FIS 
tiil the fat of all the whales is on board ; 
then cutting it still smaller they put it up 
in tubs in the hold, cramming them very 
full and close. Nothing now remains but 
to sail homewards, where the fat is to be 
boiled and melted down into train oil. 
It were in vain to speak in this place of 
the advantages that may be derived to 
Great Britain from the whale fishery. We 
shall only remark that the legislature thinks 
that trade of so great importance as to grant 
a very considerable bounty for the encou- 
ragement of it ; for every British vessel of 
200 tons or upwards, bound to the Green- 
land Seas on the whale fishery, if found to 
be duly qualified according to the act, ob- 
tains a license from the commissioners of 
the customs to proceed on such voyage : 
and on the ship’s return, the master and 
mate making oath that they proceeded on 
such voyage and no other, and used all their 
endeavours to take whales, &c. and that all 
the whale-fins, blubber, oil, &c. imported 
to their ship, were taken by their crew in 
those seas, there shall be allowed 40*. for 
every ton according to the admeasurement 
of the ship. , 
Besides these fisheries, there are several 
others both on the coasts of Great Britain 
and in the North Seas, which although not 
much the subject of merchandize, neverthe- 
less employ great numbers both of ships 
and men ; as, 1. The oyster fishing at Col- 
chester, Feversliam, the Isle of Wight, in 
the Swales of the Medway, and in all the 
creeks between Southampton and Chiches- 
ter, from whence they are carried to be fed 
in pits about Wevenhoe and other places. 
See Oyster. 
2. The lobster fishing all along the Bri- 
tish channel, the firth of Edinburgh, on the 
coast of Northumberland, and on the coast 
of Norway, from whence great quantities 
are brought to London. And, lastly, the 
fishing of the pot-fish, fin-fish, sea-unicorn, 
sea-horse, and the seal, or dog-fish, all 
which are found in the same seas with the 
whales, and yield blubber in a certain de- 
gree ; besides, the horn of the unicorn is as 
estimable as ivory, and the skins of the seals 
are particularly useful to trunk-makers. 
FISHING, in general, the art of catch- 
ing fish, whether by means of nets, or of 
spears, lines, rods, and hooks. See Ang- 
ling. 
FISTULA, in the ancient music, an in- 
strument of the wind kind, resembling our 
flute, or flageolet. See Flute. 
FIX 
Fistula, in surgery, a deep, narrow, and 
callous ulcer, generally arising from absces- 
ses. Fistulas differ from sinuses in this, 
that the former are callous, the latter not. 
See Surgery. 
Fistula lachrymalis, a disease which at- 
tacks tire great caruncle in the inward cor- 
ner of the eye. 
FISTULARIA, the tobacco-pipe fish, in 
natural history, a genus of fishes of the order 
Abdominales. Generic character: snout 
cylindrical ; jaws distant from the eyes ; gill 
membrane with seven rays ; body tapering 
from the jaws to the tail. There are three 
species. F. tabacaria, or the slender fistu- 
laria, grows to the length of three feet, and 
is found on the coasts of Brazil, by the in- 
habitants of which 'it is eaten, though not 
particularly esteemed by them. It lives 
principally upon smaller fishes, insects, and 
worms. These it obtains with great ease, 
by means of a species of snout, which it in- 
troduces into clefts, and under stones, where 
they mostly abound. The two other species 
are natives of the Indian seas. 
FITCHEE, in heraldry, a term applied 
to a cross, when the lower end of it is shar- 
pened into a point. 
FITS of easy reflection, &c. in optics. 
Sir Isaac Newton calls the successive dis- 
position of a ray to be reflected through 
different thicknesses of a plate of air, or 
any other substance, the returns or fits of 
easy reflection, and the disposition of the 
same ray to be transmitted in the same 
manner through the intervening spaces, re- 
turns or fits of easy transmission. Thus, a 
ray of light is in a fit of easy reflection, when 
it falls on a plate of any kind of matter, 
whose thickness is one of the terms of the 
series 1, 3, 5, 7, &c. taking the smallest 
thickness capable of reflecting such ray for 
unit ; and, in the same way, it is in one of 
its fits of-easy transmission when the thick- 
ness is one of the terms of the series 2, 4, 6, 
8, &c. See Optics. 
FIXED bodies are those which bear a 
considerable degree of heat without evapo- 
rating, or losing any of their weight. 
FIXITY. The property by which bo- 
dies resist the action of heat, so as not to 
rise in vapour, It is the opposite to vola- 
tility. The fixity of bodies appears to be 
merely relative, and depends on the tem 
perature at which they assume the elastic 
state or form. Such bodies as assume this 
state at a low temperature will easily rise ; 
whereas those which cannot be so dilated 
