FEE 



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PEL 



F. D. abbreviation of Fidei Defensor, 

 Defender of the Faith : a title conferred 

 by the Pope on Henry VIII., for writing 

 a book against Luther. 



FEAL'TT, Fr. fe.nl, trusty, from Lat. 

 Jidelis. A. term, in feudal law, for the oath 

 taken by the tennnt, to be true to the lord 

 of whom he held his land, and to defend 

 him against his enemies. This obligation 

 was called his fidelity or fealty. The 

 tcrant was called a liege man, the laud a 

 liege fee, and the superior a liege lord. 



FEA.STS, ) In church rituals, are anni- 



FES'TIVALS. ) versaries of joy and thanks- 

 giving, on stated days, in commemoration 

 of some great event. They are called 

 immoveable, when they occur always on 

 the same day of the year, as Christmas- 

 day ; and moveable, when they depend on 

 astronomical calculations, and do n r t re- 

 turn on the same days of the year, as 

 Easter, which fixes all the others. 



FEA.TH'ER-EDGED, a term referring to 

 any wrought substance, in which the 

 work is considerably reduced in thickness 

 towards the edge. 



FEATH'ERY, plumose. Applied to plants 

 furnished with lateral hairs. 



FEB'RIFUGE, "Lat.febrifugus, fromfebris, 

 fever, and fugo, to drive away ; a medi- 

 cine which alleviates or removes fever. 



FEB'RUARY, Lat. Februarius. In the old 

 Roman calendar this was the last month 

 of the year, until the decemvir ordered 

 that it should rank as the second. It 

 takes its name from februa, a festival held 

 in behalf of the manes of the deceased, 

 and this from febnts, to purify by sacri- 

 fice. It means, therefore, the month of 

 purification. In common years it has 28 

 days ; in leap years, 29. 



FECIA'LES, a college of priests, instituted 

 at Rome by Numa. They were the arbi- 

 trators in all matters of war and peace, 

 and the guardians of the public faith. 

 Hence our epithet fecial. 



FE'CIT, a Latin word inscribed by artists 

 on their works, to indicate the designer. 



FEC'CLA, Lat. ftucula. Any substance 

 cierived by spontaneous subsidence from 

 a liquid. The term is now commonly 

 applied to the pulverulent matter ex- 

 tracted from vegetables by grinding them 

 'in water, and allowing the fluid to settle ; 

 the fecula subsides. Starch is an ex- 

 ample. 



FED'ERAL, from fardus. Relating to a 

 league or international contract, \fedf- 

 ral government is one formed by the union 

 of several sovereign states, each surren- 

 dering a portion of its power to the cen- 

 tral authority. 



FEE, primarily, a loan of land. An es- 

 tate in trust, granted by a prince or lord, 

 to be held by the grantee on condition of 

 personal service, or other condition, and 

 U the grantee failed to perform the con- 



ditions, the land reverted to the lord or 

 donor, called the land-lordor lend-lord, the 

 lord of the loan. A fee, then, is any land 

 or tenement held of a superior on certain 

 conditions. It is synonimous with fief 

 and feud. All the land in England, except 

 the crown lands, is of this kind. Fees are 

 absolute or limited : an absolute fee, or 

 fee-simple, is land which a man holds to 

 himself and his heirs for ever, who are 

 called tenants in fee-simple. Hence, in 

 modem times, the term fee or fee -simple 

 denotes an estate of inheritance : and in 

 America, where lands are not generally 

 held of a superior, a fee or fee-simple is an 

 estate in which the owner has the whole 

 property, without any condition annexed 

 to the tenure. A limited fee is an estate 

 limited or clogged with certain condi- 

 tions: as a qualified, or base fee, which 

 ceases with the existence of certain con- 

 ditions : and a conditional fee, which, is 

 limited to particular heirs. 



FEEDER, a carriage or catch drain: a 

 small canal, cut, or channel, by which a 

 stream or supply of water is conveyed for 

 the use of a canal, &c. 



FEED'-PIPE OF a STEAM-ENGINE, the pipe 

 employed for conveying the water to the 

 boiler. 



FEED'-PUMP, the force-pump employed 

 in supplying the boilers of steam-engines 

 with water. 



FEEL'ERS, a name for the horns or an- 

 tennae of insects, usually two in number, 

 but sometimes four. 



FEE TAIL, a conditional fee. See FEE. 



FE'LIS, a cat. A genus of carnivorous 

 mammalia of the digitigrade tribe, the 

 essential character of which consists in 

 having four teeth, the intermediate ones 

 equal, grinders three on each side, the 

 tongue beset with bristles backwards, and 

 the claws retractile. At the head of the 

 genus stands the lion (F. leo, Lin.), next 

 the tiger (F. tigris, Buff.), the jaguar (F. 

 onca, Lin.), the panther (F. pardus, Lin.), 

 the leopard (F. leopardus, Lin.), the cou- 

 guar or puma ( F. discolot , Lin.) , the lynxes 

 (see LYNX), and the domestic cat (F. cat us, 

 Lin.). Epithet feline. 



FEL'LOES or FELLIES. In mechanics, the 

 covered pieces of wood forming the cir- 

 cumference of a carriage-wheel, into 

 which the spokes are inserted. 



FE'LO-DE-SE. In law, one who commits 

 felony by suicide, or being of the years of 

 discretion and in his right senses, wilfully 

 destroys his own life. 



FEL'ON. 1. In law, a person who com- 

 mits felony. 2. In surgery, a whitloe 



arising between the periosteum and the 

 bone. 



FEL'ONT. Tn law, any crime which in 

 curs the forfeiture of lands or goods, ex- 

 cept treason, which is a crime MU j 

 As all crimes punishable by deatn 



