VO 1 N F 
zoning in that method), we may reject it ; be- 
cause we may thence conclude, that it is not 
produced in .consequence of the generating 
motion DG, but of the subsequent variations 
of this motion. And it appears why the 
conclusions in the method of infinitesimals 
are not to be represented as if they were only 
near the truth, but are to be held as accu- 
rately true. 
Tn order to render the application of this 
method easv, some analogous principles are 
admitted, as that the infinitely small elements 
6f a curve are right lines, or that a curve is a 
polygon of an infinite number of sides, which 
being produced, give the tangents ot the 
curve; and by their inclination to each other 
measure the curvature. 1 his is as it we 
should suppose, when the base flows uni- 
formly, the ordinate flows with a motion 
which is uniform for every infinitely small 
part of time, and increases or decreases by in- 
finitely small differences at the end of every 
such time. 
But however convenient this principle may 
be, it must be applied with caution and art on 
various occasions. It is usual therefore, in 
many cases, to resolve the element of the 
curve into two or more infinitely small right 
lines ; and sometimes it is necessary, if we 
would avoid error, to resolve it into an infi- 
nite number ot such right lines, which are in- 
finitesimals ot the second order. Tn general, 
it is a postulatum in this method, that we 
may descend to the infinitesimals of any or- 
der whatever, as we find it necessary; by 
which means any error that might arise in 
the application of it may be discovered and 
corrected by a proper use of this method it- 
self. For an example of this, see Maclau- 
rin’s Fluxions. 
INFLAMMABILITY, that property of 
Bodies which disposes them to kindle or catch 
fire. See Caloric, Chemistry, Sic . 
INFLAMMATION. See Surgery, and 
Medicine. 
INFLECTION, or point of inflection, in 
the higher geometry, is the point where a 
purve begins to bend a contrary way. See 
Flexure. 
To determine the point of inflection in curves, 
whose semi-ordinates CM, Cm (PL Miscel. fig. 
1S4) are drawn from the fixed point C ; suppose 
CM to be infinitely near C in, and make ,v/H — 
Mm ; let T m touch the curve in M. Now the 
angles CwT, CMot, are e M nal ; and so the angle 
C'.vH, while the semi-ordinates increase, docs 
decrease, if the curve is concave towards the 
centre C, and increases if the convexity turns 
towards it. Whence this angle, or, which is the 
same, its measure, will be a minimum or maxi- 
mum. if the curve has a point of inflection ox- 
retrogression ; and so may he found, if the arch 
TH, or fluxion of it, be made equal to, 0, or in- 
anity. And in order to find the arch TH, draw 
juL/so that the angle Tm L be equal towCL; 
then if Cm mr- zs .v, «T ~ t, we shall have 
• • • i • iffi, Again, draw the arch HO to 
y ’ " * y 
the radius CH ; then the small right lines mV, 
OH, are parallel; and so the triangles OTH, 
m i, r, are similar ; but because HI is also per- 
pendicular to wL, the triangles LH1, mLr, are 
{dsp.^pjUrt whence ‘ 1 x !'.L "ri that 1S > 
I N F 
the quantities mV, z»L, are equal. But HI- is 
the fluxion of Hr, which is the distance of Cm 
= q and I ID is a negative quantity, because 
while the ordinate CM increases, their difference 
rH decreases ; whence .va- fly — yy — 0, which 
is a general equation for finding the point of in- 
flection, or retrogradation. See Fluxions. 
INFORMATION, in law. An information 
may be defined an accusation or complaint 
exhibited against a person for some criminal 
offence, either immediately against the king, 
or against a private person, which, from its 
enormity or dangerous tendency, the public 
good requires should be restrained and pu- 
nished. It differs principally from an indict- 
ment in this, that an indictment is an accusa- 
tion found by the oath of 12 men, but an in- 
formation is only the allegation of the officer 
who exhibits it. 3 Bac. Abr. 1(54. 
Informations are of two kinds: first, those 
which are partly at the suit of the king, and 
partly at the suit of a subject ; and, secondly, 
such as are only in the name of the king : the 
former are usually brought upon penal sta- 
tutes, which inflict a penalty on conviction of 
the offender, one part to the use of the king, 
and another to the use of the informer ; and 
are called qui tarn, or popular actions, only 
carried on by a criminal instead ot a civil 
process. 
Informations that are exhibited in the name 
of the king alone are also of two kinds : first, 
those which are truly and properly his own 
suits, and filed ex officio by his own imme- 
diate officer, the attorney-general ; secondly, 
those in which, though (he king is the nomi- 
nal prosecutor, yet it is at the relation of 
some private person, or common informer; 
and they are filed by the master of the crown 
office, under the express direction of the 
court. The objects of the king’s own prose- 
cutions, filed ex officio by the attorney-gene- 
ral, are properly such enormous misdemean- 
ours as peculiarly tend to disturb or endanger 
the government. The objects of the other 
species of informations, filed by the master 
of the crown office, upon the complaint or 
relation of a private subject, are any gross 
and notorious misdemeanors, riots, batteries, 
libels, or oth ^immoralities, of an atrocious 
kind, not peculiarly tending to disturb the 
government, but which, on account of their 
magnitude or pernicious example, deserve 
the most public animadversion. And when 
an information is filed either thus, or by the 
attorney-general ex officio, it must be tried 
by a petty jury of the county where the of- 
fence arises ; after which, if the defendant is 
found guilty, lie must resort to the court of 
king’s bench for his punishment. 4 Black. 
3Q8. 
If a common informer should willingly de- 
lay his suit, or discontinue, or be nonsuit, or 
shall have a verdict or judgment against him, 
he shall pay costs to the defendant. 18 Eliz. 
c. 5. 
And in the court of king’s bench, particu- 
larly if the defendant shall appear and plead 
to issue, and the prosecutor shall not at his 
own costs, withiu a year alter issue joined, 
procure the same to be tried ; or if a verdict 
pass for the defendant, or the informer pro- 
cure a noli prosequi to be entered ; the said 
court of king’s bench may award the defend- 
ant his costs, unless the judge shall certify 
S that flic re was a reasonable cause for exhibit- 
I N H 
ing such information ; and if the informer 
shall not, in three months after such costs 
taxed, and demand made, pay the same, the 
defendant shall have the benefit of the recog- 
nizance, to compel him thereunto. 4 and 
5 W. c. 18. 
INFRALAPSARIANS, in church history, 
an appellation given to such predestinariaus 
as think the decrees of God, in regard to the 
salvation and damnation of mankind, were 
formed in consequence of Adam’s fall. 
INFUSION, a method of obtaining the 
virtues ot plants, roots, &c. by steeping them 
in a hot or cold liquid. 
INFUSORIA, in natural history, minute 
simple animalcules, seldom visible to the 
naked e\e. When water is examined with 
the microscope, particularly that which has 
long been stagnant, and has vegetable matter 
growing in it, or water in which vegetables 
have been infused, thousands of minute ani- 
mals have been discovered, which have been 
arranged together in this order. When wheat 
that is richety is infused in water, small eel- 
shaped worms are discovered, which were the 
cause of the disease. Wheat thus injured is 
very different from smutty wheat. The 
grains are brown, shrivelled, and of irregular 
forms; each contains one or more of these 
worms, which lie dormant as long as the 
grain is dry ; but as soon as it is moistened 
by being sown, or otherwise, the worms are 
revivified, feed on the flour, and lay their 
eggs. It such grain vegetates, the young, 
as soon as they are hatched, eat their way up 
the stem, and bury themselves in the young 
succulent car. 
INGRESS, in astronomy, signifies the 
sun’s entering the first scruple of one of the 
four cardinal signs, especially Aries. 
INGROSSER. See Forestalling. 
INHALER, in medicine, a machine for 
steaming tiie lungs with warm water, recom- 
mended by Mix Mudge in the cure of thcca- 
tarrhous cough. The body of the instrument 
resembles a porter-pot, holds about a pint, 
and the handle, which is fixed to the side of 
it, is hollow. In the lower part of the vessel, 
where it is soldered to the handle, is a hole, 
by means of which and three others on the 
upper part of the handle, the water, when it 
is poured into the inhaler, will rise to the 
same level in both. To the middle of the 
cover a flexible leathern tube, about six or se- 
ven inches long, is fixed, with a mouth-piece 
of wood or ivory. In the cover there is a 
valve fixed, which opens and shuts the com- 
munication between the upper and internal 
part of the inhaler and the external air. This 
valve is extremely simple being formed only 
of a short tube descending inwards fiom the 
cover, and having beneath a small hole upon 
which a ball of cork plays. When the mouth, 
is applied to the enii of the tube in the act 
of inspiration, the air rushes ini© the handle* 
aud up through the body of warm water, and 
die lungs become, consequently, filled with 
hot vapour. In exspiration, tire mouth being 
still fixed to the tube, the breath, together 
with the steam on the surface of the water in 
the inhaler, is forced up through the valve iu 
the cover. 
INHERITANCE, is a perpetuity in 
lands or tenements to a man and his heirs ^ 
and the word inheritance is not only intended; 
whore a man has. lauds- or tenements bv de- 
7 * 
