fly, good till the middle of June: the body made of tawny wool, and the wings made to stand contrary, one against the other, of the whitish mail of a white drake. 7. For July, the wasp fly; the body made of black wool, cast about with yellow silk, and the wings of drakes' feathers. 8. The steel fly; proper in the middle of July; the body made with greenish wool, cast about with the feathers of a peacock's tail, and the wings made of those of the buzzard. 9. For August, the drake fly; the body made with black wool cast about with black silk; the wings of the mail of a black drake, with a black head. The best rules for fishing with the artificial fly are: To fish in a river somewhat disturbed with rain: or in a cloudy day, when the waters are moved by a gentle breeze; the south wind is best; and if the wind blow high, yet not so but that you may conveniently guard your tackle; the fish will rise in plain deeps; but, if the wind be small, the best angling is in swift streams. Keep as far from the water-side as may be; fish down the stream with the sun at your back, and touch not the water with your line. Always angle in clear rivers, with a small fly and slender wings; but in muddy places, use a larger. When, after rain, the water becomes brownish, use an orange fly; in a clear day, a light colored fly; a dark fly for dark waters, &c. Let the line be twice as long as the rod, unless the river be encumbered with wood. For every sort of fly, have several of the same, differing in color, to suit with the different complexions of several waters and weathers. Let the fly fall first into the water, and not the line, which will scare the fish. In slow rivers, or still places, cast the fly across the river, and let it sink a little in the water, and draw it gently back with

the current. Flies for salmon should be made with their wings standing one behind the other, whether two or four. This fish delights in the gaudiest colors that can be; chiefly in the wings, which must be long, as well as the tail.

FISHING-FLOATS are little appendages to the line, serving to keep the hook and bait suspended at the proper depth, to discover when the fish has hold of them, &c. Of these there are divers kinds; some made of Muscovy duck quills, which are the best for slow waters; but, for strong streams, sound cork, without flaws or holes, bored through with a hot iron, into which is put a quill of exact proportion, is preferable: pare the cork to a pyramidal form, and make it smooth.

FISHING-FROG. See LOPHIUS. FISHING-HOOK, a small instrument made of steel wire, of a bent form, to catch and retain fish. The fishing-hook, in general, ought to be long in the shank, somewhat thick in the circumference, the point even and straight. The bend should be in the shank. For setting the hook on, use strong, but small silk, laying the hair on the inside of your hook; for if it be on the outside, the silk will fret and cut it asunder. There are several sizes of fishing-hooks, some big, some little, and of these some have peculiar names; as, 1. Single hooks. 2. Double hooks, which have two bendings, one contrary to the other. 3. Snappers, or gorgers, which are the

hooks to whip the artificial fly upon, or bait with the natural fly. 4. Springers, or spring hooks; a kind of double hooks, with a spring which flies open upon being struck into any fish, and so keeps its mouth open.

FISHING-LINE, a line made either of hair twisted, or silk; or the Indian grass. The best colors are the sorrel, white, and gray; the two last for clear waters, the first for muddy ones. The pale watery green color is given artificially, by steeping the hair in a liquor made of alum, soot, and the juice of walnut-leaves, boiled together.

FISHING-ROD, a long slender rod or wand, to which the line is fastened, for angling. Of these there are several sorts; as, 1. A troller, or trolling rod, which has a ring at the end of the rod, for the line to go through when it runs off a reel. 2. A whipper, or whipping rod; a top rod, that is weak in the middle, and top heavy, but all slender and fine. 3. A dropper, which is a strong rod, and very light. 4. A snapper, or snap rod, which is a strong pole, peculiarly used for the pike. 5 A bottom rod; being the same as the dropper, but somewhat more pliable. FIS'SILE, adj. FISSIL'ITY, n.s. FISSURE, n.s. & v.a.

Lat. fissilis, fissura, from findo, to cleave. Easy to cleave; fissility is the quality of admitting to be cloven: fissure a cleft made; a narrow chasm or breach.

This crystal is a pellucid fissile stone, clear as water or crystal of the rock, and without color; enduring a red heat without losing its transparency, and in a very strong heat calcining without fusion.

Newton's Opticks.

FISSURE OF A BONE, in surgery, is when it is divided either transversely or longitudinally, not quite through, but cracked after the manner of glass, by any external force. See SURGERY. FIST, n. s. & v. a. I Sax. Fyre; Goth. fast; FIST ICUFFS. Teut. faust; i.e. the hand in a fast or closed state. The hand clenched either to strike or hold: as a verb, to strike or grasp with the fist fisticuffs are cuffs with the

fist.

:

I commaunde you not
Fortune to trust, and eke full well ye wot,

I haue of her no brydle in my fist,
She renneth loose, and turneth where she lyst.
Sir T. Mcre.

FISTULA, in the ancient music, an instrument of the wind kind, resembling our flute or flageolet. The principal wind instruments of the ancients were the tibia and the fistula. Some had holes, some none; some again were single pipes; others a combination of several; witness the syringa of Pan.

FISTULA, in the veterinary art. See VETERINARY ART.

FISTULA, in surgery, a deep narrow ulcer, generally arising from abscesses. It differs from a sinus, in being callous, the latter not. See SURGERY.

FISTULA LACHRYMALIS. A disorder at the canal leading from the eye to the nose, which obstructs the natural progress of the tears, and makes them trickle down the cheek; but this is only the first and mildest stage of the disease: in the next there is matter discharged with the tears from the puncta lachrymalia, and sometimes from an orifice broke through the skin between the nose and the angle of the eye. The last and worst degree of it is, when the matter of one eye, by its long continuance, has not only corroded the neighbouring soft parts, but also affected the subjacent bone.

FISTULARIA, or Tobacco-pipe fish, a genus of fishes belonging to the order of abdo minales. Of this genus Linnæus reckons two species. Three are now discovered. The F. tabacaria is generally about a foot in length; the fore part from the nose to half way the body of nearly equal bigness; from whence it grows

tapering to the tail, which is forked, and from which issues a slender taper whip, four inches long, of the consistence of whalebone; the mouth narrow, and the whole fish of a brown color. They are sometimes taken on the coasts of Jamaica. They feed on sea-insects, &c., which they drag easily from rocks on account of the peculiar formation of the snout. FIT, n. s. Sax. Fæt, fæc; Swed. fet; FITFUL, adj. Belg. vat, Ital. fiata; as Skinner conjectures from fight; any fit of a disease being a struggle of nature:' Junius derives it more probably from the Flem. viit, frequent; and Gr. pirra, haste. The paroxysm or crisis of an intermittent disorder; any short return of an intermitting complaint: hence, disorder; distemperature, generally; any recommencement of an action after intermission; an interval : fitful is varied by paroxysms; changeful. The life did flit away out of her nest, And all his senses were with deadly fit opprest. Faerie Queene.

Mrs. Bull was so much enraged, that she fell downright into a fit. Arbuthnot's John Bull. Small stones and gravel collect and become very large in the kidneys, in which case a fit of the stone in that part is the cure. Sharp's Surgery.

All fits of pleasure we balance by an equal degree of pain or languor: 'tis like spending this year, part of the next year's revenue. Swift.

As his years increased, his fits of giddiness and deafness grew more frequent, and his deafness made conversation difficult. Johnson's Life of Swift.

FIT. See PAROXYSM.
FIT, adj. v. a. & v. n. \
FITʼLY, adv.
FITMENT, 7. S.
FITNESS,
FIT'TER,

FITTINGLY, adv.

Sax. Fegt; Isl fit; Kem. vitten; Belgic, voegt; Teut. fuight; (Sax. fegan, means to adapt. Thomson) Proper; meet; adapted: right; convenient: as an active verb, to make so; to accommodate or adapt one thing to another; taking out and up to give intensity to the meaning: as a neuter verb, to be proper or becoming. Fitment is an obsolete word for something adapted to a particular purpose. Men of valour, fit to go out for war and battle

1 Chron.

The English fleet could not be paid and manned, and fitted out, unless we encouraged trade and navi. gation. Addison's Freeholder.

An animal, in order to be moveable must be flexible; and therefore is fitly made of separate and small solid parts, replete with proper flui ls. Arbuthnot. A trussmaker fitted the child with a pair of boddice stiffened on the lame side. Wiseman's Surgery.

Nor fits it to prolong the feast,
Timeless, indecent, but retire to rest.

Pope's Odyssey. Which abstract terms very fittingly agree with the More.

notion.

Now is the season

For 30wing of fitches, of beans, and of peason.
Tusser.

FITCH, in husbandry, is more generally known by the name of chick-pea. See CICER. Fitches are cultivated either for feeding cattle, or improving the land. They make a wholesome and nourishing food, whether given in the straw, or threshed out. When sown only to improve the soil, they are ploughed in just as they begin to blossom, by which means a tough stiff clay soil is much enriched.

There are two words in the Hebrew Old Testament, which our translators have rendered by fitches, and D. The first occurs but once, and that in Isa. xxviii. 25. 27, where the connexion proves it to be some kind of seed, but what kind is a subject of dispute. Jerom, Maimonides, R. David, Kimchi, and the rabbin understand it to be the gith, called by the Greeks described by Ballester: 'It is a plant commonly μedavolov, and by the Latins nigella. It is thus met with in gardens, with leaves like those of fennel; the flower blue, which disappearing, the ovary shows itself at the top like that of the poppy, and containing in its membranous cells. seeds of a very black color, not unlike those of the leek, but of a very fragrant smell.' The Jewish rabbin mention the seeds as mixed with bread. The other word rendered fitches, is

, which the greatest number of commentators render spelt; but Dr. Geddes, R. David Kimchi, as well as our English translators, consider it to be rye, which is supported by the Arabic translations. Dr. Shaw thinks it may be

rice.

FITCHAT, n. s. Į Fr. fissau; Dutch, fisse. FITCHEW. SA stinking little animal, that robs the hen-roost and warren. Skinner calls him the stinking ferret; but he is much

larger, at least as some provinces distinguish them, in which the polecat is termed a fitchat, and the stinking ferret a stoat. See MUSTELA. 'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfumed one; What do you mean by this haunting of me?

Shakspeare.

The fitchat, the sulimart, and the like creatures, live upon the face and within the bowels of the earth, Walton's Angler.

FITCHBURGH, a post-town of Massachusetts, in Worcester county, containing 1151 citizens in 1795; forty-two miles north-west of Boston, and 393 from Philadelphia.

FITCHE'E, in heraldry, from old Fr. âshe, i. e. fixed; a term applied to a cross when the lower branch ends in a sharp point. The reason of it Mackenzie supposes to be, that the Christians were wont to carry crosses with

them wherever they went; and, when they stopped on their journey at any place, they fixed these portable crosses in the ground for devotion's sake.

FITISH, or FETISH, is the appellation given by the natives of Middle Africa to their idols, or charms, which are of almost endless variety in form and composition. The most common are milk, eggs, and birds; and the partridge is held so sacred, that if the foot of a dead one is known to have touched a dish of meat, no one will taste of it, although ready to die of hunger. They do not, however, regard milk or eggs with equal veneration, for they may be sometimes seen devouring each other's fitishes with the greatest harmony.

Their portable fitishes consist of rude imitations of the human form, or of animals, with a piece of looking-glass fixed in the breast; the tusks of the young elephant, filled with a black paste, into which shells are stuck; tigers' claws and teeth; the minute horns of the chevrotten and other animals; sea-shells full of black paste, or even small parcels of partycolored rags, and diminutive flasks, containing consecrated gunpowder. No man takes a drink, without making an oblation to the master fitish, which is frequently an elephant's tooth. He holds it in the left hand, and, after licking its pasted head, squirts a mouthful of liquid over it in a shower; then muttering a few words, he drinks the remainder himself.

FITZHERBERT (Sir Anthony), a learned lawyer in the reign of king Henry VIII., descended of an ancient family, and born at Norbury in Derbyshire. He was made a judge of the court of common pleas in 1523; and distinguished himself by many valuable works. His principal writings are, The Grand Abridgment; The Office and Authority of Justices of Peace; The Office of Sheriffs, Bailiffs of Liberties, Escheators, Constables, Coroners, &c.; Of the Diversity of Courts; Of the Surveying of Lands; and the Book of Husbandry. He died

in 1538.

FITZJAMES (James, duke of Berwick), was the natural son of James II., by Mrs. Arabella Churchill, sister to the celebrated duke of Marlborough. He was born at Moulins in 1671,

and entered early into the French service. When only fifteen years of age, he was wounded at the siege of Buda. He was sent to Ireland in 1688, and distinguished himself at the siege of Londonderry, and at the battle of the Boyne. His superior merit recommended him to the French court, and he was created marshal of France, knight of the Holy Ghost, duke and peer of France, grandee of Spain, and commander-inchief of the French arinies; in all which stations his behaviour was such, that few equalled, perhaps none surpassed him. He was killed by a cannon-ball at the siege of Philipsburgh in

1738.

FITZSTEPHEN (William), a learned monk of Canterbury, of Norman extraction, born of respectable parents in London, in the twelfth century. Being attached to archbishop Becket, he was present at the time of his murder. And in 1174 he wrote in Latin, The Life of St. Thomas, archbishop and martyr; in which, as Becket was a native of the metropolis, he introduces a description of London, with a detail of the manners and usages of the citizens, which is deservedly considered as a great curiosity, being the earliest professed account of London extant. He died in 1191.

FITZWILLIAM, a township of New Hampshire in Cheshire county; sixteen miles east of the Connecticut. FIVE, adj. FIVE-BAR, FIVE-BARRED, FIVE-FOLD, FIVE LEAVED.

Saxon, FiF; Goth. finif; Belg. fief; Teut. funf, seem ingly corrupted, says Minsheu, from the Lat. quinque. A number; four and one; five-bar and five-barred are, having five bars, usually applied to gates. Five-leaved is an epithet of cinquefoil. Drayton calls it 'five-leaf.'

And aftir these dayes Elizabeth his wif conseyvede and hidde hir fyve monethis and seyde. Wiclif. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Matthew.

No person, no incident, but must be of use to carry on the main design: all things else are like six fingers

to the hand, when nature, which is superfluous in nothing, can do her work with fire. Dryden.

Five herds, five bleating flocks, his pastures filled.

it in 1809, by an Austrian and British force. Many of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood are of Hungarian origin. It is five miles W. N. W. of Buccari, and thirty-six south east of Trieste. Population 12,000.

FIUMETTO, a mountain of Italy, in the duchy of Modena, and late department of Crostolo; near which wells are dug, from 100 to 120 feet deep, on the surface of whose waters a reddish medicinal oil swims, that is skimmed off once a fortnight.

FIX', v. a. & v. n.' Fr. firer; Ital. ficcare; FIXATION, n. s. Span. firar; Port. fincar; FIX'EDLY, adv. Lat. firus ; from Gг. πŋуш, FIXEDNESS, n. s. new, to pitch as a tent. FIX'IDITY, To make fast or firm; FIX'ITY, place permanently; estaFIXTURE, blish; settle; deprive of FIX'URE. motion or volatility; pierce as a neuter verb to settle, opinion or resolution; rest; lose volatility: fixation is stability; firmness; settledness: fixidity, coherence of parts; a word used by Boyle for what Sir Isaac Newton calls fixity: fixure is the word used by Shakspeare (not fixture) for position; stable pressure; firmness, although fixture, something affixed, or fastened to a house, appears a very legitimate' and useful modern word.

While from the raging sword he vainly flies, A bow of steel shall fix his trembling thighs.

Sandys.

Why are thine eyes fixt to the sullen earth, Gazing at that which seems to dim thy sight?

Shakspeare. The firm firure of thy foot would give an excellent motion to thy gift.

The fixure of her eye hath motion in't,
As we were mocked with art.

Id.

Id. Winter's Tale. Frights, changes, horrours, Divert and crack, rend and deracinate The unity and married calm of states Quite from their fixure.

Id. Troilus and Cressida.

And are not the sun and fixed stars great earths vehemently hot, whose heat is conserved by the greatness of the bodies, and the mutual action and reaction between them, and the light which they emit, and whose parts are kept from fuming away, not only by their fixity, but also by the vast weight and density of the atmospheres incumbent upon them? Newton's Opticks.

An universal dissolution of manners began to prevail, and a professed disregard to all fixed principles. Atterbury. Fluid or solid comprehend all the middle degrees between extreme fixedness and coherency, and the most rapid intestine motion of the particles of bodies. Bentley.

They are subject to errors from a narrowness of soul, a fixation and confinement of thought to a few Watts. objects.

If we take a general view of the world, we shall find that a great deal of virtue, at least outward appearance of it, is not so much from any fixed prinsay, and the ciple as the terror of what the world will liberty it will take upon the occasions we shall give.

Sterne.

Hell heard the' unsufferable noise, hell saw Heaven running from heaven, and would have fled Affrighted, but that fate had fixed too deep Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound.

BODIES.

FIXED AIR, in the old chemical nomenclature, an invisible and permanently elastic fluid, superior in gravity to the common atmospheric air and most other aerial fluids, exceedingly destructive to animal life; produced in great quantities,