136 feet long is thought to be Etruscan. The stage itself is Roman. There are also a cathedral and a castle. F. is the ancient Ferentinum, a city of the Hernici. Pop. about 10,700.

FERGHANA, a province of Russian Turkestan, comprising a valley surrounded on three sides by the w. ranges of the Thian Shan mountains; pop. over 700,000, of whom a large part are nomads. The productions are wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, millet, cotton, tobacco, madder, etc. The climate is equable and generally healthy. Rock salt, naphtha, gypsum, iron, lead, coal, and sulphur are found. The Russians have divided the province into seven districts. Chief town, Khokan.

FERGUS, a co. in Montana; 6762 sq. m.; pop. '90, 3514. Co. seat, Lewistown. FERGUS FALLS, city and co. seat of Otter Tail co., Minn.; on the Red River of the North, 187 m. n. w. of St. Paul, and the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads. It is the centre of the Park region of the state, and is surrounded by forests of pine and hardwood, lumber and prairie land. It has abundant water power, large flour and woolen mills, high school, Norwegian Lutheran College, public library, hospital for the insane, churches, a court-house, a masonic temple, an Oddfellows' hall, banks, newspapers, water-works, and electric lights. Pop. 1890, 3772.

FERGUSON, ADAM, a Scottish philosopher and historian, was born (1723) at Logierait, Perthshire, where his father was parish minister. He studied at the universities of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, and was appointed (1745) chaplain to the 42d regiment, in which capacity he was present at the battle of Fontenoy, and is said to have charged the enemy sword in hand, among the foremost of the regiment. In 1757, he succeeded David Hume as keeper of the advocates' library in Edinburgh. He was next appointed professor in the Edinburgh university, first of natural philosophy, in 1759, and subsequently (1764), of moral philosophy—a subject which had always had great attractions for him. While holding this office, he accompanied the young earl of Chesterfield (1774) on his travels on the continent; and in 1778-79, he acted as secretary to the commission sent out by lord North to try to arrange the disputes between the North American colonies and the mother country. The state of his health induced him, in 1784, to resign his professorship, in which he was succeeded by Dugald Stewart. In 1793, he visited various parts of the continent; and on his return, took up his residence for some time at Neidpath castle, in Tweeddale, and latterly in St. Andrews, where he died, 22d Feb., 1816. His chief works are-Essay on the History of Civil Society (Lond. 1767); Institutes of Moral Philosophy (Lond. 1769); History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic (Lond. 1783); and Principles of Moral and Political Science (Lond. 1792). The work by which he is best known is his History of the Roman Republic; this, together with the Essay and Institutes, has gone through a number of editions. All his works have been translated into German and French, and the Institutes has been used as a text-book in several foreign universities.

FERGUSON, JAMES, was b. (1710) near Keith, a village in Banffshire, Scotland. His father being a poor day-laborer, he enjoyed only three months of instruction at school, and his subsequent acquirements were the result of his own insatiable thirst for knowledge. His tastes lay principally for practical mechanics and astronomy; and while keeping sheep, to which he was early sent, he was constantly employed in making models of mills, etc., and at night in studying the stars. After working at various country employments, he took to drawing patterns for ladies' dresses, and copying pictures and prints with pen and ink. He then supported himself and his parents by drawing portraits, first in Edinburgh, and afterwards (1743) in London; his leisure time being all the while given to astronomical pursuits. In 1748, he began lecturing on astronomy and mechanics with great acceptance. He was elected a fellow of the royal society in 1763, and received from George III. a pension of £50. He now gave up portraits, and devoted himself to lecturing and writing on his favorite subjects. He died in 1776. F. was held in high esteem for the worth and amiability of his character, as well as for his extraordinary and self-taught acquirements. Few men have done more to promote a knowledge of the results of science, among those who have not the advantage of regular scientific training. His principal works are Astronomy explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles (1756; sir David Brewster's ed., 2 vols., 1811); Lectures on Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, and Optics (1760); also edited by sir David Brewster in 1805; and Select Mechanical Exercises, with an autobiography (1773).

FERGUSON, JAMES, 1797-1867; b. Scotland; went to New York in 1800. He was one of the engineers who laid out the Erie canal, and in 1819-22, assistant surveyor in the boundary commission under the treaty of Ghent; and astronomical surveyor for that commission in 1822-27. He became first assistant of the U. S. coast survey in 1833, and in 1847, assistant astronomer of the U. S. naval observatory. He discovered the following asteroids: Euphrosyne in Sept., 1854; Virginia in 1857; Echo in 1860, for which he was awarded the astronomical prize medal by the academy of sciences of France. He was contributor to Dr. Gould's Astronomical Journal and to the Astronomische Nachrichten; also to the Episcopal Church Review, to the Merchants' Magazine, and to other standard publications.

FERGUSON, SAMUEL DAVID, D.D.; b. S. C., 1842; ordained priest in the Prot. Epis. church, 1868; rector of St. Mark's church, Harper, Liberia; was consecrated missionary

bp. to Cape Palmas and ports adjacent, 1885. He is the first colored bp. of his

communion.

FERGUSSON, JAMES, b. Scotland, 1808; educated in Edinburgh and in England, and went into business in India. This he soon gave up and journeyed through various parts of the east, chiefly with a view of studying the styles of architecture. One of the first results of his studies was Illustrations of the Rock-cut Temples of India. He also published Picturesque Illustrations of Ancient Architecture in Hindustan; Essay on the Ancient Topography of Jerusalem; and a Historical Inquiry into the True Principles of Art, more especially with reference to Architecture. This volume is the first of a projected work in three parts, comprising a universal compendium of past art-Hindu, Mohammedan, Gothic, etc. The materials collected for this work were used in his Handbook of Architecture, published in 1855. Later he issued an Essay on a Proposed New System of Forti fication, by earthwork. A pamphlet of practical suggestions for the improvement of the British Museum and of the National Gallery was followed by a 'New Design" for the latter at the academy exhibition of 1850. He is also the author of The Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored, published in 1851, and was the architect of the Nineveh court in the crystal palace, Sydenham. After 1859, he became one of the royal commissioners to inquire into the defenses of the United Kingdom. In 1862, Mr. Fergus son published a History of the Modern Styles of Architecture as a sequel to the handbook, and in 1865 remodeled the whole, and published it as A History of Ancient and Modern Architecture, in 3 vols. In addition to these works, he published, in 1868, Tree and Serpent Worship, with upwards of 100 plates and illustrations. In 1871, he received the royal gold medal, annually awarded to an eminent architect, or writer on architecture. His latest work is entitled The Temples of the Jews and the other Buildings in the Haram Area at Jerusalem. He d. 1886.

FERGUSSON, ROBERT, a Scottish poet, was b. at Edinburgh on the 17th Oct., 1750, and received his education at the university of St. Andrews, where he was in possession of a bursary founded by a person of his own name, and resided four years. Subsequently, he removed to Edinburgh, and was employed in the office of the commissary clerk. His poems were chiefly contributed to Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine, and gained him considerable local reputation. Unhappily, this reputation proved his ruin. His society was eagerly sought; and in that convivial time, he was led into excesses which permanently ended his health. He fell into a religious melancholy, and finally, through an accidental fracture of the skull, became totally deranged. He died on the 16th Oct., 1774, at the age of 23. His poems were published in 1773.

F.'s poems are distinguished by considerable humor, fancy, and purity of language, and he possessed great mastery over lowland Scotch. He sketches with liveliness contemporary life and incidents, and much of our knowledge of old Edinburgh is derived from his verses. His fame, however, rests quite as much upon his unhappy life and early death, and upon the circumstance that he was to some extent the forerunner of Burns, as upon the essential merits of his verse.

FERIE (Lat.), holidays during which political and legal transactions were suspended in ancient Rome, and slaves enjoyed a cessation from labor. F. were thus dies nefasti, the opposite of the dies fasti. See FASTI. Days which were consecrated to a particular divinity, on which any public ceremony was celebrated, and the like, were feriæ. In contradistinction to these, which were F. publica (public holidays), there were F. private, which were observed by single families, in commemoration of some particular occurrence of importance to them or their ancestors. Birthdays, days of purification after a funeral, etc., were also observed as family feriæ. The public F. were divided into those which were always kept (stativa) on certain days marked in the calendar; and those which were kept by command of the consuls or other superior magistrates on the occasion of any public emergency. "The manner in which all public F. were kept bears great analogy to our Sunday. The people generally visited the temples of the gods, and offered up their prayers and sacrifices. The most serious and solemn seem to have been the F. imperative; all the others were generally attended by rejoicings and feasting.' See an elaborate article by Dr. Schmitz in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. In Scotland, those days during which it was not lawful for courts to be held, execution to proceed, or any other judicial step to be taken, used to be called feriat times, but the expression is obsolete.

FERID-EDDIN-ATHAR, or FARID-UDDIN-ATTAR, 1119-1229; a Persian poet and mystic, who died at the age of 110 years. He was Mohammed ben Ibrahim, the son of a druggist, and brought up to his father's business. "Ferid-Eddin" was an honorary title, signifying "pearl of religion.' To this he added "athar" (which means drug. gist"), and so quite changed the real name. He studied the mystic philosophy of the Sufis, and was recognized as one of its principal representatives. He was a voluminous writer, leaving no fewer than 120,000 couplets of poetry. His most famous work is the Mantic Uttair, or language of birds, an allegorical poem containing a complete survey of the life and doctrines of the Sufis. According to the poet, the birds, weary of a republic, longed for a king. As the lapwing, having guided Solomon through the desert, best knew what a king should be, he is asked whom they shall choose."The Simorg in the Cancasus," is his reply. But the way to the Caucasus is long and dan

gerous, and most of the birds excuse themselves from the journey. A few, however, set out; but by the time they reach the great king's court, their number is reduced to 30. The 30 birds, wing-weary and hunger-stricken, at length gain access to their chosen monarch, the Simorg; but only to find that they strangely lose their identity in his presence that they are he, and he is they. In such strange fashion did the Persian poet image forth the search of the human soul after God, and its absorption into the divine.

FERINGHEE, the Eastern name for Europeans, whose land is called Feringistan, supposed by some to be a corruption of Frank and to date from the Crusades, while by others it is derived from the Varingii, Warings, Norsemen who entered into the service of the Byzantine emperors at Constantinople. In Bengal, the mixed descendants of the Portuguese, though differing in no respect but religion from the natives, are especially distinguished by the term Firinghis.

FERLAND, JEAN BAPTISTE ANTOINE, l'Abbé, Canadian author, was b. at Montreal, Canada, Dec. 25, 1805, was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic church, and made vicar of Quebec in 1828. In 1847, while professor in the seminary of Nicolet, he distinguished himself for his courage during an epidemic of typhoid fever. He was appointed professor in the Laval University in 1855. He delivered a course of lectures on Canadian history from 1858 to 1862. He is best known for his Cours d'histoire du Canada (Vol. I., 1861) which was continued in Vol. II. by Laverdière. He died Jan. 8, 1864.

FERMANAGH, an inland co. in the s.w. of the province of Ulster, Ireland. It is 45 m. long, and 29 broad; area, 714 sq. m., and includes upper and lower lough Erne, and the smaller lakes, Melvin and Macnean. The surface is mostly a succession of mountains and hills, and the scenery varies. The lower lands are fertile. The chief rocks are limestone, with many cavities and underground water-courses, millstone grit, and old red sandstone. Some coal, iron, and marble occur. The chief rivers are the Erne and its tributaries, the Colebrooke, Woodford, and Arney. The soil in the low grounds is a deep rich loam, but in the limestone and sandstone districts it is cold and thin. The climate is mild and moist. Marsh-fevers prevail in summer and autumn near lough Erne. Pop. 1891, 74,170. Chief exports are oats.

FERMAT, PIERRE DE, a French mathematician, was b. at Toulouse in 1601, and at an early period, in conjunction with his friend Pascal, hit upon a very ingenious mode of considering figurate numbers, upon which he subsequently based his doctrine of the calculation of probabilities. F. employed himself greatly with the properties of numbers, and made many acute discoveries in regard to their composition and analysis. He also squared the parabola in a much simpler way than Archimedes at an earlier period had done, and made many other discoveries in geometry. His method of finding the greatest and least ordinates of curved lines was analogous to the method of the then unknown differential calculus. In addition to his scientific attainments, F. possessed an extraordinary knowledge of ancient and modern languages. He died at Toulouse in 1665. A collection of F.'s works appeared at Paris in 1679.

FERMAT A, in music, is the name given to a pause, or resting-point, generally marked by the sign. The notes over which this sign is placed are prolonged beyond their true length. The F. is frequently found near the end of a part of a composition, which affords an opportunity for the singer or player to introduce an extempore embellishment.

FERMENTATION is the term applied to the change which occurs in one organic substance when influenced by another in a state of decay or putrefaction. The process was criginally understood to include all the changes which matter of plant and animal origin undergoes when disunited from the living force, but is now restricted to certain of the changes. Thus, there are many substances, such as starch and sugar, which have no power of themselves to pass into decay, or change in composition through lengthened periods of time; whilst there is another class of substances, including albumen, fibrin, and caseine, as well as gelatinous tissues, mucus, etc., which, when exposed to moderately heated air in a moist condition, more or less rapidly begin to putrefy or decompose. The latter substances, viz., those which spontaneously pass into a state of change, are called ferments, and when they are brought into contact with sugar, etc., which otherwise would not be altered, they cause the latter to be broken up into simpler compounds; it is this process that constitutes fermentation. The ferment is always a body which has the power of rotting or becoming putrid, and is actually in a state of decomposition. Every substance which is liable to putrefy becomes, while putrefying, a ferment; and in this condition acquires the property of setting agoing the process of F. in any second body capable of it, and retains the power till it is so far decomposed that the putrescence is over. The ferments are very widely distributed in organic matter, and hence, whenever a plant or an animal dies, the process of F. proceeds more or less rapidly. The most important kind of F. is that known under the designation of vinous, and which forms part of the processes in the preparation of alcohol, beer, wine, It consists in the action of a peculiar ferment called yeast (q.v.) upon a saccharine

etc.

liquid, when the sugar, C.HO., is decomposed into two molecules of alcohol (each CH,OH) and two molecules of carbonic acid (each CO2). In this change it will be observed that the yeast, whilst it causes the change, does not unite directly or indirectly The vinous F. proceeds best at a temperwith any of the constituents of the sugar.

The ature ranging from 60° to 80° F., the mean and more desirable being about 70° F. process itself causes the development of heat, and recourse must be had, therefore, to large airy rooms, where the fermenting tuns or vessels are arranged, and also to the circulation of cold water in pipes distributed round the interior of the vessels, and in contact with the liquid. See BEER.

The caseine of The lactic acid F. takes place in milk when it begins to sour. the milk acts the part of the ferment, and it causes the change in the sugar of milk, which is in part resolved into lactic acid, C.H.Os. The latter then curdles the caseine, and the milk becomes clotted. When the milk still further sours, and the material is kept at a temperature of 77° to 86° F., the butyric acid fermentation takes place, in which the putrefying caseine changes the sugar (q.v.) of milk into butyric acid, CH.O2.

The viscous or mucus F. occurs when the juice of the beet-root, dandelion, ash-tree, etc., is allowed to decompose at a temperature of 90° to 100° F., when the albuminous matter present causes the sugar to ferment into lactic acid, mannite, a gummy substance, The same kind of F. occurs when boiled yeast or some alcohol, and various gases. boiled gluten is added to ordinary sugar.

The remaining processes of F. are the benzoic F., yielding, amongst other matters, the essential oil of bitter almonds (q.v); the sinapic F., which occurs in mustard when moistened with water, and during which the pungent oil of mustard is developed; and the acetous F., which is, however, not a true instance of F., as the oxygen of the air is required to complete the change. See ACETIC ACID.

Fermentation is most accurately described as due to natural processes in which bubbles of air seem to be generated, producing what is called effervescence. Effervescence is, however, only a phenomenon which accompanies one of the most familiar instances of fermentation, and does not exist in all its forms. The commonest examples of fermentation are: the change of the juices of fruits to wine, cider, etc.; the souring of milk; and the putrefaction of animal or vegetable matter. As these On the contrary, changes occur without any notably exciting cause, they have been thought to be spontaneous; but no such thing as simple spontaneity exists in the case. experiment shows that no fermentable chemical species will ferment except it is in the presence of water, and is kept by that water in contact with some specific substance which by its presence excites and maintains the chemical activity of the kind in question. The substance which is thus the occasion of the chemical action is called a ferment. Even the simple fact of presence is not deemed to be enough. The ferment must itself change, but the cycle of change may cause a continuous reproduction of the agency, and thus result in the continuity of the fermentation.

Vinous fermentation may be selected for illustration, as one which is familiar in some of its many illustrations, such as the making of wine from grapes and currants, The juice of grapes is an intensely sweet yel cider from apples, beer from grain, etc. lowish liquid, which may be made perfectly limpid and transparent by filtration through bibulous paper. If thus clarified, it will remain unchanged indefinitely; but if to it be added even a small quantity of the unclarified juice, fermentation will ultimately begin, and the liquid will become turbid. A finely divided substance is formed in the liquor, which rises to the surface as a scum, and is called yeast. The production of yeast is accompanied by the evolution of carbonic acid, which also comes to the surface, and is The chemical change once retained in bubbles by the viscous nature of the scum. begun becomes accumulatively more active in the presence of the increasing volume of yeast, until it reaches a climax, and then it dies away because the whole substance has been acted upon. The yeast settles to the bottom; a clear liquid remains, whose sweetness has given place to a vinous taste; from which it appears that the sugar has vanished, and instead, a new, volatile, inflammable substance called alcohol is present. The temperature of vaporization being lower for alcohol than for water, it may be driven off by processes of distillation, each repetition furnishing a greater proportion of alcohol, and may finally be obtained in a pure, or "absolute," form, when treated with some chemical which takes away the remnant of the water. It appears then that the vinous fermentation has occasioned a change in which sugar has given place to alcohol. The analytical statement of this change is expressed by Gay Lussac's formula, substan tially, but not critically. He assigned to grape sugar the simple formula CH,O, and for the reaction gives the equation—

Grape Sugar.

Alcohol.

Carbonic Acid.

2C02 6(CH,O) or C6H12O6 = 2C2H2OH +

Cane sugar has or, 180 units of sugar give 92 units of alcohol and 88 of carbonic acid. the formula, C12H22O11 or 2(C6H12O6)—H2O, or, two equivalents of grape sugar with one of water. It appears, on further investigation, that certain other compounds are formed

-thus 100 parts of cane sugar become, by absorption of water, 105.4 parts of glucose, which yield approximately

Alcohol...

51.1

49.4

0.7

3.2

1.0

.105.4

Total.....

even this does not account for the formation of a small quantity of fusel-oil, and some

ethers.

Vinous fermentation is induced by saccharomyces, a genus of fungi, consisting of minute cells, sometimes isolated, sometimes grouped, but never forming a continuous tissue. Of the several species, S. cerevisia, the fungus of common yeast, used in making beer, is most important. Its cells have a diameter of about millimeter. Of the genesis of the yeast plant little is known. Its germs abound in harvest time about the vines and stalks of the grape, and in breweries and wine-cellars, but they are by no means generally diffused through the air.

The change in lactic fermentation is expressed by the equation

Lactic

Ordinary glucose dissolved in milk ferments to lactic acid, with the milk sugar, up to a certain maximum of acidity, when the change stops. Chalk or carbonate of zinc neutralizes the acid, and revives the fermentation. The agent of this fermentation consists of microscopic ovoid cells, which Pasteur calls Penicillium glaucum. ferment sometimes annoys brewers as an impurity in their yeast. The lactic ferment is not chargeable as the agent which ordinarily sours milk; this result is caused by a motionless bacterium which Lister calls B. lactis. Yet this bacterium, if made to pass through a certain round of changes, also produces lactic fermentation. The germs of this bacterium are thought to abound in the air of dairies and cow-stables, but are not generally diffused through the air.

Butyric fermentation is a change which occurs in milk or cheese, in which the lactic acid is broken up, as shown by the equation

It is caused by the presence of an animalcule called a vibrio. This fermentation is one of a series of fermentations called putrefaction, of which the chemical reactions are very intricate. The agents are, with scarcely an exception, bacteria and vibrios.

FERMENTED AND DISTILLED LIQUORS, STATISTICS OF. A good comparative view of the growth and extent of the liquor traffic in the U. S. may be gained from the following tables, taken from two censuses:

The following table, compiled from the official reports of the Internal Revenue Department, gives the revenue derived from distilled and fermented liquors for ten years:

76,905,385........ .18,084,954

According to the Report of the Statistical Bureau for 1891, there were consumed in the United States during the year 1890, 87,829,562 gals. of distilled spirits; 28,956,981 gals. of wines; and 855,792,335 gals. of malt liquors; a total of 972,578,878 gals., or 15.53 gallons for every man, woman, and child in the United States.