FORCEPS 



3247 



FORE AND AFT RIO 



money should be raised by a com- 

 pulsory loan, but nothing was done 

 in this direction. 



Forceps. Instrument consisting 

 of two blades for grasping or com- 

 pressing tissues or objects. The 

 midwifery forceps, used for assist- 

 ing delivery with difficult labour, 

 is one of the most beneficial in- 

 struments ever invented. There is 

 some evidence that forceps of a 

 kind were used in childbirth at 

 Pompeii, and in the 10th century 

 by Arabian physicians. The know- 

 ledge was, however, entirely lost, 

 and was rediscovered about the 

 beginning of the 17th century by 

 Peter Chamberlen, a Huguenot 

 refugee, who fled to England. 

 Chamberlen and his sons and grand- 

 sons kept the secret in their family 

 for nearly one hundred years, and 

 it was not until 1733 that Chapman 

 published a f all description of the 

 midwifery forceps. The word for- 

 ceps meant an instrument for hold- 

 ing hot iron (Lat. formus, hot; 

 caper e, to grasp ). A form of forceps 

 is employed in nearly all surgical 

 operations, and by dentists, watch- 

 makers, etc. See Dentistry, illus. 



Forcible Entry. Term used in 

 English law. By a statute of 

 Richard II, it is forbidden for any- 

 one claiming land to make a forcible 

 entry on it. However good his 

 title may be, he must not assert it 

 by force, or he will be guilty of a 

 breach of the peace, and be liable 

 to a fine. 



Forcible Feeding. Adminis- 

 tration by force of food to a person 

 who refuses to take it. Liquid food 

 is introduced into the stomach 

 through a tube passed down the 

 throat, or sometimes through the 

 nostril. The procedure is occasion- 

 ally necessary in the case of luna- 

 tics, and was resorted to in order 

 to keep alive imprisoned women 

 suffragists during the agitation for 

 women's suffrage in Great Britain, 

 about 1910-13. 



Forcing. Art of bringing flowers, 

 fruit, and vegetables to a state of 

 maturity at an earlier date than 

 in ordinary circumstances. Any 

 heated greenhouse can be used as a 

 forcing house, but where this is not 

 available, fresh stable manure may 

 be spread at the bottom of a pit, 

 about 3 ft. in depth, and, when the 

 rank steam has escaped, covered 

 with a thick layer of good, rich 

 loam, a cold frame or a series of 

 portable hand-lights .being placed 

 over it. The decaying manure will 

 create a high temperature, and the 

 frames can be used for starting all 

 half-hardy plants, and when the 

 temperature of the decaying 

 manure falls, the frames will serve 

 to grow rhubarb, seakale, and some- 

 times mushrooms. If the tempera- 



ture falls too rapidly, it must be 

 renewed by the addition of fresh 

 manure and litter. See Gardening. 



For cite. Term used for certain 

 explosives in the U.S.A. and in 

 Belgium. In the U.S.A. it is 

 frequently used to designate blast- 

 ing explosives, prepared by mix- 

 ing gelatinised nitroglycerine with 

 sodium nitrate (76), wood tar (20), 

 sulphur (3), and wood pulp (1). 

 The best known explosives under 

 this name, however, are those 

 which are manufactured at Baelen- 

 sur-Nethe, in Belgium, in which 40 

 to 67 p.c. of gelatinised nitroglycer- 

 ine is mixed with wood meal and 

 sodium, potassium, or ammonium 

 nitrate. 



Ford (Anglo-Saxon). Point in 

 a river or lake at which man or 

 beast can cross on foot. Fords and 

 bridging facilities have fixed the 

 site of all important riverine towns. 

 Modern London includes the old 

 city, built at the then best bridging 

 point nearest the sea, and West- 

 minster, founded where the Thames 

 could be forded before London 

 Bridge was built. 



Ford, EDWARD ONSLOW (1852- 

 1901). British sculptor. Born at 

 Islington, he studied at Antwerp 

 ^ and Munich. 



fn ]H7r> he 



1 first exhibited 



9 at the R>A -' 



became A.R.A. 



E. Onslow Ford, 

 British sculptor 



Elliott & Fry 



Khartum ; the 



Among his 

 workg are the 

 Gordon group, 

 1890, of which 

 replicas are at 

 Chatham and 

 Queen Victoria 



Memorial, Manchester, 1901 ; Folly 



(Tate Gallery). His many por- 



trait busts are marked by delicate 



modelling and truth of likeness. 



He died at St. John's Wood, 



London, Dec. 23, 1901. 

 Ford, HENRY (b. 1863). Ameri- 



can manufacturer. Born at Green- 



field, Michigan, July 30, 1863, he 



began to work 



when a boy hi 



an engineering 



shop at De- 



troit. He rose 



to be chief 



engineer at the 



Edison Illu- 



minating Co., 



and in 1903 



founded a busi- 



ness of his own 



at Detroit. This became the Ford 



Motor Co., and under his presidency 



the largest maker of automobiles 



in the world, turning out 3,000 a 



day, and employing 50,000 hands. 



Ford also turned his attention to 



/* 



Henry Ford, Ameri- 

 can manufacturer 



farm tractors, and these, known as 

 Fordsons, were produced in great 

 numbers. 



In 1914 he instituted a scheme 

 of profit-sharing for his employees, 

 and as regards wages and hours of 

 labour his firm was always most 

 liberal. In Dec., 1918, he announced 

 his intention of retiring in favour 

 of his son, one of his new interests 

 being a weekly periodical, The 

 Dearborn Independent. In 1915 

 Ford brought a party of Americans 

 to Europe in the hope of ending the 

 Great War. But later he was con- 

 vinced of the futility of this policy, 

 and when his country became a 

 belligerent he placed his resources 

 at its disposal, produced war 

 material on a vast scale, and sub- 

 scribed 1,000,000 to the U.S.A. 

 Liberty Loan. 



Ford, JOHN (1586-C.1639). Eng- 

 lish dramatist. Born at Ilsington, 

 Devon, April 17, 1586, he spent a 

 year at Exeter College, Oxford, 

 and then entered the MiddleTemple. 

 His reputation rests on his tragedies, 

 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, 1626 ; The 

 Broken Heart, 1629; and the histori- 

 cal drama of Perkin Warbeck, 1634. 

 He collaborated vith Dekker, 

 Rowley, and Webster, with the 

 two first in The Witch of Ed- 

 monton, c. 1621 ; with the last in a 

 lost play, called A Late Murder of 

 the Son upon the Mother. Charles 

 Lamb placed Ford in " the first 

 order of poets," though his genius 

 was peculiarly sombre. W. Gif- 

 ford's edition of his works, 1827, 

 was revised by A. Dyce, 1869, and 

 by Hartley Coleridge, 1840. 



For dun, JOHN OP (d c. 1384). 

 Scottish chronicler. He wrote 

 the Chronica Gentis Scotorum, 

 which make up the first five books 

 of Walter Bower's Scotichronicon. 

 and the Gesta Annalia, which carry 

 this work from 1153 to 1383, and. 

 as completed by Bower, to 1437. 

 He was probably a chantry priest 

 in Aberdeen Cathedral. 



Fordwich. Parish and village 

 of Kent, England. It is 2 m. N.E. 

 of Canterbury, and was once a 

 place of importance. In the Middle 

 Ages and later, the Stour, which 

 flows by here, was navigable, and 

 Fordwich was a port, serving as 

 the port of Canterbury, and a cor- 

 porate member of the Cinque port 

 of Sandwich. It has an old church, 

 S. Mary's, with a Norman shrine 

 and other features of interest. The 

 old sessions house still stands, and 

 there are remains of the port. It 

 was a borough until 1884, when 

 it lost its mayor and corporation 

 under the Act of 1883. Pop. 254. 



Fore and Aft Rig. Sails set 

 towards bow and stern of a vessel, 

 as in a cutter's rig. A vessel is 

 square-rigged when her sails are 



