32 



FUM 



1782-85 were spent in Philadelphia, where he de- 

 voted himself to the painting of miniature por- 

 traits and landscapes. In 1786 he proceeded to 

 London, where for several years he studied under 

 West ; but some paintings which he produced in 

 Devonshire having gained him the patronage of 

 the Duke of Bridge water and Earl Stanhope, he 

 abandoned art and applied his energies wholly to 

 mechanics, for which he had early shown a strong 

 bent. In 1794 he obtained from the Britisli govern- 

 ment a patent for a double-inclined plane, the 

 object of which was to set aside the use of locks ; 

 and in the same year he invented a mill for sawing 

 and polishing marble. He afterwards prepared 

 plans for the construction of cast-iron aqueducts 

 and bridges, and patented in England a machine 

 for spinning llax, a dredging-machine, and several 

 boats. He was received as a civil engineer in 1795, 

 and published a treatise advocating small canals. 

 In 1797 he proceeded to Paris, where he remained 

 for several years, devoting himself to new projects 

 and inventions, amongst which was a submarine 

 boat, intended to be used in torpedo warfare, but 

 neither the French nor the British government, 

 which he next tried, could be induced to take his 

 invention up, although commissions were appointed 

 in both cases to test its value. Having failed in 

 this matter, he next turned his attention to a 

 subject that had occupied his mind as early as 

 1793 the application of steam to navigation. In 

 1803 he launched on the Seine a small steamboat, 

 which immediately sank ; but a trial-trip was 

 made by a second boat soon after, though without 

 attaining any great speed. In 1806 he returned to 

 New York and pursued his experiments there. He 

 perfected his Torpedo (q.v. ) system, though it was 

 never actually adopted ; and in 1807 he launched a 

 steam-vessel upon the Hudson, which made a 

 successful start on the llth August, and accom- 

 plished the voyage up the river (of nearly 150 

 miles) to Albany in thirty-two hours. From this 

 period steamers (for the construction of which 

 Fulton received a patent from the legislature) 

 came into pretty general use upon the rivers of 

 the United States. Although Fulton was by no 

 means the first to apply steam to navigation, yet 

 he was the first to apply it with any degree of 

 practical success (see SHIPBUILDING). His re- 

 putation was now firmly established, and he was 

 employed by the United States government in the 

 execution of various projects with reference to 

 canals and other works. In 1814 he obtained the 

 assent of the legislature to construct a steam 

 war-ship, which was launched in the following year, 

 but never tested in warfare. Though the labours 

 of Fulton were attended with sucli great success, 

 various lawsuits in which he was engaged in refer- 

 ence to the use of some of his patents kept him in 

 constant anxiety and tended to shorten his days. 

 He died at New York, 24th February 1815. See 

 his Life by Colden (New York, 1817); Robert 

 Fulton and Steam Navigation, by Thos. W. Knox 

 (1886), and the article SUBMARINE NAVIGATION. 



Film, or, more properly, FUNG, the Chinese 

 Phoenix, one of the four symbolical animals sup- 

 posed to preside over the destinies of the Chinese 

 empire. Its appearance indicates an age of uni- 

 versal virtue, the influence of which has extended 

 throughout creation. It is supposed to have the 

 forepart of a goose, hind-quarters of a stag, neck of 

 a snake, fish's tail, fowl's forehead, down of a duck, 

 dragon's marks, the back of a tortoise, face of a 

 swallow, and beak of a cook, with claws and 

 feathers of various colours, red crest, and golden 

 beak. It is about six cubits high, and comes from 

 the East. 



Fumagc. See HEARTH-MONEY. 



Common Fumitory 

 (Fumaria officinalis). 



Flimariaceae, an order of dicotyledonous 

 herbs, allied to Papaveracese, of which they may 

 be regarded as speci- 

 alised forms. There 

 are about a hundred 

 species, mostly palse- 

 arctic, and mostly 

 weeds, but some of 

 great beauty ( see 

 DICENTRA). 'Several 

 species of Fumaria 

 and Corydalis are 

 natives of Britain. 

 The Common Fumi- 

 tory ( Fumaria offici- 

 nalis} is a very com- 

 mon annual weed in 

 gardens and corn- 

 fields, rank, yet of 

 rather delicate and 

 beautiful appearance, 

 and easily extirpated. 

 It was formerly much 

 employed in medi- 

 cine, as also in dye- 

 ing, and as a source 

 of potash. 



Fumaric Acid, 



H a C4H 2 O 4 , occurs in many plants, especially in 

 Corydalis and Fumitory. It is of interest from a 

 chemical point of view as being isomeric with malic 

 acid. 



Fumigation (Lat. fumiqatio, from fumus, 

 ' smoke '), the cleansing or medicating of the air of 

 an apartment by means of vapours, employed chiefly 

 for the purpose of detaching infectious poisons from 

 clothing, furniture, &c. Most of the methods of 

 fumigation formerly employed have little real value, 

 and are to be looked on chiefly as grateful to the 

 senses, as, for instance, the burning of frankin- 

 cense, camphor, &c. The really active processes 

 are noticed under the article DISINFECTANTS. See 

 also DEODORISERS, CONTAGION, INFECTION, GERM 

 THEORY (under Germ, page 168), and PASTILLE. 



Fimariu. a genus of Mosses, of which one 

 species common on old walls and dry barren soils, 

 F. hygrometrica, is of particular interest on account 

 of the hygrometric twisting of its fruit-stalk. 



Funchal, the capital of the island of Madeira 

 (q.v.), situated on the south side of the island, is, 

 in spite of its exposed harbour and unsatisfactory 

 roadstead, the chief port and commercial town 

 of the island. Pop. 30,606. It attracts a few 

 hundred visitors every year by the salubriousness 

 of its climate, and has a consumptive hospital, a 

 cathedral, Anglican and Presbyterian churches, 

 and an English club. 



Function, the technical term in physiology for 

 the vital activity of organ, tissue, or cell. Thus 

 it is the dominant function of the pancreas to 

 secrete digestive juice, of a muscle to contract, 

 of a sensory cell to receive and pass on ex- 

 ternal stimulus. The classification or the various 

 functions or vital processes presents considerable 

 difficulty, though it is easy enough roughly to 

 catalogue the most important : ( 1 ) contractility 

 (by muscular cells, tissues, and organs); (2) irri- 

 tability to sensory stimulus, transmission of nervous 

 stimulus, ' automatic ' origin of nervous impulse 

 (by sensory organs, nerves, brain, &c. ); (3) secre- 

 tion and excretion ( by glandular cells, or complexes 

 of these); (4) respiration (by skin, gills, lungs, 

 &c. , or necessarily in every actively living cell ) ; 

 (5) nutrition, digestion, assimilation (in the mani- 

 fold ways in which the income of energy in the 

 form of food is received and worked up into living 

 matter). Somewhat apart from these, and of more 



