FIUKOIX. 



i of food that serve to maintain the function of respiration only, 

 and hence called ntpintary element*. The leu put of meat o 

 Urge quantities of fibrin and other pUatio nnUihls. obtained in the 

 first instance from certain port* of plants, and stored up, as it were, in 

 concentrated form for the use of man ; while the fat of meat, together 

 with cuch respiratory principlea aa sugar, starch, 4c., serve to keep up 

 the heat of the body by the gradual oxidation or slow burning they 

 undergo during the process of respiration. 



Fibrin undergoes spontaneous coagulation very soon after iu removal 

 fr.>m the living structure. Thus, blood freshly drawn from an animal 

 ia tolerably fluid, but after standing a short time becomes transformed 

 into a gelatinous mass or clot ; this is owing to the alteration of the 

 fibrin from the liquid to the solid state. Again, the recently expressed 

 juice of vegetables soon deposits a precipitate from a similar cause. 

 This property of spontaneous coagulation is alone possessed by fibrin, 

 and serves therefore to distinguish it from its congeners, albumen and 



1. Animal r&n* U most readily obtained from blood ; it is, however, 

 contained in some quantity in chyle and iu lymph. To obtain it, fresh 

 blood is briskly whipped with a bundle of twigs, when, after a abort 

 time, the fibrin, in the form of short elastic strings, is found adhering 

 to the twigs. It ia still contaminated with some of the red colouring 

 matter of the blood, but by maceration in, and patient washing with 

 water, it is finally obtained quite colourless. When dried, this fibrin 

 has a horny appearance, is hard, opaque, of a grayish or yellowish 

 colour, and without taste or odour. It is insoluble in cold water, 

 alcohol, or ether, but by long contact with boiling water is to a certain 

 extent decomposed. Heated with water in a sealed tube to 300* Fahr. 

 it entirely dissolves, forming a solution precipitable by acids, and much 

 resembling the solution of albumen obtained under similar circum- 

 stances. A somewhat analogous solution occurs if the fibrin, in con- 

 tact with a little water, is exposed to the air for some time ; but in 

 this Utter case a considerable amount of decomposition occurs, and 

 sulphide of amiuouium, butyric ncid, leuciu, and other principles are 

 generated. Animal fibrin is soluble in moderately dilute solutions of 

 the fixed caustic alkalies, yielding a liquid possessing the properties of 

 albuniinate of the base ; acetic or tribasic phosphoric acids precipitate 

 the fibrin, but in excess rediasolve it. The fibrin may also be made to 

 combine with other metallic oxides ; the resulting compounds are, 

 however, almost identical with the albuminates. Digested in strong 

 sulphuric acid, fibrin swells up, and by aid of a gentle heat entirely 

 dissolves. Hot nitric acid also dissolves it, the solution containing 

 MiAthuproteic add, an acid that is also produced under similar circum- 

 stances from albumen and casein. Hot concentrated hydrochloric acid 

 decomposes fibrin into leucin, tyrosin, and other matters. 



fpidermote is the name given by M. Bouchardat to that part of 

 the fibrin obtained from blood, that is not soluble in dilute hydro- 

 chloric acid; that chemist considering it to be identical with a sub- 

 stance which forms the base of the epidermis : while to the portion 

 of the fibrin that is dissolved by the dilute acid he gives the name 

 albuouHote. According to Liebig, however, blood-fibrin swells up in 

 dilute hydrochloric acid, but does not form a true solution at all ; 

 while muscle-fibrin dissolves more or less completely in that men- 

 struum. 



Fibrin has been examined and analysed by several chemists with 

 tolerably uniform results, but though its composition has been thus 

 ascertained, its true constitution is not at present satisfactorily esta- 

 blished. Mulder, who has paid considerable attention to this and the 

 analogous azoto-eulphurised principles, gives the following as the per- 

 centage composition of fibrin : 



Carbon 



Hydrogen 



Nitrogen 



Sulphur 

 Phosphorus . 



627 

 6-9 



23-5 

 1-2 

 0-3 



100-0 



The combustion of fibrin in always attendud with a residue or ash, 

 containing phosphate of lime and a little phosphate of magnesia. 



2. regttaUe J&ri* if frequently met with in pharmaceutical opera- 

 tions on the newly-expressed juice of fresh vegetables, nearly all such 

 liquont depositing coagulated fibrin on standing for a short time. Like 

 animal fibrin it does not admit of being examined hi the liquid state, 

 )mt in the solid form is obtained in what is generally considered to be 

 a more or less pure state, from the so-called gluten of wheat flour. 

 Boiling alcohol dissolves a considerable portion (true gluten) of this 

 gluten, and what remains undiasolved after repeated ebullition with the 

 alcohol and with ether, is vegetable fibrin. Its ultimate chemical 

 composition is very much the same as that of animal fibrin. In 

 contact with mouture it is slowly decomposed. A farther description 

 of iu characters and properties is unnecessary, inasmuch aa. so far a* 

 those characters are known, it would be but a reiteration of what has 

 already been detailed above under Animal Pit,. 



FIBROIN. This name has been applied by Mulder to the nitro- 

 genous tubfUnce composing the fibre of silk. I tin purified by treating 



ooaasively by trailing water, alcohol, ether, and acetic acid, 

 i tains: 



Carbon ....... 48-53 



Hy.lrogeii - 



Nitrogen 



, a term used auiuug thu Uouiaun for the brooch or i 

 with which their vests were usually fastened. It is <! 

 .tiija, " to fix," and the most ancient form of the word is supposed to 

 have been Jigebula. These fastenings were made in very great variety, 

 both as to material and form, and were sometimes decorated 

 engraved stones or gems, for like the modern brooches, fibuho were 

 employed for ornament aa well as use. Fibula: of gold were often used 

 as presents. The most common were made of bran or iron. The 

 most usual was that of a circular ring or disc of metal, with a pin 

 moving on a hinge, and passing across the centre of the . 

 Fibulae were used by the Roman women for fastening the inner and 

 outer garment (indutut and amirlut), and the scarf or cloak ; some- 

 times indeed they not only wore them for these purposes on their 

 breast and one or both shoulders, but in the later and more luxurious 

 ages as ornament* down their sleeves, and for fastening their tunics 

 above the knee. Count Caylus, in his 'Recueil,' pi. 110, fig. 4, has 

 engraved a fibula which served the double purpose of a fastening to 

 the garment and a key. The richly ornamented buckles used by the 

 Romans for fastening the belt and girdle were also called fbalac. . 

 was a term likewise applied by the oncieqls to the iron brace or ban 

 for joining or fastening beams, mentioned by C'tcsar (' De Hello Gall.,' 

 1. iv., c- 17) and described by Vitruvius (1. i., c. 6). The tibitla 

 ffica was an instrument used by surgeons for drawing the lips of a 

 wound together, noticed by Pitiscus, in his ' Lexicon,' p. 778, who also 

 mentions the fbvJa yymnantica, sive theatralu, " quto cantor! 1 

 comccdis inserviebat," particularly described by Celsus, and several 

 times alluded to by Juvenal and Martial. This was a ring of 

 workmanship. 



FICHTELITE, a fusible volatile crystalline substance, found in 

 the submerged pine-trees of the Fichtel-gebirge. Ita composition is 



! ION. [NOVEL; ROIIASCE.] 



FICTIONS (in Law) have been somewhat quaintly defined to be 

 " those things that have no real essence in their own body, but are so 

 acknowledged and accepted in Uw for some especial purpose." 

 especial purposes are various. The law, it is said (by which v 

 understand those who for the time are the interpreters of it), shall 

 never make any fiction but for necessity, and iu avoidance of a in: 

 (Coke's ' Rep.,' iii. 30.) This is as much as to say th:<i 

 pret the law will, in order to avoid a special hardship, or remove some 

 unexpected difficulty not provided for by the law, resort i 



liny will imagine something to be which is not. It 

 that such fictions have always a good end iu view ; t!. 

 aidered good by those who make or maintain the It was 



wisely said, that fictions of law must not be of a thing impo-siMe ,- Imt 

 the reason is rather curious, " for the law imitates nature." If we 

 to the soundness of the reason in the instance last mention, ,1, 

 not but approve of the following rule aa to fictions : that a man 

 never be subject to the penalty of a statute by a fiction of ]a\\ 

 law, it was said, would also make fictions in onler to avoid alis. 

 but this could hardly have been said in earnest. 



Blackstone shows by what fiction the Court of Queen's Bench origi- 

 nally held pleas of all personal actions : " It being surmised that the 

 defendant is arrested for a supposed trespass which he never has in 

 reality committed ; and being thus in the custody of the marshal of 

 the court, the plaintiff is at liberty to proceed against him for any 

 other personal injury : which surmise, of being in the marshal's cus- 

 tody, the defendant is not at liberty to dispute." Such HI. 

 disputing the fiction would clearly spoil the whole business, and was 

 therefore as necessarily disallowed as the fiction was al! 

 also the fictions formerly resorted to in EJECTMENT, and in the Court 

 of Exciiriji-ri!.\ Of the same kind is the fiction mentioned by Black- 

 stone, by which a contract made at sea ia feigned to be made at the 

 Royal Exchange, or other inland place, in order to draw the cognisance 

 of the suit from the courts of Admiralty to those of Westminster Hall. 

 " Such fictions," aa Blackstone remarks, " are adopted and encouraged 

 in the Roman law : a son killed in battle is supposed to ! 

 for the benefit of his parents ; and by the fiction <>i im and 



the lex Cornelia, captives, when freed from bondage, were held t 

 never been prisoners; and such as died iu captivity \.. i. supposed to 

 have died in their own country." 



Fictions in law, though often ridiculous enough, have genera' 

 their origin in some defect in the existing laws or course of procedure, 

 and have pointed out in what respects the judges or interpreters of 

 Uw, and, as we may suppose, general opinion also, under the influence 

 of which judges must to some extent be, have felt that change was 

 necessary. Many fictions, so far from being injurious, have been bene- 

 ficial ; but it must be remarked that they are the indications of a rude 

 state of social organisation, and must gradually disappear with the 

 improvement of the institutions of society ; for their existence supposes 

 a defect which it is the business of legislation to remedy. 



FIDDLE. [Viou.v.l 



