F AL 



F AU 



and by the sharpness and curvature of 

 their retractile talons. The falcons have 

 been divided into the noble, ox falcons 

 proper, capable of being trained to the 

 sport of falconry, and the ignoble, which 

 are incapable of this training. This 

 family includes the eagle, the hawk, the 

 kite, the osprey, &c. 



FA'LLACY {fallacia, deceit). In 

 Logic, " an unsound mode of arguing, 

 •which appears to demand our conviction, 

 and to be decisive of the question in 

 hand, when in fairness it is not." Falla- 

 cies are of two kinds : — 



1. Logical Fallacies, or fallacies "in 

 dictione," in which the fault is in the 

 reasoning, and in that alone, the conclu- 

 sion not following from the premises ; as 

 in the indistributed middle, illicit pro- 

 cess, negative premises, or affirmative 

 conclusion form a negative premiss, and 

 vice versa. 



2. Non-logical fallacies, or fallacies 

 " extra dictionem," in which the fault is 

 in the matter. Of these there are two 

 kinds ; viz. 1st, when the premises are 

 such as ought not to have been assumed ; 

 2nd, when the conclusion is not the one 

 required, but irrelevant. To this head 

 belong the fallacies of "non causa pro 

 causa," " petitio principii," &c. 



FALSE. This term, in its strict logi- 

 cal sense, denotes the quality of a pro- 

 position which states something not as it 

 is. Logicians express this quality of a 

 proposition by the word falsity, as being 

 more precise than the word falsehood, 

 which is opposed not merely to logical, 

 but also to moral truth. 



FALSE CADENCE. In Music, a 

 cadence in which the base rises a tone or 

 semitone, instead of rising a fourth or 

 falling a fifth. 



FALSE POSITION. A rule in arith- 

 metic, according to which, by false or 

 supposed numbers, taken at pleasure, the 

 true required number is discovered. 

 There are two methods : by single posi- 

 tion, one supposed number is used, and, 

 by working with this as the true one, the 

 real number required is found ; by double 

 position, two supposed numbers are used, 

 and if both prove false (as it generally 

 happens), they are subjected to further 

 arithmetical investigation. 



FALSE'TTO. An Italian term, ap- 

 plied in Music to a false or artificial 

 voice, by which the vocal compass is ex- 

 tended, by contracting the aperture of 

 the throat, several notes above the natu- 

 ral voice. The Italians call the falsetto 

 134 



voce di testa, or voice from the head ; the 

 natural voice, voce di petto, or voice from 

 the chest. 



FALUNS. A French provincial name 

 for some tertiary strata, abounding in 

 shells, in Touraine, which resemble in 

 lithological characters the "Crag" of 

 Norfolk and Suffolk. 



FAMILY. In classifications of Zoology, 

 Botany, &c., this term denotes the group 

 next in value and comprehensiveness 

 above the genus. As species constitute 

 a genus, so genera constitute a family, or 

 order. 



FARI'NA {far, farris, corn). Meal, 

 or vegetable flour, made from the seed 

 of the Winter Wheat. See Amylum. 



Farinaceous. A term for all those sub- 

 stances which contain farina; viz. the 

 cerealia, legumes, &c. 



FA'SCI^ (fascia, a band). Stripes or 

 belts observed on the disc of Jupiter and 

 other planets. In Botany, contiguous 

 stems or fruits, which have grown unna- 

 turally together, are said to be fasciated. 



FA'SCICLE {fasciculus, a little bundle). 

 A form of inflorescence resembling a 

 corymb, but having a centrifugal, instead 

 of a centripetal, expansion. It is a kind 

 of compound corymb. 



FASCI'CULATE {fasciculus, a little 

 bundle). Clustered ; as when several 

 bodies spring from a common point, as 

 the leaves of larix, the tubers of orchis, 

 the roots of commelina, ^c. 



FASTI'GIATE {fastigium, the top of 

 any thing). A term used in Botany to 

 denote that the branches of a tree are 

 appressed to the stem, assuming nearly 

 the same direction, as in populus fasti- 

 giata. 



FA'TA MORGA'NA. Castles of the 

 Fairy Morgana. A meteorological phe- 

 nomenon occasionally witnessed in the 

 Straits of Messina, and depending on 

 unusual refraction. The images of men, 

 of buildings, and other objects are seen 

 from the coast, sometimes in the water, 

 sometimes at the surface of the water, or 

 in the air : there may be two images of 

 the same object, the one in a natural, the 

 other in an inverted position ; or the 

 images of the same object may be mul- 

 tiplied to a great degree. 



FAULT. A technical term applied by 

 miners to a sudden interruption of the 

 continuity of strata in the same place, 

 accompanied by a crack or fissure, vary- 

 ing in width from a mere line to several 

 feet, which is generally filled with broken 

 stone, clay, and other materials. The 



