Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/501

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FKESNILLO coast of the bay of Biscay. The auxiliary lenses and reflectors for utilizing the rays above and below the central belt are now replaced by the prismatic rings. In 1825 the lens system was adopted for the coasts of France, and as early as 1838, 12 lighthouses on the coast were illuminated by the Fresnel system. In 1845 there were 151 lens lights on the French coast, and probably there is not a single reflector light in France at present. It was next adopted by the Dutch, and in 1834 the erection of a first order lens in Inchkeith (Scotland) lighthouse was authorized. The Trinity house corporation next adopted the Fresnel system in 1837, and it has since been used by all European maritime nations and their colonies, and by the United States. (See LIGHTHOUSE.) FRESNILLO, a city of Mexico, in the state of Zacatecas, 305 m. N. W. of Mexico ; pop. about 15,000. It is 7,284 ft. above the sea, and is partially surrounded by eminences formed by a gradual rise of the country on three sides. The streets are laid out at right angles, and well kept. The plaza, once the site of an arena for bull fights, is now a beautiful prom- enade. The houses are scrupulously neat ; and among the public buildings the most note- worthy are the parish and three other church- es, all handsomely and solidly constructed, and a school of mines, founded in 1853. Maize, wheat, and other cereals are largely cultivated ; and the city markets are provided with many of the European garden vegetables and fruits, and some of the tropical fruits. The adjacent silver mines of the same name were discovered in 1569, in which year the city was founded. They were long among the most productive in the country; in 1838 the yield was $2,310,993 ; in 1850 it was a quarter of a million more, and it has since increased still more. FRESNO, a S. central county of California, between the Sierra Nevada and the Coast range ; area, 8,750 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 6,336, of whom 427 were Chinese. It is watered by the San Joaquin river and its branches. The San Joaquin valley is very fertile. The moun- tain forests, containing very large trees, are very extensive. The W. part of the county consists of rush-covered marshes called tules. The celebrated New Idria quicksilver mines are in this county, and gold is mined to some ex- tent. The chief productions in 1870 were 19,- 765 bushels of wheat, 3,930 of Indian corn, 18,- 875 of barley, 1,746 tons of hay, and 191,594 Ibs. of wool. There were 3,074 horses, 1,009 milch cows, 14,752 other cattle, 139,677 sheep, and 15,516 swine. Capital, Millerton. FREUND, Wilhelm, a German lexicographer, born of Hebrew parents at Kempen, Posen, Jan. 27, 1806. He studied philology in Berlin and Breslau, and in 1828 opened in the latter city a Jewish school, but abandoned this en- terprise because of opposition from his ortho- dox coreligionists. Subsequently he was a teacher in Hirschberg, Silesia, and since 1855 he has been director of a Jewish school at FREYTAG 489 Gleiwitz established according to his plan. His most important work is the Worterbuch der lateinischen Sprache (4 vols., Leipsic, 1834- '45), which is the basis of Andrews's " Latin and English Lexicon " (New York, 1850). FREYCINET, Louis Clande Desaulses de, a French navigator, born in Montelimart, Aug. 7, 1779, died near Loriol, Aug. 18, 1842. In 1799 he served in the Mediterranean under Admiral Brueys. The next year he accompanied Bau- din on his scientific expedition to Australia, and being appointed to edit the nautical and geographical portion of the narrative, devoted ten years to this task. In 1817 he was in- trusted with the command of a new expedi- tion, the object of which was to study the figure of the globe, the elements of terrestrial magnetism, and certain meteorological phe- nomena in the southern hemisphere. He re- turned to Havre in 1820, having sailed round the earth, bringing a great number of observa- tions, charts, and curious specimens for muse- ums. His narrative of this voyage (13 vols. 4to, with four atlases, Paris, 1824-'44) gained him admission into the academy of sciences. FREYTAG, Georg Wilhelm Friedrieh, a German orientalist, born in Ltineburg, Sept. 19, 1788, died in Bonn, Nov. 16, 1861. He studied the- ology and philosophy at Gottingen, and in 1811 became tutor there, which office he re- nounced in 1813, through hatred of French domination, and was chaplain in the army of the conquerors which entered Paris in 1815. He resigned his office to study Arabic, Per- sian, and Turkish under Sylvestre de Sacy, and held the professorship of those languages in the university of Bonn from 1819 until his death. Besides Arabic text books, he pub- lished a translation of Caabi J)en SoJiair Car- men in Laudem Muhammedis dictum (Bonn, 1822), Arabum ProverUa (3 vols., 1838-'44), an edition of the FaUJiat al-Kholafa by Ibn Arabshah (vol. i., Arabic text, Bonn, 1832; vol. ii., translation, 1858), and the great Lexi- con Arabico-Latinum (4 vols., Halle, 1830-'37), which was followed by an abridgment in 1837. FREYTAG, Gnsta?, a German novelist, born at Kreuzburg, Silesia, July 13, 1816. He stud- ied at the universities of Breslau and Berlin, and wrote poetry and plays, some of which were favorably received. A complete edition of them was published in Leipsic, in 3 vols. (1848-'50). In 1848, jointly with Julian Schmidt, he succeeded Kuranda as editor of the Grenzboten, and in 1854 he was appointed councillor of the court and lecturer of the duke of Gotha. In 1855 appeared his novel Soil und Haben (16th ed., 1871), which gained for him a wide popularity. It was translated into many languages (English by Mrs. Mal- colm, "Debit and Credit," 1858). At the close of 1870 he retired from the Grenzboten, to loin the newly established weekly jour- nal Im neuen Reich. His BiWer ay* der deutschen VergangenJieit (2 vols., 18o9; 4th ed., 1863), Neue Bilder aus dem Leben des deut-