FOO 
FOR 
FOR 759 
with their veils; and the monks wore a lea- 
thern girdle, at which hung a knife and 
sheath. 
FONTANESIA, a genus of the diandria 
monogynia class and order. The calyx is 
four-parted, inferior: petals two, two-parted: 
capsule membranaceous, not opening, two- 
celled, one-seeded. There is one species, 
an herb of Syria. 
FONTINALTS, water-moss, a genus of 
the natural order of musci, in the crypto- 
gamia class of plants. The anthera is hood- 
ed; the calyptra, or covering of the anthera, 
sessile, inclosed in a perichcetium or empale- 
ment of leaflets different from those of the 
rest of the plant. There are six species, all 
of them natives of Britain. They grow on 
the brinks of rivulets, and on the trunks of 
trees. The most remarkable is the antipy- 
retica, with purple stalks. The Scandi- 
navians line the insides of their chimneys with 
this moss, to defend them against the fire ; 
for, contrary to the nature of all other moss, 
this is scarcely capable of burning. 
FOOD. See Materia Medica. 
Food of plants. See Plants. 
FOOT, a part of the body of most 
animals whereon they stand, walk, &c. 
Animals are distinguished with respect to 
the number of their feet, into bipedes, two- 
footed; such are men and birds: quadru- 
pedes, four-footed ; such are most land-ani- 
mals : and multipedes, or many-footed, as 
insects. The reptile kind, as serpents, &c. 
have no feet ; the crab kind of fish have ten 
feet, but most other fishes have no feet at all: 
the spider, mites, and polypuses, have eight ; 
flies, grasshoppers, and butterflies, have six 
feet. Animals destined to swim, and water- 
fowl, have their toes webbed together, as the 
phoca>, goose, duck, &c. The fore feet of 
the mole, rabbit, &c. are wonderfully formed 
for digging and scratching up the earth, in 
order to make way for their head. 
Foot, in the Latin and Greek poetry, a 
metre or measure composed of a certain 
number of long and short syllables. These 
feet are commonly reckoned twenty-eight, 
of which some are simple, as consisting of 
two or three syllables, and therefore called 
disyllabic or trisyllabic feet ; others are com- 
pound, consisting of four syllables, and are 
therefore called tetrasyllable feet. 
Foot is also a long measure, consisting of 
twelve inches. Geometricians divide the foot 
into ten digits, and the digit into ten lines. 
Foot, square, is the same measure both 
in breadth and length, containing 144 square 
or superficial inches. 
Foot, cubic, or solid, is the same measure 
in all the three dimensions, length, breadth, 
and depth or thickness, containing 1728 
cubic inches. The foot is of different lengths 
in different countries. The Paris royal foot 
exceeds the English by nine lines ; the an- 
tient Roman foot of the capitol, consisted of 
4 palms, equal to 1 1^- inches Enalish ; 
Rhineland or Leyden foot, by which the nor- 
thern nations go, is to the Roman foot as 
950 to 1000. The proportions of the prin- 
cipal feet of several nations, compared with 
the English, are as follow. 
The English foot being divided into 1000 
parts, or into 12 inches, the other feet will 
be as folloiv : 
1000 
g- 
- 
parts. 
r 
tr 
s 
a; 
London foot 
1000 
0 
12 
0 
Amsterdam 
942 
0 
11 
3 
Antwerp 
946 
0 
11 
2 
Bologna 
1204 
1 
2 
4 
Bremen 
964 
0 
1 1 
6 
Cologne 
954 
0 
11 
4 
Copenhagen 
965 
0 
11 
6 
Dantzick 
944 
0 
11 
3 
Dort 
1184 
1 
2 
2 
Frankfort on the Maine 
948 
0 
11 
4 
The Greek 
1007 
1 
0 
1 
Lorrain 
958 
0 
1 1 
4 
Mantua 
1569 
1 
6 
8 
Mechlin 
919 
0 
11 
0 
Middleburg 
991 
0 
11 
9 
Paris royal 
1068 
1 
0 
9 
Prague 
1026 
1 
0 
3 
Rhineland or Leyden 
1033 
1 
0 
4 
Riga 
1831 
1 
9 
9 
Roman 
967 
0 
1 1 
6 
Old Roman 
970 
0 
1 1 
8 
Scotch 
1005 
1 
0 
5 
7 
Strasburg 
920 
0 
1 1 
0 
Toledo 
899 
0 
10 
7 
Turin 
1062 
1 
0 
7 
Venice 
1162 
1 
1 
9 
Foot of the forest, pes 
forests 
in 
our 
an- 
tient customs, contained eighteen inches, or 
If of the common foot. 
Foot-level, among artificers, an instru- 
ment that serves as a foot-rule, a square, and 
a level. See the articles Level, Rule, and 
Square. 
Foot-pace, or Half-pace, among car- 
penters, a pair of stairs, whereon, after four 
or six steps, you arrive at a broad place, 
where you may make two or three paces 
before you ascend another step. The design 
of this" is, to ease the legs in ascending the 
rest of the steps. 
FOB AMEN, in anatomy, a name given 
to several apertures or perforations in divers 
parts of the body. 
FORCE, in mechanics, denotes the cause 
of the change in the state of a body when 
being at rest it begins to move, or has a mo- 
tion which is either not uniform, or not direct. 
See Mechanics. 
FORCE, in our common law, is most usu- 
ally applied in its worst sense, signifying urn 
lawful violence. Force is either simple or 
compound : simple force is that which is so 
committed, that it is accompanied by no 
other crime ; as if one by force shall enter 
into another man’s possession, without doing 
any other unlawful act ; mixed or compound 
force, is that violence which is committed 
with such a fact, as of itself only is criminal ; 
as if one by force enters into another man’s 
possession, and kills a man, or ravishes a 
woman there, &c. 
All force is against law ; and it is lawful to 
repel force by force. 1 Inst. 2G7. 
Where a crime, in itself capital, is endea- 
voured to be committed by force, it is lawful 
to repel that force, by the death of the party 
attempting. 4 Black. 181. 
FORCEPS, in surgery, &c. a pair of scis- 
savs for cutting off, or dividing, the fleshy 
membranous parts of the body, as occasion 
requires. See Surgery. 
FORCER, or Forcing, -pump, in me- 
chanics, is a kind of pump in which there is 
a forcer or piston without u - valve. See Hy- 
draulics, and Fire-engine. 
FORCIBLE entry and detainer. 
Forcible entry is a violent actual entry into 
a house or land, &c. or taking a distress of 
any person weaponed, whether he offers vio- 
lence or fear of hurt to any there, or furiously 
drives any out of the possession thereof. 
West. Symbol, p. 2. 
Where one or more persons armed with 
unusual weapons, violently enter into the 
house or land of another; or where they do 
not enter violently, if they forcibly put an- 
other out of his possession ; or if one enters 
another’s house without his consent, although 
the doors be open, &c. these are all forcible 
entries punishable by the law. Co. Lit. 257. 
So when a tenant keeps possession of the 
land at the end of his term against the land- 
lord, it is a forcible detainer. 1 Haw. 145. 
If any person is put out or disseised of any 
lands and tenements in a forcible manner ; or 
put out peaceably, and after holden out with 
strong hand ; the party grieved shall have 
assize of novel disseisin, or writ of trespass 
against the disseisor ; and if he recovers (or 
if any alienation is made to defraud the pos- 
sessor of his right, which is also declared by 
the statute to be void), lie shall have treble 
damages, and the defendant shall also make 
fine and ransom to the king. 8 H. VI. c. 9. 
But as this action is at the suit of the party, 
and only for the right, it lies only where the 
entry for the defendant was not lawful ; for 
though a man enters with force, where his 
entry is lawful, he shall not be punished 
by way of action, but he may be indicted 
by the statute, for the indictment is for 
the force and for the king, and he shall 
make fine to the king, be his right ever 
so good. Halt. c. 129. He shall recover 
treble damages, as well for the mesne occu- 
pation, as for the first entry ; and though he 
shall recover treble damages, he shall recover 
costs which shall be trebled also ; for the 
word damages includes costs of suit. 1 Inst. 
257. 
An indictment will lie at common law for 
a forcible entry, though generally brought 
on the statutes ; but it must shew on the face 
of it sufficient actual force. 3 Bur. 1702. 
If the party grieved will lose the benefit 
of his treble damages and costs, he may have 
the assistance of the justices at the general 
sessions, by way of indictment on the statute 
8 II. VI. which being found there, he shall 
be restored to his possession by a writ of 
restitution granted out of the same court to 
the sheriff. Halt. c. 129. 
Forcible entry and detainer is also punish- 
able under the statute, by one justice of 
peace, and by certiorari. Halt. c. 44. 
Forcible marriage. If any person 
sliall take away, any woman having lands or 
goods, or that is heir apparent to her an- 
cestor, by force and against her will, and 
afterwards she be married to him, or to an- 
other by his procurement, or defiled ; he 
and also the procurers and receivers of such 
a woman, shall be adjudged principal felons. 
