FRENCH WEST AFRICA 219 FREUD The successes of Bonaparte and his haughty demeanor alarmed the Directors and in 1798 they were glad to assent to a scheme which took him away from France. This was nothing less than his plan to strike at English commerce in the Mediterranean by seizing Egypt. Napoleon and his army successfully eluded the English fleet and by the battle of the Pyramids he destroyed the Sultan's army in Egypt. His attempt to advance into Syria met with reverses and it was only after great loss that he succeeded in making good his retreat to Alex- andria. In the meanwhile Nelson had destroyed the French fleet at Aboukir, leaving the French army stranded on the Egyptian shores. By clever reporting Napoleon had concealed his defeats from the French people while magnifying his victories. The Directory was proving it- self an inefficient and corrupt govern- ment, and was unable in the new Euro- pean war to defend its recently gained possessions. Leaving his army in Egypt Napoleon with a few officers escaped the British patrols and landed in France. Proceeding immediately to Paris by a coup d'etat he overthrew the Directory on November 9, 1799, and established himself in power as First Consul. With this event the French Revolution may be said to close. FRENCH WEST AFRICA. By a decree of the French Government of Oct. 18, 1904, French West Africa was de- clared to consist of French Guinea, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Mauri- tania, Upper Senegal, and Niger, and (Decree of 1911), the military territory of the Niger. These seven colonies situated in western Africa contain an estimated area of over 1,500,000 square miles with a population close to twelve million. Taking them altogether they are per- haps the most single valuable colonial possession of France. In 1912 and 1913, the years just prior to the World War, the imports of French West Africa were valued at 150,817,649 francs and their exports reached almost the same figure. Taken together with the French Congo they represent enormous potential wealth, for their resources have not as , yet been touched. The French during . 1912 and 1913 carried on extensive rail- road and telegraph building, as well as work in deepening harbors and improv- ing waterways. FRENEAU, PHILIP, an American poet; born in New York City, Jan. 2, 1752. His connection with Jefferson and other men of the time made him con- spicuous. Among his poems are: "The Home of Night," "The College Exam- ination," "Eutaw Springs," "The Indian Student," and "Lines to a Wild Honey- suckle." He died near Freehold, N. Y., Dec. 18, 1832. FRESNO, a city and county-seat of Fresno co., Cal. ; on the Atchison, To- peka and Santa Fe Coast Line and the Southern Pacific railroads; 208 miles S, E. of San Francisco. Here are a public library, high school, county hospital, business college, waterworks, street rail- roads, electric lights, National and pri- vate banks, and several daily and weekly newspapers. The chief industries are fruit growing and canning, farming, the manufacture of wine, and sheep raising. Pop. (1910) 24,892; (1920) 45,086. FRET, in music, a small piece of wood or ivory placed upon the finger board of certain stringed instruments, to regulate the pitch of the notes produced. By pressing the string down to the finger board behind a fret, only so much of the string can be set in vibration as lies be- tween the fret and the bridge. All the viols contained in a chest had frets, and some of the early forms of the violin were even furnished with them. But not only do they prevent the rapid fingering of difficult passages, but they also en- tirely deprive the violin of one of its most charming qualities, that of slurring or portamento, an attempt to produce which will, on a fretted instrument, re- sult in a well-defined chromatic scale. Another reason for the abandonment of fretted violins was that, in extreme keys, the intervals could not be tempered. In architecture, a fret is an ornament formed by small bands or fillets, inter- secting each other at right angles, used in classical architecture. It is suscep- tible of many modifications, and is still often employed. In heraldry, a fret is a bearing composed of bars crossed and interlaced. FREUD, SIGMUND, an Austrian phy- sician and psychologist, born in Frei- burg, Moravia, in 1856. Having finished his education in the University of Vienna, he became assistant physician at the General Hospital, and afterward a lecturer on nervous diseases. In 1885 he went to Paris, where he studied a year under the tutorship of Charcot. In 1902 he became associate professor of neurop- athy in the University of Vienna. In 1909 he paid a brief visit to the United States, where he was given the honorary degree of L.L. D. by Clark University. Dr. Freud, however, is famous on ac- count of the study of Psycho-Analysis, q. v., so closely connected with his name, otherwise knoTi as the theory of dreams. Briefly, the theory is that dreams are an indication of subconscious
