Part 21 (1/2)

FAR'ADAY, Michael, one of the greatest of English chemists and physicists, was born in humble circ.u.mstances at Newington b.u.t.ts, near London, 22nd Sept., 1791, died 25th Aug., 1867. Early in life he was apprenticed to a bookbinder in London, but occupied himself in his leisure hours with electrical and other scientific experiments. Having been taken by a friend to Sir Humphry Davy's lectures, he attended the course, and became so interested that he decided to abandon his trade. With this end he sent his notes of the lectures to Sir Humphry Davy, who was so struck with the great ability they showed that he appointed him his a.s.sistant at the Royal Inst.i.tution. In 1829 he became lecturer at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and in 1833 he was appointed to the newly established chair of chemistry at the Royal Inst.i.tution. It was while in this office that he made most of his great electrical discoveries. His communications to the _Philosophical Transactions_ were published separately in three volumes (1839, 1844, 1855). In 1832 he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from Oxford, and was made an honorary member of the Academy at Berlin. In 1835 he received a pension of 300 a year from Lord Melbourne. As an experimentalist Faraday was considered the very first of his time. As a popular lecturer he was equally distinguished, and used to draw crowds to the Friday evening lecture at the Royal Inst.i.tution. Amongst his published works we may mention the following: _Researches in Electricity_ (1831-55), _Lectures on Non-metallic Elements_ (1853), _Lectures on the Forces of Matter_ (1860), _Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle_ (1861).--BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Tyndall, _Faraday as a Discoverer_; S. P.

Thompson, _Michael Faraday: his Life and Work_.

FARADIZATION, or FARADISM, the medical application of the induced currents which Faraday discovered in 1831.

FARALLO'NES, a group of small islands in the Pacific, about 30 miles from the entrance to the Bay of San Francisco.

FARAN'DOLA, an exciting dance popular amongst the peasants of the south of France and the neighbouring part of Italy. The men and women, placed alternately and facing different ways, form a long line winding out and in with a waving motion.

FARCE, a subdivision of comedy, characterized chiefly by exaggeration and lack of rational character drawing. Farce stands in the same relations.h.i.+p to comedy as melodrama does to tragedy. Many farces commence with an impossible postulate, such as _The Comedy of Errors_. Jonson's _Silent Woman_ is one of the best English farces. Gilbert's _Engaged_ and _Foggerty's Fairy_ are notable modern examples.

FARCY, a disease to which horses are liable, intimately connected with glanders, the two diseases generally running into each other. It is supposed to be a disease of the absorbents of the skin, and its first indication is generally the appearance of little tumours called farcy buds on the face, neck, or inside of the thigh. By an order in Council animals affected with farcy must be destroyed.

FARDEL-BOUND, a term applied to cattle and sheep affected with a disease caused by the retention of food in the maniplies or third stomach, between the numerous plaits of which it is firmly impacted. Over-ripe clover, vetches, or rye-gra.s.s are liable to produce the disease.

FAREHAM, a town of England, in Hamps.h.i.+re, at the north-west extremity of Portsmouth harbour, giving name to a parliamentary division of the county.

It has building-yards, potteries, and brickworks, and a considerable trade.

Pop. 10,066.

FAREL, Guillaume, one of the earliest and most active of the Swiss reformers, was born in 1489 in Dauphiny, died in 1565. At an early period he was led by his intercourse with the Waldenses to adopt similar views.

After preaching in various parts of Switzerland, he came to Geneva, where he was so successful at the religious conferences of 1534 and 1535 that the Council formally embraced the Reformation. He was instrumental, also, in persuading Calvin to take up his residence in Geneva. At attempt on the part of the two reformers to enforce too severe ecclesiastical discipline was the cause of their having to leave the city in 1538. Farel took up his residence at Neufchatel, where he died.

FARGO, a town of N. Dakota, United States, on the Red River of the North and the N. Pacific Railroad. Pop. 14,330.

FARIA Y SOUSA, Manuel de, Portuguese historian and poet, born 1590, of an ancient and ill.u.s.trious family, died about 1649. Among his writings are: _Discursos Morales y Politicos, Epitome de las Historias Portuguesas_; _Comentarios sobre la Lusiada_; and a collection of poems.

FARIBAULT, a town of Minnesota, United States, 53 miles south of St.

Paul's. Here are the State asylum for the deaf, dumb, and blind, and an episcopal divinity college. Pop. 9000.

FARIDPUR (fa-r[=e]d-por'), a district of India, in Eastern Bengal; area, 2267 sq. miles; pop. 1,937,650. Chief town, Faridpur, on the Mara Padma.

Pop. 11,000.

FARI'NA, a term given to a soft, tasteless, and commonly white powder, obtained by trituration of the seeds of cereal and leguminous plants, and of some roots, as the potato. It consists of gluten, starch, and mucilage.

FARINEL'LI, Carlo, an Italian singer, born at Naples in 1705, died in 1782.

His true name was Carlo Broschi, and to develop his vocal powers he was made a eunuch. He sang in Vienna, Paris, and London with the greatest success. On visiting Spain, where he intended only a brief sojourn, he found King Philip V plunged in a profound melancholy. He succeeded in rousing him from it by the powers of his voice, and became his prime favourite and political adviser. But the penalty of his advancement was that for ten years he had to sing every night to his royal master the same six airs. On his return to Italy, in 1762, he found himself almost forgotten, but continued to exercise a splendid hospitality in his country house, near Bologna.

FARI'NI, Luigi Carlo, an Italian statesman and author, born in 1812, died 1st Aug., 1866. He studied medicine at Bologna, and practised as a physician. He became known as a nationalist and patriot in the political movements of 1841, had to leave the country for a time, but returned and was made a member of the Reform Ministry at Rome during the disturbances of 1848. Disapproving equally the views of the old Conservative and the extreme Republican party, he went to Piedmont, where he was elected a Deputy, and fought with great energy both in pamphlets and in Parliament on behalf of Cavour and the Piedmontese Const.i.tutionalists. After the peace of Villafranca, he was chosen dictator of the duchies of Parma and Modena, and was mainly instrumental in inducing them to unite with the Piedmontese monarchy. His _History of the Papal States from 1814 to 1850_ is well known. In 1862 he became President of the Ministry, but lost his reason in 1863.

FARMERS-GENERAL (Fr. _Fermiers generaux_), private contractors, to whom under the old French monarchy was let out the collection of various branches of the revenue, poll-tax, duties on salt and tobacco, and customs.

These contractors made enormous profits on the farming of the public revenues. A revenue collected in this way not only imposed a much heavier burden on the people, but the merciless rigour of irresponsible and uncontrolled exactors subjected them to hards.h.i.+ps and indignities to which they could not submit without degradation. In 1790 the system was suppressed by the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly, and many of the farmers-general were sent to the guillotine by the Revolutionary Tribunal.

FARNE, or FERNE, ISLANDS, a group of seventeen islets, England, separated from the coast of Northumberland by a channel about 1 miles wide. They have been the scene of some disastrous s.h.i.+pwrecks, including that of the _Forfars.h.i.+re_ in 1838. (See _Darling, Grace_.) There are two lighthouses.

Pop. 15.

FARNESE (f[.a]r-n[=a]'ze), an ill.u.s.trious family of Italy, whose descent may be traced from about the middle of the thirteenth century, and which gave to the Church and the Republic of Florence many eminent names, amongst which the following may be mentioned: Pietro Farnese (died 1363), a general of the Florentines in the war against Pisa; Alessandro, who became Pope as Paul III (1534-49), and whose gifts to his natural son Pier Luigi of the duchies of Parma and Piacenza laid the foundation of the wealth and greatness of the family; Ottavio (1520-85), son and successor of Pier Luigi, spent a long and peaceful reign in promoting the happiness of his subjects. Alessandro (1546-92), elder son of Ottavio, became famous as a most successful general of the Spaniards in the wars with the Netherlands and France. Ranuzio (1569-1622), son of Ottavio, was a gloomy and suspicious tyrant. The line became extinct with Antonio in 1731. The name of the Farnese is a.s.sociated with several famous buildings and works of art. The _Farnese Palace_, at Rome, was built for Pope Paul III, while he was cardinal, by Sangallo and Michel Angelo. It now belongs to France, and is occupied by the French Emba.s.sy. Its sculpture gallery was formerly very celebrated, but the best pieces have been removed to Naples, including the following: the _Farnese Bull_, a celebrated ancient sculpture representing the punishment of Dirce, discovered in 1546 in the Baths of Caracalla at Rome; _Farnese Hercules_, a celebrated ancient statue of Hercules by Glycon, found in the Baths of Caracalla in 1540; _Farnese Flora_, a colossal statue of great merit, found in the Baths of Caracalla; _Farnese Cup_, an antique onyx cup, highly ornamented with figures in relief.

FARNHAM, a town of England, county of Surrey, 3 miles S.W. of Aldershot; a well-built place. North of the town is Farnham Castle, the residence of the Bishops of Winchester. The staple trade is in hops. Farnham was the home of Swift's 'Stella' (Hester Johnson). Pop. 12,133.

FARNWORTH, a manufacturing and mining town of Lancas.h.i.+re, England, 3 miles from Bolton. Pop. (urban district), 27,901.

FARO, a seaport of Portugal, province of Algarve, 62 miles S.E. of Cape St.