Philosophy, while setting forth the Spencerian system, made psychological and sociological additions of original matter, in some respects anticipating Spencer’s later conclusions. Of one part of the argument of this work Fiske wrote in the preface of one of his later books (Through Nature to God, 1899): “The detection of the part played by the lengthening of infancy in the genesis of the human race is my own especial contribution to the Doctrine of Evolution.” In The Idea of God as affected by Modern Knowledge (1885) Fiske discusses the theistic problem, and declares that the mind of man, as developed, becomes an illuminating indication of the mind of God, which as a great immanent cause includes and controls both physical and moral forces. More original, perhaps, is the argument in the immediately preceding work, The Destiny of Man, viewed in the Light of his Origin (1884), which is, in substance, that physical evolution is a demonstrated fact; that intellectual force is a later, higher and more potent thing than bodily strength; and that, finally, in most men and some “lower animals” there is developed a new idea of the advantageous, a moral and non-selfish line of thought and procedure, which in itself so transcends the physical that it cannot be identified with it or be measured by its standards, and may or must be enduring, or at its best immortal.
It is principally, however, through his work as a historian that Fiske’s reputation will live. His historical writings, with the exception of a small volume on American Political Ideas (1885), an account of the system of Civil Government in the United States (1890), The Mississippi Valley in the Civil War (1900), a school history of the United States, and an elementary story of the American Revolution, are devoted to studies, in a unified general manner, of separate yet related episodes in American history. The volumes have not appeared in chronological order of subject, but form a nearly complete colonial history, as follows: The Discovery of America, with some Account of Ancient America, and the Spanish Conquest (1892, 2 vols.); Old Virginia and her Neighbours (1897, 2 vols.); The Beginnings of New England; or, The Puritan Theocracy in its Relations to Civil and Religious Liberty (1889); Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America (1899); The American Revolution (1891, 2 vols.); and The Critical Period of American History, 1783–1789 (1888). Of these the most original and valuable is the Critical Period volume, a history of the consolidation of the states into a government, and of the formation of the constitution. (C. F. R.)
FISKE, MINNIE MADDERN (1865– ), American actress,
was born in New Orleans, the daughter of Thomas Davey. As
a child she played, under her mother’s name of Maddern, with
several well-known actors. In 1882 she first appeared as a
“star,” but in 1890 she married Harrison Grey Fiske and was
absent from the stage for several years. In 1893 she reappeared
in Hester Crewe, a play written by her husband, and afterwards
acted a number of Ibsen’s heroines, and in Becky Sharp, a
dramatization of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. In 1901 she opened,
in opposition to the American theatrical “trust,” an independent
theatre in New York, the Manhattan. She won a considerable
reputation in the United States as an emotional actress.
FISTULA (Lat. for a pipe or tube), a term in surgery used to
designate an abnormal communication leading either from
the surface of the body to a normal cavity or canal, or from one
normal cavity or canal to another. These communications are
the result of disease or injury. They receive different names
according to their situation: lachrymal fistula is the small
opening left after the bursting of an abscess in the upper part of
the tear-duct, near the root of the nose; salivary fistula is an
opening into the salivary duct on the cheek; anal fistula, or
fistula in ano, is a suppurating track near the outlet of the
bowel; urethral fistula is the result of a giving way of the tissues
behind a stricture. These are examples of the variety of the
first kind of fistula; while recto-vesical fistula, a communication
between the rectum and bladder, and vesico-vaginal fistula, a
communication between the bladder and vagina, are examples
of the second. The abnormal passage may be straight or tortuous,
of considerable diameter or of narrow calibre. Fistulae may
be caused by an obstruction of the normal channel, the result
of disease or injury, which prevents, for example, the tears,
saliva or urine, as the case may be, from escaping; their retention
gives rise to inflammation and ulceration in order that an
exit may be obtained by the formation of an abscess, which
bursts, for example, into the gut or through the skin; the
cavity does not close, and a fistula is the result. The fistulous
channel remains open as long as the contents of the cavity or
canal with which it is connected can pass through it. To obliterate
the fistula one must remove the obstruction and encourage
the flow along the natural channel; for example, one must
open up the nasal duct so as to allow the tears to reach the nasal
cavity, and the lachrymal fistula will close; and so also in the
salivary and urethral fistulae. Sometimes it may be necessary
to lay the channel freely open, to scrape out the unhealthy
material which lines the track, and to encourage it to fill up from
its deepest part, as in anal fistula; in other cases it may be
necessary to pare the edges of the abnormal opening and stitch
them together. (E. O.*)
FIT, a word with several meanings. (1) A portion or division
of a poem, a canto, in this sense often spelled “fytte.” (2) A
sudden but temporary seizure or attack of illness, particularly
one with convulsive paroxysms accompanied by unconsciousness,
especially an attack of apoplexy or epilepsy, but also applied to
a transitory attack of gout, of coughing, fainting, &c., also of an
outburst of tears, of merriment or of temper. In a transferred
sense, the word is also used of any temporary or irregular periods
of action or inaction, and hence in such expressions as “by
fits and starts.” (3) As an adjective, meaning suitable, proper,
becoming, often with the idea of having necessary qualifications
for a specific purpose, “a fit and proper person”; and also
as prepared for, or in a good condition for, any enterprise. The
verb “to fit” is thus used intransitively and transitively, to be
adapted for, to suit, particularly to be of the right measurement
or shape, of a dress, of parts of a mechanism, &c., and to make
or render a thing in such a condition. Hence the word is used
as a substantive.
The etymology of the word is difficult; the word may be one in origin, or may be a homonymous term, one in sound and spelling but with different origin in each different meaning. In Skeat’s Etymological Dictionary (ed. 1898) (1) and (2) are connected and derived from the root of “foot,” which appears in Lat. pes, pedis. The evolution of the word is: step, a part of a poem, a struggle, a seizure. (3) A word of Scandinavian origin, with the idea of “knitted together” (cf. Ice. fitja, to knit together, Goth, fetjan, to adorn); the ultimate origin is a Teutonic root meaning to seize (cf. “fetch”). The New English Dictionary suggests that this last root may be the origin of all the words, and that the underlying meaning is junction, meeting; the early use of “fit” (2) is that of conflict. It is also pointed out that the meanings of “fit,” suitable, proper, have been modified by “feat,” which comes through Fr. fait, from Lat. factum, facere, to do, make.
FITCH, JOHN (1743–1798), American pioneer of steam navigation,
was born at Windsor, Connecticut, on the 21st of January
1743. He was the son of a farmer, and received the usual
common school education. At the age of seventeen he went to
sea, but he discontinued his sailor life after a few voyages and
became successively a clockmaker, a brassfounder and a silversmith.
During the War of Independence he was a sutler to the
American troops, and amassed in that way a considerable sum
of money, with which he bought land in Virginia. He was
appointed deputy-surveyor for Kentucky in 1780, and when
returning to Philadelphia in the following year he was captured
by the Indians, but shortly afterwards regained his liberty.
About this time he began an exploration of the north-western
regions, with the view of preparing a map of the district; and
while sailing on the great western rivers, the idea occurred to
him that they might be navigated by steam. He endeavoured
by the sale of his map to find money for the carrying out of his
projects, but was unsuccessful. He next applied for assistance
to the legislatures of different states, but though each reported
in favourable terms of his invention, none of them would agree
