FUN 
F U N 
FUN 
790 
ments on gunpowder; and he has permitted' 
me to state, that the matter which re- 
mains after the explosion of gunpowder con- 
sists ot potass un.ted with a small proportion 
of carbonic acid, sulphate of potass, and a very 
small quantity of sulphuret of potass, and un- 
consumed charcoal. That 100 grains of good 
gunpowder yieldedabout 53 grains of this resi- 
duum, of which three are charcoal. That it is 
extremely deliquescent, and when exposed to 
the air, soon absorbs moisture sufficient to 
dissolve a part of the alkali ; in consequence 
of which the charcoal becomes exposed, 
and the whole assumes a black or very dark 
colour. Mr. Gruickshank likewise informs 
me, that after the combustion of good gun- 
powder under mercury, no water is ever per- 
ceptible.” 
Fulmination, in the Romish canon law, 
a sentence of a bishop, official, or other ec- 
clesiastic appointed by the pope, by which it 
is decreed, that some bull sent from the pope 
shall be executed. 
Fulmination is also used for the denun- 
ciation, or execution of a sentence of ana- 
thema, made public with due solemnity. 
FU M ARIA, fumitory, a genus of the pen- 
tandria order, belonging to the diadelphia 
class of plants, and in the natural method j 
ranking under the 24th order, corydales. 
The calyx is diphyllous, the corolla ringerit, 
and there are two membranaceous filaments, 
each of which has three anthers;. There are 
a number of different species, all of them low, 
shrubby, and deciduous and evergreen plants, 
growing from two to six or seven feet high, 
adorned with small simple leaves, and papi- 
lionaceous flowers of different colours. The 
most remarkable is the officinalis or common 
fumitory, which grows naturally in shady cul- 
tivated grounds, and produces spikes of pur- 
plish flowers in May and June. It is very 
juicy, of a bitter taste, without any remark- 
able smell. The medical effects of this herb 
are, to strengthen the tone of the bowels, 
gently loosen tire belly, and promote the 
urinary and other natural secretions. The 
old physicians recommended it in melancho- 
lic, scorbutic, and cutaneous disorders, for 
opening obstructions of the viscera, attenu- 
ating and promoting the evacuation of viscid 
juices. Frederic Hoflman had a very great 
opinion of it as a purifier of the blood ; and 
assures us that in this intention scarce any 
plant exceeds it. Cows and sheep eat this 
plant ; goats are not fond of ; horses and 
swine refuse it. 
FUMIGATION, in chemistry, a kind of 
calcination, when metals, or other hard bo- 
dies, are corroded or softened, by receiving ! 
certain fumes for that purpose. 
Fumigation, in medicine and surgery, the ! 
application of fumes to particular parts of the ! 
body ; as those of factitious cinnabar to 
venereal ulcers. See Surgery. 
FU NCTION, the act of fulfilling the du- 
ties of any employment. 
Function, animal, applied to the actions 
of the body, is by physicians divided into vital, 
animal, and natural, '['lie vital functions are 
those necessary to life, and without which 
the individual cannot subsist; as the motion 
of the heart, lungs, &c. The natural func- 
tions aresuchas it cannot subsist any consider- 
able time without them, as the digestion of the 
aliment, and its conversion into blood. Under 
animal functions are included the senses of 
touching, tasting, Ac. memory, judgment, and 
voluntary motion, without any, or all of which 
an annual may live, but not very_ com- 
fortably. 
\ he animal functions perform the motion 
of the body by the a-, tion of the muscles, and 
this action consists chiefly in shortening the 
fleshy fibres, which is called contraction, 
the principal agents of which are the arteries 
and nerves distributed in the lleffiy fibres. 
In short, all parts of the body have their 
own functions, or actions peculiar to them- 
selves. Life consists in the exercise of these 
functions, and health in the free and ready ex- 
ertion cf them. See Physiology, Diges- 
tion, Respiration, Perspiration. 
FUND, in anatomy, signifies the bottom 
of any cavity in the body : thus, the fund of 
the eye is that part possessed by the cho- 
roides and retina. 
FUNDS, public. When the practice was 
first adopted ot borrowing money of indivi- 
duals for defraying the extraordinary ex- 
pcnces of the state, the produce of some par- 
ticular tax was generally appropriated as tiie 
fund out of which the principal and interest 
of the debt was to be discharged. The pos- 
session of the acknowledgment given bv go- 
vernment for the money advanced, establish- 
ing a right to receive the payments from the 
fund originally agreed upon, the sale of these 
securities was considered as a sale of the 
claim upon the fund, and as the acknow- 
ledgments given were of different kinds, the 
general appellation of the provision on which 
they rested was found more convenient for 
purposes of business : thus the sale and pur- 
chase of the government securities was com- 
monly called the sale or purchase of the pub- 
lic funds, till at length the expression has so 
far varied from its original signification, that 
instead of meaning the revenue out of which 
public debts or the interest of them is pay- 
able, it denominates the capital of such debts, 
in which sense it is generally used. Varia- 
tions in the saleable value of the public funds 
at first were caused chiefly by political 
events, which were supposed to affect either 
the authority ot those by whom the debts 
were contracted, or the means of paying 
them ; but since their great increase has in- 
duced many persons to make buying and 
selling shares therein a regular trade, the 
iluctuations of the current price in general 
depends principally on the proportion of 
buyers to sellers, and on the schemes and 
combinations in which they engage in sup- 
port of then respective speculations. 
.1 lie chief part of the public funds consists 
of perpetual annuities, or those debts oil] 
which a stipulated rate of interest is to con- 
tinue to be paid, unless the principal should 
be redeemed; the other parts consist of an- 
nuities for a certain number of years, and life- 
annuities. The perpetual annuities are dis- 
tinguished by different titles, according to 
tiie rate of interest they pay or the time and 
purpose of their- creation ; and when govern- 
ment, by a new loan, contracts an additional 
debt, bearing a certain fixed interest, it is 
usual to add the capital thus created to the 
amount of that part of the public debt which 
bears the same interest and denomin. tion, 
and to add the produce of the taxes imposed 
for payment of the interest of such new debt 
to the fund provided for paying the interest 
of tiie former capital, thus consolidating the 
old and new debts, and making tiie interest 
payable out of the general produce of the 
same fund ; hence we have 3 per cent. 4 per 
cent, and 5 per cent, consolidated annuities.] 
The reduced 3 per cent, annuities take their 
title from having originally consisted of sums 
which had been borrowed at higher rates of 
interest, and reduced at different periods to 
3 psr cent. The navy 5 per cents are so 
called from having been created by funding 
navy and victualling bills. The long annui- 
ties have been granted at different periods, 
and for different terms, but all extending to 
5th January I860. The present short annui- 
ties expire 5th January 1808. The imperial 
3 per cent, annuities, and annuities for 25 
years, arose from loans to the emperor of 
Germany, the dividends on which are gua- 
ranteed by the government of this country, r 
The public funds were formerly all payable 
and transferrable at the exchequer; but, ex- 
cept a few annuities, of which the term is 
nearly expired, and some life and tontine 
annuities, they are all now payable at the 
Bank or South Sea house. 
The funds transferrable at the Bank of England are at present the following, viz. 
5 per cent, navy ann. 
3 per cent, consols 
3 per cent. 1726 
3 per cent, deferred 
Bank-stock 
5 per cent. 1797 and 1802 
4 per cent, consols 
3 per cent, reduced 
Long annuities 
Short annuities 
3 per cent, imperial ann. 
Imperial annuity, 25 years 
Irish 5 per cent 
Irish annuities 
Transfer days 
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thurs. and Frid. 
Tuesday and Thurday 
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 
Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday 
Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday 
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday 
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thurs. and Frid. 
Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday 
Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday 
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday 
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday 
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday 
Dividends 
due. 
Jan. 5- 
and 
July 5. 
April 5 
and 
Oct. 10. 
) May 1 and 
3 Nov. 1 . 
} Mar. 25 & 
) Sept. 25. 
South-Sea stock 
3 per cent, new S. S. ann. 
3 per cent. 1751 
3 per cent, old S. S. ann. 
Transferrable at the South-Sea house. 
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday 
Tuesday and Thursday 
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 
1 
i 
Jan. 5. 
and 
July 5. 
April 5 & 
Oct. 10. 
