FUR
F U S
<»row in the middle of the uvea, hinder the fight more by diffracting the obje£t, than thofe which grow in either corner or angle of it. The cure is not eafy ; all that tan be attempted muft be by dry diet, and attenuating medi- cines; and a palliative remedy may be the hanging fomething over to fhade the eye, and keeping it from being expofed naked- ly to the fun, the confequence of which will be, that the pu- pil will not be fo clofely contracted, and confequently, the light notfo much obftruclcd. Phil. Tranf. N°. 32.
FUNNEL fajhioned fewer s. See Infundibuliform.
Funnel polype. See Polype.
F'URIA, in the Italian mufic, is ufed for a very quick and ftrong manner of finging or playing.
FURIGELDUM, in our old writers, a rnuldt paid for theft.
FURLONG (Cycl.) — In Scotland the furlong is equal to forty falls. Tr. Pract, Geom. p. 3. See F'all.
FURNACE (Cycl.)—Metallurgic Furnaces. Swedenborg has laid down from his own experience, certain rules for the general conftrudrion of thefe metallurgic furnaces, by which they will always be made more advantageous to the proprie- tor, ceteris paribus, than any other kind. Thefe rules are, that the chimney be always placed as nearly as may be, be- hind the center of the furnace ; that the fmaller the depth of the fire place, provided it be fuflicient to hold the coals, the better; that all furnaces mull; be the better, the wider they are forwards, and the higher they are, fo as not to lofe the benefit of reverberation.
Iron Furnaces. See Iron.
FURNAGE. See the article Fornage.
FURO, in zoology, a name given by fome authors to the fer- ret, called by others alfo furunculus and iclis. See Viverra.
FURRING of a jhip, is laying on double planks on her fides. This is done after the fhip is built, and is by the failors called plank upon plank. But there is another way of furring, which is more properly fo called ; and that is, when a Chip's planks are ripped, and new timbers are put on the former timbers, and on them other planks ; which is done fometimes to make a fhip bear the fails the better.
I'URUNCLE, or Boil, is a fmall refilling tumor, with inflam- mation, rednefs, and great pain arifing in the membrana adi- pofa under the skin. As there is no part of the body free from being the fubje£t of this tumor, fo the whole body is fometimes fo miferably inferred with them, that the patient knows not how to ftir, or on what part to lie. Young in fants, and adults, are equally liable to this diforder ; and tho' in adults there is feldom any great danger in it, yet it fome- times happens when they are very numerous in tender infants, that they not only excite violent pains, reftleflhefs and toflings, with great weaknefs, convulfions and epilepiies, but death it- felf fometimes follows them.
The principal caufe of boils, is a too glutinous and infpiffated Irate of the blood, and the cure of them principally depends upon the reftoring rhe blood to its due confidence and proper circulation. People who are very fubjefi: to thefe tumors fhould bleed and take purging medicines at proper intervals, and drink plentifully of warm and weak liquors, abftaining from wine, ftrong fpirituous liquors, aud from the ufe of to- bacco.
When the diforder is recent or not habitual, external reme- dies alone are fuflicient for the cure : honey mixed to a pro- per fharpnefs with fpirit of vitriol is a very good external ap- plication. The touching the boils with fpirit of vitriol alone, is often alfo of great fcrvice ; and fometimes the difcutient plaif- ters ate to be applied, as the diachylon, fpcrma ceti, and foap plaifter. If thefe applications however, do not prove fuccefs- ful in the difperfing a boil, the only method to be taken, is that of bringing it to fuppuration. This however is in fome cafes no eafy task, but the tumor remains fometimes very hard and troublefome; even after a proper treatment of many weeks and fometimes the humour that occafions it, becomes fo acri- monious by its long detenfion, and great infpiflation, that it produces ulcers, which grow gradually worfe and worfe, till at length they end in incurable fiftulae. To promote and quick- en the fuppuration, it is generally found of great fervice to apply plaiflers of diachylon with the gums, and of honey and flower mixed, and made ro a proper confidence ; and where thefe prove infufficient, maturating cataplafms are to be ap- plied, and very frequently repeated. When the boil is fuffici- ently maturated by one or other means, which will be known from the foftnefsand ycllownefs of its head ; it muft be open- ed by incifion, and when the matter it contained isdifcharged, the ulcer muft be daily cleanfed, till perfectly freed from all malignity, and then healed with the vulnerary balfams. When infants which fuck are afflicted with boils, the proper method is to give cooling medicines and purges to the nurfe, and enjoin her a due regimen in diet ; and the infant fhould at the lame time be got to take fome gentle laxative, and the ab- forbent powders, as thofe of crabs-eyes and the like, to allay the acrimony of its juices. Hciflcrs Surgery, p. 195.
FURUNCULUS, in zoology, the name given by many authors to the ferret, called alfo the furo and iclis. See Viverra.
I URZE. We fometimes ufe this prickly flirub for fences, but
the French ufe it much more, and that in a peculiar manner. They make hedges of it ten or twelve foot thick, or fome- times twice or three times that thicknefs. This makes an ex- cellent ihelter for game, and is done in this manner : they dig the ground where they intend to plant this hedge, in winter" to kill the grofs weeds ; when the fpring comes on they dig it over a fecond time to make the earth fine ; in the latter end of March, or beginning of April, they low this cultivat- ed ground thick with the furze feeds, and when they come up, they cut the young plants when grown up a little; this makes them grow the more vigoroufly, and in a few years they make a hedge of the utmoft ufe and value to the owners on' feveral' accounts.
It is faid that the common Englifh furze will grow upon the dry fands that are in the neighbourhood of the lea, tho' fubje£t. to be waflied fometimes by the water ; this is a thing extreme- ly worth the trying, as it would then be of tile greateft advantage to thofe who have walls or banks next the lea, to plant it on them to preferve them.
This being a very unprofitable plant in refpefi of many others, it is often neceflary to deftroy it. This may be done by plow- ing and burning the bufhes upon the land. Marling the land well in countries where marie is plentiful, is alfo a very good way ; and there is yet another much better, which is to make wood land, not arable, of the place; to this purpofe it is on- ly neceflary to fow or plant acorns at proper diftances. The furze will ihelter the acorns till the time of their growing up to two or three foot high, and then they will foon ftarve and deftroy all she furze and every other weed. Mortimer's Huf- bandry, p. 3081
FUSA, in the Italian mufic, the name of one of the mufical notes, frequently alfo called chroma, and by us quaver. See Chroma and Quaver, Cycl. and Sufpl.
FUSANUS, in botany, a name given by many authors to the flirub, more ufually called euonymus. This was fometimes called atlrailylis by the Greeks, and had both this and its Ro- man name fufanus, from its being of ufe for making the dif- taft, ufed by the women in fpinning. Some have fuppofed that this was the fame with the euonymus, amnios of 1 l.eophraf- tus and the Greek writers, but very erroneoufly. Our euonymus has a fliort fruit divided into four lobes, each con- taining a iingle bud divided from the reft by a partition ; and thele when the fruit is ripe, and fplits open, fliew themfelves between the fifliires, and finally fall out one after another. The euonymus of the Greeks bore, according to the exprefs words of Theophraftus, a long pod like that of the lefamum ; this is in no fort like our euonymus fruit, but is long, (lender and terminated in a point, having four ribs running along it, which divide it into a fort of fquares. Theophraftus adds, that within this pod there were contained very hard feeds drf- poled in lour orders or feries, each feries containing feveral feeds. The author who has given occafion lor this mifunder- ftanding of the words of Theophraftus is Pliny. He has tranf- lated the paflage in which that author defcribes the euonymus very ill ; he (ays indeed that the fruit is like that of the iefa- num, but that it contains within a dry basd feed, of a qua- drangular figure. This feems to be meant as exprefling only one feed to be placed in each cell ; but Theophraftus neither fays this, nor that the feeds are fquare, but that they are dlf- pof'ed in three orders; he has exprefled this, by the word te- trajlzchon, which Pliny has fuppofed to be the fame with te- tragonon, but without reafon. See Tetrast.?£Con. Theophraftus fays alfo, that the leaves and fruit of the euo- nymus were poifonous to catrle ; therefore it cannot be the euonymus or fufanus of thefe times, which is innocent, and which cattle eat without injury, every time they can come at it. The manner of its operation alfo was as an aftringent ; the cattle that eat of it, were rendered coftive, and unlefs a purging was brought on by art or nature to their afliffance, they died of it. This alfo is greatly contradictory to the na- ture of out fufanus or euonymus ; for three or lour of its feeds taken internally, ferve as a purge, and often work briskly both upwards and downwards. The del'cription the antients give of the other parts of the tree, do not agree with our euonymus: they fay its leaves were fomewhat like thofe of the chamcedaphne, or of a middle fize between that and the pomegranate-tree, and were very foft to the touch. Pliny tranflates the word chamjedaphne, by laurus, or the bay-tree, by this means doubling the confufion in this paflage. Our fufanus has leaves tolerably anfwering indeed in fhape and fize to thofe of the euonymus of the Greeks, but then they are not foft to the touch. They fay alfo that the flowers of their euonymus fmelt like corrupted fleih, or ftinking blood ; this does not at all agree with our fufanus, whofe flowers have no ill fmell. The euonymus of the Greeks was finally a very rare ftirub, growing only in the ifland of Lesbos and two or three other peculiar places ; the Romans had never feen it, nor had an} name for it in their language, but borrowed the Greek name and account of it. Our euonymus or fu- fanus is a flirub common all over Europe, and in many other parts of the world.
FUSILE,
