FET 



YEY 



a box provided with wool or otlirr 

 warm materials, and may be fed with 

 bread and milk. Its sleep is long and 

 profound, and it awakes with a vora- 

 cious appetite, which is most highly 

 gratified by the blood of small anil 

 young animals. Its enmity to rats 

 and rabbits is unspeakable, and when 

 either are, though for the first time, 

 presented to it, it seizes and bites 

 them with the most phrensied mad- 

 ness. When employed to expel the 

 rabbit from its burrows it must be 

 muzzled, as otherwise it will suck 

 the blood of its victim, and instantly 

 fall into a profound sleep, from which 

 it will awake only to the work of de- 

 struction, committing in the warren, 

 where it was introduced only for its 

 services, the most dreadful waste and 

 havoc. It is possessed of high irri- 

 tability, and when particularly exci- 

 ted, is attended with an odour ex- 

 tremely offensive." — (Loudon.) 



Ferrets are used in granaries and 

 out-buildings to destroy rats. They 

 are muzzled and slipped into the hole, 

 from which they drive the animals, 

 which are then caught by terriers or 

 other vermin dogs. It is customary 

 to hunt in the morning, when the 

 rats are less active and asleep in their 

 holes. 



FESCUE GRASSES. The genus 

 Fcstuca, containing several valuable, 

 permanent grasses, of which the F. 

 ■pratcnsis, meadow fescue, and daii- 

 vscula, hard fescue, are the best. See 

 Grasses. The characters of the ge- 

 nus are, triandria, digynia, flowersin 

 panicles, corolla armed, seeds ad- 

 nate ; calyx two-valved, many-flow- 

 ered ; spikelets compressed, round- 

 ish, awnless, or with a terminal awn ; 

 corolla sub-round, upper valve acute, 

 with a sharp bristle at the tip, or mu- 

 oronate, seed growing to the corolla. 

 The valuable kinds are either indi- 

 genous, or have become naturalized ; 

 all the festucas are nutritious. 



FETLOCK. " The part of the leg 

 where the tuft of hair grows behind 

 the pastern joint of horses : those of 

 low size have scarcely any tuft. In 

 working horses, which have them 

 large, care should be taken to keep 



A .i 'i 



them clean in order to prevent the 

 grease. The fetlock joint is a very 

 complicated one, and from the stress 

 which is laid on it, and its being the 

 principal seat of motion below the 

 knee, it is particularly subject to in- 

 jury. An affection of this part should 

 be well fomented and immediately 

 blistered."— (C/a^fr.) 



FEVERS. A disease, one of the 

 most general symptoms of which is 

 increased heat of the body, and often 

 the sensations of heat, dryness, and 

 even burning of the skin are exces- 

 sive, independent of any proportional 

 increase of temperature. Their ori- 

 gin is in the nervous system. In fe- 

 vers there is generally great consti- 

 tutional derangement, unaccompa- 

 nied by local or perceptible organic 

 disease. Fevers generally begin with 

 languor of body and mind ; chilliness, 

 amounting to shivering, though the 

 skin often, at the same tune, feels hot ; 

 the pulse is quicker than it should 

 be ; respiration hurried or laboured ; 

 pains are complained of in various 

 parts, and especially about the head, 

 back, and loins ; the appetite falls off, 

 or there is nausea and vomiting; the 

 mouth is dry ; the bowels generally 

 constipated, and the urine small in 

 quantity and deep in colour. These, 

 which constitute the first stage, or 

 ordinary febrile symptoms, are suc- 

 ceeded by alternate flushings, a quick- 

 er and fuller pulse, rapid alternations 

 of shivering and burning heat, and by 

 mental anxiety and wandering, which, 

 under a great variety of aspects and 

 modifications, constitute the second 

 stage ; they are succeeded by the 

 third stage, in which the leading ap- 

 pearances are a cleaner tongue, a 

 more natural pulse, a moist skin, 

 calm mind, and the urine becomes 

 more copious in quantity, and de- 

 posites a sediment as it cools. The 

 symptoms of fever generally undergo 

 an increase every evening, which is 

 called an exacerbation ; and this fluc- 

 tuation often takes place more than 

 once in the twenty-four hours, the 

 violence of the attacks increasing 

 with their occurrence, and forming 

 what is called a continued fever. Af- 



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