FERGUSON FERMENTATION. 



171 



dsiaticts Commentar.). Compelled to fly, he retired 

 to Thus, where he lived in concealment. Meantime, 

 Mahmoud became sensible of his injustice, and, 

 having ascertained that Ferdusi was still alive, and 

 in want, he ordered twelve camels, loaded with rich 

 presents, to be sent to the poet. They arrived at the 

 door of his house as his corpse was brought out for 

 burial. 



The Shanameh is one of the finest Asiatic poems. 

 No work in the Persian language can be compared 

 with it. It is inestimable as a history, although, as 

 yet, but little used. A fragment, called Sohreb, 

 appeared in Calcutta, 1814, with an English transla- 

 tion, by Atkinson. In 1811, professor Lumsden 

 began to publish the whole, which was estimated to 

 make eight vols. fol. ; only one volume has as yet 

 appeared. Gorres, 1820, gave an abridgment of the 

 whole in two vols. An English translation, 

 commenced by Champion, 1788, is still unfinished. 

 Fragments may be found translated in Jones's Com- 

 mentaries, in Wilken's Persian Chrestomathy , in 

 Schlegel's Europa, in the Deutschen Merkur, in the 

 Fundgruben des Orients, and in Von Hammer's 

 Geschichte der Schoncn Redekunste Persiens. 



FERGUSON, ADAM, an eminent historical and 

 political writer, was born in 1724, at Logierait, in 

 Scotland, of which parish his father was minister. 

 He was educated at Perth and St Andrews, whence 

 he removed to Edinburgh, to study for the ministry. 

 He served as chaplain in the 42d regiment of foot, 

 but, on the peace of Aix-la-Chapelie, returned to 

 Edinburgh, where, in 1759, he was made professor 

 of natural philosophy, and afterwards of moral 

 philosophy. In 17t>7 appeared his Essay on Civil 

 Society. In 1773, he accompanied the earl of Ches- 

 terfield on his travels. In 177b', he replied to doctor 

 Price on Civil Liberty, and was rewarded by the 

 appointment of secretary to the mission sent to 

 America in 1778, to effect a reconciliation between 

 the two countries. On his return, he resumed 

 the duties of his professorship, and composed 

 his History of the Roman Republic, which was 

 published in 1783, in three vols. 4to. In 1793, he 

 published his lectures in the form of a Treatise on 

 Moral and Political Science, in two vols. 4to. He 

 died February 16, 181G. 



FERGUSON, JAMES, an eminent experimental 

 philosopher, mechanist, and astronomer, was born of 

 poor parents at Keith, in Banffshire, in 1710. He 

 learned to read by hearing his father teach his elder 

 brother, and very early discovered a peculiar taste 

 for mechanics, by making a wooden clock, after being 

 once shown the inside of one. As soon as his age 

 would permit, he was employed by a farmer to tend 

 his sheep, in which situation he acquired a know- 

 ledge of the stars, and constructed a celestial globe. 

 This extraordinary ingenuity becoming known to 

 the neighbouring gentry, they enabled him to obtain 

 instruction in mathematics and drawing, in which 

 latter art his improvement was so rapid, that he 

 repaired to Edinburgh, and drew portraits in minia- 

 ture, by which employment he supported himself for 

 many years. In 1743, he repaired to London, where 

 he was introduced to the royal society, and pub- 

 lished astronomical tables and lectures. He also 

 gave lectures in experimental philosophy, and among 

 tois hearers was George III., then prince of Wales, 

 who afterwards settled on him a pension of 50 a 

 year. In 1763, he was chosen a member of the 

 royal society, without the usual fees ; and such were 

 his frugality and the presents privately made him, 

 that he died worth 6000. He was well acquainted 

 with astronomy, and experimental and natural phi- 

 losophy ; but his mathematical knowledge was very 

 limited, and of algebra he knew little beyond the 



notation. His death took place in 1776. His works 

 are, Astronomical Tables and Precepts, 8vo. ; 

 Astronomy Explained ; Introduction to Astronomy ; 

 Tables and Tracts ; Lectures in Mechanics, Hydro- 

 statics, Pneumatics, and Optics ; Select Mechanical 

 Exercises ; The Art of Drawing in Perspective ; 

 An Introduction to Electricity ; Three Letters to the 

 Rev. John Kennedy ; and several papers in the 

 Philosophical Transactions. 



FERGUSSON, ROBERT ; a Scottish poet, of dis- 

 tinguished merit, was born at Edinburgh, September 

 5, 1751. He spent six years at the schools of Edin- 

 burgh and Dundee, and afterwards studied at the 

 metropolitan university and at St Andrews. He 

 was at one time destined for the kirk of Scotland ; 

 but he relinquished his prospects of ecclesiastical 

 preferment, and became clerk to a writer to the 

 signet a title which designates a peculiar order of 

 Scottish attorneys. He wrote poems, both in pure 

 English and in the Scottish dialect. His poems are 

 the careless effusions of an irregular, though amiable 

 young man, who died in early youth. His conversa- 

 tional talents rendered his society highly attractive 

 an accomplishment which proved detrimental to 

 the poet. The excesses into which he was led 

 impaired his feeble constitution, and brought on 

 disease, which terminated his existence October 16, 

 1774. He was buried in the Canongate church- 

 yard, Edinburgh, where Burns erected a monument 

 to the memory of this kindred genius. His poems 

 have been often printed. 



FERMANAGH, a county of Ireland, in the pro- 

 vince of Ulster, about forty-five miles in length 

 and thirty-four in breadth, bounded on the east by 

 the counties of Monaghan and Tyrone, on the south 

 by those of Cavan and Leitrim, and on the north by 

 the county of Donegal. Lough Erne divides the 

 county nearly throughout its whole extent from 

 north-west to south-west. The chief occupations of 

 the inhabitants consist in rearing black cattle and 

 manufacturing linen. Enniskillen is the county 

 town. Population of the county in 1831, 149,542. 



FERMENTATION; the spontaneous changes 

 which vegetable matter undergoes when exposed to 

 ordinary atmospherical temperature. So long as 

 vegetable substances remain in connexion with the 

 living plants by which they were produced, the ten- 

 dency of their elements to form new combinations 

 is controlled ; but, as soon as the vital principle is 

 extinct, they become subject to the unrestrained in- 

 fluence of chemical affinity. Owing to the difference 

 in the constitution of different vegetable compounds, 

 however, they are not all equally prone to fermenta- 

 tion ; nor is the nature of the change the same in 

 all of them. Thus alcohol, oxalic, acetic, and benzoic 

 acids, may be kept indefinitely without alteration ; 

 while others, such as gluten, sugar, starch, and muci- 

 laginous substances are very liable to decomposition. 

 In like manner, the spontaneous change sometimes 

 terminates in the formation of sugar ; at another 

 time, in that of alcohol ; at a third, in that of acetic 

 acid ; and, at a fourth, in the total dissolution of the 

 substance. This has led to the division of the fer- 

 mentative processes into four distinct kinds, viz., the 

 saccharine, the vinous, the acetous, and the putrefac- 

 tive fermentation. The only substance known to un- 

 dergo the saccharine fermentation is starch. When 

 this substance is kept moist for a considerable length 

 of time, a change gradually ensues, and a quantity 

 of sugar equal to about half the weight of the starch 

 employed is generated. Exposure to the atmosphere 

 is not necessary to this change, though the quantity 

 of sugar is increased by the access of air. The con- 

 ditions requisite for establishing the vinous fermenta- 

 tion are the following, viz., the presence of sugar 



