FIR 



FIR 



fiizor. The purposes for which fines 

 are now levied are, to cut off estates 

 tail, to bar the wife of her dower, and 

 also to make purchasers more secure in 

 their, title ; for by virtue of the statute 4 

 Henry VII. c. 24, all persons not within 

 age, and not under disability, such as 

 femmes coverts, persons insane, and be- 

 yond sea, are barred of their rights by a 

 fine levied of lands, with proclamation, 

 unless they claim within five years. The 

 legal learning, with respect to the effect- 

 and operation and mode of levying fines, 

 is so abstruse, that, in a general dictiona- 

 ry, it is better to consider them only, as 

 in fact they are, a species jof solemn 

 conveyance for the barring the wife of 

 dower when levied by her, which she is 

 enabled to do notwithstanding coverture, 

 or to cut off entails, &c. than to attempt 

 an imperfect description of fines in par- 

 ticular. 



FINERY, in the iron works, one of the 

 forges at which the iron is hammered and 

 fashioned into what they call a bloom or 

 square bar. See IKON. 



FINESSE, a French term, current in 

 this country, and is used chiefly to denote 

 that subtility made use of for the pur- 

 poses of deception. 



FINGER board, in music, that thin, 

 black covering of wood laid over the neck 

 of a violin, violincello, Sec. on which, in 

 performance, the strings are pressed by 

 the fingers of the left hand, while the 

 right manages the bow. 



FINGERING, in music, the art of dis- 

 posing the fingers in a convenient, natu- 

 ral, and apt manner, in the performance 

 of any instrument, but more especially 

 the organ and piano-forte. One of the 

 first things that a skilful master teaches is 

 good-fingering, and to attain this, a pupil 

 should spare no {Sains, so as to be able to 

 give passages with articulation, accent, 

 and expression. 



FINGERS, the extreme part of the 

 hand, divided into five members. See 

 ANATOMY. The names of the fingers, 

 reckoning from the thumb, are, 1. Pollex, 

 2. Index. 3. Medius. 4. Annularis. 5. 

 Auricnlaris. 



FINING, or Refining. SBC-CLARIFICA- 

 TION and REFINING. 



FINITE, something bounded or limit- 

 ed, in contradistinction to infinite. 



FIRE. The word heat has been used 

 with so much precision by Doctors Blnck, 

 Irvine, Crawford, and others, that the 

 word fire seems to have been rendered 

 of little use, except to denote a mass of 

 matter in a state of combustion, which 



VOL. V. 



is, indeed, its vulgar acceptation. The 

 term has, however, been used by many 

 eminent writers, to denote what these 

 great philosophers call the matter of 

 heat, now generally termed CALOHIC, 

 which see. 



FIHE, balls of, in meteorology, a kind 

 of luminous bodies, generally appearing 

 at a great height above the earth, with a 

 splendour surpassing that of the moon ; 

 and sometimes equalling her apparent 

 size. They generally proceed in this 

 hemisphere from north to south with 

 vast velocity, frequently breaking into 

 several smaller on.es, sometimes vanish- 

 ing with a report, sometimes not. These 

 luminous appearances no doubt consti- 

 tute one part of the ancient prodigies, 

 blazing-stars, or comets, which lust they 

 sometimes resemble in being attended 

 with a train ; but frequently they appear 

 with a round and well defined disk. The 

 first of these, of which we have any 

 accurate account, was observed by Dr. 

 Halley and some other philosophers, at 

 different places, in the year 1719. From 

 the slight observations they could take of 

 its course among the stars, the perpendi- 

 cular height of this body was computed 

 at about seventy miles from the surface 

 of the earth. The height of others has 

 also been computed, and found to be va- 

 rious : though in general it is supposed 

 to be beyond the limits assigned to our 

 atmosphere, or where it loses its refrac- 

 tive power. The most remarkable of 

 these on record appeared on the 18th of 

 August 1783, about 9 o'clock in the even- 

 ing. It was seen to the northward of 

 Shetland, and took a southerly direction 

 for an immense space, being observed as 

 far as the southern provinces of France, 

 and one account says, that it was seen at 

 Rome also. During its course it appeared 

 frequently to have changed its shape ; 

 sometimes appearing in the form of one 

 ball, sometimes of two or more ; some- 

 times with a train, sometimes without one. 

 It passed over Edinburgh nearly in the 

 zenith, and had then the appearance of a 

 well-defined round body, extremely lu- 

 minous, and of a greenish colour; the 

 light which it diffused on the ground 

 giving likewise a greenish cast to objects. 

 After passing the zenith it was attended 

 by a train of considerable length, which, 

 continually augmenting, at last obliterat- 

 ed the head entirely ; so that it looked 

 like a wedge flying with the obtuse end 

 foremost. The motion was not apparent- 

 ly swift, by reason of its great height; 

 though in reality it must 'have moved 



