THE FARMER AT HOME. 159 



sheep bears a somewhat fine fleece, but generally speaking it is coarse, 

 and is adapted only for the purposes of inferior manufactures. 



FAT-TAILED SHEEP. This race of sheep is more extensively 

 diffused than the fat-rumped, since it is found throughout Asia, a 

 great part of Africa, as well as through the north eastern parts of 

 Europe. Dr. Kussell, in his history of Aleppo, gives the following 

 account of it as it appears in Syria. The dead weight of one of these 

 sheep will amount to fifty or sixty pounds ; but some of the largest 

 that have been fattened with care, weigh one hundred and fifty 

 pounds, the tail alone composing one third of the whole weight. 

 This broad, flattish tail is mostly covered with long wool, and. becom- 

 ing very small at the extremity, turns up. It is entirely composed of 

 a substance between marrow and fat, serving very often in the kitchen 

 instead of butter, and cut into small pieces, makes an ingredient in 

 various dishes. 



FEATHERS. In Compaiative Anatomy, constitute the peculiar 

 covering of the class of birds. In no other tribe of animals are they 

 met with ; for the plumes which belong to some of the lepidopterous 

 insects are different from the feathers of birds, both with respect to 

 their structure and mode of growth. No bird is entirely deprived of 

 feathers, although some species want them on certain parts of the 

 body. The turkey and vulture have the head and part of the neck 

 uncovered. The ostrich and the wading birds have bare thighs ; 

 those birds which have ceres, combs, or pieces of flesh on the head, 

 have those parts without feathers. 



FEELING. Is one of the five external senses, by which we ob- 

 tain the ideas of solidity, hardness, softness, roughness, heat, cold, 

 wetness, dryness, and other tangible qualities. Although this sense 

 is perhaps the least refined, it is of all others the most sure^ as well 

 as the most universal. Man sees and hears with small portions of 

 his body, but he feels with all. The author of nature has bestowed 

 that general sensation wherever there are nerves, and they are every- 

 where found where there is life. If it were otherwise, the parts want- 

 ing this sense might be destroyed without our knowledge. On this 

 account it seems wisely provided, that this sensation should not require 

 particular organization. Feeling is, perhaps, the basis of all other 

 sensations. The object of feeling is every body that has consistency 

 or solidity enough to move the surface of our skin. To make feeling 

 perfect, it was necessary that the nerves should form small eminences, 

 because they are more easily moved by the impression of bodies, than 

 a uniform surface ; and it is owing to this structure that we are 

 enabled to distinguish not only the size and figure of the bodies, their 

 hardness and softness, but also their heat and cold. To the blind, 

 feeling is so useful a sensation, that it supplies the office of eyes, and 

 in a great measure indemnifies them for the want of sight. We have 

 known persons totally blind, whose sense of feeling was so acute that 



