FOU 



FOW 



large or small, according to the demand 

 of the printer, who orders them by the 

 hundred weight, or by sheets. When a 

 printer orders a fount of five hundred, 

 he means that the fount, consisting of 

 letters, points, spaces, quadrats, &c. 

 shall weigh 50016. When he demands a 

 fount often sheets, it is understood, that 

 with that fount he shall be able to com- 

 pose ten sheets, or twenty forms, without 

 being obliged to distribute. The founder 

 takes his measures accordingly; he rec- 

 kons 120/6. for a sheet, including the 

 quadrats, &c. or 60/6. for a form, which 

 is only half a sheet : not that the sheet 

 always weighs 120/6., or the form 60/6. ; 

 on the contrary, it varies according to the 

 size of the form : besides, it is always 

 supposed that there are letters left in the 

 cases. As, therefore, every sheet does 

 not comprehend the same number of let- 

 ters, nor the same sort of letters, we 

 must observe, that, as in every language 

 some sounds recur more frequently than 

 others, some letters will be in much 

 more use, and oftener repeated than 

 others, and consequently their cells or 

 cases should be better stored than those 

 of the letters which do not recur so fre- 

 quently : thus, a fount does not contain 

 an equal number of a and 6, or of b and 

 c, &c. the letter-founders have therefore 

 a list or tariff', or, as the French call it, a 

 police, by which they regulate the propor- 

 tions between the different sorts of cha- 

 racters that compose a fount: and it is evi- 

 dent that this tariff' will vary in different 

 languages, but will remain the same for all 

 sorts ot characters employed in the same 

 language. Suppose a fount of 100,^)00 

 characters, which is a common fount; 

 here a should have 5000; c, 3000; <?, 

 11,000; i, 6000; m, 3000; the k t only 

 300 ; and the ,r, y, and z, not many more. 

 FOUNTAIN, in philosophy, a springer 

 source of water, rising out of the earth. 

 Among the ancients, fountains were held 

 sacred, and even worshipped as a kind 

 of divinities. For the phenomena, theo- 

 ry, and origin of fountains or springs, see 



R 

 'OUNTAIN, or Artificial Fountain, in hy- 

 ilics, called also a jet d'eau, is a con- 

 ince, by which water is violently 

 ited upwards. See HYDRAULICS. 

 OBTAIN pen. See PEX. 

 OURTII,in music, one of the harmo- 

 nical intervals, called concords. It is call- 

 ed fourth, as containing four sounds or 

 terms between its extremes, and three 

 intervals; or, as being the fourth in or- 

 * of the natural or diatonic scale from 





the fundamental. The ancients called it 

 diatessaron, and speak of it as the prin- 

 cipal concord, on whose divisions all the 

 rest depend ; but the moderns, so far 

 from allowing it such perfections, find it 

 one of the most imperfect, and even dis- 

 pute whether it ought to be received 

 among the number of concords at all. It 

 consists in the mixture of two sounds in 

 the ratio of 4 : 3 ; that is, of two sounds 

 produced by two chords, whose lengths, 

 Sec. are in that proportion. 



FOWLING, the art of taking or killing 

 birds. It is either practised as an amuse- 

 ment by persons of rank and property, 

 and then principally consists in killing 

 them with a light fire-arm, called a fowl- 

 ing-piece, and the diversion is secured to 

 them by the game-laws ; or it is practised 

 for a livelihood, by persons who use nets 

 and other apparatus. Though there is 

 much skill and knowledge displayed in 

 fowling with the fowling-piece, not only 

 in the use of the instrument, but like- 

 wise in the training of dogs, and disco- 

 vering and starting the game, we must, 

 from the nature of our limits, avoid en- 

 tering into this subject. The other arti- 

 fices, by which birds are taken, consist in 

 imitating their voices, or leading them, 

 by other means, into situations, where 

 they become entrapped by nets, or bird- 

 lime, or otherwise. 



The pipe, or call, aflbrds the most 

 common means used to take great num- 

 bers of birds; this is done in the months 

 of September and October. A thin 

 wood is the spot chosen for this pur- 

 pose; under a tree, a little distant from 

 the others, is erected a cabin, and there 

 are only those branches left on the tree, 

 which are necessary for the placing of 

 the bird-lime, which are supple twigs, 

 and are covered with bird-lime. There 

 are placed around the cabin avenues 

 with twisted perches, which are also 

 besmeared with bird-lime. The bird- 

 catcher places himself in the cabin, and 

 at sun-rise and sun-set imitates the cry 

 of a small bird, calling the others to its 

 assistance ; for animals have also their 

 cries to express their different passions, 

 which are well known to each other. If 

 a cry is made to imitate the owl, imme- 

 diately different sorts of birds assemble 

 at the cry of their common enemy, and 

 they are seen falling to the ground at 

 every instant, their wings, from the bird- 

 lime, being of no use to them. The 

 cries of those birds which are thus 

 caught attract others, and great quanti- 

 ties are in this manner taken. It is only 



