceas'd under the Empire of the Anthonines.

Funeral Oration, or Sermon, a Difcourfe pronounced in praife of a Perfon deceafed, at the Ceremony of his Fu- neral.

The Cuftom of making funeral Orations is very antient. The Romans had it of a long Handing ; and it was always one of the neareft Relations that made it. Augitftus did the Office to his Grandmother Julia, when only twelve Years of Age. Suet. Aug. c. 8. And we have divers parallel Inftances.

The Cuftom feems to have begun with the Republic ; at leaft, the firft funeral Oration we read of, was that of liru- tus, who expell'd the Kings, and was the firft Conful ; who having been kill'd in a Battle againft the Hctrurians, was laudatus pro roftris, prais'd in the Forum by Valerius Publicola his Collegue.

Indeed, fome Authors will have the Practice more an- tient. They maintain it to have been in ufe among the Greeks; and that Solon, who, according to Aulus Gellius, gave Laws to the Athenians in the Time when the elder Tarquin reign'd at Rome, was the firft Author thereof: Something like which, it feems, the Orator Anaximenes has left in Writing. See Polydore Virgil de Invent. Rer. L. HI. c. 10.

Funeral Games, or Ludi Funebres, were a Part of the Ceremony of the antient Funerals. See Games.

They confifted in mortal Combats of Gladiators around the funeral Pile. See Gladi ator.

The Cuftom was very antient ; tho' it had not always been the fame. At firft, they cut the Throats of a Num- ber of Captives before the Pyra, as Victims to appeafe the Manes of the Deceas'd. This Achilles does in Homer, Iliad, <p, at the Funeral of Patrocius : And JEneas, in Vir- gil, L. XI. at that of Pallas, Son of Evander. defar, in his Commentaries L. VII. relates, that the Gauls did the fame.

But at length it appear'd barbarous, thus to butcher Men ; and therefore to fave the Horror of the Spectacle, yet with- out the Dead's lofing any thing thereby ; they made the poor Captives fight and kill one another, only faving fome few of fuch as came offVictors.

This Cuftom was borrowed of the Greeks by the Ro- mans ; among whom the cruel Diverfion was call'd Mllnus.

The firft who introdue'd it at Rome, was Junius Brums, at the Obfequies of his Father ; or, according to others, Ap. Claudius, and M. Fulvius, during their Confulate.

The like horrible Combats were alfo occasionally exhi- bited by the Magiftrates; and fometimes added to the Theatrical Pieces. "

The Emperor Claudius decreed, that whereas thefe ac- curfed Games were till then arbitrary; it fhould be the Practice for the future, to perform them regularly every Year, at the Expences of the State ; and that the jEdiles Ihould have the Care and Direction thereof. But he con- ceiv'd a Horror for them himfelf 5 and foon after abolifh'd them : Tho' it was ftill allow'd particular Perfons to have them, provided they were worth forty thoufand Sefterces per Annum.

They were not finally abolifh'd before Theodoric King of the Goths, at the End of the fifth Century.

Funeral Column, a Column crown'd with an Urn, where- in the Afties of fome deceas'd Perfon are fuppos'd to be in- clos'd ; the Fuft, or Shaft being fet with Tears, or Flames; the Symbols of Grief, and Immortality. See Column.

FUNGUS, in Natural Hiftory; fee Mushroom.

Fungus, in Medicine, a fleihy Tumor, or Excrefcence, very fpongeous, foft, and pale ; arifing on the Membranes, Tendons, and other nervous Parts, in confequence of Ulcers, Wounds, Contufions, and Strains.

Fungus's are frequently form'd on the Meninges, or Mem- branes of the Brain, in Wounds of the Head when not well cover'd, or defended from the external Air: They are alfo frequent about the Joints ; which laft grow very infenfibly. But where the Skin is open, finding more room, they grow to a prodigious degree in a very little time, afluming the Form of a Mufhroom or Fungus.

There are alfo Fungus's of the Anus, and Uterus. They are all fuppos'd to proceed from a Retention and Depravation of the nutritious Juice.

The Fungus is a general kind of Excrefcence, whereof there are divers particular Species ; as the Ficus, Sarcoma, Condyloma, Sic. SeeFicus, See.

FUNGOUS Fle/h, is a fpongeous, excrefcent, or fas we popularly call it) proud Flefti, frequently growing on the tips of Wounds, Ulcers, e?c. See Fungus.

The Sarcocele is fometimes the Refalt of a /«?#(!»! i'leih- See Sarcocele,

In