American Woman's Home Part 39

_Fahrenheit, (Gabriel Daniel:)_ A celebrated natural philosopher, who was born at Dantzig, A.D. 1686. He made great improvements in the thermometer, and his name is sometimes used for that instrument.

_Farinaceous:_ Mealy, tasting like meal.

_Fell:_ To turn down on the wrong side the raw edges of a seam after it has been st.i.tched, run, or sewed, and then to hem or sew it to the cloth.

_Festivals_ of the Jews, the three great annual: These were, the Feast of the Pa.s.sover, that of Pentecost, and that of Tabernacles; on occasion of which, all the males of the nation were required to visit the temple at Jerusalem, in whatever part of the country they might reside. See Exodus 28:14, 17; 34:23; Leviticus 33: 4; Deuteronomy 16:16. The Pa.s.sover was kept in commemoration of the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, and was so named because the night before their departure the destroying angel, who slew all the first-born of the Egyptians, _pa.s.sed over_ the houses of the Israelites without entering them. See Exodus 12. The Feast of Pentecost was so called from a word meaning _the fiftieth_, because it was celebrated on the fiftieth day after the Pa.s.sover, and was inst.i.tuted in commemoration of the giving of the Law from Mount Sinai on the fiftieth day from the departure out of Egypt. It is also called the Feast of Weeks, because it was kept seven weeks after the Pa.s.sover. See Exodus 34:32; Leviticus 23: 15-21; Deuteronomy 16: 9, 10. The Feast of Tabernacles, or Feast of Tents, was so called because it was celebrated under tents or tabernacles of green boughs, and was designed to commemorate their dwelling in tents during their pa.s.sage through the wilderness. At this feast they also returned thanks, to G.o.d for the fruits of the earth after they had been gathered. See Exodus 23: 16; Leviticus 33: 34-44; Deuteronomy 16:13; and also St. John 7: 2.

_Fire-blight:_ A disease in the pear and some other fruit-trees, in which they appear burnt as if by fire. It is supposed, by some to be caused by an insect, others suppose it to be caused by-an over-abundance of sap.

_Fluting-iron:_ An instrument for making flutes, channels, furrows, or hollows in ruffles, etc.

_Foundation muslin_: A nice kind of buckram, stiff and white, used for the foundation or basis of bonnets, etc.

_Free States_: A phrase formerly used to distinguish those States in which slavery was not allowed, as distinguished from Slave States, in which slavery did exist.

_French chalk_: A variety of the mineral called talc, unctuous to the touch, of greenish color, glossy, soft, and easily scratched, and leaving a silvery line when drawn on paper. It is used for marking on cloth, and extracting grease-spots.

_Fuller's earth_: A species of clay remarkable for its property of absorbing oil, for which reason it is valuable for extracting grease from cloth, etc. It is used by fullers in scouring and cleansing cloth, whence its name.

_Fustic_: The wood of a tree which grows in the West-Indies called _Morus tinctoria_. It affords a durable but not very brilliant yellow dye, and is also used in producing some greens and drab colors.

_Gastric_: (From the Greek [Transliterated: gasths], _gaster_, the belly,) belonging or relating to the belly, or stomach. _Gastric juice_: The fluid which dissolves the food in the stomach. It is limpid, like water, of a saltish taste, and without odor.

_Geology_: The science which treats of the formation of the earth.

_Gluten_: The glue-like, sticky, tenacious substance which gives adhesiveness to dough. The principle of gelly, (now generally written _jelly_.)

_Gore_: A triangular piece of cloth.

_Goring_: Cut in a triangular shape.

_Gothic_: A peculiar and strongly-marked style of architecture, sometimes called the ecclesiastical style, because it is most frequently used in cathedrals, churches, abbeys, and other religious edifices. Its principle seems to have originated in the imitation of groves and bowers, under which the ancients performed their sacred rites; its cl.u.s.tered pillars and pointed arches very well representing the trunks of trees and their in-locking branches.

_Gourmand_ or _Gormand_: A glutton, a greedy eater. In agriculture, it is applied to twigs which take up the sap but bear only leaves.

_Green vitriol_: See _Copperas_.

_Griddle_: An iron pan, of a peculiarly broad and shallow construction, used for baking cakes.

_Ground-plan_: The map or plan of the floor of any building, in which the various apartments, windows, doors, fire-places, and other things are represented, like the rivers, towns, mountains, roads, etc., on a map.

_Gum Arabic_: A vegetable juice which exudes through the bark of the _Acacia, Mimosa nilotica_, and some other similar trees growing in Arabia, Egypt, Senegal, and Central Africa. It is the purest of all gums.

_Hardpan_: The hard, unbroken layer of earth below the mould or cultivated soil.

_Hartshorn_, (spirits of:) A volatile alkali, originally prepared from the horns of the stag or hart, but now procured from various other substances. It is known by the name of ammonia or spirits of ammonia.

_Hemlock_: see _Cicuta.

_Horticulturist:_ One skilled in horticulture, or the art of cultivating gardens: horticulture being to the garden what agriculture is to the farm, the application of labor and science to a limited spot, for convenience, for profit, or for ornament--though implying a higher state of cultivation than is common in agriculture. It includes the cultivation of culinary vegetables and of fruits, and forcing or exotic gardening as far as respects useful products.

_Hydrogen_: A very light, inflammable gas, of which water is in part composed. It is used to inflate balloons.

_Hypochondriasis_: Melancholy, dejection, a disorder of the imagination, in which the person supposes he is afflicted with various diseases.

_Hysteria or hysterics_: A spasmodic, convulsive affection of the nerves, to which women are subject. It is somewhat similar to hypochondriasis in men.

_Ingrain_: A kind of carpeting, in which the threads are dyed in the grain or raw material before manufacture.

_Ipecac_: (An abbreviation of _ipecacuanha_) an Indian medicinal plant, acting as an emetic.

_Isingla.s.s_: A fine kind of gelatin or glue, prepared from the swimming-bladders of fishes, used as a cement, and also as an ingredient in food and medicine. The name is sometimes applied to a transparent mineral substance called mica.

_Jams_: A side-piece or post.

_Kamtschadales_: Inhabitants of _Kamtschatka_, a large peninsula situated on the north-eastern coast of Asia, having the North Pacific Ocean on the east. It is remarkable for its extreme cold, which is heightened by a range of very lofty mountains extending the whole length of the peninsula, several of which are volcanic. It is very deficient in vegetable productions, but produces a great variety of animals, from which the richest and most valuable furs are procured.

The inhabitants are in general below the common height, but have broad shoulders and large heads. It is under the dominion of Russia.

_Kerosene_: Refined Petroleum, which see.

_Kink_: A knotty twist in a thread or rope.

_Lambrequin_: Originally a kind of pendent scarf or covering attached to a helmet to protect and adorn it. Hence, a pendent ornamental curtain over a window.

_Lapland_: A country at the extreme north part of Europe, where it is very cold. It contains lofty mountains, some of which are covered with perpetual snow and ice.

_Latin:_ The language of the Latins or inhabitants of Latium, the princ.i.p.al country of ancient Italy. After the building of Rome, that city became the capital of the whole country.

_Leguminous:_ Pod-bearing.

_Lent:_ A fast of the Christian Church, (lasting forty days, from Ash-Wednesday to Easter,) in commemoration of our Saviour's miraculous fast of forty days and forty nights in the wilderness. The word Lent means spring, this fast always occurring at that season of the year.

_Levite:_ One of the tribe of Levi, the son of Jacob, which tribe was set apart from the others to minister in the services of the Tabernacle, and the Temple at Jerusalem. The priests were taken from this tribe. See Numbers 1: 47-53.

_Ley:_ Water which has percolated through ashes, earth, or other substances, dissolving and imbibing a part of their contents. It is generally spelled _lye_.

_Linnaeus, (Charles:)_ A native of Sweden, and the most celebrated naturalist of his age. He was born May 13th, 1707, and died January 11th, 1778. His life was devoted to the study of natural history. The science of botany, in particular, is greatly indebted to his labors.

His _Amaenitates Academicae_ (Academical Recreations) is a collection of the dissertations of his pupils, edited by himself, a work rich in matters relating to the history and habits of plants. He was the first who arranged Natural History into a regular system, which has been generally called by his name. His proper name was Linne.

_Lobe:_ A division, a distinct part; generally applied to the two divisions of the lungs.

_Loire:_ The largest river of France, being about five hundred and fifty miles in. length. It rises in the mountains of Cevennes, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean about forty miles below the city of Nantes. It divides France into two almost equal parts.

_London Medical Society:_ A distinguished a.s.sociation, formed in 1773.

It has published some valuable volumes of its transactions. It has a library of about 40,000 volumes, which is kept in a house presented to the Society, in 1788, by the celebrated Dr. Lettsom, who was one of its first members.

_Louis XIV.:_ A celebrated King of France and Navarre, who was born September 5th, 1638, and died September 1st, 1715. His mother having before had no children, though she had been married twenty-two years, his birth was considered as a particular favor from heaven, and he was called the "Gift of G.o.d." He is sometimes styled "Louis the Great," is notorious as a period of licentiousness. He left behind him monuments of unprecedented splendor and expense, consisting of palaces, gardens, and other like works.

_Lumbar:_(From the Latin lumbus, the loin,) relating or pertaining to the loins.