FERMENT. 



FEUDAL SYSTEM. 



60 



In the progress of the discussion which ended in overturning the 

 doctrine, arguments against its justice and expediency were used, rather 

 than those founded upon the principles of law, and the bench even 

 resorted to ridicule. Mr. Baron Graham in one case observed, " Yet is 

 this pretended possession of paper and packthread to be called by the 

 tremendous name of disseisin." The recent statute above-mentioned 

 declares that a feoffment shall not have a tortious or wrongful effect, 

 and thus most of the above learning has become mere antiquarianism. 



The owner of lands of gavelkind tenure [GAVELKIXD] may convey 

 them by feoffment at the age of 15 ; and therefore in such cases, which 

 are necessarily rare, a feoffmeut is still resorted to. It was also till 

 lately frequently sed for the sake of economy upon small purchases, in 

 order to save the expense of a second deed, which was necessary where 

 the conveyance was by lease and release. 



FERMENT. Amongst organic compounds there exist a number of 

 substances, some of animal others of vegetable origin, containing 

 nitrogen, and in which the different constituents are held together by 

 affinities so feeble, as to render them liable to spontaneous changes 

 when exposed to favourable conditions, such as air, moisture, and 

 warmth. Albumen, fibrin, casein, and gluten, for instance, are bodies 

 of this class, which, when removed from vital influence, are exceed- 

 ingly prone to enter into slow chemical decomposition, the final 

 products of which arc usually carbonic acid, water, and ammonia. 

 Such substances during their passage through these chemical changes 

 are termed fermenti, and are capable of inducing, by mere contact with 

 other bodies of more stable character, certain chemical changes. This 

 iuii of inducing chemical change by contact with a ferment is 

 denominated fermentation, and is frequently employed both in chemistry 

 and the arts for producing various interesting transformations. It is 

 thus that alcohol is produced from sugar by the ferment yeast ; the 

 peculiar oil to which mustard owes its origin is generated by a similar 

 reaction ; and recently Berthellot has succeeded in transforming glycerin 

 into grape-sugar by mere contact with a small fragment of animal 

 membrane. As a ferment is essentially a body in a state of chemical 

 change, it follows that the exact composition of such bodies is difficult, 

 if not impossible, to determine, and hence we are unacquainted with 

 the formula of any ferment. The following are the best known 

 ferment* : 



1. Ycatt, produced when a saccharine solution, containing nitro- 

 genous matter, as white of egg, is exposed to the air at a temperature 

 of about 80 Fahr. The yeast separates as a kind of scum or froth. 

 It transforms sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid, malic acid into 

 succinic, acetic, and carbonic acids, and tannic acid into gallic acid. 



2. Diastase. This ferment exists hi malted barley, and possesses 

 the property of converting starch into dextrin and grape-sugar. 



3. Synaptate or Emultin, exists in almonds, and converts amygdaliu 

 into oil of bitter almonds (hydride of benzoyl), formic acid, hydrocyanic 

 acid, ami sugar. [AMYGDALIN.] It also converts salicin into sugar 



i ?enui. According to Thompson and Richardson, when synaptase 

 is boiled with caustic baryta, it yields emulate acid. 



4. Jfi/f<ai , contained in mustard. In contact with water and myronic 

 acid, which is also contained in mustard, it produces oil of mustard. 



5. Decaying cJieeK, in contact with cane- or milk-sugar, transforms 

 them first into lactic acid, and then, by further contact, converts this 

 lactic acid into butyric acid, carbonic acid, and hydrogen. The latter 

 transformation is sometimes termed the butyric fermentation. 



It must be remarked that all these fermentive processes require the 

 presence of water and moderate warmth. They are frequently, but 

 not invariably, attended with the evolution of gases. In many fer- 

 mentive processes, the ferment itself suffers very little change, although 

 large quantities of the fermentescible substance may have undergone 

 transformation. The ferment does not, therefore, combine with any 

 of the products of transformation ; it appears only to communicate, by 

 contact with the fermentescible substance, an impulse to the molecules 

 of the latter, which determines their splitting up into two or more 

 new compounds. 



Processes which are generally regarded as analogous to the above, 

 )>nt which are less understood, can be induced in the bodies of living 

 animals; thus when morbific matter, the fluid of putrefying flesh, 

 vaccine matter, Ac., are brought into contact with circulating blood, 

 the latter suffers remarkable changes, attended with the production 

 of certain forms of disease; and it is also more than probable that 

 gaseous ferments are amongst the conditions necessary for the pro- 

 duction of most, if not all, infectious diseases, such as typhus, cholera, 

 scarlatina, &c. 



KF.I'.M KNTATIOX. [FEnME.vr.] 



FERRIC ACID. [IRON.] 



PERBICYANIDES. 7->n Salts of FEnniDCYANic ACID. 



FKRRinCYANIC ACID (HjC^N.Fe,), 1/ydrnferrideyanir, acid. 

 An acid analogous to FERROCTANIC ACID, obtained in red crystals by 

 suspending ferridcyanide of lead in water, and passing sulphuretted 



i:n through the mixture. [CYAX<>' 



'KEKROCYANIC ACID (H.FeCy,), Ili/dro-farocyanie Acid. Dis- 

 covered by Porret, and by him called ferruretted chyazic acid. He 

 d it from the decomposition of ferrocyanide of potassium by 

 the action of tartaric acid, or from ferrocyanide of barium by mwins 

 !i>liuric acid. According to Berzelius it is best prepared by 

 11-4 recently precipitated ferrocyanide of copper or lead through 



ARTS AND SCI. DIV. VOL. IV. 



water, and passing hydrosulphuric acid gas through the mixture ; tlio 

 sulphur precipitates the copper or lead in the state of sulphuret, while 

 the hydrogen, uniting with the cyanogen and iron, forms ferrocyanic 

 acid. Any excess of sulphuric acid is to be got rid of by adding ferro- 

 cyanide of the metal employed. The solution should be quickly 

 filtered and evaporated in vacuo over sulphuric acid. A white residue 

 is obtained which when dissolved in water is inodorous, sour, reddens 

 litmus paper, decomposes the alkaline carbonates with effervescence, 

 forms ferrocyanides with them, and exhibits other proofs of a strong 

 acid. When exposed to spontaneous evaporation in a warm place, 

 colourless radiating crystals are observed, which have the appearance of 

 four-sided prisms. This acid is decomposed by long exposure to the 

 air, Prussian blue being formed and precipitated ; this is also produced 

 by adding to it a persalt of iron. 



The aqueous solution is also decomposed by boiling ; and when sub- 

 mitted to destructive distillation it yields hydrocyanic acid, hydro- 

 cyanate, and carbonate of ammonia, and carburet of iron remains. 

 [CYANOGEN.] 



FERROCYANIDEK. Salts of FERKOCTANIC ACID. 



FERRY, an exclusive privilege for the carriage of horses and men 

 across a river or arm of the sea for reasonable toll. The owner of a 

 ferry cannot suppress it and put up a bridge in its stead without a 

 licence ; but he is bound to keep it always in repair and readiness, with 

 expert men, and reasonable toll, for neglect of which he is liable to be 

 punished by indictment. And, therefore, if a ferry is erected so near 

 to an ancient ferry as to draw away its custom, it is a nuisance to the 

 owner of the old one, for which the law will give him remedy by 

 action. The ferry is in respect of the landing-place, and not of the 

 water ; and in every ferry the land on both sides ought originally to 

 have been in the same person, otherwise he could not have granted the 

 ferry. As all existing ferries are of great antiquity, and generally con- 

 nect roads abutting on either side of the water, the original unity of 

 possession is now mere matter of curiosity. A ferry is considered for 

 some purposes a common highway. 



FESCENNINE VERSES were rude licentious verses sung by young 

 men at weddings, and before the door of the nuptial chamber. This 

 was a very ancient custom at Rome : the practice, and some of the 

 verses themselves, are said to have been introduced from Fescenuium, 

 an old Etruscan town near the present site of Civita CastelUna. Festus 

 and others derive the name Fescennine from fatcintim, a charm or evil 

 influence, which was supposed to have the power of depriving persons 

 of their physical strength, and which the Fescennine verses were 

 intended to avert. Valetta, a Neapolitan lawyer and poet of the 18th 

 century, has written a curious book on the " Fascino," or evil eye, the 

 belief of which is still prevalent at Naples. The Fescenuine verses 

 were distinct from the epithalamia, which were more refined and 

 regular compositions. [EPITHALAMIUM.] Horace (Epist. ii. 1) says 

 that Fescennine verses were sung by the country-people at harvest- 

 time; and the custom of dealing out licentious jokes upon each other 

 and.xipon strangers passing by is still retained by the vintagers in 

 various parts of Italy. The name of Fescennine was given in general 

 to licentious and satirical epigrams. Octavianus is said to have 

 written some of this character against Pollio, in the time of the 

 Triumvirate. 



FEUD. [FEUDAL SYSTEM.] 



FEUDAL SYSTEM. In treating of this subject, we shall endea- 

 vour to present a concise and clear view of the principles of what is 

 called the feudal system, to indicate the great stages of its history, 

 especially in our own country, and to state briefly the leading con- 

 siderations to be taken into account in forming an estimate of its 

 influence on the civilisation of modern Europe. 



The essential constituent and distinguishing characteristic of the 

 species of estate called a feud or fief was from the first, and always 

 continued to be, that it was not an estate of absolute and independent 

 ownership. The ultimate property, or dominium direction, as it was 

 called, remained in the grantor of the estate. The person to whom it 

 was granted did not become its owner, but only its tenant or holder : 

 he possessed the dominium utite only. There is no direct proof that 

 fiefs were originally resumable at pleasure ; but the position is laid 

 down in almost every writer on the feudal system, and, if not to be 

 made out by any decisive instances, it is at least strongly supported 

 not only by general considerations of probability, but also by some 

 indicative facts. The fief was certainly at one time revocable, at least 

 on the death of the grantee. In receiving it, therefore, the grantee 

 had received not an absolute gift, but only a loan, or at most an estate 

 for his own life. 



This being established as the true character of a primitive feud or 

 fief, may perhaps throw some light upon the much disputed etymology 

 and true meaning of the word. Pfudum, has been derived by some 

 from a Latin, by others from a Teutonic root. The principal Latiii 

 origins proposed are /<?<? (a treaty) and/</f (faith). The supposition 

 of the transformation of either of these into feudum seems unsupported 

 by any proof. These derivations, in fact, are kardly better than another 

 resolution of the puzzle that has been gravely offered, namely, that 

 feudum is a word made up of the initial letters of the words " fidelis 

 ero ubique domino vero meo." The chief Teutonic etymologies pro- 

 posed have been from the old German faida, the Danish fciite, or the 

 modem German vehd, all meaning battle-feud or dissension ; but the 



