INF 



r. l.-'c War." Tlie great dednitlion made by there canfed 

 ftve;- il others to be tried ; but none of tlicm fiicceedcd. 

 At Dunkirk and St. Maloes they were tried by the Enghlh ; 

 at Hivre de Grace by the Englifh and Ditch, under king 

 ^V;i;iam; and one was condriided by the French to be 

 f.f-J againll Algiers, in i6S8, but it was not employed. 

 Pt. Remi, ill his Memoirs of Artillery, has given a fedlion 

 r.:!i view of the infernal ufed at St. Maloes. See a de- 

 f.rii tion and figure of it in Grofe's Military Antiquities, 

 V. i D. 410. 



i X FERTILITY. See Feiitility. 

 ^" FIBUL ATION, in Amiquky. It was a cuftom among 

 Iloniaiis, to infibulate their finging boys, in order 

 \^-ferve their voices : for this operation, which pre- 

 J their retrafting the prepuce over the ghns, and is 

 very reverfe to circumcilion, kept them from injuring 

 tlie-:r voices by premature and prepolterous venery : ferving 

 as a kind of padlock, if not to their inclinations, at leaft to 

 their abilities. It appears by fome paflages in Martial, that 

 a lefs decent ufc was made of inlibulation among the luxu- 

 rious Romans : for ibme ladies of dillinttion, it feems, took 

 this method of confining their paramours to their own em- 

 braces. Juvenal alfo liiiits at fome fuch practice. Celfus, a 



T N F 



Tntiniteis alfo ufed to fignify that which has had a 

 beginning, but will have no end : as angels, and human 



kes what the fchoolmcn call infitiilum a parte pnjl ; 

 contrary, by infinitum a parU ante, they mean that 



NDEFINIT8 



fouls 



This I 

 as, on tl 



which has an end, but had' no beginning, 

 and Finite. 



IxFixiTE, in Mathematics, is applied to quantities which 

 are either greater or fmaller, tiiaii any aflignable ones. In 

 which fenfe it differs not wuch from what we otherwife cafl 

 inihfmits or indeterminate. Thus, an 



Infinite, or Injlnitely great line, in Geometry, denotes only 

 an indefinite or indeterminate line ; to which no certain bound* 

 or limits are prefcribed. 



I.VFixiTE Quantities. Though the idea of magnitude in- 

 finitely great, or fuch as exceeds any aflignable quantity, 

 does include a negation of limits ; yet all fuch magnitudes are 

 not equal among themfelves ; but befides infinite length and 

 infinite area, there are no lefs than three feveral forts of infi^ 

 nite folidity ; alt of which arc quantities yi/i generis; and 

 thole of each fpecies are in given proportions. 



Infinite length, or a fine infinitely long, is to be con-fidered. 



chafte author, fays, infibulation was fometimes praftifed for either as beginning at a point, and fo infinitely extended 

 the fake of health; and nothing dellroys it more tlian the 

 filly practice this operation feems intended to prevent. This 

 pradice is not perhaps likely to be revived ; if, however, any 

 one who has fuffered in his conititution by prepolterous venery, 

 fhould be able to get children, and ftiould be inclined to pre- 

 vent the fame misfortune in them, by infibulation ; the me- 

 thod of doing it is thus : 



The (kin which is above the glans is to be extended, and 

 marked on both fides with ink, where it is perforated, ard 

 then fuffered to retract itfelf. If the marks i-ecur upon 

 the glans, too much of the ikin has been taken up, and we 

 mull make the marks farther ; if the glans remain free from 

 them, they fnew the proper place for affixing a fibula : then 

 pafs a needle and thread through the lliin where tlie marks 

 are, and tie the threads together ; taking care to move it 

 every day, until the parts about the perfomrions are cica- 

 trifed : this being effected take out the thread, and put in 

 the fibula ; which the tighter it is the better. Celfus, lib, vii. 



elfe both ways from the fame point : in which cafe 

 the one, which is a beginning of infinity, is one -half of the 

 whole, which is the fum of the beginning and ceafing infi- 

 nity, or infinky a parte ante, and a parte poj , which is analo- 

 gous to eternity in time or duration ; in which there is al- 

 ways as much to follow, as is pall any point or moment of 

 time. 



Nor does the addition or fubtra£tion of time, length or 



fpace of time, alter the cafe, either as to infinity or eternity ; 



any part of the 



the one nor the other can 



cap. 2 J. 



Authors have not determined what the fibula of the ancient 

 fnrgeons was, though no doubt they were for different piir- 

 pofes. In the prefent cafe, the fibula feems to mean a ring 

 of metal, not unlike what the country people put through 

 the nof«s of fwine. 



INFIDEL, a term applied to fuch perfons as are not 

 baptized, and that do not believe the truths of the Chriilian 

 religion. See Deist. 



INFIERNO, in Geography, one of the fmaller Canary 

 iflands, between Lancerotta and St. Clara. 



INFIESTO, a town of Spain, in theproviiKC of Aftu- 

 rias ; 20 miles E. of Oviedo. 



INFILTRATION, in Geo/ogy, is one of the proceffes 

 of nature, by which flony hardnels feems to have been given 

 or increafed in mineral fubflances or llrata, in certain fitua- 

 tions, effected by the infiltration or foakage of water laden 

 with Itony particles, through porous fubflances, and then 

 depofitmg their lapidiferous contents : Mr. Kirwan, in his 

 " Geological EfTays,"' pages 45, 128, 131, and 412, has 

 confidered this mode of indurating the terreltrial flrata, and 

 quoted a number of curious mineral changes and appearances 

 afcribed to this agent. 



INFINITE, tliat which has neither beginning nor end : 

 in which fcnfe God alone is infinite. 



fince neithe 

 whole. 



As to infinite furface or area, any right line infinitely ex- 

 tended both ways on any infinite plane, divides that plane into 

 equal p.^rts, the one to' the right, and the other to the left of 

 the faid line; but if from any point in fuch a plane, tivo 

 right lines be infinitely extended, fo as to make an angle ; 

 the infinite area, intercepted between thefe infinite right lines, 

 i:; to the whole infinite plane, as the arc of a circle drawn on 

 the point of concourfc of thofe lines as a centre, intercepted 

 between the faid lines, is to the circumference of the circle ; 

 or as the degrees of the angle to the 360 degrees of a 

 circle. 



For an example — Two infinite right lines meeting at & 

 right angle on an infinite plane, do include a quarter part of 

 the whole infinite area of fuch a plane : if two .parallel infi- 

 nite lines be fuppofed drawn on fuch an infinite plane, the 

 area intercepted between tliem will be likewife infinite ; but 

 at the fame time it will be infinitely lefs than the fpace inter- 

 cepted between two infinite fines, that are inclined, though 

 with never fo fniall an angle, becaiife in the one cafe the 

 given finite dillance of the parallel lines diminiflies the infi- 

 nity in one degree of dimenfion ; whereas in a ftdor, there 

 is infinity in both dimenfions ; and confequently the quanti- 

 ties are one infinitely greater than the other, and tliere is no 

 proportion between them. 



From the fame confideration arife three feveral fpecies of 

 infinite fpace or folidity ; for a parallelepiped, or a cylinder 

 infinitely long, is greater than any finite magnitude, how 

 great foevcr ; all fuch folids fuppofed to be formed on a 

 given bafis, are in proportion to one another as thofe bafes. 

 But if two of thofe three dimenfions are wanting, aj in the 

 fpace intercepted between two par.tllel planes infinitely ex- 

 tended, and at a finite diflance ; or with iufiuitc kngili and 

 tS tireaJth, 



