FIX 



FLA 



attacks the great caruncle in the inward 

 corner of the eye. 



FISTULARIA, the tobacco-pipe fish, in 

 natural history, a genus of fihes of the 

 order Abdominales. Generic character: 

 snout cylindrical ; jaws distant from the 

 eyes ; gill membrane with seven rays ; 

 body tapering from the jaws to the tail. 

 There are three species. F. tabacaria, 

 or the slender fistularia, grows to the 

 length of three feet, and is found on the 

 coasts of America. By the inhabitants of 

 Brazil it is eaten, though not particularly 

 esteemed by them. It lives principally 

 upon smaller fishes, insects, and worms. 

 These it obtains with great ease, by means 

 of its snout, which it introduces into clefts, 

 and under stones, where they mostly 

 abound. The two other species are na- 

 tives of the Indian seas. 



FITCHEE, in heraldry, a term applied 

 to a cross, when the lower end of it is 

 sharpened into a point. 



FITS of easy reflection, &c. in optics. 

 Sir Isaac Newton calls the successive dis- 

 position of a ray to be reflected through 

 different thicknesses of a plate of air, or 

 any other substance, the returns or fits of 

 easy reflection, and the disposition of the 

 same ray to be transmitted in the same 

 manner through the intervening spaces, 

 returns or fits of easy transmission. Thus, 

 a ray of light is in a fit of easy reflection, 

 when it falls on a plate of any kind of 

 matter, whose thickness is one of the 

 terms of the series 1, 3, 5, 7, &c. taking 

 the smallest thickness capable of reflect- 

 ing such ray for unit; and, in the same 

 way, it is in one of its fits of easy trans- 

 mission, when the thickness is one of the 

 terms of the series 2, 4, 6, 8, &c. See 

 OPTICS. 



FIXED bodies, are those which bear a 

 considerable degree of heat, without eva- 

 porating or losing any of their weight. 



FIXITY. The property by which bo- 

 dies resist the action of heat, so as not to 

 rise in vapour. It is the opposite to vola- 

 tility. The fixity of bodies appears to be 

 merely relative, and depends on the tem- 

 perature at which they assume the elastic 

 state or form. Such bodies as assume 

 this state at a low temperature will easily 

 rise ; whereas those which cannot be so 

 dilated but at an extreme heat will re- 

 main fixed in all ordinary situations. 

 From the analogy of a variety of facts, it 

 does not seem probable that any sub- 

 stances are absolutely fixed. 



FLACOURTIA, in botany, so called in 

 memory of Stephen de Flacourt, a genus 

 of the Dioecia Polyandria class and order. 

 Natural order of Tiliacese, Jussieu. Essen- 

 tial character : male, calyx five-parted ; 

 " corolla none ; stamens very numerous ; 

 female, calyx many-leaved ; corolla none : 

 germ superior ; styles five to nine ; berry 

 many celled. There is but one species. 



FLAG, a general name for colours, 

 standards, antients, banners, ensigns, &c. 

 which are frequently confounded with 

 each other. The fashion of pointed or 

 triangular flags, as now used, Rod. Tole- 

 tan assures, came from the Mahometan 

 Arabs, or Saracens, upon their seizing of 

 Spain, before which time all the ensigns 

 of war were stretched, or extended on 

 cross pieces of wood, like the banners of 

 a church. The pirates of Algiers, and 

 throughout the coasts of Barbary, bear an 

 hexagonal flag. 



FZAG is more particularly used at sea, 

 for the colours, antients, standards, &c. 

 borne on the tops of the masts of vessels, 

 to notify the person who commands the 

 ship, of what nation it is, and whether it 

 be equipped for war or trade. The ad- 

 miral in chief carries his flag on the main- 

 top ; the vice-admiral on the fore-top ; 

 and the rear-admiral on the mizen-top. 

 When a council of war is to be held at 

 sea, if it be on board the admiral, they 

 hang a flag in the main shrouds ; if in 

 the vice-admiral, in the fore shrouds; 

 and if in the rear-admiral, in the mizen 

 shrouds. 



Besides the national flag, merchant 

 ships frequently bear lesser flags on the 

 mizen mast, with the arms of the city 

 where the master ordinarily resides ; and 

 on the foremast, with the arms of the 

 place where the person who freights 

 them lives. 



FLAG, to lower or strike the, is to pull 

 it down upon the cap, or to take it in, 

 out of the respect or submission due 

 from all ships or fleets inferior to those 

 any way justly their superiors. To lower 

 or strike the flag in an engagement, is a 

 sign of yielding. 



The way of leading a ship in triumph 

 is to tie the flags to the shrouds, or the 

 gallery, in the hind part of the ship, and 

 let them hang down towards the water, 

 and to tow the vessels by the stern. Livy 

 relates, that this was the way the Romans 

 used those of Carthage. 



FLAG, to heave out the, is to put out OP 

 put abroad the flag. 



